Staff field trip.

Last Monday, the first day of summer vacation for elementary schools, my staff went on a field trip. We met at the school and all piled onto a bus. Not everyone came, but we had a big bus full. Before we took off the principal came on and told us to have a good time. He is old and extremely respected by the staff. I joined in the round of applause and bowing that followed his short speech. Our bus ride was about an hour and I sat with Celine (Korean name: Nam Soon), who is in charge of me and has become what I guess is a pretty good friend. She talks to me all the time at work and our bus ride was no different. I'm always impressed at how she never seems to run out of things to say or questions to ask. When we got to our destination we went on a small "hike" that was about 5km. I went to the front of the group with my co-teacher Sunny (Korean name: Hyun Yu). The place we were hiking was a place she had recommended to me before and she was pretty stoked to be there with me. It was HOT and humid and I was glad that I was not the only one sweating right through their clothes because that would have been embarrassing. At the end of our walk we all got onto a boat and went on a boatride around a lake. It was really beautiful. Everything is so green here at this time of year, even the water. I am not sure if the water is actually green or if it just reflects the surrounding hills, but it is beautiful regardless. Then we went to a camp ground where a catered picnic of a whole roast pig was waiting for us. We chowed down and drank some beer, then some people took naps in the shade and the rest of us went down to a nearby creek. We all took our shoes off and sat with our feet in the cool water for almost 2 hours. My staff is almost completely made up of women, and one of the two men who was on our outing played the "boy" role and splashed some of the women and even dragged one completely into the water. I'm always surprised at how the traditional male/female roles are exaggerated in this country. After that it was back on the bus, and early home. All said and done it was a pretty great day!Left to right: Bree (the 6th grade teacher who speaks English and picked me up on my first day here), me, Celine (the lady in charge of me), Grace (the music teacher, who is in my office), another grade 6 teacher (she speaks no English, but she is a sweetheart)

Summer camp begins.

Today was my first day of English summer camp. My coworkers informed me afterward my lesson that it was a "huge success". Hooray!!! I've been stressing about it for what seems like months (not that I'm done stressing just because it is finally happening), but I really do think that today went well. This week I have grade 3s. They are 10 years old Korean age, so about 8 or 9 Western age, and they are SO cute (hard to believe I know). I have 17 students this session, for 4 days, 80 minutes a day.

My camp is Harry Potter themed. Harry Potter, as most of you know, is very important to me. The books and the movies have been a part of growing up. I'm not the only one who feels this way about these magical coming of age stories about love and friendship and figuring it all out against all odds. Last week the final installment of the series was released in cinemas. It was much anticipated and did not disappoint. I know the exact moment I started to cry. It was when Professor McGonagall started the protection charms around Hogwarts castle. Then I cried through the rest of the film. I've heard people describe the end of the films being like the end of the Harry Potter generations' childhood. I'm not sure if that is exactly how I feel, but I do feel overwhelming emotion as something really big in my life comes to an end. Anyway, enough of me gushing about HP!! I chose to do my camp on this for a few reasons: it is something that I love and know a lot about, it is something that children enjoy, there are lots of fun camp related activities, it is time appropriate with the new movie out, and if I could get one kid stoked on Harry Potter that wasn't before that would make me very happy.

So, today "Hogwarts" started at Kyeongsan Chodeung Hak-kyo (Kyeongsan Elementary School). We learnt some crucial vocabulary including "wizard", "witch", "wand" and "magic", we played some games to get to know each other a bit better, and then I put self portraits that they all drew into a hat and sorted them into 4 groups. They then went to work making posters for their groups and choosing a name, colour and animal for the team. They aren't all done yet, so I can't say what they all are yet, but one group is called "Family Bear" and their animal is, you guessed it, a bear, and their colour is brown (because that is what colour a bear is).

Happy summer!!! I hope that I don't melt in the heat on the way home.

Spring has sprung.

Spring is here! Starting last week there were a few days where the afternoon wind blew warm instead of cold. Then, last weekend Jeremy and I spotted our first blooming trees. Some of the leaves are starting to come in so there is that delicious pale green glow on the trees and bushes that means the whole place will brighten up soon. The other day walking home from work I took off my jacket a few steps out the door, then half a block later I took off my cardigan too. By the time I got home I was sweating and wishing I had sunglasses on. The warmth feels good and I look forward to my first time out of the house in shorts, but, at the same time, we know that the coming summer is going to be hot. Spring is warm, but warmth doesn't last long, it quickly turns stifling. I guess I should just enjoy it before it's gone.

Litter bugs.

