The French Korean Volunteers' Bridge

Workcamp in Bellerive 4

2010-09-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hi, there. :)

Last time, I forgot to say what was our tasks. Actually, one of the most important thing is 'working' in workcamp!

Bellerive-sur-allier is a small town just next to Vichy. It's not like a countryside, but the population is just around 8,000. The cityhall of this town has invited a workcamp every year for 8 years. I was very impressive that the goverment has been interested in volunteering for a long time and supported it continuously. Because I thought volunteering would be a good way to do a public work, but it's not that effective way on economical side.

Besides, neighbors have already enough comprehension about the workcamp. I guess they get used to welcome it in every summer, so they were very friendly and supportive to us.

Look at these hard workers! :P The city hall asked us to renovate several old public parks. So we changed old benches and trash bins, and even blocks on the path! It's not harder than we expeted, we really enjoyed workig outside. Digging grounds, moving stones, painting new trash bins, and even making ciment... we worked like a professional! :)

Workcamp in Bellerive 3

2010-08-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

We spent our first weekend doing special activities. One was making our own t-shirt, and the other was drawing each other's own rabbit. It was first time for me to make my own t-shirt. It was Aurélien's brilliant idea. Everyone really loved making it, and it was the first activity which made us get involved in the group life. Aurélien made our symbol at first, then Young-su made a crossword puzzle with all our names. I'm sure this t-shirt is the best souvenir for everyone from the camp.

And I don't remember why, but suddenly we started drawing our own rabbits. It was very funny because each rabbit reflected each one's personality more or less. My one was a lazy rabbit! You can see an angry rabbit, a hungry one, a crazy one and even a pregnant one etc. Then we put these drawings on our fancy kitchen during whole workcamp.

You can see everyone was so focusing on drawing at kitchen!

These are our rabbits!

Workcamp in Bellerive 2

2010-08-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

Writing this post so reminds me of my feeling at the first day I met people at the station. I was a leader of course, but I was also very nervous to meet them. I didn't know their face, personality or motivation, actually anything! Even worse, nobody thought I would be a leader of this camp. You see everyone was in France, and it means they expected a french leader would welcome them! :D I'm very thankful that they trusted me and followed me, though I don't speak french fluently.

In the evening of the second day, there was a welcomed party in the city hall. We met the mayor of Bellerive, our neighbors, local teenagers and their tutors. At the beginning, we're supposed to work with these teenagers as well as to work in a public park. Because they had nothing to do during their holidays and just wandered on the streets. So we're very motivated to hang out with them, and also planned many activities. That's why we had a barbecue party together after we visited a party in city hall. Does it look yummy? :) We ate some marguetzs and shrimps.

Unfortunately, their tutors were very pessimistic to work with us. They didn't have any willing to organize activities for their children. After one week, they just left to enjoy their vacances, and we couldn't contact them any more. It was a pity to work with teenagers. Because we really had a fun the first day we met. Nobody knew it was the first and the last day to see them.

Following is to introduce you the best translator Vincent. He translated what the mayor said almost at the same time in English. You will see how intelligent he is. ;)

Workcamp in Bellerive 1

2010-08-31T05:52:00.001-07:00

Hello, there. It's been ages since I wrote the last post! I was in workcamp for 3 weeks, and as soon as it's finished I participated in mid-term training in a row. I was totally tired, but also very happy to join all these events. :)

My workcamp was already finished 2 weeks ago, I still feel like being there. I had so much fun, and of course there are tons of episodes. ;) I'm going to tell you everything!

Voila, Look at this picture. I'm happy to introduce you my friends who I met during workcamp. We were 14 people. Me and my colleague, Aurélien were leaders. When I met him at first, he surprised me saying hello in Korean. He speaks korean well, and even has a lot of experiences about workcamp. He already participated in 22 workcamps before, I think he can publish his stories as a book!

There were two more koreans, Young-su and Hee-eun. They always helped me out and everyone loved them. Especially Young-su showed us his own korean dance. It was incredible even for korean. :D:D And they go university just next to my one, so we could find many common senses between us.

There were three french, Vincent from Paris, Hélène from Limoge, and Saïda from Amien. Vincent was my secret friend, we discussed every subject at every single night! Our discussion was like a never ending story. Hélène and Saïda, they are the youngest. But they really adapted themselves to this group life. Thanks to them I could taste many good french dishes.

Julia and Antonio, they are from Spain, in Granada. They are so energetic, and passionate. Thanks to them we sometimes followed spanish lifestyles, which are enjoying siesta and having dinner at 10 o'clock!

Jethro, he is from Nigeria, but now stays in France. He speaks french and english very well, moreover he has good sense of humor! He made a lot of jokes and the others also made fun of him, because he looked very nervous when he couldn't connect with any technology such as his mobile and internet. His mobile was always switched on and ringing!

