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. ^^

What did you do with your weekend?

A few of my friends are leaving the Uijeongbu area within the next two weeks, and it's customary to do a "last night out" for ex-pats who are leaving. Emily-Jane is moving back to Canada after being here for three years, and Kathryn and Gary are moving into Seoul after having been in the Uijeongbu area for about a year and a half. So it was decided at Wednesday night dinner that we would go out for drinks and such on Friday night. At first it was just the four of us, but we were joined later by Chris and Stephanie. We decided to stay in Uijeongbu (thankfully, as I was really tired), and ended up bar hopping.

We started out at Tom's Ville, partially because Kathryn had never been there. I'd been there many times but wasn't thrilled with it, partially because they play the (bad) music so loud that you can't hear the person right next to you, and mostly because it's frequented by US military boys. After one drink, we moved outside, and saw a bar none of us had ever been to, called Mia's Western Bar (anything that says bar in English is usually a good sign).

Me, Kathryn, and Chris at Mia's Bar

I now think of that bar as Mickey's bar. One of the bartenders there was very... boisterous, and told us his name was Mickey - pointing at his shirt as he did so.

After that we headed to Garten Beer, or Beer Garden. They have the single, double, and triple beer glasses with chilled lit-up holes in the table to keep the beer from getting warm. I discovered some of the led holes actually had writing in them:

After Beer Garden, we went to Mix bar, a familiar place that has Jenga and a few other amusing bar games you can play (like a little shark that randomly snaps down on you when you press its teeth). At this point it was around 3am, so everyone decided to call it a night, and Chris and I split a taxi home, since the buses stop running at midnight.

Stephanie had mentioned to me that she was going to see an art exhibit in Seoul on Sunday and asked if I wanted to come along. There was a Baroque exhibit at an art gallery - I can't remember the name of the place. We looked around at the exhibit for a while, and then went exploring a bit in Seoul, which I hadn't really done since the weather got cold.

I can pretend to be one of the Three Graces, but I don't think anyone would be fooled.

The main artist on display was Rubens, a Flemish baroque painter.

Stephanie was as confused by the cute cartoon dog in the museum as I was.

He's just too cute to belong in a Baroque exhibit.

Street chestnuts being cooked by rolling them around in hot gravel. Not at all tasty.

A weird shell-cone thing in Jonggak surrounded by police buses.

The Cheonggye Stream, with the cone thing in the background being guarded by more police.

Another view of the stream. I can't wait till it gets warmer so I can come here to read on the weekends.

The police were out en-force this weekend. Apparently this area is where they hang out. I've seen them lined up with riot gear before, but never so many at once (this was just a few of them).

Old and new can co-exist rather well.

The Samsung Jongno Tower in Insadong

Piano street. Apparently it's like the piano in big, and it lights up and makes music, but it wasn't plugged in that night.

Afterwards we ended up in Insadong. We went to a vegetarian restaurant, then coffee, then home.

Monks eating at the table next to us at the vegetarian restaurant in Insadong.

A large white bird sculpture in a bakery. No reason. Just because.

Stephanie's White Swiss Chocolate, and my Mocha Latte. I thought the place was called Live Free - it's actually Lime Tree.

Perhaps we should concentrate a bit more on spelling...

One of my afternoon classes consists of 4 girls. We were reading about sending e-mails, so I assigned them the simple (I thought) homework of sending an e-mail to me saying hello. These were the 4 e-mails I received copied directly from my inbox:

Subj:Hello teacher‏

To. Breanna teacher

Hello I'm Katie. Teacher I'm thanks for you to teached me the English. So I can do English well. Also, I like you because you are kind to me. I will strive to good at English and that I can talk naturaly with many kind of subjects. I want to study only with you. Thanks for read my letter.

From. Katie

Subj:Ann 편지 보냅니다‏

hello, my name is Ann. Breamna thecer, why your homework is e-mail? Dear Breamna

Subj: Breanna teacher‏

Breanna teacher! how are you? This is Diana! Teacher you cough a lot. And I metter you. I want to you health. And I scared of teacher. I hope you angry very much. See you later! I LOVE TEACHER~ 2009 YAER February 17 ^^ TO BREANNA TEACHER

Subj: Ashley for breanna teacher‏

Sent:	Wed 2/18/09 5:48 AM

Hellow!!!

I'm Ashley!!!

You are good and nice.

This mail is difficult.

Good bye.

See you tomorrow.

2009. 02 .16