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.