Orientation: Day 1 - Day 2

Day 1:

Our first week in Korea was an orientation week. The first morning consisted of the typical welcoming speeches and introductions, and then it was time for lunch. On the way out from lunch we saw our first weird Korean sign informing us "Eating OK! Vomiting NO!". Good to know.

After lunch, we were given a 4 hour crash course in Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Its actually pretty easy to read. Just not all that easy to know what you're reading. We were given a portion of our living stipend, 400,000 Korean Won (400 US Dollars). We'll be receiving another 1.6 million Won in a week or two for the rest of the stipend. So we'll all be millionaires this summer.

We spent the evening wandering around Seoul, spending some of the cash we were just given. Seoul's a really nice, huge city of over 10 million people making it bigger than New York City. There's all kinds of familiar stores, restaurants, and advertisements. One that kind of bothered me was the movie billboard below. Do they show any good American movies over here?

Day 2:

Day 2 started the touristy portion of the orientation week. We had a great tour guide Julie (her 'Americanized' name), who arranged all the tours and was very knowledgeable about all the places we visited. 

  

Our first stop was a Korean Folk Village which showed how Koreans used to live. Complete with dance performances. The coolest part was a guy on a tightrope. He would go back and forth, bouncing along, doing crazy jumps and moves along the way. Some of which looked quite painful.

 

 

We then visited two museums. First was the Gwacheon National Science Museum, which seemed to be designed for primary and elementary school aged kids. But I don't think any of us ever grew up so it was still fun. They had a Tesla Coil which was pretty cool. We then went to the National Museum of Korea which is the main museum that houses all the national treasures. They had lots of really cool pottery, paintings, calligraphy, statues, etc. They also apparently had Seoul's Best Toilet. It was nice, but I wouldn't say its the best. The best one is 777ft above ground....but thats for another day.

  

On the way out of the museum we saw a robot directing traffic. It actually moved its hands and was complete with a rain coat, orange vest, and even a hard hat. Koreans love their robots.

The last stop of the day was Insadong Street which is known for its traditional gift shops. While we were shopping, we saw a guy on a bicycle with a huge sign that had "Lord Jesus Heaven, No Jesus Hell". He also had a loudspeaker which was playing a prerecorded message in English. I don't remember everything the recording said, but we all thought it was weird that it was in English. We finished the day off with a traditional Korean dinner. I'm going to have to get used to using chopsticks and sitting on the floor while eating.

 

For the complete photo album of everything in this post go here: 

Orientation Day 1 - Day 2

Feel free to ask questions if theres anything you want to know more about.