Check out the link on the right.
Our team won second in Camp Idol, singing "Upside Down" by the A-Teens. And in the Golden Bell competition (a kind of quiz game), the two top winners were BOTH from my team!! Out of twelve teams, the top two (there were only two winners) were both from my Crown Team. I was so proud of them!
After Golden Bell and Camp Idol, we had a party in our homeroom and said goodbye to our class. It was so sweet and sentimental! Then we had another party with the foreign teachers (us) and the Korean teachers. What a fun group of people.
Tomorrow the kids pack up and leave, and we leave for a long weekend excursion. We're going to the beach, and doing a temple stay.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Oh yes all the boys like me...
Haha, some people posted comments asking if all the Korean boys loved me. Well, today some of them have started coming up to me and yelling "I LOVE YOU!" But it's because they lost a game...they play a version of Rock Paper Scissors, and the loser has to do something like say I love you to someone. Yes, very immature. But they are thirteen year olds.
Actually, this is weird. Every single kid at camp is exactly thirteen years old...in Korean years. Of course they weren't all born at the same time, but Koreans have a different way of calculating someone's age. They are 1 when they are born, then if they were born before a certain date they gain a year, then if they were born...I don't know, anyway there's this different system they use! To calculate your Korean age: Take your "real" age, and add 1 if you have already had your birthday this year, and add two if you have not yet had your birthday this year.
Back to Koreans loving me. The girls like my blond hair and blue eyes. A girl yesterday pulled out one of my hairs and got really excited about it! I'm not quite sure why though...because I don't speak Korean.
One last strange tidbit for tonight: to turn a faucet on, you push the handle down. Up is off. (Think of your bathroom sink, where you have one control for hot and cold). Still trips me up every time.
Actually, this is weird. Every single kid at camp is exactly thirteen years old...in Korean years. Of course they weren't all born at the same time, but Koreans have a different way of calculating someone's age. They are 1 when they are born, then if they were born before a certain date they gain a year, then if they were born...I don't know, anyway there's this different system they use! To calculate your Korean age: Take your "real" age, and add 1 if you have already had your birthday this year, and add two if you have not yet had your birthday this year.
Back to Koreans loving me. The girls like my blond hair and blue eyes. A girl yesterday pulled out one of my hairs and got really excited about it! I'm not quite sure why though...because I don't speak Korean.
One last strange tidbit for tonight: to turn a faucet on, you push the handle down. Up is off. (Think of your bathroom sink, where you have one control for hot and cold). Still trips me up every time.
Questions from Mom
Hi everyone, it's time for another episode of "What's Korea Really Like?" !! My mom just asked me some good questions, and I thought I'd answer them here.
We have a three day break from camp this weekend! We're going to Muan to...OK, I don't really know what we're doing. I think they told us awhile ago, but I can't remember. We're supposed to be getting a schedule. Not sure if it's the temple stay, or the beach! But I think we are staying at a hotel, which I hope will be nice.
Yes, the mountains are pretty, and the cities are modern! It's quite a mix of modern and traditional (old). For example, when we got off the plane at Seoul, everything was sooo modern and futuristic. It was incredible. They have really interesting toilets here. We encountered the first one at the airport, where in the stall there was something called a "courtesy button", I think. You could press it, and it would make a sound to cover any unpleasant sounds! And here at camp, they have these toilets that have all these different buttons. I tried the other day, and I didn't get the sound, but I did get squirted with water, and then the fan came on. Anyway, yes, some things are way cooler than what we have in America, but then others aren't so great (like our dorms).
The temples are Buddhist temples here, but most people I've talked to are Christian. Of the people that say they are religious, about half are Christian and half are Buddhist.
Korean words are realllly hard to learn. I've got down Hello and Thank you, but honestly that's about it.
I'm doing OK with the food. They really accomodate the Americans at the dorm. Like for breakfast, they make me toast with peanut butter or cereal, because I feel I'm not quite ready for Korean food at breakfast! The rest of the food is good. I wouldn't say it's great, but then again, we are eating at a school cafeteria. I'm sure it's not the greatest Korea has to offer! Oh, and chopsticks. Yeah. I actually feel like I'm getting WORSE. That's probably not true though. I think if I'm concentrating too hard, that's when I can't do it. (It was really hard to pick up the bits of still-moving octopus last night with chopsticks!).
Well, we're about to start the "Survival Games" for tonight. Woo!!
