When people who had been to Korea knew we were moving here they all said that the fall is beautiful here. I kind of went "yeah, yeah, yeah, they're are just trying to make me feel better about moving to a cold place." But, after spending much time outside these past couple of weekends I think I would tell potential Korean residents that the fall isbeautiful. The weather is a bit chilly but still quite nice with a scarf and coat on. All of the trees are changing colors and there are a lot of trees here. So, instead of telling you about the pretty things I thought I share some pics I took while walking around my neighborhood this Sunday.
Families are always walking around together. Kids seem so happy here. There are tons of parks and places for them to play. Korea is also a very safe country. I encounter women and children walking by themselves even into the night without being overly wary.
These leaves come from the Ginko Tree which is the official tree of our city, Bundang.
After months of seeing Koreans wearing their weekend warrior outfits, it was finally our turn to strap on the camelpack and venture off the beaten path. It was time to leave behind the world of subways, city buses, and neon lights. Our school provided a couple of buses to take teachers and their families to Mt. Daedunsan Provincial Park. Most of us were expecting to hike upon a meandering dirt path with the occasional cutback to make the climb easier. But Nooooooooooo, that was so not the case. When we arrived, we were surrounded by thousands upon thousands of other hikers. These hikers were not your average hikers either. You see, here in Korea, hiking is almost a national sport. The people who were at the mountain with us were clad in professional hiking gear. Everywhere you looked, people were covered in waterproof pants and jackets. Not only were the jackets waterproof, but they were the same color as their hiking boots, gloves, and hat. On occasion, the stripes on their hiking poles were also the same color.
You would think since Koreans took hiking so seriously, their backpacks would be full of gatorade and power bars. This is another easily made preconception that would be entirely wrong. Based on what I saw and smelled, the backpacks were full of booze, kimchi, and kimbap (Korean rice and vegetable roll up in seaweed). With all of the people and pretty clothes, it was easy to overlook the mountain looming in front of us.
We approached the mountain with muscles eager to be used after three hours on a bus. Those muscles were soon put to work. The path did not meander. It went straight up. There were not casual waves to the occasional fellow hiker. Instead we had to watch our hands when we put them on a rock because they were likely to get stabbed by somebody's hiking pole. We were surrounded by thousands of people all with the same idea of climbing this mountain on a beautiful fall day. We hiked up the mountain with those thousands of people. You had to keep moving or the people behind you would would puch you forward against your will.
It was difficult to look at the beautiful scenery because you had to pay such close attention to your steps. It was also difficult to appreciate the trails because after every mile or so you would encounter a bottleneck as the crowd encountered a narrow set of stairs which slowed the flow of traffic. There was one time where the flow stopped becuase there was a woman and man facing each other and neither wanted to step out of the way and let the other pass. (Remind anyone of a Dr. Seuss story?) Many times the best way to approach those situations was to go off the trail and risk the loose rocks you would be climbing on. Sarah loved it when I did this because she had to follow me on a usually more difficult path.
As time went on, the crowds and the climb continued. It wasn't what many of us thought it was going to be, but the results were still the same. Once you arrived at the top the view was breathtaking. I looked down upon the backs of birds flying in circles. I looked down at the green, orange, red and yellow specks which I knew were trees. There was a fine haze masking the tops of other mountains in the distance. As you can probably guess, the peak was packed. Some of our fellow teachers found a rocky area off by itself and offering a fantastic view all its own. When I finally sat down to eat my dried mangoes and jelly bellys for lunch, I was tired, sweaty, and proud. I hope the pictures associated with this posting are your typical pictures which are worth a thousand words, but if I were to describe the hike in one sentence it would be: A day spent among thousands of locals so intent upon hiking in nature they make it almost impossible to notice the sights and sounds which brought them there in the first place.
