My Students...

In case you were wondering what goes on inside the mind of an adolescent Korean girl, I thought I would share their answers to some questions that I asked them which really give some insight as to what their priorities are (keep in mind that their level of English ranges from low intermediate to high intermediate.) I have listed their answers from most common response to least common...:

1. What do you like to do in your free time?
Sleep, playing on the computer/internet, reading comics, watching T.V., watching movies, talking, playing piano, tae kwon do, badminton...I also got one "I'm sleeping" response (this provoked a deep sense of regret inside of me for having interrupted her sleep just to answer my questionnaire, but of course she might have meant that she likes to sleep in her free time) and "talking about friends" (I hope she meant talking TO friends...)

2. Who is your favorite Korean Pop Singer? (It has not taken long for me to realize that music is VERY important to these kids...mp3 players have taken the place of accessories, as they are usually strung around the students' necks like necklaces. It came as no surprise that the answers to this question were the most diverse.)
Super Junior, Sheenwha, Epik High, SS501, Buzz, BOA, Dong Bang Sheen Gee, H.O.T., Rain, U, Tony-Ahn, Alicia Keys, Hyo Shin Park, Maybe, SG Wannabe, Jaurim, S.Papa, Tim, YB, Disciples, Lyn, Kah ee, Hwi, Sung, No Brain, Clazziquai, Trax, Eee Sue Yang, god (I don't know if this person actually meant God, but she was the only who put it so I think she might have...)

3. Where would you like to travel?
Australia, Japan, Canada, Europe, France, Paris, Italy, Rome, "Your home town" in New Mexico (I got a few of these), England, Bali, L.A., USA, Turkey, China, Niagara, Chekoslavaki, India, Egypt, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand...

4. What is the most important thing in your life?
Family, love, friends, happiness, study hard, money, cell phone, success, effort, health, dreams, enjoying life, communication, get a job, have a family, hope, trust
God...

One student actually wrote this list of things and I really thought she broke it down pretty well: "study, sleeping, eating, water and bathroom" This is what most Korean teenagers' lives consist of and not much more.
This student also wrote at the bottom of her page: "Teacher- Thank you. Teacher is very good. You are so beautiful. Koreans very fast. So, be careful! Oh no!"
(I am not sure what that means; actually, I'm not sure I want to know...)

Photos of my weekend....

This is part of the dinner party I partook in. The men sat at one end, drinking all the soju (including Mr. Hyun) while the women were at the other end chatting... I wish I could tell you what they were chatting about, but noone spoke English except Mr. Hyun (who abandoned me for the soju end of the table) and Mr. Hyun's wife, who kindly sat next to me and tried to single-handedly entertain me (what Mrs.Hyun didn't realize is the dinner itself provided great people watching.)


Here Mr. Hyun gives a demonstration of how this wooden backpack works... men would use it to carry large bundles of grain.


This is a tranditional thatch-roofed house that existed on Jeju not that long ago. My co-teacher, Mr. Hyun gre up in one and he's about 59 years old. As late as the 1970's Jeju Island was considered a hardship destination in the Peace Corps.


There is really nothing better than getting to see your American buddies after a long first week in such an alien environment. The bizarre stories continued to flow...


We had a Korean-style picnic, with beer and rice crackers. I met up with this Fulbright gang after a long day of scuba diving.

Sushi and Joongang High School

Here is my co-teacher Mr.Hyun looking very stoic after a few glasses of Soju (don't worry, his wife drove us home.) Mr. Hyun treated me to a fabulous sushi dinner last night.


Here is Mrs. Hyun and I. Mrs. Hyun teaches home economics at a middle school outside of Jeju City. I am the same age as their daughter who lives in Madison, Wisconsin and seems to be the apple of their eye. Their son is Briggs' age and serving in the Korean military, which is mandatory in Korea.


Here is my desk. I spend most of my break time here, because it is right next to the air conditioner and my classroom and the hallways do not have air conditioning. It has been very very hot...


