A Korean Thanksgiving: Better Late Than Never

Hello Hello!
I'm afraid I don't have pictures for you this time around...sorry!

Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic four day weekend, beginning with survival of the notorious bad driving winter weather (I heard a few family members of mine were unable to make the drive from northern MN due to weather - sad), followed by a huge amount of food consumption (that any other day would be frowned upon) which left you incapacitated on the couch, unable to even think about moving, followed by a little football, maybe some card games, movies, lots of sleep. Then maybe you decided to get a jumpstart on your Christmas shopping, either at 4 AM (or your alarm was set for 3:30...and you said screw that, I'll go next year, and then proceeded to sleep some more and venture out at a more human time) or at 1 PM? That's usually the way it goes, right? Oh, and of course you had pumpkin pie for breakfast on Friday. Don't even try to deny it.

Anyway, now that Thanksgiving is over I suppose it's time to start thinking about Christmas - yikes and...what?! Once again, time seems to be slipping through our fingers. Upon discussing this curiously alarming fact that Christmas is just around the corner with my friend yesterday, we concluded that South Korea must have some sort of time warp - we've only been here for about six weeks, not over three months, and Christmas is definitely not that close...so obviously all the calendars and clocks are lying to us here.
Well, even if the calendars are lying, that didn't stop us from having a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday evening. After running some errands and volunteering at the orphanage on Saturday, I headed to the bus terminal, baked goods safely packed away in my backpack, to get a ticket to Jangheung, the anticipated Thanksgiving celebration location among our little group of Americans, Canadians, and even a couple of our Irish friends.

To set the stage, let me tell you a little bit about the bus terminal in Gwangju. In a word, crazy. Similar to a big airport, or the mall on Black Friday morning crazy, with lots of people shorter than me. I got my ticket, waited for about 45 minutes amidst all of the people running everywhere, either to catch their bus, grab something to eat, or to meet someone coming in. I picked a good spot to wait for my bus to come, right in front of a really entertaining guy with a rainbow umbrella. I have no idea what he was saying, but he was hilarious, judging by his actions and the laughter of his friends.

Once on the bus, I settled down into the cramped but cozy seat, and read my book. I sat back, read, took a little nap, and dreamed of pumpkin pie. My ETA was about 6:30 in Jangheung (pronounced Jongheung.) Well, that didn't happen. My ticket, thanks to my newfound Korean literacy, read that I was traveling to Jeongeup - no big deal. Because Jangheung is a small town in the south, and many buses have different destinations within one transit, I assumed that Jangheung was on the way to Jeongeup, and since it was later in the day there weren't many direct buses left, so I figured they threw me on an indirect bus. Well, we all know what happens when we assume things...and if you don't you'd better take notes. When the bus made its first stop, which I knew wasn't Jangheung, it turned out everybody started getting off. Usually only a few people get off at each stop until you reach the final destination. I went up to the bus driver.
"Jangheung?"
"Anio - JeongeuP! JeongeuP! JeongeuP!"
Oops.
There was no one left on the bus at this point, so I grabbed my bags and ran into the tiny terminal. I hoped I could just fix my mistake by catching the next bus to Jangheung, and at the worst just heading back to Gwangju, though I hated to go back the way I came. I called Sara, who was expecting me at about this time, and said "Um, we have a problem. Can you look on the Internet to see where Jangeup is?"
After a minute she said, "um, it's not on Google Maps!" Oh great, I'm thinking, but then I realized I had spelled it wrong for her on the phone. I respelled it for her and she said "Oh, here it is...oooh. Yeah, you went the exact opposite direction. You're north of Gwangju..." Oops again. If I had to get on the wrong bus, why did it have to be the polar opposite of my destination? I realized my mistake had been at the ticket counter - the woman had misheard me (so not 100 percent my fault...but mostly) and I didn't think to double check when I read that the ticket didn't say Jangheung, as I haven't ever had a problem getting to where I need to go. Just when I thought I had Korea figured out, too.

