Festivus! (November)

Festival: This festival is three days.  And by three days i mean my kids have been asking me for prep time for over a week.  Day one consisted of an art fair.  These kids may work themselves to the bone studying but in their free time man do they have talent.  To start this festival off a few teachers went outside around 2 pm.  As were waiting i find out I'm going to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony.  I get handed white gloves and a pair off scissors.  Im then yelled at to change my shoes and I help cut this ribbon with the principle, vice principle, and some important looking people i don't know who they were.  Their art was incredible.  Also during this time was a garage sale type thing.  My kids guilted me into buying a scarf, a mug, a doll thing, a pencil, brownies, hot coco, ice-cream, and more.  The next day was cafes, where students decorated their classrooms in various themes and then begged me to come visit and spend money in each one.  I was able to visit every classroom and buy at least one thing.  They were all very creative and ranged from a dance club to Alice in Wonderland.  These kids cooked some delicious food and created some amazing drinks, each grade was awarded a winner for the best classroom cafe.  I even got an awkward massage in the “wellness” room.  Sitting right next to the vice principle questioning everything that is the educational legal system as a 15 year old female student gave the male teachers massages, but it was all in good fun.  The last day was the main event, the music festival. Kind of like a talent show but way longer then anything else you've ever seen.  Each class did some type of performance and rocked it.  Though most stuck to a dance or song there were a few different types ranging in English and Korean.  Very cool and talented kids.  I was convinced to help in the fashion show which consisted of me wearing my normal work clothes and getting screamed at by the entire school.  Ive never felt so close to fame in my entire life.  the festival even included some boys from the close by school performing, one of which hugged a student at the end of his song.  Utter chaos erupted, and the show was over.  Over all these students don’t have a lot of creative time but when they do they cram as much as possible in a short amount of time, and damn are they fantastic.  

Korean Fire Drill...November

Korean Fire drill-

 I remember seeing on Facebook a little while ago my friends commenting on the inefficiency of fire safety at their schools.  I thought yeah i can see that.  The Korean education system can be very illogical to me.  These kids score amazing on tests and study constantly but there are plenty of holes in this system, and thats kind of how i felt about this fire drill.  The best way to describe this drill was comical.  In America our fire drills are pretty low key, now we spend more time focusing on shooter drills, as sad as this is.  The teachers find out about it ahead of time, kids file outside, we count them, and then the bell rings and we head back in.  In Korea, everyone finds out ahead of time, including the students.  This drill was complete with smoke bomb and real fire.  A tiny little alarm goes off and each teacher reports for their duties, including saving documents and yelling fire.  Students then run out of the building…yes RUN.  In the window was a smoke can where purple smoked poured into the stairwell.  Students ran out, some of them choking.  When we got outside some of the teachers lit a box on fire.  Teachers threw on hard hats and continued to direct students.  Two teachers then tried to put the box fire out with fire extinguishers.  A fire marshal and truck then arrived.  People were snapping pictures everywhere.  teachers also grabbed a hose and put out the smoke bomb in the window.  The truck then pulled up and fully extinguished this window fire as students started to cheer.  While the teachers were trying to put the box fire out clouds of smoke forced the students to abandon their lines and push farther away from the school.  The drill finished when a crew of students came out of the building with a fellow student on a stretcher.  The fire marshal then gave a talk to the students, and then to the teachers.  Then we continued to go on about of day.  So though this drill was much more detailed then america, the whole thing felt more for show.  Students were TOLD to run, to laugh, and they knew well in advance this would happen.  I don’t know which country does it better, but it was definitely interesting.  

November begins!

