Buddha's Birthday Spent in Taiwan

**A little update to the Gorge section.  The other night when I was typing there was an error on the website so the section about the gorge got deleted and I didn't notice!**


This past weekend Emily and I traveled to Taiwan for a 3 day weekend.  It was Buddha's birthday so everyone in Korea and probably most of Asia had a long weekend.  We searched for awhile in the weeks coming up to this weekend in hopes to go to Beijing or Shanghai.  We were unable to find decent flights to either spot.  In most situations the flight times were horrible.  In others, we were given the idea that very cheap plane tickets were available, but when we went to put our credit card/travel info in we were told that the flights were full.  That's okay with me though.  To go to China we have to pay about $130 on top of the plane flights for a visa (no visa for Taiwan). We plan to go to China at the end of the year here in Korea so paying for the visa will be worth it because we will have more time to spend there.

We boarded a 9:30 a.m. flight on Friday and arrived in Taiwan at about 12 p.m.  By the time we got from the airport to our hostel it was around 3 p.m.  It took us forever to find the hostel.  The directions given to us were anything but good.  Luckily after wandering around for over 30 minutes a nice Taiwanese couple stopped to help us.  They had seen us walking around a little bit before that too.  They spoke perfect English as they have lived in  North Carolina for a few years for school or work.  The hostel we stayed at was very nice.  It was quite cheap and in a good location.  The website we booked through had nothing but good comments to say about it.  The owner of the hostel was very nice.  Her English was also very good.  She kept the hostel in perfect condition.  The hostel was in the middle of a night market in Taipei.  It was pretty cool to walk through the night market as we made our way home the last night.

After getting to the hostel and taking a quick breather we got headed on our adventure.  Nearly everywhere we went in Taipei we took the subway.  Seoul's subway system is very easy and I thought Taipei's was easier.  All the stops were said in English and it was a fairly small subway system so it was not hard to find our way around.  First, we stopped by the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.  This was a massive building with a statue of the late president, Chiang Kai-shek.  Inside this room there are guards who are always watching over the statue.  Once an hour there is a ceremony called "changing of the guards."  Not remembering this, we arrived just as the ceremony had started.  It is kind of hard to explain what they did. In simple form they changed guards, but it was more complex the way they did it.  I took a video of it but I don't think this blog can support videos.  But here are a few pictures of it.  

Street just outside our hostel

In front of the CKS Memorial Hall

During the changing of the guards ceremony

On the other end of the plaza where the CKS Memorial is

After we left the CKS Memorial we headed in search of a hot spring to sit in.  We went to an area known for them.  Since it's not hot spring season right now we wanted to get a deal.  We saw a few places for about $20-30 per person but finally stopped by a place that said $10.  It was actually $10 for the both of us.  Needless to say, it was probably equal to the $10 we paid! A lot of the springs are outside but this was inside a room that looked like a converted storage closet.  It wasn't the best place we could have found I'm sure but it was still fun to give it a try.  Later in the night we walked through Taipei's largest night market.  This market had tons of street food vendors and clothing shops.  I think the night market in Bangkok was much better but it was still cool to walk around it.  We tried some of the Taiwanese street foods out.  It was all very good food.  


The next morning we woke up very early, 5 a.m. to get picked up around 5:45 at a nearby hotel.  Our tour was headed to Taroko Gorge, which is in Hualien, Taiwan.  It is located on the eastern cost of Taiwan.  Our tour hopped on a plane about 7:30 in the morning for a short 30 minute flight down to this city.  There, we met our tour guide.  She was a very nice lady who spoke English well.  We were warned by the bus driver to the airport that once she started talking she wasn't going to stop until we left!  He was sure right.  She was born and raised in the city near the gorge so she was very knowledgeable about the gorge.  She was a great guide to have.  We took a bus tour through the gorge.  At some points the bus stopped and we walked around for a bit to explore the area.  The gorge was amazing looking.  Sharp cliffs on both sides with such blue water flowing on the bottom.  


One area of the gorge was accustomed to rock falls so we had to wear hardhats.  I put a picture down below of how goofy I looked wearing the hat.  Since Taiwan is frequented by earthquakes some areas of the gorge were closed to visitors.  There was a section were a group of construction workers were fixing something.  They were nearly hanging off of the edge.  Looked pretty darn scary to me.  There were a few temples inside the gorge park.  One that we drove by had the largest Buddha statue in Taiwan and it was made from gold.  Before we stopped for lunch a little bit higher up on the mountain we had the chance to walk across a suspension bridge (picture below).  Before going on this trip I figured that everyone would be forced to walk across one as a means of getting to the next part of the tour.  It was hard to tell because not too much information was given to us about what we would do.  Luckily we didn't have to walk across if it we didn't want to.  Knowing my fear of heights I attempted to walk across.  I got maybe 1/4 of the way across and then the bridge started to bounce from the other people who were farther ahead of me.  I said, "No thank you," among other words and turned back around! I think that if it was just me and 1 or 2 other people I could have made it across, but with 8 other people on the bridge it was moving too much for me.  


