Paintballing

Date: May 29, 2011

This is part of the Adventure Korea: Pumba Festival, Beach, Sea Rafting, and Paintballing Weekend.

The next morning, Sarah and I woke up and went for a walk on the beach.  Then we went back to our rooms, changed into a bathing suit and proceeded to our next activity: Sea Rafting.

Unfortutely, sea rafting is not really a "camera friendly" sport.  We didn't get any pictures--but it was ALOT of fun.  The company AK used was great.  They had us doing races, chicken fighting, human pyramid fighting, and some swimming.

Then, after a quick lunch we changed into some new clothes to go paintballing.  I love paintballing and had wanted to do this trip since the moment I saw the word paintballing.  (Yes, I had only done it once, but hey--it was good fun then and it would be good fun now!)

First we had a 2 minute hike up to the paintball field.  Going up hill--it took a little longer than 2 minutes.  And it was hot and sticky.  Not great fun.  Plus, most of us wore long pants and shirts to protect us from paintball pain--which turned out to be unnecessary.

The instructor showing us how to us a paintball gun.

Then we get all dressed up.  Army outfits and a helmet.  All good ready to go!

Our teams were Predator and Commander.  Team photo:

Sarah and I:

We had some pretty fantastic death shots.  This is one of my favorites:

It was a blast!  As you can tell by Sarah's absolutely estatic face:

A couple of the people in the Adventure Korea Tour Group were military.  So, they had natural advantages to the game (not fair--but fun!).  Anyway, one of them militarily executed Sarah:

It was so much fun.  It was a little hot--especially in the uniforms.  But now I know how paintballing goes on here so I can wear better clothes next time. I had so much fun.  This was easily one of my more favorite AK trips.

Pumba Extras and Boryeong Beach

Date: May 29, 2011

The Pumba festival was part of a weekend of fun: Pumba, Paintballing and Beach.

Here are some more pictures of the Pumba Festival that my friend took.

This man and his two friends were very happy to take pictures with us....maybe a little too happy.

I found these guys while watching the  real Pumba dance on stage.  Covert Operation T-shirt went underway to achieve a picture.  It was a success.

When it was time to go, we turned in all of our Pumba clothes and I went to go wash off my face.  Only, the make-up they used wasn't easy to get off.

Luckily, Sarah had baby wipes in her purse that got most of the stuff off.

Then we boarded our bus and headed off to Boryeong beach!  Yeah!  BEACH!!!  If you can't tell, I was pretty excited.

We had free time that evening so we walked on the beach, watched a beautiful sunset, found the most delicious Chocolate Milkshakes and Pizza, and played with fireworks (on the beach, I felt like a criminal--it was great!).

Pretty Sun Set

Korean women love to wear heels.  They are addicted to them.  And they wear them in the strangest places: on Ice, in the rain and ... apparently on the beach.  But they have a nifty little back-up plan if the heels don't work.  They get their boyfriend to carry them.  That's the beauty of a country that every man has to do military work!

More Sunset

 As normal, Sarah and I were goofs and decided to do some BayWatch Runs.

This was interesting.  As we were walking up and down the beach, we noticed a tracker was backing up into the ocean.  That was strange....   

But then, a speed boat comes roaring up to the tracker.  It was the land-side moving machine.  It was funny to see the speed boat roar its way onto the docking device (I have no idea what it is actually called.) But the boat would literally gun it in order to make it onto the platform.  Then the tracker would happily scoot away with the boat.

It's not illegal to play with fireworks on the beach.  So, Sarah and I bought some sparklers (12 for $4) and went to write our names in the night. 

The lights from main strip along the beach.

It was a very good day.  I really enjoyed the beach--had forgotten how much I missed it.  I didn't go to the beach near my college nearly enough --but I have a feeling I'm going to make it up this summer!

Movies

Date: 6/13/2011

Going to the movies in Korea is very therapeutic.  If you need to just get away from the "Korean-ness" of Korea, go watch a Hollywood block buster.  I always liked movies in America, but here they are almost a necessary indulgence--like ice cream, a good hamburger, and sleep.