We have a three day break from camp this weekend! We're going to Muan to...OK, I don't really know what we're doing. I think they told us awhile ago, but I can't remember. We're supposed to be getting a schedule. Not sure if it's the temple stay, or the beach! But I think we are staying at a hotel, which I hope will be nice.
Yes, the mountains are pretty, and the cities are modern! It's quite a mix of modern and traditional (old). For example, when we got off the plane at Seoul, everything was sooo modern and futuristic. It was incredible. They have really interesting toilets here. We encountered the first one at the airport, where in the stall there was something called a "courtesy button", I think. You could press it, and it would make a sound to cover any unpleasant sounds! And here at camp, they have these toilets that have all these different buttons. I tried the other day, and I didn't get the sound, but I did get squirted with water, and then the fan came on. Anyway, yes, some things are way cooler than what we have in America, but then others aren't so great (like our dorms).
The temples are Buddhist temples here, but most people I've talked to are Christian. Of the people that say they are religious, about half are Christian and half are Buddhist.
Korean words are realllly hard to learn. I've got down Hello and Thank you, but honestly that's about it.
I'm doing OK with the food. They really accomodate the Americans at the dorm. Like for breakfast, they make me toast with peanut butter or cereal, because I feel I'm not quite ready for Korean food at breakfast! The rest of the food is good. I wouldn't say it's great, but then again, we are eating at a school cafeteria. I'm sure it's not the greatest Korea has to offer! Oh, and chopsticks. Yeah. I actually feel like I'm getting WORSE. That's probably not true though. I think if I'm concentrating too hard, that's when I can't do it. (It was really hard to pick up the bits of still-moving octopus last night with chopsticks!).
Well, we're about to start the "Survival Games" for tonight. Woo!!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thanks!
Thanks for the comments and support. I'm feeling a little homesick today!
We at live octopus last night. My camera batteries are dead, but I'll try to get someone else's pictures. It was pretty wild.
Did you notice the link to my photos, on the right side of the screen?
We at live octopus last night. My camera batteries are dead, but I'll try to get someone else's pictures. It was pretty wild.
Did you notice the link to my photos, on the right side of the screen?
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Easy Day
Today, I just got finished eating lunch (rice, kimchi, lettuce, fried fish, pickled vegetables, spaghetti, soup - not bad!!). We already taught our lesson this morning. Instead of the second lesson today, we're doing Mini Olympics! Sort of a field day. Then dinner, then practicing our song. I'm wearing my skort - thanks for shopping with me, mom! All those clothes have worked out great :-)
My homeroom had the Cooking class this morning. During the second break, they brought me the sandwiches they made! It was so good, bread with lettuce, tomato, green pepper, onion and mayo and mustard. Their cookies are still baking. I hope they bring me one.
We were out two American teachers today. Sara thinks she has strep throat, and Shelly was just run down. I saw Shelly at lunch, so I think she's feeling better.
My homeroom had the Cooking class this morning. During the second break, they brought me the sandwiches they made! It was so good, bread with lettuce, tomato, green pepper, onion and mayo and mustard. Their cookies are still baking. I hope they bring me one.
We were out two American teachers today. Sara thinks she has strep throat, and Shelly was just run down. I saw Shelly at lunch, so I think she's feeling better.
Photos
I'm trying to get photos up! I should be able to put them right on this blog through Flickr, which goes through Yahoo. So I set all that up...but it's not working! May have to do a separate page...more later.
So about Korea...
Dear Reader,
You probably are more interested in what Korea is actually like rather than hearing about my schedule! So I'll add some interesting tidbits here.
The first thing my mom asked was, Is it clean? Well, yes and no. It's probably not as across-the-board clean as America is. When we were at SBC in Gwangju for orientation, it was great. Each room had its own bathroom. The shower was a little weird, because it's not separate. You just turn on the water and shower in the bathroom, and the water drains into the floor. I got to really like this setup though, and wish it was more common in America! Our dorms at the camp are a different story. We're at the Namdo Provincial College. The classroom buildings are more modern, but our dorms, not so much. The rooms are OK - they're set up for four people. The kids are four to a room, but thankfully we have our own room. So I have four beds, four desk, four wardrobes, etc. But the bathrooms...they just are not clean. I'm not sure why. Do they just not have janitorial staff in the summer? I won't describe them, but use your imagination. There is a Toilet, and a Washroom with sinks and showers. It's weird - you have to go in the Washroom to wash your hands after you use the Toilet. But the showers are OK, there's hot water and everything.
