Summer Camp Finishy

My current view:

Well. It is official. It. is. finished.

Summer English camp at 포천초등학교, that is.

I just finished cleaning up my classroom, took out the trash. Another couple of hours in the A/C before it’s officially the weekend!

What’s on the agenda? Laying low this weekend. Half day of work Monday before a few days off. Hope to catch up with some of my former WA girls in Seoul during the week. And Friday: en route to Bangkok, Thailand.

How did I get here? When I met Alexis, one of my first Pocheon friends, we’d sometimes imagine how we’d feel at this point. A year seemed so long. And honestly now that It (i.e. The End) is almost here, where did it all go?

Exactly ten months ago today I experienced arguably the longest day of my life, a trip to the other side of the world, the beginning of an… experience (to say the least). I was thrown into the proverbial pool and had a decision to make. Again and again and again. Sink? Swim?

Life hasn’t gone swimmingly every second this side of the international dateline, but I can say I’ve managed to stay afloat in more ways than one, I’ve made some cool friends (“My Korea Friends”, I call them: a hodgepodge, a mini-melting pot of characters and personalities and people in similar pairs of shoes), and I’ve done super cool and crazy things I never imagined I’d have the chance to do. Make kimchi, eat ricecake, drink makgeoli, then dance around a huge field in the middle of the city with a few hundred random strangers? Check. Fall around a big inflatable pool filled with mud and about twenty other mud-covered individuals? Check. Ring in the New Year on a frozen beach while letting my hopes and dreams for 2011 float into the sunrise? Check. Learn to really love sleeping on the floor? Check check check.

What awaits? A little less than a month of travel (including a visit with Tubtim, one of my former students who is Thai). And a little more than a month of teaching. October 1: contract finishy. Can’t even think about it. It is so exciting and scary and sad. The saddest part is that I have these adorable children (well, adorable when they are not running through my office screaming at the top of their lungs playing hide-and-seek with each other and closing my internet browser windows… and even then, they are pretty cute) that I’ll likely never. see. again. But our lives go on. Yes.

I’ve learned to take risks (not as in engaging in wreckless behaviors but going farther outside of my comfort zone than I was previously… um, comfortable doing); I’ve tried things I wasn’t so sure would interest me (and had a blast). Honestly, if the job opportunities (teaching English) that exist in Korea were available all over the world, I don’t believe I would have come to Asia. But coming here was an opportunity that happened. I went with it, and I’m happy I did.

After a visit to the post office this week, I’ve begun thinking about those special people whose paths I’ve crossed who most likely will never know what a great help they have been to me. I call them My Buffers. As in, those who have protected me from shock, helped me out in otherwise difficult situations, have made life easier.

One of these in particular is a security guard at the post office in Pocheon. When I step inside, she always comes right over. Some people in town will brush me off or practically refuse to do business with me when I attempt to communicate with them with my VERY limited Korean, some English, and mostly hand gestures. Most will meet me halfway. But she goes above and beyond, always managing to figure out what I need, gives me things like bubble wrap and tape that I’d have to pay like $2.99 or more for at home, and makes the effort to communicate in English (without ever apologizing sorry sorry sorry that her English is so very very bad).

There are so many kind souls around this place that I’m thankful to and for… Kim Yuna, the 3rd/4th grade English teacher at my school who does everything for me that most co-teachers do for NETs, has been the go-between between myself and the administration/others at my school. She’s also the one I had at times early on become the most frustrated with since she is always delivering messages (messages both good and… well, sometimes unfavorable). Park Eunseon, who, despite her limited English, pregnancy, and responsibilities to her newborn and family, has seen to it that I am doing well and has taken excellent care of me from the beginning. Last year’s 6-5 class substitute teacher who is one of the cutest older Korean gentleman I’ve met and has always seemed concerned that I am doing well here. Our encounters are usually limited to: “Eat a lot.” and “Yes, it’s delicious.” But he’s done more and cared more for me in our limited interactions than most others in our workplace have since I’ve been here.

And countless others.

This has been the ride of a lifetime. It’s not over yet, though!

And who knows where I’ll be another year from now? (No, seriously. If you do know, give me a clue.)

