Check out this website: http://blackoutkorea.blogspot.com/ These pictures are hilarious (and tragic) and are a very common occurrence in Korea. I have a few pictures of my own I could probably add to this website. There has been a number of times where my friends and I were just leaving to go to the bar and we see guys either passed out or puking already from drinking so much. Koreans also have this amazing ability to sleep ANYWHERE. Every time I take a bus, within 5 minutes of leaving everyone on the bus is passed out. I think its starting to rub off on me. I now pass out anytime I'm on a bus, and often in cars. My host family and I went to dinner the other night to a restaurant that was only 10 minutes away, and I managed to fall asleep on the ride there.
Tonight I had my 2nd to last English teachers class. This class has become the highlight of my school day. All of the teachers are so kind and funny and caring. We've really become like a little family. I'm very sad that the class is ending and that I won't be seeing the women anymore. Anyway, tonight I had all 20 students together since my guy co-teacher had something to do tonight. I planned a Thanksgiving lesson and Thanksgiving dinner with my class. Each person was responsible for bringing in one dish to share. I made awesome mashed potatoes (recipe courtesy of Seth). The class was a lot of fun, and the food was even better. But the best part of class was when I had each person take a turn to say something they were thankful for. The majority of the students ended up saying that they were thankful for this class because they bonded a lot with each other and because they really enjoyed having me as a teacher. It was really difficult not to cry when they told me this. It just felt really good to have people appreciate me and all of the work I put into each of the lessons. Then it came my turn to share what I was thankful for and I said that I was thankful for Fulbright and the opportunity to spend a year in Korea because I've learned a lot about myself, met some really amazing people, and done a lot of things already I never thought I would ever do (i.e. eating live octopus and seeing the Great Wall). As I was saying this I realized how thankful I really was and almost started crying again. I'm such a cornball.
In other news, I'm off to Seoul tomorrow to have Thanksgiving dinner at the US Ambassador's house with all of the other ETAs. Sooo excited!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Lessons
This week I'm teaching my students about the history of Thanksgiving and I'm having the 4th graders make hand turkeys. On their turkeys they have to write one thing they are thankful for. My favorites so far are:
"I am thankful for my body." - Not quite sure what that means, but kind of weird.
"I am thankful for my ball." - It's the simple things in life...
"I am thankful for kimchi." - You are sooo Korean.
"I am thankful for... NAME" - This student copied my example from the board. He didn't realize that he was supposed to finish the sentence and write his name. I still put it up on the wall with the other turkeys. :)
"I am thankful for my body." - Not quite sure what that means, but kind of weird.
"I am thankful for my ball." - It's the simple things in life...
"I am thankful for kimchi." - You are sooo Korean.
"I am thankful for... NAME" - This student copied my example from the board. He didn't realize that he was supposed to finish the sentence and write his name. I still put it up on the wall with the other turkeys. :)
raw fish, booze & noraebang...on a monday
This past Monday I was invited (last minute of course) to go to dinner with my 2 co-teachers, my one co-teachers boyfriend, the male PE teacher, and 3 other female teachers, all of whom I eat lunch with everyday. We ended up meeting a raw fish restaurant near my school. The dinner was mostly delicious. I tried a lot of weird looking raw seafood, half of which I don't know what it was. I even voluntarily ate the live octopus again! The company was a lot of fun; the PE teacher is especially hilarious. He's a younger guy and we always have really funny broken English conversations over lunch. I think he enjoys practicing his English and hitting on me at the same time. At one point during dinner he serenaded me with "You Are So Beautiful". I guess in the states it would border on sexual harassment, but I think its really funny and I'm 99% sure he's just doing it to be silly. Towards the end of dinner & drinks I heard the word "noraebang" being tossed around. I started to get worried because the only times I've been to noraebang (karaoke) was at the end of a long night at many different bars, and it was only 7pm and none of us had had a lot to drink. To make a long story short, everyone, with the exception of my co-teacher, went to noraebang together for a couple hours. It ended up being a lot of fun and a great bonding experience for all of us. I sang some old school Britney Spears, NSYNC and "Twist and Shout" (a crowd favorite) and the other teachers sang a bunch of k-pop. My usually annoying co-teacher was the best noraebang-er out of everyone. Her and her boyfriend sang duets the entire time and even had dance moves to all of the songs. PE teacher had an amazing voice as well and he would jump up on the couches and dance up on the older Korean teachers whenever he sang. At the end of the night I had a really funny conversation (in broken English of course) with the PE teacher. It went something like this.
