Hiking & Holidays

I survived the hiking trip in case you were wondering. No need to worry about me anymore!

The two day trip included: Me, about seven teachers, and 180 high school boys hiking up Jili Mountain, Korea's second tallest mountain (second only by 35 meters).

                                                        Yes, that's me.

Late-night Ramen party with some students and my co-teacher (Co-T)!!!

The hardest part was the length. The hike never felt dangerous --except when students were jumping/running full speed down the side of the mountain. Boys will be boys. It was a total of 10 hours of hiking. That takes stamina! Another teacher in his 50s went the following weekend with a few buddies of his and did the hike in ONE DAY! I was impressed.

The View from the Top (1)

TVT (2) --I counted about 16 "layers" of consecutive mountains, one behind another...incredible view!

TVT (3)

Fortunately we had great weather! Clear skies day and night, with brisk weather in the morning that warmed up as the day went on. Also, the stream water was in fact "Mountain Fresh!" and the blisters I got from soccer before hiking were not an issue. Thank you Boy Scouts for teaching me how to properly wrap using gauze.

The students were awesome! They had a lot of fun, I think, despite all their complaining.  I was amazed by the energy level of some students. After hiking they still ran around crazily chasing each other and tackling each other. Some could not finish the hike and so they turned around the morning after we stayed in the cabin. According to my Co-T many students are prone to getting hurt these days on excursions like this since all they do is study for exams; there is no time for sports and physical education is definitely second as a priority in school.


The week following the Jili Mountain hike was short. I taught one class on Monday, had a holiday break Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and taught again on Friday.

What, you may ask, was the holiday? It's Chuseok [Choo-sawk]! It is a national holiday in Korea that allocates three days a year for Koreans to stop their busy lives and gather with family in order to pay respect to those family members who have passed away. Many people here say it is similar to the American Thanksgiving, but I fail to see much overlap. There are specific foods eaten on Chuseok, one being Songpyeon, and Thanksgiving also has regular foods (turkey being just one). Chuseok, though, has an array of special ceremonies that go along with the holiday. I unfortunately did not get to see any of them. I highly recommend reading my friend, and fellow Fulbright Grantee, Josh's blog if you want another perspective and a few more details on the holiday. It's a great read, please check it out!!

Anyway, my holiday time was split between Seoul and a SMALLLL farming villiage called Hampyeong [Hahm...similar to speaking with a British accent & saying "ham"...okay?...so, Hahm-pyawng]. In Seoul I had an a GREAT time because I was fortunate enough to meet with my friend from U of I. He currently lives in the east coast in the U.S., but he came home for Chuseok to see his family (he is Korean). I spent one night visiting with him and his parents, while enjoying life in the big city for about 36 hours. It is nice to see a familiar face every now and again while abroad!

Jinyoung and his parents. The kindest people! It was a very rejuvinating break from my day-in, day-out life here!

After Seoul I took a train back to my dwellings in JeongEup City where I met up with my host family. We drove together to Hampyeong where the host mom is from. It was such a small town, and the contrast was emphasized after coming from Seoul. It was great though. There were rice fields (dry...not paddies) and farms all around. I was able to meet the host mom's family. I met her mom, dad, sister, two brothers, and her nephews/neice. It was a blast walking around her neighborhood, petting cows, seeing her parents' gardens and rice fields, and hanging out with her family. We ate some food (squid, songpyeong, rice...), had a few drinks (mulberry wine), and sang a little Karaoke (the host mom's dad owns a karaoke machine...that's right folks! It was epic to see the 80ish-year-old man break into song).

I went to work the next day ready to take on any challenge the students may have thrown my way (there ended up being no challenges...they were all so wiped from their vacations).

The host mom, me, nephew & neice (they are siblings), the host brother, and the little guy with a shocked look on his face (due to the passing train) is another nephew:

The Karaoke King himself (the host mom's father):

Well, this week I have big plans again. On Thursday I will be heading up to Seoul again, but this time I am attending a Roots and Shoots lecture. Jane Goodall is in Korea right now, so I am making sure to attend one of her lectures. I was co-president of Roots and Shoots at U of I, so it's great to have another familiarity find me here in Korea. Luckily I do not have to rush back for work after the lecture either....I will not be working on Friday due to a Fulbright conference being held in my favorite city in Korea: Gyeongju. It is a very historical city. One of my close friends lives there, so I'll be visiting his parents this weekend. I last saw them in 2008 when I first came to Korea...they were my WONDERFUL hosts at the time. I am extremely excited to see them again!!

Have a great week and thanks for keeping up with my travels!

Early Weekend

Yes, it's true, right now it's 6pm on a Wednesday, but for me the weekend has started. On Thursday all the students at BaeYoung High School are taking a practice college entrance exam. At my school, the first year high school students take many practice exams. Their whole high school experience is basically one big college exam prep course. A vast majority of their class material is based off the entrance exam, and their classes quiz them using material from past exams as well. There is only one national college entrance exam day.  It is no laughing matter in Korea. The exam is in November; more details to come at that time! By the way, there are only three total years of H.S. in the Korean education system, so I do not know if I should say freshman, sophomore, jr, or senior when refering to the students--I'll just say "First Year, "Second Year," and "Third Year."  Anyway, the point is I do not have class Thursday :)

So what about Friday? Well.....I am going hiking with the first year students and their home room teachers. This is an annual hike the first year students go on. When I heard they were going, and that I would not have class since I teach only first year students, I asked to go along; not knowing what I was getting myself in to. Apparently we are hiking up the highest mountain in Korea (excluding the mountain on one of Korea's islands). I was not too worried when I heard this, but every time I mention it to other people, they are kind of surprised and they tell me it's a pretty strenuous hike. I have not worked out much since getting to Korea, so I am a little worried about getting shown up by the students, haha! Really, though, I think it'll be tiring, but amazing. We are leaving Friday morning at 8am to drive to the mountain and coming back to town Saturday night (we'll be put up in a cabin for the night). I'll let you know how it goes (and if I get any stomach troubles from drinking the stream water --that's going to be our only source of water during the ~10 hour hike. Oh joy...I heard it's perfectly clean though. So, no worries. Right?)

