Day....I've lost count

Today we're moving out of the orientation venue and going to our new cities and homes.
I'm all packed up and ready to go! Hopefully it won't take too long before I have internet at my new place and then I'll post a gigantic post of epic proportions about all the things I've been doing in the past week.

Days 21-23

It's been a while since I've been able to post. I've been really busy these past few days.

Friday, we had our fairwell lunch and then everyone moved to their provinces for a week more of orientation. It was really sad to leave a ton of new friends, but I am still with a lot of friends from class. I miss Mark and Steven, as well as my Jeju friends. However, even though I miss my friends, I'm really happy to be in Gongju, my new home!

After arriving in Gongju, we went to our new place to stay, Chungnam Institute of Foreign Language Education (CIFEL). The opening ceremony was really disorganized. They went all out for decorations though. The cafeteria was filled with white and pink balloons stuck together like flowers.

Saturday, we had a cultural field trip. We went to some old tombs and a museum in the area about the Baekje kingdom, of which Gongju was once the capital city. After a long day, we had dinner in Gongju, and then we were free to leave for the weekend. The place we had dinner was really close to KNU campus, so I walked over and met up with HunYong. On my way to campus, I walked right passed my soon-to-be-apartment! I was really excited that I had found it so easily and without even trying. I had wanted to look for it, but Google earth wouldn't show me where it was, so I was just going to have to wait, but I stumbled upon it on my own. It really is right next to campus, so Jina did a wonderful job of finding a place.
When I met HunYong, it started sprinkling, so we went to a coffee shop, had a drink and talked. After we were done there, the rain had stopped, so HunYong walked me around campus and told me what all the buildings were for. After we had seen everything, it was time for him to eat dinner, so he called a Call Taxi for me, and then I headed back to CIFEL. I was planning on just staying here for the weekend, and doing some laundry, but when I got back, Ji and two guys from group 6 who I had met before, Daniel and Ali, were sitting outside. They asked if I wanted to go to Seoul and stay the night in a jimjilbang, Dragon Hill Spa & Sports. I didn't really think about it, and just said yes. So I packed up but then on the way to the bus station, I realized I didn't have any money! O_O However, the guys, were nice and paid for everything. I really need to get to a bank and exchange my US dollars for Korean won so I can pay them back.

By the time we got to Seoul, I was so tired. I just wanted to get to the Jimjilbang, even though I was pretty nervous about the public showering. It was a little awkward at first in the girls changing room, as I didn't know where to look. I didn't want to be rude and stare, but I didn't want to be extremely awkward and stare at the ceiling. In the beginning, I just looked at my feet.

I'm not one to shower before bed, so I just changed into the clothes they provided, and then Ji and I went down to the first floor, where they had hot and cold rooms. My favorite room was the cold room. It just felt so shockingly refreshing, especially after being in the hot rooms.
Around midnight, I went to sleep on the floor of the room by the kiln-like hot rooms. I liked the smell a lot. However, after about an hour of sleep, someone turned the air conditioner on, which I was lying right in front of! I was freezing cold, so I moved to one of the hot rooms, which was supposed to look like it was inside of an egyptian pyrimid. Again, I really liked the smell there. They had herb sacks hanging on the walls. The temperature there was 38 degrees C (that's about 100 degrees F!). I fell asleep in there and was probably sleeping there for two hours. Probably not the best idea. I woke up drenched in sweat. The clothes they gave me to wear were soaking wet. It was pretty gross. I decided to go somewhere else after that and try to sleep more. I also wanted to find somewhere more comfortable than on the floor.

I went to the lounge they had for foreigners only. Both Ali and Daniel were sleeping there. Daniel was sleeping on the floor, and Ali was sleeping in a massage chair. The chair next to Ali was open, so I slept there for probably three broken hours.

The guys woke me up at about 7:30 and said they were going for breakfast and that they would be back to get Ji and I in 30 minutes. So Ji and I then had to take the plunge and go to the actual public bathing. Honestly, I think Ji was more uncomfortable with the whole thing than I was. It wasn't so bad once I got past the fact that no one cared that everyone was naked. After washing, Ji and I got into some of the pools. Ji really liked the cold water. It was too cold for me at only 18 degrees C (68 degrees F). Strange when you consider the fact that I really liked the cold room, and it was only 13 degrees C (55 degrees F). While Ji sat in the cold water, I hung out in some 44 degree C water (104 degrees F). It felt so nice!

We didn't stay very long after that, since we knew the guys would be waiting for us. Went back to the locker room, changed, and then we went to breakfast. The guys and Ji all had hamburgers for breakfast. I had a donut and hot cocoa from Dunkin' Donuts. I just can't eat a hamburger for breakfast. Too weird.

After breakfast, Ji went to meet her dad, and the guys and I went to the National Museum of Korea. It was kind of cool. We were all too tired though to actually pay much attention. We zoomed through everything, had some ice cream, and then went to Seoul Station to see about getting a pre-paid phone for Ali. Apparently there was some e-mail they got about being able to get a free phone at a Hilton hotel in Seoul. However...the guys couldn't remember where the specific Hilton was! After wandering around and being hot and tired, I mentioned there were a lot of phone places at Kangnam station. We took a taxi there, and then wandered around asking every phone seller if they had a pre-paid phone. Nearly no one did. The first person had one, but it was for $100. We kept asking, and finally we found one place that had a phone for only $40. Daniel told Ali he had to buy it. Ali was pretty hesitant, but we peer-pressured him into buying it. After that, we took a taxi to the bus terminal, and then got on a bus back to Gongju. The bus ride was about an hour and a half. I slept for most of it. We got back to CIFEL at 6:15, had dinner, and now I'm here finishing typing up this.

Oh yeah! No pictures for a while. We don't have wireless here, but we do have a computer lab. That means I can't upload my pictures from my laptop to my post and I don't want to put my pictures on the computer lab computers.

Days 19 & 20

Day 19
We had to present our mock classes. My group was first, and I was opening our group up. I was extremely nervous and I had to sing two songs. I don't believe I looked like a very good teacher. It's rather hard to be enthusiastic about teaching first graders when your 'first graders' are actually extremely bored 20-year-olds.
However, despite how horrible it was to go first, I got my part over and done with rather early, and then I was free to just sit back and try to not fall asleep for some of the other presentations. Presentations took up the entire day of classes.

After dinner, I hung out with GoPoom for a bit. It was awkward then, because there were a lot of new people, and Ji was with me so she spent a lot of time talking with them in Korea. One guy couldn't tell why we were there. He asked if we knew what the concept of a club was. I think that was his way of saying we weren't welcome. However, EunYoung was there, and he has never sent me away, so I just stayed and tried to keep out of the way. I did go into the practice room for one of the groups and took a few pictures. None came out very well, because it was so dark.

