Author: Samuel Grguric

After a rather exhausting first day of being on Jeju Island, the next day the girls decided to take it easy while the boys climbed Mount Hallasan, the ginormous mountain in the middle of the island. I’m all for getting down and dirty hiking, but not on vacation. Though it was nowhere near warm enough to actually swim, we decided to check out Soesogoak, or Black Sand, Beach.

                                                                                       

It was about a 20 minute ride on the 730 bus and then another quick 20 walk minute to the beach. As you walk along you’ll see a dried up riverbed along one side that gradually turns into an actual river that meets up with the ocean. On this river you can get into glass bottom boats to paddle along and check out the wildlife in the river. It’s not too expensive, and though we didn’t partake in this particular adventure, I can say that it was a beautiful place and the water was about as blue as you’re going to get anywhere.

The road to the beach itself has a ton of vendors who sell everything from the famous Jeju unshiu orange (which is delicious, by the way), to hats, key chains, and tons of other awesome, touristy things. The beach is, indeed, as black as it’s name, but it’s also incredibly rocky. Most of the sandy beaches that you picture when you’re going on vacation are up north by Jeju City, but I liked the ruggedness of the beach. It was less about swimming and more about staking these ginormous rocks, taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t get the memo when I wore white pants out to the Black Sand beach, but it rolls right off of you so 10 points there!

                                                                   

We didn’t spend too long at the beach, just long enough to walk around, stack our ginormous rocks and embarrass ourselves at a pizza place that was on the road leading down to the beach. In Jeju, probably because they see so many tourists, the locals aren’t necessarily keen on you speaking Korean. This was a shock for both my friend and I since we’re nearly conversationally fluent in Korean and speak it on a daily basis here in Chungju. Nevertheless, not sure if they expect all foreigners to be stupid or we were the exception, but at this particular pizza place (and nearly every eatery afterward) they handed us an English menu, though it was clear that we were reading the Korean menu with no problem. Though, to be fair, moments before that we tried to open a door only to go around the corner and realize that the entire side of the restaurant was open with a patio (whoops…). Basically we looked like we had only just gotten to Korea 2 days before rather than 2 months before, though the embarrassing stories will continue as I recount the rest of the 4 days we spent there…

After the beach we hopped on another bus to go to the Jeju Tourist Complex, which is a stop and also a place with nearly every attraction south of the mountain that you could want to go to. Most of the big hotels in Seogwipo, if not all of them, sit alongside many different types of museums all in one area, including Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Chocolate Land, the African Art Museum and, our destination, the Teddy Bear Museum!

                                      

The Teddy Bear Museum is exactly what you picture when you think of it and also a tad bit more than I was expecting which was great.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

There are 3 floors, one with teddy bears from different time periods and teddy bears acting out some pretty great things like Titanic and Michael Jordan in the 90′s. The second floor is more statues and teddy bears posing as modern art, which is also fantastic. The ground floor is full of different life size celebrities as teddy bears, including Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and Audrey Hepburn.

                          

On the way back to the bus stop we had to stop by a local pharmacy. Why? Because we got absolutely torn apart and devoured by mosquitoes while we were on Jeju. Seriously, I had a bite in the middle of my hand that swelled to the size of Mount Hallsan. I looked like Mickey Mouse’s less attractive twin! Needless to say we grabbed some very cheap medicine from the pharmacy, but just know that if you’re going you should definitely pack some bug spray because those bugs are not playing games with you.

This past week, all of the Native Teachers here at the Northern English Center were some of the first to take our Korean vacation. As with most vacations, it was awesome and well deserved. We got supremely lucky and were given the entire week off, and were even told months in advance that it was happening (you will come to find that this is extremely rare…) so we had ample time to plan and get ready to go on a whirlwind vacay. The 4 of us bounced several ideas around for our 7 days of freedom, but eventually settled on spending our week together on the beautiful island of Jeju.

