I never expected that getting a cell phone in Korea would be so difficult for foreigners. Only one company offers service to foreigners without having a Korean sign as backup.

One of the Yonsei student groups gathered 30 or so students in the afternoon and we all went by subway to a huge market across town where they sell everything. Theres a section of the market about half the size of a super Wal-Mart that is full of merchants selling new and used phones of every type imaginable. We weren’t having much luck bargaining, and in the end we all had to lower our standards because even used phones aren’t cheap here. I picked one up for about $50 and they threw in an extra battery. Woooo… It took around 4 hours for everyone to get something satisfactory, then we piled back into the subway and headed back towards Yonsei to get prepaid minutes with KTF.

This also took a bit of time, but it wasn’t so chaotic.

So, I’ve got a Korean cell phone, and hopefully some sort of a social life.

That night I went out with some new people that I met in the lobby of the dorm. Andrew, who is here just to study Korean Language, Diana from Arizona, Stefan from Austria, and Ben from Australia. Andrew led the way since he knew the area better and could actually speak a bit of Korean. We ended up hanging out at a place that a couple of his Korean friends owned.

It was a pretty decent place. Not a dive like most of the places to hang out here are. A few more of Andrew’s Korean friends showed up and joined us. It was a fun night, for sure. We ended up at the dorm about 1:30am.

Today I plan to go to a jazz concert on campus with August(Gus) and Arthur and some of their friends. I don’t really know what else is going on, but it should be interesting to experience.

In general Korean news, I was reading an article about the US control of South Korean forces will be relinquished in 2012. It was orignally planned for 2009, but the government here was hesitant because they are unsure of the security situation. It’s something that I haven’t really though about much until coming here, so it’s worth reading if you’ve got a minute.