Lunar New Years Skiing

During the Lunar New Year weekend here in Korea, a group of ten of us decided to head up to Muju again for a weekend on the slopes. Wow, what a great weekend. The first night we were there, it snowed heavily all night, giving us great powder for the next day. The second day we skied, the weather was beautiful, so we got the best of both worlds. Not to mention, our hotel was right on the slopes. By that I mean we could take the elevator to the first floor, put your skis on while you were on the deck, and ski down to the lift in less than a minute. Awesome. Here is a video we put together of our trip.

Muju Ski Resort: A Foreigner's Review

Over Christmas weekend, and again this past weekend, some friends and I visited Muju Ski Resort to see what skiing in Korea is all about. Because the peninsula is covered in various mountain ranges, there are quite a few resorts in such a small area. And if you didn’t know, Korea is actually hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018. 

So, here is what I thought of Muju as a town and ski resort:

The drive up only took about an hour and a half, and the roads weren’t too bad. Once we got into town, there were some icy spots, but nothing too worrisome. One of my friends knew a place, “Ski School”, where we could stay the night, get all of our equipment, and even get a lift to the slopes. We ended up staying there, and it turned out to be a great deal. They had a number of employees who spokes great English, so there was little confusion. Because we came on a weekend, and without reservations, we got lucky though. Originally, we had planned on staying Friday and Saturday night, but because the hotel was booked Saturday night, we could only stay Friday. After calling around for us, the people at the hotel said that most of the other smaller hotels were also booked for the weekend. So just a note, if you are coming during peak season on a weekend, call ahead if you can.

After getting into our nice, spacey room, we got the equipment we needed and decided to drive ourselves up to the slopes. Muju is a state of the art resort. It has great facilities, looks great, and the snow stays pretty healthy. Because we are in the middle of the peninsula, however, a lot of the snow is man-made, so you lose some fluffiness that you might get up North. The first night, Dan and I went night skiing. Over Christmas break, we did the midnight ski, and brought along some beers. As the clock hit midnight we were on the lift. Fireworks went off (unexpected) for Christmas, and we popped open our beers to the holiday. All the lifts have trash-pits underneath them for that exact purpose, so that was awesome. Over Christmas, we basically had the place to ourselves. The wait at night was non-existent, and the skiing was great. Some of the bigger runs weren’t open, but we didn’t care… until we did the bigger runs. Our second time out (this past weekend), when we did night skiing, it was a bit more crowded, but all of the runs were open. So, we decided to check out the expert runs and see what they offered. Wow. From the very top of the mountain, all the way down, you can basically weave your way through, choosing a different path every time, and be challenged every way. We learned which paths were more crowded, which ones weren’t, so we developed the ideal path down each time. What’s even better is that the lift to the top moves really fast, so for a 6 – 8 minute ride down the mountain, the lift back up only takes 8 minutes, and with little wait. It was a perfect evening on the slopes.

Then, the sun rose. The next morning we are packed our things into the car, got our equipment (I would try snowboarding for the first time), and headed up. Wow, talked about packed. Christmas weekend was not bad at all, but this weekend was just awful. The lines were insane (couldn’t get on any lift in under 10 – 15 minutes), and going down was, at times, very nerve-racking. I picked up snowboarding in a couple of hours, and although I could get down alright, I seemed to eat snow a lot. I would figure something out, get a lot of confidence, gain a lot of speed, and then probably smash into the ground. I was happy with what I learned, but it would take me a few more times out before I’d call myself a snowboarder by any means.  So ya, overall, the day skiing just wasn’t that great. Oh, and before I forget to mention, the expert runs were closed to snowboarders. Apparently the paths are narrow, so for snowboarders who aren’t experienced, they end up just sitting in the middle a lot, slowly floating down and blocking the path. Now, this seems ridiculously unfair. First, if you aren’t experienced, don’t do the expert slope. I wasn’t going to on my snowboard, obviously, but my experienced friends couldn’t do the best run at Muju because of the fact that they were good at snowboarding, not skiing.  I have actually heard of this before. Snowboarders take up more room carving than skiers simply because their turn radius is smaller.

