History Lesson: VJ Day in Korea

First written August 2012:

Well, we have about a week of training left before we start teaching in our schools. We've been in classes for 6 hours a day 5 days a week learning about how to teach English as a second language. One thing I have learned in Korea is that you need to be flexible ALL OF THE TIME and be ready for anything because things change constantly. You also might not know of things that are happening until the last minute for various reasons. As a planner, I find this a little frustrating but I'm learning to go with the flow and take things as they come. Day by day.

Zack and I both know that we are teaching Elementary schools. We know that the schools are very close together so we will be able to take the same subway or bus together to work. He has to walk by my school to get to his school. This is a rare thing from some of the things we have heard from other married couples that are here. Some of them have schools in complete opposite directions. We know that he will probably be teaching 4th, 5th and 6th grades and I will probably be teaching 5th and 6th grades. Each school usually only has one native English speaking teacher. So this means each class will only have English in my classroom once a week. This also means I will be teaching the same lesson 10-12 times a week (if 5th and 6th grade lesson plans are different). This is both good and bad. Yay, we only need to prepare 2-3 lessons each week. But this also means we teach the exact same thing over and over and over again which could get pretty boring. We know that we both have our own English classrooms and the students come our classrooms each day. (Some schools the teacher rotates to each classroom and the children stay in the same classroom. Every school is different). This means we will be able to decorate our classrooms and hang things on the walls. We probably couldn't hang anything on the walls if we traveled to different classrooms. This is about all the information we have on our schools until we actually start teaching. And it took me a long time to track down this information. Also, since things change constantly around here I may be writing another post in a couple weeks saying our schools are nothing like I said (which is totally possible).

So on to VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day). South Korea has 3 independence days (they have claimed independence from several different countries in their history). Last week on August 15th, Korea celebrated their independence from Japan. Japan surrendered at the end of WWII on August 15th, 1945 about a week after the US dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the US the date of surrender is August 14th but due to the time difference it was the 15th here when Japan surrendered. The Japanese and Japan are a very touchy subject here in Korea. It hasn't been that long ago since the war and most people have relatives like grandmothers etc that were alive during the war. Things that the Japanese did to Koreans are still pretty fresh in the minds of some of the Korean elders. That hate has trickled down to the younger generations as well. (The Koreans and Japanese still fight over who owns this tiny, tiny island directly between Japan and South Korea).

VJ Day is a national holiday in South Korea so schools, banks and post offices were closed. So on our day off from classes we decided we were going to get up early (ish) and go hiking. We've been told that hiking here isn't really like hiking when you think of traditional hiking. Most of the paths are paved and you are basically just walking. Our group of 7 that went hiking decided to plan like it was real hiking and boy are we glad we did. We wore sneakers and took sandwiches and lots of water in backpacks. We had previously been to a Buddhist temple and had seen a few paths around that area on that mountain so we decided to head back there. We knew which busses to take to get there. We had to take 2 busses to get there. There are two options for the first bus, the 12 and the 14. The 12 bus is a more direct bus to get to where we transfer to the next bus. We knew that the 14 would get us there as well but it would take a little bit longer. We went with the 14 bus because it was already at the bus stop when we got there. However, it took much longer than the 12. 45 minutes later we are standing at the next stop waiting for the next bus to take us to the bottom the the mountain where the Buddhist temple was. It seemed like we were waiting forever for that bus. Anyways, we eventually get to the bottom of the mountain. We start to walk up. We stopped by the temple again to see it another time and to take a few more pictures.

                                                

This is a huge Buddha. He is made of bronze and stands (sits) around 70 feet high.

These are prayer lanterns. People pay to buy these lanterns and then write their prayer requests on them.

We decided to now begin our hike behind the Buddha. Let's just say these paths are not ones that are paved on the way up it is quite steep. (At least the path we blindly chose was steep).

Up we go. This picture doesn't even begin to show how steep it was. At one point there was rope to help us climb.

Once we got to the top there was a clearer path for us to walk the ridge of the mountain cluster. We had heard there were a couple places to see a view of the city and we wanted to find them. Most of the mountain was covered with trees and you really couldn't see much at all. We walked one way and then turned around and went the other way. We walked for a LOOOOOONG time. I should also tell you that the weather forecast for this day was overcast and heavy rain predicted. It was much cooler this day. Probably the coolest it had been up to that point to South Korea. We really couldn't have picked a better day for this. There was a nice breeze on top of the mountain and even though it was raining a little bit there were so many trees that we really weren't that wet.

Finally we found one view:

This was not on the side of the mountain where the city was but it was gorgeous.

We decided it was about time to head back down so we were going to walk the other direction and hopefully see the view on the other side of the mountain as we went. We didn't want to go down the way to came up because it was WAY TOO steep to go down.

We did find the other view. By this point it was starting to rain more heavily so the pictures we got weren't the best but it was still amazing. Hopefully we will go back on a clear day and take more pictures.

There are tons and tons of buildings mixed in with tons and tons of mountains. It's very hard to make out.

Now, we begin our journey down the mountain. We are all very tired and are starting to get a little more wet. We walk and we walk and we walk and we walk. By the time we decide that we probably should have gone down somewhere else we are too far to turn back. We are committed. The path gets smaller and smaller and eventually we are in the middle of the woods on a mountain in Asia. Finally we make it off the mountain and we wind up very close to where we got off the bus. Where we came out doesn't even look like a path. If you saw it from the road you would have no idea it was there. It was quite an experience.

Here we are finally off the mountain.

THIS is where the path finally came out!

Ah, but the story is quite over yet. Remember how I told you the forecast called for heavy rain? Well, we make it back to the bus. It's raining some. We transfer busses to the bus that will take us back to school. While we are on that bus the flood gates opened. It was pouring. Raining cats and dogs. Gully washing. 

The school is the last stop on the bus. The bus lets us out at the bottom of the hill below campus. We have to cross the street and go up a big hill and make a couple of turns to get to the building we all live in. We get off the bus and take off running up the hill to get to our building. We get less than halfway there and realize that is doesn't matter if we run or not because we are already soaked through. It took a couple of days for my sneakers to finally dry out.

Completely soaked. 

What a day! 

Well, that's all for now.

Love you guys!