hanok village field trip

After arriving and having a medical check and two days of lectures, we were taken on a field trip. We of course were divided into our classes, so I spent most of the day with my "clique" from Class 6.

Before the actual village tour, we participated in 3 traditional Korean activities at the Traditional Culture Center. The first activity we participated in was a drum lesson. All of the drums filled up pretty quick so I ended up "playing" the gong. I was probably better at that than the drums anyways lol. The pan that I had to hold up was rather heavy, so I had to take a few breaks.

The next stop was to a traditional ink painting class. We learned how to use the tools & ink to create bamboo trees. We were also able to practice writing our names in Korean symbols. Mine's fairly easy since I have three a's.

The last activity was the most entertaining. I ended up sitting in the front row and was the first to get called up to put on a mask. They then brought up my friend Dave to put on an old man's mask. After calling up another girl to put on the last mask, they asked us who we thought the old man was married to. We chose the girl in the older looking mask, and they said we were correct. They then asked who they thought I was supposed to be since I was wearing a younger looking mask. Some people guessed daughter, but then the guy in charge pulled Dave over to me and said no, this is his second wife, haha! After talking about that they taught us a dance. We decided that it must be some sort of polygamy dance lol. And since we were still in the front row, we were the first to put on these arm clothing pieces and perform the dance in front of everyone. It turned out they made each line of people perform also, so we weren't as embarrassed anymore. The last part of the dance was a dance where two people got inside of a dragon/horse looking costume. That was highly entertaining as well, and afterwards we were able to take a picture inside of the costume.

After eating "bibimbap" for lunch (not a fan by the way due to the lack of meat & majority of random veggies), we were taken to tour the village. We first stopped in a part of the village to make a traditional craft. The boys weren't very excited to make a heart-shaped picture frame, lol. The good part was that when we were finished we went outside for a snack, which was a grilled chunk of sweet potato. It was delicious and they told us that you can find sweet potato stands all over the place.

On the tour we saw a few interesting things, but for the most part we just wandered around aimlessly. I felt sorry for the people who lived in the homes of the village, because tourists wander through there all day long, even other Koreans who are visiting the city. The next pic is of me with a 400 year old tree.

The best part of the tour was when they let us wander around the town's market. They had everything you could imagine up and down the streets. Ajumas, older Korean ladies, are in charge of most of the selling in the market. From fish, to blankets, to vegetables, they had it all.

I'm pretty sure most stuff is cheaper to buy in the open markets, than in an actual mart or "grocery store." The smell of raw seafood wasn't very pleasant though...bleh! Nor was the site of pig heads! However, I did manage to come across a penguin neck pillow! :) Also, around parts of the town you also see lots of ajushi, older Korean men, playing board games.

Towards the end of the day everyone seemed a bit tired from walking .Since we had to wait awhile for our bus, we found a nice spot to sit down, talk, & relax. On the short bus ride home I was almost able to fall asleep from being so tired lol. Of course we all still ended up going out later that night! :) Which will be my next post...the nightlife adventures in Jeonju during orientation!

XOXO,

Amanda

yummy...or not?!

Ok, so one of the biggest challenges since arriving in Korea has been...THE FOOD! As most of you may know I am a rather "picky eater" in that I don't care for many out of the ordinary vegetables. I was raised on chicken fried steak & mashed potatoes, what can I say?! lol. Of course the main dish in Korea is kimchi, which is served with literally EVERY meal. Fermented cabbage..turns out it's not for me, go figure! I like the spicy taste, but the texture of the cabbage throws me off a bit.

So, during orientation we were served three meals a day, and snacks inbetween lectures. Breakfast usually looked more like lunch, so I stuck to Korean style Kellog's Corn Flakes...which got a little old after the 4th morning, but you have to take what you can get right?! I learned that at each meal, it was more like just filling my stomach enough to be satisfied.

