Yeah, I suck at blogging

I know I haven't updated my blog in forever and I apologize - we have been extremely busy. I gave you guys a breakdown of our daily schedule in my last post but on Monday we actually started teaching real-live students and not just learning about teaching. We are teachers for Camp Fulbright, a 2 week English-immersion camp for Korean students. The kids range in age from elementary to high school and are some of the brightest/wealthiest students in Korea (tuition for camp is around $2000). I couldn't believe these students were paying $2000 for me to pathetically try and teach them English lol. Anyways, the kids stay at Jungwon University with us but there are separate camp counselors that supervise them throughout the day. We randomly see them around campus and they are either extremely friendly ("Hi. Do you have a girlfriend? What is your blood type?") or very shy. 

Last Monday was my first day of teaching and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous. The theme of the camp is Heroes Among Us so our lesson plans have to be hero themed and its alot harder than you think planning a 45 minute English lesson using heroes. Anyways, I taught a Low Advanced class which is a misnomer because these students breezed through my lesson plan. I literally picked my vocabulary words out of a SAT book and they were confidently spitting the definitions at me. These students probably could survive in America on their own because their English was so proficient, oh, and they were only middle school students.

Sidenote: If you are unfamiliar with Korean culture, education and academics are basically the center of Korean life. Children are thought of as the future of not only their respective families but the entire nation so these Korean children are under immense pressure to succeed. From a very early age, maybe preschool, they have to compete with each to get into the best elementary school, then the best middle school, then the best high school and finally university. So for the majority of their lives, students will go to school for 8-9 hours and then go to academies (called hagwons) to study English or study ahead in their school subjects for another 4-5 hours, totaling an average of 14 hours a day of school 6 days a week because there's school on Saturdays. In Korea, if you are accepted into a S.K.Y. university you are basically set for life, simply because you have entered a network of successful and wealthy people. Korea is high on connections and networks so students that either get into Seoul, Korea National or Yonsei (SKY) will end up becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. despite their performance in university itself. College freshmen are notorious for going absolutely crazy with their newfound freedom and because they no longer really need to do well in college.

So yeah, we have been very busy with preparing lesson plans, playing with the kids, keeping up with our Korean language classes and trying to sleep for the 4 hours we have available. Although the routine gets old, I've managed to still have fun. Yesterday, one of my Korean instructors had a birthday so my class and I took her to town and bought her dinner (samgyupsal which is Korean bacon). In Korea, meat is usually accompanied with alcohol, and lots of it. Korean drinking culture is great because people aren't really allowed to drink by themselves so anytime someone takes a shot or something, everyone in the group must follow suit. Well this little cultural phenomenon strongly correlates with drunkeness, and our entire group of 16 people including 2 Korean instructors are buzzed/tipsy by 8 pm. Because it was our teacher's birthday, people went around saying how old they were and unfortunately for me, I realize I am the youngest at the table. Korea is a very honorific and Confucian culture, meaning elders are treated with the utmost respect and authority and can basically tell younger people whatever they want. So as the youngest I must now listen to 15 other drunk people and do whatever they wish. One girl says that I must sing because I have a reputation of getting drunk and going hardcore at noraebangs (Korean karaoke bars). Despite my best attempts to distract the table and run away, I am being harassed by everyone to sing so I get up and sing the only song I know all the words to...."Pretty Girl Rock" by Keri Hilson. 

Of all the things I thought I would be doing in Korea, I find myself in a smoky, crowded restaurant filled with families, old men and old women singing maybe the girliest song ever in existence. However, in my inebriated stupor, I took this as a challenge to give a good show. I grab my spoon, which is covered in pig fat, and proceed to rock out this small, conservative audience with my rendition of Pretty Girl Rock. Needless to say, everyone was laughing hysterically at me and it was a good time.

I will update you guys on our trip to Donghae, a famous Korean beach, where I dance battled 4 random Koreans on the boardwalk.