Monday, March 31, 2008
Still in Seogwipo
Hi! We continue to have a great time in Korea. Yesterday we went to school with Elizabeth and watched her teach and met some of the staff. First we had tea with the principal, a very intimidating experience. We met several of the teachers, including all 4 of the English teachers. Elizabeth teaches classes of 35-40 girls and they are all high energy and full of life. Some stop by her office to giggle and say hi. The girls are 7th to 9th graders and all wear uniforms. We ate lunch in the cafeteria with the teaching staff. They were impressed with my chopstick skills-what a joke! After classes we walked around town and did some shopping. We met two of Elizabeth's Korean friends for dinner. Their English names are Silver and Precious and they both teach Special Ed in Seogwipo. It was really fun to meet them and try to converse. We did some more shopping and walking and then met two of Elizbeth's American friends, Andy and Brian. They are both Fulbright teachers in Seogwipo middle schools, too. It was fun to hear their take on Koreans and Korean culture. Then it was another wild taxi ride back to the hotel. Today Elizabeth is teaching and we are exploring on our own before a dinner with the school's principal, vice principal, english teachers, and host parents. Yikes! Talk about pressure. Then we fly out to the mainland, and back to the US the next day.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
In Seogwipo
We have been doing so much here I can hardly remember it all. On Friday morning we took the train to the domestic airline terminal and then a flight to Jeju Island, then a bus to the town of Seogwipo to the KAL Hotel where we are staying and finally met up with Elizabeth. It was so great to see her! We went for a walk, which got longer and longer and saw some of the city and some waterfalls and lots of shops. We got some dinner and headed back to our hotel and had no trouble falling asleep.
Jeju Island is small and volcanic. It is covered with rock walls made out of lava rock and the roadsides are abloom with canola (rapeseed), whose vivid yellow blossoms make everthing look cheery. It's major product is tangerines and there are citrus trees everywhere. It is an interesting mix of new and old and has huge signs in Korean everywhere. The island is very pretty and from what we have seen, Seogwipo is the prettiest part. Our hotel room has a view of the ocean and smaller islands. It is a port city with fishing boats close to shore. It is also a major tourist destination so there is no lack of attractions. In the last two days we have seen many, but by no means even a small fraction of them all. There is a museum of almost everything. There are also taxis everywhere that are inexpensive and we have ridden in a lot in a few days.
On Saturday we went to the Teddy Bear Museum, which is what it sounds like, complete with dioramas of important historical events done completely with Teddy Bears. Next we headed to a huge botanical garden, with rooms for different climates and a huge tower in the middle you could climb up and see over the whole area. We ate lunch at a restaurant that serves duck that you cook at your table and then eat with many condiments, all rolled up in lettuce leaves. After lunch we went to a jjimjibang, a spa/sauna place popular in Korea. There are pools of varying temperatures and additives and whirlpools and showers and sauna and many people-all completely nude. We were brave and did the full cultural immersion, despite being the whitest people there. Luckily, they do segregate by sex so the rooms were full of Korean women of every age getting extremely clean. In the evening we went the host families apartment for dinner. It was nice to meet them and see where they live.
Today Elizabeth's host mom picked us up and played tour guide. We went to Miniature world, a curious place with famous buildings from all over the world done in scales that varied. Next we went to Spirited Garden, which bills itself as the most beautiful garden in the world. It is largely bonsai plants, more than I have ever seen. In the afternoon we went to a Korean folk village. It was very interesting and had historical representations of houses from long ago from different parts of Jeju. It was huge and we could only see part of it as we were running out of time. It was also very cold and windy today and it was all outside. This evening the host parents took us to dinner where we had pork and eel, cooked at the table and served with the usual many, many side dishes, followed by ice cold noodle soup with hard boiled eggs.
Tomorrow we go to Elizabeth's school and watch her teach. My head is already spinning from all we have seen and done. More to come.
