LATENIGHT - KOREA

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Busan at night (Photo courtesy Kim MacEachern)

Busan is currently in the midst of the 14th Asian Games. Sadly, they've held absolutely no luster after what we witnessed with the amazing World Cup this summer. For the most part, I haven't kept up with the scores. The pre-Games exhibition match between North and South Korea was interesting from a political point of view (though not from an entertainment point of view as the match ended in a non-descript 0-0 tie). Still, the press has been fairly dilligent in covering stories related to who's flying the North Korean flag and who's not... and during slow news days on that front, you can usually find a piece written up on the same theme, regarding the playing of the North Korean anthem. There are so many stories that I guess the local media ran out of space on their internet servers-- because they quite noticeably missed reporting on the firebombs thrown into Camp Red Cloud by Anti-American demonstrators yesterday.

There was one related story that made it in though. Note in the first paragraph, that it comes complete with the world's newest addition to the Konglish dictionary-- the use of the word "terror" as a concrete noun. This is what I am up against when teaching TEFL, and largely without any help from such "respected" media sources as CNN. I hold those Turnerites responsible for this mess since they were the one's that globalized the war on an abstract noun ("terror"). Sadly this lack of sense has now been compounded instead of corrected. You see, people in Asia lack English vocabulary and speaking ability but many have an exceptional command of grammar. Since everybody knows that you can't fight an abstract noun, and everybody in Asia humbly perceives that CNN is always correct (much to the dismay of the British), the conclusion must be that the word "terror" is now acceptable to be used as a concrete noun... Furthermore it is also well known that Asians have a history of taking pre-existing elements from the West, first copying, and then improving on them. This process has now been replicated in the local media. Now that it has been determined that "terror" can be a concrete noun, the writer of this article has improved it by making it a countable concrete noun. Placing this new prototype word into his word processor, he then gives it the final coup de grace; he pluralizes it. You have just watched the evolution of the language. If only Desmond Morris was here, I'm sure he'd have something witty to say.

Tune in next week when Asian ingenuity tackles the dilemma of the Iran-Iraq-North Korea "Axis" of Evil by bending the laws of physics, nay space-time itself, to create the world's first 3-pointed, 2-dimensional, singular axis. Can they do it in time to save the poor tourists already on flights for the ghostly and mysterious Bermuda Axis (nee Triangle) or will the world collectively say, "Hold on... shouldn't it be pluralized to axes?".

Yeah yeah... I know... the words "dead horse" just passed through your mind.

Friday, September 27, 2002

Outside Freyatown in Dongdaemun

I guess I'm awake for the day now. There's not much sense in going back to bed. Tonight I only have 3 classes and then I can relax for the weekend (although tentative plans have been made for a day trip tomorrow). I've got my coffee and I think I'll just sit back and blog for a minute.

First of all... does anybody know if last night was supposed to be a party or something? From the minute I got to school, students were stuffing their faces. I saw a pizza box lying around, and my last elementary class of the night was treated to cans of orange juice by the front desk. Strangely enough, three separate students at three separate intervals surprised me by cramming dried squid in my mouth. It's a nice snack but I found it a bit odd that the offerings all converged on the same night. When I left school for the evening, I was also stopped several times by kids that I have never seen before, who politely wanted to test out their English. The first was a boy who recited a sentence of some sort (I forget what he said, although strangely I remember that it was in the present perfect tense. Like I said, I had just finished class). Then I ran into the cutest three little rugrats you'd ever see clambering directionlessly on a nouveau art sculpture. They spoke to me in Korean and were surprised when I answered... but when the boy said something I couldn't understand, one of the girls ever so nonchalantly switched to English and asked if I liked pizza... then kimchee, then the other two continued with hamburgers, chicken... I was getting hungry then so I smiled and said good bye, heading for the LG25 for my nightly snack quotient. As I got to the main street, people were lighting off fireworks in the middle of the sidewalk in front of Lotteria. All in all, I couldn't help feeling like everyone was celebrating something.

So maybe all this stuck in my head because I had the strangest dream last night. In quite vivid detail, I dreamt of being in a house, somewhere in Korea, during a missile attack. In the dream, the U.S.A. was launching an attack/counterattack on whatever sleepy little neighbourhood I was in, while some high-tech, secretly constructed, advanced North Korean missile defence system was successfully shooting down the incoming fire. I was watching all of this, while at the same time, a T.V. set, in the house I was in, provided news coverage and commentary to fill in the details. I remember an American fighter being sent in and then shot down by this huge, black N.K. missile. Then another fighter came in to meet the same fate. After that the U.S. switched to ballistic cruise missiles. Two were fired in close succession. One impacted about 1km from where I was (I could see the flash and the shockwave) while the other was targeted by the N.K. missile system. The two missiles chased each other until the N.K. missile managed to catch the American one... the two exploded in a massive dark green cloud that sent everybody scattering (and me to find the basement) with initial shouts that it was poison gas but the panic was recanted quickly and all was safe again. The attack ended. I remember the newscaster saying the time was just shortly after 11 o'clock (11:11 I think) but the display on the screen showed the time as being 11:30. Where I was in Korea, it seemed to be close to dusk however. I had the feeling that the attacks would return after dark, so I ran out onto the street, to a convenience store to pick up a disposable camera... to make sure that the next time it all happened, I got photos for my blog. Strangely enough, the Korean guy at the counter handed me a polaroid camera, and then a camera that came with a 15 pack of 35mm film. Eventually I found the camera I wanted but it was distressing to have to deal with miscommunications in my dreams too. All in all, this dream woke me up at around 8am this morning and I've stayed up since then (I went to bed around 5am).