So, after making sure that the crew in Jangheung wasn't going to wait for me to start eating, since that would result in a lot of unhappy people, I realized the only logical solution was to go back to Gwangju and then purchase the correct ticket to Jangheung. Missing pumpkin pie wasn't even an option that crossed my mind...plus if that happened I would have a whole pan of caramel brownies on my hands with no one to share with...even worse. Luckily Gwangju is a major travel hub, so I knew there would still be running buses to Jangheung, even though it was about 6:30 in the evening at that point. I bought another ticket, climbed back on the bus, and read my book to keep me from whacking myself on the head with it for my stupidity.
Well, when it rains it pours. It turned out once I got back to Gwangju and purchased a new ticket (with impeccable pronunciation at the ticket counter, I might add) the bus didn't leave for another hour, which put my ETA at about 10:00 instead of 6:30. But hey, there was nothing I could do about it - good thing I had brought two books along instead of one. I wandered around the terminal for a bit, and waited for the next bus, which I finally boarded a little before 9.

So, after three and a half hours of bus, and about 15 minutes of navigating through a dark Jangheung, I finally made it for the Thanksgiving festivities! My friends had saved me a plate of everything and had very kindly waited to break into the desserts until I got there. As they dug into pie, pumpkin bread, banana bread, and caramel brownies, I happily munched on my plate of potatoes with mushroom gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, stuffing, bread, and...nope, no turkey. Due to the expense of acquiring a turkey in Korea we opted for delicious teriyaki bulgogi instead (Korean beef.) So there was still a hint of Korea in my Thanksgiving dinner, but the best part, as always, was being with my pseudo-family, a random group of English teachers who had nothing in common with each other before orientation week. After traveling together, visiting each others' cities, and sharing our teacher stories over many meals together over the past few months we have formed a fun group that can now check a successful Korean Thanksgiving off its growing list of activities.

As I arrived, I found my fellow teachers in various forms of discomfort due to their very full stomachs, whether curled up sideways on the couch, sitting upright (seemed to be the most painful), or sprawled on the floor, in order to "stretch my stomach out for more pie!" I took heed at this slightly disturbing sight and stopped myself after one plateful of food, then happily indulged in some pumpkin pie, the image of which has been taunting me all week via my PowerPoint presentation on Thanksgiving (and via my dear brother eating it right in front of me when I Skyped the family on Thanksgiving...thanks for that Reed. I wasn't jealous at all.) I realized how much I had come to rely on the guarantee of pumpkin pie once a year for Thanksgiving - it just isn't the same without it. Bless Sara for her pumpkin pie in a springform cheesecake pan. Also bless her for allowing me the delight of eating piece of her homemade apple-pear pie, something every Korean should learn how to make with their strange, delicious fruit that really does resemble a cross between an apple and a pear. The rest of the night consisted of as little movement as possible, as we all sat around in Sara's cozy living room, chatted, and attempted to get a game of cards going. (Nope, too lazy...and a bit of confusion on the rules...apparently Americans and Canadians play the game Presidents differently...) We all slept fantastically well that night, needless to say.

The next day was proclaimed a 'lazy day,' which started off with sleeping in (at least it did for Sara and I), eating pie for breakfast, and taking a walk around Jangheung, which was especially beautiful in the bright sunshine. We walked along the river, sometimes in the shade of the mountains, crossed the stepping stone bridges to pay a visit to the market, then walked along the paths that lined the river, while discussing how incredibly fast Korea time flies by. We came back and tucked into leftovers for lunch, somehow managing to fit in a little more pie.

Midafternoon found me back on a bus to Gwangju (good thing too - I was going through bus withdrawals at that point,) where I returned, made a pit stop in town to take care of something, and then headed back to my home sweet home, where I watched The Terminal while doing some cleaning and organizing. I felt like this weekend was much more balanced and less crazy than the past weekends - a good thing for me. Now I'm back in action at school, planning lessons for my 14th week of teaching - incredible. I have to switch gears and get into Christmas cookie baking, shopping, and planning mode before Christmas sneaks up like Thanksgiving did! The end of the semester for us is December 25th, and then I have to start teaching what they call 'winter camps' - more on that later.

