Namhae Island

About three weeks into my time in Korea, I went a small fishing village on and island off the southern coast of Korea. It was Friday after school and I had planned to go to Seoul later that evening, when I was chatting with my friend Ricardo about weekend plans. He told me he was going down to Namhae Island the next morning to go kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding for a friends’ birthday. He mentioned if I was interested, I was more than welcome to join. Of course I went. I knew Seoul would be there for me to go to another weekend.

So a train ride, a bus ride, and a taxi ride later. I arrived with a group of about 20 foreigners in this tiny fishing village. Once we dropped our bags at the pension (guesthouse) we were staying at, we went kayaking and paddleboarding from the inlet in between rocky islands and coastline. The weather was beautiful and I even got to go swimming in the crystal blue water. There were huge (I do not exaggerate when I say huge) lion’s mane jellyfish that populated the rocky coastline.

After kayaking we played some games (drinking related) and I got a chance to finally talk to a lot of the group throughout the night of cooking out and beach bonfiring. I met the people I would end up going to Seoraksan with the following weekend. I had a great time and it was nice to branch out and meet a lot of other foreigners besides the people that I live with.

Some shots from the Namhae Island trip: 

 The view towards the sea. 

 The view towards the mountains and rice paddies.

 The harbor where we kayaked.

I spy a giant jelly...

Life update!

Hello faithful blog readers! I have fallen back on my writing duties as a blogger in the past few weeks, so I apologize...

I have been in Korea for a month and a half now and this week I will ring in my 25th birthday here. It seems like my life in the states is a world away, but I still feel fresh here as well. The last month has been filled with new adventures, confusion, excitement, and incredible amounts of kindness from Korean strangers. I think about how lucky I am to be here every single day.

I am becoming much more comfortable at both of my schools and I'm starting to enjoy teaching a lot more. My kids are sweet most of the time and we have started to move past the point where they are scared to speak English in front of me. I still have my days where my classes go horribly and I have zero patience for the problems that the kids throw at me. Overall, I feel so much happier with this job than I did serving tables for hours on end. The hours aren't too bad either... leave in the morning between 7:30 and 8 and get home as early as 2:30 or as late as 3:45 in the afternoon.

At BongSeo, my large school, I have finally gotten through the process of giving the first and second grade students English names and getting them to make name tags. This helps immensely. Most of them get excited about the notion of choosing their very own English name and the English names are MUCH easier to pronounce than the Korean names. Once they all really learn their English names and take to using them, I can hold them accountable for their behavior! This will make controlling and disciplining my classes infinitely easier. The funny part is that many of the students are named after my friends and family. A constant reminder that pieces of those I love are not far away.

YongJin, my smaller school, is lovely as always. The mothers in my adult class have proved to be some of the most wonderful people in my life in Korea. The staff and the parents at YoungJin continue to make me feel incredibly welcome. I am supposed to be taking the bus home from school everyday and I have yet to take it. Either a parent or a staff member (or complete stranger sometimes) happens to pick me up on my way to the bus stop or at the bus stop. Last week I was told that I would not be teaching my adult class, but we would be having a school barbecue instead. The parents all came and grilled Samgyeopsal (Korean name for thin cut strips of pork) which we put in lettuce wraps along with kimchi and a chili and garlic spiced soybean paste. So delicious! It was great to spend time with all of my classes outside of class as well. While the language barrier can make it hard to really connect with the kids, I think that it also makes the connections that you do make even more special.

 My third grade class from YongJin cheesing it up for the camera.

 Mothers grilling up the Samgyeopsal.

Part of my sixth grade class.

Sai, another foreign teacher through the TALK (Teach and Learn in Korea) program, and one of her sweet first graders.

To address the small aside from the last paragraph, the first ride from a complete stranger was actually kind of an accident. It was two or three weeks into my time in Korea and I was waiting at the bus stop and a very sweet lady pulled up and told me to get in her car, she pointed to the city and said "Jeonju, go?" I of course assumed that she was a parent, but after we started talking in broken English, it was clear that she was just passing by and that she just wanted to offer me a ride and practice her English. This has become a common theme for my life in Korea, and I am perfectly happy with that! We exchanged emails and I told her that we could get together another time to practice English. On Friday, I also recieved a ride another ride from a stranger! A very nice young farm worker picked me up and drove me to the bus stop in town. He spolke very basic English, but he told me that he really liked to sing and that he was very open minded and happy. He said he was very glad to meet me and he even tried to help me look up bus times to get back to my apartment. I felt very safe the entire time I was in the car and I got out of the car feeling much happier from his positive energy.

Other than school, I have been traveling a few of the weekends, and going out in Jeonju other weekends. I have started learning/practicing Hangul, the alphabet, and I am picking up basic Korean. It is actually really easy to live here even with the language barrier. It can be frustrating sometimes, but overall, it could be much worse!

