In 3 days...

I have the whole week off. Apparently it's a gift for those who get the flu. I go to school this coming Friday.

I am also listening to Christmas carols. Win.

And tomorrow I'm going Christmas shopping.

And I got some more medicine because Korean people don't like it when others cough. No, seriously. That's what I understood from my host mom. "Cough...people... don't like..." So down another 7,000W. Not a bad price to pay.

da da dun...

And instead of a happy thanksgiving at the American ambassador's residence in Seoul....

I was home sick. Probably with swine flu. (Although, the results have yet to come back on the blood work).

So, the beginning of this week, I'm just anxiously awaiting my reprieve before going home for christmas... Thanksgiving dinner with the F-Crew and chit chatting with the ambassador. The week's going by smoothly. I'm waking up tired, even after 7 or 8 hours of sleep (I now take showers at night in order to avoid the cold, wet hair in the extra cold mornings, so i can now get up at 7 am instead of 645). I tell my co-teacher, but I figure it's just because teaching is taking it's toll. Especially since I wasn't getting Friday off due to a cancellation of a talent show (because of swine flu. Oh, the irony).

So on Wednesday, I start to feel a little something in my throat. No big. I'll get some extra sleep. I wake up on Thursday and feel a little lousy. By lunch time, I get this uncomfortable cold feeling in my lungs. Uh oh. Thursday night, circa the late hours that you never want to be awake in, I'm sweating, tossing and turning, dramatic chills, I know I have a ridiculous fever, and i can't fall asleep. Problem city. After too much uncomfortable, I check the time - 5 am. And desperately wait to send a text to my coteacher to tell her there's no way in hell I was going to make it to the two classes that I agreed to teach before going to seoul.

Luckily, by the time we would normally wake up, my host mom was doing her thing in the kitchen. I told her I was desperately sick. She didn't have a working thermometer, but luckily, I seem to have a pretty good guess. As soon as I make it out of my room, I feel better. My room had turned into a sort of sauna, exacerbating my awful feelings. At any rate, I still knew I was sick. My coteacher took over my classes. My host mom was willing to take me to the hospital/clinic.

My host mom wanted to feed me after the family had left. So breakfast looked like this. White rice, a given. Kimchi, also a given. Steamed spinach with some strange sauce that she served on a previous occasion and told me it was one of her favorites. Didn't like it then. Didn't look good this morning. Then, to top it off, seaweed soup. Normally, seaweed soup is great. Comforting food that's also very nutritious. However, I've decided my host mom has a really high affinity for fish. Fried fish. Weird bivavles. Things with tentacles. Little gnarly looking fish that they grind up into paste. That they put in whole for flavoring soups, etc. This seaweed soup was full of tuna. From a can tuna. So it was just a little "from the sea" for me to eat. To my rescue, she eventually noticed me barely able to eat, and asked if it was too hard. I agreed and thankfully, away went the breakfast... yikes.

So, then off to the clinic. Luckily a short car ride away. Embarrassingly, close (just the other side of my apartment complex). We were confounded by insurance, but I had my host mom raid my wallet looking for a card that might help her make sense. She ended up calling the F-right dr's card we got in orientation. I, obviously, couldn't make any sense of what she tried to say to me afterwards, but I figured it was ok. I was called into the Dr.'s. He didn't speak English so it was time for me to act out my symptoms while he judged me for not speaking Korean. It's amazing that while I clearly don't have a handle on Korean, most people just tend to keep speaking at a normal speed, with no gestures, assuming that my korean appearance outweighs my ability to speak or understand korean. Oh well.

Then a shot/blood test (?) in the butt later, (demeaning), and 10,000W later (so much for being worried about not having insurance!), we were at the pharmacy downstairs. I got a box of tamiflu for five days (one at morning, one at night), and little packages of pills again (5 in each pack, morning, lunch, dinner) all for 44,000W.

Incredible? I think so.

So I'm on the road to recovery, or should be. I'm now just bemoaning missing my seoul food weekend with friends and worrying about having to teach next week.

