A good end to orientation in Jochiwon

Well it had to hapen sometime and a couple days ago my time in Jochiwon came to an end.  Though I will miss a lot of people and some I, unfortunately, may not see for the duration of my stay in Korea, I was happy to be moving on to my next adventure That is POE (Provincial Office of Education) orientation.

but we had a good ending for TaLK orientation.  The talent show was Tuesday afternoon, and it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of good performances.  There was singing, dancing, guitar playing, and even an ukulele.  Our performance went fairly well.  I think all of us were pleased.

Afterwards, the 10 of us went out to eat and we met everyone else downtown.  The next morning was sad as everyone knew we would soon be splitting up, but we had a nice closing ceremony followed by a large lunch for all of us.  

Looking back, there was not a lot of stuff that I didn't like about orientation.  it was well run, fun, great staff, etc.  I thought it was a good first step into Korea.  But i found out that I can only make friends with asian people.  or maybe that just happened by coincidence.  but in my clique, I was the only non-asian.  well good thing i am in a country full of Asians

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you remember form my last post, my friends and I decided to be in the End of Orientation Talent Show.  We decided to have a three part show.  girls' dance + guys' dance + together dance.  We actually just pulled it all together just about an hour and a half ago.  I am quite pleased right now.  believe me there were points where I was worried.  but i don't really want to get into that lol.  we are good now.

Saturday we went on a required trip form Jochiwon to Seoul to go see a Nanta performance and then tour building 63.  We weren't allowed to take pictures during Nanta, so all i have is a picture of the sign outside.

Basically Nanta was Stomp, but better.  They used kitchen tools in creative ways to make music.  BUt while Stomp is just rhythm and sound, Nanta had a story along with it, and they got audience interaction

by calling up people to the stage at various points.  It was one of the best things I have done in Korea so far.  I would definitely see it again.  all sixth generation TaLK scholars went, so we filled up the theater.  I found it funny that during the show, instead of saying actual words (in Korean, obviously), they just made noises and nonsense words.  This meant it was up to each audience member to interpret.  this also meant that the body language each actor/actress conveyed had to be clear and exaggerated.  good show :)

After the show we were released to go eat around Myeongdong, which is one of the shopping districts of Seoul.  We weren't given enough time to shop, but this girl was very interesting to see, and i saw her several times in different places as we walked around looking for a place to eat and then coming back.

While I had seen people with "Free Hug" signs in the US, I had never seen someone dress up for the part with a costume and face paint.  it was fun to see, and I definitely took her up on her offer of a free hug.

Building 63 was a little disappointing however.  When it was built, it was the tallest building in Korea.  Now it is more of a kids museum.  it has an aquarium, art gallery, wax museum and then the actual trip to the top to see the view, not to mention several stores and boutiques, since koreans love to shop.  after a while I just walked around outside and got some street food.  but while in Building 63, I got gifts for my little brother and sister, though I need to figure out how to send them home.

Other than the stuff above, all I did over the weekend was practice.  Girls were finishing up Nobody, while the guys were perfecting Digital Bounce, and then we started the Tango.  The Tango was my dance to teach and so I spent countless hours (well maybe not that long.  maybe) learning the moves and each solo and then teaching everyone else.  but now I know the guy and girl part, so i can teach pretty much anyone.

 

Valentine's Day, Kpop Dancing, and Cheonan

Monday (February 14th, obviously) was Valentine's Day.  In Korea, on this day, it is not the guys', but the girls' responsibility to give chocolate.  in one month, on March 14, also known as white day, the boys return the favor and give girls non-chocolate candy.  I cannot remember if it is supposed to be white, but i guess I have 3 weeks to figure it out.  also there is black day, on April 14, where boys who didn't get any chocolate are supposed to eat jajamyeon, which is black bean paste with noodles(?).  it tastes really good.  I had it when we went to Chinatown at the beginning of orientation, but yeah.

