Finally, Some Future Plans

On Thursday, we had a placement ceremony, and it was finally announced where we would all be spending the upcoming year.  As is common in Korea, the announcement of this event occurred at the very last minute, but we were all excited to finally get some more tangible information about the future.  I am thrilled to say that I was placed on Jeju, an island off the southern coast of Korea.  It was my first choice for placement, and in fact I received good news all around, as I was selected to teach at an all-girls high school in Jeju City.  My students will be very advanced English speakers, which is wonderful because it means that I will be able to become very close with them without the language barrier causing too many difficulties.  I will also be seeing each of my students twice a week rather than the once a week that is common for English conversation classes.  It means more work for me in terms of lesson planning, but I know I'll be able to teach them a lot more as a result, which is exciting.  I'll have about 300-500 students out of the 1400 at the school, and herein lies the most exciting news: I have my own classroom!  Instead of moving from homeroom to homeroom, the students will come to me, which means I can decorate for holidays and prepare activities in advance.  In addition, I'm thrilled about the opportunities I'll have by living on an island.  I'm hoping to learn how to scuba dive and eat lots of seafood.  One of my best friends here was placed in Seougipo, which is a smaller town only an hour away on the other end of the island, which is also exciting.  Besides being a honeymoon destination, Jeju is known for its tangerines, statues carved of volcanic rock, and a breezier attitude than the rest of the mainland.  I foresee lots of swimming in my future!  I've included some pictures of my new home:
  

 

Weekend in Donghae

I had my first hanji lesson last week.  I expected it to be like origami, but it's actually an elaborate method of paper layering.  Here's our first project, a pencil holder.  The paper is placed so the entire cardboard skeleton is covered, even on the bottom.

For a much-needed break from all the work we've been doing, we spent the weekend on the beach in Donghae.  We arrived at the hotel after a three hour bus ride to find a sign greeting us:

Where we enjoyed amazing food:

 As you can see from this picture, this is a specially dish prepared on the spot, in the grill on your table.  You receive thick slices of pork belly, which you grill along with onions, mushrooms, garlic, and any of the sides that you're brave enough to try (I especially liked the radish kimchi).  Then you dip the meat in sauce, wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and stuff the entire thing in your mouth at once.  Our Korean RA Lucy said it had to be eaten this way, and we didn't question her.  

This is a special stew, along with a few of the endless number of side dishes.  I couldn't get a picture to demonstrate the scope of the next day's buffet, but it was enough to feed a group three times our size.  And the breakfast buffet in the hotel was the most massive I've ever seen!

 On the first day we hiked up to a Buddhist temple nearby.

See the frog in the bottom right corner?

 The popular "warrior" pose

 The traditional bell and ringer

 A gong next to the temple

 Removing our shoes before entering

We spent all of the next day just relaxing, bodysurfing at the beach across the street from our hotel, and singing at the local norebang.  On our last day, we stopped at a museum, although the theme of said museum wasn't exactly clear.  There were fossils and pottery and lots of replicas of various jumbled historical objects. The property was quite pretty, though.

 And now I'm back in Goesan, busying myself with work.  I taught my first practice lesson yesterday about technological progress with some very advanced students, which went really well.  These kids are leagues ahead of me compared to my Korean ability, but I'm improving.  Here's a sample of my homework.  As you can see (if you read Korean), I've learned how to form simple sentences, such as: "Today I'm going to the cafe.  I'm meeting a friend.  I'm drinking coffee."  We're finally learning shopping vocabulary this week, so I should be able to count any day now!  Baby steps...  

Settling In, Soju, and Cheongju

I'm quickly settling in to life here in Goesan.  One thing I didn't expect was how busy and even stressed I'd be!  Four hours of Korean in the morning area ton of work as is, but follow that with teaching and cultural workshops and then meetings at night, and I've barely had time to leave the college grounds.  It's been raining almost nonstop since we arrived, anyway.  Aside from the night of norebang, I did manage to go out with some of the American and Korean students last weekend to try the most famous Korean beverage, soju.  The Korean students taught us some drinking games as well as the accompanying song, embedded here.  After a couple drinks, we were all pretty tired from the busy week and turned in early.  That's my RA Lucy on the left!       

