Thursday, September 23, 2010

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Today is the actual day of Chuseok, so a lot of things were shut down. I was toying around with the idea of striking out to explore the mountain that is near my house, but I was having a hard time working up the motivation to go and do that by myself. I was on facebook, and one the people from the "new teachers in South Korea" group had posted that he was throwing together a last minute group to meet at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. I decided that I'd head down that way, see the palace, and maybe meet some new people.

The subways were pretty empty, but I was surprised at how many people were at the palace itself. There was a procession of people dressed in period costumes from the era that the palace was built. It was originally constructed in 1394, then it was rebuilt in the 1800's. The name means "Palace Greatly Blessed By Heaven". All of the architectural details were pretty cool to see, but they didn't translate too well with my little point and shoot camera.

After we walked around the palace area for awhile, we all split up to go separate ways. One girl and I decided to go to Itaewon for dinner. Itaewon is commonly known as the foreigner's district. It is near one of the military bases, so it is a lot more international than the rest of Seoul. We ended up eating Mexican food. I ordered a fajita, and it was pretty good, but there definitely wasn't as much spice on it as I was used to. This surprised me, because a lot of the Korean food I've had definitely has some kick to it. We ended the evening by going to this really foreign place called "Coldstone Creamery". You should try it sometime ;-)

Here are some pictures from the palace. There is a picture of me in front of the palace, but it is on someone else's camera, and it hasn't been posted to facebook yet. Maybe I'll update this whenever that happens... Or maybe not.














Monday, September 20, 2010

It's A Small World After All!

Whew... It has been a crazy week. This week is Chuseok (추석) in Korea. Chuseok is basically like Korean Thanksgiving. From what I understand (which is very little at this point) it is a harvest festival and people also go to their ancestral towns to be with family. It seems like there is also an element of remembering dead ancestors, but I haven't figured out all of the ins and outs of that yet. Things have been crazy at school leading up to Chuseok. We have the next three days off, then classes again on Friday. There are lots of things that I'll hopefully be able to catch up on in the next few days, but I'll start with two stories, both of which happened in the last 24 hours, that prove how incredibly small the world is. 


When I went to the Chicago consulate to interview for my Korean visa, I met a girl named Renee. She was going to be living and working in the same area of Seoul as I was. She and I talked for a bit, but in the midst of the nerves and busyness of getting the visa paperwork done, we never got around to exchanging contact information. A few days later, when I went back to Chicago to pick up my visa, Renee was also there and she gave me her contact information. I stuck the card in my purse, but somewhere along the way I thought I had lost it. I found it buried in my purse lining when I got to Korea though. We emailed back and forth a bit, and yesterday we got together to eat pizza and watch a movie.


When I met Renee at the subway station, she told me that she had a co-worker who had moved out of an apartment that was somewhere near my subway station. Her co-worker had a bunch of furniture that she was trying to get rid of. Renee thought she could recognize the building if she saw it, and she had the key code to go into the apartment. Her co-worker said she could take whatever she wanted. Renee lives a few subway stops away, so she told me that if there was anything useful, I was welcome to have it.


We ordered our pizza and walked back to my apartment building. Which, incidentally, turned out to be the same building Renee's co-worker used to live in. I now have a couch, bookshelf, footstool and table that we carried down the elevator. I was pretty excited!


The second thing is almost as crazy. My first Sunday here, I went to a church I had found online. The pastor asked me where I was from, and then introduced me to a couple who were from Indiana. Lance and Sarah and I got along well, and we have been making plans to start a small group Bible study. They live really close to me too. A few weeks ago, my sister Beka asked for my contact info. She said that her boyfriend was good friends with some people who had just moved to Seoul to teach. I sent her my contact info.


Tonight, I got an email from Lance. He informed me that I had a younger sister named Beka who was dating a boy named Aaron who was his good friend from his home church in Indiana. It was a little freaky ;-)


All in all, the world is incredibly tiny. This is a really comforting thing for this small-town girl living in a city with a metro-area population of 22.5 million people. I just might survive Seoul!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Where there's a will....

I like to cook and bake. A lot. It is one of the things that I have missed the most since moving to Korea. I have been having some difficulty in dealing with cultural differences/personality differences with one of my Korean co-workers, and I had pretty much had it. I really wanted to try and bake something. The only problem is, I don't have an oven in my tiny apartment. However, I did not graduate from Purdue for nothing ;-)

I started to think about what exactly it was an oven did, and what crazy things I could do to replicate one. So, I took out a skillet and put my stove on really low heat. Then, I took the lid from my pot to hold the heat in and create a very miniature, very makeshift sort of oven thing. I bought some chocolate squares in one of the underground subway shops, and made some chocolate chip cookies.

Cookie dough waiting to be "baked"



Evidence of the decided lack of chocolate chips in South Korea



The "oven"!!



See? They are getting all nice and puffy, just like cookies are supposed to get!



The finished product... So, they look a little bit like mini chocolate chip pancakes... But they tasted like cookies!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Balderdash and Cuteness

A few days ago, I played a version of Balderdash with my students. It took a little while to explain the concept, but once they caught on, my students seemed to really enjoy it! We started out playing with the vocabulary words for the week, but we moved through them pretty quickly so I busted out the real Balderdash words. Some of the answers were pretty awesome!