The area around the slopes is nice. At any point, you can simply just off the slope, pop off your skis, and go to a number of good restaurants. Popeyes, Dominos, Lotteria, and a lot of smaller places are just on the edge of the snow and the prices aren’t much more than they would be anywhere else. We sat down with a burger and hot chocolate a number of times for under 7k won.

For anyone wanting to go to Muju, you are probably in the south and it is the nearest resort. If you are further north, you have a lot of options nearby. If you do decide to visit Muju (or any resort for the matter), try to go during the week if possible. If not, plan on booking ahead to be sure that you have a room. If you want to avoid the crowds, look for the dawn skiing or the night skiing. Korea does a lot of things in large crowds, and skiing is no exception. 

Cultural Trip and Not Playing Soccer

Last weekend, the Provincial Office of Education hosted a cultural trip for all of the TaLK scholars in the province. Not only would they pay for our hotels, food, and travel, but we also got Friday off of school. So, on Friday morning, the scholars from the Suncheon area all met up at a gas station awaiting the bus that was picking us up. This trip wasn't just for our group, but also scholars that are still here from before. So, there were about 60 of us in total, taking up two buses. First,we made our way to the port city of Tongyeong. This is where the famous Korean admiral Yi Sun Sin fought the Japanese in the 16th century. The city itself was beautiful, with multiple islands just off the coast and beautiful architecture lining the port area. We took a Ferry out to the islands and toured a temple and also the battle monuments. That night, we stayed in a great resort just on the coast.

                Interesting fact about Korean hotels. No matter how nice the hotel or resort, chances are, you will not get any beds. That's right. We walked into our very nice resort, and our rooms are empty. In the closets are mats and pillows, but you are on the floor. However, the mats are thick enough to where you are quite comfortable. This resort also had it's own noraebang, pool room, bowling alley, and anything else we would want to do. Needless to say, we made sure to use everything the resort offered. The next morning, we got up early and headed to the 2nd largest city in Korea, Busan. We went immediately to the Busan aquarium, located underground just on the beach. The aquarium was quite nice and had great displays, including a glass tunnel with a variety of sharks and then the penguin exhibit, which was cool to see. After a great lunch, we made our way up to Gyeongju, a city two hours north of Busan. This historical city is full of temples and museums to explore.  After getting into Gyeongju, we arrived at yet another fancy resort. No beds, but the overall luxury of the hotel more than made up for it. When we got up, a buffet style breakfast was ready for us that was amongst the best food i've had in a while. Eggs made right in front of you and how you wanted them, potato wedges, sausages, toast, cereal, fruits, and even different types of cheeses. All of this may seem like thing you can get at your nearest Waffle House to you, but here in Korea, getting a breakfast like this is rare, especially with cheese.

               That day, we got to tour the different musuems of the area and get an idea of what Korea would have looked like centuries ago. On top of that, we also visited the burial mounds that had been preserved. This ongoing property had small mounds sticking out of the ground which was where funerals were done. We found a bike shop next door, and a large group of us rented bikes for just $3. Not only did we ride through the beautiful area around the burial mounds, but we also got to ride through parts of the city. Overall, a great time. After that, we made the four hour trek back to Suncheon. The trip was awesome, and we got to see a lot of things we may not have gotten to see on our own. Also, it was great to just be back as a complete group. We are together almost every weekend, but usually it's only ten or so of us, and not everyone.