To back up for a minute, last weekend, that's 9/11-12, I went on my first trip out of JeongEup City since my first arrival in late August here. A large group of fellow Fulbright ETA Grantees (not everyone) met up in a city around one hour away by high speed train from JeongEup. We had a night filled with laughter as we caught up with each others newest life adventures in our cities and schools.

Friends! (In Daejon City, where we all met up --30 or so people)

More Friends (These are some fellow bloggers, Grace, me, Josh, and Tim at the bottom)



I left the group early Sunday morning, waking up at 6am, to catch a train back to JeungEup City to meet my host family. They had plans to go to a town (a little over an hour away by car), which is known for its apple orchards -- it seems to me that many towns in Korea are 'known' for something: peaches, hot peppers, squid, apples...you name it. We went to the annual "Red Apple Festival." I took a lot of pictures because it was such a beautiful area (AND because my host family let me borrow their digital DSLR camera...it takes great pictures...I just may invest in one while here! If you have any suggestions, let me know your thoughts). Here are some of the pictures from Sunday:

Scenery!

 Me and Charlie, the family's son (the apples are not real; though, the grass is!)

Poison Apples, Snow White, & the Seven Dwarves (all made from grass)

The Host Family (Sera, Charlie, and Jason)

After the weekend was over, I began to prepare for teaching. It is amazing how productive we can be...some days I barely get through my classes, let alone tack on "extra-curriculars." Today though (Wednesday), I not only played soccer with one of my classes during the student's lunch hour, but I also practiced my horn at school during a break hour, went out with a group of teachers at night, and still managed to write this blog! Maybe it was just the combination of activities I did today that gave me the extra energy; exercise does the body good! I just hope the blisters I got from running around on the dirt soccer field barefoot won't slow me down too much on Friday and Saturday while hiking!

Post any thoughts/comments your have below-- it's always a plus for me to hear what you think :)

Have a great week!

The Weekend Hath Arrived!

Though the week started rather dismally, the week took a turn for the best on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was my most successful day yet in the classroom. I introduced skits to my classes and the students were really into the idea. Since I am the new teacher, foreign and this is an ALL BOYS HIGH SCHOOL, a Korean teacher (who teaches English) will sometimes sit in on my classes to see how the students are behaving. Later in the day he told me how impressed he was with my teaching methods -- I did not even know I have a "method," so I felt very grateful that he shared his thoughts with me about the class. Now if I could only emulate the energy level and excitement "again...and again and again" (there is some "K-Pop," Korean Pop music, for you to CLICK ON & check out)! One of the key factors that helped with the flow of the class was my discipline system --Mom, thanks for your thoughts on this! It's great when everyone is learning AND having fun (the students and me!).

Now though, it's Friday night, dinner is over, my host family is at church, and I am in my room with the windows open, fan blowing, music on...*Le sigh* ...peace. of. mind.

Oh! Two awesome, 'non-classroom' things happened this week at school:

(1) I met the high school biology teacher. He seemed uncomfortable when I sat in on his class though...so that may not happen again :( ......What?  A socially awkward science teacher...? Who would have thought? As a science geek myself, I take the liberty to facetiously say that, "Yes, there are aplenty awkward science-goers out there."

(2) I met the high school music teacher! He is a little more social than the bio teacher. I came out of my first morning class today and heard singing...at first I was confused, and then I got REALLY excited!! I was running around the school with my backpack on, laptop bag, and a big accordion binder in hand desperately trying to find the music room. It was quite the scene! It suddenly occured to me though, after I found the room, that I could not just burst into the room -- as much as I wanted to do just that. Later in the day I wandered back to the room when the students were not in the room, and had a conversation about music in broken Korean and English. As it turns out, I now have a room in which to practice my horn! This is a big deal. It cost about $200 to ship my horn to Korea and it has been so hard to find a place to practice. In short, "Woohoo!" for Mr. Lee (the music teacher).

Quick update on the news from this end of the world. There was a typhoon that hit East Asia this week. In my town it was nothing more than a big summer rain storm, wind, and a touch of lighting and thunder here and there. I guess in Seoul though, some random accidents happened that killed a three people (tree limbs and electricity): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11161376
The biggest negative impact for me was not getting to see the Seoul National Orchestra -- due to the storm they were not able to come to my city's concert hall. So, my Thursday night plans with Jason and Sera (host parents) were sadly cancelled last-minute.

I have not taken a lot of photos recently, but here are some shots of the house I live in:

Apartment, 9th Floor

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My Bedroom (Bed, Closet, Desk, book shelf)

Living Room

The Kitchen (note the Three Refrigerators: 1 Regular, 2 Kimchi Refrigerator + Fruit, and 3 Random stuff)

Laundry Room

 (It has a washer and that's about it -- I dry my clothes on a rack in my room or take work clothes to the dry cleaners conveniently located next to my apartment building -I can see it from my bedroom window)

The Bidet, with heated seats and an auto-closing lid!

Well, that's my home, annnd, that's all for now :)

Have a great weekend!!

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