"Is it my fault that the first 8 days is, basically, 30 birds?"

It's December 20th. (As if that wasn't already evident). I will be home in three days.
Three days - that's only like a total of 6 birds ... if you keep track of time via the "12 Days of Christmas", like I do.
This will, most likely, be my last blog post of 2009 ... in that I probably won't be posting while I'm at home. If you are in desperate need for an update on my life come find me in person, or give me a ring.
(Both a phone call and/or diamond will suffice.)

As the days of December stretch on (that sounds pretty corny), I've filled my time with traveling, teaching, and tearing up the streets of Hwasun.

I recently traveled to Korea's island of Jeju ... (recently being about two and a half weeks ago). It was a short weekend trip, and I definitely didn't get to see as much of the island as I would have liked, but while I was there I had a great time.
After a grueling 30 minute plane ride, I met up with friends on the island (fellow Fulbrighters ... not the natives) and was introduced to the finest of island life.
The finest of island life being Mexican food and a really sweet bar. It was great to relax with friends and get out of Hwasun ... even if I did find myself even farther removed from (Korean/real) "society".
However, the real exciting stuff was on Saturday ... as we all attended a Jeju United soccer game, were they played a Chinese team, and actually won. The game was absolutely freezing, but we had a blast. After 90 or so minutes of soccer (which all seemed to blend together to me) the entertainment began, and the entire crowd was treated to the crem de la crem (I don't know if that's how you spell it) of Korean pop sensations. It was a giant concert with Korea's best and most popular pop stars ... the line-up included (like you at home would really know or have heard of any of these groups) 2pm (major heart-throbs), SHINee, Kara, Girls Generation, the Brown Eyed Girls, JYP (who came out of retirement / obscurity), Kiss U, SS501, 4 minute (who's performance was about four minutes long ... fitting!), and a couple other acts who I didn't know / have never heard of / didn't think were important enough to research.
Afterward, I found this web-site / page that has video-clips of just about every performance ... so if you can't believe me when I say the concert was really awesome ... just take a look for yourself:

http://sookyeong.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/mbc-music-core-05-12-2009-jeju-special/

I really enjoyed my weekend in Jeju, but I do have to admit that it was strange to be "in Korea", while not really "in Korea". The island atmosphere coupled with the touristy-ness was unlike anything I've every experienced on the mainland ... and didn't really feel like "real Korea" ... if that is even something, or even something I'm allowed to feel after being here for only six months.

Some other interesting things that have occurred, or are occurring in/throughout the past couple weeks or so.

As I mentioned earlier, it's December. In Korea.
Korea's weather is very similar to that of Indiana's ... so it's cold. Not a "My toes are literally going to fall off" cold, but more like a "Wow. It's really cold" cold.
However, all those at my school (mainly the teachers, students, and principals) don't really seem to believe that it's actually winter. They have yet to turn on the school's central heating ... and rely only on the one or two "fan heaters" ... (it's like a fan, but a heater) ... that they have placed in each room. Oh ... and did I mention that the school is in the midst of an on-going construction project? They are in desperate need for a fourth floor, and started building in the early summer. Well, now (in the middle of December) is when the construction crew decided that it would be a good idea to tear off the entire roof to build some more walls. So my school is now roof-less, with no heat, in the middle of December.
Nice going, Korea.
So in other words, it is unbearably cold in the school building.
And on top of all that, the doors and windows never seem to be closed. Seriously. Why everyone either refuses to shut the doors, or seems not to notice that freezing cold air is blowing in through the windows is beyond me. When I walk down the hallways I'm not too sure if I'm actually in Korea, or at the North Pole. (It's the absence of Santa and his elves is usually what convinces me that I didn't take a wrong turn on the way to school that day).
So in an effort to keep warm, everyone wears about 30 layers of clothing to school each day, complete with jackets, hats, gloves, snowshoes, and ski masks. But not really ski masks ... and they have to take their snow shoes off at the door.
Although it is supposedly saving money and energy (Al Gore would be proud), it's quite uncomfortable.

In addition to simultaneously wearing 20 sweaters at school, I have also started teaching / helping to teach a Chemistry class in English.
Now I know what most of you will say, "That sounds like something Lauren would love to do, because she is so awesome at science and loved that one chemistry class she took 5 years ago". But sadly, you would be mistaken. I did not, in fact, enjoy studying chemistry that one time in 11th grade.
I was approached by Hwasun High School's chemistry teacher Mr. Sam, and he informed me that there are a couple of students (my host-sister, Eun Sue being one of them) that are planning to attend science universities in Korea that are taught primarily in English. He thought it would be a good idea for me to work with them, using a chemistry textbook (in English), to correct pronunciation and answer any questions.
I agreed to help, mostly because I was curious to see how exactly this would work. And the extra Wons they promised to pay me for working overtime was definitely a factor that helped influence my decision.
We started Chemistry class this week ... and it honestly is way easier than I first imagined. We are reading a Chemistry text/comic book (in English), where I read, they repeat, then they read, and I correct their pronunciation.
The book is somewhat entertaining, however it's the attempt of both the teacher and students to pronounce words like "parallel" or "aluminum" that is usually calls for a couple giggles. I also (seriously) spent about five minutes trying to get them to pronounce the word "urine" correctly. Mr. Sam deemed this a very important word to know, and insisted that we all practiced saying "urine" before continuing on ...

Mr. Sam: "Uline"
Me: "Almost. Urine."
Mr. Sam: "Urinee"
Me: "Not quite. Urine. Urine. Urine."
Mr. Sam: "Ah! Urine! Urine! Urine! Yes, Urine!"

While also sharing all my knowledges / thinks about Chemistry, I've been studying more with my youngest host-sister, Eun Sue ... helping her prepare for her upcoming TEPS test (Test of English Proficiency, silly). Seriously, the "S" stands for nothing. Maybe the creators of TEPS should study with me too.
Anyways, Eun Sue is desperately trying to get into Kaist University (one of Korea's top science universities), and to do so, she needs an excellent TEPS score. She has thus been studying pretty much all hours of the day and night (I study with her during the normal, waking hours) ... memorizing English vocabulary words (most of which, I'm ashamed to say, many American high school students would have trouble defining), and listening to study tapes where a very proper and monotone man reads some English dialogue and then asks questions about the boring things he just said.
I woke up this morning (at 7:30 am) ... and the first thing I heard was:

Man: "I don't want to take the zoology course."
Woman: "I think you should rethink your course selection. Zoology is exciting, and think of all the fun we could have doing experiments at the local zoo!"

It's good to know that the TEPS people are using the most common of dialogues.
So just to make sure Eun Sue knows her studying is not going to waste, I'm going to try to slide in these various chunks of dialogue in some of my phone conversations ... so hopefully she will overhear them, and will maybe believe that her studying is not a complete waste, and is actually somewhat useful.

In addition to teaching Chemistry, and helping Eun Sue, I've been having regular, scheduled conversations with Taeyon, a third grade student at Hwasun High School, who is really interested in learning and practicing his English. (Man, how much of an over-achiever do I sound like, here?)
But really, it's not like I'm doing a ton of work ... I actually feel like I could, and maybe should, be doing more ... but, whatever.
Anyways, Taeyon and I talk for about an hour each day during lunch ... which one: gives me an excuse to skip lunch and my daily serving of kimchi, and two: allows me to get to know him and his Korean life a little better.
Our topics of conversation are many ... and range from Tiger Wood's latest scandal, to the entire plot line of Will Smith's "Hancock", to Taeyon's hopes to becoming an American citizen and joining the American army to fight in the Middle East.
No joke.
We've talked about this a lot, and he is extremely dedicated to achieving this goal ... his desire to learn English stems mostly from his dream to fight in a "real" army. When I've asked why he would rather fight for the United States, and not Korea, he explains that the Korean army is much too inactive for him, and that he would rather be a part of something that is actually making a difference in the world.
Interesting stuff.

It's snowing in Hwasun. It has been for the past couple days.
This isn't the most exciting news, in that it regularly snows in Korea every winter (or so I've been told) ... but still. It's snowing.
The snow now means that: Koreans now drive in a normal manner (one snowflake falls and it suddenly becomes illegal to run a red light), snow ball fights now take up about 60% of the day at school (as soon as I walked outside for lunch this week, I was met with a snowball in the back of the head, courtesy of my "husband"), and all Korean couples are now allowed to kiss? I've learned that on the first snow, all dating couples are obliged to have their first kiss, and spend a romantic day/evening together. Cute, yes. However my host-parents totally rained (or snowed) on that parade when they insisted my oldest host-sister return from being with her boyfriend, around 5pm, because of the now dangerous roads. She's 26.
Also, I did the majority of my Christmas shopping in the snow this week. So cliche.

Well ... as I mentioned before, this will most likely be my last blog posting in 2009. I'm currently in the process of packing my things and saying my goodbyes ... because I am leaving for 'merica tonight!
Last Friday was my last day at school until next March (crazy long Winter Break, I know). The Korean school system is designed so that graduation takes place in the winter, and when I return in March half of the classes that I taught this semester will have moved up to the 3rd grade, and I thus won't be able to teach them. I do, however, get a whole new batch of middle-schoolers in the spring. (That kind of sounds creepy.)
So I said good-bye to all my second grade classes, most of which I absolutely adored and am sad to see go. When I told my students that I wouldn't be back until next March, and that I was heading back to America for the holidays, I was met with different reactions: many students were jealous of my ability to travel (and rightfully so, America is tops), most were sad that I wouldn't be their teacher anymore (and rightfully so, I'm tops), a few asked me to return with American souvenirs (i.e. candy, guns, American women ... seriously), and a couple students were happy to know that I was leaving ... only one class in particular that I don't really get along with. However, they are a first grade class, so they get a whole more 4 months with me next year. Lucky them.

