When I look back at things I can't help feeling that I had a very bad beginning in Korea. In fact, I don't know of single other teacher who went to Korea and wasn't met at the airport. I think I am unique in that. For other teachers sake I hope so. I would not wish such a rocky beginning for anyone trying to establish themselves in a new life in Korea.
I'm sure that if I hadn't been so tired that I would have been better able to deal with what waited for me at the Daegu Airport. Or should I say - what didn't wait for me at the Daegu, (South Korea) Airport... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me put it in context
- Sunday, January 19th, 2003 I left Halifax, Nova Scotia and flew about 2 hours to Toronto, Ontario
- First thing Monday morning I had to find my way from Mississauga to downtown Toronto to the Korean Consulate to get a working visa for South Korea.
- Tuesday afternoon after 3:00 p.m. I had to go back and get the completed Visa.
- 7:07 a.m. I left Toronto, Ontario and Terminal 3 at Pearson International Airport for Chicago - O'Hare Airport (This took over an hour of flight time).
- I had a stop-over of 4 hours at Chicago-O'Hare. I ate McDonalds for lunch and drank bad coffee.
- I then boarded a JAL flight and spent the next 13 hours and 40 minutes flying to Tokoyo-Narita.
- I spent over-night at a hotel (the Niko-Narita).
- I flew approximately 1 hour from Toyoko-Narita to Seoul-Incheon.
- I took a shuttle bus from Seoul-Incheon to Kimpo Airport.
- I had a four hour wait to leave Kimpo and fly to Daegu.
- I flew 40-50 minutes from Kimpo to Daegu.
What all this means is that I left my home on a Sunday night and I arrived in Daegu, South Korea on Friday night with my Visa in hand.
At the Tokoyo-Narita [Japan] Airport and again in the Seoul-Incheon [Korea] Airport I saw anxious looking School Directors holding up signs with an English name on them. Some of the Directors looked so nice. I kept looking at them wondering who would be waiting for me in Daegu.
Well, surprise, surprise. No one! I got to Daegu so tired I wanted to cry. And there was no one to meet me. No one was holding a sign with my name on it. There were no School Directors at the airport at all. Probably cause I was the only foreigner on the flight. Soon the airport had cleared out. There was only a handful of passengers left. I was alone in a foreign country where I knew no one and didn't speak the language. This was not how I had pictured my arrival to Korea.
Lucky for me, I had met a Dutchman on the plane. He was sitting directly behind me and we had chatted briefly. He lived in Gumi (a 45 minute drive from Daegu) - the city I was going to be living and working in. He was a businessman who had married a Korean woman and he had lived in Gumi for several years. He saw me looking lost and alone and took me to the "Tourist Information" desk to see if anyone had left a message for me saying they would be late picking me up. There was no message waiting for me there. He then got the woman working there to call someone to translate for me. The translator called the school who had sponsered my Visa. She found out that someone was indeed coming to get me. They would be there in 20 minutes. This kind Dutchman gave me his business card (which had his home phone # on it) and told me to call him if I had any problem or if no one showed up to get me.
I then proceded to wait and wait. It was 1 and 1/2 hours later and I was very upset, annoyed and pissed off. I was considering getting a ticket back to Seoul-Incheon and going up to someone holding a sign with an English Teacher's name on it and pretending to be that person. But it was night and there were no more flights out of Daegu that night. I was stranded!
Eventually, I started to doze when a Korean man walked up to my suitcase and without speaking to me picked it up and carried it away. What was going on? Was I being robbed? At that point I was too tired and groggy to care. I was wearing a money belt with my money and passport and I didn't really care about the luggage I had carried halfway around the world at that point. In 30 seconds another Korean man (younger than the first) came up to me and made eye contact with me and smiled. He told me, "My name is Tony. We must hurry!" And, he grabbed my remaining suitcase and proceeded to run out of the airport. I couldn't believe they were hurrying me after I had spent over 1 and 1/2 hours waiting for them to show up. I didn't know what to think but I followed Tony out to the school van. But I didn't run. I walked. I was under-whelmed with enthusiasm.
What would be waiting for me in Gumi, South Korea? What would happen next? What indeed...
No comments:
Post a Comment