Summer Vacation

Where did July go? It's hard for me to look at the calendar and see August 7th coming up in just one week. That's when I fly home. But for the past few days, I've been just chilling, meeting up with old friends, and generally not thinking about endings. This has been my summer vacation! Two weeks spent bumming around Seoul and northern parts of the country (followed soon by two weeks of lazing around California). Okay, get ready for a lot of selfies!

Lauren and me after reaching the "peak" of a local mountain in Sanbon!

After I left Cheonan last Thursday, I went to Sanbon (산본), one of Seoul's many suburbs in Gyeonggi-do, to stay with a friend from college, Lauren. I literally hadn't seen her since I graduated two years ago, so it was wonderful to spend so much time with her and her family. We went hiking, jammed together, and caught up on each other's lives. Lauren, who like me studied linguistics at Swat, also helped with translations for the Jeju dictionary.

With friends new and old in Seoul!

On Saturday, I went up to Seoul and spent the next few days meeting up with old friends, many of whom are soon leaving Korea (or have by now already left). It was bittersweet; I've grown so close to them over the past two years, and even though we're all headed back to the US, they'll be going to different parts of the country, and meeting up won't be as simple as a two- or three-hour bus ride anymore. Before Jake left, we got chicken and beer. Before Andrew M. left, we played tons of Settlers of Catan and mahjong. Before Hana left, we ate the best of food in the restaurants and cafes around Seoul's Garosugil.

Mahjong with Andrew and Monica, and also Monica's mom!

Despite goodbyes, I was also saying a lot of hellos by reconnecting with old friends who are in Seoul for the summer, like Terrance and Rachel, whom I met at church and haven't seen for two years, or Hae-in, a close college friend who first introduced me to the Korean language and who also visited my school in Changwon once! When I hung out with Terrance and Rachel in Hongdae, we had a haircut date, and all three of us went to Punk Shalom. The only problem was that it was closed, so we went to another salon down the street. I wanted to do something a little bit crazy (don't freak out, Mom and Dad!) so I decided to dye my hair silver! Well, gray. Well, first, yellow. In order for black hair to become "ash" color, it has to be bleached three times. And then dyed. Boy, my scalp was burning by the end! And this is what my head looks like now!

Newly silver-coiffed me in the middle, with Terrance and Rachel!

Other Seoul adventures included a trip to the French village and the War Memorial of Korea. I'll make separate posts about those shortly.

Right now I'm writing this from Jungwon University in Goesan, where Fulbright Orientation is held every year. Today, I gave a few workshops for the new BETAs ("Baby" English Teaching Assistants!) and also sat in to watch their Placement Ceremony. My own Placement Ceremony was two whole years ago... Good memories! This time around, it was fun to see the new ETAs find out where they are going to teach for one year. Some were stony-faced; others couldn't hide their happiness.

And, well, placement... you know what that means! I met the ETA who is going to my old school, Changwon Science High School. Her name is Courtney, and she's great! With a background in engineering and a ton of enthusiasm for the ways she can connect with her students, I'm already really confident that she'll be successful. Tomorrow we'll meet up again, and I'm looking forward to giving her the letters our students wrote for their new teacher!

Placement Day

Yesterday was a big day for all of our Fulbrighters. Aside from being the last day of practice teaching for Camp Fulbright, August 3rd was also our Placement Day.

Placement Day involved a very important ceremony during which the eighty ETAs were informed where in South Korea they would be teaching for the school year. Less than a week ago, I wrote a post about the placement preference forms we all filled out and what kind of school I was looking for. Last Tuesday, we were shocked to learn that our preference forms had all been processed and our placements would be determined by the end of the week. That's some speedy turnaround time! I expected the placements to take several weeks. Instead, we were getting an early surprise.

So, on Friday afternoon we went through a rehearsal for the Placement Day ceremony. All eighty ETAs would stand in a huge semi-circle around the large marble auditorium on the top floor of Jungwon University, and one by one, we would each be called forward to receive our placement. All ETAs who would be in the same province for the year were called together, but otherwise, we had no idea when we would be called and had no clues as to our placement until it was announced as we walked up onto the stage.

