Seoul Shift: November 2011

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!