Korea: The Land of the Morning Calm

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The Orientation

Alas! I'm in Korea. After over 24 hours of transit (and almost 24 hours of sunlight) I have arrived safe and sound with all the other teachers. Currently I'm at Jeonju University, in Jeonju. It's about 4 hours south of Seoul, and 3 hours West of Busan I think. There are 340 teachers here with me right now going through EPIK's (English Program in Korea) Teacher training. The orientation staff made a funny little video comparing the teachers to the movie 300. They said 340 teachers came to teach 300,000 Korean childre; 340 vs. 300,00! It was very funny. But this is where I'll be until Feb. 27th, which is when we all get shipped off to our cities and shown our apartments and schools.

So far we've had a campus tour, an opening ceremony, and a welcome dinner. Tomorrow is just a medical check up and two class meetings with a Korean film and Korean lessons at night. Then we have one day of serious all day lectures before we go on a feild Trip on Sunday!

They had performers come and do a traditional drum dance, and also a traditional fan dance which were

both incredible. And we've had 2 Korean meals. I have tried 3 different types of Kim Chi, and liked two of them! One was just too spicy to enjoy. I wasn't too adventurous with the meats today. I didn't try any sushi either, but I know I will. I just need a day or so to get over being jet lagged before I try to completely immerse myself. It still feels a little funny being here. It doesn't feel like I'm on an entirely different continent. But I know why that is. Everywhere I look I see other western teachers, and with any problem I have there is someone to help me in English. Just wait until next week when I'm on my own, lol.

I've heard a few people here exclaim, "Yeah, I thought I'd have more culture shock."

I want to tell them, "You will, once you actually see the culture!" 😊

Well, I'll add some pictures and write more tomorrow. Right now, a very firm mattress (marble slab) is calling, signing, and morse coding my name!

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Photos

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All my stuff Epik provided(towel, alarm clock, books, ect)

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My first bit of Kim Chi. It was alright! I had a cucumber based Kim Chi later and It was the best one yet.

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The Drum Dance.

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The bathroom I share with my really nice, Canadian roommate

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Our beds. Mine is the messy one on the left.

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Cool characters.

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This is the best picture I could get of the Fan Dance. She had an amazing dress! She could use it to make flower shapes when she was spinning!

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No foriegn place is complete without some creepy abstract art.

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Looking dazed and high from the jet lag

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Another cute little sign. It could be saying salute everyone who passes or you'll be killed for all I know. I think it's a traffic sign though.

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This is the view from my floor of the dorm.

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Some nice random lights.

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Look it's Betty! Or is it Veronica? I always get them mixed up.

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Everything is so much cooler in Korean!

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They have these really cute people on their official signs.

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The Dorm I'm staying at. I'm on the 13th floor.

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A street that confused everyone because we were all too jet lagged to notice the lights were there during the day, so when we came out of our dinner we thought we were in the wrong place!

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This one is not so cute.

Comments

[michelle]

Hey!
Hey, looks like you're having fun!! i'm so glad you're taking pics of everything, now i can feel like i'm there. hehe. love you!! (i'm totally watching reruns of jeopardy on the game show network... haha. thats how exciting my life is.) love ya! have fun michelle

[Jess]

heather! so glad you got there safely! the pics are amazing!!! im so excited for you!!! you are going to do a lot of great things! continue to keep us updated! love u!!! - jess

[Sonya]

Glad to see you made it safely and are finding something you can eat....I have a feeling you will experience many new things in your new home!