"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!