First of all, tickets to Jeju are incredibly cheap. It cost us 90,000 won (roughly $90 USD) to fly to Jeju from Cheongju airport, about 30 minutes away from Chungju by train. The Cheongju airport is, blessedly, smaller than Incheon, even though it does have international flights. One of the strangest parts of flying domestically in Korea is the ease with which everything is handled.When we first arrived, the longest we had to wait was waiting to get our seat number on the plane. When you first reserve your ticket online you simply print out your reservation sheet, stand in the appropriate line at the airport, fork over your passport and printed material and they give you a ticket with your seat number on it. Simple, easy, efficient, much like all of Korea. Security was something else entirely. In the States I’m used to waiting in a super long line for security and then basically getting strip searched on my way through. Everything, carry-on luggage and regular luggage alike, is checked and re-checked with military precision, and God forbid you beep at all when you go through the metal detector.

None of that happened in Cheongju.

We got in line, handed a nice looking woman our passport, stood in a second, shorter line, threw our carry-ons into separate baskets and then just walked through a metal detector where they may or may not run you over quickly with a wand, as though it’s merely a courtesy rather than an actual security check. There was no taking off your shoes, I didn’t even take off my jacket, and when I beeped going through the lady with a wand asked me to lift my shirt a little, saw it was my belt buckle and waved me through as though I was wasting her time. Literally the easiest security I’ve ever gone through in my life.

The flight was a short one, about an hour, and when we landed we hopped in a taxi and went straight to the hotel. Here’s where it gets interesting: we got to the hotel only to have them tell us I had made the reservation for the wrong night and they were full because it was a high traffic vacation time. After about 10 minutes of slightly stressful panic because nearly everywhere was full, we walked ten feet from the hotel where we were supposed to be staying and found a guesthouse. It was super nice and only cost us 40,000 won (TOTAL) for the night for the 4 of us. It was definitely a win-win all around.

The next day we headed off on our first adventure: Bijarim Forest! It’s incredibly easy to get around Jeju, especially with how many Intercity Buses there are around, and it was fairly cheap as well. Here’s where I would highly suggest investing in a T-money card if you decide to head to Jeju because buses are incredibly convenient, not to mention much cheaper than taxi-ing it around everywhere. We took a quick taxi ride from the heart of Jeju City to the bus terminal and took a quick 30 minute bus ride out to Bijarim Forest. Once we got to our stop we took another super quick 5 minute taxi ride to the actual Forest since it was just slightly out of comfortable walking range. The Forest itself was beautiful and was definitely worth the trip out. It only took us about an hour to get through the whole thing though, and that was with strolling, so this is a good activity for maybe the beginning or end of your day.

   

Afterwards we took another quick 15 minute taxi ride to Manjanggul Caves which is right next door to the Forest.

        

That was slightly less worth the trip for me, but if you like rocks and being underground and science-y things then I highly suggest you check it out! If walking underground on rocks isn’t your thing, maybe skip out.

From there we headed to Loveland, which, if you haven’t read about it yet, is the greatest thing I have ever experienced in my life. We skipped out on posting pictures because of the sheer inappropriateness, but just know that if you have an open-mind and don’t mind seeing a park full of sex statues, this is the place for you. It’s amazing that such a seemingly conservative country as Korea has Loveland as one of it’s biggest tourist attractions, but we had a great time exploring and hanging out with the older women that literally arrived by the tour bus load with their husbands and boyfriends in tow to check it out.

After a rather long day of excitement we took the 780 bus down to Seogwipo to meet up with some friends. Seogwipo’s a great coastal area with it’s own share of cool things to see and do, but I’ve got more tales on Seogwipo coming up!

As I try my best to learn the Korean language while barely understanding it being spoken to me everyday, there are some rather useful words I’ve managed to pick up that are both awesome to use and slightly (very) difficult.

Still, if you’re going to be teaching these are some of the words I often hear students use the most.

*Literal sounding out

1. 잠깐만요 (Jamkanmanyo) *Jahm-kahn-mahn

“Just a minute.”

