First Snow in Hampyeong!

     It happened, folks.  Hampyeong, my hometown, had its first real overnight snow of this winter season on Friday, December 16th, 2011.  Now, the prophetic Mark Stassen, Hampyeong's longest tenured foreigner, had predicted a date of December 17th for the big white snowfall--apparently, for the last 2-3 years, Hampyeong has seen its first glimpse of real, here-to-stay snow on the 17th.  24 hours early might part with tradition, but it gave me a chance to do something I'd wanted to do for a long time in Korea, anticipating the winter: have snowball fights and make snowmen with kids.  All day long.  And so I did just that:

I was like a little kid on Christmas morning.  Here's a rough view from outside my apartment, circa 7:20 a.m.  Notice the car on the left that barely resembles a car, as it's absolutely blanketed.  I'm happy to say there were at least 2 or 3 inches on the ground, and it was the best kind of snow--the stuff that falls light, but sits heavy.

Everything in Hampyeong looks cooler in the snow...I guarantee it.  From the pavilions to the tacky little pyramid structures on which kids climb.

Buses were running quite a bit later than usual, and the trek to school definitely took an additional ten minutes or so.  All things considered, though, Hampyeong seems to handle snowfalls pretty effectively.  The drivers are infinitely more pissed about it, though.

And here's the scene out at Sonbul Seo, my Friday elementary school, around 8:10 a.m.  As you can see, things are pretty blanketed out here.  Truth be told, Hampyeong is one of the finest candidates for giant snowfalls in this part of Korea, being close to the ocean, but separated from it by various mountains and ridges that can catch the warm air and trap the relative valley in which Hampyeong and some of the smaller towns sit in air that's cold enough to hold plenty of snow.  So even though I'm just a few miles from the ocean, the mountains are high enough to keep things cold enough for this to happen.

Walking up to the school, absolutely giddy for what will later take place.  For now, it's off to the teachers' lounge to look like I'm busy for about 10 minutes before going outside and playing with all the kids--after all, I'm not on the clock until 9:00...

The boys were so psyched.  "Sam Teacher!  Class...snowfight?"  Yes, boys.  Yes.

Still waiting on the other 40 or so students from the school to join us in a giant kindergarten through 6th grade snow fight.  The best part is that everyone seems to think I can hold my own against them, so it tends to be Sam Teacher VS. Entire School.

Anyway, the teachers weren't 100% sold on the idea of a 4-hour snowball fight as a viable substitute to English class.  I can't really blame them.  But we beat our longing to get outside by just doing some good Christmas stuff--watching videos, wearing awesome hats, playing some games, eating candy, etc.

Like so.

And so.  Man, this game is too simple, but all Korean students seem to love it, because it gives them a chance to kick each other around a bit competitively--you just put a bottle, or a ball, or something in the middle, make the rule be that they can't touch it or they're "out," have them hold hands and continue to hold hands while they all try to push each other into the item.  It tends to go on for hours and never have a clear winner, though...

As concerns about the snow melting and giving way to blacktop grew deeper and deeper, we just knew we had to make our way outside after lunch and get the party started in the snow.

And see stuff like this.

But first, let's drink more soda and try on more Santa hats.  If only the supervisor would just leave the room so we could sneak out into the snow...

Bae Seo Youn is so giddy looking outside at the impending snowfall.  

More mandatory Santa hat try-ons.

So embarrasssed.

My man Bond is absolutely relishing it.  How happy and innocent and nice and cool does this dude look?

And then it was time!  I had never seen students eat lunch so quickly.  After eating, we all ran outside to the school yard and began work on some epic snowmen.  And these kids are no strangers to that process--4th grader Mark got the ball rolling (no pun intended) immediately on that.

The epic teamwork begins.  We had 3 solid snowballs for the snowman's body in less than half an hour.  And believe me, these kids work and work and work at it until they can literally push a snowball no further--and then it's time for Sam Teacher to tag in and give it a roll for 5 minutes.

4th grader Joey went big with this one.  And without mittens, no less!  What toughness and commitment to his craft, eh?

3rd and 4th graders just defining teamwork.

Putting the finishing touches on a 4-5 segmented snowman that towers well over 5 feet high.  This is solid work for about 40 minutes of snowball rolling and ice shaving.  They had to remove any blemish caused by dirt, rock, or grass.  It's all about the pure snow.

