The first two days in Wasu

My fingers are jittery as hell with all the stuff I want to type, but suffice to say, yesterday the following things happened:

My group (Chuncheon) took the bus from Seoul to Chuncheon and met our respective co-teachers. My co-teacher's name is Mr. Park. He drove me from Chuncheon to my town/school/apartment. As it turns out, Cheorwon is actually a county; my actual town is Wasu. It's frontier town located 6 miles from the DMZ, but don't be fooled: there are, as Pete my British friend might said, all modern conveniences here thanks to a nearby soldiers' station.

Three other EPIK teachers live in my apartment building: Jeruscha, Gabe, and Peter.

Below are a few pictures that will better help explain things:

This is the view from my apartment window. I face northward toward the DMZ. Below you can see the small park that's next to the elementary school. That sandy area's a soccer field.

My street.

Left to right: Soju (Korean liquor. It tastes like tea mixed with vodka. 20% alc), Korean wine, more soju, Chilsung cider, Gatorade, Coffee.

I posted the two soju bottles to show the fun pictures on the labels.

The cider's basically the Korean take on Sprite.

Yep, we have Minute Maid OJ here. Each bottle= 1.8 liters.

Above and below: pictures from inside my apartment on the 3rd floor. EPIK provided it as well as all the furniture and appliances in it. It's technically a 1 bedroom thanks to the doors. The doors in the background open up to an enclosed balcony and laundry room. (Yes, that's right. An open-air laundry room.)

Laundry

The kitchenette. Surprisingly plentiful storage room.

Bedoom.

Bathroom. Note the switchplate on the left wall: it controls the lights. I've found that Koreans tend to put the lightswitches outside of the rooms they light up.

I hope this helps. Mr. Park tells me this place was built last year. So as you can see, although I'm in a rural area, we have the modern stuff here.

The intersection by my building. More pics of the town to come.

With Harris (left) and Ben (center), two guys who arrived late as well. Harris is in Jeju and Ben's elsewhere in Gangwon. Taken yesterday as everyone was saying goodbye to each other and boarding our buses.

More to come soon!