Opening Day

2/20/09

We got a wake up call this morning at 7:30 am to tell us about the day ahead of us. I didn’t go back to sleep and breakfast was at 8:30. I had eggs and soup. Eating eggs with chopsticks are a little odd and soup for breakfast just doesn’t seem right, oh well. Our class meeting started at 10 am. I sat with Dominique and was later joined by a bunch of others including Charlie. We filled out stuff to get our bank account and cell phone and got some words of advice from Eric one of the EPIK leaders. After our meeting was lunch. Once again the chopsticks were odd. Flat chopsticks that are metal are harder to use than wooden, round chopsticks.

After lunch, a friend and I went on a hunt for a store. We ended up at the campus bookstore where they didn’t speak English…no problem the guy at the book store punched the bill into a calculator to tell me how much I owed. At the convenient store next to it my friend (can’t remember his name) tried to give the lady a larger bill. She opened up his wallet that was in his hands and handed the 10,000 won bill back to him and grabbed 2,000 won. On the way out a kid stopped right in front of the door and looked at us like we were aliens or something. We both stepped back a ways and his mom pushed him through the doorway. Next we went for some coffee at Pan Dorothy Café and listened to a guy from Jersey bash Kansas because of evolution. Luckily there was a girl standing on my side of the counter that spoke English so she helped me order.

While waiting for the opening ceremony I was asking Anuschka what kind of music she liked and asked her if she had ever heard blue grass. Later she was asking about it, “What do you call it? Green grass?” The opening ceremony was pretty cool. I got to see Day Break Drums (the sound of the sun rising) and it was pretty amazing. I also got to see Fan Dancing. At the end of the opening ceremony they were telling us about the buffet that we were going to have for dinner. Gary, from Ireland, was sitting next to me. When they said now it’s time for the buffet he said, “Buffet? Is that food?” At dinner I got to try kimchee and baby octopus (cooked).