An Obon Festival and the Creepy Side of Japanese Arcades

We`re coming up on a month in and we`ve finally got our wits about us. We`ve paid our first bills (you take them to any convenient store and they ring them up as if it were a coke and off you go; very... convenient), finally seen our second schools, seen some festivals and made it to the arcade.

We`ve just started classes. The schools were on Summer break when we first arrived, so lots of teachers were on holiday and there was not much to do. I filled the time by making a kick ass self introduction power point and two English boards (notably not so kick ass, but I was limited in materials). Things are a lot more interesting now that there are people around. And now that we finally have the webernet at home! We can actually get connected. Skype us! We got this crazy wifi device from a cell phone company that runs off the cell phone G-whatever network so we can run 5 devices online at once anywhere in the city. Theoretically anywhere period, but we hear that service is pretty poor once you get out of town a bit. We`re still waiting on cell phones though. And waiting to get out of the city. I think this weekend might be our first exploration of Hokkaido at large.

School is shaping up nicely. I love my 1st school (we can`t mention the name of it or post any photos online; scary emails have been sent about consequences and repercussions, two things to which I have a strong aversion) and I`m just getting to know the second. Brian`s still waiting to teach at his first school, trying to fill the time productively. I learned on my first trip to 2nd school that I must be careful with the pronunciation of banjo. There`s no a sound in Japanese like the sound in "hat", so a Japanese speaker tries to fit that sound into either an a like hot or e like elephant. Turns out that benjo with that elephant e means toilet. My supervisor was a bit taken aback when I said I`d brought my toilet from America for my self introduction.



The last few days before school started where really slow because of this festival called Obon. It`s a festival to honor one's ancestors and most people return home to visit their families and ancestors' graves. So there was no one in the office, but there was this sweet little festival in the park near our house. I love this tiny kimono.

We've also had a chance to explore the city more. We went to the studio Gibli exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum, we checked out the Art Park and Sculpture Garden (bland), and found Ramen Alley (delicious!) with Charlie and Simon when they were in town for the Sapporo Orientation. And then, finally, after weeks of passing them by, we made it to the arcade. These arcades are similar to the ones in S. Korea, with the drum game and punching bag games (no girl fighter though) and photo booths. But the ones in Korea are infinitely less creepy. Here are some of my favorite creepy little things we found, but there are more in the slide show.

Of course, who could resist the photo booth? That's Rob who's crying blood with Kubricky eyes and Jesse who's talking smiles in the back.

And here are a variety of other photos to convince you to come visit us in Japan.

Still haven't taken photos of the homestead. Coming soon!

Open Class

So most public school teachers in South Korea have had to experience/endure an open class. It is the school systems way of checking up on the quality of thier teachers and ensuring that thier students get the best education possible. Basically what happens is anywhere from 3 to 35 people come and observe your class, evaluate it and give you constructive feedback. I think its also a way for the school system to weed out bad teachers. I'm not positive of this, but juding by the anxiety level of the teachers having to put on an open class this seems to be the case. So this process seems like a good idea, right? On the one hand it gives teachers a chance to show off thier stuff, ensurure quality education and give new ideas to those attending. On the other hand teachers typically spend hours/days preparing materials and practicing new techniques in class to design the "perfect" class - which is pretty unrealistic. We've even heard some teachers rehearse the class multiple times with students to gaurantee little Minsu and Sulim know every answer when they are called on. So I guess it's more of a show than a genuine example of what goes on everyday, but it does force you to try new things. I think you gain more from the process than from the actual class.
Anyway, there were lots of pictures taken and the entire thing was taped. As you can see from the pictures there were about 35 people there other than the kids. I really thought the students would be nervous in front of the camera/observers, so scared they wouldn't open thier mouths, but I was pleasently surprised. They were amazing. There were some points when every hand was raised. I'm so happy to put it behind me. My co-teacher is so much more relaxed now - both in and out of class, which is really nice. The pictures taken will also give everyone a chance to see me in action in the new english classroom (it was built last winter).

