Arrival Things

I am now at my host family's house.  I'll get a good picture up on a sunny day, because it really requires that kind of lighting.  The cafe they run out of the bottom floor is not only adorable, but has a Hawaiian theme.  The plants outside (and the decorations) all follow the theme pretty closely, so I'll hold off on that for a bit.

Now it's time for pictures of my commute here!   And stuff!


They had K-pop to watch on the plane.  Not a whole lot, but it was there.  They also had a LOT of movies, of which I ended up watching four.  My ears hurt from the headphones by the end of the flight.

 This was the lunch on the flight.  It was bibimbap, which is a Korean beef thing, and it was actually pretty good.  Best food I've ever had on an airline, at least.

 This was dinner.  It was rice with fish, then some side stuff.  Less authentically Korean than lunch, but still a welcome change from the bag of peanuts or whatever they give you for dinner on other long flights.

We went over Russia and it looked like this.  I just thought everyone would enjoy that.

This is some kind of Korean cultural thing happening at Incheon Airport.  Mostly they just stood there while everyone took pictures.  Also, I didn't expect it to be as cold as it was in Korea, so that was a bit of a problem.

Incheon Airport is nice.

This is the train from the airport to the city itself.  By this time, I had not slept in a little over 24 hours (thanks to the obtrusive Thai man in the seat next to me on our first flight), so I was not doing as good a job staying awake as I'd have liked.
The hotel was very nice, but was pretty small.  The shower had the best water pressure I've ever felt, so I was able to get in and out reasonably fast for once.

This was our lunch during orientation.  I'm too tired to turn the picture around, so tilt your head to the left and it'll look fine.

This is my room for the next four months.  It has internet, a TV off-camera, and a tape player just because.  The closet is also enormous for no reason.

I am VERY pleased with my host family.  Since they run a bar out of their house until somewhat late at night, they're awake rather late, too. They're also friends with the owner of a nearby 24-hour grocery store, so any time I need food I have been told to go there no matter what time it is.  The rule here seems to be "do whatever you want at whatever time as long as you tell us", and since I am not one to drink or go to big, dumb parties, that's exactly what I need.

I am also enjoying the fact that when I watch TV here, I recognize every other celebrity I see, whereas I barely know who I'm looking at when I watch American TV anymore.

I also kind of want to take my first Japanese bath, but at the same time I REALLY want to go to sleep.  We will see how I feel after dinner.