Weekend update

Life has been extremely busy for me. My teaching load is up, which I really like, but that means that I no longer have my mornings free, and I'm frequently at the school until 8 PM. Still, I can't believe how quickly the time flies by. I'm getting over a nasty cold, so I get tired really easily these days, too.

This weekend was interesting. On Saturday, I met Kathy, my roommate from Wesley Mission School, in a city called Suwon. Suwon has an excellent fortress that is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. We visited the palace and then took a dragon trolley (see the photo below) around the fortress wall. I'm hoping to go back sometime and walk the perimeter of the fortress (5.2 km).

The palace:
The dragon trolley:In honor of my dad, my life-long teacher of Fort Appreciation 101, I present Hwaseong Fortress.I took the day off from my usual responsibilities at the church on Sunday and spent the day at a youth festival in Seoul. I helped at a tent that had displays and activities to educate middle school kids about North Korean refugees living in South Korea. I got to meet some university students who came to South Korea from North Korea a few years ago. They didn't speak much English, and we were pretty busy, so I didn't really have a chance to talk with them, which was a little disappointing.

The tent I worked in had maps displayed on tables showing the routes that refugees take from North Korea. Since they can't cross the DMZ, they go north from North Korea into China. From there, some go to Mongolia and then to South Korea. Others cross China and get to Thailand, which offers them some assistance in getting to South Korea. Still others cross China to Vietnam, travel through Vietnam to Cambodia, and then go to SK from Cambodia. A few get assistance from embassies or human rights groups in Beijing. The entire time they're in China, they're illegal and have to be careful not to be caught or they'll be returned to North Korea. The whole journey takes about two years. It's an incredibly long trip. Many times, they have to work illegally in order to earn money to continue traveling. They usually don't speak the language of the countries they're traveling through. I can't even begin to imagine it.

When the kids came to our tent, they were given 100 dominoes. They had to stand the dominoes up on the map along the refugees' route. They had 5 minutes and had to use all 100 dominoes. Since the maps were relatively small, in order to use all the dominoes, they had to take a circuitous route, not unlike that of many refugees. If they knocked any dominoes over while setting them up, it symbolized setbacks or even the return of themselves or friends or family members to North Korea. Once all the dominoes were standing up along the route, they would knock the first one over. If the dominoes didn't collapse along the whole route, it meant that they didn't make it to South Korea and were stuck somewhere else. The kids just had fun playing with the dominoes, but I thought the effect was pretty gripping. Here are a couple photos. The weird blue tint is due to being under a blue tent on a really sunny day.

Happy Halloween!

We had a mini Halloween party at school on Monday and Tuesday. The kids sort of know about Halloween. It's not celebrated here, except in English classes, but most of the kids have at least heard about it. The kindergartners and preschoolers made paper masks and jack-o-lanterns and then went trick-or-treating from classroom to classroom. Everyone was happy. What's not to like about free candy? It's amazing how quickly even the really quiet kids learned to say "trick or treat." Maybe I need to bribe them with candy everyday. On the other hand, small children with a sugar high is something I could do without. Maybe I'll bribe them but not give them the candy until just before I return them to their mothers. Now, there's an idea!

Palace Tour

It has been another busy week here. We write progress reports for each student every month, and this was the week that they were due. I have 33 students, excluding my adult class, and I write a good paragraph for each student. It's a lot of writing, but it's really good for me to spend that time thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the kids I work with. It helps me to tailor my lessons for the coming month to meet individual needs.

Today a friend and I went to Changdeokgung ("gung" means "palace") in Seoul. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a crisp fall day here, and the palace grounds were beautiful. The battery didn't last long on my camera, so I was only able to take a couple pictures. There is an exquisite garden behind the palace, but our tickets didn't include the tour to see it, so we'll have to do that another time.

Mmmmm . . . samgyeopsal and kimchi

It's my birthday! In Korea, the birthday girl/boy treats, so I took my friends Joy and Catherine our for dinner. We ate sam-gyeop-sal, which is really fatty (and therefore good) pork that's cooked right on your table. You take a piece of meat, and dip it in a sauce. Then you put that on a lettuce leaf and add grilled garlic and kimchi and stick the whole thing in your mouth. It's good stuff!

Here's Joy cutting the kimchi with scissors:


And here we are waiting for the food to cook so we can eat! Don't you like how the guy in the poster behind me looks like he's toasting us?

