Thursday, September 27, 2007
Camille’s Birthday/ Our Vacation
So of coarse, for a birthday we went to Seoul to party it up. Our plan was to find a place when we got there. A korean teacher from our school was coming with us and promised to help us find a place to stay. So we arrived around 6:30 pm ish maybe 7:00 and walked around to a number of hotels only to find that they were all full. Get this though, they were not full for the night (we were told to come back around 10:00 p.m.) they were full for the hour! Yep! Not that they were “love hotels” per se, but that is what they are used for. In a way I guess it makes sense there is little space when a family all lives together in a small place. Young adults usually live at home till they are married etc. etc. Anyway, this is what I tell myself because I try not to go to the latter assumption--- which is probably more accurate--- infidelity is at an all time high in Korea! Ha ha the hotel even takes the initiative to put a board up over the license plate of your parked car! And there are all these hanging towel things over the entrance to hotel parking lots. We asked Olive, the korean teacher, what these were for and she said so that no one recognizes the cheaters car! Now I think she might have bee joking but who’s to say cause the boarded license plates are not a joke!
Ok so we had no place to stay... and no place for me to try and get pretty--- so i wasn’t a happy camper. We headed to a pre- pre drinking place with all our luggage in tow. Not that I had a lot (only one backpack sized bag) but we were travelling for three more days from Seoul so it was decently heavy and I did not feel like carrying to a bar all night. So we ended up at this really cool place for pre-pre drinks. It was a smaller pub/restaurant that had all of this mushroom type of sculpture round the walls. (See picture) We also were served huge beer pitchers with dry ice in the middle so that it shot out. (It looked really cool). Anyway so laughs/drinks were had and then we moved on to the pre-drinking place-- “Carne Station.” It was all you can drink/eat from 8:30- 11:30. So we had bbq (Korean cook your own style), and even tortillas wraps (first time I have seen these here--- and if you know me I pretty much was in heaven). So anyway more laughs/ drinks were had--- and there ended up being about 15 of us there so it was great--- and Carne clearly stood for Carnage. And then as you can imagine after that we took the city of Seoul by storm and went to a club. Clubbing is similar all over the world... crowded lots of people bumping up against each other .. ha ha purposefully and accidentally. What I feel is worth mentioning is that instead of the usual pizza or McDonalds people often get after the bar... Bridgette and I got Kimbap--- which is Korean style California rolls off of a street vendor.... ohh Korea Korea... I loved it!
Yeah so in the end, Olive (the korean teacher) ditched us and we were left trying to figure out where we were going to stay. Luckily Camille just attracts Korean men... and I worked two of them to take us to a good place for the night. We spent too much money on it for the little time we were there... but it was a bed!
Danyang
The next day, we woke up way too early and took a taxi to the bus station where we met some more Korean teachers and Olive again. We all took the bus to this cute town called Danyang. Our plan was to go there to go hangliding and rafting. Well we got there and were in no mood to do either so instead we went on the “Pleasure Boat.” It was a really nice ride on this river surrounded by large green hills that some may call mountains. It was really beautiful and a perfect activity after a night out. We also found a great place to stay for the seven of us. There was one large king bed (for three Korean girls-- ha ha notice how this doesn’t include us... it’d probably only be two) and the rest of us slept on the floor.
The day after, we phoned the hangliding place only to find out that the run way had been flooded. (Boo) So we are flexible teachers and went to this AMAZING buddhist temple instead. It was built recently the (50’s) but was still incredible. The attention to detail with the paintings was breathtaking. It was all amazing to see but in some ways frustrating... as I had a million and one questions and there was no one who knew anything to translate for me. Yet... I believe; “ask and it will be given to you.” So it turns out that on our way home we all got split up (couldn’t sit together) and Bridgette and I sat beside a man from Seoul who had spent the previous night at the temple! So the temple is of the Buddhist Sect that chants when they pray. He chanted/prayed from 10:30 to 3:30 in the morning! The gold statues are of coarse of the Buddha. The center one being the almighty/all knowing Buddha, the one to the left the powerful Buddha (his words maybe the Buddha of action) and the one to the right the female Buddha-- the one of wisdom (umm of coarse! ;) The temple is home to monks both female and male, which apparently is uncommon. Both sexes pray/ practice together but sleep in separate dormitories. The temple grounds have many buildings and there is even another under construction because there are so many people who come to pray. When I asked what he prayed for he said that it is different for everyone-- the usual; health, children etc. He believed in reincarnation and that what he did in his past life is affecting this one and what he does now will affect the future. Needless to say he was a great man, who spoke great english, and offered to be our “Korean Cultural Mentor.” I hope we take him up on this offer.
