Random K-Pop Song: 냉면 (Naengmyon)

This song, as far as I can tell, is using the Korean dish 냉면 (Naengmyon = cold noodles) as a metaphor for their relationship.


mm mm delicious

My favourite lyrics are "It's ice cold, my body's trembling. Cold noodle, cold noodle, cold noodle. Though it's chewy. It's too chewy. Cold noodle, cold noodle, cold noodle. Even so I still love you."
It's so true. Darn noodles always getting stuck in my throat because they are so long and impossible to chew, but it's so delicious. Spicy and cold and sour all at once! Anyway, enjoy the ridiculousness!

EPIK Cultural Experience Oct. 2009

A Funny Story and a Flashback to a Previous Post

Do you remember the post where I was taking about the English Camp that was being poorly planned? Let me refresh your memory...

"There is a lesson learned quickly when living in Korea: "Go With The Flow"* and I am.

* or maybe it's "Why plan now, when you can cram it in at the last minute?" or perhaps, "Think ahead? Please explain".

Case in point: My "Summer" English Camp. We had known about the summer camp since May, plenty of time to get it all in order. We had even settled on a weekend that was good for all of us. About two weeks before the summer camp was to happen, I asked my co-teacher if the facilities had been booked. He said, "Oh yeah, I'll phone". He came back a few days later with the unfortunate news that all the facilities were booked for the summer months. Okay, fine sure, I didn't really care, as I honestly really didn't care. But I know for a fact that these camps are mandatory, so my concern is when exactly is the camp going to happen, crammed in at the end of my contract? But wait, isn't there a winter camp too? So I politely suggested that he phone them back immediately and book a time for September. He still hasn't done it. Sigh. His reason? When he phoned (in June) there were still open rooms for September. Maybe he's right, maybe they still won't be booked closer to September... but why take the chance when you have the money sitting there waiting? I don't really understand the logic."

HAAhahahaaha! Funny story right? Now, I will tell you The Rest of The Story...

My dear co-teacher came into my office, asking me if I had heard about the Waegukin trip to the city of Andong next weekend. I agreed that yes in fact I had heard about it. (Actually, I knew about the tentative arrangements a few weeks ago.)
He replied, "Oh, are you going to take part?"
"Yes" I answered, "I think it will be a good experience for me."
"Oh", He paused, "I had planned the English Camp for that weekend."
"What?!", I replied trying to keep the horror and shock out of my voice "Oh...you were?". (Thanks for telling ME buddy, the person who PLANS THE WHOLE THING! Thanks for giving me ONE WEEK notice! When were you planning on telling me? The day before?)
"So", he continued, "What weekend would be best for you then.
(Out of the only two weekends left in October.)
"Uhhhhh.... the 24th and 25th I guess?", I spluttered, stil slightly in shock.


I should have known. I had a feeling that something like this would happen. I knew that the English camp would undoubtedly be sprung on me last minute. So, I could have screamed and yelled. I could have angrily said, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Maybe I should have, but you know what? It just doesn't really matter. In reality I should have been anticipating this more, and been even more prepared.

If Korea has taught me anything it's that life can not and does not revolve around oneself. You can put up a wall and kick and scream, but you're only going to be wasting the precious time that you need to plan your English Camp. Speaking of which...
Shiiiit.

Autumn Update

It's been a while since we've updated this blog. We haven't really done many things that exciting recently, and have been taken in with school and extra classes and such. Things are well, other than an outbreak of H1N1 at my school(20 confirmed and 30 more suspected), and we are laying low in order to conserve money for the big trips planned at the end of the year. A little over two months left in the main part of the semester, which truly means only two months left of teaching, aside from some camps and extra classes. February is the month we look to, where we will take a trip to SE Asia, to be followed by a trip to China in March.

There won't be too much going on in our lives between now and then, but i'll try to edit a couple more vids for you to keep the masses pacified. This one gives a taste of the mountain views and ceremonies happening in the fall.

In the City of Gyeong-Ju, Gyongsangbuk-do

From the Bulreyong Valley we headed south to the city of Gyeong-Ju. We arrived late in the evening and found ourselves a cheap hotel. Upon entering our room we discovered a sink full of lettuce. I guess the owner of the hotel uses that room to wash his vegetables in? After some laughter, the manager removed his lettuce, and we bedded down for the night. Some time in the early morning Rob discovered a cockroach breathing his last breath in the bathroom. It was indeed a quality hotel. After a restful night, we headed out to see the "amayjing" sights of Gyeong-ju.

Pay attention kids, here is a history lesson! Did you know that Gyeong-ju was once the capital city of the Shilla Dynasty? It became the capital around 57 BCE. It was the capital city for nearly 1000 years. Nowadays, Gyeong-ju is famous for the many massive tombs of ancient kings and other royal people. I guess that's life- King one day, tourist attraction the next. These grass covered tombs are called "Tumuli".

