Days 90-101 | Photo Challenge

The other week, one of my coworkers from my teachers' English conversation class and I made a challenge together to take photos every day for 30 days.

Both of us have forgotten a few days here and there, but it's been fun sending our photos to each other throughout each day.

Day 1 (Day 90) - Dinner

My coworker sent me a picture of her very fancy-looking dinner, so I sent her a picture of mine. It is very not fancy. It's just a can of chicken noodle soup cooked with extra pasta. Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing I make if I cook for myself lately. Which I hardly ever do anymore, cause food like this isn't really good. It's easier just to meet friends for dinner or get takeout from one of the restaurants on the ground floor of my building.

Day 2 (Day 91) - Seoul Lantern Festival

I actually don't know much about the Seoul Lantern Festival... I guess it's a yearly tradition, where artists make elaborate paper lanterns, which are displayed on the Cheonggyecheon Stream. I went with some friends, and it was pretty, but very crowded.

Day 3 (Day 92) - Hiking

The same coworker I'm doing this photo challenge with invited me to go hiking with her last Sunday. Since I'd heard so much about how Koreans love to go hiking all the time, and since there are so many mountains in and around Seoul, I had expected that I'd be hiking a lot. But this was actually the first hike I went on here.

Day 5 (Day 94) - Weekly tradition

Lately, two of my good friends and I have developed a habit of meeting up every Tuesday after work and heading to our favorite restaurant, an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue buffet in Sinchon. The first time we went there, we had absolutely no idea how anything worked, and it was an incredibly confusing ordeal. But by now, we've got it all worked out, so we each know what foods to grab so we get the right amount of everything and which sauces and sides we all like best. And of course, how to actually grill and wrap the meat. If anyone comes to visit me in Seoul, this is definitely a place we're going to go.

After we eat, we head down the road to a Starbucks and study Korean together for a while. I'm taking a class two days a week, so I usually work on homework for that. But my friends are both just studying on their own. I envy their dedication. If I didn't have the class to keep me focused, there is no way I'd ever learn anything.

Day 9 (Day 98) - MBLAQ

On Saturday, I went to an MBLAQ concert! MBLAQ was one of the first Kpop groups I started listening to, and their music kept me focused during many, many long hours at my newspaper job last year. Also, the members are all hilariously endearing. So when a friend of a friend was asking around on Friday night if anybody could take her ticket she couldn't use for the concert the next day, I jumped at the chance. I ended up meeting up with a few friends I hadn't seen much since orientation to go to the concert, so it was fun to catch up with them, too.

Day 12 (Day 101) - Cold!

It was starting to feel like winter when I got to the English classroom this morning, and all the windows looked like this. There were only a few actual frost crystals in the window fog, but it still looked really pretty. It's been hovering around freezing here lately, and we've had a few snow flurries, but it's not too cold yet... except inside. The windows of the school are constantly open (to keep air fresh and recycled, they say), and the hallways and bathrooms aren't heated at all. My classroom isn't too bad, since we always keep the windows shut and the heat on, but it's miserable leading kids back to their classrooms between classes. And worst of all is sitting in the teachers' office for the entire afternoon. I wear so many layers, but I still have to wear my coat and sometimes gloves while I work at my computer. Everybody does. I really don't understand. Fresh air isn't that important, is it?

I'll do my best to keep posting photos for the rest of the 30 days!

Day 87 in South Korea | Pepero Day!

Today is Pepero Day in South Korea! It's celebrated on November 11, because all the 1's in the date look like Pepero, which are thin cookie sticks dipped in chocolate (like Japanese Pocky). Kids (and couples) give them to people they like, or hand them out to their all friends. 

I wasn't sure if I would get any, but it turns out that I am loved! By my 5th graders, at least. My coteacher and I each ended up with a stack of Pepero boxes by the end of the morning. 

I've actually never eaten Pepero before, so I hope they're good!

Day 48 in South Korea | Gaecheonjeol

Today was Gaecheonjeol (개천절), the holiday that celebrates the ancient beginning of Korea in 2333 BC. I'm not sure if there are any traditional ways to celebrate, but I spent my day learning about Korean history and culture.

