Fun Fact Fridays (1)

So I’ve decided to include a new feature on my blog to help my lovely readers become more cultured. Every Friday, I plan on posting a fun fact. Now this may be about Korea, an upcoming event for the following week, an event that already occurred, a country I intend to visit, or just completely random if I have nothing else to offer.

So as you have just read in “Dominated”, I got, well, dominated by a 63-year-old Ajima. Now I’m not going to sit here and convince you that I am in the best shape of my life, because let’s be honest, I’m not. But I’m definitely not out of shape and in no way the type of shape where you would have to roll me down the mountain. But on Wednesday, I would have loved for Brandon to have “accidently” pushed me over the edge. It would have saved me lots of pain and humiliation.

In an attempt to explain myself, I would like to share with you this little fun fact about Korea and hiking-

Fact: According to our Korea travel books, as 70% of Korea is covered with mountainous terrain, hiking is the number-one leisure activity; thus making Ajima much more skilled in traveling down slippery mountains. So although I looked weak and like a wimp, Ajima has been hiking for well over the amount of years that I’ve been alive.

And since I just started this up (and on FB I promised the email from our Ajooshi) here’s a second fun fact for this Friday:

Fact: The Koreans are much more appreciative of the American war efforts than the French. Below is an email from an old man we met on our hike up Gwanaksan. We sent him an email with a few pictures from the day and this was his response:

It was great pleasure to see two of you enjoying our simple diet. And the aunt whom we met with was very generous woman. I realized she met you at Mt. Kwanak for the first time. So I am thankful for her especially.
I am proud of our traditional culture(including food) because of you.
I appreciate your kindness for sending me several photos as you promised. I am always thankful for your country from long long ago. U.S.A saved us from Korean war in 1950. And helped us economically. I hope we can't forget this fact. We must thank you all.
I also wish you'll suceed in army and enjoy your being in Korea.
Good luck!!
Yours Ryu wonho

Dominated

Now that Chuseok has come and gone, I fortunately have a bit more to write about. Unfortunately, I don’t get to blog about my amazing tiki trip to the Philippines, or my spontaneous trip to Japan. But, I did have a relaxing break, which I can’t complain about.

After 21 days, I’ve come to realize, that no matter what you do here in Korea, you will always have a great time and you will definitely meet lots of new people.

Friday started as the rest of my break would finish- relaxing. We stayed in watched a movie and hit the sack. Saturday morning, we woke up early, headed to the base and got rejected. No passport, no entry onto the base. Usually, this wouldn’t be a big deal; I would just have Brandon go onto the base with a list of things I needed and then meet him back at the apartment. But today was different- Brandon was participating in his first ever sprint triathlon and I wanted to be there to document it. But no, I am still a druggie in the eyes of the Korean government, so no Army base and no cheering from me. It’s okay; I was never cut out to be a cheerleader anyway.

So what’s the best thing to do following a triathlon? Most would say rest, eat lots of protein, drink lots of water, and prepare to be sore. Brandon, well he’s… a creature. So obviously we headed to Seoul and participated in a Beer Olympics. Now, when I say creature, I mean that in a good way… because the kid did not even get sore after a triathlon and pounding beers. What??? Can I have your body? I was sore and only participated in half of those events!

Where to begin to describe Beer Olympics… Let’s start with the fact that we each picked up two 40oz bottles of Cass beer. Next, I’ll describe the people- all warm-hearted, competitive teachers who have definitely come prepared to dominate. Our hosts even got their Korean co-teachers to join us! Speaking of our hosts, I must finally mention our location.

While most people live in an apartment, these 5 gracious teachers are living the dream. Remember freshman year when everyone lived in dorms and life was amazing? Now just imagine no RAs and no dorms. These people live in… an abandoned hospital!! Yep, old medical records and all. The 3 boys on the 4th floor, 2 girls on the 3rd floor, and lots of room for Beer Olympics on the 1st and 2nd floors.

So as Beer Olympics came and went (with no official record of who actually won, shocking), as did the weekend. Monday offered some shopping, which included 2 pairs of shoes that are absolutely to die for (and so cheap…Cha-Ching!).

And Wednesday (Chuseok Day) provided a little bit of hiking and lots of dominating. After making it to the bottom of Gwanaksan Mountain we ran into a lovely, 63-year-old Ajima, who surprisingly spoke English. But after several stops to take pictures, she meandered her way up the mountain without us. However, as we approached the temple, we were soon reunited with our Ajima.

