7 days of Quietude

Yes, I know what you're all thinking: a week off? Why aren't you travelling somewhere?

Well, I do have an explanation. And it is this: I have been in Gwangju for nearly two months now and I still don't feel like I know the place at all. So a friend and I have decided that we're going to explore for the week. Go see things that every foreigner should see in and around Gwangju while we have some spare time. If we've exhausted that avenue by the weekend, then I'll go somewhere.

And oh, what there is to see in this city.

First of all, there's the museums. We saw the National Museum on Monday. I have to say, not too interesting, since we couldn't read most of the signs and there were some pretty bare bones displays up. Although I did learn that they used to bury people in giant jars back in the day. As in you build a jar that's just big enough to lay you in up to your shoulders and then you build an even bigger jar and turn it upside down overtop to cover your head and part of the lower jar. That's what's apparently lying in the really old tombs here. It was also interesting to see all the differences between the history in Korea and what I know of the history in England. As in they had guns before the Western World, their armor was much better than the westerners, even their tools seemed to be a little ahead of the game. It was really cool.

Then there's the fact that Gwangju used to be the destination of banished revolutionaries and government opposers (is that the right word?). So there's a very long and interesting history of political uprisings centred on our fair city. It started back when the Japanese were trying to take over Korea and the Korean farmers fought off the soldiers with their hoes and shovels. The stories continue on to include the high school students' uprising in the seventies and then the Gwangju Massacre on May 18, 1980. They have a plaza near downtown called Democracy Plaza, which we found accidentally last night. It's right on the premises of the old high school that started the students' uprising against Japanese-style education. The Massacre has its own memorial just outside of town, which includes the cemetery for all the victims and participants as well as a museum to tell the story of about a month's worth of events. This city is steeped in history.

For the rest of the week, I'll probably go to the Art Museum, down to the markets, and possibly even out to a Buddhist temple on the weekend.

There's always really interesting stuff to see in the most unexpected places. Walking through the streets here you can just feel an adventure around the corner. There's so many buildings where each floor is its own unique place. If you want to go to the gym, it's on the fourth floor of the building. The third floor is a PC room, the second floor might be a jimjilbang (hot bath/spa). Restaurants are stacked on top of each other. Doctors are right above dentists which are right above daycare centres which are right above clothing stores. It's incredible the way that there's so many different things in such a small area of the city. High density doesn't even begin to describe it.

You can imagine what the traffic is like then. Road rules? Try road suggestions. Red and green lights exist here, but only as ornaments for intersections. Surprisingly, there are relatively few accidents. People use their horns here and will lean on them if they decide to fly through a red light. It only happens right after the lights have changed, but usually there's one or two cars that will get through in that five second window between the lights changing and traffic moving. It's also uncanny how well the people know their cars here. We're talking down to the millimetre. And if you're not going fast enough, the guy behind you will creep up and lean on his horn to either get you going or get you out of the way. Yet there doesn't seem to be a lot of road rage. I put it down to the fact that you're driving like a maniac so all the tension gets let out there. I'm in awe every time I get in a cab.

So I think that there's enough here to entertain me without me having to go on a trip. Even if I just end up riding around the city on a bus.

I hope that everything's going well for you at home. Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kids Do the Darnedest Things

So this is going to be a short post. I just had a few things that happened in class over the past couple of days that I couldn't help sharing with you. Every day, I realize more and more that kids are the same no matter where you go.

Jack: This little boy is about 5 years old and literally about 3 feet tall. When I first started, he was a bit of a hellion, always trying to get my attention on him by hitting someone, including me, and resorting to anything from kicking me to pulling my hair to biting me. One of the other teachers was having the same problem with him and punished him for it and since then, he's been a model student. He lights up when I give him stickers and he's been trying to keep teacher happy ever since the day that he got in trouble. But that's not the story. The story is actually something that plays out pretty much the same no matter what country you teach in.

When I need to go photocopy workbook pages for my kids, I always tell the class to be quiet 'and if I can hear you down the hall in the copy room, you'll all be in trouble!'. Now, as soon as I close the door on the classroom, I can hear them getting out of their chairs to go visit with their friends for the ten seconds I'm gone. The best part is coming back into the room and seeing them all scrambling to get back in place before I see what they've been doing. Jack's class has even resorted to having a designated scout to warn the class when I'm coming back. Now, I know this, and it's become a bit of a game for me to sneak back down the hall and open the door before the kids see me coming. On Tuesday, as I threw open the door, I see kids flying all over the room to get back in their seats. Jack had to run from the front of the room all the way around the table to get back to his chair and, just as I closed the door on entering, he threw himself at the chair. And missed. His little head disappeared beneath the table and, when I looked under to see if he was ok, his two little hands slammed down on the table and he re-appeared...with the loudest, hardest laugh I've ever heard.

Peter: Peter is a little older than Jack, but tends to get in trouble quite a bit too. He's in a class with three other kids and he gets a little behind sometimes. Since the class is so small, the kids treat each other like siblings and it makes for some really funny antics. I have a game I play with the kids whenever they need to get a different book out to continue with the lesson. I tell them which book they need and start counting down from 5. Usually, two of Peter's classmates can deftly swing into their bags, pull out their books and be on the right page within the five seconds, but somehow Peter's book always gets stuck. I'll be at 2 and Peter will start asking me questions: "How are you, teacher?" "Teacher, you're so pretty!" "Teacher, how is your day today?" He thinks it'll distract me from counting.

