The Next Year of My Life

When I came to Korea, I actually had no idea where I would be teaching and living. We only have training in Chuncheon, and in three weeks all of us are being scattered by the Powers That Be across Korea. Well, on Wednesday we had our placement announcements, and I finally know exaclty where I'll be living and teaching for the next year of my life!

화순 (Hwasun) here I come: http://eng.hwasun.go.kr/english/html/index.html

From what I can gather, Hwasun is a small, rural community in the Southwestern corner of Korea, a province called 전라남도 (Jeollanam-do). Hwasun isn't coastal, which is what I really wanted, but it's no more than a couple hours from the ocean, and I've been told it has a mountain and Buddhist temple right there for hiking/exploring. Hwasun is also about half an hour from 광주 (Gwangju), a major city in South Korea. Gwangju, from the research I've done so far, sounds wonderful - it's known as the "arts" center of Korea and was the site of the political riot and subsequent massacre of May 18, 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Massacre). So even though it isn't right on the ocean, I think it's a good placement, since I'll be able to really experience Korean culture, outside of an urban city, but still be able to go into the city and wherever I want. And the fact that this city is known for the arts and political dissent? I can't wait to explore it: http://eng.gjcity.net/main.jsp

I'm going to be teaching at a co-ed high school near Hwasun. I'll be teaching about 400 students, each of whom I'll probably see once a week. I've been told that the kids are fairly high level. Last year's native English-speaking teacher also did a lot of creative stuff with them, which is good, because that's the kind of stuff I want to work into my lesson plans.

It's hard to know much more know about my location and school, especially because I'm in a less-populated area. And really, even if I was going to Seoul I'd have no idea what this year will have in store for me. Finally knowing where I'll be, though, is making me very excited to get to my school and my homestay and see what life in Korea is really like. The whole idea of throwing myself headfirst into Korean culture has also become much more real in the past few days, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous and apprehensive as well. Luckily, I still have three weeks to mentally prepare myself to teach tired, overstressed high school students Conversational English and get around on my own with a limited vocabulary!

Of Daeryongsan, Songnisan, and Noraebang

As I’ve only been in Korea for three weeks and immersed in an unavoidable bubble of fellow Americans for that entire time, I can’t say much yet about my experience of Korean culture. However, there are two particularly Korean practices I’ve enjoyed so far: Hiking and going to noraebangs.

Teungsan (hiking)

Korea is a mountainous country, and Koreans love their hiking – especially older Koreans, as this is a great way to stay in shape in a more relaxed, noncompetitive atmosphere. Also, one of my goals in coming to Korea was to do as much hiking as possible. For the past few years I’ve been interested in becoming an active hiker, but for some strange reason good hiking trails are limited in Illinois. So I knew that I would be challenged by Korea’s mountains, but I was excited to give them a try.

I’ve been hiking both weekends I’ve been here so far. Our first weekend here, one week after we arrived, several of us walked to a nearby mountain. Yes, we walked there – a two-hour walk through the outskirts of Chuncheon, through small farms and rice paddies, and underneath a highway bridge. The mountain we climbed is called Daeryongsan (san = mountain). It was a difficult hike too – we were moving steadily uphill, and the trail didn’t have many steps, even stone ones, built onto it. But the view we got of Chuncheon at the end? It made the entire experience worthwhile:

At the top we relaxed, drank water and an apple cider-like drink called sagua suqueeja (given to us for a free by a Korean driver on the way to the mountain who thought we looked tired!) and took in the view and the feeling of the mountain air. Yeah, totally worthwhile. Even the long walk back into Chuncheon!

Then last weekend we went hiking again in Songnisan, a mountain resort town 4 hours southwest of here that the Fulbright program took us to so we could “relax” and “forget about the Korean language.” This hike was, in my opinion, even more difficult than the last, but that’s because I got frustrated with all the slippery stone steps. We tended to go uphill, then downhill, over and over again. It was a misty day, so we didn’t have a view at the top to reward us, but we did have a rock that seemed to rise, solitary, from the mist – an ethereal, almost other-worldly experience. Beautiful. We rested at the top of those peaks and enjoyed some apples (apparently our unofficial Hiking Flavor). I had a picture posted, but the t-shirt I was wearing gave away the program I'm here on, which apparently has a blogging policy about not revealing what the name of that program is. So you'll just have to imagine it. Sorry.

Meeting people on the hiking trails is a great part of the experience. As I said, hiking is very popular, so you pass a lot of people going up and down the mountain. We were friendly, saying hello and receiving the usual stares/giggles/indifference in response. Even if you don’t (or can’t) stop to chat with the people you meet, it makes hiking that much more of a communal experience. However, I should add that those Koreans totally kicked my butt on the hiking trail. They come equipped with the clothing, the gear, and apparently the legs that allow you to rocket up the mountain. But give me year, let me keep doing this regularly – I intend to show them that Americans aren’t always unathletic pansies. And even if we are, we can get ourselves in shape with the best of their elderly.

