Hiroshima

Atom Bomb Dome (Peace Dome), Hiroshima

We arrived in Hiroshima the in the evening, having said goodbye to the rabbits on Okunoshima earlier that day. I immediately liked the feel of the city which was a little old fashioned and slow. The train station was smaller than Osaka or Kyoto and full of elementary students in sailor uniforms. The students matched all the way down to their socks and up to their floppy hats.

Hiroshima is one of the few places in Japan that still has a street car system rather than a subway. Following the directions to our hostel, we got on one of the Hiroden line cars (1, 2, 6). We were taking the Hiroden line to Hacchoubori, where we needed to transfer to the Hakushima line. One quirk of the Hiroshima trolley system was the presence of uniformed conductors walking up and down the aisles asking people if they needed change. In order to transfer we paid for the ride on the Hiroden line and told the driver "To Hakushima, please," so he would give us a transfer card. The Hakushima line was very small, so we sat by the driver and watched him direct the trolley via a large switchboard.

Our hostel in Hiroshima, Guesthouse Roku, was wonderful — one of my favorite places we stayed. The guesthouse was in a traditional Japanese house and when we arrived the staff were chatting in the screened porch which doubled as dining room and bar. They were all very friendly and invited us to come down and have a drink after we got settled in.

View from my bunk at Guesthouse Roku. It was such a gorgeous old-style house and very comfortable too.

Narrow hallways at Guesthouse Roku.

That night we went out to taste Hiroshima's famous food — Okonomiyaki! For those of you who don't know, Okonomiyaki is a large layered pancake grilled in front of you on a giant steel slab. The basic ingredients are batter, shredded cabbage and green onions and from there anything goes. Common variations include seafood like squid or shrimp, other grilled meat, cheese, rice cake, vegetables or all the preceding. Delicious!

We only planned one full day in Hiroshima, so the next day we left early to see the Hiroshima Peace Museum soon after it opened at 9am. They day was alternately bright and drizzling as we walked through the Peace Park. The Atomic Bomb Dome was undergoing renovation when we visited, but was still impressive. Next to the Dome are photographs showing Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped and just days after. In the second picture, the dome is easily located as a single building in a field of rubble.

Anyone visiting Hiroshima and anyone interested in peace or war should visit the monument and the museum there. Using photos, artifacts, recreations and interviews the museum tells the story of that one day and its aftermath. The tone is never accusatory or angry, but documents the horrific results of the atomic bomb. Walking through the exhibits I felt that no distopian wasteland could be more terrible than the personal accounts I was reading. I learned that although the bomb did a lot of damage when it detonated equally terrible were the fires created from the reverse wind of the bomb.

We left the museum sobered, but also impressed by our interactions with the staff and volunteers who really seem committed to promoting peace around the world.

WINTER VACATION: 11 days in Japan

Citron Ramen, Osaka

This winter after finishing my Korean course at SNU I had to return to school for one week in February as the 3rd grade students (9th grade in the U.S.) graduated from middle school. After moving back into my apartment in Daegu and saying goodbye to my wonderful 3rd graders it was off again to meet my friend, C, in Cheonan (a city right below Seoul) before traveling to Japan together.

We had scheduled 11 days there during what is known in Korea as 'spring break' — a three week period after graduation and before the start of the new school year in March. We chose to purchase the Japan Rail Pass as we wanted to see as much as possible without worrying too much about transportation. It was absolutely worth it and easily paid for itself during our time there. We bought the 14 day pass and I highly recommend it to anyone traveling in Japan. The high speed trains were efficient, clean and comfortable and with the rail pass we could choose to reserve a seat on trains going almost anywhere in Japan or simply show up and find a seat in the unreserved car. This saved us a lot of time and we never had to worry about getting seats or missing our train. The only drawback was reserving tickets which had to be done at a Japan Rail train station, but even there the staff were very helpful. Finally, the pass also let us ride free on city subway lines owned by Japan Rail in Kyoto and in Tokyo — a huge time and money saver.

Our schedule was split into several sections:

• First, we arrived in Osaka (Kansai Airport) and took the train that night to Kyoto. We spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Kyoto, leaving on the 3rd day for the south.
• From Kyoto we took a variety of trains to reach Tadanoumi a tiny town above Hiroshima from which we could take a ferry to Okunoshima, also known as rabbit island.
• After visiting rabbit island, we continued on to Hiroshima where we spent 2 nights and 1 full day. 
• From Hiroshima we took the high speed train north to Yokohama (the second largest city of Japan, which sits just below Tokyo). There we met a friend of C's who was enrolled in a year-long intensive Japanese program at the language institute there. We spent 3 days in Yokohama and Tokyo.
• Next we took the train north-west to Nagano where we caught a further, local train followed by a bus to Shibu Onsen, a traditional onsen (hot spring bath) resort town. We stayed there just one night, making time to visit Jigokudani Yaenkoen, the only place in the world where monkeys relax in hot springs, and time to enjoy the hot spring-fed baths ourselves. 
• We returned to Yokohama and Tokyo for just one day before heading back to Osaka to complete our trip.

