Almost Behind Enemy Lines

I had an amazing weekend exploring the Northern border between South and North Korea. Myself and six other teachers from my Hagwan signed up for a weekend trip with EnjoyKorea!, a organization that plans weekend trips throughout the year that go to different destinations all over S. Korea. 

We left Daegu a little before 6 in the morning and spent 5 hours on a bus travelling North.  Our first stop was at the DMZ (demilitarized zone).  The DMZ is a section of the border that has been opened up to the public.  After a soldier checked the bus for bombs, it dropped us off at an area that had paths where we could walk.  We were told not to stray from the marked paths because they haven't found all of the land mines yet…

We also had to wear GPS tracker necklaces while we were there.  Since we were such a large group (there were probably around 50 of us on the bus), they assumed that we would stick together, so they only gave us 4 trackers amongst us… I guess foreigners aren't considered a safety concern.  I obviously volunteered to wear the necklace simply so that I could say that I was being tracked by military forces!

There was also a interactive land mine exhibit! …  I could tell you what it was, but I think it best to let your imagination run wild.

We also came across a display of letters that we are assuming were written to fallen soldiers.

There were, of coarse, other statues and monuments etc., along the path.  There was also an open playground/modern art exhibit area where you could run a 'military boot-camp' course, practice your sling-shot skills, and try to pet a wild, yet very calm, bunny.

The site itself was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for better fall weather!

After that, we went to an observatory that had their eyes on North Korea.  You could actually see a N. Korean soldier at his look-out post.  We were told not to take pictures of the view… but we're foreigners and don't know any better…

 

We then went to a South Korean War Museum which was extremely small and did not have to serious and gloomy feel to it that you would expect from a war museum.  It took at total of 8 minutes to walk through and mostly consisted of one sculpture (seen below), an display of helmets and bullet casing and some guns.  There was also an arcade-like game where you could use a fake gun to shoot at enemy forces… it was a weird and slightly disappointing experience.

After that, we went to 'tunnel 4', which is a tunnel that was used during the war by North Korea.  The South Koreans discovered and intersected it and has now turned it into a tourist attraction! The S.K tunnel was well drilled with smooth, curved walls.  There was precipitation on the walls that got worse that you descended deeper into the tunnel.  When you hit the T-junction they had set of a small shuttle train (sort of like a roller coaster!) that takes you through the N.K part of the tunnel right up to the designated border.  The N.K. tunnel was much more crudely built and wasn't tall enough to stand up in.  You could see holes where they had stuck dynamite stick is when they were making the tunnel.  I can only imagine what it would have been like to be using the tunnel during the war.  They would have had to walk almost single-file into enemy territory, crouching over, with cold water dripping down onto their necks from the ceiling as they went.   I'm sure they were all just hoping that there wasn't an ambush waiting for them at the other end.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the tunnel itself, but the S. Korean soldiers who were working there were quite happy to have their picture taken with us afterwards (actually, he suggested the idea himself!)

After that, we went to the hotel-spa where we were spending the night.  When we walked into our room, we found a small kitchenette and an empty room… No beds. I was taken aback for a moment until  I remembered that I was in Asia.  There were floor sleeping pads and blankets in a closet.  Not the most comfortable hotel stay in the world, but it wasn't bad!  We had Bimbap at a restaurant nearby, grabbed some wine/beer/soju from a convenience store on the way back and spent the rest of the evening talking to a guy rom South Africa who was on the trip with us! I learned a lot about the politics and life there.  It was quite interesting!

The next day, we were dropped off at Seoraksan National Park! What at first sounded like a daunting 6 hours of hiking, turned out to be just the right amount to time to see some amazing stuff! Koreans do nature well.  There were café's restaurants, ice cream, bank machines, big Buddhist statues, everything!  All as you hike! We chose a trail that walked along a river bed with a 'rock' destination (wasn't very exciting).  It was a beautiful trail, but what was strange was the fact that it ended with a restaurant! I wouldn't want to be the one to deliver the food up there… or have to hike for an hour to get to work every day!  We then continued on to 0.6K cave hike.  It was marked as 'expert' and it actually took an hour to hike the 0.6.  It was mostly stairs going straight up a cliff… for an hour.  It was hard, but we made it and the view was amazing!  We found ourselves over-looking jagged mountain tops that could only be described as 'Asia'. Absolutely beautiful.

After making it back down the stairs (possibly more daunting that the hike up) and making our way back along the river to the main restaurants, we had a much-deserved lunch and then did a short hike to a 'waterfall'… Maybe it's more impressive during the rainy season? After that, we hopped back on the bus and make our way back to Deagu!

River bed 

The Restaurant in the woods

Our cave destination, compete with Buddhist Monk!

