More "On adventures in politically contested territory..."

And we're back!  With more memories of visiting the island of Dokdo!

Thursday we woke early for our ship to Dokdo, originally we were supposed to leave at 4:30am, thank god that was changed to 7am.  We boarded a small ship with a massive amount of elderly Koreans to sail two hours to see this sight.

The ride to Dokdo was considerably rougher than yesterday's ferry.  I was happily doped up and dozing from a fresh supply of seasick meds, but there were quite a few passengers who suffered terribly and made good use of the complimentary vomit bags.
I was rather groggy when I awoke to the sound of dry heaving from the seats across the aisle from me.  I noted that the playlist on my ipod had finished, hence the unwelcome noise.  However, I peered out the blue tinted window to see a shadow in the distance.  I tapped awake the friends sitting around me and informed in the most eloquent way, "hey... we're here."

Nope!  That's not the Loch Ness Monster, it's just Dokdo!

My excitement mounted as I watched the island appear in and out of view as the boat veered port to starboard.  Soon the ship made it's approach to the island, with my side being favored.  I happily snapped some photos as we approached from my seat.  Consequentially, half of the ship wanted to snap photos from my vantage as well.  So I spent the next thirty minutes politely enduring various elders leaning over me with their camera phones trying to snap pics while climbing over each other to get to the deck.

I'M ON A BOAT!

It's Dokdo!

For those of you wishing, waiting, wanting for some climactic realization of why this island appears to be such a big deal.  BE DISAPPOINTED!  Dokdo, is actually not particularly impressive in it of itself.  It is more or less two giant rocks in the middle of the East Sea.  There are no shores and the cliff faces are ridiculously unforgiving.  Throughout the trip there was talk of Dokdo becoming a South Korean naval base.  However, this bold blogger may go so far as to say that sounds largely impractical.  Where would you put anything?  Unless you wanted to carve a base into the rocks themselves in the fashion of some James Bond style villain making a seaside hideout.... actually that sounds kinda awesome.... but I digress
The docks to Dokdo are difficult to get to and in the end we were unable to disembark.  The seas were too rough to dock on the island so the ship pulled back from the shoreline (or cliffline as it were) and we were allowed on deck to circle the island for pictures.

Me and fellow Hongcheonite Luke, squinting with the best of them.... oh and that's Dokdo in the background

Thinking of putting a vacation home here? Me neither

 
The ship made a single pass of Dokdo, then the passengers were shuffled back inside to make the voyage back to Ulleungdo.  I was sad to leave behind the sunlight and sea air.  I had been hoping to enjoy the sailing of my journey in the open air and light.  Alas, it was too dangerous to allow passengers outside while the ship was making its journey.  The ride back was even worse than before and I enjoyed walking about as the ship slammed over wakes and waves.  Again, I was happy as can be, however many of my fellow passengers did not share my sentiments.  I soon returned to my seat and dozed a bit during the ride back to Ulleungdo.

I couldn't help but reflect on the ride back about the island of Dokdo.  For such a small, and seemingly insignificant place, it plays an enormous role in the Korean imagination.  I looked around at a ship full of Koreans who had braved the rough sea, just to see this place, and realized that I should have more empathy in regards to the Dokdo issue.  I suppose Dokdo (much like the East Sea/Sea of Japan issue) has to do with Koreans asserting their identity.  Korea is a relatively small nation, housed between the more well known and respected nations of China and Japan.  Throughout history they've struggled to assert themselves as independent politically, socially, and culturally.
The Dokdo issue and the animosity is raises has strong emotional ties to the suffering of the Korean people under Japanese colonization around the time of the Second World War.  That suffering is most certainly not forgotte.  When issues like Dokdo appear it revives old wounds and fresh rivalries.  These feelings are widespread and I have more than once been stopped by locals who feel compelled to tell me "Dokdo is Korean!"  I can only imagine the indignation should I attempt to assert otherwise.

