Impressions of Icheon

So! I've been in Icheon for a whopping 48 hours now. The move went rather smoothly- the new school sent a driver to get me, we loaded my stuff up, and off I went. Was about a 90 minute drive from Ilsan, which wasn't too bad.

Even though I've only been here a short time, I already know Icheon's going to be very different from Ilsan. It's a smaller, older city- it's not quite 'middle of nowhere,' but it's nowhere near as big and flashy as Ilsan. I think I'm living in one of the quieter neighborhoods too. There also seems to be far more mom & pop style stores, instead of the big chains one tends to see in Seoul- or if they're chains here, they're far different ones. Furthermore, the recruiter (an American, for the record) told me he thought there was about 60-something expats here, as compared to the at least a few hundred living in Ilsan. Suppose going to LePub every week spoiled me.

I'm not too far from Icheon's strip, which is a shopping plaza sort of thing. It kind of reminds me of Myeong-Dong, only, y'know, smaller and far less crowded. There's a farmer's market at one end, so I imagine I'll at least do well when I want fresh produce. I also saw a store that had a bootleg Superion set to match the bootleg Defensor I got a bit ago- I'm definitely gonna pick that up soon enough. Yay nerdery.

My apartment came pre-furnished, along with a lot of stuff the previous owner (the teacher I'm replacing) left behind. Books, shelves, cooking utensils, computer speakers, dishes- I was quite excited to dig through the stuff to see what was being left behind. There's even a 'Learn Korean' workbook which I should probably start working on soon, too!

On the cons side, the apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, and the bathroom is against an exterior wall so it tends to get kind of cold, and I haven't figured out how to use the washing machine yet. Even still, it's a nice little place, and I've lived in rougher conditions.

In any case, I start work at the new school tomorrow! Exciting times.