Well kinda. The Korean is Maehwa, which I believe translates more directly into 'Japanese plum' rather then 'apricot', but in any case...
Lisa and I headed off to Hadong, a town forty minutes away by train, to experience this festival.
The whole point is that the Maehwa trees are blooming. It's gorgeous.
It took us a while to figure out how to get to the actual festival, but we eventually took a taxi about three kilometres out of the town.
The festival contained typical festival things: a mini market, street meat, free samples of plum tea, and a whole pig roasting on a spit.
Lisa and I ate lunch on plastic stools at a makeshift restaurant.
We sat down to listen to a nonet of saxophone players.
We were only mildly surprised that it was really saxophone karaoke to hit tunes, like, "Nobody" by the Wondergirls. *shoots self in face, twice*.
We didn't see any taxis around the festival so we decided to walk the 3km back to the train station.
We realized about half way there that we wouldn't make it in time to catch our train.
We weren't terribly concerned about this as another train was leaving three hours later, but when we saw taxis on the side of the road we went to investigate.
The taxis didn't have any drivers in them, but the men directing traffic had on logos similar to the logos on the taxis.
Lisa approached one of the men asked, "taxi?"
Aburptly traffic controllers started running here and there, presumably looking for taxi drivers.
When no one appeared, we smiled at the men who had tried to help us and started to walk away.
"Wait" we were told, as they spoke urgently into their walkie-talkies.
Thirty seconds later we were on our way to the train station in the back of a police car.
I love Korea.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
March 13: And so ends week two of semester one.
I woke up today feeling like Saturday, which is an awesome feeling when you have to work!
On Friday I only teach two classes:
9:00-9:30 Grade 6
9:50-10:30 Grade 5
I love my grade six class, but I let them push me around too much last semester. Today I was playing a game with them, but they didn't like it.
"Different game teacher!"
"Hangman!"
"Twenty-five!"
"Typhoon"
Last semester I would have catered to them, but the new me said "no".
They groaned and whined.
I sat at the teacher's desk and stared at them. My usually boisterous class were stunned into an awkward can-hear-a-pin-drop-silence. I ALMOST broke. They're REALLY nice kids, and I've done what they've wanted before. I ALMOST said, "ok, let's play hangman".
But I didn't.
I waited.
"Teacher...game okay" one brave soul ventured, breaking the heavy silence.
"Yes, yes" murmer the other students in agreement, all looking at me with concern.
"Alright" I said brightly. We played my game (which was basically just a speaking exercise, which is why they didn't like it). They participated very well.
Several students made a point to tell me that the class was 'fun'. And the sweetest little child chased me into the hall, "teacher, game, no no no, sorry!" she apologized for her class earnestly.
I smiled at her and waved good-bye.
I didn't lose my temper.
I didn't let them push me around.
And I won teaching!
On Friday I only teach two classes:
9:00-9:30 Grade 6
9:50-10:30 Grade 5
I love my grade six class, but I let them push me around too much last semester. Today I was playing a game with them, but they didn't like it.
"Different game teacher!"
"Hangman!"
"Twenty-five!"
"Typhoon"
Last semester I would have catered to them, but the new me said "no".
They groaned and whined.
I sat at the teacher's desk and stared at them. My usually boisterous class were stunned into an awkward can-hear-a-pin-drop-silence. I ALMOST broke. They're REALLY nice kids, and I've done what they've wanted before. I ALMOST said, "ok, let's play hangman".
But I didn't.
I waited.
"Teacher...game okay" one brave soul ventured, breaking the heavy silence.
"Yes, yes" murmer the other students in agreement, all looking at me with concern.
"Alright" I said brightly. We played my game (which was basically just a speaking exercise, which is why they didn't like it). They participated very well.
Several students made a point to tell me that the class was 'fun'. And the sweetest little child chased me into the hall, "teacher, game, no no no, sorry!" she apologized for her class earnestly.
I smiled at her and waved good-bye.
I didn't lose my temper.
I didn't let them push me around.
And I won teaching!
