Today, June 30, was the last day of our summer classes in Daejeon, South Korea. My day started with getting up around 10 in the morning. I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and headed downstairs for our last class. Our class meeting was mostly about debriefing our trip. Everyone shared their favorite moments from this trip and then we took pictures of our cohort, including with the professors. After class, I headed back to my dorm to clean and sweep the floor. Afterwards, I went to west campus of Woosong University and had lunch at Meal Plan B. They sell burritos, hot dogs, and fries. I chose this place to test its authenticity for claiming to sell Mexican and Brazilian food. The burrito was ok, but it had sweet barbecue sauce which ended in me disliking the place. After leaving an empty restaurant, I went back to my dorm to rest until we all had to meet up to go to W9 in west campus to attend presentations from Woosong students in regards of the projects they had with us. After all presentations, we were given food to-go and a juice. I went back to my dorm, ate some of the given noodles and went back out to take a walk. The walk, ended up lasting until sundown. I returned to my dorm, showered, and invited over Jasmine to watch a show together.
-Pamela
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I woke up to the sound of peaceful rain. I get excited when it rains because it’s cooler outside and it’s more bearable to walk outside (I’m used to sf weather). I grabbed my umbrella and went for a morning walk to the rooftop. I enjoy taking pictures of the view from the dorm. It’s absolutely stunning. As I was taking pictures I ran into my roommate doing yoga outside! She’s awesome at it and I decided to try to join her. I tried doing the warrior pose with her and it was challenging, but also super fun! In the afternoon, I got ready to go to Fox Edu. This was my second time going and I was beyond excited. My first time was doing family day. I had so much fun with the kids doing the jump rope activity and statue activity. This time at Fox Edu, I also played fun games such as Jenga and Sandwich. Some of my best memories have been visiting Fox! The kids are always so entertained and it’s wholesome to watch them become engaged with activities. I also ended up donating a little book called "Goodnight Night San Francisco" by Adam Gamble and Santiago Cohen to their little library! They laminated a little note I wrote, it was adorable. After Fox Edu, I headed to have Korean BBQ with some peers. We had pork belly and spicy ramen with seafood. It was cool that each individual person is brought a tray with 3 sauces, some beans sprouts with hot sauce, and a side of rice. Also a soda of your choice! I don't usually eat meat, but the pork belly is definitely worth eating here in Korea! I'm feeling pretty down that these are the final days of my trip. I've enjoyed getting to meet new people and making closer connections. I'll miss the sweet kids I got to work with and the fun lesson plans my partner and I prepared. I will also miss exploring Korea, even though I
wasn't able to go everywhere I wanted! (Definitely next time). -Marina Today, June 28, 2023, marked no other than nail day for Alex and I! I began my day with a group meeting with the cohort and faculty before making my way to Salady by the West Campus to eat lunch. They specialize in salad bowls, wraps, and sandwiches. It’s advertised as a healthy restaurant, which was very interesting. When I stood at the electronic kiosk, I tried to envision something that was familiar enough to me to be comforting. I ended up choosing the salmon wrap that included salmon, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and pickled jalapenos with a lemon dressing, all wrapped in a flour tortilla. I also added cucumbers! I initially thought it’d be salmon sashimi, but it turned out to be smoked salmon– it was really good and refreshing. One thing I’ve noticed about Korean food is that everything is tinged with sweetness, which is especially jarring when it comes to things I’m expecting to be completely savory. Notable items include garlic bread (it’s sweet!), spaghetti (it’s sweet!), and pickles (they always taste like bread and butter pickles, never dill). So this wrap was such a great palette cleanser, and I was getting some fresh veggies in for the first time in forever. It’s hard to find vegetable-based dishes in Korea as well– they’re normally just incorporated into dishes or turned into kimchi. After lunch, we headed to Iruri Nail & Eye just in time for our appointment at 2pm. Despite the language barrier, we were able to communicate the designs we wanted and 2.5 hours later, we were done! Both nail technicians were so sweet and accommodating considering how we were foreigners. My nail tech spent one hour solely on shaping my nail extensions and buffing them smooth. I’d say that prices are similar to SF; my set was 140,000 won/ $107 (nail extensions + design) and Alex’s 60,000 won/ $50 (natural nail + design). Although I wasn’t expecting the price to be akin to SF’s considering how many things in Daejeon have been on the affordable side, I do think it was worth the work they did! Alex and I then headed to a vietnamese restaurant called Vietnam Restaurant (literally 베트남식당 haha) for dinner! I ordered shrimp spring rolls (gỏi cuốn), grilled pork vermicelli noodles (bún thịt nướng), and a fresh coconut to wash it all down. The spring rolls came with thai sweet chili sauce and a sweet sauce that had peanuts and chilis, which was very unlike what I was used to; I typically eat it with fish sauce or peanut sauce. That’s why I was so happy to see that the noodles came with fish sauce! It also came with a side soup that had chives in it, and was plain in