2009 Winter EIC Training

This past weekend (Friday and Saturday), we had our 2009 Winter EIC (English Immersion Camp) Training. It took place at JungHeung Gold Spa and Resort just outside of Gwangju about 45 minutes. It was sponsored by the West District (Seobu) Office of Education. Everyone who teaches in the west side of town and the Korean teachers from schools hosting the EIC camps were there.

The Office of Education really wants the Guest English Teachers (GET's) to stay for more than a year. This was our third "orientaion/training" program sponsored by them, and they seem to go all out. JungHeung was very nice. It was a waterpark and resort. Unfortunately, most of the park was closed because it was outdoors. The view from my third-floor room from one of my two balcony's was very nice- wave pool, water slides, a huge pirate ship, and various pools. My friends and I definitely want to come back in the summer time.

I think the early-morning fog makes the mountains look beautiful, but it also looked nice in the afternoon when it had burned off and there was a clear, blue sky!



Friday started off with meeting at the Education office. We had a few lectures in an over-heated ballroom. The lectures seem to drag on and on, perhaps due to the heat! We heard presentations about the EIC set up (2 weeks, Jan 4-15, 4 hours each day, 1,160 some students at about 20 schools in the west part of town, 4 GET's and 4 Korean teachers for each school), the cirriculum (we were given textbooks for each grade, 4th and 5th), and ideas for what to do. My school (큰별, Keunbeol) decided that each GET would take on the role of a subject teacher, I will be focusing on teaching math, cooking, culture, and situational topics for the 5th graders. Unfortunately, we came across some problems with a GET in my group who was "sick" and was not at the training. To make a long story short, one of the Korean teachers cried because she thought the GET didn't want to work the camp etc. I felt really bad, and I hope that the GET (who I have yet to meet) isn't negatitive during the camp.

Our room at JungHeung was simply fabulous. It was about 3 times the size of my 1 bedroom apartment. I was originally supposed to room with this "sick" GET from my school, but she didn't show, so I had a three bedroom room to myself. Alli decided to then swap rooms, and move into mine. I couldn't believe the size and quality of it when we first walked in. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (with real showers!), a fully stocked kitchen, flat screen TV, massasge chair, and a leather, sectional couch. Wow! If only I could live here!

Here is a view of the living room:



This was looking into my bedroom- Alli took the bedroom with the double bed, but they were so soft and cushy and wonderful size didn't matter to me!



This is the fully stocked kitchen- glasses, plates, shot glasses, chopsticks, and even a rice cooker. I was impressed with the size of the fridge! Our room/kitchen was one of the biggest, so we did some "entertaining" Friday night after the workshops had ended. Had to put those glasses to use!



We left Saturday after lunch. The meals were not anything special, just ordinary cafeteria food. Overall though, it was a good weekend, and great to have a day off from school and see everyone back together again!

If you want to see more pictures, check out my facebook album here:

http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?page=1&aid=2216589&id=59501140

Food of the Week- Bibimbap (비빔밥)

My first time having Bibimbap was on the plane ride over from Chicago to Seoul. I remember sitting next to Dinah and trying to prounounce it the same way the stewardess had. I had no idea that I'd be eating so much Bibimbap 5 months later!

Bibimbop literally means mixed rice or mixed meal in Korean. It's a popular meal consisting of a bowl of steamed white rice topped with vegetables, beef, a whole egg, and kochujang (Korean chili pepper paste).

Vegetables commonly used in bibimbap include julienne cucumber, zucchini, carrot, white radish, mushrooms, bellflower root, and laver (seaweed!). It may also contain spinach, soybean sprouts, and bracken fern stems. Tofu, either plain or sauteed, may also be included in the dish as well. You stir the mix together before eating, and if there is a raw egg in your bibimbap, stirring will help cook the egg.

There is a restaurant in Gwangju that serves the best bibimbap- I've only ever gotten the "cooked beef" version, however, my friend Amanda perfers the "raw beef" bibimbap.

At our orientation in August, the chef's prepared enough bibimbap for 600+ people, I could swear that is a record of some sort! Here's a picture of how much of it there was! This was before it was stirred.



After stirring:

EPIK Workshop

This past week was a short one, we had a manditory 2 day workshop on Thursday and Friday. We left behind schedule Thursday morning on 3 coach busses from the MOE. We arrived at Boseong Dabeach Condo before lunch. The condo was gorgeous! We were on the southern tip of Korea and the beach was beautiful. We had really nice pleasant weather too. The area is known for their green tea, the few cups I had was very good. I ended up buying some for my center school before I left, trying to get some brownie points so I can have my 6 weeks off in January!

The lectures overall were okay. A lot of teachers are in Elementary school because there are so many of them. Most of the material I felt was catered to that level. I was really excited to get more ideas for games/activities but did not really walk away with much unfortunately. Guess I'll just have to get some more ideas off Dave's ESL Cafe.

The meals we had were really good, for dinner Thursday night we had a huge buffet. I knew it was going to be full of good stuff, so I didn't waste precious stomach space with things like salad. Some of my favorites were raw salmon, raw oysters, eel, crab, songpeyong, and beef. Everything was so fresh and unprepared, so the flavor was great.

Most people stayed up late on Thursday night even though we had to wake up early on Friday. It was fun to see everyone in one place again. Our group skipped out on the after dinner activites, and instead watched the Kia Tigers win against the SK Wyverns up on the 6th floor. We had about 30 people in that room and had plenty of refreshments. Then, after the win, we moved down to the Noraebang on the 1st floor. We joined up with Michael, Andrew, Mechele, Amandeep, Miguel, and a few others. It was quite the happening place. Allie, Em, and I did pretty good at singing songs by BSB and NSync. Of course, the classics like Bohemian Raphesody and Somebody Told Me we sung too! I think we were in there for about 3 hours. Quite a good time.

Friday morning, we went to a green tea plantation/bamboo farm in the morning. It was pretty impressive to see all the green tea and how big the bamboo trees were! In the afternoon, we went to a tradtional folk village where people are still living. It wasn't too touristy which was nice. So many of us always talk about how cute the Korean kids are, and there were tons of young kids on field trips.

We made it back to the MOE around 3:45 pm which was good, because we had another 2 days off in front of us and had things to do!

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!

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!

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.

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!