Week 62: Mud Festival

Before: so excited for the annual Boryeong Mud Festival (MF). Last year in Korea the MF was the highlight of my 2008 year in Korea….it was so much fun but I didn’t have a camera and my friend broke his phone is the ocean…so no evidence. This year my younger sister came from USA to spend her summer vacation in Korea with me and we checked out the MF for the first time.

During: as always, so much fun.

Mud Wrestling–>

to mud flix–>

to just being muddy!–>

The MudFestival was an awesome muddy mess.

There were also many star sightings from performances with famous Korean people ( “she’s a so so so so so famous. Every Korean knows her”) like the famous Misuda women.–>

After:  First the rain helped. Secondly, we rinsed off in the ocean. Lastly, we found 500 won coins on the ground which in turn paid for our outdoor, spine chilling, beach showers. we all 3 were fighting for a spot in the outdoor shower, trying to pour shampoo into our hands and rub conditioner onto our heads, and scrub a dub rub all the mud off our bodies as fast as possible before our 500 won timed shower turned off. There were plenty of onlookers–not sure if they were giving up props for braving the cold water in the cold weather in the rain in public, laughing at how silly we looked making a spectacle of ourselves, were slightly jealous they weren’t as adventures, or even a little perverted–but whatever, we were shiny and clean afterwards…and we did it for FREE with 3 500 won coins we scouted on the ground. We went into town and Shani had her first Bi Bim Bop and loved it. (minus the rain) couldn’t have been better.

Week 61: I’m Germinating! =D

May 6th, 2009 started ITF Taekwon-do in Seoul, South Korea.  2 months (and -4 kilos) later, Sabumnim (Korean: master) called me up front. He untied the white belt and replaced it with the yellow. I was so excited, happy, and maybe a tad bit proud. =D

I’m not ‘pure’ anymore, I’m ‘germinating’!

Goodbye ‘innocence’! lol. Flix taken after 90minutes of sweating it out in class.  Aafter 2 months intense ITF training with Sabumnim, received the yellow belt. Leslie (USA) spotted the yellow belts at the start of class but was careful not to spill the beans. I was surprised, since I had mistakenly thought I was getting the yellow belt during the special class last Sunday.

The past 2 months I’ve gone to TaeKwon-do classes religiously, for an hour and a half each class, usually 4 times per week (avg. 20 classes/month). Here’s a rundown of the belts’ significance:

• White = pure, innocence
• Yellow = germinating (developing roots).
• Green = growth
• Blue = Sky
• Red = Sun
• Black = darkness (sin, death. These people’s skills are lethal).

ITF stands for International Taekwon-do Federation. The popular sport and one in the Olympics is WTF, or World Taekwon-do Federation. Naturally I have a bias, but look up the two…ITF is the winner in my book…and I got a yellow belt to show for it. ;p

Week 59: 100-day

In Korea, 100-day anniversaries are a biggie. 100-days after a baby is born, a huge celebration (and huge wall portrait of baby) takes place. This is because historically, Korea had a lot of disease and death. Many babies died before their 100-day and sadly, stillbirths were frequent.

The 100-day spills over into other arenas as well. Whereas American couples celebrate their first date monthly, semi-annually, or annually (depending on the couple. In my case, every month is worth celebrating =D), Korean couples anticipate the 100-day and celebrate in a big way; it’s not uncommon to exchange rings. 100, 200, 300, and 1000-days are also celebrated. Personally, counting up all those days is too much trouble. After 100 days, I’ll stick to celebrating each month’s date since becoming ‘official.’

Couples have lots of other days to celebrate, too, besides the 100-day or annually. A rundown, to name a *few*:

• January 14: Candle & Diary Day
• February 14: Valentines Day
• March 14: White Day (see prior blog for info)
• April 14: Black Day…for singletons to hopefully meet someone whilst sadly hovering over their black plate of jajangmyeon noodles
• May 14: Yellow/Rose Day…also for the singletons to eat (yellow) curry or be given a rose. I guess singletons are supposed to eat their heart out!
• August 14: Green Day
• November 11: Pepero Day
• December 25: Christmas – Koreans celebrates this mostly as a HUGE couples day.
• Birthdays
• One year anniversary

To get more detail behind each celebration: http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2006/0106/fe7-1.htm

Week 58: Korean Weddings

Having been forewarned on Korean version of ‘western-inspired’ weddings, I was still excited to attend my first Korean wedding…having lived her 13 months already. It *was* similar in appearance: the wedding dress, the tuxedo, and the flowers. One sharp contrast that gave me a dose of culture shock was the noise level.

