I Apologize

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm really terrible with this thing. I honestly meant to update it tonight with a story. However, at 7 pm, I got a call from a friend inviting me out to eat hwe, (raw fish, which I used to call "sashimi," but I learned tonight that sashimi is the Japanese name and we don't care much for Japan here), and if there's one thing I've learned while here, it's to not say "no" because you'll miss out on something fun. Anyhoo, here was my plan for tonight:

Eat dinner
Read
Study Korean
Study Spanish
Update blog with a story

I did a tiny bit of reading before I got the call (I'm reading a book about Korea by a British traveler that traveled here 20 years ago. It's very interesting and gives a lot of information on contemporary history that I and every foreigner I've met is completely ignorant of. It's really helped me understand and respect the people here a lot more and is definitely something I'll try to do when I travel next year. (Thanks for the book, ma and pa)), I ate dinner with friends and now I'm about to study Spanish. So three out of five isn't too bad. Being flexible provides for many great experiences, maybe too many since I don't have the time nor energy to update this thing with all of them, so I'm sorry. I've really learned that what I love about being in a different place is the people. Going and sightseeing tourist attractions with others can be fun, and boring on your own, but having a normal evening with a good group of local people can't be beat. Expect the unexpected.

Music

Here's another thing I've been meaning to post. I've still been listening to quite a bit of music, even though I'm in a country where terrible pop songs reign supreme on the radio and with my naive middle school students. I remember that a lot of you liked music as well, so I thought I would suggest some good albums that I've heard from this year:

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals
This is like the Where's Waldo of music. He takes awful rap and pop and combines them with old instrumentals that match the vocal melodies well to make something completely new and really interesting. I think you can download this one for free and give a donation if you like it.

Hot Chip - Made in the Darkness
Good dance music.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
One of my favorite bands. This is different from their first album, but still good.

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Afrobeat rock.

Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings and All
Really catchy laid back pop/rock.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood/Fleet Foxes
Man Man - Rabbit Habits
Ratatat - LP3
Santagold - Santagold
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
The Roots - Rising Down
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Gnarles Barkely - The Odd Couple
Islands - Arm's Way
The Black Keys - Attack and Release

And here's some good stuff from last year:
Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The National - Boxer
M.I.A. - Kala
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer
The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
!!! - Myth Takes
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Battles - Mirrored
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters
Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Menomena - Friend and Foe
Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
White Rabbits - Fort Nightly
Justice - Cross
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
The Good, the Bad & the Queen - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
Feist - The Reminder
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

It's Noon on a Saturday

I woke up at 5:30 AM and played soccer like I usually do. I joined a morning soccer club a couple of months ago and they are gooooooood. Before, I was going to the local soccer field every evening and practicing my ball handling skills. Sometimes, I would get to play, such as the time with the LG engineers that make the cell phone display screens and HDTVs, or the time with the subway drivers, but mostly I would just practice my dribbling on the sidelines while some official game or practice went on. A few times, I got to play with the 40+ year old team for the county when they scrimmaged and didn't have enough people. I could usually hold my own, but they were good. A couple of months ago they were scrimmaging and I got to play in the last 20 minutes. I did OK and nutmegged a guy near the goal, but the sweeper got the ball and then nutmegged me. After the game, the sweeper invited me to come and play soccer in the morning with his group. I've been going nearly every morning before school, from 6 to 7 AM.

Soccer is so much fun to play when the people you play with are good. It can be a very boring game when the players lack the necessary skills to trap and pass the ball, because the ball just ends up going around the field without any thought like a six year old playing pinball. They get the ball and they look down and kick it as hard as they can. However, this is far from the case with the morning crew I get to play with. These guys are good. They make the game look like an art. Each game is a masterpiece of one touch passing. I went to the World Cup qualifiying game between South Korea and North Korea, and the technical skill of the players then and of the players I play with seems quite marginal. A guy I was guarding a couple of weeks ago took a shot from 35 yards out and struck the ball with no spin and it went straight into the upper left-hand corner of the goal. Another guy hit a volley from 25 yards out with his left foot and powered it into the goal. Later, he made a goal from the halfway line when he noticed the keeper was off his line. I went to a picnic at one of their workplaces and the cupboard was so full of their soccer trophies that they had to put them out on the counter. The point is, they're very good, and it makes the game incredibly fun and challenging.

