Orientation: Wednesday

A few things:

- Someone said there's a typhoon coming to the Busan area? I don't know what effect that'll have on us here, but it was quite stormy today. Windy, rainy, and thundery. I love it!

- Next to the elevator waiting area on each floor is a bit of an open reading room. This evening, I overheard a fellow Canadian (well, he's from Toronto, lol), Ali, a zealous Christian, talking with another scholar (I didn't see his face) about why one should believe in Christ. You should pray, perhaps this is a turning point in that young man's life.

- Today's dinner.... Normally, I'll try things once, just to have an open mind. However, today's dinner was probably my least favourite of them all. On the menu was rice (a given), what looked like onion straws, spicy chili sauce meat dish (now with more tentacles!), and of course, kimchi. I usually take a tiny bit of everything, just to try it and then if I don't like it, I don't feel bad about wasting a lot of food.
However, upon closer inspection, what looked like onion straws was in fact, not onion straws. Onion straws don't have eyes. So my guess it was either a worm sized yellow fish, or a worm. Either way, I had one but that was it.... I just can't bring myself to eat something's brain :(
The meat dish had octopus and squid in it, so I tried to eat some. It's actually not that bad, it's sort of like eating clams in clam chowder, but the whole episode with the fraudulent onion straws sort of put me off seafood.

- This morning, one of the coordinators addressed our group. Apparently, a fellow scholar from the program fell ill and went to hospital for surgery. We were being let known that a donation drive had started for this scholar, and we could give money if we felt so inclined.
However, upon talking with another fellow scholar (aka, not a coordinator), the real story is that this girl got appendicitis and of course had to go to the hospital for emergency surgery. However, since she went to the hospital, she is missing lectures and technically cannot complete orientation, which means she's breaking her contract. Since she's "breaking her contract", the program is reneging on paying her medical bills/insurance costs, as well as her entrance and exit allowance (i.e. flight ticket money). Last I heard, she was heading back home to America. This is really shameful.

- Today is a public holiday, unbeknownst to anyone here :) It's Korean independence day, when Korea was finally able to say it was free from the occupation of Japanese rule. You're supposed to display the Korean flag at your house. As well, I believe it's the Google doodle for today (Google.com, not .ca)