a very nice way. I ate the spring rolls with the vermicelli noodle fish sauce, so I was low… With a burst of courage and a deep love for fish sauce, I went up to the two women sitting by the counter. Although I knew it most likely wasn’t grammatically correct in the slightest, I told them “Nước chấm hana juseyo” [One fish sauce please] and pointed and my empty sauce bowl. The older lady jumped up and exclaimed “Nước chấm? Nước chấm?” [Fish sauce? Fish sauce?] and grabbed the bottle to pour some out for me. She poured a ton out and didn’t stop until I said it was okay. She was so excited to speak to me in Vietnamese but unfortunately I didn’t understand. With the help of the younger lady who I presume is her daughter, I explained that I was Chinese but my family is from Vietnam so that’s how I know so many Vietnamese dishes. She smiled at me and said “Cảm ơn!” [Thank you!] and I said it back. I was so happy to be able to make her so happy just by saying “fish sauce” and forming a connection. I wasn’t able to tell them this, but eating Vietnamese food also helped to cure my homesickness just a bit. Eating Vietnamese food reminds me of my family, especially some of the other dishes that I didn’t dare to order because I knew I’d be disappointed by its authenticity…(like bún riêu and bún bò huế if you were wondering). Considering how hard it must be to import vegetables and ingredients outside of Vietnam, on top of catering to the Korean palette, I felt a sense of isolation from her reaction. Even Alex’s beef pho (Phở Bò) tasted different. The broth was nowhere near as light, and had a greasiness to it. It also had a garlicky, steak-like aroma instead of tasting like the pho spices we’re used to. I would’ve expected their pho to be good since I view it as a staple dish, but perhaps it’s hard to source those things here. My interaction with the lady coupled with my homesickness made my day! It was so sweet because before we left, she told us “Cảm ơn, cảm ơn!” again and again, and of course I said it back. After hearing that I spoke the smallest sliver of Vietnamese, it felt like she was clinging onto that one word that connected us in this foreign country. Maybe I’m reading into it too much, but it feels so poetic in and of itself. And now, that concludes my day today.
If you’ve read through this far all I have to say to you, dear reader, is cảm ơn. -Cameron 06/26/23-06/27/23 Welcome to a two-day adventure that Sofia and I will never forget! On the morning of the 26th, Sofia and I got together as we were going to meet with our Korean students for our last day of adventures with them. Sofia and I walked to the West campus for boba tea then met up with the Korean students. We went to a board game cafe where we ate lunch and then played a couple of card games. After the board game cafe, we went to an area of Daejeon that used to be the homes of public officials, such as the governor, but now has become a museum to show traditional homes in Korea as well as the history of Korea. We went into a few different homes, the first we could see the traditional tables and seating where the Korean families would eat. We got to walk through the house and see several artifacts from history. And in one room it showed information about the Daejeon governor, Shim Dae Pyung. The second home was like a school or daycare. There were rooms to play games, one room had two arcade style games, Sofia played Pac-Man and I played a shooting game. One of my favorite spots was an area that had a bunch of cards on the wall, you roll one die and whatever number that is you find it on the top row, and you roll a second die and that’s the number going down, kind of like coordinates on a graph. You grab your corresponding card and it contains a fortune for you. As we finished up at the museum, our group walked to the end of the street, we took group selfies as we waited for our taxis. Sofia set her phone on the ledge of a building, up against a window to take a selfie, and just after the picture was taken, her phone fell into a gap between the wall and the window, with about a 3 1/2 foot drop give or take. I immediately cancelled my taxi, and we began brainstorming ways of retrieving the phone. Because of the gap being so narrow and behind the wall it was extremely difficult to see the phone, I am shorter so it was even harder for me to see, we mostly relied on the reflection of the phone on the glass. Our group stayed together and some of the students walked to find sticks and rods to try to get the phone and then we made our way to a 7-Eleven to grab tape to try to stick to the phone. The tape wasn’t working as leaves would stick to it. With the phone being at the bottom of the wall, we thought about moving a couple of loose bricks to grab it from the bottom. As we worked to remove the bricks we began to notice that we were bloodying our knuckles. We finally removed the bricks, only to find a piece of wood that sealed the gap. Keeping in contact with our professors and classmates I continued to stress the prayers and good vibes from them. At one point I received a text message from one of my best friends showing me that she had given birth to her daughter! I shared one of the photos with everyone to help lighten the mood and share excitement as we continued to fish for the phone. As it got later, a woman who lived nearby stopped and told us we need to be careful of the wall because it would break if we pull on it anymore. She didn’t speak English but we were able to use our Papago translation app to communicate with her. She made a few phone calls and offered to come back later with her husband that night when he got off work with a special tool to retrieve the phone. We gave her our professors’ contact numbers as she said she would notify