Gyeongju: "Old Capital of Shilla Dynasty"

Gyeongju is one of Korea's tourist highlights. It is near the east coast of Korea, and took us about 3 hours to get there by bus. We visited this interesting city on the 27th and 28th December. Things have been kind of busy since then, what with skiing and Philippines holidays (oh DEAR!) that I am only getting round to posting a report about Gyeongju almost 2 months later. This is definitely one of thise 'time flies when you're having fun' situations!

Anyway, so, Gyeongju. Gyeongju and Sangju were once upon a time the joint capitals of Korea: this was during the impressive Shilla dynasty which ruled Korea for 992 years (from 57BC-935AD). To quote our Gyeongju guidebook : "A land where the rising sun lays its first rays, Kyongju [romanised spelling of Korean words is frustratingly variable!!] was the ancient capital of Shilla Dynasty where the splendid culture of Shilla was flowering for 992 years (Kim Yong-Nam 2008)." Sangju, the lesser known baby sister of Gyeongju, has since the Shilla dynasty sadly fallen into obscurity, that is until we stumbled upon it of course...

But Gyeongju has a number of impressive historical treasures. According to the UNESCO website "The Gyeongju Historic Areas contain a remarkable concentration of outstanding examples of Korean Buddhist art, in the form of sculptures, reliefs, pagodas, and the remains of temples and palaces from the flowering, in particular between the 7th and 10th centuries, of this form of unique artistic expression."
Two of these are recognised by UNESCO as world cultural heritage sights, and Gyeongju has itself has been designated "as one of the world's ten most historic sites for its abundant cultural heritages that have stayed in one place for more than two thousand years" (Kim Yong-Nam 2008). I daresay, these cultural heritages would be that much more intersting to me if they had up and left and not stayed in one place for more than 200o years...I can just picture the Buddhas, temples and royal tombs prancing around the countryside! How unruly!

Nonetheless, we had a really interesting time in Gyeongju. We managed to see both Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto, which are the UNESCO highlights of Gyeongju. The temple itself was not that different from other temples we've seen but the sheer size of the complex was certainly impressive. Seokguram on the other hand really was amazing and had a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere to it.

Seokguram Grotto is a cave in the mountainside where a large carved stone Buddha stands. He is surrounded by 'guards' and 'lesser gods' who protect him as he looks out over the East Sea: the sun is said to shine onto the Buddhas face at sunrise and "such structure creates a myserious but splendid spectacles" (Kim Yong-Nam 2008).

The walk up to the grotto was also really beautiful: it had recently snowed in Gyeongju and the beautiful brightly coloured lanterns which were strung between the trees made for irresistible photo opportunities! Jules, Emily, Shirley and myself certainly had a great time there! The other sights of interest which we managed to take in during our visit were the Tumuli Park where all the Shilla kings and noblemen are buried in huge tombs, the Chomsongdae Observatory tower and the Gyeongju National Museum.

Tumuli park was quite a sight: it is the centre of a vast number of burial mounds which are up to 22m high and have a dimater of up to 82m [This habit of quoting exact measurments of cultural and historical structures is one which I have inadvertently picked up from plaques and signs which accompany such sights - the guidebook is of course also full of them!] These tombs/mounds are scattered all around the city and really bring home to visitors how important this city is in Korean history. Of all the cities we've visited in Korea, Gyeongju definitely feels the most well-preserved in terms of traditional Korea: it seems to have blended modern high-tech buildings and so on quite well with its rich historical architecture and treasures.

The Chomsongdae Observatory tower was, well...cute. And a bit overrated. It looks like a tubby milk can made of stones. It is said to be the oldest observatory still standing in east Asia, and was built in 647AD. I guess this is very long ago for people to have been observing the night sky...but a quick google search verifies my thoughts: the Germans were at it 7000 years ago...take that Korea! Anyway, it is a cute little tower and is made of 361 stones, the number of days in the lunar calendar, which is a nice touch! According to Kim Yong-Nam (2008): "Chomsongdae itself is a very scientific construction and every stone holds all the symbpolic meanings." Nice. We took a photo of it nonetheless!

