It was a bittersweet moment leaving. On one hand, everyone is tremendously excited to start their year. On the other, we all wish we were placed in the same city so we could hang out all the time!
I slept most of the flight - it's been an exhausting few weeks and I want to be ready when I get to Korea. Highlights include: Gennie and Eryn magically appearing with a tray full of sandwiches and ice cream, flying over some unknown part of Russia and seeing it on the map, etc...
I'm staying at the Anguk guest house (안국 게스트하우스) near Insadong Street and The Asia Foundation (TAF) field office. Everyone I've talked to says it's a beautiful area of the city. I'm too tired to do much exploring tonight - also, I already got lost before even leaving the airport. After finally clearing immigration and customs, I wandered around hopelessly for a good hour before getting paged on the airport intercom... sorry! Where are Ling and David Kim to guide us through?
There are live performances everywhere. Passed two - one in the airport and one on the way through downtown 서울. Ben and I are scheming about going to a Girls' Generation concert, stay tuned about that.
Also, we are REALLY close to North Korea. Definitely the first time I've been checking out places to go hiking and found the local mountain range extends across a major military boundary...
In-country orientation starts tomorrow - goodnight!