Enormous Cardboard Boxes

I've arrived! The flight was totally manageable. Korean Air is great. But at JFK, it seemed that everyone in line to check in had a suitcase, a carry on and an ENORMOUS cardboard box. Young, you didn't tell me I'd need to bring an enormous cardboard box. I felt left out. Once on the plane though, I did fine. They served bi bim bap but somehow I ended up with the white person's meal, gelatinous beef noodle dish. But there was wine, so I was happy enough.

The place we're staying is cool. It's called the Pederhaus and it's actually considered a "silver city" aka a retirement home. But it's not bad. They have something called the "tomato club" which seems like a hotel gym. And apparently, my room is considered the "tomato suite." I can't figure out the significance of it all.

So it's chusok here, Korean Thanksgiving. And most of the stores are closed and the streets were a bit empty. We went to the National Museum of Korea yesterday. And the streets of seoul were empty because everyone seemed to be at the museum. A lot of little girls and boys were in traditional korean costume. I can't get my digital camera to hook up to my computer yet. So here's a picture from the internet of the type of thing I saw.

The kids are all so adorable. Many of the were busy scribbling things into their little notebooks. It reminded me of Jillian and her blues clues notebook. The museum itself was beautiful. And I took lots of pictures of text panels and display cases. The other people on my trip kept saying "I bet you're in your element now, huh?"

Now it's 7:45 am and I'm sucking down coffee in my tomato suite in preparation for my first full day in Korea. We've got some lectures today and then we visit King Sejong's tomb. I believe King Sejong was the one who invented the hangol alphabet. See, I'm learning so much already!