On The Wings of the Morning: 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 ^^)