Reading Town Honor's Ville (my school's name)

Sorry about taking so long to post, I'm going to try and do a better job of it! I wanted to tell you about my school and teaching now that I'm a month into it.  I'm an English teacher a hogwon, which is a private academy that teaches English courses to students, with the intention of making them fluent readers and speakers of the language.  I teach students that are about 8-13 years old.  Most of them start at the regular Reading Town which is on the floor above my school.  The teacher 4-8 year olds.  After my school, they go to the floor below us, called Avalon Glide, where the continue to study the language, and start studying science and math in English as well.  It's a huge industry in South Korea, proven in that South Korea is one of the largest investors in private education.  The kids at my school with take 2 or 3 classes in the afternoon or evening.  A class period lasts 45 minutes with a 5 minutes break.  This is in addition to the regular schools they go to earlier in the day.  We have 5 native teachers (including me) and right now 5 korean teachers, but I know they are looking for 2 more korean teachers!

There's three type of classes I teach.  Book reading, comprehension, and speech/essay:

1) Book reading is where we take a month in class to read book.  I assign reading, we discuss it, and they also have workbooks to go through.  It's a lot of repetition to make sure EVERY student has a strong grasp of the book, its vocabulary, what it means, etc.  We meet 3 times a week, and one of those days we go to Learning Gate (the library).  Here, they each pick 2 smaller books to read on their own and write a "Mini-Book Report".  I then pick a big book to read, and they have to read then write a "Big Book Report" on the book that I grade, and they also have an online test they do at home on the big book.  Every week we go to the library and get new books and such.  Most of my classes are book reading classes.

2)Comprehension is for some of the older students, and its just what it sounds like.  They read articles in a book, and then we talk about what it means and such.  Each unit has an articles and a workbook area associated with it, we do one unit a class and after 6 classes, we take a test on the previous units.

3) Essay/Speech is where the students practice their writing skills, correctly building complete sentences and such.  There's an emphasis on the kids reading out loud and writing their own essays and giving presentations. A lot of the instruction is on useful expressions and such to make a continuously flowing and long responses.

So those are my classes!  I have about 32 lessons a week right now,  and I see the same students MWF and different students TR.  Here's some pictures of my school of one of my classes!

I get to school at 1pm, and my first class of the day starts at 3:40.  These are the youngest kids I teach, and luckily I only have 5.  It's also one of my favorite classes, but I'll admit, they behave much better than some of the other young classes the other teachers have (lucky me!).

The lone boy in the class Hayden didn't want his picture taken.  He's always hyper and having fun, but he crosses the line too much, so I have to yell at him.  This was right after he got yelled at, so he was sulking in the corner.  Irechez is on the left, she's really smart but new to the program, but she is getting confident and always has the right answer for me!  Jamie is in the back, she likes to answer questions or explain things by getting up and demonstrating, which hopefully will gradually turn into her using English to answer questions!  Kayla is second from the left, and is quite smart too but like to take control of the class sometimes.  Cindy is on the right, and if Hayden isn't being the class clown, she is.  Let's just say she doesn't like rules, and I'm guessing learning English isn't her favorite past time!

This is the face Irechez always makes when I ask who wants to read first?!  The young ones love reading, and the always want to be the one to start first haha.

I took this video of them reading...it was the day after they took a test on their previous book, and they knew I was making them read this book just because we had nothing to do, since the their semester was finishing that day too.  So needless to say, they weren't very cooperative!

So here's my school!  This is the entrance area where the front desk is.

Here's a classroom and the hallways through the area.  We have about 12 or 15 classrooms?  One of the is a lot larger, and wired for presentations and movies and such.

Here's the faculty work area.  All of our desk areas are on each wall, and the middle table will have food for us on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, since none of us have a break during dinner time to go out a buy something on the street.

And here is my desk area!:

Nothing spectacular, but its works well!

I hope every has a great weekend and I'll post sooner than I did this time.  I have some fun things coming up that I will definitely share on this blog.  

One week down in Bucheon

None of this really hit me until I finally was waiting to board the 747 out of Los Angeles to Seoul, surrounded by a bunch of Koreans talking (surprise) Korean.  Then it REALLY hit me when we were flying up the west coast and I looked down at Alaska fading away as we went into the ocean, and realized that was the last time I was going to see America for a whole year!  Needless to say, 10 hours later as we were descending over Korea, I was questioning every reason I had for going to Korea and wondering what the hell I was doing.  All I wanted to  do was fast forward through the first week hoping that things would work themselves out.  And that's exactly what has happened.  I have long way to go before I'll be totally comfortable here, but I'm definitely enjoying myself and appreciating just how great of an opportunity this is.

I had a driver who spoke little English greet me at the airport and take me to my new home in Bucheon.  It's about a 30 minute train ride into Seoul, but its part of the metro area.  Driving from Bucheon to Seoul you wouldn't notice the end of one city and the beginning of another...Seoul is huge!  Addresses here in Korea are notoriously bad, I don't even know my address yet.  Neither did my driver, as we spent 20 minutes trying to get into apartment #312 in the building that turned out to be right next to my building.  Once we realized this, I was quickly shown to my place.  I'll have another blog post up on that later..

But my location here in Bucheon is great!  Everything I need is basically within 1 or 2 blocks of me.  My school is a 5 minute walk away, and between the school and I is the entertainment district of Bucheon.  Tons of restaurants, bars, shops, everything!  American food places near me include: Cold Stone, Dunkin' Donuts, Burger King, KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks, Baskin Robins, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Bennigan's, and even an Outback Steakhouse!  So comfort food is never too far away.  I haven't become too adventurous with the Korean food yet, but I'm slowly getting there.  But today (Sunday) I went out to Itaewon here in Seoul, which is near an American base and is a pretty big foreign district.  I went with Steve and his wife Cindy, two other native teachers at the school I teach at (much more on the school in another post later too).  I basically just browsed all the shops, keeping in mind what I saw so I can come back and grab it later when I need it.  They have an international grocery store with things you can't quite find in the local grocery stores.  After I decided to go on a tour of my neighborhood and take pictures to share.  So here goes:


So this is my apartment building,  Each square window area equals one apartment, to give you the idea of the size of my place.  Not huge but it's enough for one person.  I'm on the third floor, but my view is just looking at other windows on the inner courtyard.  So the windows are frosted for privacy.

