Old Friends

Today and yesterday have been less jam packed than the first three days in Pohang, so I’m writing about both days in one entry. On Sunday, I went out into town again, just to explore some more, and actually walk around this time instead of sit on the bus the whole time. I was mainly looking for a PC Bang to check my email, and I also wanted to stop into Home Plus to get a few things. Now I don’t know if it’s because it was Sunday, and stores were closed yesterday, but every PC Bang I tried to go into, didn’t seem to have an entry I could use. Most PC Bangs are on top floors, above the ground shops, but I could never find the stairs to the ones I saw on the streets. So I saw about 6 PC Bangs before I was actually successful in getting into one. I spent about two hours at the place, checking email and facebook. I was actually really happy that I happened to be on facebook during that time, because one of our new friends Daniel caught me on it and invited me to dinner with some other people from orientation. It was so great to think that I would see familiar faces for a change, I was really excited. It took a bit of back and forth planning to figure out where I had to go to meet them, but it all worked out perfectly and I met up with Daniel, Barry, Sinead and Brandon for dinner and drinks. It was a great night, we went to a traditional Korean restaurant, and then went out for drinks afterwards. It was nice to talk to other people about everything we were all going through! After we all finished at the bar, Barry and Sinead invited us back to their place and they were the best hosts I’ve ever encountered as a post-grad. Haha, it was a great evening indeed. When it was time to go, Daniel, Brandon and I got a taxi. I got home first (they live in the same building), but not without having a hard time communicating to the driver where I wanted to go. I was really grateful that Dan and Brandon let me go home first because without Dan speaking to the driver, I don’t think I would have ever gotten home.

I found a cute shopping street with a canal running along it.

Today was the start of a new week at school. I was told I wasn’t teaching today, so I just followed different teachers around and observed. Tomorrow I will start teaching!! Lunch was tasty today, better than it was on Friday. I think I’m starting to get used to the spicy. The soup during lunch had these really small, long mushrooms that I’ve never seen before but they were really yummy. They remind me of these brown things in Bibimbap, but I don’t know what those things are either. After lunch I was taken home by the two school janitors because they had my desk and chair in the trunk of their car. So after they got my new (not actually new, but in fact, kinda old) furniture into my room, I started unpacking my little knick-knacky things like photos and jewelry. I’ve finally started making my apartment homier! Around 5:30 I took the bus to the Home Plus because I wanted to get an Ethernet cable, more adaptors, and a coffee cup that I can take to school and leave in the teachers lounge. I also went there to eat dinner in the food court. It’s actually pretty exciting because there are lots of different choices there, and they are all really cheap! It’s easier this way for me too because I haven’t had to buy kitchen things yet. So after I ate, I went back downstairs, bought my things, and headed home. I was really happy with all of my purchases, but I was especially pleased to find out that I know have internet!!! Any who, I have to go to bed now, because it’s late and I have school tomorrow.

This is the third mug I've gotten since I've been in Pohang, but its my absolute favorite one!

This one I got just because of the silly grammar mistake.

P.s. Courtney is coming to live with me for the next week or so until her place is ready!

Sam's Visit to the City

Today was such a great day! It was Saturday today, which means I had all day to do whatever I wanted! I decided to go to the Lotte Mart to get some important things, and then see where the day took me. So before I could even leave my house, I needed to ask my landlord how to turn on the washing machine, and also why there was no hot water in my shower. I really like my apartment, but the only thing I could complain about is the shower. The whole bathroom is the shower of course, but that’s not the problem. The shower head mount is at about shoulder height on the wall, so when I want to shower, I either have to hold the shower head with one hand, or kneel on the ground when its on the mount. The biggest problem today though, was that I had to take a cold shower because the hot water didn’t work. So I went downstairs and asked my landlord for help. It was his daughter that answered the door so she helped get the washing machine to work, but couldn’t figure out the hot water so she told me she would get her dad. I waited for about 30 minutes and no one came, so I thought maybe she forgot, or her dad wasn’t home, but she came back shortly after not only with her dad but with a repair man! I was very pleased that he came to fix it, the landlord is very efficient, which I like. So while the guy was fixing the hot water issue, he noticed that my faucet is also kinda crappy, so they told me that in the afternoon someone was going to come replace it for a new one! I was really happy to hear that because my faucet is old and hard to work.

