So, I’ve finally decided to start a blog. Originally I was just going to keep a journal but I realized that a lot of people back home would prefer I keep a blog so that they can hear in detail about all the things I’ve been doing here in Korea. This first one is going to be a summary of the first week, not a lot of detail, but just to let you know about the first week I spent in Incheon with Rachel, Corbin, Lane and the new friends we made, Eunji, Ji hyun, Tae Eun, Wan Seo and Mr. Choi. After this I will try to keep a blog every day or two till I get back to the United States. Anyway I guess I’ll start with when we left.
June 23-25, 2011
Rachel, Corbin, Lane and I left Greenville Spartanburg Airport at 4:44 pm, June 23, headed to South Korea for the first time. We had all said goodbye to our family an hour earlier before we went through security. My aunt, grandmother, mom, sister and boyfriend had come to see me off. It was really hard to say goodbye to them, go through security and finally up the escalator to the boarding area. I still miss them all a lot and can’t wait to see them when I finally get back in a month.
The first plane flight was about two hours long, to Detroit. In Detriot we had about thirty minutes before our next flight, so we sat around, making one last phone call to our families to let them know we had made it that far safely before we took off again. The next flight was the tough one, 13 to 14 hours on an airplane to Haneda airport in Japan. It was rough, but we finally made and had a 17 hour layover in Japan. We spent the night in Haneda airport, then moved Narita airport by train. We spent the day sleeping, getting online, and looking around until our next flight that evening. I spent a lot of my time sleeping in the chairs. It was very comfortable but I was so tired it didn’t really matter. Our last flight was only about two hours, thank goodness. When we finally got all our luggage, got through immigration and customs, we headed toward the exit. Mr. Choi was waiting for us. We introduced our selves and then went out to the parking lot where he had a minivan waiting. He loaded up our five suitcases (Rachel had two) and our four carry on’s. Then we headed for Incheon. It was a very long drive, but we did get to go over the fifth longest bridge in the world. It was 24 km long and even though I was practically half asleep I enjoyed looking at the city of Incheon’s lights from the bridge as we drove toward it. Mr. Choi took us to Songdo Park Hotel, where we would be staying the rest of the week. The bellhop took our bags and Rachel and I were given keys to two rooms. We all went upstairs after Mr. Choi told us the pickup time for the next day. Lane and I in shared one room, Corbin and Rachel shared the other. I immediately took a shower, it was now June25, and I felt disgusting. Mr. Choi even told us the next day that we looked like completely different people than the night before. After the shower, I went to bed and slept till I had to get up the next morning.
June 26, 2011 (Sunday)
I woke up early this morning and got online to talk to my boyfriend, mom and sister before we went out for the day. After we all finished getting ready we headed downstairs to meet Mr. Choi and Eunji. Eunji is a student at Incheon University who will be coming to Lander in the fall. We’re all very excited about it. We met the two of them downstairs in the lobby and had some lunch before heading to the fish market. The fish market was very interesting; we saw everything, fish, squid, crabs, and shrimp among other things. After we left the market we went to a small restaurant where we cooked oysters, conchs, clams, and muscles over a grill in the middle of a table and then we ate them. They were quit yummy, especially dipped in the red spicy sauce that we served with them. After that we went to an underground shoping center for awhile. There were all kinds of shops, places to buy shoes, purses, clothes, makeup, accessories etc. After that we went to dinner and met Wan Seo for the first time. Dinner was delicious and it was the first time we were introduced to soju, a type of vodka. After dinner we went back to the hotel, talked to family and friends and were pretty much asleep by 9.
June 27, 2011 (Monday)
I woke up early again this morning and talked to my boyfriend and mom after showering. Then we all went down and met up with Mr. Choi and went to Incheon University. We went into a meeting room and met up with our buddies who took us on a short campus tour. We went up in a sky tower to look at the campus because it was raining outside. Afterwards we went back to the meeting room and talked and had a few snacks until time to meet the President. About 11:30 we went upstairs and met the President of the University. He was very nice. When then had lunch with the President, there was a variety of very delicious Korean food. The President also served us his favorite drink, rice wine. After lunch we went to the cultural house. There we learned how to make rice cakes, perform the tea ceremony and put on traditional Korean clothing. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. And they showed us how to make flowers and leaves to decorate the rice cakes. Afterwards, we went and ate dinner at a burger place, which was very good too.
