I've Achieved Yellow Belt Status!!!--Thursday, August 3 and Friday, August 4

The highlight of Thursday was definitely my TKD yellow belt test. I was pretty confident the Grand Master was going to take pity on us and pass us all, but I was still nervous about kicking and punching in front of the whole class. It wasn't so bad, though...only 5 minutes of humiliation with 6 others, and then I received my yellow belt. Yessssssss.

To the right is a picture of a few of us waiting for a ride to the Grand Master's gym on Wednesday evening. As you can see, we're a rough-n-tough bunch! I really have been enjoying it. I always wanted to learn to defend myself, and now I'll at least be able to kick someone in the face!

Bianca and I also watched an excellent documentary on Thursday night about the North Korea Mass Games. I had never heard of the games before, but they evidently occur at every major state event--the President's birthday, Independence Day, etc. They are pretty intense days-long spectacles of mass coordinated gymnastics and looked really neat. According to the documentary, they reflect the group mindset of communism practiced in the country, where the accomplishments and desires of the individual are subordinate to those of the group. It followed the story of 2 preteen girls who competed in them. I think it gave a pretty fair depiction of their lives and their participation in the games.

On Friday, I went out to dinner with my friend Jai to celebrate her birthday. We had dakalbi, a type of barbequed chicken that is Chuncheon's specialty. They cook it on a skillet/grill in the middle of the table. I've been told it's quite tasty. Bianca and I had our own table with fried rice, which was delish.

We later went out to this deserted rooftop bar. It was a really pretty place that fit all of us and had music and drinking PLUS norebang (karaoke)! I tried norebang for the first time, thinking I would like it considering that I love to sing and it had been hyped up by everyone else, but I actually detested it. They were mutilating my favorite songs! I had to leave the massacre after a while, unfortunately. Other than that, it was a great birthday night!

We're Down to 63!!--Wednesday, August 2

The big news for today is that we are losing an ETA. Shruti decided to go home this week because her mother is getting major surgery and is expected to have a long recovery period, so she's going to take care of her. I didn't know her very well, but it's sad that we are losing a member of our Fulbright family. The Fulbright Korea office sprung for patpingsu for all tonight, which was a really nice farewell gesture. I cannot even imagine going home now after mentally preparing myself for a year abroad. How tough!

In other news, I have my yellow belt test for TKD tomorrow night. If the Grand Master has any discriminating taste, I will not pass, but I have the feeling he's pretty nice. I am considering continuing TKD at my placement. I'm not good at all because I seriously lack aggression, but I do enjoy it. It's an intense workout! The one big drawback is that I will most likely be in a class with eight-year-olds, and they will probably also be better than me. It will be embarassing. So we'll see what happens there.

Here are the promised pictures I mentioned earlier. The upper one shows the dorm at Kangwon University that I have been living in for the past 3.5 weeks with 63 ETAs, 4 orientation coordinators, 2 RAs, and 6 Korean teachers. Yes, our teachers even live here, but on a separate floor. It makes for an awkward situation when you find yourself brushing your teeth with them.

The lower one shows a nighttime view of the back gate area. It's a hoppin' place...sort of. I've been out a couple times, to clubs and bars, but it's nothing remarkable. All the lights and sights are fun, though. And last weekend when we were out, we saw quite a few drunken spectacles that were highly amusing. Otherwise, it's pretty much a dirty, dingy place.

A Day of Frustration!--Tuesday, August 1

Today was a long, frustrating day for me. To begin with, accelerated Korean class is not much fun at all because there are often days where we are supposed to learn 50+ new words, plus some grammar, and it's just not possible! I'm feeling very language-impaired at the moment. Plus, I learned that our final exam next week is FOUR HOURS!! Sometimes I feel very motivated and excited about learning Korean, but this has just been one of those days when it didn't click for me. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...

I went to a talk today given by one of our orientation coordinators about domestic and international travel. There was a lot of really good information about where to stay, how to travel, and what to do. It makes me very excited to travel over my winter break!!! I am planning to devour all of Southeast Asia, if possible. I feel that this is a great opportunity to travel in areas I've always wanted to see but are too far away from the United States to really be feasible options. Asia is...well, accessible here. I think it will be a lot of fun, and to top it off, maybe I'll even get a tan! I'm also excited about domestic travel during the weekends and such. With so many acquaintances scattered across such a small country (I learned today that South Korea is approximately the size of Indiana), I should be able to see and do just about everything the country has to offer during the course of the coming year. I am going to do my best to resist my usual homebody urges and make sure I do get around this year.