Yeah so after the temple... on our drive back we saw the rafting. It was more like floating-- so we decided to put an x through that idea and instead we went to this cave. It was really cool looking.... and there was an amazing amount of stairs. I believe Roberta’s quote was “It is like a free drop in to the gym day.” That it was and just as refreshing! The night consisted of sitting by the water laughing and talking and the next day was the journey back home. Thank goodness we did decide to go home a day early. Because as I previously mentioned, Chuseok is a time when everyone travels homebound to their small towns... well apparently our Korean Head teacher was stuck in traffic for 11 hours!! AGHH and that is bumper to bumper cause Korea is I swear something like the size of Nova Scotia!
Ok well I think that is all for now--- but my goodness it is Thursday (Friday eve) which means tomorrow is the weekend of more adventures!
I’ll be in touch! I hope everyone is well-- and you know you can e-mail me whenever! (hint hint-- meirab@hotmail.com)
Ok so we had no place to stay... and no place for me to try and get pretty--- so i wasn’t a happy camper. We headed to a pre- pre drinking place with all our luggage in tow. Not that I had a lot (only one backpack sized bag) but we were travelling for three more days from Seoul so it was decently heavy and I did not feel like carrying to a bar all night. So we ended up at this really cool place for pre-pre drinks. It was a smaller pub/restaurant that had all of this mushroom type of sculpture round the walls. (See picture) We also were served huge beer pitchers with dry ice in the middle so that it shot out. (It looked really cool). Anyway so laughs/drinks were had and then we moved on to the pre-drinking place-- “Carne Station.” It was all you can drink/eat from 8:30- 11:30. So we had bbq (Korean cook your own style), and even tortillas wraps (first time I have seen these here--- and if you know me I pretty much was in heaven). So anyway more laughs/ drinks were had--- and there ended up being about 15 of us there so it was great--- and Carne clearly stood for Carnage. And then as you can imagine after that we took the city of Seoul by storm and went to a club. Clubbing is similar all over the world... crowded lots of people bumping up against each other .. ha ha purposefully and accidentally. What I feel is worth mentioning is that instead of the usual pizza or McDonalds people often get after the bar... Bridgette and I got Kimbap--- which is Korean style California rolls off of a street vendor.... ohh Korea Korea... I loved it!
Yeah so in the end, Olive (the korean teacher) ditched us and we were left trying to figure out where we were going to stay. Luckily Camille just attracts Korean men... and I worked two of them to take us to a good place for the night. We spent too much money on it for the little time we were there... but it was a bed!
Danyang
The next day, we woke up way too early and took a taxi to the bus station where we met some more Korean teachers and Olive again. We all took the bus to this cute town called Danyang. Our plan was to go there to go hangliding and rafting. Well we got there and were in no mood to do either so instead we went on the “Pleasure Boat.” It was a really nice ride on this river surrounded by large green hills that some may call mountains. It was really beautiful and a perfect activity after a night out. We also found a great place to stay for the seven of us. There was one large king bed (for three Korean girls-- ha ha notice how this doesn’t include us... it’d probably only be two) and the rest of us slept on the floor.
