Okay guys, so the other day, I kind of left you hanging. Well, creating suspense is my specialty.  As you hopefully remember from yesterday's blog we left the theme/amusement park, "Lotte World." and it was 9:30 when we decided to head back to the dormitory. We exited the park, stopped by a 7-Eleven to get some water, and hopped on the subway. As we slouched on the subway benches, barely keeping our eyes open, I inquired to Nadeia about what time the last subway ran. She laughed and said it probably wouldn’t close until 3 am because that is the time that they close in New York City (her home town). “Ah. Okay, good. I was just curious because we wouldn’t want to get stuck out in the middle of no where on one of our crazy adventures.” 

Nadeia: “Nah. Don’t worry about it. We are pros when it comes to the subway.”

Me: “Oh. Okay. That’s good.”

So we waited eleven stops in slow anticipation of our crack beds at our temporary home. We got off and trotted through the little boutique walking mall on the way to our dorm. 

Me: “Guys, isn't there a curfew here or something. I think we should get home soon. Let’s hurry.”

Room mates: “Oh yeah, I think it is at 11:30 or something, but it’s not like they would shut us out or anything. We can just call the Ajussi and ask him to open it for us.”

So we walk to towards the campus, past one of the thousands of 7-Eleven’s in Seoul and we see the BIG main gate. ‘Ah. Fewf. It’s open, so we walk somewhat rapidly through the main gate and greet the guards. “Anneyonghasseyo. (bow heads)” We look to our phones, oh my gosh guys it is 11:30 now! So we start going faster up the practically 180 degree hill to our dorm. 

Nadeia; “Sprint guys! Sprint!”

We all three take off on our blistered and sore feet, sprinting up the hill like mad men. When we finally reach the top of the hill, we are tired and out of breath, but we don’t stop there. We see the second (smaller) gate up a head and we run towards it. ‘Ah ha, the light is on, and I think I see construction work signs.’ True to my eyes, there were two big construction block gates up a head so we could walk through those and get to our dorm. ‘YES! We made it!’ Maybe, thirty feet away from our dorm entrance we walk to the glass entrance and see the most horrifying sight ever. There is a huge metal gate that was pulled down from above the door and locked into the ground. The lounge was dark, and the Security Ajussi was no where to be seen. We panicked. What are we going to do? Can we call and ask someone to open the door for us? No! No one has their Korean cell phones yet, and no one else has an international calling phone like me and mine was dead! “Crap!” 

Me: I start looking around for something to climb on. “Hey guys, I could climb up on that dumpster over there and squeeze into the second floor window that's open. Nadeia can you hoist me up?” (Most of the windows have bars on them)

Nadeia: “Are you crazy?! You would like paralyze yourself or something.”

Me: “What about climbing up on that yellow thing and getting onto the balcony first Zerin?”

Zerin: “No way, I would like break my spine or something.”

Nadeia: “I think Zerin could fit into that window there easily.”

Zerin: “Yeah, but I can’t get up there!”

Me: “Oh my gosh. What are we going to do? I guess we could stay at a hotel.”

Our thoughts:  What hotels are near here? Love motels, basement hotels, drug hotels where we get knocked out and our organs are sold on the black market like in that one movie. AHHHH!!!!!

Zerin:  "I have a friend who has been here before and she said that whenever she stayed out past curfew she would just stay at a Jimjiban.”

Nadeia: “Yeah, I have my map with tourist sites on it and it has a Jimjiban close by on it. We can just take the subway there.”

FYI: For those of you who aren't familiar with the word Jimjiban, a Jimjiban is a Korean Spa where you can come for a very cheap price and bathe, shower, swim, massage, eat, and most importantly, SLEEP! If you ever watch Korean television, you will notice that pretty much everyone goes to the Jimjiban. Whether you are running away from your mean husband for a few days, stressed out from school, or go as a family fun day of relaxation, 99.9% of Koreans go there. They provide you with food, water, clothes, soaps, combs, hair dryers, towels, etc. Depending on how nice the Jimjiban is you could get the royal treatment, or a mere scrub down. 

Me: “Okay, we should hurry because I am worried about being out on the streets too late.”

