Auld Lang SyIsland

 

After completing an interesting and adventurous few days in China, I boarded a plane with my co-teacher Heather bound for the Philippines to enjoy the New Year in sun and sand.  The final destination was Boracay Island, a blip on the map only 10.32 square kilometers in size but overflowing with energy.

 

Home to White Beach, which on more than one occasion has been voted the best tropical beach in the world, Boracay Island is tougher to get to than I initially imagined.  An easy flight into the capital city of Manila was the first leg, a quick connection to Kalibo, then an hour and a half van ride through the winding streets and thick jungles of the Aklan province, spilling you into the small port town of Caticlan where you boarded a rickety old ferry bound for paradise.

During this journey I began to second guess my decision to travel to the Philippines.  While crammed in the small rundown van that harbored us like fugitives, I looked out into a world I didn’t know really existed; narrow dirt roads filled with small half naked children playing in puddles, men with no shoes walking through thick foliage carrying wooden buckets of water for their families, old run down shacks with thatched roofs and no doors.  The kind of poverty I’d only ever seen on the cover of the three year old National Geographic in the waiting room at the dentist’s office.  A real life example of people who had nothing.  I certainly didn’t imagine my tropical vacation would provide a humbling experience of this nature.

After a nice long rickshaw ride from the port on Boracay we were greeted with open arms at Alta Vista De Boracay, our vacation retreat for the remainder of our week.  The beds were comfortable, the room’s balcony had a great view, the infinity pool overlooked luscious green jungle mountains and the on site restaurant was incredible.  Being nestled on the crest of one of the Island’s northern mountains made for a nice buffer zone between us and the hustle and bustle of white beach.  A short shuttle ride provided by the resort landed us in the middle of the most energetic stretch of land I’ve ever been to.  There were people everywhere, restaurants grilling up the best smelling food, music coming from every direction and no shortage of vendors trying to sell me fake Oakleys.  I spent most of my time reading in the sand or eating at beachside grills and I think the relaxed nature of the people was good for me.  It lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders and prepared me for my return to Korea where my students were waiting…ready to undue my newfound tranquility.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got Beijing

Just when the monotony of my job abroad started to wear on me we had a nice long week off.  I was faced with a bit of a decision, there are so many places in Asia that I would love to go to but I had to narrow it down to just two.  I decided to take the first half of the week exploring and discovering Beijing with my friends Dan and Josh.  Spending a few days in China really put Korea into perspective.

 

Portions of the trip were what I expected.  The food was incredible.  Loved every single meal.  We had famous dishes like Beijing Duck, and sometimes just randomly picked side street restaurants.  The tourist attractions were breathtaking.  The temples were overpowering and the artistry was overwhelming.  Everything you would have imagined.  Unfortunately it wasn’t all peas and gravy.

 

Some of the words that comes to mind when you talk about the Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square or the Great Wall are majesty…sacred…hallowed…revered.   So imagine my surprise when we were MOBBED by dozens of vendors ever 6 yards trying to sell us the same crap.  I mean we’re literally 10 feet away from the spot where Tank Man had his famous showdown on Chang'an Avenue and I’ve got some guy pushing t-shirts in my face.  Really takes away from the feel.

We certainly made the best of the trip though, looking through the “slightly off limits city” (there was nothing forbidden about it) walking the Great Wall and seeing the Olympic village.  We made it a habit of jumping into as many group pictures as we could and hopefully we’ll end up on the desks and walls of all those people’s homes and a part of their memories.  It certainly wasn’t a traditional Christmas, but for one year I think it was an interesting change of pace.

The Honeymoon is Over

 

A quarter of the way into my year abroad, things have started to really slow down.  I’m no longer surprised by the dozens of cars running red lights, the mosh pit style grocery shopping or even motorbikes mounting the sidewalks at every opportunity.  If you couple all of that with North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island last week and it’s enough to make any American homesick around the holidays.

One of the most uplifting parts of my journey initially was the time at school I spent with my students.  Seeing their smiles and hearing all the funny and interesting things they had to say was refreshing.  Well that too has faded into the sunset.  Last week alone I found no fewer then three spots on the walls of my classroom where students had used Korean profanity in direct association with my name.  In one class I asked the kids to list things they like and dislike.  I made it onto two students’ “dislike” list.  Another group of kids had to draw all the people in class including their teacher; my instructions were followed closely by one boy holding up his paper to point at the picture he had drawn of me.  This action was accompanied by him yelling “teacher very very ugly!”

 Coming into this experience I was told by my recruiter that Korean children are “traditionally better behaved than their western counterparts.”  I must have gotten a bad batch.  I may sound filled with discontent but honestly I’m taking it all in stride.  I knew coming into this I would have rough patches, and for all I know this might not even be one of them.  But if there’s one thing my parents taught me it’s that “if you start something, you have to finish it.”  That lesson has served me well up to this point and I imagine it will again.

Anytime life gets stale the best medicine is often a change of scenery.  Luckily my school is taking a nice weeklong break at the end of December and I’m hopping a plane to Beijing.  A 2:00 a.m. bus to Incheaon, and an hour flight to China will certainly make it the most nontraditional Christmas of my life.  I’m there for half the week then I’m heading to beautiful Boracay Island in the Philippines for New Years.  Do me a favor and google image search “Boracay Island.”  Not a bad place to sing auld lang syne.

Change of Scenery

Fall brings some of my favorite things; cooler weather, football season, bonfires and the leaves changing color.  Well it was fall when I arrived and it was still hot, there were no fires, certainly no football and ever single leaf was lush and green.  I began to think Korea was going to deny me the simple but best things of my favorite season.  Well there’s still no sign of football and the last fire I saw was one I started in my kitchen…but November has finally delivered the colder weather and brighter colors.  In a very big way.

