Update

It's been awhile since I've written, but a lot has happened! A few weeks ago, all the Fulbright ETAs gathered for a mid-semester conference in Gyeongju (경주), one of the most historic cities in South Korea. It was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty, which ruled for a very long time. It was great to see some familiar faces, as well as connect with my fellows and talk about teaching and our homestays. We also took a tour of the city and saw some amazing sites!

Bridge leading to a beautiful temple.

The temple! Beautiful, but very tourist-y.

People stack these rocks as prayers.

Me and my friend Kim :)

Burial mounds of the tombs of ancient Korean kings.

Cool sign and forest!

Closer view of the burial mounds.

I had a really great time in Gyeongju, and I really enjoyed the conference.

November 10th was one of the most important days of the year here in South Korea. It was the day of the Su-neung (수능), which is basically the Korean version of the SAT. This test is the single greatest deciding factor in every student in Korea's life. It is required for all students and it is the only way to get into a university. Pretty much every day of these kids' lives up until that point have been to prepare for this one test. It is so important that planes are not allowed to fly that day, cars are not allowed to honk, and all schools are cancelled so that no one can disturb the test-takers. Many parents, families, teachers, and friends spend the day praying.

My school, instead of being cancelled like every other school in South Korea, decided that they wanted to take the first and second graders on a hike to a temple to pray for the third graders. They separated the boys and the girls, and then sent us on a four-hour hike. To be honest, I couldn't believe they allowed the students to do it, let alone required them to! The trail was a tiny, single-file trail covered in leaves, over boulders and roots as high as my knees. If it was rough for me, it was killer for the poor girls. I caught two of them before they fell off the side of the mountain, and I bandaged three sets of bloody knees! Here are some pics:

Doesn't look so bad, right?...

And then it became this tiny little trail... which only got more difficult!

Here are some other pictures from that day!

Some of my students :)

They're so sweet!!

At the top of the mountain... after only a few hours!

The girls from my class of mixed-level students

The entrance to the temple we hiked to.

Drum?

Bell they ring to signal prayers, etc.

Last weekend, I traveled to Daegu, one of the largest cities in Korea, to spend some time with friends. I had a really great time and got to see some cool sites. I ate Indian and Mexican food, and went to a great American restaurant. It was a nice change of pace after so much Korean food! On Saturday, I went with my friend who is a photographer to take some pics for a magazine. The editor asked me to be in some! We helped a charity feed the homeless as part of the shoot, and it was a really great experience.

This woman is famous in Korea for making these sweet pancakes filled with cinnamon and nuts. The people behind her are in a huge line waiting to buy them!

Seomun Market, it's huge! There are a lot of side streets that branch off of this one.

The entrance to the oriental medicine district. It was really cool!

Funny sign!

So it's been an eventful few weeks. I'm really excited because in only one month, I'll be headed home to the States for Christmas!! Can't wait :)

Jinju Lantern Festival

I had a really great weekend, after a few days off due to exams at my school. So I headed south to a town in another province for a great festival. I met up with a friend in Daegu, the second largest city in Korea, and then we took a bus down to Jinju for their Lantern Festival. It reminded me so much of the Disney movie Tangled, but instead of the lanterns floating into the sky, we floated them down the river! It was a beautiful festival.

All along the river there were stands set up with food, shopping, and crafts. I had everything from my favorite chicken-in-a-cup to waffles with strawberry cream to a Turkish wrap. We also made our own lanterns by constructing them with wire and paper. At different intervals along the river, there were floating bridges set up, so that you could walk across them to see all the displays and get to different areas of the festival. Along one side of the river was an ancient fortress where Koreans held off Japanese invaders in a very famous battle. The fortress was covered in lights, with displays inside of lighted soldiers,trees, and other lanterns. It reminded me a lot of the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Display on the river!

Entrance to one of the floating bridges.

Display of a famous cartoon, Pororo.

One of my favorite parts of the festival was when I made a wish lantern. I wrote 4 wishes on a paper lantern with a candle inside. Then I went down to the river, lit the candle, and set the lantern down on the water. Watching all the lanterns float down the river was so awesome! Just like Tangled.