There were two turkish boys! Onur and Mehmet from Ismir, they didn't come to the meeting point at the first day, and didn't answer the phone either. So I thought they might call off joining us. But two days later 8 o'clock in the morning, Bomb! They suddenly appeared! They also got along with others and they made us laugh a lot.

Last two people are Natalia and Artem, who are from Ukraine. They are a lovely couple, and so kind. Especially Natalia was always ready to help us in the kitchen. She was such a good cook!

And below is a picture of our house where we stayed during 3 weeks.

We're supposed to sleep outside in a tent except raining day. Luckily we had a big kitchen, a huge dining room and a cute minibus. That's because where we stayed was a school. This building was little bit strange though, there were a fire station, a school cafeteria, and residence in a building. It was good for us having good and safe neighbors at least. ;) I'll tell you more on the next post!

Cultural exchange

2010-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hi ^^ everyone is doing well? Hope so ... last month before the end of EVS project.

This time Haenam team did with students

" EXPOSITION", cultural exchange between France and Korea.

In a word, each team worked in 3 different topic :

선생님team -> Main information about Korea and France

버지니선생님team -> Movie. (부산festival and Cannes Festival)

수경선생님team -> Gastronomy

크리스틴team -> Sport : soccer

School trip

2010-08-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

August is a holiday month in Korea.
So the last week of July I went in a school trip with the students and the teachers. Unfortunately, Lucie couldn't join us because she still hurts her ankle ...
We left Wednesday morning under the rain. The first day was very hard, specially because our bags were extremely heavy : we had to carry all our food for 4 days.
Of course it was an organic school trip so we ate only organic food, we tried not to waste water (no shower ... ) and we brushed our teeth with salt.
Wednesday we climbed 3 peaks in Jirisan (Yeonhabong, Samsanbong and Tchotaebong).
So Thursday we went down, it was also quite perilous !
We slept in the beautiful Piagol Valley.
Friday was for sure the most difficult day, we climbed the Nogodan peak (1 507 m). We slept in the top and had a lot of fun sharing a dormitory all together.
Finally Saturday we went down to the valley, we finished our trip with a great bath in the river and a delicious ice cream.
I enjoyed a lot this trip. Sharing difficulties and chatting during the walk made me closer to the students. We laughed a lot and always tried to help each other.
Jirisan is a very beautiful place, I enjoyed great landscapes there.

Mud Festival!

2010-08-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!
Su Gyeong, Chrisitine and me went to Boryeong to experience the Mud festival!
It is presented as the biggest festival of Korea. Mud pool, slide and games. We have done some mud body painting. It takes place in Boryeon next to a beach so after beeing cover with mud it was so good to swim. And the water was some warm too. At night some events were organised. We stay there 3 days so we could enjoy the B-Boy, a hip-hop and electronic party and the slosing ceremony with rock concert and fireworks. Apparently some band were quiet famous as Su Gyeong told us : Crying Nuts, Kim Kyeong Ho...
It was a chance the 2 volunteers from Wando were in holiday at the same time and so we could met them there and have fun together. It was the first time for Su Gyeong and Han Gyeol at the mud festival it was good we could share a new experience together.
Virginie

Workcamp in Graçay 2

2010-07-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

There were 12 people included 3 leaders. Mailys, Thibaud, Chloë, Elodie, Anthony and Jean-Herve are french. Hea, Taeyon, Jiwan, Minseok are korean. Paula and Ignacio are spanish. We thought we seemed to be a family. Becuase we got over a big difficulty together, and it made us feel very close. Speaking of this difficulty, there was a big storm. It came while we were sleeping, so we're so freaked out hearing the sound of heavy raining. It's even hard to get out of the tent because of storng wind! Everyone was running away form each tent just left our all stuffs in there. Luckily, we all survived and everyone was so positive, that's why we could make a joke about this horrible night. :P You see how cruel it was through a picture on the right. It used to be our fancy kitchen :P

After we overcame the storm, we moved to a stable building, which is a pingpong club for local people. People from Graçay were so kind. They helped us to dry our wet stuffs, gave their leisure space and some youngsters made cakes for us. Thanks to staying in the pinpong club, we had a great pinpong competition between us. ;) I'll keep on telling our story at the next post!

Workcamp in Graçay 1

2010-07-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, there.

How have you been? It's been ages since we posted last time. :)

We've just came back at home from our first workcamp in Graçay. It's a pity we should leave there one week earlier than others because of our next workcamp. We had a lot of fun and spent great time with beautiful people. So, today I'd like to introduce you our first workcamp. There are many episodes during two weeks, let me introduce Graçay and general information of this workcamp at first.

