Day 1-3

It's been around 3 days since I've arrived in Seoul, and yes, I've been been horrible at keeping at this blog. But the 3 days in Seoul have felt like I've been here for a while now. Orientation officially started today, and while it was awesome in general, I couldn't help but have a not-so great start to the day. I've always had a problem getting to know people quickly. Being fairly introverted, it's been tough to put myself out there. After a morning of being a hermit, and some praying with Chris Tomlin in the background, I guess I reminded myself about how I got to Korea in the first place. And that after so much preparation, am I really gonna get myself down in the dumps after such a long time preparing, and stressing out over applications?

No. It's a weakness that I'm aware of, so I guess the first month of orientation will help me with that.

Anyways, the rest of the day was great. As the official start to Orientation, the TaLK group headed down to Seoul at the Korea University Campus. It's a beautiful campus. The orientation was fairly interesting. There was some government officials from the Ministry of Education, which was interesting. What was more interesting was hearing them speak about the program, and how important and seriously they take English learning. I couldn't help but remember my research paper on the topic of English Education in Korea and how, despite the large investment and initiatives from the Korean government for English learning, English proficiency has yet to show any large improvements.

Back to Orientation...After the officials, there was this show of a bunch of kids singing, the Rainbow Choir, and it was pretty cute. Some other Korean entertainment, but unfortunately, no KPOP Stars were there to entertain us foreigners.

Afterwards, we had a field trip to Seoul and had to do a scavenger hunt. Aside from going the wrong way, then going too far, it was a pretty awesome time around Seoul. Got to see Insadong! But it was so short. Sadly. I will have to return there to see each awesome shop. And how convenient that we have a weekend free this weekend. :D

After wandering around in the freezing city, it made me love Seoul even more. The city is amazing. I'm still jaded of course, being a foreigner and all, and probably blind of all the negative aspects of the city (i.e friggin cars. No hesitation to hit you.) The impression the city left on me for the first two visits was a good one.

Who wouldn't wanna go home from work with a view like this?



Still working on Blog names...