Girls: “Yeah. Let’s go.”

We all are freaking out and screaming oh my g....Brownies!! Because it is such a crazy thing to happen. What kind of dorm locks down like a prison at 11:30pm? What if we were inside and we had a medical emergency? Would they break the glass and throw us out the window and hope we don’t die? What the heck! 

FYI: It was exactly 11:45 pm when we got to our dorm building, so that means that the security Ajussi didn’t even wait 15 minutes for us to get back. I feel a little insulted! Like doesn't he care about the students at all? 

So, we speed walk to the subway and see last minute train stragglers running up the escalator steps. "Wait a minute! Running up the escalator? The escalator is turned off? OMGOSH’, yes people, we walk down the steps to find out the inevitable truth, the subway closes at 11:30 pm just like the dorm. Holy Croookies!!!!!  My room mates being the New Yorkers that they are, suggest we simply take a taxi. 

Me: ‘okay that’s fine. Let’s go.’

However, the taxi driver doesn't speak English. So what do we do? We show him our map and plead Jimjiban gagoshipohyo!!! Translation: “Please take us to a Jimjiban, Ajussi!!”  짐 지 반 가 거 십 어 요. 

So, off we go, the Ajussi drops us off about five minutes away and tells us to be safe. He even gave us a discount! Instead of paying 32 won he only charged us 30 won. How nice is that? He really seemed to care about us like we were his own children.....then we saw where he took us. It looked like some sort of gangster head quarters where we were definitely going to get mugged. We walked down the alley, me pepper spray in hand.  My friends, walking closely arm in arm. We look left and right as we make our way down the dark alley. There were so many places someone could be hiding. It looked and smelled like a fish market. (Yuck!) Finally, at the end of the street, on the right side we saw the Jimjiban. It was really old and run down looking, but where else could we go? This was definitely not the Jimjiban that we had seen on our tourist guide maps. "Oh well!"  Making our way in we found surprisingly that we only had to pay seven dollars a person and we could stay all night. "Yes!" Well, we got our little pink sauna suits and our tiny orange towels and made our way to our lockers. We were so tired that we just showered off a bit and hit the floor. Literally, we had to sleep on a floor. Luckily it was heated though, because we didn't have any mats or blankets. We just had a little, square, block that was meant to serve as a pillow.  If I hadn't been up since six that morning and spent all day running around a theme park in the blazing heat, I would never have been able to sleep. But, oh did I sleep, in the heat, the weird smelling pillow things, and my new friends at my sides. To say it was disturbing was an understatement. The sauna was filled with all these old grannies running around buck naked like wild Amazonian’s. I mean....ewwwww....I would look away to avoid one granny and then next thing I new....another naked grandma. ‘AHHH!!!’ We all chose a corner in the sleeping room and huddled up together as if the three of us sleeping together would provide as a wall and safe guard against the horde of wild, naked, grannies around us. I swear I woke up three times that night, each time thinking I would awake to find myself being taken away by some gangsters for my organs. At one point, I awoke to the sound of a man's voice, alas it was thankfully just an old granny who smoked way too much in her life, but seriously, I was concerned. Nadeia, being the sweet heart that she is, woke up as well when she heard the man-like voice and said quote- “I was about to jump in front of all the sleeping grannies and be like, “I will protect you granny. Quick hide behind me. Quick cover yourselves. You’re like...NAKED!!!” 

I cracked up laughing at this and said I was just about to bite and beat the heck out of any man who came down there. Let me tell you, I was about to go Rambo on someone’s booty. Startled by all of this, I stayed up until we left and that was at 4:15 am. Oh yeah. Seriously. I sat down and kept watch over my friends as they slept. At 5:30 I woke them and said we should shower and get back to the dorms. So, at 6am we left and made our way back. Thankfully, the subway opens early, so we were able to take it and one stop later we were back at our school.  Back through the now completely open gates at 6:15 am, we made our way back into the dorms and slept like there was no tomorrow. Well, my roomies did. I was still to shook up to sleep, so I showered for what seemed like forever and phoned my mom. Yeah, I told her what happened. It was sure one crazy story. And let me tell you, if you ever have problems bonding with your roommates, just go get stuck in the city in the middle of the night in a foreign country and all of your problems will be solved. Amen. I say Amen. I did pray for God’s protection that night and let me tell you. Thank God we were okay. 

