The Korea I Remember: Part III

This is Part III in a series of photos from Korea. To see the first set, click here.

This was a very common sight in my town. Women were always washing vegetables on the street or drying their chilis on the sidewalk. To read more about what surprised me in Korea, click here.

Oh! Those boys! The boys high school was my favorite. They always gave me funny stories to tell. This picture comes from their physical fitness day. They all had to do tests like kids in the US but they were much stronger and more determined than US kids. To see more photos from my schools and from the fitness test, click here. To read some really funny true stories from the classroom, click here.

The Mask Dance Festival in Andong offers people a really good opportunity to see high quality performances from countries all over Asia where masks play a big part in performance art. this particular dance is Japanese I believe but impressive none the less! Click here for more photos!

Taekwando--Korea's national sport--is so much a part of their world that it's almost cultural. These guys put on this very impressive performance at the Apple Festival at Mungyeong Sae Jae and this photo in particular amazed me--I somehow capture the apple exploding just as the guy hit it! Amazing stuff! To see more amazing taekwando photos from the festival, click here, and to read more about Korean culture, click here.

This was one of the many hallways at my girls school. I always loved walking down it because it was actually suspended over the courtyard and the windows made it feel like you were flying over it all. To see more photos of what a Korean high school looks like as well as what a typical Korean school day entails, click here.

My girls school actually employed a belly dance teacher as one of the elective classes for the girls! She was by far my favorite person in Korea--wild and animated! This photo is from a performance of her students at the Apple Festival but you can read more about my experiences with belly dance (because she gave me private lessons) here.

This photos is just another from one of my photo walks around Jeomchon. To see more from my moments of photo inspiration, click here.

Near my home and on my way to school, I would pass this piece of street art drawn on the wall near a daycare. I have no idea what it says but I love it. Sometimes these little gems of everyday life would save me. To hear more about the everyday life of an English teacher in rural Korea, click here.

 I once did some more adventurous hiking near Gaeun (a sub-city within the Mungyeong network) with a teacher and his sons and found myself talking with this beautiful woman and her two beautiful Jindo dogs. These dogs are a special Korean breed and are pretty much only found in Korea. To see more photos from the day, click here. To read even more about our hiking adventure and the rescue mission that ensued (the one where we ended up in an ambulance) click here.

A Day in the Life

My life is simple: I get up, I read blogs, I read the news, eat some toast, putz, take a nap, eat lunch, get ready for work, and go to work.

And work... Let me tell you about my job.

I work at a gelato shop in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley (I'm sure that means nothing to you) where if the whole place were summed up in one word, it would be "broken." That's because pretty much everything there is broken. Broken cooler. Broken cash register. Broken blender. Broken system. Our owner is pretty much non-existent. She doesn't come by. She rarely pays on time (I'm told "pay day" used to be Wednesdays, now it's Friday and occasionally Saturday... Perhaps one day it will be Wednesday again...). I've even heard rumors about her awful business practices from people around Brisbane. Apparently she is no good at paperwork but I didn't need anyone to tell me that. I still haven't signed any tax documents.... Or seen a pay stub. One of our managers told me that she hadn't paid our delivery man for the gelato mix'ins in a while and just left it to him to pay it out of his own paycheck.

I'm constantly surprised by the lack of interest she takes in her business. I'm told that they are planning to close in the near future. Or at least they have been planning to do so for a while. Hopefully I will have a new job by that time or maybe be on my way to Sydney. But there are some things to be grateful for: I work by myself, at my own pace, at night. I get to read at work and listen to my own music (iPod with speakers) and I can eat gelato while at work (which is yummy though difficult to digest in large quantities). I also get paid well--$19.50 an hour. I'd never get so much serving ice cream at home! And it keeps me busy. As they say, idle hands are the devil's playmate... I was getting a little bored without a job.

