Learning a new language is hard. Ever since I finished with my Korean classes at UMBC, let's just say that my motivation to continue learning Korean definitely took a hit. With my focus shifted to finishing up my coursework so that I could graduate, and then head out to Korea two months later, Korean definitely got pushed to the back burner. After arriving in Korea, I was so busy with work, drinking socializing, and the like, that I rarely put my mind in study mode.

Cue the Talk To Me In Korean crew. I had listened to their lessons on occasion in the past, while working out, or cooking. But, I had never invested in any of their workbooks. I figured that now, in Korea, was the best time to grab some books, since shipping is much cheaper when you're in the same country. I grabbed a level 3 book, because although I took Korean to the 201 level, it had been a while since I had picked it up.

This was easily the best decision I could have made in my language-learning journey. I can listen to the lessons online when I finish my planning at work, and I can breeze through the workbook. If I ever have questions, one of my co-teachers are eager to help clear things up. Even when I don't have a co-teacher around, I can just rewind the lesson, and listen a little more thoroughly to find my answer. I've learned new vocabulary, and I'm able to get a more working knowledge of Korean. In school we learned standard, polite, and business Korean. And that isn't very useful if you're looking to make Korean friends that are your age.

All in all, the workbook cost me $16.00 including shipping to me here in Korea, but if I were at home, it would run about $3.00 more to ship to my US address. Not bad. If you don't live in Korea, Shipping is added to each individual item, which could be a bother if you're buying multiple items at once, but consider that the cost of broadening your horizons with language.

What's in the book?

 Actually, I'm glad you asked. Inside, you'll find many different activities that will keep you interested. They cycle through multiple choice questions, reading comprehension, fill in the blanks, conjugation charts, dictation, and much more. They have really thought their books through to give you the most of your learning experience. In fact, these workbooks are very similar to the ones I used in college. Here's a link that will take you to learn more about the Lesson 3 Workbook. This link will let you read more about their mission. You should definitely check them, and their easy-to-use site, out.

Good luck friends!
I never thought that I, who spent so much time and energy complaining about home, would end up missing it so much. I honestly believe that these feelings of homesickness stem less from missing the country that I was born in, and more from just feeling burnt out from the country that I'm in. Learning a language is hard. Working full time is tiring. Having heartburn from every spicy meal is a pain in the butt. I finally understand what the guides meant when they said culture shock comes in phases. I thought I was immune because I did endless research and prepared myself by immersing myself in Korean cuisine. However, I'm in the culture shock phase that people warned me about, where you're constantly frustrated, tired, and worn down by everything around you.

I'm frustrated when I can understand what people are saying to me, but have no clue how to form a response. I'm tired of people not fully understanding me the first time...or the 8th. I'm worn down every night from spending an entire day failing at communicating in another language. And FOR GOD'S SAKE, can I please get something with savory ingredients, that is actually savory?!

To make matters worse. Every morning, I wake up to hear about yet ANOTHER act of racism in America. I can't go home, and these days I feel like I can't stay here. Anti-Black sentiments exist in almost every country. Where can I go? Where can I just exist?

I know I'll be fine. This really is just a part of living abroad. Maybe next week I'll be heart-eye emoji for everything Korea again. But, today I have to admit, I'm not okay.

Here are some pictures to assure you that I'm not gonna jump off the ledge:









In May, I went to the ROKs western shore to check out the sea with a lot of teachers at my main school. It was a way to reward the teachers for all of their hard work disguised as a "training trip." But, you didn't hear that from me. It was an all-expenses paid overnight trip. They also gave us each 10,000won to buy snacks when we made a pit-stop. We left school on Friday afternoon around 3:15. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, as everyone used the time to sleep. I couldn't really sleep, so I read an e-book.

Our first stop was about an hour and a half in (the halfway point). We went to a rest stop that had lots of food stalls, carts selling big hats, sunscreen, sunglasses, sunbrellas, and everything else anti-sun that you can think of. Korean people typically tend to stay out of the sun as to not ruin their porcelain white skin. Either that or they're vampires. That would explain all of the blood sausage. 


When we got to the sea, we stopped to walk on a really futuristic looking stairway/bridge situation. I thought we were going to cross to the island on the other side, but we just walked to about the middle, took pictures, and turned around and got back on the bus. The smell by the water here reminded me of the beach...on a really bad day. It was really overpowering, and I was really happy when we got back on the bus. 

