Orientation Part Three

My Dearly Beloved Internet Stalkers,

Another little blurb from this side of the world...

My (new) computer has been on the fritz, which caused me much distress.  Fortunately, upon being touched by magical Korean hands, it was restored!  So now I can write, although I've been too busy and tired, and tonight is no exception. I suppose plenty of things will simply not end up here because I don't have the energy to type it all.  I doubt anyone wants to hear every detail anyhow.

Tomorrow marks the final full day of orientation.  We are done with the classes, now it is time for us to present lessons to the class. Our group (there's 3 of us) gets to go first.  Scary, but at least we'll be done and relaxed.  Then we meet people from our Provincial Offices of Education and finally find out for sure where we're placed.  I have a suspicion that it's not the capital of the province as I wanted, but either way it'll be a good time.  Hopefully, my group mates will be going near the same place.

Apparently Korea is expecting a typhoon?  Being from Florida, this doesn't alarm me at all, but I think I might end up wishing I'd bought rain boots before I came.  My giant 9 wide feet are probably too big to find them here.  Maybe I'll be able to buy man shoes.

Well, time for me to sleep before my big day!  Thanks for reading.

Orientation (Part Two)

I didn't mention this before, but if you're flying to Asia, Singapore Air is REALLY nice. 

I'm waiting to be called up for my medical check-up.  Although Korea seems to really like America, they're also very paranoid that we're going to give everybody HIV. 

Yesterday, we had breakfast, a brief campus tour (look at all the rooms we have classes in!), then lunch.  After lunch, we got a pretty neat little concert from the Aura Orchestra with traditional Korean instruments.  We had an interesting lecture about Korean history and a little bit of culture, although some of my fellow orientees seemed to disagree with my assessment of its interest value.  Then we went back to our smaller classes (I am in Group 4) and got split up into smaller groups for the practice lesson we have to do.  Our lesson plan thing seems way easier than I thought it would be (3 of us to do a 15 minute lecture from a list of topics).  After dinner I basically went immediately to bed and slept 12 hours.  Considering how much we're doing over the next few days, the jet lag isn't THAT terrible.

Internet access isn't perfect here (the LAN cables they gave us are long enough only to reach one desk, so my roommate and I sort of take turns).  Hopefully I'll be able to do some more substantial and meaningful posts (maybe with pictures) later on. 

Orientation Time

I'm in Daejon (a few hours south-ish of Seoul) for a week of orientation.  Hopefully my excitement will keep the jet lag at bay, as I've only slept a few hours off and on.  Now that I've managed to change my blog back from default Korean language, I should be able to update more later.  Now it's time for the campus tour. 

The Introduction and FAQ

Hello world!

Welcome to my new blog, created to chronicle my time in South Korea.  I've had a couple requests from people who are (at least pretending to be) interested in hearing about my adventures abroad. Since I've yet to finish packing and won't arrive in the Republic of Korea until next week, this first post will answer some questions I've already been asked a whole heck of a lot.

Frequently Asked Questions

What made you decide to teach abroad?
I had a few reasons. I wasn't feeling very satisfied with my job (as a nurse). I minored in English and TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) when I got my first degree, so it was something that was at least connected to my past education or experience. I wanted to challenge myself and push myself out of my comfort zone. I wanted to experience living abroad again. It was just time for me to move on to a new city. I could offer some simpler answers too: "personal reasons," "for funsies," and "why not?"

Why Korea?
When I first started to look for TESL jobs, Korea seemed like a good option in comparison with many other countries.  They have a high demand for English teachers and fairly low education or experience requirements compared to many other countries. The compensation is decent enough that I can continue to pay student loans while not living exclusively on ramen noodles. I (like many Americans) didn't know very much about Korea, so I thought it would be exciting to experience something so different first hand. And also...why not?

When do you leave?
I leave this Sunday! That's August 19, 2012, waaaay too early in the morning.  I'll arrive in the evening (Korean standard time) on Monday, the 20th. That will be around 5AM Monday morning here.

What's the time difference there? 
I'm traveling to the future! The time is 13 hours ahead of my current time zone (Eastern Standard). Click here to see what time it is in Seoul.

Will you be teaching adults or kids?
I will be teaching children.  I requested high school age, but I won't know what age group(s) I will be teaching until the end of orientation.

Do you speak Korean?
No. I'm planning on teaching myself once I'm there.

How are you going to teach if you don't speak the language? 
I will be teaching English conversation classes, so the idea is generally to create an immersive English environment for the students.  I will also have a Korean co-teacher in the classroom to help me out.

Is this through some kind of program?
I am going with EPIK (English Program in Korea). It is the official English teaching program sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Education. I will be working for a public school in Korea.  For more information, their official site is http://www.epik.go.kr/ 
 
Will you have some kind of orientation?
I will have a week of orientation, with classes on teaching, survival Korean and, apparently, Taekwondo.

Are you going because the pay is so much better?
I'm taking a pretty significant pay cut, actually.  I hope the experience will be worth it. I felt like my job before had become only about the paycheck (because I was unhappy), so I wanted to try something different without being too concerned about what it paid tangibly.
 
Do you have to find your own place to live?
My school will provide me with an apartment as part of my compensation.  It will most likely be a partially furnished studio apartment.

What about your dog?
Sadly, my dog will be staying in the States, with my mom.  I'll miss her a lot!  But she's an old dog, and I don't think she'd be very happy even if she could come.

What city will you be in?
I won't find out which city I will be in until the end of orientation. So far all I know is that I will be in Gangwon province, the northeastern most province in South Korea, south of the demilitarized zone with North Korea.


What-
NO MORE QUESTIONS!! Just kidding, ask away.  But this is about the point I got tired of writing this post.