Remember to Smile

Now that I've been here for two months life has become fairly routine but its very important for me to step back and remember how amazing it is that I'm living in South Korea halfway around the world for everyone and everything I know. I'm living in a country where I don't speak the language and can't even read the language. I stand out like a sore thumb wherever I go and am often stared at because of this fact.

My writing this post was actually prompted by something that happened to me today (technically not today since I didn't get around to finishing this post on the same day it happened). A woman I did not recognize was at my school today, she may have been there to enroll her child in school, but I don't know for certain. I was sitting at a computer and she starts talking to me in Korean. I smile at her in a way that says, "I have no clue what you're saying." I then turn to one of the Korean teachers and she interprets for me. The woman apparently said to me that I'm very beautiful and look like a doll. (This was translated for me by one of the Korean teachers). I nodded my head in a way I hope came across as saying, "Thank you, you are so kind." She went on to say to me via the Korean teacher that I should learn to speak Korean so I can communicate with people. I nodded my head in agreement and said, "Ney" (Yes in Korean). This really has nothing to do with anything, it just brought a smile to my face. Sometimes you get so involved with work and and the stresses of life that you forget to appreciate the small things and life and remember to smile.

It's also been brought to my attention that my few dedicated blog readers have no idea what South Korea looks like. I don't have many good pictures of the city just yet so here are a few images of Downtown Daegu stolen from the internet.

My New Years Resolution is to Update the Blog More Often

I doubt I'll stick to this one (especially since I'm writing this more than two weeks after New Years), but here's hoping I stay true to my word.

Anyways, its been a hectic few weeks at school. After vacation, I went back to work with an increased courseload. I'm teaching an additional seven classes a week during the month of January. We are doing pre-preschool for the students who will be starting preschool in March so I had to pick up a few of the preschool classes originally covered by the teacher now teaching the new students. I'm now teaching the six year old students their math and science lessons. I like having more interaction and a closer bond with the preschool students, although I do prefer my elementary classes to preschool. In addition to teaching more preschool, my school just like most hakwons, offers special winter classes because public schools are on break. So I'm teaching an extra elementary class three days a week.

Besides from school, I haven't been doing much during the weeks. I've just really enjoyed my down time and want to take advantage of the little I get now. Plus, it's getting cold in Daegu and its hard to get up the desire to go outside.

But I'm doing my best to take advantage of my weekends. This past weekend my friend from Semester at Sea, Sean, and his girlfriend, Zuzanna, came into Daegu to visit and explore the city and a nearby temple. We hung out in Daegu all saturday. We went to a "board game cafe," which is exactly what it sounds like - a place where you can go and play board games and enjoy a nice beverage. We played Settlers of Cattan, a game I fell in love with back in Boston/Somerville. I was so happy they have it in Korea. After that we grabbed some food at this popular western restaurant, The Holy Grill, and then we enjoyed the Daegu nightlife for a few hours, heading back to my place at a respectable hour so we could get up early to check out Haeinsa Temple.

We got up and headed to the bus terminal and caught a 12pm bus to Haeinsa, which was 1.5 hours away from Daegu. I slept the majority of the bus ride, it was great. Haeinsa is a functioning Buddhist temple, about 500 monks still live there. It was built at around 800 ad. I don't really know anything more about it, but it was beautiful in a fairly secluded location in the mountains of Korea.

My Trip to Seoul

I should write about my trip before too much time passes and I forget what I've done and seen. (I wrote the previous sentence and the following paragraph a week and a half ago. By this point I have to go through my ticket stubs to piece together my trip.)

Well, we had off from Christmas day through after the New Year. It was a nice, long break and would have been a shame if I didn't take advantage of it. I've only been here for a month and a half at the start of the break and only have one pay check in the bank so my options were limited to what could be done cheaply. On a whim I decided to see if it was possible to have an inexpensive few days in Seoul. Seoul is the capital of South Korea and about half the population of the country lives in the metro area. Quite easily, I managed to book a hostel and buy train tickets. So that was it, I would head to Seoul the Monday after Christmas and stay for three days.

I arrived at the main train station, DongDaegu Station, and had an 11am KTX (Korea Train Express) bound for Seoul. Less than two hours later I arrived at Seoul Station. From there I headed to my hostel in the Hongdae area of Seoul, checked in quickly, and departed to get as much sightseeing in as possible.

I should note that Seoul has a massive subway system on par with cities like New York and Tokyo. Much larger than I can navigate with ease, but luckily I have a great application on my Itouch that takes all the guess work out of subway navigation. This app saved me much time that would've otherwise been spent staring at subway maps.

My first stop in Seoul was Gyeongbokgung Palace. I don't know what the say about the palace. I mean, once you've seen one palace, you've seen them all. (I saw a total of three in Seoul and many others during my travels through Asia) The palace area was pretty with mountains in the background. Just check out the pictures; I'm afraid my descriptive skills are sub par. After the palace, I headed over to Insadong, which is a big tourist stop with lots of traditional shops. It was a fun place to walk around even though it was freezing outside. Next, I headed over to the Gangnam area of Seoul where a friend of mine from high school taught. It was great to see Sung after five years. Its so crazy that that reunion took place in Korea. We went to TGI Fridays, of all places, for dinner.

The next day I checked out two more palaces: Changdeokgung Palace and Deoksugung Palace. Honestly, It's hard for me to remember which palace is which. Lots of pretty buildings, that's all I remember. One of the palaces (I don't remember which one) had an art museum attached to it. It was nice, but small. After checking out the two palaces and spending way too much time in the cold and snow, I wanted to spend a time indoors. I decided to head to the COEX Mall. It's apparently famous for being the largest underground shopping center in Asia. In my opinion, it was just a large mall, but it was good to get out of the cold. Oh, I also went to Namdaemun Market, the largest traditional marketplace in Seoul in between checking out the palaces. This market, just like every other traditional market I've been to is quite overwhelming. All you can see is shop after shop and people everywhere.

My last day in Seoul I got up early and headed to Namsam Mountain. I took the cable car to the top of the mountain where N Seoul Tower is located. The observation deck is the highest point in Seoul. After a while looking around and staring at the vast city, I ventured down to my next location. Next stop: Korea War Memorial in the foreigner district Itaewon. This might have been my favorite stop on my trip because I'm a history nerd. The museum took the vistitor on a trip through Korean military actions from early civilization through the modern day.

After that, I headed out and caught an evening train bound for Daegu. All in all, a good trip.

Happy New Year from Korea!

A Palace

Some Dude

Me and Sung

Another Palace

A statue at the Korea War Memorial
Namdaemun Marketplace
Another marketplace shot

N Seoul Tower

Cute Korean Children

A few of our preschool students...