I'm going to Wonju!

Today I FINALLY found out were I'll be living for the next year! I will be in the town of Wonju in the province of Gangwon in South Korea. Wonju (according to the paragraph describing it on wikipedia) is the largest city (population-wise) of Gangwon province. Its a larger city, 300,000 people, and the best part is that its only an hour from Seoul, an hour from the beach and on the major train lines, so we can get all over Korea, especially to the south, very easily! How lucky!

Also, Jason and I will be in the same town! Yay!! And we happen to be placed in the same town as our friend Scott from UCI. How did that happen?! No idea. We leave for Wonju tomorrow, and should meet our Korean co-teachers then. And we also should move into our apartments, which would be great to finally be able to unpack and get out of the dorm.

But get this, the best part, we found out where we will be teaching!! I'll be at at all girls Middle school. Jason, on the other hand, will be at... an all girls high school!! HAHAHAHAHHA. Actually, I feel a little bad for him, but he says he's fine with it, and he'll have fun with it. He'll have to find a way to relate to high school Korean girls, LOL. Our schools are most likely right next to each other as they are both Sangji Middle School and then Sangji High School. All girls should be really interesting! We should start teaching on Monday!

Tomorrow we have to have our bags on the bust to Wonju by 8:30am, and then once we meet our co-teachers, who knows where the day could go!

As a warning, we may not be able to get internet for a few weeks so that will probably limit the time we have to email/blog. Hopefully we can get online at school, but we shall see!

Folk Village, Mask Dancing and Survival Korean

It's already Tuesday afternoon here in Korea! Just a week ago I was home enjoying the last taco lunch and pizza dinner I would get for many months. Currently my diet had developed a pattern, as dictated by the dorm food I eat morning, lunch and dinner. It's actually really good, with the never changing staples being white sticky rice, kimchi and some kind of fruit. I've also discovered a very good cold latte drink you can buy from the vending machine, its only about $1. It tastes more like a chocolate milkshake than coffee!

Today we are in lecture all day learning how to teach English in Korea. This is day two of three of lecture. We rotate through classes such as "Active English," "English Fever," "Classroom Management," "Multiple Intelligences," etc. There are four classes a day for 3 days. Plus "Survival Korean" every night. Survival Korean is like an extreme crash course in how to read the alphabet and say basic words. Jason and I were practicing our reading skills last night (we found some signs written in Korean with English translation below so we knew when we were pronouncing things correctly or incorrectly). The language is actually pretty easy to read... well, easy in the sense that once you memorize the vowels and consenets and understand how they combine you could pronounce street signs, texts, etc. Still of course, you don't know what they mean. I'll write more about this later. I still only know how to say hello and thank you, but I'm getting there.

Sunday was a great day! Long and super hot and humid, but tons of fun! We were taken on an all day exercion! We went to a traditional Korean folk village on the outskirts of Seoul. Our tour guide spoke English and had lived in Chicago for 20 years, of which he was very proud and told us some of the history of Korean living; we learned about their air conditioning, their heated floors (ingenious!), farming, storing food, seperate homes for men and women. We also saw a great performance of traditional Korean music. The performers used drums and chimbals, but also wore brightly colored costumes, did amazing turning flips and had these long coords on their hats with ribbon on the end. When they moved their heads in precise ways, the ribbon ripped around them as well making patters (similiar to ribbon dancing) but it was all done with a motion of the head! We also so tight rope walking and a traditional wedding ceremony. At lunch we tried Korean sausage. We didn't like it at all. One of the English people said it was like black porrige, whatever that is.

After that we went to a nearby center for the arts. There we got to learn traditional Korean drumming! It was so fun, we all got individual drums and learned a sequence form a song. It was very cool and everyone loved it. It got us really pumped up which was especially good because we were all drenched in sweat (in our matching EPIK tshirts). Then we learned traditional mask dancing. Our teacher was very funny. We put long plastic gloves over our hands to dance with. Our teacher explained how you would do the dance at a party with your entire village and you would seek out the person you desired during the dance, and then end up in front of them at its end. They would either reject or accept you. Jason was an amazing dancer and everyone loved watching him because he was so funny! He was chosen first as one of the top three male dancers, and then again made it all the way to the top of the class! Our friend from UCI, Scott was chosen as number one male dancer, and Jason was number two!! (From a peer vote!) It was great! Both Scott and Jason were so excited while dancing that they slipped and fell. I think that had something to do with why they got the top vote. LOL.

