Culture in the Classroom

Celebrating with a pizza dinner!

In March I was told that I needed to write a skit so our school could participate in the city wide English play contest. The only guidelines I was given was that it needed to have some sort of message and could be no longer than the allotted five-minutes. Belle told me that last year popular topics included bullying, taking care of the Earth, and Dokdo Island rightfully belonging to Korea and not Japan. With all of these pretty serious topics in mind, I decided to take a risk and go the lighthearted route.

I decided to make my skit about things I experienced as a foreign teacher in Korea. Easy enough right? I mean, I am a primary source for information on this topic. Being that it was only five-minutes and I had never written a play before I approached it like an essay. I mapped out my three main topics, wrote a thesis statement and a concluding line to wrap up my ideas; then, all I would have to do is fill in the details.

The basis of my skit was as follows:

• There are five characters: The foreign teacher, an exchange student from America (Britney), and three Korean students.
• The Setting: The first day of school at a Korean elementary school
• The First Issue: The teacher is wearing her "outdoor shoes" inside and didn't know that "indoor shoes" were a thing. --Korean students politely explain the significance
• The Second Issue: Exacto knives. In Korea, students carry exacto knives around instead of scissors. Something that catches ALL foreign teachers off guard the first time you tell them to "cut something out." --Again, Korean students explain why.
• The Third Issue: Fan death. The foreign teacher turns on the fan because the students are hot but she does not open the window. The Korean students act dramatically about how they are going to die because there is a fan on and no window open to circulate the air so they fear their own fan death (TRUE Korean theory). --The teacher secretly closes the window and Britney points out that the Korean students are all alive.
• The Theme: Explaining differences to other cultures helps us learn new things. You are not right and I'm not wrong in the way we do things, it's just different

Then, Belle thought we needed a song at the end. I agreed so she sent me a popular 30-second commercial in Korea and asked me to change the words. I obliged and it actually turned out really cute! The cheesy song lyrics are below. Feel free to click the link and sing my lyrics instead :)

You and me, you and me.

Korean, Thai, American, cultures are unique.

I'm not right and you're not wrong no matter the technique.

I might think one way is best and you might disagree,

If you are confused I want you to just ask me.

Exacto knives? Alight!

Changing shoes? Allllright.

You and me, you and me, oh ya, ya

You and me, you and me!  Hooray!

Okay, now that you have the gist of the play, let's talk about the casting and practices. In  May, my school had their own speech contest for 3rd-6th graders. Being the only native English speaker I had to judge the three day after school event. Anyone who knows me knows how sensitive I can be. Well, I was beaming like a proud mama while my other co's sat with their stern, serious faces. I cringed and held back tears for the kids that were obviously pushed into the contest by their parents, and lacked all confidence in their abilities.

Their ending pose :)

They were fidgeting, sweating and holding back embarrassed tears of their own. I made it to the last day without tears. And then one of the sweetest sixth grade boys walked in all dressed up. He handed us his full paged English script and began. He made it through about a sentence before what little confidence he had escaped him. I spent the rest of the time feeding him his lines one word at a time, and then when he teared up, I lost it. We were both sweaty (bc there is no AC) and wiping the endless streams of tears that were running down our cheeks.

It took me back to my own speech failures. I relived 7th grade speech and drama class where I had to perform a 5 min skit on my own in front of the class. I didn't eat for like three days prior. I started crying in the middle of it because of my nerves and tried to play it off like it was part of the skit (which no one bought). But we've all been there, and bless his little heart I wanted to show as much compassion and support as I could. However, looking back, I'm sure he was like, "What the heck is wrong with Sarah Teacher? I'm the one messing up here..."

One of our many practices

Ok, anyways, so it was from this pool of participants that we casted our five member play. We had two fourth graders, He Young and Seung Min, two fifth graders, In Ah and Seo Jeong, and one sixth grader Chae Eun. Our practices started May 27th and everyday after school, we spent TWO HOURS rehearsing this five min play. Oh, ya, I not only wrote it but I had to DIRECT it as well. Not my forte but the kids were good sports with me constantly changing my mind. 

