June was an incredibly busy month, so I have spent most of my July weekends just relaxing, hence no blog entry yet this summer. Seeing as I have an upcoming vacation to China, I figured I have to stop making excuses so that I don't fall too far behind. I'll focus this post on what I've done so far this summer and proceed in chronological order.

Gyeongju

Early in June we had a three day weekend due to Korea's Memorial Day. Antonio, Alexa, and I decided to use this time to take a trip to Gyeongju, Korea's first capital and a city full of historically significant sites. Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Dynasty that ruled Korea from roughly 600-900 A.D. It was a city of palaces, temples, tombs, and stone carved Buddhas dating from that time period.Unfortunately, like so many of Korea's national treasures, history has not been kind to the city. The Japanese and Mongols ravaged many of the structures, and Confucians destroyed many of the Buddhist relics. What could have been the Korean equivalent of Kyoto is instead a city full of ruins, tombs, and historical artifacts.

Tumuli Park

Our first stop was Tumuli Park, where a cluster of Royal tombs are located. Each king or queen was buried under a mound of dirt with many of his most prized possessions, similar to how Egyptians buried their rulers in the pyramids. Only one of the tombs in the park has been excavated, so the big draw is just walking around the park and appreciating the perfectly sculpted mounds. There are other tombs in the city, but Tumuli Park contains the densest cluster of them.

Gyeongju National Museum

After a stroll through the park we walked through the historic area of Gyeongju, which is mostly an open field. It is dotted with a few other tombs and Cheomseongdae Observatory, the oldest observatory in Asia. We passed what was left of a fort, but the only remaining structure was the ice house. We finally arrived at the Gyeongju National Museum, a series of museum complexes that house artifacts found in the city's excavations throughout the years. The preserved figurine and the crown (below) were two of the highlights. The artifact with the most interesting story was the 14 sided dice called a juryeonggu, used to play a drinking game. Each side of the dice featured a command, such as "drink three consecutive cups of liquor." My favorite command was "disregard an assault and remain calm and passive."

Mt. Namsan

One of the great things about Korea is that no matter where you are, you are never more that a few miles from a great hike, even in the urban centers. If I had to compare the topography of Korea to anywhere in the U.S., I would liken it to West Virginia. It is covered in low-rolling, wooded mountains, much like the Appalachians (just typing that word still hurts me). That is about where the comparison between Korea and West Virginia ends. The cities snake through these mountains, allowing them to grow to deceptively large sizes.

Mount Namsan (same name as the one in Seoul; Namsan just means "south mountain") is home to several Buddhist carvings dating from the 7th-10th centuries. The whole time I was in Europe (granted, I have yet to go to Italy) I don't think I saw anything that was over 1,000 years old. We spent and afternoon hiking and picnicking on the mountain pausing to appreciate the carvings and the views.

Anapji Pond

After freshening up at our hotel, we headed out of Anapji Pond for the second time (we had been there in the afternoon on our first day). We were told by one of our friends in Seoul that visiting the site at night is a must. You can compare the pond at night versus at day below.

The pond features what is left of or rebuilt from a palace of the Silla Era. The Pond provided many of the artifacts for the museum, but all that remains of the palace today is three pavilions.

Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple

Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple are both located just outside Gyeongju. Bulguksa Temple is a Buddhist temple and is one of the most beautiful temples in Korea. The complex dates back to the 8th Century, but is has since been rebuilt. Seokguram Grotto is a sculpture of Buddha housed in a dome carved out from under a hill. I had to steal the photo from the internet because photography is not allowed. The grotto was very impressive, but we had little time to enjoy it. We had arrived on a holiday, and the line to enter was quite long. Almost as soon as we got in, we were ushered out. One interesting bit of trivia that we learned during our museum tour is that statue depictions of Buddha were not initially part of Buddhist worship. Buddha actually discouraged such depictions of himself. It wasn't until Alexander the Great's forays into India that statues became popularized. That's why many statues of Buddha, whether in India, Japan, or Korea, have a Hellenistic look.

Stacey's Wedding

The weekend after Gyeongju was the weekend of my former co-teacher's wedding. Alexa and I hopped on the subway to Suwon, a suburb of Seoul. The cultural differences between the wedding and the ones I have been to back home were very pronounced, though not in the ways some of you might expect. The wedding took place a a wedding hall (or as we have taken to calling it, a wedding factory) that housed 5-6 chapels themed with overly extravagant faux-European decor. It contained two reception halls with buffets for afterward. It seems that anyone who tangentially knew the bride or the groom was invited, as the chapel area was entirely full. Many guests waited in the lobby/hall just outside and talked amongst themselves the entire time. While most people in the chapel area were quiet, those outside got rather loud. I didn't really know what to make of this, so I just stood in the back, just inside the chapel, and watched. After the wedding, everyone went upstairs to the reception cafeteria to get their food. There are several different wedding parties occurring at the same time. You just go up to the buffet, fill up your plate, and sit wherever you want. They have TVs broadcasting the various weddings taking place at that time. In theory you could just head straight to the reception area, eat on the bride and groom's dime, and watch their wedding on TV.

