Waygooks Wandering

I forgot to mention that on my first day at school I met the principal. He was very nice and told me to work hard. I gave him the whisky I got at the airport, and he seemed happy. Also, every morning the clean team comes in to clean our office. Students apparently clean the whole school every morning. Interesting.

I need to get some more pictures on this blog and on my snapfish album.Sorry about how bad I've been with that. We have a few videos too. I'll get it going tonight because I HAVE INTERNET!!! YAY!!! The landlord and internet guy set up my wifi when I was out to dinner with my school yesterday. It works fine, except the videos load slowly. Video chat works well though because I video chatted with mom and dad today without a problem.

Yesterday I wanted Niall's classes again, and I did more of my introduction stuff. I'm starting to plan my classes for next week, and I'm not as nervous as I was before. I am teaching primarily cultural topics, and I have like 6 classes where I am teaching from the textbook. There are many less unknowns now that I've been told what's going on, so not as much to worry about. I had a fan club yesterday at lunch! It was really adorable. Three girls came in to say hello and stayed to talk for like 10 minutes. They asked me all kinds of questions and gave me what I hope were compliments. Apparently I have deep eyes, a high nose, and a small face. Yay...? I'm told these are all indicators of beauty. They were impressed with my eyes also. Their English was pretty good, and I'm glad the students want to talk to me.

At the end of the day, I started to get a really bad headache. All the teachers at school went to dinner last night together as a goodbye party for the vice principal who is changing schools. It was a traditional Korean restaurant, so we took our shoes off before coming in (I made a mistake and didn't bring socks!) and sat on pillows on the floor. The food was excellent, and I sat with Niall, Grace, and another really nice co-teacher. She offered to help me with anything I need because, in her words, she's a mom, so she knows how to help people. I wish I could have enjoyed more of the food, but my headache was excruciating, and I didn't have any medicine. Grace asked me what was wrong, and she asked some of the teachers if they had medicine. Lacking pills, she asked the school nurse, who was also at dinner, to come see me. The nurse did table-side acupuncture on me! She said the tip of your middle finger is your head area, so she pushed on that with a pen and massaged my head, back, and hands. It helped for a second, but I still couldn't eat and my head was swimming. Grace was nice enough to take me home even though she went back, and they went out for tea later (Niall told me later). I feel kind of bad for making her drive me home, but I was trying to be pleasant at dinner, and I couldn't deal with it anymore.

I took some medicine at home and rested for an hour. I was supposed to go to Gianni's to see his new place, but he came to me instead. When the excedrin started to kick in, I felt much better. We went to home plus, and Gianni ate from the food court again (we are both looking to having a nice dinner together tonight after all this food court stuff for him). I got a small, USB powered fan, so that I use less electricity than the AC. Gianni got his internet router. Right now, he has wired internet, so hopefully he'll get this set up for wifi. We went back home and tried to watch Big Brother for a bit, but the connection was slow and Gianni had to catch a bus.

Banana flavored cheese puffs, ice cream in a cup, pepero sticks

Chocolate shaved ice in plastic shaped like a bottle

Banana puffs- So during orientation, I stopped at the convenience store before going upstairs to meet Abbi at night. I had seen people eating ice cream earlier so I was mainly looking for that. Halfway to the register with normal ice cream cups in the hand I remembered that Abbi had wanted to try some Korean chips of some sort. I grabbed a bag of what looked like potato sticks or something and headed upstairs. The bag had a little explorer dude on it and just looked kinda funky so I thought it would be a fun thing to try. As soon as I got 

Something like granola...I'm not sure what Oanda is, but that's what the package says it is.

upstairs Abbi took a look at the bag and said "these are banana flavored." At the top of the bag there was a little picture of a monkey swinging on a vine, and while this may have indicated the possibility of a banana flavored snack,  I wasn't sold on it. Abbi then proceeded to sound the hangul on the front out loud to me. It spelled Ba-na-na. I felt pretty dumb. Fake banana flavor isn't my favorite so I only had a couple but Abbi finished the bag. Its just like eating a cheeto or cheese puff except it tastes like gross fake banana. 

