First month in Korea!

I've been in Korea for about a month now!  I am starting to get the hang of teaching here, the students and other teachers are a pleasure to be around.  Everyone seems to go out of their way to make sure I feel comfortable and welcome, that is unless we are playing volleyball, they really don't take it easy on me there.  I did get recruited to play with the teachers on the Cheongwon Elementary volleyball team, so maybe they are trying to toughen me up for our upcoming  tournament (if any of the teachers are reading this...seriously, maybe you could just bring it down a notch until I get a little more practice under my belt?).
We had a birthday celebration for one of the other EPIK teachers last weekend in Cheoungju, chicken and beer of course.  There were about 20 of us celebrating, when we started singing happy birthday the whole bar joined in (in perfect English...ok, close to perfect English).  They were all very excited and clapping along as they sang.  After we finished singing the table next to us made the girl sitting at their table stand up so we could all sing to her as well!  The whole place was really getting into it.  One of the guys even stood up and gave me a hug after singing, not sure if it was because I was such a good singer or he was just really excited about the birthdays going on.

I started taking Korean classes every Saturday at the YMCA, I'm hoping my next blog will be written in Hangul.  Next week we are taking a field trip to a peach farm and grape vineyard.  I've loved going on field trips since the first grade...some things just don't change. Other things that haven't seemed to change: Korea, you have two trouble makers from Chicago...good luck.

I miss all my friends and family back home!  I imagine this is how you all cope with me being gone.

I've been eating at all the local restaurants, but did succumb to a guilty pleasure.  Here's how I validated:  I've only ever had Papa Johns delivery, not even sure you can eat inside in the U.S.  This place was a proper restaurant so we sat at a table while enjoying our pizza and garlic dipping sauce, Korean culture...bam!

FIRST WEEKS IN KOREA!!!!!

Well I finally made it, on time and everything!!!  First of all, Korea is crazy!  South Korea has a land area of about 100,000 square kilometers and a population of about 50,000,000 people.  So to give you an idea of what that means... South Korea is roughly the same size as Indiana but with the combined populations of California and New York (and I'm the tallest one here...half kidding).
The first week was a bit of a whirlwind with training in Daejeon.  It kind of felt like college all over again except classes went from 9a.m. till 8:20p.m., and I was actually paying attention this time.  We stayed at a college university called KT University and were roomed up in the dorms.  We took classes on everything from how to  Co-Teach to Korean language lessons.  It was extremely useful considering I've never taught nor do I know how to speak Korean.  We also had the two best group leaders in Korea!  Thank you so much Yuri Teacher and Mike (for English purposes he had us call him Mike).

The best part of training was our field trip to Jeonju Cultural Center.  There are 900 Traditional Hanoks (Traditional Korean Houses) and Jeonju is the biggest in Korea.  3 major highlights to this trip.

1)  The Portrait of Taejo - The portrait of Taejo is the only real portrait of him that has been kept over 600 years.  It is officially the only one left.  Sadly it is strictly prohibited to take pictures of this portrait.  Being a tourist I took one anyway so enjoy...
just kidding

2)  Bibimbap -  This was my first time trying this traditional Korean dish, and it was delicious! The word literally means "mixed meal."  Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sauteed and seasoned veggies) and gochujang (Chili pepper paste).  A raw fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef).  In 2011, it was listed at number 40 on the World's 50 most delicious foods readers' poll compiled by CNN Travel.  Not so shockingly, Chicago style hotdogs came in at 20...ok totally kidding about the hotdogs.

3)  Koreans have the selfie pic mastered! This was probably my favorite part.  Walking around I kept noticing people with their phones attached to a long pole.  Then I would see them extend the pole to about 4 ft and snap a masterful selfie of themselves with their friends!  Brilliant!  You aren't cool until you own a selfie stick (I'm not that cool yet...maybe next paycheck).

I've settled in a bit now that I am in my apartment and have met everyone at my school.  My school is amazing!  Everyone is so nice and so excited that I am here.  The kids follow me around yelling and screaming hello and bowing to me.  Whenever I walk into the teachers lounge the teachers perk up with a big smile and say hello.  Some will even run up to me, say hello and just stare at me, like they want to say something more but they don't know anymore English.  I've gotten pretty good at bowing and staring contests.
This morning the school had a welcoming ceremony for me (can't believe I just wrote that sentence for the first time....WTF Winona State!!!!).  When they introduced me I came running out to Born in the USA (kidding kidding, but I did think about it).  I prepared a little speech in English and then finished them off with the little Korean I know.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  The Principal even took me out to dinner afterwards!  The food was great, the conversation struggled a bit as I was the only one who spoke any English.  I even threw in some Spanish just to confuse them.

My apartment:  Well my apartment can speak for itself...it's very asian.

Tomorrow I have to take a bus 1.5 hours to Namil (somewhere in the country/mountains...I think).  I have to catch a bus at 7a.m. and then transfer buses halfway through.  If anyone knows me my sense of direction is terrible and I still get lost getting around Denver.  So who knows if I make it... stay tuned (If that's not a cliff hanger I don't know what is).