I had mentioned to a coworker earlier this week that I want to know more about Korean history, and she suggested that we visit the National Museum of Korea together. So we met up and spent the morning browsing artifacts from the prehistoric era through the 19th century. 

There's so much of Korean history I'm still so clueless about. I'm only just now even developing a basic timeline in my head, since we never, ever studied anything about Korean history in school. Honestly, most of what I know now has been from looking up people and events in historical Kdramas. But I've read a few books set in different periods of Korea, which has helped, and I'll hopefully keep finding more to read. 

After the museum, I met up with some friends for the part of Korean culture I do know about: Kpop. We went exploring for some of the different entertainment company buildings around Gangnam. (We'd already staked out the YG building in Hapjeong weeks ago.) 

All within just a few minutes walk of each other, we found SM's (SHINee, EXO, Super Junior, Girl's Generation, f(x), TVXQ) old building, now under renovation to become a training center (and plastered with EXO)...

SM's new building..

JYP (2PM, 2AM, Miss A, Wonder Girls)...

Cube (Beast, 4Minute, BTOB)...

and FNC (F.T.Island, CNBLUE, Juniel).

Then, after a dinner of tteok mandu seolleongtang that was still boiling when it was served...

... we went to the underground market at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal to go shopping, where we accidentally ran into F.T. Island. 

Korea, I'm so glad this Dangun Wanggeom fellow decided to start you four thousand years ago. 

Day 40 in South Korea | Flea Market

This morning, the students at my school held a flea market, where they each brought in toys, books, and other trinkets to sell to their friends and teachers. 

They all gave me really earnest sales pitches in English if they saw me coming towards them, only to be disappointed when I revealed I didn't have any money with me.

I wish I had thought to bring cash to buy from them. But all I had was a ₩50,000 bill (about $50), which none of them would have had change for.

Most kids just wanted my money, but a few really wanted me to have their stuff no matter what. So I ended up with a necklace, a hat, and a stuffed dog in gifts.

Fifth-graders Tae-ee, Diana, Haeun, [I forget this girl's name. Sorry!], and Sumin. And me in the necklace one student demanded I take and wear.

These third-grade girls treat me like a celebrity. But like a celebrity, I have no idea what my fans' names are. 

The tiniest, most adorable third-graders ever, Geunwoo and Wooseok.

Snails were a surprisingly hot commodity among third-graders. And these aren't just any snails, they're American snails! Or so I've been told.

I asked Dohyeon if he would need to feed the snails and take care of them. He said no. Poor snails.

Instead of selling things, a few sixth-grade girls did nail art instead.

The loot I ended up with by the end of the sale. Other teachers ended up with an amusing assortment of gifts from students, too. 

Day 27 in South Korea | Awkward

Things that are really awkward:

1. Teaching a class of teachers, some of whom have been teaching for longer than I've been alive.

2. Being the new person in a group of people that know each other really well.

3. Not having a clue what everybody is saying because I'm the only one who doesn't speak their language.

Thing that was surprisingly not actually all that awkward after all:

1. Doing all of those things at once. 

Today, I started a teaching for a weekly Teachers' English Club at another local school that doesn't have their own English teacher right now. Honestly, I was dreading it all week. This afternoon, my coteacher glanced over at me from her cubicle next to mine and asked if I was ok, because I looked so nervous.

But then, an hour later, when I was sitting in a classroom at this other school surrounded by their teachers, I realize it wasn't so bad after all. Sure, there were a few times when I would say something that would unexpectedly cause the entire group to crack up and start chattering to each other in Korean, while I sat there wondering what I said that apparently set off some inside joke. But overall, I actually had a lot of fun with them. And I'm even looking forward to next week's class.

Day 25 in South Korea | Internet!

Anyone know what the etiquette is for when you've been going to a coffee shop nearly every day for the last two weeks, and you and the baristas have developed as much of a rapport as is possible when you speak different languages, but then you suddenly don't need to keep going constantly because you finally got Internet set up in your apartment, so you don't need their wifi anymore? 

But I'm sure I'll be back soon, my Ediya Coffee buddies. Your lemon iced tea is too good to forget about. 

Day 24 in South Korea | Meanwhile, in Korea...