Ichthyarchy: The rule of fishes

Student's answers:
The medical language
That word like a sound from the bird
Hairstyle that bride does in wedding
a food that has seafood's taste
It's a name of disease
I can teach you a few Chinese in your free time (I actually had no clue what this one was supposed to be, but it was from one of my Chinese students)
Kind of animal lives in the North Pole
Japanese food. Like "dacoyaki"
Some architect that people used in Greece
It is a micro organism in the sea

Labascate: to start to fall or slide

Student's answers:
A kind of bird
I think "labascate" means the labratory's white rat's scat (dung) (this one definitely got a lot of laughs!)
The word means that someone run always because of crime
That word means that a kind of fish. Like crab or king crab.
A refrigerator used in laboratory?!
I think... It's a thing that protects knees.
Well, it is earth factor. It is in the earth.
It seems a living thing such as amoeba.
It is proof of your job.

I always love reading my student's work. Yes, there are grammar errors. I foresee talking about articles (a/an/the) a LOT in the future. But I love the way that they see language. Like connecting "labascate" and lab/scat. I love being able to help them find a way to express an idea.

For our midterm, each student has to give a 3-5 minute speech, and they had to submit their topics to me by Friday. I'm really looking forward to the breadth of topics my students chose! I gave them a list of possible topics, like "my hero" or "all about me". Only a few of my students chose topics from the list. One of them is talking about Korea in the 1950's before and after the war. One is talking about politics and romance in an ancient dynasty. One is talking about how she hopes to make an impact with her nursing degree.

My students are starting to get more comfortable around me. For many of them, I am the first foreign teacher they have ever had, and they are really nervous about making mistakes, or me not being able to understand them. Some of them are a little difficult to understand, but they all manage to make their point. With each successful conversation, they get a little more confident and a little less shy. If this keeps up, some of them may even eat lunch with the English teachers ;-) There is currently a type of buffer zone whenever we eat in the cafeteria. It's kinda funny ;-)

Basically, I really like my students. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester talking with them and hopefully helping them become more confident in actually speaking a language that most of them have studied for 10 years.

In other news, I am continually amazed at how cute things in Korea are. In order to get use the subway, bus or taxi system you use what is called T-Money. It is a little card that you load with money and then swipe. I have been using a card that is like a credit card that I pull out of my wallet every time I go somewhere. Tonight though, I found a new T-Money card that I'm pretty excited about!! That's right, I have a "Hello Kitty" cell phone charm that doubles as my T-Money card!! The black oval is the key to my apartment, and the other white thing is the charger adapter. In Korea, there is a universal phone charger, and each phone has those little adapters that hang off of them. It's pretty nice! You never have to worry about being somewhere and unable to charge your phone. Oh, and for those of you who are rolling your eyes at the pink phone, don't worry. It isn't mine. One of the people at my school loaned it to me until I'm able to get my own phone, which will hopefully be next week!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

I couldn't believe my ears...

I have a friend who invited me to go to a concert on Sunday night. I almost didn't go, because Sunday was a long day and I was tired. However, I decided that I really need to start trying to make myself do things other than going to school. So, I hopped on the subway and went to the concert. It was described to me as a Korean gospel choir. I was a little skeptical.

In order to understand my skepticism, you have to understand my general exposure to Korean music thus far. I've heard Korean traditional and classical music, which doesn't sound Western at all. Most of the music I've heard is Kpop. Don't get me wrong, I have a soft spot for some Kpop. But it certainly isn't anything like gospel music. Listen to the first part of this song, and you'll see what I mean.



It's cute, and it will get stuck in your head... But it left me skeptical about a gospel choir. I was most pleasantly surprised to hear this when the concert started. You really should listen to the whole thing. It's good, I promise!



It was a pretty awesome evening! They had the words on the screen in Korean and English for every song, so everyone in the audience was singing in a mix of languages. The choir was an absolute joy to watch! At one point, the tenor section go so excited that they knocked their microphone stand over ;-) I was pretty tired when I eventually made it home, but it was well worth staying out late! For those of you in Korea, you should go check them out! They sing on the first Sunday of each month at Hyehwa station on line 4!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Stationary Stores


I needed some office supply type things for my classroom, so I went to the little stationary store that is just down the street from my apartment. It is called "Morning Glory" and I've been wanting to check it out for quite some time! I got all of the boring things I needed (paper clips, pencils, scissors, etc) and I also picked up some really fun things to keep my grading organized! Check it out!!


Anne of Green Gables has apparently made her Korean debut! This is a really sturdy plastic binder. They also had this one:




I thought they were pretty amazing! I also picked up this notebook to keep track of attendance:




Finally, this is some really cool stationary for writing letters! It was only 1,000 won (which is about $0.85). You can't really tell from the picture, but there are sparkles on that stationary!!




















