Miguk in Hanguk: July 2010

The past couple of months have FLOWN by... Caroline and I have of course been staying super busy with school as well as traveling and having lots of fun. Here are the highlights of May.

Kinder Field Trip to the Photonincs Expo:
Every month (as of very recently) ECC has decided to do something with the kinder kids. At the end of April we took the kids on a field trip to the Photonics Light Expo. It was seriously the weirdest field trip I have ever been on. I thought we were going to walk all around and check out exhibits and stuff that the kids would really like. There was a cool airplane area that you could actually go in an airplane and plenty of just little tents and booths to go in but we didn't do any of that. When we first got there all of the kinder kids were shuffled at a pretty fast pace through a bunch of pods filled with art and stuff that was pretty neat and then we immediately split up. I was with one of my everyday classes- Princeton class- as well as one of Caroline's everday classes- Stanford class. Both of these classes are very cute and lots of fun so I enjoyed myself. Anyways, so upon splitting up, my group started immediately trying to find a "beautiful place" to take pictures. We took pictures in front of flowers. Then were whisked off to take pictures on benches. Only to be whisked off several more times to take pictures in front of statues, signs, and a bazillion more flowers. Then we ate lunch as a big group, let the kids run around for a bit in this small area before we boarded the buses and headed back to school to teach the remaining 3 periods. We didn't see anything or do anything besides take pictures which was extremely strange and different than any other school field trip that I have been on where we take pictures if time allows in between the planned activities and talks. Either way, it was a beautiful day and sure beat being in school all day and not enjoying the nice weather.

