Fall on Palgongsan

It was a perfect Fall day, low 70's, mostly sunny. Our Korean hosts had invited us to climb Mount Palgong. We left the Village at 8:30 and arrived within an hour. After waiting for the rest of the staff to arrive, we set out on our hike. Took the first group only about 90 minutes to reach the top. While the views from the top were less than ideal due to smog or fog (I'm not sure which it was), the trail itself was absolutely stunning. This was the color I had been anticipating for months!

Our kitchen staff had prepared our lunches, which we were asked to carry along. We were NOT going to go hungry. Had I been able to figure out how to refuse, I might have declined the two HUGE sandwiches, which I ended up lugging both up AND down the mountain. This was in addition to two rolls of Korean "gimbap", three tangerines, a bottle of water and a Korean chocolate bar (yummy).

Even at 11:30, there were many groups already up at the top, which was a huge rock shelf where people spread out their lunches. Koreans know how to eat at a picnic! We even had some wine and "Soju" (a Korean rice wine--think grain alcohol! Bonnie, very similar to Nepali rice wine). It was amazing to see what other Koreans had hauled up the mountain!

There was much picture-taking, and everyone had a great time. At the bottom, our Korean hosts presented us all with yet another gift of appreciation (for all our hard work--and here I thought I was hardly working!) A lovely box of rice soaps. Very nice.

Bustling Hong Kong

There's a nip in the morning air, some of the leaves have fallen, and the rice grains are turning golden. Fall has arrived in South Korea. On my morning walk through the local farm lands it is evident that crops are changing, tho planting will continue all year long. Farmers prepare to unroll the heavy-duty covers for the greenhouses. I watch in anticipation, hoping to time it right to watch the rice harvest. . .

This week the Koreans celebrate "Chuseok" (the Harvest Moon Festival), a three-day holiday (very similar to our "Thanksgiving") when families get together, give gifts, eat crescent-shaped rice cakes and visit their ancestors' graves. For the past week, families have been visiting the areas around our Village, clearing the ground around the various burial mounds, from all the growth that occurred over the past year. I see mounds I never knew were there, now that they have been cleared. This year the holiday officially starts on September 30 and runs through the week-end. Most shops shut down, tho I wouldn't know since we just got back to Korea early on the morning of the 3rd and I haven't been into town since.

Okay, our trip to Hong Kong--in a word, delightful! But I must start at the beginning. Our flight to HK left the Incheon Airport (about an hour's bus ride from Seoul) at 10:20 the morning of September 26th. To avoid getting up at the crack of pre-dawn, we decided to leave Friday night and spend the night in the airport. Yes, you read that right--we chose to spend the night at the airport. Let me tell you why. . .there's a jjimjilbang--a really nice jjimjilbang, in the basement of the airport! For less than $25 you can soak in the pools, shower, and enjoy a "private" sleeping room--then be ready for the next day's flight. The rooms are small (about 4'x6') and have clear glass doors and no airconditioning (but I think there was some circulation of air piped in), and the "beds" are quite firm. It appeared that many flight attendants also use the facilities, so things got pretty noisy fairly early in the morning, but we did manage to get a few hours sleep, which is more than the male member of our party could say--seems that he kept getting roused from sleep by the other men, seeking personal "favors" of the sexual variety. It's a shame, really. Most of the men at the Village will not go to the jjimjilbangs--now I know why. I'm just thankful the women are not of the same ilk.

Because the Hong Kong International Airport is actually on Lantau Island, the landing is quite interesting--you come in over the water until the very last seconds, when you touch down on land. I'm told that just a few years ago, before the new airport was built, landing in Hong Kong was even more of an adventure. People called it the "scary" airport. It was located right in downtown Hong Kong, so when you landed you could quite literally look into the nearby apartment windows and watch someone's television--that's how tightly packed everything is in Hong Kong! It's a very crowded city, densely populated. Luckily, also very international, with most of the street signs and a lot of the products sold there all written in English. A very easy city to navigate. Also, superb transportation, with the subway being our preferred and fastest means of getting around.

