Orlientation!

Ok, so from Thursday to Monday I was at the Canadian Connections orientation for English teachers. It took place at the Paradise Hotel, which isn't as paradise as you may think. It was pretty much smack dab in the middle of an Industrial Park, which is great if you like that sort of thing, but me, not so much. Basically, the entire weekend was spent meeting new people, sitting through the world's second most boring lectures behind First Aid and gaining about 10 pounds from all the free food consumed. The orientation was mandatory as stated in our contracts, so there was no way out of it and because my contract had already started when I arrived at the beginning of the month I was being paid. WooHoo! Thursday I arrived at the hotel at 2:00 p.m. and hung out in my hotel room for a bit and then met up with some of the other teacher's who had come earlier in March like me. I went and spent a couple hours eating and shopping in Chinatown with Karalee and Nathan, they are a couple here together from Ontario, Karen and Lisa, who are older women also from Ontario. We had a lot of fun shopping after we ate. I bought plates for 1,000 won and mugs for 500 won. It doesn't get cheaper than that. My favorite purchase was my 5,000 won orange crocs like shoes that had Hello Kitty and Butterfy decals on them. After we got back to the hotel there was a dinner for us and then all the people who had arrived at the beginning of March and the 5 guys that had just arrived that night went to a local bar down the street from the hotel and had about 5 jugs of beer amongst us and each only paid about 4,000 won. Stupid cheap to drink here. The freakiest part about Thursday night was that my roommate ended up getting really sick and she had to leave to go to the hospital around midnight. I was worried that it was really serious. I asked her if I could do anything for her and she said no, so I let her go on with her business.

Friday was the start of the lectures and everyone had to be there. This included the teacher's who had been here since October, so that was shitty for them to have to be there 5 months into their contracts, but because they had missed the September orientation this one was mandatory. One of the guest speakers on Friday, David Jackman, has been teaching in Korea for about three years and his lecture was one of the best because he had us moving around and role playing a typical Korean classroom situation. It was actually a lot of fun! There was still no sign of my roommate at this point, so I was getting worried, but there was nothing I could do. Friday is when I met some pretty amazing people. I met up with Mary Anne, who I've known since I got here and she introduced me to her friends Laura and Andrew, another couple here together, Mischa, and Jeff (all from Canada, mom). We all pretty much hung out the entire weekend together along with Karalee and Nathan who I met Thursday. Friday night turned out to be a pretty fun night. We all drank in Andrew and Laura's hotel room and played cards and other drinking games and then around 10:00 p.m. we all headed out to the Western bar Rio, which I've mentioned in an earlier blog, for their friend Paul's birthday. The bar was super crowded and smoky as hell, but it turned out to be pretty fun. I chatted with a girl I took an English course with at the University of Calgary my first year there, how crazy is that? I knew she was here, but still, small world. Laura, Andrew, Mischa, Jeff and I ended the night at McDonalds.

Saturday was a very long day, especially since I was still sick and very tired from the night before. Anywas, the lectures this day seemed especially painful because I kept nodding off and they weren't very interesting. The one good lecture was a lady who teaches high school here in Incheon and she discussed the meaning of Han and Cheong to us, which are just Korean traditional emotions and how they are expressed or not expressed. Also, the gentleman who talked about Korean traditions and culture was very interesting. Since I wasn't feeling very well I didn't drink or do much Saturday night. I hung out with the usual crew and went to bed before 10:00 p.m. hoping that would make me feel a little better and because I didn't want to be sick, hungover, or tired for the city tour on Sunday.

Sunday was city tour today. We were all given grey zip up hoodies for city tour today, so that we would know where everyone was and not get lost and to also represent who we were. We were also given lanyards with our names and country on it, so that everyone would know everyone. Then we were divided onto two buses, bus A and bus B. Of course, all my friends were on B bus and I rode solo on A bus, super fun! It wasn't that bad though because the buses went to the same place at the same time. Two buses were unnecessary for the amount of people, but not everyone who was suppose to be there showed...tsk tsk! We started the journey off at the Sudoguskan Museum of Housing and Living. It was small, but it was cute and held a lot of meaning back in the days of war and refuge. I have posted some pictures I took at the Museum for your viewing pleasure. After the Museum we headed to the Foreign Help Center (Talk House) to hear a presentation on the services they offer. They are basically, a place foreigners can go to learn Korean, if they need legal assistance or assistance with apartments (translation, etc). Then we went for lunch, which was bugogi yet again. Following lunch we went to Wolmido Island to catch a boat ride. Pause: exercise equipment on the pier? Yes, it was randomly there for anyone to workout. What was even more surprising was the older people working out on it in their business attire. Strange, but something that happens on a regular basis. As we were wondering around the pier while waiting for the boat we noticed some chickens and turkeys fenced off randomly in this area. Then out of nowhere we noticed a monkey in a cage. Literally, a monkey was trapped in this cage going nuts, he was shaking like mad and yelping. I was absolutely appalled by the sight of the monkey that I'm sure is meant to be in the wild and I know for a fact is not a solitary animal. *I'm lame and took a couple courses in Primatology, so I know all about the monkeys. It was so sad and I actually had to walk away before I broke down in tears. It made me sick to my stomach that he was being confined and treated with such a lack of respect. Ok, I'm done with the monkey talk.* The boat ride was fun. It was 90 minutes long and we got to see the new bridge being built, which is huge and amazing. There were live shows on the boat and they were pretty funny, but my pictures didn't really turn out because it was too dark, so unfortunatley, I have no pictures to show of the shows. Once we had docked and the boat ride was over about 25 of us didn't get off the boat and no one working noticed. Once this one guy did notice he rushed us down to the main deck and they had to pull out the emergency stairs for us to climb down. I can only imagine what all the Koreans watching and the boat staff were thinking, damn foreigners and their drinking. Yet no one was drunk.

Following the minor boat escapade we headed back to the hotel for dinner and then another free evening to ourselves. All the food was paid for and the breakfasts and dinners were buffet style and western type foods, for the most part. Lunch every single day was bugogi (spelling doesn't look right). We all got pretty sick of bugogi after orientation. Sunday night was fun. A bunch of us did some pre-drinking in Julian and Ross's room. They are two friends that came together from Colorado. They were nice enough to let us drink and hang out. Afterwards, we went noreabanging, which was a lot of fun with the big group of us. Some people participated more than others. I still have my stuffed nose man voice, so singing isn't up to Julia par just yet. Here is a picture of Julian and Nick singing. Middle picture is Julian, Ross and Mary Anne singing and then me and Julian not singing. Sunday was a late night, but a fun night, so getting up Monday was harsh, but it needed to be done because Monday (the last day of orientation) we met with our co-teachers and sat through another lecture. Some people were just meeting their co-teachers for the first time, but most people already knew their co-teachers. Everyone was glad when orientation ended because it was a long and tiring weekend. After the lecture ended on Monday Jiny took me to Chinatown and we looked around briefly. She bought me the greatest orange wallet with a doll drawn on it. It's so cute and she is so nice to me I feel like I owe her so much, like maybe my life. Here is a picture of the plates, mugs, shoes and wallet that I purchased this weekend in Chinatown. Sorry, this blog was so long, but I didn't want to break it up into seperate blogs, so suffer.