Moving On!

Well family, friends and felines (that means you Persia), I'm back to ramble, rant and write run-on sentences for to keep you abreast of what Hilary, Smith and I are up to. We're off for the road in little more than a week. We've eclipsed a year since we came to this fair-weathered nation and yet it doesn't seem hardly so long. I can't possibly recount everything that's happened in the past year, not simply because my memory doesn't have the capacity, but also because it would be downright droolingly boring and I wouldn't subject anyone to the minutia of everyday existence. It's just not that interesting no matter what country you are in. What I can say to cover that period of time is this: it was okay.


Next we are off to India and Nepal. Nepal is a recent addition to our itinerary. We didn't know whether or not we could cross into Nepal from India or how safe it is there until about a week ago, but it looks like a go. In fact, I think Nepal is our first destination upon arrival. We fly out to Delhi on November 10th and arrive in the morning, so we hope to make it to the border crossing that day. We'll firm it up this week. At this point, that's all we've got planned for Nepal, but we'll get it figured. From Nepal, we'll cross back into India over by Darjeeling. We're expecting Darjeeling to be spectacular and tentatively planning on staying there for near to two weeks. That's the way we like to do it. Pick a place and stay for a while to get to know it. We don't care for the mad, break-neck, scuttle. We're more dawdlers and loiterers, dalliers and leisurers. Anyway, if it doesn't work out there, it will somewhere else. Perhaps in the south.


So, that's where we're going. Now where we have been.


My sister Smith came to stay with us almost three months ago. She is in high school and doing her classes on-line. It's been great having her and she and Hilary have been getting along great. Smith will be accompanying us to India and on. She came right around the time of Chu Seok, which is a holiday here something like Thanksgiving, only instead of making a turkey, we make song peyon, Korean rice cakes. These cakes are not like the crisp round treats that come with buttered popcorn baked in or coated in carmel. Not the ones we enjoy in the west. These are glutinous, globular balls of rice paste with various sweetened things inside. Some have a mix of sugar and sesame that when cooked tastes a bit like honey, while others have sweetened red bean paste, which I find disgusting, or close to disgusting. Ghastly? Well, the tradition is that you make these confections. So, naturally, the school decided that we'd make them with the kindergardeners the day before we finished for the long weekend, however, no one bothered to explain to Hilary or me just how we were supposed to go about making these things. When it came time to make them with our kids, we were pretty much lost. To be fair, they assumed Hilary knew what to do and didn't give me a class, either because I'm a man or they thought me incompetent. Either way, I helped her and took pictures. It wasn't really a disaster, but while the other kids had bills, our kids had amorphous blobs and globules.


Also at Chu Seok, people wear the traditional clothing called hanbok. It is often characterized by vibrant colors and simple lines without pockets. The women's hanbok consists of a chima meaning a wrap-around skirt and jeogori which refers to a jacket. The ensemble is often called chima jeogori. The men's hanbok is comprised of jeogori and baggy pants called baji. Hilary and I wore normal clothes because a good hanbok is expensive, but most of the kids came dressed in them as you can see from these photos. Yeosu is still pretty small when compared to other cities in Korea, so I think the families are a little more tied to tradition. However, with the rapid growth of the factories here, that might soon change.


I spent most of the year teaching a private lesson in addition to my normal workload. The father of two of our students had been getting lessons from the man I replaced and I took them over. He is a really nice man named Mr. Kim and he took me out to dinner on several occasions. On one such occasion, he took me to the factory complex outside of Yeosu. The complex is around ten minutes drive from town and factories sprawl out over the terrain like mechanical spiders. They are mainly power, chemical and oil factories and they are all ensconced in masses of bending and turning pipes covered in bright white lights. It's a rather striking sight at night, what with the flame stacks burning off the excess gasses and the intensely brilliant bulbs all over. It's somewhat fantastical. Mr. Kim worked on one of the factories as some kind of planner, safety checker and trouble shooter. I'm not quite sure of his title right now. Anyway, he explained to me that many of the factories never shut down because they are far to difficult to restart. They run all day, every day, all year, which I thought was kind of wild.



Factories aren't the only attractions around Yeosu. The place is all hills and slight mountains, and every one has at least one trail to the top, if not several. And on all of these mountains, you will find Korean burial mounds. These mounds are commonly earthen and covered in grass, but in some places they are bade of stone. The largest mountain in Yeosu is called Chomchi Mountain (I made that name up because I don't know it's real name - chomchi means tuna) and is surrounded by apartments and rice paddies. The first time Smith, Hilary and I hiked it it was cloudy so I went back again later to get pictures and enjoy the view. By the time I got back there, they'd harvested most of the rice, but I managed to get some nice pictures none-the-less. It's a nice hike and goes almost straight up the side of the mountain. The trails around here aren't much for cut-backs, but then I never liked them anyway, and besides, the mountains are more hills anyway.


Hiking is very big here and Koreans have all the gear, even for a walk across town. I'm completely serious on this. It is a very common sight to see a Korean wearing a neckerchief, North Face jacket and pants, and a backpack, strolling down the street with a hiking stick in hand - and not some wooden thing they picked up from a park, but a high-end hiking pole or even two. They could be in the middle of the Patagonian steppe and be equally okay. They go all out for it, but then they're better prepared I suppose. They do seem to have better meals when hiking. I've seen a family at the top of a fair sized hill with a burner out grilling up some pork loin. I can't deny envy there, though I'm not big on pork per say.





Anyway, as we prepare to leave, I've been trying to reflect on the year and think of some grand coin of wisdom I came upon or some distinguishable moment of impact and I've got nothing, which isn't to say I didn't enjoy myself or see interesting things. I did however meet a lot of good people, mostly Canadians because they make up the majority of the foreigners here. I thought about giving a bunch of shout-outs here like some athlete on camera after a big win, but none of the people I would mention will read this save for maybe James and Brad (so, I'd like to give a shout out to my Edu Best homey, James and my Apple amigo One Ankled Brad). Working at Edu Best has been a great experience (that is a hideous cliche but I don't really know what else to say about it... that's kind of disappointing). We're going to miss the kids and teachers a lot. Hilary got really close with the youngest class, Hippo Class, and it's going to be sad to say goodbye to them. This is most of them. Hippo kids are around four years old and for most of them, Edu Best was their first experience at school so it has been really nice getting to watch them grow this year. When they first came, there were three kids that cried if I so much as walked by the class, but now they give me hugs and say "I love you." Hilary didn't have that problem. They loved her from the start. I'm getting a little choked up just sitting here writing this and thinking of leaving. They're just so damn cute. Anyway, I think they're the kids I'll miss the most. They were difficult for me because their language skills were so low but they've been great and they always give me something to laugh about at some point. They pick up the funniest things and bust them out on you at the most random times. Suddenly you'll have some kid telling you, "Josiah Teacher is monkey... I don't think so." Precious. Also, they'll say just about anything:


Well, I think that's about all for now. I wish I had more, but I don't think I do. Of course, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them, so feel free to send them. Otherwise, check back in in couple weeks for the latest.


I'll leave you with Moonie showing nostril and Robin showing monster face (Hippo Class):