It was a good day. My princesses brought a cake to school for me. They all helped me blow out the candles. Then we ate birthday cake out of paper cups with chop sticks. No one here understands why I think that's a funny way to eat cake. Here are some very cute (and silly) princesses:

Penpal Project and Cute Kindergartners

We recently started a penpal project with the second graders at Galena Primary School in Illinois. Here are my students proudly showing off the first letter they received from their American penpals. They were so excited. They especially liked getting the pictures. They can't wait to write their next letter, but mean "Ellen-teacher" is making them wait two whole weeks since we have other things we have to cover in class, too.

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And here are my kindergartners proudly showing off the last page of their textbooks. You can't tell from the picture, but it's a certificate showing that they've completed the level. They are so proud of themselves! Our new book is entitled Intensive Reading. What a title for these little munchkins!I don't remember what was so funny in the second picture, but I like the result. That's the class from which the "fat pig" comment came. They're always entertaining.

Air Raid Siren and a Field Trip to the Zoo

At about 2 PM, a really loud siren sounded throughout the city. All traffic stopped. People outside stood still and stared. I was inside at the time, looking out the window for some sign of danger. "What's that?!" I asked my friend.

"Air raid, Ellen. No problem, no problem," she replied as she went about her work.

"AIR RAID?!"

"Yes, no problem."

"NO PROBLEM?!"

"Yes, yes. No problem. Test."

I breathed a big sigh of relief. It's amazing what a difference that little word "test" made in that conversation. The whole drill lasted about 10 minutes and then there was another siren signaling that it was over. Apparently, in some parts of Seoul, people saw military jets and helicopters overhead. The Korean government has air raid drills scheduled for the 15th (or thereabouts) of every month, but most of the time, they skip them. I hadn't heard one since I've been here. Apparently they put special flags out to let people know that they will be conducting the test. I didn't notice them today. I guess with all the news from North Korea this week, they decided it was a good time to start up again.

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On Saturday, we took the first grade class on a field trip to the zoo. I don't generally teach that class, but their teacher didn't want to go, so I was asked to chaperone.

They had a worksheet paper divided into six different sections with the headings: eating, sleeping, swimming, flying, running, and playing. They had to make a list of what animals were doing what activity. Here are some students reporting that the flamingoes are sleeping:
When we arrived at the elephant habitat, one of the elephants was picking up dust and dropping it on its back. One of the students looked puzzled and then shouted, "ELEPHANT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The elephant declined to comment.

It was a good day at the zoo. Everyone had fun, and it was great for the kids to use English outside of the classroom. Here are a few more pictures.

"Ellen-teacher" helping a student with his worksheet:
Here's the third photo from our zoo field trip. This is the first grade class, minus five students and plus three teachers and two little sisters. Note that I didn't get the memo about wearing a red hat. I have one, too!
Finally, here's one for the youth group and Janis!

North Korean Nuclear Test

I've received a few email messages asking how people here are responding to the North Korean nuclear test. It's a little surprising to me that the majority of South Koreans I know are unconcerned. More or less, they don't worry about North Korea. One friend explained to me that people in South Korea have lived with the threat of North Korea for so long that worrying about it would simply paralyze them. I asked a couple Korean friends what they think about the nuclear test. One hadn't heard about it and didn't have an opinion. The other said it was a little scary but not enough to make her do anything differently.

The expats I know seem more concerned. The Korean stock market fell yesterday, immediately after news of the test was released, and the won, which had been quite strong, dropped against the U.S. dollar. Some people ran to the bank and sent their money home before it goes lower, but that's the most drastic action I've heard anyone take.

Here's the statement the U.S. Embassy in Seoul sent out to the American expat community:

"On Monday, October 9, U.S. and South Korean intelligence services detected a seismic event at a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea. North Korea has claimed it conducted an underground nuclear test, but these reports are unconfirmed. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is monitoring the situation closely and has been in continuous contact with South Korean government officials. As of the evening of October 9, the Embassy has received no information from South Korean officials or any other source indicating that there are health dangers that pose a risk to any areas in South Korea. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul continues to operate normally and to provide services to the public during regular business hours. In the event of any type of emergency, the Embassy will notify the American community immediately."

