Last night was my first night in Gwangju on my own! I still can't believe I'm here. It hit me when I was out shopping with my amazing co-teacher, Mihay at Lotte Mart when I was trying to decipher the huge selection of milk cartons.
We boarded the busses early yesterday morning in Jeonju. Our closing ceremony was nice. There were some performers that did a great job. We also received a certificate that said we had successfully completed the EPIK training, and got our medical exam back. It would have been interesting to read, except it was all in Korean. It did said AIDS- Negative, so I think thats good.
It was hard saying goodbye to my friends I met. We had a group that really clicked well, and I was sad to see them each go. I was in class 3 for orientation, and half the group was headed to Incheon, and the other half were going to Gwangju. Our group was split evenly, so hopefully those guys will want to come down and visit (hint, hint!). I know that our half the group will be headed up probably in September to visit and see their places.
When we got to Gwangju, we met our teachers at the Office of Education. Everyone in Gwangju was placed at 2 schools, and I was lucky in the fact that both my teachers were able to come meet me. My center school teachers name is Park, Mihay, and the secondary school teachers name is Jo, Hyunju. It is funny because they went to college together and are best friends, just working at different schools. They both seem very nice.
We had lunch out and it was delicious. I attempted to eat with chopsticks, but my co-teacher politely said, "it would be okay for you to use the fork." In Korean, that really means, "please use the fork." I was okay with that. I did buy a pair to practice with at home until I get good.
I got to see the school next. The name of the center school is Suwan Middle School. The building was completed February 2009, so it's brand new and has great technology. I found out today I get my own classroom and don't have to go to the students. They come to me. This method is not very common in Korea. Also, because it is new, they only have 7th graders. Next year, they are hoping to have 7th and 8th graders.
We went to my apartment, and I could literally throw a baseball at the school from my front gate. It is on the block next to mine. So convienent. It is a small building, only 4 stories. I am the only person living there besides the house manager. She doesn't speak English, so I write down Korean symbols from my teachers guide's dictionary to speak with her.
I have an entryway, living room, laundry room with washer, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. The TV looks a little smaller, but it is flatscreen and doesn't take up much room. There is a dorm-size fridge, and a glass table top and chair set. I also have a pretty sweet looking clock. The house manager was nice and put some drinks in the fridge, gave me 5 glasses, toothpaste, a towel, and soap. She also came up last night to see if I had eaten dinner, which I had, otherwise she was going to offer me dinner.
I am going into town right now with my teacher to meet some friends, but I should have internet at my apartment in the next couple of days.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Orientation
The last couple of days have been crazy, so I'm sorry I haven't gotten to post recently! I am about to go to Lotte Mart with a couple of friends, so we'll see how much I can update you on.
We have been having a lot of lectures for the last 3 days. They were all pretty great. The speakers had different backgrounds and experiences, and I've gotten a lot fo good advice. The bottom line is that we have to speak openly to our co-teachers, and be flexible. It really depends on the school and the way it is set up. Many people have said they have anywhere between 600-800 students!!
Most everyone got a phone through the service provider, KT. They came last week and had 5 different models, but by the time I got there, they had only two left. They came in today, and everyone is going crazy! But I have to admit, this is by far the coolest phone I've ever had. Its so cute! Everyone is trying to get as many numbers as possible.
On Sunday, all of us piled in 16 coach busses for a field trip. We visited a traditional Korean village, had a Bibimbap event for lunch, and did a temple tour in the evening. The village was a lot of fun to see, and I took a lot of pictures. The downside of being one of 600 is that its sometimes hard to hear the details about the places. For lunch, there was a giant pot with a mixture of rice, spices, pork, and vegetables. There were Korean women serving it and they were efficient, so we got our food quickly. The temple was nice. We had a lot of time, and we were all exhausted from the heat, so near the end everyone was relaxing on the steps out of the hot sun.
