Field Day Awesomeness

So I have had a few ideas for blogs on the back burner but this one is still fresh in my mind so I'm going to go with it. This has been an awesome week so far. I have had to do practically nil in the way of work I am paid to do. Why? Because this week at both my schools (and I'm sure most Korean elementary schools) was FIELD DAY!

So the first difference I noticed between Field Day in Korea and Field Day in the USA is that in Korea it is much bigger. In America, as I recall, it was set up in such a way as kids in different grades would go to different competitions, do the competition and then they would move on. There was much more setup involved in Korean field day-- chairs, flags, tents, a stage, podium, a food tent for all the parents who went... My first school had a balloon gateway for God's sake!

...and someone thought it would be a great idea

to give some of the kids vuvuzelas...

There is so much more ceremony to the whole thing as well. Before Field Day even began the students lined up by grade and team (so two lines for each grade) and there were speeches by principals, warm-up songs, stuff like that; at my first school they even had an entrance for students of each grade like the Olympics.

...and a drum show at the other!

The whole dynamic is different too. Here there is White Team (baek team) and Blue Team (cheong team) which consist of students from every grade. I don't know how they split up the teams but the school managed to make the games incredibly evenly matched. The games themselves were mostly hilarious and there were even a few I remember from when I was a kid (that are no longer played in the States).

Some reminded me of Mario Party...

Some, well they would just make more

sense if you saw them being played...

There were simple races that just included

a few extra challenges...

Some were just absolute mayhem...

...and there were even some that did not even involve

the kids... like the game I've dubbed Ahjjuma Battle

I even got to take part in a few games today. One was a 100m dash where the students had to take a card which said "Find someone who..." and then go find someone who fit the description and run the race with them. I ran three of the races because I was "A man" "A male teacher" and "A man wearing a hat." I also took part in a tug-of war. We won the first round but then when they noticed this 미국인 was a lot stronger than he looked, two guys joined the other team and needless to say we lost.

What I liked the most about field day though was that there were real competitions. Students were shouting "baek/cheong team eegona(sp?)!" and the grades were all working, cheering, playing together. The games were competitive, particularly dodgeball and tug-of-war.

Nobody cried from losing at dodgeball...

...and the tug-of-wars were school-wide.

(tugs-of-war? wars-of-the-tugging-nature?)

Finally, there was a clear winning

team and a clear losing team.

...but all the students walked away with prizes

for the various individual events they won.

After Field Day at my first school we went out bowling, got dinner, and went to karaoke again. Dinner implied what it usually implies. For at my other school we went to a restaurant for lunch and dinner. Beer, soju, and soju-bombs were involved. And that's just lunch. Dinner we skipped the games and went straight to the soju bombs.

After dinner a few people decided they wanted to climb the mountain again; because after drinking at dinner I love climbing the mountain. It was nice to see the others having a little trouble keeping up with me. Means my efforts have been paying off. Speaking of efforts I'm probably going to bite the bullet and join a gym on Monday. Hopefully I'll have another good post up soon. Like tomorrow or Friday soon.

Cheers, my freaky darlings!

My First Korean Holiday!

To all my Korean friends and all those in Korea right now...

HAPPY...

For those of you who have never heard of Chuseok, well... neither had I two weeks ago. Chuseok, as I'm told, is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in America. From that I am left to assume it celebrates the day the pilgrims landed in Korea and the Indians taught them to cultivate the land.

This is a photograph taken

at Chuseok in Seoul in 1492

So Chuseok is clearly a big deal here in Korea, as most teachers I've talked to have been given the whole week or nearly the whole week off work. Apparently I picked a good year to start in Korea. Chuseok landed on a Wednesday (today) but usually it's just a three-day thing. Chuseok, like Easter or Father's Day, is one of those moving holidays based on a calendar that most of the world doesn't use. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar.

The break didn't look like it was going to go very well. Most of the foreign teachers went out of town and being the new guy in town, I didn't really know anyone. In addition, Saturday afternoon I went and worked out on the mountain again, screwing up my back in the process. Monday I could barely get out of bed or get around my apartment.

(I will also use this image if/when

I want to depict flatulence)

I got some tips though, about the back pain from a friend who's a masseuse and I'm almost at 100% again. For all the back pain and everything else, I have done some of my best runs on NamSan this week. I know I'm getting better at it. I've cut 2:06 off my record from last week which is quite heartening. My goal is to be able to take the whole trail at a run.

...and then I'll be ready to take on Drago.

I've also been walking around HongSeong, exploring a bit, and I've found a few channels that play a lot of English movies (English as in Michael Caine or Jason Statham flicks). I'm also planning on taking a train up to Seoul on Friday to complete a Craig's List purchase of an XBox 360 to try and fill the void left by my recent, tragic loss.