Well, this was a long blog post, but I felt like it needed to be in order to make it more real for you over there in the US who can’t hear it in person. I think I will also make a video where I tell you exactly what happened. I will try to get my room mates to do it with me. If you don’t believe me, you will after this video. 

Tip of the day: “Make sure to find out when things close in your city!!” 

Day Number Four

As usual on the opposite side of the world, I wake up when the sun does. Unfortunately, my room mates have already made it past the jet lag and don't wake up until one or two pm. Via my normal routine, I make it out of the room and out to the hall with my cell and some books. Because nothing opens before nine I decided to study up on my Korean, but as soon as nine hit I was out the door and off to find a coffee shop where I could get some wifi. I took a video of all of the cute houses and shops on the way over, but the video was erased! I know, but do n't worry. I will make another one via the same route and it will be okay. 'Fewf...Breathes in.' I really wanted to go to this popular coffee place called, Angels in Us, however, despite the sign saying they were open at 8 am, it was CLOSED. Disappointed, I made my way over to a narrower side street to adventure out some coffee out of this darned place. I had set my mind on coffee, so coffee I was gonna get. Or else Korea!  Well, don't worry. I am actually sipping coffee right now as I type. I was walking along this side street that goes up a hill when I noticed a cute little nook in the wall called Uncle's Beans. Inspired by the Hipster Mustache logo on the door I made my way into one of Korea's cutest coffee shops. 

The front entrance had a cute little stone patio with a small circular table and two chairs angled toward the street on one side, and plants on the other. I made my way through the glass door, down two steps, and into a tiny little place of maybe five wooden tables and ah...finally....the bitter sweet aroma of coffee. A picturesque couple stood in front of me in line, so I took this opportunity to look at some of the options. Iced coffee, hot coffee, tea, smoothies, and some very tasty looking pastries stood before me. Now, granted that the shop didn't have a large selection of pastries, the bread that I chose was delicious! It wasn't sweet, but it had a slightly salty taste. It was the perfect balance between dense and light and fluffy. As I broke it in half the sweet aroma of yeast and sugar filled my nose. It was just what I needed to go with the bitter black iced coffee that I ordered. "Ah." I sipped my coffee slowly and nibbled away at my baguette in between. I decided to choose a table in the front facing the glass wall, but secluded by some tall potted plants and cute pictures. It was at this moment that I finally felt at home in Korea. Ever since I flew here, I have had this nervous anticipation in my stomach and this feeling of de’ja vu. It was as if everything wasn't real, but rather that I was dreaming and would wake up from it any minute. I still have this feeling every now and then, but during my time at Uncle's Beans I was at peace. 

I spent two hours there studying my amazing Korean language book and writing in my cute orange journal that two of my very dear friends gave me before I left. (Thanks Amy! Thanks Ashely!) When I made it back to the dorms, my room mates (룸매투스) surprised me with news that we would be going to Lotte World. What?! I was so excited. For those of you who don't know, Lotte is a very popular brand that sells cookies in the US, but in Korea it is so much more than that. It is like Disney! We took danced in the subway and made American jokes, hit every ride in the massive theme park (including the roller coaster that went 160 mph and flipped us so many ways you would have thought we were pancakes!) we tried churro s, bought adorable bows, and finally....went back to the dorms? 

We took the last train back from Sincheon (the city where Lotte World is located) and finally got back to Sungshin. We walked through the gates to our University and greeted the guards (Anneyonghasseyo! bows head) Walked to our building,opened the door, and went to bed.  

THE END

NOT!!! As it turns out, at exactly 11:30 pm every night, the door man leaves, pulls down a metal cage over the entrance, and bolts it into the ground. So, what do we (three 19 year old girls), in foreign country do when we are supposed to be able to take showers, change into our jammies, and get to sleep IN OUR DORMS?!!! No, thats right, because the APARTMENTS that we were supposed to be able to stay in didn't have curfew and this place does!!! 

