Settled Into a Teacher's Life

So I feel like I'm getting into a regular routine now:
6:45am Wake up and get ready
7:20am Eat breakfast with brother and/or dad
7?42am Leave apartment for school and pick up brother's friend along the way
7:55am Arrive at school and prepare for the day
8:40am-Noon Teach classes, go to gym with my students, lesson plan, etc
Noon-1pm Lunch
1:10pm-3:55pm Teach classes, go to gym with my students, lesson plan, etc
4:15-5pm Teach conversation club class or advanced club class
5pm Leave school with Tracey (on certain days) for Hue Spozone gym
6pm Leave Hue Spozone for piano academy
6pm-7pm Piano lesson and practice
7pm Head home for dinner with dad (when he's home)
7pm-10pm Hang out with my family in living room, random stuff
10pm Go to room since brother has English webcam tutoring and computer is in living room
10pm-midnight Chat and videocam with friends, read news, blog, etc. in room and sleep
REPEAT.

So even though things have gotten into routine now, a lot has happened since the last blog update. Nothing big but it's the small things in life that build up that create the big life changes anyway...

I go to the gymnasium almost everyday to visit and play with my students when I'm not teaching a class or lesson planning. I have the semester class schedule that has my particular classes but it also has the schedule for which classes are at Physical Education class during the day. I really want to develop relationships with my students and it doesn't seem to be happening in my regular classes so I need to make an effort outside of class. I'm always dressed in my normal teaching attire so I have limited choices in the activities I can engage in. I want to play soccer with the boys sometimes but the school field is made of dirt, not grass. It's not appealing to my skirts or pants, especially when I still have classes to teach afterwards.

I play a lot of basketball because it's simple enough and there are hoops in the gym. The boys are the only ones who play so I ball with them. The girls play this dodgeball-like game where your team is in a rectangle across from the other team, who are also in a rectangle. There's one ball and it is like dodgeball in that you are trying to hit someone on the other team. The thing is, there are also your team members on the outside of the opposing team's rectangle. You can pass the ball to them and they can hit the other team too. So if you're in the rectangle, you are surrounded on all four sides by the other team. I've play this game with my girl classes a few times. So when I'm at the gym, it's either hit or miss. If it's a class that likes me, they give off a really positive vibe when I come in and say hi and notice me. Then there are classes that don't like me and they just ignore me. The first few times I went to gym, it was kind of awkward too. I insa-ed to all the gym teachers first and then walked around to see my students. I got a lot of questions about why I was there from students the first time a class saw me. None of the gym teachers speak English so there's a lot of hang motions and speaking with broken Korean/English. I'e also used some of the students with better English ability to translate, which is kind of amusing. I've been keeping track of which classes I see at gym too so I know for a fact that all my classes have seen me at least once outside of class. I feel like it's starting to work in the sense that my students are noticing I'm there and realizing that I want to spend time with them and get to know them; my students have asked me if I like sports and have said things like, "Teacher, I heard you are good at basketball."

I am officially teaching 20 (or 21 depending on how you look at it) hours per week at school. I teach 15 regular classes, 2 conversation club classes (Tuesday/Thursday) and 1 advanced third year club class (Wednesday). I have about 35 students in each regular class, 18 students in my Tuesday conversation class, 15 students in my Thursday conversation class, and 13 in my Advanced class. I am in love with my Advanced club kids. They are all pretty good at English and are really sweet. I had some bad first impressions of some of them but they're all great and sweet to me now. I know they like me because Mr. Cho, who usually teaches them told me they told me they enjoy my class and like me. A few of them have also stepped up in class and tried to help me out by yelling at the class to quiet down when they get loud or explaining directions in Korean when no one else in the class understands. I've taught my Advanced kids three times already. They had to take an English test to get into the Advanced club class. They are in different third year homerooms but it's a good mix of boys and girls. I more recently started teaching the Tuesday and Thursday conversation club classes. My Tuesday class has far more girls while the Thursday class has a lot of boys. My Tuesday and Thursday conversation club class has students from each second year homeroom class but they are not necessarily Advanced or Intermediate English level students. There's a pretty big range. In my Thursday class, I have about four students with a very low English ability. So far, I really like my Tuesday club class. They are really funny and just sweet kids. One of my favorite boy students is in the class. He always drops a full 90 insa (it's hilarious) when he sees me and is just is really sweet. My Thursday club class is a different story. There's still a lot of disrespect in the classroom in that they talk over me, ignore me, etc. It's really frustrating especially because I am trying to do more fun things in the club classes since they are a smaller class size. I am also really chill and lax in my all afterschool classes since I assume they are there for extra learning and can have a little more room to breathe than in my normal class. I let them talk when they are doing work as long as they are paying attention when I'm talking and giving instructions. My Thursday club class can't even grant me that small request. I'm hoping that I'll get through to them but it's so hard when a few of them can't even understand me when I ask what their name is.

I started learning piano! This is something I'm really excited about. My co-teacher Mr. Lee found a piano academy for me, which is something I really wanted to do. It's funny since the piano instructor is actually the mother of two of my students, the son is in my advanced club class and the daughter is one of my high level 2nd year students. My instructor's English is almost nonexistent but she's a really sweet woman and she gets the point across. The original price was set at 90,000 won (less than $90) a month, which is a great price. I go Monday-Friday for an hour of lesson/practice. The first real day I went in, I used a lot of broken Korean and hand motions to ask for potentially a discount. I didn't have a set price in mind but she wrote down 50,000 won in my book and I was shocked at the discount. I was expecting to pay maybe 70,000 won but she went above and beyond. So far, I've learned a lot but that's not saying much since I'm starting from scratch. Regardless, I'm stoked. I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument and never really had an opportunity until now. I can check play an instrument off my bucket list now. I want to get decent by the time I leave Korea so I can buy a keyboard back in America and play when I want to. At the speed I'm learning and playing, I have no doubt it can happen. Regardless, let's keep fingers crossed.

I have now been to a wedding, memorial, and funeral in Korea. The wedding was the first weekend I got to Mokpo. The memorial and funeral were two weekends ago. The memorial was for my host mom's father who passed away last year and the funeral was for my host dad's brother's wife's dad. Both were interesting experiences. For the memorial, we went to my host mom's brother's house (the uncle I drank with who got drunk and told me about Dokdo and how much he hates Japanese people) and there was my host mom's mom and other family members. There was a lot of food that was prepared and some church leaders came by. There was some hymn singing, a passage reading, and the church pastor (maybe) led a short message. Afterwards, we ate. That was about it. For the funeral, we went to a funeral place and the immediate family of the deceased sat us down with a bunch of food. I didn't see the body or anything and I think it was in a separate room where you could go in and pay your respects. Everything here is very food orientated, which is similar to Chinese culture in some ways. I also went fishing with my family. We went to one of the small islands off Mokpo and my dad, brother, and I did some fishing. My mom and sisters sat in the car...

Back to teaching and my students, since they are the biggest part of my life here. I've noticed that the teachers' relationships with students are so different compared to America. While there's the physical aspect of it first of all. There's corporal punishment, even though it's now illegal, as well as other forms of touching. For example, when playing ball with one of my classes, one of my male students wrapped his arms around mine when I was defending him, in an effort to stop me from blocking another student's shot. I'm assuming he did it because it's somewhat appropriate in Korea but it's not something I would have done to any of my teachers growing up. I never touched any of my teachers, not a pat on the back, nothing. In general, there's just less personal space here in Korea so maybe that's why it's more appropriate here. Also, teachers can hang out with their students outside of class. That's BIZARRE in America. If that happened in America, it was in a group setting, never one-on-one with a student and it never occurs between opposite genders. Here, it would be perfectly acceptable for me to go get ice cream or hang out with any of my students one-on-one, even a male student. There's no judgement really, no thinking that someone else beyond the teacher-student relationship is going on. There's also a lot more teacher power here than in America I think. What I mean is that in America, students seem to have a lot more "power" in the sense that they can complain to their parents about something and the next thing you know, the school is called and the teacher is on suspension for saying something politically insensitive, punishing a student, etc. How a teacher talks to a call or treats a student is never really put into question here. It's just very different.

Now that I've taught my third lesson and am about four weeks in, I'm getting a better feel of these students. I'm torn because I want quiet in the classroom when I'm teaching but I remember what it's like to be in middle school. I used to turn around and whisper something to a friend behind me. I remember chit chatting. As a teacher now, I'm on the opposite side. In the front of the classroom, you really can see every student, everything. Also, I know that none of my students are "bad" kids. Every single one of them has a a good heart (I'm staying optimistic) but they can just be rowdy at times. So I question what's better: for the class to be quiet and act like they are paying attention even though some of them aren't listening but are zoning out OR for the class to be loud and ruly and engaged in the material even though I know some of them are just chit chatting with their friends and still not listening or learning? What do I do? I have been so focused lately on classroom management and ensuring the students know I am in control of the classroom and demanding respect, I am scared that I've lost perspective on everything. I hate the chitchatting in the back of my classroom and I will call it out while teaching. But is that the best tactic? Does utter silence in the classroom mean they're actually paying attention and learning? On the flip side, when the class is loud, there are always chitchatters included in this who I know are not even paying attention. I'm just trying to figure out a good middle ground to stand on.

