Beijing (Day 3)

When we booked our Great Wall excursion, we had many choices to choose from. We had decided to first choose a part of the wall that was not going to be overcrowded. Seeing as it was their National holiday weekend, we did not want to be walking the wall alongside the entire population of China. So we decided on the Mutianyu section of the wall. Our next decision was whether we wanted to have shopping included or excluded. The shopping with, was cheaper than the shopping without. We did not quite grasp why it was cheaper for shopping than without, but we chose with, because it was cheaper. I know, cheapskates.
Our driver and tour guide arrived bright and early and we headed off for a great Chinese sightseeing day. We were driven in a small van and were accompanied by four other foreigners. Our first stop was at a jade factory. It was there where we realized what the shopping meant. The shopping included, simply meant that the tour guide would take us places and people would try and sell us stuff. With the exception of having to stay at the jade place for 45 minutes, it was not too bad. We did confirm that we still think Jade is tacky, but at least we understand the historical significance behind the jewelry in China.
After the jade place we headed to the Ming tombs. The Ming tombs were included in our Great Wall package and I for one was really excited to see them. Over the rule of the Ming Dynasty the Emperors were buried after death in an area just north of Beijing. They built tombs for themselves similar to the Egyptians. However unlike the Egyptians they were nothing like the pyramids. There are only three tombs open to the public of the 13. The tomb we went to was actually not too breath taking. It was merely another small palace, much like many we had already seen. It was fully equiped with several buildings and a water way, along with a sacrificial temple. The tomb itself was underneath the temple and we were unable to see it, mainly because it is still buried and untouched.
After the Ming Tombs we headed to the Great Wall. We had a delicious Chinese lunch at the base of the wall. The restaurant was nice and the food was amazing. It was starting to get a little warm so we made sure to buy some water before our hike. Hike? Yep, you read correctly, hike. I know most of you are thinking Latanya=Hike, no way, right. Well we both decided that we came all the way to the Great Wall of China, and there was no way that we want to take a cable car to the top. I mean what kind of story would that be.
This portion of the wall sat a top the mountain side. It curved its way across the Chinese terrain. We started our accent and made a good pace for ourselves. It was not an easy hike by any means and we were feeling the burn about ten minutes in. The trail had steps all the way up that were really steep. We made sure to take a little break here and there. Over all it was about a 30 minute hike. Our tour guide told us it was a 45 minute hike, so we felt accomplished to do it in 30.
Once we arrived at the base of the wall we were taken back. We just kept looking at the wall for a couple of minutes. We could not believe where we were. As a kid you learn about the Great Wall of China in books and even as a non history buff one understands the historical and cultural significance it has. We were actually here. Actually at the base. We then eagerly made our way on to the wall itself. Once atop we had a view unlike any we had ever seen before. The country side was absolutely beautiful. We could see the wall curve its way through the mountainous contour. The wall went as far as the eye could see. We were pleased to see not a huge crowd of people. This was exactly what we wanted. We wanted an experience special in the way that could not be interrupted by mobs of tourists.
We started to make our way to the different towers. We found a cannon facing towards Mongolia and I could not pass up such a perfect photo opportunity. As we hiked along the wall we kept reminding ourselves that we were on the The Great Wall of China. It was an accomplishment. I had always envisioned seeing the Great Wall but actually being there was nothing like I would have ever dreamed. We were thrilled with excitement and satisfaction.
We walked the wall for about an hour we said good bye and made our way down the steep path. It was still rather warm but the tree lined path kept it cool. Once down at the bottom we met up with the rest of our tour and headed back to Beijing.
We had one more stop before our hotel. We stopped at a silk factory, where we learned all about the silkworm and silk. We were again propositioned to buy, but we knew it was a huge tourist trap.
Our tour guide then took us to a tea house, where we had a lovely tea ceremony. We got to sample several different teas. They again tried to sell us tea. We gladly took our free samples and enjoyed the information.
After the tea we were able to get a foot massage and learn about herbal medicine. We sat down in a small room and one by one everyone got a wonderful foot massage. But wait, not exactly everyone. We all had our feet soaked in warm water and when it was my turn the staff was starting to pack up for the end of the day. I, awaiting eagerly, just thought they needed to get some more towels, or maybe some more warm water. The masseuse came back and asked me to take my feet out of the water. I thought, yes, finally. She then proceeded to ask me to kindly dry my feet, and she removed the bowl. I asked the herbal Dr. in charge, if I was going to get a foot massage. She laughed and walked away. It's not often that you can get mad at not getting a free foot massage, but I was. I was more disappointed than anything. I had been saying all weekend that my feet were hurting; Latanya can attest. Everyone else got one but me. I told our tour guide and he was shocked. I figured since the place was closing and everyone was done, I did not want to try and make everyone wait on me. So as sad as I was Latanya promised to give my feet a rub down back at the hotel. What a great wife.
We then were dropped off at our hotel. We made arrangements to eat with one of the ladies on our tour. She was really nice. She was from England and lived and worked in Shanghai. We took a stroll to see the street eats. We walked through a long row of street food stands. They had everything you could imagine. They had: fried starfish, dumplings, snake, eel, scorpion, seahorse, silkworms, sheep testicles and much much more. We decided on some delicious dumplings. After our appetizers we made our way to a local Chinese restaurant. It was quite busy so we new it must be good, and it certainly was. We had some nice conversation with our new friend and then said good night. We went back to the hotel to turn in and I cashed in on the free foot massage; oh how I needed it. The next day was our last full day of Beijing and we still had some more sights to see.

