In Retrospect

Hello all!

So sorry I’ve been neglecting – after the GRE I thought I’d have some downtime but things just kept on going. I’ve been enjoying my past four days of ‘vacation,’ which will end when my two friends from Mankato arrive tomorrow – then it will be busy busy busy until school starts again in mid-August.

I’d like to say this is another one of those teach you about Korean culture and/or history kind of posts – but it’s not. It’s mostly just about me. Sorry. Tomorrow night my dear friends Emily and Lauren are arriving in Gwangju – we began planning this visit almost exactly a year ago, and I'm so glad it's actually happening. I’ve got loads of things planned for them to do – they’re even coming to work with me for a couple of days. The first semester ended July 15th, so last week and this week I’ve been teaching summer camp for four hours every morning with a wonderful little group of first graders (seventh graders.) They’re great kids and we’ve been having a lot of fun – we keep running out of time because our activities keep us busy. Last week we also had a three day field trip to English Town – I’ll tell you more about that later – so I was busy chaperoning and…speaking English. My gym and swimming memberships ended last week, so I really feel like I’m on vacation with no obligations – has been a good excuse to get myself out walking around and exploring the city again.

As for what’s coming up next, I’ve got a trip to Busan this weekend planned with Emily and Lauren to show them the sights, and then after three days of deskwarming (sitting at my desk for four hours each morning for absolutely no reason at all other than showing up to fulfill my contract) next week we’ll head up to Seoul for a couple of days. Then, on Friday the 5th we’ll head to the airport together – back to the USA for them ( for Lauren, as Em is leaving a couple of days earlier) and onto Japan for me. I know I said I was going to go to China, but things ended up getting a little sticky with the time restraints for getting a Chinese visa – after my experience of not getting my Korean visa on time last year (which was no one’s fault but my own) I decided to sideline the stress and anxiety and changed my trip to Japan. I’ve been reading and researching as much as I can – I’ve got an East to West trip planned out. I’ve grown up hearing about Japan from my mom and grandparents – I’m so excited to finally go there and see it for myself. I’m also planning on visiting the school and area where Mom taught for two years, and even meet her old boss, who is still apparently the principal there.

So, what have I been up to? Well, I’ve been hot, for starters. It’s hot here. My introduction to a full blown Korean summer began in the end of May, when I started noticing that I would walk out the door and after ten minutes feel the need for another shower. Korean summers are composed of a hot, sticky, muggy couple of weeks, followed by a few more weeks of ‘rainy season’ which is even more hot, sticky, and muggy – but at least the mornings and evening were cool. Now we’ve progressed into what my co-teacher calls “hot summer.” (Perhaps due to the recent girl group K-Pop song entitled “Hot Summer” that has been playing on repeat all over the place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-rftpZ7kCY) Luckily so far it hasn’t been as hot as I remember last summer was – when I arrived in August I thought I was going to melt, even in the evenings, but its definitely still hot. I’m really missing the lake and my various pools right about now. It’s strange to A: not have a tan, B: not run around in a swimsuit all day jumping form swim practice to coaching to teaching lessons to lifeguarding, and C: not spend a day lounging outside on my deck in the heat reading a book. Go figure my first year as a teacher gives me a winter vacation and not a summer vacation.

So, the last time I wrote I believe I was in the midst of studying for the GRE. I’m happy to report that it went well – I knew as soon as I finished that it was much better than last year. I received my scores this past weekend and am pleased to say I bumped all of my scores up – very encouraging for my future graduate school applications. I was a study machine – I don’t think I’ve ever studied so much for anything in my life. My poor kids were so confused when they saw me memorizing vocabulary words: “But teacher, you are from America! You know English!” Luckily two of my good friends were taking it also, so I had a lot of fellow encouragement…and partners to commiserate with. The day we took the GRE we went out for pizza and beer immediately after, then spent the afternoon hanging out with our friends who had come into town for an art show. A nice dinner and a fun night out with our friends was the perfect way to celebrate...even though I don't remember much of it.