I definitely use this one the most, especially when students are doing an activity and they’re all shouting “SEONSAENGNIM?!” at me like I’m only going to help one of them and then just be silent for the rest of class. It’s very easy to placate them by letting them know I do indeed hear them, loud and clear, but will be with them in just a minute.

2. 잠시만요! (Jamshimanyo) *Jamh-she-man-yo

“Wait a moment.”

This is essentially the same thing as 잠깐만요, but I typically use this one when we are coming inside or going outside and they have to line up at a door or wait for me to get to them to begin.

3. 배고파요 (Paegopayo) *Pay-go-pie-oh

“I’m hungry~”

Self explanatory. Used most often by my students just before lunch and right before their last class of the day. I don’t ever have a real response to this one except “나도…“, which just means, “Me too…”

4. 시퍼요(Shipeoyo) *She-poe-yo

“I want…”

This is a handy little verb that can be connected onto virtually anything. “이게시퍼요, for example, is “I want this.” Basically if I catch nothing else in the sentence but 시퍼요, I can normally piece that together with whatever my student is pointing at and respond appropriately.

5. 기다려 (Gidaryeo) *Gi-dahl-yo

“Please wait.”

This is a tad bit stronger than either 잠깐만요 or 잠시만요 because it literally means, “Wait.” For example, when my students are re-enacting the stampede scene from The Lion King to get outside for Sports Activity, I will have to calmly tell them “기다려” to get them to form a (hectic) straight line.

6. 조용히해수세요 (Joyonghi Haeseusaeyo) *Joe-yong-ee -HEY-sue-say-yo

“Please be quiet.”

Very rarely do I ever use this one, but for rowdy classrooms that just won’t calm down you can use this one. However, normally a simple “Ya” will get their attention and then you can simply tell them to settle down in English.

These are simply useful when you’re asking students “Who’s is this?”, or “What?”, and are useful especially if you don’t know how to conjugate or add onto Korean sentences just yet. Typically I only have to point to someone’s shoes and ask the students, “누구?” Though it is by no means an eloquently put together sentence, they understand what I’m trying to communicate and will tell me.

7. Who – 누구 (Nu-gu) *New-goo

8. What – 뭐 (Mwo) *Moe

9. When – 언재 (Eonjae) *On-jay

10. Where – 어디서 (Eodiseo) *Oh-dee-so

11. How –  어떡해 (Eeoteokhae) *Oh-toe-kay

12. Why – 왜 (Wae) *Way

13. Today – 오늘 (Oneul) *Oh-newl

14. Tomorrow – 내일 (Naeil) *Nay-eel

15. Yesterday – 어제 (Eojae) *Oh-jay

16. Everyday – 하루 (Haru) *Hah-rue

Though this is a very simple list of words and phrases, sometimes it’s the little words that can make the biggest difference in the classroom. I find myself learning Korean not just to get around, but to have my students understand me better. It’s an uphill battle learning a new language, but having my students as my teacher is sometimes the best for us both.

I have had LOADS of people ask me what it was like to go through the EPIK program, and if I had to describe it in a nutshell I’d say it was long, tiring, and one of the most rewarding experiences ever. No matter how many times you wonder why you’re still going through the insane process, know that it’s worth it, no matter how crazy you feel when you’re filling out all your paperwork.

I got to EPIK through a recruiter called Greenheart Travel who also helps others who want to travel to other countries to teach. They were incredibly helpful in walking me through the entire process which takes about 6 months to complete. My first step was filling out the EPIK application, getting 2 letters of recommendation from my professors at school (they can be academic or professional) and getting a passport style photo. All of this can be filled out and e-mailed/scanned to your recruiter or to EPIK themselves if you are going straight through them. Once they reviewed my file I was granted my first interview which was really just information gathering for both sides involved. My recruiter taught in South Korea before so it was a great time for me to ask her what her experience was like and what I could expect on the other side.