 I've been eating ok in the cafeteria.  I'm quickly mastering the metal chopsticks.  This is a typical Korean meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it's all about the same) with some meat, bean sprouts, dried seaweed, kimchi, fruit, rice, and soup.

 The director of the Korean American Educational Commission gave a speech last week.  We had to wear formal business attire for the occasion, so here I am with my roommate doing some typical Korean poses. 

 Last weekend a group of us went on a hike in a city called Cheongju about an hour away from Goesan.  There's an old fortress wall there you can hike around and see the various towers.  The view was amazing.

 After the hike we went to a restaurant that served traditional mountain food.  Pictured above are the small plates of different types of kimchi for the table to share.  The bowl is filled with makgali, a type of rice wine. 

 My plate of tofu and a delicious potato pancake with vegetables

 Trying octopus for the first time!

This picture makes me look shocked, but it wasn't too bad.  Pretty tasteless, really.  Just really, really chewy.

Aside from my first Korean test, which I passed, I just turned in my first lesson plan.  I begin teaching practice with kids at the Fulbright English camp next week, but before facing that challenge, we'll be taking a much-needed break at the beach in Daegeon for a few days.  I can't wait!      

The First Few Days

I should begin by saying that the plane ride here went very smoothly. I had my first few Korean meals (bebimbap and fried fish for breakfast) on the airplane, and although I didn't sleep very well, I managed to get a few winks. I was sitting next to another girl from St. Louis on the plane, and once we arrived the entire group of us threw our luggage onto the free trolleys and met our Orientation Team Coordinators, who gave us nametags and our first week's stipend. We loaded ourselves onto two giant buses (there are 88 of us) and drove to Gosean in about three hours.
After some time to settle in, we jumped right into an information session. We also took a tour of the campus, but our Korean student guides didn't speak any English, and all of us we completely exhausted at that point, so it didn't really sink in. The campus is just beautiful, all marble and rolling hills in the background.

 The Jungwon University campus

 A bit of the giant swimming pool, complete with kayaks

There was even a welcome banner for us!

On the fourth of July (still the third in the United States), we took a language placement test. I couldn't write the asked-for paragraph about myself, so I just wrote 'Hello' and 'Thank you,' but 3/4 of us don't speak any Korean. I began intensive language training today. We have Korean for four hours each weekday, so I'll have about a semester's worth of language classes in 7 weeks.
We also met yesterday for a workshop on the history of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, but it was all a ruse to organize us into groups for a scavenger hunt around the city.

 Doing pushups in front of the norebang

 Eating dried squid

 Even the police officers flash the peace sign!

 An awjuma (old Korean lady) wearing a visor

Not on the scavenger hunt list, but supposedly very Korean nonetheless

I'm getting much better with chopsticks, even though the metal kind is more difficult. The food in the cafeteria is pretty good, although I'm constantly eating things I don't recognize. One of the better things I tried was a chewy squid salad, and the meal always includes soup, rice, and some sort of salad, often with a really sweet dressing.   
I have signed up for several activities, including GLEE club, which is a place to meet Korean students who want to practice their English.  I'm also scheduled to take a Korean cooking class and a tea ceremony class, in addition to a weekly hanji class, which is Korean paper folding.  I'm not sure if it's like origami, but it sounded like a fun way to make some souvenirs.
After a mixer with some Korean students in the evening, complete with a fireworks show for the holiday, a few of the Korean and American students trekked back into town to spend some time in the norebang, the Korean equivalent of karaoke. It's an intense experience, with lots of lights, dramatic videos in the background, and even a score after you finish your song! But we all had a wonderful time singing some of the many English songs, even if the Korean students were much better singers.  As you can see from the video, however, my friend Christopher does a pretty great Louis Armstrong impression.

 

 Sparklers for the fourth of July

The best norebang in Goesan, according to our Korean friends