Documentary

As I'm sure people in the family know already, I'm taking a documentary class. In addition, I'm looking into my adoption with the ideal goal of finding my biological mother... which is the story I'm telling in my documentary. Trying to schedule a meeting with the social worker who handled my orphan to foster care to adoption procedure.

Games

Tried a few outlet adapters and my 3DS's charger still doesn't work. Found out Tetris Friends (the official Tetris website for free online play of Tetris and several game-type variants) is banned in Korea. So, that explains why I can't log into my account there and why the games won't load. Trying to refrain from playing my usual online game. It's easy since the time zone difference makes it really hard to be on when everyone I know who plays, so I just don't bother to log in.

Water Parks + Rain = bad idea

I woke up with quite a few mosquito bites this morning and the count steadily grew as the day went by. Had I known it was going to rain today, I would have chosen to go to Lotte World instead during sign-ups yesterday. There was a wave pool outside, slides and pools inside. Sat in one of the steam saunas for a while to pass the time. Carribean Bay is known to have the world's longest Lazy River.

Oh, the cafeteria on the first floor of the men's dormitory is closed due to renovation and maintenance... so there goes the cheap meal option for who knows how long. We international students were not given a heads-up on this so this complicates cash in the wallet (more trips to the ATM to get more). Luckily, the cafeteria beneath the School of Business is still operational. So, I plan to go there everyday for lunch in between classes.

Not sure what else to put here...

Mal de Debarquement Syndrome

I think I may have it. Been feeling like I'm still on a boat ever since I got here.

Wikipedia article

Change of Plans

Well, today I expected to do the Seoul city tour, but turns out it was raining too hard to go apparently... I didn't see any rainfall myself so I don't know why they bothered to change plans. Either way, the new destination was the Coex shopping mall. It was about... eight train stops. I managed to take a picture of the river that we crossed over.

Upon reaching the shopping center I realized I wasn't in the mood to shop, so I just went with some friends and wandered around Coex and took pictures of random things.

Yes, those are waffles with cream fillings.

After wandering enough, we (Laitfa, Olivia, Willis, and myself) decided to get something to eat... at Kraze Burger--again. I got the KS Burger and Pepsi.

No plans yet for later tonight.

Dongdaemun

I wanted to rest today instead of going to Dongdaemun, but I went against my better judgment and went along. With my knees and the arches of my feet still yelping in pain from the previous night I bit the bullet and slowly hobbled to and fro with everyone else. I'm usually not the one to complain when my knees and feet are in pain, but today was a major exception. Also, I'm sorry for not taking any photos of Dongdaemun; I was too tired to do anything other than trying to keep up.

Speaking of keeping up, the group to Dongdaemun was 22 people strong, but once we got there and decided to split up, well, let's just say we initially had two groups that were just about evenly divided in numbers and it ended with five to six small groups. The group I was in (the "we're hungry, let's go eat!" group) got split up since we were walking fairly slow (I was the straggler in the very back of course). We ended up taking a small detour through a shopping center to escape the rain and to find restrooms. Afterwards, we stumbled upon a more classier shopping department with small sit down places to eat. Being not entirely picky the five of us decided on a burger joint called Kraze Burger (the word kraze is shown backward).

4 pm came by swiftly as we walked back to the meeting point and proceeded to take the subway back. Funny thing is that the line to refill my transit card was long and I was the last person in line. To make things worse and funny at the same time, an older woman in front of me had a hard time refilling her card. First, the touchscreen wouldn't recognize her choices and then the machine didn't give her the correct change. Thirdly, a handful of us were too slow to get on the train and the doors shut in our faces. This resulted in us having to wait for the next one.

As we reached the campus, I began to complain a little ("I'm getting too old for this s#*t...") more. Once back inside and put my stuff down, I marched back down to the little store inside the cafeteria on the first floor to get some Chilsung Cider (Korean equivalent to Sprite) and a Vitamin Water for later (2,800 KRW total). So, here is the present with me finishing up this post debating whether or not to go eat dinner. I'm not hungry now, but will be in three hours or so. Dinner ends in 45 minutes. Hmm....