This is our first view of the city taken from the airplane. Many of the buildings you see are actually apartment complexes. For those of you unfamiliar with the area (and believe me I was one of them!), Hong Kong (handed over to China from British rule in 1997, but governed as a "Special Administrative Region") is actually comprised of four main areas: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and the Outlying Islands. The heart of HK lies in Kowloon (the southern tip of the mainland peninsula) and the northern edge of HK Island, separated by Victoria Harbour. Our hotel was on the northern edge of Kowloon, very near some great markets and one block from a subway station which could get us to the Harbour within 5 minutes.

Sunday (our first full day in HK) Catherine, Marvin and I decided to visit one of the islands--Lamma. One of the smaller of the islands, there are no roads and no cars allowed on this island. We took a short ferry ride and arrived on one side of the island, then hiked the Family Trail which dumped us out on the other side of the island at a different port where we could take another ferry back to the mainland. There were many seafood restaurants at each of the small villages at either port, but we decided to eat in the city that night. We turned what was supposed to be a one hour hike into six hours of adventure, with a bit of shopping along the way. This was also our first encounter with the giant HK spider, many of which were hanging out alongside the trail. (Anna, close your eyes. . .) This one would span the width of an open palm on a very large hand.

Monday we spent several hours at the Jade Market then headed into the city center to visit the Hong Kong Art Museum. Afterwards we were heading out to find a place to eat dinner when a nice young Indian man approached Catherine and asked if she wanted to see some watches. Since her brother had asked her to get him a fake Rolex, we decided to see what the man had for sale. He instructed us to follow him, as he led us many, many blocks from where we started. Finally, as darkness was setting in and the area was becoming more and more "seedy", he told us to follow him into this building and into an elevator which would take us to the 7th floor. Well, at this point, my radar was up and I said no, I wouldn't go in there. Catherine was still willing, but finally Marvin expressed some concern and we got out of there, post haste. With the Indian man following us for about a block or so more, insisting that he would bring the stuff down to us, we just kept walking and finally we dropped him. Whew! Now you have to know what Marvin looks like--he's about 6'2" and best described as "burly". I was really not fearful for my life--but I was not going to go into that building! Anyway, we had a good laugh about the whole thing, and Cat decided that her brother could just come to Hong Kong and get his own d... watch! And by the way, I guess we were subconsciously influenced--we found a delightful Indian restaurant that night and introduced Marvin to curry and naan--mmm.

Tuesday was the only day we had pre-planned an excursion--a 6-mile hike on Hong Kong Island, called the Dragon's Back Trail. Of course the day was rainy and dank. Our guide called and asked to shorten the hike and start a bit later, in hope that the weather would clear. We started out in a mild drizzle. It was a lovely hike, with great views of the island. Once we got up on the ridge which was the dragon's back, the rain picked up and gale force winds began pelting us with light hail. At one point, I questionned why we were doing it, but in all, we had a great time. We were supposed to finish the hike at Shek O Beach (Shek O is sometimes referred to as the "last real village on Hong Kong Island"; and the beach is one of the best on the island) so we all brought our bathing suits along. We were all starving so we had a nice lunch at a Chinese/Thai restaurant. Then, since we were all still soaking wet from head to toe, we decided to swim. The water was quite warm despite the clouds and light rain. We played in the surf for about an hour, then found a bus to take us back to the mainland.

On Wednesday, Cat and I took a quick trip to the Flower Market and the Bird Market, then embarked on a bus tour of Lantau Island where we visited the Tai O fishing village, and took the Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride to the Ngong Ping Village. There we participated in a delightful tea ceremony and rode to the top of a hill to see the Tian Tan Buddha, a seated representation of Lord Gautama some 23 meters high. The Buddha is made of bronze and weighs 202 tons. And oh yes, it was pouring rain during our visit with the Buddha. On the cable car ride back down we met two charming 19 -year-old girls from mainland China who really wanted us to come home with them and visit their country. As Cat and I are always missing our daughters, we were inclined to go with them. But a small issue with visas kept us on track.

