Playing Catch Up

I am back! And I survived my three-day adventure, my six-hour journey to Guyre and meeting my host family. I think I am finally settled in, too. First things first, Seoul. I made a short video that, I think, sums up Seoul very nicely.

Seoul was probably the most fun I've ever had in a city. Saturday was Liberation Day - a huge national holiday to celebrate Korea's liberation from Japan. The entire weekend had a lot of free and interesting cultural events. It was the perfect weekend to visit. Just for the record, I want to state that I have never felt like such a fashion frump. It seemed like every girl on the street just jumped off of a runway. And then there were my friends and me: dressed in our typical American blue jeans, sneakers and $9.99 department store top.

I did go shopping in Seoul (of course!) and bought a few fashion essentials. I can't believe those words just came out of my finger tips. :)

On Monday I officially became an ETA and met my Principal and co-teacher. We, plus a geography teacher, drove from Seoul to Guyre. That was an interesting trip. Three men + me in a tiny Hyundai, with very little English. Needless to say, I started learning "survival Korean" immediately. It was actually a very pleasant ride, all in all, especially when the principal found out that I like to 놀래방 (karaoke).

Well, apparently Guyre is ridiculously small, because none of my three transporters live in the actual city. My principal lives in Gwangju (a huge city about an hour away) and the geography teacher lives in Sincheon (about 20 minues away). My co-teacher lives about 10 minutes outside of Guyre city limits. "Oh boy," I thought, "It's really happening. I am moving to a rice field."

While there were several lost-in-the-translation moments, the best one by far occurred while passing through my co-teacher's city. He said what sounded like, "I feel gas." Not sure if that ment he was about to bust loose with the belches and farts or not, I just said, "Ohhh, okay." Luckily, he meant that he needed gas...for the car. I breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled into the gas station.

I met my host family around 9:30 p.m. on Monday. They definitely fit my personality well. They are active but very realistic. I have two younger brothers: ages 8 and 10. Their names sound like "Oh-Meong" (10) and "Oh-Chahn" (8) (겅의찬 & 겅의명). I call my host mom "Oh-nee" (it means older sister/female figure) and haven't really called my host dad anything yet... :) I have a picture of Oh-Chahn and me fooling around with my computer. Oh-Meong has sort of been M.I.A. for the past day; I think he went to his grandparents.

I will post more pictures as I can get them. My father is a Government employee and my mom works for the Lions Club as a secretary part-time. The boys are still on summer break. School starts next Monday for us both!

Like every American family, every Korean family is a little different, so I didn't really know what to expect. One thing, I think I mentioned in previous posts, is the whole toilet paper thing. The sewer system cannot handle toilet paper, so you throw it in the wastebasket. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the basket was outside of the bathroom. I thought that carrying used toilet paper outside of the bathroom would be quite odd in any culture, so I just air dried for the first few times (if you know what I mean). ALSO, they have one of those souped-up toilets. You know, the ones that give your fanny a bath and everything. I personally am a huge fan of the heated toilet seat.

Well, I came to find out through very intense observation that the toilet takes care of the toilet paper. Whew! First hurdle overcome!

The next is the whole door thing. We are not suppose to close our door; it's like me saying, "leave me alone." That's fine and dandy until you come to the changing/sleeping/showering part of the day. I'm still not really sure what to do, because I never see my family change, sleep or shower. And they won't go to bed before I do. So, I'm not really sure what to do. Right now I change in the corner of my room (door open), sleep with the door cracked and shower with the door closed. Eh. It'll have to do for now. I'll keep you all posted on the situation, though.

Yesterday my Mom took me around Guyre. It took about 15 minutes. It is very very small. We went to their art museum (which was really cool!). It was a one-room museum with "paintings" made completely out of pressed flowers. It was gorgeous! Oh-Chahn was sick, so we took him to the doctor in Guyre and then to one in the next, much larger town over. I visited my school briefly and received a cell phone (I'll activiate it with Skype soon so you all can call me!) and the option of a bicycle or moped. I chose the moped, which is coming on Monday. Sweet! Oh-Chahn and I spent most of the day playing card games and a short game of baseball. Huge baseball fans, my host family. Especially the Chicago Cubs. The card games are fun because the only deck I could find was my Obama deck, so whenever Oh-Chahn wants to play cards he says, "Play with Obama?"

This afternoon I am setting up my bank account with my co-teacher (Mr. Seol [설재문]) and either running by myself or hiking up a mountain with my Oh-nee...I'm not sure. It sort of got lost in the translation. I forgot to mention that Guyre is completely surrounded by mountains. Mountains in EVERY direction. It's crazy, but beautiful. More picutres to come, I promise!

Well, that's about all I have time for. Thanks for reading, and I promise to write more later!

