Hello from Guri City!

An-nyeong-ha-se yo!!!!!!!!! That is Korean for HELLO!!!! Yip, we made it here, finally!!! We left Dundee, Scotland early Wednesday morning to catch our flight from Glasgow airport (We caught the Megabus (double-decker bus)). It took us about 2 hours and we got some great views of the countryside along the way. Because it is Spring there now (well, to us, that’s HIGHLY debatable!), there are daffodils EVERYWHERE along the sides of the motorway (that’s their word for the highway)..really wished our camera had been working because they really looked SO pretty! We also got some views of the snow-capped mountains (well, they were more like hills, actually!), and some deer in the fields. When we arrived in Glasgow, we had to catch another bus to the airport which took us about half an hour. Then, we headed for check-in with Emirates. We tried not to be put off by the woman wearing a turbin behind the desk! We were very surprised to see that our backpacks together were only 33kg! Which means that we’ve got space to bring home some curios..yay!! Anyway, the next step was to change our money..the currency of Korea is the ‘WON’ and it’s about 1000 Won to a US dollar..so we became millionaires overnight!!! Rich said it reminded him of being in Zambia cos of the HUGE pack of notes we had! The flight to Dubai on Emirates was GREAT! We had individual TVs like SAA and loads of legroom. We were lucky cos we got put on the side of the plane where they have two seats together so we didn’t have to sit next to anyone. The on-board entertainment was GREAT too, we couldn’t get through it all..from about 500 movies to all sorts of TV programmes, loads of different songs to listen to, about 50 different games to listen to..and they even have wireless internet on the plane!!!! For US$10 u get to surf the net on your laptop for the entire flight!!! And if your battery goes flat, they allow you to charge it for free! And u can send and receive sms’s from your tv screen at your seat $1 per sms..CRAZY! We unfortunately didn’t have US dollars on us, otherwise that would have been great! It was about an 8 hr flight. We flew into Dubai at night..we had to circle the airport for about 10 minutes cos they had closed the one runway, so there were 12 planes also waiting to land before us!!! We flew over The Gulf and u could see all the fires coming from the pipes for the oil. Dubai airport was PACKED with people, from everywhere! Africans, Indians, British..crowding all the shops! But we didn’t think that the airport was anymore special than Joburg (the prices weren’t that impressive!), so we decided to skip the crowded shops, and we headed for our boarding gate for our next flight, which was right on the other side of the airport. Rich did however, convince one of the shops to let him buy postcards with a pound!(Cos we didn’t have a chance to buy any Durhams (currency of United Arab Emirates)). So after a quick stop in Dubai we boarded our plane for Seoul, South Korea. By this time we were EXHAUSTED, so we forgot about the onboard entertainment and tried to sleep! This time, the food was a bit more Korean..each meal was served with some Kimchee..which is pickled cabbage that the Koreans love, and a tube of hot chilli paste. Flying into Korea, we got some great views of the Pacific Islands until we eventually landed at Incheon airport, right on the coast. It was quite misty, and the temp was about 10 degrees. At the airport there were lots of bird-flu warnings, so we know now to cook our chicken to at least 70 degrees before we eat it! After we had collected our backpacks (yip, they both arrived safely!!)..we headed to the exit where a guy was waiting with a our names on a board. His name was Kim and he was doing the airport transfer. He took us outside to book our bus ticket..which at least had SOME English on it, which was great! We had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus, so we went back inside the airport to try and find a wireless internet connection to email, but we couldn’t find one, so we bought an international phone card, but by then I was time to leave. Our bus was an ‘airport limousine’! It had huge reclining seats with footrests..like a lazyboy. Our bus was taking us to Guri City..or, because an ‘r’ is the same as an ‘l’ here..the bus actually said ‘GuLi City’! Funny! Our bus ride was 2 hours long cos of the traffic..HUGE traffic jams! The scenery was ok - because it is not the rainy season yet, everything was quite dry. We saw the rice-paddies and tidal mud-flats which were just large areas of mud cos it was low tide (the birds love them!), and also some typical houses with curly blue and red roofs. Thanx to the Fifa world cup that was held here, most of the road signs are in English too..great! Then we saw the high-rise buildings of Seoul..it is a HUGE city..20 million people in one city!!!! More than London and New York! What we found the most interesting was that practically all the cars here are either gold, white, silver or black! Not even the taxis are yellow! And they all have TVs on the dashboard!!!!!! They also have these kind of ‘rear-view’ mirrors coming out of the middle of the top of the back of the car, we thought possibly cos all the parking spaces are so small, so they need an extra mirror(!). Most of the cars are Hyundai,Rexton, Lexus, Daihatsu, Mercedes etc. We also had to go through a number of Tunnels through the hills to get to Guri City, and all the huge buildings are either numbered or labelled. We also saw some pretty impressive bridges! The city itself is not that pretty, looks almost like it’s a city still under construction..Rich says its like a war zone! (u know how he loves cities!). We passed some orchid and bonsai shops --- AMMMAAAZZIINNGGG! Rich is kicking himself co he cant bring any of them home! Some of the rocky hills were also covered in a bright yellow flower between trees which were shaped like large bonsais..very interesting! We were still on the bus when the sun went down, so all the lights came out! It was like Chinatown…flashing bright lights like Las Vegas on all the buildings..and with writing all in KOREAN!!!!!!!! We were dropped at a bus stop on the outskirts of Seoul (on the east of Seoul) called Guri city ( referred to as a satellite city). Much to our surprise (or not!)