One Month Away!

Welcome friends and family!  This starts my blogging for the summer... all about my upcoming trip to South Korea. Bookmark me- I'll be trying to blog every couple days once I get there!


I'm officially a little less (29 days, not like I'm counting) than one month away from my arrival in South Korea. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous. My answer is no, not one bit.  I should probably be nervous that I don't know one Korean word, absolutely cannot stand hot or spicy foods, can't use chopsticks, have to travel for 24 hours straight, will be 14 hours ahead so my sleeping schedule will be screwed, and will be away from friends and family for a month. Honestly? I'm not worried.  As for not knowing Korean- I plan on doing a bit of cramming on the plane, after all I've got 14 hours. Hot & spicy foods- Well I'll find something. Chopsticks- uhhhhh... Traveling- Well I love traveling.  Sleeping- I've got the rest of my life to sleep.  And friends and family- I love you so much, but Skype me.  Here's what I am concerned about- Packing.  I've always overpacked. For example, I'm going back to St. Louis tomorrow for 2 days and I think I have 6 different outfits in my bag along with 4 different pairs of shoes.  I'm allowed two suitcases and my carry on for one month.  Seems nice, but I also have to bring sheets, a towel , and a pillow.  Apparently Korean's don't sleep with sheets, use towels the size of a small hand towel when they get out of the shower, and have hard as rock pillows to sleep on.  It's also monsoon season in Southern South Korea in July. (Now is when I beg anyone to donate a space saver bag to me.) This is also a time for a Twitter hash-tag for those of you that have joined the Twitter world. #firstworldproblems.  


Here's a little bit about where I'm headed to and what I'll be doing there.  The city I'm going to school in is called Gwangju (Gwang-jow).  It's a 5 hour bus ride from Seoul, which is the capital city of South Korea, and where I'm flying into.  Gwangju is a city with about 1.5 million people living in it.  The university I'm attending is Chonnam National University, which has about 30,000 undergraduate students.  I'll be taking two classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday- Political Geography and Contemporary Societies & Culture Movements.  On Wednesday's and weekends we go on field trips.  I'll be staying in a dorm on campus along with one of the 17 other MU students going with.  


I am so, so, SO excited.  It's finally hit me that I'm traveling halfway around the world. Thanks for reading... more will come as I get closer to my trip! Comments are welcomed, of course. :)