Ferry Tragedy

 Photo courtesy of independent.co.uk 

Four days ago, the Sewol, a ferry traveling from Incheon (in the northwest, near Seoul) to Jeju Island ("Korea's Hawaii," south of the mainland) listed and capsized.  I'm sure most of you have heard by now.  There were nearly 500 people on board, many of whom were high school students on their way to the island for a school field trip.  As of now, 174 people have survived, 58 have been found dead, and 244 are still unaccounted for.  This is four days after the initial incident.

Divers have been going down as often as possible (which isn't often due to bad weather and a strong current) with the hope of rescuing those who may have survived in air pockets in the ship.  They have been faced with bad weather and zero visibility, though, and haven't been able to get inside the ship until today, when the weather cleared up a bit.  Today, divers recovered the first 20 bodies from inside the sunken ship.

Meanwhile, parents and relatives of the students are grieved and enraged.  They've been camping out at a gym near the scene of the accident, waiting for news, but haven't gotten much.  Several reports of parents physically attacking officials have surfaced.  The vice principal of the high school has hung himself.  Police barricaded a bridge as parents attempted to cross it; they intended to march several hundred kilometers to the Blue House (Korea's version of the White House) and demand to know why "nothing" is being done.

The Korean news constantly covers the accident, but hasn't had much to say since the day the capsizing occurred.  They replay footage of the ferry sinking, show clips of parents camping out and scenes of students holding vigils; they compare this accident to previous ferry accidents; they show the hospital and the morgue; they attempt to interview the Captain, continuously casting the brunt of the blame on him for reportedly instructing passengers to stay seated before the sinking; they show models of the Sewol and explain possibility after possibility in immense detail.

A terrible tragedy has turned to hopelessness and chaos.  Continue to pray for calm waters, that good may surface in spite of the bitter badness beneath.

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Thanks for reading :)

Christmas and My Birthday!

That's the thing about living in a different land... Certain commodities become delectable delicacies.

When these boxes full of Western goodies arrived at the start of this week, I couldn't quite calculate whether it must be Christmas or instead could possibly be my birthday.

In the end, I determined it must've been both!

 Packages from HOME! 

 And look at the CONTENTS!!! 

 These are actually the result of online shopping,
but 3 big ones at about 10 bucks a pop is really a
steal of a deal in these parts! 

 And Mom made cookies!  I could cry............. 

 But I won't!  I'll just eat one instead! 

Thanks for reading :)

In Seoul... again

Last weekend, I decided it was time to step outside of Yanggu -- on my own.  I hopped on a bus as soon as the last bell rang on Friday and, just after dark, was dropped deep back into the heart of my old stomping grounds.

In mid-November of 2011, I moved into a brand new apartment near Olympic Park and began teaching at my "permanent" location.  As it turned out, I was only there for a total of 10 months.  Still, though, that was the first apartment that I moved into without having a move-out date already set.  So, on the 3rd floor of a small "villa," I stayed there for the longest period of time that I've stayed in any one place (in Korea), to date.

 Olympic Park 

A couple weeks after I moved in, a down-to-earth, outdoorsy spirit from Seattle settled on the 2nd floor.  We had a lot of good times together and, when I was shipped off to kindergarten the following August, she stayed.  She has been there since, and that is where I, too, was last weekend.

So, as you can see, by old stomping grounds, I really do mean old stomping grounds.  Several of the stores in the area had changed, but many were still the same.  One delicious little underground restaurant was replaced by a fad diet company.  The small, independently-owned supermarket now had an big business label added to its sign.  The rice cake store, the soup shop, and the bus stop hadn't aged an ounce, and there had been built a brand new, big, bright Starbucks on the corner of the main intersection.  (A welcome addition, if you ask me!)

 Back in old stomping grounds 

Saturday morning, I strolled around Olympic Park and somehow my intuition got me to where I wanted to go to meet a friend who I'd met last summer in Portland.  Over lunch with coffee, her and I got caught up on the happenings of the last few months, cracking jokes about how it used to be and throwing around suggestions for how it will continue.

 Lunch with Sunny 

Now solo, I subway-ed to the heart of Seoul: the shopping district.  I'd been there several times before, but suddenly the buildings seemed taller, the lights brighter, the music louder, and the crowds thicker.  I was suddenly a tourist, an awestruck foreign tourist -- all -- over -- again.  So I wandered the street and bought a snack from a vendor and popped in and out of a few shops, following the beckonings of salesmen and signs and sometimes just swaying with the massive human swarm.

 The subway is to be ridden in style... 

 If you don't know what style is, just look around; they've all got it. 

 Myeongdong: the shopping district 

Finally, evening approached.  Exhausted from a day of chit chatting and mob surfing, I decided that dinner with co-workers (fellow foreigners who had come to the city on accords of their own) didn't sound too appetizing, so I grabbed a slice of pizza to-go, replied, "yes," not realizing that I'd been asked if I wanted it warmed up, and sat down on the subway with a shopping bag, a condensation-covered piece of pizza, and two sore feet that realized they weren't as used to doing all this everyday as they must have been a couple years back.

The following morning, I slept in, sipped a cup of coffee, and boarded the bus back to Yanggu.  Passing through the tunnels and staring at the all-so-similar farmland, I didn't realize, but finally reaching the 3rd floor, dropping my bags on the bed, and opening the window to see one single road and a solitary row of single-story houses, all surrounded by billowing, tree-laden mountains, I realized that this is why I chose to live in the type of town where there's only one bus an hour, and sometimes less.