PE teacher: The past 2 weeks I just stay at home and drink alone.
Me: Why would you do that?
PE teacher: Because my heart is broken. (fake crying)
Me: Awww. What happened?
PE teacher: One-way love. I love a girl but she does not like me.
Me: Awww so sad. What is her name?
PE teacher: (pause) Her name......is Cassidy.
He was only joking of course, and all of us died when he said this. Fun night.
PE teacher: The past 2 weeks I just stay at home and drink alone.
Me: Why would you do that?
PE teacher: Because my heart is broken. (fake crying)
Me: Awww. What happened?
PE teacher: One-way love. I love a girl but she does not like me.
Me: Awww so sad. What is her name?
PE teacher: (pause) Her name......is Cassidy.
He was only joking of course, and all of us died when he said this. Fun night.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The story of my life...
This morning I had plans to go out to lunch and shopping with my host mom and host sister. I was really looking forward to it because we don't do stuff like that often, especially just the girls. 5 minutes before we are supposed to leave, as I'm sitting in my nice clothes waiting for my host mom to get ready, she comes into my room and says "How about we go to San Seong first." (San Seong is the fortress we go hiking at some times that is a 2 hour time commitment) Ummm excuse me host mom? I'm pretty sure hiking and lunch/shopping are not in the same activities category. I stared at her for minute and for the first time since I've been here, flat out told her "no". No I am not going hiking in the freezing cold. I hate hiking and I especially hate hiking when its taking the place of one of my favorite things to do: shopping.
Still not sure what we're going to end up doing because shes currently yelling at my host sister because she had the same exact reaction I did.
Just had to share because this is the story of my life in Korea.
UPDATE: We ended up going shopping in the end (thank god). Shopping was an experience in itself. I don't know if its a Korean thing or that my host mom is just weird, but she has no sense of appropriate social rules. For example, she doesn't ever follow the rule of standing in a line. If there is a line at the cash register, she just walks up to the front and butts in front of everyone. I always try to point it out to her that there is a line, but she always tells me I'm wrong. Lately I've just given up and let her go and get yelled at by people. Another interesting moment was when we were at the pizza place getting lunch. Host mom wanted to order a shrimp pizza and couldn't understand why I didn't want to order it. She told me to just take the shrimp off, and I tried explaining that the whole pizza is still going to taste like shrimp. The whole day was filled with moments where I wanted to kill her and then 10 seconds later she would do something cute and I would like her again. For example, I cooked dinner that night for the family. I made them penne and meatballs and homemade garlic bread. Host mom knew I was making dinner but ended up missing it because she stayed at her mom's house for a very long time. I was a little annoyed at her since I took the time to cook mostly for her. But later on in the night I hear her say to host dad "Yeobo (honey), come and look at me!" I peek my head out my bedroom door and there she is parading around in her new boots and mini skirt she bought while we were shopping with the biggest smile on her face. It was sooo adorable. As with everything here, just when I think I'm tired of it all, something happens that makes me realize how glad I am that I'm here.
Still not sure what we're going to end up doing because shes currently yelling at my host sister because she had the same exact reaction I did.
Just had to share because this is the story of my life in Korea.
UPDATE: We ended up going shopping in the end (thank god). Shopping was an experience in itself. I don't know if its a Korean thing or that my host mom is just weird, but she has no sense of appropriate social rules. For example, she doesn't ever follow the rule of standing in a line. If there is a line at the cash register, she just walks up to the front and butts in front of everyone. I always try to point it out to her that there is a line, but she always tells me I'm wrong. Lately I've just given up and let her go and get yelled at by people. Another interesting moment was when we were at the pizza place getting lunch. Host mom wanted to order a shrimp pizza and couldn't understand why I didn't want to order it. She told me to just take the shrimp off, and I tried explaining that the whole pizza is still going to taste like shrimp. The whole day was filled with moments where I wanted to kill her and then 10 seconds later she would do something cute and I would like her again. For example, I cooked dinner that night for the family. I made them penne and meatballs and homemade garlic bread. Host mom knew I was making dinner but ended up missing it because she stayed at her mom's house for a very long time. I was a little annoyed at her since I took the time to cook mostly for her. But later on in the night I hear her say to host dad "Yeobo (honey), come and look at me!" I peek my head out my bedroom door and there she is parading around in her new boots and mini skirt she bought while we were shopping with the biggest smile on her face. It was sooo adorable. As with everything here, just when I think I'm tired of it all, something happens that makes me realize how glad I am that I'm here.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Beijing photos
Guard in Tianenmen Square
Beijing street market
Beijing airport
Tianenment Square
My tour group
Tianenmen Square
Entrance to the Forbidden City
all of these white stone is jade
Live scorpions
yummy
At the Empress's garden
In my rickshaw
Some of the very poor areas we saw.
