The Real Korea: No more marble!

I arrived in Cheongju a few days ago and my homestay family is very nice. My mom, Julie  is a travel agent and has been to over 40 countries. She was telling me today that they are planning a trip for winter vacation. I think they were inviting my? I am not sure. My host dad, Max works at the air force base in Cheongju as a plane mechanic. I have two host sisters, Sally and Amy. Sally is in 3rd grade and Amy is in 2nd grade. So far communicating with my family has not been a problem, although my Korean is horrible, their English is pretty good. I also put a calendar on my door so they would know where I was and when I would be home.

My room is very nice! I have a double bed and a big wardrobe and a dresser in my room. At first I was very worried because I think I am in my host parents room, but after talking to two of my co teachers they said my parents had not been using the room for a long time and in Korea it is common for people to sleep on the floor (which they are doing in the study room). My host sisters also sleep on the floor but in their own room.

On Departure day, August 22nd, my co teacher Caelyn came to pick my up from Goesan. We had lunch together and then she took me to Cheongju, where I met Mirim, another co teacher and the head of the English department. We went out to dinner together and had Korean bbq, sooo yummy :) I am glad I have finally found Korean food that I like.  Speaking of food... my host dad made me spaghetti for dinner tonight <3 a="a" account="account" and="and" anyway="anyway" bank="bank" caelyn="caelyn" cell="cell" ever="ever" first="first" get="get" iphone="iphone" me="me" my="my" on="on" open="open" p="p" phone.="phone." phone="phone" smart="smart" thursday="thursday" to="to" took="took" yay="yay">

Today I spent most of the day cleaning my desk area. My classroom is HUGE and if I tried to clean it in a day I would go crazy. I organized and got myself ready to start school on Monday and then from there the cleaning will be a process.I start teaching on Tuesday! :)

It's about time

I am sure that is what some of you reading this are thinking.... It is about time I posted something on this blog... I am not particularly good at keeping up with them but I know this is the only way some people are able to keep up with me. So here it goes... the last month of my life summed up into a few paragraphs:

We began Korean language classes on July 6th and have been taking them Monday- Friday for 4 hours a day. As expected, I was placed in the beginner class and the language is pretty difficult. I am picking up on it and I have made several excursions into town using my Korean successfully. Orientation also consists of cultural workshops and teaching workshops that are supposed to help us prepare for our year in Korea.

As part of Orientation, we fill out a placement form on where we would like to be placed in Korea. However the placement form does not guarantee anything, it only indicates our preferences and the KAEC (Korean-American Educational Commission) does their best to place us in school that fits our preferences. Ultimately it is up to them.  I did not have any specific preferences other than being placed by an English speaking church, which is actually more common in Korea than I thought. About a week after submitting our placement forms we had a placement ceremony in which everyone's placements and school types were read off. I am an EETA or Elementary English Teaching Assistant (although the assistant part of that title is rather misleading), as a result my school type is just co ed elementary school. Secondary ETA's could be placed in co ed, all girls or all boys middle school or high school. When I received my placement, Cheongju- Namseong Elementary School, I excited when I realized I had already visited the school. During the first week of Orientation EETAs went to visit an elementary school to help us visualize what our next year would be like. It just so happens that the school I visited will be the one I am going to teach in for the next year.

Korean Language classes are finishing up this coming week. We have a speech to memorize and give on Monday and a final on Tuesday. On Friday we are traveling to Seoul for the weekend. We will visit the DMZ and have a graduation from our Korean language class. During this graduation each class must put together a presentation. Ours is going to be a skit (in Korean, of course) based off the Real World reality tv show. We are video taping it this week and presenting the video during graduation.

Departure day is August 22nd. Our Principals and co teacher will come to Jungwon for a big ceremony in which all of us will leave Goesan and travel to our placements. This day is going to be both exciting and very sad. While I will be leaving many of the friends I have made over Orientation, I will definitely travel Korea to visit them and I look forward to a year of teaching. I don't think it has hit me yet that I will actually have my own classroom (well sort of). I am going to be a real teacher! Crazy! This is what I have worked so hard these past four years for!

Here are some pictures so you can see what I have been up to :)

This is the shopping district in Cheongju. A few of us went here one weekend because we wanted to get out of Goesan. At the time I didn't know this was where I would be placed, so I am looking forward to going back and exploring some more. Cheongju is considered suburban by Korean standards but it has about 600,000 people. So comparable to the size of Baltimore.

