Day 15, 16 - Interpersonal Relationships and Teaching

No pictures for this post because I'm dumb and haven't taken any in a few days.

I didn't write anything yesterday because I didn't think anything of note happened. Then KEY Club called at 10:30pm letting us know that they were drinking downtown, so another ETA and I changed out of our pajamas and headed out.

Although we didn't drink, it was really interesting to watch the interpersonal relationships play out. The graduated alumni had come back to spend time with the students and watching their social interaction was fascinating. Korea is very much a hierarchical society. Here it's normal to ask somebody their birthday because there are specific titles you must use if somebody is older than you. For example, amongst the club, the most popular titles are hyung/oppa (a boy's/girl's big brother respectively), noona/onni (a boy's/girl's big sister respectively), and sunbae (upperclassman). If somebody is older than you, every time you say their name, you have to attach the appropriate title; it's disrespectful to say just their name without a title.

My favorite interaction has got to be the hyung/little brother interaction. The hyungs are so physical with them, pulling their hair, pinching their cheeks, punching their arms, making fun of them and trying to hook them up with girls. It's just like how blood brothers would interact. Definitely my favorite hierarchy to observe because it's absolutely hilarious.


Today, Day 16, I taught my first class. It went as well as I could expect for a first lesson. My biggest downfall was underestimating their English ability, so my material (idioms) was too easy for them. I'm completely rewriting my second lesson plan to be much more challenging with some specific vocabulary. Because the camp theme is holidays, I decided on doing a murder mystery where some mythical holiday character has killed the Easter Bunny. Each kid will have a role as a character and they'll have to figure out which one amongst them is the murderer, having them use English to first gather information from one another and then, if there's extra time, host a short trial to figure out the details. I KNOW SO COOL RIGHT?

I also held office hours today and got to interact with the students under more one-on-one terms. Gracious, they're so cute. I'll try to get pictures sometime later this week or next, when I don't look too much like a weird stalker snapping my camera in their faces.

Day 12, 13, 14 - Songnisan (삭리산)

This past weekend, the F*bright office took all us ETAs on a weekend retreat to central Korea. The place was Songnisan, loosely meaning "a place to leave the mundane behind". We were advised not to bring homework, study material, or stress about our lesson plans. Instead, we were supposed to just enjoy the retreat and each others' company.

We were treated to so much food. We hadn't yet had a really traditional Korean meal, but Friday we sat down (on the floor) to some old fashioned stuff. There were tons of banchan (side dishes) spread out in front of the low tables and grills to cook the meat right on the table. We ate like we hadn't seen food in weeks (which to some extent was true). Post-lunch we had a lecture about Buddism to segue into our walk to a Buddist temple.

It was gorgeous. Not only was the scenery amazing, but the fact that we had two monks as personal guides was fantastic. Their stories were fascinating, and because we got to the temple right before evening prayers, we were able to observe the rituals. Awesome.

Saturday, we hiked the mountain. Although my group originally planned on a 2-4 hour hike, we ended up going all the way to the summit... then to the next summit over... then down by a different and much more difficult trail. Even though I'm looking like a hot mess in the pictures, I was happy I did it.

After a good 6+ hours of hiking that was more like rock climbing, I just didn't have the energy to check out the meager night life. Instead, I caught up with some friends and we stayed in the hotel. Ice cream, pajamas, gossip, and K-dramas rounded out the Songnisan trip. It was fantastic and I'm so thankful to the F*bright staff. They're awesome and they totally take care of us. I also feel a lot closer to the other ETAs--there's nothing like feeling as though you might die on the side of a Korean mountainside to really build friendships.

While it was relaxing at Songnisan, coming "home" to Chuncheon was painful. This week starts Camp F*bright, and intensive English camp in which 150 elementary/middle school students are living in the dorm next door and taking the lessons we F*bright ETAs prepare for them. That means class observations, lesson planning, and English teaching on top of the F*bright homework and Korean classes we already take. It'll be pretty intense, but I'll try my best to get some good photos/video so that you can see how adorable these kids are.