them when they got the phone. As we said goodbye to the Korean students, it was beyond emotional as Sofia was stressed about losing her phone. Sofia and I rode back to the dorms and then I left again with Jasmine to grab dinner for us and Sofia. Late that night, we were notified that the phone couldn’t be retrieved and that we're welcome to come back in the morning if we wanted to try. I laid in bed that night brainstorming ideas to retrieving the phone. We listened to the thunder rolling and lightning striking across the sky, hoping the phone would be okay through the rain. This morning, June 27th we got up at 8 and headed to a few convenience stores looking for items to try to pull the phone out. We found a pack of two long rubber bands that were straight. We went back to the store and continued trying to get the phone. We tied the two rubber bands together and made a loop on one end and tried to get it around the phone. With the rubber band, Sofia was able to flip the phone to an upright position and we had an idea of using a stick to get the rubber band around the phone and to guide it up enough for us to grab it. We didn’t have a stick and had to be back by 10 for a class meeting. We raced back to the campus for our meeting, where our classmates and professors continued to give positive support and hopes for us to get the phone back. After the meeting, we went to a store and found several more items to help retrieve the phone and then we found a long bug catcher or fish net, giving us hope of getting the phone. Back at the store with the phone, we tried using the net and another stick to guide it but the net fell off the pole. We then tried a box to scoop the phone but that was not working. We kept trying everything we could. I went back to 7-eleven and bought a tape measure and a pair of scissors to help us come up with a contraption. The business owner showed up and would come out every now and then to see how it was going and I could tell she felt bad but didn’t know how to help. At 2 pm we decided to give it another hour before leaving the phone there. Several people walked past and would give us odd looks like we were doing something we shouldn’t, some of them asked us to put into Papago what we were doing. At 2:20pm a woman approached me and again using Papago to communicate, told me to try the wire. I asked where the wire was and she walked me to a shop and bought a long wire for me and made the end of it a slip knot to grab the phone. I took the wire back and we tried to grab the phone but it still wasn’t working. At 2:30pm the woman came back and started helping us rig the wire to our pole that originally had the net and we tried to grab the phone, but it still didn’t work. She then added rubber band to the wire for more grasp but it didn’t work. At 2:40pm she started to make another contraption adding a folded box we had, to the end of the pole and against the wire. As she was taping it, I looked at Sofia and said we still have 20 minutes of trying. I could tell she was also exhausted and emotional so I tried my best to stay positive and give as much support as possible. We placed the pole inside and used another stick to push the phone. The woman took the other end of the wire and put it through a slit on the wall to try to help push. Using the words yes and no in Korean I communicated with her when to pull back and when to push. We got the phone into the box and as Sofia pulled up, the box was angled, I tried to reach in but only my hand could fit in the hole and the phone slid out of the box and back on the ground. We still held hope because we knew that we could get the phone with this technique. We went a second time with that technique and once she got the phone in the box we said pull straight up and don’t tilt the pole. Sofia slowly pulled the pole out and quickly grabbed her phone as the box got to the top. We jumped up and down in joy and everyone hugged each other from the excitement! Aside from us getting the phone out I was very proud of the communication we had as we worked with someone we didn’t know and couldn’t understand in terms of language. We made it work and worked so well in completing our mission. I sent a group photo of Sofia, the store owner, the lady who stopped to help, and myself to our class/professors and everyone responded with excitement and cheered for our accomplishment! Our adventures will forever be a memory we will remember and laugh about in the future. -Rene Today was a very rainy day, so much so we received multiple weather alerts on our phones. However, that did not stop us! Andria, Sofia, and I decided to take a cab about an hour away to Daedunsan Mountain for hiking and the cable cars. As we were heading there we realized it may be harder to get back so using our translation app. We talked our cab driver into coming back to get us. He was very kind and shared a photo of him when he went mountain climbing. We had to pay in advance so we did in the hopes he would actually return… As we made our way up the hill towards the cable car, there were many restaurants on our right and as we walked we could see their faces in awe as we, three women were walking in the pouring rain with no umbrella. We were stopped by a man who said he knew a little bit of English, he wanted us to join him at a restaurant for lunch but we told him we’d be back and we were going hiking first. He kept wanting to talk to us and then said he loved music and played the song, The Power of Love by Celine Dion, as he closed his eyes and took in the words. After that we finally continued up the hill in the pouring rain to find Daedunsan Hotel, where I asked how to find the cable cars. They woman inside handed me a map and showed me the way to the cable cars on the map. We had an even