Seoul Searching:
This past weekend myself and 7 other ETAs ventured down to Seoul to relax, hang out, and see exactly what the capital of Korea has to offer. Since I've been in Korea, everyone has been talking that the only "true" city (I don't even know what that means) in Korea is Seoul ... that all other cities pale in comparison to it's awesomeness. I don't know if it's fair to say that Seoul is the best city in Korea ... seeing that I've only visited a couple ... but I did have an great weekend and got to experience urban life in Korea, if only for a couple of days.
We left Friday evening and traveled by bus; Korean public transportation is insanely accessible and clean! Best bus I have ever been on. Oh, the little things. However, our group of 8 was yelled at by the bus driver, who said we were speaking too much English. He told us that if we wanted to continue to ride the bus we couldn't talk - or must speak Korean (not something I can easily do, unless people only want to know my name, and phrases like "the cat is on the table"). It is common for many Koreans to feel offended or put off by native English speakers. When they hear Westerners speaking English many Koreans feel as if our doing so is only to show off how good we are at speaking English, something they don't easily do. Believe me, if I could speak Korean I definitely would. But that day has yet to come ...
Anyway, we had a fantastic "tour guide" for the weekend. Norman, a member of the Kangwon Key Club came with us, booked our transportation and hostel, and showed us around the city for the weekend. He was absolutely amazing - fluent in English, a bio-engineering student, and all around wonderfully interesting guy.
We arrived in Seoul Friday evening and managed to find a cheap hostel to hold us. Less than an hour into the city we broke down and went out to eat for some "comfort food" at On the Border, a Mexican restaurant chain. A group of Americans, eating Mexican in Korea - quite the sight. But I did manage to order my water in Korean. So at least now I know that I won't die of thirst over here. Food, however is a different story. As of now the only things I can order (or at least know how to do so in Korean) are cookies, ramen, milk, and rice. Hopefully everywhere I eat they serve at least one of those items. I think it's safe to say that rice is always a given.
After gorging ourselves with delicious Mexican food (never in my life have I been so excited to eat black beans), we headed out to the Seoul "clubs". Norman promised us that the best thing to do was to find a certain bar/club that had just opened that Koreans apparently are going crazy for ... so we followed him around Seoul in search of this place. This search ended up taking about 45 minutes, walking, in the pouring rain sans umbrella, among crazy traffic and people. As we finally arrived (and believe me we were looking fresh) we were met by the bouncer guy who ended up not letting us in, because one of the guys that came with us was wearing flip-flops. The dress codes for clubbing here are pretty strict - Koreans do not take open toed shoes lightly. We attempted to buy some pretty sketchy shoes from some street vendor, but scratched that idea when we realized he would have to pay about 60,000 won for some ugly Nikes. We then ended up going to a different bar (called S-club ... appropriately named after the British 90s pop band) and hung out there for a couple hours. It was nice to take in the urban atmosphere of Seoul, even if the majority of the music played was horrible American rap. I swear I heard the song that talks about "boots with fur" 3 times in one hour. After our stint at the club I have come to conclude that Asians, like most Westerners, are just as horrible (if not more so) at dancing to rap music. Though it was nice to be "at home" among my fellow awkward dancers.
Following a brief rest at the hostel, we awoke Saturday morning to a delicious continental breakfast complete with bread, milk, jelly, and hotdogs. Nothing says good morning like a pork product. Our Saturday afternoon was filled with sightseeing, shopping, and exploring the streets of Seoul. We visited the Gyeongbok Palace of the Joseon Dynasty, which was located in the middle of the city. We toured thorugh entire palace grounds - which were gigantic - and got to see many different parts of the palace that were scattered throughout the grounds. The architecture was beautiful and situated between a mountainous terrain and the modern city of Seoul - pretty sweet.