So I'm heading out tonight ... ready to endure a 4.5 hour bus ride to Incheon, a 6 hour wait in Incheon International Airport, and a 12 hour plane ride to Chicago. But I've packed my suitcase full of books and Dramamine (well, really only a couple books and a couple doses) so hopefully it won't be too awful.
And after a two week tour in the states, I will be returning to Korea in January (with Kacy!) to travel both in and around Korea ... then later to the Philippines and Indonesia with some fellow Fulbright ETAs.
Good times ahead.

So, Happy Holidays. Peace out, 2009.
(Also if you're reading this back home, and you think I like you enough to see you during the next two weeks ... give me a call. I would love to see you, providing that I would actually love to see you.)

Oh Baby, baby it's a wild world: Hanging with Cat Stephens

Woah. It's been a while since I have last posted.
I blame it on two things. One, I have been pretty busy lately ... traveling, teaching, being awesome, etc. ... and two, my school recently blocked my blog web-site, thus making it more difficult for me to find time to blog, not being able to do so at school. Apparently my thoughts now reside in a "Restricted area" and are unsuitable for Korean high school children. Good thing they don't let me actually teach them.

Well, last week was Thanksgiving ... as if you all didn't know that. And even though I'm all the way over here in Korea, I still managed to find time to embrace my American-ness and be in the vicinity of a giant, slaughtered bird.
However, I didn't teach my students anything about Thanksgiving. Not necessarily because Thanksgiving is kind of a boring holiday (I mean, the crux of it is eating a bird and doing the obligatory "I'm thankful for ... [which I still don't understand why that should be limited to only one day]) but because I couldn't think of anything more creative or fun than making the standard 'hand turkeys'. And since many of my girl students constantly complain that their hands are way too small and thus unattractive, I felt it was best not to put their tiny hands on display.

I did, however, give a Thanksgiving presentation at the local Gwangju 'merican Corner for adults interested in practicing English/improving their English/listening to me talk (and really, who wouldn't want to do that?)
The American Corner is a a room (that is not in the shape of a corner, I should add) in the Gwangju library that is dedicated to all things American. It's basically a room filled with apple pie, hot dogs, and Toby Kieth performs there about every other Wednesday.
Actually, it's a really nice resource for Koreans who want to learn more about American culture, English, and read/check out English resources (i.e. books, DVDs, and Toby Kieth lyrics).
So I gave a presentation with another Fulbright ETA about Thanksgiving and volunteer programs in the US. Strange pairing of topics? Maybe ... but I have yet to find anything in Korea that actually makes sense to me.
The presentation was attended by about 10 Koreans (around 30-40 years old), who had relatively high English skillz and were super interested in absolutely everything we said. After a viewing of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (because what is a better appetizer for American Thanksgiving than a movie idolizing Greek culture?), we spoke for about an hour and fielded all kinds of questions about American culture (you should have seen me ... I was like a young Jeter out there).
What I have found in most of my teaching experiences in Korea is that most all Koreans are extremely interested in American culture and knowing exactly what we all "do". The people at the Corner were fascinated when I would recant the glorious-ness that is the Wendling/Loft family Thanksgiving traditions. They also very much enjoyed sharing with me their traditions of Chusok (which we celebrated a couple months ago) and thought it was fascinating that there are many similarities between the Korean and American holidays. Look at that ... cross cultural education at its finest.

In addition to talking at the 'merican Corner, I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving in a more traditional way at the US Ambassador Kathleen Stevens' crib (do cool people still say "crib"?) in Seoul. Every year she holds a Thanksgiving dinner for all the Fulbright ETAs ... complete with Thanksgiving deliciousness. The dinner was really nice and I managed to eat my weight in absolutely fabulous food. I attempted to eat as much as humanly possible so as to store as much food as I could in my body to hold me over until I come home. That strategy worked pretty well.
Along with dinner we all got to (or had to) schmooze some fancy-pants friends of the ambassador ... mostly foreign service workers or high ups in the Fulbright Korea program. Although it was nice to dine with said fancy-pants ... it was a little dull, in that the dinner conversation primarily consisted of "Where are you from? Oh! I might have some idea where that is. Where did you go to school? Ah, I'm going to say that is interesting, although I'm just being polite."
But after dinner (during the digestion stage of Thanksgiving) we were all treated to some pretty stellar entertainment from fellow ETAs. Everyone was asked if they wanted to perform any type of entertainment for the ambassador, however only a few actually complied. (I didn't feel the ambassador's place was the best place in which to break out my Napoleon Dynamite dance). But the few brave ETAs that did show off displayed their ability to play the violin, perform slam poetry, and sing/play guitar.
All in all I had a nice Thanksgiving ... about as nice of a Thanksgiving that can be had so far away from home. My only complaint - macaroni and cheese was ob-soh-yo (non-existent) at dinner. My first non-vegan Thanksgiving in a couple years and I still can't seem to find any macaroni.
Christmas. I'm expecting it. I'm talking to you, Betty Lou.

After stuffing stuffing (word play!) up to my lungs (seriously ... I don't know if there was any room for air), we were all herded ... literally herded ... out of the ambassador's house on Friday evening after dinner. However, I stayed in Seoul for the weekend with friends and had a grand time. It was super nice to have a weekend in an actual city (with nightlife!) and with people who can differentiate their "L"s from "R"s.
The main part of my weekend in Seoul was spent shopping, enjoying the nightlife, eating more delicious (and thus not Korean) food, and being completely dominated by the Seoul metro system. After losing my metro card (which is actually called a T-Money card ... I think Tupac had something to do with it), buying a new one, losing that one, and then buying my third T-money card, I was out about 20,000 won (roughly a million USD) ... and I was really in some T-pain.
But the weekend was a success ... a nice break from the sprawling metropolis of Hwasun.

Change of topics.

Last week (as a sort of kick-off to all the Thanksgiving festivities) I attended one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen ... my school's annual festival/talent show. The festival was a two day event (pretty intense when you think of how many precious hours of study time were sacrificed) that the students have been preparing for over the past 3 or so years. Seriously. It's like they're going to battle.
The first day of the festival was held outside of school in this super fancy-dancey (there really was a lot of dancing) sports stadium. All the students piled into a giant theater from 10am to 5 pm. There was seriously 6 hours of pure entertainment (one hour was spared to eat kimchi, of course). The festival was put on by the first and second grade students ... and each class prepared either a skit, musical act, dancing act, or some type of comedy routine. Absolutely every performance was amazing. Maybe it's just because I didn't really understand a thing they were doing, but never have I laughed so hard since I've been in Korea. There were so many performances (classes as a whole and individual students) that I can't possibly begin to recount all the amazing that took place. But I will attempt to bring you the finer points of the talent show:

One class played two Celine Dion songs (from Titanic ... I'm pretty sure her career exists solely within the limits of that movie) on some strange type of instrument that's shaped like the head of a golf club. Titanic was and still is a hugely popular movie in Korea, and a lot of my students have a strange fascination with Celine Dion (even though she is Canadian).

Many, many, many classes prepared dance routines to many of the now popular K-pop songs. While the choreography was mainly stolen from the millions of Korean music videos, the students did an amazing job actually pulling it off.
However, this was no easy task. Classes have been practicing their routines for countless hours between classes and after school, so as to be touted as the best dancers in the school. The dances that were by far the most popular were Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra" ... which is a song/music video that is dedicated primarily to the art of pelvic thrusting, G-Dragon's "Heartbreaker" ... where student after student donned a blond wig and "jika jika jika tayed", and Girl's Generation's "Gee" ... a song thats chorus is nothing other than "gee gee gee gee, baby baby".
And in keeping with the authenticity of the K-pop performances all the students dressed the part of Korean pop stars. This required the girls to wear somewhat revealing / "shecksy" (sexy) outfits and the boys to find their tightest pair of jeans and borrow their mom's eyeliner for the day. Yes, I'm sad to say the teenage emo phase has also worked its way into the psyche of many a Korean boy.

Another class, instead of choosing to imitate their favorite K-pop group, decided that the best way to go was to cross-dress. They preformed some type of skit (all in Korean - so I understood about 5% of it) where every single student dressed as a person of the opposite gender. This rightfully included the use of balloon boobs, eyeliner mustaches, and every boy stomping around in high heels. It was absolutely hilarious and I'm sad that I can't fully capture the hilarity of it in writing. You'll just have to trust me. I mean, balloon boobs are usually always a good time.

In addition to using balloons as a means to enhance one's chest area, another class performed a skit where students stuck balloons down their pants, and then proceeded to blow them up with an air pump until they burst. Again, I have no idea exactly what they were doing ... but it provided quite the laugh.

Another class performed a magic / comedy routine where students completed various acts such as breaking pre-cut styrofoam boards in half, eating 12 jalapeno peppers at once, blowing balloons up with their noses, and amazing everyone with a special levitation act. However, in the midst of the levitation (where one student laid down on a table, covered himself with a blanket, and magically rose) the blanket fell off and the crowd witnessed the "magical" student doing push-ups underneath. I'm pretty sure that the blanket was, in fact, not supposed to fall off ... however the students handled it well and went with it. David Copperfield has some serious competition.

One first grade class danced a beautiful salsa dance (which they (and I) learned in sports-uh dance-uh class). However, the students felt that their dance would only be great if they all wore full-body animal costumes. I still have absolutely no idea why this seemed like the most logical idea ... but the entire class was dressed as kangaroos, dragons, and bumblebees ... dancing the salsa.
And it should be noted that this class wore their animal costumes to school and in class the next couple days. So as I walked around school in between classes I would occasionally pass by a dragon on his way to math, or a bumblebee heading to P.E. Seriously. I still don't understand Korea.

The crowd was also treated to a couple different "bands" throughout the day ... and the term "bands" loosely applies, in that it was mostly just some kids with a guitar, some drums, and the inability to keep time ... standing together on stage. However, you can't really fault them for not having that much practice. When you're studying at school for roughly 20 hours a day, practice time is hard to come by.
There were two student bands who performed rock songs - basically the repetition of a chorus that I was told meant "How could you do this to me?" in Korean ... although I swear it sounded like "but my butt is sore" ... and many found it strange when I couldn't stop laughing as they played.

