Election Day

Two more days off of work this week. It's kind of strange having so many teaching days canceled so close together-- and inconvenient, since we are nearing the end of the semester and there doesn't ever quite seem to be enough time to accomplish all that is required. But, given how busy I am right now both at work and with other responsibilities, it has been helpful in a way to get a little bit of time to devote to planning, prioritizing and organizing. I feel a bit more on top of things, and not as much like I am playing catch-up.

Another perk of the vacation days-- they mark the end of Korea's very... um, Korean?... campaigning process for local elections. Tomorrow is Election day (by the way, try saying that with a Korean accent-- l's are r's-- and that's what I've been hearing all week), which is treated as a national holiday, giving everyone the day off in order to take away any excuse not to vote.

Election season is much shorter here than what we experience in the US, but it packs a bit more of a punch. For the past few weeks, every street corner, subway station and open public space has been filled with people, mostly middle-aged, in various *matching neon-colored outfits* doing *choreographed dances and cheers* in front of giant screens that display the face of their chosen candidate. Yep. I'm really sorry I don't have pictures or video to share this phenomenon with you, but if you are picturing it and it looks more than slightly ridiculous, you are probably imagining it correctly. Now add to that image fleets of oddly designed colorful trucks that drive up and down the streets blaring music and rhetoric, most often manned by a pair of women-- dressed of course in their candidate's signature color-- riding in the back to dance, wave, smile and bow at every passer-by... and there you have a pretty accurate picture of my daily surrounding for the past month.

I've definitely enjoyed it while it's lasted, and I definitely think I will equally enjoy it when it is over.

:)


UPDATE: Here are a few photos of Korean election campaigners that I stole from a friend. They don't completely give an adequate picture of the phenomenon I described, but they do give a small taste.

Happy Birthday Buddha

I think Korea in May has the greatest number of holidays that I have ever experienced in a single month. Not that I'm complaining.

This past Friday we had the day off (once again) for Buddha's birthday-- a very festive day in a country that has historically been largely Buddhist. Around 15-20 percent of the population currently identifies Buddhism as their religion, but the cultural impact of the Buddhist tradition, especially prior to the relatively recent rise of Christianity in Korea, is much more widespread than these numbers suggest. Festivals surrounding this holiday, considered by many Buddhist's to be the most important holiday in their tradition, have lasted the better half of the month-- the largest being Seoul's Lotus Lantern Festival.


I spent most of the day in Samcheon-dong, home to Bongeun Temple, where, as a part of the festival, the monks featured a colorful exhibition of handmade traditional lanterns. The streets in Samcheon-dong have long been my favorite place in Seoul to spend a laid-back afternoon of shopping or just general meandering. The neighborhood is a seamless melding together of historical Korean landmarks, districts and homes with quaint galleries, shops, cafes and restaurants that often give off (what I imagine to be) a rather European feel.


There are also numerous "tea gardens" in the area, which offer the setting of a traditional Korean tea house, while allowing patrons to enjoy the open air and a beautiful view of traditional homes- or even a Joseon-dynasty palace- against the backdrop of low Korean mountains. I soaked in the view while sipping on strawberry flavored "five-taste tea," a sweet drink made from the fruit of the Chinese magnolia vine, chilled and served with ice cubes that had tiny flower buds frozen inside.

It was lovely, and I don't know that I could have come up with a more idyllic way to have spent the holiday. Days like Friday leave me thoroughly convinced that moving into Seoul when I return to Korea would be the right choice for me.

The Dark Underbelly of Teacher's Day

The Month of Family, as May is often referred to in Korea, includes Children's Day, Parent's Day, and finally Teacher's Day on May 15th. The inclusion of teachers in a month set aside to honor the most intimate and foundational of social systems reflects the high regard with which the teaching profession has long been held in Korean society. And while this sentiment may be waning somewhat among younger generations, teachers are still widely acknowledged as one of the most important influences on a young person's development and ability to succeed in life. Teacher's Day is a day set apart to acknowledge the hard work that teachers invest in the future of the nation.

