Ramyon, Students, & Snow

Ramyon (not "ramen" as that's just a brand in the U.S.) is more popular (and more tasty) here in Korea than in America. Last night we (the foreign professors) put on a Ramyon Social for the English Department and the international students. We had a fair number of people come, although considering my personal experience with free food as a college student, you would've thought the attendance would've been higher.

Here's all the ramyon we bought.
MG quickly made friends with the Junior guys (Joshua, Colin, Kevin, and Paul).
French/Dordt, who had just won the English Department Presidency. He was at Dordt last year.
Two of my juniors, Brown and Joshua. Brown is hilarious.
Min and Tupenny debating the finer points of ramyon.
Some of my freshmen girls. Kelly, Evelyn, Dorothy, and Song.
Oh and it snowed this week. Not much more than a dusting, but I guess it's the first accumulation in at least 5 years. The Koreans were pretty excited as it was quite unexpected. Here's the official slogan of the college. "Coram Deo" means "before the face of God."
Footprints up to Shalom.
As you can see, the roads were pretty clear, and it all melted by the afternoon. Pretty much like what happens in Virginia.

Speeches

Dear reader, here's a quiz for you. (Answers at the bottom)

How many speeches did I give in high school?
A. 1 B. 2 C. One every week D. Never

What was (is?) one of my fears?
A. Sharks B. Manbearpig C. Speaking in front of crowds D. Bears (#1 threat to America)

Have I ever been in, much less judged a speech contest before this past Saturday?
A. All the time! B. You? C. You ask silly questions D. No, forensics wasn't your cup of tea

Was I swayed by Obama's campaign speeches?
A. Nope B. Only the one I heard in person C. Of course, who wasn't? D. No comment


I guess every year Kosin hosts an English speech contest for high school students. Part of my job is to do anything that the English Department asks me to do, so I spent a good 5 hours of my Saturday at the contest. The students could choose from about ten different speeches. I sat through more Obama speeches then I had previously heard from the man himself. Obama easily beat out the next competitor (MLK jr) as the most popular choice. Some of these kids had obviously watched these speeches on Youtube tons of times as a few of them copied both Obama's accent and his gestures. It was long, but it was also fun at times. I still can't get over the fact that these kids were doing speeches this long in their second language. It's truly humbling, especially when I think about my knowledge (or lack thereof) of Korean.

Answers if you care
1. B
2. C
3. D
4. A

Conversation Homework

For conversation homework, I require an hour of speaking and two hours of listening every week. The students then write up a brief summary of each activity. Reading the responses is quite entertaining at times.

"I went to go to the church for English chapel. It's so long and boring sermon."

"Lunch with ***** in the church. We talked about beautiful girls in Korea."

"we have lots of commons!"

"Sometime I listen to music. I like a beyonce. I like a plot in the song"

"there are pizza very delicious. I'm very excited" (talking about Pizza Hut)

"the story of this movie was really bored."

"I pitiable to him. and then I think he is beautiful man."

"So....we like Kosin university, very air clean, and many beautiful girls, and so on...."

"these days, very cold, and windy very strong. Professor!! dress warmly *heart*"



My students often make me laugh. Last week, I was talking to one of my juniors and he said, "I try to study hard, but my head is always thinking about girls." I'm not sure that excuse really holds up, but I appreciated the honesty.

T.I.K.

The smell of the ocean salt through the bus window. The kids giggling in Korean after one of them said "hello" to me and I responded. Having a class of 50 students break into pandemonium when I say one word in Korean. Wondering what I ate before I had rice almost every day. Playing baseball with my students. Having other students improvise my own personal cheer. Watching the Aussie vs. Kiwi rugby game televised from Japan. Fellowship with fellow teachers and their families. Shirts in English everywhere. The continual question of why I'm in Korea. Going to church with Kenyans. Not understanding a word in church besides the translated sermon. Being called professor or teacher. Having students bow to me. The colors changing on the mountain behind Kosin. Truly appreciating the view on a clear day after a week of haze over the harbor. Continually discussing what it means to live faithfully in all of life, especially living as a foreigner here. Being blessed in countless ways.
T.I.K...This is Korea. This is Kosin. I think I love it here.

