Moses Miracle at Jindo

In March, we went to see the "Moses Miracle" at Jindo.  I'm pretty sure that's South Western Korea...I just paid my money for the tour and went where they told me!  These first few pictures are from a town that's famous for it's Japanese plum blossoms.  Apparently, the light pink/white flowers are for plum trees.  Who knew??

If we had been a couple of days later, they would have all been in full bloom and this whole mountainside would have looked like a big fluffy cloud...but you take what you can get right?

Some traditional stuff...

Don't you want me to teach your child?  I'm especially great with bronze children...

Our next stop was the green tea fields.  Again, we were a little earlier.  They are best when they are really really bright green...but I still thought they were awesome.

I climbed this.

Sneak attack!! An adorable father daughter moment.

View from the top!

Photographic evidence that I was actually there.

Then we went to the festival at the beach in Jindo.  These are drunk old Korean people dancing in the street and drawing in some Western guys.  My friend later got whisked away by a suave Korean dancer.

The full view of the festival.  Selling lots of Korean products like ginseng, seaweed and other stuff.  And lots of street food.  And Soju.

Time for the parting of the sea!!

So people didn't really walk across to the other island.  They mostly walked a few feet and then started digging for mollusks.

There was some nice sun action.

My first star fish sighting!

One of my best pictures from the day.  At this point I was pretty damn cold and exhausted...and we still had a 5 hour bus ride home...

4/20/2012

I wrote this blog in a notebook about a month ago.  I was going to post it...and then Maeve was born and I spilled water on my keyboard when Rosanne Skyped me to tell me the news.  I haven't been able to type a's or delete for a little while now but I just bought an external keyboard so get ready!!

Until now, my blog has been primarily about what I’m doing over here in Korea.  At first it was just about my daily life, the little things and some really big things, that make up my days.  I wanted everyone to get a vague picture of what I was doing and where I was doing it.  Then the holidays came, which provided new experiences.  A vacation adventure to Jeju Island gave me my next entry, but I’ve been quiet lately. 

I’ll admit, part of it is laziness and procrastination on my part.  Maybe that’s a big part of it.  Part of it is that I’ve fallen into a bit of a routine here.  A part of me likes and enjoys the routine.  It makes this whole living-alone-in-a-foreign-country thing feel more homey.  But sometimes I’m ready to jump on the train and get out of here, and I often do just that.

One of the things my life here provides is LOTS of time to think.  Before I left, a certain brother of mine cautioned me about over thinking things.  I suspect this might be a family condition; there is no known cure.  But there are distractions and good friends who tell you to stop letting your brain run around in circles.  Many thanks to all of you. 

On the other hand, I’ve reflected on things like friends, family, the future, the past, and what I’m learning, in really positive ways.  One thing I really enjoy about the “real world” is that I generally get to leave work at work.  There aren’t projects or papers or homework (well sometimes there is, but they don’t take me weeks to do).  So when I pass an hour or two in a coffee shop, or in bed, thinking, reading, writing or browsing the interwebs, I have very little guilt about what I “should” be doing.  It’s a little delight to have thinking about stuff as one of my priorities, and in a relatively low stress way.  Maybe that’s a little narcissistic, but if not now...when?

Being out of school for almost a year now (wow) and having a full time job for about 6 months now (wow), I’m getting an inkling of the differences between student life and 20-something not student life.  One of the biggest things I’ve noticed, credit to my older siblings and their families, is that life only gets busier.  Busier in a crazy-awesome-exhausting way that I can’t fully comprehend at the ripe ol’ age of 23. 

Because of that, I’m going to enjoy lounging in bed for two hours pondering and reading and listening to music.  If I ever reach that level of crazy-awesome-exhausting-frustrating busy that I see everyone else in, I better love what I’m doing.

So what has all my deep introspection gotten me so far?  I know you are all smiling and shaking your heads as you read all this stuff you already know…but here goes.

1.     I still have no real career plan.  It’s ok...I think.

2.     Cleaning a kitchen and an apartment as well as preparing meals and doing laundry and organizing all that stuff takes a LOT of time.  And my apartment is tiny!  And I’m only one person!  Is it wrong that I sometimes base my dinner menu around what will make the fewest dishes?!

3.     I’ve been really blessed to make so many amazing friends throughout my life.  All the love and support I got in the time before I left for Korea, and over the years, was awesome.  Thanks for all the letters, the care packages (expensive, I know) and coordinating Skype dates.

