Gwangyang Living: Year Two

Hi everyone! Since my last post, I have been busy moving into my one-room apartment in Gwangyang, transitioning back into school mode, and catching up with local friends.

Most of the second-year ETAs!

On Friday, August 21st, all of the ETAs departed Jungwon University en route to our placements. I had one of the longer trips as I live in the south, so the other ETA in my city (Josh) and I were some of the first people to get out of there. As soon as I arrived in Gwangyang, I had to transport all my luggage to my new apartment. Luckily, my school was willing to let me keep most of my belongings there during break, so I was able to have my co-worker help me move the bags from the school to the apartment.

My bed!

Moving in has gone a lot smoother than I anticipated, which I am extremely grateful for. I was happy to have a full weekend to get settled in before heading back to school and teaching again. After unpacking all my belongings, my good friend Eun Jeong took me shopping to a large grocery/home store, where I was able to buy plenty of necessities. I am lucky to have such a selfless, kind friend, willing to drop everything and help me. Thank you, EJ! While out shopping, I bought a bookcase, shower cabinet, and other basic necessities. I ended up having to make a couple extra trips to the store on my own after getting everything in place and then remembering something else I needed to buy. Haha! But I am nearly two weeks into my apartment living, and all is good. It is a perfect apartment for one person, and I feel very comfortable. Although I miss my host family a lot, it is nice to have my personal space. Luckily I am only five minutes away from my host family, so I can visit them a lot this year!

Panorama view from my apartment window

One-room apartment

Besides moving in, I am currently training for a half marathon in November. It will be held in Suncheon, and last year I participated in the 10K race. I'm excited and nervous about running my first half marathon, but I am looking forward to crossing it off my bucket list. On top of my training, I signed up for Korean classes which keeps me busy after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am happy that a lot of my friends in Gwangyang/Suncheon are also taking the class, so we can all hang out and study together! Bonus: the class is free and is taught by a certified Ganada instructor (a popular Korean language hagwon/private tutoring organization). I'm really hoping to bump up my Korean by at least two levels this year.

Our welcome dinner in Suncheon

Going back to school has been another quick transition; I'm loaded with a full 22+ hours this semester, so not as much down time during the school days as I have had before. It feels good to be back, though. The students and my co-workers seemed happy to have me back, as noticed by random shouts in the hallway "HI HILLARY! SO PRETTY!". They also loved my "Summer Vacation" lesson, which was basically me standing in front of the class showing off my pictures from vacation back home. They were mesmerized by the size of American homes and schools. We pulled up Google Earth Street View and I showed them what everything looked like. It was interesting to hear their questions and gasps of shock when I showed them the size of our sports facilities. Haha!

Photo by Mokhwa Kim

On Friday night, the Gwangyang/Suncheon foreigners had a welcome (back) dinner for the newcomers. We all met at a restaurant and had dakgalbi, a stir-fried marinated diced chicken in a gochujang based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions, perilla leaves, and tteok together on a hot plate. After dinner, we headed to a convenience store to buy alcohol and drink by a lake, which was displaying fireworks and a live concert. The night continued at a bar named Elvis, where we hit the dance floor and had a good time. I met some other people from Gwangyang, so I am happy to know that there are actually other foreigners in my area! Hooray!

Photo by Mokhwa Kim

On Sunday, I met up with my Korean friend, Mokhwa, at Suncheon University. She had contacted me and asked me if I could "model" for her, as a part of a photography project she's doing at her university. I reluctantly agreed, but there was a small part of me that was actually excited about doing something I've never done before (although I was self-conscious about my crooked nose the entire time... good thing there's photoshop!). Anyway, we met, and Mokhwa did my hair, makeup, and dressed me in traditional Korean attire called Hanbok. She had me do all these awkward poses I never even thought could be sexy or chic, but it turns out something went right. She was very encouraging throughout the shoot, and a great scaffolder at showing me the ropes of posing. We played some music while we were shooting and had a great time. I never knew modeling could be so fun. America's Next Top Model always makes it seem so serious and edgy. Overall, it was a fun experience and I'm glad I tried it out! Modeling is definitely not for me, but I was happy to be a volunteer and help Mokhwa with her project. Her photography and photoshop skills made me look much better than I actually was, I'm sure - haha!

