[Part 1] 2 & 3. Orientation

Started the day off with breakfast at the cafeteria in Global Town. Breakfast is served from 8-9am from Mondays-Fridays. I was unsure of what to do and just followed what my roommate did because she arrived a day before me and had already eaten at the cafeteria before so she knew what to do.

3,500원 for this. Love the soup! 

The cafeteria

By 10am, we got onto the bus together with the other scholars and set off for Gyeongju, which was about an hour away from Busan. Talked to Daniel from Costa Rica and Rodigro from Brazil and I foresee that these 2 years will be pretty exciting, networking with people from all over the world! We had lunch at an eatery (구로쌈밥) before going to Commodore Hotel Gyeong-ju where we stayed at for the night. A pretty sumptuous lunch was prepared for us with 2 long tables set with all the food!

Roomies

The amazing spread of food

My side of the table

Our bus

The hotel was just a few minutes away from the eatery where we had our lunch. 

Upon arrival, we went through the registration process, collected our goodie bags, orientation t-shirts and room cards and went into the ballroom for the afternoon’s line up of programs that included speeches, performances and talks about the regulations and our program. 

What welcomed us upon our arrival at the hotel

In the queue for registration

My room card and shirt

Program info book, calendar and towel

So cool, I finally have a Korean-esque namecard!

Glad to be with a fellow Singaporean 

With Azeem from Brunei :) 

Dance performance

And more

Love her hanbok

Program for Day 2

Shared my room with my roommate and a Russian girl

View from the hotel lobby

A buffet dinner was provided and there was a talent show put up by fellow scholars too.

Hello Hite, haven’t seen you for a long time! 

We were too tired after dinner and retired to our room while most of the other students walked around and explored the area surrounding our hotel. At least I could watch 각시탈 live. Finally!

The next morning, we went down for buffet breakfast at 7am. I was so happy to eat scrabbled eggs and hashbrown- my favourite!

View from my room- our buses

#1

#2

#3

Back to the room for a 15 min nap

Gyeongju World Culture Expo Park
By 9am, we were off to the Park which features the rich cultural heritage of the Silla Dynasty (935-57 B.C.). My tour group’s first stop was Gyeongju Tower where there is a observatory that offers a beautiful view of Gyeongju.

Silla Princess

Lovely weather after the passing of the typhoon

Commodore Hotel (the beige building)

The 2nd stop was the Cheomseongdae Visual Theatre- 3D Animation World where we watched a 3D short movie of Cheonma Dream- a love story about a couple who became heavenly horses to be with each other.

The 3rd and final stop was Hwarang Theatre- the Story of a Thousand Years which is a digilog exhibition room with 3D technology and multimedia depicting the Silla people’s love stories and legends of Samgukyasa.

Pohang Cityhall
The next destination for the day’s fieldtrip was Pohang’s Cityhall where we were greeted with a warm reception before struggling to take a lift up to the 15th floor for lunch at the cafeteria. The lifts were probably overworked with about 300+ of us and the Pohang Cityhall staff taking the lifts up to cafeteria.

With Dr Lee Yong Hoon who was in charge of selecting us for the program

Gyeongju Yangdong Village 양동마을 
After lunch, we went to Yangdong Village, which is Korea’s largest traditional village that showcases the traditional culture of the Joseon Dynasty. The village is also a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. Some of you might have heard about the Yangban (Korean aristocracy) before in Korean dramas…yes, this was where the Yangban lived back in the Joseon Dynasty.
couldn’t take photos. bus tour of the factory. went into the running mill. amazing to see part of the process of how steel is made. very hot.

POSCO
POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Company) is a steel-making MNC headquartered in Pohang. It’s currently the largest steelmaker in the world! We were brought to the factory with the most part of the tour being conducted on the bus. We weren’t allowed to take any photos of the place so I have no photos to show you but the running mill where we were allowed to enter was so cool! It was so amazing to see part of the process of steel-making, being surrounded by the heat and hearing the gushing sound made by water being poured on the steel to cool it.

Saemaeul Undong 새마을 운동 Centre
The final destination for the field trip was the Saemaeul Undong Centre which includes a History Museum about the New Village Movement that sought to facilitate community development and modernization in Korea after WWII and the Korean War to develop villages where people could enjoy both physical and spiritual wealth.
After touring the Centre, we came back to Busan. I was originally on Bus #5 but moved to Bus #6 because the driver would bring us to Sasang Station while Bus #5 would go right back to the dormitory. Since my roommate and I wanted to shop for supplies for our room, we went to Sasang’s E-mart.

Love shopping at this E-mart. So much better than Homeplus next door! 

Thank goodness we could rent a locker for 100원 and deposit our luggages

Dinner shared between the both of us at the food court. We were cheated…the portion serving shown at the display counter was much bigger. 

We bought so much that we had a hard time getting a cab because many of the drivers didn’t want to pick us up after seeing the number of items we had -.- Eventually, we managed to get on one and he wanted to charge us extra for all our shopping items but decided to waive it off later on. Thank goodness there are trolleys and lifts in the dormitory which made bringing our items up to our room so much easier!