problem solving

Lately, I've been losing sleep due to my Aunt and Uncle's noisy neighbors. Sometimes they have parties which results in all the men going out for a smoke on the porch. Their porch is about 15ft from my bedroom window. I usually like to sleep with the window open but not when there's a cloud of smoke seeping in.
Anyway, the past few nights the lady next door has been on the phone yelling at the person on the other end in the middle of the night. She tends to sit out on the porch when she has these late night phone calls. It's the most obnoxious thing to listen to when you're trying to sleep. Closing the window doesn't do any good either.
So last night, I slid open my window and set my ipod stereo against the screen. I scrolled through the playlists to find the perfect tunage to grant me some peace and quiet. These are times where I'm glad I downloaded Rob Zombie onto my ipod.
I turned up the volume just enough to match the lady's chatter box and hit play. House of 1000 Corpses started blasting out my window and my noisy neighbor ran inside with her phone, loud voice, and obnoxiousness. Problem solved. I turned off my stereo and finally fell asleep.

If she keeps interrupting my sleep, she can listen to my whole Rob Zombie playlist, or maybe some Disturbed or Black Sabbath.

Damyang

A few of the teachers and I got together this past weekend to see the bamboo forest in Damyang. We met up at a local coffee shop to grab a bite to eat before catching the bus. The coffee shop solved my pizza dilemma! They make fresh baked pretzels to order and they offer a cheesy pepperoni pretzel that tastes JUST like delicious American pizza. So anytime I have a pizza craving, I'm headed to the coffee shop (instead of Pizza Hut!). Damyang was only a 40 minute bus ride outside of Gwangju. It's more of a rural county, which reminded me of how much I hate the city. The air just felt better. We trekked around the bamboo forest and visited the folk village. There was a gift shop in the bamboo forest that sold everything from bamboo tea, toiletries, fans, walking sticks, key chains, etc. all made from bamboo.




Outside of the forest were many street vendors that sold gifts and different snacks. We each bought a wood crafted stamp, used for signing your name in Hangul.


안젤라

A few of the teachers bought some snacks. For just 2,000 won you can get an enormous bag of this light, airy grain pancake. There doesn't seem to be much to the snack until you see how it's made. It's as if a whole car engine is needed to form them.



Before leaving Damyang, I really wanted to trek up one of the nearby "mountains". There was a pagoda at the top which looked like it had a pretty nice view. We debated about it for a while and some of the teachers decided to head back and the rest of us headed towards the hill.



It was so nice to get away from the city and large amounts of people. In order to get to the hill, we had to cross through a lot of the rural part of Damyang. I loved it. If I ever teach in Korea again, I'll probably pick a more rural location.
The climb up the hill was a huge wake-up call to how out of shape I've been getting. I was out of breath the whole way up! But once we got to the top, it was more than worth it.







The pictures don't really convey how breathtaking it was. Being from Florida, I don't usually get to see the world from this angle. I hope I get to see more of Korea but I'm about to be locked into a full schedule at work. The fun begins on Thursday... sightseeing will be few and far between.

first time teaching classes

Yesterday, I had to teach three classes on a last minute whim because one of our teachers was sick (food poisoning seems to be the culprit!). I was excited to finally teach but also nervous because I had little time to prepare.
For the first class I immediately began calling attendance and didn't notice there weren't enough chairs for all the students. When I finished calling roll and looked up from the attendence sheet, a little girl was standing in the back of the room crying because she had no chair! I dashed to the classroom across the hall to get her a chair, I felt so bad! I made sure she got stickers after class :{
For the second class, all the students were freaking out because one of the boys had a bad nose bleed. There was a small puddle of blood on the floor and blood smeared on some of the desks! I thought to myself "Why on my first day!?" I told the kids to hang on while I got someone to take care of the boy. I cleaned up the lovely bloody mess in the classroom and tried to calm the students down.
The third class was relatively easy. It amazes me how much these students learn in the short time they're studying English. We read a story that had several mistakes in the paragraphs and the kids edited the paragraphs. They all finished their assignment and extra class work like it was cake. Time ran out way too soon so I started a game of hangman. These kids LOVE hangman.

