Day one of Lectures

When I heard that we would be having 31 lectures while at orientation, I hoped that wouldn't mean boring classes that would attempt to show you how to be a TaLK teacher but would have very little use and not prepare us at all. And of course put us to sleep. Thankfully today held none of that. Our first lecture was presented by Winnie Wong, a TaLK scholar from Jeju island who has been in the program for 1 1/2 years. She was very entertaining and gave us several good ideas for games to play, how to introduce yourself on the first day and how to minimize culture shock. We played paper, scissors, rock only you use your whole body not your hands. We played a Titanic game where if you got the question right you could save a passenger. The last game was more brutal. Each team had a person: Jerry Springer, Sponge Bob, Mickey Mouse and Obama. Each of those mascots held two balloons with numbers. If our team got a question right they rolled the die. If the number was one of the balloons held my the person to the right, then the balloon was popped. My team was Sponge Bob. If we got a number held my Mickey Mouse then his balloon was popped. If both balloons were popped then he would fall into the pool of piranha and sharks. Unfortunately, Obama was the one to die.
The next lecture was about differences between Korea and other countries so we would be prepared.

If you are interested in seeing the presentation, the slide show is available at walterforeman.com.

He used several very funny comics that seemed to illustrate the oddities of Korean culture very well (roketship.com). The third lecture was about the history of Korea such as the conflicts between Korea and Japan and South Korea and North Korea. It was also about why Koreans ask some of the questions they ask.

Then we had lunch. I've included a photo for my brother of the chopsticks. This is from breakfast, hence the sausages. Between my first and second lecture I walked back to my dorm and slipped on the ice and changed my pants. Then after lunch I found that I had a strange red stain on my pants and my sweater. So in my second coat and third pair of pants I went to my fourth lecture. It was traditional Korean painting. They gave us very little instructions before we were told to start. We each got to make two paintings and received one that was made by the instructor.


 The girl next to me was Lindsay from the states. Her paintings were really interesting and different from the example. This is also my attempt at writing my name in Korean.

The fifth lecture was by Angela Hur who is the manager of TalLK. Her presentation was about different places in Korea to visit and the different festivals to go to. She mentioned some things that occur in the Autumn and Winter because some people will be here for 12 months, but that just bummed me out because I won't be here for those things. I definatly have to go to the Muan White Lotus Festival, the Muju Firefly Festival and the Boryeong Mud Festival. Yay, MUD! It is required that you get dirty.

 

The sixth lecture was traditional Korean paper crafts. We were given a milk bottle that had a face and hair paper -machéd on it. The instructor demonstrated the steps to making the doll and gave instructions in Korean and Annie, one of the KGC, translated. I'm sure she wasn't translating everything though because it was their sixth lecture and they were getting tired so she only said the important bits. Also every time Annie said something funny and we laughed the instructor was confused as to what she had said that was so funny.

Our key cards are so interesting so I took a photo of the place where we swipe them to get from the lobby to the elevators in the girls' dorm. Also the key pad next to my room. Yes we have intercoms but I've never used them.

That's all for today. Tomorrow is another full day of lectures.
Good night,
~Lisa