My biggest complaint was that other teachers from my school would just wander in, knowing nothing of the plot because it's all in English, and began correcting my students' actions and offering their opinions. The student's were given so many different directions from different people that I could feel their frustration. But in Korean society, the older the person, the more their opinion matters. I had to play the "foreigner card" and wave everyone off. The student's were getting nothing but criticism from people that DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH! I really had to hold in my emotions (and vent to Andrew later).

I didn't realize that every elementary school in Pohang would be competing in the June 27th event. Belle told me that last year they did horrible and the other schools were amazing. She said other schools had students that spoke perfect English and they had awesome costumes. I'm thinking, "Oh great." And the kicker, the Principal is putting a lot of pressure on my two co-teachers to make sure we get a medal. We were competing against 28 OTHER SCHOOLS!

Performance time! -Mi Young and I with our "cast".

Fast forward to June 27th, performance day. We arrived at the auditorium, homemade props in hand and nervous butterflies in our stomachs. I tried my best to give as much confidence to the students as I could because two days earlier one of my co teachers went off on the students about how bad they looked and we wold never win a medal...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! We were as ready as we were going to get. When it was our turn, I put on my proud mama smile and my over done cheerleader facial expressions and encouraged them all the way! THEY DID AMAZING! I was so proud and they felt so good afterwards which was the best reaction I could have hoped for. Their confidence level was so high and their smiles were so big that all that hard work had paid off. So naturally, we headed to get pizza and celebrate. 

We won't know the results for a couple of weeks so keep your fingers crossed! You can watch their performance below :)

Temple Stay: A Growth in Spiritual Maturity

Posing in our uniforms

I want to warn you; this post holds a lot of personal and spiritual thoughts for me as well as our experiences during our temple stay.

"You shall not bow down to them [idols] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..." -Exodus 20:5

This is the verse that has been occupying my mind for the last week. When we were in Korea the first time, I was really interested in participating in a Buddhist overnight Temple Stay, however, we just never got around to it. Around 23 percent of the Korean population classifies themselves as Buddhist; and we are exposed to Buddhist symbols and temples everyday. I even have several co-teachers who practice buddhism. So I thought it was an important cultural experience to participate in to gain a better understanding of the people and culture around us.

Being a strong Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ, I was torn on whether or not I should participate in the rituals at the temple. Bowing down or worshipping idols is a sin. In this case, Buddha is an idol and I know that bowing is part of the experience, so I was really apprehensive.  An idol is something that we ascribe value and worth to that would surpass the value and worth we should be giving to God. It isn't just bowing down in a physical sense but  elevating something above God.

After praying about it, I realized that the God I worship is an invisible God. The Holy Spirit is always with me and I am given an opportunity to take this Buddhist meditation time as my own private reflection with Jesus. I began to feel empowered and excited that this 24 hours would give me the opportunity to reflect and continue to build my personal relationship with God.

Ok...now on the temple stay!

Belle and Juan-Hee

I ran across this particular temple on the internet about a month ago.  Golgulsa Home of Sunmudo is located in Gyeongju City, about 45 min from where we live. I had invited my co-teacher, Belle, and her boyfriend, Juan-Hee, to join us and we were so excited when they agreed. So at about 4pm on Thursday we drove to the temple.

We arrived just before five, checked in and then went to our rooms to put on our temple stay uniform. A lovely faded mustard yellow vest and huge gray pants. First on our agenda was dinner. Now, I had read somewhere that they have a dinner ceremony where everyone HAS to finish every last bite on their plate, clean their plate with a water and radish and then eat the radish. Andrew and I were a bit terrified of this. But when we walked into the dining hall, we found out that that only happens on Saturday and Sundays. But we were to STILL eat every last drop of food that we took. Needless to say, we both didn't take very much in fear that we wouldn't be able to finish. The boys had to sit on one side of the dining hall, and Belle and I sat on the other. It was a very salty vegetarian meal of rice, cucumbers, bean sprouts and soup. We were both able to finish and ready for the next activity!

Rice, cucumber, tofu, soup

Orientation began promptly at 6:30pm and lasted about 30 min. We were briefed in English on Buddhism, bowing techniques and Sunmudo. I found the history of Buddha fascinating with similar teachings by Jesus of contentment, love and compassion towards others. The bowing was the quickest demonstration I had ever seen. She did it once and then we had to do it on our own...I was terrible, but it was an interesting learning experience.

