good-bye Chuncheon

one month down...twelve to go.


So the past 6 days have been an absolute whirlwind. I am beginning to wonder if there will be a time when it won't seem like a whirlwind.

Last week we wrapped up our language classes complete with a graduation ceremony and a night out with our teachers. I felt really sad to say good-bye to our teachers, they have been such a wonderful, warm part of being here. I learned a lot from them about teaching a foreign language and about patience and about everything. The night after our exam we went out to a bar and norebong (kareoke) with them. It was great and they were cuter than ever as demonstrated in this picture.



The next day we had our "graduation" and it was really touching. Everyone received a diploma and each level made a presentation. My level--beginning--presented 2 dances to popular Korean songs. It was a bit hilarious to be doing a made-up dance to a Backstreet Boys-esque song in front of all 63 Fulbrighters, our Orientation leaders, the professors from Korea University and people from the Fulrbright Office in Seoul, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. At least my hair bounced appropriately (see below).



My favorite part of the ceremony was the presentation by the intermediate class. They taught us a traditional Korean folk song that is about a sad love story. This song has been played at the last few Olympic ceremonies as the North Korea and South Korean teams walk together, thus it has become an anthem of sorts for reunification. At the end of their presentation my friend David Han played the violin and we all sang along. I became quite teary.

The weekend ensued with lots of eating of our favorite Chuncheon foods, going to norebong with our taekwando grandmaster and packing and playing. Monday we had a very well-organized Talent Show. (That's what you get when you put a bunch of Fulbrighters in charge of something)...I was seriously impressed with everyone who performed from Julienne's traditional Chinese dance to many talented musicians to a patpinsu (ice-cream dessert) eating contest.

We left for Seoul early Tuesday morning with soju-headaches and bags upon bags of stuff to lug onto the plane/bus/train in a few days. I will remember Chuncheon very fondly. I will especially miss Son-ki-o and Jeem-Young, our RAs at the University (waving good-bye to our buses below) and our favorite restaurant--Chessy Pork Rice!