Hiked a mountain (Bi eum san)

So this Sunday (August 28) I decided to sleep late, have some late breakfast and read some scripture and pray.  I decided it would be a day of solitude.

After I did all those other good things I decided to attempt to scale one of my "backyard" mountains lol.  I left a little after 12:00 p.m. I think and got home around 3:30 p.m.  I set out with my camera and two bottles of water.

The trail starts out pretty easy.  It is not a particularly steep beginning but after awhile the hike became very steep and very rugged.  I took my time.  In some places it was also pretty wet so the ground was slippery.  The hike (while steep) was pretty good.  It was nice to have the help of gravity to help keep me from slipping and falling and potentially slamming my face in a jagged rock.  I personally felt that the trail was quite a bit steeper than my hikes in the Grand Canyon.

One section of the trail up, very steep and rocky

I think if I hike it again I will buy a hiking pole

It was quite fun to watch the buildings getting smaller and hazier as I continued up.

As I climbed I would every so often see people coming down.  I some said hi to me and others did not.  I said hi to some as well.  There is part of me that is afraid to say hello to people sometimes because I think they may assume that I speak Korean very well and try to start a conversation with me.

Nevertheless after about an hour or so I was running out of my first bottle of water and I began to wonder if I would make it to the top.  I really could not tell how close I was due to the density of the trees around the trail.  I told myself I would turn around at the end of my first bottle of water.

At some point I came to the end of that bottle of water.  As I looked up ahead though it looked like the trees were getting less and less.  I thought that maybe I was getting closer to the top.  So I decided to go a little further and sure enough I made it to the top.  The view was amazing.

Once I arrived at the top I did some writing.  I think I'll share a little of what I wrote because I don't think I can interpret it and then write something different on here.  I will just write what I felt in the moment:

Well I made it to the top of the mountain and the view is spectacular.  The moment, in a way, is bitter sweet.  As I suspected, I have not been able to escape the constant sound of industry emanating from the city of Changwon.  I cannot be in a truly secluded peaceful place up here. 

I hear a constant wooshing, pulsating sound coming from below.  No doubt some massive industrial activity is going on down there.  I can still hear the faint sound of automobiles.  As a matter of fact I just heard a very fast moving motorcycle heading north on the Interstate.

I suppose this is as good as it gets in Korea.  I hope one day I find a place here that is a truly quiet place in Korea, free of all technological sound and where all I hear is the sound of nature (birds, locusts, the sound of wind as it blows between the mountain valleys).  A place similar to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or the top of the Rocky Mountains, Harney Peak, heck, even parts of Stone Park back in little Sioux City, Iowa.

Despite, what I would call my complaints, this is still a beautiful place.  The air seems fresher.  It does not have that musty, confined, exhaust smell.  I can hear the constant noise of thousands, if not millions of locusts in the vast trees.

It still is very isolated.  Not many people are up here.  There is part of me that selfishly wishes there were less people up here so I could "have the mountain to myself" but at the same time I'm glad so many Koreans like hiking and staying in shape.

Those were some of my thoughts as I sat at the top pondering where I was at.  Here are a few more pictures at the top:

So at around 2:00 p.m. I decided to head out.  When I began my descent I was pretty well recharged and ready for action.  I knew it would be hard though given how steep the trail was.  Sure enough it did not take long for my legs to begin to wobble and feel really weak from trying to basically fight gravity and keep from slipping on the wet ground.  At some point a young man was coming behind me and he was basically jogging down the trail.  I kind of thought he was crazy for doing that given how rocky the trail was in some places.

Eventually, as I rested, I thought that jogging down might be better at least at the less jagged parts.  So that's what I did.  I started jogging in areas that did not have lots of rocks.  It was like going with gravity rather than fighting it from pulling me down.  Personally I thought it was better than trying to go slow.

I got back to the bottom at around 3:00 p.m.  My legs were still pretty wobbly but I felt good, accomplished.  It was a really fun hike and I hope to do it again soon. 

One Full Month

So on August 25th I was able to declare that I have been in this country for a full month.  I left Omaha, Nebraska in the very early hours of July 23rd and arrived in Korea in the early evening hours of July 25th.  I got to my apartment around 1 a.m.

