Day 1 - The Culture Emersion has Begun

After a great night's rest I woke up and was able to catch my boyfriend who I miss bunches!!! We chatted online while i waited for Katia (my roommate) to wake up so we could go to breakfast together.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of my first official Korean meal and was a little scared. I know I have to have an open mind about the whole experience but everyone knows I am a picky eater! The Korean food served on the airplane was an experience enough. Once we got to the breakfast area I was excited to see foods I had eaten in America, well for the most part. I had corn flakes, egg, sausage, toast, and rice! Rice for breakfast! It was good though they had seasoned it.

After the breakfast experience we made our way to the room to wait to be picked up at 10:30. We packed up and waited.


The drive to the Chungnam province was interesting to say the least. Our driver was having issues with another driver. While we sat in the back and watched Korean television our driver rolled down his window and started yelling at the guys in another car in Korean. They started yelling back and then our driver made a hand gesture, something I figure I never want to repeat while here in Korea. I have a feeling it didn't mean anything very nice. After our car and the other car cut each other off a few times the drama was over and our driver apologized. I honestly didn't know what to think while this was all going on. It was interesting.


We got to the place where we were staying, a University in the Chungnam province for our orientation. Once we put our bags down, we went to lunch. Lunch was interesting as well, all of this Korean culture to take in! Lunch consisted of Kimchi which is cabbage that has been fermented underground. I decided to be adventurous and tasted everything they had to offer. The Kimchi was a little too spicy for me and as soon as our teacher saw me put it in my mouth she laughed because my face turned bright red! We also had some soup and these interesting rice paste deserts with a sweet bean mixture inside. They were not too sweet and an interesting consistency. Almost every korean meal is served with rice and a soup. Very good!

They do not have forks available at all for meals either. Only stainless steel chopsticks and a spoon. I have been having difficulties using them but I am learning! I am going to be a chopstick using pro by the end of this trip. I bought practice chopsticks too so that when I get to my city I have them to use when I prepare meals for myself in my apt. I have said goodbye to the luxury and convenience of a fork...

After lunch we started our training and orientation. The university here is very pretty and the classrooms we were in was very nice.


Dinner was as interesting as lunch but for dinner we had seaweed soup. I enjoyed this a lot. They also had some sort of dried seaweed, seasoned (laver), almost tissue thin that you wrap around the rice and eat. These were my favorite. I have a feeling Korean food is going to cause me to loose a lot of weight. They do not eat as much but the rice and food they do eat is very filling. What a great diet plan!!

We were introduced to the director of our orientation program who told us we were very beautiful. The teacher we were working with told us we will hear that a lot while we are over here.

After dinner we decided to go shopping, there are 4 girls total in my orientation who are all teaching in the same province. We walked around the area and heard some Korean guys say hello from accross the street. They were waving and smiling. One was wearing an Oakland A's hat so we gave him a thumbs up. There were also children pointing and yelling at us as well as people walking by and saying "Hello, Good Evening." It was an interesting experience being the minority and having everyone looking at us. I didn't mind it at all. My recruiter told me that it would probably be like this when I got here.

That is about it for the happenings of today. I can't wait to get to my city, get unpacked and meet my students!