               The week went smoothly. The school is getting ready for the school festival coming up, so students are practicing everything from dances to skits. We are practicing our own stuff for the festival, so i'm looking forward to my students pulling of some english songs with style. This weekend, I was pretty busy. On Saturday morning, the Local Office of Education here in Gwangyang hosted a cultural trip for the TaLK scholars. Because it was local, we didn't leave Gwangyang. We were taken to a place where different types of Korean food is made. We spent the morning make Kimchi, the most common Korean food, and also rice cakes, a common dessert. I must admit, the process for making those two foods is tedious work. Although it was work, it was rewarding. On top of that, we had a delicious lunch. That evening, Gio came over from Boseung and we went out to the soccer fields to just shoot around. When we got there, there were some korean teams playing. So, we decided to sit and watch. After being there maybe two minutes, a team approached us and asked if we wanted to play for them. We of course said yes, and within two minutes we were starting a match with a team we didn't know. We did really well, and they were asking us afterwards to come back next week. So, maybe we will. That night, G6 game to Gwangyang and we all went out together. There was a birthday party for one of the girls in town, so we made our appearance there.While we were there, Gio and I ran into a table of hispanics. There was a Brazilian, a Columbian, and a spanish speaking American. When we realized that the spanish speakers didn't speak english, we asked what brought them to Korea (foreigners are normally english teachers or soldiers). Turns out, we were talking with some professional soccer players that played for the Chunnam Dragons here in Gwangyang. They were here on contract. They were pretty cool guys and definitely had some good conversation about Korea and what it would be like to play with a team that doesn't speak your language.

               The next morning,  we got up at 7am to get ready for a soccer tournament in Busan. We got a taxi to Suncheon to meet up with the team. We had hired a bus and driver for the day because about 13 of us would be going by bus. Although the bus was very expensive, it would turn out to be less expensive than all of us getting bus tickets and then taxis from the bus station. At 9:00am, as we are boarding our private bus, the other team calls and tells us that because the field they reserved was a grass field and that it was raining, the match had to be cancelled. Why they decided to tell us so late, or reserve a grass field with a forecast of rain, no one knows. All we do know is that because we had the bus come out and pick us up and reserved it for the day, we had to pay the entire bus fee. So, after each of us spending about $20 on a bus we wouldn't use, we decided to get some use out of it. We had the bus first take us to McDonalds for a team breakfast before finally dropping us all of at our houses. It turned out to be a very expensive bus ride, especially considering we never got to play our match.

               So, that is what has been happening with me lately. Over the next few weekends, i'll be playing a lot of soccer in different cities around Korea as there are a lot of tournaments going on. My weeks will be fairly repetitive, as they should be. On that note, I want to, in a way, change the direction and focus of this blog. Because i'm fairly settled in here in Korea, only on certain occassion will I be discovering new thing to write about. So, I will try to choose a topic every week to write about on top of just simply updating everyone on what i'm up to. The topics will be things like tips on living in Korea for those of you who found this blog by googling "living in korea". Also, I'll post on cultural notes and anything else interesting that I come across. Hopefully I can try to keep things interesting for everyone to read.

Make sure to check out some of the pictures!

Thanks for reading! 

Tongyeong

On the ferry

Taking a cable car to the highest point in the area. This is the town of Tongyeong.

The Islands in the far distance area part of Japan.

Ringing the gong at one of the temples.

Funny enough , I realized that this is the same temple in my background image of the blog.

Burial Mounds

Riding bikes at the Burial mounds. The person behind me is not affiliated.

Children Falling, Small Kittens, and Making Jerro

Hello There,

              Since I finished and posted the video for the contest, a few things have happened (obviously). For starters, I finally got over my sickness a couple of days ago. The total running time: 13 Days, 4 hours, and 33 minutes, give or take a few hours. Even now, I'm still sneezing every once in a while, but the actual 'being sick' part of it is over. Now, I just have to stay healthy.

               Two Fridays ago, so the 21st, I get a call from a friend at 8am. She goes, "Hey, so you mentioned wanting a kitten, well, someone has one." Basically, someone in Suncheon bought a kitten from a pet store, woke up the next morning and realized that he was leaving soon and keeping the kitten wouldn't really be fair. So, he needed to let someone take it. After much debate, I decided to take the kitten. It is a small, black and white kitten that was 2 weeks old when I got it. I named it Romi, which is short for Ramyeon, the Korean word for Noodles. She is very loud, very hyper, and anything else that can describe a kitten. Luckily, she uses the litter box and only the litter box. In fact, I even accidently locked her in my wardrobe for an entire afternoon (not really my fault), and when I found her, she jumped out and ran straight to the litter box. Great cat.

