The title of this blog post comes from the most famous verse of the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Here's the poem. The last verse is my favorite, and apparently the favorite of, like, the world, since it's the only part most people know/have heard. The poem is lovely (dark and deep) though.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Anyway, this sentiment about woods comes from the hiking I did this weekend. But first, a quick recap of the week. Also I really messed up the formatting of this blog because I don't know how to internet.
I am finally settling into my life in Korea. I was really happy this week, coming off of the high of the Janggu performance last week and getting over my Mr. Show disappointment because there is talk of it happening again. I had a really good week with my kids at school after my open class. They liked me! The principal said my pronunciation and teaching will really help the kids.
I have been spending the afternoons alone since So Jung usually has to leave to go to a class about teaching English and we are the only two in my office/classroom. She leaves at like 2:20 every day, but this was the last week of that. When she finally go to stay on Thursday, we ordered pizza because lunch sucked and the subject teachers were not having it. It had like pumpkin on it, which was really weird but also delicious. My coworkers were very interested in my reaction, and were also stunned to learn that I do not usually eat pickles with my pizza.
So I finally got to spend the afternoon with my coteacher. Yay! She learned a lot about Western culture, such as our "come here" gesture being different. But we mostly talked about the differences in weddings. Korean and American weddings share very little commonality, as it turns out. At least that's the impression I got. She was so surprised to learn about the traditions we have. In Korea, they usually rent the wedding dress and it is often in relation to the wedding venue. The venue has food too, and usually people are being served food while the ceremony is happening. There isn't a huge reception and all night party. But we had the most fun discussing the idea that for Americans (and Western culture) it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress (or see the dress?) before the bride walks down the aisle. So Jung was so shocked! Even more so when it does not go the other way - it's not bad luck for the bride to see the groom's tuxedo or whatever. She loved the idea but was also like "but what if the groom doesn't like the dress? Does he sometimes cry when he sees her? Why do you buy the wedding dress? Isn't that expensive? How do you decide what the groom will wear to match the bride? What do bridesmaids do? Is it bad to see their dresses before?" It was a fun backdrop to laminating and cutting out a million things for our classes. We also discussed whether or not So Jung would be teaching English next year, and when I said I hoped she did, So Jung asked me why. When I replied that I really liked teaching with her, she got very happy and shy and was like "Really? I like teaching with you too!"
I really love teaching here and I love my coteachers. But I know that that could very easily change. Su Hyeon has to go to some workshop about teaching English better in November, and they are trying to find a sub for her (which I find confusing because I thought she was essentially subbing for the teacher who had a baby?) so I hope that means she'll continue to teach English with me. So Jung is doing graduate work in teaching English, so it's easier for her when she's teaching it. I also don;t know how I feel about Korea's policy that the teachers stay at the school for 5 years. A bunch of the teachers I know at the school will leave soon because they've been here for 5 years. I find the changing and reassigning of schools to be kind of sad. It's different than having teachers be a fixture at a school in America. And it must be hard maintaining relationships when you could be placed across the city from each other. I guess I'll see what happens.
On Friday we got to have a short day on account of our teacher trip. We left right after lunch, so I didn't have one of my 4th grade classes. EXCEPT THIS MEANS THAT OF THE 4 GRADES I TEACH, 3 OF THEM ARE ALL ON DIFFERENT LESSONS AND IT IS SO ANNOYING TO PLAN FOR. This is one of the frustrating things for my schedule. I teach 3-6th grade, but I only see my 6th and 4th graders for every English class. I see 3rd and 5th for one of two English classes, so it's really hard to lesson plan with my coteachers when everyone is on different schedules. It's not fun for them either, since they sometimes have to plan with me and sometimes don't.
