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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