The Worst Olympics Ever

Time has been flying by here at an alarming rate. I find it strange to admit that Aaron and I have already been living in Korea for two months (and we still don't have a couch). The days themselves pass by in a blur riddled with snippets of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and the shrieks of 300 kindergartners. We have fallen into a steady routine of wake up, shower, eat, work, eat, drink soju and strawberry smoothies, watch East Bound and Down, read, sleep, repeat. I love my life here...

...but on Friday I was not so stoked to work yet another 13 hour work day. Thanks to the language barrier, the two of us are generally kept in the dark about anything and everything that is going on at the school. Sometime a few weeks ago we were given BRIGHT orange polos (sick bro) and white long sleeve shirts made for short limbed Koreans. Unsure of what was to come, we followed the instructions to wear our shirts and expect a long day. At the end of the day on Friday the entire school was buzzing with excitement, though Aaron and I still had no idea why. The kids starting jumping on buses and we were cajoled (side note: it is very common, and disconcerting, to be grabbed by the elbow and moved around like a 4 year old) into a co-teacher's car. Half an hour later we arrived at a massive indoor stadium, followed the cartoon arrows, and walked into the arena that would be the bane of our existence for the next 5 hours. A giant blow-up backdrop of a clock and castle (so Asian) was proceeded by a table laden with presents in various shapes and sizes. Rows upon rows of drums were awaiting their turn to create the cacophony that is kindergarten music. Flag streamers draped from the bleacher seats. Over.The.Top. Still unsure of why we were in this thunderdome, Aaron and I found ourselves being dragged by the elbows, once again, to stand at the entrance and greet the 700 people who were arriving. When everyone was settled and our faces were hurting we were given a shrimp burger and half cup of coke to share for dinner...as with the cold, stale chicken nugget dinner given to us last time, I think that our boss did it just to spite us for asking if we would be able to eat at some point.

I hate the color orange.

Aaron's too short t-shirt.

Drums.

Presents and backdrop...

Deafening.

STILL unsure of what was happening we were suddenly pushed up the stairs, dragged around the arena, until we found ourselves standing above a room full of expectant kindergartners and their families. Without much warning the god forsaken Alpha Friends Song came on and Aaron and I found ourselves in the spot light as per usual. 

In the spotlight.

The Alpha Friends Song.

 Finally the games could begin. The event turned out to be some sort of "Olympics inspired catastrophe". The volume was cranked up to full blast on the massive PA speakers (trying to blow out eardrums is a very common thing here) and a hyper little man in a track suit started bouncing around attempting to get everyone on his level.  At some point the "torch" was ran around the stadium and some fireworks went off, it was really weird. We were thrown into the group with the meager three students of ours who showed up, and we were forced to run in circles, build pyramids, and dance like fools. Following a 15 minute dinner break, in which our wonderful co-teacher fed us coffee and donuts to get our blood sugar back up to an appropriate level, the games got real with the parents. Tug-of-war, races, and giant balls were all included in the chaos. I have never seen grown adults throw themselves around so violently for the chance to grab a cartoon wrapped gift. The so desired presents turned out to be sponges, water bottles, and tupperware much to the bawling dismay of the now exhausted students. After much waving and forced smiles we said goodbye to the crowd and found ourselves going home at 11pm with splitting headaches and whiplash from the whirl of an evening.

Flag ceremony.

"What did I get myself into?"

The boss presiding over everything as usual.

Naughty Jack.

Adult tug-of-war.

Kid tug-of-war.

:)

Going crazy for presents.

...

Fashion First

This past weekend was somewhat uneventful for us. On Saturday we tore apart the bed to construct a makeshift couch on the living room floor. We then proceeded to eat cheese and crackers while drinking red wine (all before noon) as we lounged and watched movies. Considering the fact that we did not step foot outside of the apartment once the day before, on Sunday we decided that we needed to go on a hike. We caught the bus for 1,100 won each (roughly a dollar) and settled down for the half hour ride up the mountain.

The bus that took us up the mountain.

 As we picked up people from various stops around town we began to notice that we were severely under dressed for the day's activities. Special neon colored hiking pants, matching jackets, fancy gloves, hats, visors, ski poles, and hiking boots seemed to be the dress of choice, and Aaron and me, in our sweats, worn down runners, and T-shirts, began to attract some not-so-inconspicuous stares.

The clucking hens.

How to look good and "hike".

 I started to worry that we were in for more than we bargained for seeing as how everyone was dressed as if ready to tackle K2. When we finally arrived at our destination I could not help but laugh; the bus ride had taken us a considerable way up the mountain, and the remainder of the path was a paved road. Good thing everyone had their ski/hiking poles ready to handle the rough terrain.

Rough walk.

 Fashion is incredibly important to Koreans, no matter what the activity. People will dress in full golfing outfits in order to play virtual golf inside. Function means nothing if you look good. Aaron and I had a few good chuckles while wondering what the hell the salesman must have told these people in order to convince them to buy a few hundred dollars worth of extreme hiking gear when it is completely unnecessary. The best part about it was that we attracted an innumerable amount of gawking stares from everyone for lacking sweet, neon, gortex outfits.

