Fall Travels

Wow, it's been nearly two months since I posted an update on what I've been doing! I guess I could say I've been busy, but that hasn't really changed since my first day in Korea. I have been traveling almost every weekend, with a couple much needed breaks in between. Somehow, my students and I are already planning for the end of the semester and I feel like I have become a grading machine - the stack of papers that I have graded is half as tall as the desktop in my classroom.

Rewinding a few weeks, I got do a lot of traveling during the month of October. Midterms happened for my students, which was a glorious time for me and I thoroughly enjoyed having half days at school without having to take any tests. I proctored some exams, but I also didn't have to give my students a midterm because my class is supplementary to their other work, so I was able to catch up on lesson planning and had a visit from Louise Edwards, an Oberlin friend who is currently living in China. I have to say that while I hugely sympathized with my students (especially since their midterms are modeled after standardized tests), I definitely got some gratification out of the fact that we were in an exam week but I didn't have to do anything - perhaps this is what people in fraternities and sororities feel like when they're hazing pledges and they know they don't have to suffer.

So anyway, Louise's visit was wonderful! She is living in China for two years on a Shansi fellowship, an Oberlin-founded program which sends graduates to Asia. Interestingly, the previous Fulbright Program Coordinator who helped lead orientation this summer, Amelea Kim, also graduated from Oberlin and did a Shansi for two years in China before coming here. It turns out that Louise has the same role that Amelea had, teaching English at a university in a small city called Taigu. She's even looked through several of Amelea's old lesson plans, and getting to see her made the world feel comfortably small.

Louise stayed in Jeonju with a couple other fellows from Taigu, which meant I got to hang out with her in the afternoon after my half day at school. We walked around the hanok village and met up with my friend Emma, a fellow ETA who's teaching at a high school in Jeonju. The next day, the two of us went to Seoul and stayed there for the weekend, exploring the city and eating a ton of western food. We hiked to the top of Namsan "Mountain," had tea at teahouse, and got matching tote bags that say "Cheese" on them.

Also, in the vein of the world being small, Louise and I had dinner with another friend from Oberlin: Dmitri Lee (Heesob is his Korean name, and although the name Dmitri started as a joke, it's stuck with him for the past four years), a friend who was on my hall in my freshman dorm. Dmitri is originally from just outside of Seoul, but he went to high school and Oberlin in the States, got drafted for mandatory military service after sophomore year, and is now getting ready to return to Oberlin to finish the second half of college. Not only was getting to see Dmitri great because he took us to a taco restaurant with craft beer, but it was also really interesting to hear a perspective from someone who straddles cultural identities. He's a politics major and history buff with a not-so-fresh look at South Korea - while ETAs are finding beautiful spots to take pictures for social media, he was the first to say that fall and winter in Iksan are not going to compare to New England or Oberlin, which was a refreshingly frank thing to hear. I'm also hoping to pick his brain soon on a government scandal that has erupted across the country - more to come on that in a separate post.

The following weekend was Fulbright's annual Fall Conference in the city of Gyeongju, a legitimately beautiful place near the east coast. Nearly all 112 of us ETAs piled into a hotel next to a lake and some mountains for a weekend of discussions, workshops, and a historical tour of Gyeongju. Seeing everyone else in my cohort was at first overwhelming and surreal, but it was also really nice to see familiar faces. We shared stories of challenges that were far more ubiquitous and validating than I anticipated, and we had discussions on topics like gender and race in South Korea, which I have not been able to talk about in depth with those in my everyday life. By the end of the weekend, I felt far more mentally prepared to return to Iksan than when I left.

Since Fall Conference, I have been back to Seoul again and was able to meet up with Ann Cooper Albright, a dance professor from Oberlin who was also my academic advisor during my first two years - she was here to give a talk and do workshops at a nearby university. My time in college was bookended with Ann's classes, and when I asked her to write a recommendation for Fulbright last fall, I never would have thought that we would both be in Seoul a year later, having brunch together. I also never thought that I would see so many people from Oberlin on this side of the world (shout out to Annie Peskoe who is visiting in a few weeks!), and it has been really comforting to see people I know from my life before Korea.

In other news, I also spent a weekend with my friend Emma, met her incredibly welcoming host family, and got to experience going to church in Korea. The service was entirely in Korean, but they did spend a good twenty minutes talking about Trump and Clinton, which was an interesting surprise. Then this past weekend I met up with a bunch of ETAs in Gwangju, the largest city in my province. It turned out that rooms we found at "Prince Motel" were surprisingly cheap for a reason - Prince Motel is one of the many love motels scattered across Korean cities. There was even a free package of condoms next to the bed, even though we booked the "family suite." Anyway, I've definitely stayed in worse places that were more expensive, and I suppose now we can all say we know what love motels look like.

Despite my laundry list of travels and fun times, I would be lying to say that my experience here has not been filled with challenges, as noted by my last blog post. It recently came to my attention that my host parents were concerned that I am not exactly the kind of American they thought I would be - energetic, outgoing, and someone with a big personality, as the previous ETA at my school had been (she was also really good at singing apparently? I am not good at singing). However, in a business-like conversation conducted by my host father, we communicated a lot of the points of discomfort that have come up, stemming from cultural and lifestyle differences, and my host parents and I are both willing to work hard to make this a net positive experience. I also worried that my traveling on the weekends has taken away from time with them, but they totally disagreed. Perhaps, like me, they also need a break from hosting a year-long guest. It is definitely a learning process.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, I have also been missing home more than ever, although I have not been seriously homesick in my time here. Tomorrow on Thanksgiving, I will be at school until 10pm to judge a speaking competition. This weekend though, Fulbright is hosting a huge dinner and an after party at a bar in Seoul, and I am so fortunate to be able to celebrate with American friends even though I am not in the States. I will also have to teach the Monday after Christmas, but once my winter break starts on New Years, I am heading straight to China to visit my cousin Maggie (who is going to have a baby any day now!) and my Aunt Liz. In spite of missing family and home, and the emotional upheaval from the recent election, I have a lot to look forward to. And for that, I am very lucky, and very thankful.

Gwangju

Me and Louise at the top of Namsan Mountain

Seoul

Gyeongju

Those of us who powered through the rain to tour Gyeongju

Met up with these ladies in Jeonju, which in included a surprise visit from my orientation Korean professor! It was so nice to see her again.

Iksan Chrysanthemum festival

Oobin, Seung Hyun's son

Me, Seung Hyun, and her daughter Chaebin. Photo credit goes to Oobin, who is 5 years old.

Emma and I cooked dinner together

Seniors at my high school about to send wishes for the future (especially the suneung, a huge test in South Korea) into the air

Gwangju