I'm so excited! I just can't hide it! You know, you know Gyeongju! (Part two)

After resting in Seoul for a day, we headed down to Gyeongju. Yes, we finally made it! We found ourselves a cheap love motel for the night, and headed out to explore the city center. The city is built around grassy burial mounds. One is on display to the public.

We then wound our way to the famous observatory. In promotional photos this tower looks quite tall. Imagine our dismay when it turns out to be only a few meters tall and the cost to go stand in front of the tower is about $2.50/person. Instead we snapped our photos from afar and enjoyed the free beauty of the sunset, trees, large fields of lowers, and large ponds full of blooming lotus flowers.

Tombs. 

We followed the map to another famous photo spot, Anapji Pond. We arrived at dark, the peek tourist time to take photos of the pagodas on the water. Exhausted by our several hours' walk, we caught a cab to our motel and feasted on water, soda crackers, and bananas.

Field of flowers and sunset.

The next morning we packed our bags and headed for Bulguksa, an old temple. It looked much like all of the other temples in Korea. And it is arguable if it is worth the four dollars per person to see it. And no photos are allowed of Buddha. Some what disappointed and very hot, we decided to skip the hike to the Seokguram Grotto and took the bus up the winding mountain road. Unfortunately it started raining so the legendary view of the ocean was blocked. But we hiked our way up to the Grotto, to a Buddha that looked like any other Buddha and again, no photos. But plenty of overpriced and badly taken photos were for sale at the stall below the grotto. It is funny how commercialism creeps it's way even to the most humble religions.

Back in Gyeongju, we grabbed ourselves a coffee and decided to catch the next bus out of town, which turned out to be the bus to Busan. We easily found a cheap-ish love motel near Haeundae Beach (One of the most famous mainland beaches in Korea). And I mean, cheaper than regular family hotels and cleaner than either family or love motels we've seen in Korea. It was the perfect love motel with dim red lights, a round bed, a condom next to the bed, lotions, oils, a large computer, and a large TV set to the Japanese porn channel.



We decided to buck the traditional love motel activities and instead walked around Haeundae Beach and watched a large crowd gathered in front of a stage that had a movie screen and a few speakers. The speakers played K-pop and the screen played beer commercials while everybody just watched, didn't dance. Very surreal.

Yonggunsa

We left the zombie crowd and found the 90s rap crowd (Korean rap is still a baby, hence the 90s refernce), the non-descript flute solo, some drums, and a few other performances that were actually quite impressive, considering this kind of thing rarely happens in Seoul.

The next day we packed up, ate breakfast on the beach, and then headed up to Haedong Yonggunsa, a temple built next to the ocean. Again, it is just another Korean temple. But this one is free and has better views of the ocean, plus some slightly difference Buddhist idols to take photos of.

We were rained off the beach and so caught the bus back to Seoul. We spent the next day hiding from more rain and dreaming of the beaches of Jeju and the forest and flower fields of Gyeongju.

We Just Love Having You Here

Skipping the Philippines and going to Jeju for the summer holiday turned out to be the best thing in the end. One, we missed out on all the flooding in the Philippines. Two, we got to see the best place in Korea.

Everyone seemed surprised that we were going to spend five whole days on the island. Turns out, that almost wasn’t enough! Perhaps, if you have your own vehicle it would be enough, but we took taxis and buses the whole way.

Seogwipo Harbor.

We arrived in Jeju City on August third, and took an Airport Limousine down to Seogwipo in the south. We found our hostel above a 7-Eleven across the road from the ocean. We immediately started exploring the area, walking the famous Olleh Road that goes from West to East along the coast. We stopped at Sojeongbang Falls, a small waterfall. We only stayed a few minutes because the tide was coming in and the waves were splashing up the cliffs. We thought we had better take the cues from the cockroaches and run up the mountain

After filling ourselves up on black pig BBQ and beer, we passed out in our bunks, only to rise early and most literally, climb into town to find an open coffee shop.  It made the hill on Home Street seem like an ant hill, especially without coffee! Once armed with coffee, we walked to Cheonjiyeon Falls, around the harbor, crossed over the bridge shaped like a sail, and onto Saeseom Island (nothing special, just more walkways).

We then hiked back up to Jeongbang Falls, only to climb down several steps. But it was worth it in the end, as we got to play in the falls and walk to where it flows out into the ocean. It was a great break from the heat of the island.

