100% / Emily's Expedition

My last foot appointment!

Hello, friends all over the world! Hillary here, writing this post with a smile on my face (as I usually am). The weather has been extraordinarily beautiful here lately, even with days of rain scattered here and there. Those days have actually turned out to be some of my favorite days -- especially the mornings after a stormy night. The walks to school reveal a misty fog over the mountains in the distance, the river flowing heavily downstream, with my trail surrounded by bright green grass and trees.

Since my last post two weeks ago, I have received wonderful news: I am officially DONE with foot treatment! I had my last appointment on the 19th of April, and the doctor barely took a look at it before I was walking out the door. We had a bonding moment that day, where we both realized a bit bittersweetly that this would be our last meeting together.

Happy in Boseong

At first he jokingly stated, "I did such a great job! There's not even a scar to be seen!" I whole-heartedly confirmed and congratulated him and his team on doing such a thorough job with my foot and for truly taking care of me. After a moment, though, his smile faded and his voice dropped, saying, "Well... I guess this means I don't need to see you anymore..." and at that moment there was a twinge of sadness inside of me. Even after all that I had overcome with this annoying infection for the last six months, a part of me was actually... sad??? Yes, it was true. My doctor and I had spent so much time communicating with each other the past six months that neither of us ever really thought that it would come to an end. Yet there we were, shaking hands and congratulating each other on the great work we did.

"You heal very well, you did a great job!" He said with a smile on his face.

I looked at him, wondering what he meant exactly. I said, "I'm just lucky that I'm young and healthy..."

He said, "Yes, young and healthy, both physically and mentally. Mental aspect is also important for healing."

His comment will stay with me everywhere I go for the rest of my life. Realizing the importance not only of physical strength, but emotional strength and mental strength as well.

-----

Hiking with the gang!

Aside from the foot recovery, school has been busy as usual, this time with the midterm exams rolling around the corner. The boys have hit a phase of pure exhaustion, struggling to get through the days without falling asleep in class or feeling the immense pressure to study all day and night. After the political parties unit, I decided to take it easy and settle with some easy-thinking English activities such as Bananagrams and USA Bingo.

The teachers decided to host an English camp in the upcoming month, so I am looking forward to that because we will go to a resort in the mountains for a weekend and hang out and do some fun English stuff.

Other school happenings:
- The Gwangyang spring volleyball tournament is approaching, which means one-hour practices after school three days a week which means my arms are severely swollen and bruised
- Tutoring the principal 1-on-1 once a week and being hoarded with food and gifts after each class together... I'm not complaining!
- Still the outcast at lunch (on days where I have to eat alone) because the new teachers are scared of me (life of the foreign teacher...)

-----

Boseong Green Tea Plantation

Weekend shenanigans: last weekend, a large group of other Fulbrighters and I headed to Gwangju for an exciting hiking trip followed by a trip to the Boseong green tea plantation. Hiking was a blast and I'm surprised at how well the group stayed together considering there was about ten of us. We did about a 4 hour hike Saturday morning, enjoyed lunch at the base of the mountain, then headed to the bus terminal to get to the tea fields.

Suncheon Gardens

Everything went great until it came time to catch a bus to the green tea plantation. We took a public bus to the city bus terminal, when suddenly Emily realized she left her phone on the bus we had just gotten off of! Half of the group had already gone ahead to get tickets to the tea fields, and the other half of us were waiting with Emily. Emily decided to grab a cab to try and sprint up and catch the bus that had just passed, in hopes of finding her phone and catching up with the group. Buuuuut, an hour and a half went by, members of our group faded, leaving two of us waiting for Emily to come back to the terminal, hopefully having found her phone.

Suncheon Gardens

Unfortunately, she came back with no phone. We decided to go ahead and get tickets to the tea plantation and meet up with the rest of the group, defeated that we had lost her phone. In fact, right when Emily had given up all hope, I reminded her of how we were able to retrieve her lost wallet after a New Years party last year. "That was pure luck; there's no way we can get that lucky again..." she sighed.