..there was a Macdonalds right there! We were told that Guri city was more of a country area, but we were still surrounded by high-rise buildings and flashing lights! About 10 minutes late, the English school manager (also called Kim) met us..a TINY lady, but very friendly! She took us to our apartment which is really great. We are still in the city, but at least we are within walking distance of the English school. Our apartment is in like a small block of flats and our number is 302 which is the same as our room number at the factory in Scotland!(who know what our street name is..we’re gonna have to learn the Korean alphabet first!) Its not as big as we expected, but we like it! It has a bathroom (with a shower, no bath), a laundry with a new LG washing machine and the kitchen and bedroom are like one room. The kitchen has all the cutlery, pots etc, a gas stove and a fridge. We have a telephone in our room (which still has to be connected tho), and heating and an air conditioner. Kim is getting us a TV too. Whats great is that the windows are quite soundproof, so we don’t get much of the noise from the city coming in. We were really happy when she told us that we had Friday off!!!! So at least we could try and adjust to the 8hr time difference! So once Kim had left, we headed downstairs to find some supper! What a mission!! We didn’t even know how to say hello..let alone ‘how much does this cost?’!!! So by trial and error we eventually bought some fried chips – luckily the numbers are written the same as English, so we just had to look at the menu and point to the picture!!!! We were surprised though at how much things cost..we expected things to be much cheaper!!! Anyway, think we r living in the expensive part of the city..so luckily we dont pay rent! We then went to the small store near our apartment to try and buy some groceries and WHAT a MISSION! NOTHING is the same !!!! I eventually found some things that looked like cornflakes and a litre of milk..but we didnt even know if it was milk..we just assumed it was cos it had a picture of a cow on it! Anyway, it was, luckily! But it was so difficult..u cant read what the food is, let alone read what flavour u r getting! Even Coke is written in Korean, but luckily u can tell its coke cos of its colouring. We then did a bit of exploring..we found a North face shop (outdoor clothing) and a KFC. We walked down this one alley though..and there were these huge fishtanks with live squid, octopi, eels, all kinds of fish..soles etc..obviously for cooking! At least u know its fresh hey! Seafood is big here..especially seaweed! There are loads of restaurants everywhere..all with pictures or life-like plastic models of the food they serve. A lot of them have those low tables and cushions..we are definitely going to try them! Today we woke up and decided to do a bit of exploring again, but we didn’t get very far cos it was hopeless! We didn’t understand anything! We are definitely going to have to learn the Koran alphabet, and Korean cos otherwise we are lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently the alphabet is quite easy to learn, but the language isn’t. So we’ll see! Anyway here are some phrases: Thank you : kam-sa-ham-ni-da, Good bye (I remain) : an-nyeong-hi ka-se-yo, Good bye (I leave.) : an-nyeong-hi kye-se-yo, Good night : an-nyeong-hi ju-mu-se-yo, Yes : ye or ne, No : a-ni-yo, Thank you very much : tae-dan-hi kam-sa-ham-ni-da, Thank you : kam-sa-ham-ni-da, I don't understand : jal mo-reu-get-sum-ni-da !!!! We went back to the shop today to try and get something to eat for supper..we thought noodles might be a good idea while we are still waiting to find out how much dog meat and bird-flu infected chicken there is!!! Funny, what a thought! But we couldn’t even read the flavour of the noodles, or even if they were noodles! Well, we’ve just eaten them and they are HOT as anything and seafood, with seaweed!!!!!!!! U know how much I LOVE seafood, not. Rich is still trying to chew through the seaweed now. We decided to also buy some bread and jam, just cos it was the only think we recognised! So we stopped at the local bakery, but the bread was $3 i.e. R21!!!! Obviously bread is not a common thing to eat around here!!! There are people selling strawberries on the side of the road so I’m definitely getting some soon! So, that is our introduction to Korea! Kim is coming to fetch us 2moro, I think to just give us some info about the school and stuff..we are going to ask her about getting our cell phone connected and also how to get internet in apartment, so then we can send more emails. What we have done with this email is typed it out on our laptop, burnt it onto a cd and taken it to an internet café. Kim said we start our training week at the English school on Monday, but next week we should also be flying to Japan, once our visa numbers have been issued. So we should be there just in time to see the cherry blossoms! Well, that’s all for now! What a time we have had!!!!!!!!! This is going to be a VERY INTERESTING year!!!! Keep smiling and until next time… an-nyeong-hi ka-se-yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i.e. Good bye!!!!

Perth - Glasgow-London-Dubai-Seoul!