ChasingDonguri

This past weekend we took Jed on a quick trip to Jeonju to see the traditional Hanok village.  They have one of the largest surviving groups of traditional Korean houses there and it's a big tourist destination in our province.  We were lucky enough to go on the same day as some sort of festival; we think they were celebrating the deity in a tree.  We made a little video about our experience, some things to look out for are: jump roping, a cute puppy and Marisa dancing. 

Sometimes people ask me if I think it is dangerous to live in Korea.  I always wonder why they ask me this because Korea is a very safe place with very little crime.   Sometimes I remember that they ask me this because we live so close to North Korea, and word on the street says it's a little crazy up there.  Generally for me though North Korea is just a place on the news that other people worry about (my mother not included).  

This weekend Jordan's good friend Jed came to visit us, so we picked him up at the airport and took the opportunity to visit the DMZ.  The tour started in the Joint Security Area, an area that has both a North and South presence, where the two sides meet for talks.  We were "lucky" enough to see real, live North Koreans on a tour from their side.

Apparently this is a rare occurrence and both sides were busy taking pictures of the other side.  The visiting rules are very strict, so we couldn't point, wave or make any gestures to the visitors on the other side.  There are very serious South Korean guards standing around you all the time to make sure you behave and to keep the North Koreans from getting you.

After the Joint Security Area, we toured a tunnel dug by the North Koreans to secretly flood Seoul with soldiers.  Luckily the tunnel was discovered before this happened.  So far they have discovered four tunnels, however they estimate that as many as 17 more exist.  In order to cover up their true intentions, the North Koreans painted to tunnel black and claimed they were looking for coal.  Any rock sample will tell you though that the rock is solid granite.  We got to wear cool hard hats as we walked through the tunnel, but pictures weren't allowed, so you will have to imagine us looking cool.  

We ended with a view of Freedom Bridge, which was where prisoners of the Korean war were exchanged when a cease fire was declared.  Now it's a place of pilgrimage for South Koreans to leave messages for their families in the North.

Click here to see more pictures.

Looking Back at 2009 from Chasing Donguri.

It's been snowing for so long here in Gunsan that I no longer remember it not snowing.  Yesterday we took a walk out to the park to enjoy the fresh snow, please enjoy some of the pictures we took.

Yesterday I was witness to the giant migration of the Baikal Teal.  At least we think it was the baikal teal, as there was no English around to inform us and I had to look it up when we got home.  Huge groups of these birds meet at this one place in the river delta near Gunsan and then fly off.  From what I read on wikipedia it sounds like Korea could be the end of their trek, as they start from the Baikal region in Russia. 

I was invited out by our friends Jim and Carol.  Jordan was busy working on a game (to be released later today I think), and didn't join us.  We had an adventure on the bus, first missing our stop and worrying the bus driver, then walking in the frigid Gunsan air (sometime overnight it turned freezing, there's a chance of snow today).  There is a bird zoo and museums at the site of the bird's landing, and an observation tower.  Since this was the big weekend, there was also an exciting festival going around.  I think Carol and I will feature in next year's informational brochure because there was a photographer following us around for a while. 

We almost missed the birds whose party it was because unless you looked really closely they just looked like a sandbar out on the river, despite the sandbar being pointed out as a thing of interest by the men in charge of the binoculars. 

For more pictures click here.

After two wonderful weeks in Ljubljana, Jordan and I are preparing for the long flight back to Korea tomorrow.  Our first week here had excellent fall sunshine and changing leaves, our second week has seen mostly rain and clouds.  But you can hardly complain about the weather when the country is so cute and sells cheese in the supermarket. 

If you are looking for a place that is idyllic then you should come to Slovenia.  They have no ugly parts.  And my parents have a giant guest apartment where you can make a mess and no one will know. 

Great sites of Slovenia include:

Lake Bled

Ljubljana

Castles

Caves

Pizza

and my parent's house

 For more pictures, click here.