My kids are pretty funny. I find myself laughing a lot in some of my classes. The boys generally have a lot more funny comments than the girls but I have a few girls that I think are pretty funny as well. Some of the students' introductions (on the back on their namecard) are quite comical as well. I know a lot of my students have a sense of humor so I want them to know I enjoy it by laughing in class when I see it. I think because of this, a few of my classes have become more receptive to me. I tried to use this with Class 3-3, the super rowdy class on Wednesday. I tried to be a little bit looser with them and even went along with one of their jokes but then asked them to be serious for a section of my lesson. That actually seemed to work. But I feel like every week is different for each class. Last week, some of my classes that are usually pretty good and receptive to learning were really rowdy and not engaged. I guess I just have to try to be sympathetic to my students. They are kids and they study all day. I have to remember they are people. It's crazy how much effect they have on me though. I invest in them so it's hard when they're not fully engaged.

There's a difference between Korean teachers and American teachers, I've noticed. There's a reason my kids have such an emotional impact on me. If I have a few really rowdy, disrespectful classes in a row, I have no energy and have a really draining day. For the Korean teachers, they seem unaffected by it. They don't attempt to make their lessons more interesting or engaging because their perspective is that the students who want to learn will learn. The students who want to pay attention are those who want to learn and thus will do so. Since the Korean education system is so test-focused, the students have an incentive to pay attention in order to do well on the test. Thus, the teachers don't have to try to make their lessons interesting; the students who want to do well will pay attention regardless (or try to, at least). When kids are acting up in class, Korean teachers will just send them outside as to not distract those who want to learn. I feel like it's the complete opposite in America. We have the whole "no child left behind" mindset and am focused on ensuring every student is learning. (NOTE: I understand this is not completely accurate since there are students who slip through the system and can't read, write, add, subtract, etc and are in high school.) But I would say for the most part, a lot of (good) teachers try to make sure each student is learning. I think teachers in America take things personally from their students. I think that's why I'm so invested in my classes and students. I think that's why I'm so drained after a long day with lots of rowdy classes. I'm so much more personally and emotionally invested in these kids.

So while some kids have grown warmer towards me, there are some that are still really disrespectful and some that are just plain scared of me. I remember one class where I told a student to go stand outside and he wasn't listening so I walked towards him to usher him to the door and he actually backed up from as if he was scared I would physically touch him and hit him. I was in a momentary state of shock from that; it just didn't occur to me that I might be actually scaring the students. On the other hand, there was a class that I made stay after a few minutes after class because they were talking all class and being disrespectful. There was one student in the back who stood up and was packing up his stuff. I walked up to him and told him to sit down. He asked why and said that it was his time now (they have 10 minutes between classes) and I couldn't hold him. I told him that because the class cut into my class time, I was going to cut into their time. He said I wasn't the principal. I then replied with the fact that I am the teacher of the classroom. He backed down but that is just one example of how disrespectful some of my students are. They like to challenge my authority. That was one of my boys. The girls are bad too though. In one of my classes, there was a girl sleeping so I told her to get up and do jumping jacks. She looked me up and down and glared at me. I'm being serious; she looked me UP AND DOWN. I remember thinking, "Oh HELL NO." HAHA. I think she'll probably hate me forever now since girls hold grudges and boys get over it but yeah--definite attitude and disrespect problems at my school. On a somewhat less obvious front, the girls do makeup and other beauty-related things in my class. One of my rules is Respect for the teacher and other students. Part of that is there should be no makeup, toys, or distractions. What I see, I take... forever. I have collected at least four mirrors, three combs, some lip sticks/balm/gloss, and one pimple extractor (yes I know it's disgusting). In one of my classes, I saw one of the girls using this on her friend next to it. IT WAS SO GROSS TO WATCH.

So since the English levels are so varied across the board in all my classes, I haven't had a chance to really engage the more advanced kids in each of my classes. So I had a class announcement where I told my students they could participate in an optional assignment where they get a notebook/journal for the class and write me a letter once a week. I would then correct their sentences and reply to them in the notebook. It will help with their English reading and writing. It's also a good way for me to get to know them better since I have so many students. I've approached a few of my students in each class that I think are a bit bored in class to encourage them to do the optional assignment.

Oh and and since my school is a Christian school, there are student and teacher worships I should attend. The students have one every month and the teachers have one every three months. Both were in complete Korean so I had no idea what was going on. The students from both the middle and high school fill the entire gymnasium; there are students sitting in the bleachers on the three sides on the second floor and students sitting on the floor of the gymnasium too. I got to see how scared my kids were of my Vice Principal at this event for the first time. Since then, I've realized how terrified they are of him. When he passes by my classes in the hallway, my students get silent. It's kinda funny to watch actually. Well, at the worship, he would stand up and point at students and when they noticed, they would completely shut up. It was kinda amusing to watch. He's a scary man when it comes to students' discipline but he's really nice to me and the other teachers. The teachers' worship was held in a room in one of the high school buildings. Tracey, two other new teachers, and I were introduced to the teachers at that session.

So now that I've talked a lot about school and my students, let's talk about my personal time. I went to Gwangju this weekend with most of the Mokpo crew. The real reason I went was to volunteer with and teach English to North Korean Defectors at a Hana Wellness Center on Saturday. Since it was Tracey's birthday on Friday, we decided to make it a party and stay for the night and celebrate in the city. We stayed overnight at Em's (our ETA mentor) apartment about 30 minutes outside of Gwangju. It was a lot of fun. We headed to Gwangju in the early afternoon and then met up with Katelyn and Jason. We got lunch and did some shopping before meeting up with Ben West. Then we split into two groups, the ones that were going to volunteer headed over while the other group did their own thing. We met up with Di Hoa at the Hana Center. There were four and a half people (I say a half because there was a little boy of seven who came with his sister Lucy) who showed up for English lessons. I worked with Lucy, a fourteen year old middle school girl who had really impressive English. She has better English than most of my students, almost on par with my advanced club class. I was really impressed. After volunteering, we went downtown with Di Hoa and met up with Sonia (a returner), the other group we split with earlier, and more additions including Hana, Jessica, Jayeon, etc. We had a lot of ETAs in one place, it was actually really great to see everyone. In a weird way, it felt like we could just pick up where we left off. It felt like we were just on a weekend getaway from orientation and Goesan. I didn't even think about teaching while I was with them. It's crazy because I really do feel like I'm living this double life where I'm a teacher and then live a different life outside of that. We did some walking and shopping downtown. I didn't get anything but then we got dinner.

Afterwards, some people had to leave but the rest of us went to this desert cafe. They have the best frozen yogurt and waffles. It was absolutely delicious. Everytime I go back to Gwangju, I will stop by for a waffle and frozen yogurt. Afterwards, we went to a bar and then eventually to a club. It was a lot of fun actually. When we got back to Em's place, it was around 2am. In the morning, we made breakfast and went to the only coffee shop in her town. She lives in a really small village, smaller than Goesan; it only has one main road. We headed back into Gwangju and Tracey and I split from the rest of the Mokpo crew since we were going to church before heading back home. They grabbed an earlier bus back. Tracey and I met Hana for church and then grabbed lunch before we went back to Mokpo. When I got back home, it was late afternoon and I just spent some time in the living room with the family. My sister 지은 didn't come back home this weekend but the rest of us were just chilling. My brother spent the weekend studying since he has an upcoming exam. I know it's going to be a quiet weekend coming up so I already made plans with a bunch of ETAs to go rafting and bungee jumping this Sunday in Seoul. Otherwise, I have to tiptoe around the house trying not to make any noise. That's no fun.

Today was another typhoon day if you can believe it. Typhoon Sanba hit today and it was a category 2 typhoon so it was supposed to be more intense than the one that hit two weeks ago. Honestly, to me, it felt similar if not weaker than the other one. Regardless, school was cancelled so I didn't have to go in. I just bummed around the house all day. I videochatted with a lot of family and friends though so I feel a little bit more validated.

ETA Love

Friday was really cute as we had some family bonding. After dinner, we all went to the boardwalk/Peace Plaza and watched the Dolphin Light Show together. They show it a few times every night and it's a light/water show with music. It's one of the few things Mokpo has but it's beautiful. When we got back, I baked cookies with the older host sister, 지은 last night. We didn't have any measuring cups and the whole unit conversion thing was throwing me off so they weren't as thick as normal cookie dough; they came out a bit flatter and are super breakable. Regardless, they taste good.

I've been getting more used to teaching now. It's tiring but it's definitely interesting. The kids in each change the dynamics of each day. I also joined a gym with Tracey, which I have been dying for. I'm so used to working out on a daily basis that taking a break for a week was starting to get to me. The first day I worked out, I realized how much pent-up energy I was storing since my body was used to exerting that much on a regular basis.