As I looked back on the weekend (while on the bus home, of course) I realized that the best part of the weekend was getting together with my friends and trying to make the most of being away from our families for the holidays. There is something comforting about the familiarity of pumpkin pie, stuffing, and cranberry sauce at this time of year that made being away from home that much more bearable. And this weekend proved that you don't need turkey and decked out shopping malls to bring out the holiday spirit - just being together with friends to enjoy shared time is enough to be thankful for and to count blessings! So with that, I hope you had just as good of a Thanksgiving experience as I did. I wish you all a happy back to work week and good luck with your Christmas planning!

"Mountain Trekking - Me Happy!"

No, Korea hasn't diminished my English speaking ability - that was just the quote of the weekend (from a Korean.) But before I get to the origin of that quote, I'm going to have to keep you in suspense as I tell you about my crazy busy weekend, which was full of friends, fun, fresh fall air, and...foliage. Yes, foliage.

First of all - I hope you all had a great weekend, and I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving this week! This past week I've been thinking about how exciting Thanksgiving week has been for me the past four years - five days off from swimming and home for nearly a full week was pretty appealing. (I mean, I still had to swim when I went home otherwise I'd pay for it the following Monday - but I could at least choose my practice times.) Going home to Mankato and catching up with friends and family was always a highlight of my year - it will be very sad and strange not to be there this year. You will all just have to send me many e-mails instead :) I have to work on Thanksgiving this year, of course, but on Saturday a group of friends are getting together and attempting to have a Thanksgiving potluck - Korea style. I scored some canned pumpkin when I was in Seoul last month, so this week I'll bust that out and share the love with my fellow westerners. (I just realized how much slang I used in that sentence - ever since my friend and I designed a lesson on English slang we've been realizing just how much we use it in our daily conversations. That's your homework this week: think over how much slang you use every day.)

So, on Friday my friend and I 'studied' for our Korean quiz the next morning at Starbucks...and by the end of the night we determined that we're actually really terrible at studying together because we usually end up just chatting about how funny our students are. So, as a result I had to wake up super early on Saturday morning and do some last minute cramming before heading out on a morning field trip to the Damyang Metasequoia trail. Translation: Damyang is a place, a little town about 15 miles north of the city, and the Metaseqoia trail is basically a walking/biking path that is 

surrounded by Metasequoia trees - the fall colors were absolutely spectacular especially when the morning sun hit the trees just right. We were escorted by a Korean friend of my friend Sokhom's - he is an amateur photographer and graciously invited us along to do a mini photo shoot for him and his assistant, just for practice. We had fun posing and being silly for the camera and the pictures turned out great.

We got back just in time for our Korean class at 10:30 (the quiz went well, don't worry) and we went through the next chapter at rapid speed. I am really enjoying learning Korean - it's fun to be able to pick out words and phrases that my students and coworkers say. We are getting into more complicated grammar now, so I have to study quite a bit this week, but it's amazing how much of it I have already been using in the past few weeks - well worth the studying.

After Korean class it was time to meet up and head to the orphanage - we didn't do too much this week, but instead planned ahead for the next couple of months, when we will start more of a proper English class for the girls. It's hard to plan for the orphanage, since most of it is go with the flow, but I'm excited to do some more teaching, especially when the students are so adorable. (I mean, my middle schoolers are adorable too, but they are a bit older - the orphanage girls are cute little elementary aged students.)

After the orphanage we headed back to the GIC for the weekly 'GIC talk,' which is an hour lecture done by a volunteer presenter about a variety of topics - from politics to history to culture to upcoming events. This particular one was entitled "Tears of Fire," about the Bangladesh genocide in 1971. The objective of the talk (done by a Bengali woman currently living in Gwangju) was simply to inform people and provide facts about what happened, to raise awareness and support for the Bengali people as they continue to try to recover from the horrors of 1971. I encourage you to look up a bit about Bangladesh when you have some time -I learned so much from the presentation, and though much of it was shocking and tragic I think it was good to learn about and be aware of. The GIC talks are another way for the Gwangju community, both foreign and Korean, to interact and get together - I look forward to attending more talks.

