Furniture love!

Last night Jennika and I left our apartment to go to Mount Fishtail Restaurant (a yummy Indian eatery in Cheonan). On our way, we noticed some lovely discarded furniture. We almost left them behind, but we thought it would be best to rescue them before our meal. It is a good thing we did because three high chairs we left behind were taken by the time we walked back from our meal.

Our new additions. Don't they look regal?

I love these types of chairs. They remind me of a chair my friend Lauren from 2018 Oxford St. had that I loved.

Cheers, JaM's

Field Trip With the GLP

Today is the Korean SAT, an interesting event in Korea. It is a BIG deal here! It is the day that decides the students' future. A good score can basically set the course of her future life. So everyone takes it serious. Government officials leave for work later in the day to free up morning traffic. Airplanes are rerouted to avoid school zones. The police are out in full force to aid traffic. A late student will be escorted by police to school with sirens blasting. We did experience the last two personally today. The student jumped out of the police car and ran to write his future.  At the entrance of the school, the community comes out in full force to cheer on the seniors.

Since our students do not participate in the Korean SAT, we had to be off campus for the test time 8:00 am to 5:30 pm. So we went on a field trip.



Our first stop: A pagoda famous for being created out of stone. It also has some historical significance. I think has to do with a famous general who created the turtle ship. Don't quote me on that though; I heard a student talking about the general and so I connected the place to the story. 

On the same location as the pagoda there is a cool museum (Buyeo National Museum) with artifacts from ancient Korean civilizations. The following are some beautiful stone tile carvings.

This was one of the highlights of the museum. It is a Hoja. One lucky servant got to carry this baby around, so his patron could "go" where and when he pleased. Apparently it is designed to look like a tiger because peeing into the mouth of a tiger is good luck. Korea you are awesome!

This is an assortment of stone swords used well into the bronze age. Bronze swords were to costly to provide for the average warriors. The warriors were relegated to using the stone variety. 

The museum had a collection of many historically relevant tools that would dampen an anthropologist's undergarments. The progression of technology is so interesting and alive in the museums of Korea.

Next we had lunch and, typical to Korean field trips, we went on a hike.  Hiking in Korea is not the same as in North America. Here you will see many people on the path and there might even be a paved road that leads up the mountain. I think we hiked around Busosanseong Fortress of Buyeo. After the hiking up and down the other side, we took a boat back to our buses.



Getting on our ride back to town.

Our last stop... a palace. The place was large, but not as significant as Gyeongbokgung Palace. They did have a large drum you could pound though and the students enjoyed making music.



A rare view of the drum sans student musician.

Good times had by all.

Cheers, JaM's

Suneung - The Korean SAT

Korea, like other countries, has a standardized test called the College Scholastic Ability Test, or Suneung, which is required to enter any Korean university. Unlike other countries, however, this is literally a do or die situation for Korean students. In Korea, getting accepted to one of the top 3 universities is the only goal for a high school student; the success of their life depends on it. If they don't get accepted, it is viewed as a great disappointment and, in their minds, the end of their life. And in order to get into these universities, the students require a perfect score on the Suneung.

These grade 12 students (also known as 3rd years - the Korean high school system has 3 years, grade 10, 11 and 12) have been preparing for this exam since middle school and their entire 3rd year of high school is dedicated solely to studying for the exam. Every 3rd year high school student in the country, about 700,000 of them, takes the annual exam on the second Thursday of November. After dropping their kids off at the test, parents take the day off work to go to temple or church to pray for their child. This article really describes the dire need and the pressure these students feel to do well on the exam, and the insanity surrounding this test.

A common tradition is for all the 1st and 2nd year high school students to come out and cheer on their peers who are taking the exam. They line up at the entrance of the exam location with drums, signs, cheering and goodies, like pens and juice, to give to the students. As early as 6am, these students wait for their 12th grade peers to arrive.

I decided that since this was a national event, I would also go and cheer on some students who were taking the test at Bugil. So I got up early on my day off and made my way to the school. There was major traffic, even though police were directing, and lots of action happening outside the Bugil gates. I even saw the police escort a late student to the exam site! He got out of the squad car and bolted up the hill. All the energy at the school was really powerful. It actually brought tears to my eyes.



Lots of traffic



Police directing traffic



The scene while walking up to Bugil Academy



Some students with drums who were serving hot tea and a very worried parent who just dropped off her child.



Holding encouraging words for their peers

So many people crowding the gate at Bugil





They even had strange creature cheering them on!

 I took a video of the students singing for their peers.