The streets and walkways between my place and the mall (called U-Plex) and the Hyundai department store look like this.  Just a lot of restaurants and hangouts spots.  The blow up sign there is for one of the two foreigner bars right next to me.  A 100 yard walk for me, and yet I met people there that take about a 45 minute bus ride to get to it.

This is a small park right next to me.  More of just a nice place to walk through on your way to the main street.  Across the way in the background you can see another mall and department store.  There's a water park on top of it, and to the right you can kind of see the green netting on the roof.  That's the driving range.  Golf courses are very expensive here, so everyone just goes to driving ranges with nets or video golf places are everywhere too.

Looking back the other way, you can see the Hyundai department store.  Its 8 or 9 stories, and the U-Plex next to it is about 6 stories tall with a movie theater on top.  If Hyundai sounds familiar, it should.  It's the same company that makes the cars in America, but they make everything here.  Department stores, escalators, cars, appliances, glasses...etc.  EVERYTHING!

This is a picture on the walkway between the mall and the department store, to give you more of an idea of the entertainment district that splits my apartment tower from the department store.

And just on the other side of the department store and across the street is my school.  It's the green sign on the building about 5 floors up, with the RT (Reading Town) to the left of the green writing (might be too hard to see).

Here's a picture of E-Mart, one of two grocery stores right by me.  Notice it looks just like a parking garage?  The ground level and 3 basement levels below it are the grocery store, the rest is the parking for it about it!

A bout two more block from here is Bucheon's city hall, the big white building.  This is a huge outdoor inflated movie screen, and there's banners everywhere advertising Bucheon's International film festival in July, so that's something I have to check out!

Across from this a good sized park.  It's exactly 1 mile around if you run the path that goes around the perimeter.  Here's a bunch of pictures from there.  It was Sunday so some of the streets were closed down for the kids  (and enthusiastic parents) to ride bikes and four wheel toys cars that can be rented.  There's an amphitheater in the park, little ponds, and lots of recreation things.  A lot of Koreans bring tents (kinda weird) and set up for the day in the park, and many more just bring a blanket for picnics.  Lots of delivery scooters will zoom through it as well as people call up places to deliver right to the park.

So today's been a long day and I'm pretty exhausted.  I was able to load up on some used books in Itaewon so I'm going to read a little then get to bed and get ready for my first 5 days work week.  Last Monday was Korea's Memorial Day, so my first day of work was paid vacation!  I'll get back on here soon to tell all about my job and the kids I teach!  My internet still hasn't been set up at my apartment and its going to be a little while before that happens.  Once it does I'll be able to call with Skype and such.  Until then I have to be in a coffee shop.  Sometimes I get a wireless connection in my place but it comes in and out.  I miss everyone a lot already, but I had a great first week and I'm looking forward to many more of them!  Feel free to email me, Facebook me, or do anything necessary to get in touch with me!  

corey1gallagher@yahoo.com

www.facebook.com/coreygall

Long time coming, next up, South Korea..

I can't believe it's been almost six months since I stepped off the mv Explorer in San Diego, wrapping up the most adventurous and incredible semester of my life.  It was an incredible experience that I was blessed to be a part of, and I have more thoughts on it coming.  I've been busy working two jobs for the past few months while waiting to begin another adventure entirely...teaching English to 8 - 13 year olds at a school in Bucheon, just south of Seoul, South Korea!  However, for something that is just around the corner (May 26th I fly out) and such a huge undertaking, I know very little about what I'm getting myself into!  So much like Semester at Sea, a lot of what I need to know will come to me once the adventure already begins.  I imagine once I'm over there I'll have a lot more time to reflect and write about my experience with Semester at Sea, and of course to update all on my adventures in and around South Korea!

My flight leaves to Chicago from Detroit at 6:54am today (June 4, 2011).  From Chicago I travel to LA, and from LA I will arrive in Seoul at 6:30pm local time on Sunday, June 5 (or 4:30am Saturday Eastern time).  I'll be there for the next year, and will use this blog to keep all updated!  But unlike Semester at Sea, I'll have full internet access, so of course I'll be on Facebook and Skype quite often.  I already miss everyone and I haven't even left the states, but I'm very excited for this opportunity, so I just have to keep focusing on that excitement.  Once my internet is up and running at my apartment in South Korea, be ready to hear from me!

Hawai'i

This was my first time to Hawai'i, and we had Mauritius earlier in the voyage (wow, two months ago actually), so I had a good idea of what I was going to be into.  But I have to say, Hawai'i was so much more beautiful that Mauritius was.  The first two days we were docked in Honolulu, and then we had to reboard the ship to make the transit to Hilo, on the island of Hawai'i (the big island) for our next two days.  Honolulu was pretty, but it was just an American city basically.  Waikiki beach was beauitful, and I was able to get us some rooms at the Hyatt so we had a lot of fun hanging out on the beach the first day.  The next day we tried to make it to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial.  We went there and had our tickets, and then 5 minutes before the boat was to leave the closed it for the day due to strong winds :(  I was abel to see it from a distance though, and they had a lot interesting things on the shoreline to check out.  I think it was pretty cool that only two weeks ago I was able to visit the memorial that ended WWII, and to connect that so quickly with the memorial dedicated to what started the war our involvement in WWII was something unique to do, especially in such a short order.