We rode to the cutest little pension where we'd be staying. I was rooming with my younger co-teacher, and two of the younger teachers. Our rooms name was Versailles, and it had two bedrooms (I shared a bed with my coteacher and it only made us closer), a nice kitchen, and a huge bathroom. After dropping off our things, we hopped back on the bus for dinner. As we were at the sea, the weekend's menu was sure to include nothing but fish, which I'm not a fan on. Allllll of the fish. There was raw fish, cooked fish, crabs, clams, wriggly live octopus (that's a stretch, considering it was chopped up, but it was still moving. I voluntarily ate some fried shrimp. It wasn't bad. 

One of the head teachers organized with the restaurant to cook up a good ol' fashioned pot of kimchi jjigae (a kimchi stew) for me. It was actually very delicious, considering it's not on the menu. It tasted like the owner just rolled her sleeves up and cooked it as though she were cooking for her family. I ate until I was stuffed, and drank quite a bit without catching a buzz. 

Our next destination was to a light festival that's name alludes me at the moment. It was beautiful. It reminded me so much of being home around Christmas. My dad would take us kids to see the houses with beautiful lights. We'd sometimes drive a good 45 minutes away to catch a Christmas light show. Even as a teenager, and as an adult, I looked forward to going with my dad and sister (after my brothers were out of the house) to see them. The night was fun, the temperature was great, and the lights were amazing.








We headed back to the pension, where many teachers stayed up playing Korean poker. But, since I couldn't sleep on the bus, I was beat. My co-teacher and I headed to Versailles, I took a shower, and we crashed for the night. It's good that I got a lot of rest, because the next day was action-packed. More on that later, though
As a college student, I constantly blamed busy class schedules and endless homework assignments for my lack of motivation when it comes to writing. There was a time when I loved writing. It didn't really matter whether I was writing about my feelings, my day, a poem, a short story, an essay...it really didn't matter. I just enjoyed the act of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. In college, I only wrote for the purpose of passing classes. Nothing more. I didn't feel like I was writing creatively enough for my liking. As a sophomore, I took an essay writing class. I wrote personal essays. It was reflective, liberating, and dare I say, creative. As a junior, I wrote papers about Shakespeare. They were analytical, concise, academic, and yet, they were fun to write. As a senior, I took a class about creativity, and what it means to be creative. My mind was opened to the idea that maybe college wasn't stifling my creativity, but allowing me to be creative in more mediums than I would have pushed myself in before. After that, I allowed myself to dabble in different forms of media to get my point across. I was dipping my toes into the vast possibilities that composing post-undergrad could afford me.

BUT. And there's always a but, isn't there? Since graduation, I've found myself more stagnant than ever before. I'm lazy. I wake up, I go to work, I go home and eat dinner and  go to bed. Now I have to ask myself. When did I fall out of love with writing? When did I extinguish the flame of inspiration inside of me? How much longer can I blame my university for robbing me of something that I willingly gave to them. Every time I sit down to write, I allow trivial things get in my way. I get distracted by Facebook (seriously, what is with my recent reclamation of all things Facebook?). So I'm making some promises to myself. I want to fall in love with writing again. I want to push myself to write everyday, and I a posting it here in order to hold myself accountable. Next time, I should make some promises to myself about exercising, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, listing things, let's go! I promise to:

1. Keep a journal on my desk at home.


my new journal. 


I will start keeping a journal, to write down a bit about my day, every day. I used to love writing the good ol' fashioned way (no not clay tablets). I'll reclaim my love of writing by sitting down with a journal to recount my days. This will also be helpful when I want to look back on my life and write that memoir. Or maybe, just to keep me from letting anything from this beautiful adventure called life slip by unnoticed.

I got this idea from something I saw on Facebook (oh, irony). But, a woman wrote about how a grade school teacher made her write in a journal at the end of class everyday, and at first she fudged around and wrote a bunch of nonsense, but after a couple of weeks she really started writing about her day, and her feelings, and it allowed her to think reflectively about not only her own actions, but the actions of those around her. She felt as though the act benefited her so much that she continued to do it everyday for the next 30 years. I'm inspired.

2. Sit down and work on posts for this blog three times a week.

I have more free time here in Korea than I know what to do with. Teaching here is relatively stress-free. As an unwed, 23-year old, all of my superiors here are pretty much convinced that I can't do anything more difficult than laundry. And even laundry would be a stretch for them This is a culture of coddling, and they are surprised any time I tell a story about traveling on public transportation without a native speaker. What does that mean for me? No work really gets delegated to me outside of preparing for my 19 classes a week, and a weekly English broadcast. I want to start using my free time for writing. It's a more honorable way to spend my time compared to the hours of web surfing I allow myself. 

