Head of the Class

It is no secret that when it comes to education, especially math and science, American students continue to fall below rising East Asian nations. While the United States spends more money per student over the course of their education, other nations such as South Korea are crushing the Western world in terms of testing scores. This has even led President Obama to specifically mention South Korea in numerous speeches, including his 2010 State of the Union address. South Korea’s educational system is a great symbol of its country’s desire to rebuild after the Korean War and become a leader in the global world. Since 1953, the Korean government and people have made education their top priority and it is paying off, big time. For all of these reasons, I was anxiously awaiting my moment to teach a lesson with Korean high school students. It was a moment that I will always remember, to say it was rewarding is an understatement; it was life-changing.

When I applied for the Korea Society fellowship, I knew that one of the requirements was to teach a mini-lesson to local Korean students. This was the one thing that both scared and excited me at the same time. During our fellowship video orientation about a month before the trip, we were informed of our requirement to teach a 25 minutes lesson to 50 students at the Goyang Foreign Language School in Seoul. Our lesson was supposed to be on something either our city/state was known for or something about American culture. The guidelines were to assume that there would be no technology equipment (wait, no LCD projector?! There goes my PowerPoint idea) and to bring all materials and copies from the States. We were also to bring 50 small gifts for our new students; suggestions included school pencils, mascot stickers, etc. While preparing my Hanover students for their SOL test, packing up my classroom and averaging final grades, I was stressing out over what topic I was going to teach in Korea.

I immediately thought about what Mechanicsville, Virginia is known for….hmm, tomatoes. Even President Obama during a recent trip to my hometown stopped and bought some Hanover grown tomatoes. But, I realized that the chance of me transporting tomatoes to Korea was going to be daunting (and illegal…customs doesn’t allow you to bring over agricultural items). My next idea was to do a lesson on the Civil War, after all Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. My main concern about this topic was the fact that the Korean War was in essence a civil war and I didn’t know how the students would respond, considering their country is still technically divided. Finally, I had settled on a game of American Presidents from Virginia, we do have the nickname “Mother of Presidents”. After doing some research, I was worried that John Tyler might put the students to sleep. So here I am, one week left of school, two weeks before I leave the country, and I have no idea what I’m going to teach these kids. Thankfully, an impromptu brainstorming session with a math teacher (shout out to Karl Lippa) led me to develop a lesson based around multi-national businesses and their logos. Recently, one of the top iPhone/iPad apps was the logo game. Kids would guess what logo matched up with what business. I used that idea as the basis for the game I would play with the students, but with more of a focus on American businesses and what states they started in. I knew I wanted to tie it into an American geography lesson. I wanted to see if Korean students not only knew about certain American businesses but could locate specific American states on a map.

With a clear goal, I was able to start putting all the pieces together. I threw in some Korean businesses (Samsung, LG, and Hyundai) along with others from around the world (Puma, Fiat, Honda, Mercedes, DeBeers, Sony, Nestle, Nutella, Nintendo, Red Bull, Louis Vitton and Airbus). The American companies I chose were McDonalds (duh), Nike, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Apple, Ford, Starbucks, Dell, Walmart, Ghiradelli, Hershey, Ben & Jerry’s, Walt Disney, XBOX, and Coach handbags. Can you name what cities/states these companies are headquartered in? After I found all of the logos/names online (thank you, Google Images), I printed them out on beautiful colored paper and then headed down to the library to laminate them, where I proceeded to them break and jam the laminator (sorry to the librarians, Kim and Judith). After going back and printing the logos again, the wonderful librarians laminated the logos and now I was on to my next phase of the lesson, make the handouts for the students. So I knew I wanted to have them guess what country each logo/business was in, and then if it was an American company, to guess where it was headquartered and label it on a blank map. So on one side of my handout was a blank map and on the other side was “Virginia At-A-Glance”, basically important symbols, historical events, the Presidents from VA, and a brief background on the famous VA tourism slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers” (this will be explained shortly). Somewhat confident with my lesson, it was now time to figure out what to bring the students as gifts.

After stressing out for about 24 hours, luckily, my amazing Lead Teacher Specialist (thanks Nora Wheeler!) had a great idea to bring Virginia/Richmond postcards to the students in Korea. I thought that would be perfect and decided to have my students write them a message with their email so that they could possibly correspond with one another. Once I had all of the postcards, the kids eagerly wrote their messages to the Korean kids, mostly about Mechanicsville, what Hanover HS was like, what they did in their spare time, favorite bands and/or movies, etc. I was so proud of my students they really did a great job. I wanted to bring the Korean kids something else but just couldn’t figure out what to bring them. It all came together perfectly when I went down to the Bell Tower next to our State Capital to get some more varieties of postcards. The lovely women behind the desk were asking me what I was looking for and I began to tell them about how I was going to Korea and teaching a lesson, etc. They immediately asked if I would like some free bumper stickers and light-up pins with our tourism slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers”! (On the pins, the heart lit up, it was pretty cool). I was so excited about these gifts I was just worried about what the Korean kids would think about our slogan. The final thing I needed to finalize my lesson was a large American states map to take over and point out where all of these businesses were and something nice enough that I could leave with the teacher. I found the perfect illustrated children’s map of the US at Barnes and Noble and packed all my lessons and gifts in the free Virginia tote those wonderful women at the Bell Tower gave me as well. Now, I just had to wait.

If you look at PISA (an educational test taken by multiple countries) scores from 15 year olds in 2009, South Korea ranks 1^st in Reading and Math scores, while placing 3^rd in Science. The United States ranked 14^th in Reading, 25^th in Math and 17^th in Science. There is an obvious achievement gap between the United States and other countries, despite renewed efforts to close the gap in terms of Science and Math scores here in our country. So how is South Korea, a country that only 60 years ago was engaged in a brutal civil war with the North, able to catapult itself to the “head of the class”? Thanks to Kiyong BYUN, professor at Korea University, our fellowship group was able to gain insight into the Korean educational system, both their success and challenges. According to Ki-Bong Lee, following the devastation of the Korean War, the focus began to change, “Education is Our Hope, Human Resources are Our Future”. Many of the foundations for success were already in-directly built into the values of the Korean society due to Confucianism. The Confucian philosophy values wisdom and intelligence over other traits, as evident in the Civil Service Examinations that were used centuries ago. In order to procure a prestigious government job, men had to take an exam that measured their morals and ethics. This idea of progress through education is still strong in 2012. Education is the means to achieve success. Therefore, families focus on their children’s education even before grade school. The children’s success or lack thereof is a reflection on the family’s name. If a child fails or does poorly, it can tarnish the family’s name and could ruin their future prospects, not only in terms of jobs, but also marriage possibilities. These ancient Confucian traditions also reflect the esteemed position and regard of teachers.

As President Obama noted in his State of the Union address, South Koreans refer to their teachers as “nation-builders”. Just as Confucianism teaches respect for elders, there is also respect for teachers. This can best be seen in South Korean teacher salaries, which according to OECD, education at a glance, after 15 years of experience, teachers make 50,000 but have the opportunity to make up to 80,000 rather quickly. This graph from The Economist shows how teacher compensation ranks in regards to per capita GDP with other countries. Because of the salary and respect, many Korean students are entering the field of education but also due to the guarantee that they will receive a position as a state employee (which as American educators, we have unfortunately realized in these budget-slashing years, there are no guarantees). Besides Confucian values, investment in education as enabled South Korea to rise rapidly to the top.

The government invests heavily into education, only second to national security. But, it’s not only the government but the parents who almost contribute every cent into their children’s education. They believe that this investment will come back to them in their retirement; the children will financially support their parents, thus investing everything into their children leads to a heavy financial burden and to an even heavier personal burden onto those young students. There is a growing concern in Korea that the private tutoring costs are starting to allow certain socio-economic groups more of an advantage. Because of the long hours and growing tuition requirements for these tutoring programs, the government has attempted to place more regulations that have been deemed fairly ineffective. The goal for most families is that their children be accepted into prestigious high schools and later, the best colleges in Seoul or those in the United States.Because of these high expectations, most students spend their afternoons into night-time attending private tutoring classes and “cram” sessions. The skills that are taught usually focus around math and science. Also, students have become exam-oriented many Korean students have a tough transition when attending American colleges because schools such as Harvard are more essay-oriented. Another stark contrast with American higher-learning institutions is that when Korean students fail at local universities, it is seen as the university that fails rather than the student. Most professors that we spoke with admitted that the high-school level of learning is sometimes more rigorous than the actual college level. There are other challenges and setbacks of this Korean education model, most of which is at the social level. Many students are so busy studying, they don’t have time to socialize, date or even participate in sports and other after-school clubs and organizations. Whereas our American students excel in these socialization roles, Korean students seem to be on the one-way track of studying and testing.