March 5: I'm definitely in Korea
The kind of day that is possible to have in Korea, is not possible to have in Canada. I have had "what the Hell?" moments in Canada, but I have NEVER had a whole, "what the Hell?" day.
I can tell when fellow foreigners have had a WTH day. The symptoms include (but are not limited to): excessive giggling, verbal diarrhea, twitching, eyes opened wide, and severe mood swings.
Today I went to my Thurs/Fri school for the first time since late December. I've always felt like an outcast at this school, but today I was determined to go in and make friends. Half the teachers are new, and nobody is teaching the same grade as last year, so it's a good time to take a new approach. I went in smiley and energetic.
I sat in my normal seat in the vice-principal's office. I was promptly told to move. I will now sit in an abandonned classroom, totally alone (damn, makeing friends is going to be harder this way).
My Thursday timetable is as follows:
9:00-9:40 Grade 3
9:50-10:30 Grade 4
11:00-11:40 Grade 5
11:50-12:30 Grade 6
It's a MARATHON of a day, considering MTW I teach five consecutive periods of the SAME grade (and therefore same lesson plan). I was feeling hyper and exhausted when I feel into my chair at 12:30. Unfortunately, they needed to clean my abandonned classroom.
"Please move"
This was getting ridiculous! I went back to the Vice-principal's office and sat at a small table a mile away from everybody else. I did a buttload of photocopying (who knows when I'll be permitted entrance into the V.P's office again?) Some time later the newest, youngest, male teacher approached me.
"Jennifer"
Yes?
"Follow me"
Ok
"Do you speak Korean?"
no
"Oh"
With that, this tratorious man led me directly into the principal's office, and then left me alone with the principal!
The principal NEVER showed ANY interest in me last year!
He motioned me to take a seat, offered me a vitimin C drink, sat directly across from me, and started peppering me with questions, all in Korean.
Every so often, he'd pause and ask, "mola?" (essentially, "you don't understand?") and I'd reply, "ne, mollayo" (that's right, I don't understand).
Then he started saying 'trouble' (in English) over and over again.
"Trouble?" I asked
"Trouble" he replied, and then spelt it out T-R-O-U-B-L-E in case that was my issue.
"Trouble, what?" I asked. He nodded gravely and then took out an English textbook.
He flipped open to a page with tons of entries that looked like this:
apple [a'pul] 아풀 삭과
He proceded to read me about ten entries, underlining with his red pen as he went. All the while, he was looking at me expectingly and talking away in Korean.
FINALLY I had enough "chakkanmanyo" (wait a minute) I called as I raced from his office.
I ran into my co-workers room, "Mrs ___" I whined "help me! The principal's trying to talk to me!"
"What!? (she was instantly as alarmed by this prospect as I was) "why does he want to talk to YOU?"
"I don't know" I whined some more. Sighing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her as we ran back to his office.
"Why don't you know Korean!" she scolded as we ran.
Turns out he wanted to know if I thought teaching the students English would be more effective if I wrote in Korean next to any English I put on the board. I was so flustered at this point I asked Mrs ____ to make up an answer. She answered in the negative and that was that. At least half an hour of my life gone to that simple question!
As we leave the office Mrs____ asks me if I want to go to a staff dinner. I'm a bit flambozzled.. but...Well...it IS my goal to make friends....
A half an hour later we're seated in an expensive beef restaurant. I try to figure out how I'm going to tell them I decided to go back to vegetarianism over the break. I am surrounded by beef. Beef liver, beef stomach lining, and other various pieces of beef are all being fried in the middle of the table.
The matter is resolved when a piece of cooked beef is placed directly in front of me, with a demand of, 'eat this'.
"I'm sorry...I decided to be a vegetarian".
"WHAT?!"
The news circles around the table of twenty people like a wild-fire.
The teacher beside me gives a huff and leaves the room.
Every small side dish without any meat is immediately set in a circle around me.
Before I can stop it, they're teaching each other that I am a 'vegetable-ist'.
The teacher beside me returns with a HUGE platter, containing at least six tons of carrot and cucumber sticks. This is placed directly in front of me, 'because I love you'.
What a production.
Later I was telling Mrs ____ about my time in Thailand. I was telling her about the ladyboys, but I had to stop because I was giving her shivers.