Speaking of jobs, Jeremy has an interview next week in Sydney for a junior editor position with a legal encyclopedia group. It's a great opportunity and we're really hoping it'll work out. We figure he's got a good chance and there is only 6 other people being considered for the job. Pray that he gets it! The sooner we move to Sydney the better. Our own space, good jobs and grad school! He's decided to do a master's in law while I purse my master's in media. Should be fun.

A Sweet Reunion

The highlight of my trip--all 7 months of it--is nothing more than the sweetest reunion with the sweetest girls I have ever met.

In 2005 I went to Vietnam to teach English for a summer with ELIC and it profoundly impacted the next 3 years of my life. These girls accepted me, loved me and inspired me to do more and live more. I went there thinking I was going to just "teach English" but instead I fell in love with Vietnam.

This photo consists of only 10 of my 15 girls. It was taken near the end of our time together. We went on a photo scavenger hunt and my class won! The prize was ice cream with the all the teachers--on us! It is probably my favorite memory from the whole trip.



And here they are (well, 5 of them anyway), three years later. L-R: Tra, Linh, Yen, Me, Nhung, and Linh. We spent the afternoon at Nhung's house, eating dinner and catching up on old times. But before dinner, we went for a walk in one of the new housing developments in the West Lake District. It's CRAZY nice!! Like a Californian suburb!



This is J and I with Nhung and her grandfather. He was the sweetest old man ever! And though he couldn't speak any English and our Vietnamese is non-existent, he still sat with us and tried to talk with us. And of course, chuckled a bit at Jeremy's lack of hair. hahaha. Even grandpa has more than him!!



Part of the fun was getting starfruit out of the tree in Nhung's backyard. It took a lot of skill, a good arm, a long metal poker, and a big basket. Lots of laughs!! But so worth the effort because fresh starfruit is yummy! Here Yen is cutting some up just before dinner.



Ngoc was in the kitchen helping make french fries and nem (spring rolls), though I can't say she made much progress--they barely left the pot before they hit our mouths!! Such a great cook! In the back is Nhung and her mother, the nem masters of the night!



The night was full of laughs and Jeremy had a good time seeing a REAL Vietnamese home, eating AUTHENTIC nem and experiencing TRUE Vietnamese hospitality. Here Jeremy tells Yen, Linh and Linh a joke while sneaking french fries from Ngoc.

On another night while I was in Hanoi, we met with some students at Pepperoni's to eat pizza and share our memories with... Will Rope! My old Vietnam teammate who is now teaching in Vietnam long term! He's been there July (I think) on a one year contract with ELIC's VTF program. What a treat to not only see my old students but to see them along with a fellow teacher!! It's truly amazing what that first trip to Vietnam did to us, our little team of 6. Will came back to teach for a year, Melia came back to teach for a year and I came back to visit (though seriously considered teaching there for a year at one point too). Needless to say, something special happened three years ago, something that has kept us coming back...



We also had time to visit my old school where the girls were going to college while I taught them. Now they are going to Hanoi University--one of the top schools in Vietnam--in pursuit of the teaching degrees. Some have gone directly to rural classrooms and weren't able to make to to the reunions (busy with work), but these girls sure had fun seeing their old stomping grounds. I think it had been two years since they last visited! Here Linh and Yen are laughing and pointing out that the skirts in the display photos keep getting shorter and shorter! hahaha.

Ngoc, Linh, Tra, and Yen: four of my best friends. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to see them again. When I left Hanoi more than three years ago, I refused to say goodbye through all the tears at the airport, and instead I promised to be back with a "See you later." I honestly didn't know if I would. Every part of me wanted to return but money and time are big hurdles to get over. I didn't know if I even could make it back. But I did. And here we are, us 5 girls, reunited after three years and an ocean between us, gathered in front of the school that brought us together the first time.

Seeing them again has assured me that all the love and friendship I found in Vietnam three years ago was real and that hard work pays off. I fundraised $3,000 in order to make that initial trip happen three years ago, and though surely their language has grown exponentially more without my help, I must say that I did get to play a major role in bringing passion to their lives. And in turn, these girls have brought passion into mine.

