Jungdo

I wrote this last week but didn't publish it.  Here it is:

This past weekend we found this island, Jungdo, to camp on.  We had to take a two-hour bus ride, then a ferry across from the mainland.  The ferry was about a four-minute ride; we probably could have swam.  Before we went we looked at a bunch of different websites, and called the tourist hotline, and the park itself, and everyone gives conflicting information.  It can be frustrating.  Some places said no dogs allowed, some said it's a great place for dogs, and our friends Lisa and Jonathan just got a puppy, so they took a gamble by bringing him.  It worked out fine, thankfully.  Some websites said you need a reservation to camp, some said you could go "bush camping," and just throw down anywhere.  Una's co-worker told her that summer season doesn't officially begin until next weekend, so why on earth are we going now?  None of the amenities would be open.  It turned out fine.  We were able to get a campsite, there were badminton courts available, and the store on the island was open.  Sometimes you just have to go and figure things out on your own.  Even getting our bus ticket there was confusing.  The website said that there are buses starting at 7:40am, and there are nine buses throughout the day.  But we wanted to be sure, so we went to the bus station and bought tickets in advance.  The two times the woman offered us were 6:00am and 9:00am.  We bought tickets for the 9:00am bus, then walked ten feet away and read the sign listing all the other times buses leave for Chuncheon, none of which were 6:00 or 9:00.  Why would they put up a sign if none of the information is accurate??

Jungdo is an island in a reservoir, and we wanted to go swimming.  The water is a little mucky by the shore, but someone had an inflatable raft, so we paddled out a little way and jumped out and swam around.  It's so nice to be able to swim in non-salty water, though I did have to keep my head above water (no swimming under water for a month after laser eye surgery.)  We were out there swimming around for a while until a guy came and blew his whistle and told us to get out of the water.  There were no signs saying no swimming, and there were people in banana boats, jet skis, and wakeboarding.  They all fall in the water sometimes.  There's no free-form swimming in Korea.  It all has to be organized and sanctioned.  There's no free-form anything in Korea, for that matter.  But we did get a while swimming before Whistle Man came, so it could have been worse.  

I was happy to get a good weekend adventure in while we could, because we have to work the next three Saturdays in a row.  Our hogwan is affiliated with three kindergartens, and I teach at two of them, Brady teaches at all three.  We are doing open classes, which is a time for the parents to come observe us teaching a class.  But most parents can't make it during the week because they have to work, so we have to teach special classes on Saturdays.  Three weeks in a row, at each of the kindergartens.  We were pretty upset when we heard about that.  There is a short window of time between when the weather gets warm and the rainy season begins, and we wanted to spend that time being outside, not working through the weekends.  And we don't get paid for any of this time either.  And...arrgh, I was so annoyed, because we have to make these special "resources" for open classes.  Little games and activities to play with the kids.  I needed posterboard to make mine, and we don't have any at the school, so I have to buy it on my own.  And I give the receipt to them to be reimbursed, but they don't reimburse me.  I think they will, eventually, but I have to harass them about it, like I had to harass them to pay me for overtime.  It is very frustrating to have to pay my own money to make a resource so that I can work on Saturday without pay.  Brady just had to buy new dry erase markers the other day, because ours were totally used up, and they don't get new ones.  And it's not for lack of money.  We even have this supplies list on the wall of the teachers' room, where you can write what you need.  Once a month the list disappears and a new one is posted.  But materials never show up.  I don't know if they literally just take the list down and throw it away, but they don't seem to order the things we need.

Anyway, it will be nice to stay around Suwon, I guess.  We've been looking for some fun day-trips we can take from here on Sundays, and thinking of other ways to fill our time.  Brady's been practicing his sweet guitar picking skills, and we've decided to run a half-marathon in September, so there's training for that to be done.