 

While Honolulu was great, I thought Hilo and the big island was just so much more beautiful.  It takes about 2.5 hours to get from one side of the island to another, so myself, Ross, Ross, Travis, and Kelly decided to rent a car for the two days we were there and just explore the island.  Best idea we've had in awhile.  We had a 4 door Jeep Wrangler, which we immediately took the soft cover top off of.  Nothing beats cruising down the highway with the ocean to your right, and lush hills and mountaintops to your left.  My favorite part was when you'd go over a bridge that would be going over a valley, to your right you'd see the waves of the Pacific crashing into cliffsides and huge rocks, and to your left you'd see a valley snake its way into the island with waterfalls pooring into it.  Far and away the most beautiful place I've ever seen, and it's in America??  We stopped on our first day to get some local food, which is basically lunch plates, rice served with meats, gravy, and miso soup.  It was really good and they give you a lot of food!  We stopped at a lookout called Wai'pu.  The ocean hits into a giant cliffside, and a black sand beach stretches across the opening of the Wai'pu valley.  From here you can also see the mountains that make up Maui, so it was a stunning view.  We headed that day to Kona to stay the night. When we got into the city we checked out the Kona Brewery, which is apparently well known on the West Coast.  Missed out on the brewery tour we wanted, but we sampled a lot of what they had.  We found a resort for an awesome price that night, which was in Kona and stretched out on a peninsula.  Our room overlooked a lagoon filled by ocean water, which turned into a lot of fun later in the night.

 

All in all Hawai'i was a great place to end the trip.  It's not cool to think I'm back in America, but Hawai'i definitley has its on culture that is different from the mainland.  I guess you can call it island culture, but it's really the culture of the native Hawai'ians, who are still fiercely proud of their heritage and not necessarily happy that they are a part of the US.  But this is day one of three days of finals!  I finished my 15 pg research paper yesterday which put a huge weight off of my shoulders.  Lets just say that its pretty difficult to find sources with the worlds slowest internet and only one online library to work off of.

 

Our last two days on the ship are packing days and graduation.  The last day of finals, we have the Ambassadors Ball.  It's a multi course meal served to us, and theres a dance after.  It's going to be bittersweet, it'll be incredibly weird leaving this ship and all the friends I've made on this. 

 

I have to go study, but in the next few days I'll probably put up my final blog post about this trip, so stay tuned!

 

corey1gallagher@yahoo.com

 

Long Time No Post...China and Japan

It's been awhile since I've put any post up  but it's just been to busy to do it.  China and Japan seem like a blur now, we had only 3 days between Viet Nam and China and then only two days between China and Japan.  Since Japan, I've had a ridiculous amount of work to finish here on the ship, between exams and projects and papers to write.  To add to that, we're down to just over two weeks left of our voyage.  It seems like just other day we were crossing the Atlantic to Spain, its incredible how quickly these three months have flown by.  That being said, I cannot wait to be home to see friends and family, but I'm just as excited to keep seeing the friends I've made on board throughout the coming year.

 

I don't really feel like nor do I have the time or really the memory to break down each day in China and Japan, so this will be a little different, maybe even a little better.

 

I was able to hit the 3 major cities of China within 6 days:  Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. 

 

Hong Kong was the best, and I'm going to go ahead and say it rivals Rome for being my favorite city.  We made it up to Victoria's Peak in Honk Kong, which had incredible views of the entire city.  It's a mountain peak that stands taller than all the skyscrapers, and gives a great cityscape.  We took a walk along a walkway which winded and hugged the top of the mountain, giving different views every few feet or so.  We had Dim Sum for lunch that day (not spelled right), which is the traditional Chinese style of eating.  Servers just cart around different foods and you pick what you want, as soon as you sit down the kind of swarm the table.  We were at a really nice place, reminded me of somewhere the business elite in New York would go for lunch or something.  Needless to say it was delicious.  I'm a huge fan of pork buns now!

 

Hong Kong had a feeling of character to it, and by just walking around and exploring the city you could really pick up on that.  The Star Ferry took us a few times across the river where our boat was docked (beautiful location by the way) for a very cheap price.  The boats they use now had been around for over 50 years, and the ferry docks look like they have as well, it kind of reminded me of New York or Chicago subways in their antiquity.  Before going out that night to the LKF area (best bar district I've ever been in), we stayed on the ship to watch the light show.  A lot of the buildings on the opposite side of the river have crazy light schemes going, with lasers shooting off the tops of the buildings and giant white lights, it was pretty cool.

 

The next morning I began my trip with the China Guide, an independent travel agent that was taking about 200 SASers up to Beijing and the Great Wall.  A lot of my friends were on it, and we were able to choose who we wanted in each tour bus so we ended up in a group together.  The trip was a lot of fun.  The Forbidden City in Beijing was initially a let down.  I only had a faint idea of what it should look like, and we went in the back way and I was thinking "this is it?"  As we moved our way forward, suddenly we came up to the front side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is the main building where the emperor would sit in and such.  It's the classic view that you'd recognize instantly.  There was such a massive crowd pushing it's way towards one of the four open doors that you could look into and see the throne chair (only look, you could not go in).  But for the first time in my life I wasn't worried about getting to the front, because I towered over everyone else that was trying to see it!  I love being tall!  As we kept moving forward to go out of the Forbidden City through the front gates, we saw more and more impressive gates that I was thinking I would see initially.  It definitely didn't turn out to be disappointing at all.

 

We came out of the Forbidden City through the Tiananmen gate, onto Tiananmen Square.  The gate is the one with the picture of Mao Zedong's huge portrait on it.  Our guide pointed out that it was changed once a year, and the same artist had been hired for life to paint the paintings each time.  The square had some impressive buildings on it but overall nothing crazy.  The one really interesting thing about it was that we, as foreigners, did not have to go through security to get into the square.  All the Chinese citizens did have to go through security....China's a little worried about repeating the past I believe...?

 

So eventually we made a two and half hour drive out of Beijing one day to a remote section of the Great Wall of China, the Jinshanling section.  We got there at night and had a dinner at the base camp area, (drinks included, necessary since it was about 20 degrees out and we were camping).  So we all took our bags up to the wall, we were given two sleeping bags a piece, and we set up camp.  It was very cold, but how many people can say they slept on the Great Wall of China?  This wasn't the touristy section either, lots of it was broken down with loose rocks and such and steep slopes where stairs use to be.  Kind of like the Sahara Desert in Morocco, it was amazing again to be able to see so many stars in the sky that night as we fell asleep, and I was able to stay pretty warm in the end.