The biggest differentiator of Golgulsa to any other Korean temple is this focus on Sunmudo, an ancient form of "meditative martial arts." It originated during the Shilla Dynasty, 57 B.C - 935 A.D. In Korean history, monks were often soldiers and called to lead people both spiritually and protect them temporarily. In the early 1990's the grandmaster established that Golgulsa would be the world headquarters for Sunmudo and wanted to introduce this art form to the public to ensure it's survival.

So after our orientation, we had evening chanting and meditation for 30 min and then we started our Sunmudo training. It was explained to us that because of the circumstance of this temple, being so heavily focused on Sunmudo, both monks and Sunmudo masters lived here together. The master that gave us our lesson was not a monk. It lasted an exhausting hour and a half. The moves were very slow and involved a lot of muscle strength and control. I got stuck in the second row, and therefore often corrected by the master...so that was a bit embarrassing. We all had a good time and definitely had an experience we will never forget. We ended the training with 10 min of meditation before we walked back to our rooms for the night.

Belle and I stayed in one room while Andrew and Juan-Hee were in the next as men and women cannot share rooms at the temple. The rooms were better than expected. I figured we had to sleep in one giant open room, on the floor, with all the other temple stay participants. We did sleep on the floor, but it was nice that there wasn't a bunch of us in there. Well, a bunch of people I should say. This place had no shortage of HUGE grasshoppers, centipedes, and cockroaches. ...Did I mention we slept on the floor?! I'm sure I had a few "friends" in my bed throughout the night. Lights were out at 10pm as we had an early morning. At 4am we were to wake-up and hike the mountain at a steep vertical angle to the top for morning chanting and bowing.

Our room

4am came early and we began our accent to the top. I was out of breath with shaky legs from the Sunmudo training seven hours previously so the walk up was not fun. We we arrived, there were only a few floor cushions left, so again, I was in the front row! Super awkward as I had no idea what was going on. It looked very different than the chanting the night before. At the front of this small temple was a statue of Buddha. My fear had been realized. I was on my knees at the foot of an idol. At the orientation the night before, it was explained that bowing at a temple was a sign of respect, much like we do on the streets to elder Koreans as we say hello. It wasn't just bowing down to Buddha. So during the 30 minute chanting service as I fought to stay awake, I decided to just soak in the whole experience. At 5am, the Sunmudo master from the night before led us in our 30 min silent meditation. At this point, my back

4:30am morning chanting session

was so uncomfortable I no longer had to fight to stay awake. 

I began to use this time to really focus on God. The serene environment was the perfect place to meditate on my own saviors greatness and all he has done for the world and me. For by his grace, I was given the opportunity to be in this place at this exact moment thinking these exact thoughts of gratitude. Even though I was surrounded by lotus lanterns, Buddhist paintings and statues, and monks, I just asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit once again. I was at peace with being in this place, and participating in these rituals because my heart belongs to Jesus and there was no fear of infiltration. I humbly asked him for a fresh supply of grace to reignite my heart's affection towards him. It was such a peaceful moment.

Walking meditation

After the 30 min sitting meditation, we followed the master in a very slow, 30 min walking meditation down the mountain. In a single file line, we walked in silence. Listening to the calmness of the morning, smelling the fresh air and listening to the songs of the birds; it was a  peaceful, leg-shaking walk. When we finished walking, we stood in a circle as he led us in some morning stretching. We then ate breakfast (the exact same meal as the night before) and then went back to our rooms for an hour before the next activity. 


At 8:30am, we had another hour and a half of Sumudo training. I was not ready. Actually I was scared, and I wanted to make sure we got their early so I was not stuck in the front again! However, to our surprise, this training was much softer. We ended up doing Zen yoga the entire time. It was relaxing, comical, and calming all at the same time. When the yoga ended, we had a 30 minute break before we had the opportunity to bow 108 times or not. We decided to opt out and hike once again, to the top of the mountain to rest and get good seats for the Sunmudo demonstration. 

At 11am, the demonstration began. I was a little disappointed because their normal performers were out of the country performing so we had a really watered down version. However, it didn't take away from the incredible strength these men had. We were blown away by some of their moves! We ate lunch at 11:30 (again, the EXACT same meal as the
 two previous) then we collected our stuff to check out!