But going to the movies is a little different.  At home, you can easily pull up the movie schedule on the web.  Here, for the first 7 months, Sarah and I would go to the theater, see when the next English movie was playing and then go buy tickets (usually for a movie that was showing in 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours away), and then go to a coffee shop/out to dinner.

Luckily, we were shown the online theater website--but guess what?  It's in Korean.  We have learned the written language--but that doesn't mean it doesn't take about 15 minutes to check out the times.  One of those little things that would seem so easily but that is dastardly lengthened due to being in a foreign culture.  I let Sarah be in charge of looking online.

Most movies are pretty straight forward.  They are in English but with Korean subtitles.   Being that the English movies are limited and played for a short time--I have seen movies that I wouldn't have at home. It is always a gamble.  I don't watch Korean TV so I don't get to see any of the commericals about films. So we walk into movies that we have no idea what they are about.

One example of that was Nicolas Cage's The Season of the Witch.  We just saw the poster: Nicolas Cage with a Sword.  We thought it would be some regular "Magical Apprentice"-esk movie.  Boy, were we wrong.

This does not look like an exorcist movie!  Needless to say, it was ride.  I think I actually enjoyed the movie that much more because I didn't know I was going into a bit of scary movie.

Another problem we run into is dubbing.  Sarah, Jessica, and I went to go see Megamind.  (Say what you will about 20-30 year olds going to see a Disney movie--but you can't deny that Pixar has some good movies!!)  Well, we buy the tickets and we notice there is something just a little "off" about the way the ticket seller was acting.   We get into the theater and talk a little bit to the kids in front of us.  The movie starts.  And we look at each other, confusion written on our faces.  And then back to listening...and then burst out laughing.  The whole movie has been dubbed.  We spent 90 minutes trying to follow the movie (which, luckily, wasn't a very hard plot).  We caught certain words that were from English--like "Downloading" and "Warming-up."  We clung onto those words for all they were worth.  And let me tell you, it is really strange to hear the "Brad Pitt" character say one of those smwarmy "hello" (like to a lady) in Korean. "Ann-yong--haa-seee-yo!!"  Just doesn't sound the same.

On a similar note, on Saturday, Sarah and I went to go see X-Men: First Class.  It was really good.  A great paced movie with fun effects and a nice story.  A great summer block buster.  I was impressed.  There was just one problem.  The movie is located in different places around the world: Germany, Russia, France, and somewhere in South America.  Which means, the languages change.  Which means, while most of the movie was in English--there were scenes in German, Russian, French, and (I'm guessing) Spanish.  Subtitled in Korean.  ...  Yep, that was a problem.  The first time this happens is in the scene the bad guy in the movie shoots Magneto's mom (trying to get Magento to move the coin).  In this tense-riddled moment, Sarah and I look at each other and burst out laughing.   Silly Waegooks! [foreigners]  Oops!

Saemungum Marathon

Date: 4/24/2011

About 2 months ago I did a race: The Saemungum Marathon.  A friend took photos and she just put them up on facebook--so I stole them (quiet giddy-ily, I will admit).

The Saemungum Seawall is one of the prides of Gunsan (my little city).  They basically made this huge walkway into the sea and enclosed the sea so that they could turn water into land.  They built a whole industrial zone on the new land.  It is pretty impressive (sort of, if you are into that kinda thing).  But it is one of Gunsan's pride and joys. (It actually is kinda funny because a couple of the cities on the sea all claim that the Saemungum is their pride and joy.  It's all very disputed).

The Marathon was located on the seawall.  It didn't make for a really interesting run--we ran on a 5 mile strip of flat road with ocean on each side.  But it was an international run so there were people from Kenya, Seoul's Ms Marathon Runner Queen (I didn't know there was such thing as a "Ms Marathon Runner")  and they had some fun entertainment.

One thing I distinctly remember from the run though was the smell.  The first 1.5 km had restaurants on each side of the run--or maybe fish farms or something.  And the smell was gag-worthy.  Dried fish.  Euck!  The way out it wasn't so bad because I wasn't exactly in need of oxygen yet, BUT when returning it was awful.  You had to take in deep lung-fills of toxic air.  Ewww!!

