Wow! What a journey it was. I left Seattle on Monday morning around 9 am after about an hour delay of my flight. I was only functioning on about 3 hours of decent sleep, so I knew it was going to be a rough day. However, I was pressing on and made it safely to San Francisco with enough time to catch my connecting 12 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea. I was at the back of UA Flight 893 (a 747), which means I was at row 60 of 61. It was nice to be at the back because it means I was near the lavatories. There was all plenty standing room back there which my chronically achy knees were thankful for.
I arrived in Seoul around 3 pm on Tuesday in Korea and was greeted with a fairly slow moving immigration line. I got through with no problems after about 50 minutes and proceeded to pick up my luggage. I stepped out of baggage claim to see three individuals waiting for me. Leo, the Academic Dean, Aaron, can't remember at this moment, and Tasha, Academic Supervisor. They were all very kind and were quick to make me feel welcome. We couldn't leave just yet because we had to wait for missionaries to arrive so we could all leave at the same time. It took about another 3 hours before we were on our way to the SDA Samyook Language Institute which was suppose to be 1 1/2 hours away. I will say that it seemed like we were on the bus for close to three hours! I don't think we were but my mind wasn't right because I only slept approximately 3 hours out of my combined 14 hours of flying! So it's safe to say I was a little deranged, lol.
We eventually arrived to the Institute and I was shown to my new home for the next 13 days or so. I have 4 housemates and they are all great guys. One is from Canada. Another from Michigan. And the two others from Maryland and Alabama. I actually lived on the same hall at Southern with the guy from Alabama and it was very nice to see a familiar face.
I was extremely exhausted and I quickly went to sleep after exchanging pleasantries. I was too tired to shower! Too tired to brush my teeth! Oddly enough, I almost felt to tired to sleep but I did it anyhow =) I found myself waking up at 3:30 am wide awake with no ability to go back to sleep. Our group breakfast appointment wasn't until 9 so I found myself attempting to read but I was just too tired. So I fired up some episodes of a TV show just to past some of the time. The next 14 hours were definitely a blur, but new foods, laughing, new faces, and a new language all entered my world.
I went out last night and today (Friday) and did some exploring with my new friends and a seasoned missionary teacher. We had our first experience riding the train system, which is very technologically advanced. I quite enjoyed it and within a few days I believe I will have it down! That is exciting news for me, so I hope that I am stationed in Seoul. However, we do not find out where are placements are until the night before we are supposed to leave for our new institute.
This brings us to Friday. We went out on the town with 5 All Day Students (they study English all day). It was a fun excursion through town and boy was it hot and humid! I was carrying a handkerchief around all day, like some old man, just to wipe the sweat off my brow. I saw many Koreans doing the same thing so I didn't feel so bad.
More to come tomorrow....
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