Monday, July 7

Flight and First Day in Seoul

안녕하세!  Hello everyone!  I have finally arrived and I know that you are dying to see some pictures.  I will get to those, but first let me tell you about my extremely exciting (not so much) flights.

Before I start, I want to mention that my husband is such an amazing guy!  I either read the flight information incorrectly or Air Canada did not arrive on time, but either way, he stayed with me several hours when he was really tired and could have just went home.  For the first flight, we drove over to BWI at midnight and arrived a little before 2:00AM.  It wasn’t until 4:00AM until the Air Canada baggage claim ladies arrived.  I think they made the mistake because a Canadian couple was complaining about them not arriving 3 hours ahead of time also.  From 4:00AM-6:00AM, I went through security and baggage drop off and hung around the airport until we loaded.  The plane we got on was SO small.  I sat next to a very nice older gentleman who was taking his family to Alaska for a cruise.  There was no entertainment, but we were given a bag of pretzels to eat for the 2 hour flight. 

Once we arrived in Toronto, I went through customs and had to pick my luggage back up just to carry it around the corner and drop it off again.  It was kind of annoying.  Finally, I went through security and hung out in the airport for a few minutes until we were able to board at 9:30AM.  This flight was 4 hours long, but I watched “300:Rise of the Empire” and several episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”.  This was one of those airbus planes so it was a bit bigger.  At the end of the flight, I heard a girl in front of me (Amy) mention that she was going to South Korea for the remainder of the month, so I introduced myself.  We were getting on the next plane together, so we just hung out with another guy she had met (I forget his name >.<) while waiting on the next flight in Vancouver.

The Vancouver flight started out really interesting.  Amy ended up in the seat in front of me and the guy sat next to me.  That’s about where the interesting stopped.  It was a 10 hour flight and was TERRIBLE.  My back hurt so bad.  We got pretzels again and I ate chicken and couscous for lunch.  There was an odd sauce on it—I know…oh my gosh!—but it was actually decent.  Later on, I got Ramen Noodles in a cup with chopsticks and my final meal was pasta which was gross.  I did watch the movie “Noah” and I had an extremely hard time liking it—like a very hard time liking it.  Where did the rock monsters come from in the bible for one thing??

Okay—here is the good stuff: Getting to Seoul and exploring.  Well first, I had to get through immigration and customs where they took my picture and my finger prints on a scanner.  After that, I got my baggage and said goodbye to Amy (but we are going to try to meet up sometime before she leaves).  Through the entrance gate and a few feet on my right, I met Nicola (who is a girl in my program from England).  She’s extremely nice and we successfully got our bus tickets and made it onto the correct bus pretty easily.  Below is a picture of my bus ticket if you’re curious.  ^_^


The bus took about 50 minutes to get to our stop which was literally in the middle of the street haha.  We tried to follow the map the University gave us, but failed.  We had to stop and ask for directions in broken Korean/English.  One older gentleman made me smile.  He did not understand English at all, but he tried really hard to explain it to us.  I just kept nodding and telling him 감사합니다 (thank you).  He was very sweet.  After a few people gave us directions, we finally made it to the entrance--and let me me tell you...it was an entrance!  My bags were super heavy at this point and all I do is look up at the mountain we have to climb.  I need to take a picture of it next time I am leaving campus.  It was terrible.

After a bit of a trek, we arrived and two girls from the program got us all signed in.  I spent the next hour taking a shower and figuring out my room.  I am adding some pictures of the room at the bottom.

Once I was clean, Amy (another Amy who is from PA) came to my room and then we met up with Nicola again.  We only took a short walk because Nicola and I were still sore from our trips and walking up the hill dragging our luggage.  We went into Paris Baguette where I got a cream puff thing and a cranberry lemonade.  Finally, we proceeded to walk back towards campus and found a cute kids playground with a nice gazebo so we ate there.  

Before getting back to my room, I went to the convenience store to buy toilette paper and trash bags--who knew you had to buy your own!  Once I got to my room, my roommate was there!  She's very nice and from DC.  I'll write more about her later.  ^_^  Right now, it is bed time and I am so tired!

(You can usually click on the pictures in my blog to make them bigger.)

The outside of my dorm where I have to scan my card.  This is also the card I use to get into my dorm.


My hallway--everyone's doors are different colors.  I need to get a drying rack also so I can save some money.


The shower room.  I just close the door and turn it on and the water goes down the little drain near the wall.  It's so weird because even the door gets wet.  I have yet to figure out how to get my clothes on without leaving the shower...


The toilet and sink room


The room door with our drop down where we have to take our shoes off at.  The left room is the shower and the right room is the bathroom.


The view of my side of the room.


My side of the room again.


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