So this is kind of a back-track post…actually the next few will be. I had considered doing a blog before but never really got around to starting blah blah procrastination blah…How many blogs does the world really need from people without much to say…Except I love to talk.
Well I remember that when I first looked into doing the EPIK program I couldn’t find enough. I read every blog I stumbled into and yet missed awesome ones like Eat Your Kimchi…although they’re not technically EPIK…but I digress. So sit back, grab a bowl of ice cream (or some chocolate) and read my pages of word vomit as I regale you with a not so intriguing tale of my time so far in Busan.
Ok, so that’s misleading, let me start in Daejeon…
Alright, it didn’t really start here obviously so I’ll put in a prequel later.
So, in Daejeon, story, beginning.
I caught one of the last buses that arrived before midnight, VERY grateful for that. There were two orientations being held for the Fall 2012 EPIK program, I was attending the one at KT HRD Center in Daejeon.
Weird things:
1. the faucets needed to be pushed down to turn on and pulled up to shut off…in the dorms and half the public restrooms, the rest were up on and down off…mildly confusing.
2. So water bubblers/ fountains/ dispensers/ big jug things with a spout (we had lots of meaningless arguments about the name…) well they didn’t have paper cups, or those weird paper cones..no they had these folded pieces of paper that you popped open and put like a half ounce of water into…highly entertaining, low waste, so practicle in one sense but really just a huge pain in the ass.
3. The weird ass sandles left out for everyone to use…gross.
4. Bidets. I’m not a huge fan of bidets, they kinda freak me out…something about spraying water up your hoo-ha…yeah. Well they had some in the public restrooms in the lecture building and I was just really weirded out. It’s like one thing to use your own bidet, but to use one in public? eugh.
The good things:
1. Most of the lectures were WAY better than we expected, especially the first few…there were some flops but most of them were entertaining.
2. Awesome people! The staff and the other teachers were fantastic, and I dunno, I at least had a (reasonably) good time…I think most people would agree.
The terrible things:
1. The food. Turns out that so far I haven’t eaten much Korean food that I don’t like, and I really have never eaten spicy food or like any seafood. The food at the convention center however, that was TERRIBLE. I put up with it for a few days but the worst was the soup. It was “creamed” everything (asparagus, corn, couldn’t really tell…) and eventually the smell of the soup alone made me want to vomit when I walked into the cafeteria (since then, even the soup that burned a hole in my throat wasn’t bad…every soup has been good, they really screwed up.)
2. The heat. O.M.G. THE HEAT. It was so unbearable hot and humid and you know it’s bad when even the locals are complaining. To make it worse the AC was crap and many times shut off in the middle of the night so I just couldn't even sleep…oh and they shut it off during the day while we were supposed to be in lectures so if you wanted to rest for a while before/after lunch you were sweating balls.
3. Two of the lecturers…one was like a history one before we went on the rainiest, crappiest, fieldtrip of my life. He really was just boring as hell. Then there was this woman who talked about Classroom Management… yeah I think like 10 people liked her in the whole group. She was just super condescending so if you like taking peoples shit and smiling back at them, then you would have liked her too.
The inconvenient things:
1. The LONG days of lectures…like you started lectures at 9 and then your last one ended at 8:30…very tiring.
2. The crappy internet. Really, this country is supposed to have like the BEST internet in the world, you’ll hear it over and over. The internet in this place? HORRENDOUS. And they gave you and your roommate a one meter cord to use out of the same spot in the room…my desk became storage space because I had to plug my internet in across the room. Bad setup.
The field trip. Well it started on a horrible note with a boring lecture but whatever. We were on a norebang bus and made total asses of ourselves dancing Gangnam style with the lights flashing and shit and it was recorded…I wish I could show you but I haven’t seen it posted online :(
We got absolutely soaked to the bone, I already felt and looked like crap. SURPRISE I got volunteered to share my umbrella with the Jolly Green Giant and I got soaked because he was too dumb to run back to his room after breakfast. So I was miserable and we went to like tombs and shit which is SO not my cup of tea…ok, replicas because there was too much damage at the real once, which made it lamer but less creepy.
The museum wasn’t bad, we had bibimbap for lunch and that was good as always…and we saw some musicians and they were alright, again they would have been better if we weren’t getting rained on…like literally I was in the middle of the front of the room and I could feel the freaking rain coming in. Pissed me off royally. OH and it was like a traditional style building so we had to take our shoes off and leave them outside to get soaked. It wouldn’t have been an issue if it was normal rain, but if you didn’t guess by the fact that we got rained on inside…this was not normal rain.
I’m sure I could make these lists go on for a while with little nitpicky things but really this is the bulk of the important stuff.
Overall I liked the orientation, it was good to get to know people that were going to be in my city and I dunno, it was alright.
I suppose my doctors trip should be added in here…
Well earlier I said that I stomached the food for a few days, then…I didn’t. I felt really neauseated and just gross so finally I talked to the nurse and she made me go to the doctor and he was like “take it easy, take some pills, don’t eat anything with flour or oil…”
yeah easy advice.
I mention this because this was an urgent doctors visit (walk-in after 7pm) and it cost me 14,000 won…roughly $13.50 USD
Then three days of medication, three times a day, three pills. Like 6,000 won.
Overall this visit and the medicine cost me less than my COPAY back home…and then the staff member who went with me was like “oh it’ll be cheaper once you have insurance.” CHEAPER!?!?
Yeah, super cheap. BUT very mysterious. I have no idea what pills I took and they came in little pre-dosed packets that weren’t labeled or anything…From what I’ve heard about Korean doctors from books and the internet he was very forthcoming with me compared to what would normally be expected, but whatever overall not a bad experience at all.
I think that’s it for the important things in Daejeon…Let me tell you if I had written this then I would have rambled on for SO much longer, be glad I was too tired and just wanted to sleep constantly.
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