Agenda for this blog:
1. Weekend Getaway
2. PLACEMENT
3. Seoul Weekend
4. Sickness...whatttt?
5. Exciting announcement!
Ahem. Alright let's get it started in hurrrrrrrr. The first thing on the agenda is to talk about our weekend getaway. Actually, this happened the weekend before Camp Fulbright started, so this is totally out of order, but oh well, deal with it, yo. We all packed our lil 가방's (bags) and shuttled off on an approximately 3 hour bus ride to the wee seaside town of Donghae. As excited as we all were to get out of Jungwon for a weekend, quickly all of our good hope of a resort weekend were SQUASHED when we pulled up to basically a Jungwon owned resort...yup, you guessed it...our hotel was made completely of marble. That being said, it was still awesome (especially the food, omg yummmmm). We actually had a lot of schedule, but Saturday was completely free. Mrs. Shim was also there-oh wait! You guys probably don't know who Mrs. Shim is!! She's basically the resident bad ass of the Fulbright program. She fights for the program every year and makes sure that we all get taken care of/placements. She's really awesome. Also really "scary." Not scary mean, just scary because we have to do a 90 degree bow to her every time we meet her. Basically insa all the time. She's that kind of scary. We must have much respect for her. Such bow. Many appreciation. Anyway-she provided up with a delicious meat dinner and such, so that was awesome. But aside from all of the scheduled stuff, I got to explore a cave, hang out (and drink a lil) on the beach and see a pretty cool outdoor concert. ALSO, the patbingsu (that desert I talked about awhile ago...) was made of milk flakes there! Instead of ice! Delish.
So I'll post some pics of that, it was great. We also got to see a buddhist temple, and that was awesome!! It was so beautiful and peaceful and there was this spring that we all got to go play around in. It was super clear water, and was ultimately my favorite part of the whole vacation (even though it was only like 30 minutes).
IN MORE IMPORTANT NEWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
We finally got our placements!!!! I know I’ve been gone for awhile, and now I’m playing catch up in this ridiculously long blog post, but this is probably the most important thing that I have to mention here. I am moving to a small town, called Seonsan (선산읍) which is part of a big suburb, called Gumi-si (구미시). The school is called Seonsan Elementary school, and I will be teaching 4 classes per grade (3-5), maybe around 300 students total.
Feelings: At first, not going to lie, I was a little confused. I knew a lot of people who had gotten almost exactly what they had asked for on their placement sheets. So, I didn’t realize what I had put on my sheet that led them to put me there (I know, I know, #dontcompare). I was about 1 hour away from Daegu (the city I was more invested in), and I wasn’t close to many other ETA’s. Also, there was a possibility that I might not be getting a host family. While I am not sure about the host family yet (which is something I absolutelyyyyy want), I must say I have really warmed up to my placement. It’s a charming little town, and I will be one of the only foreigners that some of the population have ever seen in the flesh. In addition, I have the opportunity to start a new culture in my city regarding the use of ETA’s. Since no other ETA has ever been placed at my school, I really have a lot of good opportunities. IN ADDITION: I am really close to Gumi-si, it’s about a 20 minute bus away, and they have an orphanage that is really [decently] gun-ho about working with foreigners. That is something that I had really wanted to do during my time here. So the pieces did start to come together, as I really begun to research my city. Furthermore (I know there are even more justifications…), I came to terms with the fact that I might not be able to do both CAMP (a mentoring program) AND work with North Korean defectors (which are both located in Daegu) because it is about a 1 hour journey from where I am to Daegu. This means that I am going to have to really choose, but I think I am really going to be able to connect not just with one city, but with at least three during my time here. A more “rural” place, a suburban, and an urban all within a 1 hour journey. I will be in really close contact with all of them, so I think I have a really rare chance to understand all different types of communities, not just one. Who knows, I might even end up doing some research while I am here :)
But enough about my placement…I am basically starting to get more and more excited about departure day from the Marble Mansion, which is less than two weeks away! I’m sort of mixed, because it means I will actually have to act like a grown up and teach young children, which scares the living shit out of me (excuse my French…), but I get to get my year rolling at the same time. This is the reason why I came to Korea, to take a break and really find out what it is I want out of live. To figure out a little more about how I interact with people, and further nurture that skill. (Also to ge
ANYWAY. In more more recent news, I went to Seoul 2 weekends ago!!! And I will be returning this Wednesday!! I love Seoul. It’s amazing. I ate Mexican food. There were so many foreigners. I would never want to live there though. Well…maybe I would. I haven’t spent quite enough time there to make that decision. But I’ll stop scaring my parents for now…
My independent Seoul weekend was super fun. SUPER UNPLANNED. Basically, I was super tired of having every day of my life be scheduled, that I had no interest in scheduling my weekend in Seoul. This had both positive and negative effects on the trip. I literally had no idea where we (My friend Gabbi and I) were going to stay. We had 0 plans. We hopped on a bus. And we went to Seoul. OH I almost forgot to mention my bus ride over to Seoul! So you know how I mentioned Jaeyeon, earlier? She was one of the campers that I taught in one of my classes! She was so cute!! She was going to Seoul with her Umma (mom) at the same time! She basically ushered me into a seat and we sat together on the bus ride (Gabbi sat with another Waeguk (foreigner) on the bus, so I didn’t feel too bad…). The whole time she made me eat snacks and we listened to k-pop off of my phone. She kept saying how much she liked American things, and I kept saying how much I liked Korean things. She’s wonderful. Also, did I mention she is in the 5th grade? And is speaking English like a pro? She’s going to go far with English if she wants, but right now she just wants to be a ballerina J Anyways, when we got to Seoul, we separated, and I wished her safe travels…her mom even made sure to get my phone number!! So I’ve officially made my first student friend here in Korea. Awesome.