Beijing is a super cool, busy, dirty, edgy city that smells like pee and pollution. That said, I would go back in a heartbeat. We stayed in this great hostel called Beijing Downtown Backpackers Hostel that is located in a Hutong (a traditional Chinese style neighborhood that has tiled roofs, tight alleyways and old houses with courtyards). It was great. The alleyway was full of hip curio shops, bars and restaurants. It was located close to the subway and only a couple stops away from some of the major tourist attractions such as The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
Our first day we were so excited to be in China that we dropped off our luggage, grabbed our cameras and subway maps and headed straight for the Forbidden City. It happened to be right across the street from Tiananmen Square so we got to see both of those in one shot. We spent 4 hours cruising around and saw maybe half of what was in the Forbidden City. It was a very surreal experience for me. I had been there when I was in the 6th grade, about 17 years ago! I remembered looking at all the incredible buildings and sculptures. Before we moved to Korea, I actually found a photo of me that I unearthed for our wedding, (we were going to have a slide show of pics of us when we were little until now), that was of me posing in front of the main gate of the Forbidden City. I was wearing some crazy tie-dyed Chinese skirt I think. It was strange to be standing in the same spot so many years later. I never imagined I’d be back.
One of my most vivid memories of my first trip to China occurred at Tiananmen Square. I remembered seeing a mother unbuttoning the butt flap of her toddler’s pants and letting him pee right there on that historic place. Things in China have changed some; instead of butt flaps, little kids now have pants that haven't gotten the crotch seam sewn together so you can see their little butts hanging out and if your are unfortunate enough, their junk in the front. Poor kids! Another nasty memory that hasn’t changed since I was last there is constant sound of people hocking loogies and farmer blowing their noses. Yummy. Don’t let the nasty description I just gave turn you off to China though. We only saw Beijing and a bit of Shanghai and we are determined to go back and see more. On Loren's birthday we hiked 8km up and down the Great Wall. The drive was 3 hours out of town but well worth it. The location wasn't tainted by random Chinese or Mongolians trying to sell us trinkets the whole way like other area of the wall. The hike was very strenuous. Some parts were almost straight up and down and crumbling to pieces. At some points Loren and I could barely make it to the top of the uneven stairs without stopping for fear of heart attack. I was just glad that I've been doing some running, swimming and stair climbing lately and Loren has been playing a lot of sports. Needless to say, that evening, Loren and I ate a large Indian dinner, had a couple Tsingtaos at our favorite communist themed bar, played some rummy and called it a night.
On a previous evening Loren and I met an older Swedish couple who were teaching at a Swedish school in Beijing. They recommended that we go and check out a park in the morning then go to the Silk Street Market for some shopping. The suggestion sounded so good that we did just that the next day. We woke up at 7ish and wandered down the already busy streets making our way through tons of bicycles, mopeds, buses and cars already starting their commute to work and found BeiHai park. There were lots of older Chinese people flashing their park passes to the guard that was stationed at one of the few gates in the large solid grey wall surrounding the park. Having no park passes ourselves, we had to buy tickets. We found it was well worth the negligable cost. As we entered, we first saw some old men painting Chinese characters on the stone walkway with water and huge foam brushes. Loren was impressed by this and imagined they were writing poems. With the crowd of other park goers watching engrossed, it was entirely possible. We were intrigued already with the energy of the park at so early an hour and moved deeper into the park. We saw a large group of older people practicing Tai Chi all in unison, and then heard some loud clapping and chanting further in. We followed the sound and on our way towards it saw more wizened Chinese making ribbons dance and fly through the air. Others were ballroom dancing while still others were practicing flowing forms with swords high over their heads, playing hacky sack, badminton and many other indescribable sports. When we neared the clapping and chanting at last, we were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people participating in the activity. To explain the immensity of the crowd of clapping, chanting people, let me briefly describe the layout of the park. The park had a large walkway going through it. On one side was a lake with paddleboats and docks. The other side of the pathway was flanked by small hills covered tastefully with Pines and grass that were cut by meandering paths that lead to as of yet undiscovered parts of the park. On either side of the main path and up into the hills were 100+ people all clapping in unison to a steady beat and chanting in reply to one main caller. People walking through the mass of people either joined in on their way through or stopped behind or next to another entranced clapper and joined in. Loren and I stopped for a long time to let ourselves take in the experience. Beihai Park was an experience that will not leave our memories quickly. It made us forget the pollution, grime and smell and almost rethink our decision to move to Korea instead of China! It was truly inspiring to see so many people all moving in unison, chanting in unison, exercising, playing, and interacting because they know it is good for them. I had to drag Loren from the park so we could continue our day.
