Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 347

“If you can hear the shots being fired, you’re good; because you never hear the shot that kills you.” ~SAS Security Officer, Joe Brazas. That was a little piece of advice during our logistical pre-port for South Korea. I just figured I’d open with that to make it a little interesting. :) Don't worry though, the closest thing we heard to a gunshot was a big bus backfiring. It was a little scary haha, and everyone ran to their windows. Anyway, we pulled into Korea on time, and it’s a pretty place. Sometimes, the ports look the same. Korea’s was similar to Hong Kong. A lot of tall buildings with big mountains in the background. It was nice though. While we were waiting for the ship to clear, a couple of Korean performers did a little ... read more

Well, I survived the first "teaching" day. I have a VERY low group of students. I'm not sure at all how much they understand of what I'm telling them or if they can follow my directions, even though I'm speaking slowly and in short, simple sentences. Some things they seemed to be able to do alright, but others, simple things like a quick skit about how to use "Please" in context was difficult for them. The days are long. We had three hours this morning of getting to know you activities, and the first hour was spent on drawing their name and five things they like and presenting it to the class. There are only 10 kids! The next hour was doing a family tree diagram and then presenting that to the class. The last hour ... read more

So the kids arrived today. We were told, over and over, that there would be few, if any, discipline problems with Korean children.... I didn't believe it then, and I sure don't believe it now! When the buses started to arrive around lunchtime, we were assigned to greeting positions to help the students locate their rooms, and then shepherd them off to lunch. Many of the students understood little, if any, English and trying to explain the concept of "drop off your bag and follow me" was difficult! We had about 220 students show up here today, some by car, most by bus. After lunch they were sentenced to their rooms for about an hour. With nothing to do, they were restless and silly. They kept popping out of their rooms, wanting to wander around, and ... read more

24 Hours in Seoul: A brief and relaxed introduction to the artsy, diverse, cultural capital of Korea. Mike, Ciara (sounds like Kira), Hailey and I took the KTX from DongDaegu Station to Seoul Station, took about two hours - filled with goofy conversation and the first peek at a Brie-Ciara friendship. She is quieter than Hailey, and less of a late-nighter. Hailey is goofy, and wild and in-your-face at times, and a modern hippie dresser. Ciara dresses like a traveler - in comfortable loose clothing or delicate long skirts from Thailand and long earrings. We wandered around Insadong - a major craft market street FILLED to the brim with people - probably about 1 in 20 people are white, black or mysteriously-non-Korean, which was comforting. Any diversity is welcome (in Seoul and my life). At the ... read more

So after a morning of repetitive orientation, and finally getting the schedules and information on paper, we were able to check out our classrooms, see the selection of materials and what books we would be using. None of them were terribly impressive. The classroom I'm getting is quite small; I'm not sure how we'll fit 10 students and myself in there. The materials were skimpy (one package of markers, 2 pairs of scissors, 2 glue sticks, a few other things for 10 kids) and the book we're supposed to use as our base for teaching is only so-so. The story they have included about going to the hospital is priceless. I'll have to make a copy of it to bring home, it's that sad! The group of 6 of us (Shannon, Erika, Marianne, Mike, Theresa, and ... read more

So, I had my first experience at the norae-bang (karaoke) last night. It was very interesting-- and quite fun-- and goes along with an interesting story. Christina (my roommate) and I were sitting at dinner last night when two Korean girls sat at our table. There are plenty of Koreans in the dining hall at all meals, but usually our two camps (the Fulbrighters and the Koreans) don't converse-- largely due to language issues, obviously. Well, evidently, the two girls who sat down with us spoke English very well and were wondering what all these Americans were doing here. So, at dinner, we had a nice chat with them, and when it was done, one of them said, "We'd love to practice our English. Do you want to go to a norae-bang with us?" Well, Christina ... read more

So we started orientation today. Found out about 5 minutes before breakfast that I was supposed to wear the official T-shirt for pictures. It is a VERY plain white T-shirt with the words "Korea Land Corporation English Camp" in small letters as a logo on the top left. Not so interesting. We had photos taken and then proceded to pick up our picture ID nametags. You would think that was the purpose for the photos this morning, but no, they decided to use a terrible picture they took of me at the first recruiter meeting, and called me "Susan" on the tag. No one calls me Susan! I have to say that it is probably the worst picture of me EVER, but perhaps it is also because the printer quality or scanner was terrible. I may ... read more

So its summer vaction time in the wonderful world of korea, a whole 5 days, your truly spoiling us. So I decided to venture over to a little island by the name of Jeju which is just off the coast of south korea. We arrived and the original plan was to rent scooters, but we decided to go for car hire, cheap and small was key. Cheap is the price we got, however the car was no smaller than an army truck, always good fun to drive around! Anyway as designated driver I had alot of responsibility, ie our lives, mental note to self dont drive on the wrong side of the road! So upon our arrival we checked out Iho beach which was right next to the airport. Not bad at all, had a good ... read more