Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads...

Wow it's September! 2010 doesn't seem to keen on sticking around and getting aquainted. OK, so that title (from Back to the Future) is my lame attempt at conveying some of what I'm feeling as these last few weeks in Korea are winding down. Firstly, that time here goes by WAAAAYYYY too fast. I really can't believe that I'm finishing out my 2nd year. At the same time, the vastness of the experiences and personal growth I've had while being here makes it seem like nearly a decade ago I got on that plane at Pearsons IA and became an expat. Also, it's reference to how I suspect that going home will feel a lot like stepping back in time a bit. No, that's not a dig at how behind the times my home town is (even though it's kinda true, sorry D-town). I just mean that I will be returning to people and places that have been an enormous part of my past and I feel as though I will be returning as such a different person, I have to reconcile these two lives I've lead, with their very different narratives.

But enough cogitating (oh yeah, its a word). What's new?

Well, on Wednesday night, Typhoon Kompasu hit the peninsula with enough rage to kill five people. Suncheon didn't see much of that damage. It was quite a storm though and I enjoyed the sound of the howling winds and gusting rain slamming into the apartment building. It also got my imagination going. If one of these tall slender apartment buildings was to get blown over, would we all go down like a bunch of dominoes? Thankfully, reality never tested my theory.

Two weeks ago, I started teaching an evening class for "gifted" middle school students for the city on Monday and Thursday nights. It means I don't get home until 10pm, but that little bit of extra cash will be nice at the end of the month. Plus, "gifted" middle school students are basically "general" high schoolers, so woot! to reusing my lesson plans.

Life is good in Korea, folks. The sun is shining, the AC is WORKING, and I've been finished classes since 10:05 this morning.

Why am I leaving again?

Letter from Eun-Ju

On Monday, I came back from teaching my first two classes of the new semester (I think I am at the first High School in Korean history to be organized enough to have their NEST teaching on the first day back!) and found a letter on pretty stationery (Entitled "Rome Color Holic") on my desk. It was from Eun-Ju, a 3rd grade student who'd been assisting me with English book club at the beginning of the summer. This totally made my day.

"Dear Lisa teacher,

Hi ~ Lisa Do you remember me? My name is Heo Eun-Ju. During the summer vacation, though very short period, I helped you prepare the class of your book club. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you much because I'm poor at speaking English. But, I'm glad to give you a hand.

Frankly speaking, I was afraid of communicating with a foreigner. So, I had less confidence... but this experience gives me a chance to overcome my fear. You are very generous and considerate. You always smiled to me. Even when I made a mistake. Thank you for your kindness. <3

Do you remember the first time I participated your class?

That time, suddenly you let me introduce myself, and I showed you my poorer ability than I could. That moment, I saw your face and I was worried about that you might be disappointed me.

But, you didn't ignore me so I'm deeply grateful to you. I promise you. I will improve my ability of speaking English and visit you with my fluent English. Please remember me, and that day I want to be your friend. Sincerely, Eun-Ju"

MUDFEST music video!

Two posts in one day?! Inconceivable!

Ok, here's another vid I did of our trip to Mudfest in Boreyoung last month. We had a fantastic time!

Video! Swimming with Sand Tiger Sharks!

I have been an absolutely terrible blogger. Completely fell off the wagon. I suppose partly its just that Korea has stopped feeling like a foreign place; now it's just the place where I live. So things in daily life don't seem as remarkable as they once did and its hard to believe anyone would still want to hear about it. But that being said, the last four months have definitely NOT been boring. There's always so much to do and see. So I'm going to post a few videos and photos to get caught up as best as I can. In just 7 weeks my Korean adventure will be over and I'll be returning to Canada, looking for my next one. I've really started to play with windows movie maker lately, I've been enjoying it alot! Here's my first attempt at syncing up music with video and photos, and lucky for you its of my "Shark Dive" experience at Busan Aquarium that I went to in mid-May of this year. We had a great time. I shot all the videos/photos myself. Quite exciting to be that close to the sharks!

Very Bad Blogger! March and April Update.

Oh I started off the year with so many good intentions for this blog. But any of you who know me, know I am a terrible procrastinator. In fact, as I write this entry I'm procrastinating planning a lesson for a class I have in two hours. You're Welcome.

(Note to reader: I will continue to blog about my trip to Malaysia, but not today)

I returned safe and sound from Malaysia and was back at work on the 16th of February, teaching an advanced English class. It was a like every ESL teacher's dream. I had about 12 students, all high level english speakers, all very keen. I taught them about formal academic debate, argument structure and making objective, logical statements. (Believe me, we had some interesting discussions about the topic "Couples should live together before they get married" - quite a different perspective from the one that's in North America right now) At the end of the two weeks we held a formal debate where I divided the students into two teams and randomly assigned them to the negative or affirmative side of the topic "Children with Mental Disabilities should be Fully Integrated into the School System". It felt so strange to give them their assignments for research and have them take off with it, no help needed from me! I was very proud at the end of it. It was also a rare pleasure to get to learn all of my students names.

The regular school year got into swing in March, with lots of changes underway. There was the usual circus of losing 1/3 of the teaching staff to mandatory reassignment and gain that many new teachers as well. In Korea, teachers must change school every 4 years to ensure that remote schools are staffed as equally well as schools in larger cities. Sounds great in theory, but it's a logistical nightmare: many families wind up with a mom or dad who lives in one city during the work week and travels home on the weekends. If both parents are teachers, often the children live with their grandparents. So we had lots of good-bye dinners and then lots of "welcome" dinners. My supervisor, Son Hwa-Ja, was reassigned, but thankfully another teacher I already know and who has excellent English was promoted to fill Hwa-Ja's place: Choi Young-Ju. Choi Hyun is still my main co-teacher, but she's a bit absent-minded and her English isn't great, so it's nice to have another person to go when there are questions or problems.

On top of the staff change up, I was ousted from my beautiful "English Zone" classroom which I had enjoyed so much last year. Mr. Jo, our progressive vice-pricipal, signed our school up for a pilot project introducing a western class schedule to Korean High Schools. The goal is to make the education more student-centered (as it is in the west), where students choose their schedule to fit what they want to study or pursue for a career, rather than the current Eastern teacher-based philosophy. Part of the change involves having teachers stay in one room and the students travel to different rooms based on the subject. Ironically, this changed occured for every Korean teacher, but went in reverse for me. The Korean English teachers now have their own homerooms, (including the English Zone, which is now Mr. Lee's Homeroom) and I travel from English classroom to English classroom depending on the class, carrying all my lesson supplies and handouts with me. Until the projectors were installed and working, I also had to recreate my powerpoint presentations on large poster paper and magnet them to the chalk boards!