Here is a typical class that I teach. All the girls are pretty timid, but at the same time very tickled and excited to hear me answer the same 40 questions over and over again during my introduction lesson. (I mean literally they ask the same 40 questions that are laminated and I bring to every class.) It was the only way to get them to participate.


Here is my host sister at her desk. She is one of my students; her English is very good.


Here is my high School. Joongang Girls High School with about 1200 students; I teach 750 of them every week.

Pictures of Pool Party, Yonsei Day and New Room!

This is my new room... I know you can't see it all that well, but there is also about two feet at the end of the bed before the wall where I have a hanging rack for nicer clothes and a dresser that is lined up beside the desk. There is a fan mounted on the wall which serves as my air conditioning and the family hooked up the internet in my room so now I have absolutely no reason to leave...just kidding. I love my host family and feel very lucky to have gotten them!
Here I am with my new friend So Yahn who came to get me in Seoul at Yonsei Day (Yonsei is the University where we stayed in Seoul; therefore Fulbright deemed our going away day as Yonsei Day). So Yahn and I will be great friends; I can already tell...
Here we are waiting to meet our principals and co-teachers; it was sort of like being backstage at a game show, waiting to find out what you've won... we were all primping ourselves while Fulbright taught us formal korean phrases to get us through our first week.
My friend Kate and I saying goodbye. We really do look like San Seng Neems (teachers).
I definitely memorized this Korean phrase and have repeated it many times at my homestay, my school, in the taxi (just kidding). Fulbright didn't forget to teach us anything!
Here is a picture of part of the U.S. Ambassador's home (although I'm not sure which part). We were quickly shuffled straight to the swimming pool area where there was a large area of American BBQ foods; it was great!
The pool party at the Ambassador's residence was anything but tame...it was so very American!
Swimming is something I do not take lightly and neither did the girl on my right nor the boy on my left; they were both on swim teams at their colleges. Here we are getting ready to race as fast as we can across the pool underwater, careful not to get tagged.
Here we are in the pool getting organized for a very competitive and rowdy game of Sharks and Minoes...

In the beginning...

Well, it's my second day at school, but I haven't been teaching at all. Tomorrow will be my first day in the classroom with my students. So far I just feel like David Hasselhoff in Germany (i.e. someone who is not famous in the USA but for some unknow reason is loved by a foreign community.) I am constantly being followed by little groups of Korean high schoolers who say "hello" the minute my back is turned, but are too shy to actually stick around when I return fire. I am dressed up in a way that makes me feel like an ultra conservative; black pants, pearls, and no skin exposed (the red flag went up yesterday when a teacher asked if I was Miss America! I mean really!) Today I spent 5 hours at the bank and with the cell phone people (with my co-teacher translating everything of course). I don't know if it's because I'm an American or because I'm Me that I have so many questions about EVERYTHING. My co-teacher probably thinks I'm neurotic with all the questions I was asking, but to me it seemed very reasonable that I would want to know how much I get charged for withdrawals from the ATM (I mean, I never would've guessed that only withdrawals between the hours of 6pm and 9pm are free!). Afterwards, he seemed to be rethinking his own cell phone plan and bank account...Anyways, now my co-teacher and I have new cell phones, which is really nice (he hadn't intended to buy one, but there was such a good deal, he just couldn't resist.) Last night I met up with 3 other female ETAs who live in and around Jeju City... as I hear more and more ETA tales from the ROK, I am convinced that we could write a book. The random things that have happened range from mortifying to scary to downright bizarre. One ETA wrote an e.mail realaying her story about how her host mother took her around the entire village to meet various relatives (she's in a rural town on Jeju Island). When they knocked on the mother-in-law's house, she came to the door topless. The mother-in-law slammed the door in their face when she saw the ETA's white face staring back at her and preceeded to yell at the ETA's homestay mom, who yelled right back in Korean. (it is assumed they were arguing about the situation, but the ETA has no proof, because she couldn't understand a word of it.) Another ETA had an interesting encounter with a young boy on her first day when he raised his hand and asked her to help him decipher a letter he had received from his penpal in Texas. The ETA found herself looking down on a letter full of cuss words mainly aimed at the American boys' parents, complaining that his mom was a #$*)#()@ because she wouldn't #*^$#$@# let him *&%^$#*@ go to the *@&$#(?!#$% movies, etc... (apparently the Americans were supposed to be telling the Koreans about their families.) When the little boy asked if those were Enlish words, the ETA responded honestly: "Yes, that is "real" English, but it's English that noone should EVER, EVER use." The stories go on and on... another ETA told us about how she got lost on her way back from the beach (she is also on Jeju Island.) After about 45 minutes of trying to find her way on unlit, windy streets, she finally stopped and asked a little girl if she spoke english. The girl shook her head and started to walk away. The ETA then broke down hysterically, crying and saying, "Please, please help me..." and the little girl looked at her like she was insane and went and got her sister. The sisters then led the ETA the four blocks to her homestay's house on their bikes. Later the ETA was delighted to find out that the first girl she approached would be a student in her class! I just think it is so very funny how we are all trying to relate what Fulbright taught us to the unique homestays and schools that we have been thrown into. At the moment it seems like whatever we do, we're going to look like idiots, feel like aliens, bow way too much, say the wrong greeting at the wrong time, etc. I have never felt like such an outsider; however, I don't mean that in a negative way. This is exactly why I came to Korea... I wanted a cultural experience that was so opposite my own that it would make no sense in the context of what I already know... and that is definitely what I am getting.