bigger hill to climb and our shoes were drenched as the water flowed down the hill we had to walk up. When we finally made it to the top, we were able to wait indoors for our cable car. We took many pictures as we waited, as the waiting area had places for photographs. Once we began boarding our cable car we could see up the mountain and it was absolutely stunning. Everything was so green and the fog laid across the mountain tops and down through the trees. Because it was raining, the woman who ran the cable car opened some windows at the top for us to take photos and videos. As we neared the top, the wind picked up and we could feel the cable car shaking in the wind. We were asked to stand up against one side of the cable car to balance out the push of the wind. When we got off we walked up to a platform we stopped for photos, and then made our way up many, many flights of stairs, to the top of the mountain, where we would find a bridge that was held up by strong cables. As we walked across the bridge we could feel it bounce, as well as the swaying with the wind. Once we came down the mountain and back towards the restaurants for lunch, we found the man who wanted to eat with us, only this time he kept trying to get us to go with him to his car to ride to a different restaurant. We kept telling him we were going to eat where we were but he kept insisting we go with him. Finally we walked over to the restaurant we wanted and he began walking away. We sat at a table outside under an awning and the man came back trying to get us to go with him. At this point the woman at the restaurant stepped forward getting protective and started arguing with him to leave and leave us alone. Three men from the management office came over to help her get the man to leave and the woman looked at us and made an X with her arms telling us to stay away and not trust that man. After lunch we walked back to the area we told our cab driver we would meet, and he came driving up about two minutes early. The drive back was pretty quiet as we were all tired from our hike. In the evening, a few of us went shopping and stopped at McDonald’s so we could see the difference between South Korea and the U.S. I loved the taste of the chicken and the sauces they use are very good. There were only three dipping sauces to choose from if you order nuggets and they had snack wraps. After McDonald’s we went shopping and headed back to our dorms. -Rene We meet with our group at 9am. I put on my cute dress as I knew we would do girl things together. We meet our group at the bus stop and all took the Subway to the Korean Traditional game house. Once we got to the Korean Traditional town one of the rooms was closed so we went to the game house. I played this throwing arrows game for kids and classic arcade games which was so fun!!!
We ate at a cute cafe with cats and shared cultural games together like Holly Golly and Korean counting game. We also went to a traditional bakery in Daejeon with Muggwort or mochi with red bean, Korean cookies, and cake. I bought so many souvenirs to take home! -Jasmine Unfortunately the cultural/family day at Fox was my first day at that center. Not getting to volunteer a lot at Fox will be one of my few regrets this trip because the center is so amazing. When I end this trip I will have only got to volunteer three times.
Upon entering the building I was immediately impressed. The atmosphere, as well as learning technology, is incredibly advanced and quite intuitive to the individual child. I have never seen an after-school program quite like it. The staff were so friendly and accommodating. For the actual event Jared L. and I volunteered to work in the reading section. This section was in the FOX library connected to their cafe in a different part of the center. This meant that we missed the action and bustle of all of the engaging cultural activities planned. Unbeknownst to us, this also meant that we were paired with the children who could not participate in the event for various reasons. We did not find out until after reading that the "My Friend is Sad" book, and explaining that they should come back with passports, that they could not leave to join the other kids. Regardless of all that though, I think we all were still able to have a good time. Though the center seems to be STEM focused, all their technology utilized still catered to the individual child. When reading with the children got old, we began to use the iPads and computers brought out. Each iPad had a variety of apps to keep the children entertained with the right balance of academia and fun. The one I noticed used by this particular group of children the most was Procreate. They kept on drawing self-portraits, so I drew a picture of Jared to make them laugh (which worked). Jared spent most of his time gushing over the coding laptops for the children, and he helped a child code. My highlight was a Korean children's book I found. I think it is called Moon Sherbet, which is basically a story where it is so hot in Korea that the moon melts into ice cream, consequently forcing all buildings to lose electricity/AC. Luckily, "president's grandmother" collects the liquid cream and uses it to make glowing ice pops. She then shares all her moon sherbet with the community, and then everyone regains power? There was also something about bunnies in the end but I got confused? I like this book for so many reasons. First, I would not put it past Korea to get so hot that the moon melts. Second, the narrative really touches on the collectivistic culture of Asian countries. Third, I really like the art style and overall tone. I am so used to children's illustration being vibrant, whimsical, and cartoon-like. Whereas, this book leaned more into the gray tones of the