Wow! EPIK orientation flew by! After getting out of quarantine in Seoul, we had a two hour bus ride to Jungwon University where our orientation was held. I was shocked as we were pulling into the university because of how grand it looked: white marble, huge buildings, and green, lush scenery. It was an amazing sight to see after being stuck in the same room for two weeks. We all were assigned our own dorm rooms and after putting my stuff away, I had a few hours to wander around campus. That campus had everything! A golf course, soccer fields, a botanical garden, an airplane exhibit, a spa, a pool, basketball courts, badminton, a museum, you name it, it had it!
People were everywhere and we were all so excited to get to know one another. I can’t explain how great it felt to finally talk to people, instead of only waving at them through my hotel window. Every person I met was incredibly kind which made me feel lucky to be surrounded by and get to work with such a great group of people. It was so good to finally be out of quarantine, but it made me laugh because I had a headache at the end of the night since I hadn’t been around that many people or had that much activity in one day for a while.
Orientation went by fast. It was only a five day orientation, but it was jam packed full of activities. Everyone was divided into groups with people who were going to the same city or province. This was great because we were able to make friends with people who would be living near us for the next year. Each day we had different presentations about co-teaching, life in Korea, and lesson planning. When we didn’t have a presentation to attend, we spent the time working on our lesson demos. Everyone was given a partner and a lesson topic that we had to teach the class in 15 minutes. Although the lesson seemed easy at first my partner and I spent hours working on our lesson plan. In hindsight we stressed way too much over it, because after we presented it we got a lot of positive feedback. If anyone is wanting to become an EPIK teacher in the future, my advice to you would be do not stress about the lesson plan. Easier said than done, but try not to freak out too much about it.
The orientation ended on a bit of a sad note because the county we were staying in, Goesan, enforced stricter Covid rules. The new rules didn't allow for groups larger than two people. This meant that our last day of orientation was spent in our dorm room watching the presentations via Zoom. Sound like deja vu? We were able to come out of our rooms and walk around the campus if we stayed to ourselves, but unfortunately it was raining all day. However, we did get to meet in smaller groups of people that afternoon to sign our contracts and fill out documents needed for our new life in Korea. Then it was time to pack my suitcases (I'm becoming a pro at it) and get ready to leave in the morning. Next stop: Gwangju!
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