My Birthday! Plus A Cooking Class

Holidays away from your family can be hard. Especially the first one away from your family after moving to another country 13 hours ahead. My birthday was hard this year. It was the first one that I didn't celebrate with my parents and the first one where I wasn't around any of my family or close friends around. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't totally alone. I did get to spend the birthday with 80 other fulbrighters, and as nice as that was, it wasn't really the same.

To start out my birthday celebrations, I went out with my dynasty the day before. We went to a park not far from campus and just spent a few hours exploring. It was actually really nice. It was lowkey and just about getting out and looking around at what Korea had to see.

On my birthday, ironically, Fulbright had scheduled an extracurricular activity. A cooking class. In Seoul! It was so cool. I love cooking and so I ended up literally spending my birthday in a hot room making kimbap and japchae. It tasted so good when we finished. They also sang me happy birthday in Korean and I got to wear the birthday crown. Although it wasn't how I would have wanted to spend my birhtday, it was still a lot of fun and I'm glad to have gotten the experience of spending it in Korea.

When I moved in with my host family, they asked me when my birthday was, I told them that they had just missed it. They later surprised me with cake and told me that even though they missed it, they still wanted to celebrate it. I'm so thankful for them making the effort to make me feel like I really belonged there.





(Sorry for the short post. This post is predated back to original posting time, however, my original post got deleted somehow and this is a replacement from memory 6 months later)

Last Week of Orientation

My last week of orientations was...well, a tearful one. As I knew everything was coming to a close and that we were all moving on to the reason we all began this adventure, I couldn't help but think about everything that we were leaving. Between the 85 new friends that I have made to the nightly walks around Campus Town, or even just the familiarity of speaking with another native English speaker, I knew that the last six weeks were going to be something I will miss, and the memories I will cherish.

The week started off with preparations for our Korean Language Instruction Graduation. I even now have a paper that tells me I completed 110 hours of instruction in the Korean language, though it doesn't feel like it. I was terrified because it meant that my class and I would have to speak in front of Director Shim, all the Korean teachers, and the rest of the cohort. In Korean. I am so thankful for the rest of my class. They really helped me through it. After our mini-skits, we sang "Remember Me" from the movie COCO, in Korean. I actually really enjoyed that part. My 선상님s (Teachers) were all crying as they gave us hugs and took pictures with us. I may not remember much about the Korean language, I did learn a lot about the culture and gained five more people I could turn to for help.

After that was our farewell from Taekwondo. It was a lot of fun those eight classes, and the master even took us out to dinner to celebrate our time there and to new adventures. Each of the kids was also assigned to give us each a note. Mine was so adorable. The boy called me a 외국인누나 (Foreigner older sister) which was too cute.

We also had our talent show, which I talked about in a previous post. That was so much fun finding out about people's talents I didn't know they had. Like singing, spoken poetry, and so many ukeleles. It was great. There was also a spoof on the OCTs which was spot on and hilarious. I am so proud of the people that wrote it.

Flowers from my Co-teacher

The next day we finally got our ARCs and our homestay information. I am staying with a lovely family with three kids. A girl 시연, who is in my fifth-grade class, a boy 민준 who is in second grade and a little boy 민찬 who is 7 and will start school in March. They are all so adorable, but more on them later.

Friday was the day. It was the day that we all go our separate ways. It was a tearful and exhausting day. I met my co-teacher, who I think I will get along with very nicely, and I traveled all the way to Hwacheon, my home for the next year.

I am grateful the Fulbright Korea gives us those six weeks to learn and create the support system that exists now.

Dynasty Bonding

So as orientation came to a close, so did Dynasty Bonding. Dynasty bonding is essentially the OCTs putting us into smaller groups so that we can get to know some people we wouldn't otherwise talk to, after all, there is 80 of us. So they split us into 8 groups of 10. Each group was named after one of the Korean dynasties.
My group was named after the 가야(Gaya) dynasty. It was a lot of fun getting to know some people that I hadn't really talked to yet. So throughout orientation, they held several events and chances for us all to get to know each other, but more than that, it was a competition. There were challenges and games for us to play to earn points for our dynasties. My dynasty did really good. The biggest of the challenges was pictures.
There were so many photo challenges each week. Pictures hanging out in Sokcho, in every color of the rainbow, hanging out in Songdo, forming human words, dancing to K-Pop, etc. We did a bunch of them. I had so much fun getting to know the 9 others in my group. We went to Central Park together, went out for ice cream, and really supported each other throughout the 6 weeks.

