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
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