I realized just now that I haven't posted many pictures of where I am staying, so included here is one (because the blog site is being irritable and won't let me post more). This picture shows the "back gate" of Kangwon University, where we go for most of our fun. All of the restaurants within walking distance are back here to the left, and the clubs and bars are ahead into this area of almost alleys. It's very colorful, but somewhat sketchy. I will include pictures of it later.

Final Day of Camp Fulbright Teaching!--Monday, July 31

Today I taught my second and final lesson for Camp Fulbright. It went a lot better than my lesson last week, so I was very pleased to go out on a good note. This time, I worked with low advanced kids who were surprisingly good at English and taught them how to identify and use similes, metaphors, and personification. Pretty fun, I know. I actually like that kind of stuff, though. They came up with some great material when I had them describe nature pictures I passed out. "Cotton candy clouds," "trees dancing in the wind," "leaves of gold and brown, like a bruised banana," and "a small bare mountain with only a few tree stumps, like a bald man" were a few of my favs. I was really impressed with their ability to understand my lesson and apply it that well. Too bad I'm going to be teaching kids who can maybe say hello in English for the next year!

I was actually thinking today that it's a good thing I've always been an independent person, because I am going to have a LOT of alone time while I'm here. I doubt I'll be able to communicate well with anyone either in my homestay or my school and I'm not necessarily close to any other ETAs, so I'm going to have to entertain myself, silently. It sounds nice now, but I wonder if I will go crazy in a while. Good thing I practiced long stretches of solitude last year at Pomona--it won't be so foreign!

Today I also had a really rough TKD practice. I had been disappointed in the first week because it wasn't as physically demanding as I had wanted, but the pace is definitely picking up. We did at least 500 kicks today!! I'll be sore in the morning, I am sure.

Otherwise, things are mostly the same in Chuncheon--cloudy, spicy, and fishy!

Weekend Chillaxin'-Sunday, July 30

Today I spent most of the day doing...nothing. I was recovering from last night's adventures, during which I consumed a little too much Hite (a brand of beer that comes in plastic liter bottles). Bianca (my roomie) and I sat outside of a convenience store and talked and drank beer for a while until we saw other people from our group. We are getting along so well together! I am really glad she is my roommate. I don't think I could have picked a better one. We all then went to Johnny's, an American-style bar, together. Here are some pictures of the group:

It was really fun and I had a good time, but I did not feel well this morning. I had made plans to go on a hike to some waterfalls nearby, but I decided to sleep instead.

Bianca and I went out for a leisurely mid-afternoon lunch and later got some more kiwi papingsu. It is soooo delicious...my new favorite dessert. Koreans tend to eat quickly and without speaking as a general rule, which I find rather odd and still can't get used to. At each of our meals, in contrast, Bianca and I lingered for a long time. It was great to talk to her and procrastinate my studies.

I have been studying all night for my weekly Korean quiz tomorrow morning. I am not too worried about it, though. I also have to teach low advanced campers in the afternoon, and I'm nervous about my lesson. At least I'll be done with Camp Fulbright stuff after tomorrow!

Chillin' around Chuncheon--Friday, July 28 and Saturday, July 29

It's really hard to believe that I've already been here for 3 weeks. In some ways, the time has really flown by. I feel that I've learned a LOT of Korean in this short amount of time. But on the other hand, other things have been slower to come. I haven't really made too many friends here yet and I still feel so weird and not at all myself. It's like I'm a college freshman again...or at least, that's the atmosphere. I am definitely looking forward to moving to my homestay and getting to know "real" Korea!

Last night I had my first Chinese food ever (excluding Frary's Sunday night special, which I feel doesn't count because I seriously doubt Mexicans can make authentic Chinese). It was good food, but an interesting experience because we had trouble deciphering the menu. I knew what I wanted, fortunately (this noodle dish with black bean sauce--see right), because it's hard to find vegetarian options and guessing probably would have been disasterous! I went with my friend Jai, who speaks Chinese. But nothing on the menu was in Chinese! She ended up with squid, which is actually quite common in dishes here.

Later, we went to the jujubang (public bathhouse) again, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There's nothing like soaking in nonchlorinated, refreshing water for several hours to rejuvinate you, in my opinion. My favorite are the saunas, but they were really really hot this time, so I didn't go into them often. The one with the salt exfoliant (which is my fav) was 85C!!! I could hardly manage to spend 5 minutes in there.

