fast food

Sorry boys only for ladies! Come on ladies eat more beef already, would ya!

Wintery

It's winter and the ice is stuck to the pavement. It doesn't seem to be thawing anytime soon. So I've developed a new homebody routine of figuring out how to crochet.

My new bamboo crochet hooks finally arrived today.
Taking daily walks in the snow is beautiful and sometimes cautiously slow. This temple (Daeheungsa) is about an hour and 1/2 from Gwangju. I was looking for a trail through the surrounding hills but instead just wandered around the temple grounds. I met a college student who told me all about his hitchhiking adventures. Thumbing it is completely common in villages and small towns. I can't wait to try it, but I think I'll wait for warmer weather.

Last week I had two teaching hours everyday, one hour of story time with 1st and 2nd graders and one hour of "free talking" with some older students. This week is my second English language camp- with 6th graders who if you forgot are 13 and 14 years old and full of it. And, next week is Seolnal (Lunar New Year) which means a week off from classes. Basically the last month and a half have been very relaxed.

A flea market at Kunsthalle. Crafts, used clothes, used games, food, drink, music, art, and fun.

Hiking in Jirisan

My favorite trip so far has been to Jirisan National Park. Also super easy to get to from the Gwangju bus terminal, head for Gurye and you can take a direct bus to Hwaeomsa temple or in Gurye take a local bus to the temple which is about 6k or so from downtown. Gurye is a beautiful country village surrounded by the maginificent mountains of Jirisan Park. We had a goal of hiking to Nogodan Peak, which is about 6k from Hwaeomsa temple. Because we arrived late on Monday we didn’t take the climb up the mountain thinking we would loose light before we reached the shelter at the top. The shelter takes reservations online and most people hike up and spend the night at the shelter and then hike down the mountain the next day or continue on to the highest peak in Jirisan which is Cheonhwangbong. We had stopped at the temple to ask a monk how long it would take for us to climb to Nogodan peak and were told that the shelter was closed due to the heavy snow fall at the top. (Whether it was closed or not?) We can guess that it was open because the next day we saw many hikers carrying sleeping mats and sleeping bags on their backs. So I’m guessing the shelter was open but not being serviced with an open provisions store or running water/electricity? The monk also warned us that the hike was too strenuaous and dangerous for us without crampons because of all the ice, which is the same advice we got from the park ranger (who takes the admission for entering the park). She was adament that we don’t attempt to climb to Nogodan because without crampons we would be in danger. Ok she didn’t speak English but her body language put off some exaggerated signals for alarm and danger, lots of Xs with the arms. But would this stop us? Or would all the posters of black bears with open mouths and sharp teeth and warnings of bears next to emergency call posts? No of course not, but we didn’t head up the first day, because it was close to evening. So we went back into the village to look for a cheap hotel.

We stopped in a general store and asked the shop keeper about a place to stay, he called his friend. Scott arrived and to our surprise spoke English and had chosen the name Scott ( I really should choose a Korean name). He had lived in Seattle for 12 years and owns a gas station on Broadway, he laughed exuberantly at the ridiculousness of Broadway( if you’ve ever been to Seattle you know it’s nothing like any place in Korea- for so many reasons). So we went to his hotel called the Little Prince (061-783-4700 www.littleprincefamily.com). It’s a really great place with cute rooms. Clean and warm and reasonably priced, actually the off season price was really fair. So we settled in and with Scott’s help ordered pizza and pigged out, watched cable tv, and got rest for our climb the next day.

Our room had windows which looked out over a stream and onto the mountain. Next to the hotel is the bear academy. Zoologists are working to repopulate the bears in Jirisan so they raise bears in captivity and allow them to learn survival skill in a safe place and then release them into the wild. I hear 50+ bears live in Jirisan, some of the bears raised in captivity do not pass the test of living on their own so they come back to the bear academy where they live safely and hopefully happily. So Tuesday morning we set off to hike to Nogodan Peak. It was a beautiful morning and the air was fresh.

Feeling great we meet a monk on the trail which starts near the temple. He speaks English and stops to say hello, he’s so smiley and sweet wishing us luck on our hike, saying we will have no problems. He begins to get a little awkward and is lingering around so I say "ok we’re going now", he continues to linger so I ask "is it ok to take a picture so we can remember him", he’s happy to do this because it gives him his chance to get closer to me, and then the weirdness happens, I get a kiss on the cheek and felt up by the monk. I had the impulse to hit him with his walking stick but instead I said "no, not ok"and just handed it to him. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me after that. Lucie says I made that monks year (I really hope so) , well if he really was a monk, maybe he was just posing as a monk to get in and molest strangers. The rest of our hike was so amazing really beautiful forest including bamboo groves, decidous trees and some sorts of evergreens . We saw many hikers which kept my alarm over the 50+bears away.