Koreans seem very environmentally conscious. There are recycling bins everywhere. They're concious of not wasting food. Before the trip, aunt Peggy and my mom and Nicholas and I were wondering about their agriculture. We read that Korean is 80% mountainous, with 47 million people. Where do they grow food? Well, Jeollanamdo Province is their "rural" area and food is grown EVERYWHERE. Every bit of space has crops on it. Like outside my window. It's really neat how they use the land here. Not sure about the rest of the country, but here it's everywhere.
The food - ah, the food. First we get our utensils - metal chopsticks (again, reusing metal instead of disposable wood) and a spoon. We never have a beverage or napkins with our meal, but maybe that's just at camp. First on the plate is white rice, followed by Kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage). For breakfast, usually fish, seaweed, soup. They've been putting out cereal though - an interesting combination of corn flakes and cocoa puffs. The other Americans are eating the Korean breakfast, but for me it's too early in the morning to face it and I've been eating cereal :-) Lunch may have fish, pork or tofu in a sauce that you eat with the rice, lots of vegetable dishes, sometimes an omelet thing or dumplings or potatoes or corn, and soup. Sometimes they come up with strange things that I think they consider American - some kind of hotdog and sauce dish. Fruit, usually watermelon, is served for dessert. Dinner is much the same. At camp, we have a little convenience store in the cafeteria where you can get a Coffee Shake (my favorite), or other soda, ice cream and packaged snacks. It's fun to pick snacks because the description is all in Korean. It's a guessing game!
Like I mentioned earlier, Korea is mountainous. But it's not Colorado mountains. I think they're older, soft, lower mountains. Kind of like foothills. They're very beautiful! And the vegetation on the mountains just looks so...Asian. Not sure how to describe it. Very green and lush. Not exactly tropical though.
That's all for this edition of What is Korea Like?
You probably are more interested in what Korea is actually like rather than hearing about my schedule! So I'll add some interesting tidbits here.
The first thing my mom asked was, Is it clean? Well, yes and no. It's probably not as across-the-board clean as America is. When we were at SBC in Gwangju for orientation, it was great. Each room had its own bathroom. The shower was a little weird, because it's not separate. You just turn on the water and shower in the bathroom, and the water drains into the floor. I got to really like this setup though, and wish it was more common in America! Our dorms at the camp are a different story. We're at the Namdo Provincial College. The classroom buildings are more modern, but our dorms, not so much. The rooms are OK - they're set up for four people. The kids are four to a room, but thankfully we have our own room. So I have four beds, four desk, four wardrobes, etc. But the bathrooms...they just are not clean. I'm not sure why. Do they just not have janitorial staff in the summer? I won't describe them, but use your imagination. There is a Toilet, and a Washroom with sinks and showers. It's weird - you have to go in the Washroom to wash your hands after you use the Toilet. But the showers are OK, there's hot water and everything.
Koreans seem very environmentally conscious. There are recycling bins everywhere. They're concious of not wasting food. Before the trip, aunt Peggy and my mom and Nicholas and I were wondering about their agriculture. We read that Korean is 80% mountainous, with 47 million people. Where do they grow food? Well, Jeollanamdo Province is their "rural" area and food is grown EVERYWHERE. Every bit of space has crops on it. Like outside my window. It's really neat how they use the land here. Not sure about the rest of the country, but here it's everywhere.
The food - ah, the food. First we get our utensils - metal chopsticks (again, reusing metal instead of disposable wood) and a spoon. We never have a beverage or napkins with our meal, but maybe that's just at camp. First on the plate is white rice, followed by Kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage). For breakfast, usually fish, seaweed, soup. They've been putting out cereal though - an interesting combination of corn flakes and cocoa puffs. The other Americans are eating the Korean breakfast, but for me it's too early in the morning to face it and I've been eating cereal :-) Lunch may have fish, pork or tofu in a sauce that you eat with the rice, lots of vegetable dishes, sometimes an omelet thing or dumplings or potatoes or corn, and soup. Sometimes they come up with strange things that I think they consider American - some kind of hotdog and sauce dish. Fruit, usually watermelon, is served for dessert. Dinner is much the same. At camp, we have a little convenience store in the cafeteria where you can get a Coffee Shake (my favorite), or other soda, ice cream and packaged snacks. It's fun to pick snacks because the description is all in Korean. It's a guessing game!
