Endings.

Moving from hostel to hostel, the ends of trips are always hard to record. This is unfortunate, because it is generally the last part of my travels I enjoy the most. Take when I lived in Hong Kong, for instance-- I spent the last two and a half weeks of my time there traveling throughout China. Those two and a half weeks were some of the most interesting and eye-opening experiences I will always remember. However, I was so busy living out the experience that I failed to update my blog.

Although I returned to Detroit on the 24th, I'll try to recap Japan, Seoul and the DMZ the best I can...

Let's start with Japan.

From Seoul, we took a train to Pusan. From Pusan, we took a 3-hour ferry ride to Fukuoka, Japan. We stayed in Fukuoka for one night. Fukuoka was much larger than the small port city we had expected. It had buildings galore, a large nightlife and even a red light district. We started our first night off with an Izakaya. All of the staff were really excited to have people to practice their English with and took turns walking into our room to ask us questions. Our waiter made us balloon animals and wrote our names with Japanese sayings.
We were so impressed with the efforts of our waiter (it happened to be his birthday) and the rest of the staff that we left an American dollar and a quarter on the table, for something small they could remember us by. We said our goodbyes and left to explore more of the city.

When we were at least three blocks away and had made a few turns, our server showed up. He was all out of breath and his face dripped with sweat. We were so shocked, we didn't know what to make of it.

"You left this on the table," he huffed as he handed us our $1.25.

"Oh no, that was for you!" We explained. After he left, we couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of what had happened. First of all, how did he find us? He must have looked in every direction. Second, did he know how much $1.25 was worth in Yen? Considering how expensive Japan is, we decided he must've thought it was worth more. Last, we confirmed that it's best not to break the "no tipping" custom in Japan, unless we really hate our server and want to watch him run after us for 3 blocks.

We took the rest of the night to explore the city. The red light district was crowded with Japanese businessmen. Although I only had four days to speculate, I got the impression that people in Japan are much more comfortable when it comes to pornography. Even when we weren't in the red light area, it wasn't uncommon for us to walk into a convenience store and see four or five businessmen glancing at magazines (either cartoon or real) with half naked women on them. On the four hour morning bus ride to Hiroshima, I sat next to a man in a business suit who was reading a graphic novel with an almost naked woman on the cover. I don't even know what to make of it all, maybe it was a series of coincidences?

This is the A-Bomb dome, one of the few remaining buildings from the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but it was a cool area with a museum and a lot of memorials. Naturally, they are all about promoting peace, love and harmony on Earth when it comes to nuclear weapons. Interesting fact: Even today, Hiroshima has an unusually higher cancer rate than other cities. The lingering radiation still has its effects.


From Hiroshima, we took a day trip to Miyajima Island, one of Japan's three most scenic views. The whole island was full of very friendly deer. They were so friendly, in fact, that there were several instances where I'd walk away to avoid getting my bag eaten.

On the ferry back to Korea, we had some problems involving "extra charges." Before the whole trip to Japan, we had purchased our ferry tickets about a week or two in advance. When we came to the port, however, we had to pay a $50 tax surcharge. Not only that, but we had to buy another ticket in Japan to get into the terminal itself. It was obvious we needed the terminal to get onto the ferry and I don't understand why the price of such a ticket couldn't just be included in the ferry ticket.

After Japan, we spent our last three nights in Seoul. We saw a lot of the city, but what stuck out most to me was our day trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It remains the most heavily fortified border in the world with strict dress codes and behaviors (don't point, for instance) that are heavily enforced. Needless to say, the tension of the atmosphere radiated around us.
The tour was guided mostly by United Nations Command military personnel. First, we went to Camp Bonafis, named after an American captain who died in the 1976 Axe Murder Incident. The camp lies just outside of the Joint Security Area, a place where both sides can communicate with one another without having to enter one another's country. I was able to catch sight of both North Korean and South Korean guards, although the North Korean guards were at more of a distance (the picture above is a South Korean guard).
What was really interesting was North Korea's Propaganda Village. From watching the village at a distance, South Koreans were able to conclude that the village is completely deserted. The buildings you see in the picture are fake-- probably put there to intimidate South Korea. Speaking of intimidation, notice the flagpole in the middle of the village...it's the world's largest flagpole and flag. When the South erected a flagpole over 100m high near the border, North Korea erected the one it has today, over 160m-- pretty hilarious.

