Korea-
Flight- So I left America officially the night of the fourth/ morning of the fifth. After grabbing some dinner with my family I headed to the airport and checked in. Security really didn't take long so I wound up at the gate around 10 pm where I was able to meet up with some fellow Fulbrighters. Though i couldn't go to the fireworks, I was able to glimpse some from the airport window. Right off the bat everyone i met was very friendly and amazing. We all quickly bonded before we boarded our 14 hour flight to Seoul. The flight was pretty uneventful except that it was long. It was a huge double-decker plane with in seat entertainment, free booze, and two meals. I slept for a part of it and watched two movies (divergent and noah) before we actually landed around four in the morning. We got our bags, went through customs and went to meet up with the California group. After about an hour we met up with the rest of the Fulbright group and headed out for a two hour bus ride to the University we will be staying in for the next six weeks. The university is very nice and in a small town South of Seoul. We call it the marble mansion and it comes complete with two pools and a water slide (which you have to pay to use, awww). Its pretty impressive and includes a golf course, track, fields, temples, and more. It is also extremely confusing to navigate through and very strict. We have to always cover our shoulders and we are completely gender separated in the dorms. We do have a coed lounge which is pretty cool and all of our activities are together. My roommate is a girl from Indianapolis who goes by Emmy. She incredibly sweet and very easy to get along with. The rooms are big but have a really inconvenient layout. The bathroom has a small hand shower and theres three beds for the two of us (along with a weird wall divider). The first day we had a few different seminars and got to meet a ton of people. Its a really open environment and everyone is really cool/ laidback. Everyone here is really impressive and majored in like five or six things and speak several languages, so I'm a little behind but it makes for some good conversation.
The first full day we had here was my birthday. It turned out to be pretty awesome. Along with the language testing (i got the lowest level because I handed in a blank sheet, I cant describe myself in Korean) and some activities I was able to talk to my parents and Skype with Steven. We had a really good diner and eventually were able to explore the town a bit. We went a got a drink at this misspelled Beer bewery. It was pretty awesome but they wanted us to order food, even though we ate ect. ect. but eventually we were able to order a few beers and a few appetizer things. Ill have to do a blog about the food later. There was about 30 of us and after words we stopped at a store and went to the college for our early morning. My roommate had actually gotten me a cake the day before and we all had a slice and they sang happy birthday, it was very amazing of her to do. So overall, good birthday, though the workload is gonna be rough.
The 8th we spent mostly doing a school visit. We met at six a.m. to visit a few schools. The one i chose to visit was a coed middle school in an urban environment, again ill have to spend a port about the schools and education system here a little later. The teachers were all really nice and the school amazing. the classroom we met in was well funded and the teachers greeted us with snacks and warm welcomes. We observed two of a current ETAs classes, a boys and a girls class. They were both incredible rowdy but looked like they were having a good time. It was a really cool experience and I look forward to visiting a high school tomorrow. We eventually were picked up and brought back to the school where we had a sorting ceremony ad split into different dynasties. Basically were going to compete over the next six weeks in games ect. And after that we played some cards against humanity and went down for dinner, which wasn't too great. I had my first 1-on-1 to discuss my adjustments in coming here and then went back to the lounge to play some mini settlers of catan. Had some more nice conversations and now im getting ready for bed because jetlag and early morning.
- Dug: "Hi There! My name is Doug. I have just met you, and I love you."
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