Day 39, 40 -- Seoul

It's already 1:00am and I have to get up crazy early tomorrow for Yonsei Day where I'll meet my principal! Therefore you will obviously not be getting pictures.


Day 39 -- Friday

I left Chuncheon in a whirl of last-minute packing and last-minute goodbyes from KEY Club. Most of the day was spent settling in and having talks about various Fulbright-y things. HOWEVER, after all that was the Ambassador's pool party, where there was all kinds of American food and a pool. That seems pretty obvious by the name of the party but in Korea, you never know. Seeing hot dogs and burgers and chips and tater tots and chicken nuggets was an out of body experience. Swimming in the pool while eating a s'more was almost lethal.

Later that night, I went out with a group and one of my classmates brought us to a place called the Pirate Bar. The beer came to us with dry ice in it, making it not only super cold but also bubbling. Need I say more.


Day 40 -- Yesterday (Saturday)

I spent most of Saturday on my own. I woke up late because sleeping in is a luxury I won't have for a long time now. I decided to go on my American junk food run so I took a taxi over to Youngsan, the Army base here in Seoul. Walking through the commissary was pretty ridiculous... so was the $50 bill I racked up on Campbell's soup, jerky, marshmellows, Jello, chips, Lucky Charms, and a whole bunch of other American food.

Afterwards, I managed to successfully navigate the Seoul subway over to Myeong-dong for some shopping. I met up with some of the ETAs there by pure coincidence, which was lucky because I got to tag along with them for some Mexican dinner. The evening was rounded out by another trip to Pirate Bar. Of course.


Day 41 -- Today (Sunday)

I woke up this morning with the strong desire for Western breakfast, so I scouted out a pancake place over in Apgujeong, the ritzy Beverly-Hills-of-Seoul district. I didn't actually find the right place, but I did still get to a Western breakfast place for some eggs, pancakes, bacon, and ham. I hit Myeong-dong again after that in hopes of finding some good teacher-heels, but no luck.

My last solo excursion of the day was to Kyobo Books, the biggest book store in all of Korea, apparently. I wanted some self-study books so I could continue learning Korean on my own but I didn't find much besides textbooks. I wanted a good slang dictionary/book and a vocabulary aide. I found a vocab book, so I guess I half-succeeded.



Tomorrow is Yonsei Day, where my principal and co-teacher will bring me to Nonsan and my host family. I found out Friday that my host family includes 5 people:

• Dad (unsure what his profession is, maybe self-employed?)
• Mom (housewife)
• Brother (senior in high school)
• Sister (freshman in high school)
• Sister (6th grade in elementary school)

I'm super excited to meet them and I hope everything works out really well tomorrow with meeting all these people who'll be so important over the next 12 months. Additionally, this week I'll be setting up my Korean bank account, getting a cell phone, and touring the school--if not actually teaching my first classes.

This ends orientation, I'd say, and starting tomorrow, all my tags will be "Homestay Family", "Teaching", and things like that. Wow... time is going so quickly...!