We made our way to Tumuli Park and the adjoining Wolseong Park. We parked our car and for a few chunners rented a couple of bikes to see the park in style and grace. Here we saw many things such as Asia's oldest astrological observatory, an ancient ice house, as well as some giant grass covered hills aka ancient tombs. As we were riding around we found Anapji Pond, which was filled to the brim with blooming lotus plants. This pond, as well as some buildings that royalty lived in, was built by King Munmu. Apparently, in 935 CE, the buildings came under attack and were burned to the ground. The residents of the buildings threw many of their treasures into the pond and surrounding moat. These treasures were not discovered until 1975 when the pond was drained for reconstruction. That would be such an amazing find! What a surprising glimpse into history.

After a nice hour long bike ride we dropped the bikes off and headed to a very famous temple called Bulguksa. This temple was very pretty, but for whatever reason, tiredness... I dunno, it just didn't seem to be all that impressive at the time. I've recently acquired a great book about Korean temple motifs, and I now regret not spending a bit more time there. What was impressive to me, at the time, was the Seokguram Grotto. Seokguram Grotto is a giant stone sculpture of Buddha located high up in the mountain behind Bulguksa. It's not just a giant stone sculpture, it's a giant stone sculpture set in a granite rotunda with amazing carvings surrounding him. This grotto was built in 700 CE. I can't even imagine the effort it would have taken to carry all that granite up the mountain. Unfortunately everyone and their Ajumma were there, so we all had to shuffle along in a line to see the Buddha for a few seconds. Ah well, it was still stunning!

Gyeong-ju is also famous for a dish called Ssam Bap. Sometime during the day (it's all a little hazy now) we decided to try this dish out. This meal consists of a wide variety of fresh and steamed leafy greens, fermented vegetables and a plate of fried fish. Much like other Korean meals, but without any gochu (hot chili pepper). Traditionally, gochu was not used in food and it is a relatively recent spice in Korean history*. We also ordered a large bowl of Dong Dong Ju, a delicious fermented rice drink. The taste is a little yeasty and maybe a little sour... well I can't really describe it, but take my word for it - it's masshida!

From the Grotto, we headed towards the East Sea to find a place to camp for the night. We decided that it would be a good idea to head towards the Sea Tomb of King Munmu, hoping that we could find a camp site along the way...

More about the sea tomb of King Munmu later.... pictures SOON!(I hope...Rob?!:-))



*Korean food is famous for being covered in gochu jang (hot chili pepper paste). It is one of the main condiments that makes many Korean foods bright red and very spicy. Chilis were first introduced in Korea in the 16th century and gochu-jang made from dried red-chilli powder has been in the pantry of every single Korean household ever since. Got some tough bitter mountain root? Cover it in gochu jang! MMMMMM! No one will notice the flavor when their taste buds are burned off!

Summer Vacation 2009: Rob and Kat do Korea

So we've been back from vacation for about a week now. Rob started back at school, and although I've tried to go back to school, they just keep sending me home. I wish I was at school, because I never get stuff done at home. Internet TV is just too distracting...

Anyway let me tell you about our adventures driving around Korea... what I can remember anyway. So after Jisan Festival we headed to Wonju to pick up the car we rented. After some errors in communication we convinced the man that it was okay to give us the car. Unfortunately we couldn't convince him to rent us a navigation system, but instead he gave us an old dusty map book from 2003... did I mention it was all in Korean? No matter, I can read the little squiggles well enough to read names of cities. After filling out all the paper work we got on our way. Somehow we managed to find the highway to Taebaek and headed back to pack up some more stuff for the journey.

We really had no plan except to drive in a southerly direction. The first stop on our road trip was a beautiful waterfall that Rob had told me about, but never been able to see. There's no bus or anything that goes out that way. The waterfall is called Mian Pokpo, which translates into Beauty Waterfall or Beauty Fall (say that fast). It's a nice little walk to get to the waterfall. It was a nice humid day, and as we walked we saw many strange looking mushrooms and caterpillars. After walking through a small temple complex you walk a bit more until you come out into a small clearing. From high in the reddish tinged rocks falls a delicate stream of water. The legend has it that if you are lucky you can see angels bathing in the blue green waters of the pond below the waterfall.

After that we headed for the Bulryeong Valley. We drove through this scenic green forest covered valley until we ended up at Bulyeongsa, a Buddhist temple. This temple is famous for being home for 50 ascetic Buddhist nuns. The nuns were very surprised to see us, as I don't believe many foreigners make it to such an out of the way place. We received many warm hellos and annyong haseyos. It was extremely idyllic. We entered the grounds through a nice shaded pathway. The pathway opens up to the temple grounds. In the center of the temple grounds is a pond that reflects the mountains which circle the area. In the reflected pond you can "see" Buddha. It's really just a bare part of the mountain reflected in the pond, but from this angle it really did resemble a Buddha statue. It was extremely peaceful there, and of course I wish that we had stayed longer. On our way back to the car, we spotted a giant toad hopping up towards the temple. Perhaps the pond is his home, can toads be Buddhist?


more to come soon... photos also soon to be posted. please be patient, we are lazy.

Jisan Valley Rock Festival

To kick off our vacation right, we attended a three-day festival in a little resort-town southeast of Seoul called 지산 (Jisan). The line-up looked pretty sweet, with Weezer headlining the friday night, Basement Jaxx the saturday, and Oasis on Sunday. The trip to get there was a little difficult, as we were carrying supplies to camp out for three nights on our backs.

