Thursday, May 3rd
So as I mentioned earlier, we all had to wake up at 4 am for our 7:15 am flight to Yeosu from Seoul. Ironically, we spent almost 1.5 hours in an airport for a flight that lasted 45 minutes. Not that I'm complaining--the shorter the flight the better. Yeosu is on the coast, like right on the coast. It's pretty mountainous and when we flew in it was really sunny by the airport, but all the mountains were covered in a cloudy haze. Yeosu itself seems to be a manufacturing city? I'm not totally sure, but whatever industry it has, the city is definitely not fully developed. The Expo is actually about 20 minutes outside of Yeosu I think. Everything here at the expo in contrast is super new. Our apartments are insanely nice. We each have our own bedroom with a ton of closet space. There's a living room and a kitchen. Apparently these apartments were built by a real estate company and have already been sold off to Koreans as apartments for after the expo, which is why they're so nice. But even taking that into consideration, they are huuuuge in comparison to the average Korean apartment. In comparison, when I was living with my host family (there was a total of 4 of us), I would say our apartment was half this size, probably even smaller than that. Here are some pics of my current apartment so you can get an idea of its size:
At the front of Expo Town, where all the Expo workers and volunteers are living:
My building, which has around 12 floors I believe:
My room:
Our living room, kitchen, and laundry room:
The view from our living room. Yes that is the ocean.
And one of the bathrooms:
Training started at 11:30 and it was a really long day, but not in a bad way. We got to tour the American Pavilion and the Expo site, but they said we couldn't post pics yet of the pavilion. I think once it opens I can upload pics of it. (As a side note, we also have these gigantic badges identifying ourselves just so we can get into the Expo and Expo Town, where we live.) Training lasted until 5 and then we all went to get dinner at 7 pm. It had cooled down a lot, which all of us were surprised by. We showed up thinking it was going to be hot and humid, and it is definitely humid, but not so much hot yet.
So for dinner, our whole expo team went out to get sushi. Our manager promised to get me some vegetarian food and when we got there he told the restaurant lady about getting me some special food. So after all the food is served, she brings out some food for me. What is it? Regular sushi with seafood and shrimp on top of everything. As she was putting it in front of me, I apologized and explained because that was seafood I couldn't eat it. She just looked at me and told me it was all vegetables. A Korean program manager had to explain to her I couldn't eat it, which I felt bad about (although that plate of sushi got quickly claimed by others from our group). Like 20 minutes later, she comes back with a gigantic plate of lettuce and a plate of cut up red cabbage, green and red bell peppers, cucumber, and oranges. Apparently, she took the vegetable thing more literally than needed. But whatever, I can't complain. The only bad thing so far is that I've gotten sicker over the past couple days. I have completely lost my voice tonight and I just feel sick and jetlagged, so I went to sleep at 9:30 pm.
So as I mentioned earlier, we all had to wake up at 4 am for our 7:15 am flight to Yeosu from Seoul. Ironically, we spent almost 1.5 hours in an airport for a flight that lasted 45 minutes. Not that I'm complaining--the shorter the flight the better. Yeosu is on the coast, like right on the coast. It's pretty mountainous and when we flew in it was really sunny by the airport, but all the mountains were covered in a cloudy haze. Yeosu itself seems to be a manufacturing city? I'm not totally sure, but whatever industry it has, the city is definitely not fully developed. The Expo is actually about 20 minutes outside of Yeosu I think. Everything here at the expo in contrast is super new. Our apartments are insanely nice. We each have our own bedroom with a ton of closet space. There's a living room and a kitchen. Apparently these apartments were built by a real estate company and have already been sold off to Koreans as apartments for after the expo, which is why they're so nice. But even taking that into consideration, they are huuuuge in comparison to the average Korean apartment. In comparison, when I was living with my host family (there was a total of 4 of us), I would say our apartment was half this size, probably even smaller than that. Here are some pics of my current apartment so you can get an idea of its size:
At the front of Expo Town, where all the Expo workers and volunteers are living:
My building, which has around 12 floors I believe:
My room:
Our living room, kitchen, and laundry room:
The view from our living room. Yes that is the ocean.
And one of the bathrooms:
Training started at 11:30 and it was a really long day, but not in a bad way. We got to tour the American Pavilion and the Expo site, but they said we couldn't post pics yet of the pavilion. I think once it opens I can upload pics of it. (As a side note, we also have these gigantic badges identifying ourselves just so we can get into the Expo and Expo Town, where we live.) Training lasted until 5 and then we all went to get dinner at 7 pm. It had cooled down a lot, which all of us were surprised by. We showed up thinking it was going to be hot and humid, and it is definitely humid, but not so much hot yet.
So for dinner, our whole expo team went out to get sushi. Our manager promised to get me some vegetarian food and when we got there he told the restaurant lady about getting me some special food. So after all the food is served, she brings out some food for me. What is it? Regular sushi with seafood and shrimp on top of everything. As she was putting it in front of me, I apologized and explained because that was seafood I couldn't eat it. She just looked at me and told me it was all vegetables. A Korean program manager had to explain to her I couldn't eat it, which I felt bad about (although that plate of sushi got quickly claimed by others from our group). Like 20 minutes later, she comes back with a gigantic plate of lettuce and a plate of cut up red cabbage, green and red bell peppers, cucumber, and oranges. Apparently, she took the vegetable thing more literally than needed. But whatever, I can't complain. The only bad thing so far is that I've gotten sicker over the past couple days. I have completely lost my voice tonight and I just feel sick and jetlagged, so I went to sleep at 9:30 pm.
Your room looks so nice...but not as good as Templin. 604 isn't the same without you!
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Taylor, your suitemate.
P.s. I hope your having a great time!
Also, I was lying when I said Templin was better.
Oh yeah you're so right. I mean 604 is like a fortress compared to this. Actually I think our whole dorm room could fit in the kitchen and living room here... This place is maaasssssiveee. It's insane.
DeleteGood luck with finals this week!