Anyway, some of the girls we were in Seoul with got a bunch of us guys chocolate gift bags for Valentine's, so that was a nice gesture, though even now, over a week later, it is still sitting unopened and uneaten on my desk.  But i think that I still have the repay the gesture and get them something on white day.

also on Monday night I went to kpop dancing lessons.  the song was shy boy by Secret (a girl song), and i wasn't very good at it.  I need to up y cuteness factor.  more poffins (it's a pokemon reference, if you didn't get it lol)  The instructor only spoke korean, but she kept telling us to be cute.  The tuesday night song was I'll be Back by 2PM (guy song) and though i was initially worried since I wasn't able to do the running thing before, but by the end I had it pretty well down.

at this point, our group decided that we would do a dance for talent show.  We talked about it being no pressure and just to have fun, but i'm sure I will get more into that in a post or two.  We have five girls and five guys.  our setlist is now girls doing Nobody (by Wondergirls), guys doing Digital Bounce (by Se7en) and then all of us doing the Nobody Tango that 2PM and Wondergirls did a couple years back.  The dance isn't very technical, just a bunch of tricks.

On friday we were split into teams and we either went to Cheonan or Daejon.  My team, the G6 (Group Six) Tigers were sent to Cheonan.  Here we had to do several things that we might have to do later, like buy a train ticket, find the market, use the bus, etc.  The market was full of seafood of all varieties.  everything from shrimp to flounder to sea cucumbers to turtles.  The turtles were still alive and I would rather not think about eating them.  I can eat a lot of food and by no means am I a vegetarian, but I don't know that I could eat a turtle, but we shall see what happens in the next six months.

I am also getting more addicted to street food.  basically any city will have stands along the street selling food.  This is a big part of Korean culture and the food is really good and cheap.  my favorite so far is odeng, but i also like dok bogi a lot too

Recreational Seoul

Saturday (not yesterday but a week ago) We had our mandatory medical checkup by the government.    this included getting blood drawn, x-ray, sight and hearing tests.  basically the works.  Afterwards my friends and I decided to (well we had decided several days prior) go to Seoul and stay the night in a jimjilbang.

A jimjilbang is a public bathhouse.  it is very popular in korea, from what I hear.  It is for both sexes, though the bathing areas themselves are separated.  So basically you enter, pay, go find yourself a locker, and change into the outfit they give you.  nothing fancy; just shorts and a shirt.  Now you can go to the communal area where both girls and guys are, and you can socialize, buy food, go into a sauna, etc.  back in the mens' locker room, there is another way towards the baths themselves.  before entering, you will go to your locker and strip off your given outfit.  you can either store them in your locker or drop them off in a designated basket for dirty clothes.  Within the bathing area, there are different pools of varying temperatures.  There are also showers and more saunas.  I didn't have time to explore the whole thing so I'm sure there is more I don't know about.

So from Jochiwon (where orientation is held), we took a train to Seoul.  It was about an hour and a half to get there, but we just went to the food cart/cabin/whatever-it-is-called (where there was a lot of empty space) and sat down.  There were a couple arcade games and even several noraebangs (karaoke rooms) on the train, so that was an interesting sight to see.

In Seoul, we immediately went to go eat.  I had pork blood stew.  It was alright.  not bad, but not something I would order on a regular basis.  here is a picture of it:

After that we went to a Hondae, which is the college area of Seoul (also fairly inexpensive) and walked around for a bit.  in the course of the night  we went to a bar, a noraebang that surprisingly fit all 30 of us, a nightclub that wasn't full until we came, and then out to eat again.  by this time we were splitting off into various groups, so dinner was only about 15 people, which is a lot easier to get a table for.  Finally we headed to the jimjilbang.  It was late, and had been a long day, so I promptly passed out.

