Fifty-two adventures

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 19: Hot Springs and Chicken Feet

Although our Taiwan trip was short, it did technically span two different weeks which let me split it up between two weeks of adventure posts.

Our second day in Taiwan we looked at the forecast and were told there was 100% chance of rain with some severe thunderstorms. We spent a long time debating what we should do. Eventually we decided to head out to see some hot springs that were located near the end of a subway line. We didn’t want to go anywhere too far out in case of storms and we didn’t want to do something like the zoo or the mountain gondalas which would be ruined by a thunderstorm.

As it turned out, the forecast was completely wrong. It sprinkled once or twice, but there was certainly no heavy rain or severe thunderstorms. Thankfully, we enjoyed our trip to the hot springs anyway.

After checking out the hot springs we stopped for lunch at a small shop in the area where we had Taiwan’s most famous dish, beef noodle soup. It was delicious.

After our scrumptious lunch we headed on to another temple. This one is particularly well-known for being the place to go if you need matchmaking services. When we arrived there were lines of people waiting for their turn to receive some sort of blessing from what appeared to be some sort of lay people who were equipped to do blessings using incense.

After checking out this temple (but trying not to interrupt the locals who were there) we decided to head to Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taipei and the tallest building in the world until the Burj Khalifa was finished in 2010. It started to rain right as we arrived at the base of the building, but luckily the first few floors are a fancy shopping mall, so we popped inside and took a short break at the food court.

A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea because the food court was very crowded. We eventually found a table, but soon after we sat down an elderly Chinese couple came up and asked if we could share the table with them. (At least, I assume that’s what they asked. I only speak two words of Mandarin). Of course we said yes and then proceeded to have the most awkward snack of all time when the elderly couple pulled out a giant bag of chicken feet and started digging in. I hardcore stared at my seaweed chips to avoid looking.

Went back to our hostel a bit later to regroup before heading out to another, different night market. This night market had a really cool temple at the front of it that was all lit up for the evening and lots of fascinating foods inside of it.

Hey, more chicken feet! Just raw this time!

We also inadvertently stumbled upon something called the Rainbow Bridge which was kind of nice in the dark, though it’s possible that the water is all brown and murky in daylight.

Day Two in Taiwan concluded with another food success, the discovery of these Coconut Oreos at the local 7/11. If you like coconut, these are simply phenomenal. I can’t believe we don’t have these in America. Oh the things you learn by traveling!

If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 18: Taipei in a Day

Friday, May 1st was International Labor Day, a government holiday in many countries including Korea. In the US the holiday calendar has sort of been manipulated so that many holidays (Labor Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, etc.) are always celebrated on Mondays. This allows people several long weekends each year to take short trips. Of course, there are exceptions for holidays whose significance is associated with a particular date, like the Fourth of July, but in general the US government holidays are designed for people to easily enjoy them.

In Korea, holidays are celebrated on specific dates regardless of when they fall. If, for example. the government holiday falls on the weekend, then it falls on the weekend and you don’t get any days off of work, even though you would have if they happened to fall M-F. This spring/summer the calendar was not treating us kindly. Three public holidays (March 1st, June 6th, and August 15th) all fall on weekends in 2015 and several others fell on random Tuesdays or Thursdays which were nice breaks, but it wasn’t possible to travel or do anything especially exciting on those days because we had to work the day before and after.

This year, May 1st was a holiday, but Tuesday, May 5th is also Children’s Day in Korea.We had a similar situation last year where May 1st was on a Thursday so we had Thursday off as well as the following Monday, but last year we had to go to work on the Friday in between so we were surprised and delighted when our schools decided to declare Monday, May 4th a “temporary holiday” so that everyone could have a 5-day spring break.

We decided to use part of our break for a quick trip to Taiwan.

Why Taiwan? you might ask. It meets a few major criteria. First, we haven’t been there before. Second, you can take a direct flight from Korea and arrive in 2 hours. Third, it is really affordable in terms of the cost of food, lodging, etc. Fourth, we’ve had friends visit and they’ve all been positive about it.

And so, with almost no knowledge of where we were going or what we were going to do once we got there, we set off to Taipei.

We had a fantastic time.

Since our stay was only three days (including a travel day) we tried to cram as much as possible into the short time that we had. We stayed at a fantastic hostel located down this only slightly sketchy looking alley near Taipei Main Station. The owner of the hostel was a guy named Chunky (who, for the record, was actually quite slim). Chunky spoke impeccable English and was very helpful. After we’d arrived and he’d showed us around the hostel, he pulled out a map and showed us exactly where to go and what to do. The Taipei subway system is excellent, very cheap, and very easy to use, so getting around was a breeze.

First we headed to the Longshan Temple. Longshan Temple was built in 1738 and is one of the oldest temples in Taiwan. I really enjoy the architecture of Chinese temples with all the ornate dragons and the eaves that turn up at the corners of the buildings. I find Korean temples very squat and plain in comparison.