After that first interview you wait to be scheduled for your second interview which is with EPIK themselves. That interview is done through Skype (naturally) and is more intense than your first casual interview. Here they are getting a feel for what you already know about the program, what your reasons for applying are, what kind of person and teacher you and what you can offer in the way of experience as an EPIK teacher. Once you are given the go-ahead and have passed your EPIK interview, the real work begins. Even if you pass both your interviews, nothing is final. If you don’t get all of your documents in on time and correctly in order you can certainly be wait-listed or have to wait for the next session.

Even as recently as September 2013 when I decided to come to Korea, the word was that you should apply for your Federal Background Check before anything because it takes about 2-3 months to complete. You can still apply through the FBI directly, but apparently EPIK is now allowing Americans to use an FBI channeler to obtain background checks. Channelers can allegedly run background checks sometimes as quickly as 24 hours, which is absolutely mind boggling for those of us who had to apply through the FBI and know how long and grueling a process it can be. You can find out more about these channelers here. If you’re applying the traditional way in the States, you can go here for more information on sending your background check in. Once you get your background check back, you still need to send it off to get apostilled, which you can find out how to do here.

In addition to your background check, you’ll need to get a copy of your college diploma notarized and apostilled (I did mine in Austin and it took just a couple of hours), get copies of your university or college transcripts, plus the official EPIK application where you will write down everything from whether you have tattoos and where, to writing an example lesson plan.

In addition to your paperwork, if you didn’t major in English in school you will need to get TEFL certified. This is actually a big deal because, depending on your level of experience and certification you can appear alot more competitive in the program. The minimum required TEFL certification is 100 hours, but if you’re wanting to get into one of the bigger cities like Seoul or Busan without previous teaching experience, I suggest shooting for 150 hours or more with an added in-class component. Now, I did mine online and did the minimum 100 hours with no in-class training because I needed it completed so quickly and I absolutely love my location, my center and my kids. It really is just luck of the draw, so unless you are absolutely DETERMINED to get into Seoul or refuse to go anywhere but Busan, I wouldn’t stress too much about location.

So, you’ve finally gotten ALL of your paperwork together, certification prepared, application signed and ready to go. Now you just mail it in. I mailed all of my paperwork to Greenheart and then they sent it over to EPIK. BE WARNED: If there is even a single mistake on ANYTHING they WILL kick it back for you to correct and send back. This was probably the most frustrating part for me. I had to send in documents 2 and 3 times which cost quite a bit going back and forth and alot of time that could have been spent placing me so definitely try to get it right the first time around.

Once all your documents are in to EPIK, you begin the waiting game. Up until this point I was almost completely in the dark about anything important. My friends and parents were starting to get suspicious. I couldn’t tell them what grade I’d be teaching, where I’d be, if anything was even assured, and it was starting to grate on me as well. But then, the big day arrived: I got placed! I found out I was placed in Chunbuk province, and I immediately went to do boat loads of research on the area and, if you’ve ever tried to look it up, even Google couldn’t tell me much. Still, I was excited!

After you get your placement you’ll have to get your flight arranged for orientation. I highly suggest flying in a couple of days before orientation if at all possible so you can manage to get some sleep, but I have more on orientation starting with this post. Unfortunately you won’t find out anything else until orientation, including your school, or even your city. You’ll spend most of orientation freaking about this and your co-teacher so no sense in worrying about it too soon.

So, the process is incredibly long, fairly terrifying, and, at times, riddled with anxiety. If you’re currently going through it, you know what I’m talking about, but you can do it! Just remember that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and so much fun to be had while getting a truly rewarding experience. Don’t give up young Jedi!

I teach Elementary 5th and 6th graders, and the things that come out of their mouths are both wonderfully unexpected and hilariously accurate…

 

*During a Morning Activity*

Student 1: Teacher, Obama is my grandfather!

Me: Oh, he is?!

Student: Yes! You, me…COUSINS!

 

*Pointing to the Statue of Liberty*

Me: “Who is this?”

Student: “Freedom Girl!”

