Orientation is almost over, one more legit day of training and then travelling and meeting our co-teachers. This week has flown. I am getting way more excited about the job over here. A good word to describe us is edutainers, we don't really give legit lessons or "teach" the kids, our job is just to provide the an outlet for the kids to talk in English. I thought that I would have to create my own lessons more frequently and in more detail, but basically the lesson plans that I will come up with are game centred that will allow the kids to practice the skills and vocab that they have learned in their actual English class. I was under the impression that I would be giving the English lessons in the class, but our class is more supplementary to the actual English class which is taught by a Korean. It sounds a lot more awesome since we'll basically just be talking with the kids and having them talk to us while we correct their grammar and give them real world tips to consider. I can actually give a lesson on slang terms that they can use in everyday speech rather than focus directly on the grammar of it all. The grammar is all for the English class, I'll be all about practicality, so that will definitely help make the class more interesting. It definitely depends on the schools though. I lucked out.. I know in the hagwon (private schools) they work directly with the kids in a more structured setting, but that's all the intense training that parents usually send after already going through their proper schooling.

So definitely excited to start next week. It'll be a good, fun first week that will get me into the position.

Surprisingly jet lag has been way easier on me than I thought it would have been. I have become mostly on their clock and it feels like just a regular day. I've heard some people say that it took them weeks and a couple people were saying a couple months as well, so I'm definitley glad that it hasn't hit me. It did on Tuesday though, but that's because I barely slept my first night here and then went out drinking on Monday night. Was in bed around 9:30pm and just right out for the count. Fell asleep with a book in my hand and everything. Glad I got that out of my system.

One thing I am actually surprised by is the amount that Koreans drink. I knew they drank a lot, but we actually had a lesson in our orientation on how to properly drink with Koreans. You know when they put it into an orientation for teachers that it can be a slippery slope at some point. This guy from Toronto was saying that he has had to puke during one of their teacher dinners because the Koreans drank so much soju and  mekju.

Went out again on Wednesday. Bunch of us wanted to get out on the town so we checked out the bars. It was a chill night starting in the Western American (WA) Bar meant for ex-pats. It was definitely geared towards tourists but it was an alright place. Pretty cheap too, but expensive for Korean standards apparently. I didn't mind throwing in seven bucks for an endless amount of drinks. I checked out my first Korea club...well kind of. I can't remember what it was called, but it was like Avalanche at the mountain. Really super small, but it was fun. Koreans are hilarious too. All they wanted to do was dance with us and joined into everything. I didn't realise how much they loved Westerners over here. They've been stopping us in the streets to talk to us. So super friendly. Late night snack we picked up Toast. I was thinking it was literally just toast so at first I wasn't that excited. Until I watched them make it. Buttered up and fried bread with an egg and veggie mixture, topped with pickles, meat, sauce and a couple other things. I need to try that again, it tasted like a mcdouble.

Korean bbq on Thursday. So good. Apparently they did it differently than usual with smoked meat and little pork. But the whole experience of it all was brilliant. Everything is so communal. There are only ever single dishes on the table and everybody just digs in. Got my first taste of soju as well. I was kind of fearing it, but it actually doesn't taste bad, and it goes down super smooth, which is likely to get dangerous. Actually it really is dangerous. The bottles which are just like beer bottles are less than a dollar at 20% each and the taste is like a super diluted vodka so there's no burn. They mix it with mekju (beer) which I thought would've been absolutely disgusting but it's so tasteless that you can't even notice the difference. Another dangerous aspect of it. Great thing about this whole orientation is that the coordinators actually come out with you to all these events. They've been out to the bars and everything with us and usually stay until very late. Definitely helps when you want to know how to do things and where to go.

 Then we went to a noribang afterwards which was absolutely brilliant. Basically it's just authentic Korean karaoke. Each group gets their own room depending on the size. We got one of the biggest rooms in the place and it fit over twenty of us.The whole thing came to just over W220, 000, which is just shy of $220, and we got the room for about three-ish hours, plus and endless amount of drinks. We probably consumed more than two 2-4s of beer and at least ten bottles of soju and they brought food there as well. So cheap when you look at the per-person cost. Definitely worth it. I was going to jump up and do some Taylor Swift, but I held back. Brought in some Jessie's Girl though, so fun. Then off to a place called Soul Train. Apparently this place was brought to fame because it has one pool table. Guess they're rare in Korea. Played pool with some Koreans and won, boo-ya. Definitely a good night. Topped it all off with a trip to the club from Wednesday night. The only downside to all of this is coming in at around 3am. That part makes the day rough. Oh well.

Out to the market centre tonight, should be fun just to walk around and take it easy. I miss all of you already! Just come for a visit to Korea. It'll be worth it!