Quick Update

This program in Korea is keeping us busy busy. I just got the chance to upload my pictures from the recent excursions. There's certainly more to come. I'll write up the past few days tomorrow, probably. Here's the pictures!

Two weeks left and...

So if we look back at the list I made early in the summer, I have done this much

• Visa (pending return flight, to be booked same day this year as departure from Seoul, ie mid-June) Still pending, but sent off
  
• macbook (hopefully) how about... NOT!
  
• Get a little more in shape, just to make my life easier in Korea hah...
  
• Obtain a phone with SIM card (for calling card use) Thank you, Antonius! ♥♥
• Bulk up on wardrobe (I hear clothes are expensive there) $300 shopping spree at Kohls
  
• Immunizations... Tessa won't be getting any Hepatitis A~~

Getting a plane ticket was the bane of my summer. What was the problem? You can't book a flight more than 330 days in advance. I could change the date, but that costs an arm and a leg. Yes, There are student travel agencies, but guess which country they decided to cut back on this year?? So I had to wait til last Saturday to book. Don't worry, I FedExed it asap.

The next catch: the Korean embassy wants me to show that I (i.e. my family) have enough money to stay in Korea for an extended period of time. How? Give them a bank statement showing $3k. Ooooooookay. I got my mom to print of a statement and stuck it in with my visa app. I got a call on Monday that said I needed to show $10k... you know, since I'm staying so long. -___- That made life a mess for about 3 hours of scrambling and scanning documents into pdf. Let's hope they don't show any more inconsistencies.

So other than being soooooper nervous about getting my passport with a pretty little Korean Embassy stamp of approval back in time, I still have to figure out what to pack and begggg my mother to buy me a new lens (est. cost: $250). Please, oh please.

How's everyone else doing? More relaxed than I, I would hope.

[edit] By the way, look at where I will be staying this next year!
DMC Ville

Pik-chas!

I finally got time to play with my camera yesterday~ I uploaded the pictures to my flickr, a photobucket, and a zooomr. Flickr is great and all, but I discovered this upload limit that maaaay be annoying for blogging purposes. I'll either buy a pro account or upload to photobucket from now on... I rather dislike that one though. Too many ads. But I shall let you know what I end up doing.

Most of these pictures are at either Folly Beach or downtown Charleston. Hopefully I'll improve over the summer. I was just playing around with settings for the most part of this album. Here's the link!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/osaycanyonsei/

Post-Freshman Year, Pre-Korea Prep

Yesterday marked the end of my freshman year at Meredith. Now that summer's begun, I'm really able to focus entirely on preparations for departure. I'm researching macbooks, reading up on DSLRs, figuring budgets, making last minute farewell road trip tours, and most importantly absorbing as much Korean language as possible.

Sitting at Korean church (my home away from dorm), I hear various Korean conversations as people pass. I'm hoping that by the time I come back to the States, I will be proficient enough to understand most of them. Sadly, I'm leaving to go home before the end of the semester of hangul hakkyo (Korean school) is over. I wish I could stay longer, but I gotta go home and make some money. To help progress me as far as possible without hangul hakkyo, I'm going to encourage people at my home church in Charleston to talk to me primarily in Korean. It'll be frustrating at first, but I'm sure that it would help me in the long run.

Here's my list for departure:

• Visa (pending return flight, to be booked same day this year as departure from Seoul, ie mid-June)
• macbook (hopefully)
• Get a little more in shape, just to make my life easier in Korea
• Obtain a phone with SIM card (for calling card use)
• Bulk up on wardrobe (I hear clothes are expensive there)
• Immunizations...
  

Fun stuff, but all within reach (the macbook is stretching it, but we'll see how it goes). I'll be at Leadershape from Tuesday to Sunday. That will help me make a good plan to bring my experience back from Korea to Meredith my junior year. Next week should be a lot of fun. There will not be internet, so I hope I can supress my addiction to Facebook and messengers.

I'll keep you guys updated as the summer's preparations progress. I enjoy reading your comments. Feel free to ask questions or give me tips about travel in general.

Happy summer, guys~!

第一

I'm just now getting this blog set up before I leave Raleigh. I have one exam tomorrow in Modern China, and after that I probably will not be back to Meredith campus for a good sixteen months. But instead, I'll be in a wonderful place called Seoul!

This is the link to my flickr account where I will be uploading all of my photos from my beautiful new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/osaycanyonsei/
It's bare for now, but will soon be streaming pretty steadily.