 

The next morning I finally woke up, remembered where exactly I was at, and jumped up and out of my bag.  As far as I could see, the Great Wall of China stretched all the way to each horizon, snaking its way across the top of the hills into the mountains in the distance.  What a way to wake up!  We made a 3 mile trek that morning along the wall, which just as breathtaking.  It was great to explore the place, going through all the watchtowers, taking in the scenery, and just being alive and experiencing something I will remember for the rest of my life.  Did you know the wall is the worlds longest graveyard?  Workers who built it were buried in it if something happened, and peasants around the wall wanted to bury their dead in the wall, since it protected the bodies from being snatched up by animals.

 

We got back to Beijing later that day and were able to check out the Olympic village, and see the bird's nest stadium and the Cube.  They were cool, but the area around them was such a waste of space now.  After stopping in the public bathrooms, you could really see how rushed the contruction of the area was and how it was designed just for that one summer (cracks everywhere).

 

That night we took a sleeper train to Shanghai which was an experience.  It was pretty comfy, you had 4 people in a cabin with bunk beds on each side. I was decently rested the next day when we awoke and made our way back to the ship, now docked in Shanghai, again at another beautiful port.  Shanghai is a HUGE city, the skyscrapers seem to just keep going and going.  The riverfront was a pretty area, but overall I didn't do too much here except hang out with friends and walk around the town.  Very international place, we were nothing like the only foreigners in the city.  Shanghai is planned out pretty well, where Beijing just seemed to be a sprawling and dirty city.  While I could see the smog as our plane descended into Beijing, neither Beijing or Shanghai affected me much pollution wise.  I was told later Shanghai's pollution is actually less than Los Angeles.

 

But that's a quick blurb about China.  So much to do there I'll have to go back again, someone around spoke English most of them time which is always helpful.  I'll definitely be going back to Hong Kong someday, it would be amazing if I was able to find a career that could get me there for some considerable time.  By the way, our first night in Beijing was the opening night of the Asian Games which was happening in Guangzhou, China.  Never heard of the games or the city?  Because I hadn't either.  Nor have I heard of the Commonwealth Games which were just wrapping up in India before we got there, but these are HUGE deals in Asia and the British Commonwealth.  But Ross and I were watching the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, and without a doubt, they completely out did Beijing's opening ceremony for the Olympics.  It was a huge spectacle, we sat there amazed just watching the television screen.  The only thing I said was "wow, so this is the culture our kids and grandkids will be growing up under".

 

But Japan was just around the corner.  I did Japan completely independently with 4 friends, and it was a great time, though I could easily spend a month in Japan exploring, and we probably could of used a little more planning in regards to seeing everything we wanted to see.  Each of us bought Japan's rail pass, so we had unlimited travel on their bullet trains.  The trains were the easiest way to get around, they showed up right on time, and stayed in a station for maybe 2 minutes tops and were back on there way.  They were clean, comfortable, and very fast.  We didn't have to purchase individual tickets or anything, just had to show up just before the train left and walk on.

 

Our first city was Hiroshima on the first day, and since we didn't get in until later in the afternoon, we didn't have much time.  Japanese customs took forever clearing the ship, and the line to get through immigration was about 3 hours.  So by the time we got to A-Bomb Dome and the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum, much of the day was behind us.  It's a pretty huge park, and it's as pretty as the A-Bomb Dome is erie, and the museum was pretty heavy.  It was an incredibly unbiased museum, showing both Japaense and Allied forces atrocities from the war.  It's main message is that all nuclear weapons need to be destroyed and any testing halted, and even though I only had an hour to rush through it, the museum taught me a lot about the build up to and the actual dropping of the atom bomb, and the effects is still has on people whose parents were exposed to radiation on that day.  It was really erie to walk around and be in the area that was completely flattened and where so many people were killed on that day, but Hiroshima is now a bustling city, you would not even have known something so terrible had happened if it wasn't for the peace park.  We happened to find a little diner along a side street for dinner, and the main cook (possibly the owner?) spoke broken English, and we were able to communicate enough that we wanted Japanese noodles, with chicken, and egg was fine.  It was one of the best meals of the trip!  I've learned by now it's always the random hole in the wall place thats going to give you the best local food for a great price.

 

Immediately that night we headed off to Kyoto, and the next day we went off to explore the city.  Somehow, during that day the only place we ended up at was the Imperial Palace (really don't know how that happened).  But the Imperial Palace was pretty cool, had some really nice garden areas and had the whole traditional Japaneses look to it.  The palace is where the Emperor even today is still crowned, since Kyoto is the historical capitol of Japan.  There was a festival going on outside of the grounds of the palace, some kind of Farmers Market type thing, and lucky for us they were giving away a lot of free samples.  Lots of sweets, some were good and some were a little strange.  But overall, it was a lot of fun.  That night when we met up with another friend by her hostel, we foudn she was located in more of the historic area of Kyoto, and there was even Geisha's walking around!  We also got to experience an interesting time at a Japanese karoke bar, so Kytoto was pretty cool.  Our first night there we had booked a hostel, but we had no plans for the second night.  Luckily our hostel had one spare room, located right next to all their computers.  It was tiny, with just rolled up sleeping mattresses to sleep on, and a thatch floor, so it felt very traditional.  Lucky us, the sleep wasn't that bad either!

 

We made it to Tokyo by early afternoon.  All I can say is, Tokyo is HUGE..  They had umpteen different subway lines (shut down at 12:30 each night, how annoying) and the city NEVER sleeps.  Shibuya was a crazy area, home to the largest crosswalk in the world (which we walked several times) where 1,000 people cross every couple of minutes.  Our hostel was located right next to one of the more famous temples in Tokyo and a long market in front of it in the Asakusa district of Tokyo.  There was an amusment park right out of our hostel window, and one of the streets that took us to our hostel on Sunday was littered with people in costumes doing random shows.  There was even a three story stage, right on the street, with actors doing some martial arts show, people rappelling all the way down from the top, jumping from the 2nd level, it was crazy!  And this was happening every 20 feet or so, just right on the street!  Conveyor belt sushi was delicious,, and we were able to see some crazy Japanese fashion styles and some of the fashion districts that sell those styles. 

