New Year, New school - almost

Hello.

It's been too long. I'm a lazy blogger, and a busy living.

I think I last left off  talking about Seoraksan. What's happened since then? Lots.

There was Christmas, and "winter break" with its "winter camp" and then I had 2 weeks of vacation (it's actually 10 days plus any connected weekends... but they jipped me one day citing some day they gave everyone in school off (cancelled school) back in June. i had no choice in the matter).

That's life in Korea. Things are fudged over in many areas and aspects.
Things are also last minute. And you have to ride it out like it was the plan all along.
These are some low points (or cons) of life in Korea.

Winter break started on Christmas Day. <3 Then I had "work from home" days - because no one from carpool was going to school either, so I couldn't very well get to school. Then there was New Year's for which J and I went to Jongno (district of Seoul) and we watched them ring the huge bell at midnight. :)
It was packed!

Jan 6 ~ 10 was winter camp. The kids seemed to like it.

Then I went home to the States on the 13th. Came back to Korea on the 26th. I worked from home til school opened again on Feb 4. So here I am back at work.

Dealing with the transfer is a bit annoying, I will admit. Ok, a lot annoying.
My school has told me nothing, except a few things - that the person in this job next school year will work at 2 schools. They have to share an EPIK teacher. And just now my manager teacher asked me where their new teacher should live - in Jeungpyeong or Goesan. I told her Jeungpyeong because no one lives in Goesan, except 1 lonely teacher. He is so lonely in Goesan.

As far as when I'm supposed to move out, or how, this is crazy. I can't "move in" to my new place til the 25th, but I also have to show up to the new school on the 25th. So essentially I have to put all my stuff in the new place on the 24th, sleep in my house that night, and "move in" on the 25th - aka when I come home, I go to the new place.
Luckily, the new place is just one floor up, and J is the person who lives in the house I will move in to. He's more than willing to help and let me put my stuff in his house.
I can't imagine what other teachers do when they transfer! If they have to go to school, how do they move their stuff? I mean they couldn't take their stuff out of their house on the 24th and put it in the new place -- because the other person would still be there. They'd have to do it after the person left on the 25th - during school time.
Crazy.

I'm also annoyed right now, so it's hard to be dispassionate.
My manager had told me before winter break that we'd go to renew my resident card today (feb 7). She had me write it in my calendar. So I got everything ready today, but she forgot. I asked her and she didn't seem concerned and was like "what time are you done with classes?" on different days. So I'm praying she means she'll take me on the day she pointed, at the time she said.

Stuff in life is never easy.

Oh yeah - here's the kicker. So my boss-boss - the person who I report to at the education office, emailed me to give me the new school's head english teacher's phone number. She said to call her and ask about details. So I called just now, and awkwardly spoke in Korean. It turns out the number was for some other elementary school! No big deal, honestly, because I know the native English speaker at the school. So I sent him a PM. He calls me and tells me "they really don't know anything they're doing at school since the head english teacher is leaving, and they haven't scheduled classes." (&etc & etc.) So between the two of us, we hammered out no real plan - just that I have to show up at that school at 8:40 the date the contract starts. I barely even know where to go or what to do. And it's not like he can help me because he is leaving. Packing up the car and leaving.  The new head teacher might call me at some point before then. We'll see.

All this to get to the kicker - as I was talking to J (the teacher whose place i'm taking) he was actually sitting in the dentist office or hospital, I'm not sure which, RIGHT BEFORE his wisdom teeth surgery.

Life just doesn't stop. You have to take care of other people's business even right before your own surgery. I felt really bad that he was calling me from there.

This post is 3 months late

Better late than never, I'm hoping.

I think it was the first Saturday in October I went to Seoraksan with Jongsoo and his aunt. It was very beautiful, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

We had to get up at the waistband of dawn - so early it wasn't even the buttcrack of dawn. And drove about 2 hours maybe 3 to the north.

This is before ascending, just after entering the park. 

As with any beautiful place in Korea, there are temples here. 