Korean architecture. However, my most favorite thing about this book is I got to make a connection with one of the children at Fox by asking him to translate it for me. Before the event started I quickly used Papago, but I was curious just how bilingual the children at Fox were. He did an amazing job at reading the book in Korean and then finding the English words to explain to me what was happening on each page. I was so impressed, making that connection felt amazing. I will get to visit Fox edu two more times and am excited to see what connections I will make next! *CCrRRRRRCCCC* Over and Out, Alex *CCCCRRRrrrrCCccccc* Today was such a fun and busy day!!!!!! We all started off the day with a 10 a.m meeting. The even-numbered groups were going to the Woosong west campus while me, Mariela, Sofia, and Rene volunteered to go to Fox EDU (our groups were hanging out together so it worked out perfectly that we both were going to Fox EDU). The facility was very nice and modern. We were introduced to one of the staff there named Jonathan who is an American from New York! It was really cool to see someone from the U.S living in Daejeon. Then we get to teaching. The previous lesson at Woosong west campus went well, so me and Mariela felt ready, and fortunately the two lessons we did were great!!! The children were attentive and really engaged in the lesson. After, all of us were starving and in need of a snack before going to meet with our group mates, so Dr. Paik and Dr. Duh brought the four of us to Sungsimdang!! I was never really much of a pastry person before but after trying Sungsimdang I think I can officially say that I am MAYBE a pastry person now:)))). After leaving, me, Mariela, Sofia, and Rene headed to the Woosong west campus. We met up with our groups and got on a bus to go to the Uam Historic Park. When we got there we walked around the area for a couple of minutes. Then we ended up stopping at this grassy area and played some Korean traditional games! The scenery there was beautiful especially when the sun was setting! We all got dinner together and had a blast there as well! To end it all off we went to a photo booth. Overall a 1000000/10 day!!! -Jared D Today, most of our group went on a trip to Shinsegae which is a shopping mall. When we arrived, half of the group went to find something to eat and the other half of us walked around to shop and check out the different stores. Everyone met back up after about half an hour and we went to an area called Sports Monster. We spent two hours venturing around trying all of the sports and activities. In one zone, we were able to practice pitching a baseball and then batting. When I tried the batting the ball would come out super fast and high so I had to stand farther back in the box to finally hit a couple. My favorite part was the archery section. At one point the employee was trying to tell one of our students to turn her bow around because she had it the wrong way, I went over to help and he told me to speak into the mic which was funny because everyone started looking around as soon as they heard someone speaking fluent English. Some of the other activities were shooting, Taekwondo, ping pong and tennis but everyone’s favorite seemed to be the zip line to the obstacle course and then the free fall. We finished our time at Sports Monster playing basketball in the gym then our group split up again. Half of our group went exploring around the mall and the other half of us went to an aquarium. In the aquarium we were able to see all kinds of fish that many of us have never seen and the design was very breathtaking. We noticed they had robotic fish swimming with the other fish in some tanks and I got to see the biggest turtle I have ever seen up close. At the end of the aquarium they had a mermaid show where people swam inside the tank with choreographed dancing. After we watched the show, three of us found a virtual reality rafting adventure where we were wildly rafting through a jungle and we got to see all kinds of dinosaurs. That was pretty wild. Both of our groups met up in the food court which is different than food courts in the U.S. because there were way more and had a more dine in type of food selection. After dinner we walked around the mall, we found a produce area where they had ginormous melons, larger than we had ever seen before.
Upon returning to the dorms, my roommate and I put on a movie and relaxed for the rest of the evening. -Rene My Tuesday morning began with a quick meeting with the whole group. We wished luck to our cohort members who had their first teaching day. My partner and I met with our Woosong University friends to make a picture frame. They brought materials we could use to decorate the frame for our lesson plan. We had a yummy lunch and chatted about our plans for the next day. We made plans to get together the next day and play traditional Korean games. My partner and I then had to go teach our SEL lesson plan to the students at FOX EDU. I was really nervous because I felt extremely unprepared to teach. My partner helped me prepare and reminded me that no matter what happens, the children are still happy to have us there as teachers. Throughout our lesson, the students were extremely excited and interested which gave me reassurance. The fact that they would actively participate and get excited about all the activities made me happy! The kind team at FOX EDU then invited us for some dinner! We sat and ate with a lovely view of the fountain and mountains. It was a cloudy day but it still looked beautiful. I ended my day watching the sunset from my room because I was tired from the day. Every night I watch the sunset and look out at our view from the roof. I feel thankful for this opportunity and new experiences!
-Joanna |