The Changing Seasons

My current home stay at one of our first family dinners.
It's sad to see this time coming to an end. 

Who would have thought that some of my fondest moments here in Hwacheon would induce so much tragedy? I am sad to say, I – along with the other two ETAs (Julie and Chelsea)  - are being evicted from our home stays by the South Korean Military. Let me explain. Evidently, those moments of tickle-tag on the playground and holding hands with our students jumping in the market trampoline (yes, the market has a trampoline) lead to a handful of Hwacheon families complaining about the English teachers living in Desian apartments – our military complex. Incorrectly accusing our families of getting “free babysitting”, “free English tutoring”, and 500,000 won (a little less than $500) a month – which they do get but to offset the cost of housing us, they made some phone calls to high officials in the Miliary claiming it was “unfair” that our families had such a luxury. Ironically, some even complained out of the “kindness of their heart” saying our families were burdening us for taking care of our host siblings – also false since all three of us adore kids and wouldn’t be here in Korea if we didn’t. Anyway, their jealously lead the three of us crying girls to a cold meeting in the city council office. Sitting around a large, oval table with plush cushions, microphones at each seat and all, the works, the three English teachers sat on one side with a translator and county official. On the opposite side were our host mothers, more county officers, and a military officer. This meeting will always be engrained in my mind and written in my story of my Fulbright grant year in Korea. It was heartbreaking as our host mother’s heard the news that they had to kick us out by the end of the month – or suffer consequences from the Military. See, after the phone calls were made from the jealous neighbors, there was found a rule amidst all the Army paperwork that states only military and their family can stay in the military complexes. “But they ARE our FAMILY” cried our host mothers one by one. No – that doesn’t count was the cold hearted response. Our mothers pleaded that we could at least stay until winter break. They even said that they would house us for free! Their vehement rage turned to sobbing defeat at the response of the Officer – Impossible. They will let us stay until the end of October – but the sooner we leave, the better. Although I left that meeting defeated and utterly helpless, I have so much respect for our Korean mothers fighting for us. We have only known them less than two months and can hardly communicate further than botched sentences from Google Translate. But these women love us and would do anything to keep us in their family. If anything, I have gained a new sense of Korean culture – that when these people take someone in as a guest, they leave a part of the family. Needless to say, October 31^st will be a sad day.

My host mom and I - only four foot ten, but she is such
a fighter and has two black belts in TKD to prove it!

I’m surprised to say that there were four families found for us it Hwacheon. It really was a struggle for Su-Jin, our co-teacher, to find sufficient housing for us in Hwacheon where 80% is military families. The first home stay was a family of four –a third grader, three year old, and mother and father. Meeting only the mother, she was such a happy-go-lucky kind of lady. To Su-Jiin I described her as jovial (j-o-v-i-a-l): happy, funny, and friendly – kinda like Santa Claus! The second option has no children but was a comfortable traditional home right in town. The third house is connected to a dry cleaners – they have a 6^th grader (one of my students) and a middle school student. I’m very relieved that these all are located in town, since taking buses can get difficult with the timing and then the treacherous winters coming up. Tomorrow Chelsea and I will officially decide which family to choose – Julie will be staying at a dormitory complex with the E.P.I.C. (other English teachers) here in Hwacheon. It’s sad to see this trio splitting up, since we were all neighbors before. We all were PERFECT fits for our families (and I must say, that has been rare amongst the other ETAs). However, I am glad to get to know the expat community of the other E.P.I.C.s and I’m relieved to know good families were found since it took countless phone calls by Su-Jin, a personal visit from Fulbright Korea Executive Director, and a letter sent out to each student to see if they would house Gabrielle Teacher or Chelsea Teacher. Next Thursday, we move out. Yet again, my experience here has yet another set of unknowns. After Gyeongju conference this weekend with all the other Fulbright ETA’s, I have decided to reboot myself, redirect my expectations, and look at this year in a new perspective. Perspective can make or break anyone. Although our situation is FAR from ideal, I tell myself that I came to Korea not knowing how it would turn out, ready for tides to turn anyway – there are SO many variables. This is just another one to add to the list of unexpected. I have decided to make the most of it, believing God that He is true to His promises when He said in Romans 8:28 “God causes all things to work for the good for those who are called according to His purpose.”

My host sisters - Ha-Eun (6th grade) and Ha-Young (2nd grade)
> Both are my students ^^

Life as Gabrielle Teacher

           Since I have never been a teacher before, everyday seems to be a new experience as I learn just as much, if not more, than my students. It truly is quite a different ball game than teaching in the U.S., as I have heard from my fellow ETAs with education backgrounds. I have found that sometimes teaching is energizing, while other times it is draining. But at the end of the day, I am glad I decided to take up teaching, at least for this one year. Although I intend to pursue medicine and go on to medical school after this grant year, I believe this one year teaching has taught me much more than I will ever know.