 

One night in Tokyo stands out as a good way to describe all of Japan and the fact that sleep was just not a priority there.  We started the night by heading out around ten to the Roppongi, the nightlife district.  We went into the first club that tried to get us in, it was a hip hop club, and we were the only ones in it ha.  No surprise, it was early, but the drinks were only 500 yen (like 6 bucks), so we figured it was a deal.  After being there for awhile, we went looking for another club, and got invited into a club with no cover and free shots for the ladies.  While the bouncer took us up, he talked to us about what we were doing and such, and turns out he was from Nigeria.  So we told him about out time in Ghana, and when he asked how we liked Ghana, I told him that we had all loved Ghana, and sure enough, guys got free shots now too, and he capped all the drinks at 500 yen for us there too!  So it worked out great.  Stayed there for awhile longer, and decided we needed somewhere with dancing.  Even though it was Sunday night we found a place pretty quickly, and by the time it was 3:30am, we needed some food or some sort of break.  So we headed to McDonald's (the only place open!), got some interesting Japanese McDonalds food, and hanged around there for 45 minutes or so, waiting for the subway to open again. Why did we do this you ask?  Oh yea, main point of this night was to get stay up all night to get to the Tsukiji Fish Market, which is the largest in the world or something like that.  So just before 5am the subway started running, and we made our way to the market.  The tuna auction is the most fabled event at the market, but only 140 tourists are allowed in each day, so we didn't make that.  The wholesale market doesn't open to tourist until 9am, but, nobody was there to stop us at 5am!  So we walked around inside of there for a couple of hours, giant tuna, crazy fishes I've never seen, and just everywhere you look, fish being cut up, fish on display, people moving everywhere, crazy seafood, fork lifts shooting around, it was madness (espeically in my slightly buzzed state).  It was so huge we got lost and when we actually wanted to leave, it took us several attempts to find the way we had come.  I will say it was weird going into the market at dark, and coming out to total daylight.  Needless to say, we made our way back to our hostel and by 8:30am our night was over.  It was a crazy night, especially since I left out just about everything that was actually crazy about that night, but thats just for your imagination.

 

Yokohama was actually a really really nice city.  Coincidentally, Commodore Perry landed here with a fleet of American warships in 1854 and forever changed Japanese history by opening it up to American commercial interests. 

 

But besides all that, it's streets were full of trees that were changing colors with the season, and it just had a very pleasant feel to it.  On top of that, the day I spent there (we left on the ship the night we arrived) was the one day when everything worked out to a T.  We knew what we wanted to do, and it worked out just fine!  We hadn't seen a garden yet, so a few of us when to visit a garden we were told about in Yokohama called Sankei-en, which is a traditional Japanese-style garden.  The weather that day was perfect, low 70s, and the garden was in the middle of fall, so all the leaves were gorgeous.  There was 17 traditional Japanese buildings from all over Japan brought to the park long ago, so it was very picturesque.  A huge lake was surrounded by trees with bridges going across it, a pagoda rested on top of a hill overlooking most of the park, and the buildings were nestled back in the woods.  We ended the day in our very last foreign country by grabbing some sushi at a grocery store and hustling are way back to the ship.

 

Japan was a nice start for our transition back to America.  It is a Western influence, and for the most part felt like home.  I can say this though, and I feel like I've said this about every country, and I hope its the same for foreigners who visit the States, but I felt so welcomed and was surprised by how nice people were.  The chef from our dinner in Hiroshima was happy to hear how much we enjoyed his noodle soup.  When we went to exchange our vouchers for our actual rail passes, a man got in line with us to answer our questions, found out a little about us, helped us speak with rail clerk, found out what subway we needed to get to the other station, and then walked us all the way over to the subway station!  In Hiroshima, an older man saw us looking at the streetcar platform a little perplexed, he came over and asked us "A-Bomb Dome?" and we said yes!  He pointed to the platform we needed, gave us the car numbers, and then, since he didn't speak too much English, pulled out a card which had English written on it saying "You pay for the ride at the end".  Have you ever visited anywhere and had someone help you this much out of the blue, not expecting anything in return?  And this were just casual people walking by, not some tourist police (who protected tourist from traffic in Viet Nam) or something like that.  I understand we stand out more in a foreign country, but it was crazy and humbling just how nice people can be.

 

So we now have three days to Hawai'i.  I can't wait, most people say it's the most beautiful place in the world.  I won't lie though, it's incredibly sad to be back in America.  Leaving Japan was hard since we all knew it was the last foreign country.  Luckily this week has been going by pretty fast with all the class load weighing down on us and trying to hang out with every one as much as possible before we disembark.  In a future post, probably blended with Hawai'i, I'll try to put into words what this voyage has done.  One of the professors on board this morning called it "Quick Global Consciousness".  I think that sums it up nicely.  I can't wait to see what I'll do in the future because of this experience, I know the impact of SAS has barely yet to sink in even. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha Long Bay

Viet Nam

I was really excited to be going to Viet Nam.  The way a lot of us thought of it was to think that someday, our children may find themselves traveling to Iraq.  Viet Nam was before my lifetime, but I've learned plenty about it through school and the infinite amount of movies on the subject.  So we started pulling into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) at around 4am, and I was sure to be up to the top deck at 5am to watch the sun rise up and see us making our way up the river to the port.   It was about a three hour journey to get up there, and it was beautiful to see the sun come up over the dense tree line.  There was a lot of little fishing boats out on the water, most of the fishermen just waking up and getting to the boats.  The weather was pretty humid and warm, especially for that early in the morning. 

 

Gradually as we got closer to the city we could see skyscrapers popping up.  What I thought was the downtown area was quickly overshadowed by what emerged from the haze a little further down river, a downtown area with one huge, very cool looking building.  It was built in the last year, and it's the tallest building in Viet Nam, but will only hold that title for another year.  Viet Nam's economy is growing, and they have a crazy construction boom going on right now.  The skyline was dotted with construction cranes everywhere.  We docked basically right in the downtown area, and started getting right to set off into a communist country! (Well hybrid communism, a market economy doesn't really follow communist ideals).  Viet Nam turned out to be one of the more educational countries that I have visited so far.  And it's full of cheap knock off brands!

