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!
Hi Lindsay.
I’m enjoying reading about your adventures with EPIK and had a question. How extensive was the hearing test? My husband has some frequency loss due to an ear infection many years ago, but has taught for 15 years with no problem hearing the students, nor do they have any problems hearing his speaking voice. Is the hearing exam a booth test, or does the doctor just talk to you during the routine exam? Our fear is that we will quit our teaching jobs to come to Korea and teach, then be sent home if he does not pass their hearing screening. Please let me know what exactly you had to do for the hearing exam during your orientation week. Thank you so much and best wishes on your first year teaching with EPIK.
Hi Catherine-thanks for reading my blog!
The hearing portion of my exam was a bit of a joke. The entire medical exam was in a gym and there was a lot of ambient noise. We sat down at a table in the middle of the room and were given ancient headphones. With zero instructions I believe we were just suppose to let the examiner know which ear we heard the sound come from–took about 2min for the entire test.
To be honest, I don’t think one of my headphones was working as I didn’t hear anything out of the left side!
I don’t know of anyone who failed that part of the test and I know several of us were clueless as far as the instructions went.
I can’t say 100% that your test would be the same, but I can say that our hearing test was more of a formality than a test 😊
Did you have to take off your shirt ever during the orientation medical check up?!
Hello! I did not – I did have to remove my bra for the chest x-ray, but that’s it!