So after they all left I headed out to Lotte Mart. I was headed for the bus stop but before I got there, I wandered around my neighborhood for a bit. The school nurse lives really close to me so I saw her house, along with a lot of other really beautiful homes.

The nurse's home.

Not my street but its really close to me.

There are pomegranates just growing in my neighbors yard!!!

Another beautiful house.

I took the bus, and knew where I was going because the Lotte Mart is on the way to my school. The Lotte Mart is pretty much like a big grocery store; maybe a mix between Publix and Wal-Mart, because its not as big as Wal-Mart, but has more stuff than Publix. I bought some more hangers, a trash can, a french press(!), dish soap and sponge, and some push pins. Oh and while I was there, two little girls came up to me and stared at me for a second, and then one said “Hi Sam teacher!” It was really cute, and I was surprised she remembered my name. I brought my backpack with me to pack everything, but the trashcan made my backpack stick out I looked like a gifted 5th grader with a bag packed with books. :/

Look dad there is a Starbucks here! I haven't gone in thank you very much!

I love how all the buildings are an overload of signs I can't read.

I love that this is a Russel Crow Bar that serves 'Beer and Freedom'.

Now, what I’ve heard so far about the buses, is that you have to get on your bus going the OTHER way then where it dropped you off. That makes sense of course, but sometimes the bus stops aren’t right across from each other so it’s a bit confusing. I talked to another teacher at my school and she told me that the 105 bus (the only one at my house bus stop) takes you all the way to downtown, so I thought I’d ride it to see where it goes. So I got on the bus going that same direction as the one I got off when I got to Lotte Mart. The bus went around my town, and then went into the city so it was really cool because I was doing a quick “explore” while I was heading home. I passes a Home Plus which is another big store in Korea, as well as a bunch of PC Bangs (rooms), a Hospital, “Motels”, and the water! It’s really funny here because the “Motels” are actually huge hotels. They are all called Motels though. So we drove and drove, through down town, and I sat there while people got on and got off. Finally after being on the bus for about 45 minutes, I noticed the driver was turning into a big bus stop. Turns out, I rode the bus to the end of the line. So I said to the bus driver “Postech?” and looked confused and then said “Ahhh Poosteka” and showed me to another 105 bus which was leaving in a minute to do its round. Once the new bus started going, I figured out what its route was and I got off at my stop. Im really glad I rode it all the way to the end, because now I have a much better understanding of where I need to be to get picked up or dropped off at the right spot. I’m really happy too because I got to see the downtown which was really cool!

This is a Motel!

This is also a Motel!

When I got home I saw there was a note on my door saying that my door was locked so the landlord couldn’t come in to fix my sink, and that I should see him when I got home. So I went downstairs to his apartment and within a few minutes he had a different repair man in my bathroom fixing my faucet. When he finished he showed me how to work it and handed the landlord an extra head mount. I asked him if he could possible mount the new one higher so I could shower standing up. It took a bit of begging, literally on my knees (explaining to him how uncomfy it is to shower on your knees), but he did it so I was really happy! Now I've got hot water, and new faucet and a higher head mount, all in one day!! Oh and while the repair guy was doing all this, the landlord was in here too and his dog followed him into my apartment. They have the smallest yorkie I’ve ever seen! It was really cute, and literally the size of my flip flop! I really like my landlord and his family, they seem like very nice people. His wife brought us all drinks while we were waiting for the guy to fix my faucet, which was really kind of her.

So tiny!!

After the guy finished, I was starving so I decided to take the bus once more and go to Home Plus, because it is such a huge store and I remember hearing they have a food court in it. When I got there I was pretty overwhelmed. I think I underestimated the size of this place! Its about 9 stories tall I think. There is the books/shoes/fragrance level, grocery level, home level, womens clothing level, mens clothing level, food court level, and a movie theatre that is I think 2 levels. There is also a basement but I didn’t go down there today so I don’t know what’s down there. I bought some hooks and another pillow on the home level, and then had some Bibimbap in the food court. I got a few stares but I don’t know if its because I’m foreign, because I was eating alone, or because I was carrying around a giant pillow everywhere. After eating and some more aimless wandering, I got back on the bus and came home. Now I am just slowly unpacking some more. I got a lot more hangers today so I’m excited to finally have all my clothes out of my suitcase. I’ve been flirting with the idea of changing what furniture I have around a bit, but I’m not sure where to move it, so perhaps that’s what I’ll do tonight!

