Amy in Korea

Last day in Lima

2011-11-30T07:11:00.001-08:00

Wow! So much to tell! I do not yet have pictures (hopefully before the weekend!).

The Inca Trail / Macchu Picchu was simply amazing. Incredibly challenging, but amazing. We started hiking around noon on Friday, hiked from about 6 am until 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday and hiked 4am until arriving at Macchu Picchu at 7:30 am on Monday.

Macchu Picchu itself is jaw dropping. But it meant even more for us trekkers because, well, we weren't just trekkers. It felt like we were pilgrims (since we walked the pilgrimage trail). So that was pretty awesome.

So much to tell, but I will have to stop here (the computer spell check is set to Spanish so every word I type has a red underline...for those that know me, you can imagine how upsetting this is. haha)

Anyways, Veronica and I are heading home on a midnight flight. We should be back home in 24 hours. Until then, we'll be dragging our blistered, aching bodies all over Lima. Yay!

Hello, Peru -- Our time in Puno

2011-11-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

With heavy hearts, Veronica and I said goodbye to Bolivia. We took a bus to Puno, Peru (the border crossing went smoothly...hurray!) and arrived in Puno Tuesday around 2:30 Chicago time. We spent the rest of the day adjusting to our hotel, the new city and our upcoming days.

On Wednesday, we kicked off the day with a trip to The Floating Uros Islands. We knew going into the trek that, once upon a time, there were a group of people living in the Puno area who fleed to Lake Titicaca to avoid the violence between tribes on the mainland. These people literally built their houses and communities on floating reeds.

Sounds cool, right? Sadly, the whole thing was a load of bull. Okay, that was a little harsh. They are kind of like a working historical society. You know, the ones that have people dressed in old clothes churning butter? Once we arrived on our island, we were shown demonstrations of how these islands were built, operated and maintained. Then we were kind of stuck there for a painful 20 minutes while the fake locals tried to sell us cheap tourist trinkets.

Interesting but a bit of a bummer.

But we ended the day on a definite high-note. We visited a historical ruins site called Sillustani (see-you-stah-ni), which is home to these huge ancient ritual sites and burial grounds. Puno is 3,800 meters elevation, but the site was over 4,000. It was quite breathtaking, both literally and figuratively.

After an hour hike up (with several breaks along the way) we came to the top of the site. See the pic below (it just does not do it justice)

There were several masses of rock scattered across the site similar to the one in front of me in the picture. These are tomb markers. The tombs on the highest peak (like the one pictured) are actually for children. Kind of sad, but I suppose I would choose no other place to be laid to rest.

On our way back home, we stopped at a typical country farm. Once again, like The Uros Islands, this was more of a sample museum; no one actually lived there. They showed us where they plant stuff and where they cook stuff and where they sleep....then they showed us.....

The guinea pigs!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had llamas and alpacas, too, but you can bet that I was busy fawning over these Domino look-alikes. (I wanted to set them free, but Veronica held me back).

So, overall, nice day in Puno. I do not like Puno as much as Copacabana, but had a great time all the same. Tomorrow we take an early and lengthy bus to Cuzco. The bus is kind of a tour and makes several stops at ruins along the way. From Cuzco on Friday, we will start hiking the Inca Trail! Wish us luck!

Happy thanksgiving to everyone at home! We will both be thinking of you!

Pics from Copacabana & Isla del Sol

2011-11-23T17:12:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures from our time in Copacabana:

This is at the big cathedral in Copacabana. The cathedral is home to ¨The Virgin of Copacaban,¨ who is revered as the Virign Mary who is dedicated to the Sacred Valley (area around Lake Titicaca). The altar for this virgin is insane! We couldn´t take pictures, which is a shame. The altar was just stunning. An entire cathedral wall of gold and ornaments.

On day 2 of Copacabana (Monday), we visited Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). The island lived up to the name. Once we arrived to Isla, we walked about 5km to ancient ruins. Here is a pic of Roni at a lookout point along the way. Fun tidbit -- We learned that Lake Titicaca was originally Titicalka, but took on the name Titicaca when the Spanish invaded.

Back at Copacabana, I snapped this shot on my way back to the hotel of the sun setting behind mountains on Lake Titicaca. Our hotel room looked out at this view.

This is what I had for breakfast the day we left Copacabana. From left to right: Orange juice, coca tea, (behind the coca tea) toast with butter and jam, pancake with chocolate sauce and (in the far corner) fried eggs. Yum!!

Hope you enjoyed! The pictures I post here are the ones that I take on my phone. I have so many more on my camera (especially from Isla del Sol), so be sure to check them out on Facebook when I get back. Thanks for reading!

Copacabana and the Island of the Sun

2011-11-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Picking right back where I left off, Veronica and I traveled by bus from La Paz to the border city of Copacabana on Sunday morning. The bus ride was simply stunning.

La Paz city is kind of in a valley. The trip to Copacabana was on the ¨Altiplano,¨which is the super high-altitude plateau surrounding La Paz. Honestly, words cannot even describe. I have never seen a sky so big. We were literally on top of the world. And the clouds...wow! It was as if I could reach up and swipe my fingers through them if I had a good enough jump. I have pictures but, due to technology restrictions, I won´t be able to post here. Check Facebook in a day or so.

Copacabana is a city that sits right on Lake Titicaca. It is quite rural, which is a wonderful change of pace from bustling La Paz. So quiet!

After checking into a really cute (and...ahem...rustic) hostal, Veronica and I headed to Copa´s main attraction: a huge, stark white cathedral. I´ve got some awesome pictures of that, too. The Cathedral is the home to ¨The Virgin of Copacabana,¨which, from what I´ve pieced together is a big deal. Apparently, a piece of wood washed up on Copa´s shores with what appeared to be a lady carved on it. Despite the Spaniard´s attempt to discredit this artifact, many Bolivians today believe that the virigin specifically watches over Bolivia. We haven´t actually seen the virgin yet because there was a mass in service when we were there. We´re hoping to go back tomorrow before our bus to Puno, Peru.

We finished the rest of the day with a hike up to a ¨wishing¨altar on top of a mountain. Sounded like a good idea while we were standing at the bottom of it. Several puffs of the inhaler later, Veronica and I were sitting atop, making wishes (due to come true in a year).

I wish that this story had a happy ending that did not involve Veronica getting a nasty case of food poisoning (we suspect a meal of trout is the culprit), but...that wouldn´t be very South America-like. While she recovers, I wonder if I shouldn´t make another trip to the top of the wishing altar to wish for my health.

But she is a true champion. Today (Monday) we took a boat to the nearby Isla del Sol to look at, besides amazing views, old Inca ruins. Incans believe that their god was born on the island and created the sun and moon here. Again, words cannot describe. Pictures are only marginally better. Hopefully I will be able to post pics tomorrow once we arrive in Puno.

We´ve hiked a lot the past couple days (of course the Isla del Sol ruins were on top of another mountain), so we´re hoping the next couple days leading up to our Inca Trail hike will be restful.

Side notes: (1) The hot chocolate here is unbelievable. They literally grind chunks of cooking chocolate into a steaming cup of milk. (2) Pepto-Bismol is a godsend. (3) Listening to a tour guide describing a sacrifical ceremony in a foreign language is equally as challenging as entertaining. (4) The weather has been outstanding. (5) The sun is 500903479 times stronger up here -- Copacabana is roughly 3,800 m above sea level.

Can´t wait to get back and tell you more!

I know, I know. I´m not in Korea anymore...

2011-11-19T16:42:00.001-08:00

Hola from Bolivia...not Korea anymore!

By posting a blog from Bolivia, I´ve officially made this my travel blog. Veronica and I made it safely to Bolivia. We arrived very early Thursday morning (4:30 a.m. Chicago time, 6:30 a.m. local) and spent most of Thursday drinking obscene amounts of water and being tired.

La Paz is roughly 4,000 meters above sea level, so our number-one goal was to avoid altitude sickness. We decided that the best way to do that was to sit around and drink water and coca tea - a native drink used to reduce the affects of the altitude - like it was our job. I have to admit, as soon as the plane landed and turned off the pressurizers, I felt like I was going to hurl. I felt dizzy and disoriented and thought, with a sinking heart, ¨Oh no, I´m one of the unlucky ones with an affinity for altitude sickness.¨

Don´t worry! After spending a few minutes repeating to myself, ¨You´re fine, you drama queen, you.¨ I was better. We sailed through customs, caught a cab to our hostel, walked breathlessly up two flights of stairs (We had to stop to catch our breath midway up) and spent the next two or three hours drinking water and tea. The tea is an absolute godsend. It completely wiped out all traces of discomfort.

Hungover with fatigue from the sleepless overnight flight and trying to convince our bodies that the lack of oxygen was OK, we spent that entire first day napping and drinking water and tea. We walked around La Paz some but...the hills!!! Couple the hilly terrain that puts San Francisco to shame with the lack of oxygen and you get two tired gringos (gringo essentially means white tourist).

We slept like babies Thursday night.

Friday we spent getting a handle on the city that is La Paz. Mastering the bloody hills, we found our way to the central plaza where La Paz´s main government building (attached to their main cathedral) is. I would say that the highlight of our day was the Art Museum. The museum featured Bolivian art from the beginning to the modern day. It was very cool, and the museum itself, once a palace, was stunning. (Pic of the courtyard of the museum below)

Saturday, we kicked off the day with an authentically local breakfast. We sat elbow to elbow with La Paz natives and feasted on Api tea (a purple corn tea flavored with ginger and other spices...de-lish) and ¨pancakes¨(basically a funnel cake without sugar). (tea pictured below)

We spent the afternoon in the Contemporary Art museum (Since we know nearly no Spanish, art museums are the only types of museums we really don´t need English translations to understand), which was cool, but not nearly as cool as the first art museum.

Tomorrow we are saying goodbye to our lovely hostel (which has an internet connection, free coca tea and sells water by the gallons) and La Paz and are taking a bus to Lake Titicaca. Should be fantastic! I will keep everyone posted as the internet access allows.

The weather has been awesome! Sunny and blue skies, typically around 65 to 70 degrees. Today a front moved in in a matter of minutes and dropped the temps to 40s with wind, clouds and rain. Thankfully, Veronica and I were back at the hostel in our new Bolivian sweaters (so warm! Made from alpaca fur...NO ALPACAS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF MY SWEATER.) :)

Until next time...

Letters to a Teacher

2010-07-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

My days at Gurye High School are numbered. Literally. We're down to 3. ><>

I wrote all of the 2nd graders goodbye notes. For one of my most "challenging" students, I wrote in Korean, "Sometimes you give me a headache, but it's okay because I can joke around with you." Yep. he liked that. Whatdoya know? Giving me a headache was probably his daily goal.

Anyways, here are some excerpts from letters my students wrote to me:

"I think you was in hard time during teaching students for about 1 year because I know our school students are ... very... childish." haha

"I joined Facebook! I will leave message for you in everyday! I can promise with you."

Youngmee, this one was particularly touching/sad:

많이 이야기를 하진 못했지만 그래도 쌤 가니까 너무 아쉽고 슬퍼요 나름 정들었어요! 안가면...안돼겠죠? :(

Also this week, I made two huge posters with pictures of my students from the year. It's been a good year.

That's all on my end. I'm busy as heck with Camp Fulbright and trying to tie up loose ends. But, keep pushing through. In exactly one month, I'll be home. :)

Jeju Half Marathon!

2010-07-01T03:34:00.000-07:00

Haha, sorry! I forgot!

The half marathon went well. My time was 1 hour 39 minutes. It's a good time, but I was shooting for 1:37:00. Oh well, maybe next time! ^^ I finished 6th in women overall. Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Fashion Week

2010-06-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

20 Days of living in Gurye remain.

My how time flies. I am currently writing notes to all 120 2nd graders and select 1st and 3rd graders. (1st graders are the devil, I don't teach 3rd grade, but taught them last semester as 2nd graders) I've gotten pretty close to some of the kids, and some of the notes are pretty hard to write; I get pretty sad. I was really surprised. I guess friendship is kind of like that...it just sneaks up on you.

I have 3/5 classes done. Only 2 more! (50 students!)

News flash: I live in a farming community. AKA, the middle of a rice field. Saturday was the first day of rainy season. Result? Monster mosquitos. I've never seen any as big as these. They're, like, Amazonian! Thankfully, the fat suckers are slow. But the bites are painful! I sleep in pants, a long sleeve shirt, socks, gloves and a shirt wrapped around my face. My host mom gave me insect killing spray, so tonight I chased a mosquito around my room, spraying the death-spray all around my room until the thing dropped to smacking height. Needless to say, there is a cloud of poison lingering as I type this.

And the bug-killing-spray trucks make daily rounds in the evening. The residents here like the poison fog. As the truck passes, kids run to play in the fog and the older people go for walks in it. My co-teacher (an older gentleman) said, "Of course. It is a great place for walks because there are no bugs."

of course. duh.

Anyway, here's what I've been doing to contribute to the conversational English growth at Gurye High School. I taught "Fashion" words (such as pants, shirt, suit, leotard, heels, hat, etc.). Students had to then make two outfits: for men and for women.

I did this project with 3/5 2nd grade classes. My first graders don't deserve to have fun. The tall, skinny boy - In-ho - is dressed up as "Lady Gaga." You'll know when you see him. He was so funny. I've never seen any boy so excited to dress up like Lady Gaga.

I'm always amazed how into it they get.

Aren't the cute!? See why it's hard to say goodbye!?

This weekend is the Fulbright ETA final dinner, so I'll be going to Seoul for that. It's the last time we'll all be together. Officially. Wow. Sorry, it's just a little surreal (and painful?) for me.

Thanks for reading!

Oh My, What' you've missed!

2010-06-11T16:44:00.001-07:00

I've been very busy and haven't updated in a while. So here's a little summary of everything that's been going on!

City Officials Elections

June 2nd was election day for smaller city positions. Thank god. I can't imagine what it would be like for a major election. Two weeks before the election, I was finishing up a run on a quiet Wednesday morning. Then, suddenly!! "oldies" Korean pop music blaring from the street! It's probably the worst "pop" music I've ever heard. Turns out, the most common method of campaigning in Korea is for (a) the candidate to make a propaganda song and (b) have the song play 13-14 hours per day from speaker-rigged trucks.

Me on a damn music truck.

It was hell on Earth. For 13-14 hours a day these stupid trucks blared terrible, annoying music and blocked roads. Sometimes, two or three different candidates would compete on the same corner, so you had THREE stupid trucks blaring terrible, annoying music at the same time and place.

It's over. And for this, I'm grateful.

My Birthday

It went really well! Thank you everyone who called and sorry for everyone who tried but didn't get hold of me. ><>

Mad for Ads Lesson

I taught ads to my Juniors. I gave them weird inventions to which they had to make an advertisement. (Goodbye, American magazines!) Here were some of the best.

Invention: "Portable Pet Potty"

Invention: Mouth Mask

Saying Goodbye

My time in Gurye/Korea is running out. I'm starting to realize that I'll have to say goodbye to everyone. Oddly enough, I think it'll be especially tough with my 2nd graders (Juniors). This past Wednesday, I was walking with two 2nd graders in the hall when one of them started tearing up and said, "Teacher! I don't want you to go!"

Gosh. Don't make this any harder than it already is.

Salac Waterfalls

This Friday (11 June), I came to school and barely had my computer on before a non-English-speaking teacher said, "KBS [Korean TV channel...like NBC] come Gurye! You, Students, TV show!"

Oh boy.

Turns out, the show features off-the-beaten-trail things to do in Korea. And, sure enough, Gurye was next on the list of features. There's a waterfall just outside of Gurye that's a popular swimming place in the summer. So, KBS wanted to film some students playing in the water. Oh. And me.

It was really fun! Here's a short, ROUGH, video summary!

Jeju Half Marathon

Not sure if I mentioned this, but I'm running another half marathon in Korea.... tomorrow. ^^ Sunday (13 June) morning I'll be running 13.1 miles in Jeju (the island off the coast of the mainland) with a few other Fulbright friends. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyways, thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Buddha

2010-05-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

For those that missed it, Friday was Buddha's birthday! Yay! That means, no school. Three-day weekend! Double yay!

A lot of my friends were planning on going to Seoul for a fun, laid-back weekend. I was about to go... but...

Me: Buddha's birthday is next weekend...

Host mom: Yes. You we will go to chicken farm?

Me: [pause, choosing my words carefully] Okay.... Um. Why?

Host mom: Ah! We will look at chickens and take the eggs.

So, not knowing much more than that, I climbed into the car around noon on Friday with my mom, bros and Jae-gyeong (younger bro)'s friend - Ji-hwan.

Well, we drive 10 miles into the sticks of the sticks, the last 2km being up a mountain road. Very windy and steep. (It also smelled like farm animal ... uh ... waste, which Jae-jin labeled as "nature smell.")

Finally, we get to the "chicken farm" ("산하산장" ... I don't know what it means, but I know 산 means mountain...which is repeated, and 장 means "place" or "point")

Well, initially, there weren't any chickens. Just a completely stunning view. We were up pretty high, and kind of in the elbow crook of a mountain. The sky was big and blue, and off in the not-so-distant-distance, I heard the babble of a small waterfall. Don't worry, the "nature smell" was gone now.

To the right of the picture, is a patio-like dining area, where I had kimbab while my family had Korean BBQ. There were three women about my mom's age also eating with us. I think one of them owned the place, which turned out to be a restaurant and hotel.

After lunch, I found the chickens! They were down the mountain a little way. Host mom said that "chickens too not-tall to eat." Thank god. We also didn't take any of their eggs.

Isn't he adorable? He made faces at me and my big, scary blue eyes all throughout lunch.

Now, in real life (AKA: my life in America) I've never had a brother, even though Kristin comes pretty close. ;) In Korea, I've had four. Boys are weird. It's like, if there's a rule, they have to break it. It's an unsaid challenge. After lunch, mom gave us permission to walk up to our knees in the river. Me and the bros (Ji-hwan spends so much time at our house that he's like my third brother) went down to the river. Like I thought, there was a small water fall. The water was the cleanest water I've ever seen. And ice cold! "Mountain spring water" has new, definite meaning for me now. How many places in the world can you still drink straight from the stream? Sitting there on that rock in the middle of the beautiful mountain river, overlooking a stunning valley, and skipping the occasional stone, I realized that this is perfect.

Then boys become boys. One dare led to another. Before you know it, all of their pants were off (they held onto their underwear, thank god) and they were dunking each other. I made it very clear that their lives would become a living hell if they dunked me.

Mom was "nor so happy" about my wet bros. So, we kicked around the soccer ball and I taught them the game "500" until they dried off. I also reached deep and brought out my inner brother and kicked the ball down the hill, where all three boys ran after it. While they were down the hill, I grabbed one of Jae-gyeong's shoes and hid it behind a bush.

Everyone thought it was funny except for Jae-gyeong. He, too, was "nor so happy."

So, that's how I spent my afternoon on Buddha's birthday. Meditating and thinking about life in a slice of paradise.

Jae-jin, Mom, Jae-gyeong, me

Ji-hwan, me, Jae-gyeong

On the way home, we stopped at an eco-museum. It just had fish and stuff. I'm not sure what the point of these bikes were, but my brothers took joy in getting each other wet....again.

That night, host mom brought me to Hwaeom Temple to pay our respects to The Buddha. The temple is beautiful during the day, but even more beautiful at night on Buddha's birthday. There were hundreds and hundreds of lanterns lit throughout the temple.

Level 1

Level 2

Closer

Host mom and I did our bows to Buddha. Afterwards:

HM: What did you ask for?

Me: [oops, I just bowed and meditated, I didn't really "ask for" anything...] Oh. Um. World peace.

HM: Oh! [laughing] You are so good! I asked for Amy to find good husband and have good job and many money.

Damn. If I knew it was wish day, I would have been more prepared!

I asked mom if I could buy one of the lanterns (they were so pretty!) to which she replied, "Oh. No. But, tomorrow, I will call king monk and take one for you." Sometimes the language barrier provides the greatest small joys in the world. So, we'll see if my mom has as much pull with the "king monk" as she says.

That was a busy day, huh? But really, an awesome day. Anyways, thanks for reading!

Cebu City, Philippines

2010-05-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

It's been one week since my return from beautiful Cebu City. Oh, how I wish I was still there. I loved it. It was probably my second favorite trip of this year (behind kayaking in Thailand).

My co-worker, Mi-young, and I arrived in Cebu City late Saturday night. Mi-young actually studied English in Cebu City for two months, so her friends - Gail and Elsie - met us at the airport and helped us find a hotel for the night.

Sunday, Gail, Elsie and another friend - Kathy - showed Mi-young and me around the big attractions of Cebu City.

1) Bascilia del Santo Nino: Oldest cathedral in Philippines. It's over 400 years old and was burned down twice.

We actually came right as mass was ending.

Mass exit.

2) Magellan's Cross. Cebu City is famous of being the landing spot of Magellan, who brought with him European influence and Christianity. True to Westerner's nature, he claimed the land to be his, introduce "the right" way to do things and planted a huge cross. Culturally sensitive, huh?

Anyways, here's Magellan's Cross. The actual cross is supposedly encased within this one to prevent further damage. Many think that there's actually nothing left of the original cross. Whatever, it gives people hope and comfort. That's all that any physical icon can do.

3) Fort San Pedro. The fort is shaped like a triangle, with two sides facing the ocean and one facing land. (The ocean use to be right up against the fort, but, for some reason or another, this is no longer true.) It was used first as a Spanish fort to defend against "the Muslims" but later became a stronghold for native Philippines during their revolution and emancipation. haha.

Wee!

4) "Tops." Basically, a sunset lookout point.

Monday was the Philippines national Presidential Elections, so everything was closed. Mi-young and I hung out at a pool all day. At night, we went to the Casino!

The best part? We won! About $150!

What to do with the money? ... ^^

5) We decided to think about it at the major Taoist Temple in Cebu City.

Tuesday night, we knew. We were going to go snorkeling off the coast of a remote island followed by para-sailing followed by a spa followed by our plane home.

Yay!

We went to an island called Nalusuan for snorkeling. It was awesome! Mi-young had a water-proof camera, so there are some good snorkeling pictures on Facebook. Check it out!

So, that was my trip! Thanks for reading!

Happy Children's Day!

2010-05-07T06:19:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was one of very few national holidays in Korea: Children's Day!

Elementary and middle schools were out Wednesday-Friday. High school only gets off on Wednesday. Don't feel too sorry for me; they have midterms next week, so I get that off. yippee.

Anyways, for Children's day, I met my friend, Emily, in Yeosu. Yeosu is just a coastal city with lots of little islands scattered around it. It's famous for cliffs. There's also a running joke about the "2012 Yeosu Expo." In 2002, it was announced that Yeosu would hold the World Expo. Almost immediately after the announcement, they started promoting it. Hang in there, guys! Two more years!

Yeosu was holding a "Turtle Ship" festival.

This is a turtle ship. It's the "traditional Korean war boat." It kind of looks like a turtle. Hence the name.

Like all festivals in Korea, it sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. There were only two turtle boats (apparently the Turtle Ship day was Friday and Saturday...not Wednesday). One pictured above and another made out of aluminum cans. Womp womp.

But we got the idea.

Since the boats weren't ready, the festival had a lot of "traditional Korean culture" stuff. Kids could dress up in "traditional wedding clothes," make "traditional rice cakes," "traditional pottery" and a whole heap of other "traditional" stuff. (btw: the phrase "Traditional Korean..." is probably in the top-5 first English phrases learned)

Some girls in "traditional Korean wedding gowns" sitting inside a "traditional Korean wedding cart for women."

Yeosu is really rocky and cliff-like. So we walked around a tiny cliff-island. I'm standing in front of "Cave of Dragon" according to all of the signs. Dragon must have been one cool guy. ^^

It was a nice day, but I caught myself thinking a lot, "Jeeze, this would be 100 times better if these kids weren't here." :) Then I remembered that this is their day.

Thursday and Friday are parent's day, but I don't think my bros did anything special for my mom other than sleep more. Oh kids.

I leave for the Philippines tomorrow. Yay! Thanks for reading!

Jiri Mountain

2010-05-02T03:27:00.000-07:00

Just a little reminder, Gurye is located at the base of Jiri Mountain, the tallest mountain on the mainland. I've been living here for going on 9 months now and have yet to hike the sucker.

So, my friend Rob and I set out to hike it this past Saturday. There's a 45km / 3 day trail. Yeah. We're not ready for that. So we choose to hike from Hwaeomsa Temple (the very beginning of the trail...about 5 miles from my house) to Nogodan Shelter. A 5.7km/2.5 hour route. Much better, right? Anyways, there are a lot of different trails from Nogodan, so there's actually a bus up there. Our plan was to hike up and bus down.