On the way home from the festival, I stopped in Daegu to grab McDonald's for lunch (which is actually good in Korea!) and went to a bookstore that has an English section. I finally got a new book (hopefully my last one, as I am looking to get a Kindle soon!).

So, it was an awesome weekend, and back to the daily grind tomorrow :).

Andong Mask Dance Festival!

I had the most amazing three day weekend! Friday was the start of the Andong Mask Dance Festival, one of the biggest and most famous festivals in Korea. The traditional Mask Dance is an ancient dance that used to honor spirits. Today, there is a huge festival surrounding the deeply cultural practice.

On Saturday, I headed to the festival in the morning with some friends. First, we caught an amazing show. We saw the mask dances of Thailand, India, Israel, and the Philippines. Unfortunately (and just my luck!), my camera died five minutes into the performance and I never got a chance to recharge the battery for the entire weekend!!! So, I will steal some pictures from friends and post them next time :). Here are the only pictures I got, of the mask dance group from Thailand:

Thailand had their own traditional band! Really interesting music.

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The dances were really cool, but especially the Philippines and Israel. The Philippines group was an all-male ballet troupe called Ballet Manila. For more information about the troupe, you can check them out here, they really are amazing! They did several pieces that were a blend of modern and traditional ballet and mask dance. Israel's group, Silver, was very different from the other performances. They were all female, and they used these giant slinky tube things to make all these shapes with their bodies, it was crazy! I highly suggest checking them out at this website. And here is an example of what they do:

Silver, by Shimon Mansura

After the show, we grabbed an amazing wrap from this little Turkish wrap stand and headed off to make our own traditional masks. We decorated them using traditional Korean paper art, called 한지 (hanji). It's sort of like paper mâché. We painted glue onto the mask, then laid very thin, fine paper on it, and then painted over it. It took me a really long time (3 hours!!) because I wanted it to be perfect! Here is a picture of my mask, each of the different designs/colors is a different kind of paper that I put on it:

Made with traditional Korean paper art, hanji!

 As I was making my mask, I had one of the weirdest experiences I've had so far in Korea. So, here I am with my two friends, one Chinese American and one white, all of us female. We are minding our own business, doing our hanji, and all these older Korean men come over and start taking our pictures. At first, I figured they were just interested in foreigners participating in Korean culture, not a big deal. I'm used to being stared at, having my picture taken is not that different. And at first, they were coming and going. Then they start swarming us. There were way too many of them. Then they started moving all our stuff around the table and grabbing things out of our hands to get better shots. Finally, one tried to push my Chinese American friend out of the picture. She got really mad and yelled at him, which caused the girl working at the booth to come over. Luckily, she spoke English really well and told the men that we wanted to be left alone. No joke, she had to stay near us for the rest of the time we were there to shoo away pushy men with cameras. On the upside, we got interviewed by a television station and got a really cool free necklace for free. Yeah. That was weird. After that, some fellow Fulbrighters came to see the festival from other towns. It was really fun! Later that night, my host family helped them find a hotel.

Sunday, I went to another show with my Fulbright friends, this time we saw performances from China, and a non-traditional Korean percussion group. The Chinese mask dance was performed by the China Minority Art Troupe, and it was really neat. The Korean percussion group was called 21.5 Nanta, and they were really funny, engaging the audience and making a show out of it. They are known for blending traditional and modern Korean drumming. After the performance, we had lunch and I saw my friends off. Then, I met up with other friends and ate Andong jjimdak, which is the famous food from Andong. It's basically extremely spicy chicken and noodles. My friend (the Chinese American girl from Saturday) had rented a car, so we drove to the traditional Korean village outside of Andong, and then up around the back of it until we found the entrance to a hiking trail. We hiked up a mountain across the river from the village until we reached this really famous cliff. It overlooks the entire river valley and the village, which sits as a peninsula surrounded by a wide, shallow river. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I promise I have a lot of pictures, which I will put on Facebook ASAP. After our hike, we had Chinese food for dinner and then a girls' night out! It was really fun. We had a few drinks, went dancing, and then I stayed over with my new friend who just moved to Andong. It was a fun little sleepover ^^.

