I KNOW WHERE I AM LIVING!!

YAY!!!!!  Signed my contract today!  Yay!!! 

I am living in the city of Songju.  Here is a link to the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangju

Something of note is that a sister city of Songju is Davis, California!!!

I also know that I will be working in an elementary school.  Yay!  It is what I wanted!  I don't know if it will be one elementary school or several, all I know is the name of my base school (which is written in Korean so I can't read it, sorry). 

I still don't know about my apartment or anything like that, but I do know that Rena, the girl I came down from Seoul with and whom I am rooming with here at the orientation, will be in the same city!!!  Also, another girl who arrived late who I have gotten to know well named Alicia will also be in the same city!!! 

I also did my presentation lesson with my group this morning and we did really well!  Heard lots of praise and hardly any critiquing!  Good job team!

Tomorrow we ship out to our towns, so I will probably be incommunicado for anywhere from 1-3 weeks depending on how fast I get my Alien Registration Card and subsequently set up my internet and get my cell phone.  I may or may not have internet at my school, don't count on it though.  There will probably be PC cafes where I can use the internet though.  I will have to see once I get there.

How's the food?

Okay, by popular demand, I shall answer the food question.

It's okay.  Then again, we are eating dorm food which by definition falls somewhere in between somewhat decent and awful.  I do like Korean food though.  Love kimchi, so spicy!  I also like Bibinbap, which is a sort of rice dish mixed with veggies and sometimes egg and meat. I also like Bulgogi (spelling?)  which is a sort of spicy beef dish.  And, of course, there is always Korean barbecue.  I was never worried about the food.  I am generally adventurous with food and will try anything once and I tend to like most of what I try.  There are only a few foods in the world I am adamant about not eating.   One thing I am worried about eating is fresh octopus.  Apparently, in Korea they are known to take still live octopus and chop them up just like that and then eat them while the tentacles are still moving.  This can be very dangerous because since the suckers are still going, if you don't chew well they can end up closing your windpipe.  I promise to be careful. 

Hope that answers the food question!

Orientation, Day 3

Had my first full day of lectures today, 4 in all plus a Korean class then a rehearsal for the talent show (a 12 hour work day all told).  Some lecturers were better than others.  The 2nd lecturer, a guy, was really good and funny.  He had lots of good information about living in Korea, though his main topic was really classroom management.  Unfortunately, I think that the majority of what they are trying to teach us won't end up being applied when we finally get to our schools.  I still remember all the JET orientations and conferences I had to go to, I never ended up using any of the stuff they told me at those things.  It just wasn't practical for my situation. 

Anyway, for the talent show we are doing a face off, boys against girls.  The boys are doing the New Zealand rugby team's (called the All Blacks) Haka (youtoube it if you don't know what I am talking about) and the girls are doing the SorrySorry dance which is a dance to a song by a Korean boy band called Super Junior. 

I'm about to start my second day of never ending lectures.

*Edit*
Yeah, the class 8 boys and girls will be facing off.

Here is a good link to the Haka (which the boys are doing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHW1K2LeQXE&feature=related

The girls will be facing off against them with parts of this dance (go to link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAWqnA8PdcY

Orientation, Day 2

So, the field trip was AWESOME!  Rena and I, and a group of other people who arrived late (about 20 in all) had to go in the morning to the "Jesus Hospital" for our health check (yes, the hospital really is called that). It was about as I expected.  They drew blood, took our urine, x-rayed our chests, weighed us, measured us, checked our eyesight and hearing.  It was all rather "invasive" considering we had to do all the tests in front of EVERYONE (both Korean and foreign).  Typical Asian style.  I had to do something similar in Japan every year (since all government workers in Japan have to get medical checks once a year) so I was kinda expecting it, but the other EPIK teachers were a little embarrassed by it.

Anyway, the Hanok (traditional) Korean village was really cool.  Tons of old buildings, which you all know I love, and activities.  A priest explained how a traditional Korean wedding is done, and some volunteers got to dress up in traditional garb and get married Korean style!  It was really funny though because at one point, the priest's cell phone went off in the middle of his explanation.  It was hilarious to see this very traditionally dressed priest answer his cell phone.  Then we got a demonstration on how to play a traditional Korean drum!  They had enough for everyone, so we had a whole drumming thing going on.  It was so much fun!  Then we wandered around the town for a bit, visited the oldest elementary school in Korea, a cathedral (about 30% of the population here is Christian) and a shrine.  Then we got to try out traditional paper craft and made heart shaped picture frames with neat Korean paper glued to it. 

It was another tiring day.  Rena was exhausted and went to bed at 7:30.  I managed to make it till 9 before I passed out.  I want to get my clock on Korean time as soon as possible.

Orientation, Day One

So.  Orientation.  The general teaching strategy lectures are kinda useless since they are telling me things I have already heard.  However, the Korean culture and Crash Course in Korean Language lectures have turned out to be pretty good.  Korean is a b*tch of a language though.  Japanese was much easier to pronounce. 

Tomorrow is a field trip.  We are going to a traditional Korean village called Hanok.  However, Rena and I (and another girl who arrived today called Francine) have to go get our medical checks tomorrow morning.  So we will be bussed separately to the field trip location, as we will be going to the hospital first. 

Still don't know where I will be living and teaching, but at least I know I will find that out on Thursday.

It has been really nice meeting everyone.  There is about 350 or so of us GETs (as we are called, or Guest English Teachers).  Not many Californians, but there are a lot of South Africans and Canadians.  Everyone has been really nice and helpful in getting me up to speed.  Turns out Rena and I haven't missed too much.  Apparently, I will have to do a mini 15 long presentation about how I would teach a class with two other GETs (named Jessie and Jessica) and there is a talent show sometime towards the end of orientation.  My class (we are split up into "classes" and go to all the lectures together.  I am in class 8 with Rena) has decided to do a dance which I am very excited about. 

Hello from Korea!

Just wanted to let you all know that I got to Korea safely.  The flight was long, and full, and rather turbulent, and I was in a center seat, and I had already seen all the movies or else they sucked, but I had nice neighbors.  Also, about half way through the flight I had a internal panic attack thinking "What the heck am I doing!?  Going to Korea, a country I know virtually nothing about, am I insane!?" But as I was already on the flight I decided that it was no use second guessing myself.  I am much more resolved to staying now that I am here.  I got into Korea at around 7pm (my flight was slightly delayed and then we had head winds) and I was extremely exhausted.  I managed to get through immigration with no problems (yay visa!) and got all of my luggage (quite a feat, but I did it with one of those rolly luggage cart thingies).  I was too tired to explore the airport at all, but from what I saw, it reminded me a lot of Kansai International Airport in Japan, except I can't read the signs here (thought they all have English as well, so technically I can read them, I just can't read the Korean). The information booth called a free shuttle for me that brought me right to my hotel, the Hotel Sky, where I am currently writing you from.  I don't really know where I am city-wise (perhaps Incheon?) but I am in the middle of buildings with crazy neon signs, about a 10 minute drive from the airport.  Once I got here I got in touch with Rena (I still haven't met her face to face, but I called her room) and we made plans to take the earliest bus (at 6:30) down to Jeonju University for the orientation.  It is currently 9pm here, and I already took my shower, so I am going to sign off and got to sleep.