As an incentive to schools to take on the new system, the government also gave approx. $2 000 000 in funding to schools for renovations and upgrades. Awesome stuff, except that our renovations weren't finished on time, so for the first two weeks of school I had no office or desk to work at. I usually sat in an empty teacher's conference room, freezing my butt off. (BTW, March was unseasonably cold for Korea this year, we had snow on March 10th and temperatures frequently dipped below freezing at night. Now you may think, "Why Lisa, aren't you a tough Canadian girl? A few degrees below zero is nothing!" but you would be an ignorant Canadian who takes your insulated/CLOSED doors and windows and effeciant furnace for granted)The lack of desk also meant I had to carry all of my materials with me everywhere, as I had no where to store them. So I brought a backpack to school everyday full of my resources. Thankfully, soon a desk was provided for me. Unfortunately, my office is a completely different building from all my classes, so I'm still lugging alot of stuff around with me during the day.

Oh well, having adjusted to all the changes now, the semester seems to be going just fine. It's hard to believe I'm already on to the 7th week. April 1st was the beginning of my last 6 months in Korea, time sure is flying. Lots of fun stuff has been going on socially, but in an effort to keep these entries short and more readable, I leave it here. I tell you about my rocking social life, and more about Malaysia, soon. Honest!

Tonsilitis: Canada '06 vs Korea '09

Spoiler Alert: Korea wipes the floor with Canada's thoroughly beaten behind.

Here's the story of two very different health care systems. And why I'm glad I was in South Korea for Round 2.

Round 1 - I was meandering through the 3rd year of my BA at the University of Waterloo as a part-time student while I worked full time (Shout out: Parkway Ford!). I came down with one hell of a sore throat in mid-September so I stopped into the student clinic and the lady-Doctor there looked at my throat, took a swab and perscribed me some anti-biotics to kill the infection she assumed to be strep throat (wait time: 45 minutes, consultation time: 10 minutes). It was very painful, and please understand I really hate going to see a doctor unless I'm really ill. If you're from Canada, you know what a waste of time it is. The anti-biotics worked. It went away but came back 6 weeks later with a vengence. I returned to the clinic (wait time: 1 hour) and was checked out by a less friendly and less thorough lady-Doctor. She checked my history, informed me that the swab test for strep came back negative so she wasn't going to perscribe me anything. She told me to rest over the weekend (this was a friday) and come back on Monday *if* I still felt sick for bloodwork. Methinks she suspected me off trying to get out of midterms or get more T3's? Anyways, my throat hurt so badly that I couldn't sleep, at all. Not Friday night, not Saturday night. And by Sunday I couldn't swallow ANYTHING, not even my own saliva. Some said I should just go to the hospital but I felt sure the clinic would help me out. I waited until Sunday night turned into Monday morning. At 9:00am sharp, I walked into the clinic (Wait time: 30 minutes even though the clinic JUST opened) and another Doctor checked me out. He asked why I was there. I told him I wanted the bloodwork done. After a few vials were pulled from me, he asked me with an edge in his voice: "What else do you want me to do for you?" I replied "Can you please prescribe me something to open my throat so I can eat and sleep again?" He prescribed a special mouthwash. Fabulous. The bloodtests were to be done in 24 hours. I knew it meant a 4th night without sleep, but surely the wheels were in motion, I could tough it out for one more day. I waited until 12 noon on Tuesday to call and was informed by peeved nurse that they would call me when the results were ready *if* they showed anything. I was determined to wait and be vindicated by science, even though at this point I was dangerously dehydrated and exhausted. That night, while getting out of the tub, I nearly fainted and since I have never fainted in my entire life, gave in and went to emergency at 11:30 pm. At this point, nearing full Zombification, I was running a fever of 101 and unable to swallow any of the medications in pill or syrup form the nurses tried to give me. I was spitting my saliva into a cup that I carried with me. I was put in an isolation room to avoid a zombi-pocalypse. Around 2am on wednesday I was taken for x-rays, hooked up to an IV and blood work was done. Within AN HOUR the results came back, mononucleosis and tonsilitis. The doctor said I may have to go in for emergency surgery to remove them if I didn't respond to medicine. He wanted to wait for the throat specialist to come in at 8am, until then I would get some morphine injected through my IV so I could sleep. Which sounded awesome, but unfortunately the morphine had no effect on me and thus I waited out my 5th night without sleep until the Throat Specialist lady showed, examined and ordered a miracle concoction of drugs which opened my throat/killed the pain. I feel asleep so quickly and so soundly they had to wheel me up to my room in the bed from the isolation room and I didn't wake up until about 10 hours later. Thankfully, I responded well to the antibiotics and after another 24 hours in the hospital under observation I was sent home on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to my student insurance and Canada's much lauded free universal health care, I walked out of the hospital only having to pay for 40% of my medication. Cost: $60 CDN.

Round 2 - Sore threat/headache/fever symptoms begin a few days ago. I could feel the swelling and hoped it would just pass. But by last night around 2am, I knew what that "shards of glass in your throat everytime you try to swallow" feeling meant. And I was nervous. Everytime I've had a sore throat since 2006 I feel little shreds of panic that I will go back to the land of being really sick and exhausted but none of the medical professionals around me believe that I am. I called in to work. My friend Jodie called a Korean friend who recommended a Throat Specialist clinic conveniently located right beside my apartment complex. Walk: 5 minutes. Wait in reception: 5 minutes. Consultation & Diagnosis with Specialist: 5 minutes. Cost: 3500 Won ($3 CDN). Go to pharmacy with my fresh off the printer prescription: 5 minutes. Prescription pills: 3 200 won (less than $3 CDN). DONE. OVER. (My insurance only covers 50% of doctors visits and doesn't cover medication, so even if I had forgotten my insurance card, my total cost would've been about $10)

(Well I hope, if I'm not ship-shape by Monday, I go back again, but really, it's not hard to THAT over again)

I really don't understand enough about the Korean Healthcare System to understand why is it so cheap and effecient. And I don't care. As far as I'm concerned it was designed by Gandalf and Dumbledore and Santa Claus.

Video! Finale to the Busan International Fireworks Show Oct/09

2nd Year in ROK Starts with a Bang!

Ok, ondol's on, cat is fed and cuddled, hot chocolate hot, music on. It's just you and me, Blog. Let's do this.

Well after that fantastic weekend on Jeju island, it was back to the old grindstone. Well not exactly. Midterm exams gave me another week of cancelled classes, thank you Korean public education system. Well actually, now that they have me monitoring exams during these periods, I prefer a regular week of classes. It goes by so much quicker, not to mention it's so much more enjoyable to interact with the students and see some of them making progress. I've really enjoyed this semester so far. I'm in groove with teaching, confident with my lesson planning and have a good repoire with all the students (spent the months of first semester getting the 1st Graders comfortable with me and speaking English in front of their classmates). I had a very successful lesson with my Gr.1's discussing the similarities between Thanksgiving Day in North America and Chuseok in South Korea. Another fun one was doing Fall Acrostic Poems with my Gr. 2's. My students constantly surprise me. (I did post a sampling of the stranger poems I recieved on Facebook and my Google Group, so I won't post them here, if you want me to email them to you let me know).