The start of the trail (nice sidewalk!)

What about 4km of the trail looked like. Boulders. Lots and lots of boulders. Oh yeah, and very poor trail markings. Good thing I was there, or else Rob would have gotten lost at least 5 times.

The river that runs along the trail is straight from the top of the mountain. And since snow is melting, the river was moving pretty fast. A really cool thing: you could drink straight from the river. That's how fresh it is.

It would be a complete lie if I said the course was easy. It was anything but. It was quite steep and the path was very boulder-y. I felt like we were scampering up the mountain rather than hiking it. There was a point where Rob and I sat down after a particularly strenuous stretch of boulder. Neither of us said it, but we both were beginning to doubt our ability to finish the climb. But, we dragged ourselves up and started walking. It was a very bleak time.

Until....

We saw the top! It was 10 meters away (around a bend) from our "doubt" rock! Thank goodness...

From the top

yeah, we're not going back down the way we came. We would die.

There was often a small stream running down the path, making the boulders real slippery. Going up is okay, but going down is very dangerous.

There was snow up there, despite being 75-degrees in Gurye

The view! (Not Gurye... Gurye is on the other side)

Another View

Yay! We made it!

Facts for the curious: Gurye is at 115m elevation. Nogodan is 1,507m. The highest peak is just over 1,900 meters. So, yeah. Our portion of the hike was quite steep.

So, that was my Saturday (and became my Sunday, as my legs were pooped). It was fun!

Next Saturday, May 8-May 13 I will be traveling to Cebu, Philippines with another English teacher at my school, Mee-young. The trip was kind of last minute, so it still hasn't really sunk in yet. :) Yet another country stamped into the pages of my already weathered passport.

Happy 70th, Ex-Host-Grandfather!

2010-04-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

After my classes on Friday, I made my way to Goheung, a really small town famous for being the "Kennedy Space Center" of Korea. Saturday was my first homestay's grandfather's (host-dad's dad) 70th birthday. In Korea, birthdays 61 and 70 are the important years. On your 61st birthday, you've lived through an entire zodiac cycle. 70 is special because, honestly, people didn't use to live that long.

It was good to see everyone again. I was meeting most of them for the second time. Friday we had dinner, watched the ball game (Kia Tigers are having a rough spring training) and went to bed. There. was. food. everywhere.

22 people slept in a four-room (5 if you include the bathroom) house. It was the worst sleep of my life. I started next to ex-Mom but somehow got wedged between two linebacker-like ahjummah's (60+ year old women). The one on the left (who wore a zebra-print outfit) snored like a bear and had probably the worst breath I've ever smelled. The one on the right could probably be a kicker on a professional football team. So, I woke up to Zebra's terrible breath and moved closer to Kicker. Right as I was falling asleep, Kicker gave me a good whack back to consciousness, leaving her leg draped over my body. Somewhere, one of the ankle-biters was whimpering about something. I laid there, huddled next to Zebra, just out of reach of Kicker thinking, "It's good to be back." Fun night. I seriously woke up a couple times (usually because of a good, hard kick) and would find myself giggling at the situation. Am I going crazy??

The party was great! It was a little awkward for me during the setup, because I didn't know (a) how to ask to help out and (b) how to actually help out. Grandpa and Grandma were dressed in hanboks (traditional Korean dress). Grandpa's four sons were in suits and their wives were in hanboks as well. The front of the house was decorated with colorful flower arrangements and food. Everyone looked great.

To kick things off, there was a traditional insa ceremony (basically, a lot of bowing and pouring of tea), followed by family pictures (yes, I was in it), followed by lunch! There was a DJ and camera man. It was just like a wedding. Over 400 people came to the party between 11am and 7pm (but for the record, I saw the first opened bottle of alcohol at 9:47). After lunch was noraebang (karaoke) and dancing.

I don't know how it happened, but I soon found myself in the very center of the ahjummah dancing group. Even more of a mystery, I found myself being told to karaoke to "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond. How they found that particular song and thought it appropriate for me to sing is beyond me. After every song, Friz (another Ahjummah I named for after her hair) would drag me away, make me drink a glass of beer and eat a cherry tomato before sending me back with a butt love tap.

Family.

Frank (nickname for an unknown old man) insisted I slow dance with him (never mind the fast song). Thank goodness ex-Mom was watching. She called me over and stalled a little (before Friz found me and dragged me away for another beer/cherry tomato/love tap).

One thing I realized during the day was that, no matter what, family is pervasive. Mannerisms, attitudes, demeanors and even looks reminded me of my own family. One quiet, intelligent older man was exactly like Grandpa Benes. Another level-headed diva with her quiet and funny husband were a dead match of Aunt Sue and Uncle George. I could go on and on. If you're reading this, I probably found a Korean match for you. In many ways it made me miss home. But, at the same time, it was comforting. Family is pervasive.

Grandma, Me, Grandpa, Oh-Nee

(What you can't see is Friz behind the camerawoman - Kicker - beckoning me over for another beer/cherry tomato/love tap combo)

Fighting a cold and fatigue (*ahem* Zebra and Kicker) I ducked out a little early for home. Where I sit, writing this for you to read. Lesson learned: everything was different (different food, traditions, idea of 'cake,' [rice cake cake? eugh.] idea of 'dessert,' [cherry tomatos are not dessert], country, etc.) but everything was the same.

Thanks for reading!

It's been a while...

2010-04-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

So, here's the skinny with what's new in my life:

April 2-5: Fulbright ETA conference in Seogwipo (sounds like soggy-po) on Jeju island.

Jeju is kind of the "Hawaii" of Korea. It's famous for Mt. Halla, the tallest mountain in South Korea. It's a big, inactive volcano. Jeju is also famous for oranges. They produce enough to feed the entire country full of oranges and tangerines for the entire year. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries, so I had very few shots.

We climbed "Sunset Peak," meaning the rim of an inactive volcano that looks out over the western ocean. Here I am at the top!

April 8: Teacher's Half-Day

Basically, classes were shortened so that class ended at 3pm (which is early...school usually ends at 10pm) and all but a few teachers got to go look at cherry blossoms. Sounds crazy, right? Let me explain.

Gurye is covered in two types of plants: cherry blossom trees and sansu-you bushes. Both produce this sour berry used for both kid and adult juice. And, what a coincidence! They both bloom at the same time. So, for a window of about 10 days, I looked out my window at home to see a sea of pink and yellow set against endless mountains and blue skies.

That said, April 8th was about day 5 of blooming; the height of the blooming season. So, all the teachers (except for the unlucky few...) piled into cars to seek out the most scenic views.

My homegirls: They make working in Gurye bearable. They are Gee-Hae (ethics), Eun-Jang (Chinese language), me (English!) and Mi-Young (English language). They made me bend over so I wouldn't be taller than them. ^^

Cherry blossoms take #2 (again, I had to bend my knees)

Ever wonder what an ahjummah looks like? I mean, I mention them in my posts a lot...

Making acorn jello (it's as gross as it sounds) in her spring outfit. See? How can you look at her an NOT smile??

April 14: 2nd Grade Field Trip to Gwangju

Gwangju is that big city near me (about 90 minutes west). "Gwang" is Chinese for "Light" and "Ju" means city. Therefore, Gwangju is the "City of Lights." Which is very symbolic, given that Gwangju is the birthplace of democracy in South Korea. In the spring of 1980, students and civilians protested the current government of Korea. (There was a great government cover-up of civilian murders [also in Gwangju] to suppress political resistance). The result of the coup was a massive massacre of unarmed civilian protesters by a fully-armed military. From this tragedy emerged democracy and modern government in Korea.

Anyways, I'm getting passionate. Our first stop was the massacre memorial museum, where over 600 civilians are buried.

We watched a video of the massacre. When the movie ended and the lights came on, I was surprised to see everyone crying. Even the "bad boys" were less-rowdy than usual. I was quickly reminded of the exact young age of this country. This happened 30 years ago. Some of my teachers were living in Gwangju! Some parents of my students attended the university where the massacre occurred. Korea as I know it is still a baby.

Don't worry, the trip wasn't a total downer. After the museum, we went to the Gwangju light festival! It was really cold, but fun. They had a bunch of tents that had sciency and techy stuff about lights. Cooler than it sounds, I promise.

Me, Gee-Hae, In-ho and "Jae" in front of the entrance to the light festival.

Gee-Hae and Mi-Young playing some Wii baseball

April ???: Bowling!

My Gurye friends, Matt and Rob, and I often go bowling. Well. Matt usually bowls about 150, Rob about 130. I average 100 on good days. Anyways, this one time Matt and I both bowled terrible games and, for the first (and probably last) time ever, I beat him without a handicap. So, I had to take a picture. (note my first frame....yikes!)

So, that's my life. Exciting as always! Next weekend is my first homestay's grandfather's 70th birthday party (70 is a big birthday....like 50 is for us).

Also, I accepted a job as activity director for Camp Fulbright - a two-week English camp in July. Which means, I will be coming home August 1 or 2. Mark you calendars! ;)

Little things

2010-03-29T20:57:00.001-07:00

I realize that I've been kind of inactive on the blog front this past month or two, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of it with little entries.

So, here's a little story for you.

Being a vegetarian in Korea is hard. But, I'm really lucky that I have host families that, for the most part, get it. My school, well, that's another story.

Yesterday, I went to lunch: fish, sesame leaf kimchi (my all-time least favorite Korean food period), radish kimchi, squid and octopus kimchi, shredded chicken/some-kind-of-mammal soup. With an almost-empty tray of rice and radish kimchi, I sat down and stared at my terrible lunch.

"Amy! You're lunch is terrible." For once, my co-teacher correctly read my mind.

"I know," was the only thing I could think of to answer.

Don't worry, this has a point.

So, while I was eating my rice and radishes, I thought, "Why do such little things make such a big difference?" I mean, think about it. I was struggling to not let some seafood and sesame leaves be the ruin of an entire day! 10 minutes (10 seconds if you only count me going through the buffet line) can dictate the overall mood of 24 hours! That's stupid! It's just food!

So, I finished my rice and radishes and spent the remainder of my lunch period scolding myself for being so childish.

But today. Oh, boy. Today. Today is the brightest, happiest, perfect-ist day ever in the history of the world. Why?

Because lunch was awesome.

Vegetable bibimbap! Bibimbap is a dish of bean sprouts, spinach, zucchini/cucumber, blacken fern stems (the best part! never would I ever thought that I'd love eating stems...), dried seaweed, rice and red pepper paste and beautifully mashed and mixed into a perfect consistency. Usually, at school, they ruin it by adding shredded pork, so I spend the first five minutes of lunch picking it out. (The dish comes unmixed, so it's not that hard to pick stuff out that you don't want. But, I will say, shredded meat is a pain in the butt no matter what).

But today there was no pork! No pork, beef, chicken, fish or anything else! And we had sweet-potato-rice donuts for dessert! I was in heaven!

So, do I let these 10 minutes define 24 hours? I mean, it's positive, not negative, right? But isn't that hypocritical? If I'm allowed to be happy because of this lunch, then aren't I allowed to be unhappy because of other lunches?

So I defer to the words from the book, The Princess Bride (yes, the novel that made the movie): "Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be." Since life's not fair, I don't have to be either. So, I'm not going to let bad lunches bother me, but I'm going to dance in the street if I get another good lunch like today's again (the chances of which are so small that I don't hesitate to make this promise).

Hooray for bibimbap and good moods!

Next week's lesson: April Fools' Day

2010-03-28T03:49:00.000-07:00

So, I'm making a lesson on April Fools' Day for this next week. Here's a funny video I ran across in the process that I thought you would all enjoy. :)

Sansu-you Flower Festival

2010-03-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend, Gurye had a flower festival!

Now, "festivals" in Korea always sound a lot cooler than they actually are. This is just a warning.

I figured that the flower festival would be the perfect time for my friends to see my fair city at it's finest. So, Rachael, Lauren and Jen ("Lajal," "Rauran" and "Jenn-ee-pah" according to my host family) made their ways from Mokpo, Hwasun (near Gwangju) and Gwangju, respectively, to Gurye.

Rachael and Lauren stayed with my Friday night. Their first impression of my host family? My brother jumping out from behind the apartment door and yelling, "Boo!" in his underwear. Yeah, I don't think he was expecting my two friends.

We went to the festival on Saturday (Jen came in Saturday morning). Honestly, I was expecting a tent with a potted plant to be the festival, but, it turns out, it was actually quite a spread. Lots of food and random vendors (leggings, fanny packs, sharp knives, tea) surrounded a large stage, where people performed, largely, traditional musical pieces (samulnori [drums], traditional string instruments, etc). I've never seen so many 아줌마's = old women - in such a concentrated area.

There were also horses, which, naturally, I was drawn to. They were giving rides to kids and doing equestrian performances. They were really good!

Oddly enough, the only thing lacking from the festival were actual flowers. We didn't really see any. I think the festival is more of a "spring is coming" festival rather than an actual exhibit of flowers. While I did not go, I know that they had a children's art competition/exhibit on Sunday that was flower-related. You could also make little lotus lanterns.

After an hour or so of walking around, we decided to end on a good note and head for home. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Lauren/Rauren sporting an edgy new hat "유행" look for all of those young ladies over 70 still farming

Lauren and Jen on an exercise "machine." The circle plates spin, so you kind of spin your lower body while keeping your torso straight (Lauren = correct, Jen = incorrect). We're all pretty sure that the machine does nothing in terms of muscular fitness, but it does stretch (a little), and it's pretty fun. These kind of machines are everywhere in Korea. I like to play on them, but there's usually a long line of seniors.

A samulnori performance (not on the stage, obviously). They were performing "The Time for Flowers." It was really pretty. Their hats are suppose to be flowers.

Actually, a few weeks ago, I was walking home from school and nearly got run over by a parade of these people running into a convenience store. They were in full costume (with those silly flower hats and everything). And me, not knowing (like always) what the hell was going on, just kind of sighed, shrugged my shoulders and tried to tell myself that Koreans living in America are probably just as confused and scared when walking past a Wal-Mart.

Lauren and Jen left a little later to meet people in different cities, but Rachael stayed the night. (Jae-gyeong, the younger brother, was also having a sleepover! Three 10-year olds that kept saying, "I love you, Amy," and pronounced Rachael's name as "Lazer.") We decided to bake!

For those that don't know, I discovered this past week that my family has a toaster oven. I did a trial bake of chocolate chip cookies with complete success (24 cookies disappeared into the bellies of (essentially) 3 people in a matter of 2 hours). So, using peanut butter cookie and brownie mixes sent from home, Rachael and I baked.

We learned that brownies cannot be cooked in a toaster oven. Oh well, better to have tried and failed than to have never known.

We salvaged what we could of the brownies (burned on the top, uncooked on the bottom). We both thought they tasted fine...but, then again, we haven't had a real brownie in 8 months.

Naturally, my host mom served the cookies and brownies at breakfast the next morning, where she told me the family thought that the brownies looked like "dung."

Oh well, more for me!! :)

So, that was my wild weekend in Gurye. It was actually pretty fun. I'm glad that some ETAs were brave enough to venture into my little farm village.

Happy Birthday, Jae Gyeong!

2010-03-14T03:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my younger host brother (6th grade), told me at breakfast that his birthday was March 14. He was really excited because March 14 is, besides Pi day, a Korean 'holiday' called 'White Day.' White Day is a response to Valentines Day.

Valentine's Day (Feb 14): Girls give chocolates to boys

White Day (Mar. 14): Boy's give chocolate/cookies/cake to girls

Black Day (April 14): Single people eat Jajangmyeon (a fatty (but delish) noodle dish) together to 'celebrate' being single.

So, Saturday morning I rolled out of my floor blankets and made my way to the floor table for breakfast. My mom intercepted me mid-way and said, "Shower first." I just assumed that breakfast wasn't ready yet.

Fast forward to breakfast (as much as the details of my shower are super interesting), I kept hearing "ice cream." Now, as you know from the last entry, we eat some weird stuff at breakfast, so I just kept thinking, "Please. For the love of everything American, no ice cream for breakfast." The chatter died down and the translation began. Jae Gyeong's birthday party was today at an ice rink (not ice cream, which sound very similar in rapid Korean) in Suncheon. They were leaving in an hour. There would be 20 friends there.

Okay, sounds fun.

The phone rang constantly all morning.

At 9am, Jae Gyeong, Jae Gyeong's friend, my mom and I pile into the 5-passenger SUV. We start driving away from the highway, I assume, to pick up more people.

At 9:35am, nine 6th-grade boys, my mom and I, crammed in that same 5-passenger SUV, begin our trip to Suncheon. There were 19 other 6th-graders jammed into another van-like-thing. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was looking at me. But I feel that I really blended. I mean, never mind the blond hair, or the fact that I towered over everyone.

At 10am, we arrive at the ice rink. This particular ice rink was about 2/3 the size of a normal ice rink, with low ceilings and 3 pillars in the middle of the room. There were also 100 unsupervised kids skating in all directions. But don't worry, everyone had to wear helmets.

The rink (about 50 more kids poured in about 3 minutes after this picture was taken)

There were 6 girls at the birthday party, and they never left my side. At any point of the day, I had at least a girl in both hands (and probably a third of forth holding onto one of the girls and/or my waist). Here's one of them (forgot her name)...

There were also two boys with very serious crushes on me. They expressed their feelings of me, naturally, by throwing snowballs, shoving snow/ice down the back of my neck, or simply by trying to get me to fall. As sweet as their advances were, I had to turn down both of their marriage proposals.

By 12pm, everyone had had lunch of cup ramen (no pizza and cake at Korean birthday parties). My host mom and the other supervising adult left the rink to go nap at a friends apartment.

So, there I was. The only person over the age of 20 at an ice rink of 100 kids. There I was, dragging three to six girls while being pelted with snowballs and love advances by two very ambitious 10-year olds.

1-o'clock came. No host mom.

2-o'clock came. No host mom.

At 2:30, my girls were a ball of whiny, empty stomachs. Of course I had no money. But, my host mom said that the party was from 9-3pm, so it couldn't be that much longer.

At 2:50, my host mom returned! I threw some ice cream cones at the girls, returned my ice skates, walked outside and promised God that I would join the nunnery if he would only make a tall, stiff drink appear at my feet.

But God must work in mysterious ways, because he didn't give me a drink. We piled back into the vehicles. Luckily, I had made plans to meet Rob, a new friend from Gurye, in Suncheon that night to meet some of his friends. So, I was dropped off at the bus station, waving goodbye to the 9 hellions in the car (and ignoring the two urgent marriage proposals).

I met up with Rob at the bus terminal, where we went to meet his friends in a city near Suncheon called Gwangyang (nice little place). We had a relaxing, quiet dinner and night on the town. Gwangyang is a major steel-production city and is also set to become a Free Economic Zone in 2011. That's all I could figure out about it. The next day we saw the city, spent some time at the batting cages (batting cages line the streets in Korea. You just go, put in $0.50 and start hitting. They're pretty fun and a nice way to spend a good-weather day).

Quite the weekend, huh? I'm home now. We're having cake for Jae Gyeong's actual birthday when Jae Jaen get's home from studying (about 10pm. On a Sunday.). Not gonna lie, this birthday makes me a little apprehensive about mine. I think I'll keep it a super secret. Okay, thanks for reading!

Just Because You've Never Tried It...

2010-03-11T15:53:00.001-08:00

I've been promising to post about my trip around South Korea with Megan and Roni (it was really fun!), but I've been procrastinating. So, for now, we're going to skip it. ^^ I promise, I'll get to it later!

Yesterday at breakfast, my host brother asked me what I eat for dinner in America. (They're still really confused by this vegetarian thing) So, I told him that I eat veggie burgers. My host mom said she wanted to make it for me, but I told her that the burger part was too difficult. But, however, I do enjoy a hamburger without the burger (bun, cheese, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, etc). I also told her that I like spinach salad with strawberries (currently in season in Korea) and tofu. I left breakfast rather excited to see if my two recommendations would pan out.

Today at breakfast, the table was set with a lot of bread, peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard, mayo, apple slices (sliced thin, like for baking), eel (leftovers from yesterday's breakfast) and a plate of greens. I didn't really look hard at the greens, because I assumed it was Bossam, a popular dish of steamed pork and spicy red sauce wrapped in sesame leaves.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I barely noticed my mom putting two slices of bread on everyone's plate, or Jae Jaen - the older brother - looking at me with big, round eyes. I, like always, was waiting for someone to start so my "strange" eating habits wouldn't be noticed, but Jae Jaen said, "Show me how to make a sandwich."

Bingo. 1 + 1 = 2. This was Amy's Cultural Breakfast Day. I realized the greens were lettuce and spinach, not sesame leaves. And the hamburger buns? Slices of bread. The hamburger? Eel. Ho-oh boy.

So here are the sandwich combinations that were created at breakfast today, with a rating of 1-5 (5 being delicious).

1) Bread, lettuce, apple, ketchup (3)

2) Bread, peanut butter, apple (5)

3) Bread, peanut butter, lettuce, ketchup (1)

4) Bread, jam, apples, lettuce (4)

5) Lettuce, apple, ketchup (2)

6) Bread, ketchup, cheese, mustard, lettuce, apple, eel (4 according to the brothers)

7) Cheese, jam, bread (5)

8) Bread, lettuce, ketchup, mustard (4)

I explained that I usually eat spinach in a salad, raw. My host mom's eyes sparked to life and she said, "Ahhh, spinach, strawberry, tofu and mayonnaise!" To which I made an "X" with my arms (my universal sign to communicate "No.") and said, "Nooo mayonnaise!" Somehow, salad dressing skipped this country, so all salads (which are usually cabbage-based, not lettuce) are soaked in mayonnaise. I'm amazed that Koreans like it. In fact, I'm often worried that, if they eat it, they'll be turned off from American food forever. But, I guess it's probably the same when someone from Mexico walks into a Taco Bell. It's not right, it's not wrong, it's just different. Just because it's not the way you'd eat it, doesn't mean it doesn't taste good.

I repeated that to myself a lot at breakfast as I tried a bite of #1 and winced as my brothers took a bite of #6. Who knows? Maybe eel burgers are going to be the next big things... In the mean time, I found a simple recipe for veggie burgers.

Cambodia!

2010-03-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. You've probably forgotten that I even went there (nearly a month ago, gosh how time flies).

I arrived in Siem Reap February 6th (see!? a month ago!) to meet up with my friends, Rob and Jeane, who also teach (taught) English in Gurye. Siem Reap is home of Angkor, an ancient ruins city that, at one time, was the cradle of civilization in Cambodia, if not Southeast Asia as a whole. Inside Angkor, there are thousands of temples. Literally.

The most famous temple is Angkor Wat, which is the largest single-religion temple in the world. Don't worry. You'll see pictures.

Saturday

Jeane, Rob and I took a tuk tuk (a sort of small carriage pulled by a motorcycle) to the Angkor silk worm farm. There, we saw how farmers take the cocoon of a silk worm and turn it into clothing. Just so you're all aware, a lot of silk worms died for your silk shirt. We were lucky enough to be behind a large group of Korean tourists. You just can't get away sometimes.

Sunday

We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us around Angkor park. Although the temples were outstanding, the highlight of the day was definitely the Land Mine Museum. Basically, this man was recruited at the age of 10 to plant land mines for the Cambodian army. In 8 years, he laid over 1,000 mines. He defected from the Cambodian resistance in 1987 and has been clearing land mines ever since. Sometimes with an organization, sometimes by himself. He's recognized as the best in the field of clearing land mines. So, 300,000 land mine clearings later, he opened a museum with his findings.

Walking through the museum was devastating. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention in high school history, but I had never heard of this terrible war that tore apart this country (The war officially ended in 1992...only 18 years ago). I was shocked and disgusted to see the destruction caused by this war; the loss of life due to land mines. Even worse, loss of life and limbs today as children playing in a field near their home accidentally trip an old mine. There was a land mine from just about every developed country I could think of, the majority of them being from Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the U.S.

We finished the night by going to a traditional Khmer (native ethnicity of the Angkor region; the Khmer's built Angkor) puppet show. The performers all participate in the show to maintain their cultural heritage and to keep them off the streets.

Monday

We all took bikes to Angkor and spent the day riding between the temples. We biked from 6am-3pm and were spent for the day. It was perfect, though. We arrived at Angkor Wat (the big temple) right at Sunrise. I've seen a lot of beautiful things, but that's definitely going to remain in the top-5 until the day I die. There's something about Angkor Wat - especially at sunrise - that makes it hard to remember to breathe. It just seems impossible that anything could be that beautiful. And even more impossible: that you deserve to see it.

