Love at First Sight...

Love at First Sight...
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Saturday, August 1, 2009

first day in South Korea...

July 31st and August 1st

so, there is a 12 hour time difference and i am in the future for you americans...

okay so, weirdly enough i wasn't seriously nervous and i wasn't super excited. the morning of my departure was bitter sweet. i was ready for this new adventure but i was also kinda sad to be leaving my family.

once i arrived to the airport, my Lord there were problems and concerns about my luggage. i am a girl who loves shoes, clothes and makeup. security and the baggage check-in rep could care less that i thought it was really necessary to bring the amount of clothes that i wanted to bring. well to make a long story short, at the last minute my suitcase was unpacked and a lot of items didn't make the cut and i boarded the plane without a lot of my clothes!!!!

the flight....
so the flight was actually pretty nice. Korean Air knows how to take care of their passengers. I had unlimited glasses of wine, juice, water, movies (good ones too) and it seems everytime i would look around the flight attendents were either passing out meals (which were really good) or snacks (also really good). but that flight was so super long...omg...seriously long.

the airport...
so when i arrived at the airport, i was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. so, almost everyone knows i worked as a traveling photographer a few years back, so i am really used to traveling, but i must say out of the many many many airports i have been to Incheon Airport is the easiet airport to navigate. All of the signs were in Korean as well as English (easy). once i got off of the plane and went through immigration i was at baggage claim in probably less than 5 minutes! super easy airport to get around in.

currency/exchange...
so, once i got my luggage and i exchanged my american cash for wons. which are very large bills in donominations of 5,ooo/10,000/20,000 and so on. i was good to go.

my blackberry...
now you would think with asia being the land of technology my fancy blackberry would have service. um, nope not so much! it DOES not work. and i don't mean that is in roaming mode, bad connection or low signal. it has NO SERVICE does not work. thank GOD for my Sony Vaio and my Skype.

the ride to my short stay location...
so, S Korea looks the same as any other city. i think i was expecting the ride to be more "citylike" but it was not. actually it was somewhat industrial and the buildings were so close together i couldn't tell if i was looking at apartment buildings or hotels or what. there was about an hour and a half bus ride from the airport to my destination.

familiar attractions...
on the bus ride to my destination i noticed (looking out of the window) a harley davidson motorcycle shop, a 7 eleven (yup) and a baskin robbins. now on the drive here of course i noticed most of the cars were either kia or daewoo. i did see a mercedes and two bmw's and a lot of other makes and models that i have never seen or heard of before.

my arrival to my sleeping quarters...
so, i do have orientation/training for the next 3 weeks which is actually held on a college campus here (pretty cool) and i have a roommate (also pretty cool and this makes my transition easier-considering i will be all on my own at the end of orientation training). once i signed paperwork and got my room key i immediately headed to my room to check it out.

the room...
was clean, small and quaint. so, of course as soon as i put my key in the door i was greeted by my room mate jessica (she's canadian) who was frantically searching for an internet connection for her mac book. i liked her right away. we introduced ourselves and got busy trying to figure out our converters and adapters for the power here. once we got that squared away we immediately tried out our SKYPE and FACEBOOK which worked beautifully and then we spent the next 4 hours on the internet, letting everyone know that we arrived safely.

the bathroom...
now the bathroom is interesting and if i had not researched korean living and culture i would have been completely shocked. the bathroom has no shower curtains and the shower head is connected to the bathroom sink which is next to the toilet and then there is the door to the bathroom. there is no bathtub. the bathroom is basically an open room where you stand and shower and hope you dont wet the entire bathroom. but overall it is really neat.

the electricity...
is controlled my your apt key. you put the key in a keyholder on the side of the wall and that controls your electricity. so, if you don't put the key in the electric reader you will not have electricity. the air conditioning is controlled by the building, yes you can attempt to turn it on but if no one else is hot you have to wait until the majority turns on their a/c before you will be able to have air conditioning. other than that the room is small and clean just enough room to turn around in comfortably.

the store...
so after we chatted and interneted (i know that is not a word, but i like that word) we then decided to go get something to eat and drink) downstairs there is store (very cool) and i got something to drink (i wasn't too hungry, as Korean Air fed the hell outta' me)

my first korean consumption...
aloe water: really good with chunks of aloe. it is somewhat like sweet water very smooth and very refreshing...it is my new favorite thing!

so, after the excitement. i was so tired i finally went to sleep around 2am my time.

in a nutshell, i really don't feel like i am in another country really far away from home. the only difference is that i cant read anything and the money situation (wons not dollars here)

so, this is my first day in a nut shell....see ya' tomorrow with more updates!!!

4 comments:

  1. That was wonderful Shayla. What exactly are you going to be doing in South Korea? This should be a really great adventure. When school starts here in a couple of weeks, I would love for my 3rd graders to be a part of your adventures. Maybe you could do a blog for us every couple of weeks and tell them about the culture. What do you think? Terra

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  2. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Your blog answered all the questions, I was asking you, earlier in the day. Can't wait to hear from you, again. It is Saturday night here and I have to get to bed. Let me remind you the time difference is 13 hours. 12 hours plus 1 am, I not correct? If wrong, I stand corrected! Indeed you are in the future. Love you immensely and miss you terribly. Mom

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  3. Thanks Terra, that sounds like a great idea everyday for the first month I will be posting a blog and after the first month I will continue to post blogs weekly thereafter! I will keep you updated on Facebook.-Shayla

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  4. You are more than welcome and I will continue to post the blogs! Yes, you are correct. The time difference is 13 hours ahead of time (I see the future) hugs and kisses...-Shayla

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