October was a very busy month for me outside of work. On Facebook, I have a new photo album for every weekend!

The 2nd weekend of October was a social one. My friend Janet, who had been in South Korea for over 3 years, decided rather abruptly that she was ready to return home to San Francisco, so Friday Night we threw her a surprise Party (Appropriately titled "Where in the World is Janet SanFrancisco?"). We played a hilarious game of Shu-ele-Phone and realy enjoyed eachother's company. (Side note: Shu-ele-phone is a group game hybrid of Sherades, Clue, and Telephone that I picked up camping with a bunch of LDS friends in University. The Waygook crowd over here has really taken a liking to it). The next night was Janet's non-surprise farewell night, which she had gone and planned herself. We had a great meal at Outback Steakhouse and then headed out for a last night of Noraebong.

Pics are mostly of me with a bunch of people you probably don't know, but here's the link anyways: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269408&id=122614903&l=c44a08dfe8

The next weekend was jam-packed with fun! On Saturday, me and my partner in crime Amanda bussed to Busan (SK's 2nd largest city) to see the Busan International Fireworks Festival, held at the end of the Film Festival held the week before. We got there early enough in the day that we were able to take a cable car and then a short hike up to see the south gate of Geumjeongsanseong, the ancient fortress that overlooks the city. It was a beautiful site and made me sad that we didn't have enough time to hike along the wall of the fortress. But we knew we had to get down to the Beach well before the fireworks started if we were to see any of the show. As we left the subway to head for the beach, it became clear that everyone in the city was headed in the same direction. Police and men in Army fatigues were stationed everywhere directing masses. Arriving at the beach, I thought we would have to watch from the street. The beach, km's long, was packed. Somehow we managed to find a spot at the front, alittle too close to the water (Tide was coming in!). The show was 45 minutes long and amazing! I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We weren't in the ideal location for watching it, way off to the side like we were, but it was still spectacular. I will post the video's I took after I get this up. Getting back to the subway turned out to be way more difficult after the show. I've never been in a crowd like that before in my life! (Will post those videos too)
The next day, Amanda and I managed to find the energy for another hike. But first, I went downtown to buy a proper pair of hiking boots! We were planning to hike Jirisan, the 2nd highest peak in South Korea, the next weekend and I wasn't going to be caught without proper footwear this time! Boots aquired, we hopped on a local bus out to Songgwangsa. This temple is considered one of the three "Jewels" of Korean temples. In the gorgeous fall foliage, it was breaktaking. After looking around the temple we hit the trail for 3 hours. This turned out to be one of my favourite hikes of the year. Because we didn't hit the trails until 2pm, we didn't see too many hikers, and for the last hour of the hike we didn't see anyone else at all! It was a great opportunity to really enjoy nature. At the end of the hike we arrived at Seonnamsa, a smaller temple, but we had arrived at the perfect time. The monks had begun their evening drumming, which I'd never witnessed at a temple before. The sounds of the drums seems to go right inside your ribcage and bounce around. And in the classroom was a school of student monks being lectured by a head monk. A winding road lined with paper lanterns led us down to the busstop and as dusk deepend, the lanterns all came on and lit our path.

Now these are some pics you don't want to miss! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269416&id=122614903&l=5cb8c8f136

The next weekend was one I had been dreading and looking forward to all month. We were going to hike a small part of the Jirisan mountain range, the trail upto Cheonwangbong which is the highest peak in the range and the 2nd highest peak in Korea (Hallasan on Jeju is #1). This time Amanda and I had some company, Suze and Lindsey were coming with us. We were up early (6:45) in order to get on the trail before 9:00am. The trail we were taking was estimated to run between 7-10 hours and we woul lose the light aroun 6:30, so we would be cutting it close as is. It was a tough hike, but hiking the weekend before and taking the stairs up to my apartment on floor 17 a couple of times during the week helped me a little bit. On top of that, the mountainside boasted such beautiful scenery, I was constantly distracted by it and not thinking too much about my aching muscles. I summitted at 4 hours 20 minutes. Lindsey and Amanda arrived first and picked out a great perch for us to eat lunch on. My canned tuna with cream cheese and crackers was fan-freaking-tastic. After lunch we head west along the ridge to Jaesakbong peak and then headed south back to the trail head. My energy was quite high for the whole hike, but I fell behind the girls because I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

Pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270119&id=122614903&l=2c2560383c

Of course the following weekend was Halloween. I had felt totally uninspired as to what I should dress up as, and then a few days before Halloween my friends Jodie and Stephen helped me come up with the idea of being a marionnette who had freed herself from her master. Which turned alittle grisly at Stephen's suggestion that I should have severed hands attached to my strings. It was too awesome of an idea not to try it! Stephen even helped me find a craft store to get materials to construct the severed hands. Findind doll-like clothes was easy-peesy since looking like a doll seems to be what most girls are going for with fashion here. All week, I was showing the "Thriller" video to my students and that also really helped me get excited. On Friday, my supervisor from the previous year (Lee Myeong-Sook) gave me a halloween treat bag full of candy to wish me Happy Halloween. And so inspired by my co-worker, I ran out on my lunch and bought a ridiculous amount of Kic-Kers (Kit-Kat's) and delivered them to the teachers room with a big black and orange poster wishing them a Happy Halloween. That night, the Halloween party for the foreigner crowd in Suncheon was held at McCarthy's bar. We had a great time. On Saturday, the actual Halloween, I was happy to stay in with friends and play some games and watch a scary movie. It really was a great month. I can only hope the rest of the year will be half as good!

Check out my costume here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2271173&id=122614903&l=eacdec29d5

Happy Anniversary Korea! The End of My First Year as Spent on Jeju Island.

It's always too long before I sit down to this keypad and try to reconnect with you, any of you who read this. It's a great compliment to me that anyone reads it, that anyone follows my life here with me to South Korea.