After we ate we were invited up to a more traditional ceremony by one of Stacey's friends. From what I gathered, this is a more intimate ordeal with only family and close friends. I'm guessing we were invited because we were foreigners, as many of our other former coworkers did not attend that portion of the wedding. We arrived at the tail end, but there was a photo session afterward. For this ceremony, the bride and groom wear traditional Korean hanboks.

Perhaps the highlight of the event for me was getting to see two former students at the wedding, Rena and Eena. It was the first time I had seen any of my kids from Excellence Class again.

Bungee Jumping and Rafting

The following weekend Antonio and a few of my coworkers headed to the rural province of Kawando for some rafting. It was a little bit too cold for Alexa to join, as she's a southern California girl, and it was almost too cold for me. The rafting trip was scenic, but the rapids were pretty mild. It rained on and off and the river was freezing. As they returned us to the launch point for lunch, the rain cleared up. This gave us the option of bungee jumping afterward, which is not allowed during the rain. For a few extra bucks, I climbed the tower and a harness was strapped around my feet. I was the first to go. The dive was 52 meters, which looked very different from above than below. Once I was attached to the cord I was told to jump. After some hesitation, I did.

Antonio snapped these photos, but couldn't get video because I was first and it was hard to see where I was going to jump from below. The free fall was exhilarating, but once I bounced up I lost all sense of direction. My friends told me I had flailed around, up and down and side to side. When I lost all of the momentum and stopped bouncing, I was lowered into a boat in the river.

Art Project Day

During art class throughout the month of June, our school had our kids complete a series of self portraits. Some were cut and pasted, others drawn, some molded out of clay. The month long project culminated in a paint-moshpit over a tarp. The pictures tell the story better than I can.

Nate and Sooah

Caribbean Bay

On the first weekend in July, Antonio and I went to Caribbean Bay, one of the two major water parks in Korea. We'd heard that the crowds were bad, so we hoped that by going on a overcast Saturday when most kids were in elementary school (in Korea they go to school every other Saturday) we would beat the crowds. We were wrong. When I go to an amusement park I expect to wait a hour or more for the top rides. The problem with Caribbean Bay was that even the less thrilling slides had waits of an hour or more. By the time 6 PM rolled around we had only been on five rides. We stayed until closing at 7 PM, and managed to get on four more rides as people began to leave the park. I think we rode three slides in the final 20 minutes that the park was open.

The best slide by far was one called Aqua Loop, featuring a trap door that releases you straight down, then loops you back up. It's in the middle below.

I will be headed to China for one week next Saturday. I will be going to Xian (home of the Terracotta Warriors), Suzhou (a canal town know for its gardens), and Shanghai.

Goodbye, Hello

Once again it has been awhile since my last post. I have been teaching at my new school, Bambini, for almost three months now, and things are finally starting to settle down. I'll start this post with the end of my year teaching at GDA, then transition to my new class, Olive Class.

Excellence Class Graduation

Schools in Korea start in March, so at the end of February we had our graduation at GDA so that the kids could go on to elementary school. Each class had their own graduation ceremony, and since my class was the largest, I had mine in the gym. I began with the ceremony with a short speech about the school year. After that, each kid gave a speech about a topic that they had learned about in either science or social studies throughout the course of the year. The students wrote the speeches by themselves (O.K., there was one kid I had to "suggest" sentences to), then I corrected them. Remember, at the beginning of the year most of these kids couldn't understand what I was saying. Each speech was about 7-8 sentences long, except Justin's. He went on and on about where Seismosaurus lived and what it ate (this is the same kid who taught me that the capital of Liechtenstein is Vaduz). After the speeches I handed out diplomas and my gift to the kids (a copy of Doctor Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go). Unfortunately, I was running the ceremony, so I couldn't get many pictures during it. At the end there was time for a group photo, so I gave my camera to my supervisor who took a group shot for me.

