Reflections on Orientation

Alastair and myselftrying on the Korean traditional clothes (Hanbok).

One of the days it was raining, and I captured this incredibly bleak image from the classroom window.Not really related to orientation at all, I just really like this shot.

The last night we ate together in a sushi restaurant, it was great., I ate so much.

There was a lift in the orientation building and I used it all the time even to go up one floor. There were mirrors on all the sides and depending on where you stood you could see 20+ reflections of yourself - pretty trippy first thing in the morning. When you went into the lift at night it would always be empty,. it was hardly ever used. So one night a bunch of us went in and waited till someone pressed the button,. so we could jump out. We did this a few times and it really didn't get old!

We didn't find out until the last day where we were placed. So no one knew where they would be. When they told us what district we were in, it was incredibly exciting., we were all huddled round maps or trying to get the translation through google. Finding out where our mates were placed. I was placed in Seongsu-Dong, which I'm very happy with.

So everything I post here for the next wee while is going to be catch-up type stuff. So where better to start than the orientation. It lasted 10 days, a mix of lectures on teaching and korean culture, class based activities, basic korean lessons and also a chance to get to know some of the other foreign teachers who will be working in Seoul. I met a lot of interesting people, from very different backgrounds - I was glad to meet people with a similar outook. It felt great to be thrown into such a social melting pot after the almost solitary trans-siberian experience. Almost every meal, lecture I sat next to someone different and most nights we went out for a drink or watched a movie. A couple of nights we even got an impromtu jam on the go.