School and such

As of today, I've been back for a month. In some ways it feels like I never left Korea, and in other ways it feels like I just got here.

I'm still kind of settling in to my new apartment. I had a few problems when I first moved in, but they've all been sorted out for the most part. The main issue I had was with a gate on the third floor landing - I live on the fourth and last floor.

view from my front door down the stairs

When I first moved in, I was told that the landlord locks the front door and the gate at 2:30 in the morning. The problem with this is that the gate has a bolt on it that can only be opened from the inside.

note the bolt on the bottom

So if I came home after 2:30am (which to be honest, isn't that often), I would have to call the landlord and ask him to come open the door. This was a problem for a few reasons.

1. He has a wife and daughter. I don't think it's fair to call anyone at 2:30 in the morning (or whatever time) to ask them to open someone elses' door. It's doubly unfair to wake someone up who will probably wake up others in the process.

2. He said that the bolt is there because all the tenants in the building are women, and it's safer to bolt the door. The problem with this logic is that all the tenants except me live below the gate. The only people past the gate are me, and the landlord.

3. Late at night, there are 4 locked doors you would have to get through to get into my apartment. The first one is bolted with a key-code alarm. The second one is the gate (which has a key lock as well as the bolt lock that remains constantly locked). The third one is my front door. The fourth one is the entry-way door that has a lock as well. If someone is that determined to get into my apartment, a bolted gate is not going to be a deterrent.

4. I've never had a curfew. Even when I was living with my parents, there was not a set time I had to be home. It was simply a matter of being responsible and making sure that they knew when I was going to be where, and an ETA for getting home. And I haven't lived with them for 10 years. I don't need a curfew now.

I tried to explain to him that I didn't want him to bolt the door. My Korean isn't that good, and his English isn't that good, so the communication was probably amusing from an outsider's perspective, and could probably make a good sitcom joke, but it was annoying and frustrating in actuality.

So, I wrote my landlord a very polite letter explaining my position and reasons for wanting him to not bolt the door. Then I politely asked my co-teacher to translate it into Korean for me. Then I taped it to his door, along with my payment (early) for the electric bill for the month.

He hasn't bolted the door (that I know of) since then. And I did get home at 4:30 once this weekend.


I've also been settling in at work. I've gotten my kids into a routine, which of course makes things in general much easier. I enjoy working with the kids that I have, and the small problems I was having with the curriculum (like getting a power point and worksheets for a lesson the day of, and being expected to add things to it and do extra research) have been resolved for the most part.

My boss seems to like me quite a bit. I've been told on numerous occasions that I'm one of the best teachers that they have. I was observed once for each of my lessons, and then they added more observations so the staff could see what I was teaching (things like learning centers) and learn from what I was doing. The principal sticks her head in my room just to look at my bulletin boards, and she's asked me to send her files for things that I've done so she can share them with other teachers. It's certainly a different atmosphere from what I'm used to in Korea, where if you don't hear any feedback you're doing fine, and any feedback you do get is usually what you're doing wrong.

I'm also a member of the national council for ATEK (Association for Teachers of English in Korea), an infant organization that's still in it's first year and in the process of electing its first president. I haven't had to do much so far, though I feel like I should be doing more. At this point, it's more a matter of keeping current and up-to-date with things happening in the ex=pat community, like the H1N1 virus that has a lot of teachers quarantined without pay, or the recent cancellation of foreign teachers' contracts in the Seoul public school system a week before school started.

And I've been traveling a bit as well. I went to the DMZ a few weeks ago, I went to Busan last weekend with a friend who's leaving in a few weeks, and I spent this weekend out in Seoul celebrating a friend's birthday (hence coming home at 4:30am on Sunday morning).


Don't ask an ajuma to take your picture in Busan. First she'll refuse, thinking that you want to take a picture of her. then she'll squint at your camera like she's trying to look through a viewfinder, when your camera only has a 3inch LCD display and no viewfinder. And then she'll cut your head off when she does take the picture.

DMZ!

I've only been back in Seoul for about three weeks, and so far I'm loving it. I thought I'd have more time to spend with friends, but all of the people I know in Seoul are out of the country right now. So to avoid a sit-at-home-doing-nothing weekend, I signed up for a trip to the DMZ, something I wanted to do last year but never got around to.

Last year I would have had to get up around 6am to be at the meeting point by 9am, but now that I'm a mere 9 minute subway ride from that point, I got to sleep in a little and enjoy a cup of coffee before heading out. I usually go on these trips with someone else that I know, but I figured since the trip was sold out, that I would just get to know whoever happened to sit next to me on the bus.