Just a brief rundown of my school information, my school, Hwacheon Elementary School, is located a beautiful 12 minute walk away from the Desian Apartments, the military apartment complex I live in. I am one of the only Fulbright ETAs that is fortunate enough to have a fellow ETA working at the same school. I couldn’t be happier to see Chelsea, the other ETA, everyday, and share teaching ideas, failures and successes, and goofy moments together. Chelsea teaches the 5^th and 3^rd graders while I teach the 6^th and 4^th graders. We both split the 2^nd grade class – so I only have them once a week. I also have two really small afterschool classes – one with anywhere from 2-5 students and the other with anywhere from 1-3 students. In total I would say I have about 200 students or less. And yes, I am attempting to learn their names.

My sixth grade bunch ^^

Upon first arriving, ALL the students would bow as we crossed paths and they murmured their greetings. It’s quite an elated feeling to see this respect coming from so many children. Walking through the halls, I will often hear children shouting “Gabrielle Teacher” (since this is the way the address us here) to get my attention. The ten minute breaks between classes are often filled with finding out my student’s favorite colors, making secret handshakes or giving high fives. After lunch, there is a group of 6^th grade girls that always hang out by my office and I end up hanging out with them, chatting about whatever ideas we can get across successfully.  Although it’s difficult to communicate with them due to their minimal English and my even more so minimal Korean, it’s neat to see connections being made regardless of nationality and language abilities. There is this one 3^rd grader (whom I don’t even have for class) who gives me the biggest hug and her face lights up every time she sees me. In all reality, she hardly knows a thing about me, but she still acts as if we are best friends, as if I have some special role in her life. In many other ways, I have found such an openness and hospitality here in Korea where people will love on you, just for who you are, and not for anything they know about you.

As I have mentioned before, everyday is full of surprises. Some days I will not have any classes planned for the entire morning but will get a phone call telling me I have class in five minutes. Thank God for improv and being on your toes. One day, I went into the 6^th grade office and found the room filled with cages of guinea pigs, hedgehogs and hamsters! I was informed that the students raise these animals for their form of home economics class. Another day, I was not informed but half of our students were gone for some sports day competition. Since not enough students were there to instruct, we ended up playing games and watching K-pop songs or movies instead. This year is definitely full of spontaneity and opportunities for creative ideas. 

Meet Mr. Timmy - my sock puppet I made for my 2nd grade class

My creative way of teaching my students prepositions, "Gabrielle Teacher is UNDER the desk."

A New Menu

               

One of my Host Mom’s favorite phrases has been “New Menu.” Anytime we eat dinner she asks me if the meal consists of a new menu item or if I have had it before. Most of the time, my answer is the former, especially last week when snail soup and (yes, unfortunately) dog meat were the new menu items.

                One night I was getting ready for bed and my sisters barged into my room and demand that they needed my help. Always ready to do something new with the family, I see everyone gathered around a mysterious red bowl on the kitchen table. My mom began to explain the contents: hundreds of tiny snails they had retrieved from the river. Our job was to take each and every snail out of its shell and remove the foot while we were at it. I felt like I was in biology class again, dissecting and identifying creatures of the sort. Taking a toothpick, we would grab the soft body from the shell and slowly twirl out the organism that curled up inside its once protective home. To my amazement, the snails were a gorgeous turquoise/blue marbled color. Carefully completing this delicate task, my Host Mom explained we would have a “new menu” with snail soup. During our conversation, she also pointed at the family pet Yorki, Gami, while saying dog food. I first thought that he was going to eat the snail soup too. It wasn’t until she picked up the dog and reenacted gnawing at his skin that I realized the other new menu item this week would be dog meat. Apparently dog meat is my host sister’s favorite meal, so she is the one to blame, not me! Although I am not ashamed to say that I am much more of a cat person than a dog person, I still had to embrace myself for this other new menu item. I must admit, dog is not the worst meat on the planet, although it’s not something I will crave too often. I’ll just call it a day and cross it off the bucket list of things that weren’t really on the bucket list to begin with.

  One thing I just adore about Korea, or at least my Host Mom, is that many people are super healthy with the foods they eat and the natural process of obtaining said food. When I say natural process, I mean hiking up the mountain across the river, digging up roots, scouting out mushrooms, and plucking off leaves in the nearby forest. My Host Dad came home the other night with this mushroom the size of my head. My Host Mom Google Translated “this has anti-tumor properties.” She’s speaking my language! Nearly every meal, she points out the anti-bacterial, cytotoxic, anti-tumor activity of all the seasonings, roots, leaves and vegetables. Even the turquoise color in the snails apparently has a “100% cure for liver cancer.” Not only do I now know the random Korean words for mountain, cancer, liver, and mushroom, but I also know where I will be sending my future patients instead of prescribing them manufactured medicine. 

A Comfortable Place

               Coming to Korea, I knew this year would be one out of my comfort zone. I guess I have also made some sort of subconscious decision to push myself to the limit and stretch myself sort of like Gumbi …. as if living in a new country with a different culture, in a new family, and taking on a role as teacher wasn’t enough. I’ve pretty much decided to take those risks, break out of any shell I still had left over from college – in the end I’ll be a better person because of it.

