Korean High School!! ♥

Last Monday was my first day of Korean school! It was the beginning of the second semester (school starts in February here, I think). I am in first grade high school, which is the equivalent of 10th grade in the US. Since I'd be a senior in high school in the US, it's backwards sequentially, but academically, maybe not so much. 

School starts at 8AM. Sort of. That's when we have to be there. But we end up spending 30, 45 minutes socializing before the teacher comes in. Then we have class. I copy notes from the girl next to me and spend the time not understanding 95% of what the teacher says. It's very tiring, actually, not understanding. But school is interesting in so many other ways that I can't say I'm entirely bored yet. 

Korean education is not like American education. You probably guessed that. High school (and middle school) students study very diligently and stay at school until 9PM or so. They might go to academies after that and sleep at 1 or  2AM. (By the way, I don't do that. I'd expire). That's what it seems that most people think about when considering Korean school. So...

...Because of that preconception, the culture of the school is really, really surprising. It's not at all bad, just not what I had expected. It's very comfortable. One of my friends said, "Our houses are not our homes. [School] is our home." When you spend 13 hours each day at school, mostly in the same room, that feeling is likely very valid. And it shows. Girls (our school is separated by girls and boys, so our class is all girls) use the classroom essentially as a bedroom. They bring pillows, blankets, makeup kits, cell phone chargers, and flat irons to school. During class, 25-30% of the students are texting, applying makeup, or sleeping. And between classes is when it gets really interesting. For example, twice I've seen girls giving and receiving hair cuts in the classroom. Maybe trim is a better word, but you get the point. 

In school, we wear school uniforms (교복). Almost every middle and high school in Korea has a uniform. Since they are distinct by school, I won't put a picture of mine here. We also wear slippers in school. Not really slippers, but like this: 

....but mine are pink.

We have many classes, as well. For example, we have 4 different science teachers (who each teach a different type of science). However, there are only seven periods each day, so we study each subject 1-4 times per week. So far, the classes that I've understood the most are music, biology (yep, I'm shocked, too), social studies, and English class (Hehe... But it's mostly in Korean, anyway). 

Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, we haven't had a lot of homework yet. In fact my only homework so far has been memorizing math vocabulary and equations and getting a paper signed for class assignments next year. Hopefully I didn't just jinx the good fortune by mentioning it here. Anyway, there may be more homework later because the exchange students will start Korean language class soon. But these days I get home after 5PM and by the time we have dinner and clean up, I'm quite ready to sleep (I don't know Korean very well yet, so just being immersed all day is exhausting) . So, minimal homework is a blessing for now (By the way, I'm guessing that the reason for the lack of school homework is simply that students study really hard on their own, anyway. It seems that the other kids are doing self study after I leave school. That's why they stay there until 9PM). 

I really enjoy school. It's good to be with kids my age (well, sort of, they're 2 years younger, but it doesn't make too much of a difference) and to make friends and speak Korean. My classmates are very nice to me and they don't seem to get annoyed with my cluelessness of Korean or of their school. They share their notes, teach me their language, and hold my hand to show me around the school. And when I can't understand something, many of them speak English to some extent and can try to translate for me. The teachers are also super welcoming and supportive and tolerant of me, which is good, because I'd be lost otherwise. Lately, my math teacher has been giving me basic translations of her lessons so that I can follow along. So, basically what I want to say is that I'm happy and thoroughly enjoying school! 

Baseball!

Well, I don't know if I've ever used baseball and an exclamation point at the same time before. On Sunday evening, the some Rotary students and host parents went to the Busan Lotte Giants baseball game. It was very busy and fun - it would have been more fun if I hadn't been so tired, probably. Anyhow, I'll just post some photos and a very short video. I couldn't get any with me and the other exchange students onto my computer, though.

My host mom and me at the baseball game

People started to hand out orange plastic bags which we blew up
like balloons and tied around our ears. 

Already an Adventure

Hi! How are you?

Today is day 10 in Korea!

I just got home from school (like 8 hours earlier than the other kids do... and we'd already been there for 6.5 hours). Anyhow, I think you are all wondering what has been going on in Busan.  So, I'll fill you in.

There are three people in my host family:  My host mom (엄마, Uhmma), host dad (아빠, Appa), and host brother (whom I call 오빠(Oppa), because he is older than me - 오빠 means 'older brother').

So, here's a bit of what I've done so far:

• Went to PNU (Busan (Pusan) National University) twice- once with 엄마 and I walked around while she met a professor. I also went with 아빠 for the same reason.  It's really nice there and the view of the city is beautiful.

One view from PNU - aren't the mountains spectacular?