Most temples actually serve a free lunch around noon, so hungry and not yet ready to hike down the mountain, we sat down with Ajima to have a light meal. Well, a full bowl of bibimbap (rice and vegetarian dish), songpyeon, Korean pancakes, tangerines, a 6in. by 6in. rice patty, rice water, coffee, and tea later, I thought I might vomit. I don’t even eat this much for my own Thanksgiving, let alone a holiday I wasn’t even planning on celebrating. I think “no, thank” must have gotten lost in translation as “yes, I would love some more” because she basically force fed us. Woof.

Following our feast of a meal, Ajima became our little Sherpa. Wanting to show us the best of the mountain, she took us on the most obscure route to the base. While this was a great gesture of her, she had no pity in making me look so unathletic. Sherpa here was jumping from rock to rock, quickly twisting down the mountain as the little agile Ajima that she was. I, on the other hand, pleaded for B’s extra hiking pole, shrieked as I slipped down the rocks, and basically got down on my hands and knees to meander my way down this dreadful path. She even stopped several times, noting (may I quote) “You are a young lady, I am an old woman.” Thank you for that realization. Ajima dominated me and was proud to admit it. For my rebuttal, please see my next post.

It's Positive...

It’s my last day before a week-long break! Chuseok, the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving, is the most celebrated Korean holiday, hence the week long break from school. During this time, families travel all throughout the country to gather around the table to enjoy songpyeon (rice cakes), celebrate the harvest moon, and pray for their ancestors. According to everyone I’ve talked to, it’s nearly impossible to drive during the holiday, as traffic is backed up from the DMZ all the way down to Jeollanam-do. Therefore, most English teachers travel outside of Korea.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to do this, as the Korean Immigration Center has my passport. Thanks Korea! Although, I must say this is slightly my own fault. As I got to Korea, I was asked to take a test… which came out positive. A big, fat plus mark.

NO! I am NOT pregnant. It was a drug test. Not that that makes it much better. However, their drug tests are beyond different from American drug tests. I do not know why, but for some odd reason, you are not allowed to have ANY drugs in your system: illegal, prescription, caffeine, NOTHING.

So, shortly after arriving in Korea, I took my drug test. But don’t forget, I had taken a Benadryl on the plane. Whoops. Yeah, my drug test came back positive. HA. HA. HA… The girl who has NEVER done an illegal drug in her life just received a “positive” on her drug test. Great. Actually so ironic.

So obtaining my alien registration card has been… slightly difficult. The Koreans probably think I’m some drug smuggler. Cool.

Although I can’t travel outside the country for Chuseok, I’ll definitely find something to do with my time.

And the good news- I just heard today that my second drug test came back negative. Wahoo. I can officially become a resident of Korea and not feel like a wannabe druggie anymore. Maybe they’ll return my passport, with my ARC, by the next holiday break.

And, 10 bucks says that at least three of you thought that I was pregnant. Gotchya!!

Thomas the Train

My first 2 weekends in Korea have included a bit of traveling, both north and south of my new town, Pyeongtaek. Two weekends ago, Brandon and I decided to meet some of his friends up in Seoul (the capital of South Korea) to see an American comedian, Ted Alexandro. You can look him up on youtube- listen to him rant about Obama, gays, and Jesus. (My favorite part- the flaming rainbow flag… ya gotta check it out. The show took place in a section of the city called Itaewon (pronounced e-tay-wan), which is more or less known as the international section of Seoul, mostly due to the huge influx of American soldiers from the nearby base.

We planted ourselves at a table on the roof of this little Americanized bar, quickly downing pints of Cass and soju. We somehow cajoled our lovely entertainer of the night to sit down and talk American with us. The atmosphere actually made me think that I was back in the U.S. Butttt…that quickly changed the second we walked out of the bar, onto Hooker Hill, and immediately spotted some transies. Yep. Shemans.

We slowly, but surely, made it back to our room in the Love Motel. The best way to describe this is a cheap, but clean hotel where Korean men take women to hook up for the night and where penny-pinching Americans crash to save money while traveling. I know, a little sketch, but it does its job. The next morning, all groggy and slightly hungover, we made our way out of bed and back onto the train, heading south towards Geumsan for the Ginseng Festival. Yeah, it’s about as exciting as it sounds.

