Landing On Our Feet...The Adventure Begins

July 29, 2009--Landed at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on schedule. Our trip on Korean air was long (12 hours), but uneventful. The flight crew of Korean Air was attentive and impressed us with the way they managed to look as fresh at the landing as they did on take off. Each of these lovely ladies smiled throughout the entire flight and served us with grace and beauty. We listened carefully to them as this was our first real Korean language lesson. As they came down the aisles with their beverage carts and kimchi it was almost as if they were singing...their voices lilting and arms gracefully gesturing.

After we stepped off the plane we made our way to the baggage claim area, and it was there that we saw them coming towards us. . . "the totes" as we had come to lovingly call them. Yes, our big "Rubbermaid" totes were making their way down the conveyer belt...one after another. As Brian began taking them off the belt I rushed to find carts for all of them. What a circus act we must have looked like...crazy Americans.



We managed to get all 21 pieces of checked luggage onto 4 carts...now it was on to customs. As the inspector saw us coming, he was no doubt thinking...why me? Brian filled out a few brief forms and we were waved through. Phew...now for the last obstacle...how do we get 4 enormous carts through the one way automatic door? Our plan was for Brian to go through with one cart and I would push the other 3 to him...it worked flawlessly. Fortunately for us, "Team GSIS" was waiting for us on the other side and they took over from there.

After meeting the other new arrivals and having a quick meal, we boarded the school bus and headed to our new home in Suwon, South Korea. Driving south on the outskirts of Seoul, we were treated to the "night lights" of one of the world's largest cities...hard to describe. Think Las Vegas...on steroids. About an hour and a half later the bus turned into the drive through of the school and past the guard house where we received our first salute. Yes, the guards actually salute us when we arrive at school each morning. Suddenly we had been thrust into a culture that honors and respects educators. It was a very strange feeling, but one that I think we could become accustomed to.

A brief stop at the school to unload our luggage onto separate shuttles and we would soon be on the last leg of our journey. There are three different complexes in which the school houses its faculty/staff--one for the singles, one for families, and one for couples. We stood outside the school watching our totes being loaded onto a blue flatbed Hyundai truck, our bodies adjusting to the hot, moist air. With our all our possessions now stacked up on the bed of the truck, we hopped into a school van and made the short trip to what would be "home" for the next two years.

We were so grateful for the kindness shown to us by the Korean staff as they lifted all those heavy pieces of luggage and made multiple trips up and down the elevator. Thank goodness the elevator worked that night! Brian and I stood in the center of living room taking in our new surroundings, watching the blue boxes pile up, and listening to new co-workers excitedly talk in Korean. Our new home is very modern with buttons and gadgets galore. And anyone who knows Brian at all understands that he can't just look at a button...he must discover what they do. So just when we thought to ourselves "we made it", Brian reached out and pushed a button on a panel in the living room. Suddenly an alarm went off and for the next few minutes (seemed much longer than that), a voice was blaring through the intercom system...words that were foreign to us. It was complete mayhem as all our movers were now hovered around the monitor on the wall with cellphones in hand trying to contact the people who could tell them how to shut off (what we now know to be) the "push only in case of an emergency" button. At last they managed to disable the alarm. It was then that we discovered in Korea most things electronic play a little tune when their cycle is complete. What surprised us the most though was the song it played. Believe it or not, it played "Elephant Walk." Somehow I would have expected something more in the pentatonic scale. Hmmm...what a great first impression we left our new co-workers...crazy Americans.



So now we live on the fourth floor of a high rise in a city of 1.5 million. No little garden to tend to, grass to mow, or roar of the ocean to lull us to sleep at night...just a bustling city with endless experiences waiting to be had. Good night, Friends. Good night, Korea.