Celeb for a weekend

This weekend was quite a fun one! Milton and I had volunteered to participate in a weekend of cultural exchange with Korean Middle school students from around the province but were told little about it and we didn't imagine we would have as much fun as we did! The camp takes place over three days at this nice little retreat/educational facility in the mountains in Damyang (near Gwangju). This year was the 5th annual Seong-Am International Cultural Awareness Youth Camp to be exact and it is hosted by the International Youth Education Foundation which is a division of UNESCO. The Jeollanamdo office of education is an official sponsor and this is how we found out about the camp and were invited to participate.

It was an early start for Milton and I that morning. We were up at 5am and on the bus to Gwangju by 6:30, at the meeting spot at the National Museum in Gwangju just after 8am, where we were supposed to meet about 25 other volunteers and get on buses at 8:45. It turned out that we actually had to wait until 10am to leave the museum parking lot because the students were at the camp ahead of us and had something planned for our arrival that they scheduled for 10am. It was a bit of a long wait, but well worth it...

When we arrived at the camp all the students were gathered outside holding signs with our names to welcome us. I was the first one off the bus and first to walk through the screaming crowd of kids like i was some sort of famous celebrity. It was the most amazing welcome i have ever received!

Once we got inside we were directed to our seats in the auditorium for the official opening ceremony of the camp. We were each called up on stage one by one and greeted by our 3 students who would be our "buddies" for the weekend. They gave us our name tags and put them around our necks as if the were Olympic medals while all the other kids in the crowd cheered for us. I had two girls and one boy in my group, but you wont see any pictures of the boy because he was super shy and pretty much hid from us all weekend.

Be sure to get a good look at the poster they made me. I love the united Canadian-Korean flag!

The feeling of being famous didn't stop at our arrival. I have never received so much attention from people in my life! The entire weekend kids were asking if I wold pose for photos, they all wanted to touch my hair, the girls told be i looked like Barbie, and the boys all shouted "actress" and "movie star" whenever they saw me. My favourite story is that when two students from another group found out that I lived in Mokpo where they live, they screamed and jumped up and down and gave each other double high fives! It was a major ego boosting weekend but that's not the only reason it was so much fun...

The group of teachers was mostly made up of people from Canada and the USA, but a group of foreign university students were also participating in the weekend, and were from Nepal, China, Gabon, and Tanzania. Friday afternoon we all divided into teams to cook and share some food from our native countries. This was a really fun afternoon and such a good meal afterward! Our team made donuts using a traditional Christmas recipe from Quebec. Everyone loved our contribution and the kids loved getting their hands all mucky making them! We also ate some super spicy chicken dishes, tacos, french toast, different rice dishes, and lots other yummy non-Korean food for a change!

After dinner we were treated to a spectacular show! There was a clarinet concert, followed by ballet and modern dance, and then an unbelievable taekwondo performance. The kids doing taekwondo were the most impressive with the long routines they had to learn, the muscle control they demonstrated through the moves, and the height they got for the kicks!

At the end they even did a skipping routine where they had 3 jump ropes going at once, one inside the other!

As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, after the show, they took us all to an observatory that was located at the base of the mountain. We all got to look into the telescope at a star but it was less impressive than it sounds... it looked the same as a star seen with the naked eye, just a small bright dot surrounded by dark sky. It was still cool to see the observatory and how everything worked.



Saturday we started the day with a hike up the mountain. It was a fairly easy hike compared to what Milton and I have hiked here so far. We took this big group shot at the top. It was about a two hour hike and it gave us a good chance to talk and get to know our students better. My students were super shy and it was tough to get them to talk, but lots of other students were around and more eager to talk to me since i was "Barbie".



Saturday afternoon we made Mosaics representing our cultures. They all turned out really nice. we made them out of paper, but we were told that they would serve as the models for the real glass mosaics they would have made to be put on permanent display at the camp.