It is more of a symbolic accomplishment than anything.  I do believe that it was a very fast month.  I'm not really sure if I have experienced a whole lot of real culture shock yet.  It was honestly a pretty easy month I think.  I missed my home and America quite a bit but still it wasn't that bad.

I really haven't had any huge conflicts with my culture verses Korean culture.  I have had a couple cultural conflicts at my school I guess but they haven't been to bad.  I suppose I'll just wait and see what happens the next few months.  I've heard it may get pretty tough around the 3rd month but that is what people said about the 1st month.  I've also heard the 6th month can be tough too.  I guess I won't know any of that stuff until I get there.

Ultimately I look forward to what happens in the future...

Random Acts of Kindness

So today I didn't have much going on.  I decided to take a walk to an area I had not yet explored.  It was pretty close to my apartment.  I explored some of the buildings around the area I was headed into.  Eventually I found myself in a very familiar part of town.  I knew I was close to E-Mart and Lotte Mart.  I needed some groceries so I decided to head over there and pick some things up.  I picked Lotte to shop at.  Keep in mind here that it had been raining most of the day and was still raining (in my opinion it was more of a sprinkle rather than full on rain).  I was not carrying an umbrella.  I personally don't like carrying them and figure that I am not made of sugar and will not melt if I get wet.  I think I am one of the few people in Korea who would rather go without an umbrella when it's raining because most people were carrying them.

So anyways I get to Lotte and I'm a little wet but not to bad.  I do my shopping and head outside to begin my journey home.  I got about a 10th of the way home and was stopped at a crosswalk.  I began to notice a person standing very close to me.  He had an umbrella and as I watched him in my peripheral vision I began to feel that he was trying to cover me with his umbrella.  I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable, probably because I'm an American and us goofy Americans can't have anyone we don't want all up in our personal space.  I noticed that I began to move the bag I was carrying up and down with my fingers from the intense discomfort I was feeling.

The sign finally changed to walk so I kind of just started walking (trying to escape) and at some point the young man came up beside me and basically asked me if he could walk with me and cover me with his umbrella.  He did not speak English very well and obviously I do not speak Korean very well so our communication was difficult.  Nevertheless this very kind person walked me all the way from not to far from Lotte Mart all the way to my apartment.  It was really quite amazing.  As we walked he would consult his Korean to English translator application he had on his phone.  We chatted about how old we were, what we did, sports, and what our names were.  It was a pretty amazing experience.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Changwon I should try to explain just how far this person went out of his way to get me home dry.  I am not exactly sure how many miles it is from my apartment to E-Mart and Lotte Mart but it usually takes around 45 to 50 minutes to walk between places.  I'd say it is probably 1.5 to 2 miles, maybe farther.  So that is about how far this person walked with me.  It was probably one of the better moments I have experienced in South Korea.

Summer Vacation

So since July 25th I have been on Summer Vacation.  Getting from July 25th to July 28th was pretty simple.  But since the 29th I have been on my own, on my own in a strange place with very few people to talk to.  I have enjoyed this vacation to be quite honest.  It has allowed me to get further acquainted with the city of Changwon in my own way.

(August 13, 2011)

So fell behind on this blog and haven't worked on it for a long time.  I am not going to go into much detail as to what I did my whole vacation.  I think it can be summed up in a word or two, Walk, and Hike.  For most of the week I was either walking somewhere or hiking somewhere.  I spent lots of time trying to walk different ways from my apartment to the downtown area.  I walked to the giant supermarkets (basically Korean style Wal-Marts) a few times and worked on getting my house stocked with basic living supplies.  I took lots of pictures while I walked.  Sometimes I would take pictures and then reference back to them to see if I was on the right track to getting home.

I did some hiking as well.  The city of Changwon is pretty much completely surrounded by mountains (Something the South Koreans planned. Should North Korea ever invade Seoul, Changwon will become the new capital of the country) so there is lots of places to go up into those mountains.  I have barely scratched the surface in my exploration of these mountains and to say the least I am looking forward to exploring them even more and possibly making to the top of some of these beautiful mountains.

