Because I am actively studying two languages (Japanese and Korean), I have installed two IMEs on my laptop that allow me to type in Japanese and Korean, which I use fairly frequently. While Joel is usually a good sport about it, he occasionally complains that he can never get on this computer and expect to be able to type in English without turning off the IME.
Tee hee.
We decided to travel to Japan during Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, since we have about five days of vacation. After getting off of work on Thursday night, we went downtown with our co-workers for dinner and wound up staying downtown all freaking night. After returning home and getting some soup for breakfast/post-bar-early-morning-snack/I-actually-have-no-idea-what-to-call-that-meal, I showered, packed for my trip in about fifteen minutes, and then we caught an express bus to the Seoul airport. While I remain convinced that staying out all night was a terrible idea, Joel insists that we had a great time and it was totally worth it.
Some days I am convinced that this is the college experience that I missed in college and that I might be regressing slightly from being a responsible adult. One of my co-workers just calls it an "Accidental Thursday."
Anyway, we made it to the airport and onto our plane to Nagoya without any trouble, and navigated the regional trains to Kyoto with only minimal confusion. The only real problem with our all-nighter is that it took me all of yesterday to sort out and remember what day of the week it was.
We have been in Kyoto for about two and a half days now, and it has been awesome. It is obviously a very old city, and there are Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines (often both in the same complex) literally around every corner. During our first full day in town yesterday, we went to the Imperial Palace Park (entry to the actual palace is restricted to those who request an appointment for a guided tour) and Nijo Castle, the residence of the Shogunate. I was rather unimpressed with the Imperial Palace Park - it's huge and sprawling, but kind of sterile and not very pretty - but I thought the grounds around Nijo Castle were beautiful. Today has been kind of a drag, since there is currently a typhoon passing over us (making this the fifth once we have experienced since moving to this part of the world) and it has been raining all day, but we still made it to Fushimi-Inari Taisha (the famous shrine with the long path through the bright-orange arches) and Sanjusangen-do (with the 1000 Buddhas). We tried to go to the Kyoto National Museum, but it is closed for about a month (lame). It looks like I have persuaded Joel to accompany me to the Funaoka Onsen tonight after dinner (score!). Tomorrow, if the weather clears up, we can hopefully go on the walking tour of Southern Higashiyama recommended by Lonely Planet and maybe even check out Gion (where the geisha are based).
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Gwangju: City of Intensives/Gwangju: Cidade de Intensivos
These days, Gwangju seems to be a city of intensives: intense partying with all of the new teachers we've been welcoming (and departing ones that we have been sending off), intense work (and intense stress) because of school summer vacation, intense hiking, and intense weather over the last few weeks.
Intensives
I've been less consistent about blogging in August because Joel (along with two of our afternoon teacher co-workers) was doing summer intensives all month. The students here all have vacation during the months of August and January, so many hagwons offer summer and winter "intensive courses" for students to have extra exposure to English language and (in theory at least) to have the opportunity to study English in greater breadth and/or detail. In practice, what this means is that a few lucky afternoon and evening teachershave to get to teach several classes in the morning, before lunch (and, incidentally, lose the only free time they have to be productive during the day. Naturally, this results in teachers who are overworked, exhausted, stressed, and cranky.
What this meant for us was that Joel was working from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (MWF) or 8 p.m. (TR) with only a break for lunch. With him at work for virtually ever waking moment of the day, I was left to do all of the housework, including cooking, cleaning, ironing, doing laundry, taking shirts to and picking them up from the cleaners, going to the bank and other miscellaneous life-curveballs. It was pretty bizarre here for a while, with Joel the Workaholic and Jessica the June Cleaver-esque housewife (who, by the way, was also still working full time). Also, it's a wonder we didn't kill each other.
But that's all over now, and the nice wad of overtime-pay cash will surely feel good when it finally comes around.
Intense Weather
In case the news has bypassed you because you are living under a rock, we had not one, but two typhoons come through last week. The first one, Bolaven, came through last Tuesday and was so bad that nearly all of the schools and hagwons (including ECC!) closed for the day. While I didn't get much sleep on Monday night because the windows were banging around so freaking loudly, we had a very nice day off hanging out with our co-workers. Unfortunately, this resulted in pretty much everyone at work running around like chickens without heads for the rest of the week, as the schedule had to be adjusted and the new session pushed back to make up for the lost class day.
As if that weren't enough, the typhoon that thrashed Taiwan did a little loop in the South China Sea and then decided to make a longer-than-average trip north to bring us yet another storm.
Because of all of the activity from tropical storms in the region, we've had way more rain than is typical for this time of year. It's rained at least once a week throughout August and now into September. It's so unusual that one of the apartment building residents actually spoke to Joel in the elevator: "Rain is crazy!"
Normally I don't mind the rain, but it is starting to get old, especially now that I have been trying to get to know the hiking trails in the area. Which brings me to...
Intense Hiking
I'm happy to report that I have been to Mudeungsan, the mountain just outside of town, three times now. After going for the first time the weekend of Joel's birthday, I went again several weeks ago with one of my co-workers and hiked up to Jeungsimsa, one of the better-known temples on the mountain. I really want to hike up to the top eventually, so when I discovered that our Korean teacher is also a hiking enthusiast (who has been hiking Mudeung pretty much his whole adult life), I asked him to go with me one morning to show me the way to the top. He got all excited and started to make plans that instant to do it one morning because he has evening graduate classes. "Six o'clock, is it okay?"
