We officially LIVE in Korea now!

Last night we went out into the downtown area of Cheonan for some drinks with some people we met from our class yesterday. The downtown areas of nearly all Korean towns look like Time Square, with flashing lights and billboards covering the buildings from top to bottom! It’s a beautiful sight!

We started off our night by trying to catch a taxi... which was not an easy task. We were apparently on too small of a road for taxis, and ended up walking at least 1 mile in the freezing cold before flagging one down. The best part about our taxi ride, other than that we were finally in a warm place, was the fact it was only 1800 WON, which is equivalent to approximately $1.20. What a deal huh?!

Once we arrived in the downtown area, we walked towards a bar called the Cizi Club that was recommended to us by some local Koreans. There was a major language barrier at the downstairs lobby, and we were finally loaded into a tiny elevator and sent to fend for ourselves.

When the doors opened, we were shocked to find a HUGE, beautiful, and fairly ritzy club... that was completely empty! Apparently we were too early for the party, so we explained to the emploiyees that we would be back at 10pm by flashing all 10 of our fingers and using the best Korean we knew!

We then headed over to a restaurant down the street. The boys all ordered soju, which is the most commonly drunk liquor in S.K. With their soju, we were given free soup, seaweed and a bowl of snails! We all cringed at the snails, but by the time we left, they were nearly all gone.

You have to actually suck them out of the shell, and then they look like little snakes, about 2-3 cm long and are VERY slimy! Kind of disgusting... but we were feeling adventurous!

When we were done there, we walked the streets some more and stumbled upon this restaurant...

Yep, you read it right, "Boobi Boob." Unfortunately there wasn't enough room for all 9 of us, but we took a group picture by the other sign, just to commemorate the moment!

Just steps outside that restaurant, we ran into some Korean college age guys who were sooooo excited to see us!

They wanted to practice all the English they knew, which was actually quite a bit, and play host, like most Koreans do! :) They invited us to go to a restaurant with them, so we followed... and the rest is history! We ate pig intestine, which was super chewy! We had to chew it at least 2 minutes before it could be swallowed...


...cheered a lot!

... talked on the phone to their family and friends...

... fed each other (which is what they do when they feel close with friends! We knew at this point, they loved us! Instead of saying, "I want to feed you," though, they would say "I want to eat you!" It was hilarious!

.... and ultimately had an awesome night meeting new Korean friends and American and Canadian friends, who are luckily going to be in Pusan with us!!

There's a P.A. in my dorm room!

Korea is unbelievably techie, and we LOVE IT! The door to our dorm room at the University has a digital keypad, and our dorm room has a PA system! This morning we were woken up at 7:30am by a "ding, ding, ding..." and then one of the Korean EPIK directors said, "Dear EPIK teachers, breakfast will begin at 8:00am in the cafeteria..." We both laughed when she said "Dear EPIK teachers" instead of good morning, or hello! Little things like that are what make these long days so entertaining! :) Below are 2 pictures of the University we are staying at for our orientation.

Those steps are the steps we walk up to go to our lectures

This is the building we have our classes in. :)

They took my blood!

We officially passed our medical exam this morning after taking our hearing test, eye sight test, blood pressure, tinkling into a cup, getting an X-ray, and lastly, taking our blood! I was scared, but I put my brave face on, and am all finished! Whew!

It's official... I'm employed!

We started our 1st day of orientation today by walking across campus in the freshly fallen SNOW! It a winter wonderland today!


We had 1 class today that lasted 2 hours. It was a basic class on Korean culture... and we all filled out a form to set up our Korean bank account. We wrote our names, birthdays, signed it, and wala... we apparently have a bank account now! The form was even highlighted for us!


During the class, I took a quick pottie break and was taken back when I opened the door to the bathroom stall. I think I may have even audibly said, "oh!" when I saw the hole in the floor. It was an interesting experience!


After our class, we talked with Kevin's parents on SKYPE and my friend Lynzi, who lives in Costa Mesa. We then headed over to the Opening Ceremony, which was hilarious! Apparently Koreans are very last minute, which was totally apparent today, and hilarious! My 2 favorite parts of the ceremony were the traditional drummers, and the fan dancer! When the drummers were announced to come on stage, they didn't come out... The Korean woman directing the opening ceremony ran backstage and then poked her head back out and said to us "They were announced in English and didn't understand what we said!" We all laughed and clapped again to welcome them on stage!


At the banquet, we met a great couple from Canada, Laura and Cliff. We went through the buffet line together and saw that there was octopus. We all decided we would eat a piece together!! This was my piece! mmmm.... yummy tentacles! If you double click on the picture, you can see them more closely! A perfect ending to a great 1st day!

Day 5 in Seoul – “Blessed” is the name of the game!

All 500 South Korean English teachers were told to meet at the airport today to get a ride in a complimentary bus to the orientation site. We were planning on taking the city bus an hour and a half back to the airport to catch the orientation bus, but instead we were given a ride! This was wonderful, considering we didn’t have to wheel our luggage 3 blocks to the bus stop, rather a lovely woman pulled her new KIA sorento SUV right up to the door of the hostel so we could load everything in! ☺ We jumped in, not sure who she was, or what the connection was, but just appreciated her offering to give us a ride to the orientation site (2 hour drive!) When we arrived near the orientation site, the woman driving us told us that we were going to be meeting with someone for dinner before she dropped us off. Minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of a darling traditional Korean restaurant.

We were greeted by an older woman, who apparently is the sister of the director of EPIK who directed us inside and into a private style dining room. Once again, we were not sure why we were getting to have dinner with her, but we were excited, none the less, to have another meal experience with Koreans! We had Bulgolgi (spelling?), which was awesome!

During the meal we brought up foods to try in Pusan. The woman who had driven us said we needed to try the live octopus, but every time she said octopus, she would pronounce it “octopussy.” It took EVERYTHING within us to not laugh out loud! At one point I had to get up to go to the restroom for fear I was going to bust out laughing!! During dinner it began to snow! This was a picture looking out the window from our table. :)

When we were finished, the woman who met us there insisted that we allow her to pay for our meal! So, let me just recap, we had a woman drive us 2 hours out of her way, and another woman take us to an expensive dinner and pay for us! We don’t know why we were chosen from the 500 other students to be given the star treatment, but we do know we felt completely blessed and taken care of today! ☺ This is a picture of all of us outside the restaurant.

When we got to the University (our orientation site) we were welcomed by Korean EPIK staff and were handed gray EPIK hoodies and giftbags with fruit, a converter, water, etc… Kevin was handed a LARGE sweatshirt, but it seriously looks like it’s a SMALL. I told him it’s a Korean LARGE! ☺ He just read in our handbook that we are going to a Korean folk village this week and are all required to wear our EPIK hoodies! Haha!! Kevin’s is going to be ssoooo tight! I can’t imagine what the bigger guys are going to look like when they try to wear their Ex. Large’s that are US mediums! I’ll take pictures, don’t worry!

I’m in my PJ’s now, laying on my bed in the awesome dorm room we were provided for the week of our orientation which happens to have a heated floor and a digital keypad for the front door! Kevin and I were told we would be in separate rooms this week, but were excited to hear that we would be able to stay together! ☺ Yeah! It’s like we’re in college, but getting to live together!

P.S. I’m wearing the MHS shirt that my coworkers signed and gave to me my last day of work… and am thinking of each of them right now! ☺ Miss you all!