A little history of the festival...there is none. It's the first year that they have held it, so there were some functionality-issues to work out, but all in all, they did a pretty good job. The organizers actually were involved with the Pentaport festival in previous years, which was the biggest annual festival in Korea. However, there was a dispute, and the two separated, creating two festivals on the same weekend competing for fans. Which is unfortunate, as the Deftones were on stage on the Pentaport festival at the same time.

We arrived late into the day on friday, as we both had to go to work in the morning to ask permission to leave early. We walked into the concert grounds in the middle of Fallout Boy's set. I'm not a big fan of their music, so I wasn't that impressed from what I did hear, but I'm biased. We set up our new tent for the first time (or attempted to set it up), and went in to meet up with Ryan Hillstead and Lisa Styles who were also attending the festival for the weekend. The attendance seemed surprisingly small. It's hard to really estimate, but on the Friday night, I'd guess between 8-10,000 people in the whole grounds. This would increase by Sunday, but at that point, it was a welcome intimate show. Weezer hit the stage at 9:30, and we were easily able to walk up to a good vantage point to watch the show.

The thing with Korean crowds, that is a great attribute in my opinion, is that the people who mosh, jump up and down, and dance, as opposed to the violent arm-swinging slam-dancing. Now, not to betray my metal and punk roots, I do like the slam dancing on a limited basis, as well as crowd surfing, however, I think things have gone too far in the last five or six years. Moshing used to be about collective energy and emotional discharge, but it's become a violent organism that results in serious injury, and isn't something you can opt out of. Korean festivals are a welcome respite.

Anyhow, Weezer rocked the house, debuting some new tracks, rocking some old tracks, and taking from the range of their 15-year body of work. I'm not really that big of a fan of their newer work, as it's starting to become recycled and stagnant, however, they played such a great range, it's impossible to not enjoy. Josh Freese was on the drums, freeing up Pat to play lead guitar and lead vocals. Very surprising and impressive. Rivers did a lot of preparation for the Korean show, I've been here for almost two years and it seems he knows more Korean than I do. The crowd loved it, and chanted for the encore. "WEE-ZAH! WEE-ZAH! ANG-CORE! ANG-CORE!"

Day two was very relaxing. As we were exhausted from traveling and working the day before, we had gone to bed fairly early, avoiding the all-night electronica parties. We hung out on the grassy common for most of the day. We were lucky, the clouds overhead kept the temperature down most of the day. There were some notable Korean acts throughout the day, the most notable being called Deli Spice, a rock/hard-rock act that looks like a bunch of blue-collar Korean workers, but kicked out amazing tunes. The headliner Basement Jaxx didn't disappoint. They have an amazing stage show, and for a mostly electronic act, they use a lot of analog instruments, drums, trumpets, guitars, and so on. The singers and dancers were amazing with multiple costume changes. I'd say that this was probably the peak performance of the show, with an unmatched energy.

The last day was a scorcher. Hot and sunny, the only way to cool off was to go hang out in the "cool down" zone, which was a bunch of mist jets and fans that brought the temperature down quite a bit. We saw a Korean band Dr. Core 911 who were the first Korean hardcore band that I've seen. We caught up with them in the cool down zone and talked in broken english and broken korean for a few minutes. This day actually had an amazing amount of talent. The B-Stage had some more independent, edgy Korean rock and punk, and Patti Smith graced the main-stage with her extremely charismatic and powerful hippy presence.

Oasis...(or should I say "Oh-ashes" as the Koreans do), why do people like you? Well, one reason is because they're a solid stadium-anthem rock band. The songs are catchy, easy to remember, and they're constant ripping off of the beatles, from riffs to cover songs. Korea loves them, it's the second time in six months they've had a performance here. The attendance was easily double what it had been for the previous two days by the time they went on. Everyone knew all the words to all the songs, and despite Liam's childish behavior, I don't think any of them were disappointed. However, Liam's attitude and the way he spit out the vocals with so much contempt and sarcasm, it's hard to respect the band. "I don't really know the area, I don't even know the name of the festival, but you've been the bollocks..." Maybe Noel is a good guy, or maybe it's just in comparison to such an asshole, but he made the show watchable. He played some good guitar, he complimented the crowd, and actually looked like he was enjoying it.

The night finished off with a display of fireworks better than anything I've seen in Canada, and people slowly walked out of the concert. Ryan and Lisa and their friends had to work the next day, so they attempted to take the shuttle bus home, although it was a doomed venture. Fortunately they caught a ride home with some friendly Koreans, and were home by 1:30am. Kat and I went to our tent and were fast asleep before 12. Festivals are very tiring. The next day we went to Wonju to pick up our rental car to continue on with our vacation. More on that to follow.

All in all it was a blast, and we have another festival (only one day) on August 15. Headliner: Nine Inch Nails. I'm pumped.

You can check out some pictures from the weekend HERE. Click on the Jisan folder to see them. Also, there's this guy who videotaped the entire Weezer set, and if you're a fan, it's worth watching. I'll try to post that in the next day or two.

Until next time, keep fit and have fun.
rob

Assah!

