Seoul Searching

Ladies and Gents,

I am officially done my GMAT woot-woot! Now all I want to do is plan my latest escapade!

So as of right now I must do the following:
Renew my passport
Apply for a visa to stay in the Philippines

Yes, I know the latter is very shocking. However, it pays to have a travel agent that's known you since you were 7. When I booked my flight to the Philippines, she reminded me that because I was staying in the Philippines for more than three weeks, I had to get a visa. I don't know if I bought my ticket online they would have prompted me to get a visa. I still find this whole visa application dealie weird, especially since I don't need a visa to go to Korea. Heck, according to Lonely Planet, because I'm Canadian, the Korean government will let me stay up to 6 months in the country. I have no idea what I'd do in the country for 6 months but that's always good to know!

Speaking of Korea, I'm actually starting to get nervous about the fact I'm going there by myself as I'm starting to do my "To see" list. I checked out a bus schedule to figure out how to get to my hostel and I immediately panicked because it was all in Korean (My inital internal monologue: "Gah...so...many...characters...don't...understand...where...is...English..butto--oh there it is...ahhhh...much better...").

I'm only there for four days but it's four days where I am at a COMPLETE disadvantage. As I said before, if it weren't for Angelina knowing Japanese when I was there, I would have been SO screwed in Tokyo. For Korea, I have no safety net. I've been kind of joking (but really not) to my friend Jess that she has to school me key phrases to get me through days without insulting someone unintentially.

The only thing that's tempering my anxiety about going to Seoul solo is that so far, my hostel experience is pretty good. The manager of the hostel, Sean, e-mailed me the other day details of how to get there and confirmation of the days I would be staying with them - TWO months early. AND he offered up his question answering services. Naturally, I asked a lot of questions (i.e. five). I think Sean will be a good resource for me while I'm there. I can forsee me asking him to write things down phonetically so I can do very important things while I'm in Seoul...like shopping...and eating...but mainly shopping.