From there we visited the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Part of the memorial was being renovated and was covered with scaffolding, but we were able to enter this part which reminded me of a cross between the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington D.C. We were also able to witness the changing of the guard at the memorial, an elaborate ceremony that occurs once every hour. All I can say is, if anyone actually wanted to attack the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, the changing of the guard would be the perfect time to do it since it took about 15 minutes for the guards to actually change places.

From the memorial we stopped for lunch at the famous Din Tai Fung restaurant where we had their world famous dumplings. These dumplings have a very thin skin and are filled with broth, meat and veggies. You have to use your spoon when eating them to catch all the yummy juices dripping out. They were amaze-balls. And even though this is a Michelin starred restaurant, our whole meal cost about $18 USD.

I didn’t know we were ready to take the picture…

Taiwan is famous for their food, so I tried to get as much of it in as possible in our few days there. I drank approximately 52 bubble teas and they were the best. (OK, I think I had 3 actually). Again, so cheap. Each one cost about $1.25 USD. You can find bubble tea in Korea, but you pay around $6 USD a pop for them.

After eating we headed out to hike the Elephant Trail, which gave us a terrific view of the city. Unfortunately, it was raining off and on through our whole hike, so our view wasn’t as clear as it could have been, but we still enjoyed getting a little past the city and being able to look down on it.

That evening we went to the Shilin Night Market. There are many Night Markets in Taipei, but unlike in other countries we’ve visited, these markets are not really aimed at tourists. Instead, they are a place for locals to shop, hang out, and eat lots and lots of street food. The Shilin market is known for having lots of cheap shoe stores. I obviously had to buy a pair. These cuties were only about $11 and there were plenty of shoes for even cheaper than that.

After all of that excitement we were exhausted and headed back to our hostel for the night. Even after such a short time we were impressed with how polite the people were, waiting in organized lines for the subway, giving up their seats for the elderly or people with children, and generally being very considerate of others around them. This was such a novelty to us as it is standard in Korea for everyone to push their way onto the subway before the people exiting can even get off and saying “excuse me” or “I’m sorry” for bumping someone is unheard of. I also appreciated being somewhere new and interesting, but without having people stare at me all the time. Even though there weren’t tons of foreigners in Taipei, it seems to be enough of an international city that the two of us weren’t worth making a fuss over.

I have more Taipei adventures to share next week, so stay tuned to read about the rest of our trip!

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 17: New Do, New You

Hi, I’m Lily and I take my feelings out on my hair. For my entire life before I went to college my hair looked exactly the same – straight, dark blonde, all the way to my butt. My last year of high school I was allowed to highlight it a bit, but that wasn’t a dramatic change – it was just kicking up the blonde that was already present in my hair.

During the fall semester of my freshman year of college I decided to go nuts. I was young and away from home for the first time. Just as my parents feared, I went crazy. I decided to dye my hair a medium brown.

Here I am at the beginning of college.

And here is the change that started it all. (After the green was corrected).

The initial results of this were pretty exciting, but after a few days it became clear that the box dye I’d used hadn’t been equipped to cover all of my ash blonde highlights and in bright light it was clear that my hair was not really medium brown but was, in fact, pond scum green. I was horrified. I needed professional help.

The professional fixed my hair relatively easily. She just dyed it a darker brown with lots of red in it to counteract the greenish cast. Problem solved. And I loved the deep dark auburn even better than the lighter brown.

I think realizing that I could do something like turn my hair green and still have it be totally fixable was what sparked my obsession with changing my hair. Since then I’ve dyed it regularly everything from chocolate brown to bright copper to strawberry blonde. I also started experimenting with cutting it, though it still took a few years to work up the courage to cut it all the way up to my chin. When I finally tried that the summer after my wedding, I entered a whole new world of possibilities. My hair grows relatively quickly so I’ve grown it long and cut it off again several times since then (though I’ve never grown it all the way to my butt again).

Most of my hair decisions are incredibly spur of the moment. I am suddenly seized with the desire to change. Changing my hair (especially if it’s a dramatic change) makes me feel like I’m being made new. It feels like a fresh start, a way to shake off who I’ve been or where I’ve been, a chance to become a new and hopefully better version of myself. And once I’ve decided to do something I don’t like waiting around.

About two months ago I suddenly decided I wanted to be blonde. I haven’t been blonde since I was 18 and I knew that unlike most color changes, I wouldn’t be able to do this overnight. It’s not possible to go from dark to blonde in one step without damaging your hair, particularly if there is still color left in it from previous dyeing. So I decided to take it slow. I went to the hair dresser and got a few highlights. I figured this would get things started without fully committing. This would, after all, be my 3rd major change in 8 months.

This was my hair this past August – bright copper red

And here it is in December. Brown with bangs.