The summit is far, up and away. I forget how many kilometers, but it's a very long hike... hours. We bought a cable car ticket instead. You have to wait a few hours before you can ride it, so we hiked in the meantime.

Another temple on the way.

 It was such a beautiful day, albeit the morning was chilly. 

Hiking you will often see rocks stacked on rocks. I heard there is a belief that if you can balance a rock on one of these, you will get your wish. 

Sometimes the road/path was packed dirt, other times wood (for steps or bridges) but sometimes it was these stones. It makes hiking more challenging I think. 

The trees did not disappoint. 

From the cable car, you can appreciate the rock face of the mountain. I was glad this cable car was more steady than the Namsan Tower cable car. We didn't rock very much. Whew. 

A selca after getting off the cable car. You can't see the view for the trees. 

And so we ascended.

 Up, up, up!

I'm making a terrible face here. It's partly due to sun in my eyes, but mostly due to being uncomfortable sitting that close to the edge. Jongsoo was all "let's get closer" and I was "definitely and certainly not!"

The view behind me.

 The flag up there marks the summit. 

I didn't go up there because to get there you have to shimmy along a ledge while holding on to nothing but a rope and to make matters more uncomfortable there are all these people in front of you and behind you. Yeah. I don't want to be pushed off the mountainside! So Jongsoo went while his aunt and I waited. 

Waiting was fine because the view up here is fantastic. And there was a chipmunk scurrying around! Too cute. 

I forget the name of the town. It's the closest one to the mountain... hmm. Anyway it's pretty. 

In the opposite direction there is nothing but mountain faces. You could sit and stare for ages. 

I'm pretty sure this guy did.

When Jongsoo came back from the summit, we all went back down via cable car. There's almost no wait to descend. Lol. Once we got back down, J found the orangest tree and had to have a picture. 

So there you have it. 

Season's Greetings!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

I am terrible for not posting in months. It's been months, hasn't it? 

I've been busy plugging away at making lesson plans, teaching, and getting through the daily things.
I had a yucky head cold for about a month - from late October to mid November. 

I've gone so Seoul a few times, but mostly stayed around town here. 

Last I remember was that I promised pictures from Seoraksan. Ooops! I'm a turd for forgetting! Maybe I'll get to that over the short time off I have before winter camp. 

The biggest thing that's happened is I have a new laptop. I'm still getting adjusted. 

Oh wait, that's the second biggest thing. The biggest thing is that I've signed a new contract for another year teaching here in Korea. 

December 12th there was a decent snow fall. We've had a lot of snow here - for South Korea. I was eating a quick meal before an English teacher's meeting and was just thinking to myself "It's like it can't decide if it wants to rain or snow." when it suddenly started coming down in ginormous flakes. It was a slushy, snowy mess, beautiful but eww. The next morning was ice. 

They don't really treat the roads or get out snowplows. I finally saw some snow tactics in action kind of last week when it was really hazardous. They seem to put down dirt, and use their backhoes and other big construction stuff to pull/push snow. This is on the highway... regular city streets can fend for themselves. 

This was an early December evening as I was let off from my carpool. The sunsets here can be very nice. Next semester I won't be seeing these ginseng people every day. I'm transferring schools!

I went to Lotteria with Jongsoo. 

What is Lotteria? Well - it's South Korea's version of McDonald's! 

It's decidedly for Korean tastes. They have a "wild shrimp burger" and this "corn salad." It came free with the 18,900 won fried chicken (it's a big basket of fried chicken). I tasted the corn salad. It pretty much tastes like macaroni salad - but with corn no macaroni.

This. This was a chocolate-needs day. Sadly, the brownies are only about an inch cube each. For 2,500 won you only get 4 or 6 of these things... I forget.. all I know was 1 was certainly not enough and ended up eating about 3 in one go - such was the need for chocolate. 

The packaging of these brownies really makes me laugh though. Each wrapper is a different design and says stuff like "My Love" and "Dear Sweet Brownie."

