Kids and Lilies

Meet Jim, Joe and Bob (their English names for class). These 3 boys make me laugh out loud and remind me of how fun little guys are!! We were playing a game where in they take an eraser shaped like an egg in chopsticks and try to toss it into my bright green waste basket. This is an improvisation on the ever popular game of basketball, and the kids love it; I'm happy to say!

They have 2 chances of earning points: A.) get the answer right for the English sentence they pick up to complete and B.) hold onto it with chopsticks and get that bouncy egg into the basket. The noise levels in the room get pretty high, but all of the kids are willing to read aloud with this incentive! These three boys are among my favorites. I turned around and caught Jim and Joe making silly noises and faces with their tongues, grabbed my camera and they stopped looking worried about their behavior. Since the new teacher, (that would be me) got such a kick out of it, I was able to get a repeat performance that included Bob! Now, the girls can be just as silly, but capturing them on film is nigh unto impossible so far!

But, I did get real smiles out of Sunny (the one making the peace-out sign) and her BFF. Sunny is that little girl next door that everyone, I mean EVERYONE, adores. Her name suits her and she's definitely among my favs!

There are more, but this will have to do for now. Also, a friend from Maryland, who happens to be wrapping up a 2 year stint of teaching nearby, took me on a long, LONG walk yesterday to check out the English library (where I'm not allowed to check out books because I don't have the right job!!). On the way back, though, she took me through the lotus pool, with its wooden walkways over the water and huge leaves. It took my breath away!!

Seriously, I've never seen leaves that size and I've only spotted the pods in craft stores before!

Typhoons in Sacheon

So, obviously, I'm not going out to try to take pictures. I found this image on line from a recent typhoon and it pretty accurately depicts what I believe is going on out there. This is my 2nd typhoon, since arriving in Sacheon and in the time span of just a couple weeks. The last one got us to cancel school for a day (no small thing around here), but, at least where I live, it didn't get too terrible. Other, surrounding areas, weren't so lucky. I did see trees uprooted, afterwards and pushed over here and there with what appeared to be some malignantly playful finger of a giant. The rivers and canals were at least quadrupled in depth and rapidity of flow. It was quite exciting and I was grateful that, from what I could observe, none of the surrounding farmlands were seriously, or irreparably damaged. But I'm curious about what today will hold. The noise of the wind outside is such that I couldn't place the sound at first. There's more rainfall with this typhoon too and yet, we're still not w/o power, so I've decided to make a note of this while I can. Funny thing about these things is their unpredictability. Will there be sunshine this afternoon or will things get uglier? No idea. For now, I'm safely tucked inside my little home, boiling eggs for lunch later, sorting through lesson materials for the week and watching reruns of The West Wing with from an online source out of the UK, heaven bless them! For those of you who know me, I'm politically very conservative, but I LOVE this show and I adore C.J. Cregg! http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2155260416/tt0200276

This and that, plus the Open Markets of Sacheon

Today is a catch up day. I need to blog about something, but mostly just wanting to relax, do laundry, school prep, emails and grocery shop a bit. We're expecting another typhoon tomorrow and I've already been to the open market for veggies and fruit. I haven't taken any photos of Sacheon's open market yet, but here's one I found from near by that I copy pasted from the web. I LOVE open markets! They're so eclectic and real--I bought green onions from a tiny little old woman crouched on the ground. That's all she was selling, so I bought from her. I bought peaches by handing 5,000 won ($4 something in dollars) to a lady who hand picked 3 of her best for me.
This photo of Busan is courtesy of TripAdvisor Now I need more milk and diet coke--because I DO. For that I'll go to the Woori Mart, because they have both. Last week I visited Samcheonpo via a short bus trip to shop at the Home Plus store and wander around their open seafood market. I promise not to blog exclusively about food. I'm being boring, I know--just tired. Generally I don't sleep enough and there are a couple of classes which are giving me some real headaches at work. Other than that, life is grand, the food is delectable and I'm continually astonished by how beautiful the parks and walkways are. Got lost after an extra long walk this week, tho, and I'll be using a little more caution in the future. The mountains and old villages are only appealing when you know where you ARE.

I ended up on the wrong side of these mountains a few days ago and 3 hours later, thanks to a kindly couple (it seems Everyone knows where Top Mart in Sacheon is!) I came home safe and sound. While I don't know how to get back there, I found yet another Buddhist temple and another river to mistakenly follow, trying to get back to my cozy domicile.

But all's well, I got here and have been shown a gorgeous park near by that I need to bring my camera for and any number of other really cool Buddhist temples, pagodas, stone pots, streets.... But scenery is only a part of my life. I've got a few favorite students I'd like to photograph and write about next week. Sandy (I'll use the English names they give themselves for class) is, by far, the most colorful. I could see her as an assertive journalist, lobbyist or social advocate. Tiny little dynamo! So, starting next week, I want to start making a list of "who's who" in my world of teaching in Sacheon at Jungchul Academy.

