A Seven-Month Reflection

Hey all!

I am taking a look back at my life so far as we have now passed the seven-month mark from my arrival in Korea.

My life in Korea over the past 7 months (what? really?) has been, for lack of a more poignant cliche, a roller-coaster ride. It is a wild notion to me when looking back over the whole span of time that there was ever a point in my life where I knew little to nothing about Korea at all. I used to know we fought in a war here once, though I was always vaguely unsure who we were fighting for or with. I just knew a lot of people had died for a cause that many other Americans at the time didn't deem worthy of American lives, so it was all steeped in some controversy, much like the Vietnam War (still know little to nothing about that). There was a point in my life where I couldn't read the Korean alphabet as smoothly as the English alphabet, yet now I can't look at a Korean word and unsee exactly as it should be pronounced. I am in no means fluent, but I have gotten to the basic conversation stage of the language and can somewhat comfortably take taxis and easily order food at restaurants without batting an eye. And there was a point in my life 7 months ago when such a reality seemed impossible to me. Laughable even. Yet, here I am, 나주에 영어 선생님 이에요! (That says, "An English teacher in Naju").

My teaching, while at first daunting, demoralizing, and down-right difficult, has transformed into a thoroughly pleasant, even positively challenging, experience. I have grown to love my students and devote a great deal of my time, energy, and thought into their well-being and happiness. Their English is limited, and I love them all the more for it; They tried their hardest to communicate with me inside and outside of the classroom because they want to get to know me or be my friend, and I seem to have made some impact on them because they were all thoroughly distraught when a rumor spawned from miscommunication resulted in the entire student body believing I was permanently moving to Japan right after Christmas, never to see them again. I should explain...

Like a large version of the game telephone, I had told one student I was visiting Japan for a week to see my best friend and former college roommate Richard. Well, this student heard "Japan" and "going" and assumed that I was leaving for good to Japan. A week later on my last day of school, everyone was thoroughly miffed at me with no explanation. I finally got it out of a female student who speaks decent English and did my best to clarify to as many students as I could, though I barely scratched the surface of my 350+ student body. Let's just say there will be many happy students when they see me walk into school March 3rd.

I do love teaching more than I originally though I would after a month here and for different reasons than I thought as well. I have quickly learned that the happiness of a teacher is largely derived from the happiness of the students. My students, generally, are unhappy in their education. And why shouldn't they be? They go to school everyday from 8-10 p.m., eat lunch and dinner at school, go to extra school on the weekends, and study for three years (the length of high school here) to take the Soonung, a 9 hour test on 10 different subjects that single-handedly determines the rest of their lives. That being said, my job first and foremost to my particular students is to be the fun. I see each class one time a week and get 50 minutes with them. That is 50 minutes in their entire week of schooling that they get to have fun with me. It isn't much, but for a lot of them it is the highlight of their week. Therefore, I make my class fun. We play games, I show American dramas (they all are addicted to the show "LOST" now), and overall I get them to practice what little English they know however I can. Building confidence is the ends, and doing it with laughter is the means. This all sounds quite... self-praising, but I am learning how to do my job and making good connections with my students.

On the end of their semester surveys, I got a lot of surprisingly confident feedback from students. I asked them their favorite lesson and what they liked and didn't like about my class (99% of students wrote things like "Oh no teacher, class perfect!", though one kid did write "your face"...). It was surprising to see how many of them gave me "A++++++++++" or ""S grades (S seems to be a thing here as a grade - Still don't get it), and one male student who was generally quiet with poor English skills wrote, "Thank you teacher for a funny class. I found the laugh what once I had lost" (I attribute the poetic nature of his second sentence to his shaky English, but I find it beautiful nonetheless). So overall, I think I am doing a good job :)

Other parts of my life seem to be good too.

