Last week I just finished my EPIK Orientation. I was really impressed with the welcome we as teachers in training received from EPIK. I already miss my class leaders and truly appreciate all they have done to help us out. I met some cool people, made some awesome friends, and saw breath-taking sights. It is slowly hitting me that I am actually living in Korea. I moved into my "apartment" which is more like a room, three days ago. After three hours of s
crubbing and bleach Dawn and I put the homey touches on it and I felt a little bit at home. In orientation they described the stages of culture shock as: the honeymoon phase, the everything sucks phase, the adjustment phase, and the reverse culture shock phase. For me the honeymoon phase was short lived, it comes back every now and then but mostly I am missing home. The everything sucks phase comes and goes, but I am really working on maintaing a positive attitude while out here; I think it's absolutely vital for survival. The adjustment phase has yet to come but I am on the right path. And finally the reverse culture shock we are suppose to feel when we get back home, Ican't even phathom right now because it is just too far away.
I've had many memorable adventures already, such as getting lost at 1 am and not knowing where we live. Most of the time the taxi drivers speak only Korean and since we know barely any Korean everytime the driver says something we shake our heads yes, it's pretty hilarious. We finally caught on and had our co-teacher write our address in hangeul (Korean). 
crubbing and bleach Dawn and I put the homey touches on it and I felt a little bit at home. In orientation they described the stages of culture shock as: the honeymoon phase, the everything sucks phase, the adjustment phase, and the reverse culture shock phase. For me the honeymoon phase was short lived, it comes back every now and then but mostly I am missing home. The everything sucks phase comes and goes, but I am really working on maintaing a positive attitude while out here; I think it's absolutely vital for survival. The adjustment phase has yet to come but I am on the right path. And finally the reverse culture shock we are suppose to feel when we get back home, Ican't even phathom right now because it is just too far away.I am so blessed though to have a friend from home with me. Dawn is a great travel buddy and I definitely don't think I would be able to make it through this experience without her. This weekend we did our shopping and found that Costco in Korea is really overrated and over-priced probably because of importing a lot of the merchandise. Nevertheless, I bought a block of mild cheddar cheese for 9,000 won; the taste of cheese in Korea is just too different for my taste buds. Tomorrow I will get all my documents straightened out and meet some of the teachers at my school, maybe some students...yay!
I'm glad to see that you're all moved in and getting adjusted to your new setting. Sorry to hear that you're missing home, but if it helps we miss you too! I'm so jealous that you have access to authentic Buddhist art. If you come across anything super cheap, keep me in mind. lol. But more importantly, KEEP BLOGGING!!! Keep us up to date on this new phase in your life. :)
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