I love travel. I love Vietnam. I can't wait for the next trip back.

To see more photos from the reunion, click here.
To see more photos from my first trip to Vietnam, click here.
To see all my photos from Vietnam, click here.

The promised catch-up

Graduate School

So, I've been accepted to both of the universities I've applied to: The University of Queensland and The University of Technology, Sydney. Oh, what a pain though. UQ offers US federal student loans but UTS doesn't. UTS has a great Master's in Journalism program in a great city for media work and UQ's is just okay--UQ is in Brisbane and too far from the city center... The only way I can go to UTS is if I get a private student loan but alas! No bank lists UTS on their approved school list. The only two banks that do are not currently accepting applications (damn credit crunch!). So, I'm stuck. I just can't go to the school I want to and it really makes me mad. UQ is a good school and obviously affordable, but I just don't want to go there anymore... Since the ball dropped on student loans last week, I've discovered one more school that may fit: The University of Sydney--they give US federal aid and are actually in the same neighborhood as UTS. The only problem: their program is a Master's in Media Practice and not a Master's in Journalism. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is yet but so far it looks like 1/3 less classes... Will a Master's in Media Practice be a reputable degree for what I want to do? I'm not sure... At any rate, I've decided that I'm still moving to Australia. I'm going to get my work holiday visa and just work for a bit until I can figure this school stuff out. Instead of trying to start in February, I might just wait until July. Maybe the credit crisis will be over then and I can get a loan for the school I want to go to... Or maybe in that meantime/worktime I'll check out The University of Sydney and find it's a great school with great opportunities and I'll want to go there... Who knows.

Anyway, as long as I'm putting off school for a big, I might as well do a little more travelling before I buckle down with a job and stuff in AU. Here's my current thought: India-Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand-Cambodia-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore-Australia. I guess if I can't go back to school then I better spend my money elsewhere on something equally exciting! :)

Blog Business

I'm thinking about changing things up a bit... I realized the other day that my blog title and blog address are not the same (what was I thinking?) so I hurried up and snatched up the "twentyfirstcenturynomad" blog address and I'm thinking about moving things over there... I can't move everything as in old posts and photos, but I can make some links for past reading... I'm also thinking of switching from Picasa to Flickr as my photo sharing provider. Has anyone else made a similar move? What do you find to be Flickr's benefits and pitfalls? The big hassle and annoying part is that if I want to move my Picasa photos to Flickr, I will have to download each individual photo and re-upload them to Flickr. Bahh! That will take FOREVER!! Should I bother?

English Camp

Oi! Two weeks of 14 hour work days!! I can't believe I did three weeks of this stuff back in January! Camp went well. As always, I made some new friends with some really lovely foreigners though I won't lie and say that every day was happy. There were some cranky teachers that second week who really didn't want to participate! But I understand. We were all tired and just ready to go home. Looking back at my pictures though, I've realized we had some good times. The first week was a little challenging because my team was pretty quiet but they pulled off a first place win in EVERY competition and by the end of the week, I'd like to think they made friends with each other. The second week was MUCH better and the kids worked really well together. We didn't win a thing though. In fact, we were constantly placed last. Oh well. Lucky for me it never broke their spirits and they had fun anyway. I didn't take any photos from the second week because I got too tired to lug around my camera and it was too hot to work so hard, but I do have photos from week 1. Enjoy!!

Summer Classes

Now that camp is over, I get to teach two summer classes for one and a half weeks. The pros: provided curriculum and small classes (one with 10 students and one with 4). The cons: the curriculum isn't amazing and I think the classes are too short (one hour). I really wish I had more time to really teach them something worthwhile and give them an opportunity to apply it. This curriculum is okay (it's not amazing) but it needs something more. There needs to be more activities and students need an opportunity to learn from context via deduction. This just doesn't offer anything more than scripted conversations. I really wish that Korean understood deductive learning. Everything taught here is by memorization. Seriously, what happens when these kids graduate or move to another country and can't speak or learn because there's no script for them? They need to learn on their own. Teachers need to teach kids to learn independently, not co-dependently. This is ultimately why I'm leaving Korea. But until I do, I have 5 more classes to teach. *Sigh*. At least this week is almost over!

