August 23, 2011
I have finally arrived at Incheon Airport after 12 long hours of sitting in the airplane. The seats in the plane was so uncomfortable too. My flight landed on time and so I headed out to go find my baggages. Of course the airport was huge so I just followed whoever was in front of me. I had with me two big suitcase, one huge backpack, one carry on, and my purse with me. All of these things were very heavy altogether. After a while of following people, I saw that they began forming lines so I was like “alright, this must be it”. I went to get in line and this line took about 30 minutes. However, when I got to the front, they told me that I had to fill out this Arrival Card which is at a table at the back of the room. GREAT! I had to go all the way back and fill out the card and wait in line for 15 more minutes. I didn't mind waiting, but the thing was that Mia and Joan was waiting for me at my gate and it was way past my landing time so I was worried that they were going to leave me behind :(
After going through that line, I had to go look for my two suit cases. I found them and was about to go out my gate when an officer told me that I have to go sign another card. I went back and signed that card and then finally was able to get out of that place. Mia and her boyfriend, Gillian, was waiting for me at the Gate. Seeing them made me so happy because now I wasn't afraid that I would get lost. The three of us set off to go look for Joan at McDonalds. However, we found her on our way there because she was using the restroom. I was so hungry from the flight so we went to McDoanlds to eat.
After eating, Joan took me to a bank to exchange my money for Korean Won. I decided to exchange only 200 dollars for now because I didn't want to have a lot of cash on me. Finally we were ready to get on the bus and go to Yonsei University. Mia and Gillian went to buy the bus tickets for Joan and I, which costed 10 dollars each. I rode a Korean bus for the first time! It was very exciting. I didn't know how to put on their seatbelts lol. After a while on the bus, we finally arrived at Yonsei University.
All of us walked onto the campus but I remembered that SK Global House, which is my dorm, was not near the entrance at all. Gillian asked around to see if there were any buses or shuttles that go up to the dorms, but a lady told us that the shuttles just stopped running a few minutes before we arrived. What luck is this!!! We met four more international students who were trying to find the dorms also. So of course we all walked up to SK Global House. This walk, however, is not a nice little stroll, it was up hill. I was lucky that Gillian helped me carry one of my suit cases so I did not tumble down and die. It was still a pain to go up the hill to the dorms because my backpack hurts my back like crazy. After enduring that for about 20 minutes, we reached SK Global House.
Gillian went to talk to the people at the desk about checking in. The guy at the front desk helped me and Joan check in. I went to look for my room number and to my surprise, there is also two other Vangs that are currently exchange students also at Yonsei. This was very exciting! One of them is actually Choua Vang, just like my sister lol. I hope I get to meet them while I am here. That way I can use my Hmong skills with them lol or at least practice my Hmong skills.
I went to my room which is on level Basement 206. My roommate is actually going ot move out on September 6 since she was here for the Summer so I wanted for Joan to become my roommate. Gillian went to talk to the office and things were arranged so that when my roommate moves out, Joan can move in as my roommate. I had to sign this pledge for my room and return it back to the front desk. The only thing that I don't like about my room is that the shower doesn't have a real door that is separate from the room itself so my roommate can just walk in while I am showering :( This s really bad so I am going to try to figure something out so that there will be a door there or else this situation will just be too uncomfortable. Then we went to get sheets for our beds, but the thing was that the sheets and everything else seemed to be so dirty. It was “washed” but thrown on the ground and people just come by and pick up one to use. I am a germanistic person so I didn't like this at all but I didn't want to have to use money to go buy a totally new one so I dealt with it.
Gillian, Mia, Joan, and I went out to buy me an alarm clock since I know that I have no way of being able to wake up the next morning. We walked to the subway and around the subway, there are so many stores and street food tents. By this time, I was super hungry and I just wanted to go eat. Finally we found my alarm clock. I want a watch too, but we couldn't find a cheap one before everyone got really hungry. Therefore, we went to eat instead. Mia took us to this one place and she ordered us a big bowl or noodle with seafood, cheese, and korean meat. This dish was actually really delicious! It was not too spicy but not too plain either. After we finished the meat and stuff, they added rice and seaweed to the leftover sauce of the dish and we finished the sauce off.
The meal was a total of 20 dollars so I paid 5 dollars for that meal. It was getting late and Mia had to go home so she and Gillian took the bus home while Joan and I walked back to our dorms. When we got to our dorm, we met some other students and we got to mingle for a little bit. However, I was still as quiet as ever lol I mean I am very quiet when I first meet people. I learned that drinking is a very big part of teenage and young adult culture so I was not so pleased with this. I hate drinking so I really do wonder how many friends I will make since I will only make friends with certain people and those people usually are people who don't drink. Oh well, I'll just have to wait and see I guess. Joan and I then went for a little ice cream, but my ice cream didn't turn out to be too good.
I decided that I will try to use my alarm clock as my watch for now until I find a good and afforadable watch. My roommate did not come home for tonight so I am actually happy that I get the room to myself. I couldn't get the internet to work on my computer and other students were having the same trouble so I decided to just go the computer lab and use the internet there. I checked me email to get more details on how to get the internet to work. Even then, it was not working so I gave up. I went to take and shower and decided that I will deal with this internet thing tomorrow. It is now 1:33 am in Korea so I should get sleeping since I have to wake up around 8 tomorrow for the first day of Orientation. Until next time...
Nou Vang
P.S. Somehow, I don't feel like meeting new people :( This is bad!
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