Today is my first Friday since class has started and it's great not having class! At least it would've been today if I didn't have to wake up at 8am... so after staying out till roughly 2:30 last night, I had to force myself out of bed at 8am. It was tough, but I'm glad I got up and went with the AGA group to the Suwon Immigration Office. So since I will be here longer than 90 days I had to go to the immigration office and get my Alien Registration Card. I needed to get it as soon as possible because I need it to go to Japan and come back and it takes a few weeks to process. I had heard horor stories about this place from other students and foreign English teachers...all their stories were true. Imagine a horrible DMV and then make it a few times worse. When we got there I took a number, I was number 268, they were currently on number 64...and they went in order. Luckily the group of us was with AGA members helping us, and some of them stayed while we went to HomePlus to go get some food and they texted us periodically to update us on the current number. We arrived at 9:15am and I was finally seen at the counter at 1:20pm. Yes, you read that right. 4 hours of waiting - way worse than any DMV branch. Anyways, now it's done, I don't have to think about it anymore, and I don't have to return again unless I come to teach in Korea. Now I'm relaxing in my dorm before the Friends Club party tonight. Friends Club is an organization on campus that holds events mixing international students with Koreans. I can't wait to go, and I think all of us exchange students are really excited because it's a great way to meet Koreans. The party ends around midnight probably and then we might go to Seoul and go to some clubs or whatnot.

This next part of this post is just something that's fascinated me lately and I wanted to write about. Since February 27th until today, South Korea and the U.S. have been conducting their annual joint military exercises called "Key Resolve". In the past week I have noticed many military jets flying over in formation, blackhawks are constantly flying over during the day, and there have been many military trucks on the roads. Here in Suwon there is a joint ROK and US air force base and driving the bus to Seoul you pass many installations tucked in the mountains and sophisticated radars on the hills. Of course seeing news on the tv about North and South Korea portrays the situation a certain way, but living here is a very different aspect. It's very odd to think that downtown Seoul, and a metro area with over 20,000,000 people, is only 41km south of the North Korean border...that's the same distance from Dallas to Ft. Worth. As well, in a nation where all men age 20 must serve 2 years of military service, there is always that threat of conflict on the mind. I feel no anxiety about being here at all, and that's not the intention of my writing, but when I see the f-15's and f-16's flying low in formation every day many times per day it makes me think of where I am and the bigger picture that is hard to see sometimes.