Photo Blog

 J and I heard loud drumming coming from the street about 2 weeks ago and went outside to find this mini parade. I think they were welcoming the Lunar New Year by going around to most businesses and singing and drumming to them for about 5 minutes

Bungeoppang on the street corner. It's a fried dessert with a cream filling. We got this after we went see the new Frozen movie

The neighborhood of Gohyeon and mountains in the background

 We haven't eaten here yet but want to try it! I think it's just a Korean barbecue place

 My 14 year old kids are writing essays in my Writing Class and will present them in J's Speech Class. I helped one boy brainstorm ideas on his superhero that he had to invent. My example is at the top

 This is from tonight's class. We read a passage and there are usually a lot of new words for the kids. To make it easy, I write the Korean word on the board for each English word. This is an example of Korean characters. I'm getting faster at writing them and sounding them out. One of the students wanted to get in on the photo too!

Fellow = saram

Election = seongeo

Sculpture Park and P.O.W. Camp

A few weekends ago, J and I hung out with two of our college-aged female students, Hui Su (he-sue) and Da Young (dah-yung). We met them in the morning and took a local bus to the nearby village of Jangseuongpo. They said that we were going to go for a hike, but it was really a stroll on the city and country roads. We first went almost straight up this one road because the incline was so severe. J laughed at us after the first 5 minutes, because the three of us girls were chatting and charging up the hill not realizing how fast we were going. Then we got tired and had to slow to a mere slog. After leaving the city area we came around a bend in the road and saw wonderful views of the coast. It was so gorgeous but these photos can't do it justice. It was icy cold and so windy from the coast! It would've been awesome to have been down on the shore and see the waves crashing against the rocks. We forgot the name of the little island in this first photo. I tried to capture it in the photos but failed, but the sun kept shining through the clouds like a spotlight on the waves and lighting up a section of them. It was so beautiful because it made the water glow like molten silver.

We turned left after this view and walked down a country road following the coast. I can't wait to go back in the spring and summer because the sidewalk was lined with Japanese Cherry Blossom trees. I will post a blog about that in a few months. There was a nice sidewalk to get away from the traffic and outdoor workout equipment along the way. Workout equipment here in Korea in nice because they put the machines in convenient places that people go to walk or exercise (on mountain tops too!). I've seen equipment like this before in the US, but only a few pieces at each park. Here, they put about 5-10 machines at each place that they are putting the equipment. When we hiked Guksabong (bong means mountain) they had such cool machines to help you stretch and exercise. I will do a blog about that one day too.

Da Young, Hui Su, and J

So we walked for a long time along this road and coastline, maybe 45 minutes, until we came to a sculpture park. I'm not sure if the park commemorated anything or had any special meaning, but it was pretty cool. Of course, the first thing that caught my eye was the funky bathroom!

It's a snail with a fountain on the right (shaped like a black seal with a blue ball)

I bet this park will be a perfect place to come and read on the grass this summer

The village/city of Neunpo in the background

Korean graffiti

Hui Su and Da Young wondered why I stopped to take a photo of this, but I thought it was cool. I could make a stab at translating the characters, but to my eyes it doesn't follow the rules of the Korean language. I am beginning to learn the Korean characters and almost have the alphabet down-pat! Pronunciation is next.

After we left the sculpture park we went down into another village that was near the park, called Neunpo. We got some delicious food that we all shared, but I forgot to take a photo of our food. It's considered nice to share food because it means that you are eating with friends, and don't you sometimes share your food to some extent with friends or your significant other. Then we took two busses to get to Gohyeon, which was maybe 25 minutes away. The girls thought (rightly so) that we should see the P.O.W. camp while we were living in Korea. They wanted us to know their history and the horrors of the war. J has personally (I think for school) done extensive researching on the Korean War, but I was almost ignorant of ANYTHING besides knowing that there was a war in Korea by that name! It was very enlightening for me and sad to see the truth of what happened and I went home after it and did my own research on the war. 

This is what Wikipedia had to say about Geoje Island-- "Out of a total of 170,000 prisoners of war about 85% were from North Korea, and the rest from China. The (camp) is meant to be reminiscent of the daily lives of the prisoners. The theme stresses the humane treatment of the internees."