The respect and honor traditionally shown to teachers has, of course, a direct correlation to the extraordinarily high emphasis placed on education in Korea-- something I have mentioned here many times before. And with the exponential rise in educational and professional competition featuring so prominently in South Korea's recent history, it comes as no surprise that this enthusiasm and competitiveness has infiltrated the celebration of Teacher's Day as well.

My extensive Wikipedia research on the subject [;)] returned the following...

Originally [Teacher's Day in Korea] was started by a group of red-cross youth team members who visited their sick ex-teachers at hospitals. The national celebration ceremony had been stopped between 1973 and 1982 and it resumed after that. On the celebration day, teachers are usually presented with carnations by their students, and both enjoy a shorter school day. Ex-students pay their respects to the former teachers by visiting them and handing them a carnation. Many schools now close on Teacher's Day because of the rampant bribery implicit in the expensive gifts often given to teachers.

At my own school, Teacher's Day is treated just as any other school day, a conscious decision having been made to avoid any school-wide celebration or endorsement of the day for exactly the reason mentioned above-- bribery and extravagant gifts have in the past caused scandal and dissension among the parents and within the community.

As a native English-speaking teacher with little say over the children's grades, I am fortunately not impacted by these kinds of politics, and for me it has proved a sweet day. Knowing that they will not see me tomorrow (school is held every other Saturday, but I only work Monday through Friday on any given week), a few of my students have given me gifts of cards, candy, and various little origami creations. They also asked to sing for me in class this morning, and while I know that atleast 80% of their motivation in this was to avoid having to do work for the day, it nonetheless put a smile on my face.

In Celebration of Children's Day

International Children's Day is officially recognized across the world on June 1st, but in South Korea is celebrated on May 5th.

And it is a BIG deal here. EVERYONE has the day off on Children's Day. It is a day for parents to shower their children with gifts and take them on excursions to zoos, movies, parades, amusement parks, and even air shows. All of Korea caters to children on this day, with stores giving away free treats and having all kinds of characters-- from Batman to Hello Kitty-- line the streets to take pictures with the kids. It made me happy to be able to walk around all day and see kids being celebrated and loved on. And in a culture that requires so much of it's men in the workforce, it was especially great to see so many fathers take this opportunity to spend time with their children and families.

I also learned a tid-bit about the history of Children's Day today that took my appreciation for the holiday to even greater heights. Apparently, under Japanese colonial rule, May 5th was celebrated as "Boy's Day," but in 1975 the Korean government replaced that holiday with "Children's Day," making the simple statement that, "Even though many families may still want a son, since a son must look after his parents when they get old, we are all important." Thus, Children's Day is a marker of Korea's progress towards embracing the value of *ALL* it's children, and is a tangible picture of this country's desire to overcome cultural norms and stereotypes that have served to devalue women and girls. Knowledge of this history lends even deeper value and meaning to the holiday, and certainly deepens my own love and appreciation for the fact that my mother chose to celebrate Korean Children's Day for my sister and I growing up.

So, in honor of Children's Day in Korea and in keeping with the values that the holiday affirms-- those of equality and the right to life and happiness for ALL children-- I want to share this video from UNICEF with you, and ask you to join me in prayer for the children of our world. (BTW-- the precious faces at 1:32 belong to Korean children, dressed in hanboks, or traditional Korean garb. A-dorable.)



And, on a very directly related note, I'd also like to share and recommend a book that I have recently read. The words "powerful" and "gut-wrenching" fall far short of an apt description for this autobiographical account of Ishmael Beah's experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. To coerce a child into a life of slavery and violence is one of the worst violations against humanity imaginable... And on a day when I am surrounded by the faces of so many children filled with life and joy at the opportunity to simply enjoy being children, I cannot help but mourn for those who have been robbed of that same right. Read this book-- it will be impossible for you to walk away unchanged.