At 7:30, everyone had to go to an auditorium for a live radio show. It was fun, because they had a few live bands/groups. A lot of TaLK scholars complained and said it was boring, but I enjoyed it. The show won't be aired until Aug. 22nd at 2pm, Korean time (Aug. 21st midnight back home). You can listen online at TBS Radio, but there really isn't any point in listening, since I'm not in it at all.

Day 20

Today, we had a field trip. We were originally planning on going to a mud festival, but because it was supposed to rain (and it did), they changed the plan. Instead, we went to a Korean cooking class! It was a lot of fun, and I made delicious lunch for myself. We were in groups, so I didn't really make all my lunch. I cut and cooked the carrots, as well as mixed the egg, the marinade for the burdock, cut the crab, and rolled my own Kimbap. Sounds like a lot, but there was a ton more that my group members did. We were the first group done though, so I think we all worked really well together and divided up the labor quite nicely.

After making and eating our lunch, we headed to Lotte World, an amusement park in downtown Seoul. It was so much fun! At first, I was a little worried because I didn't have anyone to hang out with because Ji and Mark were on a different bus than me. However, I saw one of the girls who was in my cooking group, Esther, so I asked if I could tag along with her and her friends. Turns out one of the guys was Frank, who was in my mock lesson group. The other guy was David, an extremely tall guy from the UK. All three of them were late-comers who just arrived this past weekend.
I had a ton of fun with them and I especially like Esther. We were all cracking jokes that she was our tour guide because she was wearing a khaki skirt and a red polo shirt and she is a Korean-American so she was the only one who spoke Korean.

The rides at Lotte World were a lot of fun, especially the Aquatica ride (real name?). It was so fast and zoomed into tiny holes that didn't look big enough for our car. Frank was feeling a little sick so he didn't want to ride. Esther, David, and I were waiting in line patiently when a worker came up with a big pole. Esther and David were busy talking, but I saw her hold it up to David and I realized it was a height limit pole. I said to her "Too tall?" and she said "No ride. Too big." It was the saddest thing ever! David said "I feel like a freak." Everyone had been looking at him since the moment we got there. David is 6'4", so it's understandable that he stands out.
Esther and I stayed in line and rode. It really was a fun and fast ride.

There were tons of other fun things we did, but I'm way too tired to write about everything. We didn't get back to campus until 11pm. Then we had to pick up our cups we made. I picked up my cup, and it wasn't broken, so I was happy. I'll take pictures of it another day and post them.
I think now I'll go to bed. I have to pack up my bags tomorrow because we are leaving. It's kind of sad. I don't want to say good-bye to my friends in other provinces.

Day 16

Start of day 17, but I was too tired to post last night.

Yesterday, we were assigned groups for our demo class. Mark is in my group, but his missed our planning class because he was sleeping. Our topic is "the body" which is pretty easy. I have to do the introduction/warm-up and then I get to pretend to be a student. We are presenting first, which means I'll be getting this thing over and done with.

All the rest of my classes yesterday were extremely boring and they were all in a hall in the library, with all the TaLK scholars together. They talked about what a TaLK scholar had to do and went over some official stuff. I personally thought they should have done that in the first week, instead of the last week. Warren sat in front of me and to the left and he said he couldn't stop falling asleep during the lectures, so for the second two after lunch, I would kick his chair when I saw him falling asleep. He said thanks. ^_^
I also asked him if he had FB, and he said he had just gotten it but he doesn't know how to search for people. However, I searched for him and all the results I get are for girls named Kim Warren.

On lunch break, I had an hour between finishing lunch and when our next lecture started. I didn't want to go back over the hill to my dorm, because then I would have to come back and I didn't want to be late, so I wandered around the library taking pictures. I ended up going up to the fourth floor, where I found a museum! The exhibit was about ancient maps. I couldn't read anything, but I had fun walking around and looking. When I first got there, the guy said hello (in Korean of course) and then kept talking, but I had no idea what to do. I just sort of smiled and looked confused. Then he gave me the pamphlet for the museum and gestured to go in.
It was pretty neat and took up about 40 minutes. After that, I went back to our hall, and talked with Salvador, one of the guy I went to Noraebang with. He is also in intermediate Korean class, so he talked about what they covered on Monday because I didn't go.

I really meant to go to Korean class last night as well. But after dinner, I heard the guys in GoPoom practicing, so I went down to visit with them and before I knew it, it was 7:35 and class was already started. Ji and I were supposed to go to the movies last night as well, but the show started at 8:45 and she wanted to meet the guys in GoPoom. So she came over, and then we didn't leave there until about 8:15. After signing out and all that, we realized there was no way we could walk to the theater in time. Instead, we went to Dunkin' Donuts and got coolattas. While we were drinking them there, we talked about all the people in class we don't like and what types of people look better.

After leaving there, we wandered over to the basketball courts on campus and watched some people playing. They were all pretty bad. -_-u I can't wait to get home this winter and watch some Cougar B-Ball.

I guess that was about all I did yesterday. I'm very tired today though. I didn't want to wake up and I still don't want to be awake. I guess I'm dreading the demo class presentation.

Day 15

Posting every weekday is getting rather hard. I don't have anything to say. Nothing has been going on.
My classes are mostly over. Tomorrow we are preparing for a demo class and then on Wed. we are presenting. Thursday we are going on a field trip, and Friday is our closing ceremony. After that, we will all head out to our provinces. I am excited about getting to Gongju, but not looking forward to the fact that I have to start teaching so soon!

I tried out Ji's skates today during one of our longer breaks. I wasn't very good at it, but I like to think I was better at it than a lot of the other people who tried them.

Warren took a picture with me today. ^_^ He really is a cute guy. Too bad I don't know him that well. I mentioned him to Jina and now she seems to think he is my boyfriend.

Days 12-14

Day 12 (Summary of Friday)
Ji fell and hit her head right before our first class, so she spent most of the day at the hospital. She's fine and was able to come back about half-way through our third class (magic class).
My classes were all rather fun. I learned a lot of new games and songs to use in class, as well as a few 'magic' tricks.
I went out to Noraebang with a group that evening. It was a lot of fun, and I even sang a few songs (never solo though). I didn't get back to my room until about 1:30am.

