office basketball

i started teaching this week, but i'll have to save that post for next time. instead, i want to introduce "office basketball." well first of all, each wednesday, the male teachers at my school get together to play soccer. they actually end classes earlier so that they can play. it's a pretty big deal - the principal and vp go out too. so tuesday, ellie actually had to take me to go buy soccer gear.

my sick ronaldinho cleats. 65,000 won. i'm not sure they were worth that much but i did score a goal in my first game. (maybe in life actually. i hate this sport). all the teachers were super excited when i scored. they all ran over to give me high fives. that's all they can keep talking about. even though i sucked. and got kicked in the balls. oh, when this happened, some of the students had come outside to watch us. i could see them on the sidelines reenacting it to each other. i'm not gonna lie, it was pretty hilarious. i can't be mad at them.

anyway, during halftime of the soccer game, i went over to the basketball courts and started shooting a little bit. apparently all of the other teachers were watching me do this.

so today, i walk back to my office at 5pm to pack up my stuff so i can leave. two math teachers are in there and one of them has this styrofoam ball. he looks at me and asks me to teach him how to shoot. so i do. i tell him how to make the T. to flick the rest so the ball spins. how to use your legs. even how to take a jump shot.

he turns to the other teacher and is like, let's practice. and tells him to make a hoop with his arms. the other teacher does but tells him he cannot use a backboard. so they start shooting the ball at each other like that for a little bit. it was hilarious! i wish i had taken a video of that. i find them an empty cardboard box and they get all excited. min, the english teacher that works next to me, goes, "give me the ball. i'll make it on my first try." they do. he does. so the two math teachers, simultaneously jump up and say, "let's play a game! math versus english."

they set up the box. and declare that each teacher will get 5 free throws and we will alternate math, english, math, english. the first math teacher makes 2. the english teacher makes 0. the second math teacher makes 1. so now it's my turn. i gotta make 3 or we lose. i miss the first. but then i make the second. and the third. so i'm thinking, oh, game over. it's time to go home (literally, this game was preventing me from leaving). but i miss the fourth. so now i gotta make the fifth one or we lose. it's super tense. my heart is beating a little bit faster. but come on now. i'm not gonna miss. i'm ice cold. money. we're going to sudden death!

in sudden death each person gets 1 shot. the first math teacher misses. he like hit the mirror that was next to the box. the english teacher misses. i don't even know where his ball went. the second math teacher hits the front rim of the box, thinks it went in, starts celebrating, only to have the ball fall to the floor. now it's my turn. again. ice in my veins. i step up. shoot. it's time to go home.

did you math teachers honestly think you could beat english teachers at sports? really? oh you've gotta be out of your mind! go back to your office. take your little styrofoam ball. find your own cardboard box. practice. then come back. you know where to find us. we'll be waiting.

this clip does not fully capture how ridiculous that moment was. if only we had a video of the dramatic moments when the game was on the line...

welcome to the jinju chicken party

this is my korean family! from left to right, 한국아빠, 상욱, 창욱, and 한국엄마. 아빠 is a computer science professor at the Jinju National University and 엄마 is a dietitian at a middle(?) school. 상욱 is a high school 3rd year who literally studies all the days of his life. in this last week i've spent a total of less than an hour with him. his typical day has him leaving the house at 8am and coming home after 11pm (around 11 if he's lucky, up until 2am if not). he's studying until 2am regardless of where he's at. he's got this huge test in Nov that will essentially determine which university he will get into in the spring, so he's gotta work his ass off right now. a couple days ago he took a practice test that went form 8:30am until 5pm. how ridiculous is that? our longest test was probalby the SAT and that's like, what, 4-4.5 hours? 창욱 is a middle school 2nd year. he also has a pretty intense schedule that has him going to after school classes and academies every day as well. although he's usually done by 10pm. his sweet 16 is on this sunday. all of them are super friendly.

this is an identical apartment complex across the way from ours

my room

the kitchen

huge tv! though i've only been able to find one english channel thus far..

the apartment complex's playground
(i have yet to go test it out but i'll give it a go soon enough i'm sure)

this is the main form of entertainment. every day, at least one person from the family will be playing some game on this. thus far i've learned 2 games that you can play on this, though i'm sure there are many more.

back home in LA, whenever i was unable to understand what my korean friends were saying i used to attribute that to the "language barrier." unfortunately i did not leave that barrier behind. the barrier has only intensified since coming to the korean motherland.

yesterday afternoon, 한국아빠 comes to me and says, "tonight, chicken patty, we eat." i'm like, "oh chicken patties? i like chicken patties. good." i was thinking we'd be eating those breaded globs of goodness. again, i should have known better. it turns out, he was trying to say, "chicken party." we were going to a chicken party.