But we could not escape the heat, so we headed to Swesokak black beach, a pool blocked off from the ocean. While swimming, we marveled and how naked we felt in our bathing suits next to the fully dressed Koreans swimming about (every beach was like this, Koreans fully dressed in shorts, long-sleeved shirts, and sunhats swimming in the ocean).

Our next adventure was exploring the south west area of the island. We walked around the World Cup Stadium, a surprisingly beautiful building for Korea. We then got back on the Airport Limousine bus to go to Jungmun Beach. We stopped along the way to see Cheonjeyeon Falls. We stumbled back to the main part of town to scarf down a burger before trying to find our way to the beach, which turned out to be quite difficult. But once we found it, we had a blast riding the waves on the innertube, despite my taking out an entire family and getting caught in the buoy rope.

A man helped us get to Jeju City and found us a guest house in Samyang Black Beach. Samyang is famous for its sunsets, and it does have some beautiful sunsets! We enjoyed taking morning swims at Samyang and night-time strolls along the beach, avoiding the buried old people soaking their arthritic joints.

Sunset at Samyang

Our third full day in Jeju was spent exploring LoveLand, the sex-themed park. Which was surprisingly tame and, not surprisingly, very Korean. We then met up with one of my friends for dinner at Bagdad Indian Restaurant where we had a traditional Chinese tea for desert, compliments of the owner.  

The next day we awoke early and headed east to Manjanggul Cave. The bus ride is surprisingly long, for such a small island. The bus dropped us off about two kilometers from the entrance of the cave and we stubbornly refused the “expensive” taxis. We spent one kilometer questioning the sanity of the American who was trying to hitchhike in Korea, until she actually caught a ride and was kind enough to offer to share the car with us. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any room. But shortly after, a nice couple stopped and gave us a ride to the caves.

Manjanggul is a lava cave going 1 km into the island. It is very open, very well lit, and very touristy. We braved the cold and the damp and managed to make it to the end of the cave. After catching a small lunch of kimbap, we headed to the neighboring maze park.

We then relaxed our aching limbs at Hamdeok Beach. This beach was the best in terms of waves, but was very crowded and full of seaweed. We suffered some minor cuts and bruises from the sand and smashing into other ring-riders.

Our last full day in Jeju, we decided to try out the famous Hallim Beach to the west. We got distracted for four hours in the Hallim Tropical Park—a large botanical garden, including two lava caves. One cave is the only cave in the world where limestone and lave meet. Suddenly we remembered our main purpose for the trip and headed to the beach. It was a beautiful beach with sea-green waters and black lava rocks jutting out of the water. But those black lava rocks were under the water too, and very, very sharp. In a short time, I was cut from head to toe from the rocks, so we escaped back to Jeju City.

Beautiful beach, painful rocks!

In those five days we didn’t get to climb Hallasan nor did we go further east to Udo. We were sad to see Jeju in the plane window and even more depressed to say goodbye to the bright blue skies and green waters when we arrived in grey, depressing Seoul.   

English Camp Sports' Day Misadventures

Every lesson I have a group of students who are bandaged, bruised, or encased in plaster. I have always wondered if students are just incredibly daring, brittle, or uncoordinated. Judging from what I saw today at the English camp sports' day, daring applies to very few students. For children who begin learning taekwondo as soon as they can stand, these children have the slowest reflexes and the most uncoordinated bodies ever.

Now, I admit that I throw like a girl (I am not talking about softball pitchers). I hate running, my right leg comes up when I shoot a basket, and I am not about to get close to a sweaty armpit to intercept a ball. Also, my depth perception tends to be quite off and my reflexes tend to be a bit slow of late. So keep in mind, that this story is coming from me.

Today was rainy, so we had to stay indoors in the ancient gym on the 4th floor. This gym is long and narrow with splintering wood floors that give way too much for comfort. There is a stage at one end, with a projector and a sound system, student artwork attached to tacked up metal cages lines the walls on either side, ceiling fans hang down way too low, and hundreds of chairs are shoved to the back wall. I was very shocked to find out that this gym is still used as a gym.  

The first event was dodge ball. We used one soft ball. In the Korean version, as far as I can gather, the ball is thrown up by the referee and it volleyed by the team captions to their team. You are safe if you catch the ball or the ball bounces before hitting you. If you get hit (before the ball bounces) or drop the ball, you are out. If you are out you go behind the opposing team and if the ball crosses the line, you can throw the ball and try to get the opposing team members out. 