Today, my body and head don't ache. No chills to speak of. And I just have this annoying cough that's beleaguering me. I also have my host mom spraying dettol, an aerosol disinfectant that smells terrible every other hour all over my room, and then closing the door...

So if i don't die from the flu, maybe i'll die from dettol poisoning. But maybe the next dr's visit would include some more colorful pantomime.

are these the moments that are supposed to keep you smiling?

So it's hard not to like my LOUDEST, most OUT of control class when they say stuff like this to me...

At the end of class today, as an "exit ticket," students had to make one sentence, "I am thankful for..."

Students one-by-one said these to my face...
"I am thankful for your smile"
"I am thankful for you"
"I am thankful for your beauty"

Hard to stay mad at them.

A Korean "Hot issue" (named after a kpop song, but now used as a reference for popular news), that this class also cued me into is "Loser."

Apparently there's a featuring beautiful foreign and Korean women get together to talk about stuff. on TV. That's it. "Chitchat of the beautiful ladies" is the translated title. A girl from Hongik University got on the show and called all short guys, "Losers." This caused an uproar and had one person suing the Korean Broadcasting Station for 10,000,000 won for emotional damage.

So, of course, when I put on a Futurama episode last week, several of the classes laughed hysterically when Fry is looking for a golden bottle cap in a pop can (a la charlie and the chocolate factory looking for the golden ticket), and the bottom of the can says, "You're a loser."

This "hot issue" may even be more dramatic than I thought. I had some of the boys' in this same class honestly bemoaning that they were "losers" because they weren't tall enough. This somewhat shallow classification of all men shorter than average is even more troubling when I see how it's not only recently affected my students, but my adult, female Korean friends here.

My coteachers are looking for husbands, or at least boyfriends. They want someone handsome, with a good job (only doctor or teacher), close location, and tall. While at first glance, these seem like acceptable guidelines. But REQUIREMENTS? Would you really give up the greatest guy because he was only a doctor in residency and not a full-fledged doctor? Or a man who's perfect for you in every way, but he's an inch or two shorter than you? In reality, shouldn't each woman have her own different criteria? I mean, a tall man to a short woman, could still be average male height. How does everyone possibly have the SAME criteria? What sort of brain-washing tv show or crazy homogeneity gene is streamlining all women's criteria for men?

Maybe i'm too biased, since I seem lucky enough to have ended up with a tall, handsome, computer engineer-to-be boyfriend that also treats me right (sorry to brag). But I still wonder if the outsiders' observations of Korea being overly image-obsessed holds some truth. I know, I know. How could it get any worse than America with its scantily clad models on billboards and elementary school children dieting? Maybe I can just reflect, that like so many other aspects of comparing cultures, it's the same, but different.

compliments and funnies

I just picked up a worksheet a student was working on for another English class. There are Korean sentences and spaces for the student to fill in the blanked out English words.... Sentence 1: (student has written in the answer)
"Is this the high IQ (sperm bank)?" .......

2: "I know, and I do (yearn) for (faster downloads)"

3: "Maybe we can (have coffee sometime)"

Makes for a creepy combination....


A number of compliments today!

Girls just randomly coming up to me or passing me in the hallway and saying "ㅖ뽀", or pretty.

One student just said, "Pretty skin today."

but the BEST COMPLIMENTS that i have received in Korea thus far:
"Your mom and dad must have raised you well."
And along the same lines,
"David must be great because you two are together."
Thank you for loving me right.

And 주석 (Chuseok - the korean thanksgiving holiday) shopping is crazy. I am trying to avoid emart but i don't know if i will be able to. I made a super quick trip to 롯대 (Lotte) department store today to get a couple - scarf for host mom, socks for host dad, and sock/slippers for middle sister.

It's the thought that counts, right? anyway, the sock/slippers come in the cutest box i've seen.

