Annyong Haseyo

new post, new video!

2010-04-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

sorry for the lack of updates, kat and i have just returned from China, here is a video to keep you occupied while we work on some blog posts about our trips. we've posted new pictures: here, or the link on the sidebar.

Perhaps this may be the last post from Korea

2010-01-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

That is not to stay we won't post about Korea again, however, our time here is very short, and we must soon be on our way. Everything is a countdown these days. A countdown of how many more nights we have in our apartment (5), a countdown of how many more workdays I have (4), a countdown of how many more dinner meetings and soju parties (1-3), and so on. Kat and I have both finished teaching, and I am sitting at my desk with nothing to prepare for except vacation. The hours tick by slowly, and in a way, they are subtly agonizing. I've been working on a letter to give to the next teacher that will be at my school, in a way to prepare him/her for the rollercoaster ride he/she will soon find him/herself on. It's hard in a way to give any really helpful advice, as it seems that everything I have found to be true or useful in my life has turned out to be unreliable. To take in the culture and enjoy it the biggest trick is to go with the flow, and remember to not let things bother you too much, as it's not wrong, it's just different than what you're used to.

It has been a tumultuous affair, with many highs and many lows, but I do believe I will probably only remember the good times in the coming years. But life goes on, and perhaps the focus of this blog will shift now to our coming travels. We are heading off to Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam in about 3 days, and then China after that. So expect some pictures from our new compact camera. Also, I have well over 1000 SLR pictures that I still will get developed, and I'll try to post that.

Otherwise, I leave with a good taste in my mouth. As I sadly say goodbye to all of the wonderful people who i've met in the past two years, I am struck again by the feeling that I am experiencing another little death. There will never be an opportunity to recapture the experiences here, and i feel a lot of guilt over not savouring the moments that i have experienced as much as i should have. That said, it is a little death with a rebirth, or perhaps, a reincarnation into my old life, with a different path and purpose.

However, there are many more roads to travel before I can even begin that. We will have more posts on here towards the end of February, maybe we will reflect a little more on Korea, but I imagine the focus will be on our coming travels, with more pics and vids to keep you entertained.

Until then, happy lunar new year.
peace
rob

Ho w To Make Tteok (Gyung Dan)

2010-01-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

Last Photos from some of Rob's Classes

2010-01-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well it's been awhile since our last post. Sorry 'bout that. It just seems that there isn't much to blog about, even though there really is. It's strange how normalized Korea has become to me. Before everything was new and exciting, but now it's just life.

During December we had our final classes with our students. It was a little hard saying goodbye to the grade 2 students, as I have taught them for two years. There were a few tears those days. I have to admit that leaving is bittersweet. On one hand I am excited to come back to Canada and be with friends and family again. On the other hand I will miss the students and the city of Taebaek. I've come to know them well.

As a random surprise, which happens fairly often here (not always for the good) Rob and I found out that we had 10 days off of school. We had from the 25 to the 5 off, happiness ensued.

During Christmas, Rob and I went to Seoul and spent a bunch of money on non-Korean food. It was great. It's amazing how much food tastes better when you only eat it every 6 months. I hate to say it but Subway was HEAVEN in a freshly baked warm bun.
Of course the Indian food was even better, is there something better than heaven?
We also found a new hooka bar called Nabi. It was really beautiful. It had a shallow pool in the middle of the room, with rose petals and candles floating in it. There were no chairs and tables, instead you reclined on floor pillows with the short little Korean style tables. Of course we didn't bring our camera, so we have no pictures to show you. Just imagine, dark red, warm, incense, smoke, beaded chandeliers, water and soft conversation. It was very relaxing. I'd love to make my bedroom like that somehow.

During the new year we climbed Taebaek Mountain at 4:30 in the morning to watch the sunrise at 7:37. It was a spectacular sunrise and the freezing cold temperatures were definately worth it. Then, I think I slept for the next 2 days.

Now, I am teaching the freshman students. It's pretty fun as I only have 2 classes a day. I'm keeping the lessons fairly simple and fun, as their English level is relatively low. Plus, I just want to have fun too!

Soon we will be in Thailand where we will meet up with my parents. From there we will go to Cambodia and Vietnam. Hopefully our posts will pick up, as we will have more interesting things to talk about.

Love,
Kat

Random K-Pop Song: 냉면 (Naengmyon)

2009-11-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-17T22:35:00.001-07:00

A Funny Story and a Flashback to a Previous Post

2009-10-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T04:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-05T01:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-26T19:48:00.001-08:00

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

Yew Tree and Grey Clouds

2009-02-26T00:46:00.000-08:00

Around and Aboot In Saskatchewan.

2009-02-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

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.

English Camp!

2008-11-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the pinnacle of our hard work on a weekend, english-immersion "camp". Katherine organized this event with the help with a couple other EPIK teachers fromt the area. Twenty-eight excited high school girls came and participated in a pirate-themed extravaganza, complete with crafts, carnival, and Noraebang...oh yeah, and some English related stuff.

Aside from the frequent mobbing by the girls (I swear there are at least five arms hooked around me), the camp went extremely smooth and was actually quite fun. Katherine's planning was very well thought out, and every activity was as engaging as it was fun.

In about three weeks, I will have my school's camp, which may or may not be as interesting. Shortly after that, we will take a trip to Cambodia/Vietnam, and then back to Canada for a visit. Next week marks three things, our Anniversary (9 years), my birthday (not 27), and our first year anniversary of being in Korea. It's hard to believe it's been a year. Really, really hard to believe.
See you soon.

Yukata DIY

2008-11-14T19:54:00.001-08:00

You will need:1 Yukata

Wooden shoes
A piece of cloth and a bow.

Accessories. From left to right: A piece of something hard to give you the "column" shape. An elastic clip to keep the Yukata closed. (I'm sure you could just use a string and some safety pins) and a tie to help when you adjust the length.

Instructions: If you are built with an hour-glass figure, you should pad the waist in order to look good in yukata. A sports bra that "flattens" the breasts to the body works well for yukata. A yukata slip is an optional item and not a necessity by any rule. However, if you're putting on a light weight (thin material), light colored or semi-sheer yukata, it might be wise to have this extra layer of "coverage" so your underwear does not show through. (A fashion faux pas in any culture.)

How to wear a yukata (for women)

Hold the garment open and raise it to make the hemline come to about the height of your ankles. This is how length is adjusted. Make sure the center back seam of the yukata aligns with your spine.
Bring the right-hand side in, and wrap the left side over it. The yukata should gather at your waist.

*Important note that I just learned: NO Japanese would wear any yukata with the right side over the left EVER. Left flap is ALWAYS on top. This is a rule. (Japanese custom has it that only the dead are dressed with the right side over the left.) In these photos I have my right side over the left... whoops. Hey, I'm an ignorant Canadian... no longer. ;-)

Tie the yukata shut tightly with the tie just above your hip bone .

Fold the material down over the tie. Smooth the wrinkles out on the upper front and in the back at this point. Tip: Pull the right flap down and across by putting your hand through the hole found under the left armpit to adjust. (A clever built-in feature of yukata.)
Tie the yukata in place with the second tie (this is where I use the elastic band clip thing) just under your chest.

Place and secure the waist panel over the second tie so that the wide and flat part of the panel is covering the front. I bought this panel in Japan, but you could probably use a flexible piece of plasic covered in fabric and tie it on with some string. Cardboard might work too, in a pinch.

Now you're ready for the sash and bow!

I don't know how to tie the traditional sash and bow. When Yuzu's Grandmother did this for me, she had about 2 meters of fabric. I cheat and just use a prefabricated bow. It works okay, though not nearly as beautiful.

Remember to iron your sash! oops!

And, don't forget the shoes!

Peace!

Lastly, get on a plane to Tokyo. Go to the top of Roponggi Hills. Find a cute man and take a cheezy picture. It is an experience that you will never forget.

Japan video

2008-09-20T20:20:00.001-07:00

Forgive the poor quality, it looks really great on the computer, then you upload it and they transform it into shit.

And now something from out of left field...

2008-09-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

My second magazine photo op! This time all the way from Namazu Japan!

And now for something completely different...

2008-09-10T05:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is Noe Rae Bong. Yes, that is toilet paper wrapped around my waist.
Yes, it is fun!

Tokyo, Japan July 30-August 3

2008-09-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

We arrived early enough in the day in Tokyo to hunt down our hostel in Ueno. This place was amusing, you had to step over the first single bed to get to the next one, that was how small the room was. so we made a point to not spend any time there at all. We went to Ropponggi Hills to look at a few of the art galleries that were in the area. The first stop was the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Institute. There was an exhibit of European still-life paintings, an amazing style of painting that often involved metaphor and symbolic imagery of death. The second stop was the Fujifilm building, which housed a small museum with amazing stereoscopic images, both old and new, as well as several galleries. Most of the photography wasn't very remarkable, however there was a black and white exhibit that struck me as very intimate and exposing of candid Japanese culture. So I purchased a book with all the photographs in it, I'll bring bit back to Canada and show you guys, have no fear. After that we wandered back to Ueno Park to see what it would be like, as we were bringing the family in there in a couple days, and since we were so close, we decided to have a glance. It was definitely nice, and we visited another gallery in a free gallery. It was cool to see some contemporary Japanese art, but I wish we could've seen more.

