Orientation Week

Hello blog readers,

Monday, Feb 23, 2015

First day of Orientation, at 9 am all international students were to arrive in Inchon Hall to be split into groups 1-7 and listen to the orientation, speeches, and etc for a couple hours and then we were free. I was in group 7, 24/7 and met my KUBA buddy, and all had lunch together. I met a bunch of new girsl from taiwan, singapore, japan, etc. after lunch we took a tour of the campus. And be prepared you will be taking a lot of corny pics but I didn't mind much.
Next we went to register for KUPID, the blackboard of Korea University. (I found the set up kind of annoying but got through it and was able to leave early.)

                           Hint: For your password have no double letters (ex. Hello)

 I arrived back at the dorm before all of my roommates. I was completely exhausted. The night before I couldn’t sleep and had woken up at 3am and stayed up all morning until it was time for the orientation. I slept all day.

Tuesday, Feb 24, 2015

The second day of orientation. We met up at Woodang hall and we went over the forms required by everyone to get or bank card and student card. Again I think they made the forms harder than it should have been. After orientation we went to lunch and afterwards me and the roommates went to explore in Itaewon. The foreign city of Korea. It was my first time riding the subway it was fun. It took about 15 minutes to get to Itaewon on the Subway. In the subway we went makeup shopping and went above ground to do more shopping.We mostly did window shopping than actual shopping because we planned to go to. We returned home around 5:30 because every group had a party to attend. 

At 6 was mine and my group went to a restaurant to drink soju and beer and eat kimchi jjigae. The placed was packed not only with our group but another group of koreans. The food was delicious as always and then they taught us drinking games. I found the games to be so much fun. Games: Baskins 31 (when everyone goes around and says up to 3 numbers and who ever is stuck staying 31 drinks). Another was the (group counts of according to the amount of people in the group and if anyone say a number at the same time both drink) and on and on. So many drinking games. Our group finished all the food and alcohol but they were still jumping to drink some more so they decided to go to another restaurant to drink and eat.. I was not really up for it. I wasn’t drunk but I was starting to get a bit bored. They give you more alcohol than food, so I went home.

Wednesday, Feb, 25, 2015

No orientation today. Me and my roommates and their friends went to Myeongdong to do some bargain shopping. We all woke up to walk to Anam station and learn how to travel using a T card that we bought. When we got there, there were stores everywhere. All the shops were running sales because they were trying to get rid of their winter clothes. We tried to get sim cards for our phones but we forgot our passports so we couldn't. Shopping was fun but due to our large group we moved pretty slowly and we couldn't split up since most of us didn't know the area, Korean language or have a way to contact each other. We decided to go our separate ways and me and my roommates picked up some convenience store food and ate together in the dorm and pretty much had a sleepover, kind of.

Thursday, Feb 26 2015

This was a lazy day. Because mostly every international student on campus was schedule to go on the tour of seoul. I didn’t go because I was pricey and the places they went to didn’t seem too exciting. Also traveling in extremely large group can cause things to be unfun. I spent the morning relaxing in my dorm and watching movies on netflix(google chrome; and media hint.) Then me and some friends decided to try out the laundry area. Then we went to Home Plus and Daiso to pick up some things for the dorm. I bought a hair straightener, towels and etc. Home plus is kind of like a Walmart. The only difference is the food and veggies are expensive. It was extremely cold and I left early when the sun was out and came back home when it was dark. Almost unbearably cold. I was happy to come back home and relax. One of our roommates came back to tell us about a party in Itaewon at Club Mute. However I decided not to go because it was cold, far and I spent too much earlier that day.

Waking up in Korea

Hello blog readers,

On Sunday, February 21 I woke up in Korea, my first morning confirming it was no a dream. I woke up pretty excited and pretty early due to the 12 hour time difference. I unpacked my things and found out that my laptop had a three pronged plug and my converter could only plug in two pronged plugs. I was really upset at myself. 

So I asked Nicki if she wanted to walked down the dormitory hill to find a converter, get some breakfast, explore. We happened by a small coffee shop. We chatted and learn about each other. Unfortunately we were still hungry. So we explored a bit walking through the alleys. We found Dak Galbi place. It was so cute and the food is great. It is one of my favorite places.   

         

After breakfast/lunch we search around more for the adapter with no luck. We went to Daiso, GS25 and even the local stationary stores but nothing. Kind of giving up we decided to walk down to the campus to look for Incheon hall, the location of Orientation tomorrow. After we found it we run back home because the wind was freezing cold. Before we went in we stopped by a small convenience store, it wasn't GS25. What do you know we found it, more like Nicki found it. I was ecstatic.  

When we went home we chatted and then our third roommate Margaret, came in. Our other room Cynthia had church so we didn't get to chat with her much. We talked for hours talking about ourselves, Korea and before we knew it, it was like 9 pm. Starved we decided to get something to eat. On the way down the hill we meet some other international student and they joined us. There were six of us and we got a huge meal for about 12 dollars. It was great and delicious. Since it is tradition to drink or have dessert after a meal. We decided to go to a Noraebang, or karaoke room to sing and drink soju. My first time drinking soju not the best, tasted like acetone. (It grew on me later) It was fun. Although we could only since American songs, we played and before long we went home.

Time to go...

Hello blog readers,

Its getting close, soon I can stop talking about all the boring but important information to study abroad. I can't wait to share actual experiences I had in Korea, but first here is how my annoying plane ride went.....

On Saturday, February 20^th, 2015 I woke up early to catch my 8 am flight. I remember feeling extremely excited, until I was passed security looking at my mom and sister on the other side. I began getting a little choked up and nervous, but it was time to go.

The flight was an 1 hour long and I had a 2 hour layover in Chicago. When I landed in Chicago this is where the pain and annoyance started. When I printed out my ticket it did not have a gate number, so I asked a customer service rep about which gate to go. She sent me to gate C10, seeing how I had plenty of time, I decided to relax and grab something to eat. However after an hour passed I went to check at the gate and there was no one there. Beginning to feel nervous, I asked another airport rep and she told me I was in the wrong terminal. I had about 40 minutes to get to the International terminal. I was super stressed but I had no time to be annoyed, I rushed to catch the train to the terminal. After checking in with some very anger airport attendants, and rushing through a busy airport security, making a bunch of travelers upset; I made it to the gate just in time.(This was the first time I have ever traveled alone, let alone travel alone internationally, so....yea give me a break)

The airplane ride was around 15 hours long. I time where I caught up on movies and sleep.  

When I arrived I was completely confused, I just began following the crowd. While following people I met two fellow passengers from North America. I learned they were both teaching in Korea for a year, one in a public school and the other a private. We went through immigration check and then we went to go get our baggage. After converting our money, we went through the gate. I found the Korea University airport pick up group at gate 7. There I met with students from all over the world. From Australia, Hawaii, Sweden, Hong Kong and even some from the US. We chatted for a few hours until the charter bus came at 8. The bus dropped us off at our dorms; everyone wasn’t at the same dorm so we had a few stops. (I recommend that if you want to keep in contact with everyone you meet at the gate you should add them on Facebook while your on airport Wifi). 

Finally I arrived a CJ International House dorm. It was a cold, wet night around 10 pm. I checked in and received my room key and key-card. I took the elevator to my room on the fifth floor. As I open the door I was greeted with one of my roommates, Nicki from Sweden. She was really sweet and helpful, she pointed thing out for me and helped me settle down in my room. It was late at night and I was exhausted from the flight. So I didn't do much unpacking and just went to bed.