here's me and susan (she came to visit yesterday. i bet you didn't think we'd be going to a chicken party when you decided to come to jinju did you?) with a bunch of koreans. so apparently this party was held for me. all these people were curious about me and wanted to meet me.

the good news, though, is that they confuse each other as well! the brother was asking the father where something was, and the father answers, "in the school area." only it sounds more like "school alia." to which, the brother responds, "what?! school alien?!" haha! that killed me for like 10 minutes...

completely lost in translation

lesson of the week: NOTHING IS AS YOU THINK IT MAY BE!

so basically in continuation of yesterday's confusion...

last night, 한국엄마 told me if i was hungry i could eat rice with beef stew. when she said beef i got all excited because there's absolutely no cow in this country. she breaks out the stew this morning and i cannot wait. i dig into my soup bowl and fish out this chunk of blackness. cow liver. can you really call cow liver "beef?" that's not beef. that's a trick! that's what that is.

한국아빠 comes to me this afternoon and asks if i would like to play billiards. i'm not particularly good at this, but whatever, let's do it. on the car ride there i'm trying to figure out if there was some way we could end up going to somewhere other than a pool hall. but billiards is a pretty unique word. like i don't know how you could mess that one up. and it's not like you can do other things at a pool hall either. i seems pretty unlikely for there to be a fish market right next to "billiards" and for us to go there instead of playing pool.

reassured, i begin to mentally prepare myself. we get to some random building and start walking up the stairs. i don't see any mention of a pool hall so i begin to fear the worst again. but, ah yes, i see pictures of people with pool sticks. we are here! there is no confusion. billiards in the US is billiards in Korea. i was thinking, finally, something that is the same.

except, their pool tables have no holes! they play pool with four balls on a table with no pockets. i'm so lost in this country...

what the f?!

sometimes i wonder if these people aren't just staying up all night thinking of ways to mess with me.. giggling all the while

i can see us in the countryside sitting on the grass eating sashimi

last night, 한국아빠 (korean father) sits down next to me and tells me we are going to plan tomorrow's schedule. he says we will be going to the ocean and to the countryside.

when he said ocean, i was thinking sweet, we're going to go to the beach, splash around in the water, play in the sand, get my tan on, and just chill. instead, what he meant was we were going to a giant fish market, which was next to the ocean, to watch old ladies kill and cut apart ocean animals.

when he said countryside, i was thinking that's not as cool as the beach, but it's still pretty sweet, we can drink some lemonade, lay in the grass, sing some justin timberlake. instead, what he meant was we were going to grandma's in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of koreans to eat the fish we had bought at the "ocean."

killing the fish. i don't think you can see it, but there's a nail sticking out of that block of wood. when we first got there she had stuck a fish onto said nail by its head. it was disgusting. unfortunately, she cut up the fish and moved on faster than i could take a picture of it.

the countryside. i fell asleep on the ride too, so i had no idea where we were. all i know is when we woke up we were literally in the middle of nowhere. it was just mountains and trees and green stuff all around. at some point i remember picking up a guy off the street too. it was bizarre...

this is pretty much the best thing about my family - that they have this.

at the lunch on monday after we met our school staff for the first time, upon discovering that my girlfriend was in korea, one of my co-teachers commented, "Good, you have a girlfriend, then i don't have to worry about you getting lonely..." to which i replied, "ahh yes... ... ??" the heck does that mean?! he also apologized for not bringing me flowers.

jinju stand up!

today we finally met our school officials and homestays. most schools send their principals or vice principals plus our co-teacher (the teacher who will work the closest with us throughout the year). my school just sent the two youngest english teachers. they are tight! we had a great time at lunch. it was not awkward at all. they're both pretty new to the school too. Ellie's been there for a year now while Min has only been there for half a year. the former fulbrighter at this school was there for two years, meaning he was there for longer than these two teachers. in any case, after spending lunch, an hour taxi and subway ride, and a 4-hour bus ride together with them, we are tight. i love them. Min has a 3 year-old boy and a British accent. apparently he studied in England for a year. it's great. Ellie spend a year in Canada, although she doesn't really have a foreign accent. she did say that she wanted to adopt a British accent though. she once attended some workshop where the speaker said that Americans will ignore people who speak English with weird accents. she doesn't want to be ignored. she also lives near busan and loves it and has therefore offered to take me on the weekends.

at the rest stop during the bus ride, Min bought me a pizza-hotdog. the heck is a pizza-hotdog you ask? well, the inside is like a pizza flavored sauce. and the outside is like a hotdog bun thingy that's been deep-fried kind of like a bread stick. it was weird. he also bought red ginseng chocolate. i can't really decide if i like it yet. but i do keep on eating it.

