This morning I forgot that the schedule had been changed so that I would have four classes rather than the regular three. This means that I'll have class 2-7 twice this week. I guess tomorrow I will just focus on the sign language alphabet, since they did not learn the first three letters last week like the rest of the classes. Because I forgot, I was about 10 minutes late getting back to my class. I was making copies of the Halloween coloring sheet and talking to class 2-3 teacher to make sure that the students bring their crayons and markers. Class 2-3 teacher was not in class today, because he had to go to the hospital to get his heart checked out. I don't know much more than that, but I hope everything is okay. His class is usually one of my not-so-great classes, but today they were very good. I think all of the kids got a kick out of Halloween this week.
Most of the classes were disappointed that the coloring sheet wasn't for homework. I tried to tell them they could take it home and do it for fun, but I don't know if they grasped that concept. I tried to communicate this with my incredible Korean skills. The teachers usually helped translate, but even some of them were baffled that it wasn't homework. In the upper grades, it is almost impossible to get students to do homework, and my students loved the idea. One day I asked them to bring their workbooks, and then we didn't have time to use them. They were so upset! It's really an odd concept, but I guess young kids are easily excitable. I really enjoyed teaching the children about Halloween, but next week, I have to go back to the awesome curriculum that has been set in place for me.^^ I'll figure out a way to make it fun.
Oh, yesterday, the teachers all went out to dinner together, and nobody let me know. My co-teacher asked the teachers about it, and I found out that it was because they were going out for duck. They weren't sure whether or not to invite me. It's really awesome that they were considerate of me being a vegetarian, but at the same time, it kind of sucks. I also want to go out to dinner with the principal and my co-teacher at some point, but our schedules haven't lined up in the slightest. It will happen sooner or later.
After school, I took a taxi over to Julie's apartment for tutoring. She wasn't there. Turns out she was meeting up with her friend and forgot to tell me. She felt so horrible. At the time I wasn't incredibly stoked about the situation, but I'm over it. She and I are meeting tomorrow for tutoring an hour later than normal, having dinner together, and then going to an art gallery together. Instead of our usual Wonju English Club meeting, we are going to Kata's art show. She started coming to club meetings three weeks ago, so the club is taking a break from meetings to support her show. She is only in Korea for a total of 2 months, so I think she is leaving soon.
I spent a lot of time with my host family today. I taught my host sister how to make a dog out of a plastic round-beaded necklace, so we spent a while doing that. I went with her and my host mom back to her English hagwan because she left her coat there, and on the way, I taught her, "One, Two, Three, Four, I declare a thumb war." We played that over and over until we got home. We then taught each other annoying table tapping games. LOL! I will soon teacher her the cup passing game.
After dinner, we sat around watching tv for a while. I told my host mom about my Friday plans, and asked if there is any way we can find a pumpkin and a Halloween movie for Saturday night. I really want to carve a pumpkin with my host sibs!! I think it shouldn't be too hard to find a movie, but that might not be true. I also told my host mom that she and my host father can go out to dinner by themselves if they want to, but if they want to stick around for the pumpkin carving that's cool too. She was incredibly confused as to why I was telling her that they could go out. I tried to explain that it was just so they could be alone and have a date or whatever. LOL! It was an interesting conversation. She told me that we could get the things Saturday afternoon, and she'll let me know about dinner later.
I can't believe it is already November!!! It seems like my time here is going so fast. I have been in Korea for almost 4 months now. There is so much I still want to do and only 8 months to do it. It made me start thinking about what else I want to accomplish while I am here. In many ways, today was a day of reflection. I started thinking about what my role here is, and whether or not I'm still paying as much attention to an incredibly important aspect of my life. Playing with my host sister helped distract my mind for a while, so that was quite nice. Now, I'm watching tv again with my host sibs. Which means I should put the computer away, so it's not the only terribly bright light distracting from the tv.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Trick or Treat - Wednesday Oct. 31, 2007
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Even though I gave my students little notice, they went above and beyond anything I could have ever expected. Of course I gave them candy whether or not they were wearing black and orange after I told them they had to wear black and orange to get candy.^^ I could never deny a child candy!
Within the first hour I was at school, I got a phone call from 1-5 teacher asking if her class could come up. I said yes and the next thing I knew there were witches, vampires, and goblins walking into my room!! I was soooo excited!! They actually had costumes on! I have no idea where they got them, but it was adorable!
I randomly had children coming in and out throughout the day. BTW, my kids' English is not all that incredible until it comes to candy. After they asked for more than one piece of candy and I said only one, they broke out, "...but I have a sister at home." Where the heck did they get the vocabulary for that when I can't even get them to tell me what day it is sometimes?! LOL! The day was all together quite entertaining. I had a ton of candy left at the end of the day, but I guess that happens when you accidentally buy enough candy for half of a 2500 student school. I'll just keep it around to bribe students!^^
I think one of the best things that came out of today was that I had three sixth grade girls come in my room to just sit and talk to me. They asked me if Nick was my boyfriend purely because I was talking to him online. I laughed and asked one of the girls if she is married, because she wears a gold ring on her left ring finger. None of the three have boyfriends, but they all made sure to tell me that each of them is very popular and cute. One girl was punished by my co-teacher who is a sixth grade teacher. They explained that the girl didn't really do anything wrong on purpose, and then the girl let me know that she likes me better than my co-teacher. LOL! I gave them candy, and I gave the girl who was punished ddeok because she didn't get to eat lunch. As they were leaving, my co-teacher walked in. The girls laughed and quickly left. They returned after my co-teacher left, and the one asked me not to tell her teacher that she likes me better. LOL! I promised and she made me pinky promise; I haven't done that in a while. Apparently, there is a whole pinky promise strategy/series that is new to me. It involves a whole third step that I never knew about.^^
Oh, also, there was a field day today for teachers, and I didn't know about it until...today. So, as much as I love playing baseball in a skirt, I had to pass.ㅠㅠ I was at school until about 5:00PM uploading pics, cleaning my classroom, and whatnot. I can only do it at school now until I get my computer fixed.
When I got home, I cleaned my room. I was in a "I can't stand how messy my space is" mood. My host father's father stopped by for dinner. He was in town to lecture at a college in Wonju about oriental medicine. I feel uncomfortable around his father; I don't know why. He's a really nice man. I think I'm just used to outgoing people, and he is more quiet.
After dinner, I taught my host sister how to make a dog out of a beaded necklace, and then we watched Ratatouille. I had never seen it; it is an uber cute movie. I loved it! My host bro finally made it back home; he was at a science hagwan for three hours tonight, and now we are sitting, watching tv, and watching my host mom make a hanbok out of hanji paper! I'm impressed! She did an AMAZING job! They were given one night to make it, and I couldn't believe that the teacher would even suggest such a task, but my host mom is awesome! She is super crafty!
Within the first hour I was at school, I got a phone call from 1-5 teacher asking if her class could come up. I said yes and the next thing I knew there were witches, vampires, and goblins walking into my room!! I was soooo excited!! They actually had costumes on! I have no idea where they got them, but it was adorable!
I randomly had children coming in and out throughout the day. BTW, my kids' English is not all that incredible until it comes to candy. After they asked for more than one piece of candy and I said only one, they broke out, "...but I have a sister at home." Where the heck did they get the vocabulary for that when I can't even get them to tell me what day it is sometimes?! LOL! The day was all together quite entertaining. I had a ton of candy left at the end of the day, but I guess that happens when you accidentally buy enough candy for half of a 2500 student school. I'll just keep it around to bribe students!^^
I think one of the best things that came out of today was that I had three sixth grade girls come in my room to just sit and talk to me. They asked me if Nick was my boyfriend purely because I was talking to him online. I laughed and asked one of the girls if she is married, because she wears a gold ring on her left ring finger. None of the three have boyfriends, but they all made sure to tell me that each of them is very popular and cute. One girl was punished by my co-teacher who is a sixth grade teacher. They explained that the girl didn't really do anything wrong on purpose, and then the girl let me know that she likes me better than my co-teacher. LOL! I gave them candy, and I gave the girl who was punished ddeok because she didn't get to eat lunch. As they were leaving, my co-teacher walked in. The girls laughed and quickly left. They returned after my co-teacher left, and the one asked me not to tell her teacher that she likes me better. LOL! I promised and she made me pinky promise; I haven't done that in a while. Apparently, there is a whole pinky promise strategy/series that is new to me. It involves a whole third step that I never knew about.^^
Oh, also, there was a field day today for teachers, and I didn't know about it until...today. So, as much as I love playing baseball in a skirt, I had to pass.ㅠㅠ I was at school until about 5:00PM uploading pics, cleaning my classroom, and whatnot. I can only do it at school now until I get my computer fixed.
When I got home, I cleaned my room. I was in a "I can't stand how messy my space is" mood. My host father's father stopped by for dinner. He was in town to lecture at a college in Wonju about oriental medicine. I feel uncomfortable around his father; I don't know why. He's a really nice man. I think I'm just used to outgoing people, and he is more quiet.
After dinner, I taught my host sister how to make a dog out of a beaded necklace, and then we watched Ratatouille. I had never seen it; it is an uber cute movie. I loved it! My host bro finally made it back home; he was at a science hagwan for three hours tonight, and now we are sitting, watching tv, and watching my host mom make a hanbok out of hanji paper! I'm impressed! She did an AMAZING job! They were given one night to make it, and I couldn't believe that the teacher would even suggest such a task, but my host mom is awesome! She is super crafty!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Black and Orange Fiasco - Tuesday Oct. 30, 2007
Classes went really well today!! The students enjoy coloring and learning about Halloween. I told the students that black and orange are Halloween colors. I also told them that if they wear black and orange tomorrow, come find me, and say "Trick-or-Treat," I will give them candy. That proposes a problem since I haven't had all my classes yet this week, so after lunch I went around and tried to explain to individual teachers. Oh, goodness! Many teachers understood after a while, but most students had already left. So, I didn't know what to do.
Instead of lunch at school, I went out with a third grade student's mom. She invited me out last week. We went to a Shyabu Shyabu restaurant nearby the school. She doesn't speak a lot of English, but we were able to have a broken English-Korean conversation. It was the first conversation I've had where we literally inserted the word of our native language if we didn't know it in the foreign language, but it worked! She volunteers in the English Village occasionally. She told me that she wants to move to the states in a few years. Right now, she is studying math and wants to become a teacher. I didn't want to say this, but if she moves to the states, her son will have a difficult time catching up in school without knowing English, she won't be certified to teach without going back to school, and I'm not sure how her husband will do in a job without knowing English. Regarding her son, it would be like moving an American student to Korea without any language training. Yikes!
After lunch, she drove me to Julie's apartment for tutoring. I'm a horrible student, though; I didn't have my book with me. Instead we chatted in Korean for a while, then in English, and watched part of a Korean talk show. I left from her apartment to go straight to EMart. Since I promised the children candy, I had to go buy it. I had an awkward and unwelcomed experience while there. I was approached by a foreigner (I will not disclose his nationality) to have a conversation. I never did catch on to that whole "Don't talk to strangers" deal. English is not his first language, but he spoke it well. He offered to hold my shopping basket while I shopped around and we talked. I wasn't incredibly comfortable with the concept, but he kind of took it from me. He has been in Korea for 4 years through government work and doesn't have any family here; he also speaks Korean. When I told him that I had to get going, he asked me if I wanted to get a drink with him. I told him that I had to get going, because my homestay mom was expecting me. He was quite persistant on telling me that he wanted to get a drink with me, and I was quite persistant in refusing. He said we could just get something in EMart at McDonalds or something, and once again I refused. He then offered to drive me home. Of course, my answer was no and I said I would take a taxi. The whole time I thanked him for being so nice and I apologized repeatedly. After refusing many times, he then offered to let me drive his car. WEIRD!! Of course I'm not going to drive his car! He followed me through the checkout and helped me put my groceries into the bag. I carried the bag outside, and he came outside with me. I thanked him again and told him that I had to get going. I asked him what he was doing at EMart (since he came outside with me without groceries), and he said that he was done with work and just wanted to hang out somewhere. He asked if he could have my phone number, and I told him that I have his card and would call him. He works out of Seoul and said that he might not be in Wonju when I called. I said that he could tell me when he would be in Wonju again when I call. He saw that my bag was heavy and tried to take it from me. I told him that it was okay and kind of tugged back on it. He wouldn't give it to me until I asked him to let go. He made me promise to call him and hang out with him when he comes back to Wonju before I could leave to get in the taxi. The whole time he was telling me not to get the wrong idea about his propositions, but I didn't until he started being so incredibly persistant. All-in-all, not a fun experience at all! I was somewhat shaken afterward and frustrated.
I talked to Lauren on the taxi ride home; I hadn't talked to her since last Thursday. When I got home, I ate ramen for dinner. After dinner, I watched my host sister's and host brother's school play performances (my host mom taped them) and played around with my host sister for a while.
I took a shower and then showed my host mom my pics from NoKo. She helped me translate some of the rock writings (Translation: Praise Communism! Praise Kim Jong Il! Praise Kim Il Sung!) She was impressed with how beautiful it all was.
I cut open the bags of candy and realized just exactly how much I got. I thought that maybe there was 200 pieces per bag. Oh no...there's about 400. I bought 3 bags. I have 560 kids. Oops! Oh well, I'll have extra! I also spent the night making Halloween signs and candy bags for my host sibs and making a big orange pumpkin that says "Happy Halloween." I made the pumpkin, because although I asked the students to wear black and orange, I realized that I have absolutely not one single piece of orange clothing in Korea.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day!!
Instead of lunch at school, I went out with a third grade student's mom. She invited me out last week. We went to a Shyabu Shyabu restaurant nearby the school. She doesn't speak a lot of English, but we were able to have a broken English-Korean conversation. It was the first conversation I've had where we literally inserted the word of our native language if we didn't know it in the foreign language, but it worked! She volunteers in the English Village occasionally. She told me that she wants to move to the states in a few years. Right now, she is studying math and wants to become a teacher. I didn't want to say this, but if she moves to the states, her son will have a difficult time catching up in school without knowing English, she won't be certified to teach without going back to school, and I'm not sure how her husband will do in a job without knowing English. Regarding her son, it would be like moving an American student to Korea without any language training. Yikes!