Oh, and here is a picture of Chilsung Cider

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Exploring... now with Soju!

Tired and came back from drinking. We all explored the campus some more with the girls and then afterwards Robert and I met the guy across from us, Rick from Holland. Us three went out to E-Mart to get him some bed sheets and then decided to go out for some drinks and a quick dinner. I had two shots of Soju and a few pieces of fried chicken. I'll post more later (a part two if you will), though. I can't handle alcohol.

From my transcript mid flight:

Hello and welcome to my travel blog. As you know, I am in Korea for Study Abroad, but let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Checking in was a breeze as was security; something that rarely is the case at Hartsfield-Jackson as the security checkpoint is known to take forever. After getting through and taking the shuttle to the E Gates, I attempted to get some Won, but as it turns out, they did not have any at the kiosk I went to and were low in supply at the others. So, I figured I’d get some after landing. After everyone in our group arrived at the gate, we chatted up a storm to pass the time until boarding began. During this period I asked each member of our group how they felt about going to Korea and what they hope to do.

Midnight could not come any sooner as we began to board. As luck would have it, I find out my wallet has fallen out of my back pocket when I got up to board. So, I swiftly ran back to get it. Once I was back on the plane with wallet in hand I realized I was really going out of the the country again. Nearly 90 minutes into the air they served dinner and I decided on Bibimbap (pictured). For entertainment we had small LCD screens built-in to the back of the head rest in front of us and a remote controller to select new and classic movies from Hollywood and Korea. Other options included music, TV shows, and even games (the back of the remote had an analog stick and face buttons.). I ended up playing Tetris on the little screen until I got bored and ended up just watching movies.

Being in economy on any airline means cramped leg space and the increased likelihood of having to hear babies cry. This was most definitely the case and the 14 hour flight did not help. However, the babies on the plane did not begin to cry until the last three hours left. Without the ability to actually lie on my back, I did not get very much sleep. As I recall, I got some where around 2 to 3 hours. While I was awake I ended up talking to Queenetta from my group since she and I sat in the same three seat row in addition to playing games on my 3DS. For breakfast on the plane I had an omelette.

Finally, after getting off of the plane we headed toward immigration and baggage claim. As I went through, the immigration officer gave me a funny look... which I'm guessing is due to the long shoulder length hair I had in my passport photo compared to now. once everyone had your bags, we headed out to exchange money and catch our airport-pick ride. Since each van could only hold three people we ended up having to get two vans instead. The driver in the van I was in kept having problems with his GPS and finding the exact building to stop at here at Hanyang (none of us knew which building nor could we tell him in Korean even if we knew) just made the ride even longer as he kept having to turn around.

As we pulled up around 6 am KST, we were all dead beat tired hoping to get some sleep. Once unpacked and settled in I promptly started up Skype and began to chat with family and friends. No cell phone service is here regardless of what your provider tells you for when you're out of the country. Shortly after making all the necessary Skype calls (8 am KST), Robert and I went to have a second breakfast in the cafeteria here. We were confused as can be as to how to buy the food and the proceedings for when you're in line. Luckily, we had the RAs to help us.

Swamped, I tried to take a nap to only hear knocking at the door about an hour later, but feeling refreshed as though I had slept for six. The girls in our group (Latifa, Olivia, and Queenetta) wanted us to meet up with them in the lobby to go out and have a look around and get some food. Unfortunately, I was not expecting the amount of downpour and left my poncho in the dorm room, so I bought a cheap 6,000 KRW umbrella (about 5.55 USD). Pictured: Queenetta and Robert waiting on the rest of us to get umbrellas while the rain comes down harder.

Shortly thereafter, the girls found a to-go place to get something to eat. Also, by this point the rain let up a good amount, but being our first day here, we got a little confused on which way was the right way to get back. Having sat with the girls and smelling their lunches, I caved and got lunch from the cafeteria.

Once finished, I took the much needed shower and the time to complete this first blog entry. With the end of today's entry I will leave you all a picture of Korean Mountain Dew.