               Last tuesday, the 25th of October, the school had a field trip. It was optional, but I decided to go along. So, at 8:30am, a teacher picked me up from my apartment and we headed to the school. When I got there, everyone was lined up, ready to get on the buses. I knew we were going hiking, but I wasn't sure what to expect. The last time we went hiking, we walked a 1/4 mile, sat down, and ate. So, I really didn't think too much of it. Well, this time was different. First, we drove for what felt like half an hour into the mountains. We are dropped off at the huge lodge, where we take pictures and start walking.

(Insert cultural oberservation tangent below)

               As we are beginning our walk, I realize something. It is something i've been told about and even seen a few times, but this was the first time that I was blown away by it. In Korea, when a Korean is performing some type of physical activity, such as soccer, golf, camping, or anything really, there is a need to be 110% equipped, no matter how serious the event. There are guys in my town with full sets of golf clubs, balls, bags, shoes, and everything else needed to play the PGA tour, except that the only golf they play is screen golf because there isn't a course within 300 miles. On this hiking trip, every teacher and student out there shows up with full hiking gear, a hiking pole, backpack, canteens, you name it. Here I am with my jeans, tennis shows, and sports jacket. People are asking me, aren't you cold? Where is your hat? Are your feet sore? No, i'm fine.

               Ok, so we are walking. After about 10 minutes, the path gets steep, really steep. Then, it gets rocky. Before you know it, i'm watching 3rd graders slip and fall on their butts because the steps they have to take to get over the terrain is about 1/3 of their height. Finally, we saw a sign, and I realized that the entire hike would end up being about 4 miles. Once we hit the ridgeline, however, I realized that it was definitely worth the hike. Just from the first viewpoint, less than half way up, I could see for miles in either direction. It gave me a perfect view of the city on one side and a river I had never seen on the other. Finally, we reached a stopping point near one of the taller peaks. We had to use ladders that had been screwed into the sides of the rock, but all the kids made it alive. We took some picutes together holding a banner, which i'm guessing said something about our school. Then, one teacher told me that if I wanted, we could go to the highest peak. So, him and I set off for the very top. We had to use some ropes that had been installed to get up and down some rock faces, but it wasn't anything to bad. From the top, you could see four different cities and a different province. The view was absolutely spectacular. For lunch, we had bimbap, or something like that. It is basically Korea's version of sushi. It was suprisingly not too bad, although I still would have preffered a ham sandwich.

                After lunch, the kids played games organized by the teachers, while I slept in the grass. Then, out of nowhere, a teacher comes up to me and shakes me, telling me to get out of the grass. I stand up, surprised and nervous, wondering what the problem, or maybe if something is in the grass. He says, "Grass dirty, no sleep". My mentor teacher translated the details for me. Basically, the grass is very dirty, and if I sleep there, I will definitely get sick. It's not a question of if I get sick, it's more like, "you will get sick". I, doing my duty as a foreigner, looked at them strangely, wondering if they were playing a joke on me or if they actually believed what they were telling me. My only reply was, "I'm already sick". To keep from stirring up worry amongst the staff, I moved to the harder, less natural wooden platform that is so popular here in Korea. On the trip down, I watched student after student tumble, cry, get up and later tumble again. The kids would get a kick out of it when I would say, "Cha Re So", or "Good job", after someone fell down. I guess hearing me speaking Korean would be enough for the student to laugh and forget they fell. Overall, the trip was well worth it. I'm glad I decided to get up earlier than normal to make the hike. The view was amazing, as you can see in the pictures, and it was fun to get out with the staff and students.

               Earlier this year, I got a package from home. My parents sent me a random assortment of, well, stuff. I got a stuffed animal, cooking utensils, a card, and of course, Jello. Jello is not something they have here, or can really even fathom. It's strange how something like Jello never made it over here when they have virtually everything else. When I first showed my staff the packages, they had definitely never seen it before. So, last week, I decided to make Jello with the kids. The third graders were the lucky ones who got to make the Jello, which ended up being more than enough for the entire school. Making it was fun, and the kids did everything. I got a water heater from the kitchen and we mixed, stirred, and put everything in the fridge. The next day, I passed out Jello to every grade and the staff members. The kids were thrilled. More than a few times I heard, "Teacher, eat?". "Yes, eat it", I would have to say.

