New Picture page

I've made us a new picture page as Sam's will expire at some point. This one also loads quite a bit faster. So, to see all of the pictures of our shinanigans that are not featured on this blog you can visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/alison.hughey

Also, we've had a bit of a blog explosion recently. So, make sure you scroll all the way down to catch up on our lives, which have been busier than normal recently. You could also, you know, leave a comment so that we don't feel so lonely :)

The project I have been working on for the last two weeks.

Part 1

Part 2

Best Day in Korea So Far

and it might not be topped either.

Wow!!! Today was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience. The Olympic torch was in Seoul today. You have probably heard of protests in other cities along the relays route, but South Korea has its own beef with China other than the Tibet issue.

A brief lesson: It is illegal to leave North Korea without government permission, therefore if you leave you are committing an act of treason. If you are from North Korea and you seek refuge in China, and are caught, you are sent back to Korea to face disciplinary action, which in some cases is execution. In addition to those refugees from the north that are living in Seoul many South Koreans have relatives that are still there, and others are just sympathetic to the cause. There are also many other foreign human rights activists in Korea that are upset about China's treatment of North Korean refugees. The South Korean government's view is that politics should not have anything do with the Olympics or the torch relay.

So, here is what we have, probably 1000 human rights activists(both fighting for Tibet's freedom and those in support of the North Korean refugees, mostly scattered along the route with signs, but many protesting in a group across the street from the starting point of the relay, about 5,000 Chinese supporters, mostly Chinese students studying in Korea, and the government (who wants a smooth relay) in the form of 8,300 police and riot officers on hand along the route (2,500 of which were at the starting point). So, of course we were there, the starting point is literally 2 blocks (about a 4 minute walk) from our apartment.

The wide opening you see through the middle is the barricaded path about 3 meters wide, and out side the barricades was another 5 meters of empty space on each side being guarded by police. We were positioned just a bit above blue bus in the bottom right hand corner. (AP Photo)

You could feel the electricity in the air as you walked through the crowds and it was a surreal experience to see our normally peaceful, if busy, neighborhood transformed into what seemed like a battle zone in just a matter of hours. We made it to the front of the police barricade nearest the torch route through the park. Seriously, the very front... notice the policeman we are pressed up against. It was amazing how many people we ran into in the crowd, here's Lindsey and I, and we also several groups from other campuses that we met yesterday.

On the Peace Gate side of the street the Chinese students did not tolerate any hint of an adverse opinion... like this guy, who was definitely shoved around a bit, even though his sign's message isn't technically pointing any fingers.

Our view as the torch passed by. It's directly to the left of the woman in the tan coat's head and disappointingly small.

After the torch left the police let down their guard and about 500 Chinese supporters rushed across the street to go chant and yell at the human rights activists, whose protest was largely blocked from view by the police buses set up along the curb in front of our coffee shop. We stayed safely across the street:

But this AP photo shows what was going on in the crowd. The riot police had everything under control in a matter of minutes, but we could see a few bottles, flag sticks, and rocks being thrown through the air.

An activist and a chinese supporter, in front of our coffee shop. (AP Photo)

Human rights activists. We have seen this group out on numerous occasions. (AP Photo)

Obviously having this entire even take place so close to our house and being in the midst of it forced me to think about both sides of the issue in a way I probably wouldn't have before. The sign below echoes the sentiments of the Olympic organizers in South Korea "Go Olympics. No Politics." but that statement isn't entirely accurate.

The first Olympic torch relay was for the 1936 Berlin games, and the path of the torch was planned carefully by the burgeoning Nazi government to promote itself. Now, I am in no way directly comparing China to Nazi Germany. However, the route of this Olympic torch does seem to be designed to tout China's increasing power in the global community. And the torch is going through North Korea next, something that hasn't happened in a long long time. Then there's the business with taking the torch to the top of Everest (in Tibet), something that's happened... never. So, politics are a part of this event whether anyone wants them to be or not. Is this right? Who knows. I appreciate the Olympics as a time when countries can come together in a positive way. I also think that, like just about everything else in the world, it's been way over-commericalized. I'm also still not sure what I think about the Chinese government in general. Being at the relay, though, provided much food for thought. (Alison)

As things started to die down we decided that we wanted to get some lunch. So we met up with one of our co-workers who was somewhere else amongst the crowd, and we brought along Martin, our new Irish friend that Jordan met while waiting for the torch. After lunch we charged our cameras and headed for City Hall, where the torch would end up 4.5 hours after it left the Peace Gate around 2:30 pm. The scene there was much more cheerful, less tense.

