I have arrived safely in Korea, and am on my way to settling in. I got here two days ago. The plane ride was only about 10.5 hours, which was much shorter than I expected. There were 360 people on board, and I only counted 16 women at the briefing when we got off the plane. Imagine being on a plane with 340 guys who haven't showered in a couple days--there was definitely an underlying stench in the air, but it wasn't terrible. Getting through customs and to Yongsan was MUCH easier than when I went to Mexico. We landed at Osan Air Force Base, south of Seoul, so everything was done in English. However, once the bus taking us to Yongsan got off the base, I couldn't tell a deli from a shoe shop! It's a little daunting to not even be able to recognize letters on signs, let alone read them!
I'm staying at a 5-star hotel on post until I find a place to live. It's the nicest room I've ever stayed in except the night that one of my friends got a suite in Austin on the night he proposed to his wife, but I had to share the bed with him and another friend then. Later this afternoon a friend of mine is showing me her apartment and a few areas that I might want to live. I'm going with a realtor on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday. Hopefully, it will be easy to find something decent. I have to get over my bias against highrise buildings. This is definitely the land of the highrise! Seoul has about 12 million people in the city-proper (compared to less than 8 million in New York), and 17 million people if you count the suburbs. I am in the heart of the city, and will have to adjust to city-life. I am hoping to go to a SMALL place in Germany next year--or else I might have to ask for my original choice of Alaska. After living in two of the largest cities in the US, and now one of the largest cities in the world, I'm still a small-town girl at heart.
From this (two days before leaving for Korea)...
... to this. Yes, that's smog blocking your view.
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