Day 13 (full details)
I woke up at 8 and got ready for my first trip into Seoul on my own. I thought the bus fare was 1800 won, but I wasn't sure, so when I got to the bus stop, I asked a girl in very broken Korean if that was how much it cost. She said yes, so I was very proud of myself for being right. When the bus got there around 9:15, I wasn't exactly sure where to put my money, but I figured it out soon enough. The bus ride was rather uneventful. I queitly listened to my music, and an older lady sat next to me all the way into the city. Along the way, I noticed a lot of cars stopped on the side of the road. Some of them looked like they were having car troubles because there were jacks and spare tires and tow trucks and police cars here and there. But some of the cars looked like people were just stopping for a picnic. There were coolers and lots of people and everyone seemed to be smiling and having a good time. I'm not sure what exactly was going on.
I got to my stop at about 10:10, and Jina was waiting for me. We went to Krispy Kream doughnuts and had donuts and coffee. We stayed there for about an hour just talking. Jina gave me a T-money card, which is like a rechargable fare card for the subways, trains, and buses. After we left Krispy Kream, we got on the subway an went to the Samsung station so we could go to the aquarium at the COEX mall. It was a lot of fun and I took a ton of pictures. Before going to the aquarium, we stopped in a store that had tons of stuff from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli (Me at the door with Totoro!). After the aquarium, we went into some shops. There was a puzzle shop that I thought was really cool. There were tons of jigsaw puzzles; I wanted to buy them all! Another shop we went into had tons of cute stickers and notebooks and cell phone straps. There was also a poster of 둘리 on the door so I took a picture with my nickname-sake. In the store, I bought a funny cell phone accessory for a guy in my class, Steven. He once acted out a skit where he was gay, and he kept calling the other guy "sailor" so we all call him sailor now. The accessory is a funny buff cartoon guy in underwear wearing a sailor hat. The package describes it as "Strong Marine Boy Mobile Strap". Jina bought me a book for keeping vocab in, so I'm going to be filling it up with Korean words I am learning.
After all that....there was my first bad experience in Korea. Jina went to the bathroom and I was sitting by some escalators waiting for her. While I was waiting, I was looking at a little kid and his father because the kid was cute and I had nothing better to do. Eventually though, I saw a girl walk past me, so I turned to look at her shoes. There was a guy standing in front of me with his hands clasped by his crotch. When I first looked past him, I thought he had a really distorted thumb and I felt kind of bad for him. But when I tried to nonchalantly checking to see what was the matter, I realized it was his erect junk! O_O I quickly looked back at the little kid and then I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to stay there waiting for Jina, but I thought she would be back soon. I sat there for about another minute because I didn't know what to do. Once the shock wore off, I quickly got up and rushed towards the bathroom. I thought I was going to puke, I was so disgusted. I still feel disgusted. And I hate that even though I didn't do anything wrong, I still feel ashamed. I stood outside the ladies bathroom for a good thirty minutes, trying not to cry, terrified every time a guy walked towards me to go to the mens bathroom. Eventually, I realized Jina wasn't in the bathroom, but I was still a little too scared to go back towards where the guy had been, where I knew Jina would be frantically looking for me. I walked back very slowly. I was so scared. When I got close toward the escalators, Jina called out my name and came running to me. That's when I started to cry and asked if we could leave. We got to an empty service hallway and I told her about what had happened. Turns out, it happens all the time in Korea. We went to the service desk and told them about it, but because so much time had passed and the guy was no longer there, they couldn't really do anything other than apologize to me.
After that, Jina had a surprise for me to cheer me up. She wanted me to meet her friend, but I already knew her friend. It was my JaeLang 언니! We went to lunch (I was starving!) and I had kimbap. It was really good, but I made a pretty big mess with it, because it kept falling apart on me! JaeLang also had a cell phone for me! It is under her name and I just have to pay her each month so she can pay the bill. She said it is around 25000 won/month. It is really neat because I can make video calls! I accidentally did that to Yosun when I was entering in her number into my phonebook.
After lunch, we stopped at a makeup place and Jina painted the nails on one of my hands with different pastel colors. She said they look like candies. Green, pink, purple, blue, and orange. Yum? We then got bubble tea (my first time! I'm not a huge fan of the texture of boba) and sat by these really cool fountains. Music was playing and the lights and fountains were syncronized (somewhat) with the notes. It was really pretty!

We stayed there a while just talking. A group of people came by with a high-tech cameras and were taking pictures. They took one of us. Jina wasn't aware of it so when she got off the phone, I told her and she screamed! It was so funny.
Yosun called and asked if we wanted to go to Caribbean Bay, a waterpark, the next day. We decided it would be fun, so Jina and I came to Suwon to pick up my swimsuit and pjs and then headed to Cheon-An so I could meet Jina's family and spend the night there. However, when we were in my dorm room, Jina checked her test score from the TOEIC exam she had taken, and she did not do as well as she was expecting so she felt pretty down and said she didn't feel like going to the waterpark. I brought my swimsuit just in case she changed her mine though. The train ride was rather uneventful and it was dark outside. Now every time I see a Korean male in public, I check to see if they are exposing themselves. I really want to see someone again so I can kick him. I know that isn't nice and it isn't the right thing to do, but I am really just so mad and disgusted by it that I want to hurt them. -_-u

Jina's family was really nice! I also found out that Jina's father isn't just a professor, he's apparently really good in his field (biology) so he has written a few books and his biography is going to be in the 2010 Who's Who in the World book!
Jina's mom doesn't speak much English but she definitely had the hospitality down great. When we got there, she wanted to order pizza for me, but Jina told her mom I didn't want to eat pizza when I was in Korea. Her mom said that I was sweet because I wanted to try new things. I accepted when she offered me watermelon. Then I felt very awkward when I was given a tray of my own, and Jina and her parents all ate from the same tray and plate. I mentioned it and Jina said that her mom was not sure if I would be comfortable sharing so she did not want to do that.
Her parents did not stay up for too long after we arrived, nor did I. I was very very tired. Jina and I got ready for bed, but we did not sleep until after 1:30 because we were talking.

Day 14
Jina and I slept in until about noon (so lazy!). At about 1, YoSun came over to Jina's house and then we had bulgogi for lunch that Jina's mom made. It was really yummy and tasted like real food, not like the stuff I've been having at the cafeteria and in restaurants. We talked about going to the waterpark, but it was really hot outside, so we decided we should wait until later in the year, when it starts cooling down.
After lunch, Youna went out with Jina's mom and grandmother. We watched a Korean tv show/comedy game show that was really funny! I couldn't understand a word they said, but I was laughing all the time. We started watching Howl's Moving Castle when the others returned. Youna then took Jina, Yosun, and I to a bakery where we had delicious bread and I had asian ice cream for the first time. It's finely crushed ice with red beans and fruits. Mostly watermelon, but there was also some kiwi and pineapple. It was different, but really good. The red beans were a little hard to get used to at first because of their texture when frozen on the inside.
After we ate, Youna dropped us off at a mall across the street from the train station. We went to a photo sticker booth and took some really fun pictures. They're posted on facebook, and we each got one copy of each picture (three different pictures in all).
After the picture, we went to the train station, and Jina and I said goodbye to Yosun, who was staying there. I got off the train in Suwon, while Jina continued into Seoul. After getting off the train, I managed to find my way out of the station and to the bus stop, where the bus I wanted was waiting. I hopped on and had to stand for a long time because the bus was so crouded. However, as the bus got further and further away from the station, it became emptier and emptier. I had to go pretty much the whole circut before I got to KyungHee university. I was a little scared because it was taking a long time and I was in an area I didn't know, but I knew the bus had to go to KyungHee because it was listed on the route map.