After lunch, she drove me to Julie's apartment for tutoring. I'm a horrible student, though; I didn't have my book with me. Instead we chatted in Korean for a while, then in English, and watched part of a Korean talk show. I left from her apartment to go straight to EMart. Since I promised the children candy, I had to go buy it. I had an awkward and unwelcomed experience while there. I was approached by a foreigner (I will not disclose his nationality) to have a conversation. I never did catch on to that whole "Don't talk to strangers" deal. English is not his first language, but he spoke it well. He offered to hold my shopping basket while I shopped around and we talked. I wasn't incredibly comfortable with the concept, but he kind of took it from me. He has been in Korea for 4 years through government work and doesn't have any family here; he also speaks Korean. When I told him that I had to get going, he asked me if I wanted to get a drink with him. I told him that I had to get going, because my homestay mom was expecting me. He was quite persistant on telling me that he wanted to get a drink with me, and I was quite persistant in refusing. He said we could just get something in EMart at McDonalds or something, and once again I refused. He then offered to drive me home. Of course, my answer was no and I said I would take a taxi. The whole time I thanked him for being so nice and I apologized repeatedly. After refusing many times, he then offered to let me drive his car. WEIRD!! Of course I'm not going to drive his car! He followed me through the checkout and helped me put my groceries into the bag. I carried the bag outside, and he came outside with me. I thanked him again and told him that I had to get going. I asked him what he was doing at EMart (since he came outside with me without groceries), and he said that he was done with work and just wanted to hang out somewhere. He asked if he could have my phone number, and I told him that I have his card and would call him. He works out of Seoul and said that he might not be in Wonju when I called. I said that he could tell me when he would be in Wonju again when I call. He saw that my bag was heavy and tried to take it from me. I told him that it was okay and kind of tugged back on it. He wouldn't give it to me until I asked him to let go. He made me promise to call him and hang out with him when he comes back to Wonju before I could leave to get in the taxi. The whole time he was telling me not to get the wrong idea about his propositions, but I didn't until he started being so incredibly persistant. All-in-all, not a fun experience at all! I was somewhat shaken afterward and frustrated.
I talked to Lauren on the taxi ride home; I hadn't talked to her since last Thursday. When I got home, I ate ramen for dinner. After dinner, I watched my host sister's and host brother's school play performances (my host mom taped them) and played around with my host sister for a while.
I took a shower and then showed my host mom my pics from NoKo. She helped me translate some of the rock writings (Translation: Praise Communism! Praise Kim Jong Il! Praise Kim Il Sung!) She was impressed with how beautiful it all was.
I cut open the bags of candy and realized just exactly how much I got. I thought that maybe there was 200 pieces per bag. Oh no...there's about 400. I bought 3 bags. I have 560 kids. Oops! Oh well, I'll have extra! I also spent the night making Halloween signs and candy bags for my host sibs and making a big orange pumpkin that says "Happy Halloween." I made the pumpkin, because although I asked the students to wear black and orange, I realized that I have absolutely not one single piece of orange clothing in Korea.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day!!
Like the Energizer Bunny - Monday Oct. 29, 2007
I slept for maybe 2 hours, got up, got dressed, and scurried on out. I asked a man where Kangnam station was and he pointed acrossed the street. I followed a woman that was headed in the same direction. I entered a building that appeared to be a bus station and asked yet another guy about Kyongbu line. He pointed me in a direction that looked quite familiar. I saw the ticket desk and was able to find where my bus was supposed to pick me up. Hmm...remembering last night and the hour and a half it took me to find the station and the jimjilbang, I looked at my watch and realized it had taken me a grand total of 15 minutes to find the exact same station this morning.
I sat in the station for about an hour until my bus came. I got on my bus and slept all the way home. This trip only took an hour and a half which means there was no traffic. I took a taxi home and got in around 7:30AM. I dropped my stuff off, hugged my host mom, and soon sat down to breakfast.
I headed to school at the usual 8:20AM pretty darn close to exhausted. Normally, it isn't a problem to go in and plan a lesson in the hour and a half I have before school starts. Well, this week is different; it's Halloween week. I was at a loss of what to do for Halloween. I found a coloring by color words sheet and decided to do that. I started my classes the same way I always do, then went into the three sign language letters for the day "d, e, f," discussed Halloween, and had them color the jack-o-lantern sheet.
I was tired and managed to still be super friendly and upbeat in my classes, except the first one. Even with them, I was pretty darn with it, until they would not stop talking for anything. I yelled at them after telling them to be quiet repeatedly and made two kids stand. This class is not well behaved at all!! Well, after that I felt like a horrible human being and almost started crying. I hate yelling at children!! I managed to pull it together for the next two classes.
After school, I watched a bit of the 4th graders school festival. I don't like the way our school festival is set up. A grade goes during the day and a grade goes right after school. So, many fathers and some mothers cannot see their children perform, other teachers can't see the students perform, and I couldn't see any of them perform. 4th grade, the only grade I have no connections to, is the only grade I got to see a bit of. I teach 1st and 2nd grade, my host sister is in 3rd grade, my host brother is in 5th grade, and my co-teacher teaches 6th grade, and I saw 4th grade.
I couldn't stay for all of it, because my host mom picked me up to go to Seongaewon, the orphanage I'm volunteering at. We had a hard time finding it, because the GPS unit wasn't accurate. Luckily, my incredible navigational memory got us there! LOL! I sat with the adults for a while when I got there and drank coffee. I then headed into the boys' dormitory-type living. I worked with 17 little ones, ranging from age 5 to maybe 9 or 10. They are so stinkin' cute! I fell in love with each and every one of them! I sat around trying to learn names. The kids get a kick out of hearing me try to pronounce names. When I would say a name right, they would clap and make an "O" above their heads. When I was wrong, they would make an "X" above their heads. It was adorable! It's going to take me a while to learn names, but it will be much easier than learning 560 names.
We colored coloring sheets of Whinnie the Pooh, Tigger, Pigglet, and Mickey Mouse. Then, we cut out pumpkins, and the children decorated their pumpkins with faces. I glued on stems afterward. I was driven home by a public service worker and their live-in mom/caretaker. They were taking three children to the hospital, because they caught colds, so they dropped me off on the way.
When I got home, I put my pics from NoKo on my computer and edited them before dinner. I ate dinner and did some more editing. I went to bed around 9:30PM, finally, after one crazy weekend.
I sat in the station for about an hour until my bus came. I got on my bus and slept all the way home. This trip only took an hour and a half which means there was no traffic. I took a taxi home and got in around 7:30AM. I dropped my stuff off, hugged my host mom, and soon sat down to breakfast.
I headed to school at the usual 8:20AM pretty darn close to exhausted. Normally, it isn't a problem to go in and plan a lesson in the hour and a half I have before school starts. Well, this week is different; it's Halloween week. I was at a loss of what to do for Halloween. I found a coloring by color words sheet and decided to do that. I started my classes the same way I always do, then went into the three sign language letters for the day "d, e, f," discussed Halloween, and had them color the jack-o-lantern sheet.
I was tired and managed to still be super friendly and upbeat in my classes, except the first one. Even with them, I was pretty darn with it, until they would not stop talking for anything. I yelled at them after telling them to be quiet repeatedly and made two kids stand. This class is not well behaved at all!! Well, after that I felt like a horrible human being and almost started crying. I hate yelling at children!! I managed to pull it together for the next two classes.
After school, I watched a bit of the 4th graders school festival. I don't like the way our school festival is set up. A grade goes during the day and a grade goes right after school. So, many fathers and some mothers cannot see their children perform, other teachers can't see the students perform, and I couldn't see any of them perform. 4th grade, the only grade I have no connections to, is the only grade I got to see a bit of. I teach 1st and 2nd grade, my host sister is in 3rd grade, my host brother is in 5th grade, and my co-teacher teaches 6th grade, and I saw 4th grade.
I couldn't stay for all of it, because my host mom picked me up to go to Seongaewon, the orphanage I'm volunteering at. We had a hard time finding it, because the GPS unit wasn't accurate. Luckily, my incredible navigational memory got us there! LOL! I sat with the adults for a while when I got there and drank coffee. I then headed into the boys' dormitory-type living. I worked with 17 little ones, ranging from age 5 to maybe 9 or 10. They are so stinkin' cute! I fell in love with each and every one of them! I sat around trying to learn names. The kids get a kick out of hearing me try to pronounce names. When I would say a name right, they would clap and make an "O" above their heads. When I was wrong, they would make an "X" above their heads. It was adorable! It's going to take me a while to learn names, but it will be much easier than learning 560 names.
We colored coloring sheets of Whinnie the Pooh, Tigger, Pigglet, and Mickey Mouse. Then, we cut out pumpkins, and the children decorated their pumpkins with faces. I glued on stems afterward. I was driven home by a public service worker and their live-in mom/caretaker. They were taking three children to the hospital, because they caught colds, so they dropped me off on the way.
When I got home, I put my pics from NoKo on my computer and edited them before dinner. I ate dinner and did some more editing. I went to bed around 9:30PM, finally, after one crazy weekend.
Oy Vey, Long Day! - Sunday Oct. 28, 2007
Needless to say, I had a headache when I woke up this morning. It didn't last long, but the buffet breakfast was incredibly unappealing to me! We had to load the buses to head into "town," but we didn't leave without taking pictures of the Kims: Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. There was a gigantic painting depicting the father and son with oddly content smiles on their faces just outside of our hotel.
Today, we had to choose between two courses. One was hiking up a second mountain and the other was to view the ocean and lake. I chose the latter of the two; as much as I enjoy hiking, I wanted to see something other than the mountain course. Colleen also chose to go to the ocean and lake; Nika and Jen wanted to hike again.
There weren't a ton of people in our group which was kind of nice. We drove to the ocean, watching the odd landscape pass us by. A few schools were pointed out, but never were the soldiers standing cold and stiff pointed out. Hmm...I wonder why... There was a short walk downhill when we got there. The ocean was BEAUTIFUL! We went out on the sand and were left free to climb around on the rocks, which of course I did. Colleen and I took many pictures!
Absolutely beautiful!
Posing!
Of course I climbed on the rocks!! It remined me of being at the chalet we had at Lake Michigan for many summers!
Photo-op scenery!
We left there to drive to the lake. There was more of a walk at the lake which was nice. We walked painfully slow going up to the initial gift shop/waiting area, because we had to wait for another group to clear out. Colleen and I were getting anxious, because neither of us like walking that slow. At one point, we actually stopped moving. The group was getting cranky and asked the female tour guide to sing. Surprisingly, she complied; she sang to us!! The male tour guide was laughing the whole time. They were fairly young, maybe mid-20s. We walked around the lake and then climbed up a small mountain after the gift shop. On top of the mountain, we sat to listen to an explanation we couldn't understand.^^ The other female tour guide sang for us! She was really good!! The group was getting into it, too!
On our walk, we saw many stones with writing carved into them. I didn't know what they meant, but my host mom translated them when I got home from NoKo. Many of them were about praising communism and the Kims.
We reached a bridge. A big bridge! A wiggle bridge! Who remembers one of my slight fears?! Luckily I got over yesterday, because this bridge wasn't nearly as wiggly as some of the bridges we encountered on yesterday's hike. We decided to pose with the bridge; in doing so, we fell behind the group. We continued on, up some super Dr. Seuss-y stairs and caught up with them. We came down and headed back to the buses.
*Sidenote: When I came home, I definitely found out that one of those awesomely wiggly bridges broke, I think, the week before I went to NoKo and 5 people were seriously injured.*
We went back to the "village." I took a few pics that I wasn't supposed to on the way; we weren't supposed to take pics from the bus. We went to the gift shop one more time. I was hoping to find the girl that I talked to every time I went in there to say "goodbye" to her. It was the first time I couldn't find her in the 3 days we were there!ㅠㅠ Sadness!
We met the others and got on the bus to head home at 12:40PM. Of course, we took a pic with our tour guide first, because he was incredible! Nika and Jen were psyched that they got to climb a mountain with him today. They were at the front of the pack to catch up with him! LOL!
We went back through the same process we did going to NoKo, except in reverse. At the final checkpoint, we got our phones back and had to switch buses again. We stopped a total of two or three times. All day, I had a little bit of breakfast, a few crackers, and some potato wedges, because our whole schedule was so thrown off by traveling. We got stuck in some MAJOR traffic in Seoul and instead of arriving back in Seoul at the expected 7:30PM, we arrived at 10:00PM! Funny thing: Buses don't run to Wonju after 10:40PM. Nika, Colleen, and I hurried through the subway station, transferring lines, and we had to split ways at the Kangnam station. They had a separate exit than mine.
I had a difficult time finding my exit. The bus station is CRAZY, and if you've never navigated it or only have navigated it a few times, it is even worse. Some people tried to help when I would ask them. One guy turned away from me like he didn't know what I was saying; I WAS SPEAKING KOREAN! Anyway, I finally found my exit, and it was 10:42PM. My host mom had texted me to tell me that there was a 10:50PM bus also, so I asked about tickets. SOLD OUT! At this point I was not an incredibly happy individual. There was also some crazy taxi driver there asking if I wanted to take a taxi to Wonju; Wonju is an hour and a half away from Seoul when there ISN'T traffic! How many ways can you say "No way in hell" in Korean?
*Sidenote: My host mom told me the next day that when she checked online at 8:00PM, there were only 10 tickets left for the last bus to Wonju.*
Instead, I called my host mom and my co-teacher to let them know what the deal is. I then bought a ticket for the first bus out of Seoul going to Wonju! Oh, yes! 5:45AM! At this point I am super stoked about the current situation...
So there I was, in Seoul, by myself, at almost 11:00PM at night, with a bus to catch in less than seven hours, no place to stay, and I had to teach the next day. Luckily, that day, I had learned a Help number from the extendees on the trip. I called it and asked for a jimjilbang (spa) near Kangnam station. The woman was helpful and told me about one at Central City near exit 4. So, I went to exit 4. Central City was on the other side of the street from exit 4, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get acrossed the street. There was not a single crosswalk! I stopped and asked a woman; she pointed me underground again and told me to come up a different way. Ok, so, I'm in Central City...hmm...it's a HUGE mall! So, I asked someone where the jimjilbang was. They pointed me to an elevator. So, I went to the elevator and asked someone else. Ah...the jimjilbang was not in fact in the basement as I had been told by the Help number lady, it was on the first floor. So, I go to the first floor and ask someone else. SCORE! A security guard walked me straight to the jimjilbang!! Ahh...success!
Now, I'm in the jimjilbang by 12:30AM, knowing that I now have about 5 hours before I have to catch a bus. I still wanted to enjoy the spa, so I stripped down, took a shower, and sat around in the baths for a while. I then proceded to the "sleeping room." It being 1:30AM, I set my alarm for 4:15AM, knowing that if I somehow manage to miss the first bus out I'm screwed, and attempted to sleep.
