Hi everyone!
Well, it's now November and we've been in Korea 8 months! Time is really flying now and it feels like we'll be home before we know it.
Happy Halloween to everyone! They don't do Halloween in Korea, really, but my school had a Halloween party because of all the foreign teachers. It was really hard to find a costume here because not many people buy them so I ended up making a very unattractive giraffe costume. My kids had fun in costumes and making 'trick or treat' bags, witches brew, and doing face-painting.
This weekend wasn't too exciting. I had to work on Saturday because my kids had their huge play for their parents and families that they've been practicing for for months. My school got a huge auditorium at a nearby university and it was decorated to the nines with giant balloon sculptures and inflatable rainbows and all kinds of stuff. Each kindergarden class put on a performance. The 7-year olds (6 years old in Canada) all did musicals and the 5 and 6 year olds did ballet performances, songs, and speeches. It was really high stress for the teachers because parents approval is insanely important at hagwons (private schools). All the Korean teachers were super stressed out and were freaking out on the kids if they were doing anything wrong.
My Einstein class was doing a Snow White musical, complete with really fantastic costumes and soundtrack and my Edison class did a Pinocchio musical. My Newton class is only 6 so they did a ballet and sang 'Raindrops are Falling on my Head' and did speeches about their dreams, interests, and people they admire.
My scene in Einstein's play. Pretty sweet.
I was really proud of all my students and they did great. I think the parents were happy - at least none of them complained. And the principal, Mrs. Lyu, seemed satisfied as well. Jesse came and watched the performances and helped clean up afterwards. Then my principal paid for all the teachers do go out for dinner together.
We went to a 'meat buffet' where you could choose from lots of different kinds of meats and grill them at your table. I got rice and kimchi jigae - a spicy soup - but everyone else had a meat feast. After dinner my boss took all the teachers to a noraebong (kareoke place) and we sang songs late into the night.
Sunday we just lazed around and watched Halloween specials and went over to our friend's place in the afternoon to visit with our friends, Katelyn and Mallory, who finished here a few months ago and have been traveling South East Asia since then. They're only back for a few days before they head home so we just hung out with them and heard about their trip.
On Monday, I had the morning off, because I worked on Saturday, and Jesse had the whole day off because his school chose to celebrate the anniversary of their opening by closing. We just relaxed in the morning and didn't do much of anything.
This blog has mostly been about my stuff - not much is new with Jesse. He says his work is the same and so is everything else.
In November, Jesse and I and some friends have signed up for private Korean lessons. It's a bit late in the game but we would like to leave knowing at least a basic understanding of the language. Jesse has been studying a lot on his own so he's, by far, the most advanced out of all of us but we've all agreed to start at the beginning.
Anyway, sorry for another unexciting blog. We don't have much planned for next weekend, either, so I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat for that one.
Hope all is well! Miss you all.
Ali and Jesse
Showing posts with label open class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label open class. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Hi everyone!
Happy Chuseok! Chuseok is Thanksgiving in Korea and it is where they thank their ancestors for all the blessings they've had in the year. Everyone gives gifts at Chuseok and the gifts are usually very practical things. Originally it was things like flour or eggs to help with all the Chuseok cooking but now the most common gifts are tuna, oil, and SPAM. My principal gave me a giant gift box with about 15 cans of tuna and five cans of spam. It is a very weird gift but when in Rome, I guess.
We haven't done too many exciting things this week. My school had a really rough week because we had two parent's days. The theme was 'Airport' so the kids rotated through six different rooms with their parents. I was in the Country Briefing Room so I had to show a Powerpoint about their destination country, teach them to say hello in a bunch of different countries, let them try on traditional clothes from around the world and teach them a traditional 'folk dance' which I had to make up on the spot. They seemed to have a lot of fun but it's always stressful around ECC when parents come. Then, on Friday, all the kids had a big Chuseok party where they all wore their hanboks (traditional Korean outfits) and got to cook seopyong (these gross little rice cakes with sesame seeds that everyone eats at Chuseok), make origami cushions, and play by the river. It was really hot out so the kids were all sweating to death in their hanboks but they still had fun.
Friday night my manager Reggie's parents were visiting so all the foreign and Korean teachers went out with them for bulgogi (a kind of boiled meat in a sauce) and it was lots of fun because Jesse and I were sitting with my Korean teachers and I don't get to hang out with them too much outside of work. They all have English names so they thought it was only fair to give Jesse and I Korean names. I am Gil Ha Eun and and Jesse is Ha Tae Won. All Korean names have three syllables.
After bulgogi, Jesse and I took my two new colleagues for a tour of downtown Uijeongbu. The two new teachers are from Michigan and Northern Ireland and they've had a busy first few weeks. Unfortunately, on our tour of downtown on a Friday night, all the American military was out and they were being so obnoxious and annoying. The whole downtown swarms with them and they even have their own military police that stand outside all the clubs in full military garb, to get involved whenever they get too out of hand.
