HI EVERYONE!!

I have had little to no internet access since I got here but I finally got a chance to check my email, look at updated facebook photos, and update my blog today! I also have no phone so I feel cut off from the world, since I used to think my most necessary items were cell phone and computer/internet. Even if I have nobody to really call here (since I'm rarely out without someone else with a phone there's no worry about emergency either) I still feel weird without constantly knowing what time it is. I'm buying a watch.

I'm having a GREAT time. So I arrived in Seoul Tuesday 10 pm (I lost a day with the time difference) and my cousin brought me to her place to spend the night. I got bit by a mosquito on both of my hands and I have monster sausage fingers right now. If you don't already know this quirky fact about me, I'm extremely sensitive to mosquito bites and bloat like crazy on the spot where I got bit. Maybe it's an allergy. Anyway it's disgusting and I hate it. I can't even bend my fingers properly because my fingers are so swollen that the skin doesn't fold. Sick! Anyway the weather was great when I arrived! Nice and cool and not hot or cold at all.

The next day, Wednesday, I took the 1.5 hour bus ride by myself to Chungju, the city where my mom was staying at my grandma's house. It rained lightly in the morning but the weather is generally nice here because it's still spring. Another cousin picked me up from the bus terminal and took me to my grandma's place. It was kind of scary because I didn't know where I was supposed to meet her and didn't know what she would look like after 10 years, plus I didn't have any Korean money yet and no cell phone, so I was standing around by myself in the terminal for about 15 minutes, looking like a vulnerable American with 2 big suitcases, easy prey to vandals and hooligans! In the evening a couple of my uncles came over and we all had fun chatting. My sister has 4 older brothers and #1 and #3 live in Chungju so they and their family come over almost every single day. It is so COOL! I've always been so jealous of big families and people who have lots of relatives and cousins, and now I do! Plus they all live within 10 minutes drive that they just pop over so casually and hang out with us, since we can't go out because my grandma is so weak. She is always lying down in bed and needs a wheelchair to go out for short walks with me and my mom in the morning.

Thursday morning uncle #4 came over bearing my welcome present, about $1,500 in American money. I like him a lot <3.>:O Anyway I've been eating out/food that relatives bought us for every meal since I got here but I'm still trying to control my portions and stay away from carbs so I don't blow up. It's tough!

This morning my mom, my cousin who picked me up from the terminal, and I went to get our hair done. It's cool not tipping anywhere, and also the lady was really nice and ran next door to the little shop to buy us ice cream to eat as we waited for our hair to set. :) I'm fobbed out. I was just planning on getting a trim and maybe a straight perm but one thing led to another and I have a whole new hairstyle. It's wavy, dyed light brown/dark orangeish, and I have front bangs. Seriously I just need to change my makeup style and slightly alter my wardrobe and I think I'll fit right in. But I won't! I don't want to be one of the millions of identical Korean girls here! Speaking of which, I'm getting pressured from all sides to get plastic surgery. HAHA! They don't even call it surgery, it's just "a procedure" now because it's as common as getting your hair done here. CRAZY HUH?! I'm scared of pain and hospitals. Apparently I will be a better person once I get LASIK, double-eyelids, eyelash implants, and eyebrow tattoos. Hells no! I'm already scared that I'm conforming everytime I see myself in the mirror with my new hair.

Speaking of mirrors, there are mirrors EVERYWHERE here. Koreans are obsessed with appearance and don't feel embarrassed at all of checking themselves out and fixing up in public. In every elevator, hallway, empy spot on the wall you will find a mirror. They even have mirrors hanging on the toilet stall door at eye-level when you sit down. And toilets! No seat covers and sometimes no t.p. WEIRD! I mean, it depends where you go about the t.p. part, but the fact that there are even places with no t.p. makes me wonder if people just carry around tissues with them just in case. I learned the hard way that I should always check before I pee, and had to drip-dry before I could run out and ask for tissue from a store to run back in the bathroom and finish up. Hehe, TMI? ^^;;

Man, I took photos but I won't be able to upload them until probably a whole month later, when I go to school and can use the internet on my laptop. So I will apologize ahead for boring posts! I'm at an internet cafe right now, by the way. I'll try to post again soon!