EPIK Orientation 2011

After walking forever it seemed I found the EPIK table and there I was greeted by EPIK staff and given a number for a bus to take. While waiting for the bus, I had the chance to meet many new faces. First, I met a guy named Ian from England and he was going to the same province as me so we started talking and it turned out we had similar interests. He liked sports like me which was cool. He had a good sense of humor cause he always seemed to make me laugh. I waited for the bus to come and finally we loaded all our luggage on the bus and we set off for Jeonju University. It would be our home for the next nine days. I sat with Ian on the bus and we decided to become room mates for orientation since we got along so well. It worked out nicely for both of us. About three hours later, we arrived at the university and we were given many things like a care package with a t-shirt, textbooks, an alarm clock, a mug from Jeonju university and food. It was nice.


Orientation was interesting because you have 400 plus people all in one place taking classes learning the same thing but they from all over the world. I think I saw South African, English, Welsh, American, Canadian, New Zealand, Chinese, Vietnamese and Australian. The first day was a traditional Korean demonstration of Korean dance, Taekwondo and drumming. It was pretty cool. The next 4 days were pretty much classes all day. Classes consisted of various topics from teaching elementary to high school. How to plan lessons and classroom management were other class topics. We even had a lesson demonstration in front of our class. It gave us some practice before we actually start teaching. One thing we got to do was take a Taekwondo class with Jeonju University's best. That was a great experience and I got a taste of what it is like to train in the sport. It was an intense workout that lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes. It consisted of multiple standing punches, kicks, roundhouse kicks, push-ups, running and much more. A great way to be introduced to the art of Taekwondo. I think I will find a class this year and take one. I asked the instructor what an apjeogi was? Cause he said I had a good one. I found out later in meant front kick.

The next highlight of orientation would have to be the cultural field trip we took on the fifth day. We went to Hanok Village, a traditional village in Jeonju that hosts cultural traditions of Korea. First, we took part in the traditional Korean dance, and even got to dress up in costume. It was a very unique experience. Next, we made and designed our very own traditional Korean fans. That was also very cool because I had never did that either. Then, we took part in traditional Korean drumming and we got to play the drums and learned the traditional drum beats. This was one of my favorite things at the village. I love music and I love drums but this was like nothing I had ever experienced before. About 50 people playing drums all at the same time. It was loud and it was crazy but awesome. After playing drums for awhile we went to restaurant and ate famous bibimbap, which is rice, vegetables eggs, meat and sometimes seafood.

After leaving Hanok Village, we stopped at Keumsan Temple which is a Buddhist establishment. It was huge with carved roof carvings. It had several halls with figures behind screens. The temple was outside in a huge area filled with pagodas and shrines. The main hall had a shrine with Buddhas and people could could take part in the ritual if they wanted. It was a nice change from having classes all day at least. We finally headed home around dinner time for Jeonju University.

Food at the University was decent. Every morning there would be something new but there was always rice and some type of soup. For lunch again there was rice but we had many choices of meat, seafood, and some American foods like french fries but not very often. For dinner it was the same as lunch. But for the final day when we all passed the orientation, there was a dinner and ceremony. That dinner had the real Korean food. Everything from mandu (Chinese dumplings), sushi rolls, and bulgogi (Korean beef) to Songpyeon (Korean rice cake) and kalbi(Korean beef). It was all so delicious!! I can still remember the taste of the food from that day.