Same Town, Same Year...New School!

Wow, long time no blog, hey?

As I'm still sitting here in the tea fields, you can safely assume I've renewed for another year of teaching down here in Boseong, Jeollanamdo.  I had a great year at my elementary schools and high school, and the town of Boseong truly feels like home.  When it came time to renew my contract, there was no doubt I wanted to do a second year!

Sadly, funding was cut for my elementary school at the county level, so I wasn't able to stay there for a second year.  What followed were some rather anxious few months as I waited to hear from my coordinator (and probably drove him crazy) about my new school.  I had initially applied for a switch to an elementary school in Suncheon, but the day before our new placements were officially announced, my old co-teacher from my vocational high school reached out to me.  Her new school, the academy high school in Boseong, had received unexpected funding for a Native English Teacher (NET)!  We had a quick get-together that evening after school and decided to call the main office first thing the next morning to catch them before making the placement announcements.  Somehow, all the pieces fell into place and I was able to stay in Boseong!  As great as Suncheon would have been, staying in a town I knew in my same apartment and working with a co-teacher I know I already get along with fantastically just seemed like the most logical choice.

Now I am happily settled in at my new high school, which is just across the river from my apartment complex.  This school hasn't had a NET since 2010, so both the students and staff were buzzing on the day of my arrival.  Especially the students, who are absolutely adorable and so polite.  Judging from their reactions, you'd think I was Beyonce or Taylor Swift!  The boys battle one another to say hello, and the girls shyly wave and dissolve into a mess of giggled when I say, "Hi!" in return.  I even got a marriage proposal on my second day, but all the girls in the class told him they wouldn't "accept" our relationship as he was unworthy. Poor guy!  They crushed his dreams harder and far more swiftly than even I could!  I'm sure it will all die down by the end of the semester as I go from Dazzling Celebrity Foreigner to Regular English Teacher.

The school itself is beautiful--it looks like something out of a Korean TV drama!  The campus is fairly large, and there are many new buildings.  As an academy high school, there are dorms for students who live in the countryside or whose parents want them to focus more on their studies.  Our classes begin at 8:30AM and while 7th period ends at 4:15PM, the students don't get to go home until 10PM or sometimes even 11PM!  Both lunch and dinner are served on campus, and students spend their evenings in "self-study," which is supervised by teachers.  In fact, many of the teachers who live 30-60min away in Gwangju actually stay in the teacher's dorm building during the week because of their supervision duties.  Both the students and teachers work very hard and incredibly long hours.

Yes, this is actually my school.  Yes, it actually looks like this.  Who said country living wasn't cool?

English Teachers' Orientation: What to Expect (And What Not To)

Every job--even within the same field--will be different.  And every orientation, even within the same company, can be different.  Some throw you out there on your first day and watch as you sink or swim.  Others hold your hand and hammer their way of doing things into your head, denying you any freedom to experiment and improve the system.

No comment.

I've held a variety of jobs  and participated in a range of activities over the last decade, and I've experienced countless orientations that fall all over this spectrum.  When I came to Korea in August of 2014 to teach English as a second language, I didn't know where our program's orientation would entail or how much it would or wouldn't help me in my new teaching job.  Obviously even within the same orientation everyone's personal experience of it will be different, but here is what I took away from mine:

DON'T EXPECT everyone to be on the same level.  There were some people I met that I was incredibly impressed with.  One girl spoke gorgeously fluent Korean (and blew away all the Korean co-teachers at our introduction!), and others still had years of teaching experience or were working on Master's degrees while abroad.  And others were new, just like me.  In fact, you may even meet some people whose qualifications you strongly question, but at the end of the day, take everything as a learning opportunity.  Pick up good tips from the more experienced teachers and learn what not to do from those who set bad examples.  You have control over what kind of teacher you want to be!

DO EXPECT to meet some awesome people.  Not only are you all in the same boat, but that boat is floating in a foreign sea, and you're all feeling equally out of place.  Orientation sort of feels like being a freshman in college all over again--friend groups are formed, everyone is a little awkward and out of their element, and no one wants to seem like they don't know what they're doing.  But everyone is new to something--whether it's teaching, or Korea, or both.  Orientation is a huge opportunity to make friends...and go visit them in their respective placement cities later!

Korean Hospitals, Doctors, and Health Care

I'm six months in to my stay here, and it was bound to happen at some point.  Some good ol' Korean nasties have settled in my system and blessed me with a pretty brutal cough.  I'll spare you the details, but I'm typically a very healthy person and get over illnesses quickly.  So, once I hit the one-week point without seeing much progress, I decided it was time to see a doctor.