We also got to see the Bridge of No Return, the bridge connecting North Korea and South Korea.
In the afternoon, we saw the Third Tunnel, one of four digging attempts by North Korea to invade South Korea. It was dug for four years (1.1 miles long) before South Korea found it. When the issue was first addressed, North Korea claimed it was an abandoned coal mine from before the two countries separated. Walking through the tunnel, we saw the remnants of the vein attempts by the North Koreans to spray paint the inside of the tunnel black (honestly, who were they kidding?). When South Korea pointed out that the tunnel was comprised of bedrock and couldn't possibly have been a coal mine, North Korea then tried to say that it was South Korea who had tried to dig a tunnel to North Korea. Oh North Korea...

And now I'm back.

What's next? I'm working on acquiring a working holiday visa so that I may work in Australia for up to a year. I can't post details because I have none-- but details to come, I promise!

I ate a squid...alive.

Camp is over, and now all the English teachers are on the move. I feel like I bonded with the kids a lot more this session-- probably because their English skills are so much higher in 8th grade and it was easier to relate. Already, I've received a few endearing yet nonsensical emails from the kids. It was tense in the end- I had a lot of trouble working with Kyle, the other activities coordinator/head teacher, mostly because he didn't do anything and I always had to tell him what what was going on.

But lets move on to more important things, like the fact that I ate a live squid in Mokpo two nights ago. Please excuse the wobbliness of the video:



After Mokpo we went to Busan. We went to a fish market. There were sea cucumbers, squid and skinned eels that still moved...

In the morning, Sarah, Caroline and I took a taxi to Gukje Market. Despite the pig heads and the cab we got lost in for over an hour, it was worth the trip and I wish we could have stayed longer.



Now we are in Gyeongju, a city I'm not all the impressed with. Granted, I haven't given it much of a chance. Tomorrow we leave for Seoul, although we'll only be there for a night-- we are leaving the English teacher excursion early the morning of the 18th to make our way back to Busan and take a ferry to Fukuoka. Then it's on to Hiroshima...

Now We've Got Kids With Attitude.

I think I'll miss Cooking class. It kept me busier than busy, but I've come to realize I like busy (not that I'd ever force it). Now that the new camp has begun, I am activities coordinator. In the afternoons, I teach Math. The other activity coordinator, Kyle, teaches Math in the mornings. The original American Math teacher fell off the side of a wall at our visit to a Buddhist Temple (of all places) and broke a rib, among other injuries. She'll be in the hospital for the next week...

The kids we teach are in 8th grade. They are bigger, more quiet, fashion forward and teen angsty than the 6th graders were. It's hard for many of us to tell the difference between the 8th graders and the Korean co-teachers now. I noticed it's harder to distinguish genders with these kids as well. For instance, a girl in my class chose for her English name to be "Pirate". The first day, she had short hair, boy cargo shorts and a plain t-shirt. I had no idea she was a girl until the better part of the class was over. Some other fun names kids in my class chose are "Titus" and "Rudolph". There is even a girl named Molly.

Our last camp ended Friday. August 2nd was suppose to be our only free day for the entire camp, but it became apparent that Koreans have a very different definition of "free" than Americans do. To Koreans, the free day meant we had to go on a bus at 10am and go to the beach. Then we went to a music hall. While it was nice of them to do, I was extremely disappointed that I couldn't have even one measly day to myself. After that, we stayed the night at a Buddhist Temple. If you ever go to a Buddhist Temple, don't go with a group of 60 English teachers...it might just ruin the experience. Everything we did there was extremely planned out and all I could focus on was how forced it all felt. We only had one hour that wasn't planned for us, where we could roam free around the temple.

Needless to say, the lack of free time the teachers have on days off has made us all go a little stir-crazy. I feel as though the camp officials are worried we won't know what to do with ourselves if nothing is planned for us.

Luckily, there were about three and a half hours last Friday between lunch and dinner where 6 of us were able to escape and hike by ourselves (unsupervised! oh my...) in Wolchulsan National Park. Due to the time crunch, we vigorously climbed Mt. Wolchul to the Gureumdari Bridge. I took this picture as soon as we emerged from the wooded portion of the hike:

Once we got there:
It was worth pushing my weak little body after all.

Luckily, camp ends the 15th (we have a planned camp excursion through the 18th) and I'm not leaving until the 24th. I found out there is a ferry that goes from Korea to Japan , so some friends and I might visit a nearby city in Japan for a few days. On the 23rd, we will try to visit the DMZ, a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea.

