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.