 

*During Lab we were teaching the kids about the fact that pounds (used to measure weight in America) and kilograms (used to weigh in Korea) are the same*

Me: They are the same, one number is just smaller measurement. For example, I am 54 kilograms in Korea, but 120 pounds in America.

Whole class: *astonished WOAH’s all around*

Boy next to me: *turns to me in absolute wonder, proceeds to look me up and down then stares me straight in the face* WOAH! Teacher…120?!

Me: Yes! *Glad he is understanding*

Boy: Wow…SO HEAVY!

 

*Trying to April Fool’s prank my Gifted Students today*

Me: Class…Teacher is getting married!! *Shows off fake ring*

Girls: Wow Teacher, congratulations!!

Boy in the back: Oh God, FINALLY!!!

Me:…But I’m not. I was kidding!

Boy: Oh…but teacher?

Me:…yes…?

Boy: When are you going to have babies? You will get old!

 

Me: “Does anyone know what state I’m from in the United States?”

Student: “Jamaica!”

(They then proceeded to say “Ya man!” for the rest of the week every time they saw me)

 

The day one of my kids called me ‘Sexy Chocolate’…

 

*At the end of our first class, I told my students they had 5 minutes to ask me anything*

Student 1: Teacher, do you have a boyfriend?
Me: No, I don’t have one…*pretend sad face*
Student 2: What do you miss most about the United States?
Me: BBQ!
Student 3: …so Teacher, you don’t have boyfriend?
Me: Haha, no!
Student 3: …Teacher?
Me: Yes?
Student 3: …what’s your phone number?
Me (Now dying laughing): I can’t give you my phone number, I’m your teacher!
Student 4: …But you said you don’t have boyfriend…
Me: …No.

 

Me: “What do you call the people who eat at a restaraunt?”

Student 1: “Hungry people!”

Me: “Yes, they are hungry! But what do you CALL them?”

Student 2: “RICH!”

 

 

 

So after months of paperwork and maybe even years of planning, you’ve finally made it to Korea!!!

It’s a super exciting time, as you can imagine. Even though it can be super difficult and a lot of hard work, our first couple of months have kind of felt like being in college all over again.

1. Everything is fascinating because it’s new. Seriously, the first time I saw a toilet flush here I was like

2. You’re basically going to eat whatever you want because you have to try all the good stuff, right?!

3. You’ll make a million new friends, and everyone will feel like the foreign exchange student together.

4. Those friends will become like your new family, whether they like it or not.

5. Every weekend for the first 2 months is going to be like Spring Break because you just want. To. See. EVERYTHING.

So couch surfing is going to become a fairly regular occurrence when people live where you want to visit.

6. Even though it’s awesome, a lot of things are going to confuse you because everything’s new.

7. Even simple tasks are going to make you feel dumb.

8. At fairly crucial moments, sleep will be absolutely optional. So you had a great time in Seoul this weekend? Great, now where’s your lesson plans for the week??

9. Between learning a new language, working all day and adjusting to life in a new country, some days are going to feel overwhelming…

10. …but those new friends of yours? They’ll be there to get you through:)

If you’re already from a rather large city in any country, you probably already know how amazing the convenience of traveling by public transportation is. However, for people like me who came to cities in South Korea, or anywhere really, from suburbs or smaller towns, this place is like transportation Heaven. Back home I’m from a sizable suburb, but everywhere in Texas is so spread out even if you’re in the city you can count on driving for a good minute or two to get anywhere. And I mean anywhere. I would have to get in the car to get anywhere I wanted to go, even the grocery store was at least 7 minutes away in the car with 3 lights in between and traffic to boot.