and now on to the homestay. when we get off the bus, the homestay father is already there waiting. he sees us from across the street and starts yelling and waving. it was pretty cute. we get home and the mother is cooking some amazing food. which included fried eggs and potatoes. so good! there were tons of other stuff too, like tonkatsu, soup, salad, etc. but the eggs and potatoes really hit the spot. especially after not really haven eaten them at all this last month. my father is a university professor, though i have yet to find out what he teaches. my mother is a nutritionist (i can only imagine what this will mean for my stomach). their english is not the greatest - they kind of just throw out words without making sentences. so i am a little bit worried about how i am going to communicate with them. they're both super nice though. my mother grew up with one of my co-teachers, so that's how they were brought into all of this.

the boys are awesome. their english is a little bit better, though it is still a little bit of a challenge to communicate. when i got to the house they weren't there because they were at the academies. the younger one (chang uk) got home around 9:30. he's a middle school second year and is apparently ranked #4 out of 400 students. the older one (sang uk) got home around 10:45. he's a high school third year and is also supposed to be brilliant. well, at math at least. he just won some award today that he was showing me though i couldn't figure out what it was for. he'll be applying for colleges this year and could be moving out of the house next february. because of this, his schedule until nov, when he takes the big test, is absolutely ridiculous. he wakes up at 7am and goes to bed at 2am and is basically studying all day. i tell him that if there is anything i can do for him, that he should let me know. this is what he says to me: "my brother is pretty lonely these days [because the older brother has to study so much], take care of him and play with him."

you can learn so much about a family by watching how they interact. this family is awesome. the parents are great together. the two boys are great together. and the boys are great with their parents. you can really tell that they all get along real well and love each other. the father tells me that i should talk to the boys in English and to the parents in Korean. that way it's a win/win for all of us. it really is going to be a great year. the only thing though, is i don't know how much time i'll get to spent with the boys if they're going to be at school for so much of their days.

the apartment is sweet. i've got my own room which is a pretty good size - a castle compared to our dorms in chuncheon. the father also bought me a brand new bed and maybe dressers too. these people have been so great to me. there's also talk of trying to get me a car. but we'll see how that plays out. i will meet my principal tomorrow and then start teaching next monday. which means i'll finally get to sleep! thank God. goodnight.

i turn it into a sexy insa

we are leaving chuncheon in 8 hours. orientation is almost over. it's been a crazy 6 weeks. i'm gonna miss it here. not having all the other fulbrighters around is gonna be soo weird. all the ones who said they are going to visit better do so! in seoul, we'll be going to the ambassador's residence for a pool party with some american bbq. we'll have sat/sun free. and then we meet representatives from our schools on monday. which also means, monday will be the day that we all get dispersed throughout korea. we're finally going to meet our home-stay families, see our respective cities and schools, and begin teaching! it's so exciting!

speaking of exciting, i saw this nice shirt in the shopping area of chuncheon. but it was 40,000 won so i couldn't bring myself to pull that trigger then. a week later i was still thinking about it so i decided, okay, i'll just buy it. i go today and find it on sale for 30,000! yeeeahh boy!

this last week consisted of a lot of wrapping up events. monday we had our korean language final. i did pretty well on the writing but apparently i didn't do as well on the oral.

wed we had a talent show. i jumped over susan. more than that i had my own live backup music too. it was sick. i had them play the theme song to rocky. it was so great.

so while we were figuring out and practicing the song. well, actually, i leave the room for like 10 minutes and when i come back they're playing hava nagila. it was ridiculous. so i'm like, sure, why don't you guys play that afterwards as well. one thing leads to another, and come talent show time, i end up being hoisted up in a chair.

these three musicians are so talented. as are the other three men...

it's only been 6 weeks, but i'm really going to miss these people. it's been soo much fun.

remembering nyc

last summer we accomplished some amazing things. as a group, we checked a man into rehab, fought to earn a hearing for a man who had lost custody of his children, comforted a man who had buried his mother that very morning, listened to another man vent his frustrations after having a friend be gunned down, and more. all said, we saw a ton of lives be changed. thinking back on those 3 months gives me hope. it allows me to dare to dream that i can be a part of something special - that i can make a difference in this world.

obviously i failed to figure out how to do this properly, but the message
still stands. maybe i'll go back and try this again at some point.

in case you had forgotten how much i loved this verse, here is last summer's theme verse again: "Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope" - Ephesians 3:20

jinju

the map of south korea (don't worry, no one got sent to the north) with all of our placements. that blue one at the bottom, within the green-bordered province, all by itself is my flag.

there's me. do you see the two greenish flags to the west of me? i'm calling us the bermuda triangle, where no one knows how to get to and where everything gets lost.

