Just Arrived.

Hi guys!  Greetings from Seoul!!!  I just arrived a few hours ago and have settled into my studio apartment.  And by studio apartment, i mean a room the size of my walk in closet.  No kidding.  I have no room to do push-ups.  But I am excited.  I am living in a dorm type building with lots of Japanese students.  So far, I have met only one Korean student.  We bonded over noodles and Korean dramas.

My building is right next to a department store.  How convenient.  And speaking of convenient – there are like four 7-elevens on my block alone.  The basement of my building houses a night club (read: half-naked dancing girls), and if you throw a stone, you are bound to hit a restaurant.  I think I am in New York except the signs are written in hangul.

The community kitchen has all the free noodles, eggs, rice and kimchi you can eat.  Which is good cus am on a budget but I intend to treat myself to a nice meal in a restaurant at least once a day.  There is a coffee shop two floors down and it also serves beer9 (yes!).  It is almost 11 pm and students from three universities are roaming the streets in droves.  No one stares at me.  I don’t know if I am relieved or offended.   They must be so used to foreigners.

The flight was not as long as I expected. I think it is partly because I took an ambien and viodin and zonked out.  Korean stewardess are the most efficient bunch I have ever seen.  I swear ever five minutes they tried to shove pretzels, sandwiches, alcohol, water, orange juice and whatever else they carried in their carts. 

I had my very first kimchi on the plane.  Spicy and soooooo good. 

Tomorrow, I will explore my neighborhood and try to buy a small fan and room freshner.  I don’t like the idea of sleeping mere inches away from my toilet.

I will try to keep you guys updated.

My busy month of May.

Phew!

It has been a busy month of May!  Graduation was a blast!  We partied from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. and ended up at Waffle House for lots of greasy food.  To say we were inebriated is an understatement.  My classmates kinda knew we would have a wild time so we made a “no cameras allowed” pact.  With good reason.  Most of what we were up from 11 pm to 1 am was probably illegal.  Good times.

Warrior Dash was awesome.  This year’s race was so much harder and so much fun.  They added a heat tunnel, lots of ropes courses, junkyard with old cars and broken glass, a spider web of twines (where I spent a good five minutes trying to get out of), this 12 foot wall and a water slide which was so much fun … I went down screaming “whooo-hooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And of course Turtle was waiting at the finish line with a surprise.  He got me.  I had no idea what he was up to.  In fact, I had just mentioned to a co-worker that I was glad we had no major events coming up (besides the dash which he pretended he did not really want to go to) and that I was safe from any embarrassing proposals in public places.  I think I must have said, “oh my God!!!” fifteen times before saying yes.  I have never been that surprised and embarrassed in my entire life.  And I had never been that happy either.  We are hoping to get hitched in July, 2012.

I love my ring.  I had always told him not to buy me diamonds.  Ever. For one, they are not rare. And there are so many moral issues concerning conflict diamonds but what gets me the most is that the continent that produces 80 percent of the world’s diamonds is also the poorest.  What gives?

Instead, I opted for a white and blue sapphire on a pure platinum band.  Blue is my favorite color and platinum is one of the rarest metals. I looooove it so much!

I leave for Seoul in exactly a week.  The only bad thing is that instead of thinking of my trip I keep thinking or planning a wedding.  I really just want to enjoy my self and then worry about the logistics of a six month marriage counseling as required by the Catholic church (eeek), and the logistics of hauling family members spread out across three continents.  Okay Mrs Mauritz, this is where you come in.  Expect some panicky e-mails from me pretty soon.  Anyone who has advice on multicultural weddings please shoot me an e-mail.  I will take any help you can give.

I will try to keep blogging while abroad and keep you posted about all the joys of monasteries, Korean food, Jeju Island, markets, folk villages the DMZ, palaces, Blue House … I have a packed itinerary which includes a three-hour Korean language class for a whole week.

I love you guys so much!  Ciao!

Warrior Dash 2011