P.s. Oh my god, Harry Potter is on tv right now! And its in English with Korean subtitles so I’m all set!

First Day of School

Today was first day of school! So-yoon, my co-teacher who picked me up from the buses the day before, told me to take the bus to school and to be there by 8:30 to meet the other co-teachers. I woke up super early and left my house at around 7:30. I wasn’t sure how long the walk to the bus stop was going to be, or how long the wait and ride would be so I gave myself an hour just in case. Turns out the bus stop is a 3 minute walk, the wait is about 10 minutes, and the ride is another 10 minutes, so I got to school before 8am! I knew where I was supposed to go so I went up there and assumed I could just sit on the computer and wait until 8:30. Well I got there, and no one else was there yet! I went into our office and the A/C was off, and my computer required a password that I didn’t know. So I just walked around the hallway looking at things until Kristen showed up. Kristen is another English teacher that works at my school. They have three now that I am here. Its very different than what we had heard during orientation, because they always told us we would be the only English speakers in the school. It was definitely nice to see another English speaker! So after meeting a few other teachers, I sat in with one that was teaching 2nd graders. Since my school is a private school (not a hogwan, but more like a private school in the US) the class sizes are much smaller so there were about 8 students in the English classes. I introduced myself to each class of students and they would all giggle a little or say something to their friends in Korean. Apparently my name is what they call a teacher when they talk amongst themselves. Sam is the nickname for teacher, so they were all very amused by this!

This is Jigok Elementary (my school)!

After two periods, I met the vice principal who was really nice, and happy to meet me! He is going to be the new Principle of the school in a few days because the current Principal is leaving. After two more periods, I had lunch with all the other teachers, and then Mr. Che (he works in administration) took me to city hall to get my Alien Registration Card. Everything went smoothly and only took about 30 minutes. When we got back, Kristen and I walked to Lotte Mart (grocery store near the school) and she let me watch while she paid one of her bills at a machine inside. Then we just walked around the Lotte Mart for about 30 minutes. She pointed out to me certain things that she liked, so that was really nice. We got back at around 4:15 which gave me only enough time to quickly respond to Courtney’s email. We haven’t seen or talked to each other since we parted at the bus stop the day before. I’m sure we are both really eager to find out where we both live, but for now neither of us have phones and we can’t get internet until we get our ARCs, so the only time we can email is during school or if we find a PC bang. Courtney said she was staying with her co-teachers family for a bit so maybe she’s been able to use their computer, but I’m not sure.

So around 4:30 I went with So-yoon and some other teachers to a banquet hall. They were having a farewell dinner for the current Principal who is leaving, and I was invited!! I met the music teacher who speaks English really well and is close to my age, so that was nice because she helped translate for me during the dinner. The dinner was so fantastic!! I sat at a table with So-yoon, the music teacher Joanna, and about 6 other teachers. The first part of the dinner was when they did all the speeches. I obviously didn’t know what was being said, but I clapped at the end like everyone else. I was really nervous in the beginning of the dinner because I was brand new, and didn’t speak the language. On top of that, I’m still new to all of the Korean customs, so I was afraid of doing something wrong and offending someone. Everyone at my table was really friendly, but after the beer and soju were served, everything was a lot less stressful for me. One of the guys at the table was extremely nice to me, and joking around with me. The vice principal came over to our table and poured us all drinks and we did a cheer for him! It was such a great dinner, and I was so happy that I got to be a part of it. They even gave me a bouquet of flowers! I got the most beautiful bouquet, and I was completely thrown off guard because I wasn’t expecting anything at all. It was by far, the best first day of school I’ve ever had!

My big cereal tea cup became a vase for the flowers.

So-yoon had to leave the dinner a bit early, so the school nurse took me home because she lives close to me. It was really nice of her to do that. When I got home I did some laundry for the first time since I’ve been in Korea. Another awesome thing about my apartment is that I have a drying rack built in to my ceiling! Now I an really exhausted and I’ll probably go to sleep soon. Today was fantastic; I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will look like!

The "front yard" of my building.

Goodbye Jeonju!

