Beginning of June

Friday, June 1st
I woke up early so I decided to attend Guinea's opening ceremony with Erin and So Jung. Definitely the worst performance I've seen so far. Between Guinea's Commerce Minister accidentally knocking over the bouquet of flowers and Korea's flag that were on the side table in front of her to one of the dancer's wardrobe malfunction, let's just say it needed a lot more preparation than had gone into it. After the performance, we went and got lunch outside of expo and then got waffles with ice cream on the way back at one of the many cafes/bakeries. They taste really good, but because they hadn't just come out of the waffle maker, they weren't as good as hoped. 
I worked the afternoon shift and afterwards I watched an episode of  사랑비 (Love Rain) with Sarah because most of the people went to a new club called Ivy. It was opening night there, so a lot of people wanted to check it out. The club is also open only to foreigners and Expo staff. I don't think people liked it that much though. Some told me it looked like a TGI Fridays with all the tables pushed to the side as well as the dance floor was really bad. I just find it amazing how many things are popping out of nowhere simply for Expo.


Saturday, June 2nd
I woke up earlier than I had expected, so I decided to go to Japan Opening Ceremony, but there wasn't one because the Japanese Korean Friendship Conference was in place of that. I had planned on attending, but I was surprised to see people were already waiting in line at 10 am for a performance starts at 5 pm. I was a bit worried about how good my seats would be if people were that intense about waiting in lines because I definitely wasn't going to wait in line for that long to see a concert lasting less than 2 hours. Anyway, Jenna and So Jung had also thought there would be an opening ceremony for Japan so I ran into them at Expo Hall and then we all decided to go get breakfast. We got some food at Singapore and then we also went to Dunkin Donuts, where I got Orange Tea. It tasted more like warmed orange juice. Yum... Not really. I got some ice cubes and drank it once it was cold. After that I went back to the apartments and started watching a Korean drama. I'd seen it on TV, but there was too much political stuff for me to be able to follow it in Korean, hence why I started watching it online with English subs. As an added bonus, there aren't any commercial breaks. Although as a side note, commercial breaks in Korea last less than two minutes and I don't think they're as frequent as they are in the U.S., so it's way nicer. TV shows don't run on the hour though. They start and end at the most random times. Anyway, after watching a couple episodes, I went to go wait in line at 3 pm. During the two hour wait, I listened to two radio broadcasts required for our homework, since they were both an hour long. It made the time go by really quickly and got that part of my homework done because I didn't want to have to waste 2 hours at another time to get it done. My friend Cathy got off work and came and joined me in line at about 4:30 pm, which is about the time they let us all in. I was at the front of the line outside, but there was a separate line inside, so I was worried about where I would be seated. It turns out though I think they let that line in through the back of the auditorium and then got us from outside and let us in the entrance by the stage, which was really lucky because that meant I got to sit in the front row. All of the performances were absolutely amazing. There was a traditional music performance, a fan dance, a modern dance by these Korean and Japanese kids that were all insanely talented, 류 (Ryu) performed a couple songs, and then the main reason I attended the concert was to see 김정훈 (Kim Jung Hoon), a famous South Korean actor and singer who was performing. The final performance was by a famous Japanese pop singer. Simply watching that performance was worth the waiting time because it was hilarious. These Japanese guys I think came from Japan just to see her because they were going crazy. They even knew the main chorus dance moves and were performing the hand motions along with her. After the performances ended, I waited outside the back entrance to see if I could get a picture or signature from Kim Jung Hoon. First Ryu came out and then the Japanese singer, but after waiting like forty minutes, Kim Jung Hoon still hadn't come out. Finally we asked the guards and they said he'd already left through the main entrance, so that was disappointing. After that Cathy and I got dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Then I went back to my room to watch more of the drama and go to sleep early.


Sunday, June 3rd
I went to sleep the night before at 11:30 in order to be fully rested this morning since I was working a full day shift. We're never scheduled to work full days, but I covered another girl's shift so that she would cover mine later this month so I could go to one of the Kpop concerts. So I had the morning shift and then did her afternoon shift as well. It really wasn't that bad but I've known people who've worked full days with less than 2 hours of sleep and I don't know how they do it. I definitely am glad I got enough sleep. After the 13 hour shift, I got dinner with some people form the afternoon shift. Then I went to Bjorn's apartment to chill before going to sleep.


Monday, June 4th
I had the morning shift for the second day. My legs were really sore from all the standing I had done the day before. I think the full day made this shift more painful than the full day had been. After work, Cathy and I went to get foreigner registration cards. We took a taxi to get there, but upon arriving we found out that we had to have photos of ourselves printed on photo paper, resulting in momentary panic until Uncle John, USAP driver, who had driven there to meet us and take us home when we were done said he could fix it. We went to a shop owned by his friend that was filled with everything and anything. He took us back to his office and actually had photo paper. So after about 20 minutes we got our photos printed and hurried back to the Yeosu Immigration Office, which was closing in less than a half hour. We got our temporary card numbers and were told that we could go back in 3 weeks to pick up our official cards. After that we went back to the USA Pavilion and chilled there for a bit. I don't remember what I did after that though.