korea4ayear

Morning Mist & Encounter With Woody

The fog melts away from Yeonggwang this Sunday afternoon like smoke from the popping embers of a fire in a damp stone brook shore. Upon the ambient screen of gray receding from my ninth floor balcony, our new home town revealed itself one structure, one street, one briskly walking woman at a time.  Only the steep hills, thick and cool with bold green life, can trap the fog within their breadth before the warming noon burns it off. 

Somewhere a truck with loudspeaker echoes through the streets as it drives, pumping varying volumes on and off of walls and rooftops nearby before slicing the pitches through the breezy porch screen. The muffled voice recording looped the same sentence nearly one hundred times before it disappeared down the Western farmland road where it originated. This form of entrepreneurship is not uncommon in our new home, as farmers with flatbeds chocked full of produce advertise by bullhorn and drive through the streets.

Restless to explore last night, Rosalyn and I ate at a Chinese restaurant called something to the tune of Toang-Po-Song. Following several difficult meals due to total communication breakdown, we were ecstatic to discover the menu choices were accompanied by pictures and even English translations. After some delicious sweet and sour pork and spicy bean curd with rice we stumbled upon one of many "PC Bangs" to check email and use the internet. Joining the ranks of gamers with eyes glued through spectacles to bright computer screens, we logged away an hour or so before a pre-recorded female voice came across the intercom. Clueless as to what we were being informed, we turned to ask someone sitting behind us what the voice had said. Hoping for no more than a broken English response, we asked the man if he understood the announcement and to our amazement explained in near perfect english that it was to ask teenagers to leave by 10pm. Our new friend introduced himself as Woody, while his real name was 규 이 (Gyuah). He assisted us by answering all sorts of questions concerning Yeonggwang's bars, restaurants, grocery stores and culture. He actually works out of town at the power plant but was in town to visit the hospital due to a knee injury, making it more fortuitous to meet such an oracle of sorts in such an unlikely setting.

We have briefly met two other English teachers on the street in town named Scott and Tony, but they were on their way home and we only spoke long enough for them to direct us to a local pizza joint. Yeonggwang will certainly prove to be an interesting home for our year here in Jeollanam-do, yet the exact identity of the place will take more time and many more posts to define. We are finding our place and discovering more of the language, culture and general life that makes up Korea every day.

Kimchi, Grissom & Giant Bibimbap

Our orientation as EPIK guest Native English Teachers (NETs) is now in full swing at Jeonju University, which is serving as our host environment for the ten day period. The city of Jeonju is about 3.5 hours south of Seoul by bus and the university happens to be a christian college founded in 1964. The campus is highly westernized and very recently developed, as we are staying in an 18 floor dormitory built within the past 5 years.

Kimchi is a native dish to Korea, served almost religiously and consisting of cabbage or lettuce. Kimchi was traditionally fermented with generous quantities of hot pepper in large underground vats to keep the mixture cool and it serves as the staple dish on any Korean dinner table. It's been interesting getting used to the stuff since its cool in temperature yet sets your mouth on fire.

Wednesday night we arrived on Jeonju University's campus, post 36 hours of travel and ready to drop like sacks of potatoes. On the bus ride from Seoul our chaperon of sorts would coincidentally be our orientation group leader for the week, who introduced himself as "Grissom". Not his Korean name... instead this was a self chosen name based on his favorite character from the U.S. show CSI. Rosalyn was immediately enamored by Grissom's quirky accent and pronunciation combined with the sense of humor he consistently implemented.

Sunday served as a break from classes and as the group field trip to attractions surrounding Jeonju. Piling into sixteen Jeonju University buses and divided into our groups, we visited an ancient Buddhist temple outside of Jeonju city in the mountains and then toured an area of the city consisting of traditional Korean houses, known as Hanok Village.

The two touring events were split apart by an outdoor luncheon in the Hanok Village consisting of all EPIK teachers and staff (nearly 700 strong). The director of the Hanok Village Arts Center spoke through an EPIK staff translator who at best paraphrased the longwinded director as he explained the significance of the 600 year old school where the gathering was held. The lunch consisted of one giant Bibimbap which was combined in a large vat about the size of a Jacuzzi tub that was stirred with five foot long wooden spoons. I was chosen to be a class representative (almost by default since there were so few volunteers) so I had the chance to get up there and stir up the multi-hundred pound dish.

To date Korea has been an experienced through a prism of summer camp-esque games and hypothetical lectures that, while much appreciated and assuredly helpful, will serve as only a vague preview for the job and life we will be living in less than 7 days. I am nervous, enthused but driven to experience Korea in its raw and true form... whatever that may be.

Jeollanam-do In Focus

The following is an excerpt from the website www.LonelyPlanet.com and gives a good summary of the region where we will be living and teaching for the next year...

Introducing Jeollanam-do

South Jeolla is one of Korea’s least developed and greenest provinces, where 25% of households are farmers against a national average of 7%. The province is pioneering pesticide-free and organic farming, while fish farming has breathed new life into coastal fishing villages and the many small, offshore islands, more and more of which are being linked by bridges to the mainland. A feature of rural life these days is farmers marrying Vietnamese and other Asian brides, so that Jeollanam-do has more international marriages than Seoul.

Irrigated rice fields, marine and land-based national parks, dramatic coastal views, fresh seafood and political dissent sum up the province. But – just as a one-time radical can become part of the establishment – Jeollanam-do is slowly but surely becoming more like the rest of Korea: it is now crisscrossed by expressways and its expanding cities are filling up with anonymous apartment blocks. Despite this, the province retains a rebel edge and is proud of its ceramic and artistic traditions, its Naju pears and green tea, its exiled poets and its pro-democracy martyrs.

The region’s two heroes are Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who defeated the Japanese navy in the 1590s, and Kim Dae-jung, a 20th-century democracy warrior who became president in 1997 and finally ended the stranglehold on political power and patronage held by politicians from the eastern provinces. He received almost 100% support from the Jeolla provinces.

Lonely Planet: Jeollanam-do

The Countdown Begins

Sitting down to write what will be the first post to this record of my year abroad in South Korea, I began by scrambling through a dozen sentences, none of which gave an accurate impression of my thoughts. My gut has begun to churn and spur images of a new life, flashing somewhere between my daze and the screen of the computer. I can't seem to quit a smile from my lips as i ponder the potential for change in my perception of the world. The city, school, home and world I will come to call my own still hangs in the balance, assuring the experience to be a true adventure.

This is what I know:

Rosalyn and I will arrive in Seoul at nearly 6:00 PM Korean time (5:00 am Louisville time) on August 18th after 23 hours of planes and airports to begin our one week orientation.

At some point during the week we are to meet the director of education for the Jeollanam province where Rosalyn and I have both been assigned. He or she will decide our fate and assign us to our separate schools (we hope in the same city).

We will leave for our assigned cities and meet our local "ambassadors" who will help us get used to our new homes.

Where our lives are headed and what things we will see over the next twelve months remain a mystery, but our minds and souls are hungry for whatever experiences, choices and opportunities may shape us into the people we will become. I am certain that the friendships and culture of a new world will protract the character of our old selves to encompass a more complete outlook of the world, serving as delegate guests from the United States.

Pictures and posts will be plentiful over the next year as to include all those who wish to be a part of this experience for myself and Rosalyn.

I appreciate all of the love and support from my family and friends who have allowed me to confidently take this step in my life. You will always be in my thoughts and prayers and never further than a Skype call away.