From August 26 to September 3 the fall semester orientation session was held for newly-arrived international students. Held by the KAIST International Center, the nearly 160 newcomers were assisted in completing their registrations upon arrival, watched presentations about KAIST and its students’ organizations and participated on several activities including a campus tour, a field trip to Jeonju and a dance party. Members from KAIST International Students Association (KISA), International Student Organization (ISO) and undergraduate volunteers also helped as staff throughout the orientation session.

The first few days were mostly filled with administrative tasks and informative talks. The students were guided through the KAIST registration, immigration, health check-ups at the KAIST clinic and the course registration process. Several talks on culture shock, life in Korea and life on campus were also given to the newcomers, as well as presentations from KISA, ISO and other student associations. There was also a Saturday Night party held at the Expo Science Park on August 27, where the students had an opportunity to appreciate the music fountain exhibition, live music and get to know each other better.

One of the highlights of the orientation session was the Campus and City Tour day. The students were divided into two groups, each taking either the campus tour or the city tour in the morning, and then switching over to the other in the afternoon. For the campus tour, the students were provided with rental bicycles and were escorted by the Campus Police while moving from one area to the next. At each of the three activity areas, the students were then divided into smaller groups in order to accomplish missions that earned them points. The missions ranged from searching for some specific books at the science library, buying random goods at the convenience store to sum up to exactly 10,000 Won and having coffee at Café Bene or Dunkin’ Donuts. On the city tour, the groups were scattered around the city at different destinations such as the Expo Science Park, the Government Complex and Eunhaeng-dong. During the city tour there also were missions for each route that the groups had to complete. The day ended with the International Lounge Party organized by atDusk Productions, a student-run event promotion start-up.

The last day of the orientation held the trip to the historic city of Jeonju. The international students had the opportunity to make traditional Jeonju Bibimbap, makgeolli (rice wine), tteok (rice cake) and local handicrafts. Divided into the same teams as on the Campus and City tours, the newcomers once again had to accomplish a set of missions at some of the touristic spots in Jeonju. The top four teams were awarded coupons to VIPS, the values of which were in accordance with their rankings. Despite the heat during the orientation session and tours, the international newcomers responded well to the events and gave positive feedback to the activities.

The International Center regularly organizes events for KAIST’s international community. More information on upcoming events can be found on the OASIS website (http://oasis.kaist.ac.kr). For those who would like to see all the events’ photos, the complete set of photos will also be uploaded on the website for a short period of time.