So Gabbi and myself basically wandered around Seoul like a bunch of n00bs. I first took us to Dongdaemun, which was a mistake, as we literally wanted nothing there. So I let Gabbs take the wheel and she took us to the most hipster part of Seoul I’ve ever been to, Ehwa Woman’s University. It was awesome. So quaint and so hipster. My type of place, man. For sure. Gabbi and I ate some really good Italian food (mind you, I say really good, but it was just good for being in Korea). The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really exactly as good as what I could back home in the states. During dinner, we took the time to actually figure out where we were going to stay that night…By this point it was already around 9:00, so we really dropped the ball in terms of finding a place to stay for the night. Luckily Gabbi had some friends from Korea, so she was able to get a recommendation to this little hostel/guest house called K-pop stay. Anyone who knows me knows how excited I was upon hearing that this was the name of the place we were going to be staying. The first task, however, was actually finding the place. Gabbi’s Korean is really good, but mine is not…furthermore, the only working phone we had was mine. Therefore, it made for a very interesting adventure time walking around Hongdae trying to find the place. Eventually, however, we were able to locate the place and procure our reservation. It was only 30 dollars!! And we got a really nice bed in a really CLEAN place. Seriously, I think it was basically nicer than my dorm room at Jungwon. I enjoyed it.
After we found the place, we actually headed down to Hongdae to hit up some legit patbingsu and Noraebang. Needless to say we killed it at Noraebang. With the exception of My heart will go on and Happy, we sang exclusively Korean songs. (We even got a 100% on Taeyang’s song Eyes, Nose, Lips….score: 1 Gabby and Rachel’s K-pop skillz, 0 Hangul). By this point it was basically 1am, and neither of us was super interested in staying out for that much longer, so we took our little butts back to our homestay and packed it in for the night. We woke up at the crack of 8am the next mornin and did our business before heading out for the day (they gave us free breakfast, yay!!). We had to be back by 4pm, so our time was limited. My friend, Robin, lives in Korea, so I ended up meeting her for lunch in Itaewon (the foreigner district here in Seoul). Before lunch, though, I bought this baller watch at a little street store for 12 bucks. It says “thongd” on it. I’ll just leave that there for you to think about…
After my watch excursion, we headed over to lunch at a lil Mexican restaurant you probably have heard of back home, On the Border. It was extremely overpriced, but really really worth it. Just the taste of avocado was enough to brighten my entire day. GOD, THE AVACADO WAS SO GOOD.
After our little excursion in Itaewon, we moved on back to the bus station and headed back to Jungwon (I can’t remember if I mentioned earlier, but it was about a 2 hour trip between the two cites). And so ended my weekend of freedom in one of the most dynamic cities in the whole world. Only three more days till I get to go back :D
Sorry in advance for the lack of pictures in Seoul...oops...
