Day 4 in Seoul

I'm finally getting adjusted to the time zone in Seoul. As my mother reminded me today, common wisdom holds that it takes 1 day to adjust for every hour time change. Seoul is 14 hours ahead of Chicago, so the fact that I'm feeling decently well on day 4 is quite an accomplishment!

These past few days have been a whirlwind of sleep deprivation and adrenaline. I haven't had a chance to feel lonely or totally out of place yet, mostly because I've been just so excited to be here. Mike's relatives have been great -- I keep wondering when their patience with me asking what the Korean word is for this and for that every five minutes will run out. But this definitely would have been a very different journey if we didn't have their support along the way.

My first impressions of Seoul are that most of the things I have been told about Seoul were wrong. Or at least the people who told me those things had different experiences than I have. While, indeed, there are not that many white people here, I haven't felt like people are staring at me or judging me (which is something I was told would happen). Also, the drinking phenomenon is a bit overblown. We haven't had alcohol since we got here (which is good considering our jet leg). And I have yet to feel under-dressed or un-fashionable.

I think all of this goes to show that while Seoul is less diverse in ethnic and racial backgrounds than Chicago, it is still a big city, and its people are diverse in their interests and beliefs.

Yesterday, Mike's cousin took us to the Dongdaemun market. In addition to blocks of buttons, fabric, towels, and basically any household item you could want, they had a mall full of clothes and accessories. I felt like we had come to the megaload of Asian fashion -- they had great graphic tshirts for men, cute dresses, nice shoes, and a whole kiosk of Hello Kitty jewelry! It was awesome! Mike's Aunt bought me some Hello Kitty drop earrings. I'd show you a picture, but Mike's other cousin borrowed my camera.

Mike asked me the other day what I thought about the English abilities of people here. I think this is a good question because Liz Kim asked me to tell her about this to. Apparently some Korean-Americans she talked to said that everyone spoke English well, but some white friends she talked to said that not many people spoke English. I think my input on this matter is that I have been surprised how many transit, business, and tourist signs have been in English. Nearly every conveinece store, bank, and restaurant has their name (and menu) written in English. But just because things are written in English, doesn't mean that anyone in that store, bank, or restaurant speaks English! More often than not, they speak very little or none. So, while I think it would be difficult to live here two years and speak only English, tourists can probably get by with internationally recognized hand motions.

Mike and I are signing up for Korean courses at Yonsei University that will start in a couple weeks. I'm excited to take the class and meet other people, but it will be weird to be in college again. They grade you and give you credits for the course and everything. One benefit on being in college again will be having a gym membership again. They have a huge pool and fitness center on campus.

We decided that we can't do much in terms of our to-do list (find an apartment, get a bank account and cellphone, get jobs) until late next week, so we should just try to see some of the city until then. Speaking of, I should get ready for today's adventure. 다음에 봐! (See you soon!)