This is my placement, where i will spend the next year. Jinju is in southeast Korea, 5 hours away from Seoul. It's like 2 hours away from Daegu (where Susan is) and 2 hours away from Busan. I'll be teaching at the Gyeongnam Science High School (www.gshs.hs.kr). It's Co-Ed with about 200 students and the students live at the school. The school sounds like a sweet situation. The kids should all be pretty brilliant and motivated. But it is going to be painful being so far away from everyone else.

and when i say far away from everyone else i mean far away. it would take me as long to get to jeju as it would to seoul. i'm so isolated that some of the other fulbrighters were wondering if i asked for rural. the other two guys in my province are 2 hours away from me. a bunch of my fav people here (who i requested to be next too) are all together in a city that's like an hour away from seoul. i was all getting excited. i was thinking there's no way i'm not gonna be with this group in this city. wrong.

BUT, i do have a castle. although it might be less of a castle and more of a wall. but according to Jon (a previous Fulbrighter), it's got something cool inside of that wall. Jon is ridiculous. we essentially spent all of last night laughing about my situation. when i told him i got jinju he started cracking up and was like, "that's the opposite of what you wanted!" indeed.

BUT, i also have a lantern festival.

then we started talking about weather. and i grew up in LA right. where it's like 70s during winter, maybe 60 at night. here are some of Jon and Kelly's questions: what do you do during christmas? do you have christmas trees? where do the trees come from? what do you put on them? do you have snow? where does that come from? why do you think santa uses a sled?

apparently Korea's gonna be like 40 degrees. (i had to clarify whether that was Fahrenheit or Celsius.) i own one jacket. the coldest weather i've ever been in was Boston in march and i literally froze my ass off. it was like 50 degrees. yeah, i'm gonna die here. kelly offered me a jacket. i might have to consider it. no shame.

BUT, jinju will be warmer since it is so far south.

in summary, if you wanna see me this year, i'll be in jinju, in my castle/wall, singing Taylor Swift's Love Story, with my lantern, in warmer weather!

camp pirate

so for the last 2 weeks, we've been a part of this thing called Camp Fulbright. 150 kids from throughout south korea came to our college campus for an english camp. each of us Fulbrighters had to teach 3 lessons plus host some fun activities.

on pirate day, we had the students do a trust walk. there was this one tree branch that was perfect -- it hit everybody that walked by it. it was hilarious. yelling spider also freaked them out, haha.

susan leading one of her groups

us in our "pirate" gear. i literally put on all the stripped clothing that i had
(shirt, pjs, socks, even boxers)

susan teaching

susan had her class divide into three groups and had each group be in charge of creating a part of a "mythical creature." this is what the class came up with

my turn to teach. this was the most painful lesson of my three

this is me in pain...

WE FIND OUT OUR PLACEMENTS TOMORROW AT 4PM!!!
it's like super tense right now. everyone's so nervous. man, it's gonna be great tomorrow. seeing where everybody's gonna be. hopefully everything all works out!

kimchi, rice, and soup

roses are red. violets are blue. you look like poo. and you smell like it too.

uhh. yeeah. uh huh. yeeah..

kimchi is red. it's spicy and hot. i eat it every day. it comes in a pot!


here is what we've been eating in the dining halls. every meal of every day we get rice, kimchi, and soup. no joke. even for breakfast. except on tuesdays it's western breakfast. the one time i went to this they gave us bread, imitation spam and some processed american cheese. gross. i have since stopped going to breakfast.





we have been taking cooking classes though, which have been sweet:

the facilities

kimbab

yeah, she was impressed by my cooking skills

kimbab face, what what

the pancake thingy

dak kalbi.
do you see how red that is? i'm about to sweat like a sprinkler

the instructor who seems to always be telling us that our food will not taste good

go team!

Chuncheon!

So here are some details on our situation right now. We're here at Kangwon National University in Chuncheon. Chuncheon is a medium-sized college town, supposedly. See when i heard "medium-sized college town" i was thinking something maybe a little bit bigger than Claremont. How wrong was I. Apparently, medium to Koreans is HUGE to me. (yet for some reason their clothes is the other way around... it probably says something about their culture). Chuncheon is pretty damn huge.

the huge library with the huge statue in front

this pond/park is in the middle of the campus. their campus is huge!

Chuncheon's famous dak galbi.

So good! But damn i sweat so much. It was hot and spicy and i was wet.

tongkatsu kimbab. so good! you have no idea

cheesy ramen. it tastes as bad as it sounds. though some people did like it... yuck

this is backgate, where everything happens here at KNU. they've got bars, bakeries, restaurants, eyes glass shops, stationary stores, markets, everything basically. even a milwaukee bucks bar. random i know

the chuncheon river. pretty nice at night

one of the sweet river house bars

gorgeous trees

too bad their fake.