Placements! (Week 4)

This week has been crazy. As you know, this was the final week of Camp Fulbright, meaning that this week I was responsible for teaching two lessons. On Monday, I taught a lesson to the low beginner class, and on Thursday, I taught a lesson to the high beginner class. My week started out horribly on Monday with a cold, a failed quiz, and a lesson that did not go as well as I had hoped. We made PB & J sandwiches, which the children loved, but I admittedly did not structure it as well as I should have, so many of my objectives were not reached. I also was not in the most positive mood after my many struggles in Korean, and already felt defeated by the day. The lesson was followed by a rather discouraging talk from the Classroom Instructor who told me that my personality was not suited to being a teacher. It was the worst day of my time here so far, and I left that classroom feeling like maybe I was just not made of Fulbright material and I should give up.

After a long walk and a chance to clear my head, however, I decided not to give up and to keep trying. I talked to Leslie, one of the Orientation Coordinators, and told her about how challenging Korean is for me and that I wouldn't be able to do a presentation that she had asked me to do, called, "Maintaining a Positive Classroom Environment," because I needed to focus on my language classes. She gave me the opportunity to join a remedial Korean class, which meets for two hours every night, meaning I now have six hours of Korean everyday. I don't mind, however, because it has been so helpful! At this point, I'm looking at learning Korean as a survival skill, and hope that working as hard as I know how to will get me through my Korean class. I also had to completely rewrite my lesson plan for my lesson on Thursday because we were not allowed to use internet resources for our lessons, which I completely forgot about, but the lesson ended up being much, much better and the Classroom Instructor had many positive things to say after my observations. On Friday, I gave a 2-3 minute speech entirely in Korean which is worth 20% of our final, and even though it was not perfect, it was a massive improvement from the beginning of my time here. I left feeling very accomplished. :)

Yesterday, while on a walk, a Korean man came up to me yelling, "American!" He looked so excited as he introduced himself as Yook Ee. He asked me, "Pansy??" He was looking for a fellow Fulbright student. The whole conversation was split between broken English and broken Korean, but when I could say, "Pansy kisooksuh (Pansy dormitory)," he smiled and pointed to the dorms. At this point, I was uncertain what to do, because he could potentially be dangerous, but he seemed so sweet! As we walked to the dorms, he asked me if I was enjoying Korea. Then he said something in Korean that I didn't understand and he tried to explain it more as we went to the dorms. He stayed on the first level while I went upstairs to look for Pansy, but she wasn't there. He seemed disappointed, but took me to the market and pointed to the drinks, saying, "For help." I didn't want to accept it at first because I really didn't help him very much, but gift giving is a big part of Korean culture and I couldn't refuse! I got a vitamin water. He asked if Pansy would like one too, and I said yes, even though I was unsure if that was true. We bowed to each other and parted ways, but the fact that I could say anything to this man in Korean meant so much to me! I found Pansy later and she said that this man was going to be her language exchange partner, but they haven't had an opportunity to meet yet!

Now to the most exciting part of my week . . . .

Why Hwacheon Elementary School is the Best Placement For Me

Tuesday was a huge day for all the Fulbright ETAs. At 7 p.m., Mrs. Shim, the Executive Director of Fulbright, came to reveal to us our placement schools for the coming year! Last week, we filled out placement preference forms letting the Fulbright Office knowing what we were looking for in the next year. My number one priority was being near an orphanage, which I thought meant that I would be placed in a city. As the placement ceremony got closer and closer I realized that being a city would be miserable for me--I love long walks, wide open spaces, and knowing the people and area around me very well. Cities are suffocating to me. As they called the Hwacheon area and I saw the girls go to the stage I hoped in my heart that I would be placed there as well--and I was! I am so excited for the coming year!! Here is the Hwacheon tourism website:  http://www.ihc.go.kr/foreign/eng/page/sub02/sub02_01.html.

Hwacheon is a very cold area full of mountains, rivers, and dams. South Korea fought to keep it because of its water resources. It is approximately 6 miles away from the border, but very safe!