This is Namseong Elementary School. I took these pictures on our site visit, not knowing this was where I would be spending the rest of my grant year.

This is one of the classrooms the previous ETA, Clare taught in. She did not have her own English classroom but moved around to her students classes.

I decided to take Taekwondo while I was at orientation. The goal here was to blow out the candle without actually touching it. I got it, just not on the first try :)

We were also able to sign up for Archery, which was REALLY cool. Our instructor is apparently world famous and was training two olympic athletes, whom we were able to meet.

We traveled to a Budhist temple while visiting Donghae (beach weekend) and the monk was showing us how to play the drum as part of their religious ceremony.

Me and a random elephant statue at a museum we went to on our way home from Donghae.

Independence Day Party

     I left for Korea on July 3rd and traveled for over 24 hours and arrived on July 5th, meaning I completely missed the 4th of July. Soo... this weekend our OCT decided to set off fireworks for us. Everyone got a sparkler and we held rockets as the fireworks flew out and over the field. Very cool! Afterwards I played basketball and Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of people from the team.

     I have still been waking up really early, I guess I am not over the jet lag. But Saturday I was up at 5 and today I was up at 4 45. I laid in bed for a while both days but finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to go to the gym. It was closed this morning so I can on the track outside. The Fog was so think I could feel it against my skin as I was running, pretty crazy.
     After my run I came back and got ready for church. About 12 people from the team attended the local Methodist service in Goesan (all in Korean). I am pretty sure he preached from John 1:29-34 where John testifies about Jesus. Although I couldn't tell you his interpretation of the passage, he seemed very enthusiastic. The people in church were very nice and welcoming and invited us to lunch with them after service. Some of the people that spoke better Korean than I decided to join them and I met some other friends for lunch at a bakery in town. We did a little shopping and headed back to the school for our first workshop on the Korean Education System. The speaker was organized and well informed, I really enjoyed hearing her perspective on how it really is in a Korean school.
     Tomorrow will be our first visit to a local Korean school. I will be going to an elementary school in Cheongju. Can't wait!!! I am getting sooo excited to start teaching :)

Anchovies and Octopus...Yum

So I just wanted to share what I had for lunch today, or in some cases what sat on my lunch tray and certainly did not enter my mouth haha. I also took pictures of my dorm and the view from my dorm window that I wanted to share.
Lunch: Octopus

 Anchovies:

Here is my dorm and the view from the window:

Good Morning Korea!

Good Morning Everyone!! This is my first morning in Korea :) Our plane came in yesterday at 6am but I don't think I am going to count that. I am all settled in and our Korean classes begin today, yikes! (Good thing they are having a review before class haha).

My roommate, Michelle is from Bellemead, New Jersey. I have met soo many people and everyone has been very nice. This is definitely going to be a fun and rewarding experience. I am looking forward to it sooo much. I am still not sure that the length of time I am going to be here has sunk in and I miss my friends and family so much already. But I am really excited to get back into the classroom and start teaching.

It has been really rainy and humid here. It looks like that's how it will be today also but the next few days should be partly cloudy. I will be sure to take some pictures and post them then. After that though its back to thunderstorms and humid weather. No straight hair for me :)

I am terrible at keeping up with my blog, but I will try really hard :) Time to start the day!

Jungwon University

Here is the University I will be staying at for the first 6 weeks...
http://eng.jwu.ac.kr/menu.do?key=26

I also got my international drivers permit this week, so if the opportunity for presents itself for me to drive, I will be able to. Now it's time to read up on Korea's traffic laws :)

Beginning Stages of the Fulbright Scholarship

As many of you have heard already, I applied for the English Teaching Assistant Fulbright Scholarship for South Korea and I was accepted!! I got the letter on March 27th :)

Today I received a packet of information about some of the logistics of my Scholarship. I will be in South Korea from July 5th 2012 until July 13th 2013. I have never been out of the country for such a long time and this is really going to be a great experience.

My first 6 weeks will be spent in Goesan, Chungcheongbuk-do (about 3 hours south east of Seoul, South Korea's capitol). My time there will be orientation and training, we will learn the language, culture and teaching strategies. After that 6 weeks, I will be placed in a school somewhere other than Seoul. We will not know where our placements are before arriving in South Korea. That is about all the information I have for everyone right now, but I will keep you updated!!


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