Monday, October 29, 2007
금강산 (Kumgangsan) - Saturday Oct. 27, 2007
We woke up at 6:30AM, to meet Nika and Jen for breakfast at 7:00AM. Breakfast was a buffet of spicy potatoes, ddeok, soups, rice, kimchi, tofu, etc. We met the bus at 7:40AM to head to the village for a bit for a restroom break and to buy snacks if we wanted. We finally headed out to the mountain around 8:40AM. The four of us pushed our way in front of a few hundred Koreans so we wouldn't have to hike behind them. Nika and Jen keep an incredibly fast pace, but that could be because they hike almost every weekend. Colleen and I kept our own paces, which I think was for the best. I wanted more time to look around and take pictures rather than keeping a pace I wasn't comfortable with.
The trees were absolutely beautiful!! There were many bridges as well. The bridges were awesome, but I'm not an incredible fan of going over bridges, ESPECIALLY when they swing back and forth. There was a point where tour guides were stopped to make sure only 10 people were on a bridge at a time. I had this vivid mental image of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; facing a massive group while marching across a bridge, the bridge breaks and swings to one side, and we are forever lost to the alligators lurking below. Luckily there were no alligators in site!^^
I met Jen, Nika, and Colleen at a traditional looking building; I thought it was a rest stop, but I was told that it was actually the end of the hike. We were asked to take a picture with some random Koreans, which surprisingly isn't an uncommon request. We took the picture and then were on our way.
It was beautiful at the top! I also had a conversation with a Korean man completely in Korean. It was a simple conversation, but a conversation nonetheless. We were quickly waved away from the peak, seeing as how there were hundreds of Koreans following us. We headed back down and realized just how lucky we were that we were in front of the mob; we would have been incredibly frustrated taking one stair ever few seconds.
We took many pictures on the way down. One of the places we made sure to take pictures is at a rock with writing about Kim Il Sung visiting the rock.
Here's another quite interesting part of the night, which is still a little bit of a blur to me. We were walking back to the hotel, which is not incredibly close, and we saw a bus coming. We kind of walked out in front of the bus to the other side assuming that it would stop to pick us up. No, no, the bus did not stop. It kept on driving, and we kept on walking. About 3 minutes later, the bus pulled out of the spa road where it had been dropping people off and honked for us to get on. RANDOM!! It dropped us off at our hotel; however, instead of roaming the hotel which was my initial instinct, I promptly passed out.
At the beginning of the hike...still had my sweatshirt on! It was cold in the morning, but quickly warmed up!
The trees were absolutely beautiful!! There were many bridges as well. The bridges were awesome, but I'm not an incredible fan of going over bridges, ESPECIALLY when they swing back and forth. There was a point where tour guides were stopped to make sure only 10 people were on a bridge at a time. I had this vivid mental image of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; facing a massive group while marching across a bridge, the bridge breaks and swings to one side, and we are forever lost to the alligators lurking below. Luckily there were no alligators in site!^^
I met Jen, Nika, and Colleen at a traditional looking building; I thought it was a rest stop, but I was told that it was actually the end of the hike. We were asked to take a picture with some random Koreans, which surprisingly isn't an uncommon request. We took the picture and then were on our way.
"Rest stop"/"End of hike"?
A picture of the four of us at the rest stop.
The picture with our random Korean friends!
This is a picture of the bathrooms on the hike. We thought you just had to pay to go the bathroom. After showing the pictures to my host mom, I discovered that it is actually $1 to "Go #1" and $2 to "Go #2." Hilarious!
We realized that it wasn't actually the end of the hike; Nika had come in the winter last year, and the second part of the hike was blocked off due to safety precautions last year. The second half of the hike was difficult; it was both rocky and metal stairs until the top. I hiked with a few Koreans who were more my pace as I continued to constantly stop to take pictures. I like hiking with Koreans; they are incredibly friendly and encouraging. Toward the top, many Koreans coming down from the top would explain that it was only a few more minutes and say "Fighting," which is the Korean way of saying, "Keep going."
A pic on the way up!
At the top!
The four of us at the top!
It was beautiful at the top! I also had a conversation with a Korean man completely in Korean. It was a simple conversation, but a conversation nonetheless. We were quickly waved away from the peak, seeing as how there were hundreds of Koreans following us. We headed back down and realized just how lucky we were that we were in front of the mob; we would have been incredibly frustrated taking one stair ever few seconds.
We took many pictures on the way down. One of the places we made sure to take pictures is at a rock with writing about Kim Il Sung visiting the rock.
A pic on the way back down! The foliage was beautiful!
Colleen's camera randomly decided to stop working...it somehow inverted colors and everything was a strange black and white. I bought a painting on the way to the bus. We took a shuttle bus back to the hotel and then walked to the 짐질방 (jimjilbang - spa). It was only $12 to enter. It was beautiful inside and even more beautiful outside. We could see the mountains over the wall, and the weather was amazing! How random is it to be sitting naked, in a warm bath, looking at the mountains, in NORTH KOREA!?! We were there for about 3 hours. Nika had headed back to the hotel to rest, so when Jen, Colleen, and I were done, we walked back to the hotel. The four of us headed into town after that.
We ended up eating the same thing we did last night. Partially because we didn't really want anything else that was offered and partially because the food was so incredible!! After dinner, we ended up at a bar; I think it was German. There was a house beer and some other liquors to buy. We bought a bottle of Blueberry Wine. Hmm...sounds harmless enough, right?! WRONG!! This Blueberry Wine was called 백두산 (Paektusan - named after a North Korean mountain) AND it was 40% alcohol!! Before we drank this wine, Colleen informed us that she read about blueberry wine and remembered reading that it could, "Knock you off an elephant." This saying quickly turned into, "Knock up an elephant."
The bottle of toxic wine and Colleen!We ended up eating the same thing we did last night. Partially because we didn't really want anything else that was offered and partially because the food was so incredible!! After dinner, we ended up at a bar; I think it was German. There was a house beer and some other liquors to buy. We bought a bottle of Blueberry Wine. Hmm...sounds harmless enough, right?! WRONG!! This Blueberry Wine was called 백두산 (Paektusan - named after a North Korean mountain) AND it was 40% alcohol!! Before we drank this wine, Colleen informed us that she read about blueberry wine and remembered reading that it could, "Knock you off an elephant." This saying quickly turned into, "Knock up an elephant."
We couldn't help but make the most horrible faces after drinking even a sip. It was horrible and incredibly strong, but oh yes, we the four of us finished off the bottle. I wanted to try the house beer afterward, but unfortunately just ended up getting the normal, crappy Korean beer. I think it was Hite.ㅠㅠ
After one sip of the Blueberry "Wine."
Here's another quite interesting part of the night, which is still a little bit of a blur to me. We were walking back to the hotel, which is not incredibly close, and we saw a bus coming. We kind of walked out in front of the bus to the other side assuming that it would stop to pick us up. No, no, the bus did not stop. It kept on driving, and we kept on walking. About 3 minutes later, the bus pulled out of the spa road where it had been dropping people off and honked for us to get on. RANDOM!! It dropped us off at our hotel; however, instead of roaming the hotel which was my initial instinct, I promptly passed out.
NoKo - Friday Oct. 26, 2007
We got up around 7:30AM, and we had to meet the bus at 8:30. We had some trouble finding the bus, but luckily with Colleen's incredible eyesite, we were able to find it!^^ After Nika told us that the best sside to sit on was the left, we were promptly seated on the right by the driver. I don't think we missed much though. Colleen and I talked quite a bit on the 6 hour bus ride.
A view on the drive. This is before you can see barbed wire completely blocking the ocean from entrance.
We had a few breaks to use the bathroom and find food. At our last break stop before the DMZ, we received tags to wear around necks with different ID material in them. We also had to hand over our cell phones. We weren't allowed to carry them to North Korea. They checked our cameras as well; to make check for what, I'm not entirely sure.
This is our last stop before the DMZ.
We headed to the entrance of the DMZ. We had to get off of the bus and wait in a building with everyone that was going to NoKo. There were hundreds of people in there. People seem to take care of us pretty well. There was a guy out by the buses that was waving us into where we were supposed to go. Then when we were supposed to go scan our baggage, we were waved on by a worker, as well as some of the women on our bus.
At the South Korean border to the DMZ, we had our bags scanned, and we went through the metal detectors. There was a separate line for foreigners, as there often is. When we got out of the checkpoint, we had to get on new buses. We also had a new group and a tour guide. Our tour guide didn't speak much English at all, but one thing we did understand was "No Picture." He walked back to specifically say that to us. So, we entered the DMZ. There was barbed wire on either side the whole way through. Colleen and I kept trying to guess when we got to the North, but basically figured it out when we got to the next checkpoint. At the North Korean border to the DMZ, we once again had to have our bags checked and scanned. Our tour guide had us line up in a specific order. The group went, and then the four of us followed behind. At each checkpoint we had to have our cameras out to have them specifically checked.
We kept driving a ways. It was very odd; the air and landscape seemed to change as soon as we crossed into North Korea. There were many more trees, much fewer buildings, and an incredibly large number of North Korean soldiers randomly placed throughout the land. We passed a long stretch of ocean; it was beautiful, but also lined with a barbed wire fence.
I had no idea what to expect when we reached...well wherever it was that we were supposed to reach. Even with a lack of expectations, I was still surprised at what I saw. It was like a small tourist village had been created. It consisted of about three restaurants, a performance buliding, two gift shops, a family mart, two bars, a spa off in the distance, as well as a few hotels and village-style motels apart from this tiny town. We were let off to buy tickets to the acrobatic show for $30. Yep, that's right, the currency was US Dollars! Our tour guide was so eager to help us that he dropped his backpack as he got off the bus. We think he is about 27 or 28. We hopped back on the bus to head for our hotel. Apparently, Nika had requested to stay in the trailer-like village motel area to save money, but we were automatically placed in Kumgangsan Hotel. Colleen and I roomed together. Our hotel room was nice with a balcony. The beds were not soft which I soon realized when I plopped down!^^
We only had 20 minutes at the hotel before we were to board the bus to head back to the "village" for dinner and the performance. The whole time our tour guide was trying to help us as much as he could. We ended up at a restaurant where we ordered Mushroom stew/soup without the meat. We were super excited for the kimchi and bean sprouts that were service with the meal.
After dinner, we looked around the gift shops. The one on the same side as the restaurant we ate at was incredibly expensive and had nothing that any of us wanted or were willing to buy. There were $20,000 Rolexes and Gucci purses; not our style. So, we headed to the one acrossed the street which was on the same side as the performance hall.
The acrobat performance (North Korean acrobats) was AMAZING! There were guys that climbed a jungle gym like it was no big deal, trapeze artists, jugglers, etc. Some of the women spun by their heads being secured by a rope. It was terrifying! If the rope slipped at all...oh gosh... I couldn't believe a lot of the stuff that they were capable of doing!!
At the South Korean border to the DMZ, we had our bags scanned, and we went through the metal detectors. There was a separate line for foreigners, as there often is. When we got out of the checkpoint, we had to get on new buses. We also had a new group and a tour guide. Our tour guide didn't speak much English at all, but one thing we did understand was "No Picture." He walked back to specifically say that to us. So, we entered the DMZ. There was barbed wire on either side the whole way through. Colleen and I kept trying to guess when we got to the North, but basically figured it out when we got to the next checkpoint. At the North Korean border to the DMZ, we once again had to have our bags checked and scanned. Our tour guide had us line up in a specific order. The group went, and then the four of us followed behind. At each checkpoint we had to have our cameras out to have them specifically checked.
We kept driving a ways. It was very odd; the air and landscape seemed to change as soon as we crossed into North Korea. There were many more trees, much fewer buildings, and an incredibly large number of North Korean soldiers randomly placed throughout the land. We passed a long stretch of ocean; it was beautiful, but also lined with a barbed wire fence.
I had no idea what to expect when we reached...well wherever it was that we were supposed to reach. Even with a lack of expectations, I was still surprised at what I saw. It was like a small tourist village had been created. It consisted of about three restaurants, a performance buliding, two gift shops, a family mart, two bars, a spa off in the distance, as well as a few hotels and village-style motels apart from this tiny town. We were let off to buy tickets to the acrobatic show for $30. Yep, that's right, the currency was US Dollars! Our tour guide was so eager to help us that he dropped his backpack as he got off the bus. We think he is about 27 or 28. We hopped back on the bus to head for our hotel. Apparently, Nika had requested to stay in the trailer-like village motel area to save money, but we were automatically placed in Kumgangsan Hotel. Colleen and I roomed together. Our hotel room was nice with a balcony. The beds were not soft which I soon realized when I plopped down!^^
We only had 20 minutes at the hotel before we were to board the bus to head back to the "village" for dinner and the performance. The whole time our tour guide was trying to help us as much as he could. We ended up at a restaurant where we ordered Mushroom stew/soup without the meat. We were super excited for the kimchi and bean sprouts that were service with the meal.
After dinner, we looked around the gift shops. The one on the same side as the restaurant we ate at was incredibly expensive and had nothing that any of us wanted or were willing to buy. There were $20,000 Rolexes and Gucci purses; not our style. So, we headed to the one acrossed the street which was on the same side as the performance hall.
The acrobat performance (North Korean acrobats) was AMAZING! There were guys that climbed a jungle gym like it was no big deal, trapeze artists, jugglers, etc. Some of the women spun by their heads being secured by a rope. It was terrifying! If the rope slipped at all...oh gosh... I couldn't believe a lot of the stuff that they were capable of doing!!
This is a pic after the performance. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance; for a good reason, I think.^^
The woman at the front was the announcer, and a little odd might I add.
After the performance, we looked around in the gift shop again, sat at a bar for a while to eat sweet potatoes outside, and left soon after we consumed the potatoes. It was cold out, and we were tired from the long trip. Our hotel is maybe a 20 minute walk from the village. Colleen and I talked for a bit before we went to sleep around 10:00PM.
Long Weekend Ahead - Friday Oct. 25, 2007
I'm trying to remember what I did on Thursday. I was supposed to teach four classes to make up for the class that I couldn't teach on Friday, but one of the classes was practicing for the festival. So, instead, I watched class 2-3 practice and only taught 3 classes.
After classes, I headed to Julie's apartment for tutoring. I took a taxi there instead of taking a bus. I didn't have enough time to catch a bus. Julie and I only did about an hour lesson. I headed home to finish getting ready to go to Seoul. I left on a 5:30PM bus. There was so much traffic that the trip that could take only an hour and a half ended up taking three. When I got to Seoul, I found my way to the subway and just decided to meet the others at Insadong instead of our hotel room. Insadong looks a lot different at night, but I managed to find them. I met up with Nika, Colleen, Jen, and Susie. Susie is the assistant Fulbright director (or something along those lines). I had only met Nika at PIFF and Kyangju. I met Jen at the Kyangju conference as well. This was my first time meeting Colleen. We met at a bar and sat around drinking and eating for a while.