The P.O.W. camps were all over the area that we live in now, Okpo, and far beyond that. While at the park, we also saw an interactive movie with shaking seats and, supposedly, wind (which I didn't feel). The movie showed a story about two soldier friends from North Korea who fought in the war. It was sad because one of the young soldiers dies in the end right in front of his mother just as he was about to escape the camp. He was an anti-communist living in a communist camp and was being helped by the American and South Korean soldiers to escape this very communist camp and get to another camp (nearby) that was anti-communist. There were many, many different camps in this area. Maybe 100 or so guys to each camp. Alliances began to form very quickly in each camp and blood ran hot, so each camp became either anti-communist or pro-communist. The North Koreans and Chinese living in these camps would kill each other if they weren't in agreement with them. Also the North Koreans and Chinese were extremely divided about repatriation. The pro-communists wanted to be repatriated to their home country after the war, meaning they wanted to go home. The anti-communists knew they couldn't go back after being so outspoken against communism and they didn't WANT to go back to North Korea/China, so they were against repatriation and many stayed in South Korea or other countries after the war. So this young soldier was murdered by his fellows North Koreans while escaping over the barbed wire tall fence. Of course, this movie was just a fictionalized drama about the war, but I think it still captured the tone of what was going on in the camps at the time.

And now, ziplines! "What do ziplines have to do with a P.O.W. camp?" you might ask. Well, apparently during the war some prisoners attempted an escape from one of the camps. It didn't work, but today we have the pleasure of going on an awesome zipline tour right inside a P.O.W. camp. I tried to get Da Young to give it a try, and after I agreed to go first, she said that she would do it. J also tried it but Hui Su couldn't be convinced to go on it. It was pretty cool and had some actual drops on it. I've been on one other zipline, but I've never heard of a zipline having drops on it like a roller coaster. It was slightly sketchy when I'd zip around a corner and a tree limb would be maybe 4 feet away from me. I tucked my legs in under me after that because a broken leg is never fun. I can see my mom cringing at this point and my dad laughing. We thought the cost for the tour was 9,000 won ($9), but their machine that allowed automatic retrieval of the gear was broken, so it was free if we carried our harness and 5 pound gear back up to the start of the tour. I think it was worth it!

 And, yes, that IS a wobbly step stool that we launched from!

I asked the attendant guy if I could jump off of the stool to get some speed but he said no, and to just sit and go.

B and Da Young

Monks on the Mountain, Death Scooters in the Valley

Mountain Monks:

While hiking up Guksabong (the local hiking mountain) this past Thursday, on the first day of our Lunar New Year holiday, I saw an elder and younger man out splitting wood and hauling away tree branches. B and I had seen them a couple weeks ago cutting and splitting wood. I wanted to stop but she thought it might be strange so we went on. This time round though, it was just me and I wanted to help split the wood they had cut up.

On another occasion, I heard the wooden "clunk, clunk, clunk" of a Buddhist monk's call to prayer (this sound comes from striking a wooden mallet on essentially a wooden "bell") followed by a chanted prayer echoing up the mountain. If you've never experienced this, it is altogether mesmerizing and mystifying. Something about the resonance and rhythm command the attention of your ears.

Anyway, as I was saying, I wanted to help split wood. I walked right up past a building, said 여보세요Anyong-ha-se-yo (hello in Korean) and played charades with the old and young guy to convey that I wanted to "try" to split their firewood. They were very concerned and cautioned me at least half a dozen times to be careful and how to swing.

After splitting three rounds, they cautioned me to not swing with all my force, "no use hard chop." This was foreboding; I broke their splitting maul on the very next piece of wood! I should mention though that this "maul" had a good splitting shaped head but the handle was puny and felt like a relatively soft wood. It was no problem though. The younger monk (I learned quickly that the place is, in fact, a Buddhist Temple) said, "no problem, no problem my uncle want fix anyway" while the elder monk was laughing and saying "too strong, too strong" and flexing his arms.

