"...a good climbing mind..."

Hi everyone,

How's it going? I'm okay. Nothing too new to report from the week, but I'll share a few stories of what's been happening recently.

At the beginning of the month I found a bouldering gym in Daegu. There are supposedly a few in Daegu, but after walking back and forth past the actual gym for twenty minutes it was a miracle that I actually found this one. I didn't see the place at first, because it is in the basement of a building. The first time I went, I just wanted to find the place, see how much it cost, etc. The people were generally friendly and the place looked fine. I started going once a week- mainly because it takes about 30 minutes to get there with two bus transfers.

Now, I've never bouldered before (in a gym) and the experience was quite new. One of my fellow Fulbrighter's assured me that Korean climbers were friendly and they would help me. I quickly learned that this "help" comes in the form of the owner of the gym with a bamboo stick directing where I should place my "right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot," this is just a sampling of his limited English speaking ability. Of course, his English gets a lot better when he informs me, "No! No! No! Wrong, everything wrong!" He then proceeds to show me the correct way. This has happened every week since I began going to the gym. Now, I profess it is true, I'm not doing things the "correct" way, but I really am trying. I'm convinced that I only need more practice, not someone yelling at me in broken English that I'm doing everything wrong.

Now, last week was the icing on the cake when after a rather frustrating time he proceeded to tell me that I needed to lose weight to be better at bouldering and that I should jog to lose weight. Now, I've come to expect the blunt statements and assessments Korean's make about outward appearances, but like most American's, I'm not exactly thrilled when someone tells me I'm fat. I was pretty frustrated, but was more determined to show them that I could do it, despite being what they consider fat.

The chance to prove my ability came on Saturday when I went rock climbing with the man who owns the gym and several people that frequent the gym. I was invited on Thursday, but never received a call about going, so I craftily tracked down a phone number and made sure I was going on Sat. I was concerned that after Thursday they would try to ditch me on Sat!

I hadn't been rock climbing in almost nine months and it felt so good to be outside! Even if it was freezing outside! (Spring is slowly coming, one day it's gorgeous, the next it's rainy and cold.) We didn't go to a mountain to climb, rather a rock formation that has about a dozen or so routes. The place was pretty busy on Saturday, it was interesting to see so many people (mostly men, but some women) in all their fancy gear. I think most of the routes are pretty easy- mostly varying degrees of 10's.

I got to climb first and impressed them with my knot tying ability (thanks Matt) and a relatively good first climb. They were pretty impressed with my ability since I suck so much at the gym. Mr. Park's statement, "Rock climbing good! Bouldering bad!" After a few more runs over the course of a few hours (there were some other people climbing with us, we took turns) Mr. Park determined that I did not have a lot of power, but I had a good climbing mind- a reference to my stubbornness and refusal to give up. :) Overall, I was very happy that I went and had a good time. I can't wait for the next trip!

One more thing impressed some of the Koreans I went climbing with and that was my gear. I only say this, because, for the most part, Koreans tend to care about brand names and such. It's true and made me stress about what clothes I should wear climbing at the gym. I spent about a week searching for pants and a shirt I could wear climbing. However, this wasn't a thought when they saw the name of my shoes and harness!

I'll be traveling for the next two weekends and won't be able to make it into the gym because of my schedule, but I'll post more exciting stories later!

-me ^^

...a rare midweek post...

I received this e-mail from another Fulbright English Teacher living in Korea:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200803/200803270009.html

This truly is a sad story, but found the article very interesting. I wanted to know why I hadn't heard of this until it found it's way into my inbox today, so I did some searching.

Here is what the NYTimes had to say:

www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Iowa-City-Slayings.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=iowa&st=ny

And the International Herald Tribune:

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/03/25/america/OUKWD-UK-IOWA-SLAYINGS.php

Obviously Korea has a national interest in the story, but the slant of the article is undeniable. As far as know, the Chosun-Ilbo is a conservative newspaper.

-me

I'm a slacker...

...Hi!

Sorry, no post last week. It's not like I've been super busy or anything lately, but I just didn't end up blogging last week.