• Rode the bus. There's an experience. Some buses here are tame. Other buses (like the first one I rode) just speed down narrow streets and don't allow much time for entrance and exit. In 엄마's words, "roller coaster."
• Rode the metro. The metro here is so easy to use, clean, and mostly quiet, even when it's crowded. For both the bus and the metro, you can use something called a 교통카드 (Gyotong (Transportation) Card), or T-money. It's a phone charm (or you can get a plastic card) with a chip on the inside. You pay money to your account and scan it to enter the metro platform or bus. My 교통카드 is in the shape of an angel wing (see photo below). Do we have these in America?
• Rode a taxi. Convenient and cheap. As in, we rode for 5 or more minutes for less than $2. That seems cheap to me, but I've only been in a taxi once in America...in NYC...so my point of view might be a bit skewed. 
• Ate out. It's usually fairly cheap with delicious food and fast service. We've eaten at restaurants very often.  It seems to be Korean culture. 
• Watched 아빠 play golf. Virtual golf. In the upstairs of a building with a car elevator. So high tech. That's called city golf. There are actual golf courses here, but Busan is a big city, so they're probably not too close to our home.
• Went shopping. In Lotte Department store. In Mega Mart. In a little shopping district. In a market (시장). 
• 엄마 and I went to Lotte and Mega Mart because I need to buy a backpack for school. Mega Mart is really interesting. It's kind of like Target or Walmart in that you can buy food, home goods, clothes, etc. But they have name brand clothes and bags, which are really expensive (For example, Abercrombie t-shirts for $60). And if you go to the edge of the store, there are little boutiques. We didn't buy my backpack there because the cheapest one was almost $100. As a student, I don't feel like spending that. This evening I plan to get a backpack elsewhere. 
• Small stores here are very plentiful. Even though they have places like Mega Mart, there are soooo many little stores. And it seems that you can buy extremely cute things very cheaply. 엄마 wanted us to get matching cell phone charms, so, we went to a store that had an entire floor dedicated to such accessories. Phone charms and cases, hair accessories, etc. Oh, my goodness...I should have taken a photo. Sparkle, shiny, shimmer!!! But, we didn't find any charms that we liked and of which there were two (to match) at that store, so instead 엄마 picked matching monkey charms at the metro station. Cute, right?



My Korean phone with T-Money and
the charm that matches 엄마's charm

• Closer to our apartment, there is a small market (in Korean: 시장). 엄마 buys produce there. It's simply a street with vendors on either side. Some people sell fish, or clothes, or different kinds of food. 
• Went to Rotary meetings. All of the inbound students in Busan came (exchange students from other countries - like me), as well as outbounds (Korean students who are about to leave on exchange) and rebounds (Korean students who have come back from exchange). That was really fun. We traded name cards and pins. The pins go on our Rotary blazers and we collect lots of them during exchange. (Google Images: Rotary Blazer). It was just really great to meet the other students. Yesterday (instead of going to school), all of the Rotary kids in Busan met to take care of formalities of immigrating to Korea. Then we ate ice cream and it was very enjoyable.  
• Spent a day with 아빠 (host dad). We went walking/jogging in the morning in a park near our apartment. At lunch he sent me to the store to buy 비빔면 (bi-bim-myun, ramen noodles with a slightly spicy sauce). Ok, so it was a little convenience store about 50 meters from our apartment building, but I felt accomplished, nonetheless, having completed the transaction in Korean. In the afternoon we went to the mountain (아빠 and I) so that he could meet his friends. We also played basketball and table tennis there and walked across the safety net for a zip line and walked on a short 3-rope course. It was fun. 아빠 said that I am better at basketball than table tennis. And I'm terrible at basketball. So, maybe I should stick with jogging and walking rope courses for now. 

Play yard of the boarding middle school we visited in the mountain.
 The ropes course is somewhere in the trees. The view was....wow.
The whole place is spectacular. 

• Went to a baseball (야구) game with 엄마 and some other Rotary kids. We watched the Lotte Giants from Busan and the Nexen Heroes from Seoul. It was fun and loud and busy. I'll make a different post for that after posting this. 
• WENT TO SCHOOL!!!! I love school ♥ Again, this should be the topic of a different post, though, because this post is already quite lengthy. 

There's a glimpse of what life has been like here. It's beautiful and exciting and enriching. It's frustrating at times, but I knew to except that. I never could have anticipated the experiences I've already had and the people I've met. It's an adventure!

Take care, everyone~

Hi from Busan!

Hello, everybody :)

I'm in Busan! My flight out of Incheon ended up being delayed 25 minutes, but other than that, everything went perfectly for travel. 

We got to my host family's apartment around 10:20 (Korea time) last night. I unpacked my things and we ate Korean bread (빵) and iced tea together. My room is very lovely. I've never had so much glorious shelf space in all my life! And the wallpaper is a little bit sparkly! And the window has a fabulous view of the city and mountain! And...it's just so good ^^

My host family is wonderful. We don't always understand each other's words, but the resulting 'Konglish' (Korean + English) can be fun. They seem be be very interested in learning bits and pieces of English and I've already learned a few new Korean words (선반 = shelf!). 

