The IYC Welcome Party

It was the night of the tuna fish jamboree, and all of Lake Wobegon had gathered at the old sawmill to taste the Dolores' famous tuna fish gumbo and cut a rug.

Yeah, something like that.

IYC (International Yonsei Community) is the university sponsored organization for helping the international kids adjust to Yonsei. Last night they threw us all a welcome party, and this was my first chance to meet other University students, since I've been living an hour away from the school. We all trekked en masse to a relatively small restaurant. They brought to the table one of the most bizarre dishes I've ever encountered here yet. It was a combo plate, half being mixed fruit, half being mixed fried items. It was more than confusing for my palette to be alternating between pineapple, tater tots, watermelon, fried squid, apple slices, french fries, orange wedges, chicken nuggets.

I met a great many students from all over the place. There were several from France, one from Japan, a Finnish dude, two from Holland, people from all over the States, and even a South African guy.

One whom I met was Fleur. She was one of the French, but she was born Korean and adopted. This girl probably has it the toughest of all the international students. She's 100% French. She speaks English with a rough accent, she smoked three cigarettes before the food came, she hates the food here, can't speak a word of Korean, yet she's the only one who gets stopped and spoken to on the subway. Bummer, Fleur, major bummer.

Most of the international students fit into classifications that I've managed to be on the outs of. For instance

1. The international community lives almost exclusively in I-house, the dorm designated exclusively for exchange students, a building which I don't even know how to find.
2. The vast majority of the students are here to take Yonsei's business courses, one of it's stronger suits. There was only one whom I met who was actually a Korean language and culture major. The rest of them will probably never be in a class with me. They're taking things like Chinese Economics and Accounting, I'm taking Modern Culture and the Korean War.
   
3. Most of these international students don't know the first thing about the Korean language, it's alphabet, or their culture, nor do they have the faintest interest in learning about it. They all repeated the same mantra. "I don't want to waste credit hours on a language I'll never use." This attitude, however, expresses a sort of foolhardy bravery that I can only aspire to yet never attain. Perhaps it stems from being in Europe, closely packed with dozens of languages you'll never be able to speak and cultures you'll never understand.

I was able to learn a lot of names and got a few email addresses as well. Being as I don't live in the dorm this will be somewhat of an uphill battle for me. All these kids have been hanging together for almost a week now, and it won't be easy to slide right in with a group like it is the first day or so. Tomorrow is the welcome party hosted by the Mentor's club, so I'll have another chance to mingle and mangle.