Monday was a national holiday, so none of us had work. The friend who I had stayed with and I decided to go to the village, since neither of us had actually been in it. It was packed because of the festival and the holiday, but completely worth it! Hahoe Village is a traditional Korean village that was founded 600 years ago, you can read about it here. It is surrounded by the Nakdong River in an S shape, which gave the village its name (ha means river and hoe means turning around). People still live there today, even though it is a tourist attraction. You can tour the village and see some traditional farming and houses, as well as take a ferry across the river to hike up the other side of the mountain we went up. Some nights during the festival, Hahoe hosts a fireworks show and the original traditional mask dance, called Byeolsingut. Here is a picture of the village (taken from the internet, not by me!):

Aerial view of Hahoe Village in Andong.

The village was absolutely beautiful, and so peaceful even though there were many tourists. The air was so clean and fresh, and it was a sunny, brisk fall day. In the middle of the village, on the highest point, I had a really spiritual moment. A 600 year old zelkova tree, called 삼신당 (Samsindang) grows there. Ancient Koreans believed the goddess Samsin lived in the tree, watched over the village, and granted prayers. When we entered the courtyard, the tree was breathtaking. It was huge. There were many people from all over the world there, writing prayers on slips of paper and tying them to the tree or to the rope fence surrounding the tree. I wrote a prayer and tied it on, and I felt so connected to all the other people. All different nationalities, many different ages. It was incredible. Another picture taken from the internet:

Samsindang, a 600 year old tree.

So, I had an absolutely amazing weekend. Now my kids have midterms, and they are all freaking out, so we'll see how this goes :). More to come.

My Week Off ^^

Today was my first day back at school after an entire week off. While I enjoyed time off, by the end I was starting to get bored... so school was welcome. My students were wound up, of course, as kids are the day they return from a holiday. But they were fun. I like them more every day.

During my week off, I did a couple of really fun things. On Thursday I traveled to another town to visit a fellow Fulbright ETA. It was a really awesome experience for several reasons. Firstly, I was extremely proud of myself. I bought a bus ticket and navigated the bus terminal, which had no English. Then I rode the bus for three hours to the other town, met up with my friend and went to meet her homestay family. We had the most amazing American dinner at a restaurant, where the owner had lived in America. He knew what a real burger was :). Later that night, I booked a hotel room and had such a relaxing time. It used to be that I couldn't stand to be alone, but it was really nice. And I was proud for doing something on my own. Secondly, it was really nice to see a friend who I had become close with during the seven weeks of orientation.

This past weekend I spent in Andong while my homestay family traveled out of town for 추석 (Chuseok), which is essentially Korean Thanksgiving. I went out with some friends and generally had a good time. So I spent a total of four days and nights by myself, which is a new and bittersweet experience for me.


On Tuesday, my homestay parents (who had returned from their trip) took me to Dosan Seowon, a historic and very neat Confucian academy. No one studies there anymore, it is now an exhibit, but it was really awesome. You can read about it here. It was built in 1574 and honors one of the most celebrated and famous Confucian scholars, Yi Hwang. Here are some pictures:

The entrance to the academy.

Andong Lake, which the academy sits on.

Read the last two lines :)

Wishing well.

View of the whole complex.

Really cool lotus pond.

Yi Hwang, the Confucian scholar, used to meditate here.

Well, happy Chuseok!! Until next time ^^

Hair and other little things.

When it comes to hair, Koreans are obsessed. Everything here is about looks. Make-up and hair shops are everywhere, and it is common practice for both men and women to fix their appearance in public, causing a multitude of mirrors to be scattered in the most random of places all over Korea. Also, plastic surgery is extremely common, especially for women. There's a particular surgery that is making waves and is verrryyy popular: the double eyelid surgery. It's a surgery that cuts Asian peoples' eyelids to make them have the line above the eyelashes that white people have. Check out these before and after pictures here.

