Anna vs. Korea

More North Korea

2009-04-02T23:34:00.005+09:00

Not much to say, other than I guess we'll find out soon whether Kim Jong-il's been bluffing with all his swagger recently, or if things are worse than I originally thought.

USA and South Korea present united front on rocket launch

It is really unfortunate that the pizzeria's not living up to expectations. And that I can't stop being snarky about a serious international issue. There are reasons I didn't become a journalist.

Sorry sorry sorry sorry...

2009-03-20T05:19:00.003+09:00

Super Junior is BACK.

Not content with 5-6 members in a boy band, a few years back the Korean entertainment company SM entertainment created Super Junior. Super Junior has 13 members - one for every flavor, I guess. They have handsome guys, boyishly cute guys, girlishly cute guys, singers, dancers, a chubby guy, a Chinese guy. It's really not a bad idea - there's bound to be someone in the group who floats your boat. And once you've committed yourself to actually learning who all the members are, it seems like you've invested too much to move on to another pop idol. Super Junior's songs were never very interesting to me, until their latest release, "Sorry Sorry." I CANNOT get it out of my head. I've tried, and now I've just decided to embrace it. Anyway, here it is: Listen to it, love it, boggle at how they fit all 13 members in the video.

Super Junior "Sorry Sorry" MV with English subtitles

Well, at least Kim Jong-il likes good food

2009-03-16T23:53:00.006+09:00

Kim Jong-il isn't exactly a great guy. But he likes Italian food, so we know he isn't completely soulless.

If you don't want to go read the article linked to above, basically, North Korea's Great Leader is opening up the nation's first Italian restaurant. I'm sure your average North Korean would prefer if he focused on getting enough rice to all the commoners first, but hey - when you're craving pizza there's not much you can do. Even though I went grocery shopping just the day before, last night I decided that I really just wanted a good slice of New York-style pizza instead.

As someone who's part Italian and cooks and eats that kind of food fairly frequently, I can't fault him for wanting to open an Italian restaurant (wanting is one thing, actually doing it is another). And maybe, just maybe, the endorphins released by consuming a quality marinara sauce will put Kim Jong-il in a good mood and perhaps make him less inclined to be so antagonistic towards...well, almost every other nation on Earth, but particularly South Korea and the U.S. Although frankly, if the food there resembles your standard pizzeria in the South, I doubt it will help very much.

EDIT: Maybe it's working already?

O M Gee

2009-03-09T04:33:00.005+09:00

In case you're wondering, yes, I am still following K-pop. Perhaps not as actively as I was a year ago, but by and large I'm aware of what's been going on. So this next song is one that's been out since January, and I've resisted posting about because it drives me crazy. It's this uber-cheerful "Look at me! Love me! I'm so cuuuuuute!" kind of song with a melody that just won't get out of your head. Like, it enters your brain through some secret passageway the first time you listen to it, locks itself into a dusty room in there that you had forgotten about, and then starts pounding at the walls and howling until you're humming it to yourself while washing the dishes, exercising, trying to LISTEN TO OTHER MUSIC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Yeah. It's that kind of song.

But it's huge in Korea right now, so I figured it was time to post about it (that, and so others might share in my misery). Last year K-pop group Jewelry placed number 1 with their single "One More Time" for seven weeks in a row on a music entertainment program. Well, recently, this song broke records and placed first eight weeks in a row. So without further ado:

Girls Generation (SoNyeoShiDae) "Gee" Music Video

The group, Girls' Generation, is a nine-member girl group similar to the Wondergirls, except with slightly different concepts. The Wondergirls seem to have a lot of gimmicks in their styling, while Girls' Generation's concept is explicitly CUTE. They're cute girls, they make cute faces, sing cute songs, and have cute dance moves. Last year they weren't quite as popular as the Wondergirls, but maybe that will change with "Gee."

In case you're curious about other music from Girls Generation, here's the video for their first single, also titled "Girls Generation," which for some reason I liked a lot more than "Gee." It's enjoyable in all the same ways, and I guess I just find it less maddening.

Girls Generation "Girls Generation" Music Video

They're Coming...

2009-02-07T05:14:00.005+09:00

Remember the Wonder Girls? The girls who sang the K-poppiest of all recent K-pop songs, Tell Me, So Hot, and Nobody? Well, their record label apparently has plans to cross over to the American market.

Here's their (English!) interview with Worlds on Fire at the Grammy-nominated Artist Exhibition:

They're actually pretty cute here, and clearly excited to be giving an interview in the States. It's hard to say how good their English is, since they don't stray far from the standard "nice to meet you" and "my name is," although lead singer Ye-eun does call the art show "intriguing" - somebody studied her vocabulary flashcards before showing up today!

Also, they don't introduce themselves with their real names. Of the first three girls to introduce themselves, Sun is actually Sun-ye, Yeni is actually Ye-eun, and Mimi is actually Sun-mi. Not terribly difficult for English speakers, and I hope they'll not underestimate the intelligence of their audience. We'll see whether or not they start promoting songs over here or whether they'll be successful if they do try. Personally, I don't think their retro-cute look would take them anywhere beyond a one-hit wonder in the States. But I was forced to listen to their songs non-stop for months at a time last year. What think other, unbiased Americans?

Ruh-roh

2009-01-30T12:58:00.007+09:00

For the 500th time in the past 5 years, North Korea is going back on agreements with South Korea. South Korea wants North Korea to finally cut its nuclear program; North Korea says the South is being hostile.

I generally have two minds about North Korea and nuclear weapons: first, that Kim Jong-il knows as long as his country has an operating nuclear program, other countries will be willing to negotiate and give aid on the condition that North Korea will finally stop the program. Which, of course, they will NOT do - instead, they'll get their aid, tear up the agreement and then 6 months later go back to the table and make another deal they don't intend to honor (lather, rinse, and repeat).

My other thought is that the guy really just is insane. To reductionistic? Probably. But even if you made an argument for strong rationality, you simply couldn't make any argument for empathy.

This is all of course just my opinions. I study educational psychology these days, not political science or sociopaths. One common theory, it seems, is that Kim Jong-il is trying to get the attention of one President Obama (and, again, up the DPRK's bargaining power). Should be interesting to see how this administration deals with North Korea, and whether it makes a difference. I don't think the last administration did a poor job with North Korea, either - at this point I just wonder what tact anybody could take that would actually produce favorable long-term results. Again, this is a question I am in no way knowledgeable enough to answer.

SoKo and Passion in Politics

2009-01-05T15:30:00.004+09:00

Oooh, South Korean opposition-party politicians are PISSED...

It's still a wonder to me that President Lee Myung-bak got elected in the first place, given how sharply his approval ratings plummeted as soon as he took office. The initial negative response was due to his decision to sign a trade deal with the United States, allowing the U.S. to export beef products from older cows to South Korea. The public became terrified of a Mad Cow Disease epidemic, staged mass protests all over the country (including one in my small town, right outside of my taekwondo studio just as I was coming out of practice...had anyone asked, I planned to say I was Canadian).

Looks like we're still seeing the fall-out from LMB's massively unpopular decisions, as opposition-party members are doing everything in their power - even taking physical action - to prevent other trade-agreement bills (among other issues) from going through.

I have my own opinions, positive and negative, about both sides of Korea's current political brouhaha. But for now all I'll say is this: it may be shocking as an American to see such things happening in a democratic system, but it's also refreshing. Imagine if politicians in this country were as willing to put themselves on the line for an issue that's deeply important to them and the country - say, for example, the Iraq war or gay marriage bans?

Motivation

2008-12-14T05:37:00.008+09:00

I don't quite understand it. I love the snow. I love the holiday time right around mid-December, when city streets have lights in its trees that reflect off of last night's snow. I LOVE that. Very little makes me happier.

Nonetheless, right now I find myself missing last year's foggy December in Neungju more than I find myself enjoying the rather picturesque downtown Ann Arbor streets.

Or maybe I just miss the kids who made the foggy rural mountainscapes all worth it.

You tell me.

Dance crazes, one more time

2008-12-13T06:26:00.006+09:00

How could I forget?

If we're discussing recent viral K-pop sensations, the only song that can really compete the Wondergirls' "Tell Me" is Jewelry's "One More Time." Wondergirls' youth and cuteness is put up against Jewelry's experience and sexiness. "One More Time" came out early in 2008, and the group placed number 1 for 7 weeks in a row on a popular music performance/rankings show. That's almost two straight months of dominating the Korean music charts and, more to the point, the internet downloads. Recently the group won a year-end award for 'Best Digital Single', which basically translates to 'Most Ridiculously Popular Song to Download, Performance to View on Repeat, and Dance to Imitate.'

The dance in question is the "E.T. dance," and if you watch the video, you'll understand why.

One More Time music video (with English subs, no less)

(I got pretty good at a tamer version of this dance, as well as the "Tell Me" dance. Both are remarkably useful phrases in an English classroom, and if doing a quick ET dance along with it is what it takes to wake the kids up at 8:30 AM, then so be it.)

Dance craze!!!

