Fresh off the Boat

2008 was a rough year for many recent college graduates. For many people, the smart people, it was a non-issue. They had made their contacts before they had graduated and slid nice and easy into a decent job out of college. However, this was not the case for many people including myself.

I spent months and months looking for jobs that, to be honest, I really didn't want. One day, I was poking around my job search site and found an advertisement the called for teachers in south Korea. I said "the hell with it," and applied. I got a call back 3 hours late, offered a job 6 hours later and was on a plane flying to Korea 2 months later.

When I arrived in Korea, I was told to "find a bus to Jinan-Jeom." I knew that they knew I had never been to Korea before and that I also had no Korean language experience so I figured it must be pretty easy to get around the country.

I got off the plane and walked over to one of the help desks and told the lady that I needed to get to
"Jinan-Jeom."
She pointed to a series of buses that were parked outside. I walked over to one of the counters and said the words
Jinan-Jeom."
The lady there pointed to another counter. I walked over to the second counter and again said
"Jinan-Jeom."
The lady at the second counter pointed to a sign and motioned like she wanted something. I handed her my credit card and then she gave me a ticket that said, lo and behold....
"Jinan-Jeom"
 I grabbed my gear and shuffled over to the sign and plopped down right in front; sitting on my bag. 25 minutes later, A bus rolled up and a man jumped out. I showed him my ticket and said to him "Jinan-Jeom"
He nodded, took my ticket and then grabbed my bag. I hopped on the bus and promptly fell asleep. It was almost midnight after all.

Over an hour later, I was brutally woken up by the bus driver yelling the words
"Jinan-Jeon"
at me. I was the only one on the bus at this point which was a bit unnerving, but I got off anyway and went around to the side of the bus to grab my bags.
As the bus roared away, I realized that I was totally alone. I was surrounded by a series of tall odd-looking buildings that did not have one light on. I was told that someone would meet me here so I sat on my bags and waited, hoping, that I didn't have to be forced to figure something out.

Lucky for me, an white van rolled up and a man jumped out and promptly said my name. I jumped up and said that it was me and threw my stuff in the back of this guy's van. The guy didn't speak any English, but I did glean from him that I was in fact in Jinan-Jeon and that he was supposed to pick me up.

A few minutes later, he dropped me off at my accommodation: A half-finished apartment building surrounded by rice paddies and other buildings in various stages of completion. My room was a small studio apartment that had nothing in it except a dirty mattress on the floor in one corner. The man said "goodbye" and promptly left.

I took out my clothes, made a make-shift nest on top of the mattress and fell asleep. Obviously, there were some things I needed to attend to but it would have to wait until the morning.
 Goodnight,
"Jinan-Jeom"