"I'm going to keep calling anyway - I'm sure someone will pick up eventually." I stated.

"You should just wipe your phone NOW," Kevin urged.

The three of us had completely different mindsets. Which one of us would prevail? Kevin, taking the cautious route? Emily, taking the luck-worn-out route? Or myself, taking the too-optimistic-but-let's-try-to-get-lucky-again route? Take a moment to pick your choice NOW: __________________________


Ok. Here's what happened:

Low and behold, just seconds after our exchange, a strange voice PICKED UP THE PHONE! We were in a sudden dilemma - we were already on the bus to Boseong, but we had magically gotten ahold of the person with Emily's phone!!!!!!! We made the sporadic decision to jump off the bus (to the bus driver's confusion), sprinted to the public bus stop, and followed it aaaallllll the way to the end of the line (over a one hour bus ride). We reached the public bus transportation center, retrieved the phone, feeling relieved. Emily got her picture taken at the terminal with the phone in hand as a memento. You can see it here:

After successful retrieval of the cell phone

But now what? It was far too late to join the others at Boseong, so the three of us decided to head to Gwangyang and crash at my place. We showered, ordered late night chicken, and passed out early. I think we would all call that day a success.

Suncheon Gardens

The next day we decided we would make up for lost time and head to the tea plantation, which ended up being a great decision. It was absolutely beautiful - we enjoyed row after row of green tea fields in the mountains, while eating delicious green tea soft serve ice cream, green tea flavored noodles, and green tea flavored ddeokkbokki (rice cake with fish cake). In the afternoon, Emily and I parted ways with Kevin (who headed back to his city), and we went to the Suncheon gardens with our other friend, Abby. The gardens are absolutely huge, and they have a world garden expo. We explored sample gardens from around the world, walked around, and enjoyed the sunlight. We were pooped by late afternoon after a full weekend, so we went back and crashed early again.

It was a spontaneous, crazy, and exciting month of April, and it's only going to get even busier. Stay tuned for an upcoming story about my not-so-perfect start to the month of May!

Read More

Crazy May, pt. I

May proved to be quite an exhilarating month, full of highs and lows. In Korea, May was a month full of holidays, testing, and random days off from school "just because". Thus, the first full week of May I did not have to go to school because of midterm exams and vacation days after the testing was complete. During my week off, I finally convinced some fellow Fulbright friends to visit me in Gwangyang (hooray!).

Two friends from Cheongju came to visit the other Fulbrighter in Gwangyang (Josh) and I for a couple of days, and we had a blast! Our time together was full of noraebang (Korean karaoke), good eats, sight-seeing, and reflecting on the grant year. Josh and I decided to show our friends Kelsey and Christine the Suncheon World Gardens, which was a perfect destination in the middle of spring. I had visited the gardens once before during the fall season, but as would be expected, I was much more impressed by what I saw during the spring season. The gardens themselves are huge, various, and full of color. If we had time to walk through the entire gardens, it would probably take at least five hours. The Suncheon Gardens consist of an arboretum zone, wetland zone, world garden zone, and a large bridge called "Dream Bridge". The Dream Bridge is decorated with 145,000 drawings by children from all over the world in hopes that their dreams will be carried off in the wind and be shared with many. The world garden zone consists of replications of gardens from different countries throughout the world, such as the Netherlands, France, Japan, Thailand, USA, a traditional Korean garden, and more. It was quite relaxing to enjoy nature while appreciating how different areas of the world exemplify nature's beauty. 

After my two friends from Cheongju left, I had my close friend/orientation roommate come visit me too! Emily and I also traveled throughout SE Asia together during the winter vacation. When she arrived, I showed her the Suncheon Gardens, experienced the "famous" Gwangyang Bulgogi, and then we headed to Busan together for two days. Busan is a two hour bus trip from Gwangyang, and the weather remained beautiful for us. We were excited to head to the beach, soak up the sun, and do some more sightseeing along the coast. Unfortunately, this is where my low part of May kicks in. During our first full day in Busan, Emily and I were enjoying some Indian food, until the what we think to be food poisoning kicked in. Perhaps it was because we hadn't been eating that type of food for such a long time, or we ate too much, or the food just happened to be bad that day, but after that we were feeling all too sick to do anything. We ended up hanging back at the hostel and consuming medication in hopes of feeling better. 

