Day thirteen of being in Daejeon and I have finally adjusted to the sixteen-hour time difference and getting used to life in South Korea. My classmates and I started off the day with our last lecture given by Dr. Paik for our study abroad program. In the lecture, I learned more about Dr. Paik and the research that she has been conducting over the last 20 years. The research that she has conducted has demonstrated the improvement of children that undergo social and emotional learning (SEL). It was fascinating to learn and made me happy to be a part of the SEL program and help to make a difference.
After class, Maxine and I met up with our group to finish our project of decorating lanterns and fans with Korean traditional paper called Hanji. Our group taught us how to make homemade glue with water, flour, and heat. It was strong and fun to use when we were making our designs with the Hanji. Once we were finished with our decorations, we moved on to the next part of our project which was the exchanging of American and Korean food. It was fun to watch, and sometimes interfere with, our Korean group members make Dakdoritang (chicken stew) and kimchi-buchimgae (kimchi pancake). Maxine and I made Mac and cheese, which did not seem as exciting as the Korean dishes and we had a bit of a mishap when making the dish, but it seemed to be a success among our group members. I was excited to eat the Korean dishes and they were really delicious and I could eat them forever. It was an amazing time and it made me more appreciative of Korean food and culture. I do not want to brag but I believe group one’s project is the best project compared to the other groups. - Ai-Vi
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Today I was able to take my time waking up and was pleasantly reminded of the fresh laundry I had waiting for me that was done the night before (Shout out to Bri and Graciella for helping me out with that <3). Hailey and I reluctantly got out of bed but my refreshingly cold morning shower effectively woke my mind and body up. Coffee and morning sandwiches with friends at A Twosome Place, a conveniently close and yummy coffee shop on campus, also made a great start to the day. I felt fresh and ready for the day and excited to get to work. SEL prep went pretty smoothly for everyone; we rehearsed with our Korean colleagues and then had a break for a rest and lunch. Those who went to lunch at the school cafeteria really enjoyed a small taste of home as they served the yummy spaghetti and fries!
The lesson we taught at Woosong today, where I am based, was focused on friendship. After introductions, I read a book to the children that highlights healthy ways to meet and interact with friends. Since we wanted to communicate the importance of learning about and doing kind acts for our friends, we paired them up and had them ask each other what colors and animal beads they prefer. They used this to make a friendship bracelet that is customized to their partner's liking. When they exchanged, you could see the light on their faces as they received their carefully crafted gift. They all graciously said “Gomawoyo!” which means “thank you” when speaking to a friend. At times it was hard to control their energy, but I was able to focus their attention and in the end, we got through it. Afterward, we debriefed in the classroom and gave great notes to better prepare each other for Thursday. I talked with friends and rested before I went out again to work on projects that our Korean group partners prepared for us to do together. To my joy, it was all art projects and games! We spent the next few hours coloring, painting, and crafting traditional Korean fans, lanterns, spinning tops, and ddakji origami game pieces. It was incredibly fun, and even after a long, tiring day, it revived my energy and mood. I have loved spending time with my Korean friends, and I think it was my favorite night with them so far. :) - Bella Today, I woke up early in order to do some summer homework for my other classes. Once I finished, I got ready for today’s activities. In this year’s cohort, there are four Filipino American students. We were all missing Filipino food and planned to visit a Filipino restaurant during our stay in Daejeon. Through this student teaching program, we met Dr. Roquillo, a Filipino Professor that has been teaching in South Korea since 2012. She invited us to eat some Filipino food after we talked to her about missing our parent’s home cooked meals back in the U.S. Dr. Roquillo welcomed us with open arms into her small and humble office. We feasted on chicken adobo, pancit, sisig, and puto. She even showed us her collection of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which she has in 13 different languages/versions. Time flew by with Dr. Roquillo and before we knew it, it was time to attend Graciela and Danica’s Presentations.
