Hello Everyone-
I've been in Korea for almost a week and most people haven't heard from me yet, so I decided to create this blog. I have found that it is far too difficult for me to keep track of everyone's emails and send out massive emails, so I will send out the address to this blog once and people can pass it on. Instead of me learning about a hundred emails each of you only needs to learn one blog address.

Now, to begin my life since leaving the airport...

If you have never been a foriegn exchange student or made some other drastic life change you will not be able to comprehend what the plane ride felt like. Maybe it's something like being engaged or finding out that you are pregnant. You know that you are on your way to something that will change your life forever. There is no going back, this decision is final (except maybe in the case of an engagement). Anyway, if I looked around, I could tell that I was on a plane that would be flying over the Pacific ocean for hours then landing in Tokyo Japan, but my head did not want to believe this. (I still can't fully believe it.) On the plane I sat by Torie, the other foriegn exchange student from Minnesota. We also sat by someone in the army. I don't remember his rank or final location, but his name was Ralph. He had a DVD player and let me watch Constantine and Good Morning Vietnam with him, which helped to pass that time. Also on the plane ride I picked up the hobby of knitting and began knitting a scarf for the winter. As I said, our layover was in Tokyo, then we boarded another plane for Inchon (The South Korean international airport.) There Torie and I met a GI named Jason who played Rumy with us and offered to take us to the Army base if we need anything American that we can't get in Korea, or if we are craving Taco Bell, because the one kind of food we can't get in this country is Mexican.

At the airport I met my host family. The best I can say for this feeling is I felt like Kaori. I was so thankful to see them and know that this exchange program was not just a dream sitting in my head that would never come true. I was in Korea, and I had a host family. My mother, father, and sister had all come to the airport to meet me and my mother gave me a boquet of beatiful flowers, pink roses. The ride home from the airport took one hour. I sat in the back with my sister Myung-hae and gazed out the windows numb to reality. How could this be? There was no way of preparing myself for the complete shock of this new reality.

At home I met my brother, Myung-gun. At first I thought that he was my older brother and therefore I would have to call him 오바 (opah, big brother), but since then I have realized that we are both nineteen in Korean age, so I can just call him Myung-gun or gun. My home is an small apartment in Southeastern seoul. If anyone feels like looking it up, I live in Kangnamku, Suseo, Dongick apartments. Our apartment is on the first floor and consists of the living room, three small bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. There is also a very small laundry/storage room and an area to airdry the clothes (all clothes are air-dryed.) Anyway, my room is actually Myung-hae's room, but she is giving it up while I am living with them. I am so grateful, because I also know how she feels in a way.

What else do you want to know?...

In my first few days here I have gone to an area of town where many young people like to hang out, a korean scary movie, a spa, an historical prison museum, the Korean national folk museum at the King's Palace (no, there is no longer a king living there, Pizza Hut where the pizza is better than it is in America. Ummm...I can't even remember. I also slept quite a bit in the first few days and got very sick with coughing and a runny nose (thanks to my brother Bobby in the United States)

More later.