My trip to Busan ended a day earlier than Emily's, as I had to be back in Gwangyang for a race during the weekend. I was feeling better, and I felt confident that I could perform well in the 10K on Sunday. On Saturday, two friends and I (Mary and Mallory) packed up and headed to Boseong, which is about one hour away from Gwangyang. We wanted to head there early because Boseong is famous for Green Tea Plantations, which we wanted to tour and experience what Boseong is known for. The scenery surrounding Boseong was absolutely phenomenal - green tea fields scattered all around the town. Boseong has been a tea plantation area since the days of the Japanese occupation, and with its long history comes large plantations, their traditions, and highly skilled workers. The most famous of these is the Daehan Dawon Plantation. The site has gained popularity as a film making destination after a huge success of the commercial for a telecommunication company. It also host ‘Dahyangje Tea Festvial’ each year in May. The green tea plantation tourist attraction was exciting as well - and full of green tea flavored everything. I was personally fond of the green tea flavored soft serve, and shamelessly ate three servings of it! After touring the plantation, we had dinner and called it an early night, as we wanted to be ready to go for our race in the morning.

The race itself was a hot, humid, and hilly course. We had met a nice Korean couple before the race began, and I actually ended up running with the man and finishing together. It reminded me of running with my dad, which I miss a lot. I've gotten so used to running alone since living in Korea, and it was nice to have a running buddy again. Although I didn't tackle a new PR, it was more fun to make a new friend and just have fun with my friends! After the race, Mary, Mallory, and I explored a nearby beach area, had some delicious seafood for lunch, and headed back to Gwangyang. Unfortunately, this is where everything goes wrong.

Sunday night after the race, I was just relaxing at home with my family. I called it an early night because I was exhausted from the race. However, I just couldn't fall asleep. An hour after just lying in my bed, waiting to fall asleep, I broke out in shivers, aches, fatigue, and what I assumed to be a high fever. I was sweating, but I felt extremely cold. I didn't sleep all night, and on top of having the shakes, my stomach decided that I needed to run to the bathroom at random moments throughout the night. The next morning I finally got out of bed, and told my host mom that there was no way I could make it to school, or even get any food down my throat. I ended up in the hospital for three days. I had a fever of 103, so I got hooked up to an IV and sent to bed rest for the entire week. Another week off of school, although this one was unplanned. I am still not entirely sure what caused the outbreak - maybe a flu virus, or dehydration after the race. All I know is that I am so glad to be better now!

After a full week of recovery, I was ready to be back at school and excited to be doing things again. The following weekend, I planned to perform a rap song that a student and I had written and recorded together at a festival in a nearby city. We practiced and practiced for so long, and I couldn't let him down now! It is funny to look back on this experience because Hyeon Min (the student) used to be someone who always acted up during my class. However, once we found this shared love for rap/hip-hop and making music, we instantly bonded and he has become a student for whom I have high expectations. The song that we wrote and performed is titled "인문계" which means "Humanities Department". In Korean high schools, students choose a science or humanities track in relation to their future goals and preparations for college. Hyeon Min raps about his life as a humanities student, and how his interest and passion for a future career in music is often overlooked and frowned upon by most Koreans. He raps about the criticism he receives for attending music academies rather than studying the "core subjects" that lead to a "reliable, stable job" in the future. He asked me to write a rap about my experience as a teacher in Korea, and my goals in the teaching profession. Hyeon Min has truly amazed me with his drive and motivation to be the best he can be while not allowing the criticism to bring him down. I am so happy to have been able to share this moment with Hyeon Min and his rap crew - it is a memory I will never forget! You can watch the video below!

Alright, sorry for the long post (and lack of updates!). I'm working on May pt. 2 as we speak. Talk to you soon!

Read More