Overall, it was a fantastic experience. To get to participate in rituals so ancient, as a non-believer was something that I consider a privilege. The simplicity at which these people live and enjoy life is inspirational. My fear of idolatry was just, but once I dug a little deeper, and prayed about it, God used this opportunity to draw me closer to him.

A Korean experience not to be missed!

"The road to a mountain always leads to a temple;
The road to the temple eventually merges with the road to nature.
Leave all worldly sufferings behind,
Let the nature breathe into you.
Reflect on yourself;
'Tis the time for meditation and moderation.
It is a healing process invoked by seeing yourself, bared in the midst of nature and made aware to every passing moment."

Belle's favorite Sunmudo pose

Gulgolsa Temple Stay

 

 

At 8:30am Sunmundo training

       

Our group posing

      

Sunmundo master and his bamboo stick....

A Blazing Saturday

I had been looking forward to Saturday all week. The weather was predicted to be a perfect 70 degrees and sunny. After such a cold winter, I could not have been more excited for springtime weather. Andrew and I decided to check out a local park to see what it had to offer. After a short 10 minutes bus ride we arrived to be beautiful park, built on the side of a mountain and bustling with kids and families enjoying the beautiful day. We decided to climb one of the hiking trails. Hiking isn't a common past time for Andrew and I but we wanted to get a birds eye view of the beach and coastline of Pohang.

After a while, we descended down the backside so we could walk beachside. We stopped for about 30 min to watch a group of fellow foreigners playing some beach softball. After a while we all started smelling smoke. Looking around we could see some smoke clouds, but we just figured it was burning trash, a common practice in Korea. Andrew and I decided to venture back to our apartment and noticed the smoke clouds getting bigger. It was be becoming more difficult to breathe and ash was beginning to fall from the sky. We decided to run to our apartment to close all the windows we had opened and then venture to see where the fire was coming from.

Walking down our street to find the fire

We walked about 400 yards from our apt and stopped dead in our tracks as we could see a raging fire among the tree tops. We looked around nervously as the other Koreans were also stopped and staring at the fire. Not being able to understand what was being said, Andrew and I became very uneasy. We decided to walk back to our apartment when we saw one of the scariest sites of our lives. It was straight out of a Hollywood movie. The elementary school near our home was directly in the growing fires path. I have never seen flames like that in all of my life. It looked like the school was set in front of a green screen and the Forrest fire was digitally created. I quickly snapped out of that day dream as I could feel the heat from the flames and the loud crackle of the fire moving down the hill to the school. Its next stop was our neighborhood.

Not getting direction from any sort of authority, Andrew suggested we run home, grab a backpack with a few essentials and get out of there. So we ran to our apartment and started throwing in our computer, chargers, a change of clothes, camera, passports, and toothbrushes. As we were leaving, we could see the flames rolling over the hill behind our apartment. That's when it really hit me. This is happening. Our apartment could burn down.

I put the handkerchief over my mouth and we ran out of the building and watched in awe with the rest of our neighbors as the fire trickled down the hill. I had my one moment of panic but Andrew calmed me down. Reassuring me that we were safe and the stuff we had in our backpacks was a bonus. He grabbed my hand and we decided to walk downtown to a coffee shop to see if we could get Internet and find out what was going on.

The scene during our walk downtown looked like a movie set. Between the building gaps, you could see flames and the smoke turned the beautiful blue sky grey. It was so windy that containing the flames almost seemed like an impossible task. Planes were flying over head with their buckets of water and the traffic out of the city was at a standstill. Announcements were being made over the intercom system but being totally in Korean we had no idea what was being said which put me on edge a bit. We made it to the coffee shop but we weren't able to get any information.

Andrew next to our apt watching the firefighters

After a while, we decided to head back with our fingers crossed that everything was ok. The smoke in the tree lines was so thick it was hard to see if the fires were still burning near our apt. When we got to our street, people were still outside but none of the homes or apts seemed to be damaged! The flames were still trickling down the hill but they were containing it! It now looked like hundreds of little campfires all over the hill. The fire department was there with their hoses trying to wet the last bits of dry forest and doing their best to put the fires out.

We noticed people going back into the apartment buildings so we felt safe enough to do so. We had not eaten since 11am and it was now almost 8pm. We decided to get something to eat and get out of the area of our apt once again as the smoke in the air was heavy and my lungs and eyes were beginning to burn.
We we returned, the firemen were still there but we were very confident that everything was under control and the hundreds of little fires had greatly dwindled.