View from the cave

The view from a little lower down

More pretty mountains!

Nobody Nose the Trouble I've Seen

Today was Katie's birthday! She's one of our newest teachers (from the Cananda!) and we all met at a jjimdak restaurant to celebrate before work.  Jjimdak is a chicken dish (chicken = dak) with noodles and veggies, cooked in a spicy sauce, with the option of cheese melted on top (an option that we obviously took advantage of).  The server in the restaurant originally turned the 11 of us away, saying that he didn't have enough room, but eventually he let us in as 2 different groups. It was quite a lovely lunch, which was kinda ruined by that fact that we then had to go to work...

At work, we were supervising placement tests.  The students take these tests every 4 months or so and the Hagwon takes these very seriously and are quite strict about time etc., during the period.  The tests contain over a hundred multiple choice questions that include a vocabulary selection, reading comprehension, grammar, and listening comprehension.  The listenings alone took half an hour to get through and the full test lasted, depending on the level, an hour to an hour and a half.  During the test, the teachers paced the room (which is 2 rows of desks) and handed out white-out tape where necessary.  Once their time was up, we would check for homework completion and use the rest of the time to do some sort of language exercise with them (I got one of my classes to write a quick 'speech' on whether they'd rather be a dinosaur or have one as a pet.  I though it would be fun and entertaining, but they actually struggled to find two reasons to support their decision.).

In my first period, one of my kids developed a nose bleed. I discretely gave him the remainders of the tissue box that was under my desk and he proceeded to stuff them into his nose.  He eventually signalled to me that he was going to leave and I gave him to OK.  A few minutes later, the slipped back into the room and collected his things, quietly explaining that he was being sent home early.  I was quite impressed at how quietly he was being... It's unfortunate that a moment later, one of the other teachers came in a loudly announced that the boy was being sent home, which made the rest of the class look up from their test and turn around to see what was going on. This was, of course, during the listening section of the class, and I can only hope that they didn't miss a question because of the interruption!  At the end of the period, I wiped down the desk where the boy had been sitting (and cleared away the bloody tissues).

The next class came in and, wouldn't you know it, the girl who sat down at the same desk had a runny nose!  She quickly ran out of her own tissue, which was soggy and falling apart, and proceeded to use her sweater to catch the drips.  I went to grab my tissues, but it was empty from the nose bleed incident! I watched her struggle for a bit, as I contemplated what to do.  In the end, I e-mailed the desk teachers and asked them to bring me a new box of tissues.  One of them appeared, asking for clarification of what I wanted.  I handed her the empty box and asked for more.  She looked a little confused (we wouldn't normally request a box of tissues in the middle of a period) but accepted the request and returned with a box. I placed the box beside the girl, who gratefully took some, and continued my pacing.  At the end of the period, I again wiped down the desk with a wet wipe.  Yuck.

Not the most exciting post, but hey, wasn't the most exciting work day!

Hey There, Sweet Thang ;)

I briefly fumed about a guy putting sugar into his pre-sweetened drink in my last post, so I figured I should elaborate a bit on the whole 'sweet' situation over here.

Before coming over to Korea, all I heard about the food was 'It's delicious' and 'It's spicy".  Both of these things are true! 'Korean Spice' directly translates into 'hot red peppers'. No variant whatsoever. If it's not in a red sauce or sprinkled with red flakes, it's probably tasteless (unless it's fish, of course).
What people neglected to tell me is that Koreans don't like anything sour or salty! Which is very odd, seeing as Kimchi, which is served with everything, is fermented and salted cabbage.  You would expect it to be salty! Unfortunately, they smother it in - you guessed it - red peppers! so you can't really taste the salt.

If it's not spicy or bland, it's sweet.  I'm talking about chips, popcorn, BRAN cheese... you name it (I'm serious about that last one).  And Koreans go wild for it!  I was walking through a convenience store tonight and found HONEY DORITOS!! I didn't even know those existed!

I've also tasted corn flavoured popcorn (I'll let that one sink in for a sec. It tasted like creamed corn), similar to our smart-pop minus the salty cheese.  When you go to the movies, they sell flavour packs with the popcorn.  In Canada, they sell flavoured salts... Not in Korea! They sell fruit flavoured packets.  Imagine banana flavoured popcorn!

I have to hand it to them, though. Koreans don't do anything in moderation!  An article to prove my point...

http://munchies.vice.com/articles/korean-honey-butter-chip-hysteria-has-created-a-snack-black-market

You can't understand how disheartening it is to open a bag of chips only to discover that your salty treat has been converted into a sweet... thing... yuck (but yum at the same time).

There are a few other discrepancies in the flavouring of products.  You can't mix fruits.  I'm in a land where strawberry-banana doesn't exist.  MIND IS BLOWN. They think it's gross!