Anyway it's Christmas eve here. I'm making pie crust and waiting for the pizza guy to come. 

It's going to be a very merry dairy-mas! 

Hangul Day - way back on the 9th of September

I'm a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to working on this blog.

Today is one of those windy, weather is changing days. It smells like it could snow, but the air isn't cold enough. The sky looks beautiful though.

This cloud was more golden in person. 

I finally took pictures of the clothes I bought in Cheongju on one of the last public holidays before Christmas.

I kind of have too much burgundy in my wardrobe. Ha. But at least it is easy to coordinate.
The other thing I bought, not pictured above was a beige cable-knit cardigan. I think I'll start a cardigan collection.
Koreans tend to wear more.... vibrant or muted colors. It's hard to explain... They'll wear a peachy color, or a mustardy green, or navy. Not so much flat hues like you'd get in the crayon box - but when you do see those colors, there's usually a lot all together. Anyway. I hardly know about Korean fashion, so I'm not the person to ask. I can merely comment on what I've seen.

 Hangul Day - is like Alphabet Day. It's the day Koreans celebrate their written language, which was invented a long long long time ago by the Great King Sejong. He was a cool guy. He set about making a written alphabet for the common citizen so they could read the laws and stay out of trouble. He reasoned that the law is for the people's protection, but it can't protect them if they can't read and understand it. Or something along those lines. (prior to this, all written stuff was in Chinese)

Here's something J bought me yesterday when he was in Itaewon. (i didn't go because i have been sick.)

It's a blue plush Doraemon hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is ridiculously cute. I love it.

A Korean Drama Mystery Explained

Hello! It's been a while.

I've been busy with school and with going places on the weekends. A couple of weekends back I went to Seoraksan (a beautiful mountain) with my boyfriend and his aunt. I don't think I've posted about it yet. Sorry I am lazy, and I don't want to take the time to pick out photos. Not just yet. I took upwards of 200 photos there alone. I have to pick the best pictures for you to see.

So today I'd rather tell you about my school staff hiking trip. We went to a mountain by a lake in Goesan. While it was not as precipitous, rugged or high as Seoraksan, it was still very beautiful. I was also glad it was easy hiking since I am feeling under the weather.

Here are some of my coworkers, posing for pictures and just having fun. 

This spot was very scenic. They had benches and swings for people to stop and enjoy the view. 

 So here is a shot of the lake, and across the lake, on that low hill on the right is a cemetery.

I tried to get a close up shot, and this is the best I can do. My dad asked me about how they have mounds over graves. It is an interesting thing. Even after burying, they erect a mound of dirt on top about 2 to 3 feet high. They have very pretty cemeteries, and they are usually in very beautiful locations like this one. 

That brings me to my post title. 

I don't know how many of you have ever watched the Korean drama called "Secret Garden" but if you have you will know what I am going to talk about. 

I doubt it's a big spoiler to say that in the drama, when mountain biking, the leads find themselves at some mountain shack and decide to go in despite it seeming majorly creepy. As Americans, we would be "warned" and just turn around and go back. I found myself asking "Why on earth would there be a restaurant out here in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain?" I've been hiking some in the States, at State parks (though not the big ones out west), so my understanding is - there will be stalls and food/water at the head of the main trail, or in the "entrance" area of the park (and maybe not even - maybe just vending) - but from there on out you are by yourself. You must carry your own water, food and whatever it is you might need.
Not so in South Korea, not so. You can be a few kilometers into a hike and come upon something like this.

I believe we had gone 2 kilometers when we started seeing things, and they're not mirages. Before this tent, was a pavilion and a spring with running water. I should take a picture of the next spring so I can show you, sorry I don't have a picture right now. Anyway, it's spring water that they have tapped and it flows constantly. You can drink some with a cup or dipper spoon they have there for just that purpose. So you don't absolutely need to carry a drink.
And if you want something with actual calories, walk no further. They have that too. Around 2.5 kilometers, we reached a water wheel place where ladies were making tteok (chewy glutinous rice squish) by hand with huge wooden mallets. The place sells tteok and shikhye (a sweet rice drink). 