It's been a fantastic 21 days since I last wrote. I can hardly imagine a better beginning to my 2nd year here. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary on October 1st and I celebrated well. My 1 year anniversary in ROK was spent on Jeju island, a large Island off the southern tip of the peninsula which is often referred to as the "Hawaii of Korea". It's the most popular destination for honeymooners and attracts business men and wealthy golfers (you must be pretty wealthy to play golf in Korea, those courses take up a lot of precious land). I was able to enjoy the weekend with a large group of friends as we all were enjoying a long weekend thanks to Chuseok, a Korean fall harvest holiday, that granted us an extra day off work. We travelled by ferry from Nokdong. We had originally reserved 3rd class tickets, but quickly upgraded to 2nd class when we saw that 3rd class was a noisy open hall with no seats, only floor which you could place a mat (if you'd packed one)and sit or lay on, while children run amuck about you. It was a clear day as we pulled out of the harbour, and I enjoyed spending sometime at the side of the ship, looking for jellyfish in the water.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and after some debate, Amanda and I split from the group to try to rent scooters. The scooter-rental shops we contact weren't willing to rent scooters to a large group of foreigners, most of whom did not have international licenses, and some of whom (like myself) had never actually driven one. We didn't have any luck in Jeju city renting scooters, but we were determined to see a little of the west coast before the sun went down. We hired a taxi to drive us to Guemnueng Seokbul-won stone garden. Amanda and I were mainly looking for some good photo ops with the Dol-Harubang ("stone grandfather") statues that have become the iconic symbol of the island. The statues were original carved by the island people for protection and fertility. We certainly got what we were looking for at the garden, and had a great time looking at all the other statues, exploring a cave and a small maze, a replicated folk village and buying a little dol-harubang to take home with us. (check out the pics! link below...)

After the garden, we zipped through the country-side to the south coast of the island, where we would be staying in Seogwipo. In the light of the setting sun, we drove through lush vegetation, Halla mountain rising up on our left and farmers fields lined with lava-rock walls on our right. It was strange to feel that although we were still in South Korea, we were in a foreign place. After we settled into our room, we rented scooters from a shop close to our motel that wasn't nervous about renting to foreigners. It was a bit of rocky start (see, when you don't feel in control you tend to grip hard onto something, which is bad if you're gripping the gas pedal) We grabbed dinner at Mr. Pizza and then picked up some food for the big hike. You see, tomorrow Amanda, Lizzie, Ian and I were going to hike South Koreas highest mountain peak - Hallsan. That night was as early a bedtime as a nighthawk like me could manage.

Our little scooter gang hit the road shortly before 8:00AM and wound our way slowly along the winding mountain highway to the base of our path for the day. I was relieved to see the trailhead started at 700M, so only about 1250 to go instead of the full 1950! The trail we chose was the longest at 19km roundtrip, but it was the easier of the two trails that lead to the peak. We were on our way by 9am. We kept a good steady pace, and stuck together until about the 1500m mark. At this point the trail got noticeably steeper and I started to fall behind the others a bit. At around 1700meters I broke out of the tree line. From then on out, it was a gorgous view already down the mountain to the seaside town and the coast. It was steady stairs all the way up to the peak, where I met up with my co-hikers who had all summitted between 30 and 12 minutes before me. We stopped here for about a 1/2 hour for lunch and to take a few pictures. Did realize it was freaking freezing up there until I'd been sitting for about 5 minutes! We also had the treat of spotting a korean deer, which until this point I didn't really believe existed. The descent turned out to be a lot tougher than the ascent. My thin street sneakers proved to be no match for the constant uneven, jagged lava rocks that are the pathway up Hallasan. My ankles and knees were hurting pretty bad from trying to keep everything stable when my ankles would twist unexpectedly. Still we made it down at 5pm, feeling pretty good. I dropped off my scooter at the shop and Lizzie, Amanda and I treated ourselves to a couple of hours at the Jimjilbong (sauna/public bath house)to relax our weary muscles a bit.

Later that night a few of us headed over to Dongdaemoon beach area to visit Lindsey and John at their swanky hotel that they'd splurged on. We mostly hung out in their room. But at the end of the night, a few peeps wanted to try their luck at blackjack in the casino. After sitting with my cranberry juice and a couple of galpals for few minutes chatting (minimum for playing blackjack was 100 000 won) we decided to throw 10 000 won (less than $10) at the slot machines for fun (sorry Mom!). Lizzie didn't have much luck but Kate did well and walked away with 35 000 won. And wouldn't you know it, beginners luck hit me too: I walked away with 60 000won! Thanks to Kate, who dutifully hit the cash out button when I reached my limit. It was a late night, and needless to say, after that hike I slept like a rock.

That casino money came in handy the next morning when Amanda, Jordaan and I decided to parasailing at 50 000won a pop each. It was a great experience, but at that price we all felt really disappointed that our rides didn't last longer than about 5minutes. Then again, we had a 5 oclock ferry to catch and still lots to do. Next we hopped in a taxi to see Biljarim forest, a protected forest of trees that are all 300 - 800 years old, the oldest of which is the Millenium Nutmeg tree, estimated to be nearly 1000 years old. It was a really beautiful walk, and I truly enjoyed every moment of being in that forest. After Biljarim, it was onto see the giant lava tube that is Manjanggul Cave. Manjanggul is an enormous cave created 100's of 1000's of years ago by lava flowing underground to the surface (I have mentioned that the whole island is the remains of Hallasan spewing her guts for a few centuries a long long time ago right?) One kilometer of the tunnel is open for tourista to walk through, until the lava column which reaches from floor to ceiling and is 13 meters high. The cave is dimly lit to protect the interior of the cave, and in many places water drips from the ceiling. The tunnel itself widened enormously in some places, feeling truly cavernous. It was an atmospheric walk to say the least, made just a little more dank and creepy by the fact that I had managed to drop my glasses case in the back of the taxi that had driven us, so the only thing I had to wear were my perscription sunglasses. In a cave. Well done, Lisa. Well done.

We left the lava tubes shortly before 4 o'clock, panicking just a bit. Jordaan had his ferry leaving the dock in Jeju-si at 4:30, and I was on the phone back and forth with an awesome lady from travel services trying to track down the taxi that I had left my glasses in. (As a side note: I am ridiculously near sighted, if I didn't recover the glasses, I would be teaching in my sunglasses until I could order new ones) Luck was on our side in both cases: We literally dropped Jordaan off at his dock at 4:30 on the button and he did make the boat, but not without making quite a run through the terminal. The kind lady from the tourist help line did manage to track down the taxi that had my glasses and arranged for the driver to meet me at the ferry terminal to retrieve them. The ferry ride home was great, relaxing, dozing and looking over everyones photos of the weekend. I had gone with 11 friends, but because we were such a big group we all split off and did different things throughout the weekend, so we all had different experiences of Jeju Island. Hope you enjoy the pictures, which can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267194&id=122614903&l=94b2e18874

So thats...the first weekend in October. What day is it? November 10th? Crapsticks.

Mountains, Movies, Myeongsashimni, and so Much More!

Breath, relax, let your mind wander away to the recent past...(trying to get caught up, here's a very brief summary of events in May and June and a bit of July.)

Thanks to May hosting Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, Midterm Exams and the school Field trips, I had an astounding number of days off work. I used the "float" day in my contract to make room for a long-weekend trip to Seoul at the beginning of the month with a bunch of Suncheon friends, intending to take in Buddha's birthday parades and lantern celebrations. Unfortunately, we were there the weekend after all the really big stuff went down (oops) but we still had a great time shopping (English bookstores and Costco!), eating (thin crust pizza, Indian, Coldstone Creamery, Subway...*drools on keyboard*), touring Changdeokgung Palace, and catching the Nanta stage show (think "STOMP" in a kitchen). We even saw a parade, accidentally! And all of the lanterns from the previous weekend were strung up along the streets of Seoul, making for some beautiful late night strolls. Of course, some of the great highlights of the weekend came from just hanging out in our hotel rooms watching hilarious movies, including a very funny adaptation of a popular Korean folk tale about... well ask me if you really want to know.