Day Three Part Four:

My new roomies are quite adventurous. When I got back they suggested that we go out to Korean BBQ for dinner. Nadeia, being the crazy awesome chiqua she is suggested that we drink Soju. Nadeia is a great person to have around. She always keeps us laughing. Nadeia,  What's-her-name and I took like two hours getting ready and headed out into the night. Three 5’ 2” , American, brown haired, brown eyed girls, strolling down the sparkling streets to the restaurant. It was a traditionally styled house, with wooden beams, and wooden seats. We sat down and ordered Korean beef and a famous spicy soup called Jajungmyun. It is really good and consists of onions, potatoes, chili paste, meat, and some "other stuff." Of course we had plenty of side dishes (Panchan) kimchi, spicy bean sprouts, lettuce, and sea weed soup. We ate, drank, and laughed until our sides hurt and we had to walk it off. It was a cool night with a slight breeze that made the scenery just so much nicer. On the way back to the dorm we stopped by some cute boutiques called Etude and Olive. They were having a huge sale on facial wash, body wash, and makeup. I got some really cool thing called a Jelly Sponge. It is so neat. It is a spherical sponge that literally feels like a jelly fish! Awesome 대박!!!  It has soap in it too so you don’t have to put your own face wash on it, it already has it inside. Sweet. Yup. I love using it. I am waiting for the moment when I can say, “Hold on, I need to go jelly my face.”  Yup.  When we were dead beat from a long day and lots on our minds we decided to head home and hit the hay.

I definitely enjoyed sleeping with a pillow! ‘nuff said’

Day Three Part Two: Brunch 

So what did I do after my room mates got up? Well, I asked them to show me a place where I could get some breakfast. So we took a stroll down Dongseongdong past little boutiques and street carts to a place called Paris Baguette. Now, according to Nadeia and Zerine, Paris Baguette is quite popular in New York. However, me being from Northern VA, I am more used to Shilla Bakery. We went in and enjoyed not only the saturating aroma of freshly baked bread, but the ever so subtle smell of coffee brewing in the back. I chose a plain piece of bread that wouldn't be to sweet. I didn’t really want a sweet breakfast, but seeing as it was that or the sausage pizza bagel that my friend Nadeia got, I chose plain. Mmm...It was delicious (맛 있어요.) Oh. Whats that now? ....cream? Yuck. FTOYWDKM. (For those of you who don’t know me) I’m really not a boston cream donut kind of girl. I mean when it come to donuts, I like toasted coconut or chocolate frosted. But cream, bleck! So, what to do, when you pay for a delicious pastry? Well, the outside was fine, so I took my tissue and wiped out the cream. ‘Yeah. Thats much better.’ We drank orange juice with our sweets and then headed out. I must say, for not having any thing to eat since 5:30 in the morning, I really wasn’t satisfied by that pastry. I would prefer a nice traditional Korean Breakfast of soup, kimchi, and rice. However, it was very sweet of my roomies to take me out and show me around. From then on, I knew all the places I could go for breakfast (after nine) lol ; )   Don’t let the pictures make you too hungry. lol

Well, my third day in Korea 한국 was much more peaceful and productive. I woke up at 6:30 am Korea Time ( so about 5:30 pm in Virginia USA) I quietly crept from my bunk above Zerine and snuck into the bathroom with my toiletries from the US. I know from previous experience that I am not capable of being quite in the wee hours of the morning, so I stretched and did some workouts in the lounge for about an hour or so. When I got bored, I decided to change and go for a morning stroll and maybe find a place for breakfast 아 침 식 사. It was 7:30 am when I walked down stairs and greeted the very kind old security guard. 

ME: 안 녕 이 주믓새요. Annyongee Jumusayo. Good Morning. 

Ajussi (Elder Man) :  Ne. Anyongegayseyo. 내. 안녕이가새요. 

The Ajussi pushed the button and the door opened to a beautiful crisp morning. I greeted the guards at the gate as I walked down the campus hill and was ready for some delicious coffee or a traditional Korean Breakfast. Da dun. Dun........

I made a video on my phone, but for some reason it says that it was erased from my SD card! I am so upset. I took alot of pictures with my phone. Ugg. I will have to start taking more with my Camera. mmmmm....sad. I will take more though of the same places today if I can. uggg....Here I go again. 

