Arrival

After 19 hours of travel I have finally arrived in Korea! I flew from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco to Incheon, South Korea. After going through immigration I found a nice seat at the airport and waited for my ride.

It's a weird feeling being in a new country waiting for someone you've never met to find you. I'm a bit of anxious person and being in a crowded airport with everything you own and not much info on who's meeting you or who to contact if something were to go wrong was a bit overwhelming. I took a deep breath and began to process my surroundings. The airport was modern and clean. Korean writing with an English translation below was the norm on most signage. People rushed past carrying their belongings, speaking in languages I didn't understand. This was the moment I had been waiting months for, I was finally back in Asia.

I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder and a Korean man asked in hesitant, slightly broken English, "Are you Justin?". He lead me to his car, helped me load my luggage in his trunk and off we went. My driver immediately switched on a large GPS navigation unit in the center of his dash and pressed a few buttons. A map came up on the giant LCD screen showing our projected path with arrows pointing the way. He pointed to the screen and said, "We go here."

We were headed to Bundang, a lovely satellite city Southeast of Seoul. I would spend a week there for training and then be moved to the C2 branch in Bucheon where I will teach for the remainder of my contract. I noticed as we made the hour and a half journey from the airport that a majority of the vehicles we passed also had large GPS units installed in their dash or affixed to their windshield.

A few days later I was sitting with my trainer in Bundang going over the curriculum used by C2. I asked him about the abundance of vehicles with navigation systems and if Seoul was a difficult city to drive in. His response was, "If you don't use GPS in Seoul, you will die." I don't plan on doing much driving while I'm here but I'll be sure to pick one up before I do.

• Life Lesson #1: Use GPS when driving in Seoul.