Last Day in Seoul
Hello all,
I'm sending out this e-mail as a quick update since this may be the last time I have an internet connection for a few days, maybe a week, not really sure.
This has certainly been a week packed with things to do. CDI has asked a lot from its trainees. It is no exaggeration to say I have had to eat, sleep, and breathe CDI since Monday morning. Had I known exactly how much work we were going to have this week, I would have attempted to get out more over last weekend to experience the night life, snap photos of Seoul. However, that will have to come some other time.
My schedule for the week was pretty rinse and repeat. Up at 7 AM local time, on the shuttle bus to take us across town to headquarters (probably ~ 5 miles, but it took us a minimum of 40 minutes to make the trip with all the traffic). Our first training class started at 9 AM and would last until noon. There, we'd get a couple hours for lunch; the time not spent eating and taking a break from the work was spent prepping for our afternoon training session. We would then train from 4-7 PM. At 7, we would generally have some sort of meeting to discuss other expectations/shorter training sessions and if we were lucky, we'd be back on the bus across the city by 8 (I didn't get back until 9 tonight). Upon arriving, there would be time for a quick dinner and then straight into homework, which consisted of lesson planning/prepping for the training sessions the next day. I have struggled some with study habits in the past, but I did not have the option to struggle this week. I would work in a constant fashion until about 1 AM before having to settle for not being quite complete but giving in to my minimum requirement of 6 hours sleep (thus having to do more prep on our lunch break). So, as I said above, my entire day has been devoted to CDI and I haven't been able to afford many breaks. I have been very stressed all week, but tried my best to relax and take everything in stride. I promise to catch up on all the individual e-mails/questions when my schedule becomes less hectic. The one bright side is that I have adjusted to the time difference now.
Today was definitely the worst day of all. I passed two of the three tests we had earlier in the week, so I had to study more for the one I "failed" - I missed a passing score of 70% by 1 question! I've always hated grammar. This was also the last night to prepare for our full training evaluations tomorrow. I will stress a little in hoping that I passed the re-test I took this evening. Tomorrow, it's all for real. Structure tests and training evaluations. Assuming all goes well tomorrow, I'll check out of this hotel in the morning and only come back to pick up my luggage at night. After that, I'll be on a train south to Cheonan where I will most likely be in a hotel for a day or two before finding permanent residence. This is why I'm unsure of when I'll have an internet connection again. I may have it at the hotel, I may have to wait until next week sometime at my future apartment. In any case, I will be very happy to have completed the week of training and look forward to really getting settled in to my regular routine.
Again, I wish I had one more night in Seoul to get out and see more of the city life, get better pictures, but fortunately I've met some friends in the training program that are staying in various parts of the city who are willing to entertain me for a weekend. I will get pictures up that I took going to and from work when I get a chance. The city does have some beautiful views, especially when passing over the Han River. A look in either direction shows multiple views of water, big buildings, and mountains. Central Illinois scenery this certainly is not. I still cannot comprehend just how massive Seoul really is. I could never drive here...it's completely different even from big city driving in the States. More on that later.
The food has been interesting here. I have no idea what I ate on Monday night, but it wasn't terrible. I don't know what the name for it is, but Tuesday and Wednesday lunches featured baby octopus and squid, respectively. Today's lunch was dumpling and rice pattie soup (and it's not the dumplings I was used to, but it was delicious). If I were in an American restaurant, I would never order these things, but I assure you they have been very good. Kimchi has also treated me better than anticipated. I did sneak in a quick Burger King dinner last night just to remind myself of what beef tastes like. I've been craving pizza like no one's business the past few days as well. Good thing I dined on Papa Dell's my last day in Champaign!
I'll talk more about the good and bad of my training later on. It's now 1 AM here and this guy needs some beauty rest for my big day tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well and I want to hear updates on what everyone is up to!
Take care,
I'm sending out this e-mail as a quick update since this may be the last time I have an internet connection for a few days, maybe a week, not really sure.
This has certainly been a week packed with things to do. CDI has asked a lot from its trainees. It is no exaggeration to say I have had to eat, sleep, and breathe CDI since Monday morning. Had I known exactly how much work we were going to have this week, I would have attempted to get out more over last weekend to experience the night life, snap photos of Seoul. However, that will have to come some other time.
My schedule for the week was pretty rinse and repeat. Up at 7 AM local time, on the shuttle bus to take us across town to headquarters (probably ~ 5 miles, but it took us a minimum of 40 minutes to make the trip with all the traffic). Our first training class started at 9 AM and would last until noon. There, we'd get a couple hours for lunch; the time not spent eating and taking a break from the work was spent prepping for our afternoon training session. We would then train from 4-7 PM. At 7, we would generally have some sort of meeting to discuss other expectations/shorter training sessions and if we were lucky, we'd be back on the bus across the city by 8 (I didn't get back until 9 tonight). Upon arriving, there would be time for a quick dinner and then straight into homework, which consisted of lesson planning/prepping for the training sessions the next day. I have struggled some with study habits in the past, but I did not have the option to struggle this week. I would work in a constant fashion until about 1 AM before having to settle for not being quite complete but giving in to my minimum requirement of 6 hours sleep (thus having to do more prep on our lunch break). So, as I said above, my entire day has been devoted to CDI and I haven't been able to afford many breaks. I have been very stressed all week, but tried my best to relax and take everything in stride. I promise to catch up on all the individual e-mails/questions when my schedule becomes less hectic. The one bright side is that I have adjusted to the time difference now.
Today was definitely the worst day of all. I passed two of the three tests we had earlier in the week, so I had to study more for the one I "failed" - I missed a passing score of 70% by 1 question! I've always hated grammar. This was also the last night to prepare for our full training evaluations tomorrow. I will stress a little in hoping that I passed the re-test I took this evening. Tomorrow, it's all for real. Structure tests and training evaluations. Assuming all goes well tomorrow, I'll check out of this hotel in the morning and only come back to pick up my luggage at night. After that, I'll be on a train south to Cheonan where I will most likely be in a hotel for a day or two before finding permanent residence. This is why I'm unsure of when I'll have an internet connection again. I may have it at the hotel, I may have to wait until next week sometime at my future apartment. In any case, I will be very happy to have completed the week of training and look forward to really getting settled in to my regular routine.
Again, I wish I had one more night in Seoul to get out and see more of the city life, get better pictures, but fortunately I've met some friends in the training program that are staying in various parts of the city who are willing to entertain me for a weekend. I will get pictures up that I took going to and from work when I get a chance. The city does have some beautiful views, especially when passing over the Han River. A look in either direction shows multiple views of water, big buildings, and mountains. Central Illinois scenery this certainly is not. I still cannot comprehend just how massive Seoul really is. I could never drive here...it's completely different even from big city driving in the States. More on that later.
The food has been interesting here. I have no idea what I ate on Monday night, but it wasn't terrible. I don't know what the name for it is, but Tuesday and Wednesday lunches featured baby octopus and squid, respectively. Today's lunch was dumpling and rice pattie soup (and it's not the dumplings I was used to, but it was delicious). If I were in an American restaurant, I would never order these things, but I assure you they have been very good. Kimchi has also treated me better than anticipated. I did sneak in a quick Burger King dinner last night just to remind myself of what beef tastes like. I've been craving pizza like no one's business the past few days as well. Good thing I dined on Papa Dell's my last day in Champaign!
I'll talk more about the good and bad of my training later on. It's now 1 AM here and this guy needs some beauty rest for my big day tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well and I want to hear updates on what everyone is up to!
Take care,
posted by JayD at 1:19 AM
.jpg){kind=small}
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home