Some days I would enjoy one or two choices, and some days they had no meat. On those days I usually ventured to the convenient store downstairs from the dorm & found something familiar looking to eat. That was also a hit or a miss. It seems that no matter what you eat in Korea...there's some smell or taste to it that's just "a little off" (if that makes any sense). So here are a few random pictures of what food & drinks are like in Korea:

 tangerines are now my daily snack, chocolate is amazing here, apple juice tastes like perfume, & water tastes the same no matter what the brand is

 pepsi, and any other sodas, are similar yet taste watered down a bit, and this meal was from the welcoming dinner...mainly ate the meat & rice

 vending machines...good lemonade & orange juice...sodas are called "sigh-e-duh" or cider lol

 chicken wings, yay! the teriyaki sauce was amazing! and the round balls in the back are supposed to be like dessert...with honey inside them but the texture of the outside is chewy, bleh!

 two favorites i discovered...Twix & Lipton Tea! Oreos are fairly good, but the filling is lacking...guess they don't double stuff in Korea!

 it's custom to order food when you are out drinking at different places...so this is the chicken we ordered..ended up costing more than the drinks lol lesson learned...order cheaper food!

Koreans are big on having lots of side dishes...there were more to the left of the bowl

and of course, the infamous "bibimbap" meal...not enough meat for me & too many odd vegetables. i never thought i'd be happy to eat carrots & spinach, but when you can atleast identify the food, you feel less frightened to eat it lol

this was actually my first meal for lunch at orientation...some sort of beef, rice, soup, and tangerines...not bad! the flavored tea they served was delicious as well :)

 the above picture is from the farewell dinner...i told me friend Dave to eat the "baby octopus," which he did, and i put one on my plate just for show lol

definately did not eat that...heard it was pretty chewy though & not horrible...i'll take their word for it :)

 and finally...eating on my own resulted in hunting down a pizza place...which turned out to be right across the street from me! "Pizza Bingo!" got the beer at DC Mart (my grocery store) lol

 tastes pretty much the same as American pizza, but like i said, there's always that small "off" taste

and this assortment is everything i was able to find at DC Mart that either looked somewhat familiar or had enough English words on it to figure out what it was :)

Overall, even though it can be a struggle at times, I think I will survive in Korea. Either I will lose weight from not eating as often, or gain wait from eating all the "westernized" version of Korean food. We shall see!! As of right now I'm working on memorizing the Korean alphabet in order to read the signs & menus at the restaurants. I've also hung out with a couple from England a couple times, Paul and Ali, who are showing me the good places to eat and how to say it in Korean. They've been here for a year already, so they know quite a bit of Korean. Slowly but surely this will all be natural to me as well! :)

XOXO,

Amanda

welcome to my new world...

"You are all babies in Korea. You don't know how to read, write, speak, or understand Korean. You have reversed in time. Now it's time for you to grow up." -- part of a speech by one of our lecturers at orientation

As you all may know from my facebook updates, I made it safely to South Korea! They provided us with internet access in our dorm rooms at Jeonju University during orientation, which was awesome. I really wanted to blog while I was there, but when I signed in my Google account got locked because they saw that I was logging into the system in a different country. Good security protection on their part, but it took about 4 days for them to unlock it. By that time I was busy with preparing my lesson plan and such. Therefore, I will break up my blogs into memorable parts of my journey across the world.

AIRPLANE RIDE:
My first flight was from Austin to San Francisco, about a 4 hour ride. Not bad, but it was early in the morning & I wanted to relax/sleep but couldn't get comfortable due to having an aisle seat. In San Francisco I boarded my 12 hour flight to Incheon Airport (outside of Seoul, the capital of South Korea). Needless to say, my bottom was sore from sitting for 12 hours even though I tried to walk around & stretch. I ended up in a middle seat between a Canadian-Korean and a guy who was travelling for business. I enjoyed talking to the Korean guy because he told me about his experience teaching in Korea and that he is now teaching at a University level and making double the salary I will make here. He recommended I work my way up in the system & make friends with alot of Korean people. He was born in Korea & raised in Canada, so he was of course fluent in both languages. The airplane food wasn't too bad, I even ate some fish ramen noodles (not a fan though lol). I thought I would sleep the entire time or read, but I ended up barely doing either of those things. I spend the majority of the time watching the movies & television shows they were playing, as well as listening to the music channels they had on the plane.

