And it starts!

Sunday I just chilled. Monday I met with Karin to get my cell phone, and then stayed in the Ewha area at San Churro.

I got a complimentary iced chocolate drink because the cashier and I bonded over not being from Korea. She was from Japan, but had worked in Australia for San Churro, and now was working in Korea at the one and only San Churro, expanding the business.

After reading and eating my churros, I met with most of the other Hana Center volunteers, and we ate dinner and had our meeting at Ewha University. Very pretty buildings! Not sure about the campus as a whole but I was very impressed with the student center. Apparently it is based off of a "Red Sea" sort of concept.



Afterwards we went and took sticker pictures. Which are awesome and completely promote narcissism but who cares, they're sticker pictures! I hope that someday Wellesley will invest in getting a booth on our campus. :)

Tuesday I met up with friends. :) I (completely on accident!) ran into my friend Bryan from Tufts while I was waiting to meet my friend Yoonyoung from Ewha. Since I met her at CoEx Mall, we ate at a 냉면 place there. What is so amazing is that it only had soup, noodles, some cucumber, and pickled white radish? turnip? but it was SO DELICIOUS! Very refreshing. Ah, so this is what legitimate 냉면 tastes like.

Afterward I met my friend Hannah from Wellesley at 동대문. Even though I thought I would be prepared, I wasn't--the sheer amount of THINGS you can buy there is overwhelming. O__O I really wanted to eat the fried squid on the street there... sigh.

Today was the first meeting with Hana Center officials. We traveled to Gyeonggi-do's government building to meet them. Before that however, we had lunch--some of us got sandwiches from Isaac, a toast sandwich chain that makes sandwiches filled with egg, or cheese, or patties made of bulgogi, or hotdog, and coleslaw with sauce... or some combo of those.

What's funny is that while we were startled at how quickly they took an interest in us, they too were uncertain about what to expect. They anticipated completely white, blonde, blue-eyed, English-speaking girls from Wellesley. Imagine their surprise when a translator wasn't needed and we understood everything (well, I understand 60%) and were all Korean! Later, we all split into teams of two and went to visit the different Hana Centers. We were a big surprise to the people there as well.

The Hana Center is actually where North Koreans go after a 3 month period in Hanawon. Hanawon is mandatory and doesn't so much teach as register them, check their backgrounds and get their legal stuff settled. The Hana Center isn't mandatory--the first three weeks are intensive education, and then for eleven months following (it might be nine months) is normal education.

The specific Hana Center in Bundang (분당) we visited was actually a small portion of a bigger community center. We got a tour of the facilities and, quite honestly, I was impressed! The classes and services available were nice (not awesome, but good) and the program that helps North Koreans assimilate have a broad range. Yoga, opening a bank account, riding the subway, visiting Lotte World, buying food, going to the library, getting your hair done--all these experiences and more are provided, since it is all new.

After our meeting and our special tour, my friend GiYoon and I ate at a place that give a special of 2 주먹밥, a bowl of 우동, and a bowl of 불고기덮밥. All that for 11,600 원!

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with the volunteer team for dinner and debrief on what happened at each of our respective Hana Center locations.

Praise the Lord that we were all safe and that the meeting went well! Yay!