THE TRUE TEST

Giuli arrived at my place in Hoenggye (correct spelling) and I could see she was in panic mode and I tried to hide it but so was I. The first thing I told Giulz was, "we will talk later". I said my goodbyes to my co-teacher and everyone else who was there. I Escorted Giuli to my flat and the conversation began.

We were basically in the worst positions in the world. We were far apart, our apartments really sucked and we literally had no clue where we were. We contacted our parents and our recruiter to discuss our situation. Our parents were super affirming as they have always been and that allowed us to feel more comfortable. We then contacted our recruiter who told us, "put a brave face on and we will sort this all out". Well there is no point even bringing him up anymore, in the end he was no help and was a man that was all about talk and really had no backbone to ensure any action.

So we came to the realization that we were basiclly in the position where we had to suck it up and stay, or leave Korea (NOT AN OPTION). To make ourselves feel better we went to the city to do som touristy things and eat western food. We went to  Gangneung and then realized that we had no clue where we were and that we had no clue how to catch a bus or a taxi? The taxi thing might sound crazy but in SA we had never caught a taxi before. After a mild panic we finally decided that we would make a plan to get to the beach and we would spend money to make us happy!

We managed to catch a taxi and told the driver, "we want to go to the beach"... mmmm Korean guy, beach??? anyway we got dropped off at some park which was along the beach. The fencing behind me is used to keep the North Korean border hoppers out. How do we get to water?? Anyway alongside the beach was a forrest with a path, we decided the best option was to follow the path and we will end up somewhere. Along the path we came across wild gun huts which are used to, im guessing shoot people who come into South Korea. We followed this path for what seemed like forever and we came to a beach covered in snow with a coffe shop on its bank, YES!!

We immediately went in for coffe and felt more relaxed than ever. It was such a great place and we had never been stared at more in our lives!

We then carried on our walk and came across the wildest thing! You can actually choose a fish from a tank to eat, how's that for fresh! These fish tank efforts blew my mind, literally. We carried on our walk and came across an island/wetland effort and it was beautiful. Giuli and I loved posing with the statues that were scattered all around the island.

While walking along the pathway, we came across 'western looking people' who spoke english. We literally latched on to these unsuspecting pedestrians and they made us an offer we could not resist, "come to coffe with us". We joined them for coffe and it turns out that they are english teachers too. We discussed our situation with them and they really helped us with what to expect of our stay in Korea and how to do basic things like take a taxi to the CBD. Sheenay was the magic work, Sheenay mc donalda, the 'a' at the end to help me sound korean/american.

You can guess what we did next! Sheenay, mc donalda. We rocked up at a pizza hut and just loved life. Our confidence in Korea was restored. We rocked a peperroni pizza and took a taxi to bussa terminalla and went home.

We had made the decision to go with whatever Korea had to throw at us. We were on a mission to love our stay here, no matter what!