Korea Throwback

When people ask me what Korea is like, I always have a hard time describing it well.  They try so hard to emulate western culture (there's an Outback Steakhouse on every corner), but at the same time, the culture is so far from anything American (kids hate spaghetti and love steamed snails larvae).  This article from CNN Go paints a pretty good picture of Korean society.  Probably the best I've seen it spelled out.  (Thanks to Katie for sharing it on Facebook).

RIP Havel

I never was a big history buff and was too young during the time of the Soviet Bloc to remember anything. While living Prague, I quickly learned all about the fall of communism and one of the Czech Republic's most beloved figures, Vaclav Havel. My students loved telling me all about the events of 1989 as well as their own personal stories from this era. It opened me eyes to the incredible history these people lived through. It became clear to me very quickly that Havel was a special man. Czech people were so proud of him and the things he accomplished during his life time. He will be greatly missed.

With the recent events in Prague, it has made me miss that amazing city as much as ever. I wish I could have been there for this.

snow, Snow, SNOW!

And lots of it!

Everyone has been saying lately that it actually doesn't snow very much in Prague usually. And by seeing how they're dealing with the snow, I'm starting to believe it. It has been snowing pretty much now stop for the last four days and has really been piling up.

In the States, I feel like cities deal with snow in one of two ways:

-If it's a city that normally gets snow, they deal with it pretty fast and clean it up so people can go about their normal business.

-Or, in states where snow is uncommon, it will snow an inch and the whole city will shut down.

So I get that it doesn't normally snow a TON in Prague, but snow is a regular occurrence and they should be prepared. But no, no, no. This is not the case.

The streets here have hardly been plowed and snow is piled high on the sidewalks. I haven't seen a single snow plow in the streets and have noticed very few people shoveling the sidewalks. There is slush everywhere, your shoes get soaked, and you really have to make an effort just to walk down the street. (On a positive note, I'm building up big calf muscles rather quickly.) And many streets really haven't been cleared at all, only from the cars driving by and pushing it around with their tires.

The worst part is the trams. The city doesn't even bother to clean the snow from their tracks. So of course, this means constant delays. A tram ride that should take 15 minutes is now turned into 30. Or sometimes, the tram just doesn't come at all. So I'm really looking forward to my tram ride I have to do tomorrow morning to one of my classes. On a good day, this particular ride takes about an hour. Ahhhhhh.... snow!

Christmastime in Prague

Mmmm.... you can smell it in the air... Christmas is here! Although it may be unusually warm for December and we haven't seen a flake of snow since one day in early October, Christmas is definitely in the air. Even though the Czech Republic is highly un-religious (which I mentioned in a previous post), Christmas is still a wildly popular holiday. The holiday topic has been popping up in my classes since I first started teaching in October. And now, with the arrival of the Christmas markets, it's pretty much unavoidable. I have heard that the Markets in some of the neighboring countries (or even in small Czech towns) are better than those in Prague, but the ones here in the city are still perfectly enjoyable.

The biggest market is held in the Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti), with a few other markets in some smaller squares around town. There are small wooden booths set up around the square, selling gifts, food and drink. They are decorated with pines and lights with a HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of it all.

Saturday night Jason and I headed out to the Old Town to see the festive atmosphere and drink some delicious hot wine (tastes like apple cider... with wine) and eat some tasty cinnamon rings. (okay, so I don't know what they're really called. But it's dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar and wrapped around a metal rod and cooked over a fire. They slide them off the rod and look like a big cinnamon bangle bracelet or something. So bad yet SO good!)

And another reason we chose to go to the market on Saturday night was to witness the Czech Advent tradition of St. Nicholas. Every year on November 5th, St. Nicholas comes to ask the children if they've been good or bad and give them sweets or rotten potatoes accordingly. An angel and a devil accompany St. Nick. The devil rattles his chains and tries to intimidate the children, asking them what they have done wrong and making them sing songs. The angel obviously is the nice one in this team, praising the children for what they have done well and offering them candy.

Apparently people here really enjoy the tradition as the streets were filled with people dressed up in elaborate costumes. Nicholas wears a full Cardinal's outfit with a large staff and all. The devils were painted completely black with glowing horns and dragging chains, and angels in white gowns with large wings. Trios of St. Nick, the angel and the devil strolled the streets looking for innocent children to harass. It was pretty funny to watch, and some people seemed really into it. Especially teenagers who were most likely bothered by the devil not so many years ago, out to get their revenge on the young children today.

Obviously we have some similar traditions in the States, but nothing quite to this affect. Another Czech Christmas difference I've learned from some of my students about is about who brings the gifts. In the US, all children know that Santa Claus flies around in his sled on Christmas Eve, delivering gifts to all the good girls and boys around the world. Here, there is no Santa. Baby Jesus is the one who delivers presents on Christmas Eve (to be opened that night).

One of my students, explaining that her children no longer believe in the myths of Christmas told me, "My children are older now so they don't believe in Baby Jesus anymore."

Prague's Top Sites

Story from CNN about some of Prague's top sites! I'm lucky to be living in such a beautiful city!

(CNN) -- Prague has not been nicknamed "Zlata Praha" or "Golden Prague" for no good reason. The well-deserved eponym is a tribute to this city that mixes architecture, history, art and beauty like no other.

While not forgetting its more somber communist past, Prague has been one of the first East European cities to get a luxurious makeover. Designer shopping malls, exclusive restaurants and trendy nightclubs abound.