Last Night In Chuncheon

Well, everything has come to the final night in Chuncheon. To be honest, I'm pretty emotional about it. I'm not crying or sulking or anything, but I am kind of coming down from an unknown high. Overall, orientation was probably the most fun six weeks I've ever had. I mean, come on! When will you ever get to be paid to hang out with 69 amazing people your age while taking classes whose grade does not mess up your future plans while bopping around the ultimate college city? But, all good things must come to an end. As a one of our speakers said, "All roads lead to somewhere." Our roads lead to different places, so we should just enjoy the time we spend while on the same road. Man, I really hate goodbyes.

Today we had our graduation ceremony. Yes, I graduated. I know basic Korean. Hurrah! But we had to say goodbye to our 선생님 (teachers), which was a lot harder than I thought. I mean, we saw each other five days a week for four hours a day for five weeks. Not to mention the out-of-class times; they lived right down the hall from me. They are probably the cutest people I have ever met. So that was hard.

Tomorrow we leave for a three-day trip to Seoul! I'm so excited! We will arrive Friday around noon, unpack, reunite with our other suitecase and head to a pool-side BBQ at the American Embassy. No big deal. Oh, did I mention that they will have veggie burgers???? Ahh! So excited! Saturday and Sunday are completely free (awesome!) and Monday we meet our host school principal and VP. Yikes! I will arrive at my homestay Monday night and probably start teaching Tuesday or Wednesday. Ahhhhh! People go to school for four years to be a teacher. I am doing it in six weeks! Scary!

So I will keep you posted as much as possible on this weekend. Be on the lookout for a video slideshow similar to the one from Songnisan.

Below are two videos: One that I made for the talent show (It's really long, but pretty funny) and one of my jump rope skit. :) There are also some pictures posted by others of me jump roping on facebook.

Well, sorry this is so short, but I'm about to head out for a "Last Night in Chuncheon" celebration. Thanks for reading!

Guyre High School - The Details

I just got more information about my school situation. I'm super excited! Dress = Jeans & T-shirt?? How did I luck out like that!? Just to give you an idea, most people teach more than 16 classes and about 500-1,000 students. I am also very thankful for a technology capable school...

Province	Jeollanam-do
Location	Gurye
School Name	Gurye High School
Type	Public
Grade levels taught	High 1, 2
Hours taught per week	Less than 15
Students taught	Less than 300
Class contacts per week	Three or more
Hours at school per day	7-8
Special advanced class	Yes
Own classroom	Yes
Taught from textbook	Rarely
Created original lessons	Frequently
Co-teacher in classroom	Rarely
Handled own discipline issues	Always
Other staff member handled discipline	Never
Attend school on test days	Never
Socialized with staff	Frequently
Reward system for classroom	Frequently
Taught winter break classes	No
Daily Attire	Casual; jeans and t-shirt
Lunch with teachers	Cafeteria
School-provided computer	Yes
Operating system	Windows XP
Technology
Overhead projector	Yes
DVD player	Yes
VHS	No
Power Point PC	Yes
Internet-capable	Yes

Some Catching Up

The past three days have been completely devoted to studying for my Korean Language final, so I'm sorry for the lack of posting. I actually have a lot to update, so now I've got to kind of summarize it all.

First things first, the final. The final was four parts long: reading, writing, role play (speaking with a partner) and interview (speaking with the professor). Like I do before all tests, I tried to eat a good breakfast. But the cafeteria decided to serve fish. With the eyes and everything. Call me crazy, but I'm not really okay with eating something that's looking at me, especially for breakfast. So, I meandered down to the convenience store and got me some 빵와 우유! (Bread and milk; but they were vocab words, so transaction was really exciting).

The reading and writing portions were easy. But by the time I got to the interview I was drained and I could barely tell what was going on. (I think I said, "My favorite season is spring" as an answer to, "What did you do this weekend.") I got better toward the end. But I was just brain dead. The interview was 3-hours into the final.

Anyways, it's over and done with. I need a 70% (easier said than done) to not be sent home.

Okay, now for the good stuff. On Saturday the ETAs went to the DMZ and got a good, long look at North Korea. We weren't allowed to take any pictures North Korea, but it looked a lot like in the picture below. Except more mountainous.

Me, Yoo Jin (orientation counselor) and my roommate Jen

The picture was actually taken at Peace Park, located in Hwacheon, which is about 6 miles from the DMZ. It wasn't really clear why this park was the Peace Park (I'm not sure if something peaceful actually happened there) but they have this really big Peace Bell. It was so big I couldn't really get a good picture of it. The bell is rung three times per "Peace Event." Once again, due to the language barrier, I'm not sure what constitutes a peace event. But we got to ring it because we're ambassadors or something like that. So that was pretty cool. It was really loud. The bell is made entirely from bullets and stuff from the war.

