Per aspera ad astra

I was offered my current gig in February and have been looking forward to this past weekend pretty much ever since. You see, I spent the last two days at the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daechon Beach, which is appealing for three major reasons

1. See more of South Korea (not Seoul or work-related)
2. Most events are free and food is cheap.
3. Hello? Playing in mud? Sign me up.

A few of my fellow TPR-teachers were likewise eager to go, so we found a tour group that had set up a program. While I normally eschew this type of thing, the fact that I don’t speak Korean well enough to fluently coordinate transportation/housing concerns made this an appealing option. Six of us got on a bus downtown at 8am on Saturday and began the 3 hour trek to Daechon. After hours of staring at the beautiful countryside (and reading Ender’s Shadow), we arrived!

These cute little Boryeong mascots were everywhere. Sort of adorable, no?

Our first stop was actually a little outside Daechon at the mud flats. For the curious, mud flats are exactly what they sound like: flat expanses of mud that seem to never end. We switched into army-looking garb and headed out to do some exercises/play in the mud.

That was about the cleanest and driest we were for the remainder of the weekend. Here we are after about an hour of mud-time.

We showered (read: stood with about twenty other people as a guy on top of a truck hosed us down with freezing water), checked into our hotel and headed to the beach.

Daechon is on the coast of the Yellow (slash East China) Sea and just being at the beach made my weekend totally worth it.

Shortly after I took those two photos, it started raining heavily on and off and the wind/waves got a little intense. Sirens started going off and some official-looking men came around yelling something in Korean. None of the Koreans seemed overly affected and kept swimming, so we followed suit. Turns out we were just getting a little taste of tropical typhoon/storm/depression Kalmaegi. Whoops!

Heading up to the boardwalk, we noticed that getting painted in colored mud cost 2 bucks (lame!) but that getting cute little designs painted on was free.  Good deal!

Christine, Jenny, me and Marc.

After the rain subsided, we headed to the main mud event in the town square area. Unfortunately, i was super worried about my camera getting overly wet/muddy and kept it hidden most of the time. However, I can sum up the rest of the afternoon pretty easily: lots of mud games, greasy (eventually muddy) food and people walking around looking like this:

I do actually know Olivia and Laine from TPR, but there were Korean photographers everywhere taking photos of random people.

After dinner, we went home, showered (read: ignored the fact that there was no water pressure or hot water in the interest of getting as un-muddy as possible), got dinner and headed out again to the Global Dance Party/Rave.

Hours of dancing later, we crashed at the hotel. In the morning, we had a super appetizing breakfast of seaweed soup and pickled cabbage and went to the beach for a few hours before riding back. All in all, I was completely satisfied with the balance of excitement and relaxation of the weekend; it was easily the best weekend I’ve had in Seoul thus far. To top it all off, a few of us girls went to jimjilbang (Korean bathhouse) after we got back- amazing!

Now two more days of class remaining before our four day break (during which Eunice and I are going to do a temple stay program at a monastery in southern Korea!)

To show their appreciation for our hard work, the school sponsored a Teacher Field Trip today to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. I’m entirely too fascinated by North Korea for my own good (forbidden fruit sort of thing?), so even this brief little trip was exciting.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the trip (besides lots of barbed wire), but a deserted (and admittedly pretty damn eerie) carnival was probably low on the list. But sure enough, that was what awaited us at our first stop. Along with some Korean War monuments, other ‘Peace Monuments’ and a souvenir shop, of course.

There was also mannequin of a DMZ soldier and (naturally) I couldn’t resist assuming my standard statue pose:

After we left the bizarre rest stop/monument/carnival, we went through a passport check zone before taking the Unification Bridge to more sites. Despite frequent remonstrations from our guide, I snapped a few shots.

Despite the imposing nature of the area, there are these adorable cartoonish likenesses of soldiers on most of the DMZ souvenirs. They’re just so…huggable.

We went down into the Third Tunnel (3 of 4 discovered by the South Koreans, up to 20 are said to exist), where we saw lots of wet rock and informative signs telling us how the North Koreans were plotting to invade the South (propaganda goes both ways, guys). Eventually we got to the first blockade, which got us within about 100 meters of the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) that actually separates the two countries. Naturally, this is when we had to turn around and march ourselves back up to the surface. A little anticlimactic, but a decent short workout

Kay and I were sad that there were no photos allowed, as we had to wear these classic hardhats and look absolutely ridiculous. Fortunately, there was a collection of other helmets outside the restricted zone and we got to rock out the helmets.

My abnormally large head notwithstanding, we’re pretty awesome.

The DMZ theater featured below is where we prepped for our experience by watching a ridiculous 7-minute documentary featuring the following: crazy scary shots of soldiers and tanks, a crying six year old girl and an awful 3D butterfly flying gracefully along the barbed wire fence. It was absolutely ridiculous. Admittedly, I had issues not snickering whenever Kim Jong Il showed up, largely due to this clip from Team America.