The next weekend was time for me to pay the price of signing up for the "Fun Run" category of the "King of the Mountain" race, held at Mt Wolchulsan to raise money for the Yeosu orphanage. However, some important details about the course were not included in the event announcement, like "your average Korean mountain hike will feel like a walk in the park compared to this", "make sure you bring 6 litres of water because you'll sweat at least twice that much out" and "if you are not in excellent physical condition you will regret this race for the rest of your life". Look up "contradictory statement", "misnomer", "self-flagellation" or "oxymoron" in the dictionary and you will find "Mt Wolchulsan Fun Run" as a definition. The mountain is a mere 809m tall and we spent the first 3 hours of the hike climbing straight up it. The kindly Korean government did install railings, ladders and stair cases en route so that we weren't scaling the rocks themselves but that hike was the most difficult thing I have ever done physically. It is the first time I have seen KOREANS sweating and panting while hiking a mountain (they're human after all!). At the summit, I gratefully received a hearty round of applause from those who had already arrived. I'd never felt like I deserved applause more in my life. However, now we had a much longer trail to travel that would take us down the other side of the mountain to the finish line. And while the descent had a much less vertical angle to it, it also had less railings and staircases to help you out. Once in a while there was a rope anchored to help you down a large boulder and more than once I used the old butt-scoot to get down in places where I didn't trust my ruined legs to support me if I jumped down. My hike companions, Amanda and Jennifer, were real troopers. Being in better shape than me, they were very patient: they never complained about waiting for me or how many minutes I was adding to our final run time. And against all odds, and the desire to lie down in the brush and die, we finished the hike six and a half hours after we began. Last team to finish, but there was some satisfaction in the fact that not all teams who start the climb completed it. In all seriousness, it was an incredible day and the view from the top was amazing. It's a beautiful place for a hike. FYI - there was an actual "race" category, and the jerk who won it ran up and over that mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The nerve!


At the end of the month, we packed up some gear and headed to Myeongsashimni Beach on the island of Wando. It was a really fun weekend. A large group of foreigners from around the area were there and we all enjoyed being away from our students for a few days. We camped on the beach, played games, cooked samgypsal and tin foil dinners, and had a big bonfire on the beach. Unfortunately, camping so close to the water had the downside of it becoming excessively chilly at night. We wound up shivering the night away in our sleeping bags wearing whatever layers we could find in our packs! Luckily, the next day gave us beautiful weather and plenty of time to nap in the sun.

The first weekend in June was another wonderful getaway, this time to Sangbulsa temple in a small mountain range near Gwangju. Lower on the mountain from where this temple sits, a mountain stream has carved away at the rock for centuries and created a beautiful swimming hole. We gathered there for a swim and a picnic with a few foreigners. The water was fresh, clear and cold. The temple was charming, quiet, and just full of beautiful paintings, new marble statues and wooden carvings. We did get caught in the rain on the way back down the mountain, and had a bit of an adventure finding cabs way out there, but we did make it home eventually.

The next weekend found me on the road again, this time to Gwangju to go to my first pro/semi-pro (?) Korean baseball game. We bought thundersticks on the way in for 1000KRW and a few in a group even in invested in cardboard sun visors when faced with the setting sun. It was a really enjoyable game, even thought the game itself was a little dull. In South Korea, sports are extremely competitive (like the school system) and baseball has become what I've heard referred to as a "pitchers game", meaning if you enjoy the technique of pitching, you'll it. But otherwise it's pretty much a whole lot of strikes and the occasional walk. What was entertaining though, was the enthusiasm of the Gwangju crowd, who regular broke out into song and synchronized thunderstick dance moves. Also entertaining, matching couples and, even better, matching families; pre-schoolers jazz dancing before the game started and an old lady in our section who refused to give up enthusiastically leading cheers even when it was clear that our team was going to get thoroughly beaten. That's quite alright, there's plenty of other reason's to go to Gwangju (a large city 1 hr away from Suncheon by bus). Reason #2: Ethnic Bar - a really cool basement cafe that is almost entirely lit by large pillar candles, is draped floor to ceiling with beautiful iridescent fabrics that must originate from India and Thailand, features a small pond for lack of a better word) in the centre of it all with candles in it, and it's only furniture are low tables and large pillows lining the floors and walls. We went there for drinks and snacks (birgin pina colada juseyo!) and then headed out to Noraebang (of course) before calling it a night and heading back to the Windmill hotel. Reason #3 Great Food - Gwangju is host to the underground grocer (a tiny shop that stocks granola bars, sour cream, Dr Pepper and sharp cheddar!), a delicious authentic Indian food restaurant, and in the bus station alone: Burger King, TGIFridays and Cold Stone Creamery! I really enjoy Korean food, but sometimes you really want a taste of back home. Gwangju delivers the goods.

The NEXT weekend in June (still with me?) was my good friend Kate's birthday bash at String bar in Gwangyang. The theme for the party was "Anything Bought at a Korean Street Market", which we decided to go all out for. We headed into Yo-young-dong shopping district and picked out only the finest Korean attire that Won can buy: Ajumma pants, crazy Konglish tshirts, and sparkly Ajumma visors. String is a great little bar that is dominated by foreigners. So much so that the sweet Korean couple that runs the place let the regulars "work" behind the bar when it gets busy and happily give over control of the dance music. We had a great time celebrating and of course, topped of the night with a good long round of Noraebong.

Pics from all of these events can be found on my facebook page, or by clicking here

Now I do believe the next weekend I stayed at home and relaxed with my cat, she was probably feeling a bit neglected after all that. The first weekend in July though, Amanda A and I were on a bus from Daegu to Cheorwon, in Gangwon-do on weekend tour package from Adventure Korea. On Saturday we enjoyed rafting on the Hantan river, bungee-jumping (no, I didn't *hangs head in shame*) and a midnight tour of the war memorial situated near Odaemi village where we homestayed with a Korean family. This village area was one of the fiercest battle points during the Korean war and today most of its residents and farmers are paid handsomely to live on the land so close to the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ), only 6 kilometers away, and keep it populated thus protecting it from any North Korean attempts to infiltrate undetected. On the Sunday, we toured the 2nd infiltration tunnel (a tunnel blasted 3.5 kms long by the North to invade ROK), Unification observatory (which overlooks the Iron Triangle Battlefield and was the headquarters and front line of the North Korean Army, through observation goggles you could their outposts), Wolcheongri Station (which shows the remains of the last train that used to run to border, which was bombed out) and the Labor Party Building (a three-story building constructed in 1946 and used as The House of the Labor Party, many people who were here during the anticommunist movement were later tortured and killed, the remains of the building are eerily pockmarked by bullet holes).

