Wow, what a whirlwind these past few days have been! I write now from my homestay in Hongsan, where I just arrived one hour ago. I can hardly believe I am here and will be calling this place home for the next year. It is really nice and basically exactly what I asked for. I am staying with a family with three kids—a fourteen-year-old girl, a ten-year-old girl, and an eight-year-old boy. The younger two will be my students, but the oldest girl is in middle school. We live on a farm of some sort, which my host father runs while my host mother takes care of the home. I am not sure what the farm is yet, because I arrived when it was already dark, but I know there are a ton of cows out front. My co-teacher informs me that they are “cute” cows, so I’m anxious to see that. I’m pretty sure I’ve never set eyes on a “cute” cow in my life. My host parents are both 43. So basically, I have as close of a replacement family as I could ask for. They have made it clear that I am to consider myself part of the family and I will act as an older sister to the children. That is perfectly okay with me!! We are still very shy with each other and the language barrier is proving to be difficult to overcome, but I’m sure we will grow to understand each other better.
Back to the beginning...this was just an amazing end to Orientation. The trip to Seoul was fantastic and even better than the one I took a couple weeks ago! We arrived on Tuesday morning, in time to unpack at Yonsei University. It is supposedly the Princeton of Korea and was sooooooo nice. The campus was huge, with trees and bushes everywhere, and made Kangwon look like a dump. The dorm was amazing, too...the furniture was new and matched and we had 24/7 air conditioning!! I wish we’d been able to stay there throughout Orientation for the campus alone, not to mention what Seoul can offer. It would be easier for everyone if we stayed in Seoul, since the Fulbright Office and our Korean teachers are there, so it must be much too expensive for the program to afford. I suppose they could have cut back on ETAs, but I think they focus on bringing more ETAS to instead of pampering us, which is a very understandable attitude. I don’t think I would be here if they had decided to cut back, anyway, so who am I to complain?
We were given a few hours to explore and have lunch before a contract overview meeting at the Fulbright office. I went with a big group of friends to Sincheon, the area of Seoul right in front of the university where the students hang out. We found a Smoothie King, of all things, which was a bit more expensive than in the States but really hit the spot on such a hot day. We finally had lunch at a random Korean restaurant we wandered into and it was really delicious. Thank goodness for my friends in intermediate Korean—they know how to take care of vegetarians! I guess we had a Japanese-style dish, but it was Korean enough for me. It was another meal in which the food was cooked right in front of us, but this time in boiling water instead of being fried. It was soo delicious, and I’m sure it was actually good for me, too!
The Fulbright meeting was a bore, really. Dr. Larson was there again to give another ridiculous speech. He also echoed everything Mrs. Shim said. I guess he felt we couldn’t understand her English or something. I think even she was annoyed, and I wonder again why he is the face of Fulbright Korea. Oh, well...it’s none of my business, and at least he’s nice enough. Afterwards, I raided the lending library and picked up another couple of books. I am afraid I won’t have enough reading material here, since I live in such a small town and only work 20 hours per week. Hopefully I will be able to trade around with other ETAs, too. Then, Jai, Bianca, and I went to a used bookstore called What the Book? in Incheon. I guess it’s in this section of town known as Hooker Hill, but I didn’t see any suspicious activity. OC Aimee told us not to go there at night, regardless. I got another couple books there. We were supposed to meet a bunch of other friends in front of this huge bookstore called Kyobo to go out for Indian food, but I managed to get us lost instead. Jai and Bianca said it was okay, but I was mad at myself and sad I was missing out on fabulous Indian food. We ended up back in Sincheon and wandered around for a long time, looking for tasty vegetarian food, before settling for fusion food (Korean/American) at a restaurant called Omurice12. Or Omurice/2. It was hard to tell. Basically, they served omelets filled with rice and other ingredients and topped with cream sauce. It was really good, too, so I didn’t feel so bad about making us miss Indian anymore. I have a solemn promise from one of my friends who went to the Indian restaurant that she will take me back, so I will definitely do that soon.
The next day, Wednesday, we went to the DMZ. I actually didn’t like it too much. I mean, it was neat to see that area, but I hate big tours like that and I also feel that a conflict zone should not be a tourist attraction. North and South Korea are technically still at war, for goodness sake! It just felt weird to me to be there, oooing and ahing at the border between two hostile nations. I suppose it was good for us to see it and hear a little more of that history, though, because it has been very important for South Korea’s development.
After we got back, we went straight to the U.S. Ambassador’s house for a pool party. He wasn’t there, but there was plenty of American-style food—burgers, bean dip, cheese and crackers, macaroni and cheese, fruit, and so many kinds of salads. I didn’t think I missed American food that much already, but it sure tasted good! I ate so much and topped it off with so much cake I thought I might be sick. It was sort of disgusting.
Later that evening, we finally made our way to Kyobo and picked up some essentials. I bought a book on teaching English as a foreign language for children that featured a lot of games and an electronic dictionary. The dictionary was expensive, but I think it will be worth it in the long run to have it around. Unfortunately, it does not pronounce Korean words for me, so I’ll have to work on pronunciation on my own. There were models that spoke in English, but not Korean, and they were also twice as expensive.
Today, finally, was the BIG DAY. We met our co-teachers and principals and went our separate ways. I am not too sad about leaving my friends because I generally don’t get sad for goodbyes and this country is so friggin small I am sure I will see them within the month, if not sooner. We’re going to be traveling all over on our weekends off and I will definitely make plans to visit some of them or meet them somewhere. I think it will be so much fun to spend time with the ETAs I genuinely like and to exchange stories. It might actually be better this way...I will end up spending time with the people I care about and not be bothered by those who annoy me.
I think today went okay. My principal, vice-principal, and co-teacher are all significantly shorter than I am and marveled at my height. The first thing they commented on were my looks and seemed to like me a lot because I was thin and beautiful, in their eyes. It makes me a little sad that it is so superficial, but if I can make them happy so easily, I am definitely not going to complain. I think I just fit their image of what an American should look like. They think the kids will really like me, too, for the same reasons. My co-teacher is convinced I look like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and likes to tell everyone as much.
I learned a lot about the school today, even though my co-teacher doesn’t have the best English. For one thing, it is not in Buyeo at all but a small town of about 5000 twenty minutes away. That is more than fine with me. I will be teaching all nine classes of first through sixth graders twice a week and the teachers two times a week, for a total of 20 hours. I think I will be teaching in the library and will work with the teachers of each grade. It sounds like it will be confusing, but I’m sure I will get the hang of it. Eventually, I will probably teach on my own, once they are sure I am competent. My co-teacher actually has nothing to do with English and I am not sure how he got stuck with me. According to him, he teaches kids who don’t want to study. I have no idea what that means.
Tomorrow my co-teacher (whose name, by the way, is Choi Hyun Moon) will pick me up to show me around the school and help me get a phone and a bank account. I think I will even get paid tomorrow! So far, everything seems to be going okay, even though I cannot communicate that well, and I hope they will continue to like me. They all seem very eager to please. My host family even bought an air conditioner for the house just for me (I think)!