last week in the US

So in exactly one week from today I will be in San Francisco about to head over to my new home in South Korea. Which, incidentally, is here:

Yeolin House 104-ho
951-11Bongcheon-dong
Gwanak-gu, Seoul city

This is not the area I thought I would be living in, but after all of these job offers and fall throughs, I guess I could have been confused. Here's some info on Gwanak:

"Gwanak-gu’s vision is to be a “high quality residential city, a sustainable eco city and a leading educational and welfare city”. English language learning plays a major part in this and Gwanak council has just opened an English Language Café in its council offices which gives access to English language tuition to all Gwanak residents. Gwanak is also the home of one of the three “English Villages” in Seoul which try to create an English environment to offer English language immersion for students. Seoul National University, Korea’s most prestigious university is located in Gwanak-gu district and attracts an international community of teaching staff and students."

It seems like it will be a nice, quiet, green area with lots of room for running. From what I have read everywhere in Seoul is pretty easy to get to via subway or bus. Now I just have to worry about being able to find my apartment on a consistent basis. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to the store and never find my way home...

This past Monday I went into NYC to catch up with some friends and get my visa. Getting my visa consisted of a brief 5 minute interview "why do you want to teach in korea" "what will you do next year" "what are your hobbies" etc, and I'm pretty sure the woman had no idea what I was talking about. I tried telling her about the best invention ever, the Kindle, and I think I totally lost her. I guess that's a reaction I'm going to have to get used to!

In one week (well probably a little longer) I should have some more interesting things to post. I know it's pretty exciting hearing all about my trips to the Korean consulate, but hopefully I will have some pictures and stories of disgust, intrigue, oddity, awesomeness, etc. coming. Or perhaps not.

Wish me good luck in my packing and final days here and hopefully I will have more exciting stories soon!