After rehearsal, I got dressed -- Placement Day meant formal attire -- and all throughout dinner, I couldn't think about anything but placement. In fact, nobody had been talking about anything else for the past few days. "What did you put on your preference form?" "Advanced or Intermediate-level?" "Did you want a city?" I kept telling people that I would prefer Busan or another coastal city, but I also insisted that I would be okay with any geographical location. What I listed as most important on my placement form was that I get a high school with more advanced students. And then, of course, there was that short essay I wrote on the form explaining why I'd like a science high school specifically. But I'd been hearing that placements at science high schools were extremely rare for first-year ETAs. There were probably no more than two available this year, and I wasn't the only person who requested one...

My friend Katelyn and me, dressed up for Placement Day.
+1 for the bow tie! (photo courtesy Katelyn)

At 6:45pm, we lined up -- everyone was dressed to kill! I love it when people dress up -- and entered the auditorium. My heart started to beat really quickly at this point. I'm sure that everyone was really nervous. And this wasn't the kind of nerves that comes from having to perform or be watched at all... it was just finally starting to hit me that in less than an hour I'd find out a supremely crucial aspect of my future in Korea. Would I get to be in Busan? Did I get an advanced high school? Would I be close to any of my friends?

Once in the auditorium, Ms. Shim, the Executive Director of Korean-American Educational Commission, gave a short speech, and then the roll call began. It felt a bit like reading off names for execution. Almost everyone looked really grim at the moment their name was called, although we'd been told to smile like fools no matter what happened.

I might make a note here that there are two Andrews in Fulbright Orientation with me. His name was called before mine, and when it was, I realized just how tense I was, because I nearly jumped! But there were many names called between his and mine. Also, as time went on and the number of ETAs still standing and waiting to be called up grew smaller, I began to notice that whoever did the placements did a fair job of clumping close groups of friends in the same region. My roommate Jet was placed in Daegu, Korea's 3rd-largest city, along with some of the folks he's hung out with most in the past month. It made me happy to see the groups of ETAs placed in Daegu, Gwangju, Naju, and Mokpo already celebrating how much fun they'd have together. Alas, I wasn't placed in any of those cities.

After about roughly half of the placements had been announced, the ETAs for Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도), one of the southernmost provinces, were called up. Two ETAs were called before me, Ryan and Rachel. And then... "Andrew Cheng..."

I stepped forward and did my best 인사 (insa, a customary bow).

"...창원과학고등학교..."

Walking forward, I tried not to clench my jaw...

"... an advanced science high school in Changwon."

And when I heard the last sentence, I felt my whole face tighten as I tried to suppress a huge, stupid grin. I got the science high school! The rest I hardly remember. I didn't even see where on the map my school was, only vaguely hearing Jim tell me that I was very close to Busan as I put my sticker on. And surprisingly, I was the last one to be called, making a small total of three ETAs placed in this province. Most of the other provinces, and the cities, of course, had at least five or six.

Gyeongsangnam-do's new ETA trio took a photo, and then I finally got to sit down and watch as the last half of the ETAs were given their placements.

And when that was all over, and Ms. Shim gave some concluding remarks that I hardly remember because I was in a totally different place... it was all chaos! Everyone got up and congratulated each other on the placement; we mobbed the OCs for any more information about our schools and regions that they could give, we took photos with friends as well as our Korean language teachers, who were invited to come watch. It was almost like a party, and everyone was breathing huge, collective sighs of relief.

That evening, I went out with friends for drinks, ice cream, and karaoke (노래방)! But stories and photos of that will have to wait for later.

I'm pointing to my little blue sticker on the giant map of Korea. Changwon is close to Busan, the second-largest city in Korea. Busan is indicated by all those yellow stickers, and Daegu is north, covered in orange. (photo taken by Katelyn)

I'll be spending the next few weeks finding out as much as I can about my city and school, and as I get updates, I'll be writing more! But for now, I'm happy to have been placed in Changwon Science High School, and I'm really looking forward to the real start of my grant year!