 The Yanggu Skyline 

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Thanks for reading :)

Night Life, Work, Weather, The Streets, No Normal Stops, Daily Living, and The Story of a Stroll -- in photos

Yanggu Night Life

Not much neon, but there are a few lights. 

One light, in particular stands out.  I'm not sure
about the details, but to my understanding, this is
one of the world's largest sundials... and it's in Yanggu.

Might be worth a trip in to town one evening just
to watch it change colors. 

Regular old light show. 

Yanggu Work Life (Girls' High School)

My desk!  (It's much tidier than this now!) 

Several of the Korean teachers at the school.  The man standing
at the far end of the table is the vice principal.  The lady
wearing blue (4th from the left) is my primary co-teacher. 

Yanggu Weather

The weather's been pretty nice for the most part.  Today it got
up to 70F.  (But I only included this photo so you'd have
something to compare the next one against.) 

It wasn't foggy when this photo was taken.  Compare it with the
one above.  Note the haziness of the trees in the foreground as well
as the mountains beyond.  The air isn't as fresh as I expected it to be
in the countryside... Apparently it gets stuck between the mountains.
This is the worst I've seen it so far, though.  Usually it's not bad. 

The Streets of Yanggu

Every 5th day is "Market Day."  All the sellers gather in this
parking lot, like a farmers' market...  Although I'm not sure
how much of the products/produce are home-made/grown.
Still, it's a nice, lively little-town event! 

The work of local craftsmen. 

Military territory. 

Below a small graveyard are piled the remnants
of what is often used to heat houses in the winter.
These blocks are known to produce CO so they
aren't used much these days.  In the poorer, more
rural places, though, they're still the norm. 

Farmland surrounded by mountains, with a few tall apartment
buildings standing in the center. 

My first walk home from work!  It took an hour, but I arrived
just ten minutes after the bus did.  (If I don't walk home, I have
to stay at work, or wander around, for about 40 minutes due to the
 infrequency of buses... A bicycle might be a good investment after all.) 

Greenhouse farming. 

What appears to be low-income housing.  Some houses are
in such bad condition that I wonder if they're actually lived in.
A lot of people, especially elderly people, here seem to
survive by farming a small plot of land -- by hand.  

What was once a convenience store.  And perhaps a home as
well.  Now closed and empty. 

No Normal Bus Stops

I guess this makes sense.  The buses are often late... and if you
miss one, you could be waiting a couple hours for the next one...
Might as well be comfortable! 

Hanging art at a bus stop, on the other hand, I have yet to understand. 

Daily Living

I try to cook Korean-style in the evenings.  It usually looks
something like this (especially since that's the only kind of
soup I "know how" to cook!). 

Visitors are always welcome!  There are restaurants to go to
(i.e. There is something to do) in Yanggu!! 

The Story of a Stroll

I went out for a walk near my apartment one day, and was
pleasantly surprised when I  found this nice, quiet road...

...Until I saw a sign marking the way to an Army training site...

...And another one warning people about canon fire in the area,
and stating that people who enter are doing so at their own risk...
And that's when I turned back... And resolved never to return... 

...But it's too bad... The view was sure nice. 

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Thanks for reading :)

First Impressions of Yanggu

Yanggu (Yahng-goo) is small but spread-out.  It's home to about 24,000 people and its main industries -- agriculture and military -- are everywhere.  But everywhere is not as big as it sounds in Yanggu.  The city center consists of one small street.  There are a couple cafes, a few clothing shops, two grocery stores, a sprinkling of students, and a whole lot of military men.

(Two years of military service is mandatory for Korean men and many of them end up serving in rural places near the DMZ, like Yanggu.)

As far as scenery goes, Yanggu's got it.  The town is surrounded by mountains, with a river running through it.  Weather has been pretty nice so far as well.  It's been chilly, but dry, every day except for today, when it snowed and hailed pretty heavily in the morning, but cleared up by afternoon.

Here are a few photos to give you a better picture (haha?) of where I am...

My Apartment

Out for dinner the first night with several of the other foreign
teachers.  All of the foreign teachers in Yanggu (about 12)
live in the same apartment building. 

The "foreigner" building.

Inside my apartment... View from the front door.
Washroom and kitchen are to the left, bedroom
and laundry room (with huge, balcony-style window)
are straight ahead.

In the bedroom... a desk...

...bed and TV... This apartment is far larger than any
I've lived in in Seoul!

View out the laundry room window... 

Nothing says, "Good morning" like a nice, big mountain. 

Walking Around Yanggu

In "downtown" Yanggu.  Notice that every phone booth is full. 

Crossing the bridge near school.
Notice that a bit of the river remains frozen. 

What did I say about agriculture? 

I think those are rice paddies.  Should be turning green soon!

Driving into Yanggu, it reads: If you come to Yanggu, you'll
grow 10 years younger.

Driving out of Yanggu, it reads: If you come back to Yanggu,
you'll grow 10 MORE years younger.  (Don't ask me how it works!)

My School

Yanggu Girls' High School... This is where I work!  Actually,
what you see parallel in front is the middle school and what
you see perpendicular on the left is the high school.

Going up the stairs to class.  I took this one for you ;)

The English Room!  I'm quite lucky that this school has a designated
English Room so I can set it up the way I like, and not have to
worry about running from room to room.  (In Korea, oftentimes
the students will stay in one room all day while teachers come in and out.)

Some of My Favorite Responses So Far 
(Students responded to the question, "Do you like learning English? If yes, why? If no, why not?")

"Yes!!  learn and learn long time funny."

"yes. because english used all the world so I learn English and
talk all the world so I like learning english"

"Yes. I like learning English becaus English teacher is beautiful."

That last one obviously made my day!

Thanks for reading :)