After getting our fill of culture and stuff, we headed down to Mee-yong-dong, a shopping disctric in Seoul complete with many American stores selling grossly overpriced clothing. It was nice to walk around and take in the "busyness" of the city, but I was somewhat overwhelmed ... the streets were so crowded! Never in my life have I been surrounded by so many people all at once. But it was quite the experience, and I enjoyed the 2 days that I was there.
I will definitely go back - if only to eat Western food and go to more clubs named after British pop bands.
We arrived back in Chuncheon late Saturday night by train, and I was completely exhausted. My Sunday was filled with sleep and studying for the Korean language exam we had on Monday. I'm not completley fluent yet ... but give me another 3 or 4 years and I should almost be there.
Well I must head off to bed tonight to make sure I am well rested and ready to go for tomorrow. Korea takes a lot out of you.
Also ... I updated my photo website - so check it out, yo!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Pictures!
Hello friends. I have created an account on a picture sharing website where I will post the majority of my pictures that I take while in Korea. (this blog is not big enough to hold them all)
I'm not sure exactly how to efficiently post/move/or group pictures on the site, yet ... but I have uploaded them and they are now there to dazzle you. I took a while writing captions for a lot of the pictures, but later found out that I apparently wrote the caption in the wrong box and you won't be able to see it unless you view the pictures individually or as a slideshow. I would recommend viewing them as a slideshow so you don't have to click on each one individually. Plus, it changes the pictures automatically for you, which is pretty neat.
They are the same pictures that I recently posted on Facebook ... but a few extras ... so check them out!
http://photobucket.com/fulbrightkorea
Hello friends. I have created an account on a picture sharing website where I will post the majority of my pictures that I take while in Korea. (this blog is not big enough to hold them all)
I'm not sure exactly how to efficiently post/move/or group pictures on the site, yet ... but I have uploaded them and they are now there to dazzle you. I took a while writing captions for a lot of the pictures, but later found out that I apparently wrote the caption in the wrong box and you won't be able to see it unless you view the pictures individually or as a slideshow. I would recommend viewing them as a slideshow so you don't have to click on each one individually. Plus, it changes the pictures automatically for you, which is pretty neat.
They are the same pictures that I recently posted on Facebook ... but a few extras ... so check them out!
http://photobucket.com/fulbrightkorea
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
"The power is yours!"
Ah ... so much to write! I feel I haven't updated in a while. Free time is becoming more and more difficult to come by ... as language classes, practice teaching sessions, and daily life are becoming more and more hectic.
This past weekend I (and all the other ETAs) was able to visit Songnisan - a Korean national park that is in the middle of the Sobaeksanmaek Mountains and the site of one of Korea's largest Buddhist temples, Beopjusa. Inside the temple grounds is the largest Buddha statue in the world ... a 33 meter bronze statue of the Buddha giving a high five to some other invisible giant being (my guess is that he's congratulating God, or something). Actually, I'm pretty sure the Buddha is forming the abhayaprada mudra, a sign of strength and fearlessness.
Look at that DePauw liberal arts education paying off! Thanks Mom and Dad!
So we arrived at Songnisan last Friday and stayed through Sunday afternoon. The weekend was one to relax and take in the calming atmosphere of the mountins, listen to the babbling stream, and contemplate the wonders of life - or so said our Orientation counselors. So I did just that ... which resulted in the creation of an even more hectic week and a somewhat disappointing score on my most recent Korean language exam ... but I will get to that later.
As we arrived we were greeted by Mrs. Shim (the head honcho of Fulbright Korea - pretty much the only person we have to formally bow to and try not to mumble our Korean too much) and an American monk now living in Korea. We attended a talk on the Buddhist culture of Korea - pretty interesting - and then were able to hike up to Beopjusa and tour around the temple for a couple hours. This time allowed for some pretty stellar pictures, and we even got to see the afternoon Buddhist drumming ritual which calls all the monks to one of their many daily meditation periods.
