POE Orientation: Weekend Review

Okay, so I got some time to write.

Here’s the lowdown: this orientation is the best time I’ve had in Korea so far. I really feel like our group is bonding and forming lasting connections, which is exactly what I wanted. In fact, I’m quite nervous and scared about tomorrow, when we all get swooped up by our elementary schools and taken to our new small towns.

But let me back-track a little bit.

Friday - We came down to our province of orientation and arrived at our new orientation centre. It’s located on the outskirts of Gwangju, the capital city of Jeollanam-do (“nam” means South by the way, and “-do” means province, so it’s South Jeolla province). Most people just call it Jeonnam for short though.

Anyway, we arrived at our new orientation centre and settled into our stifling rooms. It seems the theme at this orientation centre (it’s not a hotel, it’s a dedicated orientation centre for small businesses in the province) is stinginess, because most of the equipment here is broken and they rarely turn on the air conditioner. They don’t even turn on the lights! At least the rooms are clean though, and they gave us all towels to use here. We have a curfew of 10pm.

This is what our province looks like. I think it looks like Chilliwack.

Our group is incredibly fortunate to have an absolutely awesome POE coordinator (Province of Education). Her name is Winnie, and she was a TaLK scholar just like us, so she knows what we want and what we don’t like without even having to ask. Her boss however (who by the way, is the head honcho here) is strict and reminds me of Mrs. Harcourt from Adventures in Odyssey to be honest.

Surprisingly though, a birthday party was thrown on the first night for all those born in August. They bought us fried chicken (REAL fried chicken!!) and pizza and let us use the karaoke machine downstairs (don’t call it karaoke here though, it’s “noraebang”). It was a great party! And to make it even better, they repeated it again on Monday night!

Saturday - We had a lecture in the morning on Saturday and some people met their co-scholars. These co-scholars are native Koreans who have been recruited into the program to assist us foreigners in our elementary schools. We lesson planned for the day.

On Saturday evening, a meet-and-greet was arranged for us by Winnie. We all piled on a city (!) bus and headed into the city, since our orientation centre is on the side of a mountain. We had a great time at a local bar, some people got drunk, others got flaming shots, others didn’t drink at all. We all piled into taxis on our way home. We also found a really great Mexican food place here in the city, and I had one of the best tacos of my life J

Sunday – A previous generation TaLK scholar living in Gwangju came out to our place to take people to church. We went to an English service at Wolgwang church (or something like that). It was nice to be with other believers who also speak my language. It was also interesting to see who the other TaLK scholars are that are dedicated enough to go to church on a Sunday. Not who I would have expected.

After church, I had some friends who spoke Korean put me in a cab and send me to the University where I’ll be living. I wanted to check in, meet my roommate, and figure out how to get inside. Unfortunately, the cab driver seemed pretty crabby even though I had a clear address written out in Korean on a piece of paper (I got the address from my student coordinator at the University!). Regardless, we arrived at the university. He wanted to keep driving and speaking tersely to me in Korean, but I saw a map board in front of one of the buildings, so I thought “screw this!” and made him stop. I got out and found my building on the map. When I arrived at the dormitory building, I went in and tried to sign in. When I was chastised for trying to get into the girl’s dormitory building, I went to the correct building. The thing was filthy! Grease stains everywhere, overflowing mailboxes, broken doors, and dirt on everything. Regardless, I went up and found my room. I went inside and my roommate was in the bathroom, showering. I can only imagine his surprise when he finished and opened the door to find a foreigner in his room! I had a quick look around the room, and it’s fairly dirty in my opinion, so I’ll have to clean it for my own sanity.

My dorm room. It looks cleaner than it is :S

Million dollar view from my room.

In spite of the awkward introduction, my roommate, Chunggoo, is very nice and we had a great introductory chat. He’s from Kure, a small town in this province, and he’s entering his 4^th year this year. In fact, he’s had the exact same room for the past 3 years! He gave me a quick tour of the campus and showed me where to go to eat and where to go to buy things. He introduced me to one of his friends on the same floor, Yeong, who is also a 4^th year, (and who also has a much cleaner room).

It was time for me to head back to the orientation centre, so I looked up which bus route would get me home. Turns out it was a 2 km walk away, but I took pictures of the route so I wouldn’t get lost.