So my first full day of school was yesterday. I woke up at 7:30 to be at school by 8:20. Walking to school really only takes a few minutes. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get the hot water to work in the shower so I guess its cold showers until I get that sorted out. I ate a kimbap triangle for breakfast along with some weird juice that kind of smelled like yogurt.Kimbap is like korean sushi only with different stuff in it. Its a very common snack. At school I sat at my desk while feeding information to my coteacher as she filled out forms and made various phone calls for me. They are apparently still figuring out my schedule and my coteacher told me that I probably still won't start actual teaching until Monday. I basically spent most of the day working on my introduction powerpoint, finding photos of Boston, my family, and friends. I decided to hand out the gifts that I had purchased for everyone, the principle, vice-principle, head teacher, coteachers.  I gave the principle his gifts as I was arriving and because he doesn't speak English it took me awhile to explain to him that what I had in my hand was a gift. All the teachers seemed to appreciate the gifts and I got thanks yous from everyone throughout the day for all the chocolate. So my desk is in the teachers' office on the second floor of the building and it seems like Korea has different rules about students going into the teachers areas. I know that in high school we weren't allowed to just walk into a teacher's office or the break room or whatever, but in Korea students RUN in and out A LOT between classes. They come in and hang on teachers, ask them for candy, ask questions about class or homework and are actually pretty loud. The kids seem to be interested in me but also afraid of actually speaking english to me. I've gotten a lot of stares and giggles as well as a few students yelling hello at me. One student walked by and told me she loved me and that I needed to remember her name. The other foreigner working at abbi's school told me that this has happened to him in public and that it is very embarrassing. I also had a student walk by and then do a double take when she realized I was a foreigner. She called me handsome (lol!). I've heard that you shouldn't let these comments go to your head though. At lunch time one of the other English teachers who I will be working with took me to the cafeteria and showed me the ropes. The lunch consisted of bibimbap, kimchi, soup, fish cakes, and some smoked fish. The lunch was very good, although the English teacher told me that Wednesdays are special lunch days so I guess I won't expect food that good every day. I feel bad that I can't remember my host's name but it was long and Korean and hard to remember. He asked me lots of questions about where I'm from and what I like. He asked me if I played soccer and seemed a little disappointed hat I didn't play. Lunch was a little rushed in that he finished way before me and I was rushing to finish. I've heard that Koreans eat quickly and don't like to sit for very long after the meal is over. After school my coteacher and I went to the bank to set up an account, unfortunately it was closed. We rushed back to my apartment to meet the internet guy who ended up not making it there until 5:30. Unfortunately  he was unable to get the internet to work and will have to come back again another day. I thought he might be trying to set up cable when he first came in because he turned the TV on, but it looked like he actually just wanted to watch a fishing show while he worked. After the failed attempt at getting internet in my apartment, I took the bus to Abbi's place. I thought we might get dinner but it turned out that someone had ordered pizza at her school so she wasn't hungry. We compromised and went to Home Plus. I sat in the food court and ate, while she looked for stuff she needed. Food courts in Korea are very different from what I'm accustomed to in the States. Basically there are all these stations that look like separate restaurants along a wall. You go up to the cash register, which is against the opposite wall, and order after looking at big display case full of plastic food. Apparently the food in food courts is pretty much the same as what you would get at a restaurant. I opted for a seafood Jjiggae and vegetable bibimbap. For two big things of food along with rice and side dishes I only spent 5,000 won. Less than five dollars. The food was really good and very comparable to Korean food I've had at restaurants here. The Jjiggae had whole shrimp in it, which is apparently a thing in Korea. People just eat them with the shells and heads on. I don't really have a problem with this because I usually eat the tails on my shrimp anyway. I'll post a picture of the meal with this post after I get my internet working. After I finished eating I met up with Abbi and we hopped on the train to downtown Daegu. Abbi's friend Niall, who she works, runs a trivia night at the bar foreigners frequent and he told us to come. We got off the train where the two subway lines meet and headed to the underground shopping area that is in the station. We met some of Niall's friends at the fountain in the middle and headed over to the bar. Downtown is very busy with lots of shops with big neon signs. I'm definitely interested in exploring it more. It turns out that not a lot of people showed up for trivia, but we still had a really good time. Abbi ordered some poutine, which I had a lot of, and we got down to the quiz. Apparently I have finally found a way to put my pop culture knowledge to good use. We got third place in the first round and came very close to winning the beer challenge in between. The team that won gave us some of the beer they won because we got so close and it was just me giving most of the answers. While I was able to hold my own in the first two rounds, the last round ended up being slang from around the world and we just couldn't cut it. Overall it was a very fun time though. I think we will go back next week. After the bar we headed home, unfortunately it didn't seem like the bus I needed to take was running. Bus stops in Korea have news ticker signs that tell you how long until each number bus will arrive, but there was no number next to my bus. I sat around for a while and then just ended up walking home, which is like two-ish miles. I got home at 12 and finished unpacking and then headed to sleep.

