Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!
Since I last wrote we have had one, maybe two snow falls, so from what I hear we could maybe borrow some of the snow from our North American friends who are getting possibly too much. 
We have been in our January break from V-School, so it has been a good opportunity to learn Korean, do some sight seeing and get some exercise.
From L to R: Ana in the snow; Chuncheon bridge and snowy mountains;
Korean Study
Will and I have thrown ourselves head first into Korean studies. Our studies include lessons with certain JVC members, writing daily journals in Korean, listening to a Korean CD and answering questions, doing exercises in a text book supplement that goes with our other text book, and revieweing vocabulary with flash cards. Don’t be fooled. We aren’t anywhere near being fluent. But, this is the kind of intensity we need to get anywhere farther in the language than we already are. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 한국어를 아주 어려워요 (Korean is really hard). The only reason I remember that phrase in Korean is beacuse I say it a lot.
Hockey Game
We went to watch the local professional Chuncheon team play against “Seibu” from Japan. Seibu might sound like a cool name for a hockey team, but imagine the cutest cuddliest little cartoon bunny you ever saw, and that’s their mascot. Will told me to look at their jersey’s to see what their mascot was, and I didn’t even have to tell Will when I did; He knew I saw the mascot because I had started chuckling. We saw a lot of fights disguised as “falls”. We happened to be on the side that had a good view of a player fall (jump) on his opponent with his fist closed ready for a punch. What proceeded was a 7-8 player pile-up. Will was the only spectator clapping (he said that’s what Canadians do). It was my first hockey fight. Fights, by the way, are prohibited in Korean hockey.
Prayer Meetings
Every Friday night prayer meeting is led by a different cell group, so we helped when it was our cell groups’ turn. I led the group in some hymns with guitar (some of the English hymns I had introduced to our cell group), and then ad libbed on guitar while people prayed over top. I was just mimicking what another church member does, and it was quite a neat experience. Another time we went to the 6:00am prayer service, which they do once a month so children and youth can come, as well. After an hour of intercerssory prayer and singing, portable stoves were brought out and breakfast was cooked in front of our eyes; Egg and cheese sandwiches. Mmm.
Church Involvement
Will preached his first sermon a few Sundays back, and he did his “Revelations in nature” sermon, with his slide show of pictures from our cottage, post-tornado. He explained how the trees that had strong roots in good soil remained standing, while the trees that spread their roots thinly over rocks blew over like paper. Very metaphorical I’d say. One woman said she knew her husband liked the sermon because he stayed awake during it. I sang with the choir again, and had the same struggles during the rehearsal time as I did the last 2 times. The choir leader tends to tell everyone where to start singing from in Korean and away they go, and I’m always lost: “Oh, we’re on THAT page….Oops, we’re singing THIS part..” etc.
From L to R: The congregation listening as Will preaches; Will and his slide show
English Camp
During the January vacation time, there is one week of English Camp, which is just like regular V-School English lessons, only more fun! I showed my kids Blues’ Clues videos and had them answer questions and solve puzzles. Will went out on a limb and encouraged his older students to be creative and try to write their own stories.This kind of creativity is not a part of the education in Korean schools, so this proved very difficult. It was so strange to be teaching the same kids as the rest of the year, but they were so much more well-behaved. They paid attention to everything and seemed to really enjoy themselves. One day I taught them how to tell time and appropriately we played “What time is it, Mr Wolf?” They gobbled that game right up. Whenever I caught kids and they became wolves, I would get them to say what time it was, and they always wanted to yell “LUNCH TIME!!” even though the advancing kids were too far away to chase them. It was amusing. Another day we played “Pass the Parcel” (the game where you pass a parcel around to music, and when the music stops you unwrap one layer of wrapping paper-and there are many layers-and the person to unwrap the last layer gets to keep the prize). They’re reactions were opposite to what I thought they’d be. Whenever the music stopped and another layer was exposed they would all SCREAM with joy. When the prize was finally revealed, they all whined with disappointment, aside from the prize winner.
Visit from Friends
We had two friends from Seoul come to visit us one weekend and we had a marvelous time. We first brought them to this neat traditional restaurant with sliding doors and private rooms. The building was so low to the ground that even I hit my head on the roof at one place!! We introduced them to MakGuksu-cold buckwheat noodles- the other trademark dish of Chuncheon, which they enjoyed. We then brought them to Kugok Falls, and we hadn’t been there since the fall. As we suspected, the huge falls was frozen solid, like an ice curtain. We were pleased to watch some ice climbers picking their way up the frozen falls. One man nearby took pictures of us, and only us, for at least 10 minutes. It was awkward, to say the least. Our friend took a picture of him taking a picture of us.
