Corey and Emily in Korea: a Hike, a BBQ, a Museum

Corey has already posted the photos on facebook, but I'm going to write about the activities we partook in this week.

Wednesday was Labor Day so Corey and I had the day off according to our contracts. The other teachers at my school still had a normal work day supervising students who were writing their midterm. Corey's principal gave his school a day off and invited the staff to go on a hiking trip to Cheonggyesan, a mountain near Seoul.

We met up with two of Corey's co-teachers in Incheon and took a bus to meet another ten teachers at the mountain. It was my first time meeting most of the teachers from Corey's school, but they were all very welcoming. We began our climb soon after introductions, taking many rests to drink water and enjoy the beautiful view. Since it was a holiday and the weather was beautiful, there were a lot of other hikers on the trail.

busy hiking trail

Corey and the Sunhwa staff team

Corey and the mountain view

I wonder who had the job of numbering the steps?

At one point, our group left the trail a little bit to find a quiet spot to set up a picnic. All the teachers unpacked their kimbap and Corey and I opened our tupperware containing peanut butter sanwiches. Everyone was sharing their kimbap, trying one another's culinary creations and they shared with Corey and me too. We offered some of our peanut butter sandwiches but they were politely declined by all. It was funny to find out that our peanut butter sandwiches were the "weird foreign food" at the picnic.

pretty view

picnic time

After a few hours of hiking, we were back at the bottom of the mountain and everyone was hungry again. We stopped at a restaurant and had many Korean dishes including tofu, kimchi, vegetables, more kimbap, and cucumbers. It was very refreshing food after a long hike. Many of the teachers, including Corey, also drank several toasts with meokkoli (Korean rice wine) but I stuck to powerade. Once everyone had their fill of food and drink, we headed back to Incheon.

On the way down the path

On Friday, the fun continued at Corey's school. His co-teachers told him there was going to be a barbecue and they invited me to come too. When we heard barbecue, we automatically pictured hamburgers and hotdogs on a grill being doled out to students. When we got outside, we saw students sitting in groups, each with their own grill, cooking an endless supply of sausages, samgyeopsal (Korean bacon), kimchi, and rice. That's when Corey and I looked at each other with an expression that said, "Oh yeah, we're in Korea!"

BBQ

We joined a group and watched as the students expertly cooked all the raw things that were brought over to them by teachers and parents. The students held bits of meat out for us on the end of their chopsticks and said "eat". Then they'd feed us various things that they had cooked. I thought maybe they weren't sure if we could handle taking the meat off the grill with our chopsticks, but then I saw they were also spoon feeding the other teachers and their friends too. I was a little nervous because the students started tricking each other into eating spicy peppers by hiding them in the middle of spoonfuls of rice and meat. These peppers were so spicy that even the Koreans were crying when they bit into them, but then of course they'd be dared to eat another one and they'd do it all over again. Luckily, I avoided the spicy stuff.

Cooking some samgyeopsal

After a great week, we had an exciting weekend to look forward to as well. Corey's co-teacher invited us to meet her and her friend at the National Museum in Seoul. We had a delicious lunch at the museum cafe and then took a two hour guided tour (in English) of the museum. It did not feel like two hours. Our tour guide, Agnes, made it a great learning experience and we were hanging on her every word about Korean history and culture. She was obviously very proud of her Korean heritage and it was nice of her to share her passion with us.

Corey and Teacher Shin in front of the ten-story pagoda

Corey and me

We saw a lot of beautiful pottery and a room filled with Buddha statues, a model of a traditional Korean house, and many more artifacts that each had their own story. I thought it was really thoughtful of Corey's co-teacher to take us to the museum for the English guided tour because I probably wouldn't have thought of the possibility of even having a tour in English, never mind figuring out the limited times at which this special tour is offered.

Pottery

Iron Buddha

Once we finished the tour, we strolled around the grounds outside the museum, took some photographs of the pretty spring blooms, and then sat and talked for a little while. After some time passed we said goodbye and Corey and I headed to Itaewon. We went to the bookstore and I got a children's book that I want to work on with some of my lower level students. Then we ate at our favourite falafel place and called it a day.