They're as nice as they are skilled as well. Today we played for a couple of hours, and then drove to the nearby town and had cow intestine soup for breakfast. Yum. This was the second time I've eaten it and it didn't seem so gross or weird. The first time it felt really weird, but now I knew what to expect. Of course, as with every Korean meal, we drank soju, the Korean hard liquor, and macoli, a rice wine. After our delicious breakfast we came back to our town and went to a convenience store and bought some more alcohol. There was a traveling market going on so we bought some ginormous prawns and clams and cooked them on a portable gas grill outside the convenience store, and ate seafood and canned fruit and drank for the next couple of hours. It's now noon, and the only thing that could make the day better was if the beautiful Angie was with me.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

MAJOR UPDATE!

Today, as I was leaving the school to go home, I saw a chicken running around inside our parking lot area. This hasn't been the first time I've seen the chicken there, but it still made me really happy to see it, and I'm not exactly sure why. It made me think of all of my old schools and how this is something that would have never happened to me at those places. I came here to experience something new, and I suppose I got it.

My town is a bit atypical. My other teaching friends have probably never seen a chicken at their school unless it was on the lunch tray. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a DeLorean and going through a half dozen time periods each day. I'll see farmers cultivating crops by hand right next to our school. Old people will stop and just stare at me like I'm some sort of 1950s minority lost in a white neighborhood. Apartments rise as high as the Seattle downtown buildings. People on the subway watch TV on their telephones. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I guess don't need to.

Year of the Rat

My loyal reader recently asked me some questions about Koreans and their knowledge of US politics. This was an excellent question and quite relevant to some of my experiences here. I've been most fortunate to be in Korea during their own big election year. This was good because the public schools are used as voting centers and therefore school is canceled and I get a day to recover from replying to my daily 4,238 "hellos". I've experienced both a presidential election, which is held every five years, and a parliamentary election, which aren't very often either.

So what is unique and exciting about a Korean presidential election? I won't be able to delve too in depth (since I can't speak Korean unless it is something about food), but I saw a lot of interesting things so I can talk about that. One of the first things I noticed were all the big pictures of the candidates that didn't have their names next to them, but rather numbers. There were 12 candidates for the presidential election, and each one had a number. My friend Jeff brought up a good point; is there a problem with people voting for their favorite number? Does lucky number seven win more often than the other candidates? I asked my wise co-teacher about this and she didn't think it was a problem, but she did tell me that seven is considered a lucky number here and four is an unlucky number because the word for four in Chinese also means death. A lot of places don't have fourth floors just like we don't have thirteenth floors at some places in the United States. Superstition, another (irrational?) iron clad bond we share as humans.

Even more impressive than the number of candidates, is the promotion they do here. Posting a sign in a yard for who you support is the lazy American way, not the Korean way. So what do you instead? You dance.

Each candidate had their own theme song and dance that the supporters would do. I liked number six's music and dance the best and would have voted for him.

Can't dance? That's OK. You can drive a truck around that has a big video screen and speakers and play campaign ads for everyone. Forget about TV ads, the only way you'll see those is if you're watching a TV. This ensures that everyone hears your election jingle because you get to drive around and wake me up on my weekend mornings.

I never did see any TV campaign ads because I don't watch TV here. However, I found some of the ones made by supporters on the internet and they're much better than ones in the US.

I would have voted for this even before I knew that he could fly in a robot space suit. One of his workers gave me his business card which makes us friends, at least that's what I assume since all of my other friends have given me their business cards.

I found a TV ad for the eventual winner of the presidential election here. It is very sad, mainly because this poor candidate doesn't have a robot space suit.

My co-teacher didn't like him because she claimed he has shifty eyes like a rat or an evil villain or an evil rat villain. A whole lot of other people don't like him either. I was with my friend Hyung Kyung in Seoul about a month ago and a guy stopped us to talk to me about the new president's plan for a grand canal. The waterway of wonder would stretch from the northwest part of the country down to the southeast. I didn't have a problem with it, but the guy, whose name was "Universe," was very upset with this idea. He thought it was a bad idea since Korea is a peninsula. I kind of like islands, but Universe was very worried about the thought of Korea becoming one. After he left us alone, my friend commented on how it was odd that a Korean person would come and talk politics with me. I told him that I was used to it from Seattle with all of the activists around UW. Even so, Hyung Kyung pointed out how I am not a citizen of Korea and I therefore have no political power to make a change even if I did have a strong opinion about something.