This is what happens when I put off blog posts for a long time, eventually I’ll forget and well…I never submitted my Japan one from study abroad over two years ago haha.  Well November has been pretty great so far.  I was able to travel a bit and meet with some friends all over the place.  I made my way as far South as I’ve been to celebrate a fellow ASU Fulbrighters birthday.  It was a fun time, though a bit crazy at times.  I’ve also been able to meet some new friends in Cheongju and try some delicious food!  I was able to make it up to Seoul for Halloweekend and had a great time meeting with friends, going out, and just generally having a great time.  Including some delicious Mexican food, craft beers, costumes, a bit overcrowded club, and more.  A few weeks later and it was already “Thanksgiving”.  Or the thanksgiving feast the embassy and Fulbright put on for us.  This included meeting with some foreign service officers, taking a tour of the museum, and eating TONS of delicious food.  I had a great time with all the great Fulbrighters and eating far too muck Turkey, mashed potatoes, veggies, pie and so much more.  To top it all off we ended the weekend with a visit to a Dog cafe.  Yes a cafe where you can pay for a coffee and in turn get to socialize with adorable puppies of all sizes.  SOOOOO adorable! 

“My name is Dug. I have just met you and I love you!”

 I also apparently have mutual friends with a Korean TV star (Tyler above) he was really cool to talk to

Teaching struggles

For teaching every things been going ok.  I love my kids, my school, and my family but sometimes it feels like I’m not making a huge difference.  I just have so many students it can be difficult connecting to them.  I dont even know most of their names.  I miss teaching in America where I knew my kids siblings, hobbies, and favorite units.  With no grades or accountability its hard to feel like I’m needed.  Recently foreign teachers have been facing cuts throughout Korea as the education budget struggles.  This worries me but when I see my work load compared to others its really hard to see my worth.  I hope I’m helping my students culturally and with their native listening and speaking.  My goals are for them to speak for naturally and to be comfortable.  I use my class time more focused on allowing the students to practice natural speaking and having fun.  They face enough stress in their lives and I hope I can give them a little bit of a break, even just once a group.  I mean these kids are in school 8am until 10pm so they need it.  I can just hope they're getting something out of it.  They seam to like it and they seam to like me, but we’ll see haha.   

I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.  I've got too many options, but I guess thats not really a problem haha.  

“His fool's errand will keep him most occupied. Most occupied, indeed. Ha ha ha! Do you not agree with that which I am saying to you now?”

You and me... we're in a club now

Conference:

This past weekend we had our fall conference in Gyeongju.  This city is known for being a living museum because of all the history it holds.  Its the “birthplace” of one of the longest dynasties in Korea and has many different sights to explore.  Overall the area is beautiful and going when the leaves changed was awesome.  Our hotel was on this awesome little lake next to an amusement park.  Though the sights were amazing and I’m glad i got to go on a free tour of the area on Sunday the best part was defiantly seeing everyone.  On Sunday we explored the tombs, a museum, and a buddhist sight.  The other days (Friday, and Saturday) we had various activities helping to make us better teachers.  We talked about our problems, or successes, and our future worries.  We even had some time to talk about winter break plans and self-defense.  Everyone was super informative and really helpful.  I left with a ton of new ideas and a better grasp of what everyones situations really were.  Facebook can only tell you so much.  And again the best part about it was getting to see everyone, especially those who live farther away, like Jeju.  This conference also gave everyone the opportunity to really connect with some renewing ETAs, yay networking :P And splashed into all of this we were able to go out and have a great time.  It was really nice to be with so many friends again, even though i was getting sick and probably shouldn't have been staying out late, it was worth it.  It made me really excited for thanksgiving and halloween and just genuinely grateful to be in Korea with these amazing people.  It also made me feel like I haven’t been doing enough but I’ll find my niche.  Coming back to school it really did feel different, and it felt like the kids missed me.  Ive been struggling with connecting to them because 800 students is just too damn many.  Im loving Korea, and I’m so grateful to be spending the time in this culture.  That culture also includes the over 100 amazing people who are teaching besides me.  These kids are the best of the best and they show it constantly.  Everyones extremely including, kind, and genuinely amazing, as told by the variety of birthday parties, guitar sharing, balcony talking, hotel parties, lake walking, and GS 25 get togethers.  Because theres no better bar then the convenience store in Korea as long as you have the right group of people.  And it wouldn't be a Fulbright get together without exorbitant amounts of food, mostly Costco cheese.

