Seoul Adventure

My first week in Korea has been absolutely amazing. Almost all 224 scholars in the TaLK program are friendly, outgoing, and a whole lot of fun. Everyone is willing to participate and have a good time in lectures, which makes them infinitely more interesting than any class I’ve ever been in.

I’ve been keeping in touch with a fellow English teacher at my school and she told me that I’ll be living within walking distance in a 2 bedroom apartment which is unheard of in Korea. She also told me that the principle wants a TaLK scholar for a whole year so if I decide I want to extend my contract I will be able to stay at the same school, which is reassuring.

Also, I went to Seoul this weekend with a group of about 20 scholars and had an amazing time! We went to Itaewon for fries at an American diner (so good) and then dinner at a traditional Korean barbeque place that was delicious!! After that we went to Hongdae to some Korean clubs and hung out with some Korean University students who wanted to practice their English.

Today’s going to be a short update because I’m exhausted and need to get some sleep in all of this but I’ll try to post again soon!

xox

Orientation

Orientation

Today was the first real day of orientation! We’ve been pretty busy but I think I’ve finally caught up on sleep. Yesterday I came back from our field trip to a Korean folk village and went to take a quick nap before dinner, didn’t wake up until 9:00PM. I went downstairs and found everyone watching a movie so I joined them for a few hours and then went right back to sleep and slept through the whole night so I am back on track!

Today we met with our groups, which are made up of people who will be in the same province or a nearby province. We’ll spend all of our lectures with them to get to know the scholars closest to us, which is really nice.

After an early lunch we got on a bus and drove 2 hours to Seoul for our opening ceremony and scavenger hunt. The opening ceremony was awesome, there was a group of little kids called the Rainbow Choir who sang for us, a group of guys who performed a traditional Korean dance, and the most awesome kids I’ve ever seen in a performing martial arts group called the K Tigers. Below I’ll add a link for the album and a video of the K Tigers.

Seoul Scavenger Hunt

I’m exhausted so it is bedtime for me!

xox

Magoksa Temple Stay

Good Morning! It is almost 5AM here and I still haven’t quite adjusted to the time change, although I did manage to get 8 hours of sleep last night, which is definitely an improvement!

Yesterday I got to go on a field trip to the Magoksa Temple just outside of Seoul. Orientation doesn’t technically start until the 7^th so scholars had the 3^rd-6^th to get here. In the meantime they set up a fieldtrip for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Yesterday was the Temple; today they’re going to a hot spring; and tomorrow a folk village. Unfortunately there are only about 50 spots on the bus so only so many people can sign up for each trip and once you’ve been on one you aren’t allowed to sign up for another one. I, for one, am extremely excited that I picked the Buddhist Temple because it was a really cool experience.

When we first got there they brought us to an empty room where we brought out mats and sat them on the heated floors (LOVE heated floors). They had a worker teach us how to properly bow and meditate and gave us a small lesson on Buddhism which was really interesting.

Then a monk came in and we had an hour-long Q&A session where we could ask him anything we wanted. I had no idea that monks had a sense of humor but this one was hilarious and we learned a lot about being a monk and about Buddhism from him.

After the Q&A we had lunch in a cafeteria underground with very Korean food. I had rice, bean sprouts, kimchi (very spicy, fermented cabbage), some other green vegetable, and a rice cake. Everything was really good except the kimchi was SUPER spicy and there were no drinks so my mouth was on fire for most of the meal.

We got to walk around the Temple grounds after lunch and they were absolutely beautiful. I’ll add another link to the facebook album below:

Temple Pictures 

Finally, we got back into the warm, heated-floor, room (we had been walking around in the snow, yikes) and made beaded bracelets. The Buddhists bow 108 times in the middle of the day to relieve them of the 108 most common sufferings so the bracelets we made were supposed to be 108 bead bracelets to help us do the same when we wear it. They said that the bracelets didn’t actually have to be 108 beads, though some scholars did make them that long and wrap them around a few times. I made mine 23 beads long for my favorite number, and how old I’ll be in a few days!

After that we walked around a bit more and then met up at the bus and headed back to Jochiwan.

Today I don’t have anything planned so maybe I’ll walk around campus or the town. Time for breakfast now!

xox

Hello Korea!