check out the video:
After the park, we went back to our awesome hostel and had our free breakfast, (watermelon, banana, toast, orange juice, sausage and eggs, of course I ate Loren’s fruit and he ate my meaty stuff) and got prepared for our shopping trip. A description from the Lonely Planet told us to be prepared for pushy sales people. We figured we were as prepared as we would ever be for pushy sales people so we hopped on the subway, changed lines once, got off and were ready to walk outside in the polluted air to find the Silk Street Market. However, the subway stop exited directly into the large 4 story Silk “Street” market. We walked into the basement level and were bombarded by sales people trying to get us to come into their stalls to buy their knockoff shoes, puma, DC, Adidas, Dolche and Cabana, Coach, UGG, Nike, bags, clothes, trinkets, electronics, toys, silk and jewelry. If you so much a looked at an item longer than a second, the sales person pushed it in your hands and asked you how much you wanted to pay. If you didn’t look in their stall, they grabbed your arms or shoved items in your line of view! After we got our bearings and put our game faces on, the same exchange took place for each item we bought. Here’s an example of a typical exchange. Sales Person: “ Come in and look lady. We have puma, adidas, DC, UGG. You like Puma? How much you give me? How much? I give you good price.” Me: “ I’m just looking thanks.” Them: “ I give you good price, really how much?” Me: “ok- let me try the red pumas. Size 9.” Them: “ Ok- sit down I get it for you.” At this point, she yells for her friend to run somewhere mysterious and get the size 9. In the mean time she asks me: “Where you from? I like America. Your husband? He’s a good man. You buy more than one pair I give you a good price. How much you want to give me for those?” I try them on, inspect them for signs of leather, and am satisfied that they are truly knock offs but are comfortable and well made and decide that I only want to pay $15 max for them. While this has been going on, Loren has been inspecting some Dolce Cabana black leather shoes- not authentic of course, but the leather is. We start to bargain. Loren decides his max price for the shoes is $30. They were very comfortable, and well made and Loren really needed them. So, the games begin. Us: “If we buy these pairs together, how much do you want?” Them: “I give you friend price, I like you. I give you good price. Normally I get, $100 for those shoes and $60 for those so $160 for both, but for you, I give you good price. $110 for both.” Us: we laugh; shake our heads then, “ No way, that’s not a friend price, that’s too much. We’ll give you $30 for both.” Them: “You joking! You joking! I make no money. Really, I can’t give them to you for this price. I make no money. $110 is good price. Us: “ Ok, thanks we’ll go somewhere else.” We start to walk away. Them: “ Ok Ok Ok Ok, come back. I have good price. Come here, really let’s talk. I give you $75 but that is best price.” Us: “no way, we can’t pay that! You have to do something better. You have to give us a better price.” Them: “Ok, I give you this price to begin, $160, then I say $110 now I say $75. You have to give me better price because really I can’t give you for your price. What you give me? Best price.” Us: “ ok, maximum, our highest price and we can’t give you anymore for these shoes is $40.” Them: “Come on! You kill me. Your price too low! I make no money!” Us: “ thank you.” We begin to walk away and then they grab our arms, thrust the shoes in them and begin pleading some more. Them: “I get you special size. I talk price with you and now you leave? Ok, give me your best price but you have to give me more. I give you for $55. That is friend price. Good price. That’s it.” They begin to look really dejected and sad and tired. Us: “ That’s still too high.” Them: “ come on, what you give me. But really, I make no money on this. What you give me? $50. Ok $50. That’s it. Take them. $50.” Us: We get out the $45 and say, “this is it. We can’t give you anymore.” Them: “ $50 come on. Just extra $5 for me. Just $5.” Us: Walking away, “ thank you” Them: with dejected frowns on their faces and shoes hanging at their sides, “ Ok, $45. You mean. I give you these shoes. I make no money. I give them to you.” At this point when the money is being exchanged, a small smile appears and they begin to relax. “Ok, thank you. Bye, come back again. You want another pair, only $30 extra? Ok, bye, have a good day.”