2008-12-07T06:21:00.009+09:00

I don't know if this has been standard in K-pop for a while now, but one phenomenon of the past year or so has been dance crazes. They happen when a K-pop star comes out with a hot song, a hotter music video, and a super-hot yet simple accompanying dance. And then it spreads like wildfire across the internet, and before you know it, grandmothers are busting out the moves at Chuseok.

The Wondergirls are responsible for the first dance craze I noticed. While their talent is, in my opinion, questionable, their popularity is huge, due to addictive songs like their breakthrough single, "Tell Me."

Tell Me performance:

"Tell Me" was released last year and quickly became a sensation. And I mean a SENSATION (think Britney's "One More Time" times about 50). Kids performed the song ad nauseum at school festivals and everybody knew the basic dance steps, including yours truly. There are only so many times you can watch the same performance with with your host siblings before you start being able to imitate it.

And the people who produce the Wondergirls clearly know what they're doing, because they followed up "Tell Me" with this year's "So Hot" and the even more dance craze-able "Nobody."

Nobody performance:

"Tell Me" remains not only the Wondergirls' biggest hit, but also definitely the biggest dance sensation I've ever seen, and the Wondergirls are definitely the supreme purveyors of sugary, addictive K-pop. Nevertheless, I'll mention a couple other recent popular dance moves.

Not to lose to some fresh-faced teenagers, everybody's favorite boy band Dong Bang Shin Ki stumbled upon such a craze with their Korean comeback single "Spell (MIROTIC)." The addictive part of the choreography is brief and comes about 3/4 of the way through the song, during the rap solo. They recently were featured on a Fuse.TV music/travel program, where the move was ingeniously dubbed "Da Sexy Chin."

Mirotic performance:

Lest you think such crazes are limited to dance pop, Korean music legend Seo Taiji recently released a song called "Human Dream." It's a great song about robots wanting to become human (as far as I can tell, anyway). It's by far my favorite dance craze so far, because 1.) I love the song, 2.) Seo Taiji generally seems like the kind of person I'd love to have a beer with, and 3.) The dancing robots in pink spandex are pure happiness.

Human Dream performance, complete with pink spandex robots and an energetic audience:

Don't you just want to start flapping your hands along too? Or, if that's not your flavor, striking a sexy pose partly inspired by Rodin's "The Thinker"? Or perhaps go pseudo-retro so you can charmingly clap your hands and point forward?

No? Might just be me then.

Cultural Discoveries I Made Today

2008-05-30T14:07:00.002+09:00

Two quick observations:

1.) They have fire drills in Korea just like the States. That's not surprising at all. But because we're teachers and therefore special, we don't have to practice with the kids. Besides, if there's a fire the students will probably wait for us to escape first anyway.

2.) Green tea ice cream is delicious. Dear U.S. branches of Baskin Robbins: get on this.

Also, has anyone ever heard the phrase "shilly-shally"? An English teacher at my school got an email with a list of common expressions from a big-name Korean English school, and apparantly that was on the list. I really don't know what it could mean, but maybe I've been missing something for the past 23 years.

Anna the K-Pop Teenybopper

2008-04-29T17:11:00.004+09:00

Everyone has secrets, and I’m no exception. My particular dirty little secret is known only to my family and good friends. It tends to come out when I'm with a group of people listening to music, usually your typical mainstream pop. You know, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, etc. Sometimes a comment will be made along the lines of “This song is so addictive” or “I know I shouldn’t like this stuff, but it’s fun to dance to.” And, if my companions do not seem to be music snobs, this is precisely when I often choose to reveal my secret.

I’ll take a deep breath and duck my head down to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes.

“I was a huge Backstreet Boys fan in eighth grade.”

I’m not proud of my past. But my excuse is that I was young, only 14 or so, very much interested in cute boys as a general rule, just discovering radio beyond my parents’ oldies station and highly susceptible to the musical tastes of my peers. Put it all together, and you’ve got a raging, obsessing, teeny-bopping BSB fangirl. I’ve come over time to accept my musical history as simply a part of my past; to not be so ashamed of my secret. Many girls my age were the same as I, whether the object of their obsessions were the Backstreet Boys, NSync, or even Hanson. I was young. I didn’t know any better.

Now, at 23 years of age, I should know better. And I thought I did know better.

Enter K-Pop.

My love of K-pop began with an earnest desire to connect with my students. I was frequently asked, “Teacher do you know blahblahblah?” And truthfully, I almost never knew blahblahblah. Faced with disappointed expressions, I knew that I had to become familiar at least with the popular groups if I wanted to truly bond with these teenagers. My host sister and our television set exposed me to FT Island, Wondergirls, and Super Junior. Then Big Bang and their song “Lies” entered my life.

Big Bang's "Lies" with English subtitles (Be warned, the video is kind of ridiculous.)

With an insanely addictive chorus, “Lies” became the first K-pop song that I downloaded to my computer, and it wasn't long before I could sing the entire chorus in Korean, even if I didn't fully understand what I was saying. In school my students and I talked about how good the song was and debated which Big Bang member was cuter, G-Dragon or T.O.P. (since he was older, I voted for T.O.P.). Enjoying this new level in my relationship with my students, I began reading a couple Korean pop culture blogs and became curious about one group who was particularly popular with my female students: TVXQ or Dong Bang Shin Ki. I watched a performance of their new song “Purple Line” on the internet. Good dancers, decent singers, I thought. I watched the music video. Entertaining, I thought. Still, with their over-the-top costumes and hairstyles, I mentally classified them, along with Big Bang, under “boy band” and then turned on the Beatles (who are, ironically, the original boy band).

Dong Bang Shin Ki's "Purple Line" (Korean version) with English subtitles (Be warned, the English is kind of ridiculous.)

The only problem was that I couldn't for the life of me get these Korean pop songs out of my head.

I searched online for various music videos and performances by my new favorite groups, especially Dong Bang Shin Ki. I watched subtitled interviews and variety shows and learned to identify individual members of each group, their personalities and their histories. I played their songs on repeat on my iPod, dancing and singing along the whole time. Thus, after eight years, I became a teeny-bopper all over again. For a bunch of singers who weren't much older than my students.

At first I felt embarrassed about my growing obsession. I thought I had long ago outgrown manufactured pop bands. Nevertheless, being a committed K-pop fan has definite benefits. Anything that helps my students feel more comfortable speaking to me is definitely a good thing. And at the end of a long day at school, there's nothing like turning on and dancing along to a song that's just fun, pure and simple. Plus, K-pop has actually helped me improve my vocabulary. After exploring some of Dong Bang Shin Ki's older songs, I now know how to say “I believe” in Korean, and I probably still wouldn't know “lie” - an important word in any language – if it wasn't for Big Bang.

Maybe I'm just trying to justify my changing musical tastes to myself. In any case, once I go back to America my love affair with K-pop will probably fade as a result of being out of direct contact with the culture in which it's embedded. So for now I'm putting away my guilt, warranted or unwarranted, and embracing K-pop, over-the-top fashion, and 21-year-old boys with frosted flat-ironed hair. I'm a 23-year-old American K-pop teeny-bopper, and I'm having a blast.

The Olympic Torch Comes to South Korea

2008-04-28T00:31:00.004+09:00

This weekend I made the trip up to Seoul, not only to have a relaxing weekend away from Hwasun but also to see the Olympic torch, which came through the city Sunday afternoon. You can read coverage and see a video of some of the more heated portions of the South Korea leg on BBC.com. (Since my camera's battery had died a painful death shortly before, I won't have pictures until I steal them from my friend.)

Since I had to come back to Hwasun to teach on Monday, I only went to see the torch at its starting point in Seoul, which was at the Olympic Park. I had mixed feelings about coming to see the torch - on one hand, this was a unique opportunity to be a part of the Olympics, which I think in general is a very positive event. On the other hand, I don't agree with China's policies in Tibet and Darfur. While I consider the China's Olympic games to be separate from China's government, I understand where the protesters around the world are coming from and think what they're doing is important. The more attention given to these issues, the better. So I felt a little guilty about attending the rally as merely a spectator, not a protester.

One of the girls I met up with in Seoul did, however, come with a "Free Tibet" sign, and was as far as I could tell the only one aside from a small group of protesters a few hundred meters down from us (more protesters showed up for other parts of the Seoul relay leg). At the park, we found a spot with a good view and waited for things to begin. The girl with the sign held it quietly, not saying or doing anything in particular. But we still managed to draw the ire of a group of Chinese supporters. It started as a small group, who told us that Tibet is and always has been a part of China; that it's already free. Then they started chanting "One China!" in loud voices, eventually drawing in more and more people until we were basically being shouted at by a huge sea of red and white. Eventually they stopped, after the girl with the sign stepped away from the area we were standing for a little while, so things wouldn't escalate too much. Since we had already attracted attention though, we got periodic visits from people taking photographs and holding their own signs up for us.