I would kill for some pretzels right now... or salt and vinegar chips!

Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

The last 48 hours have been very eventful.  Yesterday morning, myself and some of the other teachers from the school were sent to an orientation seminar of sorts that is mandatory for the foreign teachers at some of the Hagwons in Daegu.  It was only 2 hours long and consisted of a traditional Korean dance performance, a magic show, and two lectures.

The first lecture was supposed to instruct us on how to teach grammar.  It was presented by an American who had been in Daegu for 13 years (he started as an ESL teacher) and has a masters on functional Grammar (or something like that).  It was very technical and overly-complicated and needless-to-say, went straight over our heads.  It doesn't help that, at my Hagwon, we don't teach grammar, making the lecture quite irrelevant.

The second lecture was called 'Living in the 'gu'' and was again presented by a native English speaker who had lived in Daegu for 12ish years (he was from Canada).  This lecture was much better received and focused on how we can integrate ourselves into the Daegu community and generally how to live in Korea as a foreigner.  The lecturer was quite entertaining, had good personal stories and a lot of good information.  I didn't learn much new information, but some of the other teachers around me were certainly interested and jotting down some notes.  It make me realize how fortunate I was to get a job at a larger Hagwon that employs more than one or two foreign teachers.  The group of teachers are my Hagwon create a tight-knot community and support system for the new teachers coming in.  Many other teachers are dumped into this new country with no contacts, no friends and no help.   I certainly have it easy.

Upon arriving home after the seminar, I discovered that I no longer had electricity... And I still don't.  I have, however, developed a new respect for my gas stove.  When all else failed (i.e., my microwave and fridge), I was still able to cook (starting with the un-frozen freezer foods respectively). When I got to work a few hours later, I informed by boss that I had no electricity and she said that she would contact the landlord and inquire as to why that was... 8 hours later, I returned home to find that I still had no electricity, sped-walked back to the school to ask if she had gotten a response from the landlord and discovered that she had not, in fact, contacted anyone about the issue and now being past 11 pm, she would probably not be able to get a message through until the morning.  She then suggested that I go back to the apartment and find the breaker and see if I could fix it myself and then e-mail her to tell her if it works (because I obviously have internet in my power-less apartment.  Needless to say, it did not work, I walked down the street until I could pick up an internet connection, e-mailed her to say so, and then went back to my apartment, crawled into my dark bed and decided not to worry about it 'til morning.

Morning came and went.  No electricity, no contact from landlond. Finally, he showed up with a plumber to fix my toilet and shower head... which I'd asked them to do a few days earlier.  When they went to flick on the light, they were confused about why it would not turn on... The plumber then turned to me and said 'no problem'... YES BIG PROBLEM!!!! He looked at the breaker
switchy-thing, exchanged words with the landlord, and told me that they would contact an electrician to come fix it.  'Please
wait'... And so I wait.

At about 3 pm, the Landlord returned with an electrician, who started testing all of the outlets and determined that it was my fridge that can caused the problem.  He then told me that I would have to leave it unplugged for a week to let it dry out properly before trying to plug it in again... Not cool. IN the end, the Landlord moved the broken fridge out of the apartment and moved another fridge from down the hall in to replace it. Much better.  They also did more work on the toilet (it no longer leaks!).  The whole process took a little over an hour.  For a good chunk of that time, we were waiting on the Landlord to get something... I think, so I was left to entertain two older gentlemen in my apartment.  One of them spoke enough English to make the exchange quite entertaining.  They told me many times that the Landlord was a 'bone head' and was probably hit on the head as as young child. They were also interested in the photos that I have from back home on my wall.  I have a good variety of different Canadian landscapes that they were quite enthralled with.

Once everything was fixed and functional, they asked me to make them some coffee.  I was quite happy to oblige but all of my mugs were dirty.  The Landlord disappeared yet again, returning with small paper cups.  I quickly made up some of the instant coffee sticks and handed them to my saviours.  One of them made a face when he drank it and asked for more sugar! MORE SUGAR?!?! Those packets are 75% sugar! I couldn't believe

Working Hard, or Hardly Working

So I realized that I haven't posted about my job since I started teaching.  In general it's going quite well.  The most difficult part is actually inputting the marks and homework into the computer system properly.  Luckily, the other teachers have been very patient at explaining how it should be done and are quite forgiving when they find mistakes. 

As I probably mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the foreign teachers conduct the listening, speaking and writing classes while our Korean co-teachers teach Grammar and reading. We also assign Speaking Recordings (they have short English phrases that they repeat three times) and Dictation homework for them to do on their own time.  They also write Journals and short essays that they hand in to us every week for marking.