After that, we met the Korean teachers for a drink and had fun talking with them outside of school, although I felt bad that they all had to speak English all night.
On Saturday, I went in to Seoul to meet another friend's parents. My friend Jenn from Busan had her mom and aunt visiting so my friend Marijke and I met them for dinner by Seoul Tower and toured around Seoul with them for awhile.
Anyway, tomorrow (Monday) I'm on holiday but Jesse is working and then, on Tuesday, we're headed to Jeju Island, which should be great. We'll let you know how that all goes.
Love,
Ali and Jesse
I'll leave you with some photos and videos of my kindi kids on their Chuseok party:
The kids walking down to the river.
This video is of my Newton class saying hello to Canada and just playing around.
Happy Chuseok! Chuseok is Thanksgiving in Korea and it is where they thank their ancestors for all the blessings they've had in the year. Everyone gives gifts at Chuseok and the gifts are usually very practical things. Originally it was things like flour or eggs to help with all the Chuseok cooking but now the most common gifts are tuna, oil, and SPAM. My principal gave me a giant gift box with about 15 cans of tuna and five cans of spam. It is a very weird gift but when in Rome, I guess.
We haven't done too many exciting things this week. My school had a really rough week because we had two parent's days. The theme was 'Airport' so the kids rotated through six different rooms with their parents. I was in the Country Briefing Room so I had to show a Powerpoint about their destination country, teach them to say hello in a bunch of different countries, let them try on traditional clothes from around the world and teach them a traditional 'folk dance' which I had to make up on the spot. They seemed to have a lot of fun but it's always stressful around ECC when parents come. Then, on Friday, all the kids had a big Chuseok party where they all wore their hanboks (traditional Korean outfits) and got to cook seopyong (these gross little rice cakes with sesame seeds that everyone eats at Chuseok), make origami cushions, and play by the river. It was really hot out so the kids were all sweating to death in their hanboks but they still had fun.
Friday night my manager Reggie's parents were visiting so all the foreign and Korean teachers went out with them for bulgogi (a kind of boiled meat in a sauce) and it was lots of fun because Jesse and I were sitting with my Korean teachers and I don't get to hang out with them too much outside of work. They all have English names so they thought it was only fair to give Jesse and I Korean names. I am Gil Ha Eun and and Jesse is Ha Tae Won. All Korean names have three syllables.
After bulgogi, Jesse and I took my two new colleagues for a tour of downtown Uijeongbu. The two new teachers are from Michigan and Northern Ireland and they've had a busy first few weeks. Unfortunately, on our tour of downtown on a Friday night, all the American military was out and they were being so obnoxious and annoying. The whole downtown swarms with them and they even have their own military police that stand outside all the clubs in full military garb, to get involved whenever they get too out of hand.
After that, we met the Korean teachers for a drink and had fun talking with them outside of school, although I felt bad that they all had to speak English all night.
On Saturday, I went in to Seoul to meet another friend's parents. My friend Jenn from Busan had her mom and aunt visiting so my friend Marijke and I met them for dinner by Seoul Tower and toured around Seoul with them for awhile.
Anyway, tomorrow (Monday) I'm on holiday but Jesse is working and then, on Tuesday, we're headed to Jeju Island, which should be great. We'll let you know how that all goes.
Love,
Ali and Jesse
I'll leave you with some photos and videos of my kindi kids on their Chuseok party:
The kids walking down to the river.
This video is of my Newton class saying hello to Canada and just playing around.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Corea and Culture Shocks
Hi everyone!
How are you?? Sorry our blog is coming a little late this week. Jesse and I had a little mishap in which we took out the internet in our entire building by mis-installing a wireless router. To be fair, the instructions were in Korean so we can’t be blamed for not knowing what we were doing. Anyway, our internet is back up and running (hopefully for good) and, consequently, so is our blog.
So last week was pretty stressful for me. My class had an ‘open class’ where all the parents get to come and observe a ‘typical class’. This class, unbeknownst to the parents, has had a script written and edited by all the managers at ECC and has been practiced with the students for at least an hour a day for the past month. There was a lot of pressure on my open class because Mrs. Lyu (the vice-principal) is a bit insane and the open class is the most important day of the year, she says. If any parents complain, we all get in huge trouble. Anyway, my students did a really good job and no parents complained and even Mrs. Lyu (affectionately referred to as ‘Dragon Lady’ among ECC staff) said “200 percent! Perfect!” – so I was happy.
This is my class in their new summer uniforms after Open Class.
Picture of when of the many practice sessions we had for the open class.