I am about three quarters of the way through my 2 month paid vacation, and I feel utterly lazy and useless at this point, having spent the past 3 days doing literally nothing constructive. The break has been nice, but I am getting antsy to do something constructive and teach again. For the month of January I lived in Seoul in my own apartment and studied Korean language with some friends at one of the 3 top universities in Korea, Seoul National University. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and was one of the best scorers in my level, but I ultimately failed the course for attendance reasons as I was late too many days. I don't care in the least because I do not need the college credit for anything, and I still received a certificate of excellence which proves my merit, but most importantly I learned a lot and improved, which is encouraging. Next week I will teach a winter English camp at a friend's high school and then go to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, for a two day getaway. It will be my last hoorah in terms of travels. That will about wrap up my break, and I begin teaching again March 3rd. Just around the corner!

Whew, that was a lot, but for the most part you are caught up now. I will blog again once school begins and I have a few weeks under my belt. Thanks for reading!

All the best,
David

It's Been a While! Catching Up...

Guess who is bad at blogging regularly? That's right. I am.

Sorry for being so infrequent on my updates. I think I have found out that blogging regularly (when it isn't for a paycheck) is really difficult for me. Feel free in the future to tell me that I am being a loser of a blogger and maybe I will feel more motivated to post at least once a month...

Apologies over with, on with the main event. This post will be a little heavier, but necessary to frame my life here.

My life the past few months since I last blogged in August have been so wonderful, stressful, exciting, exhausting, and all other ranges of emotions that I simply can't fit it all into one blog, let alone one blog post. Sadly, I won't be able to recount everything now, but I will fill you in on the most important parts - the predominant one being my students and my teaching life.

My High School - The good, the bad, and the truth

금성고등학교 (Geumsong High School)

My teaching career here at Geumsong High School has been extremely bewildering. I still don't know half the time if I love, hate, or am apathetic towards how my school and students make me. For a very long time, I honestly thought my year at Geumsong was going to be one long experiment on the various pedagogical ways to kill 50 minutes. For the first couple of weeks things were very turbulent as I tried to settle in, gauge my students, gauge myself as a teacher and authority figure, and somewhere in all that madness try to sleep soundly every night. For a while, the sleep wasn't coming easily.

Every lesson I did after the second week just seemed to crash and burn harder than the week before, all the way until it was time to go to Gyeongju for the Fulbright Fall Conference in October. Outwardly I showed to my host family and Facebook friends that school was going well and I was enjoying myself, but I really wasn't. I opened up to some of my fellow Fulbright ETAs here in Naju about how my teaching life left me feeling defeated and worthless; My students were apathetic (and that is being polite), my lessons seemed to not progress five minutes before everyone was either asleep or jumping out my window (actually happened), and to top it all off I was beginning to hold it against my students, even cursing my placement at this school. I doubted why I was here, if I would stay another year in Korea, or even if I would continue to be a teacher at all after this experience. On top of all of this emotional turmoil, I was stuck in a foreign country without the ability to speak the language, which caused a lot of cascading failures in my daily life that amounted to me wanting to throw in the towel.

However, as I mentioned, this all seemed to miraculously change after Gyeongju Conference in October, which my friend Tyler, a former ETA in Naju, told me would happen. I still can't fully comprehend why he was right, but he was. After spending the four days in Gyeongju with all my fellow ETAs, I came back to Naju to what seemed a completely different school and teaching life. My students were extremely open with me, trying more English than I assumed the whole school knew put together, and their genuine happiness to see me in class and in the hallways was invigorating. It was as if by magic my students all lightened up and I had a fresh frame of mind about everything, but now as the semester ends I really think it was primarily the latter - a trip out of town to meet all my fellow teachers and hear varying experiences helped me gain valuable perspective on my life. And above all it caused a change in me. I didn't know what it was for a long time, but now I think I know.

I stopped caring and started caring.

That is, I stopped caring about my bruised ego and lofty (shattered) expectations about what my life would be here. Instead, I started caring about the happiness of my students above all else. I started to plan lessons and class time around my students interests and enjoyment. If they weren't having fun, I wasn't having it. Period. I started working in games that I loved, like MASH (thanks Meghan!) and Mafia, as well as showing the American TV drama "LOST" with astounding enthusiasm and demand for more episodes from my students (my first years made it through episode 3 and my second years finished episode 4). I still can't fully put it into words, but my class mentality has just completely evolved into one that form fits my students as best as possible, which I now realize is what I should have done from the beginning (hindsight...). I was just too blinded by my prideful ambitions as an "educator of the weak masses" to step back and realize that the reality is not nearly as complex as all that. I simply need to be a friend to these kids and have as much fun as them in order to accomplish the ideal classroom dynamic that I seem to be slowly working towards now. Slowly, yes, but ever-progressing.

