East coast pictures

To start things off, here's a large, framed photo of myself that is now immortalized in Seokseong Elementary School.

Sokcho lighthouse

View of Sokcho

Sokcho beach

Downtown Sokcho, Expo Tower

Seoraksan National Park

The "path" up the mountain. Imagine this, but for three hours. Sometimes I had to get on all fours to hoist myself up!

This is the part where I literally lost the trail. I have no idea where you're supposed to go from here.

I made it to the cloud line! Only three hours of intense uphill hiking.

Map of the national park. The recommended route had you go left from the "You are here" arrow, all the way to Madeongpeong Peak, then south to Daecheongbong Peak. Essentially, the entire park.

I rewarded myself with this delicious, all you can eat barbeque dinner. All of this cost me $12.

North Korean submarine at Jeongdongjin

Entrance to the sub

Very cramped. You could borrow hard hats to go inside.

Inside the sub

North Korean refugee boat

Decommissioned South Korean warship. Made in America, actually.

Depth charges on the warship

View of Jeongdongjin beach from the warship

Check out the barbed wire lining the coast.

The bike I rented in Gangneung.

Gyeonpo Beach, Gangneung - the largest beach in SK, I believe

Public art, Gyeonpo Beach, Gangneung

It reminded me of the Bean!

Gyeonpo Lake, Gangneung

Walking to Hwanseongul, the limestone caves. Yet more walking uphill.

This was called "The Bridge to Hell." Am I the only person who immediately thinks of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

View through the slats of the "Bridge of Confessions." Kind of scary.

Haesindang Park, Sinnam

Penis Zodiac sculptures

My trip to Gangwon-do

For my summer vacation, I took a solo trip to the northeast coast of Korea. I spent five days in the Gangwon province, and it was awesome. I've never traveled alone, and I'll be honest - it rocks! I loved it. I thought I might get lonely or bored or wish I had someone to talk to, but I didn't. I was gone for five days, so maybe if I was there longer I would have gotten sick of being alone.

(Side note: I'm in a PC room because I don't have Internet in my new apartment yet, so I can't post any pictures, but I will when I get Internet.)

On Friday, I kicked things off with a two hour bus trip to Seoul, then another two hour bus trip to the city of Sokcho in the upper northwest. I went to the information booth and got a map, then took the city bus to my hostel. I'll be honest - I felt like a genius for being able to read the map, bus schedule, and get off at the correct stop. It's the little things that count. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Sokcho. I visited the lighthouse observatory, the beach, and bought a small backpack for hiking. I went to a supermarket to get some apples, bananas, peanut butter and bread for the trip. Then I ate McDonald's for dinner like a real American.

The next day I woke up at about 9. Sokcho is right next to Seoraksan, the third highest mountain in Korea. I wanted to hike to the top of Seoraksan (Daecheongbong Peak), but it's really high, 1,708 feet. I knew it wasn't likely. I also made the mistake of going by the recommended route to the top... I should have read the map more closely and saw how insanely long the hike was. I thought the recommended route would be the easiest one, but in fact it's the one that takes you all over the park to see everything. I hiked up towards this cave where apparently some Buddhist monk used to live, and I have no idea how he got up there because they had to install stairs so people could even make it up. These stairs were intense, by the way. They were so steep I have to hold on to the railing with both hands in order to pull myself up them. I was devastated when I reached the cave because it's a dead end! I had to descend the stairs and then re-start my approach to the top.

The "trail" was just rocks. Sometimes they were so steep I had to use my hands to help myself climb. I made it to the cloud line after about three hours of hiking, and then I lost the trail. Seriously, it was so rocky that I honestly couldn't even find where the trail went! Also the view wasn't that great because I was in a cloud, so I decided it was time to turn around. The descent was pretty treacherous. Total time hiking was five hours, and I was really tired.

Actually, the worst part was that I hurt my back hiking. If you read this blog, you probably know that I hurt my back recently, and this was the same kind of pain. I got medicine from a pharmacy because I didn't want to cut my vacation short, and it got better. However, my left foot fell asleep the next day and at the time I'm writing this, it's still asleep. I need to get a Korean to go with me to the doctor because I don't think this is good.

The next day I hopped a bus to Gangneung, which is further down the coast. After dropping my stuff at a motel, I hopped the train to Jeongdongjin, a small town about fifteen minutes south. Back in the 90s, the South Korean military caught a North Korean submarine spying on the coast. Now they've created something called "Unification Park" in Jeongdongjin where they set up the sub on display. They've also got a South Korean warship you can go on.

After that I went back to Gangneung, which has a really nice beach and lake, and I rented a bike and cruised around for awhile.

The next day I took the bus to Samcheok. Again, I dropped my stuff off then took another bus to Hwanseongul, which is a huge limestone cave. Cue more hiking, sort of. Does everything have to be on a mountain? It was funny - when I was in the caves, these three Korean girls approached me. They were like, We saw you on the bus! We just wanted to say hi. They were 20 year old university students. It was hilarious; I felt like a celebrity. This is how the conversation went.