During a listening class, we play the students a recording of an excerpt of a conversation or a lecture.  The students have workbooks that ask specific questions about the listening that they then have to answer.  The topics from the lectures vary from Biology, Geology, Psychology… and everything in between and beyond.  Before we play the listening, we go through new vocabulary with the students and introduce the topic.  Needless to say, I will be very good at trivia games by the end of this year.  They're so random! And complex! I have to research some of the topics before class to make sure that I understand the material! … It's certainly an interesting approach to teaching a language, though I guess it is not much different than when I was taking courses in French when I was in school; the main difference being that we would stick to a subject for a while before moving on to something completely different, whereas here, they have 20 minutes.  Luckily, beyond that twenty minutes, they are not expected to remember the lecture material, only the vocabulary from it.

The writing classes and speaking classes are very similar to each other in many ways.  The students are assigned a topic to write about and in class, we check what they've written, talk about the subject as a group, then get them to speak about the topic individually without their notes (unless I forget to take them away before starting). Obviously, we focus more on the written aspect in the writing period and vice versa in the speaking, but the main idea is the same.  We try to get them speaking with us as much as possible, since they only see us for 40 minutes, twice a week.

I have come to the conclusion that Korean students are not very different from Canadian students when it comes to behavior during class.  You have the quiet, the studious ones, the class clowns, the student who never does his homework, the student who falls asleep in the middle of class, etc.  The main difference being that these kids are enrolled in multiple academies outside of their regular school. I asked one of my classes how many Hagwons they go to and some listed off about 6, including, Math, Science, English, Japanese, Art, and Music… all on top of their normal day of school. That's crazy! Though I guess it's not much different from when we have piano lessons, dance lessons etc., though the Korean system seems a little less free and a lot more formal (?). I don't know!

I currently teach 4-5 classes a day, which gives me a few free periods to prepare for the next classes and, eventually, do some marking.  I haven't done much marking yet because the older students are in exams right now and we don't assign homework until they're finished.  For the same reason, most of my older classes had only one student in them, if there was anyone at all.  Because of all this, I have had more free time than usual while at work, and very little to do during that time. The pace should pick up over the following weeks, but for now, it is quite boring. 

Sea You Later, Busan!

Yesterday I visited two friends in Busan, the second largest city in S. Korea.  It is right on the coast of the ocean and is home to Korea's largest outdoor fish market!

I took the LTX train (the really fast one.  Took about 45 min. and cost around $17) into Busan station in the morning and explored 'China Town' while I waited for my friend to pick me up.  If you've ever been to the China Town in Toronto, then you know what I was expecting… But I was quite disappointed with what I found!   I found nothing interesting or unique in the area… It sort of felt as though they slapped some red paint on the buildings, put some Chinese lanterns up for decorations and added a few dragons for good measure!

Red Paint

Decorative Dragons

Since China Town held no interest to me, I went back to the station and sat on a bench under some trees and started reading a book while I waited. While I was there, I was approached by a man who was very intent on striking up a conversation with me despite his limited English.  I've gotta hand it to him; he tried hard.  He was very friendly and even showed me a music video on his phone… I'm not quite sure why, but he did.  He also wanted to take me out for lunch, but I declined, saying I needed to meet a friend.  While I was trying to pull up Google Translate to tell him this, it came to my attention that my phone wasn't actually connected to the internet, and I quickly ran back into the main station to connect properly since the only way I could communicated with the friend who was picking me up was via facebook chat. Once I found a proper internet connection, I discovered that my friend had been searching for me for a past half hour!! Oops. We found each other and all was good!

My friend showed me the outdoor fish market.  As we walked, the merchants were constantly trying to get us to take a seat at in their 'restaurants'.  At this market, you can personally select your dinner from the tank of living fish.  If you ever get to go there, I'm told it's pretty awesome food… just make sure you're clear on how much it's going to cost you.  Some of the fish go for $100 a plate… but if you like fresh sea food, this is the place for you!!

Fish market

Fried fish at Fish Market

We also walked through BIFF. Though the Film Festival hadn't started yet there was quite a crowd and we ran into the Panda mascot! 

PANDA maskot

We also went to the beach (it was raining a bit… and cold… but I'm told it's beautiful when the sun's shining!). 

We then picked up our other friend from the public school where she teaches.  It's right at the edge of Busan and backs onto some trails that go up the mountain.  We walked a short ways into the woods to a look-out point to get a full view of Busan.  We also ran into a stray cat and I used my first squatter toilet! (No picture proof, unfortunately)

Busan from a distance

Being adults at Laura's school

We then went on a quest to find the dog café and we were successful!  We only had to duck into 1 Starbucks for directions! Success?  I think so.  At the café, you pay $8 for a drink and access to lovely dogs.

It felt like a cloud

Overall, it was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday!