Yay, Korea~

The first day of Yonsei University's orientation definitely showed me that I'm in a different culture. In the evening, we had our first meeting with our buddy groups (other foreigners new to Yonsei) and our mentors (native Koreans, who can speak English - or at least a little bit - and people who can help us with Korean and show us around the school and the city). Anyway, so we met, had a little snack, learned about activities and school events and clubs, etc. Then, they announced that we'd all be going out in our groups to eat.

It was already kind of late, between 7pm and 8 pm, and I was nervous, but I stayed with the group anyway. It turned out that there was one other girl from my CIEE program in my group, so we kind of stuck together. We walked about 15-20 minutes to a restaurant in Sinchon.

The place was small, but the food smelled great. It was traditional Korean barbecue food, something I hadn't had yet ^_^

Be amazed at my exemplary photography skills~

It was a fun night.  I met a lot of other international students, as well as a few Koreans. However, the Korean leaders of our groups kind of stuck to their own group at a table in the corner and let the rest of us be. Not long after we started eating, the soju appeared. The Korean table started playing a drinking game pretty much right away. At my particular table, there was one girl who absolutely did not want to drink and she happened to be sitting by some Korean students who never relented in pressuring her to drink.

None of us were ever carded or asked anything. More bottles kept appearing whenever ones we were using got low (we ended up only drinking two full bottles, and gave the leftover to other tables XD)

After we were done eating and talking and paid, we met up out front of the restaurant, and the leaders were telling us about the club/bar they were going to next. My CIEE friend and I, however, ended up heading back to campus after we left the restaurant. We'd had plenty to drink already and didn't feel like we wanted to a) get farther from campus , it was already a long enough walk from where we were, b) drink any more, and c) be up too late because it was the night before we went to the DMZ.

I enjoy drinking, so I wasn't ever offended or upset by the heavy drinking culture that Seoul has, it was just not exactly what I was expecting X) I know, back in Indiana, school groups would most likely not take you out clubbing on the first night or anything >_<~