The trip was a lot of fun and a good balance between seeing the history, pop culture and natural features of Japan. I will focus in on a few of the highlights in further posts.

JANUARY 2015: Seoul National University

I began the new year by moving to Seoul for a month of language training at Seoul National University, Korea's highest ranking universities and one of the 'SKY' schools (SNU, Korea U, Yonsei U) to which high school students aspire. There are a wide range of options for Korean classes in Seoul, but I chose SNU due to its January schedule and a friend's recommendation.

Seoul National University Campus

Winter sunrise on our way to class

Overall I was pleased with the rigor and organization of the course. There were around 10 people in my class from a wide range of countries, some living in Korea and others visiting just for this class. We met five days a week from 9:00 - 1:00. Everyday we covered a chapter of the textbook, each of which included 3-4 grammar points. That means over the course of our 3 weeks we covered: the entire textbook, 6o hours of class time and ~24 grammar points. During this time we were required to complete daily homework and quizzes, write and perform two dialogues, write and perform a five minute presentation and a final written and oral exam. We were kept constantly busy by the class hours and homework — so much so that I believe it took the rest of the semester for all the lessons learned to sink in.

Our group photo at the final class of the course. Our teacher gave us all little captions. Mine says: Korean is easy! (If only, haha...)

Me and oori seonsaengnim (our teacher)

In the meantime, my friend and I were sharing a small one-room apartment in 고시촌 (goshichon), literally a village of goshiwons (cramped, cheap rooms often rented out to students and those preparing for tests). Our building sat at the top of a steep hill, so steep that when it iced over, as it does in the winter in Seoul (it was a horrible cold winter) it was almost impossible to walk up or down. Still, we were in a mecca of cheap food and warm cafes. Every morning we took the bus 15 minutes to SNU and after class, took the bus another 15 minutes to the Seoul University Subway Station. Conveniently located on Seoul's circle line, the green line, the subway could take us anywhere we wanted to go (usually, after class, to lunch).

Looking down the hill, just try to glimpse the end

Half the reason I chose to do this course was my desire to live in Seoul, just for one month. I wanted to be a Seoulite, a Seoul saram (Seoul person). Instead of taking a vacation in Seoul I really felt like a student, finding time to cross the city and meet friends between homework sessions and late dinners. I was happy to see Yumin several times during this month. Together we traveled all the way into the suburbs to visit the set of 별에서 온 그대 (Byeol eseo on geudae, My Love from the Stars) a wildly popular Korean drama from the winter before. Although parts of the exhibit were campy, being able to walk through the luxurious set apartments (actually used in the drama) was a lot of fun.

In Do Min Joon's apartment, sitting where Kim Su Hyun sat

I also got to know some of the students in my Korean class and together we went to our first cat cafe! It was amazing to meet such a global group, all learning Korean for very different reasons. Some people were there for school, others for vacation, for their job or even because they were married to someone Korean.

NEW YEAR ARRIVING

December 31, 2014

Homigeot Beach, Pohang

I woke up at 4am in a motel near the bus terminal in Pohang, an industrial harbor city on Korea's eastern coast. I had arrived the night before after finishing my last day of work before the holidays. My friend who I was traveling with had come to Pohang a few days before to visit the school where she taught the year before.

Pohang's most famous feature is a statue of two hands, one on the land, one in the water, reaching out towards each other across space. Located at the easternmost jut of the eastern coast, every year hundreds of people swarm the area, even camping out, to see the first sunrise of the new year filtered through the statue's fingers.

That morning we hopped in a taxi, joining a long line of cars all heading to Homigeot, the little edge of land where the sunrise festival is held. We were both exhausted from our schedules and the taxi driver kept telling us how overcast it was, that we wouldn't be able to see anything anyways. Eventually the cars came to a halt and the driver dropped us off on the stand-still highway. All around us people wearing layers of hats, coats and blankets were streaming out of cars, walking in a long procession along the road to the shore.

It was still dark then, with only a hint of light filtering over the horizon, and bitterly cold. My friend and I had dressed in long underwear, wool socks, leggings, sweaters, coats, scarves, hats and gloves, but the sharp winds along the embankment ripped through everything. Impossibly, the winds came from every direction, threatening to tear off blankets, scarves and knock children over.

As we approached the main square where the statues were the space became ever more crowded. Here we saw families who had rigged their vans and cars as sleepers and spent the night there, waiting. There were even some tents, though I have no idea how they could have stayed warm enough through the night.

The main square was too crowded and instead we wandered down onto the embankment rocks where we could settle in and have a clear view of the lightening sky. Around us people were singing, talking, yelling. Ours toes went numb and our eyes kept watering in the wind. Suddenly, the sky became blindingly bright as the sun split off from the sea. The clouds our taxi driver had chided us about had cleared away. A countdown rippled across the hundreds of people gathered on the coast and the sun rose.