Lastly we watched a performance called Breakout, featuring both comedy at breakdancing. It was to showcase the modern after we'd just seen so much traditional dance.

Well, its time for class!

Made it to Korea!

My first full day in Korea is about to come to an end. Its nearing 9 pm Friday evening and I am exhausted (Friday morning is just starting in California, crazy!) Jason and I landed safely at Incheon Airport around 6:30 pm Thursday evening, quickly made it through customs and immigration, found our bags and located the EPIK registration booth. They had us on the shuttle to our orientation dorms by 9 pm and off we went, headed to the Institute of International Education in Seoul. The dorms are nice enough, they are clean and have everything we need. The bed feels like I'm sleeping on a stiff board, but that's okay, I couldn't stay asleep anyway!

I think my body knew that in CA it was the middle of the day, and my mind wouldn't stop racing, so I woke up every hour from 12 midnight to 6 am. For some reason the air conditioners in our room turned off at 6 am and that immediately made it ridiculously hot and humid so I definitely woke up and stayed up. Not surprisingly the lobby of our dorm floor was crowded with people who also couldn't sleep. We are

on the fourth floor of a five story building, with about 30 rooms per floor divided between two hallways with a lobby in the middle with chairs, a TV and some computers. That is also where the wifi internet is, thus why everyone is hanging out there. We are fed three meals a day and so far they have been really delicious and filling, with lots of variety (and all very healthy.)

Today we had to fill out the paperwork to get our Korean bank accounts set up and we also attended the orientation welcome which included: some cute/awesome Taekwondo demonstrations executed by local middle school children, two traditional Korean musical performances, a couple welcome addresses by EPIK staff, and a really interesting and informative lecture by a Korean Professor about Korean history, politics and economics.

Jason and I just got back from walking around the streets surrounding the Institute, which is in the North West-ish area of Downtown Seoul. I'm still pretty disorientated as to where we are, although we did find a subway line near by. This area of the city has lots of trees and public art, so I'm told its a little different than the rest o

f the city. Very green and beautiful though. The streets are really cute with lots of restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops. We got coffee at... Starbucks! Go figure. Two drinks cost around $10!! The Starbucks culture is very different here though. You are expected to sit down with your drinks on a tray and chat with your friends, not buy a huge coffee and walk out or sit down to study while plugged into your laptop. It was much nicer, a social place, which is probably why it is more expensive. (Trashy and recycling is also so much more efficient! Even at Starbucks there were separate places to throw away your: lid, cup, liquid waste and other (napkins, straw) and its the same way in the dorms).

All in all, things are going well. I'm definitely missing home and family but I'm okay... oh except for my missing suitcase. Yeah, that really sucks. Way to go United. Thanks for loosing my favorite boots, my new suit jacket, all my carefully chosen presents for my new bosses, etc. I'm really sad about that.

The story of our horrible experience at LAX is soon to come! Moral: never fly United.

Jason exhausted after plane ride and pushing/pulling/carrying

tons of luggage throughout the airport.

Street in Seoul

Me with some public art, plus Scott,

our fellow UCI Alum (and CRep Alum)

MOM!!! THIS IS FOR YOU!!!

CHICKEN RIBS!!! Just like we thought!

Departure Looming

Well, tomorrow should be a long day. Up at 5:30 am Wednesday, pick up Jason and McDonalds on the way to LAX with Mom and Dad, teary goodbye, moments of panic and doubt, moments of elated excitement, moments of wondering why I packed two suitcases, a backpack (stuffed with a smaller bag and a purse), my laptop bag AND a briefcase. Time travel, arrive in Seoul at 6:35 pm Thursday night (about 3 am Cali time.)

I will be in touch as soon as I have internet, which I hope means in the dorms we are placed in for orientation.

Wish us luck!

Preparing to Leave

The countdown to departure is in full swing. 5 days and counting. Jason and I fly out of LAX on Wednesday around 11:30 am. Our flight has one stop in San Francisco where we board a larger plane run by Singapore Airlines. That flight leaves about 2 pm on Wednesday. It lasts for 12 something hours and we arrive at Incheon International Airport in South Korea at 6:45 pm THURSDAY night! We time travel ahead one day!

The next few days at home will be filled with trips to the Mall, Target, etc. to gather last minute supplies and then I actually have to start packing some bags. I'm also trying to squeeze in spending time with my parents, dropping off storage boxes at my grandma's and a last minute dinner with a close friend. Should be fun! While right now I'm moving pretty slowly on everything, I'm guessing Tuesday night will be a little more frantic.