Alive and Eating Kimchi.

Greeting from Gwan-ju! After over 24 hours in transit, I finally made it. I left from Columbia, at the ungodly hour of 4am. From the St. Louis airport I flew to Chicago and from Chicago I flew to Seoul. From Seoul, my group and I took a 5-hour bus ride to somewhere 15-20 minutes outside Gwan-ju, where I am now.

On the way, we took a rest stop for dinner. I had Udong, a Japanese noodle dish. Having been in Hong Kong a whole semester, I thought I’d be a rock star with my sweet chopstick skillz. But oh, how naïve I was..the chopsticks were steel and much more narrow than what I was used to. Although I succeeded at eating my entire dish, I must admit it was a long and slippery trial— not to mention I could feel my hand cramp up as it happened.

Upon our midnight arrival, we were paired with roommates and sent to unpack. I really love my roommate! She’s outgoing and sweet and I’m sad we won’t be at the same campsites together when orientation is over. We were allowed to choose our campsites, which made things hard for me. In the back of my mind, I wanted a site more south and not too close to Gwan-ju (just to mix things up). What made things especially difficult was so many people I liked were choosing all different locations. It’s hard, asking myself whom I’d want to spend the next month with. In the end, I went with Muan-gun-- also known as Yeongnam. The group seems more diverse in terms of personality and age (plus it’s a good Missouri/Portland ratio). All I could muster from Google is that the area looks very mountainous.

The camp is set up in 2 sessions. The first session, I’ll be teaching sixth graders to cook with English recipes. We get to make ham sandwiches and cookies (yes, I’m sure you can guess why I chose this class). The second session, I’ll serve as an activities coordinator. I’m a little nervous since it requires more responsibility than if I were a teacher, but I’m also glad because it means I get to experience a little bit of everything in the camp.

As for now, it’s 9:00pm and I’m already pooped. Jenn (my roomie) and I didn’t go to sleep until 2am last night. We were told we could sleep in until lunch. This would have been perfect if it weren’t for the music that blasted through the speakers in our room for breakfast at 7:30am. With no other option, I went to breakfast. The food in the cafeteria has been Korean so far, although I have a feeling it’s westernized compared to authentic Korean food. I did have Kimchi...and didn’t like it. People reassured me it’s an acquired taste.

Interesting things I’ve noticed about Korea so far:

--Not many people seem to speak English.
--People use steel cups to drink out of water coolers instead of paper ones. The steel cups are taken from sterilization machines next to the coolers.
--Hand dryers have red lights that turn on when you dry your hands.

I know, it’s not much so far. You’ll have to bear with me, it’s only been 24 hours and I haven’t left the facility yet.

On a side note, I found out today that my PC will be utterly useless. Although we’ll have computer labs, there is no Internet access in the dorms. Basically, I won’t be able to Skype or access the Internet as regularly as I'd like to...