I got back to my dorm room safely and am now finished updating about my weekend.

Day 11

Today I had two fun classes! My first class was Korean Pop Dancing. We sort of learned the dances to two different pop songs. I say sort of because they didn't teach us the whole dance, and even what the taught us was so hard, I didn't really learn it all.

My class after that was actually a very entertaining class. The instructor was a very good entertainer and he told us that we need to be "teacher-tainers" because we teach, but we should also entertain our students. And he told us we should not worry so much about grammatical rules and exact pronunciation, but we should focus on getting the kids confident and passable at having a conversation in English. He also told us that young children are very good at mimicry, so we should use that as a tool and speak as much as possible.

Lunch was...not that tasty. I just had rice and fish. The fish had a ton of bones so it was really hard to eat, and it was very salty so it was very hard to enjoy eating. I didn't eat a ton, but I was still really slow at eating, so everyone was done and gone before me. Mark stayed with me until I was finished though, and I thought that was very nice.

My third class today was really boring. The lecturer just read through her lecture, which we all had printed in our handbook. It was rather funny because her lecture was on how to be a good storyteller.

My last class of the day was Taekwondo. It was tough! I'm terrible when it comes to complicated moves. Moving both hands very quickly at the same time is very difficult for me. And I had to be partners with Greg (the jerk guy) twice! The first time, we just had to run, jump and clap hands. That wasn't so bad except that his hands were very sweaty and he tried telling me what to do, even though the instructors said my row was the leaders and his row was the followers.
The second time we had to pair up, we were 'pretend sparing' and we were just supposed to tap the other persons shoulder. When we started to get paired up, he said "I don't want to do this. I'm not going to hit a girl." That made me mad that he was saying he didn't want to be partners with me because I was a girl. I didn't want to be partners with him either, but that's the way it worked out so we had to do it. No use complaining about things we can't change. I told him "Don't be so dumb. We're partners. And you aren't going to be hitting me. You're just supposed to tap my shoulder." I guess he heard that as "Go right ahead and get in my face and slap my shoulders like we're in a girl fight." The minute we started, he was all over my and he just kept slapping my shoulders. I couldn't do much to block his arms because I was trying to keep him from getting too close to me. But his arms are longer, so he could reach past the distance I was putting. And then when we were done, he did something that I was really mad about. The loser is supposed to do 10 push-ups, so I started to do push-ups because I had lost. He then says "Oh, you shouldn't be doing push-ups. You're a girl. I'll do the push-ups instead." I just continued to do my 10 push-ups.

After that, it was dinner time. I had dinner with my roomie and her friend Brock. We discussed our weekends plans, how much of a jerk Greg is, as well as how cute the instructor was who taught my second class. After dinner, they headed back to the dorms, and I went down some stairs towards a band practice room that was under the stairs, because I heard the band practicing and I wanted to listen to them again. I sat outside on the stairs and just listened. Some of them would come out of the room to go upstairs and back down but they never really said much to me. Eventually though, one of the guys waved at me, and when I waved back, he asked me "Why are you here?" I mentioned that I just wanted to listen, and they said I could go in the room with them. Turns out this under-the-stairs storage room is quite big! And they've got it decked out quite nicely. They have an outer room as well as a practice room, that has padded walls. Their band name is GoPoom and they said they are "Kyung Hee's Rock club." They then asked me if I wanted to join. :D I told them I was only there for a while, and I didn't play any instruments but I liked to listen. They then started asking me about what kind of music I like and what my favorite rock band is. I said I liked just about everything so they started asking me about different bands. One of the guys thought that Green Day was the greatest band ever. Another guy, the drummer, really liked Metallica. His shirt said "God so loved the world that he gave his only son". I don't know if he really knew what it meant, but I thought it was a nice thing for me to see.
I didn't get any of their names except for 은영(EunYoung). I'm hoping they don't mind if I go there after dinner again tomorrow evening. I really enjoyed spending time with them, even if they were asking me a ton of questions and it felt a little awkward at times. I really did like it.

And I guess I'm going out for Noraebang tomorrow night. So late! But I guess I can survive.

Day 10

Lets see here. I remembered to take my camera with me today! However....the battery died after I took a picture of my breakfast. I guess that's a good place to start with the day!


My breakfast this morning was a hotdog on a hoggie bun. No joke. I knew Korean's did not have any distinctions between meals, but I wasn't expecting that.
We went on a field trip today to an elementary school in Cheon-An and then we went to an English camp. The school was a very nice school. The instructor that I watched however...basically showed me what not to do. I don't know if she was just nervous or if it was her first day or something, but she was really bad at it. She would say big words very fast and she wouldn't give the kids time to repeat after her. She just kept saying over and over "Destination. It's where you're going. Destination. Destination. Destination. It's where you're going." And she kept trying to get the kids to say France with a French accent, although she didn't have an accent for anything else.

At English camp...we were paired up with a kid to participate in their 'olympics', bascially another wacky sports day. My little kid did not want to be partners with anyone. I honestly think it was mainly her friend who kept pulling all the little girls away, because when the teacher said they had to have a partner, she came right over while the other girls kept hesitating.
My girl didn't speak any English, and I don't speak enough Korean to be able to communicate. I spelled my name in Korean, and asked if one of the girls was her friend but that was all.
I mostly just cheered for our team.

After two hours of yelling and cheering and clapping, I had a pretty bad headache, so I was ready to leave. I thought maybe I would be able to sleep on the bus ride back, however....everyone else decided it would be fun to do NoRaeBang on the bus. So they turned it on an started singing. Some were pretty good, others were just being silly and bad on purpose.

When we got back to Suwon, they dropped us off outside the movie theater, gave us a free movie ticket and 10,000won (like $10) for dinner. Because I still had a headache, and Ji wasn't feeling well, we went across the street to HomePlus, where I picked up a box of frosted flakes. Ji bought some new headphones and then we headed back to the dorms. On the way, Ji bought some food from one of the little shops along the road.
I talked about guys, and she just walked along and nodded when needed.

