Anniversary

As of this weekend, I have been in Korea for exactly one year. This is both unbelievable and completely expected. I will be here for a total of 13 months before I head back to the states. (My flight back is Saturday June 27th - I land in Atlanta at 3pm. Squeee!)

I love it here. I love the friends I've made. I love the culture. I love the freedom of travel and movement. I love that every time I leave my home, I'm reminded instantly that I live in another country. I love that I can hear foreign language every day and I understand bits and pieces of it. I love the financial independence I've found that I never truly had back home. I love the the mix of traditional and ground-breaking. I absolutely adore my kids, and my job is hardly what I would call stressful.

I don't love that I haven't hugged my parents in a year. I miss my friends back home, and it bothers me that I've missed (and will be missing) weddings, births, birthdays, retirements, graduations, anniversaries, and other important events in my family and friends' lives. It'd be nice to be able to buy a new pair of shoes without having to ship them overseas. I'd like to have predictive text on my cell phone.

So, all-in-all, it has been an AMAZING year. I would even go so far as to say probably the most memorable year I will ever have in my life. I left America in search of something. Part of that search was financial independence. And part of it was searching for something that I felt my life was missing, though I had no idea what it was. To quote a great U2 song, I still haven't found what I'm lookin' for. But I have found myself along the way. I've discovered that the world is bigger than I ever imagined, and so much smaller than we ever knew. I've learned something that my father has been telling me all my life - life is what you make it. And I know now that I can make it anything I want it to be. Now the next step is figuring out what it is that I really want.

As of right now, my main focus is paying off my massive student loans. Korea has the most lucrative set-up for ESL teachers, so it seems as though I will be staying here for a few years, until I'm able to once and for all close my loan account. The more money I'm making at my job, the sooner I can pay off my debts, so that's my main consideration in looking for a new job to come back to. Once I've paid my debts, I can start thinking about what I want to do next. I think it would be amazing to go country-hopping and spend a year in different countries around the world teaching English and exploring at the same time. But I may have different priorities or goals in a few years' time. Who knows?

For now, it's on to year number two.

A very good place to start is always the beginning

I realize I've been negligent in my postings for the past month. I suppose the excuse that I was too busy going to festivals and traveling around Korea isn't the best of reasons, as that's exactly what I'm supposed to be putting up here.

So.

I will be sitting down at my computer screen for the next few hours to try and put up the Lotus Lantern Festival, my trip to the east coast of Korea over the long weekend for Buddha's Birthday, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Third Annual Seoul World DJ Fest. I have a cup of coffee. I have a bottle of water. I've made and eaten my dinner. I am ready.

But.

Before I do, as my mother so exactingly reminded me, I only have 40 days left before I plan to leave Korea. I am struggling right now with what to do about next year. For the past month or more, I've been talking to recruiters (several of which have driven me nuts with their inattention to my requests - like suggesting I work for the public school district that hires anywhere outside of Seoul when I specifically said I wanted to be in Seoul) to try and find another job. I've gotten several opportunities for schools that were interested in me, but very few that I was interested in for various reasons, mostly including lower pay, outside the area I wanted to live in, or undesirable working hours. I've gotten two official job offers, one of which I've politely declined. The second one has requested a decision by the end of the week or they will offer the position to someone else, which is fair enough.

The problem lies with the other two jobs I'm considering. One is with a public school district called Gangnam, where three of my friends are currently working. The pros: higher pay, good area, more holiday days/days off, better working hours, possibility for overtime. The cons: I won't know what school I'll be working at until the day I start, I won't know how close my house is to my school, and there's a high chance it won't be anywhere close, the classroom setting itself is a bit more stressful and difficult than a hogwan, I may be the only foreign teacher in the school. I've passed the first two phases of the application process (a resume that they're interested in, and sending in a lesson plan for a specific age group and topic), and now I have a phone interview with them on Thursday.

