Korea!

2006-08-31T23:46:00.000+09:00

Mama, I'm Comin' Ho -o-ome!
Bags packed and ready to go!

Wow, the last post I'll write in Korea. Assuming I don't wake up really early tomorrow and decide to post one last entry before I leave. Which I won't do.

After some last-minute re-shuffling of my suitcases due to weight concerns, I think I have everything under control. I'm not looking forward to when I have to transport my bags alone, though. But I did it for a brief time on the way to Korea, so I think I can handle it on the way out. And I think they're not as heavy as they were on the way in, since weight restrictions got more strict this past year.

Charlie and Will came over tonight and we said our goodbyes. They also both left with a ton of crap that they raided from my apartment. Initially, I thought I was being kind by leaving all kinds of helpful stuff for the new guy...but now most of it's been taken. Better my friends get it than some weird Canadian guy named Zico. I had to buy everything when I moved in, and now so will he!

I got some uber-Korean parting gifts from my school. Once home I'll post pictures of them. The crowning moment was getting these super gaudy rhinestoned hair things from my co-teacher. Very Korean. I also got a purse from my vice-principal, but due to luggage issues, I left it behind...I gave it to Charlie to dispose of (it was not one I'd ever use). Again, the purse was very Korean.

I felt like a celebrity during my last classes today. My students were killing each other to get my email address and signature. I was honestly being mobbed at my desk. I now feel really bad for celebrities where this happens to them daily. And I don't blame them if they fly off the handle or get rude at times. At first I was wary of handing out my email address, but I bet only 1 or 2 will actually email me. Because they don't really know English. Some of them wanted my phone number in the US. Why, I have no idea. Kids.

Anyway, I need to get to bed now. Talk to you all next when I'm on U.S. soil!

2006-08-30T21:34:00.000+09:00

I'm So Excited!!!
I just can't hide it...

One more day at school left!!! So, tomorrow I have to teach 4 classes, then I'm DONE...FOREVER!! I am so tired, it's not even funny. With trying to pack and clean, I am exhausted this week. To top it off, I've had to go out to dinner numerous times this week, thus cutting into valuable time at my apartment. I had to go out to dinner with the whole school on Tuesday night (in honor of the new teachers and those who are leaving). School dinners drag on FOREVER. Seriously. Even if I spoke Korean they'd drag on forever. Seriously, I think we had like 10 courses. And the principal kept handing me raw crab to eat. Nasty. Besides the fact that you had to slurp it out of the shell. Ewwwww. So that night blew hardcore, as I think we were in the restaurant for over 2 hours. And I had to sit near the "Big Wigs."

Then after I got home Will came over to visit with me. Which was nice, but I was really tired. So I didn't do anything that night.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my old co-teacher. I had to give her some English math books that my dad brought over for me to give to her. It was nice seeing her again, but again...I was tired and just wanted to stay home.

Tomorrow night Charlie and Will are both coming over to say goodbye to me. But I think I'm pretty much done packing. And whether or not I clean any more depends on how nice I'm feeling. I probably won't clean anymore. It's not too bad. It's not like it was super clean when I moved in. Plus, my replacement isn't moving in until Sept. 8, so they have time to clean it themselves (my school).

I'm a little worried about my suitcases. I got everything packed up and fit into my 3 suitcases, but then I went to move them and my big suitcase had to have weighed 150 lbs. Seriously. I don't have a scale, so I can't weigh them. But I was certain it had to be over 70 lbs...and you can't have any luggage over 70 lbs (if it's over 50 lbs you have to pay a $50 fee...which I most certainly will have to do for at least one of my bags). So I had to open them all up again and I ended up throwing out more clothes. There's a big pile of clothes that I'm leaving here. Hmmm. Oh well. I hope everything is under 70 lbs, at least. My carry-on suitcase is pretty heavy...I think I'll have a hard time hefting it up into the overhead bin things.

I also thought my co-teacher was going to give me a ride to the bus terminal on Friday morning. Which would have been nice because I have 3 suitcases plus my laptap bag. So I was worried about getting to the bus terminal on my own. But it turns out she's not. But she will stop by my apartment before I leave to get my key...I hope she helps me bring my bags to the taxi stand. Otherwise I might be in trouble. Or I could try and communicate to the security people to call one for me...even though there's a line of them a block or so away. I don't know. I hate dealing with a crap-load of luggage. Especially on shitty Korean sidewalks.

I'm also betting 9 million dollars my co-teacher will show up late so I'll have to take a bus at a later time than I want. I'm pretty sure if I miss the bus I want to take it'll be more than fine, but I like to be early. I hope there's not a lot of traffic going into Seoul at 8:30-9am on Friday morning. My co-teacher assures me there wouldn't be...but she's Korean.

I found out more info on my replacement. The last you heard about him all we knew was that it was "a man with blue eyes." I have since found out that he is from Canada. Also, my co-teacher told me, "His name is Zico." Whaa?? Zico?? What an odd name. Then I had a weird train of thought: 1) He sounds Latino or something. 2) Wait, he's from Canada. 3) Well, he could be a Brazilian-Canadian or something. 3) Wait, he has blue eyes. 4) So maybe he just has a weird-ass name. Anyway, I then thought that it's most probable that his last name is Zico, not his first name, like I was thinking. Hey, when someone says to you, "His name is Zico," you generally don't assume they mean the last name. But then I remembered I'm dealing with Koreans. When I first arrived in Korea my name apparently was Emily Christopher Son. And this one kid they thought was named King Brian, instead of Brian King. Hahahahahaha!!!! So it's probably his last name. But it's still kinda weird.

Anyway, he's coming Sept. 8. I wrote him a long letter about the apartment and how random things work, and what buses go where and stuff. I hope he appreciates it.

Yeah, so today after lunch the teachers were all freaking out and rearranging the English room because I guess there was going to be some conference where they discuss some English thing and Sosabul was hosting it. I was really tired and annoyed because I didn't know what was going on and I was not looking forward to sitting in a meeting spoken all in Korean. I just wanted to go home and finish packing and sleep. Then at like 3:00, my vice-principal looks at me and says, "Why are you here?? This is your free time!" I didn't understand what she meant by that, so I just made a confused face. Then she says, "Go home!!" and starts yelling at my co-teacher. I presume for not telling me that I could have gone home after lunch. Which really would have been nice to know. So that annoyed me. But at least I didn't have to sit through that friggin' meeting.

I'm really going to try and go home after lunch tomorrow, as I don't teach any classes after lunch. It's weird enough as it is, because the 4 classes I teach in the morning I have to teach with the new English teacher who I just met. Seriously, I'm leaving tomorrow...can you not just give me the day off?? Whatever. What can you do?

I got all my crap straightened out, I hope. I transfered all my money to my US account and closed my Korean account. All my money transfered ok. I got my visa extension all set, and I filled out the requisite paper work for my pension money refund. I'm pretty much packed and the apartment is cleaned enough. I took out a couple massive bags of trash and these 2 ladies were staring at me. I wished I could have explained to them that I'm moving out...it's not like I'm this incredibly wasteful person who goes through hoards of trash each week. I think there's a bin around my apartment somewhere to throw old clothes you don't want anymore. I need to find that. I'm also leaving lots of shoes here, which makes me cringe a bit. But not like I can't buy shoes in the US.

I need to shower now. I don't have any sheets to sleep on the next 2 nights because I had to wash the only set I have...and I have to wash them early because they need to dry on a "clothes line." Yeah, so I'm going to go shower now and then pass out on a naked mattress. Which, I just found out after stripping off all mattress padding, is a Verlo, made in America. It must be the hardest friggin' mattress America makes. It's like brick wrapped in cloth. Actually, I'm used to it. Ok, ok...shower...

2006-08-18T16:51:00.000+09:00

Peanut Butter and Ham Sandwiches
Yummy! I'll take 2!

A few things that occurred today that I thought were worth noting.

First off, let's all give a big celebratory cheer for the first week of English Camp being over--Hip, hip, hooray!!!

Ok, onwards.

So, today's topic was the kitchen/cooking. When I was initially given this topic, I inquired as to what was at our disposal in terms of cooking mechanisms. The only thing I saw in the room was a microwave, so I asked, "So it has to be something that uses only a microwave?" I was then told, "Oh, that's not for use...just for decoration." OK..."So, no cooking? Something else that needs no heat?" "Yes."

I decided at that time to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Koreans don't eat peanut butter, so I thought it was an easy thing to make that is very American and that they don't eat often, if ever. So peanut butter, jelly, and bread was put on the list of things to buy.

Fast-forward to yesterday when we're going through the planned schedule. I'm asked, "How about if we make ham sandwiches?" Fine by me. I really don't care what kind of sandwich we make. So they ask me to write up the ingredients and instructions for the kids. We decide that the ingredients will be as follows: bread, ham, cheese, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and mustard. I write the instructions for making it and it's like 8 simple lines or something. I'm then told, "Can you make it more easy, like maybe 3 lines...we want them to memorize it." Wha...Ok, but you can only shorten it so much...I mean, I'm giving instructions here. I think my final steps were as follows:

1. Slice tomatoes and onions.
2. Spread mustard on the bread.
3. Add ham and cheese.
4. Add lettuce, tomatoes, and onions.
5. Put the other piece of bread on top.

Which was more lines than they wanted. Since they already had sliced the tomatoes and onions and the kids wouldn't be doing it, I suggested taking that step out to make it shorter...but they really wanted to keep that in. I then said we could just say, "Add ham, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions" all in one step, but then it's just a big list that they still have to remember. Finally they agreed on my steps.

So then one of my co-teachers look at the list and says, "Oh! Where's the peanut butter??" I then had to explain that we don't put peanut butter on ham sandwiches. "Peanut butter was on the 'to buy' list when we were going to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now that we're making ham sandwiches, we don't need peanut butter." I then thought I made this clear to everyone.

So today the teachers came in with all the ingredients...complete with a bunch of peanut butter. WTF? Did they buy it in case some kids just wanted peanut butter sandwiches? Whatever. So we start the lesson then get to the part where I demonstrate making it. I make it and start to eat it when one of my co-teachers says to me, "Emily! You forgot one thing!" Then proceeds to hand me the peanut butter. Hahahahahaha!!! I just waved my arms and said, "No, no!" with a disgusted look on my face. However, when the kids all file through to make their own sandwiches, half the kids are putting peanut butter on theirs. I can't think of anything more disgusting than adding peanut butter to the sandwich we were making. Peanut butter and onion? Peanut butter and mustard??? After the first class I again told them that Americans don't put peanut butter on this kind of sandwich, but come sandwich making time, everyone was adding peanut butter. The funny thing is, they all seemed to like it. Whatever...

Also funny was that I ended up having to eat the ham sandwich I ate during each class. So by lunch time I had already eaten 2 ham sandwiches. Then they asked me what I wanted for lunch (we've been ordering food for lunch each day). I said I wanted nothing and they were all shocked. I'm like, I've eaten 2 sandwiches...I'm full. To them, sandwiches are a snack, I guess.

So then I was explaining to one of my co-teachers how I went in to the immigration office last week to extend my visa (since it expires on the 21st and I'm here until the 1st). I told them how I had to extend my working visa until the 31st, but since I fly out of Korea on the 1st I needed to go back to the immigration office on the 30th to get a 1 day tourist visa extension. Which is a huge pain in the ass, btw.

A little later in the day that co-teacher approaches me and says, "I talked to Ms. Shin (the vice principal) and she said that's it's ok if you leave a day early on the 31st so you don't need to get another visa extension." Uhhh... I then explain to her that I need to because my flight is on the 1st. She says again, "Well, you can leave early, so you don't need an extension." At this point I feel like bashing my head against the wall. Again, and slowly, I explain, "I already bought my plane ticket. It's for the 1st. I NEED to get the extension or I'll be fined when I go through customs." I'm then told to just call and change the day of my flight. They then seemed shocked when I said I think there'd be a fee..."But it's 2 weeks away!" Yeah well, they don't like you to switch crap around. So I guess I'll call and see, but honestly, I think I'm just going to keep the same flight. I mean, it's only one day difference and everything is already planned and stuff. Plus, the in flight movies for August are really crappy and I was realy looking forward to seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" on the plane...which starts in September. But hey, if they want to let me take the 31st off anyway to pack and stuff, that'd be great!

More teachers were finding out that I wasn't renewing my contract. They are really sad about it, especially this one teacher who I don't even talk with that much. It's kind of weird. Since almost all the teachers are female, they really aren't happy that my replacement is apparently a guy. Even though he has blue eyes.

Anyway, that was my day. I'm going over to Elissa's tonight to help her eat the rest of her food (she leaves next Wednesday for her Trans-Siberian train trip through China, Mongolia, and Russia and onwards into Eastern Europe). I think we're going to watch Ewan McGregor's 'Long Way Round' because they go through a lot of those countries and I'm obsessed with it.

2006-08-17T00:03:00.000+09:00

I May Not Be A Man...
But at least I have blue eyes

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but
1)I've been busy thinking about my summer English camp and mentally preventing myself from physically throwing my body off my balcony, and
2) Since I'm coming home soon I have this thought that I don't really need to update people. But mostly it's 1.

Anyway, I'm not going to write a lot now because I have to go to bed, but I remembered something that happened today that I need to write about because it's funny. Yet not, when you really go into it.

So, I saw a bunch of people from my program this weekend. Most of them knew about the people who were going to replace them...where they were from, etc. So I was curious if my school knew anything about who would replace me. So today I asked a teacher, "Does the school know anything about the native English teacher who will replace me?"

She replied, "Yes, we know who it will be."

I then asked, "Where are they from?"

"I don't know. I only know that it's a man and he has blue eyes."

Well, at least you know the important stuff...

My principal must be happy because he wanted a boy in the first place but got me. I guess a lot of schools request to get blonde-haired, blue-eyed Americans. And many like men because...men are more important. Right. So if my replacement is blonde, they hit a home run. Unless he's Irish and no one can understand him or something. Haha, that'd be great. I hope he sucks so my school can garner more appreciation towards me. Even though I'll be gone. For good.

But I'm not bitter or anything...

2006-08-07T22:08:00.000+09:00

Japan!
My exploits in the country to the East

So I left Pyeongtaek for Japan with Jaclyn on July 29th (a Saturday). It’s only an hour and fifteen minute flight to Japan from Seoul. We found it humorous that it took longer to get from Pyeongtaek to the airport in Seoul than it took for us to get from the airport (in Seoul) to the train station in Osaka. Our onboard dinner was eel and fish. And rice. The eel wasn’t too bad but I dislike fish. A lot.

Japan almost didn’t let me into the country. I say it was due to my ugly haircut, but I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure. We filled out our embarkation cards or whatever, and had to give them to the customs people. We both forgot to fill out the back (which was like 2 boxes where you had to check “No, I didn’t bring any drugs into the country.” Jaclyn’s customs guy let her quickly fill it out when she was up there. My lady made me leave and go fill it out at some table. Great. So I filled it out and waited to get back to the customs person. Then there’s a question on the card that asks for your intended address in Japan. I just put Osaka because we didn’t know what hotel we were staying at. Jaclyn wrote the same thing. They let her through no problem. They then proceeded to hassle me about where I was staying. Which was confusing because they didn’t speak English well and I speak no Japanese. They were like, “Are you visiting a friend?” “No.” “What hotel? Write the address here.” “I don’t know what hotel. No reservations.” Etc. This went on for a while. Finally they let me though. Crikey. I though it was weird because I would assume a lot of people may not know what hotel they’re staying at when they first arrive. Anyway, I managed to get into the country, so that was good.

We ignored the people at tourist info booths various times while on our trip. The first being when we first arrived. We got to Japan and went to the tourist info place at the airport to see if they could tell us where to get a cheap hotel to stay at that night (it was getting pretty late and by the time we got into the actual city of Osaka it’s be around 11pm or so). The lady gave us one hotel option and it was the equivalent of $140/night. We asked if we could find a cheaper place on our own and she said she didn’t know. We were a little nervous, but ultimately decided that there had to be cheaper places than that to be found. I mean, I know Japan is expensive, but $140? Come on.

So after taking the train into Osaka we just left the station searching for a cheap hotel (we were only staying in Osaka that night before heading to Hiroshima the next morning). Now, in Korea there are a bunch of “Love Hotel.” Named love hotels because it’s where people go to…love…one another. Often with a prostitute or mistress. Anyway, many love hotels in Korea are actually pretty nice/clean, but they’re cheaper than other hotels. I’ve stayed in a few and they’ve all been fine. One even had a dvd player and computer with internet. So anyway, we thought maybe we’d find a love hotel to stay at. We walked into the first place we saw...the sign outside was all in Japanese, but we did understand the 2,900 yen part ($29). Definitely seemed very reasonably. The desk people looked at us a little weird then told us that they had no room. Ok. Onward to the next place. Same thing occurs. I think maybe they’re turning us down because we’re 2 girls and they don’t cater to homosexuality or something. Anyway, we then see another sign that has some English on it. It turns out that we were walking into places that only rent out rooms by the hour!! Hahahahahaha!!! I’m guessing they all just knew we didn’t understand what was going on and saying they had no rooms left was the easiest thing to say to us. But we then found a place that was definitely more reputable looking and got a very small twin room for about $25/person. I’ve included a picture of the sign we saw that clued us in to the by-the-hour thing that we took the next morning.

