My first morning in Seoul

Faced with jetlagged insomnia I have decided to be productive about it and write my first blog in Korea. Im sitting at my desk in the Milano motel, which is a love motel. Korea has love motels all over the place, which are cheesy 197o's-esk honeymoon hotels, basicaly people go to them to... be alone, and thats where I'm living for the next week or until I find housing. My room is complete with bed, tv, internet (so happy, my coworkers internet doesn't work) a shower, and little table for two, and of course: perfume, body lotion, neon pink "Am aroma essence hair gel", brushes with someone else's hair in them (no thanks) and condoms. Luckily I packed my own bedsheets!
The flight over wasn't so bad, I got to sit in the emergency exit row which is actually pretty sweet for tall people becuase there was no one in front of me, leg room on a plane=awesome. I was feeling a little sad when I first got on the plane so I distratced myself with hours and hours of free movies on the plane.
At the airport I met another newby for my program (though we won't actually be working together, we're at separate branches) and he was really cool. It was definitely nice to have another person around who was going through the same thing. Neither of us have been to Korea before. Someone from the company picked us up from the airport and drove us to Gangnam where our training will be, the drive was quite long, though the airport is right outside of Soeul it took us around an hour to get to the motel.
We were both exhausted when we got to our rooms but it was only 7:30 and we wanted to attempt to have a regular night of sleep so we went out and walked around the downtown gangnam area. It didn't look a whole lot different than Market street except for the fact that I couldn't read anything. Pictures are going to be so helpful over here. We didn't stay out that long because it was snowing and my new friend was wearing converse (not snow friendly). There are alot of underground tunnels instead of crosswalks and they are like underground mini malls. One weird thing (well maybe expected, but I was still surprised) I didn't see any other foreingers the entire time we walked around!
Today I have job training and then I go house hunting, it's going to be another long day. I hope I find a good place quickly, then I can start getting settled. Well, I'm off! Also, no spell check, so sorry if my writing is ridic.

4 days until I leave for Seoul

The last month has flown by and my emotions have been a roller coaster of fear, anticipation, excitement, worry, second thoughts, and open-mindedness. After hearing some not-so-stellar, and questionable things about my future employer from past employees I started to get nervous. This year will most definitely be the hardest year I will have worked at this point in my life. I mean, I worked hard at times in college; midterms, finals, and doing applications, but all of those times were intense and far between with weeks of downtime before another rush. In Seoul I will be working essentially from 7am until 9:30pm, one worker wrote an ominous email, "get as much sleep as you can before you get here". Many people can attest that I can be quite grouchy when I don't get my preferred eight (or many ten) hours of sleep, so that will be an adjustment I will have to make.
I still have so many things to sort out before I leave, I have a room full of crap that looks like my closet threw up all over my bed and floor. Everything needs to either be packed, stored or thrown away. Woe is my inner pack rat! I feel pretty confidant with what I packed, I planned for any sort of medical "emergency" I might encounter (because apparently my job does not honor sick days), I have a mini medicine cabinet in my suitcase; pepto, EmergenC, vitamins, advil, sleep aid, earplugs, and the list goes on. I'm sure that if I looked hard enough I would be able to find these items in Seoul, but I also know that if I wake up feeling less than 100% I will be very grateful that what I need is in my room and not on the other end of a treasure hunt through a city I don't know.
My wonderful mother bought me a netbook the other day so that I wouldn't have to get a camera for my incredibly old laptop, and I immediately downloaded skype (which is awesome!) and tried it out with my friend Chris. We talked for over an hour and it was so much better than talking on the phone, I was able to carry my netbook all around the house and show him different things, much more interactive and it'll be great for keeping in touch with people.
Last night as I was seeing some people for the last time, my friend Joshua was talking about his recent adventure to Australia for a job over the summer, and how watching movies and tv shows online was key. He offered to send me some links for good websites to watch videos, to which I remarked, "Oh, I have a hulu account, I'll be watching that all the time."
"It doesn't work outside the U.S." He stated. I was stunned. I had never occurred to me that certain sites were location sensitive. I took the news in a manner similar to a child who had just been informed that Santa did not exist. I have the naivete of an unenlightened computer user when it comes to my knowledge of the internet and its limitations and possibilities.
I have also been successfully procrastinating the packing process, for example: this very moment. I'm off. I'm excited for what my next post will bring!

Shopping Day

Time is running out til my departure and I still have a lot to do and buy. Packing for an entire year is odd because I know that it's inevitable that I will forget at least one crucial thing, and furthermore, how can I predict everything I will want for the next twelve months.
I was hoping that my purchases would not exceed $150, but after buying 3 sticks of deodorant (I need 5) and one opcon eyedropper for $26 (!!) Im starting to second guess my estimate. I still have quite the extensive laundry list of bathroom necessities, and business attire I need. Today Im hoping to find a lot of my list of sale (crossing fingers). I can't believe that I'm leaving so soon.
I'm excited and nervous for the new challenge I'm about to face, the first couple days that I'm in Seoul will be spent house hunting in a city that I don't speak the language. Someone advised me to find my own housing and to not go through my employer because I can save a lot more money, but it will also be much more difficult. I was picking through Craigslist Seoul today and found quite a few cheap places, one was a dorm but I have to share the kitchen and I'm not sure if I can have guests.
I really wanted to get my own place so that I have free range to have people over and get a pet, but getting a room is much much cheaper. I guess I'll see what happens when I get there.