EPIK Orientation

A few weeks ago (February 21st through the 24th), Daniel and I had the incredible opportunity to participate in an orientation for EPIK (English Program In Korea -- that's us!) and TaLK (Teach and Learn Korean -- for college students). We stayed at a gorgeous resort outside of Yang Yang up in the mountains. It was a great hotel -- rooms for the events, beautiful hotel rooms, great food, a spa -- everything you could ask for! We stayed at the Oseak Green Yard Hotel. It was gorgeous!

We arrived late for the events (winter camp didn't end until Saturday, Feb 21st, and it technically started on Friday the 20th), but I don't think we missed all that much.

On Saturday, we arrived in time to eat a late lunch (spaghtti -- yum!) and then start attending lectures. We learned about team teaching from an actual pair of team teachers (an EPIK teacher and his Korean coteacher), then had an hour and a half lecture entitled "Let's Learn Korean!" After dinner, there was a rather...interesting movie ("When the Spring Comes") -- it was designed to show us Korean culture and traditional Korean singing.

The next day (Sunday), we had a Q & A session that was totally open for any questions we had about ANYTHING. That was really nice! Then we learned about what to teach and about adjusting to life in Korea. Very cool!

After lunch on Sunday, we had a cultural tour -- an old Korean home (it was gigantic!) and a fish market. It was a little sad -- we didn't get to stay very long at either one -- but it was so cool.

We got a few pictures and videos at the fish market that are really cool!! :-)

The fish market was about a zillion little tubs of fish, lots of water pouring through them, Koreans scattered around to sell you the fish, and TINY lanes to walk between the stalls. There were about four lanes total, but they were pretty long. There were also a couple of restaurants serving up the amazingly fresh fish.

We also got to see the sale of an octopus... There were a couple people who were very picky about which octopus they wanted, so they made the guy pick up multiple octopii (sure...). Then, the guy pulled it out of the water and bagged it up, while yelling for someone to bring him a box. The people pay for the octopus (20,000 won) and put it in a white styrofoam cooler. After the video ends, they wrapped it in lots of bright red tape to make sure it stayed shut the whole way home. It was interesting!! (It looks like they're out of order, but the videos are in chronological order!)

Sunday night, we had a social event at the hotel -- it was a giant norebang, but it was closer to states-style karaoke than anything else. It was fun!

Monday morning, we went to Mt. Seorak park -- it was AMAZING. We took a cable car up to a SUPER high point on the mountain. It was really scary, but well worth it!

Monday afternoon, we visited GILI to tour their school. It's a really awesome school that does weeklong camps for sixth and eighth graders. GILI also does six month teacher training courses for Korean English teachers. GILI was absolutely amazing -- I was so impressed!

Monday night, we saw a performance by a group of women and girls. It was breathtaking -- I fell in love with the traditional singing and performance. It's amazing how rich the culture and history of Korea is.

Tuesday morning, we watched the ceremony for the new EPIK and TaLK people. It was so funny -- we watched as a bunch of new people sat nervously in the same position we were in a few months ago. They had just arrived in Korea, they had no clue what they were getting themselves into, and they were about to meet their coteachers for the first time. It was nice to realize how far Daniel and I have come in a few short months -- we're so settled and happy, much more so than I'd expected!

After the ceremony, we had lunch at the hotel, then began the huge adventure that was getting home. I'll tell you that story another time. ;-) Feel free to visit our Picasa photo albums to see more pictures of orientation. They wouldn't all fit in this post! :-)

We are so grateful to be living this adventure!!