 

Day 1

 

Nothing really scheduled for this day, so it turned into being a pretty nice relaxing day.  The had a bus taking us from the port entrance of the city up to the Rex Hotel, which is a little more central to the city, but the port itself was actually pretty central.  So we took the bus up there and started wandering around.  We stumbled upon a place with some cheap DVDs, and by cheap I mean 80 cents for movies that are still in theaters!  Needless to say we loaded up.  We were thinking about getting a massage or something, so as soon as a promoter for one a spa came up, we jumped on the opportunity.  Except me and the other guys decided a massage was just too personal, and I was afraid I'd be laughing or something during the entire thing.  So I'm not ashamed to say we ended up getting pedicures and manicures, and a nice foot scrubbing.  It tickled.  And the lady I had doing my foot scrubbing put on plastic gloves?  What a jerk.  But I guess I have been walking and running for 23 years without any care to what the looked like.  I did feel pretty clean afterwards, and apparently all the for under 10 bucks and an hours worth of work is quite the deal, so I was happy.

 

After this we were all pretty hungry so the group headed off to find pho, which is kind of like Viet Nam's national dish.  We went to a cafe at the top of a little hotel, and I had pho with spring rolls as an appetizer.  The pho is basically a beef noodle soup, and it's delicious.  A chain we ate at later in the week is called Pho 24, it started in Ho Chi Minh City but they're actually popping up in the US now, so I strongly recommend it if you have one nearby.. I think my whole meal here was 5 bucks, including beers as well.  No complaints here!

 

After this we headed over to the Ben Thanh Market nearby where we spend most of the afternoon looking at all the stuff inside.  I wasn't really in a shopping mood (I never am) and was amazed I spent as much time in there as I did.  They had everything you could imagine, all knock-offs.  Rolex watches for 10 bucks, Lacoste polos for 4, all the t-shirts were 1 or 2 bucks.  Quite the place for your budget to go far!

 

We went back to the ship to meet up with some more people and a nice sized group of about 12 of us had reservations that night at the Rex Hotel's rooftop bar and restaurant.  The hotel is pretty historic, and this restaurant was historic since this is where the 5'O Clock Follies were everyday at 5.  All the Western reporters gathered here and received updates on the war and listened to any announcements from the command in Viet Nam.  It's a nice place today, and they had some guy singing Frank Sinatra songs and similar things, so it had a Copacabana feeling to it (I think, I'm not really sure what that is).  It was a fun start to a fun night, as Ho Chi Minh City had some great options for a really fun night (thanks to Michael and Susan for dinner!).

 

Day 2

I never sleep anymore, so it should be no surprise that this was a 3:30 in the morning start for my last SAS trip (crazy to think about).  I was headed to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, so we had an early flight out of Ho Chi Minh City up to Hanoi.  We landed in Hanoi around 8am, and I was officially in northern Viet Nam, exciting.  Our tour guide was great,  his nickname was Mango, and he knew a lot about what we were interested in hearing and was willing to talk about anything.  I should mention hear that despite the past, Viet Nam is a very welcoming country.  Never did I feel any animosity towards Americans from the people.  Two/thirds of the population of Viet Nam as born after the fall of Saigon, but even the older people were nothing but welcoming and helpful.  They're excited to have Americans visiting Viet Nam.  You also really don't feel too much like you're in a communist country.  Capitalism is everywhere around, and the cities were quite lively. 

 

It took about an hour to get into the city of Hanoi from the airport, but outside the city you could see all the large Canon factories and all these other name brands that are made right here in Viet Nam.  They actually had stores all over the cities catering to tourists called "Made in Viet Nam".  Just like Ho Chi Minh city, Hanoi is going through a huge construction boom and everything seems new or has construction cranes hovering around everything.  When we got into our city the first stop was to the Temple of Literature, one of the first Universities in Viet Nam.  We had the chance to move around and explore it, there's an area that has graduates named etched into stone (it started about 1,000 years ago).  In one area there was a group playing traditional Vietnamese instruments, and it was actually a great sound, and the instruments were really unique and seemed pretty difficult to play.  Hopefully I can get a video up of it sometime soon.

 

Our next stop was very interesting, the famed Hanoi Hilton.  Years ago the site was considered excellent for an office tower, so the prison was demolished except for a small section of it which was turned into a museum.  This section included walls and cells, and the original gate to the prison, which you can see if you ever saw the video of John McCain and the other pilots leaving the prison after they were freed.  

 

It was really cool to actually be in this prison and looking at the cells, and it was really different to get the anti-American view of it.  Think want you want, the fact is that to the Vietnamese, they slaid the goliath and won the "American War".  The prison was originally constructed by the French, so the first part of the prison was all about the Vietnamese revolution fighters who were tortured and killed here, and about some of the successful escapes they made out of the prison up until the end of French colonialization in Viet Nam.

 

The second part was very interesting, it was dedicated to the role the prison played in the American War.  Our guide explained before we went in that they would highlight how well the Americans were treated by the Vietnamese in the prison, which was obviously not quite the case.  Inside they had John McCain's flight suit from when he was shot down over Hanoi, along with a lot of other prisoner's possessions on display which was weird to be looking at it.  They had a movie playing in the same room that showed the affects of the American's bombing Hanoi, and the destruction it left behind.  The Vietnamese were always portrayed as fighting for their freedom and their country, and it wasn't too hard to see why.  They had just gained freedom after 100 years of French colonial rule, did we really think they'd be happy to see another country jumping in their country?  The fun fact is that Ho Chi Minh (Vietnamese revolution leader) pleaded with the U.S. to help them in their struggle for independence, since he and many Vietnamese people were inspired by our struggle for independence from the British.  But the US was silent and would never jeopardize it's friendship with France, so Ho Chi Minh turned to the Soviet Union for help.  Quite understandable if you ask me.  

