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.