We live in Korea. Read about it.

We are good.

The winter has been long and cold, but it's almost over.


We have made our best effort to avoid cabin fever.
Here is a video compilation of pictures throughout this winter, including our beach getaway this last weekend on this side of the Pacific. (The video is compliments of Keith, as usual.)

Click here to watch, or for low quality, check out the video bar on the right.


Enjoy your Monday.





P.S. Here's a slice of news about North Korea that doesn't have to do with war...instead, pizza in midst of famine.

Our Beijing videos and pictures are compiled and put together. Great thanks to Keith. He's the best.

WARNING:
The video is a little long...about 10 minutes. But, if you have the time, enjoy!

The video is on youtube, via the link in the column on the right. Also, if you would like to watch it on full screen or in higher quality, you can go to Keith's channel page on youtube and watch it that way.


Click here for the youtube link.



Enjoy your weekend.

After six months of hard work teaching, we were ready for a holiday! It was time to escape for a few days and go somewhere new, which is all a part of our purpose this year.

My parents came and visited us here in Korea, giving us the perfect excuse to head over to Beijing. Even though the Korean peninsula is connected to China, there is a significant road block on the way there...North Korea. Needless to say, we flew.

We had an amazing two weeks with them. It was incredible to show them our life here in Korea and experience all of their "firsts" with them...things we have adjusted to as somewhat normal living here. On the other hand, it was wonderful to visit Beijing together, since that was the first time for all four of us to be in China. Also, I think that having them here right at our sixth month mark will help push us through the second half of this year. We are so thankful that they were able to come.

It's hard to sum up all that we did and saw in Beijing. I will just expound on a couple of the highlights and observations I had from our trip, which I absolutely LOVED!

The first thing that really stands out to me when I think about our trip was the difference between Seoul and Beijing. Of course, there are many differences between Korean culture and Chinese culture. But, I was surprised at the how unique Beijing looks and feels. It truly is a harmonious blend of the past and the present, the traditional and modern. This is especially evident in the architecture of the city. You can quickly walk from a block of high rises to a street of tile roofed, single story shops. I loved this part about the city.

We visited the main Beijing attractions.
If you are interested in the historical background information on any of these places, you can on the title for a somewhat accurate explanation, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was as elaborate and ornate as you could imagine. (I would venture to say it was even more magnificent than the biggest palace in Seoul, but, I'll probably keep that to myself within my circles here in Korea.) It was the emperor's palace from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. These are various pictures from around the different sections of the Forbidden City.

Interesting fact: It is called the Forbidden City because no one could enter or leave without the permission of the Emperor.






Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a huge area where thousands of people could gather together if they wanted or needed to, as they have in the past. It somewhat reminded me of our National Mall, in that they have similar purposes. It is a national iconic location where thousands can gather together, whatever their reason. One thing that I found odd was all of the towers surrounding it. These towers could very well be for the media as camera towers...but, I couldn't keep my mind from imagining what else these towers could be used for in this powerful communist nation.





Jingshan Park
We hiked up this small mountain behind the Forbidden City in Jingshan Park to see an amazing view of Beijing. Again, it highlighted, so strangely, this gigantic modern city that has not forsaken its ancient history.




Mutianyu Section of The Great Wall of China






Where do I begin? Visiting the Great Wall, was, without a doubt, my favorite part of our trip. We visited a part of the wall is not a popular location to visit, so there wasn't any tourist garbage and hardly any visitors. On the entire stretch that we walked, we only passed about 30 people. Also, the section we visited is one of the best preserved parts of the wall.

My Dad summed up so many of my feelings when he said this: "Being at the Great Wall puts the length of my short life into perspective."

It was phenomenal to be there...to walk on something that is such an important part of world history and civilization, and to stand on something I've heard about for so many years of my life. This is what I love about traveling.


Keith is working on compiling a slide show of our pictures and videos. He did post one very short video from the Great Wall that you can see in the right-hand column. He also took some incredible video at an acrobatic show we saw in Beijing. I guess I will say it again...more pictures and videos coming soon.


And on a final note...a favorite line from Lorelai Gilmore, speaking about her extremely long "To-Do" list:
"Hey, do you know that if the entire population of China walked by, the line would never end because of the rate of population increase? That's my list, every Chinese person in the world."

We are safely back in Korea from our trip to China. It was absolutely incredible! This weekend we are headed up to Seoul with my parents. They went up to Seoul one day this week for the DMZ tour, which they really enjoyed. Now, we will get explore Seoul with them until they leave on Monday morning and try to fit in as much of this huge city as we can.

Stories, pictures, and videos coming soon.

Here is one picture of Keith and I on the Great Wall of China. It is as they say...great.



Happy Valentines Day!

Wow! January has been our busiest month in Korea yet! We can't believe how fast it's gone by...this long with no blog posts! Hard to imagine that I am actually this bad about posting.


