See below.

The title of this post is also the background on my computer, taken from postsecret.com. I strongly suggest anyone and everyone to visit the website at least once—I can guarantee, at the very least, that it will spark a strong emotion in you, if not an outright obsession.

Currently, I am sitting at my desk in my new apartment, eating men du, which is some sort of dumpling deliciousness that I picked up at the vendor outside of the grocery store. It is my second night in my new apartment, and I am finding to be adjusting more quickly than I anticipated. I have never lived alone, but I don’t think I could have asked for a better living situation. I am typing this post using Word with plans to post it tomorrow, because as of right now my internet is not up. Cate has to call what I think would be the equivalent of Charter or Comcast so that they can verify online access for me.

The apartment is super cozy and super cute and beyond livable. I will post pictures once I get everything unpacked and organized. In fact, I will probably just take a video of it and post that. I have been trying to take as many videos as pictures because they give a better representation of what life is like here in Korea. It is spacious and has a queen sized bed (thank god!), an armoire, a desk, cable TV, a little table, a cabinet, a stove, everything. Everything I could possibly need is here in my own rent free, studio apartment.

Last night I went out with my new favorite couple, Diane and Beau. I successfully took my first taxi to Sung Gundong, which is a district in Gyeongju. If Gyeongju were Oakland County, Sung Gundong, Yung angdong (specifically where I live), and some other districts that I can’t pronounce would be Royal Oak, Birmingham, Huntington Woods, Novi, and Clarkston all mixed together, yet still distinct from one another.

They took me first to a beer bar where you go in, open a fridge, and choose from a selection of international beers. We sat at a table and drank our drinks, at which point Diane suggested we go to a wine bar next. I don’t know the name of it nor do I really know exactly where it is located. I do know that every bar in Sung Gundong is right next to one another, lined up in a fluorescent, bustling college-esque town.

The wine bar was beautiful. Diane had said before we had arrived it was sort of an Arabian themed bar, and I believe that is the best way to describe it. You walk in and take your shoes off, which is something you do at many restaurants as well as whenever you enter someone else’s home. The entire bar was draped in deep red curtains with gold detail hanging lowly from the ceiling. We sat in a little corner on the also deeply red carpeted floor on thin pillows—similarly to many places I have eaten at so far, the table was barely up to my stomach. There were candles on each table which the waitress lit when we first arrived. We drank a bottle of sweet white wine, talked about our hometowns, where we had traveled (my summer tales of Ontario have been a huge part when talking about my life), and general conversation about my move to Gyeongju. Both Diane and Beau are incredibly supportive and understanding of me and my decision to move to South Korea, and have promised I will love the people here and will easily make friends. If my information is correct, there are about 500,000 people in Gyeongju, and about 70-80 foreigners. Assuming that this is accurate, it is safe to say that us foreigners are by far the minority. This being the case, they said that the foreigners stick together. Beau said even if I might not like someone, I will have a connection with that person because we have our travels in common. Needless to say spending time with those two gave me extreme comfort and a sense of camaraderie that I have been craving since I left home.

Today, Cate called me around noon and invited me to lunch and out for a walk to the lake—I was thrilled she asked me, because to be honest I didn’t really know what to do with myself when I woke up at 8. So we go to this lake, and it was just so cool I don’t even know how to begin describing it. It’s a family friendly place with lots of photo ops and food and shopping centers everywhere. I was semi-pleasantly surprised by the 8 kilometer bike ride we took. We biked around the water, up hills, down hills (way too fast!), flying past cars and people, stopping for kiwi ice cream and corn on the cob sold out of a truck. I say semi-pleasantly surprised because it was a work out that I was not prepared for. I don’t know if all Koreans are as fit as my boss and her family, but I know that I felt like a sluggish American riding around, clearly not in my comfort zone. After the bike ride I came home, showered, and went to Diane’s to hang out. I have really cliqued with her, and she has been kind enough to lend me her amenities until mine are all sorted out.

So that was today, and tomorrow is my first day of teaching. I will post everything as soon as I can.