In this video you will see many things.   The men in police uniforms are obviously police.  The men in blue jumpsuits are also police, they ran down both sides of the street, I'm not sure if they were there the whole way.  The men in the middle in yellow are basically surrounding the torch  bearer, there had to be three dozen or so of them.  You will then see the last torch handoff before the torch entered Seoul Plaza, which was filled with about 5000 people or so.

You will here lots of chanting, they are yelling "China" in english and chinese.

Jordan, Lizzy and I(Sam) then went to this stream that runs through the middle of the city.  The story is that this area used to be a sewage dump, then they just paved it over, and it was just this concrete area in the middle of the city.  Then about a decade or so the current president of South Korea(who was then the mayor of Seoul) decided to make this beautiful stream.  Right now it is decorated for Buddha's birthday, which is in two weeks.  Along the way we passed traditional korean percussion group.  It was cool and you could tap your toe to it.  But we continued moving, but then witnessed a very fun sight when we were walking back on the other side of the stream.

Brief korean culture lesson:

Korean's have addictive personality, they smoke and drink constantly.  That said, its not uncommon to see tipsy or just flat out drunk people, mostly men anywhere you go.  Also, an ajjuma is a middle to older aged women.

So when we came back by, this group of couples decided to break it down and dance to the music.  It was quite a sight.  The ajjumas were dancing and the old men were dancing.   Then three foreign guys about our age decided to join in.  They joined hands with the ajjuma and danced with them.  The video is very dark, but you might be able to see.

We then went to Bennigan's for dinner.  It's funny, the menu was a bit different.  Bennigan's and Outback are considered higher end restaurants here in Korea, and the menu reflects that.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Rooftop BBQ and a Noreabang

It's been a pretty long day, and I don't have too much excitement to bring to the table, but it has been almost a week since the last blog! We now have internet in our apartments, so communication should pick up significantly.

Today we had our teacher workshop. The first half of the day was presentations by all of the different campuses, and then we had "team building" activities... for five hours. It was exauhsting and hilarious all at the same time. These were not your typical team building type of games... instead it was a giant competition involving multiple rounds of karoke, team jump rope, a blow-up obstacle course, balloons, etc. It was very... Korean is really all I can say. All in all, not a bad time, and we got a pretty good dinner and were home much earlier than expected, definite bonus!

At school this week we were also treated to a rooftop bbq. The food was delicious and it was fun to hang out after work. The pictures aren't great as it was, well, dark outside, but here you can get the general gist. It was quite a spread.

Kendra and Abby model the popular method of eating anything and everything at our office... with chopsticks out of a dixie cup.

The view from the roof. The Good Office is somewhere out there, and yes, that's Bennigan's next door.
It just wouldn't be a work party without "second place" so we decided to head to our local noreabang. Noreabangs are amazing. Seriously. It's karaoke without the embarassement, because it is only you and your friends in a private room. You get a couple of mics, a couple of tambourines and a pretty decent selection of English songs. Type in your selections and lights automatically go down and the music comes on...

For some reason the screens that display the lyrics also display ridiculous nature scenes. Sometime's it's flowers, occasionally a monkey will pop up, sometimes you're on the beach, but it's never actually connected to what's going on in the song.

Here are Abby and I rocking out. We did an amazing rendition of House of Pain's "Jump Around"... with tulips in the background. Is it just me or do I look mildly creepy in this picture? Oh well, it was another fun night out! And dear America, please have noraebangs by the time we get back!

