Thank you so much everyone for my birthday wishes via facebook. You guys are so great and I can not tell you how good it feels to get so many wishes and know that this love is coming from half way around the world.
With that being said, let me just tell you a little bit about how my birthday went.
Every month, we have a birthday party for the kinder students. It's a big deal and a lot goes on. Every student who has a birthday in that month dresses up in a hanbok which is a Korean traditional dress worn for special occasions. They are then paraded in and are required to deliver a speech in English and Korean no matter their age. They are required to memorize it and then give it in front of all of the kinder teachers, all their peers, and sometimes even the director of the school. I am sure it can be quite stressful for such young kids, but it's required from our school none the less. Well, I thought I would be fun and buy a hanbok (I really wanted one anyways) and then wear it to the April birthday party. I then decided I would also give a speech and even got a Korean teacher to translate it in to Korean for me to give as well. So on the day, I started with the English speech and at the end everyone clapped and assumed I was finished. I then went on to give it is Korean. I did not memorize the Korean because I am just not that good, but I will tell you that all of the kids and some of the teachers were pretty impressed anyways. I have been tricking the kids since they have gotten here telling them I know Korean and even try to add an occasional yes or uh huh (of course, in Korean) so they believe I know what they are saying. So when I gave this speech in Korean I think it really validated for the students my ability. hahaha. Too bad even after being here for 9 months I still can't speak or understand much Korean- but they don't have to know that!
So that weekend, a couple days before my birthday, 11 of us headed to Jirisan National Park. I had read and heard great things about this national park and the boys had talked the girls into hiking. They made it sound enticing by telling us we would be hiking the highest mountain on mainland Korea and how sweet it would be to say we hiked it. Agreeing, we all packed our bags, as light as possible, carrying only food, water and a toothbrush. This can add up fast none the less. So the 11 of us began the straight up journey up the mountain not realizing that the boys decided we should take the steepest and most difficult route since it was the shortest. Let's just say I stayed with the back of the pack and tried to enjoy the hike up as best as I could. My legs were already sore and tight from running a long distance the day before (stupidity right there) and let's just say the hike up wasn't helping them. However, after several hours of hiking, we made it to our shelter. Our shelter was about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, which I was thankful for because I didn't want to hike any further. I was exhausted. The girls sat and ate a snack while the boys continued up the mountain to the peak. We checked out the shelter, the nearby temple, laid out in the sun and just kinda enjoyed the amazing view and talked until the boys got back about 2 and a half hours later. We all talked for awhile before eating dinner and then going inside the shelter and passing out. Mandatory lights out was at 8pm and most of us fell asleep on the hard floor of the shelter as soon as the lights were out. The boys stayed up longer and decided that night they weren't going back up to the peak the next morning, but the girls figured we had made it this far and that we wanted to see the top. So we woke up the next morning before the sun and hiked a little bit to the temple close to our shelter to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely beautiful and definitely worth getting up for. When you go to bed at 8pm, 4:30am doesn't seem all that early. Jake decided to get up as well and hike with the girls to the top rounding the group off with Devon, Caroline, Mickey and me. It was about a 2 hour hike straight up, in which we had to climb up boulders sometimes going on all 4s and sometimes there was a rope to help. It definitely was a huge challenge but the view from the top was spectacular. At the top of the highest mountain on mainland Korea we stood 1915 meters or 6,283 feet tall. It was breathtaking! We took pictures not only because it was so incredible, but also for proof I think. :) I have never done anything like this before. We stayed at the top for awhile before going back down to the shelter to meet the rest of the group and eat breakfast. Breakfast consisted of kimbop (seaweed wrapped around rice and vegetable- similar to sushi), trail mix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, power bars, and cold coffee for some. (the shelter didn't have hot water) We got cold water to fill our water bottles from literally a hole in a rock which was pretty neat! After breakfast, we hiked down the mountain. It was a million times easier than going up on the thighs, but equally as challenging on the calves. Not to mention the steepness was nuts and the fear of slipping was always on our mind since rocks and roots and gravel moved under our feet. None the less, Devon and I who were some of the slowest the day before hiking up, ended up leading the pack on the way down. We were pretty proud! The Jirisan experience was AWESOME and I am definitely glad I went, but I won't be doing something that high, that fast, or that steep for awhile. :) It was a great way to celebrate my birthday though and something I will always remember.