Volleyball Champs!

The '09 Dong Hang Elementary volleyball season came to a close this Wednesday with an upset victory over Yang San Elementary school. We had previously lost to them in a practice match, but all of our championship dreams came true after we crushed them two sets to zero in the final game.
The final day of competition didn't go off without a hitch as there was one major conflict. Evidently, one of the 4 teams participating in the final four had a ringer who, over the course of this years 1 month of competition had garnered the moniker "the kind of volleyball" amongst those following the circuit. Supposedly, this beast of a man stood 190 centimeters tall and had a spike that was impossible to defend. Word got around that he wasn't eligible as a player because he didn't teach at the school. In fact, he wasn't a teacher at any school. Ten minutes before the slated start of the game Yang-San called the board of education to question his elligibility. The board called back five minutes later to notify the school that they would have to play without the presence of the crushinator. Unfortunately, the team walked out of the gym in protest. (The next day they called our school asking to play an "exhibition" match. Our vice principal respectfully declined as not to discount our victory in the instance that we lost such a game.)
Anyways, we won and I think its a pretty big deal. These guys take the games serious. It's kind of rare for a game to end without arguing of some kind. I've also heard that being a good volleyball player can score you some serious points with the administration. One teacher told me "If we are good volleyball team and you are good player, principal, he forget about all bad thing". So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a nice long summer vacation.
The celebration was both really fun and hilarious. All of the teachers went out to a nice place to eat for drinks and food. My favorite part of the dinner was when the trophy was repeatedly filled with beer and given to each member of the team (and principal) to chug. I would give anything to have a video of our principal chugging beer from a trophy while 35 teachers chanted "one shot!, one shot!". As is customary in Korea, dinner was followed by a trip to a karaoke bar. Needless to say, I'll miss volleyball season. Go Dong Hang!

Be cool about fire safety, among other things

Wednesday
About a week and a half ago my dad made the trip to Korea and arrived Wednesnight. He was the last of our overseas visitors, and it was great to see him. Incidentally, if you ever need a pick me up a great place to people watch is at the international arrivals gate. Everyone's all smiles and welcome homes and hugs and happy tears. Dad was detained by swine flu checking just long enough for Brian to meet us at the airport, and then we were off for great things - namely, sleep after Dad's 25 hour journey.
Thursday
My school had a 2 day 1 night field trip on Thursday and Friday, so there were no classes and they were wonderful enough to let me have the time off to spend with Dad. So Thursday poor Brian geared up for school while Dad and I took off in the rain to visit the UN cemetery and the Busan Museum for an indoor sort of day. Then Dad had his first Korean meal: spicy tiny octopi. It was a great success. But jet lag inevitably took it's toll and we went home for naps until Brian got off school. That night we made it out again to the pajeon and makulli whole in the wall that we've loved ever since we arrived.

Dad was looking skeptical when the plate of tofu arrived, but he did like the pajeon and makulli. We tucked in early that night for the day to come, but not before a stop over in the arcade. Dad fell for the drum games at first drum roll.

Friday
Friday I was off again, and Brian went off to school again as Dad and I got packed up for a trip to Gyeongju, the old Korean capital during the Shilla Dynasty. We hopped on a bus and rented some bikes on arrival for a biking tour of the city. We went first to the burial mounds park where kings' tombs are enclosed in large mounds of rock, soil, and grass.

Next up was the oldest astronomical observation tower in all of East Asia. It was there we met Paul, an English muffin who saved us from our terrible self portraits in front of the tower with a proper picture. I thought he might be an English teacher from Busan because he was on our bus, but it turned out that he's just a guy ramblin round the world for a few years. Sounds like just the right thing to do.

The two Pauls and I had lunch together before Dad-Paul and I began the trek home. Getting back to Pusan we visited a bath house. I wasn't sure how much Dad would like it, but I think he was thoroughly impressed.