I got to the Express Bus Terminal about 15 minutes early, and hopped right on the bus. There were several open seats, and I picked the one right behind the driver, partly because I like to see where we're going and partly because it was only one of a few that was completely empty. No one sat next to me for the first part, but when we got to the second pick-up location, a girl named Megan sat down next to me. We talked for a while on the bus on the way to the first stop - Imjingak - about an hour north of Seoul.



Imjingak is as far as civilians can go to the north by themselves without permission. It was originally built to console those who had to leave their homes in the North.


It has an altar for people who can't go back to their homes.


There's also a train that was de-railed during the war by a bomb.


The Freedom Bridge is where POWs were allowed to cross back to their home country. The bridge doesn't actually cross the Imjin River, but was an area used by refugees from the North.


A water lily-covered pond at Imjingak

Of course there were souveniers - I got a bottle of soju from Pyeongyang. But this hat really takes the cake.

So after looking around Imjingak we got back onto the bus and headed towards Panmungun. They collected our passports or alien registration cards (I haven't received my new one yet) to make sure that we were all legit enough to pass into the zone. Which by the way, is a zone, and not a line. We didn't actually get to see the famous soldiers facing-off, since that's the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) and I'm pretty sure you have to be escorted by military to get there on the surface. And I have no military friends here.

The next stop was a small restaurant that served us a traditional Korean meal.


I'm pretty used to Korean food now, but aside from the rice, and maybe the kimchi, this lunch was less than stellar. After lunch we waited around outside in the shade for a while, since we didn't know when we were supposed to get back on the bus. Once we realized we had another half hour, we headed to a small souvenir shop, where I bought a bottle of Pyongyang soju.

Once everyone was done shopping, we headed back to the bus. We got to a check-point area, and a soldier came onto the bus where were asked to have our ID out and ready to show him. We were told by our guide "Don't worry, they're very nice. Don't be scared." There was nothing really to be scared of, since the soldiers were South Korean and not Northern. The soldier barely glanced at our IDs as he went down the bus, and let us past with no problem.

Before they let us pass, we were told in no uncertain terms that we weren't allowed to take pictures from now on unless we were specifically told it was an area that was ok'd. So I took a picture of the soldiers standing guard at the check-point before we went through.

The next stop was the entrance to the Third Infiltration Tunnel. We were all asked when we got off the bus to stand in front of the theater to have our picture taken, so we realized that we could take pictures outside. There were several things in the parking lot of interest.


I particularly liked this statue. The people on either side of the ball are trying to push the two sides together. One side has North Korea, and the other side has South Korea.


Also just at the edge of the parking lot, you can see signs every few meters, warning you in no uncertain terms that you probably don't want to go wandering around.

You could also see these signs on the road on the way up to the tunnel. Once we'd sufficiently explored the rather hot and sunny concrete parking lot, we headed inside towards the theater and air conditioning. Inside, while waiting for a 'documentary' to start, I noticed what looked like a little Halloween decoration - one of those fake flames made from lights, a fan, and some cut-up cloth.



Then I read the description of the 'fire':

I thought it was a bit sad that they had this fake little fire to remember the pain of all those people. So then we went into the theater to watch what they called a documentary about the DMZ. It was narrated in English by what sounded like the same guy that does infomercials on late-night tv, it was vaguely informative, and it was highly propagandized. They had wireless headphones for Koreans to hear a translation of the movie instead of having subtitles.

After the short film, we went through a 'museum', which was more of a large room with an exhibit of ammo, firearms, landmines, and other items left over or found from the war.

From there, we headed to the entrance of the third infiltration tunnel. Here they made us put our bags and cameras into lockers so that no one could take pictures. I suppose I could have just left my camera in my pocket and no one would have known the difference, because I was the second person in our 80 person tour into the tunnels and there were no people down at the bottom. But I didn't feel like risking it.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.

So, we headed down the 300 meter decent, which was rather steep going down - about 14 to 15 degrees (and didn't bode well for coming back up). We were issued yellow hard hats, as the roof is often very low and rocky. There's a spring part way down that supposed to symbolize something, but it just looks like an odd sink put into the ground with two fake cranes standing next to it.

