The Week that Was: Friends, Art, and Inspiration

FRIENDS

On Tuesday afternoon one of my closest friends in Korea, Korena (I know, it still gets me too sometimes), came all the way down to Naju to visit. She unfortunately missed her train in the morning and was unable to observe my classes but we still managed to tour the campus– a campus that has around 1200 Koreans on it with about 15 of them being females. Due to this lack of exposure Korean adolescents have difficulty grasping the concept of a male and female being platonic friends (“Teacher, teacher! Girlfriend? You girlfriend?” questions flooded our senses). After we shook off the students and left school we walked downtown.

Naju doesn’t have much of a downtown scene to offer so we were able to cover the majority of it in the little time we had. I took Korena to “my place” for kimbap and ramen, our favorite dishes, and then we chatted at a temple and WaBar. We talked a lot about how our identities as Korean-Americans are being shaped through this experience. I’ll get to reporting on my findings one of these days haha.

Finally, we ate dinner at Anskar’s homestay and demolished plate after plate of samgyeopsol. After dinner we played with his 5 year old homestay sister on her trampoline and synchronized our choreography.

She warmed up to me...eventually.

ART

According to my school’s calendar Wednesday was “Picnic Day.” Without a trace of a basket or blanket each grade went on a field trip to different sites. The 9^th grade boys went on a hike while the 7^th grade boys went to a traditional cloth-dying museum. I opted to go into Gwangju with my 8^th graders and see the Biennale Art Exhibit.

After a brief and unexpected hike, we finally arrive at the venue.

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While in Korea I've thought a lot about beauty and whether it's inherent or constructed. The scars were self-inflicted for personal gain.

Outside of school and visiting a big city, the last thing a hundred 14 year old boys want to do is wander quietly through a modern art / politically charged art exhibit; I was skeptical about going to the exhibit because I’m not a big museum guy but it turned out to be a really great day (that is before lunch and alcoholic vice principal came around). I’m sure the boys enjoyed themselves, probably for reasons other than what the artists intended, so I was glad to be there to buy them some snacks, learn some names and bond with them.

I don't know his name yet but with a pose like that the whole world's bound to know it sooner or later.

Kim Bom Joon thank you for always knowing the answers in class.

Yong Seok please stop making me laugh in class and then following me to the bar after school begging for snacks.

All 100 of 'em.

Fellow teachers. Mrs. Joo (far right) is my biggest help and the man in the middle is the librarian / former star of a 1970s American cop drama.

INSPIRATION

Over the weekend we had the first Fulbright Conference in Gyeongju for current ETAs. The conference created a four-day weekend and was advertised by a renewee as “spring break.” I was excited for both of those reasons but surprisingly the reason why I enjoyed conference was because of something completely different: it was energizing.

I usually can’t sit still for more than 20 minutes and as college showed me there’s no way I can pay attention in a lecture hall for more than 30. Workshops during orientation over the summer solidified this and made Saturday’s prospects very bleak (presentations from 8am – 4pm). The presentations varied from human trafficking to learning your middle schoolers’ names and while there were a few bland ones I’d say that as a whole I really enjoyed the day. Seeing what my peers were doing and their devotion to teaching was really inspiring; even though it’s exceedingly difficult to adapt most of their plans to my situation (very few low-level middle school teachers but seemingly a lot of advanced high school ones)  it was great to watch people’s passion and drive.

The evenings weren’t what I envisioned (we only went out once) but, along with a few lengthy and sincere conversations I had with people I don’t get to talk to too much, the inspiration from Saturday’s workshops will be what positively color my memories of our fall conference.

Fun Fact: On our rest stop from Gwangju to Gyeongju a few elementary-aged kids thought I was a famous soccer player. The kids really thought I was Cha Du-Ri. Like enough to ask me to sign their shirts. I signed about ten arms and had several pictures taken of me because the boys honestly thought I was Cha Du-Ri. I guess they didn’t notice all of the Americans (or my lack of Korean language ability) friends I was around, maybe if they did they would’ve realized haha.

That's just not fair.

***

Winter break plans have hit a few roadblocks over the last week (limited mutual availability and an unsuccessful internship application) but I’m still optimistic that things will come together. While Indonesia may be unlikely I’m still holding out for a few nights in Hong Kong and a few days on the beach in Thailand. And even though I didn’t get the internship with the KAEC (Korean-American Educational Commission) I’m hopeful that a few of my other interests (working with a junior researcher and contributing to an online start-up magazine) come through.

This week is only a four-day week because we all had off on Monday due to Conference. Halloween weekend looks like it will be in Seoul. So many buses, good thing I just snagged a netbook!

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.