Here, There and Everywhere

Conceptless

2008-11-19T19:46:00.004+09:00

One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much recently is that blogger is blocked at my school, so it’s impossible to post during the hours I’m normally sitting in front of a computer. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog (never posted) about how we had once again come to the magical time in Korea when the windows are open. Windows here are opened in the fall - in the cold -for the fresh air. It’s an odd feeling to walk into a room on a chilly fall day to find the windows open and your coworkers wearing their coats and using their space heaters. It’s odder when they complain about how cold it is after opening the windows. If ever there was an argument against Darwin’s natural selection, I think this might be it. Currently it’s -5 Celsius, and both Paul and I are sitting with windows open; my school has fortunately turned on the heat, his has not.

Yesterday, in class, some students asked about the word “conceptless,” which they had heard on Korean television. They said that they had looked it up, but couldn’t find it in their dictionary. My coteacher wrote it on the board and asked me about it. I said I didn’t think it was a real word, but if it was, it could only be used to describe things, such as books or movies, rather than people; I volunteered the word clueless instead.

When we returned to our office, I looked up the word online. It wasn’t on Merriam-Webster’s website, or dictionary.com; when I googled the word, nothing came up. My coworker, using a Korean search engine, managed to find some philosophy papers that used the word conceptless. I attempted to explain that once you were a philosopher, you had to make words up to describe things, but that since it wasn’t in the dictionary, it still wasn’t a word. She argued that Koreans could make up the word, then, since it was a direct translation of a word they use. “A concept,” she argued, “is a general idea, like ‘we need food to live.’”

“A concept is really just an idea.”

“No, it says here it’s a general idea, so that’s something everyone knows like how to behave.’”

“General idea really just means an idea, not something everyone shares.”

“No, the Korean word is _______, and we translate that as concept, so conceptless is a person who doesn’t behave properly.”

Eventually, I just dropped it. I'm in Korea, she's older than I am, there's no telling her she's wrong. I bit my tongue, and went on to the next thing.

365 Days

2008-11-03T20:19:00.000+09:00

It’s been a while since we’ve written – for a variety of reasons. When last we wrote, our appliances had been removed and replaced, and I had flown to America to get my E2 visa documents. As most of you already know, I was in America for a month, visiting my family and shopping for supplies. I returned to our town on the 9th of October and started work the next morning. It seems as though I’ve been back for months and months, but I’ve really just barely passed the three-week mark.

Just before I left in September, I signed a contract with a new school; I’m now at an elementary school, a thirty-minute bus ride away from our house. It was a lucky find, after we were worried that I wouldn’t have a job this fall. My school and coworkers are kind, interested in me as a person, and interested in working together to teach students; in short, it’s everything that my old school was not.

I can’t say that I’m excited for another winter in Korea or eager for the next however-many-months of teaching at this school. I can say that though last year was miserable at times, I was proud at the end of it – proud that I had worked a full year at a place I had hated without quitting, proud of the money we had saved, proud of all the places we had been. I was the property of that school for 365 days, and I didn’t fold.

One Year Down

2008-09-16T00:34:00.002+09:00

Well it's been an eventful couple of weeks for us. As most of you probably know by now, Meg has been hired at a local Elementary school. The process was a lot more difficult than it should have been, but we're glad to have that behind us now. After over a month of going through recruiters with little to no luck, one of my co-workers finally called a public school that he knew of and they were extremely interested in hiring Meg. The next day we visited the school and had a meeting with the Principal, the VP and one of the English teachers. After a nice thirty minute conversation, they were quite eager to offer Meg the job (and we were equally eager to accept it). It made for a very happy weekend.

Unfortunately, that happiness didn't last too long. On the following Monday I was denied my renewal visa. My school didn't have me prepare the proper documents (they told me that I didn't need a criminal check since I had done one the previous year and hadn't been back to Canada...they were wrong). So now I have a month to get the criminal check done and sent to me over here. I should be fine, but I'll be much happier when I have my actual visa renewed.

Later that night at a farewell dinner, Meg's school informed her that they would be taking back all the furniture they had provided for us in our apartment. We had no idea what they had provided, but it turned out to be quite a lot. They apparently bought us the fridge, TV, washing machine, toaster oven, stove, ricer cooker, microwave, fan and iron. They were nice enough to give us 2 days notice.

We celebrated our one year mark in Korea with a box of delivery chicken while drinking warm Coke and watching TV on my laptop in our bare apartment. It wasn't quite the event we had hoped for. It did feel nice to have made it however. There were days where I think both of us weren't so sure we would.

After some mad scrambling my school managed to replace the items taken by Meg's former school on Friday (so we only went without them for the one day). Sadly, we now have a tiny fridge. I'm still trying to decide what to do about that. We might try and buy another ourselves, or just live with it for the next 6 months. It's quite small though.

On Saturday morning Meg flew back to the USA. After about 20 hours she arrived in Vermont and will be there for the next few days. From there she'll head down to Philadelphia to visit her sister's family (and her new nephew) before getting to Nashville sometime around Sept. 24th. If things go according to plan she'll fly back to Korea between Oct. 1st and 5th. I'm sure she'll really enjoy her time back home. I know she's missed seeing grass, fields and trees. She'll probably also enjoy breathing properly again as the air quality in Korea (at least the area we live in near Seoul) is quite poor.

As for myself, I've managed to kill most of my Korean Thanksgiving holiday watching TV and staying inside. The traffic is a nightmare and it takes about twice as long to get anywhere (and lots of things are closed anyways) so I've decided to just rest. It's been nice after the crazy few weeks we've had. Even after the few days of rest I've had, I still feel pretty beat. Hopefully, Meg's faring better back home.

Our Climb in Photos (Part 3)

2008-09-09T19:02:00.003+09:00

This photo is slightly out of order, but I wanted it at the top because it's my favourite of the collection. I really like the sky behind Meg as she climbs the final stretch of the mountain. I think it's also pretty cool that you can see the clouds below her.

Here's a sign by where we spent the night. I probably should have included it with the sunrise photos I posted earlier.

Here we are at the top. We finally made it. I think Meg looks happy and I just look plain tired. It's not my favourite photo ever, but all I cared about at this point was getting a photo and then getting down the mountain and to our hotel.

Here's a torii at the top. I thought it looked pretty cool with the clouds. I really like toriis too.

Here's another photo I really like of Meg at the top. Again, I love the sky behind her and the clouds below her. I'm glad we have a few really great photos of her at the top. Nothing that can compare to my one with Raj in the pouring rain...but close.

We've got lots of news and crazy stories from the last week that we'll start posting again soon. Meg has a job and we're very excited about that. She's also on her way back to the US for a couple of weeks on Saturday. I'll be holding the fort here and trying to keep people from stealing our appliances (you probably think I'm joking...).

Our Climb in Photos (Part 2)

2008-09-07T13:20:00.004+09:00

This is the room where we spent the night (almost typed "slept" but that seems like a bit of a stretch). At the time however, we were thrilled to find somewhere to sleep at all. It was midnight and we had spent the morning touring around Tokyo (seeing the infamous Harajuku girls) before spending 3 hours on trains to get to the base of the mountain and then another hour on a bus to the starting point of our hike. It had definitely been a long day.

I managed to grab about 2 hours of sleep in this crammed room and I think Meg got about 3 and half. I didn't really fit as my legs were too long and when fully extended would knock into the another person's feet. I couldn't really sleep diagonal either as I was crowded on both sides. I think about 14 or 16 people slept in this tiny room (you can see 12 sleeping bags in this photo). Those blue things with the ziploc bags around them were our pillows and they were not at all comfortable.

We got up at 4am so we could see the sunrise and finish our climb to the top. Below is the start of the sunrise. Meg wasn't overly impressed with it, I think she was just too tired and exhausted to appreciate it.

Here we are with the sunrise behind us. As you can see Meg definitely doesn't look awake yet.

There was a little shrine with Torii where we spent the night.

The sunrise at full force. I enjoyed it myself. Meg was too busy finding her dixie cup of coffee.

And here's Meg with her coffee. She still isn't really with it yet. I think the coffee cost $4 or $5 for the little dixie cup.

Tomorrow I'll add the final set of photos. Our final few hours of climbing and our time at the top.

Our Climb in Photos (Part 1)

2008-09-06T16:20:00.003+09:00

This is a photo of the train we took took Mount Fuji. You can take Japan Rail trains fairly close, but then have to transfer to local trains. In this case the local train was painted with little Mt. Fuji's all over it. I thought it was amusing, fairly typical for Japan, but amusing nonetheless.

As we drove to where the trail starts we couldn't see much of anything and then right before we parked the clouds around Fuji blew away revealing the peak. It was quite a spectacular site and were were quite lucky.

This photo was taken about 5 minutes after the one above and as you can see the peak is already being covered again by clouds.

And 10 seconds later it was virtually gone.

After a brief dinner we started our ascent. By then it was pitch dark. I had trouble framing this photo properly because I couldn't see anything through the viewfinder of my camera and had to force it into taking anything at all.

Unlike my last time climbing Fuji, the weather was fairly desent and so by the time we reached the 7th station (about 2 hours into our hike I beleive) we were still smiling.

I'm pretty sure I was feeling the effects of the hike much more than Meg the first night. She raced up the mountain and had to wait on me a number of times. I think you can start to see my fatigue in the photo below.

A few hours later all the smiles had faded. By the lower 8th station we could start to feel the altitude change starting to affect us. I felt like I was stumbling my way up the mountain at times. As you can see below Meg finally started to show some fatigue. Unfortunately the further you go up the less space there is to rest and so here we were just happy to have a wall to lean against.

For about a half an hour or so I was worried we'd be spending the night like these people in the photo below. Fortunately we managed to find lodging around midnight. Which is good because it was pretty cold by this point and when we woke up around 4am it was absolutely freezing.

Well that's the end of the first set of photos. We'll post more soon of the sunrise and our time at the top.

Mt. Fuji

2008-09-05T07:54:00.004+09:00

Now that the word is out, I suppose most of you want to know about our trip up (and down) Fuji. We didn’t tell anyone we were climbing, because we were a bit worried that I wouldn’t make it up, due to my asthma, so we managed to keep it a secret – even from those of you who asked directly.

We spent the morning with the Harajuku girls in Tokyo, then took a train to the Fuji area and arrived around five. It took us a while to change clothes, repack our backpacks, and get our luggage into a locker for the night. We took a bus from the train station at the bottom of Mt. Fuji to the fifth station, the place where most people begin their hike. It was a bright, sunny, and mostly clear day; when we reached the fifth station, we could actually see the top of the mountain. After taking some ‘before’ pictures, buying some more supplies (like some rain gear – just in case), and a nutritious dinner of overpriced hotdogs, we started our trek around seven thirty in the evening. It was dark, but there were plenty of other hikers, so we managed without our flashlights for the first while.

The beginning of the walk is fairly nice – like walking in a park at night. The moon and stars were bright, and it was refreshing to be able to see the night sky. We could see the trees below, and the stations lit up to the top. We made it to the sixth station (the one that Paul and Raj ‘missed’) in about 45 minutes, and were quite proud of our speedy pace. By then, we were above the tree line, and our path was becoming more ‘up’ than ‘across,’ slowly zig-zagging from one point to the next. At one point, I heard fireworks and looked around and saw them – far, far below us in some small town in the valley.

We stopped at the seventh station a little over an hour later. I got a stamp on my hiking stick, and we ate some of the trail mix we had packed. It was cold enough then for jackets and dark enough for flashlights. Somewhere around the beginning of our hike, Paul had mentioned that there was a part of the trail ‘where you have to use your hands.’ (Strangely, after reading on Mt. Fuji and talking about the trip for six weeks, this had never really come up.) This part came after the seventh station: the path became less like walking uphill and more like climbing – finding your footing and keeping your balance.

It was kind of fun – like climbing up a big rock – having to think about where to put your feet and hands. But with the atmospheric changes, combined with tiredness, it felt a bit more like shuffling blindly than boldly climbing. Armed with the better flashlight and walking stick, I left Paul in the dust. It was a nice feeling. After all, I’m the one who works out, so it’s only fair that I could win some race.

Somewhere in the enormous distance between the seventh and eighth station, we were suddenly joined by several large groups of tourists. We knew that this would likely happen on some part of our trip, but it was amazing how they seemed to come from nowhere. The path became crowded and annoying. Waiting for Paul at the lower eighth station, I saw a group of people sitting outside, all cozied up in their sleeping bags. We had planned to sleep for a few hours in one of the huts on the mountain, but hadn’t planned to sleep outside in the cold mountain air. Paul remarked that we may have to join those sleeping outside, should the tour groups take up all the sleeping space in the huts. I laughed – and then went to work passing them on our way up the mountain, determined to have a roof over my head for a few hours that night.

At 11:30, we asked for beds at a hut, but they were all full. We raced along to the next station and got a bed around midnight. Perhaps bed is a generous term – we got two sleeping bags in a room with twenty-five sleeping bags, and two rock-like pillows covered in Ziploc bags. It wasn’t the best sleep either of us had had. I felt like I was sleeping on the side of a mountain – far, far away from land and flat places. It’s a strange sensation to feel altitude while you’re lying down.

We awoke at four to see the sunrise. Sunrise from the top of Mt. Fuji is supposed to be magnificent – the reason why everyone climbs at night. We had seen some fantastic sunrise pictures on the internet, but, I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed at the sunrise. It was nice, but it wasn’t as breathtaking as I had imagined. Of course, that could be because of the very minimal amount of sleep I had had, the $4 Dixie Cup of coffee I was drinking, combined with the cold, cold wind, and the knowledge that we hadn’t yet reached the top.

We set out around five, and I felt sick almost immediately. The height of the mountain made the walk difficult for everyone around us. We would manage walking for about two minutes before a rest. Our pace slowed quite a bit from the night before. I never thought we’d get to the top. The sun was shining very brightly, and we could see quite a distance from where we were standing. The mountain itself was an earthy red color.

After three and a half hours of morning hiking, we finally made it to the top, which is made up of a little village of restaurants and souvenir shops. We went in to a restaurant, and I collapsed. Paul ordered and ate his lunch while I was sleeping. Eventually, I woke up, ate lunch, and wrote postcards. Revived, we wandered over to the post office, stopping to look into the crater on our way. Eventually, after mailing our postcards and taking many pictures, we were ready for our descent.

Ready perhaps isn’t the best word to describe our feelings. It might be better to say that we knew it was time to go down, we knew that if we didn’t leave, we wouldn’t make it to our hotel at a decent time. From the top of the mountain, the path zig-zags slowly down; you can see how dreadfully far it is. This was the worst part. The loose, rocky dirt was hard to walk on – it was far more difficult to find a grip with our legs and feet on this path than the one the night before – like sloshing through dirt, the same sort of inertia that comes when walking through a big slushy snowfall. After one zig, Paul had blisters, and I was ready to quit. “I can’t do this,” I told him, as though I hoped he would say, “why don’t we just wait for the elevator.” But there was no elevator, and we couldn’t stay forever on the mountain. The soles on my shoes were so worn and my legs so tired that I kept a snails pace. It was warm – the sun is so close up there, so bright – you feel… exposed. I felt miserable. Looking down and seeing the path, it felt like it would be forever before we got down. People passed us – people with hiking shoes, people without hiking shoes, people with children. An entire little-league baseball team passed us, and I still couldn’t pick up my pace, or believe any harder that I would ever get to the bottom of the mountain. Paul chose this point to ask if I was proud of what I had done and happy that we had done it. I informed him that I was certainly not proud or happy – I was miserable and regretting that I had let him talk me in to such nonsense. We didn’t talk much after that.

Eventually, the end was in sight (at least for Paul, that is, I don’t think I believed we would finish until we actually did). A bus was coming in forty-five minutes, and we decided to race the rest of the way back to the fifth station. We didn’t run – I can’t even really describe it as moving quickly – but we moved with purpose through the crowds of people at the beginning of their climb. I felt bad for them. Paul ran (that is, he moved quicker than I did) back to the station to buy tickets – the bus took off two minutes after I got to the station, five hours after we had started our descent. I have never been so filthy in my life. My hair, which I had kept under my hat the whole time we were on the mountain, was nothing but a mass of tangles, and when I finally took off my shoes in the train station restroom, out came my own little mountain of dirt.

About My Job - Before We Post About Japan

2008-08-26T14:58:00.003+09:00

It’s been several weeks since we’ve posted to our blog. There are several reasons for that: we went to Japan for ten days; when we came home, we were confronted not only with work, but my still uncertain job situation. While we’ve been going through our vacation pictures, we’ve also been going through a panic over our housing and work situation for the fall. It’s a rather complex story, but the short form is: we’re keeping our apartment, Paul is staying at his school, and I am frantically searching for a job. We are 17 days shy of being here a full year – and both looking forward to celebrating the 365 mark. I’ll be heading home for a few weeks in September to renew my visa, and Paul will be staying in Korea to work.

It’s sort of a strange feeling. On the one hand, I am terribly disheartened by my job situation. We’ve known since June that I didn’t have a job for the fall; we’ve talked to numerous recruiters, and had a few offers. We perhaps should have taken a job that was a bit further away, but we decided we could find something closer to our apartment. I accepted an offer on a job, and the recruiter never emailed me back, so I lost that job, as well as a second-best offer that came in from another recruiter. And thus, after two months of searching, I am two weeks away from unemployment. I am frustrated with a system of recruiters and contractors that doesn’t seem to work, I am frustrated at the lies I’ve been given while searching, and I’m frustrated that no one seems to want me, even though I’m qualified.

But at the same time that all that turmoil is going on – I have only twelve teaching days left at my school – and that is a fabulous feeling. I have really, honestly not enjoyed teaching at this school. There have been times, of course: my after-school classes and summer courses have been fun – I’ve had the freedom to teach and play games, I’ve been able to form relationships with the students. But, most days here, I go to classes, and function as a sort of monkey – saying words for the kids to repeat, defining things as my coworker sees fit, and doing little else. I’m thrilled to be leaving and every class I teach, I know I’m that much closer to leaving this school and going home. Hooray.

I know that many of you are praying for us and thinking about us while we're trying to sort all of this out. Thank you so much. We'll let you know what happens.

"My Summer Vacation"

2008-07-31T10:26:00.003+09:00

A few weeks ago, my school published its first English newsletter, with articles written by my evil coworker, some students, and the rest put together by the foreign teacher (that’s me). One student wrote an article describing his best friends, one wrote about global warming (we were in the middle of a pretty dreadful heat wave), and one of my best students wrote about her plans for summer vacation. Instead of talking about the beach, or sleeping in, or trips to see family, she talked about vacation homework. And really, for many of our students, summer vacation is more a time to study than to camp.

During my summer vacation, I’ll be teaching three weeks of summer camp. These two weeks, I have four classes every day – two with a group of seventh graders, two with eighth graders. When we return from Japan, I have another week of camp – four hours a day with the same group of seventh graders.

In winter camp, many of my students were students who had been in my after-school classes during the year. Some were A students, most got B’s, but we managed English-in-English classes together fairly well. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found that most of my students this vacation were C or lower level students. I have kids signed up for these classes who can’t read, write, hear, or speak English. (In the Korean school system, no child is left behind – they pass from grade to grade as long as they keep the seats warm.) It was a mind-boggling first few days, trying to imagine how to teach the students who couldn’t understand anything I said to them.