At the sacrificial temple.
TV screen at "The Place"
In order to get to our boat tour, we had to take the steps up through this dragon.
On our boat tour of the mountains...we were freezing!
on our boat
Host mom and I
On the Great Wall
BEIJING
I've been meaning to write a post about my recent trip to Beijing, but the task seemed pretty daunting and I don't really know where to start with my story. I'll do my best...
Last weekend I went on a 4 day trip to Beijing with my host mom and host sister. I was fortunate to be allowed to take Friday and Monday off from school for this trip. The idea for this trip originated when I told my host mom a while ago that I've always wanted to go to the Great Wall, and that I hoped I would be able to go while I was in Korea. She had mentioned that she had always wanted to go to, and the next thing you know we were looking at tour packages online. If it were up to me, I would have never chosen to go on a group tour, let alone a Korean group tour, but she was willing to do the work, and the price was very cheap. She took care of booking a tour that included going to the Great Wall of China. I was a little bit wary about going on a tour that would be given in Korean, with a bunch of other Koreans, but I figured it would be an interesting experience. I also found out after we made our tour plans that the reason the tour was so cheap was because it was one of those time share-type deals where you have to listen to people sell you things for part of the trip. But again, I figured it might be entertaining.
I definitely got what I asked for out of the trip. At the very least, I have some interesting stories. I would say about 75% of the trip was really good and it was a great opportunity to bond with my host family and to see some incredible and historic sites. 25% of the trip was hell and I wanted to rip my hair out or run away with one of the many groups of white English-speakers that I saw.
Before I tell you about what we actually did on the tour (because we did A LOT), let me describe to you some of the people in my Korean tour group. First there was an old woman, who I was told was over 80 years old. It turns out she owns a big building in the most popular shopping district in Seoul...so needless to say, she was loaded. She was the only one to buy something at every shady tourist trap they took us to (and not cheap things). She also flew first class by herself there and back. Then there was a man who wore a light gray tracksuit and purple tinted glasses the entire time, who was the spitting imagine of Kim Jung Il. I tried to get a picture of him inconspicuously, but without any success. The most interesting member of our tour group happened (unfortunately) to be my bus partner. She was a middle-aged Korean woman who weighed about 90lbs and had a short manly haircut. From the moment I saw her I knew she wasn't normal. She was traveling alone, which was unusual. She never smiled and had big dark sunglasses on in the airport. She never took her big dark sunglasses off the entire trip, even though it was cloudy and foggy the entire time. She even wore them at night on the bus. She also liked to randomly punch me or grab my shoulder and say something to me in Korean, and then proceeded to stare at me intently like she actually expected me to answer her. She seemed miserable the entire trip, minus a brief break in character where she bought me a sweet potato from the side of the road.
The other people on the tour were all very kind, and enjoyed using the few English phrases they knew on me.
Now let me give you a rundown of my schedule during the 4 day trip. I'm pretty sure that this trip was the busiest 4 days of my entire life. Everyday we got up at 5:30 am for breakfast and didn't return home to our hotel until 9:30 at night. Here was my itinerary for the trip:
FRIDAY:
1. Chinese shopping district modeled after a traditional shopping street
2. Tianenmen Square- My favorite part of the trip. It was really surreal being there and incredible to see such an iconic building in person.
3. Walk through the Forbidden City- Also surreal. The city is gigantic and the buildings are beautiful.
4. Homeless people- There are many many homeless people and beggars around the touristy areas in Beijing. If there is one word I could use to describe the people of Beijing, it would be "shady". I was a little afraid of some of these beggars because they were pretty aggressive. However, at one point during our touring, a little boy who was only about 4 or 5 years old and covered in dirt came up to me and started pulling on my sweater and asking for money. It was one of the sadder things I've seen in life and I'm still upset about it now. I didn't give him any money because I knew it would go to whoever was making him do it, but I felt horrible afterwards. I wanted to bring him home with me.
