Halloween in the Classroom

As excited as I was to spend Halloween with my host siblings, I was even more excited to teach my students about Halloween. Since they have had three previous ETAs at my school, I figured they didn't need a full-on history of Halloween. Instead, I decided to do a lesson all about monsters and talking about the different monsters in English. Where they lived, what they did, what they looked like, etc. 

So, I did a PowerPoint with different monsters like vampires, mummies, zombies, Big Foot, etc. So we spent about 20 minutes going through each monster and had a big discussion about them in English. I was really surprised how fantastic they were about coming up with the information about them. 

After we finished the PowerPoint, I had each of the students create their own monster. The monsters that the students created were so fun and awesome. They were very creative. Some of the monsters were cute, some were scary, some were real monsters, and some were completely out of their own minds. 

I also wore my own costume that day, and the kids absolutely loved it.

Fall Conference in Gyeongju

So as part of the Fulbright experience, every year there is a Fall conference and a Spring conference. The Fall conference held just before Halloween is in Gyeongju. Gyeongju is a beautiful city that used to be the capital of the Silla dynasty. It's because of this that the city has so much history and sites to visit. It was also nice because fall was in full swing up in Hwacheon, but as I went further south, it was like going back in time, it was warmer and the trees were greener.

The bus ride down was long and boring, though I did get to ride with two other Fulbrighters from my area, so it was nice not being the only one. It was especially nice when we left the bus terminal in Chuncheon and the three of us were the only people on the bus.

Once we arrived and joined the rest of the fulbrighters everything went crazy. After all, the majority of us haven't seen each other since orientation. That, coupled with the renewees reuniting, lead to one very energetic and crazy weekend.

The point of the fall conference is for all of us to attend workshops problem solve any issues we are having either in the classroom or at home. We had large group presentations and small group talks, all lead by other fulbrighters, that were very informative and helpful. We also had two presentations by educators in the field, who had tips and strategies for helping us reach all of our students. They also placed us in groups by our demographics to bounce ideas off of one another.

Outside of scheduling was just a party. We had huge meals in the restaurant of the hotel that we were staying in. We hung out after programming, catching up. There were a beautiful lake and a walking path outside of the hotel that I went for a walk one night, and ended up walking around for about two hours (mostly because I turned thinking it was a shortcut for the way back. It wasn't). We also had a trivia night, that was really fun, but my team lost. Not terribly, but we lost.

To complete the trip, they took us on a tour of some of the historical sights in the city, including the observatory, museums, temples and a tomb. The tombs in Korea look like giant lumps of land. It was so fascinating learning more about Korea's history. It was fantastic.

A Karate Girl in a Taekwondo World

Very early in orientation, taekwondo became one of my fourth points. If you are not a fulbrighter in Korea, you may not know what I am talking about. A fourth point is a thing that you do to keep your life balanced. The other three points are professional, personal and self. But your 4th point is something that is something you do that balances the rest of your life out. I have seen many peoples points being very different. Some do exercise, some volunteer, some travel and one even person does swing dance. It can be anything. My biggest and most important one is Taekwondo.

As many people know, I have studied karate since the age of 12. I have earned my way to my 2nd-degree black belt. For those who don't know, karate, in its origin, is Japan. Therefore in many ways is in direct confliction with taekwondo, despite having similar roots. When I decided to apply for my Fulbright grant, one of the ways that I wanted to really interact with the community around me is by taking taekwondo lessons. I just didn't realize how hard it was going to be when I actually started lessons.

Don't get me wrong, I have had experience with taekwondo before. The past two presidents of Martial Arts Club in college were black belts in it. Therefore, going in, I knew there were going to be some initial conflicts with what I did purely by habit after 10 years, and what the master was trying to teach me. I just didn't realize quite how not ready I was. 

For one, taekwondo is very kick heavy and they rely a lot on kicking high and kicking fast, which I have difficulty doing since I lost a lot of my flexibility and my stamina during college. But that is not the problem; I can improve that in time. What gets me are the things that I have been doing a certain way for 10 years, and now I am being told to do things I have never been allowed to do before, like short stances or dropping my hands when I kick. 

This is still going to be something I stick with, however. I really want to, and it makes you a better martial artist to know multiple forms, even if one will be your main. I definitely think I will go back to Shotokan when I get back to the states, but for now, I a working on breaking my habits, improving my speed and flexibility, and working towards my black belt test in March. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck!

Jinju Lantern Festival

My first big adventure away from Hwacheon was the Jinju Lantern Festival. I spent over 6 hours on buses. It was not a very fun ride. It was long and tedious and may not have been worth the actual total time I spent in Jinju.

The festival is another story. When I first arrived, I walked about 30 minutes from the bus terminal to the cafe that the other fulbrighters were hanging out at. I was so happy to see some familiar faces, especially since I hadn't seen most of them since we left orientation. In the small group, it was nice, catching up and just being able to speak English with someone else whose native language is also English.

The festival itself was a blur of beautiful sights, sounds, and smells. The lanterns lived up to the hype with the hall of a thousand wishes and the lanterns in the water as well as up by the fortress. There was even a water show set to music!


There was so much to see, I wish I lived closer to go more than a few hours just so I could see all that the place had to offer. There was so much to it. It is just so hard to describe everything that there was to see.

When we finished going around the festival, a few of us decided to break off from the main group and get some hot chocolate at a local cafe. It was a perfect end to a perfect night. It was exactly what I needed at the end of such an exhausting day, especially since I had to get up the next morning and take the 6ish hours on the bus back to Hwacheon. Though this time the first bus had a USB plug for my phone!