Tour of Naewon Temple at 양산 (Yangsan), Gyeongsangnam-do During Fall

FALL SEASON IN SOUTH KOREA

Today, we were to head over to Yangsan to visit a temple for Buddhist nuns. Deacon Lee  had invited me and several other foreigners from church to join him and his wife on an excursion. They wanted us to see how glorious the Fall season is in South Korea. 

THE COST OF RUNNING LATE

I was running late for the 10:00 a.m. appointment so I sacrificed the breakfast that was already sitting warm and delicious in front of me (courtesy of Seoyeon) to run out the apartment and hail a cab. The driver was an old woman, complete with a puff of white, permed hair. Since running up the hill had triggered another coughing fit (third week running with this illness), I was unable to communicate to her my destination for a good five minutes. Helplessly, I sat in the back of the cab and just coughed. I managed to point left and right in between breaths. The old driver periodically looked over at me using her rear-view mirror, a line of concern on her brows, and a string of Korean words directed at me that I couldn't understand. 

COUGH ATTACK ON THE CAB

More than anything, I wanted to erase the concerned lines on her forehead so I made a concerted effort to smile, too, in order to reassure her. I wanted my smile to say, "Don't worry! This will pass. Just give me a few more good hacks," and "No, I am definitely NOT contagious [anymore], so it's all good!"

In a sudden moment of epiphany, I dialed Deacon Lee's number, introduced myself between coughs, and handed the phone to the driver. I arrived at Holy Joy Center at 10:02 a.m. - the first one in the group to do so. The fare was a surprisingly low \5,000 (or $5.00) - surprising because the other cabs I had taken to HJC before charged me double that amount! Jerks.

HOW TO SPEND YOUR TIME WAITING

The others were 20-30 minutes late. I relished being the most punctual one of the group, but couldn't help but wistfully long for the brunch I had set aside to hurry over. It turned out there was absolutely no need for me to miss a perfectly good meal that would have energized me for half the day!

The center's parking lot had transformed into a big farmers' market with stores and merchandise and restaurants everywhere. I waited for the others by helping a lady from our church set up her spot along with the rest. With the exception of my job teaching, it seems no one here allows me to do any other work! My Korean mother, for instance, refuses to even allow me to get up and bring my own dirty plate to the sink. I am halfway up my chair when one of her powerful arms bars me from getting up and has, very suddenly, also stolen the plate and bowls right out of my hands. They treat me very well, perhaps too well. This is why I was all too happy to help Mrs. Song, the lady from church, carry a big box from the 6th floor down to the parking lot, lay out a tarp on the ground, and roughly arrange items she wanted to sell. 

The others finally arrived. The Deacon's wife could no longer join us, so I took the front seat and wavered in and out of consciousness for the 1.5-hour drive to Yangsan.

Here's a photo story of our day. 

When we arrived, it was obvious that the majority of the fall leaves had, well, fallen. Deacon Lee was worried that we would not find the place beautiful, but we assured him time and time again that everything was still very much so!

It was sunny, the skies were blue, and the color scheme of nature and of the temple we eventually arrived at all screamed loudly enough to impress us.

I lagged behind my companions for most of the time because each step and each bright thing from nature seemed to arrest me. I walked and saw and praised God.

My companions on the foreground, and a couple of Buddhist nuns in the background

The Naewon Temple
David pointed out that the people with shaved heads who kept passing us in gray clothing were actually women. They were the Buddhist nuns who lived in the temple. According to this website, the temple was burned down during the Korean War, and was reconstructed in 1958 by a monk named Suok.

TEA TIME IS STORY-TELLING TIME!
We entered this building and served ourselves tea. I listened as Elly, a lady from Myanmar, and Deacon Lee gave what amounted to a comparative political/military/economic history of Myanmar and South Korea. In both their stories about their countries, the United States cropped up in a way that made me cringe a couple of times. Just a couple of times though. The rest of the time, I hope the slight discomfort I felt was undetectable.

We stayed here for over an hour. The floors were heated, my very-small tea cup had long been emptied, and the conversations continued on in such a fantastic way that I became aware that I was slowly being lulled to sleep. I resisted the urge to lie down on the floor and very casually rest my eyes for just a few seconds.

