Orientation Part 2

I had 8 days of a fairly intense orientation for EPIK. We arrived in Daejeon (대전) on Feb. 20 and finished on the 28th. I made some great friends both Western and Korean. I almost cried when we all had to say goodbye. The pictures I'm posting are from in the classroom and from our field trip day to a traditional farm village.

Andy from England and Stephanie from Wisconsin. Stephanie and I actually live in the same city now, just on opposite sides.

This was my desk partner and final project partner Darren from Austrailia.

This is Son from San Diego. He's pretty comical.

Our fantastic, fantastic class teacher Jay.

This is our class on the field trip.

Peter from Canada and Chris from England.

Andy and Beth (Canada) eating bibimbap 비빔밥 at the village's cafeteria.

Looking down the table at our whole class eating.

Grace from New Zealand and I eating our 비빔밥.

 This is a traditional Korean game which is basically a seesaw, and you work together to get some height.

If you get the timing down right, the two people can actually get really high in the air.

We made cell phone accessories. This is Tyler from Florida. He is now living and teaching on Jeju Island.

This is Daniel. He was our assistant teacher, and he was super helpful and kind.

Jay and Daniel working together to make a cell phone accessory. They were super cute, like older sister and younger brother.

This is Charles. He is another EPIK staff member. He is really funny.

This is Courtney from New York. He are posing in front of our scarves that we dyed ourselves.

This is a Korean tractor. We all got to take a ride on the back.

Everyone was super excited to have a turn on the tractor.

The mountains everywhere are really beautiful. I think that everything will be even more beautiful once the trees start blooming.

This is our class learning how to make tofu!

This is our tofu!

Orientation

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted anything. I am currently in the midst of orientation for the EPIK program. We are in Daejeon (대젼) at an enclosed campus. Today has been the first full day. We've been in classes since 9AM, and we have one more to go after dinner. But this is one of the few long days like this, and all of the classes have been very interesting and helpful so far.

I'll post a few pictures of some of the other teachers here with me, and the campus area.

 The girl on the left is my roommate Katie, from Ohio. To the right is Travis, from New York City.

This is looking down the table at the other teachers. We stopped at a local bar just across the street from our campus. The beer on the table is Hite and Cass, which are both Korean beers. The smaller green bottle is Soju, which is a Korean liquor made from rice. It takes a bit like a lower-alcohol vodka.

These are three guys that are in my class with me. The guy on the left is Chris, from London. In the middle is Son, from San Diego. I can't remember the guy's name on the right (I'm not the best when it comes to names).

This is looking down from the second floor patio/garden of the cafeteria building.

This is also from that second floor patio.

This is the building where all of our lectures are held. I'm not sure if you can see it, but the banner says: "EPIK Lecture Building".  That's also where they had our opening ceremony for the Orientation where a group of local high school boys played a traditional Korean style of drumming called "samunori" (사무노리). They were incredible!

This is a quick shot of the road going down to the entrance to the whole campus area. I'm not sure it comes through since it was cloudy, but there are mountains in the background. There are mountains everywhere in Korea (at least in all the parts I've been so far). It's really beautiful.

Saying Goodbye to Jin and Young-Mi

Today my friend Jin, and her sister-in-law Young-Mi flew back to Bloomington. So I got to see Incheon Airport again, but this time in daylight.

 Jin is on the left, and Young-Mi is on the right. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way to the airport called Tom N Toms Coffee. We had to leave the apartment at 7AM this morning, so the coffee was necessary.

Here is a shot of the whole family together. I don't think Jin and her father-in-law were paying attention. That's Jin's stylish leopard-print suitcase to the right. I found it kind of funny to watch her father-in-law haul that around the airport for her.

Korean Table Manners

So I thought it might be interesting to share significant differences between American table manners and Korean table manners. Before I go into the table manners, maybe a little general Koren etiquette is necessary.
Rule #1: Once you enter someone's house your shoes need to come off in the entryway. It's generally a very obvious thing since are there are many many shoes just sitting there. There's a little raised step for when you actually leave the entryway and enter to house. Your shoes need to come off before you step up into the house.
And I think that's basically all you need to know for background on table manners.

Traditionally, meals are eaten on a low table where everyone sits on the floor or on a small cushion. So that's why your shoes should already be off. Some restaurants have traditional-style seating so they have the same set-up as the house where there's a entryway for you to take off your shoes, and a raised floor to indicate the break between shoes-on and shoes-off zone.
The floors are all heated so it's actually really comfortable. It's not like you're sitting on a cold floor.

There are a few distinctly different table manners from what our parents teach us in America as "proper".

Korea:  Talking with your mouth full - OK
             Smacking your lips while chewing - OK
             Slurping your soup/noodles - OK
             Belching - OK (but this just might be a male-only thing)
             Having the TV on while eating - OK (I actually have yet to eat a meal here where there           wasn't a TV on in the home or restaurant.)

             Stabbing your chopsticks into your rice - Not OK (this is how they present rice to a deceased person at death anniversaries)
             Pointing your chopsticks at someone - Not OK

Those are the big differences that I can think of off the top of my head. There's a whole other set of rules when drinking alcohol, which I was only briefly taught. I'll write what I know of that.

