Halloween ECC Style

So this will not be a writing heavy post. But brief Halloween update:
We celebrated Halloween with the kids today. We were required to dress up, and led the kids in various party activities. We trick-or-treated from classroom to classroom, gave out candy, played pin the tail on the donkey (I was the donkey artist, that's goin on the ole CV), and did some trivia games. There were also pictures of us posted for the kids to vote with stickers on the best costume. We found out a week before the day that there would be cash prizes which was unfortunate because I would have been MUCH more elaborate had I known that. FORTUNATELY Ben had decided to be Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was his makeup person and it turned out pretty awesome, so we won grocery money! Huzzah! Without further ado, here are the pictures of me and some of my kids and Ben's sweet award-winning costume!

Busan! Our first adventure out of Gwangju

This weekend we ventured to Busan! We went with the hope of getting to the fireworks festival, but I will tell you up front, no fireworks were seen. It's ok though! We had an awesome time.

Our friend Chelsea was the one who suggested we go. We aren't getting paid till the second weekend in November, so we are doing our best to be frugal, but with the promise of free camping and cheap bus tickets we signed on. On Friday's the school day ends at 10. We decided that not having a super clear idea of the plan it was best not to try and negotiate Busan in the dark. So Friday night we picked up all the camping gear from Chelsea's place, and she crashed on our extra bed so we could make an obscenely early start on Saturday morning.

The thing we learned from this trip is: book your freaking bus tickets. Apparently for heavily traveled routes like Gwangju to Seoul it is super easy to show up and end up on the next bus. Not so for Busan. We got to the terminal at 6 and couldn't leave till 8:30. But we played card games on the floor while simultaneously providing well dressed Koreans with entertainment. We got on the bus and I passed out for the next four hours and woke up in Busan!

 So Korea is basically all mountains. And Busan is on the coast. The combination of mountains and super blue ocean is really stunning. We took a subway to the main beach to figure out our next move and admire the view. After finding a hotline to get Busan info, we discovered that Songjeon was the only beach we were allowed to camp on. We had actually figured that was the case ahead of time, but wanted to check if we could be any closer. We jumped in a cab and scouted out an excellent beach camping spot. Once we were all set up we waited for Luke, Chelsea's boyfriend who was coming from Seoul. We did a bit of walking around and exploring until he arrived. When he did we went to an AWESOME restaurant. The building was modeled after an old Korean turtle battleship which apparently kicked ass many moons ago. The cuisine was basically the Vietnamese take on shabu shabu. Again you get the hot broth, meat, noodles and rice, but this time there were like 8 piles of fresh veggies and rice paper to wrap all the deliciousness in to eat it!

 After that we grabbed beer to sit with on the beach! We talked, played games, put our toes in the water. We decided we didn't want to spend the money on a cab to and from the inevitably packed beach, and looking on the map figured we'd be able to see the fireworks. We moved to a dock nearby in the hopes that our view would be a little better. But come 8:00 we didn't see or hear anything. We were a little bummed, but pretty happy to be mellowed out with all our camping stuff on a gorgeous beach. 

The next morning we cook a WHOLE LOTTA meat on a little mini stovey thing that Chelsea brought. We got coffee in an awesome shop overlooking the beach, and then headed to the bus station. We got there at two in the afternoon, only to discover the next available bus was at 6:40. Needless to say it was a bummer and a long wait, BUT WE LEARNED OUR LESSON.
It was a great first trip out of Gwangju and we definitely want to go back.

Twas quite the weekend!

Alright everyone! I had an excellent and weird experience filled weekend so I figured I'd fill you in. On Friday Ben and I were invited to attend a field trip with the younger kids at ECC. So instead of coming in at noon, we came in at 9:30 to get on buses with a bunch of adorable Korean kids. We bused to Tamyang about 45 minutes away. Tamyang is known for its bamboo forests. We hustled the kids through a bamboo museum before getting back on the bus to go check out the actual forests. We were provided with an AWESOME lunch by parents of one of the students. After that we walked the kids up a little hill to have free time. I should say "free time". The head teacher announced it was time to run around and play with the kids, but then they were ushered from one spot to another to take pictures with their teachers. They did get to do a little running around and bubble blowing though. Apparently for every school trip the school is expected to put out a photo album for parents. This leads to a lot of staged fun. We were then led in K-Pop group dancing. Let me tell you, forty 4-6 year olds dancing in sync to Korean pop music is hysterical....especially when you add six foreigner teachers. We headed home shortly after that. On the bus ride home the child who I am certain is the most adorable human person played with my hands and fingernails the whole way. It made for a long day afterwards because I had six hours of class after a morning full of little kids, but it was fun.

So Saturday night Ben and I met up with our friends Nate, Cheryl, Jack, Kezia and Kat to go bowling. Bowling is the same in Korea except for the wildly enthusiastic (and sometimes chanting) Korean men in the next lane. After that we went to Ashely which is an all you can eat all (the wine) you can drink Western buffet. Needless to say it was delightful to indulge in salmon, mac and cheese, pizza, cheese cake, and presecco (honesty note: there were like 15 more items that made their way across my plate) . After we met up with Joel and Jessica and played darts downtown and did a bit o' dancing.