The stream flowing through the valley was absolutely enchanting! I have to go back here when the weather gets warmer so I can wade in the water!

David reminisced that, before, there were no paved roads leading to the temple. A quarter of a century ago, he would trudge through this valley on dates and feel only the crunch of fallen leaves on the ground. He deliberately took us off the paved paths and led us through the limited patches of earth still offering the luxurious crunch of leaves. Amused, we followed him.

This is the area I want to swim in!

What a beautiful day. Yes, the leaves were nearly all gone, but with what was left still clinging on the trees, it was not hard to imagine this place would resemble a bit of paradise in Autumn. 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

Do you know of other beautiful places in South Korea that you would recommend I visit? Leave a comment below with your suggestions. 

Yeongdo Girls High School Takes First Place at Fulbright Korea's Fall 2013 Youth Diplomacy & Activism Conference (YDAC) in Busan, South Korea

* Post edited on January 7, 2014 with some photos from the U.S. Embassy office

As of today, my students took first place at YDAC's Fall 2013 conference! This was the first time Yeongdo Girls High School participated in YDAC, so the girls did not know what to expect. It also happened that I was the only first-year ETA who led a team to conference, so I was [nearly] as clueless as my students. Taken together, I am very proud of how we did, especially considering the amazing crop of students the second-year ETAs brought with them to conference!

THE INVITATION

Three months ago, I received an email from the YDAC Program Coordinators inviting all high school Fulbright ETAs in the Gyeongsangnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Busan, and Daegu areas to participate in the Fall conference to be held this Fall in Busan. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

I didn't know what it all entailed but I knew that I wanted students from my school to have this opportunity, so I quickly signed up to lead my school to YDAC. The whirlwind of activities that has ensued since doing so has prevented me from giving any updates on our activities leading up to the big day. With that said, this post will be a ginormous photo story, sharing a glimpse into Yeongdo Girls High School's journey preparing for this conference. 

THE GROUP PHOTO

Since every electronic devise is confiscated upon our arrival at the U.S. Embassy office, we have no photos [of our own] of the time spent inside the office. This is a hastily-taken photo of our group I managed to capture with my DSLR after I took it out of captivity. 

Fall 2013 YDAC: 6 ETAs, 6 schools, 24 high school students, and one very long day debating about serious local, national, and global issues - all in English!
Photo creds: South Korean lady passing by

THE BASICS

*The following information is lifted from an email sent by the YDAC Program Coordinators

The Youth Diplomacy and Activism Conference (YDAC) was started in the Jeolla province, and was brought to Busan just last semester. The conference brings together teams of four students from schools in the Gyeongsangnam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Busan, and Daegu areas for a full day of English presentations, workshops on social justice and international affairs, and an opportunity to speak with the U.S. Embassy staff in South Korea. 

In short, YDAC is an excellent opportunity for students to practice their English, meet new friends, and for ETAs to build stronger bonds with their students. The cost of the program is completely covered by the U.S. Embassy. All students will receive a certificate upon completion of the conference, with the top three teams being awarded. 

THE TEAMS

Each ETA is to assemble a team of four students, using whatever method they deem best. My method of picking my students included the following steps: creating a legit advertisement for YDAC, asking my Fulbright co-teacher to announce YDAC to the student body, creating a sign-up sheet to survey for interest, asking for a short essay responding to the general questions of "Why are you interested in YDAC? What can you contribute as a team member?", holding short in-person interviews with each student, choosing a handful of students, and then asking my co-teacher's input for the final cut. 

After all of that, this team of Fantastic 4, (or F4, as I subsequently referred to them in KaTalk and in emails), emerged:

Go Eun, 1st Grade

Jeong Yeon, 2nd Grade

Yun Jeong, 2nd Grade

Ah Hyeon, 2nd Grade

THE YEONGDO F4
There were about 13 students who expressed interest, with 9 actually bringing in writing samples the day of the interview. Out of those 9, the majority were second graders. Ultimately, my co-teacher and I discussed and decided to pick one first-grader, and three second-graders. These four young women stood out to me primarily because of their impressive writing samples and the passion I detected in each during their interviews. With time running out and with our funding for the Fall conference being unexpectedly cut, we faced some serious challenges. However, I could not have picked a better team to weather the storms we faced!

