Getting out of the city...

On Saturday I went with some friends to an orphanage about 1 1/2 hours south of Seoul.  In Korea, there are several orphanages, and the children are there for numerous reasons.  Many of the children at the orphanage that we visited have parents or grandparents that visit them on the weekends, but are not able to support them living at home.  Some, though, do not have family, and I just feel so badly for them.  The grounds are nice, and there seems to be a lot of support at the school, but having a caring family makes such a big difference.
The orphanage that we visited has about 100 kids I think, but we only really met about 20 or 30 of them.   The kids we met ranged in age from 3ish to about 13.  We pretty much just hung out and played with them all day.  They only speak a very limited amount of English, so it was a bit difficult trying to communicate with them.  There was a little boy who was the youngest one we saw, and he would get so mad when he tried to explain something and we couldn't understand him!  Tough little guy!  We had a really great time, and I am so excited to go back.  The group has an outing about once a month, and right now we are planning on getting something together for Christmas so that hopefully we can give them presents.  Anyhow - look for updates as I get to know the kids better in the coming months.  Here are a few pictures - my camera ran out of batteries, so I didn't get to take many pictures.  :(

This is a picture of one of the building at the orphanage

These are two of the girls that I got to know during the day

Brandon is teaching this kid a little bit of English 

Mariko and me at the beginning of the day.

You can see the orphanage's playground behind us.

This was the whole group of volunteers - great group of people!

It was actually organized by the guy in the green, Danny, on Facebook.

The feel of fall is in the air...

Just a really quick note here to say how wonderful fall is! Yesterday was the first officially chilly day, and today was just as wonderfully fall-like.  I can see the very beginning of trees changing, and the air feels crisp and fresh.  It is a good time to be in Korea, and I am so excited to watch as the colors of fall come out!  Apparently falls in Korea are utterly beautiful, so hopefully I will be posting many photos!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!  (btw - I am going to an orphanage tomorrow with a large group of volunteers.  I will post about it this weekend!)

The Sharing House

The Sharing House was such an interesting experience!  Mariko and I met some other people at one of the subway stations, and then we all headed out to the area where the Sharing House is located.  It had nice grounds, out in the country and was  a great place for these women to be able to relax and enjoy life.  Listening to the woman speak with us - (in the pictures above - the one on the right with the purple pants) was such a privilege.  It was really interesting learning about her life, and so sad to imagine what she went through.  (I wrote a bit about this in an earlier post this month on 8/18 if you need some background info) 

It is always sad to come face to face with tragedies like this, to come to the realization that people are not always good.  The saddest thing today is that the disgrace continues as Japan refuses to acknowledge its role in this atrocity.   There is ample evidence that the government was responsible for the main organization of the comfort women, yet even today they will not dirty their hands with that responsibility.  I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet the people I did at The Sharing House, and I hope that someday those responsible for ruining so many young women's lives will have the decency to admit to their wrong-doings.  

The collage above has a few pictures from the visit.  The photo with the folded hands states "We must record these things that were forced upon us."  This is the motto for the sharing house, and they have done a wonderful job. 

Under construction...

I am trying to change the look of my blog so it may be going through some strange changes if you stumble upon it in the next few days... bear with me...

Random musings...

One of my classes and me...

I have had a fairly quiet week here in Korea. I am back to a normal work schedule, which is wonderful after four weeks of feeling as if all I ever did was work. I was teaching an extra 3 hours every morning for a summer school that most english academies have here in Korea. When the students are out on summer vacation, many of them attend an academy or camp instead. God forbid these children have time to play! Above is a picture of me with my class - they were really cute!

I realized last weekend that I have overlooked writing about some of the interesting aspects of my apartment. It is a good size for one person, but if I was living with someone else, it would be tight. I have a washer, but no dryer, so I have to dry my clothes on a rack - quite a different experience, but not so difficult to get used to. I just think of it as doing my part to conserve energy! :)

 The most difficult, and one of the funnier, things to get used to the first day or so, was the toilet in my apartment. It is called a bidet, and it has all kinds of functions I have only heard about. The first night I got here, I could not for the life of me figure out how to flush the toilet. I did, however, learn the function of several of the buttons. One of them is a stream of water meant to clean the bum. Another function is air that blows softly - to dry the bum. Since everything is in Korean, I had no idea how to turn either function off again. Needless to say, I was a bit afraid of the toilet for the next day. I did eventually figure out how to flush the toilet, the button was in the same pace as most toilets. Go figure.

Another fun little toy I have in my apartment is a

 built in phone and camera. I don't use the phone, but the camera is great. it might be more useful in a larger house, but it is still really great. When

 someone rings the doorbell, it rings into the phone and I can see the person outside through the screen in the phone. I can also just turn it on to look outside my door without having to go to the door - you know in case there are a bunch of people being loud outside...or something...  I also have a keypad to enter my apartment, which means that without a car, I have no keys here! I don't ever have to look for my keys - that is exciting since I tend to misplace mine every week or so.