After the GIC talk I had a bit of time before meeting up with some friends from Mokpo who came to town for a birthday dinner, so I did some shopping and wandering, enjoying the great fall weather. After a fantastic dinner at a popular Western restaurant the birthday crew was planning to go out on the town. I was so tired so I declined and headed home to drop off my stuff and crash, but after thinking it over I decided to go out for a little while, even though I had plans to go hiking in the morning. The plan was to meet up with some different friends before the birthday friends, who were in a different part of the city, then head home, but the night somehow evolved into an all night dance party, which was a ton of fun.

Even though hiking was the last thing I felt like doing when I woke up the next morning (quite a bit later than planned, I'm afraid) I scolded myself for being lazy and reminded myself that this was probably the last day I had to go to the nearby mountain and see the fall colors, as next weekend I will be out of town. After my harsh self-reprimand, I pulled myself out of bed, threw on some appropriate hiking clothes, grabbed some money, my camera, and phone, and headed out. I instantly felt better when I walked out the door into the fresh fall air (well, some of that was also due to the ibuprofen I popped on my way out,) and after stopping for coffee I felt good as new. It took me two bus changes to get out to the hiking site, and I enjoyed looking at the fall leaves out of the window.

Once I actually got to one of the many start points, (I should back up - I was at Muedung Mountain, which is due east of the city just by a few miles. It is one of the more popular mountains in Korea, with tons of trails leading up to the 1187 meter summit - I can give you some more history later, as it has a lot of historical importance and value.) as I got off the bus I realized I didn't really have any idea what I was doing - I knew some friends who had hiked it a few weeks before, and they told me a little about it, but as I had a time constraint I was worried that I wouldn't make it back in time to catch the bus for my hour long commute back to meet a friend. I decided to just start heading up, and enjoy as much as I could before turning around and making it back to the bus an hour before I had to meet my friend. With that, I picked the most popular looking trail and started my hike.

So imagine the perfect cool fall day, hiking up a fairly isolated trail on the side of a mountain right outside the city. The sun was shining in between patches of clouds, (at least, when I started it was - it got cloudy by late afternoon) I had some birds keeping me company here and there, (birds are a rarity in the city) and there was beautiful scenery all around. It was so quiet and peaceful, and the incline was gradual enough to keep my heart rate up, but not too difficult. I would either pass or be passed by Koreans decked out in their hiking gear here and there. Standard Korean hiking gear: black Gore-tex style pants, hiking shoes, black long sleeved Underarmor like shirts, with brightly colored vests or jackets on top, special backpacks, and sometimes gloves and hiking poles. Oh, and usually some kind of hat. Picture the entire hiking clothing, gear, and accessories section at Cabela's, put it on one person, and you've got yourself a Korean hiker. I've included a picture a little later on in the post to assist your imagination.

So, about an hour into my hike I was just about at my turn around time - I figured it would take me a little less time to descend, but I had some cushion time built in just in case - I was pretty close to the summit and wanted to see how close I could get, hoping for some neat pictures along the way. I had been trailing behind an older couple for a little while (no pun intended) and when they stopped at a resting point (a big slab of rock, in this case) they pulled out some water and drinks from their backpack. As I passed them on the trail, the man made a hand gesture for me to stop, and then he offered me a can of cold coffee and gestured for me to sit and break with them. I didn't want to offend them, and I'm such a sucker for coffee that I smiled, said thank you in Korean, and accepted. After a little bit of sitting around - I busied myself by taking pictures while they were chatting with some other hikers - they gestured to me to keep heading up with them. I decided to test out the very handy Korean I had learned just the other day: telling time. I somehow was able to communicate with them and ask how much farther it was to the top. I explained that I had to be back at the bottom in time to catch the bus. They said it was only about a half hour more to the summit - I knew it was pushing it, but I figured I had built in some extra cushion time, and they were being so nice I would have felt bad heading back down right then. So, I agreed (so glad I did) and continued on. Between their limited English and my limited Korean we were able to chat a little bit - I found out they live in Gwangju as well and near the same area as me. I said I was from America and he asked "San Francisco? New York?" I said "Aniyo (no), Minn-e-so-ta" and demonstrated that it was pretty much in the middle of San Fran and NYC - can't leave Minnesota out in the cold. (ooh, no pun intended there either, but from what I hear about ice and snow this weekend it is actually quite appropriate, no?)