Elder Monk, in just a few minutes, retrieved a new handle that had obviously been hand cut and hewn from a shed. He deftly trimmed it to fit, removed the broken handle from the axe head, installed the new handle and had us splitting wood again. During the course of splitting about a cord of wood, they brought out coffee and cake; watermelon, grapes, and Asian fig*; Makgeolli (a traditional Korean rice based drink; somewhere between a beer and wine) and ground rice formed into balls, cooked and dusted with… something; and a wonderful rice soup to share. This was a beautiful experience and I will go back often to visit and help. I hope to help in their garden and maybe be allowed to grow some vegetables for B and I!

Death Scooters:

Every time we head out the door of our apartment building, we step basically right onto a street just a few feet from a "Y" intersection. With the way folks drive here in the "dirty south" of Korea, we have learned a Pavlovian fear response from the sound of a scooter. More than a few times, and already far too many times, B and/or I have been buzzed by maniacal scooter drivers buzzing by, often through stopped traffic down the center line of the road, or ON the sidewalk. Delivery drivers for pizza places, Chinese restaurants, and McDonald's seem to be the worst.

They'll run out the door of the restaurant, toss the food in a nifty retrofitted "heater box" on the back of the scooter, and away they go to deliver a hot meal…apparently to people at risk of immediate death, the Korean mafia, a last meal request with a time crunch, or some other high risk issue. This can be the only logical explanation for me thinking that Cake's "The Distance" cued at "they deftly maneuver and muscle for rank" and an overlay of SilverChair's "Suicidal Dream" should somehow be played as theme and caution music. I know I do, and I bet B also puckers, cringes, and helplessly hope while jumping out of the way as they come ripping past us.

Ok, more later y'all. Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments if there are things you would like to know!

The Proper Way

This past Wednesday one of my middle school writing classes was learning about "procedures." We had to write a procedure of "how to grow tomatoes" or something equally boring. We had to come up with a goal (How To _"), list of requirements, steps, and test (Enjoy Your _!). One of the students suggested that we write about how to cook ramyeon, something they all knew. Now, here in SK they don't say ramen noodle (or even raymon noodle, which is how I've always said it) they spell and pronounce it ramyeon. This seemed an easy enough procedure and something that we could do together on the board as a group. South Koreans make ramyeon differently than we do back home. It tastes so much better! When they put the noodles in the water to boil they also put in the seasoning packets. In America we would usually wait until the noodles were cooked to put the packets in. Let me tell you, the taste is so very different. Apparently when you "cook" the spices into the water it almost becomes infused with the flavor and deepens it. They also add a raw egg to the soup after the noodles are cooked. They just pour it in and immediately stir it after they turn the heat off. Almost like an egg drop soup. Very yummy! After I had written our procedure on the board, I told the kids the way that I usually made it and, boy, were they shocked. They had playful horrified expressions on their face like I had destroyed the soup entirely by cooking it that way. It was actually a really good class overall, because they were engaged in what we were doing and we all laughed together. I usually take a while to get comfortable with new people (unlike Joshua, whom all the kids love), but this class showed that it's getting better. I was engaged too and laughing with them and making jokes. It's hard to make jokes with elementary kids who understand about 3 out of 10 words you're saying, and middle and high school kids so sullen their faces drip with boredom. I'm like the teacher we've all had who's kind of strict at the beginning of the year to establish rules and respect, but as the year progresses everyone has fun because the kids know boundaries and I'm more comfortable.

Next time you make ramen noodles at home think about this post and (as the "test" part of the procedure that we wrote in class says) "Enjoy Your Ramyeon!"

Hey everyone,
Just a short post about the weekend and our first day of classes…

We were switched last minute by Mr. A from B teaching speaking and me doing reading/writing to me doing the speaking classes. This is a minor wrench in the gears because we observed the classes for a couple days and had good ideas set on how to go about conducting the classes we had already been in. Now, we have to learn a whole new set of ways to interact with our students already. Just some small bumps on the road on our way to learning along Adventure Ave. Nonetheless, the first day of classes with us flying solo went very well. We finally found the open market again (more about this later) today before a 14:00 meeting that will apparently be a regular Monday thing. I think this will be constructive as we will have a dedicated time to talk with the director/owner of the school about any issues in pedagogy, trouble students, progress, and whatever other matters might arise. It is amazing to see the various levels of ability and interest in learning a language.

The biggest challenge so far is just communicating instructions to the wee tykes that barely do well to follow directions in Korean, let alone English. Being on this journey though with B and growing together has me very excited for our future.