Pictures of North Korea and the DMZ

Here are some South Korean soldiers on guard duty. They stand in that position, which they call Tae Kwon Do ready position so they are ready to defend themselves or attack at any given moment.
This is a picture of Propaganda Village; the sort of manequin town that North Korea built to make themselves look prosperous. Included in the village are modern highrise apartment buildings and the largest flagpole in the world. They would turn on the lights at night too, even though noone really lives there.
This is the table where talks between North Korea and other countries often take place. I say other countries because there are about twelve or so that are part of the talks. I know I'm being a little vague, but our guide was incredibly hard to understand. He often closed his eyes when he talked and I felt as though he was not fluent at all, rather just repeating sounds that he had memorized.
Here I am at a Korean War Memorial. This park was full of memorials from the Korean War...
These pictures make me really sad. Across the river is North Korea; at the forefront of the picture is a white flag wall that is full of poems, letters, etc. to family members who are in North Korea. The bridge that crosses the river is for the train that runs from North to South Korea.
Here I am in the DMZ with a North Korean building (the large silver one) and a little bit of one of the ROK/USA buildings in the background (the blue ones). This picture is a good example of how North Korea must do everything bigger and better than what the ROK/USA does.

My first day of school!

Today is my first day of school, and I arrived this morning at 7am, dressed in the nicest clothes that I brought with me to Korea. I was loaded with a bag of presents and another containing stickers, ESL teaching materials, and my "slippers" which are Adidas soccer sandals which teachers change into when they get to school (This is one of my FAVORITE Korean customs; I had no problem saying goodbye to my black high heeled mary janes!) It just so happened that I arrived at school about 30 minutes before my co-teacher, and for this reason had to find an empty room to stash all of my stuff in. My host sister, Eunnae showed me around the school, and I think she really enjoys being seen with me. She said if there was anything I needed, just come and get her out of her class, but I couldn't quite see myself needing anything that urgent. She is very cute, she also suggested putting all of my stuff on her desk until my co-teacher arrived to open my office. If I haven't mentioned already, Eunnae, my host sister will be one of my students. She is a very self motivated, smart, and over-achieving 16 year old and has been my lifeline into Korean society so far, because of my limited Korean language skills (as you might have noted from my speech; I have no problem talking about myself for 3-5 minutes in Korea, but that is pretty much the extent of my abilities.) Shortly after my co-teacher, Mr. Hyun, arrived we went to give my gifts to the Principal and Vice Principal. Just like everything else in Korea, the school is very hierarchical, so we were warned that the Principal's gift must be nicer than the Vice Principal and the V.P.'s gift nicer than the co-teacher's, etc. Whether it was due to a subconscious rebellion against this tradition, or simply my nerves, I will never know why I accidentally gave the Principal the V.P's gift and vice a versa.... I noticed what I had done immediately after I had handed the gifts out and had to switch them... which is probably