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.
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.
-Gabster
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