Beach Day and Good-byes

One beautiful Saturday in June, a group of us decided to head out to the beach for a barbeque. This was the fourth time we'd planned to do it since May, and none of the times had been successful so far, due to weather conditions (May had this habit of being sunny all week, then raining all weekend), so we were determined to make this work. We thought we would take the us out to the easiest beach to get to, Mallipo, but as it turns out, our friend Alia's mother drove us, and she took us to a special beach, the most beautiful beach we'd seen in Korea. This beach called Gurempo, which is translated as Cloud (or Mist) Beach, because it usually has a mist hanging over one side. It was so beautiful! We just wandered around, enjoying the beauty (unfortunately, we forgot our camera so all of these photos were taken with my cell phone, and they don't really do justice to the beach):




Back in one corner of the beach, there was a little Buddha shrine area, just tucked in among the rocks and trees:


Wandering along the beach, Alia wrote our initials in the sand:


After wandering along the beach, the four of us (our group minus Alia's mom) started to prepare the barbeque. We collected driftwood for the fire, although Brenden was a little shocked by our selections--it was obvious only Brenden had collected firewood before. We didn't have any charcoal, because we thought we'd be going to Mallipo, which has many shops along it, but instead this beach was really isolated, without even a shop. We noticed three or four other people with charcoal, though, so Alia went up to them and asked them and they had brought it with them. Not to be deterred, she noticed there was a small house there and she went and asked them whether there were any small shops nearby. There weren't any, but the woman offered to give us some charcoal. Now with charcoal, we were in business! Unfortunately, the wind kept shifting, so it was hard to get it started, but Brenden made it work, and he was grilling in no time. In the meantime, while we waited for the sausages and veggies to cook, we snacked on gimbap (the quintessential Korean picnic lunch food, they're like very simple sushi rolls) and fruit and sliced French bread into sandwich sizes, then made sausage and veggie sandwiches. Delicious!

After packing up, we were in for another surprise: there was more to see! We piled back in the car, and Alia's mom made three more stops: at one lovely lookout point and two more beaches. All in all, we had a grand time, and it definitely was my top beach experience in Korea. It made me really excited for Thailand and lounging on the islands, too, which is just a few weeks away (at the end of our vacation).

This past weekend was our last weekend in Korea. Heather came down from Incheon, and had a great time hanging out with the friends we've made here in Korea (and with the friends we already have). Now we're busy packing (we're mostly done with our suitcases), although I had a nasty surprise when I tried to take a box to the post office to mail home today: it's only 9 kilos, but it's too large. They won't ship it, so I have to break it up into two smaller boxes. It's annoying because one thing in the box is very thin but tall, and I'm afraid it will be too tall for the smaller boxes. At any rate, we still have a lot to take care of in the next three days, but on Thursday, we'll be flying out to Hong Kong, and the vacation will begin!

This will probably be our last post in Korea (and we probably won't post while we're traveling), so hopefully we'll see most of you reading this before we write again!

- Carissa

Third Grade: Saying Good-Bye & Passports

The way we usually blog, it must seem like all we do is travel, but I assure we actually are working, and this time, I actually have a work-themed blog (AND the blog is actually about something that happened today, something I'm sure you can't believe, either). Today (Thursday) was my last day to work with my third grade classes (I have five sections for one class each week, all on Thursday), so I said good-bye to them, which was sad and yet satisfying at the same time. One of the really disappointing things about leaving Georgia when we did was not being able to say good-bye--we left after my first school year, when I had planned to come back for the second year and teach the same students, but I just never came back. Although I did get to say good-bye to one counterpart, I didn't get to say good-bye (in person) to anyone else other than our family in Akhaltsikhe. Here, we will get to say good-bye.

I've also done a project with my third grad class that came to an end today. At the beginning of the school year, in March, I made them booklets with space for stickers. Each month, I gave them a specific set of tasks (usually three, but one month, it was four), and for each task they completed successfully, I gave them a sticker. If they got all the stickers for a particular month, I gave them a bigger, special sticker and a piece of candy. This was a big deal, and they were really excited about it (I don't really give out candy at any other time). I called this booklet their "passport," and the passports became wildly popular in my third grade.