The next couple of weeks saw my school semester come to a close on July 14th and then I had a week to relax before getting on plane back to Canada for my home leave! (Well technically a plane to Tokyo, which then sent me to Canada...). I'm going to take a rest here. But I'll do my best to shortly get a summary of my trip home and how things have been since returning to Suncheon posted. Thanks for reading!

Lisa's 1st week in Korea - Originally published Oct 15/08

Well technically, this blog starts with my last couple of days in Canada, but after this I’m planning to do weekly updates from Friday to Thursday of the following week. Feel free to leave me comments via the google group or Facebook, or send me an email at lisahaessler@gmail.com. My new mailing address and cell phone number are listed below.

Monday, September 29, 2008

The plan had been to leave by 6:00 pm and get into Thunder Bay around 11:00pm. There I could get a full nights rest at my brother’s apartment before my flight left at 1:00 pm Tuesday for Toronto. However, any of you who know me can suspect I was not nearly ready for that! There was still quite a bit of shopping to get done plus you know, pack my suitcases! My mom and dad were a huge help with getting me out the door at a decent time, albeit two hours later than I originally planned, and cheerleading me when my nerves were completely frayed. Saying Goodbye to Dryden as I drove away, watching the lights fade in the rear view mirror was a different Goodbye from when I left for University 5 years earlier. It was definitely bittersweet, partly because I was feeling much less sure of myself and because I knew it was the last time I would see the “Home” I had known for the last 15 years as my parents are hoping to sell the house and move before the end of the year. I knew that when I returned, Dryden would be a visiting place and not a staying place. I arrived safely in Thunder Bay around 1:15 am and stayed up chatting with my Brother for a while. Going to bed proved to be a useless attempt at sleep; every time I got close to sleep I would wake up certain that the alarm clock would malfunction and I would oversleep and miss my flight. Hours of sleep: maybe 4.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

After repacking my suitcases (and leaving behind many books I really wanted to come with me!) in order to get my luggage under the weight restrictions I had no problems with catching my flight to Toronto, arrival 3:00pm. At Pearson I was able to keep myself busy by connecting to their wireless internet service and chatting online and reviewing some “Let’s Speak Korean” lessons on youtube. Only major disappointment of the day was that my lack of organization the day before ended up in a miscommunication that kept me from meeting some very good friends for Dinner at the airport . At about 9:00 PM it was time to check in for my flight with Korea Air. I was the only white person and the only English speaker in line. Most of the signs were written in Hangul. Here was first time that I had the feeling to tuck my tail and run. “Mark and Whitney are only an hour away, I could get on the bus...”, “My Aunt Charlotte lives 10 minutes away, she could come get me...”, “I could get on a bus and go to Mexico and start leading another life under an alias and no one would ever have to know what a chicken I am...”. These were the kinds of thoughts that ran through my head as the line pushed me closer and closer to the check-in attendant. It was the first time since I was about six that the sentiment “I wish my mommy was here” felt like an immediate need, haha. Well, sheer determination kept me planted in that line until I was checked in. At security the bobby pins in my beauty case caused a connumdrum at the security gate because they showed up funny on the x-ray and none of us could figure out what it was. We took that whole bag apart before they decided it was unlikely I was carrying anything threatening. I found my departure gate and sat there in a daze for probably an hour before I heard over the Airport loudspeaker, “Korean Air passenger Annalisa Haessler, please go to courtesy mumblemumble, you have a message waiting.” Worried that this is something really important like I left my credit card at the Yogen Fruz stand or they overbooked my flight and now I won’t be able to get on, I go in search of a Pearson Airport employee to find out what this “courtesy mumblemumble” thing is so I can get to my message. Turns out it’s a courtesy phone and the mumble part was to press 2 to get my message. “Annalisa Haessler, the message is ‘Call your mother’.” OK, so now I’m thinking about the things that could have gone wrong at home and how I may be turning around anyway after how brave I was in the check-in line up. At the payphone I call home. “Hey Mom, what’s up? Everything OK?”“Hi sweetie, yeah I just wanted to let you know I was just talking to Joy (my older sister) and she’s going to be visiting us in a couple of weeks and helping out with staging the house, so you don’t have to worry about those unfinished projects.”“Oh. OK, that’s pretty cool. Wait. You had me paged over Pearson International Airport’s loud speaker to tell me Joy is coming home for a visit?”Later my mom told me the real reason was that she really wanted to talk to me one more time before I left Canada, but she thought if she said that she would get emotional so she decided to tell me about her conversation with Joy instead. Aww...When all was said and done I got on my flight with no problems at 11:50 pm. A Boeing 777 jet. Again, only white girl in sight.Wednesday October 1st, 2008 I had been given a lot of really good advice prior to going South Korea. I found two pieces of advice in particular had a major impact on my travel experience. The first was this (from my Uncle Mel): “The moment you get on the plane, change your watch to Korean time.” In doing this I instantaneously lost 13 hours of my Wednesday, but it helped immeasurably with jet lag. Even though it was midnight in Canada, it was now 1:00pm in Korea, and so even with only 4 hours of sleep the night before I decided it would be best to stay up as long as possible. Dinner was served soon after takeoff: a Korean dish called Bibimbap, which was made of ground beef, various vegetables, rice and spicy red pepper paste and was pretty tasty. The big screen at the front of the cabin showed our flight path as flying almost directly north over the pole, not east or west as my mother and I had debated. The in-flight movie was ‘Ironman’; I watched the first hour or so before my eyelids got too heavy. Hours of sleep: maybe 5.