Want more inforamtion? The Economist’s “Exams in South Korea: The one-shot society”

PBS NewsHour Video Clip: “South Korea’s Education Fever”

PowerPoint from KU Professor, Kiyong BYUN

After two weeks of visiting monuments, museums, cultural performances and lectures, we were excited and anxious to visit the high school and meet our Korean students. On July 9th (two days before our departure home) we all met in the hotel lobby, armed with our teaching materials. You could feel the excitement in the room, its as if everyone had immediately put on their teaching hat. I had woken up pretty early that morning, even though we had until noon to do our own thing. I headed to Starbucks with my teaching stuff and mentally reviewed what I was going to do, looked at all of my materials and even had some spare time to read my kids’ postcards. Was I nervous? Oh yes, I was sweating bullets. Not because I didn’t feel prepared or that I was going to fail horribly, but it is the same thing that makes every teacher anxious that first day of school (no matter how long you have been teaching), you want them to like you. Yes, we want respect and good behavior, but at the end of the day you want them to appreciate what you are teaching and the time and effort you put into it. Trust me, as a teacher, there are many days where your lesson can bomb, no matter how good it is. That is the worst feeling in the world…nothing hurts more than kids not caring about something you care about. Anyways, I’ve digressed. Ok, so I’m sitting in Starbucks with the nauseous yet excited feeling I have every school year on the first day. It’s the anxiety and build-up, I know that once I open my mouth in front of those kids, everything will fall into place. As we are all standing in the lobby waiting for the bus, you can tell everyone is feeling the same emotions. I think we were all concerned about the same thing, how good is their English going to be? Are they going to understand what I’m saying? Will they get what I’m teaching? We all had discussed our teaching lesson for the last two weeks either on the bus or at meals, so we had all devised a plan b…just in case. My plan b? Have the postcards be a talking point, or have them ask me questions about America. We loaded the bus with our materials and plan b in the back of our heads. I don’t even remember how long our bus ride was, that was how nervous and amped up I was.

We pull into the school, after the bus almost took out their front entrance gate. From the moment I got off the bus, it was a whirlwind. All of these students were standing outside and I finally figured out they were wearing nametags with our names too. Ok, I thought, must find my kid. I see a young boy, rather tall, with my name C. Bare on his name tag. I look at him and point, he starts saying Bare, Bare, Bare?! (Have I told anyone how much I hate my last name? Sorry Dad). I reply yes, yes! He shuttles me into the auditorium, I don’t even remember what I was asking him for those two minutes. He told me that his English name was Daniel and that he would be my guide. I breathed a sigh of relief, I could understand his English very well. I can’t even put into words how cute these kids were. They were so excited, they offered us tea and showed us wear to sit. Daniel, my guide, immediately grabbed my bag, not wanting me to carry anything my self. We are introduced to the assistant principal and some of the kids in charge of the presentation. We are shown a video that the students made, which I have tirelessly tried to find online and can’t. We then played a game where the students told us a fact and we were to either show an X (for false) or O (for true). It was so much fun, we did pretty well. After about 20 minutes, we split up and our guides walked us to our classroom for our teaching experience. Most teachers were put in pairs, each teaching 25 minutes while some were alone for 50 minutes.

I asked my guide what grade I was teaching, he said first year. There are only three levels in high school in Korea. Just like back at home, I was teaching the youngsters. As we finally made it to the classroom, they knocked on the door and the teacher said to wait five minutes. This was probably the oddest thing about our classroom visits, most of the other fellows noticed that the teachers were either not there at all to watch the lesson or in some cases, didn’t even stop teaching. This was shocking, I thought the teachers would be more welcoming, but they have to get through a lot each day and I thought maybe it put a damper on their lessons and I also think many of the teachers maybe didn’t feel confident about speaking English with us. This is all speculation, I’m not really sure why. Anyways, after waiting for five minutes, the teacher came out and left the room. Myself and Elisa Milkes (a teacher from the Bronx) came into the classroom and got set up. Elisa was going to teach first, she had a lesson about the NYC subway along with maps for all of the kids, where they had to locate all of the boroughs and then various parks. She went further into depth and had the kids try to figure out what was the best route for her to get to work, they did a great job and I even learned about the subway! She is an amazing teacher. Finally, it was my turn.

Honestly, I was so nervous that I don’t even really remember much. After a few minutes, it naturally came to me and I just got into the comfort of teaching and went through my lesson. The kids were excited to see the logos and some students even knew the headquarters of the businesses. Of course when I brought up LG and Samsung they all laughed and called out the answer. I was shocked by the quietness of the students. In America, if I have the kids calling out answers to a game, they usually are falling on top of each other to get the answer out first. But, this was a cultural difference as I later learned from Daniel. In Korea, it is seen as arrogance to call out answers. He told me that most kids knew the answers but didn’t want to shout out or raise their hands. Most kids don’t play games in their classroom and there is little to no cooperative activities. I found this shocking, but going back to the exam-oriented model, I’m not really surprised. As American educators, we are taught to promote team building, constructive discussions and participation. They did a great job labeling the map as we went through the activity. They of course knew McDonalds and Starbucks. They also knew about Disney World but when I told them about Hershey Park they got super excited. They knew most of the world businesses such as Red Bull and Fiat, which I’m not so sure my own students would get that right. After about 20 minutes, we wrapped it up. It was now time for the gifts. I told them the story about how my students were really excited about writing them postcards and that I really wanted them to write them and they nodded. When I handed them out, they were all so excited! I gave two to each of them, one student asked if he could trade one because he had two girl postcards and he wanted a boy. One young lady asked me how to say Mechanicsville, which was written in the postcard. I could have cried watching them read those postcards and their faces were all lit up. It was such a wonderful moment. Finally, I showed them the bumper stickers and light-up pins, they loved how they flashed red. Finally, we all took a class picture. I wish we could have spent more time with them, but we were on a pretty tight schedule. As they all waved goodbye, they immediately sat back down and looked at those postcards. It melted my heart.

Daniel, my guide and I then had about twenty minutes to stroll around campus, he gave me a great tour and more information about the school. I asked him what kind of music he liked, he immediately replied, Guns ‘n Roses. I was blown away, after all of this K-Pop talk I figured he would say one of those girl groups. Nope, he told me that he loved Slash. We joked about how much hair he has and what he might actually look like. We then discussed November Rain, one of my favorites, and he told me he watches the videos on YouTube. I told him that most of my students probably don’t listen to that group, he said to tell them he likes All American Rejects, which is a band that my kids listen to. Daniel is in his final year, he is applying to Berkley and his top choice is Carnegie Mellon where he wants to be a computer software major. I told him that I know a lot about Pittsburgh because that is where my parents live and I told him all about the campus and some things that Pittsburgh is known for. He asked me if it rains a lot there, I said no, it snows a lot. He seemed kind of shocked. He described his schedule 7am-11pm. He takes classes from 7-4pm, like us, but then goes to tutoring and study sessions until 11 at night! They aren’t allowed to use calculators even in AP courses, unless it is for graphing. He told me he took BC Calculus last year, which I don’t even really know what that is but it sounds hard. I asked him if he drove to school, he said no that they don’t get their drivers licences until 19. We spoke about how he loves the NBA, I think I impressed him with my basketball knowledge. I asked him if he watches any games, he laughed and said that he had no time due to studying. I asked him if he wanted to come back to Korea after graduating from college, he quickly said no. As our bus pulled up and we realized that it was time to go, I gave Daniel a hug, got another teacher to take our picture and then gave him my email address. I told him if he got into Carnegie Mellon that I would come visit him and show him around Pittsburgh, or get my Dad to do it (he loves giving tours of Pittsburgh). He smiled, I then gave him a Hanover Hawks hat and an extra one to give to his younger brother. I asked him if he wanted my Virginia is for Lovers tote bag, he said yes. He was the cutest kid ever, I almost cried when I said goodbye. As I climbed onto the bus, I watched him with the other kids showing them what I gave him. He then kept waving to me until we drove off. That might have been the best moment of the entire trip. I don’t think I will ever forget that scene.

