Monday, June 30, 2014

Good friends, good food, good times

On Friday I made the somewhat difficult journey out to spend the weekend in what is probably my favorite place in Korea- Yangyang/Sokcho. Normally the bus ride from Cheorwon to Chuncheon is quite brutal- near impossible to sleep because of the speed with which the driver navigates the winding roads. Luckily my first grade co-teacher, Rachel, was taking the same bus, so we could have a nice chat on the ride. The lovely Hannah and Trevor hosted me yet again for the weekend and Saturday, after checking out bus times for a mysterious valley/waterfalls we were interested in visiting, we decided to leave it for another time and head straight for the beach. Where we stayed pretty much all day excepting a short trip to a coffee shop when it decided to pour down rain for a bit. I got a fabulous sunburn, swam in the ocean, covered myself with sand and generally had a fantastic time. After that I was brought to a paradise of all-you-can-eat American food that included all-you-can-drink wine and espresso. Needless to say, I left the place feeling full, happy, and really wired after five espressos. Coffee coffee coffee!
From there we proceeded to a bar in order to take in the Brazil vs Chile game. 
The game started at 1 am, and I am proud to say we stayed awake until it the second half finished a draw, at which point we headed back to Yangyang and arrived just in time to watch Brazil win on penalty kicks. 
The next day was back to the beach before embarking on the long journey home.



I'm a little too excited about soccer. 

Home


Thursday, June 26, 2014

How to activate the Stern English Teacher Face:
Seriously I could rant for hours. Considering the excessively enormous pencil cases they all have, it is beyond me why it is so difficult to actually have pencils in them.


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Pictures from the Team Cal weekend of awesome

 Team Cal FC (not to be confused with California's Cal FC, the amateur team famous for knocking the Portland Timbers out of the 2012 USOC) getting ready to do battle against Keumhaksan FC.

Looking all cool on our ATVs. Unfortunately, they put all the girls into one group and tried to force us to drive at the speed of a lawnmower the whole time. "Tried" because several of us ditched the girls' group and ran away to join other groups as they passed us by.

"Have you ever fired your gun up in the air and gone "ahhrgh"?"


Getting ready for the rafting
Shrieking in terror.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Thoughts on PLUMMETING TO MY DEATH