Now about the weekend and coming plans. Having found the hiking trail that B mentioned, I am stoked about having a place to workout for free several times each week. The trail is 1.8km (1.1 mile) to a 465 metre (1,525 feet) summit that basically starts from sea level. Along the way there is an initial rest/stretching area that has pull-up bars, dip bars, stretching machines, and a bench. This is about ⅓ of the way to the summit. There is a more complete workout station about ⅔rds of the way up. This area has a bench press, pull up and dip bars, leg press machine, rings for stretching, several mobility machines that I've never seen, a hula hoop, and a sitting deck. At the bottom, and this struck B and I as very interesting and comical initially, there is a station with four air hoses with a metal nozzle on the end to blow off the dust, dirt, and debris from clothes and shoes. After summiting, B trying to catch a cat, spotting a random black billy goat, and enjoying an AMAZING view, we returned to the air hoses and found them very practical and useful. While there was some trash left around the summit, the general lack of human destruction, graffiti, and good condition of all of the equipment leaves much to be longed for back in the States. It really begs the question as to why people back home can't show this much decency and respect generally. Sure there are National Parks and Forests, but they are federally policed and nearly always require a fee at the National Parks. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to starting a solid routine of working out on this awesome trail through evergreen forests and stunning views. Many pictures to come once we buy a camera or two!

Ok, if I stop now this my be the "short" post I mentioned. Oh, the open market though…we had been shown there by the teachers we replaced but didn't pay enough attention to directions on the first trip there. One can find more fresh fish and odd seafood there than I ever care to eat. It was validating though to point out the live sea cucumbers to B that I have tried to describe as eating a salty ball of mucus encrusted with a layer of chewy mucus. Just google it, the image alone is enough to deter most sane folks. We did find and buy some really awesome wooden cooking utensils we've been wanting though. And we're keeping keen eyes toward finding great gifts for Big L and Little l, among many others.

Please feel free to share our blog link with others that might be interested.

Off to bed…
J&B

Arctic circle and large feet

B here-

So now that we've been in Korea for 5 days I've found the time to sit down and write my own blog. It's been busy! To start with, the flight was pretty uneventful. Which is the best way to fly. We flew Asiana Air from Chicago to Incheon International Airport (the largest airport in SK). Apparently they believe that the best way to make sure you enjoy your flight is to feed you dinner, serve you unlimited alcohol, and then turn off all the cabin lights and tell you that "it's time to rest." We were only about 2hrs into a 13hr and 50min flight when I fell asleep after about 4 drinks. It seemed like only an hour later, but when I woke up and checked the time, we only had 5hrs left until landing! Those stewardesses really know what they're doing.

When I first heard that we were going to be flying out of Chicago, I expected our flight path to cross America through California, but one thing I didn't realize was the curvature of Earth. It takes longer to go from point A to point B when you are closer to the equator. So, the flight path was straight up through Canada beyond the Arctic circle! It was very exciting to realize that we were literally flying that far north on this planet. Our airplane seats each had a tv monitor on the back of the seat in front of us and one of the channels was a real time flight path for the plane. It was pretty cool. It told you elevation, speed, arrival time, and outside temperature. The coldest temperature I noticed was more than negative 80 degrees! Frost was forming on the outside windows it was so cold. Crossing over Russia and northern China was really interesting. I should have some pictures below showing the mountains. It was such a vast terrain. I can't imagine crossing that on foot centuries ago.

After getting our luggage at Incheon we hopped a bus to Gimpo Airport (for domestic flights). Then we flew an hour to Busan where we were picked up by who we had been told was "a school representative." This elderly Korean man was holding up a sign with our names on it, bowed to us, grabbed a bag, and took off! This is a go-go-go country. We had to rush to keep up. He turned out to be the Director of the school's father-in-law and we were staying at their house (2 generations in 1 family apartment). We overlapped with the soon-to-be-leaving teachers by 3 nights so Mr. A wanted us to stay with him. He said to consider him family and his mother-in-law cooked a wonderful Korean meal for us each morning. My favorite foods were small, red dried cod; kimchi; and sesame/soy sauce seaweed salad. I tried almost everything, including Ox Tail Soup (which I think was just boiled oyster soup). We told Mr. A that after we moved into our own apartment on the 4th night we should have his mother-in-law come and cook for us each morning! Koreans don't designate the breakfast meal to "normal breakfast food." They treat it as any other meal and usually eat the same types of food they would eat for lunch or dinner. We ate a lot of fish at their place and Mr. A and his wife were always talking about how healthy Korean food is (which it seems to be). After every Korean breakfast we always felt full but never that nasty stuffed feeling like in America. It was really nice.

