Monday, March 3, 2008

First day of school and etc.

I'd like to mention that I uploaded most of my pictures on my cyworld.
Go check it out and leave comments if you want to.
Anyway, I never got the chance to update about orientation. Sorry for the briefness...I can't remember everything right now since so much has happened.
Well, the first day was just a general orientation and letting us know our schedule. The next day, our resident director took us the the embassy...which reminds me that I need to register with them. And she also took us to the Seoul Tower. It was really cool overlooking Seoul. This city is HUGE. She took us around Sinchon and how the subways and bus system works. It's really confusing. I hope I can figure it out soon so that way I can figure my way around. My cousin gave me some directions on how to get to Kangnam (강남), so that I can visit my family.
We visited a fake village, and they happened to be filming a drama (Sejong). I also got to see some performances. I have pics of these on my cyworld.
Then this past weekend, we were in Kyungju (경주) and Andong (안동). Kyungju is the culture capital of Korea, and we went to see museums and stuff like that. I had already been there before, but there were some places that I haven't been to since it was a good thing to go back. While we were in Kyungju, we stayed at a resort....the same resort that I was in 2 years ago at the World Camp. Except this time there were beds in the room. I don't know if it's because of the different wings, but it was nice. I really like that resort. And I actually got to go to AquaWorld and Noraebang (karaoke). It was a great way for all of us to relax and have fun.
In Andong, we got to visit a real village. Someday, I'd like to stay in a village like that. It's probably going to be uncomfortable at first, but it'll be in an experience. I know that my mom wants to live in the traditional Korean style homes when she gets older. We also got to see a Mask Dance...I had no idea what they were saying, but it was entertaining anyway. Then we headed back to Seoul.
When we got back to our rooms, my roomie and I were trying to figure out the internet and how to check our class schedule. I figured it out this morning after some help from my classmates. I only knew where my first class was today, because I had my syllabus with me. But I didn't have the syllabus to another class, which I'm going to drop because it interferes with the Korean language course. The placement exam for that was hard. I felt embarrassed, but that just means I need to work harder on my Korean. We'll find out our results tomorrow.
The add/drop period here starts on Thursday...I wish it started earlier. -_-
I haven't made any real Korean friends yet. I've called all of my friends that are in Korea already, but they keep speaking to me in English. I've just been using English most of the time. And I'm hoping that I can find people that are connected to my church here, but I have no idea where to look. I haven't gone to church lately, because of the orientation. I hope that they (IYF) have a table up tomorrow so that way I can introduce myself.
Anyway, I'm going to sleep. Good night ^^

1 comment:

Hannah said...

Haha, drama...later on if you watch the drama, you can be like I saw them film this. :D

Your cyworld stuff confuses me cuz it's all in Korean, but I finally was able to find the pictures. Looks cool. Your CIEE group is huge! How come there's so many people?