Early the next day we worked our way to Asakusa to find our Ryokan and check in early enough so that I could go to the airport and pick up Mom, Dad, and Kristen, and bring them straight to the bed, as they would be coming off a 9 hour flight and over 20 hours of traveling. I took the Skyliner train to the airport to meet their arrival. They were in good shape though, a little excited to be there, yet a little overwhelmed in the process of getting back to the hotel, a process involving negotiating trains, subway stations, and crowded sidewalks with luggage.

Many of the places we would visit in the next few days we had been to at least once already, such as Shibuya, Harajuku, Ueno Park, Ropponggi Hills, with the exception of the Asakusa shrine called Senso-ji, as well as a park in central Tokyo that used to be the Tokyo palace. So here I enclose some photos from those days. Mom wrote down a lot of information about the places and took lots of pics.

These pics are from Senso-ji:

At Ropponggi Hills, we went to the top of Mori tower to see the view and look at a strange aquarium show:

In Ueno Park, we saw several temples and interesting shrines. The zoo was notable as well, though not as impressive as the Seoul Zoo in size, the selection of animals was very diverse:

And finally, the Tokyo Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, it had one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen in my life.

Soon after we hopped on a plane back to Seoul and then Taebaek. More to come...

July 26-30, Mishima, Fujisan, Hakone, Numazu

2008-09-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

As early as we could muster on saturday morning we worked our way to the Shinakansen (bullet train) station. However due to some miscommunication over which tickets we needed in order to board the train, and some rather unsuccessful arguing, we forked out around 30000yen ($300) for both of us to take the three hour train ride. But three hours and several hundred kilometres later, we arrived, still anxiously awaiting our first glimpse of the mountain we hoped to conquer the next day. However, the haze was in the air due to humidity and intense heat, so the enigmatic mountain was nowhere to be seen. Jon and Yuzu picked us up from the train station, prepared to feed and house us for the upcoming several days. Jon and Yuzu were fellow alumni from the vis.arts program at the UofR, and we had all spent many occasions back in the good ol' days having good times and chatting about art. Jon and Yuzu have been together for many years, and they were living with Yuzu's parents. We pulled up in front of a beautiful yellow house, and not even an hour later, we were being dressed up in Yukata to go to the summer festival in Numazu. We hopped on a bus and headed out to Numazu to meet up with some of Jon and Yuzu's friends. Numazu was packed with people, though not as many as the night before in Osaka, so it was a nice comfortable level. Even though we were dressed in what we felt to be as little as a bathrobe, it was still hot, but the air was filled with smells not too distant with the local fair in Canada, just with more octopus. Loud drums and a parade created the atmosphere of intense celebration. I dabbled in some octopus balls (delicious pastry/octopus/i-don't-know-what snacks) which are a delicacy usually limited to festivals. We enjoyed the fireworks for a little while, but soon headed back to Mishima to prepare for our climb to Fuji, as we were planning on leaving at 3:30am in order to be hiking by 5:30, as Fuji is a long hike, and we hoped to miss the cold and dangerous nightfall.

3:30am comes round. We rouse our selves from bed and grudgingly pack up the Jeep and head on our way to climb the mountain. Little was I to know how much I would be suffering by midday. Fuji is a mountain that is 3775m (12.366 feet), a height which takes well over fifteen minutes of ascending in an airplane to reach. We drove up to around 2400m as a starting point, and even at that height, you can look downwards on most of the clouds. It was a good day for climbing, sunny and cloudy, a beautiful temperature compared to the intense heat we'd been experience in the previous week. The first 500m went by very quickly, taking around 4 hours reach the various reststops along the way. Fuji is an active volcano, and the most recent eruption, though well over a hundred years ago, was still apparent on the sides, a desolate landscape with the odd strange looking yellow flower here and there that grew in amongst the lava rocks that was our path up. The clouds were stunning, we watched them form and smash into the side of the mountain, causing the temperature to drop 10 degrees in just a few seconds. However, around 3100m or so, I started feeling kinda funny. My pack went from 50lbs to 500, in a very short distance i was so exhausted that I was starting to feel very dizzy. I thought, I just have to sit down, I'll be fine. To no avail, instead of feeling better, I started feeling worse, MUCH worse. My head started to hurt and nausea was creeping over me like a dark shadow. At this moment I had the panicky thoughts of, Omigod, I'm easily four hours from medical help, shy of a helicopter rescue, which is not something I'd like to experience from the receiving end. It is absolutely terrifying to be sick on the side of a mountain with no idea what's wrong and what to do about it. So at 3200m, we turned back. I felt really bad, as I was the only one in the group to be struck with this strange illness. After another hour of hiking downwards, with many impromptu rest stops (volcanic rock is not comfortable to lay down on), I was feeling worse and worse. A hiker ahead of me who was on her way down was vomiting, and I was glad I hadn't progressed that far. A Canadian couple who was returning from the top saw me suffering and asked if I was okay. A short discussion concluded that I had altitude sickness, and that I should try some of their canned oxygen. I felt better right away, not cured, but better. I find it a nice comforting thought that the Good Samaritans that stopped to help us were Canadians, and I'm not surprised. Eventually we found a reststop that sold oxygen (at over $15/can) and I sat down for a therapeutic fifteen minutes, feeling no trace of the sickness that I had felt for the previous two hours. But we were already too far down to go back up, as it would have been another nearly 2-3 hours from the point where we'd turned back to reach the top. So our battle with Fuji was over, and I got my ass kicked. Next time, I guess.

Needless to say, we slept well that night after nothing short of a feast at Yuzu's parents' house. Our destination the following day would be to a beach not too distant with an excellent place to go snorkeling. Neither Kat nor I had ever tried snorkeling before, so we were excited. It was unbelievable how easy it was, and the amazing fish that you could see from less than 100 yards from the shore. Although Yuzu took a lot of photos, most of the ones I took with their waterproof camera turned out really bad, so you'll just have to imagine. We saw Moray Eels, Sea Urchins, Jellyfish, iridescent blue and yellow fish, butterfly fish, starfish, Box Pufferfish, etc. It was very exciting and inspires me to try the same thing in Korea. Mt. Fuji was visible from the beach we were at, and we could finally get some perspective of its size and height, considering that we were nearly 100kms away, it still towered in the distance.

The day was supplemented with some delicious Tempura and Sashimi at a local restaurant, a visit to an Onsen(a gorgeous public bath from natural hot springs), and a barbecue that evening with enough food to feed a village, thanks again to Yuzu and her mother. The next day was a slow trek to Hakone park, filled with temples and beautiful landscapes. One Koi pond looked like it was writhing from all these massive fish. That night would be the last, so we went and got drunk at the Okinawa restaurant, eating sea grapes and other fancy dishes. I even tried jamming on a Japanese styled string instrument that reminded me of a banjo, except it used snakeskin as the drum instead of canvas. All in all, an incredible experience and an unforgettable one, a chance to go and stay with a Japanese family and people who actually know what there is to do and see that's a little off the touristy path. After a glorious exchange of gifts, emotional goodbyes and quick posing for pictures with Geisha, we hopped on a train to head back into Tokyo, one day before my parents were to arrive.

New Waygukins and a video that sums up my life in Korea.

2008-09-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

Happy news for lonely waygukins in Taebaek. 15 new English speakers arrived in Taebaek last friday! YAY! I think I may have scared some of them a little bit, but I was so excited to see English speakers. I just had to go and say hello, what's your name, where are you from, do you have a phone number, here have mine, let's get together for some beer and noe rae bong... in the span of about a minute.

I'm so ronery, Misuhtuh Ronery...

This video Kickin' It in Geumchon pretty much sums up life in South Korea. Just switch Taebaek for Geumchon. Let's see...
phrasebook...check
pig faces and 2 for 1 squid...check
all the restaurants? no... well we just got a new Dunkin' Donuts... that's about it.
movie theatre with no subtitles... check. Been there once, saw Indiana Jones.
Bowling alley... why, we just went the other day. fun fun!
Family Mart, Bibimbap, painfully spicy food, and Kimchi. yes, yes, yes, and every freaking day. (Kimchi cures SARS don't you know?)
Cass, Hite and fruit loop balls...yes yes yes.
Noe Rae Bong with random unrelated videos... YES!

