Chuseok

I have this week off for Korea’s biggest holiday, Chuseok.  The two days surrounding Chuseok (the 22^nd this year) are classified as national holidays as well as the actual day, and everyone almost completely evacuates Seoul to travel to their hometowns to enjoy family feasts and give thanks to their ancestors for the harvest. 

Korean traditional dress, or hanbok, are worn:

Korean actress Gu Hye Sun in hanbok ... her face is on everything!

hanbok shop between Gyeongbokgung and Insadong this weekend.  I love the reflections.

Along with fruits, japchae (a noodle dish), and bulgoki (Korean barbequed pork), songpyeon is eaten:

 Songpyeon are little crescent shaped rice cakes filled with sweet nuts and grains, steamed with pine needles.  I bought some from an ahjumma who yells “hello!” at me every time I walk past her shop, which is sometimes 8? times a day.  When I bought a package, she put one in my mouth for me, haha. 

the songpyeon I bought.  yummy!

The date of Chuseok is selected using the lunar calendar – it is always the 15^th day of the 8^th lunar month.  Since the lunar calendar differs from the solar calendar, the date is different every year.  When I came to Korea last year, I was here for Chuseok on the 3^rd of October (Pearl’s birthday!).  But this year the holiday occurs today (Sept. 22^nd).   According to Korea’s tourism website, “The sun’s presence was considered routine, but the full moon that came once a month, brightening the dark night, was considered a special and meaningful event.”  

A folk tradition I think lovely is that the women will dress up in their hanbok and dance in a large circle outside under the moon, singing “Ganggangsullae” together.

These two photos taken from stage performances.  the dance is traditionally performed outside.

[The information from here until the next picture is a combination of text from Korea's tourism website and my own notes from personal research.  I find this fascinating!]

The Jellonamdo province on the southwestern coast is home to the ganggangsullae dance.  Legend has it that ganggangsullae originated from a military strategy used against Japanese troops when they attacked Korea’s coastal regions. Following two Japanese invasions during the Imjinwaeran war against Japan between 1592 and 1598, Admiral Yi Sun-shin (1545~1598), then Naval Commander of the region, came up with a plan to deceive the enemy. He ordered dozens of local women to dress in military uniforms and sing and dance gangangsullae around nighttime campfires on the mountainsides along the coast causing the Japanese to overestimate the strength of the Korean troops and retreat. 

As the full moon begins to rise in the sky, women come together and move in a circle, hand-in-hand thrusting their right hands forward and their left hands back. The woman with the best voice sings first, followed by others who chant the repeated refrains of “ganggangsullae.” The leader’s singing is actually an improvisation. In the beginning, the dance movement and song tempo are slow, but the pace becomes more rapid, and soon the women appear to be running in a circle.

The dancers usually maintain a circular movement, but there are other motions which represent wishes for the harvest.  One variation is called “catching a mouse” to catch the mice that steal the harvest.  In one motion, all the dancers bow and link together while the lead singer walks on their backs.  This is called “stepping on roof tiles” and is said to be stepping on the roof tiles of rich people. The dance is not bound by any specific order, but can change at the will of the leader. The dancing continues from start to finish as a kind of joyful merry-go-round.

"Rolling Mats"

"Stepping on Roof Tiles"

In addition to a thanksgiving feast, Koreans travel to the graves of their ancestors to clear off any brush or weeds which have grown there over the year, and to offer fruits and other harvest treats.  Korean graves are perfectly rounded mounds covered with grass, often set into the hills surrounding an area so that they are out of the way of development.  Driving around Jellonamdo last year, we saw many graves in the hills, and even in the green tea plantation at Boseong (see).  In Gyeungju, kings are buried in mounds the size of small hills themselves, with many treasures (see).  We got to go inside one king's grave while there!

My cell phone is also celebrating Chuseok.  Since yesterday, when I open it up there is a little animation of a rabbit feeding songpyeon to the moon, who grows from a crescent to a full with a happy smile on its face.   See:

 Horrible quality video, my apologies!  but you get the idea :).

Happy Chuseok!  

<3 krj

Liz's Visit

Liz, one of Lisa's closest friends from high school, arrived last Sunday and will be visiting until next Sunday.  So far we have had lots of fun!  Since I have known Lisa for a whopping 7 years now, I have also known Liz for at least 5 ... I enjoy her a lot and it has been great fun to have her visiting!