Like I mentioned earlier, Korea is mountainous. But it's not Colorado mountains. I think they're older, soft, lower mountains. Kind of like foothills. They're very beautiful! And the vegetation on the mountains just looks so...Asian. Not sure how to describe it. Very green and lush. Not exactly tropical though.
That's all for this edition of What is Korea Like?
A free day at last!
Today is Sunday...so last Tuesday, we left the luxury of the SBC center where all 60 Americans had our training, in Gwangju. We all got dressed up and took the bus up to Mokpo, and had this formal meeting of the governor of the province. It is this government that set up the English camps. Then we got back on the bus and ate at a vegetarian restaurant - hooray! Then we said goodbye to half of the group. We were on two buses, and one would take the Haenam and Muan groups to their camps. The Goksong people and our group rode together. By the time we pulled up to our camp, it was dark, and it was sad to leave the other group and get off by ourselves! We didn't know what it was going to be like.
Principal Park met us at our dorms, and we got our room assignments. We all had separate rooms, thank goodness. And pretty strong fans, too. But you have to keep a window open, because of Fan Death. Fan Death is real :-) Anyway, we got fresh bed, uh, stuff (a bed cover, comforter and pillow), soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and laundry soap.
Day 1 of camp: we meet our students, but don't have to teach. The students were to create a team name, and make a poster and a cheer to represent their team. The Korean teachers pretty much took over, and after all day of this, we were all pretty much dejected and wondering why we were even around. But the kids were really adorable.
The next day we got into the actual teaching. The schedule was: breakfast at 7:40 am, Homeroom at 8:40, and the first class at 9. Lunch is at 11:45, then we have a "teacher's meeting" (hanging out in the air-conditioned teachers lounge drinking tube coffee). Then the next class starts at 1:20, then dinner. Maybe some camp games, then the kids work on their English journals ("Today at camp I feel ____"). Then they work on their song and dance, which they'll perform at the end of camp for Camp Idol. Our song is Upside Down by the A-Teens, which I've never heard before. We all have the songs stuck in our head: Dancing Queen, Uptown Girl, and Backstreet Boys!
So we did three straight days like that. Then today we had a field trip! It was exhausting, but we went to the Gwangju National Museum, then to a "Western" hotel for a "western-style" meal and taught the kids how to use a knife and fork. Then we went to the bamboo museum here in Damyang. This area is famous for the bamboo! We think the bamboo-forest fighting scenes in House of Flying Daggers was filmed here.
The best part of the day was that we got back at about 3:15 pm, and had the rest of the day FREEEEEEE. I took a nap until dinner, then Shelly, Kathryn and I walked to the Bamboo park for a bit. I'm still tired and want to get some more sleeeeepppp.
Oh, I forgot a few other fun things. On Friday night, six of us ventured into town to the local Hof (a place to get beer and snacks). We had some fun with the locals - we started out with two pitchers of Hite beer, and they bought us a bunch more. This beer is very very light though, so we didn't get hammered or anything :-)
The next night, Saturday, we had Survival Games for the kids. We took them into town to an elementary school gym and played games. Then the principal and the Korean teachers arranged a party for us! It was so nice. They had wine and beer and pizza and fruit and...soju (the Korean liquor)! We had a great time and bonded with the Koreans. Soju tastes OK by itself, kind of like sake, but we mixed it with Coke and it was delicious.
This camp for elementary ends on August 1st. We have a three day break, then start the middle school camp.
Our new thought is that Korea is "adorable"!!!
Principal Park met us at our dorms, and we got our room assignments. We all had separate rooms, thank goodness. And pretty strong fans, too. But you have to keep a window open, because of Fan Death. Fan Death is real :-) Anyway, we got fresh bed, uh, stuff (a bed cover, comforter and pillow), soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and laundry soap.
Day 1 of camp: we meet our students, but don't have to teach. The students were to create a team name, and make a poster and a cheer to represent their team. The Korean teachers pretty much took over, and after all day of this, we were all pretty much dejected and wondering why we were even around. But the kids were really adorable.