Intro:
This song goes out to all the waygooks lookin’ for the place to be

Chorus:
Kickin’ it in Geumchon, Oh, Oh
Komsomnida, Annyong Haseyo

Kickin’ It, Where? In Geumchon Where?
In Geumchon. Where? In Geumchon Where?
Kickin’ it in Geumchon, Oh, Oh

Verse 1:
South Korea’s got Jeju, South Korea’s got Seoul
Busan and Ilsan if that’s how you roll
But when you work at EV, and live in Paju
Then the town to get down is 15 minutes from you, How do I get there?
Hop on the 900 bus
I use my T-money card so there’s never no fuss
Jump off at the station, or shall I say “yuk”
Are you fluent in Korean? No I got a phrasebook
Pang Pang, now we’re off to the races
To the backstreet market checkin’ out pig faces
Octupus on sale, squid 2 for 1
Let’s hit the waterpark for fun in the sun, I got my swimcap!
Baskin Robbins and Pizza Hut
Knock Domino’s down then slam Dunkin’ Donuts
Geumchon rocks, then it rocks some more
The street meat is sweet and corndogs galore

Verse 2:
Sometimes it’s spelled with a G, I’ve seen it spelled with a K
Sometimes it’s spelled with an E, I’ve seen the E go away
But regardless of spelling, pronunciation’s the same
The town’s so explosive, Boomchon could be it’s name
The movie theater keeps it real with no subtitles
But we never go cuz there’s no subtitles
But birthday party time it’s so simple to rally
We alls grab our balls at the bowling alley
Then to the Sky Golf hittin’ nothin’ but net
The locals wanna wager but it’s illegal to bet
If your mouth is dry, or if your throat’s got a tickle
Part for the Family Mart, to lick a popsicle
Hungry for bibim bop? The choices never stop
The spice is so nice could make a tear drop
We dedicate the bridge, but not in haste
To the cabbage that we ravage with the chili paste taste

Bridge:
Kimchi, Kimchi, it is good for you and me
Kimchi, Kimchi, it is good for you and me
Kimchi, Kimchi, it is good for you and me
Kimchi, Kimchi, it is good for you and me

Pre-Verse 3:
Kickin’ it
In Boomchon
Kickin’ it
in Boomchon

Verse 3:
When I go to Geumchon, I look at all the hotties
Those ahgashis, they got the hottest bodies
The padded bras, the high heeled shoes
Hey ladies? Can I buy you some brews?
Drinkin’ Cass-uh, drinkin’ Hite-uh
Feelin’ alright-uh, drinkin’ all night-uh
La festa’s no longer the best
Ride your scooter to Guemchon and head over to Zest
The barman’s got flair, flippin’ bottles in the air
Tom Cruise in Cocktail can’t even compare
Upstairs at Posse yogurt soju’s flowin’
Plus Froot Loop balls and the roofdeck’s blowin’
Nature videos while I’m singin’ my song
Number six one three seven at the local Noraebong
Want a night on the town? Wanna spend some won?
Come kick it with us, come kick it in Gumcheon

Chorus

(Written by Christian Zonts. The EV Boyz are Christian Zonts, Mike Nance, and Brian Peterson)

Top 10 Ways to Have Fun in Taebaek, South Korea

2008-08-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

1. Poke giant spiders with a stick or in the spring catch cool lizards.

2. Sit in the plastic patio chairs in front of the Family Mart convenience store and drink beer (from which you purchased from said convenience store for $3.20 a litre or $5.30 for 2L).

3. Take pictures of funny Engrish on signs and t-shirts.

4. Laugh at the parking/driving chaos and then try to cross the street.

5. Go for a hike, wander aimlessly in the paths in the mountains and find strange shrines and graves.

6. Drink Makali and eat Chan Dubu Kimchi.... mmmm mashida!
(Makali is a fermented rice drink. A milky white substance with a bit o grit at the bottom. Chan Dubu Kimchi is boiled tofu on fried spicy fermented cabbage. It sounds terrible but it is truly delicious!)

7. Sing your heart out at a Noe Rae Bang or on the Noe Rae Bus! (Noe Rae Bong means singing room. Basically you get a private little room that you can do Karaokee in. AAAAnnd, you get tamborines! I personally enjoy doing "Know Your Enemy by RATM or BYOB by System of a Down. Good times, good times. Soon to be posted on You Tube is Rob and Kristen doing an inspiring rendition of "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson. )

8. Climb Taebaeksan in misty rain, be in awe of the ancient beauty.

9. Adopt some kittens, give them korean names.

10. Try to order food using your really bad korean, then after butchering the language just point and say "egot"(this).

Rob wanted me to add, "eating live animals", but he's a korean psycho. Also, I almost added "take a ride in a speeding taxi." but that's more terrifying than fun.

haha one more thing... help a random one armed Ajuma(married woman) put on her sleeve cover. I know... strangee!

So, when are you coming to visit?

some new posts, and a promise of more to come.

2008-08-22T00:40:00.000-07:00

if you keep an eye here, you may spot more posts in the near future, i still have to do a post on Osaka, Mishima/Fuji, and Tokyo pt.2, then i will consider us caught up to last month...then more on korea after that, if i have the gumption, but i promised myself to update this blog more often than i have, however a tragedy involving a wily kitten and a cup of coffee have rendered our home computer quite...paper-weightish (at least for now), so here are a few posts to tide you over from japan and one of kat's about cultural differences...enjoy.

Tokyo, Japan, July 19-20

2008-08-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

The long awaited (by all 5 readers) blog post about Japan is here. In the effort not to make this too terribly long, I will offer this up chronologically.

July 19-20, Tokyo

Kat and I had taken the train in from Taebaek to Seoul at around 1am the previous night, as our flight was leaving quite early in the morning. We caught a cab from the love motel in Incheon that I'm sure my parents would have cringed at to the airport, and in less than five hours we were hunting for our hostel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The first thing to strike me after the initial shock of arriving was the heat. It was +35 degrees Celsius or higher the whole two weeks with a humidity that made the air so thick it felt more like swimming than walking. The subway was not as terrifying to navigate as I had initially feared, and it would be our main mode of transportation. Taxis in Japan start at around 650yen or $6.50, and quickly climbing in value. We found our hostel without too much trouble, as it was very near the subway station and we checked in. We were staying in a dorm-style room with around 60 capsule style beds. We didn't hang around and started out and about to explore the city a little bit. Our first stop was Shinjuku, the business type district with a bunch of massive buildings (probably more floors in one building than all of Regina's "skyscrapers" combined). A short wander through the park and the heat already was overbearing, so we looked for shelter in the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, a 60-some story building with a free observation deck. The view was spectacular, offering us a good chance to view the architecture and cityscape.

We found a place to eat, a fast food place that sold different types of crepe-type sandwiches. I was fascinated by the server's voice, like mickey mouse on helium, and how it seemed to be very natural ("Arigoto, gozaimasse!"). Later on in the evening we went to Shibuya, the young fashion district of Tokyo. To say it was only overwhelming is a great understatement, there were thousands of people crossing the street at the same time, and tens of thousands in the area. We found a Tower Records with a selection of music that I had never seen before, there were special editions of albums from Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, QOTSA, and unreleased (likely bootlegged) copies with songs I didn't even know existed. In the end I think I spent more money here than in any one place the rest of the trip. We were a little braver this time around and found a Japanese style pub to get a bite and a beer. I settled for some Okinawa-style Yaki-Suba (fried noodles), and Kat got a veggie stirfry. However, we were so beat, that after only 8 hours of sightseeing, we decided to head back and get a rest. Sleeping in the hostel wasn't so bad, with earplugs and an eyemask, though people were up and making noise at all hours of the night. The next day, we got up and went to Harajuku. This area is famous for the clothes and the girls. However, it also has two of the most beautiful parks in Tokyo, Harajuku-koen, and Meiji-jingu. Both are large parks with lots of trees and places to hang out and people watch. We finally found some Harajuku girls, who are famous for the extravagant costumes and fashion they wear (see cosplay).

After a long outing there, we went to a small area south of Roppongi Hills (where we would visit yet that night) called Azabu-Juban Shopping District, an area renowned for artists and its shopping (and it is the home of Sailor Moon in the anime series). Although we never bought anything, and we didn't see Sailor Moon, we found an awesome (and air-conditioned) vegetarian restaurant. Roppongi Hills was only a short distance away, so we hopped on a train and went there for the evening. Mori Tower is the centerpiece to the district, a cool 60-some stories tall. There was lots of cool public art ("Maman" by Bourgeois) and a generally fascinating layout that kept us intrigued for a few hours. Also it was here that we experimented (the only time!) with the sushi, and it was delicious of course.

July 21-23 Kyoto

2008-08-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto the following morning. It only took 2 hours, and traveled several hundred kilometres. We arrived into the busiest train station I have ever seen, not completely wall to wall, but thousands of people walking very quickly to their destinations. Outside the station, the weather was at its hottest it would be the whole week, easily pushing +40. We had to take a bus to our Ryokan (Japanese style inn), and that proved to a little challenging, as nothing was in English, and neither the driver nor the attendant spoke any English. However, after a tense 45 minutes of being slightly unsure what the hell we were doing, we found ourselves being greeted by a very excited and happy Japanese family who were the owners and managers of the Yamizaki Ryokan. Our room had a wonderful view of the garden just outside of our sliding paper doors. The stereotype I had of Japan was embodied in this inn. Zen garden, traditional rooms, Yukata robes, you name it. We rested a little and decided not to do anything on the first day. We were hampered from sleep however by an unbelievably noisy insect that was in the trees surrounding our building. The cicada is a strange bug, living under the ground for over 7 years, and coming out for only one week to find a mate, and then dying. Its call can reach nearly 90dB. Other than that they are very benign creatures, with no bite or sting.