On Saturday I went back to the hairdresser intending to get a few more highlights. I had been planning to grow my hair out over the summer, but suddenly felt that I HAD to cut it. Immediately. I came out with all the highlights and a swishy bob.

It even has bangs when I want them.

I know I’m squinting in this picture, but you get the idea…

My adventure for this week was another Bombs Away decision and I’m just gonna go with it. I’m ready for a new season and I’m hoping for a change. Maybe this can be a start.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #16: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Growing up, my family weren’t huge baseball fans. None of my siblings played baseball or softball (or even tee-ball as kids) and we didn’t live in an area with a Major League team. My grandfather was something of an Atlanta Braves fan, but apart from catching pieces of those games on television when I was at my grandparents’ house, I had no experience with baseball.

Jonathan, however, grew up with a sports-loving father and played baseball from a young age. He has many childhood memories of playing or watching baseball. He took me to my very first baseball game on our first wedding anniversary. We were in New York City so naturally we had to go to a Yankees game. It was an incredibly low scoring game, so I wasn’t overly impressed with the sport, but I enjoyed the atmosphere.

A few years later when we lived in North Carolina, there was a minor league team in Durham (the Durham Bulls) who actually had a really nice stadium not far from where we lived, so we went to a few games there as well as at least one Charlotte Knights game with friends who live in Charlotte. I could take or leave baseball, but I enjoy it as a social event.

Baseball is all the rage in Korea. In fact, our city has its own team (currently ranked #1) and stadium. So last Saturday evening we ventured out to Daegu Stadium to watch the Samsung Lions play. Fun Fact – Instead of teams being named after the city they play for like the Atlanta Braves or the Cincinnati Reds, in Korea the teams are named after their corporate sponsors. So Daegu’s team is called the Samsung Lions and they played against was called the KT Whiz.

Unlike at American sporting events, people are expected, even encouraged to get food outside of the stadium and bring it in with them and the food/drink of choice for baseball games is fried chicken and beer. Food carts line the street outside of the stadium where people sell fried chicken, squid on sticks, tteokbokki, and kimbap.

Another fun fact about baseball in Korea is that there are cheerleaders who dance around in front of the big cheering section. Maybe this exists in other places as well, but in the US, cheerleaders are typically only present at football and basketball games and it would be strange to see them at a baseball or soccer game.

There was a rowdy cheering section of the stands complete with Korean drums and lots of organized cheers, but they were on the opposite side of the stadium from our seats, so we were able to enjoy them from a distance. The stadium isn’t all that large though – in fact, it’s similar in size to the minor league stadiums I went to in North Carolina.

The Samsung Lions won 3 to 1. I think. I was obviously deeply invested or whatever. (Actually, it’s not my fault because there was a family sitting in front of us who clearly live on the American military base and they kept pulling out insane snacks I haven’t seen in years. So I was obviously distracted). Go team! Score some goal point units!

Injury. Ambulance Minivan to the rescue!

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 15: That’s So Korean and Igidae Coastal Walkway

Last week I mentioned that we’d intended to take a day trip to Busan and had to postpone because of the rain. This past Saturday we cashed in our rain check and headed down to the coast for the day.

Busan is the second largest city in Korea (after Seoul) and is situated on the southern coast. It is also our favorite city in Korea. We like it because, with the water, the beaches, and an actual skyline, it has a more unique look and feel than any other city we’ve been to in Korea. We also love breathing in some of that fresh sea air. We can reach Busan in 45 minutes on the KTX (high-speed train) or 1 1/2 hours on the slow train.

We weren’t in a hurry so we took the slower train in the early afternoon and made our way straight out to the coast. We decided to check out a large park called Igidae which is located on a small peninsula with a seaside path along the rocky cliff edges. From the path we were able to look back and get a great view of Gwangan Bridge and Gwangali beach, one of my favorite bits of the city.

While we didn’t do extensive research we did learn a little bit about the name Igidae and its historical significance. Like nearly every historical monument or emblem in Korea, the story behind this park has to do with a Japanese invasion.

When the Japanese invaded Joseon in the late 16th century,

they conquered Suyeongseong Fortress and held a feast

to celebrate their victory at a high, open spot that

commanded pleasant scenery. Two Korean gisaeng

(female professional entertainers) were taken to the feast.

They seized a drunken Japanese commander

and jumped into the sea

as a reprisal against the Japanese invasion of their homeland.

Thus, the name Igidae, which means two gisaeng, was given to this place.

In Jonathan’s words, “So this, like all important pieces of Korean history, is a memorial to them giving Japan the middle finger.”

The path itself was very gentle and easy to walk with the exception of the suspension bridges which naturally terrify me. It just occurred to me that maybe my real fear is cables since both cable cars and suspension bridges produce this reaction in me.

It’s actually more of the dangling that I hate so much.

There were many people out on the rocks picnicking, fishing, or just relaxing.

Quintessential Korean ajummas having a picnic on hard rocks while being covered head to toe lest the sun touch any speck of their skin.