Susie headed back to her place after the bar, and the other three of us headed to the hotel room. The hotel room was quite small. There was enough room for the four of us to sleep on the floor on mats, and there was a bathroom. The floor was heated to a very toasty temperature. We went to sleep pretty early because of our early morning the next day.
After classes, I headed to Julie's apartment for tutoring. I took a taxi there instead of taking a bus. I didn't have enough time to catch a bus. Julie and I only did about an hour lesson. I headed home to finish getting ready to go to Seoul. I left on a 5:30PM bus. There was so much traffic that the trip that could take only an hour and a half ended up taking three. When I got to Seoul, I found my way to the subway and just decided to meet the others at Insadong instead of our hotel room. Insadong looks a lot different at night, but I managed to find them. I met up with Nika, Colleen, Jen, and Susie. Susie is the assistant Fulbright director (or something along those lines). I had only met Nika at PIFF and Kyangju. I met Jen at the Kyangju conference as well. This was my first time meeting Colleen. We met at a bar and sat around drinking and eating for a while.
I really have no idea why this was there, but this little creature was chillin' on the wall on the bar.
Susie headed back to her place after the bar, and the other three of us headed to the hotel room. The hotel room was quite small. There was enough room for the four of us to sleep on the floor on mats, and there was a bathroom. The floor was heated to a very toasty temperature. We went to sleep pretty early because of our early morning the next day.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Christian Say Wha'? - Wednesday Oct. 24, 2007
Classes went really well today! I had fun with the students, which coincides with the basis of my daily goal. I just want the students to have fun learning English.
I took the bread from 경주 down to lunch with me. You would never think that giving presents could be so stressful! After sitting down to eat lunch, I got up to take some specifically over to the VP. Later, I split another box between the first grade and second grade offices. Of course, nobody was in either office when I went down, so I put what I have left of my English-letter-writing ability to work. It went something like this, "These are from 경주. I hope you enjoy them. Did you miss me? I missed you! ~Peace, Stacey (Penguin drawing)." I know that is some hard core writing skills in action; thank you, Manchester!^^ I wanted to make sure that even though it was in English, they might be able to understand it. There is a teacher in each office that can help translate if necessary.
Nobody showed up to my teachers' class, which I'm oddly getting used to. I am only taking Korean language lessons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays because of my volunteering at the orphanage on Mondays. The only reason I don't have tutoring on Wednesdays is because of my teachers' class that is often non-existant.ㅠㅠ
Oh, random! A teacher just came in to give me a book entitled The Secret of Forgiveness and Being Born Again. I was asked if I'm a Christian, and he said that the book is either by his teacher or from his teacher. I'm not sure which. Christianity has a STRONG presence in Korea; almost stronger than Buddhism. There are a ton of churches, which are incredibly visible at night due to the red glowing crosses that can be seen from a mile away. Evangelism is also incredibly prevalent here...something I was not expecting in the slightest. In Japan, I became accustomed to very few people caring about whether I am Christian or not, but I have been asked about it more times in Korea than I have in the states. Koreans are blunt! Sometimes it is a bit of a relief, and it is a good thing that I am not easily offended by questions like that. The reason it is a relief at times is, because I know where people stand. In Japan, nobody ever makes an individual decision; it is the decision of the group. In Korea, if a Korean wants to do something or disagrees with something, usually it's just put out there. Of course, bluntness is situational, but it is much more straight forward than the states at times as well. Some Koreans are aware of Western cultural sensitivity to asking another's age or religion, but in Korea a conversation can easily go like this:
Person A: My name is ____. It's nice to meet you.
Person B: My name is ____. It's nice to meet you too.
Person A: What is your age?
Person B: 28. And you?
Person A: 35. Do you have a religion?
Person B: No.
ETC...
Usually there is a lot of initial guessing about age too. It is important to immediately discover the age of those around you, especially in a new situation, because the way you talk to a person and the way you treat a person depends on age. There are different verb and adjective endings when speaking to someone older than yourself. With a friend or someone younger, one can use plain form. "Friend" means something different in Korea also. A "friend" is someone the same age as yourself and someone you have known for a long time. Many younger Koreans have grown accustomed to the Western concept of friendship, however. I have Korean "friends" who are older than me, but I still use panmal (formal language) with them. Julie has spent a lot of time around foreigners and doesn't care whether I use formal or plain language with her. It's so much about feeling out a situation, and even then I don't get it right all the time. If I'm unsure, I will often ask what is appropriate, but for the most part, I stick with panmal unless I am speaking to my students or host sibs.
I stuck around school for quite a while today. I'm using my host family's laptop to type tonight. They're being very generous! I don't really know what I did today after I walked home. We had Vietnamese rolls for dinner, and I hung out with my host sis for a bit. I packed for the weekend, and yah...that's about it.
I took the bread from 경주 down to lunch with me. You would never think that giving presents could be so stressful! After sitting down to eat lunch, I got up to take some specifically over to the VP. Later, I split another box between the first grade and second grade offices. Of course, nobody was in either office when I went down, so I put what I have left of my English-letter-writing ability to work. It went something like this, "These are from 경주. I hope you enjoy them. Did you miss me? I missed you! ~Peace, Stacey (Penguin drawing)." I know that is some hard core writing skills in action; thank you, Manchester!^^ I wanted to make sure that even though it was in English, they might be able to understand it. There is a teacher in each office that can help translate if necessary.
Nobody showed up to my teachers' class, which I'm oddly getting used to. I am only taking Korean language lessons on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays because of my volunteering at the orphanage on Mondays. The only reason I don't have tutoring on Wednesdays is because of my teachers' class that is often non-existant.ㅠㅠ
Oh, random! A teacher just came in to give me a book entitled The Secret of Forgiveness and Being Born Again. I was asked if I'm a Christian, and he said that the book is either by his teacher or from his teacher. I'm not sure which. Christianity has a STRONG presence in Korea; almost stronger than Buddhism. There are a ton of churches, which are incredibly visible at night due to the red glowing crosses that can be seen from a mile away. Evangelism is also incredibly prevalent here...something I was not expecting in the slightest. In Japan, I became accustomed to very few people caring about whether I am Christian or not, but I have been asked about it more times in Korea than I have in the states. Koreans are blunt! Sometimes it is a bit of a relief, and it is a good thing that I am not easily offended by questions like that. The reason it is a relief at times is, because I know where people stand. In Japan, nobody ever makes an individual decision; it is the decision of the group. In Korea, if a Korean wants to do something or disagrees with something, usually it's just put out there. Of course, bluntness is situational, but it is much more straight forward than the states at times as well. Some Koreans are aware of Western cultural sensitivity to asking another's age or religion, but in Korea a conversation can easily go like this:
Person A: My name is ____. It's nice to meet you.
Person B: My name is ____. It's nice to meet you too.
Person A: What is your age?
Person B: 28. And you?
Person A: 35. Do you have a religion?
Person B: No.
ETC...
Usually there is a lot of initial guessing about age too. It is important to immediately discover the age of those around you, especially in a new situation, because the way you talk to a person and the way you treat a person depends on age. There are different verb and adjective endings when speaking to someone older than yourself. With a friend or someone younger, one can use plain form. "Friend" means something different in Korea also. A "friend" is someone the same age as yourself and someone you have known for a long time. Many younger Koreans have grown accustomed to the Western concept of friendship, however. I have Korean "friends" who are older than me, but I still use panmal (formal language) with them. Julie has spent a lot of time around foreigners and doesn't care whether I use formal or plain language with her. It's so much about feeling out a situation, and even then I don't get it right all the time. If I'm unsure, I will often ask what is appropriate, but for the most part, I stick with panmal unless I am speaking to my students or host sibs.
I stuck around school for quite a while today. I'm using my host family's laptop to type tonight. They're being very generous! I don't really know what I did today after I walked home. We had Vietnamese rolls for dinner, and I hung out with my host sis for a bit. I packed for the weekend, and yah...that's about it.
Fall Makes my World Go 'Round - Tuesday Oct. 23, 2007
School was interesting today. I was gone all weekend, so I sporadically planned a lesson this morning. I'm pretty good at preparing lesson plans on the fly, so it was not a big deal. I decided to back up and start over with the sign language alphabet. Because all classes ended on a different letter last week, I'm teaching only three letters this week; ABC. We did our normal morning routine and I'm adding to our morning routine. (Sidenote: I just made 2 typos...see if you see a pattern. I typed died instead of did and mourning instead of morning. Hmm...odd!) Anyway, I am going to start introducing 3 or 4 letters a week. The tricky part is also working in the things they are supposed to learn from the text on a weekly basis. My first graders are learning about colors this week, which is an easy topic for them. I just add question concepts, and I will teach "Favorite." My second graders are learning "I'm hungry" this week and how to ask for and offer food.
My co-teacher helped me buy another phone card, so I will be able to call home again sometime soon...in case you're reading this mom, dad, Heather, and Stephanie!^^ I didn't drop off the face of the planet! I also figured out that the woman in charge of transferring my conference stipend wasn't here last weekend, so I didn't have that or my salary. I will get both this week!! YEAH!! That will definitely be helpful! I don't have that much to spend money on, but for some reason, I find myself spending much more than I feel like I am. It's just the small things that add up, plus all of the traveling is a bit expensive as well. I came here to experience everything possible, and that's what I'm doing!^^
When I went home, I fell asleep for a few minutes before Julie got to my apartment. We only studied for an hour, because Julie wanted to take me to Yonsei University. I have only been there once before, and I didn't walk around at all. The leaves are all changing colors and it is incredibly BEAUTIFUL!! I have pictures of the trees that I'll post soon. Oh, there is a road back near the woods that is called "Kiss Road." I'll give you one guess as to why it is called that. Well, actually, it is more detailed than you would think. The road is windy, so it is difficult to see couples around the corners. There is also a road that is nicknamed "Baby Road." Didn't expect that one!
Julie and I walked around and talked for maybe an hour and a half. We talked about the campus, relationships, seasons, psychology, etc. Discussing psychology was interesting. I explained that psychology is a fairly common major in the US and that many people go to therapy when they are having many problems in their lives. Julie said that she wishes there was something like that in Korea, because many people have stress due to academic and occupational pressures. I haven't ranted about the academic situation that many children face yet, but it's coming.
After walking around Yonsei, we took a bus back to Julie's apartment. We bought ramen and kimchi at a small store near her apartment. Her apartment is quite small, but it is comfortable. It is one room with a kitchen and bathroom. She made dinner while I watched some random US gameshow "Identity." During dinner we watched "Housewives;" it's the first time I have EVER watched that show. After dinner, we watched the movie "300." It was quite interesting. I remember people talking about it in the states, but I never had much desire to see it in theatre. It is the story of Sparta's fight from freedom from Persia.
When I got home, my host family acted a little strangely toward me. I don't know if maybe they were just tired or if they were upset that I went out despite my cold. Hmm.....I guess I'll figure it out soon enough. My host mom was continuing making ribbon crafts. She taught a class today, and she will teach a class tomorrow as well. She is incredibly talented when it comes to ribbon crafts; she can make headbands, hair ties, wall decorations, etc. She said that she will teach me someday when I have time. I'm really excited!! She used to have an online store where people could order her "products" and she taught a class when she lived in Seoul, but now it is just her hobby. She really enjoys it!
Oh, we have a new aquarium in our house. Somehow the fish club talked my host father into having not only two aquariums in his office, but one at home as well. It's really beautiful; we have coral and snails and fishies! Sidenote: I cannot stand multiple fish to be called "fishes" so I have always said "fishies." I like the new addition. I haven't named them yet, but I will soon! Any suggestions?!
My co-teacher helped me buy another phone card, so I will be able to call home again sometime soon...in case you're reading this mom, dad, Heather, and Stephanie!^^ I didn't drop off the face of the planet! I also figured out that the woman in charge of transferring my conference stipend wasn't here last weekend, so I didn't have that or my salary. I will get both this week!! YEAH!! That will definitely be helpful! I don't have that much to spend money on, but for some reason, I find myself spending much more than I feel like I am. It's just the small things that add up, plus all of the traveling is a bit expensive as well. I came here to experience everything possible, and that's what I'm doing!^^
When I went home, I fell asleep for a few minutes before Julie got to my apartment. We only studied for an hour, because Julie wanted to take me to Yonsei University. I have only been there once before, and I didn't walk around at all. The leaves are all changing colors and it is incredibly BEAUTIFUL!! I have pictures of the trees that I'll post soon. Oh, there is a road back near the woods that is called "Kiss Road." I'll give you one guess as to why it is called that. Well, actually, it is more detailed than you would think. The road is windy, so it is difficult to see couples around the corners. There is also a road that is nicknamed "Baby Road." Didn't expect that one!
Julie and I walked around and talked for maybe an hour and a half. We talked about the campus, relationships, seasons, psychology, etc. Discussing psychology was interesting. I explained that psychology is a fairly common major in the US and that many people go to therapy when they are having many problems in their lives. Julie said that she wishes there was something like that in Korea, because many people have stress due to academic and occupational pressures. I haven't ranted about the academic situation that many children face yet, but it's coming.
After walking around Yonsei, we took a bus back to Julie's apartment. We bought ramen and kimchi at a small store near her apartment. Her apartment is quite small, but it is comfortable. It is one room with a kitchen and bathroom. She made dinner while I watched some random US gameshow "Identity." During dinner we watched "Housewives;" it's the first time I have EVER watched that show. After dinner, we watched the movie "300." It was quite interesting. I remember people talking about it in the states, but I never had much desire to see it in theatre. It is the story of Sparta's fight from freedom from Persia.
When I got home, my host family acted a little strangely toward me. I don't know if maybe they were just tired or if they were upset that I went out despite my cold. Hmm.....I guess I'll figure it out soon enough. My host mom was continuing making ribbon crafts. She taught a class today, and she will teach a class tomorrow as well. She is incredibly talented when it comes to ribbon crafts; she can make headbands, hair ties, wall decorations, etc. She said that she will teach me someday when I have time. I'm really excited!! She used to have an online store where people could order her "products" and she taught a class when she lived in Seoul, but now it is just her hobby. She really enjoys it!
Oh, we have a new aquarium in our house. Somehow the fish club talked my host father into having not only two aquariums in his office, but one at home as well. It's really beautiful; we have coral and snails and fishies! Sidenote: I cannot stand multiple fish to be called "fishes" so I have always said "fishies." I like the new addition. I haven't named them yet, but I will soon! Any suggestions?!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Home Sweet Wonju - Monday Oct. 22, 2007
We got up around the same time once again. My roomie wasn't feeling too hot after a night of drinking. I mostly chose to stay away from alcohol this weekend. Anna had already left to head home, so Jenna and I headed down to breakfast.
