Advertisement
Yesterday I left work early and headed home to put up a travel blog since I'd again be leaving town Friday night. I spent an hour typing it up and putting up pictures. Then the website wiped away all of my work and I was left staring at a blank screen. So I'm at it again but slightly unmotivated to retype everything, especially on my painfully slow work computer that lags about two words behind as I type. Here goes nothing.
Last weekend Jen and I headed off for Wolchulsan, a national park in Jeollanamdo, our region, that we had both been wanting to do since coming to Korea and now that it seemed close enough to do we picked up and set off to complete the 8k, about 5 mile, hike from one end to the other.
Wolchulsan is situated in an area of Korea that isn't too populated which makes the hike a lot more appealing that those found around Seoul. For one thing your not ass to eye level the entire way up staring at the back of somebodies track pants as you make your way to the summit. The weather was nice, the
breeze was cooling and the crowds, at least from where we started were absent. After about two hours of solid hiking we stopped or lunch on top of a peak overlooking the arrowhead ridges of the mountain range. Across from us was the highest peak, Cheonghwangbong, and the remainder of our hike. We finished lunch and set off again to tackle the peak. As you get closer to the top of Cheonghwangbong the rock starts to get steeper and steeper until you have o scramble over boulders and use ropes to pull yourself up. This is actually a common practice on Korean mountains but once you see a 70 year old man and women go up you feel compeled to show off your youth by vaulting over the obstacles and making your way around the slower moving groups. On top of the peaks is where we found the crowds. Rather than stay and join the hordes of Korean picnics we set off down the trail for what is the highlight of the trip.
Situated between to spear like peaks sits an orange mini replica of what looks like the golden gate bridge. Here groups of hikers gather
to take family portraits or couples shots in matching outfits, that's a popular thing over here when your in a relationship. There are even stores that have couples sections where you can by matching his and her shirts, hoodies, even underwear. The best though is when you see a family decked out in the same outfit, always makes me laugh a little.
Anyway, after we made it through the crowds and across the bridge in our comletely individual clothing we headed to the bottom and the end of our 5 1/2 hour hike for much needed refreshment. We decided to fill up on dubu kimchi (pork and kimchi served over tofu) and a delicious bowl of ddongdongju ( A white Korean rice wine that is slightly sweet and drunk from a bowl).
After a few days of recovering and getting back to daily life Wednesday came around as it usually does. However, on this Wednesday the 2012 Worlds Expo hosted in our current hometown of Yeosu opened it's doors to the general public for trail run. There had been a lot of speculation about whether or not the Expo would be finished in time.
They still have a week to finish everything and from what I saw on Wednesday they're gonna need that week. Of about 30ish country pavillions, rooms telling visitors about their countries relationship with the coast (this years theme is about the importance of a healthy ocean and coast), I think 5 or 6 were finished and up and running. The rest were being worked on as we shuffled by. I visited 3 of them. The Thai pavillion is where a mechanical mermaid, the 2nd best type of mermaid, explained the relationship between Korea and Thailand to me before imforming the crowd on the importance of the sea to the Thai people and the economy. The Israeli pavillion was where I watched what I assumed to be Israeli women dressed up on ball gowns singing opera in a dark room where the only lighting was supplied by illuminated pillars that changed their colors from pink, green, blue and red. I'm not sure what any of this had to do with the ocean but it was pretty unexpected and that's probably why I liked it.
The Russian pavilion was a work in progress, at least I hope they were still working
on it otherwise it just wasn't very well planned out. After waiting an hour I was allowed into a small room with a group of probably 25 Koreans. We watched a video without any audio, Korean or English subtitles and were left wondering what the video was all about. The second room was a walkway through fake artic ice where we could read about Russian arctic exploration, finally something was starting to take shape. The door at the opposite end of the hallway opened and we were escorted into a room made to look like the bow of an oil tanker. Here a second video was shown to us. The voiceover was in Russian but there were not any Korean or English subtitles. In fact I think the only guy who understood what was being said was our Russian escort. The video ended as myself and fellow "shipmates" looked around in confussion and made our way through another door. the final door to watch a computer generated video of oil tankers floating in bays and arctic ice. After about 5 minutes the projectors abruptly shut off and we were shown the exit.
After talking to several other
teachers, both Korean and Western I've gathered that a lot of people were disappointed in their first glimpse at the Expo. The stuff that was finished looked nice but there just wasn't enough finished. The buildings aren't quite done, the aquarium is only maybe half full. Many of the tanks are left empty, or in the case of the jellyfish tank somebody had decided that it would be a good idea to throw a bunch of different colored water balloons into the tank to mimic what a school of jellyfish would look like if they had been delivered on time. But like I said, they have a week to finish and Koreans are notorious about getting things done on time, even if it means skipping some corners but I have no doubt that they'll work nonstop in an attempt to get it done. I think one of my students mom's said it best when I talked to her about the Expo. She said, "I was very worried that they won't get it finished but I mentioned it to a friend and all they said was, 'come on, it's Korea. It will be done.' So maybe they will finish the day
before (the 11th of May. The Expo starts on the 12th)."
And to end our pretty easy week, I've only had to teach 3 days, today our school hosted it's sports day. Sports day is basically what it sounds like, the kids get together to do sports and relay races and other activities while the parents get to come and watch. This years weather turned out to be much better when last year when the chance of rain threatened to shut the whole thing down. The sun was out in full force today and I spent a good deal of time in the shade since I had to wear jeans to work. As I helped keep score and watched the events, I even participated in one, I got to thinking about how many elementary school kids I could beat in a tug of war. First, I think it depends on the class. First or second grade I think I have no problem. Give me all the first and second graders you have and I like my chances in a tug of war. But it's when you get to the higher classes that things get tricky. I settled
that myself against 30 3rd graders would be a good starting point and then after that we just keep adding students until we reach a stalemate or I'm beaten. 4th grade maybe I'd start with 30 again. 5th grade 20 and 6th grade 10 seems to be a good starting point. None of this will ever happen of course, it's my last year in Korea and the tug of war rope has been put back into it's closet for the year. The thought helped pass the time though or maybe it was heat stroke.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0524s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb