3 Days Until Vacation

From the mysterious Orient comes yet another tale of intrigue along with new photos from our reveling, rambling writer-- who may or may not be all about alliteration. We last learned of his attempts to break free from the monotony of his indentured servitude here on the Korean peninsula with this entry being no exception. He may also be inclined to tell you some tales of teaching. Fortunately, you have acquired enough free time to read what the author deems is important or interesting enough to write down in hopes that you read his meager attempt to describe his daily life to you, his loyal readers.

So as the title references, Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok, is this weekend and I have Thursday through Monday off and couldn't be more excited. All tickets for buses and trains are presumably booked but there is talk of standing room only trains or possible space in Noraebang rooms (Karaoke) on board the trains where we could ride. "We" is still up in the air considering everyone is still sorting out their plans and since none of us speak Korean all that well we have to rely on our Korean friends or Korean partner teachers to help us book things. More details to come next Sunday.

One of my lessons on "multiculturalism" was on Chuseok which forced me to learn about it and compare it to American Thanksgiving. I found that it is very similar to Thanksgiving but with different foods and people here visit the graves of their ancestors. Half of one of my preschool classes all jumped out of their chairs and began doing this (Buddhist?) bowing ritual that is common on Chuseok, not shy at all.

I love teaching the classes on multiculturalism but this month is transportation; I'm not as stoked at all on the subject. I teach anywhere between 6 and 10 classes a day. The hardest ones are the beginners that are in the afternoon who we don't get to see everyday like the pre-schoolers. I'm pretty sure one kid "Brian" either doesn't care or just has no idea what I'm saying, he just copies off the other kids.

When I punish a kid by sending them to the corner or out in the hall, invariably they will throw their hands in the air which causes them great displeasure. They also screw around a whole lot less when their hands are in the air, big plus. Another teacher found out that I sent a kid out to the hall for speaking in Korean after I had just chastized the whole class for the very same thing and it turns out he had turned to his friend to say, "The teacher is really funny!" One, I didn't know that. Two, I have a strict zero tolerance policy on Korean. I can even now say "No Korean!" in Korean which is really fun to do.

In my favorite pre-school class, "Samuel" asked me what a target was, since the word was in their Phonics book, and I indulged him, drawing a target on the board. Si-Jun who has lived the US then began talking to me about how he knows what a "Target" is and how you can buy snacks and hot dogs there and other things. I was confused for a moment but he was definitely talking about a Target store he must have gone to while living in the US.

Fun fact: If you ask a Korean student to draw "Korea" they will usually draw the whole peninsula with no border. If you ask for South Korea they usually draw the whole peninsula but with a border and then label the southern half. The geographer in me loves this. Also, all the world maps here have Korea in the center and the Americas are on the right side of the map and Europe on the left. They also don't say "Sea of Japan" but rather the "Eastern Sea," I love seeing stuff like that. Also, don't speak too positively about Japan, they are still pretty pissed off about the whole violent occupation that the Japanese Empire did to Korea and Northern China before and during WWII.

My coworker Rosie and I decided to go hiking this weekend. We attempted to navigate our way around Bukhansan mountain located relatively close to my apartment here in Seoul (and is worth Googling for better photos than I have provided). Once we got there we became lost in a sea of Koreans decked out in the best hiking gear that money can buy. I'm fairly certain that none of them were going to be camping but they had huge, brand new backpacking backpacks that couldn't have held all that much for their small day hikes around the mountain with 4000 like minded countrymen and a handful of foreigners lost in the confusion of an REI catalog on steroids.  At the base of the mountain are roughly 100 restaurants and hiking stores all catering to the throngs of weekend warriors battling the mountains who had the unfortunate destiny of being located so close to such a capitalist metropolis-- though litter was not an issue surprisingly. I do want to go back however and see if I can't make it higher up on the mountain since we became a lost in a maze of trails and encountering stunning Buddhist temples everyone once in a while dotting the mountain along with the occasional pop machine. Please see the link for photos of some of the chaos that we encountered.

Saturday night I made my way to an area near Korea University and what I found was a really cool, happening place where I think I will be going back to since it isn't as busy and Hyewa or Hongdae or that Mos Eisley of neighborhoods, Itaewon.

The rest of this weekend was easier spent with a small excursion to Hyewa and dinner with my coworkers, Gabi and Rosie, at a restaurant here in Seongbuk that we like. We then went to the top of a gynourmous building near my school that you may recognize in the photos. I'm not scared of heights...

That's all for this week folks, keep checking the blog and leave me some comments. I always love reading them.

Anyang!

*Editor's note: They are kindergarten, not preschool sorry for the confusion (Rosie...)