Impromptu Rendezvous

So this has been my second weekend here in Hwacheon. One of my goals for being placed in a small town is to get to know some random people and make a little niche in the community, even if it’s for only one year. This weekend may have been the start to that.
            Early Saturday morning, I headed out of the apartment bound for a coffee shop, hoping to have some alone time while enjoying my two addictions – Jesus and coffee time. Ordering my typical Caramel macchiato, I was disappointed to see that this new shop apparently thought the 5000 won beverage only consisted of frothed milk and caramel. I went ahead and ordered a double shot of espresso to go with my sugary steamed milk. It wasn’t until I was pouring my espresso into my Caramel macchiato that the cashier realized he forgot to add the coffee. I knew how embarrassed he could have been! Explaining that he was so tired and he just opened the shop last month, he apologized relentlessly as he gave me a refund, a coupon and later free iced tea. I was thoroughly entertained. Soon enough his apologizing turned into a full out conversation, with me telling him about West Virginia, learning about his view on Korean vs. American culture, swapping favorite songs, and me introducing him to Josh Turner (Long Black Train). Listening to Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree, I mentioned that my Dad is a very jovial, happy hearted man and tied yellow ribbons around our birch tree when I returned from college one year. Gun (the coffee shop owner) went on to say how he wished Korean fathers could be better friends with their children rather than demanding so much respect. I see this as a balance issue as children must respect their parent’s authority, but the relationship should be as such that they get to a point of mutual friendship as well. I am very grateful to have that with both of my parents. Needless to say, I didn’t get much “alone time” that morning, but it was neat to get to know a fellow Hwacheon-ite.
            Going to church Sunday, I didn’t know how this week’s service would turn out, since the only words from the sermon that I understood last week were Jesus and love. However, this week everyone was really welcoming and at the end of the service, they called out my name and I had to stand in front of the entire congregation – in Korea, I’m getting used to getting put on the spot I guess. Filing out of service my host mom translated on her phone “preacher refreshments.” Only vaguely understanding what that meant, I agreed and before I knew it she was ushering me into a small room with rice cakes and rice water set up around a small table with the pastor and deans of the church sitting in a circle. They shut the door and asked me a list of questions about myself – I take this as my initiation into the church, even though none of them spoke English. They seemed very welcoming and it is times like this I wish I could have communicated better. They seem like such sweet people to get to know. After a fifteen minute discussion of them talking about me in Korean while I just smiled and nodded my head, I got a picture taken with the pastor. After the church luncheon (which I think they have every week) I got to meet several of the college age Youth Group students there. Conversation was slow moving, but they seemed really open to getting to know me.
             Upon returning home, I went to Café Bene to work on lesson plans. This turned out also to stray from my original intentions since it appears the entire Church Youth group came shortly after I arrived. Remembering my name (and I embarrassingly forgot all of theirs), many of them came over to me one by one asking for my number. This turned into me joining their table and attempting to convey our many questions we had for one another through the one and only Google Translate and charades. It was a pleasant afternoon and I hope to get to know them throughout my time here!

Meeting the family: blood types, burglar alarms and bearing gifts

Staying with a Korean family during our first year with Fulbright is a mandatory and important part of the grant as we get to learn another aspect of the culture. Since my family in the U.S. has hosted over 70 students during the past 10+ years, one of the reasons I chose South Korea was so I could experience the other side of a home stay.

This year in Korea I will be spending in an apartment with a Military family (Hwacheon is a small town but is pretty much doubled in size due to the Military base there).   I have two host sisters: Ha-eun (6^th grade) and Ha-yong (2^nd grade). My Host dad has three black belts in Taekwondo and my Host Mom has two. They are a Christian family. They have the most adorable Yorkie puppy named Gami. Welcome, my Korean Family.

Due to the language barrier, since my family speaks very little English and I speak even considerably less Korean, it has been hard to get to know each other. We rely mostly on charades, motions, and the God-send app, Google Translate. Within the first hours, I successfully made some embarrassing blunders as well as some good memories.

Trying to find the light switch to the bathroom, I quickly pressed the first button I saw. This was extremely unfortunate since it was the burglar alarm instead of the light switch. All around me, sirens started going off and my host mom spent five minutes trying to turn it off. Talk about the longest five minutes in my life. I just covered my head in shame as my little host sister comforted me “it’s okay, it’s okay.” Ah, what a classic mix-up!

