N. Korea Drama

Who really knows what the heck is going on in North Korea???

To be honest, we do not. We know what the media tells us. Maybe they are accurate in their reporting, maybe not. Maybe North Korea's "news source" is accurate in THEIR reporting...but can you trust that?

It has become known that North Korea has basically rescinded on a truce that was made with South Korea in 1953. They have restarted their nuclear program and have tested long and short range missiles (and are said to be testing more in the near future). According to various news sources it has also become clear that they have threatened South Korea with strong military force if their ships were searched.

What all of this means on the other hand, your guess is as good as ours. Of course we are a little nervous residing in the largest city in South Korea. At the same time though, it does not consume us in the least. It has yet to be a topic of conversation with anybody else but each other. Other teacher's at school, the school administration, and the students haven't mentioned a single thing about it. Are they talking about it on the street? HAHA, I may be able to read phonetically, but that is the totality of my Korean language mastery.

Maybe this is a situation that is worse than it appears. At the same time, it could be a well constructed media ploy to accomplish a goal unknown to us. One thing we do know: There is nothing to fear but God. To be fearful and make plans hastily from the knowledge we have would be foolish.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3: 5-6

Leaving China

China was an incredible place.

On the final day of the trip we went to the Temple of Heaven before heading to the airport and back to Seoul.

Dictation Fail

FAIL: to fall short, to be or become absent or inadequate, to be unsuccessful

Chris and I follow failblog.org daily. If you haven't been there...please check it out. It's a hilarious site that posts funny pictures and videos of things that fail. Whether it be poorly thought out advertisements, unsuccessful inventions, or a simple picture that captures a moment in time when somebody decided to shut their brain down, this website never ceases to make us laugh. It may be at the expense of other people's mistakes but I like to think that if they saw themselves on failblog, they too would crack a smile.

This is why when I went to the library the other day to make some copies, I had to immediately turn around and run to my husband's classroom informing him about the following sign I saw posted at the entrance of our school.



Our principal, whom we love dearly, had posted a sign calling out all of the children who failed their dictation tests. She came up to talk with Chris and I as we were gawking at the fact that this sign could even be posted. She started laughing and said that when the students see the sign they will hopefully feel shame and study for their next exam. We just thought it was so funny and opposite of how we do things in the US. Our way of encouraging students is less about bringing the kids down but more about lifting them up. It seems like today in the US, we walk on eggshells as to not harm a child's emotional confidence. We don't want anyone to be embarrassed or shamed. I remember times in college when I couldn't even figure out my own score because there were so many secret codes and passwords to remember. Everyone is so careful not to invade anyone's privacy. In Korea, it is the opposite. The principal is constantly publicly announcing student's scores no matter what end of the scale they are on. Often times I see children grab their tests and run back to stuff them in their backpacks before anyone can see the embarrassing answers they had thought were correct. Christopher even had one kindergartner who burst into tears after other students laughed at his spelling score. I have children who beg me not to announce the scores in class and then other children who seem like they will have a heart attack if they don't know who scored the highest.

Chris and I have been trying to find a happy medium between these two ways of thought. We want to encourage the students to do their best, not by harshly harming their confidence and shaming them in front of their peers, but also not without instilling some friendly competitive nature. This is one of the struggles we face teaching in general, and in teaching in a completely different environment than what we are used to.

The Great Wall of China

Words cannot truly express seeing this site in person. It was overwhelming to be standing on such a historical landmark. The wall stretches approximately 4,000 miles (we thought about hiking the entire wall, but the darn tour bus dropped us off in the middle of the wall! We figured we couldn't do the whole wall AND double back in 1 day, so we scratched the idea). Mutianyu is the spot where we landed.

This part of the wall was built in the mid 6th century and served as a barrier for the Capital and imperial tombs. It is located about 50 miles northeast of Beijing. We were able to see parts of rural China as we took our bus towards Mutianyu.

Once reaching Mutianyu, it was approximately a 30-40 minute hike to reach the wall. Once on the wall, you could walk in either direction as far as your legs and time permitted (figuratively speaking).

40° 26′ 16.86″ N, 116° 33′ 2.84" E is the exact location Mutianyu (I'm not sure if you can get any aerial shots of the area). It is extremely difficult to describe the Great Wall. The wall itself is so incredible, as is the area surrounding (almost entirely forrest). Before seeing the it, I knew the Great Wall was an incredible accomplishment of humanity. After seeing it, I'm truly perplexed as to how it was done. The area is very high up on a mountain and completely surrounded by trees and bushes. How in the world they actually got these stones and bricks up this mountain and put them in place is beyond my wildest imagination.

Map of the wall

Starting the journey up

First shot we saw of the wall

Arrival at the wall

Cruising up the wall video.

An old, old canon

From inside one of the watchtowers

After enjoying our time on the Great Wall, it was time to head back down to the base for lunch. As we prepared to descend back down the mountain, we noticed an alpine slide, oh bless this day! For the approximate price of $5 USD, how could we pass this up.

I managed to take video of the entire slide down. It is fairly boring and uneventful, but feel free to see for yourself HERE.