Here in Korea I’ve only heard of one teacher having gotten a vehicle, and it was because they were in a very small town and 3 schools to go between during the week. About 99% of teachers simply use buses, taxis and the train to get where we need to be. If you’re not sure how to use the public transportation in your town, here’s where your co-teacher will come in MEGA handy if they haven’t already. In my case, we walk a good 25 minutes to work everyday, but we have several friends who take the bus everyday to school. Luckily for us, outside of going to school, Chungju has a bus and train station not too far from each other and a taxi stand about 5 minutes from my apartment to get us there. Our co-teachers went above and beyond (Again. God, I seriously love them with all my heart) and printed and drew us up maps to get to both the stations when we first needed to get around Chungju. Now that we’ve been here for a while we’ve experienced many different types of transportation, including the train, bus and Seoul subway which is like Korea’s version of the stairs in Hogwarts.

For shorter distances, and even slightly longer ones, taxis are the way to go in Korea. They’re all extremely cheap compared to back home, and if you split the cab with even one other person it balances it out to not bad at all. The most I’ve paid for a cab since I’ve been here was 8,000 won (roughly 8 American dollars) and that was for a 40 minute taxi ride to Hongdae with 2 other friends. Not only is it cheap, it’s super easy and mega convenient. There are taxis literally EVERYWHERE, especially parked outside of busy areas late at night when lots of people are going to be leaving. The bus is definitely the cheapest if you’re going longer distances. Once you get to the bus station you simply purchase your ticket at the counter to where you want to go. You can look up the bus schedule online in English at ga82.com which will also tell you the price and how long each bus is going to take. Now that I’ve taken the bus more than a few times I can say that it’s not a bad way to travel, if not a little slow. It took us two buses and about 9 hours to get to Jindo which is basically the Southernmost part of Korea, not counting Jeju. 9 hours doesn’t sound like long to get across a whole country until you’re on the bus for 9 hours going across the whole country. As for taking the train, luckily Chungju has only one big train station so you can’t really get directed to the wrong one, but if you’re going to Seoul from anywhere there’s a lot more choices so you want to be careful about telling whoever you’re buying your ticket from about your specific location. My new favorite way is writing things down and just showing it to them or showing them on my phone the ticket time I want.

And, of course, there’s the Seoul subway system. I’ve mentioned it briefly in previous posts about how insane it is, but seriously your first time riding it should definitely be with a partner. I had a partner who also had no idea what they were doing and we would have died if not for the random stranger who helped us. You can always use the app Jihachul which is an absolute LIFESAVER not going to lie, especially since there are so many people it can get chaotic fast if you don’t know where you’re going. All in all, public transportation in Korea is awesome, it’s relatively safe, cheap and, minus Seoul, easy to use. When in doubt, write it down and show whoever you need to where it is. I have my address written down on a card in my wallet just in case ish gets real and I need to hop in a taxi somewhere. If you’ve got the chance to take it, public transport is the way to go. At least then you can avoid climbing mountains.

My friends and family back home constantly ask me questions about what it’s like to live in Korea, and honestly I don’t blame them. Before I came I was totally clueless too. I mean I knew some culture, a little bit of the language and some additional info, but most of that info came from what I had watched or seen…in America. So until I got it I didn’t really understand what it was going to be like when I got here. Now I can definitely answer some of those questions that I’m asked at least once a week.

 

1. “Aren’t you scared?! I mean, North Korea’s RIGHT THERE!”

I get this one almost all the time. Honestly, there are moments when I wonder what I would do if anything ever happened between North and South Korea. To be even more honest, those moments are few and far between. Very rarely do I give it the time of day, probably because people here are so blaise about it. A couple of weeks after we got to our school’s there was an Emergency Drill that took place for the entire city. It was very eerie. One minute, everything was moving and going along like normal. The next, sirens started going off and everything just…stopped. I mean, everything. People ran into buildings, cars, buses and taxis stopped and turned off in the middle of the street, and safety personnel stood with directing light sticks in the middle of intersections ready to tell us where to go. Then a loud voice came over a megaphone and started telling us something very loudly in Korean, then the sirens went off once more and all of a sudden, everything started up again. It was like someone had pressed pause on Life and then hit play so suddenly my head spun. But to illustrate my point of people’s casualness towards the entire endeavor, we were in a phone shop with one of our co-teachers when all of this happened and neither he nor the person helping us find phones batted an eye. It was almost like nothing was happening outside. So I guess the short answer to this question is, no. There’s enough security and safety measures in place that I don’t ever truly feel threatened, and if anything did happen I’m confident there would definitely be some kind of warning. If not, we’ll figure it out when we get there. Until then, I feel as safe as I do at home.

