Considering that Koreans are so very proud of their four distinct seasons which includes a harsh winter (due to Siberian winds and North Korean clear-cutting), you would think these guys would be on the up-and-up about insulation and heating for the winter months. But no. ALL the entrance doors to my school are wide open and several windows have been left open to let in "fresh air" for good measure. Or you might think that since they are so proud of their Ondol (floor heating) system, they would install it in their schools instead of installing crappy air heating systems in the CEILINGS (hot air rises people!). In Canada, we insulate then weather-strip then insulate our weather stripping and cover everything up with plastic sheeting just to be safe! THEN we turn on our turbo-awesome furnace which vent hot air up from the floor.
***If you haven't guessed the tone, this entry is going to be rant-y (Yes, I can make up words, I'm an English Teacher now :D)***
I'm currently sitting in the teachers room with my winter coat, wrist warmers and scarf still on, wishing to high heaven I could wear my warm and cozy boots inside but instead I have little toe-sicles due to the fact that I have to wear my slip-on "inside" shoes. Me thinks a trip to Shinae (shopping district) for fur-lined "inside" shoes has moved to the top of my priority list.
On top of freezing at my desk, I cannot even take refuge in the usually warm and cozy "teachers rest room" which is the only 40 square feet in this building equipped with Ondol and also blankets/pillows so you can "take a rest" in super warm and cozy slumber-party fashion. I really thought this whole desk-warming thing would be fine because I could spend 50% of my day sleeping on a hot floor. (The other 50% would be spent blogging to you, naturally :P)
What is desk-warming you ask? It is a gift from the National Education Office to all of the Native English Speaking Teachers (NEST's) this year. Alittle context for you -
The public education schedule in South Korea runs like this: School starts 1st semester at the beginning of March each year. 1st semester ends in Mid to Late July. School is on "summer break" until the end of August when the 2nd Semester begins. The 2nd semester runs from the End of August until the end of December. The schools then begin "winter beak" from January to Febuary. Middle Schools and High Schools return to their classes for one in Febuary, a so-called "Graduation Week" to officially close out the school year and send the graduates on their way to High School or University.
In the past, school principals had the jurisdiction (and rightfully so) to decide what to do with the NEST. Some schools runs extra camps and classes to benefit the students who are not participating in aggressively scheduled Hogwan (private academy) programs. Others only stay open for the Administrators and higher ups to continue their work. Some close completely. So, the case has been that some NEST's end up with a lot more time off than the 26 days written in their contract for winter break or the 7 days alotted to us for summer break. -
I was one of these lucky folks. My school said "see ya later" last year on Dec 31st and I didn't return until March 2nd. Similarly, I finished teaching in Mid July after exams and didn't return to work until the end of August. This year was going to be the same deal, but the National Office has been brooding and stewing over complaints made by Korean Teachers and other NEST's about the "unfair" treatment some of us have recieved. Tired of hearing complaints and attempting to put a tighter thumb down on NEST's (thanks to the efforts of groups like the Anti-English Spectrum who very publicly denounce NEST's as lazy/incompetent/sexual predators/drunks etc etc etc) the National School Board announced that they would no longer allow schools to give their teachers more time off than what is written in the contract. If your teacher is not at the school, you don't pay them.
For some teachers, this is not a big deal. Most elementary school teachers run extra camps for the their schools during the breaks. I was asked to run some extra classes at the end of Febuary (After I return from my trip to MALAYSIA!!!)and of course agreed. The problem is that there are also many schools which do not run programs for the NEST's to participate in. Some schools are not even open to the students. This is especially true in my province, Jeollanamdo, which is less populated and much more rural than the rest of the country. The new enforcements mean we now have to come and sit at our desks from 9-5 to earn our keep, regardless of whether there is work for us to do or students for us to teach.
Not the end of the world, to get paid to do nothing. But it would nice if I wasn't freezing my butt off. And it wouldn've been nice to have had this announcement earlier than December 21, 2009. You know, that it wouldn't have screwed up my plans to travel within SK with a friend visiting from the US. Sorry Mike.
I really am just blowing off steam here. There are atleast a few other teachers here at my school teaching morning classes in January. I'm not alone with janitors like some people. I've got books to read, blogs to write, journalling to catch up on, etc etc etc.
All the recent changes just wind up making me feel like the Education board sees me as a child that must be chaperoned or an hourly worker who must be carefully watched because I can't be trusted otherwise. I know my school loves me and my co-teachers and vice-principal were really apologetic about the abrupt change to my plans for January. It just sucks that my direct employers/supervisors no longer have the authority to adjust my work schedule in ways that make sense for our particular school. It sucks to be paying for the mistakes/poor behaviour of other NEST's and xenophobic socio-political groups.
It sucks freezing my buns off for the start of 2010.
(Tomorrow I promise to be in a better mood and write to you about the awesome Christmas & New Years I had here. I just wanted to vent alittle.)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Thursday, December 17, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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
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
Monday, October 26, 2009
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.
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.
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