History Of My New Home

Well I said I would update you on the history of Waegwan and Daegu when I got the time.  Since I didn't wake up till 12:00 today I decided hang around Waegwan which means I do in fact have the time.

Waegwan and Chilgok

I am currently living in Waegwan ( 왜관 ), which is a town of about 30,000 people that is situated in Chilgok County ( 칠곡군 ).  Before I get into Waegwan's history I want to discuss how places are named in Korea.  The last symbol in Chilgok's name is 군, which is pronounced gun.  Although it doesn't mean exactly the same thing as a county, it is the closest English equivalent.  At the end of place names there will often be an extra symbol that indicates what type of place it is.  The country of South Korea is broken into 16 divisions.  A division can be a province (도 or do), a metropolitan city (광역시 or gwangyeoksi) or a special city (특별시 or teukbyeolsi).  The seven largest cities are not part of any province and are instead labeled as metropolitan cities with the exception of Seoul, which is labeled as a special city.  A province is then broken into the division of city (시 or si) and county.  The other divisions are as follows: district (구 or gu), town (읍 or eup), township (면 or myeon), neighborhood (동 or dong) and village (리 or ri).

Now onto the history of Waegwan and Chilgok.  Although there is not a great deal of history for these two places, I was able to find a couple interesting facts.  Waegwan originated as a stopping point for Japanese traders during the Choson Dynasty.  As a result, the name Waegwan was chosen because it means "foreign dwelling".  Chilgok means seven valleys (chil or 칠 is the number seven and gok or 곡 means valley) and is a reference to the seven peaks of Palgongsan.  Chilgok and Waegwan also played an important part in the Korean War, or 육이오.  The Korean actually just reads 6-2-5, which is what South Koreans call the war because it started on June 25.  Another interesting tidbit is that the North Koreans refer to the war as the Fatherland Liberation War or as the Choson War because North Koreans call their country Choson rather than Korea.

During the war Chilgok was home to the Dabu-dong battle ( 다부동전투 ), which lasted 55 days and resulted in the deaths of over 27,000 people.  The battle took place during August and September of 1950.  Waegwan saw the brutal massacre of 36 American POWs on August 17, 1950.  As North Korean forces were retreating they took 41 POWs and tied their hands behind their backs before gunning them down on a hillside.  Of the 41 men on the hill, 5 survived the encounter.

I'm planning on at least starting the write up on Daegu tonight.  Not sure exactly when I'll get it posted but it should be within the next day or two.

Nearing the end of my first weekend

Well I've now gotten through my first week of classes and my first weekend here in Korea.  I've really enjoyed it here so far and I figured I would recap some of my experiences and my initial observations about life in Korea.

So let's start with the flight.  It is definitely a very long flight from JFK to Incheon airport.  I took a direct flight and it lasted about 14 hours.  Here is the approximate flight path:

Two things to note are that the flight comes very close to passing directly over the North Pole and that the flight completely avoids passing over North Korea and the waters controlled by North Korea.  I took Asiana and if anyone is planning to visit Asia I would definitely recommend them.  They had pretty good food (choice of either Korean or American dishes) and at the beginning of the flight all of the stewardess' bow to the passengers.

After I landed I caught a bus to Gumi, which took about 4 hours.  Upon arriving in Korea the first thing that struck me was that it really wasn't as different as I had anticipated.  There were of course the obvious differences such as the language and the fact that everyone was Korean.

Quick Note: Coming from the U.S. we are pretty used to seeing people from virtually every ethnicity in the world.  In Korea I would say about 99 % of the people here are in fact Korean.  If you see a foreigner in Korea you can pretty much assume that they are either an American soldier, an English teacher, or a tourist.

But anyway, the two things that struck me as very similar to the U.S. were the standard of living and the infrastructure.  Most of cars on the road were pretty nice (although they are all made by Hyundai and Kia) and the cities look pretty similar to western cities.

Another note: For some reason Koreans love tinted windows.  I would say over half the cars I have seen here have tinted windows.

So I arrived Monday night and was then already in the classroom on Tuesday afternoon.  Most of the students are very well behaved and the older students in particular are very serious about their studies.

                                          My classroom
I will be honest and admit that my first day I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  But in some ways getting thrown into the classroom is actually pretty helpful because it forces you to learn quickly.  From what I've heard it takes about 3 weeks to really get used to it so I will let you know how it's going at that point.

My first weekend here was pretty fun.  I went out with my coworkers to some bars and met a lot of other English teachers.  Koreans in general are very friendly and outgoing people.  I went to my first true Korean restaurant on Saturday.  There are not any chairs, so you sit on the floor.  There is also a fire pit in the center of the table and they bring out a slab of meat and you are responsible for cutting it and cooking it.

Today I found a place to go hiking near my apartment and it provided some pretty good views of my town.

Well tomorrow I start my second week of classes so wish me luck! I am going to try and find a place to take Taekwondo and next weekend I am planning to go to Daegu.

I just woke up in South Korea...

Well needless to say that is kind of a weird feeling and the fact that I was actually on my way to Korea really didn't hit me until I was actually taking off in the airplane.  But I have now officially finished my first week of teaching and it has gone pretty well so far.  Most of the students are extremely well behaved and they all speak a basic amount of English so communicating is not too difficult.  My job is primarily to work on their pronunciation and reading comprehension.  I'm still getting the hang of this teaching thing, but I think I've gotten off to a good start.

I am living in a town called Waegwan (pronounced "Way-gone"), which is pretty small and only has a population of about 30,000.  I am however about a 15 minute train ride from both Gumi and Daegu.  Gumi has a population of about 350,000 and Daegu has about 2.5 million people.  Gumi and Waegwan both have very large foreign populations.  Gumi is a hotspot for foreign English teachers and Waegwan has an American military base with about 5,000 troops stationed.

So last night I had my first taste of Korean nightlife and it was pretty fun.  I stayed out till about 4 in the morning and honestly I'm not really sure how it got that late.  I also discovered Lotteria, which is pretty much Burger King.  I also went to a real restaurant for the first time on Saturday afternoon.  You sit on the floor at a very low table and there is a fire pit in the center of the table.  They pretty much bring the meat out to you and then you are responsible for cutting it and cooking it.

Well, I'm now off to do some more exploring.  I will try to keep the blog updated as experience more of Korea.  And here are some pictures from my first week.

                                           10,000 Won = about 9 bucks

                                                    Korean version of Frosted Flakes

                                         I'm definitely not in the United States

                                          Korean historical site