Drum roll please ...
An all-girls middle school on JEJU ISLAND.
To be perfectly honest, my first thought was “WHAT.. is this for real?” I don’t even want to know what my face looked like as I gave that bow and took my first steps to walk to the stage. This was a surprise for a couple of reasons. 1) I had requested to be placed somewhere outside of Seoul because I will be fasting for Shravan Bhagvan soon and would have liked to attend the ceremonies at the only Hindu temple in South Korea, which is obviously in Seoul. And so because it was a legit religious reason.. I thought I would get that. 2) Apparently, a LOT OF PEOPLE want to be placed on Jeju Island (or so I have been told). It is the Hawaii of South Korea. Koreans/tourists go to the island for there for their honeymoons! It is arguably the most beautiful part of South Korea. And so, I didn't think i'd be on Jeju.
After the initial surprise, I “pulled a typical shreya” (as Dalmas would call it). Being a big believer in karma, I tried to figure out what this meant in the grand scheme of things .. and, if I really deserving of such a beautiful, exotic placement? I really hadn’t pictured myself going to school every day seeing palm trees on my way. Or, having the opportunity to go scuba diving, learn surfing, have access to so many beautiful beaches or take a boat to Japan! I just can’t fully describe just how humbled I was by the thought of it or the grateful feeling I had after hearing Erin’s (one of the OCs) talk about her time in Jeju.
But I think the magnitude of the “this is too good to be true” feeling or those emotions from being humbled and so grateful were so overwhelming that in my own convoluted, contradictory way .. I started to look for the negative aspect of being on Jeju Island. And oh yes, if you look for anything hard enough.. you sure will find it. I soon realized that many of my close friends that I had made during orientation were on the mainland on South Korea. I think I let it weigh on me a little more than I should have. But soon enough, I did find that perspective. And honestly, it is like having the best of both words. We get 3 free round-trip plane tickets to the mainland and the plane tickets are just about 25-30,000 won (so a little less than $25-$30), so I can visit people on the mainland as much as I want. And on the other hand, there are some really wonderful people on Jeju with me and the “Jeju crew” always gets really tight!
WAIT, speaking of which, how did I forget to mention this?!?! So, soon after hearing my placement .. DAVE GETS CALLED AND HE WAS PLACED ON JEJU WITH ME ! you see, the hilarity/irony in this that we went through four years of Villanova (Biology/Philosophy/OrientationStaff/BuzbyLab!/WomeninSciencehaha/commiserationoverfindingoutaboutfulbrightsolate) together. Then, we have/are surviving four hours of Korean class at Fulbright orientation (yay class E!), and now on Jeju island together for our placements. I told him before we headed upstairs for the placement ceremony that I would laugh so hard if we were placed in the same province together. And sure enough.. oh, and it couldn’t have been any better that his name was called right after mine because I couldn’t help but burst out in a little bit of a giggle of joy (that phrase sounds weird but I think it accurately describes it). Well, one thing is certain, Dave Ederer and I will just never part ways haha.
All in all, I feel blessed. It still hasn’t sunk in that I will be on Jeju Island in two weeks (Aug 19th) and begin teaching middle school girls shortly after. And, I’m not sure it will until I get there.
speaking of feeling blessed, I need to thank some awesome people for their support and always looking out for me. I don’t say it enough but it does mean a lot to me, especially now with this big transition. I am quite lucky to have such amazing people in my life. I hope, one day, to be as inspirational to you guys as you are to me.
Also, I have put some pictures below of Jeju Island.
Always,
Shreya
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
One of the waterfalls at Jeju
There are two parts of the Jeju Island.. I am on the tourist side (vs. the city side)
This is the trail near Halla Mountain,the highest mountain in S.Korea
the island :)
palm trees!