After breakfast, we lounged around for a while waiting for everyone to re-assemble. Most people were heading out, but a few of us were sticking around for a few hours. Jenna, Ray, Ariah, and Tricia headed to some art market. Jason and Diane rented some scooters to cruise around on. Jen, Lauren, Jeremy, Sarata, Allison, and I decided to take a spin in the lake on the swan boats. Jen, Lauren, and I shared one. It was really relaxing. Jen and Lauren switched off and on pedaling, but I stayed on the other pedal the whole time; it was good exercise!^^
My initial intentions were to stay until a 3:30PM bus, but I decided to head out at the same time as Lauren and Jeremy, so I would have bus buddies!! Jen shared a taxi with us. She asked the taxi driver in Korean to hurry a little bit. We spent a while saying goodbye to Mrs. Shim which made us somewhat later than we had expected to be to attempt to catch a bus. The taxi driver got a kick out of it and made us all laugh. He really did a good job getting us there on time. We had about 5 minutes to spare.
I slept most of the way home; I was still tired from last night. When we got back to Wonju, Lauren and I waited for an hour with Jeremy for his bus to come. We went to a really sketchy coffee shop to wait. We didn't mean to go to a sketchy coffee shop, it just turned out that way. We all bought bread at the conference to bring back as gifts for our schools and homestays. Well, a worker at the restaurant came over, took the bread out of the bag, opened the box, and started saying how delicious it was. Now, this was Lauren's bread, and she was in the bathroom. Seeing as how Jeremy and I didn't know how to say "Get away, Psycho lady" in a polite way, we kind of sat there helpless. We managed to explain that it was a gift for a friend and she scurried along on her way. We figured out once we got our coffee and tea, why exactly they were trying to push fruit juice on us. Our only guess is that their fruit juice, besides being the most expensive thing on the menu, has to be the best thing also. In other words...the coffee and tea were terrible!
When I got home, my host sister and host mom were outside. My host sister ran up to me and gave me a big hug, and she told me that she missed me! CUTE!! I hung out with the host family for a while before we went to get 순두부 (Sundubu - Tofu Soup). We picked up my host father from work before going, and he brought a bag out of 한약 (Hanyak - oriental medicine). I caught a cold, so I will soon be downing large quantities of oriental medicine. Dinner was really good!
I spent the rest of the night trying to catch up on my blog. It's a lot harder now that I can't hook my computer up. My laptop still works all right, but my host family has a laptop that connects to the internet. I don't want to chance that computer also getting a virus. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about my wonderful new piece of technology other than ask my mom to send the software from the states. Yes, I realize I'm not the brightest person on the planet for leaving my software to my new computer back home-home, but that's what happened. Random tangent: I tend to say home about a place I'm living and home-home about the place I grew up. I guess it has been transferred to my writing.
There are things the ETAs have come to say thinking that it is proper English, when in fact, it really isn't. Konglish is an English word that when pronounced in Korean sounds similar to or the same as the English word or phrase. Also, there are sayings that Koreans think native English speakers say, but they are incorrect. For example: Take a rest. I knew perfectly well that "Take a rest" is not an actual phrase that we would use in the states; however, I find myself using the phrase and cannot figure out on my own that it does not sound right. I have had fellow ETAs make fun of me for it. Many of us find ourselves saying things that might sound a little strange, stopping to try to remember whether or not it would make sense in the states, and then realizing that we are incapable of such a task. If nothing else, it provides amusement for us!!^^
After breakfast, we lounged around for a while waiting for everyone to re-assemble. Most people were heading out, but a few of us were sticking around for a few hours. Jenna, Ray, Ariah, and Tricia headed to some art market. Jason and Diane rented some scooters to cruise around on. Jen, Lauren, Jeremy, Sarata, Allison, and I decided to take a spin in the lake on the swan boats. Jen, Lauren, and I shared one. It was really relaxing. Jen and Lauren switched off and on pedaling, but I stayed on the other pedal the whole time; it was good exercise!^^
My initial intentions were to stay until a 3:30PM bus, but I decided to head out at the same time as Lauren and Jeremy, so I would have bus buddies!! Jen shared a taxi with us. She asked the taxi driver in Korean to hurry a little bit. We spent a while saying goodbye to Mrs. Shim which made us somewhat later than we had expected to be to attempt to catch a bus. The taxi driver got a kick out of it and made us all laugh. He really did a good job getting us there on time. We had about 5 minutes to spare.
I slept most of the way home; I was still tired from last night. When we got back to Wonju, Lauren and I waited for an hour with Jeremy for his bus to come. We went to a really sketchy coffee shop to wait. We didn't mean to go to a sketchy coffee shop, it just turned out that way. We all bought bread at the conference to bring back as gifts for our schools and homestays. Well, a worker at the restaurant came over, took the bread out of the bag, opened the box, and started saying how delicious it was. Now, this was Lauren's bread, and she was in the bathroom. Seeing as how Jeremy and I didn't know how to say "Get away, Psycho lady" in a polite way, we kind of sat there helpless. We managed to explain that it was a gift for a friend and she scurried along on her way. We figured out once we got our coffee and tea, why exactly they were trying to push fruit juice on us. Our only guess is that their fruit juice, besides being the most expensive thing on the menu, has to be the best thing also. In other words...the coffee and tea were terrible!
When I got home, my host sister and host mom were outside. My host sister ran up to me and gave me a big hug, and she told me that she missed me! CUTE!! I hung out with the host family for a while before we went to get 순두부 (Sundubu - Tofu Soup). We picked up my host father from work before going, and he brought a bag out of 한약 (Hanyak - oriental medicine). I caught a cold, so I will soon be downing large quantities of oriental medicine. Dinner was really good!
I spent the rest of the night trying to catch up on my blog. It's a lot harder now that I can't hook my computer up. My laptop still works all right, but my host family has a laptop that connects to the internet. I don't want to chance that computer also getting a virus. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about my wonderful new piece of technology other than ask my mom to send the software from the states. Yes, I realize I'm not the brightest person on the planet for leaving my software to my new computer back home-home, but that's what happened. Random tangent: I tend to say home about a place I'm living and home-home about the place I grew up. I guess it has been transferred to my writing.
There are things the ETAs have come to say thinking that it is proper English, when in fact, it really isn't. Konglish is an English word that when pronounced in Korean sounds similar to or the same as the English word or phrase. Also, there are sayings that Koreans think native English speakers say, but they are incorrect. For example: Take a rest. I knew perfectly well that "Take a rest" is not an actual phrase that we would use in the states; however, I find myself using the phrase and cannot figure out on my own that it does not sound right. I have had fellow ETAs make fun of me for it. Many of us find ourselves saying things that might sound a little strange, stopping to try to remember whether or not it would make sense in the states, and then realizing that we are incapable of such a task. If nothing else, it provides amusement for us!!^^
Holy Tourism Batman! - Sunday Oct. 21, 2007
We got up around the same time for breakast this morning. The buffet was almost an exact replica of yesterday. We are done with the presentation/workshop portion of our conference, so we had a day of touring 경주; a WHOLE day of touring.
I promise I will upload photos as soon as possible; however, currently my computer is incapacitated. We visited a big Buddha. Many men and women were there praying, because it is 100 days until important school exams. At the 100 day mark, people flood in to pray to Buddha to help their children do well on the exam. We also visited many tombs which look like hills; large hills. One of the tombs we visited is called the "Hanging Tomb." It is called this because when the tomb was dug, there was too much water in the bottom to lie the coffin into; therefore, the coffin was hung above the water. It was near this tomb that some of the ETAs started playing Red Rover while waiting for the other ETAs to finish up taking pictures and whatnot. At another tomb, some ETAs were trying to feed a rat near the pond. That ended up being more exciting to many than seeing the tomb. I was pretty excited to see a rat; I like rats!
We visited a 경주 history museum also. If you know me very well, you know I do not incredibly enjoy visiting museums. It was interesting to see, but I didn't learn as much as I could have if someone was there to explain what everything was. It was up to us to read all of the information, and unfortunately no tours were provided for any of the places we visited. Outside of this particular museum is a bell. This bell has an interesting history. I don't know the whole story, but basically the bell wasn't loud enough, so a baby was sacrificed and placed inside the bell. Now, it is said that the bell, when rung, sounds like a baby crying.
Lunch was provided for us somewhere in between all of the traveling. I appreciate being able to see all of these places, but I think I would have been able to appreciate each place even more if we didn't visit everything all in the same day. People were getting cranky by the end of the trip. All in all, we saw: Seokguram, Bulgoksa, Goeneung, Cheomseongdae Observatory (This place is quite interesting. It is an observatory that you climb into and up to view stars. The bottom of the tower has 12 stones for the 12 astrological animals, there are 30 rows for the number of days in a month, and 365 or 366 stones in total for the number of days in a year.), Anapji, Gyeongju National Museum, and Cheonmachong tombs.
We got back to the hotel earlier than expected due to the fact that we didn't go to one of our scheduled stops. Instead of waiting to have a meeting after dinner, the group discussing the situation in Burma met early.
After the meeting, we headed to dinner. It was in the conference room in the basement and it was a buffet this time; a pretty amazing buffet!! I sat with Margaret and Ariah; we continued to discuss more from the meeting.
After dinner, I hung out in my room for a little bit with Lauren and Jenna. Lauren and I then moved to Amber and Laura's room to hang out in there. It was a lazy night; lots of hanging out and talking. At about 1:30AM, Jenna and I ended up in a room at the end of the hall with a bunch of people. I finally got to bed around 3:00AM.
I promise I will upload photos as soon as possible; however, currently my computer is incapacitated. We visited a big Buddha. Many men and women were there praying, because it is 100 days until important school exams. At the 100 day mark, people flood in to pray to Buddha to help their children do well on the exam. We also visited many tombs which look like hills; large hills. One of the tombs we visited is called the "Hanging Tomb." It is called this because when the tomb was dug, there was too much water in the bottom to lie the coffin into; therefore, the coffin was hung above the water. It was near this tomb that some of the ETAs started playing Red Rover while waiting for the other ETAs to finish up taking pictures and whatnot. At another tomb, some ETAs were trying to feed a rat near the pond. That ended up being more exciting to many than seeing the tomb. I was pretty excited to see a rat; I like rats!
We visited a 경주 history museum also. If you know me very well, you know I do not incredibly enjoy visiting museums. It was interesting to see, but I didn't learn as much as I could have if someone was there to explain what everything was. It was up to us to read all of the information, and unfortunately no tours were provided for any of the places we visited. Outside of this particular museum is a bell. This bell has an interesting history. I don't know the whole story, but basically the bell wasn't loud enough, so a baby was sacrificed and placed inside the bell. Now, it is said that the bell, when rung, sounds like a baby crying.
Lunch was provided for us somewhere in between all of the traveling. I appreciate being able to see all of these places, but I think I would have been able to appreciate each place even more if we didn't visit everything all in the same day. People were getting cranky by the end of the trip. All in all, we saw: Seokguram, Bulgoksa, Goeneung, Cheomseongdae Observatory (This place is quite interesting. It is an observatory that you climb into and up to view stars. The bottom of the tower has 12 stones for the 12 astrological animals, there are 30 rows for the number of days in a month, and 365 or 366 stones in total for the number of days in a year.), Anapji, Gyeongju National Museum, and Cheonmachong tombs.
We got back to the hotel earlier than expected due to the fact that we didn't go to one of our scheduled stops. Instead of waiting to have a meeting after dinner, the group discussing the situation in Burma met early.
After the meeting, we headed to dinner. It was in the conference room in the basement and it was a buffet this time; a pretty amazing buffet!! I sat with Margaret and Ariah; we continued to discuss more from the meeting.
After dinner, I hung out in my room for a little bit with Lauren and Jenna. Lauren and I then moved to Amber and Laura's room to hang out in there. It was a lazy night; lots of hanging out and talking. At about 1:30AM, Jenna and I ended up in a room at the end of the hall with a bunch of people. I finally got to bed around 3:00AM.
Whistle While we Workshop - Saturday Oct. 20, 2007
We headed to the buffet breakfast around 8:15AM. The food was pretty awesome! My plate didn't exactly reflect breakfast very well, but it was very good. I had broiled fish, salmon sashimi, kimchi, cereal, and potatoes.
Workshops started at 9:00AM. The EETAs were separated for the first workshop. There were supposed to be 4 different leaders, but we decided to combine the group; there are only 11 of us. We had a really productive conversation; we discussed what our situations are like, what hasn't been working, what has been working, what we need to do for EETAs during orientation next year, etc. We all have very different schools situations; some EETAs only have 4-8 students per class, while some of us have 40 students per class. Our technology differs, the age of our students differ, and our co-teacher situations differ; hence, we all have very different experiences, but because we are elementary ETAs, we have more in common with one another than with the secondary ETAs.
The second workshop was entertaining, but I didn't really learn a lot from it. We split off in different groups and I decided to go to the group entitled, "Korean Confucian Culture as an American Ambassador." We discussed what situations we have run into being in a confucian culture. Some women have been put in charge of fetching coffee for their host fathers and principals at school, some men have experienced pressure to drink, and some ETAs have been subject to curfews. One of my favorite stories is from a female ETA who on her first day was chased around by her host grandmother who took her shirt right off of her. The grandmother wanted to wash the ETA's clothes, but the ETA was still wearing them. After fighting back and forth, the ETA grabbed her clothes, ran into her room, and jammed her door shut by stuffing clothing and erasers under the door.^^
The next workshop that I chose to sit in on (Volunteering) was not as informative as I would have liked, so I found myself wandering from group to group. I ended up sneaking out and taking a walk outside for a few minutes.
We had lunch, but the vegetarian meal was more like a salad than a full meal. It was okay though. I got to talk to Jen and Nika more which was nice. We have fairly similar outlooks on life and have no intention on settling down any time soon. They, too, love to travel.
After lunch, we headed to a presentation about a program called TALL. It is a computer program that helps students learn English. I had heard that the presentation was going to be slightly frustrating, and that it was! I'm an EETA which means no time soon am I going to be suggesting to my school that they buy a computer program to teach students English, I don't agree with that method of teaching, and it takes a high level of self-motivation to complete such a program. Many of the ETAs will agree with me when I say, students don't have enough motivation to complete a program such as that. Afterward we learned that the program is directed at poorer schools who can't always provide a native English speaking teacher. This helped me slightly change my perspective of the program, but I'm still not a fan of a computer teaching a student. It could work if a teacher were right there to supervise study, but if the program is directed at schools that cannot provide native English speakers, how will non-native English speakers properly supervise and add depth to a computer program.
