DMZ

I recently went on the US Air Force tour of the DMZ. My friend Julie has a friend from high school, Daren, that is currently working at the Osan Air Force base, about thirty minutes by train from Cheonan. Julie and I visited the base on Friday night and spent a few hours smiling about being "back on American soil." We ate dinner at Chilis and drank margaritas. The menu was in English and Julie and I were in a state of bliss.

After a great night of rest at a real hotel (with sheets! I don't have sheets at my homestay) we went to an American diner and boarded a bus bound for the DMZ. Immediately after boarding it became apparent to Julie and I that we were a little out of place. The bus was all military and their guests. Most guests were girlfriends and Julie and I were a little giggly compared the most of the other passengers on the bus.

Our first stop was at a lookout point by the DMZ called Imjingak Resort Park. The actual DMZ is about two kilometers wide and so our view standing on the South Korean side was mostly symbolic. This spot is a place where many people come and pray for peace and unification. It included a 21 ton bell of peace and many notes written to people in the north hung on a fence. After that stop we entered the DMZ area and proceeded to the Mt. Odu Obersvation point where we saw our first view of NK across the river. We walked around a museum and saw Kim Jung Il's signature and many artifacts from NK. The museum has very up to date articafts and I thought it was really neat to see the newspaper from just the previous week in NK. I also was really interested in looking at the school textbooks. The books looked so old fashioned and included studying the history of Kim Il Sung (Kim Jung Il's father) and his family.

After this point we proceeded to Dora station, located at the northernmost end of South Korea. This is a train station that was created with the expectation that Korea will not be divided forever and that one day the train can run between Pyeongyang and Seoul. Here we walked outside and saw the track that runs to NK and had our passports stamped.

Our next stop was the Joint Security Area, the most famous part of the DMZ. This area is called the panmunjeom and is the only area that is outside the administrative control of both North and South Korea. The U.N has many guards in this area and the whole area is very quiet. We were told not to make faces at North Korea or even point in the direction. The guard on the North Korean side was often looking through his binoculars at us at we looked at him standing on the steps of the North Korean welcome center. It was crazy to think that we were so close to North Korea, yet taking just a few steps in the wrong direction by anyone could cause a potential world war. We were unable to enter the rooms where meetings are held between the north and south because of the H1N1 scare, but we saw where the meetings are held from the outside of the building. I swear that there are very few places in Korea that were no closed for the swine flu.

After leaving the part of the JSA with the North Korean guards standing so close to us, we went to a gift shop. Why wouldn't there be a gift shop? I was pretty excited to buy some soju made in the North. I wonder if it tastes the same as the beloved drink does in the south?

Our second to last stop was at the 3rd Infiltration tunnel. This is the place where the South discovered the North Koreans digging a tunnel towards the Seoul designed for a surprise attack on the South. We walked down 73 meters and walked through the tunnel all the way to the wall that marks the beginning of North Korea. Even that far underground, the line between the North and the South had barbed wire. Behind the barbed wire was a little door leading to the North. I really wondered what was on the other side. I decided not to find out for myself.

The last stop was at another observation point where we saw the road that about 100 South Koreans drive on everyday to their job in North Korea. There are about 100 managers from the South that operate factories in the North for a few thousand employees in the town of Kaesong. I did not know a lot about Kaesong, but it was really interesting to see that although there is so much tension between these two countries, some citizens still freely go from the South to the North on a daily basis. This link is a pretty cool look at a brochure published by the North that includes some information about Kaesong: http://northkorea1on1.com/EImages/downloads/korn-Kaesong-Booklet.pdf

My trip to the DMZ was one of the highlights of my time in Korea and I am looking forward to returning for my second tour with my family in a few weeks.

Some Great Opportunities : )

Over the past few weeks I have had a few opportunities to participate in professional development workshops and learn more about the Korean education system. The first opportunity was held at my school. My co-teacher and I taught an open class. About thirty teachers came and observed us teach a lesson. Some of the teachers stood in the room, some outside (they took the windows out so people could look through from the hallway) and our school also used a video camera to broadcast the lesson into the school cinema. It was pretty exciting to have so many people watching and critiquing our lesson.

Following the lesson my school held a workshop and in typical Korean fashion, without prior notice, I was asked to speak about team teaching in Korea. That little speech was a blessing in disguise because following the workshop I received two wonderful offers. First, I was asked to make a presentation about team teaching at a conference for all of the elementary English teachers in my province. Second, I was asked to participate in a research study that a professor at a local university is conducting next spring. The professor is a South African lady who has been in Korea for eight years teaching English at the primary level. I have been speaking with her regularly and am very excited about working with her this spring. We will be studying the effects of putting students into reading groups in their English classes. Differentiating instruction is a fairly new concept in Korean education and is very rare in their English as a foreign language education. Differentiation is a concept that I learned a lot about at Dayton and a concept that I will continue to study in reference to English Language Learners (ELL) over the next few months.

This past weekend I made a sixty minute presentation at the Chungnam Province Elementary English Education Conference. I was a bit overwhelmed by the length of the presentation, but it went really well. I was able to show some video clips from my open class and explain how I incorporate many team teaching strategies into my everyday lessons. The director must have liked the presentation because I have been asked to do it again two more times in December!

This sort of opportunity is great practice for making future presentations and helps me to build my professional portfolio. Thank you Korea : )

Meghan Teacher

It has always seemed funny to me that Korean students bow to their teachers, but also call them by their first names. Usually students use the word teacher in Korean (선생님 : sangsengneem) to refer to their teachers, but when there is more than one teacher being refereed to the teachers name is used. In Korea, the family name is said before the individuals name, so the students will commonly say the whole thing. At school, I'm just called Meghan. During student teaching in America I was usually "Mrs. Manning" because my students didn't understand the difference between Miss and Mrs. I can't say that I am really used to either Mrs. Manning or only Meghan. I will just stick to answering to teacher for now.