Eventually everyone dispersed — to cars, to restaurants, to events happening in the park. My friend and I ran into a restaurant to de-thaw with a huge haemul jjim, spicy steamed seafood. Torn up by the wind, by our tiredness, the rest of the day was very quiet. We stayed at the beach until well into the afternoon getting coffee on the second floor overlooking the sea. The other families and couples around us seemed in quiet good spirits as well, taking selfies at the window and unwinding.

In Korea, as in other places, you make a wish for the new year. I don't remember now what I wished for seeing those first few rays, but I feel whatever it was, it has been fulfilled in so many ways through the time I had this spring, time to relax, explore and build friendships without the pressure of the future.

DISCO PANG PANG

I know I recently wrote a very long post, trying to bring this blog up to date after my summer lethargy. However! I couldn't wait a decent amount of time to tell you about Disco Pang Pang because it is just too good. Just listen to the name.

The first time I heard Disco Pang Pang I thought it was the least descriptive Konglish name I'd yet encountered. Actually, once you have seen a Disco Pang Pang you know that it is exactly as it sounds.

Disco Pang Pang is a phenomenon hidden in the alleys of every Korean city from the suburbs to the Seoul. An arcade hall filled a single heavily padded and colored amusement ride. Middle to High School girls flock here to pay 4,000W (about $4) to spend rather too long bouncing and spinning to everything from Disco to Kpop. It's a pretty traditional amusement ride except that there are no seat belts and the main job responsibility of the workers seems to be to tease the customers with witty (or not so witty) banter.

I swear all the workers were cackling as a large group of foreigners wandered into the Disco Pang Pang arena. The whole thing was hilarious and oddly fun. We sat on the couch-like seats along the edge of the circular Pang Pang and held on tightly to the surrounding railing as it spun and bounced. The name made a lot more sense as people went flying, pang! pang! pang! into the air. The ride conductor, almost definitely a high school student, kept stopping the ride to interview us — "Where are you from? What is your name? Very handsome." My name must have been easy to remember because I spent the rest of the ride listening to cries of "Josepin! I love you!" Probably one of the more bizarre experiences I have had so far. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not going back.

FALL HOLIDAYS

It's nice to check in after a long time. I've been enjoying the new semester at Dongdo Middle School and getting back into life in Korea. Living in an apartment has taken some getting used to, but after some time I now look forward to coming back to my home after school, turning on the rice cooker and settling down to do a little work or watch some tv.

We've had several holidays since I've been back at school. First in September we had Chuseok, a Korean harvest festival during which many Korean families perform ancestral rites and eat a lot of food together. Then last week we had a three day weekend and this week I haven't gone in to school at all due to a combination of midterm exams and vacation days. 

When Chuseok came around back in September I was in the middle of studying for the GRE subject test in literature. I had no spare brain space to make any plans for the long weekend and was, in fact, still unpacking some of my bags. Instead of making plans I sent my host mom a text message that Sunday asking her if there was some time I could come visit that week. I got the reply right away, "We are at home today! Come any time!" I hadn't been expecting to go quite so soon, but grabbed my purse and went straight to Dong Daegu train station. Chuseok is a notoriously bad time for traveling because everyone is trying to go see their families. However, the train station was not bad and after 40 minutes of loitering in the cafe car I found myself back in Gumi and catching the familiar bus to Shinpyeong. I spent the afternoon there with my host mom and sisters, watching tv, eating ceremonial food and peeling various vegetables. It was as if I had never left. I went home that evening, but they invited me back for a big lunch the next day. This time I was able to see my host cousins. Jun Hyun has started going to an English hagwon and his parents wanted to show off his new English skills. "Long time no see." He followed this up with a long litany of baseball teams and body parts: "Lions, Twins, Elbow, Eagles, Hand." I tried playing tag with the boys outside, but it was beastly hot and they talked me into buying ice cream instead. In the CU I wondered what the cashier thought as a random foreigner argued with two young boys in broken Korean. No, you have to choose one, the juice or the ice cream; no I am not buying you gum as well. It was sweet seeing them all again, seeing how sedately their lives go on.

The next three day weekend found me back in Gumi again, this time to see my friends. I had been meaning to get back to board game club for some time because I had a new game I wanted to try out "Resistance." Basically it sounded like a more intense version of mafia and great for a large group. In fact, it was both those things. However, it was also a terrible game to play with a highly competitive group of friends. After two rounds we really needed to unwind and finished the night by playing drinking games while watching The Room. I love cozy nights like this, surrounded by people I like. Nights like this can be hard to come by living alone in a foreign country, but I've been so lucky in all the people I've met here. 

