Back to the hood...

Tonight I met Stella (my 1st co-teacher) in Goejeong, my old neighborhood, for some Bi Bim Bap and Tuna Kimbap (our favorites) at our favorite little restaurant in my old neighborhood!  I became very close with the 2 women who run the place... or as close as you can become when you don't share a common language! Anyway, when I walked in, it was as if I were the prodigal son! They were so excited to see me and told Stella they thought I had gone back to America and were sad I didn't come anymore! :)  Aaahhh.

It feels good to be missed!

Then after dinner, I stopped by the corner mart to say hello to David (the Korean man who owns the shop!) I gave him the English name David my second week in Korea, almost 3 years ago! I really didn't need to buy anything but I wanted to stop in to see him, so I picked up a beer for Aaron, and David put 5 packs of mixed nuts in my bag, for free, and said, with a big smile, to come see him again soon! Aaahhh.

It feels good to be missed!

Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped into my favorite thrift shop, where I would go at least once a week in Goejeong Market! When I walked in, the girl who owns the place completely dropped what she was doing and yelled "Emo" (aunt) and came to meet me at the door! After a couple minutes of fumbling through a 1/2 Korean, 1/2 English conversation, and a lot of laughter, she told me she needed to run down the street to the bathroom and asked if I would watch her store! Now that's trust! Aaahhh.

It feels good to be missed!

Lastly, before I jumped on the bus back home, I stopped to see Beksuna (a sweet dog who lives in the front yard of a house in my old neighborhood!) It was like no time had ever passed! I knelt down and she came running out of her doghouse wagging her tail, licked my face, nuzzled her head in my leg, and made me feel like a million bucks! Aaahhh

It feels good to be loved, remembered and missed!

Feeling Stressed?

One of my Korean co-workers just sent this picture to everyone in the school, via e-mail, with a message saying that if the pictures move when we look at them, it means we're REALLY stressed, but if they don't move, or are moving really slowly, then we're not stressed at all!

At first I thought it was a joke, but it totally works!  When Okk looked at it, she said they were moving quickly.  When I looked at it, they were barely moving!  Now I HAVE official proof that my life and job over here in Korea aren't stressful at all! See, I told you!

Hope yours aren't moving either!

Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival

A few week ago, Monica asked me if I wanted to go on a "culture trip" to the Lantern Festival with E.P.I.K. (the company I work for!)  Once in a while, they plan culture trips for the foreign teachers to go to different historical sights in the country as a thank you for our hard work.  I applied, and was chosen to go!  Fun news was, I got to bring Okk with me because it was a co-teacher culture trip!

So, on Friday, Okk and I left work early at 1:45pm and headed to the designated spot, where we boarded a fancy greyhound style bus with 35 other foreign teachers and their co-teachers and headed the 2 hours to Jinju!

First stop was Jinju Castle, the sight of the Japanese seige of 1592 and 1593.

These dragons were painted on the ceiling of the castle's main gate.  The tour guide told us that there's a Korean myth which says if you look right into the dragon's eyes for 3 seconds, you will have good luck for 3 years!  Okk and I did it for 9 seconds, hoping maybe we'd get lucky for 9 years instead of just 3! :) 

This fortress wall was built in 1379, surrounding the castle, and YES, this is the original wall where Korean soldiers fought!  This was our darling tour guide who stayed with us for the first 30 minutes or so.  Then we were allowed to roam around as we pleased!

These were the actual cannons used during the Japanese invasion.  Although, these didn't shoot bombs, they shot off arrows! 

Koreans follow the Chinese zodiac calendar, according to their birthdays.  The castle had statues of each zodiac animal.  Okk was born in the year of the monkey!  LOL

I was born in the year of the rooster!  I'm not sure exactly what it's suppossed to mean, but after looking at wikipedia, it says the roosters motto is, "I know!" which seems about accurate to my own motto!  LOL

The castle actually sits on the Namgang River, so this was our first glimpse at the floating lanterns!

Aaron and I always talk about how Korea "koreanizes everything", meaning they kind of try too hard to make things interesting by creating things like this light up tree on the castle grounds.

and this light up law decor... which granted, is very beautiful!  This one depicts a traditional Korean funeral procession. 

This one depicts a traditional Korean childrens game!  I don't know if you remember my blog about this at my last school.  My students would play this during break time.  It's the weirdest, most uncomfortable looking game, but they love it!

This Korean woman was taking a picture "dong cheeming" the boys butt!  If you've followed my blog for a while, you should know about dong cheems!  If not, Korean kids close their hand, leaving their pointer fingers up, and basically run up behind their friends and shove they fingers up their butt and yell "Dong cheem!"  NO JOKE!  I thought it was so funny that she was doing it, so I ran up with her and had Okk snap a picture!  We all had a good laugh about it! 

The foreign teachers and their co-teachers all gather together for dinner at a fancy restaurant (all paid for by my employer - awesome!) and then headed back out to the river to see the floating lanterns! These lanterns are to commemorate the patriotic spirit of 70,000 militia corps and government troops who died for Korea while defending the city from Japanese forces during the Imjin War (1592–1598).

The lanters were so beeautiful, all shining on the river's water.  I'm not sure how many there were, but I would guess there were between 100-200 total!

