Orientation

Orientation was a bit like this:

No really. Minus, the uniforms we popped out of bed, crammed breakfast down, sat through 12 hours of classes with a quick lunch and dinner in between, and then passed out just to do it all again the next day. At least for me. Some teachers found time to go out for drinks or visit the town but that either meant getting no sleep (to go with the already heavy jet lag) or using the very limited free time we had here and there. Personally, I'm a complete baby when it comes to sleep so I was lame and went straight to bed every night.

The food was an experience. It was good and all, but having mushroom soup,kimchi, rice, and cocoa-puffs for breakfast was a little new to me. I'm a strictly eggs and toast or non-sugary cereal kind of person. I got used to it pretty fast though and the vegetarian options were actually quite good. Aside from acorn jelly - which, I found out I'm not a fan of.

Not to complain too much - orientation was great. I met new people from all over just about every day in class or the cafeteria and got a ton of really useful info about survival in Korea and teaching. The lecturers were surprisingly engaging considering we had all mentally checked-out from exhaustion (or just because some teachers had been through it before).

Checked. Out.

I bet I'm saying something really profound here. Or I'm frothing at the mouth, Idk.

The medical exam - Hours of torture for just 50 bucks! Okay, but we did get juice and a snack at the end.

Oh and thanks to one of the lectures, we could not get this song out of our heads:

 Orientation was also a great opportunity to get to know the people in my province. And we had a fantastic group, I don't think I met a single Gangwon-er that I didn't like (or, at the very least, value as a human being):

Our coordinators - Soomi and Hyewon who herded us around like little sheep and taught us our survival Korean (and Konglish). They were just the cutest. 

While the hours were excruciating, EPIK did grant us a bit of fun as well. Friday, we had the cultural trip to Jeonju - a traditional village near where we were in Daejeon. The best part was learning how to play the traditional Korean drums - meant to mimic nature (they have a drum for rain, lightning, and thunder I think. I can't remember what the big ones were... thunder? Or maybe wind). 

I rocked it. 

Exploring the village wasn't bad either. After a stop at the bibimbap restaurant, I joined a couple of girls for some honey-comb ice cream and a walk-about.

These poor guys had been standing there all day :/

The next day, we had a Taekwondo class first thing in the morning. I hadn't even been aware it was coming and showed up in a skirt. Good thing they provided uniforms, 'cause I was about to freak out. I'm still waiting for it to apply to my teaching but so far the kids have not turned hostile...yet.

Wall-sit contest. Pretty sure we came in 2nd or 3rd at this. 

He's saying "You'll never be a Taekwondo master!"

And I'm saying "Bu' whyyyy?!"

Training montage.....

"Now, scream your head off and break this board!"

"Okay!" 

And I did become a Taekwondo master. The End.

Our last day, we had our presentation - for this, we basically had to teach a pretend class (which consisted of our fellow teachers pretending to be 4th graders). We were given an hour Sunday night to prepare all this so it went as good as could be expected. I definitely learned a lot of what not to do as a teacher. It was helpful though.

Then we waited for 2 hours to find out our placements. I understood why they held out on us but it was the most aggravating experience. I just wanted to know where I would be, what grade I'd be teaching, etc. It had been occupying our minds all week. The intense orientation just made me all the more eager to get settled in my new home as well.

Finally, our POE handed out a sheet of paper with all of our placements. I got Chuncheon - the most coveted city in all of Gangwon. And the crazy part was that no new teachers had been placed there in about 3 years or so. I also got Elementary school - exactly what I had secretly wanted! Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with my placement. I had sort of hoped for something more rural but once I looked into it, I found that it had a little bit of everything from rural to urban. Plus my apartment and school are on the outskirts. And it's next to the convergence of two rivers with beautiful bridges and amazing scenery and mountains. As an outdoor girl from the Rockies who still likes her city scene, this was right up my alley. 

 I hadn't gotten out much the entire week we were there - aside from a couple trips into town to visit cafes - so the last night, I went out on the town with some of the Gangwon crew. It was a nice chance to really get to know them outside of class but it did mean I would arrive in Chuncheon a little on the sleepy side. Totally worth it though, since we'd soon be scattered across Gangwon.