June 28, 2011 (Tuesday)
I woke up early again and talked to my mom and boyfriend and ate breakfast before heading out. Today, we went to an island. It was very pretty. There was a house that they had rented for us, it was really cool. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchen. After putting our stuff in the house, and the food that we had gotten from the E-mart, we went to the beach. (Btw, E-mart is a huge store it’s like Wal-mart, and the mall all in one. It’s also were we got lunch. Chinese food, which was much different than the Chinese food we eat back in the U.S.) The beach was part of the Yellow Sea. There were a lots of pebbles and we spent our time with our feet in the water and playing games. Lane taught them how to play thumb war and slaps and they taught her how to play a game where you try and stand in one place while trying to knock of the other person by hitting their hands. After that we all went to the pool. Corbin, Rachel and I found the water too cold to get into, so we sat on the edge with our feet in the water while the other played volleyball till dinner was ready. Dinner was Korean barbecue. Korean barbecue is slice of beef cooked on a grill and wrapped in lettuce with kimchi and kimchi seasoning. It is very good. We also had some delicious soup and more soju and beer. After dinner we all talked for a while before going to bed.
June 29, 2011 (Wednesday)
Today I woke up not feeling very well. I talked to Andrew for a little online and waited to see if my mom came on before she went to work. Then I showered, ate a little breakfast and went back into my room to lay down till time to leave. We left about 10:30 and went to go see Transformer’s 3. We were originally going to go on a tour of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) but it was raining, so we decided not to. The movie was very good and afterwards we had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. It was nice to have a more relaxing day, especially since I wasn’t feeling so great.
June 30, 2011 (Thursday)
Today I got up and talked to my mom and boyfriend before going to breakfast. Then we went downstairs and met up with our buddies. Mr. Choi wasn’t with them today, instead we had a driver who was going to take us to Seoul. It took an hour to get Seoul, once there we went to the National Museum. It was huge! It had exhibits divided into the different eras in Korea, with artifacts from each. They had everything from arrow heads, glass and jade jewelry and fine crowns and earrings. There was also a magnificent incense burner that is considered a National Treasure. After looking around the Museum for awhile we went to eat lunch in a nearby restaurant. Everybody ordered pasta, I ordered some spaghetti with alfredo sauce that had bacon and mushrooms on it. After that we went to a street in front of the president’s house and looked at the statues there and took pictures. Then we proceeded to Insongdo street which is a popular place to shop. All the signs on the road are in Korean and they sell a variety of things in small shops. After that we went to a bank and finally got some money exchanged so that we could buy some stuff at the next shopping area we went to. But before going there we went to a river and a few of us put our feet in to cool off a bit. Then we went to the next shopping area where Lane bought a purse and we all got a smoothie from Smoothie King. After that we headed back to the hotel for the night, skipping dinner and heading to bed after talking to our friends and family online.
July 1, 2011 (Friday)
Today I woke up and talked to my boyfriend and mom and ate breakfast. Then we went downstairs to meet up with our buddies and head to Lotte World. Lotte World is an amusement park, a lot like Disney World. Part of it is located inside and part outside. We rode a lot of rides. My favorite was a roller coaster with only a lap belt and bar that didn’t do any loops but was faster than any coaster I’ve ridden in U.S. We also had lunch there, Corbin and I ate hotdogs while everyone else had hamburgers. About 4 o’clock we had to leave and head back to the hotel to get ready for our farewell dinner. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to two of our buddies, Ji Hyun and Tae Eun. For dinner we went to a restaurant and cooked more Korean barbecue for dinner. It was very good and afterwards we went back to our hotel, where I talked to my boyfriend for awhile before going to bed.
July 2, 2011 (Saturday)
This morning I woke up really early to finish packing, talk to my mom and boyfriend and eat breakfast before meeting Mr. Choi, Wan Seo, an Eunji. We met them downstairs, checked out of rooms and headed to the train station. At the station we went to a coffee shop we’re the three of them had coffee and sandwiches and the four of got a sandwich and bottle of water for the train ride to Busan. We didn’t talk much, we were all tired and sad to be leaving Incheon. Then it was time to go. Mr. Choi and Wan Seo helped us get the bags onto the train and take our seats and then we were off for Dong A. University. When we arrived at Busan our new buddies met us and took us to the school in a taxi, showed us around a little and then took us to a store to buy food, toilet paper and soap. After that they brought us back, explained a few rules and then left. We ate dinner tonight in the Cafeteria. It consisted of rice, kimchi, kimchi soup, pigs in a blanket, green tea and coffee. After dinner we went back upstairs and I talked to Andrew one last time before he was to head off to England and then went to bed.
