New Poll! Choosing Gifts

Please check out the poll on the right! Choose up to 3 gifts that you think are the best representatives of New England and/or America. Things to keep in mind:

--Space: I only have two suitcases for all my clothes, shoes, and belongings
--Recipients: I'll be gifting to (a) my host family, (b) my boss, and (c) my co-workers, so the age range is huge. So, for example, pick one gift that would be good for the host family, one that would be good for the boss, and one that would be easily shared in the teacher's room.


If you have another idea or a comment on the poll options, leave a comment on this post. Cross my heart and hope to die, I will be gifting the things that come out on top, so make it good.

Brief Statement of Purpose

Just to clear up some questions, here is what will be going down in the ROK. After a 6 week orientation, I will be :

1. Teaching English to Korean middle/high school students
2. Living with a host family
3. Reconnecting with my Korean years
4. Acting as a "cultural ambassador"


Points one and two are pretty clear, although I'm nervous about them. Point three just involves traveling around the country and reconnecting with all the places with which I have a history: the places I lived and visited as a child, the bases where my father worked, the grounds where my grandfather fought in the war).

It's point four where things get vague for me. I've decided that, being a "cultural ambassador", I should do some form of community service. With that in mind, I've started looking into orphanage volunteer work at because a lot of people I know have adopted Korean children. ...Also, if you know me at all, you know I love small children. Especially Asian ones. What? I'm not racist, they just tend to be the cutest. Minus mixed babies. ohhh mixed babies are cute.

If you have any other ideas of how I can make America look good, let me know because my ideas end with "Asian babies asian babies asian babies".

Visas, Flights, and PreparatOH MY GANDHI

A few weeks ago, I wanted to start working on my visa. I wasn't sure where to get an application, so I decided to call the Korean Consulate in Boston. Maybe I'm a freak, but I practice conversations in my head before I have them. So I was going over what I would say (Hi, I'm Lindsay SDLFKS. I'm going to Korea in July and I need an A-3 visa...) when I realized, hey, I know how to have the majority of this conversation in Korean! I decided to practice it in Korean too, just for kicks.

I pick up the phone, dial the number, and a voice answers on the other end. In Korean. Very fast Korean. Although she only really said "Hello, this is the Korean Consulate in Boston" I panicked and hung up on her.

I could have had that conversation! My first real experience using the YEAR of Korean I've studied! But I wimped out and panicked.

This does not bode well.


Fast forward to a few days ago.

I went to the movies Sunday with my girlfriends. The previews started up and, oh goodness, there was a trailer for the new Harry Potter movie! Right when I was about to say "Wow, I really want to see that!" the premiere date came up on the screen. July 14th. Gotta go see that with the girls back home in New Hampsh--

And then it hit me. I won't be in New Hampshire then. I'll be in Korea.

I know, it's dumb, but I never really realized how different things will be. I'm sitting at my desk right now. There's a bottle of water, Benadryl, laundry detergent, a flash light, and posters--amongst a bunch of other things--in my immediate field of vision. Everything is printed in English. It probably won't be in two months.

I thought it was ridiculous that it took a movie premiere for me to realize how crazy things are about to get in less than two months.

Fast forward to today.

I finally confirmed my flights. I'm officially leaving July 3rd from Boston at 7:30pm. Over the next two days, I'll be on various flights before finally touching down in Incheon on July 5th at 4am. Guess I'll be watching the sunrise on my first day in KoreaHOW SYMBOLIC.

Maybe I'll write again in another two weeks after some more of nothing has happened. Oh, I know, I can't wait either.

P.S.--If you were wondering, the Korean premiere date is July 15th. Oh, time zones.

True Story #2

About the ********* Scholarship

The ********* Scholarship means I will be getting paid to hang out with a family, speak my native language, see the far-corners of South Korea, adventure across Asia, get some awesome networking done, and add a prestigious fellowship to my resume. The following are three specific things that are particularly awesome, in my opinion:

On-The-Job Training

Upon arrival in Korea, scholars are bussed off to Chuncheon for 6 weeks to live at a college there, as previously mentioned. There, we take 4 hours of intensive Korean PER DAY. Some scholars arrive in Seoul with little more than a loose command of the Korean alphabet. After Korean, there are teaching workshops and subject-specific seminars, such as Homosexuality in Korea, Pop Culture, stuff like that. After all of that, there are electives that the scholars are offered. Cultural Korean classes such as salmunori (traditional percussion), tae kwon do, and calligraphy are offered for a small fee. Then, obviously, there's the ETA bonding: exploring the city together (re: getting lost together), eating out together (re: trying weird food together), and socializing together (re: getting drunk and singing karaoke together). together together together togethertogehtertheogr

Take me home, Country Roads
The ********* Scholarship will set me up with a homestay family near my school. This family will receive a stipend to help pay for my lodging (a private room in their house) and food (scholars have meals with their family). What I make of the homestay is up to me, but I hope to take full advantage of living in a typical Korean household for an entire year.


Dolla Dolla Bills Ya'll
That's a lie. But "Won won ya'll" sounds weird. The scholarship pays for my airfare to and from Korea (~$6,000, so that's pretty significant). Additionally, my monthly paycheck will be 1,600,000W. About 1.5 million won. Don't get excited, this translates to about $1,300/month. However, since I don't pay for rent, utilities, or food, all of this money is available for me to travel, eat out, and general tomfoolery.

Without the ********* Scholarship, getting a job teaching English in Korea is pretty intimidating and very easily could suck. So winning this scholarship basically enables the scholars to live and work in a country, care-free.

True Story

ROK vs DPRK

I want to emphasize that I'm going to try to keep this blog as related to my trip as possible. I don't want to comment too much on politics in Korea or anything because (1) I am most definitely not qualified and (2) that's boring. Also, that is why there aren't many/frequent entries yet. I haven't left. There is nothing to talk about. But considering the rapidly-escalating situation described in this article on CNN.com, I am making an exception.

The following is a Spark Notes truncated version of the article because I know y'all are too lazy to actually keep up with current events, let alone things happening halfway around the world. No, it's okay, I understand. I would be the same if I wasn't about to move there. But now you can sound astute and snobby when, really, you were just procrastinating your homework by reading a blog.

On Monday the United Nations condemned North Korea -- which refers to itself as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK -- for launching a rocket.

"The Korean People's Army will consider sanctions to be applied against the DPRK under various names over its satellite launch or any pressure to be put upon it through 'total participation' in the PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative) as a declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war against the DPRK," the announcement on state TV said.

Referring to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the statement added, "The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the Military Demarcation Line."

"When a nuclear war will break out due to the war chariot of the 'South Korea-U.S. military alliance' is a matter of time," it said. "The U.S. and South Korean warmongers would be well advised to stop acting rashly, properly understanding who their rival is."



My reaction, with 76 days until departure for South Korea:
I am not really going to start worrying about North Korea's missles because, as I was reminded by a military friend recently, North Korea can hit South Korea just using cannons. The time to start worrying was, like, fifty years ago when North Korea first crossed into South Korea. Besides, I might be biased, I've got faith in the American military. I better, because I really don't see the UN doing much besides slapping Kim's wrist and sending him home.

WARNING: Following contains some hardcore swearing. But I'm fairly certain that all my readers are over the age of 15, and thus have heard all these words before. If you're easily offended, though, just don't click "play".