So, Matt and I painfully watched as fifteen screeching, cowering students rushed from one end of the gym to the other in one large huddle trying to escape the one ball. Once in a while a student was brave enough to try to catch the ball, but did not often succeed. Many times they dropped it and then proceed to fall over it. If they managed to catch it, the students either hit their own teammate in the head or hit the wall (knocking off the racks holding the artwork). And none of the students seemed to realize that they needed to take the good throwers out first.  

I don't know how many times, the children were saved from outs because they tried to dodge, tripped and some how the ball managed to brush between their legs instead. And just like in a cartoon, the student put their heads between their legs to make sure the ball really did pass through. This made their butts perfect targets for the good players. It would have been funny, if it hadn't been so painful to watch.

The next event was team jump rope. Since one boy got injured by the soft dodge ball and was laid up with a heat patch on his bicep, I stepped in. I haven't done team jump rope since I was 10. But, it was like riding a bike and I did quite well. So well in fact, that my shoes came off and I landed on the floor barefoot, receiving a pretty gnarly hunk of wood through my foot, thus ending my short-lived jumping career.

I have never seen a group of elementary students so bad at jump rope, they cannot turn the rope or jump. I don't know how many students were strangled. A rope ended up wrapped in the ceiling fan (with the student frantically turning in circles trying to untangle the fan, only managing to make himself dizzy and the rope even more tangled). Needless to say, Double Dutch was out of the question. 

Pre-Vacation

Matt surprised me by knocking on my door Thursday evening immediately after I had finished cooking dinner--talk about great timing for him! I put him to work on Friday by making him attend summer camp where I played scientist. I blindfolded a student, hid a piece of candy in the room and made the other students give the child directions through a maze of desks to find the candy. Turns out, the kids really will play this lousy game over and over for a worthless piece of candy.

My apartment is out there...

After camp, we headed to Myeongdong for some shopping and then to Jonggak for some Indian food. Saturday we decided it was high time to go to Namsan Tower. We skipped the Teddy Bear Museum inside the tower and headed for the observation room. We rode up six whole floors in an elevator that had an animation of flying through the tower, out of its top and into outer space. It was quite something and left all the westerners giggling.

Seoul Tower

We declined the 12,000 won green-screened photo and attempted to look out over the city. Unfortunately, the smog and the lack of recent window cleaning made for poor visibility, but it was still nice to look over a part of the city. We then looked around the many gift shops selling tower cell phone charms, vials with silk flowers surrounding miniature towers, eyeglass cleaning clothes with the tower printed on them, and overpriced cardboard coasters depicting the tower. Oh, and I must not forget the souvenirs from England and Paris. Korea really doesn't understand the whole souvenir thing.
After the tower, I took Matt to his first Outback Steakhouse. He had his first true bowl of soup and bit of steak in one year. A small plate of cheap steak, steamed veggies, fries and some pumpkin soup never tasted so good! We topped off the decadent day by catching the late show to the new Batman movie. The movie would have been more enjoyable if people could leave their hand phones alone for a few minutes.
Sunday found us back in Myeongdong where we stumbled upon an arts and crafts sale. We hung out listening to a guitarist and I managed to find something crafty that I actually liked. We later headed to Kongdae to eat some BBQ pork with Matt's Korean friend from Jinbo.
Matt followed me to English camp today, lured by the hope of playing kickball. But sadly, it rained and so events were moved to the gym. This deserves its own blog post. I have since sent Matt back to Cheongsong where he can go back to work and prepare for our week in Jeju.

How Many People Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

In the western world we have the light bulb jokes.  We tell them and chuckle. But here, it’s no laughing matter. It’s reality. So how many people does it take to change a Korean light bulb?

            

Well, first, I have seven light switches in my tiny studio apartment. It makes it nice and bright, but eventually one of the 30-something light bulbs is going to burn out. Curiosity caused me to unscrew one of the light fixtures to find a Christmas-light-like bulb held in by two screws. I know what you are thinking, WHY!?! Don't think about it, it will only cause your brain to overheat. 

The first bulb to go out was the bathroom light. Being a person from the western world, where any store has a whole isle dedicated to various light bulbs, I assumed that this light bulb could be purchased at the big shopping center. As you may recall in Matt's blog post, he took on this task for me. He took the light bulb to the shopping center and asked the sales associate for the light bulb. It was the wrong one. Luckily, they did take the light bulb back. So after wasting  several hours on this task, Matt finally gave up and asked maintenance. In the end, it only took one person to change the light bulb. But the question remains, why does it take maintenance to change a 60 Watt bulb!?!

