Swine flu anyone?

I have been in Korea for about 3 days now and have already had my temperature taken 4 times. It's pretty remarkable how serious they are taking swine flu here. I honestly thought it was a passing fad, but that is not the case here at all. They even make us take our own temperature at the same time every day and if it's above 37.8 degrees celsius we are supposed to report the nurse ASAP. It's a little excessive in my opinion. Anyway, I guess I should back up and and start from the beginning some things that have happened so far. . . 

Well, I started things off with a bang almost missing my flight in San Francisco. While I had a good 3 hour layover, I decided to eat, talk on the phone, and play on my computer instead of go find my gate. With about 45 minutes before take-off I wandered over to the international terminal thinking I had plenty of time. There was a list of airlines that directed you left or right. I didn't see Asiana, but since I knew they were somehow related to United so I went right. I was wrong. Very wrong. I should have noticed to the left it said "all other airlines". Oh right. When I finally got back to the left side I had about 25 minutes. When I realized I had to go through security again I panicked. I kept checking my phone, and by the time I made it through I had a little over 10 minutes left. I have never run so fast to a gate in my life! I was "that guy" and was one of the last ones to board the plane at the finally boarding call. The worst part was that they had given my seat so I had to sit in the middle row, middle aisle. Not the way I wanted to start the trip, but things have only been good since.

I got into Seoul Wednesday evening, and after grabbing my luggage I headed out to find the EPIK shuttle. It turns out there was about 75 other EPIK teachers on my flight so it wasn't hard to find the shuttle line. The shuttle to Jeonju University was about 4 hours, not exactly what I was looking forward to after nearly 24 hours of travel. For some reason I was under the wrong impression that it was closer to Seoul. On the bus I met another girl named Amy, and we have become fast friends. When we found out we could choose our roommates it was an easy decision. The rooms here are very nice - way nicer than CU's. There are two double beds, two desks, tons of storage space, an in-room shower, and most wonderful of all, air conditioning!

After a pretty restless night of sleep, we started Thursday with a campus tour. Luckily that was the only morning activity, because I was eager to go back to my room and sleep more! Thursday afternoon we had opening ceremonies, and then a welcome banquet dinner. I am very impressed with the overall organization of all the events, classes, meals, etc. There are a little over 650 teachers here and only about 20 staff members. 

We had our "medical check" on Friday. I'm not sure why I feel compelled to put that in quotes, but it was way more than I could have anticipated. It started out with taking our temperature, obviously. We then went down the line to get our height measured, weighed, sight, colorblindness, and hearing test, and blood pressure. Then it got interesting. We had to get our blood drawn, then chug grape juice so we could give a urine sample. (We weren't allowed to eat our drink after midnight.) They gave us a dixie and cup and told us to fill a 1/3 of the way. I encountered my first Korean style toilet, ya know, a hole in the ground. So, not only did I have to pee in an unsanitary dixie cup, I had to awkwardly squat. Oh, and did I mention there was no toilet paper? All I could  do was laugh because otherwise I was going to cry. After that pleasant experience was over I had to go to the x-rayed. Still not a 100% sure what that was for. I did find out they were testing mainly for HIV in the blood test. How terrible would that be? "Dad! I lost my job! And I have AIDS!!" For some reason we all found discussing this fake conversation terribly humorous. 

Today only consisted of lectures preparing us for class.  I learned a few new things, but a lot of it was review from what I learned during my TEFL course. Apparently many of the EPIK teachers don't have TEFL or TESOL certificates, which I found very surprising. I would be so scared going into a classroom right now with absolutely zero teaching experience!

We are off to karaoke now, but I will add more details later about general observations later. Pictures soon to come as well!!