Getting here; Culture shock

So I decided to write a blog while I'm in Korea. It might double up as my diary for the trip, too. Being effective, yes I know. I might even continue this blog after I return to the US. We'll see. 

So it's 7 am here right now. I am trying with my utmost strength to defeat jet lag this year. Every year that I've been, I've had jet lag for always a week. It's not even like it tapers down. On the 7th day, my jet lag is miraculously gone and I can keep my eyes open after 8 pm, lol. But so far, because I kept my watch on Columbus time on the way here, I was able to somehow coordinate my sleeping schedule according to Korea time ( I could calculate it without getting confused). It was kind of amusing that for the entire 27 hour trip (leaving the house to arriving to the Korean hotel), it was all daylight. Okay, minus the last 3 hours of the trip, it was night. That can really do something to your senses... I guess that is why there is such thing as Seasonal Depression or something. 

Funny, crazy story. 

I was touring Seoul National University (the Harvard of Korea) cause my dad is a guest prof here. And for lunch, we went to one of the THREE cafeterias they have on campus. As my family sits down to eat, a big group across the aisle gets up leave and put their trays away. Just because they were so big, my attention gets quickly diverted in their direction and lo and behold, my freshman roommate, Sunita is among them. It was the weirdest, coincidental meeting because Sunita lives a good 30-40 minutes away from SNU. But, she said she was doing an internship at the school. We be meeting up soon. 

Observations about Korea (the mild culture shock)...

1. Koreans are innovative. On the highway, every few miles, there are a pair of red/blue police lights bolted to a pole to imitate the "flashing lights of a police car." Don't lie, when you're driving and you see those lights, you panic a little before slowing down. The only problem with this is I feel like drivers become really desensitized to the lights, like they don't even notice it. But maybe that is the point? So they won't know what the real thing is to the fakes. 
2. This is a stupid observations but demonstrates the rather risky behavior of Korean traffic. At four way intersections, the second the red light comes on, the respective green light goes on. In contrast, in America, the green light doesn't come on for a good 2 seconds after the red light comes on. Does this one make sense? I don't know, figure it out. 
3. Dunkin Doughnuts and and Outback Steakhouse are luxury coffee houses/restaurants here hahahahahaha. DD is low low in America. 
4. Last time I was in Korea, everyone on the subway was always texting away. It's a wonder how phones can get service on subways on the first place. But cell phone companies have figured that all out too. Now, the norm is to be watching TV on your cell phone. And every cell phone is equipped with a long antenna that in America, is extremely outdated. It'll come back in 5 years though, promise. 
5. Every girl gets dolled up in Korea. AHahaha. But I guess that's kind of true when you go to NYC or something, people really go all out when they just plan to get coffee. Maybe I just made that up. 
6. Bus/subway passes are now cards OR cell phone keychains. Pretty cool huh? 

I haven't had the nerve yet to take pictures of Korean's behaviors and such. My mom says that unlike Americans, Koreans don't care when their picture is taken by a stranger. I find this hard to believe so I haven't had the guts to whip out Big and start noisily taking pics. (Btw, I've named the small point-and-shoot 'Little' and my big DSLR as "Big." A slight mockery of Greek life heh) 

The Plan ... 

• Heading to Daejon for the weekend. The majority of my family lives down there. I'm not excited at all to see my grandparents. It's going to be a lot of fake smiling, sitting around while the rents/grents talk, and a lot of eating seafood. Always seafood. 
• I met up with my tutorees and their mom last night to discuss tutoring schedules. So far, six kids, $40 a pop, 1-3 times a week. Do the math. = MAKING BANK. I'm considering coming to Korea after college to teach for a year or two. I would be rich. Mad rich. 
• Yonsei Summer starts on the 23rd. 

Ima limit my picture usage on this. There are facebook albums for that.