I recently (read almost 3 months ago because I post everything ridiculously late) decided that it was time to make the move to from Cheonan to Seoul. I wanted to live in Seoul originally but.... when I moved to Korea, I didn't have any previous teaching experience. Seoul is a much bigger city with a much more competitive market for English teachers. I knew if I wanted a good job in Seoul, that I would need experience first. I picked Cheonan for a lot of reasons; it was close to Seoul, it was a transportation hub (I could get anywhere pretty fast), and it was a great place to save money. I loved living in Cheonan and it's a great city to live in. But I am from a big city and I wanted to be back in a big city surrounded by lots and lots of people. When my contract finished at the end of February, I made the move to Seoul.
First things first, the actual move. Due to the situation of having no time off between jobs, I had a very limited window of time for moving. I ended work on a Friday night, moved to a new city on Saturday and started at a new job on Monday. To say it was stressful is a complete understatement. My school helped me hire a truck for Saturday to take me from Cheonan to Seoul. It was supposed to cost around 120 dollars, which isn't bad for a city to city move. Well, I specifically asked for a moving truck because the amount of clothes I have was in definite need of a full on truck. Unfortunately, something changed last minute and the truck was unavailable. A medium sized van pulls up in front of my apartment right on time, but I looked at it and said "not happening, my stuff can't fit in that thing!". The grumpiest faced old stepped out of this van. He looked just severely pissed from the onset. Luckily, I wasn't going through this alone (my male coworker, who is a worrywart, wouldn't hire the truck unless he knew I wasn't going alone). We moved all my stuff down and out of my apartment and into this truck in maybe 10 minutes. We had to tetris my stuff in and the grumpy faced man kept sighing and asking why there was so much stuff. Once we loaded all the stuff, he said he wasn't going to drive for the same price. He wanted 60 more dollars because there was so much stuff. I had no choice but to say yes because my stuff was already in his truck. We all piled into this van and were off on the long ride to Seoul.
No joke, it took 5 hours.... 5 hours!! The trip is usually 2 hours but the traffic was horrible and my new apartment was on the Northern most edge of Seoul. Janelle was blogging the whole way and the van was hot. It was miserable. We were all whining and annoyed in the car. But the absolute worst part was how bad I needed to pee. I needed to pee so bad. I cannot even begin to explain this pain. I should have gone before we left, but I didn't, I was stupid and my bladder, kidneys, whatever... it paid for it. I was literally crying by hour 3. I wanted to ask the man to stop but we were in such bad traffic, it wasn't moving, and I was scared of the driver because he was grumpy. I thought I was going to pee in the back of this man's van. Since, my friend was vlogging the whole thing, she caught the crying on camera. I wish I could say it was funny now, looking back... but it wasn't. The pain of needing to pee that bad will haunt me for the rest of my life.
Anyways, I made it and unloaded my stuff faster than it was loaded because the man was rushing us. But I was finally moved and I was in my new apartment. My friends went out to dinner with me for my first night and then they went back to Cheonan.
That was my moving experience in Korea. It was pretty bad. From the wrong truck, to the grumpy old man, to the bladder infection that I thought I would get.... it was rough. But I guess I successfully moved with all my stuff... so it's not as bad as it could have been. I could have been dropped off in the middle of nowhere and had all my stuff stolen or something. (I don't know, something definitely could have gone very wrong).
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