In the morning, we woke up and got washed up, though I felt rushed and thus did not get the full relaxing experience of the bathhouse.  a bunch of people decided to go back to Jochiwon sunday morning, and others met family, so the group that I walked around with on Sunday was only about 12 people.  We walked around Hondae for a bit, then took the Metro (Subway/tube) to Itaewon to shop.  Itaewon is supposedly the place for foreigners, because they sell larger sizes that you can't find anywhere else in Seoul.  People in Korea tend to be on the shorter side and thin, much like myself, so I don't think I will have trouble finding clothes.  but yeah, we did that and then, since I don't think anyone slept enough, we went back to the train station and came home.  

It was a good weekend.  I was a little disappointed with the club we went to, just because it seemed the same as an american club, and I had heard previously that Korean clubs were awesome.  but a good weekend.  I wouldn't take it back :)

TaeKwonDo, Powerpoint, and The Lion Sleeps tonight

Friday was the second day of lectures, so I met up with group six and went through only five classes (but one was two hours so it was the same amount of time.  lectures were:

Ice breakers/warm-up exercises
Education technology
Classroom Management
TaeKwonDo
Teaching English through Drama

The two that stood out were TaeKwonDo (obviously because we were kicking and punching throughout the lecture period) and Education technology.  In Tae Kwon Do we learned the proper form for punching, as well as three different kicks.  reminded me of my brother since he is taking TaeKwonDo.  As for Education Tech.,  It was mainly about Powerpoint, but what was wrong with it, but also how to make such presentations really good. In short I now have the tools to give a killer presentation.

FOr the optional events at night, I picked the Korean folk songs.  I guess they mean that loosely, as the song was The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  I mainly went because one of the KGCs (Korean Group Coordinator) is my friend.  but that made it easier for me.  They didn't have a baritone part so I had to sing tenor, which was a mistake.  but yeah, one of the instructors name was E-Dragon (it's funny if you know Korean music).

Good News + First Day of Lectures

Well first I have good news.  I got an SD card reader that I plug directly into my computer via USB, so very soon I will have pictures on my blog.  yay!  I bought it from Lotte Mart (which I will go into later, but basically it's awesome).  So it'll prolly be one of the next couple posts where I recap everything I have talked about in the blog with photos.

I was really close to being caught up, but then I got lazy on Saturday, so I am now five days behind again.  So here we go!!!!

Thursday was the first day of lectures.  During orientation, we hear several lectures a day.  The lectures are 1-2 hours each and every hour we get a 20 minute break.  so basically I am taking classes from 9 until 5:40.  but it's not so bad.  some of the lectures are really interesting.  Day 1 of lectures consisted of the following:

TaLK life
Understanding Korea
Korean History & Society
Traditional Korean Painting
Explore Korea: How to Survive
Korean Paper Craft

The TaLK life lecture was given by a 3rd generation TaLK scholar (I am 6th gen), so she has been teaching for a year and a half.  basically, she was one of the best teachers I have seen, and that intimidates me lol because I don't think that I can be that good.  but I suppose it is something to strive for right?

The other lectures were pretty normal, I learned more about Korean Society and such.  I was quite terrible at the Korean painting, so I will NOT be showing you that.  I will gladly show you the final product of my Korean Paper Crafts lecture.  Granted, all we really did was cut the eyes and then glue a bunch of stuff on, but it looks decent and that's all that really matters in the end.  All the guys in the class made males and the girls females, and they both wore hanboks, which is a traditional formal outfit for Koreans.  So here is mine.  I haven't named him yet, though I'm not sure if I will.

isn't he cute?

South Korea's got Seoul

Yay for overused puns!

