Diary of my stay in korea

tails2

I am currently in korea. i got here yesterday and was hoping i could start a diary... something to keep me sane while i am here. if anyone has ony objections then just let me know. if not then i will probably start it tomorrow.... hobbes since you are mod then the end decision is yours...


thanks

Hobbes

No problems here.. work away pictures too if you can

tails2

cool thanks hobbes. i will buy a camera in the next few days so ill upload some pics then

DAY 1

well i arrived in korea at about 7.15am. the flight was okay but i didnt get much sleep so was feeling it a little bit. after going through immigration and then collecting my bag, i was on my way. i know a few people who live here so one of them collected me from the airport. she is a girl i know from online, which made me a little cautious, but i have known her for a long time so i was ok. she brought me to the B&B which i am staying in for a few days before i go to university.(i came here to study for a while in a university called korean university, i am studying korean there). after getting settled in and having some korean tea and rice cake, we set out to explore.

since i only know this girl from the net it was a little awkward in terms of what to do during the day. like what does she wanna do and what would i like to do. it seemed each wanted to please the other and in the end it took a turn for the worse. the day started out ok. we visited gyeungbokgung palace and then set of shopping and looking around. we travelled so much on trains and buses to go to many places but it seemed most of the time was spent walking and not going into places. i didnt want to make her bored by me shopping for things i like but she just wanted to please me. at the end oof the day i just wanted to go home. i asked her to bring me back to the B&B cos i didnt have a phone or have any clue of how to get back. she brought me back, TO THE WRONG PLACE. yeah to the wrong place and left me there to walk up to the B&B that wasnt actually there cos she didnt realise we where in the wrong place. i just caught her before she got on the bus and we eventually found the right place.

anyway after getting back and sweating like a mother... i had a shower at which point it just slapped me in the face of how much i wanted to go home... all my talk of wanting to leave my country cos i dont like it and now here i am in the place i have said i would like to move to and i am standing in the shower with tears crawling down my face with no one to talk with.... at that point i felt like a child again, i remember getting lost before in a shopping mall and not being able to find my mom... i felt like that. its a bad feeling. especially cos i came here alone. i know its just a big change and cos it was my first day here but i just wanted to go home. i am hoping it will change and i will like it here more, it was similar last year in china when i first got there i hated it but after a while i liked it there, but i was with my gf and her family then... anyway time will tell.


well that is day one in a nutshell. ill post day two now also. not much to tell but i want to keep a day to day journal so ill post it.

comments are welcome and i hope to hear some... bye

Hobbes

Are you in a B&B or a homestay?

Home Sickness is a real condition that you have to watch out for regardless of what country you go to. You should check out this site, it will help you.

http://www.rdg.ac.uk/Counselling/counselling/Coping%20with%20Homesickness.htm

With regards to your friend, you are also bumping into social customs. Add that with jet lag and its a reciepe for disaster. Give it time.

frany

Sorry for not sending my reply to you before.
I'm really curious how you have been in Korea.

Yes I had that feeling when I came to Ireland first as well.
You know only a few Koreans are in Ireland.
I was crazy without my family and friends here because I came to Ireland alone.
So I understand you how you were feeling.
But now I like Ireland and Irish.

tails2

thanks for your comments and info to both of you. i think it will be better soon. oh i am staying here... www.staykorea.net. i will move into the college dorms on monday

DAY 2

well after yesterday i was feeling a little better as i have slept for about 12 hours. i awoke to the sound of knocking on my door, it was the woman who owns this place with her family. i had a call from my gf... i was so happy to talk to her cos i had been feeling a little down. after i talked on the phone with her i went online to talk there. there is a pc with internet access in the b&b so it is easy to go online. i talked with her and while doing so i checked my email... i have been having trouble with my bank in terms of paying my college fee. they sent it wrong once before and after the second time they sent it i still had probelms but now it was worse because i got another email from the college saying payment still wasnt made, i rang them and after talking with them they told me to just come on monday and everything could be sorted then. i have many forms and receipts to show i paid it and it was debited from my account and they received info about it also so it should work itself out. although i will have to ring the bank in ireland to get it straight. my bank is so stupid, i chnanged my money into travellers cheques before i came but because my signature on the chques was different from that on my passport, which the bank said wouldnt be a problem, i wasnt able to change it. i went to about 4 or 5 banks and finally in citibank they accepted it. so screw bank of ireland is all i can say, thats 2 strikes next will be me leaving them to go to another bank. aww well.

apart from that i spent most of my day reading 'the da vinci code' and watching movies on my iriver. after getting lost yesterday i said id stay in today and relax and let the jet lag work itself off.my sleeping habit is quite strange at the moment, i thought i had it down but now its in between ireland and korea ha ha. im stuck in the middle. i hope to get it right before university starts on monday, that will be a whole new thing now. i wonder if it will be smooth or a 9.2 on the rictor scale.lol i just hope everything works out. i really want to like korea, and hope it likes me.

anyway for now i will study the subway system, i think i am getting the hang of it on paper but in reality i wonder if it will be as smooth.

bye for now...