On Wednesday Jordan's teachers took us out for a farewell dinner (perhaps more like a "see you again" dinner).  They took us to a fancy "Western" restaurant and we got to talking about how the food they serve at places like these is in fact nothing like you could find anywhere in America.  What exactly it is that makes it different eluded me at the time, but I have since come up with this list:

5 Ways to Know Your Food Was Made in Korea

1.  There are about 20 little plates on the table.

2.  On these 20 little plates are various vegetables that have been pickled and/or fermented.

3.  The main course has between 5-10 different kinds of meat, one of which is a hot dog.

4.  3 tatertots accompany the main course as a festive garnish (3 tatertots for 5 people).

5.  There's octopus in the noodles.

My Dad mentioned the other day how we hadn't posted on the blog for a while, and I said, "you know, it's same old, same old here in the Dream Hub."  The Gunsan mayor and his people have bestowed the motto "Dream Hub" on our little town, and I think if you were to interview anyone who lived here we'd all agree that it's fitting.  As I've signed on for another year of teaching in Korea, I'll highlight some of the reasons why Gunsan is our Dream Hub:

1.  Our internet is about one hundred times faster than yours.  

2.  We have a really cute bunny.

3. Working is often about the same as not working.  I've been keeping track of classes I've actually taught so far and it's come out to about 60%.  Keep in mind that my regular schedule is 20 hours a week.

4.  It's beautiful.  Whether we're walking around the lake in our neighborhood (the park that surrounds it just got new, free excercise equipment) or admiring the rice fields from school, it may be flat, but it has a charm all it's own.

5.  It hasn't snowed yet.  In fact fall has just come with a bit of a coolness noticeable in the air.

6.  My students are filled with endless enthusiasm despite the fact that everywhere they turn someone is trying to beat it out of them (in fact, you can whack your students if you'd like in Korea, sometimes I whack mine with the textbook.)

7.  We have a giant TV.

8.  Really Fancy Coffee Shops.  Sometimes they have swings.

9.  Our neighborhood is the best.  We were a bit nervous when we moved into an apartment building in the middle of a giant apartment building complex, but now that we've joined the hustle and bustle it is certainly home.  The neighborhood kids all yell hello at us still.  The corner pizza places delivers with such entusiasm that you'd think we were royalty.  The bakery makes sure that we don't buy too much bread and the vegetable stand gives us free onions.  The stationary shop gives us freebies and every bus in in Gunsan stops at our house.

10.  To jump off the last point, despite the fact that we've been here a year, we're still celebrities.  Jordan recently caused a hallway jam when he showed up at the end of my class causing all my students to stop and stare at him like he was Jesus returned.

To see more recent pics check out our new flickr album.

So last week I had vacation school here at Seoheung.  We watched Star Wars and Ratatouille and made posters and played some games.  The Koreans love to document things, and so my coteacher took lots of pictures, which you can view.  I think this is good since a few of you seem to have the impression that I am just a big slacker who does nothing.  These photos I think prove that I do in fact teach some students some of the time.  

I would check out the rest of the photos, as my students made some very exciting aliens...with interesting names...

"Yesterday, I watched half of star wars.  And I waited watching movie time all day!  Today's movie contents were very exciting.  Luke and Solo save Princess Leia and Ben died.  Finally Princess Leia's team started to attack.  Also they won the war.  I was little bored about light sword.  He didn't use the light sword.  But it's okay.  He defeat Darth Vader!  He is our hero!!!! And R2D2 is very cute ><!!!!"

"The movie was really thrilling.  Because, yesterday then computer graphic very natural.  And thrill very very good. Tomorrow more thrill more.  Do you think so too? Oh! I was so amazing to hear that movie was made in 1977.  Very good!!  These movie showed teacher thank you ~~ I love teacher!! >_<"

"The movie is interesting, specially gun fight a merry time of it."