I stayed over with my friends that night because the next day we were all going to the LG Dream Festival. As the name implies it's a celebration of LG including a local talent show ("Dreams do come true") and culminating in a big name KPop concert. We arrived at the stadium around 1pm in order to grab prime seats. It was a perfect day to be outside with a clear bright sun shining over the edge of the stadium walls. It was a real festival atmosphere with a booths selling fried foods, stilt walkers making balloon animals, carnival games to win packs of ramen and robot exhibitions by LG. We lounged our way through the afternoon performances which began at 4pm. Then began waiting anxiously for the Kpop to arrive. There was a long, patriotic rally for LG which promised to be interminable, except that the staff began handing out giant paper lanterns to members of the crowd to send into the sky. I've been wanting to send off one of these lanterns ever since I saw a picture of Taiwanese New Year's celebrations. One of my friends made a commotion and we soon got a lantern. It was about the size of a medium size suitcase, made of pale paper with a thin wire base where a piece of unburning paper provided the fuel. We held it together on all sides. It was much harder to do than I expected as the wind threatened to collapse the dome and sent sprays of hot fire licking around our hands. I saw smoke rising around the crowd and several people had their lanterns taken away in flames. However, as a gust of wind tugged the lantern we agreed "Let it go!" and sent it off into the air. We watched it rise up over the crowd, past the floodlights until it disappeared. My friend thought it crashed, but I think it just floated further than we could see. Hundreds of lanterns were still being raised around the stadium. One didn't catch a big enough burst of wind and went skimming over the heads of the crowd until one brave high schooler pushed it further up into the air. 

Later we saw Vixx, BAP, AOA and B2ST. Each group performed three or four of their most popular songs and did a short interview for the crowd. None of the groups were my favorite, but seeing them was still a lot of fun and the dancing was awesome. I knew somewhere in the crowd my host sister was going crazy. BAP is her favorite, favorite group and she got special tickets close to the stage just to see them. 

In a quick turnaround I met up with two of my Fulbright friends in Busan the day after the concert for the Busan International Film Festival. I missed this festival last year and knew I couldn't miss it again after hearing stories from my friends who had gone. Perhaps one of my favorite things about now living in Daegu, I was able to take the KTX (Korea's high speed train, 300km/hr) from Dong Daegu Station to Busan in just about 45 minutes. It took about another hour on the subway to meet my friends and then we bought tickets for that day: a Korean film called Venus Talk and a Vietnamese film called Gentle. Both movies were showing in the Shinsegae theater at Centum City, the largest shopping mall in Asia. Venus Talk turned out to be a Korean style Sex and the City following three middle aged women as they navigate their increasingly complicated sex lives. My friends and I loved it. After the showing the director and three main actresses came on stage for an interview and photo shoot. 

The second movie was darker and more experimental. The director was born in Vietnam, but raised all his life in America. When he was 26 he went back to visit Vietnam for the first time and since then has spent a great deal of time there. The movie we saw, Gentle, was his third film made in Vietnam. It was based on a short story by Dostoevsky in which a widower reminisces over his married life while sitting next to his wife's corpse. The wife has committed suicide and throughout the movie the widower reveals the ways in which his own arrogance and weakness led to her death. Like any good Dosteovesky story it is subtle and full of religion. Interestingly, the director told us that reading this story for the first time he had such a strong sense that it was a Vietnamese story that he had to make the film. 

After all the movies and interviews it was late enough for dinner. We went back to our hostel so I could drop off my backpack and got dinner at one of the nearby grill restaurants where we ate some mediocre beef. Then we hung out on the beach listening to the live music that must have been part of the festival. On the beach with the wind it was very cold. Eventually we met up with some other fulbrighters and talked for a long time before heading to bed. 

Our final day in Busan we checked out of the hostel and got tickets for one more movie: a Spanish film called Magical Girl which we hoped would be quirky and charming. It was anything but. Although it opened as promised with the daughter, dying of leukemia and her obsession with the Japanese anime character Yukiko, the relationship of father and daughter soon became a secondary concern of the film as the diegesis focused further and further on the bizarre woman Barbara who the father attempts to blackmail in order to buy his daughter a magical girl outfit. The plot which had sounded so goofy at first vacillated between implied sexual abuse, the corruptions of the spanish government, mental illness and prostitution. We left the theater feeling stunned and a bit trampled. 

To cure ourselves we went to Spaland, my favorite place in Busan, where we ate lunch at the spa restuarant, nearly fell asleep in the relaxtion rooms, soaked in the baths and received full body scrubs from professional ajummas in black lace lingerie. It was my first time getting the full body scrub and it. was. great. It was like getting a massage except at the same time I could see beads of dead skin rolling off of my body in great swirls. I can't tell if my skin is more glowing now, but it does feel marvelously smooth. After our scrubs we rinsed once again and parted ways.

The rest of this week has been wonderfully restful. On Monday I visited my old school in Gumi. I had a kalguksu lunch with Jung Nam Suk and my ajumma friends, practiced my Korean and gossiped over coffee. That evening I went back to Daegu for my first NKD meeting of the semester. Wednesday was Club Day for our school so I joined my coteacher, Hyeon Young, and her club class to make choco muffins. I worked with the third graders who were very silly. We ended the afternoon at Beomeo Library where I found a really wonderful collection of English books. I don't have a library card yet, but I sat down that afternoon and, with no classes Thursday or Friday, read The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Looking forward to visiting that place much more often in the future. 

