It's the end of the month

Today was my last open class, I had the first one of the month and the last one. The lesson itself went fine, and the kids were slightly more well-behaved than normal (though they're usually pretty good.) The parents seemed to enjoy it, though I didn't look at them, and my boss said they had no problems, which means they're happy. But now I have planning for next month for my afternoon classes due, evaluations for this month, lessons for the week for Cherry and Lemon, and I'm getting ready for Halloween this Friday.

I'm also doing a separate week-long lesson with one of my afternoon classes on how to write directions in English, and then I'm going to film them giving the directions on how to play a Korean game to send to their pen pals. The kids are really excited about it, and my boss really likes the idea, too (which is always nice).

And I was sent a link the other day to a rather interesting article about escaping student loans by leaving the country. Though I haven't come here to escape my loans, but rather pay them off, I am concerned about the change in exchange rates since I got here. When I arrived in Korea 5 months ago, the exchange rate was just about even - 1,000 won = $1.00 (meaning I could easily send home $1000 each month and still have plenty to live on here). However now, it's around 1,000won = $.695.

This makes it harder for me to send money home, as I'm still making the same amount per month, but I have to send more won home in order to keep the same amount in my American bank account to make my monthly payments. Though I would never consider changing my address to an international address just to avoid making payments, it does worry me that others in my position have been faced with that decision. It's amazing the things you start paying attention to (exchange rates, foreign policy, current political climate) when they affect you directly, and that in my case it only happened when I left America.

Hahoe and Andong

Last weekend I got to travel by myself for the first time to Andong, a city in the east central part of Korea. It's famous for the Hahoe (pronounced Ha-hweh) folk village and mask dance. I had planned on leaving Friday night on the last bus there (11pm), but when I got to the bus depot, there were no more seats to Andong, so I got the first bus out the next morning at 6am (managing to do this, by the way, when the bus clerk didn't speak any English). I managed to find a hotel to stay in near the bus depot, and caught the bus on Saturday morning no problem. The trip was only 3 hours, so I got into downtown Andong rather early. I found a cheap hotel to stay in near the bus terminal first, and unloaded my overnight bag. Then I went back to the bus depot to get my ticket for the bus on Sunday, just to make sure I didn't have the same problem again.

I explored a little of downtown Andong and found a tourist information booth, which had the time schedule for the bus to the local tourist destinations, of which there were quite a few. The first place I went, and my main reason for going, was the Hahoe Folk Village ( 하회마을).

Hahoe (pronounced Ha-hweah) is an ancient village that has never been attacked because of it's unique location - it is surrounded by a river on three sides and mountains on the fourth. The buildings are a mix of thatched servants quarters




and upper class homes.


It's beautifully tranquil, and the mountains and homes together makes you feel like you've been transported back in time (if you ignore the odd satellite dish attached to the thatching). I wandered around the village for a few hours, looking at the different architectural styles of the houses, and going to the different national treasure sites (I believe this village houses about 19 of them). National treasures here are mostly buildings owned and lived in by historical Korean officials and heroes.

In my wanderings I came across a small playground, where kids were playing on what we would call a see-saw, except instead of sitting on it, they stand and try to get each other to jump higher, almost like a trampoline.



This village is particularly known for the Hahoe Mask Dance, which is an ancient traditional dance with a lot of cultural significance that has been lost in the touristization (is that a real word?) of it.




I missed the first part of the dance because I didn't know where it was being held, but I got to see most of the first three acts. I got a short video of it that I'll try to upload later (since this post is already a week later than I would have liked).

I headed back into town, intending to visit some of the other places in the area, but I was too tired. So I grabbed dinner at the Mr. Pizza, and wandered around the downtown area. I found a small park with some of the old-style pagodas that were lit up.


I went back the next morning to visit the cliff across the river from the village to get a better view of it,


and got to see a few of the people that lived there actually working on making the masks



as well as other ancient style crafts like calligraphy.


After leaving the village again, I came back to the hotel and got my bags, ready to head home. I decided to stop at a museum I had seen the night before, which was interesting in that it didn't have any physical artifacts, but had interactive videos, games, sounds, etc, all linked to the history and traditions of Andong. It was a very restful and enjoyable weekend, especially since I was alone and was able to do what I wanted, when and where I wanted to.

A close encounter of the animal kind

I saw a field mouse today on my way home. This is the first, true, dyed-in-the-wool field mouse I've ever seen. Of course I've seen my share of rodents, both wild and domesticated (I have a pet snake for goodness' sake). But this is the first wild field mouse I've ever seen, complete with the little arrow shaped tip of his little tail that I saw as he scurried in front of me into the gutters of the street. Best of all, he was running away from, you guessed it, a field.
I was just thinking the other day about the lack of distinctly 'Korean' animals that I've seen here. I remember being very impressed by the few wild iguanas and various other reptiles I'd seen while living in Boca, and wondering what my kids here would think or do if they ever ran across a wild iguana. Then I started thinking about the distinct lack of wild animals I've seen. There's the occasional stray cat, but I actually see the same ones over and over, usually because they live under the cars that are parked outside a restaurant on my way home. I have yet to see a stray dog here. I'm not sure if it's because Koreans don't really own that many dogs, or if it's because they eat any strays that happen to wander through (I'm only half joking). Either way, it was a pleasant and unexpected little surprise that I felt I should share.

One shot??

It's slightly disturbing when your kids are chanting for you to drink your water in "one shot, one shot, one shot!"
I wonder where they got it from...