I was able to take pictures after the ceremony, where I snapped one of Justin (above left). Rena's mother sent me an e-mail with a couple pictures she had taken of me and her daughter (above right). Here is the e-mail she sent me:

Dear Eric teacher,

Hello. I'm Rena's mom.^^
I wanted to write e-mail to you,
but I was very busy with the care of Rena's new school days.
How is your new place?
Rena adapts to an elementary school very well,
but she doesn't like a new English institute.
She said, "Eric teacher is much better than Hannah teacher.
I miss GDA and Eric teacher."

I am so glad that my daughter met a teacher like you.
You majored in education and love children.
Besides, you look like the God of Greek mythology.^^
I thought that Rena was very lucky.
After GDA graduation ceremony,
I was impressed by your letter and present.
I can feel your hearty mind and the book has a wonderful story.
Rena said, "Eric teacher read this book at a library.
This book is very interesting and I want to have this book.
How does Eric teacher know my mind?"^-^

Rena & I will visit my cousin in U.S. during the summer vacation.
She will join in Bible camp
and we will have a tour round the amusement park in California.
I hope Rena will have an interest in English again through this trip to U.S.

I appreciate your teaching and caring.
I wish you wonderful days!


Sincerely,

Rena's mom

Excellence Class lived up to their name in every possible way. Teaching them for a year was an extremely rewarding experience, and I continue to miss each and every one of them.

Post Graduation Mayhem

While I failed to capture the bittersweet nostalgia of the graduation ceremony, I did an excellent job of capturing the post-graduation mayhem that ensued. This was entirely appropriate, as it was probably a better representation of what the year was like anyway.

Harry always kept me laughing. He managed to completely invert himself in the play place (above left) and elephants are his favorite animal (below right).

Hello Olive Class

Yes, my new class is called Olive Class, and I don't even like olives. All of the classes at my new school are named after trees (maple, cherry, cedar, etc.). At first I didn't think trees compared to honorific abstract nouns like Excellence, Dream, and Courage, but Olive has started to grow on me. The kids each have an olive with their name on it velcroed to a felt tree on a wall in the classroom. If they have enough stars at the end of the day (awarded for good behavior), they get a sticker to put on their olive. Twenty stickers earns a prize. It is a class of Korean-age 6 year olds, which, to reiterate, is 4 or 5 in the Western world. Their English speaking abilities are actually much better than Excellence's were at the beginning of last year. All of them have had at least one year of English education prior to this year. Their reading abilities vary quite a bit. A few kids in my partner teacher's class (Pine) can't read at all, while a couple kids in each class can read most words they encounter. The Korean education system is very intense from day one (and it is thoroughly reinforced by a "Tiger Mother" in each and every house), so it is very important that the five year olds that I teach will be able to read and write in English by the time I'm done.

And now to introduce the kids. Behold, Olive Class:

Lynn (left) and James (right).

Emma (left) and Jennifer (right).

Junho (left) and Sooah (right).
















Dorothy (left) and Dongha (right)



















Nate (left) and Michelle (right). You can see the olive tree next to Nate.

Olive Class had a very tough act to follow, but they are rising to the occasion. While they are a year younger, their English abilities are a year or two more advanced than Excellence's were at this time. Thus, I would say that their attention spans are roughly equal. The same cannot be said for Pine Class, whose attention spans are non-existent for the most part. So far the fundamental difference between 6 year olds and 7 year olds is the ability to hold on to the pencil. While 7 year olds certainly have not acquired the skills of seasoned pencil-holding veterans, they clearly are more than mere amateurs. A 6 year old classroom, on the other hand, is a cacophonous symphony of pencils hitting the tile floor.

First Field Trip

We've actually been on three field trips, but I only brought my camera along for the first one. Our first field trip was to a fire department. The kids got to put on firefighting gear, spray water guns, and go down a giant slide-like chute.

Next weekend is a long one due to a national holiday on Monday. I will spend the three days visiting Gyeongju, a city in southern Korea that served as the capital of the ancient Silla Dynasty. It's a historic city with lots to do, so when I finally get around to my next post, I will have a lot to say.

Christmas in Bali and the Gilis

Christmas in Paradise

After spending our first two vacations in sightseeing mode, Antonio, Alexa, and I decided to switch gears for winter vacation. We decided that we wanted to spend some time beach bumming, and, after considering a few different options, landed on Bali. Bali is a small island in Indonesia known for beaches, parties, and surfers, but also temples and rice terraces. Our flight departed Christmas Eve Day.