3. Update this blog twice a week.

I made this blog to keep my family updated, but I haven't exactly been doing that. My family has to beg me for pictures, and I end up sending about 35 at one time to make up for it. Actually updating my blog allows me to be held accountable for those posts I was working on all week. And accountability is everything. How else would you know whether or not I've been actually keeping these promises?

4. Record more.

I have a great camera that my dad bought me. It's just what I wanted to capture my daily life here in Korea, as well as to work on a skill that I've always been interested in: video editing. The problem is, I can't edit video that I don't have. I wanted my time in Korea to be a time of skill building on top of experience building. I promise to record more, to give myself a reason to open up iMovie more often.

So there you have it. I hope by making these promises to myself, I can fall in love with creating again. 
Me and my new friend. 1st grader. She visits me every day.
Whoa! Two months in a foreign country? Am I still the same girl who went to college 45 minutes away from home to stay close to her parents? I'm two months into my year-long contract as a Guest English Speaker with the EPIK program in Korea. It's been amazing so far. I'm learning so much about life here. I think it's because I not only moved to a foreign country, I've up and moved out of my parent's house. I've got bills to pay, and I feel good about it. My school life is amazing. I knew that I would like being a teacher, but I didn't know just how cute the students would be. I also didn't know they would be filled with so much love. Every day, I'm amazed with just how much they impress me. One day, two of my students ran up to me before school started and did a jeol (a formal bow where one bows all the way to the ground to show the highest level of respect). I was overcome with giddiness and couldn't stop laughing. Now, everytime I go to that school my students say, "teacher~ Respect You~" and I reply,  "student~ I love you~!" *cue bursting heart*


 I think I'm doing pretty well here. I mean, I haven't gotten lost. Well...there was that one time I ended up at the bus graveyard. But other than that, I've gotten on all of the right buses. I can make my way around pretty easily. I was really lonely living so far from everyone, and I'm so tired after school that I can't casually head to the city to have dinner with people every day. But it's okay now because...

...Nicholas is here~!


Nicholas got here April 3rd, and while he's been adjusting to life here and teaching at a private academy, called a hagwon, we've been eating out a lot, and doing some sight seeing around the city. I will now shower you with pictures. 

selfies, of course.
a beautiful bamboo fence around a playground.







Elephant graveyard, bus graveyard...same thing.

There's one thing that you never want to fail when you're traveling, and that's your GPS. Imagine being in another state using your GPS and getting lost. Ugh, sucks, right?

Now, imagine being in another country, where you (after years of studying) barely speak the language, and your GPS calls it quits.

Now imagine that same scenario, but this time, your GPS is just a straight up liar.

That's what happened to me this past Saturday. Nicholas and I decided to just travel around Daejeon and see what we could get into. After a really nice Japanese Ramen lunch, we got on the bus (with the urging of Google Maps), determined to head towards the downtown area. Imagine our surprise when the bus we get on (thanks Google) goes in what seems to be the opposite direction. But, what do we know? We don't get off, because maybe this bus takes a different route downtown than what I'm used to. Well, eventually we get to the end of the line. The bus pulls into the bus graveyard. Where buses go to die get prepared for another route.

The bus driver looks into his rear view mirror at us, and seeing the looks on our faces, takes pity. He asks, in Korean, where we are headed. I let him know that we were trying to get to Eunhaeng-dong and he laughs and laughs. Then, he tells us we need to walk in *points* that direction to the bus stop and wait for the bus to get us. So, we prepare to start walking, a little defeated because we felt like we wasted bus fare. Then, as we start heading towards to bus stop, the driver gets off of his bus and yells for us to come back. The bus we need just happens to be leaving, and we should get on it. The best part? We didn't have to pay again. So, yeah, eventually we made it to our destination, and the memory is definitely a pleasant one, but at the time, I remember just feeling so betrayed by Google Maps.




Not long after takeoff


Or did I forget to mention?

This is a cake! I know, it's awesome!

airplane food
Today marks one month that I've been in South Korea. Daejeon, to be exact. That means a lot of things. The most important thing is that it really shows how lazy I've been about writing. I finally decided to get my life together and write today. You may have some questions, so I guess I'll use this post to answer common questions I've gotten since I've been here.



1. What are you doing there?

Yeah, how could I leave Christina?!

