So much to do, so little time

I haven't been blogging enough, I'm sorry!  Way too much has happened, and way too little sleep has happened in between.  Right now we're approaching week 3 of orientation, and already I've learned how to speak in complete sentences in language class.  Last friday, class pretty much exploded, and a bundle of vocab and grammar was thrown at us all at once, in a mind-boggling brain-melting kind of way....but wait! Before you make any negative exclamations, I have to say that this is the fastest I've ever learned a new language, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Frankly, I've been feeling kind of dumb for the past few weeks when I've wanted to make small talk with a Korean person, and all I can do is smile and bob my head like one of those plastic cranes that shoves its head in the water over and over... Anyways, there's one bit, and a picture to go with it.

Bwa! So hard!  Or as we say in Korea: 어려워요!

As for the teaching part, right now we're entering into the first days of a English Language summer camp, where Korean students from all over the country come to the University and let us ETAs teach them stuff.  Woo!  In addition to the explosion of Korean language vocab, there was an explosion of Korean people at the university as well.  The marble castle is alive!!  So the way the camp works is that each ETA gets to teach three classes, in which the ETA prepares the material on his/her own. Of course, we turn the lesson plan in before-hand and get comments, but other than that it's pretty free.  Each day has a different theme that we must inorporate it in some way as well.  I chose to teach the sci-fi day, but I'll talk more about that after it happens.  But all in all, I have no idea what will happen.  But I hope that my enthusiasm for sci-fi (of which there is a lot) will just infect my students, and if nothing else, make them enoying learning just a little bit more. (Eww sappy, derp, whatever, it's true!)

On a completely different note, this past weekend we got to have a little vacation by the beach before the madness began.  It was cloudy the whole time, but I got to go out and do some cool things like see some cliffside coffee shops, and do a little neon-lighted spelunking.  It's true! And here are some pictures!! But in just a second...

So, Friday morning a bus took us out to Donghae, a beach town on the east coast. That afternoon we had a lecture about Buddhism in Korea, and then took a trip out to a temple in the mountains.   

Pretty! 예뻐요!

On Saturday, after having naked time in the spa (swimsuits and other clothing are not allowed in the spa jacuzzis!!) I went with some friends to a cultural village, population 2: a nice Korean man who called us a cab after we gestured vehemently that we were a group of lost Americans, and an angry cow.

Then we went off to a lighthouse overlooking the sea.  The town around it was beautiful, and it was full of the coolest coffee shops I've ever seen (and I've seen my fair share, you know, being an addict and all).

        Basically, this shop was hanging out on a cliff-face and had a bunch of different platforms all over the side overlooking the sea. (^.^)



Next we went to an E-Mart (a huge department store) downtown, but we just shopped so there's nothing interesting to tell.  And then there was the cave: the cave with safety regulations that would perhaps not go over so well in the US, but which made it all the more fun.  There was some crawling about, concussion-worthy head bangs, and a bleeding toe. In all, it was an adventure!

What's happening in this picture you ask? Not really sure either...

Okay, that's all for now.  If I don't get lazy again, hopefully my next post will be about my first lesson! :)  So goodbye for now, and if you didn't learn to read Hangul, or all the vocab I posted earlier, GO DO THAT NOW!! :)

안녕히가세요!