And now it's time to add some eyes and decorate this dude.  Again, the attention to detail is absolutely insane.

Brian got a little tired of all the building, and just decided he's give himself a snow-made coffee table and pillow on which to recline for a while.  

Little Tom is so happy.  Cheers to the first snow of the season, bud.

     I was so happy to have shared the first snow of Hampyeong's winter with these kids.  As I may have mentioned before, the students of Sonbul Seo are significantly "out in the sticks," so to speak, moreso than students at my other schools--as such, I think they get really excited to do stuff like this together, even if it's just for an afternoon.  

     The other great part about this day was that, because my co-teacher wasn't there to take me to my usual bus stop, I had to take the school bus with the children.  I rode shotgun with the cheerful bus driver who tried what little English he knows, got to see where all of my students live and personally say goodbye and thank them for a great semester, and ride in style to my usual bus stop in the next little town over.  Then it was back to Hampyeong, where there was no longer as much snow as before--as it turns out, the more rural the school, the more preserved a school or town's snowfall generally will be.  I'd never been so exhausted and cold in my life, and I'd never been so happy to be in such a condition.

     And then it was on to the Christmas celebrations, which I'll touch on in my next post.   Until next time, folks, thanks so much for reading.  

     Quick side note: my vacation has officially begun!  After bumming around Korea for another 5-6 days, doing some hiking and various day trips, I'll fly to Thailand for 9 days with my boys Erik and Aaron.  So I'll make a push to have you caught up on everything prior to Thailand before going out of touch with the world for a while.  Expect another post tomorrow!  Thanks for reading!

     Lots of love, and all the best,

-Sam 

The 2011 Hampyeong Chrysanthemum Festival

     I'd be remiss if I didn't, before bringing you all up to speed on Christmas time in Korea, tell you at least a little bit about one of Hampyeong's two main attractions of the year: the annual Chrysanthemum Festival.  So here's a rather lengthy post that offers some shameless plugging for my hometown and the beautiful flowers that flock to it each fall.

     I've been told that, in the course of two weeks, somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people, Koreans and foreigners alike, plan to visit the Hampyeong's Chrysanthemum Festival.  Whether those folks actually turn out and live up to the numerical hype is still up in the air--although Hampyeong felt slightly larger and busier for those two weeks, it's not something that's hard to do for a (still relatively small) town that is the centerpiece of a county with a total of 45,000 people.  That being said, I'd like to think that those who chose to attend were not disappointed.  And here are 19 reasons why: 

Reason #1 is simple enough, and that is that you are really greeted with flowers before you even enter the Festival.  The whole town recognizes just how special an event this is, and, as such, you are greeted with Chrysanthemum flowers for a few blocks before entering the park.  What's also pretty nice is that this is all about a 10 minute walk from my apartment.  Here's to small towns!

Reason #2: Where else on earth can you find giant trees that are A. shaped like cows, dogs, and other animals and B. covered in flowers?

Reason #3 (And probably the coolest as far as I'm concerned): Admission is free for foreigners.  That's right.  Students and teachers pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000-7,000 KRW (so, about $3-$7) to attend, while I was able to walk in without opening my wallet.  Here are some of my younger students from Wolya Elementary (my Monday school, with whom I was so fortunate to get to check out this festival) entering.

Reason #4: Awkward class photos.  For your viewing pleasure, the 6th grade homeroom teacher and I were able to capture the sheer enthusiasm (or lack thereof) of the Wolya 6th graders.  Granted, it was only 9:30am, but they look way too upset to be missing school for this.

Reason #5: The cosmopolitan feel of the Festival.  Okay, I use that term loosely--what I think I mean by "cosmopolitan" in this case is that all the flowers you see lining this greenhouse walkway are indeed Chrysanthemum flowers that are grown in all different parts of Hampyeong and are contributed by farms and households throughout the county.  Could've fooled me; the flowers all tend to look alike.

Reason #6: The cute kids that are actually excited to be here and missing school for this...contrary to the 6th grade picture I showed you.