It's nearly time for official vacation, although you could say that I've been on "vacation" for a couple weeks now. Haven't taught much, basically I've just been something pretty to look at around school I suppose. I've spent most of this morning watching a movie, reading a book and standing outside with students watching the partial solar eclipse. We all had our makeshift viewers, and I am sure at least half of the students severely damaged their retinas. It was cool, but still not as cool as a total eclipse would be. There was none of the corona to be seen, unfortunately.
But still a great way to spend the morning.

I'm really excited for our Korean Vacation, and a proper Korean Vacation it is at that. Everything has been booked at the last minute, and we don't really have a concrete plan. The plans we do have are changed on a daily basis; maybe we will do this or maybe we will do that. There is a lesson learned quickly when living in Korea: "Go With The Flow"* and I am wholeheartedly embracing that concept. I think it will be great, no matter where we end up. Not much can go wrong with a car, a tent and miles of sandy beach! (knock on wood, I just thought of some things that could go terribly wrong... o_0!)

More posts of our vacation soon to follow,
Peace,
Kat

* or maybe it's "Why plan now, when you can cram it in at the last minute?" or perhaps, "Think ahead? Please explain..."

case in point: My "Summer" English Camp. We had known about the summer camp since May, plenty of time to get it all in order. We had even settled on a weekend that was good for all of us. About two weeks before the summer camp was to happen, I asked my co-teacher if the facilities had been booked. He said, "Oh yeah, I'll phone". He came back a few days later with the unfortunate news that all the facilities were booked for the summer months. Okay, fine sure, I didn't really care, as I honestly really didn't care. But I know for a fact that these camps are mandatory, so my concern is when exactly is the camp going to happen, crammed in at the end of my contract? But wait, isn't there a winter camp too? So I politely suggested that he phone them back immediately and book a time for September. He still hasn't done it. Sigh. His reason? When he phoned (in June) there were still open rooms for September. Maybe he's right, maybe they still won't be booked closer to September... but why take the chance when you have the money sitting there waiting? I don't really understand the logic.

Cultural exchanges, cultural near exchanges of fists, wishing i could exchange cultures

Well, it's been a whirlwind roller coaster tornado of hurricane-like emotions in the last few weeks. We are only days away from vacation which will hopefully bring back some of the joy of being here. I joke sometimes that the kids are the only reason I'm sticking around (and the $$$)...korea and I are like a dysfunctional relationship, we're sticking together for the kids. Already, it is summer, and I must remind myself that we only have 7 months left, and in that 7 months, only 4 more months of actual work. However, there are things that have tided us over, two weeks ago, we were given an opportunity to travel to Yeongin, near Seoul, to explore a traditional folk village. Check out the pictures HERE. It was a good experience, and I think since we've decided to buckle down and put more significant payments on our loans, we've stopped doing these sorts of excursions. I think that's what made the first year fun enough to convince us to do a second year here. Now it seems like we're only living for the next vacation, and the rest of the time is just walking in place, passing time and not making use of it.

Stupid money and responsibility...wish I could shrug it off and just travel every weekend :). At least we've found a bit of a new hobby. We invested in some cheap snorkeling gear, and have been hitting up the East Sea when we can. Our vacation will have plenty of opportunities to snorkel in some tropical-ish ocean on Jeju-do.

And although we haven't even begun this vacation yet, I'm already counting the days to the next one.

Another succesful English camp

Yes, Hwangji Boys English Camp was a smashing success despite our little toilet paper pillow man here. Despite some expected snags, it was much smoother than last year, which we had in a love motel.

Other than that, we haven't been up to much, vegging and waiting for vacation time to hit. Things are starting to smooth out, so after one more English camp for Kat's school and three more weeks of half-assed classes, we will embark upon a Korean takeover. Expect a greater frequency of posting come August when we actually have something interesting to talk about.

Until then, peace!

OOO! a new post from WORK!

I can finally blog at school! Previous to this day, they (whoever they are) had been blocking this site. It was a sad state of affairs indeed.

now... what to blog about... hmmm.

This past weekend, Rob and myself went to the city of Daegu. I had some artwork up in a competition, so we went to go check it out the final day/closing party shindig. It was a lot of fun.

We met a couple of nice people, Reyna and Ahn Do. After the award ceremony (Ahn Do won first place in his category!) we went and chilled with them at

Reyna's hangout/coffeeshop/bar/guitarlesson place. We listened to some guitar playing and fabulous singing and talked about Canada.

This week is going okay so far... I'm preparing my students for their speaking test in two weeks. We'll see how that goes.

On Wednesday there is a meeting about Korean language classes. I'm glad that they are (finally) offering language classes here, but I am worried about the extra responsibilities that come with it. Rumour has it that if you take the class you must participate in a speaking competition. Last year some of the native english teachers (NET) took part in a speaking competition. For some of them it wasn't optional. Unfortunately, there was a TV crew there filming the event, and what ended up on TV afterwards was a little insulting to the poor NETs. If you've ever seen Korean TV they really like to make fun of people's mistakes. There was no sympathy at all, even though none of the NETs had been taking classes. So, a lot of the people here are burned and aren't at all interested. The other funny thing is that many of the NETs are taking part in the Dano Festival (something else that wasn't optional to some people). Leave it to the board of education to create two mandatory events, on the same day. sigh.