Until next time, enjoy some photos from summer camp (and a photo or two of a man wearing gold shoes at the local bowling alley).

Finally Joined a Korean Gym; Ran Out of Excuses Not To

So it took me over 9 months to join a gym.

I’m not going to rattle off my long list of “reasons” (*cough* excuses *cough*) why it took so long. Instead, let me share with you how good it feels to be running again, to be lifting weights. Maybe I’m just imagining my arms firming up, leg muscles becoming more defined. Is it too early to tell? Maybe. But it’s not too early to feel good about making healthy decisions.

There are a few aspects of my life I can’t control.

I can’t control what’s served in the school lunch, but I can control what I choose to eat.

I can’t control the monsoon, but I can join an indoor gym.

I can’t control afterschool/weekend teacher trips, but I can workout at 6am.

I can’t control the hills I encounter every day, but I can work on my leg muscles and do more cardio.

I’ve known all of this for quite some time. But the right thing is not always the easy thing. The first spurt of my year here, I was in vacation mode. Gotta eat/do/try everything. After life here started feeling more like, um, life, I cooked up all sorts of reasons why joining a gym wasn’t for me. I could work out in my apartment. (Yea, right. To the one workout DVD I have saved on my computer?) It would be a waste of money. I wouldn’t go. I should start eating healthy BEFORE I get active again or else it’s a waste. Wrong wrong wrong.

The gym is literally a 3 minute walk from school, so I’ve been going immediately after school, before I have time to change my mind.

You gotta do what you can. Whatever you can. And although I sometimes indulge in sweet and sour chicken or tempuraed sweet potatoes or a double helping of chop jae at lunch, running 5k after work is the least I can do. The afternoon is a key time to work out, as the 4-6pm window is usually when not-so-healthy food decisions occur.

I once read that it takes 16 days of doing something in order to make it a habit. It’s been a week. I have 84 days left in Korea. I’d like to leave this place feeling more energized than when I arrived.

On another note, there are a few contraptions at my gym that I’ve only seen here. Sometimes I feel like I’m competing with the guy next to me as we stare into the mirror, game faces on, lifting weights. I made friends with a few nice ladies this morning in the locker room. “See you tomorrow!” People watching at a gym here is great. There are funny little moments that happen, subtle nuances, and from time to time a totally “I can’t believe he/she did that!” or two.

Right now I’m off to walk into a cave, ride a boat, and sing karaoke on a bus with some teachers until tomorrow night, though. More to come.

Plans for After Korea

I haven’t updated in awhile. There’s so much to say.

Probably the most important thing I’ve got to tell you is that I love hard-boiled eggs with a pinch of salt. I never in my life thought I’d be the girl who boils up a half dozen eggs and brings them along to school or on weekend trips as a snack.

Hm, what else is new? Lately Pocheon City has seen the arrival of more native English teachers, and we’ve got quite a motley crew of foreigners around these parts. One of our most fun nights out involved a Korean barbecue this past Tuesday night in a part of town about 15-20 minutes south of where I live followed up with a stop at our local GS25 and then noraebang (“singing room”– the Korean version of karaoke where you rent a room with your friends and sing your lungs out and bang tamborines around for as long as you want to pay the hourly rate).

The next day, out of work a few hours early, about fifteen teachers from the area along with most of our Korean co-teachers got together in the afternoon to learn how to make Korean traditional snacks and how to properly pour/drink tea.  It was a fun time, although I think that by the time we were all huddled on cushions on the floor around teapots, most of us were ready for bed due to the previous evening’s noraebang.

Lately I’ve had more and more people ask what my plan is for after this year, whether or not I will renew my contract, etc.

It seems that  a lot of English-teaching jobs in public schools are being cut, at least in my area. Some of the positions will open up for a March 1 start, and some schools will be discontinuing their Native English teacher program, as I believe is the case in my school (although the answers I’ve received are all very “maybe”).

