Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 356

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

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, 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

Will the rain stop? I guess since we've arrived near the end of the rainy season, that it's unlikely that the rain will go away for more than a few hours.... We woke up to rain, hiked in the rain, and luckily missed a big storm as we walked back to the campus. What a day! We were told last night that we could partake in a city tour today that left at 10:30am. After breakfast, as we were trying to get ourselves organized to get down to Daejon Station on time, one of the Korean counselors caught us as we were getting ready to leave and told us she had called the tour company, and since we hadn't called a day or two ahead of time, the tour was full, sorry. We made our way ... read more