Sunday, October 28, 2012
Sorry!
My apologies for not updating this blog more frequently - I'm so busy and I've also settled into a schedule so I feel like I have less exciting things to write about. But all of us NSLI-Y Korea kids have an assignment to blog on our group blog so it gets frequently updated, and I just posted something. Here's the link: http://nsliankoreanlife.blogspot.kr/
Monday, October 1, 2012
Busy Busy Busy!
It's 추석 (Chuseok) weekend here in Korea which means I finally have some time off! Chuseok is like the Korean version of Thanksgiving and we celebrated it yesterday. First all of my host dad's family came over to our apartment and we set up this traditional table and bowed to the ancestors. After that we ate a ton of food and I hung out with all my host cousins and we went out bowling together.
Then in the early afternoon we headed over to my host mom's hometown,대부도 (Daebu-do) which was about an hour's drive away. There we hung out, watched tv with the cousins, harvested some sweet potatoes, and ate a ton of food. I tried octopus and crab, though I drew the line at eating octopus heads. After dinner we played a traditional Korean game, which everyone got very intense about! I didn't really follow what was going on, I just threw the sticks when it was asked of me haha. We watched some of Gag Concert on TV and then headed home. I was completely exhausted and slept like a log last night!
Today I climbed a mountain with my host family! Wow it was tiring I'm so out of shape...and I also have a cold right now so that probably didn't help. But getting to the summit and seeing the amazing view was worth it. After we came back down we had a delicious lunch and then I slept until dinner time and now I'm chilling out with my family.
School has been going well! I've done 3 full weeks of school and and I'm so happy with the class I'm placed with, they're so great. There are days when I just feel kind of grumpy and down, but that's a normal part of culture shock. And the fact that I'm not a morning person and I have to get up at 6am here probably doesn't help. I usually feel better after eating lunch on those days. I've been venturing away from my sister's side at school and socializing by myself, which feels good. And Korean class is going great, we're learning so much and we're getting ready for the TOPIK exam at the end of October. We've been doing debates on things like abortion and welfare in Korean, which is incredibly challenging but fun. I want to share everything that I've been doing since I have it all written down in my journal, but putting it here would take way too long! Maybe someday if I get the motivation...
Until next time! Sorry I haven't been updating as regularly as I thought I would be able to.
Until next time! Sorry I haven't been updating as regularly as I thought I would be able to.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Settling In
So I was going to do a day by day recap of what I've been up to but I got too far behind and my journal is too detailed so I'm just going to do a general update.
For the first week we went to language class in Seoul from 10am-2pm every day and we learned a lot! We were doing one chapter of the Sogang textbooks a day. Also, I'm placed in DiMitri's level and he's amazing. I skipped from doing Sogang 1A last year to 2B this year. I learned a lot of the inbetween stuff on my own but I definitely still have some catching up to do, and the first 2 days I felt especially overwhelmed but then I settled in. The first week I hung out with my older sister Hye-Ri a lot, it's really nice that she's in college so she has more time for me. But we've both been really busy this week so I haven't seen her as much. Over the weekend we visited Daebu-do, my host mother's hometown, which is an island off the coast of Incheon. It was beautiful and we met a bunch of family who we'll be seeing again at Chuseok at the end of this month. I was also able to hang out with Ye-ji, my younger sister and some of her friends on the weekend. It was kind of weird how quickly I settled in, it was like I picked up where I left off last summer and had never left.
