On your mark, get set...

Having gone through 6 days in my homestay, 3 days at school, 2 days of teaching, and 10 different classes of crazy middle school girls, I can say with fair certainty that my new adventure has officially begun.  And already I'm a bit winded!  <--let's just hope that's because I'm sick :(

Teaching, I've decided, is a lot like running the 400m in track.  It's fast--you hear the whistle, you start running, and you really can't slow down.  But it isn't quite a full on sprint, either.  You must pace yourself lest you cramp up or tire out before the finish line.

Anyway, it really does feel like a race.  The days are flying by!  And maybe like a dream, too?  Everything is sort of familiar and sort of strange at the same time.  I have a home, a room, a job, a schedule, a phone (finally!), and a host mom who cooks for me and makes me drink tea and eat porridge and go to bed early when I'm sick...  But everything is in a foreign language, I don't ever fully understand what's going on around me, and I can only walk about a block in each direction before I get lost.  Life is at once vivid and blurred--very dreamlike indeed.

I've resorted to speaking like a 6-yr-old child: short, broken sentences that mostly consist of a verb and a noun (and usually not in the right order, either).  Food--eat!  Go--school?  

Maybe throw in a few other words for embellishment.  Medicine already have.  Now I sleep.  Yes, meal very tasty!

Impressive.  I know.

In any case, it's almost dinner time (thankfully--so hungry!)  Yaaaay for internet and blogging again!  Did I mention that there are 7 people living in this tiny apartment?  Host mom, host dad, 3 kids, grandma, and me!  But it's still somehow quite comfortable.  Or did I say that I have 700 students and that I literally am the sole person responsible for teaching them ALL English listening and speaking (they only get reading/writing/grammar in their other English classes)?  Well...I just did.

Ok that's all!  (for real this time)

나중에 쓸 거예요!

Back to the Ole Camp Days

As part of training, we have to teach lessons for a camp held at our university, where students from all over Korea ranging from elementary to high school, beginner to advance, spend two intensive weeks learning and speaking only English.  Today, I taught my first lesson of three.  It was chaotic and tiring (and pathetically only an hour long), but hopefully the kids had fun!  The students in my class were incredibly advanced--one girl randomly asked me to define "vivacious" (thank youuu violin lessons and all those "vivace" music commands!) which sort of caught me off guard.  But if you know anything about the Korean education system and the 16-hour days these kids put in during their grade school years, I guess that's not too surprising.

Anyway, this week has been a blur so far.  So much running around and planning and working and oh dear Zeus SWEATING (air conditioning in other countries is a wee bit spotty, I've come to realize). A couple meetings here, a few lectures there, throw in 2-4 hours of Korean language class each day and you've got yourself a full on schedule.  But it's good to keep busy.  I'm sort of enjoying it.

One thing I wasn't enjoying as much though, regrettably, was the food.  It just hasn't been working out as well as I'd hoped...and yea...I'll leave it at that.  But then yesterday some concerned (and amazingly thoughtful) friends bought me peanut butter and bread, and I got free pizza tonight at the "Being Korean American in Korea" talk.  So today, thankfully, has been much easier than the few days preceding it.

We spent the weekend in Haeinsa at a Buddhist temple, which awesomeee.  We watched them perform chanting and drumming rituals, were given a tour by a monk who had studied in the States, and  ate a silent vegetarian lunch there one of the days, during which we were required to eat everything on our plate (to the last grain of rice).  It was beautiful and interesting and kind of brought back memories of times I'd spent with my family traveling to temples throughout Asia (I think it was the incense).  A relaxing weekend calm before the storm, I guess.

Well, as I mentioned, it's go time, so I still have a busy schedule that stops around midnight tonight.  two more meetings, a reflection to write, and one last assignment before I get to sleep!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, some pictures from Haeinsa...