Towards the front the family members and relatives appeared quieter as the pastor rambled on in his monotone voice, but towards the back of the room you would have think you were at a social gathering…and not of the wedding kind. People were on their cell phones (and not whispering or running towards the door, either), friends were having full blown conversations–including laughter. If I didn’t know any better I’d say most were just waiting to be in the group picture or the reception (sans wedding cake), which comes immediately following the bride and grooms speedy walk down the aisle.

One difference I appreciated  is the bride and groom slowly and deeply bowing to each set of parents, signifying respect, right of passage, and a “sang-yoo” for giving me your son/daughter. Of course, this is just my opinion based on one wedding. This must be the seasons for weddings, though, because I’ll be attending another wedding this Sunday. Will update my post if there are differences between the two.

Week 56: Festivities

It’s amazing what a mini-vacation can do for the spirits.

A two hour train trip to Chuncheon one Sunday back led me to the Mime Festival. Thus: no words, no captions…

   

David’s Surprise Birthday Luncheon

Also a success. Head count was 19 and there were a few witnesses that claimed he even dropped a tear while saying, “I’ve never had a surprise Birthday…anything…before. Wow. THANK YOU!”

Why the fiasco for his 28th? Well, If you know David, he’s probably helped you at one point or another and in some way like hooking up cell phone service, internet, helping buy a camera, Korean translation/teaching, tour guide, gym trainer, etc…So, it would be nice to celebrate his birthday in a special way.

Every one went around and recorded a dedication to David. It was great. Once, a friend –Vanak–threw me a party (dual party)–it was so sweet and never to be forgotten. Surprise parties are awesome. Hope one day I am actually surprised with a surprise Bday party 🙂

FYI: I tested NEGATIVE for Swine flu but POSITIVE for tonsilitis 😦 Meds and rest for 3 days…

Week 55: DMZ–Headed Towards Destruction

Headed Towards Destruction:

North Korea, a communist country. A country no one can exit, no one can enter. A corrupt government and a country based on lies and fallacies. A country still divided by war and a mystery to many.

Promise you this is the only place you will see a road desserted like this in South Korea–there are 20 million just in Seoul. Can you say, Busy?

 This town’s about 200 Meters away from N. Korea

Recently I had the privilege to get as close to North Korea as possible; through a telescope I even saw a North Korean walking down the street (he looked short). The best part was walking through the 3rd tunnel, a tunnel the North Koreans built in preparing for invasion of South Korea. One sign in the tunnel read “x,y,z…shows the double sidedness of the North Koreans…” couldn’t help but laugh at that biased sign.

Week 53: Kinderest Kids

After 10 weeks working with Kinderest, maybe you think I don’t care or am keeping a secret; such is not the case. Sorry! Since moving to Seoul, posting weekly blogs has become a challenge since my computer is broken (not even at my house…where there is no internet anyway)…and there’s one computer in the building for 11+ teachers to share.

Nevertheless, it’s time you saw how CUTE my students are!

During the regular school day, I teach one class of 11-5 year-olds…this is THREE years old international age!!! From 4-6pm I head 2 afterschool classes, with 6 and 9 kids, respectively. In one day I may teach 26 kids (international ages 3-5 years) letters and words of the alphabet, cooking, art,

science, math, Bible songs, sports and P.E. themes, and serve lunch–included positive promotion of fruits and veggies.

At the end of my morning class we sing, “The Goodbye Song.” After they all run and cling to my arms, waist, and legs saying “Gageema Ms. Keever, Gageema” (“Don’t go Ms. Keever, don’t go). There puppy dog eyes are adorable, as are their slimy and even snotty ‘po-po’s’ (smooches on the cheek).

My favorite Korean holiday is this week: Teacher’s Day!!! Just found out that public school’s actually close and give teacher’s a nice 3-day weekend. Last year I had just arrived to Korea and taught only 3 days but was showered with gifts. Not to sound greedy but it’s lovely to be showered with love and gifts and have a day to honor teacher’s and feel like a Queen for a day.

However, my Korean partner teacher said it’s actually illegal or something of the sort for parents to give gifts because it may seem like bribary. Being that there aren’t grades for 3 year olds, I’m hoping that ‘rule’ is void kk^^

Anywho, aren’t my Seoul kids cute!? Still, I miss my Newtons in Busan. Hope I can see them again when I visit there.

Week 52: It’s a Celebration!

