The beginning (ish) of the Adventure...

Ok, so I know this is seriously delayed and I apologise but I only managed to get internet installed in my apartment yesterday (very quickly in fact and all thanks to my amazing co-teacher Wendy - will explain in more detail later)! I originally intended to start this blog way back when I started applying through EPIK to teach in South Korea. However, I didn't want to 'jinx' things and thought I'd better wait until I knew for definite I had been accepted. By that point though I was finishing off my last week of work and rushing to get the final things sorted. Upon arrival our schedules were so full, coupled with 'networking', that starting a blog was the last thing on my mind.

The lovely hoody EPIK gave us in our welcome package. Much needed as I hadn't packed a really thick jumper and it was bloody freezing! Word of advice: White is not a good colour to pick when coupled with eating spicy orange coloured food! I was brought up using chopsticks yes but the Korean ones are metal and a lot thinner/flatter!

A large sized towel = a fantastic idea. I'm not that bothered about fluffy towels but I do like a good sized one. I'd only brought one of those large 'travel' towels as they'd served me well in the past and I'd rather bring more clothes. But so far I've yet to find towels larger than what I'd class as a 'hair towel'. Only wish I coud have grabbed one more..... 

But here we are! So I found out a couple of days before leaving the Jeonju University Orientation that I'd been placed in a city called Jecheon in the Chungcheongbuk-do (Chungbuk abrv) province, which is located in the central region of South Korea. Before going out I knew I was going to Chungbuk but hadn't yet been told where exactly and who/where I'd be teaching, nor did we know what our apartments were going to be like. In my mind it was potluck. Luckily I've been placed in an Elementary School (my first choice - it's what I'm qualified for so it makes sense!) called Naeto but am actually working in the English Education Center doing the 'after-school' programme. Again, I will explain in more detail in a separate post. It's the biggest Elementary School I've ever seen (or Primary School for you UK people) and there are up to 4 classes per grade, with roughly 30-40 students per class. Plus there's the attached Kindergarten school so as you can imagine it's pretty sizeable (pictures to come). I'm very pleased though as I get my own classroom (so the kids come to me) and my class size is around 15 students!

Naeto Elementary School

Jecheon is classed as one of the three main cities in Chungbuk but it's seen as the smallest of the three. Nevertheless it's a nice size and a lovely city. Considering my main choices were 'rural' I'm actually very grateful for being placed in a city that's still in very close proximty to beautiful countrysides. Mainly explored  around my local area and downtown (the shopping part) so far but intend on hiking some of those mountains and visiting the tourist resort (Cheongpung) once the weather warms up! Amazingly though, my sense of direction has improved dramatically since coming to South Korea. I've always had a bad sense of direction and tend to get lost (a lot) and it was a running joke as to how I was going to survive in a foreign country on my own. But it's precisely for those reasons why I've been able to find my way around! There's nothing worse than getting lost and not being able to speak the language. Also being Chinese (i.e. not sticking out like a sore thumb) means people don't automatically think to help you. Therefore I've got no choice but to have my wits about with me!

Main intersection - Sharmila (Canadian EPIK teacher) posing!

There's so much that I want to write about that if I don't stop now I'll end up going off on a tangent.