One of the funny things about the race was that it was televised.  The Wednesday after the race (it was on Sunday) my gym teacher came into the teacher's office during his break time and proceeded to tell the WHOLE office that he had seen me on tv.  (For the record, this is the 3rd time I've been on TV!!!: Bird Festival, Orientation Week in Seoul, and this!!!) His story telling was highlighted with a re-enactment of me running.  NOT my proudest moment as he huffs and puffs in place with exaggerated arms and legs wheeling.

I only have one thing to say to Mr Song:  I did my first run of the year (That's right, it was a dry run--no practice--not my smartest move) in 32.44'!

#1 Cause of Death in Korea

Date: May 10, 2011

I have recently discovered an English newspaper at my school.  It is called the Teen Times.  I was reading through it today (looking for journal prompt ideas) and I came across an article that I wanted to share.

"The Leading Cause of Death: Suicide

Statistics Korea recently announced that suicide was the number 1 cause of mortality among young people in South KOrea.  The announcement indicated teenagers are under heavy stress from the high competitive educational environment and harsh job market conditions.

The figures released by Statistic Korea showed 15.3 out of 100,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 committed suicide.  It was the highest ratio among the many causes of mortality reported for the age group.  The figure from 2009 was, in fact, higher than the 13.5 percent recorded from the previous year when suicide was still the number 1 cause of mortality.

Additionally, the report showed that the suicide figure is always exceeding death caused by traffic accidents, cancer, and heart disease.  In a survey conducted last year within the same age group 8.8 percent of the participants said they had seriously considered ending their own lives.

Survey participants uniformly cited factors such as competition in school, anxieties about future career, and economic difficulties as the major causes stimulating the thought of committing suicide.  With a string of suicides being reported recently at numerous schools, fresh concerns are being drawn over the stress and anxieties weighing on countless young generations across the nation.

Sources have confirmed, since the beginning of this year, four elite students from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have taken their own lives.  The death of students from South Korea top technology college has been blamed on the educational environment.

Meanwhile, other stats revealed that the number of young people in the nation's total population has been declining significantly over the past decades due to the protracted low birthrate. T he recent data can be considered a hard proof that many young students are under heavy stress stemming from a rigid, competition-driven school environment."

Chun, Dan. "The Leading Cause of Death: Suicide."  The Teen Times.  10 May, 2011.

Oku School Field Trip

Date: 5/20/2011

May is a fun month because there are so many school activities.  For my country school, I was invited to go walking at Wolmyeong Park (which I have been to with my Seohyung teachers).  But this time I was with students and it was a new walk.    Here are some photos of the trip:  (Okay...I just uploaded the photos--here are A LOT of photos from the day).

We start!  Uphill....of course.

Wolmyeong Park's iconic image: the Flower.

Then we walk through a statue garden.  Didn't really get the art, but....I'm not an artist.

Okay, specifically, I didn't get this art.

 It was funny--we walked basically up a hill and then would stop for 10 minutes.  Then walk a little more and then stop and relax--because it was sooOoo extraneous.  It was HOT and STICKY, though.  And I mean, I really regretted wearing jeans--but didn't have any alternatives that were still school appropriate.

One of the breaks--KIMCHI!

Kimchi!

My Co-teacher Mrs. Cho, and I.  

This is the student teacher at Oku Middle School.  His name is Lee Tae Won (if you say it the Korean way, his name is "itaewon." Which makes me laugh. )  He hasn't finshed college yet and is still pretty young--23--or 21 American age.  I was shocked to hear that.   It was bad, because he looked like a student... >.<  
The boy students LOVED him.  There aren't many male teachers at Oku--and none who are even close to the descriptive of "young" so Mr Lee was quiet popular.

Random statue

 It was really funny to go walking.  In America, it is a time to "commune with nature."  Listen to the birds and the bees, the wind in the trees, feel the sun on your skin.  In Korea--not the case.

First--you don't ever let the slightest bit of sun to touch your skin.  Women are more concerned with this than man, but there were a lot of jackets, big billed hats, and long pants for the walk.