Last Thursday, the mothers from my adult class presented me with multiple tupperware containers of kimchi. I have mentioned kimchi in previous posts... but I will revisit. Kimchi is served with every single meal in Korea. It is commonly made with varying types of vegetables (mostly cabbages, radishes, and scallions), chili spices, and brine. Kimchi can be served fresh or fermented. Many Koreans have separate refrigerators specifically for their kimchi! I was given two fresh kimchis, one made with napa cabbage and one with radish, and one fermented kimchi. Kimchi has a very distinct taste, one that I have grown to really like. I eat it at every meal that involves Korean food.

Tomorrow, I do not go into school until 1! The children have rehearsal for a talent show coming up on Friday, so I am free to sleep in and finally sit down and write some blogs on all the traveling that I have done! Look for a few blogs on Namhae Island, Seoraksan National Park, rock climbing, and my trip to Seoul this past weekend.

Lots of happy thoughts and hugs to everyone back in the states!

First weekends in Jeonju and week two of teaching

I feel as though I've lived a year in the last 2 weeks. The amount of information I've been inundated with and all of the new experiences have stretched time. So to pick up where I left off last week...

Friday night I went out for a night in one of the districts near Chonbuk National University. Chonbuk Dae is about a 10 min cab ride/25 min walk from where we live. Quinn and I had our first Soju experience with our lovely Kiwi friend Rosa by our side. Needless to say, none of us will ever drink a full bottle of Soju in one sitting again. The hangover was reason enough for that... we spent all day Saturday "sleeping off our jet lag" aka our hangover. If you can imagine, Soju costs 1,100 Won for one bottle (about $1.10) and that bottle will more than set you straight. Soju is the drink of choice in Korea, particularly in social situations. I will take it easy on the Soju from now on.

Saturday evening, Rosa, Quinn, and I went out with a friend Laura. Laura is from Scotland, has lived in lots of countries (India, Australia, South Korea multiple years, etc.) and she has the most incredible and entertaining stories. We all went out for pizza and then out for drinks at a few bars in the area of the city by the name of Gaeksa. (I had heard some scary rumors about pizza in Korea, but I have to say, this stuff was pretty good!) It's a huge shopping district that is lit up to the point where you are walking in a florescent daylight. The first bar we went to played American music and felt like a bar where I would hang out at home. Then we headed back to Chonbuk Dae and went to a World Beer Bar and a "Western"bar by the name of "Woops." The World Beer Bar was really cool... you picked your beer out of a cooler, sat down to drink all you wanted, and then took your bottles up to the counter and paid at the end. Korean culture seems to be a pretty honest one, so this seems to be effective.

The walkway in Gaeksa.

Yummy bulgogi (Korean beef) pizza. 

World Beer Bar

Sunday we woke up and went on a hike to a mountain near Laura's house. It was great, we walked down the street from her apartment and there was a trailhead! You could see all of Jeonju from a lookout near the top. It was a great/easy hike. There is a ridge line with trails on it that surrounds about 2/3 of the city. We talked about starting at one end one day and just hiking until we didn't want to anymore and catching a cab home. The trails are part dirt and part man made stairs using the rocks from the mountain. It was raining that day, so I didn't take my nice camera out, but I snapped some cool shots with my ipod. On the way back to Laura's apartment, we walked along a reservoir that was quite beautiful as well.

This week, school has continued to challenge me. My class load (17 classes with 30 kids in each) at Bong Seo makes my job at that school difficult to get a good grasp on. Each teacher has different expectations about their class, some voice theirs, some are non-existent, and some offer tools to help me. Mostly the former. Obviously, I am still learning the teaching technique suits me best, as well as how on earth to discipline children when they can mock you in their own language. Some of the Korean teachers are very supportive of their children learning English, and some think that it is not very important. Their attitude is generally reflected in their classes eagerness to learn.

I have the most difficulty with the first grade classes. They are so new to English that they have a decent size noun vocabulary, but when it comes to verbs and comprehending sentences and directions, they are at a loss. It can be very frustrating if the teacher does not speak enough English to translate directions or explain connections that I am trying to make to the kids. This is frustrating and exhausting, but I am trying to keep on rolling with it. A few shots of Bong Seo Elementary...

Teaching at Young Jin on Thursdays & Fridays has been somewhat of a relief for me. The school is small and I have the kids two days a week. I have started to notice distinctions between the kids who are very smart and the kids who have problems learning. The staff is incredibly friendly and helpful in the classroom. Most of them understand English to the point that they either co-teach with me, or help me if the children to not understand. The sixth grade class is my favorite... Sixth grade in Korea is still part of elementary school and then in middle school there is a first, second, and third grade of middle school. My sixth graders are fairly apathetic, but if you are persistent with them, they understand English well enough to allow me to feel as though I'm accomplishing something within the lesson.