Look at that stud!

At one point we passed what looked like a bunker built into the cliff. There was a sign explaining that these were barracks for the female divers who dove and collected sea creatures here. Then we saw these women selling said sea creatures for a fresh and tasty snack. I’m pretty sure most of these things were still alive.

We discovered a cave along the way complete with the obligatory rock piles. A naughty part of me always wants to knock those over.

We also grabbed a few pictures of other funny little Korean-isms. As we wind down our time here we’ve been putting more effort into gathering some of those things that make us laugh and say, “That’s so Korean.” For example:

English translations: “Here it is a copper mine!” The moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally come!

Two things about this – first, this man is just chilling doing standing pushups here on this railing. Second, this sign which has the distance to major international locations – Los Angeles, Beijing, etc. And then, also, Dokdo. Dokdo is a tiny island between Korea and Japan that both countries claim, but that Korea passionately insists belongs to them. “Dokdo is Korean Territory” is stamped on everything – random signs, notebooks from the stationary store, office supplies, Kleenex boxes, everywhere. I’ve heard there’s a channel that runs a continuous real-time feed of Dokdo. Dokdo is barely big enough to be called an island. It is literally two rocks in the middle of the sea. So, you know, right up there with Beijing and L.A.

On our way back for dinner we passed one of the outdoor gyms and I saw people using some of those giant hula hoops I’d seen on my hike last weekend. Blurry picture, but I was pretty excited.

We always enjoy our trips to Busan and this one was no exception. We hope to make it back a few more times before our Korean adventures are over.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #14: Unplanned Loveliness

Last weekend we were planning to go to Busan for the day on Saturday. Busan is the second largest city in Korea and it’s only 45 minutes away by high-speed train or 1.5 hours on the slow train. As Saturday approached, we looked at the forecast and realized that it was going to rain heavily starting Saturday afternoon. The appeal of Busan is that it’s on the coast with nice beaches and rocky coastlines, so being outside is essential to enjoying Busan. We knew that by the time we made it down there we’d only have a short time before the rain hit, so we decided to postpone until a nicer weekend.

Annoyingly, when we woke up on Saturday morning, it was stunningly beautiful outside. (This was only annoying because we’d cancelled our plans for bad weathe). It was cool and crisp and the sky was totally clear and blue. I decided to go for a run late Saturday morning to soak in the sun while it was still there.

I went to my usual weekend running spot – some biking/running/walking tracks along the river on the west side of Daegu. It takes about 40 minutes to get there from my apartment, which is why I only go on the weekends, but I really like this area.

View from my normal running track.

When I got to the river I decided to cross the bridge and run on the opposite side of the river from where I usually run. When I got halfway across the bridge, I glanced back the way I had come and noticed that there were steps cut into the hill (mountain?) behind me. I only thought about it for a split second, then turned around and got off the bridge to explore.

Hill/mountain I saw a path on from the bridge.

The beginning of the trail.

I started climbing and pretty quickly found myself up above my usual running path looking down on the river and the bridge below. (Sorry about the crappy photos, by the way. I wasn’t planning on hiking so I only had my phone with me and the camera on my phone just isn’t great).

The bridge I was on when I spotted the path.

You can see the track down below where I was planning on running before I got distracted.

Once I made it up above the river, I realized that the path kept going. In fact, there were numbered posts ever 100 meters or so along the trail. The post at the head of the trail was #34 (I think) and when I reached the first “peak” it was still in the 20’s so I knew there was still a lot of trail ahead. I didn’t know where the trail would lead, but I figured it would eventually take me back down and I could figure it out where I was from there. I pressed on.

I met this animal which I think was a kind of squirrel, but it had some strange rabbit-like characteristics, too, so I have decided to call it a squabbit.

About halfway through the trail, I came upon one of the ubiquitous Korean outdoor gyms. These things are everywhere. A funny thing about Koreans is that they are really interested in exercise and physical activity – hence all the hiking and gyms – but they are not interested in working out all that hard. I have almost never seen someone working up a sweat or doing anything strenuous. They will just use the equipment with no weight on it to casually do arm or leg exercises, but mostly they are just stretching and getting the blood pumping, often in very funny ways. It’s not unusual for me to walk through the park and see a man in his sixties hanging upside down from his knees on the exercise equipment to stretch his back. I encountered two more sets of gym equipment further on my hike.

The first gym I stumbled on.

I also found several of these hanging on trees near gym equipment. I can only guess it is some sort of giant hula hoop. I would have loved to see someone use it.

It’s still early spring here, so there weren’t tons of flowers or trees blooming, but I did stumble on a few bits of unexpected beauty.

The cherry blossoms are out in full force. As you can see, the sky was already starting to cloud up by this point.

After about an hour of uphills and downhills and back uphill again, I came to the highest part of this mountain and took in the view.