Yup, and that is pretty much how we managed to buy two pairs of shoes each, some new sheets for our bed, a mask, a happy Buddha, a tea mug and various other things. By the end of the day, our heads were swirling with frowning faces, smiling faces, pleading voices and our bodies feeling abused from all the pushing and pulling and heavy bags in our hands. We felt tired but victorious as we left with our bags but still wondered who came away better, them or us. A few times, the sales people were too quick to take our last offer and we knew we could have beaten them down a bit more, but just like in sports and life in general; you win some and you loose some. When we returned to the hotel, we stared at our small carry-ons and at all the new items we bought and we couldn’t imagine how we’d make it work. Eventually on our last day in Beijing, we did make it work and vowed to not go into another market for the rest of our trip. That turned out to be quite easy because the next evening we took a sleeper train to Shanghai for our conference. The conference kept us so busy that we didn’t have time to explore the area. From what we saw, Shanghai is a very big, polluted city with some major growing pains. During a short break in our conference on the first day, we went exploring for some dinner. We got directions from some locals and went in search of a Mediterranean restaurant. On our way, the left side of the street was shaded by large modern and clean apartment buildings complete with landscaping and guards. The other side of the street was not as fortunate. There were old crumbly buildings that housed car part shops or little stores. In between the decrepit buildings were alleyways that created enough space for the less fortunate to erect some lean-tos. We were not too impressed with what we saw in Shanghai but we realize that we didn’t give it much chance. We were told there is excellent shopping there. Thank God we were unable to go explore. All in all what we saw of China was intriguing. We forgot at times that China is a country that is infamous for it’s human rights violations, and it’s bullying of Tibet among other terrible things. It is industrial and polluted and it is changing more quickly that its people and land can accommodate. It just hosted the 2008 Olympics and it is going to be hosting the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. I am very excited to see what change is going to continue to do to China. It is already a fascinating country steeped in history; what’s going to determine its future? We’ll have the check it out on our next trip!
COMING SOON! I've been working on a blog post complete with pictures and video for your enjoyment but darn work keeps getting in the way. Here are a couple pictures just to get you ready for it.
This past weekend was Korea's Independence Day and there were flags everywhere. Koreans are also feeling very patriotic because of their victories in the Olympics. The streets were crowded with people walking, scooters, motorcycles and the occasional car made its way through all the people as well.
Yesterday we made our first official trip into Seoul. Loren actually went without me once, on accident. He jumped on an express with the intention of going in to work on a Saturday and realized that he had missed the stop and was then on the freeway with no hope of getting off the bus until 20 minutes later, he was in Seoul. I forgave him for going without me. We went to Insadong, which is an arts district with all sorts of shops selling traditional wares such as tea sets, pottery, jewelry, paintings, scrolls, statues etc. It was kind of overwhelming with so much to see and so many people to navigate through. Check out these photos.
This is a mini-amphitheater between the middle and high school buildings. A view from the high school looking towards the middle school. One floor from the top and on the left is my classroom. This is the lounge/magazine/reference section of the library. LOTS of room in the library. This is looking at the school from the soccer field.
This is the elementary school. See those blue things on the roof, those are foam mats. They are necessary because that is the playground for the elementary school. Don't worry, they don't know they are that high up.
Here are some pictures of the school. I know we gave the web address of the school to many of you, but here are some other pics of the school.
KIS has been great to us so far. Since Sarah is hidden in the bowels of the Elementary building and I am atop the fourth floor of the Middle School we don't get to see each other much during the school day. It was nice at Global because we were just down the hall from each other. Actually, we do get to see each other occasionally during one of our 3 prep periods built into our 7 period rotation. (Sorry, had to say it.)
It has been interesting getting to know our students. Although classes are filled with Korean kids, many of them are from the states. They are amazing students. Give them homework and they almost ask for more. Give them an assignment and they actually want to do it. Of course since some of them are 6th graders there are definitely maturity issues. For example, while we were getting to know each other with an activity called the human knot, some of my male students grabbed markers to act as cootie barriers. The wanted to hold onto one end of the marker and have a girl hold onto the other end of the marker. This way they didn't have to actually hold hands. I told them to wait a year and they will want to hold hands with girls. They quickly replied, "Yech!" I can't wait to say, "I told you so."
The staff is great. So far everybody seems nice. It is very interesting talking to people who have come from different parts of the world. We have met people from Tunisia, Thailand, Mexico, Columbia, Kenya, Doha, Seattle and L.A. just to name a few. I will try to include some pics of our new friends soon. We hope everyone is well.
Oh, lastly, did you know that "boneless chicken" in some Korean restaurants means chicken feet? Neither did I. Now I do. Mmmmm crunchy!