Noraebang
Noraebang literally translates to “singing room,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. You rent one out for a set period of time with a group of people and karaoke to your heart’s content! Noraebangs are very popular here in Korea, and I can see why – they’re a blast. The first time I went, I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it. I am not a good singer, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to listen to mediocre renditions of overplayed pop songs for two hours. But oh, how wrong I was.

First of all, they do something with the microphones in the noraebang so that even the worst singers don’t sound too horrible. Second, you’re likely to be drowned out by everyone else singing along anyway! I think it also helps that each room is a closed environment, so you’re surrounded by people you know and can therefore cheer each other on and help each other out. Additionally, once it gets going it doesn’t matter who’s actually holding the microphone – everyone is up, dancing, singing along. It’s basically a singing/dancing party where you have complete control over what songs are coming on. So far, I’ve found that Bon Jovi, Avril Lavigne (hey, the songs themselves don’t have to be good) and absolute classics like “Buttercup” (why do you build me up, Buttercup baby, just to let me down…) make for an excellent noraebang experience.

And if you go to a noraebang with Koreans, it can be a great bonding experience. It’s fun, albeit still impossible for me, to try to sing along with the Korean songs. And I love it when our Korean friends can sing along to one of the American songs.

As you can tell, mountains and noraebangs have little to nothing in common, other than being two parts of Korean culture I’ve engaged in and loved so far. They’re not uniquely Korean by any means, but the way they’re done is, naturally, Korea-specific. I definitely hope to continue enjoying these aspects of Korea as much as possible!

A Stab at Independence in Chuncheon

My digital camera broke last weekend. Actually, it didn't break so much as stop turning on entirely. After replacing the batteries multiple times and pressing every button I could think of, I gave up on it and decided to buy a new one. I've been planning on getting a new one over winter, so I decided to just buy one now, and doing so turned into my first real experience being The American in Korea.

I found out that the best place to get one is a Best Buy-like store called Hi-Mart. None of the other Fulbrighters needed to go, and I wanted one tonight because we're leaving for Songnisan National Park tomorrow morning. So I went by myself for the first time into Chuncheon's downtown area. Now, I'm from the suburbs and went to school in the cornfields, so I'm not sure I've ever taken a taxi by myself anywhere, so I guess you could consider that a big step in and of itself. I hailed the taxi and directed the driver toward Hi-Mart without much of a problem. I even managed a few seconds of stilted conversation in Korean - "Hi! Yes, I'm American. I'm a teacher. I speak very little Korean." However, at some point the driver stopped and started talking, and I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Where was I? I don't see a Hi-Mart. Should I get out? I got a little worried before I noticed a small sandwich board pointing toward the entrance to Hi-Mart off the main street. I cracked up, and the driver started laughing too. So this is what they mean when they talk about having a sense of humor about travel.

This was even more necessary inside Hi-Mart itself. I found the cameras, but soon noticed multiple salespeople milling around me, probably interested by this non-Korean in their little store. Fortunately, one salesperson spoke very good English and helped me pick out a camera (an Olympus FE-220, if anyone cares). Communicating with the Hi-Mart employees at the cash register was an even more humorous event. They kept giving me more things for my camera, including cleaning supplies, protection for the LCD screen, and even a pedestal. Over and over, they told me "service!" and assured me that I could come back at any time for help with my camera, because they would remember me. I'm not sure if they do this for all customers - and they very well might - but I couldn't help wondering if they were being this interested in me because I'm American, and therefore new and interesting.

The people themselves were wonderful, I must say. They were incredibly kind, especially given my very limited Korean, and one salesperson introduced himself to me as "Gorilla" and excitedly talked about the Bulls and Michael Jordan when I told him I was from the Chicago area. Anyway, I successfully said thank you and good-bye in Korean, got myself in a taxi and back to the University.

I think tonight will stand out in my mind as my first "independent" move in Korea. I'm also proud of myself for managing everything with little stress and a sense of humor - I definitely had to laugh at myself a lot. Perhaps this is a really boring entry for others to read, but I wanted a record of it for my own sake.

Week One

When I studied in London two years ago (I'll stop talking about London on this blog soon, I promise, it's just that it's my only remotely comparable experience thus far, and a poor comparison at that) I intended to keep a detailed travel journal. But I got distracted easily and failed pretty miserably at that endeavor. So, in the hopes of doing better this time around, here's a little on my experience in Korea thus far.