Indonesia is like no other country I have visited so far. I'm sure there are parts of China that are comparable, but thus far I have only been to Beijing (and mostly the touristy part of Beijing at that). The airport was the smallest I have been to and featured Balinese Hindu architecture. After getting through customs, we booked an airport taxis to ensure that we would not be ripped off. The ride to our hotel was illuminating. We drove through Kuta, which is like a maze of concrete development (for the tourists) and shanties (for many of the locals). Traffic is terrible during certain hours, but mostly because there is no real planning that went into the construction of the small city. The most common form of transportation for the Balinese was a moped. Often, we spotted entire families on the mopeds or women driving with babies strapped to their backs.

After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we headed to the beach to catch the sunset. This proved to be a wise decision, as it was the only sunset we saw the whole trip. It was "rainy season" in Indonesia, which means that the late afternoon and evening is mostly overcast, and that there is usually 1-2 hours of rain a day. After snapping a few pictures, we headed off for Christmas Eve dinner at a Balinese restaurant. It was decorated with wreaths and small Christmas trees, and the waiters all wore Santa hats or reindeer ears. This looked extremely out of place and tacky, but it did not detract from the meal. We split satay, one of Indonesia's most famous dishes, for an appetizer. It consists of roasted chicken skewers covered and/or dipped in peanut sauce. I had a scrumptious pork dish for my main course. Indonesia is a Muslim country, but Bali is a Hindu island (for reasons I'll explain later), so pork is actually very common.

We headed back to our hotel, relaxed for a while, then went to sleep. The next day we were off to the Gili Islands.

Gilis

The Gili Islands are three small islands off the coast of Lombok (the closest major island east of Bali). Gili means "island," so Gili Islands is redundant. The islands are known for pristine beaches, coral reefs, and a more laid back atmosphere than Bali. There are no cars or paved roads on any of the islands, so if you want to get around you have to flag down a pony and buggy driver. We stayed on Gili Trawangan, the largest and most populated of the three. When we arrived the skies were clear and sunny, the water blue, and the sand white. Our first day was the best day for beach bumming, as it was the only day where the rain was held off all day. We relaxed at the beach for a while, reading, sunbathing, and swimming in the warm water.

After relaxing on the beach, we decided to walk around the entire island and explore. Most of the touristy hotels and restaurants are on the east side of the island, with the some laid back bungalows in the north. The west side is also mostly beach, but the beach is smaller and not as nice as the east. The center and south of the island have countless palm plantations, which I assume are for extracting palm oil (the most common oil in the world). On our journey around the island we came across a beach side restaurant offering a private sunset BBQ. This seemed like the closest thing to a Christmas dinner that we would find, so we made reservations.

After our stroll around the island, we headed back to the restaurant. We decided to take a shortcut through the middle of the island to save time. The map wasn't accurate, so our shortcut wound up being a detour because we got lost. But the middle of the island gives you a glimpse into what life is like for many of the locals, who despite the hoards of tourists remain impoverished. Many of them live in slum-like conditions with chickens roaming around their plots. Some were lucky enough to have a goat. While there are hints of a middle class, many of the people lived in homes like the one below.

As our detour passed by the homes of the locals, I felt guilty. The dirt paths we traversed went right up to some of their houses, and it was apparent that they did not have much. Despite their poverty though, the locals were some of the friendliest people out there. Many waved at us or shouted out English phrases that they had learned. If I were in their shoes, I might come to resent the hoards of tourists who come to my island to indulge. The people seemed very welcoming though and were surprised to see tourists near their homes (most visitors stay along the coast). The glimpse into what life was really like on the islands was truly fascinating.

After our brief detour, we arrived at the restaurant, which was more like a kitchen with seating on the beach. They had fired up a grill for us and quickly brought us our food and some sangria. The dinner included burger patties, potatoes, tuna steaks, chicken satay, and a few other dishes that I have since forgotten. We grilled the food ourselves and enjoyed our beach side Christmas dinner.

Snorkeling

The highlight of the trip to the Gilis was the snorkeling trip we took the day after our arrival. The rain held off for the morning and early afternoon, giving us a full day to enjoy the reefs and marine life. For a small price we were herded onto a glass bottom boat and packed shoulder to shoulder next to 25-30 fellow snorkelers. The crowded boat was another example of something that we fret about in the west but the developing world doesn't think twice about. They need the money, so they pack the boats like sardine cans without worrying about class action lawsuits. We "splurged" and bought a $30 waterproof disposable camera, but it was the best purchase of the entire trip. The pictures we took tell the story better than I could.

Antonio managed to see three turtles, but Alexa and I only saw one. Luckily, I hand the camera ready and captured it with a great shot.