Graciela and Danica are graduate students that have been part of this program since the beginning of this cohort. Their lectures included information about U.S. children’s social and emotional health during the pandemic through SEL programming as well as how service learning promotes awareness and development of school-based social emotional professionals. Through Graciela’s question of asking what the Korean college students noticed about their kindergarteners’ while facing the pandemic, I found out that they noticed the Korean kindergarteners had a hard time with learning Korean due to not being able to read the teacher’s lips because of having to wear facemasks. They noticed that the kids did not want to play with one another at the beginning and were more interested in media such as youtube. This is very similar to what some of us have noticed in the U.S. as well. Afterwards, we had SEL prep for this week’s activities which include feeling flowers and friendship bracelets. The day did not end there, at least not for my partner Ai-Vi and I. We met up with our Korean partners to write Korean calligraphy on Korean paper called, “hanji/ 한지.” Our team also made hanji fans, hanji lanterns, and created a diorama using the Korean paper. It was a super fun activity to end the day with and I was able to become even closer with the Korean students through this experience! -Maxine On our first day free of any SEL activities, I expected to wake up at 6 am, run on the track field, catch some breakfast in the cafeteria, and spend the day working my presentation for the next day’s lecture. None of that happened. With my internal clock finally set on Korean time, I struggled to get up in the morning, as I do back home. However, after an invite from my dorm mates Danica and Hannah, I found myself on an hour-long bus ride to the Gyejoksan Mountain Red Clay Trail. Having never hiked before, I can say this was this was an amazing first experience. The weather was perfect, and the scenery was breathtaking. Most of our march up the trail was spent taking pictures of the trees, the ponds, and the streams. After hiking and swatting away bugs for about an hour, we set our final destination at a clearing. The clearing had a stage where classical music was playing, and we took a moment to catch our breaths before heading back down, which ended up being the best part of the entire journey. Why? Because we were able to travel down barefoot on a trail of red clay! Hikers have the option to hike the mountain on the regular dirt trail or the red clay trail, which was as soft as play-doh. After reading about the clay and hearing about its therapeutic benefits, Danica, Hannah and I decided to just go for it, and we hiked back down barefoot. It was the most interesting experience I’ve had in Korea so far. The clay felt like putty and even sparkled in the sun. After reaching the bottom of the trail, we washed the clay off and dried our toes in rinsing stations and stopped by a cart selling amazing street food at the base of the path. Snacking on Sotteok, a kabob of rice cake and sausage with a sweet sauce, hit the spot after a one and a half hour hike. After we finished, we headed back home to shower and eat a bit, after which I worked on my presentation. Finally, I got ready to have dinner with our Woosong University partners and our SFSU group! We were able to spend the night eating and talking and getting to know each other better than we have before. New friendships were made, and bonds with our partners and our groups have definitely grown stronger. It was a great start to our second week. - Graciela The alarm blared at 7:10 am and it took me a while to get up. After about 20 minutes, I got up and took my COVID test. I tested negative! I felt a little anxious as I knew we were bound to meet both the parents and kids. After having breakfast, I, along with three others, rushed to the W9/ECE building to help prepare for Family Day/Program early. As I was walking toward the building, I noticed how hard our Korean partners were working; I am forever grateful for their hard work! This special day consisted of many activities, such as Jenga, maracas, jump ropes, lanterns, jacks, kendama, dreidel, and statue game. As the nerves were slowly settling down, I noticed that my group’s initial activity, the statue game, had a major change; we were not allowed to play music! My nerves slowly started rising again, but, luckily, my wonderful Korean partners suggested playing Mugunghwa Flower/Red Light, Green Light. However, we did not get to play this as we and the students were more interested in using the badminton and birdies our Korean partners made. I was so amazed at how innovative they are at creating things; they used stockings as the net for the badminton and the top quarter of the bottle as the birdie! The first few students who came to our station were a little shy and wanted to play with their parent(s) first. Joanna and I noticed the student was having a little difficulty comprehending the game, so Joanna and I decided to play badminton to demonstrate it for them. As the sun beamed down on us, more and more children came to our station and enjoyed playing badminton. At one point, I played badminton with one group for 15/20 minutes! They definitely enjoyed it and, who knows, maybe they will become professional badminton players! After the wonderful Family Day Event, SFSU students were able to eat the food that was served. There were a variety of foods: Korean rice cake, kimbap, sandwiches, and fruits. I really enjoyed the kimbap, it was very 맛있는 (delicious)! Overall, Family Day was definitely a success! It was marvelous to see the children try different things and bond with their parents and teachers at the same time!
