On the mend and off exploring

The clouds of illness have finally (FINALLY!!) lifted and in light of our renewed energy, we’ve spent the last two weekends having all sorts of adventures. Last weekend we stayed in Yeosu for some rather unexpected exploration.

As we were feeling better, we had promised one of our adult students, Anne, that we would go to church with her. Little did we know the experience would be a double whammy of culture shock. Come to find out, Anne is Mormon (neither of us are) and the service was all in Korean (which we can’t speak other than to order coffee and greet people). This Mormon church, we learned, goes for 3 hours in the morning followed by at least another hour in the afternoon. We opted for the morning only option and by the time we left, my head was swimming. Because we work at an English school, we very rarely are in a situation where we really need to know a lot of Korean to understand what is going on or to survive (which seems very weird to us, but such is the life of an English teacher). During church, two of the three missionaries translated everything for us. So, as we were sitting there (rather uncomfortably) we were listening to the Korean, trying to follow along and little by little processing the translated version the missionaries were whispering to us. Add in the newness of some of the ideas and we were more than a bit befuddled by the end of the first hour. For the second hour, we talked with the missionaries, which mostly involved Andy discussing similarities and differences between Mormonism and other kinds of Christianity. During hour three, the congregation separated by gender. I sat next to a very kind Korean woman who had lived in Utah for many years. She explained everything the leader of the discussion (who happened to be Anne) was saying. Using a smart phone, we managed to find an English version of the text so I could follow along. While I learned about Joseph Smith, Andy and the missionaries learned ‘how long winded old men can be’ according to one of the elders, which I found incredibly amusing due to the very serious tone of the church. Overall, church was an interesting experience and everyone was very nice, but it isn’t something I think we’ll be doing too often. It’s just too confusing in another language, even with the translation.

After church, we spent the rest of the day relaxing until dinner, then met up with some of our fellow teacher friends. As it was a Sunday, many restaurants were either completely full or closed, much to our disappointment. We tried three different restaurants before we found one that was both open and not packed. When we ordered soup, the waiter asked us what level of spicy-ness we would like. A sign on the wall indicated the levels by how many and the type of peppers. We went for 30% spice, which was more than enough to make all of us want to shoot fire from our mouths. If that was 30%,  we wondered, do you have to be a dragon to eat 100%?? After soup, we bought a bunch of Bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastries- no actual fish in them) filled with cream from a street vendor, then wandered to one of the bath houses in Yeosu for our second adventure. I’ve decided that of our two adventures that day, the bath house was much more relaxing and peaceful.

The baths are separated by gender and when you walk into the locker room, you are met with masses of nakedness. Being from a culture where people to to show as little complete nakedness as possible when in a locker room, it was quite a shock to see and slightly uncomfortable to participate in for the first few minutes. In Korea, however, no one thinks anything of it at the bath houses. By the time we showered off and climbed into one of the giant stone tubs, I’d gotten used to it and relaxed in the wonderfully (almost burning) hot water. This particular bath house had five tubs with varying temperatures of water, three saunas and a huge area for scrubbing. One of the other teachers told me that usually people will spend one hour soaking in the tubs and then another hour scrubbing (and I mean SCRUBBING!) their whole bodies. People of all ages go to the bath houses to do this. After spending an hour in the tubs, I can see why. You leave feeling happy, relaxed and wonderfully sleepy. We finished off the night with ice cream at Baskin Robins and thinking about making this a Sunday night tradition.

Our week passed like the last few, with some ups and downs, and very quickly. I can truly say that I love all my students and have almost figured out the best way to teach everyone. Hopefully by the end of the month, this too will be a definite. On Thursday, Andy and I decided that we were going to spend the weekend in Gwangju, the capital city of the province. Gwangju is about 2 hours away by bus (ugh….the buses are the bane of our traveling adventures!) and is a HUGE city. We left mid-morning Saturday and arrived a bit green (on my part) in a very crowded, busy Gwangju. After studying our maps, we determined that we could walk from the bus terminal (I really, really didn’t want to get on another bus quite so soon) to our motel in the downtown area of the city. On the map it didn’t look too far, maybe a mile or two…

An hour later, we arrived at the Windmill Motel. The motel is pretty cool. It is a giant, seven story building on the edge of downtown, complete with old-fashioned wind turbines. Our room was awesome!! We had read some reviews that were less than positive, but we were so happy with it, in part because it had a giant bath tub which was great for soaking in after wandering around in the cold. As Gwangju is further north than Yeosu, we could definitely feel the temperature difference!

We spent most of Saturday afternoon looking for the First Nepal Restuarant (which we happened to walk past at least once and didn’t see) and the Art Street. Our map reading skills were put to the test, but by the end of the night, when we had successfully found the First Nepal Restaurant (and ate some delicious curries and nan!),  walked down the Art Street (which was sort of in a sad state) and capped off the evening at the Speakeasy bar, we’d mastered it. Both the restaurant and bar are major ex-patriot hangouts. At Speakeasy, we had a great conversation with the owner who has been in South Korea for almost 13 years. He had some great advice for us about teaching and living here, which I think we will follow. As he said, it can be hard when your whole life is teaching and that is your only outlet, especially at a Hogwans, which ultimately are  businesses before anything else. In that kind of environment, it is easy to always be beating yourself up about something. With another outlet, another project, your heart and soul can find a place to rest when school is rough. Having other things to give meaning to your life is important in order to stay sane, he said. We couldn’t agree more.