The temperature is dropping dramatically and without me even noticing the leaves have transformed to the most vibrant colors imaginable.  The change in my surroundings was compounded last weekend when my school decided to move me to a new apartment.  Doesn’t really seem like a big thing but when you get a new apartment in Korea…you get nothing.  So everything has to move.  The apartment I was living in had accumulated a ton of stuff from previous teachers and it was a bit of task to move it but, with some help from my co-teacher Heather and a HUGE hand from the one and only Josh Doerschuk, I managed to cram everything into a smaller but MUCH cleaner apartment.

To celebrate the successful move Josh and I loaded up and headed to the down town area of Jeonju (Gaeksa) to check out a few sightseeing spots.  We noticed on a map we had of the city that there were a few temples to the south grouped together.  So we went through downtown to get there but stopped at this beautiful church (interestingly enough Christianity is the fastest growing religion in South Korea) to snap a few photos.  We hit the hiking trail pretty hard, thinking that we’d find these temples easily.  They were NOT grouped together nicely (as the map suggested) and it was a miniature adventure finding each one.  The area where the temples were was called Namgosanseong Fortress and it was literally surrounded by a large stone wall on all sides.  The hike was interesting and the view from the peak alone was worth the trip here.

The Scariest Halloween…EVER!!!!

 

As a youngster Halloween was absolutely my favorite holiday.  I started thinking of my costume a year in advance and started putting it together shortly after.  The idea that I could be WHATEVER I wanted for an entire night tickled me pink.  The candy was obviously a nice bonus but the only real draw back was the spookiness involved.  I was quite the wimp as a child (some would say that hasn’t changed) and having people jump out and scare me was not high on my priority list.  It probably ranked somewhere close to eating my vegetables and brushing my teeth.  Well I can honestly say this Halloween takes the cake when it comes to frightfulness.

Monsters, spiders, zombies and mummies are terrifying; don’t get me wrong.  But 40 screaming Korean kids is by far the most bloodcurdling sound on earth.  Last Friday our school put together a Halloween party for the kids which was a lot more work than I anticipated.  Halloween is not nationally recognized here in South Korea but I work at an English academy which means it’s important to participate in holidays that western countries do.  The Korean teachers at the school asked for input on what to do for the party…which turned into us (my co-teacher Heather and me) planning the entire thing.

So we came up with mask making for the little ones and Halloween bingo and mummy wrapping (using toilet paper of course) for the older kids.  That seems simple enough but when you add candy, costumes, glitter and glue to kids who are already hyped up it’s a formula for disaster.  And it was.  In every sense of the word.  I’ll just put it this way; I’m still finding material from the party wedged in small spaces around my classroom.  Now that it’s over I can retire the devil costume (and the horrific facial hair I grew for it) and look forward to a more relaxing, less terrifying, stateside Halloween next year.

Muskies Swim Together

As the cold weather rushes into Jeonju for my first Korean autumn it brings with it a familiar face in a not so familiar place.  My college roommate Josh has finally arrived.  It was Josh and his high school buddy Dan who planted the idea of this trip in my head initially so I have them to thank for most of what happens while I’m here.  It’s great to have some semblance of home in a place that is still so foreign to me and it’s shown me a lot about myself…I’ve actually learned something since landing in September!

It’s fun rolling around town taking Josh to some of my favorite places and discovering new ones.  It’s always nice to have two ears to the ground as well that way nothing gets by.  He hears about things I had idea were going on and I can key him into the events I catch wind of.  We’ve gotten to walk around a bit together which is fun and just hanging out is a good way to pass time although the work from school seems to be mounting with a few classes finishing books and report cards due next week.

 

It’s been well over a week since my last post so I feel like there should be a lot to talk about but really there isn’t.  I’ve gotten more used to the culture, figured out how to hail a taxi and make it home, teaching has become more routine and I received my first package from home.  My girlfriend Caitlin sent me some really great stuff to remind me of home (mostly my favorite candy) as well as some stickers for class.  The kids LOVE them.  This weekend there are a couple of fun events going on in Jeonju and I hope to have a few more interesting things to write about then.  Hope the pictures make up for the severe lack of contest in this post.

View from the top

 

One of my favorite things to do growing up was hiking around in the woods.  I loved the freedom, the adventure and never knowing what you’d find.  For the most part those expeditions were limited to Gantz Park, a sparsely wooded 14 acre plot of land by my childhood home.  At age 16 when an Ohio driver’s license opened new doors for my adolescence, it closed just as many.  Hiking became a casualty of young adulthood and I never gave it a second thought.  This trip has allowed the roles to reverse.

 

I miss the freedom and comforts of driving; the windows rolled down, the sunroof open and the music up loud.  However, seeing the driving habits of the people in this country make me glad I won’t be behind a wheel during my stay.  It’s insane.  So I’ve traded in the car keys to fit back into my hiking boots.  Korea is littered with mountains and most of them have fun hiking trails for beginners all the way up to (let’s say) the NOT faint at heart.  For some reason I thought tackling the tallest mountain in the province would be a good starting point.

 

The other English teacher from my school and another friend decided that we would master the beast.  A 3.5 kilometer hike gets you to the top of Moak-San.  At every check point the road gets narrower and more treacherous.  Not an easy task but the thought of accomplishment kept us going and the reward was well worth it.  The stops along the way were interesting and colorful but the incentive for a successful accent was breath taking.  The view goes on for miles and the mountains never seemed to stop and the rain provided a mist that blanketed the countryside.

I’ve felt a lot of things since I’ve been here, I would describe this one as “humble.”