I got all of that, six plastic folders, six pencils, 1500 staples, 200 paper clips, scissors, another notebook of 100 sheets of decorated paper, and a package of envelopes for 28,000 won. It was pretty exciting!!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Snippets from Week 1

Well, I survived the first week of school. It has been an absolutely INSANE week. We started classes on Monday, but by the time Monday rolled around, that was about all we knew. None of us in the English Speaking/Writing Program (hereafter known as ESWP) had a class schedule. So, we each sat in our respective office/classroom and waited for students to show up.

I sat and waited, and waited and waited. Around 10:30, the guy who is our English speaking contact with the rest of the university came in and told us that we had to go to the chapel service at noon to be introduced to the university. Students are required to go to chapel every day, but since the whole thing is in Korean, we are not required to attend. We were met near the chapel by the assistant dean of academic affairs, and he told us to follow him.

We were all pretty surprised when he opened a door and we walked onto the stage in front of the entire student body! We sat there, front and center, and listened to an awards ceremony in Korean for almost 45 minutes before we were introduced. Introductions consisted of the university president telling where we were from, what university we had attended and what our major was in Korean and then we were supposed to bow and go sit back down. By far the hardest part was trying to look interested in an awards ceremony that I couldn't understand for 45 minutes ;-)

My first class came in around 2:45. We had to do placement tests for every single student, so the first day was spent in having students write essays to introduce themselves and letting them ask questions. The most popular questions were:

  • Where are you from?
  • Do you have a boyfriend?
  • Do you like Korean/spicy food?
  • How long will you stay in Korea?
  • What is your favorite thing about Korea?
  • Do you want to marry a Korean man?
My next class came in at 4:10. They were my IT English students, and I really like them a lot! It turns out that I get along really well with people who are a little bit nerdy no matter where in the world we are ;-) I have six students in that class. There are four boys and two girls. They got the same round of essay writing/questioning too.

On Tuesday, we administered individual speaking tests and written grammar/idiom tests. Each essay, written exam and speaking test had to be graded and ranked by level by Wednesday at 1:00, so it was a pretty crazy time. We got all of our students ranked, then we had a meeting to sort them out by levels. We had figured out our schedules, more or less, by that point. On Wednesday, I had two advanced classes, one intermediate class and IT English. 

My 8:00 class is advanced and it has five students in it. Four of my students are Korean, and one of them is from Cambodia. I was most pleasantly surprised to discover that there are some international students at my university. Most of them are from Cambodia and mainland China. My 10:25 class only had two students in it, but I found out today that their class schedules had changed, so they are going to be taking an 8:00 class with a different teacher now.

My 2:45 class is my biggest, with ten students. They are all at an advanced level as well. There is one girl who spent a year and a half living in Canada, and she is very anxious to continue to practice her English. One of my students is from China, and he is pretty anxious to go back. The other eight students are from Korea, and most of them are nursing majors. The students who seem to be the most interested in learning English are the computer/technology majors, education majors and nursing majors. Almost all of my students fall into those groups. I have a few odd ones out who are social welfare students. 

I currently have an open class at 10:25 because of the two girls having to switch their time. I don't know what the university is going to put in that slot. I have heard rumors of a TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication) speaking class. Who knows what will end up going there.

I also met my younger students for the first time today. I spent 90 minutes a week teaching short English classes to 4-6 year olds at the childhood learning center that is on campus. The kids are so adorable!! They are all a comical mixture of really excited and terribly shy. I think that I am the first foreigner that most of them have ever talked to.

I have six classes of kids for about 15 minutes each. Today we practiced introducing ourselves. I don't know how many hundreds of times I said "My name is Sarah. What is your name?" today. We also talked about age, family members and days of the week depending on how advanced the class was. After I was done teaching classes, the teachers at the center invited me to come to lunch with them. They were all really really sweet, and I liked them quite a lot! Most of them speak very little English, and I speak practically no Korean. It is amazing how much you can communicate using single words and wild hand movements. I think that I will be a master at charades after spending a year teaching English ;-)

The last bit of exciting news is that I was offered the chance to teach an additional class. It is part of the lifelong learning center affiliated with the university. I will be teaching a wide variety of ages/backgrounds/professions for one hour each week. The students are apparently all at a fairly basic level of English, and they just want the chance to do some interaction. Registration for that class isn't closed yet, but it will be somewhere around ten students. I'm excited to teach people who are seeking knowledge, and it is pretty nice because they are increasing my pay by a fairly significant amount for doing this!

Really the only other interesting thing that has happened is that Typhoon Kompasu passed over the general Seoul area on Thursday. Everyone was expecting it to be a pretty terrible storm, because contrary to the usual pattern, the storm strengthened between Okinawa, Japan and Korea. It hit much earlier than was predicted. The whole thing was over by about 10:00 in the morning. There were lots of trees that had been uprooted, and a few of them snapped in half. Lots of branches were down, and there were random signs and sheets of metal and plexiglass on the street. From what I've heard, there wasn't any significant damage and nobody was killed. Hopefully this means that the end of monsoon season is near! I'm getting pretty tired of the nearly constant rain!

I think that I'll stop now ;-) It has been a full week so I will spare you any more details ;-)

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