Criss Cross Conversation

So my friend and fellow English teacher, Caroline, fractured part of her foot this morning. She went to the hospital in Mokpo, where she got an x-ray and they gave her a variety of pills. The camp principal and nurses wanted to explain each of those pills/tablets to her tonight. Since Korean culture is deeply rooted in a hierarchal system, they wanted my other friend Jos, our native English camp leader, to take them there. For clarification of our camp hierarchy, the system goes a little like this:

Principal→ Korean staff leaders (such as nurses) → English leader (Jos) → English teachers→ Campers

When it comes down to things that need to be done, this chain cannot be broken. For instance, an English teacher may not report a problem to the principal. Instead, it should be reported to the English leader, who relays the information to Korean staff leaders and the Principal. The same goes the other way around.

Tonight (a little before 10pm), I went down to the lobby for a bottle of water. There was Principal Ahn, two nurses and a couple of other Korean staff members hanging around. The conversation I had with them went a little something like this:

Principal Ahn (PA): Leah?
Me: Yes?
PA: Have you seen Jos?
Me: Not recently. I know where his room is though.
PA: (Pause of dissapointment) Is he sleeping?

Staff: I saw Jos about an hour ago. He said he would go to sleep soon.
Me: Yeah, I don’t know. I can knock on his door.
Staff: asfjssfnnl tabloids.
Me: What?
Staff: You know tabloids?
Me: Tabloids?

PA: Yes, we need Jos to explain tabloids.
Me: Well if you need him tonight, I can knock on his door and see if he’s awake.
(Pause)
Staff: We need to tell Caroline her tabloids.
Me: Oh! Well I was just in Caroline’s room, she’s awake.

PA: She’s waiting?
Me: No, she’s awake.
PA: We need Jos to take us there.
Me: I can show you to Caroline’s room… she knows you’re coming tonight.
PA: Yes, but we want Jos to take us there, since he’s the leader of the native English speakers.
Me: Oh. Well I can go knock on Jos’s door and see if he’s awake.
PA: But isn’t he asleep?
Me: I don’t know, I can go knock and check.
PA: Wouldn’t that be rude?
Me: I don’t think so…

Staff/Principal: (Korean Korean Korean Korean Korean)
PA: Okay, you can take us to Caroline’s room?
Me: Yes.

Cross-culturalism, gotta love it.

Crack.

Today marks the end of my 3rd camp day. Is it okay to admit I'm already sick of it? I forgot how much prep work cooking takes. Not only that, we can never seem to get the cookies done on time. Although each of the teams (I divide the class into 3 teams) are able to make the ham sandwiches and eventually the cookie dough, there's only one mini-stove (maybe a little bigger than an Easy Bake) in the class room. To make things easy, my co-teacher cooks the cookies from the previous class while I teach. In effect, the kids get 1-2 cookies and we are left with a giant blob of cookie dough that grows with each passing class (4 batches of cookie dough per class, 2 classes per day). To wash the bowls, spoons, vegetables, etc., I have to send the kids to the bathroom down the hall since there is no sink available.

I'm on my feet constantly, with little time to do much else until 7pm. I think days will go faster as I get into the groove...It's going to be the small things that get me by.

For instance, we are encouraging the kids to speak in sentences. Each class, I teach the kids both verbs (such as stir, cut, crack, wipe) and ingredients (ham, egg, baking soda, etc). As students added ingredients today, I wrote "I am adding _____ to the bowl" on the board. One boy was cracking an egg into the bowl. When I asked him what he was doing, he said "I am adding crack to the bowl!"

I couldn't hold in the laughter.

Also, most people here cannot say "cinnamon". There's a punch desert they serve after lunch called su jung gwa. Some of the Korean co-teachers were describing what it's made of to the native English teachers. According to them, it's made of a certain kind of fruit and semen. After comparing stories, we figured out they meant to say "cinnamon."

Now it's time to go to bed for a fun-filled Saturday of teaching. Sunday is a field trip, perhaps I'll update after that.

First Day of Camp!

Breakfast this morning was kimchee, rice, clams, crab, shrimp and squid...looking at those poor sea creatures with their little black beady eyes staring back at me, I just couldn't eat.

Then the kids came-- it all happened so fast.

