The long traveling from overseas is paying off. I had started off in LAX on Thursday morning (February 21) headed over to Seoul Korea. I went from LAX to Seattle Washington where I had met the rest of my ILP (International Language Program) group. The girls are mostly from Utah with a few from a few other states. Our group of girls instantly hit it off. From Washington, we began our 12 hour flight over to Seoul. The plane ride went by a lot faster than I thought it would.
I sat by an awesome girl, Shaylin Rasmussen, who I became quite close to. We exchanged many stories getting to know each other more and more. She grew up and in Sacramento and we have had shared many similar experiences growing up. We were able to share the crazy experience of airplane Korean food which wasn't the greatest thing on the planet. But she and I kept telling each other that we were doing it for the experience. ...Ohhh boy... did we get the experience.. we had ate tofu with sauce and the texture was too slimy and runny for me that I couldn't bare to handle it. We also ate mushrooms that basically were hard solid and slimy..we had to keep telling each other that we were in for the experience.
When we got to Seoul we gathered our luggage, went through customs and headed to go find the bus to the hotel. We were greeted by a cute little old man with a red wood cross saying, "Believe in Jesus."
He continued to keep shouting, "Hallelujah," as well as "Amen, praise Jesus." As Mormon Americans, we got a kick out of it.
- We made the 12 hour flight to Korea!
- Hello Kitty Store-Korea Airport
- International Language Program-Zhongshan, China
We had 2 girls to a room at the hotel. I roomed with Noelle. She is precious and a little quiet but a darling girl that I get along with. We laugh at the same jokes and when we entered our room together we noticed that in the bathroom there was a bidet (the toilets that wipe yourself for you) which splash water up your bum to clean it for you. I didn't think it would work until you pushed a button while sitting on the toilet. I was mistaken very quickly. I found out that once you are done going to the restroom, it kicks itself into action right away. I screamed because I didn't know what was going on and couldn't control my laugh after.
The next morning Noelle did the same thing and it just started splashing her when she sat down. We had a good laugh out of it which later became a great inside joke for all of the girls here.
Noelle and I had the best view in the room of girls that we stayed at. It took up the corner of a hotel where we could see 2 different sides of the city and when we turned off all of the lights, there were some colorful disco-looking lights under the top of the window that would turn on. Pretty legit.
The girls in my group are sharp, outgoing girls. We have become so close because with each other. I feel that we all knew walking into this program, that heading to a foreign country we would need to trust each other as a family as well as a great friendship of girls needing to rely on each other.
The next day we took another flight to our final destination. CHINA.
- Getting into China!
- Living in the top 10% richest part of China has its perks for sure.
Zhongshan is in the top 10% of the most wealthiest parts of China. As we pull into our city we see how nice the city is and the cars people drive here are Audi's and Lexus'. I couldn't believe that I would be teaching in such a nice city, with the friendliest people.
We drop off another group into their dorm rooms and we walked over to our gated apartments. These apartments are nicer than where I live back in Utah. A group of 5 other girls and myself are all sharing a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment together that has tile and hardwood floors with a balcony and an awesome kitchen. I feel pretty privileged to have been chosen this spot and to get the "cream of the crop" people to be with.
- A little bit of China..
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