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
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Clear Skies and Muddy Waters
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!
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!
Monday, July 09, 2007
It Never Ends
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
The Rain In Spain Falls Mostly On Korea
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!
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!
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