New beginnings and new experiences

This week marks the end of the last semester of this school year.  I don't really understand why Korean school is organized like this, but from March to the beginning of July is the first semester, then there is a break (in which the English Centre at my school does summer camp for intensive English training), the next semester starts at the beginning of September until sometime in December, then another break ensues (in which the English Centre does winter camp), until February where we have another two weeks of the regular semester, one week off (where the English Centre does spring camp), and then the start of the new year in March.  Now, if you read that whole long sentence and are a little confused, well, then you have a bit of an understanding what it's like being an English teacher.  In all honesty, it works I guess because everyone knows what is going on here.  But it doesn't always make sense to me.

But no matter... because this past week was the last of the regular semester, on Friday was the 6th grade graduation ceremony.  I went with Angela and Dahye to see the awards and what not presented to the 6th grade students.  It's always great when you see students who are such hard workers being honoured for their achievements.  It's also weird to see students being honoured who you know do not try for a moment in your class and you wonder who was in charge of giving out the awards!  But it was still an interesting experience overall.  Especially to hear all the students sing the national anthem, the school song, and another kind of folk song.  Some students look downright embarrassed.  It made me laugh a bit.

After the ceremony, my school treated all of the teachers to a special lunch down the street from the school.  After lunch, most of the teachers then piled into a bus and went on a little excursion to Songnisan, which is a mountain and town near my town.  We were going to go for a bit of a hike, have a snack at this checkpoint, walk back down, see the temple, and then go for supper in the town. 

It was kind of odd to me to all go on a hike together with all the teachers from Samsan Elementary school, but it was definitely nice to get out of the school and into the fresh air.  Plus Songnisan is beautiful!  I can't wait to go hiking to the top when there is a little less snow on the ground and the weather is warmer.

 And we're off!

 Angela, Dahye and Juhee are on their way.

 I asked why there were Chinese symbols on everything, and from what I understand they told me that a long time ago, Korea used the Chinese symbols to start to create their own way of writing their language.  I may have misunderstood... but I found that interesting.

 Dahye, me, and two other teachers from the school.

 Juhee and I are looking "natural" as we survey the scenery.

 Clearly having fun hiking!

 This was the point we stopped and then were served makkoli (Korean rice wine) and pajeon (pancake made with green onion and other ingredients, we had a seafood one).

 And, of course, some kind of kimchi.

 Angela and my co-teacher, Jenny.

 The men... well, not all of them, but a few of the male teachers at the school.  They were very sharply dressed for an afternoon of hiking!

 Some more of the teachers and administration.  The man on the left is the captain of the teachers and the one on the right is my school's Principal.

 Going to the temple.

 This is apparently the largest Buddha in Korea.  They told me it was the largest one in Asia, but when I researched it a bit, I don't think that is the case.  Anyway, this is Golden Maitreya Buddha of Beopjusa and stands at 33 m (or 108 ft).

 Guards of the temple.

 I like this statue...

 Inside the underneath part of the statue were all these little golden Buddhas.

 Up at the top you could light incense and bow on the mats if you wanted to.  Apparently bowing three times is for good luck.

After we were done hiking and looking at things, we went into the town and had mushroom jigae (which is kind of like a stew).  It was incredibly delicious!  It had something like 4 or 5 kinds of mushrooms.  I am definitely going back to that restaurant!

All in all it was very pretty and the weather and everything was just perfect.  It was again, kind of odd to go on an excursion like that with all the teachers, but on the other hand it was kind of fun!  I enjoyed the walk.  And, like I said, I am definitely going back when spring comes and I can climb to the top!  I guess after my Thailand hike, I feel like I can do more than I thought before.  That's a nice realization.  And, I like it more than I thought.  I think that's an even nicer realization.

That's one thing about my time in Korea thus far... my perspective of myself has changed.  I think this is a good thing.