After the hard work was done, we got to rest for a bit and, then, treated ourselves by … going to a concert! As one would say, work hard, play hard! Gwen, Jonathan, Maxine, Michelle, Nisha, and I went to Seoul to go to a Seventeen concert (my favorite K-pop group!). To do this, we took a taxi to Daejeon Station and, then, took KTX to Seoul Station, which took about 45-50 minutes (and we were in cart #17!). Seoul Station is pretty huge and it was confusing to transfer to the subway and find which way to go. After successfully hopping onto the train, it took us around 20 minutes to get to Guil Station, which was directly in front of Gocheok Sky Dome. The concert started at 7 p.m. and my excitement grew bigger and bigger as the time neared that time. It was amazing to hear their intro (Say the name, Seventeen!) live after two years of being unable to because of the pandemic. Sadly, at the end of the concert, we had to leave early to be able to make it to the last train at 11:30 p.m. However, I still enjoyed the concert so, so, so much and even cried during one of their songs! I could definitely cross this off my bucket list: going to a Seventeen concert in Seoul/Korea! Connecting it back to their concert name, Be The Sun, SFSU and WSU students continuously shine bright and become beacons of light to the Woosong and Gayang children! We are the sun! -Ciara Today’s weather was temperate after yesterday’s taste of monsoon season. The morning started with Dr. Rodriguez’s lecture on social emotional learning, motivation and problem solving. We learned about fixed/growth mindset, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and 10 ways to encourage intrinsic motivation in children. After listening to the wonderful presentation from Dr. Rodriguez, we had a luncheon with our Korean students, and it was my first time trying Korean pizza! The pizza was delicious! I got to try the angus beef & shrimp cheese pizza. The pizzas in Korea taste nothing like the pizza we have back in the US. There were whole pieces of tiger striped shrimp, pineapple, potato, jalapeno, beef, and onion on the shrimp pizza. The beef pizza had a sweet and savory marinade on the angus beef along with tomato, peppers, onions, and a creamy white sauce dripped on top. I had a great time catching up with my group during the luncheon. It was nice to see everyone bonding with their group mates with delicious pizza. Afterwards, we had SEL prep from 1-5pm to prepare for tomorrow’s family day event. I was in group 6, and we oversaw teaching the Korean children at Woosong University’s preschool center how to play dreidel. The Korean students in my group also wanted us to work on a project we are collaborating on, which was decorating kites together! Among our cohort, I got to see a lot of my classmates’ artistic skills come out when they began doodling on the board together. Our high school intern Bensen got to try a new hairdo done by some of our classmates and it turned out looking great! Afterwards, I went to Skyroad, a famous attraction place in Daejeon to grab some baked pastries from Sung Shim Dang, a famous Michelin starred bakery. I ended the night trying the spicy seafood croquette, which was tasty and worth the crowd and hype! -Michelle My room at the Woosong University Dorm wakes me up most days because of the bright sunrise. While other days we have started with breakfast in the cafeteria, this day we started by taking a COVID test before our day at the preschools. With a negative test, I was able to attend our first session with our Korean partner students in the Early Childhood Education Building. Looking for nourishment, a small group of five formed and headed to the coffee shop on campus, called Twosome Cafe. Twosome Cafe has many teas, coffees, and smoothies for the university students to enjoy. Smoothie in hand, we all ran to the Early Childhood Education building to meet the rest of the team. My partner, Michelle, and I began to discuss our plan for the lesson that day. As a teacher for Woosong Kindergarten, we taught our Calming Jar activity. The Calming Jar activity teaches the preschoolers how to regulate their emotions through mindful meditation. Michelle and I met with our Korean Partner and discussed the details of how the session will run for the day. After hours of decision making, we were ready to get our lunch for the day. A quick lunch of cold noodle soup, chicken cutlet, and a cheese ball later, and we were ready to start the lesson with the preschoolers. Our lesson was a success at Woosong Kindergarten! From the feedback of the rest of the team and our personal reflections, we were able to improve our lesson tremendously! However, during the lesson, we were met with a torrent of rain that will last all week. After much needed rest, a group of us met up with another Woosong University student from our Dorm. This student took us to a local restaurant where we tried any and every dish they recommended. By the time we had finished, it was 9:30 PM, and we were exhausted from the day. However, the dorm held a surprise at our arrival. The rest of our floor was chatting in the floor lobby, and we all had an impromptu photo session! The spontaneity of living in a dorm is unlike any other living experience. We all got to share our experiences that day and plan for the weekend ahead together. As we began to wind down, we all went our separate ways finding comfort in one another through talking, playing games, and eating good food. -Hailie Today began with a slight change in pace compared to the previous days since we arrived here in South Korea. Every day so far has felt almost in fast forward personally, up until today when we were able to sleep in a bit longer if you were able to, and relax. At 11 in the morning, the professors asked us to meet them for a little meeting to talk about how everyone was feeling. No judgment or comments just student by student sharing where they were at mentally, physically, and emotionally. Which I appreciated greatly because it showed me that I wasn’t the only one struggling with feeling homesick or adjusting to such a huge cultural change from what most of us are used to. Overall, it created a safe space for all of us to open up with each other which I think was great for team building. As well as to keep us more connected to those around us especially since we have been living together for one week already and need two more to go.