The seventh graders, though overwhelmed the first day, managed an attempt at understanding. We’ve had relatively good classes since then, with worksheets and games. My eighth graders, though, have been a bit more trouble. They seem to go in and out of class – some coming only for the first period, others coming only for the second period, so there’s no consistency between the classes. Usually, I do the learning and worksheet for the first period, then the game second period, but the game doesn’t work so well when the students haven’t done the learning. Games also don’t work so well when only three or four students come; or, not the large-group games I had planned for my fifteen-student classes. Yesterday, I had four students come to my eighth grade class. One can’t read or speak, one was a C-level student who was rather sick, and two were A level students who refused to talk. (There is no sense of ‘speak when you’re spoken to’ in the Korean education system. When there are 40 kids in the class, someone else will always answer the question.) I attempted 20 questions with this group, since its an easy game that most English students here can play. Getting them to ask questions was like pulling teeth. It was a dreadful class.

I’ve been wondering what the purpose of summer camp is – or, perhaps more poignantly: why would any parent sign their child up for an English-in-English class when the child can’t read or speak? Why would my school allow parents to do that? It’s yet another one of those quirky things about the Korean education system that I will never quite understand. If we put our kids in a room with a foreigner for two hours a day, they’ll come out speaking fluent English. Learning through osmosis. So, I have them memorizing the Gettysburg Address. That should have them writing something more interesting for their essays in the fall.

A Brief Update

2008-07-20T17:15:00.004+09:00

There hasn't been much to write about lately. It's been pretty hot recently so we've taken to staying indoors. The humidity is disgusting and even when it's cloudy I find my clothes completely soaked with sweat by the time I walk home from school (about 25 minutes). Similar to Nashville, the nights aren't much better than the days.

Our school term has ended (well mine ends on Tuesday) and so we both will be teaching a Summer camp for the next couple of weeks. Our reward will be another two weeks in Japan. Unfortunately, the heat in Japan won't be much better (at least down in the Kyoto area where we'll be spending a good deal of time).

I've been organizing my photos again, and I wasn't sure if we ever posted any from Vietnam (I think I only put up our Angkor photos from that trip). While Angkor Wat was definitely the highlight of the trip (and probably our year here - for me at least), Meg and I preferred Vietnam to Cambodia and Thailand. We'd both love to go back and spend more time there.

A flower in front of a temple gate.

Ho Chi Minh's Palace in Ha Noi.

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum

A man sits in his boat at Hoi An harbour.

Hoi An harbour.

Torn Vietnamese flags in the harbour at Hoi An.

There were propaganda poster all over Vietnam that Meg and I thought were pretty cool.

An HIV poster in Hue.

Culture Tips

2008-07-11T16:01:00.003+09:00

These are 33 tips on adjusting to Korean culture, from our board of education. The Gyeonggi Board of Education employs over a thousand native English teachers. You would have thought they could have gotten one of them to read the list over before posting it.

(Click on the tips to see them a bit larger and more clearly)

My personal favourites are:

2. People are usually kind, but sometimes not to Africans and South-east Asians.
10. Schedules and plans are often subject to change. (This is perhaps the understatement of the year)
11. You may be insisted to drink alcohol beyond your capacity.
31. When you drink alcohol with seniors or elder persons, you'd better turn your head around.
32. There are rarely polite "excuse me's" when people bump into you on the street. (Very true. We get bumped into a lot and maybe once or twice someone has acknowledged it)
33. Koreans sometimes say yes when they are confused in speaking English. (I suspect the root of some of our problems).

Into the Belly of the Beast

2008-07-07T21:33:00.004+09:00

Well we finally found our way over to the protests on Sunday afternoon/evening. There wasn't a huge gathering (though on Saturday night police estimated 50,000 people - organizers estimated 500,000). Of course the numbers might have been hampered by the buses and police blocking entrance (or exit) from the park. We actually had to squeeze between riot police to get out (while angry Koreans trying to get in yelled at them). It was an interesting experience.

Riot gear being prepared for the night.

Riot police wait for nightfall.

Some graffiti on the wall.

The protests are actually candlelight vigils. Someone put one of theirs in the ground.

Parents even bring their kids to the events. Not sure I'd bring mine....

The protesters start to gather as night begins to fall.

A man argues with the police. Another man was running around without a shirt yelling at the police. This is when we decided to make our exit. Tensions were definitely running high when we left, although I read today that only minor scuffles broke out.

Confucianism & The Ajumma

2008-07-03T14:09:00.004+09:00

In Korea, Confucianism is still a fundamental part of Korean society. One of the bases of Confucianism has to do with the relationship between young and old. While we are taught to respect our elders in the West, this idea is taken to a whole new level in the East. Any age difference can be a stumbling block between people.

I teach a Special English class that has kids from grade 3,4,5 and 6 in it. My students will always sit in groups with other kids their age (even if they are a different gender) rather than sit with someone of a different age. Sometimes they'll converse with the students from the grade directly above or below them, but even that can be rare. Whenever I try and make teams for us to play a game the kids will refuse to be grouped with kids of a differing age, even if it means losing. Last semester I tried to operate on a 2 team basis and every week I fought with my kids over the teams and every week they'd refuse to play until the two teams were Grade 3 & 4 vs Grade 5 & 6. I'd tell the younger kids every week that they'd lose. This didn't phase them at all. They'd rather lose by a wide margin then break their social norms (and it's hard to blame them if that's the way they've been raised). By the way, this system doesn't only apply to children. We've been told that adults of differing ages can't be friends either. Someone we know here was told they couldn't be friends with someone because they were 30 and she was only 27.

A more annoying byproduct of the Confucius system is the Ajumma. Ajumma means, literally, "woman old enough to be married." Although the term usually isn't applied to women until they are in their mid to late 30's or early 40's. Ajumma's basically exist above the culture. They can pretty much do whatever they like and nobody will say anything to them. It can be maddening at times.

They walk three across on a street and don't move to let you pass. They push you out of the way to get to a seat on the subway. They get in the elevator and push "door close" so that they don't have to ride the elevator with you. And most commonly, they push past you in line at the grocery store (or any store for that matter) and check-out no matter how many people are standing in line.

The Foreigners here generally find Ajummas to be particularly annoying, yet since it's deeply rooted in the Korean culture, nobody else blinks an eye at their actions. It's quite interesting (and usually frustrating) to watch and experience firsthand.

The reason I'm writing this blog on Ajummas is because Meg sent me a youtube video earlier today that made me laugh and I thought most of you would enjoy it too. It's from a Korean wedding ceremony (it starts a little slow but is definitely worth the pay off).

The Violence Continues

2008-07-01T13:57:00.001+09:00

It sounds like the protests are actually being reported internationally now. Which, in a way, is nice to hear. I wasn’t sure anyone back home would ever really believe our stories about the violent outbreaks in the streets of Seoul.

The protests are actually occurring in the nicer part of Seoul. An area where we spent a fair bit of time in during our first few months over here (The Anglican church we sometimes attend is actually just a block or two down the road). I’ve thought about going a few times to take some photos. I’m not sure if this is a great idea…

I’m curious as to how the protests are affecting tourism. I read that Seoul had launched a campaign to try and attract visitors to the Beijing Olympics either on their way to China or on their way back from China. With the protests occurring in front of the country’s most popular Palace and down the street from two others, they can’t be helping. I’m glad my parents came when they did. If they had come in May or June we might have had to skip visiting the historic (and in my opinion the most interesting) part of Seoul.

It seems that misinformation what has caused most of the problems. I’ve read things in the newspapers that seemed to have no basis in fact and yet it was presented as if it was definitive. I’ve read things ranging from “Koreans are much more susceptible to Mad Cow Disease than Americans” to “Americans don’t eat American beef. They export their beef to other countries and import all the beef they eat from Venezuela.”

I read last week that the President (who was elected last December and took office in February) has an approval rating of under 10%. Korean Presidents are limited to 1 five year term. I can’t imagine how little he’ll ever get anything done over his next 4 ¾ years.

With the Beef deal renegotiated last week, it’s hard to argue that the riots aren’t simply pure Anti-Americanism. Korea definitely hasn’t been our favourite place, but it kind of sinks to a new low when there are open protests against your country on a daily basis for over two months. Especially when they escalate to the levels they have these past few weeks. Every Monday I come into work and read in the newspaper about the hundred or so people injured in the protests. There’s usually a video or two that I can watch as well. It’s hard to believe that these actions are taking place in a city and area we’ve frequently visited.

Interesting Statistics
I’ve read some interesting stats in the newspaper the last few weeks. It’s helped me understand the country and how and why the people here haven’t always treated us the best. I think some of you might find the following statistics to be interesting:

Middle School Students
“In the latest poll, 57.1 percent of the secondary school students cited the U.S. or Japan as countries that threaten our national security most. Only 24.5 percent named North Korea. Despite the fact that 54,000-odd Americans were killed in the Korean War, young people are as hostile to the U.S. as they are to North Korea.”

High School Students
“About 14 percent picked Japan as the nation responsible for the Korean war; 13.4 percent, the United States, and 11 percent Russia.”

“28 percent said the United States was the key ``threat'' for national security, 4 percentage points higher than North Korea.”

Military Academy Students
“It is no coincidence that when Korea Military Academy freshmen were asked in 2004 which country their nation’s main enemy is, 34 percent named America and 33 percent North Korea.”

Eat the Dog - A Few English Mishaps

2008-06-27T10:27:00.002+09:00

Much to what I can only imagine will be my grandmother’s horror, this week my textbooks taught both, “Sora is taller than me,” and “Do you get it? Yes, I got it.” It also gave a picture of a killer whale with the name ‘dolphin’ underneath. On top of that, my co-teacher attempted to teach the students such gems as, “Let’s go reading, Let’s go studying,” and “I’ll be second that.” Needless to say, I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated.

As a native speaker, my job is supposed to be to point out these problems, but sometimes that simply doesn’t work. I attempted to teach what “I’ll second that” means; but since my coworker had never heard of our meeting process before, she decided that it meant “I’ll be second to do that,” or “I’ll be second that.” Everyone was uncomfortable that I thought it had something to do with a process, that I thought ‘second’ was being used as a verb. Dumb foreigner. And to correct a book’s mistake about a dolphin or comparative statements is uncomfortable, too. I could tell them it was a killer whale, but I’m afraid I didn’t try going against “I got it,” or “Sora is taller than me.”

And there are other things I really shouldn’t try teaching. Like science or certain Western ‘beliefs’. Last week in our textbooks, there was a conversation between Tony and Sudong. Sudong had been in California, and he had grown a lot in the year that he had been away from Korea. Tony comments on this, and Sudong replies, “I did a lot of exercise.” Since the question for this section was in Korean, and my Korean teacher was out of the room (the crazy one), I did my best to talk to the students about the discrepancy between Tony’s observation and Sudong’s reply.

“Does exercise make you taller?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Come on, now, we all know exercise doesn’t make you taller.”
“Basketball.”
“Basketball doesn’t make you taller.”
“Swimming.”
“No, swimming won’t make you taller, either.”
“Korean people, Canada people – different.”
“No, all humans are the same.”

About this time, my co-teacher came back to the room. One of the students explained the problem to her in Korean. She replied, in Korean, “American’s don’t believe exercise will make you taller,” then, had them translate to me, “Koreans believe that exercise will make you taller.” Everyone in the room was amazed at how dumb the foreign teacher was.

I think, though, that Paul had one of the best misunderstandings with his co-teacher recently, and not in a classroom. We were taking care of our friends’ dog; at lunchtime one day, Paul told his co-teacher that he had to go home at lunchtime to feed the dog, to which his co-teacher replied, “You’re going home to eat the dog?”

A New Gow and a New Problem

2008-06-17T13:24:00.004+09:00

We got a message from my oldest nephew, Ben, Sunday night on the Wii. He said they were going to the hospital that day. I called my mom and she told me that Sarah was having contractions and they were all getting ready to go to the hospital. I woke up early Monday morning to call again, and by that time (about five Sunday night), Sarah had already had the baby and a fairly easy time, from what they could tell (my mom had seen the baby, but hadn’t seen Sarah yet). He’s 7lbs 5oz and Evan Patrick Farrell Gow (I’m not sure if his last name is hyphenated or not). Brad was elated that the baby came on Father’s Day.

In other news, my coteacher came to me on Friday. She asked when I was taking my vacation this summer, so that they could schedule the dates of my summer camp. That’s when I found out the dates for summer vacation. I mentioned that if I re-signed my contract with the school, I would get two weeks to go home during summer vacation. She said she would look at my contract and talk to the principals.

On Monday, she came to me with a copy of my contract with the part underlined that we had talked about. She brought it to my attention that only if I renew would I be able to have a two week holiday home. I said I was aware, that that was what I was talking about. She seemed a bit confused, but said she would talk to the principal. She returned an hour later to tell me that the principal did not want to renew my contract.

I can’t tell you how strange this is. Most schools will keep any foreign teacher they can, since we’re in high demand over here. Since our conversation yesterday, she has asked a few times if Paul was staying, if I understood what she was saying, and if I was planning on staying in Korea. I think one of three things happened:

1. My co-teacher and I have a rocky relationship. She can’t co-teach with me in class because her English is not good enough. At least once every class I have to correct something she says. Also, I have not hidden my anger over ‘mistakes’ such as the school holiday last week; so, she has recommended to the principals that they find a new foreign teacher.

2. This spring, my school asked me to teach more extra classes than allowed for in my contract. I refused because it was too much, especially when they have refused to provide me with materials (though they have a budget for it). Saying ‘no’ to a superior is unheard of in Korea.

3. My coteacher did not understand me when I said I’d like to re-sign the contract. Re-sign and resign are very, very similar words; and though she should have understood from the other things I said (‘I’d like to stay” and “I get two weeks at home”), she may not have. Again, as part of Korean culture, she cannot admit a mistake like that to me or to the principals.

This leaves Paul and me with three options:

1. He will stay at his school; I will find another school nearby. This is a fairly easy process since there’s a shortage of teachers, and his school will help me find a job (we also have friends who will help).

2. We find jobs in Japan and stay there for six months.

3. We come home for good.

While we figure out what exactly is going on, this is what I can tell you: Since my school will not renew my contract, I will not be permitted to return home this summer.

I have to say, I'm not sad to have only a few weeks remaining with my co-teacher that I do not like. She's been more than a thorn in my flesh these last nine months, and the prospect of leaving her makes me rather happy. However, it does leave Paul and me with some rather difficult decisions. We'll keep you posted as we know more.

Cloud Nine?

2008-06-13T14:32:00.003+09:00

Nine months. That’s how long we’ve been here for now. While it seems like ages in some regards at the same time it feels like the time has flown by.

Last week I taught with a substitute teacher for the week while my normal coteacher was away. It wasn’t the best of weeks. The kids had very little interest in anything she had to say. Of course this didn’t stop her from talking. In a lot of ways they teach more lecture style in schools here. So the substitute teacher just stood at the front talking and most of the kids turned away and began conversations with themselves. This would happen in each and every class. Thankfully, when it was my turn to teach they’d tune into me. Most likely because I teach them for five minutes and then we spend the rest of class practicing what I taught through various games and if they don’t pay attention to my spiel they know they’re done for when game time starts.

The substitute’s English pronunciation was horrid. It was driving me up the wall all week. She kept adding the Korean ending to everything (They add a –eu or –ee sound to way too many words to count). She would say Breakfast-eu, Lunch-ee (to be fair it was more like Runchee), English-ee, etc… The Japanese would do the same thing, but at least in that situation I could correct them since they were my students and they were small classes. Here I’ve tried and I continue to try, but it’s too hard when your co-teacher can’t get the pronunciation right and the class size is 40+. Her grammar was also awful. At one point she tried asking them if they knew how to spell the word Breakfast (at least I think that’s what she was trying to as) and it came out “Do you remember the spell?”. I’m pretty sure none of my kids or witches or warlocks, although at times I’m not so sure…

This week we were teaching the future tense in class. The main question was “What will you do this summer?” The kids would respond with one of seven possible answers to this question (I will…ride my bike, watch TV, play computer games, read books, play baseball, play soccer, visit my uncle). As a side note, I found it interest that in all my classes the children all knew what “uncle” meant but only one or two kids a class knew the word “aunt”. After the kids watch the movie and I read the dialogue with them my coworker translates it into Korean and explains the meanings and how we use it. In this particular case he talked for a bit and then said “What will you do…tomorrow” the kids answered, then he asked “What will you do on Saturday”, the kids answered and the he asked “What will you do yesterday?” and the kids answered what they did yesterday using the future tense. I just sat at the back of the room contemplating banging my head against the wall.

In other news, I got an email this morning telling me that Meg’s sister Sarah’s water had broken, but that it was a false alarm and the baby likely wouldn’t come for a few more days. Meg had to explain to me that in the real world (and not tv and movie land) that the water breaking doesn’t always mean the baby is mere seconds away from arrival. We’re both a little sad that we can’t be there to meet the newest entry into the Farrell/Gow family, but hopefully it won’t be too long until we find our way to Philadelphia.

The dog we’ve been caring for this week goes back home tomorrow night. I’ll be sad to see him go on one level and extremely happy on another. He’s been a bit of a handful. 5 month-old puppies (bigger than the size of a rat) were not meant to be raised in Korea. Our apartment is fairly large by most standards over here and yet no where near large enough for him. Also, the lack of a backyard is really a pain. Oh and the fact that there’s garbage everywhere. There’s a little field beside out apartment I take him to when he needs to pee and every day I have to pull trash out of his mouth at least a few times per walk. Although it’s an empty grass and rock field people just throw their garbage there. It’s very strange. I’ve actually watched people do it while I’ve been with the dog. They walk out of their apartments and dump a bag or box of trash onto the field. There is a pile of broken plates that I need to keep Brody away from every time we go into the field.

There’s a little company run by an American (I believe) who makes t-shirts for foreigners living and working in Korea. I just got my “I’d rather be in Japan” shirt in the mail last week. Now all I have to do is build up enough courage to wear it out in public here. It is a pretty cool shirt though. Meg wants one too now. Of course some days I suspect she'd probably be happy enough to wear an "I'd rather be in Iraq" shirt.

There have been protests here in Korea over the decision to import US beef for the last 40 days or so. Every night thousands of people attend candle-light vigils near the Blue House (their White house). It's gotten pretty violent on a number of occasions and it has been front page news almost every day. Most people think the protests are more anti-American driven than anti-beef and I suspect they're right. Of course I've been reading up on Korean protests and it seems like they'll protest anything. Apparently there's an average of 11,000 publiuc protests a year in Korea and the average riot police officer will have to deal with 85 a year. Definitely not a job I'd want to do.

There's an interesting article on Korean protests. It's worth a read if you have the time. Though it is mildly disturbing:

The Exciting World of Korean Protests

There's also an article on the crazy ice cream flavours of Japan. For example, Octopus flavoured, Horse flesh, shark fin, tomato, garlic, etc... I can verify that these are true flavours and not made up as I saw some of them with my own eyes and read about them in the Japanese paper when I lived there:

Japanese Ice Cream Flavours

We're Still Here

2008-06-07T14:12:00.004+09:00

It's been a few weeks since we've posted anything, but I assure you we're still in Korea. I can tell by the smell coming in my window. It's gotten warm here and some of the smells that went away in the winter seem to have come back. Of course we also have a dog staying with us for the week so maybe it's him.

For those of you scratching your heads and wondering how we could possibly have a dog, I'll give you the Colesnotes version: our friends decided that Korea would be a good place to raise a puppy and so they bought a 3 month old Pointer a couple of months ago. They're back in Buffalo for ten days to attend a wedding and we volunteered to take care of Brody for duration of their trip. He's very cute and very full of energy.

