Trip to orphanage video

Trip to orphanage

This won't be a lengthy blog. It's been a long day. Spent the day getting schooled at jump rope with some pretty rad kids and then spent the evening making turns in the snow with friends at Oak Valley ski "resort" (it is now 4AM and I just got dropped back off at my house). Phew! It was a good day and here are a few pictures to prove it!

In an effort to give these guys as much exposure to English as possible, we've been dropping in once a week to teach but sometimes we just want to have fun. The positive image game is lots-o-fun because it feels good to be a loser :) (video to follow)

Sol-nal New Year in Korea

The Sol-nal New Year just passed. The week prior, my friend Jong-hwan invited me to join his family in a traditional new year celebration. I eagerly accepted.

Jong-hwan and his mother picked me up bright and early on new years day and we drove out to the country to his great uncle’s house. As we were pulling up to the house I see a little face peeking out of the window and then two more appear and then five and in a matter of seconds, ten little faces were smashed up against the glass watching intently as we walked up towards the house. When we entered the house, children immediately started spilling out of the side bedroom like clowns in a clown car. The brave ones running up to say “hello” in English, just to turn right back around and duck behind a parent, all the while giggling hysterically and each time I replied “hello” back, more giggles. So I know a thing or two about uncontrollable laughing fits and I myself am pretty good at this game so I knew right away we would all get along just fine J.

 All of his aunts and female relatives were fixing breakfast in the kitchen while his uncles were in a small room gathered around a memorial table made to honor the grandparents that have passed. I sat and watched as each male family member, according to rank, bowed in front of the memorial and offered food and drink to their ancestors.

Afterward, we all sat down for a traditional breakfast. Dozens of small dishes were spread across the table and as a gracious guest , I took up my chopsticks and timidly reached towards the only thing familiar – gimchi, while Jong-hwan’s mother coached me through, motioning to each dish and then gesturing to her mouth “eat, eat”. I must have looked like deer in headlights because my brain was in the middle of telling my body to just hang on for one more minute so  it can process what the heck is about to be shoved into my mouth. There are just some things in this world that shouldn’t ever be an option for eating. I’ll just leave it at that. I was grateful to be there.

After breakfast, Jong-hwan and his uncles (and I) drove out to the burial grounds of his grandparents. I’ve never seen any cemeteries in Korea thus far but that’s not to say they do not exist. What you will see are small hills of dirt overgrown by weeds and grass scattered across the countryside where family members are buried above one another. We stayed at the burial site for a short while and then headed back to the house.

It’s tradition on new years that the children will pay their respects to the living elders by performing a traditional kneel and bow as a formal greeting first to the grandparents, then to the parents and finally to each aunt and uncle. The children were paired together by family and each pair went into a room with the elders to say hello and receive a gift (money). Jong-hwan and I went into the room together and they were very forgiving when I performed the male bow by mistake. Oops.

By noon I was exhausted. We said our goodbyes and continued on to Jong-hwan’s aunt’s house for more food!!!

The day was so busy that I barely had time to take any photos but here are a few of the ones that were taken!



Niece in traditional Korean Hanbok



Cousin, Me

Pohang, Transportation Fail inbound and outbound, Rebecca, No laptop

Life in Korea seems to be one big series of comedies and communication fails on a daily basis. I just know that one of these days, if I can just reach far enough down into the deep recesses of my mind, I will bust out flawless Korean like it was never lost. Until then, I'll continue to develop the art and science of body language (aka charades). Actually, I've gotten quite good at this game (particularly on the receiving end). The other day (Yes, this is a digression), I asked some students "why can't you drink the water?" and their response was fairly straight forward, "teacher, there's fire cow in the water". Now I've heard of "fire eggs" as in "Alex, please don't hit Samo or anyone else for that matter in the fire eggs", which there's a sentence I never thought I would ever say........but "fire cow"? I'm not a doctor but I'm having a problem imagining how a cow could get in the drinking water. Well, within 2 mins. (roughly), we managed to establish that "fire cow" was actually "fluoride". Nicely done (takes a bow).
   Ok, so back to the topic of this blog and the reason for my lapse in posts. Two weekends ago I decided to go to Pohang for much needed girl time with Rebecca. Unfortunately, there is only one daily bus to Pohang which leaves at 7:49AM. I was on the platform literally at 7:48 (by my watch) but the bus was already gone. My heart sank into my stomach for a second but no time for a pity party (just yet). I ran over to the dispatch office waving my ticket and out of breath I tried to explain my dilemma (by explain I mean charades) and without hesitation, the kind fatherly gentleman swiftly got on the radio and the next thing I knew, he was throwing me into a taxi and 5 mins. down the road, I see my bus pulled over...waiting. Embarrassing? Slightly. Relieved? Yes! Rebecca was at the terminal waiting for me and our first order of biz...Indian food. Mmmmm nan. We took a taxi down to the beach. Pohang is a coastal city and it has a cool feel to it, not like the other cities that I've visited. The beach was covered with patches of ice that looked like tiny icebergs floating on the sand.

We befriended two of the cutest Korean girls and had some fun taking some pictures with them. The whole time Rebecca was looking at me and I was looking at her like "Is this really happening? We are totally in Korea right now jumping and laughing with two Korean girls - does it get anymore surreal than this?".

The rest of the day was spent drinking coffee and walking around Pohang. I caught an early bus back with more transportation mishaps, left me laptop, but arrived safely back in Chungju and here I am...blogging.