Anyway, teacher trip time! We were traveling all the way across Korea to Gangwon-do, which is on the opposite coast from Seoul, It took us 4 hours by bus to get there. Ugh, And we ate a lot of seafood and stayed in a traditional Korean house. My roommates were So Jung and the teachers of my two favorite (6th grade) classes, and they speak some English, so it was fun. Unfortunately our room did not have a connecting bathroom, so we had to share with the other rooms in the house or go to the public one. I almost always elected to go to the public one since I am uncomfortable walking through a room of sleeping people whom I do not know very well.
We arrived after our stupid long bus ride to the traditional house area. Our accommodations were lovely, if lacking in bathrooms a bit.
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| It was so nice to be out of Seoul! |
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| It reminded me of driving to Bonaventure. |
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| Sleeping on a floor mat with a very firm pillow and surprisingly warm blanket. |
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| Traditional house where we were staying. |
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| The whole area. |
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| I don't know what this is, but there were people drinking here. |
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| Apparently a lot of dramas are filmed here. |
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| Early mornings |
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| So pretty! |
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| More scenery from the bus |
The first night was devoted to dinner, which by default includes a lot of drinking. I was a bit concerned about this, but I managed. Usually I am pretty good at avoiding most of the drinking until the others have a lot to drink, since that's when the English comes out. Once there has been enough soju consumed, suddenly everyone feels confident enough to try and speak to me. A lot of them tell me that they want to talk to me but are embarrassed at their poor English or think they will embarrass themselves in front of their students, which I totally understand. I was able to show them that I am learning some Korean, and they thought it was hilarious that I learned some phrases from class (like stop it, sit down, don't do that, etc.) so I think I endeared them a bit. I also taught them to toast in Italian (Salute!) and for some reason, the phrase bottoms up (which is not really appropriate to say to the principal, and yet...), which they are now obsessed with. I was told that the phys ed teacher studied English in college, and asked if I could drink soju, liked soju, and had I ever had alcohol before on may occasions. I tried to explain that in college in America there is kind of a big drinking culture (hey, SBU was always ranked like top 5 in hard liquor schools) so that drinking a shot of soju (ONE SHOT! They yell elatedly) is not particularly hard, since for some reason soju goes down easy but freaking kills you later. When I spoke Korean they applauded, and when I drank soju they were excited, and I really had a good time.
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| I told them people wouldn't believe what I was eating here. Raw things, fish, stuff made from acorns, and lots of tofu. |
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| The plate of fish. |
The food was really not my cup of tea. It wasn't bad, but almost everything about Korean food is different than American, so it always takes me time to adjust. Also, I am not a fan of raw fish. In a funny incident, when So Jung was explaining to me what we were going to eat, she referred to it as "rotten fish" and I was like omg I am going to die. Then she realized her mistake and we laughed like crazy about it.
After we had dinner, we went out to the beach and enjoyed some games. I had not really any clue what was going on, but I stayed close to my coteachers and vaguely did what everyone else was doing. We flung our shoes at a circle in the sand for a chance at $10, played a version of duck,duck, goose, played some train game involving rock paper scissors (as so many things here do) and ate ice cream. It was fun! For a while my 3 roommates and the phys ed teacher snuck off to get coffee in lieu of playing some weird beach game, where it delighted everyone to find out that I am single (let the attempted coupling me up with people begin!) and a series of questions randomly peppered throughout the rest of the night about what I find attractive. After we were found out, we played more games with the rest of the crew. My coworkers become very affectionate with alcohol we have that in common) and it was really fun to have them running up to me like "CESCA!!" and linking arms with me to hang out. We even went into the water (just a bit). I was fortunate enough to escape attempts to be thrown in by the phys ed teacher and one of the fourth grade teachers because I just went in myself. It was really fun!
Though the word noraebang (like karaoke) was thrown around a lot, we returned to our lodgings for some rest before the hiking the next day.
Now, let me start off by saying that I am not a super fan of hiking. I like walking through the woods on a nice path of flat land. I do not like trying to navigate 10km of difficult, treacherous, muddy, steep, dangerous terrain at the breakneck speed of the Koreans. In fact, I don't really remember much of the scenery and I didn't take many pictures because the ground was so uneven and it was difficult to keep up and stay upright. I trip when the ground is flat, so this was not my greatest moment.
