Back from La Vie D'or and reoriented.

After two weeks of teaching, we were given a break to attend orientation workshops at the La Vie D'or resort in Hwasung city. The provincial board of education organizes the event for all new public ESL teachers so they can meet each other and learn some new techniques. It was great to finally meet people in similar situations and learn some new tools to use in teaching our kids. More importantly, being able to hear about everyone situations put many of our anxieties at ease. The native speaking teachers program here is quite new, so there are tons of problems. Luckily, the people running the show always work hard to make sure nothing horrible goes wrong, so all we have to do is be patient with the system and usually everything works out, albeit with some minor inconveniences. We met people from all over the globe (a huge chunk of them were from UWO actually, but we met some South Africans, Scots, Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, and Americans of all ages) and were able to make some connections that will hopefully last our entire stay in Korea. The resort was really fantastic. We were organized into rooms of four, and we decided to stay in separate rooms so that we could meet other people. I (Justin) was in a Korean style room, which means there is no furniture except a table, and you get thin mats and pillows to sleep on the floor with. Kristi was in a fully furnished room, but furniture is over-rated; the lack of furniture really allows people to gather and socialize, making for fun times. Everyone we were bunked up with were awesome people, so were looking forward to having some nice group adventures.



We were treated to some traditional Korean music at the closing end of orientation. Kristi snapped some pictures and captured some awesome video, so expect that to be posted soon. First we were treated to traditional Korean vocals, which of all the performances was the hardest to get used to. After about a minute though it was quite easy to notice the skill required in performing this vocal style. The woman singing could really belt out the high notes in a deep throaty vibrato, which was really impressive. Next we were shown traditional Korean dance performed by the head of a dance society. The dance is comprised of very subtle movements of arms and legs accompanied by very elaborate spins and quick flicks of a hand fan (the fan makes a very nice percussion sound that adds extra rhythm to the accompanying music, which was my favorite part). At first the dance seemed very simple, but as the fan was Incorporated more and more and you could notice the intensity of even the subtle movements, I noticed that this dance required a lot of discipline.



Next was a few performances on a traditional Korean Harp. This instrument is played in the position of a slide guitar, but is comprised primarily of plucking motions. The sound produced from these instruments is wonderful, which is partially due to the strings being made of silk. The silk strings allow for a more metallic sound, which when played with vibrato technique sounds really awesome. They gave solo, duet and triplet performances of everything from traditional songs to Oblidi Oblidah. Finally, we were treated to Koran traditional drums, performed by 9 elementary school students. These kids can rock out a mean rhythm. There are four types of drums (actually 2 drums and 2 bells) and as you will see in the video (to be posted soon) they can create some intense beats.

It is now the Korean holiday of Cheusok, which is the equivalent of Thanksgiving, meaning that we have Monday to Wednesday off. We decided to explore more of Guri on Saturday, and managed to find a cramped alley market bustling with energy. There was mostly food vendors and clothing vendors, but the atmosphere alone was enough to want to stay. The most intriguing of the vendors was by far the seafood vendors (I'm not sure if Kristi would agree) who sell live crabs out of huge boxes of sand and butcher fish right on the street. Its also cool to see people on loud speakers attempting to attract passers by, as well as the random biker weaving through the crowds on a scooter. I bought a snack at a vendor that I saw tons of people eating that looked like folded something on a stick. Turns out it was folded Tofu (pronounced Tooboo here) simmered in a fish broth. Once you buy it you baste it with a seasoned soy sauce and enjoy it with a accompanying cup of broth for W500 (about c55). In contrast, huge juicy Korean apples cust us W2000 each. Fruit is pretty pricey here, but not enough to keep us away, especially Kristi (the exception being watermelon, which costs about $11 for half a melon). Korean Pears are phenomenal and burst with juice with every bite. Kristi's teachers got her a box as a gift for Cheusok, so we will be enjoying those for the week.












Thats all I'm going to post for now, expect pictures really soon, and hopefully videos. If you have any questions just get an account and post responses to the blog and we will respond. We miss you all!