I’ve enjoyed my time in Korea, and I would like to come back and experience a different school. It really is what you make of it and although I haven’t had the most ideal of work situations in terms of my “main” coteacher, I’ve learnt a lot about how things go here. As slightly (okay maybe more than slightly) disfunctional as my partnership with the one coteacher is, I couldn’t imagine working with anyone else under any other circumstances. Learning to adjust and adapt my methods, my behaviors, and my attitudes (as much as I am comfortable with and of course in accordance with my principles)… well, learning to do this, I think, has made me stronger, more flexible. More tolerant. More respectful of things which in the beginning served no purpose other than to apparently confuse and frustrate. When it matters, I stand my ground. But I’ve learnt in which situations it’s important to give.

My timeline over the next several weeks/months is as follows (we’re still not on summer vacation here):

• two more weeks of class before the kiddies are out for summer
• two weeks of summer English camp for grades 3 through 6 that I’ll be teaching with three other English teachers (two of whom I currently coteach with), one at a time
• four days of desk-warming (hanging out in the office)
• sixteen days traveling Thailand
• the new semester begins: three weeks of class before we have a 5-day weekend for Chuseok (Korean harvest holiday in mid-September)
• two weeks and two days of class before my contract ends (October 1) and I fly home

In October, I will once again participate in a Habitat for Humanity build in El Salvador. I also ask that you keep me and my team, the Habitat staff, the masons, families and local volunteers with whom we will work in October in your thoughts and prayers.

I’ve begun working with a recruiter to find a job in Korea that starts in February or March of next year, so between October and the springtime, I will be at home, catching up with family, friends, and hopefully working in a yet-to-be-determined job. (Anyone have any leads?)

There is just so much to see in Korea, and I really do enjoy the adventure of making a (temporary) life here. Once you get over the initial hurdles of culture shock and adjustment, life here is easy. There are still things that are so uniquely Korean that I’ll never completely “buy into”, and some minor frustrations pop up from time to time, but my mission here is not yet complete. So in the words of Brett Favre: (maybe) “one more year!”

Quick Jindo Update and 27 Changes to Come

Jindo was a fun trip. I got to spend time with friends, make new friends, and travel to a part of Korea I haven’t yet been able to. The sea parting didn’t happen as expected/planned, but we still had a fun time. I don’t have spectacular photos for you of the trip as it was mostly overcast, but I will post a few soon.

For now, here’s a photo of an ADORABLE Jindo dog:

In other news, I turn 27 tomorrow. I kicked off my birthday week yesterday with a happy hour of sorts with a few friends outside of one of our local 7Elevens (it is normal here for people to sit at plastic tables and chairs outside of convenience stores and eat and drink). I’ll be celebrating with friends tonight (a friend of mine has a birthday this week as well so we’re doing a joint birthday dinner at our all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ), having dinner at my place with girl friends Friday, and visiting one of my former students and her parents for brunch/lunch on Saturday. It’s sure to be a fun week.

Stay tuned.

On Missing Things at Home

The first holiday I spent in Korea was Thanksgiving but as it fell mid-week I was occupied with school.

Christmas (which fell almost exactly at the three month mark, usually a rough time to begin with, culture shock-wise) was hard, but bearable. Having celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with new friends lessened my “homesickness”.

As time goes on, being away from home becomes easier… but…

But it’s the special, in-between-the-holidays moments that come and go… the weddings, the birthdays, the impromptu gatherings and reunions, the niece-and-nephew milestones and new baby news… it’s those moments that make my heart ache from time-to-time and bring forth a sudden tidal wave of emotion.

I’ve said it before: culture shock comes in waves. Subsequent waves are not as strong as those in the very beginning, but the highs tend to follow emotional lows often “triggered” by seemingly minor events.

This morning I spoke on the phone with a group of friends (gathered together for one of my best college friends’ wedding) I haven’t seen in many months, some in years. Friends who haven’t all been in the same room at the same time, themselves, some for years.

It was: joyful, fun, funny. A blast. It was immediately comfortable yet simultaneously awkward. So much has happened since our last meeting. How do I answer your questions? How do I sum up my life, my joys and sorrows, how do I explore my excitements and frustrations, my highs and lows, in a ten-or-less word answer? I don’t believe I’ve made a mistake in coming here, but in an instant, I feel the strain on relationships that results from living halfway across the world.

