Celebrating 추석 Holiday

From Saturday, Sept 10th until Tuesday, Sept 13th, I had the honor of celebrating 추석 (Chuseok) with my host family.  Often referred to as Korean Thanksgiving, this holiday holds as much significance as it does for Americans; both in terms of being grateful for one's blessings and spending time with loved ones.  But rather than eating turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, one experiences the the glories of Korean rice cakes, japchae (glass noodles with vegetables), and bulgogi (marinated beef).  Being a harvest holiday, 추석 is held around the Autumn Equinox every year.  As a celebration of good harvest, Koreans will return to their hometowns to pay respect to ancestors and perform traditional worship rituals for deceased family members. 

The day before Chuseok, I helped my host mother and sisters make 송편 (song-pyeon), traditional glutinous rice cakes that are filled with a mixture of roasted sesame seeds and sugar.  They are absolutely scrumptious, but quite time-consuming to make.  The goal of the afternoon was to make 1000 (Eeeeek!) of them so that we'd have enough to give to family and friends.  My host mother took charge of rolling out the rice dough, and adding er, something, to them to create beautiful pastel colors; while my host sisters and I were responsible for folding them into perfect half-crescent mounds.  Sounds simple enough, but it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated.  Nonetheless, my host mother complimented me immensely for my pretty 송편.  According to Korean superstition, this means that I'll have beautiful babies (*Cue Awkwardness*... uhhhh, maybe in 10+ years. Thanks host mom.)

Step 1 - Roll out dough and stuff with copious amounts of filling

Step 2 - Arrange (hopefully pretty) 송편 in a basket

Step 3 - Steam the 송편 over a layer of pine needles for 30 minutes

Step 4 - Cool off the 송편 using a high-tech household appliance

Here are the fancy ones that my host mother helped me with!

Step 5 - Quickly arrange 송편 in a lovely tray to take a picture and then ENJOY!

As a foreigner, I was delighted when my host mother asked me to join her family for 추석 festivities and thus, experience this important cultural tradition first-hand.  This kind gesture really made me feel like part of the nuclear family, rather than just an outside visitor.  Similar to American Thanksgiving, Chuseok mandates a mass exodus of people traveling to visit relatives.  Seats on public transportation sell out months in advance, and the highways are congested with slow-moving traffic.  For this reason, my host mother decided it would be best to leave in the wee hours of the morning and beat the mad rush.  So on Monday, Sept 12th, everyone in the Kim Household woke-up at 5:00am and packed into the family mini-van to head to Seoul, where my host father's relatives reside.

In two short hours, we arrived my host father's eldest brother's residence in Gangnam-gu, which is considered one of the most affluent districts of Seoul.  True to its reputation, the apartment complex was one of the nicest I have ever seen, surrounded by a gated courtyard and equipped with a gold-plated elevator.  Upon arrival, I met the host grandmother, two host uncles, their wives, and several host cousins, all of whom are older than me.  Then we sat around, waiting for everyone to arrive and the women to finish cooking (Ugh, my inner feminist Smithie is screaming on the inside).  In the meantime, my host sisters snuck off to the extra bedroom to take a quick nap.  I happily joined them.  That's definitely something that I appreciate about Korean culture - napping is considered completely acceptable at all times of day.  I suppose this is because Koreans (of all ages) work such long hours and are desperate to catch a break whenever and wherever they can.

When we woke up, the ritual bowing ceremony began.  In the center of the room, there was a huge spread of food strategically arranged to be an offering to deceased relatives. The men of the family stood in a line, bowed to the table of food, and took turns approaching the table (in age order, from the eldest uncle to my 13-year old host brother).  Each man performed choreographed dance that included swirling a cup of wine over incense, tapping chopsticks three times in a metal bowl, and then carefully draping the chopsticks over one of the plates.  Then the entire group would bow again twice before the next man would approach the table.  During this whole process, I sat off to the side of the room, fascinated by what I saw and curious about the symbolism behind all these gestures.  I regret that I didn't take any pictures of food or the ritual bowing ceremony, but I didn't want to disturb this intimate moment or draw any attention away from the actual ceremony.  Here's a photo of a 추석 food offering that looks nearly identical to the one that I saw.