The trail continued on going back down, so instead of turning around I continued to follow it. Along the descent I passed several stone piles like this one, which are typically seen on the path up to temples that are built high on mountains. I’m not sure why they were here in this case, but the idea is that people add to the stack as they pass by.

About half an hour later I made it back down to the bottom, though in a different place than where I’d started. And, lest we forget that I am in Korea, here is a picture of what the bottom of the trail looked like, haha.

This week’s adventure was about what my friend Meredith calls “unplanned loveliness.” It was about being willing to get lost – to wander with no agenda – to take the time to see the world around me instead of always being on a schedule. This adventure was about what can happen when you just say “yes” to what’s in front of you instead of thinking of all the reasons to say “no.” There is beauty all around us. All we have to do is take the time to notice it.

PS – Happy Easter, everyone!

If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can also click this button to read other bloggers’ adventures. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 13: Fun Times With CoT

This week’s adventure is an ongoing adventure that started at the beginning of March, but this past week has been full of particularly good moments. For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, you are probably familiar with my infamous Co-Teacher who I refer to simply as “CoT.” Many people have suggested that I start a Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram that is just for #stuffmycotsays. I’m open to the idea.

For those of you who wonder how I teach English to Korean elementary school students without speaking Korean, the answer is 1) lots of gesturing and using very simple words and 2) coteachers. In every class I teach I have a Korean coteacher. The coteacher’s role varies from class to class and person to person – in my 20 months of teaching in Korea I have had ten separate coteachers. Some have split teaching time with me, some have refused to let me do anything, some have refused to come to class and had me do everything, and some have more or less been in the room for classroom management purposes only. They have had different levels of English proficiency, different levels of interest in teaching English, and different levels of friendliness towards me.

Having experienced a wide variety of coteachers I feel qualified to say that current CoT is one of the weirdest people I’ve ever met, and it isn’t just because of language barriers or cultural differences or anything like that. I have been working with CoT since I started teaching in Korea, so we’ve known each other for 1 1/2 years. In the past, she was a homeroom teacher and I only taught 1 or 2 classes a week with her to her own homeroom class. This school year (which started in March) she became the head English teacher and I now teach all of the 3rd and 6th grade English classes with her. She also shares my office space with me and we sit next to each other any time that we aren’t teaching.

Some specifics about her: She is in her early 40’s and has been teaching for about 15 years. She begged for the English teacher position because she claims to very passionate about English education. Although some of our weird interactions could be attributed to the language barrier, I have worked with many Koreans with both higher and lower English levels than hers (hers is on the higher end, honestly) and have never had these kinds of interactions.

Now that you know where this is coming from, allow me to share some of my most favorite bits of conversation from the past few weeks:

I think CoT is actually a toddler:

I feel like if I look away for even one second she will destroy something. This morning I tried to show her how to use the Smart TV. As it was trying to warm up she pushed all of the buttons and promptly broke it. Then, I turn my back for on second while I was trying to figure out what she’d done and she takes the special pens that are designed to write electronically on the smart TV and tries to use them as erasers on the white board. I said, “Oh! Don’t do that. Those are special pens for the TV.” Then she picks up a dry erase marker and writes on the TV screen and uses the special pen to try and erase that. It’s 9 am and I am already exhausted.

No Time to Prepare:

CoT: I have cancelled the first week of classes because I had no time to prepare.
Me: Ok. Cool.
CoT; (finds ping pong paddles in giant mound of crap she has just moved into our office) Let’s play ping-pong together!
Me: Now? I thought you needed time to prepare?
CoT: Ok, not now. How about 20 minutes?

After cancelling classes the entire first week of school so that she could prepare:

Me: What is your plan for class today? (It starts in 20 minutes)
CoT: I have no plan
Me: Ok, well…it’s the first class of the year so I thought we should introduce ourselves. I prepared a ppt. Do you want to introduce yourself and explain the class rules?
CoT: I have no class rules.
Me: Ok, well do you want to introduce yourself and then I’ll just do the rest.
CoT: Good idea.

CoT Gets Up in my Biz

CoT: Are you sick? You look sick today.
Me: No, I feel fine.
CoT: I think maybe you’re not feeling well?
Me: No, I’m fine. Maybe I’m a little tired. I’ve been tired this week.
CoT: Oh. Are you pregnant? (hopefully)
Me: No
CoT: Are you sure? (with knowing smile)
Me: Yes, I’m positive.
CoT; Hmmm…. (smiling to herself like she thinks I’m lying)
Are you taking Vitamin C powder?
Me: No, but I take it when I’m sick. Right now I take a multivitamin
CoT: Is it a capsule?
Me: Yes
CoT: Mmmm…capsule is not good for your body
Me: Ok

I’m not pregnant, woman. I just gained weight. Mind your own biz.