I am happy to end this post by saying that my life now is dramatically different than it was a couple of months ago, and I was even inspired to blog again today by the overwhelming kindness of my students. Today alone, I have been hugged, sung two twice, applauded for three times (students love to applaud for random things as a sign of approval. It;s extremely adorable), and been given gifts from some of my sweetest students as a thank you for showing them small acts of kindness that I hadn't thought twice about until now. AND one student came to me today and had her friend translate to me that she wants some kindergarten English books to practice English in her free time (!!!). Happy, happy teacher today :)

If you read this far, I worry about how much free time you seem to have and recommend picking up a hobby. But thank you nonetheless, and I hope you found something in my writing enjoyable. I will try to put up snippets of the good things that I have experienced these past few months, especially as I prepare to embark on a trip to Japan for the holidays and living in Seoul during January to study Korean. Many exciting things in the future, and I look forward to sharing them with you more regularly than I have up until now. On that note I will leave you with happy pictures of my happy students making me happy :)

Class 2-1

Class 2-2

Class 2-3

Class 2-5

Class 2-6

Class 2-4

Until next time, all the best!
David

My New Home - Naju!

Hi all!

It has been way too long since my last post, and I sincerely apologize. My world has been hectic the past few weeks, to say the least, but I have emerged from the craziness as a high school English teacher in Naju, South Korea!! I made it! That's right, I am now firmly planted in my new hometown of Naju, a small city in the south western part of South Korea, right next to the city of Gwangju.

The view of Naju from my office at school

All of this probably means very little to many of you, but just know that my town is famous for very large and delicious pears (not in season currently) and for having a huge gathering of Catholic followers due to some local folklore about a statue of the Virgin Mary that would cry blood from time to time. I won't get into the legitimacy of these claims (about the statue, not the pears. The pears are real), but I will vouch for the fact that my town is very nice and has begun to grow on me. It certainly isn't NYC or Seoul, but it has everything I could possibly need and is filled with some very charming, down-to-earth people. Some of those people include my lovely Korean host family!

---My Host Family!

I have a mom named Jinhee (34) and a dad named Jino (39), and last but most certainly first in the household is my 7-year-old little host sister Heeoh (the combination of the last two syllables of my parents' names). They live in a wonderful house about 9-10 kilometers outside of Naju, or just a 10 minute bus ride from town. I have my own room on the first floor and a personal bathroom on the second floor. They have been so kind and welcoming since my arrival, taking great strides to make sure that I feel welcome and comfortable at all times.

My (messy) room!

The living room/entry way (view from my room)

                                                               
Jinoh plays the guitar and is a city official in the next town over. Jinhee works (though I don't know her job position) and little Heeoh goes to kindergarten. Heeoh and I hit it off almost immediately, and she has become much more comfortable with me over the course of this past week, speaking what English she knows confidently and freely.

What a cutie!

We play together almost every single night, whether I am busy with things or not, and I am enjoying being an older brother to a little girl again. I mean, how could I resist when I hear a little voice shouting from the next room, "DAAAABID, PLAY PLAY!" Adorable. She has the most wonderfully creative mind and a great gift for drawing and design. She loves the computer game Minecraft, where you can build 3-D worlds out of blocks, and her talent for the game far surpasses my own even though I am 3 times her age. I love to see what her mind envisions, and she never ceases to amaze me!

