The Rundown
It's been an interesting few days since I landed at Incheon International Airport, about an hour outside of Seoul. The weather is not nearly as temperate this time of year as it is in Seattle, where I spent this summer, so the sweat started almost immediately and has continued through this writing. If you're thinking about flying into Korea I highly suggest shorts. Pants are just a terrible idea this time of year. But enough about the formalities of pants vs shorts (shorts rule), I want this story, and many more, to highlight some of the interesting situations I find myself in, especially the misfortunate ones- which strangely seem to end being some of the most interesting ones.
Speaking no Korean and having to search for language options on every ATM, ticketing machine, and sign has been hilarious. The first few times I really felt like I was five years old again, trying to figure out how to read a book that was a little above my reading level. I looked so confused in fact that I had, let's count them, not one but THREE taxi drivers come up to me and try to get me to take an hour and a half taxi ride to the city. Not happening bub. Not paying a billion Won (South Korean Currency) to take a taxi. I'm also kind of stubborn sometimes, so I was pretty determined to get that bus ticket.
Well I got one, folks! I had gone to a ticketing station but couldn't figure that out, so at the second station of self service machines (which you should definitely use- super easy and cheap) I finally got a ticket to my hotel. I lugged my 100 lbs of gear to the stop and hopped on. The bus driver didn't speak english, or at least he didn't to me, so when I got yelled at for not buckling up it took me a second to realize what he was talking about. The ride lasted for an hour or so and was pretty nice/ air conditioned. Praise Zeus.
The hotel that I got to wasn't bad at all but checking in was a great situation. The person at the late night desk didn't speak great English, which is sweet because I don't speak great Korean. 10/10 situation. So after saying hello in two different languages it seemed we were out of mutually understandable words. This became an issue because there was a problem with my booking and she couldn't find the confirmation. I then proceeded to whip out my fancy confirmation email and we began a half hour of pointing at things on different documents and saying "aahhh," we got the issue resolved. Still not sure how.
The next day I got up and had some nice preloaded directions and used the subway. Thanks to my proficiency at getting a bus ticket I was pretty damn good at getting that subway ticket the next day. Nailed it. Then had to have some people help me figure out how to use the ticket, but that's a different story. Just let it be known I said "thank you" quite a bit. After that nice subway ride I took a taxi to the wrong spot. Great work by me. After that I decided to walk the rest of the way to campus, which was an absolutely terrible idea. It was too hilly and the bags were too heavy for that. At least I got a good workout in, right? But seriously, it sucked.
That was the end of my hopping around adventures and the beginning of my goofy attempts at trying to order food. I've tried to stay away from western chains that are around Seoul, like McDonalds and TacoBell. I've stuck to Korean food, which has been a great tasting decision but difficult in the execution. I've had to order a lot of things by saying "one," pointing at a picture or word, and then saying "please." I still haven't starved so I think I'm doing pretty well. Hopefully that trend continues.
If I had to describe Korea University, the facilities, and orientation I would describe it as gucci-money-swag. If it gets interesting and funny I'll probably talk about it at some point, but I don't want to bore anybody with mediocre storylines.
So, that's about it for now. In my next post I'll talk about some good food and good company I had in Itaewon as well as a really strange walk I had across some parts of Seoul in the early morning. I've included some night-time teaser pictures from the trek.