Bus #98

My recruiter had the bright idea that I should visit the school I will be teaching at today. Only problem, no one has any clear cut directions on how to get there. So, yesterday, Katrina and I went for a little walk to find the correct route, Bus #98, and we did. While we were there, we asked these two girls if 'Baek-Seol-Ma-Eul' was along the route and of course, they pointed to it. The arrow was headed in the opposite direction but I did not think anything of it from the directions given to me by my recruiter.

I wake up today, take a shower, and away I go. Katrina and I stop at the bank so I can exchange some money and I am off. I get to the stop, wait about 5 minutes and hop on to Bus #98. I am sitting on the bus for about 15 minutes until I decide to ask the bus driver if my stop is on the bus. Fortunately, I copied the Korean after the young ladies showed it to me yesterday. The driver shakes his head and points in the other direction. As we make a turn at a light, he points to another bus stop and says the magic words - "okay."

I hop off the bus and walk me way across the street to the bus stop. Here come three women and I ask them, "Baek-Seol-Ma-Eul?" as I point to the Bus #98 line. No 'yes' or affirmative shaking of the heads followed so I decided to call the Korean contact I had at the school. Her advice, take a taxi and give her a call when I get inside. The ladies help me flag down a taxi and I had the driver my phone, some chit chatting ensues, all in Korean of course, and I can see the dollar signs or should I say won signs flash in my head. I am hoping the trip will be under a hundred but try to enjoy my first ever taxi ride.

After about 10 minutes we pull into an apartment complex and the driver says, "telephone." I understood and called the woman back. No answer but up came a black car with Chelice, the school's manager inside. The total cost, about five dollars. I ended up going to her apartment complex and catching a ride in to work with her. It was probably about half an hour or so.

I arrived at the school and we spent about half an hour trying to figure out how to get home. Bus #98 is the way to go, next time I just need to get on the bus on the opposite side of the street. In fact, I rode the bus home and it only took about 45 minutes and cost 90 cents. I really did not do a whole lot at the schools, a few introductions and met with my fellow teachers as well as some of the Korean teachers. All in all i was there for probably two hours. My orders, to come back Monday at 1 pm. I now have a Korean business card with the school's address in case I get lost but there shouldn't be any problems since I know which bus to get on. Good times living in a foreign country!