Saturday was a pretty fun day. The morning was a bit strange though; I woke up a little later than usual and I found my host mom sitting on the couch, not doing anything. The TV was off, and she was literally just sitting there with a cup in her hand. I believe she was just thinking and worrying, aka being a mother. I asked her if she was okay and she said she was so I asked her if she was sad that her daughters were going back to college. I believe I hit the nail on the head. I sat there with her for a few minutes but I think she just wanted to sit alone with her thoughts so I told her I was going back to bed since no one else was awake yet. When I got back up around 11am, my mom, dad, and younger sister 유진 were gone. My mom had left to hang out with my host aunt, my dad had gone to work, and my sister already left for Gwangju to move in some stuff but she would be back in the evening. My other sister 지은 made 동준 and me brunch and then my host dad came back home. Around 2pm, 지은 left for college too. I asked my dad and 동준 their plans for the day and the former was hanging out at home and the latter was going to school later. I knew some of the Naju crew was coming into Mokpo for the day so I met up with them and some of the Mokpo people. That was a lot of fun. Tracey, Robyn, Liam, Lizzie, Annie, Hana, Courtney, and I went to a coffee shop and then walked down Rose Street, where the shops are. We decided to eat at a hotdog place on Rose Street. I was inside about to order when I glanced outside and saw Tracey and Hana talking to another foreigner. Her name is Dakota and she's working at a hagwon in Mokpo. I know very little about her except for the fact that she arrived last Friday, knows no one in the area, knows no Korean, and was wandering around when she saw us and recognized that we were speaking English. She's nice enough but it was hard to engage her a lot of the conversation since she cannot really relate to a lot of stuff we were saying about our schools, our homestays, other ETAs, etc. We took Hana and Courtney back to Peace Plaza and the boardwalk so they could watch the Dolphin Light Show.

About halfway through the lightshow, Tracey's host parents show up since they were in the area. They are super funny. The dad is such a BA. They took us to a coffee shop afterwards and bought us all drinks. It was adorable. Her dad is actually a part of the CIA-equivalent in Korea which is so legit. Anyway, he was sitting next to Liam and Liam was sitting back so his shirt was pulled a bit tighter against his torso so Tracey's host dad starts feeling Liam's abs. It was HYSTERICAL. He wanted to punch them; I was dying.

It's been a good week. It's so nice to see so many friends and I'm hoping to make this a regular habit. As a side note, there's a LOT of foreigners in Mokpo. Apparently there's a huge ex-pat community here which surprised me at first. I wasn't sure how true that was but I've seen tons of foreigners everywhere--on streets walking, at the boardwalk, etc.

Longest Day Yet

I had The class today. The class that makes you wonder why you ever decide to become a Fulbright ETA. The class that you want to skip. That class was today. Class 3-3 was horrific. As a rundown, I got the F word a few times, the middle finger a few times, the F word written on a namecard, students mocking me...shall I go on? Even when I was making an example of a student at the front of the classroom, he was trying to mess with me behind my back; he kept moving the screen and even tried to shut off the projector when my back was facing him. I could have strangled these kids today. I had to have six sacrificial lambs in that class and I still did not get all the respect I wanted. I even had them stay after class and told them how I was disappointed in them and they were being disrespectful and should be ashamed. That didn't work either; they kept talking through that. I have NO idea how to get through to these kids. There is NO respect, in any shape or form that I can see. I hope it'll get better but I'm not holding my breath.

Since I started teaching last Thursday, I haven't really felt that drained from teaching until I taught Class 3-3 today. I was so tired when I left school for the day. Luckily, today was the first meetup of the Mokpo Mafia/Po Po crew. We met at Cafe Bene near the water and then went out to dinner. While walking, I got more glimpses of all the things there are to do in Mokpo; I'm amazed every time I see something because Mokpo is really just so much bigger than I imagined... Tracey and I left directly from school so we could walk slowly and check out the gym (Hue Spozone) that we were going to both get membership to. We stopped by a bookstore too and it was really therapeutic for some reason. It was drizzling and Tracey had left her umbrella at home so we were sharing my umbrella. By the end of the night when we walked home from dinner though, it was a complete downpour.

It was so great to see some familiar faces and talk in English at a normal speed about anything and everything. We ate Italian food (Igio Pasta?) so it was a good break from Korean food. It was also therapeutic to share our experiences with one another and empathize. When I had filled out my placement form, "being close to other ETAs" was not ranked highly on my list but now that I'm here, I see how important it is. I am so blessed and lucky to have so many ETAs around me. I was just so happy to see everyone (minus Sara who couldn't join us today). I walked Tracey home so she wouldn't get drenched by the rain before I walked back by myself around 10pm. It felt a bit odd that I hadn't seen my host family at all all day since I usually spend a lot of time with them so I sat and chatted with them for an hour or so after my shower. Both my sisters are going back to college this weekend so that's a bit sad. Even though it's only been a week, I feel pretty close to them. They come back pretty often from college on weekends but I plan on traveling so I'm hoping to make a schedule where I can at least spend one weekend at home per month when everyone in the family is together.

Instead of being productive, I'm wondering how this year will progress. I start my second lesson tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous for that one. I think the first lesson is easy because it's always an introduction. I've never had so much freedom to make whatever I want. I really get to teach these kids whatever I want to. That's... scary.

Korean Homebodies

When I awoke at 7am (my body is used to waking up at that time or earlier now), it was like someone turned the rain and wind on full blast outside. In the apartment, there are two sliding doors that are outside of the windows. The wind kept slamming them from side to side every few minutes. Being from Florida, it wasn't as scary as I think it would've been to someone else, but I could definitely tell there was a typhoon going on outside. Everyone else in my family was still asleep so I went back to bed. I woke up at 11am and it was the same deal--sliding door being slammed, wind howling outside, family asleep. I stayed up this time though. I honestly say what I was doing because this entire day was a blur of bumming around. I feel a little gross from all the sitting around, laying around, and sleeping that I've done today but I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I've realized that my Korean homestay family likes to stay in, for the most part. I feel like they're a bunch of homebodies. I don't think it's just my homestay either because I've talked to other ETAs and their families are really chill too. When my family woke up, we ate breakfast and I realized that my homestay dad was missing and he had actually gone into the office. It was good to know that someone had actually woken up earlier than me.

He brought us back lunch from Lotteria, which is the Korean McDonald's equivalent. I had a bulgogi burger for lunch... it had an interesting taste... The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the family. We watched tv, I taught my siblings how to play Scattegories (I gave it as a gift to them and it was fun but really hard since their English isn't the best), and I played Wii games with them. It was actually a really laid back and relaxing day. My siblings weren't hungry for dinner so only my host dad and I ate dinner at a pretty late time (9pm). I got a chance to bond with him though when I showed him pictures of my family, TKD, skydiving, etc. I told him that my dad likes to fish since we're from Florida and live 15 minutes from the beach and he expressed that he, my brother, and I would go fishing together some day. Since his English is almost nonexistent, I used a lot of google translate and gesturing.

The Mokpo crew also decided that we would meet on a weekly basis on Wednesday evenings to get dinner and catch up. I'm pretty excited for that tomorrow since it'll be nice to see familiar faces and talk in English at a normal speed.

Typhoon's A-Comin'

So my Mondays are supposed to be pretty chill because I only have to teach two classes and attend a teacher's meeting in the morning. I knew today was a bit different since I was introducing myself to the teachers for the first time at the teacher's meeting. I was pretty nervous for that because I had only prepared a few lines in Korean to say and I wasn't quite sure what the Principal or Vice Principal would say about me when introducing me at the beginning. I didn't want to repeat what they said so I was trying hard to pay attention and pick up key words they might use. The introduction went fine (I think) and I survived my first teacher's meeting. Mr. Lee gave me the rundown of the important things that were relevant to me afterwards so I'm extremely grateful for that. I sat down next to another English co-teacher, Sunny, and she came and said the Principal and Vice Principal wanted to see me while I was talking to Mr. Lee. I went into the Principal's office and saw a bunch of teachers with them. Apparently I'm invited a weekly meeting in their office after the teacher's meeting. Sunny told me they wanted to get to know me better... even though they don't know English and my Korean sucks... it's going to be interesting. They had green tea for me to drink though so that's a plus.

My classes went really well. I think I'm going to really enjoy my Mondays and dread my Fridays--which is not something I expected. In both of my classes, I had no sacrificial lambs or attitude/management problems. The kids seem to respect me coming in and even though there was a little bit of side chatter, they would quiet down when I stared at them or raised my voice slightly. It was a good fear. They would also "ooh" when I would tell a kid to stand up so I guess they're just a more obedient group. So in all my classes, I've been trying to explain the phrase, "what's up?" to them and not all of them are getting it. There was one kid today however that blew me away. He saw me in the hallway and said, "What's up teacher?" It was awesome. I mean, he is the class captain so I guess I should expect him to pay attention and know what's up but still; it was awesome. I guess it's going to be the small victories that keep me invigorated this year. In the middle of my second class, I was called out to go meet the co-founder of the school. It was literally a two minute meeting. I felt kind of bad since I had left my gift for him at home and Tracey had brought hers and presented it to him. It was definitely an awkward moment for me. The co-founder didn't even ask about Sunday School; it was a "nice to meet you...if you need anything, let me know" talk.

