Greetings from Geonggyi English Village in Paju City, Republic of Korea. I arrived here about 3:30 local time, worked my way through immigrations, customs, etc., and arrived at the Village (henceforth, GEV) about 6 PM. I haven't had a chance to see much of it, but it IS a village--shops, stores, apartments, schools--everything to put students in an "English" atmosphere to help them learn the language. The local HR man, Mike Buckner (an American) greeted me and showed me my apartment, gave me some information, and was generally helpful and an all-around nice guy. I'm not going to get lost in this "apartment;" think "one bed, Motel 6" room and you'll have about the size. But it has a washing machine (no dryer), fridge, microwave, central heat/air and private bath, but no closet, so I'm going to have a bit of a problem keeping my clothes from wrinkling. I'm on the third floor and have a small balcony, with a decent view of the building across the alley. Whoever recently vacated this apartment was nice enough to leave me a small box of ramen soup with a couple of sticks to eat it with, plus a bottle of water, some pizza crackers, and a can of Korean soda called "Cider," which is supposed to taste like Sprite, but I haven't tried it yet. The school is going to take me grocery shopping tomorrow and I have no idea what I'll come home with. Oh, the apartment also has a TV, but chances are pretty good I'll never turn that on. The Internet access is DSL, fairly fast, and free, and that's the best part.
Anyway, that's about all I can tell you at the moment. Time-wise, if you are in the Eastern time zone (USA), I'm 13 hours ahead of you, 14 in CST, 15 in MDT, and 16 in PDT, and that will all change when the US goes back to God's time. Korea doesn't make the switch, I don't think. Bottom line is, if it's noon where you are, it's the middle of the night here, and visa versa, so adjust accordingly. I don't have a phone yet, and I'm not sure I'm even going to get one, but I'll check my email regularly, and in due course, I'll provide an emergency phone number for those who need it.
Well, it's almost 9:30 PM, Seoul-time, which means it's 7:30 AM where you are, mom, but at least for the moment, we are on the same day--Saturday. You're probably still in bed, and that's where I'm fixing to be. I'll be back and blog some more soon, and maybe get some pictures up here, too. The GEV is a real nice place, very modern. Aretha, tell George I haven't seen one bus rumbling sideways down the road, and I'm less than half an hour from Munsan. That should bring back some memories for him.
Ahn yong hi kay seh oh. That's the transliteration of Korean for "good-bye." As to how to pronounce it, your guess is as good as mine.