Anyway, It's finally HOT here and I am loving the weather. There are only about 5 weeks of actually teaching time until finals. Somewhere in there I will also teach 2 English camps. The, FINALLY I will go on VACATION!!!!! This summer's plans are to travel to the southern provinces of Korea, and visit Busan and Che-ju, then take the ferry over to Japan for a few days. Hopefully it will be a relaxed, go with da flow kind of vacation. I really dislike the visit 2 countries in a long weekend kind of travel like we did with Cambodia and Vietnam. It was way too fast, with too many bumpy/rickety modes of transportation.

that's it for now, I should probably get back to work. I have a whole TWO classes today. Yowza, my life is tough.

xo, Kat

p.s. just found out North Korea tested a nuclear bomb underground. awesome. and all the American NETs are freaking out.

Sang you berry kam sa

Sorry for not posting for awhile. I'm trying to shake off some lethargy that's come over me.
It seems I've hit a wall again here in Korea. I don't think realistically that me teaching 30 students in a class is at all helpful. Some students just don't care about what I'm trying to teach, some students just can't understand and most teachers think it's a waste of time. I'm contemplating asking if I can just teach the students who really want to learn, and teach smaller classes.

There are a lot of problems with this situation that I am in and I am powerless to change it, short of going home. I ask myself, "Why am I here?" and the answer is "Money". Which makes me more or less sick.

But on the other hand, I have had some good situations. I've been going away on weekends and seeing some cool stuff. A few weekends ago I went to Gangnueng and stayed in a traditional house for a night. We had a great tour guide who was really sweet! I learned how to play a really fun traditional Korean game, but I didn't buy the sticks, and now I have not been able to find them since. Luckily, if all else fails I can recreate the game on my own. It's pretty simple.

I've been to Seoul and partook in some Lotus Lantern festivities. I did some "wish" paintings and made lotus flowers from rice paper.

Yesterday I climbed a really steep mountain and overcame my fear of falling (for the moment anyway). Here is Shannon's tale of the climb:

Four Hours on all Fours in a Forest
It is May and the mood, weather and people are lovely again. I am more than 99% a spring person...just in my nature and everything seems to be tainted with a hippy-like love aura.

The azaleas are in bloom. The cherries are in bloom. The pines started producing little needles...the apples are even starting to blossom. Everywhere are bursts of color after a long brown winter. Green, white, pink, and blue sky everywhere.

In that spirit and with our elevated moods four of us girls planned a lovely "moderate" hike up a hill we had each visited but hadn't really gotten to know...without much thought we randomly made twists and turns into unknown territory. Four hours later, in the middle of a downpour we emerged several miles down road and almost out of the city...soaking wet and covered in mud and leaves. The ropes we had clung to (where there were ropes) had shredded our hands and the bruises from falling had begun to take on a purple/blue hue to add to the springtime color.

After emerging from that forest of unknown...we reflected on the numerous hours spent on all fours...trying to cling to small trees for a breather on our way up and then using similar trees to slow our downhill falls. Food and beer was on our mind and we quickly hailed a cab (after the first one gave us one look and sped away)...to the cheapest and closest food spot in town where most could gorge on BBQ style Korean meat and Kat and I could delve into our veggie dinners. We ate, we ate more and drank until the pain stopped. Delicious!

I have to say, for me, it wasn't that painful or random. I knew that we had to go up, so up we went.

I've read a couple of really good books about people living in different cultures. And I've had some conversations with people about their own difficulties living here.

I've had a short burst of creative energy. I'm working on some drawings and hope to get them into an art competition in Daegu.

But, today I seem to have wasted the day watching Battlestar Gallactica and Law and Order. What a waste, but an entertaining waste.

tomorrow I gotta get out of this house and DO SOMETHING!

A Beautiful Temple, Mountain Makoeli, Awkward Ramyon and Jell-0 Legs.

Saturday March 21st 2009

A group of fellow EPIK teachers and I went to find a beautiful temple in the mountains. The temple, Chongyeong Sa, is about a 2 hour drive south of Taebaek in North Gyeongboksang Province. The day started out at 8:45 when the bus left for a small town by the name of Bongwha. At Bongwha the bus driver dropped us off in an alley, which after some confusion, we realized was the back entrance to the bus terminal. There was not another bus leaving for the mountain for another 3 hours, so we decided to grab a bite to eat and grab some snacks for a picnic later on. We decided to take a taxi to the mountain, which was a lot faster and cost us around 30,000 won (or ~$30 Canadian).

I had been to this temple before, last summer, on a group outing with some teachers. The first time we took a beautiful path that had you walking on the edge of the mountain face. It was really beautiful and gave teasing glimpses of the temple as you walked up the shaded path. This time we were dropped off at a different entrance which was just a very steep road - not nearly as beautiful. No matter, we climbed the road to the temple. Along the way I caught a little brown lizard. Now is the time that these tiny brown lizards come out and only for a few weeks it seems.

After a hot walk we finally made it to the temple. This temple is in one of the most beautiful locations I've ever seen. This temple has a wonderful meditation platform that has an unobstructed view of the valley. I bet that if you were allowed to go onto the platform, the end of it would be at the edge of a cliff.