But it is the mystical atmosphere of a Prague of past eras that leaves many visitors craving to come back. Largely untouched by the ravages of WWII, Prague is arguably the only European city with so many century-old buildings left intact for people to enjoy.

All more impressive than the others, these are the historical sites you should not miss in Prague.

Wenceslas Square: In 1348, King Charles IV of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) founded the town of Prague. The King built several open areas for markets, including Wenceslas Square, previously known as the Horse Market.

Named after Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech state, the square is the largest in the city and was at the center of much of Prague's history, including the Nazi occupation, the Soviet invasion, and the Velvet Revolution.

In 1969, Prague student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. And in 1989, during the Velvet Revolution that overthrew the Communist regime, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered here to protest.

Today the square has become one of the trendiest and busiest in the country. Lining Wenceslas Square are fashion stores, cafes, bars and kiosks. Above the square is Prague's Museum of Natural History, which was shot at by Communist troops when they mistook it for the Parliament building.

Prague Castle: Kings, Roman Emperors and Presidents have lived in this legendary castle that overlooks the city. The castle is the largest medieval castle complex in Europe and arguable Prague's prime tourist attraction. First built in the 9th century, Prague Castle has survived wars, fires and opposing political powers.

The castle complex consists of the Saint Virtus Cathedral, viewing towers, a monastery, museums and art galleries. The Czech crown jewels are also held here.

After Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, the castle became the seat of the President of the new Czech Republic.Gallery: Prague gallery

Charles Bridge: This magnificent 14th century gothic bridge over Prague's Vltava river is lined with a series of large stone statues that represent important religious figures and icons.

Its construction started in 1357 under King Charles IV and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. Until the 19th century, the bridge was the only way to cross between the Old Town and adjacent areas, also known as the "Lesser Town."

During the day, thousands of people traverse the bridge to watch the views of the city and enjoy the numerous street performers.

Dancing House: A masterpiece of modern architecture, Dancing House was named after dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Dancing House is also sometimes nicknamed "Drunk House" for its wavy curves.

The building was constructed between 1992 and 1996 by Czech architect Vlado Milunc and world-renowned Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The top floor houses one of the city's most exclusive restaurants, Celeste.

Old Town Square: Located in the heart of the Old Town, this square included Prague's gothic Church of Our Lady before Tyn, the main church of this part of the city since the 14th century. The church's towers are 80 meters high and topped by small golden spires.

Another fixture of the Old Town Square is the baroque-style St. Nicholas Church.

In the center of the square is a large statue of Jan Hus, a Catholic priest who was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy in 1415.

But the most popular attraction for visitors of the square is the famous Astronomical Clock.

Astronomical Clock: Built in 1410, the Astronomical Clock still functions and provides accurate data on a number of astrological events, such as the relative positions of the sun, moon and major planets.

Each hour, the clock bells and a series of moving wooden puppets come out. Below the Astronomical Clock are 12 medallions with the signs of the zodiac, added by painter Josef Manes in 1865.

Prague Cathedral: Saint Vitus's Cathedral is another one of Prague's Gothic masterpieces. The Cathedral, set in the walls of the Prague Castle, was commissioned by King Charles IV and work on it began in 1344. It took nearly six centuries to complete.

Today it is the seat of the Archbishop of Prague and contains the tombs of many of the Bohemian Kings. The interior features stained-glass windows from different eras.

One of the cathedral's chambers was used to crown several Kings and it is said the room can only be opened with seven golden keys given to different members of parliament.

Vyshehrad: The old fortress of Vyshehrad and its surrounding parks is the place where the city of Prague was originally founded and around which the city was built. It is a great place to get a sense of the history of the city.

Its thick walls house the National Cemetery, where many of Prague's most illustrious citizens are buried, including Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvorak and writer Karel Capek.

......so who's coming to visit!? :)

Different.

Living in the Czech Republic I find myself comparing my experiences here to those I had in Korea. Clearly there are more cultural differences than I could possibly mention. But most of what I'm noticing is how my interactions with the cultures differ.

In Korea, I obviously did not look Korean. No one ever tried to speak Korean to me and they were never surprised when I didn't understand them. We would get many stares- especially from older people or little kids. Many kids would even stop, point and say to their patents "mi guk!" (foreigner). I got used to life as a minority and not being able to blend with the culture. No matter what I did, even if I learned to speak Korean fluently, I would still stand out as being different and being a foreigner.

In Prague it is completely opposite. I am just another white, European person and look like any other Czech girl walking down the street. My style is similar to Czech fashion, my hair color is spot on, etc. I get stopped at least once a day where someone tries to speak Czech to me. Ask directions, try to sell me something, older people when i give up my seat to them on the tram, whatever. And at the deli when I am buying some lunch meat and the sales person tries to ask me a question and just looks at me like I'm stupid for not understanding something so simple, until they realize that I'm not Czech. In any of these situations there's always the awkward moment when I try to make it clear that I don't understand. "No Czech, English." and this usually doesn't happen until they've rattled off half of what they were tring to say. I hate dealing with these situations and it almost make me miss Korea where no one would talk to me, never even hand me promo fliers in the metro, never have the confused look on their face when I didn't know what they were saying.