The main reason I didn't try to get back to sleep, as a sidenote to those of you needing to know, is that I am getting my phone number changed today. The phone company was supposed to call to confirm at 10am today, although they didn't-- so I probably could have gone back to sleep. I had been getting a bit frustrated with prank calls (Koreans who think it's cool to dial up a foreigner-- or old Korean men trying to practice English) but the last call was the most annoying. It came at 5:30am last Sunday, when some Korean girl called up and asked me tonnes of questions but refused to say who she was. Each time I asked as to what her identity was, she giggled and asked someone, in the room with her, what she should say. Eventually, the mystery co-conspirator said something loud enough for me to hear-- which instantly gave him away as being one of the former foreign teachers from my school. This teacher seemed like a nice enough guy at the time but I am NOT going to put up with calls in the middle of the night, done for kicks. It's one thing to get crank calls from Koreans, but I am not going to put up with getting them from other foreigners. The number is being changed.

ADVICE TO NEW TEACHERS: As I was told when I came to Korea, NEVER give out your phone number. If you have just recently met a Korean and they ask you for it, and they often will, give them the number of your school and tell them to contact you there. Too many times, foreigners have had their numbers passed around as status symbols so that Koreans could brag about having a foreign friend, even though all they do is call you up, wait for you to say, "Hello," then giggle and hang up. In Changwon, I was able to stick to that advice and it saved me grief... however, here in Seoul, the teacher I replaced didn't follow that advice and instead, gave his number out to a number of Koreans that he met in bars. When I inherited the phone number, I also inherited the crank calls.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Jungno, Seoul

The above photo was actually taken this past spring but since the heat of the summer has begun its passing, we're back to the same sort of climate in Seoul that was around when I did take this photo. I posted it here as a start to cleaning out some backlog in pictures and materials that I have been storing on my hard drive. I've also noticed a few news stories lately that I skipped blogging about. I was waiting for some good news instead-- but you can only go so long without blogging, so here they are.

First of all, let me say I am completely in Heaven with Google's new News Service.
It tracks over 4000 media outlets throughout the world and posts the links to stories within an hour of them going online. It's fantastic. You just have to know what to search for. Some things in the news lately include:

There was a shocking revelation that the U.S. Military uses the term "Sea of Japan" on it's maps! (Well D-UH). The International Hydrographic Association is still trying to sort this mess out and come up with a name for the body of water, to please both the Japanese and Koreans but are going to take a break from all this head-smashing. The 4th Edition maps will come out with the disputed area left anonymous. The would-be deciding vote was suspended on Sunday. Seoul, on the other hand, is scrambling.

It's been a week and a half (Saturday. Sept. 14) since the three U.S. soldiers attacked a mob of 40 screaming and enraged Koreans. At least that's the side of the story that the Korea Herald is taking. Nobody knows for sure who threw the first punch although it's pretty easy to form an opinion. Basically, a group of three American soldiers were returning home on the subway that Saturday afternoon. There they met with a group of about 40 Anti-U.S. protestors who were demonstrating against the death of the two schoolgirls, last June. The Koreans were passing out leaflets (written in Korean) and decided that the three Americans might like one. After the leaflets were refused, the leader of the demonstration, Suh Kyung-Won (a former politician with a history of radicalism, having been at one time arrested for an unauthorized trip to North Korea) confronted the soldiers. This is when the fight started. Each side claims the other side punched first. What is not disputed (although omitted in many of the Korean accounts) is that while trying to flee from the subway riot, the soldiers sought assistance from Korean police. One of the soldiers was then lunged on by the mob and dragged to a stadium at Kyung Hee University where he was paraded in front of the rabid spectators, forced into watching memorial videos of the two girls and into giving an extorted apology for the crimes of the U.S. on stage. Korean police, meanwhile, who had allegedly allowed the solder to be abducted, were busy restraining the other two G.I.s, though they now pledge to investigate with fairness. After the incident, Mr. Suh sought medical attention. He has a broken nose and bruised eyes, and keeps insisting he has a fractured eye socket (though his doctors disagree). This is the first case since the Korean War of a soldier being abducted in Korea, though the whole event seems rather staged and I would not be surprised if it were not the last.