Tomorrow is a new day. And no, it’s not all about me. I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t connected 24/7 via the internet to people that speak my language– literally and figurately. I’m thankful I can open up Skype or pick up the phone and so easily chat with the best of friends.

I will allow these feelings to wash over me, accept them, and let them go as they came. Do the best I can to maintain my relationships and to be the best friend, daughter, sister I can. Explore and enjoy life this side of the world, then go home an improved version of the gal who landed at ICN in September 2010.

Still: you can’t wrap this all up in a cute little package with a bow. I can’t just put a band-aid on it and magically feel better. Did I say the right thing? The wrong thing? Should I have sent more cards, letters? I should have absolutely DEMANDED my vacation time from my VP at a time that is not contractually allowed. Argh. No. No regrets.

Please know: I want to be there with all my heart.

I know tomorrow will be a beautiful day in Green Bay. I wish I could be there, but more so than my desire to teleport, I am excited and extremely privileged to be a part of the lives of my friends whose love is as unconditional as it gets and whose lives are going amazing and wonderful places.

… Friends who put up with my absence, seem genuinely interested in my adventures abroad and always always welcome me home with open arms and  hearts and ears and guest rooms.

Jindo Sea Parting Phenomenon

This weekend, I’ll experience the parting of the sea at Jindo Island, which is located about 5.5 hours south of Seoul via bus.

Watch this video to see exactly what I’m talking about.

More to come after this weekend’s adventure!

Long Weekend in Gangneung

This Monday, June 6th, we celebrated Memorial Day in Korea, and therefore those of us native English teachers in public schools enjoyed a three day weekend. Three friends and I planned a little trip to Gangneung (강릉), the largest city on the east coast, and it was absolutely exactly what I needed. A perfectly relaxing and fun weekend.

We decided to stay in Seoul Friday night, once again at Mr. Kim’s Myungdong Hostel. Fun times, fun people all around. I think I may or may not have been invited to a yet-to-be-scheduled wedding…?

Saturday morning we departed from the Dongseoul express bus terminal for Gangneung, a projected 2.5 hour ride. (I’ve since discovered there’s an express bus from Uijeongbu to Gangneung, so maybe I’ll try that should I plan another trip to Gangneung. It’s sure to cut down travel time and I wouldn’t have to go into Seoul first.) The ride actually took about 3.5 hours, and we pulled into Gangneung terminal around lunchtime. While we waited for our ride to our accommodations, we (what else?) enjoyed a cold beer outside of Family Mart across from the bus terminal (yes, it is very normal to enjoy adult beverages at tables outside of convenience stores here).

Our transport, Im Ho Seong, the owner of our pension, arrived in his vehicle complete with Tweety and Sylvester seat covers.

It was impossible to find pensions online by searching in English– thank God for Google Translate and my barely-there hangul skills. I found a few listings online of pensions apparently near the beach with photos I liked. A Korean friend (the girlfriend of a good Pocheon friend of mine) had reserved our room at the pension and negotiated a discount AND free transport to/from the bus terminal. For all four of us, we paid 80,000KRW total for two nights (less than $80USD). Ho Seong spoke a little bit of English, enough to be able to have simple conversations and get good advice about some area attractions.

Pensions here in Korea are similar to bed and breakfasts in other countries and usually consist of a home with rooms you can rent for the night (or several nights). Many of the beachside hotels and resorts cost an arm and a leg (or at least more than I feel like paying), and I hadn’t yet stayed in a pension. We stayed at Gyeongpo Dae Pension (경포대 펜션), which is located about 10 minutes (walking) from the beach and right in front of Gyeongpo Lake. This is where we stayed, and had a great time!

Our room had a kitchenette inside and enough bedding for the four of us to sleep on the floor. Here are our “beds.” Over the past months, I have adjusted to sleeping on firm/hard surfaces. I think we all slept pretty well here.

And here’s Gyeongpo Lake right in front. 4.35 km around. Great running/walking/biking trail.