TAKE 2

Back in Korea I’ve moved into a new apartment and will start my teaching duties today. It’s been extremely busy since arriving in Korea, staying at Jungwon University to meet the new ETAs and yesterday traveling to Daegu with my co-teacher and principal. Just dashing out a quick note to say I’m back. I renewed my Fulbright grant at Dong-do Middle School, a highly ranked middle school in Daegu. Moving into a new apartment is harder than I remembered. Shopping on my own after getting the apartment code I was overwhelmed by the number of things needed to set up a life: bedding, dishes, cooking utensils (so many!). I didn’t even buy food in the end because I had exhausted myself agonizing over frying pans and the high prices of cotton bed sheets. 

Trials of living alone aside I have felt and feel almost ecstatic to be back in Korea and especially to be back in Korea with these people. This weekend I was so impressed and warmed by my class of renewees and the new ETAs. I was reminded in Goesan (the small town where orientation takes place) how breathtaking Korea is. It has been a raining, misty kind of week here. Monsoon season is supposed to be over, but no one told the weather. Walking outside the university we could watch as moisture seeped up from the ground and met the wetness in the sky. We watched the clouds get caught in the cups of mountains, lingering and growing to cover the entire valley in fog. Coming to Daegu, about a two and a half hour drive, we drove through three separate rain clouds, each one lasting only a few minutes. My co-teacher and principal both seem like kind people. On the way back we stopped at a roadside stand to by steamed corn, famous in the area. I am filled with the feeling that I am in the place where I should be.

FAMILY

I haven't checked in for quite a while and part of the reason behind this is that my family came to visit me in Korea. I was beyond thrilled and spent the better half of this semester masterminding a highly detailed 10 day itinerary for their trip.

I met them in Seoul on a Friday night and we stayed there until Sunday when we traveled to Gumi (my host city). In Seoul I mostly stuck to my favorite places — the National Museum, Insadong, Hongdae — but we also tried out a few new things. Best new discovery: the National Gugak Center (국립 국악원, gukrip gugakwon) has 1 hour live concerts of traditional Korean music every Saturday at 3pm. The best part? The tickets cost as little as 10,000 won. We saw court music, scholars music, a contemporary jazz piece composed for the Korean bamboo flute and an energetic drum dance. The only downside? No pictures allowed. 

Galbi (grilled marinated beef) dinner with my family and host family!
From left to right: My dad, host mom, Chaerin (host sister), Saeran (host sister), host aunt, host cousin, my brother, me, my mom, host grandma, host cousin

 We stayed in Gumi just two days as my family met my host family — a wonderful experience — and visited some of my classes. My students had to make questions for my parents. I can't decide which wins first prize: "Do you have a gun?" or "You're handsome, aren't you?" (directed to my father).

Busan night view, Haeundae beach, our first night

After Tuesday I was free for the week so we traveled to Busan, a nearby coastal city and also the second largest city in Korea. We stayed at Haeundae Beach, a popular tourist area, and took the City Tour Bus around to other landmarks like Taejongdae, Jagalchi Market and BIFF Square. If you've been to Busan, but haven't taken the City Tour I encourage you to do so. These double-decker buses (varying in quality from brand-new open-air to enclosed express bus style) will take you to every landmark in the city on a continuous figure-eight. For only 10,000 won you can get on and off as many times as you want, anywhere in the city all day. A great way to see a lot without struggling through a lot of subway or bus connections. 

Busan continued to drizzle, but we made the best of it

The other highlight of Busan has to be Spaland. We went to Spaland on the 7th day of our travels when everyone was starting to get grimy and correspondingly annoyed. I love jimjilbangs and have been to a couple that match Spaland for number of different relaxation rooms, saunas, and baths, but while including all these things, Spaland is far and away the most beautiful jimjilbang I have ever been to. The only drawback is the time limit of 4 hours (which can be extended to 6 if you spend at least 10,000 won inside the spa). I was a bit nervous how my family would feel about the totally naked baths (gender segregated of course), but they all loved it. In fact later in the trip whenever we were feeling tired, someone would always say, "Why don't we go to a jimjilbang?

Cheomseongdae, a Silla dynasty observatory, Gyeongju

After Busan we traveled on to Gyeongju, a much smaller town which is nonetheless a huge tourist destination for its multitude of historical landmarks. I'm not sure what we might have done if it rained, but thankfully the weather held out and we went walking, bicycling and hiking everyday there. We were staying in a traditional (hanok) style guesthouse and the cozy atmosphere was just right for the end of our trip. Almost too cozy as at first we couldn't even find the place. It wasn't until we took a taxi, walked in the rain with our suitcases and were picked up by a kind Korean man that we managed to find the place. In fact, I just asked this man for directions on the street because he looked friendly, but he took us into his stationary store where he read our map with a magnifying glass and then offered to drive us there in his car. Although it wasn't a situation you want to deal with when traveling I'm really glad my family got to see how kind Koreans can be. 

Bicycling in Gyeongju 

Visiting the remains of a fortress, burned by invaders

Hiking Namsan, known for numerous buddhist statues and cliff carvings

Since it was my birthday right before they arrived, my family brought my present with them — a new digital camera. My old camera was falling apart and the new one has some very cool functions including a hybrid video/photo mode. I used this hybrid mode to film some highlights from our trip and put them together to make the video below. Hope you enjoy it!