She asked me if I knew of Korea's most famous transvestite.
I confessed my ignorance.
"She is married to a man, WHO is THREE YEARS OLDER" (this is a big deal, because in Korea your spouse and friends should be born in the same year as you, give or take one year maximum)
Conspiritually, I leaned in, "do you know, that my mother's husband is *gasp* THIRTEEN years OLDER than my MOTHER!"
If we had been sitting on chairs she would have fallen off hers.
"NOOO" she exclaims with wide eyes "how did they get married!?!"
This news also circles the table. Everyone drops their current conversations to stare at me.
I nod solemnly at all of them. I am speaking the truth.
The dinner was pretty fun over-all.
But still when I burst into Amanda's apartment at 9:30pm, she knew immediately that I had had a "What the Hell?" day.
I can tell when fellow foreigners have had a WTH day. The symptoms include (but are not limited to): excessive giggling, verbal diarrhea, twitching, eyes opened wide, and severe mood swings.
Today I went to my Thurs/Fri school for the first time since late December. I've always felt like an outcast at this school, but today I was determined to go in and make friends. Half the teachers are new, and nobody is teaching the same grade as last year, so it's a good time to take a new approach. I went in smiley and energetic.
I sat in my normal seat in the vice-principal's office. I was promptly told to move. I will now sit in an abandonned classroom, totally alone (damn, makeing friends is going to be harder this way).
My Thursday timetable is as follows:
9:00-9:40 Grade 3
9:50-10:30 Grade 4
11:00-11:40 Grade 5
11:50-12:30 Grade 6
It's a MARATHON of a day, considering MTW I teach five consecutive periods of the SAME grade (and therefore same lesson plan). I was feeling hyper and exhausted when I feel into my chair at 12:30. Unfortunately, they needed to clean my abandonned classroom.
"Please move"
This was getting ridiculous! I went back to the Vice-principal's office and sat at a small table a mile away from everybody else. I did a buttload of photocopying (who knows when I'll be permitted entrance into the V.P's office again?) Some time later the newest, youngest, male teacher approached me.
"Jennifer"
Yes?
"Follow me"
Ok
"Do you speak Korean?"
no
"Oh"
With that, this tratorious man led me directly into the principal's office, and then left me alone with the principal!
The principal NEVER showed ANY interest in me last year!
He motioned me to take a seat, offered me a vitimin C drink, sat directly across from me, and started peppering me with questions, all in Korean.
Every so often, he'd pause and ask, "mola?" (essentially, "you don't understand?") and I'd reply, "ne, mollayo" (that's right, I don't understand).
Then he started saying 'trouble' (in English) over and over again.
"Trouble?" I asked
"Trouble" he replied, and then spelt it out T-R-O-U-B-L-E in case that was my issue.
"Trouble, what?" I asked. He nodded gravely and then took out an English textbook.
He flipped open to a page with tons of entries that looked like this:
apple [a'pul] 아풀 삭과
He proceded to read me about ten entries, underlining with his red pen as he went. All the while, he was looking at me expectingly and talking away in Korean.
FINALLY I had enough "chakkanmanyo" (wait a minute) I called as I raced from his office.
I ran into my co-workers room, "Mrs ___" I whined "help me! The principal's trying to talk to me!"
"What!? (she was instantly as alarmed by this prospect as I was) "why does he want to talk to YOU?"
"I don't know" I whined some more. Sighing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her as we ran back to his office.
"Why don't you know Korean!" she scolded as we ran.
Turns out he wanted to know if I thought teaching the students English would be more effective if I wrote in Korean next to any English I put on the board. I was so flustered at this point I asked Mrs ____ to make up an answer. She answered in the negative and that was that. At least half an hour of my life gone to that simple question!
As we leave the office Mrs____ asks me if I want to go to a staff dinner. I'm a bit flambozzled.. but...Well...it IS my goal to make friends....
A half an hour later we're seated in an expensive beef restaurant. I try to figure out how I'm going to tell them I decided to go back to vegetarianism over the break. I am surrounded by beef. Beef liver, beef stomach lining, and other various pieces of beef are all being fried in the middle of the table.