Today is the beginning of something new! We made it to our new homes. It was a day of anxiety and nervousness. We had our closing ceremony in the morning, but only after tiramisu waffles!! After the closing ceremony, Courtney and I went back to our rooms for the last time to email and skype our parents. At around noon everyone at the EPIK orientation boarded their busses to go to their new homes. We only had a few more hours together until we were all split up! The time went by really quick because before I knew it, we were there and we saw tons of teachers with our names on signs huddling around the buses. I found my teacher right away and she was very nice. She and another teacher came to pick me up. On the ride to my new home, I asked her a lot of questions, remember the comment about how talking a lot mean you are happy.

The first thing we did when we got into town was go to the school and meet Mr. Che. He works in administration and is in charge of all the foreign people. He had the keys to my new apartment so I met him and the three of us went to my apartment. When I first saw my place, I was disappointed because it was really hot. That was only because no one was living in it, so the A/C was off, but feeling the heat made me automatically think I was going to be living without A/C. After Mr.Che helped me with my luggage, So-yoon took me to E Mart where I bought pillows and bedding, some hangers, a tea cup and coffee. We also had dinner which was nice. I had a Hot Stone Bibimbap dish which is the same as regual Bibimbap, but its served in an extremely hot stone bowl so the meal is hot the whole time!

We got back to my apartment around 9pm. I unpacked my things. I bought a few hangers at E Mart, but only enough for a portion of my clothes so I didn’t fully unpack that night. Now, I know its still early, but I am extremely tired from the long day so I think im going to bed! Good night!

Here are just more pictures of last minute bonding we had the night before we left Jeonju!

Just being artsy

Sandy and Michael

Soju for the first time!!

We Are Alive!!!

Hey everyone!! So this will be a quick post; a teaser if you will. We are both safe and sound in Pohang. Courtney and I haven't seen each other since we split up at the bus stop. I am already living in my aparetment, while Courtney is staying with a Korean family for about 2 weeks until her apartment is ready. Ok so let me just warn you all. These past 10 days in Korea, we have been splitting up the blog writing between the two of us, AND we didn't write in it everyday because everyday was kind of similar and wouldn't take up alot of space in the blog. Well now that we are apart, be ready for 2 long blog entries a day. I have been here in Pohand for 3.5 days now, and I've already written 3 long entries, and I plan to write about today too. I dont have internet at my house yet, so I am at a PC Bang right now. I've got my entries on an external hard drive but I can't plug it in here, so I will have to wait to do that tomorrow at school. So yeah this is just a warning, tomorrow (hopefully) I will post my past 4 days in Pohang, and they aren' t short or without pictures. Im sure Courtney is also documenting her interesting time with the Korean family taking care of her, so be prepared for her entries as well, when the time comes. Anywho, hope everyone misses us, because we miss you all alot! Im sure I can speak for both of us when I say this, but we really love it here in Korea so far. I'm having a great time! Talk to you soon!

Last 2 Days of Orientation

So we’ll see how this blog goes……it’s my 2-day update and I’m not sure if it will be a quick – give you the info and get out kind of thing, or a detailed account of everything that’s happened – so lets go and see what happens!

I guess we’ll start off with yesterday (Tuesday). Sam and I, tired of getting fed so much good food so often, decided to skip breakfast so we would be hungry for the amazing lunch we were going to be getting. After “no breakfast” we had classes:

- Edutaining Activities for Diverse Learning Styles

o Yeah…I spelled that right. It’s educating and entertaining put together…good lesson right?

- Present, Practice, Produce: A Basic Lesson Structure

o Really great for working on our lesson plans

*Lunch*

Lunch

- Elementary Curriculum and Textbooks

o Taught by a real Korean Teacher – showed us real elementary school text books

- Classroom Management

o Good lesson – I learned that I really do make judgments based on what a teacher wears (but wouldn’t you if they walked in wearing pajama pants and cutesy couple t-shirts?)

After lessons we got together with our groups to work on our group project. Each person was paired with 3 people to create a lesson plan together. Sam’s lesson was on the topic of “When Two Cultures Meet” – She had a bit of trouble with her group – one member was having problems doing work while Sam and the other member were all about doing a good job! I, on the other hand, had an AMAZING group! We worked on our project to about 11:00 (it was all about prepositions), but we had so much fun. I think the reason it took us so long was because laughing took up too much work time. We might have been a bit off task quite a bit – but that’s just a possibility! I might be wrong! (But I’m not).