I am looking forward to classes tomorrow. Our two morning classes are Korean Pop Dancing and Approaching Pronunciation in Elementary Education. Our two afternoon classes are How to Utilize Drama & Storytelling and Taekwondo. I will also have a Korean lesson. No lesson today because most people are at the theaters still.
And....I got invited to go do NoRaeBang this Friday. I think Jina and I were planning on going to the movies, but if we go early enough, and Jina wants to, I think we could still go, because they aren't planning on going until 9:30.

OH YEAH!
I almost forgot something really funny that happened today when we were at the English camp.
There is a guy in my classes, Greg (I might have mentioned him before). He is...there isn't a nice way of putting what he is. He's arrogant, narcissistic, and rude.
Well today, he asked the guy who was explaining what the English program is like how he controls his students and Greg said something along the lines of "We've only been taught how to do silly girly things like 'Listen to the teacher". When he said that, he was making fun of Kitty, one of the previous scholars who was teaching us (She is from New Zealand so she has a fun accent and says "teach-AH" instead of "teach-ER"). Anywho, that's not the funny part. The funny part was when Dan, the man explaining the program said "Are you by any chance from South Africa?" When Greg said yes, Dan said "Ah! So that explains where the male-dominance question came from!" We all laughed. Greg has not made friends very easily because of his attitude towards women. He called a bunch of girls in our group fat on sports day. That made a ton of people mad, and not just the girls he said that about. A bunch of the guys and most of the girls are avoiding him now. And word has spread to other groups so not many girls are giving him nice looks these days.

Day 9

Today was a rather uneventful day. I had my medical check up so even though I was awake at 8, I wasn't allowed to eat until after I went through the whole process, which my class was not able to start until 11:30.
The medical check up itself was fine. Normal standard stuff. I had to check my eyes, my height and weight, pee in a cup, give blood, check my temperature, talk with a doctor, and get a chest x-ray. After all that (which took an hour and a half), I was finally given a measly little salad-y sandwich. It was good, but not what I was craving. I was really craving a cheeseburger. We also got little cans of coke. Ji didn't want hers because she doesn't like the feeling in her throat (she grew up in Korea so she didn't drink many carbonated things) so I got to have two of the small cans. It felt very nice to have real soda after so long without it.

After the medical check up, we had an hour break before we had to get dressed up and meet our POE (provincial office of education) supervisor, 최 미 경(Choi, MeeKyung). She seemed like a nice lady, and from what I gather, the POE is in Gongju, where I will be living. That means I can help out if I have free time!
I had a hard time understanding Mrs. Choi because she was nervous and shy so she spoke quietly, but if I heard her correctly, our week-long orientation for our province will be in Gongju, and we will be staying on Kongju National University campus in the dorms. I got really excited when I heard that. If it is correct, then I will be on campus a week sooner than I was expecting, and I will be able to familiarize myself. HunYong is also staying on campus until school starts, so I will be able to meet with him when I have free time. I am really looking forward to it.

After Mrs. Choi spoke for a bit, we turned in our signed contracts, and then we were free to go. I came back to the dorms, used some laundry detergent from Ji, and washed my clothes. Now I have lots of clean clothes. I still need to do a load of whites, but it's too small right now. I really miss having a family around and being able to just put tons of clothes together for a full load just like that.

After my clothes were dry, I brought them back to my room, and I was putting them away when my roommate came in and said "Are you going to Korean lessons today?" I had completely forgot about them! I still had 15 minutes though, so I quickly changed from my PJs back into clothes and went to class. There were only about 10 of us there today! Everyone seems to be quitting. I think a lot of people want to go out into town and hang out.

In class today, we covered proper manners. We discussed proper greeting, as well as tabel manners. Because drinking is such a large part of Korean culture, we discussed how to properly accept drinks as well as how to take them. I also learned how to say "I'm sorry. I can't drink alcohol well." I still need to work on memorizing it. I have "I'm sorry" down just fine.
For a funny example of someone explaining the proper way to accept alcohol from an elder, we watched this video. It made me think of Max, because the beer is called Max, and she says "MaxJu Saeyo!" She's basically saying "It's beer!" so the guy helps and called out what she is wanting, Maksu, the Korean way of saying Max.

We also talked about how after dinner, Koreans always seem to go out for 노래방/Noraebang (Korean Karaoke). In order to practice, the teacher made us sing a silly song about bears. I cracked up laughing when I heard "ddung ddung" which means "fat". At the corn maze last year, Jina told Max to say "Nah ddungddung hae" which means "I'm fat." He went around to all the Korean girls saying "I'm fat." We all laughed a lot.

On my way back up to my room, I stopped on the first floor and talked with Chrissy, one of the TaLK coordinators. She was playing music from Wicked, so we talked about theater and showtunes. It was fun.

And I've noticed that I haven't taken my camera with me anywhere at all so far this week.
Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to visit a Korean elementary school. I think I am going to a school in CheonAn, where Jina's family, and YoSun live. After the visit to the school, we will go to an English camp, to see how they are ran. And after that, we were going to go to Everland, an amusement park, but because it is supposed to rain really hard tomorrow, we had a change of plans. We can either go to Lotte World, another amusement park type place that is indoors, or we can go to a movie theater. I've heard Lotte World is more for little kids and it isn't very fun, so I think I would rather go to a movie theater. It would be interesting to watch a Korean movie, even if I cannot understand what is going on. Or I could always choose to go to a Hollywood movie which will be in English with Korean subtitles. I am not sure what I will do. I guess I will see what Ji wants to do and if she wants to hang out

Weekend update and Day 8

I know it's been three days since I updated! I think maybe I'll just update on weeknights. Weekends are too relaxed so I forget I have a schedule of posting.
This post will be a long one though, so you won't feel like you missed anything.

Saturday was our field trip, and it started out with me being rather....homesick? On the bus into the city, I was sitting next to a guy I didn't know, and he was way too close. I don't like touching strangers, so the fact that his arm was touching mine...*shudder*. I was just uncomfortable. And then when we were filling out our forms so we could be off campus, I didn't know what number to put for an emergency contact, since I don't have family in Korea and I wasn't sure of Jina's cell number. So when I told the guy this, he asked if I had any family or friends in Korea. I said no, and then he gave me a pity look. I wrote down my home phone number and then when he walked off, I tried not to cry, but I couldn't help it. I was just so tired and worn out from the whole first week and I really missed home and family and always knowing who I could call if I needed someone.

After we got into Seoul though, I brightened up. The guy sitting next to me, who I later found out is named John, started talking to me instead of the girls in front of us. I took a few pictures on the bus and overall, started to cheer up. I didn't really cheer up though until the Nanta performance. It was AMAZING! Everyone always told me it was like the Korean version of STOMP (they drum by hitting trashcans and scrap metal, things like that). I personally thought Nanta was way better! Nanta was using cooking materials, but they actually did some cutting and cooking. There was a story line and tons of funny parts. The characters all played their parts very well. I would definitely go see it again if I had the chance.

