It's still hard to believe I'm in Korea. This one week has been such a great experience! This past weekend I attended a new and veteran foreign teacher dinner. It's amazing how we all live in different places, are all different ages, and different genders.
I've spoken with a few about the cultural shock stages. It starts somewhere between loving it, getting home sick, and loving it altogether. Yep, I spoke too soon about loving it here, but I really do!
It was my first time getting outside of my town. I have yet to explore my small village, but it took me about 40 minutes to get to Jochiwon from Daepyo. It's confusing, but I live in a small town called Daepyo which is only 5-10 minutes from Sejong City. Jochiwon has so much more things than my town. I will be sure to go back and shop, eat, and explore!! I found the bus stop ok, but it was a matter of finding the place. Luckily, this nice young Korean gentleman helped me find the location.
I met with all the others. There were about 22 of us. It was great! Some were quite new, others have been here for more than 6 months, and the rest were here for more than 1 year. What I found unique is that although those who have been here for years still only know the basics of Korean, but enough to get by. So it makes me feel a little more at ease although I want to learn Korean as much as I can. We split into two groups for dinner. It was my second time eating out in Korea. Dinner sure was delicious! I had some balkabagi. I got to know a lot of amazing teachers. Most of the teachers were from the EPIK program. I was probably the 3rd person there working for a hagwon (private school) while the rest worked for public schools.
Later that night we headed off to a noraebang (karoke) place and sung the night away. I loved seeing everyone try and sing popular Kpop music. It was simply an awesome night. I love meeting new people!
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