Korea

The New Blog

2008-10-10T13:38:00.004+09:00

I've got a new blog going now, richaroundtheworld.blogspot.com, which I'll be writing on as I travel the next 8 or so months through some 30 odd countries. So, g'bye to "Korea", hello to "Rich Goes Pogonic". Not sure what "pogonic" means? Check out the new blog to find out.

All Good Things...

2008-08-01T11:10:00.003+09:00

It's close now, the end of an era - well, for me anyway. In less than 20 days I'll be back in Canada, and things here in Korea are quickly winding to a close. It's funny how 20 days can be an incredibly long time under some circumstances, but after 2 years in Korea it feels like I'm watching the last few seconds of a clock being whittled away towards midnight. Hmmm, I like that last sentence, sounded quite deep and meaningful, didn't it.

I think this may be my last blog on Korea, or at least my last blog while I'm still in Korea. There could be more, but my schedule is moderately busy these days, and with no 4-hour stints of nothing to do at school, taking the time to blog is something I actually have to put effort into. Yes, I know the idea of effort isn't something that should scare me away from the task, but when Korea is almost finished, it just seems a little less necessary to write what's going on.

I'm ending again with another observation of the people and customs here, something I like writing about, and something I'm always surprised at by how many people read and remember. While I'm by no means a blogging all-star, I'm shocked at the number of people who mention my blog at times, and I really appreciate those who read it, especially since I never read anyone elses (except Dave Barsam's, cause he puts so much real and pertinent information in his, from bus schedules to movie show times).

When I first got to Korea, I certainly felt this was an other-worldly country, filled with the kind of social conventions and nuances that I could never really adjust to. Even after 2 years I'm still blown away by just how different this place is (I'm not sure if you're able to view it, but here's a really interesting story on Korea a friend wrote - http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=20594473076&ref=mf). The second year here I've really enjoyed the country, and now I'm quite sad to leave. I'm definitely ready to leave, but I will miss it with definite certainty. The scary traffic habits, the mysterious seafood dinners that still move, the intensity over things like volleyball and the total disregard for other things any other country would call an integral part of life; I'll notice all of their absences.

I've typed about food a fair bit I think, but I've never really gotten into some of the cultural conventions of it I don't think. There's a powerful history in Korean society regarding food, much of it to do with the scarcity of food in the winter months. Kimchi, that pickled spicy cabbage (or other vegetable) that Koreans hold so dearly to them, was a staple in the diet and survival of Koreans hundreds of years ago, and now it's served with every single meal. What's more, sharing of food is an absolute necessity - you know how kids in Canada will get some candy from someone, then say they need one more for their "friend"? Well here they say the same thing, but they mean it. I've never seen a Korean child horde food, and I've never been in a situation where someone, even total strangers, didn't offer to share. Last week I caught a taxi, and while I wasn't eating in the taxi, he saw that I had some open cookies in my hand. I knew the whole ride that he wanted some, and felt I should give him some, and when I finally got out, he put out his hands and asked me to share my food.

Meals are eaten off shared plates, restaurant servers generally serve meals to everyone rather than the one person who ordered it, and the idea of withholding food from someone for any reason is quite unusual. A friend brought pizza into his class room to encourage kids to speak English, but he said the plan totally failed, since instead of working and trying to speak English for pizza, the kids just got upset that the mean teacher wouldn't share with them.

Anyway, it's time I finished here, I'm off to Busan for another ultimate tournament, then maybe some rock climbing before heading to Seoul and touring the DMZ. North Korea is closed now for South Koreans and foreigners, as someone was shot and killed on one of the tours last month. Seems things are still a little nuts up there, so Shannon and I will be missing the North Korean experience. Oh well, we've certainly covered most of the rest of the country. Maybe there will be one more blog to post up after our last little adventure, check back in a week or two to find out.

Rich

Animals

2008-07-11T17:36:00.004+09:00

Writing about the treatment of animals in Korea can be a little tricky, since mistreatment of animals is not just specific to Korea, and it's hard to guage whether it's even worse here than anywhere else. However it certainly is more noticeable here, perhaps because there's less support networks for the animals, or because the denser population here makes poorly treated animals more visible. In any case, there's a high percentage of foreigners in Mokpo who have taken in a stray animal to get it healthy and away from a sad situation.

My dog Miso for example was a stray, abandoned at 3 months and found by our friend wandering the streets.
He was dirty, hungry, and terrified of everything. I'm pretty certain he had been bought at a pet store, since his breed is quite commonly found there. Shannon and I also think he had a great deal of trauma, mostly involving peeing or pooing. It took us months to get him properly used to excreting outside, and we often would wait for an hour somewhere, only to give up and have him pee in the house as soon as we opened the door. He would shake and urinate whenever a Korean person would come near him, and even now, a year later, he still doesn't deal well with Koreans.

A good friend in Mokpo lives near a market that she walks through often on her way home, and has now taken in about 6 cats she's found being sold in the market. They're kittens actually,
usually hardly a month old, are given a little rice each day, no milk, and no other kind of care. They're tied on short strings, and are often half-dead in their cages. Of the last 2 that were rescued, only one survived.

A few of us have mentioned that paying - yes, you have to pay for these poor starved kittens - will only encourage more kittens to be put through such an awful ordeal in order to make money from people (generally foreigners). It's probably true, but then some people, like my friend, just can't help but try and make a difference when they see these sad creatures.

Veterinarians unfortunately aren't always a lot of help. We've met a few Koreans who feel that being a vet is a good job and choosing it as a career should have little to do with love of animals. Our vet speaks great English, but Shannon and I have decided he really doesn't care for any animals' well-being. He often neglects to find proper treatment for Miso, and when Shannon and I find what's needed, he mentions how he knew that already, doesn't bother to look at our dog for any
illnesses, and carries on his way. That kitten I mentioned earlier that died, our vet looked at him - well he didn't actually look, he just glanced - and said the cat was fine. 3 days later a more accomplished vet said the cat should have been on an IV and had a heat pad the whole time, and it died shortly after.

Conversations with Koreans haven't yielded a lot of success at bringing out the emotions so many westerns associate with animals. Generally they say animals are just animals, and while it's a sad situation they often must endure, they're not concerned enough to do anything about it. The following was the worst I've heard about this yet.

A teacher in town was walking to school and noticed a pile of garbage bags had something scurrying through it, and decided it was probably rats. 2 days went by of this scuttling, yet she never actually saw a rat, just movement amongst the bags. Finally curiosity got the better of her, and after 5 days, she dug through the garbage and found a puppy tied to a pole at the bottom of it. It had been there at least the 5 days she had noticed it, but the rope it was on was so short it had been stuck under the garbage pile the whole time.

She took it to the vet who asked why she saved it, as obviously someone wanted to get rid of it. He was even more surprised when she wanted to clean it up, get it healthy and take care of it. There's a strong "why bother" mentality here, with very few opportunities for disadvantaged animals to survive. When the one shelter I had heard of for animals shut down (no funding), it was predominantly foreigners who intervened to save as many of the animals as possible. I've cut animals loose from short choking ropes because they were given no food; I've changed the routes I walk to and from work to avoid the distressed dogs or cats tied up on the sidewalks; and while I've never actually seen it, I've heard horror stories of the trucks of dogs being sent to slaughter.
I hesitate mentioning the dogs, since a truck of dogs here is no worse than an overflowing truck of pigs or cows at home, but it does strike a different chord in my emotions given the feelings I have toward canine creatures.

Regardless of how it is here, animal abuse does happen in other places, including Canada, so I don't want to sound too damning of Korean culture. It's much more in your face here though, and there's much less help for animals in need. Miso was the last thing Shannon and I really needed to add to our lives while here in Korea, but I am pretty happy we did. His ears are too big, he can't go 5 minutes without some form of attention or affection, but he's happy now and feels safe with us, and I'm glad we were able to do that for him.

Of University Students, Animals, and "The Rules"

2008-07-07T17:42:00.003+09:00

It's a mixture of stories, happenings and personal feelings on things this week, some of it funny, some of it sad, and some of it just being how I feel.

Let's start off with the funnier stuff - University students.

I've talked with nearly a dozen university professors in Korea now, so without actually having taught a class, I'm still fairly confident my descriptions of what it's like are fairly accurate. There's plenty of interesting things to be said about university students in Korea, but I'm going to stick mainly on the subject of entitlement.

I think I wrote about this several months ago, but I had heard a story of a Korean family who moved to Canada, enrolled their son in some college classes, and when the son failed school, the family became incredibly upset. Not at the son mind you, but at the school. How could the school have failed their son when they paid so much money for him to get his degree? While I can't guarantee the truth to that story, I've heard plenty more first-hand experiences that would lead me to believe it's true. Every prof I know has failed a student, and every prof has had that student or their parents complain about how they should not be allowed to fail their student. Here are two of my favourite stories:

A student at a Seoul university fails a class. He didn't attend any classes after the first week, showed up to the final and failed badly. Upon receiving his failing grade, he went to my friend (his prof) and told him he needed a "C". "Without a C grade I will lose my job placement," he said. My friend refused, told him he should have come to class, studied, and basically worked for his grades. After a week of continual requests, my friends boss finally phoned him and told him to give the student the C he wanted. Apparently it's quite common for students to be able to requests certain grades assuming they have some kind of special (or even not so special) circumstance.

The same friend gave another student a D in a class. The student phoned my friend one day and said, this:

"I'm confused about my grade." What's the problem, said my friend.

"It's too low." Well if you'd studied harder and done better on the test, it would have been better. "Oh," says the studend, "hold on." The student's mother comes on the phone:

"I'm confused about my son's grade," she says. Why are you confused, says my friend. "It's too low," she says. Well if he'd studied harder, my friend tells her, he could have gotten a better grade.

"Oh," she says. "Just a moment."

The father comes on the phone.

"I'm confused about my sons grade..."

I know I said 2 stories, but I just thought of another friend who had three students fail a test. They pleaded for a week to be allowed to pass. Finally she relented - sort of. She let them re-do the test AND they had to clean all the windows in her house. I thought that was pretty funny.

I'm gonna skip my part on animals right now, it's pretty sad and will take a while, so I'll fill that in later this week. Instead, let's touch on "the rules".

I'm currently signed up to work for an English camp outside of town for two weeks this summer, and I had to ask special permission to attend this camp. Another English summer camp came up, one which paid a significantly higher amount of money, and so after finding a replacement for my first camp, I asked my school if I could switch. OK wait, that's not entirely true. I didn't ask them, I told them, thinking it wouldn't be a problem. Weeeellll, was it ever a problem. While I only deal with the one teacher in my school who speaks English, everyone has been harassing her over why I'm trying to switch camps. It hasn't been very easy on her since I've been phoning the first camp to explain to them that I'm not coming, they then phone my school, and my school gets upset again because I'm not letting it go.

It seems making a "first promise" is quite a big deal, and I committed to this first camp so I should do it. What's more, working in a school means I'm a public servant, and I'm not allowed to work outside my set boundaries (in my case it's within Mokpo only). Both these camps are out of town, so I need special permission to go. Since I'm the only one benefiting from my going to the camp, my school doesn't see it as appropriate that I go. There's no real difference in how the camps work, there's still the needed number of English teachers, everything would work out just fine, but since I'd already been given permission to work one camp, they won't change it to allow me to work a different one.

Anyway, I'm rather bothered by it, but there's really nothing I can do now. My school contacted the other camp I wanted to work and told them specifically that I would not be allowed to attend. It's not a fun way to finish my time in the country, being upset with my school for something like this, but at least it does give me some more free time to see Korea before I leave.

The Way It Is

2008-07-01T14:35:00.002+09:00

I was sitting at my desk, modifying my after-school attendance sheet so that it equaled 20 classes, and I realized I should probably write this down in my blog. I'm sure I've already touched on how I need to fudge the numbers each month for my class's attendance, but I'll go over it again as I write about the way things need to be in Korea sometimes.

There are about 20-22 classes in my extra class each month, and regardless of holidays, sick days, absent students or even a city-wide natural disaster, I need to have 20 days marked down as having taught my extra class. One month I only taught 16, and so another teacher guided me through the process of erasing all the dates, adding imaginary classes into the attendance book, and being sure I was now logged as teaching 20 classes. I was only one short this month, but I still went and changed it anyway. That's just the way it is here.

I've taken quite a liking to the fruit juices they make at a lot of the snack shops and cafes here, but again, you have to get it the way it is. For example, mixing of the fruits in your juice is generally a big no-no. I love getting strawberry and banana mixed together, but 90% of the time, it's not allowed. I've offered extra money, pointed out that both fruits are RIGHT THERE and just need to be put in the blender, but regardless of how hard I try, the menu says it's like this and so that's the way it's gotta be.

Anyway, it's almost the end of an age, as there's less than 2 months left for me here in Korea. That's only about 6 more blogs! Geez, time is rolling by fast, but there'll be new stories and countries to write about soon after. I'm doing a Round The World trip with Shannon starting in October, which will last over 8 months and reach probably several dozen countries. I'll post a rough itinerary in the next week or two, once I have a better idea what it will be like. Thanks for reading!

Four Days In China

2008-06-25T11:06:00.004+09:00

So depending on how you add up the land mass of the US, China is either the 3rd or 4th largest country in the world. When people ask me now if I've been to China, I suppose I can say yes, but 4 days in Shanghai hardly constitutes exploring the country.

Shanghai is exactly the opposite of what I had expected China to be, even after hearing from so many people how un-Chinese it is. In my mind I saw densely crowded streets, buildings and people jammed together so tight the city might explode, and every square inch of available space would be used for something - anything - given such a large city in such an over-populated country.

Instead, Shanghai came across as a strange mix of European architecture, western North American urban sprawl, and with lots of money to make everything look bright, lively and artistic. I obviously didn't even see all of Shanghai while I was there, but the parts I did see featured wide open boulevards, pre-planned green spaces tucked between gated communities and European-styled apartment complexes, and massive downtown skyscrapers reminding me of financial districts from Canada or New York city. I should have taken pictures of the city itself rather then the frisbee tournament.

But yes, it was the frisbee tournament I came for, and that's where most of my energy and time went into. I did spend Friday touring around the Shanghai Museum, it's downtown shopping districts and Yuyong plaza where all the tourists go to shop, but after that it was nothing but green grass and frisbees.

My team did pretty well the first day, going 2-2 despite a few setbacks and winning a really tough game at the end of the day. One of the major setbacks we had was that I got a minor bout of heatstroke. For a few hours all I could do was sit in the shade and drink water or gatorade. I took some tylenol and some unexplained Chinese herbal medicine, and while I was able to play later in the day, I wasn't quite "right" again until the next day around noon. I think I was the first person in bed that night out of all the 200+ people at the tourney.

I wasn't the only one who got ill though - on my team alone, 2 more people got heatstroke, another had food poisoning, and at least 2 or 3 put themselves into poor shape from partying too hard. By the time the second day rolled around, we were
certainly not at our best form, and the team we worked so hard to beat the other day walked all over us. Regardless though, it was an awesome weekend with tonnes of good food, frisbee and other activities, many involving alcohol. It was probably the only chance I'll have to see China, and though it may have only been about 10% of Shanghai I saw, I at least have the big ol' stamp in my passport proving that I made it.

100

2008-06-17T09:41:00.002+09:00

I'm not sure why people have such a proclivity and fascination with round, precise numbers (especially big ones), but hitting my 100th blog seems to be a event worth noting. This means I've been putting out just over a blog per week for the past 21 months, and keeping up with it has made me pretty proud.

Things here are going pretty great, though I've nearly been hit by more cars than normal these past few weeks. I actually had one guy on a scooter deliberately swerve at me, I suppose since he felt I was walking in his driving space, so I was mildly surprised the other day to find a man sleeping in the middle of the road, one shoe flung to his side, his arms under his head for a pillow. No one seemed to take much notice of him though, and both cars and pedestrians maneuvered there way around his outstretched body with little concern for him.

I ended up taking two days off of work last week due to illness, and even now I'm still suffering from a nagging cough, though otherwise I feel quite good. My coteachers have shown a great amount of concern for me, and while their suggestions on why I might have gotten sick (cold mornings followed by hot afternoons) aren't too helpful, it's nice to know that they want me to get better rather than show up for work regardless of my state of health.

A Case of Spite

Shannon's school held an English competition today, and they had asked me to come and judge it. My school then requested an official document of sorts, something to excuse my absence from school, but by the time Shannon's school sent it to mine, they had decided to hold an English competition of their own on the same day. I suppose my principal didn't feel like being outdone by anyone else, but the thought that went into planning this competition was brutal. While I knew from Shannon that my school would hold a competition today, no one from my school informed me until yesterday at 5pm. Shannon has spent the past week helping students prepare speeches, practice pronounciation, etc. and I have done zilch. Until I was given the list of who was reading this morning, I had no idea which students were competeing or how many there would be. Things went about as well as you could have expected, though I was impressed with a few of the speeches that were written. One was done on the "Mad Cow" situation currently happening:

"The chances of getting mad cow are very small, but if we eat mad cow beef, the chances go up. Koreans have genetics that make them more likely to get mad cow. It could take 10 years for symptoms to show up. In 10 years I'll be 23. Do you really want me to lose all my hopes and dreams for cheap beef and risk getting mad cow?"

It wasn't quite that well written, but you get the idea. For those of you who are unaware, Koreans have been protesting the import of USA beef for stwo months now. Over 12,000 people are gathering almost nightly in Seoul to protest, hundreds of people have been arrested, and nightly the news shoes police beating and water-canoning protestors in the streets. It's quite a big deal, and as I check the Korean Herald, it seems as many as 80,000 people have been gathered to protest importing US beef. Even Mokpo has candlelight vigils these days slamming US beef and the Korean government for allowing it in.

My class just wandered in, so I best get off the computer and begin teaching. I'm going to China this weekend for ultimate, which I'm incredibly excited for. Hopefully I'll have some fun stories, great pictures and interesting things to say on Chinese culture to share next week.

Sick Days

2008-06-10T11:57:00.003+09:00

I think after nearly 2 years, I've grown pretty accustomed to living in Korea. My blogs are less and less about what strange and unexpected things I find, and more about the adventures I'm having around the country. I think it's a good thing, though I hope it doesn't make for boring reading.

I'm sick today, which I think happened from far too much activity and stress on my body. Shannon and I went up to Seoul, and besides playing hard ultimate for two days, we also went out each night and were singing our heads off at a noraebong on Saturday night until 5am. I think it was my spirited and over-the-top rendition of "Don't Stop Believing" that did my vocal chords in, and I had some very difficult times speaking clearly to my students yesterday. Today I feel even worse, and I woke up a few times during the night in some wild fever sweats.

In the past 20 months, I think I've taken 4-5 sick days. I know 2 were legitimate, 1 was to take care of Miso when we first got him, and another I think I just didn't want to work that day (I needed a mental health day I suppose). Today is definitely a legitimate day to call in sick, or at least it would be in Canada. In Korea that's not really the case. I don't think I've ever seen a Korean take a sick day yet. I've only noticed people miss school when relatives die or there's some other educational function they need to attend. So tomorrow when I go back to school, it's going to be quite a big deal with lots of "Did you go to the doctor" and "What was wrong with you" from everyone.

Oh wait, my principal last year did miss half a day once. I thought he looked so sick he could die at any moment, but he made it until 2 o'clock or so.

Students are the same, sometimes coming to school when they can hardly stay on their feet. I've heard a rumour of a student who died from people ignoring just how sick he was, but my google searches on it came up empty. It might not be a true story, but the idea behind it, that Koreans generally feel you should not be slowed by colds and flus, is definitely true.

Well, it's back to the couch for me now. I'm not really sleepy, but I think a good day of eating fruit, lying down and taking it easy will help me feel better for tomorrow. I'll need all my energy to deal with the 300 "Teacher are you sick?" questions tomorrow.

Outside the Comfort Zone

2008-06-03T09:58:00.003+09:00

There's never a dull weekend in Korea these days, and this weekend was certainly no exception, as Shannon and I joined another couple for a climbing trip on Geoje Island, 5 hours east of us on the south-east coast of Korea. Traveling around the peninsula is something I've become quite good at I feel, as my travel vocabulary is at a good level to make sure I always know where I'm going and when I'll get there. Of course, I don't always know what to do when I arrive, but I'm working on that part.

Our trip to Geoje Island took us to a tiny beach town called Gujora. From there we had to walk up to the climbing location (called a "crag"), which was above an even smaller town called Mangji. Not knowing exactly the way to get to the crag (we could see it, but not the path to it), we walked for an hour from Gujora to Mangji. We spent another hour puttering around Mangji looking for a place to stay. Then a restaurant we could eat at. Finding neither, we walked back halfway to Gujora only to find the restaurant along the way was out of all food till summer. Our two friends had finally arrived (and had brought food), but the 2 1/2 hours waiting for them were a very trying moment in the travels of Shannon and I.

We took a cab (thank goodness) to the crag several hundred metres above Mangji. Our cab driver was down-right batty, and even Matthew, the Frenchman who had been taking private Korean lessons for a year through his company, could hardly figure what he was ranting about most of the time. Still, he got us where we needed to go, and some food helped make everyone feel better.

The climbing was quite fun, though ultra-relaxed. There was a Korean group at the crag who said they came to climb all weekend, but spent all of 2 hours on the wall and the rest of the time camping and drinking soju. They gave us a ride into Gojura around 5:30, which by that time I had only spent 20 minutes on the wall. The second day was quite a different story however.

We got a good early start the next day, getting a ride from one of the ajosshi's in Gojura to the crag. We then decided (well, everyone else decided and I just stood there nodding) that we should do a multi-pitch. This is where you climb up, anchor into the wall, bring everyone else up, and continue on from the point you reached on the first climb. Sounds fun, until I got up there, just me and Matthew, and I nearly pooped myself.

I've added a picture I drew to help you understand what it was like, but here's my verbal description to go with it: There's a 60cm cable hanging 20-25 metres in the air. Matthew and I are dangling from this cable and nothing else, waiting for Shannon and our friend Heather to come and join us, at which point 4 of us are now hanging from this small cable and over 70 feet in the air. When I first got up, all I could
think was how badly I needed to get down "RIGHT NOW!", but I got through it with some nice coaching from the others, and soon the four of us were leaning there, bodies pressed against each other, Heather and Matthew sorting out the rope and belay for the next climb. Being the least experienced and most nervous, I was given the only chunk of rock to sit on, meaning everyone else was hanging from the wall anchor, pressing their feet against the rock to keep themselves upright and balanced.

The next stage of the climb was interesting, and quite challenging for me. To start with, if you fell, you would fall on the people below you. Once past the first bludge though, it was quite easy climbing, and the next anchor was one we could sit down at. After that, it was a simple climb to the top of the mountain, where we relaxed with some watermelon and pictures (on Matthew's camera, which is why I don't have any of them up yet).

The trip home took over 6 hours including the 30 minute cab ride to the bus stop. We get Friday off this weekend, and so it might seem like a nice time to recover from all this activity and traveling, but the next three weeks have me playing some long rigorous games of ultimate to get ready for the tournament in China. I'm really
packing every spare moment in with something exciting here in Korea, and I'm looking forward to July when I'll have a moment or two to breath, relax, and have a little down-time. Well, I'm not "looking forward" to it really, since I'm way happier doing these more exciting weekend trips, but I know I'll appreciate the break when it comes.

2008-05-27T12:43:00.004+09:00

My blog last week was tinged with anger, so I should be quick to point out how wonderfully everything turned out in the end. Not perfect, but well enough that I'm more than happy with the result. We were able to cancel one of the food orders, and though we had to buy the more expensive meals, and I will probably have to pay some
money to the restaurant we canceled with, the ultimate tournament made enough money to cover all those costs plus everything else necessary for the weekend.

The weekend of frisbee in Mokpo was great, I really don't know what more I could have asked for. 45 people came to town for it, there was another 8 or so doing concession and volunteer work for the town orphanages, and we had a few random spectators come by on and off to watch the games in action. I did most of the placing of players on each team, and I did my best to keep all the teams perfectly even, and I came as close as I could have I think, with the majority of games ending with only 2 or 3 point differentials. My team however did go 5-0 for the weekend, winning it all in the end.

It felt great putting the whole weekend together, and it wasn't nearly as stressful as I had imagined it would be. I was fairly good at keeping track of things, and
there were only three major setbacks during planning, all of which were handled great I think. One of them included the bar owner where our
party would be getting in a car accident, so while I wasn't able to negotiate the beer prices I wanted, I made up for it by buying each team 2-3 jugs of beer.

It's Tuesday now, and I'm still pretty beat from the weekend, though not nearly as sore as I thought I'd be. I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep each night this
weekend, yet I felt great playing everyday, so I'm not sure where I'm hiding all the exhaustiong I thought I'd be suffering from. Perhaps I was enjoying myself so much, I just kind of forgot that my body was supposed to be in pain. Hope everyone reading this had a good weekend as well!

Don't Help Me, Listen To Me.

2008-05-23T10:51:00.003+09:00

A situation has developed in the last few minutes that's got me quite angry. Actually, it's developed over the last few days, but it was only a few minutes ago that I became aware of it. The ultimate tournament is this weekend, and ordering food has been the crux of the planning, causing a mild headache as I try to sort out how many people, what kind of food, and how cheap I can get it.

I talked to my school on Wednesday, and they found a place that would do it for $4.50. Not bad, I said, let me talk to you by the end of the day Thursday to let you know numbers and if it will work for us. This was on Wednesday.

I then talked to one of Shannon's co-teachers, who was able to get it for $3.50 a meal. Great, I said, let's order it. This was Thursday.

Today is Friday. I come in first thing in the morning and tell me school not to worry about ordering the food. Which of course they already have ordered, back on Wednesday when I was trying to figure out the price. I spend the next 30-40 minutes trying to get them to cancel, but it seems the place they've ordered from is doing this especially for me - they don't even make the food I wanted to order, but my school got them to do so and at a $1.50 a meal discounted price. Needless to say, when they hear that I want to cancel, they are right upset.

So we call Shannon's co-teacher to try and cancel that. Same problem. Now I've got two sets of meals ordered, one of which I never wanted to begin with but only wanted to know the price, and everyone (other than me) seems to be in agreement that I have to pay for both of them.

I know there's a way around this situation, but I can't speak Korean so I can't explain or have explained to me the way things are. I don't even know how my school managed to order these meals, since they didn't know how many I wanted or what time I wanted them, and they seem to be putting meat in them as well which I also didn't want. What a disgusting waste or resources this is turning into.

Anyway, I'm still not going to lose any money due to this disaster, but I'm not going to be able to buy any of the extras I wanted for the weekend (beer, prizes, bananas and bread). Obviously my school wasn't trying to screw me over, but this minor misunderstanding is really putting me on edge right now. I know I should have gone to tell them Thursday that I didn't want the food, but why the %$*@ did they order it without knowing the exact details of it? They didn't even wait until Thursday, they ordered right there in front of me on Wednesday when I thought they were just finding out the cost!

Oh, and right in the middle of this ordeal, the fat administrator guy who is always making jokes about my not speaking good Korean walked in and gave me a goofy-smiled lecture about closing my windows in my classroom. It's proabably the closest I've come to punching anyone. I'm calm now, but I think this is going to be a long day.

5 Is The Magic Number

2008-05-17T21:04:00.002+09:00

I'm feeling pretty good right now after a long day of playing ultimate in Seoul and hanging out with Miso. There's an ultimate tournament happening at the end of June in Shanghai, and it looks like I'll be able to get one a team going over there. It's quite competitive, so I've been busing or training up the past few weekends to play.

I took the dog this time, which meant he and I spent 8-9 hours on buses, subways and trains as we shuttled from Mokpo to Seoul to the fields and back. Quite a heavy trip for the both of us, but it was not without its nuggets of entertainment. My favourite was on the subway, when an ajosshi encouraged the two of us to sit down next to him. He spoke English, and it was a 30 minute ride, so I sat down and we started talking.

He was sober, which was wonderful, but still nuts as could be. Or at more likely, he had once been quite an intelligent guy, but things seemed to have been sliding on him the past decade or two. He spent the majority of our ride together discussing the significance of the number 5. I guess he saw something about the Olympics, and he thought of the rings, which lead to the many other universal links of the number 5.

"5 rings, 5 fingers."

'5 vital organs: heart, lungs, liver, stomach and kidneys."

"5 parts of the face." He never explained those.

"5 colours of hair." What?

"5 colours of skin. Yours is white. I am yellow. Africans are black. Russians are... uh, Russians are red. And Australians, Australians... uh... 5 colours of skin, you see!"

There were also 5 ways of speaking, 5 shapes of the mouth, etc. etc.. It was the deepest conversation I've had with a stranger in quite some time.

"My Dog The Racist"

Yep, Miso is a racist. He knows a Korean when he sees them, and he does not like them. Even our Korean friends who hang out with us get the same treatment from him: Barking, snarling and running away. Foreigners only need to s much as look at him and he's in love with them, and will cry 5 minutes after meeting them if they leave him. But Koreans, my goodness does he get his "hate" on when they come around. He still fears children, though I had we had a great encounter with a foreigner today that leads me to believe it may again be just Korean children. I think maybe I need to train him a little better with Koreans and children, or perhaps it's time to start trying to train the people he meets on how to make friends with him.

I Want To Eat Your Manager

2008-05-13T15:12:00.002+09:00

We're putting on an ultimate frisbee tournament in Mokpo next weekend, and I've spent some time going around to businesses in town asking for sponsorship. The title of this blog is what I said to one of the staff at a store trying to speak with their manager. I may have actually asked to eat "with" the manager, but either way, the staff member gave me a wonderfully strange look before she managed to figure out what I was trying to accomplish.

So far no one has decided to help us with our tournament, which I think is more a result of us not being able to communicate properly with local businesses than their unwillingness to sponsor events. No one knows what ultimate frisbee is, and while I have managed to put together some request letters in Korean explaining our plight, they don't seem to have done the trick. The one time I did manage to have a Korean come with me to help translate became nearly as problematic as if I had gone on my own. Shannon's old co-teacher, a magnificently intelligent and nice woman, met me at city hall to help negotiate lowering the costs of renting the fields, but the from the moment I saw her until just before we were ready to leave, she was crying. She managed to keep her composure fairly well, but tears were pouring down her face, she went through piles of tissue wiping her nose and eyes, and no matter how much I protested that we should perhaps wait till she was feeling better, she was determined to trudge on and get things done. No one we met with said anything about her emotional state, and she was fairly quick to assure everyone that she just had a real big piece of dust in her eye, but wow, what a strange afternoon that turned out to be.