Let me just take a moment to say that it was friggin’ hot in Japan. And humid as hell. Ugh, I shudder just thinking about it. Lonely Planet said something about traveling in Japan at this time that was akin to, “Walking outside turns into an immediate soup bath.” That’s about it. It was constant nasty sweating. Horrid. I hate sweat. Ugh. So yeah, it was super hot. Also, before we left I checked the weather for Japan for that week and it said it’d be rainy the whole time. Great. Now, I have this poncho that I bought a couple of years ago before going on a hiking trip. It’s in this miniscule package and I always think that once I take it out there’s no way I will be able to fit it back in that package. Luckily, I’ve never had to take it out. I call it my lucky poncho because every time I bring it on a long trip with me I never need to use it. So I packed my lucky poncho. Did it ever rain while I was in Japan, I ask?? No, sir! Lucky poncho pulls through! Still sittin’ pretty in its miniscule package. So that was nice…although I wouldn’t have minded more clouds instead of constant blazing sun.

This entry will get really long. I should break it up into parts, but then people will probably read it in the wrong order. So I won’t. So deal with it.

The next day we went from Osaka to Hiroshima via train. We bought train pass things which turned out to be very handy (if you go to Japan and plan on using the trains a lot buy a JR Pass because it’ll save you money…but you have to buy it outside Japan, so plan accordingly). Trains are really expensive in Japan. It’s about a 2 hour train ride from Osaka to Hiroshima. We asked the Osaka info people about what train to take. They gave us a really confusing answer involving multiple transfers and a whole hell of a lot of time. While waiting for our train, we noticed another train coming that seemed to us to be a much better option. So we ignored the info people again and got on a different train (a lot of trains have no reserved/assigned seating). This new train involved transferring at one city, which happened to be a city we wanted to stop in (Himeij) because it is the home of a castle. So we took the train to Himeji, and went to Himeji-jo…Or Himeji Castle.

Himeji Castle is one of the oldest surviving structures from medieval Japan, and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sometime it’s called the White Heron Castle…because it’s white. One of the castle’s most important defensive elements is the confusing maze of paths leading to the main keep. The gates, baileys, and outer walls of the complex are organized in a way that requires an approaching force to travel in a spiral pattern around the castle on their way into the keep, facing many dead ends. This allowed the intruders to be watched and fired upon from the keep during their entire approach. But Himeji was never attacked in this manner, so the system remains untested. Also, the wooden floors in the castle are built to be really squeaky as another defensive measure…no one can sneak around/in the castle. It was pretty cool. See picture. We then boarded another train to get to Hiroshima. We ended up getting to Hiroshima in the same amount of time it would have taken us if we had followed the info people’s advice…but using our way we also saw the castle.

So we arrived in Hiroshima on Saturday afternoon. We asked the info people about hotels and they gave us a few nice sounding options, one of which we took. We stayed 2 nights/3 days in Hiroshima. That day we walked around the Peace Park. It is a really nice park, built right around the hypocenter of the A-Bomb explosion. It has all kinds of monuments in it. I have a lot of pictures of the Peace Park. This first picture is of the monument that houses the cenotaph that lists all the Japanese who died in the bombing. Each year they add more names to the list, as people are still dying from ailments/diseases caused by the radiation from the bomb. You can see in the background the A-Bomb Dome (which I’ll discuss soon) and the Peace Flame (although you can’t really see the flame in this picture). The Peace Flame will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation. As a tidbit of info, any time a nuclear test of any kind occurs, the city of Hiroshima sends that country a letter of protest. You can see lots of these letters in the museum located in the park.

The A-Bomb Dome is the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It is the building closest to the hypocenter of the nuclear bomb that remained at least partially standing. It was left how it was after the bomb in memory of the bombing. It is probably the most well-known symbol of the park. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I took a picture of it in daylight and at night when it’s lit up. I also included a picture I found of the building prior to the A-Bomb explosion.

This is a monument to the A-Bomb Children. The statue is dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a crane rising above her. The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. To this day, people (mostly children) from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. The statue has a continuously replenished collection of folded cranes nearby. The millions of cranes are assembled into long strings or into collages making up pictures, often presenting an inspiring message of peace and world fellowship. After display, the cranes are pulped and recycled into bookmarks, notebooks and other souvenirs. They’re kept in those cases to protect them from rain, etc.

Here is the memorial for Korean victims of the bomb and includes a cenotaph with all the Korean victims from the bomb. Japan was occupying Korea during World War II and had lots of Korean forcibly working in Japan at the time, including many in Hiroshima. It’s thought that 1 in 10 (I’ve also seen 1 in 7) of the victims were Korean. Almost 20,000 Koreans died from the bomb. The Cenotaph was originally dedicated in 1970, but prejudice that remained between the Japanese and Koreans kept the Cenotaph outside the Memorial Park until 1999, when the then mayor of Hiroshima allowed it back into the park.

The Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound is a large, grass-covered knoll that contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

Here is a statue from a monument dedicated to the students who died in the bomb. In Japan during World War II, everyone was enlisted to help with war efforts, including school children. Japan knew that Hiroshima was a target because it housed an important military base, so prior to the bombing they had evacuated quite a few young children out of the city (but not all). Actually, throughout the war (until the atomic bomb) Hiroshima was never bombed/air-raided because the US knew it was a possible target for the atomic bomb and they wanted to be able to accurately measure the destruction of the atomic bomb.

Anyway, there were some other monuments as well, but these are the ones for which I took pictures. A few days later we went to the Peace Museum located in the park. It’s a very nice museum, albeit depressing. It’s all about the bombing of the city and has all kinds of artifacts displayed and information and stuff.

The next day we took a trolley and train and ferry ride for a day trip to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima, which is considered one of the 3 most scenic spots in Japan. In the Shinto religion the island is considered to be sacred and there are no maternity wards or cemeteries, as no one is permitted to give birth or die on the island (I actually don’t know if this is still true, but it used to be, anyway). Cutting down trees is also forbidden, leaving the island covered in virgin forest and providing a habitat for dozens of bird species and deer which are allowed to roam freely (and are considered national treasures). One deer attempted to eat both my map and my passport…which you can see in a pic I’m including.

Located on Miyajima is the Itsukushima Shrine and its floating torii (gate). I included lots of pictures of this since it’s apparently one of the best views in Japan (it was kind of foggy-ish when we were there). This is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Also on Miyajima is Daisho-in temple, a Buddhist temple (Itsukushima Shrine is of the Shinto religion). We also took a cable car up Mount Misen where there was a nice view of the islands in the Inland Sea. Apparently sometimes there’s monkeys up there, so Jaclyn and I were both a little nervous (we both have had mildly frightening experiences with monkeys…me in Thailand and her in Bali). However, we didn’t see any monkeys.

The next day we went to the Peace Park again. There was a big group of little Japanese school kids there who were practicing their English (5 year olds). We were approached by quite a few of them: “Do you have a moment? What is your name? Where are you from? Do you like Japanese food?” Etc. It was adorable. Then they gave us paper cranes they folded (or their moms folded, as one kid said). So it was nice to get paper cranes from little Japanese kids in the Peace Park the week of the anniversary of the bombing. [It’s weird to use the word anniversary when talking about a very unhappy event]

We then took a train to Kyoto. We got there late at night. We tried walking around and finding a hotel on our own, but we weren’t having any luck so we went back to the station and asked the info people for help. He ended up calling a lot of places for us (lots of places were full). We ended up staying in a hostel that was pretty cheap, but was also pretty much a piece of crap. We stayed there 3 nights. One person at the hostel who came our second night said that Kyoto was all booked up. So at least we weren’t sleeping on the street (and only had to spend $20/person/night).

By the time we got to Kyoto I had huge blisters on the bottoms of both my feet (right on the balls of my feet). It was very painful to walk. Excruciating as the day went on and I had been walking for a while. I started walking on different parts of my feet to avoid stepping on the blisters, but this just made the rest of my feet extremely sore (as well as my shins). I don’t think my feet ever hurt so much as they did on this trip. Seriously. Which really sucked, but hey. To describe the weather--“Due to the surrounding mountains on all sides, Kyoto is famous for its stifling summer nights with no air movement.” The nights weren’t too bad, but the days sure as hell were stifling.

Anyway, we hit up the main spots in Kyoto, all of which were UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Very pretty, but the original was burnt down by an obsessed monk in 1950, so this one is a rebuilt version. It’s also referred to as the Golden Pavilion.

Ginkaku-ji Temple
The actual temple here wasn’t too amazing, but the walk around it was really pretty—lots of woods and moss and stuff. It’s also referred to as the Silver Pavilion, but it was never covered in silver. So the name doesn’t really fit.

Kiyomizudera
Kiyomizudera ("Pure Water Temple") is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780 and remains associated with the Hosso sect, one of the oldest sects within Japanese Buddhism. Okay, but not that amazing.

Heian Shrine
Has a pretty nice garden stroll, albeit a bit pricey ($6). I thought I was going to die of heat while I was here.

Fushimi-Inari-taisha Shrine
Dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of cereals, Fushimi-Inari-taisha is the head shrine (taisha) for 40,000 Inari shrines across Japan. Stretching 230 meters up the hill behind it are hundreds of bright red torii (gates). This was probably my favorite thing in Kyoto. It wasn’t so crowded and I liked how it was very woodsy (which also helped keep it a bit cooler than other places).

After Kyoto we took a day trip to Nara. Nara is an ancient capital of Japan. It also has a crap-load of the UNESCO sites. It also was super hot here. Like Miyajima, there are deer than roam around the city (regarded as messengers of the gods by Shinto).

Todai-ji
A Buddhist temple and reputedly the largest wooden building in the world. Inside there’s a giant statue of the Buddha Vairocana.

Kofuku-ji
Another Buddhist Temple

Kasuga Shrine
A Shinto Shrine thats interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns. Also, many stone lanterns lead up the shrine. Over a thousand stone lanterns line the path to the Shrine. This was my favorite thing in Nara.

That day we took a train back to Osaka. That night for dinner we had sushi and sake…and pizza…in an interesting restaurant experience as the menu had only Japanese and no pictures. But the waitress spoke a little English and was super nice. We woke up the next day and headed right to the airport, where we then flew back to SoKo.

I had a really good time in Japan, even though it was hotter than bejeezus and my feet hurt like a beotch. I really like Japan. All the people were super nice and helpful. Also, I didn’t get stared at because I was white like I do in Korea. Which was nice. With the combination of Korea and Japan I’d say I’m sufficiently templed-out…one can only see so many temples. But Japan was really pretty (they don’t have rows upon rows of high-rise apt buildings like Korea!). Also, old Japanese women are cute and sweet…old Korean women are scary and rude. The Japanese seem very polite. Maybe if I lived in Japan I’d notice more things or get annoyed by more things, but the short time I was there I really liked it. It was a nice change from Korea. When I got back to Korea I found that monsoon season was over and it's now into super hot season. Great.

And that’s all I can write for now because I’m officially on page 6 of this word document (and that’s without the pictures!). I need a break. As do you, I’m sure.

2006-07-28T23:22:00.000+09:00

I Think I'm Turning Japanese, I Think I'm Turning Japanese
I really think so (do da do da da da da)

I've hit one of those points where I haven't written in so long (of anything of consequence, anyway) that I don't really know what to say.

I leave for Japan tomorrow, which I'm excited about. I'm packing and trying to solve tough questions such as what kinds of shoes, are shorts acceptable, etc. It's going to be hot as hell and humid as all get-out, so I really want to wear shorts. I'm not sure how acceptable shorts are in Japan, but my friend Charlie (who lived on Japan for a few years) seemed to think that shorts and tank tops are fine...but most Japanese don't wear shorts because they don't see them as fashionable. Also, I want to wear my birkenstocks because of the heat and (like in Korea) you have to take your shoes off a lot. But I think it also might rain a lot when I'm there...and then sandals might be annoying? But do I want to bring along an extra pair of tennis shoes that I'll have to carry around?? Man, the tough questions. Then again, whatever I do I'm sure will be fine.

I'm super annoyed because suddenly out of nowhere my computer monitor has this thin vetical line running down it, a bit left of center. It's bright blue (about the width of a pixel). Against light backgrounds it's barely noticeable, but against darker backgrounds it very annoying, especially when watching tv shows on my computer (such as 'So You Think You Can Dance' and 'Project Runway' and 'Stargate'). I did minimal research on it (perused the Dell forums) and it seems like it's probably an unrepairable problem with my LCD display and it'll have to get replaced. Which means I'll have to wait until I get home. Then I freaked out because it's apparently pricey to replace the screen and I thought my warantee would have just run out. But then I looked up my warantee on Dell.com and I guess I have it for another year. Phew. What's up with these friggin' monitors?? They really good when they're functioning properly, but crikey--Upon arrival of my computer the LCD screen was 'broken' and had to be replaced, and now, only a year later another issue has come up. They don't build things as they once did. (That last thing was for you, Liz--in one Stargate episode Teal'c said that in reference to 'an old Jaffa saying') :)

I got a haircut. Pretty drastic. As opposed to my last haircut when I asked for bangs and didn't really get them, this time I got them...and shorter than I wanted. Plus, she layered my bangs so they look almost feathered at times. The rest of my hair is about chin-length, maybe a bit longer. I'm not a fan of it. It just looks kind of shapeless or something. It reminds me of that 'Friends' episode where Phoebe cuts Monica's hair. Monica told her she wanted to look like Demi Moore, but Phoebe thought she meant Dudly Moore...resulting in a bad short haircut. And I thought I was communicating fairly well with the hair cutting lady. Apparently not. I was a bit worried because the style in Korea right now is what I like to call "the shaggy dog" look. Oh well. Hair grows. I'm sure you'll all see loads of pictures of it when I get back from Japan and post my Japan trip pics.

I've been organizing my iTunes library the last couple of days. Which is very tedious and time-consuming. I'm going through every song and making sure it has the proper album, year, and album art attached to it. I have found wikipedia to be most helpful in easily locating all of the above. When that fails I search through cdnow. I'd say I'm a bit over half done (I have over 2000 songs). Have I mentioned that I think I'm a bit OCD?

I got a notice in the mail about my Visa expiring soon. After I get back from Japan I have to try and extend my Visa (it expires on the 14th). I hope I can manage to do it alone, because my co-teacher is going to be in the US. Not like she would have gone with me anyway.

Which reminds me--my co-teacher is going to visit her sister in North Carolina (I think she leaves either today or tomorrow). She asked me last Monday about money. She is bringing $3,000 worth of cash with her. Wtf?? A bit much??? Anyway, she wanted me to tell her what kind of denominations to bring! I said hundreds, but then she said she was bringing $1,000 in hundreds, $1,000 in fifties, and she wanted the remaining $1,000 to be in twenties, tens, fives, and ones. ????? I didn't even know what to say to that. The thought of carrying $3,000 around with me was absurd. I think she's really nervous about tips and stuff. She wanted to bring $100 in ones!!!! I was like, "No." I think I managed to talk her down to $20 in ones, which is still stupid. She's going to have this gigantic stack of cash with her. Then I started to get nervous about her. Korea is still very much a cash carry society. They've never had checks, but they do have credit cards. But people don't use them as often as they do cash. And the biggest bill in Korea is the equivalent of $10. So you see people with big wads of cash a lot, and they don't really hide it. So I got nervous that she'd be in the US and be waving around stacks of money. So then I told her to be careful with it and to keep it hidden and stuff. I think that just freaked her out into thinking that she's going to get robbed and attacked. Koreans think the US is really dangerous. Numerous teachers have said to me, "I thought about teaching in the US but I'm scared because it's so dangerous to be a teacher in America." No, it really isn't. Most places, anyway.

It's been raining cats and dogs here well nigh on 2 days and nights.

I have to do my dishes before leaving but I don't want to.

I don't know how much cash to being to Japan. Apparently it's hard to find international ATMs in Japan, and many places don't take credit cards. So with food and accommodations, I don't know what I'll need. And Japan is expensive. Maybe I'll just bring $3,000 to be safe. :D But Japan is one of the safest countries to travel in. Unless it gets bombed my NoKo. ;)

Ok, I should go now. And finish packing. And sleep. And all that jazz.

2006-07-24T11:42:00.000+09:00

What Is Wrong With Koreans???

(rhetorical question, but if you have an answer feel free to contribute it)

Ok, so an update on what's up. After 2nd hour the phone in my classroom rang. It was my co-teacher. She says, "What are you doing?"

"Uh, I'm just in the classroom wondering what's going on today..."
"I am in 6-1 room. [6th grade class 1. Late last week she taught that class because the teacher was sick]. I will be here tomorrow, also."
"Oh...Ok."
"So you have today free."
"Ok, thanks. I'm sorry for you!"

Is it just me, or would it have been more prudent to let me know this before school started instead of after the 2nd class of the day? Also, I still don't know why I didn't have my 1st hour class since I teach that with a different teacher. Oh well. I feel bad now, like I should be planning all kinds of camp stuff. But I don't want to...I'd rather wait and finish my camp stuff the week before camp when I have to come in to school and...plan camp stuff. I have a feeling the teachers are beginning to think I'm really lazy about school stuff. Which is partly true, but more just that I have no idea what's really going on so I don't feel I can do anything.

2006-07-24T10:03:00.000+09:00

I officially have no idea what's going on right now.

(big surprise, eh?)

It's Monday morning. Usually on Mondays my first class starts at 9. It's a class I don't teach with either of my main co-teachers. Most days it starts about 20 minutes late because generally there's an all-school assembly on Monday mornings. I went to my classroom this morning and my co-teacher was not there yet. Which isn't entirely unusual because we have 2 English rooms and she likes to hang out in the other one when there's no class. So this morning there was no assembly, so I assumed I would have class at the normal time. 9 o'clock comes and goes and no class. Ok...so maybe they'll just be late? Time keeps ticking away, still no class. Finally, 9:40 comes and the bell rings for class to end. Ok, so I had no 1st hour.

Do I have a 2nd hour? I'm expecting my co-teacher to come in now becasue we teach the rest of the day together in this classroom. She doesn't come. Neither do students. It's halfway through 2nd hour and still no co-teacher or students. Hmm. Do I have ANY classes today? (It's possible I don't since tomorrow is the last day and it's just an assembly). I think maybe they have no electives today. But then I notice that there is a class in the music room next to me. Hmm. So I went down to the other English room to ask my co-teacher what was going on today. No one is there.

