Seoul Searching: Celebrating my 25th birthday

After being poked, prodded and squealed at by a bunch of precocious grade ones everyday (and having only a few hours before evening classes start), it feels good to just kick back at home and lie on my bed with half a glass of wine from the local supermarket. If I'm in the mood, I'll listen to some music, record my thoughts, or read a little science-fiction. I've hardly noticed the absence of TV and internet during the past month – it's probably for the better anyways.

Personal downtime is essential for me, but so is building relationships with those around me, especially in a new environment such as this. There are about a dozen teachers working at BCM, though I've spent more time getting to know Ty, Sean, and Jenice: the teachers who started their jobs at Kwangwoon elementary school (and BCM) at the same time as Jared and I. You can see most of the newbies in the pictures from my birthday below. The other Korean teachers, Monica, Gina, Lucy, and Yuri, with whom I teach language labs, have been a big help, though the foreign teachers have not, as yet, managed to lure them all out to the bar to see who can drink the most soju.

Having fun, gracious students can also benefit one's social life. I've learned plenty of unexpected details about the private lives and dreams of the teens and adults whom I teach. Many of my BCM students are taking their degrees at one of the many universities in Seoul; the rest include high school students, high school teachers, housewives with children, and private business owners. Some of the university students are studying another language, in addition to English: German, Swedish, or Chinese. Others are in engineering or music. The night before my birthday, they surprised me by bringing a birthday cake and lighting the candles in class, then singing happy birthday to me in Korean. After class, they took me and the other teachers out to a popular local bar: the aptly named BeerSky. We were so busy enjoying ourselves that I forgot about taking pictures.

I did, however, manage to sneak a few less than flattering shots of my co-workers as we belted away favorite tunes at the local Karaoke venue (or Noraebang), on the night of my birthday. We began the day by going for a hike with the friendly vice-principle of the elementary school, Mr. Kim Kwan Bae. He led us to his house in the suburbs of Suyu, which practically backs onto Bukhansan National Park, several kilometers further south from where we were when we climbed Dobongsan two weeks earlier. The round trip was about 4 hours, all told: a trail which our host had climbed over 100 times! Snaking along the peak of the ridge we scaled was a 500 year old fortress wall, which defended the city in the glory days of the long-lived Joseong Dynasty. When we reached the bottom, the vice-principle treated the teachers to dinner at two separate restaurants – we were taken aback to learn that the first place was just the appetizer. I also had my first taste of a traditional drink: bowls of milky-coloured fermented stuff, which tasted like a combination of sour rice milk and beer (which is pretty much what is was).

Looking East across the "suburbs" of northern Seoul.

From left to right: Michael, Jared, Mr. Kim Kwan Bae, Jenice, Sean

Looking towards our destination. Can you see the wall?

Panoramic view from the peak, looking east across the city

Looking south toward downtown and the Han River

Ancient fortress wall guarding Seoul's borders

Jenice, nicely framed by some gnarly trees

What the serious hikers do in preparation

After parting ways with the vice-principal, I met the other teachers again at our favorite local haunt – a neighborhood bar called Easy Hof (“Easy Beer” = “Goes down easy”?). Tom joined us, for the first time outside of work hours, and even brought a birthday cake to the bar too. We agreed to Karaoke afterward, but the new teachers (myself included) balked when we learned that you can't drink alcohol in the Karaoke venues– they are family friendly and cater to all ages. So we stopped at the corner store to fuel up on soju until our social inhibitions dwindled to the appropriate level. Since hiking, drinking, and karaoke appear to be the most popular national pastimes in Korea, I figure that the lot of us achieved honorary Korean status that night