Some other friends had an incredibly difficult experience of their own recently , one that ended with the police coming to their apartment. My one friend was cleaning her apartment to get ready to leave the country, and another girl had come over to help her tidy up. The two of them were taking the garbage out, and they didn't sort it out into the proper recycling piles right away, as they had to bring more from the apartment. Well, the ajosshi (middle-aged man) patroling the parking lot went ballistic, running after them and slapping them across their bodies to get them back to fix the garbage. The girls got scared of course and ran back inside; the ajosshi followed them, now accompanied by an ajumma (middle-aged woman) and hauling all the garbage they had just taken out. At the apartment door, more shouting ensued, and the drunk next-door neighbour decided to get involved. The girls were now pushing the door closed to keep people out of the house, the gabage had been kicked down the stairs and had exploded everywhere, and not knowing what else to do the girls called our Korean friend who phoned the police. When they arrived, things calmed down a bit, as the drunk man was put back in his house, the lady cleaned up the garbage and the garbage ajosshi eventually went back outside.

I should take a moment to explain these two terms, "ajosshi" and "ajumma". Basically they mean a middle-aged man and woman, but they're used in many different ways. The online dictionary translates them as "auntie" and "uncle", Koreans have explained the words as describing someone who is married, and both can be used as a respectful description of a person or as an insult. Foreigners may say someone is being very "ajosshi" when they're coming across as arrogant and imperious, yet if you watch a Korean movie, you may read a subtitle that uses someone's name yet hear them being referred to as "ajosshi" instead. An "ajumma" can be anyone from a loving grandma to a poor street person who collects cardboard from the streets for recycling.

What it seems has happened is that Korea, being a culture that places great emphasis on respect for elders, has been caught in an almost paradoxical situation where older people (the men moreso) are given a natural respect by society, and have in turn taken for granted the respect they've been given and make themselves look like fools. The garbage ajosshi was certainly right that the girls didn't sort their trash, but smacking them and chasing them into their apartment doesn't really get the point across. Most ajosshi's take great care in dressing nicely and taking care of themselves, but at night it's those same old men in suits that you find peeing in the parking lot outside your front door. Foreigner discussion forums online are filled with strange stories about old men defacting in flower pots on the street, falling down drunk on the sidewalk and just sleeping there, or harrassing people around them if they feel they aren't being treated the way they deserve to be. Shannon pointed out that in North America it's often the women who want to get married because life seems so much simpler to them after that. In Korea, most men are looking to get married and women much more wary. From what I've seen and heard, once couples are married and move in together, the man becomes much more "I'm the man" and the woman takes care of the house and kids. The co-teacher who was crying during our trip to city hall - Shannon and I both suspect her husband may be cheating on her, and we know he spends a great deal of his time outside of work golfing and drinking. He's certainly not the kind of man to go passing out on the street or telling strangers how they should run their lives, but I think some of those "ajosshi" qualities are a little much sometimes.

Geez, I feel like I've done another one of my "Look how bad Korea is" rants, when the truth is I'm really enjoying my time here lately. My palate has warmed to Korean food to the point I'm going to miss it when I leave, I've made some wonderful Korean friends over the past few months, and school is, well, it's OK. I really am going to miss this country when I leave. Anyway, I've written lots for today and I think it's time to get ready for class. I've had heaps of holidays the past few weeks, so I'm a little slow on keeping up with the blogs, but thanks for keeping with me. Take care till next week.

The Weekend Warrior

2008-05-07T08:58:00.004+09:00

I finally got my things together - and by things I mean photos - and now I've got a couple of fun weekends worth of adventure to blog about here.

Nearly two weeks ago, 16 of us from Mokpo took the 5 hour boat ride to Jeju Island, the "Hawaii of Korea", a nearly tropical Korean paradise with various degrees of actual "paradise" qualities to it. Actually, if you've read my old blog on the trip Shan and I took to Jeju, you'll see it is really quite nice.

This year's tournament wasn't quite as fantastic as the one last year - not as much free food or drinks, separate fields for different levels of teams, and far too many teams seemed to suffer from self-imposed curfews, making the party on Saturday and Sunday wind down by 1am. It was still loads of fun, though Saturday had us riddled with challenges on the fields.
The wind was bordering on hurricane strength, our team was placed in a much stronger competition level than we belonged in, and it wasn't until the final game of the day that we managed to score more than 2 points against another team. Still, good times regardless.

Sunday was much better, and the calmer weather meant for some enjoyable games
regardless of whether we won or lost. We won the first two games fortunately, but lost our final game, giving us 2nd place in the "C" division.

Last weekend had myself, Shannon and a few other Mokpo-ites traveling east of Seoul to a tiny town called Ganhyeon, where heaps of the local and foreigner climbing
community had descended upon for a weekend of climbing adventure. I also got to meet up with my old University buddy Les who's been living in Korea as long as I have but we hadn't met up yet.

The climbing was great, I learned plenty of new knowledge on climbing, pushing myself a little harder and further than I'd thought possible, and I managed to replace a little more of the nice tender skin on my hands with a callous layer or, well, callouses.

Kids vs Adults

2008-05-02T11:44:00.002+09:00

I'm not sure who takes the cake for strangest behaviour, kids or adults. I've had a few more unusual run-ins with adults the past week, but one of my kids threw me for such a loop I'm not sure what to make of it.

While walking yesterday, I noticed a lady walking her granddaughter (I assume), and nearly get hit by several vehicles. She was crossing the street 30 meters away from the crosswalk, and looking the wrong way so as to not see any of the oncoming traffic. A bus came by blaring its horn, and while I jumped in the air having been so frightened from it, she didn't even look in its direction, but did at least take half a step back. Once the bus was gone, she again began crossing the road looking away from the coming traffic.

I also have started once again to run into a former Korean acquaintence, a possibly mentally handicapped man who throws out every English sentence he knows all at once -
"Hello nice to meet you my name is Ki Baum how are you I am fine where are you from nice to meet you what is your name I am from Korea how are you nice to meet you..." and on until I move out of earshot.

My student though, there's nothing really wrong with him, he's just a little eccentric. When I first got here he would hold my hand sometimes (many students do that), then he started humming "here' comes the bride" when we walked. Lately he's started hugging me and telling me how much he loves me. And finally, last week he wrapped himself around me while I was at my computer (he's quite a hefty fellow) and tried to kiss my face. I don't know where he was trying to kiss, cause I got my hands up awfully fast, but it was certainly not an appropriate or welcome gesture. He's a nice kid, seems to get along with everyone else, but he's the kind of kid you see wearing bow ties, sweater vests and sporting a crew-cut. Something's just not adding up.

I'm a little behind on this weeks blog, and I realized it's cause I wanted to talk about my last weekend in Jeju, but I don't have any pictures yet. Most of the photos were taken by our amateur photographer guy Dave, and I haven't snagged a copy of them, and I really want to put up some good shots of me and the team playing. My only good team photo had someone (I'm sure it couldn't have been me...) acting mildly inappropriate, so I think I'll wait till I get a more accurate photo-description of the weekend. I will however say that I had a great time, played really well at least one of the two days we played, and I'm going to be sad to miss next years tournament.

Finally, I'm hosting an ultimate tournament here in Mokpo. You can see our details at www.mokpoultimate.com, and yes I know there's heaps of type-o's, I'm sure I'll get to fixing them later (well, I'll have my helper fix them, I don't actually make the website). While I'm sure a trip to Korea is probably out of the question for most people, everyone I know is more than invited, and if you make the trip from overseas, I promise to waive the $20 registration fee. So long for now!

Ach! Germs!

2008-04-22T10:56:00.002+09:00

There's plenty of cultural differences you hear about in Korea that never really seem real until you go through them. The difference in perception of germs and contagious diseases was something I've heard about, and I've seen people take minimal care to avoid coughing or sneezing on others, but last week was the first time I really had something unexpected happen to me.

My grade 3 class came in, and their teacher was looking rather ill. In fact, she looked extremely ill, and I was surprised she had even come to school. I asked if she was OK, and she gave a hoarse response that she was, and we talked for a moment longer at which point she began coughing all over me. I was so surprised, I did a big learing slide backward and gave her a wide-eyed "what the heck are you doing lady?" look. She hardly seemed to notice anything was wrong other than our conversation had ended, and turned away from me casually, still coughing.

So now I'm sick, and I'm convinced it's her fault. I'm going to have to ask a few Koreans to get their thoughts on communicable diseases and whether they feel something like my experience is not a good way for people to stay healthy.

In other news, I've taken on the position of person most likely to have their bike stolen in Korea, if not the world. I write this only because, after having three bicycles stolen from me in the past 12 months, all of them locked up, I see no reason why a 4th or 5th won't also take place - unless of course I stop buying new bicycles. Two were taken from my school when left over-night (both locked and slightly hidden from view) and one was taken from outside my apartment building, locked again but it a less than desireable spot due to a flat tire and a big hill in front of me. Add this to the very expensive bike I had stolen from me while in Calgary (that one was not locked up and was just me being careless), and I'm starting to think that bicycles and I were just not meant to be together.

This is a big "ranting" day it seems, cause my last topic of discussion is also to complain, though like everything it's all in good humour and never actually upsetting (well, stolen bikes and the loss of money is kind of upsetting). So last week I wrote about the disorganization of the voice recording Shannon and I were doing. Well, here we were, a week later, the day it needed to be sent in, and word finally trickled down that we needed to do the entire project over again. As far as I can tell it was a culmination of a lazy recording technician who couldn't be bothered to sort out what English was correctly recorded and what was incorrect, as well as no one telling Shannon or I what we should be reading and what we should be leaving out. And so, we read the whole book again from start to finish, recording it in a single shot. The guy played the necessary music in between chapters, we couldn't cough or talk between sections, it was ridiculous. There were a few mistakes we made which he seemed the tech guy seemed to think he could patch up, but otherwise it was the most ludicrous recording session you could have done.

To make things go more smoothly, we had to drop all the grammatical changes we made to the book. See, this textbook we were reading was full of errors and just strange sentence formations, which we had edited to sound more appropriate. But we didn't have the edited copy, and fixing it on the fly meant lots of mistakes. So instead, we just read silly paragraphs like:

"Shinan is a place of many bridges. The bridges connect the islands to the islands. Especially Jeungdo is the beautiful island. Photographers may like to come here and take nude photos."

I am a little embarrassed at having my name attached to the project. Oh, and I had this goofy cold that was given to me as well, so I sound sick for the text book too. Oh geez, it's too funny.

Anyway, thanks for sticking around through my fun complaining session. I'm off to Jeju, the hawaii of Korea, this weekend for some ultimate. Lots of pics and fun stories to tell I'm sure, so take care until then!

Bloomin' Blossoms

2008-04-16T15:01:00.007+09:00

It's cherry blossom season in Korea, and I thought I'd put up some of my attempts to artistically capture the colours erupting from the trees. These shots are all from the hill behind our house where I've been walking Miso in the mornings before school.

Contrast and Strangers

2008-04-15T11:10:00.004+09:00

I've started teaching at a gifted school every Monday from 5-8pm. It's a nice little job that pays $30 an hour, so it's worth the loss of my Monday nights, but it's proving to have some unexpected challenges to it. These kids are indeed quite ahead of the rest of their age group, and for the first three weeks, they've quickly devoured everything I've thrown at them. My 3-week lesson plan on phonics I had developed was handled in a single class, with hardly a single mistake made in both the grade 5 and 6 classes. The students at my school have trouble correctly determining the difference between right and left, while yesterday I did a lengthy "Deserted Island" lesson plan with the gifted students, where they had to come up with what they would bring with them to a deserted island and explain why they would bring it.

The other little money-maker Shannon and I have been doing, the text-book voice recording, has possibly wrapped up,
but no one really knows. See, we go into the recording booth, and are given instructions 4th hand by the sound booth technician. See, the people who decide what to do work on an island school out of town. The administrators tell Shannon's school what they want, Shannon's school tells Shannon's co-teacher, and Shannon's co-teacher tells us and the technician over the phone. Any questions we have take about 2 or 3 days to answer properly, and so after 3 or 4 weeks now, we've only gone into the studio three times, and we still don't know if we've recorded it satisfactorily.
Despite the strange manner of communication, it's a fun job to be working, and I hope I get to hear myself on the finished product one day.

Strangers

Being in a new environment can leave you a little more aware of the things and people around you, especially when those people are a little strange, demented or outright creepy. After my trip to Busan last week, I've also found that when you enter a new environment, those strange creepy people are also quite good at noticing you.

I arrived early to the beach on Sunday, and sat down alone to eat some breakfast. While fixing my bag, a guy leans over my shoulder, and says to me:

"Water hey? That's great." I think he's talking about the ocean, so I mutter yeah and go back to my bag. He points at my oranges and says:

"Tangerines too. That's really nice." Ahhh, so he's complimenting me on my bottle of water and my fruit for breakfast. Thanks I say, but still don't turn to face him.

"Are you Australian?" No, Canadian. "Oh good, I don't like Americans. You sound so different. You must be a good Canadian. Very friendly."

He goes on like this, talking to my back for another minute about accents, when 4 more ultimate players show up. He mentions something about my friends coming, then darts off.

Next comes a guy in a soccer jersey and filthy pants. He's shaking everyone's hands, asking names and forgetting them, dancing a little bit and trying to give out hugs. He also talks rather briskly to one of the Korean ultimate players, Ki Boum. "What did he just say?" I ask Ki Boum.

"He told me to keep my mouth shut."

Over the rest of the day, the soccer dude would continue to scurry around us talking to whomever he could, another man would walk on the field repeatedly then just watch the games while we tried to shoo him off, and a lady with nothing to sell tried to sing along to some English songs with us hoping we would buy some of the things she didn't have.

Mokpo, being a smaller city, doesn't seem to have as many prominent crazies, but there are definitely a few characters out there. How all these people though managed to learn English so well is a little beyond me, but you gotta hand it to them for finding a way to get their point across, no matter how pointless it really is.

The Love Motel

2008-04-08T15:43:00.005+09:00

The idea of a "Love Motel" is by no means unique to Korea, but its ubiquitousness, usefulness and staggaring range of (or lack of) comfort offerings makes it very worthy of detailed mentioning.

While I have no facts on the rates for monogomy and infidelity in Korea and no idea on the prevalance of prostitution, the sheer number of motels and hotels marketed towards guest looking for brief and discreet stays makes me think both are quite common. What makes these motels so nice is that they are so cheap, and so long as you check that the room is OK, they can be quite pleasant. Any overnight stay away from Mokpo will usually take on the following routine:

1. FInd a busy part of town, and look for a not-too-shady side street.

2. Duck under the hanging-rope car entrance used to hide the identities of people walking from their cars to the motel.

3. At the front desk, bend over so your head is level with your hips - the front desk window is kept low and tiny so the clerk won't know who you are.

4. Avoid paying more than $30 a night, but be sure the room is clean from cigarettes, dirty laundry and previous guests (that hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it will one day)

5. Avoid like the plague the terrible horrible X-rated movies playing on the TV. Even if you wanted to watch pornographic materials, you'd probably have a better time watching animals at the zoo than the painfully unflattering material offered on these TV's.

My previous stay at a love motel went quite well until I tried to actually sleep in it. Not only was the parking lot used as a drunken teenage sports field at night, but there was a noraebang (karaoke bar) right below me. By 3am I fell asleep, but I nearly lost my mind when at 6am the singing started again, now more drunken and off key. By 6:15 I had packed up all my bags and was asking the front desk for a new room upstairs, but they had none to give me. By 7 the singing stopped, but then a new game of baseball had started in the parking lot, and so rather than spend my morning sleeping, I spent it walking around looking for a new motel. The one I did find was amazingly better, putting me on the 5th floor and giving me free access to the public sauna/bath house in the building, which made me very happy once again.

This last motel adventure was during a trip to Busan to play ultimate. It turned into a great time despite my crazy-making first sleepless night. Here's some shots of me on the beach - the close-up is just after a dive for the disc, that left my face full of sand.

It's a quiet few weeks I think for now, then it's off to Jeju as a dozen of us go play in one of the bigger ultimate touraments around. There's even a team flying in from the US to play, which is pretty unexpected yet quite exciting.
In the meantime, it's busy times at school, as all my classes are coming these days and none of the teachers are showing up to help. Means of controling students are usually available to me, but it sure takes a lot of energy to get 30 kids who don't speak English under control, and I think I may have to have a talk with my administration staff about making all teachers accompany their students. Otherwise, it's going to lead to one unhappy mind-melted me.

Communication Through Song

2008-03-31T09:59:00.003+09:00

This week I'm keeping the blog short and letting someone else do all the work. For a great musical and visual Korean experience, here's a video put together by some English teachers from the English in Paju (I wrote about it as the Disneyland-like English centre).

EV Boyz - Kickin' It In Geumchon

They do a great job of describing things in Korea without being too cruel or obnoxious. The chorus they're singing uses the Korean words "Kamsahamnida" (thank you) and "Annyong Haseyo" (a general greeting, or "peace be with you" roughly).

I may have to post another blog this week - we just had a murder mystery party over the weekend, and while it has very little to do with Korea, it was still a ripping god time with some great costumes. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Nice To Meet You!

2008-03-24T15:31:00.004+09:00

There's a teacher at my school who says to me "Nice to meet you!" every day we meet. My students do the same thing to me, and no matter how many times I tell them it's wrong, they just don't quite get it.

Whether you're old friends catching up, or strangers walking past each other on the street, "Nice to meet you" has become the quintessential greeting Koreans use when speaking English. There is very little deviation from it (until people become quite fluent), which I can't quite understand. I think it stems from a bad translation of the Korean word 반갑다 (bangabda), meaning to be pleased, which is a general greeting used in all sorts of situations for Koreans. Since this verb can be used for both "Nice to meet you" and "Good to see you again" people here seem to have stuck with the first one they learned. And so I've begun taking pain-staking process in each of my classes to differentiate between "Nice to meet you" and "Good to see you".

The next miracle I perform on my students will be to stop the use of nouns to describe feelings. This, however, I find hilarious, and I'll be sad if I do ever teach them to stop answering questions like "How are you?" with "Teacher, I am smile." or "Teacher, I am pizza!" One of my favourite responses when I ask how students are comes from one of lower level students. Wang Jeong Uk (왕정욱) is in gr. 5 and has about zero English skills. Even 5 extra hours a week with me still didn't get him anywhere. But now, after two years with this goofy kid, this is how he answers me:

Me: Jeong Uk, how are you?

Wang: Teacher, my angry... (waves his hands) Kim Jin Geon punch-ie! (makes a punching sound.) My (korean ramblings)... My teacher (falls out of chair) yes? O-K? Yes!

Me: Good job, Jeong Uk.

So it goes.

I'm off to make some legitimate extra money after class today. You may or may not be aware of many teachers making extra cash teaching private lessons in Korea, which is quite illegal and can get you booted from the country. In the last week however, I've gotten myself some legitimate overtime with the city education office at $30 an hour, plus Shannon and I did the voice recording for a small island English text. The city job is pretty straight forward, but the recording was quite unreal. I don't think there was much emphasis put on getting it done "properly" when it came to this book. Besides the savage amounts of spelling mistakes, Shannon and I were put in a recording booth with no one who spoke English, given no direction besides "stop" and "go" and asked to read various paragraphs and dialogues. Some of the dialogues invovled as many as 5 separate characters, and while I tried to do some voice "alteration" to fool some of the more deaf children who might listen, all you get is me sounding like a horse and Shannon giggling in the background. And our Korean soundman?

"Good. Go." he says.

Anyway, they may call us in to re-record it, they may just give us $150 each for 2 hours work. I'm not expecting any further interest in my talents, but it sure would be fun to do again. If anything new happens, I'll write about it next week. Thanks for reading.

Expansion Of My Horizons

2008-03-19T14:37:00.005+09:00

I just took my first sip of a cool, refreshing McCol. http://www.ilhwa.co.kr/english/english.asp?m=detail&v=biz&c=beverage&sid=00054&sp=00053&l=2&pid=300050
I didn't even know what it was when I took my first sip, but it smells like a
sterilized stainless steel barnyard, yet it tastes like, well, barley cola I guess.It's been a while since I've had my socks blown off by something so unexpected, so I had to write about it quickly. Anyway, I'm off to play volleyball now!

오늘 어떠요? How Are You Today?

2008-03-19T13:23:00.003+09:00

I don't think that's a very "Korean" thing to say (안녕하세요, "peace be with you" is really the norm for greetings), but I wanted to write something Korean in my title today.

It's a quiet day today, and I'm spending my afternoon listening to Bob McDonald on the Quirks and Quarks CBC podcast. Today he's talking about the possibilities of finding life on other planets, which may be much more likely than people think - the downside is that anything found would probably look about as lively and animated as a bucket of mud. So, with the loss of all possibilities of my visiting life on other planets, I'm glad I've taken the time to see all the alien-worldly things here in Korea. Here's what's been happening lately.

I've taken a liking to going rock climbing these days, and just did my first Korean 암벽드유ㅏㄴ (ambyeokdungban), or rock climbing, trip. My fingers felt like I'd ran them through a cheese grater for 5 hours by the time I was done, but it was a great time.

Have I talked about my new co-teacher at school yet? Well, she doesn't really help me teach, but she does aid me in other matters, and being the young eager-to-please teacher that she is, she's super helpful for me. Everyday we sit down for an hour studying Korean (for me) and English (for her), and for the first time since I've been here, I'm actually spending a good deal of time speaking Korean. I was feeling so confident today, when I needed to head to the bank for a minute, rather than sneaking out of the school like I normally do, I actually went to the office and asked my vice principal for permission. Another teacher in the room burst out laughing, but I said everything pretty correct, and he didn't make me sign the multiple sheets of paper discussing why I need to go the bank, how long I'll be, then gather the 3 signatures needed before leaving. Pretty sweet.

Here's another shot I took of Shannon climbing while in Thailand. It's one of the best action shots I took all month, I just got my shoes delivered in the mail this morning, so pretty soon it'll be me ripping up the rock like that. In the meantime, I'm sticking to ultimate (frisbee). If anyone's interested, there's some tournaments happening in April here in Korea. I'll be sure to save a roster spot and even buy a beer for anyone who makes the big trip over. Till next week!

A Whole New Ball Game

2008-03-08T00:20:00.003+09:00

A little change can go a long way, and my school just went through a massive change, making this semester completely unlike the last 17 months I've spent teaching at school. I'm not sure whether things are going to be better or worse, but they certainly are different now.

For starters, I'm now the 3rd longest tenured teacher at my school. Of course, I still have to get help when I need toilet paper for the bathroom, but all but two of the teachers who were here when I arrived have since rotated schools, something teachers do here on usually a 4-year basis, but I guess working at Jungang Elementary speeds that up a bit. Mostly I don't mind, some new faces are nice to see and meet at school, and no one gets tired of my strange English teacher antics this way. Unfortunately, my principal has left, and I'm now faced with a new, much more "by-the-traditional-book" kind of guy.

My New Principal

It took two days for my principal to speak to me (he has zilch for English skills). Before that, he asked others while right in front of me "Does the English teacher not have a cell phone?" and later on (while I wasn't around) make sure I was given proper instructions for saying hello and bowing in the morning. I now need to not only ensure I say "Please be peaceful honourable sir" each morning, but I was given a second round of instruction to remind me to enter the room fully, face my principal, and bow directly at him. I also need to do this for my vice-principal, and again for both when I leave school.

My vice-principal, who gets along much better with this new style of leader, now feels more comfortable guiding me towards becoming a better and honourable Korean. All ready he's begun informing me at lunch that I must eat everything given to me on my plate, something he would only mutter under his breath last semester. In reponse, I've changed times I eat lunch, and am much better at preventing the cafeteria workers from putting nasty foods on my tray.

Volleyball has also taken on new levels of importance, which is awesomely horrible since our teachers are even worse volleyball players than before. Last week we played 3 or 4 times, and most staff meetings revolved around how to improve our volleyball skills. When we do play, I'm trapped in this grey void of not knowing whether to impress the few male teachers and play hard, or have fun with the female teachers and not violently crush balls at them. It's degenerated for me into this silly dance where I spend 80% of the time with my hands in my pockets, then leap up to knock one or two balls down so I can get a high-five from my principal. Then, back to twiddling my thumbs and trying not to act too ridiculous on the court.

Well, I should wrap this up here. I didn't teach at all last week, setting a new personal record for internet surfing and time wasting. The British term for it is WILFing (What was I Looking For?) when you surf online without any real direction. I'm teacher a few extra classes per week now though, so perhaps I'll be moderately busy this semester.

Oh, while I don't mean to drag this out into another epicly long blog, but here's a funny tale from teaching. Last year my students were getting a little... over-excited... about certain body parts and human activites that start to get interesting once you're around 12 or so year old. During my teaching of parts of the body, they demanded very much to know the words for "penis", so they could use it in ways not ideal for speaking to me or other students. Well, I didn't feel good having them saying penis so rudely, but I didn't want them to be clueless or wrong about body parts, so I just gave them "groin" as a suitable and useable word. Now I've got kids yelling groin around the school left right and centre, making strange hand gestures and talking about "groin-groin-go", it gets so ridiculous I end up laughing with them and at them at the same time. That of course only encourages is, but hey, whatever gets them speaking English, right?

A Few More Pictures

2008-03-06T13:06:00.010+09:00

Here's some more photos I wasn't able to add in my last blog. While most should be self-explanatory, the one with the crab is a little strange. During our beach camp-out, Shannon noticed this massive crab hiding in the corner beside the toilet while she was sitting down, causing her to let out a horribly loud scream and nearly break the bathroom door down as she flew out.

No Country For Tall Men

2008-03-02T16:03:00.010+09:00

It's a short man's world out there, and I've got the divots in my head to prove it. 30 days in Thailand has only cemented the fact that people over 5'10" are not normally given the kind of consideration we deserve, and bathrooms, hostels, restaurants and nearly anywhere there's a doorway can be a treacherous place.

Yep, my month vacation in Thailand has come to an end, and it was a wonderful and exciting time that I'm sad to see go, yet it feels good to be back home in Korea where things are a little more stable.
Besides all the whacking of my head, I also contracted food poisoning twice, so it has been very refreshing to sit on my couch or bed after a long hot shower and not have to worry about doing activities or catching buses any time soon.

To recap the last month, Shannon and I spent 29 days in Thailand, 13 days in the south and 15 up north.
I know that only equals 28, but traveling ate up at least one day, perhaps even two. In the south, we went to Tonsai/Railay, where we rock-climbed and relaxed for 8 days solid. I had my first incident of food poisoning there, which kept us a day or two longer than we wanted, but it's about the most beautiful place in the world to be stuck at.

Our next stop was in Koh Pi Pi. This was another mega-beautiful tourist destination, where we went scuba diving and then spent a night camping on the beach where that late '90's movie, "The Beach" was filmed. Looking back, I realize that both Tonsai and Koh Pi Pi were incredibly tourist dominated remote locations, with no locals living there that weren't there to make money in tourism.
Foreigners, or "farangs" outnumbered Thais by as much as 5-1, and while we did get to experience the geography of Thailand, there really wasn't as much Thai culture to be found with so many foreigners muddling about.
Still, it was an amazing, magnificent time, and if nothing else, we got to see a 5 or 6 metre whale shark while scuba diving, which definitely had my eyes bugging out of my skull.

The north was much more varied, and I enjoyed it in an entirely different way than the south. Instead of beaches and rock climbing, we had mountains and hiking; most of our stops were only for 2 or 3 nights, and we covered an incredible amount of distance by bus, foot and bicycle.

In Tham Lod, our first major stop, we went caving. I never thought much for caving, but I certainly do enjoy it more now. Our first 7 hour hike took us through three caves, one lengthy deep one with vertebrate fossils in the back, one with 2000 year-old Thai coffins, and another that was a tiny stream cave. The stream cave was something I never imagined doing, and probably wouldn't have if I had stopped to think about it before crawling in.
For most of the 25 minutes going into this cave, you had to crawl on your hands and knees, sometimes even flat on your belly, through a small stream and it's muck to get along the cave. It was only wide enough for one person, and it terminated with a 20 meter waterfall where 5 years ago a Dutch person had fallen to his death. The cave was so small and awkward, it took two days to find a way to get the Dutchman's body out.

The second caving trip we did was a kayak tour through a massive cave filled with birds and bats. The bat poop was several centimeters thick on the ground, and gave off an incredible odour that wasn't terrible, but not at all pleasant either.

After Tham Lod, we went to Mae Hong Son to hike through the mountains. There's many different tours, packages and means to go hiking in Thailand's hills, and we wanted to do it in a way that exploited the people and animals of Thailand the least. One of the tribes living in Thailand are the "long-neck" tribes you may have heard of. Women generally in these tribes will put those metal rings around their necks, extending them over time as a beautification things. Well, at first we thought, "wow, how neat, a cultural event we should probably see." Well, that's not really what it is. See, these people are historically Burmese refugees who have fled Burma and now have started being exhibited in Thailand for the "neat" way they decorate themselves. The neck decorations they do probably would be gone by now, but the people are kept in small villages just off the main road so foreigners can pay $10 to go have a look at them. It's kind of like a human zoo, and while plenty of travel offices/writers seem to think it's okay, every local we talked to and newspaper we read said it was a sad example of exploitation of people in need of help and money.

So, our hike went through more traditional, less exploited villages from other people more closely linked to rebel soldiers than human zoo colonies. We hiked for 5 or 6 hours every day and would spend our nights sleeping in big bamboo huts, raised off the ground. Pigs, dogs, chickens and cows strolled around the huts, and the entire human population of these villages never was more than 10 or 12, and the fist night it was only 2. The second of our three days hiking, we crawled into another cave, which I know distinguish from the others by the animals lurking inside. Our guides, who knew what they were getting into, brought sticks with them to keep any trouble away, which at fist I may have thought was the bats. This cave, being much smaller than the previous caves with bats, had bats flying only a few feet from our heads (or into our guides head at one small point). But, it was the snakes that had everyone on edge by the end - poisonous cave snakes, which I was told will kill you, live in the caves around there, and we came across two of them. One stopped us from going any further, and the second was a good sign for us to get the heck out of the cave ASAP.

Our final event from the north was the self guided bike tour Shannon and I did. This probably would have been one of the highlights of the north if we didn't both get food poisoning again only 60 km into the trip. We spent the next two days and 100+ km struggling to make it to our next destination, ignoring all the beautiful scenery and side trips we could along the way. By the time we got back to the finish in Chiang Mai, I was ready to denounce any and all forms of physical activity for the next few years of my life. In the end, it took only a few more days to get my back on my feet feeling good, but by the time a few more days rolled around, I was in Korea again.

(I'll have a few more pics to add soon, I couldn't get them all of the camera in time for this week.)

And so, tomorrow is Monday, which means I'm back to work at school. I'm not dreading it as much as I thought I would be, but I'm not terribly excited either. I know I'll probably not teach any classes, and spend most of the day on the computer or studying Korea, then have a moderately fun dinner out with all my teachers, full of strange food that even after 18 months I still can't identify it's origins. It does feel very good being back in Korea though - after so much time being sick in Thailand, the familiar foods and feelings, sounds and smells, it all makes me feel quite strong and healthy again. I even ate two big chunks of kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage) at dinner last night and enjoyed it intensely. I may make a Korean out of myself yet.

Life (and Death) in Thailand

2008-02-19T17:41:00.003+09:00

There are layers of existence for people here in Thailand, from the brief vacationing families who hardly leave their tourist resort boundaries, to the locals living in remote villages who know little of the outside world. Shannon and I are coming as close to seeing (perhaps slightly even experiencing) the local communities of northern Thailand, and it's a wild, alien place.

To begin with, it's much more violent than I had originally imagined. We've fortunately not not been involved in anything unusual or difficult, but talking with people who've lived here for many years and learning more about life here, it can be a scary place to be at times.

Right now, we're in a small village called Tham Lod - mostly bamboo huts and farmland. It's nice, quiet, and everyone we've met has been incredibly friendly. Yet the owner of the hostel and the workers who've been there for a while have plenty of stories about people dying and being murdered. I started reading the owner's book, which begins with him being wrongfully accussed of murdering one backpacker only to have another dead person's whereabouts being linked with him and his buisness. Asking a hostel staff member a bit about this, he mentioned that while that story was rather unusual, things have a way of happening out in the middle of nowhere. A few years back, a Dutch tourist dies in a cave Shannon and I had only hours earlier crawled out of. The week prior to our arrival, a few local Thais had been murdered, and their bodies found in a large sinkhole outside of town. This story became really interesting when it turned out the limited search and rescue crews in the area were not available for some time, and it was the various trekking guides and tour staff who had to retrieve the bodies.

You may also have heard of the two Canadians shot in Thailand only a month or two ago. The man died, the woman survived, and the police officer who shot them is expected to be set free and be back on duty soon. While there are a few stories on how things happened, the version backed by the most evidence is the one where a drunk off-duty police officer tries to get friendly with a Candian girl, her boyfriend tells him to get stuffed, and as things go the way they do when people have been drinking, the officer shoots them both. Shannon and I just left the town this happened in, Pai, a few days ago.

In smaller towns, where authority and justice seem to be nice ideas that don't necessarily get followed, it's quite a different world from that at home, or even the one touched on briefly while traveling. Now, all this doesn't make being in Thailand unsafe - even the shooting in Pai could have been avoided if cooler heads and common sense had prevailed (or so I believe). And from conversations with other travelers, Thailand is one of the safest countries in the world when it comes to assault and robbery, especially for females travelling alone. But it for locals, for people living within the rules and law that seems to apply in small villages where no one knows what happens outside, it seems to be a scarier place. Today, walking into town after hearing all the stories from the folks living here, I even noticed all the road signs I passed had bullet holes through them. In the few days I'm here in Tham Lod, not much it seems will happen, but I bet as you look over longer and longer timelines, this small village can be a pretty wild place.

Thailand

2008-02-07T21:10:00.001+09:00

This will be relatively short, but I've made it safely to Thailand and am having a blast here now. The trip was generally uneventful, other than the full glass of orange juice I dumped in my lap during the flight to Thailand. That was pretty uncomfortable to go through.

Shannon and I are in Tonsai Bay now, a rock climbing mecca where there are more tanned, muscular bodies than anywhere I've ever seen in my life. We've gone climbing three or four days now, and it's been unbelievable. Took me some time to get used to hanging so high by a rope, but every time I go I like it more and more.

I've got food poisoning now, and spent all last night expelling it from my body in every way you could imagine. Today has been a very slow, painful day to get through, and I've only gotten out of bed twice. I shaved though, which is only noteworthy because I was so ill I managed to slash my chin with my razor. I'm not in good shape at the moment.

Anyway, tomorrow we're off to either Koh Pi Pi, Au Nang or Koh Lak - it all depends on how well I feel and what we want to do. I may blog again next week if I have time. Hope everyone in the rest of the world is doing well!

"Yeah, But You Should See The Other Guy!"

2008-01-27T21:44:00.000+09:00

I can't think of any better way to start this blog than to come straight out and admit I got my back-side beaten up by a 16 year-old last week.

I've been going to Taekwondo now for almost a year, and every so often we get to spar with each other. Being the only person over 5'8", and weighing twice what most everyone else does, I always have to fight the toughest kids in class. And yes, they're all in high school, though that doesn't necessarily make them any less bad-ass.

This week I took a surprisingly good beating, though to be fair, I was trying more for good technique on my part and less for avoiding kicks to the abdomen. And so, every time I put out a good, well planned kick or two, the speedy little Korean student would slip in and hammer me three or four times before I could finally step back and start over again. I got some well deserved congratulations from everyone in class for doing so well, but I also have some bruised ribs and a tennis-ball sized welt on my foot from it all.

Oh, and the time before I fought this kid, I got a minor concussion. This kid is quite good, and had to fight everyone in class one day. I was at the end, so he was pretty tired, so I was able to chase him around the room. I'm all ready to (gently) finish him off, so to speak, when with my last kick to his head, I slip. Well, I had enough momentum going for me that I threw my entire body up in the air air and came down squarely on the back of my neck/skull. If it hadn't been so painful, I'm sure it would have been quite hilarious, like a cartoon character stepping on a banana peel.

I'm off to Jeju island for a school camp on Tuesday, then when I'm back Shan and I are heading to Thailand. It's getting very very exciting here, though dealing with the dog and our friend's cat while we're gone is a hassle and a half. Yes - for anyone out there who was wondering - this is definitely a sign I'm not ready to have children. So, there will be little to no blogging for the next month, but I'll be back in March! Thanks for reading everyone, send me an email if you're ever interested in what's happening with me, or if you have a fun story to tell yourself.

Oh, and my hip/buttock is moderately better these days. Physio has helled a bit, but it seems running, exercise and being very cautious with it also helps. Cured? I don't think so. But better. Okay, type to you later.

Rich

Hard at Work Doin' Nothin'

2008-01-24T12:38:00.000+09:00

It's week 3.7 of winter vacation here in Korea, and I've been nice and busy doing nothing these days. Actually, I really have been keeping myself wonderfully occupied with a whole schlack of activities these past few weeks, but it's still a pain having to stick around Mokpo/Korea when if you added up all my free time, it would be nearly a whole extra month doing something more interesting than this.

I've been working about 45 minutes a day at school this week, and the work I do is literally just "listen and repeat" with the kids so they can learn some new phrases in English. Shannon's not doing anything right now, so by 11:30 each day, we turn into Hugh Grant in that movie "About a Boy" where he retires at 30 and spends his days managing small blocks of time with trivial activities. Well, I have managed to go to the gym nearly every day lately, which is pretty good, but otherwise it's lots of reading, studying Korean and platting schemes to trick my students to do what I tell them to for next semester. Any scheme plotting is always a good time.

Miso

Since there's not too much going on then, why don't I introduce you all more formally to the littlest member of our Korean household, Miso. Any regular reader of my blog here will know of our poor little mongrel, but for those unaware, here's a quick history of our new four-legged friend.

We got the little guy after a friend found him wandering the streets. After a few days trying to find his owners, she began asking around if anyone would take care of him. Since we felt it was that or have him put down, Shannon and I took him in. 10 months later, he's still a little rough on deciding where he should and shouldn't be peeing, but he's so cute how can you get mad at him.

It's winter now, so he hasn't stopped shivering in a few months. I think the fact that he's small, has little hair, and was meant really to be in Mexico (he is half Chihuahua) makes him not so adept at dealing with chilly temperatures. Canada may be the end of him, I think. Still, if anyone is ever interested in babysitting, he's very loving, likes to cuddle, and sleeps comfortably with you under the covers.

Oh, and we're babysitting a friends cat right now. The cat is nuts, and spends most of the day trying to break in (and subsequently, out of) the fridge. Here's a funny picture we took of him that shows off all his insanity. Well, that's all until next week, or whenever-ish. I'm a little slow on the blogs now that I have all this free time. Strange how things work that way. After next week though, it's off to Thailand! I probably won't be blogging during that stint, but feel free to email me if you need to hear an adventure or two!

Blame It On the Rain

2008-01-12T11:44:00.000+09:00

The lack of foaming agents in Korea has started to come to my attention these last few weeks. It's by no means a serious issue, or even something that bothers me at all, but it's a strange thing to continually come across - go wash your hair, and you get no suds. Brush your teeth, and your mouth never gets as foamed up. The body wash we have, rather than getting all sudsy, just coats your body with a "silicone gel" that's put into it.

On the other hand, when given beer the locals just can't seem to give me enough foamy head whenever they pour me a drink, so I suppose it all balances out in one fashion or another. All right, enough meandering for now.

I number of months ago I went into some details on a pain in my hip that had come up and brought about a number of trips to the doctor, including my local "herb" doctor. Well, the pain has come back again, and I'm onto Round 2 of trying to sort it out here in Korea. I'm starting to think perhaps it's a pinched nerve or something up with my back, but my self-daignosis is by no means the interesting part of this story.

I've been going to physiotherapy for a few weeks now, which I think is pretty similar to Canadian standards. My doctor however is a little out there for my liking. He doesn't speak much English, so we get by in a mixture of our two languages to figure out what's going on. The other day though, his English came through just fine.

I was having a rather painful day yesterday (which has carried over to today), so I went in to try and see if we could better diagnose my problem. I told him that my leg and buttock was getting quite painful, and I was even having some difficulty walking today.

"Ah, yes," he says, "that's because of the rain."

The rain? I'm in a great deal of pain and you're blaming it on the weather? Ridiculous. Anyway, I did my physiotherapy, and things still aren't any better. Today I'm going to a new doctor, and if he can't help I may end up going to the hospital to get some much more in-depth testing. I'll keep you appraised on my progress, since I'm sure there are a few people or family members who are concerned for my health and well-being.

On a more fun and bizarre note, I got a new haircut this week. Normally this wouldn't be noteworthy, but since we've moved houses, I decided to try someone closer to home, and went with the nearby "stylist". Well, what an experience that was!

As you may be able to see, the stylist, a young guy who I was hoping could speak English, spent very little time actually "cutting" my hair, and styled it instead. And not to my liking. When he did cut, he would jump around me, waving his hands, thrashing though my hair, sliding his leg out to one side to crouch low and cut juuuuussssst the right piece of hair to make it look right. I asked him three or four times to cut it shorter, but he just kept saying "No, no - Wax!" The final product is like no hair style I'll ever wear, but when not styled that way, it doesn't look so bad on me.

All right, that's all for this week I think. I'm not working for another week or two now, so I don't expect much to happen here besides reading books and relaxing. Bye for now.

Matters of Miscommunication

2008-01-07T12:39:00.000+09:00

Well, I was at school working today. Up until about 8:50 this morning I wasn't expecting to be at all, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call while just getting out of bed asking me where I was (yes, I am getting up late these days while on vacation). Somehow it seems no one let me know what day I was supposed to come in and work our school's winter camp, or they did let me know but in a way that made absolutely no sense to me. Either way, I was under the impression that I wasn't supposed to work until next week. Ha!

Of course, getting to school I had nothing at all prepared, and my classroom is being torn up to have new flooring done, so my options for getting anything ready at school were pretty limited. Fortunately I'm working with another teacher who happened to put together enough stuff to get through the day.

These little problems of never properly knowing times or dates of events, or even knowing of the events at all, has always been a bit of a problem while working here, and today was one of the best examples of it. It's even stranger when I'm asked what I'm "choosing" to do about something, when I never knew I had an option. For example, this winter camp - after weeks of deliberation, talking about when the camp will be, who will work it, how much the pay will be, I was asked at the end of school whether I would come and what day I would be coming on.

"Uuuh, yes, I'm going to come, and I'm going to come when I was told I should come (which was the 14th of January, not today, the 7th)."

Lunch today was also another "what option would you like, though we haven't given you any" situation. I was told that, since most of the students coming to this camp were poor, something would have to be done about meals for them. Maybe an outside group, maybe the cafeteria, no one knew the details yet. Today, as I'm packing up to go home, I'm asked what I wanted to do for lunch.

"Uuuuh, I'm going to eat lunch at home. Is that okay?" Yes, yes, that's good. Bye!

Now, most of these issues can all be chalked up to matters of miscommunication - everything was talked about with everyone involved, it just happens that I don't understand Korean and someone along the line forgot to let me know in a way I could understand what was going on. At least, I'm assuming that's the problem, though it might also be the people involved in organizing this. See, Shannon's now working a winter camp too, one that was setup so she could be working while I was and make some money/not be bored. Her co-teacher ran into my co-teacher for this camp and tried to get details on when the camp would be, how long each day, and when I would be working it. She had about as much success speaking Korean as I did in English.

Anyway, it's over and done now. I'm working this week and next (and maybe the week after?), and I'm 90% sure of what they're paying me (though that was a debacle too, requiring the services of a nice teacher not involved in the process to "point out" that maybe I was entitled to more than they were giving me), so I think I've got it all under control.

Once this is all done, it's off to Thailand for Shannon and me. We're going to be there from the 6th of Feb until the 29th, and I'm very much looking forward to a nice few weeks hiking mountains, sitting on beaches and taking it easy. My last blog I mentioned how it had been unseasonably warm here - well the next day a blizzard blew in shutting down the nearby airport and dropping as much as 40 cm of snow in places. Mokpo only got a few centimetres, but it was some pretty wild weather to see. Though maybe I just haven't seen a good Canadian winter in a long time. Anyway, happy New Year everyone.

A Matter of Scheduling

2007-12-28T12:41:00.000+09:00

For anyone who's talked to me in the past few weeks, you'd probably have a hard time pinning down exactly what days off I have over the next two months. Even friends here in Korea, whom I've talked about this in great detail with, will probably have trouble being sure about what exactly is going on with my schedule between now and March. That's because I don't really know exactly what's going on, and I'm pretty sure my school doesn't either.

Here' what I do know. I have to work for 10 days in January, but I'm not 100% sure when. Probably near the end, with the last 3 or 4 days being an overnight camp on Jeju Island, 4 hours south of Mokpo. The rest of the time working is still a muddled mess, and may not be sorted out till the day before I come in, which is most likely the 14th of Janurary.

After that, I come to school for two days on Feb 4th and 5th, during which time I'm sure I will do zero work, and then I'm off on vacation until March 3rd when school starts again. It's that long February break that Shannon and I will use to do something exciting, though we havne't found anything that's got us really pumped to go do. I think we just need to find some cheap flights to a warm beach.

Christmas is over now, and the kids are bringing all their fun toys to school. So many foriegners here in Mokpo have mentioned how little it's felt like Christmas lately, and I've been trying to come up with a few reasons why. The lack of cold is one reason, as even for Korea it's been unseasonally hot. No visits with extended families are happening. There's no malls to go to, which I never realized how much a crowded mall made me think of Christmas until now. And Wham! That silly Wham! song, "Last Christmas" is the most played Christmas song by far here in Korea. The only problem is, it has so very little to do with Christmas, it doesn't bring out any holiday or festive feelings at all. But, Christmas is in the title, and people here seem to love it, so I'm sure next year it'll be the #1 Christmas song again.

Anyhoo, today is the last day of school before the holidays, so I thought I should finish off the blog before I leave. I've got 3 hours of free time now which will be sent entirely on cleaning my classroom. It's not too bad of a disaster, but it's messy enough that I'll need all 3 hours. I'm off to Seoul again for New Year's Eve. I don't expect to be blogging again until a few days after then, so I should have some more exciting tales from the big city when I return! So long, and Happy New Year!

Bright Lights, Big City

2007-12-24T10:43:00.001+09:00

"The sounds of the city, somehow they comfort
me, on mornings when I am lonely"

A litle musical quote to start off this weeks blog seems a little fun. I'm a week behind again, and my apologies for that, but hopefully I can deliver on a modestly enjoyable blog-reading experience for you.

Last weekend was a great one, with a whole wack of teachers from Mokpo heading up to Seoul. I'm sure most everyone out there has heard of Seoul, as it's one of the largest cities in the world and has been ranked as one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in as well. 1 in 5 Koreans live in or right around Seoul, and while I've been to it a few times in the past, this was the first time I'd had a guide with local knowledge of the city.

I wasn't able to make it up until Saturday evening, as I was stuck at school working during the morning. Friday night had seen a major flurry of snow roll through Seoul, and I was sad at having missed out on the very Western wintery feeling everyone had had. Still, it was good just being able to get out of town for a while, whether it's for a few days or just a few hours.

We had a reservation for 20 at a Indian restaurant that night, and geez-oh-my was it amazing! I've never really had Indian food very often until this past year, and this was by far the best I've tried. I managed to make a complete wiener of myself trying to speak Korean to the Indian staff working there too, but that didn't seem to bother anyone and made for a good giggling at me with everyone. I guess the idea of traveling to Korea to try Indian food and using English as the means to communicate just seemed a little odd to me at the moment.

After dinner we got a good sampling of the night life away from Itaewon, the infamous tourist/foriegner district of Seoul. Itaweon is not really a bad place to go to, but it really loses any feeling of being in a foreign country, and quickly feels more like a backpacker hostel mixed in with a US military base. Speaking of US military, I learned that there are some 30,000 of them living in Seoul, and that they have a midnight (or maybe 1am) curfew every night. It seems excessive alcohol, late nights, and foreign militiary boys from the US don't go over so well in Seoul.

Anyway, we staying in the Hondae district, which is where (one of?) Seoul's major university is. I'm not sure if all night-time venues are overflowing with foreigners, but wherever we went there was an excess of Western faces sights and sounds. I don't think I needed to speak Korean to get a drink all night. Though speaking it better than I do would have come in handy at around 5 that morning when we went looking for somewhere that would serve us some food.

The next day had a moderately slow start to it. Two of our friends are moving to Seoul, so we helped move some things to where they could be stored till March, and grabbed some breakfast as well. We hit up a small diner, a "greasy spoon" I'm told is a good word for places like this. I hadn't had a big meal of eggs and hashbrowns in ages, and i made a moderate pig of myself scarfing down all the exciting morning goodies I hadn't had in so long.

The rest of the day was spent shopping, which was relatively unintersting. Everyone had hit all the neat touristy artsy spots the day before, so on Sunday we stuck to foreign (Western) food markets and cheap electronics shops. By the time we got home, I was deathly exhausted.

It's almost Christmas now, and while Canada is pumping itself full of Christmas music and commercial marketing schemes, it's pretty quiet here. There's been a few times out for dinner that I've heard some Christmas jingles, and every church has christmas lights strung around them. Still, it's not the same overwhelming cram-it-down-your-Celine-Dion-Jingle-Cats-what-would-Jesus-do-throat kind of experience. There has however been a different Christmas party every few days around town, with lots of singing and various forms of merry making. So even all this distance away, it's still very holiday-ish here too.

Well, I'll let everyone know how the actual Christmas day went down later. Till then, have a fun holiday!

A Busy Week of Nothing Much

2007-12-14T13:07:00.000+09:00

It's been a slow week here in Korea, and it's nice to finally have Friday come around. I hinted at having a pretty big week coming up this week, and in some senses it was, but in others, well, I've basically spent half of it or more just sitting at my desk again. Allow me to explain.

I'm going to be working during my vacation in January. How much I'll be working isn't enirely determined yet, but it will probably be at least 2 1/2 weeks. So, to make up for that, Shannon and I have requested an extra week off in February, which means we'll be traveling from Feb 6th-Mar 1st (not sure where quite yet). To make up for the lost week (during which I'll probably only teach 10 hours out of 40) I've been scheduled to have an extra 10 classes per week for three weeks, plus a Saturday of work. Basically my workload has nearly doubled from now until Dec. 27.

So, why have I been just sitting at my desk? Because no one is coming to class anyway. I've actually taught less during this week of "hell" than I did the week prior when I had only a regular workload. Most of this has to do with my grade 4's off at the English Village all week, but even then other classes haven't been coming. So I've spent X hours preparing for 30 classes and only 15 have actually happened. It's a lot of busy work with very little reward.

My computer also crashed this week, which made for some interesting scrambles to get teaching done. The curriculum is based around textbooks and CD-ROM's, and in each class I'll use it for 60% of the time, so I had some mad dashes making up new materials as well as some long boring waits when classes didn't come and I had nothing to work with. Anyway, I'm whining, let's chat about something more interesting.

I've been learning a little more about driving and liability issues on the road in Korea. Not that I'm planning on getting a car or scooter anymore, but it's pretty interesting and bizarre stuff. For example, liability is always split when it comes to an accident in Korea, usually 60-40, and rarely more than 80-20. You could be in a parked car, engine off, having a snooze, and if someone hits you, you'll have to pay for some of the damages. In fact, if you don't have enough insurance to cover it, you have to pay out of your own pocket to cover it. My one friend who was in a car accident (a very bad one where someone ran a red light and creamed him off of his scooter. His superman-esque tumble was eventually stopped by a refrigerator) found that he was still liable for 20% though he did nothing wrong, and he had to fight very hard even to get that amount. His description of the law was that:

"Say you're sitting in your living room, watching TV and a car comes crashing through your wall and pins you underneath it. By the law's rationale here, you're partially at fault, since maybe you shouldn't have been sitting watching TV at that time or maybe you should have had a fence up around your house."

Here's a couple of links if you're interested in reading more about this,

Anyway, it's Friday afternoon, I may or may not have one more class to go today. I work tomorrow then I'm off to Seoul! Should be some good times. See you next week.

Rather Proud

2007-12-10T09:06:00.000+09:00

So I'm a week late here on the blog, my apologies to any regular readers out there who find it's the only way to be sure I'm still alive here in Korea. Last week was the first time it got and stayed cold all week long, and I've been freezing in my classroom with no motivation to do anything but sit near the heater. I also was a little short on sleep last week too, which made it less enjoyable to get motivated and write on the blog. And why was I lacking sleep? Well, that's what this blog is all about today.

As you may already know, I work on my own without the aid of a co-teacher. It's not a very desirable way to teach from a Korean standpoint, but it gets the job done and saves money for the school. Shannon works with one of the best co-teachers around. Her co-teacher is an amazing teacher, highly motivated, and will most likely be principal of a school one day (still a very impressive and unlikely achievement for a woman in Korea). The two of them have been doing such a good job lately, that their open classes (classes put on so that other teachers can come and learn from them, something many schools will do) have been noticed by the provincial education board and are being done more and more often. Most teachers in a year will do one or fewer open classes - Shannon has now down maybe a dozen.

Anyway, things were going really well with their classes, and they were asked to start traveling to other cities outside of Mokpo to do these classes. In fact, Shannon and her co-teacher (Chu Su Yeong) are now the example for the entire area on how team-teaching should be done, and will travel to schools hours out of town to help them instruct. They were also the ones chosen to put on a demonstration for all the elementary teachers in the city, which, after watching 5 or 6 other open classes, was by far the best teaching example I've been shown. Someone also video taped this class, and sent it off to Seoul to the National Board of Education. And so, from a selection of 40 entries from around the country, Shannon and Chu Su Yeong were chosen as one of the 4 finalists.

Last week, everything seemed to come together all at once. The final travel day for teaching around the province was on Saturday, and the Education Board was coming on Friday. So, everyday for the entire week, Shannon was at school, sometimes till after midnight, preparing with Chu Su Yeong for the big day on Friday. Once that was finished, they spent all night Friday preparing for Saturday. When it was finally all wrapped up Shannon slept for over four hours Saturday evening just to try and feel back to normal again.

So that's pretty much all wrapped up now. The semester is almost finished, Chu Su Yeong is moving to another school in March, and life will be back to normal - except that there really hasn't been a "normal" in life since coming to Korea, which I absolutely love. It's funny though, since Chu Su Yeong is now that much better off when it comes to her career, and will probably be a principal even sooner now. Shannon on the other hand hasn't really gained much other than a new and interesting experience from it all. We talked about how she could probably get her pick of jobs next year with this on her resume. I would bet she could make as much as $60,000 or more next year (legally too) if she played it right and ended up with a job that had her working most of the time. But, she's pretty much done with teaching, so she'll have to be happy with the experience.

Oh, I almost forgot - they gave out awards to everyone involved in this, some nice glass plaques to put on the mantle at home for the hard work the teachers put into everything. Except they never gave one to Shannon. Ooooh, I was (and still am) so mad about that! She was right there in front of them, and they gave these nice plaques to every local teacher as a thank you and not to her!

Anyway, this blog is dragging on here, and I'll end it quickly. Before I go though, the one big bonus that did come from all her hard work is, she's going to get an extra week off in February, which means from Dec. 28th to March 3rd, she only works for two days. I'm in a little bit of a different pickle, which I'll talk about in the blog later this week. Till then, it's back to work for me - the heater's running, I've got a thermos full of hot chocolate, and I've got double the classes to go through till from now till January. So long!

Vengence!

2007-11-29T10:17:00.000+09:00

There are times in Korea where I'm afraid I've turned into that preconceived notion people often hold of what a foreigner is often like -that old, bitter person who can no longer be bothered to learn the local language or deal with local customs, and is more likely to grunt at you than take the time and effort to form any dignified response to questions. Now, I can assure you I'm very much not becoming that kind of person, but there are moments where, when confronted with something about Korea I don't understand or that I've gotten fed up with, I get a little aggressive (though always in good humour, and never in a way that will upset anyone).

Dealing with strangers, for example. Generally people on the street are nice, friendly people; but on a Saturday night when they've had a little soju, I feel I've instantly become a tool for amusement, like an animal in the zoo. Groups of people will shout "Oh look, a foreigner!" then point, and say "Hello! Nice to meet you!" not in an attempt to meet me, but just because it's fun to shout. Before I would laugh, maybe wave and say "hello" back, but now I've come to saying "anyong" back, which is the way you're supposed to greet children in Korea, and not adults. Of course the only real effect this has is that they think I can't speak Korean well, though sometimes people are amazed I can speak any Korean at all.

My kids at school have also been turning me into "that guy", where I'm the teacher who is always going crazy. Now, to be fair I am doing my best to discipline the students properly, but when you can't explain to them the reason they're being kept after class, or why you're disciplining student A instead of student B when both were talking, it makes it tough on everyone. In the end, I'm finding that making students clean the room, write lines, or sit quietly after school does little to keep them well behaved, but it makes me feel a great deal better. So here I am, sitting in a room full of 12 year olds, taking satisfaction in that while I may not be able to get them to study English, it sure feels good to make them miss lunch.

Even the elevator in my building hasn't been able to avoid my wrath of silly behaviour. Our 15-story building has two elevators, which is nice, but they're at opposite ends of the building. Waiting for the elevator sometimes can take forever, and I continually am getting angry with the poor design choices and logistical flaws I see in our apartment building. So of course, I have to teach someone a lesson, so I find myself pushing the elevator button on my floor (the 6th) every time I go by it, regardless of whether I'm taking the stairs. Am I hoping for a complete renovation of the building so that I can have things put just the way I want them? want them? Of course not, but yet there I am, hitting elevator buttons thinking about how much wiser I am and how much better my countries architectural designs are, and if I just keep hitting floor number 6, maybe the whole world will figure that out.

And even as I realize how ridiculous and inane it is to feel this way, I hit the button, and then walk down the stairs, slowing down another persons day just enough for them to think "What is wrong with that foreigner? Doesn't he know that in Korea..."

Ski School

2007-11-21T09:16:00.001+09:00

Winter is creeping up on us here in Korea, and while it's far from the bitter cold and nastiness of the Canadian winter, it isn't without it's hardships. Lack of central heating, or any heating really, makes being at school a challenge every day now. My space heaters have just been set up, so that helps things warm up nicely, but it takes a good hour to get my classroom close to comfortable. Even when I do, the kids come in without closing the door, then open up every window in the room. I still haven't figured out exactly why - sometimes they're calling to their friends, but really I think they just like to complain about being cold.

And cold they are! On the last few days of the mild season, where I'm still in a tee-shirt but thinking about keeping my coat on during school, the kids (and sometimes the teachers) are bundled up like there's a blizzard outside. Gloves, ski jackets, toques, and even snowpants, are all showing up in my classroom, turning my students into a small army of abominable snow-men ready to hit the slopes. The older students usually aren't quite so dressed up, but instead they bring giant bunny slippers and blankets to class, and I'm not sure if they look like they're about to take an afternoon nap.

Just Another Day at the (Doctor's) Office

I came down with a horrible cold the other day, one of those ones that puts you out of commission for three or four days and makes you wish you'd never been born. I suppose it actually wasn't too bad, laying on the coach and reading or playing games all day, but I would've been much happier without it. Anyway, the point here is that it brought me back tot he doctor again. I also managed to get a case of tonsilitis this time, which wasn't in any rush to go away. The doctor I went to, a ears-nose-throat specialist, was another amazing adventure in Korean medical practicality and efficiency. The waiting room was packed when I got there, people were standing it was so full. The wait time? About 5-10 minutes. Each doctor had 1-2 nurses who rotated through the room, meaning there was always a nurse typing up reports and always one on hand to take down information as the doctor dictated it. I was called into the doctor's room while the other patient was just standing up to leave. He didn't speak much English, so we communicated mostly in Korean, but even then, there wasn't much to be said.

Open your mouth.

Tonsilitis. (He points to a diagram to help explain things)

Bam! In with the first spraying tube. Whap! In with the second.

Any muscle pain? Any back ache?

Zap! Another spray in my throat. Blammo! Something gets squirted up my nose.

Take lots of rest, take this medication, come back again if things don't seem right.

Before I'm out the door the next patient is sitting down to be examined.

Of course, with Korean medicine, a problem with anything from tonsils to toe-jam requires a shot in the bum, so I got my injection, was given a antibiotic prescription and sent on my way. The pills are kicking my ass now in a few interesting ways (nothing too serious), but my throat is a hundred times better now. There's something to be said as well for a medical system that can serve you so fast, costs $2-$3 a visit and doesn't rely on indecipherable scribblings from a doctor to determine what kind of possible life-saving medication you might need.