After the Nanta performance, we drove over to Insadong, a historic shopping street and surrounding area. It first, I was walking around by myself, and I started to get scared. I wasn't afraid something would happen to me, but I didn't like being alone in a new city where I don't speak the language. I really had to go to the bathroom and I don't know how to ask for that in Korean. Also, I was afraid it would be one of the public restrooms I've heard about that are basically just a hole in the ground with no toilet tissue or soap. I didn't have to go very far before I found a sign that said "Free: Water, Coffee, Tea, Open Toilets" leading off into an opening by some apartments. I turned in, and the first thing I saw was a giant metal robot thing staring back at me!
I then found some signs directing me to the bathrooms and they were all conveniently labeled in Korean and English. My only problem after that was trying to figure out how to flush the toilet, as it was a Bidet, labeled in Korean, and I didn't want to push the wrong button and have water come rushing out at me. After freaking out a bit more (I'd been freaked out all day because I felt alone), I found the button to flush the toilet. It was hiding behind the back of the toilet seat cover. Same spot as a normal toilet. @_@
As I was washing my hands, I looked at my face in the mirror, and I realized something. I didn't look as scared as I was feeling. In fact, I didn't look scared at all! That gave me a great boost of confidence.

After that confidence boost, I went back out into Insadong with a smile. I ran into a couple who are also in the TaLK program and we discussed where we were planning on going. None of us really had a plan, except that I knew that I wanted to try some pancake things I had seen the street vendors selling and that I had heard about. The other two didn't have anywhere to go, so we headed back towards where I had seen the pancake things. Along the way, we met up with another girl from the TaLK program and we all walked along together until we found the street vendor I was looking for. I ordered one of the pancakes, which I later found out were called Hoddeok. It's a sweet batter, similar but not the same as pancake batter. The lady made them into bowls, filled them with a powder mix (brown sugar and walnut bits) and then closed it up by pinching it all together. She then placed them on the hot skillet and put a weight over them so that they were pressed flat. In the heat, the brown sugar all melted. Hoddeok are delicious and I want to eat them again, but they are very very messy! And if you buy one fresh off the skillet, it's a good idea to not start eating it right away, as the inside will be very hot, and very runny, which hurts on your hands.

After eating the hoddeok, the group I was in migrated away from Insadong. We ended up walking by the old bell pavilion, and then we found the man-made stream they have in the middle of Seoul. It was a very neat place. There were so many families there when we were, and most of them were sitting under the bridge, where they had concrete steps leading down to the water. I took a few pictures there, but didn't stay long. I didn't really like being so far away from the area I was supposed to get back on the bus, so I left the group and went back the four or five blocks on my own.
When I got back to Insadong, I walked through a lot of the shops. I was looking at buying a small bag, because the only bags/purses I have are my two small cluch bags. I didn't end up finding a bag I liked and it was nearly time to head back on the buses, so I bought another hoddeok and sat down to eat it. As I was eating it, Nicole, a girl from Mizzou, came over and sat with me. As we were sitting there, the inside of my hoddeok started dripping all over my hands and my jeans. I was trying to stop it when Nicole says "Oh, look up! James is taking a picture!" James is the official TaLK photographer. T_T I had to look up and smile as hot sticky melted sugar was dripping all over my hands and pants. I think I did well though and didn't look too distracted.

On the bus ride back to the dorms, I was looking forward to getting to my room and taking a nap because I was so worn out. I didn't end up taking a nap, but I know I sure could have used one. I didn't really do much else that day but I went to bed early. My roommate came back around 2am. I thought she was going to stay in the city but I guess she couldn't find a place to stay. I heard from a lot of people that it was really hard finding anywhere that had rooms available.

Sunday, I woke up, talked with Max on gmail, wandered around Suwon until I found the HomePlus store, got a little lost on the way back to the university, and then spent the rest of the day talking with Max on gmail.
When I went to HomePlus, I just wandered around all the aisles, looking at the different foods. I realized when I was there that they do not have cheez-its. I miss them a ton. So I need them in my care packages. I had to content myself with cheddar goldfish. Not at all the same thing.
They also spell Fanta strangly in Korea. It's spelled "hwanta".
And I forgot to get the one thing I was going to HomePlus for: Laundry detergent! So....now I really need to wash my clothes but I don't want to walk back to HomePlus. Ji said I could borrow her detergent though so I might do my laundry tomorrow. If I don't, I won't have anything to wear! D:

I guess that brings me to today, Monday. I was a little slow this morning (not sure what was going on) so when I finished with breakfast, I didn't have time to return to my room to pick up my book for class. That was okay though, because I only really had one morning class because the second morning class was elections for class leader (for real this time) as well as signing up for the sports day events. I wasn't so stoked about the two people who were elected for class leader because I don't know either of them that well, but after our sporting event, I like both of them. Our leaders are Corinne and Warren. I ended up volunteering for both of the two activities where we only needed a few people. Everyone had to participate in dodgeball, but we only needed five people for the wacky relay race, and 20 people for the Human Rope. I'll go into more details about that a bit later.

After eating lunch with Ji, we headed to our next class, pottery, an hour early. We spent that time just hanging out and laughing and quoting movies. I wasn't looking forward to the pottery class because I don't like to get my hands dirty, but it was actually rather fun. We were supposed to make a simple cup. Not so hard, except that I'm worried my cup will break where I patched it together. If it doesn't it will be cute, but not as amazing as Ji's cup. On my cup, I etched a cute little chibi of Me, Max, and Jina. We're all cute, but I'm the cutest. Our translator asked if they were my students. I laughed and said "No, they're my two best friends."
Ji's cup was an amazing...I don't even know how to explain it! There were people in a cave, and a willow tree, and a log cabin and...I can't explain it. It was just amazing. If it turns out well when we get them back, I'll see if Ji will let me take a picture. I'm sure she won't mind.

Um, I'll skip talking about my last class, as it wasn't very eventful. We sang songs, acted like we were kids, the usual in all my TaLK classes.