We are looking forward to my parents coming to Korea is just one week! We will be heading to Beijing with them for a long weekend to see the Great Wall of China and other historic spots. The rest of the time they are here, we will take them all over Seoul, and of course, our city Cheonan. Although, you can see pretty much all there is to see here where we live in about a day. For a city of half a million people, they really could add a few more attractions. This time with them will be a wonderful way to pass our sixth month mark here in Korea.


January is an interesting month for an English teacher. Students are currently on their longest break from school for the year. Basically, they have a long winter vacation instead of a long summer break like we are used to. However, instead of giving these precious children a lengthy break to play in the snow, sleep a full 8 hours, etc, they actually go to MORE SCHOOL THAN THEY DO WHILE THEY ARE IN SCHOOL. In other words, the extra 7 hours a day during vacation that they are not attending their normal elementary, middle, or high school, they attend academies. (We teach at English academies or "hagwons" in Korean.) They go to English academy, science academy, math academy, Chinese academy, or whatever else their parents think they should learn.

January has been busy for us because we, in return, teach morning classes, in addition to our afternoon and evening classes. The month has flown by because we have mostly just worked.

Here are some of my thoughts and observations living in this foreign culture on this particular issue. In no way does my native culture have it all together. That is one of the things that I love about traveling. I can see what other people do, how they learn, how they work, how they live. It gives me the freedom to take what I like and leave what I don't care for.

You have to hand it to South Korea, even if they are the culture that never rests. Their hard work has paid off. At the end of the Korean War, their infrastructure was destroyed and millions were left unemployed and impoverished. However, they became a wealthy developed country in less than half a century. Now, depending on what statistic you read, South Korea is 11th richest country in the world. When I told my Grandpa Hartill that we were moving to South Korea, he said, "Well why would you want to go there?" This is, of course, a perfectly legitimate question because he lived here during the war. From what I understand, this place was a disaster.

But, I often wonder, when enough is enough? I have students two times a week in three hour class blocks. (This is a normal week, not a current week during their vacation.) When I ask my students what they do on the other afternoons that they aren't in my classes, about 80% of them also attend other academies in other subjects. They stumble into my class looking like they slept only 4-5 hours, which is just not enough for a child. Some parents force their children to study until midnight, no matter how tired they are.

The pressure starts in middle school. If you don't get good grades in middle school, then you can't go to a good high school. (They apply for high schools like we apply for college.) If you don't go to a good high school, then you can't go to a good college, and the cycle repeats itself when it comes time to get a job.

I recently saw a graph that showed the average number of hours working adults put in per year in the various countries around the world. South Korea didn't just make the top 10, or top 5, but actually ranks number one. (I guess this helps explain why I have no sick days.)

Keith and I often discuss our role in this culture. As teachers we do have a lot of power over the amount of work that we require our students to do outside of the classroom. The longer I am here, the less homework I give. I think it is more effective to have my students awake enough in class to have good conversations practicing their English as opposed to giving them additional busy work with vocabulary and grammar homework. We both take a very conversational approach to teaching, which seems to be the most effective when learning a language.

Hard work, determination, and diligence are all admirable qualities in Korean culture. However, I think Latin America has a pretty good practice in place with their daily afternoon siesta. Where is the balance? I'm not sure, but I will be happy to be back to my normal, manageable working hours in just a few more days.

_____________________________________________________

Well, we haven't worked every hour of everyday in January. Here are a few pictures from what we have done. A couple of highlights were celebrating Keith's 24th Birthday and playing in the snow.

Keith's Birthday.




Snow, snow, and more snow.



Waiting for the bus in the snow.

(Authors Note: This posting is not full of funny stories or anything like it. It's about our visit to North Korea and the tragedy of communism. It's not like we left our tour deeply depressed. Instead, we felt more educated and aware about what is happening in the part of the world we live in currently. This tiny peninsula is far from insignificant.)

This last weekend, we went to visit Korea's DMZ.



The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) separates North and South Korea and is the most heavily armed border in the world. The DMZ was set up after the cease-fire in 1953 at the end of the Korean War. There was never actually a peace treaty signed, so technically speaking, the north and south are still at war.

We were able to visit several different areas of the DMZ. It is something that is taken VERY seriously, being that it's not exactly a safe place to visit. We took a tour with the USO, which is an organization that supports military and expats abroad. You are not allowed to just go "see" the DMZ. In order to pass through all of the security, you have to actually be on a certified tour. Once we got to Camp Bonifas, after having our passports checked, we signed a paper during the briefing stating that were war to break out while we were on our tour, we would not hold the UN accountable.




Here is a picture of us standing on the edge of the South Korean border, facing North Korea. You can see the North Korean guard in the far back and the South Korean guards just behind us. This part of the DMZ is where all of the joint meetings between the North, South, and the UN occur.



This is a picture of us straddling the border between the North and South, while in the conference meeting room.



Standing with the South Korean guard.