After the bridge we went to lunch at a small resort higher up on the mountain.  This place served us traditional Taiwanese food.  It was delicious. the food consisted of fried fish, some vegetables, a pork stew, mashed potatoes (Taiwanese style), and a bamboo stick that was full of rice.  The bamboo stick was the best part.  We cracked the stick open and ate the rice straight from the stick.  It tasted like oatmeal!  It was probably the best rice I have had since being in Asia.  On our way back down to the bottom of the gorge we stopped by a memorial shrine for the workers of the gorge.  A long time ago when construction first started the workers had to create all the winding roads and tunnels.  Many people died during this time so there was a shrine set up for them.  I took a few pictures of that below.  Overall the trip to the gorge was an awesome time.  The weather was perfect, our group was full of nice people, and our tour guide was fantastic.  I definitely recommend this trip to anybody thinking of going to Taiwan someday!

The trip to the gorge was from roughly 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.  We took a train back into Taipei after leaving the gorge.  It was the first real train I have been on!  We then attempted to go to Taipei 101, the world's 2nd tallest building.  We didn't get there until about 9 p.m.  The line was MASSIVE and the lady selling tickets said it would take about an hour to wait and that the place closed at 10.  Also, they were pretty much sending people up to the top and right back down to get more people in and out before it closed.  I only considered going to the top of the building at night, and I would not have minded if the elevator doors opened, I peeked my head out, and then went back down!  I'm sure my fear of heights would have not fared so well.  But, we didn't feel like waiting in such a long line because we were hungry and hadn't eaten in awhile.  I know Emily wanted to go to the top and I was hoping that I would at least attempt to get to the top just to say that I went to the world's 2nd tallest building and that I may have slightly reduced my fear of heights.  Oh well, there's plenty of other tall buildings out there.   

An entrance to the gorge

Picture of the bottom of the gorge

Hardhat time! I looked like a total goon.  But then again, who didnt?

Temple type building inside the gorge

Suspension bridge

Traditional Taiwanese lunch

The memorial to all those who died constructing the roads and tunnels throughout the gorge.  

Taipei 101 from a street bridge

On Sunday before leaving we went to a historical museum.  The museum was pretty cool.  It was full of ancient Chinese artifacts.  While there we ran into my Korean partner teacher!  Earlier in the week we both found out that the other was going to Taiwan for the weekend.  She was there with her husband.  We were doing a lot of the same stuff but with the couple million people in this city I didn't expect to run into her.  It was fun to see somebody we knew!  Over all the trip was a blast.  It would have been nice to spend more time in Taiwan so we wouldn't have to feel crunched for time.  It would definitely be fun to go back again!

Night market

Chicken feet, hearts, probably other random parts too.  Yummy!

Front of the national palace museum

Spring Activities

I have turned into a bad blogger over the last few months.  My blogging entries are starting to grow farther and farther apart!  About a month ago the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.  Not knowing anything about these trees besides seeing them all over Seoul, a group of us went to the cherry blossom festival in Yeouido (right across the river from me). This area is the financial district of Seoul.  The streets around this area were lined with many cherry blossom trees.  Apparently these trees are only in full bloom for 1-2 weeks each year. I think this year they were a few weeks behind schedule because it took a little longer to warm up.  We went to the festival/park on a lazy Sunday afternoon and hung around the area for a few hours.  This area was FULL of people.  Well, most places here are so it was nothing new to me! We walked around for a bit, tried some really good street food, and camped out in the park for a bit and people watched. 

Me taking a picture of a Korean couple!

A weird police woman thing?

Over the past two months my kindergarten class has adapted well to the new school. Everyone in my class was new to Poly School.  They all attended Pre-K somewhere else.  It was nice to have a brand new class to the school.  This is mainly because they haven't had a previous teacher at the school.  When I came in September my kinder class already had their own collective character.  Crazy, wild, yet very smart.  I feel that I didn't change much for my previous kinder class because they had another teacher for the longest time.  Everything we were "learning" they already knew very well.

The students in my new class (the tigers) have all grown a lot in the past few months. They are wild at times but nothing compared to the craziness of my old class.  I've got children of all ability levels.  I will end up being with my new kinder class for 6 months.  It has been very gratifying to teach these new students because I feel that I am teaching them so much more than my previous class.   They have done a great job so far and I'm excited to see the progress that they will continue to make!