Sports day...It was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. I was very hesitant at first because I was wearing shorts, and I extremely dislike wearing shorts in front of guys. I had Bulgogi (basically beef strips and rice) but I didn't have time to eat as much as I wanted of it before they said we had to start playing Korean dodgeball. I crammed the last of my rice into my mouth and then ran out onto the playing field. We played three rounds. The first round, we were the best team, with 16 females left in the middle. The second round, we tied, had to do sudden death, and lost terribly. Third round was just girls playing and we lost pretty bad. The other team had some great players. After that, we had a break before we started the wacky relay. I was in the first position, and I had to spin around seven times and then run to the next guy, who would then give me a piggyback ride. I didnt' watch the other girls, but apparently, I was the best runner after spinning in a circle. Everyone said I didn't even look dizzy, and to be honest, I didn't feel dizzy. I slipped as I was jumping onto my partners back though, so that lost us a few seconds, which could have been a few seconds we needed to finish fourth instead of fifth. I dunno though. If we hadn't picked Greg to be our sprinter, we might have won again. I don't know why, but they (the rest of our relay team) wouldn't let the guy who was a sprinter in high school be our sprinter. So he had to be the guy to carry me. He was nice about it though.
In human rope...we all laid in the grass and streched as far as we could to touch the person in front of us. I got a leg cramp major bad, and I had bugs crawling all over my legs, biting me, because I was right under the spot light (we were doing all of this at 8pm). I don't know how long our team was, but we didn't win.
After that, my shoulder was really hurting from streching for so long (I was laying there for 10 minutes) so when Warren, our team leader saw me sort of rubbing my shoulder, he asked if I was okay. I mentioned my shoulder was hurting so he gave me a shoulder massage. It was amazing. If I wasn't so keen on the guy I'm liking right now, I could see myself having a crush on Warren. As it is though, not happening.

Well, that about brings me to now. We have our medical check up tomorrow morning at 11:20 so I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything until then. I'm very unhappy about that. They give us dinner, tell us to run around and spend all of our energy and then say we aren't allowed to eat for over 12 hours. I also have to meet with my POE (provincial office of education) supervisor tomorrow. I guess I had better get some sleep now.

Day 5

Today has been a pretty a-ok day!
My first class was Korean Papercraft, and we had to 'make' a fan.
All we really had to do was tear the paper and then paste it on to our fans, but I enjoyed it. And there was a prize awarded to the prettiest fan in class. My fan was the prettiest so I got to pick one of three prizes. I selected a small hand mirror with pretty Hanji (Korean Papercraft) flowers on the back.

After that, the day was okay. Nothing special or big happened. I really can't remember much other than I received the prize and I was on an emotional high after that.

My last class today was a class about traveling in Korea. I got a lot of great ideas for places to go and things to do. I've decided I want to rock climb while I'm in Korea, do some hiking, and volunteer at an orphanage or a hospital, where they need people to help out with the newborns that the mothers give up.

I didn't go to my Korean lesson today. I've had a headache for most of the day, and listening to someone speak to me in Korean for an hour didn't sound like fun. Did I mention two of my classes were conducted in complete Korean today? They were. The papercraft class and my class on Korean culture, which the instructor decided should be changed to Korean philosophy. However...he didn't tell his translator that he would be changing subjects, so when he started going on about something she didn't know about, she got scared, upset, and then she started crying. It was really sad.

Um...what else happened today...Oh yes! We always get a snack between 3rd and 4th class, so today, our snack was a small baked potato.
Yes....a baked potato. It was totally strange to me to eat a potato in a bag, but it was kind of fun. And it tasted delicious!

Tomorrow, we are going on a field trip into Seoul. After the field trip, we can stay in Seoul on our own, but I think I'm just going to come back to the dorms. I would like to stay in Seoul for a while, but I don't know anyone in Seoul right now, and I don't want to walk around a big city by myself. I don't know if I'm shy or just anti-social, but I haven't made very many connections with people here. A lot of people smoke so they all sit outside between classes and talk. I usually go to my next classroom and either take a nap or read the notes for the upcoming class. It makes me kind of sad.

I've mostly been okay about being away from home, family, and friends, but it gets to me at night, when I have to stay up late in order to talk with people back home after they wake up.
I've talked with Max at least twice everyday so far, which has been very nice because I don't feel so far away from home then. It just feels like a normal summer day, except that I stay up late to talk with him when he wakes up, and then I talk to him again after I wake up in the morning, before going to breakfast.

Day 4

Lets see...how would I rate today? Out of 5, I think today was probably a 3-star day. I woke up at 7, the latest I've slept since I arrived in Korea, so that was good. Breakfast was fried octopus. Not at all my favorite, and I think I'll pass on it next time. Morning classes passed by rather quickly, and then it was time for lunch. I had lunch with my roommate and her friend from home, Brock. They're actually really nice, and even though I show up when they're nearly done, they always wait until I am finished eating before they get up. When in the cafeteria, I ran into the guy who was my partner in the Intermediate Korean class. I told him I was thinking about switching to the beginners class, but he kind of talked me out of it. So I figured I would stick with the intermediate until the Beginners class caught up to where I am.

Afternoon classes were both interesting. We had a contest in both classes, and each time, I was on the second-place team. For someone as competitive as myself, I was not happy. And both times, the winning team was the same group of people, and their team name was always "Chuck Norris".

However, despite the fact that there was a competition going on, and I wanted to win really badly, I learned a lot in my last class of the day. The class was supposed to be covering how to teach culture in an English class. I don't know how much I learned about that, but I got a ton of great tips for lesson plans and how to keep kids interested. It was by far the most informative class I've had.

I ate dinner with my roommate and her friend again, and then headed to my second day of intermediate Korean lessons. It wasn't so bad today, I guess because I was expecting it. I felt very sleepy in that class and I developed a headache, but I think I learned a few things. We were covering counting and numbers. I didn't learn much about that, but I did learn that the cat says "youong". That's the video we watched in class.


I guess I don't really have much else to say. Apparently it's very 'Korean' to take pictures of your food. I have been taking pictures of my food, just so I can show what I am eating and ask questions about what it is, but I feel like I'm imposing on a cultural thing when I do it.
<-----My lunch today. It was my favorite of all three meals. The things on the left were some type of fish. The square things on the right were tofu. It tasted like potatos.







I'm not sure if this is Engrish or not, but it made me laugh that there was a drink vending machine that said "sweat" on it.

Day 3

Today was my first day of classes. It was tiring but alright. I wouldn't really call them classes. They were more like....seminars. And I didn't have to take notes, because each speech was written in our handbook. So as long as I read along, and underlined things, I was fine.

A met tons of new people today. My group of 'friends' in my group of classes is now a nice even four, with the edition of Steven. He is also Korean American, but when Ji and Mark start talking in Korea, Steven is always sure to talk with me in English.
Today, I applied for my bank account and debit card. I should be getting it tomorrow. That 'class' was fun. We got cheesecake, and we had 'elections' for class officer. Instead of electing someone, everyone who was interested went to the front of the classroom and then they played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would get the position. Ji ended up winning.

