Walking around a park close to my hotel in Suwon.
I never knew how quickly my life could change in 24 hours.
Less than 24 hours ago I said good bye to the community of friends I made in Spain and landed in a new continent to start working for one of the world’s largest electronic companies.
To get to Korea, I had to take a five hour bus ride from Granada to Madrid and then a 12 hour direct flight to Seoul. When I arrived in Seoul at 5:30 AM, I had to take a one hour bus ride to Suwon. To say the least, I am exhausted.
But, before I crash (it’s 11:47 PM here and I need to be in the hotel lobby at 7:45 AM tomorrow morning), I wanted to write a brief list of my first impressions of Korea.
My First Impressions:
- It’s humid.
- I am the only white person around for miles. I have never felt like such a minority in my whole life. Today, when I was walking in the park with my other intern friends, this group of Asian women would not stop staring at me. At first I thought I was being paranoid but, as we were walking away, my friends said “Did you see that Julie? They were all looking at you! Just staring at you!”… this will take some getting use to. It’s not a mean or nasty stare just “Huh, she isn’t from here”… and they keep staring and staring and staring.
- So industrial! So many cars!
- The streets of Suwon are pretty dead.
- I just found out that my work visa is one-way entry… so if I leave to go to Japan for a weekend, my work visa will be null and void. 😦
- The Ramada Plaza Suwon Hotel is super classy and the gym/spa/sauna will probably be my new home away from home.
- I need to start learning basic conversational Korean ASAP.
- I think I do not like Korean food.
- Two interns say they know of people who left their internships early last summer… this makes me nervous.
- The sky is white- I can’t tell if it’s smog, clouds, fog, or some combination of all three.
- There are so many unique Korean things I want to try here, like cafes where you pay a little extra money to dress up like a princess while you drink your tea or restaurants where you cook your own ramen noodles on gas burner stoves in the center of the table. I am looking forward to these adventures.
That’s all for now. I will write more about my impressions of Korea later this week.
Banana-milk-drink, super delicious and cheap
My roomie, Deanna, enjoying our hotel room’s couch in Suwon
The gym in our hotel
The patio outside the gym for reading and lounging
The hot tub next to the gym AKA my new best friend
Walking around Suwon with a few other interns
Well, Korea, this is just awkward. Human centipede much?
Pretty statue of singing ladies in the same park that is close to my hotel
Cooking our own ramen noodles at lunch. The tables in this restaurant have gas burning stoves in the center. It’s strange but fun
Dinner (rice noodles, radish, cucumber, and egg)- usually this soup is for really hot days and has chunks of ice in it
Julie Around the World 
Thanks for sharing this, Julie. It reminded me of my first day in Korea. I remember being amazed by how much of an outsider that I was; everyone else was Korean. Everyone. I didn’t care for the food initially, but I ended up really liking a few of the grill your own food places. I never got the hang of kimchi. Have fun-keep us updated on your adventures.
Aw this made my day, thank you Mr. Reams (you can never be “Paul”, that’s just too weird). I never knew you went to Korea too! I am trying to keep an open mind about the food and try everything. At lunch today I tried this weird pumpkin-paste thing that I really liked so hopefully I will find out what I like quickly. I will definitely keep my blog updated with everything!
I loved hearing your impressions. dad and I have been so curious about your big move. LOve, Mom
Thank you Mom!
Thanks Mom I love you!