I have to make a comment about some of the signs I saw, because they really bothered me. On one side they would say, for example, "We want peace, we want one China." Generally a positive statement. On the other side, however, they would say things like, "Independence, no way, no way" or "We love Tibet because it's a part of China" - implying that Tibet as a separate entity wouldn't warrant their consideration or respect. If you're going to claim to promote peace, don't follow it up with a harsh political statement ("independence, no way") that in the end only feeds the violence.

Seeing the torch in Seoul was definitely a positive experience. I myself had come merely to experience the torch relay, not to make a political statement, so I enjoyed being a part of the event. I also learned what it's like to be shouted at by a large group of impassioned people, and, well, it's really scary. But it also makes me think about nationalism and how political opinions are formed. Also, witnessing a mass of people who have all come together for one reason and who care enough to drape themselves with flags, coordinate t-shirts, and paint their faces leaves a deep impression. Banners, cheering, chanting - it's hard not to get swept up in the enthusiasm. It's always a meaningful experience to see how people act, in both positive and negative ways, when they're passionate about something.

Foreigner, Model 1.7 - She Even Does the Dishes!

2008-03-30T14:24:00.004+09:00

I accomplished a major victory within my homestay today. I washed the dishes with actual members of my host family in the house.

As soon as I moved into my homestay, it became clear to me that I was not expected to do any household chores beyond keeping my room relatively neat. Furthermore, if I tried to do anything to help out, I was immediately stopped. Even something as small as clearing the dishes from the table after dinner was all but impossible - as soon as I stood up, my family leapt into action, prying the bowls from my hands with horrified expressions and shoving me into the family room to watch television. No dishes, no laundry, nothing.

Now, I know this sounds like most 20-something recent college graduates' dreams come true, but it's actually very frustrating at times. I don't want to be a burden on my family and I want to help out with the things that I should be helping out with. Plus, it's nice to have the independence and sense of control that comes with cleaning one's own living space. Nevertheless, despite frequent efforts on my part, I am still allowed nowhere near the kitchen sink as long as my host mom is watching. And my host mom is a housewife, so she's watching quite a lot.

That's the thing about Korean housewives - or at least the one I live with. The house is absolutely Her Domain, and no one else shall enter Her Space without Her Permission. My host siblings do help out a little, but by and large my host mother is in complete control of Her Domain. I've managed to do small things around the house from time to time, but only when nobody else is home.

Then came my big break. This week my host mom is on a well-deserved vacation to Japan with some of her female friends - although this doesn't mean I was suddenly able to leap into cleaning action. Family friends have been coming over the past few days to take care of the kids, cook dinner, and clean up afterward. Efforts on my part to clear the table were again thwarted.

Today, however, it's just me and the kids. We ordered take-out food and watched a movie on TV. And when we were finished, as my host siblings folded the laundry, I walked over the kitchen sink, put on the rubber gloves, and turned on the water. Mina, the 14-year-old, of course tried to stop me, but I was already rinsing off the first spoon, and I convinced her that cleaning the dishes was no burden to me, and that I was happy to do it.

I doubt my newfound freedom to clean the house will continue once my host mom returns. My family still thinks of me as relatively young and unaccustomed to taking care of myself and my own chores, and I know they worry about life with them being difficult for me. I am grateful, though, that my host mom is getting some well-needed rest and that I was able to give back to the family just once. And who knows -today just might set a precedent for future Sundays home alone with the host kids.

A New Title, an Actual Theme (of sorts)

2008-03-24T11:16:00.005+09:00

If you're reading this post, and this is not your first time visiting my blog, you'll notice that I've changed things a bit. I have a new (and better) title after changing the word "in" to "versus." That's right, this blog is now Anna vs. Korea. Shocking, if not revolutionary. I changed the title not only because the old one was boring, but also because I think it will allow me to have an actual theme to center my blog around. Writing about...random) stuff in my life here is well and good, but this might be a bit more fun. For me, anyway.

The tagline of the blog is "the struggle for the heart, mind, and sometimes wallet of an American girl living and teaching in Korea." I knew that I would change as a result of coming here, but it's been interesting to see the parts of the culture that have affected me and how, exactly they have affected me. These observations will now be the focus of this blog, although I expect my posts won't change a whole lot. Also, I should say that my new theme is in no way antagonistic towards Korea or Korean culture. I love it here and I have a lot of respect for this country and these people, and I hope that, despite the numerous challenges I face, my respect is reflected in my blog.

Also, soon I'm going to try writing a bit more about pop culture stuff, particularly music and dramas, since this is one of my most important tools in engaging with my students and the general culture here. First up: the song (songs?) that started me down the road of Korean popular music. Hopefully I'll actually start posting about once a week or so, like I said I would do way back in November. We'll see.

Congratulations...and celebrations!

2008-03-18T15:10:00.000+09:00

I'd say I'm a somewhat rare 23-year-old in that up until this year, I had never spent a birthday completely away from home. Throughout college my birthday always fell right around the beginning of spring break, so even when my birthday was technicaly spent at school I would have a smaller family celebration a few days later. About a month ago, it occurred to me that this year I was completely on my own, away from not only my family but all the people I had grown close to in college. I assumed that I would spend the day quietly, probably have cake with my host family, maybe bring a small treat to school to share with other people. I wasn't really comfortable with the idea of broadcasting my birthday around school.

Well, imagine my surprise when my birthday turned out to be one of my best days in Korea so far, and one of my best birthday ever.

At the beginning of the semester, during my first classes with my new first-grade students, I told them when my birthday was, figuring I could at least wring a couple of "happy birthday"s out of them on the day of. I also told my Conversation Club when we were talking about our favorite parts of spring. So I knew going into school that I had told a fair number of my students, and that some might even remember.

The day started with a box of cookies from one of my new first-graders (an absolutely adorable girl with freckles and huge glasses) and her mother, who happens to be one of the other English teachers at my school. I had a good morning, and a lot of my students wished me happy birthday in the hallways. I love talking with my students, and there's nothing quite like the feeling of being looked up to and appreciated by them. Anyway, so far, it had been a good day and about what I expected.

Then came my daily lunchtime Conversation Club. In the room where we meet and talk everyday, the students had written "Happy Birthday Anna!" on the whiteboard. I shared the Thin Mints my parents had mailed to me (another great birthday surprise!) and just as we were settling down to talk about our topic of the day, they turned off the lights and started the real party, complete with a birthday cake and gift - perhaps the best gift I've ever gotten. All of my Club students, whom I've gotten to know very well over the past seven months, had written letters to me. The letters were perfectly representative of my students - intelligent, funny, incredibly sweet. I seriously almost started crying, because even though I'm still far from a good teacher, I love teaching my kids and hope I've been able to help them, even a little bit. My great day continued the very next period, when I walked into one of my all-girl first-grade classes to a a chorus of "Happy Birthday."

That afternoon I had my second birthday cake of the day with the other teachers at my school. I had brought the cake to share with them, and it was a great chance to chat with some teachers whom I haven't spoken to much due to the language barrier. See, not only do I have awesome and friendly students, but awesome and friendly co-workers, too.

I went home that afternoon and took a much-needed nap, but not before receing gifts from my host sisters - a datebook and a mirror, both heavily adorned with the color pink and an almost illegal levelf cuteness. I love them. After my nap, my host family ordered pizza for - having decided that surely the American needs pizza on her birthday in lieu of the traditional Korean seaweed soup. I also had my third birthday cake of the day (see, if you reach three cakes in one day, you've automatically had a great, if not awesome, birthday.) If my Club students gave me one of the better presents I've ever gotten, my 4-year-old host brother sang me the best version of "Happy Birthday" I've ever heard. He sang the first two lines in English, but he didn't know the rest of the words, so he switched to Korean halfway through. He then, of course, decided that it was his job to blow out all the candles for me, and I was laughing too hard to sneak in and get even one of them myself. The entire scene was adorable and all-around fantastic.

And that is the story of my best birthday ever. It wasn't overblown, but it was sweet and fun, and really reminded me how lucky I am to be surrounded by the people in my life right now. It also reminded me of when I was young and would think about how cool a total surprise party would be. And surprise parties are great - but it's even better, I learned, to make your birthday special yourself. I'm so glad I brought the cake for the teachers to share, because it was me inviting them to share my "important" day with me, and that I told my students about my birthday. That way, we got to have some fun together and make it more than just a boring day at school for everyone involved.

Thanks, Korea. I definitely won't forget my 23rd birthday - even though I'm technically 24 in Korean years. (No, I don't completely understand it either.)

Body Image in Korea (Part 2)

2008-02-26T12:58:00.000+09:00

I returned to my school today for the first time since December 22, my last day of classes for the fall semester. I still don't start teaching for another week, but it was nice to see all of the teachers again. Most of them greeted me with a "nice to see you" or a "long time no see." One of the female teachers, though, was kind enough to go a step further and tell me that I was looking "more beautiful" than before.

I suppose I can take that as a compliment on my favorite sweater, which I was wearing, or my new-ish haircut, which is basically just longer with some shorter bang-like sections in the front. However, I also was not wearing any make-up and had gained just a little weight from overindulging on Korean food upon my return from Cambodia.

