4 Months In Korea

This week marks the 4 months I have been in Korea! During these months a lot has happened:

1. Reunion with my Freshman year suite-mate and meeting her family
2. Coronavirus spreading like wildfire in Daegu, and then Korea
3. Daegu announcing delay in new school year
4. Meeting new friends during EPIK orientation
5. Daegu, and majority of Korea, announcing further delay in schools opening
6. Voluntary quarantining for 2 weeks upon arrival in Daegu
7. Korea announcing yet another delay in schools reopening… This happens 5 times in total
8. Find my happy place in a dam nearby my apartment (Gachangho)
9. Create online lessons in schools while meeting coworkers and co-teachers
10. Obtain my Alien Registration Card (ARC)
11. Safe, practical mixture of quarantine and social distancing practices over the next months, to present time
12. Get a new Korean phone number and device
13. COVID-19 scare due to breech in my own social distancing practices (luckily, no infection…but it took it’s mental & emotional tolls for sure)
14. Schools finally begin opening, filtering students back in depending on grade level
15. I begin teaching classes

Serious side note to the above…

This is all just part of my journey upon arrival in Korea in mid-February. The world, which was feeling confident and normal, quickly began to shut down as Coronavirus spread across oceans. Globally, we have been living in somber times, taking comfort (or perhaps further discomfort??) in social media and Tik Tok.

When it comes to serious issues, my words always lack eloquence, but here goes…

We are all participants of multiple eye-opening, reality-checking times that face the world, but more specifically, the U.S. As an American living abroad, it has been very difficult to watch all that has taken place in my home country. Not only are you battling coronavirus (Yes, people, it is real and it still exists), but also coming to terms with a long-standing evil that has been swept under the proverbial rug for far too long.

I’m talking about systemic racism. My heart hurts to see the national division over this grave subject. I have greatly appreciated what my friends have shared to help educate all of us. Some have been personal stories of being racially discriminated against, while others have been statistics based, or historical facts that we most likely did not learn in school. However, all are realities that we cannot ignore. This fight has been a very long time coming. Let’s work together to fight for the necessary overhaul of our nation’s infrastructure. Let’s continue to have educating conversations, and vote in the direction of improvements to our country. I”ll end this heavy side note (because the conversation must NOT stop here) with a quote from Ibram X Kendi:

“The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’ What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.”

― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

Korean Schools Fighting Coronavirus

As of June 8th, 2020, all grade levels were welcomed back to public schools in Korea. Students line up at the entrances of school buildings, awaiting their temperatures to be checked with digital non-contact thermometers. Their temperatures are noted, and if below the 37.5 degrees Celsius, students are permitted to enter. Schools who could afford it, also have a thermal camera that is used as an extra precautionary step for determining students’ body temperatures.

As mentioned in a previous post, each school follows their own process for enforcing social distancing practices. All students must wear their masks at all times, unless they are hot, in which case, they can take off the mask for a few moments. As classes are without constant air conditioning (to lessen the potential spread of airborne coronavirus), and majority of the time with open windows, rooms get hot, fast. I have become very familiar with the phrase 답답해요 “Dap dap haeyo” (stuffy).

I now have 9 live classes under my belt. I have taught 1st and 3rd grade middle schoolers, and 4th grade elementary. This coming week will be 4 full days of teaching. Each class is a learning experience, as I consider what to alter in my plans and how the students learn. My co-teachers have given me positive and constructive feedback, which I apply to my next classes. One student’s mother is a nurse at the school, and (because I am clumsy) I see her fairly frequently. She has given me positive feedback from her child, which makes me feel like maybe I can do this teaching thing, after all!

With schools back in session, and coronavirus cases still lurking in Daegu and Korea, I have not gone out and about too much the past weeks.However, I will end today’s post with some photos I have taken on the few outtings I’ve gone on when getting some fresh (hot, very hot) air.

And finally…can you find Belle?