Old and New Friends

Today, I woke up to the sound of a suitemate! After settling in last night to a very quiet C602 (Yes, this semester I am on the top floor, lovely views, killer stairs) dorm, I began my day meeting Pachia. She is from California and is of Hmong descent. She is very sweet and excited to finally be in Korea, the land of her pop idols!

I also met Xee, Pachia's friend from school who lives in the suite across from us. They arrived in the dark last night, so they were eager to see the campus, find an ATM, and have some Korean food in Korea. I took them to the international ATM off campus, followed by a lovely lunch at a Korean restaurant. They both love Korean food and were ecstatic about lunch. I think it was a good first meal in Korea for them! We also got to visit the school store and tour the school a bit before orientation tomorrow. It is very hot and humid here in Korea, so we were drenched in sweat when we finally made it back up the hill to our dorm.

This afternoon, I met about eight of the other new international girls here at school. In total there are about fifty new internationals along with about ten returnees. I took this group of girls first to the Onyang street market on a hunt for shorts for Melanie, who thought that it would be cool in Korea this time of year, thus packed only long pants. We then went to the renowned Emart, which is the Korean Walmart. Everyone was able to get anything they needed to make their dorm home.

I have decided that I will not eat out for every meal this semester, but try my best to have a bit of normalcy by cooking a few meals a week. It will save me a bit of money and I really miss the chance to make my own food. Of course, when I say cook my food it means microwavable rice mixed with tuna and seaweed. Oh well, it will suffice for the time. I bought a bunch of food at Emart and now have a shelf in my dorm designated as my "pantry." It's nice with each passing semester, my room feels more homey and comfortable.

Anyway, so after our Emart mission, we took a taxi back to school. One of the new students, Kayla, speaks really good Korean. She has studied for two years and is a TESOL major with a focus on Korea. She took one taxi group back to school while I took the other half.

When we got back, there was a huge group of people outside the dorm meeting and chatting. Among the people in this group were several of the returnee students. It was a great reunion filled with hugs and laughter as we spent time catching up and talking about our summer breaks. I think this is one of the most beautiful things about this place: Being a community of internationals living in the middle of Korea, we tend to treat one another as family. We look out for each other because we are all learning and adjusting to this new culture. Even though we may drive each other crazy at times, we still take care of each other. I wish that this feeling of community could be transferred to every college campus, hopefully it can be one of the things I can share with my home university that will make a difference.

Tomorrow is the first day of orientation. It will mostly be new students filling out paperwork while us returnees help make the process as quick and painless as possible. It will be nice to meet everyone together since I have only had the chance to meet about half the new students.