My first full day in Seoul

I awoke this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7am.  I had to check and double check the time because I felt so well rested after such a short period of rest.  I could hear loud banging construction out the window from the new HOLT building which is being constructed nearby.  I was able to Skype with home before Tyler went to school.  I checked the weather, a cold 38F.  Bundled up in layers as I didn't bring winter clothes and headed to the subway to the EHWA area.  I needed to go to the inKAS office to rent my cell phone.  They will have it for me within 5 days!  After taking care of that, I went to the bank to do money exchange and decided to walk to the EHWA university campus to take a look around.  EHWA University is where I will be doing my language study from June until August.  The campus was very nice.  The grounds were immaculate.

Walked around the little shops, went to Olive Young, like CVS for some hairspray and headed back to the Guesthouse.  Decided to walk around the Guesthouse area and stopped in at the market for a few provisions.  Picked up some Coke, amazing strawberries, shrimp chips and spicy ramen.  Got a bit turned around and luckily came across the main office for HOLT.  I popped in for directions to the guesthouse and the kind man printed a map for me and highlighted the path to take.


I spent a little time on the computer and before I knew it I had a knock on my door from Keren who is also a participant in the HOLT program.  We planned to go for dinner and to finally meet in person.  Keren knew of a Pho restaurant nearby.  We had Pho with beef tenderloin and spring rolls.  It was mighty tasty.  I enjoyed meeting her and look forward to sharing our experiences here in Korea.  We had eyed an adorable dessert shop on our way to dinner and stopped in for a sweet treat.  The shop is called Strawberry on the Short Cake.  Keren chose a luscious looking strawberry shortcake and I chose the chocolate block cake.  The cake was light and airy, not too sweet or rich by any means.  It was perfect.

This evening after dinner, but before enjoying my dessert I felt nauseous.  I decided to take a nap around 6:30pm and woke up at 11:30pm feeling completely better and rested.  So now, it is 4:20am and I am still awake!  This is not good.  I need to get acclimated to the time change, especially before I start work next week.

Tomorrow, I guess I should say today, I will meet with Mrs. Seol who is the social worker in charge of this program.  We will discuss the program and hopefully I will get more details about what I will be doing.  We are going to lunch together around noon.  No particular plans for the rest of the day.  Trying to connect with my previous host mom and the people from my previous trips.

I think I am actually feeling sleepy now.  Only a few hours until the heavy construction begins outside my window.  I will be wearing my eye mask and headphones streaming white noise...zzzzzzzzzzz