Eat Your Kimchi, a popular video blog about Korea, also posted about their experience on exam day.

I'm so thankful not to have had such a stressful experience during high school. How about you?

Jennika

The Inexplicable World of Korea, 3

Well folks, it happened. I have previously posted on Facebook about the inexplicable amount of rice, and rice products, in this country. Seriously, rice pasta, rice puffs, rice treats, rice noodles (different from pasta, I assure you), rice paper, rice drinks, rice cake (also known as 'dok', which comes in many forms, each as equally deceiving as the next). Back in September, I joked, what's next - rice cotton? Rice hamburgers? Rice cream??

Here you are my friends. At a gelato shop in the mall ... rice flavoured ice cream.



Picture of the Week #2

Taken at the base of Gyeryongsan mountain. I really liked the contrast of the red and blue.

The leaves have changed colour here in Korea and this hike reminded me so much of home.

I miss you Canada!

Hiking a mountain with 300 students

Today was my first field trip with Bugil ... the entire Grade 11 class went and climbed a mountain and then paid their respects at the tomb of the founder of Bugil.


Sweet ride! This was our luxurious bus that took us to the mountain.
We rode with class 2-3. There were 10 buses in total.

There are 300 students in grade 11. Along with the homeroom teachers and the two native English teachers for that grade, Bre and me, we all went hiking at Gyeryongsan, one of Korea's national parks. It was intense!! Someone once told me that Korean were like mountain goats .. and now I believe it. The bunch of us hiked for 4+ hours and the course was not easy. Lots of rocks to climb up and down. My legs were shaking by the end. I can't say for sure, but I think it was this trail because we went past multiple temples and the Nammetap pagodas. Three times we thought we were at the top, but nope! The trail kept going. It was beautiful though.



The scene right as we started the climb.

 

At the midway point, we all stopped to rest, drink and take many, many photos. The students were overly happy to pose with their teachers, so Bre and I got some pictures with our classes. There were also two pagodas at the midway point called Nammaetap, or Onwitap which means brother and sister.

Class 2-8 and me .. can you find me?

Some students from class 2-2

Some of my faves from class 2-4

More from class 2-4

Posing with class 2-6 

 Some pictures of the scenery.

We stragglers found a waterfall!

After the hike, the students had a paperbag lunch, but the teachers were taken out to a Korean restaurant. It was nice to feel like a part of the faculty. As a foreigner, I frequently feel on the outside of school affairs and even the last to know about schedule changes and things. This was a great opportunity to get to know some of the other grade 11 teachers and just enjoy ourselves!

Bugil Academy grade 11 teachers

Take care,

Jennika

Halloween Hat (Ultimate Frisbee Tournament)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!! While Koreans don't celebrate Halloween the way we do back home, Jean-Marc and I got our costume on last weekend. Back in September, we'd signed up to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament the weekend of October 27th in Daejeon. This was the 9th annual Halloween Hat tournament and it was so much fun!!

The tournament disc. We all got one!

A hat tournament means that everyone's names get put into a hat and then pulled out to make teams. This way all the abilities and people are spread out to make relatively even teams. And you get to know lots of new people because you don't usually know too many people on your team.

The tournament started Saturday morning at 10am and went until about 5:30pm that night. Then continued all day Sunday for playoffs. Needless to say, getting out of bed on Monday morning was rough.

The fields in Daejeon. Day 2 - the rain had stopped! JM is in the blue and red shirt.

Saturday morning was pouring rain and the fields quickly became mud/swamp pits. No one was dry or clean by the end of the day. There was an on field costume contest, which was hilarious. Lots of people running around wearing ridiculous outfits. Jean-Marc was on pod 'K' and I was on pod 'M'. Twice we beat JM's team to put us in the finals of the playoffs. Sadly, we didn't win the championship. JM's team placed 3rd and mine came 2nd. Not bad though for our first tournament ever!

My third pair of socks on Saturday.

Uncle Sam

Batman! Yes .. that is his chest hair.

Pods AM .. 2nd place!

Saturday night there was a costume party at a local bar. Jean-Marc and I decided to do a pairs costume. He dressed up as a cute little piglet ... and I was a dirty French butcher who wanted to turn him into bacon. It was disturbing and amazing at the same time. We got so many compliments on our duo and even won a prize! Even after talking to me, some people didn't know who I was. I looked that disgusting. he he. 

At the bar.

Our prize!

At home when we were practicing our characters.

 

hon hon hon.

All in all the tournament was sooo much fun and I cannot wait to be a part of more tourneys here in Korea.

Trick or treat everyone,

Jennika