Standing in a homeroom with fourteen Korean twelve year olds and one Korean co-teacher was a bigger culture shock than I expected.

Here's some things I was told about Korean culture before today:

-Koreans are used to teacher-focused classes that have VERY little interaction with the students.
-Koreans move in groups. Instead of trailing off in pairs or threes like Americans do, the whole group sticks together.
-The children are shy and need a lot of encouragement to talk.

Okay, so take the last three things I listed... Multiply those three things by 2489742 and that was my class today. No joke.

All of my questions posed to the class fizzled into unanswered silence. Even if the students understood my questions, they just assumed I'd answer my own questions for them. At first, I thought they didn't understand me. Considering I had no means to gage their English comprehension levels (Koreans generally have a fear of being wrong, which is why they wouldn't answer me), I began to break down some of the questions in the activity directions. Then the students started to sigh. One of the little girls told me to just start the activity. I guess they understood after all.

Then break-time came. I told the kids they could have a 15-minute break to go to the bathroom and stretch their legs. To make sure they understood, the co-teacher translated for me. So a couple minutes passed and not a single person moved from their desk. They barely even spoke to one another. "You can stand up or go to the bathroom," I assured them.
"Stand up?" one girl asked.
"Yes! If you want to," I said. "You can do whatever you want until 3:40."
The girl stood up and sat back down immediately, giggling.

So a few more minutes passed and nothing happened. It was so awkward. In the meantime, I prepared what we were to do after break.

Then before I knew what happened, all of the students stood up AT ONCE (okay, someone must have started it) and shuffled out the door to go to the bathroom. I'm pretty sure my co-teacher could see my shock as I looked around the empty classroom, because she started to laugh at me.

"I'm not used to this!" I exclaimed. "In America, we go off on our own until the break is over." She said Korean students move in groups. It's so strange to learn a cultural difference and then see it put into action.

After a lot of coercing in the three hours that I had the kids in the classroom, I was able to get the kids to think of a "team name" for our class, make a poster and a cheer.

Want to know what our team name was? Crazy Cows. Want to know why? Well, I'll tell you...

I wrote a bunch of nouns on the board (some were kid's ideas, many were mine). Then, I wrote a bunch of "describing" words. One of the words were "crazy." We mixed and matched the two categories of words. One kid especially wanted "Crazy Cows." When we voted, the vote was practically unanimous.

I didn't get it, until I saw a girl draw in her notebook a picture of U.S. beef and cows that were crazy. They were talking about Mad Cow Disease, which has been all the hype in S. Korea the past few months.

I thought it was kind of funny, so the co-teacher and I made sure the kids only drew pictures on the board that had to do with cows that are crazy for English.

Tomorrow I start cooking with classes...too bad we can't make steaks.

Hello Yeongam! Hello Governor! Hello Room!

So that's me, shaking hands with the Governor of the entire Southern Province of S. Korea. It's customary to hold your elbow with your left hand while shaking hands with your right. It looks funny, although maybe that's because I did it wrong. Either way, the Governor didn't seem to mind. He was a nice man who took time to answer many of our questions.

After the fancy meeting, we said goodbye to fellow orientation members and loaded buses to our separate camps.

On first glance, I am surprised at how developed the area is in Yeongam. I should have known better-- the Korean interpretation of "rural" is much different than the U.S. interpretation. With so many people in such a small country, parks remain the only undeveloped places. I'd delve into detail, but I'm too tired to think right now.

So I'll skip to the details of my room... Remember that time I wrote that I'd have no PC access in my room? Yeah, total lie.

Since this is the first time a camp like this has taken place in Yeongam, none of the participants really knew what to expect. Therefore, the information given to us was based on experiences from past years at the other three camp locations.

We took a risk taking on the unknown, but in the end it proved fruitful. The dorm rooms exceeded my expectations! See my room below:


It has hardwood floors, a closed-in balcony (so I won't kill myself?), it's own tiny bathroom, and a LAN line. As you may see, the view includes a river and a great view of the terrain. Best of all, we each get our own rooms. As an added bonus, I really love my fellow teachers across the hall and next door to me.

Oh, I forgot to mention we are staying at a University. It has speakers placed in every room for people to make announcements. I'm praying it won't blast 50's music at 7:30am every morning like the last place did...

Whatever, it feels great to settle in at a final destination.

The kids arrive tomorrow. We also meet our Korean co-teachers tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day.