Photo courtesy of Danielle and AJ

The walls of the tunnel were very wet, and you could see lots of blast holes covered in yellow paint. Apparently the North Koreans tried to say this was a coal mine by painting the walls with black coal, but the tunnel is drilled through solid granite. The tunnel is also slightly at an angle back towards North Korea so the water keeps running and doesn't stagnate. The tunnel is the closest of the four tunnels to Seoul. We were told that "This tunnel would allow about 10,000 armed or 30,000 unarmed soldiers to invade Seoul within one hour". The problem with that statement is that Seoul is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the tunnel, and it'd be pretty darn hard to get that many men to Seoul without someone noticing first.

Picture courtesy of NicsPics

The tunnel ended abruptly at what I later found out was the first of three blockades and 170 meters (560 feet) before the MDL, so we turned around and headed back up the long and now seemingly much steeper tunnel to the entrance.

Even though it was very cool inside the tunnel, we were all hot, sweaty, and breathless by the time we reached the top. So after recouping with water and hand fans, we headed back to the buses to go to the Dora Observatory. On the way to the observatory, we were reminded that there was a photo line at the observatory, and you were not allowed to take pictures past the line.


We walked straight to the observatory edge, and then realized where the photo line was.


The photo line is rather far back, and aside from trying to take pictures from a distance, you're also taking pictures over people's heads who are using the binoculars to look at North Korea while holding your camera as high as you can above your head in order to get the most scenery and the least people.


I could see Kaeseong City through the binoculars, and I managed to get a shot of the propaganda village in North Korea, also known as Kijong-dong. It has the highest flag pole in the world, and used to have loudspeaker announcements hailing their dear leader. The village is entirely unpopulated - as the buildings are just shells with no windows or even interior rooms. There's also apparently a skeleton crew that checks up on the village to keep it in running order and to make it seem as if it's actually inhabited, but it gives every indication of being entirely unpopulated.

After the observatory, we headed to the last stop - Dorasan Station. If the two sides ever unify into a single country, this would be the last train stop in South Korea before entering the north.


There were a few MPs standing guard, but not many, and they seemed more for decoration or tourist pictures than anything else. I paid 500 won for a ticket onto the platform (which, mind you, doesn't go anywhere), and stamped my passport with a 'commemorative stamp', after which I saw the small sign that said to put the stamp on a piece of paper and not your passport...

So we headed out to the platform following an old Korean man, who said he had been volunteering there for 40 years (which is rather hard to believe, as they just restored the station in 2002).


It kind of gave the impression of a station that was waiting to be used, and was going to fall back into disrepair eventually if nothing ever happens with the re-unification. But then as we were standing there, a train pulled in from the south!


It actually had people on it. Apparently the station is a working station, but only in the sense that it's a tourist destination that's restricted, and less than 200 people a day are allowed on the train that only runs through about three stations.


I also saw a picture of when President Bush visited in 2002 shortly after the station was restored. Good old George - he's holding the pen upside-down in this picture.

The inside of the station was bright and airy, and had a beautiful mural near the ceiling.


So after wandering around the platform and the station, we headed back to the bus to go back home.

It was a rather full day, and I enjoyed seeing the area, as well as meeting new people.

More Adventures in Korea

Adventure Korea is now one of my more visited websites. (Click on the name to visit their site). I just signed up for two more adventures (I'm going with them to the Mud Festival tomorrow).

I have one of my weeks of vacation coming up (the other one is at Christmas, and I'm wrestling with going home or staying here) at the end of the month. So the first adventure I'm going on is the Summer Special Trip at the beginning of my week off, July 26th-27th. We're going to Doripo Beach on the western coast. A chartered bus, 2 meals, accomodations, and experience fees are all included for two days for less than 100,000 won (about $100).

We're going to travel to a small islet by boat and will do net fishing (in a traditional Korean way), clam digging, octopus picking, and swimming. And we get to eat the seafood that we catch right away. Pretty cool, huh? We'll also visit the Muan White Lotus Festival, where we'll take a boat ride along the lotus flowers road, make onion-kimchi (yuck!), and taste various foods made with lotus like lotus ice cream, lotus tea, lotus sandwiches, lotus-wrapped rice and lotus beer as well. (Should be very interesting...)

The second trip I'm taking is to the DMZ on Saturday, August 23rd. It's a day trip to Imjingak, which is as far as civilians can go to the North by themselves without permission, the 3rd tunnel, the Dora Observatory, and Tongilchon, one of two villages inside the DMZ.

And of course I'll be posting pictures from both of these. I can't wait!