Provinians and The Sacred Pool plus a note for non-facebookers

This weekend we had the pleasure of some visitors from Seoul that used to go to Prov - Krista and Jennell. I didn't really know them before, but we've seen them a couple times on our Seoul Costco runs, and they came out for the weekend to join us for a hike. It was fun....makes you realize there was lots of people you didn't know at school. Anyway, we had a killer bunnies tourney and it was definitely fun seeing some fresh faces and speaking some good English. Though at times the quality of speech seemed to suffer from lack of use.

We took them out to Chiaksan, the national park out here with the huge mountain that I climbed my first week here. The gang didn't end up being game for the ascent, so we meandered along the trails and enjoyed the river scenery. This pool is one of the most beautiful places I've been. Unfortunately it was afternoon which limits the photographic potential.....but you'll get the idea. The air is fresh and clean and everything seems right when out in these woods. Besides the hordes of hikers that is (rolling eyes) Can't escape the people anywhere.



We were hoping to get Kyle and Amy a warmup before we head out to Seoraksan next week. Seoraksan is Koreas most famous mountain range and national park and we're going on a three day trip through there next weekend (yea long weekends!) World famous for its changing fall colours. Crossing my fingers that my compatriots are going to be up to it. Also that I don't blow an ankle or something early in the trip. I don't have great hiking shoes.




There's lots of these prayer stack thingies wherever we go. Its really bad luck to knock them over. When we were there a guy knocked a bunch over by accident and almost got glared to death by a pack of ajumas. If you don't know what they are, read this post by my friend Mike. I was going to write about Ajumas, but he basically wrote what I was going to...so check it out, its worth it. http://mquiring.blogspot.com/2008/08/ajuma.html They're scary in the subways.

Anyway, that's my weekend update.....currrently I'm kinda down and wishing I was home. Hope you're all doing well.....

~Matt

Anyone wanting to see more photos that doesn't have a facebook account (I can't think of many...but anyway) you can see all of my korean facebook photos here in order of newest to oldest posted.

Album #3 http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33114&l=25899&id=515047862

Album #2 http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29579&l=09558&id=515047862

Album #1 http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27120&l=1c8c7&id=515047862

What Brightens up life

Given that I've been removed from basically eveything and everyone I know, and with - to put it mildly - plenty - of alone time, I've had a superfluity of time to think about the things that I value most, couldn't do without, miss most or, alternatively, would miss most if they were taken away from my current equation.

Near the top of the list has got to be English and people who speak it....thats right up there for sure. But in the category of things

Propelled to the top of the list on the criterion of most time spent with, the winner -hands down- is probably my computer. Not only is it my point of contact with the outside world, News, Facebook, Skype and so on.....and source of music, and come to think of it DVD's as well, it is essential to my biggest hobby.....which leads me to

My Camera and photography, very very close to first place, shoved down the list only because I need my computer to actually see the photos and edit them....photography is quicky becoming my biggest passion....its my creative outlet, my way of expressing how I see the world, and keeps me from going completely insane with nothing to do.

Hiking, Exploring and Sports closely tied to taking pictures, my life would defintely suffer if I couldn't hike, experience nature, and find some peace. Given the lack of English churches, nature is sort of my connection to the spiritual side of life at the moment besides good 'ol C.S. Lewis. At least a few times a week I have to get out and shoot a basketball or kick a ball around too. I miss organized soccer though :(

Also making the list is my Guitar, which, when I didn't have it for the first 3 weeks here, felt like I had lost a limb or something. Another creative outlet and way of expressing what's inside...as well as a form of self-therapy I think.......

Just got two days ago, but it probably deserves a higher ranking given how much I've used it in the lost two days and the endorphins released in that time span. My Bike. Enables the exploring, provides some freedom.

Miss most and can't get around here? Probably Cranberry Juice.

Gotta go to work (note that that did not make the list)

Loser Bus Drivers, Trivia, and Plastic Surgery

So this weekend being my birthday weekend me and Kyle and Amy headed out to do something Mattish - in this case exploring the river spot that we found some more (see last post). We met to take the bus and that in itself is always an adventure, because there's no english, and bus guides, no internet bus guides....its pretty lame. Anyway, I successfully read the sign, asked a bystander for confirmation, and thought I'd ask the bus driver too, just to be safe but he was a turd - didn't answer yes or no, didn't try and understand, just yelled at me and chased me off the bus. Picture the poor sad foreigner taking his fledgling Korean skills for a test drive, just standing on the steps of the bus, sweetly asking if the bus went to Kanhyeon....and the moronic bus driver waving his arms angrily and say "no questions, get off" . It felt great let me tell you. He's lucky his bus didn't get a nice souvenir from my tripod on the way past. Anyhoo....alls well that ends well though, it started pouring moments later and we wouldn't have wanted to be out in the rain anyway.

