Being a white, straight, educated male in the U.S. means I've always been part of the majority or dominant culture. Being a white anything in Korea means I'm waygook (foreign), and very much a minority in a very homogenous society. For the most part, I am used to being different here, but a few recent events have made me think about being waygook in Korea.
Last weekend's beautiful, warm weather brought many of us to the beach for a day of games. We started with a full game of co-ed baseball. Within one inning, I realized we had attracted quite the audience of Koreans watching us with such enthusiasm and interest. They cheered after good plays, high-fived us after homeruns, and took many photos. I would understand this kind of interest in us if we were in a country where baseball is not played, but it and soccer are probably the two most popular sports here. So I came to the conclusion that Koreans just love to watch waygookens (foreigners) do anything. I won't try to determine why or what they must think, but after that baseball game, I did realize I have noticed we get a lot of attention from locals while doing any number of things.
Later that day, I was hitting a volleyball around with two female friends who were both wearing bikinis. A man walked up to us with a camera explaining he was with a news agency and asked to take photos of us hitting the volleyball. We told him it was fine, but thought it was funny since our volleyball skills were horrible that day! The next day, those two friends found one of the photos published in an article online. The photo only showed the two of them with a caption saying something along the lines of "Warm weather brought foreigners in bikinis to the beach." It confirmed our suspicions that it wasn't volleyball that attracted the photographer to us.
And speaking of photos, most waygookens, including myself, have the occasional experiences of random Koreans, usually in their teens or twenties, asking to have their picture taken with us. We don't know these people, and they never want to talk or get to know us. They just want us in a photo with them. We often joke that being waygook is like being a celebrity. We just get used to strangers excitedly saying hello to us or asking to take photos with us. By now, I never find it weird, nor do I hesitate to say hello back and pose handsomely with a peace sign in their photos. I'm sure when I return to the States I'll yearn for attention from the general public and wonder why I'm not getting it!
There are usually pros and cons to any situation. And being a waygooken also has its drawbacks. To me, the most prominent drawback is that any time I am in public, I am an ambassador for foreigners, and I feel tremendous pressure to represent "my people" in the most positive way possible. And that's a lot of pressure! And it's not like I wish I could be a buffoon in public without disgracing the waygook community. But sometimes being foreign means not knowing the norms, and I feel especially disgraceful when my friends and I are yelled at for unintentionally doing something wrong. I worry that they see us being disrespectful to their norms and assume all waygookens are just like us. And I think I have every right to believe that, since it happens in my own culture in the States. How often do Americans see someone of a certain ethnicity doing something "wrong" and pin that wrongdoing on the person's entire cultural group? It happens in America, the most culturally diverse country in the world. So in Korea, one of the least diverse countries, I can only imagine and fear the judgement made about all foreigners based on the actions of a few.
Sometimes I feel like I should provide Koreans with a culture shock, like taking my shirt off at the beach or a park on a warm day (while most Koreans enjoy warm days with long pants and full sleeves). I like to do some things that are against the grain while not being disrespectful, but rather entertaining and interesting. However, I often remind myself that I am an invited guest in this country. And like a guest in someone's home, I should be conscious of what's considered polite and impolite, even if it's weird to me. And I should always be conscious that when I am in public, many eyes are on me because I'm clearly different.
I don't want to temporarily dismiss my own culture while I'm here, and I do feel like most Koreans could use some exposure to other cultures. But I still want to respect their culture, and practice a healthy balance of mine and theirs.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Update since my last...
I know my last blog painted a pretty dreary picture of my life at work. I appreciate all the great words of encouragement that were sent my way by friends and family. I thought I would write an update on how things are since I last posted.
Unfortunately, many aspects at work continue to be hard and unhappy. Our directors continue to try to add more to our workload, and are considering making us stay an extra 35 minutes every night (making it a 10.5 hr day). We will have a meeting on Tuesday, and all 5 of us English teachers plan on putting our foot down and taking a very firm stance on not extending our hours.
Fortunately, things with my difficult students have improved. My two kinders who used to drive me up the wall daily have gotten much better. They still need to improve a fair amount, but I'm thrilled about the progress they have made thus far. I can now give equal attention to all of my students. :-)
The best thing that has happened to me in the last few weeks has been springtime arriving! The last few weekends have had temperatures in the low 70s, the cherry blossoms have been blooming, we've been playing at the beach and finding any excuse to take joy rides on our scooters. My weekends have suddenly been packed with activities because the sunshine and warmth is waking people up out of their winter hibernation. It seems that during winter, the only thing most people can find to do is get drunk. I'm glad to see people partaking in other things nowadays!
Although it's depressing to think of another 3 and a half months at my job, I have spring and summer to look forward to, followed by a trip to probably Malaysia on my way home at the end of July. Good things are happening, and I have a lot to be grateful for.
Unfortunately, many aspects at work continue to be hard and unhappy. Our directors continue to try to add more to our workload, and are considering making us stay an extra 35 minutes every night (making it a 10.5 hr day). We will have a meeting on Tuesday, and all 5 of us English teachers plan on putting our foot down and taking a very firm stance on not extending our hours.
Fortunately, things with my difficult students have improved. My two kinders who used to drive me up the wall daily have gotten much better. They still need to improve a fair amount, but I'm thrilled about the progress they have made thus far. I can now give equal attention to all of my students. :-)
The best thing that has happened to me in the last few weeks has been springtime arriving! The last few weekends have had temperatures in the low 70s, the cherry blossoms have been blooming, we've been playing at the beach and finding any excuse to take joy rides on our scooters. My weekends have suddenly been packed with activities because the sunshine and warmth is waking people up out of their winter hibernation. It seems that during winter, the only thing most people can find to do is get drunk. I'm glad to see people partaking in other things nowadays!