Today I spent the morning with Camp Fulbright campers, doing what was supposed to be "Sports Day," but was actually more like forced fun. It was okay, I guess, but I felt bad for the campers, being forced to do things all the time. Speaking constantly in another language is tough enough--they should get a lot more down time than they do!

I went shopping this afternoon. I was under the impression that I wouldn't need many clothes during my stay here, but I was wrong. I am so sick of wearing my 5 outfits that I had to get some more. Not to mention that Koreans are much more fashionable than I anticipated, and I was feeling frumpy. Shopping was pretty fun, but it definitely lightened my wallet more than I would have liked!

Tonight I'm going to explore the Chuncheon "night life" a bit. There's nothing too wild around here, but enough to entertain me for now.

Placements and Teaching--Wednesday, July 26 and Thursday, July 27

Yesterday (Wednesday), we finally received our placement decisions. I now know where I will be living for the next year! The Fulbright staff made it into a big, suspenseful ceremony, but I wasn't as nervous as most people because as an elementary ETA, I knew there were a limited number of schools where I could be placed, and I had a pretty good idea where I would be. We all filled out placement forms last week to inform them of where we would like to be, and most of my wishes were fulfilled. I will be in a town called Buyeo in southern Chungcheonnam-do province, which is on the central west coast. (See http://www.buyeo.go.kr/new_buyeo/datas/sall.htm) The town is rural by Korean standards, with about 100,000 people, and I think that it's largely a farming community, though I'm not sure. I decided I would really like to live on a farm here, because I think it would be really interesting and I figured maybe I'd get some fresh vegetables that way. I am hoping this will work out. In addition to being a farm town, Buyeo is a very historical place--it was the capital of the penninsula 1000 years ago and has a lot of temples and other historical sites. It's not too far from the coast, either. I am pretty pleased with my placement, and to top it off, the school I will be working at seems like it will be really nice, too. I really don't know much about it yet, but so far, it looks like I won't have too many students and I may even end up teaching children younger than 4th grade, which is what I really wanted. I have one class of 25 fourth graders, 2 classes of 39 fifth graders in total, and one class of 33 sixth graders. I am really excited to know where I will be heading, but now I just want to get there. Unfortunately, I still have 3 weeks of orientation to get through...

Last night we had a food adventure, starting with kiwi papingsu and ending with McDonalds. We managed to get downtown with our limited Korean and find a McDonalds, because all of us were craving french fries. I have never enjoyed McDonalds food so much. It's funny the things you miss when you're away--I would never eat McDonalds at home!

Today I taught for the first time at Camp Fulbright. I team-taught with another elementary ETA. It was a very strange experience for a number of reasons. First, it has been a while since I taught a non-native speaker, and in that case (in South Africa), the students were close to my age and we focused on topics other than English. Second, the classroom dynamics were sooooo different. There were only seven kids and they were the quietest children I have ever come across. I had heard that Korean students are somewhat serious and that the classrooms would be different, but I hadn't expected such a marked contrast. However, I am sure that not all students will be this quiet, and that once I get to know them a bit, they will warm up to me. It was a nerve-wracking experience for sure, though, and I'm not too anxious to repeat it on Monday with my low advanced class.

It's raining here AGAIN, which is ruining my weekend hiking plans. I heard today that the rains are unusually severe this year, and I am hoping that means they will stop soon. I cannot even describe how wet it is here. Basically, going outside for one minute drenches you through. I am so jealous of your hot temperatures back in the States...

More Korean Class/Beginning of Camp Fulbright!--Tuesday, July 25

Today I had more Korean class, as usual, during which I learned one form of the word "and," the word "not" and its correct usage, and how to ask when someone's birthday is. Exciting stuff.

Camp Fulbright also began today. It is a two week English language camp for Koreans in 4-10 grades held here on Kangwon's campus that basically gives us ETAs a chance to gain some actual teaching experience and receive some feedback before we leave orientation. We each have to teach 2 classes (one each week) and lead a fun activity. I am teaching emotions to elementary students this Thursday and descriptive writing to a low advanced class on Monday. I am actually pretty nervous. Even though I have quite a bit of experience with kids, I've never been completely responsible for teaching something, and now I have the language barrier, too! Why did I decide to do this for a year?!? I think it will probably go fine, though. These are the kids who are actually interested in learning English, so they should be attentive, at least. We'll see how it goes later this week.

