My Students Helping Me Create a Special Birthday Greeting for My Mom

SIBLING RIVALRY

Since we were young, my sisters and I have engaged in an often-times unspoken competition on who could show our single mother the most love on especially two occasions: 1) her birthday in April and 2) Mother's Day in May. 

My sisters are far better at showing spontaneous, physical affection, while I tend to express my appreciation and admiration through more reflective writing. Since this year saw all of us scattered across the world, I thought it would be better for the sisters to unite instead of compete against each other. 

I coordinated with my sisters in the U.S. and in the Philippines to create a photo collage that spelled out "Happy" (from Korea) "Birthday" (from the Philippines) and "Mamas" (from the U.S.) to show her that, no matter where we were in the world, we are all still united in our love, loyalty, and affection for her [insert cute and sappy Kakao emojis here]. 

SOUTH KOREA

THE PHILIPPINES

 

THE UNITED STATES

Bam. Who needs a generic, store-bought greeting card when you can just have an internationally-themed photo collage, complete with hand-painted banners, cute babies holding up signs, and Korean high school students in perfectly-matching red uniforms to help delight the heart of your mother on her birthday? That's right, no one. 

But, seriously though, I'm running out of ideas here.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

Do you know your mother's "love language"? How have you expressed or shown your love for her in a way that went straight to her heart? What was the most fun, creative, memorable, and/or meaningful gift or message you have given her? If you have a few ideas you don't mind sharing, please email them to me (so my sisters wont see them) at thefulbrighter[at]gmail.com!

The End of My Mini Break: Syabeu Hyang Vietnamese Lunch with Teachers

ONE WEEK COUNTDOWN

Today was the last day of my mini break from school (courtesy of Finals testing). It is also exactly one week before I will teach my last class for this grant year! I am eager to teach the last four-five classes I have left, to start packing my things, to begin the process of moving from one homestay to another, and, most of all, to visit my family in the U.S. 

The countdown until my flight home is almost unbearable. I am so very thirsty for my family's embrace. 

Lord, be with me these next few days in Korea. Sustain me and help me finish well what you enabled me to start a year ago. Thank You for the company of these teachers, who nourish me with great food and conversation. Through a simple lunch invitation today, they have unknowingly helped to disrupt an impressively deep sense of loneliness that has settled over me lately. I thank You for Your presence. 

VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT

There were eight of us who met together for lunch

The rest of the restaurant on the 8th floor

Colorful vegetables! I thought of Mama and her health-conscious cooking with every bite I took

I like the first two sauces (the third one was too spicy for me).
Even this tray of sauces reminded me of Mama. She is a talented cook and makes her own sauces, too!

All kinds of healthy on our table!

Before being rolled into a tasty, bite-sized goodness!

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

When I am missing my family, the most unexpected things will remind me of home. What makes you miss your family/friends - home? How do you weather through the wait (until you see them again)? Share your thoughts in the comment box below!

Fulbright ETA Final Dinner: The Rather Anticlimactic End to Our Grant Year

After making a short visit to the War Memorial of Korea, we arrived at Hotel President, where the Fulbright Final Dinner was going to be held. 

Emerging from the underground subway to this view was quite a pleasant surprise! Buildings loomed protectively around a modest expanse of green grass. 

There were tents pitched everywhere and a lot of yellow decor. We realized after taking a few more steps that we were passing by a Sewol memorial. 

One of my companions murmured under her breath: "Well, this changes the mood a bit..."

Remembering the Sewol tragedy
These two men were here from the time I entered the hotel to the time I left the dinner

We were on our way to cross the street when a group of ETAs sitting under one of the tents called out to us

Judy ran out and hugs were exchanged everywhere. Of course mine was a bit delayed since I had to capture these photos first

Judy's smile is one of the best I know! I legitimately miss this young woman

The two of us crossed the street so I could make a withdrawal from a Busan Bank, which, contrary to my previous belief, also exists in Seoul (and in other parts of Korea!).

Dinner was held near the top of the hotel with an amazing view of the city.