Thursday October 2nd, 2008

We landed smoothly at Incheon International Airport just outside of Seoul at 2:30 am. I had checked thoughout the flight, and at no time was sun shining during those 14 hours so sadly I didn’t see the ocean from 35 000 feet. That’s alright, there will be lots of opportunities in the next year. Having arrived at Incheon and fumbled my way through customs to get my stamp in my passport (yay!), I immediately bought an international calling card. I didn’t immediately call my parents though, haha. No, I followed that second piece of excellent advice I mentioned earlier: I went to the basement level of the airport and found the all night sauna/bath. I had a few hours to kill before I needed to catch my bus to Gimpo airport, and Shane (the director of Canadian Connection) recommended the sauna to me. It was wonderful and, although pricey, totally worth bathing naked with some older Korean women in order to calm my nerves and get freshened up. In Korea, communal bath houses are still very popular. The tradition has continued long after indoor plumbing would’ve replaced it I think because of the Korean emphasis on community. Women and men come with the friends to share a long soak in multiple shallow pools of various temperatures and switch to a sauna room or two. There’s also usually a jinjubong (resting room) where you can go sleep on heated floors. After my lovely sauna, I waited outside the airport for my bus to Gimpo to arrive. Here I met a very nice Korean woman named Jay who had grown children in the US so her English was very good. She helped me find my way at Gimpo Airport and was another friendly stranger to make my journey easier. The bus picked us up at 6:15 am. The sky was going purple as we got on, and I watched the sunrise on the way to Gimpo. After helping me check in for my flight, Jay gave me a hug, I gave her a Dryden pin and she headed to her hotel room. I went in search of food. I picked a decent looking noodle bowl with beef and veggies from a numbered menu written in Hangul. It was enormous and tasty but I probably only ate ¼ of it, it was such a big portion. The flight from Seoul to Gwangju lasted about 50 minutes. I enjoyed the scenery before sleeping for about a half an hour. Korea is 70% mountains so it was beautiful, I don’t think the pictures do it justice. At Gimpo airport I was met by Mr Yang, the provincial co-ordinator for English Teachers in Jeollanamdo and Seon-hee Park, my co-teacher at Suncheon Girls High School. Mr Yang shook my hand, welcomed me to Korea, asked me for a copy of my contract and then got in his car. Seon-hee (pronounced Sunny) helped me with my bags and we got in her car and drove to Suncheon (about an hour away). That drive was the most surreal. My brain seemed to catch up with my body and as I watched the mountains roll by excitement filled me up. I did it. I actually made it. Nothing horrible happened, no strange twist of fate kept me from realizing this dream. I didn’t screw it up!Once in Suncheon, Seon-hee got me set up with a bank account and took me to the hospital for another physical. Here’s my favourite part of my first day in Korea: Getting on a weight scale and having a big red “FATNESS!” appear above my weight, hahaha. Lots more paperwork was done etc etc etc. The afternoon felt like a big hazy blur of signs I couldn’t reach and conversations that were about me but I couldn’t understand. In the early evening, my co-teachers helped me get some groceries and took me up to my apartment. Just as we were getting into the elevator , a white girl was walking up to the second elevator (one elevator only stops on even floors, one only stops on odd floors, don’t ask me why) and I had never been so relieved to see a stranger in my life. She must have seen it on my face.“First day? My name’s Jodie, I live in ***. Come visit me anytime.” And the doors closed. Now it was past 7PM and I was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. My co-teachers made me something to eat and they were so sweet. All I could think was “Jodie lives in ***...Jodie lives in ***, don’t forget Jodie lives in ***” as my head hit the pillow.

Friday October 3rd, 2008

After 13 hours of sleep, I awoke to a familiar feeling: "Holy crap, I'm in South Korea." It's a feeling that sinks in at least once a day. I spent a good part of the day unpacking my belongings and cleaning up my apartment, though the previous teacher had left the place in really good condition for me. She also left behind some handy things like speakers for my computer, a hair straightener and some nice bedding. My apartment is a small studio style apartment on the 17th floor of a 19 floor apartment building, situated on the side of one of many small mountains around Suncheon. Once I was done unpacking, I sat in my apartment wondering what I should do next and feeling a little trapped. I didn't know how to read or speak anymore and I didn't know where anything was except for the grocery store down the block and the internet room across the street. The internet room! A connection with the English speaking world! I was on my way. Internet rooms or PC bongs here are very cheap: 1000 won for an hour. The clerk didn't speak a word of English, but that's fine, what else would a waygook want in a PC Bong but to use the internet? I felt much better being able to check email and facebook and still know that friends and family were just a few mouse clicks away. That evening, back at my apartment, again feeling confined, I decided I had better stop being a chicken and go knock on Jodie's door. Jodie lives with her husband Steven and their tiny white dog, Wicket. When I knocked on the door they also had their friend Fraser over visiting. They were very welcoming and had plenty of advice for me. I don't remember what any of it was, but it was good to know I had met some friendly Canadians who could help me out while I was settling in.Saturday October 4th, 2008 Jody offered to show me around our neighborhood and the city a little bit, so we walked a lot that morning. She took me out for a beef soup lunch that was very tasty. Meat portions for soups are often left in very large pieces, so the soup was served with scissors to cut it up with. Eating out in Korea is very cheap ($4-$8 CDN), and every Korean entrée comes with 6-10 seasonal side dishes included. Usually there will be two or three kinds of kimchi and various vegetables. Traditionally Koreans don't drink anything with their meals, a cup of soup is served on the side for washing things down. Strangely I have found this difficult to adjust to since everything in the meal tends to be spicy or very salty. Most restaurants however now offer cola and cider (like gingerale) to drink, especially to foreigners. After lunch we went back to my school to meet Seon-hee, who wanted to be with me when the men came to install my internet and television. Seon-hee had been waiting for us to eat lunch, so we ate lunch again in the school cafeteria (it would have been considered rude to refuse). So far cafeteria food at the school has been quite tasty, though I find the kimchi too spicy.After the internet and tv were hooked up, Seon-hee took me to watch an English Speaking contest in the nearby city of Gwangyang which her sister had organized. It was in a building called "The World Marine Life Center" and it was 17 floors of glass windows; the building itself was shaped like a sail. Unfortunately, at 17 floors up the only view offered was of the surrounding shipping docks, not picturesque but still interesting to see. On the way back to Suncheon we picked up Seon-hee's daughter and went for another meal near my apartment. Soon after I got home I hit the sack for another 12 hours. I think being busy all day since I've arrived has really helped with jetlag, as I am forced to stay up all afternoon.

Sunday October 5th, 2008

Seon-hee had told me over and over not to be late for the teachers meeting on Monday morning, so I spent a good portion of the day riding the #59 bus and wandering around downtown trying to find my school. No such luck. OK, I figure I will take a cab and get there just fine (oh wishful thinking…).On Sunday evening I tagged along with Jodie to a book club meeting for foreigners living in our complex. There were about eight of us there, and it was great to meet some more people my age and talk about our favourite books. Being in Shi-dae apartments feels like my first few weeks of University, where everyone is very friendly because you don't have a lot of friends (even more so here because it's exciting to meet someone who speaks english!) and you can just go up or down a few levels and knock on someone's door if you need to. Shi-dae is known for having a lot of foreigners living in it. I still meet people on my bus or in the elevator. Note: at this bookclub meeting Jodie made the best homemade brownies this girl has ever eaten!