Thursday we all decided to arise early and hit "The Peak." Victoria Peak, at 552m (1811 ft), is the highest point on Hong Kong Island. We took the tram. There was a foot race going on that morning, so we sat in the coffee shop and watched the runners coming in. Then Cat and I decided to walk back down instead of taking the tram. We ended at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, where we were entertained by many lemurs, some crazy primates, and delighted by a variety of birds. From there we headed back to the Jade Market for a few last-minute shopping items. Then it was time for our adventure on the last sailing junk in Hong Kong, the "Duck Ling". We sailed the Victoria Harbour for an hour, much to my delight and Catherine's chagrin (her stomach doesn't care for this sort of thing). Then we had an hour and a half before we boarded another ferry (this one a "party" one, decked out in lights and offering complimentary snacks and drinks (of the tea variety). It was the first of October and China was celebrating "National Day", very similar to our 4th of July. This year they were also celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At 8pm, aboard this small ferry, we were privileged to watch 30 full minutes of uninterrupted fireworks over the harbour. It was spectacular!!! And the whole thing was choreographed to fantastic Chinese music! I was enthralled!

Afterwards, the ferry (prevented from going into the main area of the harbour because of the fireworks) dropped us off in a different part of town, one we were not familiar with. We managed to tag along with a couple from South Africa who were also trying to find their way back home, and with some luck and the help of a very friendly mother-son couple from China, we found the subway station and got back to our hotel by 10 pm.

Friday we sadly boarded our plane to return to South Korea. It was a long day filled with subways, planes, buses, trains and taxi cabs--but we finally arrived safely at the Village at 2:40am on Saturday. What a trip!

Okay, I promised no more long entries and look what I've done. Blame it all on Nancy Henry--she said she liked the long ones! Last week while we were gone from the Village, there were no students and this week promises to be more of the same. I'm being filmed on Friday for a "cyber" class, so I've got to finish preparing my script, but life here is just too good to be true. I hope you all are enjoying a fantastic fall--I hear it's cold in Colorado. I think of you all often. Peace be with you, and Happy 50th Birthday John Henry!

Connie

Trip to Gyeongju

This is a picture of the Sa Rang Chae Guest House where we spent three nights, in Gyeongju. We took a train from Daegu and arrived in about 1 1/2 hours. We decided to go "first class" because it cost less than $10. The train was very clean, fast, and had plenty of leg room. We learned later that the car we were in was the "quiet" car. Believe me, it was very quiet. A nice ride. The guest house was absolutely awesome! Owned by a Korean couple, probably she was in her mid-forties, he in his 50's--world travellers. They take a month or two off every year to travel somewhere--and they have been just about everywhere (except America, which is a bit pricey for Koreans, tho they plan to get there within the next couple of years).

We hung out quite a bit in the courtyard and met people from at least 10 different countries, and four different continents!

On one of our days there, we took a rather long hike to Namsan. Aside from the itense humidity, it was the closest

thing to hiking in Colorado I've experienced so far. We climbed a lot, and saw many buddha statues--very ancient,

some missing their heads. Close to the top of our hike, there

was a small temple/monastery, complete with a small beautiful vegetable garden, very well-tended by the monks.

We were also (thankfully) able to get water up there. That humidity, as I said, is intense!

Another day, we decided to take advantage of a package tour--we rode a bus to four different locations. Spent the day viewing temples, the Sea Tomb of King Munmu, where we had lunch along the coast and found beautiful colored sea stones at the shore line. Put my toes into the East Sea (or Sea of Japan), tho not much more than that since it was cool and overcast with some rain showers that day.

My new friend Catherine (Cat) and I had some fun experiences while shopping in the downtown area of Gyeungju. One evening, we were just looking in the window of a music store when the door opened and the man insisted we come in and join them. Inside, we found ourselves in a very small (about 8x10) room, with a low Asian-style table in the middle and several people gathered around. Turned out it was the middle of a flute lesson. This older gentleman was instructing a young girl (about 13) in playing the traditional Korean flute. He insisted we sit at the table, he poured us some tea, then played us a few tunes. Very beautiful. The young 13-year old was the only one who really spoke any English, so we began trying to communicate with her. We finally, with some prodding, convinced her to play a tune for us. She was pretty shy, but played beautifully as well. Korean people are very warm and welcoming!

Another time, we found ourselves on a street which seemed to have a lot of artsy type shops. We found a rather unique store that contained many items made from Korean paper. There was a lamp I liked (and needed for my room) so I decided to buy it. We had a nice conversation with the owner (and maker of the lamp) then had to rush back to our guest house because in the evenings the owners usually did some kind of craft project with the guests. This night we were going to be making Korean fans--so we didn't want to miss that. Well, when we arrived at the guest house, within minutes our instructor for the night showed up--and yes, it turned out to be the owner of the lamp store! We made some pretty cool paper fans and had fun. The next night, we were walking down the same street and stopped in to say hello. Well she insisted that we have coffee with her and she showed us more of her work and we just chatted about families, etc. She spoke very little English, but we sure enjoyed each other's company!