Once I finally sat down at my table, I had a hard time processing that this was it. Our Fulbright ETA family was gathering to celebrate one year lived in Korea. I tried to take as much of it in as possible, knowing that I had to leave at the 8:00 p.m. mark in order to travel back to Busan.

There were many preliminary activities, with dinner beginning at 7:00 p.m. They had prepared an amazing array of dishes for us and I was happy satiating my hunger. However, it was a bit disappointing to have so little time to actually socialize throughout the dinner as we were told to sit down and enjoy other presentations, musical performances, and final addresses.

One speech that I did not mind sitting through was Ray's. He is a dynamic speaker whose genuineness comes through in the anecdotes he told this evening. I consider myself blessed for having shared the city of Busan with him this year.

PHOTOS WITH SOME OF MY FAVORITE ETAS

Like I said, we didn't have much time during the actual dinner to mingle (and I had even less time with my 8:00 Cinderella story), but I was able to take several photos with a very small handful of my favorite ETAs from this year.

RAY

His blog Project Be Better will live on past his Fulbright Korea grant year. Follow his post-Fulbright adventures there!

RYAN & RAY

...because Ryan kept trying to photo bomb when taking a normal photo together is obviously the better course of action!

WITH RYAN

Thanks for the hilariously random Facebook messages. Even without them, you would have stood out in my memory as someone who remembered what the sign for California is.

GABRIELLE

I know we were assigned at opposite ends of the country, but I wish I had spent more time with you. You uplift me and many others with your joyful spirit!

JUDY

I have mad respect for you for your ability to maintain a rigorous flossing schedule. Despite the short amount of time we had this year, I hope you go back to the states knowing that you are truly one of my favorite people! I hope you continue to bless this world with your beautiful smile!

TARA

My roommate at Jungwon University! Tara, you are familiar to me no matter how long we have been apart. I consider myself blessed for having had such a sweet young woman to share my first month in Korea with!

TARA & BRETT

I insisted on taking this photo with the two of you because I am anticipating that my prediction/prophecy will come true and I will have evidence that I told you so! Brett, thank you for being a gentlemen and treating Tara's heart with the utmost care. I wish both of you the best now and in the future!

...and just like that, 8:00 o'clock struck and I had to leave. It was rather anticlimactic, but I have found that this is the stuff most of life is made of. You just have to make as graceful an exit as you can muster (which here, for me, was not that graceful at all - it being in the short interval between musical performances).  

I was the first one to leave and missed many of the other performances, including Mrs. Shim's farewell speech. I left so quickly and so quietly (?) that some of the ETAs weren't even sure I had attended the dinner! 

Waiting for the elevator

The air was cool outside, and the lights reminded me that I was just in a world within a world

Life continues on. I did my best to keep stride as I shuffled quickly back down the underground subway station

Passed by the Sewol memorial again on my way to the subway just across the hotel

Here are the men again

A little girl frolicking in the grass. The world must look huge from her perspective!

By 8:45 p.m., I was sitting on a KTX train bound south for Busan. I arrived back in my beloved city just before midnight, and crawled snuggly into bed at a little bit past 1:00.

Like most events in my life, it takes me a bit of time to process what has just happened. I closed my eyes at the end of the day not having fully processed the goodbyes that I had said, or the goodbyes that never even took place.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

What anticlimactic events have you experienced in your life?
Fellow ETAs, did your goodbyes go as you had expected? What would you have changed after the fact? Share in the comment box below.

Fulbright ETA Ray Sawyer Guest Teaching at Yeongdo Girls High School!

ETA FROM AN ALL-BOYS SCHOOL GUEST TEACHES AT AN ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL

One of the coolest things I did during my first grant year was to coordinate with another teacher for a day school swap! I worked with Fulbright ETA Ray Sawyer from the all-boys Busan High School in finding a day where I was off and his school was in session and vice versa. The scheduling was a bit tricky to do, especially towards the end of the year when the schools are busy with all kinds of testing, but we planned it well ahead of time and added more fantastic memories to our year of teaching!

