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.

Family Ties

About an hour ago my host mom came back from her business trip. My host dad picked her up at the bus station and brought her back to an empty house, aside from myself. My host brothers came back from their music lessons a few minutes later and quickly showered her with a perfect blend of teasing and hugging that fully displayed their affection, while still maintaining their toughness (not even Korean boys are going to admit to being momma’s boys). Finally, 엄마 is back and the boys can stop trying to pass off their seared spam slices as a meal(s).

This is what we look like when Ma comes home.

The fact that my host mom came home from a 4-hour bus ride and immediately started preparing food for tomorrow’s meals barely scratches the surface of her selflessness, but there will be many more posts on that in the future (and the past) . She was only gone for 48 hours but for the two quiet evenings with fruitless desserts it felt like the house had lost its soul. My host mom is the keystone to the Kim family and her return tonight reminded me of so many other times when the love of Korean families got glossed over in the daily shuffle.

From local university students telling us about their weekend hikes with their fathers, to our Korean language teacher reminding me

No sweetie, it's pronounced "nucular."

that, at 28, she still lives with her parents (because she is unmarried), I realize that those ludicrously un-independent situations are bred from the nuclear Korean family. While I cringe at the thought of hanging out with my parents every weekend in the States or moving back home after my grant year I can understand it a bit more every time my host family silently nudges the food I like in front of me or my host brothers lovingly maul their mother after a “long” absence.

There is a goodness in their interactions that I will never personally experience—because I am American and too far gone—which I’m fine with, but watching boys lovingly razz their mother after a brief absence while most American teenagers would blow smoke at her gives me something to appreciate the next time I hear that a Korean in their mid-20s still lives at home.