The night of my actual birthday Jason, Erica, Caroline and I went out for dinner at a restaurant I really like that serves duck. It's delicious. Erica told them it was my birthday and they asked me how old I was and brought me out a big, nice cake!! Not just a piece, but the whole thing! We sang at the restaurant but then took the cake with us to another place where we went for a drink. Some of the middle school teachers joined us at this point and we sang again and ate the cake. It was delicious! We headed home around midnight which is way past my bedtime (sadly enough), but I had lots of fun!
My 23rd birthday was a blast and to spend it in Korea was lots of fun. Thanks again for all the love on facebook and via skype. I LOVE you all and miss you tons and tons too!!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The months are flying by!!
This past month has come and gone so quickly. I can not believe it is already the end of April. I turn 23 in a week!!!! AHHH!! However, this does make me closer to my Korean age. Since January, I have been considered 24 here, although I am only 22. It was weird to gain 2 years in the blink of an eye. I remind the Korean teachers on a regular basis that if they ever move to the US they will lose at least a year, if not two. All the teachers here get pretty excited about this because they are all in their mid to late twenties for the most part and the stress to find a boyfriend and get married is high. In Korea, they believe you have to get married before you are 30, otherwise something is wrong with you and it makes it even harder to find a guy who will marry you because you are “old”. How crazy is that?! Although I feel like some people in America think the same thing, I don’t think people stress about it as much. I am surprised there aren’t more people with ulcers here.
So, with that being said, Ashley, one of the Korean teachers, got married this weekend. Almost everyone from ECC went. She looked beautiful and her dress was gorgeous! Her wedding was much like Lupina’s wedding I wrote about a couple months ago so I won’t say too much. We took pictures with her before she walked down the aisle, then watched as she got married and took a HUGE group photo at the end with all of her family and friends that attended. As part of her ceremony, she and her new husband were wheeled out their wedding cake and they cut it together. Lupina didn’t have a cake at her wedding so that was kind of neat and foreign to see. Their receptions here consist of only eating so I guess the cutting of the cake had to be in the ceremony if she wanted it at all. The food at her reception was a HUGE buffet with just about everything. It was delicious!
After we stuffed ourselves some of us decided we wanted to go “thrifting”. We just recently found a thrift store super close to our apartments and have since been there a couple times. I of course found some good finds, as did everyone else. We took 2 Korean teachers with us too. They both had never been before so that was fun.
After “thrifting” for an hour or so, a bunch of the foreign teachers and the 2 Korean teachers all met up to go to a baseball game together. I don’t know why we didn’t go to any last year because they were still going on when we first got here, but we decided this year we would go to at least a couple. Last year the Gwangju team, the “Kia Tigers” were really good and won the Korean equivalent to the World Series. This year they are not doing as well and are currently in 4th or 5th. The game we went to they lost 13 to 4. It was still a lot of fun though. The baseball scene here in Korea is much different than in the US. You can’t buy tickets for a certain seat or section so the earlier you come, the better the seats you get. Let’s just say after a lot of shenanigans, we ended up walking in to a packed stadium and the 10 of us were not able to find seats together and had to split up. Caroline, Erica, Jason, and I all sat in a different section than everyone else, but it turned out to be fine. Let me take a step back though. When you first get to the stadium, there are “ahgimas” or old ladies who all have tents setup. They are selling beer, soju, and fried chicken. You buy what you want before going into the stadium. They are all calling for you to come to their stand and buy enough refreshments for the game. Once you are loaded up, you go in and find anywhere to sit. There are also concessions inside too but they DO NOT sell HOTDOGS! What is a baseball game without a hotdog!! OR PEANUTS! They sell stuff like random chips, snack boxes, and RAMEN! Yep, they sell Ramen at a baseball game and even have a hot water station where you can fill it up. Also, instead of the peanut or cotton candy or drink vendors walking around, they have people walking around selling dry squid! Quite different I think. The game was fun but we kept waiting for the 7th inning stretch and the big screen guessing games they always play and the YMCA to be done, but we were sadly disappointed. Oh well. It was still loads of fun! After the game boys versus girls split up and “raced” in opposite directions to find the first cab to take us downtown. Girls won the race- OF COURSE!!! Then we ate an Italian place that kids often have their birthday parties and had some great pizza, pasta, salad, and rolls. After dinner we went home and passed out! ☺
Two weeks ago, a group of us went to Jinhae. This is a city known for its Cherry Blossom trees. It has a huge festival every year and millions of people go to see the several hundred trees bloomed and beautiful. It’s just a guessing game as to when the blossoms will be perfect and out, and not unopened or even on the ground because these trees don’t stay bloomed for long. We didn’t do too bad at this game and managed to see several trees bloomed. These were the trees along the road and in the city. However, the trees along the mountains were not bloomed which would have been beautiful to see, but oh well I guess. We enjoyed our time in Jinhae anyways. We spent the day taking many pictures, hiking, looking at random things being sold in tents, and hanging out on the lawn in the middle of a roundabout enjoying the scenery and change from Gwangju. It was only an hour or 2 away it made for a great day trip. You should check out the pictures on facebook.