No, teacher, it is not okay.
We negotiated to hike up to the halfway point, 중머리제 (Jungmeorijae), and settled on 8 a.m. this past Monday morning. True to his word, he hopped off the bus at the base of the mountain at 7:45 and, after buying some water bottles and some kimbap, began the trek up the trail. And by by trek, I mean sprint - this guy practically ran up the mountain. I was pouring sweat when we reached the clearing at 9:15 and was wiped for the rest of the day at school. Still, it was a great experience, and we talked about going a little further up next week.
Hopefully now that intensives are over, we can settle into a routine that will hold more or less steady for the rest of our time here. We are definitely getting excited for our upcoming trip to Kyoto and to some beautiful fall weather and foliage!
Intensives
I've been less consistent about blogging in August because Joel (along with two of our afternoon teacher co-workers) was doing summer intensives all month. The students here all have vacation during the months of August and January, so many hagwons offer summer and winter "intensive courses" for students to have extra exposure to English language and (in theory at least) to have the opportunity to study English in greater breadth and/or detail. In practice, what this means is that a few lucky afternoon and evening teachers
What this meant for us was that Joel was working from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (MWF) or 8 p.m. (TR) with only a break for lunch. With him at work for virtually ever waking moment of the day, I was left to do all of the housework, including cooking, cleaning, ironing, doing laundry, taking shirts to and picking them up from the cleaners, going to the bank and other miscellaneous life-curveballs. It was pretty bizarre here for a while, with Joel the Workaholic and Jessica the June Cleaver-esque housewife (who, by the way, was also still working full time). Also, it's a wonder we didn't kill each other.
But that's all over now, and the nice wad of overtime-pay cash will surely feel good when it finally comes around.
Intense Weather
In case the news has bypassed you because you are living under a rock, we had not one, but two typhoons come through last week. The first one, Bolaven, came through last Tuesday and was so bad that nearly all of the schools and hagwons (including ECC!) closed for the day. While I didn't get much sleep on Monday night because the windows were banging around so freaking loudly, we had a very nice day off hanging out with our co-workers. Unfortunately, this resulted in pretty much everyone at work running around like chickens without heads for the rest of the week, as the schedule had to be adjusted and the new session pushed back to make up for the lost class day.
 |
| Yay for typhoons! Because we don't already get enough of them in Texas... |
 |
| Because one typhoon just wasn't enough. 어떻게 (WTF) Korea. |
Normally I don't mind the rain, but it is starting to get old, especially now that I have been trying to get to know the hiking trails in the area. Which brings me to...
Intense Hiking
I'm happy to report that I have been to Mudeungsan, the mountain just outside of town, three times now. After going for the first time the weekend of Joel's birthday, I went again several weeks ago with one of my co-workers and hiked up to Jeungsimsa, one of the better-known temples on the mountain. I really want to hike up to the top eventually, so when I discovered that our Korean teacher is also a hiking enthusiast (who has been hiking Mudeung pretty much his whole adult life), I asked him to go with me one morning to show me the way to the top. He got all excited and started to make plans that instant to do it one morning because he has evening graduate classes. "Six o'clock, is it okay?"
No, teacher, it is not okay.
We negotiated to hike up to the halfway point, 중머리제 (Jungmeorijae), and settled on 8 a.m. this past Monday morning. True to his word, he hopped off the bus at the base of the mountain at 7:45 and, after buying some water bottles and some kimbap, began the trek up the trail. And by by trek, I mean sprint - this guy practically ran up the mountain. I was pouring sweat when we reached the clearing at 9:15 and was wiped for the rest of the day at school. Still, it was a great experience, and we talked about going a little further up next week.
Hopefully now that intensives are over, we can settle into a routine that will hold more or less steady for the rest of our time here. We are definitely getting excited for our upcoming trip to Kyoto and to some beautiful fall weather and foliage!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Information Crusader: Follow-Up/Cruzadora de Informação: Seguimento
I finally got a response from the Gwangju News Magazine editors! It was short, sweet, and, I felt, very attentive.
Dear Jessica,
I'd firstly like to apologise for my late response. I've been away on vacation.
Thank you for brining these issues to our attention. The writers of the articles you mentioned below always provide a list of sources from which they obtained their information. Currently, we don't have anyone checking the credibility of these sources, so in future we will do so.
I would also like to take you up on your offer of fact-checking health-related articles. We now realise how necessary this is.
I hope the offer is still available, and thank you again for sharing your concerns.
Best,
[editor]
Ah, sweet victory.
Dear Jessica,
I'd firstly like to apologise for my late response. I've been away on vacation.
Thank you for brining these issues to our attention. The writers of the articles you mentioned below always provide a list of sources from which they obtained their information. Currently, we don't have anyone checking the credibility of these sources, so in future we will do so.
I would also like to take you up on your offer of fact-checking health-related articles. We now realise how necessary this is.
I hope the offer is still available, and thank you again for sharing your concerns.
Best,
[editor]
Ah, sweet victory.
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