The other job is the job that I REALLY wanted. I found the company on my own and interviewed with them almost two months ago. At the time, they told me they wanted to hire me at 3-3.2 million won a month, but no positions were available yet for August or September (since our family reunion is at the end of July I can't come back until 8/1 at the earliest). The problem came when they called me last week to tell me two positions had opened up for one of their locations in Hakdong (where the other hogwan I'm considering is located). It seems that the two positions are evening shifts: 2:30pm-10:30pm. Which means that I would not have a life. I know myself well enough to know that I would end up sleeping in every day until noon instead of taking advantage of having the morning off to explore, and I wouldn't be able to do anything with my friends after work, as they all have to get up early and would be getting ready for bed when I'm finishing up for the day. Aaaanndd, they said it was only 2.7, and not 3mil for the job. They are still willing to hire me, but they don't have any other positions they know of at the moment, though some may open, so it's a wait-and-see deal with them.

So, I have until Friday to decide, at the very least, if I want to decline an official offer in preference of a possible/probable better offer, or if I want to accept an official offer because it's an actual offer and not just the possibility of one. My friends on Facebook have been offering their opinions and advice in a semi-voting sort of way. So - anyone else have an opinion?

Gangwan-do trip Day 3

We decided to go to bed early on Sunday, as we were catching the sunrise and wanted to make sure we didn't miss it. We had wanted to take the train out of Jeongdongjin on Monday morning, as it was pleasant and rather cheap, but not only did the train not go all the way to the next town that we wanted, but the timetable was a complete mystery. We discovered that there were three trains on Monday morning: 3:30am, 4:30am, and 12:30pm. So the first two trains would mean that we would miss the 5am sunrise, and the next train would mean that we would have to stay in a rather small town that we had covered the night before, and waste half a day of our already short trip. So we planned on catching a bus instead, which luckily came by every 45 minutes or so.

We assumed that we would be one of only a few groups of people out on the beach, but apparently it's not a well-kept secret that Jeongdongjin has good sunrises, as the beach was rather crowded. We also got out of the hotel after the sky was already a bit light, though the sun hadn't yet risen. We managed to find a spot a bit farther down the beach away from the crowds.

My first sunrise since Boca

There were fishing boats out on the water, and at first James and I were rather perturbed that they kept sailing into our sunrise and parking there. But we soon realized that the boats simply made for a better and more interesting picture.

A small fishing boat off the coast at sunrise

Another boat, even further out

More of the beach, with the ever-present floating cruise ship

We had seen a pavilion on a larger hill overlooking the sea the night before. We had searched for the path up to it Sunday night so we could watch the sunrise from there, but either from lack of familiarity with the area, or lack of light to see by, we missed it and made it back to the hotel without ever having found how to get up there. On Monday morning however, we were able to find the entrance, which we had walked near but not past the night before. So we headed up a short climb to the pavilion to watch the rest of the sunrise.

A view of the sea from the nearby pavilion

A bright pink and red ceiling in the pavilion, a different color scheme than most of the other ones I've seen.

We could see the train tracks from the pavilion. We got a bit upset when we saw a train coming through after sunrise, but it was a freight train, not a passenger train.

You can see how close the train station is to the beach

After waiting for a group of 4 Korean boys who were taking their picture in front of the best view for about 15 minutes (not exaggerating at all), we took our own pictures and headed back down to get our stuff and move on to Seoraksan, one of the most picturesque mountain areas in Korea.

A random small temple in the middle of the town.

It took us two buses to get to Sokcho, and then another bus to get to the entrance of the park, so we didn't get there till after noon. Our first order of business was to find a place to stash our bags at the least, and a room at best. Our first thought was to stay in a minbak, which is a room in someones' home that's rented out, usually extremely cheaply. But though there were several minbak around, none were within a comfortable walking distance to the park's entrance. Even the youth hostel was a good few kilometers from the entrance, and was advertising prices that were twice that of the hotels at the gate. We found a hotel that was reasonably close (who wants to hike another few kilometers after a long day's climb?), but they hadn't finished cleaning all the rooms, so she couldn't give us a key. We settled for leaving our bags behind the counter, paying the 30,000 won for a room, and getting a receipt for later, just in case. Then it was off to the mountains.