I made it to South Korea!!! It is currently 6:30 AM in Seoul. I got to the school where we’re having the 3 week orientation around 9:00 last night and between now and then I’ve slept a whole 4 hours. Hello, jetlag! But since I don’t need to be awake for another half hour I figured I could fit a blog post in!

Getting here had a very stressful hiccup so I’m glad to finally be settled in, even with jetlag.  I booked my flight through KoreanAir and on the website it had a small, but apparently very important clause, saying that to check in I needed the credit card used to purchase the flight. When I booked my flight I used Mom’s credit card and then paid her back once I sold my car so I knew I wasn’t going to have the card with me but we figured when she came to the check in counter in Raleigh she could show it to them there and it wouldn’t be an issue. So I checked in at the RDU airport at 6:00AM with no questions asked, completely forgetting about the credit card situation. I flew from RDU to ATL on a Delta plane that was technically still run by KoreanAIr without a problem but then when I got to ATL to check in for my next flight I was told I wouldn’t be allowed on the plane without that credit card. Major panic set in since I (A) didn’t have the credit card (not only because it was Mom’s but because the number had been stolen in December so even she didn’t have the card) and (B) had a little over an hour before the plane was supposed to board. The KoreanAir lady told me that to get on the flight Mom would have to send an email to KoreanAir Atlanta with her credit card statement, new card number, and card identification number. At first they also gave me the option to refund my ticket and buy a new one with my card but I only have a debit card and it did not have over $1,000 on it. So I called Mom in a panic and she drove all the way home from her payroll route (about a half hour away) and got the email sent to KoreanAir with minutes to spare before the plane boarded. And in the meantime Dad rushed to WellsFargo and put enough money in my bank to cover the cost of a new ticket but when I tried to take that route I was shut down since I already flew from RDU to ATL. Even though she had originally given me that option. Needless to say I was extremely thrilled to board that plane, even if it meant 14 and a half hours in flight. Also, I have awesome parents.

Everything after that was smooth sailing. The flight wasn’t as bad as I expected, I think I watched 4 or 5 movies and slept a few hours. They fed us 2 meals, which were surprisingly good, and snacks in between those. When I got off the plane and in the line to check passports I found 3 other girls who were in the TaLK program and we went through customs and baggage claim together. It’s comforting to have other people with you, even if none of you know what you’re doing. As soon as we got through customs there was a TaLK booth set up for us and we checked in and then joined a group of about 20 on the two hour bus ride to the university.

We landed around 5:00PM but by the time we got to campus it was 9:00PM and even though we were all exhausted they had a mini orientation where they told us what group we’re in and signed us up for Korean bank accounts. The groups are divided by province so you get to know people who will be stationed around you and my group leader, Hilda, is this really sweet lady so I think my group will be a lot of fun. Unfortunately my group color is orange. It’s going to take everything in me to stop associating orange with Clemson long enough to wear it but I suppose I can try!

My half hour is about up and it is time to go get ready for my day, touring a Buddhist temple!!

Also, I put pictures of my dorm on facebook but I’ll put the link on here in case for some reason someone can’t see it there.

Dorm Pictures!

xox

Goodbye Carolina

I am officially less than 8 hours away from leaving for South Korea! These past 2 months at home flew by but I’m excited to try teaching in another country! Okay, mostly I’m excited to spend this first month in orientation.

The TaLK program has been really good about keeping us updated, for example they sent us a few emails outlining the orientation and letting us know where it’s going to be. They even sent us a map of the Incheon airport, letting us know where the TaLK booth would be waiting when we arrived.

For the first 3 weeks I’ll be at the following address:

Hoyeon Dormitory # 4,
Korea University Sejong Campus,

Jochiwon-Eup, Yeongi-Gun,

Chungnam 339-700,
Republic of Korea

And this is what I’ll be doing:

After that I start teaching! One of my co-teachers emailed me last week and let me know that I’ll be working in Sijeong Myeon, Yeongam County in the southern end of Jeolanamdo Province. I think the spelling comes up slightly different on google but it wasn’t too difficult to find. She said they are looking for my apartment/house but I definitely won’t be staying with a Korean family. I’ll try to keep everything updated but for now I’m going to get some rest since I have an extremely long day of traveling ahead of me!

xox