The teachers whose spot we were taking were really cool and Thursday night we all went out for Korean barbecue (along with ESL teachers in a sister school led by Mr. A's wife from the neighboring town). They brought us small side dishes of food and drinks when we first sat down. I felt my laryngitis resurfacing from when I was back home, so when I spied a dish of raw halved garlic on the table I thought it would be a wonderful idea to eat one. They're good for colds, I hear. Horrible mistake! The garlic was so spicy as I chewed it that I just swallowed it down to be done with it. Within 2min I was feeling horrible and like I might throw up. I couldn't eat or even try soju for the first time! Soju is an experience. It looks and tastes like vodka and has an alcohol content of about 20% (beer is usually around 5.5%). You usually drink it in a group and there are some rules for drinking it. First when receiving a glass from someone, you have to hold the glass (shot glass) with two hands (in case of an elder; left palm on the bottom and hold the glass with the right hand) and bow the head slightly. You never pour your own drink, and don't refill anyone's glass until it's empty. When someone else's glass is empty you pour another glass for them (hold the bottle with your right hand and support your right arm with your left hand by touching its elbow). An empty glass means you're getting more and you have to shoot it! Danger Will Robinson! I think the trick is to leave a little in your glass if you want out of this endless cycle.

So we got to Korea late Tuesday night and finally were able to get into our apartment Friday night after school! It was very nice to have our own space and unpack. J said that our apartment is about 600 square feet and we think it's quite enough for the 2 of us. The heating for the rooms are ondol, which means that the floors are heated and that heats the room. The bathroom is typical Korean and is a wet bathroom. There is no shower stall or tub, just a drain in the floor and an overhead shower nozzle on the wall. When we shower the sink, toilet, and floor all get wet! The floors are ice cold and Koreans take short showers so the hot water doesn't usually last long at all. This will be hard to get used to, we being 2 souls who LOVE long, red hot showers. Shoes are not worn inside houses in Korea (not that anyone has a house; they all live in apartments; they like to live close to each other and no one lives on the mountainside; mountains here on the island are a preserve) so we are keeping to that at our place too. I think it's great because we'll have to sweep and wet mop the floors way less. It keeps the nasty stuff your shoes track in to a small foyer by the door. The thresholds are raised near the front door to contain the grit shoes track in. Our place has sliding glass doors between each room. I love how it looks and it helps to only heat the room you're in (with the help of our trusty space heater). There's also a laundry area where we'll hang everything to dry because most apartments only have a washer. Even in the dead of winter we'll have to open a window in there to make sure stuff actually dries. At least our utilities will be low due to having no dryer!

So our apartment is a 3rd floor walkup in Okpo, a community on Geojedo ("do" means island). It's right in the heart of things and we can walk everywhere. It feels like how I imagine living in NYC would be, just more narrow streets and mopeds dangerously zipping down the streets. It's weird walking around and mostly seeing Koreans. When I see a foreigner/international person (which is the group we now belong to!) my eyes are drawn to the other; almost as if thinking "ooh, look a westerner!". So, in Okpo there is a really big international presence due to Daewoo and Samsung ship building being located here. Pretty much everyone works for them. These 2 companies produce ⅓ of the world's cargo vessels. Cargo vessels are what gets goods from China to your local Wally World. Most of the foreigners are engineers at the companies and bring their families here. Koreans also work there and they send their kids to us to learn English after their normal school. We also have a few French kids in our classes.