In international news related to Korea, Coach Hiddink has returned to work in Europe to find a death threat. Two bullets were sent to him in the mail. The first was said to be in the event he had a Korea-style success in the regular league, the second if he had such success in the Champion League. Hiddink mentioned that he had considered retiring from soccer before the threats-- but the letters seemed to have achieved the opposite purpose. He's now staying on in spite! Police are investigating.

The Korean government is again seeking to adjust depictions of Korea in foreign textbooks. The Japan textbook controversy was quite legitimate, and so are many of the examples listed in this story from the Korea Times. According to the government, there have also been 2,762 cases of "false descriptions of Korea" on the internet in the last 3 years, of which 277 have been "redressed". One of the things they are going after are websites that say "Korea was a vassal state of China". I guess I'll be getting a letter soon. Korea paid tribute to China, and the Chinese had to sign off on any new Choseon monarchs before they could take the throne in Korea. What part of this is inconsistent with being a vassal state? If Korea was so autonomous, why were they forced by the Chinese at one point to use the symbol of the crane for their royalty instead of the dragon (traditionally reserved for the true emperor)?

Gender egalitarians in Korea are bringing in the big guns now. Gloria Steinem arrives tomorrow. I wasn't usually very ~~sensitive to~~ motivated by feminist issues back home, and became less so after contrasting home with the status of women that I found here in Korea... but now I gotta say, Gloria, welcome to Korea. I wish you the greatest of luck. My advice: Go straight for pay equity, hiring equality, and reducing harassment in the workplace. Skip the pro-choice lectures. Abortion may be illegal in Korea but it's already estimated to be at 2,000,000 abortions per year in a country of about 47,000,000 people. They don't need any more encouragement.

I am reminded of the old days when my daddy taught me how to set the declination on my compass. That's all of the news from the Eastern Front for now.

Sunday, September 22, 2002

Apartment buildings in Nowon

Chuseok was quite peaceful. As with some other holidays, I already said people either spend the time indoors or travel to visit elder relatives. That makes for insane traffic congestion on the highways, but it also leaves Seoul with only a few people on the streets and many of the shops closed. It makes a really nice change of pace. BTW-- Check out this personality quiz. It actually asks a question about what you like to do if you spend a free weekend in Seoul.

So after staying up last night to watch Shaolin Soccer (which was AWESOME... cheesy... but GREAT ), I waited for the sun to come up and left to go for a walk at around 6:30 this morning. I ended up walking about halfway to Hyehwa, to the Hyundai Department Store in Wolguk. I came in sight of Namsan tower and a few places, where pedestrian bridges crossed the road, offered some nice, elevated views of Northeast Seoul. I wish I had taken my camera but I didn't. Next time I will. Everything was quiet and serene. I found out where taxis come from, where some of my pizza comes from, located a couple small coffee shops, and found a dog soup (Boshintang) restaurant only a five-minute walk away (if I ever change my mind). A couple of the feeder rivers for the Han river were also on that path. I noticed a couple of old guys fishing at one but after looking in the water, there was no way you'd get me to eat a fish from there. The willow trees lining the banks were nice though and I noticed a jogging track around one should I decide to quicken my pace and honestly exercise in the future.

As I usually do when I go walking somewhere new, I took a cab back. It's not so much on account of laziness, but I've already seen everything on the route back and I like to gauge how far I walked by seeing how high the meter runs on the return. Without traffic, I find that I walked off 3500 Won's worth-- not too bad a price for an hour and a half of fresh air and tranquility.

Saturday, September 21, 2002

What Type of Villain are You?

mutedfaith.com /

Friday, September 20, 2002

Stone marker at ChangDukGung

Happy Chuseok Everyone...

This weekend marks the Korean Thanksgiving time of Chuseok. Once again, we have a holiday falling on a weekend but since it's 3 days in length, at least today, Friday, is a day off. Work also finished early last night, at 9pm, to allow any of the teachers with travelling plans to get going a bit sooner. Holidays such as this and Seolal usually involve a lot of uni-directional travel, from Seoul to the countryside, as people visit Grandparents, or families convene at the "Big House", which is the house of the eldest son. For me, I am staying home and munching on Songpyeon (the traditional rice cake for the holiday). My boss also gave each of the staff a box of fish too, (Goolbi - dried "Croaker" according to my dictionary), which I had along with some rice for my lunch today. The goolbi is left whole, with about a dozen of the little critters strung together by a length of rope. It is from Young Gwang, known for producing the best Goolbi and is quite expensive. It made for a nice treat.

