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....