t competent at Korean…). I’ve always lived pretty close to home, so I really want to take this chance to get to know myself and how I will live one day when I leave Columbia for good (whenever that may be…). So, I’m very conflicted right now, with all sorts of different types of emotions pulling me in different directions…*muses some more to self…*ANYWAY. In more more recent news, I went to Seoul 2 weekends ago!!! And I will be returning this Wednesday!! I love Seoul. It’s amazing. I ate Mexican food. There were so many foreigners. I would never want to live there though. Well…maybe I would. I haven’t spent quite enough time there to make that decision. But I’ll stop scaring my parents for now…
My independent Seoul weekend was super fun. SUPER UNPLANNED. Basically, I was super tired of having every day of my life be scheduled, that I had no interest in scheduling my weekend in Seoul. This had both positive and negative effects on the trip. I literally had no idea where we (My friend Gabbi and I) were going to stay. We had 0 plans. We hopped on a bus. And we went to Seoul. OH I almost forgot to mention my bus ride over to Seoul! So you know how I mentioned Jaeyeon, earlier? She was one of the campers that I taught in one of my classes! She was so cute!! She was going to Seoul with her Umma (mom) at the same time! She basically ushered me into a seat and we sat together on the bus ride (Gabbi sat with another Waeguk (foreigner) on the bus, so I didn’t feel too bad…). The whole time she made me eat snacks and we listened to k-pop off of my phone. She kept saying how much she liked American things, and I kept saying how much I liked Korean things. She’s wonderful. Also, did I mention she is in the 5th grade? And is speaking English like a pro? She’s going to go far with English if she wants, but right now she just wants to be a ballerina J Anyways, when we got to Seoul, we separated, and I wished her safe travels…her mom even made sure to get my phone number!! So I’ve officially made my first student friend here in Korea. Awesome.
So Gabbi and myself basically wandered around Seoul like a bunch of n00bs. I first took us to Dongdaemun, which was a mistake, as we literally wanted nothing there. So I let Gabbs take the wheel and she took us to the most hipster part of Seoul I’ve ever been to, Ehwa Woman’s University. It was awesome. So quaint and so hipster. My type of place, man. For sure. Gabbi and I ate some really good Italian food (mind you, I say really good, but it was just good for being in Korea). The food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really exactly as good as what I could back home in the states. During dinner, we took the time to actually figure out where we were going to stay that night…By this point it was already around 9:00, so we really dropped the ball in terms of finding a place to stay for the night. Luckily Gabbi had some friends from Korea, so she was able to get a recommendation to this little hostel/guest house called K-pop stay. Anyone who knows me knows how excited I was upon hearing that this was the name of the place we were going to be staying. The first task, however, was actually finding the place. Gabbi’s Korean is really good, but mine is not…furthermore, the only working phone we had was mine. Therefore, it made for a very interesting adventure time walking around Hongdae trying to find the place. Eventually, however, we were able to locate the place and procure our reservation. It was only 30 dollars!! And we got a really nice bed in a really CLEAN place. Seriously, I think it was basically nicer than my dorm room at Jungwon. I enjoyed it.
After we found the place, we actually headed down to Hongdae to hit up some legit patbingsu and Noraebang. Needless to say we killed it at Noraebang. With the exception of My heart will go on and Happy, we sang exclusively Korean songs. (We even got a 100% on Taeyang’s song Eyes, Nose, Lips….score: 1 Gabby and Rachel’s K-pop skillz, 0 Hangul). By this point it was basically 1am, and neither of us was super interested in staying out for that much longer, so we took our little butts back to our homestay and packed it in for the night. We woke up at the crack of 8am the next mornin and did our business before heading out for the day (they gave us free breakfast, yay!!). We had to be back by 4pm, so our time was limited. My friend, Robin, lives in Korea, so I ended up meeting her for lunch in Itaewon (the foreigner district here in Seoul). Before lunch, though, I bought this baller watch at a little street store for 12 bucks. It says “thongd” on it. I’ll just leave that there for you to think about…
After my watch excursion, we headed over to lunch at a lil Mexican restaurant you probably have heard of back home, On the Border. It was extremely overpriced, but really really worth it. Just the taste of avocado was enough to brighten my entire day. GOD, THE AVACADO WAS SO GOOD.
After our little excursion in Itaewon, we moved on back to the bus station and headed back to Jungwon (I can’t remember if I mentioned earlier, but it was about a 2 hour trip between the two cites). And so ended my weekend of freedom in one of the most dynamic cities in the whole world. Only three more days till I get to go back :D
Sorry in advance for the lack of pictures in Seoul...oops...