My last class ended at 12:10pm and then I had lunch...and nothing else for the rest of the day. This part confused me. I would be sitting at my desk, walking around the halls, and not much else for the rest of the day. When I arrived the first day, Mr. Lee told me to stay until 5pm everyday so I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I blogged a bit (the really long post before this one) and did other random office work. There's actually quite a bit of stuff I can do like lesson plan, create units, etc. but I haven't really hit that yet. I think if I look at it, I might be a bit overwhelmed. My host sisters were really sweet and brought me my gifts that I had left at the house. I was going to present them to the Principal, Vice Principal, and co-teacher at the end of the day. So around 4pm, I marched to their office with my co-teacher and gave them my gifts. I think they were pleased to know that I got them something.

That was pretty much my day at school... oh and a few other random things. I got to eat lunch with Tracey today. Since I didn't have class 5th period after lunch, I just ate a little later with her. Oh and there's a typhoon coming tonight/tomorrow morning so my classes got cancelled for tomorrow. I do however have to go into school at 3pm to make the teacher's worship session at 4pm. Anyway, typhoon Bolaven is hitting Jeju and then making it's way straight up. Apparently, Mokpo is supposed to get hit the hardest compared to the other mainland cities. I'm not nervous but I do live on the 15th floor (the top floor) and my host sisters freaking out don't help. When I got home, they were talking about it. Tonight, at home, it's just me and my sisters. Grandma had a headache so my host mom, dad, and brother went to spend the night with her. We got takeout fried chicken in a sweet, tangy sauce for dinner so all is well on my end.

Life Bubble Popped and Changed

This is gonna be a concise but long post. I started this post a few days ago but things have been so hectic I haven't finished in one sitting. So last weekend was Seoul weekend. The plan was to leave at 3:30am on Friday morning and got back Monday evening around 5pm. Seoul was overall a lot of fun and it was nice that it was all paid for by American and Korean taxpayers (according to our OCs). Friday was planned for us while Saturday and Sunday were our free days. Monday was reserved for our Korean Language Course graduation from Korea University.

Friday

Friday was a really long day. I was up from 3am and didn't sleep until 3am so I was up for 24 hours. This was on top of the lack of sleep I got last week from studying for Korean and preparing for the Talent Show. So the buses were supposed to depart Goesan at 3:30am but we didn't actually end up leaving until about 4:30am since my bus was running late. The other half of our group sat on their bus and slept while we waited in the hot foggy parking lot. It was quite an early start--especially since I barely slept an hour the night previous. We got to Best Western Premier Seoul Garden Hotel near Mapo Station around 6am and dropped off our luggage. Then we got back onto the bus to head to the DMZ. While it's pretty safe for us to visit (so many people have before), it still felt so... eerie to be standing there. We went into the building where they do negotiations and I technically was in North Korea since I was standing on their side. We also went to the 3rd infiltration tunnel demilitarized zone. Apparently it was dug by North Korea as a means to infiltrate South Korea but South Korea found it. Then NK said they were just mining for something (I don't remember) but when SK checked, there was no trace of that metal down there. NK also painted the walls of the tunnel to make it appear they were just mining. We also stopped by a train station that connects to NK and other countries. SK uses the train system to mail in aid, food, etc into NK.

Afterwards, we headed to the US Ambassador's house. We had a pool party with delicious American food. It was crazy. The Ambassador was there and so was the KAEC staff. I did swim, although not everyone did. We ate Costco burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, etc. It was heavenly.

The last order of business was to go to the Fulbright Building and get a KAEC Contract Review with Mrs. Shim. She went over the entire contract with us and what it entails so we can expect certain things from our school. By the time it ended, I was barely awake. I made plans with other ETAs to nap for two hours when we got back from the hotel before we went out. The aim was to be out of the hotel by midnight. Then it got pushed earlier to 11:30. Next thing you know, a few minutes after I got out of the shower and into my bed, the phone rings and Jet tells me we are going out at 10:30pm--or in fifteen minutes. Being the trooper I get up, get dressed, and put on an energetic face. We went to Sinchon 신촌 to find a bar since we heard it was a hopping place for young people. There was a LOT of young adults around but we weren't quite sure where we could find a bar... seriously. We eventually ended at "Ho Bar" and it was surprisingly a lot of fun. I've found that Koreans in generally don't seem to like to dance very much, unless they are in a club. It feels like there are very strict norms of where you can dance and where you cannot. Ho Bar was one of those places where you don't but you can bet we danced. Everyone was watching us but it wasn't too bad; I think they actually enjoyed it. After Ho Bar and wandering aimlessly around, we went to "Zen", the same free club we went to in Hongdae 홍대 for about an hour before heading back to our hotel. We were all exhausted by then.

Saturday
I woke up and met with Payal, Hilary, Jet, Cameron, Taylor, and Thomas in the lobby of the hotel around 10am. We went to Idae because the guys wanted to get a haircut and Taylor and Payal wanted haircuts. All the boys ended up getting their hair cut but neither Payal nor Taylor got a haircut. The latter did get an eyebrow wax though. We had split away from the boys so they could get a haircut together. The four of us girls looked for a place to grab breakfast/lunch. We ended up at a coffee shop of sorts where I had the most sugar in a long time. I got honey bread (which is essentially just Texas toast bread with honey and whipped cream) and a frappuccino-like drink. I pretty much was on a sugar high for the rest of the day. It died after a few hours though and it didn't help that we didn't eat again until dinner at 7pm-ish.

The day was kind of a blur. Jet and Cameron left to meet up with Cameron's friends so there was only five of us (Payal, Hilary, Taylor, Thomas, and myself). We went to Deoksugung Palace, which is not the biggest or most famous but it was a nice, simple walk. Saturday was also overcast and we got caught in the rain a few times. We also walked to Gyeongbokgung Palace but by the time we got there (4:30pm or so), we realized it wasn't worth it since it was closing at 5pm. We stopped by Kyobo, a huge bookstore that sells English books. I purchased a GMAT book since I know that's in my future plans and I will have some time here so I might as well start studying when there's an hour or so here and there. Plus, with all the traveling I'll be doing, I know there will be long trip periods where I am just sitting on a bus; I might as well be doing something productive. Anyway, after a lot of walking around and bumping into a few other ETAs on the street (Tyler and Ryan), we ended up at Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was super expensive, more so than in the States, but it was worth it. Then we headed over to North Seoul Tower to see the city all lit up. At Seoul Tower, we ran into Christina and Lauren. Seoul can be a small city where you will find people you know, I guess.

The view of Seoul reminds me a lot of Hong Kong except for the fact that the tower is placed pretty strategically closer to the center of Seoul. In the Observatory deck, I was able to walk 360 degrees around and see lights everywhere. In HK, it's one or two views, but breathtaking nonetheless.

There was a different atmosphere to Seoul Tower though. It's a couple's destination for sure. They even turned love into a capitalistic venture: couples can buy locks and other love-related items and lock it onto a fence or tree after writing very sentimental and cutesy stuff on it. It's really disgusting actually. I'm not saying love is gross but some of stuff is absolutely ridiculous. There are ones from First Dates saying "always and forever" and the like. WHAT IS THAT. It's the FIRST DATE. C'monnn. I think only about 20% of those locks actually made it to marriage and of those 20%, only about two thirds of those are still married, in love, or not cheating.

By the time we left and got back to the hotel, I was exhausted and my feet were crying out. But when push comes to shove, it's time to go out. And Saturday night was Hongdae night. We went into Zen (of course) and then paid cover for Harlem, a club, which also provided entrance into two other clubs, Noise Basement 2 (NB2) and another. NB2 was absolutely ridiculous, in a bad way. As Stephanie very accurately put it, it was like going through your mother's birth canal again. There was no room to move and there was not a moment when I was not pushed up against two people. I was being touched and grabbed and the problem was that I had no idea who was doing it. We left after attempting to push through to the dance floor and got nowhere. We headed to Harlem instead and that was a great idea. It was a fun night and it involved lots of dancing. The non-Asian looking Americans received a lot of attention since most of the ETAs were on stage and everyone was staring at us. Thomas and Jet in particular got a lot of attention. I danced until about 5am. Then a bunch of us decided it was time to leave to head back to the hotel. It was definitely memorable since so many of the ETAs (more than usual) came out.

Sunday
With God's grace, I somehow managed to get up for church service at Jubilee (English service) around 8:45am. It was really encouraging to worship in English with other Christians. After the service, we split up and I left with Tracey, Hana, and Katelyn. We went to get brunch in Itaewon at Suchi's, an American diner of sorts. It was kinda expensive but worth it to get an omelette and french toast. Then we headed to Myeong-dong to go shopping. It's a huge outdoor and indoor shopping area with tons of international stores and local brands too. After a pretty long day there, we headed to Hongdae to go to Bau, a dog cafe. So there were about thirty dogs or so (no kidding) just running around all over the place. The minute they took a poop or peed, someone immediately wiped it up. It was actually pretty clean but did smell like dog, as expected. They were absolutely adorable.