So here I am sitting in my classroom not knowing what to do. Do I have class today? Do I not have class today? Is my co-teacher even here today? Maybe she's sick and called in and they canceled my classes because of that...and decided it wasn't important to tell me. I really don't know. But as far as not knowing what's going on goes, not having class is the best kind of confusion I can have. I guess.

Twiddling thumbs.

Huh, there was just an announcement over the intercom. Too bad I have no idea what it said.

2006-07-18T22:02:00.000+09:00

Mud.

Get into it.

Last week my co-teacher showed a movie the last 20 minutes in class. Which I'm more than fine with, but I was also more than confused by the movie selection. It was a Japanese animated movie (Japanimation?). So they were speaking Japanese. And the subtitles were in Korean. In English class. Please, someone tell me how that at all is beneficial in an English class. I mean, I feel bad enough showing an English movie with Korean subtitles...

I was on the subway on the way home from Cheonon. The subway car was probably almost half full. This Korean man frantically runs down the subway train. He stops and turns to me and says, "Handuh-pone?" I say, "Handuh-pone upsoyo." ["Cell phone?" ..."I have no cell phone."] He points to my backpack and says again, "Handuh-pone?" I again say, "Handuh-pone upsoyo!" He then gets frantic again and runs off the train. WTF? A few things confused me about this encounter. 1)He chose the one non-Korean in the entire car to approach to ask for a phone...and it's not like he even spoke English. 2)There were at least 5 Koreans within 10 feet of us who had cell phones out and were tooling around on them (playing games, texting, whatever it is people with cell phones do). So why he approached and asked me for a cell phone, I have no idea. Whatever.

I thought it was funny that Jaclyn and Will (and some other people) were in North Korea the weekend after the NoKos test fired their missiles. Generally, Americans aren't allowed in NoKo, but there are some tours you can go on to go there. Although you only get to go hike this mountain, not go into actual cities. And they make a make-shift passport that you have to wear (they can't stamp your actual passport or else you'll have to pay a big fine when you go through US customs). I guess it was pretty interesting--they have North Koreans watching your every move when you're there. It cost $450. Which I thought was a little steep, especially since it's only hiking on a mountain and not really going into NoKo. Plus, technically I have been in NoKo...at the DMZ on the NoKo side of that one building. Even though that's even less NoKo than the mountain. Whatever. Here's a movie clip/news clip that I just saw on CNN.com today. It's a lady doing a report from the DMZ talking a little about it. You should watch it. It's pretty interesting and you can see what I saw: News Clip from DMZ.

There are a few places in Korea that are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. I've been to most of them (A few things in Gyeongju, Suwon Fortress, a palace in Seoul, a Buddhist temple in Seoul). I was looking at the UNESCO sites in Japan and I think I'll go to quite a few of them. I was curious as to how many UNESCO World Heritage sites the United States has. Since, you know, we're not that old. Apparently there are 2 categories of sites--I can't remember the official category names, but it's something like cultural and natural, or something. We have 13, I think. All but 2 or 3 of them are national parks. One is the building the Declaration of Independence was signed in (which I think is kind of weird) and another is the Statue of Liberty. Also, there are a few Native American building sites down in Arizona/New Mexico. Hopi buildings, perhaps? Anasazi? Did we go to those? I think we did...

So, the 9th Annual Boryeong Mud Festival was pretty fun. It was on Daecheon Beach. Which is southwest of here. It's on the Yellow Sea. It was rainy the whole weekend, but I guess that doesn't matter much for a mud festival, right? It wasn't as muddy as I thought it'd be. I thought it'd be a giant mud pit. But it was pretty much a beach. With containers of mud that you could paint onto yourself. And some mud games. But I got nice and muddy. I played a mud bungee game, which was fun and messy but it ended up scraping my knees and elbows up pretty bad. Then we swam a bit in the Yellow Sea. There were some pretty big waves, so it was fun. Now I've been in both the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea, as the Koreans call it).

On the train on the way home there was some really pretty scenery. It was rainy, but we went by some rice paddies that were super green. There were mountains in the distance with lots of mist and clouds around them. We tried taking some pictures, but they don't do it justice because they were taken out of a moving train with water on the windows.

The more I learn about Oprah, the more I like her.

2006-07-15T23:11:00.000+09:00

Dirrrrrrrty!
Sweat drippin' over my body
(pardon the Christina Aguilera quote)

After much frustration and confusion over attempting to buy plane tickets, we finally have our tickets to Japan reserved. Woo-hoo! They're $455...you'd think tickets from Korea to Japan would be cheaper since they're so close, but apparently not. So I will be going to Japan July 29 - August 5. Well have 6 full days in Japan. I think our schedule will be pretty tight. We haven't planned anything yet, but I believe we want to go to: Osaka (which seems kind of stupid, actually, but that's where we're flying in and out of), Kyoto (which was one of the few major Japanese cities not bombed during WWII because academics were able to persuade the military to avoid it because of its cultural assets), Nara (ancient capital), Himeji (has a cool old castle there), and Hiroshima. It'll be a day in each place with 2 days in Kyoto, probably.

Tomorrow I'm going to Daecheon/Boryeong to the Mud Festival with Elissa, her mom, and Meghan. It should be fun. I'm coming home Monday night (we don't have school on Monday because it's some sort of holiday).

It's incredibly humid here right now. The temperature's not insanely high, but it feels like it is because of the humidity. Sometimes I get sweat dripping off me when I'm doing nothing but sitting in my apartment. It's gross. It's been raining all day. It's weird because it starts and stops with no warning. And when it gets going, it really pours. I guess August is even hotter, but I've also been told that it's not as humid, so that will be nice.

I went to a demo class on Friday. The meeting afterwards was attended by the Gyeonggi guy in charge of all elementary school native English speakers. Whose wife happens to teach at my school. I didn't know that until a few weeks ago when she told me that. At one point in front of the whole group he looked at me and asked, "Why are you not staying another year?" Ahhh...I gave some bullcrap answer. I don't think anyone would have appreciated me saying, "Because I hate Korea." He said I'd "be welcomed back at any time." He then asked all the native English speaker teachers there to ask questions or give comments on our contracts. There were like 4 other whiteys there. No one said anything, so I finally spoke up and said how I didn't like how the elementary contracts were different than the middle and high school contracts. Which prompted one of the whiteys to ask how they were different. The Gyeonggi guy obviously wanted to avoid talking about the differences and just said, "Oh, they are only little different." Then I answered the guy and explained how the middle/high school teachers don't have to be at school if the Korean teachers don't, that they teach a maximum of 2 weeks of English camp during their vacations, and they get paid more. But the Gyeonggi guy said that they were making the contracts the same for all teachers next year. And I learned that people think I'm leaving because I don't like my co-teacher, Ms. Lee. I have no idea why people think this, but it pisses me off.

Oh, I also think I figured out what I'll have to do that one week in August when I don't have camp but it's after my vacation. According to my co-teacher, the vice-principal told her that I'll have to come in every day in the morning and prepare for my English camp that next week. But then I guess I can go home after lunch. Well, at lunch time...I don't want to eat at school...esp since they don't serve school lunch so I'd have to pack something or order food with other teachers (if any will be there)...which would be food I don't want, most likely. So anyway, I'm very relieved I don't have to teach a camp. However, this is Korea. That could change.

One and a half months to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-11T23:14:00.000+09:00

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto
Konichiwa!

I haven't bought tickets yet, but I'm almost assuredly going to Japan for a week during my summer break. Yay!!! I will be going with Jaclyn, a member of the Pyeongtaek gang. We haven't planned out any kind of itinerary yet, but we have decided that we will be flying in and out of Osaka, not Tokyo. We will not be going to Tokyo. This is due to time constraints. We want to go to Kyoto and nearby Nara as those cities are the cultural centers of Japan. Tokyo is just a big city. I can do without it. Also, we want to go to Hiroshima and that is even more south. It just would not be possible to go to Tokyo as well as all the other places in a week.

One of my co-teachers (Ms. Lee) is going to the US over summer break to visit her sister who lives in North Carolina. Because of this, she is missing the English Camp. Also because of this, the principal and vice-principal are very not happy with her. I personally think it's a good thing to have your English teacher visit an English speaking country, but hey. What do I know? Then I found out today that my other co-teacher (Ms. Kwan) had been planning on going to England this summer but had to cancel her plans because she has to be at the English Camp. I felt really bad. Stupid English Camp.

Will has a plane ticket to fly home to the US this Thursday (until mid-August sometime, as he's renewing his contract). However, he woke up last night and could hardly breathe, and ended up taking a taxi to the hospital at 4am. Turns out he might have tonsilitis. I say *might* because he really has no idea what's going on because no one there speaks English. I went to visit him in the hospital today and he looks pretty bad (but apparently looked a lot better than he did in the morning). Anyway, the doctor there wants him to stay in the hospital until Friday. Uh-oh! Remember, he is supposed to catch a plane home on Thursday! The doctor thinks that Will should be completely healthy before flying while Will just doesn't want to die on the flight home. So they're at odds. Also, the thing is that Will's brother is getting married that Saturday...so he has to be home for that! Man, poor Will. Well, his brother is getting as close to married as possible since he's gay.

I was watching Oprah last night (it's on TV here) and it was about gay people and the struggle they've had with acceptance and stuff because they were gay. It gets me SO angry. I really just can't comprehend how such a blatant form of discrimination is sanctioned by pretty much every state and the nation as a whole. Gay people should be able to get married, adopt children, serve in the military openly (if they so wished...), etc. Honestly, I don't understand the intolerance our country has with people who are gay. It sickens and saddens me. The fact that so much of it can be rooted to religion doesn't help up my opinion of religions, either. Ugh. Ok, I don't want to get into a big diatribe now, so I'll stop.

I felt like I had other things to say but I don't remember now. Soon I need to figure out how to go about 1) extending my visa, and 2) applying for my pension refund. My visa is only valid until Aug. 14, but I'll be here until Sept. 1. You only have 10 days after your visa expires to leave the country, so I need to extend my visa to the end of my contract (Aug. 31). Also, all year I've been paying into the Korean pension fund, but because of an agreement Korea has with the US, I should get it all back. So I have to go fill out forms and the government will then transfer the money directly into my US bank account. Also, for working in Korea for a full year you get a bonus month's pay. So I need to figure out who gives it to me and how I go about getting it. Unfortunately, my school is absolutely clueless about everything. Also, they'll probably send me to do it myself and the forms will all be in Korean or something. Bah. Well, it'll all work out. I hope.

2006-07-05T22:41:00.000+09:00

Bombs Away!
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!

My teacher kept asking me about nuclear weapons today. Or something. Because of North Korea testing their missiles. I couldn't quite figure out what she was asking me, though. It could have been: 1)What does the United States think about nuclear bombs? 2)What does the United States think about what North Korea just did? 3)What do you think about what's happening? Or something else. She said, "How does America feel about nuclear weapons?" I didn't know what to say to this, however. "Uhhh...we don't want other people to have them...but we have about 10,000 of them. We're also the only ones to have used them against another country..." I think she was wondering if we were worried about North Korea. I told her I wasn't. She asked if I was worried that it would start another World War, or another Iraq situation. I said it seemed very doubtful. I said that their military sucks and no other country would probably join with them. She then said that she was worried Russia and China would. I said I found that highly unlikely. I think it's that the Korean War wasn't that long ago and it devastated Korea...so people are worried another war will be fought in Korea and the same thing will happen. I like how Kim Jong Il tested them on the 4th of July to "embarrass the US." Yeah, big embarrassment. What a tool.

A couple weekends ago we celebrated Charlie's birthday. We went to her apt and had a picnic on the roof of her apt building. Then we went to dinner and had shabu shabu. Later that week we all got together at Charlie's again and made burgers. Here are a few pictures:

2006-07-03T18:33:00.000+09:00

America the Beautiful
...And not so beautiful

I have a slew of comments on various news articles that I've seen/read recently. And I will comment on them here...because I can.

1. So the other day I was attracted to a news article entitled, "Lawmakers decry Christian film's PG rating." So I clicked on it and read it. Then I got annoyed by it. A bunch of Congressmen (including the House Majority Whip...whose job it is try to get all Repubs to vote with the other Repubs...which doesn't really have any bearing on this article but I think the title is funny...he has to "whip" everybody into shape)...where was I? Oh yeah, a bunch of congressmen (conservatives, no doubt) are all getting their panties in a bunch over a Christian-themed movie about a football coach's faith in God receiving a PG rating. Apparently they're under the impression that it should only be G and the film rating people (MPAA) gave it a PG rating because it talks about religion. The MPAA says they gave it a PG rating because "any strong or mature discussion of any subject matter results in at least a PG rating...This movie had a mature discussion about pregnancy, for example. It also had other mature discussions that some parents might want to be aware of before taking their kids to see this movie." I personally thought only animated movies got G ratings. Really, how many "real-person" movies only get a G rating? Not many, I'd wager.

What peeves me off is that these conservatives seem to think that this movie deserves to only be G rated because it's religious--therefore it has to be wholesome, filled with morals, and good for everyone, right? The Majority Whip then whipped out this idiot statement: "This incident raises the disquieting possibility that the MPAA considers exposure to Christian themes more dangerous for children than exposure to gratuitous sex and violence." Uhhh...what? Seriously, this guy needs to take a logic class or something. How many movies with gratuitous sex and violence are rated PG? Now, if the MPAA consistently rated violent and sexual movies PG but non-violent, non-sexual, religious movies R, then he'd have a point. As it stands, the only point he's making is that he's stupid. And that's all I have to say about that.

2. Continuing with the movie theme: I'm not privy to the details on this former law, but until earlier this year Korea had some sort of law that enforced quotas on Korean theaters. Meaning, a certain percentage of movies shown had to be Korean-made, limiting the number of foreign movies (namely Hollywood) a theater could show. Which sucked for all us English-speakers in Korea but was good for the Korean film industry as it lessoned competition and helped the Korean film industry grow. Anyway, the US got all annoyed by this and said that Korea had to slash the quota (allow more foreign movies to be shown) in order to be a part of some free trade negotiation thing between the 2 countries. Which I personally (and selfishly) like because it means the number of movies I can see will rise. However, it kind of annoys me that we're (the US) being all demanding.

3. From movies to actors: So I see that the Secret Service has gotten involved in hunting down some guy who had taken pictures of Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) while they were in Africa and then put a few up on the Internet. Seriously, you know you have connections when the freakin' Secret Service will do that for you. As if it's a matter of national security. That just seemed bizarre to me. As a funny aside, I had my students fill out a survey and one question asked who their favorite actor was. I was reading over them and was temporarily befuddled by one kid's favorite actor being, "Bread Peat." Then I realized he meant Brad Pitt. Then I laughed. Because it's funny.

4. I saw a headline that I thought said, "Mutants tunnel into Israel for surprise attack." Wtf? When did the X-Men actually become real-life? Then I re-read the headline and realized it actually said, "Militants tunnel into Israel for surprise attack." Ahhh...makes much more sense now. Before I was thinking that perhaps the focus of the article should be on the fact that there are mutants, not the attack on Israel. Not to be anti-mutant or anything...but come on... :D But alas, no mutants. Only militants.

5. I was reading about Supreme Court decisions and how votes have been going this year (what with O'Connor leaving and Alito joining). I was reading synopses on various key cases in different categories (environment, civil rights, etc). There was one case called House v. Bell. In this case the court ended up ruling that death row inmates can use DNA evidence to attempt to show innocence even years after convictions. I find this a very good thing, but what I don't find good is that it was a 5-3 vote. Apparently Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas didn't agree with this ruling (Alito didn't participate). Who in their right mind wouldn't agree with this?? "Hey, I know you're going be killed for this crime, and even though there's DNA evidence that could exonerate you, we really don't think it's fair for you to use it. I mean, a trial's a trial and you've been convicted. Sucks to be you, eh? Maybe next time!" Even if it wasn't a death row case I would hope that new DNA evidence could be used to exonerate a person who may have been unfairly convicted. Granted, I only read a tiny summary of this case so could be missing some key points, but how much could you really be missing? Btw, I think the death penalty is stupid. Does Minnesota have the death penalty? I don't think so. I think I remember Utah still having the death penalty and being killed by a firing squad is still an option there. Weird.

6. There was an article about how "green" burials are growing in popularity. Basically, when you die and are buried your body can't be embalmed or otherwise chemically preserved. It also has to be buried in biodegradable caskets without linings or metal ornamentation and you can't have standing tombstones or monuments at the site. I like this idea. The thought of attempting to preserve your corpse is just gross to me. You're dead. Who cares what you look like? And the amount people spend on coffins? Who cares if a corpse is laying on cushions and pillows?? It's a friggin' corpse! I used to want to be cremated, but this article also pointed out that cremation still can cost a lot (why spend money on someone who can't appreciate it?) and it also has an environmental downside as it uses energy and releases dioxin and mercury into the atmosphere. I'd like my dead body to be donated to science. What they do with my remains, I don't care. Anyway, the idea of a green burial appealed to me.

7. I read that there's talk of getting rid of the penny because of its lack of worth. Actually, I think that this year it cost more to make a penny than it was worth. Granted, pennies are kind of annoying, but I think it'd be a little sad if they were to be no more.

8. There was this article about who makes a "true" American patriot. I liked it. With all this fervor about patriotic Americans being those who support The Troops, The President, The Government, etc., I enjoyed and agreed with this other point of view. Namely, a true patriot isn't someone with unquestioning loyalty, but is someone who isn't afraid to stand up against the majority to fight for what they believe are the rights of American citizens. It then focuses a lot on American librarians and their fight against the Patriot Act regarding giving public library book check-out records to the government. Among some other groups.