The day after, we phoned the hangliding place only to find out that the run way had been flooded. (Boo) So we are flexible teachers and went to this AMAZING buddhist temple instead. It was built recently the (50’s) but was still incredible. The attention to detail with the paintings was breathtaking. It was all amazing to see but in some ways frustrating... as I had a million and one questions and there was no one who knew anything to translate for me. Yet... I believe; “ask and it will be given to you.” So it turns out that on our way home we all got split up (couldn’t sit together) and Bridgette and I sat beside a man from Seoul who had spent the previous night at the temple! So the temple is of the Buddhist Sect that chants when they pray. He chanted/prayed from 10:30 to 3:30 in the morning! The gold statues are of coarse of the Buddha. The center one being the almighty/all knowing Buddha, the one to the left the powerful Buddha (his words maybe the Buddha of action) and the one to the right the female Buddha-- the one of wisdom (umm of coarse! ;) The temple is home to monks both female and male, which apparently is uncommon. Both sexes pray/ practice together but sleep in separate dormitories. The temple grounds have many buildings and there is even another under construction because there are so many people who come to pray. When I asked what he prayed for he said that it is different for everyone-- the usual; health, children etc. He believed in reincarnation and that what he did in his past life is affecting this one and what he does now will affect the future. Needless to say he was a great man, who spoke great english, and offered to be our “Korean Cultural Mentor.” I hope we take him up on this offer.
Yeah so after the temple... on our drive back we saw the rafting. It was more like floating-- so we decided to put an x through that idea and instead we went to this cave. It was really cool looking.... and there was an amazing amount of stairs. I believe Roberta’s quote was “It is like a free drop in to the gym day.” That it was and just as refreshing! The night consisted of sitting by the water laughing and talking and the next day was the journey back home. Thank goodness we did decide to go home a day early. Because as I previously mentioned, Chuseok is a time when everyone travels homebound to their small towns... well apparently our Korean Head teacher was stuck in traffic for 11 hours!! AGHH and that is bumper to bumper cause Korea is I swear something like the size of Nova Scotia!
Ok well I think that is all for now--- but my goodness it is Thursday (Friday eve) which means tomorrow is the weekend of more adventures!
I’ll be in touch! I hope everyone is well-- and you know you can e-mail me whenever! (hint hint-- meirab@hotmail.com)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
“Chuseok” - Korean Thanksgiving
“Chuseok” - Korean Thanksgiving
So it has been a busy busy time in and out of school. It is the second busiest holiday season for Koreans (I have yet to learn what the most busiest is); Chuseok. This holiday is comparable to our Thanksgiving in that it is a time to be thankful for the harvest and is related to the harvest moon. The people make an effort to go to their hometowns and gather with family to perform ancestral worship. This (from what I have gathered) includes tending/pruning grave sites, prayer, and possibly the offering of food to one’s ancestors. The main food that is eaten at Chuseok is “Songpyeon”-- it is a rice dough that is somewhat flattened into a small pocket and sweet seeds or sugar are folded into the center-- think turnover style. I was fortunate enough to make it at school with my students. Actually, “Chuseok” day at school was my favourite teaching day thus far!
We (Roberta and I) got to school and lined up in front of the front desk and awaited our students as we do every morning. They all ran out of the elevator screaming “GOOD MORNING TEACHER” again this was the same as it is every morning... only this time they were a sea of colours! They were the most adorable things anyone has ever scene. 99% of the students were dressed in a traditional Korean costume called a; Hanbok. The day then consisted of making Songpyeon and travelling to various stations to play games/ or learn traditions. The stations included; a hopping on one foot/wrestling game called “Cock Fighting”, then there was tea etiquette, jegichagi, tombstone, an arrow game, and finally hopscotch. I was in charge of hopscotch. This was good and bad. I didn’t get to travel around with my class to learn about the other traditions but I did get to meet all the kindergartens in the school and practice leading/modifying something that seems so simple-- yet is a little difficult to accommodate all students. It also wore me out completely and made me sweat a bucket in the hanbok they gave me to wear. I ended up having to hold the hand of each kindergartener-- and do the hopscotch with them. That is like 20 students times at least six classes- and eight hops per hopscotch- like 960 hops!!! ha ha no wonder i was sweaty! But it was such a fun day all around!