Many excellent photos have been taken :) ... but I only have half as Liz has the rest!  I will update the photo site with all photos when I have them!  Here are the photos I have.

Dinner in Seoul, Wednesday:

Lisa cutting up kimchi at the Sam Gyap Sal restaurant.  Instead of knives, Koreans mostly use heavy duty scissors.  They do work much better for cutting kimchi!  We cooked duck and pork, with tofu, ddukbokki, and vegetables. Yum!

Liz and I enjoying rice dipped in soup

Laser light show on the manmade river in Seoul, Cheonggyecheon. 

Honey bread at Cafe Bene, mmm.  Many coffee places serve waffles, and these honey breads.  It is a thick slice of sweet bread drizzled with honey and cinnamon, with whipped cream.  Delic!

Dancing in Hongdae (Seoul):  Before going out dancing, we had drinks at this awesome bar called Vinyl.  It is a little hole in the wall place only big enough for the bar and a couple tables (it was supposed to be a walk-up restaurant I think) with a great atmosphere.  The Korean Robert Plant brought us our drinks in Capri-Sun like baggies with straws.  It was fun!  Photos to come.

We went to two clubs, jam packed full of people.  It was an experience for sure.  Not my favorite, as I felt claustrophobic and so hot I thought I might die.  haha.  Anyway, I tried it once!  I love to go out dancing, but not when there isn't even room to dance!  And I hate to be sweaty in public.

On Saturday, the three of us met Tony and Rebecca to go shopping in Hongdae.  It was fun!

Hongdae street where we shopped.  Near Ewah Women's University.

Lisa, Liz, Rebecca, and Tony posed with bizarre English on t-shirt.  Koreans love to put English on their clothes, and most of it makes no sense or is elsewise rather strange!

That night we met up with Tony's boyfriend Ste, and Minguk to eat a delicious mandoo dinner.  Mandoo are Korean dumplings.  Like potstickers.  We shared the mandoo and then each of us had a huge bowl of noodle/ground meat soup.  I had trouble with the noodles and was covered in soup when I left, but we all had a fabulous time.  Lots of laughing!

Tony and Ste had to catch a bus, but Lisa, Liz, Minguk, Rebecca and I found a Noraebang to go sing at and had a great time being silly.  There were many good photos, but I don't have them yet!

On Sunday, Lisa, Liz and I went to a palace which I had visited with Lisa when I was here last year.  It was raining and SO LOVELY.

Gyeongbokgung (Palace) in Seoul

I love all the umbrellas everywhere

favorite photo I may have ever taken.  a lotus!!!!!  and the reflection of a beautiful little building on a little island in the pond.  there were also fishes swimming but they were tricky to photograph.  so beautiful.

As we were walking down the street leaving the palace, there was this peephole!

Gyeonggbokgung is very close to Insadong, a wonderful shopping area.  We did some shopping around and then met Minguk for Lisa's favorite Italian restaurant in the area.

Insadong

View from inside a tea shop ... I was persuaded to buy a bunch of moderately expensive tea!  At least I got a free travel mug.

Inside Ssamzie market.  A favorite place from last year's visit.  These huge metal roses span the whole 4 floor stairwell.

Well, that about covers it!  More to come of course ... <3.

Sports Day

Last Thursday was Sports Day at my Elementary School.  In Korean schools, Sports Days are major events for which the students spend weeks preparing.   Every grade puts on a mass dance/other physical performance, and takes turns running races.  The kids parents and grandparents come to watch, and it is a big occasion!  I have heard the music for students practicing on the lawn for at least two weeks, and then the whole day Tuesday was cancelled just so students could prepare. 

Since I had no classes to teach on Tuesday, I went down to the field and watched the performances, thinking it was the actual Sports Day :).  When I learned that the real day was Thursday, I offered to help out.  All of the other teachers at the school were exhausted all week and it didn’t feel quite fair that I was just going to watch all day while they worked hard with the students to get them everywhere they needed to be and keep things running smoothly.

My task was to work with the mothers from the PTA to help manage kids just after each race—putting them back into their lines and giving the winners prizes.  This was fun!  The mothers were really funny.  It was very hot outside and we were standing out on the field in the open sun all day without shade.  So they kept offering me cold drinks and telling me to stand in the shade on the sidelines in between races.   Conversation was difficult-to-not-possible, but we got by with gestures and with the few words of Korean I know.  “Ciopta!” (“cute!”) was enough conversation for the most part :) as the kids were pretty adorable.