The remainder of the weekend we had free and I took full advantage of the time to sleep, eat a decent amount of veggie-friendly food, and take in the scenery. The food was great ... hands down the best food I have eaten thus far in Korea. Even though the vegetarian group (me and 5 other "vegetarians" ... quotes are necessary because they eat fish and white meat, lame) was forced to eat in a completley different building than the meat-eaters, we were treated to delicious spreads of tofu, fresh vegtables, delicious soups, and even some leaves and twigs (which were actually pretty tasty). The weekend was fantastic and a great way to destress for a couple days and take our minds off the busy schedule of Orientation.
However, as soon as we got back to Chunchon Sunday evening we immediately had to begin preparing for Camp Fulbright and studying for our weekly language exams. I apparently did not study hard enough and have landed myself in "detention" with about 70% of the rest of the group because I/we did not score a certain amount of points on our last test. I forgot the Korean word for soap (which I now know to be peen-chu) thus causing my score to drop drastically. I now have to spend an hour sitting on the floor each night in "study hall" or "listen to your I-pod" hall. Oh well.
I also began teaching this week ... at least practice teaching ... for Camp Fulbright, which is a 2 week English camp Fulbright holds for 150 Korean kids every summer. I taught my very first lesson here this Tuesday and I'm happy to say it went quite well. Camp Fulbright is organized this year so that the kids are learning about American holidays and how we usually celebrate them. The day of my first practice teaching fell on Earth Day (which I loved), so I naturally the theme of my lesson was Captain Planet. In addition to learning about cause and effect sentences, the Korean kids were shown clips of Captain Planet and joined me in the singing of his theme song. The kids seemed to like it and were able to comprehend the lesson, so I was happy. I hope to include at least one cartoon from the 90s in at least every lesson I teach this year. So far I'm batting 1000. I will teach two more times next week, so hopefully I will be good and ready to teach the rest of the year, all by myself. Kind of scary.
Well, I must be off to bed. Asians sleep too, you know.
I will be posting pictures soon, so you will all be able to see visual proof that I am actually in Korea and not just hanging out my basement writing blogs, or something.
(I will probably post a link here to a picture sharing website ... because I'm pretty sure this site won't be able to hold all of my pictures)
So check back soon!
Ah ... so much to write! I feel I haven't updated in a while. Free time is becoming more and more difficult to come by ... as language classes, practice teaching sessions, and daily life are becoming more and more hectic.
This past weekend I (and all the other ETAs) was able to visit Songnisan - a Korean national park that is in the middle of the Sobaeksanmaek Mountains and the site of one of Korea's largest Buddhist temples, Beopjusa. Inside the temple grounds is the largest Buddha statue in the world ... a 33 meter bronze statue of the Buddha giving a high five to some other invisible giant being (my guess is that he's congratulating God, or something). Actually, I'm pretty sure the Buddha is forming the abhayaprada mudra, a sign of strength and fearlessness.
Look at that DePauw liberal arts education paying off! Thanks Mom and Dad!
So we arrived at Songnisan last Friday and stayed through Sunday afternoon. The weekend was one to relax and take in the calming atmosphere of the mountins, listen to the babbling stream, and contemplate the wonders of life - or so said our Orientation counselors. So I did just that ... which resulted in the creation of an even more hectic week and a somewhat disappointing score on my most recent Korean language exam ... but I will get to that later.
As we arrived we were greeted by Mrs. Shim (the head honcho of Fulbright Korea - pretty much the only person we have to formally bow to and try not to mumble our Korean too much) and an American monk now living in Korea. We attended a talk on the Buddhist culture of Korea - pretty interesting - and then were able to hike up to Beopjusa and tour around the temple for a couple hours. This time allowed for some pretty stellar pictures, and we even got to see the afternoon Buddhist drumming ritual which calls all the monks to one of their many daily meditation periods.