Beijing (Day 2)

We woke up the next day and took a good look at our hotel/hostel our room was the size of a small storage unit at public storage. We had two small twin beds with a nightstand in between. We had an attached bathroom that we discovered was absolutely filthy (I thought Latanya was going to vomit on sight)let's just say it was not what we pictured but hey we only had to sleep there. We woke up early at 7:00am got dressed quickly took a shower with the lights off and made out way to Tiananmen square. We wanted to get a head start because of the celebrations the day before we knew it was going to be crowded. From our hotel it was a seven minute walk to the square we quickly discovered that China has a heck of a lot of people. The crowds were massive and it was only 8am we waddled our way through the crowds towards the square. The first thing we saw was the gate towards the Forbidden City with a giant portrait of Chairman Mao. We knew right then that we were standing in history. We were speechless for several minutes and just took in the amazing scenery around us. From our vantage point we could see that Tiananmen Square was enormous. We walked under the main street to enter the actual square itself there were huge lines going through security check points. We made our way through one of the check points there was pushing and shoving galore this was the first of many times on our trip that we felt like cattle. After the checkpoint, we walked around the square once again we realized how massive this place was. They had all the floats from the parade celebrations the day before on display. The decorations were so beautifully done we must have taken twenty minutes to do a full circle around the center of Tiananmen Square. We tried to visit Chairman Mao's mausoleum (where his body is displayed) but unfortunately it was closed because of the celebrations. We made sure to take many photos and made our way to the Forbidden city. Before we left the square, we had started to notice many people not taking pictures of the sights but taking pictures of us there attempts to be sneaky was obviously obvious it was quite funny. This would be the first of 2 million photographs of us in China (they must have heard of our fame all the way from Korea).

As we made the way to the Forbidden City we realized it wasn't as easy to find the entrance as we thought. A short 45 minutes later we found the entrance to the walled city. We bought our tickets and entered through a gigantic gateway. The Forbidden City is fully equipped with a mote, many palaces, gardens, thousands of tourists, and many more of our fans. The creativity of their picture taking ability seemed to get better as the day went on. For example, they would pretend to be taking a picture of something behind us while in reality they were zoomed in on our faces. That did not distract us from seeing such a grand and beautiful place. The Forbidden City was closed off to commoners for over 500 years it was special to think for the day that were apart of royalty. Our feet were hurting by this point so we made our way to McDonald's to eat lunch and sit down for a while. It was good to have some familiar food and rest up a bit because we had much more to see.

Next on our itinerary were the Olympic sites. We had to catch a subway in order to get to the Olympic park. Now that it was early afternoon the crowds had increased even more. As soon as we stepped into the subway station Latanya started to hyperventilate. We attempted to buy subway tickets there was a lot of pushing and shoving. Latanya freaked out so I had to step up and plow my way through the sea of Chinese people and buy the tickets. After a great deal of struggle I was able to obtain two subway tickets. This was only half the battle we now had to make our way down to the subway itself. We were now apart of a river of people that flowed down the stairs to the train. Once on the platform we were again elbow to elbow with many people. After the train arrived we were not surprised to see it completely full. When the doors opened only a few people got off and we shoved ourselves with the crowd onto the train. I was pulling Latanya's arm so we could stay together and we squeezed our helpless bodies onto the train. Obviously, it was standing room only we did not have to worry about falling over because we were being held up by the other thousands of people next to us. It was such an experience to get on the subway. Two transfers later we arrived at the Olympic Park.