I now want a greyhound; there were two baby greyhounds running around and I fell in love with them. They have the most awkward run and are so lovable. The dog cafe alone took the icing off the cake. Since we had a check-in with the OCs at 10pm, we headed back to our hotel for the night. I spent some time outside in the lobby and in our hallway chatting with some people but it was a quieter night than the previous few nights. I also met up with my group since our Korea University Korean Language Graduation was early the next day.

Monday
We left around 8am to go to the Fulbright building to get a health/medical lecture by Dr. Linton, Director of Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital International Health Care Center. He was pretty impressive and gave us some really great information about what to ask for when going to a physician in Korea and where we could get vaccinations, etc. Afterwards, we left for Korea University for our graduation ceremony at 11:30am. First they presented us with our graduation certificates and then each group gave their presentation.

There were some videos and some live acts. I personally preferred the latter and there were some really great ones. Then we had a refreshments reception afterwards (very good food) where we got to spend some time with our Korean teachers for the last time before placement. Then we left for Jungwon University, our home for only another two days.

When we got there, we barely unpacked our stuff before our third roommate, Korena moved in. All the returning ETAs were arriving that late afternoon before our meeting at 7pm. There were about 40-something renewees and 80 of us new ETAs so it was a lot of ETAs in one room; interestingly enough, the number of renewing ETAs is the highest this year than it has ever been. The meeting was a lot of "getting to know you" but I thought it was necessary. It was odd because it felt like Graduation and Freshmen Orientation all at once; not only were we saying goodbye to people we've been living with and hanging out with for the past seven weeks, but also meeting new people for the first time. Honestly, I thought the renewees were really great. I didn't meet anyone who was super condescending about how much they've already experienced here, etc. We also got our homestay information at the meeting. I found out that my homestay dad was a travel agent, my mom was a housewife, and I had three siblings--two sisters in college, and a younger brother in 1st year Middle at my school. I was going to live in an apartment about 10 minutes walking distance from my school. I wanted to figure out how close I was to the Mokpo crew so a few of us gathered in someone's room to Naver map (Korean equivalent to Google) it.

After a short Bible Study (where I was late since I forgot we had it until someone mentioned it) where I got to meet some of the returning ETAs who are believers, I headed out to B&B for one last night celebration with everyone. Departure Day (D Day) wasn't until Wednesday but we had to give in our Master Keys on Tuesday so Monday night was our last night out. I had a good time at B&B, spending time with my ETAs and the returning ETAs. I got some ice cream with a few people before heading back to Jungwon. Since we left pretty early (around 2am), I wasn't tired yet so I walked around the track with Dan H for some time chatting about life and what-not. Although I haven't spent a lot of time with Dan before that other than a few conversations at Camp Fulbright, we had quite a few things to chat about. Around 5am, Jayeon appeared out of nowhere and asked if we could let her in; she left her keys in her room. She had fallen into the river while walking on the rocks so she was soaking well as well as a bit intoxicated; overall--it was quite funny. It got funnier when she laid down on the bleachers and said she was going to stay outside until sunrise (in two hours). Dan and I did persuade her to go inside though so the crisis was adverted.

Tuesday
Tuesday was our real last day in Goesan. I woke up really early, given the fact that I stayed up until 5:30am. I got up around 7:30am so I could throw in my laundry before everyone else did since it was a huge packing day for most people. Around 9:30am, Tracey and I walked into Goesan for the last time to go to the glasses store. I have 20/20 but I wanted some glasses with fake lenses to wear for a bunch of reasons: I wanna look smarter, I wanna intimidate my students when they first meet me (I think glasses help for some reason, don't ask me why), and I've always wanted to try it. I bought a pair of big lenses for 10,000won; Tracey says they look decent on me. I've worn them to every class so far since I wanna look a certain way on the first day of class for each of these students. After heading back, it was a day of packing and hanging out with people at the pool party. I think I mentioned the fact that Jungwon has a huge water park in the back at one time or another but we finally got a chance to play in it. I went into a hamster ball and it was pretty sweet. It rained a lot of the time but it didn't matter much as we were already in the pool. After the pool party, we had a "special" last night dinner of 삼겹살 which is grilled pork with other things you can wrap in lettuce. There's not much to note after that. It really was just a time to pack, hang out with ETAs before we all left for different places, reflect on Orientation, and prepare for the grant year ahead of us. I didn't spend a ton of time with the other ETAs because I was tired from packing and lack of sleep the previous night but I don't feel like I missed out. I will see the people I want to see so I didn't feel like I really had to say goodbye.

Wednesday, aka Departure Day aka D Day
Christina and I officially checked out of our room around 7:45am and moved our small luggage we were carrying with us to the TKD room on the 9th floor. Until 9am, the morning was ours to get breakfast and hang out with our friends. Mrs. Shim gave us a departing address in the TKD room and we had time to take pictures and spend time with our friends.

We also got our Alien Registration Cards (ARC) and settlement stipend along with paperwork and contracts. The ARC is pretty legit--that's all I really want to say about that...

Around 10am-ish (I forgot), we got into our placement order and marched up towards the large auditorium on the 11th floor. I felt like we were sheep being herded. It's all kind of a blur now. I remember feeling really anxious. We were told to keep an eye out for our co-teachers/Principals/Vice-Principals/etc who would be there to take us to our homestays. The minute I walked into the auditorium, I could smell the flowers. I would say that 75% of the people brought flowers for their ETA. I was hoping I would get flowers just so I would see who my co-teacher was and didn't have to scan the entire crowd trying to figure out who was there for me. Luckily, Mr. Lee, my co-teacher, did bring me flowers. I remember watching each province getting called up, groups of people stepping forward, individuals stepping forward, Koreans running up to the front with flowers, etc. It was really weird watching my friends being called because our departure became all the more real. It was also weird to be called up because it means there is a person who is literally there just to pick me up to take me away from Goesan, Orientation, and my friends.

After the ceremony, we were supposed to find our co-teacher/Principal/etc and go to lunch with them. We would talk to them about logistics such as shipping our luggage and which day we would start teaching, etc. My co-teacher and Principal were there to pick me up; my co-teacher's English is so-so but my Principal's English is nonexistent. So Mr. Lee seems to understand what I'm saying to him, for the most part, but he is slow to respond. There are times when he just doesn't respond. But I did find out that he came in a car so I could take all my luggage with me and that I would start teaching the next day. The latter part took me off guard because we're only supposed to observe on the first day, as a part of our contract. What cheered me up was lunch as we ate at the Guest House instead of the Jungwon cafeteria and it was DELICIOUS. It was buffet style and the line ran down the entire hallway. There were at least 30 different dishes--I'm actually not exaggerating. The three of us were actually the last ones in the dining room but Tracey, her co-teacher, and her Vice-Principal saved us seats with them. Tracey and I are at the same school but she teaches the high school while I teach the middle school. There was a lot of small talk but Tracey's co-teacher led a lot of the conversation. I know I'm not supposed to compare but he's really good at English and Tracey is decent at Korean so there's no problems of communication there. At the other end of the spectrum, my co-teacher's English is so-so and my Korean sucks so there's a huge communication issue.

After lunch, my co-teacher had another meeting/lecture by Mrs. Shim so I went back to the TKD room and continued with the goodbyes. When we moved our stuff down to the first floor to wait for our real pick-up from the co-teachers, it really hit me that we were leaving. When I saw a few co-teachers coming out from the elevator, things sped up quickly. Within a span of 10 minutes, half of the ETAs were gone. My time came quickly; my co-teacher and Principal came down and we walked to their car with my luggage. We packed up and got into the car and then I saw Jungwon pass by through the window. I passed out in the car really quickly. I think it was food coma but I couldn't distinguish between that and just being tired. I woke up a few times but kept falling back asleep. There was a short period of time that I stayed awake and the Principal was asking questions about my family through my co-teacher. Other than that, it was a quiet car ride with music playing through the radio.

Mokpo was a lot larger than expected. I thought it'd be a small little one-street downtown, only slightly larger than Goesan. I was mistaken. It's not a huge city like Seoul but it's got a name for itself. We stopped by a restaurant and followed my Principal to a table with a woman and a man. I thought it was my host father and mother. I found out later that night that it was my host mom but the man was just another teacher at my school. My host father was away on a business trip in Seoul. Dinner was delicious. Any food after eating seven weeks of Jungwon food is delicious. I'm not a picky eater and I thought Jungwon was fine but everything does seriously taste better. After dinner, I got in the car with my hostmom and drove home. Her English is not the best; she doesn't understand everything I say nor can she express what she wants to say but she can understand a few words. If I speak slowly enough and use a lot of gestures, she can grasp what I'm trying to say, for the most part. I met my co-teacher in the parking lot of the apartment building I will be living in for this year and we took our luggage up to the apartment on the 15th floor (the top floor). Then he straight up left... I wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do but it felt weird that he just left. I was greeted at the door with two host sisters. As mentioned, they're college students so I didn't expect them to be at home, I expected them to be at college. To be quite frank, I wasn't sure how I felt about having college sisters. I was really looking forward to having a younger host brother, someone I could teach things to and play sports with, etc. I wasn't sure what to think about having sisters who were only a year or two younger than me. I think I assumed they would be boy crazy and super girly, which is not something I am. So I guess I was more scared about what they would be like than anything else. They were really nice when we met and I sat with them in the living room for a few hours chatting. The oldest daughter's English was the best out of the three of them. It was during this time that I found out my host dad was in Seoul for work since I was asking where he was. My host brother came home around 9:10pm. He attends a hagwon after school Monday-Friday until 9pm. They asked if I was tired around 10pm and let me go to my room to unpack and lesson plan since I was teaching on Thursday. I was up pretty late actually since I didn't make my powerpoint yet and I still needed to tweak my lesson plan. Around 3am, I passed out only to have to wake up a few hours later for school.