Also, a tradition at Chuseok says that looking up into the full moon tonight, in it's craters and shadows, you can see the image of a rabbit making Songpyeon. Something tells me that my little monster won't be doing anything as productive for me. If I do any lunar gazing tonight, it will be hard to imagine anything other than a rabbit trying it's best to dismantle the moon and send the pieces hurtling into the earth.

I just saw an advertisement come on TV (the background music was the theme to Bladerunner so that always catches my attention). MBC is showing Godzilla tonight. It should make for some good watching. For now, I'm going back to eating my rice cakes.

Monday, September 16, 2002

Looking out over a wall at Suwon from Hwaseong Fortress

I guess it's time that I update this blog. I haven't written anything since the middle of last week. Basically, things are going well. Work was pretty much as usual. On Saturday we almost headed into the COEX on a shopping trip. The goal was to go shopping for some fall wardrobe changes. I was actually led to the Hyundai Department store beside the COEX however, where Yeji wanted to me to check out some of the prices. OUCH. A woman's dress suit (skirt plus jacket) retails there for over a half million Won! That's why we didn't make it to COEX. We left the building, via the back stair, and made our way to a taxi bound for Dongdaemon. By the end of the day, I opted not to get anything for myself. Instead I set my mind on cleaning out the closet here and seeing what clothes I had hiding away. The closet was a bit of a mess and I hadn't been able to penetrate it so well as of late. I was falling in the bad habit of just wearing whatever was fresh from the laundry basket, in lieu of finding places to stash the clean clothes. Sunday was spent cleaning and it became a major overhaul. The clothes sorting was only one aspect... the other included venturing into frightening places that are normally only accessible to rabbits. *shudder* The apartment is immaculate now. The closets have been completely reorganised, even allowing for winter clothes to be brought closer to the fore (if and when they become necessary). Cleaning under the bed was another task which I had been avoiding because it involved completely dismantling the frame-- but it's done now. I don't even want to begin to tell you what I found under there.

I was reading a story today about proposed Free Trade Agreements that Korea is negotiating with other Asian nations. It kind of reminded me about some trade statistics that someone had posted to a message board last week-- so I went and got some of the numbers for you. Korea wants to become the "Logistics Hub" of Asia. From what I understand of this idea, that means that all Asian countries will first ship their goods through Korea before sending them to the rest of the world and vice versa, anyone selling goods in Asia will initially send them through Korea. What's in it for Korea? It offers the chance to become an important component in Asian trade, and to make revenues through tariffs, taxes, or just increased labour in general. What's in it for the rest of the world? Not much that I see. The basic justification is that Korea can act as a gateway to the mainland. Most Asian nations have at least some oceanfront realty though so I don't see why this is necessary-- especially when getting goods out of South Korea by rail would require a railway and free passage through North Korea which is something that just doesn't seem destined to happen. So frankly, I don't see this hub idea really happening either. One of the important first steps is the establishment of Free Trade between Asian countries, as in the story above. Although if you read the story, you'll note that Song Byung Doo (Executive Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries) is quoted saying, "Through a free trade agreement with Korea, Australia will be able to easily penetrate the huge Northeast Asian market comprising China and Japan." Notice that he didn't mention Korea. That's likely because although Korea would like to handle everyone else's property, the idea that one would increase the number of foreign products on the domestic Korean market is treasonous around these parts.

In August of this year alone, Hyundai (a single manufacturer) exported and sold 24,616 cars to Europe and 40,266 to the U.S. On top of that, they've recently signed a new deal to export 26,000 cars to Libya. Now compare that with the number of foreign cars, from all worldwide manufacturers, that were simply imported into Korea (not even sold yet) which stood at 3,123 cars in August (the monthly average having been 1,325 cars per month so far this year). In comparison, Hyundai's domestic sales are projected to be 1.27 million cars in Korea (an 80% market share). High import taxes on foreign imports virtually double the price of foreign cars here. They are a rarity only seen when people are trying to show off a status symbol. This sort of protectionism won't work with Free Trade but will be tough to fight-- especially if you want to do it in Asia where everyone seems to play the same game.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Taecheon Beach

I'm starting to feel sleepy. Sure, I know what you are saying. Ian, go to bed before 7am and you'll be fine the next day. The thing is, I woke up perfectly refreshed by 12 o'clock, had a sandwich, made some tea, read some news. I'm just starting to revert back to fatigue as the hour of work approaches. I'm going in early today to help proofread some student's speech for a contest. It's nothing strenuous. I only have one moderately tough class today and the other three (for a total of four on Wednesday's) are a breeze.

And the hot water is finally back on.