Although it's depressing to think of another 3 and a half months at my job, I have spring and summer to look forward to, followed by a trip to probably Malaysia on my way home at the end of July. Good things are happening, and I have a lot to be grateful for.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A Rough Patch
My life has undergone several changes lately. To be honest, these changes have made for a rough few weeks.
My school decided to relocate across town in a more heavily populated area called I-dong. So we are now in a different campus, where everything is smaller. Smaller building, smaller classrooms, smaller teacher room, smaller computer lab, smaller library. It seems that everything about this new campus is a downgrade from our old campus.
On the topic of smaller, we also moved into new apartments in I-dong. It is exciting being in a neighborhood that has more going on (i.e. restaurants, cafes, etc.), but my new apartment is quite small. I’ve learned to make it work, but it was quite a depressing shock when I first moved in!
So with the new campus came a new school year (the Korean school year begins in March). My kinders graduated, and I now have a whole new group of kinders. I never realized how spoiled I was with my old kids until I received my new batch. I have a class of seven, which is a wonderfully low number! Unfortunately though, most of their English levels are considerably low (some can hardly read or make comprehendible sentences). I went from kinders who were spelling words like platypus and physical to students who are struggling to read words like play. Now of course I expected my new students to be at a lower level from my old students, since they are only just now beginning kindergarten, but half of my students are at a much lower English level than the curriculum is targeted for. (Our school is supposed to test students before enrollment, and if they don’t test high enough, they are not supposed to be enrolled. Lately, our school has been accepting anybody.)
On top of the academic struggle in my class, I have two students who have been stealing 90% of my attention with their bad behavior. Never have I ever had students who made my blood boil like these two! One student is one of the brightest in the class, but can not help but talk at all moments of the day (and often in Korean, which is a big no-no at Poly School). The other has the lowest English level in the class, and loves to say “Teacher I don’t know” at all moments, even when he does know, or is capable of knowing. He also loves to scream “Teacher I am ANGRY!”, even when he does not seem to be angry. And lately, he has been screaming “Teacher I am CRAZY!” In my mind, I sometimes think he may be right.
Teaching those two kids has been a real challenge and opportunity for me to practice exhibiting the utmost patience, as well as unconditional love for them, no matter how crazy they make me. When they are behaving well and doing good work, I shower them with the same praise I give my other students. And in those moments, they seem to love me. They grab my hand, they hug me, they are proud to show me their work. And I rub their back and let them know that I am so happy with them. And within minutes, the mood can go a full 180 degrees, and it’s all I can do not to scream. I have never had such a love-hate relationship with anyone in my life!
As if this wasn’t enough to deal with for now, our school has been making us work even harder than we have been. We work for ten hours a day, but we used to get breaks periodically throughout the day when we can nap, read a book, take a walk, and just recuperate. But now, they have us working throughout our breaks, doing lesson plans and grading. The overall mood at work is now that of misery. Nobody seemed thrilled about the job before the move, but now it’s as if everyone is counting the days until their contracts end.
By now you’re probably thinking that my life out here has turned into an utter mess. So here’s the part when I look on the bright side: I get the incredible honor of calling several quality individuals my friends. These are the people that help me keep my sanity, that make me laugh my troubles away, that are down for adventures and mellow afternoons playing board games.
People like Mike and Alisa, two co-workers of mine who’ve never been anything less than a great friend to me, who are the silver lining to working at Poly.
People like Mary and Courtney, who share in my passion for climbing, adventuring, and being ridiculously silly, and who are my biggest fans at open-mic night.
People like Pete, Dan, Grant, Joe and Nathan, who educate my ignorant American self on the incredible sport of soccer (football!), who are quick to welcome anyone to a night of laughs at the bars, who I’ve never felt any judgment from, only acceptance.
People like Andoni, who took me under his wing the second I stepped foot in Pohang, who went above and beyond to show me the ropes, introduce me to EVERYONE he knows, and got me familiarized with the city.
People like Sara and Sarah, who I will gladly sit with at a coffee shop any day and talk about life over a warm cup of whatever.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Graduation, Snow White, Saying Goodbye...
Yesterday, my kindergartners performed a live theatrical production of Snow White and the Six Dwarves. This was something we spent the last two months preparing (a very stressful two months!), and I’m happy to say that the play was a success, and it’s over! I now have tremendous respect and sympathy for any elementary school teacher who has to prepare young kids for plays every year.
When we were told in December that each kindergarten class would be performing a play for graduation, we were told we had to make sure the script allowed each student an equal amount of lines. In other words, there could be no main character, otherwise parents would get upset that the main character is not their child. My initial reaction was, Now how on Earth am I supposed to find a play with 9 equal characters?! After some careful thought, I decided on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and planned to give each dwarf many lines so Snow White would not steal the show.
We were also told that each play had to be 15 minutes long. That may not seem like a lot of time, but when it involves kindergartners memorizing 15 minutes worth of lines and stage movements, 15 minutes can seem like an irrational request! I wrote my script, with no clue how many pages 15 minutes should be, and decided it was long enough.
Now came the casting. I only had three girls (of 9 students total), and only one of them had the speech skills to be Snow White (the “not” main character). She has a lively personality and speaks with such clarity and poise. I knew she would nail the role. Then came the fun of casting each dwarf. Luckily, each of my students has personalities that already fill the personalities of the dwarves. My student who is consistently low-energy was Sleepy, my brilliant student was Doc, my student who never gets upset was Happy, my shy student was Bashful, my least hygienic student was Sneezy, my silliest student was Dopey (who also played Prince Charming), and my strong-willed student was Grumpy. It was almost as if my class was meant to perform this play! That left the last girl to play the Queen, a role that she does not personify, but I knew she’d like wearing a pretty dress and crown.
I’d like to say my students were thrilled about their roles, but at least half of them had major protests. The girl who played the queen was not ok being the enemy. Prince Charming was embarrassed about the kissing scene, especially after students teased him about it. Grumpy could not grasp the fact that his role was a funny role, and we were laughing at his lines, not at him. Doc thought his role was boring. After being so excited about how seemingly perfect these roles were, I started fearing that this play might not work out.