Reason #7: Silk worms, caterpillars, and other cool bugs that you can pick up and play with and pretend to eat (if you're the 3rd graders of Wolya Elementary, in which case there's not so much pretending).  Hampyeong, by and large, tends to stretch its concept of being all about butterflies (the other main festival in Hampyeong, which comes in the spring) into a full-on assault of bug culture.  As such, this particular vendor had all kinds of bugs to play with...even a few snakes, if I remember correctly.

Reason #8: Cute kids playing with said bugs.

Reason #9: 5th graders who look slightly more jazzed to be missing school for this field trip than the previously pictured 6th graders.

Reason #10: Reason #9 continued.

Reason #11: The inescapable reality of becoming so bored of looking at Chrysanthemums and bugs all afternoon and the ensuing hour of gaming on one's phone.  These 6th graders simply couldn't take it anymore.  Now that I think about it, I don't think I even had a phone until high school...

Reason #12: Cute snack circles of 5th grade boys.  It's just awesome.  They take a few samples from each other's bags, and offer all the teachers a handful.  I didn't even have to ask, and within 20 minutes I had a solid stomachache.

Reason #13: This huge, awesome structure made of Chrysanthemum flowers that resembles a cool tower or temple structure or some kind of traditional Korean architecture that I'm clearly not aware of.  This is one of two centerpieces of the Festival.

Here's another look up at it.

Reason #14: Getting to hold hands with cool 5th grade dudes and pose for nice pictures for all the homeroom teachers in front of the giant flower tower.

Reason #15: The privilege of witnessing Korea's extremely slow transition into winter weather, which is something really special.  One thing that really sets the climate and seasonal pattern of Korea apart from home is how gradual the transitions from summer to fall to winter come.  In the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, for example), let's just say the temperature plummets, the leaves all fall, and the snow begins coming down all within weeks, it sometimes seems.  So views like this are really great to take in while I'm here for a year.

Reason #16: I take it back...there are 3 awesomely huge attractions of the Hampyeong Chrysanthemum Festival, and this is the 2nd.  This is a giant flower gate with a corresponding courtyard aptly named, in barely legible Korean letters in the center, "Secret Garden."  Really cool to walk through.

Here's a much better, up-close look at Hampyeong's own "Secret Garden."

And here's one with cute kindergarteners and 1st graders running through it.  

Reason #17: Colors, colors, and more colors.  You sort of wonder where the town of Hampyeong is in all of this, as the park is on the edge of town and the park grounds are huge.  You really do feel like you're in a different world...I'm not saying it's disappointing to walk back to my apartment, but everything just feels less...animated.

Reason #18: The 3rd awesome attraction of the Festival, the giant mushroom-shaped tree full of branches covered in (you guessed it) Chrysanthemum flowers.  This is what you see on most advertisements for the Festival, and it really does tower over everyone and everything there.

I should have taken a better picture for comparison, but it's a good, healthy 30 or 40 feet high.

Reason #19: Flowers that, all things considered, do not actually resemble Chrysanthemums!  I didn't see this one coming.  There was, however, an entire greenhouse full of alternative flowers--if for no other reason than to prove that there is, after all, more to Hampyeong than just flowers and bugs.

And so we headed back to Wolya Elementary, which had its own unique brand of fall beauty.  

     So there's a quick plug for the Hampyeong Chrysanthemum Festival, for all of those who haven't been, or have been and were simply overwhelmed by their own experience.  My advice: make the trip with cool kids and hold lots of crazy bugs.  Thanks for reading, folks.  Next up will be a post on some good Christmas times in Jeolla Province.  

     Lots of love, and all the best,

Sam 

...Some Changes Coming.

     Hey folks, it's pretty evident so far that my vow to blog every day until vacation hasn't really been brought to fruition.  As much as I'm sorry about that, I realize that I've done enough things here that all warrant their own stories and little posts, and most of you can see the photo representations of those on Facebook and whatnot.  So what I'll do now is start the blogging again at Christmas time--I'll keep things nice and detailed, with plenty of pictures, and just include everything from Halloween until around Christmas in a slideshow which will be featured in some part of my page.  That way, everyone's happy to see what's going on and I can actually give more attention to things that are actually happening right about now.  The last 2-3 weeks have been some of the best yet, as the holidays have made for great celebrations with friends and winter camps have made for a lot of great bonding and creative time with my students.  It's hard to explain, but with a semester in Hampyeong under my belt, things are starting to change a little bit in every way here--my mindset on Korea, my mindset on Hampyeong, my mindset on staying another year or coming home, my mindset about vacation and about just how small/big the world is, all of those good things.