Everyone did have crampons but we had two walking sticks so we felt pretty stable. Exhausted with sore muscles we reached the top.

We were above a cloud layer so the view had to be inferred but was beautiful. The weather at the top was crazy cold with strong wind, so we didn’t linger, we began our climb down and stopped to have a leftover pizza party, rubbery cheese never tasted so good. Buzzing with good feelings from our beautiful hike we got to the bus station to find our ride to Gwangju about to leave. The next day our calves were feverishly sore to the touch but it was all worth it.

New Years

What a way to spend new years. The 31^st I worked my last day of winter camp. Around 2 me and Lucie hustled down to the bus terminal and caught a 4 hour ride to Gyeongju on the east coast of Korea. We wandered around in the below freezing and windy night looking for a cheap motel to drop our bags and then head out to explore the city. Having entered the city by bus we were geographically near the bus station which classically is a hub for love motels. So we took a look, our mission a cheap clean room. The motels were flashy and modern looking all neon and polished ‘marble’. Although new and in good presentation on the outside I still felt like these establishments were a bit sketchy. I had a surge of optimism seeing a young family entering one hotel, so we went in. The posters greeting us from the lobby wall were artsy images of nude women and the price was too high for our budget ways. So we went to the next place where the price was a bit lower but still not quite right (notice how the reception window is opaque- I can't see her and she doesn't look at me, only shows me the price on a calculator), and posted next to the reception window was a list of room prices including some really really low prices but these were for the hourly rental. (It wasn't that windy-my scarf is wrapped to cover the logo on my jacket) So we headed back to the bus terminal to look at the electronic map and decided to take a shot at an advertised hotel knowing that the price might be higher but at least we wouldn’t feel the need to inspect the sheets and remove the cover from the comforter. The map had bizarre scale and also some confusion to which way was north. After attempting to take a taxi to our destination which turned out to be only 200 meters away we landed at the Gyeongju Park Tourist Hotel (054-742-8804 or 8807, the staff speaks English). What a score. The rest of new year’s eve is a blur of warmth and deep sleep.

The next day we took a bus towards gampo to golgulsa a Buddhist temple and monastery on a little hill. This temple is also a training center for the martial art sunmudo. Sunmudo is really impressive in how much control is fostered through balance, action,and stillness. The martial art is practiced as a means to achieve what it takes to meditate and reach enlightenment. A lesson well exemplified by the disciplined monks who show the importance of the direct relationships between mind and body. Golgulsa temple has English speaking staff who share information on the program at the temple and answer any questions.

The temple accepts volunteers for a 6month program- trading English classes/communication for 6months training in meditation and sunmudo. It seems pretty dreamy and really difficult considering the rigorous schedule the monks keep. Other programs held by the temple include a place for wayward boys, nothing snaps you out of your teenage funk like the discipline of waking at 4 am to pray and meditate and then spending several hours doing physical work and practicing a martial art.

And during winter and summer break in the school year the temple hosts an English camp whichfocuses on the principles of Sunmudo and Buddhism with English speaking staff for the kids to practice their English. The kids are really cute, of course. During the evening prayer that me and Lucie attended all the kids chanted really enthusiastically and loud to the heart sutra that was accompanied by the moktak (a wooden bell). In the dining hall we made friends with a young girl who told us all about her experience at the English camp and her love of fried sweet potatoes with ketchup.

The temple has a special bond with dogs. One mama dog recently had puppies and another was pregnant, enjoying herself in the kitchen hallway eating lots of rice and kimchi.

winter camp

When school is on winter and summer vacation I am asked to teach an English only camp, the goal is for the students to only hear English, with no Korean teacher translating what the lesson is. This way they rely on what they know and gain confidence that they understand much more than they give themselves credit for. There is no set curriculum and the school gets a lot of funding from the government to make the camp an interactive success.

Winter camp was a lot of work and preperation. But part 1 turned out really good and was a lot of fun, we’ll see how part 2 goes on the 24. The fifth graders had a good time because it was so different from our usual class and the usual curriculum, they actual seemed comfortable and lively. -And I was lucky enough to have an assistant that the kids really loved. Thanks Lucie!

We had a flea market. The students got to sell and buy items they brought in from home. Lots of haggling went down. Top buys included a heineken beer coin bank and a telescope.

Playing a vocabulary "hot seat" tournament.

