So I have been in Korea now for exactly a week and It would probably take me a few hours or more to describe all of the interesting/different/crazy/weird/hilarious things that I have experienced so far! To save you and myself from this I am only going to pick a few details and experiences to share.
First I will just give an overall description of EPIK (English Program in Korea) and some of the things we have done while we have been here. When I arrived in Korea I quickly realized that there were probably over 100 other EPIK teachers that were on the same flight. Everyone was really outgoing and eager to meet people and exchange knowledge. The program directors were waiting at the airport for us to load us on the bus and take us to Jeonju University, where we are now for orientation. This year there are three EPIK orientations and at ours alone there are over 400 teachers. I heard that about 150 will be going to Daegu, the city I will be at. This is the highest number of teachers going anywhere besides Seoul. I have been incredibly surprised by the organization that EPIK has put into this orientation. They have treated us so well from the moment we stepped off the bus. We are given three hearty meals a day and between every class there are Korean snacks and drinks waiting for us outside the classroom. For the past few days we have had about 6 hours a day of lectures to prepare us for teaching and differences in Korean culture. Overall the lecturers have been AMAZING and I've learned a lot. In a few hours I will meet my MOE (Metropolitan Office of Education) supervisor and find out in which school I will be placed and what level, so that's pretty exciting but nerve-racking! Thursday (your Wednesday) will be our last day here in Jeonju. We will be taken by bus to our cities where we will immediately meet our co-teachers and see our apartments.
Ok. So EPIK took us on a field trip on our day off to a traditional Korean village and a Buddhist temple. When we first arrived at the village we were taken into a building and made traditional Korean fans. Here is a picture of my fan:
After we made the fans we were sent out to explore the village on our own. We were walking aimlessly through the village when a Korean man started talking to us in English. He told us that we were at the museum and that we should go upstairs and he would guide us through the museum. At this point we really have no idea who this man is but we decide to follow him anyway. As he takes us through the museum we are super impressed because he seems to know so much history about Jeonju and Korea. At the end of the 'tour' he asks us if he can show us around the rest of the village. Then he tells us that he had studied in the States through his doctorate education. Thirty years ago he decided to come back to Korea and now he is a professor of national security teaching in Seoul. We were very lucky to have met this guy because he guided us all around explaining everything and showing us things that we would not have been able to see were we on our own. When we parted ways he gave us his contact information and told us that if we were ever in Seoul he would love to give us a tour of the city.
After the Hanok Village we were bused to a Buddhist temple. My friend Lara and I were walking a bit behind the group because we stopped to go to the bathroom and put our feet in the water. It is ridiculously humid here and it has been really hard getting used to it. So we are walking up this hill towards the temple trying to catch up with the group when this man comes up to us and says, "Kogi?" We have no idea what he is saying to us because he is speaking in Korean and we are answering in English but he obviously doesn't speak any English. We have been told that if someone invites us somewhere, we should always go. So naturally, we followed him. He took us over by the river and introduced us to his friends and wife and made us sit down at a picnic table. On the table is a little grill with a few small pieces of meat. The man says something to his wife and she frantically starts opening containers of rice and kimchi and puts some raw beef on the grill to cook for us. We had just eaten about an hour before so we were not hungry at all but I didn't want to be rude and deny the food. While the lady is preparing our food all the men (seemingly drunk) are speaking to us in Korean and laughing. The men offer us beer and soju (a Korean sake type drink) but we graciously decline. Since the only thing we could communicate about was our ages, we talked and joked about each others ages for awhile. By the end of our little lunch date the woman has loosened up a bit and accepted our presence and we had all laughed a lot about our attempts at communication.
Another funny thing happened to me while I was playing my banjo. I really wanted to go somewhere outside that was light enough to see my book so I found a balcony on the other side of our dorm building. So I go outside and start playing. Apparently this floor was where Korean students live because they kept coming outside to smoke. I start trying to talk to one of the Korean guys and he sits down by me and tells me his name is Sang. He is wearing basketball shorts and a tee shirt and looks like he has just been chillen out in the dorms. I use very simple sentences and vocabulary to ask him about himself and when he understands he tries to respond. We end up being able to understand each other pretty well, or so I think. I conclude that he works at a bar that is ten minutes away in taxi and that he has to leave to go to work at 10 o'clock. It is about 9:30 at this point and he tells me he has to go get ready for work and that he will be back out in 10 minutes and I should wait for him. By this time we have accumulated quite a crowd of people and a girl named Esther comes out and is very eager to try and talk to me. Her English is quite a bit better than that of Sang so we are able to communicate more productively. When Sang comes back out I literally did not recognize him for a few minutes. He looked completely different. He had gelled his hair up and was wearing fitted black slacks and a white button-up long-sleeved shirt. He looked sharp! Sang sits back down and he and Esther begin to try and ask me something that I can't quite make out. Finally I realize that Sang is trying to ask me out to lunch through Esther. I ask them, "Restaurant? You want to take me to a restaurant?" And they both go, "No! Not restaurant! Eating house!" I agree to go out to lunch with Sang the next day even though in my mind I'm thinking, "what have I gotten myself into? This guy barely speaks any English. I figure it will be a good chance to practice communicating like I will have to with my students. Finally it is time for Sang and his friend to go to work so they leave but Esther keeps talking to me. She invites me into her dorm room and shows me that she has been learning the guitar. She is very interested in me and excited to tell me about herself and Korea. She also asks me what the difference is between "restaurant" and "eating house" in English. I tell her that we don't use the word "eating house," only the word "restaurant." She laughs and tells me that in Korea "restaurant" is a place to get expensive Western food like spaghetti. An "eating house" is where you can get Korean food for very cheap. She then tells me that Sang was embarrassed when i kept asking if we were going to a restaurant because he doesn't have very much money and couldn't afford to go to a restaurant, only an eating house. That is why he kept saying, "not restaurant!" I feel really bad and tell Esther that I want to go to an eating house, not restaurant! We end up talking for about an hour and a half and I have to cut the conversation short because I am exhausted from trying to communicate with someone who speaks little English for such a long time. The next day I meet Sang for lunch in the lobby. I am surprised to see both him and his friend. He says to me, "friend?" Implying that he expected me to bring a friend to this date for his friend. I must have missed this part of the conversation the night before. I think he and his friend are a little bit embarrassed about this but the three of us walk down the road to a little "eating house." Naturally he orders for me and the server brings over the plates. For he and I Sang ordered a dish called "kimchi bokkumbak." It is fried rice with kimchi and sauteed onions with a fried egg on top. This was definitely my favorite Korean dish so far.
(Sang on left)The date is not awkward at all but I do end up talking the majority of the time and they laugh (I don't know if it was with me or at me). We end by exchanging numbers and I tell Sang that if he is ever in Daegu that we should go out and drink Soju together. He says, "I want to drink soju with you."
Well I'm off to meet the head honcho from the office of education!
Ahn-yeoung-ee-gay-say-oh! (Goodbye!)
