I woke up at 1:00AM feeling confused. After a second, I realized that I was actually in Korea. At home, it would be 5:00PM. Feeling very tired, I went back to sleep.
At 7:00AM, the room woke up. At 8:15AM, breakfast was brought to us. We got muffins, apple juice, bananas, and yogurt. The muffins tasted alright, except for the chocolate one. That muffin tasted like someone had cooked it for a few minutes too long. After a long wait, we all headed to the third floor (삼 층) to the ballroom to complete our Korean orientation. We all waited outside for a bit and there were snacks on a table nearby. Lots of Korean snacks from biscuits to wafers to hard candy littered the table alongside Korean Gatorade, lemonade, and orange juice. One of the snacks had peanuts, but I recognized the peanuts before eating the snack, so I avoided an allergic reaction.
Soon after, we all loaded into the room with music playing. On the seats were books that had information about Korea and all our emergency contacts. We greeted a person that works with the Korean embassy and watched a video about Korea. Then, we were given these small Korean hand drums called sogo 소고 and played a small game using them. After some ice breaker games, we headed down to lunch and received a delicious lunch of kimchi, bulgogi, seaweed soup, and some side dishes that I can not recall. I sat next to some of the supporters and had a great time talking to them.
After lunch, we all went back to the third floor and got separated into nine groups, each lead by a NSLI-Y alumni or a Korean college student, and headed out to Seoul for the very first time to learn the subway system and to try some of the local foods. My group went to Anguk station (안국역) and walked down the pouring streets to get some bingsu. Unfortunately, there were no street food vendors out in the rain, but we were able to get some almond bingsu and pat bingsu! It was so delicious and I will definitely have to go back to 설빙 to get some more.
After exploring some more, we all headed back to the hostel to grab dinner. We had zucchini, sweet potato, miso soup, and duck. It was extremely delicious, but I was so full and couldn't get my self to finish everything. Afterwards, I headed back to the third floor to finish up orientation. Some NSLI-Y alumni held a presentation about useful phrases in Korean and we had to quickly role play scenarios using all the phrases given to us. Then, they presented a slideshow about their experiences with the program and culture shock along with some funny stories about their host families. When the presentation ended and they asked for questions, we were all way too tired to come up with anything. Soon, we left to our rooms to sleep.
Tomorrow (well, today as of right now) I will meet my host family! I am super excited though my physical form and mental state feels exhausted and jet lagged. Although my Korean is lvl20 at this moment, I will hope to get it to a conversational level or up to lvl100! I hope to practice as much as I possibly can and I look forward to all the experiences and moments that await me.
Too bad all previous blogs been deleted, I guess, there's time limit on it. Anyway, glad to know there's so much accomplishments despite of your physical and mental exhaustion. Me too, really anxious to hear about your host family. Please post some photos or even nice to have short clip so we can see them as well. Give our well wishes to your new adopted family. Have a great time for tomorrow's activities.
ReplyDeleteWe all love you,
Mom, Dad and Rachel xoxo