CoT Gets Up in my Biz pt. 2

CoT: Oh, Li-lee. Oh Li-Lee. I think you have a lot of clothes.
Me: Oh. Ok. (Maybe I do, but I have 8 – 10 combinations that I wear to school on a rotating basis. So I wear the same thing once a week to once every two weeks).
CoT: Every day, a new color. I do like all of your colors.
(90% of my work wardrobe is black, white, or gray)
Now every day when she comes in in the morning she looks at me and simply says, “Oh. White. White, white, white, white, white. You are wearing white.”

I Don’t Think That Means What You Think It Means

We discuss what we will do in class and I write it on the board.
1. Review 2. Dictation quiz 3. Textbook page 16, etc.
The first class arrives 5 minutes early.
CoT, with no preamble, runs to the front of the room and says. “Number One: What grade are you in?”
The children look like they have no idea what is happening. Some students aren’t even there because class has not officially started yet. I figure she changed her mind about the order of things.
As she dictates, I erase the first two things on the board and switched them so it said 1. Dictation quiz 2. Review
CoT: No no! Change it back. Review first and then dictation.
Me: But you are doing the dictation first. Like, you are in the middle of it right now.
CoT: No, just REVIEW first and then we will do dictation. (Big smile)
(Turns around to the class) Number Three – I’m in the sixth grade.

CoT Decides Depression is Not Serious

(Out of nowhere) CoT: How do you feel when you’re depressed?
Me: When I’m depressed I just feel sad and like I don’t want to do anything and like my life has no meaning or purpose.
CoT (huge grin): Oh, I am glad to hear that! That doesn’t sound very serious!

CoT Discovers Spring, Apparently for the First Time

I am trying to prepare for a class that begins in 5 minutes and which CoT has prepared nothing for.

CoT: Lily (in sing-songy voice where my name suddenly has four syllables), please come look out the window. Me: At what?
CoT: The flowers are blooming. Please come look at them.
They weren’t blooming. The trees barely have buds on them.
Me (nicely): Well, they are almost blooming. That will be pretty (I try to go back to prepping for class)
CoT (whiniest voice ever): Oh, Why won’t you look out the window? They ARE blooming. They ARE blooming. And repeated that like 6 times.

The Wonders of Spring, Continued

Arriving back after teaching with a different teacher all morning. CoT seems to have been waiting for me.
CoT: Oh, you are here! (Immediately goes to the window, opens it and looks out) Oh look, The flowers are blooming. They ARE blooming. Look at them bloom. I can count the blooms. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There are many flowers. Do you see them. Wow. Oh Wow. They are moving me. Do they touch you?

Do they move you? Are you touched?

I Am a Poet and I Don’t Know It

CoT: Wow! We had a fresh spring rain yesterday. So nice. So fresh. So many flowers.
Me: The rain was heavy last night. I don’t know why the flowers didn’t break off and fall to the ground.
CoT: Wow. Your words. They are so poetic. What you said just now. So poetic.

Hours later.

CoT: Say again what you said earlier. I want to write it down.
Me: (I don’t even remember what i said) Umm…I don’t know why the flowers didn’t break off and fall to the ground?
CoT: (Repeats this over and over then says) Wow, you are a poet. I am with another poet.

Be Poetic! Do It Now!

CoT: Oh, Lily, please say something beautiful. Like before. What you said. Like poetry.
Me: Well, I’m not really sure what would be beautiful to you. The things I said before were just normal things to say.
CoT: Say something. A sensitive, emotional thing. Like yesterday, you said there was a bee and a butterfly in the classroom and you said it was “like a zoo.” The “like a zoo” part. That was so impressive. I have never experienced this before.

A few hours later…

CoT: The flowers are pink. Light pink.
Me: Yep, baby pink.
CoT: (Chuckles delightedly.) Oh yes! Baby pink! It is so cute. Today’s word is baby pink! Baby pink with Lily!

Then she sat at her desk and repeated “Baby pink” 30 – 40 times.

CoT Gives Me Prompts

I begin to suspect that CoT is feeding me prompts in the hopes that I will say something poetic.

CoT: What do you think of human beings?
Me: ?????

CoT: Remember the time your friend came to visit almost two years ago?
Me: Yes, I remember.
CoT: Can you tell me about that?

There are more stories, but they involve more strange personal details about my CoT’s life that I’m not going to share publicly. From this sampling, I think you can see how every day is an adventure with CoT.

I started sharing some of my conversations with CoT as a way to help myself laugh at what can sometimes be annoying and difficult to deal with all day long. Many of our interactions are the kind of things that can be frustrating or difficult in the moment, but become very funny in the retelling. And seeing these interactions in a humorous way has really helped me let go of some of the frustrations I feel towards her and to honestly see her with a lot more compassion than I did before. Never knowing what to expect from her had been bringing me a lot of stress – I had come to dread being at work and was beginning to get snappy and short with her in our interactions and had gotten to the point where I really dreaded going to school. Like so many other aspects of life in a foreign culture, learning to look at things with humor and let the weirdness be funny instead of frustrating has been so helpful for my peace and sanity.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #12: Hiking Apsan

For those of you who don’t know, Korea is a very mountainous country. The city I live in, Daegu, is located in a geographic bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides which means any direction you look, you can see mountains in the distance (Well, theoretically. Often it’s too hazy from the air pollution to see them clearly).

