I'm here!

Hello all!

I have finally found the time to actually post on here! It has only been two days since I left, but it feels like I have been gone forever (I wonder what it will feel like after 2 months!). I left Tuesday afternoon (on a 747!).

Thank goodness that I picked a seat in a row that ended up being empty, so I was able to lay down and stretch out! The flight took forever (14 hours!) and it didn't help that we had a delay due to maintenance before we even left, which made me even more nervous about that long of a flight! We chased the sun all the way to Korea, but the view was beautiful.

My friend, Jiyeon, picked me up at the airport and took me back to her house, which is in downtown Seoul (Anyone heard the song Gangnam style? Because that is the section of town that she lives in, Gangnam!). The street was lit up by neon signs. I wish I had taken some pictures, but at the time I was crazy tired. Oh well, there will be plenty of time! After taking an absolutely glorious shower (second only to the shower I took after coming home from Russia the first time!), we ate and went to bed.

      Yesterday, Thursday, Jiyeon and I met up with her friend and went to Coex, which is a giant underground mall. We had lunch at Mr. Pizza, which consisted of a salad bar and a pizza that was half veggies and shrimp (Which, to me, makes pineapple pizza sound relatively normal!) and half bacon/potato/corn. The crust was stuffed with guess what (No, not cheese!)...sweet potatoes. I must say that I have had strange pizzas compared to Americas, but this takes the cake (or the pizza?)!

After lunch we headed to to in-mall Aquarium.
It wasn't too different than any of our American Aquariums, but it was interesting to see all of the Korea signs and to spend time with my friend. They had a room that was a fish tank theme. There is many, many different types of very creative fish tanks!

After the Aquarium it was time to head out to the train station, where I was destined another 2 hour trip, which wasn't too bad, except for the fact that I had a hard time staying awake, and so I was worried that I would miss my stop! Mt coordinator picked me up at the station and brought me here to my dorm room in the International House on campus. I have a very nice, single room with a huge desk, plenty of closet space and even a TV.

The only thing that threw me of this morning (Friday), however, was the shower. The bathroom sits about two inches lower than the rest of the room, and the bathroom (toilet, sink and all!) is the shower.

So you just splash water where ever you want it then it drains out. I was surprised because everything in the bathroom dried out rather quickly!

     I made my first trip outside by myself today. Although all I did is walk down to the little store to buy something to drink and toilet paper! Now I am just resting. I am not required to do anything until Monday, so today, Saturday and Sunday I will just rest and explore (hopefully I won't get lost!). I am sitting here, feasting on my American snacks and Korea Pepsi while watching a Korean food show. I am too tired and not adventurous this morning to go to the cafe and try to order some food. It doesn't help that it is raining. Oh well. Maybe for lunch!

      Wow! Looking back this is quite a long post! I suppose a lot has happened in the last two days. I hope that all of you are doing well!

P.S. I am sorry about the layout of the pictures. They are showing up fine when I go in to edit them, but they are all over the place when I view the blog!