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Published: February 23rd 2010
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Frost
This is how Korea welcomes me 2/2/2010
I arrived Tuesday evening on Febraury 2nd. Oh my was it COLD. When the plane landed my window had a sheet of frost on it! Mandu and I grabbed our luggage and headed out. There was a guy with a sign welcoming TaLKers, we checked in and once everyone was accounted for we loaded up on a bus and headed for Sejong Campus of Korea University in Jochiwon, our home for the next three weeks. We were put in rooms at Hoyeon Dormitory #4. I was on the 6th floor and Mandu on the 8th. We had our meals in the cafeteria which was buffet style with trays and two lines of food. Although they had an interesting/weird menu there was always the main dish with a soup of some kind as well as fruit, salad and juice. The water cups there were very small and I always feel dehydrated.
2/3/2010
The next morning a lot of people went on the field trip to a folk village. Mandu, my roommate Yun and I opted for the trip to the local Jjimjjilbang which was interesting. You go in, pay and receive a set of spa clothes and towels. Then
you take off your shoes and put them in a locker, take the key from the shoe locker and find a bigger locker with the same number and change and put all your stuff inside. The showers and locker rooms are gender separated so people feel free to just walk around naked. Most of us had never been to one so we were a bit culture shocked by all the naked bodies walking around. The room above the lockers had small rooms of different temperatures with mats and cushions as well as a small snack shop. After the Jjimjjilbang we had lunch and went straight to a mini orientation where we filled out banking forms and turned in copies of our visa and passport photo page. A group of us went to Home Plus, a big general store, to pick up some essentials. Then we went in search of a cheap and delicious restaurant which apparently didn’t exist in Jochiwon. We ended up taking a taxi to right outside of campus to a pork house where we had dinner and drinks. A bottle of soju there was 3,000 KRW (roughly $3) while it was 1,000 KRW (roughly $1) at the
convenience store next door. I don’t like soju, which tastes like watered down vodka. I much prefer baekseju. We headed to the Norebang next to the store before we walked uphill back to campus in the cold.
2/4/2010
- Bank account registration
- lunch
- Opening Ceremony
- Seoul Fieldtrip/scavenger hunt
2/5/2010
- lectures
- lunch
- lectures
- Tae Kwon Do
- Gym
2/6/2010
- Medical Checkup
- Leave for Seoul
From Saturday afternoon until Sunday 9PM we were free so we went off to Seoul for the first time (an hour train ride). We met up with Qui’s friend Cynthia in Suwon and had dinner then took the train and then the subway to a university area (I forget which but I think it was Yonsei? Not sure) Where we went to a Korean bar which is very different from bars back at home which they call western bars. Bars here are like dimly lit restaurants, usually with couches with tables so people can order food with their drinks. We slept in a Jjimjjilbang which completely packed. It was pretty funny actually, everyone in there wearing their spa clothes and sprawled out all over
the floor, I wish I took a picture. I put on my ipod to an awesome playlist and passed out. Sara was sleeping next to me and got kicked in the head by someone passing over her to get to one of the rooms.
2/7/2010
The next morning we started walking to Insadong where we had been during the scavenger hunt then took a cab once we realized how far it was. Insadong is definitely a tourist place. We had a lot of street food, checked out a tea house, then headed back to the train station and returned to Jochiwon way before curfew.
2/8/2010
- Meet POE supervisors
- Meeting with Ms. Yoon
- Move to English camp at NYC (National Youth Center)
2/9/2010-2/11/2010
Sara and I were in Group 4 B-1 with Paul, Kevin, Stephanie, Elena, and Gi. We got paired up with our kids after lunch. Over the course of three days we had: Fun English, Mini Olympics, Korean Cultural experience (drums and folk dancing) and Cultural activities based on different countries. Our group had China and made lanterns since it was so close to the Lunar New Year.
2/12/2010-2/14/2010
Thursday night we
went into downtown Jochiwon with a big group for dinner and more norebang. We had Friday to Monday off so we should have gone to Seoul on Friday but we were so drained from English camp we stayed in. We went into Seoul on Saturday. Specifically to Dongaemoon which Sara’s roommate recommened for shopping. A few of the underground vendors were opened but most of the big stores were closed due to the lunar holiday. We did a little shopping and the headed back to Jochiwon and made it back a few minutes before curfew. The rest of the weekend we stayed in doing “girl night” with face masks and nail polish ☺
2/16/2010
-Nanta Performance
-Lunch in Myeong-dong
-Korean cooking class
2/17/2010
-lectures
-lunch
-lectures
-dinner
-Jochiwon train station area with the new arrivals
2/18/2010
-lectures
-lunch
-lectures
- talent show
-downtown Jochiwon
2/19/2010
-closing ceremony
-check out of rooms
-left for POE orientation at Kolon Hotel.
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