Here are a few quotes in this vein in which to end this blog entry, for your coming 4th of July enjoyment:

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."
-Edward R. Murrow (one of the guys the Good Night, and Good Luck movie was about).

He also said, "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
-H. L. Mencken

"The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
-Mark Twain

"When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
-Teddy Roosevelt

2006-06-28T23:05:00.000+09:00

the YANGPA
the ONION

So I just found out today that Korea has its own version of the ONION. It's run/written by foreigners, not Koreans. And it's probably only online. It's called the YANGPA. Yangpa is 'onion' in Korean. I perused it tonight and it's pretty funny...but it's probably much funnier because I live here and can relate to the things more. Anyway, here's a link to it for your own reading pleasure...or for a taste of some international ONION, anyway. My personal faves that are up right now: The panty-liner spokesmodel one (you should seriously see the commercial that guy is in right now) and the Korean gaydar one. But the picture and caption of the giant soju bottle was pretty funny, as well.

I almost flew out of a bus windshield tonight. I got on the bus and there were no seats so I was standing up. I had just gotten on so I was putting my bus card back in my wallet...therefore, I was not holding on to anything at the moment to stabilize myself. The bus driver then decided to slam on the brakes. I flew towards the front of the bus (well, I was standing near the front of the bus in the first place) and would probably have kept going if Will hadn't been standing in the way. He managed to stop my forward trajectory. I owe him my life. Seriously, standing on Korean buses is a dangerous adventure. They drive like friggin' maniacs.

I'm reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time right now. So far I'm getting most of it, but there are definitely a few things that I just cannot get my mind to comprehend. I blame it on Hawking not describing things good enough. Not my feeble-mindedness. While reading, I frequently get blown away by 1) how smart some people are, and 2) how huge the universe is. Also, seriously, how weird is the whole space-time continuum? And isn't continuum a cool looking word? It reminds me of vacuum. You know, with the double us and all. Haha...double us...ws...ok, enough. I also keep thinking that i'm reading a book published in 1988...how much of this stuff has changed in the last 18 years? A lot, I'm sure. And how about quantum mechanics? Weird. Reading stuff like this makes me realize how dumb I am.

2006-06-28T16:51:00.000+09:00

Burn Baby, Burn!!!
Old Glory

I just read that the senate rejected an amendment to ban US flag desecration. By one vote. Whew, close one. You know, I would be really peeved if an amendment were to be passed banning flag burning, etc. I mean, I'm all about the 1st Amendment and everything, but even that's not really why I'm against an amendment banning flag "desecration." I basically think, "Who gives a shit?" Really...if someone sets Old Glory ablaze, what's the big deal? I'd rather have someone burn the flag than blow up a building. But maybe that's just me. Really, burning the Star-Spangled Banner would not bother me in the least. If I saw someone burning the Stars and Stripes I would just think, "Huh...I guess they aren't a big fan of the US." The exact same reaction I'd have if I heard someone yeling, "I hate the US! The US does crappy things!" And when our government makes that illegal, then you know we're heading for trouble. I mean, really...flag burning hurts no one. Unless you burn it while it's tied to someone else, or something. Then again, we all know I'm not exactly the epitome of a Patriotic American. That said, I really can't wait to get back home to the US because although there are a lot of things about the US I don't particularly like, I really do like living there. I'll just probably never buy and fly Old Glory. Then again, I seriously doubt I'd ever burn it, either.

So there's this big ol' mud festival in SoKo in Boryeong called (coincidentally) the Boryeong Mud Festival. This area claims to have great mud with all kinds of health benefits. So the festival is supposed to be a marketing type thing for this mud (you can buy all kinds of beauty and health products, I guess), but really it's just a big ol' mud party. According to the website,

"There are many events such as mud wrestling, mud king contest, mud fireworks fantasy and mud sliding. There will also be a photo competition in which past members have come in first place. This is a high profile event. There is a gorgeous beach there as well, which will come in handy as you won’t have any chance but to get dirty. You will be put into a prison until you get some mud on your body."

Anyway, I'm going there with Elissa, her mom, and Meghan (another UW girl teaching here) on July 16-17th. Should be a fun time.

There's also this big concert in Seoul on July 28-30 called Pentaport Rock Festival. It reminded me of you, Liz, because I thought you liked some of the bands that will be there. But maybe I'm wrong. Bands I've heard of that will be there: The Strokes, Snow Patrol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Black Eyed Peas, Franz Ferdinand, and Jason Mraz. I had to laugh because Jason Mraz got delegated to the lesser stage with the Korean bands. Haha. I might go on the first day, but I'm not sure. Tickets are a bit pricey and I'm not a big fan of any of them (I just don't know them well). But I'm still planning my possibly Japan trip so that may influence whether or not I go.

I have to go soon to meet up with the Pyeongtaek gang and have dinner (home-made burgers...mmm). Hey, at least this post wasn't shrouded in negativity. It's getting really hot and humid here now. July is monsoon season. Apparently August and September are the hot months. It's pretty hot now, I'd say. I think it was around 90 degrees with high humidity today. I wish my room had air conditioning. I wish my apt had air conditioning.

2006-06-26T23:17:00.000+09:00

If Looks Could Kill
My entire school would be dead right now

Warning: This post is just me complaining and being pissed off. Sorry. I can't even come close to fully explaining why I'm so angry and what is going on, but here is my small attempt.

I had a horrible day today. I seriously almost had a mental breakdown. I think I kind of freaked out my co-teacher. I was SOOO incredibly frustrated that I couldn't keep it bottled up any more. Amongst many other things (summer camp, summer vacation issues, random other things), I was told last week that today some students from the University of Missouri would be visiting our school (I guess they're visiting Korea b/c they're in an agriculture program and are studying rice paddies or something?). They apparently wanted to talk to the 6th graders. I teach 6th graders on Monday. Anyway, this morning I ask my co-teacher,
"So, are the people from the U of Missouri coming today?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"During 4th hour."
So I am assuming that I won't be teaching my 4th hour class b/c they'll be talking with the visitors. Anyway, in the middle of our 3rd hour class our vice principal calls and wants my co-teacher to come down to the office. So she leaves, leaving me in charge of the class. Which is never a good idea because 1) they don't understand 95% of what I say, and 2) Because of this and the fact that I don't physically punish them, they don't listen to me at all so it's always chaos. Added to this, they were supposed to play this game for the last 15 minutes. Now, this game is way too complicated to explain to the kids when my co-teacher explains it in Korean (they still don't get it). So here I am having to explain it all in English. Blank stares. Shit. So I have to randomly figure out what to do until the class ends since I can't get them to play the game. Class ends.

Ok, so now it's 4th hour and I'm thinking that we'll go to talk to the Missouri people. Still no co-teacher. I have no idea where to go. Some students start coming in and ask if there's class here or somewhere else. I tell them I have no idea. They leave, but come back 5 minutes later because they don't know where to go. Ok, so I guess I DO have to teach 4th hour and apparently I'm doing it alone since I have no idea where my co-teacher is. I have no idea if the Missouri people are here, if the class I'm teaching should be wherever they (Missouri people) are, etc. So I teach the class, again having to just sit and talk with the kids for 20 minutes because of the game impediment. Thankfully, this class wasn't too bad and actually listened to me for the most part and wasn't too chaotic. I think they could tell I was in a very bad mood. Early on in the class when they were being loud, I yelled at them super loud, "SHUT YOUR MOUTHS! BE QUIET! NO TALKING!" I thought I'd cover all my bases there. The 'shut your mouths' one surprised them because it sounds like 'shut up' and many of them know that's not very nice.

So anyway, finally that class ended and I'm supposed to go to lunch but still no co-teacher. I still don't know what's happening. I am seething with frustration and anger at this point. I finally go down to lunch on my own. Lunch was HORRID today (like it's ever good). Seafood soup, fish, 2 nasty fermented veggie sides, and rice that was really gross and mushy today. So I literally ate only rice and my thing of milk. My teacher came late and sat somewhere else. I went back up to my classroom.

My co-teacher comes in a little later and says to me,
"How was no class?" Wtf?
"Uhh...I HAD class. I taught last hour. Did the people from the university come or what?" "Yes."
"Oh...well, who did they talk with?"
"The 6th graders."
"Um, I taught the 6-4 class last hour. I didn't play the game though because they don't understand me." I'm seriously looking pissed off at this point. She says,
"Oh, I forgot to call the 6-4 teacher to cancel the class. Sorry."

It was all I could do not to burst out screaming or rip my hair out. Why did no one let me know that they had arrived? Didn't they think that maybe I would like to speak with them or them to me? Plus, making me teach those classes alone which is just ridiculous at this age level. They have nowhere near the English level to make anything worthwhile. I HATE not knowing what is going on and I NEVER know what is going on here. This was just one shining example of that and it just cracked me. I could probably have killed someone with facial expression today. Then she starts asking me about summer camp and I did explode. It's in over a month and a half and they need a plan now...They say to me, "Oh, we need a plan for the camp and what materials you'll need." I ask, "When?" They respond, "Today or tomorrow." WTF??? Yeah, I'm gonna just whip up 2 weeks worth of lesson plans today. Ok. If you want them to be pieces of crap. And the thing is, no one cares about the plan. They can be pieces of crap. They can be (and are expected to be) changed by the time the camp comes. But if this is so, why make me do it this early? I don't want to waste my time making a quick crappy plan that I'm not going to do just because they need some paper work. I just said to my co-teacher, "I don't know. I don't care." And probably other stuff and then proceeded to make exasperated noises while ripping my hands through my hair. At this point, my co-t just said to me, "Don't worry about it. Do you want to go home?" At first I thought she meant back to my apartment and I was like, "No, no, no, it's fine." But later I realized that I think she meant back home to the US. YES. I DO. She also asked me later, "Do you regret?" I'm like, "Regret what? I'm just REALLY frustrated." Then she left me alone for a while and made me sit down for our whole 5th hour class.

I had to teach a teacher class that afternoon and I was still pissed. I couldn't get myself to fake being happy if my life depended on it. I think I kind of freaked all those teachers out as well. Then I had to go to a staff meeting (all in Korean...why they make me go to these things I have no idea). It finished at 4:30 so I could go right home. But my co-teacher says to me as we're leaving the room, "The 6th grade teachers are eating [insert not-so-good Korean food here] upstairs now. Let's go up." I couldn't hold back my "I would rather die than do that right now" facial expression. She says, "You no want to?"
"No. I'm going home." Then I left.

I am surprised I didn't kill someone today. Now I need to harrass them about my summer vacation time since I want to take it at a different time than they want to have me take it. They want me to teach a week long camp at some random elementary school in Pyeongtaek that doesn't have a native English teacher (in addition to 2 weeks of camp at my school). I'd rather shoot myself in the head than do that, so I am going to complain my head off about it and hope I get out of it. I am so beyond not caring if I'm difficult or whiney or demanding right now. I let them screw me around for 9.5 months, I'm going to try and put an end to it the 2.5 months I have left. I am so apathetic about everything right now. I seriously don't care at all about teaching the students. I show up at school every day and my goal each day is not to go insane. Ugh. I am beyond fed up with "teaching" here.

I want to go home.

2006-06-21T19:23:00.000+09:00

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane
And I will not be back again...

I just purchased my airline ticket home. Woo-hoo!!! Strike the drums and blow the trumpets! I'm flying United home--Seoul to Denver to Minneapolis. I leave Seoul on September 1st at 1:50pm and I arrive in Minneapolis on Sept 1st at 6:07pm. Wow, only a 4 hour flight. ;) So someone better be able to pick me up at the airport that Friday night! The ticket was $1,211.59, which I don't have to pay for. I hope my school can get their heads out of their asses long enough to properly reimburse me. I wanted to fly United, so I was glad that it also happened to be the cheapest. Korean Air was friggin' expensive. And it friggin' sucks.

I was thinking about buying a ticket through Korean Air (which were $1,800), having my school reimburse me that much, then cancel the Korean Air reservation (only a $20 fee or so), then buying the United ticket. That way I would net about $600. But 1) Even though I dislike my school, ripping them off $600 is not a nice thing to do...I mean, it's a school. And 2) More importantly, I'd live in fear of being caught/found out by my school. How horrid would I feel then?? So I'm still honest.

2006-06-21T17:33:00.000+09:00

Creepy McCreeperson
Why are whiteys invading my apartment complex??

Ok, the white family that moved in to the same apartment building as me is officially creepy. I've still only met one of the boys, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right? So I first met him a couple weeks ago on the elevator. His name is Seth. He is 13. He seemed really weird to me, but I couldn't really say because I only spoke with him for a few minutes. And he had an accent that I thought sounded Texan. That never bodes well.

So, as I was coming home today I ran into him on the elevator again. He was going down (with a soccer ball) and I was going up, so I was hoping there wouldn't be conversation. There wasn't on the elevator. A few minutes after getting in my apartment, there's a knock on my door (I had told him last time where I live--bad move, I know...but he asked and I didn't want to be all, "You're weird and I'm not telling."). Great. He asks if he can come in. I agree (yeah, I know, what's wrong with me?). So we talked for a while. He is weird, no question. As is his whole family, I'm sure.

He is from Texas. He's here with his older brother who is 15 who beats the crap out of him, apparently. His dad teaches English in an English academy (many kids take extra Engish classes after school). According to the kid, his dad spends over half his money on bills each month. This is clearly a lie, unless he gets paid shit, which I'm sure he doesn't. They don't even have Internet, so there's one less bill they have than I. His dad must tell them that because he either spends it himself drinking or something, or he just doesn't want to have to give his kids anything. The kid then proceeded to tell me how he tries to steal money from his dad. At this point I begin keeping an eye on my stuff. He then keeps mentioning how he only has 100 won left. Yeah, that's like 10 cents. You're not gonna be able to do much with that.

He kept talking about video games and this video game place he goes to. He then tells me he wants to show it to me. I tell him I'm not into playing computer games. He says it doesn't matter, he only wants to show it to me. Like I care where it is if I don't play the games, you moron.

I asked what he thought about Korea so far, and he said that it's much better than America, because apparently--get this--there's going to be a huge war in the US soon but no one knows about it yet. So I'm just giving you all the head's up on that. Be prepared for a massive war, OK? Then he proceeded to bitch about taxes and how high they are in the US. He clearly has no idea what taxes are, because I then said to him, "That's a nice thing about Korea. You don't have to pay taxes on your income." To which he responded, "My dad has to pay all kinds of taxes each month...water, gas, electricity..." Ok, those are called bills, idiot. I shouldn't be too hard on him because he's only 13, but he's weird. And I don't like him.

He also told me how he can speak Korean really well (he's been here a month and when I met him previously he said he 'didn't know a lick of Korean'). He then tried reading this thing on my ceiling and was like, "I am having problems with reading it though." At which point I had to tell him that what he was looking at wasn't Korean, it was Chinese. If he doesn't know the difference between Korean and Chinese writing, yeah, I'd say he has problems reading.

I asked what he does for school, and he doesn't go to school. His dad tells him to read from some book everyday as a sort of home-schooling. I'm sure that's cutting it.

I kept thinking the whole time, "How can I get this kid out of here?" Finally I just told him he had to go. I feel like him and his family are going to break in and steal my shit. Not liking them. Do not want to run into any of them EVER again. I hope none of the Koreans in the same complex as me think I know them or am friends with them. I also hope they don't find this and read it and murder me in my sleep.

2006-06-21T12:08:00.000+09:00

What a Pisser

Koreans don't know squat about decent bathrooms

So, I went into the bathroom at school today and saw that one stall on the end had a toilet in it, and not a squatter. What the hell? I swear to God I looked in all the stalls before and they were all squatters. I mean, it's a nice discovery and all, but it would have been a nicer discovery if it had been made...oh, let's say 9.5 months ago. Now I'm wondering if it's newly installed or if I'm stupid. Oh, the unsolved mysteries of the universe....

2006-06-20T20:31:00.000+09:00

Demonstrate This, You SOB!
I hate the English education program here. In case you didn't know.

Erin: Hey! No, you're not a bad friend, you just live half a world away from me at the moment. You can email me (emily.christopherson@gmail.com) or you can call my parents and have them give me your phone and address info. I trust you remember the phone number!

Dad: I saw some pics (Father's Day or close to it) and in them you were wearing your taeguki shirt (Korean flag shirt). I noticed that on the back is some Korean writing. You may be interested in knowing what it says. It says, "Dae Han Min Guk" (pr. Day Hahn Mean Gook). Which pretty much means The Republic of Korea and is the title of my last blog entry. I'm currently hearing it chanted all the time because of the World Cup mania. Korea is very patriotic. Speaking of Father's Day, "Happy Belated Father's Day!" If it makes you feel better, I also forgot about Mother's Day. I'm a bad child, apparently.

So, my demo was interesting. I thought it went ok, although I definitely would not have chosen the activity that we did (my co-teacher planned everything). The people who came to see it from other schools seemed to really like it. However, after it was over the vice-principal was pretty much yelling at my co-teacher. At the time I didn't know what about because it was all in Korean. Then the principal gave a long speech about it to all the people who came. Again, I had no idea what he said. But I later learned from my co-teacher that the vice-principal hated it and the principal pretty much said that he considered it a failure. Ouch.

I don't really care because I'm leaving and don't care at this point what they think of me. Also, I don't think they had a problem with me and my teaching. My vp thought that the Korean teacher didn't talk enough and when she did she was too quiet. And both the vp and the p (I think) were just pissed that it wasn't a completely choreographed presentation. That's pretty much what these demo classes are. I hate them and find them absolutely pointless. You take like a month to plan one lesson and make all these materials and practice the class beforehand, etc. It in no way represents what an actual class could ever possibly be like. But Koreans are all about appearances. Don't you love all the blanket statements I'm making about the entire Korean population? Anyway, we didn't completely choreograph the whole class, so it was a bit more 'real'...even thought there were obviously things that took more planning than you could normally do. But like I said, the other people thought it was good and I think contradicted what the vp and p said was bad about it.