Well, that's all for this week. I'm off to a big elementary school teacher's meeting. Unlike most of the meetings we have, this one could actually give some benefit to me and my teaching skills. No one here ever seems to worry about my teaching skills. I hope at least the doctors in Korea get a little more guidance and review when it comes to doing their job.

You Know You're Korean When:

2007-11-15T13:45:00.000+09:00

This is a list of things that identify you as being Korean. I'm not sure who put it all together, but I trimmed it down and changed a bit to make it more resemble the experience I've had in the past 14 months here.

You know you're Korean When:

You're 12-years old and you don't go home until 10 pm.

You're unmarried at 25 so you have to be home by ten.

You stare like a deer blinded in headlights at anyone different than you.

You attempt to go into the subway or elevator before the people get
out.

If you aren't chewing and slurping your food at a loud volume then
you obviously aren't enjoying it.

You "slightly disregard" traffic rules. Like stopping at crosswalks
or red lights.

You go home and everything smells bad (but not to you).

You think having 4 seasons is really special.

You describe any girl over 110 pounds as "fat."

You drive out of blind alleys at 60 km/h.

You're an "expert" at making ramyen (instant) noodles.

You try the doorknob instead of ringing the doorbell or knocking
first.

You eat more off your friend's plate than your own.

You answer the phone with a loud warbling
Wieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee????????

Your favorite teacher is the one that beats you the hardest.

You think you look quite dignified while drinking
your shooter of 2 cent booze after noisily slurping octopus.

You're comfortable using a small hole in the ground for a toilet, and think hocking a loogie at the same time is a good way to multi-task.

You jump out of the shower at the local gym and stand naked in front
of the mirror blow drying your family jewels.

You grab the communal toothbrush at the gym and take it into the
shower with you.

Even though you weigh 120 you have to try and out bench the 190
pound guy, because he's a foreigner.

You think that your mom's kimchi can cure your grandma's halitosis
and your grandpa's cancer.

Your cell phone has more than 20 pictures stored on it... of
yourself.

There's more toilet paper in your dining room than your bathroom.

You believe that flushing toilet paper down the toilet will clog up
the plumbing, so instead you throw all your used paper in a bin next to the
toilet.

You are no longer bothered by the old Korean lady shoving a
mop between your legs as you stand at the urinal.

You view the handicapped-ramped crosswalks as a perfect place to
park your car into at an angle. Pedestrians and handicapped people be
damned - you need to park.

You hang a plastic glove filled with water in the window because you
believe mosquitoes and flies are scared of their reflection.

You assume all thin blonde women are Russian prostitutes.

You open all of your windows in the middle of winter and crank up
the heat.

You're standing in the shower at the Sauna and offer to scrub a
total stranger's back.

You don't think it's at all weird to share a hot tub butt naked with
a grandfather and his two grandsons.

You open the window a crack when your fan is running, still afraid you might somehow be killed by the fan while you sleep.

You dial a wrong number, and then yell at the person on the other
end of the line for not being the person you were trying to call. You hang up
on them in a huff... and then hit redial.

You do exactly what your boss tells you to do, no matter how stupid
and idiotic.

You would never dream of asking to get paid extra for the overtime you
work.

You feel well rewarded for all your long hours and sacrifice if you get
taken out for BBQ and some Noraebong (karaoke) twice a year.

You sleep under a piece of oversized gauze and call it a sheet.

You put sweet potato on pizza.

You think picking your teeth or nose in public isn't polite... unless
you oh-so discreetly do it with one hand covering up the activity.

You push, claw, and elbow your way to position yourself to be the
first to exit the subway car, and then right after you exit, you walk at a
snail's pace.

You go on a nice beach vacation, where you sit under the beautiful
shade of your huge umbrella fully clothed, wearing a Darth Vader visor,
covered in sun tan lotion, refusing to go near the water.

You eat dog because it supposedly gives your four thrusts instead of
three.

After going to the washroom, you wash your hands for 1 second under
ice cold water and dry them in your hair.

You open up a new business with an arch of balloons and two dancing
girls.

You proudly adorn your new business with a sign that reads:
"SINCE 2005"

You close the business two years later after realizing there were
already ten identical businesses on the same block.

You would rather park on the sidewalk than the huge parking lot a few feet away.

You drive for 5 hours to spend 30 minutes at some over crowded
tourist trap.

You ask the foreigner next to you if he can use chopsticks while he
is comfortably eating with chopsticks.

You deny that Koreans still eat dog, after the foreigner next to you
has just said, "Last night I went out for dog with some Korean friends, it
was better than I thought it would be!"

You think eating eel will give you a hard-on, but eating bean
sprouts will make you lose it. The reasoning behind both is: "the
shape".

You correct the pronunciation of the American you meet by saying: "Ahh... you mean-euh Joji Bushi..."

You think the messages of the Buddha and Jesus are perfectly
compatible with the statement: "Koreans are a superior race."

No one in your country has AIDS, but "kimchi" (cold cabbage with hot sauce) can cure it.

You laugh at your foreign co-worker's "Broos-euh Willis-euh" shaved
head, while pressing down your comb-over with a hand covered in your own
saliva.

You order pizza and it comes with corn and mayonnaise as well as a
side serve of pickles to put on top.

You think that smoking in a crowded restaurant (with a no smoking
sign) or any other place is perfectly acceptable behavior for men but
woman who smoke in public are clearly prostitutes.

Your students are convinced that music by The Beatles is hard core
rock'n'roll.

You think that the sink in the bathroom/public toilet is for fixing
your hair and appearance and NOT for washing your hands after going to the
toilet.

You have a terrible cold and it doesn't occur to you that coughing
in other people's faces and food will make them sick too.

You honestly believe foreigners care about whose island
takashimi/dokdo is.

You think an ambulance with a siren blazing is just another car.
Therefore, you need not make way. Tow-trucks on the other hand, should be always be given the right-of-way.

You hear the monthly air-raid sirens you are totally unfazed and go
about your business.

You stick a needle in your thumb to relieve indigestion.

You wear an undershirt with a t-shirt.

You own a cell phone with a built-in breathalyzer.

Your main purpose of going to the office everyday is to persuade
your colleague(s) into a night of drinking.

Low cut, v-neck, floral print, pink t-shirt, shiny jeans, and Paris
Hilton-esque sunglasses are perfectly acceptable items for a heterosexual
man to wear for a night on the prowl.

You understand why prior to a given date your building will have heat, and
after a given date there will no longer be heat, regardless of the outside temperature.

You cover your mouth when you laugh or smile but not when you cough
or sneeze.

In the winter (-10 degree weather), you wear short skirts, but in
the summer(+40 weather) you cover all skin with jeans and a sweater
because that's the fashion.

You don't wear deodorant because Koreans don't sweat.

Wedding Bells and Flesh Wounds

2007-11-09T12:53:00.000+09:00

A friend here in Korea, an English teacher named Emmanuel who has been in Korea for a number of years now, recently got married to a Korean woman. The two met through either a church or a choir group they were part of (or maybe it was a church choir), and in September they had their official ceremony in Canada. The Korean ceremony was held just last weekend, and Shannon and I along with a few other friends from town were able to attend.

It was quite a nice event, and I was surprised at how similar it felt to a western ceremony. This might just be me getting used to Korean events though, so maybe you shouldn't trust me too much in that assessment. What I did notice that made it unique and entertaining was the traditional Korean dancers/musicians who performed at it, as well as the bizarre initiation they made Emmanuel and his new wife go through. The dancers were really spectacular, with lots of drumming and symbol banging. They each had ribbons attached to their hats as well, and they could whip them around in all kinds of neat, hypnotic ways. As for the initiation thing, Emmanuel explained to us that it was designed to deter a man from getting married more than once - taking away a single woman is something Koreans see as a sad thing, so it involved lots of beating of his feet. Maria, his new wife, had to caress or kiss Emmanuel according to where the MC told her to. Being a former nun, things got a little tricky for her once she had to start poking him below the belt, and Emmanuel took a slap on his feet every time she messed up or refused to poke/kiss wherever the MC told her to. It was all in good fun, but I think the guy with the stick took his job more seriously than Emmanuel would have liked.

In other news, Shannon's had an unfortunate ordeal with her dermatologist lately. Cosmetic surgery is quite cheap here in Korea, and the technology is extremely advanced - already Shannon's had an old scar removed for $10, and we've met others who get heaps of work done for things like acne, unwanted tattoos and scarring. Well, Shannon decided to get an old tattoo removed, a small maple leaf on her ankle that never turned our right when she had it done. The doctor she went to is quite reputable, and we assumed it would all go fine. Now, she's got what we believe to be 3rd degree burns on her ankle. We don't know what exactly went wrong, probably the laser was set to high for the procedure, but she's had to go to the doctor every other day to get re-bandaged, have creams put on her ankle, and just to check it to make sure it's okay. It's getting better now, but she's still in quite a lot of pain and it's been more than a month since it went wrong. I'll put some pictures of it up sometime soon, though if you're not big into seeing injuries, you may want to avoid checking this out.

School has been busy this week, as some of the classes that were canceled were now rescheduled. It didn't quite make up for everything I missed, but I've had a few days of working straight through the day with few breaks in between. It's never that bad, working some long days now and then, and really, it's nice to know I haven't been completely forgotten.

My Sheltered Existence

2007-11-06T10:16:00.000+09:00

By living in a small city removed from all the big-city life in Korea, I've limited my exposure to much of what Korea is actually like. Visits to Seoul and Busan have given me a taste of what things are like, but to actually work and live in a big city is a whole different experience. Plenty of friends though have spent time (often years) in the bigger cities, and sometimes what they tell me makes me pretty happy I'm living here in Mokpo and not anywhere else.

Most jobs outside of my province are at private schools, called Hagwons. These hagwon jobs are privately run institutions, with anywhere from several hundred students to less than ten. Owning your own business in Korea is something the people here take huge pride in, and the owners of these hagwons often take extreme measures to make sure things are running the way they want them to run. Take sick days, for example.

For me, when I take a sick day, it's a pretty big deal. I phone my school, they get all worried, want to take me to the doctor, and fret over me the whole day I return to school. This is relatively little stress compared to some people. One coworker here had a fairly serious medical issue that needed attending to, and had a trip to the hospital planned for testing. After explaining this to his teachers, they thought about it and said - "Okay, you should be in for 10:00 then." "No," my friend said, "I'm going to be in the hospital all day today." The teacher thought about it for a while, then said "I will find out if that's OK first."

Another teacher managed to injure herself pretty good, and following her school's orders, got a doctors note to excuse herself from class. After giving it to her school, she said she would be back in a few days, however her school didn't agree - "This note is from today. You will need another note for tomorrow." And so, every day she planned to miss class, she had to get up at 6am, hobble to the doctors (a subway ride away), get a note, give it to school, and make her way home again.

Some schools won't even let you take sick days, despite their inclusion in your contract. I've heard stories of schools phoning doctors offices to make sure the teacher really was sick, threats to punish other teachers at the school if sick days are taken, and one English teacher even had two people from his hagwon come over to his house and walk into his bedroom to get him to come to work.

There are other painful methods of control these private schools may try to use on the English teachers here. Two friends of ours, a couple from Canada, were told they should stop hanging out with their friends around town, as it was a distraction from their work (or they might hear other schools that weren't so bad). Eventually, the English teachers threatened to quit, and so the school said fine, we'll fire all your coworkers as well and hire new staff.

Yep, things here at my small town public school are pretty good compared to other places in Korea. I get paid on time, I haven't been shafted out of any money, and the only real demand they have from me is to play volleyball once a week.

75% of my classes are canceled today and yesterday, so it's another few days of blogging, studying Korean and watching movies. On a complete aside, if you're looking for a good (though 90% depressing) movie, I just finished Children of Men in my spare time here. It's a gloomy, dystopian film, but it's wonderfully made and holds a glimmer of hope throughout it that doesn't make you feel entirely sad. Anyway, it's time to "hangug mal kongbu hae" (study Korea). Till the next blog, take care! Oh, and here's some photos from Halloween too, where plenty of hours building my costume ended with great results.

Lost In Translations

2007-10-29T14:57:00.000+09:00

Direct translations of languages never really works, does it? Translating Korean directly into English will often give you linguistical gems such as "I went to your house, but you did not exist" or "My thought is go is needed." Of course, there's always some bias on the part of the translator, but here's one I didn't come up with: the following is a Google-supplied translation of my last weeks Korean blog entry. Enjoy!

"Last week's good for me. But the more I try to study a lot of time during the American Philosophy. Amazing, thought ¼ Korea now know enough, you can write a diary?

These days, students are really good for me. These days, fewer classes. Classes usually thought ¼ ¼ 10:08 feel good. Students who do not have English books and magazines read to the Korean people. The Korean practice, but also very hard on me.

Next weekend, "Hallowe'en"? Our party, "P-Club" to be going. Jeollanam province so many people all impressed me. Going to be.

Because today's students for the exam again, not lessons. I think, "Hockey" to go? Goodbye to you."

If that wasn't enough for you, here's what Babel Fish's online translator had to say:

"It was good at the last week. During hour Korean end it studied plentifully, compared to it does. Like that unit, now a possibility of writing Korea which is sufficient it knows in body thought and lost chance there is.

The recent students truth were good. Also the recent study writes. When being study to body thought, the usual body feeling is good. When being the students, there is a Korean book or an English magazine Ilg possibility. Also Korea does practice but quite eagerly.

"Percentage le above nu" it is to the next weekend. Our green onion mote the "P-Club" it will be, well! the example bedspread. From the person all total nudity south door it comes plentifully. There will be a fun, well! the example bedspread.

Student wild examination today again there is not study because of description below. "It sees an empty height" in my thought the song. Goodbye."

Somehow my phonetic spelling of the word "hockey" translates into "It sees an empty height" while "Hallowe'en" becomes "Percentage le above nu." Too funny.

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

2007-10-25T13:24:00.000+09:00

I don't think I've ever been directly affected by the strength of the Canadian currency, but right now the high dollar is killing me. Back in January, every 1000 won I made translated into $1.25 Canadian, which translated into a pretty decent paycheque every month. Now, it's down to $1.05 Canadian, and I've been missing out on several hundred dollars over the last while. I could look at things differently and note that perhaps I should be thankful to have gotten such a good rate back in January and think of that as extra money earned, but with the Korean dollar sitting at more than a 5 year low to the Canadian, I've been thinking of ways to start new rumours of Quebec once again looking to secede from Canada. If only I had that kind of international influence.

I don't know what's been up with my school this past month, but I think I've taught less than half of my scheduled classes. Yesterday I taught for only 2 1/2 of my 8 hours at school. I actually snuck out early, only a little after 4, since it's getting to be quite a bore sitting at the computer all day with nothing to do. So far today,3 o my 4 classes have not shown up, and I'm thinking that I should again slip out early. It's tough to do though, sine every student in the school is an inadvertent watch-dog, alerting people to your presence. The moment they see me, they blurt out a barrage of "hello" "hi" "how are you" and other English phrases so that everyone within ear shot knows I must be walking down the hall.

When it comes to days like this, where I've got nothing to do and I'm ready to go home, I end up moving out of the school in the most ridiculous of stealthy fashions. Sometimes I'll go out of my way to use the far washroom, then grab my shoes on the way back to my classroom so I can slip out the door. On days when the teachers are playing volleyball and I don't want to be "asked" to join, I'll try and make sure no one is near the front office before I dart across the hallway to the shoe closet, hoping no one saw me and won't come running down the hallway calling "Ree-cha-duh! Ree-cha-duh!"

The school year though has been going really well. I know the materials I'm teaching much better now, I'm able to better cope with wild students and classrooms, and I feel more in control of things. My big problem now is one of personal motivation. Now that I've crossed the hump from being a "really bad" teacher into the position of "OK" to "pretty good" teacher, there's been no motivation to improve more. There is no grading or review process set up for me, no one notices the difference when I spend 2 minutes or 2 hours preparing for a lesson, and and with nearly half my classes not happening lately, sometimes I find myself not even knowing who I'm supposed to be teaching. My two best classes, the ones that come on time and whose teachers help things run smoothly, I'm usually good at putting together something stimulating for them. Otherwise, I'm inching closer and closer towards the bare minimum.

It's 12:35 now, and I don't teach again until 3:30. Since it looks like there's some kind of school-wide activity happening today, and since it's Friday, I imagine 75% of my 3:30 class won't arrive until nearly 4:00.

Yep, I'm definitely earning all of my pay today.

My Slow Crawl Towards Bilingualism

2007-10-25T11:43:00.000+09:00

Here's my attempt at a Koran blog entry. The translation is down below, so you can see how well I'm doing. For any Korean readers (do I have any out there?) I apologize for my many likely mistakes and spelling errors.

지난 주에 좋았어요. 많이 시간 동안 한국말 공부했지만 더 하려고 했어요. 그런대, 체 생각에 지금 충분한 한국 알고 일기 쓸 수 있어요.

요즘 학생들이 정말 좋았어요. 요즘 수업도 적어요. 체 생각에 수업 없을때 보통 체 기분이 좋아요. 학생들이 없을 때 한국 책이나 영어 잡지 읽 수 있어요. 한국도 연습하지만 아주 열심히 해요.

다음 주말에 "할러위느" 있어요. 우리 파티를 “P-크럽"에 있을 거예요. 많이 사람 모두 전라남도어서 오려고 해요. 재미있을 거예요.

학생들 시험를 하기때문에 오늘 다시 수업 없어요. 제 생각에 "허키"를 보러 가요. 안녕히 가세요.

Last week was good. I studied Korea for lots of time, but I had hoped to study even more. However, I think I’ve studied enough that now I can write my journal in Korean.

The students have been very good these days. I’ve also had few classes these days. I think when I don’t have class, I usually feel good. When the students don’t come, I can read my Korean books or English magazines. I also study Korea, but it’s quite hard.

Next weekend is Hallowe’en. We’re going to have a party at P-Club. People are going to come from all Jeollanamdo province are going to come. It’s going to be fun.

I don’t have class again today because the students have tests. I think I’m going to go watch hockey. Goodbye!

With Game in Hand and Towel on Face

2007-10-22T11:08:00.000+09:00

There's a stigma that goes with being Asian, that Asians must be more inclined to use computers, be technically adept and play video games with a fervor not found in most other countries. Well, I'm not entirely sure about the computer knowledge or technical skills, but I can confidently say Koreans love love love their computer games. Video game systems like Xbox and Nintendo haven't caught on quite as strongly, but computer games have the people here wound up like a heroin epidemic could. The country is covered with PC rooms, shops that for a dollar an hour will let you play games online against the world. People spend hours doing this, the kids are obsessed, and CNN even did a brief special on it last week looking at how people get so addicted.

Being a pro-gamer in Korea is even a viable option for some of these guys, though it seems about as likely as young Canadian boys making a living playing major league baseball. Still, they're out there, Koreans who, for a living, play video games. And how the heck do people make money doing that? Well, besides tournaments, which there are plenty of it seems, there are two dedicated channels showing nothing but pro-gamers play against each other. For those with a small amount of video game knowledge, Starcraft is the game of choice. At any hour of the day, one of the two channels will be showing two guys duke it out in this decade old combat simulation game, and this is what the kids look up to. The CNN special showed a man, at least mid to late 30's, who spent all his free time at the PC rooms playing games. His wife and kids would come visit him there! A few years ago someone died after playing non-stop for 60 hours! The first thing my students learned to say when I start teaching them how to answer "what did you do yesterday?" is "play computer games." Our little north american wiener zombie nintendo kids have nothing on these guys.

I try my best to bring up some of the kooky things that happen in daily life in Korea, and there's been one I think I've sadly left out for a long time. Have I ever written about getting my hair cut yet? Well, that generally turns out just fine, though they did give me a wicked mullet one time. No, what's really bizarre is when they wash your hair. The word for hair in Korean is translated as "head sticks", which makes me laugh every time I think about it, and as the woman washes my head sticks, I usually end up with a giant grin on my face. You see, they throw a towel over your face while washing your hair. It's the strangest thing, since I think it's only there so either you can't see up the ladies shirt or so you just can't make eye contact with her at all. She could also be trying to avoid water splashing in my face, but the towel used is so small it really wouldn't stop much water at all. The last time I had my hair cut, the phone rang (which is so important in Korea it could pull a doctor away while delivering a baby), and I was left sitting alone in a sink with a towel over my face for nearly two minutes.

Today seems to be another random day of no classes. Shannon's already emailed me letting me know she's got nothing to do all day and was never told about it, and now it's getting on 12 o'clock and I still haven't had anyone show up for class.

Shannon and I have been toying with the idea of getting our dog a cat. We don't think we'll actually go through with it, since we don't need the burden of another pet to take care of, but our dog has some serious abandonment issues, and cries for hours when we leave, and will shove his kennel all around the living room. Having someone else to hang out with would probably do wonders for calming his nerves, and the idea of getting our pet a pet is hilarious, but given the reality of our situation, it's not something that's ever going to happen. One stray creature taking over our house is enough. If only we could trust the local Korean kids when it came to babysitting.

Gym Bunnies

2007-10-16T09:27:00.000+09:00

Of all the blogs I've written, this is the one where I need visual aids the most. I'll do my best to describe this, but I think the scope and humour in all of this will never really be understood until you can see it with your own eyes.

I've been going to the gym quite regularly these days, which I'm very proud of indeed. The gym I go to is your typical Korean gym, with the music pumped way too loud and with the staff on hand to correct and change every exercise you do whether it's being done correctly or not. All the treadmills have TV's as well, which is no big deal, except instead of headphones for each person, they just blast the volume up high, filling most of the gym with a nasty cacophony of noise. Things get even louder when the aerobics class starts, though when those aerobics ladies stroll into the room, the music is the last thing I'm ever thinking of.

Watching these women do their thing is like watching a choreographed train wreck. The women, who aren't necessarily in bad shape, wear the most ridiculously loud, eccentric outfits I've ever seen that makes even the most attractive of them look absurd. They wear a mix of spandex, pleather, some kind of plastic-like material, more spandex, the occasional smattering of fish-net, poofy skirts, and I think one lady even wears velvet. It usually starts with the boots, which are a hybrid of knee-high boots and leg warmers. These aren't normally too bad, and some of the younger girls manage to pull it off, but then you get these bright skirts and strange low-cut bikini bottom things that would have trouble being justified in any fashion setting. Some ladies go for the pants, which they usually wear way too tight, and are made of some plastic-like material probably to induce more sweating. One lady wore bell-bottoms so large she could have hid small children around her ankles.

When the class starts, I'm sure it's not too different from any other aerobics class, though I've never seen one until now. The music cranks up just enough to make your ears bleed, the head girl goes to the front, and they go-go-go-go for 20 or 30 minutes straight. There's no instruction, just follow along with new people at the back, and those who know the routine at the front. Every time they do their thing, I take a pause, watch until I think I'm making them uncomfortable, watch for a few seconds longer, then continue to find myself glancing over until one of us finally finishes and leaves.

Things have been quite quiet these days. Shannon and I have settled down nicely into the second year in Korea, the routine at school is in full swing, and nothing too out of the ordinary is taking place. These last two weeks have been super quiet at school, with nearly half my classes canceled, and I'm setting new personal records for time spent doing nothing. I'm actually getting pretty good at studying Korea, and I can express myself in ways like "I'm planning to..." and "I think that..." which I'm pretty proud of. I still don't understand 99% of what Korean's say to me, and my students still howl with laughter anytime I say something in Korean to them, but I'm turning more heads now when I try and speak with locals.

It's 12:40 now, and I'm done for the day. I'm leaving at 3, but that's still over two hours of just waiting. Maybe I should pick up a new hobby, like knitting or building matchstick houses. Hmmm, maybe I'll see if the news headlines have changed in the last 10 minutes.

Excessive Precautionary Measures

2007-10-12T12:15:00.000+09:00

I've mentioned at least a few times now how Koreans seem to be quite adept at breaking themselves. I'm constantly finding locals suited up with various casts on their limbs, in what I had always assumed meant broken wrists, arms, legs and ankles. Well, I've just recently had a revelation on the subject, as I am now one of the walking stories behind why so many people are bound and casted.

I do not have any broken bones. Well, it's possible I might have a tiny issue with my thumb, but going over the X-rays with my doctor left him believing it was just a bad sprain, and I am fairly confident he's correct. That's right, just a sprain, and to make sure I'm OK I've been given a full wrist cast. The injury itself was a pretty moronic thing for me to have done, but then again isn't it often that way? My two most devastating injuries came from snowboarding (legitimately dangerous) and a hammock. This time it was a punching bag arcade game, where you throw in a few cents and see how hard you can punch the target. Well, hanging out with other guys, a little macho-ism and a few drinks are a recipe for disaster, and while I can use my thumb pretty good already in spite of the injury, I suppose the pain and awkwardness of having a cast is something I deserve. And if nothing else, my arm can serve to promulgate the degree to which medicine and treatment is handed out in Korea.

For anyone interested in how the cast itself works here, they have some strange "casting paper" stuff that wraps around your hand, is squeezed and held in place, then BAM! you've got a rock hard cast on. No water, no wet bandage wrapping or fiberglassing, just a little cutting to size and wrap it on. Maybe this isn't all that new, but it's been a long time since I've been in a cast. Still, it's a mystery to me as to why this fancy cast is so necessary when a little thumb splint would have done the job. Maybe the advanced Korean medical technology thought aluminum and tape just weren't "cool" enough to keep using.

The Four Seasons

2007-10-09T10:52:00.000+09:00

There's a running gag here in Korea about Korea's four distinct seasons. It's not so much that there's anything funny about the actual seasons here, but that Korean's are always so surprised to hear that other countries also have four distinct seasons. I haven't been able to figure out what's so surprising about this - whether they think it's always winter in Canada, or that maybe other countries skip spring and autumn and just hop straight from summer to winter - but I've been told many times now about the four seasons Korea has, and then been given a look of surprise when I mention that Canada also has four seasons too.

I think yesterday was the official start of fall here. The Koreans seem to go on weather more than the calendar dates when it comes to changing seasons, and right now it seems to make sense. Autumn came down like a hammer this week, dropping leaves on the trees, bringing in that crisp morning air, and over the span of 72 hours it's gone from t-shirt weather to jackets. Obviously it's not the magical weather pixies of Korea sitting in the sky saying "BAM! It's autumn today!" but I'm curious to see if there will be much of a temperature bounce back over the next few days and weeks.

My classes have all been canceled for the next two days, so there'll be lots of computer sitting and Korean studying for a while. I've instituted a new discipline measure in my class lately, the "three stars" method. It works great for well behaved classes and OK for the wild kids. Basically when they do something that's too much for me to handle, I take down a star. Lose all three stars, and it's garbage cleaning and sitting quietly time. Keep all three, and after X weeks, you get a movie day. Well, my one nasty class lost all their stars within 10 minutes. No problem, I figure, we'll just sit quietly for the last 2 minutes of class. That's it, just two minutes they have to be quiet for. Of course, they were completely incapable of it, and we spent 27 minutes together over lunch while I waited for them to calm down. There's not much else I can do to them in terms of discipline, but there homeroom teacher sure was able to whip them into shape for missing lunch. They're slightly better now.

The round the world trip is coming together nicely right now. I've found a great website for planning trips like this. Check out http://www.airtreks.com/index.html and look at the trip planner. Right now we're looking at a trip that goes

Calgary - London - Stockholm - Moscow or Frankfurt - Johannesburg or Nairobi-Cairo - Bombay - Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta-Bangkok - Lima - Calgary. We can't book for another few months, so it may change. Still, all this comes it at under $5000 since we're traveling during non-peak periods.

All right, I should get going. I've got nothing to do for the next 6 hours, so I think I'll try and study some Korea. Annyonghi Kaseyo (go well)!

Tonga Jerry

2007-09-18T15:26:00.000+09:00

Ever heard of Tonga Jerry? Sure you have, it's just that you've never heard it pronounced that way. See, somehow Koreans (or at least the kids) have turned Tom and Jerry into Tonga Jerry, though the etymology is a little beyond me, since the Korean language is fully capable of saying "Tom an-duh Jerry" which is much closer. My grade 4's really wanted to watch "Tonga Jerry" the other day, and I can't stop them from saying it so oddly.

In case you missed it on the news, a hurricane blew through town last week. Though really, if I hadn't been told by others that it was going to happen, I would never have known a hurricane was taking place either. Sure it was a little rainy and windy, but watching CNN the day after, they made it look like we were one of those small Caribbean islands that gets all but wiped off the map every time a storm blows through. A few hours south of us, a few dozen people died, there was damage to buildings and flipped over cars. I hardly had to close my windows it seemed so mild up here.

Still, there was a lot of rain, and it made me realize just how shoddy our apartment building is. Every time it rains, it floods. Every window in the building leaks, so depending on the prevailing wind, you get floods all across the building. Our hallway slants away from the doors, which was probably done on purpose so that the water pools away from the apartment. Our apartment windows leak too, so our laundry room was absolutely soaked as well this time. The stairwells get puddles all through them normally, and this time even the elevator got washed out and had to be repaired.

There's another hurricane (though the Asian term for them is Typhoon) coming this week. Last I saw the projected path had it traveling just north of us, but a quick look at the weather forecast still says we'll get a bunch of rain. Probably just enough to pool half the hallway.

Geez, the humidity today is through the roof. It was sunny, then raining, and now it's scorching again, and I'm so hot and sweaty I feel like I'm drowning in myself. Hey, speaking of drowning, I had an amazing choking incident the other day. Shannon and I had made a Korean-style soup, and while eating it I inhaled a small portion of it the wrong way. I was still able to get some air down my windpipe, but it was a scary enough ordeal that Shannon got behind me and starting doing a mild heimlich maneuver on me. I think I would have been just fine without it, but it was a little reassuring having her get on it for me.

It's volleyball day today too, which isn't really different than any other day this month, except I'm told in advance I should play. Every day at 3pm, "Richard, you want to play volleyball?" Actually, they don't ask me if I want to, they tell me it's happening in a tone that suggests I really should come. I have come up with the semi-ingenious plan of never bringing sports wear, which 90% of the time works, though yesterday they pleaded with me and suggested there wasn't enough players to play without me. This is kind of true in Korea, since amateur volleyball has 9 players on each side of the court. Anyway, all the teachers are supposed to play, but I really don't enjoy it. Today we're supposed to play for 2 1/2 hours. It's ridiculous the effort and importance they put on volleyball, and I feel as though there's no way for me to say I don't enjoy it without serious issues being raised by my co teachers. Why, just the other day, my Vice Principal was noticing how I never eat all my food in the cafeteria, which irked him enough to start talking about me at the table. Afterwards, we played on the same team at volleyball and he couldn't get enough of me.