We continued up the way, picking up another couple on the way (who very kindly shared their apples with me - we did a lot of pausing and snacking during the half hour up.) The man kept checking his watch for me, and we ended up ducking under a blocked up section to take a shortcut directly to the top. My anxiety of making it back in time vanished as soon as we reached the summit - it was incredible. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy at that point, so visibility was limited, but it was such a neat, beautiful open space that overlooked the city, the mountain valley, and the mountains beyond. While I was admiring (they didn't need to understand English to see I was impressed) and taking pictures, they offered to take pictures for me as well.) I could hear them chatting about me, and checking their watches. Finally it was decided that the couple would personally drive me home to ensure that we would have enough time for the picnic they had prepared - "Gi-na...aniyo bus-uh (no bus) home. My car - home o-ship (home 5:00)." And I therefore became a Korean adoptee and their personal responsibility in order to make sure I enjoyed the mountain and got home in time. They toured me around the summit, pointing out landmarks below, then we had our picnic with snacks and drinks. They knew a faster way down that the way we went up, which was more of a service road - judging by the amount of people that were heading back down with us it seemed to be pretty standard to hike on the trails to the summit, then just walk the service road back down. The road was lined with bright red, orange, and gold trees on the left, with views of the mountain valley on the right. My new friend summed it up perfectly as we neared the bottom (in English) "mountain trekking - me happy!" I wholeheartedly agreed with him - it was hard not to be in a good mood when you are surrounded by great views and fresh, crisp, mountain air.

Side note: as we walked back down to the start point, I received personal Korean tutoring from my new friend. It went a little something like this:

Him:"Gi-na"

Me: "Ne" (prounounced 'nay,' which means yes)

Him: (points to object, such as a tree) "Na-mu"

Me: "Na-mu"

Him: "Aniyo. Naaa-mu"

Me: "Naaa-mu" Then, "tree"

Him: "tree. O.K."

Silence...

Five minutes later,

"Gi-na"

"Ne" (insert a different nature-y vocabulary word, and continue. Repeat for an hour.)

A bit of a Korean overload, but it made the time pass by quickly. Between my Korean education and the scenery I had a great time, and, true to their word, I made it back just in time. (For those of you a bit concerned at my accepting a ride from perfect strangers in a foreign country, let me reassure you that Korea is one of the safest places I have ever been - 99 percent of the people are trusting and honest, and I've never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. It's well known among the foreign community how safe it can be here. I always keep an eye out, but when they offered I trusted my instinct and was just fine - I'm safe, I promise!) They dropped me off right in front of my bus stop, and after thanking and saying goodbye to my new friends I jumped on my connecting bus to head over to Chonnam University, the popular university district near my place.

Chonnam, or Chon-dae, for short (dae-hak-yo means university, so I learned that they just shorten it to Chon-dae when referring to the general) was hopping and busy. The area across the street from campus was full of coffee shops, restaurants, and shops. After meeting up with my friend for coffee I ended up meeting up with the same friends from the night before who were in the area. We got a guided tour around the campus by one of our Korean friends, and I am anxious to return in the daytime to see the ponds and little plaza like areas that we saw, interspersed between the university buildings. which I'm sure look beautiful in the fall colors. It was a pleasantly cool night out; perfect for a walk - I can see myself returning to Chon-dae quite often, as I learned it is only about a 20 minute walk from my area. It was fun being on a college campus again - I miss it.

I think the best part of my weekend was that so much of it was spontaneous and unplanned - everything ended up working out perfectly and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I'm normally such a planner and scheduler that it was a nice change to just go with the flow - funny how things always work out, planned or unplanned. As always, it went by too fast, and now I have to start thinking ahead for Thanksgiving and - yikes - Christmas plans. My goodness, how time has been flying. I wish you all a great week and hope you stay warm and safe!

Backyard Tourist

Good morning!

How are you all doing? As always, I hope you had a great weekend! I am broadcasting live from my floor mat at the present moment - people in traditional Korean homes sleep on the heated floors (in the winter) on their floor mats, then store them away during the day. I decided that my desk didn't have enough space to spread out all of my books and things that I wanted to organize (anyone who has seen me study knows that I'm a spreader.) So I busted out the surprisingly comfortable floor mat and set up shop, spreading books and notebooks to my heart's desire, and propping my computer up on the small little table desk that the art teacher at my school gave to me. It's a nice working space.