I got a lot of compliments about my 'performance.' Like last time, I got a lot of, "You are like an actress! Wow!" I also got some, "You have a beautiful voice!" Thanks. They also said I was beautiful, which I pretty much have determined they say to everyone who's not Korean. I also got a few, "If you have friends who want to teach let us know! We need a native English teacher!" Yeah, so I'm glad that's over. I'm not going to even get into the whole room debacle (what a friggin' hassle, I'll tell you that).

So way back in the beginning of May I wanted to transfer a bunch of money from my Korean bank account to my UW Credit Union account. In order to do that, I needed my school to give me pay stubs from all the months I've worked (they don't just give them to me...even though I asked when I first got here). In order to transfer money you need proof that you earned it legally and paid taxes and all that jazz. So in early May the exchange rate was really good, like almost 920 won per $1. Anyway, it took them until a few weeks ago to finally get them to me. By that time the exchange rate had risen to about 940 won per $1. Still not bad, but sucks it wasn't still 920. The next 2 weeks were super hectic due to the demo class, so I was never able to get to the bank to do it (banks are only open M-F 9-4:30...all times I have to be at work, so I have to leave school to go to the bank or post office). Throughout those 2 weeks I'd check the exchange rate every day, and everyday it got worse. Then I started to wonder if I should wait it out and see if it falls again, or if I should do it ASAP before it gets way worse. I consulted my friend who knows about stuff like that and she told me I should do it ASAP because she thought it'd get worse because the Chinese are revaluing their money or some shit like that. I don't know, I don't get it. So anyway, I went in and did it yesterday (it took 9000 years to do) and ended up getting an exchange rate of a bit under 970. Boo. But when I first came it was 1,000 and the previous year it was 1200, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It was very nerve-wracking deciding if I should transfer or wait...it was like I was 'playing' the stock market. I looked today and the exchange rate was below 960. Dammit. If it keeps going down I'll be pissed. Then again, I'll have to transer all my money on a few months, so I hope it's good then. That was a long paragraph on something that was potentially really boring.

I have received more glowing commendations on Ewan McGregor's documentary called "Long Way Round." So everyone should all go out and rent it. Now. I mean it.

All classrooms at school have signs that say what room it is. It says it in Korean and English. For instance, the sign outside my room says, "Yeongeo Shil (but in Korean writing)" and also "English Classroom" Anyway, I noticed a funny sign the other day. There are 2 signs outside the Nurses office. One says, "Health Center" and the other says, "Sexual Problem Counseling Center." For some reason I think there has to be a better translation than that.

Most of the people at my school now know that I don't really like Korean food and that I'm not that happy. Which I have to say is a relief, because it takes a lot of energy to put up a happy front. So now I pretty much act how I feel and it's much easier. I'm definitely getting into the "I don't care what they think of me" mode. And I enjoy it.

Still not sure what I'm doing for my summer break. I want to have it at a certain date, but I don't know if they'll let me because I may have to teach an English camp for a week at a school that doesn't have their own native English teacher. Which I will absolutely HATE. I'm going to try my hardest not to. I'm gonna whip out my contract and see if I can confuse them into thinking I'm not allowed to. Anyway, I might go to Japan with one of my friends here (Jaclyn). But that is extremely tentative. She's going to India after she finishes her contract so she has to check her finances first to see if she can afford it. Japan is very expensive, so that doesn't bode well. I am petrified of traveling alone. So with my luck, I will end up staying in Korea my whole break. Shoot me now.

The last Korea World Cup game was vs. France and it started at 4am here on a Sunday (or Monday morning, actually). Of course, everyone was watching it. I was awakened at not much past 4 when France scored a goal. I was awakened again later on when Korea scored a goal. Since I was never awakened again (aside from by my alarm clock) I assumed it ended a tie. Which it did. 1-1. Speaking of 1-1 ties and World Cup, how hilarious was the last USA match vs. Italy? I didn't watch it, but I did read about it. Our one goal came from Italy kicking it into their own net. Man, that's great. It reminds me of elementary school when one kid gets all excited about having the and proceeds run to the wrong side and scores a goal for the wrong team. Also, the only goal we've got so far in this tournament wasn't even by us. Do we suck or something? I do have to give us credit for not allowing Italy to score the second half even though we were one man short. So I read. Oh, this picture is of downtown Seoul during a game. I guess there's more than 300,000 people there. Also, there's a World Cup stadium in Suwon (Korea hosted it in 2002). I guess the stadium fills up completely on game day to watch a game that's only on tv.

I saw X-Men 3 on Sunday. It wasn't bad. At least it was all spoken in English so I didn't have issues like I did when I went to The DaVinci Code.

What a dumb entry. I'm sorry.

2006-06-13T23:30:00.000+09:00

Dae Han Min Guk!
(clap clap clap clap clap)

So, Korea is in full World Cup swing. The last week my students have been coming up to me and saying nothing but, "World Cup!" I'm never quite sure how to respond to that..."Yes...it's coming up..." The Korea v. Togo game is on as I write. It's actually very annoying because my TV is in a different room than my computer. I don't care enough about soccer to just sit in my bedroom and watch the soccer game, so I have the TV on while I'm in my "study" on the computer. Anyway, anytime the announcer gets all excited I feel the need to jump and run to the TV in case a goal is being made. It never is. And they get excited way too often. I did happen to be in the room when they scored a goal not too long ago. It's really great because I can hear collective roars and cheers from hoards of people around me...in surrounding aptments, etc. Since everyone has their balcony doors open, you can hear everyone yell (and there's probably about a thousand people living in my complex). Hey! They just scored another goal! Good on ya, Korea! So, when they score a goal I like ot mute my TV and hear all the cheers live. It's nice. They keep showing a live shot of Seoul where literally thousands of people are gathered on the streets watching the game. Apparently there's some gathering place in Pyeongtaek (kind of near me, I think) but I'm not sure where.

Last night as I was going to bed I kept hearing random cheers. I assumed it was people watching the Japan v. Australia game, but I wasn't sure who they were cheering for-I know they hate Japan, but do they have Asian Unity? So I switched on my TV and lo and behold they were cheering for Australia. :) Damn Japs! I guess they Aussie coach used to coach Korea or something and he said something about wanting to beat the Japanese "for Korea"...so they love him. Then at school the next day all the kids were yelling, "Japan soccer lose!!!" All gleefully.

Korean love soccer. Every Korean kids says their favorite sport is soccer. If not soccer, then 'pigu.' Which is Dodgeball, I believe. The name of the Korean soccer team is The Red Devils, I think. Korea co-hosted the last World Cup and made it pretty far. All the shirts from that year say (in English) "Be the Reds!!" I really want to buy one. The shirts for this year say, "Reds Again!" Not as cool or old school looking. And why it's always in English is beyond me.

The US lost v. the Czech Republic last night, 0-3. Whatever.

I'm having a really crappy couple of weeks because I have a demo class on Friday. My school is freaking out about it and all this extra (and many times pointless work) is being created. I hate it. I can't wait until this week is over. I hope I don't fling myself over a balcony before the week is out. I would explain more, but it's late and I don't want to piss myself off. Maybe later. So that's that.

Ooh, Korea just won. Cheers abound. I will have happy students tomorrow, not sad, sulky ones. How is this for crappy--ok, the game just finished and it's midnight. Pretty much all the students are staying up to watch it. Tomorrow morning for the first 2 classes all the students have a school-wide math test. So not only did they not study, but they'll be tired as shit. What administrator planned that one?

2006-06-04T12:26:00.000+09:00

Who's a Fan of the Amputated Hand?
The Korean Educational System!

Brighton found the clock in my classroom very funny because the brand was RAGE. “What time is it, kids?” “It’s RAGE time!!”

Here’s a new picture of my classroom with the “new” bulletin board. It was changed at the start of this semester by my new co-teacher. She put everything up and then told me to write a story to go with it. So I had to try and write a story that was simple to understand and was in the correct order of the pictures and made sense. It was not that easy, and the story is very dumb. It’s actually not really a story, but the mice all saying something. Also, the mice on the end are supposed to be carrying strawberries (according to my co-teacher), but she never made the strawberries. So what they’re saying on the end currently makes no sense. Here is what they’re saying:

1: He’s not saying anything because he’s playing an instrument.
2: “Hey! Who turned off the lights? I can’t see anything!”
3: “Yay! It’s Spring! I love Spring!”
4: “Look up there, Grandpa! It’s Brother Mouse. He is very happy.”
5: “Wow! He jumps very high! I like Spring, too.”
6: “Look at the pretty flowers! You are wearing a flower hat. It is very funny.”
7: “Thank you. It’s my purple flower hat. Purple is my favorite color.”
8: “Help me! These strawberries are very heavy!”
9: “I like strawberries. They are delicious! I will help you.”
10: “Wait for me! I want a strawberry! Wah! Wah!” [she’s crying]

Should I be a children’s book writer, or what? Also, there’s a picture of me at my (newish) desk with my (newish) computer. You can see a portion of the (newish) gigantic printer on the left.

Students are allowed to do things in Korean schools that would never happen in US schools. I’m worried that I’ll become so accustomed to these things that I’ll start teaching in the US and let things happen and end up getting sued or fired. For instance, There are ceiling fans in our room. They were covered over the winter, but now that it’s getting hot they were uncovered. My co-teacher took them apart and washed them. Between a few of the classes she enlisted some of the boys to put the fans back together. See pictures. These fans get turned on by a set of switches that are grouped together with the light switches that are located right next to the door. I kept imagining a student running in and hitting the switches…then having 4 boys’ hands get amputated by fan blades. It was all a very sketchy situation. Oh, and here’s a picture of my class while I’m teaching. You can see my co-teacher (Mrs. Yi, not Ms. Kwan who wanted to live with me). It’s a 6th grade class. You can’t tell in this picture, but I’m wearing pants that don’t match my shirt. But being as I’m in Korea, I figured it didn’t matter. Because it doesn’t. In Korea. I don’t think I could get them to understand the term “matching.”

Here are 4 of my students. They are 5th graders posing for Brighton. 99% of all pictures taken of Koreans (if it’s a posed picture) involve them doing the peace sign with their fingers. But I don’t think it means peace for them. I don’t know what it does mean, however. They also say “kimchi” before a picture instead of “cheese.” Here’s a picture of Brighton becoming Koreanized.

When Brighton was here, we went out with my Pyeongtaek friends one night. First we had dinner (samgyeobsal). It’s pork. Grilled with veggies that you then wrap in lettuce leaves. It’s a Korean food I don’t mind, but sometimes it can get really fatty which grosses me out. ‘Sam’ in Korean means 3…so the ‘sam’ in samgyeobsal symbolizes the 3-layers of the pork—meat, fat, and…more fat? Honestly, sometimes it’s 2/3 fat. And you eat it, not cut it off. Meat here is very fatty.

Then we went to what we call the “Swing Café.” You go there and order juice, tea, or coffee. The seats are all swingy benches. And it’s decorated all frilly and girly. Only boys have no issue coming here. In the US, guys would not be caught dead in here, especially middle school boys. Here: totally acceptable. That’s one thing I like about Korea—guys can look, act, and dress in ways that to Americans would prompt ridicule about their sexuality. Officially, there are no gay Koreans (really, that’s the stance of Korea). When foreigners come here they may think, “Wow, there are lots of gay men in Korea.” Really, neither is the case. I’m sure the percentage of gay men is proportional to other countries’ gay men. There’s just a lot less taboo on what constitutes acceptable behavior for guys. Guy friends walk around holding hands here. My boy students are always hugging and hanging on each other. It’s very cute. Anyway, then we went to a bar called “Do & Be” and had chocolate shakes and a potato platter. Here I am, striking a Korean pose.

The night before Brighton left we went to a noraebang together. You can’t come to Korea and not go to a noraebang. So, those of you who know Brighton know that she is not the most musically inclined. We found it hysterical that in every picture of her singing she looks like she’s either very sad, terrified, or being tortured. See following picture montage. Apparently singing is not the most enjoyable activity for her. :D

I’ve determined that I had/have whooping cough which then caused me to strain/crack my ribs which for whatever reason didn’t show up in my x-ray. Because I definitely made whooping noises while attempting to breath while coughing spasmodically. I don’t cough often anymore, but when I do, it’s bad. And when it happens I feel like I have asthma…sometimes I’m not even coughing but I’m incapable of sucking air into my lungs and I think, “What if I asphyxiate and die right now?” But then I’m ok. But hey, I’m no doctor, so what do I know?

A nice picture of the church near my apartment (taken by Brighton). It really gives a nice feeling of what the glowing red crosses look like. Imagine looking out and seeing like 5 of them at one time. Lots of chuches here. Lots of glowing red crosses here. Ironically, I think they look slightly satanic.

Here's a video of us at the Swing Cafe:

Here's a video of dancing soju bottles in the streets of Suwon:

2006-06-03T16:28:00.000+09:00

For Whom the Bell Tolls
In Gyeongju, apparently it tolls for me

So, for the first time in about a month I’m visitor-less. It’s kind of odd. Brighton flew home last Tuesday. My out-to-eat experiences have lessoned considerably this week. : ) The weekend before Brighton left we went to Gyeongju. I’ve been to Gyeongju before and posted pics and stuff about it already, so I won’t go into any (or much) history of the area.

We boarded the train from Pyeongtaek to Gyeongju at 6:30 on Friday night. We had first class seats as they were the only two left when we got around to buying them. But they weren’t that much more expensive, so no big deal. I personally couldn’t find any big differences between first class and “normal” class. The seats may have been a bit more plush. Anyway, it was a 3.5 hour train ride. The dining car was in front of us. There was a sign on the door that I found funny. Here is a picture, at left. I also enjoyed how the train workers would bow to the passengers upon entering and exiting a car. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of bowing. I had a kid bow to me so deep the other day he was practically doubled over. It was great.

So we got into Gyeongju around 10 or so. We had no hotel reservations, but we’d heard that there were a bunch of new “love hotels” near the bus station. Korea has a lot of “love hotels.” They’re hotels that people go to for…love…purposes. You can get them for the night, or if you’re in a hurry, an hour. I’d never stayed in one before, but I have heard that generally they are pretty nice…not gross and seedy in a dirty sort of way. Quite often they’re better/cleaner than other hotels. And they’re usually much cheaper. And they provide…materials…for…love. Anyway, we walked towards the bus station (about a 20 minute walk or so). We ended up going into a new one (still had streamers up outside it). It was called The Ritz, so you know it was quality, right? The lady showed us a room (you can request looking at numerous rooms). We thought it was fine. We paid her in cash right in the room, which was a little weird. It was 40,000 won (a bit more than $40). It was very clean, had a big tv, a dvd/vcr combo, and a computer with internet access. And multi-colored lighting, which was fun. My favorite was the lady’s parting words to us: “Have fun.” Haha.

Saturday was rainy all day. Which sucked, but what can you do? We first took a bus to Bulguksa Temple, a little outside of the city. It wasn’t as nice as last time because it was raining. But it’s one of the biggest temples in SoKo, originally built in the 500s. I took some pictures of the Buddhas in some of the temples. You weren’t supposed to, but Koreans were so I figured I could subversively take some. I hope that doesn’t hinder my chances at achieving Nirvana when I die. I personally liked the big statue of a warrior guy playing a ukulele. With a demon crouched between his legs.

From here we went to Seokuram Grotto, which I did not go to last time I was in Gyeongju. This is a hermitage that houses one of the world’s finest shrines of Buddha, dating back to the 700s. Both Seokguram and Bulguksa are on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list. On a clear day you can supposedly see the East Sea (Sea of Japan), but it was rainy and foggy as all hell when we went, so no East Sea observing for us. You also couldn’t take pictures of this Buddha…and it was monitored much more closely, so I don’t have a picture. But here’s a few I found on the Internet, so I’ll post them. You can see how misty it was this day from the picture of the outside of the Grotto. How awesome is the word ‘grotto’? Seriously. For those interested, this is apparently a man-made grotto (cave). I don’t know who watched American Idol, but you know that song that eventual winner Taylor sang—In The Ghetto? While here I couldn’t get it out of my head, but I replaced the words so I was singing, “In the Grotto.” Because I’m a dork.

Then we went back to downtown Gyeongju. We ended up going to a movie—the DaVinci Code. Let me tell you, that’s not the best movie to go to in a foreign country. Usually it’s no problem going to English movies in Korea because they only subtitle in Korean. However, an entire subplot of this movie was spoken in French/Italian/Latin…and instead of English subtitles there was only Korean subtitles (go figure). Since I don’t speak any of those languages, it was interesting. I was just glad I had read the book (albeit a while ago) so I wasn’t totally lost. But it was either that or Mission Impossible: 3, so I think we made the best choice. After the movie we ate at Pizza Hut and had sweet potato/cheese crust pizza (Koreans love their sweet potato). Then we went back to The Ritz for another night (fees raised to $60 on Saturday nights, bummer). Oh, I had to take a picture of this clothing store. Koreans also love poop. This store name literally translated into “Dog Poop.” As you can see by the picture, there’s not some figurative meaning I don’t know about being a foreigner.

The next day we first went to Tumuli Park, where they have a bunch of tombs dating from the Silla period. Today was a much nicer day, but early on it was still a bit cloudy. I have a bunch of pictures of this park because I love how the tombs look. They’re so pretty to me.

