Orientation for 2011 KGSP Scholarship Student (part 2)

After a while, we finally arrived at KT Human Resources Development Center. One striking feature of the place was that it looked so much like a college, a campus, a training center, or like any other huge looking educational facilities. But, they did not entice me more than the flyover flying over the venue!
Yes, there was literally a highway dissecting the venue right in the middle of the area.
It is so visibly long that we had to go underneath it whenever we went to the auditorium or the cafetaria from our dormitory--which lied about 1 km away by walk. It was indeed an exercise in itself.

As soon as we got off the bus, we were ushered into the dormitory where most of the participants already came and have their names registered which in turn they would receive a T-shirt and a bag of orientation book, ballpoint, a calendar, and a signature towel.
Since we were like late in registering, we did not have enough time to receive the whole package, instead we just had our name tag ready in order to participate in the opening ceremony that would start in 5 minutes; the thing was that...it took us 10 minutes from the dorm to the auditorium.
When we arrived there, a video elaborating about Korea and its related information was being displayed.
No sooner than we arrived, the opening ceremony was begun by introduction of the whole 2-day session and the introduction of each GKS scholarship staff.

       

After a short and heartwarming welcoming speech from Mr. Chung Nam Jo ( the chair ), we had a chance to see the dazzlingly performed Korean percussion and other traditional Korean musical instruments. More important than that was the fact that the performers were all elementary school students!

It was a great time to be able to chance and see it for myself. 

Orientation for 2011 KGSP Scholarship Student (part 1)

Time: Thursday - Friday, 22 -23 September, 2011
Venue: KT Human Resources Development Center, Daejon
Participant: 279 students from around the world
Programs: Introduction of GKS scholarship; Lecture on Korean Education, History, Culture, Politics, Economy; Talent Show from representatives of the students; field trip to Expo Park and National Science Museum in Daejon.

So, I guess I would start my story with the fact that we had to wake up early in the morning on Thursday night because we got to leave for Daejon at 07.30 a.m. After an early wee hour of preparing stuffs, I made it to the bus. Off we went to Daejon at around 07.45. Departed from the tennis court of the campus, 18 of us were on board the bus with Ms. Kang and Mr. Kim from International Office accompanying us. Out of 18 students on board, most of us did not know what to expect from the orientation; what we might get and o and eat there. So, all of the expectations were high.

It took us about 3,5 hour, an hour longer than it should due to the traffic jam on highways. With about 10 minute break at the side-road rest area, we managed to refresh ourselves before continuing the journey.
Nothing pretty much interesting things to see along the way until we were approaching Daejon and had the first glimpse of how wide the Daejon lanes were; how beautiful the landscapes were; how neat the trees along the sidewalks were. It was a different place from that of Seoul. A kind of relaxing feeling set in.
I got a glimpse of an eye-opening 'scene' or new art or contemporary art displayed at unlikely place: the air over a park. I would talk about it later.
It took me a while to realize what I saw until the bus passed that 'thing' by. Since then, I got a determination that I had to go back there and take the picture of the whole 'commotion' I saw on the way to the venue.

It was my first impression of Daejon with high expectation.