Graçay is pretty small village in 'Centre' region. The population of this village is only around 1500 people. There are lots of old buildings and two old and unique churches. We were supposed to stay in the camping site, we were very close to the mother nature. Everyone who participated in loved the nature, so even staying in a tent during 3 weeks made us happy.

Our task was to renovate the old stone wall. Actually the cityhall of Graçay has invited the workcamp every year for 8 years. So this big and long stone wall has been renovated very slowly for 8 years by only volunteering. It's build about 100 years ago, and some plants were growing inside and the top of the wall, and it made the wall destroyed. So we got rid of these plants and cleaned all dusts and grounds on the top of the wall. After that, all lacks of it were filled with the combination of ciment and lime. Our technical leader was a professional of construction, so we could get a lot of useful knowledge and skills.

The time table of working was very flexible because of the weather, so we did many activities and had some leisure time. I let you know in detail at the next posting ;)

On stage and in English

2010-07-16T02:41:00.000-07:00

This week is the last week of the semester in Little school. The students will soon go on vacation while we will welcome the summer school students.
So this week we present what we have learnt during the semester.
With our middle school students we prepared a little play. They created a story about a Korean Harry Potter in Little School.
It was very fun !
Then they acted the story in front of everyone and speaking English !
I have to say I was pride of them.
With the high school students we prepared a movie about their daily life in school. They will show the movie in England, France and India to introduce themselves to the communities that will welcome
them during their study trip.

Justine

Cooking contest

2010-07-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

First,...Thank you Chrsitine for your words that sound so right.

Yes, sometime to be volunteer it's hard, thoughts of torment us, we are here but our country (life style, habbits, friends, family...) remains in our Hearts, we are happybut 2 min later everythings pivoted...
But, I think we are strong! 6 months...is not enough or it's to much,....I dont know but if you beleve in yourself, YOU CAN DO THAT!!!
I'm in FIGHTING style!!! You too I hope!!

Secondy, I want to talk about our last saturday.

We did a cooking contest! It was great.

Justine's team : Lasagnes!>>>

Pizza team.
Sandwiches team.

And...my team : Kimpap-bouddhist Syle
We Won (3 equal teams!).

And later we ate everythings....miamimia!
Everybody was full!!!!

Last three months ...

2010-07-13T03:32:00.000-07:00

I remember IWO sloggan from the very beginning of our EVS project...

"WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD"

With motivations, smile, efforts and hope,

IWO team, Concordia team, host organizations and volunteers

put their shoulders to the wheel.

Even if sometimes, we feel like discouraging for many reasons ...

the fact is that our actions from the smallest one,

help to make things change.

I believe that it's worthwhile¤ to be volunteer.

Seeing students, host organizations members and local people

enjoyed daily life all together, make me feel happy and useful.

Such an amazing experience !

And ALL THIS is possible thanks to every single person who participated to EVS/MTV adventure.

FIGHTING for the last three months and enjoyed so much as we can !!!

By C.

Start over the workcamp.

2010-07-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hello there. :) How are you?

Finally, I'll leave my lovely flat for two weeks and then go to the workcamp tommorrow. Taeyon, she alreay left to the camp site in this afternoon. Now I'm alone in the office, and thinking about my workcamps, which took place already and will take place.

As you know, there are many people who participate in the workcamp everywhere and everytime. I might be just one of them, still it means a lot to me.

When I was a volunteer of the workcamp in 2008 in France, I had no idea what it means. I just wanted to travel a local region of France, and make friends from diffrent countries. It's shame to say this, but honestly I'd never thought about what I could share with others or how I contribute to others. All I thought was focused on me, myself. And then, I learned new and much more important values which I'd kept in my mind before thank to my first workcamp. I started to care about the environment where we live in, realized how happy I am when I share values and experiences with others. Above all, I learned how beautiful human being is. Everyone who I met in workcamp has warm-hearted and open-minded. Of course I know nobody should be perfect, it sometimes means everyone has defects. We could have difficulties during the workcamp because of this fact, but still I believe that the human, itself is beautiful. That's why I love the workcamp and I'm here now.

I'm really looking foward to my workcamp. New and exciting adventures will wait me!

Please cross your fingers for us, me and Taeyon.

We'll be back in two weeks!

Ciao :)

2010-07-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hiii Everyone!

I'm sorry for not giving my news from one month.
Yes, i know, I'm bad person (I hope nobody think that!)
Everyone has already made comments on our week in japan...but I loved this week so I'm obliged to tell you again!
It was a great moment! Thank you IWO team!
We were able to discover Japanese habbit while working. And it was a joy to be together again (Rita, why you didn't take a plane to join us?).

