A Challenge From Stevenson

"Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen have asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back...."  (Robert Louis Stevenson). This, my dears, is a hard task, but I shall do my very best to remember everything that I can so that you can have a good look at what Korea is like.

A few days ago Oppa took me to McDonald's! It was wonderful and tasted exactly like America. Although, the uniforms here are worse than the American ones. All the employees have to wear red and white striped half length ties. And the cups that we used for our soda weren't paper. They were plastic and we put them in a stack just like the trays, which was strange.

On the topic of food, the next day Umma, Unni and I ordered chicken the day afterwards. Sounds pretty normal, but one kind of chicken that we got was in a obviously Korean sauce (sorry, there's really no other way to explain it), which really made it new for me. And we ate the chicken with plastic gloves on, which was strange, but definitely cleaner than the way that we Americans do it. I was very appreciative of that fact, as I often see the way Americans eat slightly gross.

This past Saturday was our first district-wide meeting. We got an orientation! Yay!....Not really. It was quite boring, as everything we went over I already knew from my sponsor district and it was all said twice, in Korean and English. But besides all the lecturing it was pretty fun. Our district has five people from France, four from America, two from Brazil, two from Taiwan, two from Mexico and one from Sweden. I loved getting new pins to finally start filling up my blazer. And as it turns out, one of the Americans is from Platteville, Wisconsin, the town where I was born. Fancy that.

After the orientation was fun as well because Unni, Umma, and I went out to lunch with one of the French girls, Melissa, and the two Taiwanese boys, Jack and Guan Yu. It was so hard because Melissa was speaking French and just a little English, my mom was speaking Korean, and my sister was speaking Korean and English. It gave me a huge headache to translate in three different languages, but it was also fun. Misunderstandings can be a good way to have a laugh together without really knowing each other.

So, the orientation was Saturday and obviously the next day is Sunday, so I went to church for the first time! It was...really strange to say the least. I didn't know what denomination of church I was going to because I didn't know how to ask. But it started out with five people leading some hymn-like songs while people arrived. Then the choir sang a few hymns. Then the reverend came up, said a few words I didn't understand and then led us in a couple more songs. Then there was a guy who prayed for over ten minutes I think. Then the reverend gave his sermon, while I just sat and smiled, not knowing what was going on. After a couple more songs at the end Umma and I went with a couple of her friends to the basement cafeteria to have lunch together. Thankfully about halfway through Umma's friend called over a guy who spoke very fluent English (he lived in the Philippines for six years). So, I was able to ask him things about the church. I found out that there is a teen service on Saturday nights, so starting next week, that's what I'll be attending. Hopefully he'll be there too to translate for me.

Monday was my first day of school. It starts at about 8:20 with is a huge plus for me after arriving at Hempstead every day at 7:10. I met Coraline outside the school with our moms and then we met our homeroom teacher. He showed us to our classroom and gave us seats right in the front of the room. We had met our class before so they just said hi and kind of looked at us to see what we would do (not sure what they were expecting). But, even though our class was pretty laidback in the beginning the other classes were most definitely not. As we walked through the halls we literally had groups of people following us and whole classes crowding up to their classroom windows to see us. Half the people we walked by said hi and then looked really embarrassed and pleased when we responded. When we were in our room there was usually a whole row of people lined up outside our room window to see us. Our teacher had to keep telling them to leave. I found out today that it's because this school has never had a western foreign exchange student before.

Our first class of the day was a creative activity. We had to write a letter to a friend. Me and Coraline didn't really understand what was going on and didn't have any friends anyway, so we just wrote short letters about ourselves. But one of our classmates, Eunbin, wrote us both really cute letters saying something like "Hello! I don't speaking English! I love you! Eyes so pretty". It was really nice. For our second period we went outside for gym class. One of the students (whose dang name I can't remember) led us in some half hearted stretches. Then we played some volleyball. Actually we passed back and forth in partners, but it was fun. For third period a new teacher came into our room. I'm not sure what the subject was, but all the teacher did was show videos about subjects varying from bookbinding to wedding planning to car constructing. It was weird. And over half the class was asleep. Not that the teacher did anything to wake them up....Then our homeroom teacher came back and we drew these little character things for about ten minutes before it was lunch time. Lunch was kimchi soup and fish and, of course, rice. It was all really good. Afterwards we finished our drawings. Then we had science. Even though I didn't understand anything the teacher said I could tell by the pictures and graph that they were talking about particles and energy, so I don't feel bad that I wasn't paying attention.  I wouldn't have learned anything new anyway. A lot of people slept in that class too. Our last class of the day was industry. It was obvious that the students liked that subject and that teacher, who was awesome, a lot more than the other classes; no one slept. And then at the end of that class, I went home.

Ok, so that was the play-by-play. Here are some more general remarks. In between every period we have about 10 minutes to do whatever. Most students we down to the little café downstairs to get a snack or a drink. The only student in our class that speaks any amount of useful English is so shy that when he's asked to translate things he doesn't say much and isn't much help. So our homeroom teacher does most of the explaining to us in choppy English and sometimes talks to me in Korean when that doesn't work (Coraline hardly speaks any Korean). There was a group of three or four guys that came to say hi to us in between every class. I had a couple people tell me that I have a small face (that's a compliment). The teachers punish students quite often. Sometimes they'll hit them with an umbrella or something (lightly). Often the students have to stand in the front of the room facing the wall with their arms in the air.

The second day didn't hold much that was new. We had math class today. Definitely my favorite subject here (someone tell Mrs. Weires) because they're doing things I did three years ago and find very very easy (the distance formula, for those of you who care). I went up and did a problem on the board. Then two others were asked to go up and they just stood there staring. In the afternoon we went to a computer lab with a different class to do stuff with and illustrating program. For the first half we sat in the back talking to people while others used the computers. That was fun. Then we made gradient rectangles. That part was boring.

For dinner today I went out with Umma, Jack, and his mother. We had some delicious shellfish and noodles. I asked Jack about how his school was going and what it was like, but we didn't talk much. He understands English as long as I don't use big words, but he doesn't speak as well and isn't a big talker anywho. But when we got back to his house I was designated to be his Hangeul (Korean alphabet) teacher. So, I spent about 45 minutes teaching him the sounds of the different symbols.

Tonight I packed for the school trip that I am going on tomorrow. It's three days long and in the region whose name I forget with lots of mountains. I don't know what we're doing the first day, but the second day we're going to mountain bike and go rafting. The third day we're getting a tour of a Kia company building. Hopefully I'll start to actually get to know my classmates. So, I'll be back in three days with lots of stories. Until then!