We got an air conditioner last weekend. The process is a little bit more complex than it is back home. It cost us $500 and took a workman two and a half hours to install. He drilled through two concrete walls and now we have a massive A/C unit in our bedroom that can cool the whole apartment if we crank it up. We haven't actually used it yet and are hoping to survive with just our fan until July, but we might not make it. The summers here are supposed to be miserably hot. Although I read it was 33 degrees in Toronto today, but it felt like 41 with the humidity, so maybe we're on the right side of the ocean this weekend.

Meg showed up for work on Thursday to find only two cars in the school parking lot. She was greeted with the news that there were no classes today when she went to inquire as to where everyone was. She then went to her office wondering why nobody had told her she didn't have class. An couple of hours later her coworker called to tell Meg she wasn't supposed to come in today. Apparently the Vice Principal (one of only 4 people in the school) had seen Meg and was curious as to why she was in and so she called Meg's co-teacher. Meg's co-teacher, Yu Mi, told Meg that it was on the schedule that it was the school's birthday and there was no school today. So Meg pulled out the schedule they'd given her and comment to Yu Mi that the schedule they had given her said no such thing. So then Yu Mi told Meg that she had called us three time to tell us. Since we have call display on our phone, and our phone had not rung the previous night or in the morning, Meg found that a little hard to believe as well. In the end Meg left school around 11:30 and went home. Having gotten up at 6am to walk the dog and spent almost half a day at work because nobody had bothered to tell her Thursday was a holiday for her school. Needless to say, it wasn't the best day "off".

I had a substitute teacher this week because my co-teacher was in New Zealand on a school trip. I'm very happy the week is over, as the kids could care less about anything that came out of the substitute teacher's mouth. Which is probably a good thing since she kept saying things like "Lunchee", "Breakfast-eu", and 'Englishee". She also asked the kids if they "remembered the spell?". I think she was asking if they knew how to spell something, not if they were little witches and wizards in training. I felt like my mere presence in the room somewhat validated her horrendous English and thought more than a few times about just leaving. It wasn't the best week.

About a month ago Meg and I went to Buddha's Birthday celebrations in Seoul. We made some lotus lanterns and watched a parade. It was one of our better days here. I just realized I never posted any photos, so here are a few. Meg won a prize for her lantern (you can see her holding it below):

Making our lanterns

Holding our completed lanterns

Some lanterns hanging at a nearby temple in Seoul

A Buddha float in the parade

Another float

English Conversation Lessons

2008-05-23T09:57:00.002+09:00

A few weeks ago, Paul posted some of the videos he has to teach from. Teaching English conversation from texts not written by native speakers can be quite trying. I thought I might post some of the more stellar conversations I have to teach. My books are a little older than Paul’s, and there seems to be an attempt to make the students more aware of Western literature, including, but not limited to: The Little Matchgirl, The Little Mermaid, the Fox and the Stork, Who Will Bell the Cat, Sherlock Holmes, and the Dog of Flanders (extra points if you know that story). The following is a dialogue between the Princess and the Frog.

Princess: Oh, I dropped the golden ball! What shall I do?

Frog: Cheer up! Don’t cry. I will bring the ball to you.

Princess: Really? How kind you are!

Frog: Then, will you marry me?

Princess: Why not? That’s fine with me.

Apparently, the Princess has nothing better to do than marry the frog, and no standards for a husband higher than 'someone who will find my golden ball'. Why not?

The next conversation is beside a picture of two kids standing in a forest (the children are real, the forest is a drawing). There’s a Korean kid and an American (she’s wearing a USA sweater); they’re looking at a sign written in Korean.

Korean: Watch your step!

American: All right. Look, the flowers are very pretty.

Korean: Oh, don’t pick the flowers.

American: I’m hungry. Let’s make a fire and cook something.

Korean: Don’t make a fire. See the sign here.

Stupid Americans – always wanting to start forest fires. Don’t they learn anything from Smoky the Bear?

This goes well with the reading from the following chapter. In it, an ethnically Korean girl moves back to Korea after living in New York. There’s a picture of her schedule and her American classmates beside a picture of a Korean’s schedule and classmates. The Americans are, of course, dressed very sloppy (it’s a picture from the late 80s, so very strangely sloppy), and standing in a hallway. The Korean students are all sitting at their desks and bent over books. Yumi’s schedule is half taken up with “homeroom” and “lockers” times; most of her classes are covered with the picture. Sudong’s schedule, however, shows all seven classes.

If I took a picture of Korean kids in the classroom, I’d show them standing on their chairs, painting their desks, and punching each other. All of which happens during class time; none of which makes a Korean teacher blink.

Meg's School

2008-05-20T11:55:00.009+09:00

A few weeks ago, my students went on class trips, and I was left behind to hang out in my office. I thought it would be a good time to take some pictures of my school.

This is a fairly standard classroom. Most classes have between thirty-five and forty students. They sit in double rows; most teachers have boys and girls sit side by side in order to decrease talking. I’m not convinced it works to keep them quiet, but it is more convenient for copying homework, or ‘cunning’, as they call it here. It also keeps them closer together, which is nice. I have one class that has the desks a bit more spaced, and the students seem so far away and so close at the same time. It feels strangely crowded and uncomfortable.

In the back are the student’s lockers and a closet with cleaning supplies. The stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers rotate, so each classroom really belongs to the students. Each class has a homeroom teacher who is responsible for a lot of paperwork, decorating the classroom, and making sure that the students clean their room every day (Most schools don’t have a cleaning staff; ours is responsible for the bathrooms and hallways, which, from what I hear, is really nice – apparently leaving 7^th graders in charge of bathroom cleanliness doesn’t work so well.)

Other than what their homeroom teachers dictate, the students have free range over the classroom. I was amazed at first when I saw some of them doodling on their desks – sometimes even with whiteout or permanent marker – and sometimes right in front of teachers – but each desk belongs to the student as well. (Somehow they manage to take any writing off their desks either with an eraser – one that can remove pen, maker and whiteout – or, if the super-eraser fails, they can simply use the sharpy knife they all have in their pencil cases.) I’ve even seen students standing on desks and chairs. Before the beginning of term, all of the returning students came back to the school for an hour one day (in their uniforms) and moved their desk to their new classroom. My coworker explained that they’ll keep their desk for the three years that they’re at this school. Of course, it makes me wonder if they throw out the desks when the students graduate or if they give the new students some really beat-up desks. From what I know about this school, I’m sure they don’t know what they’ll do.

One of my first few days here, my coworker brought me to a classroom full of desks and chairs with a sign outside that said “Language Lab.” She told me that we would use the classroom when the new school year began in March; the school wanted to trade the desks currently in the classroom for new ones. Next door to the Language Lab was a room labeled “Native Speaker.” She explained that I would have my own office in the new year as well.

And so I waited. Three day before classes began, they moved me from the main teachers office downstairs to the room next to the Language Lab. The Native Speaker sign, however, was removed. My coworker told me she would be visiting me often. I think this was to prevent me (or the other teachers in the school) from thinking I was too important.

Two days before classes began, they moved the old desks out of the Language Lab to get ready for the new desks and the new year. This is what it looks like now. Sometimes I use it to practice cartwheels.

Though, I can pretty much do cartwheels in my own office. This is my desk and computer and the blanket I wrap around me when it’s too cold. There’s also a teakettle and piles of worksheets from my extra classes as well as two of the desks that used to be in the other room. I’m not sure what they’re doing there, but I don’t really need the space, as you can see. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that my office is larger than anyone else’s reading this blog and definitely larger than any office I’ll have in the future (about 25x13ft). Too bad there’s no leather couch and rock fountain.

Gyeongju in Photos

2008-05-18T22:02:00.003+09:00

As Meg mentioned earlier, we spent our long weekend last week in Gyeongju. Gyeongju is the ancient capital of Korea and outside of Seoul probably the most interesting place to visit in Korea. We had a really nice weekend (even though everywhere we went was jam packed). I've posted some photos below:

This is at Bulguksa Temple. Bulguksa is the most popular temple in Korea and is home to 7 national treasures. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site. It was probably as crowded as it gets the day we were there. Being the main temple in Korea, many Koreans visited the temple for Buddha's birthday.

The next three photos are of the lanterns that have been at all the Buddhist temples for the past few weeks. I thought they were really neat. They added a lot of colour to the temples.

The final photo is of Seogaktap. It is one of the national treasures of Korea. It's sometimes known as the "shadowless pagoda." It is across from Dabotap, which is another pagoda that is slightly more popular. I might put a photo of it up later, but it was much more crowded and I don't particularly like any of the photos I took of it. Both pagodas were built around 751. Seogaktap is on the back of one of the coins but I forget which one (maybe the 100 won coin).

Our trip to Gyeongju

2008-05-13T16:19:00.001+09:00

Paul and I are returning from work from a three-day weekend. Yesterday, the country celebrated Buddha’s birthday. We decided to take the weekend to do our first bit of real traveling in Korea. Though we’ve been here eight months, we haven’t left our province except to go into Seoul.

One of the best parts of the weekend was simply seeing a different part of Korea. Until now, we’ve been in one of the more population-dense areas; everywhere I look, the mountains and greenery are hidden by massive apartment buildings. But as we drove south, the apartment buildings slowly disappeared. We could see more lush mountains and rice fields.

It was about a six and a half hour trip to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea; the home of the Shilla dynasty. (Six and a half hours for a 150 mile trip.) Yongin is made up completely of rectangular concrete buildings; but Gyeongju actually had more traditional-style buildings. We stayed in a traditional Korean guesthouse where we experienced sleeping on the floor of a very small room. Perhaps not my favorite traditional Korean experience; though it’s something to laugh about. (We took pictures, of course.)

We spent Saturday wandering around the tombs of ancient Kings; tombs that look a lot like the burial grounds in southern Ohio, but perhaps a little nicer, and a lot older. We saw one of the oldest astronomical observatories in Asia (which looked suspiciously like the kilns in East Liverpool). And we saw the forest where the first Kim was found in a gold chest with a rooster crowing over him.

Sunday, we went to Bulguk temple where we saw some the oldest pagodas in Korea and a gold anteater. After a quick look at the temple, we hiked the mountain to a grotto to a Buddha statue from the 700s – definitely the best-preserved thing we’ve seen in the country.

Though we had intended to stay until Monday afternoon, the trains were sold out. We had to buy tickets for the last train Sunday; we boarded the train at 10:00 and got home at 3:30 after a rather exciting cab ride from the station. Though we enjoyed the weekend, we were both very excited to be back at our own apartment.

Monkeys

2008-05-03T22:44:00.003+09:00

Well I sat around and did absolutely nothing today. It was a great day. I watched the SJ/Dal hockey game and then an awful lot of TV. Meg and I are in Seoul tomorrow all day for a Lotus Lantern Festival for Buddha's Birthday and so I figured I just take the day off to relax. I did make it outside once today, but that was so that Meg and I could go to McDonald's for Ice cream so it doesn't really count.

It was hot enough today that Meg made her "real" iced tea. Of course she didn't drink any, so maybe it was only hot enough to warrant making it, but not to drink it.

I know I've uploaded a lot of photos this week, but I like monkeys and so I've decided to put up a few more photos. This time only of monkeys though. All the photos are from Angkor Wat (again).

More from Cambodia

2008-05-02T21:03:00.003+09:00

We've got a long weekend this weekend and aren't doing too much for it. We're going to head into Seoul on Sunday to see the Lotus Lantern parade (which celebrates Buddha's Birthday). We've heard good things about it and we hope it lives up to the hype. We actually have a long weekend next weekend too. Definitely a nice way to start off May.

It was 27 degrees here today. Way too hot for this early in May (or anytime in May for that matter). I'm definitely not looking forward to the summer. It's going to be miserable. I suspect Meg will be better prepared for it (having lived in Nashville) than me. I'm a little concerned. I don't do so well with extreme heat.

I've still be sorting through the massive amounts of Angkor Wat photos I took. So I figured I'd post a few more:

Meg took an elephant ride. This is her on her elephant about to enter the South Gate of Angkor Thom. I rode an elephant when I was in Thailand a few years back so I just followed behind on foot taking photos. I think the elephant driver thought I was nuts.

Another photo of the sunrise at Angkor. We really enjoyed the sunrises. We woke up at 4am twice to see it. We probably would've done it a third time if we had stayed any longer.

Bayon Temple is the second most popular of the Angkor temples. People really like the faces that are prominent throughout the temple. This is me with one of the faces (you can see a few more in the background). I really liked Bayton, I think we would have liked it a bit more if it wasn't crowded when we were there.

A monk entering the Angkor Wat Temple. I was pretty lucky to get this photo as the temple was quite overly crowded that day. I was just in the right place at the right time. The people around me were also very considerate when they saw I was taking photos and none of them walked into my frame.

We saw a bunch of Monkeys wandering around Angkor Wat Temple one morning. They were trying to hit the tourists up for food. This guy managed to get an orange and took off away from the pack with it.

The trees and Angkor were amazing. We've never seen anything like them. I could have looked at them all day.

Why the kids have difficulties learning English

2008-04-30T15:58:00.005+09:00

Every lesson, my coteacher and I play at least one video from our CD-Rom (we usually play three). The first is generally an animated video and the second and third are live action videos. The same characters appear in both the animations and the live action movies. The animated movie is a bit longer, while the live actions are usually only twenty or thirty seconds long. Most of the time I have a difficult time trying to determine what exactly the target of the lesson is, as the videos aren't the greatest. However, I always enjoy the awkward conversations (but not really).

I've uploaded a bunch of my videos onto Youtube and I've linked a few of my favourites to give an idea of what I have to teach every day.

In the first video, Kevin points at Ann's face and makes everyone involved uncomfortable. I believe it's his way of telling her that she has ice cream on her nose, but maybe he's just a jerk. I'm not really sure...

In the second video, Kevin seems to taunt Ann's violin ability. Kevin also seems to have difficulties with concepts such as dates and time. Whenever Ann mentions them it seems to take the poor kid an awfully long time to comprehend.

In final video, Cindy gets a little forward with Jinho. After learning his name, her second question is "Where is his room?". Meg also likes that although Cindy is from Australia, she has no accent whatsoever.

These are just the first three videos of many, many more. If people enjoy them I'll post more in the future.

Remembering Angkor

2008-04-29T22:12:00.003+09:00

As the year progresses we seem to post less and less. I've been thinking on over in my head and I've even started to upload some movies to youtube for my next big post. Until I actually get to writing it though, I've decided to post a few more photos from our trip to Angkor Wat. I've finally started to sort through the massive amounts of photos I took.

Meg under one of the coolest trees we've ever seen at Ta Som Temple. Over the years it has become entangled in the gate. Around the Angkor complex there were numerous trees growing through walls or with their roots twisting over and around bricks. We really enjoyed seeing the power of nature. Many of the temples would crumble into pieces if the trees or roots were removed.

Some carvings at Ta Som Temple

More carvings, this time at Preah Khan Temple. The carvings around the Angkor Wat complex were quite spectacular and there seemed to be an endless amount. Each temple seemed covered in elaborate carvings. Some told stories, while others just appeared to be decorative.

Our visit to Neak Pean Temple was fairly quick. It was extremely hot and unlike many of the other temples buried in the trees, Neak Pean had no covering whatsoever. We pulled out our guide book, read about what we were looking at, wandered around, took some photos and headed back for our air conditioned van. Although, it isn't one of the most visually impressive temples, I do remember that it was one of the more important ones. I wish I could remember why. I'll probably have to read through our Angkor Wat guide books again. We saw so many massive temples in our 4 days there that we've forgotten some of the details.

This photo is from our trek up to Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean is a temple located about an hour northeast of the main Angkor complex. Once you get there it's another 40 minute hike up to the temple itself. Though calling it a temple is a bit generous. It's actually a number of rock carvings found alongside a stream. We both enjoyed it immensely. We also enjoyed the hike a lot more than we anticipated as the jungle we trekked through had some fairly impressive trees and vines. This was one of my favourites and so I got Meg to snap a photo (or twenty) of me with it. The jungle was full of trees just like this one.

Into the North

2008-04-17T21:46:00.004+09:00

Perhaps the coolest thing we did while my parents were in Korea was our trip to the DMZ. I might write more about it later, but I'm still fighting off a cold so I thought I'd just post a few photos to complement Meg's post below. These three are from our trip into the Demilitarized Zone (and even North Korea itself).

We're virtually on the boarder of North Korea here. Basically everything behind us is North Korea. To the left of the photo you can see a blue station and a bridge. The Bridge is known as the "Bridge of No Return" because after the war when they were returning POW and displaced people some were allowed to choose what country they wanted the live in. However, once they crossed the bridge (on either side) they could never go back to the other side.

This is basically the same view as the photo above. However this time you can make out a tower shape between my parents. This is actually a flag pole with the North Korean flag on it.

During the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 98.4 metre (328 ft) tall flagpole on their side of the boarder. The North Korean government responded by building a taller one — the tallest in the world at 160 metres (525 ft). It's actually hard to see the flag because it is so large that it requires quiet a heavy wind to move it and make it clearly visible.

Inside the DMZ, is a place called Panmunjeom, home of the Joint Security Area (JSA); it is the only place where North and South connect.

There are several buildings on both the north and the south side of the MDL (The Military Demarcation Line), and a few which are built right on top of the MDL. The Joint Security Area is the location where all negotiations since 1953 have been held.

The MDL goes through the conference rooms and down the middle of the conference tables where the North Koreans and the United Nations Command meet face to face.

In this photo we're inside that building where the meetings take place. My parents are actually standing in North Korea in this photo. The guard is a South Korean guard and he is standing on the official boarder between the two countries.

The Patterson Visit - A Summary

2008-04-14T15:17:00.005+09:00

Paul is suffering from a bad cold and expects to die from it at any moment. While he is busy making outlandish requests for his burial, it falls to me to write a summary of his parent’s visit.

The Pattersons have been visiting for about two and a half weeks. They arrived on March 27^th, spent a quiet weekend with us in Yongin, and left on the 31^st for a week in China. After trekking up the Great Wall and wandering through the Terra Cotta Warriors, they returned to Seoul on the 4^th. We met them in town that night, and spent the weekend there as the rest of the World Vision-ites gathered. That Saturday we toured Gyeongbukgung, one of the main palaces of Korea’s Golden Age. Though most Koreans favor Gyeongbukgung because of its place in Korea’s history, the current palace is a reconstruction of the original, which was destroyed in 1592 and again in 1910, both times by the Japanese. I think we all preferred Changdeokgung, the best-preserved palace of Seoul, which we visited the next day. There’s something far more magical about a place when it feels old. Changdeokgung is known for its garden, which was only a few days away from full bloom.

After Gyeongbukgung, we went to Korea’s War Museum, which tells the history of all wars in Korea. This was a helpful visit for two reasons; first, it was beginning to feel rather warm outside, and we were all grateful to get out of the sun, and second, we were able to ‘refresh’ our knowledge of the Korean War. This came in handy the following Saturday on our visit to the Demilitarized Zone.

Sunday night (the 6^th), we put the Pattersons on the subway out to their World Vision meetings, and we returned to Yongin, until Wednesday, when they joined us. The following Friday (the 11th), we returned to Seoul yet again to spend the night before our big trip to the DMZ early Saturday morning. There, we went down one of the tunnels built by the North Koreans in the 1970s, took pictures of “Propaganda Village” - a fake, movie-set-like village built by the North Koreans to intimidate their brothers in the South (the buildings are empty, though they do bus people there to look busy during the day) - and we got to stand on the border between the two warring countries in the room where many of the ‘talks’ take place.