Secondly, Everyone pulls out their cell phones and listens to Kpop.  No kidding, every 2nd kid had their cell phone playing music.

 Another statue.

We walked past the Buddhist Temple in the park and this little rascal came charging down the stairs to "greet" us--or warn us away.  He was precious because he couldn't have been more than 10 pounds and was wearing a pink coat and pants.

 He would back away when people came up to say hello, running up the steps, but when they turned away to continue walking, he would suddenly get his nerve back and come charging down the stairs again. He was the cutest grumpy old man dog.

We passed a bunch of little day care students. I loved the matching uniforms....

We came to a pretty part of the walk and Sue took my camera to take pictures.  She was shocked that Gunsan could be pretty.  "Are we in Gunsan?" She kept asking.

More precious little ones.  I love that their shirts say: KIDS.  As though you couldn't tell....

There is a belief (rooted in Oriental Medicine) that sitting benieth these cedar trees is good for you health.  I think the smell is suppose to help cure cancer or something like that.  I had seen people resting in the benches below the trees, but.....

...never had I seen someone quiet so enthusiatically embrace the tree.

Takes "Tree Hugging" to another level, eh?

This is my other Co-Teacher at Oku--Miss Sue.  She is 30 (really, she is) and she basically sits in on all my classes.  Mrs Jo usually is in her office and--even though Sue isn't a 3rd grade teacher, or my 2nd grader, she is the teacher who helps me out.

I can't quiet peg her.  She is really sweet sometimes but sometimes she can be a little cold.  But she is very busy so I totally understand.  And it's hard to speak English all the time.  Random side note: She is doing her master's thesis on the play "death of a saleseman" which I just find...strange.

being goofy

Okay, a little more serious

 Fish!

 Another break.

Short side note: The boy sitting on the right is autistic.  As in, quiet severally.  But his parents don't want him to go to the school for special children because they don't want the stigma.  (This is all according to Mrs Cho).  So, he goes to regular school and is basically just put through the system.  He has good and bad days in the English class that I see.  Sometimes he just stays to himself.  Other times he throws giant tantrums and starts hitting people and screaming at the top of his lungs.

That is when Mrs Cho will come into class and take him into her office.  He will then be told to trace the alphabet. Usually, he ends up just staring at me, then going to sit by the wall, curling into a little ball and rocking himself. As I said, good and bad days.

Pretty flower!

 We stopped for lunch and the kids pulled out their "obentos" (I only know the Japanese word for packed lunch.)  They shared a kimbab with me. It was all home made and beautifully prepared.

Then we found a jungle gym and the boys had to show off. Male posturing and all...

Copy cat...

This boy was precious.  We are walking back to the bus now and he is walking on the other side of the Ms Sue, listening to our conversation. His English isn't strong--he is 1st grade out in the country--but he is super sweet.  He takes Ms Sue's hand and asks how to say "Hello" in English.

So we start a small 3-way conversation.  I would say hello and then he asked a question.  Or, more specifically, he asked Ms Sue how to say "Do you like hiking?" and then she would translate and he would repeat it and ask me.

I was very impressed that he went out of his way to speak.  Usually, students just ask the Korean English teacher to ask me the questions.  But he wanted to talk to me.  He would listen very carefully to Ms Sue and then pointedly look at me and slowly repeat the question.

He was dressed like an older man--a Korean "ajasshi"...so I called him my Ajasshi in Training.

The View of Gunsan from Wolmyeong Park.

I like this student's hat.  "Sexy, Stylish and Myself."

That was basically our walk.  Afterward an older male teacher bought Ms Sue and I icecream as a thank you for helping out with the walk.   And then Ms Sue and I decided to go drink a Beer at Eunpa Park (I felt so bad  (hehe) for drinking in public, but it was a lot of fun).  I was able to get Sue to open up a little bit and found out she is quiet the social rule breaker--she's engaged to a man 5 years younger than her!  *gasp!*

I feel very lucky to be so involved at my schools.  I had a lot of fun at Wolmyeong park and even though it was a little difficult because the only person who really speaks English is Sue, it was fun to try and connect with the students.