5. Wangfujing- Upscale shopping area. Behind the expensive stores there was a traditional market area. We were told by our tour guide that the market was famous for the weird food they sold, such as scorpions. When my host mom told me this, I immediately wanted to go and try them. I really enjoy trying weird food, just so that I'm able to say, "One time I ate __(insert weird food name here)__." We found the food stands with scorpions and sea horses for sale. The scorpions were impaled on skewers and were all still moving. Luckily, the men cooked the scorpions on a grill and put some spicy powder on them. I was able to talk my host mom into trying them with me, and surprisingly they weren't horrible. I almost bought a sea horse too, but they're too cute and I felt like I would be sent to hell for eating one.
6. Chinese circus- The last tourist stop of our day was at a very ghetto and very shady Chinese Circus. It was very obviously a tourist trap. I'm pretty sure the children in the show are forced into labor, and I would also aim to guess that the music for the show was played on a shotty CD player backstage. At least the kids were actually good at what they did though.
7. Hotel- One of the better aspects of the tour was that we were able to stay in a 5 star hotel. I shared a room with my host family which I think ended up being a good bonding experience. The hotel room was beautiful and we had a real shower, comfortable beds, and CNN. We also had American breakfast that I was thrilled with, but the Koreans were upset about. I secretly got some satisfaction that the tables had been turned on my host family for that brief instance.
SATURDAY
1. Empress's Garden- Early in the morning we went to a garden that was built by an Empress when she ruled over China. The garden was eerily beautiful since the morning fog was there and the garden was built around a giant man-made pond. One thing to mention about this trip, specifically at these gardens, is that I was constantly being asked/forced to be in pictures with complete strangers. This has happened once or twice in Korea, but it happened at least six or seven times on my trip. It was kind of surprising since there were foreigners everywhere, but I just chalked it up to the fact that most of the foreigners were old and ex-hippies which mean they aren't looking too hot nowadays. Normally I don't mind the attention, and I usually think its pretty funny. However, I think it may have freaked out my host mom and sister, as well as the other Koreans in my group a little.
2. Pillow shop- The first shady place that they took us to was a place that sells Latex pillows and mattresses. As per usual, I didn't understand what my host mom meant when she said we were going to the Latex shopping center. What ended up happening was that they led us through the pillow factory into a tiny room where they tried to sell us Latex pillows and mattresses for 20 minutes in Korean. I fell asleep right away (Sidenote: I took about 30 naps throughout the trip. Every time we got back on the bus I fell asleep.)
3. Rickshaw Ride- The next stop on the tour was to experience a ride in a Chinese rickshaw. We got off the bus and were led down a sketchy side alley where we were met by a bunch of run-down, toothless men with rickshaws that were attached to broken bikes. Since I was the third wheel in my family the whole trip, I had to sit in my own rickshaw. We rode around in a line through the back streets of Beijing for about an hour. Never in my life have I felt like a bigger douche-bag. I was sitting with a blanket on my lap with my nice winter coat on and my Nikon around my neck while we were riding past people who lived in the tiniest of houses (some of which could have been described as garages) all of which were fallen apart. I wish I could've gotten better pictures of the area, because I have never seen anything like it before. It was very sad. I kept thinking that if I took one of these people to the US and showed them my house, they would have a heart attack. I'm slowly learning just how fortunate I have been in life.
4. Lunch at a restaurant owned by North Koreans
5. Art Show
6. Tried to be sold Chinese medicine
7. Sacrificial Temple- Beautiful, like every other temple I've been to.
8. Chinese Ballet- One of my other favorite parts of the trip. Unlike the circus, this was a real performance with amazing special effects and at one point, a real waterfall flowing down the entire stage. It was a combination of ballet, modern dance, and acrobatics and it told an ancient Chinese legend about a Queen and King who fell in love. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful.
9. Chinese food dinner- The only Chinese food we ate the entire time :(
10. The Place- Before going to bed, we stopped at a shopping area called "The Place". The interesting thing about this place was the gigantic IMAX-like TV screen that was hanging from the ceiling outside. I've never seen anything like it.
SUNDAY:
1. Boat tour of the mountains- We drove about an hour and a half to a deserted tourist village in the mountains where we ended up taking a boat ride on a peaceful river through the mountains. It was very serene and extremely cold. It was nice to see another side of Beijing besides the inner city, very busy touristy areas.