After a month of rehearsing and memorizing lines, one of my girls (the queen) dropped out of our school. This gave me no choice but to cast the only other girl (who was perfectly cast as Bashful) to play the queen. This worried me, because as mentioned before, this girl was the shyest student in all of kindergarten, and had the lowest speech skills. Could she pull off such an aggressive and scary role as the queen? I then had to fill in the role of Bashful, so I decided to get rid of Dopey (according to my kids, “Dopey is die.”), and have that student play Bashful. This was another unfitting match, since this boy is the silliest and farthest from shy in the class! Then again, it was an opportunity for him to take on a challenging acting role and perhaps earn himself an Academy Award.
My students quickly grew bored of practicing the play, especially the students who disliked their roles. But we had to practice frequently. Surprisingly, my students memorized their lines quickly, without me even telling them to start memorizing them. (Perhaps this is more evidence to back up the theory that children at their age have sponge brains and can learn anything quickly.) The challenge was getting my students to take the play seriously. Half of them would say their lines with silly, incomprehensible voices, or would say their lines with little to no enthusiasm, or would make jokes, or would say other kids’ lines, or would not pay attention to when it was their turn to speak, or would have side conversations with friends while rehearsing. You can imagine my frustration as these things occurred almost every time we practiced!
I tried drilling in their brains how important it was that we got everything right for the actual performance, but I also felt torn because on the inside, I knew that this should just be a fun experience for them, and it should not be as stressful as the parents and directors were making it. I hated that the parents seemed to care more about this play than their kids’ academic achievements or behavior in class. I struggled to find a balanced approach to getting them to take it seriously, but not stress them out so much that they feared the final performance.
So finally it was show time. The two other kindergarten teachers and myself spent two months worrying about this day, and at the same time couldn’t wait to get it over with. I just thought to myself, If my kids can just get through the play without forgetting many lines, falling on their faces, crying, or looking miserable, I’ll be satisfied. I’m proud to announce that I am more than satisfied with their performance. All lines were remembered, they spoke clearly and loudly (for the most part), parents laughed, and my kids appeared to be having a fun time. I even found myself having a good time, smiling and laughing while narrating. I was genuinely proud of my students, each and every one of them. I hugged them all, and felt overwhelming joy.
Then, sadness.
It occurred to me, this is graduation. After today, they are no longer my kinders. Most of them will continue coming to Poly School in the afternoons as 1st graders, and I may be able to continue teaching them, but it’ll be different. I feel differently about my kinders than I do for my afternoon elementary school classes. I see my kinders 5 hours a day, and I am their only teacher. They are my kids. And I really do love them.
After the graduation ceremony, the kids, parents, and teachers went upstairs to the classrooms for pictures. I stood at the back of the class while parents took photos of the students and me; some of the whole class, some of just me and individual students, some of the individual students, their mother and me, some of a few of the students and me, some of the individual students, my co-teacher and me. And it all happened in a whirlwind! I just stood there, putting my arm around whoever stood next to me and smiling. Some mothers even held my hand for the picture. I felt like a wax figure at Madam Touseau’s Wax Museum, just standing with the same pose and smile.
And as quickly as the students and mothers cycled through the various group photos, the mothers and students left, and before I knew it, my co-teacher Jane and I were standing alone in an empty, cleaned out classroom. The most disheartening thing about it was neither of us felt like we got to have a proper goodbye with the children. I wanted to tell them one last time how proud of them I was, how much I enjoyed being their teacher, how impressed I am with their English skills, and how much I will miss them.
What was upsetting to Jane and I was that very few of the parents took a few seconds to thank us. I understand that at least half of the mothers speak little to no English, but my co-teacher is fluent in both languages, and they didn’t think to say any final words to either of us. I felt entirely unacknowledged by some of them. One mother, who I see and say hi to frequently, bought Jane and I some nice chocolates, and another took us out to dinner that night, so at least we felt appreciated by a few of them.
So next week marks the start of a new chapter in my life in Pohang. I will have a new schedule of classes with new students. Poly School is also relocating to a campus across town, so we will spend the week getting the new school ready. We will also be moving to apartments on that side of town, so we’ll be busy packing, moving, and unpacking. This new neighborhood (called I-dong) has a lot more going on than our current one (called Jangseong-dong), so it will be nice having so many restaurants and fun things to do in our own hood. At the same time, we’re a little sad to leave our quiet neighborhood. There are a few establishments here that are dear to us, like a family-owned bakery that makes great wheat bread (something that is hard to find in Korea), our favorite galbi restaurant (Korean barbeque), and the only authentic American restaurant in Pohang, owned by a friend of ours. There are also friends that live very close that we will miss seeing frequently. But our new neighborhood is close to other great friends, so it’s all about trade-offs I suppose.
To see their performance of Snow White: http://youtu.be/RKjiEq39Dro
Until next time…
Friday, February 10, 2012
Memoirs of a Kindergarten Teacher, Pt. 2
Unexpected Experiences
Since my teaching license is for High School Social Studies, I never expected to find myself teaching a class of kindergartners. And because of that, I also never expected to have some of the experiences that I've had over the last 6 and a half months. I never expected to be encouraged to hug my students, or hold their hands as we walk to the library. I never expected to be singing Raffi songs to my students. I never expected to help a student clean up after he pooped in his pants.
I also never expected to have to say the following to students:
"Hands out of your pants please."
"Don't poke each other there please!"
"Put that back in your pants please!!"
"PLEASE don't grab me there!!!"
No Smoking!