The remainder of the weekend we had free and I took full advantage of the time to sleep, eat a decent amount of veggie-friendly food, and take in the scenery. The food was great ... hands down the best food I have eaten thus far in Korea. Even though the vegetarian group (me and 5 other "vegetarians" ... quotes are necessary because they eat fish and white meat, lame) was forced to eat in a completley different building than the meat-eaters, we were treated to delicious spreads of tofu, fresh vegtables, delicious soups, and even some leaves and twigs (which were actually pretty tasty). The weekend was fantastic and a great way to destress for a couple days and take our minds off the busy schedule of Orientation.
However, as soon as we got back to Chunchon Sunday evening we immediately had to begin preparing for Camp Fulbright and studying for our weekly language exams. I apparently did not study hard enough and have landed myself in "detention" with about 70% of the rest of the group because I/we did not score a certain amount of points on our last test. I forgot the Korean word for soap (which I now know to be peen-chu) thus causing my score to drop drastically. I now have to spend an hour sitting on the floor each night in "study hall" or "listen to your I-pod" hall. Oh well.
I also began teaching this week ... at least practice teaching ... for Camp Fulbright, which is a 2 week English camp Fulbright holds for 150 Korean kids every summer. I taught my very first lesson here this Tuesday and I'm happy to say it went quite well. Camp Fulbright is organized this year so that the kids are learning about American holidays and how we usually celebrate them. The day of my first practice teaching fell on Earth Day (which I loved), so I naturally the theme of my lesson was Captain Planet. In addition to learning about cause and effect sentences, the Korean kids were shown clips of Captain Planet and joined me in the singing of his theme song. The kids seemed to like it and were able to comprehend the lesson, so I was happy. I hope to include at least one cartoon from the 90s in at least every lesson I teach this year. So far I'm batting 1000. I will teach two more times next week, so hopefully I will be good and ready to teach the rest of the year, all by myself. Kind of scary.
Well, I must be off to bed. Asians sleep too, you know.
I will be posting pictures soon, so you will all be able to see visual proof that I am actually in Korea and not just hanging out my basement writing blogs, or something.
(I will probably post a link here to a picture sharing website ... because I'm pretty sure this site won't be able to hold all of my pictures)
So check back soon!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Korean Kulture 101:
This past week I was able to experience and learn about many aspects of Korean culture and regular Korean life. As I have mentioned before I have been spending the majority of my time now at Kangwon University, and because of our intensive schedule of language classes, teaching lectures, and meetings I feel as if I haven't been able to experience much of Korea yet. This Friday we were given our first sliver of freedom - more than 8 or so hours that did not have to be filled with studying or attending meetings. Friday evening we had a Fulbright scheduled "mixer" (complete with 90s pop hits and awkward dancing ... I wish) with the Kangwon Key Club. Key Club is an organization on the Kangwon campus for students who study English as a second language. It is primarily a place for them to get together and practice speaking English outside of the classroom. So all of the Fulbrighters headed down to a (somewhat shady) parking lot Friday night to hang out with about 30 Key Club members and participate in our first actual "cultural exchange". It was actually a ton of fun - we broke into groups and just sat around in a parking lot speaking English, drinking SoJu (the Korean alcohol of choice - it's similar to super distilled vodka and tastes absolutely awful, but is pretty much worshipped around here), and eating snacks. As the Fulbrighters provided a great outlet for many of the Key Club members to practice English, the Key Club members served as our cultural ambassadors and showed us the typical Friday night of a Korean college student.
After getting our fill of Korean snacks, SoJu, and shady parking lot lighting a group of us headed out with many Key Club members to a couple local bars around Kangwon. Upon arriving at the bar we feasted (well, they feasted) on some traditional dishes that I won't even attempt to pronounce or spell as of now that were full of noodles, meat, seafood, and cabbage. I ate what I could only deduce to be some rice balls covered in a bar-be-que type sauce and they were delicious. We all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Topics of conversation ranged from Korean popmusic (K-pop) to the San Francisco Giants, the Korean culture to what the weather was like in Atlanta.