There was also a band that was comprised of teachers ... complete with one of the science teachers in a "fashionable" hoodie and sunglasses in an attempt to appear more Eminem-like. Not quite sure why anyone would ever want to look like Eminem ... but he was pretty dead on. The teachers' band was somewhat more rehearsed and professional than the student bands ... and everyone got a kick out of seeing their teachers doing something other than swinging discipline sticks at them.

Another highlight of the festival (and probably my favorite act) was three students - one who played acoustic guitar, one on bongo drums, and one who sang Chris Brown's "With You". The singer ... one of my best 2nd grade boys - sang completely in English, and did a great job ... even though his rendition of "And the hearts all over the world tonight" sounded pretty similar to "And the farts all over the world tonight".

As amazing as the talent show was, please know that it was not void of some good American talent (i.e. me). Upon my arrival to Hwasun High School (within the very first week, actually) I was asked by many teachers exactly what type of dancing I would be doing at the festival. After considering the question for a while I answered, "American, of course" ... in hopes that they would soon forget that I agreed to dance at all.
Well they didn't forget, although I did. The week of the talent show the music teacher approached me and asked me to give her my "soundtrack" of all the music I would be dancing to. After telling her I would have to give it to her tomorrow, I went home and prepared a stellar dance routine. Seriously. It's good.
I memorized (and perfected) the dance sequence in "Napoleon Dynamite" and downloaded my "soundtrack" (Jamiroquoi's "Canned Heat"). After countless hours of practicing in my room (well, not really "countless hours" ... more like 1.5) I was ready to perform.
The next day at the festival I anxiously sat in the crowd awaiting my turn ... and getting more and more nervous after seeing how die-hard and serious all the students were. However, as the talent show went on, I was never called to the stage. I later discovered that the music teacher had already printed the programs before I gave her my "soundtrack", and thus verifying that I was actually going to dance. And since the show dragged on well beyond its scheduled time, there wasn't any room for me at the end.
I can't say I'm too disappointed ... but at least now I can break into a sweet dance routine at the drop of a hat ... which will happen.
But ... as I said earlier, I did get to share some of my dancing ability with the school. At the end of the show many of the teachers were dragged onto the stage by students and together we karaoked 2 Korean songs. (My attempt to karaoke was pretty much 'move my mouth and smile' ... it was a huge hit) During our second song students started chanting "Roren! Roren!" ... which I took to mean that they were calling on me ... so I stepped out in front of the group of teachers and held a little impromptu dance party, with only one guest - Roren.
The students absolutely loved it and afterward kept telling me how awesome my "American dances moves" are.
FYI: "American dance moves" = hand waving and pelvic thrusting (for anyone who was unaware)

The second day of the festival was filled with less dancing (although still a considerable amount), and was held at school. Basically all the students and teachers came to school to hang out, eat food, and attempt to turn a buck.
The teachers pretty much treated this like a regular day ... sitting in the teacher's lounge, doing anything and everything (really, everything ... have some beer, grade some tests, do various types of lunges, etc)
However, the students were given the day "free". In the morning each class tried to make money that would later go to buy something as a class (probably Pokemon cards ... not really, my students are way too cool for that). Each class did something different, although most made and sold different types of food. Although a few classes got pretty creative/lazy and went another direction. There were about 17 different classes, each doing their own thing ... this is what I found to be most amusing, entertaining, strange, etc:

One particular class that is a little difficult to manage and has some first grade boys who are in my "you are annoying and disruptive" pile set up a water balloon toss game, where they took a wooden board, painted a picture of Flounder and The Little Mermaid on it, and stuck about a million thumbtacks (pointing up) on the front side (don't worry, it was super safe ... not). Various boys then stuck their heads through both Flounder and Ariel's heads and allowed students and teachers to throw water balloons at them for about 50 cents. This worked amazingly well (most likely because I'm pretty sure many other students think these certain boys are pretty annoying) ... and they made a killing. Their faces got drenched and their pride a little squashed ... but they definitely made some money.
And I definitely made sure to have a go at it.

My all time favorite second grade class went a different route and attempted to create a "club-like atmosphere" and charge other students to come in and dance. They pulled all the blinds in their classroom, put blankets over all the windows (so it was completely dark), somehow managed to find a disco ball, and played "club" music on their class computer. But what really sold it for me was the fact that on the chalkboard in giant letters they wrote "da club".
However, da club wasn't a huge success ... when I came in (free of charge because I'm awesome, and American - that's really what they said) the only people in da club were the class themselves. (and "fity" ... but he's always at da club)

Other classes charged admission for students to come in and watch movies or Korean television dramas in their class. These classes made quite a bit of money ... and I was able to see about 20 minutes of the most disgustingly awful American slasher movie ever - which I was told was called "Summer Camp 4". But to be fair, I haven't seen "Summer Camps 1-3", so I was a little lost.

As for the many other classes who sold various foods, I was treated (well, I actually had to pay) for kimchi pizza (pretty disgusting), corn covered in cheese (why they thought this was a good idea, I'll never know), some hot chocolate, tea, and a banana. One class just sold bananas. Highly overpriced bananas, I should add.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with many soccer games, wrestling matches, and just down time to hang out and socialize. While most all of the other teachers stayed and worked in their offices I got to hang out with a lot of my students and have a great time.

The past couple weeks have been very enjoyable ... much more so than previous weeks ... and I am beginning to regain faith as to why exactly I am (still) in Korea.
But! With only 6 more days of actual classes to teach and only about 2 more weeks until winter vacation, the light at the end of the tunnel is (slowly) but surely growing. I'm taking this free time to my advantage and am planning to travel during the next couple weeks before I come home in late December.
I'm actually off to Jeju (the largest Korean island) for the weekend ... and really must hurry out the door ... my host brother, San-che (the man-che) is waiting.

Until next time ... stay classy America.

Easy / Lucky / Free

It has been a struggle in deciding exactly how to write this week's blog entry.
The past 5 or 6 days have been, without a doubt, the most difficult of my days spent in Korea thus far, as myself and my loved ones at home have had to deal with a great loss in the family.
And though this event has definitely left me in a state of both shock and sadness ... I don't feel as if my blog site is the appropriate forum in which to openly speak about this loss.

I chose not to inform my host family of anything ... not out of belief that they wouldn't be sympathetic or understanding ... but solely for the fact that I believed it would too difficult to share ... especially in a language where I can't fully express my feelings.
However, I have been able to chat, e-mail, and Skype with my family and many of my close friends ... and for that I am extremely grateful. Without a strong support group of truly amazing people at home I don't know where I would be.
Thank you all.

It has been extremely difficult going through the grieving process here in Korea, while being away from family and friends, and living in a place where I am so far removed from anything familiar or comforting. It is the first time that I have truly questioned my motives for being here, honestly debating if this experience is worth missing out on what is so central to my life at home.
What I have found most difficult to accept is the fact that even though I am in Korea, life and the people in mine are changing, living, and dying, regardless if I am present. However, this is something that I am learning to come to terms with ... and as arduous of a learning experience this is, I am positive that when I step away from Korea I will be stepping away a more learned and experienced individual ... for the better.




So to take quite a large step away from the seriousness that was the previous couple paragraphs, I thought I would share something that absolutely always makes me smile ... the ridiculous things that come out of the mouths of my students.
Last week I did a PostSecret-ish lesson with my classes ... featuring the PostSecret website and the always popular conjunction "because". After showing many examples of secrets that appear on the PostSecret website, I had my students each write their own secret postcard ... which I then collected and shared with the class.
It was (mostly) anonymous ... chill out Frank Warren.
I received many, many, many hilarious / disturbing / completely nonsensical secrets, and I have chosen those which I consider to be among the best, to share with you all.
Enjoy.

"I am man because I have a beard."
(written by a girl student)

"I want to eat dog because it is delicious."
(to be fair, this was right before lunchtime)

"I am sexy because I love nude. I am gay because I love the man. I feel good because I'm gay."
(English class, quite the setting in which to come out of the closet)

"I feel happy because of armhole fur"
(who doesn't?)

"I will kill Song Bin Kim because he doesn't give me coke."
(I'm guessing a-cola)

"My father's friend is Osama Bin Laden."
(I'm going to hope this one isn't true)

"I hate babies because I think they look like a EVIL."
(he was adamant about this ... please note the all-caps)

"I hate Lee Myeoubg Bak because he is unfair."
(get that free speech)

"I feel hate because of you."
(pretty sure this one was directed towards me)

"I feel happy because I'm in my wife class. I am lucky guy because I meet Lauren."
(from the student who refers to me solely as "wife")

"I am angry because my girlfriend is very pretty."
(all the ugly ones were taken?)

"I will kill you because I hate you. Sorry ..."
(also directed towards me ... but did include an apology note)

"I am sad because I have short fingers."
(this girl seriously has her friends pull on her fingers during class so as to "stretch-y them out")

"I still sleep with my mother because in night I'm scared."
(baby)

"I'm a firefighter because I usually extinguish fires with my feet."
(the most logical part of the body to use)

"I feel terrible because I excremented in my pants."
(I would want to keep that a secret too)

"I feel terrible because I hear someone likes poop smell."
(probably the guy sitting next to him who just "excremented" in his pants ...)

"I feel angry because of puberty."
(this could have been written by one of the millions of boy students who have only 7 creepy hairs on their upper lips)

"I feel complex because my head is full with think."
(not English thinks, apparently)

"I hate Lauren because she is so beautiful."
(understandable)

These are the types of things that I encounter just about everyday at school. Thought I would share ... laughter is truly the best medicine.
(But please don't stop taking yours ... I'm not really a doctor.)




**I'd like to dedicate this blog post and the corresponding title song to Papaw Wendling. The strongest and most determined man I have ever known.**

This blog is made in Korea and hey, we know those Koreans make good stuff.

