March (part 1)

A couples of weekends have passed now. In the beginning of March I visited Seoul! Wonju is only a little over an hour away by train and transportation in Korea is convenient and easy to use. I met up with the Cutie Pie Mob in Hongdae. :) We pretty much explored the streets, and ate a lot. Because food is one of our favorite hobbies! We also went to a trick eye museum, where we took tons of photos. And we had the chance to take some cute sticker photos which made my eyes bigger and my skin lighter. *~* A very funny thing! It was quite crowded, and there were many street performers in Hongdae. Everyone was out enjoying themselves, eating and shopping. We ended the night by staying in a jjimjillbang 찜질방, which is a public bath, and I loved it! I would definitely do it again. It felt so natural. I remember when I went to an onsen in Japan all those year ago I was extremely shy and nervous. But I just feel so comfortable with my body- and the human body in generadl- so it's not big deal. :) (Even when I did get stared at by ajumas)

The trick eye museum was no joke. 

AHHHaksjhdshjd!!11!!!

I love this mob of cute people. ^__^

And I also spent a weekend at home, just getting revitalized, and whatnot. I cleaned my apartment, took out a bunch of trash, and got groceries. My apartment gets dusty easily so I have to make sure that I mop regularly. I also have so much... stuff. Things were left from the previous scholars before me so I had a lot of items to recycle or donate. And I'm still in the process of doing so weeks later. :P There's are two cabinets that I have to go through + I have 2 guitars. I want to make my apartment feel like home to me. I have never decorated a place that I know I'm going to move out of, but this is also the first time I've lived in my own apartment before. And I must say that I truly having my own space. But I also realized that I really dislike spending the weekend on my own. I'm going to deinfitely have to make an effort to have something planned every weekend. :) It's not really a difficult task though. There is so much to experience, it's just a matter of deciding what I want to do.

I visited Daegu last weekend, and Sheetal kindly let me stay at her place! Daegu is very awesome, and is known for its nightlife. It felt like a less crowded version of Seoul. We chilled downtown, and did some shopping~ The one thing I got that I am absolutely in love is a super cute bunny phone case! The shopping is amazing in Korea. I have never seen shopping like this in my life. And the best part is that nearly everything fits me!! *-* In the future I wouldn't mind flying to Korea just to shop to be honest. Many of the shops are unique boutiques that have a variety of options.

This weekend I "climbed" Mt Chiaksan with Moon and Grace. I love them and I'm so happy that these two amazing people actually came all the way from Incheon to hang out with little old with me. We have mastered the art of chilling (which means we eat and nap frequently). We didn't climb to the top of the mountain, but we strolled along and enjoyed the temple and the beautiful nature along the trail. It was so serene and peaceful. We just felt really happy. ♥ Spring is officially here. Moon and Grace have an aura of positivity, and every time I spend time with them I always feel happy and loved!  I feel like Moon is my older brother, and Mama Grace is so kind and nurturing, and I really look up to her. :) When I see them together, I see real love. They're the kind of people who spread happiness wherever they go. They are rare, magical, and genuine. I feel so blessed to have the both of them in my life!

♥

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Coffee shops everywhere. Even when you go hiking!

Chicken dinna!!!!! OMNOMNOMNOM. So spicy it made us sweat.

2 months have sped by. I can't believe it!!!!!! I only have 10 more months in Korea! And I really don't know when I will be able to visit this wonderful country again in my life, so I want to experience as much as I possibly can. Life is moving at an incredibly fast pace, and I'm barely hanging on. I swear, wasn't orientation last week?! Nonetheless I can't wait to see what Korea has in store for me next. 

Now there's one HIGHLY important part of March that I haven't included in this post. And that's teaching, which has already started to change me as a person. I'll dedicate my next post to what I spend the majority of my time doing - teaching Korean kids English at Jangyang Elementary School. 

Gangneung

There is so much about my experience in Korea that I'm leaving out of this blog. Not because I want to hide anything, but because I don't really have the right words to describe what it's actually like. And I'm sure everyone experiences Korea differently. It's just so incredible seeing a different way of life, and appreciating the similarities and differences.

So, usually after national orientation, we get a provincial orientation. Because our group coming to Gangwon is so small this generation, we didn't get one for our province. But that's okay! We had just enough time to settle into our apartments, and once the weekend came, we decided to create a chill orientation of our own!

I spent the first weekend in Gangneung with these lovely individuals:

^___^

And we ATE!

mmmm

aw yeaa

And we explored!

locks of love

Exploring a North Korean submarine. I definitely needed this helmet. It was so tiny!

Gangneung is a coastal town, that is super fancy in my opinion! It's like a santana row on the beach. I'm just so proud of everyone in our province for making an effort to meet up and hang out. And it was so nice of the Gangneung Gang to open their homes to us. And I'm proud of taking the bus by myself all the way to Gangneung, only a couple of days after I came to Wonju! I guess getting lost all of those previous times taught me enough. :)

Everyone continues to be down to earth, and Korea is great. I still have so much to learn. 