Okk and I took a walk along the rivers path where vendors had set up tents selling Korean food, arts and crafts and jewelry.  Within the path, there were 3 long and expanisve tunnels with handmade hanging lanterns!  Okk said she thought these were made by Jinju High School students!  It was definitely one of my favorite sights of the whole trip!  These were hanging for as far as the eye could see!

They also had these moving oversized lanterns along the pathway! 

This dragon actually shot fire out of it's mouth!

A two story high lantern pagoda.

This peacock was awesome, and HUGE!  It was about 30 feet tall and would open and close it's tail feathers every 5 minutes or so!  Absolutely stunning!

This lantern tunnel was filled with "purchased lanterns" with hand written notes hanging from each.

I had Okk stand next to this one because the girl had written that she wished to find a boyfriend! LOL

I had seen a picture, once, years ago of this festival and how people could light candles, attached paper lanterns, make a wish, and float it down the river!  So, when I saw the area where we could do it, I was super excited!  Whenever we saw a "man lantern," we joked that it was Okk's boyfriend and would say how tall and handsome he was! haha... Here we are with our lanterns!

Okk's wish was to find a boyfriend!  (Not a husband, just a boyfriend!)  haha!  I love her!

...About to float my lantern down the river...

I wrote two wishes on my lantern.  One the left one, I wrote, "I wish to be very happy and in love forever!  I wish!"  On the right one, I wrote "I wish for good health for my mom, dad, and sister!"  Here's hoping! :)

Our candles are lit and we're ready to go! 

I know it's kind of lame to say that this moment was a dream come true, but it kind of was!

I really wanted to do this before I left Korea!

There they go... floating down the river!

After releasing our lanterns, we walked the path back to the restaurant where we meet to board the bus back to Busan.  Okk and I had such a great time and kept saying how much fun we were having together!  It's one thing to enjoy a fantastic festival... It's another thing to do it with one of your best friends! 

So glad we went!   

*** As a side note for anyone living in Korea and wanting to visit the Festival. Here are some directions: Take an express bus to Jinju Intercity Bus Terminal.  Exit the Terminal towards the river. Turn right, and walk for 5min to arrive at the festival site.  It's totally worth it!

Protest

Aaron and I had just come back from Seomyeon and were walking up the subway steps in Nampodong to walk across the bridge to Yeongdo Island when we were faced with hundreds of riot police, dressed head to toe in riot gear!  Talk about exciting!   If I had to guess, I'd say there were between 500 and 1,000.

We knew why they were there.  Hanjin Shipping Company's employees were protesting... AGAIN. The company is located on the island where I live and the employees gather at least once every two months to march across the main bridge, and all the way to the front of the shipyard, to protest the company's unfair labor practices and the recent layoff of over 600 Korean employees after the CEO decided to move part of the company to a new shipyard in the Phillippines in order to save on labor costs, regarless of the almost 1 billion in earnings made that year.  In addition, a lot of Koreans have joined the protest for the sole purpose of  encouraging a 52 year old female who climbed atop one of Hanjin's cranes (105 feet high) and has been living up there, in a 6x10 foot control room, for over 260 days now in protest.  She has stated that she will not come down until the laid off employees have been given their jobs back. As a side note, a lot of my students parents work or worked for Hanjin, and Okk (my co-teacher) was actually one of the 600 Hanjin employees to be laid off.  So, this is actually very near and dear to me.

Aaron and I were smack dab in the middle of all the action when the police trucks started spraying the protestors with water and tear gas, sending them running in all directions.  Aaron grabbed his camera and shot this video.  I know it looks crazy in this video, but don't worry mom and dad, we were up on a ledge, where only photographers and media were, and we were completely safe! 

May I be excused?

Lunchtime in Korea is very different from lunchtime in America!  For starters, everyone eats the exact same thing!  Secondly, there's NO teachers lounge!  Instead, teachers sit at a table right smack dab in the middle of the kids in the cafeteria!  For all you visual people out there, this is my school's cafeteria!

Thirdly, where people sit at the table is a big deal.  In America, the host at a dinner party, or special employee usually sits "at the head of the table!"  Right?  Well, not in Korea!  The highest ranked employees (ie: Principal, Vice Principal, and/or Head Teacher) all sit in the middle of the table.  I, for whatever reason, have been asked to sit beside the Principal everyday.  I think this is their way of showing (non verbally) how much they appreciate/respect me.  I'm honored. :)

Fourthly, when you're finished with your meal, you can't just get up and leave the table.  I'm not talking about students here!  I'm talking about teachers!  We have to wait for either the oldest person, or the highest ranked employee, at the table, to stand up.  Then, and only then, can we get up from the table!  So, today, for instance, I finished my lunch by 12:15pm, but had to wait until close to 12:30pm for the Principal to stop talking, finish eating, and stand up!  This gets really annoying sometimes!

Now you think that's bad?  The kids have it a little worse, but in a different way!  They are not allowed to leave their table until they have eaten everything on their tray... EVERYTHING!  When they're done, they walk up to their teacher, or their classroom leader, hold their tray in front of him or her and wait for the approval.  If there is some soup left, or a vegetable uneaten they are told to sit back down until they finish!

Just another little cultural tidbit to help you live a day in my life! :) 

Happy eating!