The next day we got into the actual teaching. The schedule was: breakfast at 7:40 am, Homeroom at 8:40, and the first class at 9. Lunch is at 11:45, then we have a "teacher's meeting" (hanging out in the air-conditioned teachers lounge drinking tube coffee). Then the next class starts at 1:20, then dinner. Maybe some camp games, then the kids work on their English journals ("Today at camp I feel ____"). Then they work on their song and dance, which they'll perform at the end of camp for Camp Idol. Our song is Upside Down by the A-Teens, which I've never heard before. We all have the songs stuck in our head: Dancing Queen, Uptown Girl, and Backstreet Boys!
So we did three straight days like that. Then today we had a field trip! It was exhausting, but we went to the Gwangju National Museum, then to a "Western" hotel for a "western-style" meal and taught the kids how to use a knife and fork. Then we went to the bamboo museum here in Damyang. This area is famous for the bamboo! We think the bamboo-forest fighting scenes in House of Flying Daggers was filmed here.
The best part of the day was that we got back at about 3:15 pm, and had the rest of the day FREEEEEEE. I took a nap until dinner, then Shelly, Kathryn and I walked to the Bamboo park for a bit. I'm still tired and want to get some more sleeeeepppp.
Oh, I forgot a few other fun things. On Friday night, six of us ventured into town to the local Hof (a place to get beer and snacks). We had some fun with the locals - we started out with two pitchers of Hite beer, and they bought us a bunch more. This beer is very very light though, so we didn't get hammered or anything :-)
The next night, Saturday, we had Survival Games for the kids. We took them into town to an elementary school gym and played games. Then the principal and the Korean teachers arranged a party for us! It was so nice. They had wine and beer and pizza and fruit and...soju (the Korean liquor)! We had a great time and bonded with the Koreans. Soju tastes OK by itself, kind of like sake, but we mixed it with Coke and it was delicious.
This camp for elementary ends on August 1st. We have a three day break, then start the middle school camp.
Our new thought is that Korea is "adorable"!!!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Recap, Pt. Deux
Well, it's Monday, a few days since I posted the first part! I still don't have my schedule in front of me, and I don't want to get up and get it because I'll lose my place at the computer :-) So, I'll just recap the highlights. In other words...To make a long story short (too late!).
I think I left off after the first day of orientation. I'm in the group going do Damyang. Which even though looks like it is pronounced Damn Yang, is really like Dahm-yahng. Anyway, it's the camp closest to where we are now. We'll be there to teach at two camps, ten days each. The first is elementary aged students, the second is middle school aged students. The camp is set up so that the students rotate to two different "booths" each day. There is a total of 12 booths (actually classrooms). So each person in our group is assigned to conduct lessons in a booth, with different subjects like Art, Food, Sports, Science, etc. We teach lessons about these subjects, but it is really to teach students the vocabulary that goes along with these activities. We're told that the students can read and write English pretty well, but they need the most practice speaking and practicing. I'm teaching Clothing for the elementary camp, and Math for the middle school camp. Actually it's called "Fun with Numbers"! haha.
So for the rest of orientation, we had some other English instructors from the Jeollanam-do Province conduct mini workshops on how to teach our lessons. We were divided by the lessons we taught, so we got more small-group instructions. On one day, the JLP (Jeollanamdo Language Program) instructors presented how to teach the lesson, then the next day, we gave a teaching demonstration in front of our small group! For the demonstration, we actually travelled to the closest camp, which happened to be Damyang, the one I'll be at. The camp is pretty cool. It's a university - really about the size of a community college. So that's what we've been doing for training.
After the demonstration day at Damyang, the instructors set up some group dinner plans. One was going to a restaurant that served this particular chicken dish that Koreans ate exactly three times during the summer, and that was one of the times. It's supposed to be cooling and refreshing. The other was to a spicy pork type place. No matter, I somehow managed to miss the bus. So I went into town to the after-dinner meetup point with some other folks. We met at Wa Bar, a more Western-style bar. But the coolest thing was that they had karaoke rooms! We had a huge private karaoke room. Practically our whole group piled in there and had fun sining. It did kind of devolve into insanity at one point, but I won't go into that here...Oh wait, before we got to Wa Bar, our taxi dropped us off at the corner, and there was this talent show/dance competition going on! It. Was. Amaaaaazing. We'd been watching Korean music videos, and this was like the video come to life. The way people dress here is sooooo fabulous, and the dancing, and gestures and facial expressions are so great. It's kind of like backstreet boys pop, I think it's called K-Pop. Anyway, so we watched that for a few minutes, then walked into the downtown area. This area is sooo cool. It's like a pedestrian-only (except for a few cars that come by once in awhile) area, very neon and brightly lit (but again, tasteful!), with tons of shops with clothes, shoes, fake bags, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Dunkin Donuts seems to be popular (they wear these adorable orange outfits there). The people-watching is the best, though. Everyone is so beautiful and amazingly dressed. And the few nights I was there, it always rained for a bit, a light misty rain, but everyone (except us) had little umbrellas, adding to the cuteness. So that's downtown.
