I want to start off by saying I want this blog to honestly convey my feelings at all times because I want to look back at these myself and understand the hardships and fun times that I was able to experience for the first time ever. Studying abroad in South Korea for an entire year was a scary first step. I am starting this blog a little belatedly but now I hope I can use my free time to tell you the stories and experiences I have before they disappear from my mind.
Let us get into it.
I entered South Korea's borders on July 30th 2021 at about 7 pm local time. I was horribly tired but more than that I was nervous. I sat next to a very kind Korean student that was coming home from studying in Missouri, I was so nervous I forgot to introduce myself and ask his name for the entire 14-hour plane ride. I was really thankful for him because he distracted me from the terrifying flight and became the first sign of kindness in Korea. As I stood in line to enter the lengthy 8 steps of customs I remember sweating like crazy and shaking that I dropped my folder twice. Since I knew very limited Korean I thought I would be super lost but everyone working was so helpful and I was finally able to get through and take the two-hour bus to the dormitory where I was quarantined for the next 15 days...
On my first day outside of the dorm room, I met with my Korean friend and she showed me where to buy necessities and took me out to eat. It was the perfect day to get settled in. I was placed in a five-person suite with two double rooms and a single room. The first night I was all alone in the dorm. The dorm was not the nicest place I have ever stayed. Probably far from it but I think knowing that I may be somewhere worse if I joined the peace corps I thought it was good enough. There is a lot of storage but the room is a bit beat up. The shower tiles are broken and moldy and the room is grimy and peeling and dark so not the ideal pick me up after fifteen days locked in a different nicer room. However grimy it was I was very happy with my placement after the next day. I had three new roommates all from America with completely different stories. We all bonded over our shared distaste for the dorm and the shock of traveling to Korea. We soon became a four-person group and went everywhere together. This was actually really difficult because during the first three weeks of being here you could not be with more than one person after 6 o'clock so we had to order dinner in or split up every night. It was overwhelming for the first few weeks and we didn't have class so we all just explored and stayed up late having fun and watching dramas.
Sadly after about 10 days of bonding and late-night talks, our roommate group was split up and two of my roommates were forced to go up three floors. This is not that big of an issue except that we are technically not allowed to visit any other rooms or people during covid-19.
