Orientation

My orientation took place at Jeonju University ("The Place for Superstars!"). I stayed in a Korean-style dorm with a roommate and three square meals a day. I had classes from 9-5 with breaks here and there. Classes about teaching, classes about Korean culture, language classes, and other general information classes that all-in-all were pretty useful.

The first couple of days were spent getting over my extreme jet lag. The night before was literally a 18-hour journey, including a 12-hour flight, a 3 hour wait at the airport, a 3-hour bus ride, and a 30-ish minute taxi ride. This, coupled with the fact that I was in a near opposite time zone, made me feel pretty zombified.

I was pretty impressed with how well the orientation prepared me. Besides the classes, they set-up my bank account (where my paychecks are direct deposited) and my cell-phone plan. By the end of the week long program I felt absolutely ready live here.

The Korean dorm was very similar to a typical American one. The only noticeable difference, from what I could tell, was the bathroom. The bathroom, like literally all bathrooms in this country, has the toilet and sink in the same area as the shower. So essentially the room itself is one giant shower, with the floor "raised" at the door so water doesn't leak into the next room.

It's a pretty convenient set-up if you think about it. Cleaning the bathroom is a breeze: take your shower, then use the movable shower-head to spray down the bathroom into the drains on the floor. The only down-side is that everything gets wet, so you have to put your toilet paper in something water-resistant.

Classes were surprisingly informative headed by interesting, veteran ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers. There were only a couple classes that I can recall being boring. It did feel like I was back in school again, except there was no homework or tests. Always a good thing.

I had Korean food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not bad, but definitely different. The Koreans definitely love their kimchi.

I guess there isn't much to really say about orientation. It was definitely a "sheltered" experience because everyone there spoke English and all your needs were taken care of. After classes we usually went out to see the town. There was a 7-11 nearby that many liked to frequent. I still can't get over how you can literally buy a beer and drink it out front.

On the last day we had a Korean traditional dance performance thing. Then a closing ceremony. Then we got on our respective buses (dependent on where you were going) and left. I met my co-teacher later that day. Which I'll talk about in my next post.

An-nyeong-hi-gye-se-yo for now.