The road to get to the park entrance was full of people, and it was off season

One of the mountains views on the way to the entrance. I was entranced the whole day by the scenery.

One of the hotels had two London Double-Decker buses on their grounds, complete with original signage inside and out.

They made James feel right at home.

A view of the mountain range on the way into the park.

A drying river bed.

So we headed up into the park. We turned around a bend to the right, and my jaw dropped at the sight of the larges statue I've ever seen.

This Buddha was utterly massive. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was, and tried though I might, I couldn't figure out how they made it (i.e. was it multiple pieces put together, was it carved from a single stone, was it even made from stone or metal?)

At the base of the state were two giant dragon heads. I guess kids are just as gross here as they are in the States.

And there were tiles you could buy to put anything you wanted onto them. I don't know where they went after you bought one, though.

Then we headed up to one of the temples further up the trail. I don't remember the name of the temple, but the setting was beautiful as well as the temple itself.

Temple guardians.

Look! Do you see the chipmunk? It's right there!

This is the top of the mountain. I climbed this. I don't believe it either.

It is written in stone. I just don't know what it says.

Farther up the mountain was a hermitage with temple carved into the stone of the mountain.

This is by far my favorite Buddhist temple. There was something about the relative simplicity and calmness of the temple, and the lack of massive amounts of gold. I've never really been able to reconcile the idea of leaving all worldly things behind you, and then having a massive golden statue in your temple. But this one was carved from the stone of the mountain.

My favorite Buddha statue in Korea

And we kept climbing farther, and farther up the mountain.

We knew we were almost at the top when we saw the stairs over the rocks. James left me at this point to go wizzing up the stairs, and I took my time (and tried to catch my breath) as I climbed the hundreds of steps to the top.

I have no idea how this is physically possible.

No, the picture is not crooked. The stairs are.

It was an utterly exhaustive climb. But the view from the top was more than worth it.

It started to look like rain, and we didn't want to be caught climbing back down the mountain when the rocks got slippery, so we headed back down to Ulsan Bawi.

More writing on the stones

This is Ulsan Bawi. It's massive, but it's set so that if you push hard enough, it rocks abck and forth.

James pushing the Ulsan Bawi, with the mountain that we climbed in the background



We stopped at the same temple on the way back, and we saw a monk ringing the bells in one of the buildings.

And I had to get one more picture of the Buddha statue from the other side before we headed out of the park and tried to find some dinner.

Gangwon-do trip Day 1 & 2

Because of Buddha's birthday being Saturday May 2nd, and Children's Day being Tuesday May 5th (note: Children's Day is a national holiday and there is no school. The same cannot be said of Teacher's Day, which is Friday, May18th), Julie decided to give us Monday the 4th off. This gave me a four day weekend, and a perfect excuse to go on a little expedition.

I had originally planned to go with Adventure Korea for a tea festival and hiking since most of my friends weren't going to be in the country. Then James canceled his plan to go to China, and since we know we travel well together, we decided to explore Gangwon-do - the province to the east of Seoul that borders the East Sea.




Since James had Friday off and I didn't, he went to Andong on Friday, and we met up in Sokcho early Saturday afternoon.

The tourist information booth and bus terminal at Sokcho. I love climbing ivy.

After finding a place to stay for the night, we headed to Hwangsongdul Cave.

Waist-high field of flowers on the way to the cave entrance.

Fairy Falls, also on the way to the cave.

A mountain peak on the pleasant but steep climb to the cave

The cave entrance, with a bat themed ticket counter. We didn't see any bats this time.