All right, enough of the volleyball talk. It's lunch time now, and our new lunch lady hasn't done me any favours with the food served so far this year. It's not bad, it's just never any good, resulting in comments from other teachers about my eating habits. Phew, the drama never ends. So long!

A Conversation With My Favourite Grade 1's

2007-09-14T13:45:00.001+09:00

The same grade 1 kids who thought I must have met Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin on my vacation just stopped by. Today they wanted to know about my family. Well, getting them to understand what divorce is was pretty tough, but getting them to understand why my family would ever get divorced was nearly impossible. Things like that just don't happen in Korea.

They also couldn't get why I didn't go into the military. First, "Teacher, did you go in the army?" No. "Did you go in the navy?" No. "Did you go in the marine corps?" No no no no no no no. I never used or saw a gun, I told them. Again, lots of confusion, but it all got sorted out - I must have been a student back home (university students can do their military service here without actually shooting guns, doing drills, etc.). Well, the got the student part right, but I couldn't explain to them how I ended up here in Korea, so in the end I resolved it all with a "Out out out! Bye-bye! Naeil bayo (see you tomorrow0!"

Good to Be Back

2007-09-05T13:14:00.000+09:00

I wasn't sure how I'd feel when I came back to Korea, but after 3 weeks I'm pretty confident saying that I'm happy being back here, and more than ready to put in another year. All ready things are falling into a nice groove, Shannon and I are keeping busy with the other foreigners, and our stupid little dog is keeping up his part by not peeing on the floor and keeping people entertained.

What I imagine must have been a typhoon rolled through town last week, bringing a kind of rain I've never seen before. For days on end, it rained steadily; and not just that west-coast-drizzle you get in BC, but a constant pouring, sometimes so intense it would darken objects on the horizon. It let up just in time for the weekend so we could do a little camping, but until Friday afternoon, I was starting to think this we were getting a glimpse of what it was like for Moses way back in the day.

I'm practicing my Korean again, and things are coming along nicely. I was even able to decipher what some of the Grade 1 boys were trying to say to me, which usually isn't too hard. This time though, they had heard I went to Canada, which I guess is the same as America to them. They also figured that I must have met all their heroes from Wrestle Mania, which was about all they could talk to me about for the rest of the day. "Teacher, did you meet The Rock? Did you meet Triple H?" Too cute.

I mentioned the "stupid" dog earlier here, which I suppose was a little harsh on him, since I think for a dog, he's actually quite intelligent. What he is missing is the slightest scrap of self-confidence or independence. At our last house, he absolutely destroyed one of the bedrooms - not bad for a dog that isn't mush higher than your ankles. We fixed the room, but pretty poorly, so everyday the landlord has been calling Shannon's school hounding them for $1500 to fix the place. There's no way it costs that much to fix it, but the headache of sorting it all out is causing Shannon so much stress. Her teachers are talking about her and the dog all the time, the school won't make us pay, but there's this feeling they want us to. It's incredibly awkward.

All right, I'm off for now. I've been kinda sick the last few days, so I'm not feeling entirely up to writing right now. I even took a day off school yesterday. My principal, he's so concerned he wants to send me home again today, while the rest of my teachers ask me how I am, then scuttle off and talk about me to everyone else. I may not understand what they're saying, but I can pick up more than they know.

Shibbal Dae Hakkyo

2007-09-05T09:07:00.000+09:00

For those who are unaware, the title of this entry has some foul Korean language in it. I took it from the t-shirt of a girl in one of my classes, only she had it written in English. I wasn't going to write anything down for another week, but I felt I had to get this one down.

It's grade 6 class time, and these kids are definitely my favourite group. Their English is pretty good too, so I usually spend a little more time walking around the room talking to them every class. I reach this one girl, Ei Hae Mi, who's one of the nicest, sweetest kids in the whole school, and I see she clearly has "F**K" written across her shirt (only without any censoring). I get her to hold it so I can read it all, and it says "F**king College" with a big bad-ass skull and crossbones between the two words. Of course, me, totally not thinking at the moment, decide to say to her "Oh, that's a bad English word."

It was a bit selfish of me, since there was honestly no harm in her having this shirt. She didn't know what it meant, no one around her would've given it another thought, but for some stupid reason I wanted to let her know that I could understand it and it wasn't polite. Well, after that she had her Korean teacher look at it, and a few kids asked what went on, and so I tried to say it was OK and a fun shirt, and she was all embarrassed. Phew!

My lesson learned from it all? I'm not entirely sure, though though mostly I really need to be a little more careful about any comments I'm going to make around or about kids in my school. Especially their clothes.

One Home to Another

2007-09-03T10:19:00.000+09:00

You gain so much when you go traveling, whether it's knick-knacks, language skills, memories or perspectives on life. This time I managed also to gain 5 or 6 pounds, though it could be even more if I were able to measure myself.

Yes, the trip to Canada was a most enjoyable experience, and I indulged as much or more than I thought I would when it came to food. While I don't think I managed to eat all the goodies I was looking forward to, I certainly ingested most of them. After a year away though, some things weren't quite the way I remembered them. My taste in beers has changed a bit and I didn't really enjoy chips and other junkie snack foods as much as I thought. Maybe I just ate too much too soon.

For those unaware, I had a whole month in Canada, which wasn't nearly enough time and yet I'm still glad to be back in Korea. A week in Saskatchewan, a few weeks in Calgary, then finishing the time off with a trip throughout BC, it got to be quite tiring being on the road and doing so many things. Shannon and I drove over 6200 km with the car, which if you did it all at once would probably be over three days of straight driving. Four if you took bathroom breaks.

I'm at a bit of a loss now when it comes to deciding where my home is at the moment. For sure my home country is Canada, but it's tough being there without an actual home, house, or space to call my own. Shannon and I spent a good deal of time on couches, in tents, and in spaces that while maybe private, were not "our" space. Yesterday we spent nearly the whole day lying on the couch reading, and it felt great to relax in our own space (though it's quickly becoming our own "mess").

The vacation though was wonderful, and I loved every moment of it. Except the few minutes wake-boarding in Waskesiu, where my feet got stuck in the bindings and I was sure we'd have to get a hacksaw and cut me out. Thankfully Shannon's cousin is a tough dude, and the two of us were able to wrestle me out. Otherwise, catching up with friends and family was amazing, even if sometimes it was only for a few minutes in a parking lot. Sorry to everyone I tried to meet up with but didn't, but I'll be home in a year, and you're always invited to come to Korea and visit me here. Oh, and thanks everyone for the comments on the blog. I'm amazed how many people are reading this here, so I promise entertaining and humorous stories for the next year and beyond. Till next week!

Surrealism

2007-07-24T08:57:00.000+09:00

The blogging may be a bit more sporadic over the next month, as I'm off to Canada in just over 24 hours. There may be plenty of time to jot down thoughts online, but who knows what kind of internet access I'll have, so check back often, but don't get too angry with me if there's nothing new to read.

And so, this week all there is to really think about is Canada. After nearly a year of living in Korea, it's Canadian culture and Canadian people that will be turning my head in wonder and confusion. I'm by no means fully assimilated into the Korean world (I am soooo slow at learning the damn language), but I've lived through enough now that I know it's going to be a head-trip going back home.

Food is going to be the most obvious thing. No wait, that's not true. Language will be the most obvious, but food is what I've been thinking about most these last few weeks/months/since I got here. I fully expect to pack on a few pounds this August, unless I'm able to get into a moderate exercise routine everyday to battle the sudden caloric intake blast my body is about to receive. The plan right now is to eat out virtually every night (I've been saving money just for this purpose), since there's just so many different things I want to eat.

Actually, making good Canadian food at home will also be a treat, since not only will I have access to the different ingredients I've been missing, but even some utensils and proper counter space will also feel great. Anyway, enough on that, you now know I want food.

I think I'll be able to feel comfortable with the wide-openness and green space at home fairly easily. It wasn't too strange seeing vast expanses of empty land in Australia, but I can guarantee I'll get at least a few spine shivers the first time I get my bare feet onto some soft green grass. Heck, even brown nasty grass would beat the dirt fields here in Korea.

Some things are going to drive me crazy when I get home as well. The medical system here is designed infinitely better than at home. The care you receive may not be as good, but the waiting times, cost for things and friendliness of staff has been amazing. Shannon had some tests she wanted to get done, and she called home a few times to schedule them for August. She was told it wouldn't work, as it would take a minimum of 6 months to get everything done for her, so the next day she went to the Korean clinic and had it all done in 2 hours for only $40.

Generally the cost of living is going to be a bit of a downer for the next month - cabs cost about 1/10th of Canadian taxis, you can get good meals here for $2, and people are always giving you free things when you shop. On the other hand, nothings just ever as good as it is at home, and I'm ready to fork over a few extra dollars to have or experience something so much better.

I'm rather afraid of turning into one of "those" kinds of people, who can't shut up about "Country X". I'm sure everyone's had a friend or acquaintance who goes on a trip somewhere, comes back, and suddenly everything they say is "In "blah blah place", things are so much better" or "when I was in _____, it was just like this only half the price." Euugh, I can see myself doing it already. I'm going to make a personal goal to not talk about Korea unless asked. Of course this won't happen, but at least I might slow down on the Korea talk enough not to turn into "that Korea guy".

And with that, the first year of the Korea blog is complete! Annyonghi kaseyo (go well) and kamsamnida (thank you) for reading through it all. There's still one more year to go (at least), and I'm sure Korea has some interesting things still hidden up its sleeve to lay upon me. In the meantime, I'm off! "Reverse Culture Shock" here I come! Hope to see as many of you as I can, and if I don't, I hope you're doing well!

Rich

Clear Skies and Muddy Waters

2007-07-16T12:48:00.001+09:00

I often complain, both on this blog and in person, about the murky skies in Korea. It's rare to have a day where the sky doesn't flow into a muted gray horizon that blurs the landscape and becomes indistinguishable from any nearby clouds. This Saturday however was so suddenly and amazingly clear, that even the morning cloud cover was the brightest, sunniest day there had been here in months.

The timing of it couldn't have been better, as it happened the same day as our trip to the Boryeong Mud Festival, a yearly festival where people flock to the beach and cover themselves with mud that's meant to cleanse the body and restore good health. Or something like that, I shouldn't pretend to know too much about the history and significance of it, since I was merely a part of the foreigner crowd who came in to get muddy, have some drinks and enjoy the beach. And wow, what a great day it was!

Everything about this day was shaping up nicely. Two of the girls in town had booked us not only a place to stay but a big bus to get there. Not having to worry about travel was awesome, and we rolled into Boryeong at noon singing songs, feeling
refreshed and ready for a good time. The place we were staying at wasn't amazing, but it did the job, had a BBQ we could use, and was right on the beach (though a 15 minute walk from the major crowds).

There are nearly as many foreigners who come to the festival as Koreans, and while I've never been to Thailand, I was told the atmosphere was pretty similar - piles of
people from all over the world, mostly between 18 and 30, walking around half naked, drinking in the streets and relaxing on the beach. Except here every other person was covered head-to-toe in mud. Some people had it on so thick I had trouble recognizing them as people if they weren't moving. There were mud-wrestling pits, big slides to ride down, wading pools full of mud, buckets of it sitting around with brushes to slap it on with, as well as heaps of other things not-so-mud-related.
Concert stages, massage tents, food vendors, nights clubs and other touristy things were piled up all around the beach, and it was hard to really figure out what was supposed to be going on as the main attraction sometimes.

I got down and dirty in the mud a couple of times, though once the sun dried me out, I turned into a giant pile of dust and grit, which wasn't quite so pleasant. Fortunately the ocean was always right there and when you got too gross you could plunge in and clean off (though really, with the tens of thousands of people on the beach, I don't think the water was much cleaner than the mud).

The night carried on as many other long nights away from home often do - staying up late, meeting interesting characters, singing songs around a fire (this time on the beach) and ordering way too much pizza at am. There wasn't much in the way of sleep to be had, with 16 of us lying on the floor together, but I can't begin to describe how amazing it was the next day, watching the thousands of travelers who came to town crawling and scrambling to the bus or train station, while we casually had breakfast and let our bus come to us. The weather even stayed sunny right up until we reached Mokpo, hinting that maybe the good times had in Boryeong had been divinely preordained.

Only two more weeks (just less actually) before it's back to Canada for a month. I'm looking forward to getting away for a while, however I'm having a bit of a good run on teaching these days, so I'm not counting down the days like I thought I'd be. Plus, it's such a pain trying to squeeze every possible thing out of the time at home, I'm inevitably going to upset people (including myself) with not being able to do certain things or doing things that I don't want to do. Meh, it'll still be a great time. Thanks for reading!

It Never Ends

2007-07-09T16:27:00.000+09:00

A drunk man wandering the streets yesterday afternoon tried to kiss me. He followed me for two blocks, shouting "Helloooooo!" and "Kiss me!", pursing his lips and waving his hands at me. He then pulled out an electric razor and tried to give it to me, at which point two cops came round the corner and he went the other way.

Last week, a taxi driver asked Shannon how much it would cost to have sex with her. His English was a little bad, so it's possible there was some confusion on both their parts, but given that he definitely asked her "how much" and then began muttering something that sounded like "penis", there doesn't seem to be much doubt about what he was trying to get at.

These have been some of the things happening in the past week that have made Korea seem more like a circus side-show than a first-world country. Of course, there are still plenty of great things about being here and it's never all drunken perverts you run into, but I think I may need to post a list of all the good things about Korea soon so that people know there's some positive aspects of the country.

A recent trip to Busan by myself, Shannon and an Australian friend, Kirra, also was fraught with bizarre Korean behaviour, that I'm sure makes plenty of sense to this country but little to people from elsewhere. We traveled to Busan to go surfing, though it turns out the one beach we could rent boards at really didn't have much for waves. Still, we rented some boards (there was a lesson organized for this day, so about 10 people were with us in total) and went to the beach. Right away, we were told we couldn't go surfing though, since it was too dangerous.

"Right now, no surfing here" the lifeguard told us.

"But you rent surfboards just across the street" we replied.

"No surfing here, it's dangerous. Too many people." they said.

"There's no one in the water" we point out.

"No surfing on this spot now. It's July, no surfing until after August 21st."

Eventually we moved to the far side of the beach where they said it was OK, but every time we creeped over towards the better waves, lifeguards would start blowing whistles and moving in on jet-skis to get us away from the people that weren't in the water. During the next two days of surfing they would continue to blow whistles at us for things like:

Surfing without a wet-suit
Swimming in water deeper than your chest
Not taking a 10 minute break
Swimming near the surfers
Surfing near the swimmers
Not getting out of the water at 6 o'clock, at which point everyone has to get out

Still, despite the annoyingly assiduous lifeguards, it was a great time in the water. Anyway, that's all for this week, I'll have more fun stories (and hopefully pictures) next week after we go to the Beoryong Mud Festival, where thousands of people head to the beach and play in the mud all day long. It's going to be quite the adventure.

The Rain In Spain Falls Mostly On Korea

2007-07-03T12:38:00.000+09:00

The semester is beginning to wind down here in Korea, though I'm still thinking of it North American terms and want to call it the year. Summer vacation begins in less than a month, and though the kids don't actually graduate and move up a grade until February, it's starting to get that end-of-year feeling. Already English classes are being canceled for exams and to make time for other more important work (I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic there or not), and I'm finding it more and more common where I'll get prepped for a class, have all my materials ready and then have no one show up. Well, I do appreciate the free time, so I might as well take advantage of it somehow.

This past weekend was Canada Day, and despite being thousands of miles away, many of us here in Korea did manage to put together a small celebration. A dozen or so of us went to a small island called Shinji which has one of the larger and nicer beaches in the province. We camped out there for the night, and enjoyed relatively good weather for the day, and had a great time having some drinks, swimming and sitting around the camp fire. I was feeling pretty exhausted from moving into the new house (I'll get to that after), and since most of us got there around two in the afternoon, everything was pretty much shut down by midnight (at which time it actually became Canada Day, rather than the day we spent partying). It was probably a good thing we turned in early though, since the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse once we had everything tucked away.

First the wind came, blowing over a few of the tents we had set up and snapping one of the poles used to hold up the tarps we had placed in case of rain. For at least an hour the wind came, blowing so loud you could hardly speak to each other. Then, there was the brief calm, lasting about 10 minutes and giving a few people the sense that things were over - until the rain began. I was asleep for large portions of it, but the rain probably lasted an hour as well, and was accompanied by a biblical serving of thunder and lightning. Things were getting so bad some people were now sleeping in the public washroom, and Shannon and I were more than tempted to go as well. Our tent however stayed dry and lightning free, however one struck down so close to our campsite my ears were ringing.

The next day our campsite was a mess. One of the motorbikes had collapsed in a mud puddle, wrecking the clutch. Tents had been blown over and/or flooded. Someone lost there shoe in a mud hole trying to reach the bathroom, and never was able to dig it out again. It was quite a mess. The bad weather continued all next day, and one of the girls whose bike was still working the next day tried to drive home and skidded out and ended up quite bruised up, though she didn't need to go to the hospital. The rest of us, having gotten little to no sleep that night, woke up at 5:30 once the weather eased up and caught the 6:30 bus home. Once home, I slept soundly for 6 hours.

And where did I sleep, you may ask? Why, in the brand new apartment that Shannon and I just moved into. It's actually fairly old, but it's nice, hardly more than half the size of our last place, and in a nice location. The size of it isn't actually so bad, it's just that there's zero storage space and the kitchen has no counters at all to work with. We now use our kitchen table as counter space, and have become permanent living room sofa eaters. Last night we finally got it all unpacked, took out all the trash, and now have a comfortably clean living space, right next to a gym, swimming pool and some great little fruit markets.

My bike got stolen over the weekend. So now I've had my wallet, iPod and bike all nabbed from me. While I got the first two back, I don't even want to bother trying to find the bike. It was a used $50 piece of moderate junk, and my teachers already think I have a problem keeping my things from being taken, why make it worse. Still, until I get a new one, getting around won't be as fun.

Anyway, I'm out for now. Thanks for reading!

One Mystery Revealed!

2007-06-29T10:41:00.001+09:00

Two days ago, a large closet showed up in my classroom. I couldn't figure out what it was for - was I getting new materials? Did the teachers here think I was too messy and needed more storage space? Was it being held in my room temporarily? I finally found out today that with all the things being taken from my classroom, I needed somewhere I could lock my stuff up during the day. Mystery solved, and I'm kinda thankful for the thoughtful gift too.

Mysteries

2007-06-25T12:08:00.001+09:00

There's a lot of every day it seems that I spend doing nothing. I usually have a 10 or 20 minute gap between classes at school, which is a nice chance to get ready for the next class, check email, or just waste a few minutes surfing the internet. It usually ends up being a small waste of time, but there's never that much time to begin with, so I don't really mind. What kills me is the times when that 10 or 20 minutes stretches out to half an hour or more, and suddenly I've wasted 30 or 40 minutes doing nothing, all because I never knew if anyone was going to show up to my class or not. It happened this morning with a class not coming, and it's happening right now - my after school class, with 24 kids signed up, has 2 kids in the room. I'm trying to take advantage of the 30 minutes of nothing to do, but most of the time it's pretty tough and I find I waste as much as an hour or more a day with these small breaks of time that I could do so much more with (like write in my blog). Well, I'm doing well writing in the blog now, so good for me.

The other day I was coming home from school, and two Korean men were riding their bicycles on the road in front of me. They were side by side, and taking up a good portion of the street, and every car that drove by was honking at them as they had to swerve into the other lane around them. It got me wondering what these two guys were thinking, and I realized that with a huge degree of regularity I have no idea what is going on in people's minds here in Korea. I don't understand why these guys wouldn't even consider shuffling just a little more off the road, if they even noticed the car horns honking at them, and if they felt their actions were right and that the cars should just slow down and let them do their own thing. And it's like that everywhere. While I've been at school here long enough to know some of what's going on, I often have no clue whether teachers here are pleased with my work, think I'm doing poorly, or if they have any expectations of me other than what I'm doing. A few shots of soju will usually help clarify things, but I don't think alcohol necessarily brings out honesty, just an excess of drunken banter and emotion.

I had a great chance for a bonding experience with my teachers the other weekend, as we had an overnight teachers' trip planned. Unfortunately the weather got pretty nasty and we just did a one day event, but it was still a good time with them. Of course, if I don't think I could handle taking another of these trips for at least 6 months, but I'm glad I did it. Here's a breakdown on how Koreans like to travel:

Get an early start. Our trip began at 7am on Saturday morning.

Bring heaps of food. We had a massive cooler, stopped for food regularly and everyone got a little snack pack for the trip.

Stop repeatedly. Every hour we stopped for something - a tourist sight, a food break, a bathroom break, whatever.

Drink. While no one drank heavily, they started drinking at 8am and didn't stop till around 10 that night. Just little drinks or wine, beer, etc. And always with food.

Sing We had a noraebang (karaoke) on the bus. While it was only running for 2 or 3 hours, it was a tough thing for me to deal with.

The trip was filled with plenty of odd behaviour and moments that befuddled me and were typical to the rest of the staff. We went to a herb garden that had a giant rock that looked like a penis (or a dinosaur depending on where you were standing), for snacks everyone was given a whole octopus and squid, and somehow during the trip a softcore pornography movie ended up playing on the bus. I think the bus driver put it on by accident, since it only lasted 5 minutes, though it seemed to shock even some of the Koreans when it happened.

This would have been a perfect blog to put up some pictures of my teachers' trip, but unfortunately, I can't right now. Shannon and I are moving, something I didn't really expect to be doing in Korea, and the camera stuff is packed. Our landlord sold the apartment, so we've packed up and will be moving this week. It's not as bad as it could have been, though it was rather sudden and the moving date is something we're arguing with our schools about. They want us to move Saturday, we want to enjoy the Canada Day weekend and move Friday. Maybe we're being a little pushy, but this whole moving thing was pushed on us and we'd like to get some say in how things go. Anyway, next time I blog, I'll have a new home. Thanks for reading.

Oh, Those Wacky Kids!

2007-06-22T13:11:00.000+09:00

Today a student discussed with me playing jump-rope using his intestines. I'm still surprised at his knowledge of human anatomy, though perhaps video games have helped him fill in the gaps on what might be found under his skin.

Kids are always saying and doing the darn-dest things around me. Right now three girls are attacking my board with magnets and grabbing the computer mouse. Yesterday the same girls were trying different ways to use the word "puck". Of course "puck" isn't what they meant to say, but Koreans way of speaking doesn't really allow them to pronounce an "f" sound. So for now, if I ever get them really upset, I'll just have to deal with the occasional "puck" you.

A Change of Season

2007-06-20T09:15:00.000+09:00

It's getting disgustingly hot here in Korea - the last few days at school have seen me set personal records for heat discomfort and sweating. Shannon and I have started bringing deodorant to class now to try and prevent our Korean counterparts from thinking we Westerners lack all sense of personal hygiene, but it's a tough battle the way the weather is going. What's worse is my school recently put in air conditioning into all the classrooms, except mine of course. I instead was given a small fan to put by my desk

At home it's not so bad, as my principal was nice enough to have air conditioning put into our apartment. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the sewage systems from being heated up, which in turn sends the nastiest stinkiest smells into our bathrooms. Today the smell had already started coming in by 8:30 this morning, which means it's going to be one stinker of a day when I get back home this afternoon. Our dog, Miso, doesn't seem to mind it so much - he's part Chihuahua, and I think the heat does him just fine. I'm pretty sure we'll have to get him a full-body winter suit if he's ever going to survive the Canadian winter though, as what little hair he has on his body will do little to insulate him against anything worse than a chilly autumn day.

With the changing season comes the changing of clothes. Koreans decide the seasons on weather and temperature rather than on a specific day, so what season it is depends on who you talk to and how they're feeling. But when it does change, it changes en masse. Middle and High School students wear uniforms here, and they just recently brought out their summer uniforms. So, all of a sudden the hundreds of kids you see everyday in gray slacks and white shirts are now all dressed like navy blue sailors. My teachers at school have suddenly stopped wearing suits and are all in short sleeve shirts (some so bright and loud you'd think they were on vacation in Hawaii). I have yet to experience it, but beach season also is a very seasonal thing. When it's time to go to the beach, everyone goes to the beach. As soon as beach season is over, the whole place shuts down and there's hardly a soul around. In two weeks we're doing a big beach-camping trip, and I'm curious to see if beach season has begun yet or not.

Teacher, My Crazy!

Living in a poorer area of town gives me a chance to see some of the more colourful people here in Korea. Now, maybe I don't really mean colourful, so much as just drunk, but either way people watching in the neighbourhood is very entertaining. A little disgusting too.

Our building is the only one for blocks around with a parking lot. Most people who pass by will respect this, but at night all the drunk Korean men use it as a urinal. The old men across the street, who are usually drinking every night, will regularly come and pee in our lot. Sometimes it's passerby's who use it. The other day, I ran into one of the men who live in our building peeing in the plants in the parking lot. Eugh.

Sometimes the drunk men on the street are more funny than disgusting, such as when they come up with the ingenious ideas of bringing their scooters into their homes. Okay, so really it was just this once that it happened, though I'm sure it happens more than I'm aware. This poor, tiny, fall-down-drunk man had just ridden his scooter home and was now trying to get it in the front door. His wife was standing there yelling something at him, but he didn't seem to notice. The scooter was still running, there were plants and pots everywhere in the guys way, and he was unable to get it over the little step to the door no matter how hard he tried. I walked past without pausing too long, and when I looked back the both the man and the scooter were now lying on the ground in all the plants, the wife still yelling something at him. Oh, the poor little drunk man.

A source of constant entertainment, there's more than just strange urinations going on in the parking lot. Adjacent to the lot live a few middle aged Korean women. One of them is half crazy, the other is a full-blown lunatic. When she's outside, she's usually talking to herself, yelling at something that isn't really there, or trying to call Miso over to her, which is really funny since the dog absolutely HATES her. She's gotten into the habit of staring at us over the concrete fence when we take Miso out to pee, and will click, cackle and call at him until we finally leave, since he won't pee when she's around. Lately it's gotten even stranger, since she's taken a liking to mimicking our English. While getting Miso to pee, Shannon or I usually say "Go pee! Go pee!" Now, from across the fence we can hear the crazy lady yell back at us "Go pee! Go pee!" Sometimes she's not even at the fence, but off doing some other chore around the house and will just yell when she hears us out there.

Oh, and how could I forget this - she tried to kick the dog too! She came into the parking lot the other day while I was out with Miso, and started coming toward us. I didn't want her near the dog, so we walked past her to the street, but she came too and went in front of us. Miso started growling at her, she bent down to say hi, then *Whoosh!* she let loose this big sweeping leg kick towards the dog. She was a good 5 or 6 feet away, so no harm done at all, but I was still a little surprised and upset at the poor loony lady. I haven't seen her in a few days now, but I can hear her rummaging around her place most times when I'm in the parking lot with Miso.

Damn Kids!

2007-06-11T10:35:00.000+09:00

Once again a kid has stolen something from me at school, and again it only took a few days and a lot of asking about it to have it returned. Last time it was my wallet, this time it was my MP3 player, and both times the kid who took it has been the one to find it.

I'm not sure if I went into much detail on it before, but a month or two back, a student in grade 3 came into my classroom while I was away playing volleyball and nabbed my wallet. Within 2 days, I had the whole school looking for my wallet, and soon this kid, whom I was so nice to and would play with all the time, took me to where my wallet was. He had stashed it in a drawer outside his classroom, and the only thing missing was the $40 in it (credit and bank cards were fine).

Of course, everyone knew it was the kid that found it who took it - he was a little underprivileged and struggled in school, and when I asked what would happen to him, I was told nothing would be done. "He needs lots of love" was what I was told.

Now my MP3 player was stolen, and this time I was pretty sure who took it right from the start. Same kind of situation, only this student is not so underprivileged but just a little insane. I caught him hiding my MP3 player on me once before, so it didn't surprise me that when I told his class my MP3 player was missing, he said he had seen my headphones only the day before. Five minutes later, he's running up to me with my MP3 player in his hands, having found it stashed in a desk.

I'm not quite so hurt this time after having my things stolen from me. Maybe I've grown a little thicker skin after having my wallet taken, or maybe I just understand what the kids are thinking a little more. There's no money to be had in my MP3 player (maybe it could be sold at a pawn shop) so this time I'm pretty sure it was something that the kid himself couldn't quite explain. He saw something that looked cool, expensive, and probably a lot of fun to have. He knew I wanted it, he like playing with it, so he just kinda took it. Not to keep, not to steal, but just to have for a little while. Putting it in the desk meant maybe I would forget about it, and maybe he could "find" it in a while and it would be his. I think I'm trying to read too much into this, but since these aren't bad kids taking my things, I still wonder a bit about why they take my things. Some people have mentioned maybe these kids think I (and other teachers) are so well off, they don't need all this money and fancy things, so why shouldn't they have some. Well, other than the $40 I've gotten everything back, so other than having to lock my classroom all the time, it's nothing to worry about anymore.

Hygiene

Every Monday morning we have staff meetings at school. My attendance is never really necessary since the whole thing is in Korean, but for some reason I'm kind of expected to be there so I go. This morning, the guy next to me spent a good five minutes chewing on his nails. If you're going to have a bad habit, I suppose that' snot a bad one to have, what really threw me for a loop though was that he would spit it all out onto the desk in front of him. No one seemed to mind at all, and he continued doing it until he was satisfied with his now freshly chewed nails.

On the other hand, blowing your nose is a big faux pas in public, and only recently has having your mouth open at all been accepted. I have many students who will cover their mouths when they laugh. and when I make them pronounce words that mean opening their mouths wide they giggle and look away from me. Coughing and sneezing though aren't seen as being so bad, and covering your mouth isn't necessary unless you're going to be coughing right on someone's face. Of course nothing has been stranger so far than Shannon's trip to China.

Shannon went to China back in February and was so incredibly grossed out by some of the things she saw, she nearly puked in the street. There was the bum walking around the street with no pants on, the men who would blow their noses right onto the street with no tissue, and the families who would let their kids pee wherever they were at the time by just pulling down their pants. While walking past a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, not only had someone vomited all over the front walkway of the restaurant, but there was a lady vomiting into the store's garbage can. So, whatever bad things I may think of Korean hygiene standards, relatively they're pretty good.

Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for reading.

A Drive Through The Countryside

2007-06-04T11:04:00.000+09:00

Occasionally I find that the toughest thing to see in a country when you're visiting it is the country itself. It's easy to get lost in the cities, wind up at tourist attractions or stay somewhere nice and relaxing like your room/hotel/the beach. Last weekend 7 of us got together, rented a van, and went on what was originally planned as a photography roadtrip - a chance to see some great scenery and get some really nice pictures. Shannon and I, being a little challenged in the photography know-how department, came along for the chance to see parts of Korea we'd never otherwise see.

We started by heading up to Gwangju to meet everyone. Shannon and I (along with Miso, who's now become a rather permanent part of our family here in Korea) caught the early bus up on Saturday morning, and after a slow breakfast and getting packed up, we hit the road. If you look on the map I've added here, you can see the path we took. From Mokpo, we went to Gwangju, then traveled east halfway to Suncheon. From there we went south-east until reaching Suncheon,then down to the water where we spent the night. The next day we went south to Wando and puttered about some of the islands down there before heading back to Gwangju, then returning to Mokpo.

The first shot here is a little weir we stopped at along the road. You can probably make out some to the old ladies (or "ajumas" as we call them) fishing in the background. Prior to this we went to an old steam-locomotive museum where you can actually ride the train. Unfortunately it wasn't running for a few more hours, so we had to settle for riding around in one of the push-pedal carts.

I'm not sure what time of the season it was in terms of harvest, but the rice workers were out in full force working the fields. Some of them were starting to burn the crops from the year, so I think they had just completed the harvest not too long ago. Old men and women were all over the place though, hunched over doing some kind of work in the mud.

One of the most memorable sights we saw was a Korean motorcycle gang on the side of the road. The called themselves "Club Shadow" and they even had business cards to hand out to people (not sure what for, maybe just cause it made them seem a little more elite). You may be able to make out a few of the unusual getups they're wearing, though my favourite was definitely the fake tattoos some of them had. I've been told that in Korea, not only are tattoos fairly taboo, but they may also be illegal. Seems a little odd, but one of the guys here actually had sort of an upper-body nylon on that was meant to look like tattoos all down his arms. And despite the fact it was us who approached them to say hi and take pictures, they quickly took over and tried to get as many pictures of us as they could as well, even making sure Miso was in the photo too.

We stopped at one of Korea's largest (or most famous maybe, I'm not sure which) tea plantation. This one was up the side of the hill, and as you can see here as I smuggle Miso in, dogs weren't allowed to come. But he made it through the gate, and we got some great photos of the tea fields.

After, we traveled by boat to some of the small islands around the area, and stopped at the beach for a swim. The dog and I were the only ones who managed to get right in and swim in the water, though poor Miso was not the least bit excited about swimming and only did so after being set down 15 feet off the shore. He did great though.

After that, we stopped for lunch and went back home. Hopefully you've enjoyed a more photographic blog entry this week, and my apologies to any regular readers who've noticed a slight lapse in my ability to get a new blog out every week. School's been a little crazy the past few weeks, but I should be back to some form of normality now. Thanks for reading!

9 Month Mark

2007-05-21T10:51:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the 9 month mark of being here in Korea. I'm not sure how to gauge the time here so far, whether it's flown by or dragging out, but I think it's somewhere in between. Shannon and I are definitely staying for another year, and will be re-signing our contracts at the end of this month, so it's safe to say the time spent here has been enjoyable, though not overwhelmingly amazing. I've always known that, if everything else in the equation on where to go was equal, I would have preferred another country to teach English in, most likely Japan. But it's hard to argue with 3 months of paid vacation a year plus a salary that allows you to save significantly more than most every other English teaching job there is. Since coming here, Shannon and I have:

Traveled to Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand
Put over $15,000 towards student loans
Traveled across Korea
Gotten by without having to worry about money (except for a few times where we're saving up for a big travel trip).

So all in all, it's been a very good 9 months, and I'm pretty happy to be doing it for another year after this one.

My Introduction to Korean Cinema

I watched my first Korean movie the other day, something that I've definitely put off for too long. It's not so much that I was avoiding anything from Korea, but it's hard to know what's good or what you might enjoy when it's all in another language. Anyway, the movie I watched is called "Old Boy", and was quite an adventure. You may have heard of it if you follow film at all, as it did exceptionally well at the Cannes Film Fest in 2004 (I think that was the year).

Watching it definitely took me a short while to get into. Like everything else in Korea, film (this is a big generalization here, perhaps not all films but just the film I watched) seems to have strong roots in 80's culture with overtones and themes you would fine in the imagination of any 13 year old (epic-ly absurd violence, overwhelmingly/unrealistic romantic moments, etc). Watching "Old Boy", I could quickly get by all these things I wasn't used to, since the movie took itself so ridiculously seriously, and it really was quite good. It's about a man, Oh Daesu, who's probably an alcoholic (his opening drunk tirade is sad and hilarious), and then wakes up to find himself imprisoned in a room for the next 15 years. That's it, that's what you get - the rest of the film, Oh Daesu trying to exact revenge on whoever imprisoned him, is so intense, it was like an idea a 15 year old boy had, but then waited around another 10 or 20 years till he was good enough to make a film out of it.

Well, I've gone on far too long about a movie and not my own life and activities. I will say though that watching the closing scenes to that were some of the more intense and disturbing things I've seen in a while, and if you can handle some violent moments, I'd recommend checking out "Old Boy".

Turnover

It's time for a new batch of teachers to roll into town here, though it doesn't look like there will be a lot coming in this time. Nearly 10 teachers are leaving town, but only 2 or 3 are actually being replaced. It seems some of the teachers leaving didn't give the best references for their school, and some jobs are now being left unfilled. It will be interesting to see the change in things here in town though. Mokpo has a small foreigner community, so you're moderately limited when it comes to finding people to hang out with. So, it's not so fun when people don't get along, which has been a minor issue here since as long as I've been here. It's not terrible, but for anyone's who's lived in a small town or found themselves in a tiny community for a long period of time, squabbles always seem to come about. I'm curious to see if they carry on with new people coming, or if they die away (ie. are the people themselves the problem, or are there always problems with people?)

Well, I've rambled on long enough here, and I've been cruel enough to not include any nice pictures to look at. On a funnier note, two of my students saw me walking to my house with a beer in my hand over the weekend, and now they won't leave me alone about it. What were they doing in my neighbourhood anyway? Probably looking for dirt on their teacher, I'm sure.

Teacher's Day and Sports! Sports! Sports!

2007-05-15T09:27:00.000+09:00

There's a lot to be said for social responsibility here in Korea. The language, family relationships, and social interactions, all of these are rife with unwritten rules about how a person should act and behave. Being a teacher in Korea puts me in a position relatively high on the social totem pole, and days like today are nice reminders of how much people respect teachers here in Korea.

Today is Teacher's day (whether it's all of Korea or just my school, I'm not sure), a day where all the teachers in the school get the day off. We still have to be at school, but the kids parents have actually come to school and are teaching all the classes today. They've brought us flowers and food, and this afternoon will take us all out for lunch. The kids are all wishing me happy Teachers Day, bringing in a steady stream of flowers for me. Wow, what other job can you think of where the people you're working for will come in and do your job for you?

Being a teacher here means you're a professional employee, and while most of us foreigners don't quite pick up on just what it means to Koreans, you can generally see what a big deal being a teacher is. Many teachers wear full suits to school, and people will generally refer to a teacher as "honourable teacher" whether their kids are being taught by them or not. And the parents are always around to show their appreciation.

Last week was the big volleyball tournament. All the schools in town got together to play at the local sports centre in a big single elimination tournament. It was such a big deal to everyone that there was a one hour opening ceremony to go with it, with speaches, an orchestra and a middle-school student choir. And of course, all the students' parents came. Every game that was played had all the parents and non-playing teachers cheering, and at lunch they laid out massive picnics for everyone and served all the food for the teachers. It was quite the production, though it helped me understand that while most of these parents might want to be putting forth all this effort, a lot of it has to do with society and social customs dictating that they should be doing such things. Teachers were expected to stay and cheer with their schools when not playing, parents brought us drinks and moist towelettes during every break in our games, and despite our inability to play anything remotely close to "good" volleyball, they cheered our every move.

I shouldn't say that our team (and others) were actually that terrible, but no one ever learns to play volleyball until they become a teacher I think, so they've never had a chance to learn much and the curve at getting to be a decent player is pretty slow. There's nine people on the court for each team too, so it gets really crowded when playing. Anyway, my team did pretty good in the end, winning our first two games before losing in the quarter finals.

Oh, and with 29 teams playing and only two courts available to use, to play my three games took 8 hours. It was a loooooong day.

Here's a picture one of the English teachers in town took. The colour's a little off, but you can see just what the sunset here can look like sometimes. The smog isn't always quite as thick as this, but there are days when you can watch the sun set for an hour without burning your retinas off.

Anyway, back to sports. Our school had it's second sports day a few weeks back, which was a great day that I spent most of the time avoiding. It's hard taking part when I can barely understand the schedule and never really know where to go, so I hid in my classroom most of the day. The parents, as you may have expected, came out and cheered on the kids (and teachers), then took out all the teachers for lunch. What really made it an unusual day wasn't so much the day itself (it's pretty much like a sports day back home), but the preparation day. We actually had a full day of preparation, running through the schedule and activities so the kids would be ready for the actual sports day. Now, I suppose this makes some sense to alleviate any lengthy explanation delays the next day, but it still strikes me as funny to go through so much effort to get ready.

A few weeks ago, I also made a trip, with a dozen other teachers from Mokpo, to an island called Jeju, the "Hawaii of Korea". Here's a picture of the island, though honestly I never got to see any of the nice beachy parts of the island. I spent the entire weekend playing ultimate in one of the more exciting ultimate tournaments I've ever been to. To see more pictures of the weekend, you can check out http://koreaultimate.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3710 though there's not really many of me in there (which I'm sure is all you'd really like too see). What's really strange though about the island is the "love park", which is like a cross between an art exhibit and a public park, made unique by having all of it's art pieces as graphic sexual sculptures doing all sorts of things that won't be discussed in this PG rated blog.

It was quite a weekend though, and while I don't normally get into details on money for my adventures, this trip was amazingly cheap. For $40, plus travel to and from the island (another $45), every one who came got - free food all weekend long, a free frisbee (a good one too), a weekend of ultimate, free beer all weekend long (not just at night, but all day too), a free hotel room for two nights, and a whole whack load of prizes, including $1000 for the winning team. My team, The Ajumma's (which mean's elderly or married woman) came in 15th out of 19.

Well, that's all for now, apparently there's cake to be had, so I'm off to have it! Till the next blog.

Bloggin' It

2007-05-03T09:49:00.000+09:00

In my last post, I mentioned a bit about priorities and how classes and teaching often takes a back seat to paperwork and volleyball. Well, the other day gave me a perfect example to further demonstrate my point.

Each week, I teach 3 after-school English classes. I'm supposed to teach for 2 hours each class. However, since an hour of class is only 40 minutes here, I should be teaching for 80 minutes every class. The principal however was just fine with the kids getting out 10 minutes early, so that puts me at about 70 minutes. I then let the kids go 10 minutes early cause they really don't want to stay much longer than that. I also give them a 5-10 minute break in the middle of class, depending on how squirrelly they are. So, every week I teach three 50 minute classes, which adds up to 6 hours.

Every month, I need to have 20 hours of class-time completed to get paid. This past month, I was 6 hours short, as there was a week the kids were gone, and a number of other classes were canceled. This was quite a problem for my coworkers, and they told me, "you must teach 20 hours every month." Yep, okay, 20 hours a month. They looked at the schedule some more, said things to each other, then "Every month, 20 hours." They mulled over the schedule a moment longer, then it was off to the principal's office to sort out this dilemma.

After a few more "you must teach 20 hours a month" comments, a solution was reached. I would simply write that I had taught these missing classes in the schedule. So, we tore out the old attendance sheet, and wrote up a new one, making up days when the kids were there and I had taught them. Even the kids who couldn't be there because they weren't at school had to be accounted for, so I had to write notes on the schedule about further classes I'd taught to ensure every kid had a chance for 20 classes that month. Anyway, they told me again, "every month, 20 hours", and the problem seemed to sort of just go away.

The next day our school had volleyball practice. My after-school class? Canceled so I could train.

Training and preparation are quite important here, though the methods for preparing are, to me, a little questionable. Sports day is this Friday, and while my school isn't too bad, some schools have their children marching in circles for weeks to get ready. The principal will get on the loud speaker and bark orders to the children who will move about as he directs for a few hours. Sports day comes, and it has little to do with marching in circles, but maybe it's just the order and preparedness that matters.

Volleyball is another tricky thing when it comes to training. Some schools do well at training, some not so well. For example, many schools have a men's and women's team. They train together, which isn't too bad, but the men won't let the women play anywhere but the back row, and even then they hardly get to touch the ball. One of the female teachers in our school is quite a strong volleyball player, but every game she's put in a spot that does nothing to take advantage of her strengths or help her game.

I may seem a little harsh this week on Korean culture, and I apologize if I am. There has been a few incidents that have put me a little off this week, the largest being a visit to the pet store. Here's a photo of the cute little dog we've taken in for the time being. His name is Miso, and while he has a few issues with abandonment and bathroom habits (he's a little afraid to pee at all), he's quite a cute and affectionate puppy. Anyway, the other day while picking him up a few goodies, Shannon and I noticed one of the saddest, most frightened dogs I've ever seen in the back of the store. I've never seen a dog shake so badly or have such a sad, terrified look on his face, and after seeing him we all but ran out of the store, and Shannon even started to cry. I don't know what was wrong with this poor animal, or what had been done to him, but just glancing at him was enough to put me in a dejected mood and keep me there three days later. Honestly, it was like watching a person slowly drowning right in front of you, and then just turning around the other way.

There have, fortunately, been lots of good things going on lately as well, which I'll slather all over the blog next week. A dozen of us just got back from Jeju, "The Hawaii of Korea", this week, and I'll be sure to have some photos to go with the stories then. Till next time, try not to think about poor, sad puppies. If you do need to help one out though, we've got one here in Korea that will be coming to Canada in August.

The Fine Art of Falling Apart

2007-04-27T09:25:00.000+09:00

My body is a little achy these days, accumulating a collection of small nagging injuries that Korea seems bent on preventing me from properly healing. My trips to the doctor have provided me with strange sorts of remedies, some of which you already know if you've read my entry on the herb-doctor. Since that time, I've developed a possible case of sciatica, bruised/sprained my knee playing hockey, and my shoulder has begun to act up with some sort of weird usage pain. The shoulder is the most annoying one, as it seems to be a result of not being able to sleep on my side properly (from the sciatica and the ol' case of bursitis) plus my school computer has been set up to be used in the most awkward manner possible, straining my arm everyday when I work.

Now, things aren't all bad. I told my doctor here and a friend at home about the sciatica, and that doesn't seems to be going away, and my knee and shoulder are sloooowwwly mending, but I tell you, being overseas and being injured (even slightly) is a giant, giant pain in the neck (or wherever you're hurting). The unfamiliarity of the medical offices and procedures, the language barrier when explaining problems, and the uncertainty as to what's being done to you makes getting treatment a very onerous and daunting experience.

I took the day off school on Wednesday, which is something Koreans don't really ever do. I've missed two days due to "sickness" all year, and that's 2 days more than the rest of the teachers combined (I think, I'm not always sure who's here and who's not). Anyway, the point is, I decided to take the day off for a number of reasons, the main one being - there's now a dog in the house.

You'll notice I didn't say "Shannon and I have a dog now," because we shouldn't quite call him ours yet. He was a stray puppy, who followed a friend of ours home one day, and we've decided to take care of him until we can find him a good home. This means holding onto him until we come to Canada in August, and sending him off with a new family. So, while I don't want to distance myself from the cute little guy, I do need to be wary that he's not "mine".

So, if you know someone who's interested in giving a cute little dog a home, here's what he's like: His name is either "Crunky" or "Miso", we haven't decided which yet. He's a Chipin, a cross between a miniature pincer and a chihuahua - he looks like a miniature pincer except for larger eyes and ears. He's extremely loving, wants nothing more than to curl up in someone's lap, though we're training him to play fetch and to sleep in his own bed, as he likes crawling under the covers when we sleep.

So that's that. He'll be 9 months old in August, so he's still pretty young and impressionable right now. If you know anyone who's interested, send me an email or write a line or two in the comments here.

I'm learning more and more about the priorities at schools here in Korea, and while giving the kids a good environment to work and learn in is a desirable outcome, other things seem to be more important. Paperwork for example, and maybe volleyball. Just now, while photocopying materials for class, I was stopped to make sure my personal attendance forms were filled in correctly. The process took 25 minutes to resolve, because I put things from April and March on one sheet, and I missed 15 minutes of my class. I've had whole classes canceled so I can "train" for volleyball. My extra class that runs three times a week is never questioned, checked up on, and the students are never examined to see if they're learning anything. I must, however, be sure to keep up the work log. Attendance also has to be taken rigourously, though the kids are allowed to be absent with no consequences whatsoever.

Anyway, it's time to get back to work. I've got a class to teach in a few minutes, and while it doesn't matter what I teach them (perhaps today I'll teach them some French), I do need to write down what it is I'm teaching them in the book. Till next week!

What Doing Nothing Can Do To You

2007-04-20T16:44:00.000+09:00

I've worked a total of 6 hours this week. That's it, just six total hours of class. Take away the 10 minutes of prep before and clean up after each class, and really I've only worked 4 1/2 hours this week.

And wow, am I bored. I thought it would be cool to have nothing to do, but my body's stiff from sitting still so long - I've spent nearly 30 hours in front of my computer this week, doing nothing! Well, 5 minutes and I'm out of here to go home and this week's over. Ooough, I need stimulus so badly! Why didn't I bring a book to school!

All Whacky on the Eastern Front

2007-04-19T13:50:00.000+09:00

One of my more noble (More noble? Nobler? Do I really teach this language?) goals here in Korea was to learn the Korean language. After 8 months, which it will be in just a few days, I think I could now comfortably say I can speak beginner Korean. I can communicate how I feel, give terrible directions, muddle through dates and times, and basically explain what I want in the most basic of possible terms to someone who doesn't speak English. I've learned also that I'm not a natural when it comes to learning a language, and that most times common sense and a little insight will get you much farther in a conversation than knowing the right words. I can't count the times that Shannon and I have been in a cab and she's able to answer questions the cab driver has much faster than I am based solely on how he asks them, the look he gives and by remembering that no one ever really asks anything original anymore (where are you from, what do you do here, etc.).

Still, I'm trying to get better, and sometimes having no teacher can be incredibly frustrating. For example, I'm trying to learn how to say "just", as in "I just want cheese on my pizza." No big deal right? Well, here's how it's gone so far...

The first book I went to had two definitions, "o-chik" and "kyeo-oo". Well that makes sense, "just" can have variations to it's meaning. So, I look up "only", which is maybe a more accurate word for what I want. "o-chik" it says, problem solved, right? You'd think so, only (did you catch that there?) even the word "only" can be used different ways, just like "just". So, onto the next book.

I look up "just" first - "kuh-nyang" it says, adding a third word to my list of possible definitions. This obviously doesn't help me,so I look up "only" again in the second book It gives me a fourth word, "mal", adding even more confusion to my definition search. In an attempt to eliminate something, I look up "right" (as in "it's right (just) beside me"), and I get "ba-ro". This is not going well.

My next stop is to use online translators, which of course gives me three more definitions, "da-man", "dan-chi" and "kwon-ri". At this point, I'm completely lost, and practically give up all hope, which is the exact reason why I started writing on the blog here, to vent a little frustration at not being able to sort out the language problems I'm having. However, since starting my entry here, I was able to remember seeing the word "just" used in the context I wanted, and have found that "mal" was the word I wanted, but this kind of situation happens with apoplectic regularity.

A brief lesson in the Korean language: At home, it's pretty easy to slip in and out of formal speaking when necessary. You ease up on the abbreviations, watch the slang, maybe even stiffen your shoulders a bit to look more proper. In Korea, all that holds true, but the language - the words used to form sentences - actually changes. An example was given to me regarding going out for a meal. There are at least three different words for "meal", one that's casually used among close friends, one with people older than you, and one that's highly formal and very respectful. Each word is completely different, it's conjugated differently when used as a verb, yet they all have identical meanings. And it's like this for just about everything; even just asking someone's name can become two completely different sentences without changing the meaning or sentence order, it just depends who you're talking to.

I've finally finished my first Korean language book, so I can occasionally sound as though I know what I'm talking about when speaking. This however has turned into as much of a drawback as a good thing. Korean people who don't know you will talk your head off if they think you know Korean, and they quickly become frustrated when they learn you aren't able to say more than a few basic commands. One taxi driver was so incensed he spent most of the cab ride complaining about English teachers moving to Korea and not learning any of the Korean language before arriving.

Well, that's my language rant for today. I've had to teach a total of 6 hours this week, so I've felt a little bored and restless, and it doesn't feel as though anything has really happened since last time I blogged. With the hockey playoffs on right now, I'm spending more time watching TV on the computer than I am working with the students at school, which seems like a bit of a waste of time and energy, but I really don't have a whole lot else to do. Till next week!

Busan, Seoul, Itaewon and Paju

2007-04-13T09:57:00.000+09:00

My school is like a ghost town right now - it's so quiet in here, I had to peek in a classroom just to make sure the kids were at school today. Indeed they are, but I guess it's a big test day or something. I wonder if I'll have any classes today?

So what's been happening in Korea lately? Well, a little bit of traveling around the country, that's what. Korea is only about 100,000 km²(compared to 10,000,000 km² for Canada), so getting around to places generally doesn't take too much effort. In the past few weeks, Shannon and I have been to Seoul and Busan, the two largest cities in Korea, as well as a few other minor stops in between.

The first stop was Seoul, which was really just a necessary detour on the way to Paju. Paju is home to the largest "English Village" in Korea. "What's an English Village?" you say? Glad you asked! It's a few things:

1) It's a giant replica of what an western-style town looks like with a slightly Asian feel to it.

2) It's a small western-style town turned into a mini-Disneyland and called an educational experience.

3) It's a giant drain on the local governments tax funds, as there's no way educating children on how to speak English requires a giant concert hall, two swimming pools and a fully operational (yet destination limited) trolley car.

Shannon and I are thinking of working at this English Village, as it pays fairly well and most of the teachers working there seem to like it (it has one of the highest resigning rates we've heard of in the country). However, it's rather isolated, and sits a stone's-throw away from the DMZ, so barbed wire and military posts would be a regular part of our lives living there.

*Quick Interlude: One class has come so far today, my grade 1's. The kids tricked me into saying the crayons were "poo-colour", which was pretty funny.*

After visiting Paju, we made the two-hour trek (along with a friend of ours who's moved to Paju) back into Seoul. Technically we were in Seoul, but the area of town we went to, named Itaewon, is so far removed from what anything else in Korea is like, it's hard to imagine it as being a legitimate part of the country. Most restaurants, stores and bars here all cater to different people and cultures from around the world, and English is spoken more commonly than Korean. We actually found it a bit overwhelming, and ducked out to a small Korean restaurant for a while. I know I've put down Korean food a lot in the past, but this place turned out to be unexpectedly delicious, so much so that we ordered double of everything we had (the beer included). And, after eating enough food to fill up 7 people, it only cost us $9 each.

Last weekend Shannon and I went to Busan, the second largest city in Korea. There was an ultimate hat tournament taking place there, right on the main beach in town, so the two of us hopped on a bus and had a monsterously good time meeting new people and playing sports for the weekend.

Of course, even an amazing experience doesn't come without it's own little tidbits of weirdness, challenges and unexpected oddities. Take the beach for example. The whole thing (well, the sand anyway) was shipped in from somewhere else so that Busan could have a nice, authentic beach feel to it. It's the flattest beach you'll find anywhere, as the tides never rise above up more than a quarter way up the beach. They have to clean the sand regularly just to keep all the crud from building up, though I still managed to gouge myself nicely on a hunk of mystery material while diving for the disc.

The tournament itself was great, with my team being given a serious advantage on experienced players. It wasn't until the final game that anyone managed to score more than 7 or 8 points on us (games go to 13), and though we lost in the final, it will be remembered (by me anyway) as a questionable matter, as the other team lost one of their weakest players and replaced him with the hottest guy (in terms of skill, not aesthetics) in the tournament. In the end we lost 13-8, but it was a nice and intense affair for everyone involved. Running on sand for 4 hours a day, two days in a row, is a tiring affair, and after getting back to Mokpo, my body nearly shut down completely. My first day back, I hardly had enough energy to give the kids word search puzzles, much less actually teach them anything.

If you want to check out the rest of the photos from the weekend, go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1811&l=e8f88&id=515456629 I put most of the epic shots I have here, but there are a few goodies still to see. Be warned - there are shots of partying and mildly lewd behaviour in there, nothing to get your heart racing, but enough that you might question the actual maturity level we professional English teachers actually hold. Enjoy!

Did Somebody Call For an Herb Doctor?

2007-04-05T12:54:00.000+09:00

In January 2006 (perhaps less than an hour into the new year), I hurt my hip in an unfortunate tobogganing accident. I was the only person injured during the event, made more bizarre by the fact I wasn't even in a toboggan at the time, and I've had some slight discomfort ever since. Multiple trips to the doctor with X-rays and many furrowed brows determined I was most likely suffering from bursitis, a swelling of the bursae sacs around my hip. Since the only problem was a little discomfort while sleeping, everyone said "let's see what happens." Here's what happened:

A few days ago, at Taekwondo (a whole blog unto itself), I was doing some stretching and ratcheted my hip awkwardly. It was bad enough that I told my school the next day I was going to Gwangju (nearby large city) to see an English speaking doctor. Instead, they directed me to the nearby "herb doctor", or practitioner or Chinese medicine. Well, Western medicine just told me to wait around the last time I was checked out, so why not give it a try I figured.

From what I can gather, the herb doctor's is a place you go for general body aches and pains, injuries, and anything that looks like it doesn't need surgery. I met with Jo Joon Boem's father (see my blog "My Dinner with Jo Joon Boem"), who checked my mobility, then I was off to the treatment room.

No one here could speak much English (the doctor knew some words), so the process of getting me prepped for deeper observation was a challenge. They had to get at my hip, so I was told to undo my pants. Makes sense, but in my mind, that meant take them right off. So that's what I did, right there in front of the nurse, who gave a good loud scream and ran into the back room. I had underwear on, but it didn't seem to be enough to calm her down, so I wrapped a towel around myself, shouted some "I'm sorry"s over the curtain, and got back down on the table.

A few pin pricks later, it was determined I had some "bad blood" in the area, and that it was best to have it removed. They stuck some acupuncture pins into my hip and buttocks and after a few minutes at rest, attached some electrodes to the pins. So began my "shock therapy", as minor jolts were sent through my lower body. After this, I had electric massage paddles placed on me, and was given a lengthy electric massage. Finally, they came back to draw out my bad blood.

A suction cup was placed over the area to draw out the blood. The pressure pulls much of the blood to the surface for the later sucking process. After the cup is removed, a big hand "wacker" that looks something between a ear-piercing gun and a stapler that lost its base is used to plunk some holes in your skin. Then the suction cup is thrown back on again (it's like a tall, skinny tea cup) and it sucks all the blood out of these holes in your body. They then finish it off with an ultrasound, and send you on your way.

Did it work? Well, I'm not sure yet. I've got some slight bruising and soreness from the blood sucking/suction cupping, and I went back a second time to get it redone because they missed the right spot the first time (even the second was still slightly off target). However, I'm less swollen now than I've been since the injury, and the new pain I had from Taekwondo is all gone. I'll have to get back to everyone in a week or two and see how it goes; for now I'm not sold on the idea of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine), but if I get even a little better, maybe it's worth it.

Racism?

2007-03-30T11:08:00.000+09:00

A funny thing happened the other day. It wasn't funny in the way that makes you laugh, but funny in the way that makes you think about things you didn't really before. A group of ten guys had gotten together to play poker, mostly English teachers, with our friend Jeff/Hyun Joon who's Korean, there as well. (His name is Hyun Joon, but he will often go by Jeff, as English speakers have trouble with his Korean name). During the course of the game, everyone was having some drinks, talking about the latest happenings at their school (most of which involved something unusual or challenging for them), "shooting the breeze" would be a good expression for it. One of the guys, during a rather animated tirade finished his comments with "I hate all Koreans". And suddenly he and everyone else remembered that Hyun Joon was sitting in the room playing with us.

Hyun Joon and I left pretty soon after (we were both out of the game quite early), and on our walk to meet the other friends who were out that night, he was noticeably upset by the comment. During our walk, I didn't know whether to try and justify it or condemn it, but I realized that little things like that happen all the time with English teachers here, though usually they're a little more subtle and not mentioned in front of any Koreans. Of course, no one hates all Koreans, at least not any of the people I would consider friends of mine. Occasionally there will be someone who will arouse enough ire within you to be able to honestly say you dislike them (maybe even hate them), but it's no more common here than it is with people you meet at home. Yet every time something unexpected and/or unpleasant happens, it so much easier to generalize the whole country as being that way. "They washed the floor with kerosene today - silly Koreans." "My school doesn't want me leaving the country for my days off - what are the Koreans thinking?" "I heard a girl got attacked by a Korean a few nights ago..." Well, this stuff happens at home too, but you never say to anyone, "Geez, Canadians are complete idiots, I can't stand them."

For most people here, I think it comes down to their inability to relate to anyone local. Language barriers are huge, and even when someone is fluent in English, it's still a challenge to really understand what kind of person they are and see the softer, underlying differences that make them an individual rather than another piece of the mass Korean collective. I've only met one person so far from Korea who has the fluency to communicate clearly and accurately everything she wants to say, and I'm amazed at how differently I see her compared to the rest of the people I meet here.

So does this make us all racists? For some English teachers here, their only interactions with Korean people are at their school, and maybe a little with the store workers they see and do business with. That's a very limited array of people to judge a culture on, but if that's all you have, and none of them are very nice to you, what do you do? If for 12 months your school treats you terribly, and you never really meet any other Koreans outside your job, it's tough to keep a positive attitude towards the rest of the country. On the other hand, it's way to common to see teachers here label the entire country as ignorant and incompetent when a single person lets them down (and probably only due to some error in communication).