It was pouring rain all weekend. July is monsoon season here in Korea and we’re starting to see a lot more humidity and rain as we gear up for that. Saturday night all my friends I met on my weekend in Busan decided to make the trek up to Seoul to see the big city. Jesse and I met them at their hotel and then went out for some delicious Mexican food and to watch the first Korea game of the World Cup against Greece. It was lots of fun to watch the game and hear everyone going nuts. In case you missed it, Korea beat Greece 2-0 and there were insane parties in the streets all night long to celebrate. Soccer is the most popular sport here and everyone is loving it. On many of the World Cup t-shirts, Korea is spelt ‘Corea’ so that, when the world cup teams are listed alphabetically, Korea won’t be after Japan -there is still some ill-will towards Japan after the Japanese occupation here.
The girls from Busan and I out celebrating Corea's win.
Nothing eventful has happened so far this week, other than blowing out the internet and trying to get it fixed. This weekend we are going to an island called Muiido, off the coast of Incheon, trying to get some beach time before monsoon season. All the teachers we’re friends with in Uijeongbu are going and staying in beach huts on Saturday night. It should be a nice mini-vacation.
No further news happening with the whole North Korea situation but, again, it doesn’t even seem to be on anyone’s mind. Tomorrow night is the Korea-Argentina game so we’ll be watching that hopefully. It would be so exciting to see Korea get into the next round.
Anyway, that’s all for now!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
Ten Biggest Culture Shocks
So, we’re almost a quarter of the way through and we thought we’d write about the ten biggest differences we’ve noticed between Canada and Korea so far. These may be totally inaccurate – they’re just the behaviour we’ve seen and the assumptions we’ve made based on them. Here we go – the ten biggest culture shocks to date:
1) Spitting – Men spit SO much here. Everywhere you go you can hear giant horking noises and huge wads of spit fly through the air. You have to be careful – I’ve almost been hit with spit a few times. I still haven’t adjusted to this little aspect of culture shock and I’m not sure I ever will. I still find it totally disgusting.
2) Smoking – We’ve already talked about smoking a lot in our blog but it’s everywhere. All restaurants and bars are full of smoke and nearly everyone is a smoker. It’s a really big difference when you come from Canada and smoking is banned everywhere.
3) Kids – Kids here have very very different lives than kids in Canada. We’ve already talked about school. They go to school all day like they do in Canada and then from three until about nine they go to hogwans (private schools) to study English, ballet, Tae kwon do, golf, piano, cello, etc. Then, at around 9 or 10 they’re free and you see kids roaming the streets by themselves really late at night. It’s very weird to be out at 11 or 12 and see little kids out with no parents. Korea is really safe, though, so I guess parents aren’t worried. The other big difference with kids is computer games. I know they are popular in Canada too but there are serious computer game addiction problems here. All weekend, kids go to PC Bongs, which are like internet cafes but where kids can all play computer games against each other. There have recently been trials of parents who have been so addicted to computer games that children have died of neglect so I guess the computer addictions aren’t only with the children.
4) Singing - Koreans sing all the time. Noraebongs (private karaoke rooms) are incredibly popular among kids and adults and most Koreans seem to go to them almost weekly. On top of that, it’s not at all uncommon to see Koreans walking down the street singing loudly to themselves. People are not self-conscious at all about singing in public and you hear it a lot.
5) T-shirts - This isn’t a big difference, obviously, since people wear t-shirts in Canada too. It’s the content of the t-shirts that is pretty hilarious. So far, we’ve yet to see any t-shirts with Hangul (Korean writing) on them. But there are millions of shirts with very poor English on them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stop myself from laughing at ridiculous English slogans on shirts. I keep wanting to take pictures of some of them for the blog but that’s not very polite. The other hilarious shirt trend is couples shirts. Many couples buy the same outfits and wear them in public together, I guess to show the world they are together. The sell girl and boy versions of a lot of shirts, solely for this purpose. And they even have some shirts that have half a picture on one shirt and half on the other so it makes a full picture when the couple walks together. Reading t-shirts is one of my favourite pass-times.
This isn't a t-shirt but is an example of the hilarious use of English. Guess what this store sells from the sign. If you guessed 'tennis equipment' you're right.
6) TV shows – TV here is hilarious. There are very few dramas. There are a couple soap operas but those are basically the only shows with any production value at all. There are lots of game shows, singing shows, hidden camera shows, and comedy shows. We obviously can’t understand the talking on any of these shows but I’m not sure we’d know what the heck was going on, even if we did. The comedy here is very different than in America. It’s very slapstick and every two seconds huge words flash up on the screen with a million exclamation marks. I wish we could show you some of these shows because they are seriously ridiculous.