4.     I know more than I thought about working/”the real world.”

5.     Compared to a 90 year old, I know practically nothing.  I’m ok with that.

6.     I really didn’t think I’d miss home that much.  I’d been away for long periods of time before and it wasn’t that bad.  Honestly, there are a lot of things I don’t miss (the news, overhearing stupid conversations, the news, advertisements I understand, overpriced crap).  But I was totally unprepared for how much I miss my friends and family.  Much like grief, homesickness hits at the oddest times: when I’m traveling, when someone asks me where I’m from or when a student grabs my hand to tell me a story.  I’m doing my best to keep in touch, with mixed results.  I hope you all know that you are in my thoughts on a daily basis.

7.     On a lighter note, I’m learning more about English grammar than I ever did in school.  Mostly because I have to look things up to explain exercises to the students.

8.     There is a bakery near my apartment called “Jean Valjean’s Pain.”  The pun makes me chuckle to myself EVERY time we go by it.  My friends have even started to laugh at me laughing at it.  But the big question is, does the owner know how good the pun is???

9.     Despite language and cultural barriers, I’m really enjoying spending time with the Koreans I meet.  We are able to share laughs, kindness and language tutorials.  How could I not enjoy myself?

I’m going to stop there, since I don’t want to sound like too much of a know-it-allJ

Immersion Learning

This post is LONG overdue, but I will do my best to do the subject justice.

I’m pretty sure it was the first full week we were back at work after Lunar New Year.  We got a message Sunday night from our head teacher that we needed to wear black because we would be going to a funeral after work.  Ooooookkk….  Upon arriving at work we found out that the mother of one of the Korean teachers at another branch of the haegwon in Daegu had passed away. 

After work we all shuffled downstairs and packed into a few of the Korean teacher’s cars.  I have to admit, I got a good car.  I talked with one of the teacher’s about beer, we played some cell phone games and got a little lost.  It’s really nice to spend time with our co-teachers outside of the office; they’re much more relaxed. 

Despite getting lost, we were still among the earliest to arrive at the hospital.  I can’t say I know much about Korean funerals except what I observed that night and the little bit that our head teacher told us.  We parked and then went into a large hall at the front of the hospital.  It’s basically a big not very private funeral home, conveniently located next to the hospital.  We lingered in the front hall for a long time, trying not to laugh or do anything inappropriate.  But we were waiting about half an hour for the rest of the branches to arrive. 

When all three branches were present, we headed upstairs.  Somehow, I ended up in the front.  Thankfully, we were very close to two of the guys that have been working at the haegwon for three plus years.  We got shuffled into a smaller room and, of course, we had to take off our shoes.  To our left, about fifteen people say eating food.  To our right I could see and empty room and hear crying.  Meanwhile, my friend and I were frantically trying to blend into the crowd because we had no idea what was going on.  I wasn’t trying to avoid the situation, but I was concerned about making a horrible social gaffe.  Luckily, some of the managers came through and went first.  They did some very formal bowing (kneeling and touching their heads to the floor).  Meanwhile, the woman’s son and daughter stood in traditional Korean clothing sobbing and wailing.  With some quick whispering we learned we were to go in, bow to the picture of the mother and bow to the sobbing family members, no kneeling necessary.  We did this, squeezed out and passed the info along to the other bewildered Westerners.

Thinking our duty was done, we put our shoes back on only to be ushered across the hall to another room (shoes off again).  We all took seats at tables as the staff brought out trays and trays off food and drinks.  It seemed never ending.  Part of the tradition is for mourners to stay and have a meal with the family, who aren’t allowed to leave the deceased.  There’s a traditional beef soup that goes along as well.  Again, we all tried to eat and not do anything disrespectful.  I think we sat there for at least 45 minutes, all kind of wondering when we could leave.  This was during our intensive lessons, when we taught from 9am to 7pm every day with two hours of extra classes.  Then the big bosses come in, so we all have to stand and bow.  Then he had to go talk to the teacher and pay his respects and then he had to eat.  So we all just sat around like bumps on a log trying to make conversation.

Eventually he thanked us for coming and we were allowed to leave.  I couldn’t wait.   But  that was not the last of our encounters with the Big Boss.  In a belated New Year’s celebration, he decided to get us all lunch.  So on Wednesday, of the same week, we all came in early again and boarded t he school bus.  We were taken to an old middle school (the kids were on vacation).  Because the room was too small for all of us to eat at once, we had to eat in shifts.  So while we waited for our shift the rest of us waited on the floor of a locker room.  Luckily, the locker room was far cleaner than any locker room I have ever been in.  The soup we had is a traditional New Year’s soup that has rice cakes and beef in it.  When you eat it, you become one year older.  Try it, you’ll see.