2. The Great Wall- This was the best part and the biggest disappointment of the trip. The whole reason the idea for the trip even came up was because I had said I wanted to go to the Great Wall. We ended up going and the Wall itself was incredible, but we were only allowed to spend 30 minutes there. It was barely enough time to walk up and back on one small portion of the Wall. I was very disappointed and almost cried when they made me leave. I definitely need to go back there at some point in my life and hike along the wall for a day.
3-6. Many hours of being sold shit- It was at this point in the trip that I lost my patience and was absolutely miserable. Besides being tired and having spent 3 days with a bunch of Koreans, I then had to sit through about 6 hours of people trying to sell me things I don't want or need in Korean. I think it was the worst I've felt since leaving the US, and I got very homesick. Luckily, as per usual, it only lasted a short while, and I felt much better by the end of the night.
7. Foot massage- The final stop of our Korean tour of Beijing was a massage parlor that I think is specifically geared towards tourist groups. The whole placed looked kind of dirty, but once again I figured it would be interesting so I went along with it. We ended up getting pretty good foot massages...unfortunately, mine was given to me by a guy who was probably not much older than me who I'm pretty sure has never touched a young white female. He looked absolutely scared/excited out of his mind. He smiled at me creepily the entire time and apparently told my host mom that his heart was beating fast when he massaged my leg. Super creepy...but maybe he'll always remember that young white girl with the old Korean men and women who he got touch.
That was my Korean tour. My overall perception of Beijing was that it was foggy, overcrowded, beautiful, shady, polluted, and the most foreign place I have ever been to. My friends here have a joke that South Korea is the opposite of Jamaica...I'm not really sure how it came about, but I definitely agreed. However, I've since learned that Beijing is the TRUE opposite of Jamaica.
So would I ever go on a group tour ever again? Hell no...especially not a Korean group tour. While it was nice not having to worry about transportation or how to get anywhere or what to see, and it was also nice being able to see so many things in such a short amount of time, it was not worth it. 99% of the time I had no idea what was going on or where we were going to next, since the itinerary changed constantly. My host mom's explanations of things usually only confused me more. One of my least favorite part was only being allowed 30 minutes in almost every place we went to. My favorite part about traveling is being able to take pictures, and on this trip I was constantly being rushed everywhere and running to catch up with the group, which was not conducive for picture taking. I also only ate Chinese food once (shitty Chinese food) the whole time we were in China which was disappointing.
Someone once told that all you have at the end of life are your stories, so at the very least I can say I've gained some good stories from this experience. My host mom is already talking about our next trip together in the spring, so let's hope I can talk my way out of a Korean tour of wherever we go to.
*I'll post my pictures very soon!
Last weekend I went on a 4 day trip to Beijing with my host mom and host sister. I was fortunate to be allowed to take Friday and Monday off from school for this trip. The idea for this trip originated when I told my host mom a while ago that I've always wanted to go to the Great Wall, and that I hoped I would be able to go while I was in Korea. She had mentioned that she had always wanted to go to, and the next thing you know we were looking at tour packages online. If it were up to me, I would have never chosen to go on a group tour, let alone a Korean group tour, but she was willing to do the work, and the price was very cheap. She took care of booking a tour that included going to the Great Wall of China. I was a little bit wary about going on a tour that would be given in Korean, with a bunch of other Koreans, but I figured it would be an interesting experience. I also found out after we made our tour plans that the reason the tour was so cheap was because it was one of those time share-type deals where you have to listen to people sell you things for part of the trip. But again, I figured it might be entertaining.
I definitely got what I asked for out of the trip. At the very least, I have some interesting stories. I would say about 75% of the trip was really good and it was a great opportunity to bond with my host family and to see some incredible and historic sites. 25% of the trip was hell and I wanted to rip my hair out or run away with one of the many groups of white English-speakers that I saw.
Before I tell you about what we actually did on the tour (because we did A LOT), let me describe to you some of the people in my Korean tour group. First there was an old woman, who I was told was over 80 years old. It turns out she owns a big building in the most popular shopping district in Seoul...so needless to say, she was loaded. She was the only one to buy something at every shady tourist trap they took us to (and not cheap things). She also flew first class by herself there and back. Then there was a man who wore a light gray tracksuit and purple tinted glasses the entire time, who was the spitting imagine of Kim Jung Il. I tried to get a picture of him inconspicuously, but without any success. The most interesting member of our tour group happened (unfortunately) to be my bus partner. She was a middle-aged Korean woman who weighed about 90lbs and had a short manly haircut. From the moment I saw her I knew she wasn't normal. She was traveling alone, which was unusual. She never smiled and had big dark sunglasses on in the airport. She never took her big dark sunglasses off the entire trip, even though it was cloudy and foggy the entire time. She even wore them at night on the bus. She also liked to randomly punch me or grab my shoulder and say something to me in Korean, and then proceeded to stare at me intently like she actually expected me to answer her. She seemed miserable the entire trip, minus a brief break in character where she bought me a sweet potato from the side of the road.