You at home can play along...
I don't think I'll write much more in this post but I do have an activity for those of you back home, who are interested in a getting a little bit of the Korean experience. In an archived column that I found and read today in the Herald (a previous work from march by one of today's contributing writers), one writer, commenting on English proficiency levels in Korea, called to task the errors on the website for the city of Jeonju. I checked it out myself and, at least these days, it's not as bad as he says-- mostly just problems alternating between present tense and present perfect tense... and of course the omnipresent difficulties with third person verbs. It is understandable. However, I was amused by one thing. Go to the Jeonju City website. Tell me if you notice anything wrong. Then try to tell them by clicking on "Foreigners Complaint Center". You too can experience a little bit of what it's like to be a foreigner, living in Korea.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

The uniforms for the 14th Asian Games in Pusan [Korea Times photo]

Fashion Blog... End of Summer 2002
A major blow to Korean Tourism has been dealt with the un(?)veiling of the uniforms for the 14th Asian Games to be held this fall in Busan. Korean fashions do tend to be a little on the conservative side (although they usually maintain a pretty sharp sense of style that you don't see so much in the west these days). Boy, are these ones ever a let down for the heterosexual foreigner community though. Let me explain...

Images taken from Yasi Fashions.

These are the uniforms we know and love. Parking lot attendants and display girls at department stores wear them. Dowumi ("helper") girls hawking cell phones on the street or dancing at the open of new stores and restaurants wear them. With any cause for celebration or needed notoriety, these fashion styles are an integral and favoured part of Korean culture. Cheerleaders at baseball, basketball, and soccer games wear them-- so why are they not good enough for the Asian Games?

What has happened in the last year with Korean fashion? Certainly no fashion blog could be complete without mentioning notable and world famous designer Andre Kim, who has recently released his memoirs-- yet as in most aspects of Korean society, the paramount influence to clothing styles this summer was not a person who symbolizes an industry, but a person who symbolizes an event.

Mina (age 25) became an overnight sensation in Korea when she was "accidently" spotted in the stands during the Korea vs. Germany, World Cup match. "Given her attractive appearance and impressive dancing abilities, she has the makings of a pop star, and we believe her debut is well-timed with the end of the World Cup," said one management company representative, as quoted in the Korea Herald. (Notice that no one said she could sing). Her rise to stardom marked the apex of the cultural crossover of dowumi-inspired fashions. With the advent of the World Cup, Korea changed overnight. In a country that staunchly had defended 1950's fashion to the last thread of tweed, Korean girls in the cities and on the streets, this summer, lunged with reckless abandon at mini-skirts and halter tops.

So it is with intrepidation that I view today's news. The Asian Games uniforms are the beginning of what might only be considered a backlash. As with all trends, fad-followers in fickle fashion finally find themselves fighting the flow for the fall. The 50's will be back. You don't believe me? Consider the new line of undergarments by Korean company, Intarsia. They made world headlines a couple weeks ago ( I originally learned of this shocking development through a Canadian newspaper) with... yes, you guessed... a resurrection of the Chastity Belt! This product is available in models for men and women (though male chastity belts have historically been among some of the greatest marketing blunders in history, the company's founder explains it in the last paragraph of an article in the Korea Times). This is now the trend to watch and fight against. As one might expect, I am upset over this devolution from short-lived, carefree, liberalism... although it sure beats the old fashioned method, I guess.

This post originally inspired by listening to too much Falco.

Monday, September 09, 2002

Sanga building and apartments near my school

It's Monday already. The weekend was another opportunity to stay at home. With the hot water still off, the fun is taken out of getting ready to go out anywhere special. I took the time to download and watch K-19 The Widowmaker which has a great performance by Liam Neesom but sadly Harrison Ford falls a bit flat, mainly on account of his fake Russian accent which slips up during critical dialogue.

What's in the news? The biggest event (arguably) was the match on the weekend between the North and South Korean soccer teams. I didn't bother to watch very much of it. It was basically a political exercise rather than a game. The score, if you hadn't heard, was tied at 0 apiece. Usually Korean soccer players are under so much pressure to score that they are deathly afraid of failure. This time I have the feeling that they were deathly afraid of actually putting the ball in the net. Certainly any points scored by either side would have opened up months of controversy and bickering between the two nations intent on cooperation. The only thing achieved was the large-scale display of the unified Korean flag.

The controversy over the East Sea is back in an Op Ed. piece in the Herald. There's not as much historical evidence as the author claims. I checked all the old maps I could find when I was trying to figure out the historical basis between the Korea vs. Corea spelling war. The same maps that ultra-Korean nationalists claim support the use of the letter 'C' (largely because the maps are in languages such as French) all show the waters east of Korea to have been known as the Sea of Japan for at least 300 or more years. The labelling of 'East Sea', when it appears, seems to only refer to what is known now as the 'East China Sea' to which the body of water in question is of course an extension, but the center of which is significantly further south. The East Sea/Sea of Japan is regarded as a separate body. Of all the things to get your hangbok in a bunch over. Sheesh.

The Korea Herald does have a great regular feature on Korean food though.

