Birthday, Orientation, Party

Hey everyone, this blog (diary) entry will be pretty long so get ready to read a lot. I haven't updated since Sunday and now it's mid-afternoon on Wednesday! 

On Monday, the 27th, was my birthday. After waking up early I had to be at orientation at 10. For the most part the orientation was pretty boring and information we already knew. After being addressed by the dean, welcomed by others, we had to watch one of the most hilarious fire-safety videos created which included a graphic video production of what to do if your finger gets cut off...I guess that happens a lot to exchange students? After that we had a welcoming lunch which was actually a pretty fancy production put on by the uni. On Monday morning I met Natalie, a nice exchange student also from USA and she was also going to get a job teaching English at the same place as me. We were both contacted before we arrived in Korea and so we both decided to go to the interview/meeting together and just take a taxi. The meeting went great, and they want Natalie to teach an evening class twice a week and for me to teach an afternoon class twice a week. The pay is nice at 30,000 won a session. Unfortunately for me, my class schedule might not allow me to be free for the Thursday session each week. If it doesn't work out and I can't work there it will be fine for me and I will just do private English tutoring instead. My friend Vytas, from Lithuania, does private tutoring and was hired because he said he was from Omaha, Nebraska! With an American passport it is very very easy to get a job here. That night a large group of us (probably 25 or so) went out for dinner and then drinking. If you check my photo album you'll see that we went and had galbi (Korean BBQ). I was the designated meat-cooker for my table and the pork turned out pretty tasty. Afterwards we went for party at a place called Janbeers. According to students from last semester, most people spend more time in Janbeers than in class during the semester. It was a really cool bar, catering mainly towards foreigners without tables, only big couches. It was great to meet a lot of new people and to celebrate my birthday a little. A 3-liter pitcher of beer costs about $9 so Korea is exactly like what they say, "the land where beer is cheaper than coca-cola". On the 28th, Vytas and Imane both had their birthdays so as the clock reached midnight everyone sang for the three of us. 

Yesterday, Tuesday, I was awoken by Vytas and Imane both wanting me to come and get ice cream to celebrate our birthdays together. At 10 am? Sure. Anyways, the three of us walked to Baskin Robbins (nice haha), and split a half-gallon bucket of ice cream (look for the pictures). 6 flavors, a half-gallon. We finally left at 1pm with my stomach hurting from my ice cream brunch. It was great to sit and talk though and Imane gave me a very nice leather bracelet from Morocco for my birthday which I have been wearing since. When we arrived back it was time to start phase 2 of orientation, this time was less boring but equally less important. Last night there was a big welcome party at a place near campus called Wasserturm (haha German place I know) and almost all of the international students went. It started around 7:30 and before that, Natalie and I went and got some dumplings to stave off hunger (or hangover?). The welcome party last night was a blast. If you go to my photo album you will see many pictures from it. There was dancing, nice people, games, karaoke, and just a good time. I met many people from all over the world (including a couple from Baden-Wurttemberg who I spoke German with). Overall the group this semester represents 34 countries. When I came home last night I slept very soundly. Waking up this morning with my open laptop on my chest was surprising too. 

Today has been a nice and relaxing day with nothing to do. The sun is up, the weather is very nice (around 52!) I can finally go out in just a long-sleeve shirt, my window is open, life is good. Outside the dorms there are also lots of cafe tables and everyone ate lunch outside today. I went to the cafeteria here on campus and got the bulgogi meal and for approx. $2.25 it's a full, cheap meal that actually tasted great. Later today I'm going to walk down the drag across from campus and run some errands, etc. Tomorrow is the big group trip to Seoul! It will be a very long day, leaving at 9:00 and probably not returning until early Friday morning so I will probably not write for a while. Leave comments, and check my photo album!