Loren and I have both made the switch to Middle School this year. I was a bit nervous about it. My impression of middle schoolers was that they are crazy, twitchy, immature and unable to control themselves. I found I was mostly right! They are twitchy and immature, but they are also super cute so far. The boys don't like the girls and vice versa. The boys range from little kids to tall things with peach fuzz mustaches and squeeky voices. The girls range from little kids to 5'6 somthings and they either are in controll of themselves and somewhat confident, or giggly and unable to sit apart from their best friend who is wearing the exact hair style as they are. I still vividly remember my 8th grade year as most everyone does remember some time in middle school and not fondly. But, I do have some shining moments that have made an impact on me even to this day. I hope that I can provide some of those moments for my students and help them through this tough time. Pictures of the school will follow sometime soon!
On one of our recent adventures right outside our doors, Loren and I stumbled on to this awesome park. It has a full sized running track, soccer field, a place for roller blading, a hiking track over a hill and some very interesting workout equipment. It was packed with Koreans working out! How inspiring. I hope to go running there soon. So, check out these pics .
It is 4:10pm on our 6th day in Korea and we are feeling pretty good about things. We've made some friends with other KIS teachers, used the subway, learned how to find taxis, and have explored our neighborhood. Tomorrow starts a new challenge. We are going to our first day of orientation which means we have to have our wits about us and must tackle the new challenge of navigating our way around the school and our co-workers. But, that will be for another blog.
We bought some new plants, which are beautiful and have finally bought enough hangers to hang all of our clothes! (note to self, when moving to a new country, bring hangers!! They are expensive and not as good of quality as our old ones. ) We actually donated close to 300 hangers from our home in Henderson!
Some things we've noticed about Korea(ns): Korean women are modest about the top half of their bodies, but don't mind wearing short skirts. Korean food is very meaty and they don't know what a vegetarian is. Some Koreans seem very ready to help you, but not many speak English. In fact, they would sometimes ignore our presence rather than have to try to communicate with us. Everyone lives in an apartment. You can buy hot coffee from a vending machine!-yummy It's hot and humid. E-Mart is like a Walmart, but much bigger where you can find all sorts of stuff from hamsters and fish to electronics to clothing to food! They also have big, ritzy shopping mall areas like Samsung Plaza and Shinsegae which are so ritzy they are also intimidating to us and the Korean shoppers get excited about $30 shirts on sale. (yikes for our clothes buying ventures!) Korean like their electronic gadgets. Our apartment doesn't have a lock, instead it has a key pad. We also have a camera call button where we can see who is calling us from the street. We have a speaker phone in the bathroom. We have a built in kitchen radio, Kimchie fridge, a strange fridge above our sink for who knows what, a remote control for our light in the bedroom, and a couple other gadgets we don't know how to use yet. Throwing garbage away is not easy! They recycle EVERYTHING! You have to buy garbage bags. ( this is how you pay for your trash). You must sort your garbage into 7 categories, food waste, plastic waste, aluminum, glass, cardboard, styrafome, and non-recyclables which go into the bought garbage bags. We still don't have it down.
There are many other things we've noticed but I think that's it for now. I hope you enjoy the pics we've uploaded for you as well as the tour of the apartment!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
The fog was so thick we didn't even know we were about to land. I don't know if there was any better way to start this two year adventure. Sure, we did our research about Korea, but the internet and lonely planet books can only take you so far. We were basically going in blind. However, we are fortunate in that we won't be blind forever. As we experience more and more of our new home, we hope our eyes will open so wide it will be as if we are peering from the top of a mountain, able to see for miles and miles in every direction. From that vantage point we will be able to clearly see where we started our journey as well as a mountain in the distance shrouded in a fresh layer of fog. With this blog we hope you are able to join us as we climb and share the view.
This is a mini-amphitheater between the middle and high school buildings.
A view from the high school looking towards the middle school. One floor from the top and on the left is my classroom. 
This is the lounge/magazine/reference section of the library. LOTS of room in the library. 
This is the elementary school. See those blue things on the roof, those are foam mats. They are necessary because that is the playground for the elementary school. Don't worry, they don't know they are that high up. 
These are some pics from our neighborhood. We are in a residential area compared to many of the other teachers at KIS but as you can see there is still a bunch here. For more info on Bundang, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundang
There are a lot of churches around Bundang which is strange since we read that Korea is only around 20% Christian.
All of these pics were taken at Samsung Plaza. On our way here we got lost walking for an hour and a half in the humidity looking for a subway station and then had no idea how to purchase tickets because the machine was completely in Korean- but we overcame!
Many other apartment buildings and the top of an elementary school.