Today I led my fun activity in the afternoon. We played some four square and it was really fun. I think the adults in the group had a lot more fun than the kids, but no one cried, so I was happy with the way it turned out.

I also went out for papingsu, a famous Korean dessert, this evening. I had it a couple times before, but I think I must be getting my sense of taste back finally after being sick, because it was a lot more flavorful than I remembered. It's actually a bizarre mixture of things--ice cream, a lot of shaved ice, a variety of fruits, red beans, and a special sauce--which are then mixed together and shared in a huge bowl. It's another reflection of the group mentality I've observed here--no one eats individual desserts, but they share them and order according to group size. These dessert places are also a manifestation of the apparent Korean obsession with all things cute. They are typically adorned with flowers and pastels and have swings instead of chairs. It's almost too much.

Tomorrow we finally hear about our placements. There really shouldn't be many surprises for me, since there are only 5 elementary ETAs and 5 schools to choose from, but I am definitely looking forward to at least knowing exactly where I will spend the next year so I can become better acquainted with it.

Korean Class/Cultural Adjustment--Monday, July 24

Today I had a big quiz on Korean grammar. It was not very much fun, but I think I did okay. We have a quiz every Monday, which is not conducive to relaxing Sunday nights, but I suppose it could be worse. These four hour classes are really getting to me, though. I can handle three hours pretty well, but the fourth hour kills me. I usually end up not only not learning anything during that time, but I also forget everything else I learned that day and become very frustrated. Korean is definitely NOT an easy language to learn. I am discovering how easy I had it with Spanish after all, though I did not realize it at the time. I am even thinking I should go back and try to pick up my Spanish again after this year...I actually did know a lot more than I thought I did. Maybe Peace Corps?

This afternoon we talked for a long time about culture shock and our hopes and fears and goals for our time in Korea. I suppose I have been feeling some intense culture shock, faced with all these drastic physical differences, but I think I am handling it okay. I'm definitely not homesick (sorry, Mom!) and so far I am managing all right, even without the ability to communicate with many people. There are so many fundamental differences between Korean and American cultures, however, that I am sure I will run up against some problems, if not here than definitely at my school or in my homestay. The way Koreans interact with one another and go about their lives is very different from my core values and beliefs. There is a definite group mentality here that is very foreign to most Americans, as we are accustomed to individualism and making our own way. The power dynamics are markedly different as well, with hierarchies that are more rigid and permeate even to family relationships (for example, there is a different word for older brother). There is also a definite tendency to avoid confrontation, which I have not witnessed much because I am currently living in a Fulbright bubble, but I am sure it exists. I went to the hospital with one of our RAs the other day, for example, and there was some kind of trouble in getting a doctor to see me that required some phone calls and rapid Korean conversation, but the RA refused to tell me what was going on and simply told me, "Don't worry. Be happy." It runs so contrary to my own tendency toward bare honesty, but I can see the value in avoiding confrontation, as long as everyone in that particular culture is able to see what the truth is regardless of what is said. It is much more difficult for me because I am not able to read their body language well at all. At any rate, I am not too terribly worried about making a culturally insensitive mistake. I am sure I will learn quickly enough.

This evening I had TKD (taekwondo, for those of you not in the know), and it was okay. Our regular instructor is in Vietnam right now judging a competition, so now we have a slavedriver in his place. It was actually really frustrating tonight because he was asking us to do impossible things like clapping our hands between pushups and doing nimble jumps while squatting. I personally think he just found it amusing. We did do some regular kicks and punches, though. I am looking forward to the day when I can throw a mean punch! Next week we'll have our yellow belt test.

Songnisan National Park--Sunday, July 23

On Sunday, we returned home to good old Chuncheon after a free morning and another magnificent lunch. Unfortunately, we vegetarians were segregated from the rest of the bunch for this meal, because the main dish was beef, but otherwise it was basically the same as our lunch on Friday and was utterly fabulous. I forgot to mention that my friend Jill and I acquired a couple of goofy straw hats and modeled one type on the bus ride home (see below).We returned home by dinner, which was as disappointing as always (what I wouldn't give for Pomona-quality dining halls!!!) and then I had to study, study, study for my Monday morning Korean quiz. Some friends and I went to a coffee shop we have been frequenting lately to study our Korean. I have been most surprised by the coffee culture here. Everyone seems to drink it! There are coffee vending machines all over campus that serve hot cups of coffee and even espresso shots (I think...I don't drink coffee). It's somewhat bizarre.