Corn, Hiking, and TV appearances??

Hi all! It's Day 24 and I'm already back!

I promised you I wouldn't leave you hanging, didn't I? And boy do I still have a lot of stories to share.
Prepare thyself!! (for the overwhelming amount of images in this post)

To start our adventure story-telling, let's go on a beach trip!

This is honestly what I think of whenever anyone mentions beach trips…

Ahem. Anyways, the group of us Fulbrighters all went on a very welcomed mini-vacation last last weekend to the east coast of Korea. We stayed at a place called Donghae (which can be super confusing because that is also the Korean name for the East Sea/Sea of Japan). Our adventure begins on a bus ride, bright and early in the morning, powered by the most wonderful power-source ever, CORN!

Yes. They gave us ears of corn to eat at 8:30 in the morning.

Goesan is apparently famous for their peppers and their corn. So we've had almost as much corn as rice and kimchi (rice and kimchi being the staple foods served to us every day in the cafeteria). The ladies in the cafeteria intercepted us on our way out from breakfast and eagerly said that we can take this barrel of freshly boiled corn with us on our 3 hour bus ride. And so we did.

Again, just last week, I went to a coffee shop in town, and sometimes little shops will bring out an extra drink or snack for customers, just as a little thank you, aka free "service". And they served us free corn with our coffee:

Anyways back to the beach trip.

We visited a few Buddhist temples and had lots of fun on the beach (… I don't think you can't not have fun on the beach). Sorry no photos really from that… But the greatest adventure of all was when we went out hiking!

About 30 of us all took a bus to this mountainy area with several different trails to climb. It was a beautiful place with some nice little waterfalls towards the base of the mountain. We all stopped there (at the waterfalls) to play in the water. I didn't want to stop there so long, and my good friend, David, jumped at the challenge of pressing onwards. Adventure time!

David and I broke off and went on an epic hike to the top of the mountain! Here are our triumphant summit pose-photos:

You can't even see the view in these photos

… And in case it's not super obvious… we never made it to the summit…

WAIT! Before you scorn us for our weakling-ness, I just want to say, we were on a time limit, and only the people who chose to stay late and take a taxi back actually made it to the summit… and we wanted to take the bus back…

No! There are more reasons too! 

Let me explain. 

David and I started on this trail number 2 and it was pretty easy hiking. Subtle rises and metal paths/stairs. The occasional log:

We were booking it, feeling like super heroes, and not even tired. We made it to the third marker and took a triumphant selfie. All was well.

Fourth marker and still feeling great. The world is a good place: 

Before the fifth marker, we got stuck behind a group of Korean hikers. They were all mid-aged or older. Definitely in the 아저씨와 아줌마 age-range. They had super-duper hiking gear and hiking poles (Koreans take hiking super seriously), but were traveling at a kinda modest pace, so David and I passed them eventually, hoping to keep up our speed so we'd make it to the summit in time. Things changed very quickly when we got to the fifth marker.

All is not well in the world.

The trail changed from this lovely slow incline:

to a sudden almost vertical climb that you seriously needed the ropes tied to trees along to path to pull yourself up (or hiking poles would have been nice, though sometimes it was too steep to even use those).

Unfortunately photos cannot capture incline. And I wish this one could portray what a challenge this was.

It would have been fine if that steep incline was just a part of the normal hike, but noooo. The path was completely converted into this vertical struggle and it never let off. I quickly lost my breath and we took a break after about 15 minutes of this. Sitting down, red-faced and out of breath, the middle-aged hiking group of Koreans soon passed us. They were still going at their easy pace, and I soon understood why they were taking it easy earlier. They were saving their energy for this son of a jackal. (Aladdin reference anyone?) 

If we had more time, David and I could have made it to the summit. If I wasn't feeling slightly sick since the day earlier and maybe we had started a bit slower we definitely would have made it.

If there were switch-backs (hello? who hikes practically straight up a mountain?), we totally could have made it. And to be fair to David, I totally slowed him down on the almost vertical climb and downright gave up just before 2-6 (we were totally more than halfway there). Maybe he would've made it without me. He ran/climbed ahead at around 1 o'clock to see if the path leveled out while I sprawled out again, gasping for air, on our fake summit rock. Since we needed to be back at 2 or so for the bus, and my trusty scout determined the path too treacherous to continue, we decided to forfeit for the day, take our fake victory photos, and conquer the mountain at a future date. 

Sometime during the beginning of our decent it started raining. Now I at least brought an umbrella, which if there were switch-backs we totally could have used. But since I kinda needed both hands to climb back down, umbrellas just were not an option and we got soaked.