It was after the bath house that we discovered the whale meat district of Seomyeon, and Dad discovered the scrumptiousness of Korean barbecue. We even got free soju from the soju promoters. Those pictures are somewhere further down in this post.
Saturday
Saturday we finally got to play with Brian too. We got up and out and on a bus to Taejongdae, the much recommended but previously unvisited seaside park. It was lovely, but it was a long ride. Besides all of the lush greenery and beautiful seaside cliffs, there were vats of bondegi (a silk worm larvae (or possibly pupae)) for sale. And we got Dad to try one. In fact, we found a can of them for him to take home to spread the delicacies your way. Here he is with his bug before he eats it.

After Taejongdae we went to Jagalchi, the largest seafood market in Korea. Imagine a marine invertebrate specialist in a market full of spineless maritime squiglers - like a kid in a squirmy candy shop. Here he is admiring the things he never thought you could eat before this trip. But Jagalchi doesn't only have live fish and friends for sale; there's also a large dried market. Here are heaps of dried fishes of all shapes and sizes.
And below, the street market scene. It's a little grimy, but not as smelly as you might imagine.
That night we dined in the market place and followed up with hodducks, a chinese derived snickerdoodle on butter steroids. Dad got hooked when we mainlined a couple when we got back to Busan's bus station the day before.

Sunday
Sunday it was chilly and threatening rain, so we went to the Busan Aquarium for more aquatic delights. There are more fish photos than necessary because I got excited about the aquarium setting on my camera. It made this seahorse look like it came straight out of The Life Aquatic.
We tooled around Haeundae Beach for a bit before catching another bus to a seaside temple we'd been wanting to visit. This temple is unique for a couple of reasons. 1. Most temples are built on the mountain sides, this one on seaside cliffs. 2. This temple is dedicated to Avalokitsvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, or in more western terms, the goddess of mercy. She is often shown riding on a dragon, and thus there are many dragon images at this temple, which are absent at others. For some very good reason unknown to us, there were also these two plump, jolly pigs at the temple.

There was also a plump, jolly Buddha statue.
This dragon is a painting on the outer wall of one of the temple structures.
This dragon decorates the rafters of the main temple hall.

These cairns dotted the cliffs outside the temple walls.
And the rest of the aquarium and temple photos are in the following slide show.

Monday I finally had to report back to school. But I only had 3 classes and got to leave at 12, so Dad and I had time to take a short hike up Geumjeongsan, a nearby mountain with a fortress wall (much talked about in this blog). We had lunch and got some snacks to take with us and then cruised up to some perches with nice lookouts. It was the first time I'd been there during working hours on a weekday and it was phenomenally more tranquil without the crowds.

Tuesday was our volleyball semifinals at school, so though I didn't get to leave early, Sun Ja and I picked Dad up at the apartment and he got to come to the games. It was a double header and we won the first game and lost to the second team we played. But the first team had our old pal Sunny playing, and Kyung Mi my co teacher from the school I no longer teach at was there too. It was fun to see old friends and for Dad to get to meet the people I work with.

We went to dinner with the school after the game, but after that Brian came and met us and all of the young teachers for drinks and a night on the town. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that night because the camera was dead. But it was fun to have all my favorite teachers meet Dad and Brian. They even taught us some new Korean drinking games, and of course, the night ended at the norebang (or kareoke room). Yes, Dad sang too.

Wednesday was Dad's last day in Korea, and he came to school with me to meet the kids. He even co taught with me a bit in a roll play we performed for the kids. It was 6th and 5th grade that day, and I wasn't sure how well they'd respond because they're just at the cusp of teenager hood. But they were all so excited to meet him and wanted to compare their hand sizes and arm hair. They all said "he's so handsome guy!". My co teacher got some photos of us in action which I'll try to get hold of to post later.

After school we got to leave early. We relaxed at home and had Korean style tea til Brian came home. Then we started our snacking tour of Korea. We had to fit in as many foods as possible in a short amount of time before going to see the night view of the bridge at Gwangan Li. We all performed admirably.