THE SPEECHES
After assembling our teams, students are to work together to brainstorm a problem that they had noticed in the local community, the country, or the world community, and develop a resolution to solve the problem. The students are to do research and then write a 5-7 minute speech that they will then present at conference day. Speeches do not need to be memorized, and visual aids are allowed in the form of posters.

THE COMPETITION
At conference, students are to listen to each others speeches, ask questions, speak in favor or against a resolution, and then vote to pass/not pass a given resolution. They earn points for their speeches, questions, and speeches in favor or against a resolution. The resolution passing or failing does not affect the team's score.

THE WORKSHOPS
After the speeches in the morning, ETAs are to run various workshops and activities in the afternoon focused around diplomacy and social activism. A speaker from the U.S. Embassy will be there to give a short talk and answer any questions from the students.

THE MEETINGS

October 22, 2013 
These are my students discussing what topic/issue to take up for YDAC. Since I had one first-grader in a team made up of second-graders, I quickly addressed this during our first meeting, letting them know that I expected the first grader to speak up and not be intimidated by the other three, and for the second graders to include the first grader in all decision-making. They smiled and looked at me like I had just said the most obvious thing ever. I smiled back and relaxed a little.

My girls decided to split themselves up like this:Team 1[on the right]: Ah Hyeon & Go Eun. Team 2 [ on the left]: Yun Jeong & Jeong Yeon

October 23, 2013

KaKaoTalk (KaTalk) Message from Ah Hyeon:
"hi! 

this is a group for us :-)"

we r thinking about adding some more to our subject.

Another KaTalk Message from Ah Hyeon:

"teacher i have a question.:-) 

can we use a dictionary during the conference? 

and how can we split us in 2?"

Email from Program Coordinator: 
"Students cannot use their electronic dictionaries, [so]
please bring 2 paper dictionaries that students can use
during the resolution speeches and mock crisis scenarios." 

Email from me: 

"The pairs will be pre-determined either by me 

or the entire group before the conference."

The girls then decide to group themselves in the following way: Ah Hyeon + Go Eun & Yun Jeong + Jeong Yeon. I have no idea how they came up with this grouping, but I had to admit they did a great job of balancing strengths and weaknesses for both mini groups.

October 24, 2013

Email from Ah Hyeon:

"I hope to be awarded. kkk

Anyway, always thank you for doing your best for us. See you tomorrow :-)"

October 25, 2013

Text from Jeong Yeon: 

"Teacher this is Jeong Yeon. Should we draw a poster about our topic?"

Another text from Jeong Yeon: 

"Teacher i thought some solutions and explained it Yun Jeong, Ah Hyeon. 

They agreed my opinion and we'll ask it Go Eun too. 

Maybe the solutions will be a draft of our resolution :-) 

I want to tell you about my opinion and listen to your suggestion too!"

October 28, 2013
Students meeting in the E-Zone. Initially, I asked them to speak in English as they deliberated together, but I eased this expectation after I realized how painstakingly inefficient this method was. It was quickly established that the students would speak amongst themselves in Korean and then each will report back to me in English, explaining their ideas and plans.

My first time staying at school until nightfall. These beautiful lanterns greeted me outside, making the walk back home less fatiguing

October 29, 2013
Students using my school-issued laptop to do research.

Text from Jeong Yeon: 

"Teacher! I wrote the rest of the resolution and informed our team ^_^ 

Please look at it and tell us what we have to correct <3"

October 30, 2013

Katalk Message from Ah Hyeon:

"teacher when we prepare the mock-crisis for one hour 

can we regroup 

and discuss together?"

Nope

November 4, 2013

Message from YDAC Program Coordinator (Monica)

"Hey all!!

Attached is the complete YDAC resolution packet for Fall 2013. I've read all of your resolutions and they look really amazing. I'm looking forward to going over them with my students later today. :)"

1. A Resolution on Developing Countries' Fundamental Economic Growth (our team's)
2. A Resolution on the Challenges Facing Immigrant/Korean Marriages
3. A Resolution on Korean Society's Pressure in Education
4. A Resolution on the Ineffective Korean English Education System
5. A Resolution on Smartphone Addiction in Korea
6. Resolution on Human Trafficking in East Asia
7. A Resolution on Same-Sex Marriage (last-minute withdrawal)

November 5, 2013
We had another meeting on this day.