 

But anyways, the prison was very interesting.  After the prison we headed to a nice lunch that had a lot of different Vietnamese foods on the menu and pretty delicious, as always is the case with SAS trips.  After lunch we headed out to the bus for our 3 hour drive out to Ha Long Bay, where we were staying the night.  Along the drive we were out in the countryside where the rice fields were and our guide explained a lot of about what was happening in the fields.  It was awesome to see the workers out there with the rice hats on it, just the exact image you have when you think of rural Viet Nam.  The towns were cool to see, since land isn't too cheap, people build smaller, narrow homes that go up for 5 or 6 stories.  I can say that the poverty in Viet Nam was not too prevalent, at least compared to many of the other countries I've been to.  In my entire time in country, only one time did someone come up to me and ask for money.  And I do not think this has anything to do with the government keeping the poor away from tourist areas or anything like that, people in Viet Nam are pretty free to move about, and national debates abound on various topics and even politics (just don't publicly criticize the government ha).  Halfway through the drive to Ha Long we stopped at a government run art shop for disabled people.  They had some beautiful artwork there that was wayyyyyy overpriced, but it was fun to look at it.

 

We finally got into the city of Ha Long and checked into our hotel, the Grand Ha Long Bay Hotel.  It was nice and our room had a great view of the ocean and the bay, except that it was very foggy out.  So we got situated and everyone headed down to the night market which was nearby (it was already getting dark out) and went to put our feet into the ocean and just hang out for awhile.  We then gathered up and went to dinner at a pretty good restaurant that had a seafood specialty ( we were right next to the ocean).  The fish and the shrimp all still had their heads on!  But it was all very good, especially the steamed vegetables.  Some of is went out that night and had a pretty good time, but we had an early morning boat ride the next day.

 

Day 3

We had a four hour boat ride on a Vietnamese junk boat out into Ha Long Bay that day.  It was a little hazy out but that made in all the more interesting to see the hills come out of nowhere.  To get an idea of what Ha Long Bay was like, just google search "Ha Long Bay" and click on images to see some pictures.  Huge rock mountain coming straight up and out of the water, many covered with trees and just looking stunning.  These are everywhere, so from the water sometimes you'd have two or three or even four lines of hills behind each other, creating a pretty stunning scene.  We moved around here for the morning and just enjoyed the views.

 

They had divided the the group all trip between into two buses and now into two different junk boats.  One group was the students who had parents come to Viet Nam on Semester at Sea's parent trip, the other was the group of students on the trip who didn't have parents (we called ourselves orphans).  The strange thing was when our junk boat pulled up next to the other junk boat to swim in the water, we found that the students only junk boat was full of quiet people sipping juice and sodas, whereas the parent and student junk boat was full of people drinking beer and wine and having an all around good time, which was pretty funny.  But oh well, things changed fast, most of them had been in bed at 10 the night before anyways, which is lame ha.  But the water was perfect and they let us jump off the second deck of the junk boats which was fun.  Coming close enough to the island itself I was able to touch the bottom, which was full of mud that you'd kind of sink into up to your ankles, so it was weird, but hey, free mud bath right?

 

After the great time out on the junk boats, we headed back to the buses for our drive back to Vietnam.  A little disappointed as I could have spent the whole day out on Ha Long Bay, I really wished I had more time to kayak or swim into the grottoes that are everywhere out in the bay. 

 

We arrived at our hotel in the middle of Hanoi, and I had some time to go out and explore the city.  The city still has much of it's French colonial feel to it, and all the streets are lined with trees that give it quite a charm.  I just walked through the city, saying hi to a lot of people and walking through a park.  At one point I passed a secondary school that was just ending its day, so I kind of wandered into the main grounds of it, not getting stopped by anyone as I though I might.  A couple of the students came up and talked to me for a little bit so it was pretty fun, but I don't think tourists are as uncommon in Viet Nam as the are in other ports we've been to, since they tired of me pretty quickly (or, rather, they hopefully were just really anxious to leave school).

 

This is a good point to mention how rediculously crazy the traffic is in Vietnam.  In the diplomatic briefing before we were allowed to leave the ship, the diplomat briefing us told us the biggest danger in Viet Nam was traffic accidents, especially if you're a pedistrian.  He said while he was in the Foreign Service school in D.C., the video that was playing in the background while they were briefed on crazy traffic around the world was from Viet Nam, and after I saw it person, I realized that this was just beyond crazy.  Laws are merely suggestions, and crossing the street happens where ever.  The advice given by everyone:  Walk at slow yet deliberate pace into the street, cross without hesitating, and allow the traffic to move around you.  It was so fun!  About 90% of the traffic was motorcycles or scooters, so this made it easier, but if you ever looked at the traffic you'd think for sure you were about to be hit by one.  In Hanoi, there was never a gap in the traffic.  I had a lot of fun crossing those streets all the time, though not everyone felt the same about it.

 

We headed out for dinner that night at a very nice restaurant, which had more great food and some seafood.  I wish I was writing down what I was eating more so I'd remember!!! Oh well, that's what texting everyone after the voyage will be for ha.  After dinner we headed to see a water puppet show, something farmers in the rice paddies invented along time ago.  Basically its a puppet show, and the puppets appear to float on the water, under the water is the sticks and strings that control the puppets.  I was a little scared that the puppets would give me nightmares, but luckily that hasn't happened yet.  The music was nice, almost too nice as it started make me very sleepy, and the show was interesting.  Can't say I'll be in line for the next one, but a little culture never hurt anyone.  After the show we had a fun night out in the city, including a stop at the Funky Monkey and the Pub, that ended with me buying a shirt telling people to keep their hands on there dongs (dongs is the Vietnamese currency to avoid any confusion there).

 

Day 4

 

Last day in Hanoi, we had a busy morning schedule but then a three hour break in the afternoon to explore the city.  I actually received my only feeling of being in a communist country that morning.

 

We headed up to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is where his body is on display.  We went through some heavy security, and they take in groups of probably about 40-50 at a time.  The mausoleum sits on Ba Dinh Square, which is where the military parades happen.  Think of the images you always see of North Korea's military parades, and this was what it looked like, with the mausoleum taking center stage.  We walked in a line, two abreast, through the square with military guards escorting us, doing the crazy military walk where they kick there legs out and swing their arms in unison.  No talking, hands out of pockets and rested on your side, no shorts, basically nothing disrespectful, and they take your cameras before you can go in.  You never stop moving, you walk right in, up the steps, and into the room where his body is eerily preserved despite being dead for over 30 years (maybe its 10 percent him, 90 percent wax by now?).  The mausoleum actually closes every year for 3 months for his body to be sent abroad and fixed up, and his crystal coffin has gas pumped in regularly to preserve him.  In the room is a bunch of guards and a huge marble wall, which has a marble version of the flag of Viet Nam and then another flag with the hammer and sickle, the classic symbol of communism.  You walk straight out and its all over!   