After two more increasingly rainy days spent beach bumming, enjoying happy hours under pavilions during torrential downpours, and nursing stomachaches, we headed back to Bali. Now would be a good time to explain how we got from Bali to the Gilis and back. There were two options. A slow boat that took 8 hours, or a fast boat that took 2 hours. Each provided transportation from and to your hotel on Bali. We opted to pay a little more for the fast boat to save time. On the way there it was smooth sailing and sunny skies. The way back was another story. A storm had just passed and the waters were rough.

The ride began nicely enough, and I enjoyed one of the two complementary croissants that the boat service provided. Once we left the relatively calm waters surrounding the island, the waves started to get bigger. It started out like an amusement park ride. Antonio and I were laughing and having a grand ol' time. After about 15 minutes, however, it was like an amusement park ride that had been going for, well, 15 minutes. Then the waves started to get bigger and it was like an amusement park ride that you wished someone would turn off. The guy in the row next to me puked. I tried to fight it off for as long as I could, but with each wave my stomach dropped further. After opening the window didn't help, I muttered that I needed a bag to Alexa. She flagged down the staff, and I got one just in time. Alexa isn't comfortable on the open water, so after a few rough patches she was the first to put on her life vest. After several thuds which featured the boat smacking down on the water after hitting a big wave and one wave that went over the boat, most of us had joined her.

Bali

Most of our remaining four days in Bali were spent alternating between the pool and the beach at our resort (we found a guy on Craigslist who lives in one of the rooms and rents out the other at heavily discounted rates). There's not much to describe there, so I'll devote most of the remainder of this post to the one day we hired a driver to see some sights in the island's interior.

Falls

The first stop on our private tour was at Tegenungan Falls in the jungle. It's not the most famous waterfall on the island, but it fit nicely into our itinerary.

Monkey Forest

After a brief stop at the falls, we headed to Ubud, a small artsy village surrounded by a sea of rice paddies and jungle. The main attraction was the monkey forest, a jungle temple swarming with monkeys. The monkeys are viewed as scared at this site, and because they are not ever harmed, they are extremely friendly.

The stone paved path meanders around the temples and through some heavily-vined trees. The monkeys climb over anything and everything in sight. The monkey colony had everything you would expect from a human society: nurturing parents (one mother grabbed her baby's tail and refused to let it run off), violence and conflict (two monkeys fought over some food), and sex (one male monkey chased a female monkey, who clearly did not want to bear his offspring, until she tired and let him take care of business for about 10-15 seconds). Sidebar: apparently even ancient Hindus thought masturbation jokes were funny (see monkey statue below).

The monkeys are so used to tourists that they are completely fearless. Alexa tried to film one up close, so it climbed onto her knee and started to grab her camera.

After visiting the monkey forest we stopped briefly for a particularly scenic view of the rice terraces that the island is so famous for.

Mount Batur

Lunch was the next stop on the tour, and our guide took us to a restaurant that overlooked Mt. Batur, an active volcano. It must be a stop on all of the guided tours because they had prepared a buffet spread and (as we later found out) the prices were jacked up. The view stunning though.

After lunch we stopped in the nearby village of Batur to visit the temple there. Each village has its own temple (in fact, our guide informed us that each practicing Hindu is supposed to to have some sort of temple on his home), so you literally can't visit the island without seeing dozens of temples. As I previously mentioned, Indonesia is a Muslim country (After all, our terrorist Muslim President spent his youth studying at madrasas there). I asked our guide why Bali was able to maintain its Hindu heritage. He explained that the Muslims conquered the large island of Java (home to most of the country's population) and drove the Hindus to Bali where they remain to this day.

Tanah Lot

The final stop on our tour was the most scenic temple on the island, Tanah Lot. This seaside cliff temple is the most iconic of any of Bali's temples. If you visit at low tide you can walk out to the temple, but we had heard it was more impressive to visit at high tide when the temple is an island amidst clashing waves.

New Year's Eve

After another day of beach bumming, it was time for New Year's Eve. We began the night at a restaurant famous for "Volcano Pizzas." It actually wasn't the only pizza I consumed during the trip. Wood oven pizzas are a specialty of the generator-reliant Gilis. The Volcano Pizza, however, was a different animal entirely. The double crusted pizza is pumped full of air as it bakes. Then, the waiter brings it to your table, pours a shot in the middle, and lights up the whole thing. After dinner we relaxed at our room for a while before heading back to Kuta (the concrete zoo from the first night). We ushered in the new year at a four story club, complete with dancers twirling fire rings.

The last day was uneventful, spent poolside finishing our vacation reading and getting ready to go to the airport. As many of you know, I am staying in Korea for one more year and have started to work at a new school. My next post will be about the transition, saying goodbye, and my new group of kids.