On Saturday, March 8, 2014 I arrived in Seoul, South Korea! I'm beginning a new adventure by studying this semester at Anyang University in Anyang, South Korea.  It is a city of about 600,000 people.

My Korean buddy, Sol, picked me up from the Incheon International Airport around 4 pm and we took a bus to Anyang.  I was surprised that the bus ride was only about a half hour.  Before long we arrived at the dorm house where all of the international exchange students live. I found my bunk and space to live and began to unpack right away! Although, it was a long flight (15 hour flight from Dallas to Seoul) and I was tired, but I wanted to get settled in as soon as possible!

As soon as I was unpacked for the most part I got cleaned up and ready to go out with Sol to the market and for dinner.

I was amazed to see the city! It is very hilly and there are lots of people, shops, markets, salons, restaurants, and vehicles everywhere! Vehicles drive through small streets and just drive right around people and other cars with other cars trying to pass by! It's scary sometimes! And there are lots of men riding bicycles or mopeds that just drive in between vehicles on the street and ring bells when on the sidewalks to alarm people they are coming. I guess most of those people are delivery men. And delivery is free of charge here! You can get your food delivered anywhere and you will not be charged extra for delivery!

That night we had kimchi kimbap! It was the first time I finally had real sushi and not the imitation stuff! I loved the one with tuna. We also had it with cheese, which was also good.  I didn't realize the Koreans ate so much spicy food! It's okay because I like spicy and it helped clean out my sinuses since I was just getting over a cold or allergies or something.

The city at night was scary at first, but I felt safe with Sol.  It was not as scary as the city streets like Paris or London.  There are so many people everywhere all of the time.

It is cold here at night and slighty warm during the day. The weather is similar to back at home, as it is turning spring time here as well.  I can't wait for the warmer weather to come. I'm tired of the cold!

On my return to the dorm house I met more of my house mates.  They are all warm and welcoming people! They are great people from all over.  There are two people from France, two or three from Kazakhstan, three from Taiwan, two from Germany, four Koreans from other parts of Korea, two or three from China but attend school in Missouri, and one American from Kentucky! She is great and I love her accent. It was relieving knowing that there was another American in the house!

Yesterday Sol took me downtown to the subway station so I could take another passport photo for school. I saw many many shops and people.  They have like an underground shopping mall when you go down to the subway! And it's huge! I've never seen so many little shops in my life!

After getting my photo we headed back up to downtown and browsed some more shops! I told Sol that I've been wanting to re-dye my highlights so she took me to shops that would have some hair dye, but we didn't find the color that I'm looking for.

Then she asked me if I wanted something sweet and I said I have been craving ice cream! She laughed and asked if I like Baskin-Robbins. I told her I do and I haven't had it in a long time because we don't have that near my area. So we headed down the streets to find Baskin-Robbins.  Of course, we saw a little donut shop along the way and bought some donuts for later.

Today is Tuesday, March 11 and I had my first class this morning since arriving.  It was a great class.  It's call Cross Cultural Communication, and we discussed some of the differences or similarities that we have noticed so far between our culture and Korean culture.  Our professor, although was born in Korea, is American and is very cool and funny.  He made the class very interesting! I'm looking forward to the rest of my classes this week and for the rest of this semester here at Anyang University.

After class many of us returned to the house for lunch.  As similar to us poor college students in America, we eat a lot of ramen too! Unlike America, though, Korea has many more flavors to choose from.  They have spicy ramen, spaghetti ramen, seafood ramen, cheese ramen and many more that I'm not sure what the flavors are since I cannot read the labels!

I finally attempted to eat with chopsticks today! I find it very difficult, but I surprised myself and did quite well for the first time.  I'm sure it will be an acquired skill in no time!