As we traveled back to the Korea University for our closing ceremony, we all gushed about our experience and how hard those kids work. We also expressed sadness, it seemed to us that they are missing out on high school fun. No real dances or athletic events, it’s almost like they are already adults. Our kids would be shocked at how hard they work. Granted, this is one of the top high schools in Seoul, most students end up in one of the top universities and it is very hard to get selected into this high school. I still haven’t heard from Daniel, but I’m hoping he gets into Carnegie Mellon and we meet up in the future.

At our closing ceremony, the Korea University presented us each with a diploma and picture. It is absolutely beautiful. We then headed over to an amazing dinner where we watched a video that the Korea Society had shot over the last few days of us, it was funny and poignant. Even though we had one free day remaining, we knew this experience was coming to an end.

Note: More blog posts coming…keep checking back for updates!

A Buddhist Sanctuary in the Mountains

Yesterday was by far my favorite travel experience. We left the bustling city of Daegu around 8am and took about a two hour bus ride into the mountains to visit a Buddhist Temple, in operation, called Haeinsa Temple, another UNESCO site. Located at the top of Mount Gayasan, the temple grounds look out on the hills and waterfalls and streams below. Located in this temple is the Tripitaka Koreana, woodblocks containing the entire teachings of Buddha. There are over 81,000 blocks that are in great condition thanks to the building of a storehouse that naturally protects the blocks from humidity by constructing different levels underneath the surface of salt, sand, and other natural resources. The positioning and width of the windows were also purposefully constructed in order to keep the wood carvings safe from the elements. Unfortunately, these woodblocks were in danger during WWII, but ultimately this majestic site was spared. As you walk into the temple grounds you are immediately struck by the beauty. We climbed up farther to witness some Buddhist chants by the monks in front of the Buddhist statues while other visitors to the temple were also kneeling and paying their respects. I was struck by what devotion these Buddhist monks have to their religion. Living a life without many material goods and solely focusing on honoring traditions and rituals is moving. Most of the Buddhist monks that I saw were very young. I was also struck by the people who came here to worship. Most start at the bottom of the mountain, hike up to the temple, then afterwards continue the climb to the peak. That shows true devotion. We then walked down to hear a drumming ritual from some of the monks, which was awesome (I did tape it, but I need to figure out how to upload videos on here), but the part that really struck me was afterwards when the monks rang the bell for a few minutes. There was something so calming about listening to the bell and its echoes in this spiritual sanctuary. No matter what someone’s religion might or might not be, the sound almost reverberates in your soul. Afterwards we had about fifteen minutes and we rushed to go to the bathrooms and stock up on souvenirs. I ended up buying a jade looking turtle (symbolic to represent a long life) and some incense. I haven’t used incense from college, but I wanted to bring back the smells of the Buddhist temple so I can remember better. Luckily I was able to find a “Western” toilet (one that we have in the US) compared to Eastern toilets which are basically a ceramic hole in the ground that does flush…I did use one in Greece and also in Korea. I’ve gotta say, Eastern toilets are not my thing….but most people aren’t phased by them. We headed to lunch next, provided by the monks which was strictly vegetarian, monks do no eat meat. We were told that to respect the monks and this temple, we are not allowed to eat during lunch and that we must eat everything that we put on our plate. Of course, I went light putting stuff on my plate, skipping the seaweed soup and the spinach looking stuff. I put a small scoop of rice and then three pieces of what I thought was potatoes, turns out that they were turnips that I think were seasoned with kimchi. Those bites of food were by far the worst I’ve tasted this whole trip, but I swallowed it down and really enjoyed sitting in silence, it was kind of peaceful. After lunch we headed back to the bus for a two hour ride to our next location.

As mentioned in a previous post, King Sejong is a beloved figure in Korean history, so went to visit his tomb, another burial mound. It was very beautiful with different guardians protecting the tomb, we even witnessed a woman take her shoes up and climb up near the tomb and pour Korean sprite all over it, I guess she thought he was thirsty? Actually, our guide said it was an offering but that he had never seen something like that before. I thought it was fascinating. We headed back to the bus, we were about 50 miles away from Seoul but it was going to take 2 hours since this city always has traffic! We checked into our hotel and I headed to grab 5,000 won pizza ($5) nearby. They served some corn on the cheese pizza, but it was amazing and we all ate everything!

This morning I am getting ready for probably the most nerve-racking experience, teaching a 25 minute lesson to Korean high school kids who know some English. My lesson is based on the logo game APP on the iPhone. I have printed out logos/names of various mutli-national companies from around the world (with half being US). They are going to have to guess where they are located and for the US companies, we will actually label the states where they are headquartered on a blank map of the US, by looking at a giant US map I brought with me that has pictures of some of the things each state is known for. This game could either succeed or fail big time, myself and the other fellows are pretty nervous…there will be about 50 students in each class. Then I will pass out the postcards that my students wrote them along with the pins and bumper stickers from the VA tourism dept. Afterwards we will tour the school and head to our evaluation session, closing ceremony and farewell dinner. Tomorrow is our last full day in Korea with a visit to the war memorial and an interview with Korea’s first 4 star general who is 91! I will try to update tomorrow about my school visit, wish me luck!

Picture Perfect

I have finally found a few hours to update blog, add pictures and take a shower! First, after reading my hastily posted blog post this morning (which I did just add pictures), I’m noticing spelling and grammatical errors all over the place, hopefully everyone can look past this as I usually only have 30 minutes to post these entries and I’m not really proofreading them (I also blame this bluetooth keyboard and my fat fingers). Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let me mention a few other things that I missed in my sleepy haze this morning. Another burial site which we visited is called, Cheonmachong, or “heavenly horse tomb”. No, they weren’t participating in elaborate burial rituals for horses back in ancient times. The name was given due to the horse image found in the burial cave. We saw more gold ornaments, belts and crowns here, but one thing that stuck out was that the tomb was surrounded by stones, to prevent robberies. I never realized that people made a living stealing from royal tombs, but from what I’ve learned it happens almost in every historical period…perhaps I need to start going to more flea markets and antique shops? Anyways, as we were visiting the “Horse Tomb”, it was raining pretty heavily. I noticed that there were a lot of Korean school children everywhere and our Korea Society point person told us that Gyeongju (also known as Kyungju) is a compulsory school field trip for young students, most times they spend a few days and nights touring all of the historical monuments, similar to the Williamsburg or DC field trip.

The next day we went to Hyundai (which I mentioned in the previous post) and were then taken to Lotte World for a seafood buffet on the 3rd floor. Lotte World is basically a Macy’s, Walmart, Food Court, Toys R Us and Seafood Buffet restaurant, known as Alaska (yes, you can laugh) all in one giant building. Lotte is a giant conglomerate in Korea, founded by a Korean-Japanese man. Supposedly, Japanese tourists in Korea usually stay at their hotels and shop at their department stores. Although their clothes were pretty expensive, I did pick up some snacks (protein bars and Pringles). This would be a good time to talk about Korean food (even though Alaska was mostly a hodgepodge of everything. Most Korean meals we have been eating has been a beef item (stew, ribs, BBQ meat, served with cabbage or onions) and a zillion side dishes which always contain at least two variations of Kimchi (which I mentioned in a previous post and might be the hardest item for me to eat, which means that I’m avoiding kimchi like the plague). I’ve been mainly filling up on rice at meals (which eating with chopsticks, especially with lackluster skills, means more rice is ending up in my lap than mouth). So, every chance we get at a convenience store, I am stockpiling snacks.

After Lotte World, we headed to the UNESCO site known as the Seokguram Grotto. As we drove through the countryside and around pretty high hills, the rain had formed little patches of fog along the ridges making the landscape look like it was in a movie or picture book, it was beautiful. As our bus hauled up the giant mountain/hill of Mt. Tohamsan, you could see the East Sea and the valley below. This grotto was built around 751 and is a giant carving of a Sakyamuni Buddha inside a granite dome (quite a feat for this time period). As we walked up towards the Buddha, you almost felt this serene emotion coming across (although maybe it was due to hunger pains or being water logged). Seriously, there was something special about this particular symbol. This Buddha is nicknamed the “protector of his country” mainly because of his position and the way he gazes out over his land. He is surrounded by dozens of guardians and deities. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the Buddha, but you can always google it. All of the special symbols of Buddha were present including the large ears, third eye and the lotus flower. After viewing the Buddha, you can walk outside of the grotto and gaze at mountains, sea and temple below. I could stare at that scene for hours, it was beyond peaceful, despite the tourists and picture taking (myself included). Our next point was at the bottom of the mountain, the Bulgaska Temple which was originally built in 528 AD, during the Silla time period. Unfortunately, the Japanese destroyed it when they invaded Korea around 1593. Rebuilt between 751-774, the temple and all of its Buddha shrines and buildings is amazing. There is a terraced courtyard, a bridge leading to the temple with a lily pad pond below. There are also two pagodas, one of which is unique because it looks like they tried to replicate a wooden pagoda (which the Japanese use) using stone. This place was huge and beautiful. As we left the temple, everyone made a mad dash to the gift store. I bought a book, miniature replicas of a Buddha and the two pagodas, and a buddhist bracelet for the year of the monkey (1980).