Day 9 - First Quiz Results and Surprise Holidays

First of all, shout out to the KEY Club kids that are reading this now. What's up, guys?!

It turns out that my prediction the other day came true: the quiz results are back and although I didn't do as well as I thought, I still got an 80% so I'm safe for the next week. Hollaaa! There's no time to rest though because tomorrow there's another quiz. This place keeps us ETAs crazy busy.

Despite that, I still decided to ditch my study date and go out with KEY Club instead. (My priorities are questionable.) They were going out because, apparently, today is a holiday in Korea--cho-bok, one of the hottest days of the year as predicted by the lunar calendar. If these guys use it as an excuse to party then they're my kind of kids. And I wasn't disappointed. We headed out the front gate of the university to have some beer and fried chicken because nothing says Minor Korean Holiday like a good American-style celebration.

Day 8 - TKD Open, Korean Class, and Calligraphy

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, but don't worry, it's just because nothing really fun has happened.

Saturday (Day 6) was filled with a mandatory lecture and some homework, followed by a brief outing in the pouring rain to find a bar/noraebang. Apparently, every other youth in a three mile radius had the same plan because all the bars and noraebangs were filled. We finally found one where we could have some beer and soju so we did just that while practicing our Asian poses.



Sunday (Day 7) I went out to the international Tae Kwon Do competition happening here in Chuncheon. As far as hot, ripped guys kicking each other goes, it was a good time and fun to watch. Additionally, the little kids were ADORABLE in their tiny uniforms, screaming in their high-pitched voices. D'aww~! Note the slogan in the background of the picture--"I Love Taekwondo. Let's Go to Chuncheon!" Inspiring.



The rest of Sunday was rainy and had to be spent studying for the big Korean test that I had today. Ashley--one of the other girls in Intermediate Korean--and I went out to I Think So, a quiet little cafe that serves some fantastic iced coffee. For a good few hours, we sat up there on the second floor, cramming vocab and grammar. We also had our first lesson plan due, so between studying, homework, and F*bright cultural adjustment check essays, there was a lot to finish.


Today, Day 8, I had that test. I knew it was going to go well because, although I slept through breakfast, lunch today was AMAZING. Fried pork with fruit sauce, ramen-and-hot-dog soup, watermelon, kimchi-style potatoes... okay, now that I write it down, I realize it doesn't sound amazing, but realize that yesterday they served baby octopus, and maybe that puts it in perspective. But anyway, lunch was fantastic, so I knew I JUST KNEW that the quiz would go well. And it did. I think. Probably.


Later I'm heading out to my first calligraphy class, which is bittersweet for a few reasons. One, I didn't realize that calligraphy is right during Key Club, so I'm going to break my promise to the boys from Day 5 that I would go to every meeting. Two, my friend Eric from Canada (shout out to my 오빠!) revealed that I would have to keep my arm parallel to the floor whenever I write with the brush. I didn't know I was signing up for an upper body work out so we'll see how it goes. If dinner is as fantastic as lunch was, then I'll assume calligraphy will go well and I won't pull a waygookin (foreigner) move and spill ink all over myself or something.

Day 5 - Patbingsu, Key Club Mixer, and Noonas

Since we didn't have any obligations besides Korean language class today, a few ETAs and I went wandering around the Kangwon downtown area to see what there was to do in this rare beautiful weather. We ended up at a patbingsu place, where I was able to successfully navigate the ordering process solo.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, today was the Key Club Mixer woooo!! I was so stoked for this. We split up into small groups to drink with small groups of the club members in a random parking lot. It was kind of like a tailgate, but with a lot more mosquitos and Koreans. There was a group of boys kind of hanging out by themselves in the back, so I ended up dragging some classmates with me to their group. It turned out really well--they were fairly shy English speakers, but since almost all the Americans in the group were Intermediate or Advanced with Korean, we were able to mix our terribly broken Korean with their broken English to understand each other. A few rounds to soju-cap-flicking and Baskin Robbins 31 later, we went out the front gate to a bar because no Korean outing ends with just one round of drinking (no joke).

