Christmas and Vacation

The guardian of Hwamsa Temple.

So for Christmas in school we had a little kindergarten "party" which entailed Kevin dressing up as Santa and trying to distrubute presents to the children. Of course the teachers did not tell us how this supposed to work or that the presents were from the parents to go to specific children, or that Kevin was supposed to sit up front and the children come up in turn. Typical of our school and how we have no clue what is going on. Nevertheless, Kevin donned the whole outfit, replete with stuffed belly, in the hot school, which always hovers between 85-90 degrees (or is freezing.)

So here is Kevin all dressed up.

And his grand entrance for the kids, unfortunately my memory card was full so I didn't get the whole deal.

And the kids tearing off his costume, "It's Kevin!!"

Coco, in my class, very sweet.



So then they told us to go back to class with these riled up kids so I just let them color and I took some of their pictures.

Here is a video of Eric, who is my trouble maker, and Andy, who is very smart but likes to get distracted by the other boys. So now if they are bad I threaten them with a kiss, which they HATE.

So after school, facing our first vacation time since we have been here, and the first paid vacation of my life, we went out to dinner with our coworkers and the school bus drivers, who spoke no English. Erica, the ECC head teacher, asked me if I liked Chinese food. "Dumplings, egg rolls." Of course! So we went to this Chinese restaurant near our apartment and had at least 8 courses of who knows what, mostly seafood. I ate the shark fin, which was okay, but I passed on the sea slugs. We started having some beers, the and bus drivers were being typical Korean men with their soju and boisterous voices and jokes. One guy said we were "good-looking," but I think he was talking to Kevin as his behaviour later on displayed. Meanwhile I made good rapport with my female co-workers who had rarely seen me outside of work and they thought I was "cute." So the night was young and we were on vacation and did I sare say it? "Noraebang!" They all wanted to go so after our meal we trooped down the street to the local norae room and proceded to drink more and sing whatever we could. The drunk bus driver kept saying "Kiss-uh" to Kevin, I don't know what was up with that because I do not think he was gay, maybe he was trying to be friendly? So here is a glimpse inside the noraebang with Erica the head teacher belting one out:

We went home early and I went to bed as we were catching an early train to Mokpo. Ahhhh vacation. No kindi kids, no teaching, no responsibilities for days!
In the morning up early and packing small bags. We were excited and knew how to say train station, Yok, and we got a cab. I think we said Yuk because the cabbie took us to some random place then we kept saying Yuok, Yok, and he said, in English, "Jinju station?" I was paranoid we were going to miss the train but he turned around and we made it there with time to spare. So on the train to Mokpo.


Why? Who knows, just another city picked off the map, smaller than Jinju, located on thw West Sea, or the Yellow Sea (of China.)
The train ride was slow and long, but it was cheap, about 12$ each and we got in at about 2:30. We walked around for a bit, ate some street food, and checked into a 40,000 won hotel near the coast. It was a decent room but a little way from the center area. Then, since we were so hungry, we ate some pizza. And had a beer. The only kind of beer they had was budweiser. So we're sitting in this sea-food laden city, eating pizza and drinking Buds. We're chumps, okay. We walked along the coastal street and saw some of the weirdest things ever. Tons of live baby octopus. Sting rays, whole, sliced, dried, you could see their, how do you say, buttholes. Dried everything. We walked through the seafood market and it didn't even smell that bad. So many different kinds of things I don't even know the words in English and no one else appeared to be shopping. I don't know how all these people make money. We headed back early and hung out in the room, drinking some Max and watching the tube. Pretty lame. In the morning (Christmas Day!) we checked into another hotel 10,000 won cheaper and closer to town. We had some breakfast and took the local bus the the Mokpo Maritime Museum, which was pretty sweet.


Inside was a lot of ceramic pieces that had been recovered from ancient shipwrecks, and most of it was in near-mint condition. There were two actual ship hulls, one from the 11th century, the other the 14th century, which had been buried in the sand and recovered by divers in the last 30 years. One of these ships was huuuuge, filling up an enormous room built just to house to vessel. The exhibits were awesome; there were a bunch of old Korean ship-building tools, diaramas, etc.