Yesterday (Sunday), we visited a temple/garden area. It was very beautiful! We spent only about an hour there though, so it was very rushed. Which is so not the vibe I wanted at a temple. Oh well. Then we went to a fancy, 8 story department store. This had the real stuff - Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, etc. Plus, a Starbucks! We've been drinking tube coffee here at the dorm (which we're very grateful for, but it gets old after awhile). So I ordered a latte. I didn't go all soy-hazelnut on them. Then we went all over the store, to every level. Koreans have such great style. They can layer like a champ. I bought this long baggy t-shirt there. Then we got back on the bus and didn't go out that night because there was supposed to be a typhoon! Yeah, and that day I had washed some clothes in the bathroom sink, and hung them up on the clothesline on the roof of the classroom building. Which they lock at night. And with the impending typhoon, I thought my clothes would be soaked and flung around!!! But no typhoon. But there's supposed to be a typhoon tonight!!! Yeah right. We think they're just telling us this so we don't go out at night :-)
I think I've hit all the highlights so far. We've gone out on the town about everyday. The people are great. Basically I think the consensus of the group is:
WE :::HEART::: KOREA !!!
Tomorrow we pack up, have dinner with the governor, then leave for our separate camps!
I think I left off after the first day of orientation. I'm in the group going do Damyang. Which even though looks like it is pronounced Damn Yang, is really like Dahm-yahng. Anyway, it's the camp closest to where we are now. We'll be there to teach at two camps, ten days each. The first is elementary aged students, the second is middle school aged students. The camp is set up so that the students rotate to two different "booths" each day. There is a total of 12 booths (actually classrooms). So each person in our group is assigned to conduct lessons in a booth, with different subjects like Art, Food, Sports, Science, etc. We teach lessons about these subjects, but it is really to teach students the vocabulary that goes along with these activities. We're told that the students can read and write English pretty well, but they need the most practice speaking and practicing. I'm teaching Clothing for the elementary camp, and Math for the middle school camp. Actually it's called "Fun with Numbers"! haha.
So for the rest of orientation, we had some other English instructors from the Jeollanam-do Province conduct mini workshops on how to teach our lessons. We were divided by the lessons we taught, so we got more small-group instructions. On one day, the JLP (Jeollanamdo Language Program) instructors presented how to teach the lesson, then the next day, we gave a teaching demonstration in front of our small group! For the demonstration, we actually travelled to the closest camp, which happened to be Damyang, the one I'll be at. The camp is pretty cool. It's a university - really about the size of a community college. So that's what we've been doing for training.
After the demonstration day at Damyang, the instructors set up some group dinner plans. One was going to a restaurant that served this particular chicken dish that Koreans ate exactly three times during the summer, and that was one of the times. It's supposed to be cooling and refreshing. The other was to a spicy pork type place. No matter, I somehow managed to miss the bus. So I went into town to the after-dinner meetup point with some other folks. We met at Wa Bar, a more Western-style bar. But the coolest thing was that they had karaoke rooms! We had a huge private karaoke room. Practically our whole group piled in there and had fun sining. It did kind of devolve into insanity at one point, but I won't go into that here...Oh wait, before we got to Wa Bar, our taxi dropped us off at the corner, and there was this talent show/dance competition going on! It. Was. Amaaaaazing. We'd been watching Korean music videos, and this was like the video come to life. The way people dress here is sooooo fabulous, and the dancing, and gestures and facial expressions are so great. It's kind of like backstreet boys pop, I think it's called K-Pop. Anyway, so we watched that for a few minutes, then walked into the downtown area. This area is sooo cool. It's like a pedestrian-only (except for a few cars that come by once in awhile) area, very neon and brightly lit (but again, tasteful!), with tons of shops with clothes, shoes, fake bags, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Dunkin Donuts seems to be popular (they wear these adorable orange outfits there). The people-watching is the best, though. Everyone is so beautiful and amazingly dressed. And the few nights I was there, it always rained for a bit, a light misty rain, but everyone (except us) had little umbrellas, adding to the cuteness. So that's downtown.