After those two amazing, picturesque locations, we headed for Korean ribs and a seminar from 8-10pm last night at the hotel where we got together and discussed possible lesson plan ideas. Even though I was dead tired by this point, it was reinvigorating to talk with the fellows about how we are going to use what we’ve learned in our classrooms and in our presentations either locally or state-wide. There are so many educated teachers that all have wonderful ideas, this was a great brainstorming session and I can’t wait to implement what we have been learning and experiencing with my students.

Today was another packed adventure. We set out around 9:30am, checked out of our Hilton hotel and boarded our buses to Yandgong Village, the largest Korean folk village. Little traditional homes nestled in the hills with lotus flowers and farming throughout, made this UNESCO site a picture-taking dream. We sat in the main hall and heard from one of the leaders of the village. He answered questions, gave us watermelon and home grown cherry tea. Sitting in the hall, listening to him speak in Korean (which was translated) and hearing the birds in the background was another moving experience. Afterwards we toured parts of the village, had another authentic Korean lunch (this time with fish….head included). After the village we traveled to the Oksan Seowon Confucianist school which is another UNESCO site. Here we learned what it was like for people back when scholars were considered the highest class of people. Then we took about an hour and half bus ride to Daegu, the third most populated city. This is where we are staying tonight until we leave bright and early tomorrow to visit another Buddhist temple and head back to Seoul. These field trips have been educational but also eye-opening. Some of my favorite moments have been listening to my ipod on the bus and just seeing the people and landscape of Korea. I can’t believe we only have four days left, this trip has been intense and draining, but I’m loving every second!

Leaving Seoul

Three days ago we left Seoul in the morning and boarded two buses (we each got a window seat) to head south on our field trip to various cities and historical sites across Korea. After traveling about two and half hours, we arrived at the Tomb of King Muryeong in Gongju. Gongju was a major center during the Three Kingdoms period in Korea, specifically the Baekje era. The underground tomb was discovered in 1971 and is now home to a museum containing almost 4,600 artifacts found during the excavation. In ancient Korean history, royalty was buried under mounds along with many possessions. Most historians believe that the tomb and its chambers were constructed in the early 6th century. Gold ornaments, necklaces, earrings and even a bronze mirror were all displayed. Looking at these objects that were used so long ago is quite remarkable, it makes me think of what life was like back then and how with these recreated chambers and displays, we can get a glimpse into a period of history that seems so distant. On the surface, looking at the grassy mounds is kind of comical, here are these giant humps sticking out of the ground, but each burial mound took a long time to build, sometimes around 8 months. They usually connected the mounds once another important figure died. We also visited the Gongju National Museum which had more artifacts from King Muryeong’s tomb. This museum was very spacious and had some beautiful pieces, including stone daggers,a stone seated Buddha and ceramics. Lined along the museum was artwork from local students along with a children’s part of the museum with books, a reading area and computer stations. We then headed to the Early Printing Museum in Cheongju. Something I had never known was that the Koreans were first to invent the metal moveable type. Most people assume it was Gutenberg who was the first to create this invention, but both the Koreans and Chinese (using wood blocks), were innovators as well. As TIME magazine credited Gutenberg with the number one invention/innovation in the early 2000s of all time, you can also put Korea into this category. Jikji is the oldest metal type printed book still in existence today, although in France. This museum (using life-like figures) showed the complex steps into making these metal blocks which were used in the early 1200s in some government documents. Following the tour of the museum, our group got to experience the labor intensive process of making a book. Starting with making our own piece of paper, copying prints, using stones to put a design on the cover, binding all the materials and finally sewing the edge together took a long time and was pretty stressful. The ladies at the museum didn’t speak much English, but they showed us how to do it and I was fortunate to have one woman basically do my entire book. It was a great experience and makes me appreciate how these early, beautiful books were all hand-crafted and original. After a long day, we headed for dinner at the International Buffet. As we were eating, we were approached by a man who was teaching Korean teachers conversational English and wondered if one of the teachers could join us to practice. After talking with this woman for awhile, we then went over to say hi to two younger teachers who were too shy to approach us. We sat down and asked each other questions. These young teachers spoke pretty good English, one was a Science teacher and the other was a Music teacher. They asked us if we hit the students, recently in Seoul teachers are o longer to give taps using sticks on the palm of the hand, however in parts of the countryside, teachers are allowed to do it. But they think that this practice will soon be outlawed in Korea. We talked about K-Pop and the challenges of teaching (which we all found common ground) and before we left, we took a group picture. This was one of those moments that you don’t plan for, they just happen, and honestly, this might have been my highlight of the day. We checked into the Ramada, which is like a five star hotel in Korea, because I have never seen a nice Ramada in the states. Exhausted, I went immediately to bed.

The next day we woke up to the rain. Thank goodness I borrowed a rain jacket (thanks Marianne!) and an umbrella because it has been raining for the last few days, constantly. We started our day at a well site. Another powerful kingdom was the Silla and at Najung, the story is that a horse came by the well and laid an egg in which a boy came out of and later became the first king of the Silla kingdom. We then toured more burial sites of this time period, which I will go more into detail when I get back to the States. We also went to the Kyungju National Museum and saw the largest bell in Asia and various Buddhist statues, ceramics, gold artifacts and other amazing pieces of history. After a long day in the rain, we headed for Korean bbq followed by our next hotel check-in at the Hilton. Let’s just say that my room is nicer than my condo….seriously.

Yesterday, we travelled to the port city of Ulsan on the southeast coast of Korea to see one of the main reasons why Korea has become so economically successful, Hyundai. This corporation was started by one main who used to deliver rice. Basically Ulsan is a city run and operated by Hyundai, including the schools, shopping mall and cultural arts center. Large apartment buildings surround the city, since the company provides over 18,000 units for its workers. There are three divisions to Hyundai, most people know of the motor company (which is becoming a high seller in the US and obviously everybody in Korea drives one…yes, very few foreign cars around here). Our tour wasn’t taking us to the motor company, although we did see where thousands and thousands of cars are waiting to be transported on boats, we toured Hyundai’s Heavy Industry Complex, home to the largest shipyards in the world. Holy cow, I never knew Hyundai built ships, let alone was the world’s leader. They also do offshore drilling machines and all sorts of cool things. Our tour of the complex was highlighted with a lot of Korean nationalism, but I can’t really blame them, Korea should be proud of this company that came from nothing! Supposedly the founder was extremely frugal and wore the same pair of shoes until the nails started showing, we even saw his old office and his leather couches were really worn down. After his death around 2000, his sons began fighting over the company thus leading to the breakup of the three corporations, with each son controlling one division. However, the son of the Corporations division ended up committing suicide and now his wife runs the show. I’m going to get a biography on this family when I get home, I’m really fascinated by the Hyundai rags to riches story. Because of breaking up this corporation, Samsung is the number one company in Korea. As we drove through the ship docks, we saw these giant ocean vessels being built one step at a time. Even in the rain, seeing these works in progress was captivating. Korea is the world’s leader in shipbuilding and this port city is a great example of that.

In the afternoon we went to the Seokguram Grotto, a UNESCO site and home to a beautiful Buddha statue on top of a mountain. And then to the Bul-Guk Temple. I will write more on this later including pictures, need to check out and eat breakfast!