This bicycle looks pretty normal now in the picture, but in "real" life, it looked exceptionally long and large, especially since the Korean people are rather short by our standards. Anyway, I saw it while in Gyeongju and thought Ryan and Bobby might enjoy seeing it. (And no Ryan, I'm not shipping it to CA for your birthday--sorry!)

Well, I'd better get this posted, since it's been over 4 weeks since I got back from Gyeongju--and I'm getting ready to head to Hong Kong on Saturday. I really will try to post more frequently. I know no one likes to read these long posts. I'll try to do shorter, more frequent ones--I promise!

360-view of my room

A view of my somewhat messy desk. The fan on the top is one I made while in Gyeongju. Well, actually, I glued the flowers on. More about Gyeongju later. . .

View of entrance, shoe closet, fridge, table and chair. Bathroom is to the right, as you come in.

Bed and night stand. My new lamp I purchased in Gyeongju, made with Korean rice paper. Wall decoration is also Korean paper. I plan to mount the fan in the center.




Korean "closet" and evening view of patio. View is actually quite nice. Lots of trees on a small hill, with two "burial mounds" just below my window. I'm on the 4th floor.



The burial mounds are quite common in this area. Supposedly the college, when they built this village, had to agree not to disturb any of them. You can walk through the surrounding woods and find many. Usually they have an accompanying stone or marker of some sort--some with Korean writing on them, many with Japanese. A reminder of the many times this country was invaded by their neighbors. I'll have to get a picture of one to show you. They're usually just a mound of grassy dirt, about 2-3 feet high. The higher the mound, the more important the person was who was buried there. In Gyeongju, we saw mounds that were 20 feet high!

A Day in the life. . .

Okay, my apologies, it's been way too long since I've updated this blog. I will lose all my followers. . .

Did go to another Jjimjilbong the next weekend--a different one, this one close to the shuttle stop and equally nice. Had some really hard-pressure jets that were good for massage in the right places (tho they looked like they might just kill you if you got under them!)

This week we had a very light schedule--only three adult groups on campus (i.e. NO children!). I had to teach one 90-minute class on Monday afternoon, then two on Tuesday morning--then I was done for the week. Not a bad deal, huh? I absolutely LOVED teaching the adults, and hope to be able to do more of that whenever we get them on campus.

Some of you have asked questions regarding my day, so let me give you a typical day in the life of Connie in Korea. . .

Breakfast is from 8:00 - 9:00, so I usually get up pretty early, meditate, then either walk "the hill" (a 45-55 minute, sweat-inducing task) or go to the gym to pump some iron and walk the treadmill (in air-conditioned comfort, where I still manage to sweat!). A shower, sometimes a quick call from Anna to catch up on her day, breakfast, then I'm ready to teach my first class. If my schedule is full I teach from 9:00 to 10:30, 10:45 to 12:15, lunch, then two more classes, 2:00-3:30, and 3:45-5:15. Dinner starts at 5:30.

The Village has a variety of programs. In the summer when the kids are out of regular school, we get kids for "Intensives", which means they stay for a minimum of 2 weeks, some for 3 weeks, and some for a total of 4 weeks. The teachers who are teaching "intensives" plan to teach the same groups of kids for about (6) 90-minute lessons, over the course of the four weeks. Otherwise we only see the kids for a 90 minute period and they're on to other classes, never to be seen by the same teacher twice.

When I got here, they were just starting the intensives, so I was not put on the rotation for those. Which meant that I got to teach the other groups that were coming and going. They have a 5-day/4-night program, a 4-day/3-night program, a 3-day/2-night program, a 2-day/1-night program, and even a one-day "field trip" program. I know, confusing, huh? At one point at the height of the intensives, we probably had 200 kids on campus at one time. And in addition, we were teaching a group of local elementary school teachers as well, which added another 50 people or so to the pool. It was hectic! So this week is a nice reprieve.