Up quote of the Post :Ellie-"You and me... we're in a club now."

Hung out with this illustrious duo and actually got to sit between them...ruined when i got up for another beer...womp womp haha 

My awesome roomies :)

These two are just too great, always happy

Luck has nothing to do with it?

Jinju- I can’t tell if im super lucky or super unlucky

So October is festival month in Korea and though many people went down to Busan this weekend for BIFF (Busan international film festival) I headed to Jinju for the lantern festival.  I was planning on heading down friday afternoon because there was no school but my host mom told me she was also planning to go.  We left around 8 am and my luck started.  I both forgot my DSLR and could not find my running shoes.  Sneakers, where did you go? We headed to the beach, about an hour and a half away, relaxed, grabbed some food, and then traveled another hour to Jinju.  We even stopped by a flower/scarecrow festival.  This city is literally a strait shot down from where I live in Korea.  We arrived around 4 p.m..  A little later then i was expecting and my SAS friend was already there.  First thing about this festival, it was HUGE! Ive never seen anything so big and was not expecting it at all.  A friend had told me motels would be easy to find so we walked with my host parents for dinner and then into the fortress to watch the opening fireworks.  They were amazing!  This whole festival was over the top cool though I didn't explore as much until the next day.  Apparently its to commemorate the Koreans using lanterns to make the army appear larger while facing the Japanese.  After the fireworks ended my host parents left and we worked our way through the insane amount of people to try and find a hostel.  My other friends were stuck in traffic and it was around 9 pm.  Heres where my luck came into play again.  We tried maybe 20 hostels/motels/hotels.  If it was in this city, we tried it.  every, single, sketchy dark alleyway motel was full.  Around two hours later and some dark streets in a Korean woman noticed us struggling outside of a Norebang/brothel thing.  She pointed through an alley to another motel, which was also full.  We saw her once more and she led us to a different motel.  Upon arriving it was clear this hotel was also full.  This woman must have known the owners and quickly negotiated us staying in someones room who was on vacation for the night.  Our savior then quickly left and we spent the night in this motel.  The next day we booked at the same place in a different room right away in order to not struggle again.  We got up and started walking around.  This festival had a million things to explore and they were all amazing.  I couldn't find my other friends through a variety of phone deaths and notifications not working.  Eventually my SAS friend switched his train and I was able to meet up with my ETA friends.  We walked around for a the day stoping at different food, lantern making booths, music booths, and decorations to check it out.  We then grabbed some dinner (too spicy for me) and waited for the sun to go down.  Meanwhile my second time friend Josh figured out his bus and was on his way to meet us and John (who lives in Jinju).  John eventually made it while we were at a mini concert and his phone died.  Were talking thousands of people here.  His last message “I have a guitar on my back”.  Which i took as its difficult to move, but was meant as thats how you can find me.  We did find each other and eventually even found John!  Eventually we split off so it was me John and Josh.  John then informed me I could have crashed at his place both nights but i had already payed.   :( next time I wont be as spur of the moment i guess haha.  The three off us wandered, grabbed some food, and wound up hanging by the river playing guitar.  Josh was actually really good.  Like you hear oh my friends in a band and now he's whipping out an acoustic guitar but he was very pleasant to listen too.  Eventually we gathered a small crowd of Koreans.  Josh then explained I was their second time friend, because this was the second time we've hung out.  Im not sure how that translated because it doesn't make much sense in English but you know it was late.  We wandered some more and they eventually helped me find my motel again.  The next morning I found the bus station, grabbed the 11:15 bus home and was back in Cheonju in under 3 hours.  Success!  Great weekend.  Arguably one of the best weekends I’ve had in Korea.  There were only 5 ETAs there but it was really nice :)  Hope to visit the south again soon. 

