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.