My school life is the one of the best parts of my Korean life. I have recently picked up extra teaching hours and am teaching a class of mothers. The mothers will only call me teacher, which seems very funny to me. I love teaching my mothers class because Korean women are so enthusiastic and they ALWAYS bring food to class. Before every class they make me a cup of green tea and always bring fresh baked goods that they pick up at a bakery on their way to school. They all picked English names to use in class and love sending me text messages signed Cindy and Nancy. Angela makes me laugh because she always forgets her English name and has me pronounce it so she can remember how to say it.

My mothers have about a high school English ability, but most of them are in their thirties and have forgotten a lot of vocabulary. Last week we practiced talking to a friend on the phone and this week we "went shopping" at a stationary store. We pretended to buy more pencil cases than we would ever need, but it was really fun. I am constantly amazed at how much people can communicate despite having such a spoken language barrier.

A Very Korean Halloween!

This past weekend my host family and I held a Halloween party for the kids, their friends and the local ETAs. It was sure to be a great party, considering we have been talking about it and "planning" for at least a month. I told my host mother that we could eat American food that I would prepare. I thought that this gesture would take the pressure off of her and assure that we would not be eating squid for lunch.

I wanted to include Hee Won and Sungchan, my host brother and sister, in on the preparations. HeeWon helped to make ants on a log. The whole family watched. They tasted celery and said it was their first time. My host mother said we looked funny making it. I told her that minus the raisins that celery and peanut butter is a pretty typical snack that you could find in America. Despite my efforts, I think that dried squid will still top her snack list.

We also made dirt dessert, with mashed cookies and candy worms. Unfortunately I could not find a supermarket in town with pudding. I had to buy yogurt a lot of Hershey's chocolate syrup to create a proper pudding taste. I would say that it turned out pretty tasty.

The festivities began with getting dressed in costumes and my friend Julie applying makeup to the zombies and my host father who wanted to be a dog.

We headed outside where we walked up to a small opening on the mountain behind our house. We put out the pumpkins to carve and each adult took charge of a pumpkin or two. The children were amused for a few minutes, but like typical American kids they spent more time having sword fights than they did helping to carve. My friends were already complaining about the situation like a group of jaded mothers. The children came back to help with the final stages of the pumpkin carving and were really excited to have completed their first jack-o-lanterns.

Next, we played a version of bobbing for apples. I read about this game online. First, you poke a hole through an apple and slip a string through. Metal chopsticks worked great for this. Then you hang two apples next to each other and the participants have to see who can get a bite out of the apple first. It was a challenging game, but it was really fun for both the players and the spectators. We all looked a little silly trying to hard to bite an apple, but it was much better than having our faces in water on a chilly day.

Following a group picture we headed inside for our "American" food. Elijah had stayed inside to prepare the food (I was sad that she didn't join us) and everything was all set out when we returned. We had yam pizza, boiled yams, yam salad, lettuce salad, ants on a log, and dirt dessert. It was a wonderful meal.

I cannot forget to mention that when we returned home we put the pumpkins in the foyer. In our home this is also the place where we have one of our statues of the holy family. Our new jack-o-lanterns were appropriately placed right alongside the statue.

The kids left for church shortly after we returned home and the big kids stayed home to hang out together. My host father accidentally went to church with a dog face still painted on and I secretly thought it was hilarious. We enjoyed some blue jeju soju (my new favorite kind) and spent the rest of our night singing karaoke at the local norebang.

On the Upswing

During orientation we were showed a graph that displayed the typical cycle of "happiness" a person will go through during a year long immersion experience. At the time that I saw this graph, I was in my honeymoon stage of my year in Korea. I was loving everything from the sour cafeteria kimchi to practicing my few Korean phrases at coffee shops with my American friends. I had just landed in Korea and everything was wonderful.

I went through another honeymoon stage when I moved to Cheonan. My school was adorable and my homestay was great. I believed that I was living a charmed Korean life. The chart showed a slow decline from the honeymoon stage to the freak out stage, which was supposed to hit about October. This chart was exactly my experience. Around the beginning of the month, my rose colored glasses cleared up and I was seeing Korea for what it really is. Everything started to bother me from rude questions from strangers to getting sick from too much rice. I was becoming bored with teaching directly from a textbook and I was desperately looking for more to do during my free time. I started to realize that my clothes were going to become stretched out from being hung dry all year, that I was going to have to wake up everyday (including weekends) for an early morning family breakfast and that my host family would always treat me like I am 12 half of the time instead of 24, my Korean age. My host father and I got into our first big disagreement over me not wanting to confession in Korean. I didn't want to be at school because I found it frustrating to co-teach with someone I do not share many philosophies of education with and I didn't want to be at home because I didn't want to talk about how I have a unholy soul. My freak out stage put me into a funk.

The next step on the chart is recovery. I have finally reached this stage and with careful planning I have created solutions to each of my "issues." My host father and I sat down and discussed my spiritual health and I was sure to not let anything get lost in translation. We came to a consensus on my well being and everything at home is much more comfortable.

I spoke with my co-teacher about having more responsibilities at school to help my boredom and I am currently tutoring a group of students for a speech competition and another for a writing contest. The ability to work creatively with these students is really rewarding and helping to balance out the textbook boredom.

I have started volunteering at a North Korean refugee camp, The Heavenly Dream School, with some other ETAs. I am sure that this experience will be a highlight of my year and I am looking forward to sharing stories about the middle school class that I am teaching at the camp. The travel time to and from The Heavenly Dream School is a great time to catch up with other ETAs and speak in English.

