LARA IN KOREA!: SEOUL IS COOL, NOT... IT’S HOT.

Only 15 hours later and 15 degrees hotter (around 30°C) I arrived in Seoul with the welcoming and ogling eyes of Pierce, you know him, Mr. Brosnan... Thought he had had his sexy time, but apparently he’s still hot in faraway Korea… A very friendly student of SNU (Seoul National University) volunteered to come to Incheon Airport and pick us up (me and a few other Chinese students. After a 40 minutes bus drive we arrived at our university. Clouds were getting darker and it was hot weather all over the place. When we had to carry our luggage to our dorms up in the hills, we all were overtaken by a heavy rain shower! Luckily the pick-up boy helped to carry my heaviest bag. Thank you! Sherpa’s do exist in Korea!

The campus is really beautiful and as icing on the cake, the building where I live is recently built! From this day on I will live in building 902 on the 8^th floor in room N°812. My room is quite nice… I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not too big, but spacious enough for two people. As my roommate didn’t arrive yet, it’s still quiet here, so is the rest of this building by the way. All basic furniture and stuff are included in the dorms: bed, night table, desk, desk chair, closets, fridge, toilet, shower(!). We have washing machines and a place to dry and iron our clothes. I was really surprised and happy to have my own bathroom and shower. There’s also a kitchen, but we’re not supposed to cook in there… so actually it shouldn’t be called a ‘kitchen’. We can only watch cheesy tv-series on a big SAMSUNG flat screen TV! I didn’t have a jetlag, but wanted to do many different things in too little time that I created my own jetlag. Yay! Break a jetlag!

I walked around on campus and checked the ‘neighbourhood’. I found people to be a little bit strange around here. I heard that Korean people are very withdrawn-minded, and you’ll only get to know them when you get to know them (duh)! So when I say ‘hi’ in the corridors or around the campus people seem to be too shy to react. Or they nod and pass by. When I ask for the road they often don’t really understand what I’m saying or they are afraid to speak English.

I haven’t too many things to do because my language course will officially start only next Monday. Yesterday I went to the bank to get a new account. So if anyone of you has a donkey that shits euro’s you are welcome to transfer some into my brand new account. Anyhow, I’m a millionaire now! I’ve got one million Korean Won… People - in banks, in te canteen, everywhere - are really helpful and modest. Superfriendly and organized. The campus is so clean you could eat on the floor. Everywhere you can find romantic spots with benches to sit on.

Today I had orientation session for the language course I need to follow. Fortunately, my good old habits have also made it to Korea: I was late for my first class. (This reminds me of my first day at Gent Universiteit where I accidently entered the wrong classroom too late, which was the Japanology class instead of the Sinology class… but because of my 'retardedness' that day I decided to stay in that geeky class and look I finished that masterprogram!) Well... so, I had to go to building 137 (Korean Language Education Center), where my language course started today… As I didn’t have a proper map of the campus site I started to walk intuitively, which was a big mistake. I went the other/wrong way and walked way too far. After 40 minutes or so I finally arrived at that building, sweating like a horse wearing too many jackets, feeling instant embarrassment: everyone was looking at the tardie, me! But luckily I didn’t miss a lot. There are many orientations and they like to repeat things over here. My class seems nice. We have a lot of holidays! In total four months!!! I made friends with a Swiss woman Rebecca and a Mexican girl Julieta. My lonely days are over, although I didn’t really mind spending some time on my own.

What more can I say about my "super" ;) interesting life up until now? Well… When I wasn't sleeping through the opening hours I went to eat in the canteen and drink a coffee in the bar next doors, several times. The food in the (clean and tidy) canteen isn’t too bad. It’s cheap and you get a decent meal (3000 tot 4000 Won/meal, also breakfast and 1€=1500Won). Korean food seems, no, it is tasty. It’s quite spicy, though. I can feel it burning in my stomach after eating hot KIMCHI (see Wikipedia) and tuna porridge with… guess what…KIMCHI again! Hope I(t) won’t get too windy over here! We don't want an Irene. ;) Thinking that I would be the only one eating alone in the canteen wasn’t really necessary. There are many students who come alone and they often eat quickly and disappear into the many dorms of our campus after returning their dinner plate. It’s strange to also see families hanging around here. I guess they sleep in the family dorms, as people with families can study at SNU too.

Today/yesterday it was Thursday the 1st day of September! All around the world schools will have welcomed their kids today… I heard that the weather in Belgium is nice. So typically, I thought. It’s always good weather when the holidays are over. That’s the way things should roll, I guess. Nothing more melancholic than school books and an Indian summer! ;) I’ve been writing on my thesis summary...what a pain in the ass. How can Japanese be such a difficult language to master?! I guess I'll never master it. But there's hope for the Korean language. :)

Wel, I’ve been in Seoul for three days now. I must say I like it here. I like the campus area, it’s really green and I don’t really have the feeling that I’m in a bustling city with millions of people right now. Tomorrow we (me together with the Mexican new friend) plan to go to the Immigration Office which is located in uptown Seoul to get an ARC (Alien Registration Card). After getting an ARC I can finally get a new mobile phone number. It's the only way to get it. Hopefully we can discover Seoul tomorrow! I’m looking forward to the next weeks. Totally ready to begin this adventure, to start to learn a new language, to get to know new people! Go with the GOAT! ;)xx Lara

PS: ik heb al flosdraad, WC-papier en waspoeder gekocht. Dus geen stinkie boel!

PS2: het WC-papier ruikt naar jasmijnthee... heerlijk. :)