 

2. “Wow, so if you’re in Korea you must speak the language! How much do you know?? How do you talk to people??”

I do, in fact, speak a little Korean. However, though my survival skills are intact, I am by no means even conversationally fluent. I know some people here who know even less than I do. So, how do we get along here? Actually, surprisingly well. I think the main thing to learn, if anything, is how to read hangul which is the alphabet system here in Korea. There are some places in smaller areas who only have Korean menus with no English, or signs that do not have an English option. Though this is rare in larger cities like Seoul, smaller cities will definitely have less English available so it’s wise to know at least a little. I can read and write hangul perfectly at this point, even when I can’t understand it, and sometimes that’s more handy than being able to speak. Still, if you know NONE of the language at all, it’s easy to get by. You’d be amazed what gestures, pointing and pictures can do. Seriously, it’s amazing. I’ve had full conversations without a single word of English or Korean being spoken, and though people appreciate when you know something,  you certainly don’t have to know everything. In short the answer to all of this question if: Sort of, not much and with a lot of luck.

 

3. “Is the internet way faster there???”

Yes. I love it.

 

4. “Can you send me back a $10 watch?!?”

Yes, but it’s not about to be Prada. Or Gucci. They have all that stuff here and it’s just as expensive as back home. Korea is not China and that $10 watch is straight up coming from E-mart.

 

In short, Korea is amazing. Like, seriously amazing, and the more experiences I have the more I want to stay here. Every day is different and I highly encourage, even if you don’t come here to teach, to at least come and try the tteokboki at Myeongdong because it’s worth the 16 hour plane ride from Dallas any day.

If you’re coming through the EPIK program to teach in South Korea, chances are very high that you’ll be placed in a public school much like the ones you’ll read and hear about through various blogs and other people. A large majority go to Elementary and Middle schools with a good few going to High schools throughout South Korea. However, a very small number of us get placed in English Centers, which can be most closely compared to a combination of Hagwons and camps. Our English Center is one of only three in the Chungcheongbuk-do province, and though we all operate differently, our goal is to give students a more natural and realistic setting for them to speak English in. While they are learning, the environment is different from a normal school’s. This gives students the chance to practice English more conversationally while also learning different subjects.

There are only 48 students and four Native English speaking teachers in the whole center, which means that we know every single student by the end of the week. A typical day for us at the English Center is a long but fulfilling one. Mondays and Wednesdays we’re at school from 9 AM to 8:30 PM, which feels long no matter how you look at it or break it down. Tuesdays and Thursdays are slightly shorter with us finishing up our last activities at 6 PM. We get a new group of students in every Monday morning and throughout the week each Native Teacher is responsible for two different Situational Learning classes (about 3 classes a day), Sports Activity, Morning Activity and, on Mondays, Ice Breaking. In the evenings when we leave at 8:30, each Native Teacher has separate duties and activities.

While we are responsible for teaching our students during the day, we also have a separate group of students that we come to us after school from 6:30-8:30 PM. These are our Gifted Students, and we have one class each of Elementary and Middle School students. There are only 15 of them to a class which makes planning lessons and teaching actually much easier, but each Native Teacher only sees our students once a week. I have my Elementary students Wednesday evenings while my partner has them on Mondays. While he’s teaching, I’m doing a night time activity with our Center children who are their for the week. During our Gifted classes it is two straight hours without our co-teachers which is both pleasant and slightly daunting sometimes. Still, our students very rarely speak Korean in the classroom when it’s just me, so it’s ok.