Saying Goodbye

Two weeks ago, I left Munchang for good. My last two days there were filled with movie time with my boys and cleaning my desk. Saying goodbye to the teachers was okay but I realized I was definitely going to miss some of them. Jun has shown me true Korean hospitality and I am so grateful for everything she has done. None of my Korean teachers have ever gone out to dinner with me as a friend--no one except her. Saying goodbye was difficult. I also had to say goodbye to Kim Hong Gi--a co-teacher who has had a crush on me for a while. lol. He is a really nice man with golden patience. I can count on one hand the number of times I've broken down at work pre-Korea but once I came here, it happened a lot more often and unfortunately he got more of those breakdowns than anyone else. I am so glad he never judged me for it and was always gracious and attentive when it happened. I'm lucky to have had such good co-teachers.

I also had to say goodbye to Mr. Bak and another Mr. Jeong (I think that's his name!!). It was especially difficult to say goodbye to Mr. Bak. In the year that I've known him, we've hardly exchanged much at all because neither of us speaks the other's language, but we've somehow solidified a silent friendship over one commonality: photography. He is so amazing at it. Way better than me. He's a professional and he uses professional equipment. I'll never forget the first day we met; he was intrigued by my camera and wanted to show me his and his photos. I was immediately humbled. I don't want to sound too conceited, but I'm pretty much accustomed to being the best photographer in the room but when I saw his work, I was almost humiliated by my own. He's that good. Over the next few months, I taught him random Korean words and he would give me the thumbs up or thumbs down on my photos. He would bring in his camera and let me play around with his 300mm lens; I would bring in my fish eye and he would fool around with it. Then we went hiking with his kids back in March and I'll never forget what happened: his son fell off the waterfall, he fell in and both almost drowned with hypothermia. Saving their lives is the single most impactful and incredible thing I've ever done. I still feel a little lost on the subject most days. Knowing that you are responsible for someone else's life is indescribable. Sometimes it feels like a big secret--no one could ever understand or fully know the chain of events that day. No one will ever feel the divine the way we do when we think about what happened. On my last day at Munchang, I learned that he didn't even know how to swim. Mr. Bak said to me at lunch: "That day, I don't know swim. It is miracle." How can I put that into words? My skin crawled in the moment and every hair said a prayer of thanks. It really was a miracle. I also learned that he wanted me to come over to his house for dinner but when he asked his sons they started to cry--they didn't want to remember so the dinner was cancelled. I understand but I hope that one day they will be able to talk about it.

Near the end of my last day, I went to say goodbye to Mr. Bak in the music room and he greeted me with all of his new camera equipment. His English had improved so much from being my friend that he was able to tell me that he was sorry I had an Olympus camera and he had a Cannon; he wanted to let me borrow his equipment but everything was incompatible. Then he played me a song on his saxophone. I cried and everyone laughed. Oh well. Then he took me outside and took some photos. I probably looked like crap because I was still a little shaken but oh well. Then him and Mr. Jeong rushed me to the bus station because I was about to miss my ride to Incheon. We made it just in time and while I waited for the bus to pull away, they sat outside the whole time, waving to me. And just before it left, they disappeared momentarily and then reappeared on the bus with an ice cream of me. I was so moved. I balled the whole way to Incheon. Saying goodbye is a lot easier when people don't do nice things for you! But I'm happy they did. I will always have sweet memories of the teacher's at Munchang. They were a hard bunch to leave.

Moving on now...

