I guess I should begin with my 23rd Birthday! I decided to take the day off and spend it with my friend Katie who was leaving to go back to South Africa this past Sunday. We had a great day drinking wine, eating burgers and smoking hukah. When I got back to my apartment to get ready for the evening, I noticed a huge bouqet of flowers left in my enclosure! Somehow, my parents had gotten in touch with my co worker Ryan, and with his help, they were able to surprise me with beautiful flowers on my birthday!! It was soo sweet!! Thanks again!!
So that night I met my friends out for dinner at a delicious Korean BBQ restaurant and then headed out to a local bar/club. I had a great time (from what I remember) and it made me think about how close I have gotten with my friends here. It's strange to think that 5 months earlier I didn't even know these people existed and now I am spending my 23rd birthday with all of them! It was amazing though and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!
The next night was Katie's goodbye party and my co worker Joanna and her band (Feed the Boats) played a show dedicated to her. Sooo many people showed up and naturally it ended up being a tear fest, but we all had a great time! I wasn't sure what to get her for a going away present so I decided to just buy a basic white tee-shirt and got all her friends to sign it (I even attempted to draw a Korean flag on the front of it... which, if I do say so myself, didn't turn out THAT bad).
Side note: my students always die of laughter when I draw pictures on the blackboard. I suppose it's because I still draw stick people and my dogs look sort of like disabled guiny pigs! haha. Oh well, who am I trying to impress, seriously?!
Katies home-made shirt with my beautiful drawing of a Korean flag!
After 4 attempts we were able to make a human pyramid sunday night before escorting Katie to the bus terminal
Feed the Boats playing Friday nightAnyways Katie loved the shirt and wore it for the remainder of the night (and into the early morning). I wasn't banking on getting much sleep that night since I knew that I could easily pass out on the 4 hour bus ride to Seoul. So the next morning my friend Emily and I left Gwangju around 11am and arrived in Seoul at 3pm for the World DJ Festival. This was the first music festival I have ever been too so I didn't really have any expectations. I was just picturing a lot of Korean-hippies wearing tie-dye and dancing long into the night. Well I wasn't far off... at all! I would say there was about 50,000 people there (maybe 60% Korean, 40% foriegners) and everyone was there to enjoy the music and have a good time. The DJ Fest was probably the highlight of my time in Korea thus far... it was SUCH an amazing experience and I couldn't have imagined a better time!
This is where the bus from Gwangju to Seoul stopped for a 15 minute break, which is why I dont mind the bus rides... the scenery is so beautiful!
Getting painted for the festival!
The crowd!
Eating ramien noodles at 6am! mmmSo running on maybe 7 hours of sleep in 48 hours, we left the festival around 7am and arrived in Gwangju Sunday afternoon, which also happened to be Parent's day. I found it sort of interesting that Korea doesn't have Mothers or Father's day but instead they celebrate one day for both. I guess that's because the divorce rate is so high in America, "Parents day" would kind of be a bust! I'm not exactly sure what the divorce rate in Korea is, but it's probably not even in the double digits. This doesn't mean that there are more happy families living in Korea, they just have a different way of doing things. I remember one day I was eating lunch at work with my Korean co teacher who was telling me a story about her recently divorced Korean friend who met a foriegner and fell in love. When she told me they had decided to get married, she sort of paused, waiting for a reaction from me. When I smiled and said, "thats nice" (pretty much sounded like any other everyday love story) she repeated, "but she was divorced!" She couldn't believe that a foriegner would want to marry someone who had already been married before. It was unfathomable to her! I explained that this is pretty much the norm at home and that being divorced wouldn't impede someone from loving them. This all goes back to Korea's sick obsession with image. Just like how Korean couples wear matching clothes (from head to toe) to prove to the public that they are an item, married couples on the break of divorce just move into separate homes and live a divorced life, without the title. In other words, it seems like there is a fine line here between divorce and polygamy... but hey, im not one to judge!
Now that we are on the topic of image, I must say that the way in which some students come dressed to school would not only be unheard of at home, but they would probably be shunned by the community or singled out as the one who will grow up with social issues! Today I had a student walk into class wearing a long black ninja robe and holding..................a legitamite SWORD!! Like a long metal sword that was as tall as he was!!!!! Now the sword did have a sword cover over it... but I couldn't understand why he wasn't able to go home after Karate/Ninja class/whatever the hell he was doing, and put his sword back in his sword holder and then come to school!? I mean, what if he started acting up in class... the worst threat I can throw at him is, "Peter, give me 10 stickers!!" The worst he can throw back is, "Teacha, I have a sword!"
This is basically the sword my student brought into class...My co teacher Leigh told me one of her students came into class holding a bag of water with a fish swimming inside. I'm sure the fish was dead by the end of class but could you imagine bringing swords and fish into your classroom back in the day?! It just wouldn't happen!
I was recently talking to my grade 6 class about pets that they have and one girl told me she bought a new pet but didnt know the name of it in English so she wanted to show me a picture on her camera phone that she had taken of it the night before. When she showed me the picture I thought forsure she was joking... until I saw another picture of her beside her pet.....porcupine!!!!!!! NO JOKE! Apparently porcupines are house pets here and at least all my grade 6's think they are adorable... me... not so much! A dog, a cat, a hamster or even a disabled guiny pig is enough of a pet for me!
Miss you all!
Write more soon...
Signing off,
Gillian teacha xx
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