Tuesday

We traveled to Pheonm Pehn by bus. We crossed some gorgeous countryside. The ride ate up most of the day (roads are still pretty bad there).

Wednesday

Rob and Jeane left for another part of Cambodia, and I headed to the airport. I had some time between when they left and my flight, so I decided to visit a genocide museum (why? Why would I ever think that a genocide museum is a good last impression of any country?)

In the mid-1970's, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot decided to press the reset button in a plan called "Year Zero." The idea was to eliminate anyone with a brain and have a country of only equally wealthy farmers. So, the KR hunted down intellectuals and threw them into a school-turned-torture-camp where they were systematically tortured and killed. (The killing fields are actually outside of the city)

Today, the school is a museum. There are just rooms and rooms and rooms full of pictures of the victims, including pictures of victims right after torture. The KR admired Hitler's way of doing things, and really prided themselves on complete documentation (pictures of people upon entering, pictures upon leaving, pictures of the "facilities," etc.).

Once a classroom, individuals were chained to beds and tortured

1 of 7 boards of children that were detained (and probably killed) here

If you can, read the text

(I think you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

So, yeah. A little bit of a Debby Downer to end the trip, but I'm glad I went. Like it or not, it happened. You can ignore it and go on living, or you can take it in and let it shape the way you view life.

Okay, let's end with a happy note, shall we? Video of Cambodia below, enjoy!

Quick Story

2010-02-17T06:49:00.000-08:00

Before I post on Cambodia...

I came down with a nasty little head cold on Monday. Today I went to the convenience store next to my apartment to buy some Powerade. It was kind of late, I was feeling really terrible, my nose was running, I was feverish and I was in junky sick-clothes. I got to the checkout where an old man muttered to the cashier in Korean, "Look, she is beautiful!" to which I said, "Thank you. I understand Korean." To which the old man's face lit up and he started saying (border-line shouting) in English, "Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!" as I left the store.

Only in Korea - perhaps really only in small towns like mine - can a little old man (1) call someone looking like I did "beautiful" and (2) make my evening.

Kuala Lumpur

2010-02-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

What is Kuala Lumpur? I had no idea what to expect, especially coming from a remote island off the coast of Thailand. Reminder, it was down to Dave, Wescott and me as Kate and Halas returned to their respective homes.

Kuala Lumpur was the most interesting place in terms of ethnic diversity. I was completely amazed. Equal numbers of Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist religions living in perfect harmony, without batting an eye to the others' existences. Kuala Lumpur is a place where you can walk from Little India to China Town to Metropolis within 30 minutes. Women dressed in full hijabs (full-length Muslim robe) walking with someone in a mini skirt. It seemed like I was the only one phased by this stark contrast. It was also the closest I felt to America since last July. But I'll get to that later.

Malaysia is a Muslim country, and Kuala Lumpur is all about the oil. Everyone speaks perfect English. It's the default common ground between all of the diversity. We went to two super malls during our two days there. Including one that had a Borders bookstore. There were McDonald's every 200 meters. (and, with the Lunar New Year right around the corner, McDonald's was promoting a New Year "Prosperity Burger." As the Dave's said, "How could you not have a 'Prosperity Burger!?'") I even saw an Ace Hardware!

Needless to say, KL kind of made me homesick. For America. Not Korea.

Our first adventure was to the Batu Caves. Batu Caves are limestone caves that contain important Hindu places of worship. It's one of the largest Hindu shrines outside of India.

The most famous event is Thaipusam (which fell on Jan. 29, a week before we got there). Thaipusam attracts over 1 million Hindu worshipers for this one day event where worshipers show their religious commitment. Thaipusam is infamous for self-abuse such as pulling a wagon via hooks attached to your skin or driving a small rod from one cheek to the other and carrying things on each protruding point. Just do a Google Image search for "Thaipusam" and you'll see what I mean.

Needless to say, the caves were a little trashed when we got there, so we were a little disappointed.

After the caves, we went to super mall #1 to kill time before going to Petronas towers - the tallest twin towers in the world. It was cool, as far as tall buildings go. You don't actually go to the top, but to the skybridge on the 40th floor. There was a 3D movie about Petronas company and how they're the leaders in humanitarian efforts around the world and how they do no wrong. There was also a museum about how Petronas operates in Earth-friendly ways. They're propaganda was a little much. The Dave's and I felt like we were in a James Bond movie, at the headquarters of Petronas - the bad guy. :)

The last day we went to Merdeka Square, the place where Malaysia declared their independence. It was nice. Very pretty. We wandered through China Town and Little India and then hit up super mall #2. After, the Dave's had to get back to the airport to go to Korea. I wasn't leaving until early the next morning. So we said our goodbyes. There I was. All alone in Kuala Lumpur, getting ready to make my way to Cambodia the next morning.

Classic Jumping Picture (Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur)

At 5:30 AM on the train speeding for the airport (where I would need to catch a cab to the smaller airport to make my 7 AM flight) I kind of did a double take. I honestly couldn't believe that me, a shy little girl from a quaint Chicago suburb, was making my way to Cambodia from Kuala Lumpur. A year ago, I was probably studying or doing something trivial along those lines in Des Moines, Iowa. It's scary and invigorating how life twists and turns and just sort of takes you with it. That kind of volatility makes me feel so out of control and so ... free. Like a luck of the draw. Anyways. Onto Cambodia!

Thailand

2010-02-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, here come the updates. (Hopefully). I drug around a small journal during my trip, writing my blog entries along the way. I'm going to post by country adventure along with a few pictures. Hopefully I'll have time to make a picture/video thing later with all of the countries. We'll see. I'll have more time on Monday (this weekend is Chinese New Year, so I'll be busy with my host family with that).

Anyways, here you go! Enjoy!

Thailand

People: David Libardoni ("Dave"), David Halas ("Halas"), David Wescott ("Wescott"), Kate and Beans (Me)

After 17 hours of traveling, I arrived in Phuket, Thailand to meet up with my friends. Phuket is unlike anything I'd ever seen. Bars line every square inch of the street and prostitutes outnumber female tourists. Before the trip, I read, "The Road of Lost Innocence" by Somaly Mam (highly recommend it!), an autobiography about a Cambodian woman sold into sexual slavery at the age of 12, escaped and now works to save sex workers. So seeing the blatant prostitution was really kind of hard for me. The book made my experience in Phuket very real. It was hard, but I tried to focus on my friends. Being here with them, being free from life.

After 2 hours of sleep that night, we woke up early to make our way to Koh Yao Island - about 40 minutes by ferry off the coast of Thailand - where we would have our kayaking adventure. Still reeling from the 17 hours of travel, a night in Phuket and 2 hours of sleep, I felt numb. Too exhausted to feel tired.

The car that picked us up was one of those cattle pick-ups. The one with a cage over the bed, benches lining the sides. We all climbed up and bounced along to the docks. I tried to take in as much of Phuket as I could. It reminded me of Mexico, but with a crazy language and way more Europeans. I would come to conclude that Thailand is the Mexico of eastern Europe and Australia.

From the port, we took a ferry Koh Yao, where we met Run, our tour guide.

Run was our guide for the week. He would take us everywhere, entertain us and feed us. He was perfect. Born and raised on the island, Run was 29 years young, had a wife and two toddlers. He was a tour guide when there were tourists or a rubber farmer or fisherman when there weren't. Despite his family and his jobs, he was carefree and unconditionally happy.

Here was our first conversation with Run:
Halas: I'm David (all of us exchanging hidden smiles with each other)
Run: Dave. Hi!
Dave: I'm also David (giggling from us)
Run: (Wide-eyed) Oh! Same! (oh...just wait, Run)
Wescott: (Chuckling) And I'm also David.
Run: (Rocking back, laughing and searching all of our faces for a sign of some kind of joke) Oh! You're Dave, too!?

To say the least, Run never had problems remembering the guys. He remembered Kate just fine, but was rightfully confused by me. I introduced myself as "Amy" but everyone called me "Beans." He probably spent the whole week confused. I only remember him calling on me once, and that was on the last day. We were tossing a Frisbee when he called out "Bin!" I got the idea. He was close enough.

Our fearless leader, Run

On the ferry, we asked Run if our hotel was close to the beach. Run paused, gave an islander look of contemplation, before saying, "Yes. Sort of. There is a road, but when you cross it, the beach is near."

Technicalities. We literally had to cross a small 2-lane road and take two steps more to wind up on the beach. The ocean was barely 200 meters from our hotel, depending on the tide. But, to a man that has friends living in stilt huts in the ocean, our hotel was "sort of" near the beach.

By 11 AM, we were loading into another cattle-car to go kayak. Our driver for the week, Moot, would turn out too be the social king of the island. We rarely saw him without a bottle of beer. Standing at 5-feet on a tall day and weighing barely 100-pounds, Moot could out-drink us all. It was rumored that - having the social power he had - Moot could walk into any convenience store on the island, grab a beer and walk out, only paying a smile. That's right. Our driver was the village drinker. And we loved him.

Our limo. Moot is in the blue shirt and hat. There's a better picture of him later.

We transferred from truck to boat, our kayaks glistening in the sun. Our boat driver, Mr. Wa, reminded me of a retired clown. Heavily built, barefoot, bald, probably in his early 40's and missing his two front teeth. He usually wore a floppy straw hat and he was always smiling his big, toothless smile. Sadly, he was the one person I don't have a picture of. :( We, too, loved him and his boat.

Our favorite Mr. Wa story: After kayaking, Run and Mr. Wa were loading the kayaks onto Mr. Wa's boat. Once done, they headed back to their posts. Only, suddenly!, Kate's kayak came untied and fell into the water before Run or Mr. Wa could grab it. No big deal, someone just has to jump in a grab the rope. Well, our fearless Mr. Wa, without any hesitation, dramatically dived into the ocean - only pausing to tear off his floppy straw hat. We were utterly shocked at the lightening fast reactions of this gentle giant. It became the joke that Mr. Wa was selected as our boatman because, in his interview, he said he would never leave a kayak behind.

We spent about 2-3 hours kayaking. My kayak was white (like me, being the only one in my group not yet browned by the sun). For comedic sake, I named my kayak "Moonbeam." As Wescott said, "You would name a kayak "Moonbeam."

I was mostly kidding about the name from the get-go, but, oddly enough, it stuck. For the rest of the trip, I would hear, "Uh, I don't like the way Moonbeam is angled in that mangrove forest," seconds before my poor kayaking skills got me lodged between a rock and a hard place (literally).

I loved Moonbeam.

Me and Moonbeam

Kayaking isn't as hard as I thought it would be. And I actually was fairly decent at managing Moonbeam through tight spots and strong currents. It felt great to be out in the golden sun pouring my strength into the oar. For me, kayaking was a lot like running: mechanical, methodical and consistent. And you all know how much I like running.

The first day, Run took us on a gentle course around a rock island. We stopped midway to swing on vines from rock ledge to water. It was really fun, swinging like Tarzan. We had lunch on a beach on a random island. We were the only ones there. We ended up napping on the beach, exhaustion catching up to us, after lunch. Then headed back for beach volleyball with locals and dinner. I was asleep by 9:30 PM. I was pooped.

I took the next day off to recover while the Dave's and Kate kayaked (I slept 15 hours! Yikes!). Run was great enough to give me a motorbike, so I spent the afternoon roaming the island in search of beaches (of which there were many). Isn't it odd? I've never been on a motor-anything before Korea. But in Korea I have a moped. And here I was, in Thailand, on and motorbike (bigger than a moped, smaller than at motorcycle).

Day 3 was spent mountain biking. We saw some incredible stuff as Run led us through back yards, grazing land and little villages on the island. The ride finished with us zooming down a mountain, in the forest on a dirt-rock path. I thought I was going to wrap myself around a tree on several occasions. But, it was thrilling. The adrenaline was pumping for the rest of the day. We finished up with a trip to an inhabited island where we had a bonfire and some beer under a full moon. We kayaked back to the island around 9PM, had some dinner and went to bed.

Day 4 we kayaked around some islands to a private lagoon. We pulled into a cave, got out and crawled through a little hole out the other side of the cave to find a completely secluded lagoon. Jeeze, Run. You are a lucky man to have this in your backyard.

Day 5 we kayaked to Monkey Land. It was an area of shallow water surrounding an island crawling with cute little monkeys. Run brought some bananas, so we had a good time playing around with them. Curious little guys. To make sure you didn't have anymore bananas, they crawled on your kayak and peered inside. You know, just in case we were hiding bananas by our toes.

By the time he got to my kayak, he was thirsty. So, naturally, he bit a huge hole into one of my water bottles and licked out the water.

We finished the day by attending the "Full Moon Party." (even though the full moon was several days ago). I'm sure it was fun, but we were so tired we ended up calling it a day quite early and heading home to bed. Knowing, with great sadness, that tomorrow was our last day.

Day 6 we kayaked a little and then had to say our goodbyes to Run, Moot and Mr. Wa. Kate was pretty sick by this point, so she was glad to be heading back to Korea. Halas went back to the States (Halas is Dave's friend from high school/college) and Dave + Wescott + Me headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a few days. Isn't it shocking how such an incredible adventure can just end? But, as I'm learning here in Korea, everything ends.

Actually, the end was something from a corny teen movie. We were saying goodbye to Moot and Run at the docks and asked Run to give a tip and our goodbyes to Mr. Wa for us. Run gave us his classic Islander look and said, "Oh, there is Mr. Wa now." Sure enough, even though Mr. Wa dropped us off on the other side of the island, there he was, messing with some ropes in his boat. And, as we all turned to look, he looked up from his work and gave us a final wave and toothless grin (under his floppy straw hat). Ha. Small island, I guess.

Group shot at the dock. Moot is the shorty next to me, Run is behind Moot.
Dave, Wescott, Run/Moot, me, Kate, Halas

One country down, two more to go. I had a fantastic time in Thailand. Words barely can describe. Here are some scenery pictures:

From the beach in front of our bungalows

Taken from "Amy's Beach" - my favorite beach find on Day 2

Shot of the gang after a volleyball game

One country down, two to go

2010-02-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to send you a little shout-out from Kuala Lumpur. I just landed here after a six-day kayaking adventure on a remote island off of the coast of Phukett, Thailand. Somewhere between speeding down the rocky path of a mountain on a bike to feeding a banana to a monkey sitting a foot away from me on my kayak, I realized that I'm a very very lucky girl.

I promise to post more about my trip when I get back to Korea (11 February), so stay tuned and get excited!

Preview/Summary of Thailand activities: Kayaking (of course...lots of it), exploring tiny, people-free beaches, cliff jumping, playing volleyball with island locals, incredible sunrises, sunsets and moonlit nights, monkeys, mountain biking, boating, thai food and good times with my great friends.

In store for the future: Two days of sight seeing in Kuala Lumpur, four days of sight seeing in Cambodia (Angkor Wat and Siem Reap).

Life is good.

AYLP Summary - It's done!

2010-01-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

AYLP is over and done with. I'm happily sitting on my yo in Gurye, planning what needs to happen before I leave for SE Asia. I cannot wait for 90-degree weather. Overall, the week was good. The kids had a good time; me some new people. I sat next to a student on the way back to Gurye who was happily texting her new friends the whole way (and filling me in on every detail). Cute.

Needless to say, I think I need to avoid children for at least 24-hours.

Here are a few pictures from the week. I re-uploaded the videos from the past two posts, so those should be working now. Yay!

We had several lectures at the U.S. Embassy. And what U.S. embassy is not complete without a Barack Obama cut-out? This is a picture of the 5 students I brought from Gurye High. (Names from left to right: Chan-ho, Seong-yong, Dong-myeong/Michael, You-jin and Hey-in) What you don't see in the picture (because my students made me promise to edit it out) is all of my students standing on their toes in order to look not-quite-as-short next to the president. Height is a really weird issue around here.

My Gurye students and me at KBS News. KBS News is the major news broadcaster in Korea. It was weird; 30-seconds before this picture, some lady was recording the 5-o'clock news. The students really loved going behind the scenes.

Picture taken at the front of the KBS news history museum. This is the group of ETAs participating in the program. We all teach at different schools around Korea. (Names from left to right: Laura, Leigh, Eric, Jenny and Veronica).

On Friday we visited the DMZ. It was one of the highlights of my week because, since our program is through the U.S. Embassy, we kind of got a special tour. We started by having lunch with the Swiss and Swedish U.N. representatives. For those that need a refresher (I sure did), the DMZ was created by an armistice, not a peace treaty. The armistice basically says that the DMZ is the official line that South Koreans and North Koreans cannot cross. If someone crosses over, it's considered a threat and the defensive side can kill/capture/whatever the person(s) that crosses the line.

There's also a lot more involving weaponry, number of troops, trading rights, etc. but that's the basics. So, to make sure that the armistice was being followed, the U.N. allowed North and South Korea to choose two neutral parties each to monitor the DMZ line. Russia, on behalf of the North, chose Poland and Czechoslovakia while the U.S., on behalf of the South, choose Switzerland and Sweden. Today, 5 Swissmen and 5 Swedishmen man the post at the DMZ. (Czechoslovakia isn't a country anymore and Poland's not communist, so the North doesn't really have anyone on their side there anymore. #Fail)

After lunch, we toured the official diplomatic meeting area. This area is where any diplomats come to talk. The place is completely split into two, as you will see.

Jenny, Veronica and I spelling out "DMZ." We couldn't take a picture of the actual North due to military restrictions, so we did this instead.

Our tour guide. He was actually really really entertaining. (I guess it's pretty cold and boring up there). He did a lot of funny self-monologue since the kids couldn't really understand him (military people talk way to fast, use way too many acronyms and use too much slang for our exhausted students to follow) But I enjoyed it.

The important part of the picture is actually the building behind our guide. That's North Korea. There is a painted line that cuts those blue buildings in half. Once you step over that line, you're in North Korea. The building is the "welcoming" building for those who cross the line and enter the north. South Korea has one, too. It's behind me and it's called Freedom Hall.

Here's my favorite self-monologue:

"To the right you will see Freedom Village. 214 people live - well. There were 214 people living there. But one girl started dating a JSA (U.S. military). They're in Texas now, about to get married. I think her name was Sunny. Do you guys have American names? I guess not because it's not on an official document. You just choose your names like a nickname, sort of. Anyways. Now there's 213 people in Freedom Village."

He had me and Eric cracking up in the back.

This is inside those blue buildings pictured above. The blue buildings are where South, North and anyone else important talk. There are actually two different colored buildings. Blue buildings are for South Korea, grey ones are for North Korea. However, as you remember, nobody mans those buildings, so really the blue ones are the only ones in use.

Inside the blue buildings are two guards: one positioned in the middle of the building and one positioned on the North side. Both stand in 'ready' taekwondo positions. If anyone touches them, they'll switch to attack mode. Doesn't matter who you are.

At the end of the day, the guards have to lock both the North and the South doors of the buildings. One day, a solider was locking up the North door when a North guard attacked him and tried to pull him over. So now, two guards lock up at night. One locks the door, the other holds his belt.

Inside Freedom Hall (the South Korean welcome building).

Gurye High School on Saturday after the closing ceremonies

My team, named "The Sleepers." They were great.

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks for reading! Time for me to catch up on my sleep...

Blog videos

2010-01-20T14:42:00.001-08:00

For some reason, Youtube/Blogger/Google won't let me upload videos. Sorry! I'll do it later!

Korea still surprises me

2010-01-20T04:17:00.000-08:00

Wednesday: We had some morning lectures, made our way to lunch with NGO professionals, visited an NGO and made PB&J's and hot dogs for dinner.

This just goes to show that I can never let my guard down. I should have become suspicious as soon as we stepped into the alley. You see, in Korean business districts, many business people go out for lunch in these restaurants lining narrow alleys. The restaurants themselves are usually depressing from the outside but really nice and good quality on the inside. They also tend to be seafood or Samgyeopsal - literally translates to "pig with three layers of fat." By "tend to be" I mean always.

So, our lunch was down an alley. We walked into a restaurant with a tank of octopus in front of the door. Okay, I told myself, you'll probably skip lunch today. I started planning how I would strategically eat all of the vegetarian side dishes and slip into a convenience store for something with more substance and nutrition before our next activity.

We sit down and the waiter puts this in front of us. (Warning: graphic content)

What you don't see is me coming to the terrible realization that this poor creature is being boiled to death. As soon as the camera stopped, I spun the other way, trying everything in my power to keep myself from throwing up and crying.

Needless to say, I was too nauseous and upset to even think about eating anything for quite sometime. The video still makes my stomach roll.

Kim Dong-myeong (AKA: "Michael") is my only actual student that is in my AYLP group. When he realized that the only meal option was octopus, he nearly left the table to hunt down some vegetables. Cute kid.

Solution? My group and I made dinner at the hostel. I showed them the different techniques for PB&J's (standard PB+J, PB only, PB+potato chips, PB+bananas). For those that didn't like bread and/or peanut butter, I offered hot dogs.

It was a success. Not only did the kids have fun making strange sandwich combinations, but I got a good dose of American comfort food.

The NGO we visited dealt with foreign refugees living in Seoul. It offered assistance in something like 7 languages, had night classes and offered rooms for holiday celebrations (because there are more holidays than Christmas and Korean Thanksgiving). The hospital was your typical underfunded NGO hospital, packed with second-hand everything and nestled in a musty, cold, narrow building. But it did the trick, I guess. I was a little disturbed by the cafeteria. We walked in to find an ahjummah (old woman with nothing better to do in life than sell fruit and make food) cutting through rotten cabbage sprawled out on the dirty, wet cafeteria floor. Shocked, I asked my Korean co-leader if people would actually eat that. She replied, "No way! She'll only use the non-rotten parts."

The non-rotten parts of the cabbage (sprawled on a wet, dirty cafeteria floor) would make kimchi (cabbage seasoned and then allowed to ferment) to be fed to sick, scared foreign refugees. In a hospital too poor to reject any kind of free food that comes their way.

Be careful what you take for granted. Maybe give a little more moment's thought to how lucky you are to be eating your apple skin without worrying about some terrible germ. Or how you can walk into a restaurant without even thinking about the state of the silverware and plates.

But who am I to preach.

Visiting a broadcasting company tomorrow. The kids are excited. I forgot to mention that Day 1 one of my Gurye students got a bad case of the stomach flu. I was up until 1:30 am with her in the emergency room. So, I'm happy that the kids are healthy and *fingers crossed* hope they'll stay that way until at least Saturday. Damn, lovable ankle-biters.

Sorry, I've been busy

2010-01-19T05:19:00.000-08:00

My internship in Seoul ended last Friday. I moved out of my apartment on Saturday and went back to Gurye ... for 30 hours. Sunday morning, five or my students and I piled into a train for a 5-hour trek back to Seoul.

I'm spent in the travel department for a while.

But, my students are adorable, and the train ride only confirmed this already-held belief. (They couldn't eat lunch because they were too nervous/excited)

Sunday was orientation and games. 6 schools, each brought 5 students and the ETA. Then, we mix all of them up and put them in new groups. So, my small group of 5 only has one of my actual students. We do everything in large groups during the day and then in small groups at night.

Monday we had some speakers and visited Harley Davidson-Korea. I did an advertising project on Harley Davidson in college, so I was super excited about the tour. And it was fun. Yay. We capped the night off with bowling.

Tuesday we went to the American embassy and heard from embassy officials, including the U.S. ambassador, Kathleen Stephens. Good to see her again. :) We had Quiznos and Cheetos for lunch.

Happiest. Girl. In. Korea. (being at the army base has it's perks)

The afternoon we visited Seoul National University (the famed "best university in Korea." It's a really big deal. No one from my school has ever been accepted). The students were so excited.

We finished off the night with pizza dinner and noraebang (karaoke room). Man! Those kids can sing.

We are very busy, so here are some very rough videos for your enjoyment. Averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night, so sorry if this doesn't make sense. I had to post because my family thought I got lost in North Korea. *^^*

Also, the students have to keep a Web page about their activities. Check it out! http://club.cyworld.com/AYLP2010

Upcoming schedule:

Jan. 23 - AYLP ends

Jan. 24 - Skiing with the host family

Jan. 27 - Leave for southeast Asia

Jan. 27-Feb. 3 - Thailand kayaking trip

Feb. 4 - Feb. 6 - Malaysia

Feb. 6 - Feb. 10 - Cambodia

Feb. 10 - Return to Korea

Feb. 19 - Mar. 4 - Megan and Roni (friends from high school) are coming to visit me!!!

I'll post as much as I can!