7) Manners – One of the biggest culture shocks for me has definitely been social etiquette. First of all, line-ups. From what I’ve seen, the concept of line-ups isn’t one that’s taken on in Korea. All the time people just butt in line, without even a second thought and, in many places, they’ve adopted the ‘take a number’ system because line-ups are just not well-adhered to. Also, bumping into people is really common here, just because there is a much bigger population density and there isn’t really a word in Korean for ‘sorry’ when you bump into people. It can be very disconcerting to have people smash into you and not say anything. I wouldn’t want to say Koreans are rude because it’s just the culture here but, by Canadian standards, it sometimes feels that way. People just shoo you out of their way, or out of their stores. We’ve been on an elevator where there were too many people and all the Koreans in the back were trying to push other people out. People leave shopping carts spralled through crowded aisles in grocery stores all the time so no one can get by, and just generally don’t seem very considerate of others the way they are in Canada. One of my colleagues spent 6 months in Toronto and she said one of her biggest culture shocks was that everyone held the door open for her – she couldn’t get over it. Anyway, I’ve been trying to work on not getting angry when people shove me out of the way in lines or shoo me away from their shops but it’s been an adjustment.
8) Hygiene – I don’t think Koreans are more or less hygienic than in Canada but it’s different, for sure. First of all, they all brush their teeth many times a day. All my students have toothbrushes at school and toothpaste, as do all the teachers. Almost no one has a bathtub but many Koreans make weekly trips to the jimjilbong (public bathhouse) to scrub down every inch of their body and soak in massive public tubs. I don’t know if I’ll adjust to bathing with a bunch of other people in a giant tub while I’m here – I sort of doubt it.
9) Food – The food here is totally different. Much spicier, kimchi (Korea’s national dish – fermented cabbage with spicy sauce) with every meal, and rice and soup with almost every meal too. From what I’ve seen, Koreans eat a lot more than Americans and eat a lot faster. Obesity is basically a non-issue here and I don’t know if that’s just because of a different body type or whether they eat healthier or whether they exercise more but they all definitely seem to eat much more than Canadians, on average. My students eat huge amounts of junk food too – whole packs of cookies, huge bags of chips, tons of candy… much more than I did when I was a kid. And fruits and vegetables are pretty expensive and I rarely see people eat them, with the exception of kimchi. I don’t know how the Koreans stay so skinny.
10) Fan death – This isn’t really a culture shock thing but it is interesting. All the fans in Korea have timers so that no fan can be on for longer than an hour. This is apparently because Koreans believe that if you fall asleep with the fan pointed on you, you can die. Fan death (as this phenomenon is called) has only ever been said to occur in Korea and no one can really say what about fans cause death. Personally, I’m a bit skeptical of this, but most Koreans just accept it as a fact. Very weird.
Anyway, those have been the most difficult/interesting things about Korea so far. Maybe we’ll do another one of these when we’re further along in our trip.
How are you?? Sorry our blog is coming a little late this week. Jesse and I had a little mishap in which we took out the internet in our entire building by mis-installing a wireless router. To be fair, the instructions were in Korean so we can’t be blamed for not knowing what we were doing. Anyway, our internet is back up and running (hopefully for good) and, consequently, so is our blog.
So last week was pretty stressful for me. My class had an ‘open class’ where all the parents get to come and observe a ‘typical class’. This class, unbeknownst to the parents, has had a script written and edited by all the managers at ECC and has been practiced with the students for at least an hour a day for the past month. There was a lot of pressure on my open class because Mrs. Lyu (the vice-principal) is a bit insane and the open class is the most important day of the year, she says. If any parents complain, we all get in huge trouble. Anyway, my students did a really good job and no parents complained and even Mrs. Lyu (affectionately referred to as ‘Dragon Lady’ among ECC staff) said “200 percent! Perfect!” – so I was happy.
This is my class in their new summer uniforms after Open Class.
Picture of when of the many practice sessions we had for the open class.
It was pouring rain all weekend. July is monsoon season here in Korea and we’re starting to see a lot more humidity and rain as we gear up for that. Saturday night all my friends I met on my weekend in Busan decided to make the trek up to Seoul to see the big city. Jesse and I met them at their hotel and then went out for some delicious Mexican food and to watch the first Korea game of the World Cup against Greece. It was lots of fun to watch the game and hear everyone going nuts. In case you missed it, Korea beat Greece 2-0 and there were insane parties in the streets all night long to celebrate. Soccer is the most popular sport here and everyone is loving it. On many of the World Cup t-shirts, Korea is spelt ‘Corea’ so that, when the world cup teams are listed alphabetically, Korea won’t be after Japan -there is still some ill-will towards Japan after the Japanese occupation here.
The girls from Busan and I out celebrating Corea's win.