Just call me Billy Mayes (no, it's not too soon) ... because in this blog not only do you get all the exciting information about my Halloween weekend, but I'm also throwing in everything that happened this past weekend too! It's an extreme blowout sale where everything must go (or be documented in my blog, you know, for posterity and stuff).
Well actually I've found myself somehow behind a weekend in blogging ... so this latest installment features two weekends for the price of one.
Just think of it like you ordered a vat of OxiClean, and received some Orange Glo as my free gift to you.

This was the first Halloween I have celebrated in Korea, and it was, pretty memorable. The evening was filled with costumes, candy, coffee shops, and various other things that start with the letter "c". Myself and about 20 other Fulbright ETAs gathered in Gwangju to affirm our status as foreigners in Korea, and celebrate a holiday that is unheard of over here in Asia. However, this small fact did not tone down our celebration, as we all dressed in costumes (many, quite elaborate) and paraded around the streets of Gwangju ... which made us the recipients of countless stares, awkward glances, and overall pure amazement from many Koreans.
I believe at many points in the night I received a couple "Wows".
I dressed up as an ajumma ... a title given to the oldest of Korean ladies ... something into which all Korean women will eventually evolve. I believe once they hit 65, all Korean women begin to turn into what can only be described as Yoda-like. The costume consisted of gloriously mis-matched articles of clothing (which are an absolute standard in ajumma fashion), a wide brimmed hat (to preserve their wrinkly skin while sitting on the sidewalk all day selling an assortment of vegetables), and an E-Mart (similar to Wal-Mart) bag in which to carry all their priceless possessions (mainly vegetables). I must admit that I think I had a pretty stellar costume, and it was by far the most comfortable Halloween costume I have ever worn.
(Check out my picture website to confirm.)
So in our costumes all us ETAs invaded a coffee shop - one which another ETA's principal's son owns (hope that is clear enough for you) and had a lovely celebration drinking various beverages and listening to the "Once" soundtrack - ballad after ballad of sappy love songs blared amongst the Halloween festivities. Seriously. Koreans love anything to do with that movie.

As that weekend was spent celebrating one of the greatest pagan holidays, this past weekend was atoning for those sins at my host-family's church, being treated to a lovely vegetarian buffet lunch by some of my new church friends, and visiting the Hampyeong flower festival in Hampyeong (duh).
The festival was full of flowers, flower sculptures, your routine swine-flu emergency center, and the saddest carnival in the history of humankind. I took the bus to Hampyeong (it was much to far to walk) and met up with one of my ETA friends to enjoy a day of looking at flowers and nearly getting killed by the most terrifying carnival ride ever.
The bus ride was surprisingly pleasant, a nice change in that most bus rides passengers don't ever / aren't really supposed to speak (especially in English). But the bus was packed and I found myself sitting by the only other English speaker on the bus ... a Korean guy who lives in Dubai, is a flight attendant and world traveler, and speaks fluent Korean, English, Portuguese, and Japanese. We decided to hold our convo in English (my Japanese skills are a little rusty / nonexistent). He told me all about his world travels and how his favorite two cities in that he has visited thus far have been Paris and Dallas (probably because of his love for berets, guns, and cowboy boots), and I shared my experiences as an American English teacher in Korea. It was really great to have a legitimate conversation with another individual ... they are definitely few and far between. And he did inform me that the overwhelming opinion of Koreans is that American English teachers are by far the best foreign teachers in Korea (because of our small, beautiful faces) and that next come the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and then lastly those who come from the Philippines. Apparently they have the largest faces ... and the worst accents.
The flower festival was something ... it smelled really good (like flowers), boasted some of the most interesting flower arrangements I've ever seen, and also was home to the most depressing carnival this side of the Mississippi. Well, I guess both sides of the Mississippi.
The day was spent walking around the grounds and observing the different flower sculptures. But we first had to pass through swine-flu central, which basically meant we had to douse our hands with sanitizer (the current swine-flu vaccine over here in Korea), walk through what to appeared to be a car wash of more sanitizer ... we were literally had to be sprayed down with the stuff in order to enter the festival).
Throughout the day I was able to see flower sculptures of all kinds: the Eiffel Tower greeted us as we walked in (for a moment I was confused as to exactly what continent I was living), penguins, bulls, Indian temples, penises, and giraffes.
All there. All made out of flowers.
After observing the lovely flowers we headed over to an adjacent impromptu carnival. I guess you could call it a carnival ... it had a ferris wheel, which is my definition of carnival. But this was, as I stated before, the most depressing little carnival ever. We were 2 of probably 5 people there total ... not counting the 3 guys it took to man the rides, concession stands, ticket booths, and souvenir shop. Actually, I don't even think there was a souvenir shop ... seeing that the only thing they would probably sell would be shirts boasting:
"I went to the Hampyeong carnival and all I got was depressed."
So after taking our chances and being the only people to ride the ferris wheel ... which was pretty risky in that its max speed was .25 miles per hour and made solely out of rust, we were invited to ride another ride for free ... one that I now know to be called "Taga Disco".
I figured that we should do it, and make sure we got our monies worth (we paid about 3 dollars to ride the ferris wheel ... which I would estimate to be about 25 cents worth of fun). So we hopped on this "Taga Disco" ... basically a padded, round ride with no seat belts and barely any places to hold onto. I thought we and the three other Korean girls who were at the festival would spin around a couple times and call it a day. But silly me, I didn't know this was the ride from hell.
The ride was operated by some douche-tastic man who controlled both the speed and actions of the padded doughnut thing we were sitting in. He would spin us around and then make the ride pop up and down until we were literally nauseous. This acted like some type of torture device ... he genuinely took pleasure out of our "I think I'm going to throw up all over your stupid ride" faces.
I later learned that this type of ride is one that the operator basically tries to make you sick. They ask you various questions and you are thrown about depending on if they like your answers. As all the questions were in Korean, (still in Korea) I understood only two: "Do you have a boyfriend?" and "How old are you?". When I answered (or really, motioned with one hand ... as the other was desperately clinging to a handrail so as not to die ... that I am 23, he laughed, popped me up and down a few hundred times, then told me "You have old face."
Nice.
This is one of the worst things that can be said about any Korean's appearance ... the ultimate Korean burn. However, I didn't really take much offense to it, only because all Koreans look like they are about 12 (except for the ajummas who, again, look like Yoda). But he thought this was hilarious and continue to try to make me vomit all over his stupid, Korean ride.
All in all, the flower festival was enjoyable, save the 15 or so minutes of torture I received thanks to "Taga Disco" ... or more like "Taga Lame-o.

This past Sunday I once again attended my host family's church in Gwangju, and helped to lead a childrens' English worship service ... another hour informing Korean children how stellar my singing voice is, and having them recite new English words such as "javelin" and "spear" ... two words I'm hoping they at least try to bust out on the playground this week.
After the church service I went out to eat with some of the other church members who help to put on the childrens' service ... and was treated to a delicious vegetarian buffet. Lunch was great in that the majority of everyone I dined with spoke a good amount of English and we were able to have some legit conversations about Korea, the United States, international politics, and religion. They were very eager to hear how I feel about Korea after living here for over 4 months. I was able to share many of my experiences, thoughts, and opinions ... and was also able to hear how they felt about said topics.
However, I get the sneaky feeling that they are still desperately trying to convert me to a holy roller ... only because throughout lunch I was constantly reminded that God had big plans for me in Korea, and that I will absolutely find God before I leave next July.
Definitely the longest game of hide-and-seek I have ever played.

In unrelated news, last week at school I was sitting at my desk ... diligently making lesson plans (aka watching the Daily Show and creeping around on Facebook) ... and I was approached by Moon, a fellow teacher at Hwasun High School. He began to explain that in his quest to learn more English (his is probably the cutest quest ever) he has started to use this "cool, new Internet website". So he came to show me this "cool, new Internet website" ... but first told me he wanted to know what a "dickory" is.
Dumbfounded, I asked him to show me the website ... secretly hoping that it wouldn't entail anything that would bring horrible, awful viruses in and around my computer.
So he eventually found his way into this "cool, new Internet website" and proudly presented to me a childrens' nursery rhyme website that boasts an awkward lady reading the most popular American nursery rhymes ... the hottest one at the moment: "Hickory Dickory Dock". Completely proud of himself, Moon then logs into the site with the screen-name "lover". No joke.
I'm just surprised he didn't choose the name "littlekidlover" ... just so people will know exactly where his priorities are.
Clarification: Office reference - he is not a creeper.

It's that time of year. That Korean time of year ... when 3rd grade middle school students are preparing to enter high school and either commit to an intense three years of academic study, or three years of rigorous training at a trade school. In Korea the students are placed in either category based upon their middle school test scores - they don't really have a say in the matter. However, from what I can understand most students are placed on the academic track, though it is up to them to chose which high school to attend. Not every high school is a viable option. The ridiculously good ones (the ones with fancy computers and stuff) are much more difficult to get into ... just think of it as if they were applying to college (but that's a whole different ball of worms).
Anyways, Hwasun High School is in recruiting mode. There are technically two schools in Hwasun (although the one where I teach is legit in Hwasun ... the other one is a 20 minute car ride outside of town - how it is still defined as "in Hwasun" I have no idea) and each are in fear that the other will get all the smart students, while they will be left with all the boring, not-so-smart ones. So a couple teachers at Hwasun High School are currently making a promotional video of the school - getting some pretty sweet panoramic shots of the lunchroom - in hopes to recruit all the good students. I have actually had a couple of my classes videotaped by said teachers, if only to emphasize, "Hey! Look! We have a foreign teacher! She has brown hair! Come check it out!"
In addition to recording me teaching some classes, I was recently asked to do some voice-over work (that makes it sound so professional ... definitely going on my resume) for the video. My co-teacher asked me to write a couple sentences in English (I don't know what else she should expect - Latin?) that talk up Hwasun High School and "sound really fancy in English". And I do believe that was a direct quote.
So I wrote up some fancy sentences, making sure to include words like "diversity" and "endeavors", so as to make it sound important. However my co-teacher then decided that they were too fancy and the middle school students wold have absolutely no idea what I was talking about, which, I assume would be completely true. She then asked me just to read two sentences in English as they were directly translated from from the promotional video.
I obliged and then spent about 30 solid minutes perfecting my pitch, speed, and overall ability to speak, at the request of the video's directors.
The two sentences (phrases, really) that ended up in the video:
"The everlasting beautiful challenge" - which I'm told is in reference to the three years spent at Hwasun High School - it's a challenge, but a beautiful one.
and
"No extra students at Hwasun, everyone works!" - also appropriate for Russia, circa early 20th century.
If this doesn't attract the middle school students, I don't know what will.
It worked on me.