From L to R: Famous Makguksu restaurant in Chuncheon; Frozen river at Kugok Falls; Climbers climbing frozen waterfall; Looking down from the falls; View of falls from farther away; Mysterious man taking our pictures; Our friends and Will at our Dakgalbi restaurant
Swimming Tales
I got new swimming goggles and it was high-time I did. I had forgotten just how clearly you’re supposed to be able to see in water! Also, I had forgotten what swimming goggles are actually supposed to do-keep water out. I had been getting used to my right goggle filling up with water and swimming with my right eye closed for some laps, until one day I realized I could just buy new goggles! WHAT a difference that makes! Will comes to the pool with me sometimes and he observed that while all the men wear skimpy Speedo bathing suits, most of the girls wear skirts and shirts to cover up until RIGHT before they get into the pool. Made me wonder if I should follow that example of modesty, too. As previously mentioned, children are often left unguarded to run around and do their own thing. This, unfortunately, was a reality at the pool the other day. I had to switch swimming lanes twice because a crowd of kids were jumping in and splashing and floating around. I wasn’t the only one that noticed, as I joined clear lanes with other disgruntled lane changers.
DVD Bang
One evening we went out for supper with our former Korean tutor, who we had become friends with. We first went to Mr. Pizza, which is a popular pizza chain here in Korea (among dozens and dozens, which may be surprising to some of you). Their slogan is “Love of Women”, but I think they mean “Loved by women”, because the crust is low in fat, or something. We then went to a DVD Bang, which is a private room (like the Nore Bang) were you get to sit on comfy couches and watch a movie on a decent sized screen. Oh, and play with balloons (there were balloons all over the floor). We watched a Korean romance movie, and as predicted by both my husband and our friend, I cried at the end.
From L to R: Will and our friend; The comfy couches in the DVD room
Our January vacation is almost over, but we have one more glorious week off next week, as it is the Lunar New Year holiday. This is the biggest holiday right up there with Chuseok, where everyone goes home to be with their families, and traffic is clogged right up.
Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We welcomed in the new year staying in our cozy apartment, watching a movie……while I nursed Will after some food poisoning. We had to miss the JVC service at 10:50pm New Years Eve, which was disappointing, but we have 2 more of those services to look forward to. I think Will was more disappointed in ruining his 14 year streak of NOT losing his lunch. Oh well. Can’t win them all.
Christmas Pageant
The JVC Christmas program was quite wonderful. I sang in the choir, and lead the children in singing “The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy” and “Away in a Manger” with my guitar. There was a Christmas quiz for the kids, and a few skits by the youth. A particularly funny moment was when “Baby” Jesus was played by a 16 year old, the tallest one in the skit, laying on the floor swaddled in blankets. Another funny moment was when another youth played a “celebrity dancer” in the nativity story (huh??) and started dancing Travolta moves to a pop song in a leather jacket and shades (Note: This guy is normally VERY quiet and shy, so this was a spectacular surprise). A third funny fact was that Joseph was played by a girl and Mary played by a boy, who didn’t cover his face very well with his head covering.
From L to R: Ana singing in the church choir; Little kids singing; Ana singing with the kids
Christmas Day
This was our first Christmas away from our families, as a couple, so that was hard, but we enjoyed Christmas with our new family here in Korea. The day was pretty quiet and uneventful, but in the evening our cell group had a delicious Christmas potluck, with roasted chicken, kimchi, curry, fruit salad and Christmas cake. We sang Christmas songs and had a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer.
Swimming
I decided I had had a long enough break from swimming, and there are some great pools here in Chuncheon, so I started that up again. My first day swimming was an interesting experience. There were swimming classes going on, and the instructor was holding a long bamboo pole, and would hit swimmers on the head, to get their attention if they did something wrong! That’s different. Also, the bathroom in the changeroom always has water EVERYWHERE; On the toilets, on the toilet paper, on the walls and stall doors. How does that happen? There are no showers in there.
