Our first day

Hello everyone, this is Carrie.  Just thought I would give you an update of our day.  We left LAX at 12:20 AM on Tuesday the 21, and we arrived in Seoul just before 5 AM on Wednesday.  We then proceeded to the bus terminal and caught our bus to Gwangju, 4 hours south.  There was light rain all day, nice driving weather.  The landscape is green and mountainous, and we got to see some very pretty countryside. 
When we arrived in Gwangju, we were met by one of the Korean English teachers, Young-Me (don't know if that is how you spell it, but that is how you pronounce her name).  She is very nice, and took us to the school right away to meet the principal and assistant principal, Mr. Lee and Mrs. Shin.  We went into Mr. Lee's office and were brought cold plum tea.  Young-Me acted as our interpreter, and she said that they principal and assistant principal thought we looked "very friendly and professional" (we were smiling a lot because we are so excited to be here!).  After our brief meeting, we were taken out to a VEGETARIAN restaurant by Young-Me.  (bahahah, hilarious!) I whispered to Bradley to try to choke down the vegetables, but he actually loved the place!  It was buffet style, had delicious noodles, dumplings, and imitation meat made of tofu that tasted like orange chicken.  It was all very tasty!
Afterwards, Young-Me brought us to our apartment, and I wish I had a camera with me now to show you how cute it is!  We have two small bedrooms, a cute little kitchenette, and a little dining room area. The bathroom is interesting because the shower head is attached to the sink faucet, and there isn't really a shower stall, you just shower in the middle of the bathroom.  Oh well, I guess the bathroom will be extra clean!  Anyway, we are all unpacked and settled in, everything fits perfectly and we have a lot of storage to put away our suitcases.  As soon as we get a camera I will post pictures.
After unpacking, we relaxed for a bit and then went out in our neighborhood, looking for dinner.  We found a little restaurant with pictures of food, but our waitress couldn't speak English, so I pointed at one picture that looked like chicken and then flapped my arms like the chicken dance.  The waitress thought we were very funny, and we did get some delicious chicken and rice for dinner! :)  However, I am going to start practicing my Korean or else who knows what else I may have to pantomime!
Some other random fun things that happened today:  when we went to the school, we had to take off our shoes once inside and use a pair of the sandals provided, there are hundreds of pairs available for students and teachers to use.  Very different from my high school where we weren't allowed to wear flip flops!  Also, we had 3 different strangers come up to us today at different times throughout the day, two in the bus station and one while we were walking around the city tonight.  They all wanted to practice their English and wanted to know where we were from.  Everyone we have met has been very nice and it makes me excited to start working and meeting more people!
Also, I wanted to add that it was so fun to see so many of you at our going away party.  So many people wished us well and told us how special we are to them, and it really made us feel very loved.  Thanks for giving us a beautiful send-off!  Will keep you updated with our adventures . . . XOXOXOXO Carrie