Other highlights of the trip include many, many meals at Western restaurants (a big treat for Paul and me), and many games of ‘Blackout’ (and one of ‘Hearts’) to pass the time in lonely Yongin. All in all, a good trip for everyone involved. I’m sure Paul will post pictures later this week - that is, if he lives, if not, I'll be looking for someone to hike with me up Mount Kilimanjaro.

Time Flies...

2008-04-04T15:57:00.001+09:00

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two weeks since Easter weekend. I spent that weekend almost entirely in Seoul – on Saturday, I got my hair cut and picked up some groceries (a 7 hour day), and Sunday we went in to church early in the morning. When we returned around 12:30, Paul went to bed with a cold, and I spent the afternoon cooking Easter dinner. I burnt the ham in the toaster oven, but everything else came out okay.

Paul’s parents arrived the following Thursday night. Their flight came in early, and they beat us to the bus station. We had planned to take them to a few of the local sights on the weekend; unfortunately, it was a rather rainy weekend, so I’m afraid that the only sight of Korea they saw was our movie theater. They also walked around our town for a bit; I think they were a bit thrown off by the uneven sidewalks. Both Paul and I are eager for them to notice how dirty our little town is, but that might be something that only comes with time. It sort of grows on you – like a small headache that doesn’t leave for days on end. You think it’s not that bad at first, but after a while, it becomes a real pain.

And now, we’ve magically moved through yet another week teaching. It seems like every Thursday, we’re amazed that the week is almost over. We’ve been here seven months, next Saturday. It certainly doesn’t seem that long. For all that we don’t like about Korea, our time here is passing quickly. And I’ve never watched so much television in my life.

Easter in Seoul

2008-03-24T13:41:00.003+09:00

Meg and I woke up around 6:30 on Sunday and made our way into Seoul for the Easter service at the Seoul Cathedral. We arrived just before 9:00 and Meg went off to the washroom before the service while I went to get us seats. I was greeted at the entrance by the ushers who informed me that they had run out of bulletins and hymnals. After two hours of travel, I was not impressed. Meg and I were fortunate because we both know the Anglican liturgy fairly well (though we're slightly off sometimes as they use the British and Episcopal versions rather than Canadian one) so we managed for the most part. The hymns were a little weak as the front half of the church sang along and the back half (without books) just stood there singing along to the parts they knew. There were probably about 120-140 people in attendance and only about 60-70 with the Order of Service. Meg and I sat around the middle and some of the people around us had books, but everyone behind us didn't. It made me a little sad. On a normal week the church probably gets about 50 people, meaning that about half the people there were visitors and the half with the books, for the most part, were the regulars. It made me think back to some of the courses I took at Wycliffe about growing congregations and the do's and don'ts. This service would have made my professor cry. If I was still taking courses at Wycliffe I could have written a paper on numerous mistakes made by this congregation. Instead, I just sit here thinking about all the people that will likely never return. Being the only Anglican church with English services within a few hundred kilometers this makes the situation even more depressing than if it had occurred in Toronto.

On a happier note, my parents arrive on Thursday. In lots of ways the past six months have flown by. It almost doesn't feel like we've been away long enough to have visitors, but we're both looking forward to their arrival (and not just for the long list of items I've asked them to bring over for us).

It should be an interesting visit. When they visited me in Japan I had a long list of places to take them and we traveled around a good deal of the country on the Bullet Train visiting three of Japan's ancient capitals (Kyoto, Nara, Kamakura), it's current capital (Tokyo), Hiroshima and the area where I lived. I had day trips planned for them to places nearby on the days I had to work with a train schedule and maps of the area. This time their visit will be split into three pieces. They arrive on Thursday and spend the weekend with us before departing for China on Monday. Then we'll meet them in Seoul the following weekend and on the Sunday they'll head off north of Seoul for their World Vision meeting for three days. After that they'll come back to Yongin for four more days.

While we're in Seoul we'll likely take them to a few of the palaces and the DMZ (demilitarized Zone - separating North and South Korea). As for the rest of their trip I'm not sure exactly where to take them. We might try and head down to Busan the last weekend they're here if they aren't too exhausted. Some how I doubt the sites of Korea will be able to compete with their week in China (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Warriors, Temple of Heaven).

Springtime Blahs?

2008-03-20T16:27:00.006+09:00

There’s vomit on the streets and yellow dust in the air. It’s springtime in Korea.

This is a whiny article. I’ll just warn you.

Both Paul and I have the privilege to walk by vomit puddles on a regular basis. Public drunkenness (and alcoholism) are both big problems in Korea that few people seem to talk about. We’ve passed groups of men fighting in the streets and men passed out in the streets – before 10pm. And then there’s the vomit puddles that never get cleaned up – they just fade away.

Springtime in Korea feels much more like a time for plodding than plotting and planning. Every spring, yellow dust from the Gobi desert in China blows down into Korea. The phenomenon has been recorded for several hundred years, but in the recent past the effects have been much worse: the sand brings more pollutants with it. Fortunately, in our neighborhood, people have taken to burning their fields, manure, and garbage piles, so that we can enjoy this experience even more.

We took a trip to Costco last Saturday. This may not seem like much of an event, but it’s a two-hour ride there, maneuvering through the store, and a two-hour trip home. (Usually, the bus ride is a little shorter, but the traffic was bad this weekend.) The process of shopping at Costco is unique: it feels like big-Asian-market-meets-American-wholesale-club. There are people and carts everywhere you turn. In Korea, there is a power of wills (or of age); no one moves carts or bodies out of the way, so the experience can be rather frustrating. If you do happen to be in the way, someone will push you to get by. This is done with no subtlety in a classic pushing move: put hand on other body and shove. I’ve taken to saying out loud how much I dislike Korea when this happens; though, on my first trip to Costco I sobbed uncontrollably in the middle of the store.

This particular trip was noteworthy because of our bus ride home. Because we were the last people on the bus, we stood for the drive home - in the front of the bus. I was right beside the driver, and watched as he checked his phone for messages, opened the window, closed the window, looked through his bags, opened a drink - all while driving a bus full of passengers at 125 km/hr. I spent the ride thinking of what to do in case of an accident. But I also spent the ride knowing that I would likely get home safe, with a story to tell. And really, that's how I feel about a lot of the things we experience here - from bus rides to vomit puddles. Every once in a while we look at each other and say, "our kids will never believe that we were this cool."

In Praise of Japan

2008-03-06T15:19:00.001+09:00

If you haven’t read Paul’s posts below and looked at his beautiful pictures (he just posted some more last night); you really should. He’s written three posts now on our trip to Japan, and I haven’t written one.

I haven’t written because I didn’t really know where to start. It was a surprise trip, and we had a bit of struggle getting out of Korea. (I now have three pages of voided stamps in my passport from the Koreans.) In that sense, it was a relief just to be able to leave the country. Neither one of us would say that we’re unhappy here, but every time we’ve left the county, I think we both feel as though an enormous weight has been lifted. In part, because of my visa troubles, and, in part because of the rudeness we encounter here.

But this isn’t about Korea; it’s about Japan. And Japan was amazing. There were a lot of evergreens, so even in winter the country looked green and warm. The first day we went to Miyajima, one of the ‘three most beautiful’ places in Japan. It kind of set the pace for the trip. Miyajima is an island of mountains – long, shapely mountains that look like dragons curled up on each other. And so richly green! Every site we visited was warm (in appearance only) and green, pristinely manicured and poised for tourists. At every site, they would have English brochures ready before we bought our tickets. At Matsushima, a guide came running after us in order to give us a free tour in English. If we had to take our shoes off, they had ‘large size’ sandals ready for Paul (he refused them at one place, thinking he could just walk around in his socks; he took them after he realized it would be too cold. What was remarkable was that the people offering didn’t tell him it would be too cold, but they looked very sad for him.)

This kindness extended everywhere. People smiled at each other and bowed. They would duck out of each other’s pictures. At Himeji Castle, Paul stopped to take a few pictures near a boy and his grandfather. The grandfather quickly pulled the boy out of the way. When Paul was finished, we thanked him, and the grandfather commented on Paul’s camera and told us to have a nice day at the castle. When we were lost in Kyoto, a woman walked several blocks with us to help us find our way. Neither one of these experiences is particularly remarkable, except to say that they were the rule rather than the exception.

It’s the cleanest place I’ve ever been – not just Miyajima or any of their other parks, temples, or castles – but every single street. The cleanliness probably stuck out a bit more after living in Korea and spending time in developing nations like Vietnam and Cambodia. I remember the one time I saw trash on the ground – the one time in our whole trip. But it wasn’t just the absence of trash that made Japan feel clean: it was that the streets and sidewalks had obviously been cleaned and swept on a regular basis, the trees were pruned and cared for, at one site we even saw workers brushing the moss on the ground. These are people who are concerned not simply about appearance of their place, but about the health and well-being of the place itself. Cars were quieter and emitted less fumes. We walked through the busiest sections of Tokyo, and the air was still cleaner than anything else I’ve experienced since I left Vermont.

Clearly, one of the most important parts of any trip is the food. I was excited about visiting Japan just for the sushi. But here I have to gush again: everything was so fresh! I’m not particularly fond of the sticky Asian rices (unless covered in some kind of sauce), but the rice in Japan was so fresh it was like eating something purer than air. I know this all sounds ridiculous, and perhaps it is, but something should be said for the dedication the Japanese have to fresh food. I think it’s the first vacation we’ve been on together where we didn’t both gain five pounds. We ate meals from 7-11 that were head and shoulders better than anything else I’ve had in Asia. And, of course, we ate sushi until we couldn’t eat any more.

That’s my glowing blog about Japan for now. Perhaps later I’ll write a bit more details about the places we visited.

Memories of Japan

2008-03-05T21:08:00.005+09:00

It's been awhile since we've posted. We started our new school year on Monday, and when we arrived on Monday morning neither Meg nor I (or any of the other 3 public school teachers we know) had a schedule for the term. None of us had any idea what was happening or if we were even teaching that day. Luckily, neither Meg nor I had to teach until Tuesday (our friend Kevin wasn't so lucky. He had 5 classes he had to teach on the spot).

As of next week we'll have been here for 6 months. For the most part I think the six months have gone rather quickly (I'm sure our trips into Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan have helped a great deal). I think this next term will be easier for both of us as Meg finally has her own office and I gotten comfortable enough in mine to skype people from work.

In other news, Meg and I bought a humidifier that is shaped like a dog. It's name is "Puppy". we're both very happy to have something to combat the dry season we're in now. For those of you who don't know, it's Yellow Dust (Asian Dust) season here. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but a bunch of sand blows over Korea (and parts of Japan sometimes) from the Chinese desert. This has occurred for thousands of years, but has only recently caused trouble as it now picks up the air pollution as it passes into Korea. Needless to say, Meg's had difficulties with her asthma this week. We're hoping "puppy" will help solve the problem. For more information on the Asian Dust visit wikipedia, it's more interesting than it sounds.

I figured I'd put up a few more photos from our time in Japan. Meg and I both miss it greatly and talk about it more than is healthy, I'd imagine.

Meg admires a figure of Japan's most famous Haiku poet (Matsuo Basho). Basho even visited my town of Ishinomaki while he was traveling around Japan crafting his Haiku. Although, my students told me that he actually got lost and hadn't intended to visit the city. That didn't stop the city from putting up a statue of him in the town park on the top of the hill (near where I'm standing with the torii a few posts down). This photo is in Matsushima, one of the three most beautiful places in Japan (and more importantly, only 25 minutes from where I lived).

Meg and I in front of the Phoenix Hall in Uji. This was probably one of Meg's favourite places in Japan. For those of you who know the Tale of Genji (believed by some to be the World's first novel - written in Japan in the 11th century), some of the scenes took place here.

We were lucky to see a couple of Geisha visiting the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) in Kyoto. This one even posed for my photo. We also visited the Gion district of Kyoto to see the Geisha wandering the streets between performances, but it was too dark to take photos of them.

Himeji Castle is easily Japan's most famous castle. It frequently appears in Japanese television, movies and in serves as the back drop for many video games as well. Although the area around Himeji was bombed by the Americans a couple of times in WWII the castle escaped any major damage.

A Noh performer in Miyajima. Noh is a form of Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century.

A pagoda in Miyajima. I really like pagodas. For some reason there are a lot more in southern Japan than up north where I lived.

The deer of Miyajima are considered sacred. The pretty much wander the island like the own the place. Of course they aren't nearly as bad as the deer of Nara (I'll have to post some photos of Meg getting bitten by them while trying to feed them. I don't think she overly enjoyed the experience). Anyways, Meg made noises to draw the attention of this deer so I could take some photos of it. At this moment I was pretty sure it was getting ready to jump on Meg. Thankfully, it did not.

An Old Friend

2008-02-25T21:31:00.006+09:00

I also visited an old friend while we were in Japan. This visit wasn't quite as painful as the last one...

Mount Fuji from Lake Ashi

From the top of a nearby hill

And a final one of Fuji as the sun begins to set

I've written about our trip in more detail below. I suspect Meg will add to it in the upcoming days.

This is the Most Productive I've Been All Day

2008-02-25T15:57:00.002+09:00

Well we’re back from our second winter vacation. Though we’re not really back doing very much as both Meg and I are sitting in our offices all day without any classes to teach. The next term starts next week and they’re starting to figure out what we’ll be doing. We’ve both asked our co-teachers what we should be doing this week and we’ve both been told to “prepare”. Of course when we ask what grades we’ll be teaching or when, we’re told that it hasn’t been decided yet and they’ll let us know March 2^nd (also known as the first day of school). And so as Meg tries to prepare for the unknown I sit here writing a blog. It’s probably the most productive I’ve been all day. It’s now 3:20 here and so far today I’ve read numerous articles online in Canadian, Japanese, American and Korean newspapers, browsed some online discussion forums for teacher’s working in Korea, gone for lunch and talked with my brother on Skype. Tomorrow I think I’ll start to assemble some of the photos I took last week in Japan.

Speaking of Japan, we had an amazing trip. It was really nice to show Meg what I thought we were getting ourselves into in Korea. She got to see why I talk about it in such glowing terms all the time. How overly friendly most people are, how beautiful the landscape is and how many cultural treasures they have. I think in a lot of ways we both enjoyed the trip more than our visit to Angkor Wat. I’ll leave it to Meg describe her feelings in more details, but I think if we find ourselves with another free week or even a long weekend we might go back.

It’s hard to say what part of the trip I enjoyed the most. We spent the first 5 days hoping from one national treasure and world heritage site to the next. Then after a couple of days in the Tokyo we headed up north to there area I lived back in 2003/2004. While it was nice to show Meg all the places I frequented and the locations many of my stories about Japan took place, it was also a little sad. I really loved the town of Ishinomaki and I think of it fondly. I really enjoyed my time there and loved all my students. Ever since we decided to come and live in Korea I’ve been a little bit excited about visiting Japan and seeing Ishinomaki again. Now that we’ve done that I’m a little bit sad not knowing if I’ll ever go back. And if I do, I’m not sure how much of the city I knew will still be there. The movie theatre I frequented is already gone. . . and the department store beside my school where I ate most of my lunches on work days, did all my grocery shopping, and bought most of my Japanese presents is closing next month. The 100 Yen store (dollar store) where I got all my teaching supplies, candy for my kids classes, dishes and even a frying pan was already packed into boxes. I don’t know what I would have done if it had closed up while I was living there. The number of times I raced over there during a break to grab some dice, toy hammers, balls or trinkets for a game I was planning to use with my kids classes might be too high to count.

I was lucky to have lived in the city at a time where it was optimistic and saw a bright future. They had just finished a new Japanese Cartoon museum and were hoping to draw in tourists with it. While I was there they put up statues of Japanese Anime characters all over town to help promote it and to guide people from the train station to the museum. They even painted the roof of the station with anime characters and redid the town maps with them too. Now things don’t seem so happy. Many of the stores looked like they had closed and with the movie theatre gone and the department store closing, I have a feeling if I ever do visit again my school might be gone as well. The town likely won’t be at all as I remember it. It makes me a little sad. I’m just glad that I got a chance to show it to Meg now. Hopefully, if I ever do make it back it’ll surprise me.

P.S. The photos are of me standing on the hill in Ishinomaki that overlooks the Pacific Ocean (which you can kind of make out behind me. In the spring all those trees are cherry blossoms and it looks spectacular). The other one is at the Ishinomaki train station with the Masked Rider. The creator of the Masked Rider and other famous Japanese characters (like the Power Rangers) was born in Ishinomaki.

And We're Off Once Again

2008-02-15T13:54:00.002+09:00

School was back in session this week for both Meg and I. Last week, I had two days of classes (if you can call watching Ice Age in Korean and English class) before a three day Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) holiday. Meg and I both struggled through classes this week as students couldn't care less about school. After 5 weeks off they come back for 7 days (5 in Meg's school) to end the term. The next two weeks are Spring Break. It is a very strange schedule here.

Anyways, while Meg was talking to her co-teacher about planning for the new year, her co-teacher told her that maybe she could have a day off next week during the holiday. And so her teacher went and asked the principal about Meg getting a day off. The principal decided that Meg didn't need to come in at all over the two weeks, however Meg's co-teacher didn't like that idea and after some discussion, Meg got next week off (mostly because our friend Kevin has the week off and after asking my co-teacher about it he told me I didn't have to come in either). So the mad scramble began. We now had 9 days of nothing ahead of us. We looked around online as quick as we could and found semi-reasonable tickets to Japan and so we are off once again. We leave tomorrow. I'm not sure I have ever bought plane tickets closer to my actual departure date then this.

We fly into Hiroshima around noon and will spend a day and a half there before heading up to Himeji Castle (the largest in Japan) on our way to Kyoto. We'll do a day in Kyoto and Nara (the two ancient capitals) then stop at Hakone National Park (where Mt. Fuji is) as we travel into Tokyo. I don't think we'll spend much more than half a day in Tokyo (it isn't my favourite place in the world) and I'm anxious to have plenty of time in Sendai and my old hometown of Ishinomaki. It'll be a pretty crazy 8 days, but I think it will be a lot of fun. I'm off to Seoul tonight to pick-up our Japan Rail passes which will let us travel the country with ease and for a great deal cheaper. We'll basically be going from one end of the main island to the other along the Bullet Train. I've done most of this the trip twice before so it shouldn't be too difficult, and the last 3 days will be quite familiar for me as I spent 14 months living in that area. We're both really excited. It'll be quite a month and a half for us. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea and Japan. I think we could really get used to this. Of course, this will most likely be the last interesting trip we take for quite awhile.

I doubt we'll be writing much over the next 10 days or so (though it isn't like we've written particularly much over the past month anyway). We hope everyone back home is enjoying the winter weather that we've been missing here. It'd be nice if the snow stayed on the ground longer than a day or so.

Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive

2008-02-11T12:52:00.000+09:00

I sometimes have a hard time sleeping on Sunday nights. In fact, I sometimes have a hard time relaxing on Sunday evenings, because I dread what Monday will bring. Last week was New Year’s holiday and my school was only open on Monday and Tuesday, but no students were present. My coworker had talked with the Vice Principal on the previous Friday, and they told me I didn’t need to come in either of those days. I wouldn’t have had any work to do if I had.

But this morning, my coworker told me that I had misunderstood, that I really should have been at work. After a few minutes of venting to Paul over Instant Messenger, we figured out the problem. On Monday, the English teacher from the High School next door came to my school to ask me for lunch. Likely, they were embarrassed that she was asking for me and I wasn’t there.

It seems like every time we write on our blog, we have another story to tell like this one. Every night we have new stories for each other, and we save the best for telling the folks at home. Sometimes I wonder what we’re doing here, and I know some of you do, too. So, I’ve decided to write about the things we enjoy about our life here.