Making French Toast

Collage project

Lucie proves she is the arm wrestling champion.

The last day we had a party that included fried chicken and cola a.k.a. Colpop (the chicken nuggets are in a container on top of the cola)

Notice everyone wears coats in school, yup it's cold.

Airport Bus

Come and visit me!!

It’s so easy to get to Incheon Airport from Gwangju. Go to the bus terminal and take a direct bus, travel time is about 4.5 hours. I’m pretty sure the bus leaves every half hour.

Acupuncture

In Korea, acupuncture has been used in traditional medicine for over 2000 years and as a common treatment in fighting illness for many centuries.

I spent some time asking my co-workers if they visit traditional medicine clinics and most of them said they had at some point and would again. I was excited about this and wanted to visit a Korean acupuncturist but it was important to me to find a doctor who spoke English so that I could explain myself and not need to rely on a translator.

There are so many traditional medicne clinics around Gwangju. I didn't take the time to visit any of these clinics until I got hit by the flu about a month ago. To my great pleasure there is a clinic just a few streets from the elementary school I work at. The doctor speaks English and they accept health insurance.

The clinic is set up in a way that is similar to the community acupuncture I know from California. There are two rooms with several beds and curtains for privacy. The patient comes in and choses a bed to lay on. The doctor comes over to talk and see what the trouble is. He put needles in my hands, arms and legs, and some in my ear. He also pricked two of my finger tips to let some blood flow following the theory that blood stagnation causes illness. The whole time the doctor was very pleasant and kept asking if I was ok (which made me laugh since I had the grossest crackly voice and couldn't respond). He told me I would lay there for 15 minutes, get up and have some aromatherapy for my congestion, and he would prepare some herbs for me to drink for the next few days. It was all so easy, I felt really taken care of, there are 3 assitants who work in the clinic (they don't speak english comfortably) who are really nice too. On my way out the doctor explained how to drink the herbs and recommended I come back in two days if I haven't gotten over my sickness. On my way home I felt great and by the time I reached home I slept off a fever and the next day woke up feeling much better. The herbs came ready in juice bags and all I had to do was drink the bitter/sweet/ root-y tasting contents.

Choe Uigweon Korean Medicine Clinic

That familiar smell

Tokyo Juice in the far corner of the Guemnamno Underground shopping arcade near the Kunsthalle or the Asian Culture Complex building site. 2 large amazing stores full of recycled clothing, a real thrift store. The finds are all over the place- from oh this is really cheap to oh this is well worn, to this is a great deal. And one of the best things about shopping at Tokyo Juice is that the sizes are varied. You can find more than standard korean size things from sweaters to jackets, pants,etc. Shoes still run small. My favorite part about the store is the familiar thrift store smell, used, well loved clothes, some dust and some vintage. It makes for a nice break from the cookie cutter fashion that gives you few choices or options from the trends.

The Cutie

I've always liked cutting hair, as some of you might know and remember from my self cut "very short hair" days of a few years ago. So I always enjoy going for a haircut and watching how the pros do it.

The staff at Michael hair salon is great. They include Mika who speaks fluent English and Michael who posesses hair magic. Really a great hair cut experience. You will be treated to the most amazing hair drying and post cut styling. And to make sure the hair cut lays in the most flattering way Michael will adjust and restyle your hair. For me this is a bit of nonsense since I never style my hair and only use the hair dryer when the temperature is near freezing. But, they are really proud of their skills, with due reason. Michael is really fast spinning his shears between the index finger and ring finger as he works. He gets in there and cuts and trims and eliminates unsightly layers. When I had my hair cut back in November he laughed at my use of pins to keep my hair out of my face saying that I damage the hair and crimp it by using pins. (but hey, what can I do). When Lucie went for a hair cut he was a little disturbed by the fact that she had so many layers in her hair “the hair is layered, but why?” From my two visits to Michael’s hair salon I have learned some hair care secrets that I will now share, they may be old news to you, but I am haircare unaware. First, if you want to look younger eliminate layers, go for a heavy/ blunt cut or the ‘cutie’ as Michael calls it. Blow dry your hair with high heat at first to dry the scalp to eliminate any possible scalp irritations (fungus), then change the setting to cool to finish drying the ends, this will keep your hair from getting damaged by obvious heat. If your hair tends to form a part which you dislike, blow dry it in the opposite direction, duh. And of course if you put pins in your hair it will cause unsightly crimping.

I can’t wait for my next hair cut. I’m trying to let my hair grow out, but I’m so curious about all the fun things Michael could do to my hair. And I threaten that I may return to California with a perm. It’s only hair…