Cafe Time

Cafes in Korea are on the steady rise due to a popular Korean TV drama. I believe it resembled a very tame Sex in the City, with pretty women meeting at coffee shop to discuss their problems. Koreans don't generally use cafes like libraries like college students are wont to do in the US, spreading out their life's homework, cell phone, laptop, settling down to spend the entire day steadily chugging coffee and writing an essay due the next day on James Joyce or economic policies. They are supposed to be social places to meet with friends, have a drink, and leave.

anyway, they have meticulously created some beautiful spaces for people to chill with one another in Jeonju. Like 11:19 in Chuncheon, there are two cafes with such ambiance and good drinks, you'll definitely be visiting them if you come see me.

1) Cafe Haruilgi in 시네 (downtown). Decked out like a kitschy antique store in the US, it serves a wicked plate of waffles and ice cream, makes a beautiful cafe latte, and has a nice selection of wines and beers. The first time i came here, I poured out my soul to two of my Jeonju friends. Teaching was a bit rough and I needed their council. Second time, this weekend, I went to Jenny and Julie. We shared a bottle of red and had brownies with ice cream on top.

2) Naruita in 전북대 (university area). Looks like a cross between Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters turned cafe. They have a ginormous 밭빙수 (patpingsu) and really fabulous 녹차 (green tea) smoothie/frappuccino. There are little hideaways with pillows on the ground and a little loft where people can share their drinks.

so the next time I get the urge to go and study in some cafe, and return to my american college student roots, I think I'll feel a little more comfortable in these posh, adorable little cafes. Also, they're open late, so for a chill night, they're my new favorite hang out.

A grandma's birthday surprise

Last weekend, my family notified me that we would be going to the beach to celebrate the grandfather's birthday. did I have any 역속 (appointments)? No.

So, they told me we'd be staying in a resort next to a beach I got to swim in last month. When they said resort, I prepared myself for the worst, and decided it would be a great family experience.

We ended up at 대명 (Daemyong) resort, a chain of 8 verrry nice resorts all over Korea. their spokesperson is this very pretty famous korean celebrity, Hyori. I remember these advertisements best from the Seoul subways with Hyori standing in front of a tidal wave....

The resort actually had a wave pool, water slides, swimming pool with a current, jets that massage your body along the pool's edge, differently scented hot tubs, and a playground of small slides and climbing things with a huuuge bucket at the top that filled with water that came crashing down every couple minutes. There was a sauna and spa. This was a very good decision on my part. We were actually celebrating the grandma's birthday as well.

We ended up going to the spa on my second morning there where we proceeded to get our faces painted with mud, listening to underwater music, lying down in a big vat of thoroughly crushed up heavenly smelling bark, and finally getting sound therapy with a gently massaging/vibrating bed. And of course... the sauna... grandma, aunts, host mom, all proceeded to get naked and enjoy the varying temperature pools and hot sauna. I don't even know what to say, other than, bring your own towel to sit on.

We ate really well including fresh sashimi ( I hoped to god it was fresh and from whichever water that dr guy said was safe to eat...... fresh? salt? I had no idea....) It wasn't until later that we were walking outside of the restaurants with vats of living fish, that i saw the ugly things alive and with fins.... they were the ugliest fish ever! I'm just glad I ate it before I saw them....

Then we finished up the birthday weeekend with two younger sisters that were mad at each other all the car ride home. I believe they both ended up falling asleep on me, as I took the middle seat in the back of the car to appease them... Never again. I was thankful to grow up as an only child. Thank you, mom and dad.

Some good moments from school

One boy who proclaims his love every class, "I love you."

My students' reactions to Happy Feet - "Kiyowoah" - cute... even from the boys' class.

The classes that make fun of a poster making activity for being childish and then throw themselves into it with full abandon. Crayons and all.

Any class that gets to class on time.

The boys that sit in front of my desk during their work period before finals and just stare at me. We're about 4 feet away from each other.

The girls that shyly say "Hi" and giggle in the hallway.

The co-teacher that tries to have me tell him that "bank clerk" is a more acceptable term than "banker".... Do you know? Who says "bank clerk" anymore? Mostly "bank teller" and "banker," right?