I've got out the last 4 of 5 nights. There is a street nearby that everyone goes to. We've heard time and time again that Koreans mix business with pleasure much more often than Americans. We'll probably go out with our bosses and coworkers at least once a week. We don't get too crazy, but its nice to get out and hang out with and meet as many people as possible. I'm trying to make a lot of connections so it is easier to travel in the country. I've met so many wonderful people, and it will be sad to see us part ways on Friday. Our 1am curfew prevents people from coming back too drunk, so that's good.
Lotte Mart is a big store where they sell a variety of things. They say, if you can't find it at Lotte Mart, you can't find it anywhere. I'm on the lookout for a hairdryer and straightner. Hope to update pictures soon!
We have been having a lot of lectures for the last 3 days. They were all pretty great. The speakers had different backgrounds and experiences, and I've gotten a lot fo good advice. The bottom line is that we have to speak openly to our co-teachers, and be flexible. It really depends on the school and the way it is set up. Many people have said they have anywhere between 600-800 students!!
Most everyone got a phone through the service provider, KT. They came last week and had 5 different models, but by the time I got there, they had only two left. They came in today, and everyone is going crazy! But I have to admit, this is by far the coolest phone I've ever had. Its so cute! Everyone is trying to get as many numbers as possible.
On Sunday, all of us piled in 16 coach busses for a field trip. We visited a traditional Korean village, had a Bibimbap event for lunch, and did a temple tour in the evening. The village was a lot of fun to see, and I took a lot of pictures. The downside of being one of 600 is that its sometimes hard to hear the details about the places. For lunch, there was a giant pot with a mixture of rice, spices, pork, and vegetables. There were Korean women serving it and they were efficient, so we got our food quickly. The temple was nice. We had a lot of time, and we were all exhausted from the heat, so near the end everyone was relaxing on the steps out of the hot sun.
I've got out the last 4 of 5 nights. There is a street nearby that everyone goes to. We've heard time and time again that Koreans mix business with pleasure much more often than Americans. We'll probably go out with our bosses and coworkers at least once a week. We don't get too crazy, but its nice to get out and hang out with and meet as many people as possible. I'm trying to make a lot of connections so it is easier to travel in the country. I've met so many wonderful people, and it will be sad to see us part ways on Friday. Our 1am curfew prevents people from coming back too drunk, so that's good.
Lotte Mart is a big store where they sell a variety of things. They say, if you can't find it at Lotte Mart, you can't find it anywhere. I'm on the lookout for a hairdryer and straightner. Hope to update pictures soon!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
More EPIK Orientation
Today is the first day of Orientation.
When we got to our dorm, we were given name tags, shirts, a theromometer to make sure we don't have the swine flu, towels, toothpaste, mugs, converter, snacks, alarm clocks, and books. They all have either the EPIK logo or JJ University logo on them. My temperature today when I took it was 35.8 Celcius. We have to keep track of it everyday, and keep a log of it in our books.
The room is very nice. It is smaller than the dorms at UWEC, but we have our own bathroom. It looks like IKEA designed the room. There is a nice view of the city and mountains. Our closet and storage area take up an entire wall.
Breakfast was served at 7:30 am today, and because I woke up so early, our group got there early and had good seats. The food at breakfast was an odd combination of American and Korean food. Some of the foods were: Kimchi, Cornflakes, Salad with Thousand Island dressing, Cream of Broccoli Soup, Crescent Rolls, Tomato Slices, French Fries, Coffee, sliced pickles, Rice, scrambled eggs, and cooked ham slices. Really bizarre, but since I hadn't eaten for 14 hours, it was delicious!
The campus is close to a 7-11, so some friends and I checked that out before our campus tour. Because there are over 550 of us here, we are broken down into 8 groups that we do our activities with. My group is group 3, and it is a combination of the Gwangju and Incheon teachers.
The teachers seem to be from everywhere! There are people from England, Australia, Toronto, Quebec, FL, NY, MI, MN, WI, IL, CA, and everywhere inbetween. I was suprised at the diversity and various backgrounds of everyone. There seem to be many Korean Americans and Korean Canadians doing EPIK.
