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Jonny Gaskell's Travels
Orientation - My First 9 days (Cheshire - London - Hong Kong - Seoul ) Tue 16th - Fri 26th August 20
서울특별시, South Korea
First off I want to apologise. When I left England exactly 2 weeks ago today, I didn't envisage that it would take me 2 weeks to write my next chapter of my blag!!!!Unfortunately through a lack of proper internet access at orientation and in my apartment, and obviously being an incredibly hectic time, I just haven't had chance to get round to it until now.
So what have I done??? Well I'll try and write the first part up first which is orientation, and then I'll do my first week at school and in my new place, at the weekend after I've been there a week!!!
Well it all started with a tearful goodbye at Heathrow to the family, and an incredibly long flight of 11.5 hours from London Heathrow to Hong Kong that I won't bore you with too many details of here. Needless to say, most of you know I hate flying, so flying for 11.5 hours straight in a Cathay Pacific economy seat was decidedly uncomfortable and mind numbing!!I didn't sleep a wink!
Hong Kong was beautiful though from what I could see from the airport - deffo gonna make a trip at some point!
Then got my connecting flight to Seoul which was about 3 hours. Touched down in Seoul airport (though it's really in Incheon) about 2pm on the Wednesday in thick fog so didn't really see anything as I then got a taxi to my hotel in Incheon. I had a shower and pretty much collapsed in bed and slept for about 16 hours in the hotel. The next day on Thursday 18th I got a shuttle bus back to the airport feeling refreshed and the weather was sunny and hot (where was all of this rain that everyone had been talking about!?)
I met up with a fellow red from Manchester who I'd met on the Facebook group, Lee Stott, at the airport as his flight had just got in. From there we got on another shuttle bus from the airport into the centre of Seoul that wasn't all that far but took ages because the traffic in Seoul is so bad!!! The first thing I learned about Seoul was how unbelievable huge a place it is. If you think London is sprawling, you aint seen nothing until you've witnessed Seoul. There are probably half a dozen, English size cities that are just small areas of Seoul, rather than cities in their own right! The Han River that dissects through the centre of Seoul is fricking massive too - it makes the Thames look like a stream!
When we got to the Orientation, myself and Lee managed to get a room together which was good as it means I didn't have to share with any weirdos! ;-) The rooms were small and looked a little like university dorms or prison cells! ;-) We did have our own shower and toilet though (which a lot of people didn't have!), and we were close to the communal area that we could pick up a weakish wi-fi signal so least I could use my phone for wi-fi in my room! It had air con too which was needed, but it also had an annoying loud speaker in the room, whereby you'd be reminded about being at lectures on time every morning at 8am!!!
I'm not going to go into massive detail about the Orientation as I'm sure you' all be pretty bored just listening to me talk about what lectures I did on a daily basis. However there was a couple of things worth sharing..
A Brief overview. The orientation was organised by the government public school program EPIK (English Program in Korea) and lasted a week in essence as it started for proper on the Friday 19th and we left for our new schools and apartments on Friday 26th August.
The purpose of the orientation was to give us an overview of Korean life, Korean culture, and what being a teacher in Korea would entail. The course was very intensive as we had lectures (or a field trip) every day, and we had to prepare a lesson plan and put this into practice in front of our peers on the last day of orientation.
We had to work all through the weekend, and some days we were in lectures and lesson planning for over 12 hours! We had a curfew of 12 midnight each day too so the drinking around Seoul that we did do had to be fitted into a small window of a couple of hours at the end of each day. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending which way you look at it!), we were in one of the main nightlife areas of Seoul, so we didn't ahve far to go before we found a bar!!!!
Drinking in Korea is definitely something I'd recommend to any one!!! Firstly, it is really cheap. You can get a pint of lager in Seoul for 3,000 Won which translates roughly into about 1.80p. Bear in mind this is the capital city (drinks are even cheaper in Incheon but I'll get to that later!) and you realise that it is easy to get merry very quickly. If beer isn't your thing, then you can dabble in the local tipple of choice, Soju, which is like a rice vodka, but in reality it is probably just ethanol and water and chemicals. It's not ultra strong compared to whiskeys and brandies (about 20%), but it is one of those drinks that can just sneak up to you. Bear in mind you can get a decent sized bottle of this for about 2 quid 50p and you realise why so many Koreans love to drink...a lot!!!