For my mental and physical health I have started taking yoga classes at a local yoga center. The class is a small group of middle aged Korean women and myself. This was my first week, but they have done a great job of welcoming me into their group. We have great konglish conversations about breathing, their children, and of course, the swine flu. Today after class we had a tea party in the studio. We put our mats in a circle, drank green tea and ate cookies. It was really cute that they do that together. They also invited me out to dinner with the "ladies" next week for a traditional Korean meal. That pretty much means, there will be lots of food and lots of soju.

Overall, I am happy to be heading out of the recovery stage and into the plateau of happiness in Korea. I am almost a third of a way through my year. I have had a great experience so far, but I still have so far to go. There are lots of fun things coming up and I want to enjoy each of them to their full capacity :)

Less than two months until my family arrives in Korea!! Griswolds take Asia!

ETA Conference

This past weekend was the first ETA conference of the year. It was a four day extravaganza held in Gyongju, the first capital of Korea. The city itself was at one time the largest in East Asia, but most of it was destroyed during Japanese invasions and now it is home to about 300,00 people. I traveled with some of the other Cheonan ETAs by train to our destination on the southeast side of the country (we live in the northwest). Our ride was about four hours, but it was an exciting ride because at about every stop on the way at least one or two of our friends joined us on the train.

The whole group arrived at the Commodore Hotel and was greeted by Mrs. Shim, the director of Fulbright Korea. Our workshop included small group discussions about lesson plans, extracurricular activities, home stay issues and our overall experiences so far. We also had large group presentations from other ETAs about working with students outside of class, incorporating the arts into our ESL class and ideas for winter break.

The conference was a great opportunity to catch up with friends and discuss our experiences so far. I didn't realize how much I missed having extensive conversations in English or drinking at a bar filled with my friends. The conference allowed us to work and play. Following the workshop on Saturday some friends and I rented scooters and rode around town with a bunch of kids half of our age.

Throughout the weekend we were able to talk about some of the uncomfortable situations we have encountered and share many entertaining stories. It was really comforting to share stories and hear that the majority of my peers are having similar struggles as I am. Most of the stories either begin or end with the phrase, "only in Korea."

On Sunday, we traveled around Gyongju by bus from nine to five. We visited temples, ancient tombs and saw many traditional Korean artifacts. We learned that many of the sights and artifacts were replicates because the originals were destroyed by the Japanese. This was sad news, but we still tried our best to appreciate the artifacts for what they represented. Unfortunately for the person sitting next to me on the bus, I did not do well riding up and down the mountain on windy roads.

The conference concluded with a night full of storytelling and my first gin and tonic in Korea. Following a bike ride on Monday morning, we packed up our bags and headed back to the train station.

Chuseok: Part 2

After about two calm hours of reading and sleeping in the car we arrived at a stone cottage in a small village. The cottage was on a farm, built right next to a very old traditional Korean home. We were greeted at the car by one of Elijah's nieces and a family friend from China.

Serena, the friend from China was my age and spoke English. Before stepping inside the house, I knew this would be a completely different Chuseok experience.

When I entered Elijah's mother's home I was greeted by about eight visiting relatives. One of the aunts spoke some English and was very welcoming. Elijah's mother was adorable. She sort of looked like a Korean version of my Grandma Jeanne. She was short, always smiling and had the same short curly hair. Within a few minutes we were seated around a table on the floor sharing fruit and catching up (or for me, answering the initial questions: age, boyfriend, why Korea?).

After only being in the house for a few minutes I was told to go take a shower. I was happy to comply with this request and enjoyed being able to clean up and put on warm comfortable clothes. Everyone else in my immediate family also showered and we spent the rest of the night lounging in our sweats. I took an evening stroll around the village with some of the cousins, enjoyed a wonderful meal and participated in drinking some "healthy alcohol" with the adults. The healthy part comes from the fact that there are fifteen oriental medicines in this alcoholic drink. It wasn't the best thing I have ever had, but it also wasn't the worst (Dayton memories!).

I slept in an attic room with the other girl cousins and felt like I was at a middle school sleepover. In the morning I woke up to the smell of breakfast (maybe I am starting to like eating kimchi for breakfast??). We went on another nice walk around the house and all ate our meal together before the other family members would leave and head back to their homes.

My immediate family and I stayed for a few hours and explored Elijah's mother's land and some surrounding areas. We dug up yams and hiked up a small mountain to a temple that was built to honor a Korean general that stood up to protect his people during many of the invasions of Korea. As we walked, we talked about returning after the first snow fall and picked out where we would build our snowmen and what hills we would sled down. Later in the afternoon we said our goodbyes and returned to Cheonan. I am looking forward to another visit this winter.

Chuseok: Part 1

This past weekend was one of my most eventful yet. Chuseok, the Korean harvest celebration, was on Saturday and my family and I celebrated it by traveling to my host father and mother's hometowns. The week preceding the Chuseok celebration I was informed many times that it would be an uncomfortable situation for me, but I tried very hard to have a positive outlook and not prejudge the situation. We left after breakfast on Friday and headed to our first stop, Nonsan, my host father's hometown. After a two hour car ride of my host brother jumping around the back seat with his gun (seat belts are not common in the backseats of cars in Korea) we arrived at my host grandparents home.

Mark was not exaggerating that he grew up on dirt floors. Their house was a very rural and traditional Korean home. Halabaje (grandfather) and halmonie (grandmother) moved to the house that we visited after their kids were grown. It is down the street from their original house and the floors were covered. As soon as we arrived all members of my family went into the bedroom and changed their clothes into more comfortable "country" clothes. Elijah stepped into the kitchen to start cooking lunch and did not leave for almost the entire time that we were visiting. Many members of Marks family arrived and I was introduced to brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. There was not much translating and therefore if I did not speak Korean, very little was said to me.