I came in one the project very tired but very happy....and more motivated than ever!!!
I think Jakkeun Hakkio is a very good place for me and justine and for the student (even if it isn't alaways easy. I want to give more at the students.

big kiss and....I promess, see you soon!

Lucie

a piece of France in Silsangsa

2010-06-30T02:09:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone,

It seems that we are the bad students of the blog here in Little school .... I'm sorry fro that and I have no excuses !
Many things happen in our lifes here, two weeks never are the same, and it is very good.
We try to share a little bit of our French culture with the students and the teachers. So we organized few things : a dinner for high school students (crèpes) and a dinner for teacher (fondue savoyarde).
We also organized a French evening for every one. We had so much fun even if it was hard work to plan it.
First each of us presented our life in France with some pictures of our region and our family. Then we made some quizz about France and everybody really wanted to win !
We even sang "Champs Elysées" in front of the all assembly ... I was shy !
The high point of the evening was the traditional French dance. We make a round all together dancing and in the middle people have to kiss cheeks. It was very fun, students were shy because in Korea it is not usual at all to kiss cheeks !
I think everybody enjoyed the night so I was very happy about it.

Justine

Leader Training for the Workcamp

2010-06-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

Hello, Everyone. Especially my dear french volunteers. It's really happy to heard that you've enjoyed the mid-term training in Japan. I'm so jealous of you girls XP

We had a 'Leader training for the workcamp' for a week in Lyon.
There was 3 trainers and 22 leaders (18 French, 1 British, 1 Italien, 2 Korean)
The leaders, me and hea were zeroed in on our training,
And That entire training program was really helpful, we learnd a lot of know-how and how to contribute for workcamp as a good leader.

And as like as before, People was really kind (Hyper gentil)
Actually, it was possible that we had much difficulty because of our French is not very good, But it wasn't. Not at all.
All of them tried to translate in English and We often use lot of gestures when we speak in Frech so We had such a great time there with all of them. Now, We believe that warm hearted is most important thing much more than different language.

So for now, We're ready to try our best to be good leaders.
We'll help all volunteers could have a such a meaningful and fun time during our workcamp as much as possible.

Everyone there and dear french girls in korea,
Enjoy your MAXIMUM, We don't have much time now : (

Let's keep in touch and Best wishes

Gros bizzzzzzzzzzzzzz

- Tae yeon & Hea jung

Mid-term evaluation : 3 months passed, time for review!!!

2010-06-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

We had our mid term avaluation in Nagoya because we needed to left South Korea to renew our visa after 3 months. Big "Thank You" to immigration law!!!
It was good to catch up with each other. I had a great time with the International Workcamp Organisation team and I was also so happy to meet up again with my dear 2 french girls : Justine and Lucie.
It was great fun to discover this new country all together. Maybe a bit stressful for Dobin (our coordinator) but he has done a great job. Thank you!
So as it is well named "mid term evaluation" we have done a review about our past 3 months in our project and in Korea in general.
I think I have learned a lot in the way of teaching, even if it still not perfect but there are some improvement, and about my personal knowledges of course.
My relation with the children are more close and I am happy because today my class of little kids made me a warm welcoming. So cute! Kawaii! (japanese)
This evaluation was interesting and useful to organise our next 3 months.
Now let's go for the last part of my volunteering.
We have a new volunteer with us : Su Gyeong. She seems very motivated and full of energy so I am happy we have the chance to work and spend time together. However I am not forgetting about Hey Yeon (the first korean volunteer) with who I became very close and I hope she has time to come visit us...soon!
No time to see the time slip by!!!
Virginie

The day of workcamp!

2010-06-22T02:44:00.000-07:00

Hello, there :)

Let me introduce you the event I participated in the 10th of June.

I met lots of volunteers since I've stayed in Clermont-ferrand. Some of them work in Concordia like me, and others work in another association as Etude et Chantier. And 2 weeks ago, there was a event for participants who will join the workcamp for this summer. (I tried to upload this story much earlier, but I had a training for one week, so I couldn't do it) Actually, it's organized by Etude et Chantier, they invited me. I thought it would be nice chance to know how they promote the workcamp, so I accepted. :)

At first, I just thought I would be a partipant either in this event. But, they were really looking forward to that I could help them. So when they asked me to organize a presentation in the begining of this event, I was embarrased. Because it was one day before the due date!