Even still, I do not feel like I need to take a side on the Dokdo issue.  Personally it doesn't matter to me who claims to "own" a couple rocks in the East Sea.
(To be perfectly frank its a little silly to have anyone get too bent out of shape over territory because we're all sharing the same planet whether we like it or not.  Eventually mankind is going to have to realize we're all in this together and that we need to at least begrudgingly cooperate with one another in order to continue with civilization. However, this is no place to pontificate about my notions of global citizenship and other such fantasies)
I don't identify with Korean national pride any more than I do American, or British, or Canadian.  I've always found it difficult to be too emotionally attached to such identities.  However, as much as I may criticize, jest, and jab at the Dokdo issue, I find this trip has given me a new basis to empathize with the Korean opinion.  That empathy I hope will foster a deeper respect for the Korean people and how they see themselves, which is what I had hoped to discover on this trip (and get four days off work).

Meanwhile... back at the narrative:
On Ulleungdo we were informed that we were short on time.  So rather than eating lunch in a restaurant we were to have kimbab by the other dock where we would ride to Samcheok.
(Kimbab: is the Korean take on Sushi rolls.  I've only had it a few times and found it very disappointing.  This is of course because I thought it would be like sushi, it's not.  Sushi is meaty and savory and wonderful.  Kimbab.... is ok.  Kimbab is often made with processed cheese and ham (or spam) in it.  However, I have had Kimbab made with sushi... that's also just ok....)

an example of kimbap

As much as I dislike kimbap, it is a great thing to have on the run while in Korea.  We ate and hopped on another boat for Samcheok.  Again, we dozed as the ship bobbed along back to mainland Korea.  After arriving we stopped at the Samcheok lion Museum, which features a number of Samcheok's famous lion statues.

Samcheok Lion Museum

About the Lions: According to legend, the Silla general who conquered Ulleungdo in the 6th century AD did so by fooling the residents of Ulleungdo with wooden lions.  The pamphlets I read about the subject say that Silla realized that Ulleungdo was inhabited by  fierce fighters, but that "...they were rather stupid."  So rather than attacking Ulleungdo, he filled his ship with lions and threatened to turn them loose on the inhabitants.  Ulleungdo surrendered rather than face the wooden lions.  These lions (again according to local legend) jumped of the ship and became the lion rock on Ulleungdo.  This rock I did not get a picture of (the van was moving too fast), in all honesty I couldn't see how it was supposed to be a lion but I'm not about to argue with legendary transmutating lion statues that become rocks.  I suppose if you can go from wood to stone then you can choose to not look anything like a lion.... again with the digressing!
The lion museum if full of local artisan works in wood, stone, and glass.  Many of them are lions, others are simply items commemorating local life.  Consequentially the museum has a fantastic view of the shore....

Watch out!  Wooden lions still bite!

That's what you get for not listening to me Kevin... Poor Kevin.....

Korean Sunsets.... Enough said

The East Sea as seen from the Museum

I found an incredibly comfortable rock and couldn't resist stopping for a good think!

 Thursday in Samcheok was our last evening.  We again spent it enjoying the company of our new found friends.  We stayed up late and rose early to breakfast and to reflect on our experiences.  Everyone managed to share a bit of something about the trip, to say thanks to the trip leaders from the ISABU association and have their goodbyes with each other.  Like so many teacher events I've been to on Korea, goodbyes were accompanied with a flurry of information being exchanged.  A facebook name here, a phone number there, emails, etc.  Each offered and given in the hope of another meeting with a new face, who in spite of the short notice has already made for a good friend.
Dokdo 2012 is certainly one of many unexpected journeys I am sure to take while I am in Korea.  A once in a lifetime time chance to see a rare piece of earth.  The place may mean little to me, but the journey... now that is a joy I would not spare for any sight.

Adventures in politically contested territory....

Last week was my first trip to politically contested land....

