Holy cow - it's Korea!

So now I'm finally here, the place I've been waiting to get to for months. Korea is nothing like I expected...If you can imagine every little detail of your life being swept away and replaced by something foreign, you may begin to understand what things are like over here. It's not the big things that are different, not really (they drive on the same side of the road as Americans, btw). It's all the little things I obviously took for granted. Take, for instance, a trip to the grocery store. Do you know where it is, and how you will get there? I didn't! Do you know if your credit card will work there? And once inside, can you identify what's in all those brightly colored little packages? I've realized I will have to look at the pictures on the packages to see what I'm supposed to do with it. I'm really hoping that bottle of stuff with cute little germs on it is actually a cleaner of some sort. It smells good, anyway. I got all my groceries at the E-mart, not a good idea to walk to from the dorm! It is not close, and it's even worse carrying back groceries in the pouring rain. Luckily a friendly girl with a bike came looking for me and helped me out with my packages. We talked for a little while, mostly laughing because we couldn't really understand each other. I do know that her parents are both doctors, she likes to go running on the track by the river here, and she thinks boys are as stupid as I do. Sounds like a new best friend to me!!!

So, life for me right now is pretty low-key. I don't start school tours and registration until Monday, so I have a little more time left before routine sets in. Since I'm on a coin-operated computer and the meter says I have 7 minutes left, I'll leave you with a few differences I noticed first-off.

Koreans don't have trucks, they have these weird flat-bed things, pictures to come. They sell fish jerky at convenience stores. They eat with metal chopsticks. The E-mart is an equivalent of Wal-Mart, although it's several stories high and has escalators that you can take your cart on with you. Best of all Korea is a beautiful land that offers green landscapes, rivers, city life, and gardens all in the same place. I think I'm going to love it here....