The View from Here: 대한민국! The Story, Part I

I'm finally here. After being over-orientated and hearded around like a middle-schooler, I'm finally with my host family in Jeonju, South Korea. It's early Sunday morning here -- Fathers' Day back in the States -- so this the beginning of the second full day with them, and already I have a lot to talk about.

Our family at Corky's in Memphis, one of the best BBQ places in the States

Just a short outline of what occured prior to this: I left Martin early last Saturday morning with my family for a vacation to Memphis, necessitated by the fact that the State Department booked me a flight out of that airport at 600. We went to a museum, ate lunch at Corky's, walked the entire length of the Mississippi and its tributaries at Mud Island, visited Beale Street, went grocery shopping, and swam at the hotel. Sunday Dad and I were up at 400 (me at 330, actually) and I was off to Chicago at 600. I finally arrived in DC around 1400, made my way to the hotel after meeting up with some of the other CLS people, spent the time before the icebreaker/first orientation catching up with a friend, then attended the first of many orientations that evening before going to bed. In the morning we started our day-long orientation at promptly 900, sat in one room for almost the entire time until 1700, then went out for a yummy Malaysian dinner on good ol' Uncle Sam (your tax dollars at work, people!). I met up with another friend for ice cream and a chat, called a few people, then went to bed.

We left early the next morning for Korea, flying out of Dulles on a United 777. I was stuck in the back of the plane in the middle of a row of five peple, between two rather large guys, for 13 hours with nothing really interesting to do and unable to sleep. (I don't recommend that you ever fly overseas on an American carrier. Foreign is totally the way to go: better service, better food, better entertainment, better accomodations...) We had a short layover in Japan, and then it was on another plane to Seoul, where we finally landed and met up with our director around 2030. By the time we made it to the hostel, it was late and we were exhausted. Sadly our room had a few quite loud snorers, which didn't really help me feel any more rested when I was woken at around 600 the next morning by my overly-anal, but well-intentioned, roommates to get ready for the day.

Our hostel

Our first full day in Korea was filled with more orientations: we made a trip to the US Embassy for one on safety and for an introduction to the country, then went to have lunch at the Seoul YWCA. After that we finally had some free time to explore Myongdong, one of the most famous shopping areas in Seoul, for an hour; Katey and I headed out and explored (and bought Korea soccer jerseys! Go Korea!) to the point that we got all turned around and lost. Good thing I speak Korean and have had lots of practice asking for directions. Bad thing that there are apparently two YWCAs in Myongdong, and people were directing me to the wrong one. Good thing Korean people are way nice and a very amused but still helpful 아저씨 (an older man) took us to the right one -- which turned out to be right behind the one we were directed to. We were only about 20 minutes late, but hey, it was only another orientaton anyway. After that one, we had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, to the relief of many of the kids who haven't spent 1.5 years living in Korea, then trooped over to a bank in the area who had set up a big projector screen and chairs for their employees to watch the Korea/Argentina game. We got to cheer on Korea wearing the red jerseys and the big air-filled noise-making sticks and the songs and the chants and surrounded by probably more than a thousand completely patriotic Koreans who were very disappointed by Korea's 4-1 loss to Argentina. I was pretty disappointed, too. I think I was the most into it, but I also had the most fun. :)

Some of my group before the game started; in the background you can see one of the many, many huge posters that are plastered on almost every single large building in Seoul. EVERYTHING is World Cup-themed right now, down to almost every commerical on TV.