LATENIGHT - KOREA

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Rounding a corner in Busan.

Take your shoes off and stay a while...
The new contract will officially take over next week so that's meant my annual trip(s) to Immigration are due. On Saturday, I pushed through the night until morning, then met Karl at the local subway station. He got his visa while in Canada so he's got a bit more leeway than I do. Me, I have to renew my Alien Card by the time my new contract starts.

My school wasn't very successful in giving me any answers as to what documents I need. I can't very well call Immigration myself since it really requires a Korean speaker. With the deadline looming, I was forced to head to Immigration with only my passport and a copy of my contract. I suspected that wasn't enough but I didn't really have a choice. The subway ride is about 80 minutes from here and went faster with conversation. We sort of turned it into a day trip.

For the record: When you renew your visa, you must present your new contract, your passport, your alien card, a notarized letter of sponsorship from your local notary office, and a copy of your school's business registration.

Though this is my second time getting an extension, I never really knew what the forms I had before were. Now I do. All I knew is that I did indeed have forms. None of which my school gave me this time. They've said I'd have them this week and I certainly hope so. At least I made it a provision in my contract that the school is to pay all fees related to gaining a visa. That means that if I run over and they charge me 100,000 Won a day in overstays, I can bill my school. This Saturday I will make a repeat performance, with the right forms I hope. Wish me luck.

The rest of the day.
After departing Immigration unsuccessful, Karl and I grabbed a cab to that cesspool that is Itaewon (albeit a more tolerable cess pool in the daytime). We had a coffee at SandPress-O then met Yeji, who had just gotten off work. The three of us strolled up to the area around the Mosque and then succeeded in tracking down that Turkish restaurant that we had gone to with Yvon and company two Canada Days ago. Now that we've found it again, expect a few more visits back. The food's good, a nice change of pace, and the staff is friendly. The price is good too, and even better when someone picks up the tab :P Thanks again Karl! I have no idea if Karl will be accompanying me again this week, but if he does, I'll have to find a good spot to return the favour. Any suggestions from gastrosophic ex-pats or Koreans? (I think I just invented that word).

At this point, I was getting pretty fatigued. Karl was off to teach some Saturday classes that he got roped into somehow and Yeji had bought us tickets for Return of the King. Stopping off at home, I got an hour's sleep, then it was off to the movie. Fantastic. The extra hour of footage made a big difference in the narrative and the battle scene was epic. The Rides of Rohan sent a shiver down my spine, and Legolas vs. the Oliphant was smooth as silk action. I've considered tying my hair back like Legolas but my students just about fainted when I suggested it. Oh well. Guess I;ll pop in my contacts and just sit around brooding like Aragorn-- the beard is better suited for that anyway.

So far this week.
The visa situation has been on my mind. I am going to pay off the card regardless of the dispute. I can't afford to have it maxed out in the case that there's an emergency and I need quick access to funds. Hopefully, all will be resolved by the end of next month. In time since, I've found a couple of other stories on the net of people being ripped off by the same bar. .. even cursing the owner by name. It seems they have a reputation that I was unfamiliar with and what happened to me was in line with the experiences of others. If so, that might give some weight to visa's inquiry. Colin's right: leave the plastic at home when you go drinking. The only problem with this is that bank machines close down before midnight, so if for some reason you find you don't have enough cash on hand to get home, don't expect any more until sunrise.

NEW WEB SITE
I've finally bit the bullet and begun a second blog. This one's been suffering a bit from the "if you can't say anything nice, don't blog" dilemma. From now on, www.Latenight.ca will be a more generic alternative to this blog. I'll certainly maintain the two, but this blog will be the one that covers my personal stories from Korea. Latenight will be a bit more broadly inspired, possibly with some guest writers. Hosting it on my own web space means more options too. I have a bulletin board installed and working there. I am also looking at streaming some audio in a kind of crude internet radio/mood music fashion. That's actually going to be my experiment right now, as I get back to work on it. Drop by and have a look. Sign into the board as a member or leave a comment on the main page, as to what you'd like to see on the site in the future.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Ian was
an Ignorant Priest
in a past life.

Discover your past lives @ Quiz Me

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Hope everybody's ringing on their own bell, this fine morning.
Hope everyone's connected to that long distance phone.
Old man, he's a mountain.
Old man, he's an island.
Old man, he's a-walking says
``I'm going to call, call all my children home.''
- Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull

It's another Christmas.

Actually, for me, it's still Christmas Eve although technically it's after 7am. That's not unusual and Christmas is no exception. I'll head off to sleep after I finish this post. Meanwhile, I'm going to type away and listen to "Another Christmas Song" by Jethro Tull.