An E-mail From A Student

2010-01-06T20:01:00.001-08:00

It made my day:

Hello this is "michael"..

nothing special.. just letter^^

I think It's hard to meet and play the song with plute

so unless you stay our school in New year,

there are no time to play..--;;

if you are o.k please send me your playfiles anytime.

and I will give you my play ^^

and homeworks...haha I WILL DO MY BEEEEEST!!

there are lot of snow in gurye. even though not much

like seoul.. it's rarely in here

I was wondering my spelling is not collect.. OTL

little(?) late.. but happy New year^^

see you~

Lucky Girl, Awesome City

2009-12-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

I finally escaped the madness that is holidays in Gurye. Last Sunday I made the 4+hour trek to Seoul to begin my internship at the Fulbright office. Note, when I left Gurye, it was 50-degrees and sunny. When I surfaced from the subway (toting a huge bag) it was a blizzard.

Nevermind that. I was in Seoul. I moved into my apartment (located in the Fulbright building). It's beautiful. Coming from an apartment shared by 5 people to an apartment to myself was stunning. Here are some pictures.

Ah! A bed!

So, yeah. It's really nice. I just finished my first day in the office. I'm working here until January 15th. It's going to be BUSY. Wish me luck!

This is actually quite normal

2009-12-28T05:30:00.000-08:00

This was taken at the teacher dinner after my school talent show. I post it because it really does accurately reflect what I deal with on a day to day basis. Maybe slightly extreme, but only slightly.

Dialog:

Biology teacher (BT): Ellie [previous female ETA from two years ago]

History teacher: mumbling my name

BT: You!

Me: Oh [you should stop now]

HT: Clarinet

Me: Clarinet?

HT: Clarinet.

Me: Did you like it

HT: No, that's not what I meant

Gym Teacher: [I have NO idea, but it's funny!]

A Very Merry Gurye Christmas

2009-12-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

For 21 years, I have spent Christmas just about the same way. This Christmas was probably the most surreal Christmas I have ever had, and probably ever will have again. So, here's how it went down:

Christmas Eve

It all started at breakfast. I kept hearing my mom say "pancake." Now, there's a Korean 'pancake' made out of egg, vegetables and seafood - usually octopus and shrimp, so I was careful to keep my hopes down. When I got to the table, there were three, large, American pancakes waiting for me. And. And. A bottle of maple syrup from Canada. (don't ask.) I haven't seen syrup since the States. I almost cried out of joy.

From 2pm until 7:30 pm was our school talent show. There's a whole other post about the talent show, for it was quite an event. I was positively elated the whole time to see my students (1) not in uniforms and (2) doing something they actually enjoy. At the end of the talent show, they called me up to the stage and gave me my Christmas gift - (take a guess) a huge jar of honey. This one was bigger than the one I got from the marathon. And it was in an expensive celadon jar. I have now stuffed both host families full of honey.

After the talent show, the teachers went out for dinner. Since the school year is over, it was kind of our last hurrah together. I was really sad to say goodbye to my favorite co-teacher, Ms. Seo. She is transferring to another school next year. The next semester looks bleak.

From left to right: Ms. Seo, Mr. Jeong (AKA: hot chemistry teacher), Mr. Lee (physics), ?? father of a student, and Mr. History Teacher.

After dinner, I walked to meet my host parents, their Mongolian friends and some other friends at a bar. Along the way, I came across a quintet saxophone group playing Christmas music by the city Christmas tree. Had it been snowing, rather than 50-degrees, I would have thought I was home.

At the bar, my parents' friend bought a Christmas cake, so we had cake. They wanted me to sing a "traditional American Christmas song" before they blew out the candles. (I think they think that, whenever Americans have cake, we have to sing and blow out candles, no matter the occasion) Not really knowing what to do, I sang a shortened version of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" while they clapped and bounced. Nothing like a 'traditional American' Christmas cake ceremony.

Jaejin Pa + Ahn Oh-nee (Father and Mother)

Some Mongolian man... And Cake!

You-sung: The cutest 5-year ever

(son of good family friends, so we see a lot of him)

Christmas

We slept in and had tofu kimchi for breakfast (one of my favorite Korean dishes). Family Kong - my first host family - picked me up around 11 to go to Suncheon for our last lunch. However, before going to lunch, we stopped at a light fixture store to buy lighting for their new apartment. Why did they bring me? Well, because I have blond hair, blue eyes, an all-American smile and an arsenal of cute Korean phrases sprinkled with a slight foreign accent. I earned them a $70 discount on a bill of $600. It was the least I could do. Merry Christmas. *^^*

We had lunch at Mr. Pizza - a Korean Pizza Hut-like place - before saying our goodbyes. My heart almost broke when, as I was leaving the car, Oh-chahn said, "Oh, Amy. My very sad," ran his finger in a tear-like fashion down his face, and then, without further ado, returned to his video game. That's my Oh-chahn.

I met up with Scott and Jason in Suncheon, where we hung out and went to see Avatar in 3D. I love movies because they make me forget that I'm halfway around the world. The movie was fantastic, by the way. Especially in 3D. Before booking it back to Gurye, we had dinner at an "Italian" restaurant. Never mind that they didn't have bread or wine or salad dressing. Or that I ate a rice dish. It was all good in our book. Back in Gurye we went to Noraebang (the Karaokee room) where we sang the night away. It was probably the last time I'll see Jason. In Korea, that is.

So that was my Christmas. Kind of different. Christmas is just so different here. It's more like Valentine's Day. It's a day where couples spend the entire day together, dressed up in the same clothes. Yep. Couples outfits.

So, while visions of sugar plums were dancing in your heads, I was fighting back the urge to laugh at every couple I saw, eating rice at an Italian restaurant and singing the night away. Merry Christmas, thanks for reading and I miss you all!

School Talent Show

2009-12-25T17:07:00.001-08:00

Here are a few videos from the school talent show. It was a blast; my students are so talented (and adorable).

The end of one of my first grade classes. They are dancing to "Hot Issue" by 4Minute. The one in the middle wearing yellow tights is a dude, so the school went a little nuts when they saw him in a skirt and Minnie Mouse ears.

The "cool" clique of 1st grade boys performing a comedy act. (Reminder, 1st grade = sophomore in high school) This is absolutely ridiculous. Actually, the kid singing is a very talented singer. The one in the leotard (yeah, leotard) is one of my nicest students.

Watch the beginning again. The singer throws the flower out into the audience. What you don't see is that the judging panel (Principal, Vice Principal and 2 non-school guests) are sitting right there. Imagine. This prankster student throwing a flower that hits the stoic, frowning face of the principal, right before a lewd comedy act. Takes guts, I guess.

The "cool" 2nd grade boys dancing to "Heartbeat" by SHINee. One of the members of the actual band, SHINee, wears a pony tail on the top of his head...hence the recreation here.

My band - Elysian - performing "Last Christmas." The school thought that the John Deere sweatshirts were festive (because of the reindeer), so that's why we had those. Everyone's 2nd grade except the guitar on the right and the drummer. Oh. And me.

For those of you that know Megan, yes. I stole her screen name for the band name. One day, the band leaders begged me to name their band. They wanted a name that meant "free" (like a prisoner out of prison. that's what they said. I do not lie), and for some reason, elysian just popped into my head. So, elysian doesn't exactly mean "free," but they liked the idea of using a Greek word that not even the English teachers knew what it meant.

This took place on Christmas Eve, so, yeah. I'll let you continue on to the next post for more details on that fun night. ^^

New Address

2009-12-23T04:56:00.000-08:00

Amy Benes

봉동리 289-1

혜미원 4 층

전남 구례군 구례읍

542-803

I don't have an English translation, but I would suspect that it is something like:

Amy Benes

Bongtong-ri 289-1

Hyeme-won 4 cheong

Guyre-eup Guyre-gun, Jeollonam-do

542-803

My New Crib

2009-12-22T04:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been really busy preparing to move. I said my goodbyes to the Kong family. I was surprised, I was actually much more sad than I expected to be. It just kind of hit me, at the end, how much they were my protectors until this point in time. And being without them while not really knowing my new family made me feel a little alone.

My co-teacher recruited two of my smallest male students to help with the move. Somehow these tiny freshman were stuck lugging 50-pound bags up 4 flights of stairs. My new family, the Ahn family, is much different. On paper, I have a mom, dad and two brothers (ages 11 and 14). But Father Ahn is a CEO of some company in Mongolia, so he's only home December through half of March. Mother Ahn is an after-school tutor for elementary students. The 11-year old, Jae Gyeong (or Tyler), is in 4th grade but so was Oh-chahn. But Jae Gyeong looks like he could snap Oh-chahn in two just by looking at him. The 14-year old, Jae Jin, attends middle school in Gwangju - an hour and a half away. He commutes by bus there and back every day.

The apartment is much bigger, my room is easily twice as big, but there is not a single piece of sitting furniture in the house. No chairs, no couches, no beds.

My new room, including my sleeping mat - called a Yo.

I think it's funny that the house has two desks but no chairs. Still working on that one. In a very strange way, I kind of like the yo. It's like swank camping. The floors are heated (pretty standard in the Korean house), so curling up on the floor after a long, cold day is actually quite nice. I'm even getting use to the bean pillow (pillow stuffed with beans, not cotton/feathers).

Mother Ahn understands a lot of English (still working on the speaking part), so that's helpful. My new bros are at pretty high levels for their ages. They're actually really good for me, in terms of learning Korean. And Father Ahn...well, gosh. Half the time I'm not sure if he's talking in Korea, Mongolian, English or a mix.

The Ahn family is very vegetarian friendly. I've already had a heart-shaped fried egg at each meal. That's another thing. Since Mother Ahn works nights, dinner is on my own. I can either eat at school, eat out or make something at home. But she cooks a wonderful breakfast. Today's breakfast was French toast, my heart-egg, milk and, of course, mini-pecan quiche-looking pastries. Breakfast of champions. :)

My first night with my family, Mother Ahn took the earlier part of the night off to cook a first meal. While waiting for dinner, I busted out the Obama cards (it worked with my last 4th grade host-brother) and played a game of War. It was pretty quiet, pretty relaxed. Then the door opened and in came the cutest 5-year old in the world, complete with an animal hat (see picture) and fingerless gloves. He stared at me out of the biggest, brownest eyes I'd ever seen and flashed a toothless grin at me (he recently, and very proudly, lost he two front teeth).

Kristin - my real sister - in the animal hat I sent her for Christmas

The toddler was flanked by his parents (maybe family relations, maybe family friends, maybe mom's clients...lost in the translation). He joined our next war game. Mid-way through came in Father Ahn flanked by two Mongolian men. I paused from our war game and just absorbed the scene. What are the odds that I would end up in a small mountain farm village in South Korea with a host family, complete strangers and two Mongolian men? Never write off the impossible, I suppose.

Despite the chaos, it was very fun. Especially handling dinner for 10 around a 3ft long, 3ft wide, 1ft high table. It felt really good to be eating within inches of my new host brother. (literally, sometimes his mouth was an inch from my face) It felt like I was just accepted; I was one with the family. Safe, close, one. Hm. Maybe I'm becoming more Korean than I thought possible.

My wardrobe is coming tomorrow (apparently the one I used at the Kong's was owned by the school), so right now I'm still living out of my suitcases. That's a bummer, but we gotta take some bad with the good, right? I'm just very thankful to be in with a completely different, fun family, closer to school and actually living on Gurye's main "fun" street (complete with the grocery store, bus terminal, billiards hall, PC Room (a room with a lot of computers you can pay to use) and a handful of restaurants).

Very busy next couple of days. Tomorrow is dress rehearsal for my school talent show. I was somehow recruited into a student rock band. Me, on my clarinet, playing a Christmas pop song with two electric guitars, a drum set, keyboard and vocalist. Lordy. I am also playing a solo on my clarinet. The show is on Christmas Eve. Wish me luck! Christmas Eve me, the Mongolians, Father Ahn and some family friends are doing something. Once again, lost in the translation. Christmas will hopefully be with my Gurye friends. We'll see. Anyways, that's what's new with me. Thanks for taking time from the busy holidays to read!

The Beijing Post

2009-12-15T06:32:00.000-08:00

So I made it safely and happily to and from Beijing. The trip was a blast! It was enough to feel like I got away (6 days of traveling, 4.5 days actually in Beijing) but we were glad to arrive back on Korean soil when we did.

Because there is so much, I'm just going to summarize what we did by day.

Wednesday

5:20 a.m. bus from Gwangju to the airport

1:15 p.m. local time, we arrived in Beijing

That afternoon: We went to the Beijing zoo and saw the pandas! After the zoo, we made our way to the Olympic stadiums (water cube and bird's nest). Rachael and I were in awe of the smog. The weather forecast said clear skies, but because of the smog we could barely see the sun. It was really depressing. The weather was between 28 and 35 degrees. By the time we made it to Olympic park, it was night. The cube and nest were really cool at night.

Thursday

7:00 a.m. Wake-up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go! The weather was slightly warmer than Wednesday, but still smoggy. Even though we did really tourist-y stuff, we didn't have to fight too many crowds. Most of the tourists we ran into were poor, rural Chinese farmers from the west/southwest of the country.

-Tienanmen: Tienanmen sits in front of the Forbidden city and next to China's People's Hall (similar to Capitol Hill). It is the largest "square" in the world. In the middle of the square is a memorial building for Chairmen Mao, the man that first introduced communism and the current political structure of today's China. Inside the memorial is Mao's preserved body. So we all saw his body. Pretty cool, huh?

-Forbidden City: The Forbidden City - across the street from Tienanmen - was once where Emperors and their families (and mistresses) lived. During this time, commoners were forbidden to even approach the 10-meter-tall walls. The full city only opened up to the public during the early 1900's.

-Temple of Heaven: This was pretty cool. The emperor used this temple to talk to God. Since the emperor was considered to be, essentially, a God, this was where he telephoned the big guy. Inside is a large, 3-story pagoda called the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. This is the largest surviving wooden structure in China and was built without nails. In this hall, the emperor talked to God. Hall is surrounded by other smaller structures and a very extensive garden.

-Pearl Market: huge indoor shopping mall selling the normal fake stuff as well as deeply discounted pearls.

-Chinese Acrobats: we went and saw a semi-professional Chinese acrobat show. I saw semi-professional because they were to join the professional league next year. They were still outstanding. Walking on tight ropes, throwing each other across the stage and doing some incredible tricks with umbrellas, Chinese yo-yo's and bikes. It was awesome.

Friday

-The Great Wall: The hostel we stayed at offered a tour of the Wall. It is a 3-hour drive to the Wall. So, at 6:30, we loaded the bus with about 10 other tourists. We hiked the great wall for 4.5-5 hours and then returned home at around 5:30-6pm. It was incredible! For the first hour, farmers that live near the wall followed us along the wall, try to sell us post cards and other stuff. It was annoying, so we were glad when they left. At the end of our Wall trail, we have to walk 25 minutes to the bus...or, ZIP-LINE! So, we zip-lined from the great wall to a spot about 5 minutes from the bus. It was awesome.

Saturday

7:30 a.m. breakfast/leave

-Summer Palace: The summer palace was built on the outskirts of Beijing as a place for the royal family to go during the hot months. The palace is located around 2 lakes and has very thick groves of trees for shade. There are three main areas of the palace: (1) the Buddhist temple that overlooks Beijing (2) Impress Cixi's (the most influential - and last - leader of China. Probably one of the most powerful women in world history) birthday village (yep, a private village for her birthday parties) and (3) some buildings on an island. I forget why it's important, but it was.

-Silk Market: huge indoor shopping mall, larger than the Pearl Market, selling the normal fake stuff, but specializing in silk products.

-Food Night Market: This is where you can eat anything fried and on a stick. Every insect, animal and sea creature you could imagine. I partook in eating a baby scorpion. I'll stick to being vegetarian, thank you very much. The video proof is on Facebook under "Videos of Me."

Sunday

5:30 a.m. depart for the airport

6:30 p.m. arrived safely back in Gurye to eat, relax and unpack. Pff. What a trip!

So, overall, the trip was awesome. The hostel we stayed at - China Backpackers - was outstanding. It was clean, they gave us breakfast, spoke fluent English and were ready and willing to help us out (no matter how disorganized and crazy our requests were). If you ever go to Beijing, check out http://www.backpackingchina.com/!

For pictures, check out my Facebook page as well as Rachael's. You can access her trip photo album by clicking on pictures of me, finding one Rachael uploaded and then clicking on the album from which the picture came. She also posted some great videos. Thanks, Rachael!

Christmas in Gurye!

2009-12-06T04:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday's in Gurye. Think about a sleep 1950's farming town in rural Iowa. Except minus the church obsession. People stay in. Businesses are closed. The stoplight operates on reduced hours.

Sunday's in Gurye are beyond boring. The first couple were really tough for me, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I sleep in, go running, sit through 90 minutes of church where I practice Korean and write to-do lists. Honestly, I only go to church just for a change of scenery. My family either goes to church with their friends or go hiking. Whatever suits their mood. But that's all done by 12:30. Then, from 12:30 until bed time, they watch TV. I can only handle so much Korean TV before I start feeling a bit loopy. So, here I am. Counting down the hours until I can go to bed. I decided to get up and stretch my legs and noticed, to my utter excitement, that the church I go to, which is right outside my apartment, had Christmas lights up!

Christmas lights on the church roof

(Picture taken from balcony)

Sorry for the poor-quality. I figure this way you can see my room, too (reflection). So, yeah. That brightened my quiet Sunday. I'll definitely document any other Christmas decorations.

Now, some pictures from Seoul last weekend. Enjoy!

Road outside the Korean "White House" (called the Blue House)

Friends and me after a visit to Forever 21

The guy pictured...his parents are presidents of F21-Asia. He was also our orientation counselor. Now we're great friends. Especially because he gives us a 10% discount. :)

Opposite of the previous picture. Looking down into the throngs of people in Seoul's main shopping district.

I guess I should probably divulge more on my home stay situation. I don't really know much other than my family is moving on December 27th (Monday after Christmas). I start my internship on the 27th, so that works, I guess. They don't want to tell my brothers until after the older one's birthday (December 14), so it's been kind of hard to just pretend that things are fine.

Fulbright is not involved in the home stay stuff; that's left to the school. So my co-teacher, principal, vice principal and financial officer are upturning Gurye in search of another family. That seems easier said than done. My town is so poor that there are very few families that have the room to spare for me. Especially on such short notice. My Fulbright contract requires them to provide me with my own room, bed and dresser. Luxuries. So, as of now, I have no idea where I'm going to be. I pray pray pray that they'll find something. There's a lot more messy drama behind that, but that's the short of it all. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Nothing I can do by worrying about it.

So Tuesday night I begin my adventure to China with another Fulbright, Rachael. We're going to spend four days in Beijing (Wednesday morning-Sunday morning). I'm so excited! So, yeah. This will probably be the last post for a while. Also, my phone will not work in China, so you won't be able to call.

Believe me, it's so liberating to be out of reach.

I'm secretly hoping that I can find Oreos and M&Ms in China. Or, dare I even think to dream, granola bars. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading, and happy Sunday.

Address update

2009-11-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Hello.

My host father got a job transfer to another city about 2 hours away, so it looks like I will be changing families. As of now, my school does not have another family lined up, so I don't know the new address.

But if you are planning to send something (not meaning to sound presumptuous) do so before December 14th. After that date, I'm not sure where I'll be. My current address is still

Amy Benes

Myeong-gi Apartment 101-607 Baengyeon-ri 575

Gurye-eup Gurye-gun, Jeollanam-do

542-802

Okay, that's all for now.

The Man in the Subway

2009-11-29T01:21:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, all Fulbright ETAs were invited to have (American) thanksgiving dinner at the U.S. embassy. So, most of us, from all parts of Korea, packed our bags and met up for dinner.

I'm still trying to decide if the dinner was the best thing in my life or the worst. The food was excellent. Real vegetarian stuffing, green bean casserole, salad, fruit, bread (with real butter) and pumpkin, apple and cherry pies. For the meat-eaters, there was also real turkey and ham. I've never seen so many happy people in one room before.

On the bad side, it made me realize how much I wish I was home. But, what can you do? This is my home. This is my family. You can't spend your life wishing for something else. That just makes you sad.

Anyways. It was great to be united, once again. After dinner on Friday, we mostly hung out at the hostel, just catching up. Saturday morning I had a meeting for a winter camp my school will participate in, followed by lunch. After lunch I met up with one of my non-Fulbright friends from Gurye who happened to be in Seoul as well. The rest of Saturday was shopping.

After my friend went back to Gurye, I decided to catch back up with my Fulbright friends (to continue shopping...ugh. I'm SICK of shopping!) Transportation in Seoul is amazing. It has probably the best subway system I've ever been on. But it's also the primary means of transportation for most people, so it's always packed. Especially on Saturdays. Especially around Myeong-dong - the center of the shopping part of Seoul, which, of course, was where my friends were.

So I made my way to the nearest subway station, figured out where to go (happily, I didn't have to make any transfers!) and climbed on the next train that pulled up. It was packed, being only three stops away from Myeong-dong. I made my way onto the train car, gently pushing past people to allow the stream of people behind me to fit in. When I came to a point where I couldn't squeeze in anymore, I turned around to brace for the car's movement. Next to me, packed just as tightly, was a man towering at least four-and-a-half feet tall and not a day younger than 75, peering at me under his orange golfing hat through eye slits sunken into a wrinkly face.

Living in a very rural place, I see the best of the best when it comes to old people. And I'm pretty good at telling which of the oldies are harmlessly old and which are mentally unstable. This character had all the makings of a crazy, but his eyes were pretty alert. So I assumed that he was just another old man. Probably wondering why there are so many of these weird looking people in his city.

He didn't break his stare, which made me kind of uncomfortable (perhaps a tad irritated). So I did the only thing that I know how to do when it comes to strange people. I flashed him a little half smile and head bow. And then he did something surprising.

He somehow got even closer to me, reached into his pocket and took out a little scrap of hanji paper (brightly patterned paper with a little rougher consistency than normal paper) and started folding. By the next stop, he placed the smallest origami turtle in my hand. Completely shocked, I muttered my thank-you's and my beautiful's as I studied the turtle.

Now a few people were turned toward us (I mean, seriously, a foreigner just spoke their language!).

Delighted, the man reached, yet again, into his pocket and took out another scrap of hanji paper. With great care, he started folding. All eyes in the car were on this little man folding little paper for this single American. He then produced a tiny origami flower and placed it in my hand. I did my best to express my interest, gratitude, etc. But we came to my stop. I told my little friend that this is where we must part.

Well, back to reality. It's a crowded train (of which I was in the middle) and there's only a small amount of time that the doors open at each stop. My little origami friend moved for me, but the boys next to him did not. To make matters worse, another group of boys were pushing to get out, causing my exit route to be even more blocked. As I was getting nervous about getting out, my origami friend pushed past me and, with a deceptively strong arm, pushed both the standing boys and the fast-exiting boys out of the way, making a very clear way for me.

What can you do? Do you get down on your knees and bow? Do you stand there thanking the guy? Or do you just walk out? Here was this little man, who probably remembers a Seoul without the subway and remembers a time when there was a Seoul without the foreigners. How much has this man seen? He also probably remembers a time when young people were deeply respectful to the elderly rather than now, where most young people ignore them.

And here he was. Entertaining a foreigner who tossed him a smile. And making sure she didn't get lost in this huge city.

So what can I do? I started toward the door and gave him a little wave as I walked away (and gave a head-nod of acknowledgement toward the surprised boys). Still holding my turtle and flower in my open hand and feeling a renewed sense of faith in the world.

Even though I was in Seoul for three days, that's still the first thing I think about the trip. I'll try to post some pictures later. Thanks for reading!

The School Magazine

2009-11-23T04:32:00.000-08:00

The school magazine came out today. There was an article about my life in Gurye (it was really cute) and a picture of me next to the top English student (senior who I do not teach). So that was kind of a nice little memento.

But, what really caught my eye was this comic activity. It had me laughing the entire afternoon. Every activity for baby is just hilarious. Hope you enjoy it, too!

Last Saturday! I can't believe I forgot!

2009-11-19T03:34:00.000-08:00

I was so exhausted from the Suncheon half marathon update that I completely forgot to tell you about my Saturday! A week before Saturday, Oh-nee said that her and "her family" were going to take a tour around Gurye and that I was to invite my Gurye English teacher friends. Not really knowing more than that, I invited my buddies. The brave souls, Scott and Jason, agreed to do this tour. Honestly, we were all a little confused as to how someone could spend an entire day touring Gurye. And Scott's been here three years, so he was especially interested.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting my mom's family I met at Chuseok to come in, all of us to pile into a bus and go to temples and stuff. Maybe some light hiking.

