[photo credit]

So I (Iqra), have finally moved into my apartment, and for the most part settled down. It's still a mess here, but it's be only been two days, so that's to be expected. I'll guess I'll just start from the very beginning: the flight.

So the flight consisted of my mother and I! We flew through Cathay Pacific, and overall, it was a pretty good airline. We didn't experience any issues or problems with the staff or airline. Our flight was due to go from NYC to Hong Kong, and then after a short two hour layover, fly off to Incheon Airport in South Korea. Due to a mistake I had made, my mom and I were on separate flights from Hong Kong to Korea, but after asking at the check-in station at the airport, the staff switched our second flight (with no cost to us whatsoever) so that we were not only in the same flight, but right next to each other! So yeah - Cathay Pacific, good airline. I would recommend it.

That being said, it was a sixteen hour flight to Hong Kong, so it was a little rough, especially with my insomnia. I think I maybe got half an hour to an hour of sleep on the plane? The rest of the time I spent reading or catching up on BTS' Bon Voyage episodes (I'm now on season 2, episode 4!). We landed in Hong Kong at 5:30AM, and because of our switched flights, my original flight which would have departed at 8AM was now changed to a whopping 4PM. So yeah, it was a rough 11 hour layover, in which we walked around, looked at all of the stores, and then after finally giving in to boredom, opened up my iPad and started watching YouTube videos until it was finally time to board the flight. The flight from Hong Kong to Incheon was by far better, but I had been awake the entire time from when I woke up for the day back at home (which was probably around 10AM?), until my flight at 1AM, then the 16 hour flight, then the 11 hour layover, and then the 3-5 hour flight to Incheon. The timezones were messing with my head most of time for me to do the math, but it was roughly about 30+ hours that I'd been awake for, so I was basically losing my mind on the flight to Incheon. This was probably why I was so stressed out afterwards, but hey, what can you do?

So then we landed in Incheon! I want to say it felt surreal or that it was amazing, but honestly, I was tired and stressed and the airport just looked like any other airport, except with lots of Hangul. I also had to take my mother around, since she couldn't read or speak, so I had to do most of the communicating. (This is also a good time to say - I, for some reason, could not remember how to speak Korean? Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or the high amounts of anxiety, but I legitimately couldn't remember how to say anything aside from 'sorry' and 'thank you' for the first day and a half. It was pretty embarrassing.) There was a driver that took me to my future home - Suwon! For those that don't know where Suwon is, it's right outside of Seoul, towards the south, and, as Alex put it, is where "people who are rich and don't want the loudness of Seoul but want the proximity" live. After walking around a little bit, I can definitely see what that is a thing. There are a ton of fancy cars around here. I've seen many BMW's and Audi's and Mercedes Benz's around here. But, as my mom pointed out, by far the most popular car brand we've seen are KIA's and Hyundai's.

We got to my apartment around 11PM, by which we were both so exhausted, but there were still things to be done, like putting on the bedding and laying out the essentials and washing our faces of nearly a day and a half of airplane grime and dirt. So after we did that, I would love to say that I passed out, but I think I was still awake for most of the night, just being very anxious and stressed about everything. I felt very unprepared. But! I did still get at least 4 hours of sleep, which was good, and gave my brain a break from being constantly overloaded and exhausted. My mother and I woke up very early the next day, around 7AM? And we didn't know what to do or where to go, so we sat around, until I got a message from the head teacher at the school I'd be teaching at. While I spoke to her, my mom went out and found a corner store where she bought milk and water. We had packed a few boxes of protein bars, since we had anticipated not being able to find food or knowing where groceries in general were. I was then taken to the school! And was a first hand witness of the terrible driving that Asia in general is known for.