To end it all was the Talent show. Where all of my new friends came out and showed off their awesome talents. At the end of the show, they totaled the dynasty points and we got 3rd place! Which I think was pretty good. They gave us chocopies and cute things as prizes. It was a fun time.

Fulbright English Program

These last two weeks have been insane! Every year Fulbright hosts am English Camp for Korean students to come and have an immersive English learning experience. It is hosted with us because it is also an opportunity for us to teach the students in the classroom before we are sent out into our field placements. It was awesome. I taught two lessons with a co-teachers. The first lesson, I thought, went fantastically well. I was really proud of the lesson. The second one was just a bit disorganized, but it was still a lot of fun and I feel like the kids did learn something from both lessons.

Outside of class, the ETAs were able to participate in Night Fun, which is just a few hours of different activities to hang out with the students, and Activity Weekend, which is just us trying to keep the students entertained throughout the weekend. Both of these events were so much fun. The students were anywhere from 10 to 17 years old so the dynamic was really interesting, but their English levels were fantastic, even for the "low beginners" which really weren't. I was so impressed with them. They were so entertaining to talk to.

This morning was Graduation day and we had to say goodbye to the students as they were all going home, and it was surprising the amount of emotion from the ETAs. The actual graduation was hilarious. The students put on little skits and presentations and it was so cute. I was so proud of them as they had improved so much in two weeks and they were so proud of their everything they did.

Sokcho Weekend

Last weekend KAEC took all of the ETAs to Sokcho for a three day weekend of Korean history and culture, with a little vacation sprinkled in. It was such a fantastic adventure. Sokcho is on the opposite coast from where we are now. Which means we crossed the boundary line of the river! I don't know why but everyone got really excited when we crossed over. I even took a picture. It is on the eastern coast in the northern part of the country. The trip there was beautiful. The landscape is very similar to the surroundings of my town. The tall green mountains and the wide blue rivers. It is inspiring to get that little taste of my grant year on the long bus ride to and from Sokcho.
Though the bus ride was uneventful, the rest stop wasn't. If you are ever in South Korea, one of the things you have to experience is the rest stops. They aren't like what they are in the US. They are an adventure in of themselves. First thing is they are larger than you would think, with some inside and some outside areas. While there is a bathroom, the main focus of these rest stops is the shops and the food. There are shops (including a clothing store) and all of these places to get the iconic Korean food that you can only get at rest stops. You might be able to get them elsewhere, but that is what our teacher told us in Korean class. It was still early, so I didn't get any food, but a lot of the other ETAs did, and they were so happy with their choices.

Once we got there, we were treated to lunch with a view of the ocean. We all wanted so bad to get in. The temperatures outside all weekend were in the upper 90s

. After lunch, we listened to a lecture about Buddhism by oddly enough, a monk who thirty or forty years prior was a Jewish guy from Philly. But it was fascinating the things that he talked about. The different ideas of what Buddhism represents, where it comes from and the history of Buddhism in context through India, China, Korea and Japan. We went to Naksan Temple (낙산사) afterward to explore and to watch a nightly ritual. We even ate dinner there. It was surprisingly good. I also helped do the dishes for all 80 of us. The Temple was beautiful. The flowers, the stones, the buildings and the statues are all so beautiful. After the temple, some of us decided to go down to the beach and hand out. It was a beautiful night, and so many people were out just having fun and hanging out. There were even some fireworks. Apparently, this is a regular thing. 

Day two we a lot less hectic. I spent the day enjoying the beach (though I did manage to get a bit burned). It was wonderful. The water was cold and refreshing, and I was surrounded by my new friends. It was very relaxing. I also got to take note of how Koreans do the beach. Many of them are in more clothing than I am used to, like swim shirts and shorts, as well as hats and even on floats. I don't think I had ever seen so many floats in the ocean before. That night for dinner, we were taken to a Korean meal, only we didn't have to sit on the floor. But it was so delicious, and it was so cool. After dinner, a small group of us decided to walk to the North Korean Refugee Village. This is a tiny little island that is inhabited by refugees from North Korea who settled there after the Korean war when they weren't allowed to return home. It was a cute little town with lots of shops and adorable ajummas trying to sell you their food. One was so sweet. We were taking a selfie, and she asked if she could take the picture for us. I'm pretty sure she really just wanted to reposition us in front of her restaurant, but it was adorable and sweet.