Immediately following the bowing ceremony, we were seated at a table and ate a feast that seemed better suited for a football team, rather than a mere family of 15.  To say that I ate a lot is a gross understatement.  That's another thing about Korean culture - there seems to be no concept of being full.  After two gigantic plates of food, I complimented the chefs for the meal's tastiness and informed them that I had enough to eat.  Of course, that necessitated relatives scooping even more food onto my plate and me, feeling obligated to leave nothing behind.  Ugh, talk about an 음식 아가 (food baby)!  After the meal, everyone sat around the television and watched the Chuseok Ssireum Wrestling Tournament, a traditional Korean martial arts competition that largely resembles its Japanese counterpart, Sumo wresting.

To be honest, the rest of the day was a little awkward.  No one except my host siblings talked to me.  Of course, there was a language barrier and I was a complete stranger to everyone.  But I was hoping that they'd try to communicate with me in some sort of hybrid of Korean, English, and body language.  Even the host cousins, who attended university in London, chose to ignore my presence rather than include me in conversations.  To be fair, I've noticed that many native Koreans freeze up around native English speakers, afraid that they'll make some embarassing grammatical error or mispronounce a basic word.  Fortunately, a smile is universal and I used this opportunity to practice my Korean by throwing in a comment here and there. 

In the afternoon, my host mother asked me if I'd like to go sightseeing in downtown Seoul.  Of course, I jumped on this offer.  So my host mother, host sisters, and I hopped in a cab and made our way to Namsan Mountain, which is located in central Seoul.  There, we decided to take a cable car up to N Seoul Tower and get an aerial view of the entire city. It was really exciting to share this experience with my host family, as my host sisters have never been and the last time my host mother visited was when she was seven years old.  The "N" in its name, I learned, stands for the tower's "New" look, which resulted from a ₩15,000,000,000 remodeling project in 2005.  It is truly a majestic and awe-inspiring structure.  Once we got to the top of Namsan Mountain, there were rows of shops and restaurants lining the base of the Tower.  In addition, there were several Wishing Trees, where tourists can write brief messages and couples can leave locks.

Me and my wonderful Host Sisters!

Being that it was a national holiday, this popular tourist attraction was swarmed with crowds and crowds of people.  We ended up spending almost an hour waiting in line for the elevator.  But it was totally worth the wait for the breathtaking view.  Only then did I understand just how massive Seoul is.  With over 10.2 million inhabitants, Seoul is the most populous city in the entire world and the Seoul National Capital Area (including surrounding towns) is the second largest metropolitan area with over 25 million residents in total.  Almost half of South Korea's population lives in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly a quarter live in Seoul itself, making it truly the cultural and economic heart of the country.  The city is neatly tucked away between several large mountains and waterways.  There is a slight haze over the city due to self-made pollution and that from nearby China.  But it simply cannot take away from the spectacular panoramic sights. 

My beloved home!

My new home!

Me, on top of the world (Seoul, that is)!

All in all, I really enjoyed my Chuseok holiday.  It was great to have Monday and Tuesday off from school and learn about Korean cultural traditions firsthand.  There is always something magical that happens when loved ones come together and pay tribute to the blessings in their life.  Especially since this holiday overlapped with the tenth year anniversary of September 11th, I couldn't help but spend the weekend being incredibly introspective.  I still remember that day so vividly.  Both I and the world have changed so much since then.  I suppose, above all, this day reminded me to be thankful for all that I've been given. 

Happy School Festival!

The Korean high school experience is incredibly demanding and stressful.  The students' lives wholly revolve around studying for 수능 (Su-neung), the national college scholastic ability test.  Korean high schoolers typically stay at school until 10 or 11pm every night and also have classes on two Saturdays every month.  Therefore, nothing makes Korean students more excited than a special school-wide event or national holiday.  Luckily for them (and me!), they had both to celebrate last week. 

Friday, September 9th was the Dunsan Girls' High School's annual Fall Festival.  In the morning, club classes presented exhibitions to show what they've been working on; for example, the photography class lined the first-floor hallways with black-and-white prints and the art club displayed some impressive portraits in the school's courtyard.  In addition, many student organizations, including the English Cafe, cooked and sold food at very reasonable prices.  That morning, I went down to help English Cafe members prepare the food but, as expected, my girls had it all under control.  The menu consisted of chicken nuggets, ice cream, corn cheese (a little odd, but whatevs), cheesecake, and ice tea.

Delicious NOMS!

Hard at work

Costco cheesecake

Chicken nuggets!

