Field Trips, Church, and a Craving for Pizza!

It's day 4 here at Jeonju University and the teacher training has been going extremely well. We've spent the last 2 days in class from 9:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. learning all kinds of incredibly beneficial tools that we as teachers can use in the classroom. Among the classes we've attended, we've learned about curriculum in the classroom, unique ways to engage your students and enhance learning, implementing age-appropriate story into reading activities, mastering effective multi-media use in the classroom, lesson planning, Korean language class, and the history of Korean culture and society...among other valuable insights.

Last night we attended a worship service here at the campus for any and all Christians to gather and have church. It was pretty late at night (following a 12-hour class day), so we were pretty tired but really wanting to be a part of some worship. It was a pretty low-key service and the sermon was just ok, but we were able to pick up valuable resources and brochures about local area churches in Daegu where we will be living. That made the night worth while in itself. One thing I do realize we may find a difficult time dealing with is the lack of selection of where we are able to worship on a weekly basis. Many Christians here are very stand-offish and want to have all the Christians hanging out together but away from everyone else. That's NOT how Sarah and I function, and not how we feel Christ would be in the community in which we find ourselves. We want to be in the midst of people, not isolating ourselves away from those who are different than us.

Today we went on a field trip to a Korean cultural center on the opposite side of Jeonju. We saw many traditional houses and buildings, learned a traditional Korean dance, learned how to paper-mache decorate a traditional Korean fan, and watched a traditional Korean wedding...not to mention we ate some delicious bee bim bop...some of the best I've had yet.

Sarah and I in some of the traditional Korean wedding garb

One of the hilarious things I began to notice today is that Sarah is so often the person picked to volunteer for crazy things throughout our training. Today, she was asked to come up and perform the Korean dance solo because the instructor liked how well she was doing it. She has been great at all of it, but it has sort of become the running joke that Sarah ends up in front of the class at least once a day. :)

Sarah and I with one of the traditional dance instructors

Later in the day we went to an ancient temple area up higher in the mountainous part of the region. We got to see a bunch of Buddhist temples and artifacts. One of the funniest parts of our day happened here. Two of our good friends Tom and Lisa decided to go up and bang a gong that was on display in one of the small temples. Little did we know nor did we see the signs indicating that this area was off limits. Around the moment that they hit the long-resounding loud "GOOONNG", we realized the area was actually closed off. Off in the distance we saw a lady running towards us screaming "No, no!". After walking away sheepishly and receiving hundreds of stares from other tourists at the site, we laughed it off and realized we had just created an incredible (and incredibly hilarious) memory.

Inside one of the temples in the Jeonju mountain regions

Tonight we are going to go out with some of our good friends that we've made here during the training, most of whom will most likely be living within walking distance of us when we head out to Daegu later this week. It's exciting to already have a community of good friends, and I cannot wait to see how that expands.

Some of our good friends: (from left) Tom, Lisa, Ahmee, Jen, Sarah, and I

One side note about something I am learning VERY quickly here in Korea. As much as I LOVVVVEEE Korean food, I am incredible sick of much of it already and can barely stomach rice and many of the fermented side dishes we used to enjoy. I've also found that I'm craving weird things that I didn't even really crave back in the states, like pizza, bread, burgers, fries, Taco Bell, and any other American food I once took for granted. While Korean food is one of my favorite ethnic cuisines, I have realized that the variety of selection we had back in the states is something I'm REALLY craving right now. I know I'll get over it, but it is an interesting observation nonetheless.

More to come later this week. Tomorrow we begin our small group lesson planning for the mock presentations we will be giving to our peers and instructors at the end of our training week. Yikes! Should be good practice.