HolyShitKorea!

Is this thing on?

Ahem. We’re back in Korea, have been for a while (sorry about that). School has started up again. We have new classrooms and a new office. It’s spring and the air is warm and windy and full of yellow dust. I’m biking and hiking a yoga-ing and belly dancing (?!??). Life is good and I’ll tell you all about it. But first, have some vacation photos.

[Show as slideshow]

Mike has a few more on his blog if you’re interested. Clean copies of both sets available on request!

Hey, I kinda missed you, you know? Stay tuned!

I’ve been missing Michigan more and more over the last few weeks. I think a lot of it has to do with this being my first Christmas away. No grandparents, no tree, no keeflers, no cousins, and worst of all, no snow. While Northern Michigan is buried under its whitest winter in years, I’ve been strolling to school in balmy 50 degree temperatures under sunny skies. (Stop, please, I can feel your sympathy from here.) Pleasant, sure, but never cursing at the weather just didn’t feel right. That’s why I’m happy to report that on Sunday afternoon it started to snow, and by Monday morning the whole town was snowed in. I woke up to a phone call from our co-teacher informing us that it was a snow day. We still had to come in, but there would be no kids and no classes!

The walk to school was amazing and surreal, the way it always is after a big snow. Everybody was walking in the road, since most of the cars were still buried and the sidewalks were impassable. Koreans carry umbrellas in the snow, which made for some great people watching. Once we got to school we saw little groups of male teachers working to clear the driveway up to school. Mike started getting excited about the prospect of helping, and I crossed my fingers, hoping for the one other woman that would make it socially acceptable for me to help too. And there she was! Thanks, female technology teacher! We dropped off our bags and picked up shovels and spent the next hour working in the sunshine. A few other women even came out to help, though they didn’t last long. Around 10:00am the principal came out to thank everybody and assure me (the last lady standing) that I could go inside now. Mike got to stay out for another half an hour.

After everybody came in, we headed downstairs for tofu, kimchi, dumplings and makalee (sweet rice wine). The principal AND the vice principal each poured me a glass, thanked me (in English, even!), and drank with me.  Mike got the same treatment, and then we all took photos together, which turned into taking photos of everyone, which quickly degenerated into the who-can-ruin-the-most-photos-by-snow-balling-the-subject game. The whole day had a playful, fun atmosphere, and I think that it was kind of a bonding experience. I felt a lot closer to the other teachers, especially without the kids around.

The work day was officially over around noon, so Mike and I dropped our stuff off at home and ventured out to see the city and finish some Christmas shopping. This city has the most beautiful light, especially in the morning and evening. We took loads of photos…some are below, and some over on Mike’s blog. Enjoy! And if I don’t speak to you before the big day, have a very Merry Christmas!

[Show as slideshow]

.

The week before exams I tried out a variation on Running Dictation, a game that has apparently been an ESL staple for a long time. The basic idea is that you have two partners - a writer and a runner. The writer is stationary, while the runner has to run (surprise) to a piece of writing on the other side of the room, memorize it piece by piece, and feed it to writer who (you guessed it) writes it down. It elicits lots of communication in English between the students, which doesn’t happen much. (They communicate in English with me, of course, but rarely with each other, as my school is not big on group work.) It also lets them use a lot of pent-up energy after spending every waking moment studying at a desk. Overall it’s a great game, and since the students had exams coming up, I didn’t want to burn them out on new material. The biggest problem for me is that my classes are just under 40 students each, and I am not fool enough to think I can control 20 students running around at the same time.

So, I turned the game into a relay. Five teams, one writer, lots of group cooperation. The prize was candy or chocolate (this is apparently a VERY important distinction) for the winning team, which means instant motivation - these kids will cheerfully murder each other for a Hershey’s Kiss or a sucker, and they LOVE American candy. I gave a bonus point to the first team to finish, and one point for every accurate sentence. If they made a mistake, I pointed it out and explained why it was wrong (usually they knew and noticed it before I did). I subtracted points for cheating and horsing around in line. I also offered a bonus point to any team who could solve the riddles they were transcribing. Here are the two I picked:

One night, a father and his son were hungry.
They went to their favorite restaurant.
They ate dinner together in the restaurant.
They ate sushi, spicy noodles, and rice.
The son drank cider, but the father drank a lot of soju.
Soon the father was a little bit too drunk.
He did not think he could drive his car.
So the son decided he could drive the car.
Unfortunately, the son was not a good driver.
He crashed the car into a tree.
The son was very hurt, but the father was okay.
The father took his son to a hospital.
The doctor saw them both and said:
“Oh no! What happened to my son?”

