Busan, Seoul, Itaewon and Paju

My school is like a ghost town right now - it's so quiet in here, I had to peek in a classroom just to make sure the kids were at school today. Indeed they are, but I guess it's a big test day or something. I wonder if I'll have any classes today?

So what's been happening in Korea lately? Well, a little bit of traveling around the country, that's what. Korea is only about 100,000 km²(compared to 10,000,000 km² for Canada), so getting around to places generally doesn't take too much effort. In the past few weeks, Shannon and I have been to Seoul and Busan, the two largest cities in Korea, as well as a few other minor stops in between.

The first stop was Seoul, which was really just a necessary detour on the way to Paju. Paju is home to the largest "English Village" in Korea. "What's an English Village?" you say? Glad you asked! It's a few things:

1) It's a giant replica of what an western-style town looks like with a slightly Asian feel to it.

2) It's a small western-style town turned into a mini-Disneyland and called an educational experience.

3) It's a giant drain on the local governments tax funds, as there's no way educating children on how to speak English requires a giant concert hall, two swimming pools and a fully operational (yet destination limited) trolley car.

Shannon and I are thinking of working at this English Village, as it pays fairly well and most of the teachers working there seem to like it (it has one of the highest resigning rates we've heard of in the country). However, it's rather isolated, and sits a stone's-throw away from the DMZ, so barbed wire and military posts would be a regular part of our lives living there.

*Quick Interlude: One class has come so far today, my grade 1's. The kids tricked me into saying the crayons were "poo-colour", which was pretty funny.*

After visiting Paju, we made the two-hour trek (along with a friend of ours who's moved to Paju) back into Seoul. Technically we were in Seoul, but the area of town we went to, named Itaewon, is so far removed from what anything else in Korea is like, it's hard to imagine it as being a legitimate part of the country. Most restaurants, stores and bars here all cater to different people and cultures from around the world, and English is spoken more commonly than Korean. We actually found it a bit overwhelming, and ducked out to a small Korean restaurant for a while. I know I've put down Korean food a lot in the past, but this place turned out to be unexpectedly delicious, so much so that we ordered double of everything we had (the beer included). And, after eating enough food to fill up 7 people, it only cost us $9 each.

Last weekend Shannon and I went to Busan, the second largest city in Korea. There was an ultimate hat tournament taking place there, right on the main beach in town, so the two of us hopped on a bus and had a monsterously good time meeting new people and playing sports for the weekend.

Of course, even an amazing experience doesn't come without it's own little tidbits of weirdness, challenges and unexpected oddities. Take the beach for example. The whole thing (well, the sand anyway) was shipped in from somewhere else so that Busan could have a nice, authentic beach feel to it. It's the flattest beach you'll find anywhere, as the tides never rise above up more than a quarter way up the beach. They have to clean the sand regularly just to keep all the crud from building up, though I still managed to gouge myself nicely on a hunk of mystery material while diving for the disc.

The tournament itself was great, with my team being given a serious advantage on experienced players. It wasn't until the final game that anyone managed to score more than 7 or 8 points on us (games go to 13), and though we lost in the final, it will be remembered (by me anyway) as a questionable matter, as the other team lost one of their weakest players and replaced him with the hottest guy (in terms of skill, not aesthetics) in the tournament. In the end we lost 13-8, but it was a nice and intense affair for everyone involved. Running on sand for 4 hours a day, two days in a row, is a tiring affair, and after getting back to Mokpo, my body nearly shut down completely. My first day back, I hardly had enough energy to give the kids word search puzzles, much less actually teach them anything.

If you want to check out the rest of the photos from the weekend, go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1811&l=e8f88&id=515456629 I put most of the epic shots I have here, but there are a few goodies still to see. Be warned - there are shots of partying and mildly lewd behaviour in there, nothing to get your heart racing, but enough that you might question the actual maturity level we professional English teachers actually hold. Enjoy!