Mountains, trekking and travels...

It's a Saturday morning and my first lie-in of the week. Unfortunately I have been woken up by a woman attempting to sing children's nursery rhymes into a microphone and gleefully chanting "nice-to-meet-you, bye bye!" at every person that passes by. I can't see the action, yet I know what it will look like- it will be a half dressed woman tottering around in 6 inch heels with too much white foundation on, trying to lure the fathers of Gimhae into giving their children English lessons.
Terrible.
So, no lie-in for me.
I sent my first batch of savings back to England last week which was a great feeling. The Won's value has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks- my monthly salary is worth £100 more than it was this time last month which is great news. However, I am told that the Won is one of the most fluctuating currencies in the world, so I'm not sure how long the good news will last. I guess it depends how quickly the Pound starts to gain it's strength back and whether North Korea decide to make any more threats in the near future. Relations between the North and the South seem to be much less tense than when we first got here. Kim Jon Il seems to be expressing interest in negotiating with the West over nuclear weapons. As well as this positive news, some families from South Korea were allowed to cross the border to be briefly reunited with their loved ones in the North whom they were separated from during the war.

We have officially been here for five months now which is slightly surreal. It feels like the time has gone so quickly since we boarded the plane at Heathrow back in April, yet knowing that we still have 7 months left of teaching here is quite an overwhelming feeling. It's bizarre being away from the UK for such a continuous length of time- especially as the country we are in bears absolutely no resemblance to England whatsoever. We never look, smell, hear or taste anything that reminds us of home- its totally different. We turned on the TV the other day and a shot of a typical thatched cottage in England came up on the screen and it was so heart-warming to see! I try to explain to my students that most people in England live in a house with a garden and sometimes a garage- the concept is so alien to them as every building in Korea, from shops and restaurants to living quarters, is in a high rise apartment. When you walk along a street in Korea you have to look up as every level in a building is offering a different service, whereas in England all the shops are on street level. It was quite strange to get used to when we first arrived here.
Last weekend we hiked up a mountain with some people from work. It was beautiful weather and it felt really good to get involved in some intense exercise! Gimhae is surrounded by mountains, but they are fairly modest and make an excellent climb for amateur hikers such as ourselves. I do love the mountains in Korea as they are densely forested and therefore a great way to escape from the heat in the summer. They also tend to have Buddhist temples near the top and it's a really peaceful experience sitting on a mountain listening to the monks chanting and tapping the drums. Apparently there are four different sounds that Buddhist monks produce in succession to remind followers of the Buddha and his teachings. These are the drum, the bell, the wooden fish and the cloud plate. I like the sound of the drum- which is made from wood and cow skin and has an earthy, rich yet mellow sound to it. It sounds really organic and natural, especially when you are sat in an area of such outstanding natural beauty. It's a great place to go if you need to feel inspired or to put things into perspective.
I am really looking forward to going back to South East Asia and visiting some of the Buddhist temples there. The decorations and carvings were so intricate and dazzling and the people were so friendly. I think Malaysia and Indonesia will be interesting too as there are many tribes there with their own religious beliefs and ceremonies and I hope that we will stumble across a few festivals. The funeral processions in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi look wonderfully elaborate and include animal sacrifice, costumes, dances and great feasts. The body of the deceased isn't buried until the eleventh day of thee ceremony and they are laid to rest in caves on the cliff tops. It sounds so different to the rather dreary funerals that I have been to in the UK.
Nepal also looks diverse and incredible with so many outdoor activities to get involved in. The trekking on the Annapurna route looks breathtaking though there are many other less known treks that look just as appealing. Nepal is supposed to be a haven for canoeing and kayaking and it's possible to spend over a week meandering through some of the rivers in Nepal and camping on the edges at night. Paragliding over the Himalayas looks heart-stoppingly beautiful as well as a great way to get an adrenaline rush for very little money. As well as this there are copious amounts of both Hindu and Buddhist temples, some awe-inspiring national parks, yoga and meditation centres, more markets than you could dream of and mouth-wateringly superb food. Nepal is definitely the place that we are both getting most excited about!

Sammy and Matilda.

Here are a few photos of Sammy (blonde) and Matilda (dark). These were taken a few weeks ago when we first got them and they have grown significantly since (Sammy especially!)

Autumn is upon us.

