Four Days In China

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

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

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

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.