DMZ

After spending today reflecting on our field trip to the DMZ yesterday, I am going to attempt to put down my thoughts. This was by far the “excursion” that myself and the other teachers were looking forward to the most. It’s hard to put the experience into words because it was such an exciting yet saddening trip. Recent South Korean polls indicate that the overwhelming majority of people yearn for reunification. Ironically, the day I landed in Korea, June 25th, also marks the somber anniversary of when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. 1950 marks the start of the Korean War, which Koreans refer to as 6/25 (similar to our 9/11). As we drove north from Seoul, we arrived near the border in under an hour. As we were driving, we passed small farming areas that had just begun the rice harvest. It was an overcast day and you could see the fog along the low lying mountains. We stopped at Unification Park, where there were various monuments that stood for peace and the future of a one Korean nation. We then came to Imjingak park, where following the division of Korea, in order to honor family members that had been separated by the 38th parallel, they wrote on a ribbon their family member’s name and held an ancient Confucian ritual for honoring the death of their ancestors. There are tons of ribbons everywhere in this park, next to the barbed wire representing the side of North Korea. It was an eery feeling seeing all of these ribbons, people, who had been separated by a war that at times seems so unnecessary. As I looked out into North Korea, I started to remember the book and movies that depicted the horrific life of a society so isolated and deprived of food and freedom. I wasn’t scared at this point, I just felt kind of numb. We also saw Freedom Bridge, where the POW’s were released following the war. As I left the park, I quickly stopped at a local souvenir stand to buy my dad a t-shirt. This is where the emotions that I’ve had a hard time processing…here is a tour bus full of Americans coming to the DMZ, standing in front of the ribbons and barbed wire and getting a picture taken. Do I smile? Why am I even taking a picture with me in it? Isn’t this part of our trip not about us? But, human nature takes over and you can’t help but want that picture, to show everyone that you had been there. We then went to lunch, traditional Korean food. A large pot of beef and onions and cabbage stewing on a bunsen burner in the middle of a table with side dishes everywhere. The diet of Koreans makes me want to become vegetarian…I don’t want to eat beef for awhile! We sat on the floor, without our shoes. I ordered a coke, one side said Coke while the other side was in Korean. Most Koreans do not drink water like we do in the states….usually green tea or a glass with three sips is served. There is no such thing as a large water around here, unless you bring a bottle of water with you, which I’ve learned to do. After lunch we loaded back onto the bus, our tour guide kept saying, you should feel tense and honestly, I was’t tense but excited. This is the feeling that more disturbs me, although I think many other teachers were feeling the same way.

After about ten minutes we were headed to the border. You start seeing barbed wire fences everywhere, with guard posts on the South Korean side of the Imjin-gang river. Before we were able to cross the river, we stopped at the check point where a South Korean officer (with a machine gun) came on board to check our passports. This is when it got real. The bus and the teacher started to get more quiet, we realized what was ahead of us. After we were given the go ahead, we crossed the Tongil Bridge. At this point, we were no longer allowed to take pictures until the actual JSA (Joint Security Area). We arrived at Camp Bonfas where a UN Command support group trains and is stationed. We saw a huge armored truck full of South Korean military members, it was starting to get more real. We had an official briefing from the JSA, and an American military officer from Indiana (he looked under 25) checked our passports again. We signed a paper saying that we understand we could be killed or injured and were given JSA clearance tags that we had to wear on the left side of our clothing. In order to go to the DMZ, you must wear covered shoes (no sandals, in case you have to run), pants or capris and a collared shirt (although I think this was a Korea Society rule). No flashy colors or large American logos on the shirts is allowed. After our information session, we boarded official an official JSA bus, driven by a South Korean soldier and our American soldier for protection. We drove for about ten miles, through rice and ginseng fields. We also passed artillery practice fields (complete with dummies and fake buildings). Along the road were bright yellow signs with a triangle representing land mines. This whole area was pretty dangerous. We then pulled up to Freedom House, we were told to immediately line up outside of the bus into two lines, no pictures. We got out and just waited. We then walked up the stairs into the Freedom House, which was dead silent and nothing really at all in the inside. All of a sudden, once we were on the second floor she led us outside and this is when I realized, holy cow, I’m staring at North Korea right now. The scene from the movies, South Korean guards (as tall as they could find them) in an adjusted stance, a taekwondo stance with sunglasses on and arms in a fist. They weren’t even flinching. We immediately were walked into the Conference Room (the blue little building that is technically right on the border. They refer to this line as the MDL, Military Demarcation LIne (which is actually NOT on the 38th parallel). As we went into the room, the far side was considered North Korea. So I can actually say that I’ve stood in North Korea. At this point our tour guide said we could finally take pictures from within the room. Everyone immediately burst into action, take as many pictures as possible. My first pictures were of the line itself, outside the window….the South Korea side is marked by gravel then the concrete side of North Korea. There were two South Korean guards in the room, who didn’t move or speak. You aren’t allowed to stand to close or point at anything! If you get to close to them they will fling their arms up. I took my picture with both of them, again not really knowing how to “pose”. In hindsight, this is the part of the trip that I regret the most. Like all of the other teachers, we were so concerned about getting the picture, that I didn’t even think about all of the history and meetings that had gone on in this room. Being inside the room was surreal, like I wasn’t really there but on a movie set or something. It was weird, really weird.

After about five minutes or so, we were led back outside of the blue conference room and lined up in two rows facing the MDL. You could see the North Korean building along with one of the guards out front (he is always out there), he was actually looking at us through binoculars, that was scary. I took a picture of him with my zoomed in lens and he was on the second floor of the building, we could also see some activity in one of the windows, because the curtains were moving. There were surveillance cameras everywhere, both on their building and ours. Originally they didn’t have a third floor but built it later to be higher than the Freedom House. We were then given five minutes to take pictures which is when I overhead someone else saying, “time to get the christmas card shot.” As I was moving around to take as many pictures as possible, I must have stepped too far over because a South Korean guard scared the crap out of me by yelling at me to get back and put his hand in my face. I immediately moved back.

Finally, we returned back to our bus, we had spent no more than fifteen or so minutes at the MDL. We headed back around the Panmunjeom area (known as the JSA) and then headed to the ax incident site. In 1976, the JSA went to go trim down a tree (standard protocol and they even tried to attempt to tell North Korean soldiers but as our American soldier said, “North Koreans never answer the phone.” This led to a North Korean officer going out with an axe and killing two officers. Since then, there is no more tree and a sign that memorializes the memory of the lost soldiers. We then saw the Bridge of No Return, where a UN Command point faces a North Korean one. As we drove along Panmunjeom, we also saw Propaganda Village, which was built by the North to entice South Koreans to defect. For years, they would blast propaganda through the loud speakers, hence the name. There is a South Korean town on the other side, who also blasted out information, more recently K-Pop songs. Both sound systems were turned off in 2004. Both villages also have competing flag poles, that are very high. North Koreans added onto to their flagpole, making it the highest.

We then came back to Camp Bonifas and the JSA headquarters. We rushed into the gift shop and I bought two books and a miniature replica of the DMZ. Again, mixed feelings came rushing over me, should I really be buying stuff?

As we drove back to Seoul in the afternoon, the skies opened and it started raining. I felt emotionally drained. I’m not sure how my experience will translate in the classroom, and I think it will take more time to process, all I can say is that is was an eye opening visit that I can’t seem to wrap my mind around.

Experiencing Korean Culture

Although today marks the half-way point of our journey…we have had a busy three days which has left me zero time to blog and so much to catch everyone up on. I’m going to start with our outings and learning from Saturday (which would be Friday, Richmond time). We headed back to Korea University for a lecture on the US-Korean Alliance both past, present and future. The United States’ influence on Korea has ranged from positive to negative in all aspects including religion (converting many Koreans to Christianity via missionaries) to supporting a military dictatorship (Syngman Rhee) who brutally suppressed his people to our current military presence near the 38th parallel (this is just a brief overview of what we discussed, more details will follow once I return home and can write a more in-depth analysis).

After our lecture we took the bus to the most tourist-driven area of Seoul, Insadong, a vibrant group of street blocks that sell everything from trinkets to celadon pottery. We ate lunch at a place called Sanchon which is well known due its write up from the New York Times about ten years ago and also is listed in my Lonely Planet tour book of one of the places to go while in Seoul. The breathtaking scenery is an authentic way to see what a typical meal is like for Buddhist monks. We drank tea, ate Korean snakes (which look like white cheese puffs and oddly disintegrate in your mouth, various appetizers, beans, rice and herbs, and tempura fried vegetables. We sat on the ground, with our shoes off and enjoyed the authenticity of what life is like for some people in Korea. Our graduate student tour guides from Korea had never been here before or eaten a meal like this, most people in the restaurant were Koreans who were in the same boat as us, just seeing what it was like. After the meal, we explored the shopping district for about 45 minutes. i bought a souvenir I had been researching while back in Virginia….wedding ducks. There are two wooden ducks that are brightly colored and one duck has string on the nose. They are meant to symbolize good luck to a newly married couple. I realize that I’m not married, but there was something about the story of these ducks that stuck with me, so I’m now the proud owner of two brightly colored ducks that will be finding a home on my bookshelf. I also found some postcards, which is about as hard to find as an English sign. There were so many shops and food stalls that I decided I would come back on my free day to do some more shopping.