Once on the beach we found it chilly, so in we went to Russel Crowe bar to have a last night of talk before the departure. These are all the photos Dad took on his last day in Korea.

And these are all of the miscellaneous photos of food and drink and night scenes that didn't fit elsewhere.


I think this final photo of Dad really sums up how he felt about his entire Korean experience. Pretty fantastic.

He left Thursday morning, but Thursday afternoon at school was exciting enough to make it into this post. All of a sudden in the middle of my after school class fire alarms and sirens start going off (and didn't stop for an hour) and all the kids run to the windows. I can't understand the announcements being made, so I check out the window scene. Lo and behold, there's a fire in the middle of the school yard, but an intentional fire, an instructional fire. There's a fire truck and kids getting to use fire extinguishers to try to put out the flames (unsuccessfully; the fire hose was used in the end).

As you can see from these photos, these kids really know how to be cool about fire safety. I should know, as I consider myself a semi-expert on the subject of fire safety because I had to take a course at Furman for a dorm violation involving candles and string lights.

And speaking of fire safety, if you're reading this to waste time, I highly recommend this video. It's hilarious and informative. And if you enjoy it, you should really check out the second and third parts. The second part features Little Richard singing about crawling out of a fire with really awfully funny PowerPoint add ins.

This weekend we mostly rested after the flurry of activity with Dad, but we managed to make it to Haeundae for the sand festival going on there. This was my favorite sand sculpture. Anti-whaling, if you can believe it after all of the whale meat we found and showed on this post.

But there were many more to gawk at. Friday was actually a cultural education day for my teachers' team, meaning that we got to leave around 1:30 for a movie and dinner and coffee. That's where the graphic image of eel heads comes from in this next slide show.

And now we've only 7 weeks left including this one before our summer vacation. We're not sure how much time we've got off at this point, but depending on that crucial bit of information we may go to Mongolia or Indonesia. Either way, we will definitely go to Beijing for a few days. We've got 4 months left on our contracts, but it feels like our time here is already running out. We're trying to fit in any last experiences while we plan our next adventures. It's all so exciting!

Sports, Spiritualism, Science?, and Sports

Last weekend and this week were loaded. Friday after school Brian and I met David and Duck at Sajik Baseball Stadium for a Lote Giants game (or ja-iy-uhn-tuh-suh, as it's called in Korean). The team's not so hot, but the fans don't seem to notice. Baseball is probably the most popular sport in Korea, and people have a great time at the games whether their teams winning or losing. You'd never be able to pick the winning team by watching the fans leave the stadium. Everyone's just as happy as they can be, and why not? They can take as much cheap booze and food into the game as they can carry. And they have this sort of thing to greet them at the gates.

Apparently there's a new soju in town and there have been soju dancers promoting it all around recenlty. After the game we had a short trip to a nearby pub, but we were all pretty worn out. Duck was falling asleep in the booth, so soon we all crashed at David and Duck's.

But Saturday was Buddhamas. Christmas is a recongnised holliday here, but decorations don't pop up until about 3 days before the big day. Not so for Buddhamas. About 3 weeks beforehand colorful lanterns appeared lining most streets and even a giant animated light up dragon showed up near Busan Station. But the actual day was even more ornate. We decided to wait until evening to visit temples so we could get the full effect of the lanterns, so we played badminton to honor Buddha's birth. We even had some fans looking on and cheering. You can witness this in the next slide show.

Once dusk set in we were on our way to our first temple with Ryan and Shannon. I don't remember the name, but it was near Seomyeon. It was small, but quaint and it had some unique lanterns. And we got to participate in the walking meditation/chanting prayer around the temple grounds before we left. It was gorgeous, but we had heard of a temple with such numbers of lanterns that it looked like a sea of lights, so we were tempted to move on.

