27 posts tagged “korea”

As of today I'm done teaching regular classes at my school.  The next three weeks will be full of speaking tests and contests, special study classes and final exams, and then six weeks of summer vacation will begin.  Though I'll still be working quite a bit, I'm going to have more free time than usual, and I'm feeling the need to make good use of it.  Thus, project summer.  Here are a few things I hope to spend time on in the next two months:

1) Blogging: This blog has been severely neglected in the last year or so.  I haven't stopped thinking about things I want to write during that time, but I haven't found the motivation to actually write them.  I still need to write about the rest of our January trip (Laos and Thailand) for petes sake!  Also, I'm about 90% sure I'll be leaving Korea at the end of August, so I'm feeling the urge to document my life here.  I'm hoping to write a post every week or so.

2) Photographing: I always seem to be taking a lot of pictures, but I feel like I haven't sufficiently documented some of my favourite things about Korea, so I want to spend a couple of hours just walking around our town taking pictures.  This place is full of good photo ops.

3) Studying Spanish:  I bought a "Teach Yourself: Spanish" book months ago and have yet to get past page 5.  While I realize I won't be fluent with just this book and two months, I figure it's a good start to learning the language I most want to learn.  I should really just move to a Spanish speaking country, as I've picked up quite a lot of Korean without even trying.

4) Reading:  I spend too much time in front of my work and home computers.  In fact, almost all of my time at home is either spent cleaning, cooking, or watching a computer screen, but when I snuggle up in bed with a book and my boys, I am most content.  So, I'm going to read more.  Book suggestions are welcome.

5) Working out:  We've been going to a local gym for a few months, but my efforts have been sporadic and inconsistent, so I'm attempting to up those efforts to gym visits (or playing tennis) 5 times a week.  Weekends are not meant for working out. 

Last week I turned 25.  It seems like a rather monumental birthday, if only because I can FINALLY rent a car.  I made sure to celebrate in style, with lots of good food, friends and fun.  D and I had dinner at a favourite Thai restaurant in Seoul, then we joined some friends for drinks and cake (and party hats!) at a relaxed bar, and ended the night at a basement place called "Reggae Bar" that felt exactly like someone's hippy living room.  It was wonderful.  I decided I would like to have a picnic the next day, so we made our way to the only real park I've ever come across in Seoul and made an afternoon of it, complete with cupcakes, brie, baguettes, and frisbee. Here are some pictures.  Only this year did it occur to me that I've had a picnic on every one of my last 5 birthdays.  I started a tradition without even realizing, but I fully intend to continue it.

So, 25.  I feel like an official adult now, which feels both awesome and terrible.  I feel more in control of my life than I ever have before, but also much more responsible for my actions and decisions.  I love the freedom I have to live how I choose, but I feel the guilt that comes with it more now.  I've also never been so aware of how scary and dangerous the world is, though I feel like it is wide open for me (and others) to explore.

This year has been a test for me, but also an opportunity.  I don't think I would have come back to Korea if I had known that the tension between north and south would escalate so high this year.  It has caused me a lot of anxiety to be
living in North Korea's backyard, but it has tested my endurance and my strength of character to have stayed.  There is no way to know whether I will be in danger while I'm living here, but I'm proud of myself for dealing with the anxiety and being as responsible as I can be in this situation.  At the same time, this year back in Korea has given me the opportunity to achieve some of my goals.  I've had the time and money to finish two courses I needed to take.  I've had the great chance to meet and work with Korean and foreign artists, and I've been able to pay back my university debt.  It feels like my 25th was a very full year.

Looking toward my next year, my goals are not so clear.  There are certainly things I know I want to achieve in the next 3-5 years, but none of them seems particularly urgent.  I think it's a foregone conclusion that I want travel to remain a big part of my life.  Though it scares me a bit, I'm not sure I'll ever get over the need to explore and experience new places.  I'm also certain that I want art to become a bigger priority in my life, and that teaching has become important to me as well.  For the time being, I'm trying to take the societal pressure to achieve the expected standards off of myself.  All I want at 25 is to have purpose and balance in whatever I'm doing.