I had told myself that I wasn't going to make the same mistakes I made in Korea as far as not learning the language. But now, I'm not so sure if it's going to happen. I had hoped to sign up for a free Czech class through one of my language schools but unfortunately it doesn't fit with my schedule. So I bought a Czech phrase book and decided I would try to learn some on my own. But the pronunciation is so different from English that I don't even know where to start. How do you pronounce "zd" together? And what's the difference between č and c? Û, ú and u?
And it's not only that. While they only have simple verb tenses (no continuous or perfect tenses), they congigate nouns and change endings for masculine and feminine. For example, "Prague" in Czech can be Praha, Praze, Prasky and probably a lot of other versions that I don't even know.
So we'll see how far I get on my own. Many of my students really want me to try learning it and ask about my progress every week. And then just smile and laugh when I try to say anything in Czech.

So, back to my Korea vs. Czech ideas... While it is of course nice to be able to blend and not stand out all the time, when you feel like a stranger in a strange land it is kind of nice to not be confused as something different. And as a white American, I think it was a very good experience for me to spend a year as a minority. But that's a whole other story.

I don't think I'm really going anywhere with this, just observing the differences. So that's where I'm at. I will try to learn some more Czech to make life easier. Maybe I can at least learn "I don't speak Czech."

A History Lesson....

One of the best things about living in foreign countries is learning things that I would never have either the opportunity or desire to learn much about back home. And here in the Czech Republic, teaching well educated adults, I've been given a lot of opportunities to learn about Czech history, mostly from first hand accounts.

As the Czech Republic gets ready to commemorate the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism twenty years ago next Tuesday, I thought I would take the time to share some insight that my students have shared with me.

One of my students, Pavel, has shared a lot of his experiences growing up in a communistic society with me. He says his father had some trouble with the police because he was involved in some protests in the 60's. Because of this, Pavel wasn't allowed to go to high school. Even though he had some of the best marks of his class and successfully passed his entrance exams, he was told that there was no more room at the school. He was sent to a vocational high school where he learned some trade work and was eventually allowed to attend a regular high school. But this meant leaving his hometown and moving to Prague by himself at the age of 15.

He also told the story of his brother who left their hometown to study in another part of the country. He has to change his last name so no one would know he was related to the family, and Pavel was never allowed to talk about his brother in public.

Students tell me stories of "voting" during the communistic rule. It was reported that 99.99% of the people voted and they all voted for the communism leader. Well, this was obviously because they were given no other options. You had to go to the polling place on the day of the election and fill in the ballot, even though there was only one option. And if you chose to go into a private booth to fill in your answers (such as is common practice now) it would be noted and you would probably be questioned and black listed later.

I have another student, Josef, who told me his memories of the Velvet Revolution. He was actually involved in the revolution and participated by spreading the word throughout the towns and villages around the Czech Republic. He said he would make posters and traveled around the country posting the information to those who were out of touch with the happenings in the big city.

He also remembers the days before the revolution when he was a university student. He says he liked metal bands, such as Metallica, but he was only able to buy their music on black markets and had to be careful about it. Music that was ok'd by the regime? ABBA and Michael Jackson. He also said that some foreign products, like Coca Cola, were available in Czechoslovakia. But they were only in specialty stores which used some certain type of bank notes that only foreigns were able to obtain in exchange for their foreign money.

Now, about 15% of the Czech population still supports the communistic party. Who makes up this 15%?, I ask. Older, poor people is the answer. The small part of the population that actually benefited from communism.

Even though the Czech Republic is traditionally a Catholic country with beautiful cathedrals littering the countryside, there are very few people practicing religion today. Only about 25%. And in Prague, I hear it is even lower, more like 10%. I think this has to be one of the most - if not THE most- unreligious cities in the world. When I talk to some of my students in their 20's about religion, they say that they don't know a single person who attends church and believes in God. One student says she "goes to church" occasionally. When I ask her more about it, she says that she goes to see the cathedral, not to attend mass. Maybe she will attend mass on Christmas, she says. But she describes that mass as not being religious, more just well wishing for everyone. Surely much of this is due to the cummunistic rule that was in place for decades and did not allow religion. But, there are other countries that have been under communism for just as long. So what makes the Czech Republic different? I'm still not sure...

In one of my classes the word "confiscated" came up one day. When I tried to check my students' understanding of the word, I got a little bit of laughter along with this response: "If you've ever lived in a communistic country, you know the meaning of the word confiscated."

While most people I speak with seem to feel very strongly about communism and there are clearly still fresh wounds there, I have one student who doesn't seem to care too much. She says she thinks very few people's lives were changed by the fall of communism. Most people's everyday lives are the same as before, she says. But, I think she might be in the minority on this. While it's probably true that most people's lives didn't immediately change, I think everyone will cite plenty of differences between their past lives and today.

But What Does It All Mean!?

In Korean:

Ne = Yes

Anio = No

In Czech:

Ano = Yes

Ne = No

You see my confusion? After a year in Korea I got the words so ingrained into my mind that I'm having a lot of trouble changing it. I usually find myself in shops saying no (Ne) but nodding my head yes. I know I'm confused and I can't imagine how the poor shop keepers feel.

Also, to indicate the number one, I am used to holding up my index finger as we do in the States. However, here, that means two. One is indicated by your thumb.

So, here I am in a shop trying to buy.... let's say, a croissant. I say "one," hold up my index finger, nod my head "yes" and say "Ne". The shop keeper just stares in udder confusion.

Who knew a simple task could be so confusing?

Party Town, Laos (Vang Vieng)

We took a 6 hour minibus ride through the mountains from Luang Prabang to the small town of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a little town on the river which has become a big backpackers stop and party town in recent years. It's in a beautiful area, jagged limestone mountains and amazingly green forest. But that's not why most people go there. The main draw is the tubing and the bars.