As we grew tired of the bar, we then headed to a local kareokee bar - a "norae-bong" which was absolutely fantastic. Norae-bongs are popular througout Korea, especially in larger, college towns. They are basically a place where people come to rent out rooms for hours at a time only to sing kareokee. Each room holds about 10 or so people and is equipped with a wide selection of songs in both Korean and English. We sang to our hearts' content - I believe I had the best showing with some pretty solid jamz: Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back", the Spice Girls' "Wanna Be", and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". If I can't master Korean and properly teach kids English, I know I can always rely on my singing skills and become the next Beyonce.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed our night out in Chuncheon and was glad to get a break from Orientation. However, I now find myself having to study pretty intensely for our first Korean exam tomorrow afternoon (eek). Wish me luck.
This past week I was able to experience and learn about many aspects of Korean culture and regular Korean life. As I have mentioned before I have been spending the majority of my time now at Kangwon University, and because of our intensive schedule of language classes, teaching lectures, and meetings I feel as if I haven't been able to experience much of Korea yet. This Friday we were given our first sliver of freedom - more than 8 or so hours that did not have to be filled with studying or attending meetings. Friday evening we had a Fulbright scheduled "mixer" (complete with 90s pop hits and awkward dancing ... I wish) with the Kangwon Key Club. Key Club is an organization on the Kangwon campus for students who study English as a second language. It is primarily a place for them to get together and practice speaking English outside of the classroom. So all of the Fulbrighters headed down to a (somewhat shady) parking lot Friday night to hang out with about 30 Key Club members and participate in our first actual "cultural exchange". It was actually a ton of fun - we broke into groups and just sat around in a parking lot speaking English, drinking SoJu (the Korean alcohol of choice - it's similar to super distilled vodka and tastes absolutely awful, but is pretty much worshipped around here), and eating snacks. As the Fulbrighters provided a great outlet for many of the Key Club members to practice English, the Key Club members served as our cultural ambassadors and showed us the typical Friday night of a Korean college student.
After getting our fill of Korean snacks, SoJu, and shady parking lot lighting a group of us headed out with many Key Club members to a couple local bars around Kangwon. Upon arriving at the bar we feasted (well, they feasted) on some traditional dishes that I won't even attempt to pronounce or spell as of now that were full of noodles, meat, seafood, and cabbage. I ate what I could only deduce to be some rice balls covered in a bar-be-que type sauce and they were delicious. We all had a great time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Topics of conversation ranged from Korean popmusic (K-pop) to the San Francisco Giants, the Korean culture to what the weather was like in Atlanta.
As we grew tired of the bar, we then headed to a local kareokee bar - a "norae-bong" which was absolutely fantastic. Norae-bongs are popular througout Korea, especially in larger, college towns. They are basically a place where people come to rent out rooms for hours at a time only to sing kareokee. Each room holds about 10 or so people and is equipped with a wide selection of songs in both Korean and English. We sang to our hearts' content - I believe I had the best showing with some pretty solid jamz: Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back", the Spice Girls' "Wanna Be", and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". If I can't master Korean and properly teach kids English, I know I can always rely on my singing skills and become the next Beyonce.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed our night out in Chuncheon and was glad to get a break from Orientation. However, I now find myself having to study pretty intensely for our first Korean exam tomorrow afternoon (eek). Wish me luck.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Update: still in Korea.
I have been working to adjust to the Korean lifestyle for the past couple days (and have realized that it will probably take me at least a couple months to feel comfortable living in Korea). What I have found so far to be the greatest challenge is overcoming the language barrier. I am now in Chuncheon, a fairly large city, but I would say only about 20% of the people here can understand English. And my Korean skills are pretty much nonexistent as of now.
We all started Korean language classes this Tuesday and I have now had three pretty intensive days of lessons. We are in class for 4 hours in the morning and are expected to complete homework and practice pronunciation daily on our own time. Our own time is pretty difficult to come by here - but that is a different story.
I tested into the beginner's class - shocking, I know - but am adjusting fairly well to learning the language. I in no way consider myself to be good at learning or picking up on languages (other than English - I'm pretty much fluent in that), and Korean is no exception. It is so drastically different than anything I have ever studied. Learning the characters, their meanings, and correctly pronouncing them is quite the task.