For the last week I've been out Christmas shopping. Yeji and I exchanged our presents tonight. The tree that you see pictured above has been up for a couple of weeks, blinking its lights beside me through each night. In fact, Christmas would have been perfect, if not for a rather unexpected present his morning.

A not-so-merry Christmas card...
My Visa bill came in from last month. Many of you may remember that night out in Itaewon that I wrote about last month, and the terrible time I had. Well, it got worse. I was already ashamed for spending so much at the bar but as it turned out, the bar added a couple of extra charges on my card while I wasn't looking-- charges so large that it went beyond the max credit limit on the card, which is something else entirely. I've got the visa people working on it, but it'll take a month or two to clear up. If by some obscene curse it doesn't work out, then I am out a third of my savings. That really threatened to spoil my Christmas this year.

But I went to school. In addition to being a welcome conversationalist, Karl is quite a generous lad. He brought in some cake today and cookies that he made himself yesterday. In honour of Christmas Eve, the school also finished classes with a 20-minute pizza party and tomorrow is a holiday. Overall, Korea isn't so much into the Christmas spirit compared to home, but this time around there were lots of "Merry Christmas"s to be had.

On the Air.
I guess I was feeling a little homesick for missing yet another Christmas. The Visa incident only further made me question what the hell I am doing here. After Yeji and I exchanged gifts, I felt a bit nostalgic so we listened in to Maritime Noon on the CBC (over the internet). Then we got a bit of a crazy idea. Heck, I'd already used up enough precious long distance minutes in the morning, calling Visa customer service and my folks to get things sorted out... so we called in a Christmas greeting. Yeji did the honours and did a great job. I am hoping some people heard it and realized who it was. She's not really used to any other English speakers other than me, so talking to host Costas Halavrasos was a rare and exciting treat. Most importantly it lightened the mood around here quite a lot, and the 'Christmas Spirit' level soared after that.

...

So for you folks back in my part of Canada, it's about 6:30pm right now-- Merry Christmas Eve. I hope that your Christmas is happy and joyous, and that your Yuletide is luminous and peaceful. Thank you to everyone who has sent their greetings to me this season. If I bank all of my vacation days, it's just possible that we could be home for Christmas 2004 and that would be great.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

The street where I work, on sunnier days.

I woke up a bit early today and now I find myself with a few extra minutes. My schedule has changed at work again and my pre-middle school classes are spread out a bit more, with some breaks in between. I really shouldn't complain. I'm probably only working about two-thirds the hours that I did when I first came to Korea. It's just that I'm tired, and I don't feel like doing much more than going back to bed.

Yesterday was Yeji's birthday. We actually held a small party on Saturday. Yeji invited a couple of friends over, we had a western-style meal of chicken and mashed potatoes (very exotic) and cheese cake for her birthday cake. The drinks afterward left me quite exhausted on Sunday, yet I still ended up staying up all night to do artwork. Last night's nocturnal amblings were mostly my own fault though. I stayed up and watch the rest of Battlestar Galactica new miniseries that I downloaded, as well as the new animated shorts for the Clone Wars. I think the first thing on my list tonight will be catch a nice nap.

There is a big change at school. Karl has arrived. You may know his name from the comment boxes here. Well, it's official. He's come over from Canada and is joining our school. It's going to be very odd indeed to have a full-fledged, unhindered, conversation in my own native language on a daily basis.

*RIIIINNNNNGGGggggg*
[There's my daily wrong number, ringing in the background. They're on the tenth ring and second callback. I swear I am going to go mental.]

Right. Back to the end of days of cultural seclusion. As it turns out, I'm not the only one who is no longer tucked away in hiding from the world. Saddam Hussein has been captured and drug from his little hole, too. Why do I mention this? Only because I was watching the BBC video of Saddam's hideout and something caught my eye. In a strange synchronicity, of all the comfort items he could have chosen, I noticed two chocolatey, Mars bars sitting amidst his store of supplies. Now from my hideaway in Korea, I can see the exact same scene. On top of the cereal boxes are my last two Mars bars. I hope nobody tries to examine my teeth or shave my beard next.

Boy, that tripped me out. I think I'll eat them just to get rid of any suspected links to terrorism. On the plus side, they're not my last vestige of comfort foods. Karl brought the promised HP Sauce and Baked Beans in Molasses! Woo Hoo. I wonder what the poor people are eatin' tonight. *Thanks, Karl!*

Games to excite.
Oh yeah... and also from the BBC, a story on pro-computer gamers in Korea. Unfortunately, Mechwarrior 4:Vengeance just isn't popular in Korea-- else I'd quit my day job and try to join the league. Some of these guys, according to the story, make over $100,000 in sponsorships a year!

Hehehe... only how many votes?