For lunch we had pigs feet. I had heard that Koreans like to enjoy pigs feet and was secretly praying that I would never encounter a situation when I would have to "enjoy" them also. Coming to Korea as a person that does not eat red meat and introducing many different kinds of meat into my diet was a personal challenge that I have overcome. The pigs feet made me feel like I was on the television show Fear Factor. Elijah was at the end of the table pointing at her face trying to tell me that I need to eat lots of pigs feet because they are good for your skin. (I looked it up online and studies show that pigs feet are a superfood- great for skin!) The gooey texture of the feet was the most difficult part for me to deal with. The feet were boiled and put in a soup with ginseng root. The broth of the soup was very good, but I needed to force every bite of the foot down. You know that something is difficult to eat when you are washing it down with big bites of super spicy kimchi and gulps of lukewarm corn water. But I did it with a smile.

After lunch I went to a rice mill with Heewon and Mark for the first step of our songpyeon (a traditional Chusoek food) adventure. I will profile that process in another post. My day was filled with lots of songpyeon, random Konglish conversations and children running away from me in fear because I am a foreigner. It also included my host father telling me that I should not read because it will make me bored (despite the fact that I assured him many times that I am reading a great book), my host mother asking me over and over in Korean if I am bored, yet denying any attempt I made to help her in the kitchen and the children running around shooting BB guns outside.

As a foreign female in her twenties, I am in a tough situation with my role in the family. I am not Korean and do not speak Korean, so cooking like a woman my age would is out of question. I am not a child, so I do not spend too much time with the children. I am sometimes sent to spend time with the men, while the women cook, but I do not smoke cigarettes, so I tried to avoid some to those situations also. Thank goodness for books. I make judgment calls all day long about when is a good time to be a cultural ambassador and when is a good time to take a step back and let everyone be. I don't think that there is a role for foreigners, so I am trying very hard to create my own place. So far I am learning that it is best to buy children ice cream, go for walks with the men and children after dinner and offer a thousand times to help cook. I was given one task- to peel the shells off of a hundred quail eggs.

I was told at dinner that I would be sleeping in the "wife room." Mark's parent's house had only four rooms, the kitchen, one extra bedroom/tv room, their bedroom, and the main room where the fridge and kimchi freezer are. Tables were set up on the floor in this room for all meals. As I sat on the floor in the main room I wondered where the "wife room" would be. I ended up sleeping in the grandparents room on a mat with my host mother and next to her sister-in-law and child. The children and their dads slept in the main room and the grandparents slept in the extra room. I fell asleep to a woman breastfeeding beside me and woke up to my host father telling me to go wash my face and go put on make-up.

After breakfast the men changed into suites and so I went and changed into a skirt and tights. I was startled when I came out of the room and the women were all yelling at me in Korean to go change. I had to wear my clothes from Friday for a second day, despite my hike in them the previous day, and had no idea why. Just as I sat down to read a little I was told to grab my camera and come outside. I was put in a car and told that we were going to the mountain. "The mountain" is a very loose term considering 70% of Korea is covered in mountains.

I learned on our drive that we were going to visit the tombs of my host great-grandparents. Only the men, children and women that were not cooking attending this outing. When we arrived at the mountain, we hiked up to two tombs, and I noticed that my host uncle was carrying a box. I thought that maybe there were flowers in the box? Next to the tomb, a mat was unrolled, and the box was unloaded. Of course, food and soju! It was 10:00am and we had just finished breakfast. The food was set out and the family prayed together, a Hail Mary and an Our Father, followed by a bow to the ground. Then, grandfather poured a cup of soju on each of the graves! We all sat down and enjoyed the food together. Just when I think that I cannot eat anymore, they come out with more and more food.

We stayed at that grave for about twenty minutes and then we headed on to the next. We said the same prayers, but did not eat at the second sight. Third, we were onto a "water grave." After a quick stop for some ice cream, we arrived at the lake where some of the family members ashes had been spread. The ritual was performed and we were onto our next stop. At the next site, great grandfather's brother, Heewon found a four leaf clover. The next stop, another brother, was behind a farm. This was not like any typical farm. This was a pig farm where dogs were raised on the side and sold to restaurants. I know they eat dog in Korea, but another hope of mine was that I would never have to actually see the dogs that they eat. Tons of puppies and big dogs all caged together next to piles to trash, animal cruelty at its best. The dog farm was our last stop and we returned home for lunch. At lunch the soup was so spicy that tears rolled down my cheeks. After at least trying it a few times and the physical sign of tears that it was too hot, I was excused from eating it.

After lunch we departed for Hongsam, my host mother's hometown.

Driving in Korea!

Today has been an ILK (I love Korea) kind of day. I have the day off of school for Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival. My family and I will be leaving for my host grandparents house tomorrow and spent today getting ready for the festivities. Chuseok is the holiday when many Koreans exchange gifts the way many Americans do at Christmas. This week at school I got a really nice set of tea cups from my vice principal. My principal gave me a HUGE box of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, four bars of soap, a poof, and four tubes of green tea toothpaste. Young gave me a box of 200 individually wrapped orange flavored rice puffs. I also received a box set of wool socks from another teacher at school.

I woke up this morning and at breakfast I asked if there was anything that I could do to help prepare for Chuseok this weekend. I thought that maybe I could help Elijah cook or make a trip to the supermarket to pick up some treats for the kids. My offer was received with a great smile from Mark and he said that it would be a great help if I would drive Elijah around to drop of presents to her friends for Chuseok and take her and Heewon to Emart. I was unaware that my host mother did not drive, but Mark knew that I have an international drivers license and this plan was perfect. The driving laws in Korea are all the same at home, but Koreans follow the laws only about 50% of the time. Needless to say I was pretty nervous about driving around and being directed in only Korean, because my host mother does not speak English.

Everything turned out OK and I was very thankful that I have studied so hard in Korean. We laughed a lot about how easily we communicated and how scared Elijah got when I would pull of behind cars and not break as quickly as she would have liked. We were a team; Elijah read the Korean signs and abbreviated them into short Korean phrases that I was familiar with. It had been a long time since I had driven a car at all and years since I had driven such a boat of a car. Thank goodness for my practice driving Poppa's cars years ago.