The whole week of classes where i give supervised study because they have midterms next week.... so i catch up on emails, my blog, my chats, my korean studying.

The Jeonju Crew aka bibimbaps

Here's the Jeonju crew. This is April and a math teacher from Jenny's school. Then JJ and Amy. Below = Jenny, me, and my coteacher Ahn or Hae jong. This is what we like to do when we hang out! Eat good ribs, kalbi, and go out to have some fun in Jeonju! Our favorite place to meet up is in Jeonbuk dae which is the university area. It has many restaurants and lots of bars.

My apartment is located around the center of the city. This helps when I want to go downtown or to the university area. Everything is at most about a 7,000W taxi ride, or maybe $6 max? Most of the time, I'm paying around 3,000W.

This is especially fortunate when compared with our friend JJ. He's courageous enough to bike 40 min from nearby Iksan with Korean drivers on the freeway.

Tomorrow, we'll be having a cooking extravaganza at Jenny's house. We will definitely be cooking cookies and then hopefully some good old mexican food!! WOO!!! Our lovely Amy is talented enough to make her own tortillas. Really.

I'll share pics soon.

A Daegu and Gumi Weekend

Last weekend I took at 3 hour bus ride to Daegu. The bus was three across, leather-type seats, and very comfortable. It's really a shame that the US doesn't have more comfortable buses like in other countries! I went with two of the other bibimbaps (the nickname was given to us by the orientation leaders! it's the famous food here), Jenny and April. We met up with Akta, Susan, and Emily!

After a failed attempt at eating at the Holy Grail, the best western food place in town, (it was 9pm and the place had an hour and 15 min wait!), we ended up at a pasta place where you chose your own pasta, then sauce, then toppings. The house wine was definitely a let down. Luckily, we ended up at a bar afterwards for some more bonding time.

Our trip to Gumi the next morning was a half hour train ride. We met up with some orientation leaders and they led us to the orphanage where we helped prepare a party hosted by our past orientation's leader, Aimee. She has a non-profit organization called Dream in Korean that puts on functions for this orphanage. It was fantastic to see other ETAs and past OCs. In addition, the kids were amazing.

We helped make western style meals (spaghetti, waffles, etc), face painting, noraebang (karaoke), and play, play, play.

This is what a funeral looks like

Last month-ish, one of the past Korean presidents passed away. There was a very large funeral procession a couple days later in Seoul, but also in my little city of Jeonju - check out this gala event. I have no idea how they mobilized so much stuff so quickly:

Funny responses

I did a snowball fight with 2nd graders at my school. They must write down their name, 3 adjectives that describe them, and what they want to learn about the US. Here are some winners from 2nd grade boys:
I am..sexy, rich in mind, good guy, handsome guy, personal guy, I'm black man (skin), Ace.... (??)

This whole intro was just...
I am easy, crazy, dizzy. I want to learn about you. (Doesn't sound like a good combination...!)

And...
"I am lonely, friendly, sexy. I want to learn about women” (Of course.)

And of course, they all want to learn about American football.

Oh boys.

more quick observations

- one teacher with a WICKED comb-over. No freaking joke. I will try to sneak a picture.
- I ate dinner with another english teacher. Met her husband and two CRAZY but adorable kids. We ate spaghetti, the first "American" meal i've had in Jeonju. It was DELICIOUS. She cooked it so well... I have no idea how.
- The cutest part? The little girl - maybe 5 or 6? Dancing in her pink underwear and undershirt... belly dancing no less, because apparently that's what she's learning right now?
- I spent 2 hours speaking with host family about David coming to visit. Seriously. Discussing days, when it's best. Before or after the holiday, Chuseok. What we'd do. How we'd get around. I'm pretty sure there was a serious look of concern when I said that we wanted to travel... and that David doesn't know any Korean. I'd be the sole source of Korean... HAHA.
- mosquitoes suck in Korea. Come prepared. That was clever! Suck. Haha. (Sorry, too much Twilight reading)

Corn.