Yesterday was a great day. The kids were all very interested in me as I walked around the hall with Niall. I didn't teach because they are giving me time to watch and learn, which I'm glad for. I made an introduction powerpoint, and I ran that in one of Niall's classes at the beginning. It went pretty well. After that, the kids played Hot Seat with me. I sat in a chair not looking at the screen behind me, and they had to give me clues to a certain picture. In another class, we did a Q&A session, and the students asked me all kinds of questions. They all giggled when they said I had a boyfriend, and one of the students asked my eye color. They were all very amazed to see that my eyes are blue. I'm excited to teach and not nearly as worried about it as I was during orientation. There is a structure for me to follow, so I think I should be good. I think I'm going to be doing more introductions today with some of the classes.

Last night was really fun. I was supposed to have the internet guy come over to set things up, but he couldn't, so he's coming tonight instead. Same thing with Gianni. So Gianni came over, and we made a quick run to Home Plus for a few more things for my apartment. I think I'm almost all set up. I just keep thinking of random other things I need. Gianni got some food at the food court there while I shopped. Then, we took the subway to downtown Daegu to Traveler's, a foreigner bar. Naill did a really great job with Trivia night. Gianni and I were a team of 2, and we didn't do half bad at first. We started out in 3rd place, then moved to 4th in the second round, and ended up in 5th by the end. Oh well!

I was blitzed at the end of the night because I stayed up so late the night before setting up the apartment. We stopped at Home Plus again because Gianni forgot to get something, and then I went home and conked out. Gianni thought he could get the bus home, but I don't think it was running that late, so, unfortunately, he had to walk. I think I may go see his apartment tonight after dinner with the English teachers from school. We were supposed to do dinner last night, but it was moved to today.

My first day in Daegu went off pretty smoothly. I was a little nervous about going to the immigration office on the subway, but my co-teacher knew the way and we made it just fine. The subway was interesting. It took quite a long time to get there but the cars were clean and cell phones and wifi worked down there as well. My co-teacher is very nice, she hasn't told me her first name because it is apparently hard to pronounce but her last name is ban. The school isn't too big. I think around 500 students, although I'm not exactly sure. Its only around five or ten minutes from my apartment too. My apartment is very nice. I'ts two big rooms with a pretty large bathroom. I sleep in the first room which seems to double as a bedroom and living room. There is an airconditioner, a washer, a fridge, and lots of pots and pans that the previous person left.I think she must have left unexpedtedly or something like that because i also noticed a lot of books and mugs and even her sun glasses. One of the books is the Epik orientation book and from the date on the cover it looks like she has only been here since February. The internet is not turned on yet because I need a bank account first. I have a piece of paper from the immigration office tht basically says I already applied and that the card should be coming soon. I'm under the impression I can use this to set up a bank account and get a Korean cell phone. Anyway back to the apartment. The apartment is on the first floor of a two story building. It seems pretty small and the door from the street opens directly into my room. Its in an area with lots of other small apartment buildings and seems to be kind of close to the high way. Abbi lives a little farther away in the more downtown area of southern daegu, which I know isn't actually downtown but it looks a lot more metropolitan than my area. It takes roughly twenty to thirty minutes to walk from my apartment to hers, however there is a bus that makes it take much less time. The bus goes from my school to the subway station nearest abbi's house. My co-teacher wasn't sure which bus goes from abbi's apartment to mine, but she said we'd figure it out today. 
 Her apartment is right across from a Home Plus, which is like a giant grocery/everything store. Her apartment is a little different than mine, although she still lives in a pretty small building. Her bedroom/living room is about twice the size of mine, allowing for a couch and several pretty big cabinets. Her kitchen is only a third of the size of mine and her bathroom is a whole lot smaller and definitely not as nice as mine. We had a problem with flushing her toiltet last night, but it seems to be fixed now. So last night after I got settled in my apartment I walked up to my school and took the bus to abbi's house. We got some stuff she needed at home plus and then met up with an Irish guy  who teaches at her school. He showed us around the area and took us to a really amazing Korean BBQ place. We had pork that is grilled and then put into pieces of lettuce with other vegetable side dishes on the table. It was really good. All I have to do for the next few days is show up. My co-teacher told me that I'd probably start teaching on either Friday or Monday, but she wasn't sure. The office seemed kind of busy yesterday when I came in and the head teacher said she'd explain everything to me today. I haven' seen her yet though. I was told to get here at 8:20, and I showed up a little early. My co-teacher says that Korean teachers mainly lecture students in Korean about English, and that I am expected to do activities and play games. I think that I will make a powerpoint today introducing myself and giving the students some information about where I'm from. Teachers apparently have to teach till 420 or so every day, and must stay even if they don't have class. I've heard that you're even supposed to come in if you're sick and just sleep at your desk. If you didn't go to the hospital, which basically just means go to the doctors here, then you should be at work. We're going to a trivia night that the Irish guy who teaches at Abbi's school is hosting, so we should be walking around an area with lots of free wifi. I'll try to call then.