First of all, we’ve saved more money in five months here than we could have saved in five years living in North America, For those of you who know what it’s like to be in debt or to be ‘just starting out’ this means a lot. Secondly, the experience of working in a foreign country is quite a nice thing on a resume these days, for any job or any kind of school. And, we have the opportunity to travel, which we wouldn’t have from North America.

These are the top three reasons we always cite in reckoning with our time here. But there are more reasons. If we were in North America – either in Canada or in the States, we would have the paperwork and the waiting for work visas and family visas. There are a lot of hoops for both of us to jump through for citizenship or even just a green card. With both governments, the process is easier after being married for two years.

As much as we complain about things, our life here is pretty nice. After work, we’re free to pursue all the leisure activities we could want: I’ve read plenty of books, practice piano, go to the gym, etc. We have friends nearby that we see often for social events, and we have a lot of time to spend together. Our life moves by at a rather relaxed pace, which we certainly won’t experience in a few years. It’ll be nice to have this time to look back on as the first few years of our marriage.

A More Mundane Post

2008-01-22T15:09:00.000+09:00

Once upon a time it was this morning and Paul had taken his shower and was ready to leave the bathroom. Only, he couldn’t, because the bathroom door ‘locked’ and he was stuck. I tried the handle from the outside, and he tried it from the inside, and nothing happened. (Keep in mind that our bathroom has no windows or doors other than this one.) So I went and got the screwdriver; only, there were no screws in the door handle. Eventually, after about 15 minutes, much shouting, and some tears, I had to hammer the handle off and pass a screwdriver in to Paul, who managed to fidget with the locking thing enough to get himself out. After that, we had to clean up the Benalyn on the floor from Paul’s attempt to hammer himself out.

It was not a happy morning.

We’re in week two of winter camps. Paul gets a new group of kids tomorrow, but I have the same group for three weeks. Today, I had one kid spit out his gum twice, and give me the crackers he was eating. He was still chewing a new piece of gum when he left. I’m amazed that parents send their children to these classes. Some of my kids are bored, while others have to be forced to pick up a pen. Most of them just copy from another’s work anyway. There is no concept of ‘do your own work’ here… which is fine for aiding a group-mentality society, but not so fine when it comes to test time. Then again, these kids know that the curriculum I teach isn’t directly on the test (though it’s usually relevant), so they don’t bother. I suppose it’s the same as teaching anywhere. I just feel especially bad for some of their parents.

Camp, for both of us, is done by 12:00. The rest of our days are spent in a relatively empty office making more plans and reading things online. (You would think that means I get a lot done, but it doesn’t always.) Paul’s school sends him home at 2:30 so they don’t have to heat his office. Gas is ridiculous here, and there is no such thing as insulation or double-paned windows. I share an office with the one other teacher who is at the school to answer questions. Once a week a class of kids comes in, dressed in uniform, to clean the school. They’re here at 9 and gone by 11. It’s bizarre.

It’s snowing here; a pleasant, soft sort of snowing. One of our friends was sent home early from work because of the snow, and it made me think of Nashville, where sometimes they give ‘snow days’ based on the weather report.

Ps. For those of you who are interested in such subjects, we had to throw out the ‘Feel the clean Cosmos’ toilet seat – it was broken. If I could have taken a picture of the toilet seats at the store, I would. A few were out of our price range, but came with heated seats and bidet functions. Other choices included: clear plastic sparkly, teddy bears with clear top, large pastel florals (seat plus top), Christmas trees with Santa (seat and top – and not even on sale!), and beach-theme (umbrellas, sandcastles, etc. – also seat + top). We opted for the most simple – plain white with a sailboat and harbor on the top. My favorite, however, was a floral cloth cover for your toilet seat, aptly named, “Fabric Cover A Piss Pot.”

A Few Photos From Our Trip

2008-01-16T22:25:00.000+09:00

We're still a little busy this week with Winter Camp and seeing friends again so I'm just going to throw up some photos from our time in Vietnam.

We did a fair bit of travel in Vietnam as the country is far longer than I had realized. During our vacation we actually traveled through 7 airports over our 14 days (Seoul, Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, Siem Reap and Bangkok). Though all our flights (except the ones from and to Korea) were only an hour in length so the travel didn't consume much time at all.

Our favourite city in Vietnam was Hoi An (with Hue as a very close second). We enjoyed Hanoi a fair bit and didn't really like Ho Chi Minh very much. Though we were glad we made a brief stop there as the Reunification Palace was definitely worth a visit. This was the home of the South Vietnamese President during the war and it's where the war officially ended when the North came crashing in with their tanks as the remaining Americans evacuated from the rooftops of Saigon in their helicopters. We even got to watch a video about the war from a very different perspective after our tour.

Here we are in Hanoi in front of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. We were allowed inside to see his body (it was a lot cooler than it sounds).

This is us in Hue. About 2 minutes after we took this photo we got monsoon levels of rain. We actually took our ponchos off for this photo, but luckily got them back on in time.

In this photo you can see us with our ponchos on. It rained a lot in Hue, but we still had a really good time there. I felt like a fool at first wandering around in my blue poncho, but I kind of miss it now. You can't really see it but we're at the entrance to the Forbidden Palace of Vietnam.

We encountered a fair range of weather over our two weeks away. When we left Korea it was around 0 degrees, Hanoi was about 16, Hue 18-19, Hoi An 20-22, Ho Chi Minh 25, Angkor 27-30 and Bangkok 35. So it gradually got hotter as our trip progressed. Which worked out fairly well since I think I might have died from the heat if we had gone straight into Thailand. I'll try and post some from Thailand and Angkor in the next few days. You'll definitely notice a chance in our clothing as the weather heats up.

We're Back

2008-01-14T22:01:00.000+09:00

However, we're also really tired and busy teaching Winter Camps at our schools so a real update will have to wait another day or two. I will say that we really enjoyed ourselves and we both very sad that the vacation had to end. It all went fairly smoothly (except for near the end when Meg got a little sick in Bangkok) and we have many stories to tell. I think out of the three countries visited we liked Vietnam the best, however Angkor Wat was easily our favourite site and 4 days there was just barely enough. I think we could have easily stayed a week.

I'm still in the initial phases of sorting through my many, many, many photos but here's an early one that jumped out at me. It's from the first time we went to view the sunrise at Angkor. I think you can understand why we got up again at 4:30 am the next morning to see it all over again (if we had more days there I probably would have done it again too!).

The Big 3-0

2008-01-05T23:32:00.000+09:00

For Paul's birthday, we went to My Son, the ruins of the Champa Kingdom near Hoi An, Vietnam. Since our stay in Hue had been so wet, we were worried about rain in Hoi An, especially for this trip to My Son. However, Paul's birthday ended up being one of the nicest weather days we had in Vietnam. We even saw the sun, which we were both beginning to think didn't appear in Vietnam.

As a part of his turning-thirty/ turning-a-new-leaf, Paul decided to wake up before 5am to go on the early morning trek to the ruins. (This also meant that we would be some of the only people there.) We reached our destination just after sunrise, had a cup of coffee as we waited for the park to open, and then drove up a rocky path to the sight of the ruins. Paul took many pictures of the sight, and I took many pictures of Paul, and we fell behind the tour group we had arrived with. They ended up waiting for us in the van while we bought bought a small statue commemorating our visit.

We returned to our hotel before ten, taking advantage of the free buffet breakfast, then spent time packing our belongings and showering, before we went on our next journey: finding the rice fields we could see from our balcony. Since Paul enjoys tormenting his travelling companions, we walked for about forty minutes in the wrong direction. He loved it: we got to see a bit of a real neighborhood, and he took some pictures of boats on the river. In the end, I went back to rest at our hotel while Paul found the fields for pictures.

Hoi An is a sleepy and picturesque little town. Because it lost much of it's trade to Danang, it wasn't wealthy enough to be bombed in the war; and thus managed to retain a lot of it's traditional architechture. The town itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had a late lunch in a little cafe overlooking the river. Paul had a half-dozen mango shakes; we did a bit of shopping and picture-taking before catching our flight to Saigon.

Unfortunately, the traditional Patterson-family ice cream cake will have to wait until we return to Korea. All of the bakeries were closed by the time we reached Saigon.

The Red State

2008-01-02T23:31:00.000+09:00

Well we made it to Hoi An in one piece. We just finished two water logged days in Hue. Although, it was initially a bit disappointing that it was raining I actually kind of liked it in the end (my feet did not however...). We were visiting the old capital of Vietnam and some Mausoleums of the kings that ruled from Hue a couple of centuries ago. The palace area was an imitation of the Forbidden City of Beijing (on a slightly smaller scale...but still huge). It had fallen into disrepair before the Americans bombed it during the war and now only about 20% remains. There are numerous ruins creeping through the grass that hint at its former glory and in a way I think the rain fit the attitude of the place. The rain came in waves. It would rain fairly lightly, then more heavily and then it would stop for about 10-20 minutes before resuming again. I thought it had passed a few times before realizing that it just was going to maintain this pattern all day. I really liked the Purple Forbidden City much more than I expected and I think Meg was quite surprised by its massive size. I'm looking forward to her reaction to the one in China when we get there next year.

This morning we went to the mausoleum of Ming Manh (I'm sure I spelt that wrong). It was easily my favourite place so far in Vietnam. It was a real pain to get to. Our problem began when we taxied to an out of the way temple with a well-known pagoda. I agreed with the taxi driver that he'd come back an hour later for us which he seemed happy to accept since I tipped him well. Of course an hour later he never showed up and it took us nearly an hour to find a way out of the area. The whole time being offered boat trips down the perfume river to our destination. We probably would have considered this option if we weren't on such a tight schedule and if it wasn't raining. I'm pretty sure the boat people have figured something out with the taxi people that keeps the taxis away because on of the women who kept trying to solicit us seemed to know our driver wasn't coming back and many people told us that taxis wouldn't come to that area (nobody would tell us why). It was a bit irritating trying to find a taxi for so long after spending numerous times each day telling taxis, cyclos and minibike drivers that you don't want a drive repeatedly as they follow you down the street asking again and again.

It seems like we can post our blog, but can't actually see any posts we make. I think the internet is heavily filtered here. I'd almost forgotten we were in a Communist country. I actually commented to Meg yesterday that this might be my first time in a Communist country. I thought it was strange that I'd never been in one before. I had this nagging feeling that I had, but then I couldn't think of one so I assumed that Vietnam was my first. Today I realized that this was of course false. Upon this realization I immediately turned to Meg and proudly told her that I was wrong, I'd been to a Communist country before...China. She just looked at me and said "Yeah I was wondering why you weren't counting that as a Communist country." I nearly kicked her. Then we talked about how we'd probably be visiting a large chunk of Red States in the next year. It's almost as if we're going on a Communist tour (Vietnam, North Korea, China & Russia). The idea seems very strange. I wonder how differently I'd feel about visiting these places if I'd grown-up a decade earlier. As it is I only have the faintest memories of disliking the Communists and viewing them as the enemy. As it is most of my anti-Communist memories come from Canada vs Russia hockey games over the past 35 years (Speaking of hockey it's a darn good thing I wasn't watching that Canada/Sweden World Junior game...I probably would have thrown my laptop across the room...).

Anyways it's getting late so I should probably wrap this up. Once I can post photos I will. I suspect this won't occur until we hit Camboda this weekend (or early next week). Of course by then I'll probably be obsessed with my Angkor photos and you'll never see any of the splendors we saw here in Vietnam. For those of your who know your Vietnam War history (or the American War as they call it over here) we're currently 30 km from Da Nang which was a major site during the war. We actually passed through it today and along the coast where I'm pretty sure numerous American troops arrived into Vietnam. I think we even passed China Beach. We saw a bunch of American tanks and weapons that the were captured by the Vietnamese yesterday in Hue. It seemed very strange to look at tanks that rolled through this area 30 years ago that had actually seen action and likely taken lives. Especially since perhaps the most common tourist items that I see Westerners wearing are the little Viet Kong hats and red shirts with the Vietnamese flag on them.

Hanoi

2007-12-31T20:05:00.000+09:00

Paul and I are hanging out in the Hanoi airport, waiting for our flight to Hue in about an hour. Paul is concerned about Canada's loss to Sweden, and I'm wondering when naptime is.

Yesterday, we visited the tomb of Ho Chi Minh - you can actually see his body guarded by soldiers. We had to walk quickly through the room (no cameras allowed); there were large red strips in the marble walls behind with the golden sickle on one red strip, and a star on the other. We visited his houses, which are right beside the mausoleum. Apparently, he lived rather luxuriously, but for the last ten years of his life, he lived in a more traditional Vietnamese house in order to not be 'above' the people. Both houses were beautiful in their own way.

Last night, we went to a Water Puppet performance. Though the pictures make it look hokey, it's actually a really entertaining art form. Musicians play traditional music while puppets dance and sing. Even my description makes it sound hokey. But it's not. We bought a turtle water puppet for our own water puppet show when we return to North America. The turtle is important in Hanoi because it caught the sword of a king coming back from battle. Now, there's a golden turtle in Hanoi who swallowed a sword - like Excalibur.

Today, we walked around the city. I really wanted to see the Opera House - one of the most important buildings in the city under French rule, and the place where they declared the August Revolution in... well, I can't remember. However, since it's New Year's Eve, they were getting ready to have some sort of event in front of the building.

Of course, I didn't even know it was New Year's Eve until we got to the Opera House.

Paul took lots of pictures of everything - I'm sure you're all shocked. We'll post when we get back to Korea.

Happy New Year. Make sure the ball still drops.

And We're Off...

2007-12-27T15:14:00.000+09:00

On Saturday we head off on the first leg of our trip around Southeast Asia. We start by flying into the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. I didn't know much about Hanoi prior to about a month ago, but I'm looking forward to seeing the sites there. We're only there for a couple of days before we head down the coast to Hue and Hoi An, but I think it will be a good starting point.

Hue and Hoi An are the places I think both Meg and I are looking forward to the most in Vietnam. They are around the middle of the country (Hue is fairly close to the where the Vietnamese DMZ was) and known for being beautiful and relaxing. Hue was the briefly the capital and they brought in Chinese architects to build an imitation of Beijing's Forbidden City for their government offices (on a smaller scale). Unfortunately, parts of it were heavily damaged by American bombs during the war. Though from the photos I've seen I think it will be a pretty impressive site to see still. I actually think the damage adds a bit of character that would be lacking if it was simply a small scale replica of the Forbidden City.

Hoi An was an important trading port for a number of centuries and today the ancient city has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I think we'll spend our days there just wandering around trying to take in the atmosphere. From Ho An we'll likely make a day trip (on my 30th birthday) to My Son. My Son is an ancient Hindu Temple complex constructed by the Champas likely around the 4th to 6th century. Like Hue, it came under heavy bombing by the Americans and apparently you can see numerous bullet holes in the walls of the ruins. It's been compared to a smaller scale Angkor Wat (which seems a little generous to me - we'll see what I think we I get there). It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We're only in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) for a day. I'm a little sad we don't have more time to spend there. Though after looking at all the options we had and the places we wanted to visit, Ho Chi Minh just didn't stack up. We probably would have cut it off our itinerary entirely if it wasn't the best (and cheapest) place to fly to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) from. I'm not sure if we'll spend the day in the city centre or try and visit the popular tunnels left over from the Vietnam war in the surrounding country. While the tunnels look fascinating, I think I'd be tempted to crawl through them and from what I've read this is not a pleasant experience (they are incredibly tiny and dark). I also suspect we might have had our fill of war sites by this time. We'll see.

On the 5th of January we'll arrive in Siem Reap and after a good night's sleep we'll spend 4 full days touring the Angkor Wat complex. As you might be able to tell from the length of time we've devoted to seeing it, Angkor is what this trip has been built around. It is easily the place I'm most interested in seeing in all of Asia (and probably the world). I've been trying to read as much about it as I can in preparation, but it is simply too massive to get my head around. I'm not even sure 4 days will be enough to see it all. I won't say much more about it here since I'll probably post about it in length (with photos) when we get back. Meg's excited that we'll be staying in the hotel that runs the Red Piano Restaurant and our stay comes with free breakfasts there every day. The Red Piano is the restaurant that Angelina Jolie frequented while filming Tomb Raider 2 (which was filmed in parts of Angkor Wat). Apparently there's even an Angelina Jolie cocktail on the menu.

From Angkor we'll make our way (on the ground) to Thailand and into Bangkok. I suspect we'll be pretty tired after the 8-10 hour bus/taxi trip, but having only a couple of days before we fly back to Korea will likely inspire us to rush in as many of the sites of Bangkok as we can. Luckily, I've spent a number of days there already and remember a decent amount of the city. I also remember that most of the places (the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Dawn & the world's largest reclining Buddha) are all within walking distance of one another.

And so that's our trip (in not much of a nutshell). If we have time we'll try and post some photos and thoughts as we progress. We hope you all have a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas from Korea!

2007-12-25T21:15:00.001+09:00

We spent the day feasting with our Canadian and American friends. We had 7 people over for dinner and all had a great time. Unfortunately, we're back at work tomorrow. Though we do leave for Vietnam/Cambodia on Saturday. We thought you might enjoy a glimpse of our enormous Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Paul & Meg

Kings and Rulers

2007-12-23T21:28:00.000+09:00

Happy (slightly belated) Birthday, Queen Elizabeth. On Friday, Queen Elizabeth became Britain’s oldest-ever ruling monarch. And, while there’s still a year left before the American Presidential campaign ends, here in Korea, they’ve just elected a new President.

If you read Paul’s last blog, you might have watched the YouTube video of the Korean Parliament, where fist fights broke out last week. The current President (from the liberal party) has accused the President-elect (from the conservative party) of embezzlement, fraud, and stock manipulation. Though they’ve been campaigning for months, President Roh felt that these charges should be brought out less than a week before the election.

I brought this up with my coworker on our way to the end-of-the-year-dinner last night. “Lee has been accused of stealing money and bad business practices,” I said. “Yes,” she replied rather nonchalantly. “Americans are very concerned with morality. Koreans… not.”

I didn’t really know what to say, but before I was able to speak, she went on, explaining that since most Koreans favored the conservative party for this election, President Roh’s accusations were shameful. She explained that Lee Myung-bak had been elected on his economic platform, that he was in favor of English education, and that he was pro-American rather than pro-North Korea. She said that Koreans were upset with the aid that the liberals had given to the North Koreans.

Sometimes, you reach your destination a little too soon. Our conversation ended abruptly, and I didn’t want to resume it again over dinner. So, the rest of what I’ve learned I got from the Toronto Star and New York Times.

Lee was elected on a “747” economic promise. The first 7 is the promise of a 7% economic growth a year. The 4 stands for $40,000. The average Korean makes about $20,000 a year; Lee has promised to double the average income. The second 7 is the promise that Korea will become part of the world’s top seven economies.

Those are some pretty big promises to fulfill. Especially since Korean Presidents are limited to one five-year term in office. I don’t know much about economics, but I have a hunch that pledging to give all Koreans a unicorn might be more realistic….

As for his business practices, Lee has admitted to using fake addresses in order to enroll his children in better schools and registering his children as employees of his company in order to evade taxes. It seems like even though the Koreans will recognize these things as wrong, they’re willing to overlook them in the name of economic growth. From the Star:

Many Koreans, inured to a history of corruption among their business and political leaders, seemed ready to overlook Lee's problems.

"Politicians are all thieves," said Chung Jun-muk, 64, a retiree who supported Lee. "At least Lee Myung-bak is smart. He may have gone into the den of thieves, but he won, both in business and politics."