After we settled into our home for the next few days, Ho Seong offered to drive us to the Danoje Festival, along the river in downtown Gangneung. Danoje is the most important festival of the year in Gangneung and kept us busy for the rest of the afternoon and early evening.

At the festival, we came across some dancing Soju bottles. I seriously never knew three dancing bottles could be so entertaining/captivating, but I’m pretty sure we watched them (along with a crowd of others) for a good 15 minutes or so.

Then we caught an excerpt of this show,

a couple members of our group had their hair rinsed with iris water (believed to keep away evil spirits),

and we saw this guy making noodles.

We pass some HUGE chunks of meat (I should have included a human being in this photo so you have an idea of how big this was… some of the pigs we saw roasting were bigger than us.)

and enjoyed some traditional music.

We caught a taxi to the beach where we relaxed for a little while, walked back to our pension, and made new friends with a bunch of 20/23 year old Korean girls. We shared soju and wine, snacks, and they amazed us with all of these crazy cheers they have for each other. Although some of them claimed “no English”, we communicated with each other enough to have a really fun time with each other.

Hannah and I were up early Sunday morning to run around the lake– a great start to our day. We walked down to a cute cafe near the beach and had coffee drinks.

We wanted to have some tofu soup in the nearby Tofu Village, so we walked along Gyeongpo and Gangmun beaches and found our way to Todam Sundubu for some of the best tofu soup we’ve ever had: 순두부전골.

We explored a traditional home in a nearby park,

Back to the beach we went, of course

where we stayed for the next several hours, picking up snacks and drinks, soaking up all the sun we’ve been missing during the long winter months.

I attended 7:30pm Mass at Chodangdong Cathedral (a $3 taxi ride from the beach), one of the most unique Catholic churches I’ve been in, aside from the underwater castle one Oliver showed me in Austria a few years ago. Afterwards I chatted with the priest who speaks English very well and was a pastor in Oakland, California for four years.

While I was at Mass, the other girls picked up dinner fixings at E-Mart, lots of veggies for grilling, salad and samgyeopsal! We had a great dinner out on our veranda and made some new friends with some Korean people in their 50s/60s that are elementary school friends and got together that night at the pension.

Monday morning, after a walk around the lake, a coffee to go, and a ride in a bicycle/cart built for four, we took tons of pictures in this beautiful garden just near the pension,

saw some people riding TINY scooters,

and got a ride back to the bus terminal for the journey home. There was more traffic on the way home, so the ride took a little over 4 hours to Dongseoul.

What a full, fun, relaxing, amazing, great, fun, funny weekend!

 

34 Things I Didn’t Necessarily Ever Imagine I Wouldn’t Do, but Simply Never Thought I’d Do… and Have Done… in Korea

1. visit (and technically cross) the world’s most heavily guarded border
2. learn to bake all sorts of things in a toaster oven
3. get asked by a coworker to explain the English word “menstruation”
4. find out that South Africans are the coolest people in the world
5. successfully read Korean (albeit half the time I don’t know what the words mean)
6. consider spending a second year here
7. witness a fist fight in the middle of Myeongdong between Mickey Mouse and Snoopy
8. eat kimchi everyday and enjoy it
9. reunite with an Alpha Xi Delta sister halfway around the world
10. simultaneously experience both affection for and confusion with a culture
11. barely bat an eye at being the last to know important work-related details
12. navigate the Web in a language that is neither Spanish nor English
13. wonder what life will be like when I don’t use chopsticks all the time
14. fall in love with Discovery Channel by default
15. grunt as an acceptable response to 95% of questions/statements
16. long for a boneless fish fillet
17. find it completely normal and natural for two grown heterosexual men to walk down the street hand in hand
18. remember not to let my ondol pipes freeze
19. sleep on a warm, hard floor and love it
20. understand what the voice on the public buses is saying
21. Wine Train
22. get asked by a new friend for my cell phone number in case the girl he really likes doesn’t want to hang out with him
23. translate for a Korean person
24. think about how crazy it will be when I can understand the majority of conversations occurring in my general vicinity
25. travel across an entire metropolitan area for pancakes and an omelette
26. make the universal “X” with my arms at least twenty times a day as an appropriate response to 95% of questions/statements
27. make decisions such as: Which beach should we travel to this weekend? One on the east coast, the west coast, or the south coast? (all within a few hours bus ride)
28. watch freshly caught eel go from aquarium to chopping block to tabletop grill to my mouth in a matter of minutes
29. stand on a freezing beach (after waking up in a cake and sandwich cafe) waiting for the first sunrise of the new year
30. open a sparkly silver door to tiny Korean coworker bodies bopping around an even tinier noraebang (singing room) at completely 45 degree angles whilst air-guitarring/belting out rock music (Who are these people? lol)
31. live and travel so comfortably and confidently in a country where I don’t speak the language
32. eat unrefrigerated food I normally wouldn’t touch (milk sitting out all day? no problem!)
33. allow others to plop unknown food into my mouth
34. judge the size/success of a town by the presence of a Dunkin’ Donuts/Paris Baguette/etc.