How do you teach the dangers of smoking and drinking to children who grow up in a country where the vast majority of adult men smoke, and where the amount of alcohol consumption is quite possibly rivaled by no other country? In Science class a few weeks ago, I had to spend a week educating my kids on the negative effects of smoking and drinking. I began telling them about the serious illnesses you can get from the two. Within a few minutes, most kids' hands were raised, eagerly waiting to inform me that their fathers smoke and drink A LOT, and they are healthy. How do you tell a child that their fathers are probably not as healthy as they'd like to think? How do you tell a child that smoking leads to deadly illnesses, and then hear them talk about how much their fathers smoke? Do I tell them their fathers are wrong in believing it's perfectly ok to drink themselves into oblivion and chain smoke? Do I tell them not to make the same choices when they are adults that their fathers made? With each comment made by a student, all I could think of was to say, "Oh. Ok. Well... huh. Does your father only drink a little? Oh, he drinks a lot. Ok, and you say he's healthy? Uh huh, hmm..." I felt like the only good thing I could say was in response to a question asked by one student: "Roman Teacher, do you drink?" "Nope, I think it's yucky!" Unfortunately, that response was followed by, "No, beer is yummy!" Sigh.
A Confidence Boost
One thing I've learned is that teaching Kindergarten can be great for raising my self-esteem. For instance, when a student is struggling to twist open their orange juice bottle, I twist it open for them with such ease that they excitedly exclaim, "Whooooaaa! Roman Teacher, VERY strong!" Aw shucks, you guys!
Or when I draw something on the board that would not pass a middle school drawing class, and my students yell out, "Ooooh, Roman Teacher, VERY good drawer!" Blush.
Or when I jokingly start singing an improvisational song about taking out their text books and pencils, and they clap and say "Whooo, Roman Teacher, VERY good singer!" Oh stop!
Or when one of their writing assignments is to write 8 positive qualities about a teacher at Poly School, and one of them writes about me, "Very handsome." Gosh!
Since my teaching license is for High School Social Studies, I never expected to find myself teaching a class of kindergartners. And because of that, I also never expected to have some of the experiences that I've had over the last 6 and a half months. I never expected to be encouraged to hug my students, or hold their hands as we walk to the library. I never expected to be singing Raffi songs to my students. I never expected to help a student clean up after he pooped in his pants.
I also never expected to have to say the following to students:
"Hands out of your pants please."
"Don't poke each other there please!"
"Put that back in your pants please!!"
"PLEASE don't grab me there!!!"
No Smoking!
How do you teach the dangers of smoking and drinking to children who grow up in a country where the vast majority of adult men smoke, and where the amount of alcohol consumption is quite possibly rivaled by no other country? In Science class a few weeks ago, I had to spend a week educating my kids on the negative effects of smoking and drinking. I began telling them about the serious illnesses you can get from the two. Within a few minutes, most kids' hands were raised, eagerly waiting to inform me that their fathers smoke and drink A LOT, and they are healthy. How do you tell a child that their fathers are probably not as healthy as they'd like to think? How do you tell a child that smoking leads to deadly illnesses, and then hear them talk about how much their fathers smoke? Do I tell them their fathers are wrong in believing it's perfectly ok to drink themselves into oblivion and chain smoke? Do I tell them not to make the same choices when they are adults that their fathers made? With each comment made by a student, all I could think of was to say, "Oh. Ok. Well... huh. Does your father only drink a little? Oh, he drinks a lot. Ok, and you say he's healthy? Uh huh, hmm..." I felt like the only good thing I could say was in response to a question asked by one student: "Roman Teacher, do you drink?" "Nope, I think it's yucky!" Unfortunately, that response was followed by, "No, beer is yummy!" Sigh.
A Confidence Boost
One thing I've learned is that teaching Kindergarten can be great for raising my self-esteem. For instance, when a student is struggling to twist open their orange juice bottle, I twist it open for them with such ease that they excitedly exclaim, "Whooooaaa! Roman Teacher, VERY strong!" Aw shucks, you guys!
Or when I draw something on the board that would not pass a middle school drawing class, and my students yell out, "Ooooh, Roman Teacher, VERY good drawer!" Blush.
Or when I jokingly start singing an improvisational song about taking out their text books and pencils, and they clap and say "Whooo, Roman Teacher, VERY good singer!" Oh stop!
Or when one of their writing assignments is to write 8 positive qualities about a teacher at Poly School, and one of them writes about me, "Very handsome." Gosh!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Chinese New Year in Hong Kong
Gung hay fat choi! (Happy New Year!)
On Saturday January 21, I flew to Hong Kong with four friends and stayed three nights for the Chinese New Year holiday weekend. We had booked a hostel right in the heart of the city, but had not arranged any sort of itinerary. We just showed up and figured out what to do. Even though our stay was really just 2 and a half days, I felt like we saw enough of the city. Overall, I'd say the experience was good, not great.
I think Hong Kong would be a great destination for any traveler who has never been to Asia. I felt like it was Asia-lite. In Hong Kong, you're submerged in a very densely populated country where 90% of the people are speaking Cantonese. Many restaurants have roasted ducks hanging in the windows and chinese lanterns are hung outside all of the shops. On the other hand, everyone also knows English, the city is very modern and developed, it's easy to get around, and you can find any kind of cuisine there. So in many ways, it feels like any major modern city like San Francisco, but kind of like if all of San Francisco was Chinatown. It would make a perfect stepping stone into other parts of Asia. Since I've lived in Asia for 6 months now, I experienced no culture shock in Hong Kong, which made the overall experience slightly underwhelming.
The temperature was a nice escape from the bitter cold of Pohang, staying in the 50's for the most part. Unfortunately, the sky was gray the entire time, so it hindered the potential beauty of the city and the islands. We spent a good portion of our first full day just walking around and exploring. We found a few outdoor markets that were fun to walk through. They were insanely crowded, and at times overwhelming. I bought a few cheap items for myself, like a shirt that has Chinese characters with English translations in very poor grammar and spelling, a pair of salt and pepper shakers that are hugging each other, and an oil painting of one of the city streets.
