Meanwhile, In Ulsan
I am pleased to announce that I am now reconnected to the outside world as my new computer has arrived safely in Cheonsang. A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll take this opportunity to catch my faithful (and not-so-faithful) readers up on goings on here on the peninsula.
The first event worthy of note was an aborted trip to the Paraeso waterfall two weekends ago, which ended up being worth it as my roommate, Jessica, and I found ourselves wandering around the beauty that is Seongnamsa, a Buddhist temple operated by a group of nuns outside of Eonyang:
Seongnamsa was established in 824 C.E., during the Silla Dynasty period, and was last renovated in 1957. Typical of temples in Korea, it has some wonderfully vibrant, painted eaves and roofs. Here are some detailed examples:
Seongnamsa is also the site of a stone stupa (Korean National Treasure #369) that is said to contain the ashes (sarira) of the Monk Douiguksa, who founded the temple. This particular stupa is considered one of the best examples of stone masonry from the Silla period:
Apparently, Seongnamsa is a typical "date" location for the youth of Ulsan, and thus our trip there quickly became fodder for rumors among the Koreans that Jessica and I were dating (which certainly isn't the case, just to clarify things). So, for those of you in the Ulsan area looking for a new spot to take your squeeze, hop on the 807 and ride it all the way to the end of the line.
The other noteworthy event was our impromptu Halloween party at Elite. Many of the hagwons traditionally throw a party on the Friday before Halloween (as far as I could tell from what my students told me, Halloween isn't a big event in Korea, as to be expected, but the younger children, especially those who have had some exposure to Anglo-American hegemony, enjoy any excuse to don costumes and eat candy). Before our school became an "Elite" franchise earlier this year, it was a "GnB," which has several hagwons throughout Ulsan. Apparently, GnB always had a big Halloween party, and many of our students who remember the GnB days expected that Elite would do the same. However, as Halloween approached, there was no indication that we would be marking the occasion in any significant way. Every day it seemed my students would ask, "When are we having our party?" and I would sheepishly inform them that there would be no party this year (Jessica's students became downright mutinous). On the morning of Halloween, Jessica and I discussed how we would try to incorporate some sort of All Hallow's Eve theme into the day's lesson, fearful of the sure-to-be-disappointed students. To our surprise, the Korean teachers had made a spur of the moment decision to give into popular demand and as we were planning our lessons, they arrived with several cases of snacks and drinks. They proceeded to lead the younger students in mask-making activities. Some Halloween decorations were hurriedly placed around the entryway and soon it became clear that no actual learning would get done that day. Although it was all fun and games for the students, it was a bit more frustrating and exhausting for the unsuspecting and unprepared wayguk teachers (gotta love those healthy lines of communication between us and the Korean teachers!). Never has work seemed more like glorified baby-sitting, and never have I seen the classrooms so trashed. At least the kids had fun. Jessica has a great picture from the day on her Flickr site, just follow the link to take a peek.
Finally, fall has officially arrived in Ulsan, and its arrival was quite sudden. One week, we were still wearing T-shirts and sweating it out in the hazy air, and then we woke up on Monday morning to temperatures in the mid-40s (Fahrenheit) and colorful foliage. I'll end this post with a picture of the changing leaves Munsu-san taken from my balcony:
The first event worthy of note was an aborted trip to the Paraeso waterfall two weekends ago, which ended up being worth it as my roommate, Jessica, and I found ourselves wandering around the beauty that is Seongnamsa, a Buddhist temple operated by a group of nuns outside of Eonyang:
Seongnamsa was established in 824 C.E., during the Silla Dynasty period, and was last renovated in 1957. Typical of temples in Korea, it has some wonderfully vibrant, painted eaves and roofs. Here are some detailed examples:
Seongnamsa is also the site of a stone stupa (Korean National Treasure #369) that is said to contain the ashes (sarira) of the Monk Douiguksa, who founded the temple. This particular stupa is considered one of the best examples of stone masonry from the Silla period:
Apparently, Seongnamsa is a typical "date" location for the youth of Ulsan, and thus our trip there quickly became fodder for rumors among the Koreans that Jessica and I were dating (which certainly isn't the case, just to clarify things). So, for those of you in the Ulsan area looking for a new spot to take your squeeze, hop on the 807 and ride it all the way to the end of the line.
The other noteworthy event was our impromptu Halloween party at Elite. Many of the hagwons traditionally throw a party on the Friday before Halloween (as far as I could tell from what my students told me, Halloween isn't a big event in Korea, as to be expected, but the younger children, especially those who have had some exposure to Anglo-American hegemony, enjoy any excuse to don costumes and eat candy). Before our school became an "Elite" franchise earlier this year, it was a "GnB," which has several hagwons throughout Ulsan. Apparently, GnB always had a big Halloween party, and many of our students who remember the GnB days expected that Elite would do the same. However, as Halloween approached, there was no indication that we would be marking the occasion in any significant way. Every day it seemed my students would ask, "When are we having our party?" and I would sheepishly inform them that there would be no party this year (Jessica's students became downright mutinous). On the morning of Halloween, Jessica and I discussed how we would try to incorporate some sort of All Hallow's Eve theme into the day's lesson, fearful of the sure-to-be-disappointed students. To our surprise, the Korean teachers had made a spur of the moment decision to give into popular demand and as we were planning our lessons, they arrived with several cases of snacks and drinks. They proceeded to lead the younger students in mask-making activities. Some Halloween decorations were hurriedly placed around the entryway and soon it became clear that no actual learning would get done that day. Although it was all fun and games for the students, it was a bit more frustrating and exhausting for the unsuspecting and unprepared wayguk teachers (gotta love those healthy lines of communication between us and the Korean teachers!). Never has work seemed more like glorified baby-sitting, and never have I seen the classrooms so trashed. At least the kids had fun. Jessica has a great picture from the day on her Flickr site, just follow the link to take a peek.
Finally, fall has officially arrived in Ulsan, and its arrival was quite sudden. One week, we were still wearing T-shirts and sweating it out in the hazy air, and then we woke up on Monday morning to temperatures in the mid-40s (Fahrenheit) and colorful foliage. I'll end this post with a picture of the changing leaves Munsu-san taken from my balcony:
posted by TSF in Ulsan | 8:54 AM
1 Comments:
a pic from your balcony is awesome. do you like up that much high place?
from ulsan citizen
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