We drove to Emart and browsed isles of box gifts sets for Chuseok. The sets included matching couple socks, spam (slogan: Spam makes you smile), vitamins and every type of body lotion and wash you could imagine. I hung out in the aisles with dried squid while she ran around in the masses of people picking up various ingredients for our weekend. Based on our shopping trip, I am both excited and nervous about what I might be putting into my mouth this weekend. I am also looking forward to seeing all of the gifts exchanged, because they are not things that I would ever dream of exchanging with such pride.

I think that this will be an "only in Korea" weekend!

Playing Catch-up

I have a bit of blogging to catch up with after my two weeks without a computer. This past weekend I made a trip up to Seoul and purchased a new computer. Macintosh is not very popular in Korea and there are no Mac stores, only authorized dealers. But in typical Korean fashion I was able to negotiate the price down a bit by paying for my computer in cash. The deal made the computer a better deal than I thought it would be and like a cherry on top, the nice computer guys threw in a free case and mouse. I was not very happy to be spending such a large sum of money this early in my year, but having a computer with Hangul (korean alphabet) keys is pretty cool.

My weekend in Seoul was a much needed break and was a great time to hang out with some fellow expats. My friend Aaron has a friend in Seoul that works for GM-Daewoo and showed us around his life in Seoul. We stayed at his house in the UN village, met the local tailor that makes custom suites for all of the guys at GM and lunched at the Seoul Club. The best part o

f my weekend was relaxing at a western style home, eating pesto, drinking great Italian wine and playing Nintendo Wii.

I have always known that I would reach a time in Korea when the honeymoon stage would end and I would start to realize that this is my life right now. This weekend is the three month mark for my time in Korea. I have already been here for a quarter of a year! I have learned so much and have had so many experiences.

I am also well aware at this point that many of my experiences this year might not be positive. During my honeymoon phase in Korea, I was a warmly welcomed guest. I am transitioning from my Korean vacation to the phase of living a typical korean life, but as an outsider. In most ways this has been a good thing. I am now allowed to help with the dishes and take care of more things on my own. Unfortunately, without the language skills that could take years to attain, I will never be completely independent in Korea. That realization is a difficult one to come to peace with.

Today I found a wonderful little coffee shop called the Book Cafe within walking distance of my house. With coffee by my side, things are looking up. I am confident that I will improve my language skills and that I will begin to embrace my Korean life as an outsider. This next week I will be begin planning my family's trip to Korea for Christmas and make plans for my winter break. Just thinking about the possibilities (Thailand, Indonesia..) is making me antsy about starting to plan.

Tonight: Watching The Office on DVD!

Computer Upsaio

Upsaio is a Korean word that means missing or something is not working. For example when I can't find my phone, I have to tell my host mother that my phone is upsaio, and she understands that I am looking for it. If we do not have any more paper towels in the kitchen, I will say that the tissues are upsaio. Right now my computer is UPSAIO. My faithful friend that got me through college an helped me to complete my thesis has finally gone to her final resting place. My computer has crashed and I am currently working to recover my data and research the best options I have to buy a new one. I am sharing this because I do not have much computer time and therefore I have not posted any blogs this week. : (

Last weekend I visited a local museum and had the opportunity to dress up in traditional Korean clothing. The pictures are still on my camera because of my computer crash, but I will post them asap. My family also took me to a food expo in Cheonan. It was called the Well Being Expo and I was put into a foreigner line and had my temperature taken so that I would not "contaminate" the festival.

This week has been filled with many random little occurrences, such as seeing my first English movie. Last night my host father had an impromptu party at our house and two of my American friends attended. We ate lobster soup, spoken Konglish and enjoy some drinks together. It was a wonderful opportunity for my host family to meet some of my friends and for my friends to get to know my family.

I will post more when I get my new computer up and running.

: )

Top Ten Things I love about my new life in Cheonan….so far.

10. Being treated like a celebrity and having everyone know who you are and want to talk to you.

9. My host dad setting Korean goals for me and creating posters to hang around the apartment with the first 500 Korean words I need to learn.

8. Always knowing what’s going on in Mass, despite not understanding much of the language.  It’s a good thing that Catholics are the same everywhere.

7. Bowing to everyone you know and don’t know. The respect for others makes me so happy.

6. The joy of understanding what someone is saying to you in Korean and being able to respond, even with only a few words, and be understood. 

5. Never exactly knowing what I am eating and always enjoying it. My picky eating days are behind me and now I often enjoy octopus and kimchi for breakfast.

4. Enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee each morning after breakfast. I have yet to be late in the morning. That fact alone would have been unheard of in my American life.

3. Speaking with my host mother with body language and broken Korean sentences and always having her understand what I am saying. I think that despite our inability to have a deep conversation, we have created a great bond.

2. Yongso Elementary School…Love Love Love

1. The Park family….I am so lucky!

 

My English World

My school has a wing that is designated as the English World. My classroom is the study room of the English World. There is also The Yongso Store, where students can buy prizes with Yongso dollars that they earn with good behavior. A group of mothers run the store and the students have to use only English when they are purchasing their prizes from the store. The students can buy everything from stickers and markers to games and art sets.

            The English World also includes a cinema where students can watch movies everyday during their free time. The cinema has real movie theatre seats and a big screen. The cinema also doubles for a karaoke room when the disco ball is turned on. The lyrics of songs are projected onto the screen, a microphone is set up and students can sing their hearts out to the English pop song of their choice.

            My favorite part of the English World is the area that is designated for role-plays. There is a big room with multiple areas for students to act out role-plays. The room has a hospital, a bank, and an airline check-in counter among other things. Once a month each class will go down to the role-play area and act out different situations. I think that this area is a wonderful way for students to learn practical English in addition to the textbook English that they learn in class.