Jeju Island is small and volcanic. It is covered with rock walls made out of lava rock and the roadsides are abloom with canola (rapeseed), whose vivid yellow blossoms make everthing look cheery. It's major product is tangerines and there are citrus trees everywhere. It is an interesting mix of new and old and has huge signs in Korean everywhere. The island is very pretty and from what we have seen, Seogwipo is the prettiest part. Our hotel room has a view of the ocean and smaller islands. It is a port city with fishing boats close to shore. It is also a major tourist destination so there is no lack of attractions. In the last two days we have seen many, but by no means even a small fraction of them all. There is a museum of almost everything. There are also taxis everywhere that are inexpensive and we have ridden in a lot in a few days.
On Saturday we went to the Teddy Bear Museum, which is what it sounds like, complete with dioramas of important historical events done completely with Teddy Bears. Next we headed to a huge botanical garden, with rooms for different climates and a huge tower in the middle you could climb up and see over the whole area. We ate lunch at a restaurant that serves duck that you cook at your table and then eat with many condiments, all rolled up in lettuce leaves. After lunch we went to a jjimjibang, a spa/sauna place popular in Korea. There are pools of varying temperatures and additives and whirlpools and showers and sauna and many people-all completely nude. We were brave and did the full cultural immersion, despite being the whitest people there. Luckily, they do segregate by sex so the rooms were full of Korean women of every age getting extremely clean. In the evening we went the host families apartment for dinner. It was nice to meet them and see where they live.
Today Elizabeth's host mom picked us up and played tour guide. We went to Miniature world, a curious place with famous buildings from all over the world done in scales that varied. Next we went to Spirited Garden, which bills itself as the most beautiful garden in the world. It is largely bonsai plants, more than I have ever seen. In the afternoon we went to a Korean folk village. It was very interesting and had historical representations of houses from long ago from different parts of Jeju. It was huge and we could only see part of it as we were running out of time. It was also very cold and windy today and it was all outside. This evening the host parents took us to dinner where we had pork and eel, cooked at the table and served with the usual many, many side dishes, followed by ice cold noodle soup with hard boiled eggs.
Tomorrow we go to Elizabeth's school and watch her teach. My head is already spinning from all we have seen and done. More to come.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
In Korea!
We made it to Korea. We're staying in a hotel near Incheon, on the outskirts of Seoul. The flights were long. We left Portland and flew for 10.5 hours to Tokyo. The plane was full and lots of kids. They fed us dinner, we watched some movies (August Rush, two thumbs down, Juno, two thumbs up), slept some, were given ice cream sandwiches in the middle of the flight, and then breakfast before landing, even though it was near 5 pm local time and midnight Portland time. We changed planes in Tokyo. We had over an hour to walk around there and enjoyed checking out the bathrooms with multiple stall choices, and the public lounge. We flew another 3 hours to Seoul and once we made it through customs and got our luggage, we got a free ride to the hotel. Our room is fascinating, with heated floors and an amazing heated toilet with all sorts of buttons. It took us forever to figure out how to turn on the lights (put the keychain in a certain spot). We can't believe we're in Korea. Next we will take a train to the domestic airport and fly to Jeju Island to see Elizabeth!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The Beginning
So, if my kids can do it, so can I. Here we go with my first attempt at blogging. I'm off today to Seogwipo, South Korea to visit my daughter. I'm very excited because I love to travel and I can't wait to see her. My sister is going with me and I'm sure we'll have a blast. Check back here later for details.
While I'm gone, they'll be working on our kitchen. A complete remodel is in process. Here's a picture of the current state of affairs:
This is where the sink used to be:
The front corner:
The original lathe and plaster from our 1914 house and a view looking down the hall. The two little eyes peeking out from the plastic are our dog, Lucy, who is quite unsettled by all the mess.
While I'm gone, they'll be working on our kitchen. A complete remodel is in process. Here's a picture of the current state of affairs:
This is where the sink used to be:
The front corner:
The original lathe and plaster from our 1914 house and a view looking down the hall. The two little eyes peeking out from the plastic are our dog, Lucy, who is quite unsettled by all the mess.
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