We briefly split up to exchange lesson plans and game ideas; so naturally the EETAs sat together. There were some helpful suggestions. We then moved into a "cultural activity." Many of us joked around that we hoped that the cultural activity was drinking, because the workshops had not been incredibly energizing. The activity ended up being a traditional Korean game where we are broken up into groups of 8, there's a gameboard, and we throw sticks to move game pieces around the board. It was an interesting game to learn, but we were all ready to get out of there by that point. We stuck around for a group picture, but a few ETAs thought that they'd be real funny by not sticking around. We were all numbered at orientation, and we had to count off to make sure we were all around for each workshop during orientation. Well the number system managed to survive the 2 month break we've had from each other, and the head of the ETAs, Susie, had us count off randomly throughout the conference to make sure nobody ducked out. While we all took a picture, three ETAs were being called for being MIA. They wandered in after the pictures were taken, and we had to do it all over again. Needless to say, there was a little tension in the room.
We had the whole evening off and were in charge of finding our own dinner. Quite a few people wanted to go downtown, and I had absolutely no desire to do so. A few of us stuck around and walked to the Hilton which was nearby. We were going to go to the Western restaurant, but we got distracted by a German buffet they were having. Eliza and Lindsey decided to go to the restaurant, and Christine, Rebecca, Ray, Jenna, and I decided to pay the $35 for the buffet. It was completely worth it. There was tons of meat that didn't interest me, but there was tons of sashimi, cheese, pasta, soup, etc. On top of that, there was unlimited beer! We sat around for about two hours before we headed out. Back at the hotel, Lauren met up with Jenna and I in our hotel room. We sat around and talked for about 2 hours, mostly about religion. I am often times confused by religion. At first I really had no desire to talk about it, which is unusual for me, but it ended up being a good conversation. A guess a part of why I didn't want to talk about it is because I didn't know how my opinions would be received first of all, and second of all I still don't completely know how to put what I believe into words; this being because I still don't completely understand what I believe.
I went to bed around 1:30AM, which is an improvement from last night.
Workshops started at 9:00AM. The EETAs were separated for the first workshop. There were supposed to be 4 different leaders, but we decided to combine the group; there are only 11 of us. We had a really productive conversation; we discussed what our situations are like, what hasn't been working, what has been working, what we need to do for EETAs during orientation next year, etc. We all have very different schools situations; some EETAs only have 4-8 students per class, while some of us have 40 students per class. Our technology differs, the age of our students differ, and our co-teacher situations differ; hence, we all have very different experiences, but because we are elementary ETAs, we have more in common with one another than with the secondary ETAs.
The second workshop was entertaining, but I didn't really learn a lot from it. We split off in different groups and I decided to go to the group entitled, "Korean Confucian Culture as an American Ambassador." We discussed what situations we have run into being in a confucian culture. Some women have been put in charge of fetching coffee for their host fathers and principals at school, some men have experienced pressure to drink, and some ETAs have been subject to curfews. One of my favorite stories is from a female ETA who on her first day was chased around by her host grandmother who took her shirt right off of her. The grandmother wanted to wash the ETA's clothes, but the ETA was still wearing them. After fighting back and forth, the ETA grabbed her clothes, ran into her room, and jammed her door shut by stuffing clothing and erasers under the door.^^
The next workshop that I chose to sit in on (Volunteering) was not as informative as I would have liked, so I found myself wandering from group to group. I ended up sneaking out and taking a walk outside for a few minutes.
We had lunch, but the vegetarian meal was more like a salad than a full meal. It was okay though. I got to talk to Jen and Nika more which was nice. We have fairly similar outlooks on life and have no intention on settling down any time soon. They, too, love to travel.
After lunch, we headed to a presentation about a program called TALL. It is a computer program that helps students learn English. I had heard that the presentation was going to be slightly frustrating, and that it was! I'm an EETA which means no time soon am I going to be suggesting to my school that they buy a computer program to teach students English, I don't agree with that method of teaching, and it takes a high level of self-motivation to complete such a program. Many of the ETAs will agree with me when I say, students don't have enough motivation to complete a program such as that. Afterward we learned that the program is directed at poorer schools who can't always provide a native English speaking teacher. This helped me slightly change my perspective of the program, but I'm still not a fan of a computer teaching a student. It could work if a teacher were right there to supervise study, but if the program is directed at schools that cannot provide native English speakers, how will non-native English speakers properly supervise and add depth to a computer program.
We briefly split up to exchange lesson plans and game ideas; so naturally the EETAs sat together. There were some helpful suggestions. We then moved into a "cultural activity." Many of us joked around that we hoped that the cultural activity was drinking, because the workshops had not been incredibly energizing. The activity ended up being a traditional Korean game where we are broken up into groups of 8, there's a gameboard, and we throw sticks to move game pieces around the board. It was an interesting game to learn, but we were all ready to get out of there by that point. We stuck around for a group picture, but a few ETAs thought that they'd be real funny by not sticking around. We were all numbered at orientation, and we had to count off to make sure we were all around for each workshop during orientation. Well the number system managed to survive the 2 month break we've had from each other, and the head of the ETAs, Susie, had us count off randomly throughout the conference to make sure nobody ducked out. While we all took a picture, three ETAs were being called for being MIA. They wandered in after the pictures were taken, and we had to do it all over again. Needless to say, there was a little tension in the room.
We had the whole evening off and were in charge of finding our own dinner. Quite a few people wanted to go downtown, and I had absolutely no desire to do so. A few of us stuck around and walked to the Hilton which was nearby. We were going to go to the Western restaurant, but we got distracted by a German buffet they were having. Eliza and Lindsey decided to go to the restaurant, and Christine, Rebecca, Ray, Jenna, and I decided to pay the $35 for the buffet. It was completely worth it. There was tons of meat that didn't interest me, but there was tons of sashimi, cheese, pasta, soup, etc. On top of that, there was unlimited beer! We sat around for about two hours before we headed out. Back at the hotel, Lauren met up with Jenna and I in our hotel room. We sat around and talked for about 2 hours, mostly about religion. I am often times confused by religion. At first I really had no desire to talk about it, which is unusual for me, but it ended up being a good conversation. A guess a part of why I didn't want to talk about it is because I didn't know how my opinions would be received first of all, and second of all I still don't completely know how to put what I believe into words; this being because I still don't completely understand what I believe.
I went to bed around 1:30AM, which is an improvement from last night.
경주 (Kyeongju) - Friday Oct. 19, 2007
Today I didn't have school. I had to head out to an ETA conference. I met up with Jeremy and Lauren at the bus station to take a 10:00AM bus to 경주 (Kyeongju). We randomly ran into Toby on the bus. He was coming back from 춘천 (Chuncheon) from visiting his girlfriend. The four of us talked and slept off and on for about 3 and 1/2 hours. We arrived in 경주 around 1:30PM and headed to the hotel where we were staying for the entire weekend. It's called the Commodore.
We checked into our rooms. I roomed with Jenna and Anna Cesa, but I was the first one to arrive. We had a BEAUTIFUL view from our hotel room!!^^ A few of us were going to go for a walk around the hotel, but ETAs kept pouring into the hotel and we wanted to see everyone. Soon, Jeremy, Allison, and I were able to walk around outside. We walked by the lake very near our hotel and took a few pictures. We had to start our workshop schedule at 3:00PM in a conference room in the basement.
We listened to a welcome speech from Mrs. Shim (the president of Korea Fulbright), listened to an overview of the weekend, and then started our presentations. The first presentation was by two extendees, Margaret and Noelle. They basically gave us advice about what we should take from the conference and offered us an idea of where they were at at the same time last year. The second presentation was Tom giving a really weird short presentation about friendships in Korea, the Jeju crew summing up their homestay experiences, and two more ETA extendees discussing good hiking spots in Korea. The Jeju Crew had some pretty entertaining stories about their homestays. Nikki talked about her random parking lot picnics during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). Hillary's host family's decided that she needs a curfew and consulted her American family for approval. Christine's home stay mom is only 8 years older than her, and demands to be called "host sister" instead of "mom" or "host mom." Her "host sister" takes her out drinking and noraebanging (kareoke-ing) randomly during weekdays and bosses her around like a big sister would instead of acting like a host mom. She is also surrounded by 7 little children on a daily basis who are little nieces and nephews. Tony's little host bro walked in on him while he was showering and wanted to take a shower with him. After Tony shooed his host bro out, his host bro tried to get back in. The door doesn't lock from the inside. It does, however, lock from the outside. So, of course, Tony was locked inside. Luckily, he had taken clothes in with him. He lives very rurally, so the "shower" is in the same room as the washing machine and drying rack. In that room, there is one window. Tony, climbed over the drying rack, out the window, and onto the roof. Why didn't he just jump down? Because there was broken glass on the ground. He managed to get back inside where he met his little host bro by picking him up, throwing him over his shoulder, and locking him in the bathroom. His host bro's English became impecible as Tony made him promise not to lock him in the bathroom again.^^ Drew discussed the importance of being flexible after he learned a rough lesson from his host dad about when is appropriate to make phone calls. Drew now schedules calls to the states and makes those phone calls at a PC Bang instead of in his home stay house.
We had a few more small presentations after that, and we were finally released for dinner around 6:30PM. For dinner, most of the group had 불고기 (Meat). The vegetarians sat segregated from everyone else which has become a running joke in our little vegetarian group. We like our small reunions. There are about 8 vegetarian ETAs and 2 vegetarian extendee ETAs. I'm super psyched, because the two extendees who are vegetarians are the two I am going to 궁앙산 (Kungangsan - sp?) I am traveling to North Korea next weekend with three extendee ETAs. It was set up about 3 weeks ago on a fairly random whim. Nika saw that I was interested in going, because I wrote something on Forest Estler's facebook wall. Next thing I know, she invited me to go with the three of them.
Anyway, we had the evening free. So, of course, what does the big group of ETAs do? We headed to GS25 to sit outside and drink. It's not quite a Family Mart replacement, but for most it was just fine. I didn't feel like sitting around and drinking, so Jen and I walked around taking pictures in some pretty odd places (I'll post pics soon). A small group of us headed back inside, because it was freezing outside. We sat in the lobby of the hotel for a while, until Tony convinced Jen and I to go downtown with a group going. It was kind of a pain in the butt to travel downtown; it was about a 12,000 Won taxi ride (~$12.00). When we got downtown, we wandered around for a while, like we do most of the time when we are in a big ETA group. We sat in a bar for a while to talk and then headed back to the hotel. I wasn't tired, so I sat in the hall with Jen and talked to her for a while. People kept joining us, and it reminded me of when I was in college just hanging out in the hall. At about 2:00AM, we headed into Ray's room to talk to him, Jason, and David; we finally went to bed around 3:00AM.
We checked into our rooms. I roomed with Jenna and Anna Cesa, but I was the first one to arrive. We had a BEAUTIFUL view from our hotel room!!^^ A few of us were going to go for a walk around the hotel, but ETAs kept pouring into the hotel and we wanted to see everyone. Soon, Jeremy, Allison, and I were able to walk around outside. We walked by the lake very near our hotel and took a few pictures. We had to start our workshop schedule at 3:00PM in a conference room in the basement.
We listened to a welcome speech from Mrs. Shim (the president of Korea Fulbright), listened to an overview of the weekend, and then started our presentations. The first presentation was by two extendees, Margaret and Noelle. They basically gave us advice about what we should take from the conference and offered us an idea of where they were at at the same time last year. The second presentation was Tom giving a really weird short presentation about friendships in Korea, the Jeju crew summing up their homestay experiences, and two more ETA extendees discussing good hiking spots in Korea. The Jeju Crew had some pretty entertaining stories about their homestays. Nikki talked about her random parking lot picnics during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). Hillary's host family's decided that she needs a curfew and consulted her American family for approval. Christine's home stay mom is only 8 years older than her, and demands to be called "host sister" instead of "mom" or "host mom." Her "host sister" takes her out drinking and noraebanging (kareoke-ing) randomly during weekdays and bosses her around like a big sister would instead of acting like a host mom. She is also surrounded by 7 little children on a daily basis who are little nieces and nephews. Tony's little host bro walked in on him while he was showering and wanted to take a shower with him. After Tony shooed his host bro out, his host bro tried to get back in. The door doesn't lock from the inside. It does, however, lock from the outside. So, of course, Tony was locked inside. Luckily, he had taken clothes in with him. He lives very rurally, so the "shower" is in the same room as the washing machine and drying rack. In that room, there is one window. Tony, climbed over the drying rack, out the window, and onto the roof. Why didn't he just jump down? Because there was broken glass on the ground. He managed to get back inside where he met his little host bro by picking him up, throwing him over his shoulder, and locking him in the bathroom. His host bro's English became impecible as Tony made him promise not to lock him in the bathroom again.^^ Drew discussed the importance of being flexible after he learned a rough lesson from his host dad about when is appropriate to make phone calls. Drew now schedules calls to the states and makes those phone calls at a PC Bang instead of in his home stay house.
We had a few more small presentations after that, and we were finally released for dinner around 6:30PM. For dinner, most of the group had 불고기 (Meat). The vegetarians sat segregated from everyone else which has become a running joke in our little vegetarian group. We like our small reunions. There are about 8 vegetarian ETAs and 2 vegetarian extendee ETAs. I'm super psyched, because the two extendees who are vegetarians are the two I am going to 궁앙산 (Kungangsan - sp?) I am traveling to North Korea next weekend with three extendee ETAs. It was set up about 3 weeks ago on a fairly random whim. Nika saw that I was interested in going, because I wrote something on Forest Estler's facebook wall. Next thing I know, she invited me to go with the three of them.
Anyway, we had the evening free. So, of course, what does the big group of ETAs do? We headed to GS25 to sit outside and drink. It's not quite a Family Mart replacement, but for most it was just fine. I didn't feel like sitting around and drinking, so Jen and I walked around taking pictures in some pretty odd places (I'll post pics soon). A small group of us headed back inside, because it was freezing outside. We sat in the lobby of the hotel for a while, until Tony convinced Jen and I to go downtown with a group going. It was kind of a pain in the butt to travel downtown; it was about a 12,000 Won taxi ride (~$12.00). When we got downtown, we wandered around for a while, like we do most of the time when we are in a big ETA group. We sat in a bar for a while to talk and then headed back to the hotel. I wasn't tired, so I sat in the hall with Jen and talked to her for a while. People kept joining us, and it reminded me of when I was in college just hanging out in the hall. At about 2:00AM, we headed into Ray's room to talk to him, Jason, and David; we finally went to bed around 3:00AM.
>_< COMPUTERS! - Thursday Oct. 18, 2007
One of my classes didn't go so great today! I have a second grade class that continues to get more and more disrespectful. I think a big part of it is because the teacher has all of the boys sit on one side and all of the girls on the other. The boys are the ones who don't listen. I'm working on figuring out that one. My initial reaction is to not allow the sexes to be split up like that.