The other people on the tour were all very kind, and enjoyed using the few English phrases they knew on me.
Now let me give you a rundown of my schedule during the 4 day trip. I'm pretty sure that this trip was the busiest 4 days of my entire life. Everyday we got up at 5:30 am for breakfast and didn't return home to our hotel until 9:30 at night. Here was my itinerary for the trip:
FRIDAY:
1. Chinese shopping district modeled after a traditional shopping street
2. Tianenmen Square- My favorite part of the trip. It was really surreal being there and incredible to see such an iconic building in person.
3. Walk through the Forbidden City- Also surreal. The city is gigantic and the buildings are beautiful.
4. Homeless people- There are many many homeless people and beggars around the touristy areas in Beijing. If there is one word I could use to describe the people of Beijing, it would be "shady". I was a little afraid of some of these beggars because they were pretty aggressive. However, at one point during our touring, a little boy who was only about 4 or 5 years old and covered in dirt came up to me and started pulling on my sweater and asking for money. It was one of the sadder things I've seen in life and I'm still upset about it now. I didn't give him any money because I knew it would go to whoever was making him do it, but I felt horrible afterwards. I wanted to bring him home with me.
5. Wangfujing- Upscale shopping area. Behind the expensive stores there was a traditional market area. We were told by our tour guide that the market was famous for the weird food they sold, such as scorpions. When my host mom told me this, I immediately wanted to go and try them. I really enjoy trying weird food, just so that I'm able to say, "One time I ate __(insert weird food name here)__." We found the food stands with scorpions and sea horses for sale. The scorpions were impaled on skewers and were all still moving. Luckily, the men cooked the scorpions on a grill and put some spicy powder on them. I was able to talk my host mom into trying them with me, and surprisingly they weren't horrible. I almost bought a sea horse too, but they're too cute and I felt like I would be sent to hell for eating one.
6. Chinese circus- The last tourist stop of our day was at a very ghetto and very shady Chinese Circus. It was very obviously a tourist trap. I'm pretty sure the children in the show are forced into labor, and I would also aim to guess that the music for the show was played on a shotty CD player backstage. At least the kids were actually good at what they did though.
7. Hotel- One of the better aspects of the tour was that we were able to stay in a 5 star hotel. I shared a room with my host family which I think ended up being a good bonding experience. The hotel room was beautiful and we had a real shower, comfortable beds, and CNN. We also had American breakfast that I was thrilled with, but the Koreans were upset about. I secretly got some satisfaction that the tables had been turned on my host family for that brief instance.
SATURDAY
1. Empress's Garden- Early in the morning we went to a garden that was built by an Empress when she ruled over China. The garden was eerily beautiful since the morning fog was there and the garden was built around a giant man-made pond. One thing to mention about this trip, specifically at these gardens, is that I was constantly being asked/forced to be in pictures with complete strangers. This has happened once or twice in Korea, but it happened at least six or seven times on my trip. It was kind of surprising since there were foreigners everywhere, but I just chalked it up to the fact that most of the foreigners were old and ex-hippies which mean they aren't looking too hot nowadays. Normally I don't mind the attention, and I usually think its pretty funny. However, I think it may have freaked out my host mom and sister, as well as the other Koreans in my group a little.
2. Pillow shop- The first shady place that they took us to was a place that sells Latex pillows and mattresses. As per usual, I didn't understand what my host mom meant when she said we were going to the Latex shopping center. What ended up happening was that they led us through the pillow factory into a tiny room where they tried to sell us Latex pillows and mattresses for 20 minutes in Korean. I fell asleep right away (Sidenote: I took about 30 naps throughout the trip. Every time we got back on the bus I fell asleep.)
