A Walk Through Bujeon Market

Yesterday I walked through (and got a little lost in) Bujeon Market, near Seomyeon.  Below is the video I took on my phone while walking.  Sorry for it being a little shaky.

A Startling Wake-Up Call

Living in South Korea, the thought of war breaking out is never far from the back of my mind.  But, it's just that - in the BACK of my mind.  Last week, everyone was concerned that something would happen on the 10th.  If not on the 10th, then the 11th.  The 15th was an important date to the North Koreans, so something could happen on that day too.  Yesterday was the 15th of April and the day went on as normal.  Even the regular morning news was on instead of coverage of what could happen between North and South Korea.  It was a welcome change of pace.

This morning, however, we got a startling wake-up call.  LITERALLY!  I'm not sure of the exact time, but it was between 5:30 am and 5:45 am.  The air raid siren came on the intercom in our apartment complex.  It lasted maybe 10-15 seconds, but it scared us awake.  Zach and I immediately checked our phones to see if we got e-mails from the U.S. Embassy.  Nothing.  We have a Facebook group for all of the foreigners living in our apartment complex.  Questions were being asked without any real answers.  The weird thing was, no one else besides those in our apartment complex, seemed to have had a siren go off.  Our best guess is that the security guard accidentally pressed the wrong button.  If it had lasted longer, there would have been more cause for concern.  What a way to wake up!

While looking for an e-mail from the U.S. Embassy, I saw that my aunt had sent an e-mail about a bombing at the Boston Marathon.  We went back to sleep, and when we woke up about 30 minutes later, I turned on CNN morning news.  It had coverage of Boston.  While what happened at Boston was absolutely terrible, I cannot help but to be a little selfish and relieved that the tragedy that really happened was not actually in South Korea but somewhere far, far away from me.  (Just being honest.)

Thoughts to Boston and to all those affected.

According to my students.....

According to my students, my hair looks like jajangmyeon (noodles with black sauce - quite tasty).

I have a student who, every time he sees me, points, makes a slurping sound, and says, "Teacha!  Hair look jajangmyeon." (Teacher, your hair looks like jajangmyeon.)

Below are pictures of jajangmyeon and my hair.  I guess I can see a similarity....maybe?!

In my after-school class of 10 students, I asked them what they wanted to do/discuss in class.  They wanted to learn American culture.  "Culture" is such a broad term, so I decided that we would just have a round-table discussion.  It worked out way better than I thought it would.  They had so many questions that I think we could spend at least another 4-5 classes just discussing American culture.  Here are some of the things we talked about.

We mostly talked about schools in America.  Some of the statements/questions that stood out:

--"Schools are easier in the U.S."

--"Do students bring guns to school?"

--"Are there gay people in the U.S.?"  They then wanted to know if I knew any gay people.  I said that I did.  They nearly fell over in their chairs.  When I said that a few of my friends were gay, they pretty much died.

--"Are the bathrooms clean in the U.S.?"  I asked what they meant by that.  They said that there are bugs and mosquitoes in the bathrooms in Korea.  I told them that most schools in the U.S. have air condition in the bathrooms and the hallways (uncommon in South Korea) so the windows aren't open.  They couldn't believe it!

--"Are school lunches in the U.S. delicious?"  "Do you eat a lot of noodles for lunch?"

I am definitely looking forward to our next round-table discussion!

Staying Calm in South Korea

It's finally starting to warm up (at least in Busan).  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom last week and are now losing their flowers and buds of bright green are showing.  Construction projects and roadwork is taking over.  School is in full swing.  Midterms are 2 1/2 weeks away.  It's beautiful in South Korea!  No one is even talking about North Korea and its threats.

I've read several blogs and iReports on CNN about what it's like to live in South Korea at this time.  I am going to paraphrase my favorite ones.

South Korea has been in this conflict with North Korea for 60 years.  North Korea is always threatening South Korea.  This is nothing new!  The U.S. media has had a slow month, or something, and has taken the most recent threats and have just run with them.

So family and friends, please do not worry about us.  Just 30 minutes ago, I got an e-mail from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.  This is what the e-mail said - exactly:

The U.S. Embassy informs U.S. citizens that despite current political tensions with North Korea there is no specific information to suggest there are imminent threats to U.S. citizens or facilities in the Republic of Korea (ROK). The Embassy has not changed its security posture and we have not recommended that U.S. citizens who reside in, or plan to visit, the Republic of Korea take special security precautions at this time. The U.S. Embassy takes as its highest priority the welfare of American citizens in Korea. Should the security situation change, the Embassy will issue updated information.

To assuage your fears even more, Zach and I have a contingency plan for if something were to happen.  We don't have anything packed, but all of our paperwork, legal documents, etc. are in one central place and we can grab it quickly if needed.  We are also enrolled in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), which will send us information if something were to happen.

Do yourselves and us a favor: take what you hear in the media with a grain of salt.  They are giving you the WORST POSSIBLE scenarios.  Everyone here is aware of what is going on; no one is denying it.  It just isn't something new and probably nothing to worry about.  If things were to go south (metaphorically speaking), our government will evacuate us immediately.

