and so it begins : )

Ashley, my roommie from Oregon during orientation at JeonJu...
Krystal, Vanessa, me, Maggie, Jason leaving for our cities!
Vanessa, me, Maggie, and Krystal on the field trip
Bibimbop!!! mmmmmm along with some not so good stuff
Market in JeonJu
Market
Hanok Village

I've now been here 16 days and I know I haven't given many of you an update. It has been extremely crazy. Here's what has been going on:

I arrived in Seoul on Feburary 17th at 5pm. After going through customs, collecting my bags, and checking in with EPIK (English Program in Korea) we took a lovely 3.5 hour bus ride to JeonJu where we stayed at JeonJu University ("The place for superstars"...no joke!). The first two nights it snowed, followed by some sunny-wonderful days, followed by a bunch of rainy days. We had the complete spectrum of weather in 10 days in JeonJu.

During the time at the university we took classes from 9am-8pm. They were mostly about teaching techniques, what to expect, lesson planning, co-teaching, the curriculum, camps, after school classes, and a bunch of different activities and ideas for teaching. We had two very short classes on Korean culture and history and the night classes, from 7-8, were Korean language. They tried to teach us the alphabet and how to pronounce the sounds ...it was really difficult. We had one day free from classes where we went to a traditional Korean neighborhood with Hanok's (traditional Korean homes). We walked around, saw a traditional wedding re-creation, participated in a traditional Korean dance, made Korean knots, and ate Bibimbap. One night I went to a Norebong (basically karaoke, but you have your own room with friends) and got to visit my first Korean bar and experience soju (Korean liquor) for the first time. It was a bit strong but I like the cheap beer, Hite. The week was full of classes and was a bit tiring, but great (once i got over the jetlag which hit me pretty hard! There were 340 of us training at JeonJu from Ireland, U.K., South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. We are placed all around Korea...it's nice to know people in different parts when traveling!

Then it was off to Ulsan. Out of the 340 people at our training, 8 of us got on a bus to go to Ulsan on the 26th. We had one stop during the 4 hour bus ride and it happened to be right when Kim Yu-Na (Yuna Kim...the Korean figure skater) was skating. The rest stops are basically little food courts that are really nice. The entire place stopped and huddled around the t.v. to watch her skate. Yuna Kim is a national hero here and watching her win and seeing the excitement around us was so cool. The bus driver wasn't happy that we took longer than 30 minutes...I guess he wasn't too excited. They took us to the Office of Education in Ulsan where our co-teachers picked us up. I was a little nervous because my co-teacher, Sam, was really nervous around me! haha He immediately took me to my school which was great but the first thing we did was go into the Principal's office...so intimidating! Sam and the Principal spoke in Korean for a bit while I sat there. Sam then took me to the motel I had to stay in the first couple nights because my apartment wasn't fully ready. It ended up being a love motel! haha It had a flashing strobe light above the bed, a huge picture of a mand and a woman kissing over the bed, and an assortment of other...things. haha There are a lot of "love motels" around Korea.

I was extremely nervous my first day in Ulsan...it was the first time I wasn't around a bunch of people who spoke English. Once I started meeting more people, such as a woman and her husband who work at the school and helped me buy some things on my second day, and met my main co-teacher, Kimmie, who is FANTASTIC, I started to feel much better! I have a good group of friends here and Kimmie is super bubbly, outgoing, and energgetic. We're going to get along really well!

Classes started this week, but I won't actually start teaching until next week. Right now I've just been going through the books, asking lots of questions, and brainstorming ideas. I'll be teaching English to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I'm a bit nervous to start teaching because communication is obviously a bit hard, but I'm more excited and optimistic than anything else. I'll be teaching about 4 regular classes a day, 2 hour long after-school classes, and might start teaching after school classes every day from 5-7!

I went to my first staff dinner the other night...the food was fantastic, conversation was difficult, but it was a lot of fun. I've learned that even if Koreans know English they are very shy and worried about actually speaking in English, but hey I feel the same way when they try to teach me Korean! Every Wednesday after school all of the teachers play volleyball too. I'm so excited for that, although I won't be able to play if I start the 5-7 classes. Apparently they play staff from other elementary schools every now and again!

This weekend Kimmie and I are going to dinner and to buy a book for our after school class and I'm meeting up with some friends for dinner tonight. As of now I am loving the food, it's all so different. Not sure if/when I'll get sick of it, I guess we'll see! The transportation system is very easy and cheap and I live in the middle of the three major parts of Ulsan (new downtown, old downtown, and the University district)...PERFECT!

Well...that's all I can really give you for now. I'm still at school and might have to do some work :) I don't have internet at home yet, but I just applied for my alien registration card and should be receiving it next week. Once I get that I will be able to get a phone and interenet!

I hope all is going well!