Looking out from the maritime museum.
We went to a dvd-bang and watched a movie, our first experience in one. For 10,000 won you pick a movie and you give you your own little room and a couch to watch in. Mostly teenagers frequent these places to make out and have some privacy. We watched "Memoirs of a Geisha" and were in a very Asian move only to emerge from the room and realize we were (still) in Asia. So I found on the internet where most of the foreigners in Mokpo hang out which was a huge whole other section of town and we took a cab that way. It was about 5km from our hotel and we might have never known this area existed. There were several pedestrian only streets just full of bars and restaurants. We played pool at the P-club and wandered and wandered. We saw 2 Indians and one white guy and Kevin approached them to ask them if they lived there, etc. and the white man was kinda cold and rude and was like, We don't live here, we're here for one night, we're going back to out apartment, etc. An apartment for one night huh? Then we went into another bar where we were the only guests and four Korean girls waited on us and stared and giggled and they spoke no English so out with the phrasebooks and dictionaries but it was still too hard. Eventually we ran into the foreigner crew and drank in the New York bar of all places and ended up at the noraebang for a bit til we taxied back to our hotel exhausted and happy.
Okay this blog is getting too long-winded. In the morning we were tired and groggy and hung over. We ended up taking the afternoon bus to Gwangju, the biggest city in the province. I was beat so we just got a room right near the bus station for 35,000 won. It was pluuush, computer, big screen tv, free ramen noodles, and a complimentaty condom. Typical. Kind of love motel but classier. Oh yeah and all the hotels have full bottles of shampoo, lotion, hair spray, bug spray, toothpaste, hairbrushes, just their for your convenience, not little sample packets of soap and stuff but big regular bottles. I guess you can pack much lighter if you want.



Plus hotel in Gwangju.
Here we did nothing. In the morning we had our share of city life so we simply headed back to the bus station and tried to head towards Jirisan National Park. We took two buses, first to Suncheon, even though the woman and the ticket window didn't understand us because we said SUN not SOON but we got there, then another bus to Gurye which is a small town at the entrance to the park. At the bus station here was ran into a foreigner (!) a dude from England who taught in this small city along with 4 other non-Koreans. Soon we caught yet another bus to the entrance to the park. We walked about a mile up the road to Hwamsa Temple, which was spectacular. The sun was beginning to set and saw monks in their living quarters. One actually smiled and bowed at me. I swear.

Words cannot really describe the ambience and atmosphere of these temples. Maybe this video will help.

Sure there are tourists walking around snapping photos and laughing, but the serenity still reigns. Non-monk Buddhists approach the various temples and shrines and bow to different directions while Kevin and I looked on jealously. What an amazing religion. It's not about having to go a certain time of the week, or any time for that matter. It is a way of life that encompasses everything you do, think, say, feel. It is about peace with others, happiness with yourself, acceptance of differences. It's pretty wonderful.
Hwamsa has a long and rich history. It was founded in like 544 and has been destroyed and rebuilt throughout the years. During the first Japanese invasion the monks here became soldiers and martyrs defending Korea's very right to exist. Now it is still growing and they were building a new temple which looked exactly like the old ones.


Just waiting for some brillant paint job.

Adventure Weekend!

So we have been here for over 3 weeks and have yet to leave Jinju. Finally we decided to get out of Dodge and we did. We were going to go into the national park nearby but when we woke up Saturday it was raining. Let's go to the coast. It is only about 30 miles away, so we picked a town called Namhae which is on an island, Namhae Island. It is the third largest island in Korea but it has a bridge connecting it to the main land. We packed a few things and went to the bus station and soon we were zooming south. We go to Namhae town and walked around for a while. It is quite small and surrounded by huge mountains. Foreigners are rare here and lots of school children looked at us and laughed like maniacs. "Hello!" One lady outside the bus station was laughing crazily too and we weren't sure if she was laughing at us but she was by herself just standing there laughing. We were going to stay in the town but it wasn't right on the ocean so we decided to take a bus to some smaller villages along the coast. First we went to Mijo which is at the end of the road. We got there at about 4pm and walked around and were going to check into a motel but there was no nice beach in town. It was a fishing community and we saw lots of boats and two harbors.



The town is kind of on an isthmus and has the ocean on two sides. So then we decided to leave. We got on another bus and headed back up the road to Songjeong beach, which was quite nice and completely deserted.



There were some motels here but pretty much nothing else, no bars or restaurants. I wanted to go to the next town Sangju which was bigger and had a nice beach but it was already dark and we didn't know if there would be any more buses. So we walked the 4 km to Sangju in the dark along the winding highway and I was terrified of the Korean drivers, but we had Kevin's headlamp which we set to flashing and we made it to Sangju. Sangju is a little resort town with an awesome beach facing a u-shaped cove. We wandered for a bit then figured out we weren't looking for the word motel because people stay in minbaks instead. We saw the word minbak in several places and we eventually walked into this little courtyard and a woman came out immediately. We tried using my phrasebook and point at how much for a room, etc, but she just showed us the room and put three fingers in the air. 30,000 won, pretty typical. A minbak is like a motel except there are no beds; you sleep on padded quilts on the ondol, the heated floor, traditional Korean style. Success! We were starving and went to the restaurant nearby. This was a traditional place as well, take of your shoes, sit on the floor, barbeque your food on the table.