Sample reading from the book

The next day was presentation day! Sam woke up super early to get ready with her group. I, being not as dedicated, slept in a bit. I met up with my group in the cafeteria; we talked a bit, and then headed to class. I can’t speak for Sam’s class (because we were in different classrooms for this portion) but our class did an awesome job at presenting! Of course, my group was the best – and this was proven correct when we received the “Best Lesson Award” of the day. The prize – a free calling card.

Our Award!

Lunch for the day

After presentations, it was time to FINALLY find out where we are going! You guys ready to find out too? We are officially going to:

Pohang, South Korea. Sam is teaching Elementary school, I am teaching middle school.

We were so excited to find out! So many of our friends will be there, while so many of our friends will be close by! (Did I mention beach?) We’ve already planned rock climbing/camping./hiking/thanksgiving/vacation/get-togethers! But enough about that – TOMORROW WE’RE GOING TO POHANG! Finally I’ll be able to unpack my bags, make my self comfortable, and see some sights! It will be wonderful!

Final Dinner

After we found out we had our farewell banquet – tons of awesome food and even a Talent show! It was a wonderful time. Afterwards we all went out and spent some time doing some last-minute bonding. It makes sense, because tomorrow we will all be going our separate ways – to the city we’ve been assigned – ready to spend the next year surrounded by Koreans and only a minimum amount of English.

Last Minute Bonding

Last Minute Bonding

* Warning: Tomorrow, as I said before, we will be heading to Pohang to begin our Korean lives. Though we are excited and thrilled, there is one thing that dampens our spirits. There is a possibility we will not have internet for the next 3 weeks. Maybe we can go to PC shops. Maybe we can go to wifi hotspots. The main idea is though, we don’t know. So, if there are no updates, no Skype sessions, no emails – don’t get worried. We just don’t have internet at the moment. It will come in time.

Questions:

There were 2 questions that I noticed in our blog comments:

1) Where are you?

a. We are in Jeonju University, in Jeonju, South Korea. Tomorrow we will be in Pohang.

2) Exchange rate.

a. The exchange rate is 1,180 won to each dollar – not to shabby!

Korea Observations:

These are just some observations I’ve made over the past week of living in Korea. It might just be something that is local to where we are staying, but it might be something that is common everywhere – I really don’t know!

Toilet paper - When you use a public restroom, instead of keeping the toilet paper at your fingertips, in the stall, they keep it outside on the wall. There is a toilet paper dispenser on the wall outside all the stalls, you grab what you need and then go do your business.

And another side note – you don’t flush ANYTHING unnatural…you stick it all in the trashcan beside the toilet. Makes for a really stinky bathroom.

Trash cans – Trash cans are almost non-existent! You walk down the street and it is very hard to find a trash can to throw your trash away! It’s like they don’t even consider it! But the streets are remarkably clean considering it’s hard to find a trashcan. Plus the lack of recycling is ridicules!

Beds and bed sheets – This might be just a dorm thing, but the beds are very hard! I don’t mind at all – but some people really do. Also, instead of bed sheets the beds have this quilted mat thing over the mattress. When we went to the Lotte Mart, we found a few for sale, and the average was about 45,000 won (about $45)! Not really bed sheet prices.

AirCon – Why air conditioning is referred to as AirCon is beyond me – but it’s something that happens a lot.

Field Trips and Yummy Food

Courtney and I are on our way to being professional Korean speakers!! We spend a good few hours the other night studying like good students. The past couple days have been pretty exciting. Yesterday we went on a field trip to the Keumsan Temple and Hanok Village. Let me start from the beginning shall I? We awoke on that beautiful Sunday morning and frolicked down to breakfast.

Breakfast!

After breakfast we went to our assigned busses, wearing our matching sky blue shirts and prepared for the journey to our first stop, Keumsan Temple. On the bus, not only did they give us cracker snacks, but we also got lollipops! We joked about being treated like little kids with our matching shirts and constant snack food receiving. When we got to the temple, we pretty much had about 2 hours to wander around and take in all of the beautiful imagery.

Group 8 Gyeongbuk!

A sea of blue.