something that was specifically mentioned in the Fulbright workshop on "What NOT to do on the first day..." I was very lucky though, because everyone laughed and the Principal said something in Korean, which I imagined to be something along the lines of: "My present must be much more expensive." Next, my co-teacher interviewed me about everything from birthdate to family, etc. because he was preparing an introduction to the rest of the teachers at the 7:50 am teacher's meeting. I was happy that he would be giving my introduction for me, as some of my fellow ETAs had to give Korean introductions themselves, either to an auditorium with the whole school or televised to each classroom. I stood next to my co-teacher as he gave an introduction that I think was similar to the one we had come up with together, although it seemed much longer in Korean and there were many laughs from the audience of teachers, and I have no idea why, but hope it was a good sign. I stood there pretending to listen and smile when they laughed; however, in reality, I understood nothing. Next was a 20 minute meeting conducted in Korean and again, I tried to "Look alive!" as my soccer coaches used to yell to us mid-game. I am now sitting in my office at my co-teacher's desk, because my computer is not working and feel relieved to have some of the aforementioned activities out of the way. I start teaching on Wednesday and am very excited. Today I am getting inernet hooked up in my house so hopefully I will have some pictures to share of my room, house, school, etc. so be sure and keep yourselves posted.

I've moved into my Homestay!

Well, I made it to my homestay in one piece, and feel very lucky to have an extremely welcoming family! My family met my plane at the airport on Thursday and since then they have shown me a great time! I live with a 16 yr. old girl named Eunnae and her 12 yr. old sister named Soojawn. Eunnae speaks incredible English, so she has been my "hearing ear dog" or so it feels like at times. She takes me around and translates most things for me; she seems to really enjoy speaking English too, so it works out great! We have already been to many parts of the city, swimming at the blacksand beach, watched a whole season of Friends on DVD (she owns the entire box set), out to incredible sushi, and today we are going to a swimming pool on the bus. This morning I woke up at 6am to go play badminton with my host mother and Eunnae. Three hours later we emerged from the gym, drenched in sweat and went to breakfast with the whole crew of early risers. My host mother does this every morning, including weekends, only usually it's at 5am, but on Sundays they sleep in til 6am; hmmm...reminds me a little of my own mother. I was very impressed with my host mother's badminton skills; she's really quite amazing and certainly didn't seem even tired after 3 hours of playing! My school starts tomorrow, but I won't be teaching until the following monday. I learned that I will be teaching 21 classroom hours per week, which is a little more than expected, but will be fun. I will have the first grade and second grade High School girls (high schools go grade 1-3, 3rd graders are seniors.) I teach English Conversation, so it's going to be fun, I hope. I don't have to worry about teaching formal grammar or anything, just getting the girls to speak and listen to English is my main goal, which might prove harder than it sounds from what I've heard. I am so excited to explore more of this island; it's beautiful! I promise to put up more pictures soon!

DMZ and Splashing Around!