We have gone on a couple field trips in April and May.  We have gone to two different parks.  The last one we went to was to celebrate Children's Day.  This is a special day to celebrate the children.  How come this isn't celebrated in America?? Children's Day was last Wednesday.  Nearly everyone in the country has the day off to celebrate with their children, take them somewhere, buy them gifts, etc.   We celebrated with the children last Tuesday by taking them to a park across the river from where I live (Mapo). While there we rode bicycles with the kids, played games, and ate lunch.  It was a great way to spend the morning. 

Lunch time

Throwin' up the peace sign (from L to R: Justin, Henry, Angelina, Julie, Ryan)

With the weather finally warming up we have started to go to some Korean baseball games.  Since I got here in September last year I wasn't able to go to any games because it was around the time the playoffs started.  I'm only able to go to games on the weekends because games during the week start at 6:30 and I don't get off until 7:30.  The Korean Baseball League (KBO) has 8 teams.  5 out of the 8 teams are in Seoul and the other 3 are in other major cities.  We have been going to Mokdong Stadium (Emily and her co-workers live very close) to watch the Nexen Heroes.  The team has a man from the USA.  His Name is Doug Clark.  He played in a few games in the MLB and spent a lot of time in the minors before deciding to come play in Korea two years ago.  So far we have been to two games and plan on going to many more.  The games are a ton of fun.  The stadium is nearly split in half with the home team fans all sitting on their site and the visiting teams fans' on their side.  Both sides sing songs through out the game and there are cheerleaders on top of the dugouts.  You can also bring in WHATEVER you want into the stadium.  Water, pop, beer, fried chicken, you name it and you can bring it in!  Needless to say the games are quite different from what you would experience in America, but they are a lot of fun.  When we went to the game last weekend Emily got a foul ball coincidently enough from the American player on the team we were rooting for!  It's quite funny to think about considering the odds of that are pretty slim.  I see many more games in the future since the weather has gotten much nicer recently.  

Finally, this past weekend I woke up and turned on the TV.  Flipping through channels I saw that there was a triathlon on.  I didn't know if it was live or not so I looked it up on the internet.  It was going on live just across the river from where I live. The tri was a men's and women's professional race.  Seoul was just one of the stops of about 10 international cities in the circuit.  I have heard/seen a few of the American athletes from the Hy-Vee Triathlon.  Seeing that it was live I headed 1 subway stop away and watched the men's race for a few hours.  It was a very nice day outside and a good chance to see something I have become interested in.  

Start of the race (in the dirty Han River!)

Bikers leaving the first transition

background

Meet the Tigers!

Last Tuesday was the first day of the new year in Korean schools.  Sadly I was not there for the first day due to being on Gilligan's Island for an extra day.  We were assigned all new elementary classes and grades.  Some kids I taught last semester and some are new for me.  I'm not teaching any of the Hummingbirds in first grade because 8 of the 10 made it into the top first grade class (RS1-1). One is in RS1-2 and one is moving to Hong Kong in April so she is just waiting until then to go back to English school.  I'm teaching the RS1-3 and 4 classes for first grade.  I will still see my kids running through the halls being crazy like always!

The kindergarten class I have no is new to Poly.  Usually the kids from from the Pre-K program at the school.  I'm kind of happy that the kids are new.  I will have more of a chance to mold them into the types of students I want them to be, how they should act in class, etc.  When I came my kindergarten class was already transformed well so I wasn't able to change much.  It'll be nice to be able to help the students more and watch them grow as a result.  Without further ado here is my new kindergarten class!

Frank

 Ashley

Jasmine

Julie

Angelina.  She tried her hardest not to enjoy the picture!

June

Henry

Justin

Ryan

Stella

Lucy

Vicky

Kindergarten graduation

The day we left for the 3 day weekend trip to Geomundo Island we had kindergarten graduation.  This was a day that the kindergartens had been preparing for since last February.  The ceremony was held nearby our school in a little convention type room.  The room was much smaller than I had pictured it to be.  My school is quite small and we only had about 40 kindergarten students graduation, while Emily's school had about 100.  For the ceremony each student had to prepare a speech.  That seems crazy especially since they are only in kindergarten!  Not one kid messed up or cried.  They all went through like little robots.  They had been practicing the speeches for about one month previous to the ceremony.  Knowing how smart the kids are itOf c didn't surprise me how well they did.  Along with the children all the teachers had to give speeches.  I was a little nervous but the speech went well.  After the kids gave their speeches and got the diplomas they sang a song.  It was titled, "It's a wonderful life."  Of course they had that song memorized too.  It was funny to see how hardcore the parents were about taking pictures.  There were parents running right and left taking pictures from every angle possible.  All the kindergarten students did a great job this year. It was nice for them to be recognized for all the hard work they put in.  Here are some pictures from the graduation.