I told them in April that any student who got ALL stickers for March, April, May, and June would get a special prize from me (like those two girls in the picture above). On Wednesday, I put together those special prizes, and I'm proud with how they turned out:



Each student who got all stickers (since my spelling quiz in May was probably too hard, I actually was more generous, and allowed students who were missing only one sticker to get a prize, too) got one little package (which contained candy) plus another special sticker (this time, stickers with positive affirmations like "Excellent!" or "Great job!") and a San Diego postcard with a note from me on the back. It all turned out very well, so I was happy, even though it was a crazy day for a multitude of reasons.

Now for the rest of the good-byes...

- Carissa

DMZ Tour

Our second Sunday with Brenden's parents was also our last day, so we woke up bright and early to go on a DMZ tour. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures except at designated spots, so we don't have any pictures of North Korea or of the tunnel. But more about that later.

To begin, a minivan picked us up at our hotel, then drove us the staging ground for all DMZ tours. We wander around this touristy area, which has a few small shops (we buy a snack for later), then pile onto a different bus to be taken to the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel.

The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel is a tunnel dug by North Korea into South Korea. Four have been discovered so far (three in the 1970s, but the last one was in 1990). The third tunnel is only 44 kilometers (27 miles) from Seoul and 1,635 meters (just over a mile) long. It's 73 meters (240 feet) underground, and it's quite steep--I wore my sweater on the way down, but I definitely didn't need it on the way up! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures (cameras were required to be left in lockers above), but it was very interesting. The inside of the tunnel is painted black--when asked about the tunnel, North Korea apparently told South Korea they were mining for coal! It feels tight and small going through it with a tour company, but they told us 30,000 troops could go through in an hour.

Outside of the tunnel, there's a visitor's center, movie theater, and several interesting artistic pieces. This one depicts Koreans trying to put the two Koreas back together:


Here I am with Checkpoint Charlie, a small statue outside of the visitor's center:


Inside the visitor's center is the movie theater, and we watched a short video about the tunnel and the DMZ. We were familiar with most of the historical stuff from our trip to the War Memorial Museum the day before, but the main point of the movie seemed to be that the DMZ had once been the symbol of war and division but it was now the symbol of hope and reconciliation. It is true that because of all the landmines in the DMZ, it has served as a nature preserve and several formerly endangered species have flourished there. The last screen in the movie is of butterflies flitting through long grass, and I'm sure that happens. It is also true that this was prior to North Korea's recent round of saber-rattling. Nevertheless, I think the movie's claims of the DMZ being a symbol of reunification is a little overly hopeful, shall we say.

However, that seems to be the dominant theme of the DMZ tour. After the tunnel and movie, we went to Dora Station, a railroad station with tracks that run between Seoul and Pyeongyang. Well, not actually...there are signs stating that tracks run there (see below) and a sparkling train station (see the second picture below), but there aren't actually any tracks, and neither North nor South Korea wants there to be any. Instead, this "rail station" was built as a symbolic gesture towards reunification. Symbolic railroad ties were even signed by the presidents of South Korea and America, although there aren't any actual railroad ties.




All of this confirms South Korea's huge desire to be reunified, and makes it even more achingly clear that it won't happen anytime soon.

After the DMZ tour, we headed back to Seoul, hung out in the hotel for a bit (Brenden and I had checked out, but Barbara and Doug were staying one more night), then ate a quick dinner at the Express Bus terminal before Brenden and I said good-bye and headed home.

- Carissa

War Memorial Museum

After going back to work for three days, it was the weekend again, and the four of us headed back to Seoul. We had a busy weekend planned, beginning at the War Memorial Museum on Saturday. The museum was quite interesting, although we didn't really take photos of the most interesting parts (at least to me). We started by looking at Korea military paraphernalia throughout the 20th century, then the displays moved on to a detailed explanation of the Korean War. Although we knew the basics facts about the Korean War, we didn't know much about the actual progress of the war, other than MacArthur's successful landing at Incheon, and the fact that the two countries are still technically at war. As a result, the section of the museum that dealt with the Korean War was, for me, the most interesting part.

Each section of the war had displays as well as a short video produced in several languages, including English, that had footage of the war as well as summarized the course of the war and major events. The first thing that really impressed me was a short display showing the positions of North and South Korea before the war and now. What is so notable about that was the dominance of North Korea prior to the war in almost everything--population, crops, electricity, industry, and so on--and the complete reversal of that now. The war significantly damaged both economies, but North Korea's recovered more quickly, at least initially, and until 1975 remained stronger than South Korea's. Since then, obviously, roles have reversed significantly, with North Korea's GDP being only 4% of South Korea's now.

