Dear readers, whoever you may be - friends, family or just strangers we've met in our travels - let me be the first to welcome you to
A Dose of Digby.
Now I know it's a cheesy title for a blog but it's also a fun and quirky title that I think captures the essence of what we want to do with it. There are a lot of people in our lives who we love and care for very much but don't get enough of our time so we thought that this blog might be a way for us to give them more of an insight into our current travels and adventures. In a way, we hope it will be a dose of what's going on in our lives and I hope that those of you who read it will react, respond and give us your feedback and criticisms, both positive and negative. Don't be shy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, let me give you some
backstory...
As our blog unfolds, you find us - Rob and Shannon
Digby - having newly arrived in Seoul, South Korea with no idea of what we'll encounter or where exactly we'll end up. Shannon and I met in
Karlsruhe, Germany while teaching English and about a year or so later, we married and decided to move one step closer to her family in New Zealand.
The planning for our next step took a long time but by November 2008 we had finally managed to secure a job in
Busan, South Korea. So in December 2008, we left Germany and spent 4 weeks with my mother and my sister in
Westland, Michigan while we waited to get my South Korean visa.
Then in late January, we left Michigan heading for Wellington, New Zealand. Along the way, we spent 4 days in Los Angeles, 8 hours in
Nadi, Fiji and about 6 days in Auckland. Once we got to Wellington, we spent 2 weeks with Shannon's family while we waited to get her South Korean visa and then finally in mid-February we left again for Auckland and then flew to Seoul via Singapore.
We arrived in Seoul last week as part of the EPIK (English Program in Korea) program and since then we have been staying in a small dorm room in
Dankook University in
Cheonan, South Korea which is about 2 and 1/2 hours south of Seoul. There are about 400 or so teachers in all here and they've come from all parts of the world. We've met Irish, Scottish, Welsh, New Zealanders, Aussies, Americans, Canadians, and even South Africans (there are a LOT of South Africans here). Since our arrival we've had only a few lectures, one of which was completely useless but mainly they've been well-taught. After our orientation is finished, Shannon and I will be moving to Busan, a coastal city on the south.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So finally we come to today...
This morning we went on a
field trip to a Korean folk village and spent the first part of the day looking at medieval Korean houses. In the afternoon we visited a marketplace (also inside the folk village) and watched 4 outstanding shows by Korean performers.
First, there was the Farmer's Dance which was amazing. The "farmers" came out and played drums and banged on cymbals while dancing. At the same time, they wore hats with long white ribbons attached which they also made dance by moving their heads in particular
rhythms. A few of the performers even jumped through the air sideways while making the ribbons spin in a circle around their bodies.
Second were the see-saw jumpers. Two women stood on opposite ends of a see-saw and then jumped up and down catapulting each other high into the air. In mid-air they also did a ribbon dance and flips.
Third was the tightrope walker who showed us all the different ways that a skilled performer such as himself could cross a simple stretch of rope. He ran across, hopped across on one foot, sat on his bum with outstretched legs and pulled himself along with his toes, bounced across on his crotch (we watched aghast!), sat Indian style and crawled across using only his legs, walked across alternately bouncing with one leg in various positions and he also did all of that backwards as well! He also went to the center of the tightrope and bounced on him bum in circles without falling once.
Fourth were the horsemen who did all sorts of tricks and flips while riding in the saddle. Most impressive was when one of the performers tied his reins to the saddle, stood on the back of the horse as it ran around the ring and let another performer climb on his shoulders who then also stood up. It was incredible.
After the folk village, we went back to the university, had dinner and then went to a church service organized by one of the EPIK staff. His name is Joshua Kim and during the service we got a chance to meet with some of the other Christian teachers as well as get information on 2 different English-speaking churches in Busan.
After the service we watched a Korean movie called "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and then Spring" which was about the life of a man as he grows from being a young boy to an old man while living in a temple that is floating in a lake. In the end the movie was a bit depressing. It was the 2nd movie that the EPIK staff have shown us thusfar and both of them had underlying tones of sexual repression which kind of creeped us out since both movies involved some sort of violence, specifically murder.
Anyway, it's now 12am Korean time and tomorrow we begin our final week of orientation. Tomorrow we have class until 530pm on subjects such as exploring Korea and Secondary School teaching. After that, we have survival Korean lessons from 7-8pm and then another Korean movie called "200 Pound Beauty".
So until our next entry, hope this fills all of you in and gives you a better idea of what is going on in our lives!