I haven’t done much traveling lately because I’ve been busy and have come to appreciate quiet weekends (since my weekdays are jam packed,) but last month I did manage to take a quick trip to Jeonju, a litle city about an hour and a half north of Gwangju. Jeonju used to be the former capitals of one of the three kingdoms (Baekje) during the Three Kingdoms period. (Remember Gyeongju? That was the capital of one of the other kingdoms.) The best and most famous feature of Jeonju is its well preserved hanok village. Hanok village refers to a traditional Korean neighborhood, with traditional style housing and streets. Jeonju’s village was a charming little area just south of the city center – my friend Lisa and I stayed in a cheap little motel room and enjoyed two days of wandering around – exploring the village, walking along the river, checking out the modern downtown (pictured) eating at cute little cafes and coffee shops, and enjoying the change of scenery. It was the perfect little getaway weekend.

After the GRE, the next up on my calendar was my birthday. Though it was the first birthday I’ve spent away from home I couldn’t have asked for a better celebration. Since it was on a Thursday, I couldn’t get together with my friends from out of town until the following evening, so I just had a quiet (and delicious) barbecue dinner with two of my friends in town. After dinner we headed over to Cafe Bene, where our worker friends (pictured) had a special birthday treat prepared, (also pictured) complete with a birthday note written on a Cafe Bene napkin. Because we were the only ones there, they even took song requests and played our favorite K-Pop tunes. A Cafe Bene birthday to remember. The next night I traveled to Mokpo to meet up with my friends, and we joined the already planned Canada Day (I now know that Canada Day takes place every July 1st…) party that evening – it was great to see a lot of my orientation friends again, and we all had a lot of fun.

However, to me, the best birthday presents I received, possibly ever, were at school. Little notes, drawings, and cards appeared on my desk throughout the day, the boa

rds were decorated each time I walked into the room to teach a class, (ah, please note: the very last name on the list of names on the right is my name in Korean, which I always add to the board at the beginning of class, but because it was my birthday my name was already listed AND I got extra stars, which I have to add them myself) and the many birthday greetings that I got throughout the day were so sweet. I got lots of cutesy little gift like hair accessories and even some fresh plums from my kids, and my co-teacher made me a cheesecake. I was so touched, saying that usually my mom makes my birthday cake for me, so I wasn’t expecting a cake, and she said “Well yes, I am your Korean mother so it is my job to make your cake while you are in Korea.” Well done Mrs. Lee. Well done. 

After my birthday I had a couple of down time weeks at school due to finals testing, which I spent reading a history book about China (I just changed my trip about two weeks ago) and planning out my trip, and then the last week of school we played games and watched movies in class. I don’t understand why there is school a week after finals, especially since the majority of classes don’t actually have class – it’s recreation, free time, or movies. (I was chatting to one of my kids in the office and asked him what class he has next. He pointed to the schedule board and said “Math. Movie. Then, history. Movie.” Then he pointed to every class and said “Movie, movie, movie, and movie." Fun.

The good news about movie week, (which I took the liberty of naming,) is that in all the other English classes that I didn’t teach, my co-teachers were showing movies – in English, of course – so I started checking the schedule, asking my co-teachers which movies they were showing in which classes, then popping in on random classes depending on what movie they were watching. Of course, in my extra class I showed a movie too, so I think I counted and ended up seeing clips of about eight different movies thoughout that week. Everyone deserves a movie week here and there, right? I was delighted to discover that now I’m able to read Korean fast enough to catch most of the subtitles.

The last day of the semester was also coupled with my friend Sara heading home for a month long visit (her sister is getting married as well, congrats Emily!) – so we got together and had a nice dinner and went to see the new Harry Potter movie, fulfilling our generational duty. A lot of my other friends are either on or starting their vacations now, and my friend Sokhom leaves tomorrow for Canada – it will be fun to reunite with everyone in August, as well as say goodbye to those who are completing their one year contract.

After finals, I had my two days of summer camp (All About You introduction day and Superhero day) and then me, seven other teachers, and most of the first and third graders (the second graders have to go in the winter vacation) all piled on the bus and headed about 30 minutes away from Changpyeong to the Gwangju English Village. Also termed ‘English Town,’ this ‘summer camp’ is basically supposed to be a simulation of what it is like to live in an English speaking town. All the buildings were labeled in English, and inside each little station (like Post Office, Airport, etc) there were props and scenery to make it look somewhat like the real place. The kids were divided into groups and then all followed a schedule which sent them to different ‘classes’ in each respective building. For example, in Post Office class they learned some vocabulary, learned about writing addresses in English, then wrote letters. In Hair Salon class, they learned accompanying vocabulary, then got to play around with nail polish and face paint. It was basically a mix of vocabulary lessons, hands on activities, worksheets, and games in each class.