The second thing that really impressed me was realizing that although the war lasted three years (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953), it was only in the first year that positions really changed, and negotiations to end the war began in 1951 when both sides realized neither could win the war. After that, it was basically a stalemate for TWO YEARS while each side tried to capture this hill or that hill to be in a strategically advantageous negotiation position, and so each side would postpone negotiations until it got the hill that it wanted. At the beginning of the war, the 38th parallel marked the dividing line between North and South; eventually, after the armistice in 1953, the DMZ would be divided roughly along the 38th parallel again, meaning there was very little change in boundaries after all that. There was some change, in that the line after the war was angled, so some land changed hand (for example, Kaesong, an ancient Korean city was part of SoKo before the war but is now in NoKo), but there was no real net gain for either side.

Third, I didn't realized how lopsided things actually were within the war--by September 1950, 3 months into the war, North Korea controlled all of South Korea except for Busan, located in the southeastern corner of the country. Due to an influx of American bombers and tanks in late August, the UN/South Korean forces had superior forces, but still controlled only Busan. As a result, MacArthur pushed for an amphibious landing at Incheon, a city on Korea's western coast just an hour west of Seoul (in order to understand the importance of this, remember that Seoul was basically at the pre-1950 border between the two Koreas, so Incheon is the farthest part of SK away from Busan). His landing was successful, and Seoul was recaptured easily. Supply lines to the North Korean troops south of Seoul were cut off, so North Korean troops retreated north of Seoul. By early October, not only were North Korean troops north of the 38th parallel (the dividing line between the two Koreas after World War II), but UN troops had crossed over into North Korea. By mid-October, UN forces had captured Pyongyang, but Mao had also decided that the UN forces posed a risk to China, so Chinese forces were mobilized. Two months after the Chinese entered the war, UN forces were forced out of Seoul, although their retreat ended at Suwon, just one hour south of Seoul (and today essentially a suburb of Seoul). From January to May 1951, fighting centered between Suwon and the 38th parallel, and when the UN forces reached the 38th parallel in May, they decided not to pursue action in North Korea, ushering in the two years of stalemate.

Fourth, although I knew North and South Korea technically never completed the peace agreement, I didn't know why or what happened. As it turns out, North Korea and the US both signed the Armistice, but the South Korean president, Syngman Rhee, refused to sign in, resulting in no official end to the Korean War. Of course, now that North Korea rejected the Armistice (about a month ago, in case you missed it, or a few weeks after our trip to the museum), the US is the only party who still supports it.

It was a really sad to be reminded of the futility of this war, a war where both major parties have rejected the outcome, no one gained anything, livelihoods were devastated, and an estimated four million people died.

On that somber note, we exited the Korean War section and entered real-life war-mobiles section, with small planes, tanks, trucks, and motorcycles. A model parachuter and model airplanes hovered in the air over a two story vaulted ceiling. Brenden particularly liked this motorcycle with its little sidecar (even though it's Russian):


After that area, we took a quick trip through the historical military section, devoted to Korean military history prior to the Korean War. A lot of it was quite familiar to Brenden and I from previous museums, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed this circular shield, identified (as usual) only as being from the Joseon Dynasty period, which is sometime within a 400 year period:


After that, we wandered outside to the museum grounds, where some more impressive stuff remained. This is where the large aircraft and tanks were displayed, although my interest soon waned and I found a shady spot to sit down (Brenden, however, was fascinated and took many, many pictures, which he can post at a later date if he so desires, as I'm sure he knows all about every plane, which I don't). Barbara joined me after a bit, and we waited for Doug and Brenden to finish. When they had wandered to their hearts' content, we all walked over to the official memorial area. Below is the official memorial, symbolizing the separation between the two Koreas. A statue of two soliders represents NoKo and SoKo as two brothers, separated by the war, but reconciling.

It was a somber day, but definitely worth it, and a good stop before our final excursion in Korea with Doug and Barbara: a DMZ tour.

