Adventures, Academics, and Personal Growth in Korea

Summer is here! With the monsoon rains passing, temperatures have already soared to a scorching 37 degrees this week. The heat is unbearable, but life continues, and work must go on. The first half of this year was pretty busy with school, but I always made time for a bit of fun—exploration, celebration, and some travel.

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Colours of Spring

Spring is always beautiful in Korea because of the gorgeous colours of the flowers and trees. You can tell how much effort the local government puts into landscaping, as the roadsides, walkways, and parks are lined with trees and beautiful plants that bloom in their various colours when their season comes.

Checking out the early rose blooms in Hanbat Arboretum with Selorm.

Visiting the Yuseong flower festival with a church friend, Julie.

Due to the great weather, we had numerous outings, including the church spring picnic at the Hanbat Arboretum, a visit to the flower festival, and many walks to see the lovely roses that bloomed in May and early June.

Walkabout in the Arboretum with Church members

Picnic in the park!

After the picnic, some of us went on these fun boats on the Gapcheon River.

Church friends, Musa and Annette.

Church barbecue after the service.

Joyful!

Finally, the roses in full bloom!

"Where there are roses, there is beauty and love."

Meetups with friends

I accompanied Mantwa on her first trip to Busan. Since it's one of my favourite Korean cities, I had no problem gate-crashing her solo adventure. We had a fun time visiting a few hotspots. It was raining cats and dogs in the morning, but we still got to see awesome sites.

Checking out the scenic Oryukdo Islets with Mantwa.

I also met up with my good friend, Catherine, for a date in Daejeon. We had a lovely catch-up over brunch and took a walk along a nearby stream. Hanging out with Catherine is always a good time. Non stop chatter with a whole lot of positive vibes and spiritual stimulation. 

Brunch for the win!

Unknowingly, this was the last film for a photo on her Polaroid camera and we got a good one!

Birthday Fun

It's always fun celebrating my birthday in Korea, as June 6th is a public holiday, which this year meant a long weekend. After celebrating in the morning with Sel, I met Mbali in Pyeongtaek, where we had lunch with our friend Yannick at Braai Republic, our favourite South African restaurant. It's the one place where we can enjoy yummy ribs, peri-peri chicken, and Springbokkies for good measure!

Chapter 38!

South African birthday lunch with Mbali and Yannick.

Mbali and I then ventured out the next day on a trip with a local tour company based in Seoul. Korea Travel Mate is a tour agency that offers cool budget trips for foreigners in Korea. Our trip was a 2-day, 1-night excursion to Gyeongsangbuk-do, another province in Korea with numerous historical and culturally significant places. The tour company arranged all the transport (both train and bus trips), accommodation, and admission to the different places we visited. We paid 20,000 won for the trip, which is about R260. It was really cool and fun to see new cities and join a tour where everything was already planned.

Day 1. First stop on the tour: Seomun, a traditional market in the city of Daegu.

Second stop. Visit to the Homigot Sunrise Square in the city of Pohang, where iconic bronze hand sculptures are located.

The hands are also known as the "Sangsaeng's Hand" or "Hands of Harmony."

About 40 of us joined the trip, including people from France, Egypt, Kazakhstan, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and other countries. Their reasons for being in Korea ranged from studying to working, short-term travel, or visiting family—some had stayed in Korea for extended periods. The diversity in the group was really interesting.

Third stop. The iconic Spacewalk in Pohang.

Hwanho Park Space Walk, a steel sculpture

"It is meant to evoke a feeling of reaching utopia and 'swimming in space above the clouds.'"

It has 333m of track, which is supposed to represent "Steel", "Science" and "Sea"—the three "S"'s of Pohang. It has 717 steps in total, and it takes you about 45 minutes to walk.

This was really awesome to see and experience. 

For accommodation, we stayed in traditional housing where we had to sleep on the floor. Initially, the guide said we'd sleep in rooms of 5-6 people, but then they tried to cram all 30 women into one large room. I told Mbali it looked like a scene from a prison documentary with all the bedding spread out on the floor! Luckily, the guide found other rooms for us. When you join a budget tour like this, you have to be flexible.

Andong Rural Experience Village

Day 2. Checking out the scenery at our accommodation.

Lekker early morning boat ride!

We had a great time exploring, as well as enjoying the long road trips on the bus, where you get to see the different landscapes of the country. The tour is designed to let you see many places, but not for extended periods. You might get around an hour or two max at each location, so it's sort of a preview of the city and popular spots. It definitely hooked us—I'd love to return to Andong at some point and spend more time there.

First stop. Woryeonggyo Bridge, the longest wooden bridge in Korea.

Second stop: Andong Old Market. We had free time here and could find our own lunch.

