Up and coming events and such...

It's amazing how quickly my life here went from rather boring day-to-day (though granted fascinating on the weekends), to a rather full and scheduled existence. I now have plans 5 days a week - Sunday through Thursday I have something scheduled to do after work, from meeting with friends to Korean lessons. And of course on Friday and Saturday I'm usually with friends out and about in Seoul or Uijeongbu (not Oingo-Boingo!). This week/weekend will be no different - I had a lesson this evening, I go into Seoul tomorrow for my movie night, Wednesday is lunch with friends, Thursday is another lesson, and then this Saturday starts the Yeiodo Cherry Blossom Festival. I'll probably end up going into Seoul on Saturday morning, taking tons of pictures, meeting some friends that moved to Seoul for lunch, and then on to a rooftop party elsewhere in Seoul to see some people I haven't seen since the last rooftop party in October. And of course I have to be back home by Sunday night for another Korean lesson.

I'm also making small preparations to come back home. I'm looking into other jobs in Seoul to come back to in August or September (I've found a possible one that I'm praying I get - it's everything I wanted in a new job and the pay is amazing!), and trying to set dates and such for coming back. The current plan is to leave Korea at the end of June and be in the States around June 27th or 28th and fly into Georgia since my parents will be there for the summer. So any friends who may live in the Raleigh/Durham area - make a note on your calendar - I'd love to see you again! And then it's back down to Florida for a Bahamas cruise with the family, and catching up with friends in Tampa, Gainesville and Boca before it's time to fly back to the ROK.

A very accurate view of life as a foreigner in Korea - those pizza guys go 90mph on the sidewalk when the road is completely empty.

Spring and cleaning

I wasn't really doing a "Spring Cleaning" yesterday, per-sey; I was really just giving my apartment its much needed once-over. I usually do all of my cleaning on the weekends, as I'm tired when I get home from work and can't be bothered with silly things like laundry, dishes, and sweeping. So I let it pile up all week until the weekend, at which point it bothers me so much that I have to clean it all up. But for the last three weeks or so I've either been out of my apartment the entire weekend, or unable for whatever reason to actually clean it. Aside from the fact that my dishes had been sitting in the sink for way too long, I had never actually cleaned my apartment when I moved in.

Unlike back home in the States, where when you move in to a new place, it's assumed or required that it's either been cleaned thoroughly by the previous occupant or cleaned professionally by a service; in Korea you often have to clean up the mess left by the previous tenant yourself. Thankfully the person who used to live here is a friend of mine, but that didn't mean that he did all the cleaning that could have been done.

Don't get me wrong, it was clean, but there were a few dust bunnies hiding in the corners when I moved in. I've slowly watched them grow over the past few months. I try to clean them up when they become noticeable, but they seem to sprout suddenly and from nowhere. I got it into my head this weekend that I would clean behind the couch, under the bed, behind the table, and anywhere else I had noticed that they seemed to creep from. So with broom and dying dust-buster in hand, I attacked the floors underneath my furniture on Saturday, after a much needed morning spent sleeping in. What I found under my furniture can hardly be described. There is a huge difference between the dust that slowly settles on immobile furniture, such as the screen of your tv, and the rather hideous collection of dust that was hiding in my apartment.

These were not dust bunnies so much as a coven of dust rabbits that had been procreating like rabbits tend to do for the last three months. The amount of dust I collected completely filled a small trash can (you know, the size you can fit behind the toilet in the bathroom). And it wasn't until after I had completed my mission and was enjoying a cup of coffee and feeling rather accomplished that I realized not only had I inhaled a rather large amount of dust and was now beginning to cough, but that I had a face mask specifically designed to protect you from just that sort of thing and I hadn't worn it. So now I have a clean apartment, and an annoying cough.

But something that makes me even happier than a clean apartment is the onset of spring. I had gone four days this week without bringing my coat to work, which made me think that winter was just about over. It wasn't until I saw a tree on my way to work with tiny pink buds that I thought it might actually be spring. The next day they were no longer buds, but tiny pink flowers, and then on Friday they were in full bloom, so I left a little early for work to take pictures.

There were white flowers

and pink ones

on the same tree.

I'm fascinated by the changing of the seasons, as it's something that's barely noticeable in Florida. Watching trees blossom, or their leaves slowly change color from day to day, is a fascinating process as beautiful to me as the snow. I suppose if I had grown up with it I may feel different, as the beach holds little to no interest for me now. But I'm thankful that I can still find beauty, fascination, and pleasure in the simple natural things around me.

Kosu Cave, Chungju Lake, and Dodamsambong

This Sunday I went on a trip to Kosu Cave in the Chungcheongbuk Province, which is south of me.Picture courtesy of Adventure Korea.