     So this lazy Sunday afternoon in Hampyeong, I promise, my blog will have some new vibes going--but no worries, you can still see all of my pictures, as I'll keep them up in a slideshow.  New year, new things.  Roll with the changes.

All the best, and love to all,

Sam

Halloween In Korea

     Halloween came and went in Korea, and it wasn't without some good memories.  Though it didn't happen on Halloween night, the major event of the holiday was the annual Halloween party for foreigners in Jeollanam-do province, held in Mokpo as many things are.  Can't thank all the good folks in that neck of the woods enough for all the good things they do for the rest of us.  Here are a few pics of the festivities:

Monti, getting his clown swag ready.  Had no idea what he was gonna be for Halloween, and when I came out of the shower, this is what I saw.  Dude made it work.

Here's the Erik Gray you all know and love, all decked out in his lederhosen and getting all sauced up.  He appears here with Miss Shari Beaver, a favorite of the Mokpo crowd who had a creepy mystique going with this costume of hers all night long.

Me and Miss Megan Corless.  For all of you that know my Halloween habits, I want to apologize again for the Quail Man costume.  I know it's been the 2nd or 3rd time I've gone to it, and it seems to get increasingly crappier each time, but you'd better believe it's easy and gets a chuckle.  

Here is Erik Gray doing what he does best, folks: drink beer and mack on Korean girls.  But seriously, the dude is a stud, and was dancing on a couch like this with anywhere between 2 and 5 Korean girls all night, so good on him, eh?  Dude's got game.

Here's a shot of some partygoers.  Moe's was absolutely packed with about 90% foreigners and 10% Koreans; probably one of only a few nights each year where one might be able to say that.  We flooded the place.

Our friend Nichole, who lives in Suncheon, hamming it up with our favorite little sister of Hampyeong, Miss Erin Stieler.  If you look closely, you'll see Erin was dressed as none other than the cute and charming Pam Beasley from "The Office."  And how good did that suit her?  When I asked her just 2 days previous to the Halloween shindig, she mentioned it was on a short list of possible costumes...and then I looked her in the eye and realized the resemblance is absolutely uncanny.

This is how we get our Halloween on at Wolya Elementary, on the Monday of October 31st.  After some introductory power points and videos, we made hand bats.  Here is one 3rd grader showing off her work.

All this little dude needed to know was that candy awaited those who finished.  He didn't leave my side the whole time he made his bat...he just wanted that chocolate.

The onslaught of "TEACHER, TRICK OR TREAT!"

Probably my mainest man of all of Wolya Elementary, Eu Taek.  Coolest 4th grader you'll ever meet, and he loves English.  Proud owner of a new, cute hand bat.  But seriously, you ask this kid about his day, and it's never "fine," or "okay" or "happy."  Eu Taek, without fail, is "GREAT!"

The bat cave of hand bats from grades 3 through 5.  They stayed up all through Christmas, at which point Mrs. Kim decided it was probably best to decorate the room with some winter materials.  That seemed to make sense, seeing as it as December...

Nothing related to Halloween as far as these pictures go, but my last 2 hours of my workday on Halloween were spent with this kind fellow--a 1st grader who loves playing computer games and doing math problems!  Although he speaks no English, and talks mostly in giggles and sounds, we had endless fun giving each other simple math problems and racing around the room.  How happy is he?

Math problems, math problems, math problems...they just don't quit studying, even in 1st grade!

     Okay, so that might have been a weak post and way too picture-oriented, but I'm in a rush to get you all caught up through November and December.  Might come back with a post right after I press "publish" on this one.  Either way, I'll be back with more stories and pics in the next 24 hours.  Winter camps are upon us and the schedule is busy, but life is still good and it's been a nice stretch of days to open 2012 thus far.  Hope you're all enjoying your new year with your friends and or family, and especially safe travels to my little sister, Rita, who is soon to be en route to Guatemala for 2 weeks.  Couldn't be more proud of and more excited for her.  How's it feel to have 2 kids abroad at the same time, Pops?

Lots of love, and all the best,

Sam