Knowing Ray's dynamic personality (he really was meant to be assigned in "Dynamic Busan"), and my students' excitement every time there is a guest teacher, especially a male guest teacher, I knew that this was about to be AMAZING. 

And it was. 

Here is a photo story of his time at YGHS as well as the email I sent him the night before! 

RAY TEACHING AT YEONGDO GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL

Ray Teacher graciously handling the attention of the girls.
Anytime a male teacher comes to Yeongdo, the girls are beyond themselves with excitement!

Hello Ray!

I apologize for giving this to you so very late. Please do not be anxious about tomorrow’s classes. The best thing for everyone concerned would be if you just showed up and had fun with the students – whatever that may look like. They will be ever so excited to see you! Like I said before, my classes were recently switched up after the midterm results came in, so I will give you the observation notes I have taken on my Monday classes below, as well as other information about the day ahead!

Teaching a word association lesson that had the students very alert and engaged!

• This Monday, June 9^th, you can take either bus 71 or 508, both of which will deliver you right across from my school. You will hear, “Yeongdo Yeoja Godeung Hakgyo” over the speakers, indicating where you should get off. This will take you approximately 20 minutes from Nampo Station, so time yourself or just ask the bus driver or other passengers where you should get off for the school. The first class starts at 10:40 a.m. Please feel free to arrive about 30-40 minutes before the first class begins. This will give us time for a mini tour of the school, (which is a lot smaller than your school), meet the principal and vice principal, and head to the class and get a feel for it.

·         The principal is a woman; she is serious-looking but kind, and has expressed a desire to talk to me in Korean as she does not know how to communicate in English very well. If you can, please feel free to squeeze in as much Korean as you can when you meet. I think she will appreciate it. No pressure though (this coming from an ETA who has not really spoken much to her principal this year at all, except through my Fulbright co-teacher).

·         The vice principal is a man, who was hired this March. We have not interacted much at all. His English is also very limited, so my co-teachers do all the talking for me.  Both of these introductions will probably be very brief, so don’t worry!

Ray was confident and energetic, easily taking the students along for the ride with him

You can see our names on the board written in Hangeul

I had to fight off a twinge of jealousy seeing how incredibly attentive the students were to him in the front of the room!

                                    

Class 1-1/2 B (If you want)                                  10:40-11:30 a.m.

·         Past Topics: Learning the 50 U.S. States; answering the question: “What did you do this weekend?” using Who, What, Where, When, How, Why in complete sentences at the beginning of class. Also, covering a lesson on “First Impressions” using photos of different people who may or may not be famous or infamous (Ted Bundy, Trayvon Martin, Debra LaFave, Oscar Pistorius, Maya Angelou, a former Filipina “comfort woman” during WWII, etc.). The “First Impressions” lessons definitely reveal a lot of prejudices, which was quite interesting.

·         Class Personality: This class is generally very loud. There are mini groups of girls who are very talkative and are usually immersed in their own conversations as I teach. I have to often shush the whole class and remind them to work or keep working. I am more brusque and sharp when dealing with this 

     I will introduce you at the beginning and ask them to give you their full attention and keep the chatter to a minimum. With this in mind, I have no problem stepping in and shushing the class if they get too out of line while you’re teaching a lesson. If my doing that would be too distracting for you, then I will refrain and support you in whatever you do in the classroom! Remember, they are girls, but you can definitely be firm with them.

·         Co-teacher: Kim Eun Yeong. She is very sweet and the students adore her. She will usually do her own work in the back of the classroom, and will cheerfully help out, walk around class, or translate for you if you ask her! 

The class in session

Free period/Lunch + Free Period                       11:40-2:20 p.m.

·         We have a couple of hours of free time, during which we can eat lunch at school, outside, take a walk around the grounds, chillax at the gyomushil, or do whatever you want! I can show you a bit of the island, too, if you’d like.

Ray divided the class into two teams and had them compete!

Class 1-5/6 C                                                         2:30-3:20 p.m.