April Showers and May Flowers

I have no way to talk about springtime without bombarding you with a million different cliches. Even to simply say "I love spring" seems overused and hollow. But I'm kind of okay with that. In fact, I embrace it. Because the truth is that I DO love spring, and in this season I myself transform into a living, breathing cliche; all I want to do is skip through fields of wildflowers in a flowy white skirt and barefeet (not something you'd want to, or could do, where I live in Korea, by the way).

There seems to be something intrinsic to this season that brings out wild and beautiful desires in my spirit. It awakens my heart to a deep and joy-filled thirst-- thirst for change, for freshness, for freedom and life. It is a thirst that too often lays dormant in the pursuit of comfort and warmth accompanying those long (and, this year, longer than usual) winter months, but that every year, by God's grace given in the changing seasons, refreshes me and brings a new light to my vision of the world around me. Springtime brings with it a reminder of who I am, and points me to the hope, beauty and transforming power of my God.

From the day of my arrival in this country, I have been looking forward to experiencing this season here. Springtime is a source of great national pride for Koreans-- even as early as last summer, when asked how I liked Korea, I was frequently met with, "Oh, well, if you like it now, just wait until SPRING." And I have not been disappointed-- it truly is beautiful. Spring in Korea is marked by blossoming cherry trees at every turn and various flower festivals held in nearly every city. The most popular festivals showcase apricot blossoms, the Japanese dogwood, and, of course, cherry blossoms. Korea can't seem to get enough of them, and neither can I!



Here in Ansan we had our own TULIP festival. Tulips are one of my favorite flowers-- probably second only to pink and red daisies-- and this festival did not disappoint. A beautiful and seemingly endless array of the brightly colored flowers were planted alongside the man-made river that runs through our city, drawing out hundreds of couples and families with strollers and pets in tow to enjoy this season's first real weekend of warmth and sun.

(photos courtesy of the lovely and amazing Anlee :) )

The festival was certainly a nice reprieve from all of the concrete, and, though it was not a field of wildflowers for me to prance through, it still hit me like a breath of fresh air. Because while there is a part of my heart that can only be touched by things that grow wild and unruly, I have also come to realize that there is a unique and particular kind of beauty to be found in a garden of flowers that have been cultivated and toiled over.

I credit C.S. Lewis' Four Loves for waking me up to this beauty. In that book, Lewis uncovers in a well-tended garden a metaphor for love. Embedded in the essential qualities of the garden there is on the one hand a sense of the absolute necessity of the gardener's hard work and care, at the same time that there is also an overwhelming sense that this work pales beside the beauty of the cultivated thing itself-- the thing whose source of energy, life and glory are born out of nature rather than human hands. In the same way, our diligent and often cumbersome toil is necessary in order to maintain and show love, but, ultimately, the source and glory in any display of love, as in a garden, is not our own, but our Father and Creator's.

This analogy resonates powerfully with me. It also gives voice to the reason that I chose the title and header image of this blog to accompany one another. I am thankful for Lewis' ability to articulate and shed light on something that I feel but could not have adequately expressed, and so leave you with his words rather than my own:

"It is no disparagement to a garden to say that it will not fence and weed itself, nor prune its own fruit trees, nor roll and cut its own lawns. A garden is a good thing but [keeping itself] is not the sort of goodness it has. It will remain a garden, as distinct from a wilderness, only if someone does all these things to it. Its real glory is of quite a different kind. The very fact that it needs constant weeding and pruning bears witness to that glory. It teems with life. It glows with colour and smells like heaven and puts forward at every hour of a summer day beauties with man could never have created and could not even, on his own resources, have imagined... And when the garden is in its full glory the gardener's contributions to that glory have still been in a sense paltry compared with those of nature. Without life springing from the earth, without rain, light and heat descending from the sky, he could do nothing. When he has done all, he has merely encouraged here and discouraged there, powers and beauties that have a different source. "

May you all find joy and life in springtime, wherever you are :)

April Fool

So, apparently I give off the "I'm gullible" vibe across all cultures...

