Over the River and Through the Woods...

We went to Grandma's house in the countryside, maybe a 1 and a half hour drive from Cheongju, for the remainder of Chuseok.  We visited Grandfather's burial site to pay respects for the holidays, slept on the floor, and went CHESTNUT PICKING--so much harder than it sounds.  

We probably collected a couple hundred of these little suckers, which are hidden up on muddy, tree-covered mountains and are protected by dense shells of prickly thorns.  I loved it though, and I got to spend some quality time with the host fam ;)

I also got to work in a couple of short runs out on the country roads, which felt so good.  The scenery and weather were preeeetty much perfect.

Anyway, I had a nice time, and now I'm smelly and exhausted.  Shower then sleeeeeeep :)

Chuseok

I have the whole week off from teaching--a very merry Korean Thanksgiving indeed :)  So I'm using this break to briefly catch up on what this past month has been like...  Unfortunately, it seems I'm a bit of a failure when it comes to regular blogging.  For now, I'll just hit the highlights:

School
I teach about 700 girls, 27 classes, and 21 hours a week.  I teach with 5 other English teachers in 4 different classrooms out of 3 textbooks and 2 workbooks, and I typically plan 9 different lessons a week.  It's pretty much a full-time job.

Volunteering
I've joined an international nonprofit organization's Curriculum Development Team, which is working to provide virtual English tutoring to students at an orphanage in Korea.  I'm not sure what my role will be yet, but I'm really excited about it!  I'm also trying to start up an English class with a couple other ETAs for local North Korean refugees.  It's still in the works, but we're hopeful :)

Korean
I enrolled in a Korean language class at the YMCA two hours every Saturday, but so far I've only been once.  We'll see how it goes.  I would also like to sign up for a short intensive winter class, but I don't know where yet...

Homestay
They think I'm too skinny, that I only like eating kim and bread, and that I talk like a baby when I speak Korean, but I love 'em dearly.  Momma Kim works awfully hard, Papa Kim is always smiling, my host brothers play games with me a lot (Monopoly and cards), and my host sister is super cute--she has like 10 pen pals in other countries, which I think is hilarious.  Anyway, we celebrated Papa Kim's birthday the other week, and today we've been doin the Chuseok thing, meaning lots of food and lots of family!!

Travels
Daejeon one weekend, Seoul last weekend, Gyeongju in a couple weeks, and now I'm thinking Cambodia, Vietnam,, Philippines, and Indonesia for winter break...  Suggestions, anyone?

Thoughts
I've had a busy, rough, and somewhat tumultuous past couple of weeks.  But overall, I love my life :)

More soon... I promise!

Host Sibs:

Host Rents:

A very cute Chuseok gift from Host Fam:

Lots of family members came!

Food--yummm:

"Songpyeon," rice cakes with a hint of pine-- a Chuseok tradition

Cooking--a team effort!

Ah, and btw, here's my room:

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!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

생일 축하 합니다!

Rhythm and Seoul

So I finally went to Seoul for the first time in two years this past weekend, and it was amazing.  I went with a super fun group of people from my program, and we basically did a lot of the awesome Seoul things that I remember and love.  We ate street vendor food, club hopped, danced, drank soju in the streets because we could, ate tolsot bibimbap (one of my favorites), had kwaeelsu (fruit with ice cream and shaved ice--a very popular dessert), went shopping in Myeongdong, visited the Cheonggyecheon stream, navigated the subway system and indulged in cheap taxis on various occasions, had jahjangmyan (a chinese black bean noodle dish that's awesome), stayed up til the sun came up, slept at a hostel, and had a blast.  It was everything I wanted out of my weekend, really.  But now I'm back taking classes and going to workshops again, and I'm tired.  It's started to grow slightly stale, this schedule of ours.  I'm looking forward to what's next...

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...

So Surreal

This is where I'm living and taking classes right now, and let me tell you, it is UNREAL to me.  A week has gone by and I'm still kind of in disbelief.  THIS IS AN ACTUAL PLACE.  I keep having to remind myself that because literally every time I walk outside I think I'm in a warped wonderland.  So mystical and beautiful and so much green!  Everything is shiny and big, too, but I haven't been able to fully capture that with my camera yet.

There is actually a photography class going on right now with Michael Hurt, a professional street photographer, blogger, and former FKE and I really wanted to go...but it's raining, I'm tired, and we have a LOT to do.  So my roommate and I are taking the day off to lesson plan, study for our Korean quizzes tomorrow, answer our second cultural adjustment check question set, and do *sigh* laundry.  Oh, and I'm updating my blog (obviously) :)

So...where do I begin?  It has been a week now, which I think is crazy.  But man has it been a LONG one.  We arrived in Incheon airport around 4am Sunday morning (Korean time of course) and had a 3 hour bus ride to the university, then orientation commenced!  Ever since it has been pretty much nonstop learning and listening and working and interacting.  Korean language class meets for four hours in the morning, followed by daily meetings, lectures and seminars on Korean culture, Korean history, former FKE's experiences here, and (naturally) teaching.  Soon we'll also begin our extracurriculars, which we had the option of signing up for (I chose caligraphy, archery, tea ceremony, and English club).  We eat three meals a day in the cafeteria here, which has been...interesting.  Lots of rice and kimchi and soup.  And we eat share a room with another FKE in the gender-segregated dorms here on campus.

The people are AMAZING--in this program, our Orientation leaders, the Jungwon students, the speakers and teachers we meet--everyone!  I kind of have a HUGE crush on all of them, especially my roommate :)  She's a hilarious, quirky, sassy girl from Pennsylvania and I'm so lucky (once again!) to have a good roommate.

Anyway, I feel like I had so much to say before, but I've gradually grown accustomed to some of the things I initially thought were really weird--so I've forgotten what I originally planned to post about!  Hmm...guess I'll think on it and post later.  Until then, missing everyone but loving Korea!