The beginnings of Jinan.

Jinan. That is where I live now. It is a small town in the South Wastern Part of SKorea. By small I mean like 15,000 people live there. BUT, it is about a 30-45 min bus ride to Jeonju, which is a pretty sweet city by what I've seen.

Once I was picked up by my school and taken to the town, I got the preliminaries out of the way; contract signing, medical check, teacher introductions, and MY APARTMENT! More on the awesome-ness of my apartment in a later post....

While we were out in town, my guide (DonMiyoung) took me to lunch and I got BIBIMBAP!!! MMM....there will be another post on that as well later, along with other Korean staples :)

While I was unpacking I got my first visitor! It is the other western girl who lives in town (Jaclyn, from South Africa). She came to say hello, and tell me about the plans to meet the rest of the westerners that night at a coffee house. There are about 10 of us.

Anyways, she comes back to "pick me up" aka escort me by walking with me to the coffee house since I would have NO clue as to where it was. Once there, I met 5 of the others; Elise and Will - a young couple with a new baby,  Tony - who will be leaving in a month, Rob - who is half Indo/half American, Sam - who had been there for 2 weeks but no one knew he was in town, and Ron - an older man who brought me a phone. Everytime one of them walked in, they would make a beeline for me and introduce themselves as "Oh, you must be April, I am xxxx." They had been waiting my arrival! How great!! After coffee, a few of us headed to a chicken place for some food and drinks. We hung out and had some local beer and Rob and I found out we both are football fans so he is excited he can talk sports with someone. After we hung out there for a few hours, Sam, Rob, and I decided to KARAOKE!!! And...I wanted to try Soju. So we grabbed a bottle and went on our way. A few hours later....we were still Karaoke-ing!

The walk home, we got SOAKED! We walked right through a terrential downpour. Luckily, I knew how to turn on my hot water, so I got nice and toasty in the shower before I went to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up early (stupid jet lag) and met up with Jaclyn and Sam to head into the city for lunch. We met up with Ron and his Korean friend who is super sweet! She is the go-to-woman for all foreigners in Jinan. We then met Ian (from Australia) for coffee, and then did some shopping. I just windw shopped, as I am patiently waiting for my 1st paycheck to buy anything. Although, while I was shopping, I did get chatted to by a Jehovah's Witness. I had NO IDEA they were in Korea!! I was like, ohhhhhh - you dont want to practice English with me, you want to convert me!

Downtown Jeonju

By the time we got back to Jinan on Saturday, I was EXHAUSTED. Between jetlag and walking around all day, I was ready to hit the hay. And I did.

Sunday I just got settled in my place. It was VERY rainy all day, so I just cuddled on my makeshift couch (a HUGE and thick comfortable) and watched TV while snacking on popcorn(!!) and some of my welcome cake. Luckily Jaclyn came over in the evening to show me how to get to my school, and we figured out how to turn the gas on for my stove so I can cook stuff!

Everyone is being so welcoming, and friendly here. I guess maybe because there are only so few of us, and it is a small town. But so far I love it! It's relaxing during the week, then I can go to the city on the weekends to get a little distraction from my small town. And some weekends, I can even take a quick trip to Seoul to be TOTALLY western!!

Gamsamnidad,
Apes :)