Saturday night was the big party night. The volunteers from each country were asked to put together a little something and put on a show for the kids. The Canadians played the spoons and sang "the good old hockey game" and the national anthem. There was a dance contest and karaoke afterwards and a big bonfire that was a bit more discomforting than it was warm:


Closing ceremonies were held Sunday morning and we were given time to take a few last photos with our students before lunch.
After lunch we were back on the buses to head the the bamboo museum and then home. the museum was a bit dull, but it was neat to see how much Koran's can do with bamboo - furniture, pipes, huts, baskets, boxes, wine, and more!



Overall it was a fabulous weekend and we can't believe that we were actually given a monetary "gift" for participating. We were happy to volunteer and had a great time hanging out with the other foreigners and with the students that we felt a bit guilty being paid for having so much fun!
We were happy to get home Sunday evening for a nice quiet night after all the excitement and to catch up on rest after all the activity.

Jinju Lantern Festival

How we spent our Thanksgiving weekend...

I found online that there was a big lantern festival going on in Jinju. We had stayed home last weekend, so we figured we deserved a treat this weekend and went to check it out. We hopped on a train Saturday morning and arrived in Jinju early afternoon. It wasn’t hard to find our way to the site as there was huge balloons flying in the sky anchored at the banks of the river where the festival was happening. We quickly found a hotel - a Love Motel, which is exactly what it sounds like! The rooms are often rented out to lovers who are hiding their affairs or young people who need to escape the watchful eyes of their parents. Travellers know though that these are also cheap, clean places to stay since they pretty much consist of no more than a bathroom and a bed. We checked in and dropped our bags and headed out to join the festivities.

The festival is held to commemorate the 70 000 fallen soldiers in a battle with Japan in the 1500’s. Our first few views of the festival were from the palace that sits up on a hill overlooking the river where all the action was. When I say lantern festival, you are probably picturing small paper lanterns lit with candles that light up the night. They did have these, but they also had a most impressive display of colourful floating lanterns. There was also a wall and tunnel of smaller hanging lanterns that we knew would be even more impressive at night. There were small paddle boats that you could rent to get closer to the lanterns and small boat cruises too, but Milton and I stayed onshore and kept busy with other activities.

Our first bit of fun was had as we dressed up in old traditional Korean costumes. Since we paid as a couple, we were given the couple costume…King and Queen! Milton got dressed first and I thought maybe they had our costumes mixed up because they started dressing him all in pink! Pink pants and a pink shirt, but it was no mistake. The boots were hilarious and so was the head gear. Milton had his turn to laugh too when he saw the hair they had me put on that weighed about 10 pounds. Not sure black hair really suits me ;)

There was a huge market that was said to be a “Korean products market”, which pretty mush meant tons of dried fish and other food vendors, and a few stands selling knock-off sportswear. We didn’t buy anything.

We stepped away from the action for a while to have dinner while we waited for it to get dark and for the fireworks to start. We ate a restaurant that said “country kitchen” on the sign, but that played nice jazz music and served Italian food. An interesting combo, but the food was good.
We quickly headed back to the hotel to get sweaters and then to the bridge over the river where we thought would be the best view of the fireworks. The fireworks were good – I always love fireworks, but I’ve been spoiled by seeing several of the firework competitions held in Montreal every summer and so this display was nothing to brag about. I think we missed the best part from where we were too, because we were on the bridge and couldn’t see at one point when they set off a bunch that were attached to the bottom of the bridge and created like a waterfall of white lights falling into the river (we could only see the reflection).

After the fireworks, we went back down to the tunnel of lanterns to see it all lit up, and also to see the lanterns that were made during the day as one of the festival activities. We also got to “make our own floating lantern” (it was made already but we attached pieces of paper on which we wrote our wishes) and then we sent it down the river.

This was the highlight of the night for us because there were two guys filming us as we wrote our wishes and then found us when we set our lantern afloat and asked if they could interview us. We of course were quick to agree thinking this was our big chance to make it big in Korea (yeah right!) and we did short interviews to speak of our impressions of the festival and they told us it would be on cable. We have no idea what channel or when but we are still saying we are stars! I also felt famous for a moment after that when some man begged me to pose in a photo with his three kids – for some people it is just so rare to see a white person, especially a blond. So see, I told you I am famous – there will be photos of me framed and hanging on the walls in houses all over Korea!