We had to split up for the taxi ride, but in no time we were walking up to Samgwangsa (all the temples are up on hills, like the universities). Though Samgwangsa had a little less character than the nameless temple, it was undeniably spectacular. The following video is sideways, I don't know how to fix it - just tilt your head.

And, on Buddha's Birthday (not really called Buddhamas, in case I've convinced anyone that it is) the temples give out free bibimbap. It was like carolling with figgy pudding and wassal, except it's May and it was temple hopping with bibimbap and calguksu.

After the last temple Brian and I headed home early to get some sleep for the Jirisan trip on Sunday. EPIK (English Program in Korea - our employers) sometimes organizes free trips for the native English speaking teachers, and Sunday we went to a mountain called Jiri for a medicinal herbs festival. This was much less exciting in real life than it sounds, but it was a free trip on an otherwise planless Sunday. We tasted some tasty teas, saw an awful excuse for a cotton field/museum about cotton, saw some beautiful mountains that we'll go back to for hiking/camping, learned that Korea has black bears (with a white V on their chests), and got to try acupuncture! This last was probably the most exciting part, besides the bears. It's true, it really doesn't hurt, and I'm a wimp about needles. My whole family and Brian got to witness this one Christmas when Mom brought an injection for me to Mammaw's house in Georgia. Just couldn't wait til I came home could you Mom? But as for acupuncture, it felt like someone touched me with a pin, but didn't actually break any skin with it. I got the needles in my back though, and if I moved in such a way as to flex those muscles it did pinch. I wasn't in any discomfort beforehand, so I can't say whether or not it helped me, but it was relaxing and I didn't feel any worse afterwards.

Then, Monday was Field Day at my school! Field Day certainly means something different in Korea than in the US, but like at home, it means no classes. For Field Day in Korea the teachers and kids rehearse for about 3 weeks. What could they rehearse you wonder? Well, please observe this video.

THat's right - at all times at least 2 events were going on at the same time, and these weren't simple games like the nail drop. There was one game where the kids rolled a giant dice and then according to which number they got they had to do a different task. Each time there were 3 kids rolling and doing the task and it was a race to see which team of 30 or so kids could get every group of 3 to finish doing whatever task and race back to the group first. Not only were the games complicated, there were also enormous dance productions where an entire grade performed together. Observe the 3rd graders in Hey Mickie!

And whatsmore, it wasn't limited to the kids. A handful of dads and a million moms and gradmas came to play too, and take pictures of their kids doing their routines. There was a moms' tug-o-war, a grandmas' person-size ball rolling relay race, a dads' 200 meter race, and even a moms' dance number and jump rope dance number. I loved the parents' sport competitions, but the dance was kind of embarassing. My favorite was watching the gradmas race that ball around. Brilliant. Look at the determination on their faces!

So while Field Day at home may be more fun for the kids ( no rehearsing, no pressure, just games), it is overwhelmingly more fun for the spectators in Korea.
And Tuesday was a holliday (Children's Day), so we beached all day on Cinco de Mayo, Wednesday Brian and I both got to leave school early (me for hiking with my teachers, him for drinking and a movie with his), Thursday was normal and I'm off again today! May has been great in Pusan.

The Catch Up Edition

Life's been busy in South Korea recently. So much so that there's been no time for blogging, but the upside of that being that this one's got a lot of good stuff in it.

This past Monday Jim and Kathy departed after a week and a half of Koreanism. Brian and David both got out of school early while they were in town, so the Laggi had many an adventure together, including but not limited to: school visits at both brothers' places of work, hiking Geumjeongsan (mountain), hiking Igidae, visiting Beomosa (temple), and a visit to Gyeongju where there was a rice cake and wine festival. We also Dr. Fished, ate hoe (pronounced hway, this being sashimi) at Jagalchi, went to the Eobang fishing festival on Gwangan Li beach, had a tour of all the fried street food that Food Alley has to offer, and discovered all you can eat tuna hoe for 15,000 won per person (roughly 12 USD). In fact, there was even a hookah bar somewhere in the mix. I've put my favorite pictures as stills but there are many more to see in the slide shows. Oh, and this Saturday is Buddhamas, so the streets are currently lined with bright colored lanterns and the temples are decked in the best and brightest.