The hardest part of today has been the Korean lesson. I just returned from that and I didn't learn anything. T_T I was in the beginners class, but because it was so full (people were standing in the back and sitting on the window sills), the teacher said that if you knew the alphabet and a few phrases, you should go to the intermediate class. I went to that class and it was way over my head. The whole class was taught in Korean, and I didn't really understand what was going on. I think tomorrow I'm going to the beginning class. I don't really care how crowded it is, or even if it seems too easy. Intermediate is too advanced for me.
Honestly, I feel so discouraged right now.

But I guess on a positive note, I'm getting better with chopsticks. When I eat with Ji, Mark, and Steven, I make sure to use chopsticks, and I think I'm doing okay. I have trouble picking things up, but I have yet to drop any food.


I saw this large pile of desk chairs outside our classroom building and my first thought was "Koreans are boycotting school!" There were even more chairs lined up in front of the elevators on the 4th floor.
I'm assuming they are just getting new desk chairs and so they were taking the old one's out. Not sure what they're going to do with them all though.

Day 2

Well, it's 9pm of my second day in Korea. I think I may have met some new friends.

The Opening Ceremony for the TaLK program was today. We were organized into our groups, which are all the people who will be teaching in the same province. A girl sat next to me named Ji. She was very interesting. She doesn't like having her picture taken and she seems very full of energy.
There was a guy sitting behind us, named Mark, who is also in our group. After the opening ceremony, when we were waiting for the nurse to check our temperature, we talked and then when it was time for dinner, we had dinner together. Another guy from a different group showed up at some point in time when we were waiting so he also had dinner with us. His name was Roy. Ji and Mark are both Korean Americans, and Roy has been to Korea before and knows quite a bit of Korean. I don't know how often I will see Roy, because he is not in my group, but the other two and I will be seeing each other every day because we have class together.


The opening ceremony was very entertaining in the beginning. We had four performances. First was the TaeKwonDo group from KyungHee University. The second performance was a young childrens chorus group. The third performance was East Guinness, a b-boy group. The last performance was by three girls, called The Bloom, who were playing gayageums, a traditional Korean instrument, similar to a harp.

The TaeKwonDo group was really good! They did a lot of fast and high kicks. They also made it funny by dancing and acting out scenes.
The childrens chorus group sang three songs, two of which were in English. They sang My Favorite Things from The Sound Of Music. It was sweet, and it sounded nice, except that their accents were rather silly. They stressed the 'T's too much so kitten and kettle sounded really really weird.
The b-boy group was....interesting. I felt like they kept doing the same moves over and over. The beatboxer was really great, but the dancers weren't much, except for one. He still only did one move, but it was amazing. He would do a one-handed handstand, and then push himself off the ground, as if he were jumping. He did it over and over and over and never fell down!
The Bloom sounded so beautiful! I remember learning about gayageums when I was in choir class in elementary school.

The rest of the opening ceremony was just procedure. They basically read to us the information packet that was sent to us when we were accepted into the program. There isn't really much else to talk about, other than the fact that when we had to take our temperature today, we were told to shake our thermometers until the murcury (yeah, old fashioned thermometers) went below 35 degrees C. The guy behind me was shaking his, and he ended up hitting his termometer on the back of my chair, breaking it. I didn't get any murcury on me, but we all still kind of freaked out. When we told the people in TaLK about it, the said to not worry about it and that they would get it picked up. But we all kept watching it to make sure people didn't step in it. The nurse almost stepped in it. It was like she didn't even know it was there, even though we told her about it. It was kind of crazy.


Well, it's late now and my first day of classes is tomorrow, so I guess I'll head to bed. I'm looking forward to my lessons.

EDIT: And no pictures today, because I forgot to take my camera to the ceremony.
Except for one picture I took of my bathroom today to explain why I couldn't use the restroom when my roommate was taking a shower. Korean bathrooms have no shower stalls. You shower right in front of the mirror, which I think may be part of the reason Korean's are so conscious of their body image.

EDIT EDIT: I forgot to mention this last night because I was rather tired, but for dinner, I had, among other things, raw beef. I was a little hesitant at first, but it was really good. When I asked Ji and Mark about it, they explained it, and Mark said "Doesn't it taste like beef jerky?" And he was right. It was seasoned like beef jerky, and it tasted like it, only soft. And it wasn't super chewy like I was expecting it to be.
The baby squid I had was rather chewy. I didn't like it too much. It was bland.
And I'm starting to be okay with Kimchee. When I had it in America, it was horrible. But it was made by Americans who have never had Kimchee in Dulany, so I guess that explains it. Here....it's just so spicy, I can only handle a little bit of it.

Day 1

Well, it's technically the start of day 2 for me, but I was too tired to post about it last night.

My flight arrived at 5am in Incheon, and after an hour of going through customs and finding my bags, I exited into the arrival lobby, and saw Jina waiting for me! I was very very happy about that and I couldn't stop smiling. I spent most of yesterday saying "I can't believe I'm actually in Korea!"

The bus ride from the airport to KyungHee University in SuWon was about an hour ride.
After we arrived at the university, Jina helped me unpack my bags and then we went out for a little bit. We had a drink at Dunkin' Donuts and then went to 7-eleven and we had Korean snack foods (pear juice, chocolate covered cheerios in yogurt, and Kimbab). We then went back to my dorm room, and Jina went to sleep. I stayed up and checked out things on the internet.

After about two hours, HunYong called and said that he and YoSun were at the fountain by the main gate, so Jina and I headed out to meet them. It was really really great to see them again. It felt like no time had passed since the last time we were together.

HunYong was starving and I was quite hungry myself, so we went to a noodle shop. I didn't know what to order, so they ordered the same thing for me, Ice Noodles (it's actually served with ice in the soup!).
The serving was HUGE! This picture is actually what I had left that I couldn't eat. It was so spicy, but very delicious. And I learned that I fail at chopstick.


After we had our noodles, we went to a bakery, and bought a cheesecake, to celebrate my birthday from a week ago.
The cheesecake was so good!
I felt like I had such amazing friends, because they were spending money on me since I don't have any Korean money yet. (I'm getting some today since we are going to the bank as part of orientation)


Around 5, Jina, HunYong, and YoSun all headed to the bus stop to go back to their homes. I said goodbye to them at the bus stop and then walked back to my dorm room (walking around campus with Jina really helped to learn where everything was).
I forced myself to stay awake for one more hour, even though I was really really tired.
I ended up going to bed at 6pm, and I didn't wake up until 7am. I feel very refreshed now and ready to start my second day in Korea!


More pictures:
My airplane food. It's Bi-Bim-Bap. Rice and stir-fried veggies. It was very good.







These claw toy machines were just out on the street. I thought they were funny, so Jina made me play, even though I told her I was terrible at them. I didn't end up getting anything.









Pika Pika!
This is the type of bread they gave me for breakfast (although not with the pokemon plastic). It was a very thick and rich bread. I wasn't expecting it.