During my first dinner at my home stay, I attempted to make some sort of conversation as is typical of me. I had noticed that their coffee mugs have cutesy little animal characters dancing around with little blood type symbols (I’m tempted to bring back one as a souvenir as I can’t say I can find them in the States). I had noticed similar designs on paraphernalia such as notebooks and stationary and was wondering why it was so popular. Using old faithful Google Translate to ask, my Host Mom told me that “O” was her blood type and that Koreans thought it was cute. I translated back to her, saying that Americans think it is a funny idea. Looking at me somewhat shocked, she said the word I had used for “funny” was apparently not a good word. Props to successfully insulting my Host Mother’s blood type during the first 24 hours!

Korean culture is a very gift giving one, so Fulbright has told us to bring gifts to the family pretty much right off the bat. Out of all the West Virginia trinkets of candles, postcards, calendars, key chains and such, I’m glad that they liked the playing cards. They REALLY liked the playing cards. I must say I have bonded with the children more over playing and teaching card games than any other strategy. I must also add that my Korean vocabulary is quickly augmenting with important words like “rock, paper, scissors ”and “win/lose.” Being a child at heart, I’m okay with that!

Departure Day

          Departure day was big deal as all 80 of us finished packing up our bags, checking out of our dorms, and taking ‘see-ya-later’ pictures – all in our finest clothes. In the ceremony, we all lined up according to our provinces. In the audience sat Mrs. Shim (the Executive Director) and all of our co-teachers and vice principals.  Our province was announced followed by individual names and schools. Some of us were greeted with co-teachers rushing on stage to give us flowers and warm welcome while others merely received a hand wave from the audience. Parting ways, I was taken along with Chelsea (who will be teaching at the same school with me) to the very most northern and second most rural placement in South Korea: Hwacheon, located roughly five miles south of the North Korea border. Having asked for a rural placement with a smaller school, I am looking forward to this quaint town with rolling hills and many outdoorsy activities awaiting me. Not to mention, I get to enjoy this with three other amazing Fulbrighters in the same area!

The Hwacheon Four (two on both ends plus the re-newies who were in Hwacheon last year

My roommate at Jungwon

I get to teach at the same school as this beautiful lady 

The flowers my co-teacher and vice principal gave me!

Life as number 39

          My biggest regret to starting this blog so late is that I missed out on sharing all the details and stories of the first six weeks of Orientation at Jungwon Univeristy. Here goes my attempt to summarize it all in one, brief post:

            The first weeks in South Korea were spent at the Marble Palace (aka – Jungwon) getting to know the 80 other Fulbrighters I will be spending this year with. In order to make attendance easier, among other things, we were all given a number to identify us by. My number was 39.
            Wasting no time (despite some of us – like me – having traveled 33+ hours from home to Korea) we got right into the routine of things. Pretty soon, most of our days were spent with four hours of (INTENSIVE) Korean language classes, Cultural and Teaching workshops, studying, and meeting new friends. Evenings were spent either learning Taekwondo (which we got our own fake black belts!), making Hanjii (Korean paper art), hanging out with friends, studying or going to Bible studies. During the weekends they kept us busy, but some of the fun excursions included Archery at an Olympic training facility, a trip to Seoul and the beach, hiking, and a K-pop class. Half-way through the Orientation, there were two weeks of Camp Fulbright, where each of us had a chance to teach three lessons to the campers so that we could have experience in a Korean classroom before handling an entire year of it. It was quite a jammed packed time with good memories, life lessons, and preparation for the year to come.
            Overall, I learned much more about Korea and Hanguel (Korean Language) than I knew before, but there is still much to learn. 

Welcome Fulbright ETA's - on our way to Junwon University

DMZ - border of North and South Korea

"Take a picture, because they're probably taking pictures of you." Above is a North Korean soldier looking at us with his binoculars (look REALLY close in the window ^^)

Graduation ceremony at Korea University - I survived language classes

Just a bridge to North Korea...

            

We made it to the top of the mountain in Goeson, the town near Jungwon

My chingus (Hanguel for friends)

Archery!