There was also a smaller bell, which (apparently) was not a peace bell, but looked really cool. This one I could in a picture. I would say this one is a third the size of the actual peace bell.

What I thought was really cool about this Peace Park business was the damn. I think the dam was an excuse to build a silly tourist sight. Okay, here's the breakdown. The river that runs through Seoul actually starts in North Korea/DMZ. North Korea has a dam at the start. They could choose to open the dam and, in effect, flood Seoul. But the dam in Hwacheon acts as the protector dam and would catch the water, thus preventing the flooding of Seoul. So, yeah. That was pretty cool.

The whole experience was very odd for me. It was really hard to know what to feel. I mean, there you are driving through these gorgeous mountains, passing quiet rice patties and "Peace Parks." Then suddenly, BAM! You're stuck at a military checkpoint for a half hour by a solider not much older than me fully armed with semi-automatics and completely ready fight communists. There was one point where I found myself staring at these delicate yellow flowers and thinking, "What on earth are these doing here? This is such a sad place, how could anything so happy and pure survive?"

Anyways, we had a little overview at the DMZ lookout point (which was just a shelter with glass windows facing North Korea). From the perspective of a foreigner, it was ridiculous. They actually showed a video of a solider on the North Korea side trying unsuccessfully to catch a fish. "This is North Korean," the soldier guide said, "He is fishing for long time but he caught no fish." Then they had a slide show of the South Korea side: happy music, nature pictures, fuzzy animals and happy soldiers with heaping plates of food. You got to hand it to them, they are so proud of their country.

Feel very much at ease my friends. The South-North Korea border is very much secured. Like I said, those kids up there are ready to fight a war at the drop of a hat.

That was my Saturday in a nutshell. I'm still kind of reacting to the entire situation. Now things should be shifting gears from "learn Korean" to "learn to be on your own." We have a teaching seminar this afternoon and (I think) pretty much every day this week. We also have splashes of cultural workshops every now and then. Basically, this means I have to sit in a classroom from 9-5 everyday. Can't complain, though. That is why I'm here; it's my job. I'm feeling much better, thank you for all of your helpful comments from the last post (it was a wonderful thing to wake up to). Still practicing my jump roping skit.... :) Thanks for reading!

Culture shock...it begins

Good morning! Sorry it has been so long since a last post. Honestly, I've been so busy that I've done nothing really worth blogging about. I wake up, go to class, go to a seminar, do homework then go to bed. I also squeeze in three interesting cafeteria meals along the way.

We are finished with Korean Language class, except for our final on Monday. Yikes! The final is four hours long. Yeah. Koreans are crazy good at being students. I've been studying during the week for that. Practice makes perfect. (김영미 씨! 한국어를 어려워요! 그리고 존젼에 더와요.) Sorry, that was just a little shout-out to Youngmee.

So, during a study break (of course) the today, I decided to check out iTunes for a list of the most popular American songs. My jaw almost dropped to the floor when I realized that I, who is usually on top of music, knew almost none of the top songs. I know this sounds silly, but it made me feel frantic; like I was missing out on my life or culture or something. And then I started to escalate matters by thinking about all the things I was going to miss. Everything from birthdays to movies to missing the stupid U.S. census suddenly made me really homesick. (But seriously, the census thing is really a fascinating phenomenon to us marketing majors. And it's a little frightening to think that you won't be counted as an American) But I guess it's normal to feel this way. And I guess I better figure out a way to deal with it real fast, because things are only going to get more Korean and less American.

But, luckily my silly sister was on Skype. And we talked for a while about simple things like driving and jump roping (more on that in a second). And the talk really grounded me and made me feel a lot better. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you get an incoming call from a 000-12345 number, it's me and it would absolutely make my day to hear your voice. :)

Anyways, on to bigger and happier things. Next Wednesday is The Fulbright Korea Talent Show! And I am planning it. (I made the logo to the right.) "정" is really hard to translate, but it kind of means "brotherly love;" It's like when you know someone really well to the point that you can sense how they feel without them using words)

So, as the planner, I saw that not a lot of people were signing up for acts. So, I decided to put my name down to make other people feel more at ease with joining. Well, it worked like a charm and the list filled up. So, I went to take my name off of the list when one of my co-planners stopped me and refused to let me renig. "But I have only one interesting talent and that's playing the clarinet, which I do not have."

Well, my co-planner is a smart kid and refused to be turned down. Thinking quickly I said (because I had JUST received a care package from home containing my jump rope), "The only psudeo-talent I have is my jump rope!" And bam. Just like that, I suddenly had a bunch of people insisting I do a jump rope skit. Oh god.

And now I have to jump rope in front of 100 people. Awesome. So, be on the lookout for a summary of how that goes down. Well, on that note, I better go practice jumping rope. :) Thanks for reading!