The same was true of Seoraksan. Every 2 or 3 kilometers, there were rest areas with people selling food, snacks, drinks, and souvenirs. Actually, there is a coffee shop up there that has amazing coffee. It's expensive, but it could just be one of the best cups of coffee I've had in Korea. 

Come to think of it, there were similar stalls at Maisan (see a post from last May, I believe it was). The only difference was there were more temples at Maisan, and that made the food stalls a little less obvious to me. The food was before the hike mostly, but there were still small snack vendors in places.

After all my hiking experience, I can see why in that drama the characters do not find it very odd that there is a restaurant stall so far off the beaten path. The only suspicious thing about the place is that there is only 1 (Koreans are famous for putting 3 or more of the same thing right next to each other. People say it's a competitive streak. I think it has more to do with collectivism.)

So if you're ever hiking in this country do not fear if you come across a random food cart/vendor. It probably has something yummy to offer... that or some dried fish, cuttlefish, sea creature... and I guess you can try it if you're into that kind of food. *blech!*

Korean hiking pros: You won't starve or go thirsty. 

There are pre-made paths, so even the elderly can hike.
There are plenty of people out there hiking too, you probably won't get lost.
If you have a medical emergency, there are people to see it happen and call for help.
Cell phone service is everywhere, people CAN call for help.

Korean hiking cons: In a hurry-hurry culture, it feels like Koreans hike too fast.
There are plenty of people... sometimes too many. If you came for peace and quiet - you will be sorely disappointed.
The pre-made paths might insult your sense of rugged American pride if you fancy yourself an off-road kind of hiker.

Random Things Strung Together

I realized I hadn't posted the pictures I have taken here and there in random places. I also did not post anything from Chuseok, well not really much of anything.
What is Chuseok? Well, Koreans will tell you it's their thanksgiving but really... there is  no turkey, no football and definitely no gravy. It's Korean families getting together and eating all kinds of rice cakes, other Korean foods, and doing traditional stuff. This includes visiting your dead relatives. There's an old old old custom of leaving food offerings for the dead. People still do this to this very day. (and this is why it is still considered rude to leave your chopsticks in your food, sticking up. that's how they leave the food for the dead.)

For Chuseok Jongsoo and I went here:

Yes. This is a cemetery. And yes, they have mounds above the graves. Apparently, they are still buried six feet under, but then they build a dirt mound above the ground too.
We went to visit Jongsoo's grandmother, and no we did not leave her food, because she was protestant. But we did see families that brought picnics (blankets, umbrellas and all) to their loved ones' gravesides.
From there we went to visit Jongsoo's grandfather, who was Buddhist, so he was cremated and his remains are in a temple. It was a totally different feel from the cemetery. The monks were also serving vegan bibimbap for free. Very kind hospitality. It was delicious too.

Jongsoo and I went biking along the Hangang River. We biked from near Apkujong all the way to the Olympic Bridge and back.

Jongsoo stopped to take a picture of the Olympic Bridge. 

We used the really big kanihwajangshil (portopotty). Okay. So it is, and isn't, a porto. It's not like those rental things they haul on trucks.. It is more like a modular that a truck hauls in and it is meant to stay there a long time. It has running water, flushing toilets, and if you're lucky - toilet paper and hand soap. This one did, and I was very glad. :D
The building next to it had a GIANT mukade (poisonous centipede) on it.

Or perhaps it's a caterpillar? Either way, why decorate with insects?

I recently found a wonderful peppero flavor. (what is peppero? why, it's korean pocky.)

And about 2 weeks ago my manager teacher asked me if I needed anything for my house. I told her I could use a toaster oven... after some discussion, she understood the "toaster" part. She had to ask my co-teacher to translate for us. He was like "toaster" and indicated with his hands toast popping up. I said yes, but more like a thing you can put stuff in and roast, like an oven, but small, and it also makes toast. "Oh a mini oven" he says. Later on I was to be handed a print out from G Market of what appeared to be a toaster oven. I was delighted and told them it was great.

