I am happy to report that I have not contracted, to my knowledge, deep vein thrombosis.
Ok, but on a more serious note, I made it to Korea! It only took around 18 hours of flying and 5 hours of waiting around in airports. Not bad, right? WRONG. It was awful. The flight to California was not so bad, I maybe got like half an hour of sleep. Then, when we got to the airport, we had to go back through the check-in line and then we went through security again. Then, we finally got to the terminal. By this point, I had already made some friends via communal exhaustion and flights, so at least we were sharing our pain together. Fun side note: they weigh carry-ons for flights to Korea via Asiana Airlines. Mine was wayyyyyyy overweight. Luckily, though, I had made friends with the lady who was checking me in. She basically said...Don't do it again, haha. It was awesome! The good news is if I go back, I get all $ 200 of baggage "overage" allowance for my return trip, so I can easily check a third suitcase :) It will contain all of my gifts and memories for my year, I'm sure. Part of me is really bummed that I won't even have the option to renew my Fulbright...I might try, but we will see about that later. ANYWAY, back to the terrible flight. There is nothing more to say about it other than that it was SO LONG. I also did not sleep for more than an hour. ONE HOUR, Y'ALL. I was, therefore, completely delusional from exhaustion for the entire first day of orientation. A microcosm of my entire flight and how I felt afterwards: So I spent the entire flight (plus my previous flight) making sure that my laptop was taken care of. I've broken the screen before with the slightest bit of force, so I wanted to make sure that that was not going to happen from the stress of flying, especially with all of the things I stuffed into my bag. So I took it out of my book-bag every time I got on the plane. So everything was good. I kept checking it to make sure the screen was in tact, and it always was! I started to get really confident it was going to make it! However, I thought too soon. I arrived at the airport departure/baggage claim area, where there was a SWARM of ETA's waiting/filling out paper work for the impending orientation trip. After I filled out all of my paperwork, a few other ETA's and myself were going to go grab some Jamba Juice, when I realized I didn't have my laptop. Honestly, if you know me, you know I would probably freak out because of this. But I was so exhausted, I couldn't even really think about what the right plan of action was. I had been waiting for something horrible to happen, as is per my experiences with long trips, and this was it. So, somehow, I kind of expected it. It had been a good hour probably since I had left the plane, and I knew that is probably where I had left it. I remembered taking it out from under the seat, but never grabbed it again after I removed my belongings from the overhead bins. Classic Rachel. Therefore, I had to get one of our wonderful OCT's to help me out (cause she was fluent in Korean). Luckily, they had my laptop and they were able to bring it down to the security desk at the front of the airport. CRISIS AVERTED, but I'm sure anyone who knows me and my track record of losing things will get a kick out of that story.
Favorite part about the plane ride, though, was definitely the food, especially the lovely Trader Joe's Mango Anna got for me before I left.
Ok, but on a more serious note, I made it to Korea! It only took around 18 hours of flying and 5 hours of waiting around in airports. Not bad, right? WRONG. It was awful. The flight to California was not so bad, I maybe got like half an hour of sleep. Then, when we got to the airport, we had to go back through the check-in line and then we went through security again. Then, we finally got to the terminal. By this point, I had already made some friends via communal exhaustion and flights, so at least we were sharing our pain together. Fun side note: they weigh carry-ons for flights to Korea via Asiana Airlines. Mine was wayyyyyyy overweight. Luckily, though, I had made friends with the lady who was checking me in. She basically said...Don't do it again, haha. It was awesome! The good news is if I go back, I get all $ 200 of baggage "overage" allowance for my return trip, so I can easily check a third suitcase :) It will contain all of my gifts and memories for my year, I'm sure. Part of me is really bummed that I won't even have the option to renew my Fulbright...I might try, but we will see about that later. ANYWAY, back to the terrible flight. There is nothing more to say about it other than that it was SO LONG. I also did not sleep for more than an hour. ONE HOUR, Y'ALL. I was, therefore, completely delusional from exhaustion for the entire first day of orientation. A microcosm of my entire flight and how I felt afterwards: So I spent the entire flight (plus my previous flight) making sure that my laptop was taken care of. I've broken the screen before with the slightest bit of force, so I wanted to make sure that that was not going to happen from the stress of flying, especially with all of the things I stuffed into my bag. So I took it out of my book-bag every time I got on the plane. So everything was good. I kept checking it to make sure the screen was in tact, and it always was! I started to get really confident it was going to make it! However, I thought too soon. I arrived at the airport departure/baggage claim area, where there was a SWARM of ETA's waiting/filling out paper work for the impending orientation trip. After I filled out all of my paperwork, a few other ETA's and myself were going to go grab some Jamba Juice, when I realized I didn't have my laptop. Honestly, if you know me, you know I would probably freak out because of this. But I was so exhausted, I couldn't even really think about what the right plan of action was. I had been waiting for something horrible to happen, as is per my experiences with long trips, and this was it. So, somehow, I kind of expected it. It had been a good hour probably since I had left the plane, and I knew that is probably where I had left it. I remembered taking it out from under the seat, but never grabbed it again after I removed my belongings from the overhead bins. Classic Rachel. Therefore, I had to get one of our wonderful OCT's to help me out (cause she was fluent in Korean). Luckily, they had my laptop and they were able to bring it down to the security desk at the front of the airport. CRISIS AVERTED, but I'm sure anyone who knows me and my track record of losing things will get a kick out of that story.