I had such a feeling of humility come over me. A fire, or any natural disaster for that matter, just reassured me that I am really not in control...but I know who is. When we were for sure our apartment was engulfed, I can honestly say that I felt a sense of calmness that everything was going to be ok.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear) but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control. -2 Timothy 1:7

God is out refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. -Psalm 46

You can see how wide the wind spread the fire

Here you can watch a video of the fire from a Korean news team.

6th Month: Recap

Now that we have returned to Korea and are approaching the 6th month mark on February 23rd, here is a poem about all of the oddities that we never thought we would get used to again and some we still don’t understand:

Korea is a funny place, filled with new age and tradition,
Experiencing different cultures has always been our mission.

There are things here and there that just don’t seem right,

*Not my photo*

Some make us laugh while others enrage us to fight.

With so many awful smells we often hold our noses,
Between drying fish, trash and kimchi, we’d rather sniff roses.

Walking the streets you’ll notice one thing can’t be found,
Public trash cans don’t exist but there’s no trash on the ground!

Convert this to memory, you’ll never want to assume,
Bring your own toilet paper into the public restrooms.

Speaking of bathrooms, that’s its own gross situation,
Used paper goes in the trash, are there no laws for sanitation?!

To save the city money, schools aren’t cooled or heated.
We have to suffer in the winter and in the summer repeated.

We teach in thick jackets, scarves, and two pairs of socks,
The kids carry hand warmers and wear gloves to use chalk.

The best thing about Korea, is their public transportation,
Causing many headaches in this developed great nation.

Don’t get me wrong, all joking put aside,
There is no place we can’t go without finding a ride.

The problem is traffic laws equate to merely ‘suggestions,’
Cars, busses and scooters do what they want without question.

The sidewalks aren’t safe and are meant to be shared,
Between cars, motorbikes and people, no lives are spared.

You ALWAYS look both ways when crossing the road
Even on a one-way you can easily get mowed.

In a taxi it’s best to just breathe and close your eyes
All the honking and break slamming, you’re just happy to be alive.

On to the busses; the most interesting of them all,
You are packed like sardines with the goal not to fall.

Whether you’ve waited at the stop 30 seconds or minutes,
No one ever queues and people have no rudeness limits.

‘Bows are being thrown and the pushing’s insane,

*Not my photo*

Old people aren’t against to using their canes.

On the blue or green monster, for only a buck you can ride,
Grab a hold, bend your knees as you’re thrown side to side.

It’s hot and it’s smelly, filled with all different ages
These bus situations often set off my rages!

I’ve come pretty far, but I can’t stand the ‘butting’ in line,
Happens almost everywhere and ALL OF THE TIME!

It’s like they don’t ‘see me’ or think they can just cut,
It’s the older generation that feels entitled to butt.

One thing we have gotten used to but will never make sense,
Is making a laundry schedule, here it’s just commonsense.

There is no such thing as a “quick load of laundry,”
No dryers and cold weather make for quite the quandary.

Many a times, I have left for my school,
With wet pants and/or socks, as I planned like a fool.

Not hours, but days, it takes things to dry,
No more doing a ‘load’, just to get by.

On a positive note, Korea’s internet is fast,
The rate of downloads and surfing’s unsurpassed.

*Not my photo*

With so many cell phones and quick access to the net,
No country takes more ‘selfies,’ I could make a safe bet.

Wherever you go, you can be sure there’s picture taking,
But not of scenery, just themselves, with cutesy face making.

Teens have albums on Facebook, full of self taken snaps,
On busses, in coffee shops, or wearing MLB caps.

Facemasks are worn, no matter the season,
Are they sick? Are they cold? I never know the reason.

*Not my photo*

However in wearing the masks there’s something not understood yet,
Removing the mask to sneeze; not caring who they wet!


Speaking of healthcare, this one still throws us for loops,
Outside of the hospitals, patients will gather in groups.

Not to protest or to complain about care,
But to walk around and get some fresh air.

Now this doesn’t seem odd, no reason for fear,
Till you see them in gowns, IV bags, and drinking a beer.

OK, the beer was a stretch, but this I can’t lie,
We often see them smoking as they wheel themselves by!

