Welcome to Korea.. and my blog!

Well, it's official. I'm in Korea and won't leave for some time now. No one knows when I'll set foot on Canadian soil again, but rest assured, I will.
This blog is intended to be an account of my life here in Korea. Although, as many of you know, i often use the good ol' fashioned pen and paper to get my thought out. So, this becomes a way for all of you to read how life is going for me. And don't think for a second that every word i write here will be smiles and sunshine. i make no qualms about voicing when i'm unhappy or disappointed. so without further ado... we begin
I touched down in korea around 7 o'clock last Friday night and got to my apartment close to 9. The flight was very eventful. i wont go into too much detail because i have a lot to cover but when taking off from san fran the plane was hit by lightening. At least that is how it felt. there was definately a large blast of white outside the plane and many gasps from everyone in the coach. I sat beside a very unusual individual. We spoke of many things, but most of it revolved around his love of God. The thing you have to know about this man was that he was a preacher. The hypocritical thing about it all was how many times he made it a point to tell anyone he met that he preached on national television, displaying his second love, vanity. But, he told me that God was in my heart and he felt good things for me in the future, so it wasn't all bad.
It took very little time for me to hit a bar as the foreigners were all celebrating halloween. i ventured into my traditional costume theme by bringing along blue face paint and throwing together a sad attempt at a smurf. if only i had of brought bright white pants.
After a couple of days of drunkenness Monday brought my first day of work. absolute shock! The kids for the most part were very welcoming but there was a lot to take in for a day. Korean kids have a very hard time saying my name. they get confused and think i'm a lion! "Lion teacher, help prease". So sadly, my life as carp seems to have come to an end. everyone calls me ryan and it may be hard to change it. at least in my job.
I ate out by myself for the first time the other day. a lot of pointing and nodding. here is a list of all the things i got.
1.Kimchee (Korea's national dish)
2.3 spam like pieces of meat served cold.
3.8 pieces of mundang, which i said as mandun, so she had no idea what i was asking for. they are pieces of dumplings with good shit inside it.
4.coleslaw type side that isnt' coleslaw but it's all i can think of to describe it
5. and if that wasnt' enough, i ordered pulgogi. it came with a healthy serving of sticky rice and korean style salad. pulgogi is amazing!

so as you can see, i ordered a shit load of food and it was way too much. i feel like the ladies in the back were talking about how much i had ordered and laughing.

Now, for the best story so far. this has noting to do with my ignorance to korean culture and life living here. so, the first night i arrived i got pretty drunk after being jet lagged and not eathing too much for the past 36 hours. it was about 4 in the morning and i decided that i was giong to boil some water and make the instant noodles i had bought at the G2 mart. now, you must know that i didn't have any pots or pans to boil water with. how pray tell would i boil water? no problem, I spotted a kettle that was kindly donated to me by the person who held this apartment before me. so i turned the gas stove top on and put the kettle on. then i heading into the bathroom to wash off the blue from my face. after 2 or 3 minutes i smelled something not quite right. almost... almost like.. yes! yes! why do i smell burning plastic. Holy Shit!! Holy Fuck! the kettle is on FIRE!! what kind of fool puts an electric kettle on an open flame to boil water!!!! oh the humanity. melted plastic pouring down into the burner with exposed wires and connection everywhere! after a 5 minute battle with the kettle i let it to rest in the sink til morning where i would be better able to deal with the issue. But, i was still hungry! Now how would i boil water. ha yes... great idea! a light bulb! genius carp, pure einstienian!!! I'll just fill up the iron with water and turn it on to make the water hot!! that will work!! after 10 minutes i realized that irons don't boil fucking water!!! what a night that was. and i won't make any excuses for it all. just down right stupidity.
so... that's it. that's my first installment. not all of them will be this long i'm sure, but i had to get some things off my chest.
check in again sometime to hear more of Ryan Carpenter's life in korea...