Officially Day 1 (and we don't play around)

So after torturous amounts of time on airplane after airplane, I finally arrived in Seoul late last night. We were picked up at the airport and then it was about another hour long drive until we reached the campus. I got settled in... met my RA, C.J., who is so sweet and terribly nervous about being an RA. For the dorm situation we have a suite and each suite has four rooms and there are 2-3 people per room. My roommates are two girls from Korea and, as of now, they are so nice! Their names are Se Jin and Eun Ji. I'm sure I'll be writing a lot more about them in the future. (Pictures too, probably)

Alright. Let's see if I can properly sum up my day. So we started early with breakfast at 8am and right away I had the opprotunity to try Korean foods. I had kimchi for the first time (and then continued to have it with every meal) and also this rice soup called Jok that is kind of similar to grits. It was all soo great and my worries about not enjoying the food have been put to rest. After breakfast, all of the Cedar Crest girls decided to explore the campus and wander around the nearby neighborhood. The campus is absolutely beautiful and reminds me of a larger version of Cedar Crest. There are trees and gardens everywhere. Later in the day we had our opening ceremony where we got the chance to meet everyone who is participating in the BIP. There are students from the US, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, China, Japan (and of course, Korea) so I imagine it will be an interesting 4 weeks.

In the evening a group of Korean students took us to N. Seoul Tower which is this amazing tower (kind of similar to our Space Needle) that is a the top of a mountain. It took us about an hour by bus and subway to get there but it was completely worth every minute of the trip. Once we got to the top of the mountain we could look out and see all of Seoul. It was late in the evening so all of the buildings were lit up and  the view was just incredible. There is this interesting tradition there that couples participate in. What they do is take a lock and a written message and attach the message to the fence and then throw the key over the edge (a symbol of their unbreakable love). There were thousands of locks running along the fences and even some that were turned into tree-shaped sculptures. It was such a cool thing to see. Afterwards we took a cable car back down the mountain and made our way back to campus.

I can say that my first day in Seoul has been absolutely amazing! If this is what the entire trip will be like, I can say that I will be so pleased. I'm excited to see and learn as much as I can. Ah, tomorrow starts the first day of our lectures. Each leacture will be about 2:30 hours long. Tomorrow morning will be a lecture on Korean language. We'll learn the alphabet, syllabel composition, vocabulary and basic expressions. So next time I post I might have a thing or two to say to you in Korean.

Until then. I'm exhausted. Annyeong!