I went out to eat with my host parents for lunch. My host mom came to pick me up at school, and we went to the same restaurant I went to for dinner last night. Today I ate 떡만두국 instead. Julie pushed back our tutoring time, so my host mom took me to the hospital to have my back checked out. It's not getting much better, so I saw the doctor again today. He gave me a prescription that I'm supposed to take, and if my back is not better by next week, I have to go back in. I had physical therapy which ended up taking too long, so I had to cancel tutoring for the day.
I found out today that because my host family and I share the same IP through wireless internet, their computer also caught the virus. It just randomly wouldn't turn on today. I'm not incredibly sure how a computer just doesn't turn on like that unless their computer had ZERO anti-virus protection. Anyway, I feel horrible!! I know I couldn't do anything about it, but I feel quite responsible. They lost files and pictures from about a year and a half!ㅠㅠ They're still seeing if they can save information from it, but the computer company and a friend of my host father already tried without success.
I spent a lot of today studying and hanging out with my host family. My computer is at school, so it was kind of nice not to have the distraction from the family. It makes me realize that when I have my computer, I don't spend as much time with the host family. I will keep that in mind for the future. I did, however, have to go in my room and shut the door when my host sister came home. I had somewhat of a stressful day, and as much as I love my host sister, she has the ability to stress me out even more if I'm already in a stressed out mood. She started driving me crazy today, so I decided to separate myself from her. There were times when my sister in the states would need to get away from me and vice versa, so I just see it as a normal sibling relationship. My host bro and I get along well, but I don't see him as much as I would like to. I see my host sister much more often.
I went out to eat with my host parents for lunch. My host mom came to pick me up at school, and we went to the same restaurant I went to for dinner last night. Today I ate 떡만두국 instead. Julie pushed back our tutoring time, so my host mom took me to the hospital to have my back checked out. It's not getting much better, so I saw the doctor again today. He gave me a prescription that I'm supposed to take, and if my back is not better by next week, I have to go back in. I had physical therapy which ended up taking too long, so I had to cancel tutoring for the day.
I found out today that because my host family and I share the same IP through wireless internet, their computer also caught the virus. It just randomly wouldn't turn on today. I'm not incredibly sure how a computer just doesn't turn on like that unless their computer had ZERO anti-virus protection. Anyway, I feel horrible!! I know I couldn't do anything about it, but I feel quite responsible. They lost files and pictures from about a year and a half!ㅠㅠ They're still seeing if they can save information from it, but the computer company and a friend of my host father already tried without success.
I spent a lot of today studying and hanging out with my host family. My computer is at school, so it was kind of nice not to have the distraction from the family. It makes me realize that when I have my computer, I don't spend as much time with the host family. I will keep that in mind for the future. I did, however, have to go in my room and shut the door when my host sister came home. I had somewhat of a stressful day, and as much as I love my host sister, she has the ability to stress me out even more if I'm already in a stressed out mood. She started driving me crazy today, so I decided to separate myself from her. There were times when my sister in the states would need to get away from me and vice versa, so I just see it as a normal sibling relationship. My host bro and I get along well, but I don't see him as much as I would like to. I see my host sister much more often.
칼만두국 (Kal Mandu Guk) - Wednesday Oct. 17, 2007
So, my computer is still not too psyched about the virus it has; NOR AM I! Class went well today; sometimes I don't know how the teacher's feel about me teaching sign language. I don't always understand the looks I get. If something isn't deemed important by the homeroom teachers, some can get pretty huffy about what I'm teaching. So far, so good though!
At about 1:25PM, a second grade teacher comes strolling into my classroom with a bunch of stuff in hand. Now, I was quite aware that the second grade teachers were having open classes for parents today. I, however, was quite unaware that his intentions were to use my classroom for his open class. Right after lunchtime, we always have students coming in to work with parent volunteers in the English Village. Because he did not inform me of what he wanted to do, both the students and the parent voluteers were kicked out at the last minute so he could use the classroom to teach in. I wasn't incredibly stoked about the situation.
I had to head down to help out a first grade teacher with her open class in front of the principal and vice principals. I wasn't positive about my role, so I tried to do the best that I could. I played a puppet for part of it, and had a few other small roles. The teacher wasn't very satisfied at the end, and was upset with the students. I had to head back to my room for my teachers' class, but I was meeting up with the first grade teachers at 5:00PM to go out to dinner and bowling with them.
I canceled my tutoring lesson, because I was supposed to have my teachers' class at 3:00 today. Well, about 1/2 hour before my teachers' class is supposed to start, I find out that there is no class. By that time, it was too late to reschedule my tutoring lesson.ㅠㅠ I'm fine teaching teachers, but I wish I was a little more informed about what the daily situation is going to be. Luckily I'm pretty go-with-the-flow when it comes to situations like that, and I don't get too frustrated. I've learned that there are going to be a lot of times when I have no idea what is going on, but to just roll with it.
I went home for about an hour to take a nap, and walked back to meet the teachers at 5:00PM. we went to a restaurant I have been to with my host family for 갈만두국 (Kal Mandu Guk - Noodles and Dumplings in a soup). There were 9 of us; 7 first grade teachers, the kindergarten teacher, and me. 4 of us got 칼만두국 and the other 4 got 떡만두국. The one that paid for all of us just shared a bowl with another teacher. She paid for us, because she got a 99% on her science training test. When we went bowling, one of the first grade teachers headed home, because she is pregnant. The two teams consisted of Team 칼만두 and Team 떡만두. We were named after the foods we ate for dinner!^^ Before leaving the school, I informed the teachers that I am quite horrible at bowling and rarely get above about 40. I was being slightly sarcastic, but I am sincerely not good! One of the other teachers told me that she is bad too.
I really like the first grade teachers; they are so much fun to hang out with. They're not anywhere near my age, but they are very laid back and hilarious! We kept chanting "칼만두, 칼만두, 칼만두!" That was my team! The first game, I got 111!!! That is the best I have EVER bowled in my ENTIRE life! One of the teachers that I joke around a lot with kept calling me a liar. The second game, I got 102! I was utterly shocked. We headed back to the school to drop off the other teachers. 1-5 teacher took me home. I told her that I'm not a liar, and that I think that the reason my score was awesome because of Korean bowling lanes!^^
When I got home, I hung out with my host family for a bit. My host sister was cooking cheese in the microwave. My grandma used to cook cheese for my sister and I. She'd put it in a bowl and stick it in a toaster oven. So, when I was younger, I would do the same except microwave it. The problem was that it would always stick to the bowl, and my mom would get mad at me.^^ My host sister devised a way to keep it from sticking; she just sticks it to its original wrapper and sticks it in the microwave like that. I was incredibly impressed and super excited that my host sister and I have something random like that in common.
Update: My computer is pretty much sucking at life currently. I downloaded AVG to delete and isolate the un-deletable viruses, but I still have pop-ups.ㅠㅠ The IT guys at school are going to take a look at it to see what else needs to be done.
At about 1:25PM, a second grade teacher comes strolling into my classroom with a bunch of stuff in hand. Now, I was quite aware that the second grade teachers were having open classes for parents today. I, however, was quite unaware that his intentions were to use my classroom for his open class. Right after lunchtime, we always have students coming in to work with parent volunteers in the English Village. Because he did not inform me of what he wanted to do, both the students and the parent voluteers were kicked out at the last minute so he could use the classroom to teach in. I wasn't incredibly stoked about the situation.
I had to head down to help out a first grade teacher with her open class in front of the principal and vice principals. I wasn't positive about my role, so I tried to do the best that I could. I played a puppet for part of it, and had a few other small roles. The teacher wasn't very satisfied at the end, and was upset with the students. I had to head back to my room for my teachers' class, but I was meeting up with the first grade teachers at 5:00PM to go out to dinner and bowling with them.
I canceled my tutoring lesson, because I was supposed to have my teachers' class at 3:00 today. Well, about 1/2 hour before my teachers' class is supposed to start, I find out that there is no class. By that time, it was too late to reschedule my tutoring lesson.ㅠㅠ I'm fine teaching teachers, but I wish I was a little more informed about what the daily situation is going to be. Luckily I'm pretty go-with-the-flow when it comes to situations like that, and I don't get too frustrated. I've learned that there are going to be a lot of times when I have no idea what is going on, but to just roll with it.
I went home for about an hour to take a nap, and walked back to meet the teachers at 5:00PM. we went to a restaurant I have been to with my host family for 갈만두국 (Kal Mandu Guk - Noodles and Dumplings in a soup). There were 9 of us; 7 first grade teachers, the kindergarten teacher, and me. 4 of us got 칼만두국 and the other 4 got 떡만두국. The one that paid for all of us just shared a bowl with another teacher. She paid for us, because she got a 99% on her science training test. When we went bowling, one of the first grade teachers headed home, because she is pregnant. The two teams consisted of Team 칼만두 and Team 떡만두. We were named after the foods we ate for dinner!^^ Before leaving the school, I informed the teachers that I am quite horrible at bowling and rarely get above about 40. I was being slightly sarcastic, but I am sincerely not good! One of the other teachers told me that she is bad too.
I really like the first grade teachers; they are so much fun to hang out with. They're not anywhere near my age, but they are very laid back and hilarious! We kept chanting "칼만두, 칼만두, 칼만두!" That was my team! The first game, I got 111!!! That is the best I have EVER bowled in my ENTIRE life! One of the teachers that I joke around a lot with kept calling me a liar. The second game, I got 102! I was utterly shocked. We headed back to the school to drop off the other teachers. 1-5 teacher took me home. I told her that I'm not a liar, and that I think that the reason my score was awesome because of Korean bowling lanes!^^
When I got home, I hung out with my host family for a bit. My host sister was cooking cheese in the microwave. My grandma used to cook cheese for my sister and I. She'd put it in a bowl and stick it in a toaster oven. So, when I was younger, I would do the same except microwave it. The problem was that it would always stick to the bowl, and my mom would get mad at me.^^ My host sister devised a way to keep it from sticking; she just sticks it to its original wrapper and sticks it in the microwave like that. I was incredibly impressed and super excited that my host sister and I have something random like that in common.
Update: My computer is pretty much sucking at life currently. I downloaded AVG to delete and isolate the un-deletable viruses, but I still have pop-ups.ㅠㅠ The IT guys at school are going to take a look at it to see what else needs to be done.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
성애원 (Seongeweon) - Tuesday Oct. 16, 2007
Teaching went well today. The kids seem to really enjoy learning sign language. I need to figure out how to incorporate it into the rest of the semester.
After school, I had tutoring. I was so exhausted that I took a nap before 희 (my co-teacher Hee) came to get me for the orphanage, 성애원 (Seongeweon). I have been wanting to volunteer at an orphanage for a long time, and we finally got it set up. I was worried that all I would be allowed to do is teach English. Instead, it is okay if I just hang out with the children. I will teach them English, but not in any formal manner. I will start not this next Monday, but the Monday afterward. Since I have a conference this weekend, I don't know what time I'll be back on Monday. I got to visit the children. It's a really nice place, and much fewer children than I expected. I will visit from 3:30PM-5:00PM every Monday. I'm really excited!! The children are quite adorable, and the place seems very comfy!^^
After visiting the orphanage, 희 and I went out to eat together. We went to a really cute, older restaurant. We ate 만두국 (Manduguk - Dumpling Soup) and a Korean pancake-type food. She and I had a really good conversation; we talked about relationships, school, the future, traveling, etc. I'm really glad I got the chance to spend time with her. She is pregnant and due in early May. I LOVE BABIES!! Since she is transferring schools in March, I told her that she has to make sure to come visit me, and I will do the same.
I was watching tv online tonight, and my computer started doing some CRAZY stuff! Basically a virus decided to travel right on into my computer system. I talked to a few friends at home, and they had me download some stuff to try to get rid of it. We'll see if it works!
After school, I had tutoring. I was so exhausted that I took a nap before 희 (my co-teacher Hee) came to get me for the orphanage, 성애원 (Seongeweon). I have been wanting to volunteer at an orphanage for a long time, and we finally got it set up. I was worried that all I would be allowed to do is teach English. Instead, it is okay if I just hang out with the children. I will teach them English, but not in any formal manner. I will start not this next Monday, but the Monday afterward. Since I have a conference this weekend, I don't know what time I'll be back on Monday. I got to visit the children. It's a really nice place, and much fewer children than I expected. I will visit from 3:30PM-5:00PM every Monday. I'm really excited!! The children are quite adorable, and the place seems very comfy!^^
After visiting the orphanage, 희 and I went out to eat together. We went to a really cute, older restaurant. We ate 만두국 (Manduguk - Dumpling Soup) and a Korean pancake-type food. She and I had a really good conversation; we talked about relationships, school, the future, traveling, etc. I'm really glad I got the chance to spend time with her. She is pregnant and due in early May. I LOVE BABIES!! Since she is transferring schools in March, I told her that she has to make sure to come visit me, and I will do the same.
I was watching tv online tonight, and my computer started doing some CRAZY stuff! Basically a virus decided to travel right on into my computer system. I talked to a few friends at home, and they had me download some stuff to try to get rid of it. We'll see if it works!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Puppet - Monday Oct. 15, 2007
I only taught two classes today, because Mr. Haw had his open class in the SEV (Seowonju English Village). In one of my previous posts I mentioned being a puppet for Mr. Haw's class (2-6 Second grade, Class 6). An example of what I mean is:
(During his open class with the principal watching.)
*Mr. Haw: Stacey teacher, could you come here please.
*Mr. Haw: Please pronounce these sentences.
*Me:
Person 1: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Person 2: No, thank you.
Person 1: What do you want?
Person 2: I want pizza.
*Mr. Haw: Ok, Stacey teacher, one more time. Repeat after Stacey teacher (directed at the class).
*Me:
Person 1: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Students: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Person 2: No, thank you.
Students: No, thank you.
Person 1: What do you want?
Students: What do you want?
Person 2: I want pizza.
Students: I want pizza.
*Mr. Haw: Ok, thank you Stacey teacher.
It's pretty exciting, isn't it? This is why I'm glad that this only happens for one of my 14 classes.^^
I'm teaching sign language this week, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm just teaching the alphabet though. I think that it will help students practice their pronunciation, plus they really seem to enjoy learning it. I tried to teach them the whole alphabet in one day...hmm...yep, impossible. Now I'm trying to get as far as I can with each class. It should be interesting trying to pick up next week with each class in a different spot. I'll make it work though. I don't know how much approval I am receiving from the teachers since I have strayed from the curriculm, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.
I had a later tutoring session today, because Julie had something to do. It was a good thing, because I didn't get out of school until after 3:00 PM. That is when my lesson is supposed to begin.
I did a lot of relaxing today also. I'm working on getting myself back to normal...well, my version of normal!^^
(During his open class with the principal watching.)
*Mr. Haw: Stacey teacher, could you come here please.