Well, I climbed onto the bus Saturday morning and found it stuffed to the brim with elementary school kids, seven miserable-looking parents and my two fellow Americans looking unsure. Oh goodness.

Even after everything's said and done, I'm not exactly sure what the event was. It reminded me of my days in girl scouts when we went on some tour to earn a badge. But, obviously, there were boys there.

The day was actually really good for me. We went to Hwaeomsa, the largest/oldest Buddhist establishment in Korea (at the base of Jiri mountain), to a bear conservation center and a sea otter learning center. Since Scott's been to all those places, he explained things to me that my family never could. And Jason's a history teacher in the states, so he filled us in on the history sections. We were a dynamic team, we were.

Scott at Hwaeomsa Welcome Center

(Children? What children?)

Jason putting on a brave face at the welcome center

(Most of the kids were his students)

There's something I should probably tell you about Korea. Most wildlife - from the very little that was there to begin with - has been killed off between wars, population growth and industrialization. Now, Koreans are fascinated with anything that moves in the wild. Anything. You should have seen my co-teachers when we walked around Jiri mountain; they spent five minutes (honestly, 5 minutes) watching a chipmunk. (I gave up after 2 minutes)

So, as part of their wilderness conservation, they have been trying to reintroduce Korean black bears to Jiri mountain. Hence the bear conservation center. The center houses one bear that failed to be released in the mountains (she figured out that people feed her, so, of course, she just hung around people). It was cute to see the kids so excited over a bear in a small enclosure. It also made me wish I could pick them up and plant them in Brookfield Zoo. I'm pretty sure they'd never leave.

The otter education center is the same idea. There's an education center and an observation center. So, we didn't see any actual otters at the education center. We just listened to some guy talk about otters. By this point in the day, Jason was done. I mean, it was like another day at work for him; all the same students doing all the same things. So he was re-grouping outside while Scott and I pretended to (a) be interested in and (b) understand the man speaking in Korean about otters.

Well, next thing you know, the guide is passing out this dirt-like stuff and having the kids say "Dong." I haven't lived with two elementary school brothers for three months to not know what dong is. It's poop. So, when the guy handed a dirt clump to me, I buried my hands deep in my pocket and shook my head. But Scott wasn't so quick-moving with his hands. Next thing you know, he's holding petrified otter poop. With a forced smile plastered across his face.

Scott holding petrified poop

Needless to say, Scott was very thankful for my hand sanitizer. And Jason was the happiest person in the world to have missed that part of the educational seminar.

We ended the day by dying handkerchiefs in a special dye found in the mud around Jiri mountain. Yeah. 30 elementary school kids playing with orange dye around their English teachers. We were all a little nervous but came out unblemished.

By the end of the day, we were happy to see the end of the tour. But, while Scott and Jason went back to their quiet apartments, I returned to mine with two hyper brothers, an exhausted mom and a dad who didn't participate in the day's activities.

Honestly, I would not have it any other way.

Suncheon Half

2009-11-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

"Helro!"

Immediately, I felt a stab of irritation. Here we were at kilometer 8 out of 21, and there was, no doubt, another runner anxious to slam me with all of the English that he knew. Jeesh. But, I plastered on that good 'ol foreign ambassador smile and turned to greet my new "friend."

Friend: You America?
Me: Yes.
Friend: Ah, why you run slow?
Me [with gritted teeth, trying to keep myself from pointing out he's barely keeping up with a woman]: Race long.
Friend: Because you wear this! [as he pinched a bit of my under armor and let it slap back against my skin]
Me: No. Because I want to run slow.
Friend: Because your body... [didn't catch what he was trying to say]
Me: Yes. Very fat. [I've given up adding in the sarcasm. It never translates]
Friend: Laughs and jogs to the side to get water.

At least he only stuck around for a few minutes, I thought. How on earth did I get involved in this on a cold, windy Sunday? Well, my friends, let's start from the beginning.

7:30 a.m. I arrive at a parking lot to meet with Gurye Marathon and the other three members of the Gurye Running Club. We pile into a car and make our way south of Gurye to Suncheon. Me and one other are running the half, the remaining three are running the full. I listened to them talk about times and race logistics on the way. And then argue about where to park, etc.

8:15 a.m. I climb out of the car and come face to face with hundreds of runners. The race begins and ends at a track stadium outside of Suncheon National University. SNU students, wearing very American letter jackets, were passing out water and hand sanitizer, directing people traffic and organizing the bag drop off. As we made our way through the crowd of men slathering each other in Vaseline (that's an attractive sight in the morning), the local politician shaking hands and the speakers blasting Korean pop music, I decided that this was going to be epic.

8:40 a.m. I met Red Jumpsuit. A woman running the 10-k that has some connection with Gurye Running and/or the running club, who took me by the arm and would not let go. We spent the next 20 minutes running across the field so she could introduce me to her husband, daughter, daughter's friend, husband's friend, friend from the office and about a dozen others. At 8:59, I decided to remind Red Jumpsuit that the race was about to start.

9:02 a.m. The half marathon lines up for take-off. I'm immediately pushed to the front by running club members. As a group, we count down from 10. Then the politician rings a gong and we're off. Everyone takes off at a sprint. Except for me. I'm like a rock when I run. I know exactly how fast I need to go. And so I went at my own pace as people dressed in shorts, racing tank tops and throw-away gloves zoomed around me. It was cold and the wind had a bite, so I was in under armor, shorts, top and gloves. I may as well have been in a snow suit.

The course was pleasantly flat, but rather dull. It was entirely on a closed highway through the country. I live in Gurye. I've seen enough farm fields and mountains to last a lifetime. But the water stations were well placed, and the SNU volunteers at these water stations screamed at the top of their lungs as we passed, so that was good. Of course, I had many awkward conversations along the way. One man from the running club was trying to get me to go faster. I politely told him "Goodbye" and played the stupid card.

But then I found my running angel. It's weird, but every major race I've ran, it seems that I find someone, somehow, who runs just a tad faster than me, who always shows up right before I start feeling defeated. And somehow, this someone, pushes me throughout the rest of the race. And even though we cross the finish at the same time, they're not to be found after the race. I'm not going to go into the whole fate/religion thing; let's just call it magic. By magic, I met White Hat just before the halfway/turn-around point.

White Hat didn't say much. Just the occasional straight/right/left ahead stuff. He even let me draft a bit. As I was turning around (at the halfway point, you just, literally, went through a chip timer and turned around), White Hat grabbed my arm and said, "Wait." as a race volunteer gave me a brown hair tie. "Uh, thanks." Not sure what to do with it (because my hair tie was working beautifully) I slipped it on my wrist. Maybe it's a little bonus for being in the top 10 women at the halfway point.

With the help of White Hat, my last half of the race was fast. Eventually we caught up to another woman. With my eyes locked on her broad back, I muttered 여자 (woman). White Hat understood. We crept up behind her and then blasted past. But the woman was a fighter and fought back, re-passing me. Then, in a very stealthy way, White Hat put his hand out and said, "Wait." We stalked her. Me, completely exhausted from the fast pace, started to falter. But White Hat would have none of that.

I think it was the fact that he was sacrificing his time for me that did it. For sure, he could have taken off, leaving me to finish the last 2km by myself. But he didn't. So, somehow, somewhere I found some more energy and tried desperately to hold on. Eyes still locked on Broad Back.

The race finish was back in the stadium. We had to run about 2/3's of a lap. Broad Back, with her coach next to her, sensed the danger in my position. (Taking people from behind is a lot easier than holding leads) He did a call-response thing (Coach: "Ya" Broad Back: "Geun"). Ya - Geun, Ya - Geun. Back and forth. Jeesh. This was getting ridiculous. If it's that important, you can have it.

But, at that moment, White Hat said, "Go." And Red Jumpsuit hopped out of the crowd and was urging me on. I couldn't let White Hat's time sacrifice be in vain! Somewhere, somehow, I found a gap, squeezed through and sprinted past Broad Back. I didn't stop once I passed her. I kept going. Fearful of her response. And I forced my exhausted legs to push and kept my depleted torso tall. And that's how I finished the Suncheon Half Marathon. Sprinting at "full" speed across the line. With the crowd in uproar at the intense finish.

Red Jumpsuit was there faster than I gave her credit. I gave Broad Back a hug and muttered 미안합니다 (I'm sorry!). But, when I looked around for White Hat, I couldn't find him. And Red Jumpsuit was tugging on my arm (no doubt anxious to introduce me to someone). I had to give up. That's just how my running angels work, I guess.

I finished 7th of 60 women, which earned me a jar of honey. I think 1st - 5th places got jars of kimchi. Darn. Missed that one. Oh Korea. My time was 1:37:40 according to the text message the race sent me. (Probably the most organized race I've ever been to) My goal had been 1:45:00, so I was very pleased.

Me with my Honey

My Honey Jar in a Box

Continued from Previous Post

2009-11-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

**Note: This is the second entry. Don't miss this first below!**

Cue Monday.

I received my race packet for my half marathon next Sunday. The packet included my chip-activated bib number (#2860), the race booklet and, of course, two huge bags of special Suncheon Kimchi. I rolled my eyes on the inside, stuck the stuff in the fridge and went to class. Well, I thought I was going nuts, because I kept hearing the word for marathon. When the bell rang and I asked the students to quiet down, the class captain said, "Amy marathon kimchi?" Sigh. The entire school was talking about my kimchi delivery.

I brought the kimchi home, showed it to my mom who gave me a "really?-they-really-gave-you-kimchi?" look, laughed and thanked me for my donation. She then told me that we were going out for dinner with dad's "Gurye Marathon" friend. I love these kinds of events. It's like, the few strange words I am given are a riddle for something great.

Around dinner time, we picked up a man and drove to dinner. This man, Gurye Marathon, would be escorting me from my Gurye apartment to the Suncheon starting line next Sunday. I focused real hard in the car ride, trying to catch as much as I could (but, gosh, they talk so fast!). Gurye Marathon, it would seem, is president of the Gurye running club. There are currently three other members.

I heaved a big sigh of relief when he started asking me about my running times. Finally! A conversation that is the same across cultures! After questioning my 5k, 10k, marathon and half marathon times, he decided that I, too, could join Gurye running club. We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:50 pm at the stadium. He said that they run an hour in the stadium. I hope that that was a mis-translation. 60-minutes on a 400 meter track is one of my nightmares. Honestly. But, who knows.

Once home, I decided that maybe it would be best if I browsed the booklet they gave me. Here's what I found.

Of 3700 participants, 60 are females running the half.
There are four foreigners, including me, throughout all events.
The fastest expected pace for 1st-place finisher in the half is my goal time.

The picture from last year's start shows a group of runners. None of which are wearing t-shirts. They're all wearing high-performance sports wear. (typical. You should see these people hike. They have more money in their gear than I have in my bank account)

If there was any shred of doubt that this was going to be the race to remember, it's gone. I can picture it now: people pressed close together, everyone cramming to the front of the line no matter their distance or ability (or the fact that it's chip timing, so starting with the gun doesn't really matter). And me. In the middle of it all. In my cotton shorts, cotton T-shirt and bouncing blond pony tail, waiting patiently for the madness to cease before I do my thing.

I'll be sure to notice as much as I can so as to relay it to you when I finish. Wish me luck!

Awkward Teacher Outings, Pottery and More!

2009-11-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I was told that today was teacher day! (Fantastic. Why are we still at school?) Well, teacher day in Korea means that school ends early (3pm instead of 10pm) and the school pays for a dinner out.

My co-teacher took me to Jiri Mountain (the mountain that gives Gurye a reason to exist). I thought we'd be hiking. Well, the hike lasted about three minutes. Then we stopped at a vendor and drank a lot Korean wine. I like teacher day.

Anyway, my co-teacher is awkward, so I took a lot of pictures of the damn mountain to avoid conversation. I only posted one here for practicality's sake. It is a tomb of some sort and Korea National Treasure 54. Most of old Korea was destroyed and the remaining artifacts are numbered in order of importance. There are currently 307 National Treasures, five of which are in Gurye.

After the hiking party, we went to dinner. For some reason unknown to me (probably just for the amusement of the entire staff at Gurye High School) I was placed at a table with three teachers I've never spoken to before. I was later informed that they are the three heaviest drinkers on staff. That means that I entertained three gently sloshed men while I had free reign over the food (the men were there to drink, not eat). It's a rarity that I don't have to fight for the non-meat and non-fish dishes at a table of hungry men. So dinner was good. I decided that I like teacher day.

On Thursday I received the most wonderful care package in the world: my clarinet! I nearly cried when I took it out. I never realized how much I would miss it. And Dad's note was the perfect cherry on top. [Hint: the random scribbles on top is "my name" according to Gordon Benes)

Ah. Love you, Dad.

This past weekend I went to Gangjin with another Gurye English teacher, Jason. Gangjin is known for being the birthplace of Celadon pottery. I didn't know what celadon was (I knew it was green), so here's a picture for those of you unsure.

80% of all Celadon pottery found in Korea came from Gangjin. Celadon pottery pieces make up a good chunk of the National Treasures list. We started in the museum.

Pretty standard pottery museum. Beautiful stuff. The detail was amazing. Then we walked around the grounds.

These suckers are how kimchi is made. The cabbage, once slathered in red pepper sauce, is placed in the pot to ferment. Yum.

Next stop: The traditional celadon kiln.
Jason heading into the kiln.

The Kiln

Pretty intense oven. Basically, there are mini doors on the side of the kiln. Some poor soul feeds the oven fire at the mouth (pictured), which heats the length of the oven. The stuff to be cooked is placed inside via the side doors, which are then sealed by bricks. Once the fire goes out and the place cools, another poor soul climbs inside of the oven via a back door/vent to claim the pottery.

We went shopping. Jason found a really cool bowl and I bought a place setting set (2 x rice bowl, lid, soup bowl) for my family. My mom loved it.

Good weekend. Continued with newer post.

Gosh Darn it

2009-11-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

I have a class that makes me want to be mean.

They're the most disobedient, loud, destructive students I teach. They're also one of the lower English levels in the school. At the end of every class with them, I tell myself they're not worth my effort. I swear that, from now on, I'm going to make them work silently on the most dull, worthless assignment of their lives.

But I don't. Because there is that one girl that stays behind every class to ask questions and keeps every worksheet I give in a pink Hello Kitty folder. I guess I do it for her.

A Worst Day for the Books

2009-11-02T03:34:00.000-08:00

Boy, have I got a day for you, my readers.

I'm still kind of in shock, looking back on it. I think I'm mostly in shock about how not-upset I am. I mean, this was a worst day that someone could make a movie on. It all started this weekend, when my scooter broke down.

I came back from Halloween in Gwangju on Sunday. I was ready to go home, relax and lesson plan. I hopped on my scooter, turned the key and hit the ignition. I made it about 10 feet before I knew something was wrong. It wouldn't accelerate. So, I brought it to my school (a very slow trip, but I made it), which is a mile closer than my apartment. I talked to the guard and explained that it was broken (after assuring him that, yes, there was gas in it and, no, I did not put gas in the oil tank and oil in the gas tank). No problem. Someone will look at it on Monday.

But that means I have to walk to school. No problem. Only a mile.

Cue Monday morning: unseasonably cold, windy weather and rain. The second day of rain since my arrival to Gurye. Perfect. Of course. But, with my happy yellow umbrella, I walked to school. Braving the cold, the wet and the flocks of students.

I sit down at my desk and realize that I left my PowerPoints at home. Not really wanting to devote 40 minutes to walking back, I told my co-teacher I would just take a taxi (probably $5 round-trip) to which he said that he would take me after 1st period. But I had 2nd period class...

So, I was late to my 2nd period class. My lessons were fun but all fell short about 10 minutes. Entertaining students on the fly when lessons run short is the most anxious experience of my life. But I did it. Three times.

A group of six boys in my second class (which is always a nightmare) were being uncooperative and disrespectful. I'm usually not a fan on physical punishment, but perhaps the cold rain walk, my scooter woes and my first class lateness put me a little on edge. I made the boys stand for the rest of the 15 minutes of class in the back holding their chairs over their heads. And I punched the back of another student who was causing mayhem in the class. Both punishments are (a) standard and (b) not that bad.

Lunch was meat, fish, meat soup, fish kimchee, rice and seaweed (I LOVE rice and seaweed, so I was okay with that). Due to organizational problems, I was late to lunch and missed out on a glass of wine.

My co-teacher told me after my last class that I would need to bring the scooter to a special mechanic (who was cheap). I told him that I'm pretty sure the scooter wouldn't make it there (the mechanic is on top of a hill on the other side of town). But he didn't quite get it. So, I hopped on the scooter, revved it up and started out.

The scooter made it 10 feet before dying completely. Excellent.

So I pushed the scooter the mile to the mechanic. I pushed the scooter around honking cars, screaming children, mocking old men and up up up some steep steep steep hills. Not really knowing where this mechanic was (the directions were: between your apartment and the Tae Kwon Doe center a quarter mile away), I took a wrong turn and found myself pushing this heavy, resistant scooter up the steepest hill I've ever seen. Finally, I crashed.

But instead of doing the kicking and screaming thing, I just broke down laughing. I laughed so hard that I lost control of the scooter and just let it slide to the ground on it's side. I kept laughing, unable to breathe until tears were streaming down my face (where the icy wind dried them raw). I laughed and laughed and laughed, sitting on the broken heap of my scooter until a nice farmer in his Korean pick-up pulled over and asked me what I imagine was something along the lines of, "What the hell are you doing laughing like a crazy person with a dead motorcycle on the steepest hill in Gurye?"

The nicest man ever called a mechanic who came and replaced a bulb of some sort from my scooter. The nicest man ever talked to my co-teacher and explained what was going on. The nicest man ever wouldn't let me pay for the mechanic. The nicest man ever is the reason why I'm not still insanely laughing on the steepest hill in Gurye and the reason why my scooter (knock on wood) works for now.

I made my way back home, ran 10 miles in the icy wind and finally felt ready to relax.

I think it's terrifying that, despite everything that happened today, I never felt like I was having a bad day. I think I realized it on Steepest Hill Ever; that's when everything came together. But before that, it was just an ordinary day. I would even say that I thought it was an unusually happy day for me. (One of my favorite students demonstrated that he could shoot his gum into the air and catch it upon landing, which entertained me and my class for a solid 5 minutes. Another student told me he liked my pants and another student told me she liked my shirt.) As far as I'm concerned, my bad day wasn't that bad at all.

I guess it just goes to show that some days, you feel like fighting. Other days, you don't. So you take what you can get and let life happen accordingly.

Okay, here are some pictures from Gwangju.

Where's Waldo!?

Lauren went as an Ahjummah (old woman). Her costume was perfect. $5 pants that looked like they were probably once curtains, two tacky sweaters, an e-mart bag carrying random items and, the cherry on top, a glittery visor.

Posing like an ahjummah

Pictures from Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from pumpkin carving. Enjoy!

The Most Exciting Pumpkin Carving Ever

2009-10-28T02:14:00.000-07:00

I promised my English Conversation Club class yesterday (Tuesday) that we would carve pumpkins today (Wednesday). Well, I hadn't really been planning it, but they were so excited! How could I refuse!? "Teacher, I've only seen pictures! I've never done!" Well, damn. I think I have an obligation as a Fulbright to change that.

So, I ran around like a mad woman today (Wednesday) digging up cooking gloves (they were horrified at the idea of actually touching the pumpkin innards), knives, spoons and, of course, pumpkins. Well, balancing four pumpkins on my scooter was going to be practically impossible, so I had my co-teacher drive me to the market where we found a vendor selling pumpkins. I bought four of the tallest ones I could find.

Korean pumpkins are lighter than American pumpkins. And shorter/more flat. Which makes it really hard to carve a cool face. So I searched high and low around the market, from crazy ahjumma vendor to crazy ahjumma vendor to find the tallest pumpkins.

My class was so excited. Their friends were peering jealously from the door before their teacher yelled at them for being late to class. My students were anxiously opening their pumpkins and scooping out the seeds.

I heard, "Ah! Teacher! Teacher! Bugs!"

I turned around, as if in slow motion, to see tiny yellow maggots leaping from the pumpkin seed pile across the cluster of desks while their female liberators shrieked and jumped back. One girl was slashing away at them with the knife. Oh boy, this was going to be fun.

By some grace of God, I got the pumpkin, the seed pile and the maggots all into a garbage bag with a bunch of high school sophomores shrieking around me. All in a days work, I suppose.

Halloween - More fun for me

2009-10-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I was doing Halloween this week?

Well, here is the result of Day 1 of costume making. The students have 15 minutes to create a costume from newspaper, tape, 1 piece of computer paper and crayons. Some also used their jack-o-lanterns we made earlier in class.

The first class I did this in, I was a little nervous. I got this lesson plan from an elementary school teacher. And my kids can be bad. So giving them tape, scissors and free time is not what I usually do.

Anyways, one of my more...shall we say... colorful students was dressing his group model (the second "witch" in the video). The hat wasn't staying on and they were down to 30-seconds. So, thinking fast, he taped a cone to the kids head (so the cone would keep the hat from falling off), wrapping the tape several times from the kid's head to his jaw to his head. When it came time to undress, the poor model had a good chunk of his hair stuck to tape. He was yelling at his dresser, carefully trying to separate his hair from the tape when the dresser, with the exact exasperated of a designer listening to a whiny model, turned around, grabbed the cone and ripped the tape from the model's head in one quick, fluid motion.

I expected the model to show some sign of pain, but instead he had a look of happy surprise at being freed from his bondage. The dresser turned slowly toward me (holding the hairy ball of tape), gave me a he's-such-a-drama-queen look and tossed the tape ball into the garbage bag I was holding. The model was behind the dresser holding the top of his head and talking excitedly. Korean brotherhood at it's finest.

It was all I could do to keep myself from peeing in my pants.

So, yeah. This week holds fun times ahead. :)

Meet me in Mokpo

2009-10-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

As it would turn out, the Gurye music festival was actually very well done. It was performed by a music group from Seoul. You could tell. It seemed that, suddenly, people in Gurye dressed in high-fashion and actually spoke English. My friends and I knew that something had rolled in from out of town.

Despite being well done, it was still Gurye...and I needed to get out. So I left my quaint little city on Saturday for Mokpo, a large seaport city directly west of me. In the past, it has been known for it's high crimes due to high levels of sailors. BUT. Don't worry. It was very delightful.

Five ETAs live in Mokpo, but one was out of town. Two more ETAs came down from Naju (30 minutes north of Mokpo) as well, so it was great to see everyone. I had pizza for dinner. It was quite possibly the most delicious pizza I've had in Korea.

I spent the night with Rachael at her home stay. I walked into the apartment and the first thing my eyes hit was a piano. My heart skipped a beat, my fingers itched and I almost forgot to insa to my host host mom. My excitement betrayed me (and perhaps Rachael's mom's noonchi was in full swing) because she followed my locked eyes to the dusty piano and eagerly invited me to play. Rachael's family is very musical (to Rachael's dismay...because she is not. But they really want her to be), so her mom was thrilled that I wanted to play. She even dug up some music for me. Despite being horrendously out of tune, it felt so good to make music again. It was also fun to see this little Korean woman (who must be way better at piano than me) so excited. She just bounced all over the place.

Rachael and I spent Sunday touring Mokpo together. We went to the most famous rock formation (the name escapes me... perhaps Gong Sah...?) in Mokpo.

Famous rock formation in Mokpo

It's the first thing you see as you enter the city by boat. There are two legends surrounding the rock formation, but the most famous one is that two monks climbed the cliff to pray. They were so taken with Mokpo that they died and were buried there. The rock formation is the two of them watching and guarding Mokpo. The other story is pretty sad. It's about a son who loses his father to illness and then drops the coffin (and body) into the ocean on his way to bury it. Mortified for dishonoring his father, the son climbed to this ledge where he spends eternity thinking about his father and the great disgrace he made to him.

After that, we walked along the boardwalk and stumbled upon - wouldn't you know it - a kickboxing tournament. Of course there would be a kickboxing tournament on the boardwalk of Mokpo. What else would there be?

It was pretty fun to watch. We watched for about an hour as stick-thin and iron-strong Korean boys pummeled each other. (I say boys, but I really mean early 20-somethings) It was actually really representative of Korean culture. The two opponents would fight like it was their lives on the line. But as soon as the match was over, they would hug - tears in their eyes - like brothers, wiping the blood and tears off of each others' faces and inspecting areas where the other took a particularly hard hit. Brotherhood in Korea is as pure, simple and natural as water.

The Match

How could I not take this picture? So cute. Just riding around the boxing ring with nothing on his mind other than what's for lunch.

