Today, the ETAs experienced our first panel day! w00t! Panel day is when a bunch of Camp Fulbright instructors and other returning ETAs (usually those who renew) descend upon the Marble Mansion with caches of wisdom to bestow upon us. Basically, we spend the day asking questions to people who have already done what we're about to do. It was really awesome to get some stories and some feedback about what I'm feeling and what I can expect. That being said, the Fulbright Mantra about everything concerning everything is "It all depends". What does it depend on? Our placements! Will we know what level students we'll be getting? It depends! What kind of co-teacher support can we expect? It depends! Will I be able to maintain my strict diet and receive the appropriate medical attention that I need for my very specific medical condition? It depends! (Just kidding on that last one! I don't have any sort of illness and Fulbright Korea definitely has our best interests at heart!) As you can see, placements are a huge source of anxiety because in that placement we can begin to unlock what the next year will look like for us! We're supposed to fill out our placement forms sometime next week and I'm super ~*nervous*~ about what that means for me! I really really want to have an amazing experience and I just don't know what environment would be best for me! Do I want rural, suburban, or urban? Do I want co-ed or gender segregated? Small or large school? Mountains or ocean? What if I end up on Jeju-do?! It's a lot to think about and prioritize what's most important to me. As of now, and I am going to officially say this now, the only things that I have a true preference on is that I end up in a place that's 'suburban' or near 'Korean suburbia.' I have opinions on everything else (I'd prefer co-ed, smaller school, high school). But I think as long as I end up somewhere resembling suburbia, everything else would just work out. Though I would be willing to make some serious sacrifices to the Fulbright gods to ensure that I don't end up on Jeju-do! I do NOT want to be living off the mainland for a year!!!
Other than the stress related to placements, I feel pretty good about everything! My camp instructor said she liked my first lesson plan and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with everyone, despite the fact that there are still some people I've never talked to before (our group is really that huge!) We're leaving tomorrow morning to go to Donghae (a beach town!) for the weekend and I'm really excited to leave my Fulbright bubble and actually have some ~*~free time~*~ which is a shocking and unfamiliar concept to me at this point ;) I'm not bringing my laptop with me to the beach, so I won't be posting over the weekend, but I will definitely write about it when I get back on sunday! Other than that, I've been doing well and I'm excited to get back to Camp Fulbright next week!
See, I told y'all I would try and do better with blogging,
Haley
Other than the stress related to placements, I feel pretty good about everything! My camp instructor said she liked my first lesson plan and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with everyone, despite the fact that there are still some people I've never talked to before (our group is really that huge!) We're leaving tomorrow morning to go to Donghae (a beach town!) for the weekend and I'm really excited to leave my Fulbright bubble and actually have some ~*~free time~*~ which is a shocking and unfamiliar concept to me at this point ;) I'm not bringing my laptop with me to the beach, so I won't be posting over the weekend, but I will definitely write about it when I get back on sunday! Other than that, I've been doing well and I'm excited to get back to Camp Fulbright next week!
See, I told y'all I would try and do better with blogging,
Haley
Korean Culture Corner
Fun fact of the day: The Korean word for fish is "물고기" which means "water meat"