More Crowds

I headed to the palaces today, only to find that EVERYONE else in Seoul also thought that would be a good thing to do today. I took a look at the lines to get tickets and decided I'd come back another day, but first I snapped a couple pictures.

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The main entrance to Gyeongbokgung, the largest palace in Seoul

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Standing in the main entrance of Gyeongbokgung and looking at the crowds in front of the secondary entrance. This is as far as I could go without a ticket.After deciding to forego the palaces, I stopped by a Buddhist temple called Jogyesa on my way back to the subway station. The main hall was quite crowded, but I think that's because only half of it was open due to renovations. The temple grounds were pretty quiet and a nice reprieve from the busy-ness of everything else. Here are some photos.

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The main hall

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Where you leave your shoes when you enter the main hall

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A detail of the beautifully decorated exterior walls of the main hall

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This lacebark pine tree at the side of the temple is over 520 years old! These trees are native to northern China, but there are a few of them in Korea. The largest, and therefore oldest since they are very slow-growing trees, are designated as national monuments, including this one.

추석 잘 보내세요 ("Chuseok Jalbonaeseyo" or "Happy Chuseok")

Today is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving. It's the second most important holiday of the year in Korea, the first being Lunar New Year. If your computer can read Korean, you're in luck and can see the title of this post. Otherwise, you probably just see a bunch of squares.

Since it's a big holiday, almost everything was closed today . . . and yesterday and will be tomorrow. However, I read on the Korean National Tourism Organization website that a few tourist destinations would be open today. Feeling much better and wanting to resurrect some of my vacation, I hopped on the subway and rode the 6 or so stops south to the city of Suwon, where I got on a bus headed for the Korean Folk Village which is a huge outdoor museum of traditional Korean life. It was an interesting way to spend the day. Though there was more to see, I left after three hours since battling the crowds was draining my energy quickly. Unfortunately, my camera battery died after the first hour, but I did manage to get a few snapshots.

In case you can't read the sign, it says "Beware of Donkey." He looks like a menacing beast, doesn't he?I have no idea what the sign says.These are kimchi pots with peppers drying in the sun. It was really warm today--around 80°F--so I imagine they dried pretty well.Here is an awesome totem-pole-esque statue. They also had some excellent wooden carvings, but my camera battery died before I got to them. I took a picture of the wooden carvings with my film camera, but it will be a while before I have the film developed.A rice field with a scarecrow wearing a "hanbok" or traditional Korean dress:I have two more days left in my vacation, and I'm not going to let them go to waste. Tomorrow is still part of the Chuseok holiday, so lots of things will be closed again. However, the palaces are open, so I may visit them. There is also a nice lake near Seoul that I've been wanting to investigate. Vacation, here I come! 추석 잘 보내세요! ('Chuseok jalbonaeseyo!")

More snapshots of my very small apartment

The "living room" (Youth group members, notice the photo on top of the television.)

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The closet, "desk" and "kitchen", as seen from the far wall of the apartment.

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The bathroom. There was no good angle to take a picture of my little bathroom. The mirror makes the bathroom look twice as big as it is. Don't be fooled. It's tiny. See the reflection of the showerhead on the wall? Right under that is where they wanted to put a washing machine. Ha!

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My "dresser" behind my bed, with annotations. It's actually not a dresser but the cabinet for the air conditioner. Don't see your photo? Then send one to me!

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And that, my friends, concludes the photo tour of my tiny apartment. It measures 5 meters (from the door to the window) by 3.5 meters (wall to wall). That's 188.4 square feet. That includes the bathroom and closets. I'm not complaining. I like it.

Where I've been the past five days

Home, sweet home (away from home, that is). This is my little apartment. It's small, but I like it! Since I was cooped up here for four entire days with a nasty stomach bug, I thought I'd post a picture. I'm glad to report that as of yesterday, I'm feeling better. I still have a headache, and I feel completely drained of energy, but I'm definitely noticing an improvement now that my intestines have given up their protest of whatever bug I caught. Speaking of which, my bathroom was immediately to my right when I took this picture. That's my "kitchen" to the left. I was standing with my back against the door.

