A Crackin' Good Adventure

So, this past Saturday concluded our TaLK Chungnam and Yeongi Office of Education 2011 trip to none other than the beautiful tropical island of.. Jeju! It was quite beautiful, albeit rainy, but was chock full o' adventure!

Our adventure began on from Nonsan, to Gongju, to Jochiwon and finally a bus ride to Gimpo airport. From Gimpo it's only about a 50 minute plane ride to Jeju! Upon arrival we ate lunch and then went to the Glass Castle.

Glass Castle
Now, it's not a castle. And it's not made of glass. It does however has many items made of glass, and was pretty darn enjoyable to explore! There's a Wonka-esque outside area where I was expecting some Oompa Loompas to come out and perform a song and dance number for our amusement. Instead there were ajummas. Generally I like it. Thumbs up for the glass castle.



Next was Jeju international education center. Which.. wasn't built yet. But! There was a pretty fancy model of what it will look like when it is built. And a Powerpoint presentation. Hmm.

Dinner was EPIC. No, really. I think it was the best thing I've eaten in Korea. All seafood. Scabbard fish stew, soft-shell crab, chewy sweet fish, fried fish, and all the side fixin's we could ever want. I wish I had taken a picture, but my stomach overpowered my blog's need for pretty food pictures. Here's one of the next day's lunch. Typical tasty lunch in Korea:


Friday we went horse back riding! It was rainy and the horses looked nonplussed. Plus we just followed a track. I didn't really approve of how the horses were treated, but I did like my smelly old hat.


Then we went to a cave. The cave itself was a bit bogus but the park surrounding it was fun. Many cool sculptures and such.

Next was cow island. And this is where the magic happened.
This is "galbitang," a beef rib soup:
This is how I know the Korean word for rib, "galbi" which is how I explain my current 4-broken-rib situation along with some crafty charades.


Anyway, I was on a Cow-Shaped Island. I had an accident. I went to the tiny hospital on Cow Island in a golf cart, passing over one painful bump in the road after another. I was cursing, wincing, but not crying. No one believed me when I said my ribs hurt like hell until a second doctor (on vacation) went to the bike shop and told me to cough. I said it really REALLY hurt. Then he poked my side in a couple of places. When he hit the sweet spot I screamed "OMFCKINGGOD". "You have rib.. practurr. You must go hospital.. por your healts.. You are moss important."

So, did I mention I was on a little island OFF of the little island of Jeju? Well, I got in an ambulance then took the ferry back to the main island (Jeju). Then 40 minutes in another bumpy ambulance to the big hospital. People said a lot of things I didn't understand. And more things I didn't understand. I couldn't talk to the nurses. X-rayed. X-ray came back, I fractured 4 of my ribs-- 7 through 10. No one could believe it. "You didn't cry! Why don't you cry?!"

And that about sums it up. Broken ribs take approximately 2-3 weeks to heal and no stay in the hospital can help speed up the process. I am currently on sick leave from my school and will have another check up tomorrow (Friday) a week since the initial accident to see how things are healing. Wish me luck!

On the daily commute..

Today on the bus to work, I met a young man from Kyrgyzstan. He works here in Korea for Samsung and knows six languages-- including English.

A sample from wikipedia:

Kyrgyzstan ( /ˈkɜrɡɨstæn/ kur-gi-stan;^[6] Kyrgyz: Кыргызстан [qɯrʁɯzstɑ́n]; Russian: Кыргызстан [kᵻrɡᵻsˈtan]), officially theKyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states (along with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan andKazakhstan). Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and People's Republic of China to the east. Its capital and largest city is Bishkek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan

Yep, Kyrgyzstan! I knew nothing about this country but the name. And most certainly couldn't spell it. But now I do! And I know a lot more about it. And I made a new friend!

Bus rides to work are boss!

Happy Birthday, Buddha!

May is a wonderful month in Korea! Not only is the weather is beautiful, but public school teachers and students are given an abundance of holidays for this "family month." For this particular teacher May in Korea holds six days off. Have I mentioned how much I love it here? (Only a few dozen times, I think.)

First was Children's Day, observed on May 5th in South Korea. Children normally get some sort of gift from their parents and spend the day doing some fun activity together. I visited Kayla in Gongju and we had a beautiful picnic on the river, and it was just as nice! We caught up on each other's lives and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and strawberries!


Tuesday May 10th is Buddha's Birthday, is also a national holiday. But my school took off Monday AND Tuesday just to extend the weekend a bit. To celebrate, I went to the Seoul Lantern Festival in Insadong with some amazing ladies from Jochiwon. Of course it was pretty crowded, but completely worth any slight claustrophobic inconvenience. The Seoul Lantern Festival was a veritable feast for the eyes. During this time of year, colored lanterns in pink, blue, green, yellow and red are scattered throughout ever city in the country, but Jogyesa Temple was by far the most impressive I've seen. The temple was completely decked out in spirit of Buddha's Birthday. Lanterns, lanterns everywhere! Strung up, dangling from tree branches and telephone poles, being held by the young and old. It was absolutely enchanting.

At 7:00 there began a Lantern Parade smack dab in the heart of Insadong. There were more foreigners there than I have ever seen in one place in Korea, and that's including Itaewon! The parade was VERY long, over 2 hours in length, which your feet begin to feel if you are standing that entire time! But I got some great pictures of the giant "lantern" sculptures in the parade. I love bright colors and lights and was fixated on them like a small child. I found the entire event to be delightful in every way and would suggest every person to take advantage of it if they are ever in Seoul around the 10th of May!

My photos for the Seoul Lantern Festival can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.512575400588.9614.295700354

It's been raining a lot for these Monday and Tuesday holidays. And boy howdy, do I mean a lot. I decided to be wise and lay low; working on lesson plans, completing graduate school stuff, packing some boxes to ship home by boat (its cheaper to send packages home by boat in Korea than by Air Mail), planning out my next two months here in Korea and, perhaps most importantly, conserving funds which isn't hard to do when you can get full on kimbap for under 2,500 won. Oh, kimbap. I think I will miss you most of all.

Plans for this weekend are good and plenty. There is a Rock Tigers show in Cheonan this Friday, as well as something top secret AND my close friend Baron von Rugglestein's going away party.