The next day, we prepared ourselves for a long, hot day of sightseeing by indulging in the Japanese breakfast through the ryokan, with some cigarette-like tea (i'm told it's oolong), a square of egg, baked fish, rice (of course), and miso soup. After that we hopped on the bus to Arishiyama, and the nearest temple, the Nanji-jingu, and then onward to the Tenryu-ji temple, a beautiful temple with an even more beautiful garden. Nearby there was a forest of bamboo, and it was stunning in its beauty. Words and pictures can not portray the ancient wonder of these buildings (even though neither are that old in age, just in form). The heat was a little overbearing at times, and there were multiple times I felt that I might actually melt. Our last stop in Arishiyama was monkey mountain, where Japanese monkeys run around free of cages in a protected area. We reached the top of the mountain just in time for feeding, and honestly it was a little frightening at first, as they are very quick moving and loud, and I wasn't yet sure if they were dangerous. But they were playful and friendly, and although we couldn't pet them or hold them, they were not shy, and you could feed them if you went in to your cage (which Kat did). After that we went home for a break, revelling in the air-conditioning. In the evening we wandered into the bar district called Hanamachi with lots of seedy looking places, and lots of interesting ones as well, built out of wood in a traditional style, even the streets in places were made of wood. A little foolishly, we delayed too long in the a small bar we found to catch the bus back to the Ryokan, so after nearly 40 minutes of waiting, we decided to try the subway. We luckily caught the last train to connect with the last train of another subway line and connect with the last train of the JR Line, putting us within a couple km of our Ryokan. We were lucky, otherwise we would have been stuck 19km from our accommodations. The next day we explored the touristy area of Kyoto, more so than Arishiyama, it was called Harashiyama. This was a district filled with shops, shrines, parks, gardens, and Geisha. A wonderful experience, if you ever get a chance to get to Kyoto, this should be high on the list. And no trip would be complete to Japan without running into Geisha.

Our trip to Kyoto was much too short, and I felt a little dismayed to leave, but we had things to do and people to meet in Osaka, so we went back to Kyoto station where we had stowed our bags in the morning and caught a 45 minute train to Osaka, which was so close to Kyoto, there is basically no where to tell where one ends and the other begins.

July 24-25, Osaka

2008-08-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

The train ride between Kyoto and Osaka is remarkably short, only about 25 minutes by the express train, so we quickly found our hostel, a quaint little place with no frills but a really good location. First thing in the morning we decided to wander over to the Osaka-jo, a castle that was only about two blocks away. Despite the overpowering heat, the grounds were beautiful and an interesting experience. The inside of the castle has been turned into a museum with lots of historical things and stuff inside (hard to tell when everything's in Japanese). The moat was massive though, the wall built with stones that ranged up to 16 tons, and somehow they managed to make it over 100 feet high. Unbelievable.

The heat was so intense that even at only 11 o'clock, you could fry an egg on my head. So we decided to hop on a subway to the Osaka Aquarium. We spied an IMAX theatre right next door, so we went and bought a double pack, Aquarium plus 3D IMAX Dinosaurs! The aquarium was all kinds of amazing, I saw creatures I've read about in books, or seen in pictures and on TV. There was one tank that was boasting to be the biggest in the world, four stories tall, big enough to house two whale sharks and a plethora of other creatures. The Manta-ray may be the most graceful creature I have ever seen in my life. I advise that if anyone were to visit Osaka, the aquarium should be very high on your list of things to see. After several hours in the aquarium, we headed over to the IMAX, to watch an interesting, but not that interesting 3-D movie.

Working our way back to the hostel was easy enough, so we crashed for a little while and then went out to grab a bite to eat and try to find an area called Dotombori. This was the supposed nightlife area Osaka was famous for, with a Europetown and Amerikatown in the near area. This of course being the Japanese versions of Europetown and Amerikatown. I of course, have this lovehate relationship with maps, and although most of the time I know exactly where we are and going, sometimes, they outright lie to me ;). So we went for a nice extended tour of the area. It was nice. Eventually we found Dotombori and marvelled in its neon wonder. There were pachinko (gambling) parlors everywhere, bars, strip clubs, bookstores, restaurants, you name it. At one point we stopped in to a building that had a large pool of tub of water filled with exotic fish that you could go "fishing" for. Very strange. But it was fun, and shortly thereafter we crashed for the night.

The next day we were lazy and slept in, we found a bite to eat, and then went back to the hostel to chill out and wait to catch up with Natsuko, an old art/film school friend who grew up near Osaka, who was going to show us the town. We explored a festival that was going on, it had lots of really good food tents and a carnival-like atmosphere. However, the people kept filling in and filling in, so in the end we left and found a cool restaurant that displayed art. Natsuko had a few pieces there, and there was a lot of cool stuff hanging on the walls (decent food too). After we went looking for the fireworks, however the giant buildings were really cumbersome, and in the way, so we didn't see many fireworks (except some reflections). We chilled out in a tiny white juice bar in Amerikatown for a while, where we experimented with some fancy juice drinks. It was nice having Natsuko around, as she spoke Japanese, and we weren't waving our arms around performing charades. But our time was too short, so we said our goodbyes and left Natsuko on the last train to her city. The next morning, we headed back out on the bullet train for Mishima and Mt.Fuji.

Language and Cultural Barriers Galore

2008-08-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

Let me take a step away from the wonderful land of Japan, and bring you back to the strange land of JangSung Girls High School

I have been having some problems with language barriers and cultural differences at my school. Being foreign, female, young, and not a full-time teacher places me pretty much at the bottom of the schools heirarchy re: little to no respect. The only respect I do get is because I am a blonde haired, blue eyed, s-lined woman that can speak English. Basically the kind of respect I don't want, and the kind of "respect" that women in the west have been fighting against for a hundred years now.

I keep telling myself this is a lesson in patience. A lesson in keeping ones cool in a difficult situation. I think that cultural misunderstandings are very important to talk about, but that doesn't mean that I don't get angry when they happen.
Our societies are so different it's hard to nogotiate through the tough patches. In Canada I would have handled these situations by speaking directly with the person. Is that the correct way to do things here? Or should I go through someone else who is higher up on the ladder? Should I show my emotions or pretend that I'm not ready to strangle you? What makes one way better than another? I know that this is a pretty simple thought, but really there is nothing like being taken out of everything you think is truth and being placed in another version of the truth.

Cultural missunderstandings in a work place are very difficult, as you must continue to work with the same people and never actually figure out what went wrong (and at what point?). Language barriers are even worse because you never know if things have gotten straightened out. Maybe? or Surely? Often ESL speakers here use "maybe" as a polite way of saying you should do something. As in, "Maybe there will be a dinner meeting tonight, and maybe you should come". When what they really mean is, "There is a dinner meeting tonight and you are expected to be there". Maybe? Or surely? Let me tell you, sometimes I get pretty surly and there's no maybe about that!

But nevermind that, it's water under the bridge, now onto a positive note of school. Let me share with you the glowing diamonds in the rough, that is my students. The students, for the most part, are quite eager to listen and try to speak english with me. I honestly don't know what the rest of the day is like for them, but I have many students saying how they look forward to my class. I look forward to seeing them too and the creative work that they come up with.

Last semester we did a unit on travelling and vacation. Here are some of the more amusing postcards that were made:

and here is an example of the levels of English that the students have. From very low:

to pretty much fluent:

Su Min is way above everybody else.

So, there are good days and there are bad days, but over all it has been and continues to be a great experience. I am continuously breaking the walls of the Canadian culture comfort box that I had been living in and being pushed to the limits of what I think is correct and morally just. It's painful, but no pain no gain, right?

An open mind is an open heart.
Gombai,
Kat

2008-07-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, oops.

Sorry for not posting for 2 months. It's been a strange couple of months full of ups and downs. I think we are over our honeymoon stage with Korea and now trying to get a handle on the cultural differences in the workplace. Combined with a little bit of sickness, depression has also been an issue. I think that if someone had handed me a ticket home I would have taken it. But not to worry, not to worry! Now it is vacation time. As many of you may or may not know Rob and I are headed off to Japan for 16 days! SWEEET! Check out our itinerary below.

I promise that when we get back we will start blogging once again! We will reveal all: the good, the bad and the Korean. When we get back it will be a new hopefully happier semester, many mistakes/misunderstandings will not be repeated. Cheers!

