School Begins + China

Now entering into our third week of graduate school I am getting a better idea of what I have gotten myself into. I now have filed almost all of the new student paperwork, have import things like student ID card and academic advisor and am starting to know where things are and how things work better than I did in the past. The learning curve is almost done.

I now have my 3rd Chinese visa, the most visas 2nd only to Korea (unsure how many I've had to far for this peninsula). I have airplane tickets, train tickets, and enough currency converted for this trip and hopefully the next. Considering how Chinese currency is going up in value it makes sense to convert more now rather than later. I have little stashes of foreign currency because in the next few years I'll be visiting China, Japan, and the US again.

Weather

The hot weather is near it's end right now. With the typhoon that recently came through it brought much needed cool and a rather wicked breeze through Seoul. According to the news reports the typhoons normally come through Jeju Island area (southern tip of Korea) but they have been going steadily northward and now are going through the middle of the peninsula.

I knew about a bunch of blown over trees (saw it all over the city) but didn't hear three subway lines were affected.

And the weather here changes quickly. Koreans pride themselves (and get taught in school) that one of the great things about Korea is it's "four distinct seasons." The problem is there really are two main seasons and it feels like fall and spring are more transitions. But for now the weather is wonderful and the rain and the winds have been wonderful for me as well.