I really enjoyed English Town because I was able to hang out with my students without actually teaching. I had a lot of freedom (the teacher’s room was boring because all the other teachers just spoke to each other in Korean…so I slipped out quite often) and had fun just checking out the schedule and making ‘visits’ to each class – I would make sure I hit each group an even amount of times, and made sure I went to each different station just to see what it was all about. Each class was taught by a native English teacher (I believe there were six total) and a Korean co-teacher. Once in the classroom, I would either help with classroom control, help the kids with the activities, sit and listen with the kids, or do the activity with the kids. It was like going to class without having to do any homework. I have some fun pictures – see if you can guess which 'classes' we were at.

We were fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which, sadly, were all awful. They tried to make Western food, to suit the ‘English camp’ theme, but personally I think camp food is bad enough in the states – imagine another country trying to replicate it. I told my teachers that now all the kids are going to think American food is awful. To compensate, the Korean teachers frequently ran little ‘errands’ off the campsite and came back bringing fruit and snacks for us and the kids. Aside from class time, I did get to bond with my fellow Korean teachers a bit – the camp was situated out in the countryside, and the ladies took me for walks in the mornings and evenings, pointing out various plants and flowers – so pretty. I saw my first lotus pond too – so very Korean.

I also hung out with the other native teachers in between classes – it turns out one of them

just joined my book club. I think English Town was definitely a good way to start off the summer vacation - I ended the semester on a really good note with my students, and though I'm excited for the break (I definitely feel like I need one) I'm also excited to get back to school and have fun with them again. Picture on the right:

English Camp Teacher to me: "Hey, have you seen two kids running around in costumes? I had them for theater class and then when class ended they ran away still wearing them." She seemed alarmed.

Me: "Yup, they went that way." Unfazed.

After English camp I was finally able to relax and enjoy my summer vacation, which actually doesn’t officially start until next week. As I said, I visited some museums, did some walking around and exploring, cleaned my place, and even got some movie watching time in. I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of my friends tomorrow night, so tonight I’m going to enjoy my last night off by watching a movie and going to bed early. After that it’s go go go until after Japan. 

As I’m nearing my year-long anniversary of arriving in Korea, I have to do some reminiscing about how much has changed since then. When I arrived, I was dead set on seeing and traveling as much as I could – I was going to take off for teaching in Russia about now, as I recall. I was planning on living frugally and not developing long relationships due to having to leave within a year, and basically living detached from everything so that I could think ahead for the future. Now, I can’t imagine leaving my kids and my friends here for anything so soon – I’ve slowed things down and realized how happy I am here with my job and my life – why would I want to leave so soon in pursuit of traveling a world that will still be there in the years to come? I’ve sort of started my life over here in Korea - this was my first September that I didn’t start swim season since the age of seven - I’ve had to adjust to living ‘normally.’ Luckily I’ve realized that I can’t just sit and do nothing after work – my gym and swimming pool memberships have helped center me, especially after sitting at a desk for most of the day.

However, I think the best things I’ve experienced and realized is how important close friends and relationships are. I’m so lucky to have two really close friends that I would never have thought I could grow so close to in just one year, and of course, I’ve developed a wonderful and trusting relationship with my students, co-teachers, and co-workers. The kindness and compassion of the Korean people is truly touching, and I feel so lucky that I’ve been embraced and accepted by Korean society, from my kids to my co-workers and even to the celebrity moms and coffee shop workers who give me free stuff. The Korean language employs the same word for heart and mind, a beautiful concept which is clearly manifested through most Koreans' everyday actions and behavior. I don’t know what I would do without Mrs. Lee, my Korean mom, or Miss Yoo, my sweet little co-teacher who always helps me with everything. (L -R Mrs. Jo, the Korean teacher, Mrs. Lee, and Miss Yoo at the lotus pond.)

So, after nearly a year of ‘living the dream,’ I’m still doing exactly that: I’ve traveled to countries I’ve always dreamt of going to, I’m reading whatever books I want to for fun, I’m settled in an active and exciting community, I’m learning a new language and culture, and most importantly, I’m learning about myself and shaping the person who I want to become. I’m continually trying to live my life according to Mr. Henry David Thoreau, who boldly dares everyone to: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve always imagined.” So far my dream has taken me further than I could have ever imagined, and I can’t wait to see what life has in store for me next.

Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone! Take care.