The Korean tourist website made it seem amusing, ok? But it really wasn’t worth the trip. To be honest, I totally forgot what we did on Saturday and had to browse through my camera to remember the festivities. But hey, we got called out for being foreigners. Shocking. What’s new?

So this past weekend, we vowed to have a slightly more amusing Saturday. Not sure of our weekend plans, we crashed in Pyeongtaek on Friday night. Due to the typhoon, we cancelled 2 different outdoor plans and decided to head to Daegu, the fourth largest city in Korea, known for their fashion industry and traditional medicine market. (Note: Korean fashion = under par, but there’s too much to rant about so I’ll save that for another blog).

After wondering through the city we decided to check out Daegu’s jimjilbong (an overnight spa). As usual, I got as many stares as there are temples in Korea. We “went to sleep” (and I say that loosely because I doubt we got more than 4 hours of rest) around 11pm with a maximum of 5 people at the spa. When we woke up (for the final time), the place was PACKED with drunks who had stumbled in after a long night of soju.

Excited for some hiking, we headed to Gayasan (Gaya Mountain) to hike to the pinnacle and see Haeinsa, one of Korea’s most sacred temples. Since 1398, the Tripitaka Koreana, or 81, 258 wooden printing blocks that contain the Buddhist Scriptures (basically equivalent to the Holy Bible or the Torah) has been stored here (Note: my Korean computer just tried to correct my grammar here to one of the following 1. has were 2. has had been or 3. has have been). This temple is absolutely gorgeous and I would LOVE to go back there. Well, luckily for me, we’re going to have to.

About 50 meters into our hike, we see a group of Korean hikers, decked out in the most absurd gear (obvi!), coming down the mountain, yelling “No! No!” at us. Eh??? Screw it, we’re hiking this mountain. Despite the rain and the Korean pleading, we make it about 50 more meters up the mountain, only to get turned around by a park ranger with his zipper undone (wonder what he was doing in his little hut…). So we cursed for a little, hiked down the whole 100 meters and made it back to Daegu.

Pissed off and tired, we caught an early train back to Pyeongtaek. Low and behold, we run into my co-teacher, her husband, and their 2 year old son!!! Keep in mind, we had run into them on the train to Daegu, and there must be at least 20 trains a day that run between the two cities… what are the chances?! So after thoroughly enjoying their company, we decided to get dinner together. All throughout dinner, their little boy (who is actually the cutest Asian baby alive) kept singing the Korean version of Thomas the Train. Ugh! He is sooo adorable. So although for the last 2 weekends we spent more time on trains that land, friendships were made and bits of Korea were explored! Hopefully this weekend will bode better luck for us.

Short on the Deets

Its Day 14 and I just realized, after much continued and repetitive questioning, that I made a mistake- I didn’t fill you in on the deets (details for all you old folk) of my typical day.

I wake up bright and early :) (that is a fake smile, which is slightly hard to portray on the internet) at 6 am. WOOF. I roll out of bed and into the shower, which typically isn’t warm yet because the water heater is just heating up. Talk about waking up… I finish getting ready and make sure to NEVER expose my goodies or my shoulders. Although the Korean culture is big on pants so tight you forget how to truly take a deep breathe and high heels that will eventually lead to varicose veins, you are an outright whore if you even think about showing some shoulder or a millimeter of your chest.

Around 7:15, I take a stroll to the bus stop just 5 minutes away and wait for the number 20 bus. Since it is usually packed before I even get on, I find a place to hang on for dear life. As we run stoplights and turn until the bus almost tips, we arrive at more stops to pick up loads of people. Now I’m talking Mexican style here- they pack these things DEEP. The awkward butt rub is bound to occur, and if you’re sitting, you will definitely have someone else’s private parts staring you straight in the eye.

I get off at the Pyeongtaek outdoor market and run across the street to transfer to the 2-2 bus, which I ride until I arrive at Jangdang Middle School. If I’m lucky, one of my students will be on the bus with me. But bless his soul, the poor kid can’t speak a lick of English. So we just sit there awkwardly, basically pretending that we don’t even know each other.

After this 45 minute excursion, I arrive at school and begin lesson planning, checking email, or preparing for the day ahead. Mondays and Fridays are the worst- Mondays I teach all 3 grade levels, so I have to make sure that I’m prepared for the whole week and Fridays I teach the lowest level students, who basically just stare blankly, despite my extra-slow-I-just-added-an-extra-syllable-in-there speech.