The first clue was when I got into my coworker's car, I had put my seat belt on and she hadn't. The second clue was she didn't look both ways before turning. And the final click was when we got to a red light, she had to make a u-turn and just... did it. At the red light, while a car was coming in our direction. Needless to say, as someone who takes driving seriously (and knows three people who have been hit by cars - two who were very close to dying), I was a little terrified. She also made another left turn at a red light to get into the school parking lot, but at least there was no car coming our way that time. So maybe I was a little strung out from that ride (which was about 2 minutes max), but the school was just so cute that I was almost immediately calmed.

It's a little school that just had children from ages 3 to 5 (6 to 7 Korean age), and when you enter, you have to take off your shoes and put on the school slippers. Because of this, many of the teachers don't care about the shoes they wear. I've seen a coworker wearing a formal suit put pink crocs into the teacher locker. So yeah. They really don't care. I felt a little out of place in my sneakers, since I took longer than everyone else to undo the laces and then put on the shoes. But now I know! I imagine I'll be wearing my sandals a lot from now on. I was then given a tour of the school, and a roster of all the students I'll be teaching. After that, I met with the director, who spoke to me for a little bit. In the middle of our conversation, another teacher named Eric joined us, so now it was me, the head teacher, Eric, and the director in the same room.

After struggling with my name, he asked me if if there was anything else I like to be called, or if he should just learn my name the correct way. I appreciated that! But in the end, I told them that a few of my Korean friends (the Korean friends from Korea - not Korean-American friends) from college called me 카라 (Kara). At which instantly everyone - the director, Eric, and the head teacher let out a loud, excited, "Ooooh!!! Kara!" They told me about an idol that was named Kara, which I had no idea about. Maybe they meant the girl group, Kara, which I do know, but they spoke about Kara as if it was a single person, so I didn't know who they were referring to. But they were excited, and the director exclaimed, "Yes! We will call you Kara! You're Kara Teacher now!"

So yeah. My Korean name, if you'll call it that, is Kara. I was then dismissed pretty quickly, as my training didn't start until Monday, and it was currently Saturday.

My mother and I then struggled at the corner store, where we tried to buy another phone charger, since only one of my converters fit into the plug, and my outlet strip had fried after I forgot to switch the setting from low voltage to high voltage. Luckily, my mom had went to a random straggler in the store and it turns out that he knew English! So he talked my mom and I through nearly everything, including finding vegetarian and seafood option foods for us, and showing us all the other foods that had pork and other meats in it. He also gave me his KakaoTalk ID so that I could ask him any questions if I ever needed to. I thought that would be it, after we thanked him and went home, but nearly two hours later, he had sent me an extremely long message which was essentially a giant masterpost of how to use the buses and the subway system, as well as what steps I should take to get a Korean phone (since I had forgotten to unlock my phone before I left America), and then what apps I should have in my phone for things like maps and taxis! It was so much more than I expected, I don't think my thanks was good enough.

After that my mom and I felt like we should take on the next big task - getting to Seoul. It was a Saturday, and we had to exchange more money, since we didn't have any time at the airport. The banks near us were closed, and Alex and Cal were in Seoul together, who said they would show us the good places to exchange money, so we went to them. The subway was... surprisingly easy! Google Maps had told me to take a bus to Suwon station and then transfer to the green line (the subway line that goes around Seoul in a circle), and I really didn't want to do that... But it turned out I was only a 15 minute walk away from another subway stop on the Bundang line! And then from the Bundang line, transfer to whatever line I need to, depending on where I was going in Seoul.

The subways - all of them, every single train and line I've been on - are so clean. There's not a speck of dust anywhere. They also play a funky little jingle when there's a stop approaching. There's a few monitors that play ads during rides and show what stop you're getting off at, all in English, Korean, and Japanese. It's extremely convenient, and hard to get lost.

So then we exchanged money, and my mom and I checked into a little a guesthouse since we wanted to explore Seoul tomorrow as well and were too lazy to take the subway back. The next day (Sunday) was where a lot of the excitement happened! We went around Edae, Myeongdong, Insadong, and Dongdaemun!