The weather here is noteworthy, too. It's really hot. And really humid. And really cloudy. The fan that my family provided has saved me. Korea has a myth about 'fan death' that suggests that sleeping with a fan on can be deadly. I'm pretty sure it's considered an old wive's tale and is ignored (maybe not?). At least I ignored it...and survived the night very comfortably. 

So, now I'm just relaxing. My host father (아빠) is at work and my brother  (오빠) is at academy. My host mom (엄마) went out for a bit. Something about meeting her friend every 6 months and housework. Yep, I'm lost, too (Edit: the housekeeper just came. That must be what she meant). Anyway, 엄마 (mom) will come back and I think we'll go out. Hopefully my comprehension skills will improve before I have to understand something truly important. 

My room (it's slightly larger than it looks here)

My desk~

This is my bed :) Yes, it's very comfortable.
This is the Korean way~

한국에 잘 도착했습니다~!!!

I have arrived in Korea!

Despite its duration (14 hours or so), the flight went really well and was comfortable. It really didn't seem quite that long.

Now I'm writing from Incheon Airport, near Seoul, rated the 'Best Airport in the World' since 2005. It's very nice here. As in, I got out of transfer security and the first store I saw was Burberry... and then Charlie Brown Cafe :) I'm in Korea~

There are a few hours until my next flight (to Busan, only a 1-hour flight) this evening. I'll probably walk around a bit to see this place. My students (in America I'm an ESL tutor for Korean students) have told me over and over how great Incheon Airport is. Looks fabulous so far!

So, in about 4.5 hours I'll meet my host family. Our Rotary Chair, and the couple that was originally going to host me are also coming to the airport, which is really nice.

I'm so glad to be in Korea. I was beyond ready to come here. I just cannot believe it's true. Everything is in Korean (and there's so much English...there are so many foreigners...)  Everyone (well, like 90%) is soooo well-dressed. It's quite clean and feels very refreshing. Like a dream~ ~


I promised my brother I'd take photos from the airplane. Really luckily, I got a window seat. So, here are a few that I have from the first flight. The sun was brightly shining the whole way here (until we got below clouds). It was just so beautiful.

  

We flew for miles over totally untouched land like this.

To me, this looks like ice on the sea. Gorgeous.

As we approached Incheon, it was really cloudy,
which made for a stunning view from this angle. 

행복과 슬픔...가슴이 혼동하다.

(Happiness and sadness... my heart is confused)

Today was my last day in my home town until next summer. Tomorrow my family will go the city where the airport is. I'll fly out on Saturday. That hardly feels real. I just finished packing clothes, arranging suitcases, and trying to figure out what to wear in the airport.  There is no way I'll be in Korea in less than 60 hours. Really, I would not be surprised in the least if I woke up and this was all a dream.

Also, goodbyes are the worst. I really dislike having to say goodbye to friends, family, and neighbors. You all are so special to me! Even though I know I'll see everyone next year, so much will have changed by then. And so it's sad. A very, very happy kind of sad - 아주 행복이 있는 슬픔.

Everything Happens for a Reason...

I don't mean for this blog to be too, too religion-centered, but this just fits so well with what I wanted to say, anyway; I couldn't resist. It seems that no matter what you believe, there is a lesson to take away from what our congregation heard in church this morning.

Our pastor talked today about asking God the right questions. "Don't ask 'why,'" she advised, "but 'what now?'" She meant that we should not question God's intentions when He does something unexpected, difficult, or seemingly inexplicable. We should instead wonder what His plan is for us. Rather than asking "why" and implying blame or disappointment, we should ask what God wants us to do next and show trust in God with the new set of circumstances. In other words:

This message was really well timed for me. I'm processing some very unexpected and sudden news these days.

In short, the family that was supposed to host me first is suddenly going through a difficult time and I've switched first host families. Since I'm not in Korea yet, this could not be less disruptive, but it has shaken me a bit, nonetheless. I was admittedly a bit attached to my first host mom (who is still my 엄마!) and with whom I exchanged more than a few emails. We were excited to meet. More than anything I feel so badly for the family that they had to make the decision that they did. However, everything happens for a reason, right? There's no way of knowing yet what God's idea is. I'll find out soon enough.

The new host family seems very kind - they would have to be if they are willing to host an exchange student a week later! I really cannot wait to meet them. I'll have one host brother, who is about a year older than me and I'll live in the same general area of Busan as I would have with the other family. With less than a week until departure, it's all beginning to feel slightly more real.

Also, 감사합니다 (kahm-sa-hahm-ni-da...Thank you!) to everyone who has been so generous in time, words, and gifts as I get ready to go. Your thoughts mean a lot !!