Knowing this and assuming it wasn't really going to be what we were looking for, we only planned for about a day there. When we arrived, we were amazed at the beauty of the place. No one we talked to had mentioned that, only the tubing.

Our first evening there we met up with dome other people in our minibus group: two Brits, an Aussie and a Kiwi. They were all great people and we ended up hanging out with them the whole time we were there. That first night we decided to check out some of the nightlife and headed to one of the many riverside" bars" (which is really just an outdoor area with some tables, a bar and a DJ booth. We hung out drinking and dancing and were still in bed before midnight- arterial this is Laos; early to bed, early to rise.

The next day we were disappointed to wake up to buckets of rain dumping on the village- no tubing today. So our little clan made our way to one of the many restaurants to catch some breakfast and try to wait out the rain. The majority of the restaurants around town have these elevated platforms covered in pillows where you can lounge away your day. They have low tables on the platforms and no walls around the restaurant so it's the perfect place to relax and watch the rain fall. And watch Friends. Fir some reason, every place seems to have obtained a DVD of Friends, Family Guy or The Simpsons and just play them on repeat all day long. It's kind of funny but sure was nice while we had nothing else to do.

The rain eventually let up but it was still too cool out to hang out in the river. So Jason and I decided instead to walk back toward the mountains and see what we would find. We saw some signs pointing the way to caves so we followed them. It ended up being a great little walk, even though I was wearing flip flops through the muddiest roads. We wandered through farmers fields, around herds of cattle and past playing children. We even came across an entire field completely full of four leaf clovers (there's one in my book for safe keeping)! We had to walk over a tiny rickety bridge made of bamboo with a sign reading "only one at a time"- a little scary. Finally we came to where the farmlands end and the jungle begins. You could almost stand with one foot in a field and one in the jungle it was that clear cut. We got into the dense jungle and it immediately got darker and we could hear birds chirping and monkies howling. We felt a world away from the party town we had just came from. We made it to the cave but didn't go in as it was too dark to see a thing. But it was a great adventure getting there.

The next day we did the tubing thing. It was fun fir a day, but I don't know how people stay there fir weeks doing the same thing everyday. But it wasn't really tubing, more just hanging out at bars along the river and occasionally swimming from one to the next. The best part was watching people fly off the giant rope swings and ohhhing and ahhhing at their tricks/belly flops.

We eventually tried to tube the 3 km back to town but the river was too shallow and it was getting too late so we took a yuk yuk the rest of the way.

The Market of Bac Ha

We spent a day and 1/2 in Sapa and then headed to a nearby village called Bac Ha, where there is a very popular weekend market. Bad Ha is a very small town of about 7,000, quiet during the week and only coming to life on the weekend when hordes of tourists cone to see the market.

Saturday evening we wandered around the town and met some very interesting people. We even ran into an old friend of Steph (of the French couple we were traveling with) who she hadn't seen or heard from in 7 years! Small world.

That night Jason and Fred wanted to catch a soccer games so we found the one little shop that had the game playing. We sat down with locals and watched the game. They were so excited that we all had something in common even though we couldn't speak the same language. The woman who ram the shop poured us all some tea and got out her English books to show us that she was trying to teach herself. We sat around and had an English/Vietnamese language exchange. They were such wonderful people and it was a gun and interesting evening.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to see the market before the bus loads of tourists would arrive several hours later. The market is huge, taking up the entire dental area of the town. And this is a real mountain market by the way, not one just created for tourists to gawk at. The tribal people come in from all the surrounding villages and buy and sell food and supplies. There are stalls with fresh picked bananas and oranges, shovels and back hoes, woven dresses in the ethnic colors, etc. etc.

And of course one major supply that the villagers need to buy and sell is animals. This is where I had a hard time and even started to cry and had to leave the area. I understand that there are cultural differences and that people need to eat, but the way they treat the animals is just horrible. I saw three scrawny , weak looking dogs in a small cage on the back of a motorbike. I saw burlap bags rolling around on the ground, either with puppies or piglets inside. All of the animals, from horses and water buffalo to pigs and chickens, appeared malnourished and poorly treated. Our friend, Fred, even watched as a dog's throat was slit and the chopped up for food (yes, they eat dog in Vietnam, as well as horse).

It was all too much for me to handle. I am such an animal lover and can't bare to see them treated badly. It's something I had a hard time with the whole time I was in Vietnam. I saw puppies kicked so hard that that they were rolling on the floor crying. The thinnest kitten you can imagine chained up to a busy street corner on Hanoi, too scared to move.

Any way, moving along. Besides the mistreatment of the animals, the market was very interesting to see. It was unlike any market I've ever been to.

After our morning in the market, we parted ways with Fred and Steph, sure that we will meet again in another part of the world. That afternoon Jason and I wandered around some small villages around Bac Ha and saw the beautiful farmlands as well as the beautiful children.

The next day we just hung out around town before making the long trip back to Hanoi and then flying to Luang Prabang, Laos.

It's Not All Rainbows and Butterflies.

Many people seem to think that living abroad is one big adventure and every day is new and exciting.  That's not exactly the case.  My day to day life is pretty much just like it would be at home.  I have Monday to Friday job.  I come home and make dinner.  I go to the grocery store and run errands.  Ya know, normal life.  I just happen to be doing it on the other side of the world.