Them: Hello! Where are you from?
Me: America.
Them: Oooohhhh!! *squealing*
Me: I live near Chicago.
Them: OOOHHHH!! *more squealing*
Them: What do you do?
Me: I'm a teacher in Korea.
Them: AAAAHHHHHHHEEEEYYYYYEEAHHH!! *SQUEALING* We're studying to be teachers!

It was just too funny - everything I said was met with massive enthusiasm.

After the caves, I went back to Samcheok for the evening.

The next day I went to Haesindang Park in the tiny fishing village of Sinnam. Here's some funny folklore - I guess there are several versions, but the one in the Lonely Planet said that a girl drowned off the coast of Sinnam, and her restless spirit was affecting the fishermen's catches. One fisherman discovered if he relieved himself facing the ocean, her spirit was appeased. So Sinnam people decided to create a park full of penis sculptures facing the ocean! They used to have a penis sculpture contest until it got shut down by a Christian group apparently. The park was... something else, that's for sure.

I went home the same day. I had to get a bus from Sinnam to Samcheok, then Samcheok to Daejeon, then Daejeon to Buyeo. Because Samcheok is farther south than Sokcho, I figured the bus ride would be shorter. I was extremely wrong. For some ridiculous reason, we traveled north back to Gangneug, then meandered south-ish towards Seoul, then FINALLY to Daejeon. It took four hours!!! Then I still had to take a one and a half hour ride to Buyeo. At long last though, I made it back.

Korea: Part 2

So I've moved!! Here is my new address:

461-831

Gyeonggi-do, Seongnam-si, Sujeong-gu

Bokjeong-dong 679-1, 103

Gyeonggi is the province (-do meaning province), Seongnam is the city name (-si meaning city, I think), Sujeong is my "ward/district" (-gu meaning ward), and Bokjeong is my neighborhood (-dong meaning neighborhood). I never really understood those suffixes, but I just looked them up on Wikipedia, so take that as you will. I live in apartment 103.

There are three "gu" in Seongnam, and one of them is called Bundang. Apparently it's the richest area in Gyeonggi-do, and it's nicknamed "heaven" in Korean (or so I've been told). Sadly, I live in the older, less wealthy area of Seongnam. Actually, that doesn't bother me - when I found out I might be living in the fancy pants part of Gyeonggi-do, I was like, I can't be having that! I can't afford to live like a wealthy person.

Anyway, the move went very smoothly. My friend drove me up on Friday. My school in Buyeo was told they weren't getting a replacement for me until after this semester, so they gave up the lease on my apartment. Then they found out they actually will be getting another teacher (a Canadian girl), so they're looking for housing in nearby Nonsan. I was extremely jealous when I heard that... I could have lived in Nonsan! Nonsan is much bigger than Buyeo. Oh well. So the school sent people on Friday to take out the furniture.

That actually brings me to another point. So last week I was on vacation, but I was still in Buyeo. I went to Anyang on Monday the 15th to visit my friend Madeline (Anyang is a southern suburb of Seoul), and then Tuesday I went to the immigration office to get my new visa. Then I went back to Buyeo to pack for my trip to the east coast of Korea. On that Thursday, I went out for a bit, and imagine my surprise when I came back to find my apartment door wide open and six strange Koreans inside. They were like, Oh I'm sorry! We called the school and they said it was okay. When they saw that that explanation didn't exactly make me feel better, they beat a pretty hasty retreat. I immediately called my co-teacher to tell her what happened and ask her what was going on. She called the administration office and told me they were sorry, they thought I was on vacation and not at home. Standard. They thought I wasn't around to catch them, so it's okay to let strangers into my apartment without telling me. Showing the apartment is one thing, but doing it sneakily is another. I was furious.

On another note, my new job starts on September 1st. I'm really excited!

Not a happy camper

Today was day 2 of the Buyeo camp, and I'm starting to enjoy it. I took the girls and my CT took the boys for the Grease dance rehearsal, and the girls are getting into it, though they didn't approve of my dance so we changed it. We're getting on well.

During the afternoon we had a competition in the gym, sort of like Taboo. One row of students faced the stage where my CT had a notebook with English words (notebook, Monday, hungry, etc) on it and we had to describe it to the rest of the students, who were facing us with their backs to my CT. Each homeroom's native teacher got a microphone and could assist, and needless to say my years of Taboo have rendered me somewhat of an expert in this game, and we sailed past the majority of the teams and scraped into first place by one point in a dramatic finale. The runner-up native teacher told me that we "really had tied" because they "didn't count the last one" for the runner-ups. I told him too bad, we were the teams who got mechanical pencils for our first place prize. The kids were pumped.

