Safe and Sound (and sick)

So I am here in Seoul after arriving yesterday on time at 4:30. The time difference is +14 hours- so needless to say- my body is all out of whack. Coupled with the fact that my runny nose is now a full blown cold- I am quite run down. Anyway- things have run mostly smoothly. My roommate is a Korean-American from Richmond, VA named Jennifer. I am so fortunate because she speaks Korean- so she has been quite the help in navigating that front. I need to find a Korean Sesame Street on the TV so I can grasp some basics. :)
We are staying in an "officetel" for the 1st two months while they finish construction on our English Center where we will be teaching. So- the space is small- but located centrally in Seoul- so we will have a few weeks here to explore. The English Center where I will be teaching is about 1 hour outside of the city. They are scheduled to have it completed by the end of April- so it will be nice to be in a brand new facility and we will each have our own rooms.
My initial 1st impressions of the city are: not a lot of attention paid to foreigners, you can find a lot of American cuisine here (an outback down the street) as well as a lot of American products in the stores, very cold and the air quality is not that great.
Other than that- things are one day at a time. We went to the Lotte Mart today for some groceries and provisions. We are going tomorrow for bank accounts. Our actual training begins on Thursday. Nice, slow start. I met a girl in the airport from Canada that was scheduled to start in the classroom on Monday- so I am grateful that is not me! So far, in addition to myself and Jennifer, I have met 2 girls from the UK- Gayle and Jessica and 1 guy from New Zealand- Titus- who is actually Korean as well.
I think we are going to try to hit some markets tomorrow- so that should be a great view of the culture. Will try to get some pics up soon. Take care and thanks for the prayers!
m