Chinese Acrobats and Food

We were able to catch a Chinese acrobat show during our stay in Beijing as well. This was pretty incredible. Tickets were relatively inexpensive, and the theater was practically empty. This was unfortunate because the performers certainly deserved better. They showed us some incredible acts that we thoroughly enjoyed.

We didn't go our whole trip without trying something off the Beijing atreet (besides sugar coated strawberries). We did get this delightful little treat before the show.

Olympic Park: Beijing Style

Olympic Parks are quickly becoming one of our favorite destination spots. We have enjoyed Seoul's Olympic Park so much, we made Beijing's Olympic Green an attraction we would not pass up.






These funny signs were posted in the park area:


Taking a picture in the bright, bright sun without sunglasses proves just a little too hard...


We also captured this short video. Almost ran right into this little guy on his long journey.


As we expected, the park did not dissapoint. We spent a number of hours on day 2 of our trip at the park taking in the sights and sounds.


Next Olympic Park...Sydney anyone?

Food On a Stick

We had heard rumors about a street in Beijing that had some absolutely wild food. The three of us (Lauren, our friend Molly, and I) were bound and determined to uncover this hidden street and force ourselves to try the food. I mean come on, how bad could it possibly be? Would I really be SO grossed out that I wouldn't try a single thing?

Well...sort of. We accomplished our goal of trying something this street. Strawberries on a stick covered in liquid sugar. Delicious.


Take a look at what we chose not to eat on this street (if you have a weak stomach, I suggest exiting the website immediately and NOT clicking on THIS VIDEO). If you can bare it, please do look at the pictures, and the video. All items seen here are put into boiling oil upon request and sold to brave individuals who can "stomach" much more than I.

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was the first tourism stop on our journey through Beijing. After the hour and ten minute walk (not expected) from our hostel, we arrived at the entrance to The Forbidden City.

For about 500 years (1400-1900) the space served as the home to the emperor of China (from Ming dynasty through Qing dynasty). We thought we could see a good majority of it by casually strolling through the area.

How humbled we became discovering there was not a chance we could reach the 950+ buildings in the 7.2 million square foot area. We did spend a number of hours walking in and out of the many buildings and covering a lot of ground. (Short video from inside the Forbidden City).

We saw a few interesting things that had nothing to do with the Forbidden City. Like the nice headpieces the little girls wore:
TANGENT
One thing that caught our attention more than any other oddity though was this:Does anything in this picture strike you as odd? If not, take a closer look at the little boy bending over. This boy wasn't the only one who had his pants split from the back through the crotch wearing nothing underneath. He was commonplace.

Why? We don't know. All boys around this age had their pants done like this (some of them did not look cut by the parents, rather purchased that way [see designer ripped jeans]). What was the purpose of this? Was it truly for defecating right where you were with nothing to catch it but the Earth? Did the parents trust that their child wouldn't "let loose" while they had a forearm to the bottom side of the child while holding them? Are diapers available here? Are they affordable?

And why was it that only the boys had this? All the girls undersides were completely covered and sewn up like a proper pair of pants positioned perfectly.

Needless to say we were perplexed. We considered doing a little research on the internet. Surely another curious individual wondered this same thing? At that point we realized that the words we typed into a search engine would not yield results we were looking for, or attract attention we desired (I have not tried it, but please feel free to try searching "little boys ripped underpants" or "bottomless pants of Chinese boys"). Let me know what kind of results you get with those searches. If you do find something pertaining to this issue, please fill me in. I would still like to know the logical reason behind this.

END TANGENT

Many of the buildings are not original because they had been destroyed by fire. These copper pots can be seen all throughout the city and were filled with water so when fire broke they had quick access to the flame retardant.It was pretty incredible to walk in and among the home of some of the former Emperors of China and see some artifcats from their time.

The Forbidden City was mind boggling. It's size, history, and authenticity really moved us. This was a great first stop along the journey.

China Expedition

China, wow! From May 2-5 Lauren and I, with our friend Molly, were in Beijing. This was our first trip to China. China was about as wild as you dreamed about when you told your friends the hole you were digging in the ground was leading to China.

We left for Seoul Incheon Airport the morning of the 2nd around 5:45 am. We experienced "a first" on the China Air plane we took. Mounted somewhere on the very front of the aircraft is a camera. The monitor screens throughout the cabin display the view from this camera. Needless to say, I was glued to this screen about 10 minutes before landing until we arrived at the gate. It was incredible!! I recommend all airlines install this feature. I tried to snap a photo, it didn't come out too well...

We arrived in China around 11:00 am. After arriving, we gathered our bags and loaded a bus to the Beijing Railway Station.

Our first thoughts regarding China were the abundance of trees, grass, and greenery in general (not expected).


Once we unloaded at the railway station, we piled into a taxi headed toward Saga Youth Hostel (recommended if you are traveling to China)(We had the address of the the hostel in English, so at the airport we asked the man at the information booth to write the address in Mandarin).

Quickly we dropped the majority of our belongings off and headed out by foot toward The Forbidden City (according to the hostel, a 20 minute walk. According to my watch, 1 hour 10 minutes).

This shot was taken as we were walking down the alley near our hostel. It is looking in towards a courtyard, from the alley.

More to come...