Yee-haw, folks

I got placed today! Here's the short of it:

City: Gurye
School: Co-ed, Public, High School
Size: 383 students in the school
Class size: 20-25 (15 classes)

Gurye is pronounced "Goo-rlay" the "rl" sound is similar to rolling r's in Spanish.

This is what I found out initially. I was pretty happy with everything. I mean, I heard of some ETAs having close to 1,000 students with class sizes around 40.

So, I went online and looked up the school. Here is the link: http://www.gurye.hs.kr/
It's all in Korean, but the photo album on the first page is pretty entertaining. I was getting excited; there were pictures of kids doing lots of sports.

But I knew nothing of Gurye. So. I did a quick online search and had to pick my jaw up from off of the floor.

First of all, on the preference survey, I left everything blank except for the "Open Comments" section where I wrote: "Put me in a place where I can run. If I cannot run I will, in all seriousness, go crazy. I am also a vegetarian."

Now, let me paint you a picture of Gurye. The average temperature ranges from 37-degrees to 66 degrees. Can someone say, "Perfect for running?" Oh, it gets better.

Gurye is surrounded by a famous mountain on one side and a natural spring lake on the other. It's described as a "small, picturesque farm town." Wait for it. Wait for it. They are vegetarian-friendly. They have a working Buddhist Temple on the side of the mountain. Score.

Anyways, it's better than anything I could have imagined. Here is the Gurye web site (in English, this time) if you are curious. Gurye and the mountain surrounding Gurye are the tourist center on that side of Korea...

http://www.gurye.go.kr/english/aboutgurye/introduction.html

Thanks for reading, that's all for now!

The Beginning of the End

We were informed this afternoon that we would not here about our placements on Wednesday as planned, but tomorrow. A huge sigh of shock, excitement (and perhaps fear) escaped from 70 mouths. It is weird. Even though we all knew this was coming, and the announcement only got pushed up by one day, the end suddenly seemed very tangible. I think it hit a lot of people like a brick wall.

Personally, I won't sleep any differently tonight. But I cannot speak for the 69 other ETAs. Even dinner was a little more somber. It's kind of weird to think that the dinners left with these new best friends are numbered. The beginning of the end has officially begun. I can only imagine what tomorrow will be like.

Since we're on the "Debby Downer" track, I may as well announce that I have a really bad cold. I started feeling it on Friday and, despite advice from my mother (by the way, ALWAYS listen to your mother except in cases of skydiving) I went to my retreat on Saturday. That was the worst idea of my 20's. I ended up coming home Saturday night (a big no-no, but I absolutely insisted). I went to the emergency room on Sunday. The doctor - Dr. Park - is actually off to California in three weeks to get U.S. certification. His English was awesome. I think he told me that I have a really bad cold (upper respiratory infection, acute tonsillitis). Scary doctor words for, "You have a cold and you should have stayed home, you idiot."

Anyways, there is no such thing as OTC cold medicine in Korea. You have to go through a doctor to get any drugs. So, they gave me a mystery magic shot (as I like to refer to it) and two days worth of prepackaged medication. By prepackaged, I mean I take one packet in the morning, another at lunch and another at dinner. The one at dinner is a doozy; it knocked me out at 7:30 last night and I didn't roll over until 5 the next morning. I know that sounds peaceful, but I actually fell asleep on my nametag and had a huge square imprint on my cheek for over 30 minutes. I think I'll wait until I'm ready for bed before I crack into that packet again.

But I am feeling much better today. And the care package I received from home certainly helped. Oreos, KitKats and Caramel Creams. Can a girl ask for anything else?

I may as well mention the retreat now. For what I was there for, it was a TON of crazy fun. Actually, I'm pretty sure everything we did would be classified as some sort of hazing in the States. But it was a very positive experience. We swam in a nearby river and played a lot of teambuilding games, including a tongue twister race...but the tongue twisters were in Korean. Fantastic. We also played "Pass the onion ring" wherein each team member has a straw in their mouth and have to receive and pass an onion ring using on the straw. The other interesting game was "Suck and Blow" (don't worry, it's not bad) wherein you have to pass a plastic square down a line of people by sucking in when you are holding it and blowing out when you pass. Here are some visuals to assist. You can click all of them for a really big image:

Pass the Onion Ring

Suck and Blow (I probably got a lot of people sick...)

Get a good look now, because they'll probably (a) kill me for posting this and (b) make me take it down. This was the last activity I was there for...

The Drag Show
(These are the most manly men I've ever met)

I heard that the rest of the night was a lot of fun, but very exhausting. Everyone said that it was good that I went home when I did. Well, that should keep you chuckling (or keep your jaw on the floor) for a while. I will be sure to post about my placement tomorrow as soon as I can. In the mean time, pray for a very inland location (to avoid seafood). Thanks for reading!