Today we had the tour, but because there are more than 50 of us in group 3, it was hard to hear much. I think we saw the place where we are having the opening ceremony and welcoming dinner later on today. The campus is very scenic. Our dorm was completed in March 2009, and it looks even newer. Many buildings look like they are from the space age. The flora is also very nice. Because it is warm and humid here, there is a wide variety of plant life. I'm so glad all the buildings are air conditioned!
When we got to our dorm, we were given name tags, shirts, a theromometer to make sure we don't have the swine flu, towels, toothpaste, mugs, converter, snacks, alarm clocks, and books. They all have either the EPIK logo or JJ University logo on them. My temperature today when I took it was 35.8 Celcius. We have to keep track of it everyday, and keep a log of it in our books.
The room is very nice. It is smaller than the dorms at UWEC, but we have our own bathroom. It looks like IKEA designed the room. There is a nice view of the city and mountains. Our closet and storage area take up an entire wall.
Breakfast was served at 7:30 am today, and because I woke up so early, our group got there early and had good seats. The food at breakfast was an odd combination of American and Korean food. Some of the foods were: Kimchi, Cornflakes, Salad with Thousand Island dressing, Cream of Broccoli Soup, Crescent Rolls, Tomato Slices, French Fries, Coffee, sliced pickles, Rice, scrambled eggs, and cooked ham slices. Really bizarre, but since I hadn't eaten for 14 hours, it was delicious!
The campus is close to a 7-11, so some friends and I checked that out before our campus tour. Because there are over 550 of us here, we are broken down into 8 groups that we do our activities with. My group is group 3, and it is a combination of the Gwangju and Incheon teachers.
The teachers seem to be from everywhere! There are people from England, Australia, Toronto, Quebec, FL, NY, MI, MN, WI, IL, CA, and everywhere inbetween. I was suprised at the diversity and various backgrounds of everyone. There seem to be many Korean Americans and Korean Canadians doing EPIK.
Today we had the tour, but because there are more than 50 of us in group 3, it was hard to hear much. I think we saw the place where we are having the opening ceremony and welcoming dinner later on today. The campus is very scenic. Our dorm was completed in March 2009, and it looks even newer. Many buildings look like they are from the space age. The flora is also very nice. Because it is warm and humid here, there is a wide variety of plant life. I'm so glad all the buildings are air conditioned!
EPIK Orientation
I made it!
For my 14 hour flight, I was seated between two other girls doing the EPIK program. Their names were Dinah and Brandy. We talked the majority of the way, and got along very well. The food was decent. We had two meals, dinner and breakfast. The three of us decided to be brave and have the Korean Bibimbap. It is rice, meat, 4 or 5 different kinds of vegetables, and korean chili paste. It was spicy and delicious! Of course, it was served with kimchi. It wouldn't be a real Korean meal without it! I tried it, and it wasn't really that bad. I know I'll have plenty of other opportunities to have it!
We got to the airport around 4:45 am, and stayed with the two girls. It was really really easy to guess who was doing EPIK, there were about 30 of us on our flight from Chicago. They stuck out like sore thumbs- white, young adults who looked extremely confused! We didn't have any problems getting through customs, but I was suprised when they took our temperature before we even got into the terminal after walking off the plane! Guess I passed! I had no idea how cautious they were about H1N1!
I hung out in the airport near the EPIK desk with about 149 other people until the busses came. Because there were so many of us, I was unable to get on the first bus at 7:30, so my bus came at 9:30. I made some really good friends during that time, and by using the free wireless internet at Incheon, I was able to add most of them as "friends" on Facebook!
The bus was full with 30 people's luggage. Many people packed tons of stuff, and it makes me hope that I packed enough. Some people that had bags that weighed over 85 lbs and had to pay extra; that's twice the amount of weight that I had in my bags! I have no idea what some people brought- the girl I'm rooming with for orientation, Natalie, packed her pillow.