This picture is taken from another location along the DMZ. While standing there, we could see the "jamming" tower, which jams all radio, tv, phone, cable, and Internet signals from South Korea and other locations that could possibly enter the country. For those of you who don't know, North Koreans have no contact with the outside world. Their only news comes from their own government. Their Internet comes from their government. They have no idea what is going on with the outside world. It is an absolute tragedy, especially because it allows the government to brainwash the people.

These are a couple of thoughts/facts we learned about on our trip:
-South Korea has the tenth strongest economy in the world. This is especially interesting when you compare their economy with North Korea's economy. The average factory worker in North Korea makes $2.50 every month.
-The Bridge of No Return is named this for good reason. At the end of the Korean War, soldiers were given the choice of where they would like to live. However, once they crossed that bridge, they would not be allowed to go back. This is still true today as it is illegal for a North Korean to leave their country and immigrate to another country. They are allowed to leave the country, but if they do not return, the government can look for them and arrest them for trying to escape.
-One more interesting piece of information that you may not know is that the current leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Il, is dying or possibly already dead. If there is going to be a revolution in North Korea, the time is coming soon. Some South Koreans feel a deep compassion for their North Korean families are working hard to simply stay alive. Many South Koreans are taking serious measures to try to alert the North Korean people about their dying leader, encouraging them that this is the time for a revolution. If you are interested in reading more, check this out on the BBC website.




The Bridge of No Return


Also, you can check out the video Keith made with various segments from the day on the right hand side, if you are interested.

Thank you for reading and caring about these current global issues.

Alright, I admit that I am pretty awful about any kind of semi-regular posting on here. Since it's pointless to make excuses, and I don't have any good ones, I will make up for this absence through including an embarrassing video that displays my inability to be serious when Keith is trying to take a video of me actually being serious.

Check out the video on the right. I just got my orange belt this week, which is actually very exciting for me. I love Taekwondo and what a challenge it is. I'm hoping to be at a very high belt by the time we leave Korea.


______________________________________________________

A few people have asked us what we did for Thanksgiving. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we purchased tickets to this English teacher conference thing that had a Thanksgiving meal at the end of it. We didn't go to the conference, just the dinner, but it was amazing. On the actual Thanksgiving day, I had to unfortunately work, because here, it is just like any other day, of course. Keith fortunately had the evening off, so he went to a Thanksgiving dinner with about 15 other foreigners, potluck style. He brought mashed potatoes to the dinner. In order to cook for that many people, he basically had to use all of our dishes to hold them. He also made sweet tea. Even though I couldn't go, Keith brought me back a plate of food, which was delicious.

Thanksgiving is also interesting here because Koreans don't like turkey at all and you cannot buy it anywhere here. But, we were thankful to have turkey from the military base that is not to far away.

Here is a picture from the meal we had the weekend before Thanksgiving and Keith there at the dinner with some of our friends.




______________________________________________________

I have working quite a few more hours at work the last three weeks because we had the end of my first term, and now the beginning of the winter term. I was sad to see some of my students go, but I am thankful that I have a few of the same students for another class this term.

I actually really like my new schedule. I am teaching some higher levels now with some really cool topics to cover and discuss. For example, last week, in the highest level class I teach, we watched a news clip about the two blind candidates that were running for state office in the US. In addition to reviewing what they watch and taking notes on it, we also have stimulating discussions about the topic. It is always interesting for me to see their different perspective on issues like this one, for example. Should people with disabilities have equal opportunity in government and other fields as people with no disabilities? Today we talked about freedom of speech, specifically in light of some recent Korean celebrities who have committed suicide as a result of public shame. In other words, they killed themselves because people said bad stuff about them on the Internet. It is a complete tragedy. This raises some important questions in a shame based society about the freedom of speech. Needless to say, I am really enjoying teaching and how much I am able to learn about this culture and society while I am doing my best to help my students learn English.

Here are a couple of my class pictures on the last day of class for the last term.




______________________________________________________


A couple of the interesting places that we've visited recently are the National Museum of Korea and the Seoul Tower. The museum was incredible and so big that we only visited the first floor the day we went and will have to go back to see more on another day. The Seoul Tower is the highest building in Seoul and has a magnificent view of this enormous city. The building is surrounded by windows in it's entirety. We ate dinner there with the beautiful view. Also, all around the tower, there are windows pointing in the directions of various locations around the globe, from the North Pole to the South Pole, Cairo, Moscow, and even Seattle. We also visited Hard Rock Cafe for the first time since we've been here and enjoyed some really good burgers.


The National Museum of Korea


The National Museum of Korea. They love their Pagodas.


Putting my Taekwondo skills to work on this ancient warrior.



Ancient pagoda in the National Museum.


When I mentioned that the Seoul Tower has windows literally everywhere so that you can always see the view, I meant that. This picture was taken from the men's bathroom.

______________________________________________________

Finally...here is our first Christmas tree. We put it up together on Monday night of this week and we love it. Special thanks to Mom (Gayle) for the ornaments and the guy who used to live in our apartment who left us his fake Christmas tree.