            The shades that pull down in the hallway have different pictures from English speaking countries. My room has four shades that make up Buckingham Palace, the hallway shows a typical American shopping center with coffee shops and minivans. My favorite are the shades at the end of the hall that are of San Francisco and one has the Full House home on it. When I got excited and started talking about Full House no one knew what I was talking about. I still smile to myself when I pass that shade on my way to the cafeteria each afternoon.

            My duties in the school vary from teaching twenty-one classes per week to being the host of the school’s morning news broadcast. I pick an English song each month and teach it to the students over the broadcast and in class. I have open cinema hours for the students to practice the song and at the end of each month I will be the judge of a karaoke contest. This month we are starting out with Yesterday by the Beatles. The students need some slow songs to keep up with the lyrics. Next month I am trying to challenge them with a slightly faster song, but one that repeats the chorus often. We will be signing Hawaiian Roller coaster Ride, from the movie Lilo and Stitch. I will be taking video of the karaoke contest this month. So far the children look adorable belting out Beatles songs and I only imagine with practice they will get better by the end of the month.

 

Starbucks!!

I brought my little brother and sister to Starbucks over the weekend. They didn't really understand why I was so excited about coffee, but they are always up for an adventure. I love going to Starbucks because it always tastes just like home. If I close my eyes and take a big sip of coffee, I can actually feel myself at the Starbucks on Brown Street or in Chadds Ford. 

I let them go wild at the condiment bar and their milks turned into cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla, sugary messes. It was a great time for all. 

Yongso Elementary School

I spent my first few days at my school learning my way around. The students were still on summer vacation and therefore I had some time to get settled. I was really nervous about my first meeting with my principal because we were told that they could be very judgmental. My meeting was a success. The first question my principal asked was what I thought about his school, the second asked about foods that I couldn’t eat, and third inquired if I drink alcohol. Luckily, I am not allergic to anything and I have made a point to eat (at least try) everything that is put in front of my in Korea. I was able to answer all of the principal’s questions with favorable responses. He also wanted to know what my dad for a living and when my family would be coming to visit. I’m not sure my principal during student teaching even knew my name and this principal is taking time to get to know me. This was the start to a great relationship.

My vice principal also does not speak much English but we talk about the weather everyday in Korean and talk about how much we both like to drink coffee. He is really nice about letting me practice my new Korean phrases with him and encourages me to speak to him as much as I can in Korean. Today we stood by the door to the playground and commented on lots of random things in sort of a Korean-English conversation. This was by no means a conversation that I would ever have at home, but it was definitely a moment where we had a mutual understanding that despite our communication barrier we were going to have a conversation. It was a jeong building moment.

I have just completed my first week teaching English at Yongso Elementary School. It was a long week of planning and trying to get to know the individual personalities of each of my classes. I am teaching third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders. They are a great bunch of students and have very high English abilities 

for their age. Many of the students attend private academies to learn English after school. I co-teach with a Korean teacher and we share everything from lesson planning, to decorating the classroom and time working with the students. Our personalities work very well together, but we are still getting to know each other and find a balance between our various teaching styles. The Korean education system is very different than the American one and we are often confused about the strategies that the other teacher is using because we were taught to teach in different ways.

My classroom is very cute and I have decorated it to make myself feel at home. I put a Philadelphia skyline i

n the back of the room, and created a Hershey’s chocolate reward system. The students are in their second semester of school because they change grades in March after winter break. Therefore, I am coming into a preset routine and curriculum for the semester. I am still learning the schedule and I think that by the end of this week I will have a better grasp on the school.

For now, I want to share some pictures of my classroom. I will be sure to share more information about my school as time goes on and I am finally adjusted.  

Meghan, You are ready to marry now...

This morning at breakfast I asked if I could use the iron to press my shirt. My host mother and father were very surprised by my request and asked if I knew how to use the iron. When I explained that I always iron my own clothes, they were very surprised. My host mother brought the iron into the living room and they all watched me iron my shirt. My host father commented on my ironing abilities and told me that because I already know how to cook and iron, I am ready to marry. I laughed and told him that instead of knowing how to cook and iron as reasons to marry, I should probably meet the man first.

I went back to my room to change and could hear the family in the living room making "oohh ahh" sounds. I came out to see my host father showing the children how to iron a handkerchief with the iron unplugged. He said that he was demonstrating by using the "left over heat" from the iron. I think that the children were very surprised by seeing their dad iron, instead of mom. My family is so cute!

Jeong in the Mountains

My first weekend at my homestay I was informed that on Saturday we would be meeting some friends in the mountains. I asked what I should wear and was told that I would get dirty and wet, there would be mosquitos, and we would be in the mountains all day so I would need to wear lots of sunscreen and bring a visor. Based on my clues, I thought that we would be hiking. My host mother made eggs and toast for breakfast before our "big day" and we left to meet the crew. I was introduced to about twenty people that all congreated together outside of the apartment. One of the men in the group handed out maps with a marked trail and we got into the car to head out.

We drove in a caravan for a while and eventually we pulled up into a grass area between two mountains and parked the car. My host father looked at the map and said, "we're here." When he left the map in the car, I was suspicious that we might not be hiking. One of the cars held lots of coolers that we quickly unloaded and carried over to a picnic sight. The kids took off their shoes and headed for a stream nearby to play.
Within a few minutes the coolers were unloaded and there, in the middle of two mountains, the women started to prepare bowls of kimchi and boil soup on portable stoves, while the men started heating up grills and stones. For the next hour, a huge lunch was prepared and I was introduced to everyone from neighbors to the priest of the Catholic Church that my family belongs to. Lots of food was prepared and there in the middle of the valley we took off our shoes, climbed up onto tables and ate sitting with our legs crossed. The men were at one table and the women were at another. Before we ate we said Grace and soju cups were passed out. It was noon on a Saturday and I was at a cookout with the priest and my host family. Why wouldn't we be taking shots of soju and drinking beer?

