Part 1, September 1997

I landed in southwestern Seoul at Kimpo Airport on September 1st, in 1997.  I was going to be an English teacher there and live in Songpa-Gu.  My boss knew I was coming, I thought, but I watched and waited and no one in the greeting area had a sign with my name on it.  It was so scary, as I knew nothing at all about Korea and didn't know anyone there.  I had travelled there alone and I was 28 years old.  It had been my first time being on a plane.  I had chosen to teach in Korea to try to make and save some money, as my province in Canada had low employment opportunities.  My husband was upset that I left him to go to Korea. I had told him, "It's okay; I'll only be gone for a year....!", as he literally cried and begged me not to go.  Something was drawing me there, and I strongly felt it was my "destiny" to go.
I decided to get in a taxi with another Canadian girl who talked to me on the plane.  Thank goodness I had been talking to her, because a Korean man working for her 'institute' had met her and was dropping her off in a taxi at the institute she would be working at, and her institute was close to the airport.  They helped me and said if I went with them in the taxi, he would continue on with me in this taxi to my institute.  I was so relieved, and jumped at the chance, as I did not want to venture anywhere there alone.  I was actually terrified, because I had thought I'd be somehow met at the airport, and my anxiety was high from being left hanging.

This is what the many apartment buildings in Seoul looked like from so high up in the plane. When I looked out the plane window I saw them when we were almost ready to land.  They were the first things I saw of Korea.  I had never seen anything like them.

The ride to my institute was very long, and I'd hate to see what the price would have been if I were riding that long in a taxi in Canada.  What was nice was that this was my first experience talking to an actual Korean person.  This man, Mr. Kim, was very nice and respectful.  He was friendly and almost familiar, in a different way than Canadian men had ever acted with me.  I say this because he, like all Korean men there, was not interested in me sexually - he was just wanting to simply be friendly and he was eager to speak with a 'foreigner'.  All of my interactions with men there were innocent.  Canadian men are not like them, unfortunately.  Most of Korean society was innocent, as they were sheltered by their government from the western world through strict laws and censorship.  I didn't know any of this at first, so everything was even more strange to me.
Mr, Kim's English was not very good but he was confident and I found him interesting in spite of his lack of English-speaking skills.  I liked communicating with Koreans right away, although now I can't remember what we tried to say to eachother in the car that evening.  I didn't get any understanding of Seoul or much orientation to it at all, but I was very appreciative of his calm, almost 'warm' manner, which made me feel a little better.  At that exact time, I was so excited and afraid simultaneously.  I had never had experience with any foreign place before in my life.  The ride took around an hour, on and on and on, clear across a city of 10 million people.
I remember thinking right away that Seoul was beautiful and vast, spreading many, many kilometres and there were mountains surrounding it.  The mountains were unique, with granite and trees on them.  A wide river spanned from east to west. Everything looked so different from my almost rural area in Canada.  There were signs in Korean everywhere and so, so many buildings, whether they were office buildings or sets of residential apartments.  My whole province at home, which was around the size of South Korea, had 600 000 people scattered throughout it and was no comparison to Korea which had a population of 46 million people in the same space.

This is what I saw that evening in the taxi, although it's only part of where I travelled that night on the way to Karak-Dong.  We travelled along this river for around 20 km but the total distance travelled was over 30 km.

I had to pay thirteen dollars to the taxi driver when we arrived in Songpa-Gu.  I had only brought 60 Canadian dollars with me, because I was so financially disadvantaged before I left Canada. My neighborhood, I had been told in a phone conversation with my 'recruiter' before I left, would be called Karak-dong.
When we arrived at my destination, I saw the man who would be my boss, who was also a Mr. Kim, pay the other Mr. Kim, who had driven with me in back seat of the taxi, with some paper bills.  I didn't understand or know about recruiters of English-speakers in Korea at that time.  Also, I was totally in shock from my new surroundings.  Not to mention the fact that I was thinking strongly of how I only had $47 to last me until who knew when.  That lack of money worried me, as well as everything else that may lay in store for me.