Songnisan & PLACEMENT!

Hi All,

I am sorry that I was not able to post until mid-week.

We got back from our weekend retreat to Songnisan on Sunday evening. I would have written then, but we had a quiz on Monday and I had to teach one of my lessons for camp on Monday as well. I spent Sunday evening getting materials to teach and studying. I also had to teach our club activity on Tuesday, I did not get a break until today!

This past weekend was really nice and relaxing. We left Friday morning for Songnisan, which is a mountain, and got into town around lunch time. We had this lunch with all the local foods (veggies, roots, pickled/preserved, and kimcheed things). It was good and there was certainly food left over. After that, we checked into the hotel, we had to roll out our beds on the floor. They were pretty comfortable though. Friday afternoon we had some workshop sessions and then a talk about Buddhism. It was given by this monk, who's American, but has lived in Korea for the past 20 some years. It was pretty boring. After this, we visited the Buddhist temple in the area and then we had dinner- this soup thing with all the little side dishes of local foods- it was really good.

We had Friday night free, so a bunch of people went to norebang (kareoke). I didn't stay out too late, because I went hiking on Saturday up the mountain. I left with three other girls Saturday morning at 8:30 and we went on an 8 hour hike! It was really pretty, but by about hour 6 I was ready to be finished. We came down and I had dinner with some people and then went back to the hotel and just hung out with some friends (I went to sleep pretty early). Sunday morning I studied a bit by a river with some friends and ended up playing in it with some Korean kids (water fight). We had lunch on Sunday- some beef noodle soup with side dishes- it was really good. I've posted pictures on the website- there should be a link on this page now.

Teaching went well this week. I taught a lesson about the importance of sequence and directions by having the students write a recipe for PB&J and then made each student a sandwhich based off their recipe. They had a good time and although they are extremely quiet (unlike American students) I was able to get some of them to talk and laugh. We also taught our club activity lesson this week (yoga) and since I know nothing about yoga I did a warm up of simon says (reviewing body parts). It was fun.

Today we were placed in towns and schools. I am in the city of Daegu and it really is a city- it turns out to be the capitol of the province of Gyeonsangbuk-do, which is located south east on the peninsula. Lonely planet (2004) says, "...pop 2.53 million...and [it] covers a larger area than Seoul..." At the time it was the third largest city in Korea, now it is the fourth. I am sort of surprised I was placed in a city (mainly because there are not many placements in cities). Although, I suppose I do not exactly know where my school and homestay will be located (maybe on the outskirts of the the city?). Some of the best things about the placement is that there are orphanages there where I can volunteer, I'm in a city where I can pursue Korean language at a university, and I was placed there with four other great ETAs (two of which are adopted like me). Also, three friends are about 30 minutes away in Gumi. I guess there is always the slight possibility that my placement could change, but I really would love to be settled!

Nothing else really new- I don't really have any exciting weekend plans, we have to help out with camp Fulbright this weekend and Sunday is my day (so, I'm thinking I'll just stick around). Hope all is well with everyone!

-Jenna

P.S. I definitely stayed up all night last night to read Harry Potter the 7th book! Woot...I'm going to go crash now.