When we got out of the subway station we saw the Bird's Nest. Latanya kept talking about all she wanted to see was the Bird's Nest she was so excited. The stadium was breathtaking, the architecture was so modern, and the scenery was so serene. Across from the stadium was the water cube. We decided to take a tour inside the cube and stadium. It felt so amazing to be under the same roof where Micheal Phelps won his 8 gold medals. After the water cube, we took a tour of the Bird's Nest. Being inside the stadium was such an amazing feeling to know that the world's greatest athletes all stood here about 13 months ago. Also, to be in the same place as the Beijing opening ceremony brought back all the excitement we felt watching it from home. We then made our way to the top of the stadium where we would be greeted by many more of our fans we had a 15 minute photo shoot with people lined up to take pictures with us. They must of realized that we too were Olympic athletes that participated in the 2008 Olympics. After our photo shoot we headed out of the stadium and took a nice leisure walk around the area. It was growing dark, we got back on the subway and headed to our hotel. We knew we had to wake up early the next morning for we were to go to the Great Wall of China.



You can look at the rest of our pics using the link below- Enjoy
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28446&id=1654712300&l=e55fd1e28b

Beijing (Day 1)

Well we are back from our Beijing trip safe and sound. Let me start by saying we had an amazing time. We originally were suppose to leave Korea at 8:00am on Thursday. The early departure meant we had to get up at around 3:00am. Fortunately our flight was rescheduled for later that day at 1:00pm. So we got up at our normal time and made an identical journey like Thailand to Incheon Airport. Because it was the Chuseok Holiday (Korean Thanksgiving/Harvest Festival) there was expected to be a lot of traffic. On the contrary, in the morning it was a typical drive to the airport. Before we took flight Latanya and I made a traditional Korean fan in the airport. They were having a cross cultural experience center, free cross cultural experience center that is, and we thought it would be fun. At first is was great and then we realized we do not have too much patience for art.
We arrived in Beijing at about 3:00 in the afternoon. The flight was only an hour and a half, however we were delayed over an hour in Korea. When we arrived we made our way through customs and met our shuttle driver, so we thought. She was not the driver but took us to a waiting area for the shuttle. After about twenty minutes the van pulled up and we hopped in. The Beijing sky was so blue. It was such a nice afternoon. The temperature was a little warmer than Korea. The Van ride lasted only about a half hour or so.
We then arrived at the New Dragon Hostel. Hmm...but isn't our place called the Forbidden City Hotel, it sure is. What in the world? We asked the driver why we were where we were, and he said that our hotel was closed for the day. You see China was celebrating their National Day (much like the Fourth of July). Not only their National Day, but it was the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Chinese Communist Regime. So one could say it was a big deal. Well anyways our hotel lies with in a mile radius of Tiananmen Square (giant parade grounds). The mile radius was completely closed off to anybody not involved with the festivities, which were the commoners, us.
So the driver told us that we should stay at the hostel until maybe 9pm and that they would take us there later. He said we would definitely get there by midnight. We obviously had other plans. We did not want to stay cooped up in there for 6 to 9 hours, we wanted to see Beijing. So we grabbed a map and made our way towards the festivities.

Shortly after we headed out we started to realize that our backpacks were rather heavy. As the minutes passed they grew heavier and heavier. But we knew that this would not stop us. We walked towards our hotel and were met with crowds of people just standing around looking towards Tiananmen Square. All the shops in the nearby malls were closed. As a matter of fact everything was closed with the exception of a few small restaurants. We zigged and zagged our way down many streets to try and reach our hostel, because at this point we did not know that there was a strict barrier closing everything off. After countless failures we rested for a while on the sidewalk. We had some food from a local restaurant and ate it on the curb, literally street eats. It was delicious. It was simple, rice and a stir fry of veggies in a spicy glaze sauce.
Finally night came and more people gathered on the streets still looking in the direction of Tiananmen Square. Shortly there after we heard some loud booms. We were like, are they firing the tanks from the parades. We sure hope not. We stood up quickly and realized it was not gunshots but fireworks, many fireworks. We could see them just over the buildings in the direction of Tiananmen Square. So now we knew what everyone was looking for. The fireworks display started out like a Disney show but then grew to a magnificent extravaganza. There were fire works of different shapes, sizes and colors. We were impressed. After about 45 minutes of fireworks the festivities were officially over.