And I was supposed to say in french in front of many people. Luckily, a good presentation game hit me up. :)

This game is from my last on-arrival training, it's easy and funny. Let everyone blows ballons, then describe a next person's face on the ballon. And gather all ballon in the center of people, make everyone pick one up randomly. Then, everyone has to find the person who matches with the ballon. :)

Thanks for other's help, I could introduce this game in front of 24 participants. It was pretty nice experience. I was thankful that they gave me a chance to be part of them and this event, eventhough I don't speak french fluently, and work diffrent association. After my presentation, they prepared some interesting games for helping people to understand the workcamp. Everyone was so motivated and interested in the programs. I was happy to help them and share my experience.

Bon chantier, Bonne chance à tous...

Changement in our daily life...

2010-06-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

Since thursday, our 1st host family left from Usuyeong to another city. . . T_T

The pastor had new responsibilities to take care there and so a new host family will be here next week. ^^

These two months and a half with them was so great and so enrichising for me !

We shared a lot about our different culture, experienced festivals, events, restaurants, places, ... in a word korean daily life.

Since the beginning, the pastor and his wife were always by our side to motivate, encourage and to show their gratitude to our volunteer work. It was so enjoyable to have them as tutors.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING.

By C.

Korean Public Bath : Let's try it!!

2010-06-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

Today I experience the public bath and sauna with Christine. We had a local guide: Heye Yeon. At the entrance they gave us a shirt and shorts. As soon as we enter we can meet naked woman. Welcome to the free world of public bath!!! Hahaha! We put on shirt and shorts and we went to thesauna. There were different room with a different temperature in each. From very hot to cold. We run on a training machine while some people watch TV, use internet or order some drinks and food at the "restaurant". The interior design was very nice with little stones recovering the walls. We enjoyed to lie down and relax.

After have sweating in the sauna, Hye Yeon and I went to the public bath. We took off are close and take a shower before entering in a bath. There were several bath from hot to cold. We took a drink, very enjoyable while relaxing in the hot bath. It was my experience of being naked in a public place but I didn't feel uncomfortable. I liked the atmosphere and the fact that women from all ages come and relaxed together. I found it pleasant to be in a place reserved to women, it felt like we have a place for us outside of the daily world.

I really liked this experience and I think I am going to try some other bath...In one word...conviced!

Virginie

The family of concordia : )

2010-06-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

For now, Let us introduce about our tutor and co-worker.

Our tutor's name is Jean Baptiste Boulange and we call him just J.B

Because of our strange pronunciation ; p

We wonder how french volunteers call their tutor's name in Korean. Any difficulties?

He's not only our tutor but also the person who incharge of Concordia, Auvergne.

He has such a responsible position so there is a lot of work for him.

I have an impression that he always does his best when he works, and also very kind to us.

He always wears the big smile with him.

And our co-worker's name is Joffrey Coudert Lopez,

He's also volunteer like us but different project what called C.S.V

He's our very good friend now, he always tries to teach us some French.

They're really amazing people here.

That's why and how we've been enjoying the E.V.S project a lot : )

We always appreciate that we met them, we're super lucky.

Maison de Quartier

2010-06-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

Hi, there. :)

Today, I'd like to introduce 'Maison de Quartier' in Clermont-ferrand. It means 'the house of district.' This is the social community center of each district. People who work there organize activities or festivals for local people, and manage this place. I found there are lots of programs for children, for example, a hiphop dance class, indian dance class, and plastic art class etc. Of course adults or ados also can join. I think it's good for either children or their parents. And almost everything is free or at very low price to join. So it's necessary to manage them by volunteers. I met good volunteers who really enjoy to work at maison de quartier.

Voila, these are photos about two maison de quartiers, and the right one is their fesival's poster.

Clermont-ferrand also has several 'quartiers' and I guess there are more maison de quartiers, but I've only visited two maison de quartier since I arrived. One is 'Croix de neyrat', where serbian evs volunteer works and the other is 'Champratel', where german evs volunteer works. I heard my servian friend is 7th evs volunteer who has worked in maison de quartier, so it would be good example to be able to explain the role of EVS. They work with children and local people everyday. They also can participate to organize a local festival, or exposition. For example, my german friend is planning to go to journey in germany with adolescents. He will take them to Berlin and guide. He had meetings with participants in person, and organized schedules together.

I don't work there, but my friends always invite me when there is a festival or exposition. Whenever I went there, I thought it's good opportunity to meet local people. Last saturday, there was a great festival in Champratel where my german friend works. And it was really succesful. There were lots of people and everyone enjoyed. Of course I also enjoyed. :) Look at this photo, you can see my german friend and others who are really great indian dancer. :) I hope you guys also have good opportunity to get along with local people like me!

Jejudo, thank you mother nature!

2010-05-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I am happy to see that our Korean team seems to have a great experience in France. Thank you for the movie and your photo...

For me the work at the center become usual and I try to organise my class. But I have to say that I have a bit of lack of authority so I try to work on it...never too late to improve myself!