---금성고등학교 (Geumseong High School)

As for my school and settling in, I taught my first week of classes starting last Monday. The first day was stressful, fast, and rocky. I was under the impression that the first day would be for observations and getting used to my surroundings in the school, so I made the fatal mistake of only bringing my notebook and some school supplies for my desk and leaving my laptop for first day lesson materials at home. One of my co-teachers said he would take me to the period three class to introduce me, and I went along blissfully unaware of that into which I was about to be thrown. Why, oh WHY, didn't I heed the cardinal rule of Fulbright: ALWAYS prepare for the worst. Well, I learned my lesson soon enough...

Here's how it went down. The teacher said very briefly, "As you all know, we have a new native speaker at the school. His name is David Stewart. Why don't you give him a big hand. (half-hearted applause). David, why don't you introduce yourself." To which I cheerfully replied, "Sure!" and walked up onto the little stage in front of the class. As I began my improvised introduction, the teacher began to LEAVE THE CLASSROOM. I stopped him by blurting out, "Wait, am I teaching the WHOLE PERIOD?" He smiled and said, "Yep!" and walked out.

There I was. Alone. Sweating. Empty-handed. At a loss for words. Sweating.

Luckily, my orientation training and my memory of some emergency lessons kicked in and I was able to pull out a somewhat decent lesson. If there is one skill in life that I have fortunately always possessed, it is my ability to improvise - a skill, I am quickly figuring out, that is an essential tool for all teachers to have. I had the students introduce themselves on a piece of paper once I finished my verbal introduction, and then I played a sort of game where I read off the facts of one student's sheet and had the class guess which student I was describing.

One of my favorite student responses so far: Zoro Sisters

Due to nerves or just a lack of energy, they didn't get too into the game but did follow my directions well. In the end, the class finished and I taught another immediately there after followed by another in the afternoon.

My first day done left me feeling a few feet shorter in terms of confidence, but I came back hard the next day with an intro lesson Powerpoint and fresh battle wounds from the day before to keep me focused. The second day went MUCH more smoothly, and I enjoyed both of my classes that day. Every day got better and I refined and tweaked my lesson as the week progressed. Students even began approaching me in the halls for small, nervous conversations. The rumor around school is that I am a bit strict but that I explain things in a way that are easily understood. I couldn't be happier with the rumors, my co-teachers assure me.

One of my students wants to study psychology. I mentioned my
 best friend is getting her PhD in Psych, and this is what I received the next day.

So impressive and sweet! I forwarded the note to my friend
and will give the student her response on Monday :)

By Friday the lesson was easy for me, but I still had to be on my toes because my students are greatly varied in terms of English confidence, ability, and enthusiasm, often within the same class. It has been and will continue to be a challenge to figure out how to appropriately scaffold my lessons so that the very low students can comprehend and do the work while not boring the advanced students and losing their interest (which is just as dangerous as a lack of comprehension). I'm very excited about the challenge, though, and I am more than up for it.

---One Week Down, One Year to Go...

All in all, my first week was nothing like I expected, mostly due to the fact that I tried to come in with no expectations. I am happy with it though.

I finished it off right last night by meeting my fellow ETA's from Naju to have our inaugural night on the town. Danielle (second from the left in the picture) knew of a good Makgeolli (Rice wine) bar in town, and we loved it! We ordered some Korean "pancakes" called Pajeon to go with our Makgeolli. Pajeon is a delicious food you get while drinking that has fried batter mixed with a variety of vegetables or meats. It comes in many different forms. We got the Kimchi (spicy cabbage dish served with virtually every Korean meal) Pajeon, which was a good call. After 8 bottles of Makgeolli, 2 large Kimchi Pajeon , and a bunch of free sunny side up eggs (yeah haha), our total bill was just around 30,000 won or $30, give or take a little (SO CHEAP!). We even met some nice Korean people in the bar who agreed (or insisted - I can't recall) that we meet them again this Friday at the same bar to practice English/Korean. It should be a good time.

Pic of Pajeon from the Internet, but it does the job. SO GOOD!
It's really large and you split it with the table.

Naju Crew from left to right: Sarah, Danielle, Me (duh), Anya, and Brett

Makgeolli is delicious and very subtle, yet VERY potent. It sneaks up on you...