We teach at an English Academy, or hagwon. Pretty much all of the kids' parents made them come  and besides the high-schoolers (who are deep in study to learn enough English to go to a good college) and the little kids, the rest don't want to be there. The middle schoolers are really a sullen lot sometimes. They just need to be motivated and have the class be exciting. With the little kids it's just like babysitting with fun English-learning activities thrown in. The babies (as we call them) are constantly yelling "Teacher! Water! Teacher! Bathroom!" Before I came here I thought Korean kids were well behaved but now I know! They sure are a cute lot though and are very sweet. I think it will be a fun and interesting year with them. We teach Monday through Friday at 3p every day. We'll probably get there a little bit early to organize our minds before the craziness starts! The classes come right after each other with no 5 or 10min break in between. We teach 6 classes a day and they last about 50min each. The babies come first with the high-schoolers and adult classes last. With our MWF schedule we get off at 10p and at 9:30p on Tuesday and Thursday. The school is only a 5min walk from our apartment and it'll be super easy to walk to a nearby Korean restaurant. There are only a thousand of them in Okpo.

Yesterday (Saturday) we took the city bus 15min to Gohyeon, a larger neighboring community. This place is huge. We went to Home Plus (the Korean version of Wally World or Target) and just walked around the city looking for sneakers for both of us. We went into a Nike store and while J tried on shoes I asked a store clerk if I could try a cute pair. She pretty much spoke no English but I was able to show her that I wanted a US 9. She came back and said that they don't carry that size and that they only went up to an 8.5. She kept pointing towards the men's shoes and clearly wanted me to try on those! As if my foot's that big! I told her those were for guys but she didn't seem to care. I didn't get offended really. Just chalked it up to that cultural difference that J's been telling me about. Koreans don't really seem to censor what they say. The kids will call you fat or tell you your clothes are ugly (hasn't happened to me yet!). It's not meant to be rude, it's just the way things are here. Welcome to Korea, I guess.

:)

View over Chicago

Crazy!

Somewhere over Russia or China

Our flight path

Opposite side of planet Earth

08:40, Friday 17 January 2014. 34.8881° N, 128.6936° E Near Okpo-dong, Geoje-do, South Korea.
Traveling from one side of the globe to the opposite used to be an affair of grand design. It would take years to accomplish. Now, one simply clicks a series of buttons, maybe makes a phone call or two, and the arrangements are made. There is then only to transport the footloose traveler to a nearby airport where we are whisked away just shy of the speed of sound to a faraway exotic land. In about twenty-two relatively short (but very arduous and long when you are the traveler) hours, we've been whisked away to the future in relation to our homes in the Dirty South of the good 'ol USA.

Here in the very southeastern tip of South Korea on Geoje Island we are fourteen timezones ahead of our great family and friends in Lafayette (CST) and thirteen hours ahead of our awesome loved ones scattered about the Eastern Standard Time Zone.

We are slowly adjusting already and overcoming the wicked jetlag. She (B) might be doing a little better than me (J) so far. We'll see. Breakfast is an interesting affair. The owner of the school has us staying at his place. His parents in law also live here. The mother in law cooks a spread of fried lotus root, fried or baked mackerel or herring, kimchi, several types of seaweed, raw bell peppers and carrots, pepper pasted and plain cod anchovies, a bowl of rice with black beans, and ox tail soup!

Our plan so far is to take turns writing blogs so it is not an overload on either of us. Also, so that we can be completely candid we will be referring to ourselves/each other just as J & B. We think this might make it less easy to be found on a google search by the director/owner of the school. This will allow us to take greater liberties in what we feel inclined to talk about regarding classroom and school issues.

We were out late last night with Mr. A (school owner/director), his wife, and four other ESL teachers for a send off dinner of the couple that is finishing their teaching contract today (Friday). The most interesting dish of the night for me was strips of raw beef mixed with pears, cilantro, and some other herb. It was consumed just like that with a strip of dry seaweed folded over it. Very tasty!

Today, we move into our apartment after classes. That'll be around 21:00 or later tonight, local time. I think we are both very ready to start finding a groove here and getting into a solid routine so we can explore and enjoy the hiking that is so highly spoken of here. There will be so many great experiences had this year. We are very excited about it all and are very happy to share with any and all who are looking forward to following our life of adventure. Also, expect some blogs to be about completely unrelated things such as our future travel plans, our ideas of building a cob home, purchasing land for said home, food blogs, homesick blogs, and other surprises…Until again, remember that life is too short not to live. Live well.

Best Regards,
J & B