I just realized it’s been more than two weeks since my last
blog post so it’s time to do a serious recap! The reason I haven’t been writing
on here is because I’ve been working on my extension essays. I just finished
the application and it will be sent in next week so hopefully I’ll be in Korea
for at least another 6 months!
So, let’s start with Cinco de Mayo. Korean’s have no idea
what Cinco de Mayo is but in this country you can always find foreigner
celebrations. My friends and I found an event in Seoul organized by a Mexican
restaurant there so we decided to check it out. It was by far the most alien feeling
I’ve had in Korea, like reverse culture-shock. It was in a park area in
Gangwan, Seoul and as soon as you walked in it was entirely foreigners. It was
so odd being able to hear other English conversations around us! The food was
amazing, it was the first time I’ve had Mexican food since I got here and I
didn’t realize how much I missed it. I used to do happy hour with the girls
every week or so at a Mexican place in Columbia so it is definitely one of my
comfort foods. We spent a good 6 hours there with the other foreigners and then
headed to the jimjilbong in the bus terminal to sleep. Seoul is about a 4 hour
bus ride for me so I went home pretty early to work on lesson plans for the
week.
Me with a delicious chicken quesadilla and margarita (and of course my friend making a face behind me)
Last weekend a group of us went back to Jochiwon where we
had orientation. It was so nice to actually be able to explore the city. When
we were there it was so cold all we wanted to do was stay inside but there are
actually a lot of cute shops and restaurants right near our campus! There is
also a place there that has the most amazing fried chicken I think I have ever
experienced so we partly went back for that!
This week on my day off I went to the Boseong Green Tea
festival! This was by far the best festival I’ve ever been to. My friend, Emma,
has Wednesday’s off too and it was the first day of the festival so we decided
to go. Since we were the only two foreigners there we got recruited to do every
hands-on exhibit they had! We got dressed in traditional Korean clothing to hit
a GIANT drum 3 times. Apparently if you do this and make a wish it is supposed
to come true and since we were dressed the part I’m pretty sure it will work!
Then we went to actually make our own green tea! We started with freshly picked
tea leaves and dried them in a kiln. We had to continuously flip them (with our
hands mind you) so they wouldn’t burn. Then after 10 or so minutes we would
move them to canvas and roll them for about 10 minutes and then switch back.
Meanwhile I’m pretty sure everyone at the festival came up to us to take
pictures, video, or try to talk to us! Even the Mayor of Boseong came up to us
for a photo shoot! We did this for a total of 2 hours and at the end they
bagged it for us to take home! After we made our green tea we went back to the
Hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) place to pick up pictures they had taken
of us. As soon as we got there they had more photographers around so they made
us dress up again for another photo opportunity. While we were waiting for our
second set of pictures to print we got a personal magic performed show by a
very nervous Korean kid who spoke little to no English. Finally we headed to
the green tea fields which may have been the best part of the trip. Standing in
those fields was like standing in a picture! Overall it was by far the best festival
yet and maybe even the best experience I’ve had in Korea!
This weekend I’m going to Gwangju to help interview Korean
University students who want to teach English summer camp. Every year the TaLK
coordinator and the JLP (another teaching program) coordinator each choose one
scholar from their program to come interview so I feel extremely lucky to have
this opportunity!
Here are some pictures from the green tea festival:
Now that my application is finished hopefully I will go back
to updating once a week!
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