*Side bad luck story- as i was talking about the good construction of the floating lanterns we watched one flip over and sink to the bottom of the river.  

** It took my host parents two hours to walk back to the car and they got back to Cheongju at 3 a.m.  I really hope the fireworks were worth it!

Up quote of the post 

Carl Fredricksen: "You'd better get up, Russell. Or else, the tigers will come and eat you."

Russell: "Tigers don't live in South America. Zoology."

Waygook-in Seoul

My Waygook-in weekend in Seoul.  Welcome to illustrious Seoul.  A mysterious land of more white people then I have ever seen in Times Square.  Not kidding.  Out in Cheongju I’ll see a foreigner maybe every-other day.  And they are the same three foreigners.  Cheongju is foreigner friendly, and I know there are many foreigners in the more central part of Cheongju but Seoul brings it to another level.  We stayed in an area called Hongdae which is a college area of the city.  We were there for advocates training so friday night we didn't really go out much.  We left after school, headed strait for the bus, sat in traffic for a while, and made it to this area or Seoul.  We had a hunger which could only be quenched by American food and so, for the first time in three months, we found ourselves sitting down enjoying non-other then a bacon cheeseburger.  And a good one at that.  No white rice in sight.  No kimchi to be seen.  Just my friend and I splitting an enormous amount of cheesy goodness.  Were talking a burger each an order of cheese fries, and a milkshake to top it off.  The waiters spoke perfect English, and it was pretty hilarious to see my friend struggle between turning her Korean on and off as the waiter decided whether to address her, or the white girl at the table. (me)  We then navigated our way to our hostel and a few creepy alleyways later we made it.  We met up with a few other friends and crashed for the night.  Next day included some Dunkin Doughnuts and a long advocate training.  This training was well run and helped prepare a few of us to offer support for other ETAs who might need help during the year.  (oh and throw in some Pizza for lunch).  Afterwords we headed back to Hongdae.  Our plans changed maybe five times but a small group of us landed at Poseys, a dessert place.  And when i say dessert i mean there are four options with the most prominent being some Strawberry Bingsu.  And by strawberry Bingsu I mean the most delicious melt in your mouth taste I’ve ever experienced.  Were talking sweet, were talking milky, were talking cold.  And this stuff wasn't the normal shaved Ice, it was the snow lighter then air even better then Bahama Bucks type place.  I will return.  After words we headed to dinner.  Yeah, dinner.  Burger Bs, again.  after telling our friends about it they just needed an American burger.  After some mac and cheese we wandered some shops and eventually wound up running into another group of friends.  What are the odds?  We went to an American bar, drank American alcohol, and played beer pong.  So many foreigners.  I swear i would have never known I was in Korea.  Though we did wind up talking to the two koreans in the bar.  Oh and every person you talk to is either an English teacher or a military guy.  You can tell the military guys by their arrogant attitudes and when you ask “oh hey, why are you in Korea” they answer “Because im obviously in the Military, cant you tell”.  To which case NY Kelsey responds “No I really can’t”.  And walk away because they already give foreigners a bad name by fighting in all the bars.  (not all military guys are like this, but lets not with hold this stereotype shall we?) (I have met a few nice military guys last time I was in Seoul but they were older and officers so maybe thats why, IDK) ANYWAYS!  Spent the night out, eventually wound up in a coffee shop at 2am meeting with an ASU friend, because why wouldn't the coffee shop be open and crowded at 2 am?  I question where NY got the name the city that never sleeps around now.  We head to our hostel and the next day head home.  A few more shops and some American brunch and were back.  And so I went an entire weekend eating only American food, speaking only in English, and interacting mainly with Foreigners.  Its a wowdy Waygook weekend.

Up quote of the post: Russell: [to Carl, about Kevin] "This was her favorite candy bar. Because you sent her away, there's more for you."