Sometimes, you want to tell a friend from home how cute it was that a bunch of boys just walked past the teachers' office singing "Jumping, jumping, jumping, everybody!" from "Bar Bar Bar," but then you realize that no one from home has ever even heard of "Bar Bar Bar," which seems so odd because everyone in South Korea knows that song these days, and it's impossible to imagine that people in the U.S. are totally oblivious to this silly thing that has become part of an entire nation's daily life.

Day 14 in South Korea | Two weeks!

I've been in Korea for two weeks, Seoul for five days, and I haven't been hit by a car yet! I hope I can keep this up. It's pretty tricky business, crossing streets around here.

Right now, I'm making plans with friends for the weekend. Saturday should involve some Kpop-related antics, and then Sunday will hopefully involve church. I'm so excited that my social life in Korea is already turning out way better than my social life this past year in my own hometown. I hope I can keep this up as well!

See? A social activity! This was on Tuesday night.

Fried chicken is the only cure for Alien Registration frustrations.

I started off the weekend with dinner with all the 5th and 6th grade teachers from my school. The science/art teacher is leaving his job to go back to school, so it was a farewell dinner for him. But it was also a bit of a welcoming dinner for me and another new teacher.

To be honest, I had been really worried about the infamous staff dinners. From what I'd been reading about them, I was imagining a very uncomfortable, high-pressure event with a million and one opportunities to offend people by violating cultural codes. Or at the very least, a miserably boring event where everybody spoke in Korean and ignored me the whole time.

But thankfully, it wasn't like this at all! It was incredibly laid back, and I got to chat with several of the teachers. I'm loving the people at this school so far. Obviously, I'm not able to really get to know them well yet, since I don't speak Korean and most of them don't speak English, but they've all been very welcoming, and they seem to have a lot of fun with each other while they work.

Also, we had an all-staff meeting this afternoon to recognize three teachers who are retiring/leaving and to welcome me and two other new teachers. The other two are also girls, about my age. They asked us to each introduce ourselves, so I said in English how I was thankful that they've all been so nice to me this week and that I hope I can learn Korean so I can get to know them all. I hear, though, that the vice-principal translated this to something along the lines of "She says that I'm the best vice-principal and the best person in the whole school!"

Then, they had three of the younger guy teachers come up to the front to present us each with a big bouquet of flowers. It was very funny and sweet.

And yes, the flowers are now sitting in a trash can. Because this empty trash can was the only thing in my apartment big enough to hold them. Maybe, this weekend, I'll work on finding an actual vase.

Day 13 in South Korea | Life as an Oddity

I've read over and over again how kids in Korean schools are often absolutely fascinated by their foreign teachers' appearances. So I prepared myself for that. But what I wasn't expecting was that the faculty would be even more fascinated. Today, the entire school seemed baffled by me.

It started with a third grader coming up really close to me and peering into my eyes. She pointed at mine and then at hers. "Same!" she said. "Yes, we both have brown eyes," I said. She looked troubled. "Why?" she asked. "Why not?" I was just as confused as her. "But... why? No blue?" I explained that lots of people in American have brown eyes too, but she still seemed a little upset at my eye color when she left to return to her classroom.

Next, at lunch, my co-teacher asked me about my curly hair. I'd been wearing it straight all week, but since it was rainy today, I just left it curly. She asked if I had just gotten it permed. No, I said, it's just like this, especially when it rains. But a little bit later, when the office staff women saw me, they all commented on it too, and asked her if I had permed it. She told them that no, it's naturally curly. Or so I thought. But then, as they all fawned over my curls, she asked me how much it costs to get a perm in the States. "I'm not really sure," I said. "I've never gotten one." Her jaw dropped. "You mean... this is REALLY how you hair is?" She said that she thought I had meant that I hadn't had my hair just recently permed, but that I surely must have gotten it permed before I came. "I didn't know hair could be this curly!" she said. She quickly explained to everyone else that it really was totally natural, and all the sudden, everyone was squealing and asking to touch it. The rest of lunch was spent with them all gasping to each other about how people could actually have naturally curly hair. I told them that my sister's hair was even curlier. I don't think they believed me. If this ever comes up again, I will show them a picture of Katy. Their reactions will be insane.