Konichiwa, bitches Japan, July/August 2008

Saturday July 19
-fly from Seoul to Narita, JP
-take the train from Narita into Tokyo
-find a moderately priced hotel/motel/hole in the wall in the Shinjuku-gu(the young hip fashion district of Tokyo)
-chill out and take in the big city lights

Sunday July 20
-take a subway (egod, i'm already terrified) to Harajuku to see the Harajuku girls.
-spend the afternoon exploring the area
-walking tour of Shinjuku-gu

Monday July 21
-hop on a train to Kyoto
-find a cheap hotel (or park bench, or internet cafe)
-go geisha hunting
-explore temples and parks

Tuesday July 22
-marvel in the wonder of Kyoto and all its mystery and tradition
-try not to die from excessive financial expenditure

Wednesday July 23
-open day, get drunk in public, visit with strangers, make an ass of ourselves.
-hop on a train to nearby Osaka for a reunion with fellow University classmate, Natsuko Yoshino

Thursday July 24
-exploration of Osaka and all its glory and beauty...and bars
-look for a cheap hotel (or pc room)

Friday July 25
-look around in wonder, pinch ourselves and remind ourselves that we are really in Japan.
-enjoy our last night in Osaka

Saturday July 26
-hop on a train to Mt. Fuji, meeting other Uni classmate Jon Braden.
-begin at roughly 7pm our ascent to the top of Fuji

Sunday July 27
-at daybreak, arrive at the top of the 3000m volcano for a view that i hope will never forget (providing it's not cloudy, wouldn't that just suck)
-head down, spend the next huge amount of time recovering.

Monday July 28
-visit with Jon in a small village just outside of Tokyo.

Tuesday July 29
-hop on a train to Hiroshima
-arrive, walk to the Peace Park (the true ground zero)
-take in one of the most atrocious acts of the 20th century

Wednesday July 30
-hop on a train back to Tokyo, try not to be consistently and horribly depressed
-check into the swanky and bank-breaking hotel in Atasuku-gu
-explore the area

Thursday July 31
-Pick up the Hillstead family from the airport in Narita
-bring them back to the hotel in Atasuku-gu, and doubtless show them their room so they can crash after their 14 hours of flying.

Friday August 1
-explore Ginza, and area, the downtown core of Tokyo. check out some temples, maybe the fish market, and other things in the area.

Saturday August 2
-last full day in Japan, explore some things i cannot miss

Sunday August 3
-Check out, travel to Narita, wait for our flight
-Fly back to Seoul
-Take a train back to Taebaek
-resume our normal routine in slavery and submission of our jobs :(

this itinerary is subject to complete and abrupt change.

Seoul: Children's Day Long Weekend May 3-5

2008-05-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

Day One: DMZ tour, Insadong, and the World DJ Festival

After hectic, last minute preparations, we departed to Seoul on the evening of Friday, May 2. It was a comfortable four hour train ride to Seoul from Taebaek, and another healthy hour or more on the train to Tongducheon, the small city where the US army base is. We were traveling just as the subways were closing down, so in the end, after a short cab drive and multiple transfers, we arrived at our 30,000won love motel at about 1:30am. We quickly grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack, getting a healthy 4 hours of sleep before getting up to make our way to the army base. It was a beautiful day, showing the signs that it would be hot before too late.

DMZ

After a two hour bus-ride to the Joint Security Area, we were given a briefing by the USO about the history of the DMZ and the Joint Security Area itself. This is a unique place where both North and South Korea share the duties of patrolling, and where any peace talks or conferences take place. Here we had to sign a waiver telling us not to talk to, wave at, make any gestures at, or even smile at any North Korean officers. Up to this point, I thought we would only be seeing North Korea from a distance, not 30m. Our first stop on the tour was the Freedom House, a building that the South built to hold reunification talks and peace talks, however, it has remained empty since they built it ten years earlier.

We were guided to the outside of the building where we could see a row of small buildings; some were painted blue, some were painted gray.
The blue buildings are South Korean, the gray ones North Korean. In the distance we could see a three-story building manned by a guard on the staircase, looking at us through binoculars. This was our first view of a North Korean. The area itself is split by a Demarcation Line, the true border. Let me explain a bit about the border, the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) is actually a 4km wide border that stretches the entire length of the peninsula. In this area, there can be no military activity. The actual border is a line called the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), which nobody can cross, except in the Joint Security Area, and even there, it is only allowed inside the buildings. In the past, when people have crossed the line, firefights broke out, creating a diplomatic crisis, and killing many people. So it is carefully watched. We were allowed inside one of the blue buildings to see where the conferences took place, and were actually allowed to step over the MDL, symbolized as a line of microphones, and inhabit very briefly, a space in North Korean territory.

After we finished viewing the tense borderline, we continued on the tour and ended up at a guardpost that overlooked North Korea. From there, one could see many kilometres into the North, including a small village known as Kijŏng-dong or “propaganda village”.
This is just inside North Korea, given the name Propaganda Village because for many years, there was propaganda blaring on loudspeakers all day every day, telling the Koreans from the South to abandon their posts and defect to the North, which if they were to actually do, they would be killed. Though there were many farmers and some people doing construction work, we were told the village is mostly uninhabited, and that the construction was just to keep the buildings from falling apart. There was another village on the inside of the South Korea portion of the DMZ, but we were banned from taking photographs, as they could reveal tactical intelligence of what lies on the border inside the South Korean side.

The last stop on the tour was the "Third Tunnel", one of four tunnels dug by the North Koreans as part of an invasion plot. When the South Koreans uncovered the tunnels in the 1970s, the North Koreans denied all knowledge, and painted the tunnels black, claiming they were abandoned coal mines, even though the walls were solid granite, with no coal in the area. There was a very beautiful garden here, only a few yards from the DMZ.

Truly exhausted, we headed back into Downtown Seoul, looking for a love motel to stay in for the night. A love motel is an inexpensive motel that is a little bit seedy but clean and simple. Did I mention inexpensive? This time we decided to stay in the market/temple district Insadong. By coincidence, we stumbled across a Lotus Lantern Festival going on. The temples were all alight with lanterns, concerts were all over the place, and giant lotus lanterns were all over the place.

After chilling out for a few hours taking in the scenery, we gave my cousin Ryan Hillstead and his wife Lisa Styles a call to hang out. By then it was after 10pm, and we were already exhausted, however, after a short phone call, we were convinced a trip to the World DJ Festival was worth the tiredness. And it was, it was great fun. Our first chance at a live music festival since our arrival in Korea, and we weren't disappointed. We ran into many of our EPIK friends while there, and dressed up in fancy costumes at no cost. The weather was beautiful, the atmosphere wonderful, and the music awesome, so all in all it was a great experience.

After a good 3 hours of chilling out at the festival, we decided to head back to our hotel, and after feigning several outrageous cab prices, we found a cab that would take us back at a reasonable price. It would not be the last time we would have cab issues on this trip.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Erection Day!

2008-04-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's what I heard all Tuesday, "Kaserine Sansangnim (Katherine teacher) do you know Wednesday is erection day? No school!!" Ah... yes I know, and I think you need to practice your L's a bit more. heh heh heh.

So on erection day, I went on a picnic with Rob and some teachers (and their wives and children) from my school.

walking...some trees... it was a really cold day, at least 5 degrees celcius. brrrrrr!
getting close to the source of the Han river...

My co-teacher, Cho Sansangnim, Rob and I at the source of the Han river... Strangely, we didn't actually take a picture of the source... But apparently the legend goes that a dragon was trying to reach the sky, so he swam up this river. For some reason he got stuck in a small pond and could go no further. Some Korean people trapped the dragon in the pond, by trapping him in a crevice or something, where he now still waits to be released.

My friend, Jibi Sansangnim, his wife and their son. Jibi also needs to practice his not just his r's and l's but his v's as well. He pronounces Robert as Lover... or Lubber...
Here he is saying, "Lover, have some grapes." Rob was confused, was Jibi coming on to him?
Delicious food. Cute kids. Good times. The End.

just an addition

2008-04-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

it was very beautiful at the summit of taebaeksan, this is my second full ascent, the first time the weather was nice. Spring is here, even though there is some snow on the ground at the top, but it was still quite warm.

here is one of the 1000 year old yew trees i mention on the video, these trees are very ancient and majestic and only seem to grow at the summit of the mountain, not quite a pine tree, not quite deciduous, but something in between.

This photo was taken by a randomly passing Ajjumah, with our friend Pearly. Pearly also lives and teaches in Taebaek, and she too is a Canadian from Vancouver. Canada has practically invaded Taebaek by way of English teachers, we hold at least half of the foreigner population here (which is like 5 of us)...

On Saturday we go to Gangneung to see the Cherry Blossom Festival, I am very excited to see the beautiful flowers. The Cherry Blossom trees line many of the streets and in their prime are very very VERY beautiful, expect many photos. Until next time. 안뇽히 가세요!

Mashisoyo! (It is delicious!)