The matter is resolved when a piece of cooked beef is placed directly in front of me, with a demand of, 'eat this'.
"I'm sorry...I decided to be a vegetarian".
"WHAT?!"
The news circles around the table of twenty people like a wild-fire.
The teacher beside me gives a huff and leaves the room.
Every small side dish without any meat is immediately set in a circle around me.
Before I can stop it, they're teaching each other that I am a 'vegetable-ist'.
The teacher beside me returns with a HUGE platter, containing at least six tons of carrot and cucumber sticks. This is placed directly in front of me, 'because I love you'.
What a production.
Later I was telling Mrs ____ about my time in Thailand. I was telling her about the ladyboys, but I had to stop because I was giving her shivers.
She asked me if I knew of Korea's most famous transvestite.
I confessed my ignorance.
"She is married to a man, WHO is THREE YEARS OLDER" (this is a big deal, because in Korea your spouse and friends should be born in the same year as you, give or take one year maximum)
Conspiritually, I leaned in, "do you know, that my mother's husband is *gasp* THIRTEEN years OLDER than my MOTHER!"
If we had been sitting on chairs she would have fallen off hers.
"NOOO" she exclaims with wide eyes "how did they get married!?!"
This news also circles the table. Everyone drops their current conversations to stare at me.
I nod solemnly at all of them. I am speaking the truth.
The dinner was pretty fun over-all.
But still when I burst into Amanda's apartment at 9:30pm, she knew immediately that I had had a "What the Hell?" day.
March 2: The Wrap Up
I've been back in Suncheon for four days now. It already feels like my trip to South East Asia was a dream.
The rest of our time in Mui Ne was just as glorious and relaxing as I could possibly have wished for. Everyday I rented a bicycle ($1USD) and drove several kilometres along the coast. Then I'd spend the rest of the day lounging on the beach, chatting with other travelers.
We sadly waved good-bye to Mui Ne on February 25th. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh after nightfall. We were offloaded across the street from the back-packer portion of the city.
Key phrase: 'across the street'.
Oh my.
99% of the vehicles on the packed roads are motorcycles/scooters. There are no traffic lights; just twenty lanes of vehicles going Southward, and another twenty lanes of vehicles Northen-bound.
Thankfully it's congested enough that no one's driving faster than 30-40km/hr. But no one stops for pedestrians, they simply swerve around you. You have to walk into forty lanes of two-wheeled vehicles with blind faith that no one will hit you.
It's invigorating to say the least.
It's scarier to cross a street in HCMC then it is to drive a bicycle in Siam Reap, and that's saying something!
After being on a beach for a week, the noise and confusion of HCMC was overwhelming. I collasped on our hotel bed, and pleaded with Ali when her fingers reached for the T.V remote, "NOOOO!! Silence PLEASE!!!"
*********************************************************
February 26th was our last day of the trip. Our plane didn't leave until midnight, so we had the whole day to spend as we pleased. Amanda and Susan opted for a tour to the tunnels. Ali took a trip to the reunification palace and the museum formerly known as, "The Museum of American Atrocities".
Lazy Lisa and I were not interested (I would be NOW, but after sight-seeing for so long I was a bit burnt out). So Lisa and I did what any teeny-bopper would do, and spent the day at a waterpark!
It was a bit confusing at first. Our cabbie dropped us off at an amusement park of the same name. We saw carnival rides and said, "no no no, that's not a waterpark!" We were directed 500 sweaty metres to our left. Upon arriving we tried to check in our bags with the locker man, like everyone else was doing.
"No no", grunted the man, "upstairs".
Confused, Lisa and I started to walk away, as he continued to service other people. We found stairs, but they led to a water slide. On our way back to the locker man, I asked another foreigner (who was with a local) how we checked our stuff. He told us we needed to buy a ticket from a lady sitting across from the locker man. Dutifully we approached her, and asked for a ticket.
"Upstairs" she murmers.
Meanwhile, twenty other people are granted the use of the lockers directly behind us. Exasperated, I repeated, "ticket please" with a bit of an edge to my voice.
