EPIK Orientation Part 1 – All you need to know about my first few days in Jeonju, South Korea

I figure now would be as good a time as any to tell you a little bit about what I’ve been doing the past few days since arriving in Korea.  I would do one-big-orientation-post, but it’d run the risk of being way too long for anyone to want to read (much less me to write).  So, I thought I’d split it up in to 2 parts.

Part 1-First few days

I woke up Wednesday morning still very very groggy (and on 3hrs sleep) and went downstairs with my roomie for breakfast.  I actually had kimchi, rice, eggs and bread for breakfast!  I have not found it too difficult to eat any of the food here, though I have longed for a bagel once or twice ;).   We have very similar food for all three meals, though we have some cereals and breads with breakfast.  We went on a campus tour, as we are located at Jeonju University, and had some free time before lunch.  After lunch, we had a great Welcoming Ceremony with a Taekwondo demonstration from the college!

After the opening ceremony, we had a class meeting (we are broken in to 4 main groups) and then had dinner.  By the end of dinner, I could barely keep my eyes open as I had only about 6hrs sleep in the past 50+hrs.  I crawled back upstairs and passed out at 7:30pm!

Woke up at 6am on Thursday feeling much better-though I wasn’t looking forward to the medical checkup (and not being allowed to have any food) that I had scheduled for 8:30!  They had me fill out a short medical eval, and then proceeded to check my height/weight, eyesight, hearing, colorblindness, blood pressure and lungs. I also had a blood test and urinalysis.   I’m sure everything will turn out just fine, though it was an amusing start to the day.  I was really impressed that they were able to draw blood easily as I have a long history of having issues when needing to have blood taken-especially when I haven’t had anything to drink.  They also gave us a yummy pastry once we were finished.  Best part, other than the pastry, was being able to take my allergy meds again (though I seem to be doing much better now that I’m outside of Ohio) and can take tylenol if I get a headache!

I’ve provided a schedule for the rest of my orientation below as the rest of our time mainly consists of classes, a cultural trip, more classes and a closing ceremony.  I will post again to give you details about the cultural trip to the traditional Hanuk village in Jeonju and again with any final details I can come up with about orientation.

Everything has been good thus far, though a bit overwhelming at times!  I’m meeting new people and making friends slowly but surely and am looking forward to finally starting my life in Daegu!