LIVING THE JUNGWON LIFE

And we made it to the weekend — amazing because this first week felt longer than a reality tv show. We arrived in a strange new country, were swept off to a largely empty mansion and had to complete a variety of tasks while constantly meeting new characters. But now I think we have left reality and moved on to life.

One of the most important ways that I recognize my life is rhythm — waking, sleeping, eating, the ways we parcel our time into bite size pieces. At Jungwon our rhythm is governed by one thing: classes. Each day breakfast is served from 8-9. Korean language classes run from 9-1 each day. Lunch is at 1, and then teaching workshops generally go from 2-4. Dinner is from 6-7 and the optional Korean Language Study Hall is from 7-9. We know where we're going almost every hour of the day and generally who we will see as we go. The parts of the day are long and but time is always short.

The weekend is different. There is time to sleep in, to write in our journals, to figure out how the laundry machines work. I think I spent 5000 won this morning just trying to get the right size change for laundry. We gather in the lounge and browse facebook. We skype and we catch up on our netflix intake. We reflect.

Korean classes are moving quickly. My class of beginners started the week with the alphabet and ended with basic commands and self-introductions. Theoretically, we can now say our names, our nationalities, our occupations and ask all the associated questions. The Korean teachers are marvelous. They come from Korea University and live in Jungwon just in order to teach us for four hours every day. Our first teacher is a fashionable Korean woman who seems to have a quiet sense of humor about our class. Our second teacher is also a woman, but where our first teacher is a bit reserved the second is extremely animated. Every time we learn a new vocabulary word she looks surprised, as when we learned the word for chalk board she seemed astounded to discover there was such a thing in the room. I feel as if in discovering the language we are sometimes discovering the world and the sorts of things it can contain all over again.

Teaching workshops are more varied and often quite fun. These afternoon courses are led by past and current ETAs covering topics from Textbooks to Classroom Games. Often the strategies we learn about in the afternoon can be seen in our Korean classrooms the next day, reinforcing everything we do here as a lesson. This immersive learning makes our breaks, our dance parties and excursions into Goesan all the more necessary and memorable.

JUNGWON DUSK

DINOSAUR PARK

JUNGWON CAMPUS

EATING KIMCHI...

...is something I was looking forward to before coming to Korea. I was looking forward to mouthfuls of kimchi because of its name, kim-chi. The two rounded syllables make for one tasty word. However, now that I've arrived I've realized what I really want is to enjoy kimchi and that is going to take some work.

I think this might be like a lot of things during my year in South Korea. Everything from speaking to teaching to eating will take practice. Thankfully, that's something I can do. Of course, having just arrived in the country yesterday most of what I practice lately is staying awake and not getting lost in Jungwon University (our home for the next 6 weeks).

At least getting lost isn't so bad when the campus is gorgeous and, honestly, just plain huge. Usually I'm not impressed with simple size, but Jungwon feels legitimately monolithic.