*Mr. Haw: Please pronounce these sentences.
*Me:
Person 1: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Person 2: No, thank you.
Person 1: What do you want?
Person 2: I want pizza.
*Mr. Haw: Ok, Stacey teacher, one more time. Repeat after Stacey teacher (directed at the class).
*Me:
Person 1: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Students: Do you want Bulgogi for lunch?
Person 2: No, thank you.
Students: No, thank you.
Person 1: What do you want?
Students: What do you want?
Person 2: I want pizza.
Students: I want pizza.
*Mr. Haw: Ok, thank you Stacey teacher.
It's pretty exciting, isn't it? This is why I'm glad that this only happens for one of my 14 classes.^^
I'm teaching sign language this week, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm just teaching the alphabet though. I think that it will help students practice their pronunciation, plus they really seem to enjoy learning it. I tried to teach them the whole alphabet in one day...hmm...yep, impossible. Now I'm trying to get as far as I can with each class. It should be interesting trying to pick up next week with each class in a different spot. I'll make it work though. I don't know how much approval I am receiving from the teachers since I have strayed from the curriculm, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.
I had a later tutoring session today, because Julie had something to do. It was a good thing, because I didn't get out of school until after 3:00 PM. That is when my lesson is supposed to begin.
I did a lot of relaxing today also. I'm working on getting myself back to normal...well, my version of normal!^^
Saturday, October 13, 2007
R and R - Sunday Oct. 14, 2007
My host brother is volunteering at the science festival today, and my host sis, host mom, and host dad were supposed to go to Suon for a few hours. My host dad had a meeting with a friend. I decided not to go, because I am in some serious need of rest and "me" time. It's interesting, because I have never really desired alone time. I remember a time at college when I couldn't spen 30 minutes by myself, because I would get too bored.
Anyway, I woke up thinking nobody would be home. Turns out that my host sister didn't go with her mom and dad today. She ended up going to the science festival with some friends for about 2 hours, so I had a little time to myself. I love my host sister...I do, but I have issues with whining; she does a lot of it. I figure she's like a real sister; sometimes she annoys me, and sometimes I can't get enough of her.
I've just been hanging out watching Prison Break all day. It's been quite nice. I actually got caught up with all of the episodes, but I am not incredibly stoked at where the series appears to be going. Let's just say I don't agree with some of the character cuts! >_<
I did get out of the apt. for a bit. I went out to eat with my host family. We met up with a friend of my host father's and his family. This guy and my host father are in a fish club together. When I first heard that, I thought that they like to fish. No no, they like fish and aquariums. That is what their meetings are about. My host father was going to get rid of an aquarium he has in his 한야국 (Hanyakuk - Oriental Pharmacy), because it crowds the small store. My host mother informed me that he didn't sell it, because his fish group was afraid that it would hurt the dynamic of the group. It's all a little bit odd. Not only did he not get rid of that aquarium, he bought a second one for his office.
Anyway, I woke up thinking nobody would be home. Turns out that my host sister didn't go with her mom and dad today. She ended up going to the science festival with some friends for about 2 hours, so I had a little time to myself. I love my host sister...I do, but I have issues with whining; she does a lot of it. I figure she's like a real sister; sometimes she annoys me, and sometimes I can't get enough of her.
I've just been hanging out watching Prison Break all day. It's been quite nice. I actually got caught up with all of the episodes, but I am not incredibly stoked at where the series appears to be going. Let's just say I don't agree with some of the character cuts! >_<
I did get out of the apt. for a bit. I went out to eat with my host family. We met up with a friend of my host father's and his family. This guy and my host father are in a fish club together. When I first heard that, I thought that they like to fish. No no, they like fish and aquariums. That is what their meetings are about. My host father was going to get rid of an aquarium he has in his 한야국 (Hanyakuk - Oriental Pharmacy), because it crowds the small store. My host mother informed me that he didn't sell it, because his fish group was afraid that it would hurt the dynamic of the group. It's all a little bit odd. Not only did he not get rid of that aquarium, he bought a second one for his office.
Cranky Saturday - Saturday Oct. 13, 2007
Whoa...I had a cranky day. I woke up around 11:00 AM, because I have been exhausted lately. After lunch, my host mother, host sister, and I went to the science festival together. It is a festival in Wonju this weekend that my host brother is volunteering at. I think partially because I have been so tired and partially because I am not a big fan of crowds, I could tell I was getting really cranky at the festival today. It was still quite interesting.
My host mother and I made wooden whistles; literally, we carved wooden whistles. The man in charge helped quite a bit though. Mine worked really well before the final part was glued in, but now it doesn't work nearly as well as it did originally. It was still fun!
My host mother and I made wooden whistles; literally, we carved wooden whistles. The man in charge helped quite a bit though. Mine worked really well before the final part was glued in, but now it doesn't work nearly as well as it did originally. It was still fun!
This is a picture of the little pieces of wood that we used to make our whistles.
This is a picture of my whistle after it was finished.^^
We watched a "magic" show put on by a middle school teacher.
I paid more attention to the cute little baby in front of me than to the magic show! He kept looking right at me, so I took his picture!^^
This is hard to explain, but there was a guy with a container that was below freezing at one of the booths. So, he would dip food rice cakes into it and give them to people. This is a picture of my host mom with one of those rice cakes.
My host sis and I made bouncy balls too. She made four, and I only made three. It was the booth that my host bro was working. At one of the booths, they were filling balloons with helium to give to people, so people could make their voices high and squeaky. Last time I checked, it is not a good thing to inhale helium. Hmm...could be wrong, but I'm pretty darn sure. My host sis and I did it anyway of course! ;) She thought it was hilarious. I spent about an hour alone with her, because my host mom had to go to the 한야국 (hanyakuk - oriental pharmacy) for a bit. After about 4 1/2 hours at the festival, we finally headed home. I was pretty ready to get home.
I attempted to watch an episode of Prison Break, but for some reason the episodes are uploading REALLY slowly. We ate dinner, jeojungmyeong (I have no idea how to spell it in either language). It's like udon noodles with a black sauce on them. It's yummy, but I had to pick out the bits of pork. After that, I slept for about 3 hours. When I woke up, my host mom made 죽 (jook - rice porridge) for us. I love it, especially with 김 (keem - dried seaweed) in it!!
I'm hoping to get enough rest this weekend so my crankiness goes away!^^ Oh, and I hope to catch up to the current episodes of Prison Break!!
I attempted to watch an episode of Prison Break, but for some reason the episodes are uploading REALLY slowly. We ate dinner, jeojungmyeong (I have no idea how to spell it in either language). It's like udon noodles with a black sauce on them. It's yummy, but I had to pick out the bits of pork. After that, I slept for about 3 hours. When I woke up, my host mom made 죽 (jook - rice porridge) for us. I love it, especially with 김 (keem - dried seaweed) in it!!
I'm hoping to get enough rest this weekend so my crankiness goes away!^^ Oh, and I hope to catch up to the current episodes of Prison Break!!
Before I'm 30 - Friday Oct. 12, 2007
I really like Fridays! I only teach one class, and I play an English puppet for the one other class. I'm quite lucky in the fact that I am a puppet for only one of my 14 classes. Some ETA's are puppets for all of their classes. "Puppet" refers to when a native English speaker stands up to pronounce certain words and phrases on demand while the homeroom teacher does the rest of the teaching.
After lunch, I went to the first grade hall. I helped a first grade teacher with her open class. An open class is a class that is open to the principal, vice principals, and other teachers. Usually only the higher ups, the two English teachers, and the other first grade teachers come. I played a puppet, but that's okay. She had told me a long time ago that she needed my help, and I was more than happy to help. She is extremely nice. Her students were really cute during the class, but she ended up being disappointed with how the class went. She is one of the only teachers I have seen not practice like hell for their open class; she wanted it to be naturaly which I respect a lot. When the kids are trained how to act, it seems entirely unnatural; it is difficult to gauge effectiveness.
My host mom picked my host sis and I up after school. I headed home for tutoring. Julie and I spent about two and a half hours together; some of the time we spent on studying and the rest of the time just talking. She said that she saw a guy in downtown Wonju holding up a "Free Hugs" sign. I explained the background story to her, because she had never heard it before. I also showed her the YouTube videos; the original and the one from Korea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
She was very touched by the concept behind Free Hugs, as was I when I first heard about it. During orientation in Chuncheon, I found a Free Hugs shirt and my friends convinced me to buy it. They know how much the project means to me. Julie and I talked about how uncommon hugging is in Korea. That is something that has been truly hard on me. I knew that it would be coming into the Fulbright program and discussed it a little bit with my friends before coming. The lack of physical contact is something that I am not used to; I hug ALL of my friends in the states. Now, I have come to a country that looks down on that kind of phyiscal affection between males and females. Men will hold their male friends' hands and women will hold their female friends' hands, which would be looked strangely upon in the states, but rarely I see hugging. It has all been quite an adjustment. I'm lucky to have found Julie; she is quite open minded and I feel comfortable talking to her about most things.
I ate dinner with my family, and then my host mom drove me to the Bean Club to meet the Wonju English Club (WEC). There were very few people at the beginning of the meeting, but slowly more and more people started showing up. There was another foreigner there tonight; she is from Poland. Her name is Kata and she's a sculptor here working with fiberglass. She will only be here 1 more month. I wasn't in her group for the discussion. I was in a group with Ju, Julie, Kevin, and one other girl that I can't remember the ID of. Anyway, the discussion for today was 30 things we want to do before we are 30. Most people only came up with only 10, but also most of them are going to be 30 in two to four years. We only got through about 3 each, because we spent so much time talking about each one. The most common included: traveling and getting married/finding a boyfriend or girlfriend.
We headed to a bar after the meeting to drink and talk. Here are a few pics of the people I hang out with on Fridays!^^
From left to right: I don't remember the guy's ID on the far left, Charlie, Mintoon, and Ju.
From left to right: Sarah, Aium, Jay, Sk8er Boi, and I don't know the guy on the right.
I don't know what they were doing, but I love this pic!
I don't remember the girl's name on the left, but the guy's name is Chris. He is hilarious! I really like this pic too!
Julie and me!
Only one boy paying attention: Chris!
From left to right: Mintoon, Kingscandle, and Chris!! Chris always has that same look on his face!^^
I got to catch up with Hyeon Ju (the woman from the Hanji Festival) and talk to a few people that I haven't really had a chance to talk to. There is one guy named Chan who is the leader of the club who is HILARIOUS! He is probably late 30's, married, and he has a 5 year old son. I hadn't talked to him much, but I really like him. He decided to quiz me since I've been learning Korea; he would give me a word in English and I was supposed to give him the word in Korean. Well, he gave me the words beer, rice, and something else. Because I knew all three, he said that I was a genious at Korean! LOL! My Korean really has improved since I started lessons. It's exciting to be able to understand what is being said during a conversation.
We all headed out around 1:00 AM. I was so exhausted that I had to go home. I have been on the go without a break for a few weeks now; it's time for a break. After this weekend, I won't have another chance to rest for another three weeks at least.
Peace out.
After lunch, I went to the first grade hall. I helped a first grade teacher with her open class. An open class is a class that is open to the principal, vice principals, and other teachers. Usually only the higher ups, the two English teachers, and the other first grade teachers come. I played a puppet, but that's okay. She had told me a long time ago that she needed my help, and I was more than happy to help. She is extremely nice. Her students were really cute during the class, but she ended up being disappointed with how the class went. She is one of the only teachers I have seen not practice like hell for their open class; she wanted it to be naturaly which I respect a lot. When the kids are trained how to act, it seems entirely unnatural; it is difficult to gauge effectiveness.
My host mom picked my host sis and I up after school. I headed home for tutoring. Julie and I spent about two and a half hours together; some of the time we spent on studying and the rest of the time just talking. She said that she saw a guy in downtown Wonju holding up a "Free Hugs" sign. I explained the background story to her, because she had never heard it before. I also showed her the YouTube videos; the original and the one from Korea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
She was very touched by the concept behind Free Hugs, as was I when I first heard about it. During orientation in Chuncheon, I found a Free Hugs shirt and my friends convinced me to buy it. They know how much the project means to me. Julie and I talked about how uncommon hugging is in Korea. That is something that has been truly hard on me. I knew that it would be coming into the Fulbright program and discussed it a little bit with my friends before coming. The lack of physical contact is something that I am not used to; I hug ALL of my friends in the states. Now, I have come to a country that looks down on that kind of phyiscal affection between males and females. Men will hold their male friends' hands and women will hold their female friends' hands, which would be looked strangely upon in the states, but rarely I see hugging. It has all been quite an adjustment. I'm lucky to have found Julie; she is quite open minded and I feel comfortable talking to her about most things.
I ate dinner with my family, and then my host mom drove me to the Bean Club to meet the Wonju English Club (WEC). There were very few people at the beginning of the meeting, but slowly more and more people started showing up. There was another foreigner there tonight; she is from Poland. Her name is Kata and she's a sculptor here working with fiberglass. She will only be here 1 more month. I wasn't in her group for the discussion. I was in a group with Ju, Julie, Kevin, and one other girl that I can't remember the ID of. Anyway, the discussion for today was 30 things we want to do before we are 30. Most people only came up with only 10, but also most of them are going to be 30 in two to four years. We only got through about 3 each, because we spent so much time talking about each one. The most common included: traveling and getting married/finding a boyfriend or girlfriend.
We headed to a bar after the meeting to drink and talk. Here are a few pics of the people I hang out with on Fridays!^^
From left to right: I don't remember the guy's ID on the far left, Charlie, Mintoon, and Ju.
From left to right: Sarah, Aium, Jay, Sk8er Boi, and I don't know the guy on the right.
I don't know what they were doing, but I love this pic!
I don't remember the girl's name on the left, but the guy's name is Chris. He is hilarious! I really like this pic too!
Julie and me!
Only one boy paying attention: Chris!
From left to right: Mintoon, Kingscandle, and Chris!! Chris always has that same look on his face!^^
I got to catch up with Hyeon Ju (the woman from the Hanji Festival) and talk to a few people that I haven't really had a chance to talk to. There is one guy named Chan who is the leader of the club who is HILARIOUS! He is probably late 30's, married, and he has a 5 year old son. I hadn't talked to him much, but I really like him. He decided to quiz me since I've been learning Korea; he would give me a word in English and I was supposed to give him the word in Korean. Well, he gave me the words beer, rice, and something else. Because I knew all three, he said that I was a genious at Korean! LOL! My Korean really has improved since I started lessons. It's exciting to be able to understand what is being said during a conversation.
We all headed out around 1:00 AM. I was so exhausted that I had to go home. I have been on the go without a break for a few weeks now; it's time for a break. After this weekend, I won't have another chance to rest for another three weeks at least.
Peace out.
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