...so damn, if I'm looking more beautiful now, than what the heck did I look like in December? Sometimes I think certain aspects of Korean culture have been developed specifically to mess with foreigners' minds.

Tourism and Traveling

2008-02-23T21:18:00.000+09:00

I hate the word tourist. I seriously have a near-unnatural dislike of that word and everything that it implies. When I think of tourists, I think of baseball caps, money belts, and worst of all, backpacks worn across the front. I think of crowds dressed in matching polo shirts squinting in confusion at subway maps and Americans speaking in loud, shrill voices at confused hotel employees and sale clerks. I think of people who proudly claim to have traveled to a country because they walked through the airport that one time and look, check out my passport stamp!

I hate more than just the word tourist. I tend to hate tourists themselves. Which can be problematic as I, myself, am often a tourist.

Usually I do everything I can to avoid being classified under this category. I was a student in London and needed to entertain myself , so I went to a lot of museums. When I wandered around New York, I was just filling time after my job interviews. I'm not a tourist when I go to new cities in Korea, I'm just a teacher living in Korea and trying to see more of the country. And in Cambodia, where I just returned from, I was so turned off the notion of being a tourist that I actually referred to myself once as a "traveler."

If you don't get how ridiculous this claim was, let's review the facts: I was on a group tour, I was only traveling for about 15 days, I had pre-arranged flights to and from the region, I saw many famous, important sights in very few days, I took a ton of pictures of said sights, and I bought several souvenirs - including postcards.

Nice try, Anna, but that's about as touristy as you can get without wearing a tan steel-strap-reinforced money belt around your neck.

A traveler is, in my mind, far more independent than a tourist such as me. They are not likely to join group tours, they travel at a leisurely pace, taking however much time they want wherever they go, and therefore they leave whenever they feel like it. I imagine souvenirs are bought far less than the necessities that spring up along the way. Travelers are the people who decide they would like to see Southeast Asia, get on a plane the next week, and find their way around on public buses and guesswork and charm for however many months or even years they feel like. They may have some general plans about where they go and what they do, but these plans are quite flexible. They may have a date they have to return to their home, probably to return to work, but everything before that very day is just time they have to fill however they please.

Sorry for waxing romantic there about the life of a traveler as I see it, which I'm pretty much making up as I write this (I don't think I could ever be classified as one myself) - hence the romanticism. But as soon as I told some of the other people on the tour that I'd rather consider myself a traveler than a tourist, I realized just how silly that was.

So I've finally given myself the necessary kick in the skull and accepted my identity as a tourist. What now? The fact is, "tourist" is a very general term, and refers to so many different people at so many different times that, thankfully, not all tourists need to don the steel-enforced money belt. As much as I may wish I was the wanderer/traveler type, I'm not. But I can at least be a good tourist.

I think the breakdown between good and bad tourists is simple. I think most good tourists try to support hotels, restaurants, and businesses that send money to the people who deserve/need it. This is especially a problem in countries with corrupt governments like Cambodia. Just buy any decent travel guide - they usually include recommendations of places that are locally-owned or give a portion of the profits to charity. Good tourists also learn a little of the language. Knowing "hello" "thank you" and maybe “where is such-and-such” can get you a little appreciation and respect from locals. And it REALLY helps to have a good sense of humor and a calm disposition. If you get stressed or aggravated, you'll take it out on people who are trying to help you and leave them with a bad impression of you and other tourists. Plus, it makes the whole experience of traveling a lot more fun if you're, you know, actually in a good mood.

Unfortunately, there's another dimension one can classify tourists by, and that's how annoying they are. That's where all that polo shirt/steel-reinforced money belt/squinting at a subway map stuff comes into play. Such tourists can be, and I'm sure often are, good tourists - but that doesn't make them any less screamingly obvious. I try to avoid being the annoying tourist in addition to the bad tourist. I study the map before I leave the hotel and I carry only small amounts of money in my front pocket. This is all really a matter of personal preference - I just like looking as natural and confident as possible in unfamiliar settings (although it's not as if I don't stand out here in Asia).

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I traveled to Southeast Asia wishing fervently I was a traveler but of course being a total tourist anyway. Thus, in acceptance of my tourist status, I tried to be the best and least annoying tourist I could. Pictures will be up soon.

KKOOM Holiday Party in Gumi

2008-01-16T18:22:00.001+09:00

One of the things I wanted to do while in Korea was volunteer at an orphanage. To be honest, I have not done this yet in Hwasun, due to the time I've been spending teaching, traveling, and doing taekwondo (although I'd like to change that this semester). But many other English teachers have done worked at orphanages, including many of those who have lived and taught in Gumi in the last few years.

Gumi is a small town in the Gyeongsangbuk province in central Korea - I would guess around 100,000 people live there. As I said, a number of the teachers in Gumi, both present and former, have volunteered at the orphanage there, Samsungwon. Some of the former volunteers, all of whom are now back in the United States, started a nonprofit called "KKOOM" ("dream," 꿈, in Korean) to help out the kids of Samsungwon. And so last December, I had the opportunity to go to Gumi for the holiday party KKOOM was putting together for the kids. I had a wonderful time.

The kids at Samsungwon were of all ages - anywhere from babies to high school students. Kids are not adopted from Samsungwon, so they only leave if their birth parents return for them. When I started interacting with the kids, and I was immediately struck by how much love there was at the orphanage. The kids were all organized into "houses" of about 10 kids, and the houses were clearly very close-knit. Each house had a "mother" who cared for the very young children, and the older kids clearly took care of the younger kids in their house. I think a lot of the kids at Samsungwon were probably better off than those living with abusive or uncaring parents, anywhere in the world. Now, not all orphanages in Korea are the same (of course), so these statements are really only applicable to Samsungwon. But clearly, although Samsungwon is not very wealthy, many of the children there seemed well-loved and content - which is the most important thing.

At the holiday party, I manned the arts and crafts area, where kids made Christmas ornamants, cards, bags, and paper airplanes. Let me tell you, little children will go crazy if you give them enough stickers and glitter. They also made origami, which would be mailed by KKOOM back to the party's donors. Later in the day, I got to judge a gingerbread house contest, and then each child received a gift put together by an American donor. We also cooked them dinner and the breakfast the next morning.

I'm so glad that I got to go to Gumi and work with these kids. They were so sweet, and so much fun to be around, and as I said, it was touching to see the amount of love there at Samsungwon. Without a doubt, the experience was one of my most meaningful so far in Korea.

If you want to learn more about KKOOM, check out http://www.kkoom.org/. There's information about the organization, about Samsungwon, and some pictures from the Christmas party. There's also an 8-minute video, which I've posted below.

Life Is Still Funny

2008-01-14T21:40:00.000+09:00

In my last post I mentioned many of the more humorous encounters and English foibles that I've come across. I really think I should mention one more though; one I was just reminded of today at a ski resort with the host fam.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the ultimate winner of I do not think that word means what you think it means (English version): "Throb."

My host sister asked me today if, because of skiing, I was "throb." And no, she didn't mean it in the painful way. But this was not the first time this word has been used. One of my best girls also used the word in a paragraph she wrote, talking about how the letter she wrote to my high school makes her throb, and I've had several other students use it similarly.

I'm not quite sure what the Korean word is that they're trying to communicate to me, although I'm pretty sure it means something along the lines of the heart beating faster. Which is an excellent feeling to try to communicate is a foreign language. Nevertheless, I think someone needs to write a letter to some of the dictionary companies and expain the nuances of the word "throb."

Don't you worry, I'll get my comeuppance for all my inner, adolescent giggling at such mistakes. My Korean still isn't great, but I try to communicate as much as possible. Given these conditions it's only a matter of time - if that time hasn't come already without my knowledge - until I utter the the Korean I-do-not-think-that- word-means-what-you-think-it-means equivalent of throb.

Life on the English Teaching Front: My Job is Hilarious

2007-12-14T15:11:00.000+09:00

Warning: This post contains some stories that are not entirely...appropriate. Sorry, Mom and Dad.

This post is really more like a bunch of mini-blogs I've thought about writing up this semester, but always decided against it because they just weren't long enough. But by now I've collected multiple funny stories from my first semester living and teaching in Korea, and I think they provide a good window into my life here - namely, the awkwardness and uncertainty of it all. If nothing else, this stuff keeps me entertained, so perhaps it will entertain some of you as well.

I am boring and hard
In Korean, "재미 없어요" (chemi obsoyo) can be used to mean both boring and bored. So before Korean students learn the difference between bored and boring, which is not very easy to explain, they really only know the word boring. When I go out with my host family, my host sister Mina likes to make sure I'm enjoying myself, so she often asks me, "Anna, are you boring?"

"What? Why, do you think...oh. Oh, no Mina, I'm not bored."

Sometime early this semester, Mina also learned hard, and apparently learned that it can refer to things like a person's day as well as things like tests. So now I also get asked, "Anna, are you hard?"

I think I did, like a triple-take the first time she said this.

I make an effort to answer correctly - "No, this is not hard" - and hope that she picks up on the different structure I'm using. She hasn't yet, even though I've tried explaining it a few times (really, I'm much better suited to teaching advanced students).

