July 1st and 2nd

Hi everyone to my blog.
I'll make some kind of diary kind of blog, not sure if I will be able to keep it going daily, but we can at least try.

I travelled with Finnair, first going to Helsinki, after going straight to Incheon International Airport.
Good service, nice food, still have all my luggage (intact), only the fact that we could not bring over 28 kilos (20 checked bagage + 8 hand bagage) bothered me a bit.

Arriving at Incheon airport didn't cause too much problems. Only minor misunderstandings occurred, but nothing major. Most people spoke English well enough to understand what I meant and I knew enough Korean to correct whatever was dubious. So no problems getting the phone, some money for the bus and the right bus to 신촌역 (not 신천역. I'm so glad my pronunciation was correct on this one. I also checked upfront which bus I had to take, so it wouldn't have been a problem I guess). These things are pretty straightforward anyway. All the signs had there English translation beneath it too.

While getting outside the weather finally hit me, so far I had been in air conditioned places, but the weather was really weird (As expected though). The humidity really took my breath away, literally. Everyone was dressed up as if we would when the sun was shining really heavily, but it was raining. It was still about 9 oclock in the morning back then. Later on, it started raining heavily, but it wasn't the bad kind of rain, it was still nice to be outside. It was this really nice warm rain, we sometimes have during the summer.

After asking the busdriver where to get off, I got off at the correct place, or at least nearby. In the metro and on the bus all stops are announced, even in English, which makes things much easier of course. But compared to the Belgian bus systems, every system is easy to find your way. In Belgium you have to either know where it is, or count stops from where you start, but as the bus doesn't always stop at every stop, it can be really impossible at times. Even now I sometimes still get lost in Belgium taking the bus :/

So I got off at the Shinchon station and entered the subway station to shelter for the rain while I was waiting for Agnes to come. It's really weird to see a place with almost no foreigners (Well non-asians). All the non Asian people I saw since I got at the Shinchon station so far I can still count using my both hands. Agnes already warned me to get used to people staring.. I guess I can finally understand what Pie must be facing every day ;). Anyway after waiting for a half an hour I just sat down off tiredness, but I must have looked like a real bum or the guy that was working at the station felt sorry (Agnes confirmed that they are payed to be friendly, so it's the second.) because he came up to me and asked me, again in really good English (I guess, as long as you stay in the big cities, it's no problem to get around with only English), if I was waiting for someone and if I wanted to wait in their office. It had airco and I could use their computer if I wanted. He kept me busy till Agnes arrived and even bought me a popular Korean drink, so that was a pretty nice experience ^^.

From here on I'm glad I had Agnes to help me out. By then I was really tired and really felt like crap. As most places need a deposit before you can register, I would have had to look for a place to stay today... So you can imagine how it would have been. First we went to the bank to exchange the remaining money (The rate was 50 won/euro higher than at the airport, so that's not too bad) to get straight to the 고시원 (Which is basically a small room with the basic needs a student would have to concentrate on his studies). It's a 2m by 2m room with a bed, a desk with a tv screen, mirror and closet. A small kitchen is available with rice, ramen and kimchi as much as you can/want to eat, washing room, public toilet and shower (You can get one in your room for 50% extra). You pay 10.000 won (about 7 euro) per day with a minimum contract of 1 month, but every day extra is 10k extra. No people of the other sex are allowed near the room (Well my girlfriend would not be allowed, but I guess every girl is considered my girlfriend as Agnes apparently was my girlfriend according to that guy). So this is a really good place to stay at as a student if you are staying put at the same location for a month. The guys English was really good as well.
-> http://sk.sollivingtel.co.kr

I ended this day with some porkrib (This was at 3pm), lots of side dishes and some rice ;) Really cheap and tasty, but too much to eat it all.

After that I just fell asleep on my bed, which is without pillow and sheets (Yeah I only noticed it just now, so I have to get something tomorrow), unpacked, showered, went on facebook, ... Not the most exciting stuff to write about. Eunjoo wanted to meet at midnight (Do Koreans ever sleep?? Just kidding Eunjoo ;) I will see you tomorrow ^^!) But as I'm beat, i'll not be good company.

Off to bed and I'll write more tomorrow and when I get a camera I can post pictures.
Good night.