Teaching is still going well. I'm on week four of class, this week, but I've only taught about two weeks. This is because my students went on their class trip last week (for three days) and I didn't have to teach. I wanted to travel with my students, but wasn't invited- kinda sucks, but I got some time off- always a plus.

Last weekend I went with two friends to see the apricot blossom festival a town about 2 hours south of here. It was really beautiful! It's like an orchard field, so there are many trees. There were tents set up with different things you could buy, typical festival foods, etc. I've added some new pics (finally) of the festival.

After the festival Alison and I went to a basketball game (pics included too) in Daegu. We have our own professional team. It was an interesting game- our team is not very good. We played the Pusan team- they were a lot better than us, but at least we ended up winning. It was funny because it seemed like the teams here passed the ball way more than American teams do. For example, before anyone ever made a shot, it seemed like the entire team passed the ball around- like everyone had to touch it or something. It was a good experience and I'm glad we went. I also ran into some foreigner friends at the game I hadn't seen in awhile, so that was nice- we ended up going out for dinner.

This week- with all my spare time, I went to visit some friends on the west coast. It was nice, I got to visit a friend who teaches at an elementary school and help/watch her teach. It was neat visiting another family and school. I also went to visit a friend in Taean- where the oil spill happened last fall. We went to a beach and there was still some clean up happening (pics included).

I can't believe it's the end of March already. I know the rest of my time is going to fly by- I want to come back, but I know I'll miss Korea and my time here. These are a few things I plan on doing before I leave Korea: attend a concert (Big Bang is huge among high schooler's here, I just bought my tickets tonight!), see a baseball game (let's hope it's better than the basketball), see a soccer game, travel to a few more cities in Korea (Gwangju, Mokpo, maybe Daejon), and take an international trip with all my free time.

I feel like I should be volunteering this semester, but I didn't feel much of a connection last semester and I don't want to do something out of obligation. I think this semester is just going to be a time of rest (traveling and being active). I'm taking a yoga class every day and then going to a rock climbing gym once a week. I also hope to go climbing or hiking on the weekends when I'm in town.

Please leave a note or write an e-mail to let me know how things are going with you! I really do want to know!!!

As soon as I find out info about grad school/a job I'll post it!

-me ^^ (<- Korean smiley face)

First Week

Hi everyone,

Last week was the first week of school and thankfully it got a lot better from my last post. I finally got a schedule- a pretty good one that allows me Mondays off and classes pretty much back to back, so not too many breaks in between. Between all the national holidays and test days I have a few long vacations and I'm excited to be able to travel and get around this Spring.

My new kids are great. I don't think they'll be lots of problems and I am just tweaking and fine tuning lessons from last semester- so not a lot of prep. I'll prob need to create a few new lessons, but nothing major.

In my free time, I started a yoga class, which I really enjoy. I also found the bouldering gym yesterday and will go once a week and maybe on a weekend sometime. I've been trying to study some Korean on my own and have been meeting with different people to practice my conversation.

So, all in all things are going well.

me ^^

Would it be any less frustrating if I could understand?

Okay, for once I will make my Sunday deadline because I have absolutely nothing to do at school today. It is the first day of school and all of the teachers I am used to seeing in the office have moved to different grade levels, transfered schools, or are on a sabbatical. It's a little sad because I really liked the teachers in the office last year. I'm sure I'll like the new ones too- but to keep in touch with the other teachers, I now need to canvas the building trying to find them.

The odd thing about it being the first day of school is the lack of students. Well, first year students anyways. Although, I think they are beginning to trickle in. I believe there is a welcome ceremony for them in about an hour. I'm going to try and follow everyone for that (no one seems to know where it will be and if I have to attend).

I haven't really been too frustrated with my lack of understanding, however it's a bit different when I'm expected to teach and I still don't know when and who I'm teaching. Supposedly my schedule is being made as I type this out. My two requests: most of the classes in the morning and no classes on Fridays. I've been crossing my fingers and holding my breath for my schedule ever since it was mentioned a week ago. I do understand that my requests are a bit hopeful, but whatevs.

