Welcome to Daejeon!

Orientation ended on Monday morning (August 26th) with everyone grabbing their belongings and heading onto a bus to get to their new cities. I was pretty lucky in that my bus ride was only about an hour or so away from the orientation site. Others had hours on a bus to get to their cities (some even had to get on to a plane to get to their cities, here's looking at you JeJu peeps) so I was feeling okay. I was a little nervous as I was unsure who my co-teacher was going to be and what my school was going to be like.

We arrived at the location of where we were to meet our co-teachers and be introduced to Daejeon. We were stood in front of the room with all the Korean teachers spread out. I was trying to guess who was there for me, but I didn't really have a clue. There were Korean teachers who had flowers for some of the native teachers and I thought that was so cute. As I was a middle school teacher, I was one of the last to be called and introduced to my co-teacher. As it so happens, my main co-teacher was not actually there and one of my other co-teachers came in her stead. The nice woman named Da Rae had picked me up due to the fact she had a car and my main co-teacher did not. Da Rae was super nice and was making conversation with me even though I could tell she wasn't completely comfortable with English. We stopped at her apartment so she could grab something real quick then we headed to Immigration.

After some time in Immigration filling out paperwork for my ARC, we headed to the suburb that the school is located in. This area is called Seo-gu. We stopped by the school briefly to pick up my main co-teacher (Sae Bom) and then headed to my apartment. Once there, I met the owner of the building. He was and still is the sweetest! He had brought me an orchid as a welcome gift and then made me leave all of my belongings for him to take up to my apartment while I went to go meet the principal.

I went to the school and met the principal. I thought she did not like me as I did not speak Korean at all (I have since learned otherwise) and she did not really talk to me at all. I was given a mini-tour of our floor of the school and the where the auditorium in which I would be introduced to the students on the following Monday. The rest of the week I was pretty lucky in that the cafeteria was being renovated so we were not starting classes until the 2nd. So my first experience of desk warming began.

That's it. That's all there is to the first week of living in my new hometown. Stay tuned for the next installment (My First Week Teaching)!

Pre-Orientation & Orientation

Last view of Chicago before taking off.

I arrived in Korea on the 17th of August, a couple of days before we were to be taken to orientation. I wanted to have some time to adjust to the time change and being in a foreign country before having long days of classes/events. I stayed in Incheon near the airport for the ease of traveling around with three suitcases.

First look at Korea. That's a fishing boat.

The first night was okay, but I noticed right off the bat that the bed was hard. Don't get me wrong, I had already heard that beds in Korea are usually hard but this bed was almost literally laying on a sheet of wood. I sort of got used to it as I only had two nights to sleep on it anyway. The bathroom was a pretty typically western bathroom (it had a tub and shower but not curtain) although there was still a drain in the floor for the ac to drain into.

The second day I had met some girls from my same hotel and asked to join them in their adventures. We went to a Lotte Mall near our hotel where we were able to sample what we thought was some peach juice. It ended up having alcohol in it and that ajumma giving out samples sure made a couple sales there! We had brunch at Mom's Touch (which is a Louisianan spice restaurant) in which I had a chicken sandwich and fries. We walked around some more until heading back to the airport to pick up another Epik teacher that was just landing. While waiting we talked about a lot of different things (including gun laws and education practices to name two) which was nice to get a feel of where everyone stood concerning different aspects going on in the world. Once the new Epik teacher arrived, we helped her get her things back to the hotel and then made plans for dinner. There were quite a few of us and we descended onto a Korean BBQ place. Luckily, one of the guys with us spoke Korean and was able to order for everyone. The night was fun with more talking, grilling our own meat, and drinking Soju (the alcohol of Korea). Everyone else decided to stay out later and drink outside somewhere (which is totally legal in Korea) but I decided bed was a better option as I had to get up early the next morning to head back to the airport to start the actual orientation process.

                   
On Monday, August 19th I arrived back at the airport to wait my turn to board a bus to take us to the orientation site. I was lucky in that the person across from me on the bus was a nice girl named Ally. I eventually found out that she is also from Wisconsin but had spent some time in Australia. After the two-hour bus ride, we ended up at Konkuk Glocal University in Cheongju. We unloaded our suitcases and wheeled up to the check-in desk. Here is where we were given keys to our rooms (luckily Ally and I were next to each other and ended up as roommates), had our temperature taken, given a welcome bag with a sandwich, and told to meet back down in the lobby for a tour shortly. We were given a tour of the campus and were led to the cafeteria to eat lunch. We were then free for the day until the welcoming dinner that night. The welcome dinner was simple in that it was quick where important people from the surrounding area were introduced (including the mayor of Cheongju who was super cute in his delivery of his speech). We sat at linen-covered tables and could see the buffet set up from where we sat. After the speeches and performances (a dance group and a traditional Korean music group - both were amazing), we were able to eat and enjoy the company of our table mates. This is how we formed our group at orientation.

The rest of the orientation was honestly a blur. I think I was still adjusting to living in a different time zone and they had us pretty much booked up from 8am to 6:30pm every day. There were classes about classroom management, how to work with a co-teacher, EPIK life, sexual harassment, and storytelling just to name a few. We also had small group meetings in which we were with other people placed near to where we were going to be placed (although we only knew providences at this point). We also had a day where we went on a field trip. We had cultural experiences that included making a traditional wish bracelet, traditional dyeing fabric, and traditional singing. There were other choices but that is what I chose. We had pizza and chicken for lunch in a building with a beautiful view of water. That water was used later in the day for boat races of teams from everyone at orientation.

          












After a week of classes, food, walking EVERYWHERE, and meeting new people it was time to find out our placements and get ready to leave on Monday to head to our new homes. On Sunday afternoon we found out our final placements. There were a total of about 30 of us heading to Daejeon. We found out that there were only four middle school placements, two high school placements, one international school placement, and the rest were elementary placements. I was surprised to find out I was one of the four to get a middle school placement (ps looking at it now after experiencing it for a couple weeks, I am grateful). I was heading to Singye Middle School in Boksu-dong, Seo-gu, Daejeon (I think that is how I would say where I am). Monday morning was full of goodbyes and loading a bus for an hour or so journey to meet co-teachers and move into our apartments. I'll let everyone know more about that in the next update!

Thanks for joining me on this part of my journey and be sure to check out my blog often for more updates. Until then, enjoy the surprises life throws your way!
-💜 Nina

I Moved to South Korea!

Hello!

My name is Nina and I recently decided to uproot my life to move to South Korea. 

I am now living in Daejeon, South Korea as a Native/Guest English Teacher through EPIK. 

I will be documenting my life here in Daejeon, mainly for my family and friends to keep them informed, for all those who may be interested in teaching in Korea and in EPIK itself. 

Follow my journey here and see where life takes us!!

-💜 Nina