Then after discussing this we moved quickly to discuss how we could improve for tomorrow’s SEL day for the children. People left and right were sharing ideas and opinions with everyone to help them come up with alternative ways how to connect better with the children and to feel more well prepared. After the meeting, we all had about one hour to get a quick lunch and then meet up as we were going to have our first field trip. We had a bus waiting for us and a little surprise many of the Korean university students from our SEL groups were there to join us. We began our drive which took about 45 to 50 minutes to our first destination which was Gongju National Museum. This Museum consisted of various different artifacts such as a half statue of “The Bust of King Muryeong”, Terracotta heads, weapons such as knives, and more. It didn’t even end there they had a second building that was filled with more artifacts like pots that have been found and where people are trying to put them back together on display for people to see. Many of them looked complete but also missing pieces there and there. Our next destination was what my professor mentioned as a traditional village for tourists to see what a village's life would look like. It reminded me of like a little town but more so secluded from the outside world. It had many little huts/houses I suppose you could say, and a park where children could play and basically everything a little village would need which was pretty cool to see. Aside from the day being in the grueling 90s temperature-wise today was a great day to spend as a team with the SF State students and the Korean students as well. I felt so happy to spend more time with the Korean students in my group and my partner Gwen and just get to bond with them. And as well as seeing everyone else with their groups and seeing everyone looking happy and getting along well. -Alex Woken up by the classic humid warm weather in Daejeon ,followed-up with my morning routine I’ve developed since I’ve arrived. Who knew I would develop a routine this early?! This particular morning I was feeling homesick, exhausted from the time difference, and tired from not being able to get 8 hours of sleep a night yet. I pushed through the physical and mental exhaustion, did my skin care routine, and my make-up because we had a busy day ahead of us. There is something interesting about feeling homesick on this trip and that is; there is always someone else in this group who will support you, listen, and empathize with you because we are all in this journey together. When one person is down, the other person will be strong and be there for the other person, and that is: emotional gold. What’s beautiful about being on this study abroad trip together in South Korea? We get to experience everything together through different sets of lenses. Lately, our day has started with a strong cup of iced coffee from a local café because we will not let the jet lag win! Our group met at the Early Childhood Education building at 10am to prepare for one hour before we went on stage (metaphorically) with the kids at the preschool. Some groups got to practice more with the Korean students, and some couldn’t because of schedule conflicts; All in all, we all prepared to the best of our ability to deliver the SEL lesson to the Korean preschool children. Half of our study abroad group went to a local preschool that involved walking in 90-degree weather for 15-minutes and the other half went next door to the preschool attached to the Early Childhood Education building. Walking into the room for the first time with those little kids waiting for the San Francisco State student teachers and Korean student teachers was very exciting, but also nerve-wrecking because we just wanted to do our very best and make a good impression at Woosong University. We taught the lesson in 45-minutes which included English and Korean translation and the lessons that were taught today were about (1) Calming your emotions and (2) Recognizing Facial expressions/ body language and learning the correlation between the two. Afterwards, we all met back at the center to debrief on how teaching the kids went and how we can improve for the future. We attended an insightful and intellectual lecture presented by Dr. Ronquillo who was warm, delightful, and illuminating. Our educational day ended around 4:30pm and a lot of the students migrated to get something to eat for dinner because we were hungry! My group and I discovered an enchanting and charming modern Thai restaurant hidden under a café at Woosong University. I’m vegan and it has been somewhat hard to find something to eat, so when we found this place: I was intrigued! The waiter told the chef at the restaurant I was vegan, and the