Cheesy mayo corn mixture

The students were so dedicated to the cause.  They cut out letters out of sticker paper and stuck them on each others' backs to identify English Cafe members.  Of course, they made a set for me to wear, too! ^_^  We started cooking around 9:00am and had about a half-hour to prep before students would arrive.  As soon as the clock struck 9:30am, swarms of screaming girls came running down the hallway at full-speed to purchase their beloved nuggets.  It reminded me of Walmart on Black Friday morning, except no one (to the best of my knowledge) got trampled and everyone waited patiently in line for their turn.  Kindly note how adorable my students are... But I swear, if the students didn't have to wear uniforms every day, it'd be rather easy to mistake me for one of them! (o_O)

English Cafe members

*^^*

My students are the sweetest!

Loooong line to get food

Adorable magnets made by the Art Club

♥♥♥

In the afternoon, the entire school was bused to nearby Chungnam National University for the Talent Show.  Over 2000 students and faculty members sat in their gigantic auditorium to watch the performances.  It was a four-hour event.  Seriously, FOUR HOURS of dancing, skits, and a lot more dancing.  Koreans are undoutedly the most disciplined people I have ever met.  The show was entirely student-run and many of homerooms had all 40+ students perform a routine with complicated choreography in perfect unison.  I had never seen anything like it.  Here are some photos and videos of the performances.

The performances were so entertaining.  Some even got teachers to dance with them!  I was also surprised to hear so many popular American songs; one group even memorized several of Beyonce's music videos and danced to a medley of her songs!  Probably the most hilarious performance was one, in which students created huge cut-outs of teachers' faces and wore them, while they crazily gyrated and wiggled across the stage.  I, as well as everyone in the audience, could not stop laughing.  Secretly, I wished that they made one of my face, too!  Oh and they also hung ridiculous posters around the school with teachers' and administrators' faces superimposed on them.  Here is one of my favorites.

TEACHERS! XD

The fake and real dreamy math teacher

Teletubbies!

In conclusion, 1) my school is awesome; 2) my students are seriously talented; and 3) this was one of the best days I've had in Korea thus far.  My current goal is to learn the choreography to some Korean music videos and perform for classes with good behavior!  I love my job :D

Weekend Festivities in Daejeon

Teaching is an exhausting feat.  It's tough to be on your A-game and super energetic every day, especially when you're sleep-deprived and have other things on your mind.  As a self-proclaimed night-owl, it's rare for me to be in bed before 1:00am.  I acknowledge that I should be going to bed earlier.  But often, this is the only time that I have to vent with other Fulbrights and catch up with friends back home.  As a student, I always looked forward to the weekend.  But now that I'm a teacher, I treasure them even more.  I desperately need this time to catch up on Zzz's, pursue my personal interests, and recharge for the upcoming week. 

The past couple weekends have been particularly exciting.  On Sept 2nd and 3rd, we celebrated the birthdays of two dear Fulbright friends, one who resides in my city and the other who lives in nearby Cheonan.  Nearly twenty or so Fulbrights congregated in downtown Daejeon for a weekend of fun festivities and relaxation.  It was somewhat surreal to see everyone together for the first time, since we left on D-Day to go separate ways.  We spent the weekend catching up, sharing stories about our new lives, and reminiscing about our adventures during Orientation.  On Friday afternoon, people began trickling into our city, arriving by bus or train from all over the country.  Then, we met up at Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  YES folks, you heard that right - there's an Outback in my city!  It's highly overpriced and overcrowded, but one cannot put a price-tag on little reminders of home.

The following day, everyone slept in and then embarked upon small-group excursions throughout the city.  Some folks, especially those living in remote, rural towns, chose to spend the day shopping and exploring the downtown area.  Others decided to venture to Costco to stock up on American snack foods.  I, on the other hand, already spoiled by the luxuries of city life, spent the afternoon with four friends (and a fellow Daejeonite's host brother) at Hanbat Arboretum, the largest turf of greenery in the city.  It was so lovely to just walk around, breathe in the fresh air, and frolic through the large fountain, alongside hordes of adorable Korean children. 

