Sometimes I feel as if I am the "pet foreigner" that my host sister begged her mom to let her have, and therefore is in charge of taking care of me. Maybe it is because my host sister is my translator or because of the fact that my host sister's homeroom teacher asked her if she would like to host me just a mere two days before I arrived, but on occasion I get this vision of my little sister coming home from school that day and pleading with her mother: "Please, please, Mom; can I keep her?" Regardless of how it came to be; I am now here, and my host mother has been more than gracious about inviting a foreigner into their small home for an entire year. This weekend we experienced the presence of a typhoon that made everything I did a damp experience. Aside from that fact, my weekend turned out to be very entertaining and insightful. Friday night I found myself at home, conference calling on Skype with 4 other Fulbright ETAs, all of whom are living on mainland Korea. Some might have called it a low point when we all realized that it was 11pm and this was a big Friday night for all of us, but it was nice to have their company, even if it was through such a vast medium (i.e. the computer.) Saturday I was invited to have lunch with a co-teacher from my school who happens to be yet another "Miss Kim" (I have met quite a few). On a side note, some people refuse to give me their full names, because they don't think I'll be able to understand or remember it. To this day I do not know my host mother's first name. When I arrived I kept saying to my younger sister: "What is your mom's name again?" My host sister would hesitate and say: "Ummm...you can just call her oma." (Oma is short for oamanni, which is the Korea word for mother.) So now, when I have a foreigner over to the house and introduce my mother, I must say: "And this is my mother." I guess we all must call her Oma, which feels very odd, considering the woman is only like 40 years old. Back to my weekend, Saturday I attended an "English Festival" which is a good example of something that was lost in translation, because leading up to this "English Festival" I had pictured sort of a fair with booths, games, and maybe costumes, but after attending the "English Festival" I would liken it more to an "English Production." This was the thirtieth anniversary of the University of Jeju English Department's existence, so it happened to be an extra special "English Festival." No one mentioned that to all of us foreigners who they invited to attend, so some of us showed up in ratty jeans and sweatshirts, rather than the formal attire that adorned most of the Koreans who were in attendance. Luckily my outfit fell somewhere in the middle. The current English students performed the musical The Sound of Music, which they had adapted into a sort of modern Korean version, meaning that at random moments the lights would go out and they would be dancing to Korean pop music beneath disco room lighting...very interesting, and funny. Afterwards we were shuffled upstairs for a very delicious sit down dinner, where people from around Jeju Island introduced themselves to us and were all very welcoming. Sunday morning the typhoon was still in full force, so I assumed that my lunch date with one of my co-teachers would be cancelled, but instead she called me and insisted on picking me up at my house. Something that I did not know before I got to Korea is that a typhoon means heavy, heavy rains, but the real reason the weather is so hard during a typhoon is that there are heavy winds that blow the heavy rains sideways into you, so you can't keep yourself dry under an umbrella. Anyways, we went and had an amazing tofu lunch at a restaurant in the country which is famous for it's tofu. This was by far the best tofu I have every had; they make it themselves and the process leaves a left over soy paste that is also delicious! My friend, Cheehee then took me to a photography gallery which used to be an old school house. The photgrapher, Kim Young Gap, died a year ago, but his work was amazing. He photographed the Odims (small mountains of Jeju Island) and the photos are indescribable. He could easily be compared to Ansel Adams. This old school house has been transformed into an Art gallery where his large panoramic photos are on display. Cheehee is trying to help the gallery get more money in order to expose his work to a more international audience. I don't think I mentioned that Cheehee is an incredible do-gooder, and therefore is always over-committed. She runs marathons, volunteers at the girls orphanage, and seems to work for almost any and every cause that is worth working for on Jeju Island. I can tell Cheehee and I will be great friends. So after the gallery, she had to drive to Seogwipo to meet with some of her old students to help them with their college applications, so I just rode with her (we were already halfway around the island) and took the bus from Seogwipo back to Jeju City. It was a really wonderful weekend. I feel like I'm getting to see so much in these first few weeks. One final note... this morning I attended the weekly Teacher's Meeting where the only things I understand are words like 5 o'clock, 9 o'clock, which seems to be useless information if you have nothing else to fill in the gaps with. Anyways, they passed out some sheets that were sort of like itineraries, and because I was sitting next to Cheehee this time, she translated. My name was on the sheet! I am in charge of supervising 4 other teachers and all the students who will be involved in the English play and the English Contest at our school's Winter Festival in December! Good thing she translated for me, or I may not have known to even show up...