Korea has a fantastic health care system that even covers us native teachers during our contracts.  I think the cost and efficiency of this system comes as the biggest shock to Americans, who have exorbitant costs and wait times associated with hospital and doctors visits.  Here, when you mention that you're unwell, the first suggestion a Korean will make is that you go to the hospital.

The hospital?!  For a general visit or check up?!  It sounds strange to those of us from Western countries, who associate hospitals with serious medical issues, long-term stays, or emergencies.  But here in Korea, the hospital is the first stop when assessing your health problems.  Only after you've been checked out would you possibly receive a further recommendation to see a doctor, who is a specialist in a particular field.

My Korean Milestones

Coming to a new country and not knowing any of the language can be frustrating.  Here are some of the big milestones I've accomplished since coming to Korea:

Week 0 (July):

- Managed to catch a bus from Seoul to Daejeon and meet up with my friends before starving to death.

- Can say my friend's address in Korean and catch a taxi home on my own if necessary.

Week 1 (August):

- Can successfully navigate the subway in Seoul alone....although the stops are all written in English too, and I have a travel card I can top up.

- (Can't read or write)

Week 2: 

- Can order coffee or tea with the Konglish name (Korean pronunciation of English words), as well as beer and soju.

- Can navigate a familiar bus route on my own using my travel card.

- (Still can't read or write, still haven't eaten a meal alone)

Week 3:

- Can read consonant characters and a few vowels.

- Have picked up on a few Korean words and phrases.

- Can tell everyone my height in Korean.

- Am getting really good at charades.

Month 1 (September):

- Can properly greet, thank, and say good-bye to people using the correct level of politeness.

- Can read, albeit slowly and often without understanding what I'm saying.

- Slowly learning a few more phrases and getting used to using them every day.

- Am really, really good at charades.

- (Names are so, so hard to remember, you guys...)

- Can communicate with Korean guys when we go out to clubs.

- Have a pay-as-you-go phone

- Have a Korean bank account

Start Saving for a Ticket to Visit Korea, Because I'm Not Coming Home.

You guys, I'm so, so sorry, but I absolutely love Korea.

Please remind me of this in 5 months when I'm homesick and lonely, craving Mequon Taco Bell and have gotten sick of rice.

About a month ago, I bought a one-way ticket and hopped on a plane, traveling over 30 hours to get here.  I'd never been to Korea before, I don't speak or read the language, and I knew a grand total of four people in a country of 50 million.

Officially the last photograph of me in the USA.

I haven't had a chance to truly sit down and study the language yet, but I now know a handful of phrases and am able to (slowly) read and write.  In the span of a week my circle of friends and family has expanded to eighteen.  In Korean culture, friends are made by being "introduced" by a mutual friend.  Striking up a casual conversation with a stranger is strange and uncomfortable, but with an introduction, people are quick to be friendly and keep in touch on KakaoTalk*.  For example: my friend from college, CJ, introduced me to his friend D on Sunday.  D brought along another friend, B, who I ended up grabbing lunch and hanging out with on Tuesday when my other friends were busy.

Somebody Time Me, I'm Heading to Korea

Traveling to South Korea from the United States is far more than "just a 13 hour flight".   I've traveled enough (both domestically and abroad) over the last few years to know you should always give yourself extra time between each leg of your journey.  However, the longer you travel, the more these unexpectedly add up.  I got up at 6:45AM on Tuesday, July 29th and was prepped for the following itinerary:

• Leave home in Cedarburg, Wisconsin at 7:45AM CST to make it to Mitchell Airport (35min)
• Catch flight from Milwaukee, Wisconsin at 10:30AM CST to Chicago, Illinois. (2h 45m)
• Sit at the O'Hare Airport for ~2 hours. (5h, and we haven't even left the US yet...)
• Catch the 12h 40m flight from Chicago, Illinois to Tokyo, Japan (17h 40m)
• Sit at the Narita Airport for ~1h 30m (19h)
• Catch the 3h flight from Tokyo, Japan to Seoul, South Korea (22h)
• Catch a bus from Incheon Airport to Daejeon, where I would connect with CJ. (24h)

So hypothetically this should only take me around 24 hours of traveling, right?  Wrong.  So very, very wrong.  Catching all of my connecting flights went over very smoothly.  However, I am neither graceful, fast-moving, nor collected when I am juggling a purse, a computer bag, a 65L backpack, a suitcase, and a second 75L hiking backpack zipped in a carrying case.

Packed and ready to go!