I know I usually have much to say about my crazy busy weekends, but this time I'm pleased to report I took a bit of a rest this weekend and stayed in Gwangju for the weekend. I was busy studying last week to catch up and prepare for my Korean class on Saturday (my friend and I started mid-level in the second session, so we had to learn all three of the previous chapters in addition to studying the fourth - it was manageable but time consuming.) We studied Friday night for our vocabulary test on Saturday morning, which was a relief to get over with. 

Saturday after Korean class I enjoyed a nice afternoon reading, relaxing, and then later meeting up with friends for dinner at First Nepal. Sunday I slept in and planned to do absolutely nothing (can you plan to do absolutely nothing or is that an oxymoron?) I spent the morning organizing and taking care of some things on the computer, but by early afternoon I found that I was getting antsy, so I took off to go check out a new cafe that I read about in the Gwangju magazine (more on that in a bit.) The cafe was on the other side of town, so I enjoyed looking out the window during my bus trip and seeing a new part of my city in the fall colors. I even saw the World Cup Stadium and a neat park that I noted to check out later. The cafe, called the Marco Polo Cafe, was a fun place that doubled as a travel agency. The couple that has been running the travel agency for years decided to branch out and start the cafe, stocked with travel books and pamphlets for guests to enjoy (the majority of them were in Korean, but there were some English ones) and a public large screen computer for travel fanatics to plan out trips while caffeinating themselves (dangerous, I know.) Their service was excellent (30 percent off for foreigners) and I enjoyed flipping through some Lonely Planet guidebooks, which of course made me want to to go absolutely everywhere in the world. I chatted with the owners for a bit, who had lived in the Phillipines for a while before returning to Korea, and then left, promising to return with some friends in tow. I topped off my Sunday night on my floor mat, working and watching a movie before turning in around 10:30. It was a really enjoyable, relaxing day, and I realized how many more things there are to see in my city that are just as much fun as the downtown area. I had been getting into such a routine that I needed to stir things up, and I'm so glad I ventured to a new area. This weekend I'm planning to do some more exploration before going away on Thanksgiving weekend.

So, since I don't have much to report for today I'll tell you a little more about Gwangju and what I do around here when I'm not jet setting (bus setting) off to other places on the weekends. Gwangju is a city of about 1.2 million, and it has a great foreign community. It is known as a sort of cultural hotspot in South Korea, with many museums and art galleries. There is even a street downtown known as Art Street, where artists have galleries that they both work in and sell their art in. I'm not much of an art aficionado, but I enjoy wandering down Art Street and poking in all of the little shops and workshops to admire handmade crafts, jewelry, and art. (The picture is a performance I caught on Art Street the other weekend - the entire street is a walkway under the white lattice archway you see in the left of the picture - at night it lights up)

The main foreign community of Gwangju draws from the GIC, or Gwangju International Center. The GIC library, made up entirely of volunteer donations, has a great selection of travel books, history books, fiction, classics, and nonfiction. The GIC is where I take my Korean lessons every Saturday, for a reasonable fee, and it also sponsors many programs such as field trips and cultural talks each week. The purpose of the GIC is to create a gathering place and network for both foreigners and Koreans, and I must say they do an excellent job at providing opportunities for people to enjoy and interact with each other. They also put out the online Gwangju Blog, which provides updates and notices for upcoming events.

The Gwangju Blog is how I found out about the local book club that meets at a different coffee shop each week. I have always wanted to be in a book club, and I jumped at the chance to be involved. There are about 12 of us, all English teachers, who enjoy getting together each week to discuss the book that we all choose together. Last month we read Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, which was an interesting novel about UK immigration and the Nigerian oil wars. For this month we just started Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick, an enthralling book about defectors from North Korea and what they experienced while living in communist North Korea - it is fascinating, well written, but incredibly disturbing to read about what has been happening up there.