So, I was sad to leave Mokpo. But I had to get home. This week I am teaching Halloween! Yay! I'm teaching the game Clue for 1st and 2nd graders and Jack-o-Lanterns, Costumes and Michael Jackson's Thriller to my 1st graders (I see them twice a week but only see 2nd graders once a week). Not sure if I explained it, but instead of saying "Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior" Korean's just say 1st, 2nd, 3rd graders (there's 3 grades in Middle school and 3 grades in High school). I also picked up supplies to make caramel apples with my host family. I will keep you posted on that!

Planning on meeting a lot of ETAs in Gwangju for Halloween weekend. The only requirement for going is that you have to travel to Gwangju (no matter where you're from) wearing your costume. Not sure what I'm going to be yet...it'll come to me.

Gurye Traditional Music Festival

2009-10-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

While most major cities have canceled their festivals this year do to swine flu concerns, Gurye's Traditional Music Festival - Pansori - will go on! I suppose they figure there just aren't enough people to warrant concern.

Anyways, the math teacher at my school (soon to be vice principal at either my school - replacing the current one - or at another school. It is unclear to me), I was told, is a very good singer who will be participating in the event.

So, after my last class, I was finishing up some notes, alone in the teacher's lounge, when he suddenly began practicing. It frightened me at first, but then I kind of grew fond of it.

The dancing teacher in the video is the gym teacher.

My other Gurye friends and I might go to the festival tonight (Friday), but word on the street is that it's not as fun as it could possibly sound. So, we'll see where we end up.

Phone Issues

2009-10-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

My phone is back in working order! Sorry I didn't fix it sooner!

Also, you can leave voice messages now. Yay!

Running in Gurye

2009-10-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

I've talked a lot about my little mountain town, but a little review couldn't hurt:

I've confirmed that Gurye is the second smallest city in South Korea
Gurye county is the smallest county in Korea in terms of population, but not in terms of square kilometers
Gurye county is the poorest county in South Korea
Gurye now has three stop lights (they've added two since I've arrived), but the lights only function between 6 am and 11 pm

Learning that Gurye is the second smallest city in Korea has really allowed me to embrace it's smallness. Instead of thinking of Gurye as a failed city, I think of it as a charming snapshot of 50-years ago. You know, the times when kids played outside after school. The time before people were afraid to walk alone at night. The time before a pat on the back for a job well done was considered sexual harassment. Sure, there's not much to do. And the people are frustratingly slow and old. But now I can blame it all on the small-town charm. I'm okay with that.

Well, this whole small-town business has had an interesting effect on my running. For those that don't know, I am training to run a half marathon on November 15th in Suncheon.

I'm amazed at the reaction I get to running. I mean, besides the gaping stares from ahjummahs and the blank gazes of old men. Those are a given. People are actually interested - dare I say fascinated - by my running. I went for a 12-mile run on Sunday. I started the run with 2 miles around an outdoor park path and finished with the same 2 miles. Well, there was this little man walking the path when I started and was still there when I came back (10 miles later). To my surprise, he started jogging next to me.

Man (in Korean): How long have you been running? More than an hour at least!

Me: Yes, 1 hour 15 minutes

Man: Ahh, shee. (pretty common phrase for "jeeze")

We ran together for a little while. He told me to follow him and, to my surprise, he took me to a new smaller path (but still very pretty). We talked as best as my limited Korean would allow. I was really thankful that he spoke slow. Most older men speak loud, slurred and fast when someone says, "What?" He was a nice running partner, I was sad to say goodbye.

I also run in the mornings before school. On multiple occasions, people have cheered me on. People I've never even met will say, "Go, Amyyyyy. Marathon, yippee!" This is at 6 in the morning! Once I made the mistake of running right as school got out. Yeah. My students were everywhere. One student even tried giving me his juice.

And my host dad is a huge supporter. Everyday he asks where I ran and then sits in awe thinking about how far it is. He reminds me constantly that the abandoned roads of early-morning Gurye are, in fact, very dangerous. I know, man. You have to watch out for those parked cars; they're killers. And on days where I'm lazy and decide to run in the afternoon as opposed to the morning, he spends a good chunk of breakfast asking me why I didn't go jogging this morning. And because of the language barrier, I can't even make up excuses. He's the best keeping-me-honest buddy I could ask for. He's also convinced that I'm going to win the half marathon. Oy.

Did I mention the grand prize for finishing first in the half? A plate of Kimchee. Mmmm. That's the very last thing I want to see and/or smell after finishing a half.

So, I've been chased by men, children, dogs (yes, the woof-woof kinds) and eyes. I know every little street, alley, road and rice field in my little town. I've been there when someone turned the stoplight on. I've raced and passed tractors, "cyclists" (traveling at a wobbly 2 or 3 miles per hour), time and sunlight. Running is my rock. Running is my constant. And here, running is my fame. Holla.

Wacky Wednesdays & Slacker Thursdays

2009-10-14T02:02:00.001-07:00

Written Wednesday

School is usually pretty crazy. I mean, I never quite know what to expect. Well, today was more special than most days.

First, I decided to make cookies for the teachers in my office. America mom sent me one of those just-add-water-and-oil packets for peanut butter cookies and the school has a beautiful home ec room. So the cookies were quite successful. I feel like I will be baking a lot in the future. Yes!

The students just finished their national exams and I've never seen them so exhausted. One of my favorite students came into the home ec room while I was baking to say hello. He looked like he was going to fall asleep talking to me. I fed him some cookie dough (I wish I could have fed him some shut eye) and he seemed a little happier.

Dear Korea Educational Board: just because you keep students in school for 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week doesn't mean they learn more.

Anyways. The exams meant that I had my morning free. Which is why I baked cookies.

Well, after the cookies, I got an inter-office instant message. The messages are usually in Korean, and for fun I use Google Translator to figure out what they're talking about. They're usually pretty boring and not very useful. But today the first one was a gold mine:

"Yes, my finger is broken. Yesterday pay seokjyeon condolences today at 2 pm exactly. We will go to the morgue together. Volleyball will be at 4 pm."

I noticed that people were collecting money (which Fulbright told us was customary for deaths). Well, with my noonchi roaring, I asked my co-teacher if I could contribute to the death money pot. She seemed really surprised but handed me an envelop. The lady who sits across from me in the office lost her father-in-law.

Cool. Here's $20.

Nope. Not that easy. Next thing I know, my co-teacher is leading me to a car. We squeeze four tiny teachers in the back of a tiny Kia and drive to the ::gulp:: morgue. Oh God. Really? Are we really going to the morgue?

But, my fair readers, I did it for you.

We drove to the back of the hospital, parked illegally in a handicap spot (pretty common practice around these parts) and headed down a side alley toward a dark back entrance. I walked into the morgue expecting to come face to face with sheet-covered bodies and pungent odors. But instead I met a dozen somber-looking women in black hanboks (I'd never seen them before) and half a dozen men in black suits. The women were cooking.

There was an alter, exactly the same as the ones from my death day celebration and Chuseok with a picture (thankfully NOT an open casket) of the deceased. The teachers and I stood in front of the alter and performed the formal bow twice facing the alter and once for the three men in suits next to the alter.

I'm pretty sure that the man just passed. The men all had red, puffy eyes. And the woman I work with was trying very hard to keep her composure.

It really surprised me, the whole culture of paying respects. I feel that, in the states, you generally give people you know professionally room to grieve on their own. You know? And since Koreans try so hard to remain even-faced, I would have thought that entertaining guests so near to a death would not really be the norm.

But, on the other hand, Korea is all about community. After all, this country survived some of the most difficult history in the world. The only way they survived, recovered, moved-on and prospered was through the complete cooperation and support of each other. So, driving back to school I thought about just how communal this culture is: sharing of food, sharing of drinks, sharing of space, sharing of clothes, sharing of stuff. Of course they would share grief. That's just the way you move on here. So I decided. Yep. The death procedure here is pretty cool.

Well, back at school the last sentence of the e-mail made itself clear. There would, in fact, be teacher volleyball at 4pm. And I was, in fact, encouraged to join in. So, at 4pm I joined the faculty volleyball team in the gym. Yep. I was the only female. Awesome. Did I mention that I don't really do ball sports?

But, thankfully, I had an easy crowd. Every time I touched the ball, everyone let out a whirl of "ooo's" and "woooowwww's." Yep, girls play ball sports, too.

After the game (my team won thanks to the ridiculous effort of the chain-smoking P.E. teacher with a very mean spike) I was heading back to my building (the gym is separate from where I teach) when my co-teacher said, "Amy, will you share with us?" I looked over and realized that they had pulled out 12 cans of beer and a small bottle of un-opened Gatorade. Ho boy. So I enjoyed a nice glass of beer with my fellow cohorts.

I felt that the beer was pretty much the perfect ending of my wacky Wednesday. From cookies to funerals to volleyball, this is just how it is. Well, at least I'm never bored. :)

Thursday

I felt really rebellious. I could not believe I was doing this. I could not believe that I was actually doing this. I was walking into work 20 minutes before my first class (10:30 a.m.). Thursday's and Friday's I don't have class until 10:50, but I still usually show up around 9:15 or so when school starts. I don't know why I do that, especially because I just sit blogging or on Facebook wishing I was home talking on Skype. Typical Gen-Y, I know. So today I decided to blame it on the contract (which says that I only need to be at school when I teach).

I did my three classes and walked out the door (thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm actually doing it.") a little before 4pm. Ah, yes. What a nice day.

Well, karma catches up to you. I decided to change the oil of my scooter before I went up to the apartment. So, I drove home, parked my scooter and changed my oil. Well, the oil-access is inside the seat chamber, where I also store my helmet. I finished with the oil and was putting my helmet in the chamber when a series of terrible things happened in slow motion in ways that I continue to replay in my mind.

My hands were kind of full; I was juggling the bulky helmet, sunglasses, keys and had a purse slung over my shoulder. Well, as I was rearranging the things in my hand the wind picked up behind me, which blew my purse off of my shoulder. I went to grab it (because heaven forbid if it fell) and dropped my keys into the chamber. As soon as the keys hit the chamber floor, my wildly flying bag hit the upright seat (the seat folds out and up so you can access the chamber), slamming it shut before I could react.

So there I was, outside of my apartment, staring at my scooter and trying really hard not to imagine how funny this entire situation might have looked had I been sitting on a lounge chair 30 feet away.

Of course the school does not have a spare key. So, here comes the locksmith. I was told repeatedly by my co-teacher (who arranged the locksmith) that I shouldn't put my keys in the chamber and I should be more careful next time. I really wanted to say, "Well, I really like keeping my keys in a safe place such as the seat chamber," but my co-teacher's limited English would not adequately transfer the sarcasm (and perhaps shred of irritation at being treated like a child).

Then, the locksmith made me, not one, but two spare keys. One for school and one for home. Yeah, yeah. I get it. You two loons think I walk around throwing my keys into terrible places. But, realizing that this was a huge annoyance for my co-teacher and cost my school some money, I expressed nothing but the most sincere gratitude for their outstanding efforts.

Pfsh. Two keys. Really.

Ahem. I've already lost one of the spares. ... *Gulp* I guess I have 200-some days to find it...

Also, Wednesday was my 100th day in Korea. Happy First Hundred!

My Week of Fun

2009-10-13T03:58:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since my last post, so this is very diary-ish. Enjoy if you have the time or skip to the end for the movie!

On Wednesday I met up with another Fulbright friend, Dave, in Gwangju. Our plan was to meet there, stare at the bus board and have a destination pop out at us. Well, we stood there, gaping up at a list of cities we’ve never heard of, trying to draw some sort of meaning from the name. We finally decided to head to Jinju. There’s kind of a funny story about Jinju: Gurye, Jinju and Suncheon make up what we in my province call the Bermuda Triangle. The cities are far away from other ETAs and only house one ETA. Therefore, the ETAs in Jinju, Gurye and Suncheon make up the Bermuda Triangle.

So, Dave and I set off for Jinju to surprise Josh, the lonely Jinju ETA. On the bus there we decided to make our way to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, the following day to meet more ETAs and then finally make our way to Gyeongju for the Fulbright conference. Our travel plan actually made a lot of sense. Over the three days of traveling, we gradually worked our way to Gyeongju.

Jinju was pretty fun. Josh was happy to see us and show us around. Jinju is really famous for this one fort used to thwart Japanese invasion plans. More importantly, there was this lady in Jinju (maybe a queen or princess or nobody, it was not very clear). Anyway, she got herself alone with this important Japanese guy in front of this fort. Well, I imagine that they were hugging or holding hands or something, because she threw herself and dragged him off the edge of the cliff to their deaths in the river below. Her death, a heroic sacrifice for Korea, made the temple really famous and very symbolic of all that Koreans want people to remember them as: brave and patriotic.

So, yeah. Dave and I saw this fort (and the shrine dedicated to this woman) while we waited for Josh to finish class. This was just the beginning of my historic weekend in Korea. It was when I began to realize how sad the country’s history actually is. The fort that Dave and I visited was destroyed a long time ago, but rebuilt in the 1990’s. I will come to find out that this is very much the norm. The 90’s must have been when Korea was getting back on her feet, because that seems to be when everything was reconstructed.

Anyways, that night Josh showed us the sights of his fair city: dinner, a light fountain and discarded lanterns from a cancelled lantern festival (due to swine flu scares. Oh gosh). The lanterns were really pretty, so it was sad to see them rotting under a bridge. The next day Dave and I said goodbye to Josh, only to see him in a few days, and made our way to Busan.

In Busan we met up with six other ETAs, three of which live there. Busan is known for their beautiful beaches and being a huge city. Our first stop was the largest department store in the world. It had an ice rink! I’m pretty sure Gurye could fit inside the thing with room to spare. Dave and I enjoyed the most delicious lunch in the world: Quiznos. It tasted like they made it in America and shipped it to our mouths. No characteristic Korean-isms like sweet corn, sugary bread, kimchee, Korean mayo or chili powder. Just straight-up American goodness.

Our next stop was Haeundae beach. Gorgeous. We just spent the afternoon people-watching, wave-chasing, sand-turtle-building and tossing the Frisbee with our new travel buddies. It just so happened that the Busan International Film Festival (PIFF for short) opening night was Thursday! And part of it takes place on Haeundae beach, so there was a huge bustle around us. We also drew quite a crowd. Koreans love watching Frisbee, but don’t really want to play. We were getting a little crazy with our tosses and dive-catches, fueled but the chorus of ohhh’s and ahhhh’s. What a perfect afternoon.

That night we went to the PIFF red carpet. It was crazy! People were screaming, there were celebrities everywhere and all for some fireworks! Yeah. It was kind of dream-like. We had dinner, did some sight-seeing (Busan has beautiful lights at night) and found ourselves back on a beach where we hung out, chased waves and enjoyed life for a good two hours. Yep. This was the life.

Meeting everyone at Gyeongju was like breathing after holding your breath for a really long time. Yeah. I think you get what I mean, so I’ll stop there. Boy, I missed my ETAs.

The Fulbright conference was actually only on Saturday. All of Saturday was workshops and discussions. I thought it was going to be long and boring, but it was actually really helpful and so much fun; the stories were incredible!.

Sunday was the day to write home about. We went on an 8.5-hour history tour of Gyeongju. Let me give you some background of what Gyeongju is. Gyeongju is the place where Korea started. The Silla dynasty, located in Gyeongju, brought together the three divided parts of the country. At one point in time, Gyeongju was the largest city in the world. Yeah. The world. It held over a million people before most major cities had 500,000. And, just like everything else in Korean history, nearly every single piece of historical evidence was destroyed by the time the Korean War ended. And, just like everything else in Korea, was rebuilt in the 1990’s to serve as historical reminders and cultural teachers.

We visited the palace where it all started, the temple that was connected to the palace, Korea’s National History museum, tombs of the kings, the park of the scholars, lotus ponds and the lost islands (not as cool as it sounds) and half a dozen little places along the way. Its tours like these that make me wish I spoke Korean. I feel like, even though I have a deep and humble respect for the places I went to, that I still do not fully understand their historical significance. By the end of the tour, we were all tired (for obvious reasons) and both angry and thankful. I’m not really a history buff. In fact, I kind of avoid that stuff. But seeing Korea’s history, knowing that none of it was actually the original, really made me “get” why our stuff is so cool. South Korea is only 50 years old, but Korean culture goes back much further than ours. But it’s all lost! They can only guess and assume! Everything that we saw was an ugly band aid, reminding us that these beautiful things are only here because someone destroyed the first average-looking ones. It really hit us when we found out that the tombs were replicas, not originals. The tombs! What’s sacred if even your tomb won’t survive!? So, yeah. Anyway. Next time you see an American historical monument, you don’t have to love it, but just stop and give credit to what it stands for; give credit to the fact that it tells a real story, not just an assumed one.

Now for a funny story to lighten the mood! I hung out a lot with Rachael on the tour. Rachael is a bright red red-head. Well, between the two of us, we grabbed attention. There was one point at the palace where this man with a camera cornered me on a balcony. Rachael, who was catching up to me, laughed and took a picture of this man filming me awkwardly gazing off a balcony. Well, the camera man’s jaw hit the floor when he saw two strange, exotic Americans and quickly pushed Rachael next to me. Together we pretended to be taken by the beauty of the palace. Pointing, gasping and laughing while the camera man (with the biggest smile on his face) anxiously recorded. It’s gonna be weird when I’m just normal again.

On Monday the 2009 Fulbright ETAs had to, once again, say goodbye to each other and begin making our treks home. I took the bus back to Gwangju with a solid gang of people, but went my own way back to Gurye. It was weird, sitting on the bus alone after being surrounded by people constantly for the past week. It got even weirder when I noticed that, while I was gone, Gurye added two more traffic lights! That brings the city total up to three! Holy cow, times are changing. Maybe next week we gonna get ourselves one of ‘em new high rises. Either way, I’ll be sure to keep you posted. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the short movie!

5k for Epilepsy

2009-10-06T00:26:00.000-07:00

Shopping Adventure Win: Strange English Shirts

I usually pass up the strange English t-shirts, but this one I just couldn't.

Who would pass up running 5k's + Epilepsy?
Or maybe it has nothing to do with 5k's, which would make it even stranger

Chuseok

2009-10-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Note: Lot's to say, sorry for the length!

What is Chuseok? Everyone explains Chuseok to me as the Korean version of Thanksgiving. And maybe it is. But instead of focusing on the birth of a country, happy pilgrims and oppressed Natives, Chuseok focuses on your family and ancestors. And, from what I can tell, that's pretty accurate.

And like Thanksgiving in the U.S., different families celebrate Thanksgiving differently. I've heard of a few experiences, but mine was nothing in comparison to those. First of all, my family is not that religious. Second, not too many people are dead. I think both of those played a huge factor into why my Chuseok was so unique.

My family left for Chuseok Thursday afternoon, but I had school and couldn't imagine living out of a small backpack for five days. You see, Korean culture is as such: you have two pairs of paints and maybe (**maybe**) five pairs underwear (more likely fewer than five pairs. My brothers rotate through three each). So traveling means bringing one pair of pants, a few shirts and a few pairs of underwear. The four people in my family stuffed all of their gear into one bag about the size of the reusable ones you buy at the grocery store. Soap, toothpaste and all of those bulky cosmetics are not included. They just use what the host family has.

Well, when I travel with my family, I'm never sure what I should wear. It seems that whenever I bring hiking clothes, we always have a formal event and vice versa. So, consequently, my bag is always pretty big. My host dad has told me on several occasions that I am "high maintenance" and have "a lot of clothes" because I change into different clothes before bed. Good gravy.

Anyways, I spent Thursday night playing catch up and went to Suncheon with other Gurye English teachers on Friday. Saturday morning I started on my bus trek to Go heung (고흥) to meet up with the family. Go heung is a pretty decently-sized city, but it's about as far south as you can go before hitting the ocean. It's considered the country of the country (or rural of the rural). So, while waiting to be picked up at the bus stop, a woman and some taxi drivers trapped me on a bench and started firing questions away in rapid Korean. As I tried to answer and understand the best I could (for some reason, they thought that, when I didn't understand the first time, they should say it louder, faster and more slurred) the woman kept inspecting my hands, holding my hands and stroking my arms. Yes, my hands are bigger than yours. Yep, I have arm hair. Yes. I know you don't. Yes, it is quite soft.

Another taxi driver kept saying stuff about my blue eyes. Yep. They're blue. No, they're not brown. Yes, I can still see just fine.

My novelty wore off once they realized that I knew very little Korean and they eventually left me alone. I leaned back against the wall when the last woman walked away, took a deep breath and closed my eyes for just a little longer than a standard blink. This was going to be fun.

Dad picked me up. He noticed that I still had a nasty cough. He then spent the next five minutes explaining to me that I should not shower after jogging anymore because the cold water on my hot body is bad. He said that I should just change clothes, eat breakfast and go to school. I'm kind of worried about Monday. I can just picture me, hot and sweaty from a run, begging and pleading with him to let me shower before school.

Instead of going to the same country home as last weekend, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's home from the other side of the family. Their house was bustling with family. I think all of the traditional Korean stuff happens in the morning (or so I was told), so I missed the traditional Chuseok breakfast (sad!). But the rest of the day was suppose to be spent playing traditional card games or something like that. Well, my dad's side of the family just watched baseball (which was fine with me. I mean, c'mon. It's playoff season!). About 30-minutes since arriving, a string of more people crammed in. I was so busy trying to find the oldest male to bow to that I barely noticed Byeong Cheol (the kid from the first wedding) sneak up next to me. Thank god! Someone (a) my own age (b) who speaks English.

The newly weds were also there. The girl changed into a traditional hanbok and they both did a traditional bow ceremony. Then the family all gathered around the table and had snacks, wine and stuff.

Turns out that Byeong Cheol's dad is an oriental medicine doctor. He was giving Grandpa some acupuncture in the wrist when he turned to me, needle poised and face smiling. "Try everything once," I thought and stuck out my arm. He made some comment to which Byeong Cheol laughed (something about my skin being better than Grandpa's) and BAM. In went the needle. My first acupuncture. It was weird to see a needle just sticking out of your arm, but I didn't feel anything, so it was all Kosher in my book.

With my needle still in my arm, Oh-nee picked me up off the floor, saying something about going to her brother's house. I walked to the car, put my shoes on and dislodged the needle all at the same time. Talent? I think so. I said goodbye to Byeong Cheol (promising to give him a call when I go to Seoul) and piled into the car.

The other side of the family was more traditional. But we were rather late getting there, so the games were all over. Now people were either sleeping or making a traditional sweet rice cake. I squatted down to join in - anxious for my first dose of traditional Chuseok - when Oh-nee's brother (the man of the house who NEVER lets anyone forget it) pulled me outside and stuck me and his two sons in the gazebo where I played English tutor. All three of us wanted to be somewhere else.

But, we made good conversation and I got to know some of the Uncle's a little better. Uncle Say Hwahn and I really hit it off (he loves music and marketing...go figure!) so it ended up being a good time.

Me and Kenny - the younger of the brothers

We had dinner at a restaurant. As the food was coming in Kenny said, "This is a Buddhist restaurant, so everything is vegetarian." As soon as "vegetarian" left his mouth, the waitress put down a plate of squirming octopus tentacles. Fighting the urges to scream, recoil and puke I said (without missing a beat) "Except that, right?" And watched as Oh-chahn fought with a tentacle stuck to his chopstick.

That night we returned to Dad's side of the family, but everyone was gone except for us and Uncle & son from Seoul. The son - Min Seok: age 4 - is my new best friend. The next morning I knew that I had come unprepared as I watched my Grandparents, dad and uncle dress in hiking boots, sweatpants and workshirts. I had flip flops and corduroy jeans. Awesome.

Grandma and Grandpa are farmers, so Sunday morning we all partook in some form of farming. Oh-nee, my brothers, Min Seok and I dug up sweet potatoes (flip flops, cords...) while the others did field work. Eventually, Min Seok and I broke away and collected acorns. I never would have guessed that acorns would bring a 4-year old so much joy. The whole time he gabbed away in Korean while I nodded and pretended to understand. It was perfect.

Back at the house, Oh-nee sent me on a bike to deliver a mid-morning snack of beer and fish jerky to the field workers. The bike was once a 10-speed, but is now broken and stuck on speed-2. That made traveling over the flat terrain slow and wobbly, but pretty funny. I delivered the goods and agreed to a cup of beer (to which my Dad said, "One shot"). There I was, chugging foamy beer in a field with farmers at 10:30 in the morning somewhere in the deep southern mountains of South Korea. I love Chuseok.

Below are some pictures I took on the way back to the house

We left for home with the Uncle and Min Seok, who curled up on my lap and began snoring softly within the first few minutes of the ride. 7 people in a 5-seat car. Fun fun! We dropped them off at the bus station in Suncheon before heading back to our little Gurye.