So now let's talk about our GREAT trip to Jejudo...Christine, Hye Yeon and me spend 3 days there so it let us time to appreciate the island and her beauty.

We visited the Bunjae Artpia (bonsai garden) Ouah! 2000 bonsais of 100 hundred differents species! Very impressive and peaceful. A real artist work!

With Christine we hiked the Mont Halla...1950m - 9.6 km -1000m of high difference to walk-
This the highest mount of Korea, so Christine and me were quiet proud to have done it. We have our certificate hihihi! It was a bit hard but the panorama on Jeju was worth it!

We went to beaches, the must do on an island, I swimmed. Real pleasure, the water was so clear and pure. And we saw waterfall, folk museum, temple...
We also went for a walk in the early morning so we have admired the birth of a new day on the beautiful green hills along the sea...I dreamed awake, amazed by the silence and the feelings nature can brings. I think I should work for the promoting departement of Jejudo Hahaha!

This week end Justine and Lucie come to visit us in Haenam, I am very excited to show us our environement and spend some time together...

Live fast, live strong, live real...

Vie-ginie

Miam miam ...

2010-05-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Au menu:

- Carotte râpé, oeuf mimosa

- Salade campagnarde
- Rose des sables

Enjoyed our meal all together !

(oops ... sorry for the french flag... it seems to be a mistake)

Children's day (May, 5th)

2010-05-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

For this special day dedicated to the children,

Virginie and me wanted to do something for them and so we cooked french menu.

It takes about 3 hours and a half... such a long time to prepare for 30 persons but we had great time and it was a pleasure to do it ! ^^

Thanks to students who help us to succeed this dinner meal.

By C.

EVS France 2010

2010-05-12T00:54:00.000-07:00

Salut a tous :)

This video clip is about our on-arrival seminar in Montpellier.

we went to the seminar during one week, from the 30th April to the 6th May.

There were 27 volunteers who are from 16 different countries.

We were very happy to meet them, because they are our first friends from their countries.

And every program(l'animation) was well-organized. For example,

We had languisistic programs in the morning, and then time to discuss about EVS.

We shared our problems and fears from volunteering, and tried to find solutions for each other.

I thought of myself during seminar like; why I am here, what I can do and what I expect etc.

It was meaningful time to find my motivations again :)

And one of volunteers made this video clip, I think it reflects well the atmosphere of the seminar :D

It was absolutely fun, and great time.

I hope everything goes well with you :)

Community work

2010-05-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

The first of May we did community work in Little school. Every one from the buddhist community joined to clean the area : students, teachers, monks ....
First we all had a good time playing volley ball/soccer, I tried but it is really difficult !
Then we went picking up trashs around the school. It was a very good opportunity to meet everyone and share.

Hi, Everyone : ]

2010-04-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

How are doing in these days?

Hopefully, Everything goes well with you all.

We're really happy to see you and your great work in Korea by this Blog.

Well, For us, We work in the office of Concordia Auvergne in Clerremont-fd.

We try to promote volunteer work like a workcamp and the E.V.S also.

So lately, We've made some panel, kind of photo-block to show what is the workcamp,

What they do, etc.

And Finally, We used them to promote volunteer, where called, 'PIJ' kind of a youth information center yesterday. We realized it's not that easy to explain about workcamp to stranger in FRENCH but there were nice people to help us. So actually, It was very good experience for us.

We hope that we'll grow up and be better for next time, as you guys : ]

Take care and Enjoy your life! C'est la vie : p

Kisses

Well, Let's see some pictures : ]

Ready to practise english !

2010-04-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

To let you know,
Virginie and me have 4 classes (elementary school and middle school) each.

Speaking, learning, listenning, repeating... in order to improve their english.

A real challenge ! It begins quite well, students seem to be motivated. Thanks to their participation, group dynamics are good. We alternate lessons and fun activities.

Even if they study such a long time at school, after school doing their homeworks in the center and finally, they follow our english courses.

I was so surprised that they study so many hours in a day.

Impressive korean students !

Carry on our efforts all together ...

By C.

Foretaste for adults

2010-04-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

When I start to cook "ratatouille", I was so worried about the taste because tomatoes were so acide. So I try to correct it. And you can see in the picture, dishes are almost empty. Waouh !!!
Successful french lunch with adults ^^
We were so glad that they appreciate all the food.

Then, we did also "crêpes" for the children's dessert. They especially like the taste.
It was a foretaste for the adults. A special menu will be done for children's day.

Thanks to Virginie for her cooking skills and to Hye Yeon unni for her participation.
Great team !

By C.

Finally done at 12h30

2010-04-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Au menu:
- Ratatouille (dish with vegetables) + butterfly pasta

- Omelette with ham and onion

- Crêpe with jam (made by Virginie's mother), sugar or chesnut cream and almond

Bon appétit !