For the most part I loved teaching! Just not when students cry or have nosebleeds... Once I'm better prepared and have my own students, I can imagine it'll be a lot smoother and more enjoyable. I'm looking forward to being "Angela Teacher". =D

first outings in Gwangju

Since I've been at my school I've met so many great people, my co-workers. Some of them have been working at the school for some time and have gotten a chance to explore Gwangju and what this city has to offer.
Last weekend we went out for Korean BBQ for a new teacher's birthday. Afterwards, we hit up a very eclectic joint called "Ethnic Bar". It was so different from anywhere I've been in Korea.




Thursday, the girls went out for a "girls night" which consisted of going to dinner downtown. The restaurant we went to was barely noticeable, I wondered how anyone had discovered it. We had some of the most amazing "bone soup" (I forget the real name of it) and tons of extra food which cost us 6,000 won/each (less than $6). That night, I discovered that the bus is not a 24hr service and ended up taking the taxi back to my uncle's place. Taxis are relatively cheap and quick methods of transportation, but this particular taxi ride was the first time I felt unsafe here in Korea. The taxi driver was super creepy! But it was only my first creeper experience, usually there are several in a day back in the States. Regardless, I'll be wearier next time.

Today, some of the teachers met up for coffee and then headed downtown for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called First Nepal. AMAZING Indian/Nepalese Cuisine is all I can say! I had chicken vindaloo, nan, and soju. SO delicious! The manager/owner/host was so incredibly nice and seemed to love having us there (I think a couple of the teachers are regulars). He was a tubby little Indian man with very animated mannerisms. Every time he spoke to us, I felt tickled because he'd smile so big and speak to us as if we had the power to make everyday christmas.
Afterwards, we headed to the movie theater to watch Shutter Island. It's been a while since I've seen a movie so I got way too into it. I left the movie feeling stressed out! The theater was great though... a great place to escape and have my occasional indulgence of popcorn!!

first weekend at work

Friday night we had a "work dinner meeting"... which was more like a "worker dinner soju-drinkathon". It was a good time until I started to feel very nauseated and had to leave early. I missed out on most of the festivities... but turned out I was falling ill. I didn't drink any soju and haven't yet since I've been here, so I can't really blame being sick on alcohol this time. The next morning I woke up with a fever. My aunt tried to feed me all sorts of weird stuff to make me better. I didn't argue... I just scarfed down what she gave me. Luckily, I brought some ibuprofen with me from the States. I went to work a little later feeling like death... I wasn't alone. Everyone was hungover from the "work meeting". I felt bad for them but glad at the same time... misery loves company ;D

Saturday night we went out for a co-workers birthday. She's almost as new as I am so I felt glad that everyone had bought her a cake and wanted to go out. We went out to downtown Gwangju and ate dinner there. Afterwards, we went to this place called "Ethnic Bar". It was a beautifully eclectic place. There's a candle lit staircase that leads down to the bar. In the center was a large water-feature lit with drip candles and what looked like kind of a banyan tree towering over the water. There were glass ornaments hanging from the tree and ceilings along with lanterns and canopy drapery everywhere. It was very different from what you typically see in Korea.
It was great to sit and talk with everyone outside of work. Every moment outside of school seems to be an escape for everyone and I will soon be in their shoes. I'm just glad that my co-workers are such great people. Everyone gets along really well and it's neat to get to know more about where they're from.

Sunday was recovery day. I basically slept most of the day. Then my grandmother and two of my aunts and cousins randomly showed up. They came to feed me because they had heard that I was sick. Typically, I just want to be left alone but I was glad to see them because it had been a while. They greeted me by asking how I was feeling and slapping my back really forcefully. My aunts brought all different kinds of fruit and my grandmother brought veggies from her garden she wanted to cook for me. I hope this amount of hospitality is normal... It bothers me that everyone goes out of their way for me so much. I almost want to make a log of how much I'm indebted to everyone.
My aunts served trays of fruit in the living room and my uncle's dog, Louis, ran out to join everyone. Louis kept jumping around with a toy in her mouth and my aunts kept freaking out because they thought she was going to attack (Louis is a miniature poodle btw). I took the toy and threw it and continued to play fetch with Louis. Everyone was so amazed. My aunts were so giddy with excitement because the dog retrieved the toy when it was thrown. Who knew "fetch" could be so exciting!? I thought it was funny... apparently not many Koreans have dogs, or play fetch with them for that matter.

