I Would Have Missed It...

When I'm traveling I always want the window seat. I can sleep anywhere but rarely do I sleep in cars, buses or trains.

One reason I love to travel is because I want to see everything. The main attractions, the back roads, the big cities, the small farms, the good, the bad and the ugly. I never want to sleep when traveling because I feel like I'll miss something. That as soon as my eyes are closed, something breathtaking will slip by me and an opportunity to see something amazing will be lost forever. Rarely has this ever really been the case.

Until Korea.

It was March or April of this year and I was going to Gyeongju (about 45 min from my town) to visit Lindsey and Jeff. I had only been on the train a few minutes and was in my comfy window seat position: ipod on, seat reclined, foot rest up (Korean trains are incredibly comfortable) and elbow against the window, bracing my head as I stared aimlessly at the passing scenery, which was finally starting to change from brown to green. Then, out of no where, I saw it. Just for a second. A giant golden Buddha statue, towering over the tree tops, sparkled in the spring light like a giant golden beacon. Then just as quickly as I saw it, it disappeared.

What the??? What was that? Where are we?


I think we are still close to my town! I could have missed it!!!!


For months and months I've been meaning to find that temple. Not really knowing what to search for, I finally googled: Giant golden Buddha Yeongcheon and an article about "Manbulsa" came up. I searched for Manbulsa and found their website. A few weeks ago I finally made it to this temple. (It only took me until December!) Warwick came with me.

We went in the late afternoon so by the time we made it to the top of the hill, where the Amitabha Buddha or Big Buddha was, the sun was setting on him in the most beautiful way. The Amitabha is over 30 meters tall which is almost 10 stories high! Even in the pictures it loses its enormity since the scale is lost unless you are standing directly under it.

Me in front of Amitabha Buddha. The scale is somewhat lost in this picture. When next to it, I am

shorter than the stone wall in the background!!!!

Inside the main temple

Nirvana Buddha

Warwick getting some sunset pictures

the graveyard and tombstones at the temple

A Rose By Any Other Name...

Yesterday, Kim Dong-Uk informed me that our last day of school is 3 weeks away. While I couldn't be more thrilled, I am starting to get sentimental. I'm actually going to really miss these kids.

As I looked around my classrooms today I saw so many familiar little faces... but very few familiar names!

With 45% of Koreans having the last name of "Kim" "Lee" or "Park", and just about every kid has "Min, Ming, or Yeong" somewhere in their name. So, trying to remember 800 little Kim Yeong-Su, Park Min-Jung, Lee Ming-Na, Kim Min-Ju, Park Yeong-Jin, Park Min-Na, Lee Yeong-Ju, and every other possible combination was clearly impossible from day one.

My elementary school students never made English names of their own and even if they had, with 800 different kids a week, I'd still hardly recognize most of them.

 

There are a select handful of students that stand out, for various reasons, and I took it upon myself to give them nicknames... though, only in my head. Here are a few of my favorites:

Lollipop 1 and 2: See previous post.

CLICK HERE

Pringles: She fed me Pringles and chocolate for an entire hour on the way to our field trip in April. Girl sure knows how to win the teacher's affection!

Jazz Hands: Flamboyant chubby kid who loves to sing and is the only one to ever volunteer to act anything out. I love him.

Sunshine & Kirsten: Sunshine purely because she is one of those kids that lights up your day and Kirsten, for no reason in particular, she reminds me 

of a cousin of mine.

Jesus: Probably one of the top 5 most annoying kids

on the planet. Every time I'm around him all that goes through my head is "Jesus.... kill me now!!!" This kid has the uncanny ability to yell "Teacher teacher teacher teacher" for 40 minutes straight while jumping in his chair, crawling under desks, or running in circles. And he just happens to be the smartest kid I teach. He also lives in my building and recites my address in English every time I pass by him... weirdo.

Pixie: She's half the weight and a head shorter than

 every other student her age, so is her little sister. She has the squeakiest little voice and she is absolutely beautiful.  She looks like she belongs in a fairy tale. 

Shit for brains: This name has nothing to do with his intelligence but rather this incident: 

CLICK HERE

Ms. President: Every kid in her class had their picture on the wall and under it was written what they want to be when they grow up. All the girls said "I want to be a Pop-star or mother." All the boys said, "I want to be a Pop-star or Soccer player"... except for her. She said, "I WILL be President."

We Represent...

So, there are two little boys in one of my fourth grade classes that I've affectionately nicknamed, "the lollipop guild" though no real resemblance to the Wizard of Oz characters.

They get their nickname from their overall appearance. They look like two little lollipops. Enormous heads, plus a bushel of thick back hair, on little bodies that are no more than 1/2 the width of those domes of theirs. And they are both about a foot shorter than any other student in class.

If that was it I would just call them lollipops. But they come as a team, hence the guild. They are attached at the hip. Always together. Actually, a little too together. Always sitting on each others laps, giving each other back rubs, they sit next to each other and usually have their arms around each other as they work, and sometimes they are practically dry humping each other.

Seeing these two boys interact each week has made me aware of and intensely frustrated by part of my American heritage and culture that apparently has been ingrained into my psyche:

I immediately think these boys are gay.

But, they don't have "gay" here in Korea.

I remember the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, once saying they don't have gay people in Iran. I remember thinking, "what a jackass". Well Korea is also one of those "there are no gay people here" countries. At first I was immensely annoyed by the blatant disregard and omittance of gay individuals here. Though, now, my feelings toward their head-in-the-sand approach to homosexuality has changed somewhat.

When I was teaching at an all boys middle school I very quickly noticed, on the very first day, that the boys were incredibly affectionate with each other. Though, they were also constantly punching, kicking, tackling each other, I'd also see them resting their heads on a friends shoulder if they were tired, arms wrapped around each other to brace themselves on the bus, and rubbing a friends shoulders after judo class. It didn't take long to realize that even though this "no gays in Korea" mentality has a plethora of negative consequences, there was one very good outcome: No homophobia. None.

In America, we make concrete gender lines from birth. Actually, we make them pre-natal. You are born as a pink or a blue. Little boys wear blue clothes and play with trucks and guns. If a boy puts on something pink, or god forbid, picks up a doll, he is immediately stamped as "gay". Fathers try their damnedest to prevent anyone from thinking their boy might grow up to be gay and will try to make them Über masculine. "Boys don't cry" "don't be a sissy" "Shake it off" etc is pummeled into little boy brains.  Toddlers that can barely string together a cohesive sentence know what is culturally acceptable based on their gender. Go to a 3 year-old's birthday party and give out pink and blue party favors, if the only favor left is a pink one, do you think that little boy isn't going to break down in tears???

I'm about as for gay rights as they come. I don't care what your sexuality is and honestly I don't want to hear about your sex life no matter what your preference, whether you're gay, straight, bi, transsexual, a-sexual, or into extra-terrestrials. I don't care.

Now that I've been here 9 months I think back to when I got here and how I thought Korea really needed to reevaluate it's attitude towards homosexuality. Now I'm starting to think that it's me, and my entire American culture, who needs to reevaluate the thinking process behind what is actually normal affectionate human interaction...  though, seriously kid, stop dry humping your friend's leg!