By C.

P.S: spécial dédicasse à tous mes fans de ratatouille ehehehe

French Menu

2010-04-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we cooked french food for the center to share with them french gastronomy.

At the beginning, it was plan for today but because of a hitch, we have to do yesterday. And so, after breakfast, go directly to the kitchen and try to do it in 2 hours in a half.

We thought it wasn't enough but finally, it was OK !! ^^

By C.

Concert On Jiri-san Montain

2010-04-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

Today, we accompanied Hans (our tutor) who made a concert at the top of Jiri-san!

They expressed against construction a cablecar on the mountain with an association ecologist of the National Park.

(on the rigth : Hans, our tutor)

So….I have contested with conviction!

(Hans, me)

Lucie

Traditional Medicine

2010-04-11T01:21:00.000-07:00

I had intended to say that Korean medicin was different….and is true!

Wenesday, I was playing soccer with children of "little school", I'm hurt myself ankle!
The hospital of Inwol being closed this day...so : I'm going in Traditional doctor!

I tested Acuponctur"!

During 3 days, I had to much difficulty to walk.

But now, it's better!
Tomorrow, I hope to do Martial Art!
It's a dream!!!!

Lucie

From Silsangsa

2010-04-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi,

It's been already a week that I am in Jirisan. It is really great, I discover new things everyday.
People are wonderfull.
We had our first week, I was a little scared of english conversation class, but everything went fine, students are great !
We do so much great things here that time is running really fast.
Here is a picture of our acomodation.

Already a week!!!

2010-04-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hello,

It's been already a week that we are on our project and we have done so many things that I feel like if it was much longer.

We are host by the pastor and his wife who directed the child care center. We have the great luck that they are really kinds and generous persons. They drive us in many places and are always there to take care of us and make us feel at home.

We begun, the english oral lesson with the children. I feel they are motivated to improve their oral in english. It is a bit hard for me to teach them as I never done this before but happilly I have Christine and Hye Yeon to help and support me in this work. Thank's a lot girls!

This week end we are going on a road trip together in a town well known for its beautiful flowers at this season...Photo to come...

Today we went to see a boudhist temple in the middle of the mountains, amazing!!!

Hope you are all enjoying your project and that you live it with your heart...

Virginie

My favourite place "Green tea farm"

2010-04-08T07:33:00.001-07:00

By C.

About our daily life

2010-04-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

How to start... there are too many thing s to say...

My first impressions were so positive and find myself very enthousiastic for my voluntary work. The host family and the local community welcomed us so warmly. Their kindness, hospitality and considerations toward us make me feel at home and so concerned about my role in this center. ^^

For easter, the pastor (host family) introduced us to the local community. It was so official that I was a little afraid but Virginie and Hye Yeon were here. So, their presence reassure me.

We started our english oral lessons since this week. So, we
need to prepare, to organize, etc...

The students seem to be motivate and participate to our classes. It's a good point to carry on and try to give our best for them.

Instead of teaching, we have time for tourism. It was really great to visit, to discover new things, to see new landscapes.
Let's enjoy it together accross our blog !

By C.

Le jardin des assiettes!

2010-03-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

Christian, one of the EVS volunteer from Germany who shares the kitchen with us. He invited us to the organic buffet at Masion de Quartier where he works yesterday. The title of the event was 'Le jardin des assiettes'. It means the garden on your dish.

So, there were lots of vegitables, cheeses, yogurts and fruits. They are all made by organic way. We enjoyed not only foods but also conversation with local people. They were very kind. Actually, we are not good at speaking in French, so we didn't undersrand almost anything and then when they know about it, They started speak very slowly, but still in french ;^) But somehow, they tried to explain us many things very kindly. For example, the food, the culture etc. One of them, a woman from Cambodia invited us for saturday lunch. We are lucky!

When our dinner almost finished, the lecture about 'the gardening by organic way' was started. The goals of this lecture were ...

-un jardin cultiver ses légumes soi-même

-un jardin pour être en contact avec la terre
-un jardin pour être en lien avec les autres

Well, I would love to say, We god many ideas and It was very impressive that French people's passion for debate. Because of that, now we know, How meaningful the enviromental gardening is.

2010-03-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hello girls

We are happy to see that you enjoy your first days. We have finish our arrival training yesterday and begun the korean lesson today. We really liked it and try to speak in Korean between us...not that easy but we have lots of fun!!!

We visited the Gyeongbokgung palace, it was very impressive. We also went to the traditionnal korean life museum which permited us to know more about your history and roots.