Mid-March Blues and Yellows

Today was the first day I felt well enough to go to yoga in two weeks. Today was a beautiful day, a mid-April day. How can it be mid-April already? The afternoons are so warm here now, sunny and breezy. When I looked at my calendar I almost cried because there is so little time left. I'm ecstatic to be healthy (or almost healthy) again and I plan to stay this way for the rest of the grant year (knock on wood).

A lot has happened since mid-March but most of it involved me coughing, sneezing and oozing. The highlights include: seeing Lee Seung Chul live in concert with my host sisters! Lee Seung Chul has been popular for ages. His most recent single and one of my favorite noraebang songs is My Love. When my host sisters found out he was coming to Gumi they booked our tickets immediately — my first time ever as a VVIP. We were maybe 15 rows away from the stage and had a great time singing, dancing and waving flashing wands. At the end of the concert several ajummas (ladies of a certain age) stood on their chairs and refused to leave the hall, yelling "Oppa! Oppa!"(Oppa is the word Korean women use for an older male friend. Literally translated its meaning is close to 'older brother', but the word is equally appropriate when used to address an older boyfriend.)

At the concert these flashing star wands are almost obligatory.

The week after the concert the cherry trees blossomed letting us know spring is finally here to stay. I visited the Geumosan trail with my host mom to admire the flowers and take some pictures.

Just as I was starting to feel better it was time to fly to Jeju for our Fulbright Spring Conference. Weather there was windy, cold and bright. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco. It was good to see all the other ETAs again, even people who I hadn't spoken to since the last conference, and we had a great time exploring Jeju island. Unfortunately our last evening I got food poisoning, so getting back to school after conference was quite difficult. 

View from Halla Mountain in Jeju.

Catching up with friends :)

It was extremely windy and cool all weekend.

After several doctor's visits I'm finally over everything except some lingering allergies. I had been feeling down, thinking how much time I wasted being sick. However, looking back now I can see how many fun moments I've had in the last month despite feeling under the weather. It's an important lesson to remember as this grant year rushes to a close, often we are doing more than we believe. It's also a good reason to keep recording, here on the blog or in my journal, because sometimes it provides a more honest perspective than my memory.

On libraries, new beginnings, and eating alone

I have been trying to write about February. I wanted to tell you about this month that loomed so monumental in my mind while being in all other respects so minimal. February is a short month, an odd month, forced to change every now and then from 28 days to 29. It is the most abysmal month of winter in many places (I include Korea in that list) and the most difficult month to spell. Yet it is also the month of the Sochi Olympics, the month of Valentines day. February was the month of my middle school's graduation ceremony and the last month of our ample winter vacation. For me, this month had another meaning; for me this was the month to make it or break it.

I had a choice between living in Gumi with my host family for the month of February or living in Seoul, as many of my friends were doing. I chose, for a variety of reasons, to stay in Gumi and spend my time studying for the GRE and building relationships in my placement city. It was a difficult decision, no less because staying in Gumi meant self-managing my time, whereas in Seoul I would most likely have taken language classes. By staying in Gumi I wanted to test myself, to see how well I could sustain an energetic and productive life entirely on my own schedule.

Now, in early March I can say I did enjoy that time. I loved it. I had the freedom to study hard and the freedom to sleep. I had the time to visit friends and the time to read. I had the time to make new friends, to make new habits. Of course, not everything happens simply because you have enough time. Coming back to Korea from my visit to the States and my vacation in Taipei and Hanoi left me in the right mind to make the most of my time.

However, this time was not always pleasant. In the midst of my school's graduation, as I watched a performance of Apink's "No No No" and waved balloons for my favorite 3rd graders, my co-teacher leaned over and told me that 25 of our students were not at graduation. They had been banned for participating in the beating of several 2nd grade students just two days earlier. The news was both sad and shocking. Our school has always been rough around the edges, but I never expected something so intentionally brutal. At the same time I know that school gangs are a nation-wide problem in Korea and that for many students the choice might be between participating and suffering from bullying themselves. Over the next few days I discovered that, of the 2nd grade students, one had broken his collar bone, one had a ruptured ear drum and another had to have all his teeth moved back into place. In many ways, I became more anxious to return to school.

Saying goodbye to my other 3rd graders was sad in a very different way. I have about 245 students in the 3rd grade alone, so it's difficult to get to know any of them very well. I know I taught them only one semester and that only about 16 lessons. Of the few students who really shone and made my lessons exciting to teach, I had little belief that they would wish me a tearful goodbye and ask to stay in touch forever. Yet many students came over for a quick hug or a handshake. I was so touched that they wanted to say goodbye, especially those who told me they missed my class in the last few months.