A Seriously Unhappy Non-Camper

I'm supposed to leave first thing in the morning for my big hiking trip across a national park in the southern part of the country. I've been looking forward to this for weeks. My friends here are all tired of hearing me talk about it, but guess what . . . I'm sick! I woke up at 2 AM on Saturday with yucky flu-like symptoms that have only managed to get worse this weekend. I am not at all happy. I haven't been able to eat, and even taking the trash out required too much energy, so I know there is no way I'll be up for anything strenuous in two days. I can't even begin to say how disappointed I am. More later. I'm going to go back to bed to sulk for a while longer.

A Lot of Peppers

These are hot peppers laying out in the sun to dry in the yard in front of the monks' quarters at a Buddhist temple in Seoul.
I am officially on vacation until October 9th! Next week is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the most important holidays. I'm going on a backpacking trip with some other expats across a mountain ridge in the southern part of the country. I'm really excited, especially since I've never been that far south in Korea. On Tuesday, we're going rafting, something I've never done before, and Wednesday through Friday, we're hiking along the mountain ridge and staying overnight at national park shelters. I expect to have lots to say and lots of photos to share when I return next weekend.

Field Trips!

Yesterday and today were field trip days for the kindergarten and first grade classes. We went to a very nice woodland park at the base of the mountain nearby. The weather was beautiful for playing games, singing songs, and generally just enjoying ourselves outdoors.

Long Overdue Update, Mea Culpa

I've been fighting off a cold for the past few weeks. It triggered my asthma just enough to be annoying. I haven't been able to keep up my regular hiking/jogging routine, so I'm a little nervous about my big hiking trip across one of Korea's national parks in a couple weeks. Until this cold set in, I would head out for a hike/walk/jog for a couple hours everyday. I'm still getting out and walking around, just nothing strenuous. I'm planning to take it easy this weekend and am hoping to be back on the trails on Monday. We'll see if my lungs agree.

My classes are going well for the most part. I have my princesses on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two kindergarten class, one preschool class, and one advanced elementary class (2nd graders). I teach a mothers' class for two hours every Thursday morning, and I tutor a very proficient elementary school student (5th grader) on Wednesday evenings. Next week, I'll start teaching another preschool class on Friday evenings. I'm staying pretty busy, but I like it that way.

This past Tuesday, my lesson in kindergarten was "big, bigger, the biggest." One of my very sharp little girls, who is also a little sassy and bossy, made the astute observation that she is bigger than Christina. The she went on to say that "Ellen-teacher is the biggest."

"Yes, you're right," I said, but I wasn't going to pursue it since I don't like the idea of comparing people's bodies.

Even without encouragement, that led a little boy in the class to come up with "Ellen-teacher is fat." And then the first little girl added "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig." That resulted in explosions of laughter from the rest of the class, and then everyone was chanting "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig."

I tried to reestablish order, but it was futile, so I called the school director to handle the situation. He chewed them out in English while the school's receptionist translated and added her own chewing out in Korean. By the end of the day, I had received phone calls from three mortified and apologetic mothers. Today each student said "I'm sorry" to me on the way into the classroom, and the little boy who came up with "Ellen-teacher is fat" handed me a note: "Allan i'm soli. Allan teacher. Pig is talking and laughing is i'm soli."

That whole class was exceptionally good today. I think we're friends again. I made a point to tell their mothers at the end of class how good they were. The mothers all laughed. I wonder what exactly they threatened/bribed the kids with this afternoon. Whatever it was, it worked. I was never upset about the incident. I knew I couldn't just let it go, but I actually thought it was kind of funny. I was even a little impressed. At least they had good subject-verb agreement, put the adjective in the right place, and pronounced everything correctly.

Here are three of my students showing off their artwork. These kids are from the "fat pig" class. Two of them are the instigators. They've been angels ever since that incident, by the way.My princesses have been standing on their chairs lately. I've tried all sorts of things to get them to stop, including taking away the chairs entirely. Most of them have stopped now, but on Wednesday, I had to mention something to the mother of one of the repeat offenders. The mother pulled the little princess aside before class and had a very calm conversation with her about acceptable classroom behavior. Said princess was so mad at me for ratting her out to her mom that she refused to come into the classroom and spent the afternoon pouting in the hallway on her own accord. Okay, kiddo, suit yourself. I thought that was pretty funny, but I hope she's over it before class tomorrow.