Then I checked my phone after class and had a missed call and text from my coteacher. There's an English competition coming up in October, and my principal wants me to teach the representatives next week. Next week the kids are on vacation and I would just be sitting around in my classroom. I had planned to use this time to clean out my desk and tie up my loose ends, so I'm kind of annoyed that I don't have this time anymore, but to be honest, what really irritates me is the fact that my principal is being a complete and utter jerk to the students.

First semester was a whopping 4.5 months, from March 1st to July 15th. That's 20 weeks of school! Then add in two weeks of camp, plus the third camp I'm currently involved in. One of the representatives, a wonderful sixth grade boy named Ho-haeng, has been in every single one of these camps. He's currently in my homeroom for the Buyeo camp. This means that instead of getting next week off like a normal 12-13 year old, he will be in school for 24 weeks. 24 weeks. That is atrocious. I'm nothing short of furious with my principal for suggesting it because I know that the parents will jump at the chance because a) free daycare b) free education and c) a last chance for him to learn English from a native teacher (they haven't lined up my replacement yet). Is it any wonder why elementary students have committed suicide due to pressure? Did I mention that Ho-haeng comes to my extra classes as well? This means that he's in school from 8:30-about 4:00 every day.

To be frank, I also can't help but suspect my coteacher as well. She told me the principal "commanded" her to win this competition, and I wouldn't put it past her to suggest this to the principal since she won't be around next week as she's on vacation. I find it terribly sad and stressful that I would even consider this about someone who I am supposed to rely on, but if past experience has taught me anything it's that this is a definite possibility.

When I leave, I'm going to write a letter to the Office of Education, I think. The demands they put on these students are too ridiculous, and everyone keeps asking why I'm leaving my schools. Why? Because you're slave drivers and I don't agree with it. I don't like how they abuse my presence to coerce the students into extra work.

I'm melting

Koreans love to tell you about how they have four seasons in Korea. I'm not going to dispute that; however, I am going to disagree with the names of the seasons. According to Koreans, their four seasons are: spring, summer, fall, winter. I'm going to counter this claim with my own names for the seasons I have experienced here: rainy, humid, chilly, and freezing. As we get towards the end of July and beginning of August, it has become insanely hot. I hesitate to use the word "scorching" as that implies a dry, oven heat and dry heat, as my Midwestern readers know, is not the true Beelzebub of summer heat - it's humidity.

Yes, we have humidity back home. However, in true Korean fashion, the very climate itself is trying to one-up everyone. The humidity here is nothing short of outrageous. It's currently 11:17pm and the temperature is 74 degrees with 95% humidity. If this was occasionally, then I could handle it, but it's every day! So. Much. Humidity.

The biggest problem is that Koreans don't use air conditioning. Seriously, at camp today we didn't have the AC on for the first hour or so, and it must have been upwards of 90 degrees. I was sweating through my shirt simply standing there doing nothing. FINALLY we turned it on and then the kids whined about being cold.

I had my first day of the Buyeo Office of Education camp. This is my last week of teaching elementary school, so that's exciting. In standard fashion, it was Sunday night and I still had only the vaguest idea of what to expect for camp. I had my lessons prepared, but I didn't have a timetable and I didn't have any clue what to expect as far as setup. Whatever, at this point I'm barely fazed by any of that.

Basically, the Office of Education takes several fifth or sixth grade students from each elementary school and puts them in this camp. That's really all the background you need on the event.

My co-teacher (a woman that I only met recently - we got paired for this event, she's super nice) and I found ourselves in charge of a "homeroom" class of about 14 sixth graders. I had two of my students in it, actually, so that was cool. Upon receiving my timetable at the start of the day, my CT and I were slightly dismayed to realize that it instructed us to have "icebreaker games and orientation" for 40 minutes. Well, I would have prepared such games if anyone had bothered to tell us that part of camp would a) include a "homeroom" class and b) there would be time for icebreakers. It was okay though - I had a name game where you just stand in a circle and say your name with an action, then the person next to has to say your name, do your action, then make up their own. It's one long chain.

Simply put, I thought I would have the hardest time memorizing 14 Korean kids names, especially since they typically opt to speak at a decibel level only slightly above inaudible. Getting these kids to do the barest of actions and speaking up was like speed-reading War and Peace, only harder. Bless my students though, they were the loudest.

Needless to say, I memorized all names before anyone else because well, I was the only person trying (my CT got them too). Later we played another name game (in Korean, despite this being English camp) and it was a rhythmic clapping and passing the names to other people, so of course every student knew MY name and thought it was sooooo funny to pass to me. Hahaha, too bad for them I easily mastered it and showed them who was boss.

Four days of camp left. On Friday we have to do a "presentation" and my CT wants the kids to sing "Summer Lovin" from Grease. While this is a fun song, it feels slightly inappropriate to teach sixth graders "she got friendly, down in the sand... we made out under the dock." Also today I had to sing it a capella and solo, though luckily no one laughed at me. Though after almost a year of elementary school teaching, singing in the classroom really isn't that big of a deal any more. Now I have to go devise a dance to this song. Lucky me.