When I arrived home from school today there was a nun sleeping on the living room floor.

Lately I've been having this strange feeling that something is missing in my life.
300+ Korean children? Check.
Awkward encounters with just about everyone I meet? Check.
An annoying head cold? Check, unfortunately.
Extreme amounts of disgusting kimchi? No check!

So last weekend, in an attempt to pacify my need for tons (literally, tons) of kimchi, I headed to the Gwangju Kimchi Festival to soak up some culture and get a little nauseous. Both of which I accomplished.
I met up with a couple of friends and we ventured over to the annual Kimchi History and Culture Exhibition held in Gwangju's World-uh Cup-uh Stadium(no uh). To be completely honest, the festival was a little disappointing. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting/hoping for, in that I've never been to a kimchi festival in my 23 years of life.
Upon arriving at the Kimchi Festival and being greeted with the intoxicating smell that is fermented cabbage, we wandered around and "observed" the many different dishes of kimchi that were on display.
"Oooh this one is red!"
"Oooh this one is redder!"
"Oooh this one is the reddest of all!"
We also got to see many pieces of what was called "kimchi art". To my disappointment it was not sculptures or things crafted from actual pieces of kimchi, however pictures depicting the social, environmental, and even political impact of kimchi on Korea. Seriously.
We also were able to get a free little mini tour around one of the art buildings by this fabulous little old man who spoke fairly good English. This tour consisted mostly of him making us follow him around the room as he pointed to things and said "Look. This is a (fill in name of the object). Look. Here is another (same object)."
In addition to the thrilling tour of the kimchi art/museum/building with random things thrown in it, I got to meet the ever popular Kimchi Festival mascot ... none other than a walking cartoon piece of cabbage. This actually makes sense in that cabbage is the main ingredient to most kimchi dishes, and it's not as bizarre as you might think it seems. However, this was the first time I think I have ever seen young children flock to a vegetable - especially a gross one like cabbage. But in their flocking the children seemed to turn into some type of angry child mob and began attacking the giant cabbage with their tiny little fists and poking his big cartoon eyes with their little pointy fingers. Poor guy couldn't catch a break. First you have to humiliate yourself by actually wearing a giant head of cabbage, then you get punched all day by vicious Korean children. So just to make sure cabbage guy's day wasn't completely awful, I let him take a picture with me. For posterity.
Though the cabbage head was a pretty great addition to my day of kimchi, I have to say the highlight of the festival was actually being able to make some kimchi myself. For the small price of only 5,000 wons I was able to smush red pepper paste in and around all the cabbage I wanted. Actually we were first given a tutorial about how to properly make kimchi ... which basically went, "Here is the cabbage. Here is a lot of other spicy things (pepper, fish(?) onions, more pepper, red gunk). Put them together. Finished! You are now Korean."
After diligent note taking so as to make sure I didn't forget any of the 2 steps, I was able to make my own kimchi and managed to successfully mush everything together in an acceptable manner ... which seriously took about 3 minutes. After I put to shame all the Koreans by way outshining them in the act of kimchi-making I threw my kimchi in a jar and headed home to present it to my host-family. I felt like a little kid who won a prize goldfish at the county fair. And I definitely was the recipient of more than a few weird looks as I was toting home a giant jar of kimchi on the bus that night.
I think my host-family seemed to like the kimchi I made. I never ate it(because they actually made us put fish in it - thus giving me a great reason why I didn't have to eat the stuff) but I think it went over well. I actually never saw my host-family eat it, but my host-mom assured me that it was delicious and that I am the best kimchi maker ever, as if I didn't already know that.
Side note: I received about 20 million free brochures at the festival ... if there's one thing Koreans like more than kimchi it's definitely brochures about kimchi. In one of the many brochures detailing the wonderful events of the festival I found this little jewel ... a short paragraph detailing one of the many "themed performances" the festival boasted ... this one affectionately titled "The Flight of Kimchi". Thought I would share to reiterate how absurdly serious Koreans are about their kimchi, and how it permeates every aspect of their lives, even their fantasies:

"The Flight of Kimchi"
"A story of a meeting between kimchi, a central icon of the Korean consciousness, and a goblin (naturally, a goblin). An exciting performance in three scenes: kimchi that had protected Koreans' health turning into a goblin: goblin turning into kimchi; and goblin defeating the modern epidemic H1N1 Virus (good, I'm glad someone is taking it seriously) that poses a threat to Korean lives and soaring into the skies."
What I would have given to see that ...

I have recently been able to meet with my English Club at school more often ... which is something I thoroughly enjoy. The club consists of about 5-10 students who are some of the best English students at school, and who actually come to my club out of their desire to learn more English and hang out with me. So naturally, I like them the best. In the past couple weeks I have let them come up with a general topic to discuss and then I try to create an activity for us all to do.
So far the topics of discussion have ranged from novels (where I got to talk about one of my favorite authors, Barbra Kingsolver her wonderful DePauw education), Halloween (which included me making my boy students dress up as princesses and mermaids using only newspaper), to Asian animation (where I basically sat there completely dumbfounded at their insane amount of computer/animation knowledge), and American and Korean television programs (where I got to share all that is great about "The Office".
During our two hours spent each week discussing movies, politics, novels, and eating finger sandwiches (not really, this isn't the "Finer Things Club") I have learned a lot about Korean culture and have been able to impart that oh-so-valuable-American culture to the minds of the little Asian ones, who truly seem to enjoy it.
Last week the topic of our discussion was "hopes and dreams and things that make you feel warm inside". I had each of my students write down their dreams ... anything they wanted ... and I did so too.
As most of my dreams were fairly simple, "I want to be happy when I grow up." ... and I believe one was, "I want to have a pet cat someday." ... one of my club students in particular completely out-shined (shone? I don't know, ask an English teacher) me and told of his plans to save the world and humankind (the Asian Will Smith, if you will). Here is the exact paragraph he wrote explaining his hopes and dreams ... I thought I'd post this, just so those of you who read this now don't have to keep worrying about the fate of humanity. Kim Hong Min has it under control.
Note: He is by far my most advanced student and is the only student in the school who speaks and writes (in English) at this level. And he is thus one of my new best Asian friends:

"I will bring Science Fiction movies into reality. You will be able to go to Mars, Mercury, etc. with your car. As we can bring any resources we need from other planets, we will never have to worry about the lack of resources. The same goes to the space. As we can go any planet we want, we have infinite space in space. :) To do this, I will need enough capital. And technology. It sounds like a dream, but pretty much everything we're using now can not have even been imagined by older people. As this comes true, pretty much every problem we're having right now will be solved. Someone will do that, and I'll be the one."
-- Kim Hong Min

In addition to saving the world and finding new resources on other planets via a flying car, my students last week learned about Halloween - at least I hope they learned ... who knows what they are actually thinking when I stand at the front of the class and speak what seems like Wingdings to them.
My lesson this past week was on Halloween (duh) and after I was done flipping through a slide show of jack-o-lanterns, candy, and dogs in costumes (which actually prompted one of my students to exclaim, "delicious!") I let them draw their own Halloween monsters together. This activity consisted of having one student draw a monster head, then giving their paper to another student to draw a body, then yet another student to draw the legs. While I thought this would be a nice thing for my students ... let them express their creative side with markers and stuff, I soon found that this only gave many of them an excuse to draw horribly inappropriate monsters, with an assortment of heads, bodies, legs, and genitalia. Funny, but I don't think I ever suggested they add that certain aspect to their monsters, yet it was a favorite accessory to most all of the monsters my boy students got their hands on.
Upon discovering the glorious creations, I hurriedly confiscated all the Hallo(wieners) ... fearing that if I didn't they would float around the school and somehow make their way into the hands of my fellow teachers.
Try explaining that in limited English.
So I now have a drawer full of Hallo(wiener) monsters. Just one of the many perks of teaching.