Finally, my co-teacher was talking to one of the office ladies about how she had tried to buy shoes for me to wear inside the school (nobody wears their street shoes), but that she hadn't believed me when I gave her my shoe size (which is only an 8.5 in US sizes), so the shoes she bought were way too small. The other lady didn't believe this either, so she demanded to see my feet. So we both took our shoes off and compared feet. She looked at my (comparatively) massive feet for a while, before declaring that my shoe size was so big because my big toe was too long.

Thankfully, everybody was really nice and fun about all these "odd" things about me, so I didn't mind at all. But I understand how some foreign teachers could get upset when they're treated practically like zoo animals in their schools. But then again, this was only the first time it's happened. Maybe, if this kind of thing keeps up, I won't feel the same a year from now. But I'm trying my best to not get bent out of shape by these sort of things, as apparently a lot of people do.

Day 11 in South Korea | First Day in Seoul

Orientation week has finished, and now hundreds of new Guest English Teachers have been released to classrooms all over South Korea!

It turned out Orientation was far more fun than I expected it to be. The lectures were all incredibly interesting and relevant, and the people were amazing. It was hard leaving all my new friends, even though most of us will still be living in Seoul. But now, instead of just a quick jog up a flight of stairs in the dorm, we'll be an hour's ride on several subway lines away from each other.

I already miss these jokers so much! But we'll be sure to get together soon!

And these two, too! Our Orientation Class #2 staffers, Olivia/Minah and Thomas/Hojung

Today was spent meeting my co-teacher, touring the school and meeting other faculty members, and getting moved into my new apartment.

So far, I'm really loving my co-teacher, "Yoon Teacher." She's really passionate about her work, and so far, she's been great with answering all my questions and helping me out with all sorts of things, including doing some emergency scrubbing in my unexpectedly uncleaned apartment.

The school, Deungseo Elementary School, is a smaller school, as far as Seoul public elementary schools go. I think there are about 100 students per grade, 1st-6th grades. Yoon Teacher told me that all the students are really excited to have a pretty, female English teacher after several male English teachers for the last few years. So far, the students I've met in the halls have been really sweet and excited to meet me. Tomorrow, I'll get to formally meet several of my classes. I'll be working with two different Korean English teachers, teaching 3rd and 5th grades.

I've been told that many of the students at this school are lower-income, and aren't really too interested in learning, especially English. So that will be a challenge. But Yoon Teacher also says that they're all very innocent and childlike, unlike some of the more jaded, hardened kids she's worked with before.

While I was getting settled at my desk in the teachers' office at my school, I found a letter to me from the previous Guest English Teacher, full of encouragement and helpful hints about life in Korea. He mentioned that my apartment (where he lived last semester) was going to much better than the apartments a lot of my other teacher friends will be living in across Seoul. So as you can imagine, I was quite anxious to see it.

It turns out he was right! It's a studio apartment, but it's very spacious. And the best part is... it has a loft! I'm not sure what I'll use the loft for, since you have to shuffle around on your knees and duck your head when you're up there, but it's still exciting to have a second story in my apartment!

I'll take more (better) pictures once I get a little bit more moved in and add some life to it all. I'm really not sure what do do with all the space, though. It needs some serious furniture. From reports of other (tiny!) EPIK teacher apartments, this was certainly not a problem I was expecting to have!

Another exciting part is that when you get off the elevator on the first floor, you can access several stores and businesses from a back hallway, without even having to go outside. Earlier, I bought my dinner from a convenience store in the building, and now I'm hanging out in a coffee shop with free wifi (and really good lemon iced tea). There are also a few other restaurants as well as several offices.

I'm really excited to get settled in here and start exploring the neighborhood. So far, I've discovered that the studio where the super-popular K-pop music show "Inkigayo" is recorded is ridiculously close by. So yes, this means that top names in K-pop will be in my neighborhood on a weekly basis.

It's still sinking in that this will be my home for a year or more. I hope the rest of my experience in South Korea will go as well as the first week and a half have!

