d i c t i o n a r y d a y d r e a m s

I am here at Orientation in Chuncheon, a medium-sized college town, for 6 weeks. For the past few days I have been learning some spotted vocabulary and the Korean alphabet--hanegul--to the best of my ability. These weeks consist of 4 hours of Korean instruction in the morning and 3 hours of workshops about teaching and culture in the afternoon. The rest of my days consist of an hour for lunch, a break after classes, dinner and an hour long Taekwando (TKD) class.

Last night Lauryn (from Smith), Emerald (from Claremont McKenna), Julenne (from Penn State) and I went out for beer and studying. We ordered the Korean phenomenon of what seems to be the largest pitcher of beer in the history of the world (above). We befriended a group of students at a close-by table and for the first moment since I have been here I understood Korean. One of the students (red-blue shirt to the right) asked me where I was from and I understood! Lauryn and I looked and each other in utter glee and answered "Migu"="United States". A monumental moment here at "Kate is in Korea".

I am eating a bowl of very spicy instant ramen-y soup and listening to "This American Life" on ITunes and thinking of all of you. Lots of love, Kate