LANDING:
After landing in Korea I instantly realized how things work...you follow the crowd! haha! I rushed with everyone through immigrations check, to the luggage retrieval, & finally customs. After all of that I walked into the main lobby where there were a bunch of people holding up signs. I recognized my recruiter immediately & he let me use his cell phone to make a call to my parents. Next I exchanged my money from USD into WON. That is when I started meeting other English teachers. I met Jen, Edithe, Lea, Brian, Swirv, Jessica, and many more who I all hung out with at orientation. Next we loaded up on a bus to Jeonju, which was about a 3 hour ride. We stopped half way and got out at a convenience store, which is where I made my first purchase in WON. I had absolutely no idea which bill was which because I hadn't really looked at it yet. So, I basically pulled a bill out, and she held up two fingers, so I gave her another one. I can now proudly say I have the money system down pretty well & can even say hello and thank you during the process. :)

ARRIVAL AT ORIENTATION:
We arrived at Jeonju University around 9pm or so and unloaded our luggage into the lobby. We were given a care package, sweatshirt, room number & nametag. They also took our temperature to make sure we were all healthy after travelling. When I went upstairs to my room I dropped off one bag & returned downstairs for the other. When I came back the second time I noticed a backpack with a stuffed animal moose on it laying on the other bed. That's when I realized that Jen was my roommate! We had met at the airport so I was happy that I was roomming with someone I had already met. We ended up having sooo much fun as roommates! :) We found it comforting that we were both 25 years old & still brought our stuffed animals with us! Meet Wilbur & Huey...and Jen!:

MEDICAL CHECK:

The first morning of orientation was our scheduled medical exams, which included getting basic info of height/weight, hearing test, color-blindness test, eye exam, blood drawn, peeing in a cup for a drug test, & lastly an x-ray exam. They took my picture during the blood test & told me to make a scary face, but I was laughing/smiling in it. They made a slide show & put it on a CD for us as a souvenir from orientation & I'm actually on there quite a few times. :)

The funniest part of the medical exam was the x-ray. The girls were required to take off their shirt/bra & put on a gown top. Then we got in line to enter a mobile x-ray bus where we stepped into a small room and they took our x-ray. In the waiting room they displayed an image of each person's x-ray on a screen. The guy x-rays weren't that interesting, but the girl's screen image seemed a little more detailed lol. So, I step back into the waiting room and have like 5 guys smiling at me, haha!


WELCOMING CEREMONY:
After the medical exam we attended at welcoming ceremony where they put on a few performances for us. The following pictures are of a Korean drum performance, taekwondo, & as I called it, "a fan dance" lol.

Pretty impressive! So, after that we met in our separate groups...I was in Class 6. We had a short class meeting, then we went to the welcoming dinner/feast. They had SOOO MUCH food, but I didn't find anything I really liked at that moment. I should probably make a post just for pictures of food lol.

LECTURES:
Days 3,4,6, & 7 were lectures. We were required to attend 4 lectures each day, plus a Korean language class in the evening. They also showed Korean movies at night, but I ended up either being too tired or going out with friends instead. The first lecture I attended was given by a "youtube celebrity" in Korea & other parts of the world. I say this because before moving to Korea I came across alot of his helpful videos on YouTube, so it was neat to see him in person & hear his stories. He gave me confidence that I can learn Korean in less than a year :) The following pics were from the CD they gave us as a gift:

Another memorable lecture was when we heard a story from a previous native teacher about one of his craziest days at work. He said he showed up to work, was walking into the school, and his co-teacher said, "Where are you going? Get on the bus!" So he thought this was strange, but he did as he was told. On the bus he discovered they were going to an amusement park for a field trip. When he got off the bus he headed towards the rides with the kids and his teacher asked him again, "Where are you going? Follow me!" He again did as he was told and followed the teacher to a spot in the park where all the other teachers were gathered. They then proceeded to pour him a glass of Soju. End of story being he got wasted with his teachers at 11a.m. on a school field trip. If only I'm lucky enough to have those kinds of teacher...lol j/k but a funny story to say the least!

