Placement Announcement! This year I'll be living and working in...

So many people back home have asked me, “are you teaching yet?” “where are you living?” and for so long, I have had to say, “nope, not yet, still orienting, not sure!”

Well, the day has come. I have found out my fortune! After standing and smiling for about 35 minutes in the placement ceremony, some time during the part when they were reading the names for Chungcheongnam-do Province, I heard “Eileen Ryan, blah blah, blah blah blah school.” I stepped forward, smiled, bowed, and took my place in line to bow to/shake hands with Mrs. Shim, the director of the Korean American Educational Commision. I had no idea where I was placed, or what kind of school I would be working in for the next year. I heard my name and my face smiled and my ears stopped working, and I bowed. So I listened to Mrs. Shim’s kind and experienced words about supporting each other and making the best out of our placement locations and schools and out of our year in Korea. And then I listened to our program manager tell us some more stuff about the day’s schedule and logistics and waited for her to hand out the papers with our schools' information...

Are you getting frustrated yet? Want to know where the heck your friend/daughter/student/etc. is going to be living this year? Don’t really care to find out? Well, I’ll tell you anyway, FINALLY!

[…drumroll…]

I will be living in Cheonan, a city of 540,000 and most well-known for it’s famous walnut cookies, or Cheonan Hodugwaja (천안호두과자) (I know I know, awesome!) and I will be teaching at Cheonan Wolbong High School, a co-ed high school of about 1,500! I asked for a suburban placement with a small, all-girls middle school. BUT, I absolutely could not be happier. No joke.

One of my wonderful orientation coordinators taught at the school last year, and she gave me the scoop: about 80% female students at a magnet-esque school with test-based admissions and an apparent lack of discipline problems (smart, motivated kids who study Study STUDY have no energy to be bad! Right?...) Sounds perfect.

Here is Cheonan on a map:


Other things that make me love my soon-to-be new home of Cheonan (pronounced “Choh nahn”) an unreasonable amount:

1. It is the world’s best city. No, really, check out their website: http://www.cheonan.go.kr/en/index.html

2. These fun facts:
City Tree : Weeping willow
City Flower : Golden bell flower
City Bird : Dove
City Animal : Dragon

3. The $12 and 1 hour trip to Seoul by express train or $5 and 1 hour 15 min. trip to Seoul by express bus. WHEEEEE!

4. The fact that with a ton of universities and the Heavenly Dream School (a center for North Korean refugee teenagers and their parents), I can work on my Korean language goals and volunteer all in my home city!

5. The fact that I share a city with two 2010 ETAs and two 2009 ETA extendees, a province with three other sweet 2010 ETAs, and a border (to Chungcheongbuk-do Province and the city of Cheongju – only an hour away) with about 10 amazing 2010 ETAs! Plus a few more in Daejeon!

So basically, I am super pumped. It feels like my year is finally starting! And to round out a great day, my Korean language class took our sawngsaengnims out for dinner to a hotpot restaurant, complete with low tables and cushions and tabletop grills!


Here are links to my province’s and my school’s websites:
http://www.chungnam.net/cn_contents/lang/english/main.html
http://www.cwb.hs.kr/