Well.....Nothing is open at 7:30 am in Seoul. I walked....and walked....and WALKED...and still...no cigar. It wasn’t until I came back that the Ajussi told me that breakfast doesn’t open until 9:00 am. What! I was hungry. Man. Yeah. That stinks. So I thought, ‘ Okay, my room mates should be up in an hour. We can go out and get breakfast together.’ Nope. They sleep in pretty late. So, I just chilled out in the room, trying, (but failing miserably) to be quiet. At 1 pm. I begged my roomies to show me where to get some grub. My stomach was like a washing machine/ machine gun. Dang. I have never heard it talk like that before. If stomachs had a language, my stomach would have totally been cussing me out. 

Stomach: “Give me some food chica! You little ..... chick! “ 

Yeah. So, remember guys. Unless you have an apartment with a kitchen and plenty of food to cook in the fridge, when you come to Seoul....nothing opens till NINE !!!

Whilst it is still fresh in my mind, my first day in Korea was a bit hectic. When my buddy (다영)  and I were sitting on the bus waiting to arrive at Sungshin I found out that the apartment that I was promised, and had expected to stay in was not ready for me. I was thinking, "Okay, thats fine. When will it be ready and where will I stay for now?" So I asked Da Young, "Why can't I move into the apartment yet? Is everything okay?"

Da Young:  "Yes. Everything is fine. It is just that some foreign students from last year are still there and haven't left yet. You are going to be staying in the dormitory where the other Korean Students stay with three other Americans. The apartment should be ready soon."

Myself: "Oh okay. Well, thats fine I suppose. Where are they other American students from?"

Da Young: " I don't know exactly, but I think you will be more comfortable that way."

Myself: "Okay."

Now, While this dialogue is all fine and dandy, I think I should clue you in on to some of my deeper thoughts.

I didn't get the letter from Sungshin that the Embassy requires me to have until two weeks before I needed to fly off. When they finally did send me the letter, the forgot another document that was necessary.  Here is an excerpt from the Sungshin University International Student Guide -->

"Housing

Sungshin International Students Dormitory is located in a safe, high-rise apartment building just a few blocks away from Sungshin Women’s University. There are 2 different types of units available, which consists of bedrooms, a common living room and kitchen. [Suite (1,530 sq ft): 4 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms or Regular (1,175 sq ft): 3 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms] There are no single occupancies. Students will be notified of their room assignments & roommate(s) once it has been determined by the university. Please note, students of all different ethnicities will be placed together. All utilities are included in the dormitory fee. Smoking and pets are not allowed anywhere inside the rooms and building. Any issues or concerns regarding housing should be directed to the Office of International Affairs."

"Amenities

All dormitory rooms are equipped with heating and A/C units  Bedrooms: bed, desk, desk lamp, closet; bookshelf  Kitchen: dining table, microwave, toaster, water purifier, rice-cooker  sofa (not available in all apt.), washing machine, clothes drying rack,

vacuum, telephone."

So what happened next? Well, after the long treck up University Mountain (JK JK) with all of my crazy suitcases (and yes people were staring) I got to the dormitory. Ah! Finally, I can rest my arms. 

NOPE. What? Why? Well, you see there is no elevator in the dormitory. Oh! 

Yes. So there are three entrances to the dormitory surrounding the building. One is at the main gate, one is a side street, and one is at a back gate entrance. The door to the dorm consists of a indoor thourough way with glass doors on either side. So, basically, once you enter the first glass door you have to stop, put your finger on a scanner and wait for next door to open. 'Wow. Thats cool.' You might be thinking...hmmmm. Well,  I don't have my finger print in the system so that isn't going to work now will it. Hence, we hit the page button and scream Ajussi!  Odeiso?! "Mr. Where are you?" Five seconds to five minutes later the doorman comes. "Who are you and what do you want?" JK JK. The Ajussi is really nice. He spoke with Da Young and let us in. When I got there my room was locked and my American room mates werent' there so the Ajussi used the master key to let me in. 