Nothing eventful has happened so far this week, other than blowing out the internet and trying to get it fixed. This weekend we are going to an island called Muiido, off the coast of Incheon, trying to get some beach time before monsoon season. All the teachers we’re friends with in Uijeongbu are going and staying in beach huts on Saturday night. It should be a nice mini-vacation.
No further news happening with the whole North Korea situation but, again, it doesn’t even seem to be on anyone’s mind. Tomorrow night is the Korea-Argentina game so we’ll be watching that hopefully. It would be so exciting to see Korea get into the next round.
Anyway, that’s all for now!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
Ten Biggest Culture Shocks
So, we’re almost a quarter of the way through and we thought we’d write about the ten biggest differences we’ve noticed between Canada and Korea so far. These may be totally inaccurate – they’re just the behaviour we’ve seen and the assumptions we’ve made based on them. Here we go – the ten biggest culture shocks to date:
1) Spitting – Men spit SO much here. Everywhere you go you can hear giant horking noises and huge wads of spit fly through the air. You have to be careful – I’ve almost been hit with spit a few times. I still haven’t adjusted to this little aspect of culture shock and I’m not sure I ever will. I still find it totally disgusting.
2) Smoking – We’ve already talked about smoking a lot in our blog but it’s everywhere. All restaurants and bars are full of smoke and nearly everyone is a smoker. It’s a really big difference when you come from Canada and smoking is banned everywhere.
3) Kids – Kids here have very very different lives than kids in Canada. We’ve already talked about school. They go to school all day like they do in Canada and then from three until about nine they go to hogwans (private schools) to study English, ballet, Tae kwon do, golf, piano, cello, etc. Then, at around 9 or 10 they’re free and you see kids roaming the streets by themselves really late at night. It’s very weird to be out at 11 or 12 and see little kids out with no parents. Korea is really safe, though, so I guess parents aren’t worried. The other big difference with kids is computer games. I know they are popular in Canada too but there are serious computer game addiction problems here. All weekend, kids go to PC Bongs, which are like internet cafes but where kids can all play computer games against each other. There have recently been trials of parents who have been so addicted to computer games that children have died of neglect so I guess the computer addictions aren’t only with the children.
4) Singing - Koreans sing all the time. Noraebongs (private karaoke rooms) are incredibly popular among kids and adults and most Koreans seem to go to them almost weekly. On top of that, it’s not at all uncommon to see Koreans walking down the street singing loudly to themselves. People are not self-conscious at all about singing in public and you hear it a lot.
5) T-shirts - This isn’t a big difference, obviously, since people wear t-shirts in Canada too. It’s the content of the t-shirts that is pretty hilarious. So far, we’ve yet to see any t-shirts with Hangul (Korean writing) on them. But there are millions of shirts with very poor English on them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stop myself from laughing at ridiculous English slogans on shirts. I keep wanting to take pictures of some of them for the blog but that’s not very polite. The other hilarious shirt trend is couples shirts. Many couples buy the same outfits and wear them in public together, I guess to show the world they are together. The sell girl and boy versions of a lot of shirts, solely for this purpose. And they even have some shirts that have half a picture on one shirt and half on the other so it makes a full picture when the couple walks together. Reading t-shirts is one of my favourite pass-times.
This isn't a t-shirt but is an example of the hilarious use of English. Guess what this store sells from the sign. If you guessed 'tennis equipment' you're right.
6) TV shows – TV here is hilarious. There are very few dramas. There are a couple soap operas but those are basically the only shows with any production value at all. There are lots of game shows, singing shows, hidden camera shows, and comedy shows. We obviously can’t understand the talking on any of these shows but I’m not sure we’d know what the heck was going on, even if we did. The comedy here is very different than in America. It’s very slapstick and every two seconds huge words flash up on the screen with a million exclamation marks. I wish we could show you some of these shows because they are seriously ridiculous.
7) Manners – One of the biggest culture shocks for me has definitely been social etiquette. First of all, line-ups. From what I’ve seen, the concept of line-ups isn’t one that’s taken on in Korea. All the time people just butt in line, without even a second thought and, in many places, they’ve adopted the ‘take a number’ system because line-ups are just not well-adhered to. Also, bumping into people is really common here, just because there is a much bigger population density and there isn’t really a word in Korean for ‘sorry’ when you bump into people. It can be very disconcerting to have people smash into you and not say anything. I wouldn’t want to say Koreans are rude because it’s just the culture here but, by Canadian standards, it sometimes feels that way. People just shoo you out of their way, or out of their stores. We’ve been on an elevator where there were too many people and all the Koreans in the back were trying to push other people out. People leave shopping carts spralled through crowded aisles in grocery stores all the time so no one can get by, and just generally don’t seem very considerate of others the way they are in Canada. One of my colleagues spent 6 months in Toronto and she said one of her biggest culture shocks was that everyone held the door open for her – she couldn’t get over it. Anyway, I’ve been trying to work on not getting angry when people shove me out of the way in lines or shoo me away from their shops but it’s been an adjustment.