Lynda's Visit/Fireworks/Midterms

Ok, so I've been slacking on the updates. Life here has been keeping me busy. For your reading ease (and not at all because I'm lazy), I've decided to do one post to cover roughly the last two weeks.

First, my Dordt friend Lynda came to visit! Only for part of the weekend, but it was a lot of fun and it was great to see her. Hopefully she'll provide much needed firsthand knowledge of Vietnam for planning purposes as she was heading there after Korea. Anyways, we caught up and hung out around Busan. One place we visited was Busan Tower.
Lynda and I at the top of the tower. Not the best lighting, but it'll have to work. North end of Yeongdo (the island I live and work on) is to the right.
There's a statue in the park there of the Korean admiral who repelled the Japanese navy back in the day by using "turtle ships." Anyone who's played Age of Empires II knows what I'm talking about...
The next weekend there was the 5th Busan Fireworks Festival. To put it simply, the experience was incredible. 85,000 fireworks in 45 minutes. Someone at the university even hooked us up with VIP seating. I took more video than pictures, but I think pictures will have to do for now. Look it up on youtube and I'm sure you can find some decent footage.
(That's Gwangan bridge in the background)


This week I've been giving midterms. I have my students come in and have a conversation with me. As these usually last 5-7 minutes and I'm teaching roughly 130 students this semester, this has taken some time. But I have about 4 more hours tomorrow and then I'm done for the week. It's been interesting to hear some of their opinions and stories. My favorite comment so far has to be, "Professor is very charming. Usually I can not understand English well, but I can understand by making contact with your eyes." I had a hard time not laughing at that one, especially when she ran out immediately thereafter.

Billiards

When Koreans say "billiards" they don't mean pool. They call that "pocketball." No, Korean billiards is quite a different game. First of all, there are no holes/pockets, hence the name they give to our game. There are only four balls on the table. Two are red, one is white and the last one is yellow. The players are using either the white or yellow as their cue ball. If you hit one red ball, you get 0 points. Hit both of them and you get a point and another turn. If you don't hit either of the red balls, or your cue ball makes contact with the other cue ball, you lose a point. So the maximum you can get every time is one, while you can lose two points in one turn.

On Monday night after we had gotten my cell phone in Nampo-dong, Tupenny showed Andy and I a billiards place. We descended the escalator into an underground room with about 20 tables. Most of them were full on a Monday night. 45 minutes of playing established that none of us were very skilled at this game, but we had fun.

Lining up a shot.
Andy surveying the damage.
Our score board. I felt like I should be doing math on it or something.
Tupenny challenging me...he won.

Chuseok

Chuseok is basically Korean Thanksgiving. I wasn't able to get much out of my students about it, except that difference between Korean Chuseok and Chinese Chuseok (as volunteered by a Chinese exchange student). All I know is that we got a day off of classes and that pretty much everyone goes to their hometown to be with their families, and there is some ancestor worship for the non-Christians.

Anyways, the foreign faculty (and families) celebrated by hiking Kosin mountain (that's not the real name). We looked at the uninhabited Buddhist temple that is still up there and prayed for the Buddhists. Once at the top, we hung out for quite some time. It had rained all night, but by the time we made it up there, the clouds were clearing away. You could see the airport, Haeundae beach, and the Gwangan bridge which are all fairly far away. We were up there for quite some time which was long enough to get a sunburn in October for the second year in a row.

Ceiling inside the temple. Note the dragon, the storks, cherry blossoms, etc.
Buddha on a blue lion? I'm not familiar with Buddhism enough to know the significance of this.
Most of the group on the south point.
We also celebrated Chuseok by having a big dinner (Western style) together on Saturday night. Here's Andy parading the two chickens we cooked in his oven. We also had fresh baked bread, mashed potatoes, and other non-Korean treats.
Harvest Moon overlooking the Maritime University.
Chuseok also means that kids get money from their grandparents and parents. So last night when I went to go get a cell phone, the shopping district was packed like it was a Friday night. As it so happened, we met two girls who I teach at one of the stores. They managed to barter for a nicer phone than my assistant had been able to do (oh the powers of female persuasion). The salesman managed enough English to say that I should give them an A+ in class. We'll see about that, but in the spirit of Chuseok, I was very thankful for everyone's help in the process.