East Side of the ROK

Seorak mountain, like Nami Island, were places I heard were 'must visits' in Korea.  This particular mountain, while not the tallest in Korea, is an incredibly beautiful one, especially during Autumn.  Apparently droves of 135,000+ Koreans hit the trails EVERY weekend during peak season at this one mountain alone.  As Autumn is dwindling to an end, and the leaves are becoming sparser and weather colder, we decided to  make our way there before it was too late.  Seorak is one of those places you have to see to believe.  An awe-inspiring place that despite the pounding of thousands upon thousands of Korean and foreign feet that trample on its ground yearly manages to keep its astounding natural beauty.

We woke up at 4:30 am to prepare for and get ourselves to the Express Bus Terminal to catch the first bus from Seoul to Sokcho, a small seaside town.  The ride took about 2.5 hours, much shorter than is advertised on the bus schedule on the internet (they said 4+ hours!).  From there we took a taxi (although buses are available) for 20 minutes to get to the base of the mountain.  The taxi ride cost us 4,000 won ($4) and I had my first real-life Korean 'conversation'!  Normally, I practice Korean with people who speak English well or in a classroom setting, but I decided to test the waters with my non-English speaking taxi driver.  He was pretty nice.  I tried asking how long the trails were to hike and some other small talk which resulted in me understanding only 30-40% of what he responded, but never-the-less, still felt pretty proud of myself^^.

Below are some pictures from our Seorak experience.  I highly recommend it to anyone in Korea and I want to let people know it is worth the trip even if you can only stay one day like we could.

The entrance to the park with loads of Koreans posing with the bear.

The Unification Statue of Buddha: he's huge!  Just look at the size of that woman underneath him.

Even though many leaves have already fallen, there were still splotches of vibrant color  everywhere.  Amazing!

A view from one of the peaks:  DH standing proudly.

If you look closely those green  patches are very tiny trees.  I'm scared stiff on a cliff!

Korean flag flying high on a cold windy peak.  A park ranger chilling in his parka on top.

The biggest 'miracle' of this trip was finding a secluded area virtually people-free.  We hiked a short trail to a series of water falls and there was almost nobody there.  If you have ever been to Korea, you know that solitude is a rare commodity here.

Before leaving the park, clouds covering some of the jagged peaks.  Seoraksan, gorgeous rain or shine.

Just some advice for fellow travellers: Book your return ticket when you get to the station! Our trip was fairly smooth all the way around, but one thing we didn't forsee was that buses going from Sokcho back to Seoul would be sold out.  We arrived at the bus station at 5:00pm, but couldn't get a ticket for a bus until 8:00pm.  We managed to make it back to Seoul, but it could have been tricky if we had shown up any later.  

My first Psy sighting

As long as you haven't been living under a rock, you've certainly heard about Korean sensation Psy by now and his song "Gangnam Style".  Although all Koreans aren't crazy about his song, it is a matter of pride that it has become a hit all over the world and given Korea a bit of an image boost. The news is on everyday during my lunch break, and without exaggeration I can honestly say there was a period of a few weeks when there was a story about Psy every single day on the news.  Sometimes more than one.  ALL THE KIDS in my school can sing this song word for word. Even though some of them struggle to say the most basic of English phrases, they certainly have no problem with, "HEEEEY Sexy Lay-day!" -.-

Two Fridays ago, we had our bi-annual Fall School Festival and look who showed up, a mini-Psy!

Mini-Psy 6th grader, taking in the lime light before the show.

A short 10 second clip of Mini-Psy in action along with the rest of class 6-3's "Samjeong Style" interpretation.  The kids and parents went wild!

If you haven't had enough of Gangnam Style yet, and you're interested in a bit of an intelligent read on the topic, you can check out what The Korean has to say here.  Interesting POV.

Toilets are beautiful too.

This past weekend we visited Suwon, a smaller city outside of Seoul. Suwon is well-known for its fortress, a UNESCO world heritage site, and less known for being 'the mecca of the toilet culture movement'.  Ex-mayor of Suwon and the founder of the World Toilet Association, Mr. Sim Dae Juk, built his house to resemble a giant toilet bowl. This park and his former home can be found a little ways outside of the main city area.  If you're a toilet lover (?), interested in quirky things and happen to find yourself in Suwon with some time to spare, it's worth the visit.  

Upon entering the park, we were greeted with this lovely mural of behinds, 똥 (poop) and toilet paper. 

 

I couldn't get a good picture on my camera, so this is from the internet, but this is Mr. Toilet's House.  Where the man, the legend, lived before he passed away.  The building is now a museum.

Sim Jae Duk, otherwise lovingly nicknamed Mr. Toilet, was a real man whose love for toilets started at birth as he was born in his mother's outhouse.  He believed in making the world more beautiful one toilet at a time.

They showed toilet pictography from around the world.

The toilet is a place where deep thought can occur, as believed by Mr. Sim.

Some other sculptures from the park.

Oh, the love of a mother.

Want to visit the Toilet House?  Here is a little more information:  http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/visit/mr-toilet-house-turned-toilet-museum.

EDIT:  BBC just covered the Suwon toilet theme park this past week, check out the video!!! 아싸!

Be careful what you wish for...

...because it just might come true. 

Summer is behind us now, and the weather has suddenly gotten really cold!  Not fleece and parka cold, but cold enough that I feel totally unprepared for the winter months looming near.  Lord help us all if it is anywhere as near as extreme as this past summer was.

In other news, today my Co-T approached me about contract renewal for next year.  This is a question I knew was coming, but now that my official answer has been given, I have mixed feelings. My co-teachers have been really fantastic, wonderful friends and colleagues to me.  We might not have always agreed on things in the classroom, but as people they have only been helpful and caring. I know that as a foreign teacher I am totally replaceable, and this job, to be honest, is not really a good fit for me, but nevertheless the thought of leaving still makes me sad.

