Couple Days in and I'm Alive

I should introduce myself before I write on my culturally rich experiences in Korea. I'm Nicole Rootes. A 22 (almost 23 on September 1st) year old, fresh out of school, confused individual like most people who get a degree and still don't know what to do with their life. I'm from Minnesota where the stereotypically accent we have is "don't you know" and "you betcha!" However, I grew up in a confusing situation. I grew up in an American household until the young age of nine. After my mother got booted from our lovely townhouse, we were out of a home and a roof over our head. My sister's father, Hamidullah Khosti, took us in. I say sister's father because my mother and him are not married and never had been before. As you can probably tell from his name, he is from Afghanistan. So as you can imagine, going from an carefree American household to a strict Afghan household was a huge culture shock for me. But it made me more culturally aware as I grew up into the lady I am today. :) 

Okay, well I will write more about my childhood later because I would love to share my cultural experience and how I managed to adapt to the Afghan cuture. 

Anyways, getting back to being alive. I am, obviously, for my family members who thought I would die here. (cough mom cough)  I am having a great time here though. I met a lot of awesome people from all over the world. I learned how to pay for things in a convenience store and vending machines. I am picking my Korean back up. I had a lovely two second coversation with one of our lunch ladies in Korean about eating and kimchi. If you guys don't know, kimich is HUGE here. Every meal, kimichi is there. Everywhere I look, kimchi is right next to me. Basically if you don't like kimchi, you should learn. It is a whole separate food group here. I do love it and actually crave it at times even though I have it all the time already. 

Basically, I am alive and well. I miss home, friend, family and familiarity but I am having a blast. I do not regret coming here, and I look forward to the upcoming adventures. 

Until the next time I feel like writing ;) Annyeonghi-gaesayo.