The cave itself was, well, cavernous. The guidebook mentioned that it was the largest limestone cave in Asia, and that some places were cathedral sized 'rooms'. James and I had a rather long discussion on whether or not it was actually cathedral-sized or not. Seeing as how I've never been to Europe and seen a 'real' cathedral, I think he may have won. (He said it was a small cathedral at best.) Regardless, it was the exact opposite of the last cave I went to, which was small and slightly claustrophobic. There was also a large underground river running through it, so the sound of running water (which I love) was ever-present.

A view down to the walkway and underground river

Thank you Korea. I couldn't have lived my life happily before this.

It looks like an egg, don't you think?

Weird rock formations inside the cave

A rather out-of-place-looking wooden tepee thing outside the cave that had a waterfall that looked like the one from Kill Bill

We got back to Sokcho, and spent the evening wandering around the town. The next morning we decided that we would head to the Penis Park first since it was an hour away. The hotel let us check out but keep our bags in the office, and we went to go catch a bus. Now, for the sake of my possibly younger audience, I have not included any of the pictures of this rather eclectic, and slightly shocking park. I have, however, included pictures of the scenery of the area, as the views of the East Sea from the top of the park, as well as at the bottom of it, were amazingly beautiful.

From the top of the park looking out to the East Sea below

One of the statues overlooking the sea

I could have spent all day clamoring over those rocks.

I think this is wisteria that was hanging on a trellis at the top part of the park

This is one of my favorite pictures, even though it's slightly crooked.

The water was so beautiful. I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of kids we saw at the park.

The park only took about an hour, so we decided to head over to see the Unification Park, which had a North Korean submarine that had crash-landed off the coast of South Korea in 1996, as well as a US battleship that had been donated to South Korea.

Battle stations ready!

It was a big boat.

My fiercest attack face on a 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

James' face was better.

The inside of this was so small. I was bent over the whole time. I can't believe that 26 people were in here!

We went back to the hotel to grab our stuff, then we took a train to Jeongdongjin, which is famous for having a station right on the beach. It was the first time I've been in a real train (that wasn't a subway). I was rather excited.

The next cabin up on the train

A view from the train of the beach. Notice the barbed wire and the lights. It's to deter the North Koreans from trying to land.

The first train I ever rode at Jeongdongjin station. Korea has been full of firsts!

Why yes, that is a giant cruise ship sitting on a cliff in the background. How astute of you to notice.

Jeongdongjin station was amazing, as it was right on the beach (even closer that A1A is in Ormond). James gave me a hard time about this, but I was not happy with the set up of the station. You have to cross the tracks to get onto the train, or to get to the rest of the town from the station. Can you imagine having to cross train tracks in the States? Someone stupid would get run over by the train and sue the company. There's no railroad crossing signs, or stop signs or anything. I guess they assume that you should be smart enough to see and hear the train coming, and if you're not then you deserve to get run over.

I must take after my mother. Doesn't that just look dangerous to you?

After getting our hotel situated for the night (since Jeongdongjin is famous for sunrises, we decided to stay the night instead of moving on so we could see it), we began to wander around the beach and the town.

A stream emptying out into the sea

Empty soju bottles from the night before

There were tons of kids here. It looked like a great place to spend a family weekend.

A giant hourglass. Apparently a famous Korean tv drama called Hourglass was partially filmed here. I have no idea how often it turns.

The beach at twilight

I love the coastline in Korea - so beautiful!

One of the more touristy things in Jeongdongjin is the giant cruise ship that's comfortably nestled on the top of a cliff at the edge of town. James and I climed the steep entranceway to the ship, but it's 5,000 won to just get onto the grounds, not even get into the ship (which is a hotel/ resort), and we didn't feel like paying for a view, so we left.

Don't ask.

A boat yard that we clamored around until an ajushi yelled at us to leave.

James had never lit a firecracker, and since they're legal (!) and popular on the beaches, we each got one and lit them.