Thursday
I woke up and got ready for breakfast by 7:10am. Even though my sisters are on break, they still woke up to eat breakfast with us. Usually, our breakfast consists of cereal with milk and bread with jam. There's fruit sometimes too. After breakfast, around 7:45am, my little brother, 동진, and I walked to school. His friend Shim usually walks with us too; he meets us at a corner. Since today was my first day at the school, I was trying to remember how to get there and back home. It's actually a REALLY short distance to the school. I'm pretty sure you can see the apartment buildings from the school. 동진 took me to one of the teachers' offices in the front of the school where Mr. Lee was. He then took me to my "temporary" desk in another office on the 4th floor. I was told that I would be changing offices soon but was sitting at Dan Lambert's (the ETA from last year) desk. He left me a letter and a mug as a gift. The letter was an introduction into the school and some other random information. It was pretty useful. Mr. Lee spent some time with me because I had a lot of questions and requests such as getting a student roster, teacher roster, schedule, etc. I felt kinda bad since I knew I was asking for a lot and he's probably really busy. After a while, he left me alone and I got time to sit at my desk, read over some of Daniel's stuff, do last minute tweaks on my lesson plan, etc. I was supposed to teach two classes on Thursday so I was a bit nervous about that. Also, Dan had a few students write me letters which he attached to his letter to me. Most of them were anonymous and not all of them were the nicest. There was a letter that ended with "Welcome to Hell <3." How does someone add a heart to the end of that sentence?! I was a bit nervous about teaching after reading that. But I knew what I was going to do for each of my first meetings with each class; I was going to wear my fake glasses that make me look more intense, not smile, have at least one sacrificial lamb, and be really strict. I was hoping to fear them into submission and respect on the first day so I wouldn't have any classroom management issues or attitude problems for the rest of the year.

My first class was all girls 2nd year Middle. They were super rowdy when I first walked in. Oh and interestingly enough, the person who wrote the letter ending with "Welcome to Hell <3" was from this class. They signed it with "person from 2-7" and my first class was 2-7. When I came in, they were sitting with their friends chatting. I told them to sit in number order. There was a lot of grunting and I even heard a girl say "Problem" when I asked if they had a problem with my command. I was super serious about it and they started to move. With my loud voice and lack of smile, I think they knew I was serious real fast. Daniel had told me he was really lax with his students so I think a lot of them assumed they would be able to walk over me. Hell no. I had one sacrificial lamb in that first class. I had the girl stand outside by the window. There was a co-teacher in the back of the room but he just sat there. He told me after class that he liked my teaching methods though. That encouraged me to keep being tough in class. My second class was a bit rougher than the first. It was all boys and I ended up having four sacrificial lambs in that class. Yeah I know it seems a bit much. The co-teacher was a bit more "involved" if I can even say that. I say involved because he did a lot of disciplinary work for me. When I sent the boys outside, he would have them get on their knees and put their hands on their necks for the remainder of class. That hurts after a while... capital punishment is still very much alive at my school. I've also seen teachers hit their students with sticks in their offices after class; I think the teachers tell the students to go after class to get punished for something in class. Overall though, it seemed like a decent day.

So I'm at the middle school on the right hand side and Tracey is at the high school on the front, and the cafeteria/gymnasium is on the left hand side. All three buildings face a large soccer field. I ate lunch with Mr. Lee and when I wasn't teaching class, I hung out at my desk. I also met some other English co-teachers. Mr. Cho is probably the best at speaking English and he told me he was going to move my desk to the new office while I was teaching class. My new office setup is a bit strange... I am in the very corner office (new wing, just constructed I believe) and it's just me and Mr. Cho in the office. It actually is connected to the classroom right next door and there aren't any panels on the top window so when someone is teaching in that classroom, I can hear everything. I feel really isolated from the school, students, and teachers. I only teach classes on the 4th floor, within three classrooms since the students all come to the 4th floor for their English class. I don't get to travel much within the school since there's not really a reason to go to the different floors other than to see Mr. Lee. I'm hoping that I'll start hanging out with my students in the gym once I get a bit more acquainted with the school and my classes.

I thought my day was going to end on a good note and Mr. Lee and I were even going to go open my bank account. Around 3:30pm, I headed to Mr. Lee's office to see if we could run and open my account (and maybe a cell phone account) and he mentioned that we needed to be back by 4:45pm to have a meeting with the other ETA and the Principal. I was really confused because I wasn't sure what it was going to be about. At the same time, Mr. Lee asked me if I wanted to talk to the other ETA (aka Tracey). I didn't even know our office phones had that capability! I called and she gave me a quick run down of the situation: the high school Principal wanted us to teach Sunday School on well, Sundays on a regular basis. She asked me what I thought about it to make sure we were on the same page--neither of us wants to do that. We don't mind teaching at a church but we don't want to teach on Sundays. I got off the phone and felt slightly more prepared for the meeting with the Principal. Mr. Lee and I went to SK bank where I opened a checking account and then we headed back to school. I thought the meeting with the Principal would be with my middle school Principal too but I was mistaken. I think the high school Principal is the head Principal and I ultimately answer to him since he's above the middle school Principal. Mr. Lee and I walked into the high school and into his office to find the high school Principal, Tracey, and a lady who I had not yet met. She turned out to be another teacher at the high school who is pretty much fluent in English; she might as well be American. Tracey prefers asking her questions since her English is so good and she's more available than her co-teacher. The lady actually was an ETA co-teacher three years ago but the school rotates co-teachers. As sweet as Mr. Lee is, I used the lady as the main translator. Long story short, the Principal kept pushing for Tracey and me to teach on either Saturday or Sunday morning/afternoon. I honestly thought we did a really good job dodging saying "no" directly and using "maybe" a lot. It was a long, very drawn out meeting that went in circles but we ended up coming to an agreement on Friday from 3-5pm...at least that's what I thought. I thought the conversation was over since he went onto small talk and sports and the song Gangnam Style. He even brought out his iPad and searched for it on YouTube and tried to watch it while we were there. It ended up being quite a long meeting and I didn't get back to my desk to pack up until around 6pm. Then I walked halfway home with Tracey; I live a lot closer to the school than she does but we're in the same direction. It was so great to see her. Even though it had only been a day since we last saw, it just felt good to see someone familiar and talk without worrying about being professional and having your face "on".

I headed home and ate dinner with my sister and then sat around and did some random work/lesson planning/etc for the rest of the night. I still think I need to get my bearings down.

Friday
When I was sitting at the dining room table, my host mom said that dad was back. He had gotten in really late Thursday night and was still asleep. I was going to teach four classes on Friday, double the number of classes I took on Thursday so I was a little intimidated but it wasn't too bad. The kids were a little more rowdier and I had a bunch of sacrificial lambs but overall, teaching was expected. After my class, I went to my desk and Mr. Cho, the English co-teacher who sits next to me, told me Mrs. Shim asked me to call her back at 11:30am. I was floored. Mrs. Shim has all the power in the world, at least in my current world, and then some. I knew it had to be about the Sunday School thing the Principal had talked to us about the previous day. Long story short, there's a misunderstanding of sorts and the high school Principal had called her that morning and said that Tracey and I said no to teaching Sunday School. I was told to work it out with my co-teacher and Principal again. I felt pretty drained after that conversation but had to continue on with my day. It's not everyday where you talk to your boss' boss' boss' boss on the phone.

I met again with the Principal and Tracey that afternoon. He still was pushing for us to teach on Saturday or Sunday but we we had already made up our minds and weren't willing to teach on the weekend. After that meeting, Mr. Lee took me to get a cell phone. I got a used Samsung Galaxy S and a plan for 5 hours of talk and unlimited data. It's an Android and I like it so far. The rest of the night was spent at home, hanging out with the sisters. We painted our nails and watched TV. I also got to meet my host dad, who's pretty boss. He's really tan and doesn't speak English but I can tell he's a nice man. I passed out really early; I think I'm getting old.

Saturday
I woke up around 7am to go on a run since I haven't worked out much since arriving in Mokpo. I'm looking to join a gym soon (this week or next). It was also a good way to see a bit of Mokpo. I ran down a few roads and noticed that there is actually quite a good number of store around town. It wasn't even like I ran all the roads since there are many roads. Mokpo is not as small or rural-like as I assumed. It's actually a city, or it feels like it at least. It's comparable to Cheonnan or Cheongju, I would say. Everyone except for my host mom was still asleep when I got back home and showered. After breakfast, we got ready for the wedding. My host sisters curled the bottom part of my hair so it was a bonding moment.