I  love vacation school because I love to make my students write.  Then I get to read the pearls that they've writtten.  They use English so differently that everything they write sounds like magical poetry to me. 

You can see I've tried to make some corrections to this, but to speak honestly, what can I really say to this?  And this student also told me after class that she would pay better attention tomorrow. 

Today we watched Star Wars IV.  Everyone loved R2D2.  They thought he was so cute, so loyal and the star of the movie.  C3PO was not so impressive, but "unnatural."  Luke was "handsome", Leia was "ugly", Luke's uncle was "wisdom".  Everyone said, "this movie is famous" and one student wrote about its effect on America: "for example, American children have had dream that they will grow great scientists after they watched the movie." 

To sum up the first half of Star Wars we have this summary:

"I have never seen the movie Star Wars.  I saw star wars for the first time first.  The Star Wars is very funny movie.  R2D2 is apperance the movie so he is character.  He has a memory from the princess Leia.  Then he is give this memory to Obi won Kenobi.  At that time, One man his name Luke Skywalker is help them too.  but enemy Darth vader afflict them and will catch the robbot R2D2 and C3PO.  indeed they protect the peace or they obey the evil...??   I feel wonder at the result."

I feel wonder too.

Jordan and I spent the last week traveling in and around Busan, Korea's second largest city (with a population of about three million).  We spent the first day visiting Jordan's old friend Ben in Ulsan, a town about an hour away from Busan (home to Hyundai) and his wife Na-Young and their son.  They were nice enough to show us around the city and take us to a temple out in the country.  We had a very enoyable day with them. 

In Busan highlights included pointing to things in the fish market I would not eat:

Watching the other tourists enthusiastially point at the things they wanted to eat:

We also went to famous Haeundae beach and swam with thousands of our friends. 

The big aquarium on the beach was also great, it was more impressive than our guide book led us to believe and some of the tanks had creative embellishments.

We also enjoyed lots of great shopping in the neighborhood around our hotel.

In the end I didn't want to leave Busan as it reminded me of Hong Kong with the large ships sailing in the distance, the lush, forested mountains coming down to meet the beach and the busy streets filled with people and market stalls.  Back home in the Dream Hub things are quiet and hot.  Jordan has finally gotten a video game to work after a month of trying, but hopefully he'll pull himself away to post video of the hip hop festival we saw one evening at the beach in the rain.  And I'll spend the next week or so working on a scrapbook of our trip.  You can see the rest of our pictures here. 

This morning I needed to stop at the hospital to pick up the results of some tests I had for renewing my contract.  So I thought I would ride a new bus there.  I had noticed on my previous trips that bus 58 stopped outside the hospital.  So I got on, but soon realized that it was going the wrong direction, out towards the country.  Since at some point I needed to get to school this morning, I gestured to the bus driver that I wanted to go the other way and he gestured the way he was going.  So I got off and got on another bus which included a short walk to the hospital.  As I was walking, who should drive by and wave at me than bus #58, which I guess goes the other way to get to the hospital.  But then, after I finished my business and took a short taxi ride to school, who should wave to me as I got out of the cab than the driver of bus #58! He must think I am quite crazy to ever haven gotten off his bus in the first place...But at least I have one more Korean friend who will wave at me now whenever he sees me. 

Word just in while I was looking for a photo.  Tomorrow when I get to school I get to pose for a picture with the English teachers who were supposed to have started an English club (with me as their teacher), but didn't have time, but have to take the picture anyway.  I <3 Korea.

Thanks to some  hardwork this weekend, my first digital scrapbook can now be viewed on the scrapbook part of the site.  I suggest viewing it in "its full glory,"  although for those of you who don't live in Korea and thus don't have the fastest interent in the world, it might take a while to load.  Let it load for a few minutes, I think it's worth the wait.  If you have to wait an absurdly long time, or if it doesn't work, be sure to let us know so we can fix it.

Click on the above tab, or follow this link:  Fun with Dick and Jane.