After Yu Mi’s dismissal of Lee’s corruption, I was a bit shocked. She is, after all, a Christian. How on earth could a Christian be willing to turn her head in the face of such apparent immorality? But, of course, that question can only lead to wondering about all of the evils in our countries that we ignore because of pragmatism. After all, one of Yu Mi’s questions at the beginning of our conversation was, “Is your President moral?”

This Week in Korea

2007-12-20T13:10:00.000+09:00

So we’ve had an easy week this week. On Tuesday all foreign teacher’s were sent to Everland (a theme park) for a day long training session. We were lucky because it’s only about 15 minutes from where we live. Many of the teachers had to travel from a couple of hours away. It was an interesting day. After starting about 30 minutes late we had the same lecture that had been given at the training I attended in September given again for about an hour. I’d estimate that at least 60% of the 1,000 teachers there had head the lecture before. Since Meg hadn’t been to training she enjoyed it more than most people. We then had an hour and a half for lunch. So we ate our lunch, took a few photos with Santa Claus and the Korean version of Minnie Mouse and shopped in the little stores before heading back in for hour two of “training”.

Hour two wasn’t bad. It was given by a woman who runs an English academy and her theme was culture differences. She gave us wonderful tips like “if you’re going to drink alcohol make sure to take a Korean with you so that they can sense if a fight is going to break out and warn you ahead of time.” She also mixed in remarks from her life, such as: “Once I open a bottle of wine I just have to finish it. My husband calls me an alcoholic!”

I think my favourite story that she us told took place about twenty years ago. A high ranking woman U.S. army official was giving a debriefing for some Korean reporters. After she finished she asked if there were any questions. The first one was “Are you a virgin?” The woman just stood there in shock for a couple of minutes and then walked off the stage. The Korean reporters couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. Apparently they were curious as to how a woman could get so high in power (remember this was 20 years ago in Korea) and were wondering if she had sacrificed her personal life in order to accomplish this. Unfortunately, the Korean word for being unmarried at can also be translated as “virgin”. So what they probably mean to ask was if she was married (which probably would still be a strange question to ask a Westerner at a press conference).

Once this lecture ended we had a 30 minute Tae Kwon Do performance which was pretty cool and then a Q & A time. Our Q & A time opened with some opening remarks and then they took the first question. After they answered it they decided that it wasn’t going to work well and so they told people with questions to come up to the stage to ask them one on one and everyone else was allowed to have free time. So we went out and rode some roller coasters for about an hour and then went home. It was a pretty good day. Though it makes me a little sad about how much money the province spent for us all to come in for 2 lectures (one most of us had already heard) and a 10 minute Q & A session.

In other news, it’s been an interesting week in Korea politics. We had the day off yesterday because it was the Korean election. If you haven’t heard about what transpired in the Korean Parliament last week (less than a week before the election) here’s a link to a Youtube video of it. It’s definitely worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWtQR13FtY

The election was held on Wednesday December 19^th. The parties have been campaigning for about a month and there were originally 12 candidates in the race. Out of these only 4 had more than 1% of the vote (two dropped out about a week into the campaign). With about a week left polling showed that the current party in power only had about 19% of the vote, while their main opposition had nearly 50% . It seemed quite certain that they were going to lose and by a lot. So they did the only honourable thing they could think of...they launched a criminal investigation into the leader of the opposition (Lee Myung-bak). 2 days before the election.

From the Korean Herald:

Under a bill passed by the National Assembly, an independent counsel will launch a second investigation into Lee Myung-bak's alleged financial wrongdoings, which range from conspiring to manipulate stock prices to lying about his wealth.

While interpretations vary, legal experts say it is possible under the current law for Lee to be indicted and stand trial. To be tried, however, he would have to be convicted before taking office. They also said Lee's election could be declared invalid if he receives a court sentence.

The end result of this fiasco is we now have a President-elect who has to wait to see if he’s going to be President in a few months or whether he’s going to jail. Of course judging from the video above, he might be safer in jail than in the parliament.

Rule & Regulations

2007-12-17T15:35:00.000+09:00

As we wind down our first term here we’ve been mapping out our options for the next year or so. It’s hard to know exactly what we should do at the end of our contract since neither of us is entirely sure of what we’d like to do upon our return to the Western hemisphere.

When we decided to work in Korea we were both pretty sure it’d be a two year adventure. After our first month, I think both of us were just hoping to make it through the first year without going crazy. Recently, we’ve been leaning more towards the idea of a year and a half. In a way it’s almost a waste of time to think that far ahead in regards to our plans here as our thoughts can change so much from week to week. I think that comes with living in a completely foreign culture. I remember having similar feelings while living in Japan and I really loved my time there. There are days where the culture just drives you crazy to the point where you’re ready to take the first plane back home. And then there are other days where you think how nice everything is now that you’ve settled into things.

Those of you reading our posts on a regular basis will know that we (Meg in particular) had some troubles verifying our documentation after we’d been working here for awhile. Unfortunately, it seems like the Korean government has decided to put together some more strict rules regarding visa requirements. One would think that we’d be exempt from most of these new regulations as we’ve already got our visas and have been teaching for 4 months. While this is true to a certain extent, it seems quite possible that these new rules might make our decision for us on how long we actually stay.

According to these new rules, if we choose to renew our visas in September we’ll have to travel to the Korean consulates in our home countries to get our new visas. Which might not sound so bad, but for us it’ll cost us about $3,000 in plane tickets, use up a good chunk of our summer vacation time (though we will get to see our families which would be nice) and it’ll mean us going to separate countries. Luckily I can get mine done in Toronto. Meg will have to visit either Boston, Atlanta, or Washington to get hers.

While we’re back home we’ll have to get our criminal records checked again. This time Meg will need to get an FBI check done rather than the routine police station check. I’m not sure what I’ll have to do since apparently Canada hasn’t joined some verification agency on international criminal checks meaning that technically as of March it will be impossible for Canadians to work as English Teachers in Korea (currently Canadians make up about 30% of all Foreign teachers in Korea).

Finally, we’ll both have to have an HIV test and a standard drug test. While I’m not worried in the slightest about the results of either of these tests, it does irritate me that I might need to have them done, especially after I will have already been teaching here for a year.

From the Korean Herald:

As to the items listed in the medical report, there has been some confusion because most hospitals here do not conduct any drug-related tests.

The ministry says they are aware of the problem.

"We contacted several hospitals to see if they conduct such tests. They said they don't without a sufficient demand for such tests. We found, after some research, that the Health Ministry-affiliated Seoul Medical Science Institute does the tests," said a ministry official.

There are 17,000 Foreign English teachers in Korea. . .and possibly only one hospital that will do the test needed to renew our visas. It’s quite brilliant. I’m glad they’re making new regulations prior to checking whether things are actually possible.

Cop-py

2007-12-11T11:15:00.000+09:00

The first day I had lunch at my school, I was handed a tray with five round indents, two chopsticks, and a spoon. The indents held: rice, soup, kimchi, and two side dishes. I thought it strange that there were no drinks served, and wondered if I should have brought my own. None of the Koreans had drinks with them. It made eating difficult – not only is Korean food rather spicy, but I am also not used to eating without drinking.

After two weeks of dreading lunchtime (not simply because of the no-drink policy), I decided that I should bring my lunch to work. I still had never seen anyone with a drink at lunch yet, and neither had Paul. I pulled out my peanut butter sandwich and fruit, and my coworker looked at my lunch, frowning. “You don’t have a drink,” she said.

“But, you never have a drink,” I answered.

“Koreans always drink their soup,” was the reply. As I puzzled over this idea, my coworker spoke again.

“In Korea, we always peel the apples.”

I decided not to worry about the apples. If they thought I was eating dirty or inedible things, I wasn’t going to care. They eat dried squid, cow kneecaps, and dog.

A few days later, I decided to have some Korean coffee at work. Korean coffee is instant coffee. It comes in individual, marker-sized pouches; each pouch contains a mixture of coffee, cream, and sugar. Usually, Korean coffee is made in Dixie cups; they shake the dry mixture in, then pour boiling water to the 3-quarter mark – it makes drinking coffee feel like doing shots. On this particular day, however, I wanted a warm mug of coffee, so I used two packets and filled my glass mug. My coworkers began commenting immediately, pointing at my mug and talking. I could see some of their eyes widen. Drinking a full cup of coffee is apparently as strange as eating an unpeeled apple.

Just a Little Bit Bigger Than St. James

2007-12-03T23:19:00.001+09:00

On Sunday morning I got up and headed into Seoul with our friends Kevin and Brenda (Meg wasn’t feeling well so she stayed at home) to attend Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest church in the world. The church claims over 830,000 members. The services are held in a monstrous building and the church seems to own a couple of city blocks around it. (I’m pretty sure the Sunday school classes had an office tower to themselves).

We arrived a little late for the eleven o’clock service. I think we got there around 11:20 – so right on time for me (though we did leave at 9:30 from Yongin). Since we look lost and the church excels at welcoming newcomers, we were greeted and taken inside within about a minute of our arrival. The usher spoke English pretty well and asked us many questions as he guided us up the walkway. Instead of stairs the church has ramps than reminded me a lot of Skydome (though not as wide). We were taken to the foreigner area. Which sounds funny, but is actually practical since in this area they give foreigners headsets that translate the service into numerous languages (English, Japanese, Spanish, etc..). Here we were handed over to the Foreigner Guide who recommended that we wait for the one o’clock service since the worship had already started. We told him we couldn’t stay that long and so we were taken in given our headsets and seated on a back staircase. I couldn’t see the altar area ( I think Brenda could see a flatscreen TV showing the service) and so the service for me basically entailed listening to the translated sermon and looking around at the crowd and ushers. It was impressive to see so many people gather in one place for a service. On our way out I asked how many people were there for the service and I was told the building held 10,000 to 12,000 people and the majority of people these days participate in the service at satellite locations (where the sermon is shown on TV).

After the service we went to a “Foreigner Briefing” which we were told would be about 10 to 15 minutes. It took about that long to get to the building where it was held. Then once inside we were met by a man who told us that the story he was going to tell us about the founding of the church would normally take 3 hours, but he’d squish it into one for us. I don’t think any of us were overly impressed. The story was interesting however, and it made me happy that we had attended a service where the founder of the church, David Yonggi Cho, delivered the sermon. It sounds like he only does a couple of the services each week.

While the church founder definitely is a remarkable man (growing a church from 0 to 800,000 in fifty years) his theology isn’t exactly in line with mine. He spoke of his trip to Hell a couple of times through the sermon, which I assumed to be some kind of metaphor even though he didn’t really use it in that way. At our briefing, our leader spoke about the founder’s trips to Heaven and Hell quite openly. He also talked about a woman he’d met who’d been to Heaven 17 times and Hell 3 times (He made sure to mention that on one of her visits to Hell she met her mother who was a devout Buddhist and lived a very good life). It made me feel a little uncomfortable.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the briefing was a 10 minute video that quoted some of the astounding numbers of the church. The video was a little outdated (and looked like it had been made in the ‘70s, though it probably was actually made about 5-10 years ago). It bragged about their congregation size of 700,000 people and the over 500 full-time pastors that the church employs. They also have around 85,000 deacons (62,000 women/23,000 men) and 1,319 elders (all men). It’s all pretty unreal. I couldn’t imagine belonging to a “congregation” of that size.

While it was an interesting briefing in most regards, we couldn’t help but feeling a little bit suckered by the length. So we told them we had to leave in a couple of minutes (I was glad Kevin was there – he’s pretty forceful). Before we could fully get out, we were given (well the entire room – there were about 8 of us) a quick speech on a book that had changed the elder’s life. It was written by the woman who had been to Heaven 17 times and was conveniently on sale there. I actually suspect if we had stayed longer there would have been more of a push to buy something. There was also a table of books written by the church’s founder with price tags on them.

Overall it was quite the experience. Enough so that I think it’s worth a trip back so Meg can experience it. Of course this time I won’t let them sucker me into the foreigner briefing...and I’ll make sure to get there early enough to get a seat where I can see something.
The church’s story is pretty amazing and definitely worth checking out if you’re interested:
http://english.fgtv.com/

Pure Race

2007-11-28T11:19:00.000+09:00

In my textbook, in every chapter, there is a cartoon about a dog. The dog – named Sujae - learns English by context. Sujae writes a letter and mails it to his friend’s web address; he gets confused when all the other dogs play hide-and-seek; he shows up to a potluck dinner expecting a pot of gold. (He’s a bit dim.) In the current chapter we’re studying, he’s walking through a park and meets another dog wearing a funny hat. “Oh, he’s from Nigeria,” says Sujae. This bubble is followed by another that is filled with “!#@$#%$@^%#^,” which, to me, looks like he’s swearing at the other dog. But, the other dog speaks, saying, “What did you say? Do you speak English?” Sujae is surprised that the other dog speaks English better than he does, even though the other dog is from Nigeria.

So, what do the kids learn from this comic strip? My coworker faithfully explains it every time, “people in Africa speak English better than people in Korea.” Interesting. Then, she goes on to explain that people in South East Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) speak English better than people in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan). When we returned to the office after class, she proudly told me that Korean people speak English better than the Japanese – and then she emphasized that it was an American reporter who said so. (I’ll let Paul discuss that one.)

Last week, in my teacher’s class (both Paul and I teach classes to our coworkers as well as our students), we read a piece on foreigners in Korea. For a long time, the only foreigners living in Korea were the American soldiers; but in recent years, in the midst of Korea’s economic boom, more foreigners have come – not just native English teachers, but Thais and other internationals who come to work in factories for low wages and poor working conditions. My coworker explained to me that though many foreigners come here and marry Koreans, none of our students had a foreign parent. “How do you know?” I asked. I wondered if it was a question on their admissions application.

“Thais have dark skin, large eyes, are short, and speak English very well,” she explained. “Koreans have light skin and smaller eyes, and big noses,” (I think she meant flat noses). “But some of our students have dark skin,” I said, quickly clarifying that they had darker skin than she. “Yes, but Thais are very dark,” she said.

We continued our conversation, and while I was intrigued, I also felt like I was walking on eggshells. I asked about some of the problems Koreans face regarding foreigners. “They come to Korea, and marry Korean men.” Korean women then have a problem finding husbands. But intermarriage points to a much larger problem in a Korean’s mind.

Koreans believe that they – along with the Jews – are the only pure race in the world. How this fits with the fact that the Chinese and Japanese have raped women in Korea – and occupied the country - throughout history, I’m not really sure. But the Koreans are sure, and I suppose that’s what’s important. Intermarrying with other races will put an end to their racial purity. When our married friends Kevin and Brenda explain that not all of their parents were born in Germany, the students proclaim, “mixed blood!!”

Pure race. Mixed blood. Just the words are enough to make us feel uneasy, and yet, they’re so proud…

Fan Death

2007-11-26T11:31:00.000+09:00

For the past several weeks, Paul and I have been shocked at how dreadfully cold our schools have been. In late October, while fall was changing into winter, we didn’t yet have the heat on in our apartment. Our coworkers would ask us both regularly if we had turned the heat on, how it was working, etc. and we would both have to answer that we hadn’t yet felt it to be cold enough to turn the heat on. And though the heat was not on at school, the windows were closed.

So, when the first few days of real cold came, we were both surprised to find the windows at our schools wide open. I began to wear more and more layers; I brought a large wrap to school to wear over my shoulders or on my legs to keep me warm. I wore my scarf to class. I was confused. The people who wanted me to turn on the heat a few weeks ago were now trying to freeze me out. I caught a cold, and was quite miserable. I tried to explain that perhaps I was sick because of the cold air. My coworker laughed.

Last week, Paul walked to work in -8C/17F. When he arrived at work, all of the windows in his school were open. A half-hour later, they turned the heat on. Fortunately, Paul’s coworker opened all the windows in the classroom so that the students wouldn’t feel too warm. Paul, the Canadian, spent his day teaching in a winter coat.

At my school, things were a bit better. My office was a warm 24C/75F. The windows were open in the rest of the school. I began to wonder if it was a way to conserve electricity or gas, so I decided to ask the teachers I teach. “The outdoor air is very good for you. The indoor air is very bad. If you don’t change the air in a room – open the windows every two hours – you will get a very bad cough.” I explained that where I come from, we don’t usually open the windows when it’s cold outside. My student was very concerned. “You need to make sure you open the windows in your apartment. You can get very, very sick.”

I was very polite, and I’ve even opened the door to our enclosed porch-thing once; but I haven’t opened our windows - even for ten minutes. Our windows are not insulated, and the doors leading to the porch where our windows are, are also not well-insulated. So, we usually have some flow of air from the outside coming into our house. But I can still hear some of you saying, “maybe he’s not crazy; maybe the Koreans know what’s best for you.” To that statement, I have some arguments.

First of all, our apartment – which is on the first floor – looks out on a parking lot. The exhaust fumes are disgusting in this country. There are no regulations on the junk your car or truck can put in the air. And everyone drives. In our first three weeks here, I had four asthma attacks – more than I would have during a whole summer in smoggy Toronto.

Second, nothing can induce me to believe that it is beneficial to children or to adults to have all the windows open in the winter – or to have them open in the hallways while the classrooms are heated. There is a ten-degree (Celsius) difference between my office and the bathroom. I know this isn’t good.

And, most importantly, I can’t really believe the Koreans on this one because they believe in fan death. If I told the Koreans that Paul and I sleep with a fan on every night – with the doors and windows closed – they would gasp at the mortal danger we put ourselves in. When we first came, we wanted to buy a few more fans for our apartment, but they were all at least $40. We couldn’t figure out why they were so expensive. But now we know: every fan in Korea has a timer, so that you can make sure that it doesn’t run all night; it’s a safety feature to prevent fan death.

Koreans aren’t quite sure how the fan kills you. It might be suffocation (the fan creates a vortex sucking the air from the room), poisoning (the fan creates high levels of carbon dioxide), or hypothermia (the fan lowers your body temperature so much that you die). Whatever it is, I think I’ll continue to take my chances with closed windows to preserve heat and a fan for noise. I think I’m in more danger crossing the street.

(If you’d like to read more about fan death, visit www.fandeath.net, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death.)

What Do You Call Turkey Day If There's No Turkey?

2007-11-22T17:28:00.000+09:00

Since my wife has decided to abandon our blog after only a couple of months I suppose it is up to me to give you a reason to keep visiting.

As I write this I am looking out the window wishing I had brought my camera to school today. We’ve had snow the last couple of days and although the students at my school have done their best to dispose of the snow on the ground by throwing it at one another (and pretending to throw it at me) there is still a decent amount on our playground. And by playground I mean a huge square dirt field.

Every day after school our school baseball team practices outside in this dirt playground. They practice hitting and fielding. Sometimes I stop to watch for a couple of minutes on my way home. They of course play all their games elsewhere (on a real baseball diamond I hope) and I’m pretty sure the season ended a month or so ago, but they are just determined to be ready for the new season in March or April. Anyways, I digress. Since it is impossible to practice at all effectively on a frozen pile of dirt they drive a truck around the playground with a large metal rake attached to the back. This usually does the job. I’m assuming the snow that has been trampled down by the students until it is a sheet of ice mixed into the dirt has made smoothing out the field much more difficult. As a result the truck is now driving around the yard with about 5 or 6 baseball players crouched on top of the rake trailing behind it. I can only imagine this is done to add more weight to the rake so it can dig into the ground better. Of course to my eye it just looks like an accident waiting to happen. I can tell from the mud down the backs of some of their pants and jackets that a few have fallen off a couple of times. My words do little justice in describing the situation. I’ll have to remember to bring my camera to school the next time it snows.

I’m back after an hour of teaching class and it looks like the baseball team has given up. The van is doing laps around the playground area still, but the players appear to have gone home. There's a good chance the field is in worse shape now than when they started.

Today is Thanksgiving for those who living in the land of the free. For everyone else in the world it's just another Thursday. We're trying to make it special by having dinner with the other foreign teachers we know. There will be 4 Yankees, 3 Canucks and a Kiwi at dinner tonight. Since none of us have an oven to fit anything larger than a pie pan we're going to have chicken instead of turkey. Our friends have however made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. Meg's made stuffing and cornbread and I've heard rumours of gravy. It should be a fun gathering. I'm hoping it will help me put back on the weight that I've lost since coming here. Winter is coming and it is always good to have some extra insulation. Especially in the frigid temperatures I have to work in.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Posts

2007-11-14T22:20:00.000+09:00

It's been a week since we've written anything so I figured I should try to at least put something up. I decided that maybe people have forgotten what we look like over these past couple of months so here are some recent photos. I'm the taller one...with the brown hair.

The fall leaves were more impressive than I though they'd be.

This is me in front of Namdaemun gate. The gate was built at the end of the fourteenth century and apparently helped to protect the city from tigers (if you can trust wikipedia). Now it serves as a gateway to Namdaemun market. The market is pretty cool actually. I'll try and post some photos from there in the near future.

Also, apparently this gate was the basis for Darnassus in the World of Warcraft (I know at least one of our readers will find that interesting).

Meg in Olympic Park. See if you can spot the American flag in the background. I'm pretty sure Meg's standing on the exact spot where they took away Ben Johnson's gold medal (give or take a few miles).

This is Meg on the stairs at Wa Woo Jeung Sa (A Buddhist Temple). The same place that I posted images from last week.

Finally, Meg laughs at me while I fiddle with my camera. I'm pretty sure I said something really funny and it had nothing to do with my wife thinking I'm a camera nerd. Our friend Brenda took this photo. I think she really captured a moment.

Well that's all for now. I have the day off on Thursday because all the final year high school students are writing the most important exam they'll ever write (the Korean equivalent of the SATS). The school beside mine is hosting one of the test sites and my school is closed for the day so "we don't make any noise that might distract the students writing the test". My friend Kevin's co-worker told him that they even cancel all air traffic over Korea for a couple of hours while the test takes place (we're not sure if this is actually true). I'm just happy to have the day off (unfortunately Meg has to work). I'll be heading into Seoul to try and get Vietnamese visas for our trip next month. Once our schools shut down we're heading off to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand for a couple of weeks. We're getting excited already. Angkor Wat has been the places I've wanted to see the most for the past four or five years. We just booked our plane tickets on Monday and are ironing out the details now.

Hope all is well back in the West.

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin-Eater

2007-11-07T14:21:00.000+09:00

One of the things that has been confusing Paul and me is the appearance of cheating in our schools. When my coworker is teaching, the kids write answers to questions in their workbooks (which are also their textbooks). Usually, she gives them a few minutes to do each exercise. Some of the students are finished right away, some struggle through, but most just sit there, staring at their pens, waiting for the teacher to give them the answer. Sometimes, if they’re feeling ambitious, this last group of students will find the ‘smart’ person near them, and copy their work. And, in a few cases, they don’t have to write anything at all, because they have the ‘remedial’ textbook: the one that comes with all of the exercises done.

You could argue that calling this ‘cheating’ is a bit too much. They’re going to get the correct answers in class anyhow – either through the teacher or other students. They’re not cheating on their work, but simply cheating themselves out of an education. You could also argue that it’s simply the result of the Asian ‘group mentality’: the students are doing their work as a group rather than as individuals. I sometimes encounter this when I divide my classes into teams and have them play games. Often, only the students who are the best in English play, while the others sit back and watch. They don’t take turns unless forced, because they’re playing ‘as a group.’

Group mentality, however, does not apply to tests. Koreans take testing very seriously – it’s what determines high school and college entry, as well as entry into certain job markets. Certification is key. When my students took midterms, each classroom had a teacher proctoring the exam, as well as one of the mothers looking on.

It seems like they take education rather seriously. Each of the teachers has a long stick to beat the students with (and it happens regularly). Students regularly have to stand at the back of the classroom – sometimes holding their hands above their heads – as a punishment for not finishing their homework or not bringing their pen or book to class. Almost every day, I watch as a student or two is brought into the teacher’s office to be lectured and yelled at. One day, all of the students who had shoulder-length hair or too-tight uniforms had to run laps outside.

But it doesn’t stop there. If a teacher catches a student smoking outside school hours or outside school grounds (on a Friday night, say, in downtown Yongin), the teacher calls the parents, and the student is punished by both her parents and the school.

This week, my coworker has been giving our students a vocabulary quiz. The students are given five-minutes notice, and five or ten minutes to take the quiz. While they’re studying, we wander through the class and answer questions. Imagine my surprise the first time I caught a girl writing all the words on her desk and hiding it so that I wouldn’t see. My coworker looked briefly, and the girl erased the words. The same thing happened in the next class. No punishment was given other than having to erase the words. The next class, I watched and waited. I caught a girl in the act. I thought for sure my coworker would be upset. I was wrong. No punishment; just having to erase the words so she couldn’t cheat.

Is it possible that forgetting a pen or talking through class is worse than cheating on a quiz?

Addendum

2007-11-05T13:21:00.000+09:00

Apparently I can't add photos to blogs that Meg has written...so here are some photos from our weekend. You can read her note below.

Waa Woo Temple. This is the largest temple in the Yong-in area. It's about 8km from our house, but the bus that passes it seems to run hourly. This obviously makes it a bit of a pain to get to. They temple started work on making a huge Buddha statue, but never finished it (not sure why, probably financial reasons) and so they just put the head on a mound of rocks.

The temple extends up onto the mountains. This is one of the guardians at the top of the staircase.

A Buddha Statue against the fall leaves.

Recognition

2007-11-05T12:50:00.000+09:00

You may not have visited our blog in a while. We haven’t visited it for a week. We can post things, but we can't see our posts. In Korea, Blogger is down due to posts regarding the upcoming election. I don’t even know whether I should be posting this…

I’m freezing cold at the moment. Koreans believe in sauna-like temperatures for their houses, but they also believe in ‘fresh air.’ In summer, my school had the air conditioning on and the windows open; in winter, we have the heat on with the windows open. In both cases, they were wasting electricity. I haven’t been this cold at school since I was at Beaver Local.

I spent Saturday sick in bed. Paul, on the other hand, had an adventure in Seoul. He returned with a Costco card, cheese and oatmeal, a Brita filter, and a much better understanding of the bus and subway system. Sunday afternoon, we ventured up the mountain to wander around a Buddhist shrine. It’s kind of a neat idea: they’ve placed statues, ponds, and walkways up the side of a mountain; people are free to roam about as they wish – worshipping or not worshipping as they like. Paul, of course, had out his camera to catch some of the last of the fall colors. It was a beautiful day. I spent some time wondering about what it would look like if more churches would put together worship-park like-things…

And, as I was thinking, I heard something like what my students call me, but not quite: “weggy.” It’s the short, cutesy form of the Korean word for ‘foreigner’. They were pointing at me and calling me ‘foreigner.’ They were not the only ones to give us funny looks… Of course, people often stare at us, whether we’re at a shrine or at the grocery store.

I came in to work this morning to find the contents of my class folder on my desk. When I opened the folder, I found a new class list inside. A few hours later, one of the other teachers came to my desk and started rifling through the folder, without acknowledging me at all. You would think there would be a happy medium between being over-recognized and under-recognized.

Recent Adventures

2007-10-29T11:35:00.000+09:00

It’s been a long time since we’ve written. We’re sort of settling into life here – getting our teaching and planning routines. Two weekends ago, we both had a cold, so we stayed near the house. I read my book, went to the store, cleaned the house. Paul took a bus to see where it went (to a beautiful temple up in the mountains).

This past week, however, has been rather full. My school had “Athlete Day” on Thursday, which began with a Halloween-like costume parade. After the parade, all of the students changed into their gym clothes; they played soccer, dodgeball, hackey-sac, and a variety of silly games. At one point, the mothers of classes 1-3 played kickball against the mothers of classes 4-6. I had to jump rope with the other teachers (which, by the way, is more difficult than I remember), and play tug-of-war. The next day, we had a school field trip – half the school went to the Korean folk village, and the other half went to a nearby palace. I went to the folk village. The students were let loose the whole day to ‘learn’ on their own (I believe they did most of their learning in the amusement park section), while the teachers enjoyed a nice day without classes to teach. I had a few students who led me around all day and explained things to me, which I really enjoyed.

This weekend, we went shopping in downtown Seoul, at Namdaemun Market. Namdaemun (south gate) Market is over 600 years old, and it feels just as old, not because it’s slow or the goods are old-fashioned, but because there’s such a distinct mercantile feel to the place. A million people have set up shops and tables all through the market, selling all kinds of different things. There were stores selling international foods, scarves, wrapping paper, souvenirs, toys, and, of course, (fake) Gucci and Louis Vuitton everything. There were so many people and so many things and so many people selling so many things. It felt like a movie. While Paul took pictures, I bought a wrap and haggled for a scarf, and looked at teen idol coffee mugs and fish forks and jewelry boxes. Paul, of course, bought a bag of little oranges and ate them.

We decided to walk from there to Myeongdong shopping district. While Namdaemun is a traditional market, Myeongdong is anything but. Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Levis, and many Korean-brand flagship stores line the streets. It’s more like an outside mall than a market. While Namdaemun was filled with people of all ages, this area was packed with 20-somethings; it had a distinct, club-like feel. Again, I browsed a few stores while Paul took pictures.

We went for dinner at a little Korean restaurant in Myeondong. Unfortunately, the waitress was rather rude, the food wasn’t so good, and the bill was twice what we had expected. ‘Tis the joy of traveling.

By the way, Paul went hiking with his coworkers last week and rode on a karaoke bus and ate dog….

Which is the Most Favorite Place?

2007-10-17T15:43:00.000+09:00

As a Canadian, my visa only came with a single entry permit (Meg's came with multiple entries since she's an American) so I decided to register myself at the Government of Korea's immigration website and apply for multiple entry status. After filling out a couple of pages with personal data I was taken to a page that is probably familiar to most people. I needed to create my username, password and choose a password hint. Nothing special. Or at least I expected it to be nothing more than selecting from the typical "What city were you born in?, What's your mother's maiden name?", etc... I could help but laugh when I saw the translations on some of these timeless identity questions. And then I captured screenshots to prove that you can't make this stuff up. Click on the screen capture below. It's worth it. Trust me.

For those who are too lazy, some of my personal favourites include:

Which is the most favorite place?
What is the first priceless treasure?
What date do you want to remember for a long time?
What is the most impressive book's title?
Which movie did you see impressively?
Who is your respectful person?

And my personal favourite (which was really tough to choose from this list of winners): "What is the most favorite paragraph you have read?" At least I know now that if I ever need to call the Korean Immigration office it is unlikely I'll talk to someone who speaks a form of English I'll be able to understand.

To the Word through English

2007-10-16T10:46:00.000+09:00

For the past month, Paul’s primary co-teacher has been very busy planning his school’s annual English festival. Since the middle school students were buried in exams last week, my school allowed me to attend the festival.

The school looked really impressive. The (second) big balloon was flying above the school (tied down, of course), and there were banners and smaller balloons everywhere. The walkway to the front door was lined with posterboard English presentations by each of the fifth and sixth grade classes.

Paul spent the festival emceeing the English performances in a large room inside the school while I wandered around, talking to students and taking pictures. A number of students had entered contests for speeches, storytelling, and singing. I watched a six year old give a speech introducing herself, a boy (dressed up as a turnip) tell a story about a turnip, and another boy sing that Paul Anka favourite, ‘Diana.’ Outside, the students played games like Simon Says, Whispering (like ‘telephone’), and Making Groups. The instructions were all in English. There were some mothers doing face painting (beautiful face painting), and, of course, ice cream for the kids to eat.

I was impressed by how many guests were there – teachers and principals and vice principals and officials from all sorts of places who were interested in the festival. Of course, it made Paul’s principal and vice-principal very happy – their school looked fantastic.

Even though it was a three-hour festival, it had both opening and closing ceremonies. All of the students gathered outside on the playground, facing a stage. Each of the classes stood in a line – boys in front, lined up from shortest to tallest – and girls in the back. The opening ceremony had speeches from the principal, vice principal, the head of the parent-teacher association, along with a few others – all in English. The closing ceremony included a mass-dance; all of the students wore red and blue gloves and waved their hands in the air. (This was performed to a remake of “Hey, Mickey.”) When the vice principal declared the beginning, ribbons shot out of the stage; when he declared the closing, a group of sixth-graders let balloons fly over the students. Paul, of course, was the emcee, and he read his script very slowly and very loudly.

The day before the festival, all of the school staff received shirts to wear that said, “Yukbuk Elementary School” on the front; on the back, they had the slogan for the festival, “To the World through English.” The shirts arrived at 2:30. At 4:00, they realized that the shirts actually said, “To the Word through English.” After a long deliberation, they decided to print pictures of a globe and tape them to each of the shirts to cover up the misprint. Of course, by the end of the festival, the globes had fallen from most shirts.

(If you want to see some pictures of the English festival, click on “Korean Photo Gallery” on the right side of the page.)

Countryside

2007-10-14T08:32:00.000+09:00

My students had midterms this week. I remember seventh-grade midterms as being a kind of joke, but in Korea, the students must apply to get in to high schools; all of them will go to high school, it's just a matter of which one. And, of course, in order to get into a good university, you have to get into a good high school. For three days the students come to school, take three tests, and leave at lunchtime to study at home or at the library before they go to their private lessons. A stressful week for them, but far more relaxed for the teachers.

I told my co-teacher that I had never seen a rice field before; so, on Monday, after we had finished proctoring exams, she took me for a drive in the country. We drove on a number of back roads through little patches of rice fields and small family farms. Once outside of the cities and towns, Korea is a very green country.

She drove me to a fishing lake surrounded by large, soft, green hills. We could have been in Algonquin or somewhere in Vermont. There was a ‘café’ at the top of the pond; the sign was mostly in Korean, but it had a guitar, a cowboy, and ‘70s’ and ‘80s’ on it. Those things, at least, looked familiar. It was a beautiful fall day and a perfect day for a picnic. Since I have come to associate Korea with garbage on the streets and smoky fumes in the air, I was surprised at how pleasant the countryside seemed.

“In Canada, do you have fishing ponds like this?” I assured Yu Mi that in Canada -and in the US, many people fished on lakes and ponds. And then, I looked around. The pond was surrounded on all sides by a dock-like thing. On the dock – all around the lake -- sat chairs that resembled lazy-boys: comfortable-looking, reclinable chairs. Most of the chairs sat underneath a tent-like thing, others sat in small concrete buildings. Yu Mi pointed out that the buildings on the dock had satellite dishes. Apparently, those are the box-seats for the fishing pond.

On our drive back, we stopped for ice cream. Yu Mi explained that there are many large houses in the area and a very nice golf course. And then, “In this place, there are many dog restaurants. Do you eat dog in Canada?” “No, we keep them as pets,” I replied.

“I think dog meat is much leaner than pork.”

Not much you can say to that.

post script.
The Lonely Planet dares Korean travellers to eat the following foods:
seasoned raw minced meat
fried grasshoppers
silkworm larvae
cow kneecaps soup
live baby octopus
and, of course, dog-meat soup

Balloon. Cut. Fly! GONE!

2007-10-09T13:27:00.000+09:00

While most of my family celebrated Thanksgiving today I was half the world away practicing for Yukbuk’s 2nd English Festival. The practice took place outside and since today its 10 degrees (or 50 for you Americans) everybody was bundled up like winter had begun to descend. I of course was still wearing just a collared t-shirt. This seemed to stun everybody. I was asked repeatedly if I was cold and was met with astonishment when I told them not really. To be fair, it has been between 20 and 25 degrees each day since we arrived so today was a pretty big departure for the normal. I’m personally hoping the weather will stay like this for awhile. It finally feels like fall.

The big news at the school today when I arrived was…well let’s see if you can figure it out. Often times to for an event or opening, Koreans will have a big balloon float outside or over the place announcing it. Yesterday when I arrived at school there was a large balloon floating outside my window with a large pink banner hanging from it reading “2nd Yukbuk English Festival”. Today when I arrived I was greeted by many of the teachers with the words: “Balloon”, “cut”, “FLY!”, “Gone”. The order they said the words seemed to be pretty random. Slowly they asked the teachers and school workers who spoke English to help translate (even though I understood pretty quickly what had happened). With the aid of his coworkers, the Vice Principal finally came up to me and told me that the “edible balloon line was cut and the balloon go away”. Now, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume he meant “inflatable” balloon and that Koreans typically don’t eat the balloons after they are finished using them. The new crisis today is where to put the balloon so vandals can’t cut the line again. It sounds like it’ll be attached to the roof. This should put it high enough up in the air that nobody can read what it says. We’ll see.

One of the nicer things about working in Korea might be the way nobody really seems to take you seriously or believe you when you try and explain things to them that they don’t want to hear. Piracy is pretty rampant over here and apparently getting a fake degree, driver’s licence or passport is only slightly more difficult than renting a movie. In the past month it has come out that a couple of prominent Koreans in high places have gotten their jobs through forged documents. The response of our provincial board of education has been to require that all foreigners prove their degrees are authentic. The way it has been decided that we should prove our degrees are authentic is to take one of our co-teachers to our school’s website and to the area that lists all graduates for any given year. Then we are to print off the page (with the web address) and have it sent to head office. A glaring problem with this idea of course is that while it might be common in Korea to post graduate lists for all to see on the website, this isn’t so standard in North America. It’s great when they make policies for foreign teachers without actually talking to a single one of them. Anyways, Meg’s having trouble with her teacher about it. Today’s the deadline and I suspect she’s having a rough day. I tried to explain to my teacher that it was impossible to do what he asked. I did almost tell my co-teacher however that if he wanted I could have the Wycliffe site show me as a graduate with whatever grade point average he wanted. I’m kind of glad I didn’t. I probably would have made things more difficult for me in the end. Though it would have been fun to log-on to the Wycliffe site and create some bogus article just to prove I really graduated.

Luckily for me, as I could start to see my co-teacher’s eyes glazing over with disinterest I remembered that Wycliffe publishes a magazine that lists the graduates and that we post a copy to the website. So he was happy. Though he does want another transcript. This will be the 3rd one I’ll give to them in the past month. I’m glad Wycliffe doesn’t make me pay for them.

Unfortunately, my proving my degree’s authenticity through the website has only made things more difficult for Meg. Her school can’t figure out why she can’t do the same thing as me. I think she’s explained it to them every day for the past week. They don’t seem to be getting it. Meg told me earlier that she emailed the alumni association to ask for an email verification. It hasn’t arrived as of yet. Her teacher keeps asking her to check her e-mail even though Meg’s explained to her countless times that it is after 10pm in Philadelphia. This doesn’t appear to have had any affect on her. But who knows, maybe the offices at Eastern University are 24 hours.

The First Global Haircut

2007-10-06T11:07:00.000+09:00

My hair has been bothering me for weeks. The last time I had it cut was in early August, and recently, it’s been really long, dry, and annoying. It’s been in a ponytail way more than usual.
Thursday was the final straw. My hair was so scraggly and gross that I made up my mind to get it cut. I had asked my friends here where to go, and had Paul print out some pictures. I was set.