So I was browsing around S-- Times website for some nice news from home and found a recipe about sauteed corn! Since there is corn here and a stove (sans oven) I thought, "Great!"

I start reading excitedly hoping that some cooking genius would inspire me to go to the kitchen and WOW my host family instead of mildly horrifying my host mom when i proposed to cook a western breakfast... someday....

I start reading about lemon sage and bell peppers, advice from a Trellis (YUM) chef and how-to's. The ingredients seemed a little daunting to find, but this author promised a good go-to recipe....

only to find out.... his recipe is KIMCHI SAUTEED CORN. No freaking joke. I couldn't believe it. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2009650480_pacificptaste23.html?cmpid=2628

I was thinking something a little further away from my current cuisine. haha. but maybe i'll try it and let you know if it's worth going out and buying that jar of kimchi or not. :)

Oh High School

Just a quick update on teaching high school kids in Korea...

I teach about 18.33 hours a week, to be precise, but it rounds out to be 22 hours.

I teach 22 classes, 20 of them are under specific contract, 2 are extra discussion groups with talented students. I get paid extra from the school (^^ <-- korean :).

I easily opened up a bank account with the help of one of my English teachers in under an hour (take that American banks!) without social security or foreigner id card/number. Just a passport.

There are three "grades" in high school. I only teach grades 1 and 2 because 3rd grade students are soo busy with everything else. All high school students go to school from 6/7 am to 11:30pm. No joke. The third graders don't get vacation or weekends. seriously. They eat and work all day.

Strange things about Korean schools, other than kids staying there all day?
- meals are around 2,000won i think, or just under $2
- there is a teachers' room called the kyomushil which is where they all have desks and computers. At the head of the room sits the vice principal
- kids and students invade the halls and bathrooms with foaming mouths - they brush their teeth after every meal
- students have one hour (or less?) of cleaning the school. They bring out mops, tissue, brooms and generally run all over the hallways. It's quite a ruckus!
- Even though I feel tired after every day of teaching, most teachers teach QUITE a bit more. They will stay until the students are on 8th, 9th, 10th period of the day.
- My last period of the school day is 7th and that ends at 4 pm.

The past few days, I have taught exactly the same lesson. I introduce class rules using a powerpoint, give a short introduction using powerpoint, and then have the students make questions for me in pairs. This seems to bore some classes, some classes completely don't understand, but in general, i have gotten a fair response.

Here are some of the best comments/questions i've received:
- Why are you so pretty?
- How long with boyfriend before marry?
- Who is student make best first impression?
- What is your blood type? (Although, apparently, this is very important in Korea. It's supposed to say something about your personality....)
- Who is most remarkable student?
- Do you like handsome men? ( I said I like my boyfriend ;)

- upon showing pictures of my family, my mom, dad, grandmother and boyfriend were all subject to great age interpretations... mom was sister, grandmother, aunt - dad was grandfather, brother - and the combinations continued. hehe. I hope no one at home is too offended. Their totally off-base guesses were made fun of and it helped me add some humor to my class!

After teaching this lesson... 6 times now? I think it is mostly successful, but I really need to think of more interesting lessons in the future. Students vary in level from very advanced to very unadvanced in the same class.

The 2nd grade boys are particularly hard to work with. They are rowdy and do not respond to my shushings as much. The past ETA had them do push-ups if they were rowdy. I don't know if I can adopt the same type of teaching... haha. Let me know if anyone has any ideas!

More on life in Korea soon. :)

Jeonju.... first days

This is a short blip about my time in Jeonju so far.....

I am teaching 20 50min periods, + 2 extra smaller discussion groups. Total, this is 18.3 - 22 hours. They said they would pay me extra for teaching the 2 smaller classes.

