Busy week

It has been one busy week- here's the update!
Sunday- I walked the 35 minutes to church. After church, an older man (~65 years old) approached me and started talking to me in prety good English. It turns out that he retired to Hwacheon 3 years ago. He used to live in Seoul, and has been to America (and actually knew some towns in Kansas)! He invited me to dinner at his house sometime- very cool! As I was walking back to our apartment, a lady shop owner motioned me to follow her into her store. I did this, and she proceeded to dial the phone (as I was thinking "this is going to be a short conversation as I know very little Korean). She then handed the phone to me, and I had a 3-4 minute conversation with her SON! Just a little awkward- the son was embarrassed, as was I. In the afternoon, our whole family drove to my host mom's family's farm. It is about 1 1/2 hours away. They grow rice, soybeans, hot peppers (in large amounts) onions, green perrillas, cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins (in small amounts). They also had 4 cows, a calf, a truck, and a combine for rice (although not what we think of as a combine, and it was manufactured by LG). I think that for Korea, it was a pretty good sized farm. It was really interesting, and I am so glad that I got to go!
Monday night I had guitar lessons with Nikki's host dad. I am now the proud owner of a guitar!!! I have been practicing a lot this week, and definitely working on the callusses on my fingers. :)
This week there has been a badmitton tournament in town. I went to watch on Tuesday evening. I remember playing badmitton in PE class, and thinking this is a crappy sport. But, after watching the tournament, I have definitely changed my view. These kids (middle and high school aged), are so intense and competitive. It was so much fun to watch!!!
Thursday I met John and Nikki for our weekly "English time". We walked to Borgeo Island (there is a bridge), and explored the "sports" island, then we ate dakgalbi in town. I definitely look forward to meeting them every week.
This weekend there is an archery tournament, and a rowing competition in town. I am hoping to check both of these out. Also, I am planning on going to Nikki's house and hopefully watching a Rockies baseball game on the internet. On Sunday, my host family is planning on "going to the mountain" to tend their family graves. This is in preparation of a holiday similar to our Memorial Day. This will be an interesting cultural experience!
Teaching was okay this week. I have three different co-teachers and I am learning that they can make a huge difference in the class. This difference can be bad or good. For example, one of my co-teachers is really good about letting me teach, but translating when I ask her too (when it is obvious that the students don't understand). I think that having the kids TRY to understand English is better than translating every single thing that I say. On the other hand, I have a co-teacher that likes to translate everything to the students. I feel like this is hindering the students' ability to think on their own, and to understand English. I now realize how lucky I was during student teaching to have such great co-teachers at Centre.
I really enjoy teaching my first year students. The co-teacher is really good to work with and the students are full of energy. I also get to see these students twice a week, so I feel like I connect with and know them a lot better.
I miss everyone at home- I hope you are all doing well and staying busy! Love ya.

A couple of things learned

On Friday, I didn't have to teach or go to school because our students were taking standardized tests. So, I made plans to meet my friend Carolyn in Seoul! I left Friday morning from Hwacheon at 840, and arrived in Seoul at 11 am. I transfered buses in Chuncheon- no problems! My firsts success at using public transportation on my own :). Since Carolyn wasn't going to be able to meet until after 12, I decided to check out Olympic Park. I only saw a little bit of it, but it was pretty cool- definitely want to go to the museum when I have more time. Then, I met Carolyn and we headed to the Itaewon district. This is supposed to be the "foriegn" district within Seoul (we were hoping to find some shoes, since our feet are too big for Korean shoes). We ate at a restauarant named "Gecko's"- and it was the best hamburger and fries I have had in awhile (they even had ranch to dip the fries in- a first in Korea!)! We also went to Techno Mart, which is a 10 story building crammed full of the newest electronics- it was a little overwhelming. I knew that I had to leave Seoul by 730 pm so that I would make the last bus in Chuncheon that was going to Hwacheon. So, I went to buy my ticket about 630 pm for Chuncheon. There were 10 buses that left within that hour..... however, they were ALL sold out! The earliest I could get a bus to Chuncheon was at 830 pm. This would do me no good however, because even if I took that bus to Chuncheon, I would have already missed the last bus from Chuncheon to Hwacheon. Lesson number 1: Apparently, you can buy your tickets ahead of time. I should have bought my evening ticket, when I arrived in Seoul that morning. Additionally, you should never shoot for the last bus of the day! I ended up going with my friend Carolyn, and staying with her host family for the night. It was really nice of her family to accommodate me on such short notice! On Saturday morning, I got a bus from Cheonan to Chuncheon, and from Chuncheon to Hwacheon with no problems- it was just a very long bus ride (over 4 hours).
On my long bus ride, I had some time to think. When I came Korea, I had read many different articles saying "this is the most homogenous country left on Earth...", and things to this effect, and I know that this is true. Now what I realize, is that racism and the difference between rich and poor is VERY apparent in their culture. (1)The socioeconomic status is evident every day in school. The students whose family has money is able to send their kid to hagwon, and therefore their English ability is far more advanced than their less wealthy counterpart. The school definitely caters to the "smarter" students, as I have had a co-teacher tell me, don't worry about speaking English to him, he is stupid and it wastes your time. They have no desire to try to "catch up" these students. (2) The racism here is very blatant. It can be good "You are so beautiful", said only because I have white skin and light hair, or bad- being refused service at a nail salon because we are white, but it is everywhere. I now realize (although I don't know how they feel) how some people feel in America everyday. Although the racism may not be as blatant, it is always there. I can't imagine having to face that everyday of my life (I'm only dealing with it here for a year). It is amazing to see how far we have come in America, but also to realize how far we still have to go for actual "equality".
Any thoughts you'd like to leave concerning this topic I would definitely be interested in reading. My friends and I have been talking about this subject a lot lately.
I hope you are doing well. Love ya