My first day!

Sunday morning at 3AM My family got up and went to the airport. Thankfully there wasn't much snow to drive through. One of my suitcases was under 50 lbs but the other was over weight. It was 69 lbs and 70 is the limit, so I was sooooo happy. I got nice orange tags on that suitcase warning the baggage handlers that it was heavy. We all put extra tags on our luggage that said TaLK scholar at Jochiwon University just in case they got lost.

 

I met up with Lindsey, Teresa and Justina at the baggage line. I went through security with Justina. She got held back because she put her passport and boarding pass through with her carry-ons.  Finally we made it to the tram. That would take us across the airport. While we were waiting we realized that Justina had left her purse at security when they were trying to find her passport. I waited by the tram with our carry-ons while she went back for her purse. We took the tram to the gate. The tram was so fast and fun, later I went with some of the others for food and we took the tram again for fun.

The ride from Detroit to Atlanta was about an hour and a half. I think I slept for a half hour. I talked to the couple sitting next to me. They were going to Costa Rica for vacation. The Korean Air flight attendants were so cute with their uniforms and hair bows.

 

We left Detroit a half hour late because there was some luggage from a previous flight to Atlanta that had left without some of it's luggage. We didn't hear until we were on our way to the runway that it was 400 pieces of luggage. How does a plane leave that much behind?!? Shouldn't it have been empty then? We had three hours at the Atlanta airport. On the way to the gate three of our group got separated, so we got to the gate in two groups. We took turns staying with our carry-ons and going for lunch. I got a stromboli from the pizza place. It was de-lish!

The ceiling above the sitting area had very interesting metal animal sculptures. There were at least 24 different ones. Alex was able to get online and take a test for one of her classes. Others changed their facebook status.

For the second flight I sat next to a couple on their way to Vietnam and Thailand. All three of us had sudoku books that we were doing. I watched Megamind, listened to my ipod and slept. I got a total of 5 hours of sleep, but I was still super tired. At one point I could see mountains out the window. I think it was Russia. There were also the islands to the west of Seoul. We went through immigration and then collected our luggage. All of our baggage arrived safely and we were very grateful. We each got a cart to put our suitcases on and wheeled them through customs. Right outside customs was the currency exchange. The teller took your cash and put it through a machine that counted it for you. Then she counted out your won . I've never seen someone count money so fast. She just flipped through the bills in a blur.

We went out to the airport lobby and met the two TaLK people who were there to pick us up. We had a two hour bus ride to the University. They told us that the cafeteria would be closed when we arrive but we could order food for delivery. We were almost all hungry right then so we begged them to let us get food. They, reluctantly, gave us ten minutes to get food. I got a little loaf of bread that I didn't realize was cream filled till I was on the bus. That was my first time buying something with won, but I did okay. On the bus I sat next to Justina. There were awesome rainbow lights and the curtains had tasseled fringe .

Finally we arrived at Jochiwon University. We were given our name tags and room keys. The keys are little cards that you wave in front of the pad by the door. They also get you into the dorm so that boys can't go to the girl dorm and vice versa. We got bags of goodies: travel mug, pen, campus towels that we have to return at the end, two snack cakes, a juice box, a puffy vest with hood and a 4GB flashdrive. My roommate arrived later after I had unpacked some stuff and took a shower. I was so tired when I first got to my room that I didn't know why I'd taken this crazy trip. But one glorious shower later I felt perfect. My roommate's name is Eunice and she's Korean. She's been living in the US since 8th grade or so. She lives in Virginia now. Her mom has already called her on the room phone and so did her dad who lives in Korea.

I was able to plug an ether-net cord into my laptop and get instant internet.




I one of the closet there is a picture frame. They actually cut the back of the cabinet out so you can see the picture. It's the same in all the dorms.

I have a hard time remembering to take my shoes off when I enter my dorm room. Eunice does it at home so she never forgets.

My name tag, safe key (for my passport and money), and my room key card.

The bathroom and shower.





Below is my towel with Korea characters, my blanket with a 'classic bear' and my pillowcase with Korean characters.

This morning Eunice and I missed breakfast so we went next door to a convenience store. They didn't have adapters (the one I brought can't fit my laptop cord with three prongs). I got cheese balls and a cheese sausage for breakfast. They had green tea flavored ice cream, valentine's day chocolates, cheese raman and Korean Oreos. Eunice didn't bring any soap, toothpaste or shampoo with her, she was able to get it at the convenience store, but she had to use mine the night before.

<= cheese balls






      ^ This actually reads "Oreo" in Korean

Eunice, Lindsey, Tuesday (her room mate) and Chenny (Tuesday's friend) and I all took a taxi downtown to the homeplus store for adapters, hairdryers, shampoo, and toothpaste. (I only needed the adapter). We got what we needed (the adapter was $20 but at least it did three prongs and was a transformer). There is a place there to get glasses so Lindsey and I are going back with our prescriptions to get cool Korean glasses. The frames are only $15 and the lenses are $35.
Taxi ride with Tuesday, Chenny and Lindsey.

When we returned we had lunch. Rice, chicken, pineapple, seaweed soup and kimchi. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking on skype to Bobby and my parents and composing this nice post for you all. I hope you appreciate it because it took quite a while to figure out how to post pictures and make them all face the right way.
Tonight at 7pm there is our mini orientation. Tomorrow is the start of orientation proper and .... MY BIRTHDAY!!!  Tomorrow night is a field trip to Jongno, Seoul.
Eunice is taking a nap now and I believe I will too.
Hope everyone is sleeping well in the US,
~Lisa