But ... I have learned some key phrases and words thus far and am able to awkwardly maneuver my way around town.
We are busy pretty much all day, with little down time, and I have thus not really been able to experience life in Korea outside of the University in which we are staying. After all the class, meetings, homework, and lectures that we have to attend I have found myself extremely exhausted from our daily schedule. However, this weekend we have a day or so of free time so I will hopefully be able to do some exploring.
Chuncheon is a fairly large college town south of Seoul, that offers a variety of entertainment and things to do. This Friday some of us are going to venture into town and see Transformers. I can only imagine how awesome it will be in Korean with English subtitles. Jess - I'm sure you would love it.
I did, however, go to a stationary store today and managed to buy some pretty awesome stationary. The majority of things here (like stationary and small trinkets) are in English - broken English, to be exact. Korean people love their English. Many university students walk around campus wearing shirts with English words and phrases, though they don't exactly know what they mean. I saw a guy today wearing a shirt that said: "Sun Your Buns".
Besides the fact that it rained the ENTIRE day today, the weather has not been too bad - very similar to Indiana weather with a lot of humidity and warm temperatures during the day. The "Sun Your Buns" advice was not well received today, as it has been cloudy and overcast the majroity of the day.
It is now approaching dinner time and I must go to fill up on my daily ration of white rice. Man, I love it.
I have been working to adjust to the Korean lifestyle for the past couple days (and have realized that it will probably take me at least a couple months to feel comfortable living in Korea). What I have found so far to be the greatest challenge is overcoming the language barrier. I am now in Chuncheon, a fairly large city, but I would say only about 20% of the people here can understand English. And my Korean skills are pretty much nonexistent as of now.
We all started Korean language classes this Tuesday and I have now had three pretty intensive days of lessons. We are in class for 4 hours in the morning and are expected to complete homework and practice pronunciation daily on our own time. Our own time is pretty difficult to come by here - but that is a different story.
I tested into the beginner's class - shocking, I know - but am adjusting fairly well to learning the language. I in no way consider myself to be good at learning or picking up on languages (other than English - I'm pretty much fluent in that), and Korean is no exception. It is so drastically different than anything I have ever studied. Learning the characters, their meanings, and correctly pronouncing them is quite the task.
But ... I have learned some key phrases and words thus far and am able to awkwardly maneuver my way around town.
We are busy pretty much all day, with little down time, and I have thus not really been able to experience life in Korea outside of the University in which we are staying. After all the class, meetings, homework, and lectures that we have to attend I have found myself extremely exhausted from our daily schedule. However, this weekend we have a day or so of free time so I will hopefully be able to do some exploring.
Chuncheon is a fairly large college town south of Seoul, that offers a variety of entertainment and things to do. This Friday some of us are going to venture into town and see Transformers. I can only imagine how awesome it will be in Korean with English subtitles. Jess - I'm sure you would love it.
I did, however, go to a stationary store today and managed to buy some pretty awesome stationary. The majority of things here (like stationary and small trinkets) are in English - broken English, to be exact. Korean people love their English. Many university students walk around campus wearing shirts with English words and phrases, though they don't exactly know what they mean. I saw a guy today wearing a shirt that said: "Sun Your Buns".
Besides the fact that it rained the ENTIRE day today, the weather has not been too bad - very similar to Indiana weather with a lot of humidity and warm temperatures during the day. The "Sun Your Buns" advice was not well received today, as it has been cloudy and overcast the majroity of the day.
It is now approaching dinner time and I must go to fill up on my daily ration of white rice. Man, I love it.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
[ An - yang - ha - seh - o ] !
That means hello in Korean! I have successfully been in Korea only one day, but have already managed to say important things like hello, rabbit, and gas station in Korean.
