The Week that Was: The Test, Daejeon, Pepero Day and a Flower Festival

THE TEST

I only taught three  days this week because my 3rd graders had exams on Wednesday and the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) was administered on Thursday. The CSAT is, as you’d guess, the Korean equivalent of the SAT; unfortunately, thanks to the incalculable pressure that parents and the country puts on academics, the CSAT is far more scary than any four-hour exam I sauntered into as a high school junior.

The CSAT is taken by seniors in high school and serves as a primary indicator for what university they will attend. In short, if they don’t kill it on the CSAT their chances of attending a top university (and getting a top job and being successful and being happy and being relevant) is basically squashed. And as much as Korea would like to look the other way at their youth suicide rates they still published a few stories from students’ committing suicide due to test-based anxiety.

The test takes somewhere around 9 hours and devours the entire day. Listening sections are held in the morning and airplanes are not allowed to fly domestically during those times, so students are not disturbed. Parents pray outside of schools and students learn their fates in a few weeks.

DAEJEON

On Wednesday I went to Daejeon to visit some ETA friends. I hadn’t been to Daejeon in over two months and even though it was only a day trip I was excited to go. I went to Amy’s all-girls high school in downtown Daejeon where they were having a morning ceremony to commemorate the 3rd graders that were about to take the CSAT.

Quiet, our leader (ahem, nun-principal) is speaking!

The 1st and 2nd graders making a procession to wish the 3rd graders good luck!

Su Chin (girl on right in orange) really took a shine to me

Last one on the train, next stop: Naju

PEPERO DAY

Friday (11/ 11/ 11) was Pepero Day in Korea. Pepero is a snack in Korea that is basically a non-salted chocolate covered pretzel. They’re good to snack on and stick-shaped (hence the holiday on 11/11). A handful of my students gave me boxes of Pepero and little notes. I love them.

Angellina is by far my best writer (good thing she wants to be a writer when she grows up!)

Yeah there was a lot more Pepero before I took this picture (on Sunday)... I just happened to eat half of it already =p

FLOWER FESTIVAL

Since I haven’t spent a lot of time with my homestay family I’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to recently. It was my host brother’s 16th birthday on Friday and on Thursday, after we went out to dinner, I told him to pick out a few birthday presents. He picked out some shower gel and purple headphones (to which I asked, is this for your girlfriend? I ragged on him for a bit about that despite his vehement denials).

On Saturday it was homestay grandmother’s birthday so we went to a chrysanthemum festival in Hampyeong. The festival wasn’t anything special (haha that didn’t take me from taking pictures) but the time I had with my family was awesome. We didn’t do anything too exciting but just being around the boys, roughhousing, letting them play with my iPod and teasing them made me really feel like a part of the family.

Homestay cousins. They're not the friendliest but they're still really cute.

Paper dolls outside of one of the museums

Bee

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All in all I had a really nice week. My lesson on the human body (and gruesome injuries) didn’t go too well– so I have to tweak it– but I’m not getting too discouraged about it. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but over the last few weeks I’ve been keeping a positive attitude and it’s really paid off.

This week I have a full slate of teaching and then a weekend in Seoul! The ETAs are having Thanksgiving dinner with the embassy and I couldn’t be more excited for copious American food.

The Week that Was: Daejeon, Teaching, and a Field Day

Disclaimer: I’m a terrible photographer. I never bring / take out my camera at good times, I’m too concerned with being a bother so I don’t ask people to take pictures of me or with others, and I try to take pictures of things that look obscure (but when I revisit the photos the intrigue’s waned and the objects just look weird or boring). I will work on this in the future!

Two of my close friends had birthdays last weekend so I went to Daejeon, Korea’s fifth-largest city. Daejeon’s considered to be the science and research hub of Korea and is appropriately located in the center of the country. I got out of work at 4, took a bus to Gwangju, and was on an Express Bus to Daejeon by 5. The seats for a $15 bus ride were absurd. I’ve never flown first class but that’s what the seating felt like (for lack of pictures, see disclaimer).

We went out in Daejeon’s new downtown both nights, to the same  bar, at a place called “Bar Sponge.” We had good nights but Daejeon was filled with far too many sleazy Westerners (not including ourselves, of course). Aside from the nightlife, on Saturday afternoon we went to Daejeon’s arboretum. We only explored a small portion of it but it was beautiful:

This girl apparently didn't like the fountains. My friends on the other hand...

...they loved them.

 

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After the arboretum we went to a baseball game. The Hanwa Eagles (Daejeon’s team) are horrendous but at least they have Karim Garcia! He’s as fat as ever and probably just as likely to mash a Pedro Martinez pitch into the seats.

Stadium seats like 10-15,000. Place is tiny. We also paid $8 to sit anywhere wanted!

Sonia's like super into sports.

Hey look Andy (Aaron's host brother) isn't sulking, sobbing or attacking me! What a surprise

The game was fun but it went into extras and we left early. We were all exhausted and that probably reflected in our going-out mentalities. Zzzzz.

*****

Teaching went pretty well this week. I taught my boys about comparatives and superlatives (even though the younger classes didn’t get that far) by seeing who was taller (obvious), stronger (arm-wrestling) and louder (screaming). Of course punishment pushups made it into the lesson as well, they always do.

I really like my third graders (in Korea there are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in middle school and then 1st, 2nd, 3rd graders in high school). I thought they would be a problem because they’re the equivalent of American high school freshman, but they’re pretty well-behaved and enthusiastic. Humpday is now something I can look forward to.

*****

This morning the orphanage that both of my host parents work at had a Field Day. For a few hours the kids played games (eerily similar to the games we played at Camp Fulbright during Orientation) and infused a bunch of energy into an otherwise dreary and cloudy day:

I did this too. I threw a baby on my back, jogged over to the clothesline and made her eat a ritz. It was funny.

Everyone stretching!

Naju's famous for pears so of course they had a pear shaving contest.

(write your own caption)

My host bros

This week (9/12) is Chuseok! aka Korean Thanksgiving. For Chuseok Korean families flock to their ancestor’s homes to pay homage. We will be going to Yeongnam, a city about an hour due south of Naju, to visit my host mom’s mother.

Chuseok also means a 5 day weekend! After I teach on Thursday and Friday next week I’ll be headed up to Seoul for the weekend. My friend from the States– who I haven’t seen in a year– has a layover at Incheon for 12 hours on Saturday and we’re going to meet up! Other than that, Hongdae and wandering? Yes please.