We ordered galbi (beef ribs) Success! We ordered maekchu (beer) Success! We were feeling pretty good about ourselves and getting buy with or books and wit. Dinner was awesome, we had all sorts of little side dishes, salad, kimchi, we grilled some onions and garlic, and we ate almost everything. My chopsticking is still week but I hope it is getting better. So now we wanted to party. The town was pretty quiet and we walked around without seeing anything open. Finally Kevin spotted some lights down an otherwise dark and quiet street. It was a hof, like a local bar which gives you food while you drink. We went inside. There were four people sitting at one table and no one else. They were already into many bottles of soju and were quite boisterous when we came in. "Soju?" the man asked. "No, maekchu." The owner woman was pretty drunk and she brought us 2 beers and then a ton of food which I didn't eat. She just kept coming over and speaking in Korean and bringing more food.
Then her friend would come over and speak more loud Korean and we would shrug our shoulders and say "No Korean." Then we said cheers in Korean (Konbae!) and everyone drank. Soon enough the two women were sitting at our table and we were trying to communicate through our dictionaries. The other couple joined us for a spell too adding to all the confusion. Then one woman got on her phone and I knew she was calling someone to come down. Soon enough, her daughter Ara came in to translate. Ara is from Sangju but goes to university in a big city and she was home for break. She obviously gets really bored in her quiet fishing town. When her mom called her, she said she had been watching tv and raced down to the bar to practice her English, which was quite good though she was shy. She told us we were the first foreigners to ever have been in this bar. More beers and soju. Ara's mom is a haenyo, one of Korea's traditional women divers. She dives to gather shellfish (I assume) for a living and this way of life is slowing ending as young girls have no intention to keep up the traditionl.
The women mix the soju with their beer, which was pretty bizarre like mixing vodka with beer. I knew a headache was in store for me the next day (it was.) We drank so much and they kept bringing more. Our tab was 30,000, pretty expensive but I think they charged us for everything, including what they drank. But they were nice. They kept telling us we had to come back. They asked if we could stay one more day. Kevin then busted out his one American dollar bill and gave it to the owner lady, who was wasted but loooooved her gift. She kept shoving it into her bra and then pulling it out to look at it again. I think she tried to tape it to the bar to show all her friends.

The ladies of Sangju.
We finally knew we had to leave so out we went, the three women in the doorway waving. It was still early and we were having quite a good time so when we passed the noraebang we knew we had to do it. Noraebong is a karaoke bar, but you get your own little room with two microphones, tambourines, couches, and a huge book of songs, some in English. So here Kevin and I am, drinking more beer and singing karaoke to ourselves. And Kevin usually doesn't like to sing. Eventually our time was up and we were back on the streets and hungry again. We went into this market that had other drunk people in it and we got sausages and chips. Our minbak had a gas stove in it, so Kevin went and cut a branch of a tree in the yard, carved a stick, and cooked all the sausages over the gas flame

Sometimes Kevin is quite resourceful

Drunken fest. Pass out time.
The next morning my head was pounding. We wanted to go to this Buddhist temple high on a mountain above Sangju. It's called Boriam. We strolled down the beach for a while and saw tons of tiny shells.

Then we went to the bus stop and were stared at by an old lady, and we told her we were going to Boriam and pointed. She nodded. We got on the first bus who dropped us off at the intersection to the temple. It was drizzling and pretty cold so we decided to try and hitch. The first car pulled over. It was a couple with a young daughter. The mom sat with the girl on her lap up front and they drove us to the temple. There was a huge parking lot at the base and you can either drive or walk 4 km up the steep road. We wanted to ride with the people but we had to wait almost an hour. The man bought a bunch of food and they gave us a bottle of water and some crackers. In the meantime we watched tv (yes) on their gps screen. The car was pretty plush and the people were so kind. Eventually we got to drive up the mountain and park. We thanked the people and paid 2000 won to enter the temple, then we had to walk 1 km up more before we got it. Boriam is almost 1000 years old and is literally on a cliff at the top of Geumsman mountain, 2000 feet above the sea. It was very foggy so the view was diminished but we could see Sangju and the ocean below us. The temples were scattered about and first we went to the very top of the mountain and saw the view from an ancient lookout post. Next we checked out the temples. People were praying to Buddha statues and it was quite refreshing to know the Christians haven't gotten to everyone in Korea.






