Checking into the dorms

Yesterday was basically about checking into the dorms. It was raining a lot more than before. It's monsoon season and apparently it rains for about a month. -_-"

Anyways, I checked into the dorms (SK Global House) and it's super nice! The room has a private bathroom and air conditioning! It'll be very nice to live in for sure. I don't have pictures yet because it was madness trying to move in. And I didn't even move my stuff in! First, I had to go up to see what was in my room and basically check-in. But once I got up there, my key card didn't work. So I went down to get it fixed. I went up again (my room is on the 7th floor!) and checked all my items. I went down again to get my bedding (which they don't give to students ahead of time for some reason) and set up my room. On my way down, my card didn't work to go through the little gates. It was fixed again, and we had to go upstairs to make sure it worked. Gah. Finally, though, I was moved in.

We went back to Jung-soo's house and it was my first time on the bus in Seoul. It wasn't too crowded but I did have to stand for part of the journey. I felt like I could fall over at anytime. Bus drivers aren't too cautious it seems. And you really have to pay attention as it seems you could miss your stop at anytime if you don't know where you're going.

When we came back to her house, I showed Jung-soo and her sister all the cool things you could do with Facebook, haha. And, while I was showing them they were shocked to see how low-cut girls' shirts could be and how much PDA was deemed acceptable (on Facebook), it definitely highlighted the cultural difference here. Korea is fairly conservative.

Today I'm headed off to orientation at Yonsei. Then, I don't know what afterwards. I'm staying with Jung-soo until classes start because it's a lot more comfortable here. And although I want to meet people participating in YISS, I do want to get my full dose of Korean culture here. The entire program is quite segregated from the rest of campus and the rest of the city, so we won't frequently run into native Koreans or get to have a full experience, you could say. I'm actually really bummed because of this because I could have just stayed in the US if I wanted this type of experience. Hopefully I'll be able to hang out with Jung-soo more to truly experience Seoul though. =)