My days in Jeonju were mostly spent in the university, The Place of Superstars. Yes, that is really their motto. Classes were from 9am-8pm for most nights that it was tough to recall all the good moment that occurred in between. I met so many great friends from around the world of varying experiences and skills, listened to insightful lectures by experienced EPIK staff, and guided by the coolest noona ever (okay, she would rather be called a yeodongsaeng.)
In a nutshell, Jeonju remained hot and humid for the entire time of my stay. The temperature hovered around or above 95 degrees with 90% humidity. I really thought I was going to pass out from the stagnant air while climbing seven flights of stairs to my dorm room.
440 participants arrived in Jeonju to receive instruction before heading out to such places including Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, Gwangju, Daejeon, and Gyeonbuk. 157 were going to Daegu. However, it’s deceiving, which I’ll explain later. I couldn’t help but make a rough guess and judge how many were actually taking this position seriously and who would immediately give in and give up teaching in Korea. One can never tell, I myself might hate it here too. But for others, they came here thinking that this would be an easy ride. In my case I was really looking to begin work in Korea and not expect a vacation or take a vacation many times during my stay here. That is not to say that work should not be enjoyable; in fact, this position should be the most fun with many challenges. I, of course, want to have a great time here, but that is only dependent on how well I teach in Daegu.
That said, my mind for the first few days, were heavily focused on the medical exam. Reason being that my ICD will show up on the X-ray; and boy, did it show up damn clearly! In any event, I passed the medical exam with flying colors because I didn’t have HIV/AIDS, syphillis, or Hepatitis B. The medical test was 50,000 won( > $50). I thought it was expensive, but if you get a rather detailed health exam in the U.S., it would easily have been $200+. The lab work and radiology costs in the U.S. is ridiculous. So the exam took less than 30 minutes and within that time frame, you go through an organized system of height/weight check, eye test, hearing test, color blind test, blood pressure test, blood work, urine test, and X-ray. I should get more medical checkups here instead!
When the 10 days were up, not a moment of relaxation. We were whisked away for a 3 hour bus ride to Daegu. The 5 bus caravan to Daegu was pretty cool. The road was mostly empty beside our expedition. The road was surrounded by serene mountains, rolling hillside, and green trees. A portion of the Daegu teachers were dropped off at a high school in city center where instructions for the first month would be made. Then, the teachers were guided by their respective locations in Daegu to the school auditorium, where the co-teachers would pick the EPIK teachers up and drive them to their new apartments and/or give them a tour of their neighborhood/school.
The first group to leave for the school auditorium were those departing for Dalseong region. There were 5-6 guys, most of them my age, and I found that rather striking. I knew this was fishy because all of us were guys in our late 20s, teaching middle/high school students. I didn’t know exactly but something was up.
I met my co-teacher who was really friendly. She wasn’t as young as the other co-teachers, but she was obviously more nervous than I was because she wanted to get to her car before I had a chance to pick up my luggage. Then when she was going to do a U-turn in the parking lot, she gently brushed against the car in front and was frantic. She started to freak out and tried to find someone to apologize to. Luckily, she had the phone number of the teacher’s car and called that teacher to inform her of the situation. Okay, second try...we finally left the school, but I saw on my co-teacher’s dashboard that one of the doors was open. So I checked my door and slammed it. And then I realized that the trunk may still be ajar. So she stopped onto the side of the busy downtown street and checked the trunk. Sure enough, that was it. She was afraid that her GPS might misguide us, oh dear... Time to calm down, co-teacher...
We were off for a drive, but I was wondering where the fuck she was driving. She was driving in the opposite direction that the bus from Jeonju had dropped us off! Her car laden with pink Hello Kitty seat covers and waving dashboard ornaments was a typical dose of Asian cuteness overload, especially for a lady in her mid-30s.
After a half hour on the road and nearly leaving city limits, we were deep in a forested area reminiscent of Santa Cruz Mountains. I gather that we are about 30km away from downtown Daegu. We are still in Daegu, it is a huge city and the drive to Dalseong is the equivalent of San Francisco to San Mateo. Within Dalseong, my little district is called Nongong-eup. There are major factories on the outskirts of town, including auto part manufacturing; I heard that the workers are on strike, which is a reason why I’ve seen more kids rushing out to get somewhere than their older counterparts.
When my co-teacher drove me to my new place, I was immediately hit with a foreboding sense of loneliness and sick feeling of “taking the plunge.” I was excited about my new position but felt so distant from where I thought I would be. I didn’t mind being almost anywhere in Korea, seriously, that’s the truth! But after my confirmation that I would be in Daegu, my mind rested on the fact that I would be in the city and not out in the boonies.
Again, there would be no rest. Once seeing my apartment, I had to memorize my apartment access code and set up a passcode for my apartment. Then I had to think of all the things that I would need that were still missing and all the services that remained offline, such as internet and gas. Then my co-teacher and some administrative officials from my school and district walked me through town noting all the landmarks that were essential, such as bus stop, bank, grocery store, restaurants, pharmacy, etc. After that, I had to eat some heavy pork stew in my town; I think that was the only thing on the menu so there are no other options. Then I had to go to the local mart and get all the groceries I would need in the meantime. My mind was blank so I could only think of bread, cereal, milk, water, and juice. My co-teacher was watching me the whole time so it was a bit unsettling.
It was getting late and I was planning to get to sleep. But I felt bothered and rushed by everything that has happened within the last day, and perhaps for the past 10 days. I walked out of my apartment and walked three blocks down to what seemed like the center of my town. I past the GS-25, a mart similar to 7-11 (which they also have in Korea) and noticed white waegooks (foreigners)! Upon closer inspection, they were the guys from my EPIK orientation! What a small world! We had no idea what happened to the other guy or two that were shipped off to Dalseong, but the three of us were in this town! Sweet!
However, we still felt lonely because we didn’t know how to take public transport at this point in time and knew that our area literally shuts down after 10PM. Hardly anyone speaks English in Nongong-eup so we had to thrust ourselves willingly to acquire fluency in Korean ASAP.