We keep on discovering new things all the time. We still a bit tired of the jet lag but we make the most of our stay in Seoul...going out at night, meeting nice people, eating delicious food!

We had lot of fun trying to dance like the "Wonder Girls"...we did not manage to put the video so you can see how wonderfull we are =) (but see the real wonder girls !)

To be continued...

Salut a tous!

2010-03-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

#1. This is the appartment of Concordia in Paris. We stayed here for the first day's night, and met many volunteers there. There are French, two Italian girls and one guy from U.K. It was really a melting pot!

#2. The 2nd day, We were in the train staition to leave for Clermont-Ferrand. It was really beutiful structure :^) Actually, We feel like we're in the museum wherever we're in France.
There are so many historical landmark here.

#3. Finally, We arrived in Clermont-ferrand. My first impression was, well, there are so many black buildings here, even though church so, It seems like we're in the Hogwarts school of Harry Potter. ;^) Of corse we know it's becuase of made by kind of volcanic ash. Anyhow, It's incredible place!

Now, We gonna start our volunteer work and new daily life in France. So we'll upload it soon.

Hopefully, Everyone enjoy your new life over there, Good luck! :^) See you soooooooon.

First days in Seoul

2010-03-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

As you see we all arrived in Seoul and already met a new chicken friend. Hey hey !
We met Do Bin and Jung Hyung, our korean coordinators, who welcomed us very warmly. Rita, our french coordinator, was there too.

We`ll stay in Seoul untill next thursday, to follow our on-arrival training and some korean lessons.
This will be the opportunity to visit the capital city and discover the korean way of life.

We discovered korean food :
Bul Go Gi ---> Very Good but very spicy !!!
Eating with chop sticks requires patience and agility, but it is a lot of fun too.

Virginie, Lucie, Christine and Justine

Finally pre-departure training day!

2010-03-22T01:18:00.000-07:00

Hello, Everyone :^)

How are you guys doing? Did you finish to pack the back?

Now, We're in the meeting room for Pre-departure meeting with Rita! (Finally, She came to Korea)

This traing was really helpful to prepare the EVS project.

We know there are so many things to do to be a good volunteer now, So we'll try to our best!!

We'd like to say thanks for Rita, Dobin, and Junghyun.
It was hard to explain all about the program to us.

We think they didn't have enough time to prepare the training. But today, thanks for them, It was really great time, Tae-Yeon and me had really meaningful day.

We appreciated sincerly. :-)

Now, we are going to eat dinner~~~!! yeah

From Tae-Yeon, Hea-Jung

Hello, Everyone ;^)

2010-03-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

My name is Tae-yeon Kim, one of the two Korean participants. I'm really appreciate that I could join for this project. I'll try to do all the assistance possible for our team and project :^)

Well, Let me introduce myself briefly. I'm 26 years old, I graduated my college 4 years ago, My major was Film-department. (So hopefully I could help you all, when you make film) When I graduated, I decided I wanted to be a film director who have the really warm heart. In order to make that dream come true, I thought that I needed to learn more about what it means to be a human being. I really wanted to meet people in the world and to have done something of substance that didn't directly benefit just me. So I started and continuing travelling and volunteering by this time.

Now I truly want to be a good part of our project what urban development and promotion of volunteering in a city and working class neighborhoods.

Hopefully, We could make better world little by little. Let's go together. :^)

Welcome

2010-03-03T03:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody, what's up???! So first, I will introduce ... the french volunters
Left to right : Lucie, Christine (me) and Justine.
This picture was taken when we went to Les Planches près d'Arbois for a training before leaving France.

The idea of going 6 months in South Korea is so exciting and you guys know how lucky we are to go there !!!! J-21
Thanks to all the organizations (Concordia, IWO, Commission Européenne) let us discover South Korea and by our actions build young asian european bridges.

Hello everyone =)

2010-02-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

I'm Heajung. I'm very happy to participate in EVS program, also to be with you all.
This is a photo from my last workcamp in 2008 at Lyon. I was teaching korean traditional game for friends in this picture. ;)

Actually, this is the first time that I use blogger.com, so I'm not familiar with it. But, I'll try to be good at posting before departure. Like Justine, I'm also excited at all that I'll do. I'm looking forward to see you soon. =)

Example for Our projects

2010-02-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

example

Examples of Travels

2010-02-05T04:15:00.001-08:00

example

Before leaving

2010-02-05T04:06:00.000-08:00

Date is booked, we are all leaving on the 25th of March.
Two of us will fly from Seoul to Paris, and four of us will fly from Paris to Seoul.
Before meeting in the sky somewhere above Russia, we have to prepare our trips : visas, documents, plane tickets, insurance ...
But also what to pack !
I am very excited about this experience and can not wait for the departure ...

Justine