Then we saw Cheomseongdae Observatory, which is Asia’s earliest known existing observatory and is one of the oldest scientific installations on Earth. Apparently. It was built in the 600s. It’s really not tall…at all…so I find it curious that it was an observatory. From Wikipedia:

“Cheomseongdae was constructed under the reign of Queen Seondeok (632-647) near the capital of the kingdom…The tower is built out of 362 pieces of cut granite which some claim represent the 362 days of the lunar year. Some surveys of the site have indicated that there are 366 blocks. It has 27 circular layers of stones (some associate it with the fact that Queen Seondeok was considered to be the 27th ruler of Silla) surmounted by a square structure. 12 of the layers are below the window level and 12 are above. There are 12 large base stones set in a square, with three stones on each side. These sets of 12 may symbolize the months of the year.”

So here are some pictures of it. Also, here’s a picture of a sign nearby. Koreans love their cartoon people, and this king and queen are saying, “Danger!” [Wi Heom] I don’t know why they’re saying danger. One would think it’s maybe because the tower looks like it may collapse, but then again there was a whole plaque detailing how the observatory was deemed structurally safe. So who knows? Not I.

Then we walked to Anapji Pond. Not exciting. The old kings and queens used to relax there, I guess. We then headed to Gyeongju National Museum. Which wasn’t that great, but I wanted to go there because it is the home of a bell named after me. Ok, so it’s not named after me, but it has the same name…or close to it. Here is the legend of the bell, from Wikipedia, again:

“The Bell of King Seongdeok is the largest extant bell in Korea and one of the largest in the world. The full Korean name means ‘Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok the Great.’
It is commonly known as the Emille Bell in English. Emille, pronounced ‘em-ee-leh,’ is an ancient Silla term for "mommy." According to legend, when the bell was first cast it would not ring. So it was melted down again and the priest of the temple for which the bell was being made was told in a dream that if a baby was cast into the metal the bell would ring. When the bell was recast and struck, it produced the sound of ‘em-ee-leh’, like the cries of the sacrificed baby.

It measures 3.33 meters high, 2.27 meters in diameter, and 11 to 25 centimeters in wall thickness. The notes could be heard 40 miles away on a clear day. The bell weighs about 25 tons. It is now stored in the National Museum of Gyeongju.”

We then went to the Tomb of King Taejong Muyeol because we had time to spare. But it was pretty much deserted, so we got to walk on the tombs and get pictures, which was nice. Then we went to the bus terminal to go home. We couldn’t get train tickets because they were already sold out when we bought tickets. I was relieved we were able to get bus tickets…we bought them Sunday morning and there were only 5 seats left when we bought them (you can only buy them that day). If I hadn’t got tickets I would have freaked out since I had to be back to school that Monday and I would have had no idea how to get home. But it worked out, so no worries (although the bus went to Osan, not Pyeongtaek, so we had to take a subway back to Pyeongtaek from Osan).

Anyway, that was that weekend. I have lots more to write, but I’m out of gas at the moment, so it’ll have to wait.

2006-05-26T12:59:00.000+09:00

Who Doesn't Know Prince and U2???
If you guessed 'Brighton,' you win the satisfaction of winning!

American Idol last night:
I thought it was a really good results show. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. They had really good people come and perform with the Idols--Dionne Warwick, Live, Toni Braxton, Meat Loaf, Al Jarreau (although I have to admit to not knowing who he is), Mary J Blige, and Prince. Seriously, Prince. When Elliot came out and started singing U2's 'One,' I said to Brighton, "If Bono comes out, I'll have a heart attack and die." He didn't (Mary J Blige did). But I also made the heart attack and die prediction later on that night for something that DID happen and I did not, in fact, have a heart attack and die...so I guess I'm full of empty health threats. I thought Katharine looked freaked out during her performance with Meat Loaf. Then I noticed how freaky-weird Meat Loaf was acting and understood. Brighton and I both thought that Toni Braxton wasn't really Toni Braxton but a drag queen impersonating Toni Braxton. It was weird. If I have to hear Taylor yell out, "Soul Patrol!" one more time I may jump off my balcony.

I was aghast that Brighton asked me these two questions: 1) What are some Prince songs? and 2) What are some U2 songs? I assured her that she HAS to have heard numerous songs by both artists. I then made her sit down and listen to Prince songs and U2 songs on my iTunes. The only Prince song she knew was "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." 1999? Never heard of it. I mean, I know this is Brighton, but come on! I then started playing U2 songs and the only ones she's heard are some of the more current ones like 'Beautiful Day.' I then said to her, "You have to know 'With or Without You.' If you don't, I will have a heart attack and die." I played the song and she had no recognition of it. Who is she??? Where has she been living the last 20+ years?? A cave?? Don't worry...like I said earlier, I didn't have a heart attack and I didn't die. Hence me being able to write this blog entry.

I just noticed that someone in Iran has read my blog. Weird.

They have this mystery English program at my school called 'Step and Jump.' I call it a mystery because I have no idea how it works and I'm not involved in it (aside from them asking me to write a textbook for it). Anyway, every morning before school they play the 'Step and Jump' song over the loudspeaker. I wish I had a recording of it to post. But I don't. But here are the lyrics:

"English, English, it's easy and fun!
Step and Jump, it's easy and fun!
English, English, we can say it!
Step and Jump, it's easy and fun!

"English, English, it's easy and fun!
Step and Jump, (something I can't make out)
Step to the world;
Jump to the future!
Are you ready for Step and Jump?
Ok...here we go!"

Yeah.

I'm taking a train to Gyeongju after school today. It's about a 4 hour train ride. But we're taking 1st class as there were only 2 seats left when I called to book tickets and they were in 1st class. Travelin' in style, baby. Unfortunately, all train tickets back to Pyeongtaek from Gyeongju were booked...so we have to take a bus back. And if we don't get tickets (you can't buy them beforehand) then I'll be screwed. So here's hoping. It's supposed to rain all weekend, so that blows.

I'm out of my pain medication etc, so now I'm down to popping ibuprofins. They're actually working fairly nicely, though.

I have to teach a class soon.

2006-05-24T23:21:00.000+09:00

Imprisoned In Korea
I'm locked in a wall-coffin and hospitalized within days of each other. Crazy.

Maybe I shouldn't be writing a blog update right now because I'm seriously loopy on meds right now (ask Brighton), but hey, I have time. After taking Monday and Tuesday off of work, I went in to school this morning. Maybe it was the combination of waking up early and taking my meds without food, but I was seriously out of it. First thing in the morning I had to go down to the office with my co-teacher to fill out this form because I had been gone. The vice principal who speaks no English got up when I walked in the room and looked seriously happy, then started exclaiming things to me. It was cute. He's old. Old-ish. Then my co-teach explained to them what was wrong with me. Which sounds really stupid and pathetic when you tell people. "Yeah, I was gone for 2 days because I have a strained muscle." People then think of a sore muscle, then next think you're a friggin' pansy. But honestly, it feels like a friggin' knife is being jabbed into my rib cage. My medication always wears off in the middle of the night and it's horrendous. I was laying there for 15 minutes last night breathing all funky and moaning because no matter how I layed the knife was still twisting in my side. I actually felt physically ill. This morning Brighton said she heard me last night and I sounded horrible...she thought I was going to vomit. But anyway...

So I signed the thing in the office and then the vice principal told me to go home that afternoon to rest. I then said, "But I have the special class this afternoon." [The special English class for the smarty-pants kids]. They then say to me, "No, go home. No special class. Rest!" Ok, whatever you say. :) So we go back up to our room. The first class starts. At this point I'm totally out of it. I basically sat there staring the whole time, randomly inserting remarks to the class. The class gets over and my co-teach calls someone on the phone. She hangs up the says to me, "Go to your home." Yeah, I must have looked really pathetic. So I went home. And now I'm home. And watching tv. We downloaded the entire first season of "My Name is Earl" and we've been watching that. It's funny. We're on episode 10. I think.

Anyway, aside from the hospital, here's what Brighton and I have been doing:

On Saturday we went back to Seoul. Our first stop was Soedaemun Prison. This was a prison built by the Japanese when they occupied Korea. They imprisoned and tortured (and killed) Koreans who fought for independence. It's now a sort of museum, ala Alcatraz. Here's one sentence in the brochure: "Our people still bare the suffering of forcible occupaiton by the Japanese. During that period, our self-esteem was dealt a blow, the self-development of our country was suspended, thus marking a painful chapter in our history...We do hope that all people, especially, teenagers who will take charge of Korean future, can learn and cherish the spirit of Korean ancestors who shown blazing patriotism in independence movements." All grammar mistakes not mine. Another reason we went was that I have this guide called "Seoul's Best 100" that has all the places in Seoul you should see. Of this, it says, "...visitors can experience what it was like to be imprisoned and tortured..." Wow! What fun!

It was all right. Nothing amazing. A little over-the-top in the mannequin reenactments and sound effects. And I really didn't get to experience what it was like to be tortured. But maybe that's a good thing. I included some pics. One torture device was a "standing wall coffin" where you had to stand in a coffin-like thing for days. Due to its shape you couldn't rest at all. Apparently, after 3 days you were sure to be paralyzed. I did get to experience this. For a couple of minutes. Also, there's a picture of Brighton getting tried and hung by the Japanese. Damn Japanese. In one area there was a cell with a mannequin of a Japanese guard beating a Korean prisoner. You could see that numerous Korean visitors had hocked a loogie on the Japanese guard's back. Gross.

We then had lunch. We wanted to eat at this Indian restaurant that was in a guidebook, but we couldn't find it. Very annoying. So we ended up eating at Dunkin Donuts. Yummy. Also, Brighton got harrassed and grabbed by a crazy old Korean man. That was weird.

Then we went to Insadong to shop again. I bought a lot of stuff for people. So you may have stuff coming your way. But I will probably wait to deliver it in person because it's a pain and a half to send things. Hey, Joleen. Did you ever send you-know-what to Sarah? Because you should really get on that being as it's been like 4 months now. Arg! :) Here are a few pics of Insadong. One is of a store that sells paintings and fans and stuff. The other is of a bunch of "cool" Korean boys hanging out.

We then went to the Korea House. It's a traditional Korean house (rich person's house). You can have dinner there and then watch a show, but we just went to the show. Beforehand we went to Itaewon for dinner and went to a Mexican restaurant called Pancho's. It was delicious. I had a taco, burrito, and an enchilada. First time I've had Mexican food since coming here (aside from a few home-made tacos that just aren't the same). So that beat the hell out of traditional Korean food. The performance was an hour and we saw about 8 different performances. Musical and dance performances. I got to see people play the gayageum. Well, not crappy like me. And people danced around in hanboks with peonies. And so forth. There were a few shamanistic dances, too. Those were pretty cool. And a fan dance that was neat-o. Here's a picture of us with a few of the performers.

Then we went home.

On Sunday we went to Suwon. We went to Hwaseong Fortress (my 4th time!). But for the first time I visited the palace nearby--Hwaseong Haenggung. It was all right. We got to see a really old tree that is the protector of Suwon. And we saw a martial arts demonstration that was pretty cool. However, Russian tourists were sitting in front of us and made it impossible to get decent pictures. They both constantly had their camera held up and out at arms length in front of them and followed the action. I've never seen anyone take more pictures, not even Mom. It was crazy. And annoying. Did I mention they were Russian? I swear they smelled like vodka. So here is a picture of my favorite martial arts demonstration guy.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but Korean couples often dress identically. In public. And it's totally acceptable. I've seen some pretty hilarious examples (including one couple wearing matching jeans and matching black t-shirts with rhinestoned rainbows...seriously). Here's a picture from the Suwon subway station that Brighton was able to snap off. It's their backs, but you get the point. They're wearing the same pants and same North Face t-shirt.

This weekend we're going to Gyeongju. I hope we have nice weather.

2006-05-23T15:57:00.000+09:00

The Pain, the Pain, Oh the Pain!!!
My first visit to a Korean hospital

So, a couple of weeks ago I had a horrendous cough. My dad can attest to that. I would have coughing fits that would last 5 minutes during which I thought I'd cough up my innards. The cough had subsided substantially, but then on Friday I developed a new and wholly unwanted symptom. I had severe stabbing pain in my left lower chest/rib area when I coughed, sneezed, breathed deeply, layed down, or moved in various other ways. Saturday it was about the same. Sunday it grew worse. I have a lot of trouble sleeping because the pain is so bad when I lay down. Brighton and her mom grew very concerned because my symptoms indictated I could have pneumonia. I thought I might have tuberculosis (a common fear of mine here in SoKo). So on Monday I called in sick and went to a nearby hospital.

I was a bit freaked out because I had no idea what to do. It was pretty confusing. We walked to the hospital (called Good Morning Hospital). I saw a main building labeled "Urgent Care" and another building labeled only in Korean. I didn't think I needed the emergency room, so I went into the other building. I went to the front dest and asked if they spoke English. No, they don't. The lady did get across that I needed to give her my insurance info. So I did. She took that info then told me to sit down. I found it odd that they didn't try to figure out what was wrong with me. Brighton then notices that the rooms down the hallway are labeled things like, "Acupuncture" and "Oriental Medicine." Uhhh, wtf? So we think I'm in the wrong area and the lady just thinks I'm a whitey who wants some acupuncture. So I go back up to the desk with my Lonely Planet language book turned to the health section. I start miming what's wrong with me to the lady...take a deep breath then hold my ribs in pain. I then point to the section in the book called "Alternative Medicine" and say, "Yogio?" (Here?) She nods yes and I make an X with my hands. Then I point to things in the book like, "I have pain in my..." and then to body parts like, "chest, ribs." She then brings out her own Korean/English dictionary and points to "bumped, shoved." I say no. She then points to "Internal Medicine." I just nod yes. I guess...

So she leads us out of that building and into the Urgent Care building, up to the 2nd floor where she drops us off at the info desk. We attempt to explain my problem again (to people who don't speak English). Eventually we get led to a waiting area where we wait for about 40 minutes before realizing that there was an electronic screen with people's names on it telling which room they'll be in and when. I find my name (transcribed in Hangeul) and I see that I'm to be in room 4. I'm number 6 on the list for that room. Like an hour later I finally get called in. The doctor was very nice and spoke pretty good English. He asked some questions then listened to my breathing through a stethescope. He then said he wanted me to get an x-ray because the pain could be caused by many things. I'm then brought back to the info desk where I'm told to pay about $20.00. I had no idea what for...I assumed it was for the 3 minute talk I had with the doctor.

I'm then escorted down to the x-ray area where I had to wait a short time. I get called in and have to change into a robe. Then I get 4 x-rays taken. Then I'm told to go back up to the 2nd floor. So we go back up, get confused as to what to do, but finally just sit back down near where I was before. Not too long later I get called back in to the doctor's room where he's looking at my xray on his computer. He says there's no sign of pneumonia, tuberculosis, or pleuresy. He then says the most common reason for the pain I have in young people is straining of the chest muscles due to excessive coughing. So he then prescribes various medicines such as a cough suppressent, a muscle relaxer, and pain relievers.

I go back to the info desk. They give me a sheet with one of the prescriptions on it to get at the hospital. I pay about $2.10 for it. I get that prescription filled, then get another prescription list. I had to go to the pharmacy across the street to get that one filled (4 other pills). Those cost about $3.00. So I guess the $20 I payed was for the 4 x-rays and the doctor time. The whole ordeal only cost me about $30. Not too shabby. Looking back, I wish I had got a picture of me and the doctor and my chest x-ray, but then again, that may have been embarrassing to ask for. [This x-ray picture is not me...but mine looked very similar to it]

My rib area still hurts like a bitch, however. I think he needs to give me stronger meds. I slept like crap again. I called in sick again today. It honestly feels like my rib is broken. Not pleasant. But at least I don't have TB. Or pneumonia.

2006-05-17T23:50:00.000+09:00

My Feet are O So Weary
But my soul is doing fine

Crikey, I've had a busy week plus. My dad left me yesterday and is currently visiting Joleen in Napa. I heard it took you guys 1.5 hours to find each other at the airport...what up with that? I hope you had a nice visit, Dad...I very much enjoyed having you here. Can't wait until I "visit" you back home in Rochester in 3.5 months. Brighton arrived last Wednesday and will be here another 2 weeks. Busy, busy, busy!

Here is a picture of my dad and I singing in a noraebang...actually, we're fake singing because our time had run out by this point (hence the 'Insert Coin' message on the screen...even though you don't insert a coin anywhere. you just pay the man at the front desk). But anyway, you get the point:

On Friday me, Dad, Brighton, and my friend Colleen stayed at a hotel in Seoul as the next day bright and early we had to be at the Seoul USO office for our trip to the DMZ. I'm not including a lot of pictures of the DMZ because I did a pretty comprehensive job of that the last time I went there with Joleen. So if you're re-interested in it, look back at that post. However, there was one difference this time compared to last time that I was very pleased with. Last time, we could only see a North Korean soldier standing on the stairs of his building pretty far away. This time we got very close views of many North Korean soldiers. They were lined up on their side of the line and were taking pictures of themselves. Which is funny because we are all in the background of their pictures. Haha. A North Korean Commie has a picture of me. So I included a picture of the North Koreans. It was pretty sweet. I also have a picture of a North Korean outpost with a North Korean soldier standing there looking through binoculars. "Hi!"

On Saturday night we (sans Colleen) went to Namsan Tower (Seoul Tower). It's a tall tower in Seoul that gives you a good panaramic view of the city. Pictures don't come out that well. Here's one where you can see the city, but also an overlay of Brighton inside the tower.

On Saturday night we spent another night in Seoul. On Sunday we went to Gyeongbokgung palace, Changdeokgung palace, Insadong, and Namdaemun. Below are pictures of Gyeongbokgung:

Changdeokgung is another palace. Here are pictures from it:

Insadong is a street that has lots of traditional Korean artsy stuff. It's a very cool street. I enjoy it. Namdaemun is a big market. I'm not its biggest fan. Since we were there on a Sunday, all the inside buildings were closed, so only the outside markets were open. Which was fine by me.

