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This is going to be a super long post, because so much happened today.
I woke up at six in the morning even though my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:43pm. Since we had a KakaoTalk group message I saw a lot of people were up already and getting ready to leave for their flights. My mother and I still had to buy a few things like a reusable water bottle, a lock, earbuds, and other simple things.
Around 10 am I put all my stuff(one checked bag,carry on, and a backpack) in the car and we headed to the airport. The drive was funny, my sisters know I like to have the radio so they put it on so I could hear "American music for the last time". Of course we all know Seoul cafes play American music just as much as they do Korean. ( I actually don't know, and basing all my knowledge on KYoutuber's vlogs).
As a first time flyer, I was a little nervous but thankfully the security guards allowed my family to wait at the gates with me. We had a lot of waiting time so we sat down, talked, and took pictures (which was very embarrassing because there were so many people).
A little after 12, it was time to board the plane, it was kind of sad, I hugged my family goodbye and went in. No tears though, so small victory. First off I'll start by saying that my plane was super small and cramped, on one side there was a row of one seaters and on the other side there was rows of two seaters.
I, of course, sat down in the wrong seat but we quickly figured out that situation. I only started to freak out a little bit when it was time to get in the air. Surprisingly, flying isn't so bad, there wasn't too much of a shift from ground to air.
I tried to be a good student and memorize my Sino-Korean numbers, but quickly grew bored of that. Distracted myself with the complimentary snacks, the mini pretzels wasn't too bad. About fifteen minutes away from Detroit, I started to feel pain in my ears. I had gum for the beginning of the ride but took it out later, that pain was getting to be unbearable so I was thankfully for getting to land soon. Again, i was surprised because landing wasn't too scary either.
I'm proud of myself for navigating the Detroit airport by myself, for some reason baggage claim was SO far away. I'm not sure if thats how it is in other airports but the amount of stairs, escalators, and slide things I had take was ridiculous.
I tried looking for other NSLI-Y kids, but I didnt really see anyone. On the shuttle, there was a girl who turned out to be on the program, and she later helped me out a lot.
Getting to the hotel was the easiest part, when I got off there was a significant amount of people arriving, some that I "knew" and some that I didn't. I felt super awkward walking into the ballroom because so many kids were already there.
I met up with the program coordinators and got my room key. Stephanie (the girl I met on the shuttle) and I went up to our rooms to put our bags away. We were on two different sides of the hotel so we had to split up. When I got to my room, I realized my mistake. For some reason I didn't have my key, i lost my key as soon as I received it. Thankfully, Stephanie was still upstairs and let me put my bags in her room, and we went back down to see what I could do.
I found my card, it was on the floor, near a table I had sat down at for a minute. Dont judge me, when you get there youre given a lot of instructions and things like a tshirt, bag, and identification cards.
It was really awkward, for me, to walk in a room filled with a ton of kids. I'll be honest I really wanted to go back home at that moment. Soon I was comfortable enough, everyone is really nice and welcoming. Even with being in a Kakao group chat for 3 months with what i thought was a majority of people going, there were so many people I didnt know.
I was surprised with how many people knew each other beforehand. It was only a few, but with the statistics of the program, to me, it was a lot. A lot of people met on their plane ride, which I really wanted to happen for me, but the other girl that lives in North Carolina leaves in a completely different side of the state.
After dinner which was at 6pm, we did some icebreakers. One I did before, it's the icebreaker where you organize yourself without verbal communication by birthdays, oldest to youngest. We have quite a few '96 liners, '97 and '98 liners seem matched, '99 liners are a small bunch, and we have 2(maybe 3) people born in the 2000's.
The other icebreaker could be a skit/dance/song or artwork and it was related to our Korea trip. My group frew a picture of what we would be like when we come back from korea versus how we were befoe Korea. None of us were artists so we each took turns contributing a part of the drawing. CHALLENGE TIME: Guess what I drew?
There were a few problems with our drawing, its what nsliy would describe as a "life change", they really dont encourage dyeing your hair while on the trip, and no tattoos as well. That tattoo was actually a necklace by the way, but its still nice to be reminded lf the rules.
At 8pm we were released to do whatever we want, and so I eent with dulce to the pool and workout room.
We made plans to visit the pool the next day, and went to hang out with everyone in their individual rooms. I don't remember what time, but I returned to my room later and turned on the tv.
I started watching all the shows I would've if I were home, Bizarre Foods America just happened to be having their Korea special, which was funny since in two days I would be in Korea.
Briefly had a group video chat for Bilqees and Eric, who had a delayed flight and couldn't make the first day of PDO. Around 1 am is when I fell asleep because my arm hurt realy bad. I definitely overpacked because the pain in my arm and hand was severe.
I thought I would be super uncomfortable that first night in the hotel, but strangely I was dead to the world until my alarm woke me up.