Day 7 in South Korea | Things I'm Thinking About

1. I forgot to put the memory card in back in my camera, so I don't have any photos from our trip to Seoul today, even though I was hoping to take a lot. So here, you can just Google map it instead, and pretend you can see me there.

2. My roommate is South African, and after living with her for nearly a week now, my inner monologue has an accent. And sometimes things I say out loud.

3. I'm really concerned about how I can't get the hair on the top of my head/along my hairline to look anything but flat and scraggly when I pull it back. Other girls make it look so nice and fluffy, but I just can't.

4. On the bus on the way into Seoul this morning, all the girls at the front of the bus suddenly started squealing and shrieking and giggling. Kpop idol? Actor? No. A row of tiny preschoolers in matching t-shirts and holding hands. #adorbs

5. I'm getting really annoyed with myself for never using Korean, even when it would be super-easy to say even "안녕하세요" (hello) or "감사합니다" (thank you). But especially annoying was when, after some friends and I were kicked off a badminton court for not wearing proper badminton attire (oops), the man asked us "어디에 왔어요?" and even though I knew exactly what he said ("Where are you from?") and I knew exactly how to respond ("저는 미국 사람입니다."), as we had just gone over that in Korean class not even 30 minutes before, I just kind of mumbled, "I think he asked us where we're from," to my friends and let them answer him. So then, when I went to a Starbucks today in Seoul (why we picked Starbucks when there were Korean options like Caffe Bene, Tom N Toms Coffee, and Hollys Coffee on the same block, I don't know), I was determined to use Korean. And then the cashier just talked to me in English anyway.

6. Everybody is older than I think they are. I assumed that most people would be about the same age as me, but then I'll start talking to someone, and they'll tell me about their five years of teaching in their home country, plus two years teaching abroad, and maybe even their masters degree they just earned, and I realize that they're nowhere near 23 after all. I'm starting to feel like a baby.

7. I've been trying not to talk about Kpop, because when people start talking about it, it can weird and obsessive really fast. And also because it seems that everybody loves Big Bang and G-Dragon most, and I really don't care about them/him. But I did take part in a few reasonable conversations today, in which it was discovered that between two new friends and I, we each preferred a different one of the "Big Three" companies. (Record labels/entertainment companies are a Big Deal in Kpop.) This was somewhat amusing.

Me (SMEnt), Priscilla (JYP), and Janell (YG).
Also, I totally stole this photo from Janell's Facebook without her permission. 

8. Orientation feels pretty much exactly like college. But I really don't mind sitting in classes and lectures all day long. I could do this forever. How can I make a career of this?

9. Going to bed early and getting up early wasn't so bad the first few days when I was still jet-lagged and waking up at 5:30 a.m. anyway. But now it's becoming far less pleasant. I'm really worried to see how my year of sleeping in all the time has ruined me for getting up early daily. But for now, I'm just annoyed that breakfast will be served in 8 hours and I'm still awake.

10. Some people have been getting emails from their schools with information about their location, co-teachers, classes, apartment, etc. But I still haven't heard anything. Which is normal, and I'm fine with waiting until Monday when most of us will finally find out these things anyway. But then I do start getting really anxious and nervous because I REALLY WANT TO KNOW. And then I think about how in just a few days, I'll be standing in front of a room full of children, and I'll be expected to productively engage them for an entire 40 minutes. And then again and again and again and again and again. And I can't even remember the last time I spoke to a child. But I used to hang out with kids all the time. So everything will be ok, right?

Day 3 in South Korea | Orientation

Right now, I'm at orientation at Daejin University in Pocheon, a little way outside of Seoul. Meeting so many other English speakers on campus, it's a little hard to remember that I actually am in South Korea. But then, a quick glance out my dorm room window, and it's quite clear this is certainly not America.

Day 1 in South Korea | 안녕하세요!

I'm in South Korea!

Today was spent becoming BFFs with my 14-hour-flight seat buddy, Jeremy, settling in and meeting people (mostly other EPIK teachers) at the guesthouse I'm staying at for the night, and exploring this odd little town and eating at a Korean restaurant with these new guesthouse friends. Also trying to convince myself I likely did not develop deep vein thrombosis from the plane ride. 

Orientation begins tomorrow!