Yesterday, we arrived in a large bus in Daegu at the student culture center after a 3 hour ride from Jeonju. The co-teachers were finishing up a meeting with the leaders at the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education. We sat and watched the end of the meeting before being called up area-by-area to meet our co-teachers. It felt like a cattle call, but the most nerve-wracking cattle call you could ever imagine!

As I mentioned before, Gianni and I are both working at middle schools in the southern part of Daegu. We were separated for most of the day because we are at different schools with different co-teachers, so I'll let him talk about his side of things.

I met my co-teacher, Grace, who is really nice and very helpful. She helped me lug all my bags into her car, and we immediately left to go to the immigration office and get my ARC card. She said the lines at immigration are really long, so we wanted to rush there. I got it all taken care of, and I should have my ARC in a few weeks. For the time being, I have my ARC certificate and number so that I can get a cell phone, bank account, and internet. I believe Grace is going to help me set those things up today.

The next stop was my new school! It seems like a really great school, and it's very big--about 1,000 kids (of which I will be teaching half). I met the vice principal and some of the other co-teachers I will be working with. Grace showed me my desk, and I met Naill, the other Guest English Teacher who works at the school. He has been here for 3 years already and is leaving at the end of his contract next year.

Naill and Grace took me to my apartment. I'm on the second floor, and it's a much larger apartment than I'd anticipated. When you come in, you enter your code on a key pad, like at the University, and you are looking at the kitchen. It is a smallish kitchen with a gas stove top, but it has more an enough cabinet space for me. There is a bathroom that is, again, completely tiled. I have to hold the shower head when I shower as of now, so I might need to figure out a better way to do that. I'm also not totally sure how to switch between shower and sink because when I turn the sink on high right now, the shower comes on. The toilet also won't flush. These are all issues I discovered late last night, so I'm going to have to talk to Grace and see what to do about that. There is quite a large living room/bedroom space that comes with an air conditioner. I have a table and two chairs, a couch, a bed, two wardrobes, a few side tables, and a desk and chair. The back wall is a sliding, glass door leading out to a tiled outer area with my washing machine and boiler. Gianni helped me move things around, and I think it looks great. I have the bed and desk against one wall. The side table is next to my bed. In the middle of the room is the table and chairs and the sofa is sort of away from the glass doors in the middle as well. On the opposite wall I put my fridge, a set of drawers with a microwave and toaster oven on top, and the two wardrobes. I think it looks like a real apartment!

We took a while at the apartment getting a few things sorted out with the landlord. Then Grace left and Nail was nice enough to take me to the Korean dollar store equivalent to get a few things for the apartment. In Korea, it is apparently not custom to clean an apartment for a new tenant, so I made sure to get cleaning stuff. Niall went back to his apartment, and I spent some time cleaning. Gianni had some practice early in the day taking the subway and buses, so he knew the area better. He walked over to meet me and see my apartment. Niall came over again to take us to get dinner at a really excellent BBQ place. First real Korean BBQ!!! We had red pork, and it was delicious. Niall then showed us around the area a little more and took us to Home Plus to get even more things for my apartment, and a few things for Gianni's. The area around my apartment is really nice. I'm really close to a bunch of stores and restaurants, which is really great. I had a minor crisis where I dropped the paper that had my apartment code in it! Niall had his phone and called Grace to get it for me. Crisis averted! Niall has been soooo excellent in helping me with everything. He doesn't have to do any of this, but he's being so nice and patient in answering all my questions. It's a relief to have someone here who knows what he is doing.