Open Class Tomorrow

Tomorrow I’ve got my third open class. Next Wednesday I have my fourth.

What’s an open class? An open class is a class to which teachers and administrators from my school and other schools in the area are invited. I was here only a few weeks when I received word that I would have an open class a couple weeks later. And then, less than two weeks after that open class, I was to teach another for parents of students (an open house of sorts where parents sit in on classes) to my most poorly behaved of my eight sixth grade classes.

I taught the first open class with the fourth grade teacher who heads up the English program at my school, a teacher with whom I didn’t regularly teach. I met her class a few times before the open class; we reviewed the material so the kids would “perform” well. The idea of an open class is one that was pretty foreign to me, and I still have trouble wrapping my head around why we expend our time and energy on these things when most Korean teachers are so busy with administrative reports and other responsibilities… but: when in Korea, right?

Oftentimes, the open classes are rehearsed, staged, and things happen in an open class that don’t happen in your everyday classes. I’m really not trying to judge here, but to tell it like it is. And this is what happens.

Korean teachers generally stress out over open classes, hope to create a spectacular extravaganza, often preparing activities that just plain don’t work in your everyday classes, often promising the kids a treat in exchange for good behavior. The day of my first open class, with fifteen minutes before I ran off to teach first period in the other building (open class occurring ten minutes after that), I was told I would lead the majority of the lesson instead of splitting it with the Korean teacher 50/50 as I had previously been lead to believe. I hadn’t even looked at most of the material! The teacher was extremely nervous, and I quickly realized that my job was not to stress out alongside her, but to be a rock. Show up in my skirtsuit, appear cool and confident (despite the sweat pouring out of my armpits and soaking my blouse), lead the lesson. A Vanna White of sorts, if you will. In the end, the class went well. Only two people outside of our school attended as invitations went out last minute.

The second open class was sort of a disaster, but I did the best I could. As I mentioned the class was the most poorly behaved group of kids in the sixth grade. A handful of mothers made an appearance, but it seemed that their attendance served more of a social function than that of critiquing my teaching skills.

This time, I’ve got the best possible scenario. My fifth grade co-teacher (the one I taught sixth grade with last year) and I will teach one of our sixth grade classes. The lesson we are teaching is absolutely no frills. She’s decided to stick to the lesson from the curriculum; no additional games, powerpoints, nothing fancy. Very little extra effort. I couldn’t be happier. Nothing over the top. No nonsense. The game we’ll play borders on lame, but I’d rather have it this way than be jumping and spinning and swirling across the room and having the kids jump out of their seats in choreographed dance moves.

In addition, we teach our 6-3 class after we will have taught this same lesson to six other classes. So we’ll have plenty of practice, and by the time 1:50pm tomorrow rolls around we should be able to do this lesson in our sleep.

She suggested that “maybe four teachers will come… and then leave early.”

Open class is a concept I don’t know that I’ll ever understand. Invite a bunch of colleagues over to watch a usually very rehearsed, staged lesson only so we can sit around and eat snacks and drink instant coffee and not give any truly constructive feedback.

A Weekend at the Beach

This is where I’ll be this weekend:

Planning a (Korean) Memorial Day trip to Gangneung, the largest city on the east coast.

More to come! 🙂