I have taught two days so far. The first day was a bit of a disaster. After giving a speech (about 2 min in hangukoh that I really didn't know what I was saying and 3 minutes in English) to all the teachers and principals, and once again to all the students over their school-wide tv system, I taught two classes of 2nd grade boys. They were so rowdy and completely uninterested in my 20 questions/index card introduction. I had no control over the classroom, even though co-teachers were present in both classes. I felt really discouraged, even though i had a very nice bulgogi lunch with all the English teachers. Then, that afternoon, I had my small discussion class. It was 15 students that were advanced level. They were incredible and restored my faith. It was like the classrooms that I grew up learning in.

Friday,. I taught two sections of 1st grade boys and 1 section of 1st grade girls. I prepared a better/new lesson the night before in hopes of reigning in the rowdiness. They were much better. This new lesson was much better received. The students were less rowdy in general, I think. I feel more confident now, but I am still anxious about teaching 2nd grade boys. I know they are nice students, but they just seemed like SUCH a challenge to teach.

luckily, I have several teachers willing to help me a lot. My co-teacher Yuta is incredible. She's very helpful and sweet. She will send me texts saying she misses seeing me. The other young female English teacher, Ahn, is also amazing. we went to the traditional village in Jeonju together one day. She also helped me set up my bank account. Also, another older man English teacher, Mun, has offered me private hangukoh lessons twice a week during free periods. We also grabbed beers together last night.

The host family is very comfortable. The parents do not speak English really. We have to do some charades or rely on the eldest sister (1st grade hs) to translate. The younger two sisters (elem 5th and 6th grades) can speak english, but not as well. I think that as i study korean more, things will get less awkward.

Also, I find that having siblings for the first time is exciting and challenging. I woke up this morning to very LOUD, INSISTENT knocks on my door. It was 8 am on a Saturday morning. when I got out of bed to answer (after yelling... Ne...Ne.....??), I found the two younger girls sitting in the living room studying. I poked my head out and asked what was happening. They didn't respond at first. Then they haltingly told me there was breakfast... then shower.... then something... mumble, mumble..... ok..... I am sooo not a morning person and this was testing my patience. Finally, the youngest sister was uncomfortable and said.... SHOWER. As in, a command, Go Shower. Ok. Then I tried to ask as nicely as possible, "After I'm done with my shower, explain to me why?" Then the older sister said... there would be no water after 9 am... Hm.....

Anyway, i need to get ready to go to Suncheon right now, about a 3 hour drive south to the ocean. We will play on the beach ....

My roomie

I love my roommate, Chelsey.

She just EEPed from her top bunk bed. It was her hiccup.

She made cat day for her students. We will now instate Cat Day every month. This day will consist of all our friends meeting up in some city. I feel like we are going to be seeing lots of different cities.

She leaves me moonpie like chocolate pies of love and nice notes when i'm having a bad day.

She goes with me to Patpingsu even when it's too late and we already feel doong-doong-hae-yo (fat, also, the best word in korean so far)

She makes the best pneumonic devices i've ever heard (meet sue on wednesday, drink mochas on thursday, and on friday....)

I'm sad we will be living far apart.

I want to be love-shooting waffle ice cream with her. (this one was with Dara and Chelsey. Chelsey in on the right).

Jeonju

Placement ceremony. All dressed and clean and nervous.

Then placed! I'm in Jeonju which is a city in the southwest part of Korea. Apparently, it's a bigger city than where we are currently. I'm with three other ETA girls who all seem cool, but that I don't know that well (yet!). It's a city that's famous for bibimbap (which was one of my fav korean foods). It even has a museum dedicated to it! It's famous for a traditional village. Apparently a lot of koreans come to visit the village. It's also known for being an educational hub of korea since there is a teacher university there.

Apparently, it's a great city. There have been many ETAs there in the past. So I am excited to find out which ones were there and what they thought of it.

My school is a co-ed high school with just over 1000 students. (I really hope that I don't have to teach that many?!?). So it's time to get used to big classes.

Many of my close friends are located on Jeju Island. I am excited to visit them and for them to visit me. I think overall, I am very pleased with my placement!!! It's just scary to think that I will be so far from my closest friends I've made so far.