Every single morning on my way to work I walk past the park that is right next to my school. And every single morning on my way to work I exchange smiles with an old man that works in that park. His job? Picking up garbage. I think it is great that there is someone who is making sure the park is clean, especially with it being so close to an elementary school, but seeing him there every morning picking up garbage in exactly the same spot as he did the morning before and the morning before that, reminds me of my biggest pet peeve about Korea: littering.
There are basically no garbage cans here. While, in my experience, this is fairly normal for a city, unlike in other cities (and countries) I have visited the lack of garbage cans isn't an oversight or perhaps a way of preventing vandalism and fires. In Korea there are no garbage cans because people don't see the need for them. Why have garbage cans if you can just throw your garbage on the ground? It's easier. Having to walk to a garbage can, having to think about the waste you are making, would be inconvenient. Every day I see people open up packages and toss the garbage on the ground without thinking twice and I cringe every time.
There are three major results of this that I can think of. One: many people, especially older people, are hired to walk around every single day in parks and on some streets picking up the discarded trash. This might not be a bad thing, perhaps some of these people couldn't find a job doing anything else. Two: the streets of Korea, as well as the rice fields, and the parking lots (anywhere there isn't someone hired to clean up) are lined with garbage that goes completely unnoticed by the population that puts it there. And three: there is a whole population of people who, although they are gung-ho about recycling and there are even composting facilities at all the big apartment complexes, do not think about waste and the environmental repercussions of their actions on a daily basis. Even putting my environmental concerns aside, this is a population of people who look at litter strewn streets and do not see the same disgusting, unreasonable mess that I see, but just see something "normal".

Brush your teeth.

Today one of the ladies in my office asked me what are some of the cultural differences that I observe at our school. It seems odd, but the one that stood out to me the most was teeth brushing. This is something I have discussed with many foreigners and they all agree that it is one of the moments in the day when it is clear that we are “not in Kansas anymore”. Everyday after lunch everyone at the school brushes their teeth. All the teachers have tooth brushes in their desks in little cups and they brush their teeth. Some teachers go to the bathroom, tooth brush in hand, some sit at their desks and even chat with their tooth brush in their mouths like it's no big thing, and other still go to the office sink and look out the window peaceful as they brush. No matter the ritual, everyone brushes after lunch. Not to be left out, no matter how odd it feels to me, I too have a tooth brush in my desk and pull it out after our afternoon meal. When I told my coworkers that this is not normal for me, they were really surprised. “Don't you worry about how your breath smells?” “Isn't it better for your teeth?”. I told them that in Canada, brushing your teeth is usually a private thing.

Cultural differences.

A look at SK.

Welcome back to South Korea and my blog about my life here! I just found this video on a site about Korea for Expats, and was blown away. The images are beautiful and it really tells a story of what it is like here. I don't really know how to explain what is so unique about it, but I keep wanting to say "this is what Korea looks like!!!!".

The harvest.

After Korean Thanksgiving, which is called Chuseok and was in the middle of September, Jeremy and I got on harvest watch. Around where we live there are lots and lots of rice fields (and green onion fields, pepper fields, various leafy greens and root vegetable fields) and it seemed to us that they were all becoming ripe (or whatever you call rice that is ready to be harvested). Soon after Chuseok, however, there had been no signs of the harvest and the rice started to grow bits of thick black on it and we assumed that it was going bad. We had already watched corn rot on the plant and fall to the ground without being picked and bean plants never put on anything to grow up so they just laid on the ground to die and there are hot red peppers going bad and falling off plants as I type, so we have become confused. Why plant all these things, go through all that effort, if you aren't going to harvest them? Is it for show? Does planting help keep the ground fertile? Was there a mix-up in communication?
Then yesterday, at long last, the rice harvest began.
A big machine that deals with strips of rice field a meter and half wide at a time was brought into our neighbouring field. It swept over it in the style of a zamboni, clearing the whole area of rice. The machine cut the rice stocks close to the ground, scooped it inside the machine where it then striped all the rice from the stock and dumped the remains back out onto the ground. As we watched, the machine rid the entire place of rice with incredible efficiency. When I think about watching the rice being harvested in South East Asia, people bent over at the waist, sickle in hand, I can not help but marvel at this very very cool invention.
So they didn't forget about the rice, but we still want answers about the peppers and the corn!

Books in the mail.

As many of you know, Jeremy and I have been ordering books online. Most of the time it works like a charm. You get second hand books, super cheap, delivered to your mailbox or front door. What more could you as for?! But we ordered two sets of books from different places. One shipment got here really quickly, but the other one (which happened to have all MY books in it) was taking its sweet time. When we got back from our vacation to Jeju there were several slips on our door saying that we had post, so we went to the the post office to pick it up. Unfortunately, apparently if you don't show up fast enough they send the mail back from whence it came. We weren't fast enough and our books had been sent back.
Luckily, soon after I had finished the last of my books here that I actually wanted to read, Jer and I went textbook shopping for the new semester. At the textbook shop I picked up a copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Perfect for recapping before the movie comes out in November!!!! Unluckily, soon after I started reading "Harry Potter" I made the mistake of reading outloud to Jeremy one evening. He instantly got sucked in (who wouldn't!!) and I lost a book for reading while he is at work. Of course it is nice to read outloud to him, and what a perfect book for the job, but that wasn't exactly the point!
Finally I gave up on waiting for our books to re-arrive and started reading "The Great Gatsby". A classic that I wasn't enthused about reading, but one that it wouldn't hurt to have read. Then, as predicted, as I stepped with two feet into reading this book... our books arrived. Now I have to make a decision. Do I finish "Gatsby" even though I'm not overly excited about it and I'm not that far in, or do I put it down and start to read "Dune" which I have been waiting to read all summer long? Dad would say that that isn't a decision, of course I should just stop and read the book that I want to read. But for some reason quitting a book once I've started it has never been in my reading vocabulary. Perhaps it is a holdover from when I was younger and reading was always a real challenge. Like I always put so much effort and discipline into getting through each page that giving up on a book was like wasting all that I had put in.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I do know that I'm excited about our new books! Three arrived: Dune, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and The Iron Heel. All of them are really old and it was kind of exciting just to open up the package and see such old things while we are in a country that is big on everything being new new new. The oldest of the three is The Iron Heel. It was published in 1944 and is in great condition. Here are some pictures of it. We both got a good laugh out of Penguin Books advertising cigarettes on the back of one of their books. Not something you would see now for sure. The ad on the inside cover is pretty funny too. It turns out that Horlicks is a malted milk drink. After reading the ad, that is NOT what I would have guessed.