                Within the first two weeks of school, I have already broken down the barriers I held in place against dancing and singing. I didn’t even make it through the introduction part of my class before I had to break down my “no-singing-in-front-of-people” policy. I had been introducing myself and my state to every class which included a Youtube video of Take me home country roads. Of course, one of the classes failed to have any sound or Powerpoint capabilities. This would be my luck. In my head I thought, “Oh, yea, I’ll just skip the whole song thing – no big deal.” WRONG. My co-teacher turns to me and says, “We sing. Together.” I had no time to freak out since he had already pulled out his invisible banjo and was humming the tune to my oh-so familiar West Virginia song. Before I knew it, I had successfully embarrassed myself and tortured my students. But my mind is at peace because they now know about the Mountain Momma in a place that’s “Almost Heaven.”

                 Not to mention, I also do not dance. Needless to say, this year will probably end with me dancing a performance in front of the entire school or something – if it keeps heading the way it’s going. To start off, during Orientation I signed up for a K-pop dance class intentionally knowing it would make me uncomfortable, but also intentionally knowing that it would push my limits. I ended up doing the B-boy portion (aka – break dancing). I LOVED IT! Although I can’t keep a beat with my body nor are my feet coordinated in any sort of way, apparently I had the upper body strength to do some of the crazy moves and holds, putting me in the center of our choreography. I never would have dreamed of that in my lifetime. If a B-boy class or K-pop club opens anywhere near Hwacheon, expect my name to be first on the list.

                Settling in my home stay family, I have discovered this pattern of exercise excursions that occur about three to four times a week. These outings initially begin with my younger sister 하영 (Ha-yong) asking me “운동 해요?” (aka – exercise). Not knowing what exactly I’m agree to, I’ll put my running shoes on, and out the door we go – I usually have no idea where we will end up.  Thus far our excursions have lead us anywhere to playing baseball/Frisbee/badminton in a parking lot, to biking at night time to the Fish Island (yes, Hwacheon has a Fish Island) to play baseball and soccer, to power walks along the river. My favorite time was our power walk by the river. Heading out the door that time, I knew exactly where we were going – on a nice stroll around the river walk. Nothing more, nothing less. Boy, was I wrong. Our lovely stroll ended up at the youth center where all of the women population of Hwacheon above thirty-five were participating in some sort of yogo/zumba/stretching/dance-mix to American music. Since I’m not one to miss out on an opportunity – and also the simple fact that I’m in breaking-down-the-barriers-mode – we all joined in. I had such a blast, making a fool of myself, uncoordinated and all, but it was quite an epic scene. I plan on going back, perhaps the next time we”운동 해요.”

                All in all, I am loving this subconscious decision I made to leap out of my comfort zones. Every day on my walk to school, I have a moment where I just hold my breath, close my eyes and embrace myself for the surprises that day will hold. These surprises are what make Korea the awesome country that it is, and these surprises are what keep me on my toes, looking forward to the day and stories to come. 

A Walk in the Park

One night I went on a run and was not that far out when I got a text message from Julie, one of the other ETAs placed in Hwacheon. Living in the same military apartment complex, she was playing with her host siblings in the playground and invited me over. Turning around for a quick stop to say hi, I had no idea that decision would be one of the best I had made all week.

My pit stop started out with Julie and I standing off on the outskirts of the playground with her pointing out her new home stay siblings from afar. Although we stood out as the 외국(waygooks - foreigners), the children were far too shy to incorporate us into their games. However, that did not last long. Within five minutes, Julie’s host brother came our way and started “shooting” me with his laser pointer. It would have been against my personality and core beliefs to just stand there and laugh as a four year old beamed me with his deadly weapon. No, instead I over-dramatically swooned in a horrific death by the dreadfully painful sting of the human-killing laser pointer. As I fell to the ground breathing my last breathe, I began a new life as a celebrity amidst the children of the Desian Apartment Playground.

          In about 3.5 minutes, after my resurrection from the sunbeam murder, all the children had bombarded us one by one, attacking us with their mystical spider webs, make believe machine guns and real life tickling fingers. The hour ensued with tickle fights, follow the leader, some sort of monster tag, and fits of giggles. As Julie and I captured the attention of twenty children, we would just look at each other in disbelief that this was really happening. We were the center of attention for that hour. Although they were confused beyond measure that we did not understand their language, some of them soon got the picture and started miming the next game to play. Regardless of the thorough charades of instructions, all game requests essentially ended up in an endless game of tag. Needless to say, I got my miles in that day, and my endorphins sky rocketed as I laughed more in those sixty minutes than in the last two months combined. Julie and I surely made a name for ourselves amongst the below-ten-year-old community. If this is where I make the biggest difference with my year in Hwacheon, I would say I accomplished something. 

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!