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.