All play and no work...until Tuesday

Hello everybody! I've had some downtime this afternoon, so, I thought it would be good to provide an update here. Last Tuesday I made it to my hostel and basically fell asleep because, you know, being awake for most of 24 hours can really take it out of you.  After sleeping very well and meeting two awesome roommates, Beto and James, I walked around Sinchon for a while. Sinchon is the lively  neighborhood directly in front of Yonsei University.  There are two ten-story plus department stores, coffee shops every 50 feet, and plenty of restaurants crammed in-between, on top of, and underneath.  In rural states, like those in the Midwest and Southeast especially, I don't think most of us understand the concept of high-density living because we have so much space.  I am continually impressed by the creative utility squeezed out of the limited space here in Seoul.

After exploring Sinchon, I rejoined my hostel-mates Beto and James to get away for a bit and go hiking.  They had planned to go to Inwangsan, a mountain a couple miles away, and they were nice enough to let me come along.  Beto is also participating in Yonsei's summer school and James is visiting family and traveling East Asia for a little while.  We were told that even locals have trouble finding the mountain's trail head, so, naturally it took us two hours to discover (with the help of a garbage truck driver).  The view was breathtaking.  Seoul can be an extremely hazy city, so, just imagine tall buildings and skyscrapers extending forever until the horizon fades to grey.  The city seems to go on forever...except of course, where the mountain's become too steep to build.

The rest of the week has just been a lot of straight up fun.  Ask any college student which part of the semester is their favorite and you'll receive three answers: breaks, the end, and the beginning.  If you ask me that question I will tell you, "The beginning hands down." You get to hang out with all of your friends before the homework starts.  Basically we're doing that at Yonsei right now!  Classes don't start until Tuesday, and everyone has been taking full advantage.  I've been dancing, singing, and eating a lot over the lost three days as I've made several good friends.

My first night, I went to a Noraebang (a Korean karaoke bar).  The second night, I went with a group to a club for some dancing. Finally, last night I attended a Silent Disco (which might be one of my favorite fundraising event ideas ever if you have strong core group to start with).  At a silent disco, you rent wireless headphones that are tuned to the frequency of the DJ playing in front of the crowd.  Did I mention this is held in a public, well-traveled place? Everyone walking by just sees a hyper energetic mob bouncing around, but they can't hear any music!  I've definitely enjoyed being in a big city, since Wilmore isn't quite that.  However, I have yet to find a rope swing into the Han River so...

Church this morning was great as well.  It involved a long commute, but I enjoyed going to Onnuri's English Ministry all the same.  They actually had a visiting pastor in from a campus ministry at the University of Illinois and he preached an awesome sermon on Psalms 81.  They have a second campus closer to Yonsei, so, I might start going there.  On a related note, it's definitely nice knowing I have the support of a lot people back home who have connections to South Korea and the Christian community here.  It blows my mind that people in Seoul are well acquainted with Asbury Theological Seminary.  Alright, that's the update for now! Talk to you guys later!

My new adventure...Korea!

Well, I've officially sailed around the world! Actually, my voyage on Semester at Sea ended over a year. It's something I will treasure forever. Unfortunately, I never finished my blog off right because as soon as we hit Vietnam I was too pressed between classes, friends, and exploring East Asia to write posts. However, I never took this blog down. I never took it down because on some level, I fully expected to have new adventures to write about.

Over the past year, I've turned twenty-one, seen Chicago for the first time, done a mission trip to Honduras, and I'm still humming along at WKU.  There have been plenty of adventures to write about, but one thing has finally forced to resurrect this blog as a place to record my spirit of adventure...I'm in Korea. No for real! After twenty-four hours of car rides, flights, and train trips I've finally made it to my hostel in Seoul. I'll be taking classes at Yonsei University and doing a research project on the side to boot.  This should be an awesome adventure! I'll give my blow by blow here...but that will come later because I'm about to go hiking.




This is the original building of Yonsei University's campus. Pretty sweet, huh?

P.S. Thank you to the Korean man in Sinchon station for not leaving me trapped within the subway when my transit card stopped working. If you ever read this, you're awesome!