And as you can see in the picture, it has a door that opens and a rack to put things on and knobs and everything. But do you see on the top right hand corner a switch? Yes.
This thing opens a panel in the top. This is the toast spot. This is where you make toast.

So it is very literally a toaster and a mini oven. I had no clue these things existed in the world.
It is smaller than a regular toaster oven. I was a bit sad over that. But it is a device in which I can make toast and oven-things. I am no longer a slave of the gas range stove! No more worries over burnt pans, no more babysitting the frying chicken, and no more grease splatters! Well -  until I want something of that sort. I have a choice! Huzzah!

I also told my school I needed an electric kettle. This confounded my co-teacher at first. He had no idea what this was. I told him "a water boiler, like we have in the teacher's office to make coffee and tea with" and he understood. Maybe it is because he is a man - he does not have a good vocabulary for kitchen appliances. Later on, as I was walking home with the brand new water boiler that my school got me (and when i say they got it for me - please understand that part of the package of hiring me - they get a stipend from the government to buy things for a new teacher things like toasters, kettles, silverware, comforters or whatever the teacher may need. i'm not sure how much money it is, but it is enough to buy a few of such things), I learned from my New Zealand colleague that in her country they are called jugs, or electric jugs. Wow. Here's my new electric jug.

It lights up blue when you turn it on, and you can watch it bubble through the window. I really enjoy it.
The old kettle I had here was plastic, and had no screen filter thing where the spout is - so anything could crawl in if it wanted to.. And the metal plate inside was just starting to get small rust spots. Time to go old kettle.

When Etude House moved in to our small town, they had a 50% off sale for members. I joined and got this manicure set for half off. They're called "gradient nails".

I didn't do as good of a job as the box's example. My nails are also very short here.
There's a story behind this. 

Last week before class my one 2nd grade boy comes in by himself. It was a chilly day and I told him my hands were cold. He walks over and inspects my hands, and sees my long thumb nails and says, "Teacher, your nails are long." And he shows me his nails, all short, freshly cut. He didn't know the word for nail clippers, so I told him. "Teacher, there are very good nail scissors at my house. Yesterday I cut my nails. You need cut your nails. Your nails too long." He tells me, and asks if I have nail scissors. I told him I had good nail scissors at my house too. I told him I'd cut my nails. He looked satisfied. I forgot to though. And the next day when I had class with him again, he checked my nails and was disappointed that my nails were still too long. I told him I'd forgotten but would cut them that day. So when I came home I cut my nails. 

Season's Change

It's the proper beginning of fall here in South Korea. I saw my first fully color changed tree in the school yard. Most of the trees here are still green, even up on the hills and mountains.
Other fall signs are here though. The weather has cooled somewhat, and the humidity is down. By cooled, I mean I need a jacket or sweater in the mornings and evenings, but the afternoons are still close to 80, if not higher.

Fall means bugs are giving their last hurrah before the dead of winter. The dragonfly population was out doing its best to prolong the species (which, around here, does not need much helping or increasing).

I've decided one thing though.. The spiders have gotten huge and fat over the summer. They must eat very well.

I did not want to put my hand in the picture for perspective because then I'd have to be near this lady. So I will just say she's about the size of half of my thumb - a little more than an inch long in body and as big around as my thumb. Sadly, I've seen bigger than her.
The golden orb weavers (aka yellow garden spiders) here are gigantic. *shudder* You don't see them in May. You might see a few in June. A couple more in July and August, but September is when they really showed up en masse. Perhaps they were always there, just now you can't miss them because they're big enough to eat small toads. *shudder* They have this penchant for building their webs over walkways (in between trees or light posts) and sometimes they build them too low.

It's scary walking on the sidewalk. I am going to be walking in the street until a few good frosts end their reign of terror for the season.

Panggu

I recently learned the most important word - banggu (the b is actually an unaspirated p, so it sounds like a half-way p/b to  us English speakers) - 방구.