I do not think that word means what you think it means
Every now and then, hard-working students, eager to test out new vocab, will use a word they naturally don't quite understand. In all honesty, sometimes they've never even said the words out loud before. Furthermore, some words are just generally misused. A few weeks ago I did an activity where my students had to agree or disagree with the statement "Women are smarter than men." Several students explained that yes, women are smarter than men, because they've more delicate. I checked over and over to make sure they didn't mean "dedicated." They didn't. I still don't understand what the word delicate means to them.

What's even more awkward is when the other English teachers start asking questions about vocab. During my first week, my co-teacher drove me to school in the morning. During one such car ride, he asked me to explain the word "sexy" to him. His students use the word a lot, he said, and the ones who have been to America tell him that it's a common phrase.

Well...yes, I suppose so, but...I vaguely explained that it isn't really a word you should go around using a lot. 'But it's a compliment," he persisted. "My students say it's a compliment." I just told him that yes, it means attractive, but you should definitely not just say to it a random person on the street, or anyone other than your significant other. Man, I was glad when that car ride was over.

Who the heck writes these textbooks?
The other day one of the other English teachers showed me a page from one of her textbooks that had a list of "common," "new" slang expressions. Very briefly: Frankenfood (genetically-modified superfood), Dead Presidents (money, but it took me a while to figure that one out), and crunk (crazy drunk). Yep, all phrases I feel comfortable using in my daily life. I love imagining my super-sweet boys traveling to America in a few years, when they're of age, and telling the people they meet there that they "wanna get CRUNKED!"

Why I am entirely too young to teach high school
Really, I think people should have at least a few years out of college before they teach high schoolers. Especially if they have a more laid-back teaching style, like I do. Case in point: class 2-4. Oh, class 2-4...Class 2-4 is full of boys who are a very loud and energetic, but genuinely sweet people (they don't terrorize me like my first-grade boys try to) and also really funny (as opposed to the boys who just THINK they're funny). Anyway, these guys are always a lot of fun to be around, and I was looking forward to their responses when I did an activity on expressing opinions.

First topic up: "Women are smarter than men." It always gets some interesting opinions from the kids, plus it's fun for the ones who just want to brown-nose the teacher. One of the boys said he disagreed with the statement, and I was excited he had volunteered, because he isn't one of the strongest speakers. He paused for a moment, then looked at me with a smile on his face, and man, I knew something was coming...

"God give men brain, God give women chest."

I didn't want to laugh. I didn't want to look embarrassed. I wanted to be a strict teacher in this instance, because really, that's not an appropriate thing to say in the classroom, even in a more relaxed class. But the way that kid I was looking at me...I couldn't help it. My face turned bright red as the rest of the class cracked up. I quickly moved on to another student.

Next topic: "Military service for men should be optional." Another boy disagrees with this statement. He goes on and on about how military service makes you strong, and about how it's important for men to be strong. And why do men need to be strong, you ask? "Men need to be powerful to make babies."

Oh. My. I had promised myself I wouldn't let another inappropriate comment slide. But I didn't know that's where he was going - I had no idea he was going to say something like that. Again, I really didn't want to laugh!...but I did. And then my face turned an even brighter shade of scarlet, something my boys were only too happy to point out to me. I tried to regain control, finishing up the activity, telling them that was inappropriate, and moving on like it didn't happen. As one student told me, "I'm sorry, we're teenage boys."

Yes, yes you are. And I adore my students, but I'm beginning to think that one needs to be at least ten years older than the kids you teach. Especially when those students are teenage boys and you're a female teacher.

Teaching English in a foreign country is never dull, that's for sure. I can't wait to see what next semester has in store for me.

Link: International Adoption in South Korea

2007-12-06T10:01:00.000+09:00

All I have today is a link to a New York Times opinion piece about the adoption system in South Korea. It's written by a woman who was born in Korea but adopted by a family in the United States.

http://relativechoices.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/south-korea-and-its-children/

I'd recommend going on to read the comments sections, as it has some interesting thoughts about not only adoption in general but South Korea's attitude towards orphans, single mothers, etc. I'm not sure I agree with some of the things that are said on that issue, as Korea is rapidly changing and there is a huge difference in the attitudes of younger and older people. Nevertheless, international adoption is a very important issue in Korea, and this article raises some good points for discussion.

Old Pictures: There were masks, dances, and sometimes even both!

2007-11-25T19:53:00.001+09:00

In October I took a weekend trip to the Andong Mask Dance Festival. It was a great weekend, and I got to see a lot traditional Korean mask dances, as well as international dances and some more recent additions to the Korean dance repetoire, such as belly dance and B-boys (break-dancers). Here are some pictures from the trip.

Masks! Music! Story-telling! Dancing! Andong! Yay!

Awww. :) Happy and looking forward to the festival. And then...

Fear, apparently. I think this is right after I spotted a Korean man unabashedly taking picture after picture of myself and the other Fulbrighters. This became a running theme of the day.

I know it's a little mean to laugh at the English mistakes that happen all the time in Korea. But at the same time, it's really funny.

This was a solo dancer from Bhutain. He was really good, and it was one of the best things I saw that weekend.

The Korean ladies....

Preceded by the Korean men. Love the hats. I also wish I could play these drums! (I took a one-day salmunori class in Chuncheon, and it was a lot of fun.)

About fifteen seconds later the lion eats the tiger. It was very short dance, but I really enjoyed it.

MASK.

This was an interesting dance too. If I remember correctly, it was about a Buddhist priest. Here he was bowing to all four sides of the stage, although I'm honestly not entirely sure why.

Ah, this one's up there with the English mistake. This is the jjimjilbang (sauna with common rooms you can sleep in for cheap) that we stayed in overnight. 25시 means 25-hours. As in, it's open 25-hour a day. Any weekend you can stay in a sauna that bends the space-time continuum is a good weekend in my book.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Also, want to know what drives me NUTS? Posting pictures on blogspot.com. It sucks. It disconnects me from the internet every 5 seconds and screws up the formatting to it's impossible to have a clean post that involves photos. Oh, the things I go through to show you these pictures. In other words, if the formatting is kind of messed up or there are spelling/grammar errors that it looks like it I was too lazy to fix, sorry.

Body Image in Korea (Part 1)

2007-11-21T10:05:00.000+09:00

This post has been a long time coming. I knew I would write it eventually, and even though I'm far from qualified to give a good, detailed analysis of the subject, I think it's time to share my experiences thus far. (Although I have called this entry "Part 1" because I expect I'll have a more seasoned perspective to share later.)

Two weeks ago I taught my kids about Chicago as a way to learn about how to speak about locations, specifically cities. I spent some time on Chicago food, and of course I had to include deep dish pizza. After I showed them a picture and explained it to them, some of my more...obnoxious boys asked me:

"Teacher, is deep dish pizza why you are so fat?"

Last week, to continue my lesson on travel, I taught a bit about England and showed them pictures from my time living there. Those same boys posed this follow-up question:

"Teacher, why are you so much skinnier there?"

I love my students.

There's no way to respond to comments like that except to laugh it off and move on. The thing is, comments like these aren't rare - or even rude - in Korea. Koreans are generally very frank, as they themselves have told me. Fumbling with a piece of kimchi? "You do not use chopsticks very well." Didn't put make-up on this morning? "You look sick today." Fortunately, it works the other way too. Have a new outfit on ? Wearing your hair down? "Oh, Teacher, so beautiful!"

Anyway, once you've accepted that comments like these are part of everyday life, you get used to it and just let them go. After all, they aren't telling you anything you don't already know (probably). But that doesn't stop the negative remarks, particularly the ones about weight in my case, from stinging. It is not easy to be anything other than stick-thin in Korea. My loud, obnoxious, and very funny students told me after their skinnier-in-England question that the average weight of girls in Korea is around 45 kilos. That's not even 100 pounds. It's not that most of these women are sick - many of them really are naturally skinny and short, resulting in low body weights. However, at the same time, appearance is even more important here than it is in the United States. You don't see many people, both men and women, walking around in sweat pants. They have their cute, put-together outfits on all the time. Plastic surgery is remarkably common. And then there's the importance placed on having a nice body, on having what Koreans call the S-Line, on maintaining that 45-kilo frame.

I've had a number of truly tiny adolescent girls tell me they need to lose weight. I'll always remember walking around one of the classrooms in my first week and seeing the word "DIET" written in white-out on the corner of a girl's desk. When another girl wrote her self-introduction, she included these phrases (truly, some of the most heart-breaking words I've ever read): "My goal is beautiful girl. So I will hard diet." And I know how they feel. It's hard enough to be of an average weight in America - which I am. Here in Korea, I'm rather odd-looking with my, let's say prominent, lower half. Shopping for jeans was certainly an experience.

