placements- gyeongju!

경주 전덕여자고등학교에 갈 거예요!

We found out our placements for the rest of the year today! I'll be in Gyeongju (경주) teaching at an all 

girls' high school. It's exactly what I asked for! I'm so excited. I'll actually be teaching at the same school as my Camp Instructor from my first lesson at Camp Fulbright. She was the one who got me interested in Gyeongju, so it really worked out perfectly. She loved the school and the city. It's a private school and looks really nice. 

As for the city, it's one of the most historic places in Korea. I think the whole city is a UNESCO world heritage site! It was the capital of the Silla dynasty, so a lot of the history is related to that...there are tombs of Silla royalty, including the queen after which my school was named, Seondeok (I 

think). There's also one of the most famous temples in Korea, Bulguksa. It's a very pretty city, and I'm so glad! I really wanted to be somewhere very pretty...So here are some pictures I found of Gyeongju, of my little post-it with my name on it that I stuck on my city. My good friend from language class Matt was placed there, too. It's odd how many Matts there are here... :\ 

Here is also a picture of the map of Korea with all the ETAs' names on it. See how spread out we are, except in Gyeonggi-do, the province Seoul is in? Only 2 people were placed there, and for outstanding reasons. 

well, i feel I should explain the whole process...we basically had a ceremony for placement announcements, which involved us all standing in a big semi-circle while our OC's announced the cities we'd be going to and Mrs. Shim announced the school name. When my name was called, I had to step forward, bow, and then walk up on stage to get a post-it with my name on it. When all the people in my province had been announced, we stuck the post-its on the big map of Korea. Ta-da! A country full of ETAs. 

Here is a picture of the school I'll be teaching at, Seondeok Girl's High School (전덕여자고등학교)

And here is my keyboard with hangeul stickers on it. Now you all know my secret for typing in Korean.

Tonight we had our second and last cooking class. Our teacher was so nice, she made dessert for us (ttok cake, from scratch!) after we cooked our pa jeon and mek jeok. Dong rae pa jeon (동래파전) is Korean seafood pancake with leeks. So delicious!  We also made mek jeok (맥적) which is pork prepared similarly to bulgogi. Also delicious. I am so stuffed. And we had tea as well, fruit tea that had 5 different flavors in it: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and spicy. Sounds crazy, but it really did have all the tastes...and it was amazing!

If you can't tell, I'm in a great mood. I also just got to talk to my Matt for the first time in about a week since he's been in Italy, which definitely lifted my spirits (which were already high!), so now I just have to make sure I get a good night's sleep tonight so I can face my third and final lesson tomorrow afternoon! Matt (the one placed in Gyeongju with me) and I are teaching a music lesson, and I'm going to play my violin! Should be fun...I'll let you know how it goes.