Changdeokgung and Insadong

Well, we finally did it. We made it out of our apartments! We decided to take advantage of the sunny day by visiting a palace and then strolling around Insadong for awhile. We went to Changdeok Palace ("gung" means palace) which is a huge complex of buildings and gardens.


All of the eves are brightly painted and so pretty to see. The different colors all have a meaning, but I can't remember now what those meanings are.




This is the part of the palace that the last of the royal family lived in until 1989. The palace has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Construction first began on the palace in 1405 and the Japanese burned most of it down in 1592. Things have always been tense between Korea and Japan and it seems that there is not a single building that has not been destroyed and rebuilt because of conflicts between the two.


These flowers are blooming all over the city and they are gorgeous! There were huge bushes of them on the palace grounds. Thanks, Jordan, for the picture! It proves that Sam and I are actually in South Korea together :)



Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and spoke great English.



Unfortunately, all of the ponds had been drained for cleaning, but the "Secret Garden" or "Forbidden Garden" was still gorgeous. It was fun to imagine what it must have been like hundreds of years ago with kings and queens strolling around.


After the palace, we decided to walk around Insadong. Insadong is a bit of a tourist trap, but its a fun place where both older Korean traditions and the present are on display everywhere you look. Here, a woman makes traditional tteok cakes.



Here, a man dressed as some sort of animal sells balloons.


We also stopped at "The Old Teashop" for some cold tea. I had quince tea, a favorite of the Joseon Dynasty royalty. It was delicious. My guidebook had promised birds would be flying around the shop, but alas, we only saw a few in a cage.

After the tea we happened upon the Knife Gallery, where Sam and Jordan had a great (nerdy) time viewing the Lord of the Rings paraphenalia that was on display. They declared it the best 1000 won they've spent in the city... hmmm.



Afterwards we headed back to Olympic Park and ate dinner at a Chinese food restaurant there. We also attended the grand opening of the Cold Stone Creamery in the shopping center. We also discovered that the palace is open on Thursday mornings without the tour, so we will definitely be going back to practice our photography skills. We hope you all had a great weekend, too!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

And the crowd goes wild as they cheer Sam's triumphant return! 

I can't believe its been more than two weeks since I last blogged.  But then again, of course I believe it, I have been very busy.   First we had our first round of essays that had to be graded by the first of the month.  Then straight after that we had midterm essays to grade, and then waiting around the corner was the second round of essays that we received and graded last week.   Also, as Alison mentioned I have taken the role of leader(imagine that) in our campus' making of a presentation for a seminar/conference next weekend.   We decided that a skit was just too corny, so we all put our collective brains together and decided a parody of the NBC sitcom "The Office" could be pulled off.  I can't take all the credit, everyone in the our office wrote their own scripts for their parts, and they are fantastic.  Meanwhile I am the cameraman/editor truly.  It has been alot of fun seeing my co-workers be creative and getting to edit everything on my computer.  Once it is finished I will put it on youtube.com so everyone can see.

So that it what is going on at work.

In our other lives, Alison and I are working together in true couple form.  While Alison is writing about how she feels like she will never truly feel at home here, I am the exact opposite.

So we kind of bring eachother towards the middle and keep eachother sane and in check. The feeling of calling this place home has become more of a reality in the past two weeks for me.  We received our alien registration cards, we got paid, which enabled us to set up cellphones(or as the Koreans say "handphones") So we can now communicate with our co-workers on the weekend about plans and how to get places that we want to go.  My phone even has a fancy shmancy subway map on it.  It does not surprise that I am calling Bangi-(2)dong, Songpa, Seoul, South Korea home so easily.  I mean lets take a short history lesson on where Sam has lived and how often he has moved in his life, especially the past 6 years.  I spent the first three months of my life in St. Louis, then it was off to Chicago for 6 years, then back to St. Louis for a 7 year stint.  Then it was on to Dallas for 6 years before heading off to Hendrix in Arkansas for 2.5 years.  Then returning to Allen for almost a year before moving to Denton and UNT for the next two years(in which I called three apartments home)  And then it was back to Allen after I graduated, and now Korea.  I guess you could say I am accustomed to having to get accustomed to new living spaces and neighborhoods.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I enjoy new adventures and there are plenty of new adventures to have here.  Alison, Jordan, and myself visited a fantastic palace yesterday before going to Insadong, which is known as "the most famous street in Seoul.  It is not an open market, instead it is mostly small store fronts with street food vendors in front of nearly every store.  Very cool environment.  We then had some chinese food for dinner before heading to two of the hot spots for nightlife in Seoul.  Alison is the one with the camera, so be expecting some more details and pictures from her in the next few days.