We then went to one of the best known palaces in Seoul, Changdeokgung Palace. It was originally built in 1405 under the Choson Dynasty. Unfortunately, it burned down during the Japanese invasion in 1592. The restoration of the palace continued, despite being burned down almost three more times. As a UNESCO World Heritage site, we took an in-depth tour of the grounds and tried to imagine what it was like to be in the noble family back during this time period. We saw the separate areas for women and male servants and also saw where the concubines (mistresses) slept. By far the best thing about this palace is the Secret Garden known as “Bi-Won”. Pagodas and beautiful simplistic structures built in the middle of the trees or in the center of a pond with lily pads floating around, make this area breathtaking and serene. You could just tell that this area was where great poems were written or love stories played out. In Korean culture, rather than changing the environment to fit your needs, this garden exemplified the idea to build everything based on the natural surroundings. This two hour tour was picturesque and amazing.

After the palace tour, we headed out for a group dinner that was basically cooking beef and vegetables in a stew pot in the center of the table. It was very good and everyone sat around to eat, laugh and have interesting conversations. After dinner we went to the Chong Dong Theater. We were given a private lesson on how to do Korean drumming, known as Jang-gu. We all got a chance to sit on the stage and learn drumming rhythms, and let’s just say I have zero rhythm or coordination. Afterwards, we watched a theater performance of MISO. The story is as ancient as Korea, a young woman falls in love with young man. Local official is also in love with women and sends young man away to try t win her heart. She stays true to her first love and is tortured and imprisoned and sentenced to death until her young love comes and rescues her and they marry at the end….oh, and they are given WEDDING DUCKS! The story was beautiful, the costumes of original Hanbok clothing was bright and colorful, the drumming was mesmerizing and the song of the female matchmaker was romantic and saddening. I loved every minute of this play.

Sunday was considered to be our free day. I decided to attempt to tackle the Seoul Metro on my own, but ran into some other fellows and followed them back to Insadong to do some more shopping. Once in the district, I went off on my own to explore the beautiful stores. I ended up buying more cheesy souvenirs but also a tea set and a jewelry box. I came back to the hotel all on my own and picked up lunch at Burger Holic. I was craving some American food! I then met up with some other teachers to go watch a soccer (football) game at the Seoul World Cup Stadium (from the 2002 game). FC Seoul had tons of fans cheering, singing and waving fans (check out video on Facebook page). It was a close game, but we scored in the final minutes, winning 2-3. After the soccer game, another teacher and I headed to get Italian food at Mad for Garlic. There was literally garlic everywhere! I got carb fill and went to bed one happy person.

Today was our last day at KU for a total of three lectures on Modern Korean History, K-Pop and the Korean Education system. Some highlights include how K-Pop music groups go through plastic surgery and that many women from Japan come to Korea for “medical tourist” purposes. We also discussed the stress and heavy burden on parents and students in Korea’s education program. The rigourous high school placement exams and the few number of spots at local colleges. There is fear within South Korea, that with over 80% of their population having some form of a college education, that there just aren’t enough jobs for everyone.

After the three lectures, we went to Yoo’s Family where we all got to experience Korean traditional culture first-had. We made prints from wood carvings, cooked kimchi pancakes, served and participated in a traditional Korean tea ceremony and dressed up in traditional Hanbok clothing from back in the day (most KOreans now just wear it on holidays). Of course, I was given the Queen’s costume, that was pretty cool. After an intense day, a few teachers hung out and talked about our reality show addictions and then I made my second trip to Subway (don’t judge).

Tomorrow is the day I’ve been looking forward to the most, we are traveling north to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone. I also figured out how to work my camera connector cord, so I’m going to be adding pictures to the past blog entries…check it out! More blog info coming in a few days, we head south in a few days and will be staying at a new hotel that will hopefully have WIFI, so I can be more up to date on blog posts!

I heard about the tornado that touched down in Mechanicsville, hope everyone is okay!

Going back to college

I am typing this post at 8pm, Friday June 29th. I wasn’t able to blog about yesterday because the jet lag finally wore off and I woke up at 6 rather than 4 (although I still get these dizzy spells, which many of the other teachers have gotten too). Anyways, I will be talking about yesterday and today!

Yesterday was the start of our learning lectures at the Korea University, one of the top universities in South Korea. Known as SKY, the three most prestigious universities are KU, Yonsei University and Seoul National University. This is what kids work for their entire high school years, the chance to go to one of the elite Seoul schools, or even better, an American university. We began our morning with another fabulous breakfast buffet. I loaded up on eggs and tater tots again (Korean food hasn’t agreed with me as well yet). After lunch, all 40 teachers boarded a bus to head to school. Traffic is a nightmare in Seoul, home to 20 million people and a major megacity, their infrastructure just can’t keep up with all of the busses and cars. It took about 50 minutes to go 20 miles. When we arrived at KU, all dressed up, we were greeted by a team of KU faculty members and graduate students. They took us to the International building and to our lecture room that would be our home for the next couple of days. The classroom was pretty impressive, two half ovals facing each other, amazing leather seats and we each have our own microphone at our desk! We received all of our materials and one of the local professors gave his welcoming remarks. Over 1000 teachers had applied for this fellowship he reminded us, and this is your opportunity to show us that we chose right. Of course, no stress. We loaded up on coffee and took our seats.

Our first lecture was on the Korean language, Hanguel which was created because only the nobility could write the Chinese characters that were being used. King Sejong (from a previous post) set out to start a new phonetic written language that could help the poor, rural Koreans become literate. As soon as this lecture began, I had flashbacks to Spanish and French. I tried to get what she was saying, but holy cow, Hanguel is hard! I learned a few phrases but other than that, I had a headache and the lecture reconfirmed the fact that I am a “language idiot”.

After our 1st lecture,it was time for a tour of the campus. KU looks like any other American university, energetic young kids walking around, green trees and foliage everywhere and a mixture of granite and more modern buildings. We saw the library and the two buildings that were sponsored by LG and Samsung (2 Korean powerhouse companies). As we walked around the campus, we noticed all of these signs/banners that were welcoming us. There were also photographers following us around taking our pictures, I felt like a celebrity. We went into the bookstore, finally a shop to spend my wons in! I have been carrying all this money and haven’t found any store to buy stuff! I got a pendant for my classroom and what I thought was a bookmark, but turned out to be a cell phone charm, which is the rage among the young people. We then went to the KU banquet room for our official welcoming ceremony. We met the VP of KU along with some other important people. We each had a glass of red wine and they gave us a toast to promote better understanding between the Korean and American cultures. The buffet line was super long with tons of food that I had no idea what it was and did not look very appetizing. I loaded up on something that I thought was chicken, but later found out to be was duck….it was good. I still haven’t mastered the art of chopsticks and basically got about half of what I was trying

New Experiences

The good news is that I’ve slept in this morning…4:30am! I think it is going to take awhile for my body to adjust to this new time zone, but this is a good time to work on the blog so I’m kind of glad I’m getting up this early. Yesterday was full of new experiences for me, learning Seoul’s subway, realizing that South Korea can get pretty hot, and I had some really rewarding conversations about education and what other teachers have done and what challenges they are facing. I can’t explain how rewarding it is to have a discussion with other teachers over the merits of an AP class or obstacles they face in their classroom over content. All in all, by the end of the day, I had a new perception on many things.

I was pleasantly surprised when heading down to breakfast at 7am, that there were eggs, french toast and tater tots. Korean food isn’t bad, but I wanted a meal of carbs and I was grateful for the coffee as well. At breakfast I met three new teachers, from California, Missouri, and Illinois. We talked about our travel day, which was usually a good conversation starter for that first day. Many of the other teachers here travel…ALOT. We talked about how many of them are heading to China after this fellowship ends.

