Departure Ceremony | Saying Goodbye & Heading to Meet Our Homestays

The day has finally arrived! We packed up the last of our belongings, cleared our rooms, and headed for the designated areas, where Mrs. Shim and the OCs would say a few words before our departure. 

Mrs. Shim's Departing Address was held in the TKD room, after which we spent an hour or so saying goodbye to each other. The OCs gave us our settling-in allowance to help us pay for expenses right when we arrive at our placements, and envelopes containing copies of our contracts and of the letters we were to give to our homestay families.

This is my envelope. The first line reads "Busan," the second "Yeongdo Yeoja Kodeunghakgyo," my high school's name, and, of course, my name. 

Left: With Coco, this young woman has a vision! Top: With Elaine, OC and Renewee in Daegu (close to Busan), and Bottom Right: With Tara, my beautiful roommate who will also be in Daegu!

Silliness in front of the camera with the first male ETA I saw at the airport on the way to South Korea!

There was silliness and there was a bit of sadness, too. Way to make her cry, Ray...

After a bit of time together, we finally headed up to the 11th floor auditorium where the Departure Ceremony would take place. All the ETAs lined up in special order and created a horseshoe around the auditorium enclosing an audience of Korean school administrators among staff from KAEC and the State Department.

I was doing well, smiling and embracing the pained cheeks, until they called Busan, and then my name. For some reason, I nearly forgot how to step forward. And bow. These simple tasks suddenly became very hard to perform and I was shaking a bit from nerves when a woman ran up to me from the audience and handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers! She quickly retreated back into the audience as more names were called.

Most of the ETAs received some sort of flower arrangement from a [couple of] school official(s). There were one or two Fulbright co-teachers who, upon hearing the name of their ETA called, shouted, ran up to the auditorium, gave their bouquet to the half-stunned ETA, and proceeded to shout, and give them hearty hugs and kisses.

It was hilarious! There was one man who even showered his ETA with party poppers! I was glad to see that teachers had a sense of humor, and even more so to experience a tiny break from the formality of the whole ceremony.

My bouquet resting alongside my blazer back in the TKD room. 

After the ceremony, we had a very special lunch in a part of Jungwon University we had never been to before. We sat with our school officials (mine was my Fulbright co-teacher, my school's principal, and a man who worked for the school and was the day's driver).

We were told that awkwardness from this point on should be expected. Knowing that this would be normal helped me enjoy my meal and even emboldened me to make conversation. My Fulbright co-teacher speaks very well in English, though I do have to slow down my speech a little (which I have to do anyway even with people back in the States).

My principal, however, hardly speaks any English and was quick to express to me her desire to see me grow in my Korean language ability so that we could talk and have conversations.

I could feel my list of priorities shifting already.

I was able to gauge many life-story-type information from both my co-teacher and my principal, but later switched to asking more business/school-type information as we left Goesan and headed for Busan.

My school had rented a very spacious van for the day, and so there was plenty of room for my belongings. 

As our conversations continued, I briefly glanced to my side of the window and saw Goesan grow smaller and smaller. My school officials were very nice and accommodating. Besides the flowers, they had prepared a bag of snacks in the car and offered me things to eat all throughout the ride.

I was so glad that we had our own van and did not have to use public transportation or, worse, lug all my bags using public transportation. As it was, the man who drove us today took care of all of my bags, and even offered to carry my bouquet for me. Like I said, they were super accommodating!

A view of Yeongdo, an island in southeastern Busan, from our car. I woke up just in time to take this photo.

The ride to Busan took approximately four hours with traffic. My co-teacher was kind enough to stay with me a while longer as I met up with my host family and gave them the letter from Mrs. Shim, describing various things about the living arrangement.

My host mom prepared snacks and drinks for us to enjoy in their living room. The house was immaculately clean. It was small, but well-organized. It was easy to see that this was a Christian household, judging from the big wooden cross hanging on their wall, as well as various Bible verses in cool frames.

My host mom and my co-teacher spoke in rapid-sounding Korean as I self-consciously ate and drank sitting on the floor with both feet tucked in under me. The girls were initially shy, but quickly warmed up to me as my co-teacher told them a little bit more about me and, I'm sure, the Fulbright program, etc. The women laughed, and I laughed along with them, not knowing what it was that was amusing.

By the time my co-teacher excused herself for the evening, I was no longer nervous to be left alone with my host family. The girls - my host sisters - do not speak English very well, but can still communicate with me through miming, acting, facial expressions, etc. This was enough for me to feel more at ease with them.

In no time, we were side-by-side on their tiny piano bench playing something very basic they wanted me to learn how to play.

The girls teaming up on the piano. This reminded me a bit of my sister Christy and me and how we basically did/do everything together.

The girls Romanized their names for me, and told me that, since I was now part of the family, I was now "Mimi Kim." 

Adorable.

I was very tired from a very long day, but I found the energy to talk with my host family pretty late into the night. There was host mom, host dad, and two younger host sisters - all telling me that I look beautiful, that they like my big eyes and "small head/face" (this is a compliment in Korea, apparently). Their energy and curiosity helped me mirror the same qualities and carry on disjointed, funny conversations about, basically, anything that came to mind.

Not an easy thing, but something which we accomplished with the help of the girls, who were good at translating back and forth.

My huge bed in what I suspect is my sisters' former bedroom

I went to bed feeling very pampered by my host family, and very blessed by God for preparing such a warm and welcoming family to host me for the year in Yeongdo.

The value that Koreans place not only on education but also on family is a huge plus in my book!