Yesterday we left Chuncheon, where we've been living throughout our orientation, which is about 2 hours from Seoul. We moved our stuff onto buses and drove to Seoul, where we checked into yet another dormitory, this time at Yonsei University, which is a very well-known University here in Korea. This morning we woke up and boarded buses for an all day tour of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). Basically the DMZ is a neutral zone between North Korea and South Korea that is controlled by the military from both sides and the U.S. Today we found out that there is one village of civilians who live within the borders of the DMZ; it is a town called Freedom Village. The villagers who live there are families who lived there before the Korean War. They farm rice and make approximately $84,000 a year tax free. They are very wealthy, but they have a strict curfew (they must be in their homes by dawn and spend the night in their village 240 nights out of the year to prove they are a resident.) It is the military's job to protect this village and the people who live there, as well as keep an eye on North Korea. We asked what the villagers spend all their money on and the response from our Army guide was: "They drive tractors by day and BMWs by night." The DMZ was impressive, but also a little tense; we had sign a waiver to our safety, were not allowed to point or wave at any of the North Korea soldiers, or even take pictures in the direction of North Korea. At the DMZ there was a special unit of South Korean soldiers that could be deployed within 60-90 seconds, (their record was 38 seconds.) As our Army tour guide pointed out to us: "Ya'll can't even brush your teeth in 38 seconds." As you can tell it was a very interesting tour and I can now say that I have seen North Korea. Some of the interesting differences were the fact that their hills were treeless, in large part because they have abused their land to the extent that it looked quite barren despite the rolling hills and mountains. We also saw Propaganda City just across the border, which is the town that was built to make it look like North Korea was doing well. It had modern high rise buildings and the world's largest flagpole flying a North Korean flag. After the tour we headed to the U.S. Ambassador's residence where we had a pool party/American BBQ! It was so great; we played marco polo, practiced our synchronized swimming, and played other games after an refreshingly American meal that included salsa, macaroni and cheese, fruit and veggie trays, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, Doritos, and chocolate chip cookies! Tomorrow we meet our school principals and co-teachers and head to our respective placements. As I mentioned before, my placement is in Jeju City on Jeju Island and I will fly down there tomorrow. I haven't posted pictures of teh pool party or the DMZ yet, because I'm not on my computer, but I definitely will as soon as I get a chance; there are some very interesting ones!

2006 Fulbright ETA Talent Show

Well, I have decided to post some of the pictures from our talent show... it was quite an interesting aray of talent. To be honest, I'm not sure it all qualified as talent, but we didn't discriminate when we were admitting acts, as we thought we might not have enough people... just kidding. Some of the interesting acts included, but were not limited to: Making an oragami swan blind folded and standing up, a beat boxing competition, a rhetorical burping argument, Russian poetry, opera singing, skits that poked fun of ourselves and those in charge of us, hula dancing, a traditional Chinese water sleeve dance, a Tae Kwon Do demonstration of the first poomse (followed by a demonstration of foam board breaking set to music from the movie Rocky), a rock song entitled "Fulbright Unite" played on a violin and electric guitar, a demonstration/lecture on how to win at Tic Tac Toe, and a Potpingsoo eating competition. At the end there was a slide show demonstration and there were awards given out throughout the show. I actually took home the "Most Likely to obtain a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do" award for which I received a ziplock bag full of candy hurdled at me from the stage by the talent show hosts; I felt very special.

A skit, making fun of our O.C.'s, which are essentially our counselors that run the day to day operations of our orientation.

Dana and Steve performing a funny rock song they composed called "Fulbright Unite"

Alex and Robin in a sort of burping competition, it was supposed to be an rhetorical argument, but they surprised us all by belching their way through it...

Julienne performin a traditional Chinese watersleeve dance.

Graduation Day!

Well, we're all excited because we've graduated with very good grades (for the most part) from the rigorous Korean Language course that Korea University has put us through over the past 5 weeks. On Thursday we gave speeches to our homeroom classes (about 12 students in each.) The speeches were about a trip that we have taken in the past and were meant to incorporate a lot of the vocabulary we've been learning. I wrote about Panama and a rough translation is as follows:

"My name is Jenn. I like traveling, so last year I went to Panama. I went by airplane. I was in Panama from October to November. I went alone, but met many people there. Panamanian food is delicious, therefore I ate often. I like swimming, therefore I took a bathing suit. I didn't go shopping, but I took lots of pictures. When I came home my mother was very happy."

