Movement By Lydia

Originally we were supposed to arrive on the 27th at around 6pm, but due to a [8ish hour] delay at the Detroit airport, we ended up arriving at Incheon at around 2am. The Detroit airport delay was quite fun, however, since I was able to watch the Korea vs Belgium game [World Cup]. I was pretty disappointed I wasn't going to be able to watch it since I was going to be on the plane during it, but we ended up watching it at the airport with a woman who was streaming it on her laptop! YAY for soccer and bonding with random Korean people over it haha. I am a huge soccer fan so the girl who was streaming it and I bonded very quickly hehe. Unfortunately Korea lost [which was really disappointing because I wanted to watch soccer in the streets while I was in Korea], but it was SO much fun watching the game with people in the airport! Also while in the airport, I got to practice my Korean! I've only self-studied [and when I say self-study I mean pick up from texting and b...

Before heading to Korea [or any country you're going to with NSLI-Y], you have what is called pre-departure orientation for 2 days. For the NSLI-Y Korea group with iEARN, we had our PDO in New York City at Columbia University so if you get accepted to that program, that's where you'll be heading!  I'm pretty sure all programs that iEARN is in charge of go to NYC for their PDO, but not ALL NSLI-Y programs will be in New York. American Councils groups usually are in DC for example.                             We arrived at Columbia at around 10am and didn't have anything program-wise to do until 5pm that night so they let us free- we just had to stay within the boundaries (aka don't go to Harlem) and couldn't take the subway. When we first got there, we checked in, received our stipend, NSLI-Y shirts, room keys, and some other things from iEARN. I headed to my room with my cumbersome lug...

I just had my OPI so I thought I would make a post about what an "OPI" is. OPI, like the title of this post says, stands for oral proficiency interview. Finalists who indicated on their NSLI-Y application some previous knowledge of the language they will be studying on their program are required to do an OPI. ONLY those who indicated knowledge of their NSLI-Y language on their application will have an OPI [so don't panic if you don't know what this is and are a finalist]. 

On April 12 I received something exciting in the mail- the NSLI-Y Korea summer packet from iEARN! I have been waiting for this since I got my finalist notification and now it has arrived! I had the ACTs on Saturday so coming home to this was exciting. The big packet included papers regarding the trip [some that needed to be signed/filled out and sent back], the  NSLI-Y Korea Student Handbook, a parent handbook, and a Korean for Beginners book! The envelope says that it cost over 5$ to send this to me... Wow! Haha~

       So this past weekend [not really- copy&pasting this part LOL] . I had my interview for NSLI-Y, and I want to write about it before I forget [even more] about it! THERE WILL BE TWO SEPARATE POSTS ABOUT THE INTERVIEW One containing preparation&interview tips and such for future applicants/semifinalists  One talking about my personal interview experience ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------        So, I know that I was also looking for accounts of other semifinalists' interviews [in addition to tips] because I wanted to get a feel for how mine might go. Therefore, I am writing the second part of 'The Interview' for people that feel the same way I felt when I was going through this.  Disclaimer: This will probably be long and I will probably end up blabbing about something not very significant. ALSO, your interview will not go exactly like ...

       So this past weekend I had my interview for NSLI-Y, and I want to write about it before I forget [even more] about it! THERE WILL BE TWO SEPARATE POSTS ABOUT THE INTERVIEW One containing preparation&interview tips and such for future applicants/semifinalists  One talking about my personal interview experience -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------        I know when I was preparing for my interview I was looking for blogs with interview tips and watching videos where others talked about their interview experience, so I thought that I would write for future applicants about my experience because I'm sure you all are interested in how things work and how to prepare! The "tips" will be in bold by the way so you can easily find them if you don't want to read all this .