Feb 20, 20234 min read

The Grant Begins (part 2)

Okay. I did not post last week. whoopsies. I might try to migrate my day to Friday but then I forgot to post on Friday too lol so no this is just a regular Monday post, making up for the past couple weeks. Orientation is finally coming to an end tomorrow, so there is a lot to update and a lot of emotions swirling around. I'll try my best to encapsulate that here.

New bucket list items checked off:

62. See a pansori or samulnori performance: On the 12th, Fulbright brought a samulnori group to perform for us. I saw a samulnori group play in DC a few years ago and had been hoping to see some in Korea, so this was pretty cool. Samulnori is a type of folk music centered on 4 percussion instruments playing in tandem. It literally means "4 objects" and "play" and I think this video below really demonstrates why that is. The performance was really fun (and loud) and I'm glad I got to see it :D.

285. Make 5 new friends post-Smith: I'm really happy that I've been able to meet a lot of kind people during orientation. To be honest, I feel like our cohort is not what I expected. I thought everyone would be very type A, go-getter, by-the-book type people, but most people are pretty laid back, friendly, and fun. I am realizing I am nowhere near as type A as I thought, and -- you may be shocked to hear this -- but apparently a lot of my friends here think I am a very calm person. But yeah, hopefully some of my friends will make blog appearances throughout this next year, because even though most of us are pretty far, I think we are all going to find ways to visit each other and travel around Korea together. Making friends is always tough, and I'm grateful to have met such kind and welcoming people in just the past six weeks!

This isn't everyone but hopefully we will get a better group pic tomorrow. This is NRB (how the cool kids say noraebang) a few nights ago.

Karlin-she hitting the high notes.

Okay, now here are some new things that have happened!

Cultural Weekend:

Last weekend, we had a special "Cultural Weekend" where we drove to this park called Mungyeongsaejae near our school. The park is part of a mountain pass and contains several gates that were built for defense against the Japanese all the way back in the late 16th century. The rumor is that the pass is so high that even birds can't fly through it, and it is part of a larger route that connects Seoul to Busan. We were kind of in the middle of that route though, and I can't even imagine how long that must take by foot...

One of the main attractions at the park was the Open Set, a village of historic house replicas that have been used in a lot of Korean dramas, movies, and even music videos (including this one some of you may know). For me, this was the coolest part of the park. My friends and I spent a lot of time just walking around and taking pictures with the different houses. They had hanok style houses, some thatched roof houses (the peasant houses...) and more ornate temple/palace-style buildings. After that, we just walked to the second gate and then back. It was Really muddy (I gotta stop buying white shoes), but all in all a very fun day!

Then, on Sunday, we had a cultural day on campus. As I described above, we got to see a samulnori performance, learned (or, rather, attempted to learn) how to wrap bojagi fabric presents, and ate at the campus restaurant.

Our fancy golf-themed restaurant on campus

Doenjang jjigae (really good) and my roommate's "vegetarian" soup that actually had anchovies in it (less good)

KL Graduation:

Last week, we had our Korean Language Class graduation after taking our final exams. It was a whole big formal event and we had to perform skits for some official people which was kind of,, unique. I got an award for "Outstanding Effort" lol which I was not expecting, and we got some Korea University swag. KL classes were honestly one of my favorite parts of orientation and I really loved my teacher, so I will quite miss classes. Hopefully I can keep studying Korean, I'm still too nervous to use my Korean in a lot of situations ;-;

also my friends got into a fight during graduation (REAL *NOT CLICKBAIT*) they have been asked to leave korea and never come back -_-

More proof ^

Departure Day:

This brings us to the main event! Tomorrow I will officially leave orientation and begin my grant as an ETA in Mokpo! The renewees have arrived back at campus and we will all be heading to our placements tomorrow. Tomorrow is also when I will find out where I am living lol. It is honestly very strange not knowing where I am going to be sleeping on Wednesday night, or whether I will be alone or in a host family, but it is exciting that I will be travelling to a new part of Korea. I'm looking forward to being close to the water again.

I did not think last month that I would miss orientation. I remember a week in thinking to myself, "At least I only have x many days left." But over the past month, I think my cohort has gotten a lot closer and I've developed a lot more confidence being a part of this program. I'm still really nervous to start teaching and I think the first month or so will be Veryy humbling in a lot of ways, but I feel like those experiences are truly the only way I will keep growing as a person. Don't let me get too discouraged guys ;-; And I'm excited to explore Korea more and make lots of memories with the people here, some people from Smith that I'm hoping to meet up with, and any new people that I meet.