After getting to see the monks in action, we all went down to a creek where there were a bunch of families with children playing in the creek. They were using smooth rocks as water slides. Lots of us took our shoes off and dipped our feet into the creek and some brave teachers even jumped down the rock slide.

When it was time to head back to the buses, we all gathered our shoes and walked for about ten minutes past street shops and more families spending their Sunday at the temple. Our next destination was to Hanok Village which was about 40 minutes away from the temple. Our first order of business was to eat some Bibimbap which Jeonju is famous for.

Bibimbap

The food was really good, it was our first taste of non-cafeteria Korean food and it had the spiciness to prove it! Once lunch time was over we had a few hours to kill exploring the village before we all had to meet up to make traditional Korean fans! We saw more temples, traditional homes, museums of wine and some traditional art, and a cute yet overprized Korean antique-esque store. Courtney took tons of pictures of course, and I got some nice and really cheap ($4) blackberry wine for my co-teachers. When we ran out of time for independent exploring, we all had to meet up to make our Korean fans! It was pretty much like arts and crafts when you are in second grade. We sat down at tables with blank fans and colorful rice paper in front of us, along with paper machete looking stuff with brushes in a bowl. As juvenile as it might have been, it was really fun and the fans have since been very useful in class when the air con is being sketchy. After we finished making our fans, we walked to where there was a traditional drum performance going on outside. That was really cool to watch and the ladies participating in it had really interesting costumes on with ribbons attached to their hats! Towards the end of the performance they included all of us EPIK teachers, so it was kind of like a huge cheesy conga line, but Korean style! It was very fun.

Sam and Courtney

When we got back to the university, it was already dinner time, and after dinner we were free for the night; no Korean lessons! Courtney decided to brave Korea on her own and went for a run while our new friends Sandy and Colleen and I went to the very close by coffee shop to practice our Korean. After her run, Courtney joined us, and the 4 of us sat at the café for a few hours studying. By the time we left, I was pumped because I had learned how to read Korean symbols!! Of course I still don’t know what most of the symbols actually mean yet, but I can read them!! I can spell my name and Courtney’s and anyone else’s! It was another great day in Korea.

Today was back to classes again. We had four 1.5 hr lectures and then our last Korean lecture in the evening. Today’s classes were a bit dryer than the ones we had the other day. We had “Cooperative Learning”, “Developing a Relationship with Your Co-Teacher”, “Making Your English More Comprehensive” and “Education System in Korea”. These classes were a bit more serious than our first day of lectures, and there were some that we liked more than others. Lunch today was my favorite food we’ve had so far! We had soup again but this time the noodles were massive! They were similar to Italian Bucatini noodles which I love love love, but these were called Udon noodles! We also had tempura veggies and rice balls covered with seaweed. I’m a big fan of seaweed covered stuff I have noticed. It’s crazy how much they feed us here at this orientation though. We have lunch at around 1 and then we have dinner again at around 5, not to mention they give us snacks after some of our classes! Most days we aren’t even hungry for at least one meal of the day, but I can’t stay away from the cafeteria just out of sheer curiosity.

Our last Korean lesson went well; we learned the basics of reading as well as some survival Korean phrases. After class Courtney and I met up with Sandy and Colleen again at the coffee shop. Sandy and I worked on our lesson plan that we have to present in a few days to our class. We all got grouped in three and have to prepare and present a lesson plan. Sandy and I are in a group with another girl named Sam, while Courtney is grouped with Colleen and a guy names Daniel. Once Sandy and I finished brainstorming for the night, Courtney and I got gelato from the café. Yes you read correctly, we sumbled across a café that serves gelato….in Korea! Courtney got awesome dark dark chocolate, and I got Tiramisu. For the rest of the night, the four of us just chatted and got to know each other a bit better. We are all going to Gyeongbuk, so its exciting to think about get-togethers and what not once we all part ways. The concludes the night for tonight. So I bid you adieu from both Sam and Courtney, and may your Monday be as good as ours!

Orientation Days 3 and 4

This is Courtney and it’s my turn to blog again! I’ll just give a 2 day rundown – don’t want any of you followers to miss a single moment of our Korean Lifestyle! I’m going to give a pretty simple rundown because a) it’s been a pretty simple two days and 2) I’m about to go to bed. So…I guess a warning is in order. If you really don’t care how Sam and I spent the last 2 days, don’t read any more. But, if you are interested in knowing what an orientation for Teaching English in Korea consists of, read on!