Hiking might just be the most beloved of all Korean past-times. After drinking. And noraebang (Korean karaoke). Koreans hike in style. If you are a Korean and are over 45, chances are that 75% of your wardrobe is professional-looking hiking attire. It is both a fashion and lifestyle statement.

Koreans are also super into stopping to work out at these random outdoor gyms that are in public places everywhere you look. Check out their hiking attire.

Koreans are also super into stopping to work out at these random outdoor gyms that are in public places everywhere you look. You can see an example of standard hiking attire on this gentleman here.

Jonathan and I both enjoy hiking and we’ve been waiting for weeks for the weather to warm up enough to make it pleasant. On Saturday morning we took off for our first hike of 2015. We decided to hike Apsan, one of the tallest mountains in the area which is located directly south of the city. We’ve hiked Apsan twice (3 times?) before, but it’s one of the easiest mountains for us to get to since we can catch a bus right outside our apartment that will take us all the way there.

Sadly, it’s not looking all that springy yet.

The very first time we hiked Apsan we’d only been in Korea for a few months and were completely winging it on the directions. We came out at a nice peak, but not the one with the observation deck and the cable car. Each time we’ve climbed Apsan since then we’ve tried to take a different path so that we could arrive at the peak with the observation deck, but each time, the path we choose converges with the main path at some point and takes us to the same place we’ve been before.

We stopped at this little temple along the path on our way up. This basically looks exactly like every other temple in Korea, of which there are hundreds and hundreds.

Cool dragon painting on the ceiling of the temple gate. My next tattoo? J/k.

I wish I could say that we victoriously found an alternate path this time, but after hiking excitedly for 20 minutes on a path that looked brand new, this path also converged with the one we’ve always taken. This time when we got to the top we decided to hike across the ridges and over to the observation deck. It took 20 – 25 minutes to hike over to the cable car and lookout point from the peak, but we eventually found it and were treated to a broader view of the city.

Me, striking a traditional Korean pose. (That’s not sarcastic. This is the standard pose for pictures in Korea.)

View from the observatory.

Jonathan giving me, “Smolder.”

Since we’d spent the additional time hiking across the ridge and I had a hair appointment to get back for that afternoon, we rode the cable car back down to the base. I am actually terrified of cable cars. I hate them with a passion. Nevertheless I have been in more cable cars in the last two years in Korea than anywhere else in my life. Go figure.

Hate cable cars so much.

This was the view from the cable car. Apparently.

The air quality has been particularly poor lately since this is “yellow dust” season – the time of year when tons of pollution from China gets blown over into Korea’s air. I think this year has been worse than last year and I’ve definitely noticed my throat, chest, and eyes being really irritated lately. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom which is always a brief, but beautiful time in Korea and we are looking forward to being outside more, so hopefully the yellow dust won’t stay for long.

Last year we did so many of the big things – we traveled to most areas of Korea and attended quite a few festivals and things like that. This year we’ve been a bit more focused on saving money, but we do still want to be sure to do the things we haven’t gotten around to yet. In May we have two short trips planned to Tokyo and Taiwan, so we’ve also been keeping things a bit chilled out over the past few months to save for those trips, but we are trying to assemble our Korea bucket list now that we only have 5 months left here. It feels like both a long and a short time and I really hope we can make the most of it.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #11 : A Visit to the Thea – truh and Some Fellow Adventurers

Last weekend we got to do something we love, but don’t get to do often. We went to see a play. You know, in a theater. With actors and a stage.

Hubby and I went to college outside of Chicago and one of our favorite special-occasion activities was going to plays and musicals downtown. Even after we moved to Raleigh, we were able to see a few productions that came through on tour and even a student performance at Duke University. Since we’ve been in Korea we’ve seen two musicals – Phantom of the Opera and Mamma Mia, both of which came through Daegu on tour and were in English. (Side Note: For some reason, Koreans LOVE Mamma Mia. My 6th grade students were made to sing and dance to “Dancing Queen” at last year’s arts festival. It was hilarious).

Since we’ve always enjoyed theater, we were especially excited when our friend Josh told us he was acting in a production of Almost, Maine put on by the Daegu Theatre Troupe. The play is a set of vignettes set in a not-quite-town (hence the “Almost”) in the northernmost part of Maine. The vignettes occur on the same night and are loosely organized around the theme of people falling in and out of and around love in different ways.

The theater was in the basement of a building in downtown Daegu – the kind of place you’d never know was there if you weren’t looking for it. There wasn’t any photography allowed during the performance, and sadly I didn’t remember to take any pictures of the theater before or after the performance, so I don’t really have anything visual for this post. (Blogger fail).