Photo by Mokhwa Kim

This week has been busy as the students are preparing for speaking tests. The first-year students are presenting about "Saving the Earth" (how to be eco-friendly), and the second-year students will present about "My Vision" (future job, dreams, goals). I am looking forward to hearing the students' ideas and passions for their future! I am working hard to prepare the students as best as I can, so I hope that the student-product will exemplify the same effort. Stay tuned for my next post, as I will likely update with some unique/outstanding student work from the speaking tests, as well as updates on whatever else is happening in my life at that time! Thanks for reading.

Read More

Party in the USA

Hey everyone! My apologies that it has been over a month since I have updated my blog, although I must admit that I don't feel too bad about it because I was enjoying four weeks of vacation back home in central Illinois. I am writing now from Jungwon University, where my adventures in Korea began more than one year ago. I will be starting my second year with the Fulbright Program. It is the sixth and final week of the new ETAs' orientation, and the 52 renewees have joined for the last three days. It feels a bit surreal being here in the shoes of a second year, as I can easily recall the abundance of emotions I was feeling at this point last year as a first year. As a renewee, I feel much more confident and relaxed about transitioning into my placement, my school, and my new apartment (no home stay this time around). I am very excited to have all 120 ETAs together, talking about our placements and our goals for the upcoming year. Although there are no first-year ETAs placed in Gwangyang with me, there are quite a few who are in the same province, so a short commute away will be no problem. I am looking forward to getting to know the ETAs around me, as well as those with whom I will be active with in extracurricular activities and beyond. It is going to be a great year!

As the title of my blog states, however, I want to focus on my vacation back home in the good ol' United States of America. It had been more than one year since I stepped foot on American soil, and it sure was great to be back. Between my mom's amazing southern-style homemade cooking, catching up with all of my friends, driving my car, and hanging out with my dog, the past four weeks went by too fast. I forgot how much I missed cookie dough flavored things, people having manners and saying "Please, thank you, excuse me", driving my car, various types of alcohol, kayaking/canoeing with friends, watching trashy television, shopping for clothes that actually fit my body, upon more.

It was wonderful being able to catch up with friends, family, and colleagues in the Mahomet/Champaign area, as well as being able to spend a few days in Chicago. Although I wasn't able to make it down to Alabama to visit extended family, I will certainly make a trip when I return again next summer! There were also quite a few people that I wasn't able to meet up with, which I hope to make plans with upon my return next year. One of my favorite things about visiting home (besides hanging out with my dog) was sharing gifts from Korea with my friends and family. I had some of my Korean students write letters (in English) for my friends introducing Korean culture to them. It was a cute way to share some of my experiences in Korea with my friends and family, and also made for an awesome lesson. A couple of my friends even wrote letters back to my students, which I am excited to share with them when I return to classes next week. Some other gifts included scarves with Korean writing on it (Hangul), hand-made wooden boxes, hand-made broaches/jewelry from Gwangyang, bookmarks that highlighted different aspects of Korean culture, Korean food/candy, and more! I will be bringing plenty more gifts home when I return to the States next year, so if any of you readers have gift suggestions, please let me know!


I want to thank all of my friends and family for welcoming me back to the United States with open arms. I was worried about how relationships and such might have changed over a years' time, but as soon as I stepped off the plane, things felt just the way they had before, and I am grateful for that. I am blessed to have supporting, loving, and encouraging friends and family, and I wouldn't be confident about going back for another year if it wasn't for all of you!

I will leave this post shorter, as I have arrived back in Korea and still adjusting to the jet lag and time schedule. I will be moving into my apartment in Gwangyang over the weekend, so I will be busy buying household necessities, unpacking, and lesson planning for next week. Stay tuned within the next few weeks as I update with my return to school and getting settled into my apartment.

Read More

An official member of a rap crew

My JMF uniform!