Nevertheless, I try not to let this stuff get to me. I'd rather be a bit too big than way to skinny, and I enjoy food and watching television far too much to either starve myself or work out obsessively to get thin. Sometimes I'm even proud to walk around, thinking to myself, "That's right, I've got a butt!" But when you're out and about and all you see are tiny women, and when you see a cute skirt that you know simply isn't made to fit your type of body, and when somebody describes you as being even a little large...sometimes, it's just not easy.

Four Months and Counting: So how IS it going?

2007-11-14T18:55:00.001+09:00

Okay, first of all, I'm horrible at updating this, apparently. Many apologies for that...I've made some resolutions recently that have worked out well, so here's a new one I'm giving a try: update my blog once a week. There's a lot I want to say, but sometimes it's hard to just sit down and do it. In any case, I thought I'd give a general update on how things are going. The next few updates after this (which I already have in mind) will be more general Korea-related topics.

The question "How are you?" is a difficult one to answer, when it's asked by friends and family who are really far away and whom I speak to not nearly often enough. If overall I'm chugging along, with definite ups and downs, I'll just say "Fine" or "Good" in that slightly high-pitched, true-but-with-qualifiers voice. If I've had a bad days, or a run of bad days, it's usually "Fine" but followed by a list of frustrations. If things are genuinely going well, you'll hear "Good, very good", followed by a list of all the reasons I'm happy. In all honesty, most of my responses over the last four months fell into the first category. For a while - I'd say the first three months - it was difficult to find my place here in Korea. What am I here to do? Am I doing it well? I'd never taught before, or tried to be a good host daughter, so I was always a little worried about how I was doing in those departments. Plus, you have to rebuild the social support network that was so strong just a few months ago. I traveled, which I loved, learned some Korean, which I'm very grateful for, and, yes, made some friends, but I was still in the starting over process. SO while I was good with qualifers, those qualifiers could be disheartening at times. Add culture shock and all the highs and lows that come with that, and life can honestly be difficult. Still good - who am I to complain about having the opportunity to live in Korea for an entire year? - but difficult.

Fortunately, things are looking up right now. Various parts of my life are coming together, and I'm happy to say that currently my answer to the question, "How are you?" is a "Good, very good."

Homestay
I've been getting more and more comfortable in my homestay. They were always very kind, and I genuinely like everyone I live with, but I did have to adjust my life. I had to accept that my host mother would want to do all my laundry and make me toast in the morning, and although I might prefer to do that myself, I had to let go. I've started bonding with my host sisters through an appreciation of Korean pop music (the ultimate guilty pleasure!) and my little host brother loves my Calvin and Hobbes books. He's 4, so he can't read them, but he loves anytime Calvin's pretending to be a dinosaur or when Calvin and Hobbes fight. I'm also convinced that in a few years, Yon-u WILL be Calvin. The energy, the volume, the imagination, the fondness for pretend violence - definitely a Calvin in the making.

School
I'm in love with my students. Really, I am. I teach some of the smartest, kindest, funniest students in Korea (and don't try to tell me differently!). I've recently noted some definite improvements in my teaching. I have a better understanding of how to design a good lesson, and I've gotten more comfortable in the classroom, so I'm not afraid to be loud and silly, which many students appreciate. I also have my own classroom now - in Korea, usually students stay in one room while the teachers move, but I'm using an extra English classroom in the art and music building. Since we're isolated from the rest of the school, my students can be louder, which I firmly believe is a plus as long as it's in English. The set-up of the room also makes it easier for me to see and talk to the kids. As I've gotten to know the students better, I've realized how amazing they are. I have a conversation club that meets four times a week, and several times my students have voluntarily turned the discussion to important social issues. Last week two of my students debated the Israel-Palestine conflict. They brought up the topic themselves, and I didn't say a word the entire time they're talking. Teaching lower-level kids is extremely rewarding when I can get them to put away their fears and just speak, but I'm incredibly proud and lucky to be dealing with these higher-level students too. In fact, I'll be taking five of them to Seoul in January for a week-long workshop for students - in English! - on Korean and international affairs. I can't wait, because these kids just deserve that kind of opportunity so much, and I'm the lucky one who gets to help them have it.

Travel
One of the main reasons I came to Korea is that I genuinely love to travel. I've found it always helps my mood to get out of the house and explore a new place. I've done a fair amount of travel, including to a mask-dance festival (pictures of which will be up soon!), two seaside towns called Mokpo and Buan, and Gyeongju, the center of the Silla dynasty hundreds of years ago. I also have plans to get to Seoul at least two more times in the next few weeks. Best of all, I'm going to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam for two weeks over winter break! I had a hard time deciding between Southeast Asia and China/Japan, but I think being centered in Asia makes it a bit easier to access the less touristy countries, so I'm taking advantage. I have no idea what to expect from my trip, but I'm excited to explore such different cultures and peoples.

Other Stuff
For a while, all I was doing was teaching, hanging out with my homestay family, and meeting the other Hwasun ETA a couple times a week. However, last week I started up Tae Kwon Do again (I had previously done it at Kangwon University). It's very good to have someplace to go everyday. I'm doing TKD with the other ETA, so I have a "foreigner ally" in the class, and the other students are lots of fun to be around. I also hope to start volunteering at an orphanage in Gwangju soon, which I very much wanted to do while I was here.

That's everything I've been up to. My current "good, very good" status is probably in part an extended culture shock high, and I expect I'll eventually return to a baseline. But on the whole, I'm really enjoying my time here and hopefully I'll continue to get more and more comfortable with my life in Korea.

...and I really hope I didn't jinx myself by posting an "I'm happy!" entry.

North Korea Talks and Reunification

2007-10-04T19:34:00.000+09:00

The cool thing about traveling abroad is that every once in a while you end up right where something historical is happening.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7027236.stm

This week, the president of South Korea, Roh Moo Hyun, crossed the border into North Korea to have talks with Kim Jong Il in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. This is only the second time a South Korean president has done so. The entire event was clearly very important to all of Korea. At school, all the teachers gathered around the television in the teacher's room and watched as Roh Moo Hyun walked across the line separating North and South Korea. The television turned on again later that afternoon when the president arrived in Pyongyang. The timing of the meeting, I think, was also deeply reflective of how important this meeting is to the Korean people - yesterday, Wednesday October 3, was Foundation Day, a holiday celebrating, as you might guess, the founding of Korea. Not South Korea, mind you. Korea.

And as someone who is used to politics moving through the U.S. congress, where things happen very slowly and and in very small steps (unless you're going to war unjustly, of course) I wasn't sure how much would really get done at this historic meeting. However, if you read the article I posted above, you'll see they did agree to open up regular freight trains across the border, which hasn't been the case since the Korean War. The rest of the points in the agreement were more general, about putting together talks to finally formally end the Korean War and set up regular talks with one another - don't actually accomplish anything, but if the leaders of both countries follow through, some great things could happen here.

The thing that many Koreans are hoping for is eventual reunification. Reunification is an interesting issue here in South Korea - there seem to be very mixed opinions on it. I spoke to my co-teacher once about it, and he told me that the countries absolutely should and need to be unified again. "We are all Korean people," he told me. But I told him about the students I met at Kangwon University in Chuncheon, who expressed hesitation at the idea of reunification. They argued that uniting with North Korea would have a negative impact on the economy. Nevertheless, my co-teacher remained firm in his opinion, and told me the risk was worth it.

Although this agreement between North and South Korea did not reunify the country, it did take steps in that direction. It will be quite interesting to see how the next South Korean president handles North Korea, especially if he or she is conservative (the conservative party supports having a much harder line with North Korea). And this meeting certainly had undertones of political strategy. Elections for the next president occur in December, and President Roh Moo Hyun has not been very popular lately. I'm sure his willingness to engage in this talk (and the fact that it occurred over Foundation Day) had a great deal to do with his desire to 1.) end his presidency on a high note, and 2.) give his party a lift in the upcoming elections. Time will tell how his strategy worked, and where South Korea goes from here.

*I'm pretty sure everything I said about the politics and history of Korea in this blog are accurate. However, if I'm wrong about anything, I'm VERY sorry for my mistake, and would welcome a comment or email correcting me so that I don't continue to make a fool out of myself.

Chuseok

2007-09-26T19:55:00.001+09:00

Yesterday was a national holiday in Korea, Chuseok (추석). One of the best parts about living with a host family is that I get to experience Korean culture firsthand, and yesterday I was lucky enough to celebrate Chuseok with my host family.

Chuseok is a day for honoring one's ancestors. The day before, on Monday, everybody makes rice cakes called ssongpyon (I really don't know if that's romanized correctly at all, so I apologize). You take the dough and fill it with sesame seeds, red beans, or other mixtures I didn't recognize, then fold the dough up like dumplings. Here are some of the bowls of ingredients:

This picture's a shot of my host mother kneading the dough:

Here's the ssongpyon before it was cooked, and then after:

Tuesday was Chuseok itself, and we woke up veeerrry early to drive to Gochang, a nearby town, to see my host father's parents. I don't have any pictures from here on out, since I felt so grateful already just for being allowed to come along at all. Anyway, my host father's grandparents' house was filled with relatives (and a ton of adorable little kids). Once everybody was there, lots of food was set out on a table in the middle of the room, and the men stood in front of the table and bowed to it. This is the food that would later be placed on the graves of the family's ancestors. It's interesting to note that Chuseok is a holiday dating back to Confucianism, and part of the Confucian philosophy is a distinct separation of men and women. As a result, only men are allowed to participate in the rituals.