Also, here is my school's website, although it's all in Korean. My suggestion? Just start clicking on things and you might find some pictures : www.hanilgo.hs.kr

Love to everyone and I think this is a new beginning I'm looking forward to.

I'm eating ice cream waffles tonight. Me and my girls need to bond.

Love to everyone at home and abroad.

Placements

Placements are happening tomorrow...

I'll finally know where I'll be working, living, teaching, breathing for a year.... tomorrow.

Can you tell I'm nervous?

seoul food

Short version:

Seoul this weekend. One night, one day. 7 ETAs and one very overworked KEY club member (native korean).

We had a really fantastic and random time! everything worked out even with our guide's desire to stick to the itinerary... to the minute/hour, planning and scheduling and our almost missing the very first bus. We didn't end up going to the premier club that had been researched, recommended, and searched for in the light rain for 20+ minutes on foot (in high heels). But it was absolutely fantastic.

Long version to come...

remote from the mundane world

songnisan, or "remote from the mundane world," was a fabulous weekend retreat. It's a village. it's tiny. There's a big golden Buddha (big = 5 stories tall) and a monk village. There's mountains and acres upon acres of green. Seriously. Greener than Washington. That's saying something.

Hiking included a steep mountain side (apparently a theme in Korea. I better have killer legs by the end of this), some pool jumping/wading, and taekwondo at the top of the mountain (well, sort of the top).

We lucked out on the hotel - we got beds (although back-ache inducing), tv, and a/c. The people on the floor before us were subject to a more traditional experience with non-functioning tvs, nonexistent a/c, and, well, nonexistent beds. The beds were folded up neatly in their closets which they unrolled when they were ready to sleep. :)

Interesting run-ins. Aside from everyone in the small village/town part staring at the white foreigners in groups that were probably the size of 1/4 of the town at a time, i bought some mushrooms (famous here) for my language teachers. I recruited the help of two advanced ETA speakers. It started off well when one friend convinced the ajima (older korean lady) to break up one of her 10,000w bag into two smaller 5k w bags. Unfortunately, the ajima started getting testy, telling my two korean speaking friends to stop speaking in English... and then directing them to become boyfriend and girlfriend... Which was made even more awkward by the fact that one of my korean speaking friends was standing next to her boyfriend (who doesn't speak korean). The ajima spouted nationalism telling them to replant the korean seed, to move back from america, and stay in korea. And THEN, when she found out that the mushrooms were meant to be gifts to a teacher, she started bashing on americans for being cheap and saying that this was an insufficient gift. I was thankful I didn't really understand and profusely thanked and apologized to my friends who got me the 2 bag deal in the first place.

But really, it wasn't all bad. That just stood out.

As did the FABULOUS food. Mrs. Shim (program coordinator) went all out for us. I realized that I still do like korean food, even after the cafeteria. :) We had delicious banchan upon banchan upon banchan (side dishes). Awesome mountain vegetable bibimbap. Best octopus I've had in a panchan (pancake). Homemade magkali (milky rice wine - tasted a bit like sap at the end....). Looots of i-soo cream-oo (ice cream - my new favorites are walnut speckled popsicle and honeydew melon popsicle).

Pictures soon. Camp Fulbright commences in about 11 hours. One lesson plan down and two to go. 1) Haikus and syllables 2) something on valentine's day? 3) birthdays and horroscopes. Ladies and gentlemen, we have hit the ground running. So much for the mundane world.

The way of foot and fist

Leap frogging, legs spread wide, over a classmate.

Sliding on the floor.

More jumps - split jumps to be exact.

High jumps, touching your feet while you swing your straight legs in front of you.

20 laps around the gym.

The first day of tae (foot) kwon (fist) do (way of...) was much harder than I thought it would be. Whew.

The master only made an appearance as he talked on his cell phone. His co-teacher/pupil suggested that we may be sore today, but after awhile, it will feel better. More specifically, when we can actually do it right, we will feel the positive effects more. It seemed like a Korean back-hand comment.

