Farewell to Orientation

Ok, I have a little free time to try and catch up with the blog. Last Sunday, we had a field trip to a Hanok Village, or a village with traditional houses, as well as a large Buddhist monastery. They were both beautiful places, although the oppressive heat made them a little hard to enjoy.

We had lots of classes at Orientation, some good, some boring. There are definitely a lot of things you never hear about until you get here. If I could ask two things of EPIK, it would be to prepare a more thorough and honest description of what happens here and to put some effort into standarizing the program. It's hard to give an accurate description of what life here will be like, because every experience is so different, but they could compile a collection of stories or some statistics or something. In any case, I finished my crash course. I don't feel all that prepared to teach, but I have some ideas at least.

Now here's our Korean pictures for the entry:

Ok, again the sign is cheating by having the words in English, but we can still figure out the Korean. The sign says:
금연 "금연  구역입니다"
or kuemyeun - kuemyeun kuyeugimnida
"Kuemyen" means "No smoking" and "kuyeugimnida" means "area" or "this is an area." So together, it reads
No smoking.
This is a non-smoking area.

This is the sign on the Jeonju bathroom stalls when they're unoccupied. It reads:
비었음
piessuem
which means:
Empty

Here is opposite picture,
사용중
sayongjung
for:
In use

Now, on to the real pictures!

For my mom, another breakfast photo. My favorite meal. This time it's rice, bun with jelly, hard-boiled egg, fried dumplings, pumpkin soup, and mango juice. Mmmmm.

Here I am riding a giant turtle dragon at the monastery. It's common in Jeonju to see girls using umbrellas as parasols, so here I am with mine. It was incredibly sunny and humid.

Here is a view of a temple building in the monastery. The buildings have very elaborate carved roofs and are painted in bright colors.

Here is the inside of one of the temples. Some buildings had only one statue, but others had many. This was a large building, and you can see how beautifully the interior is painted. Just out of view, blocked by the heads of the onlookers, is a monk chanting. He had a gong a bell that he used in his chant. There was a monk present in every temple. There was also a fan present, so it was a big attraction for the hot EPIK teachers.

Another view, this time with a stone monument which housed some Buddhist relics.

Another view. It really was a pretty place.

Here's a close-up of the lovely green woodwork along the edge of every roof. I've seen this style many times now at lots of temples, not just this one in Jeonju.

It was so hot, we took a break to go wading in a river that ran near the monastery. There were lots of Korean families playing in the water, and there was a small waterfall which had worn the rocks so smooth, they made a perfect slide for the kids. I can't tell you how good it felt after all that hiking in the sun.

Here is a traditional house from the Hanok village. There was a wine museum and a traditional paper museum. We got to make traditional paper fans, which was really fun. Sadly, I lost mine, so I can't show it off.

Finally, here I am drinking Soju in a bar with some friends. Soju is a traditional Korean liquor. We are drinking sweet, flavored soju. It's a little on the sugary side for some people. For my parents, who wanted to know who my friends were, in this picture are (from left to right) Geoff, Emily, Daniel, Samantha, Harley, Courtney, me, Sandy, and Michael. Sandy, Geoff, and I are all teaching in the same city/county.