And then we discovered that my bandana bled dark blue dye when wet… so I had a blue forehead and creepy blue drip marks down my face and neck (you can sort of see it in this photo of us showing off our guns).

All in all, it was a great adventure! I'm super motivated to get more in shape and make time for a complete hike during this upcoming year. David was a great and patient hiking buddy, who even ran ahead at the end to catch the bus for the dead Gabby. The mountains were really beautiful too!

One more fun story! (Sorry I know this is a lot. Patience please dear reader)

This last week a news crew came to Jungwon to film a short news segment about the crazy foreigners and their training camp. They filmed the intermediate level class Korean language class (apparently the advanced class is too boring - but I bet it's because they wanted to film more "foreign" looking people, and our advanced class is over half Korean-American…) and they also filmed our Taekwondo class.

This is almost a complete déjà vu to my summer in Seoul two years ago. At the end of the summer I went to SM Entertainment's big concert right before I left (no, I did not write anything in the blog about it because I was super overwhelmed by the experience. I think I could write a whole book about it!) But that time as well a news crew was doing a special feature on foreigners and the global power of KPOP. This time again, they especially interviewed and targeted close-ups of the most foreign looking people. 

I understand you Korean media. You know you are actually super transparent, right?

…. And on both of these occasions I was interviewed. I made my Korean television comeback just last night! New haircut and styling and everything! (you can tell when KPOP stars are about to have a comeback by their newly cut/dyed hair and extreme weight loss)

Here I am on the bus after the concert in 2012:

 And here I am just last week:

Cameras in the face!

If you really want you can even see my very intelligent responses here:

In my defense for that terrible interview, I was originally encouraged to do the interview (over all the other, probably more interesting, ETAs learning TKD) because of my Korean language "skills" which are really not that impressive. My mind was racing trying to think of what I should say in Korean and how to, so when the interview was actually going on - and they only wanted me to talk in English, I was very… lackluster. They kept asking "how does it feel to do Taekwondo here?" and I honestly am not very thrilled with the basic moves we are learning (which I already knew from the TKD club at Harvard, and our instructors were also much better, and... Harvard TKD 4 lyf!) but I tried to act positive and kept repeating that it is really fun to learn together with all the ETAs. That was not what they were looking for so they asked again, the same question. Finally when they figured that I had done Taekwondo before, they locked on and asked how is it different doing TKD in KOREA? And so the best thing I could think of at that moment was that lovely quote: "It's more… real?"

A much better quote that would encapsulate my thoughts better would be simply, "It's more authentic" or more accurately "It's exciting to learn in the country that historically created this martial art form."
Alas, I am not a verbose speaker. "real" is the best my deer-in-headlights brain could think of.

That quote, plus the fact that we are all wearing uniforms only a black belt (the highest level of TKD) should wear (while we all are clearly not masters - only beginners) makes me terribly embarrassed. But looking back, it really is quite funny. I think I should look back and laugh at this TV experience like how the KPOP concert was as well. When I was interviewed before, during, and after the concert, I was honestly excited and full of the adrenaline of a concert, so even though I could see through their obvious questions: "Do all your friends love KPOP too?" "Do you listen to their music everyday?" "Will you come back to see another concert?" - I happily obliged with my giddy "Of course, the whole world loves Korea and their amazing culture" lines they were fishing for.

I mean they even had an Olympic opening ceremony-like parade (psst it's a link - click on it), ending with the SMTOWN Nation Flag? This is downright propaganda. And I really enjoyed playing along with it… (The link should start with the American flag and me walking with a gigantic garland on my shoulders).
Seriously. Just look at the size of this thing:

Anyways, back to the present!
I will be teaching my second class for Camp Fulbright students tomorrow and and not very prepared so… this procrastination post will have to come to an end.

Umm… thanks for reading (or if you just skimmed through the pictures I guess that's cool too)
안녕!

-Gabibimbap (a nickname David made after the korean dish, bibimbap 비빔밥)

Orientation adventures: Welcome to the marble prison

Hey, Internet!

It's already Day 19! We are two and a half weeks into the Fulbright ETA Orientation and I just taught my very first class evah, like in the history of Gabby, yesterday. Woot!

(this is what I found searching for: triumphant trumpeting)

Wait. You all have no idea what this orientation is do you?

Don't worry. It's just a six-week training program in a giant marble building, secluded in the middle of Korea, in the middle of nowhere, which we affectionately call the "marble prison". We are not allowed to leave. I haven't seen the sun in three days. Not lying.

Hahaha it's really not that bad. It's not like we're getting brainwashed by aliens or anything.