The kindergarten class I teach at Young Jin is just me having playtime with them and getting them to speak English. They are the most adorable little people and they love giving hugs. They have a lot of energy, and it is somewhat overwhelming, but fun none the less. The adult class that I was dreading to teach at first is quickly becoming one of my favorite classes. Not because I like teaching them the most, but because the women are the most wonderful people. Their main purpose for learning English is to be able to talk to their kids and help them practice their English. One of them speaks English pretty well and she said she wants to take me to the Jeonju Hanok Village. Hanok Village is a traditional Korean village that has been turned into a more touristy area complete with shops that sell handicrafts and a wide array of restaurants. It is one of the most beautiful areas in Jeonju.

As I walked to the bus stop on Thursday from my school, two of the mothers who spoke English very poorly tried to ask how I was getting home, and I told them I was just going to take the bus. I think they were trying to ask me if I needed a ride, but didn't know how. Then a third mother pulled up to the bus stop and told me to get in her car. She put my address in the GPS and then when we got to my apartment, she informed me that she would drive me home after class every Thursday. On Friday, I was walking to the bus stop and my fourth grade co-teacher pulled up and said that she was going into town, so she could give me a ride home. I feel honored by the hospitality that the mothers and teachers from Young Jin have shown me.

Sunflowers in the courtyard of Young Jin Elementary.

I have started going to yoga classes with a Korean teacher. I went twice this past week and I will go 3 times a week from now on. The classes are the most intense that I have been to. The teacher is a wonderful older Korean man who emanates calmness and kindness. He helps adjust you to push yourself a bit deeper into each pose. The classes are a perfect way to balance the stress of teaching, and I feel completely refreshed when I'm done with each one. The two classes that Rosa and I went to this past week were full of older Korean women. I was amazed by the flexibility and the discipline of those older Korean women! They put me to shame. The Korean women talk during class, and Rosa and I are convinced that they are making fun of us. Either way, I have learned to tell myself whenever Koreans seem to be talking about me to just imagine that they are saying all positive things! Perks of not understanding the language...

Friday night I went to dinner with the head teacher (Grace) from Bong Seo and the other English teacher, Amanda. We went to a Korean Barbeque kind of place. They bring out all of the fixings and put them on the table and they bring out the meat raw and you cook it at the table. Then you make wraps with lettuce and all the toppings. It was so tasty! 

This weekend was the Jeonju Sori Festival, so there were a bunch of concerts and cultural events that were happening in the Hanok Village and Gaeksa section of town. During the day on Saturday Rosa, Quinn and I walked around Gaeksa and caught a little bit of the performances and Rosa and Quinn did some shopping. 

Quinn and Rosa

Saturday night, Rosa and I went out to the Hanok Village and had a delicious Italian dinner (Saturday nights have turned into Western food nights apparently). There was a band playing folk music near the entrance of Hanok Village, and they sounded awesome. The Hanok Village was incredibly beautiful, with fountains/rivers running along the pathways and the architecture makes you feel as if you have traveled back in time. After dinner we headed to see a few Korean bands play, the first band we went to was not our favorite, so we went to another bar and caught another band who had a girl drummer (who was awesome). We caught two bands there and then a DJ played. Overall, a pretty great night of live music. Afterwards we went to a dive bar that reminded me of a place that I would hang out at back home. It's called Deep In and you can write on the walls, the main bartender is incredibly nice and speaks English very well. I really enjoyed it. 

The restaurant in Hanok Village. 

Gaeksa at night.

Deep in wall behind the bar.

Bar munchies...

Tonight I went out for dakgalbi with Rosa and our friend Phillip. Afterwards we went to a bar called Art and Travel. It is officially my favorite bar in Jeonju. The walls are covered in pictures of art and pictures of people are pasted on the wall in the shape of the world. There are lanterns hanging up and the bar has a bit of an Indian flare to it. The kicker: they have craft beer!! I found an IPA in Korea!! For a price of course... so not an everyday thing, but a once in a while thing. 

Other fun happenings from the last week or so: I went to the open air market near my apartment with Quinn. They have everything from produce, to fresh meats, to live seafood, and silkworm larvae... a delicacy in Korea. I will probably try it at some point. Everything once right? The fun part of the market was the song and dance once once you ask the price of something and you try to tell the people how much you want. I will learn Korean soon enough, but in the mean time, the older ladies and the men that work at the market were very nice and they were humored by our confusion. 

Hoping to get a good grasp of Hangul (the alphabet) this week, so I will be more at ease traveling by myself. I have gotten in touch with another climber through a Korean climbing website and I think I may take a trip to the coast this weekend to climb there. I also plan to climb at a fall meet and greet for climbers in Korea in October sometime, up north. Looking forward to getting out, meeting some like minded people, and enjoying the fall weather that will soon be setting in. 

Hopefully Typhoon Sanba that we had today will be the last of the summer monsoon season. The typhoon was a bit of a let down... it weakened before it got here and we just had pouring rain and a bit of wind all day. I had a run-to-catch-the-bus-in-the-pouring-rain-and-still-miss-it moment this morning...   Not my favorite part of the day, but we all have our moments right? 

Look forward to some more cultural centered blogs coming up... eventually me talking about my daily life will get boring. At the two week in country mark I can say that I miss people from home, but I am very happy with my life here. It's shaping up to be a good year!