After a long, long trip here via multiple planes, buses, days, and sleeps I've begun the first leg of my six week orientation for the F-bright grant that I'll be serving out over the next year here in South Korea. I've been shuttled off to a mid-sized college town named Chuncheon with 69 other ETAs from all across the states and boarded in Kwangwon National University, where we will be taking intensive language and teaching lessons until we leave for our homestays and teaching positions when the monsoon rains begin to calm in mid-August. I still don't feel like I've gotten a good feel for Chuncheon yet -- this evening is the first I've had free and I spent it recovering sleep, studying Korean, and starting this entry. I'm dying to explore the neighborhoods here and its been an odd transition since that's usually the first thing I run to when I travel into a new city. When there aren't class obligations to go to here there's always outside activities planned so that we can get to know our grant-mates -- the people who will be our support system over the next year when people back home don't understand when we occasionally freak out about what is going on in our classrooms and homes.
So far I know little about where I will be placed, but I have found out that by random fate I've been made one of 10 elementary teachers here and the only male elementary ETA ever for F-bright Korea. This does mean that, unlike the secondary education teachers, I'll have little choice in where I get placed and will probably be put in a rural area somewhere along the west coast.
To the right is a picture of my roommate, Alec, who I think is trying to kill us by leaving his fan on while we sleep with the doors and windows closed. It may not seem like a big deal, but Koreans believe that it can cause a little thing called FAN DEATH that is backed by scientific research from Korean universities!
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