Bon Voyage!

Back in February my friend Alexandra called me up one night and told me she was applying to this English Program in Korea. At the time I was working at MTV Networks at the Viacom building in Timesquare in New York City. I had interned there the summer before for Nick Jr. website and had kept in touch with them my senior year of college and began working for them after I graduated. Life was good, actually I could even consider that life was great. I had a great job, lived with 3 of my good friends on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but every day as I sat there in my cubicle at work, there was a part of me wondering what was going on in the world out there. I felt like I was missing out even though I was living in one of the greatest cities in the world. My curiosity had already begun to get the best of me as I found myself researching and googling travel programs any free second I got at work, and knew in the back of my mind that after one year of doing the "real world" I wanted to set out on an adventure that was off the "normal after college path." Well here was my answer, literally calling me. Looking back on that one phone call with Alexandra we both laugh about it when we tell people how I decided I would apply to teach English in Korea with her. I literally just said, "okay, sure, count me in." Aaaand that was that. I am 23 years old and the "work place" will always be there so why not take on the world while I still can. So, 7 months later, an hour interview with EPIK, about 1000000 pieces of paper work, and 22 hours of traveling, here we are teaching English to middle school Korean students in Daegu, South Korea. I guess if you want something bad enough, you just have to get through the paper work and make it happen! My friends and I have a saying we use for just about everything we do in life that's spontaneous or crazy, YOLO, ya only live once! Might as well make it a good one...

I wish I could take a snapshot of all the people I've met, the things I've seen or the encounters I've had since I landed in Korea. Words just don't even begin to describe it all. I wish my memory was just a picture you could see to get a real visual of it all or I wish I had written it all down immediately, but the last month has been a whirlwind of an adventure so I just kept putting it off...until NOW!




So let's  see if I can recap the good stuff.

 August 17th I flew out of JFK airport in New York City at 7 a.m. with one of my best friends Alexandra. Over the course of the 6 months leading up to our departure it just never really hit me that come August we would ACTUALLY be moving to Korea. I'm not sure it has still yet sunk in...But as of now, it may be one of the best choices I have ever made.

 As I mentioned before, words truly cannot do justice to describe the experience I have alread come to know here. From the moment I stepped onto the Singapore airlines flight that we would be on for the next 14 hours as we flew to Korea things already seemed so surreal. The flight crew treated us like royalty! Coming up and down the aisles with Orange juice, water, complimentary wine and alcoholic beverages, I mean if this was what Korea was going to be like, I was on the right plane! I had my first taste of some Korean food, and I thought if I liked it on the airplane then I would have no problem liking it over there. Thank god I was right (minus a few mishaps when I realized what exactly I was eating a bit too late..) Koreans tend to not fill you in on exactly what they are serving you until you say "oooh this is good, I like it." and you soon find out it is a part of an animal that could possibly make your food come back up.

 Landing at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, Korea, 14 hours later the adventure was beginning to unfold even more. It was light out the entire flight going in and out of all different timezones so my body and mind were a little out of whack when we landed.  There were about 15 other English teachers on the plane ride over with us so we all grouped together when heading through immigrations and so forth, not knowing what lay on the other side! We were greeted by the EPIK staff (the English Program in Korea) where we each were given a number and then waited with our luggage until we were called up to hand in some of our paper work and then sent off on a bus with the other teachers for the next 3 hours to Jeonju University where we would live for the next 9 days of Orientation.

 Orientation: It's hard to sum up because so much went on in those 9 days. For starters we were all put in dorm rooms. Some roomed with strangers since the majority of people ventured over to Korea alone (brave souls!) and Alex and I roomed together because by the time we got to our destination we had been traveling for 22 hours and the last thing we wanted to do at 1 a.m. was make small talk with a stranger before going to bed. None the less, we branched out the next day as we were put into different groups and met some great people who came to be some of our best friends here in Daegu. It's like instant family when you're all put into the same city, the same adventure, the same unknown! 

I will try to sum up those 9 days the best I can!

First of all: Kimchi. It is a word that I came to realize would be part of EVERY SINGLE meal I would ever eat in Korea. It is like rice in Korea, it is always apart of a meal! They have Kimchi soup, kimchi salad, kimchi EVERYTHING. It is always different depending on who is preparing the meal. It's sometimes spicy and it looks like a kind of red sauce over things. You'll have to try it someday! I have found that Koreans get pretty excited when I say I like Kimchi or other Korean foods. We were introduced to many of the different types of Korean food during Orientation. I soon realized Koreans love a lot of rice, meat and spices. I could deal with that...


We attended lectures almost everyday of orientation. These lectures were put on by other EPIK teachers who have already been teaching in cities all over Korea. They shared their experiences with us,told us what to expect, what to know, and as best they could, the most important one: How to teach!

I was very glad to know that almost all of the other "soon to be teachers" at orientation had little to no teaching experience as well. I graduated from St. Michael's College with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism, and a minor in English and ZERO experience in education. But, I suppose that just added to the adventure :) I had thought I would be one of the only ones who was heading over to Korea not even knowing how to say Hello in Korean, but I soon learned many other daring travelers were in the same boat, much to my relief.

We had 3 Korean language classes after our lectures for an hour at night. It made for a long day of information in about 100 degree weather, but looking back on it all now, it definitely paid off. 

Our Korean teacher made us stand up and practice the words out loud so we were forced to learn quickly to acoid embaressment! I finally learned how to say hello in Korean (annyeonhaseyo) and how to say thank you (gahm-sa-ham-nida) which were VERY helpful during my first week teaching! However, it gave some Korean teachers a false impression that I knew more than these 2 words so they would begin rambling away in Korean to me to which I would just smile and nod, always the safest route to take. 

The location of Jeonju University was on a small street full of Korean bars with lots of chicken and cheap beer, and Soju which we soon learned was a cheap form of Korean Vodka. 

As soon as lectures ended most teachers headed to the local chicken and beer joints that lined the streets to get to know eachother as some of us were all heading to the same cities in a few days! 

Besides the lectures, we explored downtown Jeonju, shared our stories from home, where we were from, went on class field trips to surrounding villages, made Korean fans, (did I mention it was about 100 degrees every day of orientation!?) Yes we practically melted. We all were living in small dorm rooms during orientation which brought me back to freshman year of college all over again. I loved it. It was exciting to wake up every day and not know how the day was going to unfold or who you were going to meet or what you were going to see. 

Other things during Orientation: we had an opening dinner and ceremony. At opening dinner everyone was just meeting one another but by the closing dinner the very last night tables were full of new faces and new friends that people had met along the course of the week. The opening ceremony was very cool. There was a Korean fan dance, Taekwondo, and an introduction into what to expect the next week. A current EPIK teacher also came and shared her experience in Korea with us as well which was exciting to hear about. We learned we would have many co-teachers that would help us get settled in our new homes. We had to take and pass a health exam during orientation as well. There  was a Talent show that one of my friend's performed "all the single ladies" with some hilarious back up dancers from our class. There were so many different things that happened it's hard to remember them all!

By the last day everyone was anxious, scared and very excited to get on our buses and head to our designated cities. Thankfully I had met alot of great people that were heading to teach in the same city of Daegu along with me. My friend Alexandra was also placed in Daegu so I was excited to get to my new home for the next year! Those 9 days felt like freshman year of college all over again. Everyone was just so excited, and new and in  a honeymoon phase of life!