With a dramatic sigh and eye-rolling we were finally sold tickets. After checking our bags, we climbed the stairs to the waterslide closet to us.
As we were climbing, we stopped and checked out the landing called 'foreigner sunbathe area'. Sure enough, there were lockers.
Can you imagine a waterpark in Canada that had a seperate area for foreigners?
Anyway, Lisa and I had a fabulous afternoon being eleven years old again.
I have nothing more to say about the waterpark, except! that in the washroom (that we got to share with the locals) a lady was combing her hair using a comb that was bolted to the wall. That's right! Communal comb!
To round off our last day, the five of us had a 'last supper' at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant. Then we watched a water-puppet show.
Our tickets said we were in row 's'. I can only assume that the 's' stood for 'splash' row. We were in the very front row, and at a water puppet show that is a wet place to be!
The rest of our time in Mui Ne was just as glorious and relaxing as I could possibly have wished for. Everyday I rented a bicycle ($1USD) and drove several kilometres along the coast. Then I'd spend the rest of the day lounging on the beach, chatting with other travelers.
We sadly waved good-bye to Mui Ne on February 25th. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh after nightfall. We were offloaded across the street from the back-packer portion of the city.
Key phrase: 'across the street'.
Oh my.
99% of the vehicles on the packed roads are motorcycles/scooters. There are no traffic lights; just twenty lanes of vehicles going Southward, and another twenty lanes of vehicles Northen-bound.
Thankfully it's congested enough that no one's driving faster than 30-40km/hr. But no one stops for pedestrians, they simply swerve around you. You have to walk into forty lanes of two-wheeled vehicles with blind faith that no one will hit you.
It's invigorating to say the least.
It's scarier to cross a street in HCMC then it is to drive a bicycle in Siam Reap, and that's saying something!
After being on a beach for a week, the noise and confusion of HCMC was overwhelming. I collasped on our hotel bed, and pleaded with Ali when her fingers reached for the T.V remote, "NOOOO!! Silence PLEASE!!!"
*********************************************************
February 26th was our last day of the trip. Our plane didn't leave until midnight, so we had the whole day to spend as we pleased. Amanda and Susan opted for a tour to the tunnels. Ali took a trip to the reunification palace and the museum formerly known as, "The Museum of American Atrocities".
Lazy Lisa and I were not interested (I would be NOW, but after sight-seeing for so long I was a bit burnt out). So Lisa and I did what any teeny-bopper would do, and spent the day at a waterpark!
It was a bit confusing at first. Our cabbie dropped us off at an amusement park of the same name. We saw carnival rides and said, "no no no, that's not a waterpark!" We were directed 500 sweaty metres to our left. Upon arriving we tried to check in our bags with the locker man, like everyone else was doing.
"No no", grunted the man, "upstairs".
Confused, Lisa and I started to walk away, as he continued to service other people. We found stairs, but they led to a water slide. On our way back to the locker man, I asked another foreigner (who was with a local) how we checked our stuff. He told us we needed to buy a ticket from a lady sitting across from the locker man. Dutifully we approached her, and asked for a ticket.
"Upstairs" she murmers.
Meanwhile, twenty other people are granted the use of the lockers directly behind us. Exasperated, I repeated, "ticket please" with a bit of an edge to my voice.
With a dramatic sigh and eye-rolling we were finally sold tickets. After checking our bags, we climbed the stairs to the waterslide closet to us.
As we were climbing, we stopped and checked out the landing called 'foreigner sunbathe area'. Sure enough, there were lockers.
Can you imagine a waterpark in Canada that had a seperate area for foreigners?
Anyway, Lisa and I had a fabulous afternoon being eleven years old again.
I have nothing more to say about the waterpark, except! that in the washroom (that we got to share with the locals) a lady was combing her hair using a comb that was bolted to the wall. That's right! Communal comb!
To round off our last day, the five of us had a 'last supper' at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant. Then we watched a water-puppet show.
Our tickets said we were in row 's'. I can only assume that the 's' stood for 'splash' row. We were in the very front row, and at a water puppet show that is a wet place to be!
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