Unless and until something happens, we are not going to live in fear.  We are going to continue to live day to day, attend baseball games, celebrate birthdays, go to the gym, and eat our kimchi, and drink our soju.  :)

Lunchtime Opportunities

This week started a new school year in Korea.  I was really looking forward to the start of this semester because I would be coming in at the beginning of a new school year instead of at the beginning of the 2nd semester.  I implemented a new rule/opportunity regarding my classroom at lunchtime.  I told the students that if they want to come to my classroom during lunch, they must either do homework or read a book in English.  If they read books, they could do worksheets for prizes that I would distribute at the end of the semester.

Last year, I had a group of about 4 boys who would come up to my classroom and just hang.  They didn't bother anyone and were no trouble at all.  Sometimes they would talk to me and sometimes they would ask if I would play a song (in English).  They were a lot of fun, actually.  One was a phenomenal singer and a fantastic English speaker.  This year, they are 3rd years in middle school.  They were not excited when I told them about the new rule.

However, today they came up to my classroom at lunch and picked up a book to read (together).  The boy who was weaker in English read while his friends helped him.  These boys are 14 years old and voluntarily helped each other read in English during their lunchtime when they could be doing ANYTHING else.  I couldn't help but smile the entire time.

The video is cut down to about 2 minutes.  The same number of pages covered in the video actually took about 9 minutes.  I was able to cut it down because 7 minutes is them discussing the book in Korean so the weaker student could understand.

Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival

Zach and I attended the Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival today.  This description of the festival comes from an article I read on busanhaps.com:

On the day of the first full moon of the Lunar New Year, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month of the year, the Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival is held in order to pray for good health and good fortune in the coming year.

There were several events around the city and we chose to go to the one at Gwangalli Beach where we witnessed the Daljip.  Daljip (Straw Heap) is the burning of large straw bonfires under the light of the moon.  Today, the moon rose at 4:50 p.m.

Full moon

Zach's Love Teeth

The inevitable happened.  Zach had to get his wisdom teeth pulled.  **Interesting fact: "wisdom teeth" in Korean (사랑니) (sa-rang-nee) means "love teeth".** Over the past year, he has mentioned that his wisdom teeth will have to be removed soon.  He wasn't in a lot of pain but felt discomfort at times.  Zach isn't much of a complainer, especially when it comes to pain.  I blame that on a certain older brother of his...ehm....Ryan.  :)

Since we have ten days (17 days with weekends) off for vacation and we aren't going anywhere, we thought this would be the perfect time to get them pulled.  Zach asked his co-teacher to make an appointment for him since he already tried calling and the receptionist wasn't understanding that he needed his teeth pulled.  She kept saying something about a cleaning.  His co-teacher made the appointment for Feb. 14.  Yes, Valentine's Day.  The dentist spoke pretty decent English and said that he could pull two of them but that the bottom two would have to be done at a hospital.  Zach chose to just have them all pulled at the hospital so that they could all be pulled at the same time.  The dentist even gave us the name and phone number of a hospital that could do it.  He called and the receptionist couldn't understand him.

Luckily I saved the phone number of one of the ladies who worked on my chipped tooth a few months ago.  (She texted me after I left the hospital to make sure everything was fine with my tooth.  Talk about customer service!)  I texted her and got a response immediately.  Zach had an appointment at the hospital the very next day, Friday.  They took x-rays and a CT scan of his mouth.  They then cleaned his teeth.  They agreed with the previous dentist that the two lower teeth would be harder to extract so they made an appointment for Zach to return the following Monday to have his lower, left, wisdom tooth removed.  From what I'm hearing from others, it is uncommon and almost unheard of to have all teeth removed at the same time.

We went back to the hospital Monday to get his tooth removed.  He was in there for about 1 hour.  They didn't knock him out; they gave him a local anesthetic.  Zach said that during the middle of the procedure, he raised his left hand like he was told to indicate pain, and the doctor said that he couldn't give him more medicine.  Zach felt almost everything that was happening and was in severe pain.  When he was finished, the nurse told him to return the following day without an appointment so they could have a quick look to make sure everything was ok.  Before he could leave, they made him go up to the patient rooms floor to get injections.  They gave him a TB test, two shots in the hip and an injection in the arm.  Fifteen minutes after the TB test, he was injected again.  Zach and I are both 99% sure that none of the shots contained pain medicine.

The only positive thing about this whole situation is the cost.  The first dentist charged 6,000 Won (~ $6.00 USD) for a consultation and x-rays.  The hospital charged 50,000 Won (~ $50.00 USD) for the consultation, x-rays, CT scan, and cleaning.  On the day of extraction, the hospital charged 25,000 Won (~ $25.00 USD) for pulling the tooth and injections.  The pharmacy bill was 3,000 Won (~ $3.00 USD).

Though he is not excited about it, Zach will have his second tooth removed this coming Monday evening.  They are also going to remove his stitches from the first tooth.  I hope this one is a lot smoother than the last one and that he doesn't feel as much pain.  Wish him luck!!!