Still, it was actually kind of fun. Except it's not the kind of fun I want to have for 4 hours.
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| Scenery from the hike. |
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| Windmills! |
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| My fellow hikers. So Jung in the purple, and phys ed teacher Jin Sang. |
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| We got real close to the windmill. It sounded like an airplane! |
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My other coteacher, Su Hyeon, in the pink jacket hates hiking, but she was always in the front. She got thrown in the water the night before, so her shoes were wet. But she was a trooper!
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It has occurred to me that I have no pictures of me with my coteachers. I would have taken some on this trip but I looked terrible and also people were taking group pictures. I'll get some later! Also, before the hike people were surprised when I didn't wash my hair or put on make up. Why? We're going hiking. I was a sweaty mess most of the day even though it was cold, which probably explains why I am sick right now.
Anyway, we finally got to the top of the mountain. We had some makgeolli and snacks, because when you hike a mountain you should always have alcohol and cookies. And squid. So. Much. Squid.
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| Yay! |
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| Beautiful! |
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| There were a lot of windmills, okay? |
My legs no longer feel like legs. It was a great workout, but not one I willingly did. Apparently, none of the teachers like hiking, but the principal does, so we do it. Apparently last year they went hiking at night and in the morning, so I am glad I missed that. I would not like to break my neck in front of these people.
I was concerned that since no more alcohol was involved no one would really talk to me. My fears were not unreasonable, since no one really talked to me much during the hike. But no one was really talking to anyone for most of it. It was a lot of heavy breathing. On the final descent, people kept asking me if I was okay. I was really tired so my response was "I'm tired" when in my head it was "YES I AM OKAY EVEN THOUGH THE ONLY THING ANYONE HAS SAID TO ME IN THE LAST 4 HOURS IS ARE YOU OKAY."
I'm not sure which was overall more exhausting: the hiking or being constantly surrounded by the language that I still don;t understand. Usually after a week of school I can unwind and talk to Tina and my friends, but this weekend was allllllllllll Korean. It was still fun, and I can understand bits. I am so excited to start a class and really start learning!
Our bus ride back sucked because of traffic. It took us like 5 hours to get back. But So Jung and I talked about Kpop and Kim Woo Bin (her favorite actor) and Korean fan culture versus American. We discussed how silly it was for fans to get mad that an idol is getting married, or (in Kim Woo Bin's case) how it's a scandal to use fan gifts for their girlfriends. I also could not come up with a great explanation for why we don't call our singers and stuff idols, and she couldn't really explain when Koreans do.
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| Known as "Eyebrows" in The Heirs by me and my friends. |
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| BUT HOT DAMN IS HE ATTRACTIVE |
I explained to her that Americans found it strange that these huge entertainment companies (SM and YG and the like) find these kids and get them in training programs for years before churning out idol group after idol group, and that Americans valued like individualism and "being discovered" and being unique to be an artist. I personally think a lot of the Kpop groups are unique in their sounds and personalities, but it is definitely a different industry. We talked about the scandals and our favorite groups. It was really fun! Just not for 5 hours.
I slept for quite a bit, and I could hear them playing some Korean games. Then when I went home I went to Mcdonalds because I was starving and I got a surprise:
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Ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese AND GOT A DOUBLE FO FREE
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Then I watched tv and went to bed, and now I am sick. I slept for like 12 hours without realizing it, then took a 3 hour nap today. I hope I'm better soon. At least I have Wednesday off for my school's birthday, but I need to do some bank stuff and get stuff ready for Halloween lessons! I am in a good place right now.
Overall, it was a really good weekend. I think I established some meaningful connections with my coworkers, and i had fun despite the fact that no one actually likes hiking. I'm really happy here and I hope I can continue to grow!
And while I am not a big fan of hiking,
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