So, very much like the rest of my family weekends in Korea, Chuseok was fun, relaxing, confusing and chaotic. I'm happy to have done it, but I'm glad it's over. I only have to teach on Monday next week because of Midterms and a Fulbright committment. This will probably be my last post for a week. (That's why it's so long, haha)

Korean Medicine

2009-09-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

At first, I thought it was just dumb luck, but soon I began to realize that it's just what Koreans do. As someone who is very publicly sick, my co-workers and family feel the need to share their non-medically supported tips on getting better fast. Here are some of my favorites:

7) Don't sleep with the fan on. *(see note)

6) Do not drink cold water. It is bad for your lungs. (...?)

5) You should not jogging anymore because it makes you sick [sic].

4) Drink less. (Because I have fluid in my chest. So by not drinking, I will not add to the fluid.)

3) You should not shower because it is not good for you.

2) You should not go out at night because the cold air (it falls to a whopping 68-degrees at night) is bad for your lungs.

1) You should not sleep for more than 8 hours a day. Too much sleeping is bad for you.

*The fan thing is actually comical. A popular Korean urban legend says that sleeping with the fan on in an enclosed room will lead to asphyxiation; the fan (1) keeps blowing the air that you breathe out, so you'll run out of oxygen after a while or (2) cuts up the oxygen molecules. It's called the Korean Fan Death, look it up. I think the same idea is behind the "don't sleep with the fan on" thing: it just keeps blowing the germs right back at you.

Here's a little exerpt: "The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), a South Korean government-funded public agency, issued a consumer safety alert in 2006 warning that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected."

2006. A government agency.

I mostly humor these suggestions with an appreciative head nod. But the sleeping one and the shower one I said, "Oh. Actually, in America I sleep a lot and get better faster." and "Oh. Showers make me feel better, so I will still shower everyday."

Every morning the school nurse gives me this bottle of thick, brown liquid (oriental medicine, she calls it) everyday and watches me drink it. The taste isn't too bad, but it's more of a texture thing. But, I actually think it works so I'm gonna keep choking it down.

Kind of funny, huh? It actually made me start to wonder how American home remedies would sound to foreigners. Like drinking 7Up when you feel sick to your stomach, sleeping with a vaporizer or with VICS smeared across your chest, gargling 3 times a day or eating chicken soup. They seem like no-brainers to us, but maybe they're just as crazy-sounding as the Korean Fan Death. Okay, maybe not that crazy. But odd in the least.

Happy Death Day!

2009-09-28T22:57:00.001-07:00

I originally thought that the trip to Go-houn was to celebrate my Grandfather's birthday. And, in the process, we were going to honor his deceased wife. Well, I got it halfway right. I never met Grandpa...maybe he's dead, too. But we definitely celebrated the death of my Grandmother. The anniversary of your parent's death is a big deal here, and there's a very formal ceremony to honor it.

We spent the night and day at Oh-nee's brother's country house in Go-houn. It was a beautiful Korean house built on a beautiful hill that overlooked beautiful mountains and countryside. The road to get there was about as wide as a car. About an inch off of the road were walls. That was a fun ride for someone sick to her stomach (read the previous post).

Picture taken from the house

The only thing that bugged me about the house was the lack of furniture. There were no couches, chairs or beds in the entire house. Only a hardwood floor. I got so sick of sitting on the floor by the end of the trip that I would just stand in the corner for the sake of not having to crouch.

Oh-nee has three brothers and five sisters, but I think only two of the sisters made it to the party. Oh-nee spent all of Monday cooking. I had no idea why she was cooking so much. As far as I knew at the time, there were only 7 of us at this point in time. Well, by 7:00 there were 20 people. All of the dishes Oh-nee made were plated on really nice wood trays and then placed on an alter-like table. The alter had a picture of - who I assumed was - Oh-nee's mom, some script of some kind and candles. Oh-nee's brother's son - "Call me Kenny" - spoke excellent English and explained that white foods (such as chicken, Deok, pears) were placed on the left side of the alter while red foods (such as apples, beef) were placed on the right. The fish were placed on the right but with their heads pointing to the left to illustrate their ability to be both red and white.

Making Kimchee

At 8:00, the family all gathered in front of the alter and performed the traditional bows. Each family group poured some kind of alcohol into the cups on the alter, as if giving it to the spirit...? Then they would bow as a single-family unit and make room for the next unit. I was briefly taught how to bow back in Chuncheon, so I didn't make a complete fool of myself.

My favorite part of the alter: the chicken.

A brief video

After the ritual, everyone eats at least one thing from the alter. According to Kenny, it is to pass on the luck from the ritual. I had a hard boiled egg. It was delicious. Then the serious eating began. I've never seen so much Korean food in one place before. But the family did a pretty good job of finishing it.

No cake. I was pretty bummed. But the Deok was delicious (Korean sweet rice cakes. Think "big, doughy gusher").

So, Grandma's death day falls five days before Chuseok, the day to celebrate all of the dead. So I will be doing the exact same thing next weekend. I'm going to be a pro. :)

All in all, the weekend was miserable for me (I just wanted to go home, lounge, read, relax,...be on a non-floor surface) but very important for my family. The family seemed very happy and excited that I was there, and my Kong family seemed especially glad that I seemed to have enjoyed myself. Family first.

We came back home around midnight. My cold had escalated over the course of the day, so I couldn't wait to sleep. Well, sleep lasted only two hours. I woke up unable to breathe and with a high fever. Luckily, I live next to the insane asylum, which acts as the emergency room off-hours. Bronchitis. Yipee. Off to the "injection room" for your happy mystery shot. Here's some mystery medicine for tomorrow. Go to the doctor tomorrow during one of your breaks.

Today during my break I was lucky enough to get another trip to the injection room for another happy mystery shot because my stupid fever hadn't come down. Here's some more mystery medicine for the next five days. Between the two trips to the doctor and the two trips to the injection room, half the town of Gurye knows I'm sick and all of the faculty, staff and students at the High School know that I took two shots from behind in one day. Perfect. Gotta love high school.

On the bright side, my students behaved extra well today. I was really surprised with the girls. If it looked like I was struggling in any way during class, they yelled at the misbehaving students to shut up, sit down and listen to teacher. Maybe this sick-in-a-small-town thing isn't as bad as I thought. :)

My First Mental Meltdown

2009-09-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

They warned us it would happen around September-October. As I stared at the pavement on some mountain highway, in the rain, trying everything in my might to quiet my rolling stomach and stop the world from spinning, I knew that my first Korean meltdown was coming. Not just a moody spell or an irritation period, but an all-out get-me-the-hell-out-of-here breakdown.

Let's back up, shall we? It was Sunday. I have been fighting a bad cold since Thursday and it seemed worse today. Today we were going to some place I'd never heard of to celebrate a birthday for someone who I didn't even think really existed. Things went downhill from the beginning. We weren't driving there in the family car. Instead, Oh-nee the boys and I were going to carpool with an Aunt. Well, this Aunt had a 5-seat SUV and two kids (12-year old boy and a 3-year-old girl). Do the math. 4 of us + 3 of them. So, with my head pounding and my face feeling like it was going to explode, we crammed five people in the back seat. Thank god I got the window.

The car trip was an hour through windy mountain highways. It seemed like this Aunt had not yet discovered the break, because she took the turns as fast as the straightaways. The kids were happy to be reunited with their cousins. From a foreigner's perspective, it seemed like everyone was shouting over everyone else in this little-big SUV. A half-hour into the ride, I knew I had discovered a new circle of hell.

After an hour of wishing I was deaf, dumb and blind, my stomach revolted. Thank goodness the gesture for "pull-over-I'm-going-to-be-sick" is universal. I was able to hang onto my cookies, but my knees were weak and the world was just spinning. That's when it happened. Oh-nee, in all of her sweetness, crouched next to me and innocently asked, "Do you not feel well?"

Cue Meltdown.

What do you mean, "Do you not feel well!?" I haven't felt well in days! Unlike my other moments of weakness in Korea, I voiced this one. "No!" I wailed.

Oh-nee said, "Oh, where does it hurt."

"Everywhere!" I screeched. And suddenly (and to my utter amazement) I began to list every single body part I knew in Korean (even my foot). I had no idea where I learned so many. And, the cherry on top: when I ran out of Korean body parts, I flung out a string of hysterical curses (in English). Thank goodness no one I was with actually understood anything that I said, and hopefully the Korean government never will. What I actually said on that mountain is between God and me.

When every imaginable poisonous word left my body, I suddenly felt empty; like someone pressed the reset button. I stood for a few minutes out in the rain, gathering my composure. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the mountains were despite the rain and my mood. My inner Julie Benes whispered in my head, "You done now? Because that was just childish."

Yes, I was done. Oh-nee was on the phone with someone about getting me medicine, I'm pretty sure I scared the aunt half to death and the boys were completely lost in their Nintendo's to care. Isn't it funny? How you yell and kick and scream to make yourself feel better, but really, you only end up defeating yourself?

So that's the story of my meltdown. I really do want to post a positive post about the weekend activities, but I just can't justify adding it after that rant. Look for a separate post about the family party, because it in itself is one hysterical adventure.

Did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?

2009-09-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

One Wednesday I taught my English Conversation Club about dating culture in America. Kind of boring for the boys, but the girls loved it. Anyways, to try to cater to the guys' strange sense of humor, I ended class by having the students make pickup lines. Yep. I'm still laughing, and it's Friday night here.

"If being pretty is a guilt, you'll be killed."
"Can you smell something? My heart is burning."
"If I were Amy I give Ara chocolate! (I want chocolate)"
"Let me read your palm."
"Your strong point is you."

This one's long:
"If my eyes is three, I give you one of my eyes. If my arms is three, I give you one my arm. If my legs is three, I give you one my leg. So, I am normal person and you are handicapped person."

"I wish I was your eyes because then I can always see your appearance."
"Hey lady. I think you wear angel mark cloth."
"Do you have glue? I want to attach myself to you."
"My ideal is pretty, beautiful and smart women. But when I stand with you, I completely forget."

See, strange sense of humor. Oh high school-ers.

Thank goodness it's Friday. This town has never seemed so small! Every Wednesday my fellow American-English-Teachers-[stuck]-in-Gurye and I grab dinner and drinks. It's very therapeutic to just talk about life in the country, student woes and co-teacher stories. We are five-strong and very thankful.

But, I have yet to have an evening out on the town without having several encounters with students. Believe me. It's very awkward to talk to students when you have a beer in your hand.

And then I hear about Amy-sightings for the rest of the week. But, hey. At least they're speaking English more! I have a group of first-graders (first year in high school) that are the kind of students that make teachers not want to procreate. I ran into them outside of school once and had a very interesting talk with them on the four different types of beer in South Korea (yep, they have four now). Ever since, they don't give me any trouble in class.

Boys. Go figure.

This weekend I'm taking it easy. There's a nasty cold circulating the school and I caught it, so I'm looking forward to a weekend of not yelling and just relaxing. Tomorrow I am going to Gwangju with one of co-teachers to see Fame. Then Sunday and Monday I am heading about an hour southwest to 고흥 (Goheung) for a birthday party or something. I'm not really sure what it is (once again, lost in the translation), but I get off of school on Monday for it, so I'm not complaining. I've never been to a birthday party that's lasted two days before. Should be interesting. Goheung is where the Korea space center is, so maybe we'll visit. You just never know.

The Dragonfly

2009-09-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in the teachers lounge, doing what I do best (which is looking like I'm busy when I'm actually not) when I heard a buzzing above my head. I look up and saw a dragonfly, trapped in the light. It had somehow lodged itself between the light bulb and the ceiling. No matter how hard it flapped it's little wings it just could not fit through the space to escape. I watched it for a bit; it kept flapping and buzzing. Finally, the thing got tired and quit flapping, only to realize that now, with it's wings closed, it could in fact crawl through the space. It seems stupid, but I couldn't help but think, "Sometimes, you need to stop trying in order to solve the problem."

I'll keep that in mind next time I'm stuck while lesson planning.

The school is putting together some promotional pamphlets for the school (high school is like college here. You apply to high schools, you don't just go to one) and guess who is featured? Yep. Me. So, they took some pictures of a couple of my classes that I thought you would enjoy seeing. :)

I was teaching my advanced club class (the one that blogs) how to make fortune tellers. Yeah, it was a cop-out for not wanting to prepare an actual lesson. Don't judge me.

This one was completely posed

They had fun with it. We did do actual work later, I promise. Haha.

My First Foot Massage

2009-09-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

Today I got my first-ever foot massage. This entry will be a little different because I'm not sure how foot massages are in the States, so I don't really know what to comment on. All I know is that I was super thankful to know the word for "That hurts."

I laid down on this doctor's-office looking bed, with a diagram of Relaxation Points of the Human Foot. Wow, I had no idea that every single part of your body has a dedicated pressure point in your foot. As I laid there, trying to relax as was insisted, I kept wondering what series events occurred to ever get me to do this. I guess it was all the running. It was beginning to do a number on my feet. But I think I mostly wanted to do something that I could bond on with my mom. She does a lot of that stuff: acupuncture (that was immediately out), facials, bath houses (people stare at me while I'm clothed. Imagine what it would be like naked in front of a bunch of ahjummas.) So "pedicure" seemed like a harmless enough outing.

This woman twisted and poked my feet in ways that I never thought possible. Most of it was quite enjoyable, but there were a few places when I cried, "Mercy." I was a little surprised by how sensitive some of the places were. Not in a naturally-vulnerable way, but in a there-is-an-issue-but-it's-being-worked-out way. Hm. Maybe it'll make a difference in my running... I will definitely check it out tomorrow morning.

The best part of the foot massage was during the "cool-down" period. I was soaking my feet out in the lobby. Let me paint you a picture of this place (like a lot of retail places in Gurye). You enter the building into a small lobby. Then the massage takes place in a smaller room behind the lobby. But the street wall of the lobby is completely glass.

In the 15 minutes I sat there, I had two awkward insa's and three awkward through-the-glass conversations with students. I love small towns. Overall, my feet feel quite happy, and now I'm just that much closer to my students.

Speaking of students. This week one of my lessons is on feelings/emotions. I introduced about 20 feelings (happy, sad, confused, angry, etc.). To encourage retention, I have a goofy face that I make while saying the word. For example, when I'm "bored," I rest my head on my fist, stare up at the sky and say dully, "Bored." For one of our games, I split the students into teams. I would make a face and one student from each group would have to run to the bored and write the word I acted. It's a tremendously fun game, especially when the students are competitive.

Well, the word was "fuming," so I slammed one fist into another and made the most angry face I could muster. Immediately the students started sprinting to the board. Once the cloud of dust cleared, I saw that two teams wrote "fuming" while the third wrote "cute." So much for my acting career.

That particular lesson I had another teacher in the room observing. She came up to me after the lesson and said, "You make a lot of faces. Koreans do not do that. It is very American." That really got me thinking throughout the day. Are my mannerisms really that different? Is that something that people actually notice?

In another activity, the students had to act an emotion and their team had to guess the emotion. I was a little confused by why the students struggled with this. They seemed really resistant to act emotions. My co-teacher's comment came back to me. Facial expressions are just so much more limited than those of Americans. I'm not sure if it's capability or choice, since their so concerned with keeping their eyes big and their faces small. (Smiling makes the face wider and eyes smaller) All I know is that I've seen my students happy, sad and bored, but not much else. Then I got thinking about Korean Americans. Even the ones that I spent orientation with. They make faces, right? I'm sure of it.

Nature versus nurture at it's finest.

It All Started In Gwangju

2009-09-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

**Edit: Link to class blog is now correct. Sorry for the mix up!

Gwangju, like many of my weekend trips, was a wonderful breath of fresh air. Just a bunch of 20-somethings forgetting for a moment that they have actual responsibilities and just getting completely absorbed in a new city. That was us. Friday we spent the night in a love motel called The Windmill. Honestly, you couldn't miss the windmill.

Saturday our group split up: the girls went shopping and the boys went...well, wherever boys go. I was kind of done with shopping after having been to Suncheon for just that purpose three times in the past seven days, so I went with the boys. It was actually surprisingly feminine. The guys decided to go to Art Street and then to see My Sister's Keeper. So much for male bonding.

Dan (guitar), Dave (Middle) and Ben walking down Art Street

Art Street was actually pretty cool. Aside from Korean art, they had a bunch of old Korean men selling absolute junk: non-prescription glasses from the 80's, lighters, broken watches, etc. Our favorite find was the hand gun. Yep. For $50 you could get yourself a nice, antique hand gun with a holster. Forget about the 5-day waiting period. :) My Sister's Keeper was a mistake. Too sad. So we just kind of poked fun at it along the way to try to lighten the mood. Try is the key-word there. But, by 5:00 I was on the bus back to Gurye. Boy, that was a challenge. In 90 minutes I go from a city of just under 1 million to my mountain town of 10,000.

I kind of thought that my wild story of the weekend would happen in Gwangju. But I am starting to learn to never underestimate the wildness of the mountain town. Let's start with Saturday night...the Biker Festival.

At about 7pm on Saturday, Oh-nee asked if I wanted to go to a festival. Looking at my other option - lesson planning - I immediately accepted. Well, some of Oh-nee's Lion's Club friends (clue 1 that this night was going to be special) were selling some sort of tea at this little festival in a nearby city. The festival was called "Morning Come" and, for some reason, seemed to attract the attention of every motorcycle owner in Korea. Now, you thought white trash in do-rags, leather jackets and jean vests was funny. Hah. Imagine prim and proper Koreans, with their small stature and mid-life crises, trying to play the part of a "Hogster." Well, apparently Oh-nee and her friends found it funny, too, because we ditched the festival and drank ourselves full of mahkahlee (Korean rice wine...delish!) at a restaurant across the street. Oh those Lion's Club women.

A vendor at the festival selling "Yellow Corn" motorcycle gear. Oh, and a few fake designer bags thrown in the mix.

Sunday I think topped them all. On Friday, a student invited me to church with her. I agreed for two reasons: (1) I felt bad turning her down and (2) church was uncharted cultural territory. That's right, folks. I did it for you; for the blog.

Let's start by painting a picture of the church service. There were about 30 people there. As always, I blended. After struggling through opening songs (definitely practiced my speed reading) and trying to say The Lord's Prayer in another language, the sermon started. Happy that I could just sit back and zone out (like I usually do in the States), I began to relax. My student would occasionally try to translate something for me, but other than that, my mind was free to wander. Well, I was nice and relaxed when the pastor - who was getting pretty fired up - looked straight at me and yelled, "Repent!" Snap. Welcome back, Amy. He was waiting for me...this happens a lot. People say the only thing they know in English and wait for me to either tell them "good job" or to correct them. I gave him a smile, a thumbs up and said, "Very good." He gave a grin and announced to the congregation - as if there was any doubt - that an American was in their presence today.

A little while later, a woman gave me a visitors card to fill out. Fast forward a bit, and I was again jolted back from daydreaming (about Kung fu and it's real-world practicality) when the pastor roared, "Amy Benes," and the congregation all turned to give me a good luck and smile. I gave a nice, diplomatic wave, to which the pastor replied with, "Very pretty!" Well, good thing I'm not ugly, or that would have just been awkward.

So, yeah, church was pretty fun. It was just like church at home, except I only understood the words for "Love" "Christ" and "Jesus." Oh well, that's the important stuff, right?

Sunday afternoon, I was told we were going to buy soy beans. Knowing deep down that this could only mean that something got lost in the translation, I grabbed hiking shoes, an extra shirt and my purse. Since my day-trip-turned-camping-trip experience, the hiking shoes and extra shirt are pretty much a must-grab whenever the family piles into the car. We were also joined by Oh-chahn's friend.

Before starting out, we got gas. And then decided to get a car wash. The car wash was not only the highlight of the weekend, but probably one of the most funny situations in Korea. Watch for yourself.

Well, we did buy soy beans, in case you were wondering. We also had tea at a tea shop with the shop owner at a really cute market. Then we went to a temple (와염사). The temple was really pretty. But pretty is a prerequisite for temples. Still, I'm in awe every time I go to one. No hiking this time, but I refuse to let my guard down.

Looking down at the entrance of the temple

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend. Definitely one to remember. I won't make this any longer than it already is, so....yeah. Thanks for reading! Oh yeah, one more thing! Take a look at our class blog: http://guryehighschool.blogspot.com. You don't have to read it, but the kids love seeing the number of views the blog gets.

The War on Bugs

2009-09-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

I have declared an all-out war on bugs.

Tuesday night my family went on a trip to move my mom's mom's grave. Since I had school the next day, I stayed behind by myself. It's amazing how big and lonely that small apartment suddenly felt without the screaming boys and the busy parents.

Anyways, Tuesday night before bed I noticed a few fresh bug bites. Long story short, by the next morning I had 15 new bug bites, each of them had swelled to the size of a grape and felt like someone sewed a red hot poker inside the welt. Needless to say, I was not the most pleasant person on Wednesday. But, thankfully (I suppose), my face was spared. I don't think I would have ever lived it down if I taught English to high schoolers with a mountain on my forehead.

Well, the swelling has gone down and a few of the bites are pain-free. But, in the meantime, I have become bugs' worst enemy.

It started on Wednesday in the teachers lounge. I was sitting there, trying painstakingly hard to ignore the itchy burning all over my body, when a mosquito flew past my line of vision. I can't really explain it. Think of the Incredible Hulk when he gets really mad...minus the whole physical transformation thing. Something inside of me just snapped and I went nuts. To the surprise of my co-workers I began slapping the air in front of me. I almost had him! I stood up and slapped some more. Finally, I got him! Yes! Before sitting down, I gave my staring co-workers a sheepish look and said, "Bug." They laughed and life moved on. But now I have a very impressive reputation in the teachers lounge as the bug-killer.

I kill so many bugs at home that Oh-nee has entrusted me with the family fly swatter. I sit with them - playing cards or watching the baseball game - armed and read to kill anything that floats my way.

I'm not the only one being attacked. Poor Oh-chahn has them just as bad. So we're kind of a team, him and I. He usually spots it (then runs away screaming) while I try to swat it. We're definitely an entertaining pair. But, progress! No new bites for either of us!

On a side note, my Vice Principal is currently showing me his golf swing. All part of the normal day here at Gurye High. He also decided to post a "phrase of the day" in the teachers lounge. But it's more like a phrase of the every other day. This week we've had "Let's call it a day" (I like that one), "Let's wrap it up" and - today's - "That shirt looks good on you." My VP usually approaches me randomly and says the phrase, but it takes me a while to (a) determine what language he's speaking in and (b) figure out the words behind the accent. Then he asks me to read it. Soon, the entire teachers lounge is asking me to read it fast, then slow, then loud, then soft. God, I love my job. (BTW, I just killed a bug...haha, sucker!)

This weekend should be a lot of fun. I am heading to Gwangju (1.5 hours west by bus) to meet with some ETAs. The normal night of fun will ensue. I kindly turned down a third wedding invitation for Saturday. Yikes! Monday, Oh-nee and I are getting foot massages and/or pedicures I think. So that should be fun, or at least blog-worthy. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to post some pictures soon!

Some Days ...

2009-09-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

1) Some days I have less patience than others

I was updating my status on facebook this morning (to: "screaming is all part of the morning routine with my mountain family.") when Oh-chahn ran into my room and asked his famous, "What are you doing?" Not really knowing how to explain, and perhaps a bit irritated by all of the morning screaming, I just said, "talking to friends." This is how it went down:

O: What are you doing?
Me: Talking to friends.
O: Boyfriend?
Me: Uh, yeah, some boys.

At this, Oh-nee laughed. I looked up and saw that Oh-chahn looked like someone who just dropped an ice cream cone. Oh-nee said laughing, "Amy said talk to boyfriend, then Oh-chahn (nun) go like this [made a very sad face]." I laughed and reassured Oh-chahn that he was the only man in my life. Families. Just when you think that you wish that they weren't there, they save the day.

2) Some days I have less foresight than others.

Today in my last class, I was helping one group with a worksheet. I was actively speaking to one girl specifically when I noticed the other two girls and one boy in the group just staring at me. Not in a listening sort of way, but in a watching sort of way. I stopped and one of the braver girls held up her finger and said, "Can I touch?" The automatic, open-minded part of me said, "Okay" even though I had no idea what she wanted to touch, which made me a little nervous. Slowly she reached up and touched my eyelashes. As soon as she touched them, she drew her hand away and gave a yelp. Instantly, the other girl that was watching went in for the touch. Same story different girl.