Seeing the play was fun, but it was especially fun to see our friend, Josh, in his element. Josh did a lot of theater and musical theater in college and it’s a part of him we’ve never had an opportunity to see before. I love getting to see a friend or family member doing something they love. You learn a lot about people from seeing them in their element. It wasn’t a surprise that Josh was so great, but it was still really fun to see. The same troupe is putting on a musical next month so we are looking forward to seeing more!

It’s finally warmed up this week and we are hoping to do some hiking next weekend! Assuming the weather cooperates, look for a mountain trekking adventure next week!

Check out some of these 52-Weeks-of-Adventure posts that other bloggers have done recently. These are some of my favorites:

OK, actually ALL of Angela’s posts. Angela and her husband Chris took a great leap of faith and decided to sell all of their stuff and live as modern nomads. They work remotely and have spent the past few months living in different European cities. They are my heroes. I want to be them when I grow up (even though I think we’re the same age). Don’t look at Angela’s amazing pictures if you don’t want to feel instant envy and discontentment with everything you’ve done with your life. If you are cool feeling that way then look away! Ok, but seriously, you should be following them.

Pradnya’s post about a painting peace. I especially liked this quote: “‘Peace’ – It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be midst those things and still be calm in your heart and a wear a smiling face!”

This inspiring blogger who is taking a “good girl gap year” to explore and experience the world starting with a surfing trip.

Jenn throwing the most incredible Night Circus themed party of all-time. I love how she brought the book to life. Wish I could have been there!

Also, I’m including this link because you adventure-y people will love it even though this blogger doesn’t participate in the link-up. Kaleena, a friend of mine from Korea, recently embarked on a year-long round-the-world-trip starting in the Philippines and ending (I think) with her 30th birthday celebration in Brazil. Never have I ever felt more jealous. Except about Angela and Chris (above). Kaleena is also a terrific writer and always has interesting and often hilarious stories to tell. Check her out!

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 10: Putting a Ring on It

Living abroad can be exciting, but there are some really difficult things about it as well. One of the hardest things is missing out on important events in the lives of the people I love. Our first fall in Korea one of my roommates from college got married. On her wedding day I cried for hours because it felt so wrong not to be there. This week’s adventure is a story of me trying to be involved in the big moments from the other side of the world.

Last summer when I went home to the US for vacation, my best friend, Christina, flew out to my in-laws house to spend the weekend with me. At the time, she had just begun a serious relationship with a guy I’d never met – Andy. In the way of best friends, I knew almost immediately that this was it. He was “the one.” So I dragged her to every jewelry store in the mall and made her try on engagement rings. They’d only been dating for a few months at the time and I never would have done that under ordinary circumstances, but I was about to leave for another year and a lot can happen in a year. I wasn’t about to miss this.

Me and my Christina. Can’t fight a love like ours.

See what I mean? You can totes tell they want to be together forever.

Christina and Andy. Not quite as much love as Christina and me, but you can totes tell they want to be together forever.

It might have been pushy at the time, but I felt pretty validated when Andy started asking me about rings in December. If I’d been there I would have just taken him ring shopping, pointed out what she liked and didn’t like, and graciously tried on as many rings as necessary for him to get a visual. But I was in Korea, so I did the next best thing. I made him a thorough, 20-slide powerpoint complete with quiz questions and prizes that plays Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” throughout the presentation. (Remember, Andy has still never met me in person and so undoubtedly thinks I am a complete freak. Worth it).

This is the final slide of the powerpoint I made for Andy. For the record, Christina was not being picky and demanding about the ring. She would have been delighted by anything he picked out. I was the one being picky and demanding.

So I “helped” Andy shop for a few months. There was much conferring. There was much secrecy. Then, a few weeks ago I was skyping with Christina and she said, “I think he’s going to propose soon.” At THAT EXACT MOMENT I got a message from Andy.

“Are you still skyping with C? I have an excellent update.”

“Ring has been purchased. I’m picking it up in an hour.”

I stayed stone-faced like a baller. I deserve an award for this. I have a VERY expressive face.

Last weekend Andy and Christina got engaged. (Hurray!) I knew it would be happening while I was sleeping Saturday night which made me so excited I hardly slept at all.

If I had been there I would have met Christina at the door with champagne and a Brides magazine and I would have taken her to get a manicure the next day. Since I am in dumb Korea (just because everywhere that is not where my friends and family are is dumb at times like this) I had to improvise. Another awesome friend of mine who lives near Christina agreed to act as my agent and got the champagne and the bridal magazine and other goodies and brought them to her apartment while she was out getting engaged. The whole operation was a big success.

Didn’t we…er he…do a great job? Look at that bling!

Now to tackle my next trial – obnoxiously inserting myself into every part of the wedding planning that happens in the six months before I get back home. Challenge accepted.

Lily Ellyn