Before I get started, let me go through this history lesson really quick. North and South Korea are not the same thing. It seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people I've talked to aren't aware of this. North Korea is formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and South Korea is the Republic of Korea (ROK). Koreans dislike the Japanese. U.S. fought a war in Korea from 1950-1953. The war ended in an armistice (which North Korea recently withdrew from) so technically the two countries are still at war in terms of treaties. They are separated by the DMZ (demilitarized zone) at the 38th parallel, which cuts the Korean peninsula in half. The DMZ is about 155 miles long and 2.5 miles wide and is the most heavily militarized border in the world.
I have gotten so many questions from everyone about where am I living and what am I doing, and why did I choose to go to South Korea, and when am I leaving, and am I going alone, and does everyone wear kimonos and eat dogs? So, let me take some time to answer all these questions.
How did this all come about? For those of you who don't know (hard to believe), I have my degree in both Political Science and International Studies (Int'l Political Economy and Policy) from UW. I'm sort of obsessed/addicted to traveling and decided that I wouldn't settle for anything less than moving abroad after graduation. In fact, my roommate and I would spend time blowing off studying the night before a final to plan out our futures and decided no matter what we'd live somewhere overseas. I don't think either of us saw Korea coming, but here it is. I received an email back in February from my academic advisor about this program, and decided to look into it. This program is called GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program In Korea) and I am being assisted by the ESL department at UW. It's a pretty sweet deal. They reimburse me for the cost of the flight, and pay for my housing the entire time, in addition to my salary. It was by far the best situation of all the other teaching English abroad programs I looked into. I'm sure my parents would be much happier if I were going back to Italy or maybe somewhere in South America, but Asia is so in this year and I'm going with it. Going with me will be about 30 other UW graduates, including my roommate Anna. On August 19th, I'll be going with everyone to Chicago. They put us up in a hotel for the night and we meet the other teachers from UW-Madison going, and have some meetings. On August 20th, the plane takes off and I say goodbye to America. We arrive on August 21st, and I have about 2 days to get over 14 hours of jet lag, and I start teaching on August 24th. I recently received my placement and grade level that I'll be teaching. I will be teaching at Samsung High School in Dongducheon City (동 두 전 시) in Gyeonggi-do Province. I haven't been assigned a specific grade level, all I know is that its high school. My position is to be an Assistant Teacher. My only job is to teach these kids English. I've read a lot about the education system here, and the kids work extremely hard, so if anything, my job is simply to make learning English fun for them. I will be working with a co-teacher. This person helps me get my life together over there, phone, cable, internet, bank account, etc. in a matter of days. Thank God for them, because it would probably take me months on my own.
Quick bit about Dongducheon. Ok honestly I don't know anything about this place. Here's what I do know, but most of it is straight off Wikipedia. My college professors would be ashamed. Its about 40 miles (65 km) Northeast of Seoul and has a population of about 85,000 (from the latest population data I can find). It hosts the "largest" rock music festival - tho I checked out the lineup for this year, which I'll miss, and I'm not sure how i feel about Baekdoosan (heavy metal) or Mun Huijun (thrashcore). It seems like the kind of festival where they don't really accept money, you have to pay for souvenirs and alcohol with drugs or articles of clothing. That scares me more than my proximity to North Korea and I may be keeping my distance. On the other hand, maybe it will be great, and Anna and I will give up our cozy teaching jobs and become Korean rock star groupies. I also recently read that it used to be a pretty crazy place to party. In fact, it allegedly made Playboy's top ten list of greatest party towns in the world. At one point, it was number ONE. I guess its calmed down now, so I'm a few years too late for the wild party scene, but just think, I could've been the next Playboy bunny. (Relax Dad, I'm joking). It's home to the main camps of the US Second Infantry Division. That means there will be lots of English speaking American soldiers for me to befriend. Camp Casey is the base. The division command is down the road (which is also where Anna happens to be living!) in Uijeongbu City. No clue on the pronunciation on that one. So to answer another question, no I can't speak Korean. I've been working on the alphabet and its taking months. Way different than Spanish or Italian were to learn. Compared to this, those are easy. I have managed to get my computer to switch from English to Korean with the click of a button, so once I get good, I can type random words and stuff. Dream big.
Now, I want to clear up some things that people seem to be misinformed about regarding South Korea. First: they don't wear kimonos. No one does. In fact, if you think people in Korea wear kimonos, you're in the wrong country entirely. Kimonos are from Japan and they're a traditional garment and I'm going to guess no one there wears them either. Second: they don't eat dogs. I got so fed up with this question that I finally did some research on it. It's been illegal since 1984 to sell dog meat, and its a social taboo to eat any animal that is considered a pet. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, but its illegal to do drugs pretty much everywhere and that doesn't stop people so what are you going to do. And finally, North Korea. Ahh good ol' North Korea. They're acting up again and everyone is concerned. If you're worried about a war between the two countries again, I don't think its going to happen. I took a Nuclear Weapons and World Politics class my last semester in college, and my final paper was on why a war or large-scale conflict would be unlikely to occur in this region (primarily because of U.S. deterrence). People seem to think I have this desire to visit North Korea. Which, if it were possible, I probably would. But its not. Actually physically impossible for me to go there. Unless I survive the thousands of landmines alone the DMZ (again, the most heavily fortified border in the world), the thousands of military personnel from all sides, or sneak past what would have to be the most oblivious customs officials of all time, I'm not getting in. Its illegal. It's like trying to go to Cuba. It just can't be done. So, I appreciate the concern, but I get it. I'm not going there.
Hopefully this answers some questions some people have. Please comment, question, whatever you want, all over this blog. I love feedback. Join skype (skype.com) and add me, my username is amy.lanza and we can message, call, videochat, whatever. I'll write back in a few weeks once I make it to Korea :) Hope you all stick with me as I explore Korea and as much of Southeast Asia as I have time for. Enjoy.
"Oh you know what they say about the young...send me on my way" - Rusted Root
sounds so exciting! I am not really a blogger but I wanted to add so we can talk when you are there, not sure about skype yet. agreed, find military guys i mean.. it worked for me. also two questions, do they where kimonos and do they eat dogs? jk
ReplyDeletenick says watch out though because they might just be trying to get laid! haha.. he says they are probably there for not long and will go back to the states soon so they dont care, he's heard stories i guess, i rescind my statement about trying to find military guys there i suppose.
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