I made it!

After months of being delayed I'm finally here! Today is my third day. I've seen a lot already but there is much more to see: Seoul is a very big city.

So far, it's been overwhelming, but I'm doing fine. Having close to zero language skills and trying (and failing) to communicate even the most basic things leaves me feeling pretty helpless. The city itself is huge and bursting at the seams with people: so many (to me) similar-looking people rushing around and mostly dressed in business attire is a new experience for me. Even on the weekends people mostly dress pretty nicely. I'm kind of glad I'm not tall and blonde, or I would stand out a lot more! 

For anyone interested, I'll sum up my activities and first impressions so far:

Today (Sat.) I met my old friend from Spain, Maria, and we explored the neighborhood around Itaewon. We did plenty of window shopping, ate at a Thai restaurant and stopped at an American-style cafe (that serves pancakes and brunch any time of day!). Itaewon is the most international neighborhood in Seoul. There are more westerners here than anywhere else (except the US military bases).

Yesterday I spent the day with two new friends, both from the US and teachers-to-be, like me. We visited one of the Olympic stadiums (Olympics were in Seoul in '88) where there just happened to be a design convention going on. We then tried to walk to the main Olympic park but somehow never arrived, so we took the subway under the river to the bottom of a large hill. On the top of the hill was N'Seoul Tower, a tall space-needle type structure complete with a revolving restaurant far above and in the middle of the city. We didn't eat there but  we climbed the hill (a good hike) and went up to the observatory. (check out the photo of the view). Seeing the city from that perspective left me with an even stronger impression of the urban immensity that is Seoul. In every direction, following the Han river, the city stretches on. From up here there appears to be not just one but three or four "downtown" areas with clusters of skyscrapers. Thinking about this, I feel thankful I will be outside the city.

I am still in the middle of the initial down time before the start of training next week. If all goes well and I pass the training week, I'll be off to Gunpo Sanbon, a town about an hour south of Seoul. I'll try to update again sometime during training week.