Living at home in Canada, I remember seeing all social events for every possible ethnic group you could imagine - parties, study groups, political advocacy groups, even just drinking buddies. I didn't think much of it then, but I understand a lot more now why there was that tighter bond between all these people from another country living in a foreign land, and I can almost guarantee they suffer the same weirdness with Canadian culture and rant about "stupid" or "silly" Canadian people. So does that make them racists? When the incident at poker first happened, I wanted Hyun Joon to understand and feel better about what had just gone on, but I think now that I shouldn't have tried at all to play down the situation. To say "I hate Koreans" in any context or environment is poor way to express what you're feeling, and is not the way anyone should treat a person, a country or the people in it, and I hope to set a better example than that the next time I'm out with Canadians or Koreans.

Wednesday Pre-Blog

2007-03-28T14:13:00.000+09:00

I'm splitting this week's entry up into two parts, as there's lots of random tidbits I want to get down here. Today should be relatively short, the next entry may be a little long though.

My school has undertaken new steps towards keeping the building clean - they've now started cleaning the floors with kerosene. As far as I know, this is a practice not done in any country outside of Korea, and possibly not anywhere outside of my school, and at first I thought it had to have been a janitorial screw up. But no, three times now they've broken out the kerosene, slopped it on the mops, and scrubbed down the school floors. Not only does this make our school a tinder-box-lawsuit waiting to happen, but it makes the floors slick as could be. When freshly cleaned, I can "skate" to my classroom. Kids are running and bailing all through the hallways, getting flammable liquid all over the clothes, turning them into tiny, mobile combustibles just waiting for a spark. And if that wasn't enough, it leaves the whole school smelling like a leaky gas station; the floors, however, do look nice and shiny.

Just today I was helping two of my favourite teachers judge students' English skills to attend an out-of-town English camp. Despite how much I like these teachers, I still end up at a loss sometimes for how they perceive the world compared to me. Students were judged as much for their class behaviour and personality as they were their English skills. The only student who was able to answer questions in full sentences was not considered to be a good choice to attend the camp (he's a nice kid, just a little reclusive). And the one kid they did choose was given big bonus points for being shy, since he was Rh+0.

What? Rh+O? The teacher wrote it out for me, and explained to me his "blood type" didn't let him speak as well in public as others, so he should get a second chance. He's a nice kid who I'd love to see do well, but wow, if blood type can double your English score, I wonder how it helps with your university entrance exams...

Anyway, it's time to jet now. I'm teaching the teachers English this afternoon, which is not without its own hiccups. 2 minutes before class started, my principal told me that the English textbooks he ordered did not arrive, and I would need to make up lesson materials for today. Of course, this wasn't a problem, since he never told me there was an English book coming anyway, so I lucked out and just happened to be ready. Sheesh, if I'm not able to understand most of what's going on with my Korean teachers, I wonder what they think is going on in my brain?

Fan Death

2007-03-21T09:52:00.000+09:00

Fan Death, a freakish urban legend living solely here in Korea, is the subject of today's blog. If you've never heard of fan death, you may have trouble believing that Korean's say this exists, and if you've already heard of fan death, at least this will give you another chance for a good laugh. Either way, there's no arguing that fan death is one of the best and stupidest ideas that's ever come out of any country.

The idea behind fan death is that a regular household fan is not only capable of killing a person (generally while they're sleeping), but that serious precautions should be taken when operating a fan in your house. The concern over fan death has grown so large that many fans now come with warning labels to prevent accidental death-by-fan, timer switches have been installed to prevent injury, and many Korean experts have weighed in with their opinions on how fan death occurs and can be prevented. When talking with my Korean friends and acquaintances, they've all said to me "yes, fan death is possible" though they will say not very likely. So how in blue blazes can one of these rogue fans going about killing a person? Here's the list I got from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)

The Vortex - allowing a fan to run can create a vortex within your room, causing a vacuum effect on all the oxygen in the room.

Oxygen Consumption - a fan left running will burn oxygen, leaving carbon dioxide levels dangerously high.

Suffocation - the high speed air coming from the fan can prevent a sleeping person from being able to breathe properly.

Oxygen Chopping - the fan blades "chop" up the oxygen in the room, making it no longer breathable.

Hypothermia - sleeping under a fan will cause your body to get hypothermia.

At first glance and without any rational thought, it may seem that "hey, maybe some of these are possible, like the hypothermia one". If you're thinking this, please, take a moment and reconsider it. A fan doesn't have any part of it that burns oxygen, we've all stuck our faces out a car window and could breathe (skydivers seem to always survive too), the idea that fan's can "chop" up oxygen is hilarious, and if you get hypothermia while sleeping, the minimal amount of body heat being blown away by the fan probably wasn't what finally did you in.

http://www.fandeath.net

All this happened back in the late 90's, and I don't know if there's been any recent articles on it, I'll have to do some more digging. In the meantime, be sure to leave your doors open if you're running a fan at night!

As a quick addendum to this blog, my wallet just got stolen by one of the kids at school. I only found out this morning, though I've already got it back through some intense school wide guilt tripping and putting pressure on the right sources, though all the money in it is long gone ($40-$50). It sucks though, cause it was one of those cute little kids who always wants to be picked up and hang out with me that took it. He comes from a crappy family though, and I think the temptation of money was just too much for him to pass up. I feel bad for the kid, but I think the days of me giving him airplane rides are all over.

Priorities

2007-03-15T09:35:00.000+09:00

When an emergency arises, perhaps one that requires medical attention, an ambulance is generally going to be the first vehicle you'd like to be transported in. Now, maybe a few people would rather be rushed to the hospital in an F1 race car, or something of that sort, but the point is, an ambulance, or any emergency vehicle, should probably have full rights when it comes to using the road. In Korea, that's not quite the case.

The first time I witnessed a car accident here in Korea (the first few times actually), it was as it happened, and I was usually driving away and couldn't stay and watch. When I finally saw one happen while I was walking, I had enough time to witness the order of things unfolding. Within 30 seconds of the accident taking place, a tow-truck was on the scene. With its siren wailing, lights flashing, it took up position in the middle of the intersection and started sorting the mess out. The next vehicle on the scene: another tow-truck. Soon a third whizzed by, only to find no work left for it, and it moseyed off. In the end, three tow-trucks came, and no ambulances or police cars at all. If there were any injuries on the scene, the persons needing medical attention would certainly have been better off going with the tow-trucks anyway. These trucks are larger, have brighter lights, louder horns, and as far as I can tell show total disregard for traffic laws, pedestrians and other vehicles. They're kings of the road here in Korea, and no puny police vehicle or ambulance seems to wish to show them otherwise.

I'm not sure the logic for the tow-truck issue, and perhaps I've over estimated their traffic dominance, but there is definitely a different set of rules for what's important here in Korea, and language barriers, cultural differences and my lacking a Korean Priorities Rulebook has caused lots of confusion and laughter.

School pictures have been especially bizarre. My picture, taken for our teacher board at the front door, didn't come out right at all, with my whole body being squished and flattened just enough so that I resemble a chunky pancake. Now, this may have been an accident, but out of the 4 pictures that were taken of me, why choose that one?

Shannon had her photo taken a while back, and while nothing too discernible showed up, she just looked "wrong" in it, like someone had tried to make her look nicer in it, but failed. Then another friend had his face "Korean-ised" as he put it. Somehow he looked just a little more Asian in the picture than he should have. I was still a little skeptical, until finally one of our friends with a beard had his school photo taken. When he got the pictures back, his beard was gone (and possibly some other alterations were made, we weren't sure). Now, whenever I walk by photo shops, I notice their advertisements at fixing pictures, making people look nicer, and even changing the clothes people are wearing. They go to all this effort to have these great, beautiful looking photos, and yet, no one ever, ever smiles in them.

The list of things that amuse and puzzle me here seems to go on forever, and I'm sure I'll find some great, interesting and ludicrous things to write about in future blogs. I do, however, feel it's time I brought up some of the more positive things about my Korean co-teachers and the other Koreans I've met. It's easy to mock and ridicule people here, and doing so would give an unfair impression of the time I'm having here. I really am enjoying Korea, and I've met some great people, but it's the quirky, funky stuff that always sticks out in my mind. I could have a week of nothing but great noodle and vegetable dishes for lunch, but the only thing I fine worth mentioning is the time I was served fermented manta ray and deep fried fish heads.

Oh, and I almost forgot - I had my first trip to the dentist. I walked in, waited for 20 minutes, got an X-ray and had a quick checkup, and all it cost me was $4. Wild. They had TV's at every dentist chair (so strange, but still nice) and the dentist even spoke good English. Her main concern though - whether my teeth look nice enough for me or not.

High Fives, Bobble-Heads, and The Janitor

2007-03-08T09:22:00.000+09:00

Earlier in my blogging, I mentioned something about how Korea is a country just catching up with the Western, or at least more developed, world. It couldn't have felt more true today. As I rolled into class, I spent the first 25 minutes this morning sorting out the ol' kerosene heater, pumping oil into it with the little hand pump, finding a new bucket of oil to keep my classroom warm when the one I have runs out, and basically working in a classroom one step removed from a one-room school house with a wood stove to keep things warm.

It's suddenly cold here again this week, which is nothing compared to what it's like in Canada, but after a week of +15, it was a little shocking to find snow and ice on the ground the last few days. And before that, we had a long, intense rain storm. It rained so much, our roof overflowed into the stairwell, and a small river of water was pouring down 5 flights of stairs to the bottom floor. It was kinda cool, but the Koreans seemed a little nervous, and went on full attack with their mops and buckets. Us Canadians of course, well that seemed like a great day to play hockey, and so we did. We just finished building a new net out of PVC piping and the mesh from a discarded mattress box-spring, so nothing was going to stop us from trying it out.

Speaking of sports, the new volleyball season is underway at school again. It's tough calling it a season, cause nothing really happens to advance the state of our game or standings, etc. But, you can't miss a game, and so twice this week we've played. It's not really that bad, I don't despise volleyball like I did in high school, but there is this new teacher in the school who makes me want to put socks in my ears, or maybe his mouth. Every single point, no matter what happens, he's giving someone tips on what to do, and since I'm in the "hitting position" (someone please correct me and tell me what that spot is called) he's always, ALWAYS, telling me to do something different. It's too bad, that A) the guy is a terrible volleyball player, and B) doesn't speak a lick of English. The one way he can communicate, is by giving high-fives. Which, oh my, is more of a challenge than playing volleyball will ever be.

Giving my co-teachers a high-five is like something between french-kissing an oyster, and crawling through a prickle patch. Usually, high-fives are down around chest height, so it's awkward to begin with. Then, instead of using your hand to try and make contact, creating that "Right on!" kinda feeling, everyone just kind of walks into it, usually doing a bit of a bend at the hips. If you're scratching your head asking yourself how the hell that works, don't worry about it, cause it doesn't work. But it gets worse. Some teachers, usually the short men, will try and go down low, but they never hold their hands out. Instead they keep their elbows in, and hands only half-supinated so that any attempt to give a low-five is more of a hand smacking. And every single time you try to give a gentle, not hard but making contact kind of -five, they grab your hands, interlock fingers, and just shake your hands weirdly for a second. Oh my, it is bizarre.

Quick interlude - Shannon, who was just in China got some good photos while she was there. I missed out on it all, but I really like this shot of the great wall. Here's the section of it that she walked.

On another brief subject, I've found that one of my teachers looks incredibly like a bobble-head. Korean's generally have, well, larger than average heads. Or at least, larger-than-a-aNorth-American-head heads. This one teacher, I Uen Chin, is a rather petite lady, and so her behemoth cranium becomes almost comical on her. At times it looks like it's weighing her down into a bit of a slouch, and I'm afraid that if someone were to ever pick her up and shake her even gently, her head would wobble around uncontrollably. It seems most schools in Korea have a teacher who gives off a bobble-head vibe, as I've had this conversation now with a number of North Americans here, and we all seem to notice it.

My school had a "welcome back" dinner the other night, and like all dinners with my school, it was a generally good time, filled with food I refused to eat, soju they wanted me to drink, and noraebong (Korean karaoke). The night got a little out of hand though, when one of the new teachers got a little to drunk and began to tell me how much he loved me. This was the same teacher who, earlier in the day, I had nearly kicked out of my class - he dropped his class off for English, then left the room to change into his sports wear. He came back wearing a track suit, and swinging a mop and bucket around, and proceeded to mop my classroom and tell the kids what to do while I taught. I thought he was the janitor, he looked so different. Anyway, I figured it all out, and everything was fine. So, back to the dinner.

At noraebong, the janitor teacher had me get up and sing a song. He chose "You Are My Sunshine" for me, which was actually a pretty good choice I think. He loved it, and he loved me, and he told me this a few more times. Finally, it's time to go home, and loving-me-janitor tells everyone I'm going to get a ride with him. No one tells me this of course, so I'm a little nervous when my bag is tossed out of the other teachers car and given to me. And so, we start to walk. No idea where, it sounds like he's driving me home, which he's in no condition to do, so I'm a little more nervous. We head left down an alley, it's a little scary, and I ask him where we're going (my Korean's coming along okay by now), and he says "this way". Another left. Then another left. And another. We've traveled in a full circle before he figures out which way to go. I tell him in Korean "Now I go home". He says in English, "Ah, yes, Chicken". Uhhhh, "Wait a minute, where is this? Where am I going?" I say. "Hmmm, Chicken" We go on like this for a few minutes, we backtrack a bit, then suddenly he gets a big grin and takes us to this little chicken shack so we can sit down, drink beer and eat chicken.

I spent the next hour sitting with him and other random Korean's we met, drinking beer, eating chicken (not much, I really want to keep up my vegetarian self, but peer pressure takes on a new meaning in this country), and trying to speak Korean since no one spoke English. By the time I got home, I was a little exhausted, a little drunk, and smelled like all the bizarre ethnic foods you could find in the country. My co-teacher was at the point where it was easier for me to tell the cab driver how to get home than it was for him. Anyway, I think that's the last time I'm going out with him, but it was kind of fun to get really local at least once.

Thanks for reading, I'll have another entry in here next week.

Rich

Traditional Traditions

2007-03-02T10:42:00.000+09:00

I suppose the word "customs" might be more appropriate, but either way, 6 months into living in Korea, there are still many things happening here that are a little beyond my comprehension. I'm getting used to the everyday things - people driving on sidewalks, red lights being more of a suggestion than a rule, drinking soju while still at school, and eating rice and cold cabbage for breakfast. However graduation week has been pretty funny, and a little surprising.

For my school, grades 1-6, graduation wasn't really that big a deal. Well, I guess it was to the kids, as the grade 6's had their own special ceremony, they did all their "get ready for middle school" stuff, and basically got to avoid learning anything for the last week of school. For the middle school kids going to high school, it was like a hazing ritual put on by the schools. After the big good-bye assembly, all the kids walk outside, and everyone throws raw eggs and flour on them. And they do this at every school. Walking around town that afternoon, there were dozens of kids covered in flour and eggs, splatterings of the stuff all over the road, and everyone but us foreigners seemed to hardly notice it (though some of the kids covered in gunk looked a little unhumoured).

Today we had our beginning of the year ceremony, which was nice and short, and another chance for me to get in front of all the kids and their parents and have them all laugh at my funny voice. All the new teachers (and of course, me, the English teacher) got to get up in front of everyone and say a quick hello and nice-to-meet-you, then the principal said a few more words, and the year was ready to begin. To celebrate and signify the start of the new year, all the new grade 6 students put a necklace on all the new grade 1 students, then put them (the grade 1's) on their backs, and ran around the gym a few times. Oh, I nearly fell out of my chair it was so funny! Korean's aren't very tall, and so some of these grade 6's were hardly bigger than the grade 1's, and the struggles they had were incredible. A few gave up, others toughed it out. The one mentally handicap kid, who's rather big, hardly seemed to notice the kid dangling from the back of his shirt as he trudged around the gym mumbling to himself. I guess I laughed a little hard, cause the teacher next to me started asking me what we do at our schools to bring in the new year.

Going back a few steps, I should mention again my speech to the school. As I've mentioned before, being a foreigner in Korea is a big deal - for many people, seeing me is the first time they've seen any one who's not Korean. For the kids, the novelty is still pretty huge (I'm the second foreign teacher here), and they really seem to love an adult who will play with them and interact with them as much as possible (with Korean adults, respect is very important, so goofing around is pretty uncommon). Anyway, I'm dragging this out here. What happened was, I went up to say hello to everyone, the whole "Hi my name is Richard and I like being here, thank you" routine. One of the kids in the front waved to me, so I waved back, so a few waved to me, so again I waved back. Then the whole front section waved to me, one girl even jumped out to the front and was grabbed by a teacher, as she tried to wave to me. Silly me, I wave back to them. Then the whole school starts waving to me, some now shouting "Hello!" and jumping up and down. I'm sure there's a really bad joke about how to get a one armed Korean down from a tree in here. Anyway, I finally managed to stop all this waving by saying "Hello" in Korean into the micropohone, which got every student and parent giggling, but no longer waving.

Much of the behaviour seen in Korea (as in every country I'm sure) can be attributed to the country's history and the people they look up to from the past. This is on a bit of a tangent here, and has nothing to do with graduations and hand waving, but since I was recently viewing a great deal of Korean historical sights, I thought this one story might help explain a lot of the unusual things encountered here.

1400 years ago, Kim Yu-Shin was on his way to becoming General of the Shilla realm of Korea, and was on his way to reuniting the three separate parts of the country. On his way to becoming this great and honoured general, he had a few black eyes in his personal life that have become legends among the people in Korea. For instance, he was having an affair at one time with a dancer, who's name I forget. His mother, however, banned him from seeing this dancer any longer, and Kim Yu-Shin, like a good Korea, obeyed his mother with the strictest regiment. His horse, unfortunately, was not told of the change in Kim Yu-Shin's personal life, and a short while later, Kim Yu-Shin, as a good Korean at the time, got a little too drunk, and entrusted his horse to get him home. The horse, of course, took him to where it always did when Kim Yu-Shin got drunk, which was to the dancer's house. When Kim Yu-Shin realized where the horse had taken him (as he was oblivious to everything on the way, I guess), he immediately killed his horse.

The Korean's see this as a noble tale of a man who respected his mom, knew (or learned) right from wrong and showed an iron will. The painting made depicting it showed a fearsome Kim Yu-Shin standing proud over his dying horse, his mother beaming in the background. But me, I just see it as a guy who, drunk, got himself into a bit of trouble and his horse was the one who paid the price. Poor thing.

Anyway, that's all for this week. If I can ever find a picture of the horse thing, I'll have to put it up here, it's pretty intense. Thanks for the comments everyone! Steph, I'm glad I could remind you of your times in Japan - Korea seems to me a million light years from life in Japan, but the little things like naked sauna's, the random touching and staring, it definitely makes for some familiar feelings, eh.

A Return to Abnormality

2007-02-24T08:51:00.000+09:00

Ah yes, back in Korea. It almost feels like home, except for the fairly constant reminder that I'm in a foreign country. It has been very nice though to have a place of my own rather than moving around from hostel to hotel to camper, etc.

"Collectable Korean Quotes and Curious Quips"

There have been some pretty unusual situations Shannon and I have found ourselves in over the past few days. A lot of mine have had to do with an overnight camp I just got back from (which I'll get to shortly), and while generally all of this is a result of the language barrier between everyone, it's made for some rather interesting remarks.

"Don't use those toothpicks, they're from China." I don't know whether we shouldn't be using them because Chinese goods are bad, or if there was concern that the distance travelled to get here may have ruined them. Either way, Chinese toothpicks seem to be bad.

"I need to take a leak... I need to take a dump." This was my principal practicing English phrases for the grade 5 overnight camp. I managed to convince him (after I burst out laughing, which was extremely embarrassing) to instead go with "I need to use the toilet", though we also ended up teaching the kids "Nature calls me" which was kinda cute but not so crude. The next however, he just kinda sprung on everyone while we were practicing.

"No, no, no, listen and repeat me: I have diarrhea . Repeat! Di-a-rrhea!" To make sure the kids were properly equipped to explain to us in English when they got sick, we taught them how to say (among other illnesses) "I have diarrhea." I guess it's not that bad, but I still started laughing and turned bright red every time my principal had the kids sound it out slowly.

"I love you! I looooooovvvvvee you! WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAaaaaaaaaagggghghgh!" This came from a drunk Korean who decided to watch us play hockey one afternoon. At first he was a little scary, as he spoke just enough English for us to know he was yelling at us. Then he started up with the most maniacal laugh I've ever heard, and when he calmed down, he would tell us he loved us, say something in Korean, apologize to us, and finally start singing 'Country Roads".

It's the Lunar New Year right now (or Chinese New Year, if that's a little more familiar to you), and all the kids are on graduation week which means no school. My school however, did an overnight English camp for 15 of the grade 5 students. It wasn't quite the intense 3 days of English my principal wanted it to be, but it was pretty good for them. We travelled to the old capital of Korea visiting everything that remotely resembled a temple or shrine along the way. I actually got to learn quite a bit about Korean history and culture (some of it, such as the stories about General Kim Yu-Shin are rather shocking), but it was tough to find enough English to get a complete handle on what was going on. This problem was amplified when my principal would, before and after every stop, get me to introduce and follow-up on where we were going or had just been. Whoo, I tell you, I was a fish out of water for three days here, I felt like I hardly ever knew what was going on. My principal's English is good, but not great, so I was always telling the kids we were in one place when it was really another, that we'd be there for 30 minutes when it was only 5, or that lunch would be our next stop, and then 3 stops later we still wouldn't have eaten. It helps that they didn't really understand me though, so really I'm the only one who knows how much I was screwing up.

My principal, who is a very nice and wonderful man, has begun to consider me a part of his family. I think I'm very glad for this, but it does bring up certain cultural and communication differences between us that I don't know if I'll (or he) will ever be able to overcome. He likes taking me out for lunch these days, but I think he likes doing it because he feels I would like it, or that I would be lonely otherwise (he does it mostly on days Shannon's not around). He wants to teach me Korean, which is great, but when I ask how to say words in Korean, he just gives me the English definition. On our camp, he and I shared a room together, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - when I first got in the room, there was only a tiny single mattress on the floor, and while I sucked it up and told myself this was something I could do and feel comfortable with, I had a really tough time swallowing such a big lie to myself. We did end up with another mattress, so things weren't too bad. And to pass the time we had each night, we went to the sauna.

The Korean sauna is in fact just like any sauna, only there's has multiple saunas and hot pools, and showers to clean before and after, and everyone goes naked. I think most are divided by gender, as this one was, so it was actually rather comfortable. The first night was really quiet, and I had a nice relaxing time just sitting around, sweating or soaking. The second night, not only did we bring all the kids, but there were tonnes of other Koreans too. Now, I'm fine with sitting around without any clothes on, my body's not great but I have no problem with people seeing me when I'm fully disrobed, but it's a little strange when everyone is giving you constant looks as you're sitting there. The kids were fine, but for all these other Koreans, I was probably the first naked white guy they'd ever seen. How could they not take a long glance over at me?

Anyway, I'm back now, and blogging away as you can tell. Apologies for the long blog, this is two weeks in a row now where I've oozed as much info out of my brain as possible. Since there's no school right now, I've got very little to do so typing on the computer for hours on end is no problem. I should go to the dentist soon perhaps, as I think the old crown on my tooth is starting to come off. It's become very sensitive to hot and cold these days, and playing the didgeridoo makes it feel like it's trying to peel itself out of my mouth and off to somewhere that doesn't shake it around so badly. Whatever happens in the end, I'll be sure to post it up here. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Rich

The End Of it All, and Global Thoughts

2007-02-16T10:42:00.000+09:00

The final leg of the Down Under journey had us catching a 6am flight from NZ to Brisbane Australia. Taking a 3 1/2 hour flight and arriving only 1 hour later is pretty sweet (time changes, daylight savings differences, etc.), and by 8:30, Shannon and I had already gotten a rental car and were on the road. Our first stop was Byron Bay, a once quiet ocean town that has experienced the full brunt of the backpacker tourism industry, with thousands of people swarming the city daily.

When I came to Byron Bay 6 years ago, it was a relatively busy place with some crazy pubs to go to and an awesome, not too crowded beach to relax at. Now, it was full-bore wall-to-wall people with hotels charging $200 a night and 3 night minimum stays, hostels charging regular hotel rates, and people clamouring over each other just to get down the street. I've read it's the first district in Australia to elect members of government from the Green party, as they're trying to prevent the town from becoming known only as a tourist Mecca, but even while limiting the amount of development in the area, it's still hard to find a more crowded, bustling place. A lot of attitude too, which was unfortunate, but it still had a very lively vibe.

We did a little big of everything while in Byron - surfing, scuba diving, sightseeing and just relaxing on the beach. Our scuba diving trip was a little crappy, as the visibility was rather poor, and since it was Shannon's and my first time in ages, we were through our oxygen 10-15 minutes early and had to head up pretty quick. We did get to see lots of cool stuff like sharks, manta rags, and other weird things that you only get to see on the Discovery Channel, but it could have been better. Anyway, after 3 nights in Byron, we took off, feeling that maybe 2 nights would have been better. However, our second in Byron did give us a chance to check out the coolest street performers I've ever seen. It was a guy on drums and a guy on the didgeridoo playing some fast-tempo dance music. These guys were so good, they had nearly 100 people crowded around, and when it was done they sold all the CD's they had plus must've made plenty more money from people dropping some cash for the show. Anyway, we bought a CD, and if you're bored, check out "Wild Marmalade", it's a lame name, but a great band.

Our next stop was unknown to us until we actually got there. The plan was to head to Rainbow Beach, a small, rarely visited beach town 4 hours north. But, along the way we stopped at a tourist info spot, and met perhaps the sweetest little lady the whole country had to offer. We must have talked to this elderly woman for an hour, though she did a good portion of the talking while we were there. She was largely deaf, so her accent, her age, and her subtle inability to pronounce words properly gave her the cutest speech I've ever heard. She managed to convince us to go to a place called Tin Can Bay, a sort of English rip-off of the aboriginal name of Tuncanbar. Once there, we stayed in probably the only accommodation in town - it was the motel, the backpacker hostel, the town pub and a drive through liquor store - and it was only $45 a night for the two of us, which was awesome.

Tin Can Bay was a really quiet, slow moving town. There really wasn't a lot happening at all, but the main attraction was pretty cool. Every morning at 8, a couple of dolphins cruise into the bay and wait around for people to feed them. The harbour staff have started to do some minor management of it, mostly just stopping people from swimming out with them and getting too close, but basically, you can show up, go out up to your thighs, let the dolphins swim around and feed them once the staff give out food for everyone to toss (only so much though, they don't want them getting dependent on people). There was also a rather obnoxious pelican down by the water. I'd never seen a pelican before, so standing within a few feet of one was rather unsettling. They've got these bizarre, buggy eyes, and everything about it reminded me of an annoying neighbour, one who hangs on the edge of the fence just waiting to be invited over so he can steal all your food. When the thing opened it's mouth to take a jab at the harbour staff holding fish, I seriously began to wonder if he might try and get the whole staff member down his throat.

Our next stop was at Airlie Beach, another once quiet town that now exists entirely to service the Whitsunday Islands and the tourism that comes with it. And wow, is there a lot of tourism. Back in the day when Cap'n Cook came through and mapped out the area, he named the islands the Cumberland Islands (or something similar to that), but when people saw the potential to make some money touring the islands here, they changed the name to the Whitsunday's, and now the whole town is just swamped with people coming through to sail around for 3 or 4 days, then take off somewhere else, as there's not a lot else to do. Well, maybe there is, but it certainly kept hidden to all but those who are really looking.

We shipped out with 30 or so others on a boat called The Clipper. It was a nice boat, Shan and I had our own tiny room, and we met some really great people along the way. Our crew was a little unusual though - I think they were paid to be as much entertainers as they were crew members, and the constant "yeah! Let's Party!" attitude they exuded was a little tiring. We got to do lots of great snorkeling, and some questionable scuba diving. Shannon wasn't given enough weights to stay under, which meant I had to hold her down with one hand to keep her from surfacing every 2 minutes (which usually happened anyways).

After Airlie, we made the 14 hour drive back to Brisbane, stopping just outside it in a nice town called Noosa. Actually, the area was called Noosa, and we spent plenty of time trying to find our way between Noosa Heads, Noosaville, Noosa town centre, and every other patch of land with Noosa in the name. Shannon, who used to competitively race small sailboats, finally got a chance to take me out on the water, though the wind was pretty light and our boat was terribly rigged. Of course, I wouldn't have known either of these things to be true, I'm just telling you what she told me. And yes, she can indeed curse like a sailor when out on the water, though I think a foul-mouth makes a sailor better, cause the more angry she got, the faster the little boat seemed to go.

We spent our last night in Brisbane and decided that the only way to truly get everything out of our adventure was to blow as much money as we could before leaving town. We got a somewhat nicer hotel than we usually allowed ourselves, spent a whole day power shopping (we actually had to split up to cover more ground), then went out for a somewhat fancy lobster dinner. Oh, and I bought a didgeridoo, which is freakin' awesome. I could write a whole blog entry on the search put in for this and the possible flaws it may have in authenticity, but I think I'll just keep it simple here. It looks good, it sounds cool, and I'm getting to be an okay player. I'm probably the best didgeridoo player in Korea, though that's more because there's no one who plays here I'm sure than a reflection of my skill.

But yes, that was the end of our trip. After Brisbane, it was off to the airport for a 14 hour plane ride back to Seoul, where we were able to catch a train right to home that same day. And that's when we found our gas turned off, meaning it was a cold, cold night of no heat that first evening back. Brrrr....

I'm going to take a moment here from some quick social commentary, which you're welcome to skip over if you feel you've read enough. This blog has been rather lengthy, but there's always lots to say, and I'm hoping at least one or two people out there enjoy taking a few minutes to skim through it all.

While the list of countries I've travelled to over the past 6 months is by no means lengthy, I have started to feel a slightly better understanding for how life and people go by in places around the world beyond just Canada. I by no means want to come across as a worldly, experience traveller who has "seen it all" and "knows the ways of the world", but I have seen some, and I've learned a bit, and I've been having a tough time lately feeling comfortable with the challenges and difficulties countries are having as a result of both their own actions and those of other countries. I think the main thoughts I'm having are "global warming is terrible" and "love your environment", but I think those conclusions are a little to simplistic for what I'm feeling right now.