It’s a very complicated process, but luckily the ritual remains the same week to week with only lessons changing for our Gifted Students. We also rotate through Situational Learnings and our co-teachers, so we’re never teaching the same thing for longer than about 4-5 weeks with the same person. It can sometimes feel like you’re trapped in an endless cycle of Summer camps, but I love meeting my new group of kids every week, watching them grow over the course of a few days and then taking what they learned with them. Every Friday they put on skits for us to watch to show off the English skills they’ve picked up throughout the week, then we give them certificates congratulating them on finishing up the course, and we’re out of school by 12:30 which, after a long week full of ups and downs, is just…lovely.

There is literally something to do every weekend here in South Korea. There’s constantly festivals or tournaments or shows, really anything you can think of so you’ll never be bored! This year we decided to try out the Jindo Sea Parting Festival that happens once a year on the small island of Jindo. Twice during one day in the Spring the sea literally parts like Moses and Festival goers can walk across the natural sand bridge to a tinier island on the other side. It sounded like quite the adventure, despite being 9 hours away from Chungju, so we set off on an a cold Saturday morning ready to go!

Now, I will preface this “adventure” by saying we kind of set off like Bilbo Baggins: not entirely sure what we were doing, but determined that we were at least going to survive the encounter. 6 of us set off from Chungju at 8 in the morning, and 2 buses and 8 hours later we reached our destination of the Jindo bus terminal. From here is where the story gets interesting. See, we had no idea what we would do once we actually got to Jindo, just that we wanted to get there. The boys literally took off in a taxi to the beach as soon as we got to Jindo, but luckily some very nice girls who actually live on the island helped us out. While the boys took off, we girls figured out that we had to take yet ANOTHER bus to the beach as it was about 40 minutes away. But our good Jindo friends (along with a very nice Korean man who worked there) helped us to buy our tickets then took us to a coffee shop a few minutes away to charge our phones. They were absolute LIFE SAVERS and gave us their number for if we couldn’t find a place to stay that night (of course we didn’t plan that part either…).

Once the four of us ladies, now five of us because we picked up a lone straggler on the way, hopped on the bus, we took a long and very windy trip around Jindo to get to the beach. If you have motion sickness I highly suggest you take some of the medicine provided at the bus terminal because I DON’T get motion sickness and I was dying a little. Once we got to the beach we climbed a mountain and found a lovely little restauraunt run by a mom and daughter who were beyond sweet. Anyway, we were reunited with several of our friends from another city and proceeded to have as much fun as possible before we had to climb back down the mountain, in the dark, to get down to where the performances and food tents were on the beach.

There are many different performances from music artists to a juggling, fire breathing bar tender, and food tents for DAYS! I think I got fatter in one evening than I have since I got to Korea! The only problem is that the performances ended at about 11 and we had no idea where we were staying since all the places on the beach by the time we got there were full. It was raining so there was no way we were sleeping on the beach, and that’s when I remembered our Jindo bus station friends!

I gave them a quick call to see if they knew anywhere to stay and they said that we could totally stay with them. They were Americans, and girls, and they didn’t want us staying on a beach in the middle of the night in the rain (Bless them) so we figured ‘What the heck?’ They were so sweet they got a cab and came to pick us up directly from where we were at the festival and took us to their apartment to sleep. We literally only slept for 3 hours because we had to be back on the beach by 5 when the actual Sea Parting took place. Our friends only lived about a 20 minute cab ride away, so in the morning we set off (after we got lost and couldn’t find a cab) a little late but still on time!

Once we got to the beach there were TONS of people with torches, drunk and sober, families, couples, singles, everyone! However, as soon as we got into the water they started saying something in Korean, then fireworks started going off. They were telling us to get out of the water! We had missed it! But the water was still parted so we walked as far as we could in our rain boots, which you can buy there on the beach. There were plenty of people who didn’t make it all the way across so we didn’t feel too bad about it, and it was a great experience overall. The food alone was worth the trip, along with the awesome new friends that we made along the way.

Still, we were exhausted from being up all night long so I slept most of the 6 hour bus ride back to Chungju. Jindo may have won this round, but next year it might not be so lucky!