We did not end up drinking very much, but we did play some drinking games as a group. My friend Aaron says, that if you can dream it, it can happen in Korea. I would have never guessed that I would have so much fun playing games with a bunch of church ladies in the valley of two mountains. That is where jeong is created. 

Exercising with Dad

The first day that I announced that I was going for a run around the apartment complex area, I was questioned about my intentions, but allowed to go. The second time that I mentioned running, my host father insisted that we "go together." I wasn't sure what this meant, but I was ready with my shoes on at the time I was told to be ready. I asked my host father if he wanted to run with me. He said no, but still he wanted to show me where to run.

We left the aparment and headed to a local school that has a track. My host father decided to borrow my second grade little brother's bike and ride next to me while I ran to the school. He is so thoughtful and always wants to help.  We "traveled" together to the school. We looked like quite a duo, a white girl in a college t-shirt with an ipod and my Korean host father, dressed with a and popped collar, riding a kiddie bike. We chatted on our way to the school and sometimes we would just stop and giggle at how silly the whole situation was. 

The track turned out to be under construction and I returned to running on the sidewalks. I will always remember the picture of the two of us heading out of the apartment complex together and I will always regret not having a picture of the event.

Surprise Soju!

One night I was just hanging out and playing with the kids after dinner. My host mother mentioned that I should go take a shower. I didn't really feel like it at the time, decided to myself that I would shower before bed and I continued to play. A litte while later, I was told to shower again. At this point I was wondering if I smelled and by the third request for me to take a shower, I gave in. I took a shower and dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt.

I had just gotten out of the shower when I saw my host dad arrive home (I didn't know he had left) with a bunch of grocery bags in his hands. He put them on the counter, looked at me and said, "people will arrive in five minutes and we will drink alcohol togther." I was so surprised that I went straight to my room and changed my clothes. The people had arrived by the time I returned to the kitchen. Soju and beer was poured for all of us and the toasts began. My surprise attack to drink was complemented with an abundance of fresh fruit and fried chicken. Korean people like to eat lots of food with their alcohol.

We chatted for a while with basic Korean and basic English words so that everyone could understand. Every once in a while the group would get bored with speaking slowly and jump into Korean conversations that I could not follow. However, I did know when they were talking about me because they did not try to hide it and would use my name over and over. Sometimes I could gather the topic of the conversation, but other times I just hoped that they were saying nice things. We covered the usual Korean topics: Do you have a boyfriend? An outraged, Why
not?! What can you say in Korean? And why don't Americans like to eat octopus?

At one point, while sipping on some 43% alcohol from China, I was left out of the conversation and realized that they were no longer talking about me. I was putting all of my energy into trying to not make faces when I was sipping my drink that I stopped paying attention to the conversation. Then, I heard Discovery Channel and Bear. When I inquired about their conversation I learned that they were talking about Man Vs. Wild the television show. During my six week stay at home I got really into this show (Thanks James) and I was surprised to hear that it was also popular in Korea.

Overall my suprise attack to drink on a Thursday night was pretty successful. 

Lesson learned: Take a shower the first time you are told.

Our First Hike

There is a mountain behind our apartment building and my host father goes on a two hour hike everyday. One day I mentioned that I wanted to go for a walk and explore the area so that I could get a good grasp on where we live in relation to other things. My host father understood my comment as though I wanted to go for a hike in the mountain. I was told to quickly go put pants on and handed a visor. We were off into the mountains before I could debate anything. 

We hiked in many different directions so that I could learn many of the trails and multiple ways to return home. This first hike, although a bit awkward, was a great bonding experience for us to have some time to talk and get to know eachother.

My host father also was kind enough to show me how to use all of the workout equipment that is located at different points on the mountain. Maybe he thought that people only did sit ups and pull ups in Korea? Bless his caring heart. He was so nice and showed me everything that I could possibly need to know.

Move-in Night

I arrived to the apartment building and immediately knew that I was going to live in a beautiful home for the year. We took the elevator up to the 14th floor and I was home. The Park family greeted me at the door with lots of waves and hellos. My host mother, Elijah, is even more beautiful than my co-teacher described and was full of smiles during our introduction. My host sister, Heewon, is in the fifth grade and my brother, Sungchan, is in second grade. Both of the children learn English in schools and from tutoring at private academies and have basic conversation skills.

I was given a tour of the apartment and showed my room for the year. My host family is Catholic and was very excited to hear that I am also Catholic. Before I was finished with my tour of the apartment I was on the floor bowing to statues of Mary and Jesus and praying with my host father in Korean. My host parents asked me to call them by their Catholic names, Mark and Elijah, rather than their Korean names. There was some discussion about calling me by my confirmation name, Anne, but it was decided that the same name, Meghan, should be used at home and school. I was happy about that decision.

We had our first traditional Korean dinner together and I was treated like royalty. I spent most of the night unpacking and discussing the logistics of the house with Mark. Within the first hour I was informed that Elijah  would do my laundry (very nice!), but that I would need to clean my own under garments (also very Korean). Nothing says family like talking about underwear on the first night!!

Yonsei Day

On Monday morning we dressed in our teaching best and loaded our belongings onto a truck. In typical fashion, my suitcase was so heavy that it fell over and I ripped my suit skirt up the back, trying to catch it from falling. Thank goodness for hotel sewing kits! I fixed my skirt and still managed to grab a cup of coffee with my coffee buddy for the last time during orientation.