I spent last night doing up a lesson plan for the next three months that I know will be rejected as soon as I go to work today. It takes about 3 classes to finish a unit in most of the books I teach. The problem is that it then takes about 4 or 5 months to finish a book. Most Korean mothers want the books to be finished within 3 months or less (so I am told; although it could just be the hagwon itself looking for increased kickbacks on book sales). Telling someone that your kid speaks English is not usually sufficient. Maybe nobody believes them. The only way to tangibly measure English ability here is to brag about how many books your child has finished. Of course what happens epidemically is that the kids become bored and restless, and don't learn anything when you fly through books. Inevitably, the students end up so disproportionately matched with text books becoming increasingly difficult that you have to switch to an entirely new series of books and go back to teaching them the same things all over again. The problem is that we're running out of different text book series' to do this.

Which leads me back to my own writing. I need to but a bigger push on developing my own series of textbooks. (Don't worry, they won't be as cynical as my blog is becoming-- I can write about chirping birds and dancing monkeys as well as the next guy, when the need arises). But if you can't beat the system, profit from it. Seriously, I am sure that mothers here have become frustrated as well. The only way to do any real good here is to tailor make lessons that fit in with the expectations of parents while still managing to teach English. Textbooks produced outside Korea are ofttimes high quality but don't seem to fit in with the local reality. They put too much emphasis on learning at a reasonable pace. What Korea demands are textbooks that feature an extended series of lessons that treat each grammatical concept as its own distinct, crash course.

Damn! I wish they'd turn the hot water back on. I'm not looking forward to my shower in a few minutes.

Friday, September 06, 2002

Haggye-Dong -- Park at Sunset

The evening is peaceful, now. Work was short today-- just one regular class and the two hour history class. My mood for the first was euphoric and we had a great time, despite the fact that while getting ready, my apartment still has no hot water and won't for another week (today was cold shower number three). On my way to my second class, my boss asked to speak to me after class however and the pessimist side of me took over. I walked into the class (a few of the girls have drifted into the newspaper class-- possibly in search or lighter subject matter). The boys that remained are a bit of a handful and I wasn't in much of a mood to deal with it at that point. I had asked the students last week about what history they wanted to study and a lot wanted to do dinosaurs while the boys wanted to study war. I had planned to teach dinosaurs tonight, a good wholesome topic only slightly complicated by some creationist students. Unfortunately, the bulk of the remaining kids were in the "we want war" category.

...And I met with my boss. Much of my sense of impending doom came from a typical situation here. When he asked me to see him, I inquired if he was asking to talk to me about good news or bad news... to which he replied, "yes".

It wasn't bad news. It was just an opportunity for overtime. I'm actually under my hour quota by 8 classes but he was willing to offer me overtime if I would be willing to go all the way across town to teach kindergarten kids, twice a week, for two hours a day. It'd actually work out to an extra week's worth of pay for me but I don't know. Money wasn't my motivator for coming here... but time was. While I was in Canada working full time, I did 40 hours a week and was too fagged out to do anything when I got home. (That was an intentional use of dialect-- don't read anything into it). Here I start at around 5pm and finish by 10pm. Though lately I am seeing more reason to look to the financial aspect. In Changwon, I made a lower salary but most of that actually went away so I could drink my way through my contract. Here, I am happier and I seldom go out to bars. As of late, I am actually saving money, and I am developing a bit of a taste for more. It seems like a good deal, mind you I am not making any extra money for spending 4 hours a week on the subway or in a taxi.

I'm going to consider it though, for one reason. I saw a parcel of land, back home, that caught my interest and made me think about investment. I doubt I could pull together enough money to make an offer (and owning land would destroy my non-residency tax status) but this land was special. It was big for one thing. In fact, it's size means it is one of the original land grants in my hometown, where my family has been since 1791. When I heard about it, some sense of protectionism in me kicked in and I wanted it for myself and not for it to go to some outsider in the area. Realistically, if I could scrape together a downpayment, I could make mortgage payments on the rest (through a third party), and I would own it by the time I returned to Canada. So for the first time, this week I have been thinking about money. I did some inquiries into it. I only know the size and the fact that it's on our road back home (narrowing it down to about a 5km stretch). If it's the land suspected, it's recently been clearcut. That's caused the price to drop to a fraction of what one would expect for land that size and may even leave bargaining room. I'm young enough though, that I could reforest it and it'd be reharvestable by the time I was 50. Plus, it'd give me a legitimate holding in my hometown. If I could only get this land, then there would be three generations of our family, each on separate and respectable-sized grants. What an anchor! What a history! *sigh*

Fall is here. Tonight is cool and windy. I love it. I dragged out the guitar for the first time in months and after skipping supper, went straight for the scotch. Note to Colin: not only have I been listening to John Denver lately... but I downloaded some Buffy Sainte-Marie, too! I have a new 9 volt battery for my tuner and I think I'll spruce up the old girl (the guitar, not Buffy) and play myself some folk music tonight. Don't bother to message me on MSN.

