Getting Oriented

It's true-- here they serve kimchi at every meal, and I ate my scrambled eggs with chopsticks this morning. It's also true that yesterday, instead of achieving my goal of blogging, I attended a Korean Etiquette class and learned a step routine in one of the dorm hallways. There are all kinds of folks here-- Zac who competed at step competitions with his frat in Atlanta, Erin who taught 6th grade in inner city LA, Adam who developed a sponsorship program to connect kids with skateboards, Jaime from the bay who misses his car and just graduated with a degree in accounting but wants to have some adventure before settling in, Sonny who was a stock trader but got burned out and decided to come to Korea because he hadn't been back since being adopted at five years old... a Kiwi who moved here despite breaking up with his Korean girlfriend at Christmas, a Canadian straight out of college and another Canadian who has been teaching here for more than ten years, a South African whose real passion is gumboot dancing... I remember talking with my buddy Scott back in San Diego about what kind of people I'd meet, and he reassured me that people who pick up and move to another country for this kind of thing are generally interesting, open people who are "up for shit", so I'd be in good company. Ah, wise and foul-mouthed friend, you are proving correct so far!