My EPIK Orientation

So I had a 10 day orientation by the EPIK program to help me get familiar with Korea, get useful and some not so useful teacher training and tips, and network with a bunch of other EPIK teachers. It was a very long and tiring 10 days, and the jet lag didn't help either. [lots of pictures in this post]

The orientation was held at JeonJu University, THE PLACE FOR SUPERSTARS...so they say. Other than myself, I really didn't see too many superstars hahahaha just kidding.

The dorm rooms were a lot better and cleaner than what I was used at Albany haha although not to crap on my school dorms, they told us that these dorms have only been used for one semester, so they're practically brand spankin' new.

My bed...actually it's my roommates bed. Mine had a bunch of crap on it and his was nicely made, and they look exactly the same, so yeah haha.

Shower and toilet right next to each other with no curtains or anything = Korea is really space efficient.

Neat door locking system.

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We also went on a trip during the orientation. We went to Keumsan Temple and Hanok Village.

A big rock, stabbed into a bigger rock with two heads.

We had JeonJu's famous BiBimBap prepared in a bathtub sized bowl that fed about 600 people.

And to cap off the day, I saw this fashionable and tasteful hat, so obviously I had to buy it and then pose like someone took a picture of me while I was casually looking into the vast sky but ended up looking like a tanned shigol farmer waiting for the bus....both were acceptable =D

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We also had Korean classes. I was in the intermediate class because advance class was a lot of talking which I didn't want to do, but the intermediate class was actually helpful so win-win-win. The third win is for the great teachers of the class, Sarah and Moon. =D

Sarah and Moon, couldn't ask for better leaders.

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The last day we had a farewell dinner party. Food was good and there was also a show (talent show by the EPIK teachers) which wasn't too bad.

All in all, the orientation was good.

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From JeonJu we all left to our respective provinces, cities, and towns and settle in and prepare to start teaching the young and sponge-like-absorbing minds of KOREA! haha