One last stop before we headed back to the hotel, Milton's favourite part of the night... the Princess Hotel cafe. Alright, i had to twist his arm a little bit, but he was a good sport and let me go into this cafe that any girl would love! The best part of it was that if you order a drink you get waffles and ice cream included in the "service". Korean are always giving away free food as part of what they call service, but this was a bit more generous than anything we've ever been given so far (usually its a free drink refill or maybe side dishes). So we paid $8 for my cappuccino and Milt's ice cream parfait, and the waitress brought us this plate of waffles and ice cream for free!

Sunday morning we had breakfast sandwiches at Dunkin’ Donuts (yum! A small taste of home) and then headed back to the grounds of the palace that we hadn’t had a chance to explore on Saturday. I was pretty impressed by how beautiful the grounds were but I think Milton was getting a bit bored. While I was trying to capture some of the beauty on camera this is what he was doing…

…trying to ruin my shots! He says that he felt inspired by the setting and that he was trying to imagine how it would have been to fight the invasion of the Japanese and that this was how he would fight them! We had a really good laugh and then got on our way.

Back home late Sunday afternoon and off to do groceries so we could make a thanksgiving dinner. It was a bit smaller than the meals we missed with our families and a bit quieter too, but it’s the best we could do. A whole roast chicken was stuffed as the substitute for turkey, and I made the Swiss Chalet sauce I’d been saving since we got here, so the meal was pretty darn good! We have no pumpkin pie, but pain perdu dans du crème a sucre is just as good, if not better!

It was a fabulous weekend and we are hoping that all of you are having a great thanksgiving weekend back home too!

Exciting weekend ahead...

Check back at the end of the weekend for some great photos. Milton and I are heading to the Jinju Lantern Festival.

Here's the blurb I got about it from Wikipedia: "There are cultural events held in Jinju every year. Among these are the Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival which is held in October for approximately ten days. This nationally designated cultural tourism festival, found only in Jinju, features a spectacle of lanterns floating on the Nam River to commemorate the patriotic spirit of the 70,000 militia corps and government troops who died for their country defending Jinju from the Japanese forces during the Imjin War (1592-1598)."

The photos on the net look amazing! There are MILLIONS of paper lanterns everywhere - hanging and floating down the river. There is a big fireworks display on Saturday night, we can make our own lanterns, make a wish while we light the candle, and send them floating down the river. We also plan to dress up in traditional Korean clothing. So we may be missing Thanksgiving weekend, but I think this event should distract us from feeling too homesick! Check back soon...

Side note: You may be wondering how I have time at 10:20 am on a Friday morning to be updating my post while I am at school and should be teaching. This is a good question! I too, am trying to figure out why I am not teaching. My lessons are all planned and I was ready and waiting in my classroom for the grade 6 class from next door to come see me, and instead, they just kept walking right past my door and went outside (along with my co-teacher who is responsible for telling me about schedule changes etc). This is not the first time this has happened. Usually when they all go outside like that they are having an assembly that lasts about 15 minutes. Well, today I watched them out there for 15 minutes while they did various warm up type activities. I thought, this is strange. Then I saw a few of the boys carrying over some measuring tapes, mats and other track and field type equipment. The three classes that are out there had spread out about the schoolyard and the their teachers were standing nearby with clipboards. I guess its track and field day and, of course, no one thought to tell me! Just another typical day in the life of the forgotten English teacher!

My co-teacher even came in to see me 10 minutes for class started to have me translate something for her and saw me preparing for her class but didn't say a word. Milton and I have decided that they love doing this to us on purpose - so annoying!!! (but really, I'm super happy to have the morning off! )

Foundation Day Holiday Weekend

It is yet again a long-weekend in South Korea – Foundation day, which I’ve been told is celebrated by raising the Korean flag all over town. My students didn’t seem too excited about the holiday and none of the staff at school was doing anything special either. Most of the other foreigners were taking advantage of the three day weekend to travel. Most of them headed to Seoul and some to Busan for one last beach weekend. Milton and I decided that a weekend at home would do us some good and so we stayed local.