Who is the doctor?

A man lived alone in an apartment.
His home was on the very highest floor.
Every morning he rode the elevator down.
He usually rode the elevator alone.
Then he walked alone to his work.
Every night he came home from work.
He waited near the elevator on the first floor.
He sometimes waited a very long time.
He waited for another person to com.
He never rode the elevator up alone.
If another person came, they rode up together.
If no one came, he walked up the stairs.
On rainy days, the man carried an umbrella.
With an umbrella, he could go up the elevator alone.

Why could the man ride down alone, but not up?

They used a lot of target language we’ve been working on all semester, like location/direction words, frequency adverbs, “if” clauses, and simple past tense. I also had a simpler version for lower-level classes. The class in these photos is my favorite in the whole school. They are extremely bright, extremely good-natured, and eager to please. This particular lesson was a lot more laid-back than it was with my other classes, since these students are also very good at following directions. I didn’t even have to take points away!

Getting into teams (and each other's laps).

Team One!

Team Two!

Team Three's leader is a dedicated teacher's pet that the other kids still like anyway. I want to pinch his cheeks and give him lollypops.

Team Four!

Team Five's leader wants you to know that he doesn't care and you can't make him.

I also have a ton of video of this game, but somehow I can’t get any it to play. I’ll see if Mike can fix it and try to get it up as soon as possible. I also want to point out that this class was held in the “English room,” rather than in one of the regular classrooms. I don’t usually use it because there are no desks.

Last Sunday, to celebrate Thanksgiving, we had pumpkin duck for the THIRD time. I love this place. The restaurant is near Gyeongpo Beach, not too far from our house. The building is not like most you’d see around here…it actually kind of looks Mexican. The garden around it is lovely, even in the winter. One of my favorite photographs in the world hangs outside the door. Inside there are traditional masks and weird sculptures all over the place. The table is set with more side dishes than I’ve seen anywhere else (cucumbers and ginseng in orange sauce oh my GOD) and within a few moments the main dish is brought out in all its steaming glory. The basic idea is a delicious greasy duck cut up into cubes and cooked INSIDE a “pumpkin.” (Actually, it’s a squash, but in Korean they don’t differentiate between different kinds of squashes/gourds.) The squash makes the duck less greasy, and the duck makes the squash tender. They split the whole thing open so that it kind of blooms, and since you have to order it a few hours in advance, it’s ready when you are. They serve it with spicy bean paste, peppers, garlic, vinegar, lettuce, and sesame leaves (like sam gyap sal) so you can make little wraps, but it’s so good on its own that we usually don’t bother. I wish I had a picture of the carnage left on the table, and the empty shell of the squash to show you.

This one is blurry because I couldn't stop stuffing my face long enough to take the picture.

That's better. I must have been chewing.

One more plus: since we eat there so often (and really because Mihyun has been bringing foreigners to this place for years), we didn’t have to pay for beverages, and the owner himself drove us downtown for coffee so we wouldn’t have to take a cab. I love this city!

On a completely unrelated note, I thought I might try to get your take on exactly what this truck is for:

????

We’ve seen it around town and near our apartment complex. Is it some sort of magical moving truck? Or is it just a frog riding his friend the unicorn into infinity? Here, have a close up:

Even more inexplicable at close range.

Best explanation gets to request a photo post that I may or may not follow through on!

Now I’m off to eat more birthday cake. The adorable math teacher’s dad sent her the green-tea-with-chocolate-chunks kind. Why oh why do we not have chocolate green tea cake at home?

Well, my birthday has once again come and gone, and I had a spectacular time! The birthday itself was a surprisingly easy day at school, and we were even able to head home a couple of hours early. Then that evening I went out with my general teachers class. They treated me to Gamja Tang (my new favorite food) and beer, and then took me to a karaoke room for singing and cake. You have not lived until you have seen middle aged women vamp and preen and dance while singing korean pop music at the top of their lungs STONE COLD SOBER. I have never seen anyone sing karaoke sober.