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Sibijang-bok (ceremonial robe of the emperor)

My best news for the day is that I got all of my pictures scanned in. I should be able to keep offering an image a day for a while to come as my total of archived (unpublished) pictures is now around 70. The picture above is another shot from the collection of period dress post cards I got for my birthday. It also coincides nicely with the Hwaseong Fortress pictures.

Today was my easier day (only four classes). I sat around listening to John Denver songs and then went in to work for 6pm. The only hitch was that they shut off the hot water in my apartment building sometime before I woke up.

In other news, I think I know what it's like to be a professional wrestler. My hand is sore tonight after one-too-many forceful slams onto desks to achieve quietness amongst my students. Much like in professional wrestling, kids respond well to violent, over-dramatic gestures and threats to hang them out the window. I never actually hit any of them, of course, but the kids play along and I play along and things work out fine. The only problem is that sometimes you actually get injured. To alleviate the damage and carry on with the show, I thought I'd save my injured hand the next time I decided to imitate "Bible Bill" Aberhart, and casually switched to banging my left fist down on the desk. As fate would have it, that only succeeded in sending my watch flying across the room. Nonetheless, it worked at getting people to be quiet... though not at getting them to stay in their seats. Bless their little hearts, they all got up to help me put the pin back in place.

If I've said it once, I'll say it a hundred times: All my problems in life come from adults. Kids have never given me problems. Whenever I have something in my life stressing me out, it disappears when I walk into a class. Sure they can be noisy and tough to control at times... but I understand them and they understand me-- and those sorts of things settle themselves out in no time. The worst behaved class I teach on any given day, is usually the one having the most fun, so it can't be all bad-- though it makes the bad news out of Neungdong that much more sad to hear.

Tuesday, September 03, 2002

Suwon-- looking out from a Chi at Hwaseong Fortress, after the storm

We left for Suwon on Saturday, as Typhoon Rusa was gathering it's strength and slamming into Korea. The newspaper reports of its violence are not exaggerated. Rusa was mean. Most of the damage was inflicted in the south, around Kyungsangnam-do, and including Changwon. I was actually on MSN chatting with someone there before we left and they attested to the storm being one mean son of a gun. As we travelled south, the typhoon got stronger for us too. We actually took a cab. The ride was an hour and half and cost about 50 bucks, but it was worth it. Traffic was surprisingly heavy for a stormy Saturday evening but it was nice to be in comfort as we travelled. I was wearing a suit at the time as we were on our way to meet Yeji's parents who were staying with her mother's sister in Suwon. The subway station was actually pretty far from their apartment so it was luck that we were able to arrive close by thanks to the taxi.

Everything went well. We had dinner and chatted back and forth in broken English and scattered Korean. I have to study more feverishly from now on because Yeji's mom informed me that she's going to be calling more often *grin*. We stayed in that night and had dinner. It was delicious. The storm raged outside. Yeji's dad and I went outdoors long enough to venture down to the local corner store and pick up some Go-Stop cards. Once back inside though, we sat in the living room and played until 3am.

The picture above is one of the pieces of furniture that Yeji's father crafted while he was still in the business. I was amazed! It's made of red pine, stained with 7 or 8 coats. The reliefs on the front are made of carved and inlaid shells, the majority of which being hand-ground and chipped abalone, which give each piece an almost phosphorescent, rainbow glow. The one above is a cabinet in Yeji's aunt and uncle's living room. It is entirely hand made and took months to complete. The art on the front, unclear in this picture, depict a wedding scene with smaller folkart scenes surrounding it that show fishing, doing laundry, and more. The pottery on top of the cabinet, though not antiques in and of themselves, are crafted in the traditional style of the Chosun (Joseon) dynasty.

This piece, done in the same style, is one of three, floor to ceiling armoires that link together to cover one wall of the bedroom. It is approximately 8 feet tall and also covered in art carvings/reliefs in the same style as the cabinet. The scenes on these three also show wedding scenes, but underneath is a depiction of a young man's life cycle. The two lower panels on the cabinet here, show a young baby boy being born and a second glimpse of life as a student, being punished for negligence in studies *smile*. The other four panels follow the life of the boy as he grows up, takes his test in Confucian principles and attains his rank, grows older and becomes a teacher himself, then finally, as an old man practicing the art of calligraphy.

Sony-- the pregnant Doberman Pinscher

I also had a rare treat when I went up to the roof. Yeji's uncle has a Doberman named Sony (any relation to the Japanese stereo-maker is purely coincidental although it was never explained to me exactly what the name means in Korean). I really miss having a real dog. My dog, Brandi, passed away the Christmas after I left for Korea-- and the pocket pooches that you usually see are such genetic abominations that I can't go near them without retching. It turns out that Sony, a nice, quiet, and polite dog, is pregnant. As much as I'd like to though, taking one of the pups is out of the question in this tiny apartment that I already share with a proto-homicidal rabbit. (Did I mention that Molly cut the phone cord the other day and then came after me? I am NOT joking as any of my friends who tried to call since Thursday will attest.)