*Before I get started, I should explain something. All the teachers are divided into groups according to where they will be going. For instance, Sam and I will be in the Gyeongbuk province. Everyone who will be going to this province is in Group 8. This is the group we separate into for class meetings, bus rides, group work, etc.

Welcome ceremony with all the teacher attending

Now that that is out of the way…….

.

Friday started off with a medical exam. Sam and I, along with the rest of our fellow English teachers, will find out just how healthy we are!

The medical exam consisted of:

- Height check

- Weight Check

- Blood Pressure Test

- Color Blindness Test

- Hearing test

- Eye Exam

- Blood Test

- Urine Test

- X-ray

So basically we’ll find out everything we ever needed to know about our health!

Soap in the bathrooms is on a bar on the wall, not liquid soap in a dispenser.

After the exam was lunch, then 2 classes before dinner.

Class 1: We set up a bank account, got some introduction information, and voted for our group leader.

Class 2: Basically a history lesson – it was extremely interesting. The lecturer discussed:

- The reason Korean’s hate Japan

- The deal between North and South Korea

- Weird questions Korean’s will ask you

o Like “Have you eaten?” and “How old are you?” and “Where are you going?”

Dinner! And after dinner it was Korean Language time.

Now Korean Language time deserved a bit of an explanation. In each group there are different levels of Korean language speakers. There are the complete beginners (they go to level 1 class), no so beginners (level 2 class), know quite a lot (level 3 class), and just too smart (taekwondo class). Because Sam and I don’t speak Korean, we are in the level 1 class. It’s taught by a woman who doesn’t speak English. We all sit around the classroom and repeat whatever she says. It was so confusing – no one knew quite what they were saying. She was going overjust the vowels and consonants, but even then it was soooo confusing! Sam of course did a good job of it. She really needs to stop being so good at remembering things. She makes the rest of us level 1-ers look bad!

A Korean movie shown after the lesson – Welcome to Dongmakgol. They said it was supposed to be funny, but in the end everyone died, so I didn’t find that too funny. But the theater we saw it in was outside. The university we are staying at has a small outdoor amphitheater on the 4^th floor where movies can be shown.

The next day it was classes all day. These consisted of:

- Active tasks for the Second Language Classroom

o Learned some good games to play with students

- Tips for Teaching Reading

o Tricks to make kids want to read

- After school Classes and Vacation Camps

o Where we found out we can either teach a summer camp for 4 hours, or sit in an empty schoolroom for 8.

*Lunch*

- Project Based Learning

o Where we were informed that “Korea is so cute it will fry you’re brain!”

- Explore Korea

o We learned all the great places to visit while in Korea

- Upgrading Media Use in the ESL and EFL Classroom

o We found out the most useful studio 4 tool we never had -http://prezi.com/ - The alternative to power points

Sam's head with the rest of the class

It was dinner time again. It’s hard to eat dinner at 5:30 – I’m not hungry then, but by the time it gets to be 10 or 11, I’m starving! We had choice of kimchi, salad, noodle salad, French fries, soup, watermelon, cookies, and other stuff I can’t remember. Maybe next time I’ll just take a picture – it’s easier to remember that way!

Korean lesson time was better tonight – though Sam was still showing off her mad Korean Language Skills, I was starting to get the hang of it. Everyone who didn’t catch on yesterday was sitting in the very back of the classroom today, so they wouldn’t get called on. So the front half of the classroom consisted of the people who were understanding what was going on, a few people who forgot to move to the back of the classroom, and way to many empty seats.

Instead of another “funny” movie, Sam and I opted to walk back to the store a mile away! We spent over an hour peering at all the strange things they sell there.

Barbies

Spray Perfume and it's uses

Hand puppet cleaning things

Book about Poop

Pens with sentences

Balloons with faces

Where you store your pet when you want to go shopping

After walking back – we bought a really greasy and unhealthy pizza burger on toast. It was not fully consumed by us – I don’t think it is humanly possible to consume one of those. Unless you are a garbage can. But a garbage can isn’t human.

Sam and the Pizza Burger on Toast

Hopefully this information gives you a good idea of what orientation is like. It certainly is easier to write it all once, than into 6 different emails, then talk about 3 more times on skype! Goodnight!