Favorite part about the plane ride, though, was definitely the food, especially the lovely Trader Joe's Mango Anna got for me before I left.
In other exciting news, I'M IN KOREA. WAT. WAT IS HAPPENING. It's awesome here, I love it. I will say the first day I was so dead I don't actually really remember what I accomplished, but since then, so many THINGS have been going on, I haven't had time to be nervous or sad or anything, really. Other than productive that is. There are a bunch of awesome people here, I haven't had a great opportunity to meet ALL of them quite yet, but I have had a blast getting to know the ones that I have met. So, here's to the next six weeks y'all. I'm sure I'll make some strong friendships and continue to keep them, hopefully, for as long as is plausible. That came out really weird, but I think you all get the picture.
So here's a little pic of the place I'm currently staying...It's called the Marble Mansion.
So here's a little pic of the place I'm currently staying...It's called the Marble Mansion.
That's totally not a picture of marble...here, to correct that...
I know that pic is terrible quality, but I haven't really gotten an opportunity to take a better picture yet...haha.
Anyways. Last week was crazy. Aside from try to actually figure out how to even get around this crazy place, our schedules were PACKED. A typical day in the life:
8:00-9:00: Breakfast, yum
9:00-1:00: Korean Class (I was placed in the "upper beginner" class
1:00-2:00: Lunch
2:00-5:00ish: Various workshops
6:00-7:00: Dinner
Then, some days teachers give things like extra review or office hours during the rest of the night. So. All days here are packed full of information. However, on weekends, we don't have class, so that's cool :) We just sit and relax until the afternoon, where we have more workshops. Workshops are basically "how to keep kids attention" or "fun game ideas for using as teaching tools in the classroom" and are usually taught by current ETA's who are not our OCT (Orientation coordiatior's).
I have had a bit of time to explore around town, as well. We are all separated into things called Dynasties, I'm in Goguryeo (holllllaaaaaaa), and on some nights we have these things called dynasty challenges, which are completed for points. This past Sunday, we did a scavenger hunt around town looking for different places and taking pictures of them. So that was a learning experience, especially considering most people here don't speak much English and I do not speak much Korean...But I also got the opportunity to go on a tour downtown with one of the ETA's who gave a presentation, so thanks to him!! Let's see...what else is there to say...
OH YAH. I'm now officially an EETA. That means, I'm no longer going to be teaching secondary school. I will be teaching Elementary students :) Basically, I'm super excited. I think it fits way better with the vision I have of myself in the classroom, being goofy and strange, as is per my personality. So, I'm super happy I made the switch (we are a considerably smaller group than the SETA's, haha).
In other news, the food here is delicious. It can get kind of repetitive, but I think it's actually really tasty, especially this soups, woot woot. And one day I went with some people here to get some barbecue and patbingsu. IT WAS DELICIOUS. If you don't know what patbingsu is, I have pictured it below. Look and feel the jealousy seeping through your pores.
Anyways. Last week was crazy. Aside from try to actually figure out how to even get around this crazy place, our schedules were PACKED. A typical day in the life:
8:00-9:00: Breakfast, yum
9:00-1:00: Korean Class (I was placed in the "upper beginner" class
1:00-2:00: Lunch
2:00-5:00ish: Various workshops
6:00-7:00: Dinner
Then, some days teachers give things like extra review or office hours during the rest of the night. So. All days here are packed full of information. However, on weekends, we don't have class, so that's cool :) We just sit and relax until the afternoon, where we have more workshops. Workshops are basically "how to keep kids attention" or "fun game ideas for using as teaching tools in the classroom" and are usually taught by current ETA's who are not our OCT (Orientation coordiatior's).
I have had a bit of time to explore around town, as well. We are all separated into things called Dynasties, I'm in Goguryeo (holllllaaaaaaa), and on some nights we have these things called dynasty challenges, which are completed for points. This past Sunday, we did a scavenger hunt around town looking for different places and taking pictures of them. So that was a learning experience, especially considering most people here don't speak much English and I do not speak much Korean...But I also got the opportunity to go on a tour downtown with one of the ETA's who gave a presentation, so thanks to him!! Let's see...what else is there to say...
OH YAH. I'm now officially an EETA. That means, I'm no longer going to be teaching secondary school. I will be teaching Elementary students :) Basically, I'm super excited. I think it fits way better with the vision I have of myself in the classroom, being goofy and strange, as is per my personality. So, I'm super happy I made the switch (we are a considerably smaller group than the SETA's, haha).
In other news, the food here is delicious. It can get kind of repetitive, but I think it's actually really tasty, especially this soups, woot woot. And one day I went with some people here to get some barbecue and patbingsu. IT WAS DELICIOUS. If you don't know what patbingsu is, I have pictured it below. Look and feel the jealousy seeping through your pores.
Hopefully this will suffice for now as an update. I'm about to run to a workshop so I need to wrap this up...I feel like there is a ton more to say, but oh well.
That's all for now folks...
Rachel
That's all for now folks...
Rachel