So lately it’s been festival crazy. I went to three Cherry Blossom Festivals in Korea! The most famous one in Jinhae and then two in Seoul (Yoeido & Jamsil). Jinhae I highly recommend going to Jinhae it’s absolutely gorgeous!! Silly me forgot my camera at Jinhae so I gotta borrow my galfriend's photos she took of Jinhae. The cherry blossoms were so beautiful, my allergies were murder sadly. The weather is going up and down here like crazy and I’ve been spending way too much time at the doctors lately. Being that it’s getting to be closer to summer it’s now shifting to festival season here in Korea! You gotta love the festivals here in Korea cuz there’s no charge or payment to get into the festival. It’s open to anyone but of course there’s markets to buy things if you want to shop. There are cultural performances that are like WOW my goodness! You are blown away! It’s hard to describe but to look at pictures and see in photos. I also took a look at Changgyeong-gung Palace which was absolutely gorgeous! Everyone go see as well!

So for two weekends in a row were like cherry blossom festival crazy, so the next weekend was a little mellower. But I learned A Ton! I was in shock and AWE! My friends brought up an idea to go to the Seodaemun Prison History Hall located at Hyehwa Station in Seoul. https://www.sscmc.or.kr/Now when they brought it up I realized it was a prison but it didn’t occur to me the huge significance of it. When Japan took over Korea, is when the prison was built by the Japanese for Koreans fighting for independence from Japan. My GOD! What South Korea has gone through is horrific and my GOD they’ve come along way. I feel honored to be here. Having discussions with my students about it I didn’t realize why a lot of Koreans aren’t fans of Americans. Now I know why. If my memory serves me correctly, but before Japan took over South Korea the American president at the time agreed to help protect Korea from further harm from any other country. So when Japan invaded South Korea, America didn’t help them. OMG! My heart goes out to the survivors of the prison. My adult students’ grandparents were around when it happened. As I walked through the prison I was astounded at the torture they went through. The Korean women were sexually tortured and some had needles getting aggressively forced under their fingernails! During the torture rooms they showed motion dummies very slightly moving to show the pain of what they went through. Clearly, it was very graphically portrayed. Both the men and women were electric shocked and whipped and beaten. I was at a loss for words and surprisingly I didn’t cry. I think I was so shocked I didn’t know how to react. In a lot of ways, it doesn’t show much looking forward from the portrayal of these series of unfortunate events in the historic prison. But at the same time, some people have no sense of empathy and a lack of compassion until they see such examples of horror. So I can understand the Koreans perspective in showing such a historic prison as this one. It’s no wonder many of the older generation are hostile about Japan and China for that matter. Poor Korea has been through a lot and been “crapped upon” would be the correct term to use. It’s really sad that people can’t let go of the past and move on and let people live they’re lives. Thankfully things have gotten better in international relations within Asia, but of course there is still some tension.

It’s interesting I was just watching the Discovery Channel this morning and they had a program about South Korean culture and society. One of the reporters was stating that South Korea has made HUGE accomplishments in their improvement of quality of life and technology over the years. Especially with films. Many of the films that are made, are very violent so people may assume that South Korea is a very violent scary culture. But the movies that are produced just show a “reflection of they’re history” and that South Korean culture is actually quite a peaceful society. Being that I’ve been living here for about 8 or 9 months now, I completely agree. Korea used to be a very poor country like Thailand so that’s why the parents push education so much is because of lack of wealth for so long. But I think things are improving in the education but VERY slowly. My heart goes out to my students. They work SOOooo hard! I was really mad at the other English teacher (non-foreign). My middle school students came in and told me that the teacher whipped their hand with a stick the amount of times they got wrong on the test they took!! I was shocked! I just didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe it. My students laughed cuz I told them “that teacher is crazy! I’m so sorry”. I don’t have the heart to do that to any student. The only way I would think that would be okay is if a student did something really bad behaviorally. But this was Just A TEST! My goodness gracious! I was telling my adult students about it. That it really stinks that I can’t do anything to help. I wanted to go talk to that other teacher and give her a piece of my mind. Do they actually think that makes the kids want to learn English!? Cha HA! Yea right. (Sarcasm) I felt so bad for that class I gave them a hug and a mini-snickers bar. They were surprised and kept saying “ooh! Thank you teacher!” It’s nice in my classes. Most of them, even though my class size has improved I feel like I have a relationship with my students. One of my young classes is just adorable. My one student Eddie gets so excited about English he literally starts yelling speaking English. Not in a bad way of course. It’s cuz he’s a kid. I laughed so hard tears were coming out. I love him, he’s a cutie! I could squooge him all day. I try to reward them on a pretty good basis with ice cream or a little candy to let them I know their doing great. I’ve noticed the difference it makes. They don’t get that here at my Hagwon so they really show their appreciation when I do. The sidewalk chalk is working wonders too on their English! =) So next stop Beijing May 2nd-5th! I’m looking into volunteering with the elephants in Thailand when my contract is up or if it’s still unstable I’m looking into Italy for another option through United Planet I found online is a pretty big organization. It was on CNN. Anyone who’s reading this worked or volunteered with them before??