whatup korea.

So the first thing I remember when arriving into Seoul was that the city was big. Not just big, I mean huge. Massive! I mean, the city dwarfed Perth. And it just kept going on and on. I’ve never seen a city so large, it was really an ocean of lights. First impressions of Seoul Gimpo Airport were good. Everything looked so clean and modern. I mean, the floors looked so clean you could eat off them. Took a train from the arrivals area into the heart of the airport where I could finally see the people that I would be living amongst for the next year. Koreans! And man, what a relief. What’s this? Asians actually lining up in an orderly manner?! It seemed too good to be true. Every time they had to push past they would apologise and bow. I also got my first glimpse of the strange breed that is the Korean girl…and man, all the anxiety I had about coming here just vanished like that. They were seriously hot, and all of a sudden I started feeling pretty good about my decision to come to Korea!

Got through immigration without any hassle and jumped on the ‘airport limousine’ into Seoul City itself. Let’s all just agree that it’s a bus, airport limousine just sounds silly. The hour long drive was pretty uneventful, they were showing some Korean drama on TV. I recognised the show; my mum watched it pretty religiously back home. And it got me thinking a little about home, like what my parents might be doing at that very exact moment. To be honest, I knew leaving my friends and family all behind was going to suck. But I felt most guilty about leaving my mum back in Perth.  It just didn’t seem fair to her that both my brother and me had left home now…but it was going to happen sooner than later right? I’m sure she just expected it to be much, much later haha. But maybe it’ll be a good trial run for when I actually move out! At least that’s what I tell myself to make me feel better about leaving.

When we finally reached the centre of Seoul proper, it struck me just how many people there were actually walking around. I mean I’ve been to Beijing before but I don’t ever remember there being such a large concentration of people on the streets. There were bright lights and neon signs everywhere and I noticed that everyone here drove a Hyundai. Even the buses were Hyundai! And all the cars looked so new and clean. I was also pleasantly surprised that I didn’t hear the constant sound of car horns in the background (none at all, which sadly I cannot say about Busan…but that’s the topic for another post). Finally got off the bus in Jongno where the training was going to be held. Met a guy called Mike who showed me to my apartment (the fittingly named Samsung Motel). He didn’t stick around but I can’t blame him. I’d rather be doing other things at 11.30PM on a Saturday night…anything that doesn’t involve waiting around at a bus stop in the freezing cold!

tennis balls on the chair legs, wut?

The first thing I noticed about my room was the…décor. It was pretty clear what this hotel was used for. I tried not to think about how many people have had sex on my bed and watched a bit of TV. They had an entire channel devoted to Starcraft replays! This was the Korea I was expecting. Flicked through the rest of the channels and they had a couple devoted entirely to adult entertainment. Go figure. Would it be embarrassing to say that I switched back to the Starcraft channel?

I went out around 1.30AM for dinner and the first thing I see as I walk out is some drunk guy being ejected from a Korean BBQ restaurant. He’s yelling at the top of his lungs, some woman is trying to stop him from coming back inside and as he begins to walk away he trips over a gas can and almost takes out the entire tent with him (yeah, they eat Korean BBQ in tents too!). She then calls the police while he's still lying on the pavement screaming at her. Meanwhile everyone is walking around like nothing is going on. Typical Asian behaviour as you know. Found a small place where you order via a vending machine and the cook brings the food out to you. I was surprised to find out that I ordered cold noodles but they were good nonetheless! Also had some kimchi for the first time and yeah, it tastes about the same as the kimchi back in Perth. On the way back to my room I see a couple of cops trying to shepherd the same guy away from the other tents on the street. They definitely have a lot more patience than Australian cops. Finally ended up crashing around 5AM. And so endeth my first (somewhat eventful) night in Korea!

tasty, healthy and dog free. mmmmm