The next light to go out was the kitchen light. Placed strategically above the sink very close to the cabinets. I would have gladly ignored it, but it is florescent and does that whole blinky thingy. So 10:30 at night, I climb up onto the counter and set about trying to figure out how to get the apparently simple light cover off. After fifteen minutes, the light cover finally came loose, flying across the room and nearly knocking me off the counter. Then there was a mass of wires and electrical boxes inside the light--it cannot be a simple florescent light. After finally figuring out how to unplug the light. I tried to then put the light cover back on. The light cover is held onto the fixture by dime-sized magnets. But the magnets are not attached to the light cover in any way. So ten minutes of struggling to get the cover to defy gravity failed. Again I need maintenance or a strong man to hammer the light fixture to the ceiling.

So in conclusion to this riddle, it takes only one person to change a light bulb, if you just realize that you cannot be independent in this country and have to call for help.

In other complaining news, last month the school had the brick walkways redone. For an entire month the pavement was torn up. And carefully relaid and torn up again. The problem wasn't leveling, as all leveling seems to be absent and makes keeping your feet dry in this monsoon impossible. Also, they are redoing the walls around the building, taking down the white wrought- iron fence and building a "pretty" brick fence. Except, the brick layers seem to forgotten the spade to smooth out the grout and the brick fence can now be described as "goopy." 

This week has been English Certification Week. Basically, students memorize English and Korean phrases on a paper. I point to a Korean phrase and the students must translate it to English. If they translate three phrases correctly, they can go onto the Korean teacher who says the phrase in English and the student must translate it into Korean. This is always exhausting as you hear the same phrases butchered. But this is even more exhausting as you have thirty children lined up shoving each other, hitting each other, screaming at each other, and trying to give answers to the students taking the test. I spend more time trying to get the students to calm down for five seconds than actually giving the test. 

I also spend most of the time chasing away students who have no sense of respect for their teachers' possessions or space. As I am giving this test, students walk up and start going through my pencil cup, taking whatever they want, taking the scissors and cutting whatever is available on my desk (thank god I caught a student before cutting my new headphones), hitting the keys on my keyboard to see what I have up on the computer (and slamming the keyboard when the password prompt comes up), trying to pull my headphones out of the computer from the head phone themselves, oh and unplugging the monitor from the back. These are supposedly the wholesome Korean kids, mind you.

The rising water has forced the drunks to the top of the bridge.

As you can tell, today is a day I am done with the rude children, the USA shirts that are colored with Korean flag colors, the inability to wipe up urine and poop, and just the general confusing Korean attitude of desperately trying to make a dime and not caring how many dollars they lose trying to make that dime. Perhaps the fact that the sun hasn't shown in a week and the rain hasn't stopped for a day and a half has something to do with my attitude.

As Ordinary as Apple Pie

Another weekend in Cheong-song. Helped Matt with English camp. We broke from the ordinary Cheong-song weekend to visit the neighboring town of Jinbo and celebrate its fireworks festival. We spent the evening wandering around tables filled with hamsters, goldfish, and light-up wands or bow headbands. Then we lounged at one of the many food stalls set up among the jungle gyms and swing sets while enjoying the taste of beer, the sounds of local karaoke talent, the sights of the fireworks,  and the smells of roasting corn, deep-fried corn dogs, kimchi, and steaming silkworm larvae. The rest of the weekend was spent hiding from the first monsoon rains pouring down upon Cheong-song and the giant spiders that were washed out of their hiding places.

Seoul, meanwhile, has spent an entire week steaming in preparation for the monsoon (which will come this weekend). Crops outside of Seoul are suffering from the drought while children inside of Seoul seem to gain power from the drought. It was a long week as the children literally ran around the classroom screaming, using their books as bludgeoning devices and megaphones, throwing spit balls at each other and much more. There are quite a few black and blue faces, swollen lips, and ace bandages. Students took the standardized tests on Tuesday, making it the perfect day for us subject teachers. But by Wednesday the stress of studying left the children in a frenzy. 

By the end of the week, I had had it with students' tantrums, whining, screaming, and just all things related to students. I was also irritated by the fact that among other annoying news, my cat died and I found out I have to move out of my apartment the day my contract ends and I have to be at school. And suddenly, everyone notifies me of all the things that have to be done now.  But this is ordinary. Just as it is ordinary to go to the bathroom and hear several girls in the stall next to you. I honestly don't know how they all fit in there, as the stalls aren't that big. But the lack of a western toilet probably gives some extra space.