 1.   My Friends!

These ladies (from left to right:  Gabrielle LaFata, Stacey Scholten, and Julie Garner) have become my friends during my time here, and I am so excited to become even closer to them during the year! Hwacheon is one of the most rural placements available and very secluded with few English teachers, so they always place four ETAs there. In cities, ETAs may be spread out pretty far, but with the set-up in Hwacheon, I will most likely see at least one ETA everyday! In addition, I have the only Elementary ETA placement with two EETAs. Gabrielle LaFata and I will be teaching in the same school, and I am so blessed to have her so close! She is very kind, enthusiastic, generous, and driven. If you knew her, you would love her. :) Julie will be right across the river from us at the high school, and she has a classroom entirely to herself. Julie has been dreaming of this placement so I am so happy for her. She is very encouraging and understanding--and we were both in sororities, so we have that bond. :) Stacey will be about ten minutes outside of Hwacheon in Yuncheon, a very small village. Her entire school only has fifty students and she is the only English teacher! Stacey and I both love Harry Potter and AVPM and I have a lot of fun joking around with her and sharing elementary education stories. The four ETAs who are placed in Hwacheon usually become best friends by the end of the grant year.

2. Hwacheon Elementary School

I stole this picture off the internet and am not entirely sure this is actually Hwacheon Elementary School!

Hwacheon is a poorer area. In order to help the students of Hwacheon, the schools are government funded, meaning they are actually pretty nice! There are approximately 300 4th and 5th grade students at Hwacheon Elementary School. In cities, you may have up to 1,000 students, but with the smaller student body split between two ETAs I will have a chance to get closer to my students. I am also very interested in rural poverty and hope that I can help the students of Hwacheon succeed on the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test), in which English is a major subject. Just like in the states, it is harder to succeed in rural areas and many students feel destined to be farmers. I want to try to make English interesting and give them some basic English skills. Former ETAs have said that students and people are sweeter in rural areas, so even if I don't speak Korean, there will most likely be someone who is willing to try to help me! Here is the website to the school: http://kwhw.es.kr/.

3.  Hwacheon Ice (Fishing) Festival

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=1547131
It's kind of a big deal. Lots of people, including ETAs from the rest of Korea, come to visit in January. So, the winter's in Hwacheon are really harsh, but at least I get to celebrate while I'm cold. And I like winter, so no big deal. :) Fishing is a big part of Hwacheon all year round, not just in the winter when you can ice fish! You should go google search Hwacheon Ice Festival and look at all the people competing in ice fishing tournaments--the pictures are quite something!

4.  Access to Cities

Hwacheon is about an hour away from Cheonan, which is a bigger city that even has an English speaking church! Although I will most likely not be able to visit often, when I really feel like I need a church community in my life, I can always visit. From Cheonan, it is another hour train ride to Seoul, and I can find pretty much anything I need in Seoul. Hwacheon is also the county seat of Hwacheon County and is pretty big--I think there are 8,000 to 10,000 people there, and I should be able to find the majority of what I need in town.

5.  Learning Experience

Yes, Hwacheon is only six miles away from the DMZ. Yes, it is the closest placement to the DMZ available. But, it's had four ETAs for many, many years, and it has always been safe. I might see crazy things that I never imagined seeing before, like a hundred tanks coming down the road and civilians acting like it's not a big deal. That is something an ETA experienced last year. However, if I am ever in any danger, I will be notified immediately by the Fulbright Office and evacuated to a safer area. From what I've been told, however, Hwacheon is not a place North Korea cares about. They're going to target Seoul if they target any place at all! I am hoping that I will use this time to learn more about North Korean-South Korean relations, something I know very little about. I will also probably learn more Korean since there won't be many English speakers there!

6. Beauty

I stole these pictures from a past ETA's blog, but I just want to give you an idea of what I am going to see every day! I always thought that the most beautiful place to live would be in the middle of the mountains near water, and that's exactly what I'll have this year!

 6.  Soldiers

This one is mostly for my best friend Kat, who is reportedly on 'Husband Watch 2013.' :P But really, there are about 22,000 civilians in all of Hwacheon County and about 36,000 soldiers. There are more soldiers than civilians! Although I don't know how many of them are American soldiers, I think there are probably some. I am sure I will be safe! :)

7. Orphanage

 http://kkoom.org/gangwon.pdf
 According to KKOOM, there is an orphanage in Hwacheon County, and I want to volunteer so badly! I am going to talk to an Orientation Coordinator about how to get involved in an orphanage in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully contact the Hwacheon Orphanage soon. If not, I can always volunteer in an orphanage in Seoul.  

I am very excited for my upcoming year, and can't believe in just two short weeks I leave Jungwon to begin my grant year as a real teacher! For those of you concerned about my placement in Hwacheon, please know that I will always try to make wise choices and there are many people looking out for me. I hope this year is a growing experience! As always, I love you so much. Thanks for reading my blog and for keeping me strong. <3