But I sort of did… The university campus doesn’t have a lot of maps posted, and it’s fairly large, so I got a little lost. Thankfully it was still daylight out, but I have to say, this was the most scared I’ve been in Korea so far. After a bit of searching, I found the correct road I needed, and proceeded to walk the 2km to my bus stop. I walked by what I think was a slum, it was in a park, and there were literally shacks everywhere. A real shanty-town!

Thanks to God, I made it back to the orientation centre on time, and did some more prep for my teaching example on Monday.

Monday – Today I met my Korean co-scholar. Her name is Seon-ha Yoon, and she’s also a student at CNU! She lives in Naju, which is kind of too bad, because it means she has to travel twice as far as I do to get to our elementary school. I gave her some last minute lesson prep, since she wasn’t here on Saturday, and we executed our lesson excellently. I’ll see if I can get the video up on YouTube.

We had Karaoke again this night! I mustered up courage and sang a song (I made sure there were few people in the room haha) by Whitney Houston, “How Will I Know?” The machine gave me a score of 100 points haha.

Today was when we found out there was a major typhoon heading our way, so we were told to close all the windows and doors.

In the late evening, we were sitting out on the rooftop patio, enjoying each other’s company, the intense wind, and the warm air. It was really great actually.

Tuesday – I got an e-mail from the Canadian embassy here, warning me to be careful around this typhoon. Apparently, it’s slated to be the most powerful typhoon of the decade.

But it seemed a little underwhelming. Although, it was powerful enough to cancel our plans for today! We were supposed to go tour an elementary school in the area and go to a folk village, but both were closed due to the weather. It was also powerful enough to snap these trees, and do some damage down south. My friend sent me this picture of where he will be moving to teach tomorrow.

You could hear them cracking and groaning. Apparently they destroyed a fence.

In Wando.

Our internet connection at this place has been really spotty, and the TV signal was knocked out today, so someone thinks we're going to be murdered in this place :P It does sort of sound like a horror movie plot.

Instead, we went out for lunch and had Samgyupsal. I have no idea what that means, but it’s like a communal meat frying meal. I think it was pork belly… but I’m not sure. Either way, it was delicious! We don’t get much protein here.

Waiting to be shuttled in groups of 10 to the restaurant. During the ride, you could see the junk all over the street because of the storm. The TV in the shuttle was showing images of how transportation (trains, planes, buses) had come to a standstill today. It was hard for them to find a restaurant that was open!

Quite a spread

That’s it for today! We're having burgers tonight!!! Western food!

PS - I'm blogging from a different building. I think they're painting downstairs, because I saw a Korean woman holding a caulking gun wearing painted up clothes and a kerchief walking around. They have a big air hose tube that they snaked out the door, but it's not working well at all, the whole building smells intensely like nail polish.

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Okay, so we had hamburgers and gimbap (like sushi rolls) tonight and they were so delicious! In Korea, McDonald's doesn't put their hamburgers in boxes like back home. Instead, they use a cardboard ring to hold the sandwich in place and then wrap it up with a paper wrapper. 

After dinner, we were chilling out in the lounge, and Winnie came rushing to us to tell us to get ready to go practice for our closing ceremony tomorrow. Poor girl, they only told her last minute! Anyway, we went to the auditorium and practiced lining up in rows, lining up in different rows, standing in one spot and then standing in different spots, etc. Sort of like moving furniture or straightening a painting if you know what I mean.

Speaking of painting,  I was right, they were painting today! After the workers had left and no one was around, I snuck into the room they were using and took a few photos. 

You might not be able to tell from the photo, but the doors weren't dry yet. Nothing dries here because it's so humid :( 

They put cardboard under the doors, just like back home.

Ah, it's good to see something familiar :) It's also interesting to know how things are done in other countries, especially when it's something you know very well!

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Another update!

I figured out my university classes schedule. It should be something like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
9:00-9:50am - Teaching British and American Culture
10:00-10:50am - Agricultural Marketing
11:00-11:50am - Intro to Korean Listening and Speaking

Tuesday:
9:00-10:15am - Korean Economy

Now I just have to coordinate with my elementary school about my schedule :P

POE Orientation: Typhoon

Apparently there is a typhoon making landfall tonight. It's supposed to be the worst one of the decade as well! I think we are far enough inland though that it shouldn't affect us too much. It's quite windy outside though and it has started raining. The Canadian Embassy e-mailed me about it as a warning/precaution. Oh and our Internet keeps going off.