Mostly I've been teaching what they call the "situationals"--classes like "grocery store", "airport", "video", "police", "hospital", "pet store", "gift shop", the list goes on and on. Most of these are held in separate rooms that have been constructed to resemble the actual "situation". For example, the grocery store has real food (non-perishables, and some not-so-non), paper products, plastic fruit, eggs, vegetables and meat/fish/chicken. The kids can pretend they are going shopping and have all the "realia" they could ever want. It can be fun, but occasionally the kids get a little wild with the stuff.

So, my first assignment was in the grocery store. I prepared my lesson and then, when I realized that some of the kids would have higher levels of English and some would have very low levels of English, I prepared again--and again. But after a few days of teaching the lesson, I felt prepared for any situation, and after a few more, it started to feel pretty routine--and boring. So I asked our "lead coordinator" if I could possibly do something else. I didn't want to be too pushy, so I told him it didn't matter what he gave me, just something different. Well, I guess in hindsight, I should have been more specific. I got "fast-food". Ugh! Now, I AM complaining. I try my best to stick to the curriculum, but end up talking about "healthy" foods most of the time. I had one group that was so "low-level" in their English skills, I really had to punt. At one point, I wrote the word "cat" on the board and asked the students to read it. They couldn't, so I drew a picture of a cat. They finally got it, so I tried writing the word "hat" (thinking to keep it simple). The class responded in unison: "dog"!! I actually had trouble convincing them that it was NOT dog. I knew I was in trouble with this group. . .

As I said, I LOVED teaching the adults. But now I'm done with that and next week we'll probably have about 100 kids here again. May God grant me patience. . .

With each group that comes in, there's an opening and closing ceremony. Usually in the gym, where the kids sit on the floor, lined up with the other 10-15 kids in their group. At the opening ceremony (which teachers are requested to attend) someone usually speaks (usually the lead coordinator, but sometimes there is more than one ceremony going on at the same time) and introduces the teachers and the "village guides". Then they are given the rules, take an oath to follow them, have their cell phones confiscated, and then the fun begins. They proceed to go thru the simulated "airport", where they have their "passports" (which actually look like real passports) stamped a million times as they pass through "customs", security, baggage claim, board a "real" plane, pick up their supplies/books, "check-in" to their "hotel", etc. Teachers are expected to "man" these stations. It's quite fun, actually. And the kids enjoy it. I'll try to get some pictures of the "airport"--it's quite realistic. At closing ceremony, the kids gather in the gym again, each of the teachers bid them farewell, they get their cellphones back, a group picture and certificate of completion is given to each one, then they board the buses to go back home.
So that's it for a typical day. If you would like to see a slide show of the campus and the kids, go to my facebook page and click on "Links". I'm actually in one of the slides, toward the end.
The cafeteria food is tolerable--usually enough variety that you can always find something to eat. And they try really hard to please us. Usually there will be Korean dishes and American dishes. Sometimes their attempts at American dishes are laughable at best (like the BLT's with sliced banana and sweet pickle), and inedible at worst. But the Korean dishes are pretty good, except for some of the dried fish. They have gardens out back and so some of the produce is grown right on the property. They are trying to provide us with more fresh fruit, at our request.
Okay, enough for now. I'll try to post some pictures. Coming next--a 4-day trip to Gyeongju.

Friday Night jjimjilbang

Jjimjilbang is the Korean word for "bath house". What a treat! We've decided to make it a Friday night tradition. I and three other women (Jen, Jazmin, and Catherine) took the shuttle into Chilgok (the closest medium-sized city, and first stop on the DGEV shuttle) then a short taxi ride to the jjimjilbang. It was on the sixth floor in a busy shopping area of town. You pay 8,000 wan (about $6.50) to enter and stay as long as you wish (most jjimjilbang are open 24/7). You can opt to pay an additional 17,000 wan (about $14) and get a "scrub". Cat and I chose not to get one (still waiting for our first paycheck). Anyway, once you enter you remove your shoes and place them in a locker. Then you get another locker and two small hand-sized towels and a quaint pair of orange (think prison garb) cotton shorts and top (think scrub top). The clothes are for phase two. The first phase is the pools. But before you can enter any of the pools, you begin by showering thoroughly from head to toe--using soap, shampoo, the works. You must be clean to enter the pools. Everything is in one VERY LARGE room, high ceilings. Lots of women (and children) walking around naked--but very comfortably, no one felt out of place.