We attempted to cross the barricade but were told that we had to wait another hour. We did not want to take no for an answer and tried to weave our way to our hotel instead. Once on the other side of the barricade we attempted to find our hotel. It was like being behind enemy lines, very sneaky and exhilarating. We finally found our hotel and ran inside to check in. We were exhausted from caring our backpacks the whole day. It turns out that our hotel was only about 100 yards away from where we were standing watching the fireworks, so close. We were so tired we did not even look at our amenities and passed out. It was not until we woke up the next day when realized what we got ourselves into.

You can look at the rest of our pics using the link below- Enjoy
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28212&id=1654712300&l=8f1aca18d5

Beijing

Dan and Tan are embarking on another adventure for 5 days. On October 3, Korea will be celebrating Chuseok (한가위) which is equivalent to Thanksgiving. During this holiday Koreans return to their hometowns to pay respects to the spirits of one's ancestors. We decided to leave Korea all together and are headed to Beijing to celebrate their national day on October 1. This national day will be a special one for China they have shutdown central Beijing to celebrate 60 years of Communist rule. We are so excited to continue learning about other cultures, be in the same city as the 2008 summer Olympics...the birds nest that we watched in awe from home, and most of all climb the Great Wall of China. We have been very blessed to have this opportunity and want to thank you all of you readers for keeping up during our year abroad.

Dan and Tan
(P.S. The picture above is a Chuseok gift from Dan's principal..these little fish are usually served at bars and restaurant as snacks)

Co-Workers

Sometime ago I posted about my co-teachers. Well, since that time our English Department has grown some. When I first started back in March I had two co-teachers, Kate and Grace. I taught with them for the majority of the time. In the first semester I taught 3rd and 5th graders with Grace. I had six 3rd grade classes and four 5th grade classes. I taught four 6th grade classes with Kate. Now that we are in a new semester I am now teaching five 4th grade classes instead of the 3rd graders. Co-teaching is really easy. We pretty much dominate the classroom together. In our textbooks there are four sections to a chapter. I do the lesson plans for the 2nd and 3rd periods of each chapter and Grace and Kate do the other two. We feed off of each other very well. I must say, lesson planning for these classes are really easy, mainly because of the book. The book give us a basic outline and we add and subtract from it as we please.
I have had another co-teacher, her name is Heather. I don't actually teach with her but we share an after school Special English Class. I don't particularly like the title but oh well. It is suppose to be for gifted kids not special in the sense of challenged kids. We have worked our schedule out so that she teaches the two hour class on Wednesdays and I on Mondays and Fridays. I fill in for her if she needs me too. She tends to be really busy. You see, she is not a designated English teacher she is actually a homeroom teacher. She teaches second grade. But because she ran the English program the previous two years, they Vice Principal felt it necessary for her to run the class.
I have yet one more co-teacher to bring it to an even four. Her name is Un Hey. She teaches in the BEST (Baekbong English Special Town) program. Once again, more of that special business. The new facility was built for after school English studies. The center is state of the art with a cooking room, dance studio, green room, reading cafe and huge multipurpose room. I answer to Un Hey when it's about my class in the BEST program. It's a writing class. and I just started it a few weeks ago. I teach it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love this class because I only have 10 students. It is much different than my regular classes of 35.
My other co-workers in our English department are Ben and Lydia. They teach strictly in the BEST program with the exception of a few hours. They are a couple from England. Latanya and I hang out with them often. We always seem to have a great time together.
So that's our staff. We all get along really well. I have heard many horror stories of really bad co-teachers and I find myself very lucky.

School Overview (Dan)

