Chicago to Seoul

Hey everyone, I have safely arrived in Seoul, South Korea and I'm just chilling in this computer lounge that has computers with free internet!  So yeah, things that have happened in the past..uh 36 hours? Not really sure how long I have been traveling but its been a while but still fun.
Recap of what I've done.  Drove to Chicago with the parents, and dispite what they want me to say, nothing too exciting there.  When I got to chicago I was really hoping to check in as early as possible so I could but I got to the airport and found out that the agents didn't show up until 4 hours before the flight, so we left and had dinner at an Itialian restaurant, nice last night in the US.  Anyways at checkin there was a really long line and so I was worried that I might be stuck with a middle seat (granted a middle seat still gets you to china, just not as comfortably)  but I got pretty lucky getting a window seat in the 5th row of coach.  In my row was a little Chinese guy in the middle and a philipeno (sp?) on the isle.  I tried speaking chinese to him but it failed miserably :( .  As for the flight, 14 hours wasn't all that bad.  I got some sleep in but it was really weird not seeing light for about 20 hours because the plane flew with the night.  I probably ended up watching the Social Network twice, once all the waythrough and the second in the bits and pieces I watched when flipping through the channels.

I got into Seoul at 6am local time so there wasn't much to do.  I decided to go to the main concourse and try to find the travel lounge so I could take a shower.  I eventually found the shower, wich was free but towel use was 2 dollars.  So, I went to use my Capital One card and it didn't work, then I tried using my Wells Fargo card, didn't work.  So I was thinking "this is going to be a long layover if I can't use my money".  So I then went on a mission to find an ATM, I asked information where one was and they said they were only on the outside of customs, so I had to bag taking a shower because going in and out of customs just for a shower didn't make sense.  So I cleared customs and found the ATM.  I stuck my card in and it worked.  At the screen where you choose how much you want to take out the only language option was Korean so I really didn't know what I was doing.  I ended up pulling out 100,000 Won which is about 100 dollars...oops... So I guess I'll have to change some money in China.  Next I hopped on a bus to Seoul to check out the city.  I took the bus to Gyeongbokgung Palace in the heart of Seoul.  The palace was really interesting.  It was originally built in 1394 but the Japanese destroyed it when they occupied Korea, it has been in active restoration since 1867.  (according to wikipedia about 40% of the buildings have been rebuilt).  I have some really cool pictures that I will post when I get to China.  After visiting Gyeongbokgung  I went to this commercial distirct about 400m away.  Seeing these areas and getting into what the actual citizens of a partcular city actually do is one of my favorite parts of traveling. Yes, seeing historical sights is important and interesting but I really enjoy just seeing the real city.  So, once I got to this street I needed to find some lunch.  I ended up just walking into some random Korean resturant and the host instantly got the english menu, I tried to convey to him I just wanted to eat good Korean food.  He suggested this beef and noodle soup, so thats what I went with.  Shortly after putting my order in he comes out with three small dishes of stuff that I really didnt know.  Unknowing what was in front of me and what to do with the food I waited for my soup to arrive.  I tried to scope the scene of what other people were doing with the side dishes and couldn't figure out what to do.  I decided to put some of these sides into the soup (the sides ended up being cabbage with a red sauce, a green leafy vegeatble of some sort and another starchy veggie in red sauce) .  As I was eating I noticed that I had become a source of amusement for an elderly korean couple.  Apparently, you do not put the sides in the soup.  I also, to my frustration, was having trouble with the chopsticks.  At home I take a little pride in being pretty well versed in the world of chopsticks but I really was on the struggle bus today.  My troubles stemmed from to main sources, first the chopsticks were metal, I have never used metal chopsticks before and they'er tricky because they're slippery. Second, it's pretty cold in Seoul right now and my hands never really warmed up in the resturant and so I was missing some dextarity.  But, dipite my struggles with the chopsticks I made it through lunch alright and the food was very good.  After lunch I got back on the bus to the airport and here I am.

Some general observations about Seoul.  Seoul, seems to be a very interesting city and its MASSIVE.  I hope I can make it here agian before my planned layover on my way back to the states.  Next thing is that Christianity is pretty big here. I saw a lot of churches from the highway and it was just suprising for me to see so many of them in an Asian city, quite the contrast to North Korea.  I also noticed a big police presence.  They seemed to be everywhere around the palace, but this may be to protect the palace from vandalism.  The South Gate, a famous landmark in seoul was destroyed by arson a few years back.  Regardless, it seemed strange, I felt bad for the guys because they just had to stand there in the cold.  They had little boxes written in chalk that they stand in.  Finally, it's cold here.  Granted its cold in Minnesota but I was struggling a bit because I didn't bring a warm hat or gloves, which would have come in handy.

Well thats all I got now.  Next time will be about china, I'm going to try to take a shower now that I have some won to spend!

Well, the day has finally arrived.  January 29th, 2011.  One of those days you put on your calendar and watch it creep closer and closer.  For me today is the day that I leave for Yangshuo, China to teach english for six months.  I really don't know how I feel right now.  I have been cycling through a wide variety of emotions not really settling on one.  I still don't think it has fully hit me that this is happening even though I'm going to be leaving for Chicago in three and a half hours and be boarding an airplane in less than 24.  I'm sure things will become real when I sit down on the plane.

Anyways, with that aside I want to introduce my blog and state my goals that I have for it.  So my first goal with this blog is to keep my friends and family connected with what I'm doing in China.  Second, I want to use this blog help better remember what I did in China.  Third I want this to be a place where I can process what I'm feeling by being thrown headfirst into a culture different than my own, and with that to help you, my readers, understand a little more about China, and Chinese culture.

With that being said, I just want to throw out a little disclaimer.  Blogging and this whole "blogosphere" is something that I've never been a part of.  Because of this I have this little voice in the back of my head thinking that this blog is destined for failure.  I've never been able to stay on top of things like this in the past.  So a week may pass between postings and then in typical Matt Wiersum fashion I do everything the night before the deadline.  So little reminders to update the blog will be helpful.  I also would like this blog to replace me explaining what I'm doing to 20 different people over and over.  I'm not saying we can't talk on skype about China, what I'm saying is that get the basics from the blog, and we can talk about the "deets" via skype.  Finally,  there will be times in which i will start typing like this and forget that english has stuff called punctuation and these things called rules that stop you from writing a big long mess.  Did I mention that I'm a college graduate?  But for real,  there WILL be times that any sort of grammar goes out the window, so don't get upset k thx.

So. Without further ado, Welcome to my blog. ish is about to get real!