I hate getting my hair cut to begin with. I don’t like making small talk with someone working on my head. I don’t like worrying about what I’ll look like after it’s over. But going under the scissors in Korea, I was worried because I couldn’t communicate with the person cutting my hair, and I was way more worried about how I would look in the end. After I gave the stylist the picture and sat down in a chair, I knew that there was nothing else I could do. So I waited.

I couldn’t really tell what was going on as the one lady cut and the other stylists looked on and laughed (whether at me or at the television, I’m not sure). I could kind of feel where the scissors were hitting in the back, and it seemed about right, but I wasn’t quite sure – I knew that that wasn’t a very good indication. After the one woman finished cutting, two women dried my hair simultaneously. That’s when I noticed all the hair on the floor – big, long chunks of hair. The second woman then took a straightener and spent what felt like hours painstakingly styling it. The heat from the striaghtener, combined with my growing suspicion of what had happened made me feel rather hot and sick.

It was over. Shaking, I ran my hand through my hair. And again. Two hands felt what was on the back of my head. My heart, which had been slowly sinking, anchored itself in my stomach.

I paid (they charged double for the fifteen minutes with the straightener, which annoyed me) and left. I walked home quickly, forgetting the other errands on my list for the night. At home, I went directly to the washroom and Paul quickly followed. We both looked in the mirror.

I’ve never had such a bad haircut. In addition to being three (three!!!) inches shorter than what I had requested, the shape was a sort of 80’s rock star combined with a bad version of ‘the Rachel.’ Most of my hair is chin length or just longer, while a thin layer sticks out underneath. It’s a big balloon of hair nestled in a messy array of spikiness. In the back, the thin underlayer is shaped into an extra long tip, reminiscent of a ‘rat tail’. The rat tail is the only piece that is at the just-below-shoulder-length that I had asked for. And before you tell me that short hair isn’t that bad, I should mention that because of mandatory hair lengths for middle school students, I now had the same hair as my students. In a really, really weird shape.

As I stood there in shock, expressing my frustration and disbelief, I remembered that I own a pair of hair scissors. I began chopping the weird long pieces in the hope that I could fix some of what had gone wrong. Paul stood by and held my hand mirror, and when I couldn’t reach the rat tail, he cut it. It was one of those special moments when you know you really trust someone. Or that your hair is just that bad.

In the end, I can get it into a ponytail, and that’s where it’ll probably stay for a while – at least if Paul has his camera out. He says it’s not that bad and that I’m still pretty. And that’s why I keep him around.

The Tiger or the Bear?

2007-10-04T14:29:00.000+09:00

Well Meg had her birthday yesterday. It was a little strange to celebrate it on October 3rd here since it was still October 2nd for most of the day back in North America. Her birthday was pretty much ending right around when it would have started if we were still back home. We were lucky that October 3rd is a national holiday in Korea. It celebrates Korea’s birthday (Foundation Day). It commemorates the mythical founding of the Korean nation in 2333 B.C. by the legendary god-king Tan-gun. It is an interesting myth which involves a bear and tiger striving to become human. If you are interested in finding out whether the Korean people are descendents of the Bear or the Tiger; you can read a short synopsis of the myth at: http://www.lifeinkorea.com/information/tangun.cfm

To celebrate Meg’s birthday we decided to head into an art gallery in Seoul. Meg had read good things about the Leeum Samsung gallery (that just opened a couple of years ago) and so we ventured off to spend the afternoon there. The gallery was quite beautiful and I really liked the design of the building, unfortunately only half the museum was open this week. Fortunately for us it was the Korean section that was open (we’ve probably seen enough ‘foreign’ art back home and on our honeymoon). One benefit of only half the museum being open was the price of admission was only $5 and it came with a free audio guide. The audio guides were very nice. There were little palm pilots with touch screens and a headset. When you walked up to an object it would automatically start playing what you were looking at (in theory). You could touch the screen to read the script or view different angles of the item. It was a very nice set-up. For some reason however, it only worked properly on two of the four floors. On the 2nd and 4th floors for some reason whenever you walked up to a ceramic or piece of art it wouldn’t register properly and it would talk about another piece of artwork. To make maters worse it would talk about something that wasn’t even on display. I suspect the gallery rotates some of its collections and doesn’t always update what is on display with the English audio guide. This is a shame because we really liked the gallery itself and would like to go back and see the other exhibits.

After a dinner of Dak Galbi (spicy chicken – currently Meg’s favourite Korean food) we went to the English bookstore and browsed around. We were hoping to get some textbooks or props for our classes, but nothing seemed quite right so we stopped by the local Dunkin’ Donuts, bought a small cake and headed back to Yongin. It was a pleasant day and the third country Meg has celebrated her birthday in.

Happy Chuseok

2007-10-01T15:20:00.000+09:00

Happy Chuseok – a few days late. This past Tuesday was Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving (American Thanksgiving, that is). It’s a harvest celebration with lots of food and a five-day weekend, without the sales. We were fortunate enough to be invited to celebrate Chuseok with Paul’s co-teacher and his family; so, on Tuesday morning, we were up and at the train station at 6:30 and arrived at Mr. Kim’s house an hour later. We were introduced to his family and ushered onto the couch, where we sat and watched the news (in Korean) with the men of the family (the women, of course, cook the meal, but there was no real way for me to ask to help. In fact, I think that might be considered rude here – I’m not sure.) By 8:30 the meal was ready and we sat down to large helpings of beef and onion stew, bulgogi (a beef dish), boiled chicken and fish. (The whole meal seemed rather full of meats.) For desert, we ate apples and pears and songpyeon, a sort of rice-cake that’s the ‘signature dish’ of the Chuseok meal.

After the meal, Mr. Kim and his brother took us to the nearby Korean Folk Village. The houses – except for the wealthy person’s house – all had thatched roofs and mud floors. Cooking was done in a fire-pit built into the kitchen floor. It was all the sort of thing that you might expect, until Mr. Kim said, “this is a traditional farmer’s house. This is the kind of house I grew up in.” Mr. Kim can’t be fifty, and yet, during his lifetime, Korea has made its way from a third-world, thatch-roof country, to a developed nation stuffed with sky-scraper apartment buildings.

There were some really neat shows at the Folk Village as well: a gymnastic see-saw performance, a tightrope walker (who had to be over fifty-five), and a traditional farmers dance which involved men with four different kind of drums and hats with long strings attached. The men who danced with the hats were really neat.

It seems as though going to the Folk Village on Chuseok is a rather popular thing to do. By the time we were leaving at 2:00, the park was getting quite full. Many of the children came dressed in hanbok, the traditional Korean costume.

The rest of our holiday was spent relaxing. We took two trips to Seoul: we were able to see Gyeongbokgung, one of the old royal palaces; we walked by the Blue House (the President’s residence), and wandered through Kyobo, one of the largest bookstores in Seoul. All in all, it was a good holiday, even if we couldn’t spend it traveling.

Our First Week in Photos

2007-09-20T15:34:00.000+09:00

Apparently, we don't just like in Yongin. We live in "The First Global Yongin".

Here is the photo you've all been waiting for, our beloved toilet.

And a closer look.

Smiling & Waving Prohibited

2007-09-19T15:55:00.000+09:00

My wife is taking the day off and she asked me to write about my experiences so far. I think she has viewed this blog as more of a collaboration than a solo act. Only time will tell which one of us is mistaken.

It has definitely been an interesting experience so far, and much different than my time in Japan (for those interested, I’ll flush out the differences in more detail later). I really haven’t done much in class yet. I just sit off to the side and observe…occasionally adding in a comment or two. It hasn’t been the most exciting. I’m actually looking forward to teaching next week. I’ve introduced myself to each class and they’ve all gotten the opportunity to ask me some questions. Since their English is quite low, the number of questions I’ve received has been somewhat limited. Almost every class asks me: my age, birthday, if I speak Korean and whether I have any children. Most ask how tall I am, some have asked my weight, and one even asked what I thought of the kid sitting beside him (his neighbour got him back however, by asking me if I thought his friend was silly).

In my spare time between classes I’ve been researching where to travel within Korea. Korea is quite a bit smaller than I expected and therefore almost all points of interest are within reach. Even Busan (Pusan) is only a two and a half hour trip on their Bullet Train equivalent. I had thought of perhaps visiting the DMZ in the near future (though they needed our passports to get our alien cards, so we won’t be able to visit until we get them back). I’ve heard it is a very interesting tour. It sounds like it only costs around $35 each for the day trip. Not too bad for a trip into a potential war-zone… The website noted that there were some special rules for people partaking in the DMZ tour. My favourite of which was “No waving, talking, gesturing or smiling to the North Korean army”.

I’ve actually been enjoying the food. I think my digestive system had a much harder time adjusting to the fish diet I encountered in Japan that it has to the spicy food of Korea. We get served lunch at school ($2.50 a day is removed from our payment) and I’ve been enjoying it. To clarify, I’ve been enjoying the food. Not the lunches in general. At my school lunch consists of the specialty teachers (3 English, 2 Physical Education and 1 Science teacher) eating together in the administrative offices. The Administration makes themselves scarce for about 30 minutes while we eat (I have no idea where they go, or why we eat in their office – perhaps because it is fairly large?). It takes me about 10 minutes to eat, and then I sit listening to the other teachers speak in Korean to each other for about 15-20 minutes. None of them speak English overly well (not even the two English teachers). It seems like it is impolite to leave before the oldest teacher is ready to go, so we sit there until they stand up to leave. Then the younger teachers clean up and wheel the food kart away. It is an interesting process. Though probably better than eating in a cafeteria full of screaming kids (the kids actually eat in their homeroom class – not much of a break for the Homeroom teachers).

For the most part I’ve been eating more at lunch and having smaller dinners. That might change as we discover foods and restaurants that we like in the area. Also, once we get our kitchen sorted out I suspect we’ll be more inclined to have larger meals than what we’ve been eating so far.

For those of you awaiting some photos, Meg will most likely post some tomorrow. We’re hoping to venture into Seoul on the extended weekend (It’s a 5 day weekend for us – sadly, it’s come too early for us to make good use of it) and I’ll be sure to take numerous photos there. I’ll try and post them next week.

An Adventure in Church-y

2007-09-18T13:10:00.000+09:00

I would post our pictures, but I still haven’t quite figured out how to post them… if anyone can figure out how to change the language settings on google, let me know.

On my first day of work, my co-teacher invited me – in the way that only some cultures can – to the English service at her church, “You will come with me to church on Sunday.” As uncomfortable as I was with this invitation, I was happy to find that there was an English service at a church very near to our apartment. It’s a very large Presbyterian church, with a gigantic neon-red cross at the top of the steeple. We arrived for one-thirty, and rushed downstairs to a large room – about the size of a North American ‘fellowship hall.’ There were enormous maroon drapes behind a large, elaborately-carved pulpit, a drum set, a keyboard, and three pews. Of the twenty attendees of the service, Paul and I were the only white people present. The music was loud, but familiar-sounding. At one point, we were asked to, “sing ‘Jesus Loves You.’” A very different tune was played, we heard many languages, and everyone in the room formed a line to shake hands with each other and say, “Jesus Loves You.” It was more awkward than profound. After the sermon, we were asked to come forward and introduce ourselves as newcomers. At that point, the line formed again, and everyone shook our hands and mumbled something.

Despite the awkwardness, it was actually quite nice. We were happy to be able to go to church, and happy with the possibility that we could have a church community very easily. What was most difficult was not giggling each time the pastor prayed to the “Holy Spit.” “Holy Spit, be with us today. Holy Spit, make us pure.” I’m glad my siblings weren’t there. (So is my mother – she can’t sit between all of us.)

After church, we attempted to find food. This is actually a bit of a problem. There are hundreds of Korean restaurants, but we don’t yet know how to order food in Korean, or even how to read in the Korean language. We ended up at a Korean fast-food joint, which served the worst hamburgers we’ve ever eaten.

I have to admit that I’m having a bit of a problem with the food. I like asian food. I like Korean food. And yet, adjusting to a new time zone doesn’t always go well with spicy, foreign food. And it smells!!! It’s one thing for a dish to be spicy; it’s quite another for the entire country to smell of a particular spice. Last night, we went to the local ‘large’ grocery store. We could smell fish for a block away. Nothing in the store was appetizing, because the smell of the salty dead fish was overwhelming. Plus, there was a man yelling into the microphone the entire time we shopped. I was nearly in tears by the time we left. I ate ice cream and Pringles for dinner.

Pain?

2007-09-14T10:52:00.000+09:00

Because of the way the Korean language is structured, when Koreans speak English, they often add a ‘y’ to the end of a word, like ‘orange-y juice’ or ‘trash-y can.’ Thus, Meg becomes Meggy, the name I was called until I was nine. The teachers and students have laughed when I have been introduced as Meggy; today my co-worker told me that Meggy is a type of Korean fish. It’s like I’m being introduced as “Salmon” or “Tilapia.”

I’ve been walking a lot – I walk to and from school, and I’ve spent the last two evenings exploring the shops in our neighborhood. I fear a bit for my life when I’m walking, not because of I stick out or there’s a high crime rate (I don’t and there’s not). I’m scared because most intersections only have a blinking yellow light. There’s no order to going through a blinking yellow - cars, buses, pedestrians, bikers – they all just move in their direction and hope for the best. It’s as though someone thought, “There are a lot of people who want to get through this intersection. Why not let them all go at once? That would be the best way.” Fortunately, I’ve braved Bloor street and Queen’s Park Crescent often enough to know how to boss my way through. Or just run.

Yesterday was my first day teaching. I thought I was just introducing myself to my students for a few minutes, but after I talked for fifteen, I realized that my co-worker had nothing planned for the day, and I was meant to keep the kids involved for fourty-five minutes. Since I’m not a natural talker, and I’m jet-lagged, it was not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. The first class was absolutely dreadful, but I got much better by the end of the day. I wasn’t so happy about the sink-or-swim situation, but I got to gage how well they can speak and how shy they are; which ones are too scared to speak, and which ones can’t keep quiet.

After lunch yesterday, my coworker took pity on me and sent me to the “female teacher’s lounge,” a long, rectangular room with only a leather sofa to furnish it. I took a cup of green tea and my book. (It’s amazing how refreshing reading English can be after hours of listening to only Korean and broken English.) I noticed, however, that my pretty mug with daisies on it, also had some English writing:

The flower
I think I grow tensions
like flowers
in a wood where
nobody goes.

Each wonn (one?) is perfect
encloses itself in a tiny
imperceptible blossom
making pain.

Pain is a flower like that one,
like this one,
like that one,
like this one.

A Beginning

2007-09-12T15:51:00.000+09:00

Our blog is hosted on google. By some miracle of the internet, all of the buttons are now in Korean. It made posting this a lot more interesting.

After a two-hour drive from the airport, we arrived at our apartment around 8:30 last night. My coworker and another local English teacher met us and took us for dinner and a bit of grocery shopping at E-Mart (the Korean version of Target or Wal-Mart). Even though we were eating at a little fast-food place, our food was still served in a cast-iron pot. We bought some fruit and bagels (and coffee) and went home.

Our apartment is big, even by Toronto standards. They’ve installed all new appliances – microwave, toaster oven, refrigerator, tv, washing machine. Our furniture is pretty nice, too; they’ve given us a bed, dresser, table and chairs, sofa, and a desk. We have two bedrooms, a living room, a main room (where the kitchen is) and a back room that functions as a sort of walk-through closet – it runs the length of the back wall and has shelves and a thingy to hang our clothes on). Our toilet has a squishy cover with a picture of a girl walking in a field of flowers. It says “The Cosmos means the purity and love. Let’s feel the clean cosmos.” Paul wants to replace it.

This morning, Paul went off to training in another city for a few days, and I went to meet the teachers and administrators at my school. Gorim Middle School is a fifteen minute walk from our apartment -- just past Yongin stadium and the local driving range. The school is enormous and brand new and really, really nice. The students kept coming by the office today just to say “hello,” to see if I would talk back to them. When I would reply, they would laugh and run away. I said “goodbye” to one girl, and she went screaming with her friend down the hall. In the cafeteria, everyone looked and shouted and waved when I walked in. Being a seventh-grade English teacher is the closest I’ll ever be to being a rock star.

Our Day at the Consulate

2007-09-07T09:56:00.000+09:00

The story of our time in Korea should really begin with our visa troubles. At the end of July, Paul and I signed teaching contracts with Gyeonggi province and sent them to our recruiter, along with resumes, transcripts, two passport-size pictures, police checks, and our most recent degrees. Our company in South Korea took our documents to the Korean consulate and emailed us confirmation numbers. “Just take the confirmation numbers – along with your passports – to the Korean consulate in Toronto,” they told us. “It will make the visa process very easy.”

We visited the Korean consulate on the first morning we were back in Toronto, passports and confirmation numbers in hand. We waited ten minutes in line before we were pointed to a table in the back corner of the room where we found visa application forms. After filling out the forms, we got back in line, this time, we were told to sit on the bench at the back of the room. Fifteen minutes passed, and some new people were standing in our line. We stood up again. This time, the clerk asked us to photocopy our passports for them. She pointed to a photocopier in the corner. Since neither one of us had Canadian money, we left the consulate for the nearest corner store and ATM, returned with only quarters, and photocopied our passports for 25 cents a page. We returned yet again to the desk. “Where are your pictures?” she asked.

“We sent them with our other documents to Korea,” we replied. “We have a confirmation number.”

Without looking impressed with our confirmation number, she replied,“There’s a photo shop at Yonge and St. Clair. Bring back pictures and sixty-five dollars cash.”

We drove to the photo store because we didn't know how far away it was (it’s not far enough to warrant getting in a car), had to find a place to park, found another ATM, and got in line at the photo store. Thirty minutes; thirty dollars. Back to the consulate.

“Do you have the address of your school in Korea?” Our recruiter’s address was on Paul’s laptop, sitting in his dad’s office, along with his cell phone. We used the consulate’s pay phone and Paul’s dad found the address for us. We each finished our forms, and went, yet again, to the desk.

The clerk took our money, pictures, applications, photocopies, and our confirmation numbers. She typed our numbers into her database. There were the pictures we had sent to Korea, along with all of the information we had sent, and everything we had filled out on the application. “This says you have a degree from the University of Toronto. I’ll need to see that.”

We had sent our degrees to Korea. It was supposed to be easier that way. We had a confirmation number. And yet, we were stuck. They were disappointed that we couldn’t see our degrees, but seemed satisfied with the idea of sealed transcripts. We both had extra copies of our transcripts -in Etobicoke, a forty-minute drive from the consulate. A few hours later, we returned to the consulate a fourth time, carrying our transcripts.

They put all of Paul’s paperwork together in the file, and then looked at mine. “We don’t normally work with Americans. This will probably take longer than five days.”

It was not a happy drive home. I tilted my seat back, and we listened to Harry Potter while Paul navigated rush-hour traffic. We were frustrated, annoyed, nervous. We had managed to apply for our visas, but it had taken much longer than we had supposed, and there was very little hope that I would have mine in time to travel on the 28th. We were already anxious about our trip: our company had just let us know that we wouldn’t have an apartment when we landed – we would need to stay temporarily with a family in the next town over, or perhaps in very small temporary housing. Not to mention the fact that we had not left ourselves enough time to see our friends and family in Toronto before we took off the next week. We were feeling more than a bit stressed.

Providentially, we got an email the next business day saying that our Korean company had found us housing beginning on the 10th of September – would we mind coming a bit later? It was perfect. Paul’s visa was ready on time, but mine wasn’t ready until the day after we were scheduled to leave. We would have had to cancel my flight. But we have our visas in hand now, a place to move into when we land, and plane tickets for Monday morning.