8) Hygiene – I don’t think Koreans are more or less hygienic than in Canada but it’s different, for sure. First of all, they all brush their teeth many times a day. All my students have toothbrushes at school and toothpaste, as do all the teachers. Almost no one has a bathtub but many Koreans make weekly trips to the jimjilbong (public bathhouse) to scrub down every inch of their body and soak in massive public tubs. I don’t know if I’ll adjust to bathing with a bunch of other people in a giant tub while I’m here – I sort of doubt it.
9) Food – The food here is totally different. Much spicier, kimchi (Korea’s national dish – fermented cabbage with spicy sauce) with every meal, and rice and soup with almost every meal too. From what I’ve seen, Koreans eat a lot more than Americans and eat a lot faster. Obesity is basically a non-issue here and I don’t know if that’s just because of a different body type or whether they eat healthier or whether they exercise more but they all definitely seem to eat much more than Canadians, on average. My students eat huge amounts of junk food too – whole packs of cookies, huge bags of chips, tons of candy… much more than I did when I was a kid. And fruits and vegetables are pretty expensive and I rarely see people eat them, with the exception of kimchi. I don’t know how the Koreans stay so skinny.
10) Fan death – This isn’t really a culture shock thing but it is interesting. All the fans in Korea have timers so that no fan can be on for longer than an hour. This is apparently because Koreans believe that if you fall asleep with the fan pointed on you, you can die. Fan death (as this phenomenon is called) has only ever been said to occur in Korea and no one can really say what about fans cause death. Personally, I’m a bit skeptical of this, but most Koreans just accept it as a fact. Very weird.
Anyway, those have been the most difficult/interesting things about Korea so far. Maybe we’ll do another one of these when we’re further along in our trip.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Hot Tubs and Land Mines
Hello everyone. As of today, we've been in Korea for 2 months exactly! Time's gone by fast.
It's been two weeks since our last update because last weekend we really didn’t do anything exciting since Ali had a bad flu. However, it was kind of nice to have a quiet weekend with no travel on overly crowded subway cars.
In work related news, Ali's school just got two new teachers. Hopefully that will lighten her work schedule for May.
Both Ali and I had open classes this week. An open class is when the parents come in and sit in the back of the class to watch the lesson. It's a bit crazy for Ali's school because she has to spend a couple of weeks rehearsing with the kids what the lesson will be like. It's almost like they are rehearsing a script so when the parents come in it looks like the teacher runs great classes and all the kids are learning. My open classes are a bit stressful too but there's not as much prepearation and practicing as Ali's school.
I went out Wednesday night with a bunch of teachers from her school for a ‘guys’ night’ and we went out for galbi (which is what we do all the time) but then we went to a jimjilbong, which was quite a unique experience. A jimjilbong is basically a public bathhouse with hot tubs, cold pools, saunas, areas to relax, and even rooms you can stay overnight. It is separated by gender and everyone walks around nude. Some of the hot tubs were hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in but the Koreans love it. It was a bit weird but an interesting cultural experience none-the-less.
We also went to see Ironman 2 this week (not bad but definitely not a must-see) because it was a rare event that a movie comes out here weeks before it does in America. It only did so that it’s opening wouldn’t conflict with the World Cup but they know Americans don’t care about soccer so they aren’t so worried.
Today was pretty exiting. We got up early and met a tour group going to the DMZ (de-militarized zone). A quick history about the DMZ for those who don’t know: The DMZ is the border between North and South Korea and holds the distinction of being the most heavily fortified and guarded border in the world. It was created just after the Korean war. However, it's not just a line separating the countries, but rather a buffer zone to make sure the countries aren't too close together. It is mostly an untouched piece of land (full of landmines, of course) 4km wide that spans the width of the country. It is very heavily armed and guarded on both sides and there are places where armed men from both countries just stand and stare at each other all day trying to intimidate each other. Because no one is allowed in the DMZ, it’s become a pretty unique wildlife reserve as well with animals able to thrive without human influence. Since the ‘70s, 4 tunnels have been discovered that run under the DMZ and into South Korea from the North. The tunnels are big enough so tens of thousands of men with heavy artillery can get through in an hour for a surprise attack on South Korea. The last tunnel was discovered in ’95 and many suspect there are other tunnels still to be discovered.
Because the DMZ runs across the entire width of the country, there's different areas to check out, and not all of them can be seen in a day. On our tour of the DMZ, we first went to Cheol Won, which is a more quiet area with less tourist fanfare. During the drive up there, there was wire on both sides of the road with signs indicating the presence of land mines so we knew when we were close. Once there, we went to an observation point where you could see posts from both North and South Korea, as well as a large area of the DMZ. Tensions don't seem too high here as we observed South Korean soliders playing volleyball in the distance.