Why I love/hate my job

That's right... it's classroom story time, again. Since I have nothing really better to blog on and Sam has been super busy filming/directing/editing the skit for our teacher workshop next weekend, I thought some pictures and stories might make up for our recent blogging lapse.

Here's a walk through the joys of my MWF. My first period is a class that comes to English academy every single day. How they stand it, I have no idea. But they have recently discovered the "Alison-Sam" connection and like to celebrate our love by randomly yellng "Congratulations" during class. Today I walked in to find this on the board.


They like to spread out. We've got Jasmine in the front (top of the level!) Prima, Annie, Jennie, and Sophia and Mike in the back. Mike makes weird noises alot, which the girls do not appreciate so much!


Here we have James and Stephen. In his assignment last week, a paragraph on what their lives would be like when the grow up, James wrote that he would like his job to be "killing men" because "killing is beautiful". Yikes. He also wrote that he would like for his car to be a Hyundai Sonata. A few things. 1. I get it James, you hate my class, but don't let it drive you to killing people! 2. If you are going to be a killer for hire, maybe you could aim higer than a Sonata...


John is maybe the biggest nerd ever. But he's super cute!!!


Jenny, from my 2nd period class, always leaves me stickers on her quiz. I put the stickers on my attendance sheet folder, which makes her insanely happy.



Ah, the dreaded 3rd period. AKA the reason I sometimes hate my job. Here we have Steve, Jung Min, Seng Eun, Moung, David, Sally, and Tom. More on Tom later.

Yes, Tom. Tom would be the kid that managed to make my blue dry erase marker explode all over the wall, floor, girls in the first 2 rows, himself, me, etc. He's rude (or, as my co-teacher says when she's really frusterated and confuses her r's and l's: lude!), and not that smart. Sigh. I will find a way to break him, yet!

This is the rest of the class, and really a perfect picture. Kirsten is concentrating hard in the front, so is Jacob. Kwon Xi Young has no idea what's going on, but is trying. Paul, who doesn't get things even when the kids explain in Korean, is staring out the window. Kwon Min Seok is studious as usual. Wendy looks like she'd rather be anywhere else, and Chris is done with his work and ready to cause some trouble. Going to this class is like facing an epic battle of good and evil three times a week. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose!

Luckily, though, the loves of my lives are in 4th period. They are super funny, cute, and excited all the time. Their class doesn't let out until 9:25, so Fridays are a little crazy, but they are bound and determined that I will be fluent in Korean before the semester is over. I keep having to gently reinforce the English only policy. Here we have Amy (super smart), Jack, James-2, James-1 (they use 1 &2 instead of last name initials because EVERYONE is a Kim or a Lee), Jacob, Tommy, and Stephanie.

Here we have Christine (her hobby is "insects"), Jennifer, Alice, Jack, Jacob... again, Billy, Paul, and Stephanie. This is the class that whenever I get on to them sings me "I'm so sorry, but I love you!" The feeling is mutual.


So, there you have it. The little tyrants who rule my life from 4:10-9:25 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

A Little Reflection

It rained again after a couple of days of beautiful weather, and I think it made me feel a bit contemplative. I realized that most of our blogging thus far has been about the places we go and people we see, and that’s what the blog is really for, but I also wanted to share a little bit of my thoughts and feelings on moving to a foreign country and setting up house for a year. (This would also be your cue to stop reading if thoughts and feelings are of no interest to you… I will in no way be offended!)