Today, like right now, I'm sitting at my desk at school. I believe I'm spending the rest of the week watching Niall teach, and then I'll start my own classes on Monday. So nervous!!! Niall has given me the academic calendar, my schedule, and the time schedule of the periods, so I'm trying to keep everything straight. There are some classes that I can teach more freely, and other ones I am going to be teaching from a textbook. I guess I just have to get to a certain point in the book before their exams that seem to occur at the end of each month or beginning of the next month. I'm really only teaching the listening and speaking sections I think.  I'm also going to be editing the school's English newspaper and teaching a class for the teachers at the school who want to learn English. It will be a conversation class. If students enroll, I'll be doing an after school class once a week for the students as well. I think the English teachers are taking me out to dinner tonight. Everyone I've met so far has been very welcoming and kind. I'm also going to go to Travelers, a foreigner bar in downtown, because Niall hosts trivia night there every Wednesday, so Gianni and I are going to go check it out.

It was raining yesterday, all night (I saw really bright lightning last night with no thunder), and all day today! I was kind of disappointed because it was field trip day today, but I think we got by. Last night, Gianni and I bought an umbrella to share in case it rained, but the one umbrella wasn't enough for us today. I ended up buying a poncho and another umbrella after I found a puddle at the bottom of one of my smaller backpack pockets :( . Still, field trip day was really fun. EPIK gave us all a book talking about the history and context of the area and things we were going to see today. I haven't read through it all, but it's very detailed and helpful.

The village we were in is a special area of Jeonju called Jeonju Hanok Village. A hanok is a traditional Korean house, and there are 900 is this village. Some of them are relatively new and some are older, but the village is a really interesting mix of those hanoks and modern buildings. The streets have a mixture of both types of buildings, so it's really cool to see. The hanoks are very beautiful with small alleyways between them. Some of them are shops that just spring out of no where. This hanok village dates back to the 1930s.

First, we went to "factory" where they produce traditional Korean paper called hanji. I say "factory" because it was really a room with 4 people. There were two women who were putting paper on large irons for a second to dry them, and there were two men operating hydro machines to dye the paper. One man was dying it purple. Next door to the "factory" there was a little shop where they sold the paper goods made at the factory. They use these paper goods to make anything from fans to stationary to necklaces. Ellie told us that this paper was actually used as armor at one point because it is so hard. It doesn't necessarily feel hard, although there are folding techniques you can do to make it hard, but it is not easily ripped. I tried to rip some of the paper, and I couldn't do it without scissors. According to my book, hanji is made from Paper Mulberry trees. It became known as the highest quality paper in East Asia. Hanji has been made and developed for centuries. A piece of hanji from the Leland period (108 BCE- 313 CE) was found on an archeological dig in 1931. I couldn't resist buying a few hanji products from the store next door.

After the paper factory, we went to an elementary school. A little girl named Ha Jin showed us around the schools. She was reading off of a sheet, but her English seemed pretty good, and she was so darn cute! The facilities seemed great, and it was nice to interact with some of the kids. The English classroom was full of stuff to do and play with. I hope my classroom is that stocked up. We had to take our shoes off a few times during the tour when we entered certain classrooms. At the end of the tour, a few women in hanbok showed up how to pour drinks for those older than us. We got soo jung gwa, a cinnamon tea served cold, that was really good. We had it the other day at lunch at the university as well. With the tea, we got yak gwa, a sweet biscuity cookie. It has kind of a different texture than I'm used to, but it's still good.

We then walked to Gyeeonggijeon Shrine--another hanok building. On the way, we found a shop selling umbrellas and ponchos, and a lot of us needed to get some. The lady running that store was making bank. The Shrine was beautiful. At the start is an old monument, called Hambi, telling all those entering the shrine that they need to dismount from their horses at this point. Our books said the Hambi was 400 years old but was reconstructed after the Japanese Invasion. We weren't allowed to walk down the center stones because that path is supposed to be reserved for the king only. Along the path, we went under several wooden gates. The tops of these gates were painted in bright colors with detailed, beautiful patterns. The Shrine, itself, contained a very famous portrait of King Taejo, one of the kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Apparently, the Shrine used to contain all 27 portraits of the Joseon Dynasty kings, but 20 of them were burnt during the Imjin war, the Qing invasion, and the Korean war. Now, the Shrine only preserves the portraits of 7 kings, and only 5 of the portraits depict the true faces of the kings they are meant to represent. The portrait of Taejo depicts his true face and has been kept for over 600 years. The one on display, though, is a  replica, and the authentic piece is stored in the Royal Portrait Museum and is only displayed for one month per year. In 1872, the portrait was copied because the original copy was too worn after 400 years. The old version was buried. All this information comes from the book EPIK gave us by the way.