On a completely different and unrelated note, I recently attended my host-family's church yet again ... I mean, I think it's pretty much decided that when I have a free Sunday morning it will be spent in the pews of Gangwon Presbyterian church. However, this particular Sunday I was not baptized, but instead held my first ever English Sunday school / sing-along / let's allow these Korean kids stare at the funny American hour. All of which happened, all of which were awkward.
A couple weeks ago I met the church's pastor - and by met I mean fumbled my way through a Korean bow and I believe there was some mumbling involved ... something along the lines of "Hello. Nice to meet you. Thanks for the baptism."
The pastor took an immediate liking to me (I mean, how could you not ... but I do believe I was wearing the dress my host-mom made for me ... and when I wear that thing there's not an Asian in Korea that can't stop looking at me) and he thus asked my host-mom to schedule a meeting with me to discuss "church-y matters". So I recently met with him ... his English is actually quite good, though he does seem to add a "y" sound to absolutely every word in the English language. Cute-y at first extremely annoying-y about 2 minutes into a conversation with him. But Pastor man (I still can't remember his Korean name so this nickname will have to suffice) asked me if I was interested in leading an English Sunday school class every morning before church-y service, to which my host-mom enthusiastically answered that I would love to. Glad she took care of that for me. I hate it when I forget how to speak.
So I agreed to help teach English Sunday School classes on any Sunday that I have available and feel like waking up early. And apparently Pastor man believes that is now every Sunday.
Teaching English Sunday school now necessitates that I arrive to church-y before the church-y service starts, and since I don't have a Korean kar I did the next best thing, hopped in the backseat of some Audi with a crazy Korean lady who promised she would deliver me to God.
(The ride was actually arranged ... but it sounds cooler and more adventure-y if I say it like that).
But in reality the Korean kar was driven by a krazy Korean lady, and she did, eventually, promise to deliver me to Jesus. Close enough.
My ride buddy was actually a Korean lady who also attends the same church as my host-family and speaks very good English - she is a teacher at an English academy in Gwangju, so she knows her stuff. Like prepositions and conjunctions.
She was super sweet and really great to talk to ... and did leave me with one of the most interesting conversations I have had in Korea thus far.
I wasn't able to actually record the conversation in that I didn't have a recording device on me at the time (I'm not a spy) ... but here is a brief, paraphrased account of our conversation:

Lauren (L): Hello! Nice to meet you! Thanks for taking me to curch-y!
Krazy Korean Lady (KKL): Hello Roren! It's nice to meet you too! I'm excited you will be helping us with our English service!
L: You're welcome (I'm polite in Korea)
[This was followed by about 15 minutes of the standard "get to know you talk" ... but since most of you all know I'm 23 and from America ... I will spare you]
KKL: Do you love God?
L: Uh. [silence] I studied God in the university?
KKL: Oh. Ok. I love God. But I used to be a Buddhist.
[L's interest is peaked]
L: Really? Why the sudden change to Christianity? Buddha just not cutting it for you?
KKL: No. I still like Buddha, but God is better for me. About 10 years ago I became really ill [this is when she actually started telling me about her bladder problems ... just imagine urine everywhere] and Buddha didn't help me. So one of my friends made me go to church with her and so I started talking to God. And after 7 years of talking and praying to God to fix my illness he finally did. And now I thank him for it and am a Christian.
L: Fair enough. Get that Christianity (or something to that effect).
KKL: Yes. Jesus is great. Why did you come to Korea?
L: I came to teach English.
KKL: No. I'm sure you came for Jesus. You will find Jesus in Korea. I will help you.
(and so on, and so on)

So after meeting Krazy Korean lady (Hannah, actually) and getting a ride to church I met the other people I would be working with ... all of whom (including Hannah) are extremely sweet and even offered me squid chips!
English Sunday school was not exactly what I expected it to be (but then again, few things in Korea are) ... I actually ended up not teaching, but co-teaching or singing songs and pronouncing English words into a microphone for about an hour.
The pastor man's son led the lesson after the children got to hear me sing English church hymns for about 15 minutes (if that didn't deter them from learning English, I don't know what will) then pastor man's son told the children (who were around the ages of 5-9) the story of the Exodus from Egypt ... a thrilling tale. I then retold it in English and repeated the difficult words, and the children repeated them back to me.
Why the phrase "like a pillar of salt" would ever arise in the conversation of a 6 year old Korean boy, I have no idea. But I assume it would go something like this:
"Man. Lot's wife really caught the short end of the stick. Looking back and all ... then (bam!) like pillar of salt."
But all in all the children seemed to enjoy it, I think. At least they got to marvel at the brown hair and giant eyeball-ness of a Westerner. And that's always a good time.

After church I was pleasantly surprised by finding out that my entire host-family (even host-father!) went out to Sunday brunch. We ate at a delicious Japanese sushi restaurant ... which basically turned into a delicious Japanese rice, soup, and tofu balls restaurant for me ... but it was great to sit down with the family and take in some good host-family time.
It has been a while since my entire host-family and I had been together - as the dad is always working and the children are always busy with work or school - so I thoroughly enjoyed the company of everyone.
Some highlights of the lunching:
My host father actually cracking quite a few jokes (in Korean, of course) which caused everyone to laugh (including myself ... I figure if everyone else is, it's got to be decently funny)
My host brother (who is 21) refused to drink his soda out of the many available glasses, and instead opted to drink only from bowls. This caused my host-mother to exclaim that he is "crazy man boy" ... and my host-father explained to me (via Eun Sue's translation) that because he is an artist he is weird and doesn't use the correct side of his brain ... so you have to forgive him for being so awkward. The rest of the day ... and many days following ... all the strange things that my host-brother does (which are starting to accumulate) are now pushed to the side because we now know that he is an "artist" and can thus get away with being crazy.
I'm assuming this is also how they justify the weird things I do (use a water bottle, wear pants) "it's ok ... she's a foreigner ... she doesn't use the correct side of her brain".
My host-mother once again wore a skull cap to a "fancy" lunch. Biggie's got nothing on her.
My host-family apologizing to me every time the waitress brought out a meat dish, and shoving the giant plate of salad even closer to my plate.
My host-mother yelling at my oldest host-sister for using a toothpick, because she says it would make her teeth ugly and then she would never be able to get married. Apparently personal hygiene falls to the wayside when you are an unmarried 20-something female in Korea. Good to know.

It snowed today in Hwasun.
For the first time. (since I've been here, not ever)
Snowed.
Granted it was only for about 2 minutes ... but it was 2 of the 5 minutes it takes me to walk from the bus stop home.
Tomorrow I'm going to demand to make Frosty.

God so loved the world that he gave ... Roren.

Update: still in Korea.

I feel a little bit old school writing a blog and not updating my "Twitter" account ... something that I don't have, and will never invest in. At first I was hesitant to even start a blog, in that it's a silly sounding word in the first place. (bog + log = blog?) But it is definitely trumped by "Twitter". Never will I "tweet". That's just not something a grown up does, and should be reserved for only Tweety Bird herself. (I am now referring to myself as a grown up). Look who just matured. But I also did reference Tweety Bird. Take what you can get.

I actually believe I called myself a grown up for the very first time this week at school, when a student asked me why it wasn't okay for him to marry me. (That's awkward enough in and of itself.)
First, let me give you a little back-story ... hopefully clearing up what now sounds like something out of the Michael Jackson files (may he rest in peace).
This week at school I am doing a lesson on future tense, and using the elementary fortune telling game "MASH" as a way in which to make learning English fun! That last sentence came right out of the Fulbright brochure. The basic concept is that I have students brainstorm three cute boys, three random numbers, animals, jobs, cars, and countries ... where I later tell them that one of each will be my future husband, number of children I have, pet, career, means of transportation, and country where I will live, respectively.
I usually end up marrying one of the boy students in the current class, birthing over 10 children, having a pet alligator, being a hobo, driving an Audi, and living in Ghana (seriously ... they all love Ghana). The students get a kick out of this, and then jump to determine their own futures ... most of which have them marrying famous Korean movie/music stars, having thousands of children with them, driving a garbage truck, and being the president of the Switzerland.
So as I was saying earlier, one of my students who's MASH game decided he would marry me, later approached me in the hallway (addressing me as "wife") and inquired as to when exactly we would officially get married. It was then that I informed him that it could not be ... as I am a grown up and he is my 16 year old student. Not to mention the fact that he will probably be too busy for me while he's governing the Swiss and dealing with his pet dinosaur.

Last week I attended Hwasun High School's annual 2nd grade picnic/mountain hiking/outdoor extravaganza at Manyon Mountain. The first and second grade classes were given a free day away from school, though it is mandatory that they must attend the picnic and mountain hike. This was met by many complaints and "uuuhhhggg"s from the peanut gallery. The peanut gallery being the second grade students. Keep up.
It was a beautiful fall day and we all met at the mountain around 10:00 am, where all the students and second grade homeroom teachers (including myself although I am homeroom-less) hung out in their hiking clothes ... which consisted of collared shirts, skinny jeans, and Keds. The only person I saw completely decked out in hiking gear (which included a walking stick) was one of the math teachers who didn't even attempt to climb the mountain, but rather hung around base camp all day ... which she was totally prepared for.
After hanging out at the base for about an hour the majority of us headed up the side of the mountain ...
The hike was a strenuous one ... full of twists and turns, dangerous weather, and dinosaurs.
Not really.
Although a couple of my students did try to convince me that at the summit was where all the dinosaurs lived. Apparently they think that because I'm a foreigner I also must be extremely gullible. The hike was pretty exhausting, though. We hiked for about an hour, until we reached a point where the trail ended and it was just really steep rocks. All the students who I was with (about 5 or so girls) then told me that it was much too dangerous and we should head back down and eat lunch. I figured they knew what they were talking about - these weren't the same students who said we would hang out with the cast of Jurassic Park. So I then scaled down the mountain, and back to base camp to hang out with all the teachers who opted not to hike.
About 30 minutes after I returned to the base of the mountain the rest of the 2nd grade students came down and showed me these flashy red stamps you get when you make it to the summit. Apparently everyone else went to the top except me and the other 5 students. So I sat there, disappointed, stamp-less, and had to look at every single student's picture they took of themselves on the top of the mountain ... which totaled about 300. Each.
After asking why I didn't climb to the top I explained that it was too dangerous and I came back down. It was then the general consensus that I (the American) was too weak to make it to the summit. This set off a round of "It's ok" and "Koreans just more strong". As the sole representative for America in Hwasun ... I think it's safe to say that a lot of my students think Americans are incapable of climbing mountains.
Sorry America. But at least we still have guns.