Needless to say, by the time I had gotten up yesterday morning to the moment I walked up that hill, I had not realized just how tired I was....and hungry! So I quickly changed and headed out with Da Young to get some 음식 food at Doddori! Okay. So "Doddori" means acorn in Korean and as we walked down the stairs into this total mosh-pit of teenagers eating some sort of stew out of pots, I seriously thought we were going to be eating acorn stew..... ah hem.. no we didn't ...not really. haha. 

There were rows of tables set up against a booth at the wall and little stools shaped like flowers, hearts, ect surrounding the other sides of the table. In the center of the table was a little cook top built into the table. Once we ordered what we wanted in our pot ( We chose: dumplings, sweet potatoes, beef, and deokkbokki = spicy rice cakes, but they are not anything like cake! They are more like flat round little noodles) We sat down and put our cute little aprons on, (yeah! They provide aprons so you don't get your clothes dirty! How awesome is that?) got some water and (utensils= spoon and chopsticks), and ordered. 

Now when I say ordered you probably didn't think anything of it. However, ordering food is different in Korea. In Korea, once you sit down, the waitress or host brings you a little rectangular clip board with a sheet of paper and options on it. Thats the menu! You just circle or check of the items on the list that you want and give it back to the waitress. It is really easy as long as you can read Hangul. 

We were almost finished our pot of deliciousness (lol) when I burst 배부로! (I'm stuffed.) What oh no! There is more to come. We had a whole pot of mixed rice after that! I was totally surprised. How can people eat that much and be so skinny?! However, it was delicious. 

We walked around a bit after we ate to work off some of the food and then headed back to the dorm. I saw so many sites. Though the sky was dark, the street was full of life. The shop keepers were all out and about trying to lure you into their shops (literally, they will drag you in there) "Good sale. Cheap price." psssh. Yeah right. Sometimes, but you have to haggle. lol. Thank you for all my experience yard-saling. I didn't buy anything the first day out, because I was too tired and we have to get back before 11:30 pm. However, little did I know what I was in for when I got back to my dorm. 

A tiny room, maybe 15 ft by 50 feet, four bunk beds, four desks, four closet thingies, and three girls?! Holy Crap that is some tight space. Okay, so what is the first thing you think when you get off a plane. 

1. Take a shower?

2. Eat?

3. Sleep?

4. Call home?

Yeah, well there is this little problem of TOWELS! 

NO SHEETS

NO PILLOWS

NO TOWELS

NO NOTHING........

So, know I am thinking. 'I should have bought towels when I was out.' 

Luckily, I did bring sheets, but pillow.... 업서요 (none). 

Thankfully, my room mates Nadeia and Zerin had been through it already and were able to help and console me. As they put it, "When we got here the lights were off, no one was here, and we had to sleep on crack beds." Well, that sounds fun. Not.

Zerin and Nadeia are awesome. They have been best friends for 12 years and come from New York. They have both had Korean for a year already, so they are definitely going to be helpful to have around. I have only self taught myself Korean for year and had some help from my friend Lee Boram. Boram went to my school MBC in the states last year, where we met in the cafeteria. She has since then become a great friend of mine. She is a senior here at Sungshin and hopefully will have some time to help me out with my awful pronunciations....lol....

Well, how did I bathe exactly? With innovation. The " shower " stalls are just like closets with a hole in the floor and a hose on the wall. The water is either blazing hot, or freezing cold. So...take your pick. I chose hot at first and simply rinsed off. Because I didn't have towels, I didn't think it would be a good idea to wash my hair. But how did I dry off? This is where being raised in a big family comes in handy. For those of you out there who have more than five kids, what do you do when your super mom doesn't manage to wash all of the towels in time. Or when your kid brother stops up the toilet and you have to use ten towels to keep the water from ruining the ceiling? You use a sheet. Yes people, I used my top sheet to as a towel and slept on top of my bottom sheet. Again, no pillow, no blanket, and now, no top sheet. Sound like fun to you? Psh. Yeah.....uh huh...no. However, I guess since I grew up in a crazy family of six kids (four of them BOYS!) I managed. No. I wasn't sad, depressed, pissed, or freaking out. However, I was baffled at the lack of organization and preparedness that my University has. Why on earth weren't they ready? At my school (Mary Baldwin College) . They have all of the students arrive at the same time, they take them on a school van to Walmart and help them buy towels, sheets, ect. and they have a welcoming ceremony where they are introduced to the student body. But, I digress. 