I read a few weeks ago that the grand canal project has been abandoned. Universe won the battle, but the war continues for him and his friends. Arms have been taken up against a new deal that would allow US beef to be imported into the country once again. I had forgotten, but a few cows in the US were discovered to have mad cow disease a few years ago, and after that, US beef was banned in many countries throughout the world. Since then, I believe just about everywhere but Korea has allowed US beef back into their countries. A news program ran a special about US beef and mad cow disease after the new President signed an import agreement, and now it's caused quite a bit of hysteria. I thought it was really weird since no one in the US thinks twice about mad cow disease when they buy meat, and I think only three US citizens have ever died of the disease. However, my friend Ho Gun brought up a good point. He reminded me that Korean people eat much different cuts of meat than Americans. The spine of the cow and pig are often used in stews, and there is some evidence that I haven't bothered looking into too deeply, that claims the brain and spinal tissue are what transmits the disease between organisms. So there could be some danger in it. I also remain willfully ignorant of the practices of the US beef industry; my tongue trumps my brain for one of my favorite foods. However, I'm not going to go out to one of the candlelight protests that are becoming the style of the time for today's teenagers here. There's been a lot of misinformation spread about mad cow disease as well like how it spreads and that Koreans are genetically more susceptible to it. The Korean beef industry has a pretty good hold of the market, and bringing in American beef would definitely lower prices. I have no evidence of any relation between these these ideas, but generally when political disputes are going on, money isn't too far out of the way.

I find it interesting that it's only been a few months since the President, Lee Myung-bak, (or "2 Mega" as my co-teacher calls him since "Lee" means "2" and MB is "megabyte" in computer geek language) was elected. However, his approval rating is already at levels that rival our commander-in-chief back home. All I can think is wow, there might be people out there who do just as bad or maybe a worse job of researching and considering their president than Americans did before going out and voting last time. People were happy and felt they were getting what they wanted for at least a couple years after Bush was reelected. I asked my wise co-teacher what she thought of Koreans being so upset with 2 Mega after they had so recently decided on electing him as their leader. Her response: "I was right. I told them so." I agree, being right can be so difficult sometimes.

CT phone home

I was able to get by just fine without a cellular telephone during my first couple of months here. However, my co-teacher was insistent that I have one. Perhaps she was tired of trying to meet me at places where I would inevitably become lost, or maybe the strings of her heart were pulled a bit too taut after seeing the disgusted reactions from the other teachers, whenever they asked for my non-existent phone number. Whether it was out of pity, annoyance, or kindness, I'm grateful that my co-teacher helped me buy a phone.

In Korea, everyone has a cell phone. Nearly all of my students have them, and a large number of little elementary students have them too. I know this, because whenever they see me on the street, they pull out their phones and call their friends to report a Chris sighting. I'm pretty sure that their is some sort of tracking network going on for my whereabouts at all times.

So where do these young paparazzi get their phones? They are born with them. The phone is usually attached to the umbilical cord, but there have been some cases of it already being in the baby's hands when it enters this strange new world. This means that getting a phone can be a problem for a foreigner. My Canadian friend, Carl, had problems with stores closing early whenever he would walk in, or wanting ridiculously high-priced deposits. I was fortunate that my co-teacher knew how to find a phone shop and was able to haggle for me. I told her that I already had a phone and that it worked perfectly well for calling people back home and cracking open pine nuts here. She didn't agree and helped me get a new phone for $30 (they were out of the free models).


That's my new phone. I got the most basic one I could, but it can still do more than your phone can (if I knew how to work the thing, that is). I can listen to music on it, take pictures, use the internet, and I can even buy an extra antenna for it and watch TV on it. I see people on subway cars doing this every once in a while and it makes me feel like I've traveled into the future, and I mean more than the 16 hours from the change in time zones.

One of the students also gave me a little brown dangly ornament for my phone for Christmas. She told me that brown is a man color, and since I am a man, she got me a brown colored ornament. The powers of logical deduction are well alive in Korea. I'm thankful she got it for me. It's required by law that all residents must have an ornament on their phone. Being the upstanding citizen that I am, I plan on getting as many of these as possible. Like always, I'll be sure to keep you up to date on how that story unfolds.

I did make a good American half-hearted attempt at trying to learn how to use my phone. It came with a 121 page instruction book, that may have been in Korean, but it also had plenty of pictures for me to figure out the meaning.

For example, on this page I learned the valuable lesson of not putting my phone in the microwave. This was a close call as I was about to prepare my mushroom phone casserole in the microwave. Dogs shouldn't be using your cell phone either. The civilized dogs here all have their own special little clothes that they wear and I'm sure that they have their own dog phones as well.

Like little dogs, babies shouldn't use your phone either. While they are born with their own phones, they aren't allowed to use them until they're older because of the extravagant bills they rack up from their baby talk. One should also refrain from hammering their phone in order to fix it. It's very tempting, which makes me glad that I don't own a hammer.