Last night I built some major 정 (Jeong) last night with my host family by attending the grandfather's birthday dinner. Fyi, Jeong is a Korean sense of closeness or bonding that is built over time between people. It can be built over time spent together, meals shared, doing nice things for one another, drinking together (especially for men), and just showing you care about the person. I felt so blessed to be invited and accepted at a nice dinner out where we ate poisonous blowfish (exciting!) and had delicious sweet potato cake. Fun fact: Koreans eat cake with chopsticks, and I totally agree with the method. A wonderful night!

I know how to sing Happy Birthday in Korean now! Just as catchy. Grandfather in the red
polo, grandmother in the middle, great grandmother on the right. SUCH a nice family!

Sweet potato is a dessert here and very common. This cake was
delicious though it took a couple of bites to get used to.

I have SO much more to tell you about the remainder of orientation, the talent show I helped run, Camp Fulbright, my trip to Seoul (!!!), and much much else, but I wanted to just update you for now so you all knew I was still alive. Now that things are settling down for me, I should be able to get back into blogging more regularly and hopefully taking more pictures. I am happy though and doing well, and I hope you are the same. I will post again very soon!

All the best,
David~

Korean School Observations!

Hello all! Very exciting topic for today – my visit to an all-girls high school for teaching observations!

My visit to the school was last Monday July 8^th (have I really only been here 11 days?!). A group of us visited a school in the small city of Daejon, about an hour and a half away from Jungwon University, and stayed at the school most of the day to observe two classes, eat lunch with the teachers, and get some Q&A time with the ETA we observed. That’s the day in a nutshell. Now, for details and pictures!

The school was right in the heart of town and overlooked a busy downtown street in Daejon. It was so interesting to have such a large school in the heart of a city, but it happens here. 

We arrived without a hitch a little bit early, so we were greeted by Meredith, the ETA we would observe, and ushered into the school auditorium for a presentation by the principal and two vice principals. They were so very kind and welcoming to all of us and expressed how happy they were with Meredith, saying “she is the best” and one of the reasons their school does so well on their test scores. After much flattery and return compliments, the principal and vice principals went politely on their way and left us in Meredith’s caring hands.

Meredith was extremely kind and energetic as well as eager for us to meet her kids. She told us we would be observing two classes – one of her intermediate classes and one of her advanced classes. Once we were settled into her room, the girls began pouring in and then immediately pouring back out once they saw 15 smiling foreign faces sitting in the back of the room. After much nervous laughter and flushing of faces as they greeted us (especially the male ETA's), they settled into their seats and Meredith took control of the class. However, there was some public (playful) shaming to take care of seeing as a few of the girls were late. This was swiftly and mercilessly dealt with in the form of making the late girls dance in front of the class (and us) to a popular K-Pop song called “Sorry, Sorry.” Hilarious, to say the least, and so adorable!

Once the dancing subsided, though, it was time for business. I got my first taste of an ETA classroom and how to run a lesson for Korean students, and I was eating it all up. Meredith is an extremely skilled teacher and did an interactive and fun lesson on internet talk and “lolcats” (funny pictures of cats with silly messages found online, which the girls loved). 

The lesson incorporated a bingo game with the girls writing in key internet lingo for the different spots and having to recognize which one fit pictures with which they were prompted. The winners got stickers for their rewards card and bragging rights among their friends. It was a fun and clever activity, and one I might very well incorporate in my class on day soon. That pretty much wrapped up the class!

As a small tangent, I wanted to mention a great project that has been going on here in Korea called "Korean Students Speak." It was started by a past ETA, and it gives students the ability to express themselves with coloring tools and paper. They are rarely given a real chance to express their feelings about life, school, or what have you, so the kids' creativity and spirit really shines when given the opportunity. Here are some of the good ones from the classrooms we visited (the rest are in my photo albums below). Here is a link to the official tumblr for the project as well. http://koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com/

                                                        Students study for ridiculous hours...

                                                                           Too cute!

                                                                           Love it!