National Museum & Insa-Dong

Day two in Seoul with Brenden's parents, we started at the National Museum. The National Museum actually has branches all over Korea, but most of them are full of historical things pertinent to that particular region. The National Museum in Seoul, however, not only has historical artifacts and re-creations, but also has sections devoted to Korean art, which we really enjoyed. Here are just a few of my favorite things:

I really liked this piece--look at the detail and lovely colors, and how the gold actually glistens.



This is a horse token, which was carried by secret royal inspectors who would travel undercover around Korea to do secret investigations during the Joseon period (1392-1910). The horses on the medal indicate how many horses the inspector is entitled to take from stations around Korea (five horses, as below, was the highest number).


This is a royal box of the late Joseon Dynasty (beginning in 1897), which contained the great seal:


Everything above was in the history section. After the history sections, we hurried into the private collections section (i.e., mostly Korean art donated by private collectors), then onto the Korean art area. My favorites were the celadon (popular in the 12th century) and the white porcelain vases (popular during the 18th and 19th centuries). Unfortunately, the celadon vases didn't look nearly as beautiful in photographs as they did in person, so I only have white porcelain jars to share. This dragon-and-cloud jar is from the 18th century:


And this one is from the 19th century contains ten symbols of longevity:


We didn't get to see everything at the National Museum because we had other things planned for the afternoon. When we emerged from the museum, there were crowds of parents and their children, doing special crafts and activities. The crowd was actually a little overwhelming, and it dawned on us that it was because it was Children's Day, that's why everyone was there (Children's Day was the reason for our 4 day weekend--parents take their children to do special things on this holiday).

After eating a quick lunch in the museum courtyard, we took Doug and Barbara to Insa-dong, our favorite area of Seoul. Unfortunately, due to Children's Day, the streets were the most crowded we'd seen them (including the previous weekend, when we'd been to the festival for Buddha's birthday). We wandered around, and Doug and Barbara bought some gifts for friends and family back home. We went past the Starbucks in Insa-dong, as we'd done many times before, but had never taken a picture of it before. Since Insa-dong is a traditional area, Starbucks decided to forgoe their normal logo up top and instead spelled out "Starbucks" in Korean lettering.

Korean Folk Village

After Floritopia, we went back to Seosan and rested up. The next day, Monday, we headed into Seoul with Barbara and Doug, and immediately after checking into our hotel, we headed out to a folk village. The folk village is a lovely re-creation of traditional Korean life, complete with traditional crafts (weaving, silk making, pottery, etc), performances (horse show, dancing, weddings, etc), and buildings. The folk village is divided between two banks of a small stream that runs along the length of the whole village, and on each side are streets with lots of leafy trees, making it a wonderful place to stroll and just absorb the atmosphere. Below is a picture of a building (I believe a water mill) along the river:


Here are the equivalent of totem poles in Korea:


Below is a picture of the horse show we watched, twice (it was really that good). We watched this twice because we visited the folk village twice, the second time with Barbara and Doug. The first time we went in April with Heather, it was overcast and looked like it might rain (although it didn't until after we'd left the folk village), so there were very few people there and we had a much better view of the horse show. Unfortunately, when we came back with Barbara and Doug, it was sunny Monday of a four-day holiday weekend, so there were tons of people, and no place to sit (we had planned to eat our lunch while watching the show). At any rate, though, it was a really amazing show, and I'm glad we saw it twice. In addition to the move below, they also had maneuvers where they hung face-down from the horse, did flips on top of the horse, and in general did some pretty cool things.


We also really enjoyed wandering through the different style houses (i.e, merchant's house, peasant's house in southern Korea, peasant's house in western Korea, and so on) and finding little surprises tucked away, like a straw weaving station. We actually stayed at the straw weaving station for a while both times we went to the folk village--the first time, both Brenden and Heather tried their hand at weaving, and the second time, Doug did. Both times, the gentleman in the picture below was there, helping them to figure it out. Although he didn't speak a word of English, he was the nicest guy ever, and we really enjoyed the time spent there. He always had a huge smile like in the picture below!