Overall I had a good time over the week :)

Concerning This Week (August 8-12)

So I got to spend a full week working.  It was quite an experience I must say.  The children are the cutest things in the world but as a foreigner I feel that I do not have a lot of power when the kids start to act up.  I will raise my voice sometimes to try and get them to settle down but it does not always work.  Many times they will continue to act crazy (especially the boys) and will not stop until one of the Korean teachers comes because they heard a ton of noise coming form my classroom and will give the children a very stern talking to (in Korean so I don't know what they say).  It's pretty interesting to see a Korean teacher get serious with the children, they shape up fast.

Course I saw this week what happens to the kids when they are bad a lot.  The children will be removed from class and a teacher will basically chew the kid out.  Again they speak in Korean so I have no idea what is said but I've seen kids break down into tears in a few seconds.  I think it's kinda funny really.  Maybe that's bad.

Anyways enough on the negative stuff.  The kids for the most part are pretty good :)  They just have tons of energy.  My task this week has kind of been to learn how to allow the kids to express that energy while at the same time making sure they are learning something.  I don't really have a structure to my classes (yet) so I'm kinda just going on the fly.  I would have them do activities such as reading from giant cards.

One of them is called Umbrella, which reads something like this:

Umbrella, Umbrealla
Point to the sky,
Umbrella, Umbrella
Keep me dry.

They read it in a singing style.  Seems to make it more interesting for them as opposed to just reading it in a stale monotone.

Other things I would have them do is stand up and sing songs.  One of the songs is called Hold Hands With a Friend.  That song starts off having everyone stand up and turn around a couple of times and then everyone holding hands to make a circle.

After that the song tells everyone to walk in a circle.  This usually result in the kids getting crazy and doing a lot more than just walking (such as screaming, running into walls etc).

After walking in a circle they are directed to march in a circle.  Some of the kids are really good and actually march in some fashion.  Others however don't do anything remotely close to a march.  Some of the kids, and it usually is really cute and makes me smile whenever it happened, would just keep there eyes on me the whole time and march exactly how I was marching :)

When marching was done they are directed to skip in a circle.  This is one of the more dangerous things requested by the director because the room is rather small.  The kids again don't do much skipping.  It seemed to usually turn into the kids jumping around and often into each other which would result in people falling over.  I'm quite amazed there were no significant injuries from this over the week.

I believe after skipping they are told to stop and wave goodbye to everyone.  Some, in rather animated fashion, would begin acting like they were crying and fall to the floor in sadness haha.  Some students would smoother me with hugs lol.

After goodbye the kids were directed to tiptoe to their chairs.  This usually seemed to go over pretty well.  The kids would, again very animatedly, walk slowly (not necessarily quietly) to there chairs.

After everyone was seated the song director would go "KIDS!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?  STAND UP!!"  And then the kids would basically be free to go crazy.  Again this is one of those parts of the song were I am quite amazed that someone has not been injured.  After a few seconds the director tells everyone to fall down on the floor.

Those are a couple activities I do with the kids.  There are lots more but I would like to keep this blog reasonably long.

So over the week I did things trying to figure out the best ways to get through to the kids.  I hadn't had much success until my co-worker Jonny said that he tries to gauge how the kids are acting during the class.  If they seem to have lots of energy then he would probably have them do a song that makes them really active for a time and then try something that requires more focus later in the class.  And then on the other side if the kids seem pretty mellow at first he may do a more focused activity first and then maybe some more active stuff later in the class.  That seems like a pretty common sense way to do things but I hadn't thought of it until he said that to me.

On Friday I kind of tried that strategy and it seemed to work reasonably well.  I will continue to try and refine it as time goes on.

Also of note this week my co-workers had a little birthday celebration for me on Friday.  They got me this super fancy cake and we all enjoyed it.  They sang happy birthday to me and I got to blow out candles.  It was very nice of them to do.

Hmmm...That seems to be the most significant things to talk about at this point.  If I get more I'll add it later.  Anyways, until next time my dear followers, I bid thee farewell.

The First 3 Days (of school)

So for this blog I would like to talk a bit about my first few days at my school.

I have no idea where to begin...Well I suppose I will start shortly after my 1 a.m. arrival on the 25th.

So work was to begin at 9:30 a.m.  I made it to work on time with no problem.  I met my other co-workers (Tiffany, Ellen, Jumi, and Christine).