Last week ... in addition to failing to climb one of Hwasun's mountains, I attended the first game of the "Korean Series" in Gwangju.
Korean Series = MLB World Series (minus the hot dogs and obnoxious fans, and plus chairs that only small children fit in and squid jerky).
The Korean baseball league has about 12 teams total ... and I say about because I'm not exactly sure how many it actually does have. Although I'm fairly sure each province has one team ... but the many different people I have asked have given me many different answers, so I'm just going to go with "about 12".
Anyways, the two teams playing in the 2009 Korean series are the Gwangju Tigers (in my province) and the SK team from Incheon ... which I'm fairly sure are the butterflies. Intimidating.
Korean baseball doesn't mess around with any of the playoff or pre-world series games like how the MLB teams play about a million different games only to see who sucks too much to play in any actual games. They just take the top two teams with the best record and the winner of 7 games wins it all. This year the Tigers have absolutely dominated the area of Korean baseball domination ... and are continuing to do so now.
The first game was held in Gwangju ... thus why I went ... and it was insanely fun. Tickets were extremely hard to come by (so says all my students and co-teachers) but I lucked out and a friend's home stay family managed to score 7 tickets and let me have one. From what I can tell is that my friend's host father is some type of a gangster/hustler and "found" some tickets last minute. But he was unable to come to the game, giving me his ticket.
So I took his ticket, met up with my friend and her host family in Gwangju, and stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to get in to the stadium. The tickets were only 15,000 won (about the equivalent of 15 American dollars ... or half the price of a pair of Gap jeans from 1998 on clearance). In Korea they also don't have assigned seating at baseball games (which I think is a little strange based on the fact that they have and take very seriously assigned seats at movie theaters) ... so we rushed in hoping to find seats. They also sold more tickets than there were seats because it was such popular game ... which caused many fans to have to stand the entire length of the game. Although those who had to stand didn't really seem bothered, they were too consumed with the game to care. We got to the stadium a little late and at first couldn't find any seats, but we quickly turned on our American-ness (so we pretty much just stood there with our eyes open) and a couple of guys from Jeju (who flew in all the way to Gwangju from the island to see the game) found me and my friend a couple of seats, and we were soon sitting among a mass of Koreans and awkwardly trying to yell cheers for various players the same way everyone else was.
(This basically consisted of me listening to the cheers in Korean, then attempting to fit in English words that I thought I heard in the same rhythm as the cheers. I'm pretty sure I was saying stuff like "Kim day hung car watermelon face") But I think it worked ... no one called me out on it and they kept giving me the thumbs ups - which I take to mean "Good job! You are awesome at Korean!".
The game was great and the Gwangju Tigers ended up winning - they had more players touch home plate than the other team.
However, I think the highlight of the night was the fact that me and my friend made it onto Korean national television within the first 20 or so minutes that we were there. Some blame it on our American-ness, I blame it on our awesome-ness.
My friend, Sarah's, school made her a sign in Korean that said something to the effect that she traveled all the way from America to see the Tigers win. Which, is not entirely true, but who's counting? If someone actually did decide to count all the things that I say while in Korea that aren't entirely true, I have a feeling it would be a rather large number.
"Of course I know Indiana Jones. He's actually my father". "Yes, I love kimchi, and I really do think it cures cancer, swine flu, and can prevent AIDS".
Anyways, Sarah and I held up the sign like it was our job, and we managed to get on television. I wasn't able to actually see us on TV (remember, I was at the game) ... but one of my fellow teachers sent me a text about 5 minutes afterward telling me he saw me and that I am now a celebrity. The following week at school many of my students also told me that they saw me grace their tiny televisions ... as they actually were watching the game at school on their little cell phones.
(The phones here in Korea are legit - many of them also serve as televisions, cameras, and microwave ovens. I'm pretty sure Korea is where all the Transformers are from.)
So I am now an even bigger celebrity in Korea ... so far I think I've racked up about a solid 30 seconds of TV time. I'm just hoping to reach the full 15 minutes before I head home next July. Only 14.5 more to go ...

This week I made my host family some macaroni and cheese. I recently told my host sister that this was my all-time favorite food ... before going vegan. She got really excited (as most Korean kids do when they hear the word "cheese") so I told her I would make some for her and the rest of the family.
I then went to the store, bought some cheese and noodles, because in a house stocked with at least 150 pounds of kimchi there is no room for either. But the cheese here in Korea ... at least in Hwasun ... is what I would consider "not the greatest", and there is only one type, that being some ambiguous block of white stuff. It's not even labeled. There was a picture of a pizza on the package, so I figured it was mozzarella and set out to make white macaroni and cheese. It ended up being ok ... definitely not as delicious as anything that comes out of Betty Lou's kitchen back home, but edible nonetheless. As gross as I thought it tasted my host siblings loved it ... so I guess I will be making it again sometime. Sorry America, in addition to being a worthless hiker, I am bringing mediocre tasting macaroni to the Korean dinner table. Cultural ambassadorship fail.

Last Sunday I attended my host family's church, yet again. In the first couple weeks I asked to go with them, if only to see what a Korean Christian service was like. They took it that I wanted to go every Sunday ... and I have now found myself leading an English "worship" time with children every Sunday before the service for grown ups. Well, my Jesus English talk doesn't start until this Sunday ... and I have absolutely no idea what it will entail. Hopefully hand puppets.
But last week I went with my host mom and sister to church to what they called a "special" service.
Again, like most things in Korea, I had no idea what was going on. The pastor made all three of us sit up at the very front for the entire service. I was a little weirded out ... even more so when the pastor addressed me personally during his sermon.
There I was, sitting in the horribly uncomfortable pew that was made for people no taller than 5-2, zoning out (What do you expect me to do? The service is entirely in Korean.) ... when I heard the pastor break from his all his Korean rambling, lock eyes with me, and declare (in English) "Roren was crucified with Jesus". Exact words. Literal translation.
Before this, I have only said a pretty straight forward "hello" to this guy ... where/how he found out that I was crucified, and with Jesus, I have no idea. I think it's safe to say that no one else in the church had any idea what was going on, as I too was pretty confused.
So I looked at him, mouthed a "yep", gave him a thumbs up, and he went back to preaching.
Anyways, after learning that I too was present on Calvary, the sermon ended and some other stuff went down (again, in Korean) and I think I might have accidentally gotten baptized. I was sitting in the first couple pews along with about 10 other people, who all were "baptized" as my host sister's phone dictionary put it, simply by sitting there and nodding to the pastor. I definitely was sitting and nodding along with them all ... that's my main method of communication ... so I think a little of the baptizing juice might have rubbed off on me, intentionally or not. But I figure that if, like pastor man said, I was "crucified with Jesus", I'm pretty much taken care of.

But a plus ... maybe a baptism gift ... my host family treated me to lunch out in Ggwangju at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant, complete with faux meat and everything. My host mom was super proud and kept yelling to me that it was "lie meat!" and I should "eat all!". Eat all I did.
My youngest host sister Eun Su also got to come with us ... which is a real treat, because her Sundays usually consist only of studying, eating, studying, and more studying. But in order to save time and not have to return to Hwasun to pick her up, she came with us to church. However, she was not allowed to come to the service and had to sit out in the car and study. Seriously.
Koreans: 3
God: still 0.

In addition to maybe getting baptized and eating delicious veggie food, I had my first visitor in the grand city of Hwasun last week - my friend Sarah from Mokpo (the same one who gave me her host father's baseball ticket) came down and stayed the night with my host family and went to school with me to observe me in the classroom. This sounds kind of fancy-pantsy formal ... but she basically just sat in the back and took pictures of my students pretending to pay attention to me. It was really nice to have someone at school the whole day that I could talk to (in more complex sentences than "I like pears") and share the crazy things that go on in my classroom. If this were Burger King, I would have someone with me always ... maybe just follow me around school all day and not be the only person who gets gawked at in the hallway.
Sarah has blond hair and blue eyes - such an American - and she was pretty much the talk of the school that day. My students were amazed that I had other American friends and that I would bring them to school with me. It was as if they thought putting more than one American together would cause the next nuclear holocaust or something. Although, I'm pretty sure that only happens if there are 4 of us.

Also ... just thought I would let all of you back at home know that in my 3 or so months spent in Hwasun I have become a fabulous dancer. I can dance the paso-doble like a professional (so long as it is to the beat of various Korean pop songs) and am currently learning to master the cha cha cha. So far I have the first two chas down.
That third one is tricky.

Juicy Hartnett, eat your heart out.

Ok. So before you all Internet complain that I haven't updated my blog in what seems like forever, please note that it, in fact, has not been forever ... just 13 days.
I apologize for the delay in posting, which has been due to last week's traveling, the Fulbright fall conference, and my amazing ability to procrastinate when it comes to just about anything.
As I said earlier (in that last sentence) the past week and weekend was filled with traveling, and led to things such as taking a 6+ hour bus tour of one of Korea's most historic cities, being mauled by Korean high school girls, being disappointed once again by Josh Hartnett, and eating an unhealthy amount of tator tots.
If that doesn't clear things up, I don't know what will.
But as it has been established that I'm quite fond of bullet points ... again I will resort to them, as the way to best describe my past experiences. Funny that I'm using bullets now more than ever ... in Korea ... a country that is only familiar with the types of guns that shoot water, not bullets.

Last week my school decided that it was going to have mid-terms. Well, I'm pretty sure the nation of South Korea decided the high schools would have midterms ... something about trying to test the students' learning and stuff. In Korea 3 days of midterms = Lauren gets 3 days of freedom. Which was glorious. I decided to spend my three days not in Hwasun (I think I've explored everything this city has to offer ... so the Dunkin Doughnuts and post office) but instead Busan, which was holding the 14th International Pusan film festival.
(side-note: [Boo-san] is now Romanized and spelled "Busan" but a couple of years ago before Korea decided there was a right and wrong way to Romanize/English-ify all Korean cities it was sometimes written "Pusan" [Poo-san] (which I think is funnier, and thus better) ... so all the pictures I have of banners and whatnot Busan is generally spelled "Pusan", before the official Romanization of all Korean cities). You just learned something.
Anyways, I traveled to Busan on Wednesday morning after frantically throwing everything I thought I would need for 6 days in my bookbag and heading to the bus station. Apparently the things I thought I would need would be only one pair of jeans, and a hairdryer. I traveled over to Busan ... which is a coastal city on the southeast coast of Korea (I'm fairly certain I mentioned this in my last post, hopefully you all have done your reading). I met up with some Fulbright friends and we had a grand time exploring Busan and checking out the city's film festival.