To the north of Hanbat Arboretum is Expo Bridge, which was built for the International Science Expo in 1993 and connects the downtown area to Daedeok Valley, the mecca of technology and research.  We rented a bike for the little host brother and let him ride back and forth over the bridge.  Meanwhile, us, big kids, soaked in the gorgeous scenery.  Here's a 360-degree view of the Expo Bridge and Gapcheon Stream.  After that, we went to a baseball game and watched Daejeon's native Hanwha Eagles take on Seoul's Nexen Heroes.  Tickets were only $8 to sit wherever you want.  The Hanwha Eagles are so terrible that it's almost comical.  But their fans make up for it with tons of animated cheers and choreographed hand motions to root them on.  Overall, it was a really fun cultural experience.

I don't blame her.  It was a low-scoring game and went into double overtime. (-.-)Zzz

As much as I love my school and homestay, it's always nice to hang out with my American friends.  After a week of speaking sloooowly at school, we all need to vent and babble in obscenely fast English.  More than anything, this weekend reminded me how awesome my placement city is.  I mean, where else can you have KFC for lunch, shop at a Western clothing store, enjoy the outdoors, and go a baseball game - all before dinnertime?!  In conclusion, Daejeon is awesome.  But I can't wait to spend upcoming weekends visiting my friends in their respective cities and seeing as much of Korea as physically possible!

My New Address!

So as requested, here is my new Daejeon address.  If you are adventurous, you can try to copy down the Korean characters.  Otherwise, I have included the romanization for all you Engrisheeee-speaking folks out there.

Danielle Kim
대전광역시 서구
둔산동
목련 아파트 203동 1005호
South Korea 302-771

Danielle Kim
Mok-Ryeon Apt.
Building 203 #1005
Dunsan-dong
Daejeon Seo-gu
South Korea 302-771

My Hectic Schedule

Some of you have asked, "So Danielle, what is it like to be a Fulbright grantee?" or "What exactly do you do every day?"or my personal favorite, "Are you really that busy?"  The answer is a resounding YES.  Here is just a quick peek into my weekly schedule.  As you can see, it's jam-packed with classes and supplemental activities. 

Every morning, I set my alarm for 6:30am and usually roll out of bed around 6:45am (Groan!).  Despite my drowsiness, I try to make myself look presentable for the upcoming day.  Breakfast is served promptly at 7:10am and we're in the car by 7:30am.  By 7:45am, I am at my desk, checking emails and sipping my second cup of coffee.  The rest of the morning is spent making copies, prepping for class, checking to make sure my PowerPoint works, brainstorming for next week's lessons, and organizing my life.  By the time caffeine kicks in, I'm off to my first class of the day.  Then I continue full speed ahead until I pass out in the evening around midnight.

So let me help you decipher this crazy mess.  The hodgepodge of numbers and letters represent my classes.  The first number, "1" means first-year high school students, the second number indicates the students' homeroom, and the letter represents their English proficiency level.  As I mentioned in my last post, my lunch periods are usually spent supervising the English Cafe.  On Friday afternoons, I help lead a workshop for other English teachers at my school.  For most of the hour, we talk about classroom management strategies and ideas for future lesson plans.

They also use this opportunity to ask me questions about the most OBSCURE English grammar rules: ones that I simply cannot provide a satisfactory response for.  I always know the answer because it "sounds right," but often it's difficult to explain to them why one cryptic verb tense is preferable to another.  Oh well!  Then we typically conclude the session by gossiping about other teachers at school, especially the new math teacher who I have yet to meet, but my colleagues insist is "sooooo dreamy and handsome." ^_~

As you can see, I also teach a supplementary English Conversation Club class for advanced first-grade students.  Initially, there were too many students interested in my club class.  As a result, the school instituted an essay-writing competition to help narrow the field.  Last Thursday was the final due date for club class registration.  That morning, an administrator frantically ran to my desk and begged me to write an essay prompt on the spot.  I quickly scribbled down a few sentences about how the Internet has redefined modern-day journalism and may eventually replace printed news sources all together.  Then, I asked students to state whether they thought this was a positive or negative development and to thoroughly defend their stance.

The essay competition was administered during that lunch hour and by the next period, I had 15 page-long essays to sift through.  I was incredibly impressed by the quality and quantity of their responses.  All of the responses were extremely well reasoned and organized.  Later, I found out that the students only had 10 minutes to write this essay.  I was so taken aback by this information.  It really put their achievement into perspective and made me realize how lucky I am to teach such motivated students.  In the end, 6 students were chosen for my club class.  Personally, I would've included a few more students but the other English teachers were insistent that I keep the class as small as possible.  In retrospect, this is probably for the best, as I intend to form close, personal relationships with each of these students.