When we finally did get to leave the paved road (about 2.5 kilometers later) it was wonderful. To be surrounded by mountains (and neon clad Koreans) was an exhilarating feeling that I have missed. Living in a big city, not to mention a big Asian city, has taken some getting used to. There are apartment buildings and monstrous cell phone towers every direction you turn. To get away from the city and breathe the salubrious mountain air did us both some good.

Mountains.

Purty.

Purple flowers are everywhere.

We were both also pleasantly surprised to find that a quite large temple resided on the mountain we were climbing. With all of the fancy technology surrounding us on a daily basis it was really nice to see some of this country's old culture. As cheesy as it sounds there was a feel of tranquility surrounding the temple as monks appeared, going about their everyday lives in the mountains. 

A reminder that we are in Korea.

Temple ceiling.

Temple.

Graveyard.

Cool statue.

Buddha.

Giant gong.

Lanterns.

Aaron being a tourist.

Need to quench your thirst after the 5 minute walk up the paved road?

The trip to mountains surrounding Gwangju was definitely an experience worth having. We plan to embark on a few more expeditions (once we are appropriately dressed, of course). It is really nice to have a great escape so close at hand.
 

You Can Call me Moses

This weekend Aaron and I decided that since we were paid some of what is owed to us we could experience a little more of Korea. We decided to go to the Jindo Sea Festival. Our plans to wake up  and catch an early bus were thwarted when A) we had to work until 9 on Friday night so we were utterly spent and B) the buses were all full for the morning and we couldn't get on one until 12:10.

Let me back track to staying until 9:00 on a Friday night. Working in a kindergarten for 8.5 hours a day is enough to exhaust anyone, especially Aaron and I who have become accustomed to the life of the unemployed. With that said, no matter how much we love our jobs, come Friday at 5:30 we are ready to run out the doors, forget all of our cute "learn English songs", and have a relaxing weekend. This week, however, we had to stay put due to an open house for our Schule parents. I don't know if I have mentioned the fact that Koreans LOVE awkward situations....but they do. Since Aaron and I have white skin, we automatically fall into the freak show category. Our boss loves to parade her white people around, and this week she had us stand up in front of the parents to teach them the god forsaken Alpha Friends song. I also would like to mention the fact that Aaron and I have been brought up to eat three meals a day (weird, right?), but when we asked if we would be able to get dinner sometime in our 4 hours of overtime, we were met with some animosity. Apparently dinner was too much to ask for, but our boss did begrudgingly provide us with a kid's meal consisting of 10 cold, stale "chicken nuggets" and half a glass of orange juice for us to share. Bleh. Another strange thing that happened was Mrs. Jeong (boss lady) asked us to hug the parents on the way out... hugging adult strangers (not to mention ones who can't understand anything we are saying) is not really our thing so we settled for hugging the kids, although it earned us some dirty looks.

So on Saturday we took a two hour bus to Jindo, a small town in the southern part of the country. Once a year the sea levels are low enough that a sand-bar magically appears and it is possible to walk some 2.8 kilometers out to an island. As Aaron so admirably put it, "it really isn't all that miraculous, it is just tide fluctuations." It was honestly pretty cool to see though. We purchased some styling thigh high boots, made some new friends, and walked on water (or a sand-bar). The walking part actually proved to be quite dangerous as small Korean women were ferociously digging for clams and leaving holes open for the poor, unsuspecting foreigners to fall into. We all agreed that the clams were just an added bonus for the comic relief they got out of watching the havoc their holes wrecked on the population. I briefly mentioned the lack of respect for personal space in a previous blog, but it really surfaced when we were surrounded by thousands of neon clad Koreans pushing us violently aside in order to walk in front of us then stop dead in their tracks, thus starting the elbow dance all over again. After being thoroughly jostled around, having our ear drums molested by traditional singing, and experiencing a true Korean festival, we bought waffles filled with cream and jogged with them in hand to catch a late bus home.

Pastries filled with bean paste, it is growing on me.

Street meat.

Jindo dogs famous in this region.

Colorful.

Before the sea parted.

I don't think that guy with the gun was part of the parade.

So many people!

Some smart ass dressed as Moses. I have no idea what the sign says, hopefully not "I am an ignorant American."

One good looking couple.

This little boy and his scythe.

I kept them.

Sneaky hole making lady.

Being a smart ass myself and pretending to walk on water.

And the parting.

Parade.

Korean mask.

 Upon our arrival in Gwangju we decided to settle for a cheap $17 dollar personal pizza from Papa Johns and then made our way to a popular foreigner hangout, the German Bar. The owner was so friendly that it almost made up for the fact that the beer tasted like a Pabst flavored with maple syrup and Alicia Keys music videos were the entertainment of choice. We had a few good giggles about it all and then called it a night. All in all it was a pretty successful weekend.