Catching Up, Part 4- English Camp!

English Camp.

5 days without internet access, sharing a room with 10 people, cafeteria food... Need I say more? I was really not looking forward to this part of orientation. But I really had no choice. So I packed my bag-- scholars were strictly forbidden to bring suitcases- no room on the bus-- and climbed aboard for the 3 hour trip to English Camp.

The point of English camp-- besides being free labor for the camp folks lots of fun for the TaLK scholars-- is that is actually does give you a chance to get a little experience under your belt. Experience with nasty cafeteria food, crazy cute Korean schoolchildren, and other things that suck provide great experience.

The rooming situation wasn't the best. Some people roomed with as many as 10 other TaLK Scholars and instead of a mattress, you had a make a little pallet on the floor...
That little empty spot near the window is where I put my pallet.

Each TaLK Scholar gets their very own Korean kid and it's supposed to be great because you get to bond with the child, eat meals together, and in addition to group activities, do 1-on-1 stuff. Unfortunately, this time around, a few children canceled for English Camp, so about 10 Talk scholars, myself included, didn't get a child. I was pretty bummed out.

This is one of my friends in my group and his Korean kid, Bill.
I guess I'd have to say that Bill was the kid I 'bonded' with the most while I was at English Camp.
He even drew a self portrait of me....
Yeah.... Not much to say about that...

One part I really enjoyed about English Camp was the music class. I got to play a traditional Korean musical instrument! A Korean friend of mine actually gave me a phone charm a while back...
It's a Janggu (장구), a traditional Korean drum. And ever since she gave me that phone charm, I really wanted to play an actual Janggu. Well~
Sweet!


Another part I enjoyed about English Camp was the talent show. Each of the 6 groups was split into 2 parts and had to perform a dance with their Korean kids. My team was assigned the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and it we had fun making up the steps, practicing the song, and finally performing it. It was pretty awesome! We even had some kids wearing little animals hats (elephant, monkey, etc) and dance onto stage in the middle of the song.

Finally it was time to go, and although I was happy to be going back to the relative 'comfort' of Jochiwon, in some way, I was discovered that some part of me was really going to miss those gremlins kids.

Catching Up, Part 3- Medical Exam

Ah, the medical exam. The part of orientation many people dread the most- needles, drug tests, and the knowledge that if you fail-- you'll be on the next flight home. I'm not going to name any names, but there were a few people who were a little nervous about that drug test portion of the exam...

The night before you couldn't eat or drink anything (except for water) after 9pm, so lots of people were a little hungry by the time things got done. But hey, starve for a few hours, or get sent back home? Which would you choose? Unless you have a serious medical condition, then definitely talk to your coordinators about it and they'll probably bump you up to the front of the line or figure something out for you. I was a little worried because I have been known to have problems with my anemia, but I toughed it out since I was one of the first groups to get my medical exam done.

So the day started out with out daily morning briefing in our assigned group rooms. At the meeting, they handed out a few items...
Hmm a cup and a test tube... Wonder what those are for? Well, let me explain it to you:
The cup is for you to pee in. And the expectation is for you to pour your fresh, warm urine from the cup and into the tube. Hope there wasn't anyone to nervous about their exam! If they were, I imagine their hands might be shaking quite a bit...

So after you're emptying your bladder, you move on to the other portions of the exam, which are just your standard things like vision test, hearing test, weight/height stuff, blah blah blah.

The little tents where each portion is done. Give you a bit of privacy while you do your ear test or whatever...

However, as you can see, the vision test is conducted completely in the open...
Yeah... I totally bombed that one... I couldn't read past like the 3rd line~~ It's a wonder they didn't send me home...

After all of that, they stuck a needle in my arm and drew some blood. And then they sent me off to get X-rayed. Now in America when you have to get an xray, they give you these thin little gowns that barely cover you up, but in Korea.. I got X-rayed in style!
It was pretty comfy! I really wanted to keep it... But I guess I would have looked a bit conspicuous with a big robe hanging out of my purse on the way out the door...

The X-ray machine was in this bus and you just climbed in, got your picture snapped and hopped off and that was it!

So that was the medical exam in a nutshell. Not really too much to it. If you were one of the lower number groups, like Group 1 or GROUP 2, then you went earlier so you didn't have to wait THAT long. But if you were in Group 6... Meh.

Catcing Up, Part 2- Jochiwon Orienation

See, I am working very hard to catch everyone up on my happenings here in Korea. So stay tuned, things get a lot better than my long flight here!