NO!  I do not mean the DMZ or North Korea, those I have yet to do.  No this last week I participated in an expedition to an island in the East Sea that is claimed by both Korea and Japan.  The island is known to Koreans as "Dokdo," the Japanese call it "Dakeshima."  Both nations claim this speck of land to be theirs, and for such a miniscule amount of earth, it is HUGE deal to the people of Korea.  It is such a hot button issue to Koreans, that even mentioning it can lead to animated tirades about the ancient rights of Korea to Dokdo and the malevolence of the Japanese. 
This subject is such an important issue to Koreans that some historical societies in Korea find it their duty to inform people about it.  This happens to include foreigners like myself, as well as exchange students in Korean universities.  The expedition I participated in was sponsored by a group known as the Isabu Association, a group who focus on Korea's ancient claims to the islands of Ulleungdo and Dokdo.  Their belief in this issue is so strong that they not only offered to coordinate this trip, they paid for all the participants!  This magnanimous offer was much too good to pass up in this blogger's opinion.  Though he suspected (and was often warned) that this association was more than a little biased on the subject.  Not only that, but previous groups had been photographed, filmed, and quoted for the purposes of drawing attention (and asserting) international approval for Korea's stance of this issue.  Though I suspected my participation in this trip could lend my face and words towards propaganda, I smothered my pride in rationalities.  Most who know me know that I am more or less apolitical and that I do not participate in my home nation's political process.  So when I considered the notion of my pride and dignity being sacrificed for propaganda I though long and hard.  I concluded:
"Meh..."
To be perfectly frank, I couldn't imagine this trip to force me to do anything any more humiliating than things I had already done at high school pep rallies.  Though nationalistic pride is on a slightly grander and more intimate scale of feeling than school pride, I find that I am equally aloof to both phenomena.  So I filled out the application, pursued the issue relentlessly and joined three of my fellow Hongcheon residents on the journey to Dokdo.  After all, who really is going to pass up a free trip (and four days off of school) simply on a matter of principle?  (Yes, in this regard, my standards are that low).  However, in spite of all the fears and warnings, I was pleasantly surprised by how little we were pushed to pose for pictures and make statements for the organization.  Though much of the information presented to us by various museums and historical societies had a blatant bias, all of the participants I spoke to during the trip recognized the angle of information.  More than once we were able to stop and share a laugh about it.

But enough on that, the trip:
The trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday, taking me from my home in Hongcheon to the coastal city Samcheok, and the Islands of Ulleungdo, and Dokdo.

Samcheok Museum

Tuesday brought together all of the participants at the Samcheok City Municipal Museum, where we met one another and listened to a number of lectures on the subject of Dokdo.  Though I am one who finds most lectures stimulating, I was more bemused than intrigued.  Not by the subject, but by the fact that no one in the Isabu Association speaks English (nevermind that 85% of the participants present spoke ONLY English).  So during the entire trip, all information was channeled through my fellow Hongcheon EPIK teacher, Fred.  Fred, bless his beautiful heart, has participated in this trip before and was more or less roped into translating for the entire journey.  The curse of being bilingual is being constantly sought for such tasks.  However, Fred took to this work spectacularly well and managed to communicate between the English speakers and the Koreans leading our trip.  If I sound like I'm praising the man, I am, he's a great guy.  I ended up spending a decent amount of time with Fred and the other Hongcheon kids, they are FANTASTIC fun!

