Fireworks, TV stations, weird plays, and decision time

About a month ago I went with some fellow teachers to Seoul for the day. I ate a lot of food, went to some high fashion stores. No really, I did. I couldn't afford to buy anything but it was fun to look. Well the real highlight of the day was going to see the fireworks. Apparently all of Seoul wanted to watch the fireworks as well. I kid not, when I say there were a million people there. It took us nearly half an hour to get out of our subway car up to street level. See video below. I've always read articles about people being trampled to death and wondered how stuff like that happens, but as I was pushed along by the sea of Korean people I began to see how it's possible.

Although I couldn't really afford to buy any of the high fashion articles of clothing I'd seen throughout my day in Seoul, I did get the opportunity to snatch up this delightful t-shirt. One of the individuals I was with noted it was something I easily could have gotten at a truck stop, but I feel it is an authentic Korean shirt.


A few weeks ago my preschool class (that I teach) went to Seoul for a field trip. We watched a play in an underground theatre. It was silly and I think the kids liked it. It was a version of the tortoise and the hare with a more Korean flare to it. It's hard to explain so here's a little video of it.

I may or may not have mentioned this but my school is surrounded by rice fields. Over the duration of my stay here I've watched the fields go from barren in winter, to planted in spring, to lush in late summer, and now I've seen the rice harvested. Here are some recent pictures of the fields.

Now I come to the final part of my post. I have less than a week to decide if I will renew my contract and work another year here in Korea. At this point in time I honestly don't know what I'm going to do and I need wisdom. Please keep me in your prayers this week. My desire is that God's will be done and not my own.

DMZ Day

This last Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with some of my fellow teachers to the DMZ. Which is the border between North and South Korea. It was actually pretty fun. Lots of food, buses, trains, and subway.

To see the border we actually had to take part in a tour. Our first bus stop was at a kind of museum. The museum highlighted all of the North Korean conflicts and invasions that have occurred over the last 50 years. The museum was ripe with symbolism and hopeful of the two countries reunifying in the future. We watched a short video that basically proclaimed the two countries were on track to reunify. I found this contradictory to a lot of the information in the museum. It was interesting to see the spin they put on things.

The highlight of this stop though was taking a tram down into a North Korean dug tunnel. The tunnel located 54km from Seoul, is one of four that has been found. They guess there are probably 10 more undiscovered that are located on the border.

We then went to a look out that let us peer into the North. It was a foggy day and there was not much to see. Apparently on clear days there is a town visible in the distance. I was told that the town functions with piped in noise and is not really inhabited by people. It is maintained for appearances by the North. From the vantage point we could see the national highway that runs between Seoul and Pyongyang. The highway was completely empty and I believe is only used by diplomats.

Our last stop of the tour was to a newly built railway station near the border. The South built it in hopes of running rail lines in the North when the 2 countries reunify. So this brand new train stations was built symbolically but has yet to run any trains through it. They speak as if there is little standing in the way of reunification. It's quite interesting.

Here are some pictures from the day.

This picture is from the museum. It's hard to see but two sides are pushing the globe back together. On one side is South Korea and on the other is the North.

The bottom picture is me and some of my fellow teachers.

The Kids I work With

I occasionally am asked to make videos for the preschool, and here is one of them.

I've Been Unfaithful

With this blog that is. On my recent visit home I had a handful of people tell me that they still read this blog, and to you I apologize, I will try to put more pictures and stuff on here.

Here is me and a student of mine named Kevin. Kevin is by far the smallest kid in our class despite being far from the youngest. This coupled with his affinity to smile no matter the circumstances, makes him a kid that gets picked up a lot. I toss, carry, twirl, throw, and catch Kevin on a daily basis.


These pictures aren't from Korea, but I finally saw my niece last week and boy has she changed.

Whenever I'm out wandering...........

Here is a brief video I made of a walk I take. I've found myself taking these walks a few times a week. It's peaceful to me. I sometimes forget what is in fact unique to Korea, so hopefully this video gives you a visual of some of the differences between the States and here.

Where's the Beef?

As some of you may or may not know there has been some political unrest here in Korea lately, and what would be the cause of this unrest........................................... US beef. Yes, US beef. Korea has agreed to start importing US beef again after a 5 year hiatus. The US beef promises to be half the price of what is currently offered in the grocery stores (food is expensive here.)

Yet there is tremendous public outcry concerning mad cow. There are constant protests, people setting themselves on fire, and a whole lot of misinformation out there. Basically, with the exception of a few people I've met, all of Korea thinks that American cows have mad cow disease. The interesting thing is that no one really knows what happens if you eat meat from an infected cow. A lot of the government cabinet has resigned and some are calling for the resignation of the President of Korea. This is insane.

The most ironic thing about this to me is that avian bird flu is already in Korea. We couldn't go to the zoo because of it. They do know what happens to people who get infected with this yet vendors sell eggs on the side of the road, and chicken restaurants are everywhere.

What it really comes down to for me is that I want to be able to buy some beef. I'm hungry and I like beef, I just don't like paying through the nose for it.

This has been me ranting. If you want to look at photos and videos of the protests go to bbc.com.

I'm out

Things have happened

Well since the last time I chronicled about my stay in Korea much has happened. I've visited the Pacific Ocean and seen the barbed wire fence that runs along the coast and is supposed to ward off North Koreans.

I've gone shopping at a night market in Seoul at three in the morning. It was full of shoes, shorts, shirts, and sunglasses. Due to my large in Korean foot size (11 US) and my general uneasiness about Korean fashion (lots of bright colors, and tight pants) I didn't really buy anything.

I've finally played basketball, but I'm not sure it can really be called basketball. The quality and general rule following that accompany a normal game weren't really evident.

I've grown to love Korean food more and more. Especially dumplings, noodles, and dare I say some vegetables.

I've tried and failed to get my driver's license. Thanks to my current Oregon driver's license having a provisional title on it (despite the fact I've had it for 6 years and it will not expire until I'm 26.)

I've also visited Costco 3 times, and Korean Costco is in fact like American Costco. There's the huge pizza slices and hot dogs. As well as Kirkland signature everything, apple pies, tillamook cheese, and yes mom the huge trail mix bags.

I'm no longer uncomfortable taking the subway. Mind you I was never uncomfortable with the cleanliness or people on board, just the general lack of knowledge of how things worked. I now feel somewhat confident I can navigate the cities system with no stress.

And most recently I had parent visiting day in the preschool. Picture this if you will a room full of mothers, cameras (video and flash), siblings, preschool students and me sweating and dancing and singing like I always do in the preschool. Only most of the kids are distracted by the aforementioned moms, siblings, and cameras and I'm pretty much doing all the silly stuff by myself.

Needless to say I'm not the crazy about doing parent visit days. The kids acted nothing like normal and it was weird. But it's over I survived and hopefully won't have to do another one for a long time.

Here is a picture of me and I fellow teacher at the night market. I nearly bought these but knew I probably would never wear them.



This last picture is kind of indicative of how a lot of my pictures turn out. I generally don't smile in pictures and haven't really since about my 2nd grade school pictures. I usually decide to go with more goofy/intense route. What happens is that the kids in my pictures kind of sheepishly smile while I make a face that is a little over the top and slightly disturbing.



At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do intend to update this a little more frequently.