South Korean guard tower at the DMZ
We then went to the 2nd tunnel, put hard hats on, and went right in. This might have been the best part of the trip, walking through a tunnel dug by the North Koreans for the sole purpose of attacking the South. When the South first discovered them and sent people in to investigate, several lives were lost due to hidden mines and dynamite, but it seems like they cleared all those out now. The tunnel was very low (the hard hats saved us several times) and wet but incredibly cool. You obviously can only walk so far before you’re gated off to prevent you from reaching North Korea.
Inside the tunnel
Us inside the tunnel. Looking good...
Ali with a South Korean soldier
Counting the days since the Korean war ended
From there we saw an old Labor Party building where lots of prisoners were kept and tortured under the North Koreans. (it’s been bombed since then and is now only a ruin).
Labor Party Building
We then went to a place called "White Horse Hill" and we were lucky enough to have a Korean soldier who spoke almost perfect English act as our tour guide and fill us in on the history of the location. It was a large hill that was a pivotal point to control since you had a view of where attacking forces would be coming from. Over a period of ten days, control of the hill went back and forth between the North and South 24 times. All of the craters in the hill created from countless bombings apparently resemble a white horse from above. Our tour guide also showed us a building and stated that after losing the White Horse Hill battle, the North Korean general in charge went there and cried for 3 days. I guess there's still some hard feelings over the conflict...
This is a statue of hands praying supposed to honour Korean soldiers's sacrifces.
After we left the hill, we did an 80 min bus ride to Im Jin Gak, a more touristy area of the DMZ. Little did we know that touristy meant carnivals, souvenir shops, art exhibits, parks, kids flying kites, pinwheels, and cotton candy. It was very weird to see how an area so close to a massive amount of weaponry was a place for wholesome family fun. Not to say it was all like that. It was the location of the ‘Freedom Bridge’ – the only bridge between North and South Korea.
Freedom Bridge
After that we got on the bus and headed home. A notable area we didn't see is the village of Panmunjeom. This is a village actually located inside the DMZ buffer zone. Apparently, it's an area where farmers are permitted to live and must observe a curfew. I think it's under watch by the South as the North have thier own small village in the DMZ. Only certain tours are permitted there (I think only US army ones) and a dress code is observed. Maybe another time.
Not much else is new here. Of course you’ve heard about the South Korean boat that was sunk due to an ‘exterior explosion’ but it’s beginning to look more and more like a North Korean torpedo hit it. There are lots of questions here about whether the South will retaliate to send a message or keep it cool to avoid damaging their economy so it’s really interesting being here for all this. Here is an article with more information if you haven't been following the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8648970.stm
Next Wednesday is Children's day, a national holiday. I remember in North America when kids would complain about Mother's Day and Father's day and ask why isn't there a Kid's day. Well, they have that here but no Mom and Dad day, instead opting for the joint "Parents Day." It looks like parents got the short end of the stick here. Anyway, it also happens to be Cinco De Mayo, so we have plans to go to a Mexican restuarant and see a soccer game, which should be very cool, so we’ll keep you posted on that. I get the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off but Ali has to teach Thursday and Friday.
We’re both still doing well and having a great time!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
It's been two weeks since our last update because last weekend we really didn’t do anything exciting since Ali had a bad flu. However, it was kind of nice to have a quiet weekend with no travel on overly crowded subway cars.
In work related news, Ali's school just got two new teachers. Hopefully that will lighten her work schedule for May.
Both Ali and I had open classes this week. An open class is when the parents come in and sit in the back of the class to watch the lesson. It's a bit crazy for Ali's school because she has to spend a couple of weeks rehearsing with the kids what the lesson will be like. It's almost like they are rehearsing a script so when the parents come in it looks like the teacher runs great classes and all the kids are learning. My open classes are a bit stressful too but there's not as much prepearation and practicing as Ali's school.
I went out Wednesday night with a bunch of teachers from her school for a ‘guys’ night’ and we went out for galbi (which is what we do all the time) but then we went to a jimjilbong, which was quite a unique experience. A jimjilbong is basically a public bathhouse with hot tubs, cold pools, saunas, areas to relax, and even rooms you can stay overnight. It is separated by gender and everyone walks around nude. Some of the hot tubs were hotter than any hot tub I've ever been in but the Koreans love it. It was a bit weird but an interesting cultural experience none-the-less.
We also went to see Ironman 2 this week (not bad but definitely not a must-see) because it was a rare event that a movie comes out here weeks before it does in America. It only did so that it’s opening wouldn’t conflict with the World Cup but they know Americans don’t care about soccer so they aren’t so worried.