Orientation: Moving Down South!

Today everyone in my group (Jeollanam-do, a.k.a. Jeonnam province), along with everyone else in the TaLK program packed up and left the safety and comfort of Jochiwon and moved to our provinces. 

A goodbye sunset and rainbow on our last night in Jochiwon

Trying out a cool feature on my camera

This is my roommate Caleb! He's going to Pohang city.

This is what the cafeteria looks like at lunch time.

But since today was our last day, they went all out and gave us a fancy feast!

My group arrived in our provincial orientation venue ("SBC Retreat Centre") this afternoon and we settled in. It's much different from our dorms at Jochiwon.... and not really for the better :P

They won't turn on the air conditioning until we go to sleep tonight (which will be earlier, since curfew is 10pm and there's NO stores or bars around here). There's only one washing machine and no drying rack, and there's one key for each 2 person room.

But I digress. Let's make the most of our situation!

I feel like this week will be nice. Why? Because instead of all 289 TaLK scholars being together, it's just us 47 Jeonnam people. I think we'll get much closer together, which is what I'm looking forward to the most.

Tonight they've organized some sort of birthday party for all the August babies. Should be fun!

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Some quick notes:

- One of my group leaders thought I was British until yesterday, when I told him I was from Vancouver. Apparently I look British, even to Koreans!

- Irene and I (Irene is going to CNU along with me) will probably transport our luggage to our dorm rooms on Sunday or even Saturday night\

- I heard some people speaking Swedish on the train the other day. Random!

- I am very happy I bought/brought my AirPort Express with me! It's a miniature router. In the retreat centre, the WiFi signal isn't very strong at all in my room, but there is an ethernet cable in here. So, I plug my AirPort into the electrical socket and the ethernet cable into the AirPort, and BAM! Instant WiFi network in my room. Perfect! So handy.

Orientation: Penultimate day

Today is the second last day here in Jochiwon. It's a little hard to believe that the two weeks are already over!

Tomorrow we will have our formal closing ceremony and then everyone will be shuttled off to their respective provinces. That means I, along with 50 or so other young people, will be heading down south, to Jeollanam-do a.k.a. Jeonnam province. I looked on a map to find out where this new orientation facility is, and it's in the middle of nowhere! It doesn't even have an elevator (read: everyone has 100lbs+ worth of luggage).

I might write some more tomorrow, I might not. They will make us check out of dorms by 10am tomorrow, which means I won't have internet until the evening/night.

If you're the praying type, you can pray for:

1) That I'll have a nice roommate like I've had for these past two weeks. An upright kind of guy is somewhat hard to come by here, which leads me to my next point...

2) All the students who will get hammered tonight, just like most of the other nights here during orientation. The people here seem to be very hard partyers, I don't know if it's because they're away from "responsibility" back home (even though they're technically on the clock here) or because it's a college thing...

Orientation: Weekend again!

I just got back from a rip-roaring trip in Seoul.

We took part in a mandatory field trip to Seoul on Saturday, where we spent some time in Myeongdong (a shopping district) and then went to see a famous Korean performance, Cookin' Nanta! It's a food-themed percussion act, centred around the story of 3 Korean chefs who are tasked to prepare multiple dishes for a wedding. They are pressured by the nepotistic addition of their boss's nephew to their team and their deadline of "shicks o'clock!" The show features lots of slapstick, comedy, romance, audience participation, martial arts, acrobatics, and delicious food (they started frying up some delicious smelling vegetables and it was right before lunch :( we were so hungry)

Let me tell you, it was a fantastic show. One was prohibited from filming or taking photos in the audience, but there are some videos on YouTube about it.

Cookin' Nanta! (skip ahead to the 2:05 mark to see clips of the performance) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_vQVgVoR3Y&feature=related

If you ever have a chance to see it, go take it! It doesn't matter if you don't speak Korean either, there's very little talking during the show and it's easy enough to put the pieces together anyway.

After the performance, we headed back into Myeongdong for lunch, where I ate at a Japanese curry place with someone from Mississauga (I ordered level 3 out of 10 levels of spiciness, and my mouth and innards were absolutely engulfed :S)

To finish the field trip, they drove us all in buses up to Namsan tower, on the top of a big hill in Seoul. However, it was a logistical fail because they weren't going to pay for us to go up the tower anyway. Therefore, it would have been nicer to just let us leave from Myeongdong instead of making us trudge down a huge hill in the rain.