I just really can’t believe that we have been here for 7 weeks already. We’ve been getting more and more settled in… getting our Alien Registration Cards, phones, paying bills, eventually getting internet, etc. But I think I’m starting to realize that I will probably not feel “settled” at any time over the next year. There are constant challenges. The part of me that spent most of my college career talking about things like race and gender and ethnocentricity is suddenly faced with actually being a minority in one of the most fiercely homogenous countries on earth, and it is a challenge. I am trying to be conscious of how this feels, not to just react, but to think through the way I feel like reacting and ask myself why I feel that way. Trying to ask myself honestly how I’ve acted when I’ve been on the other end of the interaction. It’s been humbling, eye opening, thought provoking and, truth be told, kind of exhausting at times.

The other day in class a student told me that he didn’t like America. When I asked him why he told me it was because of the new Korea Free Trade Agreement. I had no idea what he was talking about. The learning curve is huge… the language, wars of the past and possibly the future, current events here and at home. How did I end up in a country I knew so little about? What an adventure.

Lately, I have also been missing my family, and those who might as well be family, quite a lot. I miss being able to pick up the phone and call one of you (without having to find a pay phone, calculate a massive time difference, etc.) and be filled in on your daily life in matter of minutes. I miss family get-togethers and the funny/ridiculous things all of the kids (and adults!) say and do. I have also, though, come to realize that I am so richly blessed to have this kind of family to miss. To know that I am half a world away, but never totally alone in the world. Thanks for that. Having Sam here helps quite a bit, too!

There have been moments, too, where things have just felt right, somehow. Moments like getting off of the subway at our stop and realizing that I didn't have to pause and wonder which way to go for the entire trip, ordering a meal entirely in Korean and actually being understood, when I put the word "zoo" on the board and the entire class finally says zzzzoooo instead of "jew".

I do feel, though, like the dust is beginning to settle a little bit. We haven’t done that much exploring since we’ve been here, and I think both of us are feeling the urge to get out of our corner of the city and really see what Seoul has to offer. I have been going through the guidebooks again and making a pretty massive list of things I’d like to see while I’m here. Now, I just need to get out and see them. It’s amazing how easy it is to fall into a rut of “hang out, work, sleep” even when you’re in an exciting new place.

For me though, the rut has been kind of nice for awhile. It’s given me time to get used to the job, read some good books, and think through some things. I’ve been thinking a lot about life and the parts of my path that I’ve chosen and those that are still wide open. I’ve been talking to God a lot about how to have a life worth living. I recently read, I think on someone else’s blog, actually (sorry I don’t remember who you are!!) that if you are far enough away to see the “big picture” you’re not really in it, and that the big picture is made up of smaller steps, each of which you should try to thoroughly embrace and enjoy. So, I will, for the moment, stop worrying about what to do when we get home, and focus on this step that I’m on… focus on embracing it and enjoying it, with joy.

Sorry to get all introspective on you our… dozen(?) of readers. I promise my next entry will have lots of pictures of interesting things, or something, to make up for it :)

Weekend Wanderings

So, this weekend I decided to do a bit of adventuring while Sam playing basketball with the boys. I heard the cherry blossoms were out at Children's Grand Park, so I decided to head over and see what I could. When I got there, I realized I didn't know exactly what a chery blossom looked like, but I'm guessing these are them! The park was crazy-packed as it was the first nice day, really, of spring. There were lots of cute kids, though, so mostly I did some people watching, read a book, and enjoyed being outside... with thousands of other people!





This weekend also involved a trip to Costco. It was utterly fantastic... once we got there! Note to self... if I'm going anywhere with a certain co-worker (coughKendracough) I will make sure to look up exact directions, including subway exit numbers! The Seoul subway exits involve approximately 5 flights of stairs each... and in the Sangbang station there are six exits. We exited every single exit except for the correct one... Exit 2 (in case you were wondering) and walked 10 minutes in every direction possible. After an hour of searching and climbing stairs (I don't know how Kendra didn't just leave me in the fetal position in the middle of the sidewalk) we finally found the Costco, just 2 blocks straight out of Exit 2, and filled our cart with amazing goodness.

