Seoul (with a photo of Busan)

After a 16 hour journey crammed into a narrow seat being waited on by very pretty Korean girls I exited the plane only to be blasted with a wall of humidity. That and a wall of people waiting to get their temperature read by the swine flu inspectors.

My bags were two of the first to be unloaded so I was out quickly and spotted my name sloppily written on a cardboard sign. The sign's holder rushed me out to a bus that was supposed to take me to my camp.

It was no surprise that the driver had no idea how to work the air conditioner. Koreans (yes, all Koreans) do not know how to set a temperature gauge. It is either 100% on or it is off. At first I was sweating, then I was shivering, then I was sweating on and on. I was told it was an hour and 20 minute trip, but 2 and a half hours later we still weren't there. Oh, and the bus hit another car at one point. The driver was saying "aieesh!" (shit) over and over again throughout the last hour of my bus experience.

I was met at the stop by 3 people who work for the camp. They said they waited 3 hours at the stop for me. As I hadn't even been in the country for 3 hours, I wondered what motivated them to do that.

They showed me to my closet where I am going to be living for the next month. There is a twin bed, mini-fridge,a thin wardrobe and a tv. There is a gap of clear floor space that is 7ft by 2.5ft (I measured it last night with my Victorinox Swiss Tool while sweating all over the place). It is a hybrid hotel/dorm/prison. The first room they gave me didn't have a window but then I mentioned how nice windows can be, so they moved me. At around 10pm the air conditioning shutoff. It was about 85˚F (30˚C) and the humidity was about 110%. It was turned on again at 6:00am for 20 minutes but has not offered any relief since.

If you are wondering why this is such a downer post, it's because my body is covered in mosquito bites and I haven't slept in 36 hours. At least I had some awesome homemade cookies to keep me company!