From the first warning, you can see that you shouldn't look directly at your Medusa phone. I was dialing a whole lot of wrong numbers at first, but then I bought a nice pocket mirror from a friendly vendor on a subway car. The second picture is common sense, don't put your phone in a little box, but the other pictures were very helpful. Apparently, blowing up your phone with a bomb is just as bad as putting it in a microwave. In the last picture, if your phone has gone to hell, then don't use the skull spray on it. That just won't do.

Definitely, don't let your cell phone fly away. Don't let it wag its tail and become too spoiled neither. You must be fair and firm with it. Also, don't let it do art. It may seem creative, but it's not Jackson Pollock nor Michaelangelo, and it's just going to waste your nice materials.

As you can see, having a cell phone can be a big responsibility. I asked the other teachers about all of these warnings and they told me that it was for liability reasons. Besides the benefit of being able to get in touch with people through means other than random chance, I've learned that a lack of common sense isn't just a unique American trait, but that perhaps it is universal. Doing dumb things is something that links us as humans together and separates us from the animals (they usually are eaten if they make poor choices and are thus naturally selected against). We are fallible as humans and not as separate cultural entities, and we should forge our world bond on this principle and embracxe it.

How are you?

I...AM...FINE...THANK YOU...AND...YOU?

That's the response that nearly every single student struggles to get out when I ask the above question.

It's also how I'm doing as well. It's been a long time since I last updated this, so I'll try to write something this weekend.

Ho Gun Memorial Post

Hey, hey. I just got back from the wedding of one of the teachers. They do it a bit differently in Korea, but I'll write more on that experience later (check back in June at the rate I'm updating this).

My winter vacation was pretty good. I wasn't sure what I would do with my free time since my best Korean friend, Ho Gun, left to go back to the United States. Ho Gun is a microbiology professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is an elite jedi knight at cloning DNA. I met Ho Gun in the genetics lab that I did my research in during my undergraduate era. Even though he is a professor in Korea, his family lives in the United States, so he travels back to the US whenever there is a winter or summer break. Our lab does similar research on tuberculosis that Ho Gun's lab does, so he is able to continue researching with us during his sojourn in Seattle. Not only is he a jedi knight in science, but he is also one of the friendliest and most fun guys that I know.

Ho Gun has helped make my stay here in Korea much easier and I am forever in his doubt. One of the first things he did was help me find the essentials that my apartment was lacking. We ventured out to the glorious Seoul neighborhood known as Yongsan (용산구). (Quick side note: Seoul is divided up into various neighborhoods kind of like how Seattle has Capitol Hill, Fremont, U-District, etc.; what makes it novel for me isn't just the sheer ginormosity nor crowdedness, but that each neighborhood specializes in only one or two things. It would be like if Fremont only sold jewelry and that was pretty much it. If you wanted clothing then you'd have to go to some other neighborhood because Fremont only sells jewelry and some food, and that's it.) Yongsan specializes in selling electronics. It makes Fry's Electronics look like a little Radioshack in terms of size (not in terms of price, unfortunately). There are a bunch of huge buildings that are all kind of connected with above-ground tunnels, and they have various consumer electronics on each floor. It's kind of weird because each floor has vendors selling the same things in a bunch of open kiosks. I have no idea how you're suppose to choose which one to buy from, but Ho Gun knew what he was doing and in the end I came out with some blank CDs and a web camera. Ho Gun looked really worried about the web camera because it was made in China, but so far, so good.

Inside one of the various malls in Yongsan.

After the exciting adventure to Yongsan, Ho Gun and I went on a quest to find me some soccer shoes and a good soccer ball. The first place we went to was Namdaemun market (남대문 시장). It was a market with crowded pedestrian streets with tables and small shops scattered about. I'll probably be going back sometime soon because I saw running shoes for $5 (made in China, though). Unfortunately, they didn't have any soccer shoes as those are all in Dongdaemun market (동대문 시장). So off we went to Dongdaemun, a much more upscale shopping area with more people selling things inside of big malls rather than outside on tables. I got some nice new turf soccer shoes (I've never seen a grass field in Korea yet) and a soccer ball (which after two months of use, is already having some stitching come out. The ball was made in China; you were right, Ho Gun).

Ho Gun and I in Dongdaemun.

This was a big display describing fashion. Kind of odd, considering all of the clothing stores that I've seen sell the same style of things.

