Well, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Seoul. Honestly I don’t
really think it’s sunk in yet, and honestly I don’t know if I’m completely sure
I’m here already. I’ve been up for more than twenty four hours straight, and my
brain is now already filled with a bunch of Korean that I don’t understand…so
maybe I’m just exhausted and need some rest.
Either way, I’m actually here. I’m actually in Korea. The
plane ride was almost excruciating. Had it not been for Korean Air being a
stellar company, I would be so miserable right now. But they had awesome movies
(I watched the Lorax, Avengers, and some others), music, and games to play
(Street Fighter II and Bubble Popper took up way too many hours of that
flight). It was forever long, but finally we landed.
This is where everything fun starts to happen (I use fun
both literally and sarcastically). We bought a T-money card and hopped on the
bus that would take us closest to our hotel. So we rode the bus for about an
hour from the airport and saw some of the most beautiful, cool scenery and
cities I’ve ever seen. I give props to you Korea, you’re pretty awesome to look
at. But we got off at what we thought was our stop, and then realized we had
absolutely no idea which way the hotel was from the bus stop. So we walked…and
walked….and walked. All while I myself was trying to roll around two 35 pound
suitcases, a full backpack, and a full purse (and also a very perfect stuffed
tiger). It was so incredibly difficult to do, especially since this city’s
sidewalks were not created with suitcases in mind.
With hundreds of people around us, we fumbled through all
sorts of narrow sidewalks and awkwardly broken roads. At one point my parents
bolted ahead of me down a narrow sidewalk and I was trapped by an Ahjumma’s
food stall. She then promptly stood up, stepped out from behind her stand and
grabbed my suitcase, asking me where I needed to go in extremely broken
English, and then pushing her way through the crowd of people, dragging me and
my other case behind her. (I managed to have small conversation about where I
needed to be and roughly how to get there). She got us across a huge street and
far from her stall before she grabbed a traffic officer and made him help my
parents and I. I wasn’t sure if SHE was going to die or if she was going to
kill every last person in a car coming towards her.
She went way out of her way to help us, and I felt so stupid
just saying “Thank you” in Korean and bowing about a million times. Then, as we
still struggled to find our way, an older Ahjussi stopped what he was doing to
help us find the hotel (I have no idea who designed this place but you probably
shouldn’t hide your main entrance so well). He took my suitcase from me too and
led us at least a mile until he could find the hotel for us. He carried my
second case down a huge flight of stairs, then made the desk workers at the
hotel get us bottles of water for free. He gave us his phone number and said
that if we ever needed help that we shouldn’t hesitate to call. Trust me,
Ahjussi, I won’t hesitate.
There aren’t a lot of people who speak English here, but the
people we spoke to were more than willing to help (and lead us if they felt we
didn’t understand them well enough). The Ahjumma with the street stall, the
nice Ahjussi who could speak better English, and a beautiful, cute and charming
girl who tried to help us with her GPS on her phone. The people here, though
they tend to be a little skittish at the sight of my parents and I, seem to be
friendly enough. Maybe I’ve just been lucky on my first day, but I think lots
of Koreans are probably like this.
The hotel room itself is gorgeous. The bathroom, holy shit
(excuse me but I can’t describe it any other way) is the bathroom and shower of
my dreams. I’m pleased with that and I think I could spend all 8 days sitting
in the shower. I wouldn’t let my parents leave to eat without me getting a
shower in, haha. Our hotel is actually attached to a huge mall, so we just
hopped on the elevator and went down there to eat.
Being exhausted and not willing to walk around the seemingly
ENDLESS mall, we just went to On the Border. Yeah, the American chain Mexican place. We had
a reason…it didn’t have a wait like other places did. Hey, when people say
getting American style food is expensive in Korea, they mean it. Our three
dishes (with one beer) was almost $80USD. But it was delicious after only
getting airplane food for 24 hours. (Even though I’m fairly certain I almost
face planted into my food I was so tired…) After that we went to e-mart and I
bought a hair dryer and straightener. I would die without those things, so I
pulled my parents along. Passing by all the clothing stores made me crave a day
for shopping…oh no.
Well…I guess I’ll end this post now. I didn’t realize so
much could happen in one day. The culture shock is incredible and the language
barrier is amazing. Tomorrow should be interesting.
