Day 5-7: More Orientation

August 24, 2011

Day 7 of living in Korea. It has hardly been Korean living since we have all been sheltered in the hotel with all the other foreigners.

On Sunday we had a "cultural experience field trip".

Our first stop was Naganupsong Folk Village. Residents of the village are subsidized by the government for living a traditional lifestyle. We had 2 hours to wander around, look at the little buildings and little shops. It was neat to see how traditional villages looked.



We had lunch at a Korean restaurant near the village... soup/rice/kimchi.



From there we headed to Suncheon Bay Park. It was a nature reserve and "leisurely" hike that turned into a hardcore mounting climbing session (okay, slight exaggeration but it was still intense). The walk was 3 km each way, and mostly uphill. Leading up the mountain, there were marshlands with a wooden boardwalk along it. In the mud there were thousands of cute little crabs. As I struggled up the mountain, I noticed that all of the women were wearing heels up which made me feel silly to be complaining! Safe to say we indulged in ice cream and water on our way down.




After Suncheon Bay, we had some time so we drove to a Bamboo forest.

This city (Damyang) is well-known for it's bamboo so, naturally, for dinner we stopped at a bamboo-themed restaurant. We ate rice out of bamboo bowls, ate bamboo chutes, and drank bamboo wine! Yummy.





Overall the field trip was amazing. We got to see some great places. On the ride back to the hotel, we busted into the nore-bang! The bus had it's own karaoke machine! It was hilarious and made for a much more entertaining ride.

On Monday it was back to the classrooms for more sessions. We heard about "Teaching Korean Students" which was entertaining. We also had a session on "Classroom Management" which was similar to tactics taught in teachers college.

Last night I ventured out to town. We found the Burger King and did some shopping. We managed to find a place called "Cat Cafe" which was literally a place to drink coffee and hang out with cats.


We met up with the rest of the group at Wabar, had some beers, and headed down to Bubble Bar... Bubble Bar is great because I felt like I was at home with all the Western music. It was a lot of fun and ended pretty late... Bars here don't close until 6am!

So it's safe to say that I was not a ball of energy this morning. Of course the first session we had was "Korean Music" which included banging on drums and obligatory performances in front of the group. My nightmare.

Bibimbap for lunch then a presentation on "School Expectations"... Zzz.

Anyway, I've pretty much hit my high-energy wall and just want to unload in my own apartment. I can hardly remember life before this hotel!

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