Uijeongbu

I had a pleasant surprise tonight. Actually, one this afternoon and another yesterday, too. First things first: yesterday, after racking my brains for hours over how to begin with my new first grade classes (the 3rd graders have ceased having subject classes, so in their place, I'm teaching the 6 lower-level 1st grades) and still not having a complete lesson plan, the English teachers decided that introducing me now would be too disruptive right before finals, so I won't take the new classes until the week after next. They also decided they needed extra time with the 2nd grade classes they had yesterday, so I ended up not having to teach at all. Good timing--I think I was fighting off swine flu, and was quite content to keep my headache and fever at my desk, where I didn't have to exert myself.

My lesson this week is on giving directions. I was afraid it would be too easy--I found a 5-street map in a workbook and was limiting the vocabulary to "go down the street", "turn right/left", and "it's on your right/left". In my lone class today, we never got that far. The workbook with the map also had some locating questions, ie "Where is the supermarket?"; "It's across from the bank." "Where is the gas station?"; "It's on Maple." Sounds like a good warm-up. I made a giant map to hang in the front of the room, and printed worksheets with the map and the 4 vocabulary elements, so everything was not only at the front of the classroom, but on the students' desks as well. I went through and named all the streets with the kids. I introduced one bit of vocab at a time. I asked, "Where's the bank?" and pointed to it on the map. I said "It's on Elm" and ran my finger up and down Elm Street, then pointed to the bank again. I had the kids chorus "It's on Elm" a couple of times. Then I asked individuals "Where's the bank?". Nobody knew.

But on to more hopeful things. On the way out this afternoon, Terrie asked me if I walk around and explore my neighborhood. When I told her I do virtually every day, she started talking about how she found a great area in her own neighborhood that's "old Seoul" (aka 1970s), and offered to take me for a walk there next week when we get out early. Cool!! That also reminded me that I'd once planned to set aside Wednesday nights for exploring different parts of the city, but have gotten out of the habit. But it's Wednesday, I had nothing planned, and after spending most of the last 2 evenings napping, I was ready to get out and see the town.

I unfolded my Seoul map and scanned the possibilities, but my attention kept wandering to the subway map. My original intent was to pick a random station and just see what went on in the area. I've done downtown to death, so I decided to head up Line 1 (where I live) in the opposite direction, and check out Uijeongbu, the terminus for many northbound trains, and one of the funnier names on the line.

It's not quick or cheap to get all the way there, but Uijeongbu is definitely going to be part of my regular round. At first glance, it looked just the same as everywhere else, and I thought I was a sucker for trekking all the way up there. A few minutes' walk down the main drag brought me to a huge Christmas "tree" (a la Liberty Pole) with multi-colored lights. It was a cheery sight, and though the green (or tan, this time of year) it's on is fenced off, 3 girls had gone in anyway and were laughing and taking photos, making it seem alive and festive. There was a park across the street, too, giving me a much wider view of the smoggy sky than I'm used to here. I turned the corner and decided to check out the library.

Behind the library was a large, hilly, treed park, with paths winding this way and that. Exactly what I've been looking to take my evening walk in for 3 months!! One path led up into the trees, passing the obligatory exercise equipment and some seriously cool playground stuff. There were slides coming out of a gaping frog's mouth, a snaking truck tire tunnel that must have been 20 yards long, and a rambling arbor with dozens of rings hanging on long ropes. I almost wanted to play with it myself. There was a climbing wall, and, though I've never seen a skateboard in Korea, a small skate park at the top. Behind the skate park--bliss!--were wooded hills. "Wooded hills"....completely inadequate words to convey the simultaneous elation and serenity of finding myself in such a place. An expressway rushed by just out of sight--not usually what I would wish for in a park, but tonight it was perfect. The place felt exactly like Tryon. I realized I've spent probably 1/3 of my time on Earth within earshot of 590, and the sound was actually kind of refreshing. I wanted to lose myself in the trees, stay in there forever, but, it being night, there was the chance of doing exactly that, so my explorations will have to wait for another, hopefully not-too-far-off time.

The highway wasn't the only unusual sound in the park. I walked the network of paths to the accompaniment of Christmas music, coming from speakers mounted on lightpoles and trees. Koreans abhor both nature AND a vacuum, so strive to make every outdoor experience as similar to a city street as possible. Thus, music in parks is pretty routine here. Apparently, there isn't a lot of Korean Christmas music, so I've had the privilege of hearing a lot of familiar stuff lately, and, somehow, walking through the woods with Bruce Springsteen singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" suited me tonight.