Orientation.

I'll start with a picture. We are set up with roommates at our hotel. My roommate's English name is Jessie. She's from South Korea. Apparently you get to pick your own English name here. I think that's pretty awesome. She's super sweet and came equipped with a bag full of tangerines. We shared a beer and a conversation before hitting the sheets.


Today was the first day of training and boyyyy, it's going to be a long week. The classroom I'll be teaching in is a "smart" classroom so I'll have a tablet and the students will have their own tablets as well. I am the only person in my training group, go figure. But at least that means it will be very efficient. I have to learn how to use the program on the tablet as well as learn all of the teaching methods I'm supposed to be using. I have homework. Homework? Really? Ugh. I have to watch like twenty videos and take a quiz at the end of it all. Tomorrow I'll be mock teaching, or "simulations" as they call it. It's a little overwhelming but I'm sure I'll be fine. Or at least I hope so.

We also had medical exams today. I passed. WOOOO HOOOOO. But seriously. It was such a weird little place where the exams took place. It was in a medical office, but it was set up so weird. I had to walk around to a bunch of different stations to get my blood pressure taken, blood drawn, even an EKG. But none of the stations were in their own room. I don't know, it was just strange.

There are a bunch of other people going through training this week. We're all going to different locations so we all have different training methods we have to learn, hence why I'm the only one in my training group. Everyone is super cool. There are people from South Africa, London, Canada, South Korea, and of course, the US (Wisconsin and Californiaaaa<3) Knowing that there are a bunch of different cultures involved in this one program makes me excited to get to my branch and meet more of them. Training today consisted of pretty much just orientation and an in-depth overview of teaching for Chungdahm.

We weren't allowed to eat all day before the medical exams, so finally when they were all over, we were all starving and went out for our first Korean meal... at least my first. I already forgot what we ate was called, however, I know it was some type of soup with meat and noodles. I was told that this type of dish was relevant to the army. It was like simple foods that people in the army eat, all mixed together in a pot of spicy broth. It was delicious. They also brought over three different side dishes and rice. The chopsticks were hard to use, I think because they were made of metal and were heavier than your typical chopsticks. I felt silly when I couldn't use them that well because I am a pro sushi eater at home and can use chopsticks just fine.

Today was successful, I'd say. Check ya'll later.