Week 16 (June 12th to June 18th)
Sunday June 12th, Today I got to go to my first Buddhist temple. Lee took me to Dongwhasa Temple, which is in Palgongsan (it's still in Daegu, so it was a short trip. San is the Korean word for mountain, so it just means Palgong Mountain). We had a little trek up the mountain, nothing too taxing, but either way, it would have been well worth it. The temple was beautiful. There are lots of smaller prayer rooms, and one huge prayer room, all with incredibly elaborate detailing everywhere. The ceilings must have taken forever to do. There were people praying, so I couldn't take any pictures, but it was quite stunning. There were also special Buddhist bells (I don't know much about Buddhism, so I can't explain what the significance is), and warrior/protector statues, and a drinking fountain where you make wishes. But by far the most impressive sight at the temple was the huge Buddha statue outside of the main prayer room. I can't even imagine how the statue was built, because it was several stories high, and perfectly detailed, down to the creasing in Buddha's robe. It was pretty incredible to stand in front of. I imagine that if I knew more about Buddhism, it would have been even more incredible. All of the temple stuff aside, it was also really good to get out of the concrete jungle for awhile. I haven't really been to the country since I got here, and God knows that I never got to leave the suburban sprawl in Toronto, so I was happy to just see some really beautiful natural scenery. The ride back was a little on the scary side however. We took a cab there, but the bus on the way home was packed to the gills-- we were actually standing on the steps right at the door, because there were just too many people on the bus. Plus the driver was really questionable, and there were definitly a couple times where we almost died. That aside, we did make it back okay, and it was still definitly worth it, so I'm still happy. I would like to go back sometime before I leave.
Tuesday June 14th, For the past two weeks, I've been trying to get downtown before 7pm to see a travel agent in order to book my ticket to Japan, but every time, something is going on at work and I can't leave! Tuesdays are the only day that I finish teaching earlier, so I was really banking on going today, but instead, I got stuck staying until 6:30pm (I finished teaching at 4:30pm) in order to set up for our stupid open classes tomorrow. When they interviewed me back in Canada, they mentioned that there would be some extra work to do once in awhile. They neglected to mention that there would be something extra ALMOST EVERY DAY! I know that we get paid a lot, but I almost think that we should be getting paid more. Other English teachers work less and get the same amount as us, so I don't know. We're all tired and more than a little frustrated. Here's another anecdote about how Koreans treat foreigners-- I was sitting on the steps at the front of my apartment waiting for Mike to pick me up, and this huge group came out of the restaurant and started talking to me for awhile. They took a bunch of pictures with their camera phones, asked for my phone number so they could take me out for Korean food, and then gave me a huge bag of candy! When I tried to give it back, they absolutely insisted that I keep it. Again, just like last weekend, every thing I say is amusing to them-- it's like having a pet foreigner; I'm a constant source of entertainment for them!
Wednesday June 15th, Today was the dreaded open class. All of the Korean teachers have been freaking out about it for at least a month. Apparently these open classes are the be-all and end-all of the Wonderland teaching year. We spent literally a month preparing, and making huge sentence strips and writing and re-writing lesson plans, blah blah blah. I wasn't too worried because my open class was scheduled to be with the Teddy Bears, which is my best class. They're the youngest, but they're incredibly bright and usually very well-behaved. This was not the case today. I guess they just got freaked out at the sight of so many people watching them, because they were not the well-behaved little angels that they usually are. One girl, Molly, bawled her eyes out through the whole thing! I think the parents understood (I mean, come on, they're five years old!), but Korean parents are always over-concerned, like "Oh, my son isn't smart enough", or "Oh, my daughter cries a lot", etc. I couldn't help but be a little disappointed that my kids didn't show their moms what they can actually do. The best part about the open class was when it ended, and I realized that things may actually be normal around here for awhile!
Saturday June 18th, Today was our gig down at the riverfront festival. The whole festival was presented by foreigners for foreigners, so it kind of showcased most of the musicians here in Daegu, some of them good, some of them bad. We got to play relatively early in the day, which was perfect, because there were lots of people there already, but they were all still sober enough to actually be listening. Plus although it was blazing hot, it was still really sunny and nice out. As far as our actual playing went, we did pretty well; it was probably one the better times we had played. I was satisfied with our showing, and we were really well received, so I certainly can't complain. Later that night, we went to the opening of a Canadian bar downtown called Thunderbirds. It was packed! Just when I think that I've seen every foreigner in Daegu, I meet a million more. One cool thing about tonight-- it kind of ended up being a date for me. Last weekend, I spent a lot of time with this guy Jamie at a party. He's a rock guitarist from Manchester, and he plays a lot at the Commune open mic night, so I had seen him before, but I wasn't officially introduced until last Saturday. We hit it off immediately, and we spent pretty much all of today together as well (he was playing at the festival too). So we've exchanged phone numbers, and we'll likely have a real date sometime in the next week. Evan is now dating Jamie's best friend from Manchester, Allison, so it's kind of funny how that played out It looks like Jason has hit it off with a girl too-- her name is Stephanie, and she seems really sweet, so it looks like we're all coupled up for now!
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