And living abroad can be difficult sometimes.  There are the obvious reasons that you are far away from friends and family and miss home and your loved ones.  I also miss a lot of little things, like driving my car.  Having an oven (we only have 2 burners and that's it).  Lots of good food from home.  Being able to communicate with people easily (I kind of forget what it's like to be able to walk in a store and ask any questions I want without having to speak like a 4 year old).  There are a lot of little things.  But there's also more.

One of the hardest things about living in a foreign country is being a foreigner.  You don't know customs and culture and how things work.  I've learned quite a bit about Korean culture in my year here, but there is still so much I don't understand.  But I'm not getting into that now.  Maybe at a later post.  Anyway, back to the subject:  being a foreigner.  This can be a big problem if, say, you have legal problems and don't know how the legal system in your current country works.  That's our problem now.  

Our school is a small, privately owned language school; called a hagwon in Korean.   There are thousands and thousands of hagwons in Korea.  There are several within walking distance of the one we work at.  Because of this (and currently the bad economy) a lot of them fail.  Our school has been going for about four years now, but it is on it's last leg.  They haven't had enough students this whole year and now they keep losing students left and right.  They have been having financial problems since we arrived, but things are suddenly getting a lot worse and in a scary way.  

Despite the financial problems, we have always been paid on time.  That is, until last month.  We are supposed to be paid on the 5th of every month, which in January was our first day back to school after vacation.  So when we weren't paid right on the 5th, we weren't too worried about it.  But when it was 2 days later and the director of our school still hadn't mentioned anything about being paid, we started to wonder.

We eventually got HALF of our pay checks two weeks later.  And now, on February 2nd, we have not been paid the other half of our paycheck.  The school has no money.  None.  Our boss can't afford to pay us.  It's kind of a problem.  Oh, and did I mention that when we finish a one year contract we get a severance (equal to one month's pay) and our plane tickets home paid for.  There are 3 of us leaving at the end of this month.  

If we were in America, we would know how to take care of this.  Not getting paid would hardly even be an issue.  I don't think I've ever heard of anyone I know not being paid in the States.  But here, how do we deal with it?  We're not Koreans, we don't have all of the rights Koreans do.  And dealing with the legal system in a country where don't know the laws is not easy.  We really don't know what to do.  Our boss says she's trying her hardest and wants to pay us.  We believe her, but just wanting to pay us isn't quite enough.  We've been kind of stuck.  It doesn't seem like there is too much we can do.  So we just wait and hope that she finds the money to pay us.  

Waiting, waiting...

The Korean Wedding Experience

The happy new couple

Some of the teachers at Brighten with the director of our school, Ronnie, (standing

 next to me), her sister who helps at the school, and Oh Teacher, the Bride

This past Saturday, the receptionist at my school got married.  I know her simply as "Oh Teacher" and have actually never learned her real name.  She got married this past weekend and everyone from our school was invited.  I knew that the wedding would be similar to American weddings in someways, but was told they didn't do the big reception party thing like we do in the States.  

So we went to the wedding at about 1 o'clock on Saturday.  On the invitation, there was a little map drawn with what looked like a drawing of a church.  So we were confused when we got to the location and didn't find a church, but just a big building.  We headed up to the second floor where we found a big wedding hall.  It was set up more or less like a church: there was a lobby area, some small side rooms and then a wedding area with rows of chairs and an aisle down the middle.  It was so strange to me, to see a wedding hall like this in the middle of a big building.  

We ran into the director of our school and she took us over to the bridal waiting room.  Oh Teacher was sitting in a little chair with her white dress spread out across the floor.  There was a photographer set up and guests could go and stand behind the bride and take a picture, which we did of course.  From there, we headed over to the money table.  Money is kind of the standard gift over here, no registering.  So there is just a table where you can put your money in an envelope and then someone writes in a book how much you gave.  This is also where you get your "meal ticket."  So I guess if you don't opt to give a donation to the new bride and groom, you don't get to eat.  No such thing as a free lunch!

The ceremony itself was interesting.  The room didn't have enough chairs, so there were a lot of people standing in the back and in the lobby, which wasn't really separated from the hall.  The people sitting down were quiet, but everyone standing up were talking so loudly and hardly even paying attention to what was going on.  There were kids running around screaming, people on their cell phones, etc.  I've never seen people be so loud during a wedding, they weren't even talking in hushed voices.  

I couldn't hear most of the ceremony because everyone was so loud, but I wouldn't have been able to understand it, anyway.  But it seemed like a pretty standard ceremony from what I could tell.  They had spotlights on the bride and groom, so they must have been getting pretty hot.  From time to time, someone would go up to them and pat their faces with a towel.  Just right in the middle of the ceremony.  Also the photographer and videographer were standing with their cameras literally right over the priest's (I actually don't know what he was, he was just wearing a normal suit) shoulder.

At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom presented their new spouses to their parents.  The parents were sitting right at the very front, and the new couple went up and bowed to each set of parents and gave some flowers to the mom.  I thought this was actually kind of a nice gesture, saying thank you to the parents.  

Probably the funniest thing in the whole ceremony was the part where you kiss the bride.  Like most Asian cultures, Korea is not big on PDA (besides wearing matching t-shirts and holding hands).  So rather than kissing, the bride and groom hugged.  And it wasn't even a good hug.  It was a pat on the back hug, the kind you give to someone you don't really want to be hugging.  The crowd started cheering for them to kiss, so they finally managed a little peck.  