Our final visit in Gyeongju was to the National Museum. This is a very large complex at which one could spend days learning all about Shilla history and Korean history in general: but the rather poor English translations would certainly make this a rather tedious task! I really find it a pity that one of Korea's premier museums could not track down a single native English-speaker to smooth over the English in the explanatory notices which accompany most displays in the museum. The information contained in these notices was also a bit disappointing and not very informative: once again we noticed a heavy emphasis on dimensions and measurements and dates, and we were often left wondering what the significance of certain artifacts was. Anyway, the museum did enlighten us a bit in the glorious history of the Shilla dynasty and how and why it came to be so important to Korea (go there yourself to find out!)

So all in all we really enjoyed our visit to Gyeongju: we had our fill of sights and tourist attractions and had lots of lovely photo opportunities! Koreans certainly are proud of their history (no surprises there!), and rightly so: they have some magnificent treasures and I think Gyeongju was a great place for us to get to know these treasures a little.

One last rather amusing note: we have picked up a very strong pattern of anti-Japanese sentiment during our touristy visits around Korea. And of course from people we have met; one cannot deny how strongly the Koreans dislike the Japanese. These two countries have had innumerable wars and conflicts, and the jury is out as to who suffered more: The Koreans of course say they suffered much worse at the hands of the Japanese than the Japanese did at the hands of the Koreans. I'm sure the opposite is said in Japan. Either way, almost every temple, statue or other significant structure we have visited in Korea was at some stage burnt down or damaged by "a Japanese invasion" and later re-built by the Koreans. It's frightening, but for us it's got to the point of being a little amusing too: "If the Japanese didn't burn it down, it doesn't exist!"
The Japanese even managed to harm the Buddha in Seokguram Grotto which stayed perfectly preserved for so long: "According to many records of the past, there had been no significant deterioration until 19th century. However, during the Japanese occupation period, deterioration started. Shilla people's scientific and architectural genius [of course!] was so profound that some unexplainable principles had protected the structure from natural deterioration by humidity. But the Japanese attempt to reinforce the structure by applying cement rather worsened the situation by absorbing the humidity. Repair work by Japanese 1913-1915."

Now for the photos:

Bulguksa Temple:
This view of the temple is one of the most famous and adorns most postcards of the complex. So I can't claim this photo. But you would've figured out that I couldn't have taken it as the leaves are red and autumny (i.e. it was taken at least 2 months before we got there when things were rather wintery and brown...) and also, big giveaway: there are no tourists in the photo! Whoever took this photo must have had some clout and managed to clear away the hordes!

Jules and our lady friends on the steps in front of the main hall at the temple (Emily from the UK on the left, Shirley from Sangju - originally Canada - on the right)

Seokguram and the snow and pretty lanterns:

One is not allowed to take photos of the Buddha in the grotto, so this is another borrowed photo. (I'm sure way too many photos were taken during the Japanese invasion and did irrepairable damage to the Buddha! haha!) (That's if they had cameras back then of course :))

This is ths view from the Seokguram Grotto out over the countryside with the East Sea in the far distance.

After Seokguram, Jules and I decided to walk down to the bus stop at Bulguksa (About 2.5km down the hill). This was a beautiful wlak through the forest with a lovely golden wintery sunset. I must confess this was a bit of an 'aah' moment for me in Korea: it was the first time I felt like I was really IN nature and away from the otherwise rat-race-ish feeling that one generally gets in Korea (bigger, better, faster, smarter etc. etc.)

Tumuli Park

One of the many explanatory plaques - I hope you can raed it (click to enlarge) - it is so typical of the language used in these notices!

Chomsongdae Observatory

A donkey and cart statuette from the Gyeongju National Museum "it measures...and is xxcm from left to right...bla bla etc". You get my drift. Anyway, the donkey is made from clay and seems to have had a decorative purpose once upon a time. cute hey.

After all that sight-seeing a bit of candy floss was the order of the day!

Paradise in the Philippines

Jules and I have just returned from the most wonderful holiday in the Philippines. We were there for about 10 days from the 29th January to the 8th February.

It was so refreshing to just get away from Sangju and Korea for a bit: to experience a country where most people speak at least a little English, where the climate is warm and where the people are so laid-back and warm and friendly. (Koreans are certainly warm and friendly but I would hestitate to put them in the 'laid-back' category!)

...And where we had 10 days to ourselves to do just as we pleased - this was probably the most important part of all! These 10 days of freedom to come and go as we liked and just to relax did us the world of good!