Here are some photos:

Teacher leading the kids in stretching, to pretty traditional Korean music.  Apparently the president created these stretches, to this music for everyone to do-- it was made especially for Koreans.  All the kids line up in their classes on the field like this every morning.  It is neat to see them all at one time!  They stretch far to the right and left of this photo.

Third? grade, doing a superman dance/performance.  So cute!  You can see the streamers -- they are all drawings done by the kids.  I think they are really great! 

My favorite performance,  the fourth grade doing a dance with fans.  The song was a really pretty rendition of what I assume is a traditional folk song.  The kids did all kinds of formations with the fans.  I got video of this ...

One of the formations with fans by fourth grade, during the photo reenactment for parents :).  See them there with their cameras?

The sixth grade did a "Mexican" dance in circles.  I had to listen to this music every afternoon for a long time while they practiced!  the girls wore these funny fake skirt things over shorts.  None of the sixth graders wanted to do this -- it was pretty awkward and amusing :).

The second grade doing a very adorable performance to the most famous Korean folk song, "Arirang."  They each had a little traditional drum, with streamers on it.  Ciopta!

To view all my photos of this event, go here!  I also got some great video with my cell phone, but I don't know how to get them off of it yet : / ... so those will be coming!

Highlights:

•  Parent/Teacher Tug of War:  The moms told me to participate in this but at first I was accidentally on the parent side so I stepped out.  The second time, the parents and teachers switched sides and the Vice Principal, a feisty little ahjumma, grabbed my arm and put me in line in front of her to go for it.  We lost and ended up flat on our backs, but it was a funny experience.  The vice principal was on the ground behind me, laughing.  When I went to the bathroom later, bits of Astroturf fell out of my pants :).

• Races for Parents:  There was some kind of event for everyone, and one event involved calling for mothers (olmonies) and fathers (abujies) to volunteer to run races of their own.  It was really funny to see them running their fastest and laughing really hard at the end of the races.  I think there would be no mothers volunteering to run a race in America!  But it was lots of fun, both for them and to watch.

• Photo Reenactments:  After every performance, the kids had to do it all over again so that parents could come onto the field and get photos.  I thought this was not a bad idea, but kind of funny.  We’d all clap and then the music would start again and all the moms and dads would run down into the fray with their cameras.

• My Followers:  I had one itty bitty girl who was quite enamored with me.  She had to be about three years old, maybe four, and SUPER CUTE in a little dress and pigtails.  She kept coming up to me and grinning really big.  At one point later she gave me a Hershey’s Kiss.  Aww!  I got a kiss :).   Also, at the end of the races, when it was a third, fourth, fifth, or sixth grade race, the kids would get really excited and yell “Kayla Teacher!” when they saw me :).  I was really happy to be there to support their efforts.  I love my students!

All in all, a very fun day!  My face, chest, and back of neck were brightly sunburned by the end of it, but it has already turned to tan :).  While I was standing on the field helping, one of the fourth grade teachers brought me some of the decorative fans the kids used in their performance, demonstrating that I should use them to shade myself (“you are so fair!”).  I said thank you and used them a couple times when I had time.  I tried to return these at the end of the day and she told me no, indicating that they were meant to be a gift for me.  I was touched !

Blurry Beginnings

Goodness, where to begin!  Well I have the where; perhaps it’s the how I’m missing.  Where: Uijeongbu, South Korea.  How: many uncertain steps which have led to the impression of a new life.   The fact that I live here now, and how exciting that is, comes to me in waves.  Every so often I think, “wow!  I live in Korea!  I am so happy!” and then I laugh at myself. 

Since I left Washington

Weeks:

I arrived in Uijeongbu late Wednesday August 25^th and started work the next day at 8:30am.  So much for a buffer to get over the jetlag!  Thursday I met most of the almost hundred staff at my school (all very nice) … just grades 3-6 are about 840 students, and the school also includes Kindergarten-2^nd grade … so it is a large school!  Those 840 I had counted are my students.  (Holy crap I have over 800 students!)