Now I'm aware that my family and friends will likely read this but I feel that it has to be said any way briefly. For the lads....the Korean women are hot in Seoul, and they wear very little!!! I'll elaborate more to the boys when I get chance to Skype you!!! ;-)
The weather in Seoul is also incredibly hot and sticky. Luckily though everywhere you go has air con, so you're usually fine by the time you get inside any where. You also don't tip in Korea so when you've paid less than 2 quid each for 6 beers and been given free bar snacks too, you kinda feel guilty not tipping as well, but they don't expect it, and the locals don't do it, so it really is a cheap evening's drinking!
The majority of people on the course were sound (there's always a few annoying yanks!) and we had a good group of us going out of an evening. A highlight of the course itself was definitely the visit to Gangwha Island and peering across a strait to North Korea!!! Very weird using powerful binoculars and seeing farmers in fields in North Korea working!!! I also weaved something but to this day I'm still not sure what it is!
Any way the course was wrapped up on the Thursday, and the presentation went okay and so last night it was out in Seoul to celebrate. It was at this point that I did probably my favourite part of the whole orientation, and that was visit a Noraebang. This basically translates into English as (Norae = sing, bang = room). It is karaoke but in private rooms, where you can sing along badly, while drunk to American power ballads with beer and snacks, and it costs nothing, but is actually really good fun when sozzled...much more fun that it probably sounds. Any one who comes to visit me, will be taken to one of these so you ahve been forewarned (though maybe I won't subject my parents to this!) Any way I ahve some good pictures and videos of this any way so I'll get these on Facebook and my blog when I get internet in my room and a laptop!!
So the final day of orientation was friday 26th August and that is when we bid farwell to the EPIK staff, and friends and we made our way to Incheon Education Office to meet our new co-teachers, see our schools where we'd be teaching, and see the apartment and area where we'd be living for the next 12 months......and so I think now is a good time to end it and save this for another chapter that I hope to write at the weekend, as I'm getting cramp in my fingers and it's nearly 11pm!!!! :-p
Till next time - Hasta La Victoria Siempre!!!!
So what have I done??? Well I'll try and write the first part up first which is orientation, and then I'll do my first week at school and in my new place, at the weekend after I've been there a week!!!
Well it all started with a tearful goodbye at Heathrow to the family, and an incredibly long flight of 11.5 hours from London Heathrow to Hong Kong that I won't bore you with too many details of here. Needless to say, most of you know I hate flying, so flying for 11.5 hours straight in a Cathay Pacific economy seat was decidedly uncomfortable and mind numbing!!I didn't sleep a wink!
Hong Kong was beautiful though from what I could see from the airport - deffo gonna make a trip at some point!
Then got my connecting flight to Seoul which was about 3 hours. Touched down in Seoul airport (though it's really in Incheon) about 2pm on the Wednesday in thick fog so didn't really see anything as I then got a taxi to my hotel in Incheon. I had a shower and pretty much collapsed in bed and slept for about 16 hours in the hotel. The next day on Thursday 18th I got a shuttle bus back to the airport feeling refreshed and the weather was sunny and hot (where was all of this rain that everyone had been talking about!?)
I met up with a fellow red from Manchester who I'd met on the Facebook group, Lee Stott, at the airport as his flight had just got in. From there we got on another shuttle bus from the airport into the centre of Seoul that wasn't all that far but took ages because the traffic in Seoul is so bad!!! The first thing I learned about Seoul was how unbelievable huge a place it is. If you think London is sprawling, you aint seen nothing until you've witnessed Seoul. There are probably half a dozen, English size cities that are just small areas of Seoul, rather than cities in their own right! The Han River that dissects through the centre of Seoul is fricking massive too - it makes the Thames look like a stream!
When we got to the Orientation, myself and Lee managed to get a room together which was good as it means I didn't have to share with any weirdos! ;-) The rooms were small and looked a little like university dorms or prison cells! ;-) We did have our own shower and toilet though (which a lot of people didn't have!), and we were close to the communal area that we could pick up a weakish wi-fi signal so least I could use my phone for wi-fi in my room! It had air con too which was needed, but it also had an annoying loud speaker in the room, whereby you'd be reminded about being at lectures on time every morning at 8am!!!