People don’t drink the tap water here. Most people either buy bottled water or fill up bottles at artesian wells along the mountains. For the past several weeks, I've been filling up a couple bottles when I'm out hiking. The city governments maintain the wells and test the water quality regularly, so it's safe.
Last week, I was filling up my bottles when this old man with a cane walked over to me. He stood about 2 meters away and just started yelling and shaking his finger at me. He kept pointing at my feet. I think he was upset because my foot was just a hair over the grate and drain, not that that would make any real difference anyway, since the water that drains off does not reenter the clean water source. "I don't understand," I told him in Korean. He kept yelling, shaking his finger, and pointing at my feet. "I don't speak Korean," I said in Korean. More yelling. So I stood up and told him "thank you" and "good-bye" in Korean and walked away. As I left, I realized I missed a great opportunity to use my three different phrases that mean "Be quiet!"

I went back to the well this week, and the same man was sitting there on a bench. I bowed, said "hello" in Korean, and proceeded to fill up my water bottles. He just sat there and glared. I need to go back tomorrow. I wonder if he'll be there.

Presenting . . . the Princesses!

I’ve decided to name one of the princesses Nancy. The other little girl I was supposed to name decided that she wanted to be called "Aurora" since that's Sleeping Beauty's real name. It lasted about three days. Now she prefers her Korean name, which is just fine with me. It is my honor to introduce the world to . . . the Princesses!

Sunday School

Here are my Sunday School kids. A couple of them got out the door before I took the picture this morning. You can click on the picture to make it larger.

Way to Go, September!

Sunrise, as seen from my 11th floor apartment, 6:13 AM.

Click on the photo to make it larger. Wow, September!

A Visit from a Cousin and Observations on Public Transportation

Well, September, you've really outdone yourself. Just keep up this beautiful weather for the next 29 days, and I'll be one very happy English teacher. Wait a second, I am one very happy English teacher! Well, just continue it anyway.

Tonight I had dinner with my cousin (I guess that's what's he is) Ian Gillies who has been here in Korea for the past two weeks training with the Army Reserves. I met him near the big army post in Seoul, and we went out for "bulgogi," a type of Korean barbecue. Excellent food, and it was fun to visit with him. I think the only other time I met him was at my grandfather's funeral about a year ago. We have plenty of family members in common to talk about, though. I wonder if any ears were ringing.

Someone told me that bus drivers in Korea are paid according to the number of circuits they make during their shift. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it does explain why they drive as fast as they can until the last possible second before stopping for the shortest possible amount of time before taking off at rocket speed once again. Sometimes the buses don't stop at all the stops. If someone isn't flagging the bus down at the bus stop and if someone inside the bus didn't push the button to signal the driver, the bus just keeps going, so you have to pay attention or you'll miss your bus or your stop. If you're one of the last people on the bus at a stop, you can bet that the bus will be at least to the next block before you've had a chance to find something to hold onto, let alone actually find a seat.

I was riding the bus earlier this week and thinking about this. There were so seats available, so I stood toward the front, holding onto a pole for dear life, while the driver went as fast as he could for a block and a half, then slammed on the breaks at the bus stop, and then repeated the pattern. At one point, I looked at the dashboard and realized that through all this speeding and stopping, speeding and stopping, the speedometer held at a constant 30 km/hr.

The next day I was standing at a crosswalk. When the light turned green, I hesitated for a second. Just then a bus barreled through the red light. Had I been in the crosswalk, I'm quite certain that all my theological questions would have been answered that day. I can hear Dad's voice saying "Look both ways before crossing the street" echoing in my head. I'm not going to need another reminder about that one.

The rest of the week went pretty well. I had a new girl join the princess class, and I started a new kindergarten class with three little boys. My advanced elementary class is a lot of fun. There are two 8-year-old students who are quite proficient, so there's a lot I can do with them. It's a big change from colors, numbers, and ABCs in kindergarten! I also sat in on a mothers' class which I'll start teaching next week. I’m still thinking about names for the two little girls.

I received a postcard from Uncle Dick Gillies from the Panama Canal. We now have Halifax (Canada) and the Panama Canal marked on our postcard map at school. The kids love it. We’re going to start a pen pal project soon, too.

No big outings this weekend. I really need to spend some time on my lesson plans, so I'm just going to stick around home tomorrow and get together with a friend for lunch. Then I'll have the usual church responsibilities on Sunday and probably come home and finish my lesson plans after that. Not every weekend can be an adventure, right?