The best lecture was given by a man who does teacher training. His focus of topic was...boring powerpoints! Sounds like it would be a boring lecture, but it was hilarious! He had alot of good points about the misuse of powerpoint presentations & let us do some improv comedy just using pictures on a screen. I volunteered to do a demonstration with another guy in class. I was in tears from laughing so hard at the story line we were making up to go with the pictures. I really wish I would have recorded all of the improvs!

One entire lecture was devoted to "things you can do for fun in Korea." So I have added to my agenda: mountain hiking, rock climbing, hang gliding, skiing, and many more adventures! Just need to find a fun group of people to do those things with me! :) And one of the last lectures gave alot of "useless/useful" information about Korean culture.

FYI (In Korea):

* Native speaking blondes are asked, "Are you Russian?" because in the past blonde Russians were brought over as prostitutes for the military.
* Native speaking brunettes are considered "loose" -- not sure of the reason behind this
* The majority of children who are in orphanages are the result of their divorced parents. Parents who divorce send their kids to orphanages because if they get married again, the new spouse does not want any children that are not their own blood. So, the parents go about their lives while their kids sit in an orphanage...they might even go visit them, but they don't want them living at their house.
* It is acceptable for women to wear a super super short skirt, but if you show any cleavage or the top of your chest it is disrespectful.

CLASS 6:
I sat through lectures & went on the field trip with a very fun group of people. Our class was mainly made up of South Africans, and the rest were from different states in America, Canada, U.K., New Zealand, and some other random places. Here we are:

 Peace signs (of course!):

 Silly pic:

How high can you jump?

 We broke into a somewhat smaller group for Korean language class:

T.J., Me, & Dave...our small "clique" from Class 6:

So, I will end this part of my blog for now and make separate ones for food, the field trip, and moving to my placement city. I hope to get caught up on blogging tomorrow!


XOXO,
Amanda

preparing for take off...

"That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time!" -- George Carlin's skit on "stuff"

I never in my life thought packing could be so hard! Most likely because I've never sat down and thought...what do I need to survive for a whole year? Probably don't "truly need" as much as I packed...but I'm pretty proud of myself for fitting it all in 4 bags :)

So today is my last day in America for a year...eeekk! I can almost confidently say I'm completely ready and prepared to get on the plane. Although I took a risk and waited until the week before I left to apply for my work visa (not completely my fault because their website was misleading and the operator at the consulate could barely speak English), I managed to get lucky enough to receive it in the mail yesterday. I think that was one of the most stressful parts of preparing for my trip.

My going away party this past Saturday was awesome :) I got to see my family and hang out with some old friends. My friends and family are lifesavers because thanks to them I have enough money to survive off of for the first month until I get my first paycheck! Yay! That helped relieve even a little more stress from my life. My parents have also helped out a ton! Without everyone's help I'm not sure if I would have been able to afford this adventure, so it is greatly appreciated! :) And my two best friends bought me an amazing ring as a going away gift...so I guess that means I still have to be their friend for awhile lol j/k! Love them!

Today is about spending time with my parents and wrapping up a few things on my final "to-do" list before heading to the airport Wednesday morning. Even though I know it's going to be emotional at the airport tomorrow, I just want to relax and enjoy today. :)  Hopefully I will have internet access at orientation, if not I should definately be posting more blog updates in March. Wish me luck!