Friday we went for a walk to the waterfront to see what the action was down there. There were lots of people out and there seemed to be some sort of fishing derby going on. We hiked up this tiny mountain, more of a rocky hill, to sit in the sun and read for a bit. We came across a group of hikers who insisted we join them for a bit of a picnic. We find Koreans to be most generous on holidays. They shared what they were eating and drinking. We were happy to have taught the grade 5 lesson “Do you want some more” in which the food examples included a few Korean dishes. Milton and I learned what Songpyon is – a traditional Korean rice dish always served at thanksgiving. Songpyeon isn’t grains of rice, it’s hard to describe, but it’s like rice pasta that is stuffed with more rice. Picture big perogies – a sticky, thick rice pasta-ish outside with grainy, dry stuffing inside. The outside can be white, green, or pink --- I don’t know what makes it a different colour because they all taste the same! So they handed us this food, and we said: “oh songpyon, kamsa hamnida.” (Songpyon, Thank you) They cheered and cheered because we knew what it was and how to say it in Korean! They were also quite drunk, which is pretty much a normal state of being for Koreans. Then they gave us some of what they were drinking which was some kind of super strong fruity wine…we think! They headed of on their way to continue the hike and if none of them fell off the side of the mountain it’s a miracle!

I know what you are thinking Mom and Dad. I can hear you from here…Don’t take food from strangers! But they pretty much force it on you and as disgusting as the food may be, you have to at least pretend to enjoy it and take a few bites. I only had a bite and a sip to please them and as soon as they were out of site I threw it away.

Saturday was our beach day. Milton and I set off to find Jindo beach which is on an island about an hour from Mokpo. We took the bus and it wasn’t the best ride for me. Taking the bus in Korea is never a smooth ride. With 70% of the country being mountains, the roads wind all over the place: up, down, around and through tunnels. Mom, Em and Liss, if you want to add Gravol my Christmas package it would be much appreciated ;) When we got to Jindo we discovered we had to take another bus from the centre of the island where the bus terminal is, out the beach. I had barely recovered from the first bus ride and now had to get on another! It was about a 30 min bus ride from there and the second but ride was pretty cool actually because it was through smaller country roads and we could see people harvesting rice. The bus swerved from one side of the road to the other trying to avoid the blankets of rice that were in the sun drying. We managed to get a few shots from the bus.

Finding our stop was difficult because we had no idea where we were going. What we had seen on the internet and on the map of Jindo was a large beach and we figured we know it when we saw it. No such luck! And when the bus had done the entire route and was about to start on the return route the driver signalled us to get off. With our handy little phrase book we managed to communicate that we were looking for the beach. The people on the bus heading back into town laughed at us crazy waegooks (foreigners) because it is way too late in the year to be heading to the beach in their minds. Meanwhile it’s still sunny and 25 degrees so we laughed back at them! The bus driver took us to where we needed to get off and Milton and I headed to the beach. We were the only ones on the beach of course, but this made the day at the beach that much nicer! When we got back into Mokpo Saturday night, we ended our day with a traditional Korean BBQ dinner of pork ribs. There is a nice restaurant right beside our apartment and for $7 you get a plate of pork that you grill in front of you and unlimited refills on the side dishes of veggies, and Korean pancakes and in true Korean style you sit on the floor and eat with chopsticks. I wanted to take pictures but when I suggested it Milton didn’t feel like it, and when I suggested it again he didn’t want to because the meat was gone and he didn’t think you’d be able to get a good idea of what the whole meal looked like. So blame it on Milton…no photos. I’m sure there will be plenty of photo opportunities like that again since that is the only type of restaurant there is in Korea!

Now it’s Sunday and we are enjoying our last day of the weekend exactly how we wanted: quiet and lazy. I’m writing my blog, and Milton is listening to the Montreal Canadian game on the internet and playing video games – he found a site where you can play old school Nintendo games online. It is a cloudy/rainy day out do we don’t feel guilty about staying in all day and we have plans to spend the afternoon cooking and trying new recipes. It’s so nice to have so much free time in Korea and so few responsibilities!