I am going to make this very brief, because this day is best expressed through pictures and videos (both of which I have on my camera).  Wednesday was the first official day of orientation, and to start things off, we went to Seoul for opening ceremonies after meeting our respective groups for the first time.  This was my first time off to the capital, so, needless to say, I was quite excited.  And this excitement was not misplaced.  Even the small part of Seoul that we saw and walked around was amazing.  I can't wait to go back, and in fact tomorrow, I will be :)

Opening ceremonies began with several speakers from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) and the National Institute of (word I can't remember) Education Development (NIIED) an speeches/videos from previous generations of TaLK Scholars.  Then came the showcase of several groups the government had brought to opening ceremonies. First was the Rainbow Choir, a multinational choir of children that performs at various important political events.  They seemed quite talented, and I was impressed by the young singers.  Next came Stone Jazz, which was a musical group made up of a jazz trio and two traditional Korean instruments.  Thinking I would not like the performance, I did not record it.  But i was pleasantly surprised how they two very different forms of music harmonized.

Then came the final, and most showy, performance.  It was a Tae Kwon Do performance by a group known as the K Tigers.  I'm not sure what the K stands for, but for me, it stands for kick-ass, because that's what this performance was.  I can't wait to post the video that i recorded, though it is nearly 10 minutes.  I wished I had brought my Flip cam, as I was stuck recording with my regular camera, which is lower quality when it comes to video.

Following opening ceremonies, we split into assigned teams of 7-8 within our groups and went on a scavenger hunt throughout one district of Seoul.  We saw things such as a statue of King Sejong the Great, the inventor of Hangeul/Hangul (the Korean alphabet), traditional Korean treats, and Starbucks.  If nothing else, that trip showed me that there is much more to see in Seoul than can be seen in several days, so I have a feeling I will be visiting Seoul more than a couple times while I am here.

Ok maybe this post wasn't as brief as I thought it would be...

We look into Korea's past and future (and Chinatown)

On Tuesday, our optional activity was to take a trip to Incheon to visit Chinatown, the Korean War museum, and then tour a building dedicated to the plans for Korea's new International City in Incheon, New Songdo.  I'm not sure why we went to Chinatown while in Korea, but we ate there and it was good (not that any of the food I have had here is bad lol), so i'm not complaining.

Upon arriving at the Korean War museum we first looked at the Incheon Landing Memorial (see pictures to come).before going inside, we were told we had 10 minutes to just chill out before actually going into the museum.  On a whim, several of us decided to climb a large hill with what looked like a boat at the top, though it felt like a mountain as we ran up.  The view was awesome, so we weren't complaining going down, though we were a couple minutes late to the film.  It was about the war as a whole and the countries involved.  I did not know much about the Korean War before - only what I had learned in US History - so the film was quite enlightening.  The TaLKees then took a tour of the museum itself.  Afterwards we had a little free time until the second TaLK tour was finishing up, so I went to a street vendor and got some Odeng.  It is kind of like fish on a stick, but better than it sounds.  I had had Odeng once before, when UT's KUSA chapter had sold it the week before I came to Korea.  Naturally, the one I had here was better (Sorry KUSA!).

Leaving the museum, we went to see the plans for the new city within Incheon, which will actually have three parts.  Around this area, probably because the construction has already begun on the new city, the buildings look really futuristic.  The scale model of the new cities are filled with buildings like these, and everything is supposed to be done by 2020 in various stages, ending with the opening of a new theme park, Robot Land.  If everything goes according to plan, then the city will truly be a sight to see.

While here, we watched both a 4D and 5D movie.  for the 4D movie, I was sitting in the front row, so it hurt my eyes a bit, but it was still interesting.  I'm not quite sure what the fourth dimension was but the three dimensions that i know seemed pretty sweet.  The 5D movie was similar, but we were in a circular room and the screen was all along the walls, even on the back of the doors.  Here we took a 'Like a G6' picture, which is currently my profile picture.  By this time I knew That I was in the sixth of six groups for the duration of orientation, so for me, everything was 'like a G6'.  As it happens, only two people in this picture are actually in Group 6.  but those are only details right?

A picture I managed to get a from a friend.  Yay first picture!