3. Rickshaw Ride- The next stop on the tour was to experience a ride in a Chinese rickshaw. We got off the bus and were led down a sketchy side alley where we were met by a bunch of run-down, toothless men with rickshaws that were attached to broken bikes. Since I was the third wheel in my family the whole trip, I had to sit in my own rickshaw. We rode around in a line through the back streets of Beijing for about an hour. Never in my life have I felt like a bigger douche-bag. I was sitting with a blanket on my lap with my nice winter coat on and my Nikon around my neck while we were riding past people who lived in the tiniest of houses (some of which could have been described as garages) all of which were fallen apart. I wish I could've gotten better pictures of the area, because I have never seen anything like it before. It was very sad. I kept thinking that if I took one of these people to the US and showed them my house, they would have a heart attack. I'm slowly learning just how fortunate I have been in life.
4. Lunch at a restaurant owned by North Koreans
5. Art Show
6. Tried to be sold Chinese medicine
7. Sacrificial Temple- Beautiful, like every other temple I've been to.
8. Chinese Ballet- One of my other favorite parts of the trip. Unlike the circus, this was a real performance with amazing special effects and at one point, a real waterfall flowing down the entire stage. It was a combination of ballet, modern dance, and acrobatics and it told an ancient Chinese legend about a Queen and King who fell in love. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful.
9. Chinese food dinner- The only Chinese food we ate the entire time :(
10. The Place- Before going to bed, we stopped at a shopping area called "The Place". The interesting thing about this place was the gigantic IMAX-like TV screen that was hanging from the ceiling outside. I've never seen anything like it.
SUNDAY:
1. Boat tour of the mountains- We drove about an hour and a half to a deserted tourist village in the mountains where we ended up taking a boat ride on a peaceful river through the mountains. It was very serene and extremely cold. It was nice to see another side of Beijing besides the inner city, very busy touristy areas.
2. The Great Wall- This was the best part and the biggest disappointment of the trip. The whole reason the idea for the trip even came up was because I had said I wanted to go to the Great Wall. We ended up going and the Wall itself was incredible, but we were only allowed to spend 30 minutes there. It was barely enough time to walk up and back on one small portion of the Wall. I was very disappointed and almost cried when they made me leave. I definitely need to go back there at some point in my life and hike along the wall for a day.
3-6. Many hours of being sold shit- It was at this point in the trip that I lost my patience and was absolutely miserable. Besides being tired and having spent 3 days with a bunch of Koreans, I then had to sit through about 6 hours of people trying to sell me things I don't want or need in Korean. I think it was the worst I've felt since leaving the US, and I got very homesick. Luckily, as per usual, it only lasted a short while, and I felt much better by the end of the night.
7. Foot massage- The final stop of our Korean tour of Beijing was a massage parlor that I think is specifically geared towards tourist groups. The whole placed looked kind of dirty, but once again I figured it would be interesting so I went along with it. We ended up getting pretty good foot massages...unfortunately, mine was given to me by a guy who was probably not much older than me who I'm pretty sure has never touched a young white female. He looked absolutely scared/excited out of his mind. He smiled at me creepily the entire time and apparently told my host mom that his heart was beating fast when he massaged my leg. Super creepy...but maybe he'll always remember that young white girl with the old Korean men and women who he got touch.
That was my Korean tour. My overall perception of Beijing was that it was foggy, overcrowded, beautiful, shady, polluted, and the most foreign place I have ever been to. My friends here have a joke that South Korea is the opposite of Jamaica...I'm not really sure how it came about, but I definitely agreed. However, I've since learned that Beijing is the TRUE opposite of Jamaica.
So would I ever go on a group tour ever again? Hell no...especially not a Korean group tour. While it was nice not having to worry about transportation or how to get anywhere or what to see, and it was also nice being able to see so many things in such a short amount of time, it was not worth it. 99% of the time I had no idea what was going on or where we were going to next, since the itinerary changed constantly. My host mom's explanations of things usually only confused me more. One of my least favorite part was only being allowed 30 minutes in almost every place we went to. My favorite part about traveling is being able to take pictures, and on this trip I was constantly being rushed everywhere and running to catch up with the group, which was not conducive for picture taking. I also only ate Chinese food once (shitty Chinese food) the whole time we were in China which was disappointing.
Someone once told that all you have at the end of life are your stories, so at the very least I can say I've gained some good stories from this experience. My host mom is already talking about our next trip together in the spring, so let's hope I can talk my way out of a Korean tour of wherever we go to.
