Temple Stay, Transitions, and my Second Graduation in 3 months

End of Orientation

It is hard to believe that I have been in South Korea for six weeks now. In some ways it feels like I arrived at Incheon years ago, but I am still brand new to the country. The end of orientation came and went quickly, as did most of my time here so far.

Two weeks ago, many of us packed our overnight bags and headed to the 한마음선원 (Hanmaum Seon) Buddhist Temple for a weekend temple stay. This was definitely a huge highlight of orientation for me; after four weeks of nonstop studying, workshops, and activities, the Buddhist temple was a needed change of pace. When we arrived, the staff members gave us temple clothes to change into, which were super comfy brown pants and vests that felt like pajamas. Apparently when one of the orientation coordinators did the temple stay two years ago, she asked where she could buy the pants for herself, but they told her she could only wear them at the temple. I guess you have to live the lifestyle to live in the amazing pants.

The temple stay had more activity than I originally anticipated, but all of it was very low-key. We had an orientation that included learning a little bit about Buddhist philosophy and how to properly bow (which meant bowing, kneeling down to the ground, and then quickly standing back up three times in a row), which we did many times over the course of the weekend. There was also a pleasantly surprising amount of arts and crafts, and we made lotus flower lanterns used in a candlelight ceremony in the evening. The 스님s (monks and nuns) also gave us so much good food! After many meals at the Jungwon University cafeteria, our group devoured the fresh fruit, cookies, ice cream, and snacks that were put out for us on a continual basis. We were so excited about it that the 스님s packed us bags of food to take back to Jungwon after the weekend was over. I felt somewhere between extremely grateful and slightly embarrassed that we consumed so much, but the staff and 스님s' kindness left a strong impression on all of us.

In the last week of orientation, we all spent two days in Seoul (my first time in the city) for our Yonsei Korean Language Intensive graduation ceremony. We were informed that by finishing the KLI program, all of us completed 114+ hours of Korean language instruction, or the equivalent of two semesters. Each Korean class also gave a short presentation, which for me meant singing a kpop song that sounds a lot like "Stand by Me." Once we had received our Yonsei University diplomas and eaten a lunch hosted by the president of the university, we got to hang out at the American ambassador's residence/U.S. Embassy for a pool party! There were burgers and salad and so much American food! I still ate a lot of it with chopsticks, but otherwise it was just like any other summer cookout in the United States.

익산 (Iksan)

Fast forward a week later, and I am now living in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, a small city close to the west coast of South Korea. Orientation departure was a whirlwind of cleaning, packing, and saying goodbyes before being whisked off to each of our placements by our Fulbright Korean co-teachers. I was lucky to travel with another ETA and her co-teacher, so the two of us could chat while our co-teachers spoke in Korean. 임영 (Im-yong), my co-teacher, took me directly to Wonkwang Girl's High School to introduce me to the staff and the principal. It was exhausting and the feeling of wearing pantyhose in the 90 degree weather is beyond words, but I think I left a good impression. Wonkwang is a private, Buddhist-affiliated school with close to 900 students total. I am teaching about 500 of them in a supplemental English class, so I see 16 different classes once a week. I'm hoping that eventually I'll learn all their names, but it is definitely going to take time.

Today I just finished my second day of teaching, and so far all of my students have been so sweet. Monday was a little bit of a chaotic start, since I did not get my teaching schedule until I walked in the door and found out I was teaching first period. I had not found the supply room to get paper, and amazingly none of my students had any paper either. So there was a lot of improvisation.

I had some time to get my bearings (and some paper) after that class, so the rest was a little smoother. Each ETA has a designated co-teacher at their school, although their involvement in the ETA's classes is usually pretty hands-off. This is definitely the case with 임영, who has a completely different teaching schedule. Not having someone else to help is pretty intimidating, but it is also nice that I have free reign over my lessons and how I run each class. 임영 and many other staff members have been incredibly kind and welcoming as well, and I am so grateful for the many teachers who have greeted me and are helping me adjust to a new work environment in a new country.

I also totally lucked out with my host family!! When I first arrived, I was greeted with balloons and a welcome banner hung up in my bedroom. I have a host mother and father and two younger sisters, 서희 (Soh-hee) and 반희 (Ban-hee) who are 11 and 15 years old. My host father is an engineer for a solar panel company, so he is not at home very often, but I get to spend a lot of time hanging out after school with my awesome host mom. 반희 is also one of my students and I ride the school bus with her and my other students every morning. It feels as hilarious as it sounds.

Everyone in my host family speaks some English, so I have not had to deal with as much of the huge language barrier that many other ETAs experience in their homestays. I am still trying to learn as much Korean as possible, but it is a wonderful feeling to be able to speak mostly my native language after a long day at work.

And finally, the biggest host family act of love: I told my host mom that I like peanut butter and she happened to have some in the kitchen, so she made me a sandwich with peanut butter, jelly, a fried egg, vegetables, and ham. It was actually not bad! I ate four pieces.

(photo cred to Uma Veerappan)

Hanmaum Seon Temple

Embassy pool party (photo cred to Lisa Chang)

The bouquet of flowers was given to me by my co-teacher at the ETA departure ceremony

My classroom! It even came with two microphones.