Somehow, I see this title needing to be available in the future! If you're stopping by for the first time, welcome! I'm still trying to get a feel for this blogging process, and I'm hoping that over time, a theme will emerge. At least, a more compelling theme than "Can Sarah actually get to South Korea? And once she's there, can she survive there for a year?" So thanks for stopping by to watch and share in the process.
I've made some minor changes to my earlier posts, but in general I'm going to leave them as they are. They were written for a different audience than posts from here forward, and I think that's okay. Moving on to the thoughts!
1. I've told a lot more people that I'm planning on going to South Korea! Family, several church friends and prayer groups, etc. Nice to finally have the confidence to start talking about my hopes and plans. Thank you to those who have offered suggestions and offered to put me in contact with people you know who are pursuing similar adventures! I may be calling or writing you soon about these details. Please be praying for me! Character-building experiences will abound, and I need the strength of God to carry me through them.
2. Why didn't I write about those movies when I had the chance?! It wasn't that late at night. Here's the gist of those experiences. Did I understand them yet? Technically, no. However, I did clearly recognize about a dozen words (give or take) in each movie, not even counting relying on the subtitles for translation! My excitement is difficult to convey...! The English translations of some of those words/phrases are: car, shoe, mother, grandfather, and, but, black (color), red (color), fish, hello, I, thank you, yes, no. Other words I realized I knew after the fact, but they didn't provide the same lightbulb ignition moments as those other words did. Now, I admit I can't make much of a conversation with that, but it was a small encouragement to recognize meaning amongst a lot of sounds that still sound to me like they're straight from Babel. The trick is being able to say those words when prompted; I'm not quite there yet.
Watching "Il Mare" was an enjoyable experience, though I hope to watch it on better quality than streamed in 10-minute segments posted by a private citizen. Evidently, Netflix only offers a Cantonese-dubbed version, not the original Korean language track for some odd reason. "The Lake House" successfully worked out a few narrative structure problems that "Il Mare" had, but I definitely enjoyed the atmosphere created by "Il Mare." It was interesting listening to Shakespeare passages being spoken in Korean, though I didn't catch anything about a rhyme structure or any words really. I'll have to watch "Lake House" again for a more recent comparison! Overall though, I'm impressed by the two samples I've seen of Korean filmmaking. Great cinematography and music for both, and the acting is quite good!
3. I received a personal email from my TEFL heroes from Canada! I had asked about the competitiveness for getting placed through KorVia in the GEPIK system, which they didn't have tons of insight into (apparently several people have written to them with concern over this matter though. I also asked about safety/crime concerns, and they said that they have never felt safer in their lives! :D Of course, no one can make any promises--there are no guarantees--but this news was extremely encouraging and I'm sure a relief to my parents when I told them.
4. Big changes in routine take place soon. My job is ending a week from "tomorrow" (tomorrow being Thursday, when I wake up). That leads to all sorts of reflections for the more than two years I have worked there. I'm going to miss being at work with my dad every day! My practicum is ending on Tuesday, unless I decide differently. We'll see how that turns out. I love the work/study I'm getting there, but I have gotten a little bit relaxed with setting clear goals for myself, s as a result, I'm not as specifically aware of how I'm benefitting from the experience as much as I was at the beginning. And my TEFL class ends in three weeks, give or take. I've managed to stay caught up or ahead most of the way, but this week, I am only caught up. I had a fantastic conversation with a friend who is interested in TEFL in Europe though! I felt strange being the "voice of experience" though!
5. Research on Grandpa Harry's service in Korea might be challenging, since his records were likely among those lost to fire in 1973 at a military facility in St. Louis. And because Grandpa passed away in '96. I did manage to piece together that he served there for around 18 months during 1946-47, so those were the occupation years after the Japanese had been expelled, but before the main events of The Korean War. It was all still one country when he was there, and tensions would have been high. I'm still not sure exactly where he was posted, but my dad is pretty sure it was someplace in Seoul. We've got a patch of my grandfather's that was worn by the USAFIK (United States Armed Forces in Korea), as far as I could tell, which gave me a lot of answers by itself.
6. Baking. I love baking and find it therapeutic and satisfying, but this process ordinarily requires an oven. Ovens are not part of the standard inclusion package with these apartments the school offers you for free as part of your pay compensation, so I will have to adapt. If anyone knows ways to use a steamer/rice cooker or a small stove top to make tasty "baked" desserts using relatively universal ingredients, I am all ears. Technically, I'm all eyes since this is the internet though. If I could acquire a little practice attempting to create desserts this way before I leave, that might help a tiny aspect of the transition process. Probably "no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies" will become a staple dessert.
...Maybe I'm trying to do too many things at once. Right now, I'm praying for calm and focus. Thanks again for reading! Comments are welcome.
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