We were up there about an hour then we bought some incense and took a shuttle back down to the first parking lot. We didn't know how we were going to get to Namhae bus station so we started walking and trying to wave down cars. A few went by then one stopped with a couple and their 2 children. We had some difficulties explaining, and they said they were going to Jinju so we got in. The man spoke pretty good English but I was tired and shy so I let Kevin do the talking. They drove us back over a different bridge and dropped us off in Sacheon at the bus station. They went out of their way to find the place and got lost in the meantime. They were from Ulsan on the eastern coast and had been touring around that part of Korea for a little vacation. They were so considerate and kind, it was very pleasing to meet such nice people. So we took a bus back to Jinju and home, exhausted and we couldn't believe all these things happened to us in about 28 hours.

annual part

Yes this is our annual "part" as spelled by our Korean director. On Saturday we sacrificed one of our precious weekend days to attend the kindergarten class party. It was over 3 hours long with no intermission. People were sleeping in their seats or outside smoking and bitching. A lot of parents were excited but, as we were the greeters and distributers of programs, a lot of parents looked pissed off that they had to be there and their minds were elsewhere. Busy Koreans. Here are some photos

"Zack" one of my students who is seriously absolutely insane.

Kevin and Daniel, our South African co-worker.

Here is my kindi class' performance.

The Obama Factor

The election was over a month ago . . .

We were excited after the election knowing we were traveling abroad with a new president coming to America. We figured people would jubilantly accept us and tell us how they loved America and Obama. And you know what, we were right.

So the only other foreign teacher working in our school is Daniel. He is a black South African. I have never really met anyone from South Africa. We went out to dinner with him the other night and he had some really interesting tidbits and info to impart.
First of all, he said he was one of the first black guys in Jinju, our city. When he arrived in the school the students called him a monkey and looked to see if he had a tail. One time some children saw him on the street and they started running the other way. You know what he did? He chased them, in full view of other pedestrians, older Korean women and whoever happened to be out at the moment. Two Korean kids running full speed in front of a dark African. Who knows what the onlookers thought. In due time he caught the two children and asked them why they were running. He said, "Look at my hand. How many fingers do I have? Five. How many fingers do you have? Five as well. How many eyes do I have? Two. Same as you." Then he gave them candy and sent them on their way.
Kevin and I were dumbfounded. We still couldn't believe the part about the students looking for him tail.
Another student, one of my special students who is very bright but also very sheltered, always asked him why he was black. And his response: "Why are you peach?"
Then he told us about how the students reacted to him during the American lessons. Some students took to calling him Obama. He said, then, after Obama won, the children starting reacting to him in a more positive way. He said, "Because a black man becomes president of the United States, I get respect."

One of the few black people in our city, in a xenophobic nation where adults will scarcely hide their amusement with foreigners, a black South African living in Korea gets more respect because Obama, a mixed-race Hawaiian/Chicagoan, becomes president of the USA.
How is that for a more global world?
It is interesting to ask our students about the American elections. Despite their young ages, most knew at least some of what was going on and all like Obama. When I asked them what the Korean media had to say during the seemingly endless saga, they simply said, "That it was good." Even without knowing or understanding the greater details, everyone thinks, "Oh, this is good." Koreans had huge parties on election night (well, it was the next day here) as did most other places in the world. Americans living here got to join in equally with all the revelry. I taught a class of three older women, the "housewives" class they call it, and of course the election came up. "Did you, ah, choose - Obama?" they eagerly asked me. "Of course." Smiles and giggles, nods of agreement. I wonder what they would have done if I said no.
So last night we took a taxi home and for the first time met a cabbie who spoke some English or at least wanted to. When we told him where we were from he said, "Ah, America! I love America." Kevin and I smiled at each other. "President Obama, America, yes, very good," he said. There it was. Our dream of traveling in the world, being greeted as common partakers of a great event that happened only a month ago, when the whole world smiled and sighed in relief. Even in a world half a day away.

First Week is Over, ahhhhh

Teaching is tiring . . .

So our whole first week is over. Five or six classes a day, including the hour of kindergarden . . .The first few days my kids were just plain crazy and yelling and slamming the table did nothing, but alas, stickers and a reward of a tootsie pop on Thursday prompted all five of them to finish their worksheets. Six-year-olds. Their big xmas party is next Saturday which will be very cute to say the least.

At the end of each day biking home and sitting for a moment is plain rewarding. Kevin and I discuss our day, the brillant students, the trouble makers, the cute ones, the linguistic insights, etc.

Here are some pictures of our apartment.

The living /bedroom with the tv we never watch.

Our small kitchen, we miss an oven!

That's right the shower is right in the bathroom above the toilet.

Thursday night we went out to the Jam Bar where all the foreigners hang out and proceded to tie one on, hopefully not making terrible first impressions. At about 2am with almost no one left in the bar Kevin and I get drunkenly on stage and try to play music. Oh well.