In less happy time news, I got sick. Sick with the pains in my throat. Real friggin sick. Ironically, it happened right after I went with my friend to the hospital for her ailment. I had been feeling a little bit sore in the throat, but after I spent some time in that hospital, it was like the bacteria in there exploded. I had to miss a day of Korean classes, and had a fever of approximately 101 degrees for two days. On the other hand, though, I got to learn a little first hand about Asian health care! Basically they give you a pill for each symptom...and you take them all at the same time. So...I took like 5 pills at one time. It was weird. But effective. The best thing was, however, this magical green liquid that they made me gargle. It took away all the pain. ALL THE PAIN. SORCERY. So yah...I'm better now except for my clogged nose, but that is tolerable compared to the things I was feeling o.O
On the note of missing Korean classes....We have our final exam tomorrow!! Woot....so instead of studying right now...I'm finishing this blog post...Nothings changed here. Even though I procrastinate so hard at writing this blog, I am currently finishing it to avoid studying for this exam...lololololol also its 12:22am. Awkward. I really have studied though! I'm just taking a 1....ok maybe 2 hour break....no big deal, right? haha...haha...ha................
Ok, in light of the fact that I do have a final to finish, I am going to start wrapping up this post. I have two more things I wanna talk about real quick!
So, Orientation has this thing called a talent show (since you all obviously don't know what that is...) and it is this coming Sunday. 10 ETA's signed up to be on the planning committee and I was one of the brave souls who signed up. Furthermore, I signed up to be one of the 2 point people (or main coordinators) for the whole thing. So if it sucks, more of the responsibility is probably going to end up on me. Well, since fellow ETA's can read this blog, I can't give any spoilers until after, but it's going to be hilarious. I have had a really great time working with all of my fellow ETA's on this project. We really weren't given much time (a critique to bring up next year for any OCT is reading this right now...), so the amount of work that everyone is willing to put in has been amazing! We really work well together, and there have been some fantastic creative skills being showcased already, even before the start of the talent show (and no, I'm not just saying these things because other ETA's might be reading this right now...). But real talk guys, I really want to shout out to the whole TS team for being awesome and stuff. yah. kewl.
Also my superlative is hilarious for all those back home especially...y'all would appreciate it.
Ok, I think that's all for now folks. OH WAIT I FORGOT MY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: for all those folks back home, I have officially decided to come home for winter break! So it'll probably only be for a week cause I have to go to Taiwan with mom and meet dad in Japan (maybe?), but I'm still gonna be back in either Jan or Feb, so if y'all in town, I'll hit you upppppp!
Hope y'all are as excited as I am. I'm only coming back, really, because I mega miss my dogs. And Chick-fil-a. And Chipotle.
I'll leave you with some random pictures that I haven't posted. PS sorry for any typos I might have made. Not editing this one, y'all.
Tata, kiddos,
Rachel
On the note of missing Korean classes....We have our final exam tomorrow!! Woot....so instead of studying right now...I'm finishing this blog post...Nothings changed here. Even though I procrastinate so hard at writing this blog, I am currently finishing it to avoid studying for this exam...lololololol also its 12:22am. Awkward. I really have studied though! I'm just taking a 1....ok maybe 2 hour break....no big deal, right? haha...haha...ha................
Ok, in light of the fact that I do have a final to finish, I am going to start wrapping up this post. I have two more things I wanna talk about real quick!
So, Orientation has this thing called a talent show (since you all obviously don't know what that is...) and it is this coming Sunday. 10 ETA's signed up to be on the planning committee and I was one of the brave souls who signed up. Furthermore, I signed up to be one of the 2 point people (or main coordinators) for the whole thing. So if it sucks, more of the responsibility is probably going to end up on me. Well, since fellow ETA's can read this blog, I can't give any spoilers until after, but it's going to be hilarious. I have had a really great time working with all of my fellow ETA's on this project. We really weren't given much time (a critique to bring up next year for any OCT is reading this right now...), so the amount of work that everyone is willing to put in has been amazing! We really work well together, and there have been some fantastic creative skills being showcased already, even before the start of the talent show (and no, I'm not just saying these things because other ETA's might be reading this right now...). But real talk guys, I really want to shout out to the whole TS team for being awesome and stuff. yah. kewl.
Also my superlative is hilarious for all those back home especially...y'all would appreciate it.
Ok, I think that's all for now folks. OH WAIT I FORGOT MY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: for all those folks back home, I have officially decided to come home for winter break! So it'll probably only be for a week cause I have to go to Taiwan with mom and meet dad in Japan (maybe?), but I'm still gonna be back in either Jan or Feb, so if y'all in town, I'll hit you upppppp!
Hope y'all are as excited as I am. I'm only coming back, really, because I mega miss my dogs. And Chick-fil-a. And Chipotle.
I'll leave you with some random pictures that I haven't posted. PS sorry for any typos I might have made. Not editing this one, y'all.
Tata, kiddos,
Rachel