That night, we dined at a Chinese restaurant for some dim sum, which is essentially just a variety of small dishes that we all passed around and shared (I believe we ordered about 10 different dishes total). Some were delicious, like the sweet beef buns and the fried squid tentacles, and other dishes were questionable. After dinner, we walked to the harbor that overlooks Hong Kong Island and the main skyline. Every night at 8pm, the skyscrapers display a light show, so we thought that would be a fun thing to see. We got there about 15 minutes early, and noticed a sign advertising the "symphony of lights" that were were about to see. Ooh, a symphony of lights! we thought. How exciting! So the light show began, and each building had some lights that flickered on and off at different times. Then spotlights shined from the tops of some of the buildings, and green lasers shot into the sky at random moments. 10 minutes later, it ended. Was it entertaining? Sure, for about 30 seconds. Was it symphonic? Absolutely not. I felt like declaring shenanigans on this false advertisement!
After we had a good laugh about the disappointing light show, we walked down Hong Kong's walk of stars, which is similar to Hollywood Blvd's sidewalks with famous actors' stars in the pavement, except Hong Kong's walk of stars profile China's biggest stars, like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. They even had a life-sized statue of Bruce Lee in one of his action poses. Although I always despised Hollywood's walk of stars, it was fun reading the unfamiliar names of countless Chinese actors and realizing that there's a whole world of fame completely unknown to the Western world.
The next day, we were unsure of what to do. We didn't want another day of walking and exploring, but we didn't know of any interesting sights/activities that sounded particularly interesting or fun. We ran into another English teacher from Korea that we knew, and he recommended we check out the New Years fair on Hong Kong Island. So we made our way over there only to find a whole crew of workers tearing down the fair. Ok, now what? While wandering around the park in a slight drizzle, Nathan did some careful investigating of the tourist map and found out about a fishing village on one of the smaller islands that offers a more traditional and cultural experience. Great, we thought, let's get out of the city and try something different!
One streetcar, ferry and bus ride later, we arrived at the fishing village. We're very glad we decided to check it out, it was probably the most interesting thing we did/saw. Similar to the "floating village" I saw in Cambodia, a large part of the community lived in homes on stilts over the water. The homes were incredibly modest and poor, yet the people did not appear to be poor or struggling. We were free to walk through the community. It was close to sunset, and most homes were full of large families preparing their dinner. It seemed very family/community-oriented, very warm. We got pretty hungry after awhile, but none of the dried fish hanging outside every restaurant looked appetizing. We weren't THAT hungry. We decided to head back to mainland Hong Kong and get some dinner.
Later that evening, we stumbled on the New Years parade, which included several traditional Chinese dragons that seem common for Chinese parades. We also saw the characters from Star Wars marching in the parade... I'm guessing that wasn't traditional for Chinese parades. We had a very early flight back to Korea the next morning, so I called it a night not long after the parade to get at least a little sleep before heading out.
Like I said earlier, my experience was good not great. I certainly didn't love the city, but it was cool nonetheless. It was probably the most densely populated city I've been in, which was exciting most of the time, and overwhelming/annoying once in a while. My time there helped solidify my feelings that I am not much of a big city kind of guy, and really need natural beauty to look at. It is a wonderfully diverse and multicultural city, with people from all corners of the world practicing all religions of the world. It also has a nice East-meets-West feel to it since it was a British colony for 100 years (cars drive on the left side of the road, and the street cars are double-deckers like the buses in England).
I won't be traveling internationally again until I leave Korea. I've definitely made good use of my vacations so far, visiting Japan, Cambodia and Hong Kong in the last 6 months. I'm now going to focus on saving money, but will try to do a small adventure each month, like going to Busan or Daegu (some of Korea's biggest cities besides Seoul) and I will try to visit the DMZ (de-militarized zone) that separates North and South Korea. When I leave Korea at the end of July, I am hoping to spend a week in Mongolia before heading home.
On Saturday January 21, I flew to Hong Kong with four friends and stayed three nights for the Chinese New Year holiday weekend. We had booked a hostel right in the heart of the city, but had not arranged any sort of itinerary. We just showed up and figured out what to do. Even though our stay was really just 2 and a half days, I felt like we saw enough of the city. Overall, I'd say the experience was good, not great.
I think Hong Kong would be a great destination for any traveler who has never been to Asia. I felt like it was Asia-lite. In Hong Kong, you're submerged in a very densely populated country where 90% of the people are speaking Cantonese. Many restaurants have roasted ducks hanging in the windows and chinese lanterns are hung outside all of the shops. On the other hand, everyone also knows English, the city is very modern and developed, it's easy to get around, and you can find any kind of cuisine there. So in many ways, it feels like any major modern city like San Francisco, but kind of like if all of San Francisco was Chinatown. It would make a perfect stepping stone into other parts of Asia. Since I've lived in Asia for 6 months now, I experienced no culture shock in Hong Kong, which made the overall experience slightly underwhelming.
The temperature was a nice escape from the bitter cold of Pohang, staying in the 50's for the most part. Unfortunately, the sky was gray the entire time, so it hindered the potential beauty of the city and the islands. We spent a good portion of our first full day just walking around and exploring. We found a few outdoor markets that were fun to walk through. They were insanely crowded, and at times overwhelming. I bought a few cheap items for myself, like a shirt that has Chinese characters with English translations in very poor grammar and spelling, a pair of salt and pepper shakers that are hugging each other, and an oil painting of one of the city streets.