So it has been a busy busy time in and out of school. It is the second busiest holiday season for Koreans (I have yet to learn what the most busiest is); Chuseok. This holiday is comparable to our Thanksgiving in that it is a time to be thankful for the harvest and is related to the harvest moon. The people make an effort to go to their hometowns and gather with family to perform ancestral worship. This (from what I have gathered) includes tending/pruning grave sites, prayer, and possibly the offering of food to one’s ancestors. The main food that is eaten at Chuseok is “Songpyeon”-- it is a rice dough that is somewhat flattened into a small pocket and sweet seeds or sugar are folded into the center-- think turnover style. I was fortunate enough to make it at school with my students. Actually, “Chuseok” day at school was my favourite teaching day thus far!
We (Roberta and I) got to school and lined up in front of the front desk and awaited our students as we do every morning. They all ran out of the elevator screaming “GOOD MORNING TEACHER” again this was the same as it is every morning... only this time they were a sea of colours! They were the most adorable things anyone has ever scene. 99% of the students were dressed in a traditional Korean costume called a; Hanbok. The day then consisted of making Songpyeon and travelling to various stations to play games/ or learn traditions. The stations included; a hopping on one foot/wrestling game called “Cock Fighting”, then there was tea etiquette, jegichagi, tombstone, an arrow game, and finally hopscotch. I was in charge of hopscotch. This was good and bad. I didn’t get to travel around with my class to learn about the other traditions but I did get to meet all the kindergartens in the school and practice leading/modifying something that seems so simple-- yet is a little difficult to accommodate all students. It also wore me out completely and made me sweat a bucket in the hanbok they gave me to wear. I ended up having to hold the hand of each kindergartener-- and do the hopscotch with them. That is like 20 students times at least six classes- and eight hops per hopscotch- like 960 hops!!! ha ha no wonder i was sweaty! But it was such a fun day all around!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Weekend!
On Friday we had a lot of rain so we weren’t up for travelling anywhere. Roberta and I still managed to venture out and we are glad we did! The night began at the “WaBar” where we met Camille, Bridgette, Will, our Korean director and his friend from Seoul. From there we went for BBQ... which tastes even more delicious after too many drinks. Finally, we capped the night off by meeting Aaron (another foreigner) and going to “Norebong.”
“Norebong” is sooo much fun. It is a Karaoke type of place... only you rent a small private room for all of your friends. Inside there are couches, a table, and four tv’s that play Silly Korean music videos to hundreds of your favourite songs. There are two mics and two tambourines and everyone yells/sings terribly but you think you are an all star. Once you finish the song, the computer gives you a score out of 100. It was fun and truly “Korean”--- as this culture is obsessed with singing. Every time I turn on my T.V. someone (does not matter the age-- elderly to teeny boppers) is trying to belt out some tunes and there are ridiculous dancers in the background that head bop around and the best way to describe it is “jive” their hands.
Then on Saturday... I pretty much wasted a day doing a whole lot of nothing. But in the evening, Roberta and I had planned to meet Will and Ivan (another Canadian teacher at Brighton who rarely comes out) to go to Incheon for a soccer match. We all trudged along to the bus depot in Ansan but the bus had just left and the next one wouldn’t leave for another 40 minutes. (The game was supposed to start at 7 and by the time we made it to Incheon then rode the subway to the stadium we thought we would be cutting it close). So we decided to share a cab between the four of us. The almost hour ride cost only about $35.00. We got out at the stadium... and it was a GHOST town. Maybe the bus was a bad omen? For some reason the game was not going on that night... even though it had been posted on a website and a Korean teacher confirmed it! No matter, we are all flexible people and there was a baseball game going on right beside the soccer stadium so we went to watch the last half of the game.
It was super interesting. They had cheerleaders and everyone had the blow up noise maker “sticks.” The cheerleaders would make the crowd stand up and do a silly “hand jive” dance. Then at one point the crowd all pulled out sparklers (I do not know where they all got them). And lit them and sang a song! The baseball itself, was not bad, but not great either. Incheon won so the crowd was happy. One of the players went down (he got hit by the ball) and then was “piggy backed” off the field! No where could you buy a hot dog, peanuts, or popcorn... but you could by fried chicken, beer, and of course noodles! Then after the ninth inning the lights started to go off and we were confused as to what was going on. A player was being interviewed.... and it appeared the game was over.... the field was being cleaned... but no one was leaving! Will had just bought some noodles so we hung out too and waited for him to finish... then all of a sudden... bang bang... right over the outfield fireworks were being shot off. It actually was a great display and I don’t think I have ever seen fireworks so close. Thank goodness for Will’s noodles or we may have missed them!
