Inauguration of new president

SO yesterday was the inauguration of South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak. Apparently he's quite the conservative. Already within 24 hours, he implemented all these new changes to the country. It's been said that he plans to (basically) wipe out all Korean culture and language and make EVERYTHING English-friendly. This includes teaching Korean in ENGLISH. The National Ministry of Education has now merged with some other Science and Sport or something department, so there was a lot of changes in the administration, particularly in the program that I am working through, English Program in Korea (EPIK). Our director was relocated and they are throwing in a new one. This is unfortunate because the previous director was wonderful and such a great man. So now we are going to be having to deal with someone who knows nothing about the program.

Not only this, but EPIK's funds have been temporarily frozen until after March 1 when the new director arrives. So this means that a lot of the orientation's funding will be taken directly out of the pockets of the EPIK staff (thankfully all the hotel stuff has already been taken care of) and our airfare reimbursement that we were supposed to receive at the end of orientation has been pushed back. So instead of us each opening our own bank accounts once we arrive at our sites, the EPIK staff is opening one for all of us right now so that they can deposit our refunds into our accounts later. It's a bit messy and a bit crazy that this all happened on the SAME day as the inauguration. Supposedly, this isn't going to affect me as a teacher, but apparently things are never set in stone in this country. I'm looking forward to a great year.

In the meantime, I've been sitting in countless lectures learning about teaching techniques, Korean culture and lifestyle, and other semi-beneficial training information. Food is getting a bit old (and I'm eating way too much of it), but today we had noodles and it was delish.

Fun stuff to follow.