Then, as I was trying to get them under control (they were laughing really really loudly), the boy in the group took my finger. Somewhat distracted by the girls, and pretty use to students taking my hand, I barely even noticed as he made a direct shot for the first girls' eyelashes. "Feel," he said, "Very small, no curlys!" Next thing I felt was my finger missing her eye lashes and hitting her directly on the forehead. This, once again, caused a fit of laughter. Well, at least they didn't try pulling them off, right?

3) Some days I just never know what to expect

Right at the start of my first class today, a random student came into my room, ran to the front where I usually teach and started spinning in a circle with her arms thrust outward and her face pointed up. As she spun she sang, "Teacher smell! Yummm! Teacher smell so very very good!" And, without another word, she skipped out of the room. I'll take that as a compliment...?

4) Some days I want to tell Koreans that they're nuts but I love them

For those that don't know, I run a lot. In fact, I run every morning. Since I work late, it's easier to run in the mornings. Well, at 5:30 a.m. in my little mountain village, the only people awake are over the age of 60. Let me paint you a picture of Koreans (60+) who work out.

No matter how hot it is, they will be fully dressed in a coordinated tracksuit.
Everyone wears visors, even before the sun peaks over the mountains.
Breaking a sweat is not okay.

I cannot even begin to describe the looks I get as they see a yellow-haired girl wearing a mis-matched t-shirt and shorts combo, (I dress in the dark in the mornings, okay!?) huffing and puffing, face bright red and glistening passes that 60-something on a bicycle.

So, at 5:30 a.m. the entire male and female population of Gurye over the age of 60 make their way to my bike/running trail and set out for an hour walk. Armed with their visors and track suits, they walk at a mild pace. And they do these silly little stretch-like moves in the process. I'm pretty sure that the stretches do more than harm than good (because they lose their balance a lot and fall off the path), but I keep tight lips. It's pretty entertaining to watch.

5) Some days I feel nuts

I found out that my apartment is next to the mental institution. Apparently it's a pretty popular institution. I guess that's good to know for when things finally snap.

Thanks for reading, hope it made you smile!

Cookie fail

2009-09-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

I never should have attempted the cookies. There were a number of things that contributed to my demise including, but not limited to:

My mediocre-at-best cooking skill
Absence of measuring cups and spoons
Absence of a temperature gauge on the oven
Absence of cooking sheets (my mom kept asking if I wanted to fry them)
Flour laced with rice powder
And, best of all, two excited boys insisting on helping every step of the way

I over-estimated on the sugars, so the cookies looked delicious but crumbled right as you picked them up. Never mind, though. That didn't stop my brothers from eating every last crumbly crumb.

The weekend was pretty eventful after the wedding. The dinner bibimbop with my mom and her friends actually turned out to be quite a wild party. Those Lions Club women know how to have a good time. And since I was the special new person, the ahjumma of the group insisted I drink with her with every shot. Don't let her age fool you, she had my head swimming before 7pm. We finished the night with good ol' noraebang. Might I add that none of them actually wanted to sing, but instead wanted on me to sing. Sooooo, yeah. Fun times.

After the wild Lions Club party ended (around 9pm) I went to bed. Sunday was spent in Suncheon with the other English teachers. We went and saw "9." Interesting movie; very action-packed, dark and (thankfully) not dubbed in Korean. I came home, had some dinner and began my cooking quest. Now I'm off to play a few hands of card games with Oh-chahn before lesson-planning like a fiend. Hope you enjoyed the update!

Weddings ... Gurye style

2009-09-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

I cannot even begin to place a word for the event I just experienced. I kind of thought that everyone would suddenly turn around and say, "Gotcha! Just kidding!" Okay, here it goes:

I put on a nice blouse and skirt. No jeans for me today. Since my mom didn't say anything, I assumed that I had done good. Then we met up with one of Oh-nee's friends to carpool to the wedding. Note: the wedding was for a friend from work. I think Oh-nee might have introduced them to each other.

Well, what do you know, Gurye has a wedding center, too. There were two weddings going on today. And, like always, I blended in with the crowd. It got especially awkward when they took me to this message board and insisted I write a message to the bride and groom in English. I tried to get Oh-nee to sign it with me, but no. So, a month down the road, the happy couple will be looking at their message board filled up with messages from their closest friends plus an odd message in a different language from someone they have never met. That's me, keeping my reputation as a Korean Wedding Crasher.

Before the ceremony I was introduced to three moms who each had two children in my classes. Six out of 600. I tried desperately to remember them, but I couldn't even fake it. I didn't know if the names were for boys or girls. Teacher fail.

As we bunched in the back of the ceremony room (friends stand in the back, family sit) a woman was herding people away from an area right in front of me. It kind of looked like a track of some kind. Then the ceremony started and that's when things got all Alice-Through-The-Looking-Glass like.

The ceremony began with the mothers - dressed in hanbok - lighting some candles on the alter. That's normal, right?

Then the lights dimmed and blared this really loud Korean music. A spotlight shot at the bride and groom standing in this gazebo thing at the front of the room. Okay, a little gaudy, but cute. Then, the fog machine kicked in, blasting fog around the couple (which then spilled into and covered the family). Then, to my already shocked amazement, the gazebo starting moving. All the while this weird Korean nature-techno music was blaring. The gazebo took them from the front of the room to the back...directly where I was standing. It was the most awkward minute of my life, watching them on this moving gazebo. I stood there willing it to move faster.

You think that's good? Well, that's just the opening scene.

The bride and groom dismounted from their floating gazebo (which somewhat resembled Cinderella's pumpkin coach) and made their way to the start of the aisle. The groom was first; he was flanked by two workers from the wedding center (tiny women) carrying swords. They marched in front of him, stopped halfway and raised their swords to make an arch. The groom walked under the sword arch, followed shortly by the bride. The music had changed to the wedding march for this little exchange.

They approached the alter and did insa to the pastor. And that's where I have to stop my report, because Oh-nee and her friend pulled me away and up toward lunch. I guess friends don't have to sit through the ceremony. That was fine by me; I ran 12 miles that morning and was starving! As I was leaving they were playing Ode to Joy.

The after-lunch was another buffet, just like last time, but it looked much less appetizing. But I was pretty hungry and confident that I could eat just about anything. I grabbed some mushrooms, greens, veggie job chae and some other standard Korean dishes. The first bite tasted like Pine Sol. The second was okay and the third tasted like the ocean. Thinking it was just my dumb American palate (and responding to my angry stomach), I pushed through. I've eaten worse, right? While eating I could hear Ode to Joy resuming downstairs.

After lunch, Oh-nee met with more friends, of which all told me I had big, blue eyes and a small face. (Wait, really!?) I ran into a few students and had awkward conversations with them. Finally Oh-nee and I jumped into the car. Home, right? Nope.

Oh-nee: "Mahd-upsoyyo?" (not delicious?)
Me: Trying to be polite, I said that it was okay.
Oh-nee: "Ah-ni-yo. Mahd-upsoyyo." (No, it was bad.)

Thank God. I'm not crazy. So, we went met back up with Oh-nee's friends and one of their houses. The woman owns a flower shop and lives in the back of the shop so it was pretty nice. Everyone had coffee except for me, who had some kind of pine tea (to wash down the Pine Sol). I make it sound bad, but it is actually very tasty. I drink a lot of it because there isn't any caffeine in it.

We sat there for about an hour. I listened to their conversation as much as possible, but they had placed me in front of a TV playing an American movie. My brain was hungry for American movies. And besides, the conversation that I could understand was pretty boring. "What does she eat?" "Why does she run?" "Can she use chopsticks?" "Does she not eat meat because she doesn't want to get fat?" "Does she have a boyfriend? Why not?" "Her face is so small!" "Her eyelashes are so long and curly."

Yep, standard conversation topics in my world.

Right as the movie ended the after-party broke up. Oh-nee and I did a few errands before heading home (I'm going to try to make Hershey Kiss peanut butter cookies tomorrow, so we stopped to get supplies). I guess I did alright with Oh-nee's friends, because I'm having bibimbop with them for dinner. I really hope Oh-nee's coming, but I'm not entirely sure. I'll keep you posted. Hope you enjoyed!

Another Unsure Weekend

2009-09-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

Thank God it's Friday! This week has been crazy with all of the sick students. The last period of the day has been canceled so the students can scrub every square inch of the school. Honestly, I feel like one of Miss Hannigan's goons with all of these small kids scrubbing stairs, windows, desks and everything else with a surface.

This weekend shall be interesting. I am going to a wedding on Saturday and might be heading to Suncheon (20 minute bus ride south) for shopping on Sunday with another English teacher here in Gurye. But I also plan on making Hershey Kiss cookies on Sunday. Wish me luck! I think the oven's only been used to broil fish. Breakfast fish, might I add.

This is where it gets a little hazy. My mom and I spent a good half-hour trying to talk in our broken languages. What I think is happening: My mom and her brother are going to move their moms' remains to a better grave. From what I gather, it is Korean culture. Oh-nee's mom died 20 years ago, "When we were poor." Oh-nee said. "But now that we prosper and are successful, we move the remains to another place...Greater respect for ancestors." I think that's pretty cool, digging up your mom after so many years in a shabby grave and upgrading to a tomb.

Anyways, Oh-nee will be gone next Tuesday and Wednesday. At the same time, Dad and brothers are going on a trip (???)...maybe? Not sure, this was a very broken part of our conversation. But from the sound of it, I will have the apartment to myself next Tuesday night. Which means American breakfast, lunch and dinner! Yay!

Okay, host family bonding story time!

Last night my host dad came in - a little sauced up - and invited me for a beer. I obliged and he proceeded to pull out his English conversation book. He turned to the slang section. Yeah, it was a pretty fun night. One of my favorite questions was, "Are you interested in Oh-Chahn?" Giggling and stealing a glance at the scrawny 10-year old in question (who, by the way, was standing on his head on the couch wearing only boxers), I said no. He looked at me blankly, a little hurt and said, "Why?" I then had to explain that "interested in" usually means interested in a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of way. He also asked how my divorce was coming along. (I thought about playing along and saying, "Just fine, thanks!") He ended the conversation by saying, "You are tired." And when the head of the house tells you how you feel, that's how you feel, no matter what. It was only 10:30 pm, so I listened to music for a while, pretending to sleep.

Days of School

2009-09-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

At the third week of teaching (my fourth in Gurye), I would say that I'm starting to get a handle on things. I already am starting to have my "favorite students," "favorite co-workers" and "favorite classes." I've learned a few names from each class (baby steps, right?) and even have my own parking space in the school parking lot. So, as things slow down, I figured I better post some pictures.

Right when you walk in and look to the right

Looking to the left

Looking at the door

Today I was informed that 10% of the student body have serious GI issues. By serious I mean they were pulled out of class today to go to the hospital. So, during the last period today the principal called a faculty meeting. I didn't really know what he said, but I kept hearing the Korean words for swine flu. Ugh. Suddenly everything is the swine flu. Anyways, now the entire healthy student body is disinfecting the school. I haven't really figured out how dousing everything in bleach will help the children with the GI problems, but the faculty seem sold on it. Except for my co-teacher. He just rolled his eyes and said that it was probably something with the water. (The water fountains were shut down today, by the way)

It also reminded me of something that happened on the way back from Daejeon this past weekend. I took a train from Daejeon to Gurye on Sunday afternoon. The way the tickets work, you get an assigned seats. Well, what do you know. My seat is right next to a grouchy-looking ahjumma (아줌마 no good translation...think of a frumpy woman in her 60's who wears brightly patterned sweat pants with brightly patterned shirts with a huge visor). As I sat down, she promptly moved her stuff to a seat across the aisle. Maybe that was her actual seat. Maybe not. But I couldn't help feeling slightly like an outcast. Oh well, never trust ahjummas.

On a lighter note, check out my English Conversation Class' blog. ECC is a special after-school class for advanced speakers. The blog is a semester project and will be updated about once a week. If you think Amy in Korea is funny, just wait until you read the most recent Gurye High School post. My personal favorite is from the "Cons to Plastic Surgery" section:

"[We are against plastic surgery because] After we marry and have a baby, if the baby is not similar to him/her, their spouse will begin to suspect. The divorce rate will increase!"

Okay, that's enough for now. This weekend I am going to wedding #2. This one is in Gurye, so it should be a little different type of wedding. It's a family friend, this time. I'll be sure to keep you posted!

My First Korean Wedding

2009-09-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

The wedding was actually a very small portion of my weekend, so let's take it one eventful event at a time. Sorry, this is really long. But, it's funny! So your efforts will be rewarded!

Step 1: The Car Ride

At 4pm on Friday, we packed into the family Hyundai Santa Fe (the gold edition, of course) and headed out for Seoul! Seoul is a solid 4 hour drive, but it took us around 5 due to pretty intense traffic. Boy, I'm pretty sure I reached a new level of patience. The boys slept for the first hour or so, but then were up and loud for the rest of the trip. I'm not going to lie, sitting next to those two for an hour in 5 mph-traffic was NOT easy. There was a point when I literally thought I would completely lose my cool. Thankfully, some last shred of sanity and perhaps teacher-ness told me, "If you can't beat them, join them." So I joined in their rough housing and yelling, all while sitting three to the back seat. I was really proud of myself after that trip. And really looking forward to quiet time and sleeping!

Step 2: Uncle Kong's

I guess it makes sense, but it never occurred to me before, that we would stay with relatives. So, I was a little surprised when my dad put the car into park outside of a seedy looking restaurant. "This," he said, "Is my brother's restaurant." (For the record, it was a nice restaurant, just in a not-so-pretty-to-the-eye place) The family - Mom, Dad, 5-year old son - lived above the restaurant in a one-room apartment. Hoh boy. There was one bed in the apartment - for the prodigal first son, of course - and that night I slept in it. I felt really bad, but the boy didn't seem to mind. It was really strange to be sleeping in a bed with seven people sleeping on the floor around you. But I slept like a baby and woke up fresh and happy the next day.

Step 3: Getting Ready
The shower in this apartment was a shower head hose and a sink. To be perfectly honest, I thought it was kind of fun - trying to find the optimal way to bend so as the most amount of water possible went into the sink instead of the floor drain. The best part was when I was drying my hair, but we'll get to that in a second.

I walked out wearing a nice blouse and dress pants, but my mom shook her head and went digging through my bag. She pulled out some jeans, gave them a brief inspection and told me to change into those. That's right, folks. I went to a wedding wearing blue jeans. Americans.

Onto the hair drying. The dryer was in the bathroom. Also in the bathroom, besides the infamous sink+shower combo and toilet, was the washing machine. Yeah, it was a tight squeeze. Anyways, I was drying my hair when I felt water rush around my ankles. I gave a yelp and leaped out of the bathroom. A load of laundry had finished and the water was exiting to the drain on the floor, flooding the room in the process. Sometimes all you can do is shrug and laugh.

Step 4: The Wedding

The wedding was a combination of traditional and western wedding practices. But, really, it reminded me of something that happens in Las Vegas. The entire thing took place in a wedding center, which consists of open ceremony rooms and lots of buffet restaurants. The ceremony room was really glittery and had spotlights and a projector screen at the front near the alter. I'm not really sure what the relation was that was getting married, but I do know that I had to sit at the very front; directly behind the grooms' parents.

The ceremony was short and sweet. There was some religious stuff, but it was mostly traditional Korean. The mothers entered first dressed in traditional hanboks and did some bowing. Then came the groom. Followed by father and bride. No flower girls or best men, just the important people straight up. The bride and groom were dressed western wedding style. At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom performed the most formal of the bows to each set of parents.

My reflection: The whole thing was just different. The bride did not look happy at all. I'm nearly positive she didn't smile during the whole thing. She just looked at the floor wearing a very serious expression. I think she was just really nervous and very overwhelmed. Looking back on the whole thing, I think the main difference was that the wedding was not her/his day. The day wasn't for them, it was for the family. It was like the bride and groom were a TV show for everyone to watch. I don't pretend to be a cultural expert after one wedding. I have no idea if this is how all weddings worked. I'm just stating what I saw at this wedding.

Step 5: Pictures
At the end of the ceremony, both sides of the family took pictures at the front of the alter. Despite firm protests on my part, my family dragged me up there. These poor newlyweds. I can just see it now. A month down the line they'll be looking through their wedding pictures and come to the family shot. They'll see this smiling blond girl front and center (I tried to hide in the back corner SOOOOOO hard) among a huge crowd of unsmiling Koreans and think, "Who the hell is that?" Oh well, that's my legacy I guess. The American Wedding Crasher.

Step 6: The Reception ... ?
The reception consists of the guests eating at one of the buffets in the building. There is no designated buffet and the guests have to purchase their meal tickets. The buffet was the happiest meal I've had in a long time. They had random bits of American food along with my favorite Korean food and interesting Korean-American salads. I ate very well.

While the guests are gorging themselves (eat more! it's a buffet! expensive ticket!) the bride and groom de-dressed and re-dressed into traditional hanboks and had a tea ceremony/photo shoot with anyone who wanted to drink tea with them. Once again, it's not about them, it's about the family.

After the photo shoot/reception, the two hopped in a limo and the family hopped into a bus. Together they travel to the after party.

That's where my wedding experience stops. My family continued on to the after party, but I was dropped off at the train station where I caught the 4:16 p.m. to Daejeon to meet my friends. Two hours later I was having dinner with the greatest, most American group of friends in the world (of Korea). Gosh, what a breath of fresh air! Talking fast, using slang, NOT using hand motions! Ah, fantastic!

And what wedding is not complete without a hookup? At lunch I was introduced to Kong Byeong Cheol. He's single, I'm single and we were born in the same year. Match made in heaven according to my family. Exchange numbers, now! Haha, weddings....

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Since this is so long, I won't go into too much detail. Thanks for reading, you are a champ for finishing! Yay!

Cornelius, Kelly and Dave at the restaurant.

I took the train back to Gurye. This is the south gate. It says "Welcome to Gurye." It was a 4 mile walk. Had I known that, I would have grabbed a taxi. Oh well, live and learn.

This happened right after I posted

2009-09-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

I thought it connected very well with the previous post. :)

Far rah rah rah rah, rah rah rah rahhh.

2009-09-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sitting at breakfast today I realized that my daily life with my family could probably be recorded and dropped into A Christmas Story without anyone knowing the difference. Breakfast is always together and always hilarious from a confused foreigner's perspective.

First, my two brothers - Oh-mahn and Oh-chahn - are polar opposites. Oh-mahn is kind of a husky kid. He eats a lot and studies a lot. Oh-chahn is stick-thin and studies very little. :) Well, Oh-chahn is not a morning person (of course, Oh-mahn is), so every day at breakfast he sits there peering out of exhausted eyes, hair askew every which way, and plays with his food while moaning and complaining. Oh-nee and Oh-pa (my dad) occasionally yell at him to eat his food. He only does so once Oh-nee has folded his toast into a sandwich, peeled off the crust and feeds it to him piece by piece. All, of course, on separate occasions. This morning he was complaining that, because his elbow really hurt, he just could not stomach breakfast.

Oh-mahn, on the other hand, is sitting across from the table slurping his soup and downing his entire breakfast in a record-setting time. I catch pieces of the table conversation, but not a lot. I hear "Amy" and "New-na" (sister) a lot, but I never quite figure out what they are saying about me.

And then there is shower time and dressing time. The shower is an epic battle between good and evil. I know it's coming when I hear Oh-nee say, "Oh-chahn nun, shower!" First comes the pitiful complaining and whimpering. But Oh-nee will have none of that. She gives Oh-Chahn a little push toward the bathroom. Then comes the louder complaining and whimpering accompanied by gestures toward the incredible baseball recaps on TV. Oh-nee simply, but firmly, guides Oh-chahn by the shoulders. Finally comes the screaming and kicking as Oh-nee, trying desperately to contain her laughter, picks up my 40-pound friend - kicking, screaming and all - and waltzes him into the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Oh-chahn admits defeat, but he does so with his last shred of defiance. Okay, just a little culture lesson. Korean bathrooms are usually one room with a toilet, sink and shower head - no shower tub, area or curtain. Our bathroom has a tub, but no shower curtain. So, the aftermath of the shower is astounding. I have no idea how that scrawny little boy manages to get water in every corner of that bathroom. Amazing.

Well, just like in A Christmas Story, Oh-nee dresses Oh-chahn (the youngest). Still a bit bitter about his shower, Oh-chahn sits like a limp doll - refusing to help Oh-nee at all - while she dresses him. He usually throws in a few bitter-sounding comments to which Oh-nee replies with a snappy remark. Boy, times like these I really wish I knew what they were saying.

Did I mention that, while the entire shower and dressing ordeal is going on, Oh-mahn is completely self-sufficient. He even manages to beg his mom for something (permission to play with a friend, money for a snack after school, etc.) above the wailings of Oh-chahn. All the while, my dad is sitting at the table reading a book, throwing in the occasional word of discipline at Oh-chahn (mostly telling him to be quiet). Yeah, mornings are loud. Oh-nee is a champion.

There is no snow yet, but I can't wait to see the snow gear the boys dress (or in Oh-chahn's case, are dressed) in.

A little agenda update. Today (Friday) after I finish school Oh-nee, the boys and me will pile in a car and head to Seoul for a wedding. Oh-pa will come on Saturday. The wedding is from 11am to 4pm. After that, I will board a train to Daejeon (another big city about an hour southeast of Seoul) to meet some ETA friends! Yay! I'm so excited to see them! I'm also really excited to (1) talk fast (2) talk without hand motions and (3) use slang. So, this will be my last post until Sunday night USA time. Hope all is well, miss everyone! Thanks for reading!

Please, People. Get Over it.

2009-09-02T00:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what happened, but I think the Korean death toll from H1N1 has reached a terribly high number: 3 people.

Last Friday, I thought it was odd that my host mom and my co-teacher both brought up H1N1 at different times throughout the day. And now, every time I eat, drink or come in the apartment, I have to wash my hands.

I think the Korean government is telling people to avoid contact with Americans. Several of my ETA friends have to get their temperatures checked before school every day. One ETA actually had her desk in the nurses office for a while (the nurse made camp somewhere else). My own personal favorite: my host dad told me to stay out of the States for 10 years. (Don't worry, he was kidding. But I think they were honestly worried about me going back during the year)

The cause is clear: last week another English teaching program - EPIK - sent over 600 Americans to teach English throughout Korea (mostly in rural elementary and middle schools). Imagine, 600 Americans from all parts of the country dragging themselves, their luggage and sometimes their pets through every airport in America. Yeah. I'm sure it's them.

But, a white person is a white person. And we definitely stand out. I told my co-teacher (and tried to tell my family) that H1N1 is just another flu. It kills the same number, if not less, than the normal flu. The only difference is that (1) there is no vaccine [but it's coming!] and (2) it spreads very rapidly. But I feel like I'm whispering in a loud room; they don't really seem to get it. The most I can do is shrug and hope that my quaint little farm village stays keeps their cool and doesn't make me teach in a mask.

Okay, now for a few humorous vignettes:

1) An English teacher at school mentioned that she was hosting an American who was studying at a University (which one, I have no idea. But I'm thrilled at the chance to meet another American!). She said that he is really interested in learning Korean and asked if I had any materials that would be helpful. The thing is, she kept asking for vocab sheets, but pronounced it "shits." Therefore, I had a hard time keeping my cool face when she asked if I "had the shits at school."

2) The P.E. teacher is a chain smoker. :)

3) When people sneeze, they just sneeze. No one say

s, "Bless you" or anything like that. I never really thought of myself as a "blesser," but it's honestly really really weird to not hear any sort of acknowledgment after a sneeze.

4) A group of students (all boys) wait for me every day at the edge of the school driveway just to see me on a scooter. When I pull in around the corner they all cheer. And when the see me in the hall, they say, "Vroom, vroom!" and twist their wrists (like how you accelerate a motorcycle). Yeah, I'm a celebrity.

5) My host dad saw me running one afternoon. When I came back, he made me sit down and he gave me a very serious lecture on running on the st

reet with my headphones. This one actually really got under my skin. Running is my thing. DON'T mess with my thing. I've got 5+ years of city street running under my belt. I know how to handle cars, roads and intersections. Gurye and the 17 autmotive vehichles inching along at 10 mph is very much manageable. But anyway, I have to run a quarter mile away before putting on my headphones.

6) One of my lessons this week is on tongue twisters. One group wrote: "Dirty dead dogs are delicious." Another wrote, "She's so sexy she sings." Oh high schoolers.

7) The most important one: I found the new faculty bathroom. Check out the toilet! (By the way, you can only imagine how hard it was for me to take these pictures without looking like a weirdo)

Mmm, heated seats. Once you go heated, you never [want to] go back

Yep, it's exactly what it looks like. I haven't tried it out yet, (I'm honestly afraid to do so) but I will let you know when I do!