Next week is going to go by slowly with the last round of boring observations. I'm not looking forward to it but hopefully it'll be over soon so I can finally start getting paid!

first day at school

Yesterday was my first day of training at the school I'll be teaching at. For the most part, I think I'm going to love teaching! I can anticipate that the next week of training is probably going to be very boring so I'm anxious to start teaching my own classes. The teachers currently working at the school seem to be great people. We're quite the mix! The teachers range from Koreans, Americans, Canadians, British, one from Ireland and one from New Zealand. I'm excited to get to know everyone. The only drawback seems to be the workload. We'll be working 6 days a week with little vacation time and some teachers have 10-11 classes some days. I'm hoping that I don't get stuck with a rough schedule but it sounds inevitable. We'll see...

Korea-Pizza Hut- never never never again!

So even though I insisted that I maintain a traditional Korean diet while I'm here, my aunt took me to Pizza Hut today. I don't miss "miguk" food... I actually love Korean food and prefer it 99.9% of the time.
Pizza Hut in Korea... well, at least in Mokpo... is blasphemous! There are only four different types of pizza on the menu... none of which seem even remotely appetizing. The salad bar came with our order. I intended to get full off of the salad bar because I was afraid of eating the pizza. The salad bar consisted of... iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, corn, tofu, jello, yogurt, strawberries, grapefruit, mandarin oranges, sunflower seeds, egg salad, potato salad, and a few strange looking pasta salads. The choices of dressings were thousand island, mayonnaise, apple dressing, and salsa. It was a challenge attempting to make a decent salad from the odd arrangement of choices. The challenge was kind of a failure. Instead of eating...I actually spent more time wondering what the salsa in the salad bar was supposed to be paired with.
Then the pizza came...
I couldn't get out the "nO thanks! I'm not hungry!" before my aunt shoved a pizza slice in front of me. She insisted "moego! moego! Tell me if taste likeu miguk peecha!"
So, I very reluctantly sacrificed my taste buds...
shrimp... okay, had to remove the tail, but not too strange. Then... it got weird. Bacon wrapped rice cake, pineapples, broccoli, black olives, and mozzarella cheese. And of coarse they couldn't use normal pizza sauce! Why would they do that?! Instead of a standard marinara sauce... or even alfredo or pesto... they used mashed Korean sweet potato as a sauce base! And on top of all the strangeness was an even stranger sauce garnished all over the top of the pizza.
I couldn't even muscle this one for politeness.
I am staying far, far away from Korean "miguk" restaurants from here on out. It's not worth the risk!!

snow!!

I woke up carrying about my morning as usual. I made coffee and began to peel a goguma (a steamed Korean sweet potato) for breakfast. I glanced out the window and... snow!! All over the ground, the mountains, caked over the cars, everywhere!! It was cold yesterday but I wouldn't have guessed it was going to snow. The snow is still pouring down and flurrying all over the place. Call me a wimp but I think I'm going to cancel my plan to run today... I love the snow... but I hope it's temporary.

bamboo hill

Yesterday I decided to go on my first jog in Korea. Since I'm overly well fed, I half-expected to be out of shape. The cold weather here is so dry my eyes watered, my throat dried out, and my lungs burned through most of the run. However, the scenery from Mokpo's port side was a good enough distraction from most of it. I also had my lovely i-pod strapped to my arm. It was quite an experience! Jogging along the harbor with a backdrop of mountains across the skyline, old fishing boats trudging through the port, all while listening to Sigur Rós on my i-pod... and in just in my opinion, Sigur Rós is the perfect tuneage to jog to!



Heima : Sigur Rós

I jogged in the opposite direction of Mokpo city. It only took about a mile to get to the undeveloped part of the "New Mokpo". It was beautiful. No cars, no people, no buildings... just me, the road, and the landscape. When I decided I needed a break, I turned around and headed towards a hill that was along the way (Koreans call their hills "mountains"). It didn't seem like a very big hill, until I trekked up to the top. It took a good 20 minutes and it was very steep. Most of Korea's hills/mountains have stairs all the way to the top, this particular hill just had a trail. At the top was a large pagoda. It was beautifully painted like most traditional Korean pagodas. The view from there was wonderful. Now I know partly why mountain climbers are so eager to get to the top! Obviously, I haven't been up too many hills... or mountains for that matter.




