Hi,

I am in Korea!! wow it still feels surreal. I met a lot of interesting people in the last two days and saw the campus.

I flew in from Seattle to Seoul Monday night at around 6 pm, then I had a hard time finding the KUBA meet and greet service, their sign was not held up, so a few exchange students hung around and then finally we found them. The bus to the campus took about 1.5 hours. It was difficult to see much of the city, but we did pass about 35 red neon lit crosses, which are churches. It was strange to see a church with neon signs, but that was one of the first few impressions.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we had orientation. On Tuesday I was running on about 2 hours of sleep so it was a long day. We had a welcoming video and some speeches, then we went to do KUPID which is signing up for a university email and online service which let's you see your grades, participate in group discussions, and take quizzes or view course details. It is sort of like blackboard or D2L, if you know what that is. We also went to do a campus tour, but it was not comprehensive and we only saw a few buildings, took a few pictures of our group and that was about it. Most of the day was waiting, we waited about 1.5 hours to eat lunch. The internet here is wireless on campus, you just need your id and password, but the directions to it have to be read before it can be used. On the school website there is pdf that will guide you. I had help in doing it so I don't know the exact web address.

On Wednesday, we did the student ID/debit card and bank account. It was a lengthy paper application with all sorts of official information and it takes about 5 weeks to process. They did not explain much of the details, just what info to put where. I might have signed something that said I allow them to do all sorts of things to my account, but I was too tired and it was too chaotic to ask what it was. Also, my buddy's english is conversationally proficient, but her technical terms are not as good. In the meantime I had to go to the main library to get a temporary barcode in order to access buildings.

One thing that would be nice would be if you could register for classes online. You have to do it by paper, and you have to check if the class is full, availabe to exchange students, and does not overlap with another class you want to take. But I got that done today too, and I was happy because I do not have classes on Friday.

The food here is very good, you get so much variety for your money. Also, everyone is friendly and fun. I was happy to meet so many other international students. This year there are about 550, which is a lot more than I expected.

I'm off now to enjoy some chicken and beer, something else I did not associate with Korea but there you have it. :)