The past days there were some events for incomimg exchange students. The first one was a opening ceremony with a brief introduction of the campus by the people we only had email contact with.
All in all there are about 300 foreign students in Sungkyunkwan through the exchange program from over 30 different countries.
Afterwards the HI-Club introduced itself. It is a club by students to help foreign students to get used to the new environment. They assign a korean buddy for each exchange student and form little groups for activities planed by them.
We also got a tour by the HI-Club trough the old Sungkyunkwan campus (it is over 600 years old) and it was quite interessting. As the tour was finished we arrived at the International House with a buffet waiting for us (nice).
While eating, we talked to some other exchange students and found out that quite a lot mexicans are at the campus we are staying and also lots of brasilians are attending here to. We also found out that it seems we are the only ones doing the full semester, all other ones don't...
After having our bellies filled, we formed little groups and introduced eachother. The HI-Club members told us then that we will have the planned activities in these groups and that there will be a welcoming party in the end.
There were two welcoming parties this week. One organized by the HI-Club and the second one organized by all exchange students of all universities.
The first party was korean style with food, beer and soju (korean national drink). There were games and it was very easy to get to know other students and HI-Club members. Basically lots of fun.
The second one was more a western disco with free drinks ... no koreans invited and only exchange students, but it was too loud to event start a conversation and just groups of people knowing each other ... it kind of sucked.
So for the next time, I will remember: only attend to korean parties :-D