A couple of weeks later, I met up with Ho Gun again. The next stage of my journey with Ho Gun took me to his past. We went to the area in Seoul where Ho Gun grew up. He claims that it was completely different then from what it is now. You can still see the remains of that time with a few old houses with the old school tile roofs, mixed in with the new modern buildings. We went to Ho Gun's old childhood stomping ground, Changdeokgung (창덕궁). It is a huge palace, but even though Ho Gun is a charming guy, he's not a prince. Apparently, back in the day, the palace was uninhabited and the local neighborhood children ran amok there. Ho Gun told me that his schoolyard chums and him would play hide-and-seek, and go ice skating at the ponds during the winter. I had a great group of neighborhood friends when I was a child, and we would play kick the can and Parcheesi like everyone else, since that was the style at the time, but doing our shenanigans in a huge ancient palace would have been pretty exciting. Most of the different parts of the palace were connected with sky bridges and Ho Gun even said there was a big underground area as well. I didn't see any wild kids running around, so I guess now the palace is considered to be pretty important. I guess if you ever want to preserve something you shouldn't let little kids touch it, they're devilish little hands are like the opposite of the Midas touch.

The brown building behind Ho Gun is the spot where he was born. Ho Gun is a pretty extraordinary scientist, so I'm doubting that he was born like the rest of his mortals, but I guess all superheroes need an alibi.

Here is one of the many buildings that Ho Gun and is friends got to play in. I could totally picture my childhood self running around franticly and screaming in there.

Ho Gun and the tour guide lady both told me that these are palace guardians. You can see them on the corners of most of the buildings as well as a lot of temples, and they all face outwards. I had assumed they had something to do with helping the TV reception.

We're just chilling next to the frozen pond. All of the grounds in the palace are dirt because it was easier to keep clean. There was a garden behind the palace grounds, but our tour didn't go that way and the security guard had his eye on Ho Gun and I. He must have recognized Ho Gun as one of his old childhood palace nemesis.

After leaving the palace, Ho Gun and I trekked on to Insadong, land of Korean antiques and traditional souvenirs. We meandered down the pedestrian street and browsed through some of the shops and did what the Koreans call "eye shopping." Probably the most interesting thing we did was step into an art gallery. The first floor had some sculptures of animals and fantasy creatures that were life size and made of old tires. The strips of tires were applied like strips of muscles, and really made it look convincing.

The streets of Insadong.

This thing was about the usual three or four feet that a real life fantasy wolf dog would be.



Right before Ho Gun left for the United States, we met once more. This time I met him at the new place where he and his schoolyard chums currently run around and play hide-and-seek, Kyung Hee University. It's a big university in Seoul, but it wasn't too crowded because the students were already on holiday. Ho Gun is very popular and nearly every person we passed had to stop and greet him and shake his hand. I can't imagine how he ever makes it anywhere when school is in session. The university was pretty big and kind of gray. I saw some interesting artwork on campus that reminded me of UW. I also got to visit Ho Gun's lab and see where all the magic happens. It looked a lot like my old lab and he even had some of the exact same equipment. I met his graduate and undergraduate students, whom are very nice, albeit a little shy. I have since hung out with them on multiple occasions and have always had a good time. Ho Gun is mentoring them very well in being cool.

I was also able to get my hair cut while in the area. Ho Gun took me to his favorite spot, the Blue Club, which is a chain for cheap hair cuts. It only cost me $6 and I followed the Korean custom of not tipping so it was a real bargain. I might have to get my hair cut more than twice a year since it is that affordable. A few weeks later, when I told Yeong Ki Bi's son that I got my hair cut there, he laughed and said, "worst haircut place." I disagree, but maybe the Blue Club in Suwon isn't so sharp, and the one at Kyung Hee University is where it's at.

Sporting a new do, I went with Ho Gun to the Seoul National Museum. The place was huge. We looked at an endless number of books written in Chinese writing that neither of us could understand, we saw old maps, we saw old clothing and we saw old tools. It was interesting and I had a fun time talking and joking with Ho Gun. If you're ever in the area and need something to do, then I suggest checking the place out.



In conclusion, I have been very lucky to have Ho Gun as a friend. Without him, I would have long unmanageable hair and I wouldn't have the soccer friends that I have now. So thank you, professor Ho Gun. I eagerly await your return.

Merry belated Christmas!