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Our second stop was the observation tower where you get a panoramic view of the edge of North Korea. Sadly, there is also a giant yellow Camera Demarcation Line (god, I’m witty) that essentially limits you to photos of the sky. Fortunately one of the other teachers happens to be approximately ten feet tall and we all proceeded to hand him our cameras.

The final stop was Dorasan Station; the last official train station before North Korea begins. Since there’s not a whole hell of a lot around Dorasan, the station is eerily (a common feeling) deserted. Ideally, after Unification Day (Date: TBD), Koreans will be able to travel back and forth from Pyeongyang (capital of NK) and Seoul (capital of SK).

But until then, remember, it’s not the last station from the South, “but the first station toward the North”.

Looking over the past few entries, you might just think I’m traipsing about this palace-ridden Asiatic wonderland. However, you’d be completely wrong, for two reasons:

a. Seoul is practically Chicago. On the way to school, I pass at least three Starbucks, two Dunkin Donuts and a few 7-11s. That’s not to say that there aren’t differences (signs in Korean and an overabundance of massage parlors), but Seoul is more of a StudyAbroadLite city than I expected. This is both a positive and negative thing in my book, but that’s another story.

b. I work everyday. I teach from 8:30-4:30 everyday, but my workday, including super-useful teachers’ meetings and prep time, can range from 7:30am-midnight or so. Seriously, I don’t give my former teachers enough credit for all the work teaching is.

On that note, my typical day involves getting up around 6:30, braving the still-scorching shower, hopping on the bus, stopping for a 600 won cold coffee drink and then entering this glorious building, where I’ll spend the majority of my day:

On the first floor, there are these cutesy mnemonic device-drawings to help kids remember the definitions for some random words (savor being one of the least complicated).

After my coffee and meeting, I head up to good ole Room 404. You’ll notice that the right wall is essentially a window. Again, take the good with the bad; the class doesn’t feel like a box, but we’re several degrees warmer than the fully insulated rooms.

At 4:30, I get to escape from my podium and… go to a coffeehouse to prep for the next day. My personal favorite is a chain called Seven Monkeys (cozy, good caramel macchiatos, plays crappy pop music). Here’s my typical spread:

However, I’m not alone in the endless workdays (and the sore throats that accompany them)- a lot of the other teachers are good people, all with interesting backgrounds and their own stories to tell. My room-mate Eunice, who falls into this category, is from the Chicagoland area (starting music school at Northwestern in the fall). I’ve been pretty lucky with room-mates in the past and fortunately the trend continues; we’re both laid-back and sort of crazy in our own ways.

Tomorrow is the TPR teachers’ trip to the DMZ- a thrilling (or at least photo-ridden) blog post will ensue!

The last part of my bus tour was a visit to Changdeokgung (spelled in five million different ways in English) Palace; one of the five major palaces in Seoul. Because of issues with people disrespecting the site in the past, now you have to go on a guided tour to be able to see the palace/grounds. I arrived around 4, too late for the last English tour (and no Russian offered, sadly). However, I arrived just in time to join up with the next Korean tour. I figured I could Google exactly what things were later, read the posted signs for the general idea, and still have a pretty good time.

Donhwamun Gate- the entrance/main gate to the palace, and where I joined up with the tour (If you’re looking for a better explanation/direct tour of the palace, it’s already been done).

In Russia I loved taking photos of the beautifully ubiquitous onion domes- here’s my Korean version

This next photo is from the Secret Garden, the part of the grounds that the palace is most famous for. For those who, like me, assume a palace is a giant building with dozens of rooms and gilded furniture, Korean palaces might come as a little bit of a surprise. Obviously there are buildings with quarters and little gazebos and kitchens/libraries/etc, but it’s all spread out over a massive area and walking the grounds is really the majority of the tour.

The Secret Garden is the midpoint of the tour, halfway through the palace area. It’s really surreal to be sitting in this serene place with the knowledge that the bustling metropolis of Seoul is all around, out of sight if not out of mind.

This was about the time on the tour when I met a guy from India studying at grad school in Seoul and got a free Coke!

This part of the palace is designed differently from the rest (according to what my new Indian friend could translate) and was a place for meditation and philosophizing.

Finally we have the living quarters for the emperor’s wife (his first couldn’t bear him a son, so he picked up another. beats the Henry VII way of doing things)

Apologies for the late conclusion to the Seoul City Bus Tour; I’ve been swept up in orientation and week one of classes. Hopefully now that we’re more in the swing of things, I’ll be able to take some time out and explore some more- my roommate and I are already plotting a trip to the sauna (Russian баня) on Sunday!