Friday, December 12, 2003

Quick post re: Karl's comment below. The Asia Weblog Awards are underway. Get out and vote for your favourite Korean weblog. There are lots of great blogs around Korea and they are all well worth a read. Enjoy the blogs, then get out and vote!

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Pusan at night.

I think it's time to get out and snap some Christmas pictures. The decorations are up near home and this weekend I'll be making a serious gift-buying expedition. The Christmas spirit all hit at pretty much the same time. On Sunday, the time came that I finally agreed to put up my little Christmas tree in the apartment. Yeji and I spent an hour or so decorating it (which is disturbing since the tree is only about 3 feet high). The next morning, I guess it did its magic. The ground was white with snow and flurries were falling across Seoul. It was nowhere near the size of the blizzard that hit home this weekend... it was just a nice, pretty, surprise dusting. I had just spent the night working on my first real Christmas cartoon for the paper, so the holiday cheer was all around.

Good news at school this week. My Grade six classes are writing tests. I didn't find this out until I actually went to their classroom yesterday to find another teacher in there, but the surprise was nice nonetheless. With the classes shortened to 45 minutes each, I was only at school for about two and a half hours. Today's going to be the same.

The weather is getting colder however. I finally broke down and turned the heat on last night. I should have toasty, warm floors for the rest of the winter. Unfortunately, I don't know if I am going to be able to shower today. You guessed it, the water's off again. This time it's not just the hot water. They are supposedly cleaning the tank today-- so there's not any water at all. Luckily, Yeji translated the announcement for me when it came over the loudspeaker on the weekend, so I managed to fill up a few pots last night in preparation.

There was a pleasant surprise though too. My folks sent a package that arrived yesterday. There were some Christmas ornaments, some laces for my boots, and even some Mars bars. They also tracked down and sent me a copy of David Adams Richards', "The Coming of Winter". He's actually from my hometown, so lately I've been looking forward to reading some of his work, which ashamedly, I haven't done yet.

Congratulations! You are 100 % Korean.

How Korean Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'll leave this one up to comments.

Saturday, December 06, 2003

Outside.

The ink is dry.

It's official that I am staying in Korea for one more year. I signed my new contract on Friday. The provisions that I needed to have added were added, written by me for clarity, and agreed to by the authority. All went well.

On the plus side, I had already received my raise a few months ago, and it's now enshrined in the contract. I also have my remaining vacation days and unused plane tickets as carry overs from my past contracts. The latter was a bit of a concern since it was only by a "gentlemen's agreement" that I was to have gotten my free ride each year.

On the negative side, lies only my own apprehensions. I have a distinct feeling that I am racing the clock. Go ahead and call me superstitious. It's true. A couple of people lately, have come up to me and begun speaking to me about how I will be leaving in June. Where this timeframe came from, I don't know. My contracts here begin and end in January. Still, within a short span of time, people on other sides of the planet came to me with conversations that began that way. "So, you're finished in June."

I also believe that bad things come in threes. But fortunately for me, the three things were out of the way on Friday, by the time that the discussion of my contract came up.

#1. I received another prank call. It's not unusual. I normally get one a day. I suspect the culprits are people who have dialed wrong numbers at one point and were so surprised that a foreigner answered the phone, that they wrote the number down to call later for kicks. There are two distinct voices that call my number regularly, and speak Korean to me until I hang up. Friday's call was more of an annoyance however. Nobody said anything. I could only hear a television in the background and nobody said a word. I said, "hello," a few times and then hung up. I guess that wasn't good enough because they called back immediately. Rather than answer the phone normally, I picked up the receiver and screamed into it. I hope they burst an ear drum.

I've said this before, but as a word of warning to new teachers: NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER. Even with keeping my number a secret, I am habitually plagued by people calling, ostensibly to hear an English speaker answer. There is no *69 here. There's not much I can do to retaliate. Last year, I changed my phone number. Maybe I will have to make that an annual rule.

The other solution is to keep the ringer permanently switched 'off'. It's not like I get many real calls anyway. My folks call once a week. Anyone else who calls me from Canada schedules it ahead of time. Nobody in Korea calls me because I don't give out my home number, and even though a few people have my cell phone number, I keep it turned off to avoid the advertising that continuously pops up on the screen and beeps at me until I read it.

I hate telephones.

#2. My pay got screwed up for the first time since "Grasshopper Teacher" did the payroll (student's nickname, not mine). It was benign enough-- however I resented the fact that people started blaming me for it. I've been at the same school for two years. I've had the same bank account for over three years. NO. I didn't give you the wrong account number.