It turns out there is a lot of art in Korea.  There are hundreds of galleries in Seoul, and even more artists operating studios and opening shows.  There are networks of expat artists all over the country, and I've had the pleasure of meeting a few a them.  South Korea also has one of the largest artist villages in Asia, nestled in a valley near the border with the north.  Heyri Art Valley has 300 artist members, and more than 100 buildings comprised of houses, galleries, and shops.  Each building has a unique architectural design and the artists display diverse collections, from paintings, to ceramics, to musical instruments, to books. It's such a beautiful place.  I'm fortunate to live fairly close, so I have been volunteering there for the last month.  Each time I visit I go to a new gallery or shop and help the manager with whatever they have for me to do.  I'm planning to write a short essay about my visit to each place, since they have provided some of my most interesting experiences in Korea.  I am very excited to be involved at Heyri and to learn from international artists.  And I'm thrilled to have discovered so much creativity surrounding me.

heyri art valley

There is a large garden that I pass on my way to and from school everyday.  If it's a warm morning, I usually see an old woman bent over tending to it.  This amazes me for a few reasons: 1) She is the only one I ever see in the garden
2) It's easily one of the biggest gardens I've ever seen and 3) She is very old.  She uses an abandoned baby carriage to move harvested vegetables around.  It appears that she is the only one who takes care of this sprawling mass of plants.  There is a small makeshift shack along the edge that I assume she sits in when it's cold or uses as storage.  I very much hope that is not where she lives.  I like walking past the garden because it reminds me to take a deep breath and be grateful.  I'm a bit sad that today I saw the old woman covering some of the land in plastic for the winter.  I look forward to seeing the garden in full bloom again come spring.  

I've always been completely creeped out by fog.  Usually I'm driving through it, at night, which certainly increases the creepiness factor.  I've had to get used to it though, because fog is a very common occurrence in our part of Korea.  Through the night and early morning there is very often a blanket of fog on our town. This morning was the first time that fog stuck around past the time I leave for school.  The fog was so thick and white that I couldn't see further than 50 feet in front of me as I walked the familiar route.  But I wasn't creeped out at all.  In fact, it was one of the more beautiful things I've seen.  It seemed as if the trees were walking toward me, rather than me toward them. Maybe I could just stand still and the whole world would eventually pass by me.

I've started writing at least three posts about my first impressions (for the second time) of Korea.  I think there is just too much I could say, and so I get overwhelmed and unable to write anything coherent and meaningful.  Today I was walking home from school and I realized it doesn't really matter any longer what my first impressions were.  What matters now is that nearly two months after arriving, I'm very happy with how things are.

I'm happy that I work at a great school, with wonderful staff.
I'm happy that Korean food tastes a lot better this time around.
I'm happy that my students are at an age where I can connect with them.
I'm happy that I can walk everywhere I need to go.
I'm happy that the big city is only an hour long train ride (and $1.50) away.
I'm happy that I get to come home to my boys every night.
I'm happy that we have a lovely apartment, that is nestled among traditional Korean homes.
I'm happy that our little town doesn't have a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut.
I'm happy that I have met wonderful people in Korea.
I'm happy that I have made so much progress on my goals in these two months.
I'm happy that I have a helpful, loving and fun partner.
I'm happy that it is still autumn.
I'm happy that I have access to technology that makes it easy to feel connected with the rest of the world.
I'm happy that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.
I'm happy that the world has renewed hope.
I'm happy to be here, doing this, at this moment.

I live a 15 minute walk from my school.

I have 500 students.

There are 3 grades at my school: 7th, 8th and 9th.

My office is on the 4th floor (of 5).

I walk up at least 250 stairs a day.

I have 1 Korean coffee after lunch.

My classes are 45 minutes long.

I teach 4 or 5 classes per day.

Good numbers, I think.

I spent the summer mostly like I would have if I were still 15 years old.  I lived with my mom, hung out with my family and some friends.  I bummed around at the beach, at the park, by the t.v. and the laptop.  The major differences were highlighted by the fact that I'm almost 10 years older now.  The reason I was bumming around wasn't because I had two months off school.  It was because I was looking for a job, and I had found myself in the familiar vortex of having a degree in social science, with too much education for many jobs and too little experience to be hired as a full-time employee anywhere else.  Mind you, I was looking everywhere but Canada, though I know I would most likely have the same problem there.  I was sure that if I just looked hard enough I would find the opportunity I was looking for: one to pay off my debts while living abroad doing something related to my future career goals.  To my dismay, the only justifiable option that kept cropping up was to teach in Korea, the place I had left just months before, feeling rather negative.  So, I finally gave into the idea (after much thought) that maybe Korea would offer what I was looking for. Money - Check.  Travel - Check. Career Experience - If I made an effort - Check. 

Guess where I've ended up.  Korea, of course! I'm working in a middle school (which is one of the age groups I hope to work with in the future) in a small city north of Seoul that has an arts center (something I want to learn more about and get involved in) and I'll have at least 5 weeks of vacation (hopefully allowing me to knock a few more places off my 'to-see' list).  Best of all, I have a plan to attain some major goals this year and (most importantly) a new attitude towards Korea.  So far, which isn't very far, it's been going very well.  I just hope nothing breaches the DMZ and the exchange rates stop soaring.  No, I'm definitely not 15 anymore.