·         Past Topics: Same as above

·         Class Personality: This class is lower in their English abilities, but is a generally good class. Students in this class request for me to play the “50 Nifty United States” song I think partly because they like it and partly to try and derail my lesson plans. Haha. This group of students has a good, responsive attitude, which I love them for!

§  Sleepy students: Lee Yu Bin, Kim Yu Bin

·         Co-teacher: Yun Suk Hui, my awesome Fulbright co-teacher! She spells her name “Yoon Sookhee” but I like to stay true to the Revised Romanized Korean version. Haha!

Movement around the classroom was good

I sat in the back of the classroom with my co-teacher - both of us just absorbing another teacher's teaching style.

Class 1-5/6 B                                                         3:30-4:20 p.m.

·         Past Topics: Same as above

·         Class Personality: A very talkative class, but one where there are individually attentive students, making the class not only bearable but actually good. During brainstorming sessions we’ve done in the past, they have been enthusiastic and creative! I am easier going with this class and can often joke around with them (possible on an individual level). There are many students who if you don’t talk to individually are so shy that you will miss out that they actually know how to read, write, and speak in English!

·         Co-teacher: Kim Eun Yeong again  

Students laughing and smiling!

RAY TEACHER'S CELEBRITY STATUS

At the end of class, another group of students streamed inside the classroom and happily and immediately crowded around Ray

The girls were both super shy and super aggressive, all at once! Hahaha

Students had some time to say hello, introduce themselves, and ask Ray some important questions before the next period began

A Few More Things to Note:

• Each class will have roughly 12-25 students. This is a huge gap, but I can look up the exact number on the roster tomorrow at school!
• My co-teachers are very awesome. They will be very shy and timid, so please don’t match their shyness, and feel free to chat them up!
• The gyomushil is definitely a lot smaller than yours, made up of women teachers. They are all very friendly though so there is nothing to worry about here! 

Requesting some photos

And here we go! Celebrity status

This moment made me wonder why I hadn't done a school swap earlier AND with more teachers

Ray found one of his past colleagues working at Yeongdo! What a truly small world!

Ray perhaps a bit exhausted after teaching two classes at my school

Some shots in front of the main school building.
My school is definitely smaller than Busan High School, where he teaches!

One last pose before heading out together!

THE AFTERMATH: TOUR & COFFEE

Before he left, I took Ray up to Kosin University so he could see just one of the awesome views of the island. As we went, people looked at us out of curiosity. We ducked into a coffee shop and grabbed something to drink and something to snack on before he left to go home for the day. My island pride was definitely on full display. It was just a shame that the day was cloudy/foggy so we couldn't see very far out. However, we did have time to briefly reflect about our grant year and share future plans. He is going back to the U.S., while I am set to renew for a second year in Korea. 

TIPS FOR ETAS PLANNING TO SCHOOL SWAP/GUEST TEACH

• Ask your Fulbright co-teachers for your semester schedule, including holidays, testing days (when you might be off), etc. WAY AHEAD OF TIME
• Think of a few ETAs who you'd like to swap with and exchange semester schedules with them also way ahead of time!
• Plan at least one swap, but the more, the better! 
• Notify your co-teacher/administrators of your plan in advance so they can prepare whatever paperwork (if any) for the other ETA's visit
• Send out an email chock-full of information (class levels, class times, lunch/break times, co-teachers' names, previous topics you've already covered, class personalities, etc.) at least 1-2 weeks in advance (not the night before like I did - sorry Ray!)
• You don't necessarily have to bring your most involved lesson plan the day you guest teach. Something simple, interactive, and fun will be perfect for a 50-minute lesson! 
• Expect and be prepared for students to swarm you. Welcome their curiosity about how old you are, where you are from, and, most importantly, if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend
• Arrange your schedule so that there is time for you and the guest ETA to debrief over coffee or lunch before or after the actual teaching!
• Take lots of pictures, and blog about it! I'd love to see how other ETAs' experiences go with their school swaps!  

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU

If you have done a school swap before (or something similar), what worked and didn't work for you and your guest teacher? What were the highs and lows of your experience? Share your ideas and experiences in the comment box below!