XOXO,
Amanda

"young buck"

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living" -- Miriam Beard

So, the moment I've been waiting for...I finally got my notice of appointment!! I will be living in the province of Gyeongbuk, sounds like "young buck" but I'm sure that's not correct lol :) Still don't know the city...I'm assuming it will be listed in my contract (which I should receive in the mail in a couple days) but I do know that I will be in the south east part of South Korea. I did a little research and there are 10 cities in that province and I'm not too far from a few beaches. :)

And even better, they've already booked my flight for me! I leave from Austin on Wednesday, February 16th @ 6:45AM (eh, a little too early for my liking lol) and I fly to San Francisco, California to switch planes. I will end up in Seoul around 4:30PM, the next day. The total flight time is 16 hours. I really hope I'm able to sleep on the plane!

My final step of the official paperwork is to go to the Korean Consulate, which is in Houston, to apply for my work visa. I only wish that was the last thing to do on my "to-do" list!! I've been packing up my apartment and sorting through my "stuff" for an entire week. I took most of my clothes to Goodwill, gave away a few things to friends, and threw away junk. Now if only some magic "moving fairy" could appear and take care of the rest! Wait, that would be my brothers who are coming this weekend to help me haha :)

This was my last week of subbing, and I only have two more weeks left of working at Pluckers! YAY!!!

So, people have been asking me if I'm excited or nervous and here's how I break that down:

I am NERVOUS about:
* my crazy to-do list that I still have to do
* leaving my family & friends :(
* the possibility of forgetting a piece of paperwork
* figuring out what to pack!! (and the luggage weight limit haha)
* my super long flight & getting everywhere I'm supposed to be on time
* orientation and making lesson plans (I haven't done that since college!)
* working with a co-teacher
* which city I will live in and how many different schools I will work at (some people work at more than one, depending on the size of city you live in)
* using public transportation all of the time
* getting my life situated over there (cell phone, apartment, internet, bank, etc.)

I am EXCITED about:
* a fresh start & new opportunities
* experiencing a total different culture & lifestyle
* seeing my apartment
* meeting my students (I haven't worked with little kids in forever!)
* getting settled into a somewhat familiar routine
* meeting new people & making friends
* travelling & taking lots of pictures (hopefully I can buy a professional camera soon!)
* sharing stories & pictures with my family & friends back home
* working on my poetry
* trying new foods (yes, I know I'm a picky eater but I'm trying to change that!)
* learning the Korean language

I am definately looking forward to seeing all of my family & friends @ my "going-away party" on February 12th!

Amanda

time is flying by...

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live." -- Flora Whittemore

Seeing how I only made one post in December, I decided to write with some sort of an update. No word yet on where I will be placed, which is a little annoying, but they did say that this would be the longest waiting period. However, it feels like January will be gone before I know it seeing as how I have alot to prepare for my big move.

My family is coming to Austin January 23rd to help me move all of my big furniture and most of my stuff to Columbus for storage. Since that's the only weekend they could help me and my lease isn't up until February 9th (I forgot to give them a 60 day notice so it got extended three days) they are bringing up a twin size mattress for me to sleep on for the remainder of my time in my apartment. I figured I could fit that in my vehicle when I officially move out.  I should probably get used to that size of a bed anyways, since I'm sure my tiny apartment will not have a queen size mattress lol.

I figured I'd work until February 4th since I have to pay rent for my "9 days" in February. So. I am paying $215.00 for the four days that I will actually be there! I'd stay and work longer to make it worth it, but I really want to enjoy time with my family before I leave so I will be living in Columbus from that time until I leave for South Korea. Plus this month is my "2 year anniversary" of working at Pluckers and I will be super excited to no longer have to wait tables! As far as subsitute teaching, my last day will be January 21st in order to get my last paycheck before I leave.

I still have so many things to do in such a short time it's crazy! It feels like every time I cross something off of my to-do list, I add another! While I will definately miss my family and friends, I'm starting to get really excited and I'm looking forward to starting my new life in South Korea!! :)

Amanda