“Hmmmahh,” I breathed in and sighed with excitement and enjoyment as I took in the air around me. ‘Finally I’m here, where I’ve wanted to be for years… Seoul, South Korea.’ I've been waiting for this day to finally experience living in the country I’ve dreamt about living in for ages and now it's finally happened. The warmth surrounded me from the air, the sun shined gloriously and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Whilst riding a taxi with my friends to where we were going to reside for the year I looked at the vast scenery around me taking in the wonders of the towering high buildings to the overcrowded streets of Seoul. It was even more beautiful than what I saw on YouTube. I couldn't believe my eyes. I took in a deep breath in and out sleepily but happily, glad that I've finally made it to Seoul. All that hard work studying Korean, I thought I wasn't going to make it a lot of my first year at university but I knuckled down and tried my hardest the second year and here I am. It just comes to show that anyone can do what they dream of doing when you put your mind to it and work the hardest you can ever do.

…

I was walking with my friends Chloe and Holly who also took Korean at university. We were buzzing with excitement about arriving here as soon as we left home 13 hours ago. Even though we hardly slept on the plane and were drowsy we weren't going to let that stop us from enjoying every moment of the first day in Seoul.

“I can’t wait to see where we’ll be studying and living,” I explained to my friends with enthusiasm.

“Girl I can’t wait to see Seoul and try to find our kpop groups and biases!!!” my best friend Chloe says to me in exhilaration.

I laughed. The thought of seeing kpop groups exhilarated me but I had the slight feeling that it wasn't going to happen. I mean who actually sees a kpop group walking around the streets of Seoul *sigh* but if I can see an idol it would fill me with so much joy I would be buzzing for weeks, months even.

“Yeah I know, me too. I mean they hardly come all the way over to our country and we’ve never been here before so it would be nice if we saw them. Remember though we have to study as well otherwise we’ve wasted all our years hard work studying at home so we need to only look for them every now and then okay,” I said to Holly and Chloe.

…

After a while we reached the place where we were going to be staying whilst studying at university for the year. It was a block of flats. Looked more like a house but I think it was divided into flats for students studying over here like us. The flats looked new and gave off a homey feel to them which made me feel more at ease.

We went inside.

We found that there were three bedrooms, one of the each of us. I picked the bedroom facing the road as I liked that room the most. My room was not too big or too small but it was just right for me, the colour of the walls were a light orange colour which gave off a warm summer feeling, like you were at the beach on a nice warm summers day. The bed was single and bare in one of the corners of the room; nothing much to it and the curtains were a cream colour. There was nothing much else in there apart from a wardrobe next to the door, chest of drawers next to the bed and a table and chair in the corner of the room. It was enough for me though.

I put my suitcases on the floor and bags on my new bed for the year. Just after I ped my suitcase Chloe and Holly knocked on my door. I looked up a little dazed and curious why they were there.

“You’re unpacking now when you’ve got all the time later to do that. H.e.l.l.o we’re in Seoul, the least we can do is walk around a bit and get to get know what there is round here and whatnot,” Holly said to me her hands on her hip.

“Yeah you know we’ve been waiting for ages to do this ___ so come on,” Chloe said to me.

I was a bit hesitant, I know it’s our first day here but I liked to unpack all my things the first day I go anywhere so I don’t have to worry about it later and I felt tired as I hardly had any sleep on the plane. They both saw this through my expressions and movement. They looked at each other, nodded their heads and started walking over to me. Whatever it was they were going to do I didn't like the look of it.

“What are you doing, ya, YA LET GO OF ME, GUYS COME ON LET GO!” I shouted to them as they grabbed hold of my arms, one on each arm dragging me out of my room.

…

In the end I gave up and we were walking through the streets looking at everything we came across in awe. Down one street it was quite dark and mysterious. Lights only dimly coming from inside restaurants. Along these streets all was quiet, calm and relaxing. Down another street were neon lights everywhere, shining brightly it could blind a person. Along these streets there was noise everywhere. From people talking to the shuffling of food chefs were preparing on their stalls. Also down each street you could smell the strong aromas of the food being prepared by the chefs. One could not miss the distinct smell of the kimchi that wafted through the air. Smelling all of the different aromas would make anyone go hungry within seconds. Whether you like spicy food or not, you could not help but be attracted to the food, hovering around it, taking in the fragrances, like a vampire would to human blood or a bee would be to honey. No matter where we went, how dark or light, how quiet or loud, everything was fascinating to see.

“Wow it’s really pretty here, especially as it’s getting darker now. It gives of a more picturesque view of the city,” I said to Chloe and Holly.

They looked at me and raised their eyebrows.

“What? I do say these things every now and then.”

They laughed at me and we walked for the rest of the evening until our legs grew sore and we grew exhausted. We decided to return back to the block of flats as we’re going to wake up early the next day to start preparing for our year here by going food shopping, looking for restaurants and clothes shops we can go to etc. you know all of the places tourists would go.