               Today, I have an interesting topic to write about. It's a bit of a language difference that creates some big time confusions and some laughs as well. In English, if someone asks a negative question, such as "You've never had Jello?" we can respond by saying, "No, I've never had Jello".  Although the question is negative, you still respond negatively even though the persons assumption of you never having had Jello was correct. In Korean, if someone asks a negative question, you can either agree or disagree with the statement. So, if I say, "You don't want to eat with us?", the response would be "Yes, I don't want to eat with you" or simply, "Yes". What this means, is that when I am speaking English with Korean students or some of my staff, we get confused at times. A few days ago I decided to run some errands in town before coming to school and I ate at home. So, I called the school and told my mentor teacher than I would be coming in later. He asks, "You don't want to eat lunch here?" I responded with, "No". So, after eating lunch, I get to school, just to find that the cafteria had made me lunch and it was waiting on me.

                  Almost forgot to mention... last week I hosted a dinner at my place. One of the staff members came over with some friends of hers and I told them I would host a classic "American" meal. So, I bought a small grill for $10, found some semi-acceptable meat (ground beef here is crazy expensive), and put some things together. Wow, talk about an intersting meal. I was thrilled. I was having cheeseburgers, kraft macaroni and cheese (thanks to my army friend who brings me american products from the base), potato salad, sour cream and onion potato chips, the whole getup. I picked up my burger and just went to town. My guests, on the other hand, were trying to figure out how to put the burger together. One burger ended up having no top bun, one burger had only meat and bread, and so on. They refused to pick the burger up with their hands, which made the entire event interesting and ended only in a burger disaster. They did enjoy the overally American / completely not spicy meal, although they went about it the totally wrong way. It was kind of a nice change, considering when i'm eating at school, I have to ask how to eat nearly everything. 

               In other news, it's finally starting to cool down here. In the mornings and evenings its in the 50s, meaning i'm wearing sweaters now. I know that in about a month, it will start to get really cold and i'll be doing some winter shopping. Also, next weekend i'll be in Busan for a soccer game, which should be a good time. It's with the foriegner team here in Gwangyang, and it's the first leg of a tournament. Also, I just returned from a culural trip sponsored by TaLK. They took all of the scholars from our province on a free trip to three different cities, seeing different cultural sights along the way. The trip was amazing, and it was great to see everyone again. That is a totally seperate post coming in a few days, along with plenty of pictures.

Romi

Romi looks very similar to the cat my parents sent me

Bottom of the mountain...

...Top.

This is a panorama from the top

Korean Picnic!

That's right. Potato Salad, Mac and Cheese, Cheeseburgers, Chips... Good stuff!

Jello!

They loved it.

Kids got to make footprint ghosts for Halloween

Making Jello with the 3rd graders

Alrighty, until then!

My TaLK Life Contest Video

This past friday was the due date for a video contest held by the TaLK program here in Korea. Contestants must make a video about their experience teaching with the TaLK program. The winning videos will be used for advertisements for the TaLK program and also during future orientations. I finished my video on Thursday night and turned it in on Friday morning. It took me about a week to complete and came out alright. Check it out for yourself.

My apartment: Part 2

While i'm sitting here in my apartment doing absolutely nothing but blowing my nose and drinking hot chocolate, I thought I mind as well show you guys what my apartment is looking like these days. I've made a lot of changes, looked at used furniture adds, ordered online, and picked up random things along the way. If you remember, my apartment is basically the size of an oversized shoebox, but, if you position everything the right way (believe me, I tried a ton of different ways), you can make it seem fairly roomy. The bathroom and kitchen are roughly the same, but the living area itself doesn't look at all like it did.

If you remember my first post, this is my heartless, furnitureless room I was given

Found this french style cafe table on facebook!