Also, I just discovered my school's mascot.
She looks EXACTLY like my students,
minus a pair of uber huge, hipster glasses! ♥

In two weeks, I will resume my Korean language studies.  After 7 weeks of intense studying during Orientation, it's been nice to take a break from formal language classes.  But I am ready to get started again.  There is still so much I want and need to learn.  I really hope that by the time I leave this country, I'll have a solid grasp of the language and be able to converse reasonably well with any native speaker.  The classes will be held for two-hours twice a week at KAIST University's Language Center.  KAIST is the premiere science and research institution in the country; the M.I.T. of Korea, it's often called.  It's about a 20-minute bus ride away from my school/homestay.  Several other Fulbright Daejeonites will be joining me, as well.  It'll be great to see them on a regular basis and continue regaining my native tongue.  I am so determined to make this happen.  But one step at a time - I gotta start making more vocabulary flashcards!

Lastly, you can see that I've joined a nearby gym.  The gym is located on the top floor of a department store.  It's a little expensive and the facilities aren't the greatest.  But it's super convenient and my host siblings already go to the pool there every evening.  Therefore, I make it a habit to go with them and get my swell on in the Fitness Center upstairs.  I try to go about five times a week, which is a bit excessive with my tight schedule.  Yet it's absolutely necessary, as I'm eating huge quantities of delicious food every day.  One cool thing about gyms in Korea is that they provide you with workout clothes.  Yea, kinda strange but it certainly cuts down on the laundry.  Another fascinating thing is that native Koreans don't sweat.  Seriously, don't sweat.  People look at me like I'm diseased when I sweat through my shirt and have beads dripping down my face.  *Sigh*  I suppose there are worse things in life.

During my spare time (aka whenever I don't have class or in the late evening), I am free to pursue my own research and personal endeavors.  To be honest, most of my unscheduled time, thus far, has been spent lesson planning for the following week or coming up with challenging, thought-provoking topics for my club class.  I'm hoping that as the weeks go by, I'll get used to lesson planning and have more REAL free time during the week.  It's definitely a struggle to find time to catch up with other Fulbright friends and loved ones back home.  The 13-hour time difference surely doesn't help.  But I really hope to maintain these contacts and strengthen these relationships during the upcoming year.

To all you dedicated readers out there, shoot me an email so we can schedule a Skype date!  As much as I love writing about my life, I'd love to hear about yours!  Hope to catch up with many of you soon.  :)

Back to School

So folks, I'm a bonified educator.  For the rest of the year, you can refer to me as Danielle Teacher.  Yea, I know - how crazy does that sound?!  From the moment I received my Fulbright acceptance letter, I felt confident about certain things.  I knew I'd have no trouble adjusting culturally, I'd learn to overcome the language barrier, and I'd embark upon my own small projects and research with relative ease.  But the actual teaching component was what that I feared the most.  Sure, I had taught dance classes to preteens, tutored middle school students, and mentored adult ESL learners in the past.  But being an English teacher is, by far, the greatest responsibility that I have ever taken on. 

My school is located in the middle of Dunsan-dong, frequently referred to as the New Downtown.  It's about a 20 minute walk, 10 minute bus ride, or 5 minute drive from my homestay apartment.  In the morning, my host mother drives me and 수진 to school.  In the afternoon, I usually walk home by myself.  Along the way, I pass the luxury department store TimeWorld Galleria, City Hall, and rows of cute shops, restaurants, and cafes.  For the entirety of the walk home, I stay on a main street that intersects the city of Daejeon.  Point "A" is my homestay apartment and Point "B" is my school.  Really, I can't reiterate how convenient and ideal my placement is. 

As its name suggests, Dunsan Girls' High School a single-sex institution, which are incredibly common in Korea.  On the first day of class, I told my students that I attended Smith College, the largest all-girls (*all-women's, for you Smithies out there) college in America.  Therefore, I am very happy to teach at an all-girls high school in Korea.  One student summed it up best: "Oh Dahneeul Teechaaa, very cool! Cuz girls are smarter than boys!" Great job student, couldn't have said it better myself ;)

According to the school website, Daejeon Dunsan Girls' High School is ranked as one of the top three high schools in all of Daejeon.  It is a huge school by Korean standards.  There are about 650 students in each grade.  Korean high schools consist of three grades, so that amounts to nearly 2000 students in total.  The school is a sprawling four-story building with a courtyard in the middle and two additional academic wings on either side.  The track field and gymnasium are particularly impressive.  Most of the facilities seem newly renovated and all the classrooms are equipped with a LCD TV or SmartBoard.  Here's some photos of the school's exterior and athletic fields.