The lights of Seoul.

I guess it was a couple of weeks ago now, but I went to Seoul (the BIG city!!) with my friend Stacie. We went there in the late afternoon one day and then I left before dinner the next day, so it was a whirlwind of a trip, but it was fun.
Stacie took me to the Seoul shopping Mecca. I was super happy that she did, despite not really in the mood to do any serious shopping, because there is no way that if I went to Seoul with Jeremy he would have wanted to go there at all. Everyone who you talk to here raves about the shopping in Seoul though, and it would have been a real shame to not at least check it out. It was fun. Most fashion here is really different then home, so the clothes in the stores were not exactly what I am used to. It is hard to put your finger on, but it is definitely not the same thing. Stacie also took me into stores that I would have never gone into on my own. Having her take me was like getting the real Korean shopping experience. We went up Seoul tower late at night and the view was stunning. It was cool to be able to walk the 360 and get a look at the city in all directions, but it didn't give me any sense of where things were or how big it was even from there. The subway maps look like a maze. Although it is easy enough to find your way around once you know where you are going (if you count several metro line transfers easy), but I can't imagine actually knowing where you were at any given moment. Seoul isn't set up like a North American city with the high rises in the city center, it seems to me (but then again what do I know) that most of the high rise buildings in South Korea are apartments. That is the case outside of the city and from the looks of it things weren't that much different in the city. This picture is of a fence up by Seoul tower that had locks of love on it. People made promises of love and locked the forever to the fence. It was huge and really quite beautiful, especially with the city sparkling behind all the hopes that are attached to each lock and note. There were even a few couples up there making them. Very romantic. Day 2 had lots of plans to see lots of awesome sites, but things did not really work out that way. We ended up spending the whole day at the palace and its corresponding museum. This was Stacie's work... she insisted that we look at every artifact in every room and read every sign. Not exactly how I would have approached the museum visit, but at least I got to see it. She is a hoot though so having her explain what the Korean signs meant was pretty funny. The palace itself was unreal. My favourite part was that when you look back at the gates from the inside you could see all the modern buildings of Seoul. I like that the palace is so large and so plunked in the middle of the city. I suppose the city was built around the palace, but it feel somehow the other way around.

Halla-san.

Jeju is relatively flat for the most part. There are a few beautiful mountains poking up here and there, but other than that it is basically flat. Other then the heat and the sun, we sort of envied the dozens of groups of people we saw who were riding their bikes around the island. We even met one guy who was walking around the coast. Halla Mountain (Halla-san in Korean), however, is the largest mountain in South Korea and is located in the center of the island, as it is the reason for the island being there in the first place. The mountain takes up about one third of the island and is 1,950 m tall. For english testing at Jeremy's school the kids had to write essay, which I helped mark. One of the questions was about the place they found most memorable and I got to read many essays about Jeju island, specifically Halla Mountain. They said that they were so proud of themselves for climbing it and that it was what they would recommend to anyone (Jeremy) who was to visit South Korea. So, mostly because of their recommendation, I was very excited to climb it (although I must confess I was also nervous as I am not overly confident in my mountain climbing abilities).

But we did it! It took us almost exactly 8 hours and was totally awesome! We were both sore for days afterwards. Funny that your muscles rebel when you climb a mountain after sitting on your butt for a few months straight. We took Seongpanak Trail up, which is 9.6km, and then took Donnaeko Trail down, which is 9.1km. The trail down was much more difficult then the one up, but to make up for its steepness and sketchy paths it was far more beautiful. We were so glad that we decided to see more of the mountain by going down a different route. It was super cloudy when we got to the top, so we didn't get to see the crater lake or appreciate the size of the volcano. In fact, it was so cloudy up on Halla-san that even from the island down below we only saw the top of the mountain 2 times. On the way down the mountain the clouds parted for a short time and the sky and sun was beautiful, we felt so lucky to have the cloud break just as we reached the best views of the hike.

When we were almost at the bottom Jeremy was pooped and grumpy, but I kept thinking “I wonder if we have time to climb it again before we leave?” My muscles would not have approved of such an attempt, but those thoughts show how much I enjoyed the hike.