Kim So-Ra’s Perspective

The flight was a little longer than expected due to delays. I do hate long plane rides though. I hate not being to move about that much for any more than about an hour MAX! But I’m finally here, in my beautiful home country of Korea. It’s even more beautiful since the last time I was here and that was last Christmas. I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty excited to be here. It’s going to be a new way of life, a new start and hopefully I’ll be able to fit in. That’s one thing I have been worried about for a while now, well, ever since I’ve known that I would be coming to Korea. I’m afraid that I’m going to be a loner. But hey! What really are the chances of that happening? There’s got to be SOMEONE… right? (Haha)

The Seoul air was definitely different to the air back in Northern Ireland. It was just different. I didn’t exactly know how to explain it. Everything is just… different. I’m just not used to it. All the signs are in Korean and all I hear is Korean. For a moment I actually felt a little nervous. I haven’t spoken in Korean to strangers for around eighteen years, only to members of my family. I can just tell already I am going to have a totally different lifestyle.

We went to collect our luggage from the baggage area and moved on. As me and my family made our way through the airport, we decided to stop and eat. But we just had to find the cafés and restaurants because this airport is BIG! I forgot to mention that we flew into Incheon Airport. It’s so big! But anyway, back to finding a restaurant. After a while, we finally came to a restaurant and we went in and were shown to a table. I haven’t had Korean food in ages but I knew one thing, it sure was delicious! We looked through the menu and decided to get Korean barbeque with rice and also a dish of Kimchi. As I waited for the food, I just took the time to appreciate the surroundings. It was just like a little traditional Korean restaurant. Everyone was siting either on their knees or with their legs crossed on the floor onto top of little cushions. The room filled with the mouth-watering smells of the food coming from the kitchen.  I really missed this. But just as I was so deep in thought, I was disturbed by a waitress holding several plates on a tray. I looked calm on the outside but inside I was jumping around with happiness. I hadn’t eaten in around eight hours! I was starving! I guess Hyuk-Jin was starving too. Before all the plates where put on the table, he had already set into his bowl of rice and had already eaten almost half of it.

“Kamsahamnida!” my dad said as the lady had finished serving us.

“Let’s get this meat cooked!” he yelled as he began to place the pieces of beef and pork onto the grill in the middle of the table.

~Several hours later~

“There’s Namsan Tower!” said Hyuk-Jin as we drove by in the taxi. It was a rather long journey to our new home, much longer than I thought. But I guess mum and dad tried to get a house as close as possible to my new school. Remember? I am going to be attending the School of Performing Arts in Seoul. I still have to get my uniform though. But I don’t start for a few days yet because we need to get the house sorted and get properly settled in.

“And look at the size of that shopping mall!” I shouted with a huge grin on my face. I looked around to my mum and she had an expression similar to mine. We were like best friends when it came to shopping. Quite often me and my mum would have had a ‘Girls Day Out’ back in Northern Ireland, but never to this scale! This was going to be great!

Within another fifteen minutes of travelling we arrived at our new house. It was quite nice. It was slightly bigger than our previous house which was good. I was hoping that my room was going to be bigger too! It was a two-storey house but inside it was quite modern.

 This is what the living room and kitchen looks like (excuse the people lol)

This is what the exterior of our new house looked like  

As I walked in, I was welcomed by cardboard boxes everywhere. It was going to be a pain to unpack all this but it had to be done. It was already 7:00pm and I was super tired but we all put in the effort and made a good start to the unpacking. After a few hours, we had sorted out all of the beds, unpacked our clothes and most of the stuff in the kitchen was also unpacked. It was finally starting to really look like a home. It was now 11:00pm and we decided to go to sleep. I went up to my room and got out my pyjamas and headed to the bathroom. Before I even helped with any unpacking I went to claim my room and in case you’re wondering what it looks like here’s a picture.

 This is my bedroom, pretty... isn't it?

I washed up quite quickly compared to normal even though I washed my hair aswell. My hair is quite long as it goes to the middle of my back. I very rarely have it hanging loose, I don’t know why. I just find it easier to put it up into either a bun or a ponytail. I walked back into my room towards my bed which had been freshly made. I plopped myself right into the middle and it was like heaven. It by far beats sleeping in a plane that is for sure! After a few minutes of rolling around restlessly I finally found a comfortable position and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

~Next Morning~

I woke up to find myself nearly rolling off my bed. At that same moment I heard birds singing outside with the sunlight shining in through the window. I slowly got up to look out my window and I just stood there amazed. I didn’t know I had a view light that. We only a sligh