Arrival

Hello everyone! We arrived in Korea yesterday at Incheon Airport after an obligatory day of flying. I sat next to the newly crowned champion of sleeping on airplanes, Lauren... I think I slept for 3 hours on the flight here, compared to her narcoleptic-like ability to pass out at a moment's notice. The airport itself was fantastic and featured local eateries such as Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and McDonalds. It was slightly humourous to see how many people were wearing face masks throughout the airport, although as soon as we got off the plane, we passed through a quarantine checkpoint where they took our temperatures.
From the airport, we took a bus to Seoul. The trip was about 30 minutes long and we got our first glimpse at rice paddies! It was pretty odd seeing the paddies placed sporadically throughout the landscape, mixed in with big apartments and tin greenhouses apparently used to grow fruits in the winter. It was nothing like the conglomerated fields you see in the States that stretch to the horizon. We also saw lots of egrets and herons, which I didn't expect but I guess is sensible enough. Clusters of apartments seemingly placed at random also peppered the countryside as we drove. It reminded me of what I suspect the company towns in China look like, but the student who accompanied us said that company housing does not exist in Korea. After crossing a number of bridges (Incheon is, I believe, an island), we arrived at the outskirts of Seoul, where Yonsei is located.
The area immediately surrounding Yonsei can be described as somewhere between inner city and suburbs. There are definitely no private houses (in fact, I've yet to see a private house), but the apartments and other buildings are not as tall as you'd expect in an inner city. I originally had the impression that Seoul would have a similar infrastructure as the United States in terms of quality and appearance of buildings, but the area we've seen so far strongly reminds me of Buenos Aires or a cleaner and better-off Guayaquil, Ecuadors. In terms of cars, 90% are Hyundai, 8% are Kia, 1.99% are other Korean (I assume) manufacturers whose logos I don't know, and the last 0.01% is 1 BMW, 1 Audi, and 1 Peugeot that I've seen. No wonder American car companies are going down the tubes, although I plan on keeping my eyes peeled for some Ford hybrids.
The campus of Yonsei dwarfs that of Washington University. They have every discipline here that I'm aware of, from a medical school to engineering to journal / mass communication to "human ecology" (anthropology?) to a "dental hospital" (just for you Bo). Walls / gates surround the entire campus (or at least the majority of it) and they've done an excellent job maintaining green space and lots of trees throughout the campus. There's even a miniature park, probably half a mile in circumference, of dense trees and streams. The main gate of Yonsei spawns a single road that has grassy medians on either side and buildings facing the road further away, somewhat like a miniature version of the mall in D.C. There's a bunch of construction going on right now, and there's definitely a variety of architecture on campus, from what I presume to be the original quad of brick & mortar buildings absolutely covered in ivy, to a number of buildings flaunting a mix of contemporary architecture (glass, steel, etc). I know all this because I woke up at 5am this morning (thanks, jet lag), and went for a nice run. The campus is also located in an extremely hilly area and puts Lehigh to shame in terms of number and grade of inclines. The buildings are not placed or orientated in any discernible pattern besides from those on the mainstrip, although there are a number of quads on campus which I assume constitute a subject area, such as engineering or art.
In terms of activites so far, last night we went to a local Korean restaurant frequented by students and I had bibimbap for all of $4. We ran into an exchange student there from D.C. as well, thereby proving that the world is, in fact, small.

That's about it in terms of occurrences so far. I realized I don't have a memory card for my camera, which I hope to remedy later today. If you have any questions / want something better explained / want to hear more about something, let me know (assuming my readership is more than my parents).