EPIK Fall 2010 Orientation and Korean Folk Village

EPIK Orientation was exhausting but really a lot of fun. It was 10 days long. We would have class all morning until lunchtime, then more classes until dinner, and then Korean classes some days after dinner. Classes were about things like "Elementary School Curriuculum in Korea", "Co-Teaching," and "Classroom Management." I personally appreciated all the effort EPIK put into preparing us but hated most of the speakers and thought most of the information was pretty useless. Every school, classroom, and teacher is so different there aren't universally-applicable rules. Plus, some of the teachers were way too smarmy. I might have been grumpy all the time because we hardly got to spend any time sleeping in our hard, uncomfortable beds! CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND THEY GET BIGGER :)

The 'cozy' dorm room I shared with Sonya.

Unless you are in a building that caters to foreigners your shower will probably be like this. Your whole bathroom is your shower. I actually like it.

At the end of orientation we worked in a group and presented a sample lesson. Mine was "Where is the subway station?" There was an opening ceremony and a closing ceremony (with a photo slideshow which they gave everyone on a disc) and we got snacks between classes so it was pretty nice. Here are pictures from the opening ceremony:

Midong Elementary School's Taekwondo team

Midong Middle School Taekwondo Team from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

They were amazing!

Dancers from a women's high school

Kyung Hee University Global Campus is in Yongin and it was only about a 10-minute walk to the various restaurants and bars downtown. One day I took a cab with some people to the nearby Home Plus because we desperately needed hair dryers and hair straighteners. I didn't pack a hair dryer and my hair straightener blew out in Korea despite me using an adapter and converter on it. So for all of orientation except the last day I looked like a really unkempt greaseball with horrible bangs. This, added to the fact that it was really hot and humid outside and the air conditioning was not working in any of the classrooms, makes me really surprised that I even made friends.

The best part of orientation was probably the day trip to the Korean Folk Village in Yongin. Even though it was unbearably hot and humid and we all had to wear our matching EPIK polo shots it was a lot of fun. We saw traditional Korean music, horse-riding, and tightrope-walking. We also saw a traditional Korean wedding but I couldn't actually see anything because the guy sitting in front of me was humongous and there were a bunch of poles in the way. At Korean Folk Village there are authentic old buildings that were actually brought from their original locations to the Village and they are, restorations aside, originals, so that was pretty interesting. But the best part of the day by far were all the cute Korean babies and children everywhere! We kept being stealthy and taking pictures of them when their parents weren't looking. Except we think the parents of this adorable baby at the tightrope-walking show knew what we were up to because they took their baby away.

Here are some pictures from Korean Folk Village:

In America, we like to dress up like flappers and cowboys and take pictures at parks. In Korea, they like to put on old-fashioned hanbok.

Totem poles to defend a town.

Yongin Korean Folk Village Traditional Music from Melissa Carn on Vimeo.

You make a wish and then tie a ribbon to the tree.


I don't know the exact word for this but people are supposed to lie down inside this patio -type thing during the day to nap and cool down.

If you follow a colorful bridge from the Village you end up in the Family Park. After seeing this sign across the bridge and all the rainbow pinwheels of course I led the movement to go here.