After the cab ride back... we said good-bye to Ivan and Will, Roberta, and I went to a foreign guy’s apartment for a party. At the party, there ended up being at least 25 people... so it was a good night we met a lot of people and I realized that for the most part... the foreign teachers here have been around for on average about a month so there are a lot of newbies! I guess I just imagined everyone had been here awhile but I guess a year isn’t a long time so there are a lot of turnovers!
I think that is it for now... I’ll write another “Korea Korea” section in a couple of days!
Love/Miss you
Meira
On Friday we had a lot of rain so we weren’t up for travelling anywhere. Roberta and I still managed to venture out and we are glad we did! The night began at the “WaBar” where we met Camille, Bridgette, Will, our Korean director and his friend from Seoul. From there we went for BBQ... which tastes even more delicious after too many drinks. Finally, we capped the night off by meeting Aaron (another foreigner) and going to “Norebong.”
“Norebong” is sooo much fun. It is a Karaoke type of place... only you rent a small private room for all of your friends. Inside there are couches, a table, and four tv’s that play Silly Korean music videos to hundreds of your favourite songs. There are two mics and two tambourines and everyone yells/sings terribly but you think you are an all star. Once you finish the song, the computer gives you a score out of 100. It was fun and truly “Korean”--- as this culture is obsessed with singing. Every time I turn on my T.V. someone (does not matter the age-- elderly to teeny boppers) is trying to belt out some tunes and there are ridiculous dancers in the background that head bop around and the best way to describe it is “jive” their hands.
Then on Saturday... I pretty much wasted a day doing a whole lot of nothing. But in the evening, Roberta and I had planned to meet Will and Ivan (another Canadian teacher at Brighton who rarely comes out) to go to Incheon for a soccer match. We all trudged along to the bus depot in Ansan but the bus had just left and the next one wouldn’t leave for another 40 minutes. (The game was supposed to start at 7 and by the time we made it to Incheon then rode the subway to the stadium we thought we would be cutting it close). So we decided to share a cab between the four of us. The almost hour ride cost only about $35.00. We got out at the stadium... and it was a GHOST town. Maybe the bus was a bad omen? For some reason the game was not going on that night... even though it had been posted on a website and a Korean teacher confirmed it! No matter, we are all flexible people and there was a baseball game going on right beside the soccer stadium so we went to watch the last half of the game.
It was super interesting. They had cheerleaders and everyone had the blow up noise maker “sticks.” The cheerleaders would make the crowd stand up and do a silly “hand jive” dance. Then at one point the crowd all pulled out sparklers (I do not know where they all got them). And lit them and sang a song! The baseball itself, was not bad, but not great either. Incheon won so the crowd was happy. One of the players went down (he got hit by the ball) and then was “piggy backed” off the field! No where could you buy a hot dog, peanuts, or popcorn... but you could by fried chicken, beer, and of course noodles! Then after the ninth inning the lights started to go off and we were confused as to what was going on. A player was being interviewed.... and it appeared the game was over.... the field was being cleaned... but no one was leaving! Will had just bought some noodles so we hung out too and waited for him to finish... then all of a sudden... bang bang... right over the outfield fireworks were being shot off. It actually was a great display and I don’t think I have ever seen fireworks so close. Thank goodness for Will’s noodles or we may have missed them!
After the cab ride back... we said good-bye to Ivan and Will, Roberta, and I went to a foreign guy’s apartment for a party. At the party, there ended up being at least 25 people... so it was a good night we met a lot of people and I realized that for the most part... the foreign teachers here have been around for on average about a month so there are a lot of newbies! I guess I just imagined everyone had been here awhile but I guess a year isn’t a long time so there are a lot of turnovers!
I think that is it for now... I’ll write another “Korea Korea” section in a couple of days!
Love/Miss you
Meira
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