The nice toilets in the school.

Finally, the after school classes are finished!  And to celebrate the coming monsoon (Koreans hate rain, so I don't know why they are celebrating this), my co-teachers bought their first apple pie. I showed up to their classroom to find them staring at the Costco pie (quite large) with puzzled expressions.

"Do you know how to cut this?" They asked. I repressed a giggle and told them to cut it like a pizza.

"Oh. Oops." Worried looks.

"How did you cut it?" I asked.

"Like the top." (checker pattern crust) "We can't take it out of the plate." This time I giggled, especially as they were trying to dislodge a piece from the middle of the pie with a paring knife. I carefully dished the square pie pieces onto foil squares and we enjoyed the teachers' first taste of apple pie. I then answered questions about how many people the pie would feed in America and how many apples are needed for the pie and if I knew how to make apple pies and what other kinds of pies there are in America. And I discovered that one teacher had wanted to taste an apple pie ever since watching "American Pie." I am still confused about this reasoning...

Tempers and Temperatures on the Rise

Rice paddies

English camp is next month and I am scrambling to get things done in time. I am putting way more effort into this than the previous camp. Mainly because this year's students  have a short attention span--so every minute must be planned for, or I will lose them. Also I must have an activity every few minutes otherwise, they're gone. I am also losing valuable planning time messing with Hangul Word Processor. It is worse than Word, if that is possible. And of course the two programs are not compatible, so formatting gets altered between copying and pasting. I must use this HWP because none of the other teachers know how to use Word (which is in Konglish, not English or Korean).

Also taking up much of my time are long teacher's meetings dealing with the growing problem of bullying. My co-teachers feel I must attend these entirely Korean meetings. Oddly enough, I am the only one paying attention to these meetings as the other teachers  are playing games on their smart phones, texting, answering their phones, or sleeping. I'm beginning to see where the children get their short attention spans.

The vice principal finally got involved with discipline when a sixth grader punched a third grader and measures are being taken to limit interaction between sixth and third grades. Though, no one seems to care to grasp the root of the problem. Nor do teachers seem to care when students shove, kick, and ostracize a student because they think they will catch her down syndrome.

There is a new student in second grade. She does not look 100% Korean and I hope the students don't single her out because of it.  This student's English is better than most of my sixth grade students and she is always happy to speak with me.

More and more students frequent my classroom to practice their English. Most days, I spend a couple of hours helping students with their homework or playing games with them. The older girls show me the latest K-Pop male bands, and the young students bring me gifts of  Angry Bird erasers, wilted flowers, strange insects, green apricots, grape-flavored candy,  and cough drops (which I give to the older students).

Last week, an acquaintance from Pullman camped out on my floor. The doormen in my building were not too impressed with this new guy. I presume they thought  I was cheating on Matt. I honestly don't know who they think Matt is. So for my reputation's sake and my possible fake marriage's sake, I had better not have any more males in my apartment.

This weekend I went to Cheong-Song to visit Matt. It was a much needed weekend in the country with blue (yes blue!!!) skies and somewhat fresh air (minus the smells of the open sewage in town). I ended up helping Matt with his English camp on Saturday. It reminded me of our certification days. And it was kind of fun interacting with middle school and high school kids.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at the river watching the fish jump and the old people do this odd kimchi squat walk in the water with their heads in glass-bottomed dishes (third-world goggles?) picking up snails along the river bottom.

       This weekend I went to Cheong-Song to visit Matt. It was a much needed weekend in the country with blue (yes blue!!!) skies and somewhat fresh air (minus the smells of the open sewage in town). I ended up helping Matt with his English camp on Saturday. It reminded me of our certification days. And it was kind of fun interacting with middle school and high school kids.

       We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at the river watching the fish jump and the old people do this odd kimchi squat walk in the water with their heads in glass-bottomed dishes (third-world goggles?) picking up water snails along the river bottom. I am guessing they were dinner.

      Temperatures are up to the 90s with high humidity as the monsoon pushes it's way through the country heading towards Seoul. It is making places like Cheong-Song and Seoul feel like a kettle on a stove.

(I am sorry for the retarded highlighting. It seems that Blogger is once again stupid and refusing to take away the highlighting that I did not select in the first place).