It turned out that the regular payroll person was on vacation. Her temporary replacement made a pretty typical mistake. They mixed up the 'R' in my last name with an 'L' so that I became, "Ian Loss". The bank sent up red flags and halted the transfer. Thankfully it's been worked out and the pay was in the bank today. This month includes Yeji's birthday, Christmas, and the Third Anniversary of Yeji and I meeting. Every shipwon counts now that the gift-buying has commenced.

#3. I actually enjoyed the other mishap becuase it broke the charm before I dealt with my contract. I went into the negotiation feeling much more relaxed. It was a simple scheduling mix up-- the type which occurs roughly every two weeks. I was told on Monday that one of my classes was cancelled, only to have students chase me down with, "Teacher, come to class! Speaking now!". It made me a bit anxious since I had planned to discuss my contract during that time. Actually, had I not been negotiating Friday, I would have already been out the door.

Next Year
When January rolls around, I know I am going to feel a wave of anticipation descend. There's a lot that must be accomplished in this final year. I know I am a completely different person from when I left, and I am not altogether happy with the person that I've become. But I have to figure out ways to deal with it if I am to readjust to Canada next year.

I've lost weight. Almost immediately upon coming to Korea, the pounds started shaving off. I lost about 35 pounds within a few months and then my body realigned at a weight that was consistent with my college weight. I'm back to using the same belt holes I did when I was 22. I still have quite a paunch though... and I've sacrificed muscle mass. So it's not all good. But something has to be done to beat my new body back into a more appropriate shape, and I have to be committed to maintaining my dietary habits when I return so as not to gain the pounds back. Exercise is an option that I am reluctantly considering.

Drinking is something I very rarely do anymore. I go out about once every two months or less. But it's a problem. I binge drink and since I lack companions, I do it alone. More troublesome is that I get depressed afterwards. It could be the after effects of letting off my bottled-up steam, but I've begun to notice that even a single beer puts me in an entirely undesirable funk. There's nothing enjoyable in it anymore, and drinking alone in a big city does raise the issue of safety.

Smoking is on the way out. This month. When I return to Canada, I am absolutely *not* paying the $13 bucks a pack that it costs to smoke. More seriously however, I want to quit soon because of health concerns. I find myself waking up short of breath sometimes. I suspect that a lot of that is just the normal problem of dust in the Seoul air. Everywhere you go, people hack and cough. Regardless, cigarettes don't help. My singing voice is ruined and if I am heading back to Canada next year, I'll need to get that back in shape.

Socialization is a skill that I have allowed to erode too. I feel like a ghost now. I scarcely run into other foreigners. At work, even though some of the Koreans are quite friendly toward me, I have been told so many times that Koreans and Foreigners can't be friends that I'm not about to make the effort to build intimate friendships. Maybe I'm overlooking some genuinely nice people. But in three years, I've yet to find many Koreans that wanted to spend time with me for any other reason than to practice English. Even if these people are sincere, the turnover rate is so high that they'd be gone from my life in six months anyway. [As a coincidental sidenote: This might not just be a Korean thing. A German friend on my MSN just messaged me as I was typing this-- someone I hadn't heard from in months. The reason: to help proofread a letter to a Canadian friend. *sigh*] The odd constant that stands out is Yeji. She's been wonderful and longlasting. When I feel most like a sociopath, I still have her to bring me back to normal.

Bitterness. I'm full to the gills. Half the time I keep it bottled up inside because I don't have anyone to really talk to about it. The other half of the time, I am keeping my emotions suppressed so that I don't scare the natives. The minute a foreigner gets excited or anxious about something, alarms start going off and rats begin to flee the ship. I always feel like I am one straw away from breaking and I don't really have any outlets to get rid of it.

I can't even blow it off on my blog anymore. There's a constant "whiner patrol" that runs around thinking that anyone who isn't 100% happy here should give up and admit to being a baby-eating racist monster. Even writing this post would be enough to solicit responses like that. Thanks in advance for your helpful remarks, you pack of snarling wolves.

This blog is a bit of a ball and chain too. I've typecast myself into only writing things directly applicable to my life in Korea, but really, my life in Korea these days is to spend every possible moment ignoring Korea. I've seen as much of this country as I care to. Dug about as deeply into social issues as I can stomach (certainly deeper than I could comment on without triggering the aforementioned snarling wolves with their knee-jerk responses).

So what led to me staying another year? The money's a part but I do feel satisfaction with my job, even if it lacks any comraderie. I also love my students and enjoy my classtime with them. As long as I can work, and things stay stable, there's no sense rocking the boat yet. If I can keep patient for one more year, I'll be in a good position to dictate my return to Canada on my own terms. That means building the house, starting my own business, and choosing where I live. It's also best for Yeji, should she choose to continue our life together in a new country. Another year to prepare will help her to study more English, gain more work experience, and also navigate the immigration process. The end justifies the means.