chef came over to our table to personally tell me he will make a new sauce from scratch for the pad Thai I ordered to make it vegan friendly. The chef found out we were San Francisco State students, we all exchanged Instagram handles, and he told me to message him before I come to the restaurant so that he can prepare me a vegan Thai meal from scratch; I did a little happy dance! The day ended as usual which included night showers, skin care, and hygiene routines. Well for me, it ended with this blog (: -Joanna 안녕하세요! Another beautiful day in Daejeon, South Korea! Today, we started our first day of classes. We all grabbed our laptops and backpacks and headed off to the W13 building which is the biggest building on campus. We went on the fourth floor to a beautiful lecture hall where Dr. Duh was presenting her slideshow on developmental assessment. In this presentation, she taught us the areas of development such as physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and personality as well as many tools we can use as data collectors and researchers. We focused on the social-emotional area since that is what we are working on with the SEL program. We also did a fun activity that is used for children to test their connection with their social-emotional side. First, Dr. Duh explained that we were supposed to touch our heads and toes but when she yelled at one of the body parts, we have to do the opposite. For example, if she is to yell “HEADS!”, we are supposed to touch our toes and vice versa. This was fairly easy for us so we passed this portion. The second part of the activity involved our shoulders and knees. When Dr. Duh would yell “SHOULDERS” we would have to touch our knees and she added the first part of the activity as well. This part was a little tricky for me because I have a problem with memorizing but I think I did a pretty good job. For the third part of the activity, we put both the first and second parts together and switched them up. So when Dr. Duh yelled “KNEES!”, instead of touching our shoulders as we did for the second portion, we had to touch our heads. This was a bit confusing because originally when Dr. Duh yelled out knees, we would have to touch our shoulders. I think we all had some difficulty with the third part of the activity but overall, I think we all had fun. Thank you Dr. Duh for the amazing presentation and activity!
After the presentation, we went to the study hall to meet with our Korean students to practice for our kindergarten school visit. Yujin, Minji, Soobin, and Seohyun were there and I was very happy to see them and work with them! Our activity is the calming jar and learning calming techniques. We will be reading a book called A Peaceful Spot to the children so they can learn that feeling big emotions is okay and there are ways to deal with them. We will then give the children mystery mail that they can take home showing all the types of calming techniques such as reading, yoga, being out in nature, and dance. The next item on the list is the calming jar where the children will make their very own calming jar with its own unique colors, glitters, and sparkles so it feels special to them. When they shake it up, all glitter and sparkles will disperse in the bottle and the kids can watch it all go down while doing breathing exercises. The children can take their bottles home and whenever they are feeling really big emotions such as sadness, anger, or grief, they can use their calming jars and breathing techniques to calm themselves down. Yujin, Minji, Soobin, and Seohyun really enjoyed learning about the activity and were very excited, as we all are. They added their own points to help make the activity go much smoother for us. I am very excited to teach the children at Gayang K. with the Korean students. After a long day of studying and attending classes, many of the students wanted to try authentic Korean food. Laurie, Aivi, Gwen, Hailie, Maddie, and I decided to go have dinner off-campus and we ate at a small restaurant on the corner where they served the pork with a bunch of little sides such as corn and perilla leaves. Although we asked for two small portions, the portion was big for all of us so we got full pretty fast. It was really tasty and I usually don’t eat pork but I would eat what we had again! My goal while being in Korea is to have as much authentic Korean food as I can. I already have a great appreciation for the music so why not start on my food journey and start with Korea?! I know all of us had fun at dinner and I am very happy we all went together. Now, it’s time to go to bed and get a goodnight’s sleep! Signing off!! -Bri |
AuthorSFSU Psychology Study Abroad Students Archives
August 2022
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