Sunday morning we explored more of downtown, including the super cool tunnels full of shops and the Lotte Department Store. Until this morning, I had never been in a department store. My conclusion: OMG! What a big store full of things I can’t ever image needing, let alone buying!! It was cool to wander, but I think I’ll stick to the small shops. They are easier to take in and find things in, I think. Before leaving town, we had a western style brunch at The First Alleyway, a restaurant run by ex-pats who know that sometimes you just need a taste of home.

After brunch, we decided to take the subway back towards the bus terminal (having figured out where the subway was in our many wanderings through downtown in search of the First Nepal). There is currently only one subway line in Gwangju, which made it super easy to navigate. We arrived at the other side of town, bought our tickets and boarded our bus home in no time at all. Unfortunately, the bus ride home was a bit harrowing for Andy, as the bus got rather hot and because most Koreans do not like having air blown on them, the bus driver did not turn on the cool air. By the time we made it back to Yeosu, Andy was more than a little green …buses just aren’t our thing.

Our adventures have been great and life is going well for us. We finally figured out how to turn on our heat and are thoroughly enjoying having a warm floor beneath our feet and warmish air in the apartment. We know the ropes at school (as best as possible, that is) and are happy to be here. We miss you all very much and wish we could see you for the holidays!

Love,

Kali and Andy

~Kali

The end of November

Happy (slightly belated) Thanksgiving!! We hope you are all full of turkey and pie, and that you had a fabulous holiday! Our Thanksgiving was quiet and we celebrated by going to see Hunger Games 2 (kind of weird, I know…hunger and Thanksgiving don’t really go hand in hand). This weekend, the American teachers in Yeosu got together for Thanksgiving, but Andy and I woke up with head colds two days ago, so we decided not to share our bugs with everyone else.With us being sick now, pretty much all the teachers at our school are in varying stages of this cold. We’re hoping that by tomorrow we’ll be almost one hundred percent. With that in mind, hopefully this won’t be too scattered! Even without cold medicine, my brain is a bit foggy today.

The last few weeks have been rather busy for us. We officially said goodbye to our adult students this week with a ceremony of completion and a big group lunch. The students were all sad to have the class end (so were we!) and we are hoping that despite not having class, we will stay in contact with some of them. One student, Anne, likes us a lot. We have heard from her several times already, including last night when she stopped by to bring us some food to feel better. She is very thoughtful and kind. We’re so lucky to have met her.

The Thursday of our last week of class with the adult students, they took us out for a fun day. I went with the beginning students to see Hunger Games 2 (for the first time- I’ve seen it three times now…), which was AMAZING, and had a fabulous lunch with them. Talking with them is such a pleasure and I learned a lot from them about etiquette and traditional ways of eating food. I’ve found it is much easier to talk together when we are in a less formal setting, so perhaps we can meet up with the students for coffee periodically, just to chat. While I was at the movie, Andy met up with the advanced students for lunch and talking. They told Andy that they are going to start a study group together so that they can keep speaking English. I’m so happy to hear that! We are hoping that in the spring, we will get the teach them again. The adult English classes were funded by the city, so it is up to the city of Yeosu if the classes will continue. Fingers crossed they will!!

Last weekend, Jess, Andy and I went to Hyangiram Temple. The temple is on Dolsan Island, right off the coast of Yeosu. It is super easy to get to and super cheap (1200 W or less than $1.20 for the bus trip and 2000 W for entrance to the temple), if you survive the winding, speeding, crowded hour long bus trip. Anyone who has traveled with me knows, windy roads are so not my thing. It doesn’t take much for me to turn green. Add in frequent, hasty stops; crowds of people; the smell of cabbage mixed with dirt, unwashed bodies, kimchi, fish and slightly rotting veggies and I was about to lose it. Andy, who had given up his seat for an elderly man, kept glancing back at me from where he stood, wondering if I was about to add another name to the list of people who have had the misfortune of sitting next to me on road trips. Fortunately, the elderly man escaped and I made it to the temple without losing my cookies, so to say.

The temple is on the tip of Dolsan Island. It was built by Buddhist monks several centuries ago, was burnt down in the 1500s when the island was invaded and has since been rebuilt. The symbol for the temple is a turtle. Along the stairs on the way up are hundreds of turtle statues. The stone steps are patterned like a turtle shell and the entire layout of the temple mimics the shape of a turtle shell. The buildings cling to the cliffs above the ocean. With the leaves on the trees turning orange and the ocean a perfect blue-green color, it was such an incredible sight. We wandered among the buildings, listening to the chants of monks and breathing in the fresh, cool ocean air. It was well worth the bus trip, we decided. We plan on visiting frequently, because despite the number of visitors, it is a peaceful place and a nice break from the fast city life.

Last week started out with bad news for us. Three of our top students are leaving the school, much to our sorrow. Andy and I both had class with the students, loved teaching them and had a great time with them. Headmaster, understandably, was devastated. So, we went into emergency mode last week and are working to ensure that we have the highest standard of English teaching that we can. We are all hoping that the students will return in a few months. After that news, however, the week went fairly smoothly. It seems like every day I see many students making progress and realizing that they really can speak English, even if they are worried about making mistakes. It is good to see.

This weekend has been pretty quiet. Yesterday we decorated the apartment for Christmas and spent the day resting. Today I went for a short hike in hopes of clearing my head from the fogs of being sick (a partial success) and now more rest is in order. We hope you are all doing well. Happy December!!!

Love and miss you!

Kali and Andy

~Kali