Yesterday (Sunday), we visited a temple/garden area. It was very beautiful! We spent only about an hour there though, so it was very rushed. Which is so not the vibe I wanted at a temple. Oh well. Then we went to a fancy, 8 story department store. This had the real stuff - Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, etc. Plus, a Starbucks! We've been drinking tube coffee here at the dorm (which we're very grateful for, but it gets old after awhile). So I ordered a latte. I didn't go all soy-hazelnut on them. Then we went all over the store, to every level. Koreans have such great style. They can layer like a champ. I bought this long baggy t-shirt there. Then we got back on the bus and didn't go out that night because there was supposed to be a typhoon! Yeah, and that day I had washed some clothes in the bathroom sink, and hung them up on the clothesline on the roof of the classroom building. Which they lock at night. And with the impending typhoon, I thought my clothes would be soaked and flung around!!! But no typhoon. But there's supposed to be a typhoon tonight!!! Yeah right. We think they're just telling us this so we don't go out at night :-)
I think I've hit all the highlights so far. We've gone out on the town about everyday. The people are great. Basically I think the consensus of the group is:
WE :::HEART::: KOREA !!!
Tomorrow we pack up, have dinner with the governor, then leave for our separate camps!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
It's Saturday?!
I've been in Korea for...oh, only four days now! Days are so screwed up. And our schedule is so jam-packed here, it's been difficult to keep track. Like things we did just yesterday seem like days ago. But I think I'm finally getting adjusted!
Computer time is hard to come by, since all of the instructors are staying in one "compound" for the orientation week, with only a handful of computers available. And I can't get my laptop connected, either by wireless or by landline, so I decided to create this here Blooger instead of using the super-cool iWeb! Oh well. I think right now I just want to do a run-down of what has happened so far:
Monday (7/14): Nicholas and I drove to St. Louis and spent the day just hanging out, shopping, eating and buying fudge :-) We stayed at the Hyatt at Union Station and enjoyed the day.
Tuesday: I needed to arrive at the airport by 6:00 am to meet the group, so my alarm went off at 4:15. My emotions about leaving hadn't caught up with my until then. But that morning, it was a different story. I made it to the MetroLink and caught the train to the airport, and made it in time to meet up with my new friends!
The trip went very smoothly. St. Louis to Chicago, then a three hour stop, then we boarded Korean Airlines! The plane was huge. And the flight attendants were amazing! They had shiny sky-blue outfits, and bows and scarfs that somehow defied gravity and floated in mid-air, very Jetsons-like. They even had matching blue eye shadow!
The 14-hour trip really wasn't so bad. I slept most of the way. We landed, got off the plane, and walked through the Seoul airport to get our luggage and catch our charter bus. The airport was very high-tech and efficient-looking, and everyone there was soooo stylish. Finally, we got on the bus and headed to Gwangju - about four hours away. Halfway there, we stopped at what would probably be a truckstop in America. But here in Korea, it was amaaaaazinggg!!! OK, it was dark, and raining the slightest bit, making it misty and other-worldly. But it was accented in neon, and had beautiful reflecting pools, and inside there were many different fast food and convenience stype little stores. Our meal was brought to us, and we had a choice of bi bim bap or udon noodles. I went bi bim bap, which is a bunch of vegetables and hot sauce that you mix with rice. And it was good. Walking back on to the bus, I felt like I was in a Haruki Murakami novel.
As we drove into Gwangju (the fourth largest city in South Korea and our orientation city), I saw a sparkling beautiful city with lots of tasteful neon. Not garrish, Las Vegas neon, but clean, efficient neon. We got there after 11 pm Korean time. The bus pulled up, then as there was no eleveator, we all heaved our bags up a flght of stairs. We got our room assignments, then crashed for the night.