2008-04-04T03:52:00.000-07:00

I've had many people ask me, "What the H E double hockey sticks do you eat in Korea?"
Well, let me show you! Below are pictures of my current favourite meal "Paek Bun". That roughly translates into rice dinner. It's a good compromise for Rob and myself, as I get delicious Dwen Jang Jiggae (spicy tofu soup) and Rob gets whatever the meat of the day is. The first time we went together, he got chicken. The second time, he got squid. Rob says that squid is quite tasty, but personally I feel a bit queasy when I see him eating the suction cups and the little pointed head. Poor Squidward. (side note: I accidentally got a bite of squid in my Sin Du Boo (soft Tofu) soup yesterday, it feels like eating... maybe a tire? ugh...)

Here I am spooning out some delicious soup into my bowl of rice. Often though, when you go out to eat with Koreans they will just share the bowl of soup and eat directly out of it. They like to share; it's a friendship thing. They share spoons and soju glasses too. Also, you may notice the plethora of side dishes. These are always different.
Here we have yummy squares of kim (dried seaweed), spicy gimchi (fermented spicy cabbage), fish flesh, bean sprouts, and the dish of meat (spicy chicken?).

My favourite soup! Dwen Jang Jiggae mmmmm...Mashida! (Yummy!)

And here are some more random side dishes, you never know what you'll get! Here we have little fishies, bean sprouts, hot peppers, radish gimchi, and molassessy peanuts.

Ah! Our other staple food Kim Bap! Kim = seaweed and Bap = rice. You can get many different kinds of Kim Bap, I prefer mine sans ham and fish flesh. Up in the corner is another type of gimchi. This kind of gimchi is not spicy, but tastes more like saurkraut... only vaguely. It's some sort of pickled radish anyway.

Mashisoyo? Mashisoyo!
(another side note: In Hangung-mal you often answer the question with the question. It is delicious? It is delicious!)

Our Backyard...

2008-03-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm actually not exhausted from teaching, so I am blessing you with a second post today! Rob found a wonderful hiking path just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our apartment!

The path meanders through a pine tree forest. It smells so good. The pine trees are completely different from Canadian pines though. I will have to get a proper picture of a Korean pine tree. Next time I'll take some close ups for all ya nature lovers out there.

Here I am pointing at our apartment after hiking for awhile. We really do live in the mountains. Not near, not a 15 minute drive away, but in the mountains.

"Um, Rob, which way do you think we should go?"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... One road takes you on a shorter hike and back to Taebaek. The other one we still don't know how far it goes. We hiked along it for awhile, but didn't make it to the end. Next weekend perhaps...

Ah, a random pile of rocks. These are everywhere in Korea, and although I do not know what they mean, I am sure they have some significance... Or, maybe a pile of rocks is just a pile of rocks....
and to end the hike on a happy note we walk past a Korean graveyard. Sweet!

Oh the things you'll see... Part One

2008-03-26T03:44:00.000-07:00

Indeed. I've seen a lot of amazing things and a lot of strange things...
Unfortunately, I usually don't have my camera with me at the time, but here are some lovely things that I have happened to capture...

I know Rob posted it before, but it's so good I must post it once again.
The wonderful coffee/canned drink/telephone combo. Yes, it is convenient! Yes, it is a good idea! Why do I find it hilarious? I don't really know. But I pass it every day and I giggle.

"What, is this not a perfectly reasonable place to park?"
Sure, the sidewalk's as good a place as any. Why not? But wait, this was moments before we saw another car driving half on the sidewalk and half on the road. I was not quick enough to get a picture though...sigh.

I'm now getting used to the car or truck driving on the sidewalk phenomenon and casually step aside, no big deal.

One last thing. I found some wonderful socks in the grocery store... look carefully.
Yes, that is a man peaking over the stall watching a woman urinate... oh yeh!

... more to come in the future!

The East Sea

2008-03-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, this was heaven. Drinking wine and looking through the window at the sea.

Korean Wedding Crashers

2008-03-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

My first performance in Korea. With no notice and no practice, I was swept away this weekend to Gangneung, a city by the sea, to play guitar at a Korean wedding. I didn't know the bride or the groom, but a fellow teacher asked me if I would play guitar so that she could sing them a song, so I went along. We arrived at the wedding just in time for the ceremony.

"What time do we play?" I asked.
"Oh, sometime later, probably at the dance." Brianne says.
"Good, we should practice the song once together before playing."
"Don't worry, we'll have lots of time."

So we settle in at the back of the crowd on an oceanfront hotel terrace which in itself was absolutely breathtaking. The groom rushes up and asks Brianne what the name of the song she was going to sing was. This in itself should have been warning bells, but I have become so accustomed to spontaneity in every fashion in this country, that I wasn't even surprised when I heard from the stage: "Blah blah blah blah Canada blah blah blah Brianne blah blah blah I'm Yours!"

So no practice, our performance would not be later on that day, it would be right that second. No worries though, we took the stage and played well, impressing a small crowd who wasn't really listening or watching anyway. But I can rest assured knowing that I had participated in creating wonderful memories for myself and the happy couple, whom I had never met, nor would again...

For entertainment's sake, here's a photo of Katherine, at the coffee/telephone machine:

Seoraksan, Teaching

2008-03-13T03:12:00.000-07:00

Seoraksan

Forgive me for the lack of posting, once school started, we've both been sort of swept into that mode, and we haven't done much more traveling, though I suppose that's not much of an excuse, as lots of interesting things have happened. We did get an opportunity just before school started again to travel to the Seorak Mountains by Sokcho, the northeast corner of Gangwon-do. This was our second trip there, the last time being the first week in Korea. The snow gave everything a different atmosphere, and although there was lots of snow, it wasn't that cold. I love hearing people complain about how cold it gets in Gangwon, then I show them the weather page for Saskatchewan, falling past -40. Truly there is nothing to complain about.

Anyhow, we were braver this time and ventured further into the park, unlike the last time we were there, we weren't being carted around like schoolchildren, so we decided to see how far up we could get. Kat has discovered that certain heights have an effect of rendering her knees into rubber, so she stayed back after a certain point, and i continued on to a cave known as Geumganggul, about 250 feet up a stone staircase and metal staircase (what brave soul installed that I wonder?). I am fine with heights, becoming accustomed to them through both film work and construction, yet when I was climbing up, and seeing through the metal grates at the 100 foot drop below me, I felt a little nervous.

But, when two ajummahs (elder ladies) passed by me singing to themselves, I reminded myself that it couldn't be that bad. At the top was a shrine inside a small cave. Many paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, I am guessing that it was a pilgrimage to many Buddhists, and I have been told there is a Buddhist hermitage a half day's hike along the same path that led us to the cave.

Of course, the swastikas don't have the same meaning in Buddhism, if I am not mistaken they are symbolic of peace and enlightenment, one further irony that the nazis' would corrupt a symbol of this religion of love and peace.

Teaching

The new semester has started now, and finally, both Katherine and I are finally doing what we came here to do, finally starting to feel like we're earning the money (We already got a raise! This isn't a job, it's a money machine!). But the kids are great, fascinated and excited about our presence, I feel like I just gained 500 new friends. Certain things about the job are great: the hours, the fact we only teach 2-5 classes a day, and the almost weekly business meeting. Let me offer an explanation of this. Work is almost life encompassing as a teacher. They go to school as much as the students, 8am-10pm, monday to saturday (the students do this as well, which may be a little shocking). So it is also your only real social contact next to your family, though many of the teachers are from out of town, transferred because the education board forced them to, so many don't even have family. So nearly every week (sometimes multiple times a week), all the teachers go for "business meetings" which involve copious amounts of food and soju. Soju is like the Korean Vodka/Whiskey, very high percentage of alcohol (20%), and a smooth taste. Because it is actually considered impolite to refuse a drink, often the younger attendees are forced into drinking excessive amounts of liquor (I have found there is a trick though, if you've had your limit, you just dump your glass in another glass under the table, and then you can pass up the drinks that can turn the next morning into a hellish hangover). The food is delicious though, it reminds me of fonduing in the sense you cook your own food.

Oh yeah, teaching was the topic, I like the routine I'm falling into, I feel like I can actually live my life with all of the time that a 9-5 job allows. The days go fast because of the amount of teaching, and I can go home and relax, watch some Star Trek or work on a script, study some Korean language, or go for a walk. I see how some people come here and don't want to come back.

Three months have already passed, and it seems like it's only been a blink. With a trip to Japan in late July to look forward to, it seems to me that the year will pass by quickly, and we'll see what the wind offers at the end of our term.

For now, I wish you Annyonghee Kaseyo (Go in Peace!)
Postcards are on the way.
Robert Teacher

Beijing pt. 2

2008-02-15T03:41:00.001-08:00

Let me say one thing about the food in China, mostly delicious, but they'll serve anything that moves. I tried a few different meats I hadn't tried before, Pigeon (as pictured above), Ostrich, Scorpion(is that a meat?), and starfish.

