The Perfect Weekend: No Scrubs

Donghae, the beach they took us to for the weekend. 

This was an awesome weekend: a perfect way to celebrate Primary app submissions! They took us on an amazing beach weekend. I ate so much yummy vegetarian food that I probably gained the weight that I lost being here! It was a really great experience walking to a Buddhist temple, hearing some lectures on the religion within Korea, eating yummy food, spending some quality time with fellow ETAs, bumming on the beach and playing all sorts of games. I also Norebang'ed for the first time! (karaoked! It was fun!!!)  Now back to the grind with lesson planning, intensive korean classes, and late nights up! Talk to you all soon! Miss you! Love you! And kakaotalk or Skype me!    --P

The scenic walk through nature to get to the buddhist temple. 

If you haven't noticed, the subtitle for the title is always the song that I am listening to when I end my blog post.

Picture of behind the temple

A lady at the temple. 

It Feels like University again: Tere Liye

I've attempted this blog post 3 times over the past few days. This first week and a half has been a rollercoster.

Fulbright treats us so well. Korea is beautiful and the people are so nice. The other ETAs are great too! Orientation is also preparing us very, very well. We spend 4 hours in the morning in an intensive Korean class by Professors from Korea University one of the top universities in Korea (the equivalent to our Harvard and Yales). And the class really is exhausting, my head usually starts hurting by the end of it! We then have lunch and move on to teaching workshops and cultural workshops. Fulbright is just so helpful in helping us prepare for our time abroad which is hard but extremely valuable and nice to have.

I've joined a few extracurricular's at the university as well. I've joined GLEE club--to meet some Korean students, started calligraphy classes and lastly did archery. Archery was awesome! We went to the 2002(?) Olympic archery site and learned from one of the most prominent archery coaches in the world. Teams from all over the world come to train with him. While we were there, the Olympic archer from Korea and from Fiji were both training there. They were so incredible! Here he is shooting two balloons from 70 meters away. (The picture is fellow Fulbrighter Anna's).

Besides the obvious work with Korean, lesson planning, and workshops, I've been busy working on medical school applications (trying to submit by Friday). I wish I had finished them earlier because I haven't been able to socialize with other ETAs as much as I would have liked to! But once they're done, I'll stop being anti-social.

I've had a couple of bouts of feeling homesick, but generally I've been so busy that I can't get homesick unless I talk to my family, friends, or miss Indian food (sorry mom, that's why I haven't called as much!)

This past week it was a bunch of ETAs birthday! So we went to celebrate Friday night.  It was really great! I didn't end up going to the Karaoke place that they went to afterwards, so that is something that I still need to do! But here I am with one of the birthday girls! She's absolutely amazing!

And lastly, I have to talk about the food of course. It's a little difficult being vegetarian, but I'm managing. There is this one tasty cold noodle dish that I got when I went to town. And I have actually had pizza twice (I know it's bad!). The pizza came with corn on it! How funny, but still good!

Not this coming Thursday, but the following Thursday I will be teaching my first lesson for Camp Fulbright! It has to do with documentaries. If you know me at all it would be assumed it be either on public health or human rights, and human rights is what I plan on doing it on! So hopefully it will go well!!!

I would say I love Korea, Fulbright, and the people. The humidity is a bit much and same with missing friends and family.

Sorry this was a ramble and very long! I'll update more consistently! Skype me anytime! This is my mailing address only for the next 6 weeks:

Payal Patel (Fulbright ETA)
c/o Fulbright ETA Office, 2nd Floor
Jungwon University
5, Dongbu-ri, Goesan-eup, Goesan-gun
Chungbuk, South Korea 367-805


Love you all, miss you, and get kakaotalk!
Payal

Sleepless Nights Before Departure: She Doesn't Mind

This past week, I've ate all of my favorite foods, done a ton of packing, unpacking, and repacking, and learning some Hangul. This weekend was the last weekend that I will have in the States for 12 1/2 months for S. Korea. I leave for Korea on July 3rd! Until yesterday, everything about going abroad for a year was very surreal.

Yesterday, my family and friends surprised me with a last going away sort of shin dig. My family and friends went to 1. lie to me 2. look through my phone to get in touch with some of my friends (little brother, still not sure how I feel about this one) 3. just being there to see me before I left. My family convinced me my cousin's and aunts/uncles were coming into town on Saturday for a family dinner/get together (hardly uncommon in our family). My mother of course kept asking me if my friends were coming for weeks. All of this was a ruse because she knew they were. She was just trying to get me worked up and disappointed that I wouldn't see any of them before I left. 

Well, thanks you guys! I was genuinely surprised!! Seriously, I love you all so so much, and it meant so much to me that you guys took the time out of busy schedules to see me before I left. 

I had the most amazing time with everyone, but towards the end of the evening once the "good byes and keep in touch's" started, the feeling of finally leaving was setting in. I'm very anxious and nervous. I am excited, but the feeling of a heavy heart is a bit overpowering to it. I know that with technology everyone that I care about will be close by, but it's the comfort of the known that I'll miss. I won't be able to randomly go sit around in my friend's living room talking for hours nor drive 3 hours (which now seems so short) to seek comfort in my mom if I'm upset. I won't be able to give or receive a hug from the people that I care about, nor will I be able to even comment on something as simple as the cologne that they are using. Knowing that my relationships with people I love are going to inevitably change, but not knowing how makes me a little uneasy. 

But before I try to sift through and process these different emotions, I have to share that I will be at this gorgeous university for seven weeks for orientation: Jealous? 

And for those of you who asked for a mailing address, I will get that on here ASAP! :) 

--Time for another attempt at sleep, I have a very busy last full day in the States tomorrow, possibly filled with repacking, last minute purchases, and an early July 4th celebration with sparklers.