Bucheon - Day One

After arriving in Bucheon and getting a bit of sleep, Amy and I went off in search of furniture to kit out our apartments. As it turns out, someone had left some on the side of the road, so a table and a cupboard later and we were off to find other things like cleaning supplies and food instead.

We're located right near a homeplus and a savezone, both which function like big superstores, one of which is affiliated with Tesco from the UK. We ended up hitting one, then the other, because we had to carry everything back. We're still not entirely done getting things, but the place looks a bit more like home now.

After the shopping, we headed off to work for some additional training, where we met one of the Head Instructors Joseph. He introduced us to some of the really bright students and gave us the tour. One the girls we met has been with the school for years, and she's really really good at speaking English. She asked where Amy was from, and then listed a big long list of places she's travelled, ending with "...and Cambodia, and China, and Japan, and so one and so forth. Goodbye." at which point she proceeded to duck out in to the hall and close the door behind her. We thought it was pretty funny, and Joseph was delighted since he'd apparently taught her to use "so on and so forth" just the week before.

Apparently it's general practice to greet new teachers on saturdays by taking them out, but a lot of the other teachers had gone off to Busan for the weekend (every term they do one big trip together), so it ended up just Joseph and his friend Annie taking us around the place and showing us where to eat and shop and see movies. Over dinner we broke out the soju and beer, and then moved along to the local foreigner's bar, Rhythm and Booze (R&B from here on out), where a bunch of high school students were putting on a brilliant show. Some of them sang and played better than current professional musicians, and they were better than the band that was on stage before their show started.

We then moved along to a sit down bar where Amy and I were now drunk enough to eat fried squid without complaint. Apparently we like squid. We also had more soju and beer, and so the rest of the night got quite blurry after that. But thanks Joseph for a good welcome into Bucheon.

Below, as promised are some pictures I've taken of my studio apartment.

This is the bathroom that also doubles as a shower. I've put a coat rack over the door, so my coat's in the shot as well. It was pretty horrible when I arrived, because in Korea you don't clean your apartment before you leave. In fact, most Koreans set aside an entire day when they move in to clean their new place. Anyway, I think I finally managed to get it clean, and it doesn't smell weird anymore, so hurrah!

This is the entrance and kitchen area. The bathroom's off to the right in that little corridor. The photos are a bit of a mess, because I took them before I'd finished putting things away and while I was still trying to get furniture and move things around.

This is my living room space. I've got suitcases and a cardboard box as a bin for a moment. The shot is taken from the top of the stairs to the loft where my bedroom is. My wardrobe is down there, and that window stretches floor to ceiling. My view isn't brilliant, but at night when the lights are on its pretty cool, and at least I can keep my eye on the Indian restaurant.

This is my bedroom. It came with the mattress and the school had given me some new bedding, but the quilt was really thin and it's cold in the winters here, so I'm using my own duvet as well. Sorry the bed's not made, I didn't think about it until later. The little cubby holes on the wall are really handy. It saves buying bookcases or things, and I'm using one of the shelves as a bit of a computer desk, since I only have internet up in the loft at the moment. This is because I can't get my own until I have my Alien Resident Card, so I'm logged into wifi from a cafe down the road. The signal doesn't exist in the rest of my house.

This is the view from my window. That motel sign moves, like raindrops falling, and the city's big and bright all around, this is just one of the little areas. This is actually the place where we were dropped off by the taxi originally. Our work is up the road that goes along the left side of the picture, then turning left after the Indian food restaurant and crossing over two streets, so not far at all.