서울에 있어...

So, after much fanfare, I have arrived.

To sum up by first 24ish hours in Seoul (as well as the 18 or so that preceded my actual arrival) would be about impossible. It was not exactly the dreamy, "omgz I love everything about Korea" experience that I imagined (or rather, hoped) I might have; but I think that I can safely say that it can only get better from here on out. In fact, I'm very confident in that statement, considering my language abilities certainly can't get any worse.

After a 6-hour flight from NY to SFO, I boarded a 12-hour flight to Incheon Airport. First off, let me advise any future Light Fellows or Asian travelers - Singapore Airlines is absolutely the way to go. The service was pretty fantastic, and every seat had an individual TV screen with a healthy selection of movies, TV shows, games, and other diversions. I managed to stay awake enough to watch "Bride Wars" and "Slumdog Millionaire," both of which I had wanted to see for awhile. My only complaint was that they advertised "30 Rock," and in reality, you could not watch it. I was actually fairly disappointed and spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out a way to make the "Cougars" episode play. No such luck. Anyway, the point here is that the flight was the longest I have ever been on and I think that Singapore Airlines made it about as enjoyable as it could have been (which is to say that it was fairly unenjoyable, being that I was traveling coach and had very little leg room, but perhaps not as unenjoyable as it could have been).

Another good part about the flight was that my seat neighbor turned out to be a very friendly former Sogang University student, who gave me his email address and a T-money card (the Korean equivalent of a Metrocard) along with a promise to meet up with me soon and take me for bulgogi. Are all Koreans this nice?

After arriving, I passed through customs and got my bag with very little hassle. The longest wait was probably the swine flu line - I don't even know what to call it. They made everyone fill out health questionaires and get their temperature checked. Truthfully, I am getting over a cold that I caught last weekend, but I passed undetected, which is excellent. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my first few hours in Seoul in a quarantine room with a bunch of doctors whose language I hardly speak or understand.

I was, despite my worst fears, able to use a bit of mumbling, bumbled Korean to figure out where to buy a bus ticket and catch said bus; to be fair, I'd have been able to do it Korean or no, because my good friend Sejin wrote out extremely detailed instructions for me, but I did make an effort. I wound up taking an airport bus limo to the area around Sejin's apartment in Seongbukgu, where I spent the night very, very pleasantly. Sejin's family is wonderfully hospitable - her mom prepared me dinner and Sejin made up the bed for me in her room. Despite being jetlagged, I managed to sleep a little bit and woke up to a fabulous spread of a traditional Korean breakfast. Seriously, her mom made EVERYTHING - we had bulgogi, chapjae, rice, and the thousand or so obligatory 반찬, banchan, or side dishes. I don't think I've ever eaten beef for breakfast before. It struck me as odd, but perhaps not so odd as it might have struck me had my stomach not thought that it was dinnertime, anyway. This 13-hour time difference is a bitch.

Post-gorging, Sejin and her mom drove me to Sogang to see about moving me into my dorm. Well, let me preface this story by saying that I am currently writing this not from the dorm room to which I was assigned, but from the Shereville Livingtel, a goshitel near the Sinchon subway station's exit 3. I was all gung-ho to live in the dorms, which have AMAZING facilities (seriously, Stiles can suck it - Sogang's Gonzaga Hall has a huge gym, laundry facilities, common rooms, and each dorm room has a PERSONAL BATHROOM, air conditioning, and high-speed internet). The inevitable downside is that all the rooms are doubles or quadruples, which, ok - I am not that spoiled and I like to think of myself as fairly cooperative and compromising, but I just could not deal with the roommate I was assigned to. She's from Romania, has been here for 9 months, and seems pretty set on her way of living - which includes going to bed early and refusing to use the air coniditioning, despite the fact that it is currently 80-something degrees here, easily. Knowing that with the time difference, I'd probably be making a decent number of late-night phone calls, plus the fact that I just wanted my own privacy and air conditioning that I might actually USE, I decided to move out before I'd even moved in. What followed were about 2190823 cab trips to various goshiwon in the area (seriously, I guess I could have walked but I am so lost in this city that it isn't even funny - in fact, it's like 10 dollars not funny, so shut up about reading maps). After seeing a few, I decided to gamble everything on Ryan Craven and the SAC Guide's recommendation of the Shereville Livingtel, hauled all of my luggage out of my dorm, stuffed it into the trunk of the 8th or 9th taxi I took today, and took off. Fortunately, the recommendations were very accurate, and I am now sitting in a very pleasant room that includes a personal shower(!), a TV, a fridge, and WiFi. It's pretty tiny (on par with my room in Lawrance freshman year), but there's a window to let in some natural light, plenty of storage space, and a decently comfortable bed. Plus, it's private, which I am secretly extremely happy about. Really, I don't know what's gotten into me - I guess being in Stiles has spoiled me, because the idea of having a roommate strikes me as near impossible. Even when Krystal and I "technically" roomed together sophomore year, we shared two rooms and there was enough space so that we could each stay out of each other's way (plus a door that shut us up in separate rooms for private phone conversations or what have you). The idea of sharing a room for the entire summer with a stranger, especially one who seemed particularly uncompromising, made the many facilities the dorm offered seem a weak compensation. I'm very happy to be in the Livingtel, and while I might not make many friends here, at least I'll have a little space to myself. Plus, this TV will come in handy for practicing Korean and watching English TV on the two or so channels that seem to show English programs. Yay?