Today was pretty exiting. We got up early and met a tour group going to the DMZ (de-militarized zone). A quick history about the DMZ for those who don’t know: The DMZ is the border between North and South Korea and holds the distinction of being the most heavily fortified and guarded border in the world. It was created just after the Korean war. However, it's not just a line separating the countries, but rather a buffer zone to make sure the countries aren't too close together. It is mostly an untouched piece of land (full of landmines, of course) 4km wide that spans the width of the country. It is very heavily armed and guarded on both sides and there are places where armed men from both countries just stand and stare at each other all day trying to intimidate each other. Because no one is allowed in the DMZ, it’s become a pretty unique wildlife reserve as well with animals able to thrive without human influence. Since the ‘70s, 4 tunnels have been discovered that run under the DMZ and into South Korea from the North. The tunnels are big enough so tens of thousands of men with heavy artillery can get through in an hour for a surprise attack on South Korea. The last tunnel was discovered in ’95 and many suspect there are other tunnels still to be discovered.
Because the DMZ runs across the entire width of the country, there's different areas to check out, and not all of them can be seen in a day. On our tour of the DMZ, we first went to Cheol Won, which is a more quiet area with less tourist fanfare. During the drive up there, there was wire on both sides of the road with signs indicating the presence of land mines so we knew when we were close. Once there, we went to an observation point where you could see posts from both North and South Korea, as well as a large area of the DMZ. Tensions don't seem too high here as we observed South Korean soliders playing volleyball in the distance.
South Korean guard tower at the DMZ
We then went to the 2nd tunnel, put hard hats on, and went right in. This might have been the best part of the trip, walking through a tunnel dug by the North Koreans for the sole purpose of attacking the South. When the South first discovered them and sent people in to investigate, several lives were lost due to hidden mines and dynamite, but it seems like they cleared all those out now. The tunnel was very low (the hard hats saved us several times) and wet but incredibly cool. You obviously can only walk so far before you’re gated off to prevent you from reaching North Korea.
Inside the tunnel
Us inside the tunnel. Looking good...
Ali with a South Korean soldier
Counting the days since the Korean war ended
From there we saw an old Labor Party building where lots of prisoners were kept and tortured under the North Koreans. (it’s been bombed since then and is now only a ruin).
Labor Party Building
We then went to a place called "White Horse Hill" and we were lucky enough to have a Korean soldier who spoke almost perfect English act as our tour guide and fill us in on the history of the location. It was a large hill that was a pivotal point to control since you had a view of where attacking forces would be coming from. Over a period of ten days, control of the hill went back and forth between the North and South 24 times. All of the craters in the hill created from countless bombings apparently resemble a white horse from above. Our tour guide also showed us a building and stated that after losing the White Horse Hill battle, the North Korean general in charge went there and cried for 3 days. I guess there's still some hard feelings over the conflict...
This is a statue of hands praying supposed to honour Korean soldiers's sacrifces.
After we left the hill, we did an 80 min bus ride to Im Jin Gak, a more touristy area of the DMZ. Little did we know that touristy meant carnivals, souvenir shops, art exhibits, parks, kids flying kites, pinwheels, and cotton candy. It was very weird to see how an area so close to a massive amount of weaponry was a place for wholesome family fun. Not to say it was all like that. It was the location of the ‘Freedom Bridge’ – the only bridge between North and South Korea.
Freedom Bridge
After that we got on the bus and headed home. A notable area we didn't see is the village of Panmunjeom. This is a village actually located inside the DMZ buffer zone. Apparently, it's an area where farmers are permitted to live and must observe a curfew. I think it's under watch by the South as the North have thier own small village in the DMZ. Only certain tours are permitted there (I think only US army ones) and a dress code is observed. Maybe another time.
Not much else is new here. Of course you’ve heard about the South Korean boat that was sunk due to an ‘exterior explosion’ but it’s beginning to look more and more like a North Korean torpedo hit it. There are lots of questions here about whether the South will retaliate to send a message or keep it cool to avoid damaging their economy so it’s really interesting being here for all this. Here is an article with more information if you haven't been following the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8648970.stm
Next Wednesday is Children's day, a national holiday. I remember in North America when kids would complain about Mother's Day and Father's day and ask why isn't there a Kid's day. Well, they have that here but no Mom and Dad day, instead opting for the joint "Parents Day." It looks like parents got the short end of the stick here. Anyway, it also happens to be Cinco De Mayo, so we have plans to go to a Mexican restuarant and see a soccer game, which should be very cool, so we’ll keep you posted on that. I get the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off but Ali has to teach Thursday and Friday.
We’re both still doing well and having a great time!
Love,
Ali and Jesse
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