The word that comes to mind when I read my speech is: "semi-informative," actually maybe "primitive" is a better word. As you might have guessed, the length and difficulty of the speech's composition was completely dependant on the fact that I had to memorize it, therefore it had to fall within the limits of my language capabilities (those who strayed from those limits by using their Korean/English dictionaries wished they hadn't when it came time to memorize.) Friday we had our closing ceremony which included some speeches, creative dances to Korean Pop music, a traditional folk song (someone played the violin and it was beautiful) and a slideshow. We were very happy to receive praise on our grades, as most of us had studied very hard for our final exam (which was Wednesday and is part of the reason I haven't been writing much on this blog.) Tomorrow is the big talent show which I have helped to organize and will be showing off my Tae Kwon Do skills. I am part of a group of about 6 that will be performing the first poomse and doing some sparring. I will let you know how that goes and hopefully have some pictures to put up tomorrow.

Birthday parties and Yellow Belts

It was my friend Jy's 22nd birthday the other night, so we went out and got the traditional dish called Takalbi, which is known to be especially good in this region of the country. It's a really hot chicken dish that they cook in a grill in the middle of the table, and everyone eats directly out of the grill (with chopsticks of course.)


After dinner we all went to a large bar, where we could all sing on a personal Karaoke machine, and celebrate our young friend's birthday. (Actually, she's of average age, I'm just old compared to this group.)



Last Thursday we tested for our yellow belts and all went well. Tonight our Grand Master took us to his Do Jong (Tae Kwon Do gym) and gave them out to all of us. I must say that we still have a ways to go before we're black belts (which might be apparent from the pictures) but we are all very excited and really enjoy practice. I plan to continue when I get to Jeju Island and eventually obtain black belt status.

Doosan Resort, Chuncheon, South Korea

It's Monday morning here, and I am trying to get organized for the crazy upcoming week. I think we are all getting anxious to move on to our homestays and assigned schools, as most of us feel pretty well "orientated." The past month has been a good experience in and of itself, but it's time to move on, and I am excited to teach. Most of the kids in my group headed to Seoul this weekend, but three of my friends and I stayed to enjoy some of the local Chuncheon sites; we were not dissapointed. The weather here turned very hot earlier this week, low 90's plus extreme humidity, so yesterday the four of us set out on a mission to find a swimming pool. We found a wonderful resort right on the river, called the Doosan Resort that looked somewhat western, except for the fact that everyone there was Asian. We layed by the pool for four hours, which was the first time I've had a chance to swim since I got here. The pool was crowded, but everyone seemed very accepting, in fact they seemed to like having some foreigners around to gawk at and occassionally tried to practice their Enlish with us. When we first got there my friend Rohit and I were sitting on lawn chairs talking, when a little boy holding a toy car, no older than two years old, slid off his father's lap and walked over to Rohit until he was right next to him and gave him a little bow, then he walked over and did the same to me and went back and climbed up onto his father's lap. I don't know if you've ever seen a toddler bow to someone, but it was adorable to the point of laughter. After swimming we took a taxi cab to a waterfall that is about 15 minutes outside of town. We hiked and watched as Korean families picnicked and played games in the water with each other. We ended our day with a great dinner of cold noodles with vegetables followed by a bottle of wine on the front steps of our University, (no alcohol allowed in the dorms). I have posted some pictures of our weekend above.

In Korea everyone makes the peace sign with their hands when they get their picture taken, and everyone has a different reason for why they do it. One person told me it means "Kimchi" (like the food) and another told me it means you're happy... whatever the meaning, EVERYONE does it including adults, small children, and even foreigners!!!

Tae Kwon Do Pictures

Me with our Grand Master. He's a 7th degree black belt and flies all over the world judging competitions; we still haven't figured out why he's wasting his time with our large group of American white belts...

4 fellow ETA's; they followed me around until I took their picture

My roommate, me and our friend Cara; practicing in the lounge of our dormitory

Getting ready for practice...