Cell Group Worship Service
Whenever there’s a 5th Sunday in a month, each cell group meets separately for Sunday worship. Our cell group met at the church, Will preached and I played a special song. After the service, we pulled out the ping pong table and played a few rounds with each other, while the children tried to sabotage our game by poking things in between the tables from underneath, or moving the net around, or stealing the ping pong ball and running away with it. We then went skating, pretty much all the children from our cell group, another couple and us. I realized just then that I’m not as good a skater as I used to be. A Chinese student, who has been attending our church recently, came along and had never skated before…so we just puttered around the ice, preventing falls every 5 minutes, while Will skated circles around us…the ol’ hockey player. Oh, and Will made new friends out of two little girls, who for some reason followed him everywhere on the ice.
From L to R: The ping ping saboteurs; Will and Ana skating
Hockey Game
Will likes to watch when our students play hockey, so we popped in to the arena for the hockey tournament which one of our students was playing in. In Korean hockey, NO physical contact is allowed, but the other team was playing dirty and checking our students’ team mates all over the place, and sadly that team won. There is an interesting Korean hockey custom, which involves each team bowing to the other teams’ coach at the end of the game.
Trip to 2nd tunnel, DMZ and Fish Festival
One family at JVC has been so kind to invite us out on a few occassions, and this trip was one of them. We first drove to the 2nd tunnel, which is one of the 5 known tunnels dug by North Koreans to spy on South Korea. There are likely more tunnels, that are perhaps still in use today. We first had to drive through a restricted military area, and were told to walk in a straight line towards the entrance of the tunnel. I’m not sure why. We were each given hard hats, and I thought that meant things would fall from the roof of the tunnel, but as soon as we went in, I saw why we needed hard hats; It is a very low tunnel. Even I had to duck most of the time. The sound of hard hats dinging against the rock ceiling could be heard at various points of the walk. It was quite humorous. There were circles spraypainted on the rock to show were mines had been, or holes made by North Koreans pointing in the direction of the south to prove that the tunnel was in fact made by the North Koreans. We went as far as we could until the barrier, which was at the border between the two countries.
From L to R: The entrance to the military area; Entrance to the tunnel
We then went to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which, despite the name, is actually quite highly militarized. The facilities had been recently redone. We were taken up a mountain in this slow moving train, and seated in a theater type place, that looked out a huge window. Outside the window was the South Korean side, the 2 km stretch of untouched land that is the border (the DMZ) and the North Korean side. We could look through telescopes and “spy” on the north. I saw a North Korean climbing a mountain to a building on top of the mountain, and a village in the distance. I had heard from friends about a fancy fake village in North Korea, set up to make South Koreans think the North Koreans are doing well financially. I thought the village I saw was also a fake, but I was assured it was a real village. We were not allowed to take pictures of the north, or the DMZ. There is a mountain in the North called “Red Mountain”, named so because so many men were killed on it, that when it rains, the mountain apparently looks red, as they say. We drove away through a flat, ugly area speckled with bombed buildings that had not been recovered, land that had seen many wars fought on it, land that was once part of North Korea.
From L to R: On train up the mountain; Ana pointing to where we went in the tunnel
The grand finale to our day trip was the Hwacheon Fish Festival, where thousands of people come to ice fish on a frozen river. There were hundreds of families huddling around holes in the ice, bobbing their plastic fishing rods, carrying their prizes away. On one side were these hugs snow carvings of a polar bear, penguins, and of course fish. There were sleds for rent, and little wooden platforms to push oneself around on with ice picks. Everywhere you looked on this lake were people of all ages pushing themselves around by one of these things. We all took turns riding and pushing a sled around, dodging people who weren’t looking, and almost falling over.
From L to R: Sign in Hwacheon for festival; People ice fishing; Kids pushing themselves around on little sleds; Will and Ana in front of ice sculptures; Will and Ana getting a ride
Random thoughts:
-Sometimes we feel invisible here; being budded in lines, people not moving out of the way on the sidewalk, etc. But the weirdest time was when we were at a restaurant, just about to sit in a booth, when a group of teens pushed their way past us and sat in the booth before we could. Is that a cultural thing or a youth thing? Hmmm…
-Like NA, traffic lights go yellow before turning red, but here, they also go yellow before turning green! So, you’re already stopped, and the light essentially says, “Wait…..ready? GO!”
-As I mentioned, seniors in this culture expect respect from anyone younger than them. We see examples of this all the time, aside from crossing traffic expecting cars to stop. Climbing down Anmasan the other day, we were following close behind an eldery couple, and we were waiting to pass them at any given moment. One of them even stopped, bent over to tie their shoe, and didn’t move out of our way. Will told me later that they likely just expected us to wait.
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