We were in the south-central part of the country. We flew from Inchen/Seoul to Cebu City on Cebu Island, which is a 4 hour flight. Cebu is the 2nd largest city in the Philipines. We stayed there for one night, had some time to take in some of the historical sights of the city, and then we caught a ferry to Bohol Island. The ferry took about 90 minutes. Bohol is a popular tourist destination in the Philippines: mostly for the diving, snorkelling and beautiful beaches (and of course the famous "Chocolate Hills"). We were hoping to experience all those things and a little more...

We were on Panglao Island, which is a smaller island very near Bohol, for 4 days, and then we spent 5 days on Bohol itself.

We experienced the varied scenery, gorgeous beaches and ocean, spectacular coral reefs (both by snorkelling and diving!), warm & welcoming people, beautiful forests/jungle, rivers, wildlife, domestic wildlife, rice paddies with water buffalo, etc. etc.

Some of the words which come to mind when I think of the positive feelings I experienced in the Philippines are: warm, relaxing, freedom, familiar chaos, San Miguel (beer), rum and coke, mangoes, smiling children, warm rain, easy lifestyle, colourful, fresh air, outdoors, exercise, English!, beautiful nature, green lush vegetation...etc...etc the list goes on! The Philippines is often referred to as the Africa if Asia: I tend to agree with this (from what I've expertienced anyway, not that I've seen much of Asia) but the chaos, poverty and relaxed approach to life there reminded me of Africa/home quite a bit!

The Philippines certainly does seem a near-perfect holiday destination!

My only (minor) chriticism would be the food: I can honestly say the Korean food is better- surprising actually since it does have some very unusual ingredients! But I do think the generally rather bland and mediocre meals we had in the Phlippines have made me appreciate the effort Korean people make with their food: flavour and freshness, presentation and variability in textures make a big difference!

We took soo many photos during our holiday. Jules has posted some of the better ones on his Facebook profile. I have turned some of them into powerpoint slides/jpeg files and will post them here. I hope they give you a good idea of what a great time we had!

Boxing Day Lunch in Korea: Styela clava

As if it isn't bad enough that I am at school on boxing day/family day, I also got the worst menu item at lunch: mi do duk soup.

So what is mi do duk? Mi do duk is also known by it's latin name Styela clava (Herdmann, 1881) or its common English name the 'clubbed tunicate' or 'stalked sea squirt'.

As hard as one tries, NONE of these names sound vaguely appetising but at the same time, none of them can convey the absolute height of unpleasantness one experiences when one has this creature in ones mouth! It is simply horrible.

It is described on the website of the British Columbia Shellfish Grower's Association as follows:

Distinguishing Features:
- solitary ‘club-shaped’ tunicate;
- Tunic (outer skin) is tough, brown, bumpy, and wrinkly;
- Attached to substrate by a stalk (about 1/3 of the total length);
- Two short siphons. closely spaced, with alternate red and tan bands;
- Often overgrown by other fouling organisms. (Other?????fouling?????)

Here are some pictures of this delightful little animal (I guess it's Mother loves it!):

eeeew, who in their right mind would CHOOSE to eat this thing?? Oh well, we're all entitled to our unique cultures.

To the mouth it feels very rubbery and bumpy, but the worst part is when you bit into one of these poor innocent creatures, the last gulp of sea water in took in before it's death is squirted into your mouth, eeeewwwww! yugh yugh yugh.

Anyway, I now know to avoid this soup: it is just not worth it. I feel I have established myself as friendly and open to trying everything in Korea. I am now moving gingery onto the next phase where I admit that I don't like some of their food: enough lying to please everybody now!

Christmas Good Times

Here are a couple of photos of our celebrations at Christmas.
We had cheese and wine for Christmas Eve with a British friend Emily who's stopping over in Korea on her world backpacking tour.
On Christmas Day we had two of our teacher friends, Devon and Shirley. join us for a lovely roast lunch and home-made christmas hats!
A great time was had by all - as is customary on Christmas, we gorged ourselves on good food but it was so delicious and all in all we had a lovely relaxing day.

Season's Greetings to you all! Love Jess and Jules x

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In my new Christmas dressing gown - my treat to myself!

Cheer Up Jessica Teacher!