I'm already forgetting what I did first.  Although we are required to be at the school at 9:30, classes don't really begin until around 10:00 a.m.  So I got a tour of the building to start off with.  It was confusing at first but it's really pretty easy to get around.  During my tour one of the kids gave me a little gift.  It was a hard piece of paper with stickers from a local cartoon that seems to be popular.  It was a pretty sweet gesture :)

After that I believe I went with Ellen first and observed her class.  Most classes (in the morning at least) start off with a "How Are You" kind of song.  There are lots of hand movement and the kids sing pretty loud.  It was quite cute (perhaps someday I'll get a video of it).  The lyrics kind of go like this:

     Hello how are you?

     Hello how are you?

     Hello how are you?

     How are you today?

Then it switches to:

     I'm fine

     Thank you

     And you?

Then the teacher has the kids go around the room and say how they feel today.  The responses very quite a bit.  Some say happy.  Other say sleepy, angry, cool etc.

After that the kids sing a song about what the weather is like today.

The rest of the class is devoted to learning letters and reading simple stories that the kids sing out loud. The kids were doing very well with both.  Right now they are learning the letter J, K, and L.  One of the stories I can remember is about a country mouse who goes to visit a city mouse.  As I said everything is in song form so the kids basically sing the book.  They are really good at it and seem to have the book memorized.  I was told the kids have been on that book and others for awhile so when they go to a new level I will be required to help them learn and memorize the letters, songs and stories.

So as for academics those were the things that were focused on mainly for my first 3 days.  I got to sit in classes with the other teachers but the set up is basically the same.  It's a very simple routine that keeps the kids busy and hopefully free from boredom.

Other things that happened...Well just about every time I entered a room the children would yell Jacob Teacher!!  They seemed to enjoy my arrival.  I've been told that such a reaction to new people is common.  Eventually it will tone down, which I am kind of glad for haha.

Everyday there is lunch at the school which I have the choice of either eating or not eating.  Seems like at least two of the the days I did eat lunch there. It has been pretty tasty stuff.  Lunch there is about and hour and a half so I get plenty of time to chat with my other co-workers and practice my use of metal chopsticks (those things are really hard to get used to when all I've used was wood in the past).  So if any of you decide to come visit get ready for a challenge with those things.

Some other things I've gotten to do was celebrate a birthday of one of the other teachers which was fun.  There was a very tasty chocolate cake.  Im really not sure what kind it was. It was quite different from what I am used to but it was scrumptious.

I very much enjoy the eating style in Korea,  Most everything comes in large plates or bowls and everyone eats from the same thing.  It just gives a great sense of community and unity.  It's not all separate like in America where you have your plate and I have my plate and under no circumstance can they ever touch or people eat from each others plates, much more independent and segregated style of eating.  But I do miss that sometimes but I like how Koreans do it too.  I feel my rather easy-going nature has aided my transition to Korean culture.  Some of you would be very much be grossed out by Koreans style of eating so if that bothers you, perhaps somewhere else in the world would be a better fit for you :) (Anyways, enough on that tangent).

Another thing I got to see was a group of students getting to unleash as much energy as they could playing in a swimming pool.  It was quite funny and they tried to get me to participate some.  I mostly sat at the edge of the water with the other teachers and tossed things back and forth at them.  They had squirt guns and would try to shoot me and the other teachers with water.  That wasn't the best thing as we were in work clothes and didn't want to get super wet but it was humorous nevertheless.  As I sat there though observing how crazy these kids act I wondered what the school will do to help the kids release there energy in the winter when the pool is not an option.  I still have not gotten an answer for that.

A few of the classes had been very good over the past few weeks and were given cookie parties so I got to participate in a few of those.  Korean cookies are pretty tasty.  I'm not sure if I have discussed how kids get cookie parties so I will explain.  Cookie parties are determined by the all important STICKER.  If a class is good one day then they may get a sticker on there board (each class has a separate sticker board).  If they are particularly bad one day they can loose a sticker.  If the class gets ten stickers, they get a cookie party.  It is amazing to watch how a class will shape up if they are being particularly naughty and the teacher threatens to remove a sticker from the board.  And if a sticker is removed then those kids days are ruined.  It is quite funny just how important a sticker is to a kid haha.  They might as well be as important as life itself.

Well that is some of what I can recollect from my first few days of school.  Perhaps I will add more as time goes on.  Laters :)

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