Gradually I'm getting the hang of this teaching thing. Every week is the same so I foresee becoming very adept with this curriculum, eventually. We found a temporary teacher last week who could come 3 days a week. By his second day he had found a better job and was going to leave. Ack! Not again! But in the fastest recruitment operation in history Mr. Director came to me the following day to tell me he had found an American replacement and he will be here in a week. Nice.
I've been to see a few cultural sites on the weekends. Beomosa is a temple in the mountains on the outskirts of town. E came to visit with some friends and we went exploring out there. (This was after a morning spent lounging on the beach :-) It was my first temple and it was beautiful. Also there appear to be monks living there and also the potential for a temple stay exists. E told me that all temples in Korea are painted with the same colours: jade, red, blue and ochre.
This weekend A, Michigan J and I went on a day trip to Gyeongju. It is a town of temples from the Silla dynasty. Because the temples are made of wood no originals are still in tact. Most of them have been rebuilt recently after being destroyed 500 years ago by the Japanese. But they are no less impressive.
Yesterday I had my first encounter with the double standard between Korean men and women. Since moving to Korea I have had a couple conversations about Korean women's position in society. Apparently it is "looked down upon" for a (Korean) woman to smoke in public. So on a visit to the ladies room last night I waited extra long while the girl in the stall puffed on her cigarette away from the judging eyes in the bar.
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