I might even have to teach second year students, which will be a huge surprise and a drag (although I miss my students from last year- so that will be good). Mainly because I wasn't prepared for that and don't have any lessons prepared to teach second year students!!! Actually I think I have an idea of what I could do, but it is a bit inconvenient.

One good thing is the fact that I don't have to change offices. This is good, because I don't want to move all my stuff around. I feel like if I was in an office with others I might be a bit more productive this semester, but I'll just have to buckle down and use my free time a little more wisely.

I think it would be a little less frustrating if I could understand what was going on, but I'll try to be patient and wait for my schedule and a myriad of other details that are important for teaching this week and tomorrow.

I have turned in all the info for the grad application and now I just have to wait. However, I keep trying to contact the school of education and they are unhelpful at best, just like I remember. I want to make sure my application is complete- that they received everything, since I had to submit my app via internet, domestic and international mail. *sigh* oh well.

-me

Thoughts from Korea

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd share some more personal happenings here in Korea- no I don't have a boyfriend. :) (sorry mom and dad) ^^ It's more along the lines of why I wanted to come here in the first place- learn about the culture, because I was born here.

Last week I went and visited my adoption agency. I had contacted them about a month earlier wanting to visit the orphanage where I was when I was born. It took them forever to get back to me- I actually went through another center before they contacted me. I made an appointment and spoke with a social worker who said really quickly on the phone that the orphanage had been closed for the past 15 years, but that we could visit the place where it used to be if I wanted. I was a bit hurried, but I set up an appointment.

I arrived at the office and she was ready to whisk me away, but I wanted to take things a little bit more slowly. I inquired about my file and got to see all the original documents surrounding the first 3 months of my life. It was neat. The social work spoke English very well and was able to point out some of the things written in Korean for me. Such as my name, which I already knew.

There was only one piece of new information in my file in Korea than in the records I already knew, my birth mother's name and date of birth. The social worker clearly had done her work, because she informed me that she had already tried to contact a few different places to track this woman down. I was taken by surprise, because this was not my intention when I had called to visit the orphanage. I told her that if she found anything not to contact her before she spoke to me.

We then got in a van and drove (about an hour) to the site where the orphanage used to be. It wasn't all that exciting- the space is now filled with apartment buildings, but it was good to go- I'd never have been able to find it myself and she had taken notes with what the orphanage looked like, what buildings were here and there. Then we got back in the van- got caught in a lot of traffic and went back to the office.

That was the end of the end of the trip and I'm glad I went. At the beginning of my time in Korea I never had any intention to go, but after volunteering at the center and meeting so many other adoptees and hearing their stories I wanted to go and see the orphanage (or what was left of it). There's no news about my birth mother, so far she hasn't been able to find any information. There's really only one other place she can look and I'm still waiting to hear from her. I'm actually relieved that there isn't any information because I wouldn't know what to do if there was.

I start teaching next week and still don't know my school schedule. * sigh * Oh well. I've sent in some documents for the grad program and almost have it completed. I've also finished the online application for a school district and just have to send in some paperwork, and I'm nearly done with the online app for another district- then I'll have to send in some paperwork, but it's coming along and I'm still excited for the possibility of teaching and living back in CO. :)

-me

Okay, I'm really back...

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I haven't been very timely with the updates recently. However, I am back from Seoul (I'm in Daegu), so that should put me on a regular schedule once again. I still have about two weeks of freedom before school and I actually decided the other day that I am going to apply to a graduate school program. Which means I have a lot of work to do in these next two weeks.

I am applying for the Partners in Education program through CU Boulder (same as my undergrad). The program is good because I will be earning my masters and teaching (they partner me with a local school district). I hope that I can get accepted into the program because I am very excited to go back to teaching in the states.

The decision to apply is really because I miss teaching social studies and figure that if I'm going to go back and teach eventually, why shouldn't I just do it next year? I still really like Korea, but do want to do something new next year. I feel like if I stay here another year, it will just be more of the same. I'm also excited to get back into a classroom and learn. :)

I'll post more next week,

me ^^