The first week here was pretty intense. On Monday, two days after we arrived, we dove right in to language classes - 4 hours every morning of pronunciations, conjugations, vocabulary, and everything else that goes along with learning a new language for the first time. Honestly, it's been really difficult. I'm able to keep up with what's going on in class, but the sheer wealth of information being thrown at us can be overwhelming. Just this morning I could feel my brain basically shutting down by the end of the third hour. But then I look back at how much Korean I knew a week ago - none - and how much I know now - basic greetings, some important verbs, adjectives, and location/object nouns. In the past few days we've started putting full sentences together. So in the space of one week, we've learned enough to converse briefly with a patient 5-year-old. It may not seem like much, but it's enough to help keep my motivation up.

I've been up to a lot of other things too here in Chuncheon. I'm taking taekwondo, which has classes for one hour four days a week. We've only had two lessons so far, and it's definitely a work-out, but it's also a lot of fun (at least, I enjoy it). I'm also taking two cooking classes and two samulnori (Korean drumming classes) over the course of these six weeks. I've already had one cooking and one samulnori class, and both have been a blast! My favorite part of cooking wasn't even the food itself, but communicating with the teachers, none of whom spoke much English at all. It's challenging, but really fun, to use our limited Korean plus hand gestures and emphatic "Ne!" (yes) and "Anio!" (no). In drumming, we even had an impromptu jam session during our break that even the instructors got into. One of the guys, Jon, had an inspired bit of singing in this jam session - one of those little things that just can just completely make my day.

So everything in Korea sounds like roses and puppy dogs in this blog, doesn't it? Well, that is true to an extent - I'm pretty sure I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase of culture shock - but there are certainly challenges to being here. I'm still not convinced I'm ready to be in charge of a classroom or to move into a homestay. I'm scared about what will come after orientation in Korea, when I finally really am alone and can only rely on myself. I'll still be trying to throw myself into whatever I can, but I know it will be harder. I'll no longer be an American enjoying Korea, I'll be an American living - really living - in Korea. And already, it's intimidating to walk down the street and see a wealth of information in a language I have to sound out, and even then don't know what I'm saying. It's intimidating to order in a restaurant or talk to a taxi driver. It's intimidating to be surrounded by 69 other people my age whom I really like and want to get to know, but also to crave my alone time to study and process what's going on.

Sorry there are no pictures in this post. My camera seems to have stopped working, but I'm going to steal some pics from people here and put up a post about two very memorable experiences so far - noraebang and hiking a nearby mountain, Daeryongsan. Also, this weekend we're all going to Songnisan, a beautiful mountain resort not too far from here, and I'm sure I'll have updates from there!

First Day and First Impressions

Well, I'm officially in Korea!

The trip over here went very well. There were two other girls from my program on the flight from Chicago to New York, and once we were in New York we found a huge group of people with the program. So we all sat around in a big circle and chatted until our flight took off at 1 a.m. EST.

Here I am, sitting and looking tired already in JFK:

The flight from JFK to Incheon International Airport (just outside of Seoul) was long (15 hours) but pretty nice, aside from a few brief periods of turbulence. I watched the beginning of a Korean movie called Highway Star which, unfortunately, I didn't finish because we were about to land. While on the plane, I also had my first taste of Korean food. And everyone knows that the best way to be introduced to any new kind of cuisine is on an airplane.

Actually, the food I had (a dish called bibimbap, which is rice, veggies, meat, and red pepper paste that you mix together yourself) was good. I'm sure at some point I'll have "real" bibimbap that will put it to shame, but it was not a terrible first Korean meal.

Once we finally landed in Incheon and I got through immigration/baggage claim/customs without a problem, all the Fulbrighters boarded buses to take us on a 2.5-hour ride to Chuncheon, a university town easte of Seoul. Surprisingly, the bus ride to Chuncheon wasn't bad either. I was tired and hungry, but they fed us (granola bars, cheese sticks, and potato chips) and I even slept a little. But! By far the best part of the bus ride over was actually the rest stop we took. It was a little restaurant off the side of the road that we stopped at just to use the bathroom. This is the view across the street (a great "wow, this really is Korea" picture):

Now for what made it the best part - the view of the river the restaurant was on:

Anyway, we finally made it to Kangwon University in Chuncheon, where the orientation is being held. We immediately moved our stuff into the dorm rooms (I've become convinced that I will never actually leave dorms, no matter where I go or what I do). The rooms are pretty small - smaller than most doubles in America.

At this point, it was still only 11 a.m. Korea time. But that means 9 p.m. CST the day before, and that means I was distinctly jet-lagged. We ate lunch, did some more orientation-like stuff, and then at 8 p.m. I happily fell asleep for the night.

And as one final point of reference, here's the view of Chuncheon that I have from my dorm window:

That's all for now. But leave comments! Email me! I'd love to hear from everyone!