After looking at the temple we decided to continue climbing up the mountain. It was a very steep climb but reasonably short, about 45 minutes. At the top of the steep steps a woman was handing out kumquats (tiny little oranges). From there, after a short snack/beer break, we continued on to the Sky Bridge. I thought that I'd be scared to cross it, but happily I felt no fear. I think that I am slowly conquering my fear of heights. After crossing the Sky Bridge we took a group picture. A Korean man was nice enough to take a picture for us, and a few other Koreans took their own picture of us too. We then decided to have our picnic and as we were doing that a couple of Japanese tourists took our picture as they went by. It's the celebrity life of Wayguks, I'm used to it now.

Finally it was time to descend. This is where things started going downhill, literally and figuratively. It was painfully steep going down. A combination of rickety stairs (completely too small for human feet) and no stairs (with dangers of slipping on loose rocks or tripping on tree roots) was our steep path going down. Halfway down, with legs already like jello jigglers we came across a traditional Korean house on the side of the mountain. There was a woman that lives inside this house. We heard her call to a group of Koreans that she was selling Makoeli, my favourite fermented drink. It was a unanimous decision among us Wayguks to sit down and partake in a drink. So, she sat us down in this makeshift tent and brought us some young garlic shoots and weird root thing in hot pepper paste. A vile concoction. Then she brought us her home-brew makoeli. It was terrible. I'm pretty sure she gave us a bad batch of makoeli. The root garlic dish was helpful in masking the bitter taste of the murderous Makoeli. When the horror finally ended we continued to make out way down the steep slopes.

At the bottom of the mountain, we wasted some time playing around in a river. There was supposed to be a waterfall there, but God hadn't turned it on yet. It was more of a water trickle. In the river we found some frogs' eggs, which is always cool to see.

After awhile we decided that it was probably time to head home. The only problem was, which way was home? After consulting a very crude map we agreed that home was "that way". So, we went that way. As we were walking in the general direction towards home, we decided to try catching a ride to Bongwha. Now mothers and overprotective brothers, don't freak out. I know that hitchhiking can be dangerous, and it is dangerous in Korea, but not in the way that you think. The dangerous part of hitchhiking in Korea is that you will probably be taken to someone's home where they will feed you before sending you on your way. Yes, there is a distinct danger of awkward conversations.

We were successfully picked up on our first try by a happy bubbly gnomish kind of man. He drove us the rest of the way down the mountain (about a five minute drive) and stopped at the main gate. He turned off the car and said something about coffee... Oh sure, let's go have some coffee with the man. No harm right? It's good to be polite. So, he led us to the little office by the gate and brought us inside. We were asked to sit down. Some fast Korean talking was going on with some definite comments about how handsome Andrew was. (Korean men really like Andrew). Anyway, without asking us if we wanted any, they proceeded to make us some ramyon. While we waited Soju was brought out. After we finished the awkward ramyon we were told that the bus would pick us up across the road in 20 minutes. We said our Kamsamnidas and left. As we were walking towards the bus the gnomish man drove past in his truck, swerving on the road as he waved goodbye.

The rest of the trip was pleasantly uneventful because I slept the whole way. Strangely enough I managed to wake up when we were entering Taebaek. I must be developing a public transit sixth sense.

This weekend was uneventful. I'm trying to fight off a cold. Next week Rob and I are going to go to a snow crab festival in Uljin... Depending on how it looks I may just try a crab. Once in my life I should try it, and this is probably the place to do it. But if they are all crammed in a cage I won't.

Click HERE to see the photos of Seongyeong Sa

Andong Away!

This past weekend Rob and myself found our way two hours south of Taebaek in a city by the name of Andong. There is a lot to see in Andong, if you ever get the chance to go, and one weekend is just not enough time.

We chose to go to HaHoe Mask Museum and Village. Hahoe Village is a village with traditional thatched and tile roof houses that people still live in. The people are generous enough to let tourists through, though I'm sure they make a pretty penny in souvenir shops and bed and breakfasts. According to my visitors pamphlet the word Ha means river and the word Hoe means turning around. Indeed, the Nakdong river holds this village in the crook of it's arm. There is also a beautiful cliff nearby called Byongdae Cliff that overlooks a sand beach across the blue-green river.

Some other interesting things we saw were a playground with traditional games, and a 600 year old tree that is home for the Goddess Samsin.

Andong is also famous for it's 40% Soju and a chicken dish called Jim Dalk.
Both delicious.

Check out our photos HERE

Good-Bye Weyburn, Hello Taebaek!

Ahhhh, slurpees from Weyburn. Till we meet again...


We've been back in Taebaek, South Korea for about a week and a half now. Both Rob and I have started back at work. I have two new co-teachers which might be a good thing. I only have three co-teachers in total (down from 6 last year) . So far things are looking pretty good, but I am not sure yet, we'll see how things work out. One major lesson I've learned here is to expect the unexpected.