Today is April Fool's day, and it's a day that is just as popular and well loved here in Korea as it is in the States. Knowing this, and given that I work with *middle school* kids, you would think I would have been a little more cautious and at least somewhat skeptical of anything that seemed a bit out of order today. But, no.

Every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon after school I have an extra class with about 18 of the 3rd grade (think 9th grade) boys. They are a great group-- always very active, eager to pay attention and willing to participate in making class creative, fun and productive. They are some of my favorite kids in the school, mainly because they are some of the few with whom I have actually managed to forge strong relationships.

Today, though, when the bell rang to start class, they were all standing in the hallway right outside of the classroom. A little annoyed, I opened up the door to tell them to hurry up and come in. One of the students came in and told me that one of the other English teachers had sent him to ask me to come to see him in his office. A few other students nodded in confirmation. I was surprised but went looking for the teacher anyway. I checked his office and he wasn't there, so I stopped another teacher in the hall to ask if she knew where he was.

Needless to say, I quickly figured out that he had NOT in fact asked to see me, and was reminded between laughs that it was April 1st. When I came back to the classroom, the boys were all sitting in their chairs quietly, hands folded in their laps with angelic little wide-eyed smiles on their faces. "Teacher, find him?"

A perfect April Fools prank-- not so serious or big, but still managed to make me look foolish in a big way. A number of things about the situation should have tipped me off (like, why the pre-class huddle? and why would this particular teacher want to see me when we hadn't spoken all week? and during class no less?) but never once did it even cross my mind that the kids were not being one hundred percent honest with me.

They completely got me, and it was great. :D

My only regret is not having been prepared with a prank of my own. But after this experience, if I'm still here for this day next year, I've definitely got something big in mind.

8 Months!

This upcoming weekend marks the 8 month anniversary of my arrival in the ROK.

EIGHT MONTHS!!!

It is wild to me that it has already been so long. It is even wilder that the time until my contract is up is suddenly looking so *short.* 4 months is really no time at all.

As I have begun to realize that decisions are soon going to have to be made and have started to give a lot of thought to just what those should be, there are only two things that I have been able to conclude with any sense of certainty;

1. God has a good and perfect plan for my life.

2. I will drive myself crazy if I try to figure out exactly what that plan is.

So, rather than try to figure it out, I have resolved that I will simply go along with it. Uncertainty is what brought me to Korea in the first place, and my time here has proven to be a literal God-send. I doubt I've made it clear through my blog just how much perspective I have gained and how much I have grown up since being in Korea, but, believe me, it has been happening. And the knowledge that, despite my own best efforts, I ended up where God wanted me to be, is truth that I am holding onto tightly as I navigate through a very muddled pool of intentions, desires, and job applications in looking towards my next step.

Updates to come as I figure out just what that step will be....

Spring Flower Envy

The weather in Korea is KILLING me right now.

A couple weeks ago we had a few really beautiful days. I went out in a t-shirt, went for a walk in the park, and sat outside to journal and read. It was aaaaamazing. It made my heart extremely happy to be able to enjoy clear, warming weather, and know that spring was well on its way.

As soon as I expressed my happiness to my Korean friends, however, I was immediately warned not to get too attached. They described a phenomenon which Koreans refer to as "Spring flower envy," in which the winter begins to fade but becomes envious as the spring flowers start to bloom, and so comes back with a vengance to get in one last big punch before finally conceding defeat. This year, that meant another snowfall, with ice and slush once again covering the streets.

Apparently, this kind of pattern is really common in Korea, but it is nonetheless really depressing for me. As a born and raised southerner this has been the coldest winter I have experienced in my life, and I can now tell you that while I do love snow, I am officially NOT a fan of the cold. Besides, with Christmas and New Years having gone by, the thrill of winter-iness has long passed, and I am more than ready to feel the sun on my face and be able to wear skirts and sandals again.