So the week has come to a close.  I just watched the beginning of High School Musical for the sixth time.  Next week I'll get to watch the middle six times and then the end six times.  And then I might show it at my other school.  I guess it doesn't matter what country you're in, middle schoolers everywhere love it.  And why not?  There's singing, there's dancing and there's high school romance.  And I'm showing it to them during school.  What more could they want?

After watching some Wallace and Gromit the past couple of weeks, I'm settling into a nice routine out here in the country of basing all my lessons around movies.  Thanks to the fancy new English rooms, I can keep my students blissfully entertained while perhaps learning a little English.  But  now the questions becomes, what movie should I watch next?  What else will the Middle Schoolers love?  I'm trying to remember what movies I loved in Middle School.  What movies did you love?

So this weekend we celebrated my birthday by taking a trip to Jeonju, the capital city of our province which is about an hour bus ride away.  The main attraction was the TGIFriday's, but they also have some nice neighborhoods to walk around in.

For more pictures, click here.

Thank you to everyone who bought me a scoop of ice cream!  I am still enjoying them!

A few weeks ago, my country school had its Sports Day.  It was very thrilling and I got to go home early.

So last week we got to skip two days of school to go to Korea's largest festival.  The festival, as I understand it, centers around an ancient shamanistic tradition of celebrating 3 deities. We took part in welcoming the deity to the festival.  It comes in the form of a tree, where it lives, which the people cut down and parade through the city.  We were behind the tree, with out lanterns, dressed in our Korean hanboks.  And unlike most places I have been, the Koreans really love when foreigners take part in their culture (ie: wear their clothes, eat their food, celebrate their festivals) and everyone was very happy to see us and wanted to take our picture.  I posed for several during the parade.  It is nice to know that I will be in some random person's scrapbook of the festival.  Please enjoy these pictures of random people that we took:

Jordan working on his wishes.

This lady wanted to take a picture with me, even though she didn't have a camera.

Jordan and Matt enjoying the time off from school, perhaps a little too much?

More pictures here.

There are a few people amongst our readership who use us as their technology advisors.  If you are such a person, this entry might be of interest to you.  If you are interested in our goings and comings, then this may not be so thrilling.

I recently uploaded all our digital pictures to Flickr.com.  You may have noticed that we use Flickr to host our Korea pictures, and you may be wondering why we have put them all there, as if you really wanted to look at that many pictures.

The truth is we did not upload them so you could look at them, but as a means of storage for ourselves.  Unlike sites like Facebook, which compress your photos when you upload them, Flickr saves the actual photo, giant size and all.  For $25 a year, Flickr gives us as much space as we can use (if you were to ask Jordan about this he would say, "it's a good deal").  So we no longer have to backup our photos on our external harddrive.  They are in fact safer on Flickr, since they are about triple backed up on Flickr's servers (and Flickr is owned by Yahoo!) and you can't drop the internet or spill water on it. 

The other main reason we put them on Flickr was to organize them.  Think about how many pictures you have.  Now think about how many pictures you'll have in 20 years.  How will you find that one picture of me eating ice cream in San Francisco?  The answer is: Flickr.  Flickr gives you the best options for organizing and searching your pictures.  There are a few offline programs that give similar options, but these can be frustrating to use because they utilize so much memory that they slow your computer down.  And if your computer crashes, or you get a new one, you might lose all the organization you've done, if not the actual pictures. 

So that's why we use Flickr.  If you want to know how we use Flickr, you can watch this movie.  I made it, and apparently I had a lot to say because it's really long.  I found Flickr tricky to use when I was starting out, and so perhaps explain more than you need to know.  I have made friends with it though, and once you go through the initial work of loading your old pictures, it will take very little work to maintain as long as you add your pictures as you take them. 

Needless to say, we highly recommend this solution if you take more than 100 pictures a year.  Because 100 pictures times 20 years is 2000 pictures.  And who only takes 100 pictures a year?