I soon realized that the city was developing around the hill. Looking down, I saw what seemed to be the makings of a city park. And judging by how fresh the coat of paint on the pagoda looked... I think the trail I trekked up was the beginning stages of a stairway that will soon be placed along side of the hill. So now I know, for at least a while, I'll most likely be the only person using that hill for recreation. (Koreans don't really like to exercise... their definition of hardcore hiking is walking up stairs. They don't jog either... which is why my little cousin points and shouts "Miguk!" whenever he sees someone jogging in the distance.)

So, today, I returned to the hill to stretch out my out of shape/sore leg muscles. Only this time, I walked. Today was colder than yesterday and windy. Most of the vegetation on the hill is bamboo, which is why it looks smaller than it is. The bamboo looks like grass and bushes from afar... but really... it is grass, just really really tall grass. When the wind blows, the hill looks like it's shivering from the cold because of the way the bamboo grass sways. Its neat walking through the trail because the larger stacks of bamboo sound like wooden wind chimes.



(bamboo)




(moat)


(trail)



On the way back to the apartment I saw what I thought was a stray cat running around. When I got closer I realized it was just a small plastic bag blowing around on the road. Then I got to thinking... besides birds and my uncles poodle, I haven't seen a single animal since I've been here. No stray dogs or cats, no squirrels, no land animals of any kind, not even roadkill.
On that same train of thought, I realized that there are no homeless people here either! Well... at least not in the public eye... I asked my aunt about this later and she insisted that there are no homeless people or stray animals in Korea. I'm not really sure if it's worth noting... but to me, interesting.



Sigur Rós


muggin at the top of the hill

sunday

I half wondered if I would get dragged to church when Sunday rolled around. My aunt and uncle are Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses are the most in vogue as far as religion goes over here. Imo is the only family member that made me feel obligated to go to church. I don't mind. The only reluctance is the fact that I am not a Jehovah's Witness and knowing that those who are... like to get all up in your business. Though, I think Imo was less worried about converting me than she was about using me for show and tell. When we walked to our pew, everyone wanted to meet the "Miguk girl". Imo seemed to be very proud of her Miguk niece. There was a gigantic crowd around me, everyone was waiting in line. I'm pretty sure I met every member of the church. "Nice-eu to meet you?!" "Ahh, Miguk?!" "Beautiful eye!" "..." I also received a lot of hardcore stares.
It just so happened that all of the foreign ministry members sat in and around my pew. They spoke near-perfect english. The girl who sat next to me gave me an english copy of "Watchtower". Her name is Mor An. Thankfully she had and english name, Gloria, because her name is pronounced exactly like moron. The whole church smelled of unwashed clothes... the scent that you typically search for when deciding if you wanna throw your shirt in the wash-kind of smell. I think that a lot of Koreans will wear the same outfit to church every Sunday, they'll hang their church clothes up in the closet for weeks without being washed.
While the service took place (in Hangul) I read the entire Watchtower pamphlet. The most interesting parts I read were "Jehovah's Witnesses are the only true Christians", "how to prevent your children from avoiding temptations such as joining the school soccer team", and that "Satan created non-religious philosophies, evolution, and faulty religions that do not worship Jehovah". After the service, Gloria invited me to the many bible studies that they partake in. They gather pretty close to everyday, any chance they get. I said "thanks but no thanks". The fact that I'm moving to Gwangju saved me from having to make any commitments. No offense to Jehovah's Witnesses (just about all of them are incredibly nice people) but It's not my cup of tea... Also, according to the Jehovah's Witness club rules... I live a pretty evil existence just by loving sports, science, the humanities, and celebrating holidays.
My uncle, the church minister, asked me if I enjoyed the service. I just replied "I don't understand Hangul, Imobu." They left me alone after that. I appreciate the thought. I would like the people I love to share my passions too, so I guess I understand.

After church, the sun finally came out! I haven't seen sunshine since I've been in Korea. I asked if we could go for a walk before grabbing dinner.



(my aunt and uncle grabbing some yeoksusu (steamed corn) to snack on for our walk)

culture

Today, my aunt and I picked up Hyun Jun from school and spent the whole day discovering some of Mokpo's culture and history.