After the men bowed to the food (I wish a better way to put this, but I only have a limited knowledge of what was going on and don't want to say the wrong thing) we sat down to a big breakfast. We ate fish and the usual plethora of Korean side dishes. The men then spent the morning visiting the graves of their ancestors and leaving offerings of fruit while the women hung out at the house and the kids played.

We ate lunch at my host father's parents' house and returned home in the afternoon. A few hours later, we drove out to another town Boseong (which is famous for its green tea!) to eat dinner with my host mother's parents. Her parents live on a farm with a few cows, where they also grow red peppers and, I think, harvest rice. We ate Jahb Chae (again, forgive my poor attempt at romanization), a buckwheat noodle dish with veggies and meat. Once it was dark, we drove out to the middle of the rice paddies and lit off fireworks, mirroring Monday night, when huge fireworks were let off in Hwasun, like many towns in America do for the 4th of July.

All in all, I really enjoyed spending time and bonding with my host family, not to mention getting three days off of work! But, I have to admit, it made me miss home just a little bit. It was wonderful meeting my host family's relatives and seeing how they spend their holidays, but I couldn't help thinking about Christmas at my grandparents' house, and that sort of thing. It really sneaks up on you - "This is just like how my family acts on the holidays! Oh...my family..." And driving out to the middle of the rice paddies, with only farm houses and mountains in the distance, naturally made me think of Iowa (except for the mountains). Much as I love cities, farmland has a great way of relaxing you.

Finally, it's cool to note that even though holidays like Thanksgiving and Chuseok are radically different, they're also very much the same. The family gets together, eats a lot, talks about everything. That's one thing I've notice a lot in Korea - everything is different, but so much is the same.

Pictures! From Hwasun

2007-09-21T20:24:00.000+09:00

As promised, here are some pictures of my school, of Gwangju, and of my host family. I wish I had a good picture to show you of the town of Hwasun itself, but honestly, it's such a small town (and I never have a good enough view from the bus). Just imagine a cluster of high-rise apartments and brightly-lit streets, seemingly surrounded by rice paddies and, just a little farther out, green-blue mountains.

Now on to the actual pictures!

First up, here's my school. The long white building on the right is the main school building, while the red brick building in the back is the cafeteria and boys' dormitory. Behind that building is the girls' dormitory.

This is the view from the front entrance to my school. You can see the dirt field where the kids play soccer during phys ed classes and the gym in the background, to the right.

This is a bad picture of some of my students outside. They do mandatory stretching with the students everyday between 4th and 5th period. I tried to take a surreptitious picture from the teacher's room, and it's not a very good one, but you can at least catch a glimpse of some of my students.

Host family time! I haven't wrangled my host parents into taking a picture yet. But I do have some excellent pictures of my host siblings!

Here's my host brother, Yeo-nu (pronounced Yaw-nu). You might be able to guess from this picture that he's around four years old that he's noisy, always moving around and pretending that he's some sort of superhero, beating up and climbing all over the rest of us. Or maybe you couldn't guess that. But if you did, you'd be right. I've successfully taught him "hi!", "bye!", and "oh no!". I also taught him "water," briefly, but I think he forgot it. Besides, I think he generalized water to include the fish bowl that was surrounding the water at the time. Language learning in little kids is cool to watch.

Next, these are my host sisters. Mi-na is the one who has her hands blocking her face. (The peace sign, by the way, is done by almost all Koreans when they take pictures. It's extremely cute. I've already started doing it myself.) Anyway, Mi-na is in her first year of middle school, which corresponds to seventh grade in the United States. She's very sweet, and although her English is still limited, I think she's quite good given her age. Furthermore, she tries very hard and is usually not shy about just trying to talk, which is the most important part of learning a language anyway!

Beside Mi-na is Ji-eun. She's in, I believe, fourth grade. She's this incredibly sweet, energetic little girl, and she ALWAYS has a smile on her face. She's only been learning English for a few months, so between the both of us, we usually communicate in smiles and giggling. But you'd be surprised how far that can take you!

This is a picture from downtown Gwangju, where I spend a lot of time. It's nice to go into the city and relax. Anyway, the fountain in the picture is a famous fountain in memorial of the May 15, 1980 uprising against the government. This is the only picture I managed to get without a car in front of the fountain. I just love that you can see the mountain in the background. My favorite thing about Korea is that no matter where you are, you feel like you're nestled in a little valley, a little more alone but a lot closer to nature. I'm feeling a little mountain-obsessed these days. Can you tell? I think I need to start seriously hiking again.

Finally, my room. The first is a picture of my chair and desk. It's very messy in this picture, and rest assured that I've since cleaned my room quite a bit. (I took this picture while I had a nasty cold and wasn't motivated to do much other than sleep). But if it wasn't a little messy, it wouldn't really be my room, right?

Here's my bed. My comfy, comfy bed. And my bookcase. Which now contains a copy of Le Petit Prince in both English and Korean! I'm hoping to improve my Korean skills a little with it. I also have a copy of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales with Korean definitions on the bottom, so that will help too.

This coming week is Chuseok, a major Korean holiday, so I'm off of work until next Thursday. It looks like I'll be spending lots of time with my host family and participating in traditional Korean Chuseok rituals, and I'm very much looking forward to that!

Pictures! From the end of Orientation

2007-09-16T15:32:00.001+09:00

Hey all!

Sorry it's been so long since my last blog update. I really wanted to show you pictures of where I am and what I'm doing, but I was having camera problems. Basically, my new camera came without a cable to plug in the battery charger, and I couldn't even get my old pictures off my camera until I finally tracked a replacement cable down. But I'm back! And before I show you pictures of Hwasun, here are some that I had left from Orientation in Chuncheon.

Most of the time in Chuncheon, we ate in the cafeteria at Kangwon University. But here's a picture of a traditional Korean meal. It involves many, many side dishes, most of which are spicy, and everyone sharing from the same dishes.

This picture is simple. I ate, therefore I'm happy.

One weekend of Orientation we went to Songnisan, a mountain resort in central Korea. The exective director of Fulbright Korea billed it as a chance to relax and forget about the Korean language for a while. Here's a picture of the river from Songnisan, with the mountains in the background. It was gorgeous there. The fresh air did its job and purged my mind of all the Korean I knew.

In Songnisan there's a Buddhist temple called Beopjusa. Beopjusa is famous for having one of the tallest statues of Buddha in Asia. It's amazing.

The entire temple are was very beautiful. It had this peaceful energy about it that's difficult to explain. But I think anyone who's been to a historical religious place, whether it be a church, a temple, or just a spiritual area, will have an idea of what I'm talking about.

I haven't had the heart to look up what the Korean on this sign actually says. But in my mind, it says "Beware of squirrels," and I giggle and think of Grinnell.

Actually, at one place I visited in Chuncheon, I saw Koreans taking pictures of a squirrel in a tree. Maybe squirrels are really rare in Korea? I haven't figured that one out yet.

While in Chuncheon, I had the chance to learn about Dado, the traditional Korea tea ceremony. I'm a dedicated tea drinker, so naturally I signed up immediately for this activity. It's a very beautiful, precise process, but I think its precision has an effect almost like meditation. I felt quite serene at calm by the end of the cereomny. Here's a picture of our teacher, followed by one of me trying not to spill hot water all over the place:

We drank green tea at the ceremony. It was goooood!

Those are all the pictures I wanted to show you for now. WIthin the next week: Hwasun! Students! Host family! My messy, messy room!

But before next time, I should tell you one more thing: I got a straight-perm for my hair. See, the weather in Korea so far has ranged from hot and humid (not good to my naturally-curly hair) or constant rain (even worse for my naturally-curly hair). So I made the difficult decision to get my hair straightened. Here's the "after":

It will stay this way for about 5 months. It's very straight and very thin, and honestly, I prefer the volume my hair had before, which you can see in some of the previous pictures I posted. But it's definitely been easier to manage! I step out of the shower, give my hair a quick towel-dry, and one hour later it's dry, neat, and frizz-free!

Thanks for reading!

So you're moving to Hwasun!

2007-08-27T14:25:00.001+09:00

...or in my case, so you moved to Hwasun, a small town of 75.000 on the southern end of Korea, a week ago. Soooo, what have I been up to? Luckily, the response can be easily parsed based on my two primary environments in Hwasun: my school and my homestay

School
My school is outside Hwasun, so I ride the bus from school every day and to school twice a week (the other three days I have first-period class, so I drive with my co-teacher. My school is in a very rural area, which I think makes it quite pretty. Lots of rice fields (and of course mountains) surround the school and town, and there are no high-rise apartments to be seen - which in Korea is a sign of a truly rural area.