I had to be out of my house by 5:30am to get to the bus on time, and I was actually running late, so I wasn't able to ride the subway with Stephanie, who came as well. The bus took about two hours to get to Chungju Lake, which was created by the Chungju Dam.

We boarded the ferry on the right that's partially cut off.

The ferry ride was about two hours, and was clipping along at about 22 knots. We changed ferries about halfway through.



I was fascinated by the scenery, as a lot of it was striated rock. I was trying to have an intelligent conversation with Steph about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock, but I could barely remember the difference. We had the same type of discussion when we went to the art gallery - "I know I learned this in school, my mother would be very dissapointed that I can't remember it."


The second ferry that we boarded was bigger, and you could go outside to take pictures - the other one was pretty much completely enclosed.

A sign on the second ferry. Gotta love the English translations...

We got off at a rest-stop type area, and took a few pictures before heading back to the bus to be moved to the cave.

Stephanie and I in front of the scenery

Kosu cave is semi-famous, not for anything in particular, but I guess there aren't many caves like it in Korea. It reminded me a lot of Carlsbad Caverns, though not quite so... cavernous. It was actually very close quarters at times, and you were often holding onto the cave walls so you wouldn't fall off the steps.

The entrance to the cave. It can be pronounced Kosu or Gosu.

I won't put the massive amount of pictures that I took inside the cave on here; a lot of them were very similar. It was really interesting though, and about 11 degrees C (59F) inside the cave.

Most of the cave looked like this, and it was such close quarters that you could touch the walls.

I saw a bat! It was really dark, so it's rather impressive that I saw it at all. It was so close I could have touched it! Everyone else started taking pictures of it, too. But I saw it first...

This is my favorite picture from inside the cave. There was lots of water.

The "path" split at one point, and you could take the upper one (which Stephanie did) or the lower one (which I did).

Me and the cave.

Stephanie playing with the pool of water.

A rather strange flea-market type set-up outside the cave selling souvenirs. Why a toy gun would be an appropriate souvenir for a cave, I'll never know.

After the cave we went to Dodamsambong, which means "three weird rocks on the river". Which is exactly what it is. I don't think they'd be as impressive except there's a gazebo on one of them. How they built it there, and how you're supposed to get to it, I have no idea.

Dodamsambong

A better shot of the gazebo. So cool looking!

Some people went climbing up a nearby hill/mountain (depending on where you're from. For me, it was mountain) to see the Stone Gate.

An appropriate name. It's a stone bridge, which looks like it could be an entrance to something.

A view of Dodamsambong from the top of the Stone Gate

Stephanie's on top of the world! Or just the top of the Stone Gate.

We climbed over the "do not enter" sign (it was in Korean - I plead ignorance!) and walked to the top of the Stone Gate. What an awesome view! Though it was a bit scary since you could barely fit two people side by side, and there was no railings, so it was very easy to imagine yourself falling off (though of course no one did).

On our way back down - the steps were pretty fun!

And that was it, we headed back home afterward. All in all a restful and interesting end to the weekend.

Avoiding studying

We had our first day with our new kids this morning. It had all the trappings of a first day back home in the states: nothing really being taught, showing the kids where everything is and explaining what's expected of them, nervous parents sending their kids to school without supplies (like a toothbrush, chopsticks, and a towel - all necessities at my school), and so on. Of course the only difference was that my TWO new classes of kids really don't speak any English (The other teachers either have two old classes, or an old class and a new class. My boss owes me big time and she knows it). A few of them know some choice phrases (or just their name in English), but other than that, I'm going to be doing a LOT of pointing, gesturing, and sign language in general to communicate with these kids. The problem comes, of course, when they have a question and can only ask in Korean. I can pick out a little less than a tenth of what they're asking, sometimes I understand the whole question (where is the bathroom), and sometimes I can only catch a single word (teacher, blah blah blah blah blah).

All of my kids are cute, and I can tell that some of my boys are going to be a handful, but I think I'll have fun with them. but I started out today by being nice, but firm, and letting them know that I'm not going to take any misbehavior, but that I also don't understand Korean well, so they have to try their best to speak in English.

Soooo... I'm studying my classroom Korean/English. These are phrases that either I need to be able to say in English and Korean for the kids to understand me, or I need to understand the Korean when they say it to me so I can correct them with the English. For example:

What's this?
Sit nicely.
Line up, please.
Don't do that.
I like it.
I don't like it.
I'm not finished.
Clean up, please.
Help me, please.
I don't know.
Change your shoes.
Be careful.
I'm sorry.
Be quiet, please.

...etc. And I really should know all the Korean by tomorrow. So, back to studying....

Oh yes, and I know I still haven't done Tokyo Part 2. It's coming, I promise. I'm just a bit, well, lazy right now. ^^