I arrived in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday September 03, 2011 around 4pm. We were instantly thrown into the culture here considering our driver who took us to our dorm spoke very few words of English. The driving here scares me because, for instance, people merge without any notice! To say the least, the four of us were on edge during the ride to our dorm, the CJ House!
My first few days were consumed with a lot of jet lag. I felt like a walking zombie. I am sure it did not help that I accidentally took a 4 hour nap in the middle of the day once because that would have been my normal time to sleep back in the states. Oops! In the midst of all that jet lag, I managed to visit a few cool places including Itaewon, Myeong-dong, and Insadong. The picture below is from the shopping district we visited called Myeong-dong. Instead of just having one story of shopping, everything is stacked on top of one another. There are also many food chains that you would find in the states like Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, Coldstone, Outback Steak House, Subway, Smoothie King, McDonalds, Popeyes, Burger King, etc. Street vendors are another huge thing that I have noticed here. They sell everything from food and dresses to sunglasses and postcards. It is a very cool atmosphere to be around.
Other than finding my way around the many districts of Seoul, I have been trying to find my way around the Korea University Campus. There are huge hills everywhere and it is safe to say that my calves might be looking a little more in shape when I head back to the states! The campus here is much more spread out than it is back at UMSL so it will take some time getting used to by just walking around. As I said before my dormitory is called the CJ House. I am living with Keely for the next three months! Our dorm room looks so bare though because we don't want to spend money on decorating it since we are only here for a short time :(
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| View of KU from the main entrance |
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| View from CJ House at night |
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| Our dorm - my side is the right |
On Friday I finally get to visit my school, Seokgye Elementary. One of my Korean Buddies will be showing me how to get there! Apparently it is only 10 minutes away usng the subway! I am excited about that because some of the other girls have an hour commute by subway to get to their school. I will give you all some more info about my school and the grade I will be teaching on Friday! Talk to you then :)
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| Map of the Seoul Subway system! |
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2 comments:
I am so excited for all of you! I hope that the jet lag won't last too long! Great news that the school is very close. What was the schedule during the Orientation week, who did you meet with, etc? Alina
Alina~
Our orientation week pretty much consisted of 2 meetings and a campus tour. On Monday the 5th we met with Professor Son and discussed our expectations for our time in the schools. The meeting was very short and then we got lunch on campus together. The next day (Tuesday the 6th) we had a campus tour and then we all met our Korean buddies. I have 7 buddies that I will get to know over the course of the semester. After that each of us had a scheduled day between Weds and Fri to visit our school and get everything sorted out. My visit was the final one and it took place on Friday. Any other day that we have had free we have been exploring the city of Seoul and sightseeing! Hope this helps out a bit!
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