It's been a while since I last updated, but don't worry, I'm still alive. Our school started its winter break on December 29th, which means I have to forage for my own lunch now. I'll usually eat whatever animal I catch that day, but sometimes during these harsh winter months when critters are scarce, I just have to deal with it like the pioneers of old, and go to the kimbap (Korean sushi) place across the street. Unfortunately, during my first week off from school, I managed to get food poisoning and had a very sick day, and then carried an uncomfortable stomach for the rest of the week. On my sick day, I laid down a lot, and on one of these occasions I happened to catch a movie in English on the telly. It was called "Gone with the Wind," and you may have heard of it because I believe it was made popular after the Simpsons parodied it in a number of highly amusing episodes. Maybe it was because I was already feeling kind of down and sick, but after watching this so-called "classic" movie, I thought it could best be described with the word "what." On a number of occasions, I simply found myself thinking or saying "what?" I remember seeing an old Dave Chappelle skit where they commented how Mammy was the only sane character in the entire show, and I completely agree. They were in the middle of a war and everything is being burned and pillaged, and that girl wouldn't shut up about going back to her hometown. Then she was always so obsessed about that one guy who was no where near as dreamy as Rhett. I think the part that stuck out to me most was how many people were killed by being flung off of horses. If only Ralph Nadir had been born a century earlier to lobby for horse saddle seat belts, then we could have seen a little more of the father act just as crazy as the other characters. I could ramble on and on about how bizarre that movie was, but I've probably bored or offended you enough already.

Anyhoo, I'll catch you up real quick to where I'm at now. I had a week off at the beginning of January, but then the following week I had to teach an English Winter Camp. It consisted of two 90 minute classes and was optional for the students. I had about 22 sign up for each class, which sounded really nice because I'm use to teaching 40 students at once. For better or worse, only about a dozen actually showed up for each grade. I felt bad that out of the 400 kids I teach in each class, only 10-15 were actually interested in my camp, but at the same time, I got to really interact and got to know those students who did come. I taught them conversation, which is usually just questions and answers, so they learned how to use who, what, where, when, why and how. We did a lot of activities like playing "Guess Who?," learning how to do magic tricks for "how to," and looking at pictures of clouds and gestalt pictures and asking "what do they look like?" I had a fun time, and I think the students whom showed up had a good time as well, and by the last day they were all speaking a lot more; some of them were even using English.

I did some other activities during this time (I'll describe them in further detail later), which is why lethargy and can only partly be contributed to my neglecting of this internet web blog. It's a bit of a catch-22; it's really only interesting to read this if I've done some activities or seen something thought-provoking, but if I'm busy doing those things then it can be difficult to have spare time to actually record all of those events.

I'm a bit behind in my writing, but Christmas is an interesting holiday that is worth mentioning. We got the day off, but that was the only day that week that we had off. I asked the other teachers what they normally do for Christmas, and I learned that most people here usually go out and do stuff. There's quite a few Christians here, and I've seen a lot of churches. There might be a bias in that observation because all of the churches are easy to spot with their bright red neon crosses on their roofs. Whether you're Christian or not, it's not a family-only holiday like back in the US, but more of a hey-let's-go-out-and-have-fun holiday like President's Day or Labor Day.

Some gifts are exchanged, but it isn't in the realm of the huge gift giving hullabaloo of the US. The other teachers that sit in my cluster of desks informed me that next Monday we would be doing a gift exchange, but in a Secret Santa style where you only have to buy one gift. I had no idea what I was going to get for one of the other teachers. I thought of all the things that people had been giving me, like those little sticks dipped in chocolate or various oranges and dried fruit. Then I remembered the movie, Elf, where the family gave Elf spaghetti one night for dinner and then he thinks that's all they ever eat, so he is always making and giving them spaghetti. I didn't want to be exactly like Elf, and luckily my ladyfriend thought of a good idea for a gift. She suggested that I make Christmas treats. It would be something unique and pretty easy for me since I was always involved in my family's traditional Christmas baking. I have an oven, but at the time I didn't know how to use it, so that narrowed down my options peppermint bark, some chocolate covered pretzels, and maybe rice krispie treats because they would be easy.

So I went on an adventure to find my ingredients for my Christmas treats; how hard could it be to find those basic ingredients? I met my good professor friend, Ho Gun, on Saturday, and we went out and did some sightseeing and then ended the day by going to a big walmart-like store called E-mart. I found white chocolate toblerone, some dark chocolate, some candy marshmallow treats, and cocoa rice krispies. No pretzels and no candy canes at the store. We asked some of the people working there and they had only ever seen candy canes that were plastic and used for decorations. I went home and looked up on the internet where I could find some candy canes in Korea. Most people suggested going to a big market in Seoul that has an import section, or going to a big mall that has a little candy cart. I had never used the subway to go into Seoul on my own, since I had been following Ho Gun around before. It was a scary idea. I could be lost wondering the subway for years, or kidnapped and sent to China and forced into labor as an English teacher. However, the rewards of being a hero far outweighed any possible risks. If my Christmas treats were a success then the Korean teachers would hold me in the highest esteem, and in 15-20 years they would probably still be reminiscing about the goodies that that one foreign teacher once gave for Christmas.

