Very First Day

This morning I woke up in South Korea. Still a little hard to believe. I won't lie, the 14-hour flight was long and unpleasant (despite the very kind staff of Korean Air), but it's over now. It was easy to meet up with other EPIK members in the airport; the vast majority of English-speaking young adults in the "foreign passports" line were soon-to-be teachers. We're set up in Jeonju University for our EPIK Orientation. This is about a week of classes about teaching, EPIK, and Korean culture, which should be helpful. I've met people here from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and New Zealand, although New Zealand and Australia have very few.

The weather is very hot and humid, a lot like the weather I just left in Minnesota. The heat has been one of the main topics of conversation between us, right after "Where are you from?" and "Have you ever taught/been to Korea before?" The answer to the latter is usually "no" on both points. We had our first experience of buying food at a Korean mini-mart, where the pictures on the packages were the main selling points, as we didn't know what any of it was. I've only met two Korean-speakers in the group so far.

The next bit has a bunch of photos, so I'm putting it under the cut. Just click on the "read more" link to continue.

We live in the University dorms, which are pretty nice. They're not big, but they have lots of storage space. They're pretty much just like American dorms, which surprised some of the British people, I guess, who told me they never share a room at University. The buildings are not fully air-conditioned, which can be a little difficult with the heat wave, but I'm managing. They gave us a free towel, alarm clock, and shirt, and the dorms have a free internet connection.

Here's a picture of my bed. The mattress is very hard. It's almost like sleeping on the floor. The pillow is very small, and there isn't much in the way of bedding. This isn't a problem at all, as it's way too hot to want any.

The shower, as you can sort of see, is not a separate thing, but just part of the bathroom. The shower head is detachable, and the water just runs into the drains on the floor. This works perfectly well, except the floor does get pretty wet, as well as the toilet, which is really the only other surface. This makes it hard to get dressed or store things in the bathroom.

Here's a picture of the city where Jeonju University is. The flora is definitely a bit different from home, although they have lots of conifers. There are also cicadas, which make a really loud noise. When you're near the trees they're in, it's as loud as machinery. But after a few seconds, you get used to it and tune it out.

Here's another picture of some buildings. The architectural style is definitely a little different from home. The buildings are very blocky.

For my mom, here's the breakfast we had today. Salad, rolls, rice, scrambled eggs, cheese-fried ham, and peaches. All the food is just cafeteria food, so it's probably going to be similar to this everyday. Korean chopsticks are metal and have narrow, rectangular tips, unlike Chinese chopsticks. They are a bit slippery and hard to use, but I'm quickly getting used to them.