The wedding was in Gwangju so we drove an hour to get there. The bride is my host mom's cousin. I got to meet a lot of the family on her side at the wedding. I got to meet my host mom's mom (aka grandmom) and her brothers (aka uncles). The wedding was... interesting. I think the ceremony is comparable to an American wedding but guests kind of do their own thing; it doesn't seem like there's a lot of respect and quiet for the ceremony or the couple. A lot of people were chitchatting during the ceremony; parents were feeding their kids; people were texting, etc. There actually weren't enough seats so the doors to the ceremony were open and a lot of people were coming and going as they pleased. We had gotten there on time but there weren't seats for six of us to sit together so we ended up hanging out on a bench outside. When I first met grandmom, she didn't seem entirely pleased to meet me but I think she warmed up after a while. My host sister said that grandmom told he I was charming; that was cute. I didn't spend that much time with my uncle and his family but they nice enough. When the ceremony was over, we went downstairs to where the reception/lunch would be held. It's not really formal here, it's very much come and go as you please, buffet style. There was so much good food and a lot of it reminded me of home. Afterwards, we headed back home.

So I really wanted to walk around Mokpo and get a better sense of the city. Even though I ran a few streets, I knew there was a lot more that I have not yet seen. I asked my siblings if they wanted to walk around since we got back from the wedding around 4pm and our parents were out on a date. My sisters said it was too sunny and hot and that we would go later or another day. Korean girls are OBSESSED with their pale complexion and are set on staying away and out of the sun as much as possible; it's a bit obsessive actually. So instead of exploring the city I'm living in, I watched "Street Dance 2" with my sisters in the living room. My day picked up later at night though. The home phone rang and it was my dad calling to say that he was coming home with uncle to drink. He had dropped off my host mom about an hour earlier and she had gone to bed because of a headache. My host dad and uncle (mom's brother) showed up not too long after with a bottle of scotch whiskey, ice, Pringles, and a package of sausages. It was pretty funny. My host sisters and I heated up the hot dog sausages and they sat down at the table in the living room. They asked me to join them and hey, I decided I might as well. They also ordered fried chicken and we made it a family event. We all sat around and ate fried chicken, Pringles, and sausages. Later that night, as my uncle got more drunk, he started telling me about how much he doesn't like Japanese people because of Dokdo Island. It's an island that Japan and Korea disputes over. My uncle is quite a character and his English is almost nonexistent but he sure is good at gesturing. My other uncle also showed up but I only talked to him for a little bit. The second uncle's English is really good. I think he's a BA since he had this huge tattoo on his arm. Overall, I build some 정 with my host dad and uncles.

Sunday
One would think Sunday is the day for rest and church. Not so on this particular Sunday. I woke up at 6:45am so I could go play soccer with my host brother 동진, and his friends. We used a middle school field (not our schools) but got kicked off by an adult team and walked around looking for another field. We ended up at a tennis court where I was introduced to a soccer-volleyball mix game. It's soccer in that you can only use your head and feet to hit the ball but the goal is to hit the ball over the net. It's... interesting and I'm really bad at it. It got really outside very quickly and I feel like I got super tan from just being out in the sun. It was cool walking around my 동준 and his friends and it helped me get a better sense of what's nearby the apartment. I saw even more shopping streets (that cars don't drive through) which made me pretty stoked. It's good to know there are places to buy things.

So I'm thinking my family is a homebody family since they never seem to leave the house. After soccer, I lounged around the apartment with the family and Skyped with my real mom and some other friends. Around 1:45pm, I left my family to meet up with Tracey to go to an English service at a church. Her family had found one for her so we were going to go together. We took a really roundabout way to get there since we weren't exactly sure where we were going, to be frank. It was really good to see her and spend more time with her though. As much as I want to say the church service and fellowship were good, I can't really sad that. I'm not sure the speaker's message rang completely true and his English was also a bit harder to understand for my ears. So after the service, Tracey and I hung around in the back to get a drink and some people greeted us. There was some small talk that occurred but what really struck me was the fact that a girl we met wanted to give me her number to hang out. Another guy who's English is not that good, wanted us to play soccer for him on the all-girls' team he was putting together. To be polite, I took her number and her Kakao Talk ID was automatically added to my account. She contacted me later that night asking for my number. A few hours after that, the guy called me and wanted to talk to me about soccer practice. Talk about moving fast. I politely declined and then he tried to kakao talk with me... it was interesting.

I got home around 4:30pm and my host mom said that we would go grocery shopping in a few hours. My host brother was napping when I got back home. I only mention this because he didn't wake up until Monday morning... he pretty much hibernated for over 13 hours... To kill time, I watched "Lockout" with my sisters. Like I said, my family members are homebodies. We went to EMart around 7pm and picked up some groceries. I would say that EMart is the Walmart equivalent of Korea; there were a lot of families there doing their grocery shopping. Afterwards, we went out to a restaurant behind the apartment to eat samgyeopsal 삼겹살.

My first weekend in Mokpo has been really relaxing. I really like my host family but I'm just trying to get used to my school now.

There's not that much left to say except for the fact that a lot of students are always looking through the window at me. They have to tippy toe in order to see me though since there's a layer of fogged window so I always notice when they're trying to stare at me. I think there's less excitement since I'm Asian though.

Last, but DEFINITELY not least, I present my homestay family...

한국어 수업은 끝났어 (Korean Class is Finished)

I have officially completed an intensive Korean language course by Korea University. It was 100 hours jammed into 5 weeks. We had four hours of class Monday through Friday. I took my final four hour exam on Wednesday, August 15th. It was an hour for a reading session, then an hour for a writing session, and the rest for an individual role-play/interview/speaking session. It started out fairly easy and got progressively harder. I'm pretty confident I did the worst on the interview/speaking session. I spent two very late nights studying for it. I was up until 4am on both Monday and Tuesday night. On Monday night, around 3:30am however, I got a "lucky" break. Hilary and I were the only ones left in the ETA lounge and she said that the teachers were walking by so I turned around and yelled "선생님". It just turned out to be my two teachers. They were still up writing the exam. They work really hard and stay up really late--we (ETAs) don't really have a reason to complain. They were shocked to see me still up and one of them gave me a hug and said she was really touched that I was studying so hard. The other one told me to go to sleep. I think because they saw me up so late studying hardcore for Korean class, they felt bad for me. I know this because of what happened today. One of the teachers wrote each of us cards and she wrote that she didn't know I was struggling with Korean and studied so hard in my card. We also took a piece of paper and passed it around today and let everyone sign it. The other teacher wrote in Korean on everyone's paper (I saw when I was passing/writing on them) but she wrote in all English for mine. So while it was good that the teachers know that I work and try hard, thus making them sympathetic towards me, they also think I'm very stupid and struggled hard core through Korean class. While it didn't come absolutely easy for me, it wasn't as hard as a struggle as I think they thought it was. But it's all over now so no worries.

The interesting thing about the Korean final is that it doesn't really matter all that much. In Fulbright Korea ETA history, there has never been an ETA who has failed. And let's be real, there is no way I'm the worst Korean student in all of ETA history. I'm not even the worst in my current year. I wasn't required to go to office hours because my average grade was below a certain expectation, etc. There have been measurements and I have done okay, not spectacular, but okay. So the final is more of a formality than anything else. Still though, I had to study; it's my nature to try my hardest. I actually want to continue self-studying Korean when I get to my homestay, but at my own pace. That's one of my goals for sure.

So when Wednesday night came, I thought I could finally get more than 3-4 hours of sleep... that was not the case. As part of my Talent Show committee responsibility, Elaine and I were supposed to make a slideshow that compiles the memories of orientation. We stayed up until 3am working on it. The end result was a 8-9 minute video of all pictures. It may not seem like a lot but each picture was only displayed for 2 seconds... so it was a lot of pictures. A lot of people uploaded pictures onto a dropbox we created but some didn't even make the cut; we had so many pictures. We didn't even finish on Wednesday night, we just ended up going to bed since we were both so tired. We met on Thursday after the workshop to complete it before the Talent Show. We cut it pretty close because once we finished editing, uploading, and saving, I went straight to the Talent Show.

Other than the stress of finishing the video and doing tech work during the actual Talent Show, Thursday was really relaxed. Our Korean class had a fun practice day. The first two hours were spent hanging out, writing each other notes, listening to music, and singing/battling with other classes to a song called "Americano." It was kinda funny. The last two hours were spent practicing our skit for our final presentation to Korea University and the KAEC on Monday. That's supposed to be a super big deal. Our skit is called "Batman and Friends," I believe. We are singing a chorus that's translated into "Batman, Batman, where are you? I don't speak Korean. Help me, help me." Then we have different acts with Batman such as eating, shopping, etc. It's gonna be great.

