Doo Cha Gi!

This orientation week is like nothing I've ever seen before. We are put up in a relatively nice hotel, with meals included (more on the meals later....), and activities every day.

During normal working hours, we have different seminars and speeches about Korean culture, the experience of being a JLP (Jeollanamdo Language Program) teacher, the Korean language etc. The JLP program is very professional - this is NOT one of those hogwan things. We have to be dressed professionally every day (keeping in mind that the Korean idea of professional dress is much more fancy than the Canadian idea), and tell our supervisors if we are leaving the hotel. We even have a curfew! (11 pm)

And the fun part: Yesterday afternoon we went to a historical museum (Mom, you would love the Korean style of pottery) and the guide stuck with Nicola and I (we were being keeners). We learned how to say "beautiful", which we think is "Doo Cha Gi" and are using it for everything. I bought a necklace (enamel flower painted on silver)

And another fun part: Last night we went to a baseball game (a bit impromptu!). Having seen the Jays and the Expos live, it was great to finally see Korean baseball. Yes, everything you have heard about it is true: We were sitting right in front of the cheerleaders, and spent most of our time yelling cheers in Korean about the KIA car company, not watching the game. (The KIA Tigers were playing the ?? Giants.) Here, the companies own everything, including buildings, stores and, yes, baseball teams. I can't imagine cheering on the Coca-Cola Jays or something, but it seemed perfectly okay here to cheer on KIA. Our Korean supervisor bought us big inflatable clappy things and we cheered the entire time. In North America, for me, baseball is a bit boring. Not here! The three hour game flew by as we shouted and danced our way through the game.

This was my first time to see the "Westerner as Rock Star" phenomenon first hand. We got a lot of attention (Nicola, Brent, Stephanie and Stephen were all pulled up by the cheer squad leader to participate in little contests.) It was fun to hear the male cheer squad leader tell the guys that they were "very beautiful and handsome". Kids were saying "Hi" to us, and we were randomly waved at by people who walked past.

Each day is just packed. We go from class to meals to class to events so quickly. Our meals have been, for the most part, traditional Korean dishes (Guess what everybody! I LIKE SQUID!) either eaten at high "foreign" tables or low Korean ones. We spend all our time with the other JLP members and already have plans to get together in each other's cities later in the year. Living with Nicola is a bit like living with Madeleine.

One of the speeches yesterday was given by the other guy who is teaching at my school! Suncheon sounds like a great place to be, with a lot to see and do (actually Korea in general seems full of fun activities). So far, I am really enjoying it, especially the surreal moments (like when the cheerleaders were dancing to Sir Mix-A-Lot....).