The start of a rather long climb up ancient steps to Hwaseong Fortress

On Sunday, before we headed back to Seoul and Yeji's folks headed back to Busan, we took a quick trip to Hwaseong Fortress, Suwon's main, non-World Cup attraction. The fortress is Korea's Historic Site No.3 and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December of 1997.

Excerpt from the brochure...

Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon City was begun by King Jeongjo (r.1776~1800), the 22nd king of the Joseon Dynasty, in honor[sic] of his deceased father, Sado Seja. Sado Seja had been designated as crown prince, but became the victim of a court conspiracy and was unjustly condemned by his father to be sealed in a rice chest and left to die [leads me to wonder if there wasn't more than one sado in the family, ED.] To appease the soul of his father, King Jeongjo moved Sado Seja's tomb from Meeting Baebongsan in the Yangju area to Mt. Hwasan in Suwon. He also moved the town at the foot of Mt. Hwasan to Mt. Paldalsan and started the construction of this magnificent fortress.

It doesn't actually say if Hwaseong Fortress ever actually saw action, but it was elevated to a world heritage site in honour of it's "unsurpassed artistic design and advanced defense capabilities". Below is the map. We didn't actually have time to do the whole tour. We started at the gate in the bottom right corner of the map below, and made it up to the end of the walled arm you see edging out from the main borders of the fort. That arm is called a Chi meaning "pheasant", on account of its role in subterfuge. Hwaseong had four secret entrances, this one being one of them, that would have been used to allow supplies or reinforcements to enter the fortress-- or allow troops to exit quietly to mount counter attacks on their enemies flank. Believe it or not, that small percentage of sight-seeing took us an hour and a half. The climb up the stairs on the mountain is exhausting and we stopped for copious photos. I will publish more of these shots in coming blog posts. Publishing them all at once increases the loading time of the page too much, and I also like to keep a few in reserve for daily pictures (as you notice I am doing with the trip to Taecheon pictures).

A map of Hwaseong Fortress

It was a terribly busy twenty-four hours but everything went just ducky. We had a great visit (and apparently Yeji's folks like me so there might be an as yet unmentioned "stage 2" in the future-- anyone who is familiar with Korean culture knows that being introduced to the parents is a MUCH bigger deal in Korea than in the West-- and carries certain implied "expectations").

Expect some more city pics of Suwon in the near future, along with shots from the interior of the fortress. I only published photos here that directly related to the story (ie. the furniture, the dog...) and those that would be difficult to publish on their own at a later date. I also got back a film with more local shots today too. In all, I am going to scan about 3 dozen or more photos in the next couple hours. Stay tuned.

Boolamsan, in Nowon Gu (photo courtesy of Yoo Kee Bum, photographer)

Someone did something really nice for me today. First let me say that I survived the typhoon on the weekend (some of you have asked) and that I actually had a fantastic trip to Suwon which I am going to blog about after this. I wanted to post a separate entry first so that I could cover the mundane stuff of the day, and also highlight separately the great photo you see above. Yoo Kee Bum is the owner of my local Kodak store where I get all my film developed. A while back, I had admired a photo blown up on his wall. He said that he was the photographer. Since I just got back from my trip yesterday, I made one of my regular pilgrimages to his shop today, to develop some of my own pictures that you'll see soon. Lo and behold, he had a present for me-- a print of the picture I loved so much. This is Boolam mountain, which you may see in the background of some of my shots from Nowon. It's a fantastic picture, taken in early winter as the snow is covering the slopes. This is my neighbourhood.

So what's the mundane stuff? I mentioned something the other day that gave me reason to gloat (though in politeness I didn't relate it). Pshaw on being modest! I found out today what happened after the incident and now I am fuming over someone's pettiness. Instead of co-teaching those Friday classes, the meddlesome, spiteful co-teacher that I had been feuding with decided that we should each teach our own class for two hours, rather than share the teaching of different classes. So, they added a third class for me wherein I will be teaching some Western history to students who volunteer for it. Again, I must repeat that attendance in these extra classes is voluntary (and free of charge, BTW, so kudos to the hagwon). What happened then? My aggravator walked in to teach her class and no one was there! They had all jumped ship from the newspaper class and came into my class instead. Now, like I said, I had decided not to gloat too much over this, but one of my students spilled the beans to me today about what happened later. Some students came late so they were ushered into her class. The story she had them write was entitled, "Who is the Best Teacher?". You think that's petty?! My informant then told me that she hit students who voted for me!... most of them did anyway, I was told.

But today was great. I got a nice, thoughtful, present when I least expected it... and now on to the post of my most enjoyable trip this past weekend.