Annyong haseyo!

Our first day here in Korea was an interesting one. We arrived at the Woman Plaza (I'm still not quite sure what it is....part dormitory, part hotel, part conference area...) in a town near Mokp'o at about 2am and quickly found our rooms. I got the internet to work and then fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. But then we had to get up for breakfast at 7:30. So after maybe 4 hours of sleep, it was time to get up. Fortunately, after breakfast there wasn't much planned. It was mostly a free day for us to get situated. Jonathan, who I know from Spanish classes at PSU, and a girl from UofO, Alice, and I decided to wander around a bit after breakfast. We just walked around the Woman Plaza property and found the main road. We then headed back inside to get ready for our welcome lunch with the governor of Jeollanamdo province.

We were told to bring some "dressy" clothes for this meal as we wanted to impress and show our respect for the governor. So we all got a little dressed up and headed to lunch. We heard a nice speech from the governor and ate a delicious lunch. The program that we are involved in was started in 2007 by the governor. This province is one of the most rural and poorest of all South Korea. The children don't have access to great education and just don't have the opportunities that children in other provinces do. The Korean government sends funds to this province in order for them to improve their education. So the governor wanted to bring in English teachers so that the children of this area would have greater opportunity to learn for free and would therefore have greater opportunities for a brighter future. Its really a beautiful program and you can tell that the governor really is passionate about helping his community and improving the future of the young people. While we did later find out that the children involved in this program are chosen specifically for their high marks in English (which means their parents most likely have money to send them to private schools for education), it is still a nice program and I am proud to be involved.

After lunch with the governor (and awkward handshakes from him where he tried to like pull us in for a hug or something), Alice, Jonathan and I decided to do some more exploring. It was a pretty hot day, but we figured we could handle it. And we would have been able to, had we known at all where we were going. We just kind of started walking and then by the time we realized there was nothing at all in this town, we were kind of lost. We knew the general direction to head in, so we started that way. We walked by buildings thinking they were ones we had seen before, only to realize later that it was just a different location of the coffee shop, or a similar looking construction site, but not the same one. We were hot. It was a million degrees out. Actually it was probably only like 90, but when you are tired and lost it seems much hotter. We eventually found the right road and saw our building in the distance, although it looked like a million miles away. We arrived back to the Woman Plaza after wandering around for about two hours, and then it was time for dinner.

The town we are in is a developing town. There is construction everywhere and tons of brand new apartment buildings that appear pretty empty. You don't see many people around. There are convenience stores and coffee shops and banks, but that's about it. For that reason, I keep having to remind myself that I'm in Asia, for crying out loud, how cool is that?!?!! It kind of just seems like any other moderately sized city (minus the people......I think they must be vampires and only come out at night?).

We did make our way to Mokp'o the next night, which is more Korean-seeming, in my mind. There are brightly lit signs on the crowded and narrow streets, more people wandering about (though still not a ton of people-we're not in Seoul, which contains about a quarter of the population of the entire country), etc. The first night we went to Mokp'o, we caught a cab (which was about $5, split between 5 people) and just wandered around where they dropped us off. We found a Baskin Robbins which sounded good so we went in for some ice cream. I have heard that Asian people don't que in lines, but never really imagined what that would mean. Well, I'll tell you: it means standing around for forever while Korean people jump in front of you and order. I eventually did push my way through and order some ice cream (and gave them way too much money on accident-good thing the girl was nice!). While I was standing by the counter, this little girl (maybe 12 years old or so) kept staring at me. She finally said, in English, "You are very tall!" hahahah I smiled and said, "Yes I am!" Then I sat down at the table with the others and they notified me that some ladies at a neighboring table had been sneaking photos of me with their cell phones. HAHAHAHAH Seeing white people is exciting enough, but when the white girl is head and shoulders taller than anyone you've ever seen, its necessary to catch that on film. Apparently. I can't wait to see the kid's reactions when they meet all 6'1" of me!

The last couple of days have been filled with training about how to teach, what the curriculum will be like, what Korean students are like, etc. I feel pretty prepared for the most part. Although I did volunteer to be the "Activites Coordinator" for the first camp. Which means I won't actually be teaching but will be making sure all the teachers have what they need, subbing when someone needs a break, being the MC for the evening activities (being up on stage giving instructions for all the activities, etc.).....should be interesting! I'm kind of nervous and am not sure exactly what I got myself in to, but it will be a great experience for me!

Today we are going to meet our Korean co-teachers (well, except for me since I won't have a co-teacher at first!) and learn a little more about what we'll be doing. Gonna be a busy day!


P.s. Thanks to my friend Alice, I can now say "hello," "thank you," and "don't touch me, pervert" in Korean. That's really all you need to know, right?? I'm working on learning the alphabet, so then I will be able to read Korean. I won't know what it means, but I will be able to pronounce it!



Photos to come...