With so many more thoughts, there are not enough lines,
To write all them down and create some more rhymes.

This is all in good fun, I will always love Korea,
Returning to teach English was our best idea!

**The comics are curtosey of ROKetship

Random Happenings

It’s been a good month since my last blog. Nothing blog worthy has really happened in the past few weeks but I felt like I was abandoning all of my eight readers.

We are good and settled now, stuck in the inevitable routine. You think when you completely change your surroundings you escape monotony. So not true.

It’s getting really cold. Korea has winters about like the Midwest just minus all the snow with only a few flakes here and there. However, it is making our 45 min walk home a lot less enjoyable. We have caught ourselves paying the extra cash for a taxi or just taking the crowded city bus with all the other frozen commuters.

I am pleasantly surprised that my school has heat in the classrooms, it’s a HUGE bonus! My old school did not and I wore my coat, scarf and gloves all day while teaching. It’s so much more enjoyable to work when you aren’t suffering from frost bite.

Random Happenings:

I found out today that one of my co-teachers, Alice, and I are “runners-up” in a co-teaching video clip contest that we decided to do on a whim. I quote “runners-up” because that is what EPIK is calling it. However, it’s more like a consolation prize for participating because we were on of sixty…haha…runners-up. We were also the only ones from our province, so that has to count for something. Most participants were from Seoul and Busan.; the bigger cities with a lot more access to materials. I’m not making excuses though. Honestly, I wasn’t really proud of what we submitted. We had to video tape a 40 min class, then slice it down to a ten minute clip and submit an essay and our lesson plan. I was in charge of slicing the video clip. It was only the second video I have edited using a free program on Andrew’s Mac. I would like to participate again next semester and put more than two days of thought into what we were doing. If you want to watch it you can, I apologize for the cheesiness in advance. And I'm embarrassed to say that my cheesiness was actually scaled down...

A few weeks ago Andrew got roped into participating in a” teachers dance” for his schools fall festival. Let me tell you, he was super pumped (sarcasm). He would kill me if I posted the video of him dancing, so here is the link to the exact dance that they copied from YouTube. I personally like the wiggle and heart improvisation. Gives the classic YMCA dance some new life.

Andrew and I also started volunteering. It’s been pretty difficult to find a place because of the skepticism they have about foreigners, and it’s understood. But we visit The Deaf and Mute Cultural Center once a week. The woman who runs the place, Mrs. Kim, is so adorable and grateful to have any help. She holds classes for adults and children who are deaf or mute. Andrew and I entertain the children of deaf or mute parents in the back room while they take classes. None of the kids thus far, have issues of their own. The few people that work there, the cook and front desk woman are deaf however. We just hang out, and make up games as we go. Andrew brought Jenga this week and that was a clutch move. I sat and made bracelets with the girls.

Andrew and I also have this "Korean Lifestyle Bucket List" of things we want to do to better ourselves while we have the extra free time here. There are many random things on this list, and we are only in the middle of a few. I am proud to say that as of today, we are 65 days into our Bible reading plan. We wanted to read the bible together, cover to cover. I have an iPad app that tells us which verses to read to finish the bible in 180 days. We have't missed a day since we began! December is also our "no fast food month." This would be WAY easier if we didn't live abroad. This means no McDonald's, not even an ice cream cone, no pizza (my weakness), no quick convenient store junk food to hold us over on city bus trips...nothing! I also just figured out how to make brownies in our toaster over, but Andrew said that counts too...ugh. It's going to be a long month. I should have argued for February.

We found out that our ten allotted winter vacation days are set for January 21^st-February 2^nd. My school ends Dec 21^st. However, I have to come in and teach, alone, to get my contracted 22 teaching hours in. Andrew and I only get Christmas day off. We will both be working Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day…boo.

It seems completely pointless and it is. Most likely, I will be teaching about 6 students for four hours a day, then sitting at my desk until my contract time is over, 4:40pm, alone. This will go on for the four weeks until my vacation. Then, we come back to school for two weeks and the students have another week off for their “spring break” before the start of the new school year which begins in March. I however, will not be getting the week off. I will be coming to school, with one other contract teacher, and sitting for eight hours a day. Unless I can convince them to give me the week off as unpaid vacation since Andrew doesn’t have to go into school….grrr. Does it sound confusing and dumb all at the same time? That’s because it is.

