Colon Hotel

Really quick update to let everyone know that I am now at the Kolon (aka Colon) hotel in my province of Gyeongsangbuk-do, for the last week of orientation, which takes place in our individual provinces. Our province is one of the largest, or perhaps the largest. There are over a hundred of us here. The hotel, an alleged five-star establishment, is a Fawlty Towers-esque facility where the pool is apparently closed permanently, and where, in my room at least, showers are not an option, and baths must be let out at a rate of a trickle, lest you flood the room.

I feel like I should do a proper update about my weekend trip into Seoul, semi-solo and semi-with my friend Katie and a couple of her friends. There's some stories there. And our last week at Kyung Hee was interesting, too. We went to Lotte World yesterday, a terrific amusement park with the best roller-coaster I've ever experienced. Not that I've been on so very many.

Today was a bit of a mess. We had our final farewell dinner, and it was badly organized. When everyone wanted to sit with their friends who were heading off to other provinces, we were forced to sit with our provinces, who were the people - friends or not - whom nobody needed to sit with, as we are with them for another week. The food half-came out, then stopped, and ten minutes later the Jeju people, who had to catch a flight, started assembling to leave. From there it got messy as people ran around trying to say last minute goodbyes. Lots of people were crying, while the co-ordinators shouted for us to stay with our groups, and then assemble. Somebody called for the Chungbuk people to assemble and nobody was sure whether they said Chungbuk or Gyeongbuk (i.e., Gyeongsangbuk-do; my province.) Then 200 guys tried to get their luggage down the elevators in the same ten minute window, and, well, it wasn't how anybody wanted it to go.

Then the luggage couldn't be fit on our bus so we sat on the bus for an hour (again - but I'm telling my stories out of order) until a hire truck was arranged. Four hours to get to the Kolon Hotel, an OK dinner, a long Q&A session, and now everyone is exhausted but high and wandering around and netting from the hotel lobby, where the wi-fi is.

Tomorrow we have a "cultural experience" - a homestay for the night with families from our province. It's a more than slightly terrifying idea to me, but I'm trying to embrace the concept. Anyway, I'll try to write a more detailed update soon of some of the stuff I've been doing, but it has been hectic, and it might take a while. I'll handwrite it out if I get a chance, on some long bus journey or other.