I'm on a year-long contract, teaching English in elementary school, through a Korean government program called EPIK (English Program in Korea). After months of applications, gathering documents, and stress-eating, I was able to secure a job in Daejeon, South Korea. I teach 3rd-6th graders at two elementary schools. While I'm here, I'm planning on traveling all around Korea and the surrounding Asian countries.

2. Why Korea?

 I've gotten this question so many times, from friends, family, and Koreans alike. I chose Korea for quite a few reasons. The first reason being: I studied Korean in college. I have a basic grasp of the language, and so it has definitely helped me in acclimating myself here. Mind you, I don't know enough to be totally independent of my co-teachers' help; yet, I feel as though my knowledge has allowed me to easily navigate my neighborhood, and not get lost when using public transportation. Another reason I chose Korea is because of all of the teach abroad programs I've researched, Korea offers the best benefits, as well as having a relatively low cost of living. That means I can pay off my student loans while I'm here. Third reason is living here gives me easy access to many other Asian countries, and I really want to see as many as possible.

Why not Korea?! 

Seriously. This is the view from my apt window.


3. Don't you miss home?

 Yes. Duh. But, I'm on a different journey now. My family still loves me, I still love them and I'm really happy everyone has been so supportive of me.

4. What's Korean food like? OR Will you eat dog?


Korean food is delicious. There are so many different flavors, textures, and spices. What I really enjoy about Korean cuisine is that meals often include rice and soup. Those are two of my favorite things. Also, I love that meat isn't normally the main focus of a meal (unless you specifically go out for meat), so I find myself eating so many more vegetables than I did back home. Now, when it comes to Korean attempts at Western food, I'd have to give a little side eye. Corn doesn't belong on pizza (or this planet, for that matter)! Yeah, I'm looking at you Pizza Alvolo!

Oh, and let this be the last time I ever say this: I will not be eating dog. Although, dog soup is popular with the older generation, pet culture is becoming much more prominent in Korea. The younger generation are not willing to eat Fido. You can all breathe a little easier now.

5. Is your apartment tiny?

 Actually, no. My apartment is much bigger than I imagined. My building is only one year old, so everything is clean, new, and mold-free. I've got a separate bedroom, which is typically unheard of. My landlord and his family are literally the greatest. They help me with any and everything. I teach their oldest son, as he's in 3rd grade. The youngest son, a 1st grader, is so cute and cheeky. Every time they run upstairs to offer me fruit, coffee, or a snack he runs right into my apartment, filled with curiosity. I'd say I hit the jackpot.

All in all, I'm having a blast. I'll try to post more regularly with pictures, videos, and more updates about what's happening here. It took me a month to make the first post, though, so let's see if I can break my own record.





Love from Korea,

Shawnelle


How does one "start" a blog? What is the first post? Do I introduce myself to you all now? Or is that a part of the journey? Do I say my greetings, give my reasoning for wanting to blog, and tell you my future goals? So we go out for dinner and a movie, or just meet up for coffee? Most of the blogs that I've read started because the blogger was starting a new chapter of their life. A new job, just got engaged, traveling/traveled to a new country...but, I'm just...here.

I think I'll tell you a story. One time, a few years back, I tried to take a new route to a place I've been thousands of times before. Something told me that I should be "adventurous," and take the road less traveled. Unfortunately, that road got me lost. Not the kind of lost where you can pop into a gas station and get some pantomimed directions back to the highway. No. I was LOST. Like, surrounded by cows, fields, and my thoughts lost. My GPS gave up on signal about 10 miles back, and somehow I ended up in a completely different part of my home state. I remember I pulled over and lost it. I started crying. I hated myself for trying something so out of my comfort zone, and I thought I'd never figure out my way back home (In retrospect I was only 30 minutes away from home). I called my dad and thankfully he knew where I was. He told me how to get back home, and I didn't even end up at my destination. I couldn't just enjoy the ride. I figured that just wasn't my personality.

Well, I suppose I could tell you that I'm working my way to teaching English in Korea. Hopefully by March of 2015, I'll be getting on an airplane to Wanderland. I guess I could mention that I'm hoping to uproot my entire life for an indefinite amount of time, and teach English to fund my wanderlust. Or maybe I can start off by saying that I'm no one special; just an average college student with no idea of what's "next." Yeah, that sounds about right. I don't know what's next, and for a long time that bothered me. But, now, I think I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

Cheers to the journey ahead!
Welcome to Wanderland