To start off school life has been a bit busy. I have been on the move ever since the semester started. School here in Korea is structured differently than the States. For one it is completely ran by the government, and with government comes a lot of paper pushing, bureaucracy. To order a new ink cartridge for the printer, for example, can take awhile. There are forms that need to be filled out and signed. All while, I could easily go down to the Staples equivalent and buy it in twenty minutes. Instead there is a process that must be followed.
It is also a process to record my overtime hours. When I work extra teaching hours I must fill out a paper with my lesson plan and all. That paper must be filled out by my co-teacher with the Korean translation. I must then sign the paper and then go down to the first floor and get the administrators signature. From there I move to the Vice Principal and get his signature on the second floor. Also on the second floor I must go to the Principal's office and get his signature as well. This is all assuming they are all in their respective offices at the same time, which is never the case. I teach twice a week for this particular after school class and must get the signatures often. It's a hassle to say the least.
Another difference in the school system, is the start of the school year. The school year in Korea starts in March. The first semester goes from March to July. They have a little over a month of a summer vacation, and then the second semester begins in late August. The second semester for the most part lasts from August to December. The winter vacation is a little over two months long. The students do have to go back to school at the beginning of February for two weeks to wrap up the second semester. I have been told that those extra two weeks are designed to finish up any curriculum that was not covered in the bulk of the semester. I also have been told that most classes are usually taught with fun activities for the students.
Another major difference is the school hours for the faculty. Here teachers and faculty are at work from 8:40AM to 4:40AM. Though school lets out at 2:40 we are all obligated to stay the remainder of time. It is designed so the teacher does not take work home. It gives us plenty of time to lesson plan. I am usually done with my main English classes by lunch at 12:10. From their I have about two to three hours of free time to prepare for classes. I am running two after school classes at the moment. One of them is an special English class and the second is a writing class I have mentioned before. Other than those major differences school is school. Kids still act like kids.
Next post I will go into more detail about my co-workers and students.

Fall

Fall is here. I don't know if I should be excited or not. I mean the weather is nice and cool and the humidity has subsided. It's just when I think of it getting cool I only think of the Winter to follow. It is definitely a light jacket kind of weather, in the mornings and evenings anyways. During the day it is warm. Not too much is happening as of lately. I started an additional after school class for some overtime. It is a writing class. When I told my mother I was teaching writing she was quick to point out all the mistakes I use to make in primary school as well as the mistakes I continue to make as an adult. Thanks for the support mom, just kidding. Anyways I have ten students in that class and I bought a couple of books to use for the semester's curriculum. It's only two days a week, so pretty easy money, I say. My other special class has dwindled from 22 students at the beginning of last semester to 17 as of late. And because of this Swine Flu epidemic our whole after school center has seen a drastic drop off in registration from the previous semester. I just realized I have not really talked too much about my school and keeping you all updated. I think I will follow this post with a focused post about school life. Bye for now.
Dan

Long time no see

Is this week over as yet???? The weather is starting to change California weather has spoiled me. It is too chilly in the mornings and evenings that I have to bring a jacket! I have traded my summer dresses and shorts for pants and long sleeve shirts...Argh. This has been the longest week ever so I decided to write on the blog. It has been a long time. I am enjoying teaching and traveling it has been an absolute blessing now I'm trying to guide my life in a way that it has more meaning and purpose. This really stresses me out cause I have no idea been what I want to do. Anyway, my school hired a new English teacher named Shin. I am so relieved to have a new English teacher. This is her first job out of college. Over the past few weeks we have spent a lot of time getting to know each other it amazes me how much we have in common. She is really outgoing and loves to ask questions about America the way she talks about it sounds like some magical place. It is but when living there you take everything for granted. Shin cracks me up her new dream is move to New York be a teacher and a part time NBC news correspondent because she read an article about Jenna Bush her exact words "If Jenna can do it so can I"..lol. Her positive outlook on life inspires me. After lunch we started a language exchange program I help her with her English and she teaches me Korean.

Tan

Poll

Well according to the poll I posted last week (to the left), we have very few followers or we have a lot of oblivious followers. I wanted to get a feel for our audience. According to the poll thus far we only have five people who read our blog, one of them being me. If you can please take the time to click the appropriate answer, we would appreciate it. It will help us out, so we know if we should be blogging more or less.
Thanks,
Dan

Back to School

We are back at it again. The second semester officially started this week. It's sad to know that our summer vacation is over. However it does feel good to be back in school. I must admit I missed my kids. Latanya most certainly is not too happy about being back at work. The getting up early is not her idea of fun. Other than school starting back not much else is going on.
We had some Mexican food the other week. In fact we practically had a whole Mexican week. There was a Mexican festival in Seoul. It was a grand re-opening of a restaurant. Plenty of tacos, quesadillas, margaritas and beer. We also ate at On the Border as well. It was really good. The unlimited chips and salsa were wonderful.
Also, I will be trying to get a lot of overtime in the second semester. Because of the new after school program my school asked if I wanted to work in the afternoon as well. It should be a good opportunity to make some more money.
Peace for know.
Dan