After observing the same lesson with her advanced kids, we all had lunch together in the cafeteria in the teacher area, just next to the students. I felt like being in a fish bowl, and anytime one of the male ETA's waved at the crowd (I did it a lot) the girls would erupt into an estrogen-fueled tizzy for about 2 minutes. At one point I orchestrated that four of us turn at the same time to wave and say “Hi!” to which we received uproarious squeals and laughter. Needless to say, it was quite an enjoyable lunch (and delicious too!).

Following lunch, we got to tour the school to see the different classrooms and say hi to the many students in the hallways, as it was their break time to do chores and get ready for afternoon classes. (A fun fact about schools in Korea is that the students are responsible for keeping the schools clean and are required during a specific time each day to clean the halls, floors, classrooms, etc. I think it is a brilliant idea! Anyway, just my two cents on that) The school was very nice, and it was exciting to walk around with a sense of celebrity as girls poked their heads out of doorways to see the tall foreigners walking by. They would say a quick “Hello!” before blushing and running away. It was too cute.

After a brief teaching presentation and Q&A session with Meredith, we had to be getting back to Jungwon for some workshops and dinner. I was so happy with the visit overall. It got me even more excited to teach and find out my placement (I would really like to teach in a single-gender school as I would find the dynamic fun and interesting). It was also just great to actually get into a classroom and see what we would be learning about for so long in orientation over the coming weeks. All of the workshops I have had since then have built on that first school visit to inspire me to really embrace the year ahead with as much energy and eagerness as possible, so I say “Bring it on!”

I wish you all could have come to the school with me and seen it, but maybe some of my pictures will give you a glimpse into the truly unique world that is a Korean high school. Literally nothing like it in the States, and I will go into more detail about a typical school day in the future. It averages about 17-20 hours a day of classes and studying for the students, giving them anywhere from 4-7 hours of time at home to sleep and see their families, and many high school students go to school 6 or 7 days a week. But more on that to come when I have more information. I put a link below to my Snapfish album (for those of you who don’t have Facebook) with pictures of the visit. I hope you like it!

Snapfish Album:

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=9063440028/a=4903216028_4903216028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Will post again soon!

Lots of love,

David

I Have Arrived!

Well, I am here safely at my orientation site at Jungwon University! South Korea is amazing so far! I know, I know – I have been here barely four days. But trust me -Korea is making a great first impression.

Below is a link to Jungwon University’s website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see all the things it has to offer, including a golf course, spas, and an amazing swimming pool! (I will put up lots of my own pictures soon in a separate post)

http://eng.jwu.ac.kr/menu.do?key=40

Now, time to tell you about getting here, as I am sure lots of you are curious about my 12+ hour flight. Getting to LAX was pretty painless. I flew on Virgin America, which has to be the nicest airline I have ever flown on. The entertainment included Satellite TV with a bunch of popular channels, plenty of complimentary refreshments, and the flight attendants were genuinely helpful and cheery. There was even a function in our entertainment screens to text chat with other peoples’ seats! It was great.  If you can ever afford to fly Virgin, do it.

Once at LAX, the few Fulbrighters and I who were on the Virgin flight met up with the ever-growing number of nervous/excited Fulbrighters waiting at our gate for the flight to Seoul. Imagine roughly 80 young people from all over the country, most of whom have never met or spoken to one another before, being thrown together with the same feelings of anticipation, anxiety, but mostly enthusiasm for the mutual year ahead. Needless to say, we were noticeable to those around us. I loved walking around getting names and meeting people, and I quickly realized that I was already known by many of the people there due to my heavy Facebook activity on the Fulbright Facebook group we had been using for the past few months. Luckily, it was a positive recognition.

Soon we were on our way! The flight, I happily admit, was much smoother an experience than I was expecting! In the end I probably slept a cumulative amount of 6 hours, watched two great Korean movies (“Miracle in Cell No. 7” and “A Werewolf Boy” – I highly recommend both!), and chatted with my new Friend Meghan (who slept for a majority of the flight. I’m not jealous…). Asiana was a very nice airline and I would definitely not hesitate to take them again when coming back and forth to Korea. I must admit I wasn’t brave enough to gamble and take the Korean meals offered on the flight since I feared I wouldn’t like them and then go hungry. So, I ate the Western meal options, which were beef stew with noodles and a cheese omelette. They were delicious though, and I was happy to be well fed for the flight. Overall, a great experience!

