A Message from Seth

I really didn't want to write a post right now, but Anna said I have to :)

She thought I should post the story about my longest day in Korea, but I feel like I'm always posting negative stories, so I'll bullet point it and write about some happier things.

- Half day of school starting at 7:30a

- Lunch with co-teacher 1 hour away from home

- Dog Meat

- Buddhist Temple 45 min. away from lunch

- A Korean English Teacher, a Buddhist Monk, and an American walk into a Saum Gyaup Saul Restaurant...

- Drive with Co-Teacher

- Drive with Co-Teacher

- Drive with Co-Teacher

- Pick up Co-Teacher's girlfriend

- Get Home at 9:00p

At the time, I was pretty upset, but looking back, if we could have skipped the dog lunch it would have been pretty fun. If nothing else it was definitely an interesting day of firsts. I only choked down one bite of the dog meat, though, and only after explaining to my co-teacher and his friends that asking an American to eat dog was similar to asking a Muslim to eat pig or a Hindu to eat cow.

On a happier note, I've been able to get out and be a little more active recently. Soccer is my main outdoor activity now, and I've discovered that I'm actually not that bad at it. First I went and played with a bunch of British English Teachers (including one American who graduated from Bethel, small world). Then I was able to go play with a big group of Koreans from our church. We played for almost 3 hours on one of the hottest days of the summer! It was a lot of fun, I even scored a goal :)

Maurice and I have a little deal going now: he teaches me soccer and I teach him basketball. It's been a lot of fun. No more football though, I'm too afraid of breaking Korean fingers.

Earlier this summer, I taught our Korean friend Shihwan how to catch and throw a football. He caught on fairly quickly, especially for a Korean. I've tried teaching some of my students, and about 1 in 10 shows any aptitude for it. Anyway, I decided to Shihwan was ready for some "advanced" catch, so I taught him how to run routes. After doing this for a little while, he started telling me that his hand was hurting. I thought maybe it was just from learning a fairly new motion, but when I told him we could take a break, he wanted to keep going. Later, when we were eating dinner, he was still complaining about his hand, and when he showed it to us it was obvious that he had some swelling. I joked with him that he better not have broken anything, because it would be the second time I've broken someone's finger playing catch.

The next day, we got a call from Shihwan. He told us that his pinky finger was broken and the Doctor said he needed surgery! Later we found out that this surgery involved 3 pins and a 6 week recovery period followed by physical therapy!!!

There are many awful parts of this story, including: the theory we have made that the Doctor over-diagnosed the injury to get more money; the fact that Shihwan was unable to continue studying for his many tests (which significantly affect his ability to get a job); and a slight case of melancholy that he seems to have come down with. The scariest part of the story, to me anyway, is that the performed the surgery with partial anesthesia, meaning that, although he felt no pain, he was awake during the procedure and could feel pressure in his finger! To make it worse, the Doctor's SET UP A MIRROR FOR HIM TO WATCH!!!!!!! He described as "feeling like a horror movie."

So that's why I don't play football in Korea.

Anyway, hopefully I won't take as long between posts. The summer schedule is a little different, and there is significantly less bored free time for which blogging is perfect.

Our Summer in Korea

Wow! I guess the fact that we haven't written a blog in a month and a half is a sign that our life in Korea has become comfortable and fairly routine. We've still had many fun adventures since the last blog, but the stories are starting to seem less bizarre and more every day.

Here are a few random updates and insights . . .

We love the fact that living in Korea has given us the opportunity to build a very international network of friends. On the way home from a weekend visiting the Letts, another expatiate family, an extremely kind Pakistani man struck up a conversation with Seth on the bus. He graciously offered us a ride home from the bus station. We accepted and exchanged phone numbers. We've had the chance to get coffee with him, and Seth hopes to play soccer with him in the near future. He has lived in Korea for eight years working on cars in one of the many factories in our area. Many Asian and Middle Eastern expatriates work in the Industrial Complex in Daegu. His wife and two children are currently in Pakistan but some times live with him in Korea. I told him that I hope to meet his wife and children some day.

Through our very good Kenyan friend Maurice, we now have a Ghanaian friend, a Filipino friend, and a Rwandan friend. These three guys attend Keimyoung University near our house. They will first study Korean as an Undergrad., and then they will go on to get their Master's in another field. Through their program, the Korean government pays for their education. It is an attempt at making Korea more international. Currently Korea is 98% homogeneous.

In addition, we have British, South African, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian friends through our EPIK program. It is so interesting and fun to learn the differences in language and culture in other English speaking countries. We love having the opportunity to learn about so many different cultures. It's soooo intriguing and enlightening. Of course, we have by far learned the most about Korean culture, rooted in Confucianism. It's interesting to witness Korea attempting to be both Eastern and Western at the same time. I don't think I can even explain it, you'll just have to come and see for yourselves!

We are pretty fed-up with the Korean work-culture. We had to fight to get five days off for summer vacation, and we are more exhausted and stressed than during the regular semester. The students have a five week summer vacation, but during that time there is summer school, English camps, after school tutoring academies, etc. It is endless!! When people found out that we were going on a four night five day vacation, they said, "Oh, that is too long! You will get bored." Seth and I were so shocked. Typically, Koreans take two or three day vacations.

For our vacation we went to a national park on the southern coast of Korea. We stayed on a small island called Geoje-Do. We loved taking the boat tours the the remote islands, seeing the clear blue ocean, hiking around the forests and gardens, and just relaxing. We definitely did not get bored!

We are currently supposed to be teaching at an English camp at a hotel near the base Gaya Mountain, but because of typhoon Dianmu (it is actually now a category one hurricane), it was postponed a day. We are sooooo thankful for the unexpected day of rest. You'd think teaching at a hotel in the mountains would be fun, but I am not looking forward to it. We have no materials for teaching, no computers, no internet, no white boards or chalkboards, no pencils, paper, chairs etc. We will pretty much be sitting on the floor of a hotel room try to teach EFL. Don't know how successful that will be.

Here are a few pictures from our vacation . . .

One of the beaches on Geoje-Do. All of the beaches were super crowded with families sitting under umbrellas, floating in tubes, burying each other in the sand, and eating Ramen and watermelon. Seth and I felt quite awkward at the beach. EVERYONE was fully dressed! While lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean, they wear swimsuits underneath long sleeve shirts, shorts, hats, jeans, etc. What???!!! The beach scene is sooooo different than in the U.S. In the U.S., people wear as little clothes as possible. In Korea, people wear as much clothes as possible.

Our boat tours were so breathtaking. Many of the small islands had beautiful rock formations because of the strong ocean winds whipping the waves against them.

This island is owned by a Korean couple. They made the whole island into a gorgeous sculpture garden. The only drawback was that we were soooo hot and sweaty that we struggled to enjoy it.

Windy Hill

This is where we spend our last night of vacation. We sat at a quaint coffee shop and watched the sunset over the islands. Perfect.

Love, Anna Teacher