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Anne Gieske and Steven Blesi were identified as the two U.S. nationals among the dead after a Halloween stampede killed more than 150 people in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood on Saturday.
Blesi was a Kennesaw State University junior, and just two months into a study abroad program in South Korea. He had reportedly long-dreamed of attending school in the eastern country, but was delayed for a couple of years while the pandemic minimized international travel, according to The Washington Post. The Georgia native finally realized the milestone in August, when he hopped aboard a plane from Atlanta to Seoul. He had a passion for international business and aspired to be multilingual and work in East Asia.
“It was like it stabbed like a hundred million times simultaneously,” Blesi’s father, Steve, told The New York Times. “It was like your world just collapsing. It was numb and devastating all at the same time.”