My first full day in Korea was New Year Eve and it was a pretty awesome one. The first thing I had to do was go to a job interview. I was a little worried about what would happen if I didn’t get the job, but it was all invain, because after ten minutes I was signing a contract. Securing work with in 12 hours of arriving in Korea really felt good.
The job I will be working is an English Camp and it is just for 2 weeks. I saw the schedule for the camp and it looks like it will be a lot of work but it should be an interesting experience. The camp starts on the 5th so it gives me a few days to get adjusted to Korea and do a little bit of exploring.
I will need to get another job when the camp ends, but I talked to Tom the camp director and he said he could find me a long term position after the camp finishes if I am interested. I will keep an eye on other jobs out there just to keep my options open.
After my interview I met up with Amanda my CS host and we saw a lot of Seoul. We went to Itaewon the foreigners area and met up with one of her friends for lunch. Then she showed me around various spots of the city.
In the evening we went to a free new years eve concert put on by the local English radio station. The concert was kind of funny because it was a TV and radio broadcast and the hosts had a really cheesy banter going throughout the evening. There was 5 or 6 bands all of different genes playing 2 songs each and some of them were pretty good there. The highlights of the evening were the Korean Reggae band and the Korean Eric Clapton (forgot his name) doing a BB cover.
After the concert there was a drawing, and I won a new Orange iPod Nano. Within 24 hours I got a job and a free iPod. I love Korea already.
After the concert we went to city hall for the countdown. There was a lot of people there, including a group of Free Huggers. I gave and received about 20. It was pretty damn cold and as soon as the countdown was over. I was ready to go to bed. We decided to take a Taxi back to avoid the cold and it was a great decision.
The next few days were spent exploring Seoul. I did a lot walking a riding the trains. I had heard bad things about Korea from some people that lived here, but so far I like what I have seen. I know that it is hard to judge a country by it’s biggest city. Big cities all seem kind of similar to me, but so far Seoul is one city I like. I am unsure if I will be living in Seoul so I wanted to see as much of it as I can before going to my English Camp. I went to the Korean War Museum, and it was interesting, I didn’t know much about the history of the war before that.
One thing that really surprised me about Seoul is the amount of American Franchises they have here. Way more than in Japan. I have seen Quiznos, Outback Steak house, TGI Fridays, Hooters, Burger King along with hundreds of Starbucks.
Overall Korea really reminds me of Japan. It’s hard to explain but it is the little things that remind me of Japan so much, such as the brickwork on the sidewalks. I keep looking for differences between Korea and Japan but they aren’t very noticeable. The biggest ones I notice are the Language and the different types of restaurants. I would say that Korea and Japan are on the surface at least as similar as the US and Canada.
I am still new hear and it will be interesting to see how my opinion of this place changes with time but so far I like what I see.
