Well, it’s been a while since I last posted. Things have actually been pretty uneventful though. I’ve gotten into a routine: Taekwondo, Gym, Work, Bed – so days just seem to flow into one another. As far as classes go, things have been good. I did have to give my first “I’m disappointed in you how can you disrespect a teacher and your classmates and next week you have seating chart” speech. It’s pretty amazing how that worked. The Speech happened last Monday and I had several of the kids in class through the rest of the week. Several of them were so mopey and eager to get on my good side again. My other hard class actually did a complete 180 this week too. This is the class full of 14 year old boys who really don’t want to be in class at 9 p.m. on a Thursday night (Imagine that!). For some reason though, this week they were perfectly behaved, they participated in discussions, didn’t talk when I told them not to, etc. One of the kids who had previously called me “a lame teacher” and said I had “made an enemy” when I gave him a low homework grade came up to me and said I was “best cornerstone teacher.” I don’t know who yelled at them or what was slipped into their kimchi, but I like it! I hope whoever it is keeps it up.
We have all this week off for the Korean Thanksgiving holiday, Chuseok. Friday night Haley, Lucci, Lucci’s parents and I all went to Seoul for the weekend. It was a pretty great trip. Haley and I got into Seoul at 1 a.m. on Saturday morning and then got up at 10 til 6 for an all day tour of the DMZ. The DMZ was really cool. We went to Camp Bonifas (sp?) right on the line and got to see the meeting rooms and many of the buildings on the DMZ. I spent a few minutes in North Korea and got to see some Communists up close. Overall it was a pretty great experience.
I think one of the most interesting things about it is how the Koreans see the DMZ. One of the stops lets tourists go down into one of the tunnels that the North was building to infiltrate the South. I think they were built in the early to mid 70’s. The tunnels were cool, but before you went down you had to watch this video about the DMZ.
I had never wanted a DMZ so bad in my life. I think it was referred to as “the place of the future”; there were butterflies, endangered animals, smiling children, old men embracing—before the video I would have thought a more apt title would be “relic of the cold war and sign of division.” After the video Mr. Lucci, Michael and I were talking and it came up that the Koreans were united for 1000s of years before it was split up post-World War II—this North/South divide then is just a footnote in their history. They think that it won’t be long before Korea is as it should be again. This optimism shines in the video and in the art and architecture around the DMZ and in the Seoul War Memorial. A Clocktower is made with a clock ready to go up when the two nations come back together. A sculpture stands of an older South Korean soldier holding his little North Korean brother in the midst of combat. Their legs straddle a dome split down the middle. It’s just fascinating to an American (Me) who saw Korea as this backward country that can’t get their business together and get out of the Cold War is actually in this kind of rosy haze that sees the division as a small part of a larger history—an inevitable reunion will follow this small fraternal tiff.
After the DMZ we went to this amazing Italian place where I had food that was actually, I swear to it, enjoyable to eat. There wasn’t “The Kimchi Wall” as the Luccis and I have come to call it. (Kimchi is the national food of Korea – pickled cabbage in a red spicy saucy; smells bad, tastes worse and makes my taste buds cry.) The Wall though is the point when you aren’t full, but you just can’t eat anymore food. It’s just this sign of surrender when you push the plate away and say “I can’t stomach smelling/tasting any more of this.” And you stop. I’ve already decided when I get back to the States I’m going to start the Korean Diet. For a small price I send you to Korea. You lose 25 lbs in three weeks GUARANTEED. I’ll be the next Atkins. Just wait.
Over the next few days we went to an old presidential palace, the War Memorial, and the Seoul Tower. They were all great places, but with a kind of see them and take pictures of them tourist quality, not like the cultural experience of the DMZ.
Pictures available at:
We got back to Cheongju last night and today we climbed the Mountain Fortress. It was nice again, but nothing poetic happened like last time.
Today was actually the holiday of Chuseouk, so the streets were deserted and empty. It actually made me kind of sad. I’m just thinking of Thanksgiving and Christmas here where I’ll be separated from my family. It’s the weird kind of sadness though, where you aren’t really sad at that moment but you look ahead and realize how sad you’ll be. I don’t know, I’m not looking forward to the holidays without the usual Turkey, Thanksgiving Parade, family hurricanes that storm in and really don’t visit but are just physically there, eat and then storm out again. Although it’s always chaotic, it’s just so comforting to see everyone and know that all is well. This year the holidays will just be another day. I’m sure it’ll be all right though.
Well, I guess that’s it for now.
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