One thing that the whole wedding seemed to really be missing was some emotion!  The bride and groom didn't even look like they liked each other.  There was no one crying in the audience.  It just seemed so cut and dry, really boring.  I feel like American weddings are so full of joy and this was just the opposite.  No wedding party, no speeches, no toasting the bride and groom, no first dance, no cake cutting, nothing.  

So after the whole ceremony, we headed downstairs to a big buffet room.  They had a HUGE buffet with about every kind of Korean food imaginable (it all looked great, but actually wasn't as good as I was expecting).  But in the hall was just filled with these long tables.  I felt more like I was in a college dining hall rather than at a wedding reception.  And there was no music or anything, just the sound of people eating.  And when people finished eating, they just got up and left.  Wedding over.  The bride and groom eventually came down to the dining hall (now dressed in traditional Korean wedding costumes), but there was no big entrance or anything.  They went around to various tables and said hello and thank you for coming and then probably sat down and ate, themselves.  But many of the guests had already left before the bride and groom came down.

The whole experience was only about 2 1/2 hours.  Not an all day event like it is back home.  Let me just say that I am glad that when I eventually get married it will not be in the Korean fashion.

Gyeong-ju Weekend

A couple weeks ago, we had our last 3 day weekend until Christmas. That's about 12 weeks with NO BREAKS. So Jason and I decided that we better enjoy the time off. We headed down south to the city of Gyeong-ju. It was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty for around 1000 years - thousands of years ago. So, needless to say, there's a lot of history there. It's kind of like the Kyoto of Korea. Kind of.

We spent our first day there visiting a couple of temples. We made our way out to the Bulguksa Temple, one of the oldest temples in Korea. Very nice (see photos). After the temple, we took an extremely crowded bus up a windy mountain road to the Seoukguram Grotto. It was pretty much on top of the mountain, there were great views in every direction. Supposedly, on a clear day, you can see the ocean. But clear days don't really exist in Korea (perma-smog), so of course we didn't see it. But anyway, you take a short walk from where the bus lets you off and come to a shrine built into the side of the mountain. Inside the grotto, there is a giant stone buddha, surrounded by a semi-circle wall with around 30 or so guards carved into it. Walking back from it, we saw the best sunset I've seen in Korea.

Later that night, we walked around and visited some of the sites around the city. First we walked to the observatory, the oldest one in all of Asia. On flat ground and only about 25 feet high... a little different than observatories today. Guess they didn't have to deal with all the bright city lights and pollution. Hmm... Anyway, you can't tell just from looking at it, but there is a lot that went into designing it. There are 12 stones at the base (months), 30 layers to the top (months), and 366 stones in all (days in the year).
From the observatory, we made out way over to the Anapji Pond. It's a big pond with a few pagodas located around it. Everything was lit up and night and it looked really amazing. The perfect place to take an evening stroll. There once was temples surrounding the pond, but they've long sine burned down. Also, when they drained the pond in the 70's for maintenance, they discovered hundreds of relics that had been forgotten in the water and somehow stayed pretty well preserved in the mud.

The next two days we spent hiking around Mount Namsan, a small mountain just outside of town that is covered with shrines. The first day we met a couple of Korean guys who became our tour guides for the day. They were really nice guys, in their mid twenties, and they have actually become good friends since then. They are also from Seoul and were just vacationing for the long weekend as well. We've gone out to dinner and drinks and soccer games with them a couple times since we've been back. It's nice to actually hang out with some Koreans instead of just foreigners for once. The second day we rented bikes and rode around along the base of the mountain and through some rice fields before doing some hiking. Both days we some some really amazing buddhas carved into the sides of rock walls. I think I saw some of my favorite things I've seen in Korea there, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Take a look here.  

Life, As of Late

I haven't posted much about what I've been doing here lately because for a while, there wasn't much to post about. After the Japan trip, things kind of slowed down for a while. Life was just normal, day in day out, nothing special going on. We did a couple weekend trips to the beach. Jason went home for a week to go to a wedding. He was gone over a four day weekend, so I spent a lot of "me" time then, which was actually really great. But in the last week or so, a little bit more has been going on.

Here at our school, there are five English teachers and then four people on the Korean staff. Jean, the academic director, is who we go to for pretty much anything we need. She is so great and so helpful and speaks the best English out of all the staff. She is the go to lady. She helps us with anything, whether it is school related or not. Last week, a meeting was called and it was announced that Jean would be leaving us because of "personal reasons." We were told that on Monday and then Tuesday was her last day. There will be no one coming in to take her place, so Ronnie, the owner and director of the school, will be in Jean's place. However, since Jean left, Ronnie hasn't changed a thing about what she does here at the school. She still comes in late everyday and then just sits and talks with the other Korean staff. She's not constantly working on things the way Jean always did. And Ronnie just isn't a very approachable person; you don't really want to go a talk to her about something unless it's completely necessary. Jean is the type of person who knows what is going on with every student in the school. Not Ronnie. Basically, all of us teachers are just going to have to get used to figuring things out for ourselves, because no one else here knows what is supposed to be done, either. So we'll see how that goes over in the next few months.

But on a better note.... We went on a weekend trip this past weekend to a city down south called Gyung ju. Really nice place. It was once the capital of the Shilla dynasty, so there's a lot of history there; kind of like the Rome of Korea.... kind of. But I'll write more about that later, once I upload all the photos from the trip.