But really! It's fun! There are 76 English Teaching Assistants in the Fulbright Korea program (including me), and just about every one I've met is awesome and fun and I'm glad to be stuck in this (actually really beautiful) marble prison with them all.

This is my fabulous roommate that is amazingly almost as crazy as I am, Micia:

And a panorama of this pretty amazing campus (and Micia!).

Though it is beautiful, the marble is actually super dangerous. The way showers work in our dorms is that you just use a hose to wash yourself in the bathroom, end up getting water everywhere, and it flows down a drain by the sink (there is no separate shower room). This makes the floor super slippery and poor Micia had an epic wipe-out last week after her shower. 

Marble = danger!

They keep us busy here. This week and next week are special in that there is an English language intensive camp for Korean students hosted by Fulbright going on - so instead of our teaching/cultural workshops, we get to practice teaching English to little Korean campers (what I did yesterday).

Our regular schedule is like:

6 am - (if ambitious) get yo self outta bed and go for a run

7 am - get yo self together (last minute Korean hw!)

8 am - b-fast noms

9 am - four hours of Korean language class

1 pm - lunch food times

2 pm - teaching or cultural workshops for three to four more hours

6 pm - final meal o' the day

7 pm - optional social activities that you of course attend because you want to make friends with all these peoples

And sleep eventually.

Pause! Side story here!

So there must be some kind of military camp nearby this campus, because we occasionally hear fighter jets overhead (and no, it's not our northern neighbor attacking). And on two separate occasions, one during the night when walking up the giant hill from the little town back to campus and then the next morning on a run - I encountered an army. They filed down the sidewalks, four or five abreast, not marching all crazy in unison or anything, but there were hundreds of them! I had moments where I could not see either end of the lines. They kept filing down and I tried to surreptitiously take a fake selfie to actually document this alarming number of soldiers marching across the street, but they totally caught on and shouted out "Hello!" to us. That photo was a fail:

So then I tried another more obvious shot, but it's super dark and blurry:

If you look closely, those dark forms across the street are all soldiers. You can sort out of make out the shape of their heads…

Anyways - when I ran past them the following morning, I was on the same side of the street with no crosswalks to the other side, and had to go run in the edge of the road to get past them all. Since it was a) light out, and b) I was mere feet from them - they were much more obvious with their looking at me and shouting out things like, "Hey!" "Hello beautiful!" "I love you." in their accented English. Of course I did my best to pretend like I was not running past an entire army, just running in the road because I wanted to, and couldn't hear any voices either. 

I really need to work on the whole acknowledging the opposite sex thing - but it's more than a little overwhelming to have to face hundreds of soldiers at once. 

Goal for the year: have a real Korean male friend. Like a guy I can talk to instead of run away from. Those of you who have read my previous posts know - studying at a women's college for the summer in Seoul meant all my Korean friends are female…

Wait! This is the perfect segue for everyone's favorite - Funny Korean-English!

Since we were just talking about women, I should let you know of this restaurant's wonderful menu options: 

Everyone knows that salads are of women and for women….

And this just looked terrible - though I'm sure it could "invigorate" me..

And to close I just have one quick story to share with you all. Again, those of you who have read previous posts probably recall my thrill of success with my first load of laundry in Korea.

Well.

I put one load in before this weekend, just a small one, put in some detergent in the right spot, pressed start after figuring out the buttons and it all started just fine. "Whew. Success," I thought. Oh no no no.

I come back after the 50 or so minutes, expecting my laundry to be all cleaned up and ready for the dryer. I only had about a 15 minute time slot to move my clothes to the dryer and then get lunch before our guest panel session began and never thought there could be a problem… low and behold. The washing machine door wouldn't open. 

I pressed start again and it said there was 32 minutes left and some other random letters that surely meant there was some kind of problem. I just had no idea what that could be.

I pressed all the buttons.

No, really, I pressed all. the. buttons. It would not start again. It would not do anything at all actually.

I used my legs and tugged on that door. With all my mighty Gabby strength. That door would not open.

Defeated, I headed into the cafeteria to try and find our Korean RA who maybe could help me understand this washing machine myth. She told me she'd check it out and I should just sit and eat lunch quickly before the panels started. I sat down and ate quickly and restlessly waited for the news of my beloved laundry. It was an agonizing wait. Minutes felt like hours and a single tear slid down my cheek as I thought of that one T-shirt with that one pair of running shorts and allll those socks and underwear, awaiting their liberation from the clutches of the evil washing machine.

Warning - the above might be a slight dramatization.