Korean Etiquette Rules for Drinking Alcohol:
#1. If someone is pouring you a glass alcohol, and they're older than you or in a higher social position - hold your glass with both hands, or support your extended right arm (glass in hand) with your left hand either behind your elbow or in front of your elbow (no one has explained to me the significance of the left hand placement).
#2. If drinking in the company of those older than you or in a higher social position (aka your boss) - turn away from them when you drink (this rule only applies to alcohol)
#3. If someone pours a glass of alcohol for you - you should pour a glass for them in turn
#3-1. If pouring alcohol for someone older than you or in a higher social position - pour the bottle with both hands, or with your left hand supporting your right arm either behind or in front of the elbow (once again the significance of the left hand's placement is lost on me)

I'll finish this post up with a couple pictures from a traditional-style restaurant we went to in Asan (아산) which is another little city next to Cheonan (천안) where I'm currently staying.

 This is a traditional Korean house that has been converted into a restaurant. The restaurant was divided into two spaces: Western (aka tables and chairs) and traditional (low tables and floor seating).

We sat in the traditional section as pictured here.

Day 3 Part 3

This is the final part of my day today: going out to dinner with the family!

This is Jin.

This is one of the kids. He's the older brother.

This is the other kid that had dinner with us. He's the younger brother, and that's his mom holding him. Korean kids are probably the cutest I've ever seen.
As you can maybe see in the back of this picture, we ate at a restaurant called "Dino Meat". You pick out what kind of meat you'd like, then you cook it yourself on a table grill. They serve the meat with many many sides. It's really delicious, and very popular apparently because that restaurant was packed!

Day 3 Part 2

These are pictures of Independence Hall which is a big museum complex in memorial to Korea's independence from Japan. If you plan to visit, plan on spending almost the whole day there. The museum is divided into 7 separate buildings, beginning from the very start of Korea's history as a people (and I'm talking stone age). It was very interesting, and everything was in English as well as Korean. Well worth visiting, I think. It has a huge outdoor space as well, which I'm sure will be absolutely beautiful once things are blooming.

This is walking across a bridge from the parking lot towards Independence Hall.

This is Jin's mother-in-law. She has been so great. She doesn't really speak any English, and I really don't speak any Korean but it still works just fine.

Looking back from the steps of the actual memorial building.

Evolution of the South Korean flag. There have been a few different versions.

This space was giant! That's Jin's mother-in-law standing in front.

Jin! Just to give a little perspective as to how big this memorial is.

There are 8 people on the statue, each representing a province of Korea. A child sits on the shoulder of one of the men, representing the future goal of justice.

Side view.

This is a statue inside the ... fourth or fifth building. I can't remember exactly now. It's the commemorate their Independence Day: March 1, 1919. The people are supposed to be shouting "Manse!" which is equivalent to "Hooray!" in English.

Closer shot of the statue.

The history between Korea and Japan is very complicated and bloody based on what I saw today. I can't really do it justice in trying to explain. I only understand a little bit of the whole picture. Things you should know about Japan's imperialist rule of Korea (from what I understand of the Korean perspective, I strongly emphasize Korean perspective): 1. It is the "East Sea" and not the "Japan Sea" 2. Dokdo belongs to Korean, and not Japan 3. The Japanese military truly did some horrendous things to Korean people (and I agree with this based on what I saw at today's museum) some of which includes: forcing Korean women into becoming prostitutes for the Japanese military and drafting young Korean men to fight for the Japanese army against China, and burning trapped people alive inside buildings. There are many others (it's complicated). 4. Japan, as a government, refuses to acknowledge the extent of the abuse inflicted upon the Koreans by their military. Most significantly the forced prostitution of Korean women.
I want to stress again that all the information I've heard has been from a Korean perspective. I have no idea what a Japanese person thinks about any of this. There is still resentment towards Japan, but my feeling from what I've seen and heard is that it's because there has not been any acknowledgement or apology for what happened.

Day 3 Part 1

Today was a pretty packed day, and it isn't even over yet. I'm going to divide it up into two different posts. The first part will be from this morning. I was able to go on a tour of a local middle school here in Cheonan. These pictures of of that school.

This is the front of the school, as you're walking towards the main doors. That is Jin's father-in-law talking on the cellphone.

This is one of the classrooms. I'm told that this school is exceptionally nice, because it's only a couple years old.

This is inside the principal's office.

And this is the principal's chair. I'm not sure if there's any significance to the white covers and pillow.

This is Jin! We were waiting for her father-in-law to finish with his meeting. He's one of the school's administrators.

This is the restaurant we went to after leaving the middle school. Jin's mother-in-law owns and runs this restaurant. It's been in business for 20 years now. The seating area is the raised platform. Once you step up onto that, your shoes have to be off. There are cushions stored underneath the table for people to sit on.

This is what we ate. It had chicken, rice cake, sesame leaves, cabbage, onion, and red pepper paste. It was bubbling in the pan while we ate from it. This is made from a recipe that Jin's mother-in-law inherited from her mother.