+  Edae: This is where Ehwa Women's University and Yonsei University is. It's filled with college-aged students and young adults (I'd say anywhere from 18 - 26), so my mom didn't enjoy this place as much. But! This is where I started to remember my Korean again! I bought a pair of circle lenses, and did the whole transaction in Korean. It definitely gave me a confidence boost that I'd lost.

+  Myeongdong: This is the infamous shopping district, so my mom enjoyed this place the best. There are plenty of foreigners here, and tons of American and Korean shops mixed together. We (Alex, Cal, and I) took my mother to Shinsegae, which is a department store which has lots of luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Gucci. My mom bought me a pair of Korean brand sunglasses (Vedi Vero). I also had to play translator for most of this time, which mainly consisted of, "How much is this? How much is that in USD? Do you have another style? Can I try this on? Do you have this in x color?"

+  Insadong: My mother also enjoyed this place a lot! It's very beautiful here - Insadong is a mix of modern and historical elements, with girls in hanboks walking around everywhere, as well as historical buildings mixed in with skyscrapers and the like. There were also many stores that sold trinkets and such. I bought a tote bag for work, and my mom bought a few earrings. We ate naengmyeon (cold noodles) and spicy chicken (it wasn't really spicy...). There were a few halal options here I saw!

+  Dongdaemun: When we came here, it was hot, and super crowded. Dongdaemun also has a few historical monuments, but we had mainly come to explore the market, so I'll have to go back and look at those another time. We bought a few things here, including a pair of jeans for me, and some clothes for my mom. Cal bought a pillow and skincare, and Alex bought some clothes as well. There was a dress I really wanted to buy, but once I was told I had to handwash it, I immediately put it back. (I'm too lazy.)

Currently, it is Monday, and I realize I've written a lot more than I anticipated... I woke up today at 7:30AM, and got ready for orientation at 9AM, but once I came into work, the director stared at me and said, "Oh. You weren't supposed to be here until 1PM." And then I confusedly walked home, at which point the head teacher told me to come in at 2PM. So it's current 12:50PM. I hope that 2PM is correct, because I don't want to leave a bad impression on the director.

Finally, before I sign off, here are a few unrelated things I've noticed in my time so far in Korea.

+  The mattresses are hard as rock. Seriously. Maybe I'll get used to it, but wow. Everyone had told me that the mattresses were super hard, but you never really know until you feel one and realize they weren't exaggerating.

+  People get flustered when I ask, "how are you?" back to them. In America, usually when you greet each other, it's: "Hello, how are you?" "I'm fine, how are you?" "I'm good, thank you." or something like that. But we'd get to "Hello, how are you?" and "I'm fine, how are you?" and they get flustered that I ask them that back and shyly say, "I'm good." At one point my coworker just laughed nervously and didn't answer. I wonder if I'm being rude when I ask them this back... I hope not.

+  Texting culture sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!! In Korea, it's expected to respond back very quickly to messages. For anyone who knows me, this is probably one of my biggest flaws: I never respond back to texts. Or I don't respond back in a timely manner, even for American standards. So for Korean standards, I had to really boost my habits up.

+  It is HUMID. I have very, very dry skin - I've never had to powder my face in my life until I came here. Back in the states, I live about half an hour from the beach, so I'm not really sure why it's so much more humid here. Sometimes it feels like you're swimming more than you're walking. The good thing is that I think because of this, after everything I've been through - the airplane, settling in, figuring out Seoul, etc., I slacked in my skincare, but I had minimal breakouts. If you have oily skin, you might have some issues.

+  I was wondering how many Muslim people I would see in Seoul, but the answer was - a lot! Definitely much more than I expected. I want to say I saw like 30-40 hijabi girls walking around, and then there were probably more Muslims too who were exploring. These were mainly in the hip, trendy places like Edae, Hongdae, and Myeongdong. In Suwon I haven't seen any at all, but I haven't really explored Suwon yet anyway.