Speaking of reading material, the GIC puts out a monthly magazine, called the Gwangju News, (where I found the article about the Marco Polo Cafe) which contains great articles on things going on in the Gwangju community, places to visit in Korea and SE Asia, politics, movie reviews, and much more. It is produced entirely by volunteer editors, writers, and copyeditors. I offered to do some editing/proofreading for them via e-mail; something I have been enjoying each month (yes, like mother like daughter.) It's been fun to help out and contribute to something I enjoy reading each month.

On my very first weekend here, when I joined the GIC, I picked up the August edition of the Gwangju News and saw an advertisement asking for volunteers to teach English on Saturday afternoons at the local girls orphanage. Having volunteered with children in the past, I thought it would be a good idea to check out and give a try. It is only for an hour each Saturday, so it doesn't take up much of my time, and they ask that you try to make it at least two Saturdays each month, as most people like to travel on their weekends. I have met some really nice people through volunteering, and I have had fun getting to know the girls. It is not as much about teaching English as just spending time with the girls.

In September the orphanage received a donation from a Korean celebrity, and they spent a few weeks talking about options and deciding what best to use the money for. One of the decisions was to invest in painting a mural on the side of the activity room. It was a fun project that lasted a few weeks, and we were able to get the girls to help out with each stage, from tracing projections on the wall to painting the wall. The volunteers had fun with it as well. The mural theme was Dr. Seuss' Oh The Places You Will Go; meant to inspire the girls to follow their dreams. The girls stay at the orphanage until they are 18, and then they are on their own. However, since most of them have limited schooling and English skills, it is difficult for them to get a job, let alone attend college. One of the main volunteers told me that through various fundraisers and work they have been able to support one of the girls who is now attending university. Volunteering at the university has been a great Saturday afternoon activity - I have met really great people who are also donating their time and efforts, and I'm happy to be able to help put a smile on the girls' faces, even if we have a limited communication barrier (which we definitely do!) Now that I am grounded for the next few weeks due to Korean class, I'm glad I will be able to go the orphanage every week, since I will have to miss nearly a month for my winter vacation in February.

So, between studying for Korean class, attending weekly book club meetings, editing articles for the Gwangju news, and volunteering at the orphanage, on top of going to the gym nearly every night (too cold and dark out to run in the mornings now) I keep myself pretty busy. It's a fun community to be a part of; there is never a lack of things to do. I feel so fortunate to be living in such a fun, vibrant city, and even though I have to make myself slow down sometimes, I always look forward to jumping right back into something, be it editing or volunteering or studying. The only thing I'm not liking about my business is that it is all going by too fast. I have been in Korea for three months now - 1/4 of my time is gone! Where did it go? Yikes.

Alrighty, time to leave my cozy warm floor and get ready for work - I wish you all a great new work week! Stay warm and safe - I heard about the crazy snow/ice storm that hit MN hard this weekend. Find yourself a warm, cozy coffee shop with a great book - I can assure you I'll be doing the same over here when the weather gets chillier. It's nice to know that some things provide the same comfort no matter where in the world you may be. Take care, love you and miss you all.

Fall is in the Air...

Hello all,
I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was crazy, as usual, and also went by way too fast, as usual. I ended up zipping all around Jeollanamdo (my province) but I had a great time visiting with friends and visiting new places. Fall is definitely in the air - it has been beautiful here, with dry, crisp air, mild to cool temperatures, and a beautiful array of fall colors in the trees and mountains. Simple tasks like walking to the bank or the store evoke a sense of wonder at the beautiful nature here, especially if the sun is shining and the light hits the trees just right. I don't want fall to end, and I wish I had so many more free days to go explore all of the fall colors. But, I'm glad I've gotten to experience a taste of fall in Korea - it truly is spectacular.