The leaves are gradually turning from soft lush green to crispy golden and burnt orange, littering the parks as they fall to the ground. The days are still hot, but the humidity has dropped and the evenings now have a hint of coolness in the air. It’s a refreshing change and for the first time in my life the prospect of winter excites me rather than fills me with dread. The winters here are cold and clear, the skies are canopies of bright blue with not a cloud in sight- so I am told. The idea of wearing tights and boots, big woolly jumpers and knitted hats and scarves is far more appealing than sweating profusely and sticking to whatever I sit on, which has been the way for a few months now.

Last week was a tough week, the tiredness seemed to kick in at the beginning of the week rather than towards the end. Though I am still enjoying the teaching and building a good rapport with the majority of my students, I find that teaching for nine hours on a Thursday pretty much drains me of any energy/inspiration/ability that I have. I have discovered that teaching six hours a day is the optimum and this amount means that I still have buckets of energy and enthusiasm from start to finish. After about six hours of teaching I begin to lag and I feel very sorry for the classes that I have after this point in the day. The job is very high energy and battling with the language barrier can be frustrating and overwhelming. 95% of our students are poor English speakers and listeners so mime and providing visual explanations through acting is an integral part of teaching- I knew my drama degree would come in handy somewhere along the line...

I have a group of students who are about 13 years old and they are fascinated by horror stories. In fact most of the teenage population of Korea seem to be spellbound by a gory murder or a ghostly tale. And if you tell them that the story is true their reactions are even better- the boys cower behind their hands and the girls scream until their faces go blue! We have had two lessons where the classroom lights have been turned off, the curtains drawn and we indulge in telling some gruesome stories of urban legends or eerie hauntings. I think I have scared them all off from ever visiting England as I always claim that my stories are true. There is a famous Japanese horror film called ‘The Ring’ where a girl crawls out from the TV with her long black hair covering her face so that only one very wide and manic looking eye is visible. The children are forever asking me to do this and after a little persuasion I obliged to be met with a classroom full of ear-piercing screams and mobile phone cameras clicking.

Horror films are very prominent here though. And you can turn the TV on at any time of day and there will almost definitely be more than one Korean horror film showing. Some of them are unbearably scary and it is slightly concerning that my 12 year old students are asking me if I saw the film the next day... Though bizarrely, the Koreans won’t show gore or weapons on TV so knives, guns, blood etc are all blurred out and left to the viewer’s imagination.

I have started teaching a group of 14 year olds which is an incredibly tedious job as they are all moody, hormonal and so uninterested in learning that the minute they walk into the classroom they actually put their heads on the desk in an attempt to sleep. As an introductory lesson, I asked them to write on a piece of paper a list of things that they liked and didn’t like and what sort of job they aspired to do in the future. After fifteen minutes I collected the pieces of paper to find that the majority of students had written things such as ‘I don’t like anything,’ and ‘I don’t want a job. I want to sleep’ and one had even written ‘I hate the world and everything in it.’ I find this quite sad as I remember being very excited and passionate about everything at 14 and although I was very moody, I had so many dreams about the future which I voiced as often as I could. I asked the children why they bothered to study if they were so opposed to the idea and they said that they didn’t know. But thinking about it, I would probably be quite a depressed person if I had grown up over here. Dreams are not really encouraged, the desire to want to travel outside of Korea is pretty much unheard of and thinking outside the box may as well be illegal (all the girls want to be air stewardesses and all the boys want to be businessmen). Creativity and originality is shunned in favour of being industrious and getting things done as quickly as possible. Coupled with the ridiculous amount of hours that children have to study each day, I think it would be a pretty uninspiring place to grow up. I certainly count myself lucky that I was born in a country where thinking outside the box and not wanting to be a ‘sheep’ was encouraged and praised.

I did a bit of research in this area and statistics show that South Korea has a phenomenally high suicide rate compared to the UK, especially in teenagers. The pressure put upon teenagers to study for such horrendous hours clearly contributes negatively to their mental well-being. Some of my high school students are made to study for up to 16 hours a day during the exam season.
“Suicide rates unsurprisingly spike around the time of midterm exams for high school students...At a public rally to mourn one of these victims and to protest the pressure-cooker conditions forced upon them in high school, 400 students and supporters cheered one student's speech: "We are not studying machines. We are just teenagers.”

Anyway, enough of the gloom- let me tell you about our wonderful little hamsters. Matilda and Sammy the Rascal were bought from the local supermarket for £1.50 and have bought joy, happiness and a large amount of hamster poo to the household. We’ve had them for two weeks and they are warming up to us quite nicely. I shall put some photos of them up in the near future.

That’s all for now. This weekend we are heading to Busan as we want to look at Beomosa temple and spend a little more time on the beach before the autumn really sets in.

Will write again soon.