The Last Day

Well, this is it. We began our journey many months ago, and here we are.

It's weird how the mind works. It seems like forever ago that I first entered the classroom and had a panic attack when a man in a suit (who I would soon find out was just a guy advertising some service) started speaking Korean. However, it seems just like yesterday that I was standing in line at Cincinnati Airport waiting to get rerouted after flights to Chicago were cancelled. It seemed like yesterday that I hugged my parents farewell and proceeded through security. It was just yesterday that Dongmin saved two exhausted travelers after they navigated their way to Gongdeok Station.

So much has changed in 4 months. Instead of having no idea how to get to Korea University, we are pretty confident with the transit system here. I feel like I can go just about anywhere and find my way back, something I didn't think would be possible when I first arrived.

We have made many new friends since then as well. We met people through KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistant) and our KUBS (Korea University Business School) groups. We became pretty close with a few people, in particular Martin and Min from Hawaii, Huyen from California, and Zoë from Toronto.

Today, Colby and I attended the farewell ceremony. There was much laughing and crying, but it was overall an enjoyable experience. There were videos of our past activities and such. As fun as it was, neither of us had eaten anything all day, so we were pretty hungry.

Eventually the program ended. Although there was a free dinner thing with our KUBA groups, Colby, Martin, Huyen, Zoë, and I all headed out to get a more private dinner. I can't speak for everyone else, but I became a lot closer to these people than anyone else while I was here. I didn't want to be bothered with sitting around a whole bunch of other people, these guys were my family while I was here. We went to get some fried chicken at a place down in Anam for one last meal in Korea. Given the proximity of Kentucky, California, Hawaii, and Toronto, it might be a while before we can all meet again. We said our goodbyes outside the restaurant since they were all going to drink some fruit soju. As much as I wanted to go with them, our flight leaves tomorrow and we plan on getting up early. We had a group hug and we went our separate ways.

It was a sad moment, but it was an honor getting to meet such wonderful people. Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne) said "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

I couldn't agree more.

Alright, who wrote all that mushy garbage anyway? Tears? Nah, that's just some dude down the hall chopping onions again! Sheesh, I thought I told him to stop!

Yesterday (June 19), I did a quick tour of campus. I said I would do it a long time ago. Like they say, procrastinators unite...tomorrow! It's not the greatest, but I had to shorten it down or it would have taken forever! I tried to keep it as entertaining as possible. There's not much commentary and the camerawork isn't the best. I felt kind of weird filming with all these people around. Not sure how acceptable that is around here, but oh well!

To view the video, visit this url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6gzJbGLgXU
It is taking Youtube a bit to process the video, so it might not be ready. They said to give it between a few minutes and a couple of hours. I'll make sure to post the link on Facebook once it is ready and make it viewable from this page as well. As for now, that link is the best I can do.

Edit: Oops, the account I use to write these blogs isn't the same one that I used to upload to Youtube. Just click on the link. Also, it doesn't play in 1080p like I asked it to. Grr...so frustrating!


Tonight is the last night. I'm here sitting on my bed. All of the sheets are packed up and everything. There's still a few things that need to be packed up, like the power strip and a few other things, but a majority has been put away (I think I might be pushing the weight limit for one of my bags.) I even packed my pillow already. Even if I wanted to sleep, I don't think I could. The plan for me is to not sleep at all tonight and try to sleep on the plane tomorrow. Colby is trying to sleep right now, but he isn't having much success. We are both excited to finally go home.

Our flight leaves tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11am KST (10pm EST for you guys back home) and arrives at Cincinnati at 3:30PM EST. That's about a 15 hour flight (well, a 2 hour layover in Chicago, but still not looking forward to it.) Instead of fighting the crowds on the subway in the morning, we decided to try and take the earliest train possible, which leaves at about 5am, which is why I don't plan on sleeping. It's about 12:30 while I am typing this, so what's another few hours of staying up? Anyway, instead of going from here to Gongdeok and taking the airport commuter train to Incheon Airport, we are going to take the subway to Seoul Station instead. From there, we can check in, get our seating assignment for the plane, have our bags checked, and take the express train to Incheon rather than having to make the 9 stops the commuter train would have to make. It also means we don't have to have our bags on what could be a crowded train. Let's just hope getting back home is easier than our trip to Korea and there aren't any hiccups.