Apparently people in these parts take their "Tug-o-war" VERY seriously

A display in the Museum

Tuesday night was spent at a hotel in Samcheok.
Wednesday met us bright and excruciatingly early (5am).  From there we climbed aboard the local ferry for Ulleungdo and crossed the East Sea (a 5 hour trip).  Doped up on seasick meds we more or less moped about the ship, serenaded by the sound of vomiting passengers.  I unfortunately did not sleep much on this ride.  I did however, discover the joy of wandering about a bouncing boat while groggy on medication.  I was more than once found giggling while haphazardly stumbling up and down the ship.  I suppose seasick medication is the cheapest drunk feeling I've ever encountered (the potions are about 1,000 won a bottle, that's less than $1)
We landed Ulleungdo to discover it was too late to see Dokdo, so we were loaded into buses after lunch and raced around the island.  Sadly it was often too fast to take pictures of incredible cliff faces and amazing seascapes.  However, there were a few spots we were allowed to take pictures.  I was more amused by climbing over rocks and acting like a kid.  I don't think I'll ever be over my affinity for jungle gyms.....

My buddy Kevin on the mountainside

 

Fellow adventurers in front of Turtle Rock, note the Turtle diving face first into the sea just over Olivia's left shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Yep this is me, being awesome...on a rock.

Though we were able to see a great deal of Ulleungdo on Wednesday, we were not able to spend much time in any one spot.  The longest we were anywhere was 10 minutes!  I found this to be irritating, but it encouraged me to run and play as much as I could every time we stopped.  The evening came crashing down on us sooner than we expected and after dinner we retreated to a local pension (resort like group of cottages on the mountainside).  We were travel weary and sore from being cramped inside Korean buses (which do not have any notion of leg room!  This is a problem).  However, in spite of our long day and the promise of a longer one in the morning, I was pleased to find many of my fellow adventurers mingling in the cold evening air.  We stayed up late into the night, talking, playing games, and enjoying modest amounts of the local brew: pumpkin mackoli.  

(Mackoli is a common Korean rice wine (that can be bought at any convenience store), however, Ulleugndo is the only place you can find Pumpkin Mackoli.)

Though we all enjoyed imbibing this unique brew, I must confess that it tastes more or less like ordinary Mackoli.  However, as with all alcohol, the joy of the drinking is as much based on the quality of the company as the quality of the alcohol being consumed.  Thankfully, the friends I found on this trip were as many I've found in Korea, fantastic. Though we did not make a late night of it on Wednesday, we did beat back the cold with many cups of Mackoli and a lot of laughs.

Thursday led us to Dokdo, but more on that later.  I apparently I have to go teach now! 

-Mg out

Teacher Training

This time last week I was not where I am now (now as in at Samseang Elementary School) I was attending a teacher training session for the EPIK teachers in Gangwon-do.  Training in Korea is an enriching experience, though not necessarily in the professional sense.  More on that in a moment:

The training was Thursday and Friday, taking place in Yanyang, a town just down the coast from Sokcho.  These are both towns on the eastern coastline and our training complex had a gorgeous view overlooking the East Sea
(EAST Sea mind you, NOT the Sea of Japan!  Apparently Koreans get very touchy in the subject of names and ownership in various geographical features.  International water be damned!). A gorgeous facility operated by the KoRail company, it was lent to the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education and its counterparts to host this event.
I embarked on the hour long drive to Yangyang in the company of my main co-teacher, Mr. Shin.  Mr. Shin is a wonderful man, a kind, soft spoken, smiling sort of fellow.  However, Mr. Shin's English ability is very limited, it makes conversation quite difficult.  But we manage to communicate somewhat.  Mr. Shin was our driver for this trip, and has had several other seats in his car he was kind enough to provie two other EPIK teachers rides to Yangyang.  My two foriegn friends were fellow rookie EPIK teacher Luke, and veteran teacher Jen.  This was our first "professional" interaction, as we often spent most of our time together after school hours enjoying copius amounts of alcohol
(medicinal quantities I assure you gentle reader, it is often seen as an essential component of surviving one's teaching experience). 
In any case, we enjoyed the long ride to Yangyang with some conversation and a bit of admiring the scenery. I freely admit that I also dozed off for a while (something about riding in cars in Korea knocks me out).  Even still the drive took us through Soraksan National Park, one of the largest most impressive mountain ranges in South Korea.  It's breathtaking to see the sheer clifs and stony peaks of Soraksan, and somehow they managed to carve a high way right through this rugged territory.  I recall looking at the high mountains and steep vallies wondering to myself, "how on earth did people get from place to place 50, 60, 100 years ago?"