I will try to post again soon. Hopefully something awesome happens and gives me something to write about!

Korean Living: Our Pohang Apt

Sometimes, pictures just say it better. Here are some images of our apartment here in Pohang, South Korea.

This is the view from the hall of our apt. complex, looking into our apt.

Immediately to the right, is our 'living room.' Here you can see our futon and our kitchen table

Here is the other side of the living room. Our kitchen table doubles as our TV stand. Sweet wallpaper huh?

Through the sliding doors of our living room is our laundry room. We only have a washer, Koreans hang dry everything.

View of our kitchen from the futon. Our mini fridge-microwave-toaster oven combo.

Our kitchen. Sadly we don't have an oven or a dishwasher. Just a sink and two burners. 

Our tiny bathroom. Notice the odd placement of the shower head? Yup, between the sink and toilet with no curtain. When you shower in Korea, everything just gets wet and it drains under the sink.

Just to the right of the bathroom is our bedroom. We made those curtains out of felt. The sun was AWFUL before we became crafty! To the right is our "closet." It is really just a floor to ceiling rack. 

View of the other side of our bedroom. Closet on the left, and our "dresser" that we recovered from a school's trash pile. The unit above the dresser is the only air conditioning unit in the apt. There are no heating vents. In Korea, the heat comes through the floor. Notice how close we are to the kitchen? Convenient for a late night glass of water!

I hope this gives you a better indication to what apartment living in Korea is like. Super small compared to the United States, but we make due!

Water.Fire.Light...and Cheesballs

Jinju City Lantern Festival

September 24th-

My co-teacher: “Sarah, we have three days off next week, because of holidays. So no school Mon- Weds.”

I wish I had been told prior to the Monday before. Andrew and I sat around talking about what we could do/where we could go for a five day weekend so we didn’t let this free vacation go to waste.

After a wild scramble of researching destinations, places to stay and pricing options, reality set in and sadly, we were unable to leave Korea. The most logical location was going to be Taipei, Taiwan, however, they were supposed to be hit by a tropical storm this past weekend, so we didn’t want to risk being hostel ridden as it typhoons…we already know what that feels like.  

So we went to plan B. Stay in Korea, but get out of Pohang for a little bit. So that’s what we did.

On September 29th, Andrew and I boarded a bus and headed to our “hometown” in Korea, Ulsan. We wanted to check out all of our old stomping grounds to see what had changed and what has stayed the same. After a quick hour and fifteen minutes, we arrived at a familiar bus terminal. I have to be honest. It was so strange being back in Ulsan. When we left in 2010, I never thought we would come back to Korea, let alone, step foot back in Ulsan.

Not much had changed to “new” downtown. We walked around a bit, got a smoothie and then got in a taxi to take a look around “old” downtown. Again, not much had changed. Some new shops replaced the old ones but the atmosphere was the same. We decided to save a little cash and walk the 30 min to our old apartment. Again, surreal feeling. As we approached our street, the first thing I noticed was my old school, and WOW, had that changed so much! Hakesong had gotten a fresh new paint job, an indoor gym with a skywalk connecting it to the main school and they got actual turf! No more dirt field! I was so excited for them, what a huge difference.

As we were about to board a bus to check out Andrew’s school, we passed his old haircut place. We took a thirty minute break so he could get his $10 haircut from a familiar face! Yeompo Elem. hadn’t changed much, but they got an indoor gym as well!

Costco: Cheeseballs and Crowds

Before leaving Ulsan we made a trip to the new Costco! Yes, Costco in Korea! We were like kids in a candy store, I wanted to grab everything in sight! We got there at 6:30pm and it was closing early at 7pm due to the Chuesok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving) that was the next day. The place was PACKED! Everyone was shopping like mad, the payment lines were the longest I had ever seen and there was not a seat left at the food court. Korean’s were stuffing themselves with Costco pizza and hotdogs. Andrew and I made a quick plan at how to cover the most ground in 30 min and then we were off. Cheese, salsa, chips, oatmeal, Clorox cleaning wipes, peanut butter, a blanket, and frozen ravioli. Doesn’t seem like much, but those items are EXTREAMLY expensive here and at Costco we could get more for our money! Something Andrew and I began to notice as we lurked at the Korean’s carts, curious as to what American products they gravitated to. Cheeseballs….the massive bucket of Cheeseballs you can buy at Costco, EVERY cart had one! We had a good laugh when we saw the cheesball display and there was only one left!! After about two mins, we saw two little kids run to the display and grab the last one with satisfying smiles. Hilarious! We loaded up our American goodness, and boarded a bus back to Pohang.