So, this is one of the last few updates from Korea. We might make a few more posts since we will (HOPEFULLY) be at the airport and have tons of spare time tomorrow morning. We might make a few video posts too, who knows? Anyway, that's it for now. Now I have about 4 or 5 hours to kill before we leave. They were giving rain when we planned on heading out. Holding an umbrella with 2 suitcases is not easy, so hopefully they missed the forecast. They are already pushing the rain to 3am instead of 5, so we have that going for us.

I guess we will see you guys soon! Mom, bring me some Ale8 when you come to the airport please! Thanks!

The End Is Nigh

Another week has flown by. This one consisted of presentations and our final classes at Korea University. It was such a relief to get these presentations out of the way. The weather was typical summer, nice sunny days with temperatures in the 80s and on a couple days we had some thunderstorms. Luke and I got caught walking back from class in a hailstorm. It was painful, yet refreshing.

We spent the majority of the weekend preparing for our final exams, or procrastinating that at least. One evening we went to an area of the city called Insadong. It is known for its gift shops. We got there a little late and decided to have dinner first. We figured we would try a Vietnamese place. I'd never really eaten Pho (pronounced Fuh) before, but it was quite interesting. It was pretty much a beef broth with noodles, onions, and beansprouts. I thought it was pretty good, but I'm not really a Vietnamese food expert. Martin and Huyen, who are Vietnamese food experts, said it wasn't that great. Oh well... More for me!

Pho

After dinner, we went out to look at the gift shops only to find that most had already closed for the night. A couple were still open, so we went in and looked at all of the oddities they had in stock. We ended up getting a few gifts so it was a mission accomplished after all. The rest of the weekend was spent in that weird limbo between studying and procrastinating.

But, it's all come down to this. Our last week in Korea. The most exhilarating and shortest four months of my life are coming to an end. It's a mix of emotions. One one hand, I'm ready to get home to see my family and enjoy my summer in Inez. But on the other, it'll be sad to leave Korea not knowing when I'll ever get to come back or hang out again with all of the great friends that I have made.

I've grown to love this place over the last four months. The people, the food, and the memories that I have made will be forever etched in my mind. It's amazing how much you can experience in such a short amount of time. I'm not sure if I'm the same person I was at the beginning of this trip. I've learned to be more independent and even more empathetic of foreigners. There are times when I've felt alienated and detached from the culture, but that has given me a deeper understanding of it and I've grown to value the differences and similarities that exist between the East and the West.

I'll try to write one or two more blog posts at the end of the week and when I return home, but for now I'm signing off! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we take our finals and journey home.

Getting Closer...

Hey guys! Things are really starting to heat up in these final few weeks. Focus is beginning to shift from fun and adventure to preparing for finals and projects. Yuck! This is a rather boring post, but I am bored and people (*cough* Mother *cough cough*) complain when there isn't a post.

I was in the first group to present in International Finance. We were talking about the European Debt Crisis. Exciting, right? My friend Martin was also in the group, which was nice. All of the other students were Korean. They weren't too keen on presenting, so Martin did almost all of the presentation. At the end, me and the Korean students did a role-play of other countries. I was Angela Merkel of Germany. The class got a kick out of me playing a woman. The Korean students were very nervous about speaking English. They actually did great! They honestly don't give themselves enough credit! The professor didn't stop smiling throughout our presentation, so I think we did very well.

Tomorrow (Monday), I have to do a presentation about how Netflix should enter the Asian market. My group outdid themselves again! The PowerPoint is done, the paper is done, and I'm ready to present our project! After that, I am done with presentations!

Meanwhile, Colby is doing a presentation about a Korean dash cam producer and their expansion into the global market. He's meeting with his partner right now and practicing the presentation. On Tuesday he is presenting in International Finance about the Chinese Yuan and its place as a key currency. He's nervous, but I'm sure everything will be fine! What he has told me seems pretty interesting...at least as interesting as Finance can be!

This week's itinerary is really not that bad all things considered. With all these group projects going on, International Finance is pretty much done for me. We are having a guest speaker in Trade Theory and then some students are presenting, so that class is pretty much done as well.

We will probably keep up the pace in Investments. In fact, we will probably have a quiz this thursday (last class before finals.) Our International Business class is just presentations, but the professor wants to have one class during finals week. At least I don't have a final on that day!

So, yeah, exciting stuff!

We did go to HomePlus (pretty much a Walmart) and bought a few things, mostly gifts for some people. I also bought a few snacks for the plane ride while we were there. It's going to take some willpower not to eat all the snacks in these last days.

Still not completely sure what we will do for the last weekend. We might try to find something special to do. I will need to do a bit more exploring and find some other gifts...

If you made it this far into this boring post, I salute you! There might be something a bit more exciting next week though!