Last weekend, in an effort to see some old friends that we had been planning to see for a long time, we went to Seoul.  The only other time we went there ended up being spent mostly indoors, overwhelmed by shopping, so this time we tried to remain outdoors as much as we could handle {given the much colder temperatures than we are now used to} and tried to see and do things that were more interesting than the inside of a shopping mall.  We were mostly successful on both counts.

First, we got to spend a lot of time with our friends, Andrea and JuHyung {whom we call simply "J"}.  We know them from different places and different times, but I had no doubt that we would all have fun together.  We met Andrea in Itaewon, the foreigner district, and had a lunch of Pad Thai, because that is what we do whenever the option is presented to us.  We talked about Korea and compared, complained about and laughed over our jobs {which continued throughout the day}.  Then we went to an English book store and browsed the selection.  I picked up a Russia Phrasebook so I can take my learning wherever I go. J met us there and then pulled out some impressive lists of things to do in his home city.  We decided on the Royal Palace.

The palace {Gyeongbokgung} is beautiful.  It rests between the tall buildings of Seoul and the backdrop of the mountain behind it.  Unfortunately, we missed the entry time, so we could only admire it from outside, but it was still worth the trip.  Instead, we wandered into the Royal Palace Museum, to have a look at some art and a self-striking water clock that some very smart Koreans invented many moons ago.  I took a lot of pictures of beautiful things and wandered around discussing with my friends.

Afterwards, J took us to a cool little street full of shops and restaurants, where we encountered a random procession of old men dressed in traditional clothes, banging on drums.  We ate at an 'italian' restaurant that turned out to be much better than the 'italian' restaurant in Suncheon.  Felling gluttonous, we search for dessert, and took no more than fifty steps before arriving at the ultimate dessert destination:  A cafe that was serving homemade Belgian waffles toppled with ice cream and fruit. Hello! This place was so busy that we had to sit outside, under a heating lamp, but no one complained once the food arrived.

We concluded our day together after walking each other to the subway stop and talking for another half an hour.  It was clear that it had been too long for all of us and we thouroughly enjoyed getting together with old friends and making new ones.  The next day, D and I wandered through Insadong {there was a lot of wandering on this trip} and had lunch in a cafe before delving into a giant mall that made me tired and annoyed. I used to like malls, but they are no longer my thing.  Now my thing is being outside, with my friends, eating belgian waffles and ice cream.

Last week was the long awaited Chinese New Year Holiday, dubbed Solare in Korean.  This year it landed on Thursday, so all of Asia had a very long weekend that started Wednesday and finished today.  It was beyond wonderful to have five days off in a row, and despite the fact that I didn't use them to travel {it's not the best time, since anyone is Asia who can, is traveling at the same time}, I did get to experience some new things right here in Korea. 

For the first day, I embarked on an adventure with two friends to find a small temple and nearby waterfall.  We got lost, several times, but we had fun rolling through the countryside.  When we finally got to our destination we found a lovely little temple with almost no one in it.  This is rare, since tourist attractions are usually absolutely full of people.  We took some photos and tried to stay warm while taking in the architecture and basking in the calm.

By the time we had seen everything, we were too cold and too hungry to bother getting lost again looking for the waterfall, so we pulled over to a small country restaurant instead and stuffed ourselves full of duck.  There is a style of eating in Korea that is like BBQ, but indoors.  Everyone sits around a table on the floor and the meat of choice {usually beef, pork or duck} cooks in front of you on a round slab of metal that is heated from a flame below.  When it is cooked, you take a piece and wrap it in lettuce with anything else you find on the table {such as garlic, onion, raddish, or this yummy red sauce} and then pop that sucker in your mouth.  You have to put the whole thing in at once. Those are the rules. 

After dinner we made our way back to Suncheon, when someone suggested we check out a place I can't believe I haven't been before.  Mostly because it is right beside my apartment, and I used to go to the gym in the same building.  Nevertheless, I hadn't been yet.  It is similar to a spa, where there are several rooms all at many temperatures.  The rooms are made with different kinds of stone and crystals, which are supposed to be beneficial to different ailments.  For example, there was a charoal room at a temperature of 50 degrees C that is good for joint pain.  There was also a crystal room at 104 degrees C.  I'm not sure what that was good for, aside from making one dizzy upon exit. You pay about 6$ and you can stay as long as you want.  It's open 24 hours a day and people actually sleep over.  It has to be the cheapest and most relaxing hotel I've ever heard of. 

The rest of my holiday was spend in my pj's, cuddling with kitties, watching movies and eating, with the occasional jaunt out to see friends or go to the gym.  How very, very lovely.  Happy 2nd New Year!      

temple