Wednesday: Despite having gone to sleep only a few hours ago, most of us were up pretty early. Also, the air conditioning shut off, so it was hard to stay in bed. We had breakfast at 8 am, then we had the morning free since they assumed we would want to sleep until noon. But no. A group of us decided to venture out, with the intention of finding a convenience store for water and an ATM and plug adapters. Instead, we found a bus stop (actually it looked like the main bus, um, place) and decided to take the bus into town! Of course we had no idea where we were going, and didn't speak Korean. But we figured out that the No. 6 bus would take us in to town. Yeah! So we got on the bus, and stopped in an area with shops an markets and stuff. We had a great time just walking around. We got Korean juices and coffee drinks, found an international bank and exchanged our dollars (1,000 won = $1) and found some plug adapters. Hooray! Then we tried to get back on the bus to go back to our compound. For some reason, we still don't know, the bus driver would not let us on to the bus! There must have been a good reason, but with the language barrier it was impossible to figure out. So we ended up hoofing it all the way back to our place, which took about 30 minutes. And we were not exactly wearing our walking shoes. Oh well.
We got back a little late for lunch, ate a bit, then started our orientation!
I'm going to stop at this point. I'll have to look at my schedule, and we're abou to go to dinner tonight. Write more later!
Computer time is hard to come by, since all of the instructors are staying in one "compound" for the orientation week, with only a handful of computers available. And I can't get my laptop connected, either by wireless or by landline, so I decided to create this here Blooger instead of using the super-cool iWeb! Oh well. I think right now I just want to do a run-down of what has happened so far:
Monday (7/14): Nicholas and I drove to St. Louis and spent the day just hanging out, shopping, eating and buying fudge :-) We stayed at the Hyatt at Union Station and enjoyed the day.
Tuesday: I needed to arrive at the airport by 6:00 am to meet the group, so my alarm went off at 4:15. My emotions about leaving hadn't caught up with my until then. But that morning, it was a different story. I made it to the MetroLink and caught the train to the airport, and made it in time to meet up with my new friends!
The trip went very smoothly. St. Louis to Chicago, then a three hour stop, then we boarded Korean Airlines! The plane was huge. And the flight attendants were amazing! They had shiny sky-blue outfits, and bows and scarfs that somehow defied gravity and floated in mid-air, very Jetsons-like. They even had matching blue eye shadow!
The 14-hour trip really wasn't so bad. I slept most of the way. We landed, got off the plane, and walked through the Seoul airport to get our luggage and catch our charter bus. The airport was very high-tech and efficient-looking, and everyone there was soooo stylish. Finally, we got on the bus and headed to Gwangju - about four hours away. Halfway there, we stopped at what would probably be a truckstop in America. But here in Korea, it was amaaaaazinggg!!! OK, it was dark, and raining the slightest bit, making it misty and other-worldly. But it was accented in neon, and had beautiful reflecting pools, and inside there were many different fast food and convenience stype little stores. Our meal was brought to us, and we had a choice of bi bim bap or udon noodles. I went bi bim bap, which is a bunch of vegetables and hot sauce that you mix with rice. And it was good. Walking back on to the bus, I felt like I was in a Haruki Murakami novel.
As we drove into Gwangju (the fourth largest city in South Korea and our orientation city), I saw a sparkling beautiful city with lots of tasteful neon. Not garrish, Las Vegas neon, but clean, efficient neon. We got there after 11 pm Korean time. The bus pulled up, then as there was no eleveator, we all heaved our bags up a flght of stairs. We got our room assignments, then crashed for the night.
Wednesday: Despite having gone to sleep only a few hours ago, most of us were up pretty early. Also, the air conditioning shut off, so it was hard to stay in bed. We had breakfast at 8 am, then we had the morning free since they assumed we would want to sleep until noon. But no. A group of us decided to venture out, with the intention of finding a convenience store for water and an ATM and plug adapters. Instead, we found a bus stop (actually it looked like the main bus, um, place) and decided to take the bus into town! Of course we had no idea where we were going, and didn't speak Korean. But we figured out that the No. 6 bus would take us in to town. Yeah! So we got on the bus, and stopped in an area with shops an markets and stuff. We had a great time just walking around. We got Korean juices and coffee drinks, found an international bank and exchanged our dollars (1,000 won = $1) and found some plug adapters. Hooray! Then we tried to get back on the bus to go back to our compound. For some reason, we still don't know, the bus driver would not let us on to the bus! There must have been a good reason, but with the language barrier it was impossible to figure out. So we ended up hoofing it all the way back to our place, which took about 30 minutes. And we were not exactly wearing our walking shoes. Oh well.
We got back a little late for lunch, ate a bit, then started our orientation!
I'm going to stop at this point. I'll have to look at my schedule, and we're abou to go to dinner tonight. Write more later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