One of the things I was really excited about here in Korea was getting to experience new food. Mariko and Brandon and I went to the COEX mall two weekends ago ( the entire mall is underground) and had lunch at a great restaurant named Todai. It is a chain that is in some places in the states, and it was so great! The restaurant is an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant. That means limitless sushi! It was so great - I think we spent like 2 hours there! They had sushi, sashimi cut right off of the fish, all kids of Japanese and Chinese dishes, even some Indian food. We will definitely be going back!

After almost 2 months here in Korea, I can say that I am feeling more comfortable here. Most of the really difficult parts of getting used to a new home, new culture, and new job have passed. I am starting to really enjoy my time here, although keeping in touch with family and friends back home has made that transition much easier. Thank goodness for the internet, instant messaging, and, of course, the web cam!

I hope everything is going great for everyone! More later ~

Living history

I find that one of the most rewarding aspects of traveling, of taking my little world beyond my little world, is having the opportunity to really experience history.  To really experience social studies, language, geography.  This last weekend I went to one of the palaces here in Seoul, and while I was not entirely enthusiastic about going, I nonetheless found myself mesmerized by the history that the palace represented.  I find that from a distance historical monuments hold little significance to me, and I have to be in their presence to gain much from them.  I can never truly understand the lives and lifestyle that are represented in an ancient place such as the one I visited, but I can tuck it away with all of the the other things that create the kaleidoscope that is my paradigm.   I can hope that I will someday look back and see the various minute or grand ways in which it impacted me.  There are many palaces and other important sites in Seoul, and throughout Korea, and Asia that I would like to see.  I will enjoy learning from them and seeing what they have to offer, but at the moment I am more interested in another type of experience I will be getting to take part in.  

My friend Mariko asked me to go on a tour to a place called The Sharing House in a couple of weekends. (If you are interested in learning more about it yourself,  you can check out the link in the previous sentence or click here for another, different website - Namun House ).  One of the more tragic aspects of Korean history is the story of the comfort women.   These women, referred to and addressed now as halomi, or grandmother, were used by the Japanese during WWII as sex slaves.  Korea was occupied by Japan at the time, and so, in the interest of the war,  Japan stole between 100,000 and 200,000 women and young girls away from their homes and sent them to the various places throughout the world where Japanese soldiers were stationed.  These women were raped repeatedly on a daily basis, many were killed, others were abandoned in far places after the war.  None of these women were paid any respect, and most of them lived a life of shame.  

This is a huge political and social issue between Japan and Korea, and until 1992 was not recognized by the Japanese government as being the fault of the government.  I had read about this several times in various guidebooks and histories on Korea, but honestly, and a bid ashamedly, I wasn't really struck with the enormity.  I thought it would be cool to go to this safe house, get to have a new experience.  Interesting.  Another entry on the list of cool things I have gotten to do while in Korea.  Then I read over the website that Mariko sent me.  I read the posts and the newspaper articles and something clicked.  These women (there are only a handful alive today) speak of an atrocity that happened to thousands of women, an atrocity that even today is hidden from public view.  I am honored to learn more and possibly have the chance to talk with one of them.    

I find sometimes that I get too wrapped up in my little world, in the hundreds of things that determine how I feel at any particular moment.  Something like this makes me stop and examine myself, my choices, my life.    It makes me grateful for the opportunities that I have had and the world I have grown up in.  So many things in my life are a privilege, and there are many people who were never given any options at a happier life.  I hope that I can remember that next time I start complaining... 

Who needs Target when you have the Subway?

So, as any girl knows, the best remedy to the blues is a good healthy dose of shopping. Having received my first paycheck today, I was off to buy some essentials that I have been holding out on.  Back in the states, I pretty much run to Target for anything I need, and I really miss the familiar red dot.   Settling instead for one of the millions of stores here in Seoul, my friend Mariko and I headed to a huge discount store called 2000 Outlet because I really needed to buy cute shoes for work.  If I haven't mentioned it before now, Seoul has sooo many REALLY cute shoes that are super cheap.  While we were on our way, I was distracted by one of the small shoe shops they have in the subway.  These shops are at pretty much every subway stop and they have tons of cute shoes, but I hadn't really stopped to try shoes on before today.  Wouldn't you know, I ended up buying all of my shoes (3 pairs) there? And I only paid $40 dollars for all of them! I actually ended up buying a 4th pair in another cute little subway shop, plus a ton of other things I have been needing.  It was great fun, and to think the subway has become my Target.  Things are definitely different here.  :)

In the interest of making myself feel better, we also went to lunch at Outback.  After some baby back ribs and french fries I pretty much forgot where I was.  Aside from the fact that the baby back rib lunch entree is $25, it was pretty much like being back home.  After my day of shopping, lunch at a familiar restaurant, a pedicure, and a visit to a little gem of a store called I Love Cookie (a cute little store that has imported foreign food and product), I  am feeling a bit more optimistic about being here again.  Not that I am suddenly completely at home here, but that I am more eager to welcome the coming day.  That's really all life's about - being able to greet tomorrow with a smile.   :)