The weekend after that one, several teachers went back to Jinhae to see it when everything was fully bloomed, and they said it was spectacular. Caroline and I didn’t get to go because we got scheduled to teach the Saturday classes that weekend. Each of the foreign teachers get their names pulled out of a hat and then signed up accordingly to teach middle and high schoolers on a Saturday for 3 hours. I really don’t think I could think of too much here that I would hate more. I don’t even know the kids. I don’t have any clue about the material. I don’t like middle schoolers. They don’t want their weekend wasted just as much as I don’t want mine to be either. Plus, often students don’t show up so whoever is forced to “teach” that day is required to stay for 2 hours before getting to leave if no students come, essentially missing out on fun activities for literally NOTHING! That’s exactly what happened to me. Caroline had 3 students show up for her first hour and a half block and they had already been taught the lesson a couple weeks before that she was told to do with them and then one student showed up for the next block of time. So basically hers was a bust too. And looks like I will be teaching at least one, maybe 2 more before I leave here. :/Oh well. You win some and you lose some I guess.
Anyway, the weekend didn’t turn out to be a complete bust. Erica, Jason, Caroline and I hungout for a bit before going to the “World Photonics Expo”. We didn’t really know what this was but thought we would check it out. We went in the evening which was pretty cool because it was lit up and still lots to see. There were these cool like military container thingies that were filled with people’s different ideas of light and art. They were all very different and kind of weird, but definitely cool. We also saw a small concert and these guys put on this awesome show. They were dressed in light-up costumes and did all sorts of break dancing moves as well as beating on drums that splashed water every time they hit it. The whole expo was pretty cool but really hard to explain. You will just have to check out the pictures on facebook. We are supposed to go back there during the day later this week with the kindergarten students to see exhibits we purposely did not check out because we knew we were going with them on this field trip, so that should be fun.
On Sunday, I went rollerblading with several of the Korean teachers and Erica and Jason. It was a lot of fun. I fell one time being stupid and got a huge bruise on my knee that is still black and blue. But we won’t talk about that. ☺
I guess that catches you up for now. I am going to post again in a couple days because this past weekend was exciting! Love you all lots!!!! Miss you tons too!!!
So, with that being said, Ashley, one of the Korean teachers, got married this weekend. Almost everyone from ECC went. She looked beautiful and her dress was gorgeous! Her wedding was much like Lupina’s wedding I wrote about a couple months ago so I won’t say too much. We took pictures with her before she walked down the aisle, then watched as she got married and took a HUGE group photo at the end with all of her family and friends that attended. As part of her ceremony, she and her new husband were wheeled out their wedding cake and they cut it together. Lupina didn’t have a cake at her wedding so that was kind of neat and foreign to see. Their receptions here consist of only eating so I guess the cutting of the cake had to be in the ceremony if she wanted it at all. The food at her reception was a HUGE buffet with just about everything. It was delicious!
After we stuffed ourselves some of us decided we wanted to go “thrifting”. We just recently found a thrift store super close to our apartments and have since been there a couple times. I of course found some good finds, as did everyone else. We took 2 Korean teachers with us too. They both had never been before so that was fun.