I also recently learned that there's a way around some site blocking. Should I teach you? Hmm. Admittedly it doesn't work for everything. Last week the school's computers all updated (windows, i assume) and this ruined the flash player - which our textbook's computer program runs from. This not only stopped us teachers from using the interactive software, but then the students couldn't do their homework. Conveniently - the flash was ok for 3rd and 4th grade. I think those youngsters would have cried if it had happened to them. The real problem though is that the province of education has blocked adobe.com and blocks attempts to update existing adobe products. I couldn't fix it. So we had to call in the computer person for our school and she couldn't fix it and they called in an expert. And he couldn't fix it. My co-teacher got them to "wipe the harddrive" claiming that the computer was too slow. It wasn't. So pretty much there's nothing on that computer now except flash - which I'm not sure how she did it, but our school's computer lady fixed the problem (for us... it was later on in the week that the students' computers went down). But that still didn't fix my co-teacher's problem with IE not working with his little fox website (english learning site with cute flash animations). I downloaded chrome and showed him how to use it - and that it would make little fox play. At first he seemed pleased. Later he decided this was "too much work" (to open a browser he is less used to) and says "it should work in IE." There goes my google chrome convert. *sigh*

So I guess we'll see in a bit if the problem is resolved for the students who couldn't do their homework - since today is a co-teacher day.

Oh yeah, the trick is... use https instead of http. Yup. Simple. :D

Busy Days

Since school has been back in full swing, I've been keeping pretty busy. On the weekends, J and I typically stay in town and wander around finding new things. About 2 weekends ago we found that our town has a shrine to the legendary founder of all Korea (back from the year like 2333 BC).

And that day we also bought a 3D crystal puzzle. And I bought cute shoes. :D J bought me an adorable bunny shaped white out strip dispenser and hello kitty eraser.

In the meantime I eat chips with cute actors on the bags (i mean, it's not enough for sunny 10 soda to have pop stars.. LOL). And watch clouds, sunsets and such things.... 

This is of course when I'm not cleaning my house. 

Like last weekend, when I went to Everland in Seoul with J. (and didn't clean my house.... the centipedes thought this meant they were welcome to move in. ha.)

Everland was decorated for Halloween, and we were even lucky enough to come the 2nd night of the horror nights. :D I must add -- one nice thing about Korea is that they do not understand the scariness of clowns. I've asked my kids, different ages, if they thought clowns were scary, and they said no. They were puzzled. The Western concept of a clown is new to them, and luckily the scary part didn't carry over yet. So there were no scary clowns at all! ^_^ The only actor that got me was the Korean grim reaper. I didn't realize he was a costumed guy at first, and all of a sudden he whipped out a fan and spread it open, fanned himself and walked briskly past, scowling. I scream a little. (which was his goal anyway)

Everland has a really pretty rose garden with all kinds of roses, and naked Greek goddess statues. lol.

This vampire was willing to pose for a picture. He got really close. 

 Right after the rose garden is the "four seasons garden" which changes depending on the season and holiday. It was a graveyard when we went through. It felt like fall - with orange and burnt red colored flowers, lots of pumpkins, and even a bush or two shaped like a jack-o-lantern.

In the horror village, you could pose with plastic bones and body parts. 

The owl is my new stuftie - Whoobert. J got him for me. 

The day after Everland, J and I went to see the Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center. They had at least a few hundred of the layouts and storyboards all on display. There were some for every single Ghibli movie, even the obscure TV only ones. It was really cool. I realized I've only seen a small fraction of all their works. 

Other than that... my school went on a field trip the week before last. I went with the kindergartners through 3rd graders to the Cheongju zoo. That was fun. The kids would ask me what different things were called in English. That was exciting for me, because usually they don't care. And the kindergartners, who I don't teach, looked at me curiously. One little boy asked his sister (my student) is she the English teacher? So I told him yes I was. (all in Korean...) 

I still am not very good at Korean. But I understand a lot more.