Spring time, in Korea, is a time for festivals, festivities, and celebrations. My friend, Justine, mimed in a performing arts festival:

There was a lantern festival to celebrate Buddha’s birthday. After seeing 10,000 lanterns I was ‘lantern’d out’…

The breathing, hissing dragon was the best part

but had to take this one for my mom, since it’s her favorite animal:

HOWEVER, 🙂 =) ;-p the awesome celebration is under the radar. It’s an anniversary. May 7, 2009 was my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. I’ve been in Korea for one year now. Honestly, most of the year I planned my ‘escape’ on a daily basis. I was sure–and let everyone who beckoned the idea for me to stay in Korea a second year– that the second my 1 year anniversary arrives, I was running out of this country like a chicken with my head cut off.

The reasons were many. Nevertheless, once I got past some painful experiences, I’ve been able to (slowly) feel positive results:

…and I aint just talking about Acupuncture. Despite being a mostly mountainous country

…I’ve still been sick way more than any other place or time in my life…honestly around 90% of the time. Yet, when the opportunity arrives to experience the country and people’s beauty…

the resulting calming affect keeps me going just long enough.

No, I’m not certain of what career path I’ll be in for the rest of life.

No, I’m not a perfect Christian; my relationship does waver with my God.

No, I don’t have the Baywatch beach body after eating lots of Korean food.

No, I’m not a lot of things I wish I were, but I will say after having deeply considered and faced head-on many trails and tribulations this past year in Korea, I’m probably a “better me” than before, and that’s something to celebrate about.

By the way: I extended my contract another 4 months in Korea. There will be no chicken-with-the-head-cut-off running out of the country, but on the contrary I’m sure some tears will probably be shed when it’s time to say goodbye. Maybe ‘bittersweet’ is the result of perseverance.

Week 51: VooDoo Doll

The problem with western medicine is it focuses only on the illness. As soon as the medicine is gone, the problem usually returns. More often than not, the illness comes back even stronger than the previous time. I don’t want to mask my illness, I want to conquer them.

That said, I’ve decided to turn to oriental medicine, which focuses on the cause of the illness, the equilibrium of the whole body and weakened immune system. After nearly one year in Korea, hundreds of pills, many doctors visits later and no sign of improvement, I’ve found an oriental medicine doctor who has really keened in on my body and is positive on improvement in my health.

The diagnosis? Something along the lines of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (I also gave a self-diagnosis of this some time back, but never by the Dr.). My body is very weak, I am exerting a lot of energy but my body is not able to reproduce that energy, due to my bodies inability to sleep deeply, restfully, and for long periods of time. Thus, my body does not have the energy resources to fight off the many pollutants, bacterias, and virus’ that come my way (**reminder**: I live in one of the biggest [polluted] cities in the world, in a country where people don’t cover their mouths when sneezing, and few people honestly wash their hands (and even less use soap), and I work with classrooms full of small children all day). Rx: My body is weak, tired, and sick.

The treatment: vertical: Acupuncture 2x/week for a month ($20USD/visit) and horizontal: oriental medicine to be taken 2x/day for 3 weeks ($200USD/42 medicine packets). The two treatments combined form a cross and network together for some good ol’ (expensive!) natural healing.

Each treatment (thus far) consists of 22 acupuncture (needle) points.(and that’s a SPORTS bra so dont even start trippin’ on me)

While the Dr. is extracting the needles (you can still see some sticking out of my feet)

Week 50: Blue Blossom: Masked!

What shall you call me? “Yellow Dust Super Woman” “Blue-Bibled Wonder Woman”…tried to think of a fun, funky name…Mom: what do you say? Your good at word play.

********The reason for the mask: every Spring time (especially April) yellow dust sweeps over from China to South Korea. Yellow dust is pollution, dust, dirt, and a whole lot of nastiness that blows over into South Korea by way of the winds. Many people fall ill during this time. I’ve found that while the mask does not protect me from getting sick or make me ‘better,’ it definitely protects from the pollen and yellow dust and the air pollutants. For a week straight I was sneezing right and left; as soon as my alias “Blue Blossom: masked!” came out, the sneezes stopped.********

The title is actually clever (reflexion of the author lol j/k kk ^^); the title has a double meaning. Many flix are from Cherry Blossom Street that is simply stunning for about 10 days in April. Additionally, my middle name ‘Hoa’ means ‘Blossom’ in Vietnamese. The blossoms aren’t masked, but this gal is ^^

 Behind the scenes, behind the mask

Oh No! Cover your face, you’re unmasked!

 Classic Springtime flix. Time to stop and smell the …tulips. 😉

Famous Cherry blossom St. in Seoul  

Flix taken by: Be Hoa