I am not sad to leave you, not at all
your kimchi was terrible, your ceiling had leaks
I guess you were good to me, overall
Jungwon, you were my home for six very long weeks I am not sad to leave you, not at all your kimchi was terrible, your ceiling had leaks I guess you were good to me, overall
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My Korean class final was yesterday and our "graduation" ceremony is tomorrow. Time really does fly when....well it flies when your schedule is jam-packed full. I'm not complaining though, this was one of the better Korean courses I have taken in that because I knew my grade wasn't at stake I felt more comfortable making mistakes. We also had the option of going to office hours every night which was awesome. I often would go and either converse with my professors or just work on my Korean in a setting where I got instant feedback. While I am a bit sad that Korea no longer has a CLEA (even though its still on the CL list) I really hope that my home stay family will greatly help my Korean speaking and listening ability. I still can't believe it has been so long since I left home. I feel like I am just at that point where I don't want to leave Jungwon... that's a lie. The food is terrible. I want to leave for that reason alone. I cannot supplement my Jungwon diet on my 7,000 won a day diet. But I have truly come to love and appreciate the other 74 ETAs that I am sharing this experience with. It will be extremely difficult to leave them come Tuesday. Tomorrow, at 5:15 am *ugh*, we will be heading to Seoul for our graduation so this will probably be the last post until I get to Seogwipo/get settled into my life there. (don't worry mom I will make sure to skype in on my phone this weekend) I still don't know if/who will be hosting me this year, but I am really excited. Also, Sunday/Monday all the ETAs who are renewing will be in Goesan for a little mixer-get-to-know-you type thing. Sorry this post has been rambling, I am so burnt out on studying Korean and preparing a presentation for our final. I will post pictures from the end of orientation/Seoul weekend as soon as possible- until then- Much love, mem We get our placements in..... a few short hours! *gasp* I know that afterwards everything will change but I don't really have any control over anything at this point so I am just along for the ride. Check in later for the deets.
Much love, Emsloth When I was thinking up the title of this post, my main goal was to encapsulates my feelings during this past week. There was the constant second guessing as I filled out my preference form. There was also the triumph of visiting Seoul on my own, getting back into the swing of being independent. Then there was the sheer terror of trying to make it back to Goesan and second guessing my ability to identify the correct bus and procure a ticket to the location I want to go . There where many moments this past week when I just didn't know what to do. Then there was today. Today was beautiful. Today I ate good food and laid in bed and played with kids and did yoga. I didn't have to worry. I didn't feel so lost. It was just what I needed. So my placement form. The whole thing was electronic but they gave us a paper copy before hand so that we could be prepared going in. The 13 categories were as follows: type, gender, size, english ability, religious affiliation, new school, homestay, location size, environment, specific location, resource availability, Other ETAs (that you either want to be near or not) and accessibility to extracurriculars. I tried to explain the s%*t out of my answers in the boxes provided. It was kinda funny, a lot of people told me that they "didn't really have any preferences" and my response was "awesome, cause I have tons". I guess with that is the heightened chance that I will be sorely disappointed...but what are you gonna do? I know what I want. I am a bit frustrated with the lack of communication that has accompanied the placement forms. The party line from the OCs is "it depends" and when asked specifics its usually going to be an "I don't know" or "we'll talk about it later". While I don't see myself as a strict rule follower, I am someone who likes to have all the cards on the table. It doesn't seems right to me that there is so much being omitted. However, I am not running this ship, so who I am to say? So what do you do when you don't know what to do? I'm still working on that one, but for now my answer is just wait and see.
As week three comes to a close (half way through orientation might I add) I am beginning to tire of the "orientation life". This past weekend was a really nice reprieve- we went to Donghae to relax by the ocean. Donghae literally translates to East sea so we were in a city called East sea swimming in the East sea. I swam and swam and swam. I also ate some delicious crab and visited a lighthouse. It was idyllic to say the least. We also got a reprieve from the food at Jungwon which was nice. It was kinda funny to pull up to the hotel and realize that the school and the hotel were affiliated. Some of the second years had joked with us that we would be "surprised by the hotel" by I thought they meant sleeping on "yo" or that the hotel would be typically Korean in its strange ornateness. This whole cult thing has started to freak me out a little bit...at this hotel they had ostriches, turkeys, peafowl, and monkeys all kept in too small cages. Maybe that has something more to do with Korean views on animal rights but it was still kind of disturbing. Regardless, I had a great time rooming with Leanndra and Amelea and a great time just relaxing. No lesson planning. No Korean. Just me and the water and friends. Getting back to Jungwon on Sunday night (we visited some Korean historical sites but nothing of huge importance and it was soooo hot) I had gotten a package from Karen (감사합니다 한국 어마!). She got me candy from paris baguette, so delicious, so cute! Then it was back to reality. 1-on-1's about placements, 1-on-1's about lesson plans, lesson planning, placement forms, homestay requests. This week I truly have been wiped out. Which is why I am writing this blog post instead of going to Taekwondo. I think I may look into TKD at my placement just because I need a class in order to make myself workout...but right now it is kinda painful doing it with fifty foreigners and one instructor. I know the poor guy is trying but for the most part we just look terrible and spend a lot of time not doing anything. I also think it could help with my Korean. I guess we shall see. Ooh this week I taught my first lesson. Being in front of those kids was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be...but the kids at camp fulbright are supposed to be the best of the best so I guess that isn't much to go off of. The main comments I got back was that I was basically a sesquipedalian... yeah, I got chastised for using too long of words such as currency and itinerary. What can I say Word with the Word really ingrained in me that good ole latin and greek based vocabulary. I have had some professors in college try to beat that habit out of me (here's looking at you Prof. Munter) but it just happens. Oh and one of my examples was the order in which you would buy and apartment in Seoul...I definitely am meant to teach higher levels in my opinion. Anyways, these poor intermediate kids still got what I was teaching (woohoo) and I am on to my next lesson with the Advanced kids. My first theme was "I dream" and next weeks is "We care". I get the feeling these themes are annual but its always interesting to see what people do with what they're given. I will try to talk more about the placement form later (maybe after I've gotten my results back) but in the mean time I hope to put up some more pictures. Miss you all! You probably have a lot of questions about this strange strange place, but to be honest I have very few answers. Through internet snooping I have deduced that this school is possibly built by this weird religion/cult. Enjoy! |
Author안녕! I'm Emmy and this is my blog detailing my life in Korea with Fulbright mainly through pictures. Feel free to contact me on my about page. TTFN Archives
June 2016
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