Shortly after graduation I travelled to Seoul to visit my friends. I went twice in February. Once when I couldn't bear to study any longer and again as soon as I finished the GRE. Having a place to stay in Seoul was wonderful (thank you friends!) and as my friends were all taking classes or doing internships during the day I had a lot of time to do the touristy things in Seoul that I hadn't had time for on other weekend trips. I went twice to the National Museum of Korea, whose smoky paintings captured a facet of Korean life new to me. The museum is truly spectacular with three stories of art and artifacts from prehistory to the modern era and entirely free. In my two visits I have only conquered two of the three floors, but I was able to see the evolution of Korean calligraphy, Korean paintings — from portraits, to landscapes, to insect studies —, a re-created 'sarangbang' or Korean scholar's study and artifacts from every kingdom of Korea up to the Japanese occupation. I highly recommend a visit to anyone who will be in Seoul.

Beyond museums I spent time in cafes from the college areas of Hongdae and Idae to the tourist-turned-artistic-area of Insadong. Around Insadong I also visited the Hanok village, an area of Seoul where traditional Korean houses (circa. the Joseon Era I believe) have been preserved and are still lived in. It happened to be warm and sunny on this day, and the streets — which ask tourists to be quiet in respect for the residents — were full of screaming school children. Later I met some old friends for dinner in Myeongdong, a popular shopping neighborhood, and visited the new Seoul Museum of Modern Art, which was having a free night. Although it's not the same as living in the city, I was able to do a lot on my visits, so I now feel very comfortable in Seoul and have crossed a lot of items off my bucket list.

In Gumi school has started again. Some things are new, some are not, but the greatest change is in my confidence as a teacher. It has only been a week, but I feel that I have stepped up my game on all levels of teaching, from lesson planning to execution to classroom management to connecting with students outside of class. It has only been a week, but I have really good feelings for this semester. I again have about 700 students — 7 classes of 3rd graders, 7 classes of 2nd graders and 6 classes of 1st graders. My returning students have been surprisingly polite in class. Not sure if this is due to our continued rapport, my new classroom management plan, or some strain of first week shyness. The new 1st graders are a joy to teach. They are so eager to participate and several of the classes I've seen so far seem to be quite high level. I also have a new co-teacher for my 1st grade students who I like very much. She is both kind and efficient. I'm excited about what we can do with our classes for the rest of the semester.

I've made a few lifestyle changes for the new semester as well. I joined a gym halfway through February and have been going everyday when I can. I'm really enjoying the classes there. After a yoga class I always find my mood and motivation lifted. I've also decided to stop volunteering at the Hana Center in Daegu. This was a difficult decision to make since I really enjoyed working with my mentee and the community feeling of the center. However, commuting to Daegu once a week while working a full teaching schedule was a strain on my time and my relationships with my host family. This semester I am adding a club class to my teaching schedule, bringing my teaching hours up to 22 a week. With the added prep time and knowing my difficulty in commuting last semester I just couldn't commit to doing the program again in the spring. It would be unfair on everyone else involved for me to commit when I was unsure I could fully participate. If I stay in Korea another year, without the obligations of a host family, it is something I hope I would be able to return to.

However, whether I will be in Korea past this July is still undecided and as such I am suddenly pressed upon by the many things I have yet to do here. It's for this reason that I want to keep my weekends this semester free. If last semester I was committed to getting my bearings in Gumi, this semester I hope to roam more. I had an epiphany of sorts this February while visiting Seoul. As I said, I had a lot of alone time there as well as a lot of time in the evenings talking to my friends. But it was while I was sitting, eating alone in the restaurant of the National Museum of Korea, looking forward to drinking wine with my friends later in the evening when we were all done with our work, that I realized this is what I want to do with the rest of my semester. If during the week I am 100% committed to my school, during the weekends I want to commit myself 100% to teaching myself. I had such a feeling of comfort in my solitariness then — full of the pleasure of intellectual pursuit and the sure knowledge of my kind friends waiting for me later. We're always a bit alone in Korea, even and despite the ever present circles of host family, school family and Fulbright family. Yet there are some moments of clarity when you can turn that aloneness into something new — freedom, comfort, a new discovery. Those are the moments I will cultivate this semester and those are the lessons I want to learn.

KOREAN WINTER: may you take many good things in the new year

I celebrated the start of my first Korean winter and the end of my first Korean semester by going home. As part of my contract I am only allowed to be in the U.S. for 14 days and I wondered whether the hours and money spent traveling would be worth it. However, I celebrated Christmas away from home once before, three years ago now, when I was studying abroad in the Netherlands. Three years ago when I met my dear friends from South Korea and three years ago when I said goodbye to all of them on New Years Day for what could have been the last time. It was a beautiful Christmas that year. I was staying with a friend in Vienna, had arrived with her in Vienna by night bus the morning of the 23rd. That day we went to every Christkindlmarkt in the city before traveling to her parent's house for Christmas Eve at their Catholic Church. Yet as lovely as it was I promised myself it would be the last Christmas I spent away from home.