Lost in Wonju

Before I talk about my week, I forgot to mention in my last post that I won a Best Teacher award at orientation! It was honestly so unexpected, and I was surprised! And happy! :) I'll have to try really hard this year to actually live up to it!

I also got to sit at the "important people" table during dinner after the closing ceremony, and I didn't realize that my name was on the table until more than halfway through (thanks for telling me Moon), and I flipped out. So I joined them after we were kinda finishing up eating! :( It was embarrassing. Mimi is incredibly kind, so I didn't feel too bad. And the head honcho of the TaLK program sat next to me, and I felt bad that I couldn't speak Korean because there were so many things that I wanted to tell him! We just smiled and bowed our heads at each other multiple times, and he pointed at my plate and took note that I liked fruit. :) Overall it was an interesting experience and I got to see how much hard work the staff put into orientation. And I got some other cool insight like how people are actually placed in their provinces. ;)

TBT to orientation:

Dorm sleepover~

So... My week. I came to Wonju last Tuesday, and it already feels like orientation is a world away. We were all taken to our respective provinces by bus, and each of our mentor teachers picked us up and took us to our apartments. My mentor teacher is is new to teaching, and just moved to Wonju like me! On the day of my arrival, after dropping off my luggage at my cute little apartment, she took me to visit the Vice Principal. I did the polite, formal Korean greeting I had been practicing and they were all so friendly and welcoming! :) Even if he didn't speak much English, there were just good vibes all around. They presented me with some lovely sunshine flowers.

From my school staff

My mentor teacher took me home by bus and then helped me carry a bunch of groceries! Ah, so my apartment is in a very convenient location. It's a walk away from Home Plus, and has a bunch of convenient stores, restaurants, and bus stops surrounding it. Wonju is a great base from which to explore the rest of Gangwon-do. And I'm only around 1 hr 10 minutes away from Seoul apparently. Although my school is a 40 minute bus ride away, I think it's worth it. I'll post pictures of my apartment once I've cleaned!

So later that night my mentor teacher dropped the news that I'd have to take the bus to school by myself the next morning. And I had never taken transportation alone in Korea before! So the next morning I got pretty lost. I took the bus that goes straight to my elementary school but I didn't know where to push the stop button, and the entrance to my school is pretty hidden! I told the bus driver "Jangyang" and he nodded. And after a while he stopped the bus on a bridge, and motioned to me and mentioned Jangyang. I found out that we passed the stop and I had to go back. :( So I got off on the bridge and looked around and saw nobody in sight. I don't even have a phone plan yet! I wandered to another bus stop, and took a bus back. I told the driver to take me to Jangyang (in korean). And... alas the same thing happened and we passed Jangyang again. I wish I had known how to say "tell me where the stop is because I don't know". This time I got off in a small town type of place. And I had written down how to say "I'm lost" so kept saying "gil il bore soryeo" to different people. Once again I knew I needed to take the bus back, but didn't want the same thing to happen. More importantly, I had no more money on my bus card, and only had a $50 bill, and no phone. Korea is a pretty chill place to get lost in though. I talked to an elderly cleaning lady, a grocery store woman, convenience store lady, and a mechanic who pulled out google maps on his phone. Oh and also two business men who gave me a look then completely ignored me. :P Oh well! I hopped back on another bus, told the bus driver I was lost and stated my stop, and he made me sit in the front next to him and dropped me right in front of Jangyang elementary school! And he didn't even charge me for the bus ride. :)

So the next day my mentor teacher, Hyesun, took me to get my ARC card and then I had to take the bus back to my apartment. An ajuma offered to help me get off at the right stop thankfully. :) However the bus randomly stopped on the roadside, and then the ajuma started arguing with the bus driver, and an ajushi joined in on the argument and I'm standing in the middle of it wanting to melt into a puddle. Then the alum grabs my hand and we leave the bus and she hails a taxi. And I'm just like wow this is my second day here! In the taxi she gave me a bunch of chocolate, and I drew a picture of the two of us with heart on it and gave it to her. And she kissed it! :3 When the taxi came to my stop, I tried to pay him and she pushed my hand away she gave him her money. Here's a selfie we took together in the taxi:

Ajuma rescuing me in the taxi

 All of this happened last Tuesday-Thursday, and I'm just really behind on the updates. I'm sorry! More to come soon. :)

The best advice I can give if you're like me, coming to Korea is: be shameless. Don't be afraid to ask for help! Sometimes you might have to mime, get rejected, or approach multiple people. But help is always there. :) It's okay to make mistakes. It's essential to learning. And honestly, getting lost, or experiencing a struggle that's outside of your comfort zone will only help you grow as a person. My new years resolution has been to simply go outside and not be afraid of the world. And I've been doing exactly that.