So, back to my weekend. Friday night was a crazy busy 'I hate people right now' couple of hours as I tried to make my way home from school to the bus terminal. First of all, I shared the bus ride home from school with what seemed like half of the entire Korean Army (there is a base nearby my school, so there is usually a handful of guys in uniform heading home with me, but Friday was more than ever before.) I counted over 30 people and soldiers crammed in the front half of the bus, since I couldn't even see past all of the people to count the back. The highlight of that hot, crowded bus ride, however, was watching an adjumma (remember the old Korean grandmas?) climb onto the bus, barge her way through the soldiers, and singlehandedly yank one of the soldiers off of a seat so that she could sit, all the while scolding, slapping, and yapping in Korean. It was a beautiful moment. Once I burst out of the doors for some fresh air, I ran back to my apartment to grab my stuff, and then ended up waiting over 20 minutes for my bus to the terminal. This bus, though less crowded on the inside, was stuck in traffic at what seemed like every single intersection. A two mile trip took over 45 minutes, and that was good time for a Friday evening. It's hard getting used to living in a city.
However, once I got the bus terminal I made it straight on a bus to Mokpo, my destination for the night. You might remember that I headed to Mokpo the weekend before - this time I was returning for a surprise birthday party. The party had been organized via Facebook, and we were all able to keep it a secret. There ended up being about 15 other teachers from orientation for the festivities, which consisted of dinner at a burger restaurant, cake, singing, presents, and then out for some drinks. It was a fun evening and great to see some teacher friends from orientation again.

The next day my friend and I got up bright and early to head back to the station, where we hopped on a bus back to Gwangju. Unfortunately, the first day of Korean class was that morning, and we had committed to both the party the night before and the class the next morning. But no worries, we sacrificed missing our bus to grab some coffee to ensure that we were properly caffienated, and then we were good to go. We even made it on the bus with a few minutes to spare. Korean class went well, and I can already understand more of what my co workers are saying this morning. I'll write more about the Korean language later, but basically the alphabet and grammar are entirely different than English. It takes some getting used to, but I'm glad I will have proper classes and a book to keep me studying. It feels good to get back in the learning groove again.

After Korean class we hung out in Gwangju for a bit, enjoying the weather, (the picture to the left is of my library park with the fall colors) running some errands, and munching on my new favorite fruit, sweet persimmons. Their consistency is like an apple, but their flavor is very sweet and almost cinnamon-y. Yum. By late afternoon it was time to head back to the bus terminal (my third time in 24 hours) to catch another bus, this time to the city of Suncheon. We were headed to Suncheon with two objectives: eat Mexican food and see some friends of ours who teach there. Both were accomplished with great success (we actually ate the Mexican food while seeing said friends, so bonus points for multitasking) and we all had a lot of fun catching up and swapping teacher stories. We met up with some other teacher friends who live in Suncheon later that night also.

Since we had arrived in Suncheon at night on Saturday, we decided to spend a bit of Sunday exploring in the daytime. Our friends turned out to live right at the base of a small mountain, which was covered in pretty fall trees, and around 10 AM four of us set out to go hiking up the mountain. We were led by a teacher who had lived in Suncheon for a couple of years, so she expertly navigated us up the side of the mountain to the top and then we followed some of the trails around, catching breathtaking views of the city spread out below us while walking in between the trees. The views were wonderful, the weather was absolutely perfect, and we had a great time chatting, taking pictures, and talking about one of our favorite topics: travel. It was the highlight of my weekend, and I was so glad I had the chance to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

When we returned from the hike, we grabbed our stuff and went out for lunch at a delicious Western style restaurant (every foreigner knows all the Western restaurants in their city) before heading back to our respective homes. I spent the hour and a half bus ride back reading and enjoying the scenery. (Ok, I napped for a bit also, I'll admit.) As I looked back on the weekend, I thought again about where I was at this time last year, which was frantically working on all of my crazy history papers and projects, swimming, doing my ESL internship, and counting down the days until I could go home for Thanksgiving. How much my life has changed since then! I count my blessings every day for having the amazing opportunity to be here, and this weekend really reinforced how lucky I am to have made such good friends so quickly here, and how lucky we all are to have such a beautiful country to explore.

I topped off my Sunday evening by taking care of things at home (after my friend and I tried out the brand new gelato shop that just opened down the street...very very dangerous) by doing some laundry, tidying the room, and then testing out my oven with a loaf of banana bread. I woke up this morning to the smell of fresh baked bread, which I brought in to share with the teachers this morning - it seems to be going over well so far, though they seem to be curiously poking at it at the moment... With that, I should close out and get back to my lesson plans for the week. I wish you all a great week and hope you had a great fall weekend - enjoy the weather before it gets too cold. Take care, let me know how things are if you have the chance!