"Orientation"

So these last 3 days I was taken out with my future classmates (and other students from the arts department)  to a large hotel to have an "Orientation." I expected tons of drinking and some information about college life but I learned lots of other things instead...



I don't know where to start...
Well, if you look at the photo above you might notice that it's 90% girls. Seems our major isn't very popular among men. What's worse is Koreans just look so damn young! I felt I was going on a field trip with middle school girls.
So it was a 4 hour drive out into the mountains just to spend the whole time in a hotel. I ended up not taking many photos, as everything was completely unexpected. Really fancy though, our senior students did the preparation and I'm sure if I understood more what was going on I'd have been blown away.

Organization wasn't prime though, spent a lot of time trying to get people in rows and pay attention, so schedules ran late. Activities from morning all the way until 1am, and lots of them required screaming. I do not know how but they screamed and screamed 2 days straight, through games, concerts, etc. The first day we (the foreigners; basically Pablo, the other NIIED student, and 2 Chinese people) didn't even wait until things ended and just went to bed at 12:30am. You don't really have as much energy when you don't get half of the things going on. The next day, though, was dancing.
SERIOUSLY? These people find every excuse to dance! It's fun once, twice, but when you make EVERYONE go on stage and dance it's not new anymore. Plus Korean culture is very cutesy so the dance moves they pull off are the same as those I had to do in Universidad Infantil during our "Clausura".
I don't want to be racist or offensive, and if you're one of my Korean friends please don't get angry, but Koreans can be rather childish and immature. While attending the language school I was treated like this, but I figured it was because we only know basic level Korean and usage of that can be rather childish. I figured out these last few days that that's just how people here are. I literally felt like I was with a bunch of middle schoolers (they can handle about as much alcohol as a middle schooler too). I probably look like a pedophile in the group photo.
I was told that I had to go or I'd be socially awkward because I would'nt be able to make any friends. Well, it was awkward anyway. I was the only (half) white person there and stood out like a mustard stain on a white shirt... with the colors reversed. Conversations usually went down like this:
Korean girl: Hi (Actually it's more like "Hiiiiiiiiii~")
Me: Hi
KG: Where are you from?
Me: [in Korean] I can speak Korean you know...
KG: Woooooooow![in Korean] Where are you from?
...
Happened like 10 times.
I got kind of close with the Chinese people though, who felt almost as awkward as me. I also kind of got close to a few Koreans. I also got dressed in drag and hugged from behind by a guy... Yay Korean games!
Needless to mention I avoided the dancing activities the second day. I didn't want to seem like an ass though, so I stuck around for the drinking games in the evening. Pretending to drink isn't hard, and anyway, what are a bunch of little girls gonna do to me? It was quite interesting actually. Everyone divided into small groups and formed circles. In the middle there was soju, beer and yangju (food you eat while drinking). First, you have to do your jagi sogeh (personal introduction). You stand up and at the top of your breath yell hello, your name, and what year you were born (and add whatever you want) and everyone cheers loudly.
Ok. I'll do it.
Of course everyone was already staring at me from before probably thinking "OMG The foreigner is in our group!" (Chinese people don't count). So when I stood up they were already cheering.
Ok.
"ANNYEONGHASEYO. 92NYEON SENG GUATEMALA ESO ON WESLEY IMNIDA!" (Hello, I am Wesley from Guatemala, born 1992)
Woooooooooooo!
Once that's over they immediately start singing, that's how they start their games. Each game has it's own song and the eldest usually picks the first game. From then on the loser picks the next game and everyone knows what it is because of the intro song. I just see people randomly pointing at each other yelling "asa no!" or random words until I get pointed out with my blank face and the game stops. My turn to drink! Well I got  the hang of most of the songs quickly. A few people were already turning a deep purple/red after 2 shots of soju. Small shots too. I was never in risk of getting drunk.
By 4am I was escaping to bed though. Not because of the booze, but because I was damn sleepy and I had heard enough girls screaming for a lifetime. Going to a KPop concert is NOT on my bucket list!

I tried, but I didn't enjoy myself too much. Some things were interesting but really I just wanted the screaming to end. I don't know how they screamed so much, seriously.

A funny note, though, and a bit of culture shock. You know how girls are very comfortable with each other and don't mind cuddling or leaning on each other, right? Well guys in Korea are like that. It just felt odd, and Pablo made a funny comment. "Even with so many girls here, (literally 90%) they are still cuddling with each other."
I've totally lost my sense of what's gay. Oh well. I'll just say I've become more open-minded.

Beyond that, I've moved. My new dorm sucks. The only good thing is that I don't have security cameras looking up my ass in every corner, but facilities are down the drain. No lobby, no microwaves or fridge, there is only one washing machine (in a creepy dark room that barely lights up, on the 3rd basement floor), no personal bathroom (I really miss my sacred #2 time). And it's dirtier than... than... well I'll show you.

The window is so dirty I can't see out of it. (That's bambi on the left btw)

Funny how ramen and pubes share a similar shape...

Well we moved in right after the previous pigs moved out so they said they had no chance to clean, and they didn't want to clean while we weren't here, and they can't clean tomorrow since it's a holiday. So I get to live in this pigsty until Friday. Well everything in my life had been going pretty well until now, but this time shit hit the fan.