That night, after the Temple of Heaven we went and checked out a wicked acrobatics act. A group of 30 or so acrobats (larger than the crowd I think), did a nearly two hour show rivaling some of olympic level gymnastics (especially for the age group, i think the ages were about 10-18).

After our trip to the Temple of Heaven, we stopped by the nearby "Silk Market". A huge five story structure stuffed with hundreds of stalls selling everything from expensive jewelry, to counterfeit brand name clothes, to silk (and polyester that they claim is silk). It was an enjoyable experience, though I think I spent too much money there. There's something exhilarating about buying in Chinese shops. The asking price is NEVER the buying price. If you go by what they ask, they are ripping you off.
"Oh for you, special New Year's price of 400 Yuan!"
That is nonsense, so you must pretend they are insulting your intelligence by asking so much. "Do you think I'm an idiot? 40 Yuan!"
They look at you all upset and personally hurt by this offer, "Oh this is your 'just joking' price, how about 300 Yuan?"
At this point you must play the hard edge and walk away. As you walk away, they yell out lower and lower prices, "200...150..100...okay 50, 50 Yuan!" And then you get the actual price.

There is something quite surreal about being in these dimly lit shops bartering over some silk pajamas or a jade pendant. This is what I imagined China to be like in a way, this is almost the cliche of the country, and while interesting and cheap, Kat and I moved on and took a trip to the Lama Temple, a Buddhist temple celebrating the Spring Festival.

That night we went out for Peking Duck, a delicious dish that I had only heard of prior to going to China, but this was the dish that was Beijing was famous for, and it was delicious. They serve you a whole duck, and the chef comes out and carves it for you. You take the meat and sauce and vegetables, and wrap them in a little pancake thing, and voila, a delicious dish. We decided we'd have desert in the little night market just off of Wangfujing Dajie. The menu: seahorses, scorpions, starfish, lizards, and any other thing that could gross you out stuck on a stuck and deep deep fried.

The next day was probably my favourite of the whole trip, we went to the "Mutianyua" section of the great wall. Our tour guide picked us up from the hotel, we were fortunate enough to have a private tour, just the four of us, and our guide and driver. Nana, our guide was an interesting character, constantly referring to us as "the big nose", referring to the entirety of western civilization. She told us many stories, some true, some the consensus of folklore, urban myth, and stereotype. At one point I asked her a question about the government, and she declined to answer it, on the grounds that we could be spies. I thought that told lots of the influence of the dictatorship. However, when we got to the wall, we were on our own, and it would be the highlight of the trip.

A quick stop by a Jade "factory", and then we were off to another stop on our tour, the "Ming tombs", or a portion of them. There is a long walkway of maybe a half kilometre that is lined with giant marble statues of creatures, real and make-believe that are stunning in their size and beauty.

The last thing we did that day was to stop at a teahouse where we sampled five or six different types of Chinese teas. Some were delicious, others were not. However, the funniest thing that I have perhaps seen was the "Peepee boy". This is a little statue that when your water is at the right temperature, when you pour the water on it, it pees. Well, the first test went right in Kat's face.

We crashed pretty hard that night, Kat was asleep by 9, and I stayed up a little later writing some postcards.

The next day would prove to be the last of exploration, we went to the Dongyue Temple first thing in the morning, this is a Taoist temple as opposed to the Lama Temple which was Buddhist. This temple was the most active out of all we had been to with many different dancing acts and performances in addition to many booths and such with great souvenirs and wares that are meant for the natives, so everything was dramatically cheaper. After a few hours of the temple, we moved on to the Drum Tower, which was a beautiful view, but lots of steps, and expensive for what was really only a few minutes to see. The area around it however, was wonderful and unique. It was surrounded by the "Hutong". This is a fancy word for an elaborate set of alleyways and courtyards where many people live and have businesses. In stark contrast to the skyscraping apartment buildings everywhere else in Asia, these Hutongs are a dying breed, and are quickly being torn down by the government to replace them with, you guessed it, skyscraping apartment buildings. I find it interesting, in China, you don't own your property. In a way you do, but in the end the State owns all property, and you can really only lease it from the state. So to tear down the Hutong is quite easy, as the gov't can just "relocate" the residents at will. Lisa and Ryan took a rickshaw (sp?) tour through the Hutong, and Kat and I took a leisurely stroll. A very interesting environment.

Lisa and Ryan flew back that afternoon, so Kat and I stuck close to the hotel, taking in the mall and shopping at the Beijing 2008 Olympic store for souvenirs. I think it would be wonderful to see the Olympic Games, however, if one wished to see anything else besides the games, they wouldn't be able to, as the place would be so crowded. A city of 12 million that will be so busy, traffic will be a nightmare, and prices for everything sky high.

The next morning we flew back to Seoul, and have been kicking back and taking it easy for a few days. We still hope to get out and do some more sightseeing around where we live, but the days are getting fewer and I hope we still get some stuff done.

Peace
Rob

Beijing pt.1

2008-02-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I know this isn't exactly an adventure in Korea, however, this is our travel blog, so it still counts. Katherine and I went on a 5 day vacation to Beijing with my cousin Ryan Hillstead and his wife Lisa Styles. From Feb. 6-11 we stayed at a hotel in the central district of Dongcheng very near the famous Wangfujing shopping street. This trip coincided with the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, an event of proportion that we would liken to combining Christmas and New Year into a week long festival.

The airport at Seoul was extremely busy, lineups were hundreds of people long, and it took nearly 2 hours to get through check-in and security. It was a much simpler experience then the last airport at L.A., except for Kat trying to sneak a utility knife onto the plane in her "art" supplies. But they confiscated it, and we were again on our way. The flight was short, about an hour and forty five minutes, and we arrived in the Beijing International Airport to a simple, and less technological. I expected massive amounts of communist propaganda posted all over the place, but if it was there, it was hidden by the cell-phone advertisements. We spotted a cab and managed to communicate a rough bearing for our hotel, which we found easy enough.

The hotel was quite nice, we were placed on the 12th floor which had a nice view of the city. Though it was only around 1pm, we could already hear fireworks and firecrackers going off in the background. We did a little exploring of the area close to the hotel, the Wangfujing Dijae, a shopping/tourist strip with malls and shops littering the area. Kat and I ducked into a side alleyway and found some more shops. After some bartering with a merchant over a painted mask, we headed back to the hotel to rest in preparation for heading out for the New Year's Eve celebration. We watched the fireworks from the hotel room for a while before heading out to "Bar Street" or Sanlitun Lu, where we thought we might hit up some cool places. We found one place with a "band" which consisted of four people who played mostly to prerecorded pop songs, but the highlight of the performance was "Love Me Tender":

We weren't subject to it for long, we decided to duck out close to 12am, poised and ready for a fireworks display. We asked the concierge at the desk where we could see a good fireworks display, and he sorta laughed, and told us that we just had to go outside. How naive we must have sounded.

The next day we ventured to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. A huge, complex with thousands upon thousands of people stuffing in to see the ancient, extravagant buildings. Art and function are considered into everything, with treasures and wonders everywhere. The giant photograph of Chairman Mao Zedong is quite ominous on the Gate of Heavenly Peace, and there are police everywhere. I found it a bit shocking to see that the majority of police officers were between the ages of 18-30, many looking very young. Though there were foreigners in the forbidden city, there were not many, and we were asked a few times to get pictures with a few of the locals.
A beautiful area, one could spend the whole day going in and out of galleries and museums all over, but we managed to see quite a lot in just a few hours. The next stop along the way was the Temple of Heaven. Another location that was less than ten minutes cab-ride from the Forbidden City. We were fortunate to show up just as the sun was going down, so the light was beautiful, and the crowds were dissipated in comparison to the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven was massive in size, with large parks flanking both sides of the main strip, and several large structures that were far and above the most beautiful we would come across the whole trip.

more to come...

Taebaek Snow Festival

2008-01-29T17:37:00.000-08:00

Taebaek Snow Festival Concert

2008-01-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

Oh man, this concert was something I can honestly say I've never seen before, and hopefully never will again. I don't know what I expected, but I was not prepared for the onslaught of cheesy Korean pop music that we endured. Oh well, here are some of the more interesting moments of the night.

Korean drummers, not very good, but entertaining.

The first afro I've seen in Korea. Also, the girls that are clapping their hands are some of my students!

Awww, so cute, Korean soldiers dancing in front of the stage. Notice the heart shape the one soldier makes with his arms. This is a popular gesture here.

And the best part of the night was this crazy electric violin. Amazing!

ANNNND, apparently Rob and I really stand out in a crowd of 1000 people. Of course, the whole event was in Korean, so we can't understand anything that is being said. Suddenly, Mr. Cho (my co-teacher) starts laughing, and says "they are talking about you" and we hear the host say "Where are you from?". Ah, what? So, I yell out "Canada!". If that wasn't strange enough, later on in the evening she mentions to one of the musicians something on stage. All we hear is "Canada" and "hi". So if Taebaek didn't know about us before, they do now. Yeah, we're celebrities.