I made my way to my hotel so I could check in and stash my bag for the evening. I took a shower too, since the opportunity presented itself. Then, I was relaxing in my bunk when some more guests came in.

My bunk. Notice the wood floor.

The new patrons were.... shameful to be honest. This hotel is close to the university district (read: clubs and bars) and the new guests (they sounded American) were very eager to get to partying. The filthy way they were talking and carrying on was repulsive, to be honest :(

Don't worry, this'll come up again later.

Anyway, I left the hotel and went to COEX mall to see what all the fuss is about. It's the largest underground mall in Asia. Apparently, there's a giant bookstore there that also carries some English books. Since I didn't bring anything to read, I really wanted to get something for the train. 

After spending some time at COEX, I came back to the hotel, took another shower, and went to bed. I put in some earplugs, since I knew the other guests would be coming back drunk. 

3:00am - The other guests arrived, started making a ruckus, and played music pretty loudly. 

5:00am - One of the guests was going around to different bunks asking people to have sex with him. No joke. It wasn't a veiled question either, he was grotesquely graphic. I knew there was a girl (not from their party) in the bunk behind mine, and she refused him when he asked. Thankfully he didn't get pushy or something like that. When he came to my bunk, I acted asleep. I could tell he opened the curtain a little bit to peek inside, but he went away when (I'm assuming) he saw I was a male. No wonder foreigners get a bad reputation here! Some deserve it!

9:00am, Sunday - I got ready for the day and checked out of the hotel. The clerk apologized for what went on last night. 

I got on the subway and headed towards the Yoido area. On my way to where I was going, I passed the National Assembly of Korea:

Streets lined with Taegugki

And gardens filled with Mugunghwa

This is the National Assembly. There are guards posted outside (they are fulfilling their military service duty)
so I asked to take the photo.

Then I arrived at my destination:

THE Yoido Full Gospel Church!

Yes folks, that's right, it's the biggest church in the world! If you want to read more about it, here's a link to the Wikipedia page about the church: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church

I went to the 11am service, and was whisked to the foreigners section by a small army of well trained ushers (who wear uniforms by the way....). They give you a headset and you can plug it in and receive interpretation in several languages.

I chose English. 

There were several native Koreans sitting among the foreigners section, which I thought was a little strange, since there were plenty of non-foreigner/native seats still available. No biggie though. There was a group of Filipinos that I happened to be sitting among.

Nice worship team!

This is a shot of prayer time.

It's quite a service. Lots of multiple translations of stuff, which is nice to see. The worship team sang for awhile, then the choir sang a little, then they did some scripture reading, and then they showed a video of a Korean woman who had gone to Kenya as a missionary. She spent her life building a school in Kenya, and died there as well. The video was a tribute to her life and the work in Kenya.

Pre-service worship (that's why all the seats aren't filled yet) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTagVjOX0EA

- Cultural note: Koreans seem to love all clapping together. My mother would be in 7th heaven here!

After the video, there was a prayer time. Praying Korean-style involves everyone praying out loud at once. Most people swayed. It was moving (no pun intended).

The sermon wasn't very meaty, but he hit some very important points.

Post-service singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAYeE6ooKzY

Trying to get out of the parking lot.

After church I walked around Yoido for a little bit. This is the financial centre of Seoul, I've heard. Apparently KOSPI is around here. I looked for it but could not find it. As well, I walked by a Shinhan office building (that's my bank here) and it was cordoned off and there were buses of police officers around. Hopefully my bank isn't going under or something like that :P

Namsan Tower in the background

Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and Kookmin bank

Looking North from the Han river: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrAxF6GwGGA

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My next stop was the Seodaemun Prison facility, which is kind of a weird thing to do after being in a holy church. You see, Seodaemun Prison was built by the Japanese during the occupation of Korea. It was used to torture and imprison those who spoke out against the Japanese regime and is thus a very important site for Korean nationalism. After the Japanese surrendered at the end of WWII, the prison was turned over to the Koreans who used it for a little bit and gave it a name change. Afterwards, it was decommissioned and made into a memorial (the surrounding site is now called Seodaemun Peace Park).

