Day 1: The Doctor's, The Bank, and Korean BBQ

I woke up bright and early to catch a school bus outside of my apartment building to go to a mandatory medical check-up and bank appointment. There were already five fellow coworkers on the bus. To be honest, it felt a little like the first day of summer camp - getting on a bus, hoping to make friends. As my friends and family know, I'm secretly a giant introvert, and I'm not the best at meeting new people. I am proud to say that I purposefully put myself out there, and I talked to all my new coworkers that were on the bus over the course of the day. I will consider this my first "Expat Badge" - battling Seattle introvert tendencies and actually being social.

Our first stop was the doctor's office to get a medical check-up/screening. It was relatively quick and easy. Unfortunately, I did misread the directions given to me by our school nurse. I thought that I couldn't eat or drink after midnight. It turns out, that I could drink small amounts of water. I tortured myself into a state of thirst for no good reason. Note to self: read emails better. Here are some fun things that happened at the doctor's office:

1. Putting a urine sample in (no joke!) a drinking cup. I used the very same type of cup to drink water from the office's watercooler. Then, walking across a public business hall to put my urine sample on a tray.
2. Getting a chest x-ray. I've never had one, so I thought that was rather interesting/exciting. It turns out that my chest looks great!
3. Getting measured in centimeters and kilograms. Oh, the metric system!

Fun Side Note: An Australian coworker asked me if there was an actual rhyme or reason to the US measuring system. I took it upon myself to explain how everything isn't base ten, rather it's a bunch of random base numbers: 12 inches in a food, three feet in a meter, etc. As I was explaining, I realized that our system is ridiculous. So ridiculous.

After we finished up at the doctor's office, we went to the school to collect our work laptops and eat lunch. The lunch that was served was all Korean food, and it was super delicious. I should have taken a picture for you all. I regret not doing it! The big take away - I like kimchi.

Last stop, the bank. The bank visit took a long, long time. It took about 4 hours to get everybody's bank accounts setup. I would know this, because I lost a giant game of rock-paper-scissors, making me the last to leave. Lucky me, one of my awesome coworkers waited for me to finish. So, I had a buddy to walk me back to my apartment to drop off my stuff. Then, we walked together to meet up with some other coworkers for Korean BBQ. Yum!!!

One of my coworkers lived in Korea a couple of years ago. This was mighty handy, because he ordered all the food. Phew. There was no need to pull out my phrasebook and speak in butchered Korea. However, I'm considering doing a blog segment called "Leann tries her Korean out on a real Korean."  I can post a video, or just give you a narrative of the interaction. I'm sure it'll be mighty entertaining.

Also, I'd just like to let you all know about the weather here. It is muuuuuuuuggy. Super hot, super humid. I'm sure this is a TMI, but you need to know - I sweated through my dress. There was a huge wet spot on the front and back. I won't be wearing that dress again anytime soon.  Yikes.

Below is some pictures of the yummy Korean BBQ, and there is an action shot of us walking through a building to get to the Korean BBQ place. If you look hard enough, you may see the big, dark sweat spot on the back of my green dress. :)