And I think we're going to do a few more weekend trips in the coming weeks. One to Soraksan, a famous mountain and good hiking area. And then another one to a city a couple hours away where Jason has a soccer game coming up. (He plays in a soccer league every Sunday. Most the games are fairly nearby to where we live, but there are a couple outside of Seoul. It's a really international club, which is kind of fun. His team includes people from 5 different continents.) This past weekend was our last 3 day weekend until our Christmas break. Oh maaan that's a lot of full work weeks....

Until next time, hope all is well back home. Love and miss you all.

English for Partygoers

Often times on the subway ride home, I will see people studying English.  Usually, it's just strait forward English lessons, or sometimes on specific subjects such as economics or biology.  However, today I saw something completely different.  There was an older business man in a nice suit sitting next to me, studying a small English book.  It had conversations in English and then translated to Korean as well.  Let me give you some examples of the things this businessman was learning:

A: Hey man, let's do a lap around the bar before we get some drinks.  We need to mack us some shorties.

B: No, I already met this beautiful young lady.  She's gonna be my boo!

A: Dude, she doesn't even like you.

A: Yo, girl.  This party is jammin'.   How bout you give me your digits?

B: No, I don't give me number to strangers.

A: Dude, Tom is totally trippin'.  

B. Yeah, he took way too much acid.  He has to be forced to go to a doctor.

A: Yo man, you got any weed?

B: Yeah you got the cash?

A: Of course. I'm gonna be rollin' in this club all night!

A: I saw you flip me the bird from across the room.  Why you got beef with me?

B: Chill out man, it was a mistake.  I don't got beef with you.

I wish I could make stuff up that was this good.  But unfortunately, these are real examples from the businessman's book.  I'd like to see him try to use some of those.

Japan!

Japan!  What a great trip.  For anyone considering it, I would definitely recommend looking into it.   We spent 8 days there and visited Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.  It was really a great vacation and I would include it in one of my favorite places I've visited.  

Osaka

We flew into Osaka from Seoul and got there on a Saturday afternoon.  We planned to spend one night and about a day and a half in Osaka, but somehow our hotel reservations got messed up and we ended up having to stay in Osaka for two nights.  (If you've ever traveled with me, you know I tend to make mistakes like booking hotels or planes for the wrong dates... oops.)

So our first afternoon in Osaka we spent exploring the area around our hostel and went up to the Umeda Sky Building.  It's this decently tall building downtown (it's about 43 floors if I remember correctly) and has a great observation deck on the top couple of floors.  We spent a couple hours up there, getting a feel for the layout of the city and watched a great sunset.  The building was really nice and the views were incredible.  

The next day it was so incredibly hot outside, you couldn't stand outside for more than two minutes with out dripping in sweat.  As Jason says, it was Texas hot.  So we decided to find a cool indoor activity and headed to the Osaka Aquarium.  It was a great aquarium, one of the best ones I've been to.  It even came close to the Monterey Aquarium, which is kind of an unbeatable first in my mind.  They had a few big whale sharks and some giant manta rays, pretty cool to see.  Only problem was that it was packed with people trying to get out of the heat.  

Later that day, we decided to try to hit up a Hanshin Tigers baseball game.  We got to the stadium about an hour and 1/2 before the game started and assumed we would be able to get tickets no problem.  However, we underestimated the very loyal Tigers fans.  The game- which was just a normal season game, nothing special- was completely sold out.  So we wandered around for a while, hoping to find someone scalping tickets.  But after walking around the stadium for about 45 minutes and not finding anything, we started giving up hope.  Then at the last minute, just as we were about to head back to the hostel, someone came up to us and offered us some tickets.  He seemed really nervous about making a deal and actually ended up selling them to us for less than face value.  The whole game was a pretty interesting experience.   Everyone knows how popular baseball is in Japan, and the Tigers are supposed to have the craziest fans of all the Japanese games.  The game was really exciting and the crowd didn't stop singing and chanting throughout the entire game.   

Kyoto

The morning after the baseball game, we got up early and headed to Kyoto, only about 45 minutes from Osaka by train.  Kyoto is the cultural heart of Japan and is the ancient capital.  That's where there are the majority of temples and palaces and whatnot in Japan.  They have an impressive 13 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and many more equally amazing sites. 

We spent three days in Kyoto and visited about as many sites as we could fit in in that time.  The first day we were in Kyoto in poured rain for the majority of the day, but the other two days it was beautiful, sunny weather, not quite as hot as Osaka. I'll mostly let the pictures speak for themselves here. I can't say too much about all of the temples except that they were all really incredible.  The Golden Pavilion (pictured above), was one of my favorites.  But really each one was beautiful in it's own way.  We could have spent much more time in Kyoto exploring it all, we felt like we hardly saw any of it!

Otherwise, we didn't do too much in Kyoto.  Went out to a bar one night and met a couple from Spain.  It was fun to be speaking Spanish again after not for so many months.  We also went of a really great evening bike ride around the geisha area, called Gion.  However, there are only about 100 geishas left in Kyoto, so we were not lucky enough to spot one.  But the neighborhood where they work was really beautiful, filled with quiet streets and secretive looking tea houses.  

Tokyo

From Osaka, we decided that the best way for us to get to Tokyo would be via overnight bus.  Would have loved to have taken the high speed train and gotten there in 2 hours instead of 8, but it was just too expensive.  By the time we made it to Tokyo, we were kind of exhausted, so we didn't do as much there as I would have liked.  