Korean Food

Did I mention that the director at my Jungchul Academy in Sacheon is a chef and that I've gone out to eat several times since I got here? Already I'm a huge fan of Korean food as a result of this! Also, I've met a fellow English teacher who lives only a few blocks away. She too is from Baltimore, MD! She's introduced me to open markets with their fish (living and dead), fresh vegetables and fruit, where I tasted my first veggie pancake called pajeon--YUM! The picture I found on the internet doesn't look like what we ate, but there you go. And I believe my first meal here in Sacheon with my co-workers was Bibimbap.

We eat lots of veggies and the way they spice their foods is going to make all other dishes taste bland to me, I'm afraid! Kimchi, in all its varieties, is served during every dinner at the school. I love it, so I've purchased some of the basic pepper powder from an open market near the sea today.

I know it doesn't look like much--it's a heavily spiced cabbage and/or radish dish which is marvelous with rice. Anyway-tonight I went out to eat with some new friends from my Church and we had some sort of duck cooked in front of us with all sorts of veggies and side dishes. After spending the day in an open market near the ocean, I just felt the need to applaud Korean foods. I could go on and on about it--so I won't. Just this: "Try it, you'll love it!"

Great-grandmother Tree

She stands alone, by far the largest tree around. I took over a dozen photos of this tree soon after I bought my little camera because of the impact this one tree had on me on first viewing her. I named her immediately, because what struck me when I first passed her on the second day of my morning walks here, was the view of her inner trunk. It's all blasted away, covered with what looks like dark moss and, could it be soot?

Possibly the inside of this ancient tree was used as some sort of incinerator at some point, but one thing is sure: she's had all her guts eaten, burned, or otherwise disposed of. And yet, even in this lush landscape, no other tree supports the density of foliage which covers every living part of her, from roots to upper most branches. She stands there, defying nature and drawing from incredibly hardy roots to produce an abundance of new leaves and support other vines and new shoots of life. Of course, she survived this weeks' typhoon, but one of her highest branches didn't. The remaining hole is pronounced, and I wonder if trees, like other mothers, feels sorrow over the dying branch beside her on the ground? I watch women of the village, who's backs have formed over the years to fit their endless daily labors, pushing empty baby carriages around to support them as they walk and believe they miss being able to create and nurse the small inhabitants of those carriages. These stooped over little old women (I'm not going to insult their dignity by including photos that might not do them justice), like that tree, have sacrificed their health and everything they are and doggedly continue so to do. I see them out washing laundry in the canals, planting seeds, fishing in the rivers and canals with small nets, laying out vast amounts of peppers to dry--only to quickly gather them back in for the recurring rain. They work as diligently in the fields as the men, with scythes for the harvests, and wrapping individual fruits in their orchards against inclement weather... It appears that everything inside these women, like that tree, has been chiseled away through the vicissitudes of existence. Every internal hope and cherished dream has, no doubt been compromised, and yet, like the great-grandmother tree, their efforts sustain far more life than those less stricken in years. They have evolved together, devoting every waking moment to the tending of life around them, giving no thought to themselves or their innermost needs. I believe they no longer have such needs.

Like a guardian, the great-grandmother tree stands just outside one of the older villages that backs up to the mountains. And tiny, bent and seemingly fragile women do the same for their villages. I want to become like the great-grandmother tree and those women.

So, we said our good byes just over 2 weeks ago in the SLC Airport. I was terrified and, well, homesick already. Moms don't take off and leave, kids do! I'm too old for this!! But, well, now I'm cooking pumpkin leaves with cabbage, onions, pumpkin leaves and tofu, licking the bowl out on the weekends before I grade some more papers. I feel at home in my brand new (& I DO mean NEW--no one's ever lived here but me) apartment in Sacheon City of South Korea. Here's a view of the outside of my building. And one of the inside, or at least, where I put my shoes--too, too cute. I love my home, my school, my city and the fact that I'm situated right on the edge of the city and rural, countryside! I love my school (more on that later), coworkers and boss, and MOST of the kiddies I teach (working on that small "other" percentage).

Living hundreds, even thousands of miles away from family is a bummer--one of the spiders, if you see what I mean, of my life. But my big brother, Tom, came up with a wonderful idea: do lunch via the cell phone! He started it with his nephew, Jordan, my son and then included me when I decided to spend the summer in Maryland (he's in Utah) to paint before heading off to Korea to teach for at least a year. My son's in Boston, I'm in Maryland and I believe Tom's found a great way to stay connected and make life a little sweeter. Today I we went "together" to an ice cream shop the 3 of us went to years ago on the corner of East Street and Church in Frederick. Frederick Fudge and Ice Cream sits right on the corner, it's charming, a chocolate lover's dream and has some of the very best ice cream around. Today Tom indulged my cravings with a double scoop of the darkest decadent, brownie flavors in a chocolate dipped lime green waffle cone. I felt like a 5 year old in heaven and sent him cell pix to drool along with me. We talked for over an hour and I purchased some cute, cheap sweaters for Korea's winters at the darling consignment shop across the street--all while chatting with my oldest brother (I have 7, by the way). Jordan and I chatted for over an hour last night, so now I don't feel so overwhelmed with the journey I'm about to undertake. There's been an infestation of spiders with delays, paperwork, unreasonable banking policies and a renter I have to replace in about 5 days, but connecting over ice cream, great ideas, fond memories and shared goals sprinkles in enough sweetness to smother the yucky side of life!