Orientation

It's been a while since my last entry...a lot has happened and I have had very limited internet access:(  Well, first things first, I left the USA on August 18th at 10:30am and arrived in Incheon, South Korea at 5:45pm on August 19th.  After 15 hours in the Air and a 14 hour time difference, needless to say I was exhausted.  The EPIK recruiters were waiting with smiling faces and a sign as we walked off the plane.  We then boarded a bus for a four hour ride to Jeonju University, "The Place for Superstars," where our nine day orientation would take place.  One of the first things I noticed about Korea was the humidity.  It is intense.  The weather is hot and not all buildings are air conditioned.  It can be miserable.   The dorm that I am staying in is very nice and brand new.  It has a very modern feel. I just hope that this doesn't set me up for false expectations for my apartment in Ulsan.   My first day of orientation Ihad a campus tour followed by an opening ceremony.  Very interesting and the cultural entertainment was great!  

 

Day two of orientation was the most anticipated, but not in a good way.  We had two hours of lecture in the morning followed by a medical exam.  We were not allowed to eat or drink water for six hours prior to our exam.  Let I remind you how hot and humid it is here.  We had several people fainting before the exam and one during her blood test.  Let me paint a picture for you.  Everyone was in an auditorium.  We waited in our seats until our row was called.  On the stage were several stations; height and weight, an eye exam, color blind test, blood pressure, and blood testing station.  There are no curtains seperating anyone, and no gloves were worn by the medical staff.  It was just strange considering how paranoid everyone is here about the Swine Flu.  The rest of my days at the orientation are

very scheduled and full of information.  I have about six hours of lecture classes each day with several breaks in between.  Most of the information is very useful.  

 

At night, there are optional Korean classes available.  Interested in learning the language I attended the 'beginner' class.  I put that word in quotes because it was far from an introductory course.  The teacher is very nice, but speaks no English.  I assumed we would be learning the letters, numbers, easy phrases like, "How are you? How much does this cost? Am I eating dog?," etc.  No...that is not what it's like at all.  She wrote the Korean vowels on the board and began pronouncing them.  Five minutes later, she was putting them together and makeng words.  Then, she was calling out people in the class to say them.  No one knew what was going on, or how two verticle lines, a circle and a half horizontal line makes the sound "Ah."  It's really a beautiful language but I need the very basics first.  It's going to take me a while.  

Yesterday, August 23rd, everyone went on an all day field trip.  We toured Keumsan Temple and then a small village,Hanok.  Both were very neat places and I felt like I was able to emerge myself in the Korean culture since being cooped up at the University.  We then enjoyed an interesting Korean cuisine, BiBimBop.  It's very healthy but super spicy.  When I got back to the hotel I was exhausted but decided to drag myself to the Korean movie that was being played in the outdoor

 theater of the dorm.  It was called '200 Pound Beauty.'  Even though I had to read the subtitles to understand it, it was very good.  Similar to an American comedy.

I don't actually find out what age group I am teaching until Thursday, and then we meet our co-teacher on friday and take a bus to Ulsan to find our permanent living arrangements.  It's been great so far, the food is taking a little while to get use to. Cornflakes have become my new best friend :)