Some photos from a mountain side on the road to Soraksan

We arrived in Yangyang in the early afternoon, beginning our teacher training shortly afterwards.  The training was composed of lectures, demonstrations, and small group activities.  In all honesty, there were only a few training events during the afternoon and following morning.  A good amount of time was spent socializing and catching up with friends from orientation.  I also had the pleasure of meeting a host of few faces, teachers who I had not met at orientation, teachers who had arrived in years before, and a number of Korean teachers who spoke superb English. 

As a foriegner in a rural area in Korea, I have acquired a certain hunger for a decent conversation.  More importantly a hunger for interesting conversation.  This event was just the palce for me to gorge myself on talk, and revel in the thrill of meeting new people.  I freely admit it is very difficult meeting people in Korea.  Not that it is hard to introduce oneself, but that one meets so many people so quickly its hard to keep people straight.  Even if you manage to keep names with faces it is another task entirely to keep in touch.  In spite of this difficulty I was able to enjoy the time off teaching to meet greet and network with my fellow teachers.  In this I feel I got the most reward for my training.  Foreign teachers in South Korea are always interesting. Hailing from all corners of the English speaking world, I am constantly surprised by new and curious characters in this profession. 

I was able to snap a handful of pictures from the sea.  Absolutely gorgeous!

The KoRail training center

A long overdue bit of view

At long last I have done the one thing I set out to do upon learning I was to be teaching in Gangwon-do.  I went hiking.  For the first time since I've arrive in Korea I have managed to take the time out of one of my few free days to enjoy the many mountains that surround my little town of Hongcheon.  Accompanied by my fellow EPIK Teacher, Luke (another Hongcheon resident), we set off to climb a mountain not far from my little apartment. 
Though it did not take long for the two of us to reach one of the several summits that one can find on the local paths, I cannot say we did so without a considerable amount of huffing and puffing.  Korean trails and mountains are surprisingly steep.  Not only that, but the paths were made of rather loose gravel that did not bother me so much on the climb up... but made the climb down somewhat tricky.  All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon, and I expect to be significantly sore from it tomorrow.  Even still I managed to snap some pictures from the mountaintop of my little town.  Pictures which I hope to share here, at long last....

The best panorama I can muster from the mountaintop, and for those who are interested....

Hongcheon is not a big city by any standard.  It's stretched out along the river that runs through town, and on the last sleepy Sunday I had in Hongcheon I walked along most of the river paths in town in a couple of hours.  Even still, I've been told Hongcheon is home to about 80,000 residents.  It certainly isn't a bustling Korean metropolis, but for the next year it's home. 
On the hike up, Luke and I managed to share plenty of stories about things in Korea that "just don't make any sense." Korea is certainly a quirky country, at least in the eyes of this foreigner.  I'm sure I'll have countless stories of odd events and curious customs before I leave here, and though it can be frustrating at times it's never not been a rewarding experience.  I imagine it will continue to be so....

A bit of blind trust...

So, for many who have known me.  It's no secret that I've been sick rather frequently in my short stay in South Korea.  I was ill before getting on the plane, having been prescribed antibiotics before leaving the United States.  Whatever I had cleared up for a week or so, but came back for a day to knock me back into a phlegm ridden fiend.  It cleared up again, though I still had swollen glands, nothing particularly unusual and easily ignored.

Three days ago I came down sick AGAIN.  Plegm, runny nose, tired, and weak.  This is MUCH more frequent that I've ever been sick over the past four years.  There are many things in my mind that give good reason for me to be in my current state.  The change in climate, new job stress, and a dramatic change in diet, all these things can (and likely have) challenged my immune system in a way that I've never experienced.  But yesterday was the last straw.  I resolved to dare the local pharmacy for some medicine to end this once and for all.

