Orientation week in Daejeon

So I'm off to Daejeon for a week of teacher training, im on the bus, listening to accents and hear a loud South African behind me, suddenly the guy next to me starts speaking to him and he has a South African accent too. I'm thinking to myself, oh its so cool to be sitting next to fellow South Africans. Well turns out the guy behind me is a rather obnoxious childish guy that cant stop swearing and the guy next to me is a little nuts to say the least. Way to hold our South African reputation high! Well turns out this guy next to me is a bible freak, more correctly, he is a nut that hides under a thin vale of religious justification, he thinks that God speaks directly to him, and has given him a prophetic gift, I call that a schizoid. I should have seen the warning signs when I asked him if he had taught before and he responded "only the gospel". Later on the bus he responded to my story of how I got in a bike accident in Taiwan by saying that I probably hugged a girl and got turned on by it and that it was Gods way of punishing me. He told me that I must not be lead into temptation by the Korean woman. At that point i started to stare out of the window to avoid anymore conversation with this guy. But unfortunately as we got to the orientation location and we were about to check into our rooms he said to me, why dont we share and against my better judgment I accepted. Well as for the orientation itself, i really did learn a lot and I made some good connections. It was the best orientation program I have attended and I must thank the EPIK staff for an awesome time. We had a competition for best lesson plan presentation and my team, 2 other teachers from the US won our class' prize, W10 000 call cards. Thats nice, but I would prefer the cash since I can skype family and friends for free anyway. Well, so more about my roommate from hell. Firstly, he does not eat during the day at all cause he says he is fasting, the guy is really skinny and kinda scary looking. He never attended classes, not sure what he did all day, he talks to himself, he recites verses from the bible to himself and starts praying out of the blue, even in the middle of the night when i'm trying to sleep, that freaked me out. He complains non-stop and is particularly anti-American. I could just feel the negativity as I entered the room, i could feel this guy is bad news. He woke up at 2am to brush his teeth, floss and clear his throat. He doesn't do it quietly, he makes a lot of noise. I was furious with him for keeping me awake at night either by loudly clearing his throat or talking loudly to himself. Absolutely no consideration. He left his garbage scattered in the room after we checked out which just shows how inconsiderate he is, and he is like a leach, there he was keeping a seat for me next to him, for the journey back to Seoul. I wonder why it seems I seem to attract the freaks at orientation. Same thing happened to me at orientation in Taiwan when I also had to room with another bible nut. Anyway I feel sorry for the school he has to teach at. I cringe when I think of all the decent and good teachers from South Africa who's reputation will be dragged down by a few negative kooks that should not be here. Anyway I had a good time on the field trip out on a farm in the country side. I find the country side really beautiful and I can see that this country is really a stunning place for hiking. Its still winter but starting to change into spring so I hope to do some hiking soon. It was good to be back at my school today although i was a bit under prepared for my lessons. I picked up some really useful stuff at orientation that I cant wait to use. Tonight Im just going to take it easy, have a beer and relax and finally get a decent nights rest. Saw this really pretty girl today in the elevator of my apartment building. She smiled and greeted me in Korean as she got off. Wow, I wish I can speak Korean now. I seriously got to get a tutor. That made my day. Tomorrow im off to watch a local soccer game and then off to Hongdae (the club area) to see some rock bands. Should be a ball.