Currently, it's about 7:35 PM here, so 6:35 AM in the States (and my head). My new room does not come equipped with bedding or a pillow, but this issue may have to wait until tomorrow, because I cannot fathom going back outside. I feel disgusting from sweating all day while looking for a goshiwon; additionally, I'm EXHAUSTED. Better sense tells me not to sleep until later, so I'll probably watch a movie or something to stay up until it's at least dark. I guess I'll be sleeping on my balled-up Yale sweatshirt tonight. Another pressing issue might be the fact that I've not had a single bite to eat since Sejin's mom's smorgasboard, but honestly, I'm not hungry. Skipping lunch and dinner is probably inadvisable, but I am too tired to really care. I can just eat tomorrow. At the very least, I think there is some rice and kimchi floating around this livingtel.

So ends my first official day. Odd to think that as the 29th ends for me, it begins for everyone at home, including my brother, whose 18th birthday it is. Happy birthday, dude, I miss you.

And everyone else.

p.s. For my Skype-happy friends, I SET UP MY WEBCAM. TALK TO ME (except wait until I've showered...).

In 7 hours...

...I will be on a flight to San Francisco, where I will transfer to my Singapore Airlines flight to Incheon. So this is me signing out from the US of A - next time you hear from me, I'll probably be typing from my dorm at Sogang in KOREA.

Say it with me now - 평화*!

* = pyeong-hwa, or PEACE. Except in Korea, they definitely don't use it like they do in the States, a la "Peace out, homie." But I decided a long time ago that translating American expressions into literal Korean was perfectly acceptable. So it stays.

2 weeks and counting

SO - first post of my shiny, new South Korea blog. Ironically, I'm still in the United States, and I will be here until May 27; nevertheless, it is still utterly insane that I am leaving the country in 2 weeks for 2.5 months. Despite having been abroad last summer and the summer before that, this will be the longest stretch of time that I'll be living in another country as well as my first time in East Asia. At this point, I don't think it's really sunk in yet...at this exact time, 2 weeks from now, I will be on a flight to San Francisco, where I will anticipate transferring to a Singapore Airlines flight to Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Within a few days, I'll start studying Korean for 4 hours a day at Sogang University's Korean Language Education Center while living in a hasukjib (하숙집) unitl August 17. Every aspect of my daily life - my learning, my speaking, my thinking, and even my name (my Korean name = 장미, romanized to Jangmi, which means "rose," which is my middle name - I can't believe that I'll be spending my summer as Jangmi instead of Dana) will be in Korean. What?

Well, I suppose that my first task with this blog ought to be to answer the question that absolutely everybody who hears about my summer plans asks: Why Korean? To dismiss the first potential response, no, I am not studying Korean because my lovely friend and suitemate Hayeon Lee told me to. Truthfully, I probably would never have become interested in Korea had I not lived with her for two years - but the decision to start learning Korean was actually my idea. I had always intended to take another language at Yale, and once Hayeon started teaching me some dorky amateur phrases and played me some Super Junior, I was hooked. I fell in love with learning as much about the culture (vastly different from my own Italian-American upbringing) as possible. Plus, the Richard U. Light Fellowship is one fabulous, fabulous incentive - really, I can't express enough thanks for providing me with this amazing opportunity. Learning Korean at Yale is great, especially if you're taking a class with Angela (Lee Sunsaengnim), but there is really no better way to do it than by totally immersing yourself in the language and the culture. I'm incredibly grateful that Yale and the Light Fellowship understand this and have worked together to make this possible for over 100 students every year.

Funnily enough, there is actually a lot riding on this summer. Since starting to learn Korean, I have increasingly been thinking of the potential future that knowing this lanuguage could lead to. Since I have very little idea of what to do after graduation, opportunities like the Fulbright Fellowship and the year-long Light Fellowship seem like excellent options...so if I like it living in South Korea this summer, I'll arguably have a great deal more direction that I currently do, and much more of a concrete plan. It's scary to think about - I'm trying not to go in with too many ridiculous expectations, but I'll admit that this summer could actually make or break a lot of things. Once again, holy crap.

For the next 2 weeks, I suppose I'll be trying to relax and ready myself as much as I possibly can for what's to come. There's a ton that I need to do - when I think about all the crap I need to buy, I feel like going back to bed. I also need to study up for my placement test, which is in like, 6 days (I can't believe I just finished finals and need to start studying again). Truly, it never really ends. But I am ridiculously excited.

If you're interested, my schedule looks kind of like this:
May 27: Fly to South Korea (eek!)
June 1: Classes start at Sogang
August 14: Classes end
August 17: Fly home to NY

I'm sure I'll be updating with some regularity, and if you're reading this, I probably miss you. A lot.