Goodbye Seoul, Hello EPIK!

Orientation was a whirlwind 8 days long, it ended so quickly (though after the first 3 days I thought it would NEVER end). We began by packing up all of our bags and heading to the airport on February 20^th via bus. It actually wasn’t too hard to maneuver my bags by myself, I actually have a pretty good system going. Some people took taxis and some people took the bus. There was a large group of us that went on the bus together, which pretty much freaked the little bus driver out. Poor guy, having to load all those bags. Abby, Sam and I decided to wait until the next bus that was arriving only 15 minutes later.

Bags at the hostel before leaving

Main check in area of hostel

Hostel

View from rooftop

View from rooftop

Rooftop looking in

Rooftop

3 girls' bags at a bus stop

My bags

Bus to the airport

Once we arrived at the airport, we found carts to help us with our luggage, Abby turned in her rented cell phone, then we headed off to the EPIK check in. We found all the other ninjas there, got in line, got our paperwork and waited for our assigned bus to leave.

Yay for trolleys! 

So much stuff!

Ready to head out

Waiting for the buses

The buses were assigned by numbers, 20 people to a bus. I found it quite funny that the large group of ninjas were on bus 5, but Abby, Sam and I got numbers 101-103, making us bus 6- our luck. At first, I didn’t see why we could only have 20 people to a bus, but after the driver had loaded all of the large suitcases under the bus and had to start loading all other bags into the front seats, I realized it was because we had so much stuff! Of the 3 rolling bags and duffle that I gave them to load, only the largest suitcase made it under the bus, the rest had to ride in seats. Daejeon was about a 2.5 hour bus ride away and once we got there we had to promptly unload our things and go inside for check in. We picked up our name tags then moved onto the room assignment table, where I happened to notice a sigh that said “Rooms will be assigned in order of arrival”. We had been told there were pre-assigned, so I figured we would try our chances and Abby made sure she was right behind me in the line and, sure enough, we became roomies. We then went to pick up our keys and goodie bags, got our temperature taken without any warning that something was going to be stuck into our ears, then we headed upstairs.

New room

Welcome package

Dorm at orientation

My bed!

After getting all of our things up to our room we decided to go out and explore just a bit before dinner, and after we caught taxis into the city center to go to Emart. Let me tell you, my nerves about living in Korea disappeared at this point (well, at least a large chunk of them). Emart pretty much has anything you could want, all in one building. Hair dryers to school supplies, clothes to furniture. They even have a great food selection (fresh produce, milk, bread and an “international” section that includes my favorite pasta sauce). I returned to the dorms with a more eased mind, then headed to bed to rest up for the coming days of orientation. 

I can now live!

Just a normal grocery

Now to find cajun spice