*I'll post my pictures very soon!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween weekend
This past weekend I traveled around a large part of Korea. Friday I went to Busan to visit Seth and meet his host family. Friday night we all went out to dinner and then went back to their apartment and carved pumpkins with the two boys. The both did an amazing job, and the parents seemed to enjoy it as well. None of them had ever carved pumpkins before so I'm sure it was an interesting experience for them. The host dad took one of the pumpkins into his bedroom with him so he could sleep with it glowing in his room haha. Saturday was the littlest brother's birthday party so we hung around the apartment for a little while and watched the kids. Saturday we had plans to meet our friends in a town called Gwangju for a Halloween party. We took an almost 4 hour bus ride there Saturday afternoon. Our Halloween party was organized by our friend Dave, who has a friend who manages a coffee shop in the town. His friend allowed us to throw a costume party in his coffee shop after it closed. Almost everyone got dressed up and we played some games at the shop. I dressed up as my friend Cornelius. In case you haven't noticed him in my past pictures, hes the one who is always dressed in a suit and occasionally a bow tie. He's known for his ridiculous outfit choices, so I asked him to let me borrow his clothes as a costume. One of my guy friends had the same idea, so there ended up being 2 Corneliuses at the party. Sidenote: my English classroom, for some reasons unbeknown to me, has a costume closet full of adult-size costumes. I raided the closet and brought a bunch of the costumes with me to Gwangju for my friends to wear (hence the full-on Batman and Santa and Superman costumes). Needless to say, a bunch of white people dressed up in costumes roaming the streets together was not something you usually see on an average Saturday night in Korea. Everyone we passed either yelled out something in English, stopped and gawked, or asked for pictures. I can only imagine what our taxi driver thought when me, Batman, Superman and a clown climbed into his cab.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Jan-hee and Seth. Jan-hee is without a doubt the cutest little kid I have ever met. I'm adopting/stealing him and bringing him home with me.
Huan-hee working on his Homer Simpson pumpkin.
When one of the knives broke, Seth's host dad decided to be innovative and broke out the power tools.
Seth and his adorable host family
finished pumpkins
clown & Cornelius
Lauren dressed up as old Korean woman...I can't even tell you how dead on her costume is.
Batman roaming the streets of Gwangju
3 Corneliuses
flip cup team
Chelsey, an angel, Ursula and Waldo
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
Jan-hee and Seth. Jan-hee is without a doubt the cutest little kid I have ever met. I'm adopting/stealing him and bringing him home with me.
Huan-hee working on his Homer Simpson pumpkin.
When one of the knives broke, Seth's host dad decided to be innovative and broke out the power tools.
Seth and his adorable host family
finished pumpkins
clown & Cornelius
Lauren dressed up as old Korean woman...I can't even tell you how dead on her costume is.
Batman roaming the streets of Gwangju
3 Corneliuses
flip cup team
Chelsey, an angel, Ursula and Waldo
Halloween at school
Finally, I was actually allowed some creative freedom this week in my lessons since it was Halloween. I love Halloween and its such a strange and fun American tradition that I really wanted to go all out with my students. The more I explained Halloween to different people throughout the week, the more I realized how bizarre the holiday really is, especially since EVERYONE gets into it at home. For my lessons this week I did a variety of Halloween themed games and activities, my favorite of which was having the students work in teams to dress up their classmates in Halloween costumes made out of newspaper. The students all got really into it and worked really well together. I'm still not sure what most of the costumes were supposed to be, but it was hilarious seeing my little kids completely covered from head to toe in newspaper. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week.
many of my students wear masks to school everyday
Halloween decorations in my classroom
This week I also decided to bring in pumpkins for my one teachers class so that they could have the experience of carving them. None of them had ever done it before, and afterwards they thanked me and said they appreciated having that experience and that they wouldn't forget it. It's fun being able to share these kinds of things with other people and to know that from now on, I will always be remembered as the person who taught them that thing or shared something new with them. For Tammy and my teachers, I will always be the American who helped them carve their first Halloween pumpkin.
many of my students wear masks to school everyday
Halloween decorations in my classroom
This week I also decided to bring in pumpkins for my one teachers class so that they could have the experience of carving them. None of them had ever done it before, and afterwards they thanked me and said they appreciated having that experience and that they wouldn't forget it. It's fun being able to share these kinds of things with other people and to know that from now on, I will always be remembered as the person who taught them that thing or shared something new with them. For Tammy and my teachers, I will always be the American who helped them carve their first Halloween pumpkin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