After the Gyeeonggijeon Shrine, it was time to walk to a restaurant for our bibimbap lunch. It is believed that bibimbap originated from the traditional practice of mixing all the food offerings made at an ancestral rite (jesa) in a bowl before partaking in it. The word "bibimbap" means "mixed meal." Bibimbap is considered the greatest among the three great dishes of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It is also a royal dish of that dynasty and a traditional dish of Jeonju. It was delicious! Gianni and I both loved the bibimbap, and this was the first authentic bibimbap that we've had so far. The meal came with a lot of banchan (side dishes), as is customary in Korean meals. Many of them were spicy, so I kind of stayed away. I'm sure Gianni has a better description than I do, but there was one banchan I really liked. It was a small, round potato bite in a dish of honey. Very sweet a yummy!

We had a little bit of free time before the next activity, so I went back to the hanji factory to take some more pictures down the narrow alleys. Then we met back up at the shrine, and my group walked to the traditional culture center. We were able to partake in two different activities there. The first was using colored hanji to cover and decorate a pencil case. It was a fun little arts and crafts activity, and it showed how strong the paper really is. The woman telling us how to do it showed us several things made of hanji beforehand, and it really was impressive to hear that they were made of paper. Gianni ended up with a box that is blue and pink, and mine is teal and red. The second activity was playing traditional Korean drums, janggu, and other traditional instruments. Gianni and I played the small gongs. A woman taught us how to play beats together. It was fun, but really hard to remember all the different beats. She was amazing though. She demonstrated the beats for us, and it is clear that she's been studying for many years. Also, whatever we thought we were playing sounded NOTHING like what she showed us afterwards! Oh well. "A" for effort! The song we mangled was a traditional song with 4 parts, 2 singing and 2 playing. There were 4 instruments the group was split into. Janggu is an hourglass shaped drum that can be played on either side. Each side makes a different noise, and it is played with two different sticks. There was also a group playing the small gongs called kwaenggwari. Another group played a different Korean drum with only one stick called a buk. One girl got the large gong, jing. It was hysterical whenever our teacher showed her when to play. She only had like 2 beats during each section, so her pauses were really long, but the teacher took the time to show her anyway.

We went to a hanok that was a model of a traditional Korean school. The seating arrangement was basically just rows, and the chairs seems very straight backed. Before getting back on the bus, we played a few games at the culture center. One was throwing what looked like arrows into small tubes from a distance, and the other was a seesaw type game where two people jump on either end and try to bounce the other one off.
It was a really great day. We got to learn a bit about Korean culture, and I can't wait to learn more. Back to regularly scheduled programming for tomorrow. Two more days of full classes before orientation is over!

Today was the second day of classes, and we had cooperative learning, taekwondo, school culture, and powerpoint use, as well as our Korean classes at the end of the day.

Cooperative learning was all about how to get your students learning from one another so that there is less teacher talking time. We played a bunch of games that we could use on our own students that got them working on their conversational skills, which is severely lacking in Korean students. They learn to read and write in English, but their conversational and speaking skills are generally not that good, so one of our primary goals is to teach speaking abilities.

Taekwondo was excellent. It was boiling hot in the room though. We did a lot of warming up and stretching then we practiced kicking. Tawkwondo uses more feet and legs than a lot of other martial arts we were told. The coach and two of the members of the Jeonju team were there to help us, and they were all really sweet. The team members showed off a little in their demonstrations, and the coach had some kind words for us. He said that EPIK teachers are special because we are the ones teaching the next generation of Koreans. It was a really great experience despite the fact that we were really sweaty and hot. We showered right after class then had lunch.

After lunch we had a school culture class taught by some of the native English speakers who work for the EPIK head office. They gave us a book with a bunch of stories from people in EPIK to read and share with the class. The stories were interesting, and it got us talking about what Korea is like from a foreigners perspective. It also made me think that EPIK is really sparing no expense in making sure we are good teachers. We have large orientation books, smaller story books, and a field trip book. They make sure we have water and snacks between meals. It's a pretty well-run orientation.

Powerpoint was a really interesting class. I never knew there was so much you could do with powerpoint, and I'm really excited to make some cool slides. The guy who taught the class did all these games with us, all involving powerpoint. They were so much fun. He showed us this busy beaver video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5bEbgBBAyU. He then had made a board with various words and a few pictures from the song on it. You are supposed to follow along with the song and put your finger wherever you can find the phrase, word, or picture from the song on your board. It was actually a really fun game. The song was SOOO catchy!