Anyway, foreigners seem to have nothing but horror stories about hair in Korea. You'd think the hair stylists would be good, because the Koreans walking around all have fierce hair, both men and women. But it seems with foreigners, they think we want bad haircuts, especially men. I had determined even before coming that I would not get my hair dyed here, as it's thin and completely different from Koreans' hair. But once I arrived, I decided I would also not get a haircut, as Korean hair stylists are clearly not to be trusted. However, three weeks ago, I started to change my mind.

During our Seoul trip, one of my good friends came back from our free day with suddenly glossy, smooth, perfect hair, after previously having wavy (but still beautiful!) hair. We were all amazed. She had gotten what is literally called "magic straight." It's a straight perm that lasts 6 to 9 months. Well, for the last three weeks I've been debating whether I wanted to risk it. My hair is very different, it's thin and fine, and magic straight is expensive. Finally, I decided to do it. Today I went to a salon recommended by another foreigner. It took 3 hours, and was a rather complicated process, during which I received a hard-boiled egg as a gift... but it looks amazing!! And my hair is so soft now! It literally looks like I straightened it, even though they only blow-dried it. Plus, they charged a lot less than the place in Seoul, so I'm really pleased ^^.

In other news, I'm ecstatic because I get an entire week off starting today. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week I got off work because all of my students are going on a trip to visit the military. While this may sound interesting, I actually feel really bad for them, because they will be doing a mock military training. Both boys and girls will be going through a "guest" military training for the next three days. They were not pleased during class yesterday.

In Korea, sometimes the military can be a touchy subject among young men, because Korea has mandatory military service for all men between 19 and 35 years old. The term is 21 or 24 months depending on the branch. Technically, South and North Korea are still at war, so a strong military is needed. Also, many of the men who are in the military get assigned police positions in the major cities. Some of this generation really don't like the mandatory service, especially because my generation is fairly far removed from the Korean War. There are little to no signs of war in South Korea, unless you are near the border. In everyday life, the war has been largely forgotten. But, I would say that the majority of Koreans take the service very seriously, as the national pride in South Korea is very great.

Anyway, I get Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week off as well because it is 추석 (Chuseok), or Korean Thanksgiving. It is pretty much just like American Thanksgiving, with mass exodus to visit family, as well as a lot of food and gift-giving. The main difference is the gift-giving itself. It seems that food and body care items are popular gifts. Considered an especially classy gift, my homestay father came home from work yesterday armed with a HUGE gift-set of none other than... SPAM. Yes. SPAM is not only here in Korea, it's actually a very "nice" food.

So a whole week off is very much needed right about now, as I'm starting to get settled and therefore... homesick. As the excitement and new-ness of it all wear away, the homesickness sets in. So, I hope to keep busy this week, take some time for myself. Tomorrow I will travel to another city, Gimcheon, to visit a Fulbrighter friend who is placed there. I will have to take a three hour bus, but I think it will be fun. I will stay the night there and return on Friday morning, just in time to beat the Chuseok holiday rush.

One last note before I leave off with pictures of my school: I found an amazing fast-food restaurant. They have chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks that are just as crappy as the ones you can find back home!

In Korean: 비비큐 칙인

Here's the best part: the soda cup comes with a little cup inserted in the top that holds your chicken nuggets, with a small space left for the straw to stick out! That way, you can hold your chicken and your Coke all in one hand! It's amazing and the US should hop on that... immediately. Exhibit B:

There's soda underneath the chicken... GENIOUS.

Okay, and to end, here are some pictures of my school, Poongsan High School (풍산 고등학교).

The main hallway.

The entrance. The cabinets where we put our shoes after we change into slippers are there on the right.

The front door to Poongsan.

The whole front of the school property with the soccer field and school. The red building on the right is one of the dorms.

Entrance to the school grounds.

My desk in the gyomushil, or teachers' office. In Korean schools, the students stay in the classroom and the teachers move to the rooms, so we all share one big office.

Happy Chuseok! ^^