Lectures, Buddhism, and Mud

   Well, we are already in our second week of lectures and I never even got around to writing about our first. Last Monday was our official orientation opening ceremony at Korea University in Seoul. Entertainment was provided by the Rainbow Choir—a group of terribly adorable little children from all around the world, each one of them dressed in their traditional garb. 

A musical performance was also given by S.O.S, a Korean girl-band consisting of a vocalist, keyboardist, flautist, and electric-violinist. It was an interesting mix of old Korea and modern Korea---flashing colorful lights and a techno-background added to traditional instruments. 

My favorite part of the orientation was definitely the K-Tigers exhibition: Some awesome little kids with some serious taekwondo moves. There were kids as young as 5 or 6 who could balance on one foot, kick their other foot completely over their head, and not even break a sweat. The older kids were doing handsprings and flips and breaking planks of wood in the air, which was equally impressive. Of course, it is Korea, so the performance was not lacking in flashing lights and kpop music (see the video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3EWtdZGXGo)

   The orientation was followed by a scavenger hunt in the rain, running around one area of Seoul with our group, taking pictures with various monuments. I have a couple of pictures, but since I didn’t have an umbrella, I was more concerned with finishing the scavenger hunt than taking a lot of pictures…

   Lectures have been tiring---Some have been very interesting and useful, others more just for fun and some a little dull. We have learned a lot about what to expect when we get to our schools, how to deal with the hierarchy of the school system, how to manage a classroom of 6 year olds by ourselves, etc etc etc. It is all a little overwhelming and kind of scary! Luckily, we still have a couple of weeks of orientation to mentally prepare before we set off for our schools. We also did a traditional Korean drumming lesson, made our own Korean fan, and got to watch a magic show!

   This weekend was a holiday weekend, since Monday was Korean Independence Day, so a lot of people in the orientation went to Seoul. Since there are usually 330 of us here, it was SO nice to be one of the few who stayed---a group of 30 or 40 people was much more manageable, and made things around here a lot more calm. On Sunday we went to a Buddhist temple called Gapsa Temple. We saw a Buddhist ceremony that we didn’t really understand---there was a lot of bowing involved over the course of an hour or so, then they ended up burning a giant pile of cardboard. Who knows. It was pretty cool to watch, even if I didn’t know what was going on. There were some awesome hiking trails around the temple, and a friend and I set off to explore for the hour we had before lunch. 

   We hoped to make it all the way up to the peak, but had to turn back before we could, since we didn’t want to be late for lunch. The area was full of streams and little waterfalls---hiking in the woods made me feel like I was back in Sewanee.  

The temperature dropped noticeably under the cover of the trees, and for the first time for my week in Korea, I felt a cool breeze. The only sounds we could hear were the sounds of flowing water and screaming cicadas, and around us everything was a vibrant green. After arriving back at the temple, we had a very spicy lunch of bibimbap, made some prayer beans and some sort of artwork with a stamp/ink, and headed back to campus.  Since there were only a few of us left on campus, we decided to order some pizza from Pizza Myung. After perusing the menu, which included sweet potato pizza, lobster pizza, and kimchi, among many other odd options, we decided on one bacon/vegetable pizza and one “bulgogi” pizza, which is a Korean dish with marinated beef, and they were both sooooooo good. After rice and kimchi cafeteria food every day, we needed a little something different.

   Sunday, we embarked early to visit a Korean Farm. After we all got on the bus, the bus driver turned around and asked, “So, where are we going?” Many wrong turns were made, and holiday traffic was brutal, so after 3 hours of traveling, we made it to the farm. We all got on a tiny little truck pulled by a tractor, and took us to a beach where there was mud as far as the eye could see. What started out as an innocent clam digging turned into a mud fight so intense, that I might still have some in my ears and eyes. It was SO MUCH FUN. There aren’t a lot of pictures, since none of us wanted to destroy our cameras, but I think this group picture accurately conveys how much mud was actually involved. I’m on the bottom left, in case you can’t find me. 

   So, sitting through lectures today proved to be a tough transition from a rousing mud battle, but tomorrow we get to go to a taekwondo class, so that should be fun! I’ll try and remember to bring my camera…