Provincial Orientation: A Whirlwind

Cheers and Hello!

It's another post! Yes, I know, two? So soon? Welllllll~ I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks, so I'm making up for it.

Anyway, after the closing ceremony for Busan, we all left for the provincial orientation. Well, most of us did. Some people had no provincial orientation and some orientations are longer than others. The Jeonnam orientation is by far the longest, a whopping 8 days, with only 1 day for rest (thank Gawd for Sundays). Let's just say the Jeonnam Orientation was the Busan orientation condensed into 8 days. Well, more like 7 days because on the first day, we just rested and went out on the town. Gwangju is a nice city (although I'm still digging Busan just a tiny bit more). It was a three-hour drive to our orientation facility from BUFS. We went from a group of 116 scholars (plus 2 who came later) to a small snug group of 22. Ironically, exactly half of this group was from my class in the national orientation, Group C. Keep it Class-C. Lol.

The facility we were at was specific to teacher training and for the first half of the orientation, we had the run of the place. We spent the first day, like I said, resting before classes. In the evening, after dinner, our POE coordinator, Jae Lee (or Papa Jae, as we all call him) took us into the town via bus to show us where the youngun's hang out.

When we walked around, I spotted a churro place and I immediately went to get a churro (I freakin' love churros). The owner, a nice man, said my hair was pretty and the two workers (both guys as well) agreed. I got a churro... and a free ice-cream. I officially named him my Gwangju churro guy. I mean, I got a free ice-cream! And when I went back later, they still remembered me.

It's ben a while and so much happened, so I'm gonna keep it short.

We had our opening ceremony the next day and got right down to business: we had classes. Yep. More classes on pedagogical methods for EFL in South Korea. They clearly take this very seriously. I feel like I should've gotten a TEFL certification after both orientations. Really. All the classes and practice teaching demos. I think I deserve a TEFL certificate. Yes, I had another practicum.

The nice thing about Practicum 3 was that it was a co-teaching class, with actual Korean co-teachers. It was longer, but more realistic in the sense that we'll know how to work with co-teachers. My co-teacher was an adorable guy named Gi-Won. Unfortunately, he wasn't my official KTS, but he was cool people. He's that awkward duckling that you can't help but wanna put in your pocket and take with you everywhere. Anyway, the people who assessed our class said I did good, I just needed to be more enthusiastic (apparently I'm too stoic, but my students like it, so whatevs) and they like how I actually made use of my co-teacher.

We also went on another cultural trip to Jeonbuk where we went to Jeonju, famous for it's Hanok village (aka) the traditional Korean village. I got some cute owl earrings there. They were real silver, and surprisingly cheap. We also went to explore the museum/former palace. It was pretty. Then we went to go make bibimbap, which is this dish of rice and veggies and egg that is served hot and delicious. After that, we were let loose and told to be back by about 5 to head back down to Jeonnam. While prowling he hanok village, we saw a street performance and the indie musicians were pretty good. We got their facebook info too. We're friends now.

Later, we had a class on traditional Korean music and I played the Janggu, a traditional Korean drum. It was awesome. And the teacher was a good singer and I asked her to be my singing instructor. She was totally down for it too. We also had a class where we wore hanbok, traditional Korean garb. I looked good. No, really, I did. Look at the picture. Anyway, we kinda forced Saya and Leo to get married. It was fun. I was a Bridesmaid and I helped Saya get married. Leo had to do a bunch of stuff too. He had to get his feet smacked by the guests until she sang to him (the 3 bears song) and he had to carry her around the classroom to prove he was worthy of his bride. Poor Leo.

Anyway, what else? Hmmm, we had a talent show after our Closing ceremony. Yes, another one. This time I sang "Where are you? What are you doing?" by B.A.P. Once again, I have no video. I'll probably do a cover for my Youtube Channel (look it up, Thatlillady). We'll see. It was a hit, but it was hard because being a B.A.P song, there's rapping and I'm no rapper in English. Imagine doing it in Korean. But whatever. It worked.

After the talent show, we had lunch with our MT (mentor teachers) and then went off to our schools. My teacher took my to my apartment (literally, 15 minute drive from the orientation facility) and then to get myself a phone. Lastly, he took me to the school to meet the staff.

And that was orientation in a nutshell.

Cheers!