That night, we dined at a Chinese restaurant for some dim sum, which is essentially just a variety of small dishes that we all passed around and shared (I believe we ordered about 10 different dishes total). Some were delicious, like the sweet beef buns and the fried squid tentacles, and other dishes were questionable. After dinner, we walked to the harbor that overlooks Hong Kong Island and the main skyline. Every night at 8pm, the skyscrapers display a light show, so we thought that would be a fun thing to see. We got there about 15 minutes early, and noticed a sign advertising the "symphony of lights" that were were about to see. Ooh, a symphony of lights! we thought. How exciting! So the light show began, and each building had some lights that flickered on and off at different times. Then spotlights shined from the tops of some of the buildings, and green lasers shot into the sky at random moments. 10 minutes later, it ended. Was it entertaining? Sure, for about 30 seconds. Was it symphonic? Absolutely not. I felt like declaring shenanigans on this false advertisement!
After we had a good laugh about the disappointing light show, we walked down Hong Kong's walk of stars, which is similar to Hollywood Blvd's sidewalks with famous actors' stars in the pavement, except Hong Kong's walk of stars profile China's biggest stars, like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. They even had a life-sized statue of Bruce Lee in one of his action poses. Although I always despised Hollywood's walk of stars, it was fun reading the unfamiliar names of countless Chinese actors and realizing that there's a whole world of fame completely unknown to the Western world.
The next day, we were unsure of what to do. We didn't want another day of walking and exploring, but we didn't know of any interesting sights/activities that sounded particularly interesting or fun. We ran into another English teacher from Korea that we knew, and he recommended we check out the New Years fair on Hong Kong Island. So we made our way over there only to find a whole crew of workers tearing down the fair. Ok, now what? While wandering around the park in a slight drizzle, Nathan did some careful investigating of the tourist map and found out about a fishing village on one of the smaller islands that offers a more traditional and cultural experience. Great, we thought, let's get out of the city and try something different!
One streetcar, ferry and bus ride later, we arrived at the fishing village. We're very glad we decided to check it out, it was probably the most interesting thing we did/saw. Similar to the "floating village" I saw in Cambodia, a large part of the community lived in homes on stilts over the water. The homes were incredibly modest and poor, yet the people did not appear to be poor or struggling. We were free to walk through the community. It was close to sunset, and most homes were full of large families preparing their dinner. It seemed very family/community-oriented, very warm. We got pretty hungry after awhile, but none of the dried fish hanging outside every restaurant looked appetizing. We weren't THAT hungry. We decided to head back to mainland Hong Kong and get some dinner.
Later that evening, we stumbled on the New Years parade, which included several traditional Chinese dragons that seem common for Chinese parades. We also saw the characters from Star Wars marching in the parade... I'm guessing that wasn't traditional for Chinese parades. We had a very early flight back to Korea the next morning, so I called it a night not long after the parade to get at least a little sleep before heading out.
Like I said earlier, my experience was good not great. I certainly didn't love the city, but it was cool nonetheless. It was probably the most densely populated city I've been in, which was exciting most of the time, and overwhelming/annoying once in a while. My time there helped solidify my feelings that I am not much of a big city kind of guy, and really need natural beauty to look at. It is a wonderfully diverse and multicultural city, with people from all corners of the world practicing all religions of the world. It also has a nice East-meets-West feel to it since it was a British colony for 100 years (cars drive on the left side of the road, and the street cars are double-deckers like the buses in England).
I won't be traveling internationally again until I leave Korea. I've definitely made good use of my vacations so far, visiting Japan, Cambodia and Hong Kong in the last 6 months. I'm now going to focus on saving money, but will try to do a small adventure each month, like going to Busan or Daegu (some of Korea's biggest cities besides Seoul) and I will try to visit the DMZ (de-militarized zone) that separates North and South Korea. When I leave Korea at the end of July, I am hoping to spend a week in Mongolia before heading home.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Christmas in Cambodia
During the week of Dec. 24th - 31st, 5 friends and I explored the beautiful Kingdom of Cambodia. We flew into Phnom Penh (the capital), spent 3 nights in Siem Reap (where the world famous Angkor Wat is located), 2 nights in Sihanoukville (a gorgeous beach town), and back to Phnom Penh to head home (see the map below). This trip was pretty close to perfect! Everything went smoothly and harmoniously, and although things didn't go exactly as planned, everything that we did do was fantastic.
We arrived in Phnom Penh the night of Dec. 24th, and only spent that one night there before heading to Siem Reap. When we walked out of the airport, a man directed us to two taxis that would take us to our hostel. Now since we were in a foreign and very poor country, we were all wary of potential crimes against us. So when our two cab drivers were being extremely friendly to us, we all feared there was some catch involved. We told them we needed to buy bus tickets to Siem Reap for the next morning, so they drove us all around the city finding a bus station that was still open to sell us tickets. They were being incredible helpful, but we were still fearful it was too good to be true. We finally found a place to buy tickets, and then our drivers took us to our hostel. Once we realized they were merely being helpful and nice, I think we all felt terrible for fearing the worst, and thanked them profusely. Their generosity would be a continuous theme for every Cambodian we encountered!
Sunday Dec. 25th
On Christmas morning, we boarded an 8am bus to Siem Reap. I brought a book with me ("The Tao of Pooh"), but I didn't open it once. Instead, I was enthralled by the view out the window. We drove a one-lane road for the entire 6 hour ride through the Cambodian country side. We drove through many small communities of very modest homes made of palm leaves. Most homes had chickens and a waterbuffalo out front, along with a man-made square pond. I'm not sure what the ponds are for, though I did notice a lot of water buffalos wading in the water, probably to cool off. I sure hope the water wasn't for drinking, because it was usually green. The ponds also had several lilly pads decorated with beautiful magenta flowers. Since this was my first trip to a third-world country, I had never seen a community like this. That was the quickest 6 hour bus ride of my life.
We arrived at the bus station in Siem Reap and were greeted by a swarm of tuk-tuk drivers (tuk-tuks are small 4-person carriages pulled by motorcycles, our main mode of transportation on this trip). Two very nice drivers took us to our hostel. They asked us what our plan was for the next day. When we told them we would be visiting Angkor Wat, they offered to take us and be our personal chauffeurs for the whole day, for the very low price of $5/person (that's the price of a 10 minute cab ride in Korea). We of course jumped on that opportunity!