While at the bar, the most AMAZING thing happened. For the first time in my Korean experiences, I was called "noona" (big sister). SO CUTE!! I was thrilled. The boy who called me big sister was being picked on by the two seniors at the table (they requested I call them "oppa", big brother). The boy was fairly cute and the two oppas were picking on him, calling him a Playboy and a heartbreaker. In my broken Korean I told them to be nice, and the boy--apparently thankful--thanked me and addressed me as "noona". [[He's wearing a black shirt and standing behind me in the picture. Speaking of the picture, how do you like the guy front row, center? Check out his pose--my roommate says he looks like he's out of a KPop album cover. hahaha]]

They insisted that they pay for the entire bar trip, with the expectations that we would go out with them again on Sunday or Monday, which is typical of Korea as opposed to going dutch like in America. They have our email addresses so hopefully we can all arrange a time to go out again, because they were a lot of fun and I'd love to see my oppas (big brothers) and my namdongsaeng (little brother) again soon!

Noraebang - Don't Stop Believing

And now, a musical performance brought to you by a bunch of buzzed/drunk waygooks in Korea.

Day 5 - New Friends, Noraebang, and Tea Ceremony

No post yesterday because I was too busy having ridiculously fun adventures in Korea. I know, life is tough.

Yesterday after class and Key Club, a bunch of ETAs decided to go out to the bars. After having a lot of trouble trying to find one to go to, we decided on a soju house called "The Bucks". Only in Korea would you see a bar named after a horrible NBA team. We had some trouble communicating to the lady at the door, so finally we just said "13 people" in Korean and she led us around to the stairs, at the top of which we found a room with a few large tables. We navigated the menu and ordered soju, beer, and a fruit platter. (In Korea, you usually have to order food with your alcohol.)

We played some Korean drinking games (see below) and finally left to find a noraebang. For something like 5 or 6 pitchers of beer, 6 bottles of soju, two platters of fruit, and some little snacks, each person in our 13 person group payed less than $9. CRAZY.

We didn't know where to go after we left The Bucks. Luckily, there was a group of Korean students just outside the bar. We started talking and eventually (probably prompted by the soju I had) I introduced myself and the group in Korean and asked them where a good noraebang was. They pointed us to one, and so I invited them to come with us.

So they did.

Noraebang is, literally, a singing room. It's a private karaoke room where you can go with friends to sing and drink. And who doesn't like singing and drinking?! We had trouble telling the guy running the noraebang that we wanted 30 minutes. We payed the 30 minute fee, but then when we wanted more time, he kept shaking his head. The girls that came with us sang a few K-Pop songs with us but mostly we were being obnoxious Americans: Sweet Caroline, Don't Stop Believin', NSync, Ghostbusters... you know, the classics. We eventually sang for and hour and a half, but the guy would only take about $9 for the whole time period. $9 total, not $9 per person.

We left for the bar at about 9:30pm and didn't get back until 3:00am. Five and a half hours of good times, food, and booze for just $18. FANTASTIC!

I paid for it today by being incredibly tired during Korean class and the teaching workshop we had afterwards. I'd blame it on the rain and cloudy weather, but I think it was probably more due to the 4 hours of sleep I got.

Instead of going to Key Club tonight, I went to a traditional tea ceremony. It was so neat to watch the lady perform and she was sweet despite not knowing any English except "One, two, three". She taught us how to insa (bow) in the most formal way, how to drink tea correctly, and she explained the steps in the ritual of making tea. She's also the calligraphy instructor, so I'm looking forward to seeing her on Mondays for calligraphy extracurricular classes.

Tomorrow is the Key Club mixer, so no promises for a post. I will however promise you at least one video and a bunch of pictures because shenanigans are sure to follow.