November 6, 2013
The girls complete two sets of two posters, for a total of four! I am blown away.

Katalk Message from me:

"How long did you work on these?"

Katalk Reply from Jeong Yeon:

"about3hours

we are so proud of ourselves!

F4 Fighting

Yes!!!

we will be the winner

kkkkkk"

Katalk Reply from Yun Jeong:

"fighting"

Text from Ah Hyeon: 

"Do we need to wear our uniforms during YDAC?"

Collective groan as I answered: "Uniforms are mandatory." I tell them their uniforms are lovely, (especially with the red jackets), and they reply that they want to wear something else for conference because their uniforms are ugly. 

November 7, 2013
There were classes held today since third-graders all across the country are taking the Suneung (the mother of all pre-college/university tests). My students asked to meet in the evening, so I met up with them and we spent several hours looking over the other teams' resolutions.

Here, I am having them watch a brief clip of a video on "mixed marriages," or marriages between, usually, Korean men and women from Southeast Asia

Children of mixed marriages are often discriminated in South Korean society.

My favorite picture of my girls!

They wanted a more composed group photo so I took another one.

November 8, 2013

Katalk Message from Ah Hyeon:

"Do you know

Which schools are gonna be participate in?"

Email from Me: 

"The other schools are: 

1. Daegu High School 
2. Gumi High School
3. Gyeongbuk Science High School (last-minute withdrawal)
4. Gyeongnam Girls High School
5. Namsan High School
6. Yeongdo Girls High School (our school)"

November 11, 2013

My Email to Students:

"Tuesday Night's Meeting: 

As for tomorrow, I spoke with the other teachers and they said meeting from 6:30-11:00 p.m. is too long a time (4.5 hours). While we have a lot of work to do, I do not want to exhaust you. Let's revise our meeting time to 6:30-9:00 p.m. That is the longest I can stay. Will this work for all of you?"

November 12, 2013

Email from Jeong Yeon: 

"Teacher! Can we use a powerpoint during our speech???"

Nope

Writing their speech

Discussing another team's resolution on human trafficking

November 15, 2013
Classes canceled as school celebrates its 38th birthday. Naturally, the girls asked to meet up to prepare for YDAC. They are relentless in their pursuit of success!

They looked so exhausted but kept chugging on...

Working hard and even smiling!

November 17, 2013

Text from Jeong Yeon: 

"We finished our Korean draft!!!! 
we're gonna write the draft into English. 

So...Are you free tomorrow??? We want to meet you for editing our draft ^.^"

Of course I will be free tomorrow. Who can say "No" to that?!

November 18, 2013

Ah Hyeon casually using Yun Jeong as a chin rest, haha!

Another picture I really like of them working together! Such great teamwork.

Students using their posters as references for their speech draft

November 19, 2013 

Text from Ah Hyeon: "

Teacher i think we should have a meeting tomorrow. 

Are u gonna finish editting the draft? 

Then we can practice speaking tomorrow and the day after tomorrow"

Text from Jeong Yeon: "

Mimi Teacher I always thank you for coaching in every meeting."

Another text from Jeong Yeon: "

I know we are the best among the teams in YDAC. 

Fighting! 

you'll get better soon. 

or you i'll bring the chocolates on thursday :-)"

November 21, 2013
This is the night before conference. Two English co-teachers decided to sit in the back of the room with me as my F4 practiced their speeches in pairs. I wrote notes on how each student can generally improve their delivery and addressed these immediately after each of the three speeches they gave that night.

Break time

Fulbright co-teacher helping coach students the night before the conference!

Text from Ah Hyeon: 

"Teacher have a good night!! 

See you tomorrow at 7:40~ 

Don't forget ~~!!"

CONFERENCE DAY

November 22, 2013 

I met the girls at school at 7:40 a.m.