That evening, we walked 5 minutes from our guesthouse into a central part of Siem Reap to do some shopping and dining. We all went a little crazy with the shopping since everything was dirt cheap! Outside the shops were several water tanks with fish swimming inside. Normally, fish in tanks are eaten by people. Instead, these fish would be eating the people! Now before you freak out, let me explain. These tanks are foot baths. For $3, you dip your feet into the water and let the fish eat all the dead skin off your feet. Many of you may think, Why would anyone do this?! But I say, Why wouldn't anyone do it?! What a unique experience! So we all paid our $3 and spent about 45 minutes getting our feet tickled by fish teeth. During this time, we met a nice American fellow who was traveling solo, so after talking with him a bit, he ended up joining us for the rest of the evening, as well as the next.
To continue the theme of new experiences, we decided to have a very unique Christmas dinner. I ordered a meat platter which consisted of BBQed kangaroo, crocodile, and snake. I will say the kangaroo was tasty, the crocodile wasn't bad, but a little chewy, and the snake tasted good, but took about 2 minutes to chew each bite, which made it no fun to eat. It was worth the experience though.
Monday Dec. 26th
Our tuk-tuk drivers picked us up from our guesthose at 8am to take us to Angkor Wat. It is just outside the city, so the drive was only about 20 minutes. Angkor Wat is Cambodia's main attraction, and is referred to by many as the 8th Wonder of the World. If you're not familiar with Angkor Wat, it is a collection of temples and palaces all located in a park. The first buildings were built in the 11th Century when the Khmer Empire began to flourish. The region back then was Hindu, so most of the temples originated as Hindu temples. Construction continued for the next two hundred years and became the hub of the civilization. In the 1500s, the Khmer culture became Buddhist. Instead of tearing down the Hindu temples, the Buddhist rulers just adapted them into Buddhist temples.
The buildings are farely well in-tact still, though they are only now used as a tourist destination and require plenty of upkeep and renovation. Though I have never been to Rome or Greece to see the Colloseum and Parthenon, I would argue that the architecture and engineering feats required to contrust Angkor Wat rival those of the Romans and Greeks. Of course, Angkor Wat was built about 1000 - 1500 years later than many of the Roman and Greek relics. Then again, when Angkor Wat was built, the UK still only consisted of local, primitive clans.
It's hard to describe what it's like walking through those structures. I had never been to anything so old, so awe-inspiring. I tried imagining what it would have looked like when first built, what kind of paint would be on the walls, what kinds of people were walking around, what kind of energy it had. I think the best depiction I can offer is from the photos I took, so I will suggest you see for yourself.
I knew there were some monkeys in Cambodia. Having never seen wild monkeys, that was one of the things I most wanted to see. In fact, I told my friends I want a monkey on my head! Well, at Angkor Wat, my wish came true. We found a community of monkeys who looked more or less harmless, so we slowly approached them. They seemed entirely unphased and unthreatened by us, and took an interest in certain objects on our persons that they could snatch and bring into the trees. I saw one monkey carrying a man's hat into a tree! So they climbed all over us, trying to take our glasses and water bottles. One monkey proceeded to climb on my head, though it wasn't the fun, cute experience I had hoped for. I was surprised by having a monkey on my head, so I flinched a bit, and then felt the monkey's fangs dig into my scalp! This was no longer fun, and that monkey was no longer cute. I shook him off me and decided to get the hell out of there!
(In case you're worried, I can assure you that I am fine after the monkey bite. I've only foamed at the mouth a little.)
We spent most of the day at Angkor Wat, stopping at probably 10 different sites. We felt so blessed to have our tuk-tuk drivers, they were very informational, and they stopped at a lot of wonderful sites that the tours did not stop at, so the crowds were much lighter. There were few boundaries or fences that kept us out of certain places. We could even climb the temples if we wanted. It was certainly fun taking advantage of that freedom, yet at the same time, I couldn't help but feel that kind of freedom might speed up the deterioration of the structures. One of the highlights of the day was when we climbed to the top of a palace that had very few tourists. We sat on the top, with our legs dangling over the edge, looking out over the land in silence and serenity.
I think we figured that day would be the best of our trip, but it turns out we were wrong...
Tuesday Dec. 27th
When our tuk-tuk drivers returned us to our guesthouse after Angkor Wat, we didn't have anything planned for the next day. We were thinking of just playing it by ear. Luckily, our drivers suggested we go see the "floating" village, and offered to take us there. We had no idea what the floating village was, but we accepted their offer. They had been so good to us thus far, so we figured why not spend another day with them.
They picked us up around 1pm on Tuesday to take us to the floating village. It was a 40 minute drive through the country side, which was even more interesting and enthralling than the bus ride a couple days back. We got to a very swampy area where our drivers handed us off to a young man (no older than 17) who would drive us around the village by boat. So we boarded the boat, and our tuk-tuk drivers stayed put until our return.
It turns out that the "floating" village is not actually a village of floating homes like we expected, but rather a community of buildings on stilts above a lake/swamp. Talk about culture shock! These were all very poor homes with very minimal electricity and probably no plumbing. Yet the people appeared so happy! They waved at us from their doorways as we floated through their neighborhood. We saw kids as young as 3 years old operating their own wooden row boats, and parents not worried that their children might fall in and drown.
Our boat stopped at one of the two restaurants in the community and we were told that for $5 we can board a smaller paddle boat and take a tour of the lake forest (and by lake forest, I mean trees that are growing out from under the water). For $5, why not?! The 6 of us were separated into two boats. My boat was guided by an older woman who was accompanied by an adorable 4 year old girl who appeared to be her granddaughter. And that's when my heart melted! This little girl sat right in front of me, and I spent the majority of that boat ride learning Khmer words from her (the Cambodian language), making funny faces, showing her my camera, and pretending to eat things on the boat. I'm sure the forest is beautiful, but I'd hardly know since this girl stole my attention.
