Check out how awesome I am.
This week I feel exceptionally more comfortable. I am getting different circles of friends, which gives a few new options on the weekends. I am finally saying ne instead of si. I use please and thank you regularly. They seem to use two number systems, I can use one pretty quickly, and the other up to three off the top of my head * the later is the used, not exclusively, for ordering, and I tend not to order more than two or three things at a time (unless it is beer, Hey-O! just kidding). Aniyo is no. But, I have heard that it is kind of rude to use for everything that I would normally use it for. So instead of shaking their heads here they make an X with their arms and I just use that for everything. I can’t help but to think of Wonder Woman blocking bullets with her golden bracelets when I do it, or a living skull and cross bones, so that makes it funny. I am getting better and better at the written language, but I still need a little help with the tougher symbols.This last weekend I met up with Trevor and some of the teachers from his school and we took a four-hour bus ride to southern Korea to a city called Jinju. It was a great change of pace from Seoul. Seoul has pretty bad pollution, I keep thinking I have allergies or a cough with an itchy throat but I have realized it is just the pollution. It is also pretty hazy here all the time. Getting out and seeing the county was a great change. I saw a nice blue sky and fresh air. It reminded me of leaving Denver, driving to Lake City, then rolling my windows down when I get close and letting in all the fresh air and the smell of the mountains.
JinJu was beautiful. It is the beginning of autumn here so the leafs are just starting to change. The trees here are so cool. They grow in all directions, they will grow in one direction and change at a sharp angle and quickly turn in the other direction or the trunk may split off and start twisting around itself. They often remind me of a giant banzai tree. "Duh, that is what a Banzai tree is, a miniture big tree." Whatever, I can't help it, that is what it reminds me of. The leaves are very big and it makes for a very lush looking forests. I am going to do my best to get seeds or buds back to the states (don’t try and talk me out of it).
An example of an autumn tree. Imanage that in your front lawn!
The Main reason we went to JinJu was to see the Lantern Festival. It commemorates the Imjin war, another case in which the Japanese invaded Korea.
In 1592 Japan invaded Jinju. With just 3800 soldiers Korean General Chung-Mu Gong killed 20,000 Japanese invaders defending Jinju. . Lanterns were used by the Koreans to signal inside and out side the fortresses between families and soldiers to see who was safe. Lanterns were also sent floating down river and raised high on poles to signal and warn troops inside and outside the fortress. General Chung-Mu Gong was killed in the battle.
The following year the Japanese returned with a much bigger army and killed 70,000 Korean soldiers and civilians. The Lantern Festival commemorates these battles by sending lanterns down the river to remember the 70,000 killed and the brave Korean soldiers.
The Lantern Festival took place next the fortress, where the battles took place and it was beautiful. One thing I've noticed about Korea in general is that there are not as many "ancient" temples and building here as I was expecting. One reason is many of the cultural significant stuff was burnt down. It seems that much of Korea's history involves not being absorbed by China or conquered by Japan. One interesting thing they do do with the old temples and fortresses is keep them up with fresh paint and such. It makes for beautiful surreal scenery when you do get to see the sights. The fortress in Jinju, I think, is my favorite place I've visited to since moving here.
The fortress wall and a look inside, it was surprisingly wide open inside.
I really enjoyed myself at the fortress. It had so many stories that I seemed very real when standing at the place where they happened. Looking out over the river and seeing the fortress on the shore it was amazing to think of the Japanese invaders fighting with the Koreans. I imagined it all happening right in front of me. One story I learned was the the story of a women named Non-Gae. When the Japanese occupied an area of Korea they would employ Korean women, called ginyeo, to “entertain” them. After the second invasion a ginyeo named Non-Gae seduced the Japanese General, who lead the invasion and massacre, to a ledge of the fortress. When they embraced she jumped off into the river taking him with her, drowning them both and avenging the deaths of the 70,000.
This is a nice view of part of the fortress from the other side of the river and it is also the spot where Non-Gae martyred herself.
I will take this time to say that for the most part, Koreans hate the Japanese. And I mean HATE. I have read journals from my students praising the atom bomb. One teacher I work with saw a family wearing shirts saying "Thanks for dropping the A-Bomb." One day in class, my fifth graders ask me if my grandparents are veterans. I said they both were. They were so impressed, "Oh, US veteran, US veteran, second war!" When I explained that one had fought the Japanese and lived, "YEAH, kill Japanese!" and they all started jumping up and down shooting fake guns in the air cheering "He Kill Japanese, Kill Japanese!" It was a weird thing to see and kind of funny but I am a little uncomfortable writing this for some reason, but hey, that is what happened.
Anyway, after the fortress we had a nice meal and it was dark and we checked out the Lantern Festival.
Here are a few more pictures of inside the fortress and that night.
They also had silk worms you could eat here. I talked about before how I wanted to try everything. Not so much. I went in saying "yeah, I'll try it..." (smug)... "I've liked everything so far..." (more smug)... when I walked past it unknowingly I got wiff. It was bad. I quietly asked someone what the smell was, silk worm? oops. I was just hoping no one would hold me to it, but I think everyone was thinking the same thing.
They are also famous for Bemibop which a rice meat and veggie bowl. It is hard to explain, but it is very different from a veggie bowl or something that they have at Chinese places back home. It is a very hearty meal some how, sometimes they will fry and egg and put it on top. It is not made with Brocoli or other veggies you would expect, I actually don't know any of the veggies in it, they are leafy and meat is like a shredded/ground beef, that was great. I ate blood sausage too and that was good, Trevor loved it. They also brought us liver, but I like liver anyways so that was good too.
The following week at work was good and I feel comfortable and I get along with the staff. Being in a small town made me second guess living in a gigantic city though. The people were wonderful and bent over backwards to help us. I also learned that being in a small town also means that Koreans that speak English are few and far between, we were lucky enough to have a friend who is fluent who went with us. Even some foreigners came up to us thinking we were new to town and wanted to introduce themselves. They were very genuine and we talked with them for a bit. They said that they stayed around this weekend for the Lantern Festival. They burst our bubble a little, saying that when the festival is not going on, they keep the lanterns under the bridge and use the same ones over and over, but it was endearing just the same. Usually on weekends they take motorcycle trips around the country or explore the islands off the shore. I was pretty envious. I thought, "what if I just stayed out here and didn't go back to Seoul." The thought of staying and spending my weekends on secret islands or in mysterious Asian wilderness got my thoughts running of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-esk adventures. But I know living in Seoul has its perks too. I would miss the the fun stuff in Seoul, like free concerts and clothes in my size. Seoul is so big and I have only seen a small protion of it. It is nice not having to go 4 hours oneway whenever I need the comforts of the city. Plus Korea is not a very big place and I can still do those things on the weekends, I will just have to look a little harder.
I have since learned that Jinju is having a bemibop festival in a few months, I look foward to going back.