 

So right next to the Mausoleum is many of Viet Nam's governmental buildings that administer the national government.  We walked by the Presidential Palace, where the President works, but of course doesn't live, for he lives in a common house like everyone else (oh sure).  Nearby this we walked to Ho Chi Minh's two homes where he lived while he was President.  The first was a small and humble french home, but at the urging of Stalin he moved later to a house across from the pond where they constructed a traditional Vietnamese house for him, called the house on stilts.  The bottom floor is just an open meeting area where he conducted meetings during the American War with the top level advisors and such, completely open to elements.  Up stairs is a study room, and next to that a bedroom.  No kitchen or toilets in the house...our guide explained that the Soviet Union and Viet Nam's communist party wanted to uphold the image that Ho Chi Minh was a god, and therefore a God does not eat or need a bathroom.  So he had to walk to his old house anytime he needed these.  Nearby was a small bedroom nestled into an artificial hill where Ho Chi Minh slept if there was threats of possible air raids by the U.S.  This room led to a secret bunker where he could quickly escape to if the bombing started.  Mango, our guide, told us how the bunkers are still not open to the public, but back when they were built the men who constructed them were all invited to a big celebration party after the construction of the bunkers.  Guess what?  None of them ever went home, and none were ever seen after that party again.  Woa communism!

 

Mango was five when the war finally started, and he told us here about his only memory of the war.  He lived outside of Hanoi with his family in a suburb, and he remembers all the children of the village being sent away to live in the mountains away from the city.  I believe he was up there for two months while the heaviest bombing from the U.S. basically destroyed all of Hanoi, civilian or non-civilian (huge propoganda material for all the war museums in Viet Nam these days).  He remembers driving back home to his village and about every 30 yards or so another giant crater from a bomb, scattered everywhere.  It's amazing how much of Hanoi is rebuilt today.

 

After Ho Chi Minh's homes and such, we walked right up to the One Pillar Pagoda, which (surprise!) is a pagoda built on top of one pillar.  It was kind of cool, you could walk up and see the shrine to Buddha (I think it was Buddha after all).  We then went out to Hoan Kiem Lake, which is a huge lake nestled in the middle of Hanoi.  Right next to this lake is Truc Bach lake, which has a memorial commeorating the shooting down of a US plane into the lake in 1967, and on the stone you see that John McCain was one of the airmen.  Back to the big lack, a predestrian bridge takes you a little ways out to a little island that has a tall Buddhist pagoda and temple located on it.  It was actually really pretty, and I'm guessing McCain could of seen it and at first wondered if this really was the communist country he thought it was (I'm sure he's expectations were fulfilled shorty after).  We spend a little time there then headed back to the water puppet theater which is on the edge of the old city of Hanoi, which is really a French inspired area, with narrow streets full of trees and just a lot of charm. 

 

For lunch a smaller group of us went to the restaurant Cha Ca Long Va.  This restaurant is so famous that the street is named after the restaurant, NOT the othe way around.  It is a very local place, and has an old rustic field to it, and it's been serving it's one dish for over five generations, fried fish in grease, poured over rice noodles, and a little bit of vegetables to season.  SO GOOD.  Second best meal I've had on the trip, after chicken tangiers in Morocco.  Don't believe me?  Anthony Bourdain (Travel Channel's No Reservations) listed it at as one of his top 1,000 places to eat before you die, so you know it was legit.  Very local food, it was amazing!  We spent a little more time walking around the area, talking to some people, and just enjoying the older feeling of that area of Hanoi.

 

We headed back to the airport to Ho Chi Minh City shortly after that, concluding a really fun trip that showed me two different sides of Viet Nam.  The south is a little less conservative, and the north definitely clings to it's communist ideologies.  Even residents of Ho Chi Minh City like to still call it Saigon, and our tour guide said that was kind of homage to it's past resistance. 

 

Day 5

 

The last day in Viet Nam was just a day to kind of relax and get some lasts sights in.  I started the day early again, and went for breakfast, a western style breakfast that was desperately needed (thanks again Michael and Susan!).  Picked up some gifts throughout the city, and ate lunch at Pho 24.

 

I also took a couple of rides on moped instead of using the shuttle bus or a taxi, it was awesome.  One dollar gets you anywhere in 15-20 minutes.  Zooming around through the traffic and pedestrians, drivers being crazy, it was hilarious if not a white knuckle ride.  It really wasn't that bad, but everyone likes to exagerrate right?

 

I also made a stop to the War Remnants Museum, dedicated to the Vietnam (American) War.  Very anti-American, and it did highlight many of the atrocities done by Americans, including the devastating effects on children of Agent Orange victims, and some of the rogue attacks carried on civilians by Americans.  Its crazy how terminology used can change the image of something, such us Americans rounding up civilians for interrogation camps and concentration camps.  It was eery to see all of this presented, and I actually learned a lot.  Main thing I learned?  War is the stupidest thing humans do, and I don't think I'll ever support another war in my life unless under extreme situations.

 

I really enjoyed my time in Viet Nam, and like I said originally, I learned a lot.  I had some great nights out, and saw some pretty interesting things.  

 

Tomorrow I'll be pulling into what I think is going to be our most beautiful port yet, Hong Kong.  We dock in the middle of it all, and I'm very excited to get to the top of the hills and see the views, VERY EXCITED.  I'm just excited to be getting off this ship again.  I'll be staying the first night in Hong Kong, then going on three day trek to Beijing, where I'll be sleeping on the Great Wall of China!!! Who'd of ever thought?  After that I'll be heading to catch the ship in Shanghai and then off to Japan!  Japan I'll be spending a day in Hiroshima, two nights in Kyoto, and two nights in Tokyo.  Should be an amazing end  with amazing friends to an amazing voyage.  Wish me luck!! (Especially since night time temps will dip into 30 degrees on the wall!)

 

Also, almost less than one month until debarking in San Diego.  :(  I already have nightmares....

 

cmgallagher@semesteratsea.net