Hobbes

Day 3?

tails2

ha ha yeah sorry, its been mad here with the change from B&B to coollege so



DAY 3

day 3 was similar to day 1 except no fighting and no airpirt. i went out with my friend again and we went shopping. this time i was left to travel on the subway and stuff alone but it was cool. i had to get a bus to the train station then get a train to meet my friend at the transfer simple right.... wrong ha ha

i started by getting the bus easy, no problem. it was raining like a mother but it was still cool...

i got off at the wrong stop... tooo early

so i went across the street to a gas station and asked someone there. now at this stage its pissing out of the heavens and i am soaked but anyway i got the next bus and got to the station.

i got the train and then the transfer but i got the transfer in the wrong direction so i had to get another and finally got off a stop too early and ended up waiting for my friend for an hour to find me. after that we just went shopping and then got something to eat and visited my college. man my college is mad big...

it is day 5 now just about to start class my first class so ill post day 4 up later... till then


bye all

tails2

DAY 4

i moved into the dormatories today as i am starting my college course in korea university, i am doing a one month intensive course. i was paired up with a guy from the u.s who's parents where from korea so he knew a little but. i realised how much korean i didnt know. i can read it slow but cant understand almost all of it. any way we moved in and talked a bit then decided to head out, we didnt have any classes today as it was just an orientation. we walked around for a while and eventually met this american guy who has been here for about 4 months studying korean, he has picked it up pretty well. anyway we where talking to him for a long time and then he asked if we wanted to go somewhere for something to eat. we got some food and then headed out to play ps2 bong...

* ps2 bong is basically a place with lots of t.vs and ps2's that you and your friends can go to to play. actually you could just call it a ps2 cafe like at home the way you got internet cafe's.


... after that we headed to some bar with some of the american guys friends but my room mate was underage so i decided to leave with him.

alot of the time i miss hoema nd just want to get the first flight back. i realize how much it sucks to be alone in a place especially a foreign country and that it is harder when you are a shy person who would prefere to pass the time alone most of the time. i still meet up with my korean friend but i havent seen here yet today.

anyway thats day 4... 4 down and 33 to go...

i am actually finished on the 29th but my flight back home is on the 8th of augest ... i want to change it to an earlier dday like maybe the 1st or 2nd so if anyoine can help me here i would appreciate it so much... thanks... bye

Hobbes

I would say stick it out longer. Your suffering from homesickness and thinking about home will only make it worse. It tends to go after 2-3 weeks. If I was you I would get a list of touristy spots and hit those with friends. Outside Seoul too. You will find people will be more friendly the more you attempt to speak Korean.

btw "bong" ? I think the correct word is "bang" which means room. PC-bang (netcafe), PS2-bang, norae-bang (singing room, Irish know as karioke but its not the same).

tails2

DAY 5

DAY 5 was my first class. it starts at 9 am and finishes at 1pm. it pretty good but difficult as the teachers speak in korean and rarely use english. i am in the beginner class so this is a problem for me. but i will get used to it. the first day in class we started off by learning the korean alphabet, how to write it and say it, i already know this about 85%. i know all the writing , as in how to, but my pronounciation on the more difficult words is not 100%. the class is split up into 2 parts. first is all about learning the acyually characters and pronounciation while the second is more on vocabulary and structure in speaking reading writing and listening. it is good but as i said hard.

we had to pay for our books, i may seem cheap in saying this but you would think they would be free cos of the price of the tuition and stuff.

after that we went to what they called a 'luncheon'. this was a lunch for everyone in the program.

they had lots of side dishes like, kimchi, and rice and soup and spicy squid and lots more. i like about half of what was served but that probably cos i am not a big fan of sea food and a lot was sea food.

after the luncheon i didnt do much, just chillled out basically.

it is day 8 at the moment... i know i am behind on my blopg but sometime its hard to get on a pc here so...


anyway bye.

oh p.s what i wanted to know about the flights for was 3 things. 1 is cos i wanna go home early cos i miss everyone, 2 was cos i have exams starting on the 15th so i need time to study, and 3 is it is gonna set me back about 400 or 500 euro for accomodaion for the extra days. so once again if anyone could help id appreciate it.

tails2

DAY 6

today i went to class again... i re-wrote all i had done yesterday to make it neater and to put all relevant things together instead of everything mixed together. in class we went a little more in depth into what we had done yesterday but nothing special sticks out in my mind. after class we where to meet to be introduced to our 'DOUMI', a doumi is like a friend who shows you around and stuff. i got a girl who has been studying here for 5 years. her english was good so i was happy about that. after we met our doumi everyone and their doumi's went to a hall and we played games and stuff. there where prizes and i won one of them, it was a nice cloth that represented the college but i gave it to my doumi as a gesture. we arranged a meeting and she is going to take me to buy an english/korean dictionary.

after that i just went onto the net and talked with some friends then traveled around the subway system. i was supposed to meet a friend and go shopping but got lost again. well not really lost. i was supposed to go to samseong but i went to samsong, trust me its very easily done when they speak the word over the phone they are similar ha ha. anyway it was an experience. i am an expert on the subway now. just like a normal person. ah what an acheivement ha ha

i have been wondering what to buy people for gifts. i think i will consider this with a lot of thought. it should just be a gesture, i went overboard last year so a gesture is ok. but it is more expensive here than i thought. it is just like home...

anyway till next time bye

Hobbes

Check out Korea Land if you have the time. Its a bit like Disneyland. There is also a zoo beside it.

Drapper

Korea is fantastic ! my fiancee is from there and I love the place ! show a genuine interest in the culture and the people will open up to you !!

word of advice ! try and get out of Seoul at the weekend and visit Busan or Suwon maybe !

And get use to the food !! its hard at first but I dont know any irish who dislikes Kim Chee !!! Yyyyyyyyuuuuuuummmmmmmmmyyyyyy

:-)

take care m8 and remmeber Korean are very like the irish when you get to know them ! they love a social gather and a few drinks and the odd sing song !

but be careful of Kareoke !! its addicitive


Like Korea Lond go to Lotte World or Caribean Bay !! just outside Seoul,the water park is superb !

tails2

as you can probably see, i have not been able to keep a day by day diary of things. as i have settled in more you can see i have had less time to go online. instead of doing a day by day i will check in every few days and just do a summary of things that have happened. anyway i gotta go back to class so ill posy when i can...

bye