After powerpoint was dinner then Korean class. In Level 2 Korean, we went over the greetings we did last class, and we learned how to ask the price of something and order food using numbers. Ellie wrote us all a piece of paper that can go in our name tags with helpful phrases that we can hopefully use tomorrow on our field trip day! I'm really excited, but it's been raining today, so it will probably be raining tomorrow. We bought an umbrella, so we don't get drenched.

It is officially 10pm here in Korea, which means that I stayed up a full day without taking a nap!!! Jet lag was definitely much better for me today. For once, Gianni is more tired than I am at night. He was supposed to blog about what we did today, but he was too tired, so I'm going it again. Please also note that Gianni will now be posting in italics, so that you know who is talking. He wrote additional comments on the first post I wrote in Korea, so check that out. I'll make him do the second post from yesterday as well.

Today marked the start of our real orientation courses. Gianni and I are in group 6, and we had courses in elementary school education, lesson planning, and class management. I found all of the classes very interesting and helpful overall. We had one less class than usual today because the morning was spent doing our medical checks. We weren't allowed to drink past midnight last night or eat past 10pm last night. The medical tests occur on the STAGE where the opening ceremony happened. We had a height and weight test, an eye exam, a hearing test, gave blood, provided a urine sample, and got a chest xray. Two very strange things: the urine sample was given in a paper cup! The top didn't stay on very well, and the cup was pretty flimsy, in my opinion. You also had to walk it from the bathroom and just put it on the table for the medical people dealing with it. Kind of like the walk of shame. In the bathroom there are these like metal poles coming out of the walls with cylindrical blue soap on the end that you are supposed to put your hand around to take soup and wash your hands...suggestive? Also, don't people in the States usually wear lead vests to protect themselves during xrays. Yeah, there was none of that. I'm a little concerned about radiation poisoning to tell you the truth. I did surprisingly well with the blood tests. It didn't hurt at all. We also made new friends at the medical test. Maria and Matthew are a married couple, and Maria has the same problem I do about giving blood. They are both really nice, and they are also going to Daegu! Daegu has the largest group of teachers going there I heard. I guess there was a lot of turnover last semester. Everyone has been talking about how much they love it in Daegu, but also telling us how extreme the heat is going to be over there. Gee...I'm so excited.

The first lesson was taught by a Korean co-teacher from Seoul. She talked about how to specifically teach elementary school students. She was the kind of person I'd love to co-teach with. She seems to be really friendly with her English-speaking co-teacher, and, from what she described, it seems as though the co-teaching is really effective. Both she and her co-teacher plan and carry out lessons. The dynamic was excellent. The first class was unbearably hot though because the school forgot to turn on the AC or something. The next class was much more comfortable once they got it on. Lesson planning was taught by a very energetic and engaging native English-speaking teacher who has been here for several years. He talked to us about how to plan lessons and got into some details about the lesson demonstrations we are going to have to do on Monday.

As we were changing classes we saw some Korean guys with a stretcher walking to one of the classrooms. Apparently someone collapsed during the first class due to the heat, which is kind of crazy. I guess the little fans they gave us weren't enough to cool the guy down. 

The last lesson was my favorite of the day. The teacher was a woman who came from the US. She loved the middle school she used to teach at, and she came here for a year anticipating coming back after she got some professional growth experience, except that she never came back! She is hilarious. She talked to us about all the bad experiences she's had with classroom management in Korea and how to deal with them. Apparently, Koreans use English swears a lot. They don't really see it was inappropriate to do in front of teachers Bridget says that when it comes up, she will make sure they are using the word correctly and pronouncing it correctly, but then tell them that it is inappropriate for class. Another one of her stories connects to the poop discussion from last night. She said that in elementary school students will "deong team" you. I definitely didn't spell that right, but it translates to "poop needle." Basically, a student will make a gun shape with both his or her hands and fingers and come try to put their fingers up your butt when you bend over. They find this hilarious! Why? I couldn't say. I wouldn't DREAM of doing something like this to one of my teachers growing up. Insane. Bridget also talked a lot about one of her students in particular, idie. Yes, you read correctly. He told her to call him idie, and she went along with this because he originally asked her to call him DUCK PHANTOM! This kid sounds amazing!!! She showed us a video of idie explaining a comic he had drawn. In it, there is a man who does not have a penis, and he meets a man who he decides to have sex with in order to get one, I believe. There were swears all over the place in it too. God he was hysterical, but completely inappropriate.

When Abbi saw the video of Idie she immediately started laughing hysterically and didn't stop for a good two or three minutes. Her laughter in itself was pretty funny. 

