Leaving in 12 days!

Once again, I can't believe how quickly this trip crept up on me!  I am leaving in twelve days - less than two weeks!  Yesterday, I was informed that our dorm check-in date has been pushed back a day to June 24th due to dorm maintenance.  I am still arriving on June 23rd, so this definitely presents a problem.  This news put me in a panic yesterday morning at 8:15 a.m. when I opened the email, and all day long people warned me against staying in a hostel (which now have negative connotations due to the awful "scary" movie, Hostel).  Luckily, ONU intends to find a way to keep the students arriving on the 23rd together (wherever that may be).      

A part of me will be disappointed if we end up staying in a traditional Western-style hotel.  I have been reading through the Lonely Planet Seoul City Guide and learned that Seoul has many "guesthouses" for foreigners to stay in. The guidebook describes these guesthouses as ideal for "budget-conscious foreigners"; "a big plus is that the young staff speak English and can give advice about getting the most out of your stay in Seoul" (146).  For the same price as a Western-style hotel room, we could "opt for a ondol room, a Korean-style room where [we] sleep on a yo (padded quilt) on the ondol (heated) floor" (146).  I think that would be cool and definitely a unique experience.  Such guesthouses are typically "one-story wooden buildings with tiled roofs built around a small courtyard or garden" (149).  I am certainly open to experimentation in terms of such accommodations (definitely more so than I am with food, which I have also been reading about!)  Hopefully my arrival plans firm up quickly - I am trying to stay positive and calm about my arrival, but it would be a little easier with some concrete plans.

I feel like I have a lot to do still before I leave, but I don't know entirely what I should be doing.  It is very unsettling, as I am not a procrastinator.  I don't want to buy a ton of stuff before I leave because I know I'll buy a lot while I'm there.  I will have very limited time to "get things done" (so vague!) next week, as I will be in Put-in-Bay from Monday to Wednesday with Greg, Dan, and Beth, and working all day Thursday and Friday.  I suppose I have packing to do, but I cannot really begin that task until Monday before I leave.  Hopefully that will give me enough time to be fully prepared to leave on Wednesday, June 22nd.