The ride took about 4 hours to get to Jenoju University. We had two stops at reststops, and I wish ours were like them. We got some snacky food. I had "ham toast." It is ham, toast, egg with cabbage, ketchup, and seasoning salt. It may sound strange, but it looked so yummy when it was cooking that I had to try it. For the $1.50 that it cost, it was totally worth it. I washed it down with at $.50 coke.
We got to the university at around 3pm. I kept my two big bags in the storage area in Art Hall because the elevators in our 19 story building are tiny. Nothing like the dorm elevators in Towers at UWEC. The most people you can cram in them is about 7. Natalie from MI and I decided to room together, and we are right next to our other 8 girlfriends from the midwest on the same floor.
We both thought it would be a good idea to take an hour nap, because even though we weren't too tired, we wanted to be rested before going out to dinner. Natalie was going to wake me after an hour, but I woke up about 2 hours later to see that Natalie had fallen asleep while reading. I showered and layed back down, and when I woke again, it was dark. We slept through dinner and the evening, and at 9pm, I decided to just continue sleeping through the rest of the night. Said and done, I slept from about 5pm to 5 am today! But I'm feeling fully rested and refreshed now!
For my 14 hour flight, I was seated between two other girls doing the EPIK program. Their names were Dinah and Brandy. We talked the majority of the way, and got along very well. The food was decent. We had two meals, dinner and breakfast. The three of us decided to be brave and have the Korean Bibimbap. It is rice, meat, 4 or 5 different kinds of vegetables, and korean chili paste. It was spicy and delicious! Of course, it was served with kimchi. It wouldn't be a real Korean meal without it! I tried it, and it wasn't really that bad. I know I'll have plenty of other opportunities to have it!
We got to the airport around 4:45 am, and stayed with the two girls. It was really really easy to guess who was doing EPIK, there were about 30 of us on our flight from Chicago. They stuck out like sore thumbs- white, young adults who looked extremely confused! We didn't have any problems getting through customs, but I was suprised when they took our temperature before we even got into the terminal after walking off the plane! Guess I passed! I had no idea how cautious they were about H1N1!
I hung out in the airport near the EPIK desk with about 149 other people until the busses came. Because there were so many of us, I was unable to get on the first bus at 7:30, so my bus came at 9:30. I made some really good friends during that time, and by using the free wireless internet at Incheon, I was able to add most of them as "friends" on Facebook!
The bus was full with 30 people's luggage. Many people packed tons of stuff, and it makes me hope that I packed enough. Some people that had bags that weighed over 85 lbs and had to pay extra; that's twice the amount of weight that I had in my bags! I have no idea what some people brought- the girl I'm rooming with for orientation, Natalie, packed her pillow.
The ride took about 4 hours to get to Jenoju University. We had two stops at reststops, and I wish ours were like them. We got some snacky food. I had "ham toast." It is ham, toast, egg with cabbage, ketchup, and seasoning salt. It may sound strange, but it looked so yummy when it was cooking that I had to try it. For the $1.50 that it cost, it was totally worth it. I washed it down with at $.50 coke.
We got to the university at around 3pm. I kept my two big bags in the storage area in Art Hall because the elevators in our 19 story building are tiny. Nothing like the dorm elevators in Towers at UWEC. The most people you can cram in them is about 7. Natalie from MI and I decided to room together, and we are right next to our other 8 girlfriends from the midwest on the same floor.
We both thought it would be a good idea to take an hour nap, because even though we weren't too tired, we wanted to be rested before going out to dinner. Natalie was going to wake me after an hour, but I woke up about 2 hours later to see that Natalie had fallen asleep while reading. I showered and layed back down, and when I woke again, it was dark. We slept through dinner and the evening, and at 9pm, I decided to just continue sleeping through the rest of the night. Said and done, I slept from about 5pm to 5 am today! But I'm feeling fully rested and refreshed now!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Jeonju University
Above is a picture of the campus. I found it on their website. The university's tag line is "The Place for Superstars: Substantiation and Specialization of Education bringing up Students of Excellence with God's visions." I haven't been able to find out how large the university is, or if it is affiliated with Christian schools, but that would be something interesting to learn about when I arrive.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
One Week Out
Well, here I am, just one week short of leaving. I have secured my E-2 visa, as well as my flight for the way over. I didn't have any problems getting the visa, and they were able to process it within a few days. Of course, I checked the mail every day until it arrived.