On the other hand, I'm relieved that I only have a few more months here.  Come March 1,  2013,  I'll be ready to get on the plane and head back to the US and begin anew, hopefully this time, staying put for a little while longer.

In the mean time, there's still Autumn to enjoy and the 'famous' fall foliage, part II of DH's green card/visa process, Christmas on Jeju Island and much more to come.  Korea's not over yet, so trying to enjoy what each day brings.

Signs of autumn at our photo shoot along the Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul.

남이섬 - Nami Island

The Chuseok holiday is flying by with cooler days and lots of sunshine.  The best thing so far has definitely been our trip to Nami Island this past Sunday.  Being a pretty touristy destination, I had reservations about going as it was 2.5-3 hours out of Seoul.  I thought it might be overrated and I thought it might look similar to most everywhere else in Korea, but Nami is worth the time it takes to get there.

The tiny moon-shaped island is located in the middle of Cheongpyeong Lake in the Gapyeong area of Gyeonggi-do (wow, that's a mouthful).  Made famous by a K-drama (Winter Sonata) that I knew very little about, the island is a great place to get away from the hectic city life for a while.

Some photos...

We started our trip with a Zip-Wire ride from the mainland to the island.  Fun, but a bit pricey and over much too fast.

Happy DH after zipping over the lake.

Some artwork on the island:  meant to represent motherly love and affection.

Some more artwork:  colorful elephants everywhere.

Even dead leaves have a bit of charm on Nami.

Beautiful Cheongpyeong Lake.

Though biking around the island is popular, walking it is even more enjoyable I think.

Even the trash cans are a bit cheesy.

The leaves just starting to change colors.

The most photographed spot on the island.  The DH and I.

Want to visit?  A shuttle bus travels daily from Insadong, although reservations are required, otherwise you can take the Seoul Metro to Gapyeong station, grab a taxi or walk the 2.5 kilometers and either zip your way over like we did, or ride a ferry (8,000 won for foreigners/10,000 won for Koreans).

Happy Chuseok!

This month was a trying one in many ways and September has somewhat exhausted me, luckily this month is ending with a nice, long five day weekend.  Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, is here with gifts of Spam and tuna to boot.

Koreans generally give 'practical' gifts such as toothpaste and soaps.  For the big family holiday, gift sets are given such as the ones above with Spam, tuna, cooking oil and/or sweets.

 

Traditionally the holiday is celebrated with family and lots and lots of food.  People put up with hours of traffic to go back to their hometowns.  As was cited somewhere on the net, apparently 75% of Koreans drive south from Seoul during this holiday and three hour journeys have been quoted to take more than eight or nine.

Chuseok congestion: one side going out of Seoul and the other going into it. 

That's why my colleagues suggested that DH and I stay in Seoul.  Apparantly, this city gets pretty empty (although I think I'll have to see it to believe it). Tomorrow we'll hike another trail at Bukhansan, Sunday attempt to go to Nami Island (third time's a charm) and Monday hit up Everland, with their generous discount for foreigners (tickets only 23,000 compared to the normal 40,000). 

 

For all those celebrating Chuseok this weekend, enjoy a much deserved break.

The Other Koreans

I write this post merely as an observer.  I am by no means an expert on North Korea nor North Koreans, however for some reason, the universe has placed me in a school in South Korea which happens to have a high percentage of orphans and North Korean defectors.  These are some thoughts I've had while dealing with these students over the course of the last six months.

North Korea conjures up all kinds of images. It is haunting and mysterious and yet fascinating.  A place I've grown increasingly interested in since moving to South Korea.  Seoul is less than 190km (118 miles) away from the last Stalinist state in the entire world.  South Korea one of the most wired nations in the world, is butting elbows with a nation where people don't even know what the Internet is.

That dark blog mass there is North Korea.

The stories and the rumors can easily flood your mind with negative images and I remember the first week of school, before I met the students, how curious I was about these defectors from North Korea.  What would they be like?  Would they be like soldiers?  Would they talk with a funny accent?  Would they hate me as an American?  Had they been brainwashed to hate their South Korean counterparts too? 

But when the first week of classes came and went, I realized that I had been unable to identify who had been born on which side of the 38th parallel.  It hadn't been as obvious as I had thought.  As time passed, I started to learn who came from where due to two factors, 1) NKs often speak Chinese and 2) they usually have a much lower level of English than the other kids in their class.

My co-teachers often say the students coming from NK tend to get angry more quickly than others, however as the foreign teacher I don't feel I'm qualified to agree or disagree with that statement.  I don't see them acting all that different from the other kids. We have some loud ones and some quiet ones, some very polite ones and some rather rude ones, but what I've come to see is that once you strip the labels, they are indeed still children.  They do not seem to be ashamed of the fact that they came from North Korea, but they are ashamed of the fact that they cannot speak English as well as their peers, but that is the same case for the students coming from the orphanage.  

I do have a soft spot for them.  When I see them, I often wonder what they have already experienced in their young lives.  What a contrast of worlds!  Maybe some don't remember, but probably many do.  One new student who arrived last week came to South Korea by "crossing over a mountain in the middle of the night and then waiting in an orphanage with her sister until her mother could join her". And there are so many more stories.  Stories that aren't mine to tell, however if you are interested in reading a book that can give you a glimpse into the lives of other NK defectors, I want to recommend to you this book, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick.  Different from other books or documentaries about the Hermit Kingdom, this writer doesn't just give facts and stats on the regime, she tells the stories of  real people living in that dark mass you saw above.  People with hopes for happiness and love and prosperity the same as everywhere else.  A page turner and a good read.

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