After “thrifting” for an hour or so, a bunch of the foreign teachers and the 2 Korean teachers all met up to go to a baseball game together. I don’t know why we didn’t go to any last year because they were still going on when we first got here, but we decided this year we would go to at least a couple. Last year the Gwangju team, the “Kia Tigers” were really good and won the Korean equivalent to the World Series. This year they are not doing as well and are currently in 4th or 5th. The game we went to they lost 13 to 4. It was still a lot of fun though. The baseball scene here in Korea is much different than in the US. You can’t buy tickets for a certain seat or section so the earlier you come, the better the seats you get. Let’s just say after a lot of shenanigans, we ended up walking in to a packed stadium and the 10 of us were not able to find seats together and had to split up. Caroline, Erica, Jason, and I all sat in a different section than everyone else, but it turned out to be fine. Let me take a step back though. When you first get to the stadium, there are “ahgimas” or old ladies who all have tents setup. They are selling beer, soju, and fried chicken. You buy what you want before going into the stadium. They are all calling for you to come to their stand and buy enough refreshments for the game. Once you are loaded up, you go in and find anywhere to sit. There are also concessions inside too but they DO NOT sell HOTDOGS! What is a baseball game without a hotdog!! OR PEANUTS! They sell stuff like random chips, snack boxes, and RAMEN! Yep, they sell Ramen at a baseball game and even have a hot water station where you can fill it up. Also, instead of the peanut or cotton candy or drink vendors walking around, they have people walking around selling dry squid! Quite different I think. The game was fun but we kept waiting for the 7th inning stretch and the big screen guessing games they always play and the YMCA to be done, but we were sadly disappointed. Oh well. It was still loads of fun! After the game boys versus girls split up and “raced” in opposite directions to find the first cab to take us downtown. Girls won the race- OF COURSE!!! Then we ate an Italian place that kids often have their birthday parties and had some great pizza, pasta, salad, and rolls. After dinner we went home and passed out! ☺
Two weeks ago, a group of us went to Jinhae. This is a city known for its Cherry Blossom trees. It has a huge festival every year and millions of people go to see the several hundred trees bloomed and beautiful. It’s just a guessing game as to when the blossoms will be perfect and out, and not unopened or even on the ground because these trees don’t stay bloomed for long. We didn’t do too bad at this game and managed to see several trees bloomed. These were the trees along the road and in the city. However, the trees along the mountains were not bloomed which would have been beautiful to see, but oh well I guess. We enjoyed our time in Jinhae anyways. We spent the day taking many pictures, hiking, looking at random things being sold in tents, and hanging out on the lawn in the middle of a roundabout enjoying the scenery and change from Gwangju. It was only an hour or 2 away it made for a great day trip. You should check out the pictures on facebook.
The weekend after that one, several teachers went back to Jinhae to see it when everything was fully bloomed, and they said it was spectacular. Caroline and I didn’t get to go because we got scheduled to teach the Saturday classes that weekend. Each of the foreign teachers get their names pulled out of a hat and then signed up accordingly to teach middle and high schoolers on a Saturday for 3 hours. I really don’t think I could think of too much here that I would hate more. I don’t even know the kids. I don’t have any clue about the material. I don’t like middle schoolers. They don’t want their weekend wasted just as much as I don’t want mine to be either. Plus, often students don’t show up so whoever is forced to “teach” that day is required to stay for 2 hours before getting to leave if no students come, essentially missing out on fun activities for literally NOTHING! That’s exactly what happened to me. Caroline had 3 students show up for her first hour and a half block and they had already been taught the lesson a couple weeks before that she was told to do with them and then one student showed up for the next block of time. So basically hers was a bust too. And looks like I will be teaching at least one, maybe 2 more before I leave here. :/Oh well. You win some and you lose some I guess.
Anyway, the weekend didn’t turn out to be a complete bust. Erica, Jason, Caroline and I hungout for a bit before going to the “World Photonics Expo”. We didn’t really know what this was but thought we would check it out. We went in the evening which was pretty cool because it was lit up and still lots to see. There were these cool like military container thingies that were filled with people’s different ideas of light and art. They were all very different and kind of weird, but definitely cool. We also saw a small concert and these guys put on this awesome show. They were dressed in light-up costumes and did all sorts of break dancing moves as well as beating on drums that splashed water every time they hit it. The whole expo was pretty cool but really hard to explain. You will just have to check out the pictures on facebook. We are supposed to go back there during the day later this week with the kindergarten students to see exhibits we purposely did not check out because we knew we were going with them on this field trip, so that should be fun.
On Sunday, I went rollerblading with several of the Korean teachers and Erica and Jason. It was a lot of fun. I fell one time being stupid and got a huge bruise on my knee that is still black and blue. But we won’t talk about that. ☺
I guess that catches you up for now. I am going to post again in a couple days because this past weekend was exciting! Love you all lots!!!! Miss you tons too!!!
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