I arrived in Seoul around 4:00 am (Korean time) after roughly 16 hours of traveling. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with a couple other Fulbrighters who flew out of LAX, and eventually joined with the entire group early Sunday morning upon arrival to Korea. From Seoul we had to travel another 3 hours by bus to make it to Kangwon University - where we will be staying for the first 6 weeks. Since arrival, we have had little down time ... only a couple hours in the early morning to unpack, get settled, and meet our roomates.
After a delicious breakfast of cold rice, kimchi (spicy cabbage), and water, we began Orientation with a rousing 5+ hours of informational meetings and get to know you games.
We played "Fulbright Bingo" where you have to try to find people to fit specific character traits or have done certain things, and fill your board about cute things about each person . Again, as always, I was the "token vegan/vegetarian" and had to sign that box on everyone's bingo board. It doesn't end - even half way around the world.
After all of our meetings we were given a tour by the Key Club at Kangwon University - a club dedicated to studying English. They were really nice and helpful and I was able to have fairly good conversations with many of the members in English - but maybe tomorrow we will start speaking in Korean, since I'm obviously a pro already.
(We all take a language assessment test tomorrow to place us in specific classes that correspond to our knowledge of Korean. I'm pretty much a master at the alphabet now, so maybe they will ask me to teach a class on that. Otherwise I will most likely find myself in the extreme beginnger's course).
As our tour ended we headed into dinner - eggplant, rice, and sausage soup. The eggplant was delicious; the sausage soup did not look appetizing. I now am done for the day at 7:00. They are giving us some time to catch up on sleep and interact with all the other Fulbrighters.
I will continue to update later, but must find my way into bed tonight.
Lauren
That means hello in Korean! I have successfully been in Korea only one day, but have already managed to say important things like hello, rabbit, and gas station in Korean.
I arrived in Seoul around 4:00 am (Korean time) after roughly 16 hours of traveling. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with a couple other Fulbrighters who flew out of LAX, and eventually joined with the entire group early Sunday morning upon arrival to Korea. From Seoul we had to travel another 3 hours by bus to make it to Kangwon University - where we will be staying for the first 6 weeks. Since arrival, we have had little down time ... only a couple hours in the early morning to unpack, get settled, and meet our roomates.
After a delicious breakfast of cold rice, kimchi (spicy cabbage), and water, we began Orientation with a rousing 5+ hours of informational meetings and get to know you games.
We played "Fulbright Bingo" where you have to try to find people to fit specific character traits or have done certain things, and fill your board about cute things about each person . Again, as always, I was the "token vegan/vegetarian" and had to sign that box on everyone's bingo board. It doesn't end - even half way around the world.
After all of our meetings we were given a tour by the Key Club at Kangwon University - a club dedicated to studying English. They were really nice and helpful and I was able to have fairly good conversations with many of the members in English - but maybe tomorrow we will start speaking in Korean, since I'm obviously a pro already.
(We all take a language assessment test tomorrow to place us in specific classes that correspond to our knowledge of Korean. I'm pretty much a master at the alphabet now, so maybe they will ask me to teach a class on that. Otherwise I will most likely find myself in the extreme beginnger's course).
As our tour ended we headed into dinner - eggplant, rice, and sausage soup. The eggplant was delicious; the sausage soup did not look appetizing. I now am done for the day at 7:00. They are giving us some time to catch up on sleep and interact with all the other Fulbrighters.
I will continue to update later, but must find my way into bed tonight.
Lauren
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Hello family and friends!
Welcome to my blog! I am using this space to share my experiences while in South Korea for the next year. I will (hopefully) be updating it a couple times a week with pictures and stories of my travels. Enjoy!
Update: Still in Indiana ... I fly out tomorrow afternoon and will arrive in Seoul on the 5th.
Welcome to my blog! I am using this space to share my experiences while in South Korea for the next year. I will (hopefully) be updating it a couple times a week with pictures and stories of my travels. Enjoy!
Update: Still in Indiana ... I fly out tomorrow afternoon and will arrive in Seoul on the 5th.
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