Arrived Alive!

Feb. 6, 2010 - Arrival

Alright, so arrived at Incheon Airport at 3:30am, didn't get out of the actual airport till around 4am and got to Korea University (Sejong Campus) at 5:30am. The weather here is pretty chilly, but not as cold as Toronto. Windy though at times, but overall it's bearable :P

Got to my room and kinda woke up my roomate, but apparently he was waking up to go to the washroom so I guess it was alright. His name is Eric, from Atlanta, Caucasian and has a Korean gf. Pretty nice dude, pretty relax about things, so he's a cool guy =)

I couldn't sleep so I went online for a bit, but the lights seem to be bothering him, even though he said it's fine. I went on for a lil' while and decided to go to sleep to not bother him. Slept for like 3hrs and then woke up to go meet up with my Group and prepare for the medical checkup. Talked to some people in my Group and they were pretty cool. Met some girls from Hawaii sitting next to me, and my friend Bryce that'll be working in the same town as me. He's from Illinois I believe... Missouri?? Anyways, he's cool too. My coordinator, Chris, English guy, pretty chills as well. Everybody here seems pretty chills.

Prepared for the medical examination and that took.... forever... I was tired/jeglagged, hungry and just impatient, lol. Afterwards we went to get lunch at the Cafeteria. Food here is pretty decent and it's free!!!!! So I go eat whatever I can and fill up till night time.

Went with a couple of people to Jochiwon (the town we're at) and went exploring. We needed to go to this place called 'Homeplus', its like the Walmart, to get some supplies/snacks. What an adventure! It took us a good 30mins of just walking around and asking people for directions. Luckily the girls I met from Hawaii were Korean and knew how to speak. Finally got to the Homeplus and I must say.... North America's Walmart's/Costco's/Sam's Club/etc.,.... SUCK. Asia's escalators, energy efficient/saving (it only moves when there's someone coming near the steps and when you put your cart on the escalator, you don't have to worry about holding onto it incase it slides down and hit someone. It locks onto the escalator floor! Also, if you enter the escalator from the wrong side, it makes a loud beeping noise to tell you you're going the wrong way, lol. They also had a hairsalon INSIDE the supermarket! lol

Anyways... enough with hearing about my overly-excitement towards asian supermarkets. We got out stuff, went back to the University, ate dinner at the cafeteria and then headed out for a night's out of fun. Went to this bar not too far away and drank a bit. The pitchers here are ridiculous.

The prices for them are still cheaper than Toronto. Good times.... then after some drinks, we all got excited, met some random koreans at the bar and took pictures. Which, afterwards, out of the excitement of intoxication, we proceeded to go to Noraebang (karaoke). Again, good times. Didn't stay long though b/c we have a curfew (I know, it sucks), then we trekked our way back to the University and played some card games with the guys and then went to sleep.

They separate the dorms here between girls and boys, so there are no messing around, lol.