There were a variety of pools--some very HOT, some extremely COLD; some contained mineral water, ginseng, or salt. Along the side walls were sauna rooms, one was very hot, with some type of aroma (smelled like chamomille to me) that was almost impossible to breathe; another had bowls of coarse salt which you rubbed all over, then sat under some intense heat lamps and sweated like a pig! After this one, you could come out and stand under an intense quick very COLD shower to rinse off. I tried just about everything--and enjoyed every experience!

I ended up having a small companion for most of my visit--a young Korean girl about 6 years old with two front teeth missing. I would try to get her to practice her English with me, then she started trying to teach me some Korean! It was a hoot! Most parents encourage their children to come up to us (Americans) so they can get some experience speaking with a native English-speaker. It's quite fun actually.
After soaking until we were prunes, we showered again, this time being offered shampoo and cream rinse by the woman who did Jazmin and Jenn's "scrub". We towelled dry, then two of us got into our "jammies" (the orange things) and headed upstairs for phase two. Upstairs, which was co-ed (hence the clothes) there were again multiple rooms, most of them "hot" (and dry), some with TV's, one for sleeping, and (my personal favorite) a COLD room, with ice-covered pipes lining the walls. I spent a few minutes in each room, enjoying the "soap opera" on one of the TV's. Then we headed downstairs to join our other two and get ready to catch the shuttle back to the Village.
But the highlight of MY evening happened in the elevator on the way down. I was the last to get dressed and was feeling a bit warm and sweaty. So I grabbed my sweater, wearing just a tank top and headed out, thinking I'd put on my sweater in the elevator. It would just be us girls, right? Well, the men's jjimjilbang is up on the eighth floor--and yes, you guessed it, when the doors opened we were greeted by about 5 or 6 men, who of course insisted that we pile on in for the ride down. As I tried to cover my chest as best I could, one of the men in the back looks at me and says "beautiful". There was no smirk on his face, no learing look in his eyes--just a very sweet, simple complement. It's been tooo long since someone appreciated me in that way. Needless to say, I smiled all the way home. (And no, I did not ask him to come home with me--but maybe I should have. . .)
Many Koreans make jjimjilbang a weekly thing. Kiri, you would LOVE these!! I will definitely plan to go back. We intend to try some of the others in town. They're all just a bit different.
And sorry guys, no pictures from jjimjilbang night!
Namaste,
Connie

Two Weeks in South Korea

Greetings from Daegu Gyeonbuk English Village (DGEV)!

Hard to believe that I've been here for two weeks. The time is flying by. No computer the first week, then once I got the computer I was starting to teach! Meeting some wonderful teachers (pictured here: Jim, Jennifer (a couple), Michael, and Jana, my flight-mate from Montana), and trying to exlore as much as I can. Started teaching on Saturday--four classes, each 90 minutes long, with usually 10-15 students in a class. Sunday I taught a unit on Healthcare for a class of about 35 that lasted about 2 1/2 hours. It went much better than I was expecting. And to boot, I had one of the most rowdy, disruptive groups (the infamous Group 6!). With that many students, I just let Group 6 do what they wanted--sometimes they participated, sometimes they didn't--but at least they allowed the others in the group to learn. One has to be thankful for the little things. . .
The facility here is absolutely amazing. Very ostentatious, lots of marble everywhere. This week we probably have about 250 children on campus, plus about 50 elementary school teachers who are learning how to improve their English language skills and learning how to use English in their classrooms. There are about 30-35 full-time ESL teachers, a Korean staff of about 10 in the administration office, and who knows how many kitchen staff and cleaning crew.
Several staff from the UCCS have been here for the last two weeks, just making sure we new teachers have been given all the tools and materials we need to begin teaching.
All in all, I am thoroughly enjoying my time here so far. The weather is hot and humid with occasional rain. The campus is a bit outside of town, which I enjoy. We drive through a lot of agricultural areas then start the 10% grade climb to get here. The road is lined with hundreds of fruit trees, so I can't wait till next spring. I think the fall foliage will be spectacular too.
I promise to write more soon. I have a story about my adventures into town yesterday. . .
Love to all,
Connie in Korea