The Hummingbirds, minus Christine.  She was on vacation instead!

Daniel must have gone to a pre-graduation party

Andrew, Ben, Daniel

Ashley giving her speech.  All the kids stood here in the spotlight.

Andrew

Geomundo Island

Last Monday was the Korean Independence Day from Japan.  Emily and I decided to take a little weekend vacation to an island off the southern tip of Korea.  We booked the trip through a travel/tour group called Adventure Korea.  This is the same company that took us to the DMZ back in the fall.  We left Seoul about 12 a.m. on a charter bus and slowly made our way down south to the ocean.  The bus trip was around 6 hours.  We got to the ferry at 6 a.m. Saturday morning.  The ferry ride took us to Geomundo Island, which was 2 hours off the coast of Korea.  

After getting to the island bright and early on Saturday we had a few hours to do whatever, so we took a nap!  Since we were on the bus for 6 hours and we left at midnight I hardly slept.  I've never slept well on planes or buses.  We stayed at a little hotel run by an older lady.  Emily had stayed at places like this before.  I was shocked to see that we didn't have beds!  We each got a thick pad, a blanket, and a pillow to use.  I didn't take a picture of it but I should have.  The "bed" was more comfortable than I had imagined it would be.  

The first thing we did on the island was take a walk up a hill to see a few graves of British soldiers.  The British Navy had once been in this part of Korea to protect against the Russians.  The top of the hill had a great view of the ocean.  The rest of Saturday we hung around the island.  We walked around a bit to check things out.  It wasn't the nicest day so we were saving the big hike for Sunday.  While at the island we had most of our meals at the same little family restaurant.  The owners served us various traditional Korean dishes. It was the type of restaurant were you sit on the floor a little butt pads.  Those restaurants are always hard on my legs since they are so long!  

Sunday was a very nice day.  We went on a hike that took about 4 hours.  At the beginning of the hike we went what felt like straight up for 15 minutes.  Then, we began to walk along the side of the mountain which overlooked the coast.  Knowing my fear of heights I made sure to stay along the side of the trail that had the trees and bushes.  There were a few parts of the hike that scared me but I made it through with no problems. The goal of the hike was to make it to a lighthouse that was off in the distance.  We finally made it there after a couple of hours.  The views from the mountain were awesome.  I was able to take many good pictures.  The ocean water was almost teal in color, it looked pretty cool.  Thankfully it was such a nice day on Sunday for the hike.  We were supposed to take the hike on Saturday but it was colder and it rained a little.  

Now for the fun part.  We were supposed to leave Monday morning and return to Seoul around 9-10 p.m.  We woke up Monday morning and the wind was howling.  It wasn't raining at the time but it had rained before we woke up.  The island is very small and only 2 ferries leave each day back to the mainland.  It was so windy that the 10 a.m. ferry was cancelled because the ocean conditions were horrible.  We waited around in the little coffee shop and PC bong (rooms where Korean's go to play computer games) and messed around on the internet, waiting for any new news.  As 2 p.m. rolled around the decision was made that we could not take ferry AGAIN because it was still bad out on the ocean.  As much fun as it would be to stay there another day it put everyone in a bad situation.  The tour group had 45 people in it.  Everyone in the group was a teacher!  Needless to say we weren't able to leave the island until Tuesday morning, which was the first day of the new school year at my school and most all Korean schools.  I felt really bad that I wasn't able to be there to meet my new kindergarten class.  I had contacted my AC (academic coordinator) and director the minute we found out on Monday that we couldn't go back.  Although we are already short staffed because 2 people finished their contracts at the end of last week, they seemed to take the news well that I would not be there for the first day.  Obviously there was nothing I could do about it since it was just bad luck because of the weather.  All in all it was a good weekend trip even though it lasted longer than it was supposed to! Emily and I had the chance to watch many movies on TV Monday since it was windy and rainy and there was nothing else to do on the tiny island!  We met a bunch of cool people on the trip.  Also, everyone we met on the island was very kind and accommodating.  It was a great way to spend the weekend.    Note to self: It's probably not a good idea to visit an island when all you have is a 3 day weekend.  Maybe next time I'll stay on the Korean mainland!

 Ships in the tiny harbor  

View of the ocean from the British grave sites

Elementary school 

Memorial to the British soldiers that died here

As you can see taking pictures felt like being part of the paparazzi.  This is Baekdo Islands.  It was a chain of about 40 islands.  It took our boat about 40 minutes to get there from Geomundo Island on Sunday morning.

Emily and part of the Baekdo Islands

The town we stayed at.  This was taken while on the hike on Sunday.

Emily and I at one of the rest spots while on the hike

The very edge of the mountain

The lighthouse that we hiked to

The main road on the little island we stayed on