Today I arrived in my room in South-Korea. I kind of settled down by now (for as far as possible within half a day), so that's why I think it is about time to give a short update about the past week.

Visiting a good friend in Japan really was a nice experience. I always wanted to go to that country, and I am really happy I could combine it with studying at Korea University. In Japan, we visited Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, and Otsu. To give you a better idea about the different cities and their interesting sights, I will upload some pictures as well. Especially all the old temples were very interesting to visit. It was really too bad I could only stay in Japan for a short week, since there were so many other interesting places to go to as well in the Kansai Region. In short, it was a nice experience, but now I am (kind of) ready to start going to the university again (and off course see more of Seoul and South-Korea)! I will start this Monday with the introduction week (only from 23rd until 25th), which means I will have a long weekend to travel around or do other nice things.

When travelling to my room I immediately took the right metro lines (what I really did not expect, since there are so many lines, and Seoul is a super-large city of around 22 million inhabitants). Even though I got off one stop too early, and I had to drag my heavy bags up and down a hill, I arrived at my room way too early, but I could enter it immediately anyway (after some difficulties though).

By now I already checked out my neighbourhood a bit. It takes me only 2 minutes to the closest supermarket where they speak English. However I was so stupid to try out another supermarket on the other side of the street. I went there to buy a garbage bag, which eventually took me about 15 minutes. The woman at the shop did not speak English, and I do not speak Korean at all. That was quite a difficult combination, but it in the end I drew a picture of a garbage bag and a garbage truck and pointed to some bags outside (luckily that made her understand what I wanted to buy). These language issues are at the moment the only things that still worry me a bit, but I brought my Korean for Dummies book, so I should be fine I hope. Just like Seoul, the university was even bigger than expected. I also walked to the main building of the university (which is beautifully lit in the evening), and bought some noodles. I think I will now go watch some funny Korean game shows, and prepare for tomorrow.

I am ready for Korea now!!

Jeroen van Bommel