I had a particularly bad week at school last week and arrived at school on Thursday morning feeling horribly homesick and tearful...as you know by now news about us travels fast and of course in no time at all the whole school knew that I was not feeling well!

I skipped my first lesson and managed to compose myself - after being fed calming tea, soy milk, crackers and fruit - and I did teach the rest of the lessons that day. Everyone was very concerned and I must say my eyes were opened to how much my fellow staff and the students do care about my well-being. It wasn't nice feeling being so sad but they really warmed my heart. The students' whose class I had missed came running up to me and wanted to know why I hadn't been to THEIR class - i.e. they had missed me, what a nice feeling!

The highlight of my day was the last lesson where the students had written me a message on the board, just so cute and kind!
As much as the Koreans sometimes drive us nuts and are a crazy bunch one can't help liking them!
(P.S. Even when trying to cheer me up, the students do add that they "we are always watching you" - at least they're honest!!)

SNOW!

Today was the first time we woke up to a slightly whiter Sangju: there is a thin layer of snow on the ground, it is so beautiful! I decided to take a taxi to school and I'm glad I did: even walking to the taxi on the snowy ground was slippery: I can't imagine how slippery it must be on a bicycle! Especially in light of the fact that Julian formally announced to me yesterday that I am the most clumsy person he's ever met! :) (I have to agree unfortunately...)
The Nakdong river is now completely frozen over in most parts and looks beautiful too.
More on snow and hopefully some pictures soon!
(I am holding thumbs for my first white Christmas!)

School

Things have been a bit quiet on my blog - apologies! We haven't had that much news and I have been making an effort to work hard at school and not let myself get distracted!
So I think it's about time for a post on school - not a bad idea since that's the reason I'm here at all and I spend a third of the 24-hour day at school!

I teach at two schools in Sangju. My main school is Sungshin Girls' High School. I teach there three days a week, and the other two days a week I teach at Sangju Girls Commercial High School. I get a bonus on my salary for teaching at two schools which is great. And fortunately for me the schools are neighbours on the same property as they are both private schools run by the same trust foundation. Private school in Korea isn't quite the same thing as in South Africa: they still follow the same curriculum as the government schools and the teachers are government employees- like me. They are a bit more expensive and I think in general the quality of education is better and the teachers possibly more motivated than in a public school.

Anyway, so let me start off by telling you abut Sungshin Girls' Middle School. There are 700 girls. They are in 3 grades and there are 6 classes per grade. Usually theer are 35 students per class. I only teach the 1st and 2nd grade students (this is equivalent to Grade 7 and 8 students in the SA school system). This means I see each class once a week for a 45-minute lesson. I teach a total of 20 hours a week (my contract says 22 but for now 20 will do just fine): Of this I teach 14 hours at the middle school and 8 hours at the high school, so I teach 4 lessons a day. In between lessons I sit at my allocated spot in the teacher's room. This is a room where each teacher has a desk and computer. There's a small kitchen and "rest area" with couches and a massage sofa - apparently this is only for the older male teachers to use, because only they really have that much stress!! Damn Korean men, they think they are the bees knees. Feminism has a way to go in this country.

So at the middle school we have lunch at 12:30 and all the teachers and ss traipse over to the cafeteria (shared with the high school) and the teachers can help themselves to lunch. We get a tray with little sections in and in these sections one dishes rice (always bottom right!), soup (bottom left) and the veggies, kimchi and some kind of meat dish. There is usually also some kind of fried meat in a batter or crumbed schnitzel type stuff. The rice is sometimes accompanies by seaweed or beans. Some of the less pleasant food items in the school lunch for me have been cooked seaweed (the dry stuff is palatable but cooked and kind of limp and steaming it just doesn't go down that easily), seaweed soup, funnny squishy sea sponge stew, acorn jelly (in soup and with veggies) and of course rice cake. But I am getting used to the rice cake: it is actually one of the lesser evils! It is more predictable than some of the other food. Another thing I don't enjoy that much at lunch is the barley tea afterwards. It's not compulsory and so I can usually avoid it but some of the teachers feel compelled to hand me a cup if they see me walking out of the cafeteria not having had the barley tea, eew! It just kind of tastes very earthy and brown. Weird. They say in Korea barley tea is like water, very important and good for your health. Oh well. So that's lunch.

