Taebaekois

Tue May 12
I haven’t updated in forever. I’m a bad blogger and probably always will be. I should be teaching a grade three class right now, but it has been cancelled because there is a “sports day” on May 20th that the kids need to practice for. They practice standing in a straight line, tug-o-war, and dancing. I’m not sure why they pay me an OK amount of money to come over here to supposedly teach English, only to let me sit at my desk while they tug-o-war. Whatever. It’s probably better to be a pro tug-o-warer than it is a pro English speaker, anyway. So Korea has been awesome since my last post. The mountains here are so green and packed with vegitation that I can hardly look at them. I’d take a photo but it wouldn’t capture it correctly. These mountains are awesome and beautiful and everywhere, and I’m pumped I get live in a place that is this stunning. My sister is visiting right now. We’ve been doing the tourist thing a little bit which is fun because I haven’t hit up too many tourist attractions since I’ve been here. We have been up the coast of Gangwondo and to a couple cities in Gyeongsanbukdo, to Seoul. She is here until the end of May and we’ll probably travel farther south before she leaves, I hope. My Korean is progressing. I’d like to be better but I think I’m doing an OK job. I get by. I got my haircut last week and had a 5 or 6 min conversation with the hairdresser. We talked about simple things like where I worked, where I was from, and who my sister (who was with me at the time) was. It felt good and pretty weird to be talking only in Korean. Little things like this make me want to study more and get better. Baby steps. Yesterday was my birthday. The teachers from my school threw me a little party. They bought me chocolate cake and sang an awkard happy birthday that was a 1/3 in English and 2/3 in Korean. We popped confetti poppers and there were sparklers. Tomorow they’re taking me out for dinner where we will eat Korean BBQ and drink soju, and I will complain about being OLD.

I haven’t updated in forever. I’m a bad blogger and probably always will be. I should be teaching a grade three class right now, but it has been cancelled because there is a “sports day” on May 20th that the kids need to practice for. They practice standing in a straight line, tug-o-war, and dancing. I’m not sure why they pay me an OK amount of money to come over here to supposedly teach English, only to let me sit at my desk while they tug-o-war. Whatever. It’s probably better to be a pro tug-o-warer than it is a pro English speaker, anyway.

So Korea has been awesome since my last post. The mountains here are so green and packed with vegitation that I can hardly look at them. I’d take a photo but it wouldn’t capture it correctly. These mountains are awesome and beautiful and everywhere, and I’m pumped I get live in a place that is this stunning.

My sister is visiting right now. We’ve been doing the tourist thing a little bit which is fun because I haven’t hit up too many tourist attractions since I’ve been here. We have been up the coast of Gangwondo and to a couple cities in Gyeongsanbukdo, to Seoul. She is here until the end of May and we’ll probably travel farther south before she leaves, I hope.

My Korean is progressing. I’d like to be better but I think I’m doing an OK job. I get by. I got my haircut last week and had a 5 or 6 min conversation with the hairdresser. We talked about simple things like where I worked, where I was from, and who my sister (who was with me at the time) was. It felt good and pretty weird to be talking only in Korean. Little things like this make me want to study more and get better. Baby steps.

Yesterday was my birthday. The teachers from my school threw me a little party. They bought me chocolate cake and sang an awkard happy birthday that was a 1/3 in English and 2/3 in Korean. We popped confetti poppers and there were sparklers. Tomorow they’re taking me out for dinner where we will eat Korean BBQ and drink soju, and I will complain about being OLD.

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Fri Mar 20
School Lunch, March 20, 2009: Rice, Soup with super soft tofu and little clams, Radish kimchi, Potato pancake, sliced pork.

School Lunch, March 20, 2009:

Rice, Soup with super soft tofu and little clams, Radish kimchi, Potato pancake, sliced pork.

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Thu Feb 26
Where I’m sitting right now.

Where I’m sitting right now.

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My school.

My school.

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Better view of downtown.

Better view of downtown.

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Welcome to Cheolam (철암), the village where I teach. Notice the massive coal mine opposite downtown.

Welcome to Cheolam (철암), the village where I teach. Notice the massive coal mine opposite downtown.

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Mon Feb 16

Update attempt #3

I’ve been trying to update this blog all morning but everytime I do, the power goes out and I lose my work. So this will be quick.

Taebaek is going through a drought and it isn’t fun. I get two or so hours of water a day. A bit in the morning a bit at night. Read about it here. Also, relations with the North are worsening. Read about it here. I think it’s jutst a bunch of talk.

I went on vacation to Vietnam and Cambodia in January. It was interesting and fun for the most part. I uploaded some pictures here.

Since being back in Taebaek I’ve been doing a lot of hiking and studying (Korean) to fill my time. I’m considering studying Korean in Seoul when my contract is done. This is probably of no practical value outside of Korea, but I think it would be interesting to be on the student side of things in this country and would also be a challenging intellectual pursuit. If I get accepted, I think I’ll go. Plus, Seoul is a lot more happening and alive than Taebaek is.

I went to Taebaek’s only nightclub a few weeks back. I have some video footage of the house band jamming. Watch it here.

This weekend I plan on going to Daegue. I’ve never been there! New places!

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Sun Jan 11

For the rents

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Sun Dec 28

Do the Dangyang

In Korea, school vacation happens in the winter, not summer. The 23rd was the last day of school and to celebrate, the school staff took a trip to Dangyang, about 2.5 hours away from where I live, in Taebaek. We did a bunch of fun stuff: visited a restored ancient village, cruised a lake on a ferry, cave splunked (sort of), fired off some rounds at a shooting range. We also ate a bunch of weird food. It was two days of eating uncooked animals — fish, snails, and who knows what else. And, of course, there was the mandatory soju drinking that comes along with any school event.  Here are some pictures:

More pictures can be viewed here.

Clay shooting at the range was great, like Duck Hunt come to life. I’d never fired a real gun and was expecting to have really poor aim. All men in Korea have to do at least two years of mandatory military service so I thought the guys from my school would be pretty acurate shooters. Turns out they’re not. Guess who is? I outshot all the dudes, which was suprising and made me feel a little less confident about Korea’s ability to defend itself against the Great Northern Threat.

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I’m looking forward to New Year’s Day. Our local Taebaek Mountain (태백산) is the supposed birthplace of Dangun, the mythological founder of the first Korean kingdom somewhere around 2330 BC. Anyway, he is regarded as the local mountain god and each year on New Year’s Day thousands of people climb up the mountain to do something (light a candle, say a little prayer? I’m not really sure) to assure that they are granted health and happiness for another year. It should be really interesting to see.

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Sun Dec 21

XMAS

I received a few gifts and Christmas cards from some students at school the other day. My favorite says this:

To Andrew

Hello I am chulgu

Thank because study. bacation

four gread merry

christmas

thank you

parkchulgu

It’s from a third grade student named Chul Gu (whose “western nickname” is Antonio). Evidently we have a lot of work to do on the English front but I think the thought was nice.

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