Chuncheon, South Korea

Hi All,

I've decided I will try and update this thing every Sunday. It's pretty difficult, just because there is so much I've done, but I'm trying to get it updated!

I arrived in Incheon/Seoul International Airport on Saturday morning with the rest of the the people on the program. Thankfully I did not experience any setbacks and most of our group was able to collect their luggage. We boarded buses for Chuncheon, a 2.5 hour ride, where we will be staying for the next six weeks. We are at Kangwon National University learning Korean, culture, and how to teach English as a foreign language. The rest of Saturday was spent getting to know each other and informational meetings about the program. There will be lots of meetings over the next few weeks to help us acclimate to our new environment!

I really like the food! The cafeteria food really is just like all cafeteria food and therefore it's just so-so. However, I ventured out to eat with a few people at some local and very inexpensive restaurants yesterday and today and they were great! Kimchee really does come with everything- whether it's the traditional cabbage kimchee or radish or whatever other kind of kimchee. In general the food is very hot and very spicy. We had a spicy chicken dish tonight with some former people from our program and it was amazing. Apparently Chuncheon is known for this specific dish.

I am finding it a little difficult to adjust to the schedule. It's 6:19am and I think I woke up earlier than that, but tried to go back to sleep. Last night I was exhausted and went to bed around 9:00pm, after taking a three hour nap in the evening.

I haven't been outside the campus very much and it still makes me feel like I'm in a little bubble, it's hard to believe I'm in Korea. Sunday we had more of the welcome weekend meetings and such. We signed up for extra curricular activities we want to participate in. I signed up for cooking class. We have a cooking class tonight and then one in about two weeks, I'm not sure who is teaching it, but it sounds fun. There was a Korean musical instrument class, a tkd class, a calligraphy class, and a paper folding/cutting class too. The tkd class only goes from white to yellow belt, so I opted not to spend the $100 on it. I might still want to sign up for the calligraphy class, but we'll see.

We also had to sign up for a time to teach during camp (about two weeks from now). We had to sign up to teach two lessons, an extra activity, and a weekend activity. I signed up to teach an advanced class and a lower level class, just to see the difference in kids. We also had a presentation that day by two former program participants about their experience in Korea and it was pretty informative.

Yesterday was the first language class and man it was tiring! It's four hours of rote instruction- which means we repeat the same things over and over again. We had a lot of homework too, which was writing the same thing over and over again. I'm in the beginner class, no surprise there, but I do enjoy the class. We have 14 people in our class which is nice. I know the vowels and the consonants and how to say hello, how are you (two different ways), nice to meet you, what is your name, my name is, where are you from, what country are you from, I am from America, and I am American. We'll have a midterm and a final for the class, along with quizes every monday! I also heard that our scores are printed on the diploma we receive after finishing the course!

We have workshops/meetings every afternoon- about cultural life in korea, how to teach etc. Yesterday's was okay, but it was hard to sit for two more hours, I was really antsy to leave. We have little assignments every week too- just to check in with the orientation coordinators, I have to write mine up a little later. I also have a 1 on 1 meeting with a coordinator this morning- just a check in to see how the weekend went and how we are adjusting. I like how much time fulbright spends making sure people are adjusting well.

I found out quickly that I am not immune to Korean mosquitoes. In fact, I have about four bites on my upper left thigh, which is kinda strange, since I wear clothes every where I go (I think they bite at night in my rooms, I need to get a bug killer thing in the room). The bites got really big and warm to the touch- fun stuff. But, I was able to get hydrocortizone cream from one of the coordinators and it's reduced a lot of the swelling. I'm fine, just a bit itchy and uncomfortable. The other day I had my contacts in and my eyes were really dry and my right eye got really red (the one that I scratched). I haven't been wearing my contacts, but have been monitoring my eye- it seems to be okay, but the redness hasn't fully gone away. I am thinking of going to a doctor today to get it checked out. It doesn't hurt, but I'd feel better if I knew it was okay.

This is long, but a lot has happened in just three days! I'll try to be a bit more discriminating in future posts! Please, e-mail me and let me know how you all are doing. I certainly do want to hear what is happening with my friends at home!

-Jenna