I'm so tired of packing and cleaning. Today I scrubbed down my bedroom pretty good but it pretty much exhausted me and I still have two more rooms to do--the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom isn't too bad--just a little pink mold--but the kitchen is another story. I'm honestly shocked. So, before I left for camp two weeks ago, I really cleaned my kitchen good. However, upon my return home Monday, I found TONS of mold on the walls, on the counter, on the floor, and I even found a ton of weevils crawling around on my counter! I don't know how they got there! I haven't left out any bread or wheat products. In fact, I didn't leave out anything! I'm really confused... To top it off, my sink faucet is leaking and dripping all over the counter and my sink, adding to the mold problem and ruining my sponges. Sometimes it's really hard to believe that this place was brand new when I moved in... To give you an idea of how bad the mold problem is here, I once found mold growing in a bottle of BLEACH water!! Can you believe that?! I'm pretty sure that the sooner I move out, the longer I'll live. Something unnatural is happening in that place...

Mung Yeoung Yo Go Hakkio Part 3

Welcome to Kortney's Jeomchon Tours! Today we will be exploring Mung Yeoung Yo Go Hakkio, a girls school established nearly 50 years ago yet completely rebuilt in 2004.

The main entrance.

The back entrance.

The two story sky bridge.

My desk!

The vice principals desk. The principals office is currently closed to visitors.

The teacher's office.

The teacher's exercise room.

2nd and 3rd year uniforms.

1st year uniforms.

The school field.

The cafeteria.

Every morning, the girls are given a carton of milk and these crates are where it's kept outside.

The homeroom teachers for each grade are given their own office on the grade floor. (EX: The fist grade floor has the first grade homeroom teacher's office.)

Students keep lockers in their classrooms. (Students don't move between classes like schools in America... Instead, the teacher's move.) Typical locker contents include books, electronic dictionary, personal blanket, a pillow, a toothbrush, and toothpaste--essentials as most students will spend several nights studying at school throughout the year.

Pencil cases define who is who in Korean schools. Here are two supreme examples of "cool" pencil cases. The one above has celebrity and musician photos. The one below is a little more typical with encouraging post-its inside, phone numbers, reminders, and one's favorite cartoon sticker--Gero (a Japanese cartoon character).

Students eager to show you their pencil cases. The girl with the pink one insisted that her's was the best. I thought it was lame.

A typical Korean classroom: minimalist.


Third year girls working hard.

But hard work is a little inconsistent. It's completely necessary to stop every 5 minutes and check your mirror to make sure every hair is in it's proper place and every zit sufficiently covered. I think most girls are vain beyond compare. They just really like looking at themselves. (The boys do this too and often carry similar mirrors in their pencil cases as well.)

An empty hallway.


The stairwell outside of the teacher's office leading to the first floor and the third floor.

All students are required to check their shoes at the classroom door. In the hallway, they put their shoes in these little cubbies and put on indoor slippers (a.k.a. slides or sandals).

Students getting coffee during class. Caffeine is essential to good studying, ergo, good test scores.


Your options (most cost between 20-30 cents).

Most Koreans prefer instant coffee from these non-descript machines over the fresh brewed kind. Weirdos.

A squatty potty in one of the hall bathrooms. These things really stink because Koreans don't flush toilet paper and instead choose to put it in trash bins. I rarely use the student toilets. Instead I go in the female teacher's bathroom which has a proper throne.

The bathroom at large.

The library.

The school store's stock of cookies, marshmallow pies, ramen, and chips.

The lady who manages the school store. She's always surprised when I understand the total of my purchases in Korean. She's cute. Always friendly. :)

The school park.

The gymnasium. Students are practicing for a singing competition where they can win $200 for their class fund.

While wandering the halls on tour, we stopped to take a peak in one 3rd year class and found a pizza party! These girls were really generous and sat me down with two slices of pizza and my own cup of coke. They were my students last year but are now too busy studying for their University Entrance Exams to study with me... Booo.... I miss them.

Ha! We caught one sleeping in class!

More sleepers!! It's quite common for Korean kids to either sleep during breaks or sleep during class. The teacher's tolerate it because the kids stay up studying until 1 or 2 am and are required to be at school everyday until 10:30 pm.

One of my 1st year students working very hard. She's a smart one.