Lanterns line the streets for Buddha's birthday.

Giant hula hoops in the exercise park on the hike to hike Igidae.

The Laggis boys at Igidae cliffs.

An ajuma cracks open sea anemonies to sell while her friend smokes octopus in the seaside shack.
Kathy tries out the foot torture path. Brian was the only one tough enough to stick it out.
Who knew the ocean would be this color in S. Korea?
Beomeosa has decked its halls for Buddhamas.

A man and his camera at the upper temple.

Small shrine from the upper temple.

The bell from the upper temple of Beomeosa.
Jim and Kathy visit Brian's school.Boats with torches for night fishing at the Gwangan Li Eobang Festival.
Jim and Kathy as Joseon Dynasty Korean fisherpeople.
THe string of kites they flew at the Eobang festival was stupendously long.
So long!
Brian and Jim in action on a traditional Korean game. I don't know how you're supposed to play, but it's fun as a human catapult.
The Eobang Festival parade featured traditional Korean song, dance, and costumes.
And floats!

This one's my favorite float.

An ajuma makes calguksu noodles at a stand in Seomyeon.

Orchids on sale on the cheap near my school.

It was really fun to see Jim and Kathy and to be reminded of all things Korean that are very different from home. We've all become so accustomed to life here that we've largely forgotten the things that wowed us when we first arrived. It's refreshing to see it all again through a new set of eyes. And I think that our visitors were thoroughly wowed.

Before they arrived and since they've left we've all still been feeling the aftershocks of all the changes the new school year brought. At my school there've been multiple "cultural education days" for teachers. In Korean schools the teachers are organized into teams by grade that they teach. At Dong Cheon, there are only 3 classes for each grade, so my coteacher and I, along with the special education teacher, are part of the 5th grade team (I don't really see how that follows either, but that's how it was explained to me and I like the 5th grade teachers so I didn't question it). Brian's school on the other hand, has 7 classes per grade. But back to the point, each team of teachers gets 1 cultural education day a month when they get to leave right after lunch to see a movie or visit a park and then go have dinner and get drunk together, and of course finish the night in the norebang (kareoke room). This is how morale is maintained, and it's pretty fantastic. Also, I recently discovered that there are 2 full size beds in the nurses room. After staying out late on a week night with Jim and Kathy in town I took a nap one afternoon at school. I love this job!

Also at Dong Cheon, we've started practicing volleyball every day in preparation for the teachers' league tournament that starts next month. This combined with the new development that I teach every class all class to ready me for Open Class results in very fun days but very little free time at school. So Open Class? Well that's the horrible idea the South Korean school system has devised to check on the effectiveness of its teachers. All Korean teachers have open class at least once a year, but this year the foreign teachers (that's us) also have one to make sure we're worth the trouble expended to get us here. Doesn't sound so bad yet, but the problem is that open class is rehearsed. Although it's the same thing we do everyday in class this particular class must be overpreped and practiced. The result of course is that the kids are bored out of their minds, and scared out of their pants because they're being screamed at by an over paranoid Korean teacher because they can't pronounce 12 correctly. And also, the people observing the class get an utterly artificial version of what goes on there. Be that as it may, this is a deeply entrenched Korean mainstay and it's going nowhere. So the poor 4th grade class that will be Open Class's victim this time around has had no games for 2 weeks, and it's starting to get ugly between Sun Ja and the kids. Luckily, it'll be over soon.

Also lucky for me, this coming Monday is Exercise Festival Day! Which is similar to field day except that there are large scale performances by each grade on top of all the games and races, and this too is rehearsed. Great for me because it means that many classes are cancelled and I now have time to catch up on my reading and photo uploading. Photos to come after Monday. For now, here are the rest of the pictures from Jim and Kathy's visit.