Haenam:
Toward the middle of May, Caroline, Erica, and Steve decided to do a temple stay. I had read about temple stays and although I knew it would be like nothing I have done before, I wasn't really feeling it and decided to go to Haenam with Davon and Jake instead that weekend. We woke up relatively early on a Saturday and boarded a bus to Haenam which was just a couple hours away. Haenam in a beach city and just what the doctor called for. Immediately after arriving in the bus terminal there, we approached the ticket lady and told her we wanted the bus that would take us to the dinosaur museum. She said there weren't any and pointed us to the taxi line outside. Based on the map we decided to walk it instead and picked a direction and just went with it. After walking for a little while we stopped in to a store and asked the lady if we were close or how we could get there and she pointed us back to the bus terminal and told us we were too far and to take a bus. So we walked back to the terminal only to be told no again. So we decided to X the dinosaur museum and instead ride up a cable car (Devon had never been on one and was excited to go) to a mountain where we would be able to enjoy the view. And that we did. We stood on a big platform thingy and were surrounded by mountains and water. There were several signs that pointed out different mountain peaks and one even pointed out that on a very clear day you could see the tallest peak in South Korea on Jeju Island. It was clear but not super clear that day so we couldn't see it but it was neat just to be so high and surrounded by so many mountains. It's definitely a really cool feeling and something you CAN'T experience by living in Florida. We took in the view and then headed back down the mountain and on to a bus in search of the beach. The bus stopped and we got off because it was an area Devon and Jake recognized and had been before. We were one of the few people to get off the bus but weren't concerned..... until we started walking around looking for a place to stay and weren't able to find ANYTHING open. We started to freak out a bit until we found the only place that was open and were more than willing to house us for the night. After settling in to our room where we sleep on the floor (very common in Korea) we headed out to the beach to walk around. We were seriously the only people on the beach. Or really in that town to be quite honest. It was a ghost town. But we didn't mind because better empty than crowded! After hanging out and wading in the water we decided to walk to the next town. We thought it wasn't too far but ended up being further than expected. We walked on a "main road" for awhile before hitting the southernmost town in mainland Korea. This area was definitely more populated but still pretty empty. We searched for a place to eat because at this point we were starving. There were seafood after seafood after seafood restaurants (go figure- we were literally ON the water) but NOTHING that even served ANYTHING besides seafood on their menu. Now for those of you who know me, you know that I don't eat ANY seafood. ever. Back at home even when we go out to Red Lobster, I order chicken fingers. The texture, the smell and just everything about seafood rubs me the wrong way. But with nothing else to eat and fear of being hungry the rest of the night, we found a restaurant that had smoked fish and sat down. After what seemed like a forever wait as I was anxious to see what was in store for me, our food arrived. I didn't even know how to begin to open the fish and get its meat. I watched Jake and Devon and just tried to do the same thing. It turned out to be not that bad and I ate most of it. After dinner, we decided to start making our way back to our small little town as the sun was setting and we were loosing light quickly. The more we walked the faster the sun seemed to fall and it wasn't long before we were walking in complete darkness along a rode where an occasional car passed by. Thank goodness Jake is smart and got the idea to hit the camera so it flashed every time a car came near us so they were sure to see us. The further we walked, the more we began to hope that one of the cars that was passing by would stop and pick us up and take us to the next town. Although this is dangerous, we felt safer about it (crime in Korea is nothing like that in America) than walking on the side of the road with no lights to light the way and no sidewalk for us to walk on. However, we were not picked up by any of the few cars that passed us and eventually made it back to our town safely. We stopped at a small mart and picked up some sparklers to entertain ourselves for awhile. As we played with our sparklers, a group of Korean teenagers began to form near us and it wasn't long before we had made some friends. We sat on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful night staring out into the water before going back to our room and crashing. We woke up the next morning and laid out on the beach. It was only us once again and an occasional person would come and go. Jake and I decided to go check out "Korea's southernmost point"(Why not. Then we could say we stood at Korea's highest point-Jirisan Mountain- as well as Korea's southernmost point.) However, this required the long trek back up the road we had just hiked the night before in the dark. It was a lot faster and a whole lot less creeper in the day than it had been the night before. When we got to the next town, we found the place where we could either take a cable car or hike to the point. We decide to hike it which couldn't have been a better choice. The whole hike was in a canopy of trees but we were still able to see the water at all times. Finally we reached "the southern most point" and stopped to enjoy it. The wind blew softly, the sun shone warm and brightly and we could feel the water as the wind blew it. It reminded me of the song we used to sing almost every time at the end of church. "May the road rise to meet you. May the wind blow at your back. May the sun shine warmly on your face. My the rain fall softly on your field and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hands." It was so awesome. We took it all in and then headed down another path along side the water almost the whole way which took us directly to our beach where Devon laid on the sand all by herself enjoying her time in Haenam. After laying on the beach some more and wading in the water, we got hungry and went to the only restaurant in our town to eat. This place had bulgogi (meat) and was quite good. After lunch we hung out a bit longer before going back to our room to shower and find out the damage the sun had done to us very pale girls. Both Devon and I got burnt (Jake is lucky because he isn't pale and doesn't have to worry about this) so we reapplied sunscreen for like the third time before putting on more covering clothes and making our way to the bus stop. We took 1 bus that took us to the bus terminal where we had to get off and buy another ticket before boarding another bus. We got lucky and caught a bus that left 5 minutes after our first one arrived. This was great because it put us back in to Gwangju at a decent hour and gave me enough time to relax and prepare for teaching the next day. It was a GREAT weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Kinder Field Trip to the Rose Gardens:
At the end of May the Kinder kids were taken on another field trip. This time we went to a local university's- Chonam University- rose garden. They grow hundreds and hundreds of roses and people can walk through them and take pictures. This time we prepared ourselves for all of the picture taking. And we were right. We took millions of pictures but it was a beautiful so it was quite nice and I enjoyed myself. I got to walk around and take pictures with my everyday Kinder class that I have had since I got here- Cambridge (last year, Cornell) class. They are my babies and I LOVE them and would definitely love to take any of them home with me! I also got to take pictures with the babies of ECC. They are Korean age 5 which makes them 3 and 4 years old American. They are the cutest things ever! After a couple hours we got back on the ECC short buses and headed back to school. Once again we had to teach the remaining 3 afternoon classes but I didn't mind because getting to be out in the sun with the kids for a couple hours was loads of fun.

Welp, that pretty much sums up the month of May. June's post will be coming hopefully relatively soon. (No promises)

Miss you all so much and can't wait to see everyone shortly!! :)

Miguk in Hanguk

Monday, July 12, 2010

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Saturday, July 10, 2010

To sum up the month of May.... I am so far behind, I know

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