SUNDAY! Lemme tell you about Sunday. We went to a jimjilbong. This is a Korean bathhouse and something that the west has messed up hard on. We need some of these suckers. So you go...and pay FIVE DOLLARS to have access to multiple hot tubs, a warm jet pool with heavy duty jets to massage....well, all of you....a cold pool, steam rooms and a sauna room. So we went with a big ole group of us and obviously split up by gender to spend the afternoon pampering ourselves. You can also pay an extra 20 bucks to have an older Korean lady scrub every freaking particle of dead skin off your body. We are talking cups of dead skin all around you when she is done. I did this. I have sweet baby skin now. Afterwards we went out for Indian food and then knocked out (after the most absurd bus ride of my life, the bus drivers here should be institutionalized). ANYWAY! it was an awesome weekend. More to come my pretties.

Observations about Korea

Now that I have been here over a month I will post some things I have found interesting.

• Koreans really look out for each other. It is a society that has historically been through a lot of poo, and so there is a huge sense of Koreans looking out for Koreans. For this reason it is an incredibly safe place. You can leave your iPhone on a table, leave, come back, and it will still be there. (Ben did it by accident so I have proof). The crime rate here is one of the lowest in the world. I could safely walk home alone at 4am. 
• Korean food is the bomb if you are into spicy food, meat, and seafood. So it's all working very well for me. 
• There is a big culture of respect here. Bowing is a thing! I like bowing. If I am walking down the street and I look at a kid long enough they will bow. And if I incline my head to an older Korean walking down the street they will respond in the same way. I have also noticed they get really psyched if I do. Ben and I have actually cracked up walking down the street before because a stoney faced pissed off looking Korean will end up BEAMING when you give them a wee little bow. It may be a sort of "oh, wow, foreigner showing respect" type deal. I dunno but I'm into. MUTUAL RESPECT ALL AROUND THAT WE SHOW WITH OUR HEADS! 
• Shopping is scary. There are always people in the grocery stores and if you start to show any interest in a product they bamboozle you in Korean. Ah well. 
• The foreigner community is pretty awesome. I have been totally floored by how many people have come back and come back and come back. There are people who have been here anywhere from 2-10 years. I was invited to attend a girls night (which made me a little nervous ahead of time). I told Ben that if there was excessive high pitched talking and squeeking he would have to come save me. But there was not! There was lots of laughing and talking and dancing and I have plans with like half of the ladies I met. 
• Korean kids are worked to the bone. Which can make them difficult to teach
• Name brands and image are VERY important to Koreans. People will "work" insanely long days to show their importance and diligence. Even if they are just sitting around the image has to be maintained. Brand names and fancy expensive equipment are important. Physical beauty is important (Korea is number for one plastic surgery in the world). 
• If you are trying, people are very friendly. Like if we go to the market and try t learn the words for things, and try and talk to the sales people they are great. And the Korean teachers at our school are lovely too. As long as you are good about communication they are excited and willing to help and collaborate. 

Warggg! the class bell is going off. TTFN (ta ta for now) 

I taught I taught!

Following our Thursday mountain triumph Ben and I had our first full on day of teaching. Fridays are long days, which means the school day goes from 2:50pm to 10:00pm. Unfortunately we have to come in at noon for our first month, so its a reeeeally long day for us. I was pretty nervous, but it went well for the most part. The class times change from 50 minutes, to 45 minutes, to 40 minutes, which completely flustered me. Each class also has different material so I am currently living in perpetual fear that I will completely fail to give one class the correct test or book or something. (I am told this goes away after the first month).

As with any teaching/child related experience, it really all depends on the specific class. I had some that were a lot better then others. My favorite class was with only three kids. They are fairly advanced but also really eager. Because Korean kids work SO HARD it is common for the older kids to check out and become less interested the longer they have been at ECC, so it was nice to be with students who stayed on topic and got through the material. The hardest class I had was actually around the same age group and level as the three kids, but there were like 10 of them. I had to get through about 9 pages of the book with them and Amanda warned me that they are just a rude bunch. They spoke Korean to each other through the whole class (this is forbidden since its English language learning) and I felt crappy about it because having to power through material on my first day with them left no time for anything fun, and did not make for a good first impression. BUT! There is plenty of time and I am hoping to have good times with all of my classes. Today will be my second full day of teaching. We will see how that goes.

And then the foreigners conquered the mountain!

Well hello! I shall speak to you of the newest Korean developments. This past Thursday was a Korean national holiday. So myself, Ben, and our new coupley friends Kezia and Jack, and Cheryl and Nate decided to hike up Mount Mudeungsan. We met at the bus stop at 10, and the six of us plus every expensive gear wearing, hiking pole toting Korean in all of South Korea headed to the mountain. At the bottom of the mountain it was so crowded we were basically hiking in single file. However by the time we got to the more challenging part of the hike the people thinned out a bunch and we were able to enjoy/struggle through with much more personal space. We ended up taking a bit of a circuitous route which resulted in our climb taking about 4.5 hours up, but also resulted in some really incredible views.

The photos really don't do it justice. From most spots you could see easily 25-30 other mountains as well as ALL of Gwangju.

The hike down was a little rough. I think about half an hour in we were all just ready to be at the bottom. But we returned victorious! After a six and half hour hike we were all pretty pooped. We returned to our various apartments to recuperate for an hour before reconvening to eat Korea barbeque.

Korean barbeque is a magical thing. You sit at a table with a grill in the middle of it. The waitress brings out a million like side dishes for you to munch on, and then sets coals into the grill. You then select a type of meat to grill. They bring the meat marinated and raw on a big ole plate with mushrooms and garlic to plop on there as well. Then you grill it all up right at your table. When the meat is ready to cut it (yes with scissors) into little pieces. You wrap the little pieces in lettuce leaves, and some of the other grilled deliciousness and some magical sauce stuff they give you and then shove it all into your face. Its amazing. So that is the tale of my Thursday off.