First, we visited Mokpo's ceramics museum where I learned a lot about the origins of some of Korea's pottery. A lot of what I learned today I had tried to research in the States and never found sufficient information. So the museum visit was very informative.


an interesting variety of ceramic toilets

After the ceramics museum was a natural history museum. I loved the natural history museum! It was a wonderful review of a lot of what I've learned in my grade school science classes. There were exhibits on dinosaurs, fossils, marine life, insects, plants, mammals, skeletons, evolution, sedimentary rock, continental drift, etc. A very good refresher for anyone interested in ecology, biology, and zoology... Charles Wilson Peale would have been very proud. P.I.T.A, not so much. There was quite a variety of taxidermied animals and a vast collection of dead bugs.





After natural history, we visited Mokpo's history museum. There was a lot of information on the warfare that took place in Mokpo and the arts and culture of Mokpo. There is a very famous art workshop that resides in Mokpo that produced many well-known Korean painters. Very similar to how Europe had it's Royal Academy and Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The art was very beautiful, similar to Chinese brush paintings in style.



Also, the land itself is considered an artist. There was a gigantic collection of stones that naturally resembled various things such as mountains, flowers, famous peoples faces, figures of people and animals, etc.





The cultural part of the museum had exhibits on Mokpo's jewelry, architecture, famous singers, dancers, and fashions. There was also a currency exhibit, which I thought was funny because American currency was on exhibit like it were some strange exotic artifact.
After all the museums, we went to a performance that was showing in Mokpo's cultural center. It was awesome! Musicians played traditional Korean instruments, the names of which I cannot remember but I'm determined to find out. The performances consisted of traditional dance, folklore, and opera.
Hopefully I'll be able to visit more museums and such when I start working here.

Mokpo

I stayed with samchun and sukmo for a night before they took me to Mokpo. Sukmo showed me a bunch of picture albums of where she and samchun had traveled. They are both well traveled. There were pictures of them all over Korea, China, Europe, and Australia. I noticed in all the pictures that they look very much in love.
It seems that my mother, her sister, and five brothers are all very in love and loyal to their spouses. I notice my mom's brothers cleaning their house, serving their wives, and caring for their children. I've heard so many stereotypes about Korean women being submissive and subserviant to their husbands. I'm proud to say that my family is not this way and I hope that there are many Korean families like mine.

The drive to Mokpo was about an hour. I suppose it should have been 2 hours but speed limits here are just a precaution. It seems that driving slow is not safe due to the standard flow of traffic. The drive was ugly and beautiful at the same time. Korea is a beautiful country but it has been overrun by roads and cities. The landscape has been torn into by highways and tunnels dug through the mountains. Nature can't protect itself from man's desire for industrial growth and transportation. It's sad.
Mokpo is smaller than Gwangju but the city looks exactly the same. My mom's sister (Imo) lives in "The New Mokpo". This side of town is cleaner and less congested. (It's just another plot of land that is soon to become another Korean city. City growth here is much like a virus and the "New Mokpo" will soon be infected.) Mokpo has lights everywhere. I call them "Mokpo's signature lights". They are lights placed all over bridges, streets, and scattered over the tops of the mountains that change colors in sequence. They go from blue, to green, to orange, red, pink, and rainbow colors.







Mokpo is a port city, so there are lots of boats and fish markets. There are old fishing boats scattered all over the harbor. Some are beached and shipwrecked and there are all different kinds of boats all around the harbors and docks. The streets here smell like fish and there are giant fish tanks on display with the days catch swimming around waiting to be eaten.
There are also many mountains in Mokpo. We drove up, around, and down a few mountains to see the different views of the city. There are many historical sites in the mountains, none of which are left alone. Every "historical site" is flooded with Mokpo's colorful signature lights.
After touring the city, we ate at a local hof. For a small price, the hof serves tons of food, snacks, and a large pitcher of mekju. My uncles drank together, my aunts chattered away, and my little cousin Hyun Jun fell asleep in my lap.

My imo (aunt) and imobu (her husband) had set up a room for me to stay the next couple of weeks. Everyone in my family has done everything they can to make me as comfortable as possible. I wish I could convey how appreciative I am. I'll do as much as I can to clean, play with the kids, help with their homework, and learn as much Korean as possible... but even that doesn't express how greatful I am.