Sunday, was the actual holiday, so most of the city was shut down. Andrew and relaxed and took a long walk on the beach!

Setting our lantern afloat

Monday we decided to head to Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival. We boarded a bus at 10am and rode three hours south to experience one of the most popular festivals in Korea, the Jinju City lantern festival. When we arrived, I was happy to notice the festival was only a five minute walk from the bus terminal and there were tons of little motels to choose from. We picked a random one (worried that there might not actually be a bed since sometimes in Korean hotels you sleep on the floor) but it worked out great. $35, a bed, air conditioning and a private bathroom!

We ventured around the festival. It was filled with tents of carnival games, interesting street food, and random products for purchase. The place began to really get packed around 6pm, two hours before all the lanterns were going to be lit. They had literally TONS of lanterns. Hundreds floating on the river, thousands hung in archways with wishes and dreams attached and even some floating ones that you could pay $3 for to make yourself. Andrew and I made one together, wished for a happy marriage, and even got interviewed by a Korean news station about the process. We are famous now!

Setting our lanterns afloat was such a pretty sight. Glowing, and floating down the river, with our wishes attached, it was a special moment. Until an couple hours later when we saw where most of the lanterns ended up…such a depressing sight.  

Rough journey...

We lined the river with the other people there to get a good spot to watch the fireworks display and official lighting of the lanterns. It was supposed to start at 7:30pm, but it began fashionably late at 8:05pm and was finished at 8:15pm. But wow, what an AMAZING fireworks display! Korean’s know how to put on a show, this picture just does not do it justice. When the show was over, we thought we would go the back way out of the festival to “beat the crowd.” HAHAHA! Everyone took the back way. I had never been pushed and tugged so much in my life. I can’t even describe the scene. (For the KC people reading this, it’s like the cluster of people leaving Corporate Woods on the fourth of July, but times 100, because there are 48 million people living in a country the size of Indiana and I swear most of them were at this festival!) We successfully made it out, sweaty and alive.

We would have loved to have seen another country, like Taiwan, during our five day weekend, but then we would have missed something as neat as the lantern festival going on right in "our own backyard!"

Amazing fireworks display over a river of lanterns!

Conventional Wisdom

We are now four days from departure. Our heads are spinning with “to do” lists and my stress level is at an all time high. Our biggest worry was not getting our visa’s back in time, but thankfully those arrived on Thursday, so that saved me from a complete nervous breakdown. Slowly but surly we are crossing things off our list while continuing to add a few oversights to the bottom…but we are getting there.

Today we promised Andrew’s parents that we would go to 8:30am church with them. I usually go to my church at the 5pm service purely based on the fact that I am not a morning person. But after listening to Pastor Brown’s sermon, I knew there was a reason we were called to be there this morning. I felt like God was speaking directly to us through the scripture and stories that were preached. Thus the inspiration for this blog post.

His sermon was on the idea of conventional wisdom. This is something that I touched on briefly in my last post but from my own perspective. Mine and Andrew's decision to return to Korea to teach English after a two year hiatus is definitely not conventional wisdom by American standards. We are choosing a path that most people our age view as risky. We gave up jobs at great companies, we’re getting out of the ‘rat race’ at a crucial time, we aren’t using our college degrees etc. By society’s standards we are taking the unconventional path.

Pastor Brown read from Ephesians 5:15-17: Be very careful, then, how you live —not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

The timing of these verses in my life could have only been the mastermind of God. I needed to hear those words in order to put some of my doubts to rest. By Andrew and I courageously putting our lives on hold and moving away from our families to teach English abroad, we are truly making the most of a given opportunity. 

Whew...I feel better about this whole decision!

So before we leave the US, and embark on our second adventure in Korea, I want to leave you with this final verse of encouragement from Pastor Brown. Think about your life and your passions; are they right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy? If not, make some changes, follow your heart, make the most of every opportunity and live to be the person God is calling you to be J

Philippians 4:8-9 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.