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily" - Curly Howard

So I set out early the next morning to find the missing ingredients to my gift that would overshadow any furby or tickle-me-elmo. After an hour on the subway, I arrived at the big market and found the spot where the import goods were sold. However, something was wrong. The building that said import goods on it was dark inside and only had tables with sheets over them. Then it hit me, it was Sunday and sometimes these places are closed on Sundays. I quickly went back to a tourist booth and grabbed a free tourist book to read about the market. My fears were confirmed. I would have to resort to plan B and find the legendary big mall of Seoul. I found it in the tourist booklet, but multiple subway transfers would have to be made. Would I be able to handle entering and exiting a subway car MORE than once to reach my destination?

Yes. It was pretty easy and all of the signs have some sort of English translation as well. I made it to the big mall, but that's when things got difficult. There was a big directory, and most of the stores were Western brand names, but I couldn't find anything about candy shops anywhere on it. The mall was very crowded and had low ceilings and artificial lighting, which made me feel as if I was wondering through an endless maze of underground tunnels. I wondered around the catacombs for an hour and a half, and like always, just as I was about to give up, I saw it in the distance. A small little candy wagon thing that had candy canes, worth more than their weight in gold both figuratively and almost literally.

I didn't arrive back at my apartment until the evening. It had been quite the journey, but I had mastered the subway system and I now feel confident using it to go anywhere. I quickly got to work on my present. I never did find any pretzels for dipping in melted chocolate, but my ladyfriend suggested that I try making fudge since that wouldn't require an oven. I didn't have any evaporated milk, but the milk here is really creamy so I could try slowly simmering that for a while, and I had extra marshmallows to use for fudge as well. So I made some chocolate fudge, some peppermint bark, and rice krispie treats. I didn't take any pictures of the process because this was important and it needed my full attention, but I did take some of the results.


The fudge actually turned out pretty well. It wasn't too runny nor too hard.


Ooooooooohhhh fuuuuuuuuddddggge


The rice krispie treats and peppermint bark.

The rice krispie treats had a weird taste because the marshmallows were candy-fruit flavored, but I only really made them as a backup in case the fudge or peppermint bark didn't turn out. I gave a bundle of the treats away for the gift exchange and then I also had a separate pile for the rest of the teachers. It turned out that everyone liked the rice krispie treats the best. The fudge and peppermint bark were too sweet for most people. I wish I would have thought more about this earlier, because the rice krispie treats were the easiest to make and the ingredients were all readily available. I ended up receiving an ornate picture frame for our gift exchange, which I put a picture of my ladyfriend in.

On Christmas Day, I slept in really late, talked with family, and went out and practiced soccer. There were a lot of families out at the soccer field together. I think it even snowed a little bit too. I also worked on my internet teaching English certificate class, which I just finished last week. I'm now sort of qualified for my job in a cheap internet teaching certificate sort of way.

I'll leave you with some pictures of Christmas lights around my town.

Take a Hike

I apologize for neglecting my internet web log these few days. Last week was my final week of teaching classes for the school year, but I've still been very busy. People keep inviting me to do things and I keep accepting. Until I learn how to say "no" in Korean, or make this web log more of a priority, you'll just have to use your imagination for how I'm doing (I update my internet photo album very often if you need a starting point). I've also been busy working on getting my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate through an internet class, and I've been planning lessons for next week. You see, even though last week was officially the last week of school for the year, I get the privilege of teaching an English Winter Camp for one week. I'll have two 90 minute classes each day that have inconveniently been separated based on grade level rather than ability. There's no book for me to follow, which is both good and bad, and my co-teachers suggested that I teach basic English conversation. I'm still trying to iron out my lesson plans, but for the lower grade I'll probably try and focus on a different question word (who, what, when, where, why, how) for each day and also have a theme for each day. There will probably be a lot of overlap for the second grade class, but I'll try to use more review material from what they have learned this last year as well. If this all sounds very boring to you, then don't worry, I'll probably end up teaching them conversation by having them watch reality dating shows and VH1's The Pick-Up Artist.