That's right, the title says it all: I'm officially a part of my student Hyeon Min's rap crew! Our crew name is JMF, which means Just Mad Ferocity. What makes me official is that Hyeon Min and the seven other members who are a part of the team all ordered uniforms, and they included me in it too. My crew color is yellow. Our uniforms: oversized polo shirts. Check out the picture! Even though oversized polos for men aren't really my style, I was flattered by the gesture, and the fact that Hyeon Min and I are developing a close friendship. If this were to happen in the United States, I would have been fired from my teaching job in an instant, which is unfortunate. Another ETA in the Fulbright Korea program actually wrote a literary piece about this very ideal in the newest volume of Infusion, Fulbright Korea's very own literary magazine. I encourage all of you to check it out.

Lucky to spend another year in Gwangyang

Dakgalbi (YUM!)

To further my point about having close friendships with students, it is a totally normal thing to do in Korea. Because students are at school for longer than twelve hours a day, nearly every day of the week, it's only natural that teachers and students are going to develop strong connections. This is one aspect of Korean culture that I wish I could bring back to the U.S. Unfortunately, if this type of relationship formed in most American schools, many people would suspect "risky business".

Mango cheesecake bingsu

Anyway, after the Final Dinner gathering in Seoul, I had one full week left of school before I would head back to Jungwon University in Goesan, where the Fulbright Korea ETA Orientation is held. I was prepared to have a fantastic last week of school with the boys full of games and snacks. We sang some songs, which you can witness a small preview below. My last week of school luckily wasn't sad for me because I will be going back to Gwangyang Boys High School upon my return to Korea in August! So, I was relieved that it was just a "see you later" rather than a "so long". On the other hand, I did have to sort-of say goodbye to my home stay family. When I return in August, I will be moving into a one-room apartment, so I spent my last week enjoying the time with my home stay family. Luckily, my apartment building is located just a few blocks away from my home stay family, so I will definitely be in touch and expect to hang out with them throughout my second year in Gwangyang.

Thanks for being a great friend, Zoe!

Most unfortunate, though, was saying goodbye to wonderful friends that I have made through the Fulbright Korea program. Although there are 52 of us who will renew our contracts, some of my closest friends will be heading back to the States to pursue other opportunities. I had a great time meeting up with my buddy Zoe in Gwangju one last time in Gwangju, and we enjoyed dakgalbi (stir-fried marinated diced chicken in a gochujang (chili pepper paste) based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions, perilla leaves, and tteok (rice cake) together on a hot plate). For dessert we devoured patbingsu and beer (haha). It was all so delicious!

My new hiking friend!

One interesting thing to note during my last week in Gwangyang before heading off to vacation was meeting a clever older man while I was running along the bike path. He was very eager to practice English and help me practice Korean, so we set up a language exchange when I come back to Gwangyang in August. He was so excited that I would be happy to do a language exchange that he invited me to go hiking the following evening! While we were hiking and practicing Korean/English, I introduced him to the deliciousness that are smoothies. So, after we finished hiking we headed to a coffee shop and had some mango smoothies! It was so fun, and I'm looking forward to meeting him again when I am back in Gwangyang.

At the moment, I am blogging live from Jungwon University in Goesan~!~!~! I am visiting here for three days as I lead a few workshops related to teaching and extracurriculars during the ETAs' grant year. There are 70 incoming ETAs, and even from my short time here, I am really excited about this group! They are very outgoing and eager to get in their placements (already!). It has been great being able to connect with them early on because at times it can be difficult for renewees and incoming ETAs to really get to know each other when we are all together in a huge group. So far, they seem to be a mixture of personalities, as is expected with Fulbright. Quirky, outgoing, yet nervous, humbled, and eager. It's a solid dynamic. Having the time to talk with the ETAs personally and share my experience with them has been valuable, and I hope that I will make 70 new friends this year!

Dry ice berry bingsu

At the orientation, I led workshops about Classroom Management, the Alumni Relations Committee, and participated in a panel open Winter Camp, Club Classes, and beyond. It's been really interesting being back here and looking at orientation from a different perspective now! While being here, I have been reminiscing and being nostalgic on all the great times my grant class had during our orientation period at the time last year. It's crazy how fast a year has flown by, and coming back here before heading home is the perfect closure to my first grant year. Incoming ETAs: FIGHTING!!! Enjoy orientation and enjoy the time spent with your 70 new best friends!

See you all in Illinois~!~!~!

See you in a month, Gwangyang1

Read More