1st days in Korea

Yesterday was our first day of training. They keep telling us that it's going to be an INTENSE week. Prepare yourselves! So, in light of the fact that we're going to start an INTENSE week of training today, I thought I'd post a few pictures and tell you a little about our first day before heading out for the second day of training. I don't know how much more time I'll have to post this week so consider yourself warned. ;)

All right. So, yesterday's training wasn't too horrible. We took a shuttle to the training center where they welcomed us and then gave us four tests: Culture of Chungdahm, Faculty Codes of Conduct, Reading, and Grammar. These tests were based on videos we were supposed to watch before the first day of training. I passed all of my exams and so I don't need to retake any later today. Yay!
After tests and some more introduction to Chungdahm, we were taken over to the hospital for our medical exams (dun dun duuun). It was a little confusing, but they were seriously efficient getting us through all the tests: weight, hearing, blood pressure, sight, a chest x-ray, blood, and urine. Whew! Lots to do. I hate needles but I was very brave getting my blood drawn. I just closed my eyes and looked away. The nurse was really good, too, she only had to poke me once and no digging around! People usually have a hard time taking my blood but she was spot on! She should be commended.
I still don't like needles, though.

The urine test was also exciting. I won't go into any gross details but I'm very glad I found the Western toilet. I almost had to use a squat pot on my first day out!*

After the hospital, we took the subway back to the hotel to change before heading out to have dinner with some of the other teachers. We walked around quite a bit before finding a place. It was a little difficult since three of us don't drink and didn't really want to go to a bar to eat and another girl was a vegetarian. Thus, our choices were rather limited. Lots of tall, tall buildings, though!We also made a mad dash across traffic!
Ok, this shot was from before we ran across the street. But, still. It's a big, busy city here. Very fun. :)

We finally found a place to eat that wasn't a bar and had some vegetarian options. Before they brought the food out, we got bowls of sesame seeds with a big stick. I'm not sure what they were for but we all got very busy grinding them up. It smelled really good at least.
I ordered delicious donkatsu curry with rice. Yum!! It was a fried pork cutlet with a beef curry sauce (carrots, corn, beef, and potato) over rice. It was SOOO good!

Luckily, we had a few boys in our group of people who were American born Korean and spoke a little bit of Korean and so ordering wasn't too bad or confusing. You can see one of the guys in the picture I took.They were way impressed of our knowledge of the language. Haha! Mostly that I can read it... even if I don't understand. The phrase for the day: Ahn mep geh. Means pretty much "No spicy." Good to know here.

And that's the first day of training. Today starts the hard stuff. Wish me luck!

또봐요! Toh bwahyo! Bye!

*For those of you who don't know, Eastern toilets are pretty much just like the toilets we're used to in the States, but just set into the floor. I'm sure there will be more adventures with these in the future.