This weekend was the wonderful, much-anticipated Team Cal weekend put on by that master of planning Cal Hudson. More than thirty waygook teachers showed up in Dongsong this weekend to participate in virtually every extreme activity that Cherowon boasts. Sadly, I didn't really get any good pictures, as most of the activities were too perilous for my camera, but I did hand my camera off to a friend for a final activity, and our wonderful guide/mafia boss/Cal's soccer coach took lots of pictures of everything which he promised to pass on to Cal, and which will hopefully find their way onto facebook eventually. Friday night kicked off with drinks at Cal's place (ok, I'm lying, some people had dinner, but I was at home napping in preparation for this exhausting weekend.) Followed by a trip to Dongsong's famous B Turn bar where you can actually order alcohol that is not called Cass or Soju. From there car loads full of people began to arrive and led by our guide/mafia boss/Cal's soccer coach we migrated over to what turned out to be a pretty questionable noraebang to wait for the rest of the Friday night arrivals. At last, we piled into a bus and made our way out the pension Cal had arranged for us. At 6am the next morning Cal woke us to ask if we wanted to go on a sunrise walk to Jiktang falls to which most people (myself included) responded "Ngh? No!"
At around eight I got up and fortified myself with copious amounts of black coffee and then got directions from Cal to nearest bus stop. It was about a forty minute walk, but I was determined to fetch my camera, which I had accidentally left behind in my apartment. After spending all morning walking to Goeseokjung, busing to Shincheorwon and then repeating the process in reverse, I arrived back at the pension, camera in hand in time to greet the rest of the new arrivals and pile back in the bus for the first event of the day: Survival. Ok, so this seemed like it would be the least exciting event, but it was way more fun than I anticipated. A few minutes after I arrived, and we were being coached on the things we weren't allowed to do with the paintball guns, I heard a quiet voice behind me say "Hello, teacher" and turned to see one of my students grinning at me. He introduced his dad who also worked at the paintball place. And this is where it pays to support your local businesses, because this student had so much fun watching teacher Jecky get hit by paintballs that every time I was out, he or his dad would say "Die? Die? No, it's ok!" and wipe the paint off, give me more paintballs and send me back out there. It was glorious. Except the part where I got shot in the head twice. Although even that didn't really hurt too much at the time. Once we finished the survival games (Team EXO won!), we headed across the street for a friendly soccer match against Cal's team.Once we were thoroughly worn out from soccer and survival, we headed back across the street and strapped on life jackets and helmets and went river rafting. This probably would have been more fun if out boat hadn't been crammed full with 12 people and gotten caught on every single rock. My favorite part was when we stopped for a short break and spent it leaping off the rocks into the river.
Finally, exhausted, cold and sopping wet, we arrived back at the pension for the best tasting samgyeopsal I've ever had. After that I wandered around trying not yawn and waited until 11 pm which seemed like an acceptable hour to crash into a heap on the floor and sleep. At 8 am we were rousted from our blankets (except for those who simply didn't sleep at all). Everyone thought I was hungover because I kept clutching my head, but in reality I have an enormous goose egg on my forehead where I got hit with a paintball just above my mask. I cheered up considerably when the bus arrived and off we went to ride ATVs. After that we went back to the pension and said goodbyes to people who had to catch earlier buses or were too terrified to participate in the final Team Cal event of the weekend: Bungee Jumping. 
I was SO excited. And here's where I've finally got a few pictures. First, I've been looking forward to this for ages, so there was never any question: I was going to do it.
 Here's the thing though, I always felt that the first moment would be the worst. Stepping off the platform. I thought the rest would be more fun, and somehow I thought it would be more of a feeling flying. No. It wasn't like flying. It felt exactly like I was PLUMMETING to my DEATH.
 And then- then came the lovely feeling of flying as I bounced back up, and that's when the worst moment came, because just as I was thinking "Whoo-hoo! I'm flying!!!" I stopped and began PLUMMETING to my DEATH again.
 I think it was on the second bounce I did an awkward flip which I wasn't expecting at all.
 I was terrified that I'd try to grab the harness so I kept my arms out with my fingers all spread out stiffly. About the fourth bounce I remember thinking it probably looked pretty stupid, but I was still too terrified to move.
Finally they lowered me into a boat where I collapsed into a heap and was unable to stand for several seconds while I processed the fact that I was somehow still alive and the boatman kept asking me to stand up so he could get the harness off me. 
Conclusion: Bungee jumping was approximately one million times more terrifying than I expected it to be. 
And I can't WAIT to try it again. 

Monday, June 16, 2014

For those who aren't aware, makguksu is an evil combination of slimy noodles, hot sauce, vinegar, mustard and sugar. It is served so cold that if you can get past the disgusting taste and slimy texture, you will get a brain freeze. 


Haeundae beach, Busan. Looking a little more peaceful and quiet than it did when Dani and I were there for the sand festival.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Another reason to paint more: I update my blog much more often when I have a hobby to show off. Although, I think I'm much more talented at the jewelry making than watercolors.
After mentioning I don't want to fill my scrapbook with landscapes, what do I do but paint some landscapes. I feel very peaceful when I'm painting landscapes, so I guess my subject just depends on my mood.
 This is yet another version of my memories of Oaxaca. I feel like each one I paint has parts of how it really was, but none of them will really capture it all.
 This is one I've actually worked on for a while. It's a view from the war memorial in Sincheorwon last fall when all the leaves were so bright. The view from the top of that his is gorgeous in all seasons,but especially in the fall when the leaves are turning and the spring when the cherry blossoms are blooming.
 I get a lot of inspiration from the top of that hill. This the view facing the other direction in winter. My current favorite painting.
 This is what happens when you hurry a self-portrait. It's not TOO terrible, but it looks like I had plastic surgery to make my nose smaller, and what happened to the corner of my mouth? I'll have to try again sometime when I'm feeling more patient.
I bought a teapot when I was in Busan. I'm already putting it to good use. Peppermint tea, green tea, rooibos, black tea! I'm consuming a lot of tea out of this little pot.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Awkward Duck