After the really chill class, workshop, and time I spent with Elaine working on the slideshow, the rest of the day was dedicated to the actual Talent Show. It actually went extremely well. The theme was "Kimchee Games" and there were skits and superlatives involved too. The performances were awesome and the OCT did a "special" show at the end. It consisted of a "jeopardy" quiz consisting of random facts about each of them and then a dance. They were actually really good. The jeopardy was kinda strange; it was a bunch of really inappropriate but funny facts about things they have done. The dance was REALLY impressive. It was a mashup of a bunch of K-pop songs and all the OCs danced at different parts. The skits were almost exact replicas of different scenes of the Hunger Games but with different wording to make it relevant to our Goesan theme. Everyone who acted out in the scenes really got into the role too. Ginger was Effie Trinket and put on cornstarch on her face to be super pale, had a ridiculous outfit on, and was using an umbrella. Thomas and Ben West were the MCs and really looked great since they were dressed up as Claudius Templesmith and Ceaser Flickerman, respectively. All in all though, my favorite act was our RA's, Eun Jong (Rachel) and Caden. They created a video and it was amazing. They created a music video cover of "Gangdam Style" and then had another video of pictures and memories of us. It was absolutely precious and extremely well made. They must have spent hours on it.

It's finally hitting me that we're all splitting up and leaving. It occurred to me after the exam yesterday but it's more evident to me after the Talent Show. I'm a lot sadder than I thought I would be. I didn't realize I could get close to people after less than two months. I haven't fully reflected on that but I just want to spend as much time as possible with people I will miss.

We're leaving for Seoul in about two hours from now--3:30am. Time to sleep.

Am I Getting to That Age?

So it seems like I know a lot of people my age, a little older, or a little younger, that are either getting engaged or married. When I check my facebook account, there is always a status update or pictures or comments, etc about someone leaving the single life. For example, today, I saw two engagements status changes. Yesterday, I saw an album from a wedding a few days ago. Last week, another friend got engaged. There's a pattern here... I'm not quite sure what I wanted to express by noting this but I have mixed feelings when I see these things. One, I'm super happy for the couple and if there's a story/picture story, I always find them adorable; two, I'm usually in shock that I know people getting married. It's different when it's your family friend or your parents' friends but these are my friends, people I grew up with, people I can't believe are ready to get married. I'm a firm believer in the expression, "to each their own," but it honestly blows my mind. When did I grow up to be old enough to have my own invitations to weddings? I don't remember a day when I woke up and realized people my age were old enough and mature enough to get married. Did I miss the memo?

I guess when I think about it, it's been a long time coming... I mean, I think about how people who are either already dating now or are starting to date someone think about whether or not the other person would be worth pursuing as a marriage partner. It was never like that when people were dating in high school. I remember a friend who was interested in another mutual friend our senior year in college. She was talking about his characteristics and how she could see him being a good husband and father. It's true--he's a great guy and I could totally see him being a great husband and father but I was caught off guard about how it was necessary to think about these things when there's an interest in someone else. That has only compounded. Now that I'm a college graduate, it feels like there's a lot of pressure to only date someone who is "marriage potential." While I get that some people have always felt this way--why date someone if not for the purpose of marriage (and I'm a Christian so I get it), I still never really felt that urgency until now-ish, that is Senior year of college and post-graduate life. I would say that most people who start dating in high school aren't thinking about marriage. I can't say the same nowadays. I just wanted to note this because I know more and more of my friends and people I know will be getting married from this point forward.

So today's cultural workshop was about cultural adaptation and setting goals. The title is pretty explanatory. Towards the latter part of the presentation, the OCs gave us a piece of stationary paper and an envelope to write down some of our goals for the year. We were to seal it in the envelope and return it to them. Halfway through our grant year, Anthony, the new Program Coordinator (PC) will mail it to us at our schools. We can then compare what we wanted to do and what we actually undertook. I separated my goals into three categories: school, homestay, and personal. I wrote a lot for each and I'm not sure how realistic all my goals are but I'm going to try to fit in as much as possible once I get into my routine. I'm going to give myself at least a month to settle and adjust before trying to start anything though. That much I do know. I still want to revise some of my goals by the time I finish orientation so I'll post those when I really think them through. I was a bit rushed when I wrote them during the workshop.

Asian Food and Poppinsu

In Korea, teachers are well-respected and that's the norm. Since our teachers have been so good to us, our Korean class took out both of our teachers for dinner on Friday night. Actually, all the classes have taken out their teachers. It was really nice to get to hang out with them outside of the classroom environment. I also learned a lot about them while we were at dinner. The first teacher studied abroad in Australia and in China for a year each. The second teacher studied in the UK. What the heck man. They are so smart, it's absolutely ridiculous. They took us to Shanghai Restaurant in Goesan and it was Chinese-Korean food.

It was actually pretty decent. We also stopped at Tour De Jour for poppingsu with them afterwards. So good.

I actually really like our Korean teachers. They're cute and super nice and friendly. It's also good to know I'll have some friendly faces when I visit Seoul sometime this year.

On Saturday morning, some of the ETAs went to Cheongju for a cooking lesson. I signed up for this extracurricular at the beginning of orientation so I was on the list to go. We went to a cooking hagwon and learned how to make Kimbop and Bulgogi. We watched the instructor make it and then we would go to our stations and do it in groups of fours. The directions are simple enough and I think I will be able to make it on my own sometime.

It was delicious and we had so much food leftover.

Everyone split and did their own thing after that. Some people went back to Jungwon to study or meet up with their class groups for their project/skit, some stayed in Cheongju and shopped, etc. I ended up walking around (and actually bought a shirt for 5,000 won whee) and got a really delicious hot dark chocolate icy drink.

I think I have an obsession with food. It's not a good thing. But nonetheless, when in Korea...

I got a chance to go to church with my teachers today. I ran into one of them while in the elevator and I found out the teachers were all going as well. We went with them to a Presbyterian church in Goesan this time, instead of the Methodist church we've been to. The service was still in Korean (what did you expect) but it was interesting to sit there in church with my teachers. Christianity is a pretty big part of culture here even if Confucianism values are ingrained in the society. I feel that most of the population is Christian though.

So I keep telling people that I wish I had brought *insert random item* to Korea. In my packing list, I wish they had just told us to bring whatever we normally use on a daily basis. This is more specific to clothing than anything else. The Orientation Packet we received should have told us to bring whatever we wear on a daily basis. Then it should have had a clause that this only applies if you wear non-suggestive clothing. Let's be real, I'm pretty conservative in my dress in America so had I brought what I normally wear in America to Korea, I would be perfectly fine here. There is only one real exception to that rule which are tank tops since I wear a lot of those in Florida... I'm only ranting about this because this point of topic comes up pretty frequently. With most of the girl ETAs here, there's this commonly shared feeling. Why were we not told we could wear most of our normal clothing? The packet made it seem like the girls here are UBER conservative and cover every part of their body with the exception of their face and hands--seriously. I was even concerned that my shorts were too short--and they definitely are not. I mean, I didn't bring certain shorts because of that, any of my skirts, casual dresses, certain shirts, etc. And now that I'm here, I realize that all my clothing would have been perfectly acceptable to wear here. It's just frustrating is all.

On another note, I've stayed up pretty late talking to some of the other ETAs. I think I'm starting to build real friendships the longer Orientation has gone. The sad part is that we will all be splitting up and going our separate ways in about a week and a half. Even last night, I went to a coffee shop in downtown Goesan with Payal and Anna and that was nice. We studied for most of the part but it was nice to be with good company; it almost felt like we were back in college again. So there was a meteor shower last night that I found out by passing Sara in the hallway. I googled it and it was apparently the time for the Perseid Meteor Shower so a bunch of us went out onto the track and laid down on the court. We saw a few "fireballs" or flying stars but again, it was just nice to be in good company. Now that I'm getting comfortable with certain people and having real conversations, I have to go to Mokpo for the year. This is why I'll miss Orientation. It's just so simple here in Goesan.

So the more I am thinking about the year, the more I feel unprepared. I should write down goals for my students, for myself, for the things I want to accomplish in Korea, etc. I'm also rethinking my entire lesson plan for the first day. So I heard that one of the past ETAs was extremely scary the first week and he had no classroom management problems after that. On the first day of each class, he picked a "sacrificial lamb" that he made an example out of. So for example, if one kid was misbehaving (in even the slightest way), he would call them out and send them out into the hallway. The kids would immediately take him seriously and he would have no more problems for the year. I think that's my plan as of right now. I'm a bit worried about it though since I'm at a co-ed school and girls can be more unforgiving. Boys will get over it in about a day while girls will let it fester and they'll become bitter towards me. I still have to think it all through but I think this tactic will make the kids hate me at first but sometimes it needs to be done.

I'm starting to feel guilty about being busy here too. It's hard for me to explain to friends and family back home what I'm doing here in Korea, let alone at Orientation. Even friends who understand the idea of Orientation think it's all fun and games. The truth is, I'm really busy. On a regular basis, my day is pretty packed with class, workshops, homework, office hours, meetings, etc. Then you throw in creating skits for your class presentation, writing a speech to present in front of your class, being on the ETA Talent Show committee, etc and you realize just how little time I have. Finding time to skype and keep in touch with people is pretty difficult. I think that's part of the reason why I'm excited to leave for my homestay. I'm ready for a rhythm and schedule that I can learn how to navigate through. For that reason, I am a bit excited to leave Orientation.