Ah Hyeon's mother kindly drove us to our location at the American Presence Post (APP) in Busan, helping us arrive there thirty minutes early. We freshened up and I lent my hairbrush to a student, whose hair was disheveled. We had to go through security at the APP and had to surrender all of our electronic gadgets (a fact that I had forgotten). Sadly, I gave up two smartphones and my hefty DSLR. The number of gadgets security compiled after we had all gone through was quite impressive! 

All the students crammed inside this room, waiting for U.S. Embassy reps to speak over teleconference

Supervising ETA Jethro from Daegu High School with the students

Students slowly piled inside a room with a long table, where they shyly regarded each other, ate donuts, drank juice, and teleconferenced with U.S. Embassy representatives. The Program Coordinators led all of us in an ice breaker activity that was quite effective in getting the students to chat with students from the other schools. 

You would not believe how shy they can be! 

After this, the speeches began. Because my students were divided between Room 1 and Room 2, I had to decide which room to stay at and judge for the rest of the day. I chose Room 1 (or the room with the long table). This was also the room that Ah Hyeon and Go Eun chose so I was able to sit in as they asked clarifying questions and gave pro/con speeches for the other teams' resolutions, as well as give their speeches (they were assigned to go last). 

For obvious reasons, I could not judge or give scores to my students so I sat there and enjoyed their speech ( - all almost-seven-minutes of it!). I brightened when they delivered difficult words with the right inflections, held my breath as they paused dramatically after certain sentences and questions, and cringed when they struggled a bit with answering some of the questions after. 

THE LUNCH AT MCDONALD'S

My girls and I reconvened over burgers, fries, and McFlurries for lunch, talking about the question we had all overlooked, and brainstorming how the next group can answer the same question should it come up for them. 

While Ah Hyeon and Go Eun were slightly disappointed at the Q&A part (which I reminded them was not going to be scored), Yun Jeong and Jeong Yeon met us with smug smiles plastered all over their faces. I quickly gathered that they had owned in Room 2. They said that there were a couple of very good, almost-native English speaking students in their room, but they felt confident during their turns speaking. 

THE DIFFERENT TEAMS

Here are some group photos the U.S. Embassy office finally released!

Gimhae Jeil High School. Supervising ETA: Rachel

Gumi High School. Supervising ETA: Nic

Namsan High School. Supervising ETA: Monica

Gyeongnam Girls High School. Supervising ETA: Anna

Yeongdo Girls High School. Supervising ETA: Mimi
Students being presented their First Place YDAC Certificates

THE GOODBYES 
The Program Coordinators led a couple more activities related to social justice and poverty at the end of the mock crisis session. I could write a whole blog post on this part of the day, but I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say the students bonded!

Here they are exchanging contact information

THE GIRLS AT THE SUBWAY STATION

All of the teams dispersed at the station, some getting off at Seomyeon for dinner, and our group heading to Nampo for dinner.

THE CELEBRATION
The girls wanted to celebrate their win, so we went to the "Warehouse" in Nampo, where they serve delicious Italian food. The money for this came from the school and the funds raised just in time to make Fall 2013 YDAC possible!

Photo creds: Warehouse waiter

My girls and I walked around Nampo for another hour, buying snacks and chatting about our day in an accomplished but exhausted kind of way.

Text from Jeong Yeon: 

"I really thank you for helping our team! It was a great fortune that we've met you Mimi. You are the best teacher i've met in my life. This is not a flattery." 

All in all, we spent over 12 hours together today - a sweet culmination to the time we spent together preparing for YDAC this past month. 

LOGISTICS & SUCH: 

• Number of Meetings: ~10
• Number of Hours per Meeting: ~2-3
• Number of Weeks We Prepared for YDAC: 5 
• Number of Posters Created: 4
• Number of Schools at YDAC: 6
• Total Number of Students: 24
• Number of Days I was Sick While Coaching: 8
• Number of Times I Coughed My Lungs Out During Meetings: >100 
• Number of Awards Earned at YDAC: 2, Mock Crisis, and First Place win
• Food/Transportation Budget: $100.00 ($40 (courtesy of Yeongdo Girls High School), $60.00 (courtesy of Fulbright friends who made donations!))
• Getting to Know 4 Incredible Students: Priceless