ARRIVAL!!! We landed without a hitch, and soon we all had our bags together and were being greeted by our lovely Orientation team. They signed us in, gave us our first allowance, and gave us time to freshen up before our 2 hour bus ride to Jungwon University.

This is my first meal! Not exactly the most exotic, but it hit the spot. It was also cool to try a new flavor of my favorite granola bar!

After getting to the university, we were given a chance to settle into our rooms and unpack before lunch, so I unpacked and showered (extremely necessary at this point) before taking a short tour with some new friends of the campus. I will do a future post all about Jungwon, but believe me when I say it is unreal. After lunch we had introductory info sessions, a break-down of what to expect in orientation, and were given a chance to buy some needed items left to us by past Fulbright ETA’s. The extremely long day ended with a group of us sitting around with our coordinators and asking them all sorts of questions about what to expect in the coming year as teachers in Korean schools. It was so much fun to just talk to them like peers and get the inside scoop of our very near future; it left me excited and also extremely tired, as the day caught up with me at around 8 p.m. I happily report though that I had a long, restful night’s sleep and feel completely fine now. The Fulbright people were smart to keep us up and busy from 5 a.m. the first day since it seems to have largely helped me prevent any jet-lag that I might have been experiencing. I did lose all of Friday after all.

IN CONCLUSION, the trip here and the first day were extremely memorable and I am loving my life as a Fulbright ETA here in Korea already. I wish I could articulate to you all the things I am looking forward to and have already experienced, but I don’t have the time nor the energy to do so. That’s just why you have to keep an eye out for my future posts, which will cover topics ranging from food, travel, my Korean classes, my teaching workshops, and Camp Fulbright (very exciting)!

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you found it interesting! Feel free to comment below or email me if you want to know more specific details or have questions J

Lots of Love,

David

Ready for Take-Off!

Hello all!

I am packed and just about ready to get on with this grand old adventure of mine. My bags are brimming, my wallet is empty, and my anticipation is high – time to travel!

This first post of mine, largely to just get my blog in place and the address solidified for you all to have, is more rushed and erratic than I plan on usually making. My future posts, when at all possible, will have pictures. So stay tuned for some exciting things to come! I will be honest, enthusiastic, and most of the time overwhelmed by the things I will experience in this year. I hope you join me for all of it!

My excitement and nervousness are locked in an epic battle at the moment as I can’t decide whether to sleep or vomit. It’s hard to articulate; Moving to a foreign country for at least a year to start your first career alone gives one an odd, inexplicable feeling – hence my inability to put it into words. Just know that I am undergoing all sorts of emotions, but excitement seems to be taking front stage most of the time (thankfully). I just want to go already!

I can’t begin to imagine what this next year will have in store for me and my fellow Fulbright ETA’s (English Teaching Assistants). I picture a lot of cultural immersion and adaption, much of it being very challenging and new to me (hence the title of my blog~). I love being outside my comfort zone though. It teaches you so much about yourself and the world we live in.

But alas, that is as philosophical as I can get for this post. I’m off to finish last minute arrangements and checklists before getting some sleep. My flight to L.A. leaves Thursday (today) at 5:05 p.m. and my flight to Korea (12 hours and 40 minutes…) takes off just after midnight! I will be sure to post soon once I get settled in and have some experiences under my belt worth reporting.

Until then, wish me the best, keep me in your prayers, and arrivederci! Catch ya on the other side of the world!

–David

Welcome!

Hello friends and fellow travelers! This is just a humble blog by a humble blogger doing his best to educate young minds in South Korea. I am teaching in SK on a Fulbright ETA grant, and this next year or so should prove to be one of my most challenging and exciting adventures yet.

I hope to post at least once a week. Be sure to comment, ask questions, or just send me some nice words if my blog intrigues you.

Happy reading!

-David Stewart