I have a nice new classroom to teach in as well. There wasn't really anything wrong with the old one, except for the stinky kerosene heater. Apparently, the Gangwon-do Board of Edumacation is shelling out millions of dollars for schools to invest in an "English Zone". My co-teacher did quite well and created a pretty nice classroom for us. He did get crazy things like a computer that controls everything in the room and cordless microphones, but at least he did good on my request for pencils, erasers and notebooks. :-) I remember last October when he was showing me the magazines for ordering all this fancy equipment. He asked me what I thought we needed for the English classroom. I told him, "pencils, pens, erasers and some notebooks." He was like, "Okay we can do that, but do we need this 'insert fancy computerized thingamajig here'?". Sure Mr. Cho, that's awesome.

I'll let Rob tell you about his fabulous 40,000 dollar classroom full of all the bells and whistles. Speaking of other useless things, the board of education also sent about 200 EPIK text books. All of which are useless in my opinion, I will never ever use them AND there is serious Engrish on the front cover! "Throungh English Dreams Come True", good job guys, good job. All in all I see a giant waste of funds that could be better used for... EPIK teacher training, perhaps?
Sigh...

Below is a picture of the frozen river on Taebaek-san.

Last weekend we climbed the treacherous slopes of Taebaek-san. It was great fun. We climbed with fellow EPIK teacher Rebecca and had a picnic on the top of the mountain. A random old man came and sat with us and shared our food and beverages. He brought along his own beverage, which I'm pretty sure was home brew. It was red, delicious and slightly gritty. I do enjoy grit in my drinks. I gave him some dill pickle sun flower seeds, which he ate shells and all. Yum. After some broken English/Korean conversations we parted on friendly terms. After sliding/falling our way down the icy mountain we quickly arrived at the bottom where we saw the rain drum. Taebaek is currently experiencing a drought and we are on water rations (a few hours in the morning, and a few hours at night). I'm not sure if this is a traditional ceremony, as it was sponsered by New Castle Night Club. I can't really say it's a bad thing though. Who doesn't enjoy a giant drum in the back of a truck?

The only words I can read on this (and understand) are "pi ga" (rain come), "mahni" (much) and "balli" (quickly). So, basically it says hurry up and rain, dammit! I Agree!
p.s. Yes, the Korean word for rain is "pee". You can giggle if you want, I sure did!


And, just for fun! Here is a picture of a dried fish left in a Yew tree as an offering.


It is a really nice Yew tree though.

Wait, haven't I seen that fish somewhere before?

SUPPLIES!

Kat and Rob do Cambodia/Vietnam from rob hillstead on Vimeo.

Yew Tree and Grey Clouds

Around and Aboot In Saskatchewan.

Here Rob and I are, tourists in our point of origin. Kinda cool actually. Perhaps we might see the place a bit differently... most likely not. Lots of big changes in individual lives but in general it's pretty much the same.

Myself and Rob have been quite busy catching up with family, friends and acquaintances for the past few weeks. Off and on: working on projects, wondering around and wandering too. And to my delight and eventual horror, eating a lot of food we haven't had for a long time.

A couple of days we went to the three Korean restaurants in town. One didn't really serve Korean food at all, it was mainly delicious Japanese food. The other two were quite good, and I have to say it was nice eating something familiar. It's amazing how fast familiarity changes. Eating Korean food was a relief from all the greasy Canadian food. Of course, all the candy I ate probably didn't help either.

Two nights ago we got dumped on with snow. There are drifts higher than entrances on doors and walls and awnings have collapsed from the weight of the snow. In my opinion it's one of the most visually stunning times of the year. The snow drifts look like frozen waves crashing against houses and cars. On the road to Regina this morning, it was really beautiful. (Which is surprising as this is usually the most boring stretch of land.) It was white in everydirection with nothing to look at except the patchy road and wooden telephone poles obscured by the snow blowing across the land. What can be seen is a lesson in linear perspective, growing smaller and smaller disappearing into the horizon. And even though we were traveling forward it didn't seem like we were getting anywhere. Rob in his wisdom said, "You can feel really alone here."

And now I've recounted the time to this present point, give or take a few facts and events. I've still got a week and a half here and hope to do a lot of things yet. One of them being taking a ride on a snow mobile, tomorrow would be a good time... I'll take lots of pictures!

It's Cool!

Well, Rob has destroyed our alarm clock by hitting the snooze button too often and with malicious intent. So, it's time to get a new one. This one would be perfect for Rob, I think.

Intermission Transmission Superstition Coalition- a little stream of consciousness

Soon Rob and I will be flying back home to out frosty winter wonderland. This marks the conclusion of our (surprise!) 15 month contract here in Korea. (It was only supposed to be a 12 month contract, for those of you who are new to this blog). This is not the end of our Engrishee teaching escapades, though. We decided to sign on for another year of teaching in the same town and at the same schools. I would have liked to have gone to a different town in Korea, just to see something new, but our apartment here is just way too good to give up. We have seen some of the apartments that others get- and we have been very very fortunate! We have also been pretty lucky with our schools and enjoy working there for the most part. (I'm speaking for Rob here, but I'm pretty sure that he feels the same way)

I know that I have learned a lot during my time here and on my travels into other countries. Maybe in some future posts I will talk about these life lessons but probably not. I often think that traveling is too personal an experience to accurately express without falling way short of the truth. I can show you pictures and video. I can tell you stories and anecdotes. What I cannot do is share with you the intangible jumble of sensory input that I have experienced. You just really need to experience it for yourself.