That's why this year found me tucked away in St. Paul, sleeping, hanging ornaments, and helping my Dad prepare the Christmas pudding. My 14 days at home were entirely unexciting and in that way, quite perfect. I napped, drank tea, played cards and napped again. I was able to see some friends from high school and re-read The Golden Compass. It was all so peaceful I could hardly muster myself to leave. I had known that leaving again would be difficult. I was not prepared for the difficult happiness of returning, of hearing my host mother's voice on the phone in Incheon airport — "baliwa bogoshipo; hurry come, I miss you."

There are some moments, said Mrs. Dalloway, "exquisite moments...such as might stay a diver before plunging while the sea darkens and brightens beneath him." My brother has written a paper on Mrs. Dalloway, a book I have yet to read, but am starting now at his recommendation. I read his paper on the flight from Tokyo-Narita to Seoul-Incheon. It must have got me thinking because, sitting down on the provincial bus at 6:50 am, I felt such a moment as Mrs. Dalloway describes. Not as soon as I sat, but when, after beginning to move, the lights of the bus finally flickered off illuminating in the windows the dull-gray moving picture of the Korean countryside. I felt a sudden peace and excitement in the misty Han river, the blue glow of lights around the driver, the quiet breathing of passengers falling to sleep, and the warmth of the soles of my boots resting on the heater so that, though I have never understood people who prefer nighttime to the day, I hoped that the dawn might take its time.

The moment quoted from Mrs. Dalloway comes as said lady enters her house after buying flowers. For her also there is the sudden darkening of the world around her and below that the sense of the familiar. I had believed that my leaving Korea was a clear trade, that by seeing my family again I would make myself both happy and sad — happy at the time, but with a renewed sense of our distance on my return to Korea. I was unprepared to be accosted by a similar sense of joy in reuniting with the things that make up my Korea. Like Mrs. Dalloway entering her house, like someone in a suddenly darkened room I am discovering again what has become familiar, discovering the shape of my home in Korea. It is larger and more solid than I imagined — full of buses, phone calls, moments lost and moments gained.

SNAPSHOT NOVEMBER

This November I’ve been getting closer to my host family, my students and my friends here in Korea. Some of these moments I have caught on my phone, others not. Here is a sampling of the moments that have brightened my November days.

1. At Seonsan market with my host family my youngest host cousin became obsessed with this blanket. He wouldn’t leave it alone until the family bought it for him. Then he tried to carry it on his head through the whole market. When we finally tucked the blanket in our shopping bag he had to open the bag at each stop to make sure his blankie was still there.

2. A few weekends ago I went to Gwangju to see some friends and teach a lesson for the Korean Bridge Initiative (a non-profit that provides free English lessons for motivated, low-income students). The students were amazing — so intelligent and kind. Afterwards some students and teachers went out for lunch. Speaking with these students whose interests are so diverse and dreams so big encourages me to keep working hard on teaching everyday.

3. There is one coffee shop that I go to regularly in Gumi. I know both the baristas there very well by sight. Though we rarely talk, we have a rapport based on the smile and nod. Last time I was there one of the baristas brought me this latte and explained — it says “HI” to you. Perfect treat to make me smile all day.

4. November is also the time for our school field trip. I went with the second grade students to Geumo Mountain where we hiked and looked at the autumn leaves (단풍). My students had a lot of fun yelling in English and complaining that they were tired. I wish I could spend time with the students and teachers outside of class setting more often.

5. After hiking a mob of second grade girls came over and started asking me questions about the U.S. and about my life. The conversation ended with us taking many, many pictures together (though I only managed to snag this one where everyone is covering their face).





November can be a tough month as winds pick up and the sun sets sooner. I know I am giving thanks for heated floors, lemon tea and absorbing Korean Dramas. What are you thankful for this month?

GYEONGJU: CITY OF TOMBS

Two weekends ago I traveled to the city of Gyeongju for Fulbright's Fall Conference. The conference began Friday evening and ended with a closing dinner on Sunday night. Though the conference's main intent is for Fulbrighters to check in with cultural adjustment and share teaching trials and triumphs, its secondary role is to introduce us foreigners to the historical treasures of Gyeongju, the capital of the Silla dynasty. It is a city filled with giant hill-like tombs, ancient temples and palace grounds. The group spent all of Sunday on a bus tour of the city and saw less than half of its historical sites. Most impressive to me were the great tombs of kings and officials which sit beautifully preserved and alien-like around the city. Since my friend Sophia and I are not too far from Gyeongju we stayed later on Monday exploring the city center by bicycle (rented for only 10,000 Won for the day). It felt like the last beautiful day of fall, sunny and warm, but with an undeniable crispness on the breeze.

View of the lake outside our hotel. Gyeongju is one of those places most lovely in the fall.

Tombs of Gyeongju.

I found the simple tombs strangely beautiful and compelling.

Famous Hwangnam Bread Bakery, stumbled upon by mistake as we toured the city.

Piled stones at a temple. Reminded me of the stones piled on Jewish tombs in Poland.

The golden Buddha of Bulguksa Temple.

Entering Anapji Pond,  playground of the Silla kingdom.

Ready to bicycle, by Gyeongju's river.

Through city fields.

And such a beautiful sky.

Taken from the bicycle seat.