Since we arrived in Tokyo at 6am (uff), we decided to go explore the biggest fish market in Japan first thing.  It was a really interesting sight, much more intense than any other fish markets I've been to.  We saw HUGE tunas, at least 5 feet long, being bought and sold, people cutting giant fish with buzz saws, etc.  Just wish I wouldn't have been so tired for the experience.  

Besides that, we explored a few temples in Tokyo and walked around some popular shopping areas mostly.  Oh, and on our last day there while we were shopping around, we ran into Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.  They were shopping around with some of Demi's kids.  I think we were the only ones to recognize them, even though Ashton stood out like a sore thumb.  We also went out to dinner on our last night with a friend of my Aunt Lisa's who is from Japan.  She took us out to a great Japanese restaurant and taught us a little more about Japanese culture.  

Overall, Japan was a really great trip and I really loved the experience; it's something I'll never forget.  Oh, and just a note for anyone interested, Japanese people were very different from Koreans.  I was really surprised when Tokyo didn't feel half as crowded and busy as Seoul, even though it's bigger.  People don't push and shove you on the streets and the subway the way they do here and don't seem like they're in such a rush.  And the fashions are much more out there.  In Korea, people dress somewhat conservatively and are very designer conscious, always carrying designer bags and whatnot.  In Japan, everyone seemed much more experimental with what they wore, with huge dyed hair (like totally bigger than the 80's), doll-like makeup, bright colored clothes, etc.  While you never see tattoos or piercings in Korea, they seemed very popular in Japan.  And we noticed that people seemed to speak much more English in Japan and didn't stare at us near as much as Korea.  As a whole, the people and the cities just has a more friendly, welcoming feel.  

I have a couple great videos I've taken in both Korea and Japan, but since this is already so long, guess I'll post it later.  Oh and you can get to the link to my Japan photos by clicking here.

Hope all is well, miss you all!

Mud, Mold and Sabuk

Well life on the other side of the world has been a little crazy lately. Fun and stressful all at the same time.  Allow me to explain.

Two weekends ago, Jason and I visited the small mountain town of Sabuk to spend some time with Jason's cousin, David, and David's Korean wife, Joy. Sabuk is the town that Joy grew up in and spent most of her life in before she moved to the US six years ago. Her parents and one of her brothers (there's 4 siblings in all) as well as her nephew all live there in the house she grew up in. 

Before going to Sabuk, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but kind of imagined a little farming village. But, in all actuality, it is a ski town. The town itself is really small with not much to it, and there is a big ski resort (okay fairly small, but big for Asia, supposedly one of the biggest in Asia) and a casino, all set in picturesque, rolling mountains covered in dense forests. We spent our time there eating a lot of tasty new Korean food- Joy's family owns a restaurant- and exploring areas around the town and resort. We also went to a beach town about an hour 1/2 away with clear blue water.

It was interesting spending time in such a small town and with a Korean family. We got to see some more of Korean culture that we don't experience in Seoul very often. Joy's parents were there, but we really didn't spend much time with them or get to know them. It is difficult because of the obvious language barrier (they speak NO English), but also just the culture is very different. Joy said that her parents are old country people and don't talk a lot, don't show a lot of emotion. But even though they didn't spend a lot of time around us, they always made sure we were enjoying the food and had everything we needed- all of this was done through Joy, of course.

This past weekend, Jason and I got to partake in a "Mud Festival" in a beach town called Boryeon, about 2 hours south of Seoul. It's a small town, known for the mud that it produces that is rich in minerals and is supposed to be really good for your skin.  Foreigners and Koreans alike flock to the town and pay jacked up prices to stay cheap hotels, and bathe themselves in mud during the festival. Everyone was covered from head to toe in mud, it was pretty funny to see. They had mud painting, a mud bath, mud slides, mud jail (if you're caught without mud on you, you're thrown in mud jail and mud is then thrown on you), massages, facials, pottery, etc.... We panted ourselves in mud, went down the mud slide, got massages, made mud people out of clay, and just had a generally muddy and good time.  The beach was great, too, supposedly the nicest one on the west coast of Korea.  So we got in some sun and just had a really different, fun weekend.

And the mold.  Around a month or so ago, we discovered that there was some mold growing on the wallpaper in several rooms of our apartment.  We researched how to clean it, and figured we would try to fix the problem ourselves before involving our school (the school pays for the apartment).  We cleaned it, but after a few weeks it all grew back... even worse than it was before.  

So we told our school about a week and 1/2 ago and we've all been trying to figure out what to do ever since. In the few days after we told our school, we discovered that it was much worse than we realized.  We looked in our closets, and found that they were covered in mold.  And then, we started finding some of our things were covered in mold as well.  The worst was a pair of Jason's shoes that had been sitting under a bed.  They were COMPLETELY covered in grey, green, white and yellow mold.  It was truly disgusting.  So that's when we decided that we need out pronto.  

Since last Sunday we have been sleeping at a coworkers house (about a block away) and spending as little time as possible at home.  It's kind of a bad deal for everyone involved.  Our landlady is trying to fix the problem, but she's no mold expert, so I don't think it's doing much.  We've been arguing with the director of our school trying to get out of our apartment and find a new place to live.    It's kind of stressful and not fun and unhealthy.  Hopefully we'll find a new place this weekend.

Sorry so long, like always.  Oh, and we head out to Japan in about a week.

Trivia:

• What is the only inanimate sign in the Zodiac?
• Who is the Greek god equivalent for the roman god Athena?
• Finish this line: "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.  you killed my father,..."