It's kind of difficult to describe this without pictures, but I will try

I will probably have a post later, hopefully within the next couple days, with all the pictures of the things I will talk about.  Until then, the written word will have to do.

As i said before I got to Korea Sunday afternoon.  I had left Saturday morning from Houston, but i also went 15 hours into the future, so the trip actually took about 18 hours.  I got to my dorm room and I met my roommate for orientation, Yong(seok).  He was actually on my flight from Chicago to Incheon airport, but we had only met briefly.  Though initially wary, as I am of most people, I soon, well almost immediately found out that he is really cool and extremely funny.  He is Korean, and he speaks, so that is helpful as we go around campus or through the town, or in restaurants.

Monday morning was one of the optional activities we were given the opportunity to go on before orientation officially began on Wednesday.  It was to a Korean folk village, and they would transport us, feed us a bulgogi lunch, etc, etc.  I wasn't going to go because I wasn't ready at the time that I thought they were leaving, but then Yong came and said I should still go.  And so, along with him, I rushed down to where the bus was waiting.

It took probably about 1.5 hours to get there, but on the way I met more people.  The folk village was fun, and there was a sort-of amusement park with a few animals and rides and a mini-arcade.  I played the Korean version of Dance Dance Revolution, but, as with DDR, I was not very good.

The village itself was very interesting.  they had houses in various styles, houses with heated floors, and even a Korean stockade and prison.  in the jail itself you were allowed to go in one of the cells.  the door for entering and exiting the was quite small, so when leaving, there was a sign above the door that said, 'Head Carefulness'.  i lol'd.

That night a bunch of people, including myself went to go tour around the town to see what was there, and that was fun.  got to meet even more people, though even now I struggle to remember everyone's names, besides the ones I interact with on a regular basis.  I guess I still have two weeks to master them all

Struggling to remember everything that has happened so far

I guess the point of the blog is both so that people can know what I am doing while abroad, and also so that I write down what happens, so that I will remember everything.  This post is five days late, as I did not create this blog until 20 minutes ago, so for the next few days I will be playing catch up.  Sorry if my posts for now are a little concise.

Saturday morning.  got up early to go to the airport.  met Richard in front of the gate.  Flew to chicago.  fairly uneventful flight.  We did meet two other TaLK scholars sitting the row in front of us, so it was relieving to find friends so early on.

I found it very interesting, and baffling, how empty the flight was.  Houston had cancelled the previous morning's flights to Chicago, so i expected half a million people trying to get on any available flight for the next couple days.  Just the opposite, our flight was not even half full.  I don't think i have ever been on a plane that empty.

The best part of that flight was that two seats away from me, I was in the aisle, no one in the middle seat, and she by the window, was a lady that only spoke spanish.  Of course, the steward who was going around didn't speak spanish, so I translated between the two.  I will be the first to admit that my spanish is limited to say the least, but i was proud to have the skills to ask her menial things such as what she wanted to drink.

layover in Chicago.  Met more TaLKees.

Korean Air is probably the best airline i have ever flown on.  all of the stewardess were not only extremely kind, but also bilingual at least, and some even spoke languages such as Arabic and Thai.  The food was also really good.  All things considered, and even though i was in a middle seat, I was impressed and enjoyed my flight.  Many movies and TV shows were censored a lot.  i still got the meaning of the movie and such, but i am not sure if it was cuz of the movies i watched (Easy A, The Social Network, and the Tudors) or the airline itself.

I got to Incheon airport in one piece (always a good sign) met up with a couple other flights of TaLK people, and then came to Korea University's Sejong Campus.  I am not actually in Seoul, but we take frequent trips there during free time and even as part of orientation.

//end

Well i brought the wrong cord for my camera.

So until I find one here (which should hopefully be soon), my blog will be relatively photo-less. hopefully this period will not be long, so yeah.  bear with me.

Well this is an awkward first post.  I'm not entirely sure what i am supposed to say.  Hi. I'm reuben.

ok that's enough

end