By 9:30 it was time to conquer the Seoul subway. We headed outside, all 40 teachers who were divided into four groups, and bought our rechargeable metro card for 10,000 won (about $10), the card itself was 2500 and the remaining 7500 was for our metro rides (which are about 1000 won each leg….super cheap!). As we walked downstairs to the underground metro, we were shocked to smell donuts! We were all liking the subway already. There are over 9 different lines in Seoul alone and many, many stops. Looking at the subway map is confusing! The tracks are enclosed by glass barriers so nobody falls onto the tracks. Within a few minutes we were boarding the metro. It is quite a scene when 40 Americans, all wearing name tags, enter the subway at first. We have some pretty tall guys on this trip and racially, we are a diverse group. Most Koreans tend to stare, which is normal when it comes to Americans. I think they are just fascinated by us, our clothing and the way we act. We are all teachers and love to talk, so I’m sure that this is very different from the Korean culture. Walking around town later and when taking the subway, you sense this quietness about Seoul and its people. Nobody is really flashy, most dress in neutral tones and are for the most part covered up. Even the cars looking out my hotel window during rush hour, usually 6am, you see a sea of tan and cream colored Hyundai’s. As Americans, you just get used to this noise factor in the cities and the subways, but not here. Most people are on their iphones with headphones in. There was a whole row of people on the subway all on their phones. After a quick ride, we were ready to start seeing the old part of Seoul.

We stepped out onto Gwanghawmun Square, home to the old part of Seoul. Seoul is one of the clean cities I have ever seen, traffic cops are everywhere helping people cross the streets and tourist officials are near most major attractions to help if need be. Our first stop was the giant bronze statue of King Sejong, one of the most famous in Korean history. He was the 4th king in the Choson dynasty and his reign lasted 32 years and is considered to be a golden age for Korean culture. He helped create the Hanguel, or Korean alphabet in order to help the common people learn how to read. His ideas were also rooted in the Confucianist philosophy. He also helped invent rain gauges and astronomical devices to help with agriculture output. Which is ironic because in front of the statue, there is a bunch of rice being cultivated. The reason? To help educate the urban population of what the rural farming villages have to go through. The rice seedlings are first planted in water and then eventually, they are replanted into soil for harvest later. As much as I love rice, I enjoyed seeing it in its early stage. The statue is almost int the perfect location, you can see the rugged mountains in the background and the famous Changdeokgung Palace in the back.

The Changedokgung Palace is stunning…I could stair at the wooden painted roof for hours. We didn’t really take a tour of this place, so my information is lacking a bit….I think this might be a place to go back to when I have some free time. Then we headed to the National Folk Museum, which has beautiful pagodas and statues everywhere. We even got to see a drumming performance, which I will attempt to post as well.

Then we took about a twenty minute walk through Seoul towards Bukchon Village, a pretty trendy part of town. Here there were little boutiques and modern homes mixed with traditional homes. We ate at a little cafe where I had a tomato and mozzarela salad. We sat and talked about the soccer and baseball match we wanted to see on Sunday night. Afterwards, we went to a Korean bookstore and then headed back to the metro while some people stuck around to explore.

One of the most rewarding experiences of the day was on the subway ride home with four other teachers. One of the teachers works at a charter school in the Bronx. We talked about the documentary Waiting for Superman and the challenges of public schools in NYC. He had worked at one and said every stereotype that you could imagine was true. He felt like despite having to work longer hours, almost until 5:30 every night with the kids at school, that he could see a change. I was really inspired by his story of his students and what type of environment they come from. We all then started talking about problems with public schools, the layoffs at each of our school, the teachers who want to be administrators after only teaching for three years and the problem of standardized testing. I also got a glimpse into teaching states with unions and that I should never complain about class size, in California the average is 40! It was refreshing to vent with fellow teachers, but it wasn’t like most conversations where you just complain, we were all worried about the future of education and public schools and that made us connect on a deeper level.

We ended the day with a nice dinner sponsored by the Freeman and Korean Foundations. We ate authentic Korean food, which was kind of tough to eat including kimchi, beef stew, some orange soup, a shrimp (with its eyes) and some other things. We all introduced ourselves and then our table had a debate about AP classes, which got fairly heated. After dinner, I headed to have a glass of wine with some of the ladies of the fellowship. They are extremely accomplished teachers who spoke about their past travel fellowships and what they read before coming and stuff like that. I really like this group of ladies, even though I’m younger than some, they are all so genuine and you can tell they love teaching. It was a perfect way to end the day, along with the Korean singer at the lounge singing “Lady in Red.” Pictures coming in an hour or so…I need to go eat some eggs! Ok, later today… My camera is being difficult.

The (Hanover) hawk has landed!

To say that I was ready for this trip would be an understatement, preparing for weeks, reading books, packing 3 days in advance….yes, I was ready for my 3am alarm Monday morning, so much so that I just woke up at 2 and stayed up. After sadly saying goodbye to my cat, Simba (I still really miss him), I headed downstairs to where the GROOME car was going to pick me up to go to the airport. What a character this guy was, told me all about his life as he ran about six red lights for no reason. Finally, we arrived at the airport at 4:30am.

I walked into RIC, and saw about a hundred people at the DELTA line (all elderly who had name tags…I think they were going on a group tour. After stressing out about whether my flight was canceled, I attempted to check in at a kiosk, but my tickets didn’t come up. At this point, I was freaking out. I went to another line where the guy was on the phone for at least 30 minutes with this other family. Finally, somebody helped me, told me that my flight was indeed leaving on time despite the computer saying cancelled and they ticketed my luggage and I was off, not before running into three other students while at the airport, one of whom was on my JFK flight who was heading toTaiwan for the summer. At 6:20am, my JFK flight was in air and I finally started to relax, which was short-lived.

Luckily, we landed in NYC before all the thunderstorms arrived…many of the other teachers missed their connections and now will join us a day later. As I walked to the baggage carousel, I felt so happy that my flight had made it. Until there was no one from my flight left around the baggage carrosel and I realized that my bags were not coming. I calmly walked to the lost baggage office where after checking their computers told me, your bags never left Richmond. My heart sunk….everything I need for the next 16 days is in there! As I was holding back tears, I immediately called my dad who thankfully calmed me down. 30 minutes later, the baggage guy called me on my cell to inform me that my bags were found….at JFK! I needed to come pick them up. Thank God, I thought. So another heart attack was stalled, now it was time to make my way to the international terminal at JFK.

After waiting for about an hour due to bad weather, I arrived at the terminal around 9:15am, keep in mind that my flight was not leaving until 2pm. This was the part of the trip that I was most nervous about, meeting the other teachers. There is something so nerve-racking when you not only have to meet 40 new people, but be around them on a close travel tour for 16 days. Of course, me being the first one there, I posted on our facebook group where we could all meet up and one by one we all started meeting. Yet another stresser eliminated, all of these teachers were smart, interesting and I could tell I could make a lot of friends within the group. Until about 1:30pm, we all just hung out and waited for boarding to start.

The first thing I noticed about Korean Airlines is that there were like 30 flight attendants, all young, taller, super skinny, and dressed impeccably. They all had these teal and khaki outfits with scarves around their neck and this beautiful bow in their hair that looked like chopsticks.. I was already impressed. As we boarded the plane, I had an aisle seat in row 53 (this plane had TWO levels, largest plane in the world). The second thing I noticed while boarding was that the only non-Koreans were the fellowship group. I felt like a fish out of water! Everything was in Korean, including the pilot’s language, but they would translate the important stuff. After the plane took off, we were given lunch. I tried the Korean bibimbap, which is a rice, vegetable dish where you mix everything together including chili paste and of course, kimchi. During the 14 hour flight, I watched three movies, listened to some Korean podcasts, looked at a travel book and maybe slept for a total of forty-five minutes. I started to get stir crazy with about six hours left, I’m not going to lie…being on an airplane that long is torture!

One thing that I really enjoyed looking at during the flight was the tracker. I could see our exact route and I was excited about all of the following “firsts”: Our plane flew north over Montreal around the eastern edge of the Hudson Bay, across Nunavut then finally passing over the Arctic Ocean (North Pole) then flying through the eastern Siberian edge of Russia, south through China and followed their border with North Korea and entered South Korea via the Yellow Sea. Yes, we were not allowed to fly over North Korean airspace which is kind of a good thing considering they have been purposely messing with air traffic over the last few months.