The next day was yoga followed by a trip to the bathhouse with Stephanie and Sunny. I met another nice old lady in lacy underwear who scraped all the dead skin off my body and washed my hair, with the bonus of seeing the oldest woman in the world getting the same treatment. She was ancient. She was a crone. She had more wrinkles than I have ever seen on anybody ever. It was actually kind of great. Then I moved on to the salt baths where another older lady sidled up next to me in the pool to discuss whether or not Americans really like hot water. She kept putting her hand on my knee and shoulder and gesturing at my hair. It was hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Saturday was long and lazy with bike rides and beaches and coffee shop conversation, and visitors from afar (thanks Nate and Josh). Then in the evening we all got together to eat “pumpkin duck,” which is a duck (big surprise), cut into cubes and baked inside a butternut squash. Then the squash is cut open into petals, with the duck served in the middle. It is incredible. From there, we headed to the beach where we had a sneaky bonfire complete with s’mores and cheap fireworks. It was a lot like home, and I was left feeling happy and lucky and full. I wish you were here.

I am terrible with photo posts, but I figured even a poor photo post is better than no photo post. Also, you can head over to Mike’s blog when you’re done here for a better effort.

The first two photos are from our first weekend in Gangneung, hiking with our friends Mihyun and Ben. We climbed Ulsanbawi in Seoraksan National Park. The climb was gorgeous, but the last leg was 880 stairs (I counted). I was the weakest link and had a fantastic view of the rest of my party’s rear ends the entire time.

The next two are views of my lovely little city from a hill behind our apartment. It looks a little smoggy, but this place is insanely humid and down in a valley, so I think (I hope) it’s just hazy. Actually, I’ve noticed the haze a lot less now that the weather is cooler. In the second photo, if you look closely at the building just right of center, the short one, you can see that it says 101. That’s our building! Our balcony faces away from the camera.

The next five photos are from Mike’s and my second trip to Seoraksan over the long holiday weekend. The place was packed, so we ended up clambering up the (mostly) dry riverbed to avoid the crowd. More gorgeous views, more stairs. Mike is posing with the giant Buddha at the bottom of the mountain, sporting the patch job done on his shin by a kindly old Korean man.

The three photos with the beautiful foliage are from last weekend. We went with Mihyun, Ben, and Su Jong to a smaller mountain (the name escapes me) in an area famous for its salmon. We spent the afternoon climbing and then had some really fresh, really RAW fish mixed with all kinds of veggies and sauces. It was incredibly good.

The final two are in memory of my Korean man-pants, which were cheap and could not withstand the sharp rocks I was slithering over. By the time I made it down the mountain, I was only wearing half a pair of pants. I had to cover myself with a sweater so they would let me in the restaurant. It was extremely classy, and I was a proud representative of my country (as always).

[Show as slideshow]

[Show as slideshow]

.

Also, for the curious, Mike has posted pictures of our apartment.

Hmm…you know what I said about there being no ice-breaker activities? Well we came extremely close today. My patience was tried but we did have several incredibly informative speakers. We had a talk regarding various Korean customs (never fill your own glass, give and accept things with two hands), one on the experiences of an American teacher (lots of complaints, seemed very negative for strange reasons), one by a middle school English teacher (gave complaints about past co-teachers she has had and filmed testimonials of her students), and one energetic but mis-timed extravaganza by a passionate British teacher. I’m already sick of lectures, but I was reminded today that my program acts as a buffer between foreign teachers and their Provincial Offices of Education. Teachers that have been recruited directly by their POEs get no orientation at all. I can’t help but feel grateful. At the very least, this orientation will make me anxious to get to my new placement…

Which I just received tonight!!! We weren’t expecting to hear anything definite until Friday (and some people still won’t), but tonight Mike and I were given a post in Donghae, Gangwon-do. I will be teaching in a co-ed middle school, funded (but not run, exactly) by the Seventh Day Adventists. I have been assured that I will not be expected to convert or evangelize in any way. Mike will be teaching at a nearby all-boys middle school. Our town is on the coast, and in a very mountainous area near one of the national parks. The population is around 90,00. I could not be more pleased.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, I thought I would include some photos of my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as a photo of some of the kitchen staff who made it happen. They giggled and fixed each others’ aprons and hats before posing for me, and when I finally showed them the picture they proclaimed it “beautiful!” This has been a good day.