Then this last Monday, we started high school! I'm going to an all girl's school with my fellow NSLIan Andi. We're both in different classes since we were placed in our host sisters' classes. The first day was pretty crazy overwhelming...everyone was yelling when we walked around and pretty much anything I said elicited screams from my class. People would run in from other classes and say "Hi, you're pretty" and then run away. But by the second or third day though everyone in my class had calmed down a bit. Now they're still curious about me and about American stuff and people still come to talk to me a lot but they're not going crazy and I feel like they're taking care of me. I still get a lot of people waving and saying hi in the hallway but that doesn't bother me, it makes me happy! My school decided to switch me out of a few classes with my homeroom like science, history, and math and put me into fun classes that my schedule doesn't allow me to take (I leave after 3rd class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to go to language class in Seoul) like music, art, and Korean traditional dance PE. I really like one of the classes I'm taking a few classes with, but the other class I'm taking PE with I'm not so crazy about...kind of a weird dynamic...but I only have one class with them a week so it's ok. I love my class, I'm so happy with them! I'm kind of sad that I only get to eat lunch at school twice a week because the students don't have very much time to hang out outside of school so lunch is a good time to get to know them. Lunch at my school is 80 minutes and breaks between classes are 10 minutes and you don't have to go anywhere during them, so there's a pretty good amount of relaxing time despite how hard Koreans study. I can't understand any of history or math and I can only understand a tiny bit of science and Korean with help from my sister's electronic dictionary, but there are some classes I can understand pretty well. I really like music class because we get to sing and the teacher's really nice. I think we definitely have it easier than NSLI-Y students from previous years since we only go to less than a half day of school 3 days a week whereas previous years had to go all day, every day. It's nice being able to go to Seoul so often (and the class is at the YES office in Hongdae so there's lots to do in the area) but my commute runs up to 2 hours at rush hour and it can be exhausting. I've never felt so tired in my life as I have these last 2 weeks...not only am I doing so much but I'm trying to speak, think, and read in another language. It's finally the weekend and I am going to sleep so long tonight, I'm quite excited! Until next time~
For the first week we went to language class in Seoul from 10am-2pm every day and we learned a lot! We were doing one chapter of the Sogang textbooks a day. Also, I'm placed in DiMitri's level and he's amazing. I skipped from doing Sogang 1A last year to 2B this year. I learned a lot of the inbetween stuff on my own but I definitely still have some catching up to do, and the first 2 days I felt especially overwhelmed but then I settled in. The first week I hung out with my older sister Hye-Ri a lot, it's really nice that she's in college so she has more time for me. But we've both been really busy this week so I haven't seen her as much. Over the weekend we visited Daebu-do, my host mother's hometown, which is an island off the coast of Incheon. It was beautiful and we met a bunch of family who we'll be seeing again at Chuseok at the end of this month. I was also able to hang out with Ye-ji, my younger sister and some of her friends on the weekend. It was kind of weird how quickly I settled in, it was like I picked up where I left off last summer and had never left.
Then this last Monday, we started high school! I'm going to an all girl's school with my fellow NSLIan Andi. We're both in different classes since we were placed in our host sisters' classes. The first day was pretty crazy overwhelming...everyone was yelling when we walked around and pretty much anything I said elicited screams from my class. People would run in from other classes and say "Hi, you're pretty" and then run away. But by the second or third day though everyone in my class had calmed down a bit. Now they're still curious about me and about American stuff and people still come to talk to me a lot but they're not going crazy and I feel like they're taking care of me. I still get a lot of people waving and saying hi in the hallway but that doesn't bother me, it makes me happy! My school decided to switch me out of a few classes with my homeroom like science, history, and math and put me into fun classes that my schedule doesn't allow me to take (I leave after 3rd class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to go to language class in Seoul) like music, art, and Korean traditional dance PE. I really like one of the classes I'm taking a few classes with, but the other class I'm taking PE with I'm not so crazy about...kind of a weird dynamic...but I only have one class with them a week so it's ok. I love my class, I'm so happy with them! I'm kind of sad that I only get to eat lunch at school twice a week because the students don't have very much time to hang out outside of school so lunch is a good time to get to know them. Lunch at my school is 80 minutes and breaks between classes are 10 minutes and you don't have to go anywhere during them, so there's a pretty good amount of relaxing time despite how hard Koreans study. I can't understand any of history or math and I can only understand a tiny bit of science and Korean with help from my sister's electronic dictionary, but there are some classes I can understand pretty well. I really like music class because we get to sing and the teacher's really nice. I think we definitely have it easier than NSLI-Y students from previous years since we only go to less than a half day of school 3 days a week whereas previous years had to go all day, every day. It's nice being able to go to Seoul so often (and the class is at the YES office in Hongdae so there's lots to do in the area) but my commute runs up to 2 hours at rush hour and it can be exhausting. I've never felt so tired in my life as I have these last 2 weeks...not only am I doing so much but I'm trying to speak, think, and read in another language. It's finally the weekend and I am going to sleep so long tonight, I'm quite excited! Until next time~
Saturday, September 1, 2012
In Korea!