I'm not going to go into massive detail about the Orientation as I'm sure you' all be pretty bored just listening to me talk about what lectures I did on a daily basis. However there was a couple of things worth sharing..
A Brief overview. The orientation was organised by the government public school program EPIK (English Program in Korea) and lasted a week in essence as it started for proper on the Friday 19th and we left for our new schools and apartments on Friday 26th August.
The purpose of the orientation was to give us an overview of Korean life, Korean culture, and what being a teacher in Korea would entail. The course was very intensive as we had lectures (or a field trip) every day, and we had to prepare a lesson plan and put this into practice in front of our peers on the last day of orientation.
We had to work all through the weekend, and some days we were in lectures and lesson planning for over 12 hours! We had a curfew of 12 midnight each day too so the drinking around Seoul that we did do had to be fitted into a small window of a couple of hours at the end of each day. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending which way you look at it!), we were in one of the main nightlife areas of Seoul, so we didn't ahve far to go before we found a bar!!!!
Drinking in Korea is definitely something I'd recommend to any one!!! Firstly, it is really cheap. You can get a pint of lager in Seoul for 3,000 Won which translates roughly into about 1.80p. Bear in mind this is the capital city (drinks are even cheaper in Incheon but I'll get to that later!) and you realise that it is easy to get merry very quickly. If beer isn't your thing, then you can dabble in the local tipple of choice, Soju, which is like a rice vodka, but in reality it is probably just ethanol and water and chemicals. It's not ultra strong compared to whiskeys and brandies (about 20%), but it is one of those drinks that can just sneak up to you. Bear in mind you can get a decent sized bottle of this for about 2 quid 50p and you realise why so many Koreans love to drink...a lot!!!
Now I'm aware that my family and friends will likely read this but I feel that it has to be said any way briefly. For the lads....the Korean women are hot in Seoul, and they wear very little!!! I'll elaborate more to the boys when I get chance to Skype you!!! ;-)
The weather in Seoul is also incredibly hot and sticky. Luckily though everywhere you go has air con, so you're usually fine by the time you get inside any where. You also don't tip in Korea so when you've paid less than 2 quid each for 6 beers and been given free bar snacks too, you kinda feel guilty not tipping as well, but they don't expect it, and the locals don't do it, so it really is a cheap evening's drinking!
The majority of people on the course were sound (there's always a few annoying yanks!) and we had a good group of us going out of an evening. A highlight of the course itself was definitely the visit to Gangwha Island and peering across a strait to North Korea!!! Very weird using powerful binoculars and seeing farmers in fields in North Korea working!!! I also weaved something but to this day I'm still not sure what it is!
Any way the course was wrapped up on the Thursday, and the presentation went okay and so last night it was out in Seoul to celebrate. It was at this point that I did probably my favourite part of the whole orientation, and that was visit a Noraebang. This basically translates into English as (Norae = sing, bang = room). It is karaoke but in private rooms, where you can sing along badly, while drunk to American power ballads with beer and snacks, and it costs nothing, but is actually really good fun when sozzled...much more fun that it probably sounds. Any one who comes to visit me, will be taken to one of these so you ahve been forewarned (though maybe I won't subject my parents to this!) Any way I ahve some good pictures and videos of this any way so I'll get these on Facebook and my blog when I get internet in my room and a laptop!!
So the final day of orientation was friday 26th August and that is when we bid farwell to the EPIK staff, and friends and we made our way to Incheon Education Office to meet our new co-teachers, see our schools where we'd be teaching, and see the apartment and area where we'd be living for the next 12 months......and so I think now is a good time to end it and save this for another chapter that I hope to write at the weekend, as I'm getting cramp in my fingers and it's nearly 11pm!!!! :-p
Till next time - Hasta La Victoria Siempre!!!!
- comments
Sue Gaskell Great to hear the news.Sounds fascinating, not sure about the karaoke though,dad says he didn`t know you could sing,not like him. Can`t wait to read the next chapter.You must be impressed, that i remembered how to use this blog. Sarah got the job she went for in London.Did Google Earth on Incheon and zoomed in the streets.Looks a big place too.Take care, look forward to the next episode, Love mum and dad x x
Peter Gaskell postedextension and adaptors letter attached O/S main package let us know when received
Leigh Atkins just re-reading :-) aww jonny glad you're enjoying it!!!! exciting times. speak on skype soon x need to figure out time difference haha