반갑습니다!

Well, my laptop won't connect to the wifi here for some reason, but my phone is connected just fine. I'm really kicking myself for leaving my Ethernet cable at home, but I can probably find a place to buy one here so I'm not too concerned just yet. Anyways, you will all have to excuse the brevity of this post as typing on a phone presents certain disadvantages. So, I'm safe and sound in Seoul! The flight from Toronto to Tokyo was ridiculously long, and felt like it would never end, but it did and overall wasn't too bad. I don't really remember the flight from Tokyo to Seoul, as I was drifting in and out of consciousness, but I do remember finally waking up when there was an announcement that we were 20 minutes away, and realizing I'd fallen asleep before filling out my customs and immigration forms. So fortunately I was able to do those before landing. In the Incheon airport, I learned pretty quickly to get over my claustrophobia. It was shoulder to shoulder on the escalators, shuttles, and immigration lines. I managed to be one of the last people to get to the luggage carousel from my flight, and found my suitcases already off and in the hands of a Korean airport attendant who was glancing back and forth between my luggage tags and the small group of people already there and calling out "Reynolds? Reynolds? Reynolds?" before I finally went over to grab them from her. By this time it was 10:30, and the bus I was supposed to catch stopped running at 10:00. I was standing outside with my luggage looking around trying to figure out where to go when a man came up and asked where I was going. I said I was looking for a bus that ran to Dobong (not my stop, but the last one on the line that led to Korea University). He said he was a cab driver and would takr me, which I had initially wanted to avoid due to the costliness of an hour long cab drive, but at this point I was completely exhausted and had no idea what I was doing, so I didn't protest when he grabbed my bags and started walking them toward his taxi. He asked me for an address to where I was going, and I said Korea University. "Which Korean university?" "Korea university." "...which one?" "Korea" "what?" "고려 대학교!" "Ohhh 고려 대 okay!" And we were off. The city, which was a sight to see, was full of lights and people and cars, both exciting and intimidating at the same time. I told him which dorm building I needed to go to, but he didn't know where it was. I showed him a map, but he didn't know how to get there. He called someone, yelling "고려 대 기숙사 (Korea U dormitory) and then stuff I couldn't catch. Apparently the person he called had no answer because he yelled something else in Korean and hung up, instead choosing to roll down his window and yell to students to give him directions, although the only words I was able to catch were Korea University, dormitory, frontier house (the name of the form), and foreigner. He ended up taking me to the wrong dorm, which I didn't realize, but I started walking up the steep hill toward the International Student dorms (not where I am staying, as I opted to live in the regular dorms, but I knew the were close from the map so I figured I'd navigate from there). Halfway up, beginning to break a sweat thanks to the 80lbs of luggage and the ridiculously steep incline, a visiting American professor saw me and offered to help carry my things to the International House. When I told her I was actually going to Frontier House, she told me it was actually down hill. So I turned around, internally commending myself for getting my excercise in for the day, and made my way to the building. The guard at the front desk took one look at me, and then I suppose was immediately terrified that I'd start asking him a million questions in English (by god, do I stand out here)because he immediately held up his hand in a "wait" gesture, made a call to someone, then grabbed one of my bags and led me to a chair to sit and wait for a girl who came down to check me in. I got up to my dorm room at around midnight, wide awake due to it feeling like 11am, unpacked my stuff, showered, and finally managed to doze off at 2am. I woke up at 6am, again wide awake, got up and organized things around my room until 9:30, then fell back asleep until half past noon. Deciding I needed to get out of my room if I wanted to get over this jet lag, I left to go find food (my last meal was at 2pm on the flight the day before, and although I didn't feel hungry, only sleepy, I knew I needed to eat). I asked the students at the International Summer Student check in desk where the cafeteria was, and they bantered back and forth in Korean about where it was until one finally said "I'll take you there, it'll be easier" and led me. I don't have a meal plan card, and had no idea where to pay with cash. Upon entering there are gated machines where you swipe your card and go through. Of course, they are entirely in Korean, so I stood there for about a minute with my face about a foot away from the screen trying to piece together the very little I could understand. Eventually a woman who worked there saw me me and brought me to the back where I could pay with cash. The meal for today consisted of rice, some sort of spicy soup with beef, cold noodles, beansprouts, radish kimchi, and rice. After lunch, I went to a convenience store to buy some toilet paper (there was none in my dorm much to my horror upon arrival, fortunately I had some tissues). I probably looked like an idiot walking to my dorm afterwards, with a huge grin on my face, swinging a twelve pack of toilet paper back and forth by the handle, but I think that's when the realization of "oh my gosh, I'm really in Korea!" truly hit. My roommate, a native Korean named Inyoung, just came in (though she's left now with her mother) and we introduced ourselves. Her mother didn't speak English, but instead just smiled at me, occasionally repeating her daughter's his and byes. when they were about to step out, I said "반갑습니다!" (pangapsubnida! Or nice to meet you) to which they both smiled and laughed and said it very excitedly back. I hope I can practice my Korean more with my new roommate! Now I'm going to try to study a bit for my placement test which is in a couple of days and will determine which language level I'm placed in. Hopefully my next post I'll have my computer working! 안녕히 계세요!

Almost to Tokyo after a 13 hour flight!

"Welcome to Japan!"

The shuttle leading to the terminal at Incheon airport. This was about 2/3 of how much it filled up.

Escalator at Incheon airport

Couldn't read the Korean instructions for the AC (figured it out the next morning when I wasn't sleep deprived) so I slept with the window open. Turns out Korea has mosquitoes too. A lot of them.

For some reason, I think seeing a drink I'm used to drinking in Korean was a bigger culture shock than seeing all of the weird Korean drinks.

My very first Korean meal! Approx $3.50

From my second meal; having to rip out the spine of the thing you're about to consume is a humbling experience. Also reminded me why I started eating meat after 6 years of vegetarianism in preparation for this trip.

Seoul!