On Monday (I had no school on Monday. It was Teacher's Day and lots of schools get Teacher's Day off) we went to Namhansanseong Provincial Park. It is SE of Seoul. We hiked around an old fortress wall. It was pretty neat, but we got slightly lost and ended up hiking double what we intended. Not a big deal, however. We also visited Mangweolsa Temple, which was (possibly) a part of the park. It was very pretty.

Then on Tuesday (no school again...my school's anniversary) Dad went home. :( Brighton and I just chilled a bit. We went to the Osan Air Force Base area near Songtan and had Subway and Baskin Robbins. Today my special English class started for the smarty-pants kids. I really enjoyed it--I think I'll have a good time with those classes. Brighton came for those classes, so they got to meet her and she them. I haven't talked much with her about what she thought. Maybe I'll try to make her write something here about it. But that may be like pulling teeth. We'll see. I will leave you with this picture of someone moving in (or out) of an apartment across from me. They use these giant ladders with a platform that moves up and down to lift furniture onto the balcony and then into the apartment. It looks a bit scary. They're moving in (or out) of a 12th floor here. Crazy.

2006-05-07T22:31:00.000+09:00

Answer: Boseot Bulgogi; Nanta; Hwaseong; Kamja Tang
Question: What are things my dad and I have done thus far?

Yay for my dad being here! So I picked him up at the airport on Thursday evening. Because Friday was a national holiday, the traffic was really bad on the way home and took forever. Boo. upon arrival to my apartment, I got to see all the "goodies" that my dad/mom brought me from home. Very exciting. Lots of good food and summer clothes...because I don't fit into Korean clothing.

On Friday we didn't do much. It was both Buddha's Birthday and Children's Day. Both are national holidays. Usually you get both days off from school, but this year they happened to fall on the same day (because Buddha's Birthday is based on the lunar calendar). That kind of sucked. We just walked around Pyeongtaek. I saw some of my students who looked really confused that I was walking around with another white guy. "My dad!" "Oh!" Later that night they set off some fireworks that we tried to watch from my balcony, but most of them were blocked by high-rise apartment buildings.

We had planned on going into Seoul on Saturday with Charlie and taking a tour of a palace and its Secret Garden, but it was raining. So we didn't go to the palace, but we still went into Seoul because Charlie needed to go shopping and I had bought tickets for my dad and I to go to a performance called Nanta (in the US it's known as Cookin'). For lunch we had Boseot Bulgogi (beef and mushrooms that you roll in lettuce leaves with some rice and various other items). See picture. You're supposed to shove the entire role into your mouth, not take bites.

We then went to Nanta. 'Nanta' apparently means "crazy beat." It's kind of like Stomp, but the setting is a kitchen. There are chefs whose boss makes them prepare a really hard menu in a short period of time. He makes his nephew help them, and they initially don't like him. There's a girl and a guy chef who have a small romance. So it's mostly nonverbal with them making "crazy beats" with kitchen supplies, most notably with their knives. It's quite entertaining. After the show it was still raining, so we went home.

Today was sunny and nice. We went to Suwon and hiked around Hwaseong Fortress. I've included some pictures.

Apparently, within the last couple of months a drunken Korean burned down one the temple things at the highest peak of the fortress. Bummer, man. Koreans probably stoned him, seeing as he burned down part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site...aka something they can brag about. And, you know, it's a part of their culture and all. And he burned it down. Here's a before picture (taken when I went there with Joleen in February) and an after picture (taken today when I was there with my dad):

Then we went back to Pyeongtaek and went to a restaurant and had some kamja tang (which translates into potato stew). But there's not a lot of potatoes, so it's kind of a misnomer. It's beef ribs in a spicy stew liquid with mushrooms, some potatoes, a few noodles, and bean sprouts. It's very good. Probably one of my favorite Koreans foods.

Tomorrow I have to go into school. Boo. My dad keeps falling asleep at like 8:30-9. Either he stilll has jet-lag or he's just kinda lazy. I don't know. :)

2006-05-01T21:56:00.000+09:00

Soyo say you hiked Soyosan, eh?
My calves hurt

On Saturday I trekked 4 hours to visit my friend Audrey who lives in Yangju (along with Colleen). It way up north, not too far from the NoKo border. We went to Soyosan Mountain which is located in Dongducheon, which is even further north. There's a US base there (Camp Casey). The hike up Soyosan and back down took 5 hours. My legs are so incredibly sore, especially my calves. There were points on the hike where you had to pull yourself up using rope railings. It was pretty tiring, but worth it. Even though it was a cloudy/"sand-wind" day, it was really pretty. There are 6 different peaks on Soyosan and we conquered them all! We met a couple of people (a girl and a guy) on the hike who were both in the military and stationed at Camp Casey. They were actually very nice. And young (19). Apparently when they first saw us they thought that we were either tourists or in the military. Hahahahaha!!! I can't believe that people in the military would see us hiking up a mountain and think we were in the military. I got a kick out of that. There are a bunch of lanterns strung up by the temple because May 5th is Buddha's birthday. Happy Birthday, Buddha!

The next morning we ate breakfast at this restaurant near the military base...and we got french toast, chocolate chip and banana pancakes, and biscuits and gravy!!! It was awesome. We also met a few more military guys who were also very nice (a little older-21). One of them had only been in Korea for 3 weeks, and he decided to come with us to Seoul that day (and he went without a "battle buddy" which is against military rules, apparently). There was a big Lantern Festival going on in Seoul (in honor of Buddha). There were a bunch of stalls where you could do free crafts and stuff. I made a paper lotus lantern (took friggin' forever) and painted a picture of cherry blossoms...aka traced a picture of cherry blossoms (in record 3 minutes time). I was wearing a Wisconsin t-shirt and was approached by a guy who went to UW and was writing a story on Buddhism in Korea, or something. So he asked me some questions and took a picture of us. It turns out he used to teach at Shabazz, which is pretty weird. Shabazz is an alternative high school in Madison located in Sherman Middle School, where I student taught. So that was fun. Then I went home and called my parents one last time before my dad takes off for Korea to visit me.

I also included a picture of a traditional Korean farmhouse model that I built (I finished the roof on Friday night). Because I'm a dork. I got it free for Christmas...and how can you not build it, really? Tomorrow the Pyeongtaek gang is coming over to my house for our get together to have a Traditional Korean Farmhouse-warming party. Which means we'll order pizza or something.

So today at school I find out that there's a teacher volleyball tournament that I apparently had to participate in. All the teachers were wearing their full tracksuits and tennis shoes and there I am, wearing jeans and slip-on shoes. Thanks for telling me, guys! But I really am not into wearing tracksuits, so I didn't really care. It was weird. The guys on the team (which averaged like 2) totally dominated the game and wouldn't let anyone else hit the ball unless it was physically impossible for them to reach it in time. I suck at volleyball but they were impressed nonetheless because half the other Korean ladies were afraid of the ball. My team (the 6th grade teachers) got 3rd place. They were also impressed with my kickball abilities. Which, again, are nothing to write home about, but I actually kick the ball with force and get it into the air unlike half the other teachers who either miss the ball or make it go foul. Come on...it's friggin' kickball.

After school my vice-principal (or as my co-teacher says, "vice-prisoner"), co-teacher, and some other random guy from the office at my school came to my apartment for an unknown reason. I guess to check and make sure I haven't destroyed anything. I don't know. Then I had to go out to eat with the vice-principal and my co-teacher. Both speak a decent amount of English. Joleen, we went to that 'Cafe' that you can see from my apartment building. It was westernish, but still Koreany. Guess what my vice-principal asked me..."So, you will maybe think about staying another year?" SERIOUSLY. What the hell does she not understand about NO, I'M NOT COMING BACK? Then she gave me another task to be completed by June...designing a new English classroom complete with "stations" or something. So now I'm an architect. But I layed out a lot of things that bother native English teachers about their contracts because they were complaining that 50% of native teachers only stay one year. I, myself, was surprised it was that high. I guess it is good money. So now I'm home. And I watched the newest Grey's Anatomy. And downloaded United 93 just because of all the hype. Now I need to go.

2006-04-25T11:38:00.000+09:00

And Now Time for Music Class
You say kayagum, I say gayageum

For those of you interested in hearing the Sounds of the Gayageum, here are links to cds you can apparently buy of them. Just scroll down to the "Listen" section. I personally think the clips on these sites sound bad...I've heard 4th grade girls play better sounding music with them. But what can you do? I, of course, suck at it. There's all these techniques on different ways to pluck, etc. And 12 strings is too many for me...It's too hard for me to eyeball which string is the 6th one, etc...I need to count, quite often.

CD 1

CD2

2006-04-24T21:59:00.000+09:00

Pae Namu
Pear tree

Another thing stupid Korean guy on the subway said to me: "If you earn money in South Korea you should spend it in South Korea." Sure. I'm going to spend $26,000 in one year when I don't have to pay for my housing. He'll be lucky if I spend $6,000 here. Which reminds me that I keep meaning to wire transfer money from my Korean bank account to my US account...It's a favorable exchange rate right now for that. It'll probably take me 9 years to do, however, since I need to get "pay stubs" from my school in order to transfer money. And my school never knows what I'm talking about regarding that even though I've asked (and got) it before. Why does everything have to be so complicated, I ask?

Less than 2 weeks until my dad visits!!! Woo-hoo!!!

So I looked out my apartment window/balcony the other day and was surprised too see hills of trees in the distance covered in white blossoms. It was pretty pretty, although it was a crappy day outside (very dreary and grey). I wasn't sure what kind of trees they were because most of the cherry blossoms are past their prime now (I'm sad that Dad and Brighton probably won't be able to see any of the cherry blossoms). I asked my co-teacher today and she said they were pear trees. Pyeongtaek is known for growing pears. And rice. So here are a few pictures from my balcony of the pear trees:

A couple weekends ago I went to Osan for Elissa's birthday party. Here's a pic of me, Wes, and Andy at a bar in Osan. It was a pirate themed bar, which was kind of funny. The had mini wooden kegs that they brought to your table. Your beer mugs were sheathed in a cylindrical ice tube. When you finished your beer you extricated the ice tube and played this game where you hurled it at a target in the hopes of winning a prize. It was a big rip-off, though. People in our party hit the damn target more than once and never won b/c "you didn't throw it hard enough." Whatever, they were thrown pretty damn hard. One kid did manage to win, and guess what he won? A can of Coke. And cans of Coke here are like half the size of US Coke cans. Yippee. Whatever, I guess it's the hurling of ice that makes it fun.

I had a horrible day today. It's a day where I teach 5 classes plus a teacher class. But the last week and this week the students are gearing up for a big school Sports Festival (I don't really get what this is, but it's on the day my dad flies in and I've been told I could leave early). So anyway, I guess it's a big deal so they've been missing a lot of classes to practice for it. I went in today thinking I wouldn't have to teach my 1st hour class (which is really nice b/c that's a class I have to teach by myself) or my 5th hour class (which is nice b/c it means I'd be finished at lunch). But I arrive at school to find out that all the practice has been cancelled because of the "yellow sand" and the students weren't allowed outside. Dude, it wasn't even that bad...it wasn't like you were being physically pelted by sand when you were out. But that's just me being annoyed that academics weren't taking a back seat that day. So that was a crappy start to my day.

Then, I got the biggest headache of my life that morning which lasted all day...I still have a bit of one now. I don't really know what constitutes a really bad headache and what constitutes a migraine, but holy crap it was bad. Horrid throbbing pain. I couldn't think. Good thing I had to teach. After my student classes my teacher rushed me into the music room next door to have a music lesson on this Korean instrument whose name I've forgotten. Normally this is fairly enjoyable, but not when I have a huge headache.

Then I had to teach the teachers. I had them play Guess Who? for the beginning (they had just learned vocabulary for describing appearance). Most seemed to enjoy it, but then I got one group who playe donce then said to me, "We are done. We are bored now." Dude, you've played it for like 5 minutes. It's a friggin' game. This is more boring than having me talk to you for 50 minutes? But then I had them look up a bunch of English words in a English-Korean dictionary. So that was easy for me.

So the traditional Korean instrument I've been 'learning' to play is called a gayageum (or kayagum). It's hard to learn for various reasons, the main reason being the teacher doesn't know English so I can't understand her instructions. I just have to watch her fingers, but she facing me so it gets confusing. I have sheet music, but 1) I don't know what notes are what strings, 2) They call their music notes different things, and 3) I swear they have a different music note system all together because it really confuses me. I was trying to explain my confusion to my co-teacher who then told me that the Western and Korean scales are different--Western has 7 notes (which she called do ray me fa so la ti do, not a b c d e f g) and apparently Korean has 5. I wasn't sure what she was talking about. But anyway, it's really confusing to learn. And it's really rushed because it's at the beginning of a class full of little 3rd graders. After my first lesson I got a gigantic blister/callous on my finger from plucking the strings so damn hard. Anyway, here's a picture of the gayageum (no, I don't wear a hanbok when I play it):

Well, my headache is coming back again and I need to go to bed soon. Bye.

2006-04-23T01:31:00.000+09:00

Wooden Teeth
You can't get more attractive than that

I'm writing short random tidbits here because I feel bad updating my blog with nothing but test results. It seems kind of cheap, yes?

I saw a Korean walking down the street a week or so ago wearing a John Kerry shirt. The one that Michael Stipe wore at some point. I thought that was interesting. Then, a couple days ago, I saw a Korean walking down the street wearing a "Free Winona" shirt. I thought that was interesting as well.

My co-teacher kept asking me what the English word was for things that there was no English word for. For example: "What do you call a new leaf?" "Uhhh...a new leaf." "What do you call a flower that is not all the way bloomed?[but past the bud stage]" "Uhhh...a partially bloomed flower." "What do you call it when it's spring but it gets cold again?" "Uhhh...a cold snap?" For the last one, I explained the term Indian Summer, then she kept referring to the current weather (a cold snap) as 'Indian Spring.' Which just doesn't make sense in more than one way.

I had to go into Seoul today (boo!!!). Although I hate the long-ass subway ride, I hate it even more when people feel the need to talk to me. So this Korean guy sits next to me and proceeded to talk with me for a long time and I was seriously annoyed by it. Apparently he's a pediatrician, and he obviously wanted me to be all impressed about that. He kept bragging about himself and his family. Out of nowhere he said, "I can run 100 meters in 5.5 seconds." I just looked at him and said, "Huh." Then he added, "I can see you don't believe me. I do not lie." No, dude, I just don't give a rat's ass. He also informed me that Koreans are smarter than most other people, but they've just never had a good leader. He also said to me, "America is lucky because you have had many gorgeous leaders." I gave him a confused look. I wonder who he's referring to?, I thought. He then says, "I will give you an example." Oooh, goody! "George Washington." Whaaaa??? "Bill Clinton." Huh? I finally figured out he meant great leaders. Hahahahahahaha!!! That was hilarious. George Washington was pretty hot! Or not... He then asked if I was Christian, and upon finding out that I am of no religion he says to me, "In 10-15 years you will find religion once you figure out that you can't do everything on your own." Uh, I already know that buddy. Please don't get into a religious conversation with me because it's a little too complicated with the language barrier. Hell, you mixed up gorgeous and great...

Ok, so there's my short blurb to make me feel better about my update. Now I am very tired and need to go to bed. Good night, John Boy.

2006-04-23T01:01:00.000+09:00

Who Am I?
(Hint: Not Jean Valjean/24601)

Sarah, remember when we sang the Valjean/Javert duet together a million times to try and get it right? Hahahahaha!!! What was that song called? Confrontation?

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (46%) medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.
Orderliness (56%) moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.
Extraversion (30%) low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.
Trait Snapshot:
does not make friends easily, secretive, introverted, reclusive, observer, dislikes leadership, somewhat socially awkward, does not like to stand out, dislikes large parties, values solitude, solitary, avoidant, ambivalent about fitting in, not dominant, unassertive, suspicious, prudent, unadventurous, worrying, weird, intellectual, frequently second guesses self

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

This kind of makes me sound like a freak. Sadly, most of it also sounds true. Haha, I'm weird. I would like to add: I like to stand out amongst people I know; I can definitely be assertive when I need to be; I am not suspicious; I can be adventurous; and I don't second-guess myself too much. Otherwise, right on!

Introverted (I) 56.25% Extroverted (E) 43.75%
Sensing (S) 49% Intuitive (N) 51%
Thinking (T) 61.29% Feeling (F) 38.71%
Judging (J) 54.55% Perceiving (P) 45.45%

INTJ - "Mastermind". Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

Hmmm, I changed from the last time I took this test. Actually, I think I've taken it 3 times in my life and each time it was different. First time I think I was INFP, then INFJ, and now INTJ.

2006-04-14T11:39:00.000+09:00

Third Post of the Day
Getting sick of me, yet?

Here are some more Gyeongju pictures that Charlie took. I thought I'd post some of them because they are really pretty. So, without further ado, here they are:

2006-04-14T11:11:00.000+09:00

Mission: Space
The best ride I've ever been on

I just saw that a woman died after riding Disney World's Mission: Space. (read article here)

I guess it's had another death as well...a 4 year old boy or something. But this ride is honestly the best ride I've ever been on. It was seriously awesome. Here's a link to a site where you can read a little about it. But in a nutshell: It mimics a space flight. 4 people go into one "shuttle." Each person has a role (captain, navigator, etc). Each person has to do their job (which means pushing a button in front of you when it flashes). So you blast off, float around in space, then land on some planet. The ride works by spinning around really fast (centrifugal force? Centripetal force? I think centrifugal). It seriously feels like you are on a space shuttle and blasting off, then you truly feel weightless. There are loads of signs while you wait in line (which is a long line) that have oodles of warnings about motion sickness, etc. On the ride there are vomit bags (why can't I think of the word for those things right now?) for people to use if they get sick (which is not infrequent, so I hear).