After some really interesting and fun classes, we ate dinner and took a break before Korean class. Last night, we had group meetings, and we signed up for what Korean class we wanted to do. I signed up for Level 2, because i could read the simple words on the paper, and Gianni picked Level 1. I'll let him talk about his experience, but my class went really quickly. I have a lot of work to do to catch up to some of these people. I can read Korean, but I'm not perfect at it by any means, and I'm still slow. Still, I'm really excited to be learning Korean. Learning new languages can be really fun!

The Level one Korean class was really fun. Our group leader Song is my teacher and she is very nice. It's helpful to see someone pronouncing the words and letters for you. We went over the basic vowels in Hangul, which is the Korean alphabet, and then learned a few key words and phrases. Our homework is to write out our names in Hangul for the next class. I've got an app on my iphone that has all the Hangul letters in it so I think I'll try to practice memorizing everything using that. 

That's all for today. I think it's bed time. I'll let Gianni comment on the last post and this one tomorrow, and tell you how things are going from his perspective.

Today, we only had a few things on the schedule. I think they are trying to ease us into everything. Our real classes start tomorrow, so it was just logistical things today.

First, we had breakfast. They had the rice, kimchi, and a white pumpkin soup. They also had more of my typical breakfast food: cereal and eggs. They serve all the drinks in these small metal cups, and you eat with only metal spoons and chop sticks. I need to practice with my chop sticks, but I'm not that bad. There are murals on the walls of the cafeteria with Jeonju University's slogan on it. Jeonju University: A Place for Superstars! Oh god!


After breakfast, we went on a short campus tour where our orientation leaders, Ellie and Song, showed up some of the buildings where we are going to be having classes starting tomorrow. We had a few hours off afterwards before the Opening Ceremony. Gianni and I just went back to the room to take in some of the air conditioning. It is SOOO hot here! And everyone just keeps telling us that it's going to be way worse in Daegu. Something to look forward to!

Lunch was also really good, like breakfast. The food as been great so far. We had excellent fried chicken and bean sprout salad. I tried the kimchi again, and I've decided I can't eat it; way too spicy! They try to make sure there are lots of options available at each meal. There is always a soup and a salad. There was also some sweet rice drink that tasted a lot like iced tea to me.

The Opening Ceremony was great. There was a speaker, Walter Foreman, who talked a lot about Korea in terms of culture, geography, and history. He was very informative. I'm really glad we have the opportunity to go through Orientation before being plunged into our schools. It feels like a much easier transition. Mr. Foreman mentioned that South Korea has the highest population density in the world (I believe), despite it being only the size of Indiana. Also, 70% of South Korea is mountainous, meaning that over 50 million (the population of South Korea) lives in only 30% of the country! That's amazing! Another thing he said is that Soju is the top selling kind of alcohol in the world, and Soju is only sold in South Korea, which is a very small country comparatively. So you do the math about how much soju is consumed here! Mr. Foreman also talked about the fact that Koreans are very open about discussing their bodily functions, specifically poop. I know someone who would do very well with this aspect of Korean culture (you know who you are! :) ). Apparently, Korean water pressure is also not that great, and we are supposed to throw away all used toilet paper in a trash bin in the bathroom. Honestly, I don't think I can handle this. Ellie said westerners tend to use a lot of toilet paper, which Korean toilets can't handle, so maybe I can just really try to use less. I just don't think I can have a trash can with use toilet paper in it at my apartment. I'm going to need to do some research on this one.

The best part about the Opening Ceremony was the Taekwondo team that performed. They were amazing. Apparently, 4 of the Jeonju University team members are also on the national team. They did all kinds of crazy jumps and broke tons of boards. It was really cool. I think I want to take up taekwondo. Might be a good way to get involved in the community and learn about Korean culture because it's a traditional Korean martial art.

We just got through eating dinner, again really good. We had some steamed dumplings, pork belly, fruit, and cakes for dessert. We're in our room about to watch a movie. I'm writing this to try to make myself stay awake for the next two hours at least. Trying to beat this jet lag, but it's getting the better of me. The air conditioning is really nice, but it shuts off every few hours, which means I wake up to turn it on at night! It also makes kind of a musical beepy noise when it turns on and shuts off, so that wakes you up. Gianni and I also figured out how to get the internet going, obviously, but we can only use one computer at a time. We've been able to call home using Line2, and it works alright. The internet here isn't the greatest though, so the reception was pretty bad. Again, I'll try to post pictures later, but I'm too tired now.