I have tried to take some photos of the students in my classes but they are incredibly camera shy. This ties in with the obsession with image in Korea - in fact obe could probably quite safely say that Koreans are vain: there are mirrors everywneher! They are terrified that they might look less than perfect on the photograph. So in most of the photos I've taken they are all trying to cover up their faces, so I've given up. This is the best you'll get! They all agree to having photos taken but then all cover up...oh well. I took these photos at the middle school during the 'superheros' lesson. It was one of my more 'laid-back' lessons and the students were allowed to chat in Korean. They quite enjoyed it and came up with some interesting ideas for their superheroes!

This is Mimi - she is one of my best students. (Mimi is of course her English name, I haven't yet got round to learning their Korean names though I would like to try) She's in the Grade 1-1 class and is very confident and speaks English quite well. I think she's probably one of the students who's parents send her to an English Academy or Hagwon for extra English after school.
These students have such a long day: they're at school from 8 to 5pm and then they go straight to the Hagwon for an hour or two before dinner (the Hagwon sends busses to the schools to pick up the students). Ir's pretty amazing stuff. Koreans are incredibly serious about their careers, making money and being successful. They give their all to get into a good college/university and the parents push their kids incredibly hard to be successful. This really does put a lot for pressure on the kids. It's actually quite sad.

This is the whole Grade 1-1 class in their 'homeroom' classroom which is where I teach them. They're a really great class to teach: chatty and mostly out-going and don't mind trying to speak English even if they're not that good.
Our school is going to be getting a new 'English Zone' next semester i.e. a classroom dedicated to English: I can't wait to have my 'own' classroom!
My co-teachers at the middle school are Lucy (Song Jeung Suk), Mr Park, Mrs Kim and Cathy (Miss Kim). They are mostly good co-teachers and we do our best to communicate effectively in the classroom! (It is hard at times!!)

So at the high school I teach the 1st and 2nd grade students. (=Grade 10 and 11). I see the Grade 1 students once a week and the Grade 2 students once every three weeks! This seems a bit futile...how much can they learn and remember between one lesson and the next?? Oh well, it must be better than them not having exposure to a native teacher at all....well that's what I keep telling myself!

The high school students are generally at a much lower English level than the middle school students. This is most likely because it is a 'commercial' high school i.e. these girls will most likely not be going to University but will go straight into a job. Not the most respected people in Korea the non-university lot. So they are quite unmotivated about school and learning - not surprising as they are prpobably 'looked down upon'by many people in Korea. A bit sad. Anyway, this means they are also a bit less disciplined than the middle school students and I find they have a bit more attitude than the middle school - although this might also have to do with their age.

There is a class in the first grade, the Grade 1-6 class which makes me want to tear my hair out almost every lesson I have with them! They are rowdy and chatty and just keep talking throughout the lesson no matter what I say. Very frustrating because I know they understand so little of what I say but maybe if they tried to listen they would understand at least something! And Mr Kim, my co-teacher in that class is such a softie. He has very little control over the class and just let's them get away with anything. He keeps telling me to be patient, and I just want to tell him that he's being way too patient and the girls are running all over him, aargh! Anyway, I'm sure we'll work out some middle ground sometime...

Mr I teach with three co-teachers at the high school. This means they are in class with me and help me to keep discipline in class. They also do a lot of translating. The actual language I am teaching I try not to have translated because they should be able to understand that but the instructions and explanations for activities and games usually have to be translated. So I have Mr Kim, Mr Yoo and Mr Kang. Because I don't yet speak Korean and they sometimes battle to understand my accent we sometimes battle to communicate but we do our best and things generally work out OK! Kang was in the US army and his English is great: we get on very well and he helps me a lot at the high school.

Mr Kang and I in the Grade 1-4 classroom. He's a bit of a joker, hence the 'mock-serious' look!

These are the students in the Grade 1-4 class in the high school: also one of my favourite classes. They're a really lively bunch and enthusiastic. But obviously not about having their photos taken, I will stop harassing the girls now. No more photos.

So that's my bit about school and teaching. There is so much more to tell and write. We recently went on an in-service training course to Gyeongju...rather than training it actually just opened up a whole can of worms: it made us realise how inefficiently this EPIK (Government English Programme in Korea) is being run. We have so few guidelines on what to do with the students...and they pay us so much. It's pretty crazy. But more on that another time.