Day 5: Bureaucracy

Second day of orientation.  Woke up a bit early for it (thankfully not as early as I have been), and then merged with a group of students going down to the orientation.  It was essentially 2 hours of them teaching us how to do paperwork.  Oh my goodness it was bad.  There were so many forms, all of which were in Korean, which is understandable.  They had a powerpoint that was supposed to help us figure out the sheets, but I swear it was one of the most confusing things ever.  Not to mention the fact the presenter kept flipping between then so even if you managed to decipher what it was trying to say, you still couldn't fill in anything because he'd change the slide and you wouldn't know what to fill in.

The buddies helped out, but it was just a stressed event overall.  So many papers were signed and dated and signed again and it was just a giant mess.  Afterwards, we had to sit around for like 40 minutes until lunch, so that was a pretty big waste of time.  We didn't do anything during that time, everyone basically sat on their phones because we weren't supposed to leave.  After lunch, Jaemin took Sam, Fuka and I to the school store, and then to the post office.  I couldn't just buy international stamps; apparently they have to weigh all the letters so I'll have to go back later.

After that, I just went back up to my room to chill out for a while.  I didn't really trust myself to sleep, so I just read things online.  At 545 I met my group on campus before we all went out for beer and chicken.  It was actually a pretty fun time, just talking to people in the group and hanging out.  We were taught a few different drinking games but not everyone could get a handle on them so we didn't play them for that long.  Then it was just sitting at the restaurant, trying to talk to talk to people around me over the loudness of everyone else talking and yelling.

The whole group left the restaurant at like 830, and went off to another bar.  Jo (Hong Kong) and Katherine (USA), two girls I had been talking to the whole night, went off with me instead, thinking to find someplace quieter to chat.  We actually ended up shopping for a bit, before heading back to our dorms.  Tomorrow is a free day so plans are up in the air - I've talked with a few people about going out with them, but as no one has given a set time or place or firm confirmation that it's still happening we'll have to see what happens!

Day 4: Orientation!

I actually slept till around 6 this morning, and then basically just messed around on the internet and talked with people from the states online until it was time to get ready.  This might end up being a good habit to get into, so that I can keep up with people at home and get used to waking up at a real time for when my job starts in August.  Jasmine, Heidi and I left around 830 for orientation, stopping at a convenience store on the way to pick up some breakfast (I had a kimchi rice and tuna thing, wrapped in seaweed, it was actually suuuper good).

And orientation, oh boy. So many foreign students!  I met so many people before finding my KUBA buddy - an actual KU student who is the main contact person for 3-5 foreign students.  She was super nice, and I met two of the other students she's a buddy to, Sam from the Philippines (who studys in Illinois) and Fuka from Japan.  We all stuck together for most of the day.

The main lectures in orientation were pretty boring, and most people seemed to be falling asleep.  It was mostly just information about the school and different stats about it.  We were divided into 7 groups (my buddies and I are in group 1), and we went to lunch.  The limit was 5,000 won (a little under $5) for what we could get - I only spent like 3,800 and was full, which shows how cheap university meals are here.  We then learned our group's "cheer" - apparently it's something we'll be doing a lot, seeing as how KUBA and the groups have events every Saturday which I'm definitely going to go to.  We got registered online for the school's online system (like blackboard or D2L essentially), and then went on a campus tour.  It ended with people registering for the city tour on Thursday (which I obviously signed up for).

My buddy (Jaemin) took Fuka, Sam and I to the store to get a SIM card for our phones.  I actually had to leave them there and come back by myself as I didn't carry my passport with me - that's just not something I'm in the habit of doing, as an American.  I did get it, so now I have a Korean number and data, which means I can be on all my messaging apps ALL THE TIME :P  It's just nice knowing I can be in constant contact with people if I need to be.

Got some snacks (800 won for a package of 9 cookies, that's like LESS THAN 10 CENTS A COOKIE I LOVE IT), chilled, and then met up with Sam and Fuka for dinner.  We were walking around and actually ended up meeting Sam's friends from her boarding house (she doesn't live on campus).  So we all went around for a while before going to a chicken and beer place.  It was super fun, just chatted with everyone, Fuka and Sam taught me some Korean, talked with two girls from Peru and a guy from France, and just had a great night out.  We all have so many places we want to go see, and we said we'd all go together, so I hope that pans out in the end.

Fuka and I walked back since we both live in the same dorm - her English is understandably not the best, but I told her that her English is better than my Japanese, so she thought that was funny.  I'm going to help her with English, she's going to help Sam with Japanese (she already speaks some), and both of the will help me with Korean, as their scores ahead of me.  I'm pretty excited, it sounds like I have a lot of people to lean on for help with the language.  Back at the dorm, Jasmine, Heidi and I talked about language and accents and complained about the dorm, as some people have TWO bathrooms and a living room and not bunkbeds but pay the same amount, which is duuumb.  But anyway, it's nearing 1030, so I'm going to just going to review a bit of the Korean I learned today and turn in for the night.

It's still weird that it's Monday night here when my friends and family in the US are just waking up for the day.  It's like I'm in the future and all I can say is the 23rd is a great day so enjoy it!