We had a trivia night on the night of my birthday, a gathering (enabled by the omnipotent facebook) of the foreign English teachers from Wonju. According to facebook there's about 90 of us, but there was a solid 25 or so at the event. Lots of Aussies, New Zealanders, some Americans and a few Canadians. One girl went to Columbia Bible College in Abottsford....small world. It was fun to speak English and meet some more people, as this has been a rather isolating 7 weeks or so...one guy from Michigan talked hockey with me and Kyle for most of the time. Lots of newbies there, all talking about being lonely.....most of the people were couply types, so that was a little lame...but it was definitely a good thing to do. Hopefully we can do some community building around here....Our team won by the way, but we deferred the spoils (writing the questions for the next event) to our co-winners.

On Sunday I headed out to the river to make amends for the previous days rain-out, and find the rumoured waterfall....I took the train this time, not because of the bad bus experience, just for fun. I did eventually find it, but it wasn't particularly spectacular...nice but that's about it.

Closing story - The latest rude student quote is quite a winner. (This is completely out of the blue during a lesson) "Teacher.....you......go doctor.......change face.....nose, eyes.....change"

Teaching ESL does wonders for your self-esteem. I don't have any words to describe how much I can't wrap my head around ten-year-old randomly saying that to his English teacher. That reminds me, stay tuned for a scathing blog entry on plastic surgery here and the idolization of the west....coming soon....

Korean Church and Hikers Paradise (well, almost)

So this weekend me and Kyle and Amy went to Korean Church. It was a big Presbyterian church by my house. Seven stories tall.....but actually a surprisingly small sanctuary...like 300 maybe...We were all kinda nervous, but everyone was really nice and seemed to enjoy having us. The service was decent...the music was old hymns that had been translated, so for the most part we knew the tunes and a lady who spoke decent english had the words. The sermon was unitelligble of course (I counted six words I knew.....) and on some obscure text from Chronicles. Whoot. The pastors voice I must say was probably the least annoying one I've encountered thus far - which is good, because if you're going to sit for an hour and a bit not understanding anything, an annoying voice would make it just that much worse :)

As for the hiking, there are all sorts of trails through the mountains here. Everywhere....see a mountain, walk toward it, find a trail through some weird field, and voila, you'll have a hike. Even if your trail happens to be kinda piddly, you'll eventually run into the main trails. Works every time. I've gone a couple times a week before I work since I have a good portion of the day before I head to work (usually around 2:30 or so for 3:30 class) and am usually in the market for something to do besides sit on my computer. (BTW, my apartment is the building to the left of the red one in the foreground)

Its sort of like explorers paradise...except when you conquer the mountain (and some of them are about 450m...kinda like Finlayson, or Jocelyns peak) you see nothing. There's still dense foliage all around. Its aggravating. Imagine going up Finlayson and seeing nothing but more trees. Every hike I've done around here except one has had zero view.

I was so annoyed at this lack that I climbed a power pole on one peak for a decent view. Even then its just sort of meh.....

Explorers paradise - almost, photographers paradise - no. And try taking pictures while you're balancing half way up a power pole....its a good time...

And this is the best I've seen in terms of wildlife....he was at about 400 metres, which I thought was strange...but apparently thats normal for Asiatic Toads. Go Figure.

PS its STILL 30+ degrees here. Getting pretty sick of it, not going to lie.

The Korean Child

The other day when I went to the creepy empty theme park, I had to get up real early to catch a bus. I caught the bus on the other side of town and to my shock (and horror) it was packed to the gills with sweaty Korean adolescents. At 7:00 AM. Going to school. 

It started to dawn on me what these kids go through in a normal week. Some of them are there until 5:00 PM and then they come to see us at the English Academy. No wonder they're all demonic or in deadly depression by the time they come to my class. And not only that....they have SIX DAY SCHOOL WEEKS!  Being as open minded as possible of course... it's really stupid. 

A sorry state of affairs

I was teaching the expression "used to" to one of my more advanced classes (all boys), and the example in the text was about changing as a result of marriage. i.e. "Tino used to eat out a lot, but now he eats at home" Some of the follow-up questions were about the advantages and disadvantages of marriage. The first things my students said were "Uhh....husband drinking....fighting wife...." making hitting motions in the air. This was slightly disturbing, but I thought maybe it was just my class. Meanwhile in the other advanced class (mostly girls) Amy was having the same conversation with her kids. The first thing the girls said about disadvantages was getting hit by their husbands as well! We were shocked when we compared notes. :( Anecdotal? I wish, but not likely that they would all jump to that answer first in two different classes purely by chance.