On Sunday, we had to check out early and head home. On the way home, we stopped at Ojukheon (오죽헌) and Seongyojang (선교장). These are estates of significant people in Korean history. Ojukheon is the home of a mother and son who are both on Korean money. These places were so beautiful, but it was so hot that I didn't take very many photos. I was very thankful for the inside portions of the museums, but I did love looking at the old Korean architecture. It was so much fun. We finished our weekend out with yet another traditional Korean meal, except this time we went all out. We sat on the floor and had to take our shoes off. It was really cool, and I tried a bunch of food that I have no idea what I ate. Some of it was good, and some weren't. But it was fun attempting to eat it. We then proceeded to spend several hours on the bus on the ride home because we kept hitting traffic.



The whole cohort of ETAs, 80 strong, plus our 6 awesome OCTs on the misterablely hot day.

Placement Ceremony

Photo by Alex Suryapranata

It happened. The moment I have been waiting for since I was notified about being a Fulbright Finalist. I now know where I will be for my grant year here in South Korea. We had the placement ceremony today, and it was a lengthy process. First off, we had no idea when we were going to be called up, so all of us were waiting, wearing our professional clothes, so we can go up to the stage. I know I was sweating. As the weight got longer there just seemed to be a buzz of anxiety in the room. It was an odd feeling. It reminded me of junior year when my classmates and I were waiting to find out our student teaching placements, except on a much larger scale. Once our names were said, we had to collect our slips of paper, bow to Director Shim as a show of gratitude, and then place a flag note on a big map of Korea where our placement it. Luckily there were OCTs there to help us. I don't know Korea's geography very well.

So as the fourth group that got called up, I am proud to say that I have been placed in Hwacheon (화천군) in the Gangwon (화천군) Provance at Hwacheon Elementary School (화천초등학교). I don't know yet what grades I will be teaching, but I know that I could be teaching anywhere 3rd-6th grade. There is also another ETA that has been placed at the school with me, so I'm assuming we're going to split two and two. That would be really nice. There are also three other ETAs that have been placed in the same area. In the picture to the left, we are the little collection of color at the top of the map in the green portion.
From what I have heard about from two previous ETAs that were placed in that area, it is really lovely, and they both had a delightful and gratifying experience. I'm excited to get in contact with my Co-op and start planning!

Hwacheon is a small military town, really close to the DMZ. Less than 100 students per grade, so that is really nice. It's also a rural area with lots of farmland and mountains, and there is a river that goes right by my school. I can't wait to see the land and to meet all of the people there. Now I just need to improve my Korean skills, and I can do just that. I am really excited to experience the next year of my life. When am I ever going to be able to do this again in my lifetime? I'm going to take it one day at a time, experience South Korea as much as I can and try and get as much as I can possibly get out it.

Korean Learning

One thing about orientation that I was both super excited about and terrified of was Korean Classes. The first day we were here, fresh off the plane, we had to take our Korean Placement Exam. I felt so lost. I aced the hangul (한늘 Korean writing system) part, but I had a lot of trouble with the rest of the test. Somehow, I was placed in low intermediate, however, and that is where the fun began. I love the class because it is challenging, but it is tough when the 선생님 (Teacher) is speaking so fast to us in Korean. It's the first week down though, and I feel good. I have a massive support system here and lots of people to help me. My roommate is even in the same class, so it's super convenient. So far, we have learned about greetings (we had to record a video of it!), numbers and money, as well as some grammar points that are more important. We even got to play a traditional Korean game where you roll these sticks. It was off but a lot of fun.


We have also been spending a lot of time learning about the Korean culture. We had one workshop that was titled Korean spirit and culture. The speaker introduced us to a bunch of Korean history and about King Sejong. We even were taught the correct way to bow during the holidays when the younger members of the family bow to their elders. I also got to try on a hanbok. It was oddly comfy. I am having so much fun learning all about the culture and the language. I am really excited to teach.

First Days of Orientation

It's hard to gather into words the feelings that I am having right now. Excitement, nervousness, anxiousness, happiness, sadness, thrilled. It is the end of day two, and I feel like I've been here for a week at least. I think not sleeping for over 24 hours, and the 14-hour flight has something to do with that feeling, but the Orientation Coordinators really like keeping us busy. I've already attended several Korean culture and language workshops as well as had my Korean language placement test. I managed to get placed in the intermediate level class. I'm still not entirely sure how I pulled that one off.

The Korean food here has been impressive. I had not had any experience with Korean food before, so it has been really cool trying different things, even if I have no idea what it is. Even more fun is trying to pick it up with the chopsticks. I have tried so many different foods since getting here, and despite the spiciness of some dishes (a lot more than I want), I have really enjoyed it. The picture is of my first breakfast here.

Regardless, it has still been awesome to be here. As soon as I get past the jetlag, I can begin experiencing South Korea. I can't wait to see what orientation and my grant year has to offer me.