Random Findings

2008-01-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

I was very bored today, so I forced Rob into taking a walk with me.
The best way to learn a city is to walk it. You always see things that you would never have seen if you rode in a bus or car. We were told that there were many hiking paths that went up into the mountains, we just had to find them. We walked along a main street for awhile trying to find a bridge to cross the river. As we were walking we saw four beautiful birds.

I don't know if they were cranes or herons, I'm leaning more towards heron because it flew with its neck curved, but I don't know for sure. They were a dusty blue colour, and darker blue under their wings. They were standing in the river, but when we walked by they became airborne gliding around in formation for a while before resting in the trees on the far side. After that we found a trail that didn't really look public, but we decided to walk it anyway. It was a nice footpath beside a frozen river. After a bit though we saw in the distance a monk doing monk things, so we decided to turn around quietly and leave him to his monkish activities. The second path we found seemed more promising as it had a sign, with a map. This was a really nice path that followed a frozen stream up the mountain. In the summer i am sure it will be just beautiful, when the leaves come out, the ferns wake up and the flowers bloom. Along the way we found an underground spring with absolutely delicious water, and a outdoor gym. We didn't follow the path to the end, as the sun was setting. Maybe tomorrow...

new years at the summit of mt. taebaeksan

2008-01-01T03:11:00.000-08:00

Kat and I decided to take it easy this New Year's Eve, and went out for a tame supper with friends and fellow local foreigners Mike and Susie Rowe. Delcious Bakgalbi (chicken and cabbage in a red pepper paste fried up in a communal grill in front of you) was the main course, followed by some ice cream and coffee at the local coffee shop. It was at this coffee shop that I met a group of foreigners traveling from Daegu to spend New Years at the mountain summit. This is a tradition that many Koreans have been doing for generations and generations, the local superstition being that if you make a wish upon the first sunrise of the year at the top of the mountain (or at the shores of the East Sea), it will come true. So we invited them over to have some celebratory New Years drinks at our apartment, and then we would head off to the mountain. After about 2 hours of sleep (more like 2 hours of sobering up), Grahaem (forgive my spelling), Liz, Ann, and myself embarked out to climb the mountain. Katherine decided to sit this one out (or should i say sleep this one out).

We arrived at the base of the mountain just a little before 4am, as it would take a few hours to get to the top. The crowd was quite large, it's difficult to really estimate well how many people did the trek, but it was in the thousands. All of us filed up the mountain slowly, the cold increasing the further up we went, same with the level of snow. I spent most of time listening to my iPod and taking in what was going around me, though i never brought a flashlight, there was enough ambient light from the moon and others' flashlights that i had no difficulty seeing my footing. I won't forget the sight of people and flashlights lining the narrow rock stairs for as far as one could see. As we approached the summit, the trees all around became white ghosts from the wind and ice crystals, bent and random. I saw a few yew trees lining the path, ancient trees with life spans of a thousand years or more. Ancient ghosts lining an ancient rock path built by some forgotten culture, leading to two stone shrines at the summit.

This is Chonjedeon, there were buddhist ceremonies taking place at dawn here, and it was our destination. When we arrived at the top, however, the biting wind and lack of shelter created a very miserably cold morning, and unfortunately, had already numbed everybody's extremities, and to wait another hour to hour and a half for the sun to rise could be disastrous. However, luck, or fate was in our favour, and the local mountain climbing shop owner whom I had talked to the previous day about the journey was there with a tent, and invited us in to warm up. Keep in mind, this tent is a two man tent (being generous), and we managed to fit six people in it. But that worked, and we warmed up with a propane burner, and three bottles of soju.

The sun came up, and shone for only moments, glowing the mountain range in the distance, and taking my breath away, realizing that we were above it all. No pictures do any justice of the summit, but the mountains stretched for hundreds of kms, and you could see even the most distant, faintly against the horizon. However, it would be shortlived, and the sun disappeared behind the clouds until much later.

So we headed down the mountain again, with our new friend Sung Moon, the mountain climbing shop owner/mountain climbing club president. We stopped at a Buddhist temple and monastery along the way, and then hit up some lunch. By the time I finally got home, it was 2pm, the travellers had continued on their way back to Daegu, I had a new Korean friend, and many new memories, which I reflected on as I slept for seven hours without rolling over.

Video from Taebaeksen

2007-12-30T17:37:00.000-08:00

Gah! It was bloody cold!

Climbing Taebaeksen

2007-12-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

We tried to get to the top, but it was just way too cold. We also need to invest in some ice cleats, cuz it was dangerously slippery.

"Take me Home Country Loads"

2007-12-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

Hmmm This has been slightly confusing as we are posting pictures on Face book and emailing pictures as well, so if you see the same thing over and over then just enjoy them again. Its been super busy these past few weeks and I've lost track of everything that we've done. It's all become a blur. I guess maybe a good place to start would be talking about our new city and home. We are very happy to be in Taebaek city. It is a smaller city, but really you can get everything you need here. Except for cheese, but i don't think i can get that anywhere. Oh wait, I found a place I can buy cheese sticks. yum! We also finally found a place that sells real coffee. Most people here drink instant, super sweet coffee flavoured drink. It tastes OK, much like a cappuccino, but I must admit I am a fan of black coffee. It was heaven when I drank that first cup. There are lots of things that look familiar, like chips and pizza, but in actuality they are not at all familiar. Mmmmm, shrimp pizza with vegetables I have never seen before in my life. There's a lot to get used to here, and a lot to let go of. If you go to a different country expecting it to be the same then you are sorely deluded, and you will probably be very depressed. The biggest thing I'm having trouble with is the food, but that's just because I don't know what the food is and if it has meat in it or not. I'm starting to really enjoy Kim-bap. Yesterday I learned how to ask for it with no ham. F.Y.I ham is not considered meat... i don't quite get it. Of course there are tons of hilarious things. Yesterday Rob and I went shopping. In one of the dressing rooms, there's a poster with an image of a Korean man and woman in country garb on a horse, written underneath it "Take me home country loads". Then at the ATM there is the message "Thank you for bang king". And don't forget the Crunky chocolate bars!

Our apartment is about a ten minute walk from downtown, so that makes life a lot easier. I really enjoy the traditional market and shopping downtown. I hope to avoid the E-Mateu (or E-mart) as much as possible. It is much like a walmart, in that it sells everything for really really cheap, and also like walmart it puts the smaller shops out of business. We also have a grocery store right behind our apartment. I am absolutely falling in love with the character of the place. Although we try new things everyday, we have found little places that we keep going back to. We have found places with atmospheres that suit us, like the little coffee shop, or the little orange restaurant across from Hwanji pond. All in all life is starting to become comfortable. The only real stress left in my life is the actual teaching part, but i am told that it will become easier as time passes.

some videos to tide you over til a real post :)

2007-12-29T07:53:00.001-08:00

enjoy!

samcheok beach

2007-12-18T03:57:00.000-08:00

a short trip to Donghae to get our official cards telling everyone we're aliens. stopped by the beach. quite beautiful, to say the very least.

This is the Beginning...

2007-12-16T00:23:00.000-08:00

Flying over British Columbia

Rob and his flowers, and the giant TV in our hotel.

YUM! Kim-chi!
So here I am in South Korea. Sitting in a lovely hotel with a fabulous veiw of my new home, Taebaek. After the last week of orientation and being driven around like cattle, relaxing in a hotel is a nice way to spend the weekend. We have wandered around Taebaek a little bit, taking in the sights and trying to figure out what everything is. I think Rob and I have learned some compassion for people in a foreign land. Talking louder does not facilitate comprehension... keep that in mind when talking to someone who doesn't speak your language. Charades usually works, and it makes people laugh... :)

Taebaek is a small city, by Korean standards, with a population of 55,000 people. It is nestled in a valley within the Taebaeksen (Taebaek Mountains). The name of the province translates as ‘huge and stunning.’No argument here. There is a nice little pond here called Hwangji Pond. It is the source of the Nakdong River, which is 428km long and 5,000 tons of water flows out daily.

In other news, we have seen our new apartment, which is just beautiful and larger than what we expected. It has three bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. The other day two teachers from my school took us shopping for accessories to put in our apartment. I'm talking everything from furniture, to curtains, to kitchen appliances... They wanted to buy us a lot, but we tried to turn down many of their offers. I guess this is the governments' initiative to spend money on foreign teachers, to entice them into staying for longer than a year. Really, they are treating us very well, taking us to dinner and making sure we are happy.
We are very fortunate that our experience thus far has been so positive.

Tomorrow I go to my new school, to meet all the staff and students, and on Tuesday I start teaching. Rob is lucky in that he doesn't have to teach for another week yet. He gets a whole week to prepare... I'm jealous.

Just a few pictures to get this blog started

2007-12-14T18:04:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the "resortel" that we stayed in for five days during the orientation. Below are some pictures of our hike in Soraksen Park. Unfortunately we didn't take a digital picture of the giant Buddha statue, but hopefully you'll enjoy these just as much.