The pharmacist was like most Koreans, she spoke a few English words, but the majority of our conversation was mimed.  Eventually she understood I needed something to clear my throat and nose, and selected a product.  She indicated I should take it three times a day and that sounded reasonable to me.  I thanked her profusely and went on my way.  At home I discovered (to my delight) the pills were divided into day and night (as indicated by color and sun/moon symbols).  Happy to have something to relieve my pain I popped a nighttime pill in my mouth after dinner (around 7:15pm) and went about my business.  As I was going about the dishes I felt the drugs take hold, having lived a life that typically avoids medicine I said to my empty apartment:

"Huh... I feel funny." (this is about 7:30pm)

I left the dishes unwashed and climbed into bed.  I did my best to motivate my self to do something, anything, as I have many things to do.  But I nothing seemed to come of my best efforts.  At last I surrendered myself to the throes of the medication (whose side effects I cannot read) and curled up on bed.

8pm, I was out cold.  This is unprecedented

At around 5:50 am (today) I stirred, shifting to find me alarm (and was alarmed) to discover how long I had slept.  To be fair, it's the longest night I've ever slept in South Korea.  Perhaps it is the longest night I've slept in the past year or more! 

Needless to say, I sincerely hope this medicine will clear out my cold.  I admit I feel a little better (though I was wary about the daytime pill I took this morning) and I sincerely hope to continue to improve.  Though I confess I am amazed at the simple, rather blind, trust I pay towards my Korean pharmacist and our ability to communicate through mangled Konglish and mime.  But like most Koreans so far, she was surprisingly positive and admirably helpful.  So thank you Korean Pharmacist! 
Here's to my health... I hope it improves!

On an unprecedented ATM experience....

So there are many things in South Korea that will take a while to get used to:
Traffic patterns, Kimchi, not being able to read, etc.

Among the things that I am eager to getting used to is paying my bills.  Here in South Korea I have discovered a new way to pay bills that I had never imagined before: paying utility bills at the ATM.

Koreans have constructed special ATMs that can not only read your bank card and bank book (more info below), it can also read your bills and pay them directly from the machine. 
The only quirk is figuring out which button on the machine is "Pay my bills magic box!"

It only took me 3 tries to find it.

But I found it!  And all I had to do to pay my expenses was to simply insert my bank book, tear off the bottom of my bill, and feed them into the machine. The machine calculated both bills, printed a statement on my bank book, and presented a transaction slip.  Easy as pie (on the third try)!

So that's how I pay 90% of my bills now, via ATM at my local bank.  Why is this so fascinating to me?

Well one, is that my bills all come with the same sort of detachable slip that can be read by an ATM.  That is a marvelous convenience for two different companies to utilize and ensure people pay them. 

The more interesting thing is to realize that I, as a functionally illiterate foreigner, am able to pay my bills without knowing a lick of Korean.
Granted I would have enjoyed an English option on this particular ATM (most other ATMs have English language options), even still I was able to pay my monthly bills without help and little inconvenience.  I can imagine that presented with the same situation back home (being illiterate and paying bills) would be considerably more difficult.

So that's my take on ATMs at current.  They have an interesting amount of options that are extremely helpful, in addition to being considerably more sophisticated than ATMs back home.  I look forward to actually knowing what all the buttons mean, it will allow me to bank with more confidence.  Even still, with the run of my current experiences, I look forward to learning how to wire money back to the States.  Putting me one step closer to being self sufficient in South Korea!



Appendix:

Bank Book: In South Korea, people are issued Bank Books as well as check/debit cards when they open an account.  The Bank Book holds all of the account holder's information and when fed into a machine, can be used to have full statements printed across it's pages.  It's a convenient and compact place to keep all your banking information, and it's small enough to fit in most wallets.  You just have to be careful not to lose it!