This is my third week of teaching and it's been absolutely insane thus far.  I teach 19 classes a week, with approximately 35 students in each class, AND run a weekly workshop for other English teachers.  If you do the math, I am teaching over 600 students every week!  I have always considered myself a "Name Person," capable of remembering every stranger and acquaintances' name with ease.  But this is too much for me, especially when the names are all so similar.  In an ideal world, I'd be able to call on every student by name.  But logistically, this seems impossible.  I will do my best.  If all else fails, I can sneakily peek at the namecards that I require students to display on their desks.

The classes are leveled A-D according to English proficiency levels.  The A-level students are quite advanced and can converse with near fluency.  Of course there is an occasional grammar mistake, but I can speak to them at nearly full speed and they will still understand me.  In contrast, many of my D-level students struggle to form sentences, so I am relegated to speaking at paaiiiinfully slow rate using extremely basic vocabulary.  Don't get me wrong - I do appreciate the fact that the classes are split according to ability level.  But it makes lesson planning incredibly time-consuming, as I must come up with four different versions of each lesson.

Things are also complicated by the fact that some classes are a lesson or two behind the others.  My first day of teaching was a Tuesday, so that means that all the Monday classes are behind one lesson.  In addition, the Thursday classes are two lessons behind (I haven't even met them yet!) because they had exams two Thursdays in a row.  As a result, I am teaching 3 different lessons this week.  Most of the classes are on Lesson 3, but Monday classes are still on Lesson 2 and I will be teaching Lesson 1 this Thursday.  It's really difficult to keep track of it all.  If there's anything I've learned in Korea, it's that things are always changing last minute.  It seems that the only way to succeed in this country is to be overprepared and able to adapt at a moment's notice.  Regardless, I am loving my job.  Speaking of teaching, here's a photo of one of my classrooms!

My students are great.  Fresh out of middle school (I only teach 1st graders in H.S.), they are curious and eager to learn.  Most of the time they are one of two extremes: hyperactive/chatty or comatose/shy.  But they are the absolute sweetest and seem to like me.  They always try to make conversation between classes and ask me questions about my personal life.  Like most teenage girls, they immediately perk up when I mention Justin Bieber or some other American heart-throb.  During the year, I hope to form meaningful relationships with some of them: one that surpasses the conventionally distant student/teacher relationship.

One of my favorite aspects about my school is the English Cafe, which serves as an effective reward system and an additional opportunity to practice English.  The English Cafe is run by ambitious first-graders (with my supervision), who happily serve as baristas and conversationalists.  The students receive cafe dollars in their classes for exceptional participation.  Then, they can redeem their dollars to buy drinks and snacks during lunchtime.  The students can also rent out English books, magazines, and games.  The rules are simple: 1) Only speak English, 2) Be polite when ordering, and 3) Clean up after yourself.

During the year, the English Cafe holds events, like Game Night and Movie Night, and organizes a book drive for a local orphanage.  I definitely intend on continuing these awesome programs and coming up with new ones.  Every day, I spend half of my lunch hour in the Cafe, monitoring the transactions and mingling with "customers."  While I could be at my desk surfing the web, this really feels like a worthwhile way to spend my time.  Here are some pictures of the English Cafe.

I arrived at Daejeon Dunsan Girls' High School three weeks ago and I can't decide if it feels longer or shorter than that.  On one hand, it gets quite monotonous when I have to teach about the same topic 19 times in a row.  Now that my teaching schedule is finalized, I finally have a routine going and in some ways, I feel like I've been doing the same thing for months.  On the other hand, there is still so much I have to learn about how my school is run (e.g., who to contact when my printer breaks, where is the supply closet, how do I find out what's for lunch, etc).

Every day at my school is as unpredictable as the last.  No matter how much I prepare for the school day, something unexpected will happen, leaving me as clueless as I was on my first day.  I suppose that's the beauty of it.  Teaching is both challenging and stressful.  But I couldn't imagine a more rewarding profession.  One day, I hope to fully understand everything that's going on at my school.  Until then, I will sip my third cup of coffee, awkwardly smile, and ponder how best to perform my duties as an English teacher and Fulbright grantee.