"You are all babies in Korea. You don't know how to read, write, speak, or understand Korean. You have reversed in time. Now it's time for you to grow up." -- part of a speech by one of our lecturers at orientation
AIRPLANE RIDE:
My first flight was from Austin to San Francisco, about a 4 hour ride. Not bad, but it was early in the morning & I wanted to relax/sleep but couldn't get comfortable due to having an aisle seat. In San Francisco I boarded my 12 hour flight to Incheon Airport (outside of Seoul, the capital of South Korea). Needless to say, my bottom was sore from sitting for 12 hours even though I tried to walk around & stretch. I ended up in a middle seat between a Canadian-Korean and a guy who was travelling for business. I enjoyed talking to the Korean guy because he told me about his experience teaching in Korea and that he is now teaching at a University level and making double the salary I will make here. He recommended I work my way up in the system & make friends with alot of Korean people. He was born in Korea & raised in Canada, so he was of course fluent in both languages. The airplane food wasn't too bad, I even ate some fish ramen noodles (not a fan though lol). I thought I would sleep the entire time or read, but I ended up barely doing either of those things. I spend the majority of the time watching the movies & television shows they were playing, as well as listening to the music channels they had on the plane.
After landing in Korea I instantly realized how things work...you follow the crowd! haha! I rushed with everyone through immigrations check, to the luggage retrieval, & finally customs. After all of that I walked into the main lobby where there were a bunch of people holding up signs. I recognized my recruiter immediately & he let me use his cell phone to make a call to my parents. Next I exchanged my money from USD into WON. That is when I started meeting other English teachers. I met Jen, Edithe, Lea, Brian, Swirv, Jessica, and many more who I all hung out with at orientation. Next we loaded up on a bus to Jeonju, which was about a 3 hour ride. We stopped half way and got out at a convenience store, which is where I made my first purchase in WON. I had absolutely no idea which bill was which because I hadn't really looked at it yet. So, I basically pulled a bill out, and she held up two fingers, so I gave her another one. I can now proudly say I have the money system down pretty well & can even say hello and thank you during the process. :)
We arrived at Jeonju University around 9pm or so and unloaded our luggage into the lobby. We were given a care package, sweatshirt, room number & nametag. They also took our temperature to make sure we were all healthy after travelling. When I went upstairs to my room I dropped off one bag & returned downstairs for the other. When I came back the second time I noticed a backpack with a stuffed animal moose on it laying on the other bed. That's when I realized that Jen was my roommate! We had met at the airport so I was happy that I was roomming with someone I had already met. We ended up having sooo much fun as roommates! :) We found it comforting that we were both 25 years old & still brought our stuffed animals with us! Meet Wilbur & Huey...and Jen!:
MEDICAL CHECK:
The first morning of orientation was our scheduled medical exams, which included getting basic info of height/weight, hearing test, color-blindness test, eye exam, blood drawn, peeing in a cup for a drug test, & lastly an x-ray exam. They took my picture during the blood test & told me to make a scary face, but I was laughing/smiling in it. They made a slide show & put it on a CD for us as a souvenir from orientation & I'm actually on there quite a few times. :) 
WELCOMING CEREMONY:
After the medical exam we attended at welcoming ceremony where they put on a few performances for us. The following pictures are of a Korean drum performance, taekwondo, & as I called it, "a fan dance" lol.
Pretty impressive! So, after that we met in our separate groups...I was in Class 6. We had a short class meeting, then we went to the welcoming dinner/feast. They had SOOO MUCH food, but I didn't find anything I really liked at that moment. I should probably make a post just for pictures of food lol.
LECTURES:
Days 3,4,6, & 7 were lectures. We were required to attend 4 lectures each day, plus a Korean language class in the evening. They also showed Korean movies at night, but I ended up either being too tired or going out with friends instead. The first lecture I attended was given by a "youtube celebrity" in Korea & other parts of the world. I say this because before moving to Korea I came across alot of his helpful videos on YouTube, so it was neat to see him in person & hear his stories. He gave me confidence that I can learn Korean in less than a year :) The following pics were from the CD they gave us as a gift:
Another memorable lecture was when we heard a story from a previous native teacher about one of his craziest days at work. He said he showed up to work, was walking into the school, and his co-teacher said, "Where are you going? Get on the bus!" So he thought this was strange, but he did as he was told. On the bus he discovered they were going to an amusement park for a field trip. When he got off the bus he headed towards the rides with the kids and his teacher asked him again, "Where are you going? Follow me!" He again did as he was told and followed the teacher to a spot in the park where all the other teachers were gathered. They then proceeded to pour him a glass of Soju. End of story being he got wasted with his teachers at 11a.m. on a school field trip. If only I'm lucky enough to have those kinds of teacher...lol j/k but a funny story to say the least!
The best lecture was given by a man who does teacher training. His focus of topic was...boring powerpoints! Sounds like it would be a boring lecture, but it was hilarious! He had alot of good points about the misuse of powerpoint presentations & let us do some improv comedy just using pictures on a screen. I volunteered to do a demonstration with another guy in class. I was in tears from laughing so hard at the story line we were making up to go with the pictures. I really wish I would have recorded all of the improvs!
One entire lecture was devoted to "things you can do for fun in Korea." So I have added to my agenda: mountain hiking, rock climbing, hang gliding, skiing, and many more adventures! Just need to find a fun group of people to do those things with me! :) And one of the last lectures gave alot of "useless/useful" information about Korean culture.
FYI (In Korea):
* Native speaking blondes are asked, "Are you Russian?" because in the past blonde Russians were brought over as prostitutes for the military.* Native speaking brunettes are considered "loose" -- not sure of the reason behind this
* The majority of children who are in orphanages are the result of their divorced parents. Parents who divorce send their kids to orphanages because if they get married again, the new spouse does not want any children that are not their own blood. So, the parents go about their lives while their kids sit in an orphanage...they might even go visit them, but they don't want them living at their house.
* It is acceptable for women to wear a super super short skirt, but if you show any cleavage or the top of your chest it is disrespectful.
CLASS 6:
I sat through lectures & went on the field trip with a very fun group of people. Our class was mainly made up of South Africans, and the rest were from different states in America, Canada, U.K., New Zealand, and some other random places. Here we are:
Peace signs (of course!):
Silly pic:
How high can you jump?
We broke into a somewhat smaller group for Korean language class:
T.J., Me, & Dave...our small "clique" from Class 6:
XOXO,
Amanda
