First Days in Korea

Landing

I successfully went on my very first flight! I went through Korean Air and it took about 9 hours to get here. We had some trouble finding Chingu Mobile, where we were supposed to pick up our SIM card, but we were able to leave the airport within an hour of landing. As it was my first time stepping into an area other than Oahu, the feeling of being in a foreign country felt unreal. After leaving, I didn't realize how far Incheon Airport actually was. I stayed at Nine Tree Premier Hotel in Myeongdong for the first few days before my dorm check-in and I arrived around 9pm. I was with Olina and Russell, so we walked around the street market in Myeongdong, but we were not in the mood for any of the food, so we just left after exchanging our money.

Weather

It is extremely hot. I thought Hawai'i was hot, but Korea is also super humid in addition to that. I have never sweated more than I have in my entire life. Every time I stepped out, the heat and humidity combined made it so difficult to walk around. I would recommend keeping a fan or umbrella in your bag. On the other hand, most, if not all, the stores have air conditioning, so that was nice.

Transportation

Learning how to operate Korea's transportation system was so interesting. Throughout the first few days, I mainly relied on my friends since they already knew how it worked. The main types of transportation is the subway, bus, and taxi. There are no subways in Hawai'i, so it took me a bit to understand how it works, but thankfully, there are a lot of signs and maps to make sure you're going in the right direction. Same with the bus, there are useful maps and system that tells you when each bus is coming; the bus system is pretty much similar to the one in Hawai'i. The taxis here are also pretty affordable (when compared to Hawai'i prices). However, I undoubtedly walked more than anything because of how walkable Seoul is, so make sure to bring comfortable shoes!

Exploring Ikseondong & Hongdae

We had our friend take us around for our first full day in Korea. We explored Ikseondong, which is a hanok-styled village full of clothing and food shops. I really liked this area because I thought it was really cute for its traditional elements. We had pasta for our first proper meal, but we did have our first Korean meal later that day for dinner.