Floritopia

Brenden's parents came to visit us in early May, and after bringing them to Seosan, we spend a day just exploring Seosan and relaxing, followed by celebrating Will's birthday that night. Their second full day in Korea, we went out to Floritopia, a flower festival on island about an hour away from us. Well, normally, at least, it takes about an hour to go straight there, and we were lucky enough to find that, indeed, because of the festival, there was a bus that went all the way to the festival grounds. Unfortunately, we soon learned that Floritopia is Very Big Deal, and since there is only one bridge (and road) onto the island, the traffic was horrendous, and our quick hour trip turned into 2.5 hours each way. Once we arrived, we were amazed at the size, and we spent 4 hours exploring the exhibits. I was able to use our new camera to capture a lot of close-ups of flowers, and Brenden and Barbara took lots of pictures of the tulips, which were gorgeous (and must have been very, very expensive, given how many of them were there). Below, here are just a few of our favorites:

Random Korean Pictures

These pictures aren't from the same day or even of the same place, but these are pictures I really like that don't particularly fit into a story. As I've had a busy day and we'll be having people over for dinner in 15 minutes, I don't really have time for a story anyway. So, instead, I'll just briefly share a few pictures.

The first picture is of the temple behind our house. We live on the edge of a wooded area and across the street from a few temples. This is the main temple:

The rest of the pictures are on the drive from Seosan, our town, to Ammyando, an island about an hour away. On the way, you pass beautiful rice paddies (which, in early May, were just started to sprout). Enjoy!

Lotus Lantern Festival

The last weekend in April, there was a big festival in Seoul called the Lotus Lantern Festival, to celebrate Buddha's birth. Insa-dong, which is perhaps our favorite neighborhood in Seoul (and the best place to buy anything traditional), hosted the festival, and the streets were lined with craft booths and food stalls and filled with people, half foreigners and half Koreans. Many of the Koreans were wearing traditional Korean clothing, like this group of women:


Heather, Brenden, and I had signed up to make lotus lanterns (a free activity hosted by the festival in English!) and Will decided to join us, too. Since he hadn't signed up, I gave him my place, and Brenden and I worked on one lantern together. We had thought these would be mini lanterns, but it turns out, they were full-size, and making them was a lot more time-intensive than we thought they would be. Two and a half hours later, Brenden and I were finished, but it took over three hours for everyone in our group to finish. Unfortunately, the petals are a little tight at the top of the lantern, so we haven't tried to put a candle inside, as it would be a serious fire hazard. Our lantern is below:


After making the lanterns, we wandering around the streets, marveling at the lanterns (these are regular lanterns, not lotus lanterns):



and walked to a park nearby which was in full bloom, with a lovely pagoda and lanterns:


Although not pictured, we also walked around Insa-dong's temple, which was full of Koreans (and the odd foreigner or two, inevitably with shoulders that weren't fully covered or shirts riding up in the back, both things NOT to do in a Buddhist temple). *sigh* All in all, though, it was a lovely day and we enjoyed experiencing a different aspect of Korean culture than what we experience day-to-day.

- Carissa

P.S. I should note that since our camera broke, these pictures are all courtesy of Heather. Thanks, Heather! :)

Maps

One more blog about school stuff. The pictures for this blog are actually really old (from February during my winter camp), but I think they're entertaining, so I thought I'd share them. During the winter camp at my school, I had a map day where I split the kids into small groups and had them create maps (again, excuse the photos, as these were taken with my camera phone).

This first map was what one of the girls' groups created. Note how straight and perfect every line is--I was really impressed with their patience (although I think Korean children are notable in this aspect, more so than American children):


The second one was one two of the boys in my class made, although I don't have a picture of the whole map; I took pictures of individual details because those are important. When I asked the boys about their map, they told me a very detailed story, so each of the pictures below tells one part of their story. In the picture below, they explained to me that one of the boys who wasn't in the group, Will (his English name) was hit by a car (top left), with his bloody body on the street in the top right. Below that is another picture of Will on top of a roof, apparently announcing that he's crazy.



Next in the saga of Will, see this picture below, in which a bleeding Will on his way to the hospital is mugged and shot. Although I don't have a picture of it, he does eventually make it to the hospital (trailing blood all over the streets), but dies there.


Finally, in the last picture is Ryan's house (Ryan is one of the boys who made this map). Notice at the bottom right of the map (beneath the house and the lions) is a doghouse. Ryan informed me that the dog was named Will also.


It may be true that girls are crueler to one another in junior high, but in 6th grade, at least in my classes, it seems the boys pick on each other more. Oddly enough, I have all 3 boys (the two boys who created the map and Will) in my regular classes this year, and they seem to get along just fine. Just another day in the life of an English teacher in Korea!

- Carissa