The Beginning

Hey all! After being here for almost a month, I figured it was time to get this blog started. I have so many stories to tell already--some shocking, and some even scary, but mostly just hilarious. After the first few posts, I think this is going to be pretty much pictures and funny anecdotes, so bear with me for now!

Let's start with the very first thing I saw upon my entrance into the Republic of Korea...

That would be a Korean Karaoke bus, complete with full-fledged karaoke machine, purple silk window curtains, and neon lights lining the aisle. Not a bad wake up at 5:30am!

This bus took us to my new home, Jeollanamdo Province. The most southern, poor, undeveloped province in SK, Jeollanamdo is known for its farming, seafood, and thousands of uninhabited islands off the miles of coastline. You are probably expecting, as I did so many months ago, a land of rice fields and pig farms. But alas, this is Korea, where the words "poor" and "undeveloped" hold different meanings completely. Our orientation was held in the city of Gwangju, population 1.4 million. As the capital city of Jeollanamdo, Gwangju is host to many a bar, restaurant and HomePlus (aka Korean Walmart x3). For about a week, we got to explore this great city in our off time. One night, some teachers from last year threw us a flip cup tournament party at a bar, which didn't mesh too well with an 8am field trip the next day... We even hit up a salsa bar a few nights, and as my friend Emilie is demonstrating here, the Koreans (men and women) LOVED dancing with us.

Our hotel in Gwangju was on the top of a big hill right in the city, so we had an amazing view from most rooms:

Orientation basically consisted of lectures every morning and afternoon on topics that ranged everything from Discipline and Lesson Planning to Korean Music and Teaching Games. There were about 75 people in my orientation group, and we ate every meal together at the hotel. This was a great first exposure to typical Korean food: lots of fish, LOTS of rice, and inconceivable amounts of Kimchi (google it). In just a few weeks, I've gone from tentatively pushing kimchi around on my plate to actually craving the stuff at every meal...yum.

Surprising Korean fact #1 (to me at least): Koreans love baseball. A lot. On our last night, we got to see the Gwangju team, the Kia Tigers, suffer a heartbreaking loss in the final inning.

Those two dashing men would be Shane and Chris, the two coordinators of my program, and two of the coolest Canadian middle-aged men I know. Ah, which brings me to...

Surprising Korea fact #2: Everyone here is Canadian. Everyone in my program, that is, not in the country. I knew I got my job through a Canadian recruiting agency, but it just didn't occur to me that I was going to be surrounded by "soorry's" and "eh's" for a year. I like them though!

More to come on my post-orientation life soon!