This is a layout of the facility.

The Japanese actually had multiple political prisons in Korea. This poster claimed that the "Whole country was like a prison!"

This map shows multiple locations where there were democracy uprisings. 

Shackles.

This poster talks about how the Koreans would resort to violence against prominent Japanese individuals or pro-Japanese Koreans in order to assert independence. Tit for tat.

I can't remember why I took this photo.

This is sort of like the Korean Joan of Arc. She was imprisoned in Seodaemun Prison, where she was tortured (this is important) and eventually killed. She's famous because she was very young (I think only 19), so it's a big deal that the Japanese would torture someone so young.

This exhibit shows photos and names of all who were processed through Seodaemun Prison. Over 3000 I believe.

This is the main hall, the torture rooms are downstairs. I didn't take any pictures of the torture rooms because it's simply wrong.

Now, while I was touring this place and looking at mannequins being held upside down in pools of water or being kept in solitary confinement, or being locked up in spike boxes, I noticed the surprising number of children looking at these same exhibits. There's two things to note here:

- Is this to educate children early about the crimes committed against Koreans by the Japanese, and to therefore instill a victim mentality or to educate children about the need for forgiveness?
- Where is the discerning parent? These displays were blatantly graphic. They even played screaming sounds over speakers for effect.

Update: Someone suggested that parents could also be bringing their children to the museum in a form of cultural discipline. In other words, parents would be teaching their children about these atrocities, so that they wouldn't be committed again in the future. Very smart!

A girl poses in front of Taegugki

Do you see that box thing carved into the mountain? I wonder if there's missiles in the mountains here ;)

This statue is heading to the place behind that wall. The execution room. There's a secret tunnel behind here so the Japanese could remove the bodies in secret. 

There's a sign around here that says you aren't allowed to take photos of the execution room, but I did anyway :P I don't think I'm going to post the photo though, it doesn't feel right.
The room is setup sort of like a court room, with a bench on a raised section on one end of the room. In the middle there is a 3 walled booth with black curtains that could be drawn to close it off. In the booth there is a noose and a wooden stool with a trap door below. Behind the booth is a lever. You get the idea.

This poplar is called the Wailing tree because prisoners would grab onto it in despair  on their way to the execution room.

This is the exercise yard. I'm standing on the platform the officers would have used in order to keep an eye on everyone. The walls are designed so prisoners could not talk with each other.

Architecture tells a story! I thought it was very interesting the way the prison was constructed, with Asian elements (look at the roof tiles and corners) contrasted with more western building styles (brick and symmetry). I would love to know why the Japanese chose to build the prison in this style.

A writeup about the location.

I'm pretty sure this mugunghwa plant is in the shape of the Korean peninsula.

Declaration of Independence monument.

Independence gate. Notice Namsan Tower in the lower left background.

Don't know who this is.

In my opinion, going to Seodaemun Prison is a must if you really want to experience firsthand the conflict between the Japanese and the Koreans. Especially when you keep in mind that this only happened within the last 100 years! I was glad I went.

After the prison complex, I went to Itaewon, which is a foreigner's district in Seoul. Lots of multiculturalism here. I ate at Subway, and it was one of the best meals I've had in Korea so far (I love sandwiches, but it's hard to find good ones here).

I stopped at "What the Book" which is an English language bookstore in Itaewon. They sell lots of used books for very decent prices (books are expensive! in Korea). I picked up some good reads.

This poster in the metro advertises the county (Damyang) where I'll be teaching in September!

Waiting at Seoul station to go back to Jochiwon.

If you love train videos, this is a typical mugunghwa class train:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0-gz3KwGmk

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Miscellaneous cultural note: I saw my first Honda car today! That makes 1 Honda and 1 Nissan so far. I can imagine it would be pretty unpopular to purchase a Japanese car here....

Update:
- I wrote about that girl who got appendicitis. I found out more about the story. She had gone to the doctor before coming to Korea (everyone had to get a medical check to be accepted into the program) and he had misdiagnosed her. So, when she came to Korea and fell ill, she went to the doctor again, where she got another misdiagnosis. Then, her appendix ruptured and she went back to the hospital and they removed it. Now, the reason TaLK isn't paying for her medical bills is because technically this is a pre-existing condition. That's pretty lame if you ask me, but either way she's already gone home.