Classes end at 3:10, but the students must stay at school until 4:30 (which, yes, means I must stay till then too… Thank you Mr. Vice Principal for being so kind). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, I am lucky enough to have an afterschool class, where I basically just play games with the children. Thursdays also include a “Mother’s Class”, which allows the parents of my students to learn English. Although I have not yet started these classes, I will teach the same material to the parents that I do to their children to enhance English conversations at home.

On a daily basis, other teachers will bring in vitamins or specialty drinks to boost your immune system and children run up to me in the halls just to tell me that I am so beautiful (talk about a confidence boost!). Lunch is always provided and thus far I can’t complain.

Making small talk in the hall way is monotonous- when you ask a child how he/she is doing, they ALL respond, as if they were robots, “I’m fine, thank you. And you.” Ugh it kills me. But I am slowly teaching them other responses. Oh and Thursdays (my favorite days), I always get a proposal from Eom Jae Ho. This week it was, “Teacher, if you wait 10 years I will be rich and then you can marry me. Just wait 10 years.” How adorable! And, of course, he’s my best student!

After school I do a reverse order of my bus route, with just as much awkwardness. Once Brandon gets home, we usually go out to dinner, as its dirt cheap here to eat some good cooking! And then hang around the house, watching movies, playing rummy, or just lounging, until these 2 old geezers pass out at 10pm.

Ms. Independent

Ok so I know I posted about an hour ago, but I just saw something that really blew me away. On the bus ride home today I grabbed a sit right in the front, and thus was able to observe everyone entering the 20 bus. Now I LOVE to people watch, so this was my kind of seat. So I'm sitting there, exhausted from the work week, just gazing around, when the bus stops and picks up a single passenger- a young man with Down syndrome.

As many of you may know, I have worked thoroughly with children with disabilities, particularly those with Down syndrome and Autism. But it is so rare to find a person with special needs traveling by themselves. So immediately, I became teary eyed, and as I have been doing, compared yet another aspect of Korea to the U.S… “This is what we are working towards, yet struggle so much to succeed.” As I was processing this thought, the bus comes to another stop. Three children, no older than 6, enter the bus. In America would you let your 6 year old, or your child with a disability use the public transportation system? If you’re smart, no.

And then I got to thinking- Korea thrives on its independence. Women are able to walk through dark alleys without the fear of being raped. Old men and women do not steal away the seats of others because they do not expect special attention. And young children and the disabled are able to have their freedom because it is a way of life here in Korea. She is SAFE. She is INDEPENDENT.

First Week Royalty

Week one down... only 51 left! I am actually shocked at the easy transition to life halfway across the world. Generally speaking, my day is pretty normal. I have anywhere from 4-5 classes a day and 15-40 students in each class. But as you can imagine, things are slightly different from American schools. Discipline is… interesting. Misbehave and you will get THE stick (yes, they beat their students). Keep it up, and you’ll have to do “London Bridges” (hands and feet on the ground, butt all the way up in the air) for as long as the teacher wishes. Now that’s my kind of discipline!

And everyone is SO giving! Now I’m not just talking about time here, because they actually throw presents at you. Day 1- I was immediately greeted by a Korean teacher, who insisted that I have 2 China coffee cups (they take their coffee seriously). Then, as the day neared to an end, the principal invited me and one of my co-teachers to dinner.

Naturally, I was very grateful, and accepted, thinking we would head to some Korean joint just in town. Boy was I wrong. We ventured 30 minutes into the Korean country side and devoured Grade A ++ meat while sitting under chestnut trees, looking out onto a lake. We actually roasted chestnuts on an open fire (and here I just thought that was a Christmas song). My co-teacher, Bianca, feeling as though she needed to contribute, decided to take us out to get some tea. So we drove from one lake to the next, and, going with the theme for the night, had $20 worth of tea (yes, that’s per person), while watching the sunset over the mountains. I know tea is suppose to be healthy and all, but for $20 a person, my life expectancy better have increased by 10 years.

And throughout the rest of the week children brought me presents and my co-teachers offered me an endless supply of food and coffee (I think I gained 10lbs and doubt that I’ll ever need sleep again). Children run up to me full of exuberance, just to say “Teacher, Teacher… HIIIIII.” My co-teachers tell me that I have the “Alex Effect” and some of the boys call me a celebrity, saying they are my followers. One boy, when I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up actually said “your husband.” So yes, Asian kids ARE as cute as everyone says.

This week, I truly felt like a princess… Yep, I could get used to this.