He looks so peaceful...

Homesickness has really begun to set in this week. This is probably mostly because the time difference makes communication with my family that much harder-- and the fact that I have so many more free hours in the day that I am much more prone to boredom and such. There is always something I'll think aww man, Steven would love this! or Man, I'd like to race Eric up this mountain... It's going to get better soon though. I'll have a phone and I'll get this month's pay on Friday so that should be pretty rockin'.

Anyway, one of the X-Men movies just came on and I think it's about time I cook myself the special Chuseok dinner I planned. I have a few more ideas for blog posts so keep an eye out for more in the next few days as I get pictures.

Until then, stay awesome everybody! Cheers!

Mountains and Wrestling and Foreigners... Oh My!

So I generally don't write this often but this weekend was so jam-packed with awesome that I think it warrants a post.

(Kim Jwa-jin, known for his resistance to Japanese

occupation and inventing Speed Metal. A national hero)

This weekend was not projected as being of much significance... go for a hike, hang out with Brian maybe watch some tv, maybe play some Starcraft. Yeah, not so much. First off I went out Friday evening and met one of the local foreign teachers. Had a good time and found out that a lot of bars are not just bars-- there is a necessary food purchase.

Saturday I expected to just putter around until I went to meet Brian at the train station. So right in the middle of my puttering my doorbell rings. I go to my door and my co-teacher as well as four of my students are there. They had brought me lunch which was totally awesome.

(Korean Pizza and what I consider to be like a

Korean Lunchable. Beats the hell out of Ramen!)

Then I went hiking up a nearby mountain with my co-teacher and another teacher from the school. It was wicked muggy and at some points rainy outside but once we got higher it was nice and cool. Turns out there was some exercise equipment there too so we all worked out on the machines up there.

(Shot at the top of the mountain above HongSeong)

("Resting Place" halfway up the mountain God I

hope they meant for hikers to take a breather)

Then my co-teacher gave me a ride (after I cleaned up a bit) to the HongSeong train station. On the way I noticed a huge festival going on (about which no one I work with breathed a word) so I took a mental note.

It took about 45 minutes for Brian to get there. I was amused to realize I was waiting for the Seoul Train (say it out loud). We grabbed dinner at my favorite restaurant and headed back to my apartment to chill. On the way back we saw a sign that was far wiser than the makers may have realized...

(A little cynical aren't we Cutsie Store?)

Today we headed out in the afternoon in search of food. After a search in vain around the university we decided to hop a bus downtown and hit up the festival. Festivals always have food, right?

Well we got more than we bargained for. Near the bus stop we saw a big ring of sand and sand bags set up for a Korean wrestling (씨름 ) competition. I thought ohh look, a chance at an enlightening cultural experience! It seemed pretty cool watching the guys throw each other in the ring.

(It seems like a pretty cool sport, I wish I could try it...)

After the third match one of the officials came up to Brian and me, signaling for us to follow him. He led us up to a table where they promptly began to register us for the men's event. We were a little shocked but I figured why the hell not? So Brian and I registered thinking we'd go up against each other and give them a show of us foreigners trying to do their sport. No, it was a tournament.

We both got knocked out in the first round but it was pretty awesome anyway. The way it works is to put the opponent on the ground and it's best of three heats. Brian won his second, I lost two in a row. The thing is, in terms of strength I was, if anything, more than a match for my opponent. They had us on technique though. No beginner's luck here.

After that we watched the ladies' event which was fairly entertaining. We left just before the end so we called off our bet... we went back and saw the trophy ceremony... Brian's pick lost.

(Did somebody say "Girl Fight"?)

All participants were awarded a polo shirt, two bags of rice (much needed since I don't have much food here) and a token for one free meal at one of the vendors (we actually thought the tokens were cooler so we just paid for dinner).

(Awesome coin from the wrestling event)

We ran into some foreign teachers at the festival too. I believe Brian's exact words were "she's white-- GET HER!" Several were from South Africa and one from England who apparently knows where one can go fishing around here. (New friend? Probably.) Then we ran into another foreign teacher in an Indiana t-shirt. What are the odds? There's a teacher in this town from good old IU! So I joined a group on Facebook to network with them so that's awesome.

(Food!)

I saw Brian off at the train station and then went back to my apartment (since now I know how to catch a bus back to my neighborhood!) Probably going to hit the mountain again tomorrow after work. I'm going to train-- Korean wrestling hasn't seen the last of Scrappy!

Stay groovy everybody-- Cheers!

One Week In...

So it has been just over a week since I moved to HongSeong and one week ago today that I started teaching. Hurrah! Let's see if I can do it 51 more times.

Korea has brought plenty of surprises but the culture shock for which I prepared so much in my last days in America... it hasn't been nearly as bad as I had expected. Most of the surprises were positive.

