Orientation and a Typhoon

So it was time to move from Jochiwon and settle into our home for the next six days.  This place, the SBC (Small Business Conference Center), is the the outskirts of Gwangju, the biggest city in our province.  Here, we will be planning lessons and presenting them to our peers and supervisors.  So here I am.  At my laptop, formulating how to teach about the colors under the ocean.

Don't let the pretty building fool you.  It's a symbol of our depression. No A/C, no working tv's, no internet, and bad food.  Luckily we'd get wifi, and some english channels at times, and our supervisor was nice enough to take us out to eat once and feed us junk food when she could tell we were becoming restless. 

These are the trees that were broken by the strong typhoon winds.  We were actually scheduled to go visit a school and have some cultural activities this day, but due to everything being closed and it being dangerous to go out, we stayed in.

 Best Korean food I've had so far.  I LOVE it!!!

 BBQ pork and all the fixins!

 Stuart!  This guy will make the best teacher and father some day. Love this guy. Oh yeah, that's me on the right lol.

 My Korean pork taco.. My new tortilla is a leaf.

The End of a Chapter: Leaving TaLK Orientation in Jochiwon, South Korea.

I don't know why, but Koreans LOVE ceremonies.  When we first got here we had two opening ceremonies complete with cheesy game show music and hosts that sat at a podium reading speeches.  In this case, it was or closing ceremony.  Then after this, we moved out to our province of Jellonam-do where we started out six day, super intense training.

 This is a very important person....

 Becca made a lovely speech on behalf of the 9th Generation TaLK Scholars.

 9the Generation TaLK Scholars

Jeollanam-do province teachers!

So legit.  Wish I had a frame for it. 

The "Benches"

Alright, anyone of the 9th generation TaLK scholars who read by blog know what the "Benches" are.  For the rest of you, here goes:  Picture this... I walk out of my orientation dorm at Korea University and walk down a hill for about five minutes to the convenience store that is closest.  Outside of this convenience store are wooden benches that seat approximately 40-50 people.  Every night of the week some of our teachers could be found sitting at the benches, drinking a beer/rice wine/soju.  If not drinking, they would most likely be munching on snacks (since we were always  hungry) or eating some ice cream.  Point is, this place, as simple as it seems, was crucial to our survival of daily lectures.

 Last night at the "Benches" 8/23/2012.

 8/23/2012

 8/23/2012

 Soju, mixers, and paper cups. 8/23

 Random pics from August oreintation in Jochiwon.. at the "Benches."

Apology!

Sorry for taking forever to post new info!  Orientation was keeping me super busy this entire time!  I'm not done updating this, so there should  be more to come VERY soon!  Also, sorry for any typos.  It's 1:50 am here and I'm exhausted from moving all day!  I just arrived to my province of Jeonnam in the Southwest region of Korea.  Here I start an intense five day orientation to finish preparing me for what's to come.  Then, I meet my students!  So stay tuned, I still have a few things to write about my orientation in Jochiwon and then I'll be caught up. Thanks for keeping up with the blog.. It's honestly so amazing to have people interested and wanting to know more! So scroll down and enjoy the new stuff!
 Love you all! 

Our Last Week in Jochiwon

In case you don't already know, it's monsoon season in Korea.  Therefore, any attempt to look cute is shot to shit.  Just get an umbrella and rain boots; you'll be sure to survive. 

 Monday night. Blame it on the Soju.

 Oh Soju.

 On Tuesday our orientation staff gave us an informal farewell.  Shit got real... lots of emotions were floating around.  Seems we've become a family throughout these last few weeks at orientation in Jochiwon.

 Tuesday night. Damn Soju. This is after the "benches."

 Vivian, our group coordinator made us all friendship bracelets to take home... Love her.

 Thursday morning we got verbal warnings as well as these little sheets.  Apparently we were getting a little too rowdy lol.

 Thursday night pig-out with my favorite girls.  Three pizzas and a box of chicken gone in minutes.

 Looked out of the window during dinner and I see this.  Perfection. 

 Friday's lunch after our closing ceremony in Jochiwon.  Soooo gooood!!!!

 BOOM. Food-1 Lupe-0.

Some Things Never Change

The sun rises at around 4:30-5:00 every day. I woke up to this one morning and laughed so hard. 

 Domino's I've never loved you more.  In Korea they actually don't charge a delivery fee and tips are considered rude. Winning!!!

 Menstruation and alcohol go hand in hand.

 Fried chicken brings people together. 

 Doritos anywhere are delicious. (What's surprising is that I've lost weight on this journey lol.)

 Boys will always play FIFA.. No matter what country you're in.

 You'll always have to teach a boy how to iron.

Seoul at Night

When staying the night in Seoul you should ALWAYS plan AHEAD.  We learned that the hard way.  The next two pictures are of our rooms at a "Love Motel."  Yes, "Love Motel."  If you don't know what that is, Google it NOW.  We were actually very surprised at how nice the rooms were. 

 In the same room...

 First bathtub I've ever seen in Korea.  No matter how many showers I took, I could never scrub off the dirty feeling I had from staying in a "love motel." But whatever, it was an experience. 

 So after getting ready, we went straight to the corner store and bought some Soju.  Let me begin by saying that I hate Soju.  It reminds me of watered down vodka.  Each bottle is only about $1.00 US dollar.  The bad thing about Soju is that it sneaks up on you twenty minutes after you've already taken five shots of the stuff.  It's also the worst hangover... Or so I hear. 

 This is our group of beautiful girls.  One wonderful thing about Korea is the fact that you can drink in public places!  We walked around with these little cups until we got to our first bar. 

 Seoul is ALWAYS crowded.  I don't think I could live here because there is such a desperate lack of space.  This picture was taken at 1:00am as we were making our way to the bars. 

 Papa Gorilla nigh club.  We stayed here until about 4:30am.  The music was insane!  I think I burned off about ten pounds that night dancing. So. Much. Fun.  One of the craziest, most random nights I've ever had. 

Saturday and Sunday in Seoul 8/18-19

We were treated with tickets to see the show Nanta.  If you've never heard of it, you should definitely look it up.  It's actually toured in many countries and was Broadway in NYC.

So our orientation crew finally left us alone to explore...

 Seoul is HUGE. Duh.  These malls are ridiculous.  Underground and above ground with ANYTHING you could think of inside.

I've never been so excited to eat at McD's in my entire life. 

 Best Big Mac with bacon ever... And it's cheaper than in the States. 

 We were all so happy.