Bought the futon and pictures online, the curtain from homeplus, the table from the school's storage facility, and the flags from their respective countries.

This desk has been a life saver. No more sitting on the floor for me!

The cat's name is Bubba. Mom shipped him here a couple of weeks ago. He's a huge hit with the students. Thanks mom!

Besides plenty of different cookware, this is the only addition to the kitchen. It provides me with much needed counter space.

If you noticed, I did get rid of my bed. The futon is pretty comfortable, so at night I simply fold that down. Saves on a ton of space. When friends come over, I have a double sized sleeping mat that is actually really comfy. Overall, it hasn't cost too much to furnish the place. Furniture here isn't too pricey, especially when you only have a few square feet to worry about. Despite the size, when I get off work, I can finally call this place "home" in its own little way.

Sick

Hello again,

              It's 6am on a Monday morning here in Korea, and i've been up all night, sick. Fever, runny nose, the works. If you know me very well from back home, you know that typically, my immune system just goes to town on anything that comes its way. Normally, I'll get sick once, maybe twice a year. I was really sick in January, but that was the first time I had had more than a cold since the beginning of college. I have now been in Korea nine weeks, and this is probably the fourth or fifth time that i've been fairly sick. What i'm pretty sure of is the fact that my co-scholars from abroad are, in some part, experiencing the same thing. It could be adapting to the new environment, yes, or maybe the stress of living abroad, sure, but I really don't think so. In reality, what causes this, especially for the unprepared foreigner, is the attitude towards sickness. People here are sick way more often that people back home, fact. Sick days do not exist, for teachers or students. If you are able to move, in any way, you must show up. This work ethic is amazing for productivity and competition, yes. However, the counter-effect is that you have 3rd graders coughing up a lung, or two, in the middle of class, and within three or four days the entire class is miserable.

               To help matters along, it is not customary to cover you mouth when you sneeze or cough. This one suprised me because you'll see people walking around with masks and gloves on (meaning they are the one's that are sick, usually), and they will uncover their mask, sneeze openly, and then put the mask back on. On friday, a 5th grader, while looking over my computer at something, sneezed on me. For me, if I just unloaded on someone, I would be beyond embarrassed, and I would apologize frantically. But, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and not even an apology was needed.

               I also think that the culture, to some extent, has aspects that help the transferring of sickness. Korea is a peninsula, a small peninsula at that. There are about fifty million people in an area the size of Indiana. This means that people naturally live close together. Apartment buildings are the overwhelming majority of housing, even for the most well off members of society. Also, being a communal culture, everything is shared. At meals, you all take from the plates, soups, etc, regardless of current health status. And just because you are sick doesn't mean you can't talk in very close proximity to someone, i've noticed this on many occassions, personally. This is all oppossed to the American cultural idea of, "This is my space, don't mess with it. Don't touch my food, don't look through my wallet everytime it's sitting around, etc..." Neither culture is better than the other, just different. In fact, many people consider the american ideas to be very individualistic and not based enough on the bettering of the community. Whatever. Like I said, neither way is better, but I get sick here, a lot. 

               While i'm on the topic, let me discuss something that I have yet to get accustomed to in any way. In Gwangyang, there is a hospital, a large hospital, with hearts all around its name. We foreigners affectionately refer to this building as the "love hospital".  It's just a normal hosptial. Anyway, look down at the picture posted below. Being near this hospital, I see this all of the time. In all of Korea, you can never be forced to stay in bed while in the hosptial. In fact, regardless of if you are released or not, you have free reign over, well, the world. The first time I saw this, in Seoul, I thought, "O geez, this guy must be mental. Someone must be out searching frantically for him." However, it is not uncommon to see someone covered in bandages, carrying their IV, sitting outside of the hosptial, smoking a cigarette. Or, while eating dinner, noticing a family eating with one person at the table that has a cart full of machines, oxygen, IVs, the whole getup. If I am one day in the hosptial in Korea, I'm sure i'll enjoy being able to go out to the bar with my friends just after surgery, but until then, i'll still look twice every time I see it.