Ah, orientation. Glad that's over. Days full of never-ending lectures, medical exam, cafeteria food, and 11pm curfew. But, there were some redeeming qualities about orientation. I'll highlight a few of them here.

1. Tae Kwon Do

One of our lectures was titled "Korean Culture: Tae Kwon Do". During this lecture, we went to a Tae Kwon Do class. Now obviously you can't learn all the moves or even the basics of Tae Kwon Do in one class, but it was still fun-- we got to practice a bit and even learn a self defense move. :P The instructors weren't too bad on the eyes, either. ;)
And my favorite picture of the day is the one I took with the instructor in the middle. I asked him which way we should pose and this was his response....


We made a heart, hehe! This made my day! Nay, my entire WEEK.

2. Fun With Friends (and Tae Kwon Do Instructors)

After lectures, the new friends I'd made and I would often head down to the nearby convenience store, commandeer their benches, and have ourselves a well deserved drink (or two).
Oh and did I forget to mention? A couple of my friends and I saw the Tae Kwon Do instructors at dinner later that day and invited them to come drinking with us! So without further ado...

3. Coordinators

At Orientation, all of the circa 350 TaLK scholars are split up into 6 groups and each group is headed by a Korean Group Coordinator (KGC) and a Foreign Group Coordinator (FGC). These two people are the go-to guys if you have any issues or questions. I was in Group 2, so my KGC was Riley (the sweetest chick you'll ever meet) and my FGC was Kevin (He seems super tough and I have no doubt he is, but he's also a big sweet teddy bear :P). They were always there for me if I had any questions or concerns and that's one of the biggest parts about orientation I'll miss.

In a way, orientation was something that you kinda just want to hurry up and be finished with- partly because you're anxious about starting teaching, and partly because you want the freedom to stay out as late as you want and do whatever. But at the same time, you really should appreciate it because I've had a lot of foreign teachers tell me that when they came to Korea they did NOT get a month long orientation. The day after they stepped off the plane, they were expected to teach with no training/orientation whatsoever. So I'm thankful for all the work everyone put in to help us do our best. I also made a lot of cool friends at orientation. So I think it wasn't so bad after all. :D

Well that's a quick summary of how orientation went for me for the most part. Stay tuned for my post about the Medical Exam as well as English Camp!

Catching Up, Part 1- Flight to Korea

I know, I know-- I should be shot... I haven't made a single post since coming to Korea (not counting my promise to update soon, which I never did~)

Hmm so where should I start? I guess I will talk about my flight from Georgia to South Korea.

So my trip here got off to a rocky start- just a few days before the start of orientation and I still hadn't received my flight ticket from the TaLK office. I was getting really worried. So another person in TaLK who was also supposed to flying out from Atlanta got her flight information, and on a whim, I decided to call that airline and see if I had a ticket reserved. It turned out I DID, and it was scheduled to leave that day!!! So at this point, it was about 11am and I had to catch a flight that night at around 9:30pm. Since I live an hour or so from the airport, and they suggest you get there 2-3 hours before your flight, that meant I had only 5 hours or so to get ready! I wasn't completely done with packing yet, I had to get my hair done, and drop off the stray kitten my roommate and I had found the night before at the animal shelter.


It was going to be a very busy day. So I got my ass in gear and what do you know, I actually made it on time for the flight.

I thought I was being pretty strong about the whole "farewell, see you in a year" thing, but when I had to say goodbye to my best friend at the airport, I broke down a bit. I love this person so much and they have been there for me and with for the past 7 years. And at that moment when I had to go through security, and I realized he couldn't come with me, ahh just thinking about it makes me tear up again. I love you and you know who you are :)

So I made my flight to Chicago which was only about an 1 hour and a half. But as soon as we got to Chicago,we had to rush to get on to the Asiana flight. We barely had time to take a piss before boarding! The Asiana flight was much more comfortable than the Delta flight to Chicago, but it was also MUCH MUCH longer- I think it was 14 hours?? Now in case someone doesn't know, I have ADHD, and.... yeah. That sucked. And I had a window seat but had to pee a lot, so yeah that was lots of fun and all kinds of awkward.



But FINALLY, I arrived at Incheon International Airport and I couldn't believe it, but it was true. I was in South Korea. Soon after arriving, the TaLK team ushered us into waiting buses and we had to endure the long bus ride (it must have been like 3 or 4 hours) to Jochiwon. There, at the Sejong campus of Korea University, we would spend the majority of the next 3 weeks at Orientation.

More to come very soon! (I promise!)