We arrived in Korea last night and today was our orientation and my birthday! My host sisters and all the NSLI-Y people sent me birthday messages this morning. And then after orientation tonight a group of us went out to noraebang and then they sang happy birthday to me outside on the sidewalk haha, it was a great birthday! And surprise, we're moving to our host families tomorrow...we all thought we'd be moving in next week. I'm excited but nervous to meet them!
Now going backwards to New York - I arrived at the PDO and we stayed in the International House, which was really nice! We got the best room, that had a fireplace and 2 flatscreen tvs. All 11 of the NSLI-Y kids talked and bonded until midnight and we felt like we were already close after the first night. The group is awesome and I'm excited to spend a year with them! Then the next day we had orientation for most of the day, talking about culture shock and things like that. We were supposed to have Korean food for dinner but the group overruled Curtis and we all voted to get one last American meal, it was really good! The next morning we left for an incredibly long time traveling...about 14 hours to Japan and another 2 to Korea with a 3 hour layover in between. The flights weren't too bad though. We got off the plane in Korean and Yes International was waiting for us. We took a group picture, got on the bus and arrived at a little hostel in Hongdae about 40 minutes later. And then found out there was no elevator and we would have to haul our suitcases up 3 stories...
Today we woke up around 8:30 and went to orientation at the YES office. It makes sense that we're staying in Hongdae since the office is right around the corner and down the street from the hostel. But they just told us we're meeting our families at the office which means we have to haul all our baggage over narrow, uneven, cracked sidewalks...my arms are getting a workout! We had orientation for most of the day and talked about Korean culture and schools and other stuff we needed to know. We also had a language test. There was a pre-test that was written and then we went downstairs to have an interview with a Korean teacher who asked us about things we wrote on the test. She was really nice but it was kind of hard! I knew what she was asking but I didn't know how to respond a lot. She had me read 3 passages and I could only understand the last one. While we were waiting for our turn to interview upstairs in the meeting room we watched some old TV shows from last summer, listened to music, and talked and laughed a lot. The group is so fun! They took us out for lunch at a bibimbap place right nearby and ordered us takeout kimbap for dinner. Then we could go out, which is when we did noraebang. I did a bunch of the raps I've been practicing haha...Now I'm back in the hostel. The wifi is so good here it's kind of amazing. Ahh meeting my host family tomorrow!
Now going backwards to New York - I arrived at the PDO and we stayed in the International House, which was really nice! We got the best room, that had a fireplace and 2 flatscreen tvs. All 11 of the NSLI-Y kids talked and bonded until midnight and we felt like we were already close after the first night. The group is awesome and I'm excited to spend a year with them! Then the next day we had orientation for most of the day, talking about culture shock and things like that. We were supposed to have Korean food for dinner but the group overruled Curtis and we all voted to get one last American meal, it was really good! The next morning we left for an incredibly long time traveling...about 14 hours to Japan and another 2 to Korea with a 3 hour layover in between. The flights weren't too bad though. We got off the plane in Korean and Yes International was waiting for us. We took a group picture, got on the bus and arrived at a little hostel in Hongdae about 40 minutes later. And then found out there was no elevator and we would have to haul our suitcases up 3 stories...