All the teachers at my school have been very kind to me so far. The English teachers all speak English well, and I've also become used to speaking very slowly, pronouncing every consonant, and using simpler words/phrases than I would use with other native speakers. So communication has not been too difficult. I have my own desk and computer in the 교무실, or teacher's office, and the classrooms all have access to PowerPoint (which I think will be a staple of my classes).

And then there are my students. So far, for the most part, I love my students. Most of them seem, by first appearances, to be sweet, energetic kids. My school is co-ed, so I teach both boys and girls, but the classes are separated by gender. I've noticed that it's a lot easier for me to connect with my female students, since I'm a girl myself. I definitely have a different energy and even teaching style around my male students - I'm a little less "cute," I make fewer references to pop culture and attractive celebrities, and I'm definitely more "no-nonsense." The students here are also fairly good at English, considering their age. Since my first lesson, I've learned that they're perhaps a little less advanced than I thought, but I'm still hoping to do mostly fun, creative stuff with them. To be honest, I don't want to teach grammar - they learn a ton of grammar in their regular English classes, and they do less speaking than anything else. So I want to have a more relaxed class, ideally, with lots of conversation. Will it work? Um, don't know. Check back with me in a few months!

Homestay
I live in a homestay in Hwasun (in an apartment building) with a family of 5: mother and father, one middle-school girl, one elementary-school girl, and a 4-year-old boy. The kids are extremely, extremely cute. The two youngest fight a lot, but they're energetic and are always smiling around me. I probably talk to my homestay mom and middle-school sister (Mina) the most. I talk to Mina in English, since I think it's a great opportunity help her improve her English, and I'd like to give back to the family somehow. She's pretty good at speaking, given her age and level, but we both have to take roundabout methods to describe things sometimes. I also speak to the other two kids in English, when I can, although they really only know a handful of words each. But, and I could be wrong about this, I believe they're already starting to improve their vocabulary from talking to me. I talk with my host parents in Korean when I can, and they try to use English words around me when they know them. My homestay family is, I must say, extremely kind. I have my own room with a bed and table, but I try to spend time in the living room with the rest of them when I'm not too tired after work. We watch TV together a lot, usually soccer or Korean dramas. I think I prefer soccer - it's a lot easier to follow what's going on! The only negative part of my homestay is that I can't do a lot for myself. I try to offer to wash the dishes, or do the laundry, but my homestay mother won't let me and it's difficult to insist on doing something, or explain how much you want to do something, when you speak different languages. Honestly, I kind of miss the independence and control that comes with doing one's own chores. I guess I don't like feeling that things are out of my control.

But as I said, my homestay family so far has been wonderful. They're very understanding of my limited Korean, and although communication is difficult, we usually get our points across. As for Hwasun itself, I don't have much of a sense of the town yet - it's got a few main stretches, several grocery, clothing, and stationary stores, and of course the high-rise apartment buildings. This weekend I'll hopefully spend some time just walking around and getting lost (something I've done quite a lot lately - but that's a blog for another time) and getting to know the Hwasun a little bit better.

So those are my experiences from the first week and a half in a nutshell. I'll have more specific blogs of what I've been up to once I settle in, with photos (I promise...)! In the meantime, leave a comment, shoot me an email, say hello - it's great to hear from familiar people when you're thrown into a new place like this! Take care, and hey, if you find yourself in southern Korea and want to get away from the cities for a while - well, I do have a small couch in my bedroom. ;)

Visiting the Scariest Place on Earth

2007-08-13T18:51:00.000+09:00

In the summer after my junior year of high school, I was lucky enough to visit France with my French class. We spent an afternoon in Normandy, the location the Allied troops stormed on D-Day during World War II. I was astounded by how beautiful it was there - stark cliffs, crashing waves, greenery and foliage. Despite its violent history, or perhaps because of it, Normandy had become a peaceful, picturesque place.

I did not expect the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, the 4-km area separating North and South Korea) to be the same. I had heard the DMZ was very pretty, since hardly anybody enters that area anymore. However, when Bill Clinton visited the DMZ in 1993 he called it "the scariest place on earth." I suppose I imagined it to be more of the latter, and I had a chance to put my perceptions to the test today when we visited the DMZ. As it turns out, I think that it is both one of the more beautiful places I've seen and also one of the most chilling.

We didn't go to Panmunjom, which is just north of Seoul with large military bases on both sides of the dividing line, and as Panmunjom is where most people go when they visit the DMZ. But because of the six-party talks currently taking place, we weren't able to go there, and instead visited a base not too far north of Chuncheon, in Hacheon. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures there, so I'll try to describe it. Imagine tall, ridged, green mountains stretching as far as the eye can see to the North. You can see small red fences that look like footpaths running from east to west, from horizon to horizon. Several small farms dot the landscape in front of you.

That's North Korea.

Like Normandy, it was naturally beautiful, well-preserved, and disarmingly peaceful. I say "disarmingly" because, unlike Normandy, the DMZ is still the front of a war that, despite a ceasefire, never officially ended. The soldiers who gave us a tour of their outpost showed us photos they had taken the North Korean soldiers on the other side - photos of North Koreans hunting, playing basketball, and smoking cigarettes. Meanwhile, the South Korean soldiers assured us, their Northern counterparts did the same. They were probably watching us Americans stand around, right at the border, gazing back at them. Our soldier tour guide ended by telling us that they were ready at all times to defend the country when North Korea attacks.

I don't think another outbreak of the Korean War is at all likely. Relations between the two Koreas are actually rather friendly right now, with South Korea sending regular shipments of food and supplies to help out the impoverished people of North Korea. But that tension, the fact that both sides were constantly watching and are ready to attack the others at any time, is, I think, what makes the DMZ so scary at the same time that it's almost breathtakingly gorgeous.

The Next Year of My Life

2007-07-28T16:23:00.000+09:00

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

2007-07-28T11:52:00.000+09:00

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

2007-07-19T21:37:00.000+09:00

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

2007-07-17T21:52:00.000+09:00

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

2007-07-08T06:23:00.000+09:00

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!

Thoughts on Leaving for Korea

2007-06-26T12:55:00.000+09:00

Hopefully this will be the only self-important, stream-of-consciousness entry in this blog. Once I get to Korea, I'll be able to write about the actual experience itself, as opposed to just the overwhelming thoughts and emotions I'm experiencing. I just wanted to get some stuff in here before I left, and we'll eventually see if this blog was even worth the time and energy.

In the fall of 2005 I studied abroad in London. I remember that I was doing quite well, nerves-wise, until the day I left. I had an evening flight, so I was spending the morning packing. As I struggled to fit all my stuff into one large duffel bag and one medium-sized suitcase, I found myself becoming more and more frustrated and emotional. None of the packing techniques I tried were working - there was no way I could fit everything I wanted into my bags. My luggage was officially overstuffed. After what was probably several hours of straining and swearing, I lost it. I started crying, babbling to my mother about overweight luggage fees and the impossibility of carrying all my stuff on the Underground.

Of course, it wasn't really the overweight luggage fueling my emotional breakdown, or at least it wasn't just that. I was mostly afraid of - well, everything else. Leaving my family for an extended period of time. Living in a big city for the first time. Being unable to cope with the unfamiliar place and the independence and responsibility that would crash over me like a wave the moment I stepped away from my mom at the airport. I wasn't sure I could handle it. At best, I told myself, I'd have friends and classmates to help me adjust and love it.. At worst, I would basically collapse emotionally and hate the entire experience. My fears weren't even entirely warranted. I would be living and taking classes with other Grinnell students the entire time. I had a friends who would meet me at the airport, one in Baggage Claim and one right outside Customs. Looking back, I know that my fears of adjusting to urban life, finding a flat, and staying on top of my budget were not worth the tears and yelling they produced that August afternoon. I'm especially aware of this now, almost two years later, having successfully navigated my study abroad experience and, truthfully, having loved nearly every moment of it. But at the time, I only fixated on how poorly everything could go. I had no idea what I was capable of, what my limits were, and moving to a huge, complex, expensive city did not always seem feasible.

Now I am once again about to embark on a new travel experience, and I'm just as scared and uncertain - if not more so - than I was last time. Korea is very different from London. A radically different culture, founded on Confucius' values, not Aristotle's. A language with an alphabet, syntax, and root unlike English in every sense. A group of people I've never met. A job I've never done. A time and distance from home I've never faced.

Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly excited. I know now that I can adjust to an unfamiliar place. I can be independent, responsible, and mature and handle challenges. But what if I'm not mature enough? What if the culture shock is more than I expect? What if I fail to learn the language, bond with my fellow Fulbrighters, bond with my host family, do my job properly? I am once again faced with the fear of the unknown. Frankly, despite my added experiences and years of maturity, I wouldn't be surprised if I had another freak-out in the days or even hours before I depart. So mixed with my definite excitement is a healthy dose of terror. Fortunately, like in London, the presence of that terror now will make it all the more satisfying when - if? - I overcome it and prove to myself that I am capable of this fresh, huge challenge called Korea. It will be painful, it will be exhilarating, it will be difficult, it will be life-changing. And I guess only time will tell if I'm up for it.