My first day was in a nutshell...crazy. 

So, I hope you enjoyed reading this episode of my crazy adventure in Chosen. Next time I will write about my third day in Korea and even give you a special episode dedicated solely to the bathrooms! ha ha people. You have a lot to look forward to, because things will just keep on getting better from here. 

T.T.F.N

From Catherine 

These are some pictures of my temporary dormitory and bathroom. Yes. There is only one roll of toilet paper and it is outside the stalls. Weird....

Okay guys. Today is now my second day in Korea and sure enough, I have plenty to write about for today, but I should definitely fill you in on my flight and first day. 

Flight:  It was a very standard flight. The plane took off promptly at 1:35 pm Eastern Time and arrived at Incheon International Airport at 4:55 pm on August 24. When I first got on the plane it was, naturally, a crowded tangle getting to my seat, but I did finally manage. And would you believe it, (he hem...PAUL) I got to sit next to an old halmoni just like I wanted to. So, for those of you that don't know. My neighbors, my family, and I made a bet on what type of person I would sit next to on the plane. 

a.) Nice Korean Girl around my age

b.) Hot Korean Guy - a little older than me

c.) 할몬니 Grandmother (Halmoni) 

Yay!

Anyways, it was a neat flight, there was a great movie, video game, tv-show, news, and music selection for me to choose from and it was all on demand. I even got my own video game controller!  However, I only played Sudoku because I am geeky like that. Ha ha. 

I made sure to get up and walk every hour to keep my blood flowing and muscles from cramping...MOM.  I love you (xoxo). I drank plenty of water (물) and pumped my feet every twenty minutes. Ugh....I think the Halmoni must have thought I was either ADHD  or had Tourettes' syndrome

The food was pretty good. I mean if I had to give it a star from one to five it would get a three, so thats not bad. I had Mixed Rice (비빔밥 ) for lunch and some yucky boiled chicken gunk for dinner.  I guess it makes sense that the Korean food would taste better than the American food on a Korean Airline.

The most impressive thing about my flight though was the staff. They were so friendly and helpful!  I have flown internationally before, once on United and once on Lufthansa, and let me tell you they didn't even compare in the level of hospitality that the Koreans showed me. They were always coming by to ask if I needed something (and no I didn't push that annoying little button a million times.) One time, when I was chatting with some Americans in the back, the host brought us brownies and a choice of tea or coffee for us, without even asking! We (the Americans and I) were all very impressed by this and enjoyed a lovely conversation over drinks while we looked over the Eastern Sea and Coast line of North Korea. No, we didn't fly over North Korea, though I actually would have liked very much to see it from a direct aerial point of view. However, I did get to see part of China and much of Russia from above. The gorgeous mountains, the icy snow caps, the little rows of farms and houses. Overall, it was very charming.

I didn't feel tired when I got off the flight, despite only having slept four hours. I guess the adrenaline just kept me going. I found my exchange program buddy at the airport easily.  She had printed out a nice sign that said, "성신 힉교" (Sungshin University) and "CATHERINE FORRESTER" clearly printed out on a nice piece of white paper. She helped me cart the four, crazy,  HUGE suitcases that my mom and I packed. She got us bus tickets to the nearest bus stop near Sungshin, and then.....when we got off the bus, she helped me lug those suckers up two miles of hills to the Campus dormitory.  We were so exhausted when we finally got there that beads of sweat were dripping off our foreheads and oh...our arms were so sore!  In fact, they are still so sore right now that it hurts to type. Yeah, I am serious. I am not a weakling or anything like that. I mean,  I work out and play soccer, swim, dance, etc....but my arms- oh they ache. I feel so bad for my exchange buddy (Da Young 다영). I hope her arms aren't too sore today. Oh boy! Well, I didn't plan to go into any post-flight story yet, but don't worry there will be plenty of drama left for me to write about later, some good, some not so good, but like I said 나중에.  Later.