Full week #1 I taught my first classes.  Mercifully I was spared from making lesson plans in this week (my total lack of training or experience worked in my favor here).  My wonderful coteacher and the gym teacher kindly drove me out to the immigration office to get my registration card.  On the drive out I was feeling very frustrated that I have no idea what is going on in my life 90% of the time.  The two teachers did their very best to entertain me at the office, and spent their own evening time to help me get the card, which I needed to get a lot of other things, so by the time I got home that night I was not feeling frustrated at all … but really grateful to them and happy to be having new experiences and learning.  At the immigration office, I made a friend who is Canadian and lives just down the street from me!  Joy!  Her name is Rebecca. 

Last week was incredibly stressful, but I had the satisfaction of completing lesson plans and then using them in class, successfully!  It was very satisfying indeed.  Trying to navigate 24 different classes ranging through four grades and 4-6 different lessons at a time, while miscommunicating scheduling obligations with three different Korean coteachers = mess.  But, mess/frustration led to much better planning and communication this week so far, so oh well. 

Weekends:

All weekends so far have been spent in Bucheon (where Lisa lives) and Seoul.  The first weekend she, Minguk (a longtime friend of Lisa’s, who is Korean) and I sang noraebang, walked around in the rain, and ate delicious curry.  [Noraebang = private karaoke rooms, great fun!]  Second weekend, Lisa took me to the contemporary art museum, to my great delight.  Also to an artistic neighborhood with filthy bathrooms where I enjoyed the street arts (Hongdae).  

 Last weekend I had the good sense to spend Sunday getting prepared (versus last week’s every weeknight until after midnight) and resting up a bit.  Sunday evening Rebecca and I explored Uijeongbu a bit more and found a really fun neighborhood!  Our previous explorations had not yielded much, so this was greatly exciting.  A lovely coffee shop and outdoor sculptures, hooray!  And a really seedy Indian restaurant with bad food, but that had Bollywood music videos on screen.  I kind of want to go back just for these despite the food!

I’m sorry for so much play-by-play … here is a nice list to keep things interesting:

OBSERVATIONS

• I have already developed teacher mannerisms—slowed pronunciation, hand gestures, more sing-songy conversational inflections. 
• The weather is finally cooling, and I am so glad to finally have stopped sweating.  At least, stopped sweating constantly.
• I spend a lot of time at work with the fifth grade teachers, and they are all exceedingly kind and welcoming.  We eat lunch together and they are frequently pulling me into the teacher’s room to feed me snacks.  Snacks = bad, invitation to snacks = nice.  Eating together is very important in Korean culture, and they were really excited that I joined their group to share.  Not much English is spoken, but listening to the conversation I am learning more and more Korean.
• Most important Korean acquisition: “Hanguk mal molayeyo, hajiman paeugu issoyo.”  It means “I don’t understand Korean, but I am learning.”
• The night I got here, mycoteacher took me to a kimbap place* in Mangwolsa station (subway stop near my house) because she was worried about my health after the flight and thought I needed some food.  She introduced me to the lady who runs the place and her husband, who remember me every time I come back (by name!). *kimbap = Korean sushi, full of cooked and pickled ingredients. 
• Second most important Korean acquisition: “Mashisosoyo!”  (“It was delicious!”)
• Koreans have very different table manners than we have in the west … little to no water with the meal, slurping, no napkin in lap, and talking with food in the mouth.  It is quite liberating!  Except for the water with meals—I am always thirsty.  Slurping makes sense as using chopsticks to eat noodles is a very messy business.  I have been complimented by the fifth grade teachers for my chopstick ability – hooray! 
• 80-90% humidity = not good.  Rainstorms frequently to break the pressure = marvelous.  And everyone has really wonderfully designed umbrellas.  Cuteness and frills are big in Korea, and (you will probably hear me say this again!) NOTHING IS SPARED from aesthetic improvement!  Trash cans? No.  Frying pans? No.
• The worst part about moving to a foreign country = not being able to read!  I feel so unintelligent all the time!  Signs everywhere I go, and fixtures in my apartment, my teacher's handbooks -- all have to be explained to me and I have to memorize them, like a child who does not understand!  When the free time finally comes, I will be learning to read Hangeul.  That's it.  

Sorry also that it took me so long to write -- my life has been a whirlwind of confusion and exciting/perplexing new experiences.  I will update the photo site in the next day or so.

Lots of love -- I will write again!

Kayla