I made it…barely

I have never necessarily considered myself a ”lucky” person, but by no means would say I was “unlucky.”  I generally keep a laid back attitude, try not to stress and things seem to fall into place.  The last couple days have really pushed this theory to the limit though!

Tuesday morning, the day before I am supposed to leave for Seoul, I wake up with a headache and sore throat.  As the day goes on, I’m freezing and my body is achy.  I’m going downhill fast, so I go to Urgent Care that night.  Turns out I have a 103 degree fever and swollen glands.  Good news is I don’t have the flu.  Bad news is the doc thinks I have strep throat or mono!  She tells me there is no way I can fly and writes me a note to change my flight.  Not really an option at this point, so I immediately start praying for a miracle.

The miracle came in the form of a powerful steroid and antibiotic prescription.  The next day I wake up feeling much better…the trip is still on!  The plan was to pack Tuesday not, but since that didn’t happen, my mom and I spent all day Wednesday packing and repacking.  After making some cut throat decisions about what to bring, everything finally fits, with the exception of the “mail pile.”

I get to the airport in plenty of time for my 8:35pm flight to Chicago.  It continuously gets delayed and I start to get nervous.  Despite the rumors of it getting canceled, it finally arrives a little after 10:00pm.  Through my excellent eavesdropping skills I discover a guy on my flight from STL is also headed to South Korea to teach English.  We make it to Chicago and into the international terminal right as our flight to Seoul starts to board.  It was touch and go, but all was good.

The flight itself is not too bad.  Sure it was long, but I slept and watched a couple movies.  The real kicker was when we landed in Seoul and me, along with my fellow STL passengers are left waiting at the baggage carousel empty handed.  Who would have seen that coming…my luggage is lost!  Fingers are crossed it gets delivered to my school in the next couple days.

My dad was concerned how I’d be able to handle all that baggage myself, but thank God it was a non-issue…ugh!  I get to my school with no problems though and all the other teachers are very nice.   Along with the Korean teachers, I met the other foreign teacher.  It is his second year teaching English and is married to a South Korean lady.  They live just down the hall from me.

Lucky for me, the former foreign teacher came into the school today and helped me get my classroom set up.  I’ll be a homeroom teacher in “Red Room.”  Still trying to figure out what exactly that means, but I know it involves snack time, lunch and putting on coats.

She then brought me back to her old apartment slash my new apartment.  It is nicer than I expected and fully furnished with bed, couch, tv, desk, night stand, coffee table, washing machine and a refrigerator.  She left me pretty much everything I need, or at least need to get settled in.

I am a bit overwhelmed right now, but I think that is to be expected!  Despite a few bumps in the road, things are going good.  Thanks for reading and I’ll keep you posted!