Surprisingly, I enjoyed this year’s fall Fulbright conference—when I knew virtually no one—much more than I did either of the two last year—when I knew everyone. I guess it’s because I detest reunions. There’s always so much pressure to get in “quality time” and “see everyone” and it never actually happens. This year, I only wanted to see a couple people—the ones I see all the time, anyway—so I felt no pressure. And being around all these new people made me realize how much I’ve learned in the last year. Thinking back to the conference last year…well, I was clueless back then! I was so confused about my role as a teacher, I knew virtually nothing about Korea, and I was a little blown away by life here. It was all very bewildering. And now I feel like a pro. I’m knowledgeable in and out of the classroom and can figure out most anything in Korea. I’d almost forgotten how much I’d changed in the last year.
I arrived in Gyeongju Thursday night. Traveling was a bit of a nightmare, actually, because I realized half an hour into our drive that I’d forgotten my train ticket, which I’d insisted my co-teacher buy for me beforehand, in my desk in Hongsan. We had to buy a new ticket and I had to get it validated en route to be reimbursed. And I thought I’d miss the train after all. But luckily my co-teacher is somewhat competent when it comes to trains, evidently, and Daejeon subways are surprisingly fast. So my journey was not as exciting as it might have been. Nika met me at the station and led me through the rain (will it ever end? I thought fall was here!) to our very cute hostel. It was a traditional house and was really nice. So nice we went to sleep early instead of going out as we’d planned.
We had made plans long ago to hike Namsan, a historic mountain south of the city, before the conference started in the afternoon. Namsan was sacred to the people of the Silla dynasty a thousand years ago, so the mountain is littered with ancient carvings and relics. It’s pretty amazing and was one of my favorite things I saw last year. So we woke up early, made ourselves some complimentary breakfast, and tried to find our way there via the bus. It was not as successful as we would have liked—we ended up getting on a bus going the wrong way—but we made it there in the end. The hike also was not entirely successful. We’d both done it last year and had stuck to the southernmost end of the mountain, so this time we took to the north. However, trails were hard to follow and we didn’t end up seeing much in the way of history. We saw a lot of rounded burial mounds and hiked in circles several times, but managed to miss many of the relics we wanted to see. It was a little frustrating. The problem is that the trails are sooo traveled…they literally go EVERYWHERE on the mountain, and so you never know which way to go. At one point, we turned off the main trail to see an old pagoda, supposedly only 130 m away, and could not even find it because of all the trails that snaked around the hillside! It was a little frustrating. However, we did see Buddha of the Valley, a statue from the seventh century that I had wanted to see, and dozens of old bas reliefs at a nearby hermitage. Too bad our experience with the former was marred by a loud, nearly violent fight between one old lady and apparently everyone else. I wasn’t really sure what was going on—Nika said it was something about a candle—but neither of us were inclined to linger and figure it out, or admire the statue more. We did each get another handkerchief for our hiking quilts, which is always exciting, and made it back to the conference just in time.
The conference itself was unmemorable that afternoon. Nika and I gave a quick and unrehearsed presentation on hiking in Korea, which, combined with our incessant tea-brewing, cemented our reputations as a couple of hard-core environmentalists or hippies or weirdos, depending on your interpretation. I think I might have terrified some of them. I’m sure they won’t forget either of us, though!
That night the three of us—Janaki was our roomie—tried to make friends, but all the kids disappeared somehow. I don’t know how they did it, but we couldn’t really find anyone. One of the problems was the temperature. It’s definitely well on the way to winter now—it was even chilly during the day this weekend—and Nika and I both independently decided to deny its existence, meaning that neither of us were dressed for it. I didn’t have a jacket of any kind, barring my long underwear top, and I only brought a skirt and sandals to wear. Needless to say, I’ve finally put the sandals away after the follies of this weekend. I’ve gotta move on to the Converse for winter, I guess. Anyway, after some aborted Family Mart drinking, we ended up drinking a little makoli at a bar and crashing the norebang session of some kids we’d never met before. It was pretty fun, but my throat is still not 100% and it hurt some. (I don’t know why I still have such issues with sickness…this phlegm/cough thing has been going on for a month and a half now! It’s frustrating when I want to wail along with, say, Aqua in “Barbie Girl.”) They were even singing in Korean—I was impressed! And Janaki and Nika managed to do a song in Korean, too…how do they know Korean songs? I don’t hear ANYTHING where I live!
Saturday was the big conference day. In the morning we had small group discussions, which were surprisingly interesting and helpful. Last year they always disintegrated into bitch sessions and nothing was actually accomplished, but this year we came up with some good suggestions and advice for each other. It made me feel better about my situation, too…sometimes I think I should have switched schools. When my school does stuff like forcing me to teach a winter camp, or giving me only enough travel money to get TO the conference and not back, even though it’s in my contract, I dream about being somewhere else. Or when it’s Sunday evening and I’m trying to get back to Hongsan and I have to take five buses and a taxi to get there…I dream about being in a big city. But it sounds like I have the best situation. I do get away with more, because I have a history with my school, so I get perks like Friday afternoons off and extra Chuseok vacation. And there’s only one other girl who is allowed to make her own lessons. I think I would rather die than teach that god-awful book. Talking to the other kids helped me put my situation in perspective again, and I’m newly appreciative of the perks my school and teaching situation allow me. And it was nice to finally meet these guys and realize they weren’t the monsters I’d feared. They were all really nice and I wish I’d gotten to talk to them more than just that hour and a half.