I got my plane ticket from Priceline. I was orignially going to fly out of Minneapolis, until I found that I could spend the same amount of money, but save about 10 hours by flying out of Chicago O'Hare. I'll be flying on Asiana Airlines. I leave at 1 am central, and arrive at 5am at Incheon International. It is a 14 hour direct flight, and I will be crosssing 14 time zones.
When I arrive at the airport, I'll meet my EPIK guide. They have 20 different busses to pick up the 500+ EPIK participants leaving the airport at different times during the day. The first bus leaves at 7:30 am, and that will take me to our orientation site, Jeonju University.
Jeonju University (http://www.jj.ac.kr/) is located in Jeonjusi, Jeollabukdo in the Southern portion of the country. We will be there from August 19-28th. We'll have dinners with everyone, a variety of classes and guest speakers, and movie nights. I'll also be able to see a traditional Korean village on a field trip. From there, we will go to our respective providences, and start at the schools August 31. I'll find out during orientation at what school and grades I'll be teaching.
Packing is almost done. I've got two large suitcases and one carryon. It has been difficult packing because I need to pack for 4 different seasons. I thought I had it pretty well organized, until I read that EPIK recommends packing one suitcase with what I will need for orientation because there may or may not be enough room at the university for two large bags. There is a separate storage area for excess baggage.
The only paperwork I am still waiting on is my residency certificate. This is needed so I do not have to pay the Korean income tax. After some confusion, I finally found what I needed at the IRS website. I'll need to have my parents mail it to me as soon as it arrives because I need it by September 25th, when I receive my first paycheck.
At this point, the only thing I have left to do is say my goodbyes, which I'm not looking forward to. Hopefully I'll be able to Skype with close friends and family to keep in touch. :) Pray for my safe travels next week!
I got my plane ticket from Priceline. I was orignially going to fly out of Minneapolis, until I found that I could spend the same amount of money, but save about 10 hours by flying out of Chicago O'Hare. I'll be flying on Asiana Airlines. I leave at 1 am central, and arrive at 5am at Incheon International. It is a 14 hour direct flight, and I will be crosssing 14 time zones.
When I arrive at the airport, I'll meet my EPIK guide. They have 20 different busses to pick up the 500+ EPIK participants leaving the airport at different times during the day. The first bus leaves at 7:30 am, and that will take me to our orientation site, Jeonju University.
Jeonju University (http://www.jj.ac.kr/) is located in Jeonjusi, Jeollabukdo in the Southern portion of the country. We will be there from August 19-28th. We'll have dinners with everyone, a variety of classes and guest speakers, and movie nights. I'll also be able to see a traditional Korean village on a field trip. From there, we will go to our respective providences, and start at the schools August 31. I'll find out during orientation at what school and grades I'll be teaching.
Packing is almost done. I've got two large suitcases and one carryon. It has been difficult packing because I need to pack for 4 different seasons. I thought I had it pretty well organized, until I read that EPIK recommends packing one suitcase with what I will need for orientation because there may or may not be enough room at the university for two large bags. There is a separate storage area for excess baggage.
The only paperwork I am still waiting on is my residency certificate. This is needed so I do not have to pay the Korean income tax. After some confusion, I finally found what I needed at the IRS website. I'll need to have my parents mail it to me as soon as it arrives because I need it by September 25th, when I receive my first paycheck.
At this point, the only thing I have left to do is say my goodbyes, which I'm not looking forward to. Hopefully I'll be able to Skype with close friends and family to keep in touch. :) Pray for my safe travels next week!
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