At around 5:30pm Seoul time (which is 13 hours ahead of Richmond), we went through customs, got my passport stamped and headed to get our luggage. Yet again, my big suitcase was nowhere to be found…everybody else had gotten their luggage, my heart sank yet again and then I realized that it was on the ground on the other side of the carousel, someone must have pulled it and not put it back on there. Yikes. We headed to meet our connecting person who was going to get us to the hotel. We all loaded onto a bus which took about 60 minutes to get from Icheon to Seoul. When we arrived in Seoul, we met our sponsors, got our hotel rooms and went to unwind. I am on the ninth floor, everyone has their own room, and we overlook a business district of Seoul, however there are two 7-11’s and a Starbucks next door. We have two English channels on the tv, CNN and SkyNews. I went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 4am, which is what I’m doing right now. Today’s agenda: breakfast with group, tour of Old Seoul downtown and introduction to subway system followed by a dinner hosted by the Freeman Society who is cc-sposoring. Pictures coming later today!

Part 1: Top 5 Cultural Aspects of Korea

Top 10:  What I’ve learned (thus far)

In true fashion my goal of writing one blog a week has not come to fruition for a variety of reasons:  SOL testing, closing out the school year, my car breaking down every two weeks, researching for trip, spending way too much time watching the Bachelorette and any other reality show on Bravo, etc.  Although I haven’t been updating the blog as much as I had hoped too, I have been reading books and newspaper articles, putting the Google search engine into overdrive, dragging my friends and family to eat Korean food, watching Korean music videos on You Tube and stressing out over packing and basically anything else that I could think of.  With a couple of days until I board the plane, I’ve compiled a top 10 list that I have been focusing on while preparing for the trip.

Part 1:  Top 5 Cultural Aspects  (Part 2:  Top 5 Historical Events tmrw)

Land of the Morning Calm

I guess it might be time to explain the title of my blog.  There are many theories concerning the Westernized nickname of Korea as the Land of the Morning Calm.  Most scholars believe that Korea’s name derives from the Choson (Joseon) dynasty that took over in 1392.  The Korean pronunciation of a Chinese word, “Chaoxian” translates as “Morning Calm”.  It was travel writer Percival Lowell in 1885 that coined this phrase in one of his published books, but most Koreans do not refer to their country by this name.  It is also important to note that Koreans do not use the term South Korea, although the official country name is the Republic of Korea (ROK), most simply call it Korea.

1. Language

The Korean language is known as Hangeul and was invented in 1443 under King Sejong.  The purpose of this new written language was because the noble classes of Korea were the only ones who could read and write the Chinese characters (which was the dominant language during this time period).  With the literacy rate under 5%, King Sejong hoped that the common people would be able to learn this new phonetic alphabet, thus decreasing the power of the elites.  The Korean alphabet consists of 10 vowels and 14 consonants.  Although I had hoped to become fluent (okay, I was hoping to at least get a grasp of the language), I was soon reminded that the language part of my brain simply does not work (seriously, ask my Spanish and French teachers in High School).  Thanks to my Dad, I can say thank you, hi, and where is the toilet?   I’m hoping to become friends with someone on the trip who knows the language the best and just follow him/her around.

2. Food

Unlike the language learning, when it comes to food, I have no problem immersing myself in this field (except when it involves a Korean buffet that might only change out the food every week).  If there is one thing I quickly learned about Korean food, it was that I better like kimchi (pickled cabbage) because it might be at every meal and in every dish.  Kimchi is the staple of the Korean diet, women from back in the day would meet with their neighbors and have kimchi gatherings.  In October and November, women would use 100-200 cabbages (per household), soak it in a salt solution and add whatever regional ingredients they wanted.  Thanks to the discovery of the New World’s red peppers, this ingredient became part of kimchi in the 1500s.  After the women have made the kimchi, they would bury it in the ground so that it didn’t ferment too quickly.  Thanks to modern technology, kimchi is now stored in the fridge.  In terms of the actual meal, there are no real courses.  Korean dining tables are usually filled with everything at once, from rice (bap) to vegetables (hamool) to soups (gook) to endless side dishes (banchan).  Most everything is eaten with chopsticks (in Korea, chopsticks are much different from what you see here in the US, they are metal, flat and shorter) except for the use of spoons when eating rice or soup.  There are many cultural norms that travelers should be aware of (we don’t want to offend someone else’s culture) which include: do not overeat (I’m assuming this rule is strictly for Americans), don’t pick up the bowl when eating (yes, slurping the soup out of the bowl is not only gross but is offensive), never leave the chopsticks sticking out of the bowl, wait for someone else to fill your glass, and either wait for the patriarch (head male in the family) or the guest to begin eating.

After enough reading and research, it was time for me to experience Korean food first-hand.  Unfortunately, taking my dad to a sketchy Korean buffet in a bad part of town was not the way I should have went about it.  Thanks to a friend’s suggestion, who is well-cultured in Korean cuisine, it was time to organize an outing to a proper Korean restaurant.  We ordered everything, from seafood pancakes, rice wine (makgeoli), Korean BBQ (where you cook it at the table), bibimbap, and kimchi.  Despite my novice chopsticks skills, everything was amazing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

3. Education

If there was one thing I was already aware of prior to my research, it was that Asia (specifically East Asia) has been at the head of the class for the last couple of years.  Education is the sole focus in any Korean family, what high school or college that a child is accepted into, reflects on the entire family.  Therefore, the academics and vigor of Korea’s educational system is one of the best in the world as is evident with middle school children, who rank 1^st in the world in terms of math and science scores.  With a 220 day calendar of five and ½ days a week (including Saturday morning), Koreans believe that education is the sole key to success.  Following the Korean War, the government spent more on education (second behind national defense) and teachers are not only highly regarded, but have to pass a series of state examinations and standards in order to get a job in the classroom.  Most Korean students are “tracked” after middle school, based on scores from an achievement test, students are either sent to general or vocational high schools.  Once in high school, students work very hard to achieve academic success to put them in the best possible position to acquire spots in prestigious colleges.  Many students wake up early in the morning to study and attend “cram sessions” in the afternoon.  Part of the Korea Society fellowship program will give us an opportunity to visit a high school and actually teach a lesson with the kids.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the similarities and differences between our systems.

4.  Religion

To say that Korea is religiously diverse is an understatement.  Since Korea’s beginning, religion and spirituality has been carved into daily life, holidays, and even aspects of government and education.  Confucianism, a type of Humanist philosophy, has been the foundation of Korean society since the Choson dynasty.  This philosophy highlights mutual obligation based on five relationships:  ruler/subject, father/son, older/younger, husband/wife, friend/friend.  This “moral order” puts stress on individuals to live and lead your life in accordance of your “duties” to Confucianist ideals.  One of the strongest Confucianist ideals (which can be seen in the familial structure) is the parental relationship, highlighted by this excerpt from the Analects of Confucius, “Your debt to your parents is deeper than the ocean and higher than the mountains”.  Today, these principles can even be seen in the classroom, where there is a lifelong relationship and respect between students and their teachers.  During the Choson dynasty, leadership roles were given to those individuals who possessed the highest morals and values.  In order to prove these qualifications, individuals had to participate in an examination system that rewarded those of the highest virtue.  Confucianist ideals are usually combined with an organized religion, Buddhism and Christianity being the most popular.  Buddhism appeared in the Korean peninsula from contact with China.  Prior to the modern age, the Silla kingdom  (which predates the Choson dynasty) made Buddhism the state religion.  The ultimate goal of Buddhists is to reach nirvana, when they become one with nature.  Buddhist shrines and pagodas are scattered throughout Korea with almost 43% of the population adhering to some form of Buddhism.  Christianity is a rising religion in Korea (behind the Philippines, Korea is the second largest Christian population in Asia).  Catholicism entered Korea via Jesuits in 1784.  Protestant missionaries brought their beliefs to Korean in the 1880s.  Although in the past, Christians were not allowed to practice Confucianist rituals and traditions, in the modern era, these restrictions have disappeared.

5.  K-Pop

One of the major exports out of Korea, besides technology and manufactured goods, has to do with something known as the Korean Wave (hallyu).  It all began with Korean television dramas (or miniseries) becoming popular in China.  Over time, this Korean pop phenomenon (known as K-Pop) spread into music, film, and literature.  One of the fastest growing sectors of K-Pop has to do with music groups thanks to a growing social media vehicle known as YouTube.  For your viewing pleasure, check out the top K-Pop songs of 2011!  (My personal favorite, Super Junior’s “Mister Simple” at the 5:17 mark)