David: By far, the kid who tries the HARDEST out of all of my classes. David is 11 and made the mistake of not listening to me during my first week of classes and hasn't strayed since. He gets bullied a lot from one of the other kids in the class and today was no exception. I had a talk with all of the kids about what bullying can do and how much it hurts the person being bullied. That, of course, set a bit of a dark tone over the class, so after the kids finished their reading I decided to have a free conversation with them. It turned into a conversation about two of Korea's most popular music groups: The Wondergirls, who sing "Nobody" -- an incredibly catchy and annoying tune, and Bang Bang, who seem to be a pop-rap group that throws random English lyrics into their songs. When I asked the boys what their favorite song was, David asked if he could sing me a bit of one of Bang Bang's songs. I figured, 'hey, why not?' and let him have a go. Well, it turned into a full-on music spectacle: all eight of my 11 year old boys stood up with him and sang the chorus, including the dance moves. Oh yes, they knew the entire song word for word and when they didn't, David filled in the holes. He felt better by the end of class, that's for sure.

I'm sure that there will be more funny stories about my kids before the year is through. I've only been here for a month and already I feel like all of my kids are my own. They're so great! I'm lucky that I ended up with such a great school.

Seoul, Golbi, and Shabu Shabu

Well, so much for updating this thing once every two weeks. This is what happens when I don't have internet in my house. But, now that it's here, I'll try and be a little more faithful. Try being the key word.

What's happened in a month, you ask? Quite a bit.

The first weekend I was actually on my own here, some friends and I went hiking up Mudeung Mountain, which is just a city bus ride away. The nice thing about living in a valley is there's lots of mountains to hike within 45 minutes of us. It was incredibly steep but definitely worth the view. Korean trails are not very user-friendly: there's always hundreds of people climbing a day, there's stone steps built into the mountain face since the mountain is so steep, and the climb down is treacherous, but fun. Liz and I were having such an awkward time getting down that one of the locals told us we should get climbing poles...as he literally ran down the mountain past us. I don't even want to say how old he was. Point of interest: Koreans usually hike with a radio at full blast in their hand right up against their ear. Multiply that by 100 and you have the sound of climbing a mountain in this country. Not quite as peaceful as I was expecting, but a great experience nonetheless.

My next weekend was pretty great. A group of us took the high speed train up to Seoul (it was only a three hour journey). We had a table for the four of us and it was cheaper than individual seats...which worked out to also be cheaper than the four hour bus. Plus, everything here runs on time. I love it. When we got to Seoul, we spent most of the day hunting down a place to stay. Here's a story for you: ever heard of a love motel?

Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. And yes we did stay at one. Was it cheaper than a hostel? Yes. Were the rooms clean? Yes they were. Did we get the usual hotel amenities (linens, soap, etc)? You bet. Ten bucks each for one room. Central to downtown. Fan-freaking-tastic.

That night, we took a boat cruise down the Hahn river which runs right through the middle of Seoul. It was a little chilly but the view was great. I got a lot of really cool pictures. After we got off the boat we inadvertently ended up in Seoul's Olympic Park. Nothing much to see anymore, but the complex is huge. The next day, Liz took me shopping at the underground mall here. It was like a street market underground and you're literally surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of full-to-the-gunnel stores. Needless to say, we bought a lot of stuff.


Other than that, I've been spending some quality time with my friends sampling the local food. We usually eat out once or twice a week, which is pretty easy since the food here is so cheap. Here's a breakdown of it for those of you who haven't heard:


Kimbap: Pretty much a sushi, but without the fish. It's the best fast food money can buy and full of goodness. Rice, seaweed, chicken or tuna salad and vegetables rolled into kimbap goodness and a bowl of soup in case you're cold. One roll of this stuff gives you 10 pieces...for $2.


Pig Spine Soup: No, I'm not joking. It really is what it sounds like. You sit at a low table (as in you sit on the floor) and the food comes as a spicy broth with two pig vertebrae in it. Plus, you get a big bowl, some kimchi, vegetables, and rice. You take the meat off the bones, throw the bones away, and toss whatever you want into the soup. At this point, it basically looks like your regular beef soup, or pork in this case. Spicy, cheap and delicious. $4 a bowl.



Golbi: Korean barbecue. As you can see from the picture, you get a ton of stuff with your meal. You sit at a low table with a stove in the middle. The meat is raw on a refrigerated buffet and you can pick whatever kind you want (beef, duck, or fatty, fatty bacon). The waitress lights your stove, brings your green onion, garlic, mushrooms, spicy sauce, and kimchi and leaves the rest to you. You get a pair of tongs and a pair of scissors and away you go. Grab a giant lettuce leaf and fill it tortilla style, wrap it up, and shove it all in your mouth at once. So so good. $9 a person.


Shabu Shabu: Same as golbi, only soup style. Same kind of table, same deal. The waitress brings the raw food and you do the cooking. This time, though, you start with a spicy broth in a pot on your stove. You can pick a beef or seafood style shabu and there's an order you cook things in. Start with the broth, add the vegetables, then the meat. That's course one. To the leftover broth, you add the noodles; that's course two. Then the waitress will take your pot and throw rice, seaweed, raw egg, and spices into the pot and make you some fried rice in your broth leftovers. MMMMMMM. More expensive, at $10-12 per person.


And now, for the part of the story about my job. My kids are so great. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I teach older kids who typically are pretty on the ball about their English. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a bit more challenging, only because the kids tend to be younger (about kindy age). However, what they lack in attention span they make up for in cuteness. In fact, some of my kids, since finding out that you say "Merry Christmas" to people, made the connection that my name sounds like merry. There is now a group of children who greet me with "Marion Christmas!" every time I see them in the hall. By the way, I've already figured out the secret to keeping kids on task: stickers. They will literally do anything for them. And they love it when they get to teach me something too. My kindy kids love to tell me what things are in Korean. Most of one class today, I actually spent asking them what different Christmas words were in Korean. They love it. So, I get paid to hang out with some pretty great kids, hear their stories, and teach them a few things. Plus I only work from 2 to 7 (that's PM). My job rocks.