At least the kids I saw at the TKD International Open Tournament in Chuncheon weren't as baffled as I was!

Enjoy...

QUARANTINED

Most blog-worthy moment thus far:

Yesterday, for 24 hours, we were quarantined by Kangwon National University (KNU) for a threat of H1N1, or more commonly known as swine flu.

One student reported that he felt sick the second morning of being here. The orientation coordinators (OCs)took him to the hospital for precautions. The university was also made aware that this student was taken to the hospital... By the time we received the news at 11 am or so, he was already feeling better but still at the hospital under observation.

KNU wanted us all to wear face masks (which are plentiful here. They can be bought in the cute little corner stores along with cartoon cell phone ornaments.... the masks are made of fabric and look like pigs or cats or something else that's pink and cutesy....), but the OCs managed to get out of that. However, our lunch hour was isolated from others. We had to go late and eat in a separated room. We were also told to "lay low" on campus and not hang out outside... They were actually considering bussing us from our classroom building to our dorm (one walk on a hill away..). Luckily, things were pretty lax. We kept to ourselves and the student came back safe. No swine flu.

We should commemorate the experience with "we dont' have swine flu" t-shirts. Or maybe "Under quarantine."

Bibimbap on a plane

What I learned about traveling:

1) Carry light carry-ons or baggage with wheels. I learned the hard way. Don’t do it.

2) Know when your airline opens. This would have made the heavy carry-ons less annoying. After arriving at LAX and wondering how exactly to get out of domestic terminal central, I exited security, walked over to the other terminal, confused myself when I didn’t see a ticket booth for Asiana, walked the long hallways a couple times until someone was finally helpful enough to mention that Asian wasn’t even open until 4 hours before flights… Know when your airline opens. But good comes out of everything, right? I ended up securing the seat I wanted by waiting 40 minutes before the airline even opened. Which leads to point number 3.

3) Aisle seats definitely win, and with the Boeing 777 you actually have a fair chance of getting one. It is arranged in seats of three, starting at each window and with a set of three seats in the middle. For a total of four aisle seats, two windows, and even if you did get stuck in the middle, you only need to ask one person (and not several) to get out of your way.

4) Gift giving. Still a prevalent element of Korean culture found on Asiana air. These gifts ranged from hot towels (they were hot! Let them cool a little) upon entering the plane to toothbrushes and toothpaste (Dad, I know you’re excited) provided in the bathroom (individually packaged of course).

5) Food provided, also an extension of gift giving, or maybe just some element of service that hasn’t died with the entirety of the airline industry. 2 full meals. First choice: 1) American style “beef steak” with mashed potatoes and broccoli (although I’ve heard to be wary of “American” style food made by Koreans) and 2) Korean style meal with Bibimbap which is a bowl of Asian style veggies that you mix in rice, hot/sweet chili paste, and sesame oil. Being a good blossoming Korean-phile, I chose bibimbap. Luckily, I was a step ahead of the game because I knew how to assemble it. Others on the plane were not so food enlightened. They started in on the vegetables alone or attempted to put the fishy soup broth in the veggies and add some rice in a rather noxious sounding mix. Bibimbap is probably one of the best reprieves in Korean food from the fishy taste that is prevalent in many dishes, like kimci (yes, it is served breakfast, lunch, and dinner!). So, to CORRECTLY do BIMBIMBAP: 1. put rice in with veggies. 2. squirt in red chili paste (remember it’s usually equally sweet and spicy so don’t be too worried about the red color meaning overwhelming heat). 3. add sesame oil if desired. 4. mix thoroughly. 5. eat with chopsticks OR spoon. Both seem to be acceptable while eating this dish. 6. enjoy my favorite Korean food so far.

2 suitcases, 4 seasons

So how to pack? suitcase? backpack? pack backpack in suitcase? At any rate, it's a bit terrifying to think these are the things that i'll be taking for the next year of my life. Another shirt? Pair of shoes? More photos?

Leaving tomorrow and hope I have everything!