For instance, the first thing I like about Korea is the landscape. ChungCheongNam is very mountainous and beautiful. (The rest of Korea may also be very mountainous but my experience is limited to ChungNam at the moment). Apparently there is a mountain very near where I live which people hike for exercise. I am so game.

(I just think the mountains around here are just beautiful.)

I went to downtown HongSeong the other weekend which was an adventure-- because I got lost on my way back and ended up getting a ride from a complete stranger. It didn't end up in me getting killed in a shotgun shack in the middle of nowhere so it was a good day. I even got lunch at my new favorite restaurant.

(I don't know the place's name but the owner recognizes me now so it's all good)

Teaching is a pretty good time too. I like both of my schools for different reasons but they are both most excellent places. Neither of them are very big schools either which is definitely welcome (especially after hearing stories of hundreds of students per week in some cases). I am still a bit uneasy about taking too many pictures at the schools just yet but I have a few.

(DaeJong Elementary School)

(DaeJong Teacher Room)

I would have to pay like 2200 won a day to take a bus to school if my life weren't awesome. It is though. Usually a teacher from my school will see me waiting at the bus stop and give me a ride or offer after school to give me a lift. The vice-principal has given me a ride several times, as have the 1st grade teacher.

Today I got a ride from either the school nurse or the science teacher. It's not that I don't know who gave me a ride, it's that I don't really know the lady's job. She works in the infirmary but I saw her teaching science today. I can't imagine a situation in which my lack of knowledge thereof would become a problem.

My apartment is pretty awesome. I get the Discovery Channel and I also found a channel that is usually showing Starcraft. Yes. The game. On TV. People play this and a whole channel is dedicated almost entirely to this one game. And Monkey Ball. But mostly Starcraft.

(Some sort of professional finals Saturday afternoon)

(Apparently not quite so important game tonight-- meaning

only a thousand or so spectators and minimal pyrotechnics)

It's a pretty good time considering though. I've kept to myself this week because I'm a little short on dough as of yet and I don't know much Korean yet but I might do some stuff this weekend. For now I am content to eat my delicious Korean cuisine and try to make peace with the cave demon that inhabits my apartment.

(Aforementioned fine cuisine. Yes. I bought it

mostly because of the cartoon squid.)

(Strange, cryptic messages written on the cave demon.)

Depending on how tomorrow goes, there may be another post very soon on how to party in Korea very cheaply (less than thirty Altairian dollars!).

Cheers, Thank You, and Good Night!

Finally made it!

After many a trial and tribulation-- diving through bureaucratic hoops, and a rather painful 18-hour flight, I have finally arrived in Korea. (Hooray, go me!) Now I'll try and figure out what all the fuss was about at IU.

My first stop was Incheon/Seoul to hang with Brian. That wasn't so hard since my plane landed in Incheon. I got there, spent 20 minutes puttering around trying to figure out what to do (and being impressed by how much you could buy there-- practically anything you need can be bought here). Then after dropping my bags off at a sa-WEET room in an Incheon guest house, Brian and I went off to Seoul to see his campus.

It was there that I determined that I need to be more discerning about what I eat. I decided I would try green tea ice cream. Why not? I love green tea, I love ice cream. What could possibly go wrong? Well, dear reader, this is what could and did go wrong. It was awful. The best way I could describe it is as follows: imagine someone taking a jar of spinach baby food, mixing it with a jar of yam baby food, freezing the product and selling it for 3000 KRW... that was my ice cream treat. Brian paid 900 KRW for a Popsicle that he thoroughly enjoyed.

Having learned my lesson, when I got back to the guest house, I promptly bought a rice somethingorother and a can of "Pine bud Drink." I lucked out though, they were both AWESOME.

The next day I set out on a trek for my final destination which took hours and hours... for all you kids at home with a map of Korea, I had to make my way by bus and cab from Incheon to Bucheon and then meet with a contact there who drove me down to Hong Seong with many stops on the way. And one part where we got lost.

Nevertheless, I am thoroughly enjoying HongSeong, it seems like my kind of town. (Think a safe Merrillville). I started today at DaeJeong Elementary school today and it was awesome. It's a very small school but I like that. However, since it is such a small school I have been given a second location somewhere in HongSeong. That doesn't really bother me-- an extra 100,000 KRW a month and I'll be doing the same thing. Soon I'll be a Korean millionaire! (Please don't check the exchange rate...)

Anyway, things seem to be shaping up quite nicely... found some bodyweight workouts so I don't have to blow 100,000 KRW a month just to work out. (plus bodyweight workouts work best when there's a lot of weight to work with, amiright?)

More pictures to come as I progress and think of more things to spew up on this poor innocent little blog. Until then, good night and please tip your waitresses.