After our arrival at Yonsei University, we had a short briefing about our contracts and we signed the dotted line to officially become Fulbright English Teachers in Korea. Next, we all proceeded into a room that was filled with our future principals and co-teachers. We had practiced the perfect walk and bow (insa) during orientation and the procession was flawless. We stood and lined the aisles of the auditorium while Mrs. Shim, the director of Fulbright Korea, read each of our names and schools. When our name was called we stepped out from our line, bowed and waved to our school representatives, who at that point were standing up. Some of the schools cheered when their ETA’s name was called and others some ran and handed presents or flowers to their ETA. My representatives stood up with a professionally made poster that said, “Welcome Meghan Kathleen Manning.” It was adorable and for the rest of the ceremony I could not stop looking at them and smiling because their excitement was radiating throughout the room. I felt like my dad was in the audience because my male representative was taking pictures of me from his seat.

Following the ceremony we were released into a big room to find our school and go to lunch at a restaurant close by. In Korea, first impressions are very important and I was sure to get mine right. I made a deep bow and gave a very formal greeting in Korean. My co-teacher quickly lightened the mood by speaking in English and telling me to call her Young. She then introduced my host father who had joined her for the day because my principal was unable to make the trip. He told me to call him Mark. I couldn’t help but to smile and realize that it really was “my dad” in the audience taking pictures.

The somewhat awkward lunch on the floor was followed with more meetings with Mrs. Shim, many goodbyes and a car ride from Seoul to Cheonan. My host father talked about my future home and told me about his family. He explained that he speaks English because he spent many years traveling to the US for work, but has not used his English since he retired ten years ago. My co-teacher explained that my host mother was nervous about meeting me because she does not speak English. The car ride seemed long and I was nervous the whole time about what the night ahead would be like.

 

Weekend in Seoul

My weekend is Seoul was a great time to relax and recharge before moving to my homestay. Friday night the U.S. Embassy invited our group to a barbecue w

ith the Ambassador and many members of her staff. We were treated with an American menu of hamburgers, Mexican dip, and s’mores. Ambassador Stephens was a great host and spent a large part of her night speaking with us in small groups and answering all of our questions. She also informed us that because Korea’s Independence day was that weekend the Seoul Philharmonic would be playing at city hall that night. We left the Embassy and were able to sit outside city hall and watch the Korean National Ballet perform with the Seoul Philharmonic.  It was a beautiful night and one that I will never forget.

 

On Saturday, my friends and I went shopping. There are so many wonderful shopping districts in Seoul and many of them are very inexpensive. I was on a mission to get many of the necessities that I would need for my home-stay and presents for my Principal and Vice Principal. Completely out of character for me, I stayed within my list and only purchased the things that I needed. Although, I did let my eyes wander and I will be back to visit the Myeong-Dong and go shopping.

One of my ETA friends studied abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul and guided us around the nightlife in that area over the weekend. Many of the clubs are really crowded, but we were able to get into the VIP area and later on to the stage to dance with our new Korean friends. K-Pop, the Korean music was playing all night and we knew many of the songs by the end of the night. Koreans sure can drink and drink into the very early hours of the morning. Let’s just say that it was nice to not have to wake up for anything on Sunday morning. 

Our weekend finished up with manicures, Starbucks and repacking my suitcases so that I did not seem like I had too much stuff when I arrived at my new home. My weekend in Seoul was one of my best yet. I cannot wait to go back and maybe live there over winter break! 

August E-mails

August 17, 2009

Today is my last official day of orientation. This morning, I will meet my Principal and leave for Cheonan, a city about 45 minutes south of Seoul, where I will spend the rest of my grant year living and teaching. I will be moving in with my home stay family on tonight, but I will not begin teaching until the end of the month because my students are still on summer vacation. I am looking forward to catching up with many people that I have not been able to talk to often during orientation. During this time I will also get a cell phone and start language training in Cheonan.

August 15, 2009

I'm shopping for gifts in Seoul for my man principal and there are starbucks everywhere. Ice. Coffee tastes just like home. I'll call you tonight before I go to bed and tell you about my host family. I miss you lots!

 

August 15, 2009

Hey!

Seoul is great but I'm really nervous about tomorrow.

August 8, 2009

I just got back from the DMZ. I survived and Kim Jung Il is still chillin' like a villain in the north. The roads in Korea are very curvy and I threw up on the bus. Don't worry, it was in a bag. We lunched at the Peace Dam that was created to save South Korea from the North's plot to flood it with their own dam. In typical Fulbright fashion the government allowed us to ring a peace bell that people are not allowed to ring without permission from the government.

Last night we went out to dinner with our taekwondo masters. It was so funny because the head master came around to all of the tables to have us take a shot of soju (a rice wine/ light vodka) with him. Then later in the dinner a soju bottle with chopsticks in it was passed around and people have to stand up and sing a song. Luckily I never had to sing. After dinner he took us out for drinks and proceeded to feed us cake with chopsticks. Picture an 8th degree black belt wearing a pink shirt feeding a bunch of Americans cake with chopsticks. We got a lot of funny looks. Needless to say it was a night that I will never forget. I have to go meet with my language partner now because I have my final on Monday. Talk to you soon!

August 4, 2009

I am running to finish up some work and have dinner with my Korean language teacher for her birthday, but I wanted to tell you about my placement. In two weeks I will be moving to Cheonan, South Korea. This is a city (a pretty good sized city) about an hour train ride south of Seoul. I will be teaching at Cheonan Yongso Elementary, a coed elementary school with about 1,000 students. My class sizes will be no bigger than 30 students and the school sounds great. I will get more information soon from the ETA in my school this past year. For now I only know the basics. I will be near very close to 5 other ETAs and within an hour of about 10 total. All of these people have been great people to spend time with at orientation and I am really looking forward to having them nearby.  There is a STARBUCKS in Cheonan along with many other western chain stores. I am still looking up additional information and I will continue to learn more throughout the week. I love you all very much.