First Post

15 Hours of Flight (in Summary)
-Flight Plan (and yes, we ended up avoiding North Korea, in spite of that green line).














-Leaving Atlanta














-Indiana














-Siberia














-Sea of Okhotsk














-Eastern Mountains of South Korea















Getting to Korea University
I arrived in Seoul yesterday. I was coming off a Unisom trip and had two very heavy bags, so as I searched for place to sit to get my bearings and then decide if I was taking a bus or a cab, a young man (who I later found out only had one hand) came up to me, took one of my bags and told me he would take me to where I needed to go. Long story short, I had to pay him $180 for cab fare when I probably should have only paid $50 max. Maybe it was worth it because I got to sit with him in the cab and listen to French/Spanish love songs and Korean commercials. I didn't want to offend him by taking video of him, but I did manage to get a few seconds of video inside the cab. Oh yeah, and he liked to speed and be totally rude to other people on the road.


On a good note, my first introduction to Seoul was speeding through it while a full red moon hung in the background. Very eerie and exciting!

I arrived at my dorm and met some very nice Korean American students, as well as many other foreigners. It's funny because anybody thats NOT-asian, ie. hispanic or black, smiles at me (and I at them) and we strike up conversations left and right. I guess since I am part of the minority now, its nice to see a friendly face that isn't trying to hold me down.

I asked one of the RA's what a good walking path would be, and went and looked about the immediate area of the campus for about 30 minutes. Koreans tend to flit about with no regard for other people, bikes, traffic, time, space, anything really. I imagine all the pedestrians of New York bursting out into the streets the moment that they have the right of way. Here, they stand at the street corner, and when the green "walk" sign pops up, they take their time to look around for 20 seconds before aimlessly traversing the cross walk. I think I'm just used to the American sense of NEEDING to be in a mad rush to be somewhere at all times of the day. Koreans are adorable.

Thanks to my mom who sent me money, I was able to sleep with blankets and a pillow for the night (when I told the girls at the desk I could not afford it at the moment, they gave me the "thats so sad!" face, and offered to pay for me if I'd pay them back). It's really cold here, so I'm glad the blanket situation worked out.















First Morning in Seoul
Walked campus alone this morning for an hour, with 30,000 won and needing a voltage adapter and ethernet cable. Without these things, I was nearly unable to contact anybody at home in any reasonable manner. Oh, and I needed food because I was getting hungry.

View From my Dorm










Street with restaurants/shops/bars/college kids



















I've always wanted to get my nails done while I was eating pizza (this is actually located ON the school campus).














Temple (called Gaeunsa) that is a 20 second walk from the entrance to my dorm. Lanterns are lit up at night!














"Paegel wita Creama Cheezu" and espresso for breakfast (don't mock me, there isn't really a traditional Korean breakfast food). They have LOTS of French-style bakeries.














Busy Intersection


All in all, I love it so far. I thought I was going to find it hard to adjust to and hate it for a few weeks, but really, I am enjoying myself in spite of overpaying a cab driver and realizing that off campus, about zero point zero zero percent of people speak English. I've busted out some phrases like "igo urlmayo" (how much does this cost?) to get the ethernet cable, only to realize in horror, that the young computer store clerk, after being amazed by my command of the Korean language, would respond with the cost quoted in Korean numbers, which I don't know.

Sweet Success!















The one thing I can count on is the friendliness of Koreans. So far, even if they can't understand a damn thing I'm trying to say (in my language or my attempt at theirs) everybody has been warm and kind. Love, Joe.