Monday October 6th, 2008

Monday was my first official day of work. Got up early, all ready to go. I hop in a cab at 8:15, and I figure that is plenty of time to get there since it only took Seon-hee 10 – 15 minutes to drive me home over the last couple of days. However that had something to do with the driver knowing where she was going. I had the address of the school written in English, and told the driver "Sucheon Yah-go" thinking that was the Korean name of the school was. Nope, I was mispronouncing it and he couldn't read english. So instead the cab driver proceeded to drive me to local schools (he correctly guessed I was a teacher at least) and when I shook my head and wouldn't get out of the car, he'd try another one. After 3 schools he finally pulled over and asked a nearby businessman for help. The man looked at my paper and then told the driver "Suncheon Yo-go" and poof! He knew where to take me! So I walk into the teachers meeting a few minutes late, very embarrassed and feeling unnerved. Mr. Kim informs me I will be introduced next. When the vice-principal puts down the microphone, Mr. Kim picks it up and introduces me as "Our new English teacher from Canada, the most beautiful western lady!" and hands me the microphone. Well at least it gave me the opportunity to apologize to everyone for being late. As luck would have it, my first week of classes were cancelled because of exams, so "you have all week to prepare your lessons" Seon-hee tells me. Haha, well not quite. On Monday, Seon-hee took me around and introduced me to a lot of the staff, one whom was Gwang-ja, the hilarious PE teacher. Gwang-ja used to play volleyball professionally for Korea; she also insists on talking to me very enthusiastically in Korean even though I can't understand a word she says. Now I should tell you that Volleyball is HUGE in Korea, and since I had found this out I was using it to make a good first impression with a lot of the teachers I'd met so far. When I told Gwang-ja I had played setter in High School she went nuts and drafted me for the team. And because this week is exam week, we had three-hour team practices on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for the match game on Wednesday. At Monday's practice I discovered several things: Koreans don't sweat, western girls who are out of shape DO, Koreans play with nine people on the court instead of six, there is no such thing as rotating in Korean volleyball, I need to buy knee pads, there is no such thing as an illegal lift or hit in Korean volleyball (kicking the ball was quite popular), and Koreans have a great sense of sportsmanship.The English Teachers also treated me to a Traditional Korean Lunch (Lunchee as they say it here) where we sat on the floor and ate lots of raw fish and squid and plenty of things that I'm glad I didn't know what they were. And traditional Korean Lunches are 3 full courses. Because of how salty things are, I find that I lose my appetite quite quickly here. But these skinny Koreans eat so much its hard to believe, it's really impressive. It is also common to drink beer and do shots of soju (a vodka like alcohol, very popular here) at lunchtime. Thankfully Seon-hee explained to the teachers that I don't drink alcohol so there was no pressure.After the school day was over, Seon-hee made sure to walk to me to the nearest bus stop so that on Tuesday I wouldn't be late.

Tuesday October 7, 2008

On Tuesday, Seon-hee and I drove to Yeosu to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office. She told me we would be meeting some teachers for lunch when we got back to Suncheon, but on return we had some time to kill so she took me to exchange some money at the bank and then to the 5-day market in the centre of the city. It's an enormous traditional Korean market where vendors sell produce, live animals for slaughter, fish and all kinds of seafood, plus clothing, crafts, jewellery and anything else you could think of. I bought a beautiful Korean quilt for 33000 won. I love it! Lunch turned out to be the entire school staff including our principle being treated to Korean Samgibsa by the parents of the students who had been elected chairperson of their grade. Samgibsa is pieces of pork, mushrooms and onion grilled over coals. The grills are in the middle of the table so you cook it yourself. You take the pieces of cooked pork, place them in the middle of a lettuce leaf, add some sauce and some veggies, wrap it up in the leaf and shove the whole thing in your mouth. It was quite tasty and I was relieved to eat cooked food, until the next course came out which was soup and another full serving of various raw seafoods. Still it was impressive to sit among such a large group for lunch, and an honor to have a seat at the same table as the principle. After lunch was another 3-hour practice of volleyball, where I was presented with a pink & black school jersey to wear to the game on Wednesday. That night Jodie and Steven were a huge help and took me shopping for things for the apartment and groceries! It was great to start feeling like I was getting settled.

Wednesday October 8, 2008

Today was the match game against another school's teachers. I wasn't nervous until we stepped into the gym and there was quite a crowd in the stands and both school's principles and vice principles on stage. And even though we had just had lunch, there were tables and tables of food, and lots of beer and soju going around! Now the nice thing about Korean volleyball is that the height of the net is low, so I can actually spike and block at the net (handy since Korean's don't rotate so I'm ALWAYS playing front row centre, ie I'm blocking every spike coming from the other side). We didn't win our game, but the guys team did and here everyone seems to genuinely enjoy playing the game so there was no sourness about our near miss. Afterwards, they gave out draw prizes. My number was picked from a hat and I got (drum roll please…): a tube of toothpaste! A tube of toothpaste?When I got home my muscles were killing me. Truth be told they had been killing me since Monday. So I decided it was time to check out the sauna at the DongSu gym beside my apartment building. It was exactly what I needed. This sauna has two sauna rooms: a salt sauna and a crystal sauana and 5 different baths of various temperature and featuring powerful jets of water you can turn on if you like (great for getting out those kinks!) The two-hour soak was exactly what I needed.Thursday October 9, 2008 You still with me? Ok so Thursday Seonhee informs me that the school is going to pay for the teachers to go to the Cinema downtown in the afternoon and that we are going to drop by a cellphone store and see if we can get me a phone even though I don't have my ARC card back yet. We saw "Go Go 70" about a Korean rock band in the 1970's named "The Devils" who became famous playing western rock music and were consequently thrown in jail when the government put western rock and roll under prohibition. Good movie, although it was all in Korean. Afterwards I got a cell phone! Yay! Seon-hee put it in her name to save some me money and just like that, I was a cell phone carrier. It's a new experience for me, but I like the security it gives me, living in a foreign country. Once the cell phone was bought, I went out for dinner with Dean (the coordinator for teachers in Suncheon) and his wife Mandy, who live just two floors up from me. We went to one of the only Italian restaurants in the city, the Gran Piatto, and I had some DELICIOUS chicken pizza. I didn't realize how much I would miss western food until I got here. Breads and cheeses are enough to make you stop dead in your tracks if you see/smell them. Dean and Mandy were very kind, and also lent me their hammer when my vanity fell apart that night while I was rearranging the furniture.

I'm having a tremendous time, even though its still an emotional rollercoaster. Everyday is something new. As promised here is my contact information:

Please send mail to:

Ms. Annalisa Haessler

c/0 Suncheon Girls High School
88 Bunji, Jeojeon-dong

Suncheon city, Jeollanamdo

South Korea

Postal Code: 540-180

It's safer to send my mail to the school, kids may get curious about Canadian mail at my apartment and the mailboxes aren't locked. I would love to hear from you!Cell phone: 010-5872-5161.

To dial direct from Canada you would dial 011-82-10-5872-5161 (right mom?) Don't worry about the time difference, call me ANYTIME!!! Stay tuned for my next blog featuring: mountain hike and temple excursion, bowling and noribang with the waygooks, the jinju lantern festival and my first week of teaching!Thanks for all your support. I miss you and love you all, hugs from the other side of the planet!!!

Lisa