In Korea, there is a constant fog in the air. When I first got here, I thought that the country just never really had sunny days. Then I realized that heavy exercise outside was leaving me with a minor cough each time. A few days ago, at around 5 o'clock, I was able to stare directly at the sun as it was setting. Of course, it didn't set for nearly an hour, but the pollution in the air was so thick you could look right at the sun, and the whole town, rather than being brightly illuminated, had more of a redish glow to it.

If you take a few moments to google newspaper headlines in Australia, specifically the province of Queensland, you'll probably find every news site has something regarding water levels. While we were there, every, EVERY, newspaper had on the front page an article regarding the current water crisis the area is going through. Water levels are so low that the government is currently building water recycling systems. These aren't sewage treatment plants like at home, but systems designed to allow water that goes straight from the gutter, the toilet, wherever, right back into the drinking system. If they are successful at installing this, and the population continues to grow at the rate it has, their dam levels will reach 40% capacity in 3 years.

We met an Australian girl working at a bar who nearly started crying while talking about this to us. Apparently there's been a 5 year drought of sorts - there's definitely rain, just not much, and the population is growing. Everyone knows it's bad because they're told it's bad. There's signs everywhere - "Conserve water", "Do less laundry", "Only use what you need". This girl however had just come back from a trip to the outback, and had seen what was happening to the farming communities. Animals were lying dead on the ground, starving to death and dying of thirst. Sheep were eating dirt in hopes of something being in it to keep them alive. She mentioned that pretty soon they may have to start charging for water instead of just giving jugs of it to people when they sit down at the bar.

I've been reading lots of headlines at home about unusually strong and frequent winter storms that have been coming across Vancouver Island this winter, and I hope people are thinking about why the weather can be so extreme and bizarre these days. I don't know if global warming is necessarily the end of it all or a planet killer, as it's often made out to be, but it certainly seems capable of completely shifting the way people live. I mean, if ice caps melt and water levels rise, that doesn't mean everybody drowns, but it certainly does make for a long, painful and sad population change inland.

Well, I certainly don't know enough about it to speak with anymore authority than I have, and hopefully I haven't overstepped my boundaries too much. I've heard, though, that Britain is making everyone in the school systems watch "An Inconvenient Truth", which I think is a great idea. If you're tired of reading my blogs, or if you're bored until the next one comes out, I suggest you go and watch it to. Till next week...

All Things Kiwi

2007-02-06T10:47:00.000+09:00

My last blog left Shannon and I cruising down the west coast of New Zealand. It rained most of the time, and our only outdoor activity was a short glacier hike at Franz Joseph, after which we boogied back across the country to Christchurch (on the east coast) and picked up Shannon's friend Lindsay. A quick rental car later, and the three of us we were off to see my ol' buddy Bert, a friend from High School whom I traveled with to Australia back in the summer of 2000.

Queenstown is a great little place on the southern part of New Zealand's South Island, that is economically fueled by adventure tourism. In the winter, it's skiing and snowboarding, and in the summer, bungie jumping, sky diving and everything else you could imagine. If there's a high-up scary place around, people in Queenstown will find someway to throw you off of it.

Our four days and nights in Queenstown were pretty intense. Shannon and Lindsay went skydiving, every day Bert took us to a different lake for rope swinging or cliff jumping, we went camping on another lake an hour outside of town, and I don't think there was a single evening where we made it to bed before 4am. One night we were out so late, Bert ended up being 3 hours late for work (though you can imagine lack of sleep wasn't the only thing that caused him to be so tired the next day).

While every part of staying Queenstown was pretty memorable, I've got a few photos here that will make one bit extra interesting to tell. We went cliff jumping one afternoon in a place they called "Little Tailand", a 14m rock face that dropped you into a frigidly cold lake. You can see Bert and I standing on the edge here of where you jump off. Yes, we are definitely both some fine, dashing young men, wouldn't you say? Anyway, the jump down is long enough that you have time to yell, catch your breath, and start another little squeak before hitting the water. I did it once then stuck to the smaller cliffs, but Shannon's friend Lindsay, well... she had the boys building her up to make the jump, and after 20 or so minutes of "C'mon, you can totally do it", she finally took the plunge.

Here's how she looked the next day.

So let that be a warning to all of you looking to hurl yourselves off large cliffs - either keep your legs nice and straight, or just ignore all the silly boys whispering in your ear to "go for it."

After Queenstown, Shannon and I quite literally took off out of the country, catching a 6am flight to Brisbane, Australia the next day. Getting such an early flight proved kind of nice, as by 8am we had a rental car, and by midday we were in Byron Bay, the backpacker Mecca of Australia. Okay, maybe it isn't "the" Mecca, but the demand to stay here was so high, even a cheap hostel room (two person) cost us a minimum of $90, with many places requiring you to stay at least 3 nights. We unfortunately stayed a little two long in Byron, and by our last night, as we watched young 20-somethings wander into the ocean at 3am, drunk, stoned and delirious, we were ready to leave.

And that, my friends, will be where I pick up the adventure in the next blog. Stay tuned next week for tales of sharks, dolphins, tiny Australian hamlets and the noble quest to find the perfect didgeridoo. Till then, thanks for reading!

Rich

I Come From the Land Down Under

2007-02-01T14:49:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone out there!

I'm back on the blogging band-wagon once again, and it's nice to finally have time and energy to sit down and detail the adventures from the past month online. Over the past month, Shannon and I have been out of Korea and been travelling throughout New Zealand and Australia, seeing the countryside, catching up with old friends and meeting a few new people along the way.

I suppose I'll start at the beginning, but I make no promises regarding the chronological continuity of the following story. I will however try to litter it as best as possible with exciting quips and adventures, and hope I can inspire a few restless, stagnant souls to venture out into a part of the world they haven't been (or at least haven't been in a while).

I'll start by mentioning that Shannon and I are generally unable to agree on anything we're doing until the last possible second. So, when we finally arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand at 11pm on New Years day, we were still trying to sort out currencies, travel methods, where to go, and of course, where we were going to sleep that night. We managed to find an amaaing little hostel that was the former town jail (sleeping in a jail cell is an unusual and exciting experience), and the next day, we sat down to sort out our plans for the next while.

We decided to travel around with a camper van, which was a pretty cool way to get around (we got a little sick of it by the end). They don't really ask for much when letting you operate a vehicle on the other side of the road, as I've had more trouble renting a car in Canada than we did with this thing. But it didn't take much doing to get used to, and pretty soon we were cruising down the highway, gripping the wheel and breaking into a sweat every time a big vehicle came barrelling towards us on what seeemed like the wrong side of the road.

Our first stop was Kaikoura, a tiny town that started up as a whale-watching community. We took some surfing lessons, toured through a cave and around a waterfall, basically just seeing whatever we could around town. What we really wanted to do was go on a dolphin swim, where they take you out on a boat, give you some snorkelling gear, and let you swim with anywhere from 20-300 dolphins, depending on how many are in the area. But, it was about the most popular thing in the whole country, and was booked up for weeks. We did manage to find some dolphins later though, but I'll get to that.

Our next stop was Abel Tasman park, probably the most sceninc and generally enjoyable time we had on our trip. We rented a two-man kayak for two days, and did an overnight kayak and camping trip into the most amazing national park I've ever seen. Massive cliffs draped with trees and ferns dropped down into the ocean all along the coastline, with huge white sandy beaches spattered between them running along the coast for 40 or more kilometers. We kayaked into caves, saw penguins and seals, spent the days swimming in private lagoons and spent the night right on the beach. It was a little exhausting in the end, as we wanted to get in as much as possible, and so on our second day we plowed through what's normally a 4-hour kayak in 1 1/2 hours. I'm still kicking myself in the pants for only spending one night here, but at the time we thought "hey, there's still lots of country to go see, we should probably get going." Well, yeah there was other good stuff, but it was never quite so amazing as Abel Tasman.

Our next stop was around a little town called Charleston. Charleston was at one time a massive population centre of New Zealand, with 100 hotels lined up down it's main drag. Now, there's hardly more than 100 people in the whole town, most of whom are employed in the caving or white water rafting business. We were there for the caving, though we were told it was more "cave rafting" when we first signed up. The caving itself was pretty exciting, as we got to walk (mostly upright) through a massive limestone cave system that the river had cut into the mountain some X million years ago. It was a little awkward due to the inner tubes we were carrying around, but worth the trouble in the end. What we really came for were the glow worms, 5-15 cm worms that excrete a green glowing substance out there bums. This may sound rather gross, and to see one up close in the light is pretty nasty, but lying on your back, floating through a river in a cave, lit up green by hundreds of thousands of these glow worms is amazing. When you first turn off your light, it looks like a night time sky lit with green stars instead of white. As your eyes adjust, you can see the water around you reflect them and ripple green when you move. Eventually, everything around you has a slight green glow to it, and you can almost make out the shape of the cave and your body just by the light these worms give off.

Coming out of the cave was, without a doubt, the most picturesque scene I have ever witnessed. The opening of the cave had suffered a collapse long ago, and now, forest ferns and moss were trailing down the rocks through the opening, the river could be soon snaking through, and sunbeams (just like those picture-perfect ones you see out of a movie) sliced down into the cave just enough to light up your way out. We mentioned to our young guide that this would be a great place to take a girl on a first date, and he did his best to laugh as though it were something he's never thought of or done.

Our next few days were rather dull, at least relative to those we had just come through. It rained most of the time, and the camper was getting a little cramped and uneventful. We did find ourselves staying in some strange places though, including this one tiny European run campground in the middle of nowhere. They only charged us $10 to stay there, and there wasn't anywhere within 50 km that had a population more than 200, yet this campground had it's own little nightclub, a live outdoor music stage, and semi-functional sauna complete with middle-age European skinny dippers in the river next to it. We spent the evening there with 9 retired German-American tourists who, together mostly, had travelled to such an amazing amout of places in the world, they actually gave each other a hard time for not seeing such "regular" tourist spots like Venice ("How could you not go to Venice?" they would say, "Everybody has been to Venice, why I was there 2 times just last year").

I'll bring this entry to an end for now, and save the second and third parts of the trip for later. Our next stop (sort of) was Queenstown, which was probably the most adrenaline-pumping, nocturnally charged part of our trip. Thanks everyone for stopping by, and my apologies for the long break in blogging, I'll try to keep 'em coming and interesting.

Rich

Oh, and in case I forget - a month away from Korea doesn't happen without a few house-hold hazards. They turned our gas off while we were away and while we have it back on again now, it has been a cold, cold day and night with no heating here! Brrrrr!

Haitus

2007-01-02T14:50:00.001+09:00

So Shannon and I are down under at the moment, meandering about in New Zealand and Australia for the next month. Seeing as internet will be a little less frequent for me, and since it's costing me money each time I get on, blogs are probably going to be sparse if not all together left out for the next month.

My apologies for my regular readers, but come the first week of February, I'll be back on the blogging bandwagon, with maybe a line or two along the way if I find a free internet spot.

We've got a camper van right now for the New Zealand leg of things - first stop so far is Kaikoura, which means "eat crayfish". I may not Kaikoura, but the plan is surfing, caving, and maybe a dolphin swim, though it's $130 a person to do that. We'll see. Anyway, till the next time there's a blog...

Haitus

2007-01-02T14:50:00.000+09:00

"Hey Bae-by!

2006-12-22T10:01:00.000+09:00

Four months into my stay here in Korea, one of the things that hasn't changed and never will is the way people react to seeing me. No matter how accustomed to Korea and fluent my language skills become, people are always going to stare as I walk down the street. High school girls will yell "hi" and giggle as I walk by, people selling things will offer up some broken English to convince me to buy their product, and occasionally someone will chase me down the street even while I'm on my bicycle to try and talk with me. I run into the same drunk Korean once a month on my way to school, and he'll ask me questions and give me random pieces of paper. He's harmless, just really weird.

The other day I had another of these kinds of run-ins. I had stopped to get my hair cut while coming home from school, and I'd gone a few blocks from the hairdresser's towards home. I was walking my bike this time, cause I had a flat tire, so I was able to hear this lady yelling behind me about something, like she wanted someone to wait for her. I turned to realize it was me she was yelling at, and she charged her way across the road towards me, kind of looking for cars on the way, but I don't think she would have waited for them to stop. I figured I had left something at the hairdresser's, but when she got closer to me I realized this lady wasn't from there at all.

She was probably late 30's, wearing a somewhat nice black dress of sorts (big and flowing and very Asian). But there was something quite off about her - she had a really bad dye job on her hair and an intense worried look on her face. As she stormed up to me, she starts rambling on about "Where are you from," and "What's going on?"

"Ummm, I'm from Canada"

"Oh really? Oh that's great" She's shuffling back and forth on her feet, and speaking in a really strange accent. "I'm from the USA too, you know, that's great. So yeah bae-by, where are you going?" She says baby really strangely too me, like some kind of Korean 50's jazz singer, and I'm instantly squirming to keep my bike between the two of us.

"Oh, yeah, um, I'm just heading home you know, it's the end of the day," I tell her.

"Oh really bae-by? Yeah, you, where are you from? I'm from Chicago, and *unintelligible* so you should, like, hey, where are you going, bae-by?"

"I'm just going home, and - " "Oh you live 'round here!" she cuts me off, "that's great bae-by, where do you live? I'm from America and I dunno about *unintelligible* Korea and *unintelligible* so you think I could come to your place bae-by?" She's looking a little frantic almost now, and seems to be as uncomfortable as I am, shifting her weight back and forth and getting wide-eyed on me every few seconds.

"Uhhh, that's probably not a good idea," I stutter.

"Ahh, bae-by, whatchoo doin' now, huh? You wanna *unintelligible - may have been "go someplace" * and, yeah bae-by..."

"I gotta go home, my girlfriend is waiting for me..."

"Where do you live, bae-by?"

"Just around here," I say, and point the opposite way of my house.

"Bae-by!!" She yells, and double hand-slaps my chest. It's definitely time to go, I decide.

"It's been nice," I say, "but it's definitely time for me to get going home."

"Maybe you could wanna stay here with me," she says. I decline and start walking away, zig-zagging my way home. She says something else to me on my way, and wanders off slowly.

My guess is, she was/is a prostitute, but then again maybe she was a single mother looking for her way out of poverty. Either way, I don't think she was that far from home, and I'm sure I'll see her again before I end up leaving the country. Oh bae-by...

The Little Things

2006-12-19T12:20:00.000+09:00

It's been busy this last week, as Christmas is getting close and Shannon and I have been doing a smattering of Christmas-related task, mostly involving present-buying and mailing home. As such, this weeks blog will feature mostly a mish-mash of stories and happenings, a collection I guess of little tidbits of information that wouldn't get put into their own entry, but are still worth remembering and sharing.

To this point in time, my efforts to buy clothing have been entirely fruitless. This country seems to have a one-size-fits-Korea thing going, which is about 4 sizes too small for me, and unless I take a 5 hour trip to Seoul, I don't know where I'll ever find clothes. So, when taking a shower the other day I finally realized how odd the settings in the shower are - aiming slightly over my head, or aiming way over my head. How a 5'5" Korean would manage is beyond me.

I think I'm finally starting to become climatized to the moderately cold weather here, and I'm finding myself feeling nastily cold on days that barely reach 0 degrees. I've got my heater cranked at school, which has spawned two types of whiny kids - the early morning kids, who are cold because the heater isn't hot enough yet; and the afternoon kids, who are hot because they refuse to take off their coats.

"Teacher! My hot!" they cry.

"Take off your coat," I tell them. The only answer they've given me so far is "Teacher, no!"

Shannon's school has an even stranger heating situation. In fact, her school is just riddled with weirdness. They bring a dentist into school twice a week, which I guess it great for the kids (though it makes for a creepy Principal's Office, what with the dentist chair sitting in it), but they were finding that the dentist needs a lot of power, so on Tuesday and Thursday no one gets to use the heaters in the classroom. I suppose cold rooms is better than losing power halfway through a root canal, but it's still a funny and unfortunate situation.

Shannon was also had her cell phone stolen by a student recently. It was a pretty crappy situation, as getting a cell phone in this country is hard for us foreigners, and replacing one can be even worse. She managed to get it back, but now there's the uncomforableness of having to work with the student who stole it. They caught the girl who did it, but she's shown no remorse at all, and still asks Shannon for candy everyday.

My school has just finished construction of a new "English Village", making us the provincial hub for English instruction now. There's only three of these villages in the country, and every week 120 new kids will come into our school to learn English in "real life" situations. I don't have anything to do with it, and the only reason I'm even excited about it is the 6 new foreigners who are coming to work here. A few have arrived already, and while one of them seems he's living the world-travelling-dream he had during a 1970's acid-inspired moment of clarity, the others seem pretty cool. Hmmm, I hope the hippie dude doesn't go googling my blog anytime soon...

While I'm on the subject of it, this town (and I guess the lifestyle here) oozes with transition, as teachers are coming and going all the time. With only 50-100 people in town that you can share a language with, it means a pretty steady stream of fresh faces to get together with. Every week is a going-away and welcome-aboard party for someone, and there always seems to be another person who's been in town for a few months and will suddenly just show up out of nowhere. Some of these "hidden" people can go days, weeks, or even months before they finally find another English speaker in town, so they're first run-in with another "waygook" can be quite comical, and Shannon and I have had a few conversations with people where they seem reluctant to let us go for fear of not seeing another foreigner for quite some time.

I've almost reached the point now of being able to recite "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" from start to finish. It's the last week of school before the holidays, so I've been showing the video to all my kids, and I've watched it 8 times already this week. You know that guy wrote in anapestic tetrameter? Maybe I'll teach my kids to speak that way -

"My good Teacher, how are you it's such a nice day
to perhaps go outside for a fun soccer game.
We would like not to study our English today,
We would rather be outside so we could go play."

"Well of course my dear children, I think I'll come too,
and then I'll play on your team and maybe hers too.
But then please little children, don't gang up on me
and pull out my arm hair and bite with your teeth."

Kay, that's as poetic as I'm going to get for today. Thanks for reading, I'll be back again next week!

My Dinner With Joe Joon Boem

2006-12-12T09:11:00.001+09:00

Kudos to Duane for reading my entire blog here from start to finish. I hope you got a good laugh reading it.

It's been busy here the last few days, with plenty of stories to write about, and I think I may get in two entries this week. Today's entry though is in regards only to a single episode from last week, a dinner party at a student's house with his family.

Dinner at the Joe's

On Thursday last week, my Prinipal arranged a dinner for himself, our school's 3rd grade teacher and me at Joe Joon Boem's house. From the beginning, it was a little hokey. To begin with, the 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Hwang Gab Soon, was showing some obvious displeasure about going. I may not be able to understand Korean, but I can certainly recognize when someone is pouting, and Mr. Hwang was throwing an awfully big fit about something. However, after a few minutes of sitting in a parking lot debating about whatever was upsetting Mr. Hwang, we finally started driving - aimlessly in circles around the block at first, trying to figure how to get to the Joe's house.

It turns out Joe Joon Boem's family is just up the street from my place, which quickly led to the decision I should visit more often. They have a very nice house, quite large for a Korean home, with the parents, three children and grandmother living together. The evening started off nicely, with a brief living room discussion before moving to the kitchen for dinner.

The Vegetarian I Used To Be

As usual, nothing worked as simply as it should have. It turns out that Joon Boem's mother, Mrs. Joe, is an English teacher, and quite fluent speaking English. However with the way seniority works, my principal was given the role of interpreting for me that night, and I was left out of the loop for the great majority of the conversation, despite having such a strong English speaker available.

Dinner that evening was meat, and lots of it. There was some raw fish, two stacked plates of octopus wrapped around popsicle sticks, the usual array of pickled cabbage and other vegetables, and 5 platters of beef. As the foreigner at the table, conversation was hard, and limited to a few key phrases, either involving feeding me more meat, feeding me more scotch, or asking me if I thought Joe Juun Boem's grandmother looked like Miss Korea. I dutifully said yes every time, took a heaping hunk of beef and grimaced as I sipped my newly filled glass of scotch.

The scotch was a bit of a problem, and I found myself chasing it with beef, as I wasn't offered water or any other drink besides Korean wine and scotch. A nibble of cabbage, a sip of wine, a drink of scotch, then chase it with beef. When most of the food was done, I found I still had a lot of scotch to drink, and for a moment I was relieved when Mrs. Joe pulled out two more large platters of beef that had been stashed away. So, I continued to eat beef, agree that "Mrs. Joe, she is very much Miss Korea", drink some scotch, chase it with beef.

Two hours later, I was starting to feel a little queasy. 10 years of eating mostly as a vegetarian meant my tolerance for eating meat quite was low, and as the 6th and 7th platters of beef arrived, I began feeling a little nauseous. I continued on with dinner, sipped some wine, ate some beef, drank some scotch, and despaired as another platter of beef was brought out. After two glasses of scotch, someone asked me if I wanted more. Now drunk enough to comfortably say "no", someone then poured me wine, fed me some beef, I chased it with the last of my scotch, and mentioned how much grandma looks like Miss Korea. Bleary-eyed, I completely ignored the final platter of beef put on the table, and sipped my wine till we finally could leave the dinner table.

Grandma's Room

Korean's are excellent at getting the most out of what they have. They recycle like crazy, serve any leftovers from one meal at the next, and they'll use Grandma's tiny bedroom to entertain the guests as well. Five adults and three kids made for some cramped quarters, but we packed ourselves in and continued eating beef and drinking wine. I was really trying to keep my cool with how drunk I had gotten, but I realized most everyone wasn't any more sober than I was. My principal and Mr. Hwang were now drinking from a bottle of orange juice, which I was pretty certain wasn't just OJ. My principal at one point lept up to give more "OJ" to Mr. Hwang, who did his best to refuse, but finally relented - an incredibly bizarre scene given the tiny size of the room and that we were guests in someone's house.

By now, entering the 3rd hour of dinner, Grandma too was getting a little tipsy. She'd been sizing me up all night, and now her questioning stares were becoming more frequent. Even when I stared right back at her (if only for a moment), I still couldn't break that "What's your story?" stare.

As we moved into the 4th hour, it was almost time to go. The adults were making the kids do magic tricks, we had moved onto our 3rd or 4th bottle of "Maeshe" (a rather delicious Korean wine), and Grandma was crawling back and forth on her bed on all fours. Still suffering from a cold, I was struggling hard to keep my head up and my eyes open, and it was a relief to finally do the 20 minute goodbye-and-who's-taking-who-home dance. No one was sober enough to drive, but I'm certain that was never mentioned to anyone as we left.

Well, a long night has turned into a long blog-entry. Time to jet, there's kids to teach and only me it seems to do it. I'll be back later this week with another entry I think. Thanks for reading!

"A Murder Most Foul!"

2006-12-07T14:48:00.000+09:00

Okay, so there was never actually a REAL murder, but we did hold a muder mystery party at the house over the weekend, which I'll get to in a moment. First though, a frozen-finger update:

When last I checked in, there was some serious concerns with regards to the frozen wasteland my classroom was quickly becoming. Fears of frostbite and digits devoid of feeling were quickly becoming a major problem of mine, and my teaching was beginning to suffer from it. However, finally, on the coldest day yet in Korea, I was given a portable heater for my classroom. But wait, that's not all!

In a constant effort to improve safety records, and I suppose out of modest fear of the school burning down, I was also granted 1.) a fire-extinguisher, and 2.) a big bucket of sand. It seems my portable heater, a rather cumbersome monolith of metal and warmth, is occassionally prone to bouts of spontaneous combustion. It's an oil heater, I think, so putting it out can be quite a challenge, and my principal (Kyo-Jang Soen Sang Nim) has actually phoned me to make sure I properly turned it off at the end of the day.

I'm mid-way through my first round of the Korean plague, which is really nothing more than a nasty flu, yet it seems so much more draining and impressive to finally get sick overseas. Skipping work in Korea is a big no-no, and doing so will ellicit numerous phone calls of concern and worry from the teachers here. If you're not careful, they'll even come to your house and take you to the hospital, which inevitably results in a shot of antibiotics in the bum, regardless of symptoms, condition or frantic protest. While I hold (some) traditional eastern medicines in high regard, the recent infusion of eastern traditional with unrefined and dated western medicine to be a bit questionable at times.

Ah yes, the Murder Mystery Party. This turned out to be quite a fun, involving evening. It was one of the English teacher's birthdays, so we put this on for her at Shannon and my place. Our apartment, by Korean standards, is massive, and we were able to have 30 or so guests dressed up as a variety of 1920's characters, complete with a bar, coat room and murder scene. My character, Pete Pinkerton, was given the charge of solving the murder and at all times was never a real suspect - too bad, seeing as I was a poor detective and spent most of my evening hurling terrible 1920's insults at most of the guests ("There ain't no two ways about this Mac: You're a bad-nut givin' this two-bit town an even worse name! I'm tightenin' the screws on you mister, that's for sure!") Below's a shot of me interrogating one of the suspects as he drinks another swig of giggle-juice.

An open bar will work wonders at ensuring everyone has a great time, however it will cause a problem or two when it comes to organizing the actual mystery-party. The main organizer, wonderful as she was, misplaced a few of the key items, forgot to get the evidence out, and neglected to inform the murder that they were indeed the murderer (chasing yourself without knowing you're doing it is hilarious).

A big thanks to everyone in the family who's managed to keep up with reading my blog these past few months. I'm told even Grandma might have someone bring her a printed copy to glance over. Feel free to leave a comment or two, their always appreciated. Till next week...

Beyond These Walls

2006-11-30T10:30:00.000+09:00

Phew! It's effing cold right now, and either my keyboard's keys are getting slightly stuck as I type, or my fingers aren't working so well. Cold, however, is a relative thing it seems, as the weather compared to Canada right now is very good. Unfortunately my school still hasn't bought into the idea of indoor heating, so my work environment is at best unpleasant and at worst a painful struggle. It does create an opportunity to play a lot of active games with my kids in the classroom; though as always, getting the little guys all riled up can be like playing tag with a hungry tiger - eventually, it's going to bite you in the ass.

To date, my blog has given (I feel) a fairly in-depth description of life at my school, covering all the good, bad and strange times that have befallen me. The experiences I have had, however, are not necessarily typical of all English teachers in Korea. Every school has its own unique environment for staff, and there is an amazing contrast between different schools I've found. Shannon's school and mine, two demographically similar schools, are quite far apart in terms of what kind of work environment we face, and her experience has not been nearly as positive as mine when it comes to enjoying her teaching position.

The kids are always hit-or-miss when it comes to being bad-asses. I hate to say it, but income demographics certainly has a lot to do with how they are in class, though the spoiled rich kids can be as bad as the disrespectful poor kids. In the end, the kids can be rough, but they’re not usually what makes or breaks a good school.

Co-workers however can ruin a school, and principals can make your life hell. At Shannon’s school, the teacher is a horrible person (she’s bald, so we call her a witch). She threatens to take away Shannon’s vacation time, pays other teacher 3 or 4 times what Shannon gets for the same job, and subtly makes fun of her clothes (which are really nice, so I just don’t get that). Another English teacher in town was dealt a sexual predator for a co-teacher. That’s right, the man who she worked with, side-by-side everyday, had been busted for sexually harassing both fellow teachers and students. His punishment? A week off the job and a different school to teach at. Of course, the English teacher didn’t learn all of this until AFTER he took her out for a day long hike, then drove to a secluded area outside of town. She was fine in the end, thank goodness, but the 30 minutes sitting in the car waiting to get back to town took an eternity, she said.

Most other teachers who have difficult times don’t face such threatening situations. There are several teachers who have been given homes with cockroaches and another whose power is rather suspect at the best of times and may possibly give her a good jolt one rainy day in the future. Some people are given tones of extra hours to work with little or no overtime pay (Shannon falls slightly into this category), and some –such as myself – will find themselves doing out-of-town English camps where the only money you get is to cover your travel costs. Yep, you never really know exactly what it’s going to be like here until you finally start at school.

(Brief interlude – I’m listening to a friend, Pete Golden, over the radio. I tell my kids, and what do they do? They grabbed the speaker and tried to talk to Pete. So cute.)

Well, I think that’s my tale for today. Holidays are coming up fast, and while I won’t have any exciting stories about them for a while, Shannon and I have just booked our flights to Australia and New Zealand. Spending January lying on a beach is going to be wonderful.

Slacking Off

2006-11-22T09:07:00.000+09:00

I've decided to take a week off and let someone else fill in my blog for me this week. The following in verbatim from the Sang-dong Korean Police Substation.

Dear Mr. Bergen.
This is KP(Korean Police) substation in Sang-dong, Mokpo.
Yesterday, we recieved a statement about lost wallet from one citizen.
We searched your fitness membership card from your wallet.
Then we called Vitamin Fitness Club and found out that you are that club's member.
We also found out your cell-phone number(010-5825-1247) by asking to that club's client.
We tried to call up many times, but there were no answers.
In our opinions, you maybe lost your cell-phone with wallet together.
So, we drop in your club and kept your wallet to client necessary.
Please, get back your wallet from client safely.
And if you any questions, contact us below telephone number.

Korean Police substation in Sang-dong, Mokpo

Yes, the Korean Police have come to my aid by finding my lost wallet. Hopefully my letter of thanks I send to them will bring as many chuckles and good times as their's has for me.

The full story goes as follows: Saturday night, we were playing hockey at a friends house (wait till I publish the blog on my home-made goalie pads), and spent the rest of the night having a few beers and playing cards at his house. Somewhere between his place and mine, my wallet was left behind. I was convinced it was at my friends place, but he left town the next day, so I had to wait to check. Meanwhile, my wallet has actually (I strongly believe) ended up in the back of a taxi. The driver gave it to the police (after taking $10 from it), who then gave it to my gym (or maybe the police took my money), who then tried to give it to another Canadian girl in town, before finally giving it to her boyfriend, possibly because he looks just slightly like me, and by that I mean we're both Canadian. Oh, and he's 6'8", so maybe they knew it was the "tall" Canadian's wallet.

Anyway, it's been two days of only minimal anxiety, as I was so sure where my wallet had been, so it's nice to have it back. One of the teacher's in town here has lost, or had stolen, her passport 5 times up to this point, so I'm not feeling too bad. Thanks for checking back in everyone, I'll post again sometime mid-next week.

Ummm... killing time

2006-11-20T16:06:00.000+09:00

It's 4:00 - 30 minutes into my class - and I'm just sitting here... waiting. My principal decided today to take over my class, which is fine by me. But I just thought I should write about the random and unexpected events that happen on a daily basis while teaching here.

Hah! One of the kids just asked me to "Please!" start teaching class. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks this sudden change of teachers is a little bizarre.