 Hey, so the update is happening quickly! I could have promised after all! So here's the project I've been having fun with lately. Someone suggested I keep a scrapbook of my experiences here and I was trying to decide what form I wanted that to take, since I am not the type remember to get pictures printed and that sort of thing. The obvious answer was my water color paintings, but I didn't want to fill my scrapbook with landscapes, and so The Awkward Duck was born. I've decided to paint some of my experiences- odd cultural moments and such- in the character of The Awkward Duck. Here are the first few results:
 My friend Dani and I actually saw a dog with painted on eyebrows when we were in Busan, and it's quite common to see cats and small dogs wearing blush. I definitely find it disturbing!
Koreans pull out their umbrella when it's sprinkling, or even when it's just a bit misty. I don't understand this at all. I've even had people tell me quite seriously that if I go out in the rain too much my hair will fall out. The concern for me when it's sprinkling and I'm not carrying an umbrella is so strong that I cave and carry an umbrella. I use it in a downpour, but still don't like to take it out when it's just sprinkling. Having grown up in Western Washington, I feel like light rain is my natural habitat.
My life in Korea is pretty great, but I think we all have days like this.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Finally, finally I have a new computer!
And the fact that I didn't have a smoothly working one until Sunday will be my excuse for not updating the blog for over a month. I've got an art project I've started working on so perhaps pictures of that coming soon. I hope to make a series of paintings and perhaps posting photos of them will help me remember to write updates as well.
This semester is just FLYING by. I can't believe it, but after this week is the middle school speaking test, and then there's one more week for review and then finals!!
After that I'll have those three "What the heck, Korea?" weeks after finals where the students turn into either zombies or holy terrors due to the fact that they won't be tested on anything I'm trying to teach them.
Luckily I've been getting much more creative about lesson planning, and I'm feeling more and more confident about my teaching. When I first came to Korea I thought classroom management would be a big struggle for me, but to my surprise, I took to the classrooms of 30+ middle school students pretty well (I mean, there are those days, and those classes, that are horrible, but for the most part, things are pretty good). What I struggled with my first semester (and the beginning of this one) was lesson planning, and now that is just getting easier and easier, so my job is going great.
Since my last blog post, there've been two holiday weekends. First, we had Bhudda's birthday and Children's day in May, and then election day and Memorial day at the beginning of June. For the first holiday, I didn't plan ahead, so when my friends Tami and Vicky and I tried to take a last minute trip to Busan or Sokcho or somewhere else, ALL bus tickets were sold out, so we ended up just wandering around in Seoul. Having learned my lesson, my Dongsong neighbor and Cheorwon's official newbie Dani and I decided to go to Busan for Memorial day weekend and bought out tickets ahead of time. The planning hit a few bumps on the way from changing bus schedules and limited motel reception hours, but despite those bumps, we managed to get our bus tickets and book a motel. Ready for adventure, we set out on Thursday as soon as Dani finished work. We caught our bus to Seoul with no problem, and even met up with Ben and Rochelle for a quick dinner before the long bus ride to Busan. We arrived at about 1:30 am and spent he next half hour trudging down the street looking for a motel that wouldn't charge us an exorbitant amount. After refusing the first few places our patience was rewarded. The next morning we met up with a friend of Dani's and several of Busan foreigner community. We went for a nice walk along the coast in Amnam park, and then had a fantastic late lunch at Jalgalchi Seafood Market. Unfortunately the remainder of the day was spend searching for our motel, which but between our three phones and the help of a kind hostel worker, we managed to find it.
On Saturday we headed to Haundae beach for the Sand Sculpting Festival and, of course, to take in the beach. It was a beautiful day involving sun, sand, swimming in the ocean, photos of giant sand-animals, Mexican food for lunch, Korean ice cream and dinner at lovely Thai restaurant with kittens frolicking on the ledge outside the window.
Sunday we took the KTX train back to Seoul and went to lovely Insadong for lunch and shopping before heading our separate ways- Dani back to Cheorwon, while I went on a mission at Technomart. I decided I wasn't leaving without a computer and so here I am finally able to blog again!

I would promise more updates soon but... chances are I'll forget again. So, maybe I'll update again soon.