Apartment tour

Here's our apartment! 

So life in Daejeon is starting to feel relatively normal. We have a daily routine and know our way around our neighborhood, Yuseong. We live a minute's walk from the west river and nightly take long walks on the track running parallel to it. Michael is teaching at Nueon High School and I am teaching at Yuseong Girls' High School. We each have multiple co-teachers but Michael's main co-teacher is JP and mine is Lynn. They are so great to us and have helped us more than they know! Whether it was opening a bank account, navigating the bus system or finding an amazing Korean BBQ restaurant, they've been there for us whenever we need them. 

Each day brings different joys and challenges, as some of you may have seen from my Facebook statuses. We still know very little Korean but are trying our best. I'm hoping to learn more Korean on my own but it is a very difficult language.  Despite some language barriers and cultural differences, Michael and I are really loving it here! 

More adventure updates soon!

This is soooo late!

Hi all! I know it's been awhile but here are some pictures from our orientation field trip last week! 

Playing awesome drums!

We weren't very good but it was fun.

                                      

Team 1 making pencil cases.

kimchi pots

Entrance to someone's home 

We visited an elementary school in Jeonju.

Next post will be a tour of our minimalistic apartment. Get excited! 

빨리 빨리

The fact that I'm just now posting should tell you that the past few days have been a whirlwind! The title of the post says "Hurry! Hurry!" (pronounced Bali! Bali!) which is a common saying here in Korea. Don't get me wrong, we have had some down time but they have definitely packed in a good bit here at orientation. I am so sorry that I don't have images describing our adventure so far but we have a field trip tomorrow so the next post will be 85% pictures. 

We landed in Korea around 6:30 pm and were checked in, phones in hand, and boarding a bus by 8:00pm. The 3 hour drive to orientation was a nice break and the whole bus passed out almost the whole way there. We arrived at our dormitory (at Jeonju University) around 11:15 to discover that the university had decided not to turn on the central air to the campus. Just to put that in perspective, Korea has summers like Alabama, humidity included.  And this has been the hottest summer they've ever had. Woohoo! With over 500 English teachers plus actual university students, you can imagine how warm all the buildings are. BUT we all adapted and have been sweaty and smelly collective. 

Enough negative, on to the positive. Our fellow teachers are all awesome! Everyone is from 1 of 7 English speaking nations: America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. I've met at least one person from each nation. It's so exciting to be surrounded with people who are like minded when it comes to travel and adventure. When you sit down for a meal you can sit with anyone and have an instant friend. For whatever reason Michael and I have been placed in different groups but that just means we can meet more people in less time! We love it!

The lectures have been both informative and entertaining. Each lecturer has been/is an EPIK teacher in the past or is a Korean English co-teacher. Every class is full of advice and examples of lessons and games. I learn something in every class, even the powerpoint lecture. 

After dinner we have survival Korean classes. So far we've learned how to introduce myself. We also had a taekwondo class which was fun! At night we've been hanging out with the other teachers from Taejeon (Daejeon). 

That's all for now! Hope you are all well!

안녕히 계세요!

The calm before the storm

We have been given our assignments, the flight has been booked, and the visas are (almost) on their way. Exactly one month from today we will be on a plane heading to South Korea. What?! 

Our new home will be in Daejeon, South Korea. Daejeon (day-juhn) is the fifth largest metropolitan city in the country with approximately 1.5 million people. It is located in the center of the country and because of the amazing transportation system it only takes half a day tops to get anywhere in the country. Daejeon's city motto is "It's Daejeon". Sounds pretty boring but "It's" stands for:

Interesting

Tradition and culture

Science and technology

The city has art museums, temples, mountains, festivals, and more. It's also been said that Daejeon is the Silicon Valley of South Korea. 

According to the city's official website (http://www.daejeon.go.kr) there are 117 elementary schools, 73 middle schools and 53 high schools. We will not find out the grade level or the school where we are teaching until we arrive in the country. BUT we will have a little over a week of orientation with all the other first time teachers who will be working with EPIK. During this time EPIK will not only prepare for the classroom but also for living in a new country. 

That's all for now. Check out these cool pictures of our future home, courtesy of Google Images.