After arriving in Busan we automatically went to check out it's "famous" fish market. I don't know why anyone would actually want to go there, but go there we did. It was filled with fish (duh) both alive and still squirmy, various types of sea creatures, and tons of old Korean ladies. But as gross as it looked, it smelled really nice. False. We went to a fish market. It smelled like a fish market. But I got to check out the insane kind of things Koreans eat ... although to me it looked more like a market that you go to in hopes of stocking your aquarium with creatures that will make all your friends exclaim, "Oh that's interesting". On the up side, I did get to witness a small shark get dragged across the floor and have its insides sprawled out on the floor, compliments of one Korean ajumma who seemed to have a deep seated hatred for Jaws.

After getting my fix of smelly fish for the year we headed to downtown Busan to check out the festival activities and walk around and be touristy. We stumbled upon a lot of people setting up something that seemed pretty important, so we decided to loiter around and see what was going on. I'm still not exactly sure what we watched, in that it was all in Korean and I understood nothing of it, but I'm fairly certain it was the pre-opening ceremony to the film festival ... the opening-opening ceremony, if you will. And you will.
They laid out the red carpet and everything, so it must have been somewhat important. So we stood among other Koreans and watched people who I can only assume to be famous walk down the red carpet, say some stuff in a microphone, then walk back down the red carpet and take a seat. It was exciting. Although I'm not totally sure as to what we watched, or who we watched, I think it's safe to say we saw some famous Korean actors/actresses and some not so famous Korean actors/actresses (based upon the level of applause and wild cheering they evoked from the crowd). I cheered for some and didn't for others ... hoping to convince all the dedicated Korean fans around me that I knew what was going on. I think it worked.
We were then treated to a hip hop performance by a Korean hip hop trio (what, you thought they'd be a jazz group doing hip hop? Come on.) Again I couldn't recognize the song, but they were really flashy and many girls screamed, so I figured them to be the Korean equivalent of Kanye West. I figured 3 people with 3 rather large egos (I mean, they're famous, right) equals one Kanye West.

The next day we took a bus tour of Busan and saw some of the more popular, touristy places ... or at least what people of Busan thought was of note. Our tour consisted of checking out the UN cemetery honoring those who fought in and lost their lives during the Korean war, various beaches in and around Busan, and the area that hosted the yachting competition during the Seoul Olympics, which also conveniently was where the opening ceremonies were held for the film festival.
The cemetery was very nice (about as nice as a cemetery can be, I guess) and it was impressive to see the many graves and names of individuals who gave their lives to create what is now the country where I live.
After checking out various beaches ... no need to go into detail ... some sand, some shells, some beach ... we made our way over to the area which was preparing for the night's festival opening.
As we arrived to the staging area / red carpet / yachting place we were hoping to find out where to get tickets for the opening film ... word on the street (and by street, I mean some of the ETAs) said there were 400 or so tickets still on sale that they would release the day of the opening. After wandering around aimlessly for a little while and finding only Koreans and more Koreans and not tickets, we decided to just hang out and watch the celebrities as they entered the screening plaza via red carpet. But, luckily by the grace of the Buddha, a couple of Korean school girls approached us and told us where to go to get tickets (this wasn't as shady as I made it seem). We maneuvered our way around the craziness that was Korea and managed to find and grab a place in a pretty long line in hopes of scoring some tickets for the film. Many hours (4 to be exact) later we finally made it to the front of the line and happily bought our tickets - only 10 US dollars (approximately) and did a little happy dance because we were reassured that our waiting in line for hours on end was not completely wasted. Plus, I got a pretty great sunburn, a gross piece of corn on a stick, and a few pages deep into the book I brought with me.
We were also (maybe) on television. A couple of ladies, whom I took to be television anchors (only because they had a camera and I believe a microphone) came up to us and made us shout "I love you" into the camera and make the standard Korean cutesy hearts. We happily obliged and hopefully got a few seconds of fame on one of Korea's many television networks.
"New story at 10. Americans also watch movies."

After buying our tickets we rushed over to the red carpet area and waited for another hour or so to see some Korean celebrities and Josh Hartnett, the ultimate American beef cake. Josh is currently/already/I'm not sure starring/starred in a Korean film with two other Korean actors that is coming out soon/recently came out/has been out for years (Obviously it shows how much I follow his career. After "She's All That" I pretty much gave up on him.), so he made an appearance in Busan. It's not like he had anywhere else to be. I'm sure he wasn't missing the big premier of his next movie "She Wasn't all That", or something to that effect. Anyways, we pushed our way through the insane crowd of Korean teenage girls and a couple of the older Korean ladies who were desperately fighting to claim the best spot in which to swoon over the latest Korean heartthrobs. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was pretty much dominated (and by that I mean pushed around) by about 50 or so Korean girls (who weigh about half of what I do) and found my way into the outer edges of the mass surrounding the red carpet. However it was fine in that they were all about 5 feet tall and I could easily see over the tops of their little heads. But it was at this time that my camera's battery decided to die, so I gave up all hope of taking pictures to later sell to the trashy magazines and settled to just absorb the experience and try to come out of the mob alive.
It was actually extremely cool, and I got to see many famous Korean movie and television drama stars as the paraded down the red carpet and were the recipients of many girls screaming "I love you! You are so pretty! Marry me please!" (note: this is not a direct translation, only what I figured they were probably saying). We stayed in the mob for about an hour and a half anxiously awaiting the arrival of Josh Hartnett (or as the Korean girls would exclaim "Juicy Hartnett"), and it was rumored that he would arrive at 6:30 pm. I don't exactly know who started this rumor, but it was completely false. At about 7:45 or so we decided to give it up and head over to the outdoor venue where the film would be showed. And wouldn't you know it, that it was then Juicy Hartnett decided to show up and dazzle Korea with his white skin, double eyelids, and high bridged nose. (That sounds a little creepy, but that is exactly what my students tell me is so attractive about my face ... and the faces of everyone else that lives in the West).
So we missed Juicy Hartnett, but I can't say I'm too bummed. We even googled where he originally was from so we (the 5 of us Americans in the crowd ... pretty sure the only Americans) could yell that we came all the way from his hometown (somewhere in Minnesota) to show our support for him. Looking back on it I'm not exactly sure why I/we thought this was a good idea.

So after the letdown of missing Juicy, the opening ceremony began and we were treated to some opening remarks (that were so meticulously scripted it was almost painful) and several shots of famous celebrities in the crowd, including Juicy, we were able to watch two performances ... one of a folksy band/artist that was pretty lame. I mean, one of his songs was called "annyong". And then a performance by Girls Generation, one of Korea's most popular girl pop bands. They sang one of their more famous songs "Genie", but what I think stole the show was their rendition of "There You'll Be" (in English) - a heartfelt serenade to none other than Juicy Hartnett. As you may remember Juicy gave a stellar performance in the movie "Pearl Harbor" ... a movie which included on the soundtrack, the song "There You'll Be". Girls Generation decided that the best way to impress such an American dream boat would be to sing this song for him. They also dressed in cutesy little navy uniforms. It was fantastic. Throughout their entire performance the camera cut between them and Juicy, who was awkwardly sitting in his chair. I can only imagine the thoughts that were running through his head.
After the musical acts we were finally all treated to the film "Good Morning Mr. President" a comdey/romance/everyday kind of film about the lives of 3 of Korea's fictitious presidents and the things they had to deal with in office (i.e. relationships, emergency surgeries, winning the lottery, accidental farting, you know ... the usual stuff that bothers most presidents). The movie was pretty good however I didn't get the full effect, as I was frantically trying to read the English subtitles. But all in all I think it was pretty good, very entertaining ... and that's what movies are supposed to be, right?

Our last day/morning in Busan was spent visiting Hauendae beach, a fairly famous beach that was the location for the shooting of one of Korea's most recent tsunami disaster movies. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I hear it was disastrous. After checking out the last beach we all headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Gyeongju for the weekend. It was time for the annual Fulbright Korea fall conference ... 4 days of workshops, meetings, hanging out and reconnecting with other ETA friends, enjoying and learning about Gyeongju, and enjoying ourselves. (I kind of sound like a travel brochure right there.)

The conference was really great ... it was super nice to see all the 90 or so ETAs in one room, many of whom I haven't seen or talked to since we all left Chuncheon about two months ago, which now seems like such a long time. The meetings and workshops were very informative and helpful, though a little boring so I'll spare you the details. Just envision lots of people like me, sitting at tables, talking about teacher-y things and eating brownies and cheese.

But during the conference weekend we all (or almost all of us) got out in Gyeongju and toured the entire city. The entire city. It seriously took us about 6 or so hours ... and saw all that it had to offer. Fun history fact: when Korea was first united under the Silla dynasty way back when, Gyeongju was the capital city of Korea at the time. It holds a lot of Korea history and we were able to visit various Buddhist temples, tombs of ancient Korean kings, the Gyeongju national history museum, the oldest observatory tower thing in Korea, and other parks and lakes around the area. It is a beautiful city and it was really cool to see all the historical things. Never have I felt so young.

The conference was really great and way more interesting and helpful than I first imagined it to be. On Monday we all departed and went our separate ways again ... off into the real world of Korea ... you know, where people stop being nice and start being real.
My bus back to little Hwasun decided not to leave until about 4 in the afternoon, so myself and many of the other ETAs that were headed to that area hung out in Gyeongju for the day and visited "Gyeongju World" the biggest and best amusement park in town. There was pretty much no one there besides us, so we rode rides as we pleased, never having to wait in line. It wasn't as fantastic as any American amusement parks I have been to, but it did the job.

The past week/weekend was glorious ... a great way to enjoy the beautiful fall weather in Korea these days. Life is good.
I should try to market that phrase. Like put it on t-shirts or something.