Today we woke up around 8:30 and went to orientation at the YES office. It makes sense that we're staying in Hongdae since the office is right around the corner and down the street from the hostel. But they just told us we're meeting our families at the office which means we have to haul all our baggage over narrow, uneven, cracked sidewalks...my arms are getting a workout! We had orientation for most of the day and talked about Korean culture and schools and other stuff we needed to know. We also had a language test. There was a pre-test that was written and then we went downstairs to have an interview with a Korean teacher who asked us about things we wrote on the test. She was really nice but it was kind of hard! I knew what she was asking but I didn't know how to respond a lot. She had me read 3 passages and I could only understand the last one. While we were waiting for our turn to interview upstairs in the meeting room we watched some old TV shows from last summer, listened to music, and talked and laughed a lot. The group is so fun! They took us out for lunch at a bibimbap place right nearby and ordered us takeout kimbap for dinner. Then we could go out, which is when we did noraebang. I did a bunch of the raps I've been practicing haha...Now I'm back in the hostel. The wifi is so good here it's kind of amazing. Ahh meeting my host family tomorrow!
Monday, August 20, 2012
Preparing for Departure
Currently packing...my winter suitcase is almost done, then I just need to pack the suitcase that I'll be unpacking and repacking (with all my toiletries and summery clothes) as I make my way to Korea! Most of the time I'm incredibly excited to leave, but sometimes a wave of anxiety hits me - my brain's going "What if I can't make friends? I can't speak much Korean, maybe no one will have any patience with me. What if my host family doesn't like me?" But I know it will all work out and I go back to being excited.
Now about my host family. I'll be living on the eastern side of Incheon, in Namdong-gu. I'm super happy with my city placement because when I visited Incheon with my host family last summer, while it's still a big city, it felt smaller and more suburban in some parts. But I'm still only about an hour's subway ride away from Seoul so visiting there to go shopping and whatnot won't be too much of a hassle. My host family seems awesome so far! My host dad is a businessman and my host mom is a nurse. I have two sisters, Korean ages 17 and 20. The 20 year old, Hye-ri, is in her first year of college and lives at home. In American age she's either 18 or 19 so she's close to my age! The 17 year old (15 or 16 American age), Ye-ji, is in the first grade of high school, which is the grade I'll be in. It would be really nice if I get to go to the same school as her. I've been chatting with both of them on Kakao Talk and they both seem so sweet. The older one already listed me as a "family member" on Facebook! I also sent an email to my host parents and I got a very nice reply talking about how they want to show me all about Korea and hope that America and Korea can understand each other a bit better through this exchange, and things like that. My sister told me that they're moving apartments, from the 4th floor to the 18th floor of their building at the end of September, so that should be fun!
We got all our predeparture orientation information today, and everything's finally starting to seem real! In exactly a week from now I'll be getting on the ferry with my mom to stay overnight at a hotel in Seattle close to the airport since my flight leaves at 7am on Tuesday. Since we have to get up around 4, and I usually don't go to bed until 1, I'm probably not going to sleep at all - I'll be so excited and anxious!
Now about my host family. I'll be living on the eastern side of Incheon, in Namdong-gu. I'm super happy with my city placement because when I visited Incheon with my host family last summer, while it's still a big city, it felt smaller and more suburban in some parts. But I'm still only about an hour's subway ride away from Seoul so visiting there to go shopping and whatnot won't be too much of a hassle. My host family seems awesome so far! My host dad is a businessman and my host mom is a nurse. I have two sisters, Korean ages 17 and 20. The 20 year old, Hye-ri, is in her first year of college and lives at home. In American age she's either 18 or 19 so she's close to my age! The 17 year old (15 or 16 American age), Ye-ji, is in the first grade of high school, which is the grade I'll be in. It would be really nice if I get to go to the same school as her. I've been chatting with both of them on Kakao Talk and they both seem so sweet. The older one already listed me as a "family member" on Facebook! I also sent an email to my host parents and I got a very nice reply talking about how they want to show me all about Korea and hope that America and Korea can understand each other a bit better through this exchange, and things like that. My sister told me that they're moving apartments, from the 4th floor to the 18th floor of their building at the end of September, so that should be fun!
We got all our predeparture orientation information today, and everything's finally starting to seem real! In exactly a week from now I'll be getting on the ferry with my mom to stay overnight at a hotel in Seattle close to the airport since my flight leaves at 7am on Tuesday. Since we have to get up around 4, and I usually don't go to bed until 1, I'm probably not going to sleep at all - I'll be so excited and anxious!
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