Then, we began the long process of hauling 8 pounds of cheese (you cannot find decent cheese here to save your life), 5 bags of pasta, pillows, towels (regular sized!), tobasco, wine, crackers, caesar wraps, fabric softener, bagels, etc. home. This involved the most terrifying cab ride of my life (think cement mixer inches from my door with me basically jumping into Kendra's lap!) splitting stuff up, then taking another cab to drop the rest of the stuff off. I've realized that in this city I have climbed more stairs than I had in my life to date and I am constantly carrying stuff. Lots of stuff. But boy, does that cheese taste amazing!! It's also funny what comforts I "miss the most" from home. What do you think you'd miss?

Picture Page is ready

Sam's pictures are posted.  Alison has better one's they will be up later this weekend.

Click on the link at the bottom:

It will take you to the front page with all of the albums.  Click on an album to see all of the pictures in that album.  You can leave comments by clicking "Add a comment."  

Enjoy!!!

Picture Page

Sam

Adventure on Line 7

Today I decided that I wanted to get out of our neighborhood and go check out the English Teacher Supply store in Nowon, which is in northern Seoul. This would be my longest solo trek from home, but I felt prepared, having looked up my route and times and armed with picture directions from a very helpful poster on Dave's ESL Cafe. I made it there just fine, browsed, bought a couple of books, and hopped back on the Subway to head home with plenty of time to grab some food before school. Right.

So, I managed to snag a seat and settled in with my iPod and The Other Boleyn Girl for a pretty lengthy ride. Then, approximately 4 stops into the ride the subway makes what seems to be a normal stop... and then doesn't start. After one announcement in Korean a few people get off the train. Since most people seem to be staying I decide I'll give it another few minutes. Then several more Korean announcements occur in rapid succession and about half the people get off the train. At this point I realize that I need to make some sort of decision, so I get off the train. It smells like burning and there is an angry mob forming around someone who looks like he probably works for the system (he was wearing a conducter hat and white gloves, I made an assumption). So, I consult my subway map, realize that transfer-wise I'm in the worst place possible, and decide that I'll try to catch a cab to my transfer point, as I have no idea where the trouble on the line is.

After hiking up the 15 flights of stairs to the street level I attempt to catch a cab. Unfortunately there is a mob of approximately 47 ajummas (older Korean women who are notoriously aggressive when it comes to transportation) and after getting physically shoved and elebowed out of the way for the 14th time I decide to walk a little farther to try and catch a cab a few blocks away.

As I'm waiting to cross the street I hear "Excuse me, excuse me!" and get a tap on the shoulder. I turned around and a young man tells me "Hello! I see you on the subway and think to myself, maybe she needs some help, so I have come to see what I can do for you." So, I pull out my subway map and show him where I'm headed. He thinks for a minute and tells me the bus is probably my best option, so he then walks me (I'm pretty sure 10 minutes out of his way) to a bus stop, consults with a few other people, and tells me where I need to go. Along the way we had a nice chat about what he's studying and how he'd lived in Seoul his entire life and had never ever been on a subway that had broken down... go figure! This was seriously the first random act of kindness I've experienced here, and it's done a lot to restore my faith in this city. So, boy who's name I can't remember, thank you so much for helping me find my way to school... even if I couldn't figure out where to make the bus transfer and ended up taking a cab to my subway transfer point... your kindness was much much appreciated.

Picture page coming soon

I have started experimenting with the web editing software on my new computer.  I am getting the hang of it and will be putting together a page for all of our pictures in raw form within the next week or so.  

My weekend(Insert sad face here)

This weekend was about as dull as it gets.  It rained all weekend.  I had a fever of 102.4 saturday night, that is just now back to normal on tuesday morning.  Consequently I spent all weekend in my apartment while Alison fled to the germ free confines of her own apartment.  She did manage brave the lions den and check my temperature and bring me Aleve and fruit cups.

Sorry, I know that is not as exciting as say...... 10 grand babies, but it is the best I can do for now.(sorry if you don't get this reference, its a little inside)

I promise more exciting news in the near future(no babies though)