Finally made it!

I’ve been waiting for this for so long. It’s good to get out of familiar surroundings for a while. Here I finally am: Seoul, South Korea. 7000 kilometres, 6 time zones and a state of mind away from home.

KLM evidently hates all of their clients. Too hot, too cold, uncomfortable seats, no leg space and you’re always the last one to get food. The ten hour flight from Amsterdam to Seoul was not a top 10 moment for me, but at least it served its purpose. I made it to my destination safe and sound, even though dead tired. I briefly visited Yonsei University this afternoon. Unexpectedly the campus is just short from huge. There are like 50 buildings. I’ll go on a more thorough tour later on.

Unfortunately Finnish cell phones have troubles using the local network technology. So if any of you try calling, there’s a 100% chance that you will get a “Hi! This is Juho, I’m spending the summer in Korea…” –reply. I’ll try to get a pre-paid phone in the near future. Before that, email is by far the most successful medium of reaching me. Be sure to check my Messenger and Skype availability.

My new host for the following months is a wonderful gentleman by the name of Ted Yoo. Ted is 39 years old and works as a librarian at Yonsei University. His place is about 5 minutes from the campus, which is quite convenient. Ted is not married, but his 16-year-old nephew Minjun lives with him. Hence from now on it’s just us three guys living under the same roof. The apartment is quite small, but modern and clean. There are enough of different technological machines for a science fair. I have my own room, which fits a bed, a desk and a closet. We all share a bathroom and for some reason sheets are not a part of Korean bed-culture, but then again there’s W-LAN. So win some, lose some.

A room with a view

Ted and Ming are both great. They speak English somewhat brokenly, but both are very avid learners and quite talkative. They also seem genuinely interested in having me here. The evening started out in very traditional bachelor-style, as we ordered food from the Pizza Hut around the corner. I guess some things are the same wherever you go. The pizza eating habits of different countries never fail to surprise me in their peculiarity. In Mexico they dump ketchup on top, in Norway different sorts of sauces such as tsatsiki are used, and in Korea apparently – pickles. Yup, pickles on a pizza. I decided to pass on the gourmet cucumbers and focused on the pizza. And it was just as good as could be expected. God bless quality standards.

Anyway, kudos to Ted for taking on such a challenge as having some random Finnish dude bunk at his place for a few months. He promised to take me sightseeing and show me how to move around Soul. We have the weekend to get to know a part of this 11 million person metropolis. Can’t wait.

The streets of Seoul