Just like last year, in October, Fulbright gets the entire
cohort together for Fall Conference in Gyeongju. Much of the conference was the
same as last year, with a few exceptions. Thursday night, the other ETAs in Hwacheon
and I decided to go to Chuncheon the night before and stay in an Airbnb, so we
didn’t have to get up quite as early on Friday morning. It was actually a lot
of fun hanging out with the girls. 
Once we made it to Gyeongju, Friday and Saturday were mostly
just various presentations and small group discussions where we could share
what we have learned and bounce ideas off one another. As a first-year, this
was so good, as I had been teaching at my placement for only two months. As a
second year, however, this was mostly sharing knowledge and answering and
questions if the first years had some. The experience was still very valuable,
and it was really good to meet the first years since I really didn’t get a
chance when I was at Yonsei for Departure Day.
Saturday was special to me
though, because I was able to give a presentation this year. I gave a
presentation on special education in the classroom. Since I believe most of the
modifications and accommodations for students with special needs are just best practices
that you can be doing with any student and that if you don’t know who to help,
you can’t help, I spent most of my presentation on the different categories of
disabilities and their identifying characteristics. I really do hope that
people got something valuable out of it. 
Sunday was when I really got to have fun. Last year, I went
on the tour provided my Fulbright. The problem, however, is that the tour is
the same every year. So this year, I elected not to go on it. I decided to just
do my typical idea of just wandering around.
Although I didn’t make it everywhere
I was intending on going to, I did have fun and it was actually really relaxing.
The first place was the World Culture Expo. I wish I had gotten to go back at nighttime because they had a night walk that looked beautiful, but during the day was
still pretty good. Afterward, I took a bus into the main area of town and went
café hopping, found an awesome restaurant, a pop-up ice cream place, and little
shops. It was exactly what I needed.
After our final conference dinner, I decided I didn’t want
to stay at the hotel and decided to go to Anapji Pond. This is a beautiful pond
right on the old palace that gives a mirror image of what’s above lang. It is
breathtaking at night. I actually ran into another ETA there and we decided to
walk over to the observatory and see it lit up before heading back to the
hotel.
Monday morning, I got the bread that I pre-ordered and made
the long 6-hour journey up the country back home. Tuesday, I returned to school,
exhausted but grateful that I got to go back to Gyeongju for a second time.
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