For example,
the strange mix of euphoria and helplessness that I felt in Cambodia is something I can still feel so strong in me, but it's almost impossible to share the combination of smells, sounds, sights: The quality of the air as I rode down the street on the back of a Tuk-Tuk- a surprisingly pleasant smell of incense and burning garbage, how I felt when I fed an elephant a banana and gave his giant cheek a loving pat, and how I reacted to children begging. These are my memories, were Rob's the same? And I bet that your experiences (dear readers) would be completely different from the both of ours.

***

I'm excited to come back to Canada, but apprehensive too. There will undoubtedly be some culture shock once again. Last night I went out for beers with some Native English Teachers , and we decided it would be a good idea to practice Western table manners again (as many of us are heading back to the West in the next week). I practiced saying, "Please pass the napkins!" rather than just reaching across to get them. We discussed the concept of "Is it weird to eat a meal off the same plate as another person?" and "I don't even know anymore" as well as "What is the word for that thing... me engrishee teachee". It's good to follow rules, so that we can be respectful and get along with other people. It's also good to know that these "rules" are not universal.

And sometimes its good to just sit on the top of a mountain with a radio and some batteries and sing a joyful tune. Which, brings me to my main reason for posting this wonderfulness.

The main reason that I came on here was to post my
Top 10 Favourite Experiences of 2008
(as suggested by Rob, and I hope he does one too!)
So, here goes:

10. Finally learning how to use chopsticks, with skill and grace!
9. Learning to read Korean. (still need to work on understanding it though!)
8. Riding a boat down the Mekong River into Vietnam.
7. Climbing Taebaeksan in all four seasons.
6. Crossing Shibuya in Tokyo.
5. Going to a bath house in Mishima, Japan.
4. Watching the fireworks in Beijing during the Chinese New Year.
3. Petting an Elephant in Cambodia.
2. Walking on the Great Wall of China.
1. Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

If you feel like commenting, I'd like to know what place or experience has forever changed you? Maybe I'll go there too, and we can talk about it someday soon.

peace, love and understanding

The Wonder Girls Phenomena

OK. I've had a few weeks of "home study leave" to get my head together. I think I've been in culture shock/denial for the past 13 months, but now I'm starting to process things a little. Also, I've made a New Year's Resolution to post more often. (I promise!) To post about daily experiences. Just the little things that make living in a foreign country so fascinating and addicting, and also homesickness inducing.

I've been mulling over in my mind why South Korea is so fascinating and so repelling at the same time.

Here is a good place to start; The Wonder Girls Phenomena.

The Wonder Girls are a Korean Pop group (K-Pop). Made up of five very very very young girls (none of them were born before 1988) that have taken over this country by a storm of ridiculous cuteness, overt sexuality and annoyingly catchy beats.

I came to realize how much The Wonder Girls had invaded my life during my first few classes. I had asked the students to "tell me" something, I don't remember exactly what I wanted them to tell me, but that doesn't matter. As soon as I said the magic phrase "tell me", the class broke out into song. This song...



It's worse than Brittany or say, the Spice Girls. It's worse because most everyone of Korean descent loves The Wonder Girls; from babies to old men.

I enjoy this quote from The Korean Times, it kind sums up my feelings about the group and their fans.

"A housewife who disclosed only her surname Kim said, ``My husband likes the group so much, and I thought it was kind of gross, you know, a 40-year-old man watching and enjoying teenage girls in short skirts dancing. However, I soon found myself humming the song unconsciously and imitating the dance when watching the television.``"

I would like to say to this housewife, go with your gut feelings, it is a little gross indeed. But of course that's just my opinion. Perhaps she should buy herself a school girl uniform... *awkward silence* urm, cough...

Their songs play everywhere: grocery stores, cafes, cell phone ring tones, on the bus, and the lovely off-key renditions emanating from the No Rae Bong (Singing Room AKA Karaoke) And, to make it worse/more hilarious everyone knows the dance moves by heart. The people offer for evidence, exhibit A:(High school boys)



B: (Traffic Police)


C:(Flight Attendants)


and D:(Baby)




:D :D :D :D
The first time I saw a group of high school boys dancing to Wonder Girls on stage in front of the entire school and community, I just about asphyxiated from laughter and disbelief. Then I discovered that this was considered normal behavior for high school boys. Fair enough, I'm open to breaking gender stereotypes.

But it spreads like a disease. I often, too often, find myself unconsciously humming Wonder Girl tunes. I spritz myself with water for punishment, but it doesn't help.

Now, this is just my rant on the Wonder Girls. I haven't even gotten to Jewelry
or Lee Hyo Ri (Who's nickname is Hyorish... my students have no idea what this sounds like... fast forward to 3:00)

Jewelry


Lee Hyo Ri (AKA Hyorish)


Sigh... that's just the girl groups, I haven't even gotten to the boy bands...
And I totally forgot about "Disco". Ya Rob, don't deny it, I've heard you sing it...
"d.d.d.d.i..s.c.o hey disco!"

FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC! WHY? WHY!?

Seriously, I miss concerts and good music.