Third and final stop. Visiting the Andong Hahoe Folk Village.

 Hahoe Folk Village (Korean: 안동 하회마을) is a traditional village from the Joseon Dynasty

Rice paddies

Our tour group.

Yellow Card!

After an almost 5-month-long semester, summer holidays finally started last week. It went by pretty fast and was manageable for the most part. The first semester is usually the easiest in terms of student behaviour, as most students are still finding their feet in their new classrooms. Because I knew the energy levels and behaviour of my Grade 8s from last year, I created a new rules system for our class time this year.

Surprise from one of my classes on Teacher's Day.

If you break a rule, you get a yellow card (first warning); break another rule and you get a second yellow card (final warning). The consequence of a second yellow card is choosing a card from a deck of English nursery rhymes, which you then have to sing in front of the class. At first, they were really well-behaved, not breaking rules or just getting one yellow card at a time, but eventually, they couldn't hold back any longer, and we started getting fantastic performances of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Wheels on the Bus." Some of the nursery rhymes have Korean versions, but most are new to everyone, so we've had fun "learning" these songs together.

Finally, a red card is given as a third warning or when bad language is used in the classroom. The students themselves suggested that bad language should result in a direct red card, which I thought was quite mature of them. Our boys love soccer, so this rules system has been super effective. I have them shouting "Teacher, yellow card!" when someone misbehaves. Getting a red card means you have to write a 50-word letter in English explaining what you did wrong. Only in the last few weeks of the semester did a few students reach this level!

Korean Student Schedules

In a dialogue we covered in the 9th-grade textbook, a girl discusses her schedule and the problems she has with everything she has to do that day. I used this as a conversation prompt and asked my students about their after-school schedules. Some of their answers were surprising to both me and my co-teachers.

Depending on the day of the week, school ends at either 15:00 or 15:45. After school, most students go to academies (after-school private academies) to study English or math, usually from 16:00-18:00 or 18:00-21:00. This means many don't eat dinner at home—they'll have a snack between studies, eat late at night, do homework, then play games or watch YouTube until midnight or 1 AM. Others go to PC rooms or play soccer first, then head to academies. 

Our fencing students train from 15:00-17:00, clean the gym, eat dinner at 18:00, then train again from 19:00-21:00. After that, they just sleep—no energy left for studying, especially with 6 AM training sessions too.

I always wondered why no one gets excited when I say "TGIF" or "Yay, it's Friday! It's the weekend!" For Korean students, there's no difference. They attend their academies after school as well as on Saturdays, so there's hardly any playtime. Studying takes precedence over everything. Still, I must note that there were a couple of students who plainly said that all they do after school is sleep—eat and sleep. They don't study, they don't attend academies, nothing. And it makes sense in terms of results. There's no middle ground: either top achievers or those at the very bottom.

Prioritizing Health and Wellness

Since the end of last year, I've been challenging myself to be healthier and fitter through various fitness programs and joining a Pilates studio. This is the advanced version with reformer machines, and attending classes where the instructor only speaks Korean has been interesting—I watch others to know what to do, though I'm understanding more Korean now. Pilates is intense! It works muscles I never knew I had, and the exercises while balancing on the barrel often make my heart skip a beat out of fear!

Pilates girly life.

Got an injury the first week. Was badly bruised but okay now!

I've also embraced jogging before getting ready for my school day, especially now that it's so hot. It's been a challenge to make this season about my health and wellness, but feeling more at ease in my own skin has done wonders. So if you notice a change, that's what's happening at the moment!

A surprise event!

I also recently attended my first Toastmasters meeting. Toastmasters events are clubs that are hosted worldwide for the purpose of helping people develop communication, public speaking, and leadership skills. Club members give short speeches and are then evaluated by another member. Every person has a role to play at the meeting. I enjoyed my first time and even ended up winning the Table Topics round, where you're given a prompt and then have to make a speech in less than two minutes about it. 

Each of us were given a fortune cookie and had to make a speech about it. Mine read, "What you fear the most might turn into your biggest strength." So I made a short speech about how I feared teaching while I taught at university and yet when I came to Korea and stepped into the classroom, it felt like the most natural environment for me to be in. Also, since coming here, I've grown so much and gained skills in a career path I never thought was intended for me. So, seeing that fortune was yet another sign that I'm on the right path and in the right place. I highly recommend this club for anyone who wants to improve their public speaking skills.

One last thing...

A few changes are coming up in my life soon that are both exciting and scary, but "the only constant in life is change." Once I've settled into it, I'd love to share what's happening and my reasons for moving in that direction. For now, I have English Summer Camp to complete this week, as well as preparations to make before my visitors arrive.

As always, thank you for coming along with me on this journey.

Till next time.

Meryl Joy Burgess

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