After our boat ride through the forest ended, we returned to the restaurant and had refreshments. The little girl joined us there, and Sarah taught her how to play a game on her iPod. Sitting on the open-air deck of that restaurant, in the middle of the most foreign neighborhood we'd ever experienced, was when I realized that this was the best day so far, and would be extremely hard to beat. Except it only got better.
Our first boat driver took us out into the open part of the lake to watch the sunset. When we got out there, we had about an hour to kill before sunset. Mike and Alisa swam in the lake while Sarah read, and Pete, Dan and I just sat and took it all in as the sun ever so slowly tucked under the horizon.
When the sun finally set, all the boats in the lake raced back to shore, and I seriously mean raced. It was such a trip riding the boat at full speed and competing with the other boats. It was all done in good fun of course, and very entertaining.
We were reconnected with our tuk-tuk drivers, who took us back to town. They asked if we would like to go out for a drink with them. Since this was our last night with them, we of course accepted their offer. They took us to a non-touristy place where we were able to talk with them a bit and get to know them a little better. Like I said, they had been incredibly nice the entire time, but it's usually assumed that people in the service industry are just nice for the money. But when we needed to leave, one of the drivers paid for everyone's drinks! Now we really knew they were just genuinely nice guys.
Wednesday Dec. 28th
We took an overnight bus to Sihanoukville because we discovered it would take a long time to get there. We knew we had to go through Phnom Penh, but thought the bus ride would be one straight shot. Unfortunately, we had to get off the bus at Phnom Penh at around 5am and wait over 2 hours for the next bus to take us to Sihanoukville. This was not a fun experience, especially since I hardly slept on the first bus. The bus station was also an absolute dump with very little food options and one of the most disgusting bathrooms I've ever seen.
That being said, when we finally made it to Sihanoukville (13 hours after leaving Siem Reap), the long bus travel no longer mattered. We reserved a hostel in a small beach community outside of the city called Otres Beach. The community was hardly developed with just a small strip of hostels, beach restaurants and bars. Our hostel was 50 feet from the beach, and had a very laid back atmosphere. It was brand new, and looked like a gigantic beach hut. A handful of ex-pats, mostly British, ran the place and were extremely friendly.
This was the part of our trip where we got lazy and relaxed on the beach. The water was warm and not too salty, with absolutely no waves. Although it would have been nice to surf, it was also nice relaxing in very calm water. When we first jumped in the water, we loudly and excitedly exclaimed, "We're swimming in the Gulf of Thailand!!!" There was a floating dock in the water where we sat and watched the sunset over the sea. We ate all our meals on the beach, and some of the members of our party got massages and manicures/pedicures on the beach. During our first night there, we ran into a man who offered to take us on a 6 hour boat tour of three islands off the coast. We accepted his offer, and arranged to meet up the next morning at 8am. They included breakfast and lunch with the boat tour, along with snorkeling, all for $15 per person.
Thursday Dec. 29th
As planned, we met up with the boat tour at 8am for breakfast. It turned out that the 6 of us would be the only passengers on the trip! And we were guided by two men who operated the boat and cooked our lunch. Our first stop was right off the coast of one island where we snorkeled. There was coral on the ocean floor, but unfortunately it was all brown (possibly dead or dying). The fish weren't too colorful either, so I only spent about 10 minutes snorkeling. My friends really enjoyed it though, especially the ones who had never been before. I enjoyed just laying out on the boat, feeling the sun on my skin in the dead of winter.
Our next stop was on an island where we spent a few hours swimming, eating lunch, and exploring. There was a path through the island that led to another beautiful and less populated beach. Walking through the jungle of the forest, I couldn't help but think about all the Vietnam War movies I had seen. Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" played in my head.
Our last stop was off the coast of another island for more snorkeling. I decided to just stay on the boat under the sun, enjoying the scenery. I had absolutely no problem being lazy. After all, it's a vacation, it's perfectly acceptable to do as little as possible!
We returned to Otres Beach around 3:30pm, where we just hung out on the beach relaxing and playing in the water (and inevitably getting sunburned!). I set up my camera and tripod on the beach and took some shots of the sunset.
Friday Dec. 31
We spent the morning enjoying the beach while we still could, because we had to take a 1pm bus back to Phnom Penh. We really did not want to leave, it was a little too nice there. And we realized that this really concluded our trip.
Had we known what our bus ride would be like, we probably wouldn't have left. But there was no predicting that our 6 hour bus ride would be on a karaoke bus! That's right, a karaoke bus, where you can sing karaoke on the bus. And despite the fact that no one on our bus sang a single song, they had Cambodian karaoke music blasting on the speakers. We asked them to please turn the volume down, or off, but instead they played an equally loud and annoying Chinese movie overdubbed in Khmer. Even with my headphones in on full volume, it could not drown out the volume of the bus speakers. It was a nightmare! If I had to pick a low-point on the trip, this was it. But to be honest, given what can go wrong on trips like this, a nightmarish karaoke bus is really not a bad low-point.
We arrived in Phnom Penh that evening, checked into our guesthouse, ate some dinner, and went to bed. We had an early plane to catch, so there was no staying out late for us. It was a sad night, and a sad morning.
I mentioned in the beginning that this was a very harmonious trip. I credit that mostly to the dynamic of our group. With 6 people, there is usually conflicts of interest. However, over the entire week, there was not one single argument or disagreement about what to do, where to go, or what to eat. We got along swimmingly the entire time, and never got bored with each other. Even during our last night, we still had things to talk about over dinner. I am so grateful to have gone with this group of quality individuals! This trip only made our friendships stronger, and I will forever cherish these memories with them.
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