Sunday, March 2, 2008

First few days in Jeju

Ok. I am now home. My home is small to say the least. This place is a bit smaller than my Mongolian Ger. It is new and I am the first one living in it. So I had to peel plastic off of everything. I guess it was built 2 years ago, but has not had anyone living in it. So it was a bit dirty. There was still plaster dust everywhere. I'll post a video of it once I get internet.

Apparently I can't get internet or a cell phone or cable until I get my alien registration card. So today for most of the morning I was at the hospital getting my drug test done. That was a pain. I was being being shuffled from one place to the next. This is the first year that the drug test is being done so nobody knew what to do. So after about 3 hours and several stops later I was given a dixi cup and showed the bathroom. I was told to fill it up half way and bring it back. I could have put someone elses pee in the cup and they would not have known. Who knows maybe I did do that.

Ok I will give a run down of everything I have done so far. Not to say that I have done much. Friday we arrived in Jeju. I found out that I will be living in Jeju-si or Jeju City. The city is divided up into two areas. The western area, where I live is mostly banks and government buildings. Not the best area for a night life or anything really. The eastern area is more shopping, resturants, bars, basically more of city life. This is the area I would prefer to live in.

It takes me 20 min to get to work from where I live. That is by cab. Today is my first day and I have nothing to do. From the sound of it, I won't have much to do for the next month and a half. I will be working at the Foriegn Language Institute, Eastern section. So I will be travelling to the eastern side of the island for work. On this map I live in Haga-ri and I will be working in Sehwa-ri. So it is a commute. I guess it takes over an hour to get there. I'll have to buy a scooter. I am trying to get them to move me to the eastern side of the city, to make the commute that much shorter.

So anyway, my first couple of days on the island have been alright. The first night I was in town I met a guy in my building. He helped me set everything up, heat, door code and some shopping. He showed me around the area, the local marts and the like. Later that night we went into town and went to the bar area. We met up with one of his friends and went out to eat. The first meal I had on the island was raw fish. Sushi and various other types of raw fish. Most of it wasn't that bad. Some chewier than others. I would have to say I enjoyed it. From there we went out and shot some pool. Wow I sucked. I haven't played that bad in a while. I guess that happenes after a couple bottles of Soju. Soju is the local Korean alcohol. It tastes like watered down vodka. Played pool for a bit and then went to another bar to meet some other people and ended up going to another bar that was a dart bar. Played some darts and sucked ass. Horrible. I gave up on playing, that is how bad I was doing.

Came home to my apartment around 5:30 in the morning to find it absolutely freezing. So I went to bed. Woke up in the morning, or afternoon, about 4ish and it was still cold. Fiddled around for a while and then decided to take a shower, yeah no hot water. I went and talked to Brian, the guy in my building, to see if he could figure it out. So after fiddling around for a little while, went to see the manager and the told me my gas was off. So went up and turned it on and low and behold I had hot water. Took and shower, went to Pizza hut and I started feeling ill so didn't do anything. Sunday I woke up feeling like crap. I had a feaver and spent the day in bed. I tried to get up and explore the area. I walked for about a mile, till I had to turn back. I felt like I was going to pass out. So that night was spent napping and watching movies.

Today, Monday, was spent at the hospital and then Areil, a girl I work with, who also had to go to the hospital, went and got some food. We went to a Japanese resturant and had some sushi. It seems like I will be eating a lot of raw fish. It is the mainstay of the Jeju diet from what I am told.

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