Are you ok?

"God, please keep me safe," I prayed, rather desperately, on Thursday. I felt alone, out of control, like I would fall at any moment. I didn't know who else I could turn to.

Ok, I was ice skating. Trying to, anyway. We went as a class, which was awesome. I've been a few times, never really getting the hang of it, but many of our classmates had never been at all. As fun as our class is, ice skating sounded like a much better idea than studying Korean, at least for one day. We left campus at 10, and were told we could stay however late we felt like staying.

I had started to get the hang of things (again) and was stumping around the ice on my own... until one classmate came whipping around the bend and we both ended up rather flat rather fast. The next few minutes are a little blurry, but my wrist felt like OW.

But that's not really worth a whole blog post. What I really want to talk about now is what happened next.

I'm pretty sure our entire class came to where I sat down to rest, wanting to see if I was ok. I don't think I was particularly gracious to them, (being convinced that a crowd of people was making my wrist hurt more,) but once things calmed down everyone was ridiculously patient and understanding.

Thomas and Anna got me comfortable, as classmates and teachers brought gifts of pain-relief spray, sustenance, and a bandage for my rapidly swelling wrist. Eventually it was determined that I should get to a hospital, so Man Teacher drove me and poor, guilt-ridden Classmate (who insisted on coming) to find a place that would take us during the lunch hour.

Lots of waiting, medical-picture taking, and translating later, I have a crunchy sort of wrist-hurt and an enormous cast-bandage thing. Classmate got no fewer than four phone calls from other students asking how I was doing. They wanted to come to the hospital, but (thankfully) that was deemed unnecessary. I was out by 3:00 with my cast-thingy and some medicine, and a whole lot of warm fuzzies.

I'll have this thing for about six weeks, and it's kind of frustrating sometimes. (For example, I look really funny trying to type right now.) But there are all kinds of things for which I am grateful through this experience, and I don't want to forget them. My dominant hand is ok; I can still walk; I didn't hit my head. I'm fortunate enough not to worry about paying for necessary care. My fellow YAVs were there to help, and will continue to be if I need them (right, guys?). Man Teacher speaks enough English to keep me informed, and all of my classmates are the kindest people. I may be kind of uncomfortable, but God really did keep me safe that day.

People see this thing and ask me, "Are you ok?"

Yes. Yes, I am.

See? Really!

Where has the time gone? (On a field trip!)

We had an interesting few weeks recently, and I'm only just starting to catch up with blogging--hence the series, "Where has the time gone?" A week after we went to Seoul, we went on a field trip with the whole Korean language school. In the days leading up to the trip, we had very little idea about what was in store--the words "sports," "mountain," and "dinner" were thrown around, mostly in Korean, and we knew we would be *somewhere* overnight (Thursday and Friday). Eventually, we understood that our class was to compete against the other classes in this Sports Festival, which led to an entire hour of class being spent ordering matching hoodies. (In the pictures below, we're the ones in red. 1B represent!)

On Wednesday, we learned a bit more about what it meant to participate in a Sports Festival. We each signed up to participate in the different events, a process which was conducted primarily in Korean, much to our confusion and entertainment. Very few of these activities could really be designated as "sports," and all of them were certainly... festive. As with any good Sports Festival, (I assume, this being my first,) there would be a three (plus one) legged race, an actual running sort of race, and arm wrestling. As for the rest... you'll understand soon.

After class on Thursday, (yes, they still made us learn,) we piled onto the buses and headed to our destination: a mountain near the city of 공주 (Gongju), about an hour's drive from Daejeon. (Unfortunately, none of us can remember the name of this mountain--simply that it had a snazzy Sports-Festival-appropriate setup and some nice cabins nearby.)

Getting super psyched for our field trip!

The festivities began shortly after we got off the buses--we dropped our bags nearby and gathered in a huge field where we would spend the rest of the afternoon. The teachers explained the rules--we were competing between classes for some events, and as the A team and B team for others. So it began! Once again, I think the pictures can explain things best on their own. Here are just a few highlights of the afternoon, some of which rather defy explanation.

Two-vs-one? Not fair!

Our classmate Cati rules at arm wrestling!

This might be the largest game of rock-paper-scissors in history.

The person in the middle mostly just sort of flopped around in this many-legged race.

This is supposed to be wrestling. Our teacher (affectionately
known as Man Teacher) is the one doing the lifting.

One... sport... involved spinning in circles and then hurling your shoe in the air.

You're supposed to catch it, but I thought falling
over was a better strategy.

I got it back eventually! That counts, right? .......right?

After a long afternoon of winning fun, the classes separated for dinner and relaxation. An excellent dinner of samgeopsal (again! score!) awaited us, complete with kimchi made by Man Teacher's own mother. We cooked dinner ourselves, sitting around a number of little grills scattered across the room.

Om nom nom :)

With such a sweet setup inside our cabin, and so many mosquitoes outside of it, we made the obvious choice--which is to say, we had a dance party outside with the help of Man Teacher's car stereo! Also, it turns out people dance more or less the same no matter where they're from, and in this day and age everybody has heard the same terrible pop songs. People from other classes joined in, too, and it was an excellent conclusion to a really great day.

At promptly eleven o'clock, it was bed time. The girls headed further up the hill to our own sleeping quarters, where we fell asleep almost immediately after setting up the beds. It's really just as well--we were awakened at 8 am for the rest of our field trip... which I will get to. Sometime. Soon!

One more time... 1급B반!

Back to School

Last time, I told you exciting things had begun. We've started our mission work, and already we're well on the way to solving the world's problems!

Oh. Wait, YAVs aren't supposed to save the world? Didn't I learn anything at Orientation?

Whatever we do here this year, it has to start with learning the language. We have class every weekday 9am to 1pm, which is actually not as bad as one might think. There are three different instructors, and (thankfully) they're all very nice. The class is pretty relaxed and actually very funny--most of us are complete beginners, so there's a lot of laughter and encouragement. The other students come from all over: China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, Pakistan, Colombia, and (of course) the US are all represented in our group. The wide range makes for some occasional communication challenges, as most of the non-Korean supplement is in English. I can't imagine learning a new language without using English, but the whole class has a great attitude and I'm glad to be part of Korean Class 1B.

The Korean Language School, affectionately known as "The Pink Building"

A few weeks in, things are starting to get pretty intense--4 hours of class means lots of new things to study every night. More importantly, we're already finding the best places to study around the neighborhood! Our favorite so far is a place called Deli Roti (yes, super Korean) that serves coffee and bread and these delicious shaved ice dessert things. We went there with Simon and Haejung on the first night, and the comfy booths are perfect for studying together. Unfortunately, (or quite fortunately, perhaps,) this means I need to set aside a latte budget. There are coffee shops everywhere, and Anna Curl and I plan to shop around a bit before picking a favorite.

For example, Caffé Pascucci serves excellent green tea lattes.

In the meantime, I start work tomorrow! We sat down with Simon and Haejung yesterday and each put together a weekly schedule that's a good balance of mission and self-care. My main responsibility is with the 법동 (BeopDong, more or less) after-school center, where I'll spend 3 afternoons a week. Our other jobs include reading with mothers at the library, working at a feeding center, and generally trying to be present (and useful) wherever we end up. More about that soon -- I have class in the morning ^^