First Weekend Out of the Compound

My first weekend outside of the Hyundai Institute was quite lonely. I was quite possible the most unlucky person in Seoul that weekend. When I found out about my apt I was thrilled about being in Gangnam and didn't realize why my co-teacher said I'd be moving in a month...then I saw the apartment. I didn't want to say there at all. It was dirty and still is a bit dirty, it's smaller than any apartment I've ever seen in Manhattan and the kitchen was on the 3rd floor. The kitchen consisted of a hot plate and a huge rice cooker that's always full of rice (?) I don't know if that's a good thing.

My co-teacher and I went out to pick out stuff for my new apt. She tried to get me everything I needed for my new apartment that I didn't have yet. I honestly thought she was out of her mind. She wanted to get me utensils, pots, pans, etc. She didn't quite understand that I had nowhere to put any of that stuff and I wasn't gonna unpack for a month just to re-pack and move. It took her a while but eventually she realized it would be best if I went shopping later.

Normally, the first night your co-teacher takes you out to dinner. It wasn't the case with me which was fine, until she left and I didn't know what to do with myself. I literally went from living with 160 other foreigners to no one.

I decided to go for a walk and explore b/c I was not spending anytime at my place. I went to the convenience store to pick up a phone card. As I reached into my pocket I felt a bag full of water. I had a water bottle that wasn't closed properly. It spilled in my bag and got all over my wallet, passport, and bag. It was pretty funny to say from the convenience store clerk's point of view. He probably was wondering about the way guk that just poured a cup of water out of her bag and thinking that she was crazy but he took pity on me and gave me some tissues. I went back to my place and had to dry everything on the heated floor so there was literally $150 dollars on the floor and no room for me to move. I was pretty upset and there wasn't anything to do until late so I took a nap.

I met up with a bunch of SMOE people later that night and opted to stay over Gloria's (my roommate at Hyundai) massive 3 bedroom apt in Seoul. We had a really nice time and on Sunday, I finally decided I needed to return to my hole and shower before heading to meet up with Sarah and Chris. I left Gloria's place with about 2 hours to spare but somehow managed to get lost in Gangnam.

I didn't recognize anything around me and I didn't have anyone's information. The only thing I remembered about my station was that there was a Missha (cosmetics store) by my exit. I asked the station attendant who spoke minimal English about the Missha and he didn't know what Missha was but he went out of his way to help me. He took me to the station office and went onto the Missha website. There was another attendent there and they were trying to commuincate with me in Korean. It was really adorable. They called the comestic company and everything. I finally made it home with their help!