First Days

Finally, we are in Korea! We arrived Wednesday, Aug 26 at Incheon airport, which is approx. 15 km outside Seoul. The cheapest flight we could find turned out to be really good. We got free meals, beer and whisky on the plane. First, we flew to Istanbul, where we waited two hours and bought some (expensive) airport beer.

Göran drinking beer in Istanbul

Something

From Istanbul, we had a 10 hour flight to Seoul. As it turned out, the seats were not reclinable and it was hard to sleep. After a long and tiring flight, we were standing in Incheon airport. First impression: almost everything is in korean. Fortunately, our contact, Prof. Min, was there to meet us. After a quick chat, he asked if we were hungry, and recommended a nearby restaurant serving japanese noodles. The food was good, and Prof. Min turned out to be a really nice guy. We ate japanese noodles, rice with minced meat and some side dishes.  We also gave him a gift from sweden, a snaps glass and a bottle of Bäska Droppar. More on that later.

After the meal, we got a ride from Prof. Mins colleague to a guesthouse (Hoam Faculty House) on campus, where we were to spend out first night. The guesthouse rooms were sweet. The large bed was especially wonderful, considering we could only sleep a few hours on the flight.

First Night

Hoam Faculty House

The next morning, we met Prof. Min and some of his students for breakfast. Since it was a guesthouse, they had korean, american and continental breakfast. I was the only one, it turned out, who took the korean breakfast. The rest of the day, we got help from our new buddies, Prof. Mins students, to check into our rooms, do a medical test and get cellphones. We were 3 exchange students; me, Göran and Regis, a french guy, and 3 buddies; Jongdae, Ji Won and Chul. They were all really nice. 

Our House

The following days, we fixed some important things, like applying for a registration number, kind of like a swedish person number. We have been trying out some restaurants near our house, which is located in Sillim-dong, quite near Seoul National University. There is a street (or a set of streets, I don't really know) which is called Nokdu. The whole area is filled with bars, restaurants, PC rooms (PC bang in korean) and small stores. Most of the meals cost around 3000-4000 won (~20 kr). At campus, a meal is 2000 won (12 kr). I also bought some fried thing on a stick from a street vendor yesterday. She  asked if I wanted ketchup and mustard on it, which was strange, since I thought it was fried chicken. It turned out to be a french hot dog which had been fried. Pretty good, and well worth 4 kr. Also, I found that the nearby stores had ice latte in 1 liter packs for 2000 won (12 kr). Cheap coffee forms the basis of any studies, so...

The weather is a bit cloudy right now, but whenever the sun shows up, I'll take some new pictures of Seoul.

Nokdu Street (?)

Closed Hello Kitty store