The afternoon was soooooo boring. It consisted of a horrible presentation on a new computer program for language learning—sooooo not applicable to my situation, where the administration claims they can’t even spare 20,000 won for my travel expenses—during which I very obviously did some India research. It doesn’t matter anymore, though…as far as Mrs. Shim is concerned, I have the golden E (for extendee) stamped on my forehead and I can do no wrong. She was ridiculously delighted to see us all. I’m pretty sure she’s never really seen me before—I tend to be overshadowed by brighter personalities—but she was very much into me this time. It’s nice to be appreciated, though. I suppose the eleven of us are much less of a headache for her than the other ETAs, especially considering that this group seems to be a particular challenge. I met some really nice people, but some of the others seem to have serious attitude problems. As in, they very childishly hold grudges against the administration of the program and cause a lot of problems for everyone. There also seems to be a problem of entitlement—many ETAs seem to think that Fulbright is completely in charge of them and are unwilling to take responsibility for themselves. Like one girl blaming Fulbright because she evidently “starved” during Orientation…why don’t you buy yourself some food, then?!? And there are complaints that they only got 35,000 won a week throughout Orientation. I guess some of them think they should get our usual 1,400,000…why, I don’t know, because that’s in exchange for TEACHING, which no one does during Orientation. Instead of being grateful they get anything, some kids seem to think they deserve more, which seems ludicrous to me. We all have pretty cushy jobs, undemanding and with reasonable pay and more than reasonable vacation. What makes you think you deserve more? Anyway, this is all just surface impressions and second-hand information. I can only hope the picture I’ve developed of some of these ETAs is horribly incorrect. Even if it isn’t, there are still some I like, so there is at least that.
Anyway…there I was, planning for this India trip that I’m not even really supposed to take because Fulbright is being really strict about out-of-country days this year. My strategy is to lie, lie, lie. I’ve experienced enough Korean culture…I go out of my way to visit a new place every week, I meet new people all the time, I study the language and history and literature…if the goal is to make me aware of and knowledgeable in Korean culture, well…I’m already pretty well there. Forcing me to spend the cold winter months here will only make me resentful. So Nika and I are covertly going forward with our plans, and doing so with Fulbright time. Hee hee hee. We also had to partake in a “cultural activity”—a traditional Korean game (the explanation for which made me more appreciative of my students’ attention when I do games…my eyes were glazing over, and it was in my mother tongue!) and take a group picture.
The next day was unremarkable. We got some tea and street food downtown, taking in the long-absent sun, and then went back to the hotel for the final buffet dinner. Thankfully, it featured Chinese-style pine mushrooms that were absolutely divine. I think Mrs. Shim is fully aware of my and Nika’s love for the peosot (mushroom). We had a ton of mushrooms all weekend. I hope she will always take care of us like this. And then we chilled the rest of the night. I talked to some ETAs and then went to bed early. Weird to think that I will never know most of their names, and probably also won’t see most until Jeju. But maybe I’ll make friends. I sure wasn’t friends with that many people last year at this time, either. It was a gradual process for me. Maybe it’ll be the same this year. If not, I already have enough friends, anyway. Nika and Janaki keep me pretty busy.
I woke up early on Monday. I think I was the first ETA up. I was definitely alone at brunch, except for a bunch of fat foreigners who disgusted me. I wanted to get an early start—I planned to go hiking in Daegu before heading home, and since I’d never been to the mountain before, I wasn’t sure how to find it or how long it would take. Another example of something I would have been too timid to attempt last year, but now leapt right into with gusto. Anyway, transportation was not as frequent as I hoped, but I got there by ten and up to the mountain by 11, with five hours ahead of me for scaling Palgongsan. I think this mountain was actually recommended to me by some hikers I met a few weeks ago at Juwangsan…all I caught at the time was pal (which means eight). It was a nice place—a really long ridge, which I love to climb, and several ways up and down at various points along it. The leaves were turning, too…it was really beautiful. The biggest flaw was that the highest peak was inaccessible. There were communication towers of some sort there—the same scenario as Gyerongsan. What’s the point of a national park that has such monstrosities in its midst? I hate this about Korea. Why do they ruin the hiking experience this way? But besides that, it was nice. I managed to hike the entire western portion of the ridge, from Pagyesa Temple, across at least three peaks, and down to Donghwasa Temple. And I scored another handkerchief! I was a little worried at the end—it turned out there wasn’t a bus that went directly to the train station from Donghwasa, which surprised me because it was a major temple—but with the help of my memory for place names, my growing Korean vocabulary, and my sense of direction, I was able to figure it out and switched buses without a hitch. Except when I was trying to leave the first bus and some high school girls had to help me by yelling at the driver to open the door (I’d taken too long to get to it, locked in by what seemed like an entire high school). I had a lovely train ride to enjoy the remainder of my India book (Naipaul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now), my bag of kim, and my apple. Bliss. But a good thing I’d filled up on breakfast…I had no time for delays! And, in fact, I almost missed my connection in Daejeon. I had to take a city bus from the train station to the bus station and it was late, so I ran to the bus station and made it just in time to have the bus halted. It was exhilarating and empowering, after the travel fiascos of recent weekends. It was the last bus to Hongsan from Daejeon, so I was set. I navigated across the country in a day, taking five city buses, one regular bus, and two trains, and still managed time for a lengthy hike in the country’s biggest provincial park. That’s what I call a successful day! Though I might have started my week feeling worn-out, it was a very satisfied tired. I’m getting the hang of this country!