Pyeonchang

An-yeong-ha-seoi-yo! (Hello!)

It is pronounced “ahn-yaw-ha-sa-yo”, or at least that is how I’ve been pronouncing it along with a small bow to the person you are greeting. I like the bow, I feel fancy, I kind of wish it was curtsey though.

Anyways, a lot has happened since I wrote last Saturday. I’m not going to go into day by day specifics because that will take forever and parts of it were super boring; I’ll just highlight the parts I liked the most/the most important events.

Sunday EPIK took us to a traditional Korean Folk Village in Yongin City, Gyeonggi-do – “home to numerous collections of Korean cultural artifacts… provides a venue to promote traditional Korean culture…developed to convey the wisdom and the spirits of Korean ancestors” – excerpt from the brochure

Favorite Parts of the Village:
-Farmers music & dance: a choreographed drum number in which each of the performers was wearing what can only be described as a ribbon on the top of their head; they were surprisingly in-sync with the ribbon movements, I’m going to call it the best Ribbon Dancer commercial that has been yet to be made.
-Acrobatics on a tightrope: the guy was super old & some of the movements made me cringe for the pain I imagined he was in.
-Lunch: traditional foods like mixed barley rice, tofu with kimchi, pan fried pancake; also had traditional Korean Rice Wine (super delicious & refreshing, a little potent)
Least Favorite Parts of the Village:
-It was over 100 degrees & Korea is HUMID.
-The group looked like a summer camp, we were wearing matching Carolina Blue Polos.

After the village we went to the Gyeonggi Arts Center where we had instructors teach us how to play the janggu (Korean drum) as well as how to do a traditional Korean flag dance (for which I won a prize for being the best dancer – I think it was the rice wine) The dance reminded me of a strange bird mating ritual, I’m willing to perform it for anyone that asks in the future. After the “classes” we were treated to a performance of “Break Out”, basically breaking dancing through the ages meets a group of convicts escaping from jail. I still don’t really get the plot, but the dancing was awesome.

Lets skip forward now to my new favorite activity, NOREABONG. It is Korean karaoke and it is taken SUPER seriously. It is probably one of the best things, ever. I can’t get enough of it. Many of you know, I don’t sing when people are around, but I have turned into a karaoke whore. You pay for a room that can fit up to twenty people, so you aren’t performing in front of random people & it is BYOB. Once it comes to the US, it will blow up and be unstoppable.

As it is taken so seriously, I was advised to have at least one song that I can sing and be completely serious in doing it, I’ve decided it will be “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” or my preference “Battle of New Orleans” if they have it.

Skipping farther ahead…I am no longer in Seoul, but am settled into my studio apartment in Pyeonchang (pronounced Peonchung) nicknamed “Happy 700”. The town is nice; it is settled in the mountains and is surrounded by gorgeous forestry. The area is bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics, so there is a lot of infrastructure improvement & bad-ass ski areas 15 minutes from the main part of town. Look it up online, there are a lot of websites about the area.

I arrived in the city on Friday and was promptly taken to my school and met all three of my co-teachers, all of whom I like immensely, along with a variety of other office staff & teachers (none of who I know the names of). I was also informed that in addition to teaching middle school three days a week, I will also be teaching high school classes two days per week. Yeah, high school, the kids are only 4-5 years younger than me – I’m sure I’ll get a lot of respect.

I have a desk in the Vice-Principal’s office (common practice here), next to the Home-Ec. teacher and behind the music teacher. I didn’t get much of a chance to look around the middle school and still haven’t been to the high school.

After all of the introductions/overwhelming information I was taken to my apartment (10 minutes walk from the middle school, 20 from the high school). I live on the third floor of a walk up of a nice little complex (my bad weighed 80lbs) & the super lives directly beneath me; she is a cute older Korean woman.

Two of my three co-teachers (my head co-teacher lives an hour from town, so she promptly left after giving me the keys to my apartment) took me out to dinner that night along with my desk neighbor (Home-Ec) and the Director of some Department at the school. My older co-teacher is 27 and the other is my age but in Korea she is 24, which means technically I’m 24 for the duration of my stay (bizarre age system they have here).

Dinner was AMAZING. I told them that I liked spicy food and the spicier it was the happier I’d be. It was phenomenal, second best dish I’ve ever eaten, one of the girls started crying because it was so spicy for her. It was spicy octopus that you cook at your table (another common practice) with bean sprouts. The server brings you a wok-type thing & all of the necessary tools to cook with and you go to it at the table. I think my co-workers think I’m insane as in addition to eating half of the octopus, I ate all of the peppers on the table which were refilled twice for me.

The director of some department came to dinner (and paid – Korean tradition in which oldest person at the table pays for everyone) and he is awesome. He is probably around 60, speaks 50 words of English, and loves to drink Soju. He and I were have a grand old time through our interpreter.

Saturday & Sunday I spent exploring the town; it is pretty small and very quiet on the weekends.

Randomly came across a long hiking trail and walked on that for a couple miles up into the mountains.

That is about all, this week is my first official week as a teacher, but I’m not teaching until the following week; just planning – whatever that means.

I’ll try to write more often (it will help when I have internet at my apartment), to keep the length down on these.

An-yeong-hi Ga-seoi-yo! (Good-bye)