1 Day Til Korea | Goodbye, USA

I'm in the airport in Chicago, and in just a few hours, I'll be leaving the U.S. for a year. And I know I'm going to miss it. A few things I've noticed over the last few weeks that I'm especially going to miss:

The view from my parents' living room.

Clothes warm from the dryer.

My car.

Familiar country roads. 

 This classic American feast.

This other classic American feast.

Too-frequent trips to Sheetz for MTO sandwiches.

Libraries full of books in English.

My apartment.

12 Days Til Korea | Newspapers

Yesterday, I said my goodbyes and cleared off my desk and officially wrapped up my year-long fellowship as a copy editor/page designer at The Patriot-News.

I may have only had a job at a real newspaper for just this year, but my first venture into newspaper creation was over a decade ago with the Anna Daily, published in 2001. Chock full of breaking household news, the paper peaked with a circulation of 3.

I think my childhood self would be very pleased to see the progress I made.

18 Days Til Korea | Post Office

I've spent more time at the post office these last few months than I have in the last 10 years, I think.

Also, it turns out that international postage is really expensive. Especially when you want it there quickly. Especially when you forgot to sign your application form, and you have to send it again. "Another $80 for a document I already sent to Seoul once? Sure, why not!"

But at least the people there have been super friendly. Once, after one worker saw where my envelope was headed, he mentioned that he was going to Seoul in just a few days. When I was back at the post office today to send off my visa application, he was the one who helped me again. I asked him how his Seoul trip was, and he was quite startled. Clearly, he did not remember me. But after I mentioned our previous conversation, he told me he'd had a really great trip. As it turns out, his son actually lives in Itaewon, surrounded by American English teachers.

It fascinates me how many people I talk to have a family member or friend living in South Korea. About 120,000 Americans live in South Korea, and it feels like they all have ties to central Pennsylvania.

29 Days Til Korea | London

True fact: I still don't know exactly what day I'll be getting to Korea, and I can never remember what day I picked last time for the countdown. August 17? 18? 19? Somewhere around there.

But I do know that one year ago today, I was at the airport, flying off to biggest adventure of my life. The London Olympics.

Through my college, my classmates and I had the opportunity to work as broadcast interns during the games. Obviously, as a freshly graduated Media Communications student, this professional experience was beyond incredible. But I was even more excited to travel and see the city and meet new people. And, of course, see the Olympics IN REAL LIFE. Because who wouldn't want that?

I can't express in words how much the experience went above and beyond everything I had hoped. It could not possibly have been better.

Somewhere between taking goofy tourist shots all over the city with my college friends, laughing to tears with my new British friends every day at lunch in our crowded broadcast compound canteen tent, watching more than 200 nail-bitingly intense badminton matches right from the sidelines (including one of the top worldwide sports scandals of the year!), savoring peaceful moments riding the Jubilee line of the Tube across the city by myself, chatting with my Chinese crew members through broken English, a lot of hand gestures and translator apps, and feeling almost numb when I had to get on a plane to head back to the United States, my entire life plan changed without me quite realizing it.

If it weren't for going to London, I wouldn't have rekindled my dream to live abroad. Sure, on previous trips to Italy and to Spain, I would come back and think, "One day, I'm going to live somewhere outside the U.S." But this time, it changed from just a "One day..." dream into a "How can I make this happen?" reality.

If it weren't for going to London, I wouldn't have realized that, yes, I can live alone in a foreign city. I know staying in a hotel room for a few weeks doesn't really count as "living," and London is probably the easiest foreign city for an English-speaking American to adapt to, but it was enough of a confidence boost to make me realize that I actually could live in a foreign city if I wanted to.

If it weren't for going to London, I wouldn't have spent three weeks nearly completely surrounded by Chinese coworkers, and I wouldn't have tried to learn Chinese, decided it was too hard and said, "How about something at least a little bit easier. Like... Korean?"

So here I am, a year later, about to move to Seoul, South Korea, indefinitely. Maybe I'll only be there for a year, just long enough to check off "live in a foreign country" and "learn a new language" from my bucket list. Or maybe I'll love it so much I won't ever leave. I don't know. But I'm excited to see how this new adventure changes my life again.