ichung-dong, pyeongtaek-si, gyeonggi-do, the beginning.

I've been getting settled for almost 2 weeks now, and figured maybe it was time to bloggaboutit. I left my camera cord in the US, god damnit! and I hate to blog without photos, so I'll steal Jades.

This is gonna be a long one, I'll keep it as short as possible:
My plane ride here was my first plane ride, ever (!), and it peaked about 10 minutes in. I've never seen the tri state aerially, loved it!I just wish I could be back there to seep in my newly acquired perspective. I also wish I could post the photo I took .. .
Hopefully my flight back will be clear and I'll get a recap. Somewhere over Connecticut I lost the ground and began 14+ hours of intense discomfort. I was fed pretty terrible food, and my inability to sleep in cars apparently carries over to airplanes. 
When we landed, it was 6am and the airport was empty, I got through customs, got money converted, and found a man holding a sign with my name in under 15. During the hourlong ride to my apartment, the sun was coming up and I got to see Korea for the first time in first light, =)! Also, GPS here has TV on it. 
When I finally arrived in Ichung, a part of Pyeongtaek, about an hour south of Seoul, I woke Jade with my racket and we explored our little city. 
The apartments we live in are a 2 minute walk from the business district, which is only about 4 square blocks. The businesses are piled on top of each other, so each building has 3 or 4 or 5 floors of stores. Mostly restaurants, pool halls, and PC Bangs (huge rooms filled with rows of computers you can use for about 75 cents an hour, generally filled with teenage boys playing video games.) My school, Avalon, is on the second floor of one building, right above coffee cherry, a coffee house which is where I am now.
Yea, no internet, tv, or cell phone yet - withdrawal has been less painful then expected.
My job is pretty awesome. The kids are interesting - well behaved, most of the time, - and the staff is nice. My boss speaks no English but has a warm smile. On Friday, she had one of the secretaries take me and Jade to the supermarket and buy us fruit - not sure why, but I've learned not to question things. Like why there are 3 sliding glass panes on every window or why toilet paper is kept outside the stalls in public bathrooms. Yea that's a great thing to forget. Like, every. time. 
We've made a few friends here - some English teachers, military peoples, and even a local - Bong Song - who gets very excited about CSI, Obama, Hip Hop, and American Gangster. As far as I know those are the only English words he speaks. 
There have been a bunch of interesting adventures, but I'll summarize later. The year has only begun!