Hiking Mani Mountain (마니산)

Finally! The weather has cooled down! It's such a relief not to walk outside and feel like you need to take a shower right away! Anyhow, it seems like it's been quite a while since we've had a Saturday to just throw around, and since the weather is beautiful we decided to hike Mani Mountain or Manisan. This mountain is on an island just off the west coast of the peninsula. )
We started our day relatively early, and set out by bus. The main bus comes every 60 minutes. Mark and I determined that if we were just three seconds late we would have missed our bus and then would have had to wait an hour just sitting around, so we knew our day was going to be lucky!
Anyhow, Manisan is a significant mountain because it is the birth place of Dangun (단군), the supposed father of the Korean race. It's really pretty! We started off our hike geared with Pocari Sweat, a Korean sports drink, and rice cake snacks. For the way up we took the stairs route. Yep, there are 1004 steps! It was a rough hike, but being able to hike the stairs of Gi (more commonly known as Chi) where you can receive "life force" was definitely worth it!
Well we got to the top and all we could think about was drinking something cold and sitting down! After a few seconds we began to notice that some people had ice cream. It's about an hour hike so all we could think about was "wow, these people are really prepared." Then slowly we began to notice that every single person was eating ice cream! We searched the place and found this lady sitting on the ground selling ice cream from her coolers. She must walk up the mountain a couple times of day with these coolers just selling ice cream and other cold things. It's not it vain though, the ice cream was way over priced but no one thought twice about buying it! Including us!
As we situated ourselves on a nice piece of rock (There were so many people there!) we were able to relax and take in the beautiful scenery and the main attraction! This is an alter that was supposedly built by Dangun to make sacrifices to the Gods. It's prehistoric, rumored to be from 30th century BC, so that part isn't quite proven but an emperor, in 1310, is recorded to have restored the alter. So we know that it is older than that. They still do ceremonies up here at least twice a year.

After a while of sightseeing at the top of mountain and looking at the ocean we decided to descend. To save our legs, we decided to take the "non-stair route down." However, this way was misleading because there were still 400 steep stairs! We got what we called "jelly legs." It was hard to walk! It was worth it because this route was definitely prettier! Anyhow, about a third of the way down my "jelly legs" failed me and I rolled my ankle pretty bad. I cried not because it hurt but of the prospect of having to climb the other 2/3 of the mountain. Then after crying a little, Mark and I laughed because it came at the most awkward time. Thankfully we made it down alright. :).

All in all, a good hike :)

Mark's Job: Go Poly School!

Basically, I teach English to Korean kids (or “teacha the Engarishy” as most of them would say).

(Note: for the "I'll just watch the movie version" types: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKW-YAX_vWw)


I get to work by 9:15, and from 9:50 to 2:10 I teach 4 year old kids. I have 45 minutes for lunch, but other than that it’s reading, writing, phonics, etc. one hour after the other. It’s a pretty rough schedule for a 4 year old, but it’s my job. The fact that a lot of them can not just read, but write coherent sentences with only minor spelling mistakes is pretty crazy. Sometimes we watch short videos (Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down” music video and Gene Kelley tap dancing in “Singing in the Rain” are surprisingly big hits). Sometimes we play music and dance. Mostly, however, we study. It can be really frustrating to work with the kids, and sometimes I feel like they don’t get anything at all. But other times, like the time one of my 4 year olds read a full sentence on her own for the first time, I want to cry I’m so happy. At 2:10 we walk them to the bus, and I take my well deserved break (during which I sometimes write blog posts like this).

At 3:15 it’s back in the trenches with 2 hours of vocab, grammar, and writing to 1st graders followed by the same to 2nd graders. From 6:30 to 8:00, I teach reading to 5th graders. All the students in one of my classes have lived in the U.S. or another English speaking country for at least a couple years. That class is about like your average American 5th grade class in every positive and negative way: they understand everything I say, they read and write fairly well, and they won’t stop talking for more than 10 seconds at a time. The other class has little or no international experience, so like most Korean students they’re well behaved, hardly ever volunteer answers, and understand maybe 2/3 of the words I say (meaning they miss at least one or two a sentence). I haven’t decided which class I like working with better, but after working with 4 year olds all morning the 5th graders might as well be 25 for how mature they seem to me. When the clock hits 8:00, class is dismissed, I drop everything in the teacher’s room and I don’t think about my job again until 9:15 the next morning.

Now given the time of day my 5th graders are coming, I’m sure you’ve realized that I don’t teach at a school. I teach at a “Hagwon”, which literally means a place for learning. Of course really it means “a place parents send their kids because keeping up with the Joneses in Korea means your kid outscoring theirs on the SAT and has nothing to do with house size or Christmas lights." Most kids go to at least 2 or 3 every day when school gets done. Whether I agree with the fact that Korean elementary school students spend 12+ hours studying, I figure since they’re here I might as well make sure they get something for all their work. I usually wear a shirt and tie, but I try to be a little more audacious than the usual Sunday attire. I try to look formal, but not so much that I’d be totally out of place in a Dr. Seuss book. As I’m writing this, I’m wearing a light green tie and a purple/white striped shirt with black slacks. Nobody’s complained yet, so I must not look too terrible.Well, that’s what I do in a nutshell. I love my job, and it pays just fine. The hours are long but the kids are great!
-Mark