I have arrived in Korea for round two! My flight left Boston at 6 am so I did my best to stay awake so I could sleep on the plane. Normally I don't sleep on planes because its so hard to get comfortable! but this ride absolutely revolutionized how i fly. I will never ever ever ever EVER get on a plane again without a. neckpillow and b. noise canceling head phones. I had tried out the headphones earlier (the hardys gave them to me right before i left) in my room to see what this canceling was all about and noticed it a little bit but didnt really see the big deal. i put them on before take off and was listening to my music peacefully until i took them off for one reason or another and nearly jumped out of my seat! I thought i was going to go deaf the plane was roaring soooooooo loud. I had no idea until i had taken them off how amazing these things are. And they are multifunctional, I spent those 7 hours sleeping like a baby and then the following 14 hours turning them on and off, amused by the enormous volume difference.
I arrived 2 days earlier than when my program starts to see friends from last summer. It seems that whenever there is a long period of time where I am just sitting (aka a 21 hour trip to seoul) that I always go through rollercoasters of emotion. I was nervous to be on my own in the city, excited to get back to the neon lights, dreading the inevitable seafood i will encounter, sad for the lack of arabic, scared to be leaving again for so long. I was grateful though that it was light out when i arrived (4 pm) because I had to catch a bus to get into Seoul proper and locate my hostel. I have caught a bus from the airport once before and even stayed at the same hostel before but on the plane i was anxious about getting there. I knew exactly what i was going to do but i just wanted to magically be in the hard matressed bunk bed instead of the blundering around to find a. ticket booth b. bus c. correct bus stop to get off at and d. finding hostel after getting off. I knew the steps i had to take, the questions i had to ask, and such but my stomach was still somewhere between butterflies and knots. Once off the plane, I got my ticket and got on the bus without any trouble and this sense of ease totally enveloped me. As soon as the bus started moving everything was alright.
I wasn't really sure what it was going to feel like returning here. When I left Korea i was so sad because i thought these were actually the nicest people in the world and I was going to go to an Arab country where they were going to try and swindle me for all of my money (danielle, who i met the first time in korea, is lebanese and that is all she told me before i went...thanks lol) but now that i have just come back from Jordan i think they are the nicest people in the world. I didn't know what my gut reaction to returning would be. But the feeling of ease really just stopped all debate. i definitely made the right decision coming back. i was so happy and relaxed that I knew this was going to be a rockin semester. My excitement continues to build up till oreintation starts monday morning : )
Although the feeling of ease was a great morale booster i would have to say internet access was definitely a close second. i am sooo happy i have my ipod touch. i can get internet just walking down the street. Actually getting off the bus was interesting because as soon as i looked up I immediately recognized my surroundings. The first thing that popped into my head was a memory from the summer when danielle, peter and i came to seoul to party and then go to the dmz. It was the morning of our DMZ tour and we were supposed to meet peter at 7 am because he was at a different hostel. well me and danielle were late (actually just me) because getting out of bed was much harder than anticipated due to the previous nights (/mornings!) activities. Anyway we had 15 minutes to make a bus that was picking us up from a decent amount of blocks down the street and decided to run the distance instead of take the train because it would probably be faster at that point. We are running down the road (it may have been more of a hurried stumble) and there is this one building with a sign on it that just stuck out so strongly in mind for no reason (my memory attaches to weird things) and lo and behold i look up getting off the bus yesterday and that is the building. it was starting to get dark and so i just started walking in one direction from the bus stop, then decided it was the wrong way and walked in the other direction and decided that was the first way was the right way so kept walking and then took a turn when i should have gone straight, regardless i needed a little direction. those suckers in jordan cant even get internet on a college campus (not that maps exist there anyway but anyway) but here i could just whip out my ipod, google map the hostel and even watch my pin representation moving along in the right direction. I am definitely a child of the future (although increasingly it seems like the future is now!) because for me my security blanket is beign able to have the internet in my hand, especially in such a foreign place. I can fix any problem with my ipod and a wifi connection.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
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