In the end, my RA had to call some professional help (janitors) and after unplugging and restarting the machine (computer IT help anyone?) and getting something to pry the door open, they finally got my washing machine's door open. I was told this on my way to the panel. I did not have time to go back down to the laundry room. If we are late to any activities our teams loose points and we have a public shaming.

So, like the good girl I am, I went to all three panels. I abandoned my laundry to wait three more hours.

When I finally did get back down and I opened the machine door, I saw my small pile of laundry floating in some slightly soapy water at least a half a foot deep. Think this:

Except with less laundry and less soap and A LOT more water. 

Haha sorry I can't help myself. Alot, more water!

If you don't know what this is, I command thee to go to:

 http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.kr/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Ahem. To make this simple story that became a long story, short: I saved my laundry from their sad pool of despair, washed them in a working machine, and everything from there was just hunky-dory. 

I just spilled a lot (ALOT hehehe) of water all over the floor and nearly wiped-out just like Micia.

But I didn't. Because I'm just so cool like that.

Story-time 끝!

Thanks for reading this pretty long, doozy post! I have some more stories to share and I'll probably post again soon.

Gooooood niiiiiiight.

-Gaberoni

Return of the Gabby! South Korean Adventures: the second edition

Greetings! First of all I want to make a disclaimer (in tiny font like all good disclaimers should be):
Just about everything posted here, opinions, "facts", photos, stories, everything - it's all my own opinion and does not represent and should not be taken as Fulbright Korea, the Korean-American Educational Commission, or my host school's opinions or views in any way. 
Please don't misconstrue what I post. Don't do it. Un-uh. 안돼. 하지마.

Just know that this is me and I'm kinda weird and I'm going to do my best to make Korea seem awesome anyways… and all my previous posts were another opinion entirely (I'm a whole new Gabby! Maybe. Not really). Okay?

Super!

So, hello again, world!

Did you miss me?

After two years of not being in Korea (USA! Japan! Italy! Finland! China! You all are awesome… just not the same) I am finally back and *cue music*

I FEEL GOOD :D

(I just kind of love Korea…)

Why am I back you ask?

I am going to be an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) as a Fulbright Korea grantee. AKA I'll be working with a Korean teacher, in a Korean school, somewhere in South Korea, to teach children English. 

If you have read my past entries… well you know how much I love young, little humans (babies, children, toddlers, you name it… I guess I did kinda name it all...) and I could not be more excited to work with some widdle itty bitty folk for a year or longer. 

Before you ask, no, I don't know where I will be living/teaching for the year yet. My 75 fellow ETAs and myself have a summer orientation, where we will learn about more teaching methods, Korean culture and education system, and of course the language 한국어! 사랑해~ <3

At the end of this period we'll all have a lovely ceremony to find out where our placements will be. I imagine it will be very fancy. Or mysterious and cult-like. Or like a big party. Or all of those. 

Right now, we've just finished week 1. So you could say I'm on Day 9, if I were to keep the old day counting style.

I arrived a day earlier than most my fellow ETAs, because I wanted to visit with my friends in Seoul before orientation (when I probably won't have any time to travel to Seoul). It was really wonderful. Jennifer kindly took me in like the alley cat I am. 

But really how could you say no to this bundle of… me? 

All creepy male cat seduction aside, I had a lot of fun with Jennifer, eating my favorite 떡볶이 (Tokbokki) and 팥빙수 (Bingsu) - look 'em up or read my previous posts to see photos of the awesomeness. We also went to the "Trick-eye museum", adjoining "Ice museum", and a swimming pool on the… I forget what floor, but really high up with an awesome view of Seoul. One note, I once tried going to this Trick-eye museum two years ago and it was super sketchy and cheap looking, so we never went inside. I just climbed on this dude outside and that was it: 

Now it's still in a pretty sketchy place, but it has been RENOVATED. There's a Love and Romance museum on a floor above it. The poor wall-man I climbed was all fancy, painted and done-up. There are now tourist-aimed souvenir shops in the entrance of the Trick-eye museum. They've added lots of new stuff like the Ice museum, and there was at least twice if not thrice as many people there. The signs proclaiming it as Travelocity's favorite museum in Seoul probably explains the new popularity. 

Here we are having fun: 

I was sad to leave Seoul the next day, but Jennifer gave me this cute gift and note that made me happy and excited for the new adventures to come. 

ETA orientation has been super fun and busy and tiring, but I'll tell you all lovely Internet folk about that next time. It's time for bed!

To wrap up this lovely, completely coincidental cat theme, I just want to say thanks for reading. I was debating whether or not to blog, and I'm glad for those of you who encouraged me to continue writing.

Love from Korea! 

-Gabster