What a day II

Honestly, yesterday's title fits perfectly for today as well. I feel that I will have quite a few more "What a day"s, though, so I will probably have to get a little more creative!

I started this morning off at 8:30 when I was whisked away by my coordinator to the hall in the international languages building. Here we [all of the new international students] had orientation, which I must admit, I am not sure how I would have survived if Arai and Yana (the girls from Kazakhstan) had not translated it into Russian for me. It feels so good to use my Russian! That is all that I spoke all day. At first I felt a little guilty. I am in Korea, right? So I should be trying to speak Korean. But I decided that my Russian could use some exercise too! Plus I really don't know any Korean, so I am not sure how I would use it!

After orientation we had an exam on which all I did was write my name, date of birth and citizenship. The oral exam was after that. All the farther I made it was just passed the alphabet and on to say that I don't know Korean well. I didn't feel too bad, though, because the Chinese girl who went before I did didn't even know the alphabet (another win for the American, yay!).

After the exam Arai, Yana and I walked all of the way to the on campus bank (which was quite a ways). They exchanged money, which took forever because there were so many other students in line before them. We then returned to the International Language building where I met up with Mr. Yun (the coordinator) for the second part of orientation. Arai and Yana came along because they hadn't understood it all the first time, and I had to do some translating from English to Russian (another win for the American!). We then went back to the bank because we are required to open an account there. But I didn't have my passport (supposedly I didn't need it, so I left it in my room). So we walked to the dorms, which are even further than the International Language building, got my passport and walked back. Honestly, we did quite a lot of walking today. When we were finished at the bank we went and had supper (yay!) which was really, really good. I had chicken kas-sa, which is chicken, cheese and potatoes put together and fried like a pancake, and, of course, rice. I could make a meal out of only the rice by how much they gave us. It was at least 1 1/2 to 2 cups, and their rice isn't like ours, it is very sticky and compact, so that equals a ton of rice!

Anyway, after supper we went into the university store because Arai needed some notebooks. Like any on campus store, items there aren't too cheap, so Yana and I decided to forgo buying anything until we went to the shopping center down the road or downtown. By the time I final made it back to my room it was already around 6pm. I am very worn out, but y'all should be proud of me, because this is the first day that I have not taken a nap!!! Granted tomorrow I will probably be extra tired, but that's okay :-)

Well, classes start tomorrow. I have to leave at 8:30ish again. From now on I will have my language classes from 9-1. Hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy your Monday off, because mine is already over!