Last month, my main co-teacher informed me that the teachers of our school belong to various school clubs and that it was necessary for me to join one as well. I think the choices were something like a movie watching club, a badminton club and a hiking club. I always picture badminton as an outside activity on a summer day with some cool refreshing lemonade, and since it is winter I couldn't choose this club. So I ended up going with the hiking club. I went on my first hike with the club a couple of weeks later. We went to the park near the reservoir outside of the town. It wasn't really as much of a hike as it was a casual stroll through a park. I had actually already been to the park during my first week here when I was exploring my surroundings. Here's a couple pictures from then:



It's a small park for a hike as a loop around it is probably a kilometer. There's also a center for learning more about the wildlife that we visited. Inside, I learned about how nice the reservoir will look in the spring when the flowers bloom. There was also a room with pictures of birds that frequent the area, and some of the pictures had a button underneath that you could press to hear the bird call. I impressed the other members of the hiking club by cupping my hands to my mouth and blowing into them to imitate the bird calls. Near the center there was a little zoo/shack that housed various exotic animals. The other hikers weren't feeling adventurous and didn't want to go look at it, but when I went before I saw some pigeons, ducks, seagulls, rabbits and turkeys.

I enjoyed talking with all of the teachers, but the best part of the hiking club was learning that one of the teachers, Yeong Ki Bi (영긔비, which turns out to be a joke name because it is the name of a past beautiful Chinese empress; kind of like the Cleopatra of the far East), is in a real hiking club that travels to national parks and hikes the mountains there on the weekends. She said that I was welcome to join her and her husband with the club at anytime. The next week I asked her how her hiking trip with her club was, and I think she got confused and thought I wanted to go with them that upcoming weekend. Rather than try and sort out what I was asking, I ended up agreeing to go hiking.

I woke up early that next Saturday morning (blasphemy) and met Yeong Ki Bi and her husband at my school. They drove me to Suwon, the nearby city where they live and where the hiking club is based. The hiking club rents their own private bus for their hikes since there are about 50 people that go every weekend. It was a three hour bus ride south to Byeonsanbando (변산반도) National Park. I slept for most of the way, but woke up near the end and talked with the lady sitting next to me. She taught me some of the Korean language and showed me where we were going in my guide book.


Here's where we started. Our leader pointed his fancy hiking stick at the map and I assume he explained where we would be going. His tone was serious, but also inspiring. I felt like we were about to march out and fight the North.

We hiked past a temple, through a small gorge and by a 30m waterfall. After about 30 minutes we took a break and some pictures. We were at a big rock face and there was another hiking club drinking beer and having their break too.


Here I am with Yeong Ki Bi and her husband. I dressed for very cold weather and if you watch the slideshow of pictures at the end of this post you'll see how I'm wearing progressively less clothing until I'm finally naked and one with nature. Koreans all wear very fancy hiking clothes and carry the hiking poles. Yeong Ki Bi's husband gave me one to use. I told him how we just use sticks back home, but he didn't like the sound of that.

We hiked for a while longer until we got to the top of a small mountain. It was time for lunch, and I came prepared with kimbap, which is like Korean sushi. I learned that our hiking lunch was communal, which was nice because people shared their hot soups with me. Yeong Ki Bi's husband was disappointed that I did not bring any kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), which is a necessity with every meal here. I felt awful and I hope to someday redeem myself and earn his respect. Seriously though, he's a cool guy that likes to joke around and is very friendly.


At the end of our hike was an old Buddhist temple. I really like how there are so many old relics and places in Korea. It makes the hikes really interesting and rewarding. In this picture, you can see some people in the upper right-hand corner, whom are drinking some special water. My head is blocking the orediden(sp?) or old tree, which has sort of significance that I can't remember.

That was the end of our hiking, but not the end of the day. We only hiked for about 3-4 hours, which didn't seem too long since the bus ride was nearly the same amount of time. We ended up going to a nearby town on the beach. A guy in our hiking club bought some raw oysters on the beach, and we all ate them and drank soju, a rice liquor. Someone also bought and shared some small hermit-crab-like seashells that were steamed. You have to suck the little guys out, and it was worth it as they were pretty good, but I might be biased since I love seafood. One of the guys was being nice and held out his hand for us to put our empty shells for easy disposable. The other hikers pointed at him and said something in Korean, which I'm assuming was a joke about him collecting the shells since they all laughed. I asked/mimed if he was making a necklace out of them and they thought that was funny too.

The club was really prepared, they brought a big gas tank, burner and huge pot with soup in it. They made an ahmu (fish noodle) soup and a ramen soup. They brought out a big case of soju and there was this little lady in a pink hat that went around filling up everyone's dixie cup and getting hers filled in return (in Korean culture you never pour yourself a drink). It was a really fun and cheerful way to end the day. I had a really good time hiking and meeting the members of the club. They were all very friendly and kept wanting to get their picture taken with me during the hike. They would speak as much English as they could with me and I would reciprocate as best as I could with my limited Korean. I'll definitely be going with them again, so expect some more pictures of the Korean land in the future.