So if anyone ever goes to Epcot and the ride is not closed due to deaths, you so have to go on it. But be careful, I guess. Brighton went on it once and couldn't go on it again because it made her feel absolutely horrible afterwards. I guess she got motion sickness or something. She had a horrible headache, etc. I loved it and it didn't bother me at all. I went on it a few times alone (well, I was with 3 other people I didn't know on the ride). As for you having to push your button in order for your mission to be completed, that's all crap. Once I was riding with a family from Germany or something. The dad obviously didn't know English, and when his button flashed and the computer said, "Engineer, put down landing gear!" (or whatever), he just sat there and didn't do anything. It ended up doing it by itself. That was funny. I also ended up riding with 3 13 year olds and it was HILARIOUS. They were taking their roles super seriously. "Ok," they told me, "You're the navigator. You need to blah blah blah. We've been on this before so we know what to do!" I'd also been on it, but I indulged them and tried to look all impressed. It was like I was at space camp with them or something.

Yeah, so I just felt like talking about that. So I did. And I don't teach today because of a field trip so I'm bored. And I got a new computer in my classroom so I'm having fun with it. Now we have 2 computers so we don't have to share. Nice. I get the new one. :) It has 140 GB of hard drive space. What the hell a classroom computer needs that much space for, I don't know. I wish my computer at home had that much...

2006-04-14T10:54:00.000+09:00

Today I Both Grew a Set and Got a Backbone
So I guess now I'm a hermaphrodite

Ok, so Elissa (friend who lives in Osan) has been living with her co-teacher for a about a couple months now. Her school kind of dumped her into her apartment because she couldn't find a place to stay or something...and Elissa has a large apartment. So anyway, that really has been sucking for her (even though her co-teach is nice and young). I guess she's moving out soon, but anyway. So we all had been giving her a hard time about it, making fun of the situation, etc. Well, you get what you give...

Yesterday my co-teach (who has to commute from and to Seoul everyday) asked if she could live with me. I feel really bad for her because she gets hardly any sleep and she does a good job planning lessons and I hardly do anything. So, in typical Emily-fashion I didn't want to be mean or make her feel bad so I agreed to the proposal (she said she'd pay me and that she'd move out for the month of May because of Dad and Brighton). Afterwards, I thought, "Holy Christ, what did I just agree to????" Honestly, the thought of living with my Korean co-teacher in my not-that-big (for 2 people) apartment made me want to vomit. My apt is my place of refuge for privacy and not being around Koreans. I was horrified by what I agreed to. I finally decided that there was no way I could live with her. I would go insane. Or jump off my balcony before my contract was up. So I forced myself this morning to tell her that I changed my mind. I felt really bad about it, but it had to be done. Crisis is now diverted, but let me tell you last night was not fun with the thoughts running through my head.

I just told her today, "Yesterday I spoke before I thought. I was thinking last night and there is not enough space in my apartment for you to move in." Then she asked to see my apartment (as I knew she would) and I just said, "I know it won't work." She is being very nice about it (to my face, anyway). Anyway, there's my 'excitement' for the day. Ugh. Unpleasantness at its best.

2006-04-11T23:26:00.000+09:00

I Like Spring!

"It is nice and warm."

I should be in bed right now, but I apparently like to be tired at school (on the plus side, I don't have to teach tomorrow). I thought I'd enlighten you all a bit on the visual feasts my students get each day in their English class.

Each grade has a book. Each book is divided into chapters (obviously). Each chapter is a different topic with different target sentences/vocabulary for the students to learn. Note: The students pretty much just memorize words and phrases...actual thinking is limited. So, each book also comes with a cd-rom to be played and utilized in each class. There are various parts to each chapter. You start out with them watching a dialogue (usually it's a cartoon dialogue). You then ask them questions about it, have them repeat it, etc. Then there's a few mini-dialogues that are live-action; aka real people, not cartoons. You ask questions and have them repeat. Then you've usually got a "Let's Read!" section. This is just the vocab words for the chapter with corresponding pictures that you have the students practice reading/saying. There's also a tiny "Let's Write!" section. And a few "games." My favorite is the song...each chapter has a song that goes with the theme. The best part is watching the stupid animated people sing and dance to the song. I always mimic them and dance the samw way in front of the class, which usually provokes much laughter. Maybe I shouldn't be making fun of the program, but it's pretty funny. The 4th graders also have a chant in each chapter, which is pretty much just another song. The 4th graders actually really get into the song. The 6th graders? Not so much. Then sometimes there's a role play...which is like another cartoon dialogue, only the kids then are supposed to act it out. Which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Anyway, here are a few pictures, and even a video (without sound, sorry, but I don't have that capability).

A still image from one of the intro dialogues (from the chapter entitled, "Is This York Street?"). I love how they had the guy asking Michael Jackson where York Street was:

Another still image--Do you see the error in this picture??

Here's a still image from the song for this chapter. One line of lyrics is on the bottom for you. It's sung to the tune of 'Puff the Magic Dragon,' for the most part. Although it alters a little bit on the "Turn left at the corner!" Here are the complete lyrics so you can sing, too:

"Oh please, excuse me Sir, is this York Street? Sorry, sorry, I don't know. Sorry, I don't know. Oh please, excuse me ma'am, where is York Street? Go straight and turn left. Turn left at the corner!"
Here are a few "live-action" dialogue shots. On the top is Kevin and Ann. On the bottom is Joon and Jinho. Each character has a cartoon counter-point as well. Don't you love how utterly dorky looking Joon is? And I think Kevin totally has the hots for Ann. Also, it's the same actors for each year, but they randomly change names year-to-year. For example, the Ann character was named Julie in 4th grade. For 5th and 6th grade she's Ann. In 5th grade, Kevin was named Bill. This is confusing for not only me, but for the kids as well. I don't get why they did that.

Below is a video clip of the song for "Is This York Street?" True, it would be much better with sound, but sorry. I still think it's funny to see how it looks.

2006-04-11T18:43:00.000+09:00

Hurricane a Comin'!

Hurricane; sandstorm...same thing.

Long time with no update. I think...I actually don't remember when my last update was. However, since my last update I have found out that I will have a busy and exciting May! My dad has bought tickets to come visit me in May from the 4th-16th. Brighton has bought tickets to visit me from the 10th-30th. So they'll both be here from the 10th-16th. Which I think will be good because they can keep each other company when I'm at work. So I'm super excited about May. I just need to get through April (which is a sucky month because it's long and I have no days off). May should go by fast with my visitors. Then I'll only have 3 months left! Woo-hoo!!! I need to start planning stuff to do with them while they're here.

Usually I think of Koreans as being fairly technologically savvy (stereotype alert), but I swear the majority of Koreans (at my school, anyway) are total morons when it comes to computers. Half the time I know the problem would be easy to solve, but I can't do it because the operating system is all in Hangul (Korean). Some things I can do because I remember what buttons are what, etc, but still there's a lot that I need legible text to figure out.

Anyway, at the end of the day today a new computer was delivered to my classroom. And a giant new desk to go with it. The computer guy and my co-teacher were discussing forever how to set everything up. So now we have 2 gigantically huge desks and one normal sized desk in our room (which is too small in the first place). I looked around and said to my co-teach, "I think we need more desks in here." She just looked at me and said, "Ok." Uhhh...I don't think she got that I was being sarcastic (my old co-teacher did tell me that sarcasm was very hard to learn while learning English). So a part of me hopes that I don't come in tomorrow to another desk. But another part of me thinks that she didn't understand what I said and her "Ok" was just a noise to indicate, "Yeah, whatever. I don't care what you just said." I hope it's the latter.

So now we have 2 computers in the room as well, which is nice because now we both have our own. The crappy thing is, I'm betting they won't be able to figure out 1) how to connect them both to the printer (which is also fairly new and super huge--a color laser printer), and 2) how to connect them both to the internet. I really hope they figure out the last one. But since everything was all disconnected in moving things around, we won't have the internet until late tomorrow. Which really sucks because I'm supposed to teach 4th graders tomorrow, but they're going on a field trip so I have no classes. No classes and no internet. What am I going to do??? My co-teacher said something about having a pancake-making party. I don't know what she was talking about. In our class? Huh? (Korean pancakes, not normal pancakes). So tomorrow should be interesting.

I've actually been doing a crap load of Sudoku puzzles as of late. I'm getting pretty good at them. It was funny, because currently I'm doing the medium skilled levels. But today I was doing one in my book and thought it seemed a little more difficult. Then I start the next one and it's seeming way harder. I then notice that I somehow had flipped to the "difficult" section of the book. Haha...no wonder they seemed more challenging. Because they were. Nice to know I was able to complete a difficult one, though. In pen, no less.

So I know I mentioned about a month ago how yellow snow fell in Korea because of the sand from China. So anyway, it's now sandstorm season in Korea. Koreans are all out buying face masks to wear when they walk around and stuff. Initially I'm like, "Overreacting a little?" But on Saturday I was getting ready to leave my apt and I glanced out the window. "Oh, it's foggy. I should bring my umbrella in case it rains later." I then leave my apt and go outside. "Wtf? It's not fog...holy crap, it's the yellow sand!" The sandstorm was so bad it looked like a haze of fog. By the time I walked the 20 minutes to the bus stop I could feel it coating my throat and I could taste it in my mouth. It was really gross. Now I really understand the whole need for masks. I guess that sandstorm was the worst one in over 4 years. [My co-teach said that 5 years ago they had one so bad that it looked dark outside like an eclipse or something] It's supposed to be really bad tomorrow as well. They have warnings where they tell people not to leave the house unless they need to or at least to wear a mask. I'm not privy to these warning, however. So that's fun. Here's an article about the sandstorm that I found interesting: South Korea choking on yellow dust. It's [the sandstorm] actually quite unhealthy. My throat is really bothering me (but it has been for a long time). I don't know if it's because of the yellow sand or because I've contracted tuberculosis. South Korea's TB deaths on the rise. Maybe it's the hypochondriac in me, but sometimes I swear I have TB. I've also included a picture below of the sandstorm passing over Korea and heading to Japan.

Since I'm linking to SoKo articles, here's an interesting article on racism in SoKo. It's about Hines Ward, the Korean-African-American football player who won that football award. Koreans really are pretty racist (that I've noticed), particularly regarding black people. Whenever they see a black person on tv or something, the kids will giggle and call them 'Africa.' [Which actually sounds like 'Ah-puh-ree-ca,' but I digress]. They also make fun of classmates who are darker-skinned (but still all Korean...I don't think there are any kids at my school who are part black). Sometimes they call them 'Africa.' It's really sad. Especially since they don't know enough English where I can talk to them about it, etc. Anyway, I think it's an interesting article and you should read it.

On a humorous note, check out the word origin for the word 'hello':

This greeting is much newer than most people think. The use of hello as a greeting is only as old as the telephone. The first recorded use is from 1883.

It does, however, have earlier origins in other senses. It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of surprise. That in turn is related to halloo, a cry to urge on hunting dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in Shakeepeare's King Lear a century earlier than that.

And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least 1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also cognates in other Germanic languages.

Hello was not a shoo-in for the telephone greeting either. It competed with several other options, including Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of Ahoy, but pulled into an early lead and by the end of the 1880s was firmly ensconced.

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm

I so wish we answered the phone saying, "Ahoy!" That would be hilarious. It reminds me of Korea in that they have different 'hellos' for the phone vs in person. In person: Anyeong. On the phone: Yobaseyo?

2006-04-06T22:58:00.000+09:00

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

All the news that's fit to print (or blog today)

This is the country I'm living in:
The Jetson's Turn Korean

Also, for those of you more interested in noraebangs:

Noraebang: Get a Room
This is about a noraebang in the Twin Cities! You should check it out, Brian.

Noraebang: Your Own Private Karaoke

Most Expensive Cities
And according to one survey/poll thing, Seoul is the 5th most expensive city to live in. New York is the top U.S. city, listed at number 13. Number 1? Tokyo.

And...
I know I mentioned that I'd mention all the crappy crap that's been happening lately re: my vice principal, but now I don't know if I want to. I've told my mom and my sister, but I don't know if anyone else really cares to hear me whine and moan about stuff. So unless I get a bunch of feedback regarding others' interest in this, I think I'll just leave it at this: My vice-principal is an inconsistent and hypocritical moron.

2006-04-03T19:32:00.000+09:00

Gyeongme? No! Gyeongju!
Spring is in the air...

Ok, I've hit the point where I have so much to update it's paralyzing. I hate that. Ok, one step at a time...

Do you want the good news or bad news first? I think most people usually want the good news first. So that's what I'll do even though it then won't be in chronological order. I also don't feel like typing the bad news because it just wears me out thinking about it. But I will give you a teaser: It has to do with my school and my vice-principal being a moron. Go figure.

Ok, so I took a vacation this weekend to Gyeongju with Jac and Charlie. Contrary to how it sounds, I went with 2 girls, not 2 guys. :) Gyeongju is in SE SoKo...not far from Ulsan or Busan. If any of you guys know where they are. Here, I'll include a map because I'm that helpful. You'll find Gyeongju near the East Sea label. For more reference, Pyeongtaek (which is not labeled on this map) is located about where the 'o' in Folk (as in Korean Folk Village) is...which is below Seoul. We took a train there and it was a 4 hour trip (one way). The train was very comfortable, however. Much more comfortable than the trains in Thailand. :D

Here is a brief history of Gyeongju:

The city of Gyeongju is more than 2,000 years old and contains most of the historic remains of Korea's 5,000 year history. For about a thousand years between 57 B.C. and 935 A.D. it was the capital of the Shilla dynasty, the greatest to flourish among the Three Kingdoms of the Korean peninsula at that time.

After the unification of the Korean peninsula in the mid-7th century, Gyeongju became the center of Korean political and cultural life. The city was home to the Shilla Dynasty court, and the great majority of the kingdom's elite. Its prosperity became legendary, renowned as far away as Egypt. During its peak, the population probably exceeded one million. But then it was sacked and taken over by another kingdom and fell into disrepute.

It's also famous for it's cherry blossoms because there are a crap-load of cherry trees there. So we tried to plan our trip around the blossoming of the cherry trees, but we weren't entirely successful. It was a little too early as many of the trees were still in bud, but there were more than a few that had blossomed, so it could have been worse.

Charlie knows a Korean who knows a Korean who has a condo in Gyeongju. It's some sort of time share condo/resort...we couldn't quite figure out how it worked. But it was really nice and we were able to stay in it for pretty cheap. The part we stayed in opened only one week prior, so it was really new. It had a couple bedrooms, a living room, a kitchenette area, and a nice normal bathroom. There was only one bed (which I got, haha!), but they had nice bed-mat things to sleep on. I forget the name of them right now, but they are very popular in Korea.

So I left Friday right after school and we got to the condo around 11pm. The next morning we walked around a nearby lake. Because Gyeongju is more south, it was warmer. I didn't bring a coat with me. It was a bit chilly at times because of the wind, but otherwise nice. After lunch, however, it started to rain. So we headed back to the condo and hung out there the rest of the day talking and whatnot. And we ordered Dominos for dinner.

Sunday turned out really nice. It was a bit drearly early in the morning, but it cleared up by 10 or so. That morning we went to Bulguksa, which is a Korean temple. More specifically, Bulguksa is a Buddhist temple in the Gyeongsang province in South Korea. It is home to seven National treasures of Korea, including Dabotap and Seokgatap stone pagodas (one of which is on the 10 won coin), Cheongun-gyo (Blue Cloud Bridge), and two golden statutes of Buddha. While there, a Korean guy had to get his picture taken with Jac and I because we were white. We later spotted him taking pictures of us from afar. Creepy.

We then went into the town and rented bikes to ride around on. There are big burial mounds throughout the city. It was quite nice. We then got the train back home at 6 and I got to my apartment a little after 10:30pm. I was really tired today. So, anyway, enjoy the piccies.

2006-03-27T19:36:00.000+09:00

Last-Minute Dinner Plans Suck
Unless it's with people who speak your language

So at 3pm today I'm told, "Oh, we're (6th grade teachers) going out after school today." I hate that. Finding out stuff like like an hour before hand peeves me off big-time. Especially since I never want to go in the first place. I guess it's going to be a weekly thing. At least I know that now. The crappy thing is, I have to pay for it (about $40/mo). That wouldn't be so bad if I wanted to go, but since I don't, it just sucks. There's a new 6th grade teacher, so the meal was kind of for her. She sat next to me and was really nice. She probably spoke more to me than any other 6th grade teacher has. So this meal was more bearable than others. [Aside: I've used dictionary.com like a million times the last 5 minutes. I'm always correct in my spelling, but the words just look weird. Last 3 words I've looked up: demean, rutabaga, and bearable.] I felt kind of bad because it was a seafood restaurant and they know I don't like seafood...so they ordered a special thing for me. Which was nice, but I feel stupid. I guess it's better than having them never go to a seafood restaurant when they all love it. I don't like seafood in the U.S., but seafood in Korea is a billion times worse. Seriously, half the stuff just looks like giant cartilage balls (just looked up cartilage). Giant cartilage balls with a half inch of gummy slime surrounding it. Not joking.

According to the class year schedule I was given, I wasn't supposed to have any 6th grade classes today or tomorrow because they were supposed to be going on a field trip or something. But I get to school today and apparently they weren't on a field trip. Damn. So I found out tonight that it was rescheduled for next Wed, Thurs, and Fri...which sucks for me b/c I don't teach 6th graders those days so it doesn't affect me at all. Boo! I guess they are going to Gyeongju (SW Korea) and some other places that I couldn't quite figure out, but I feel like they're taking a tour of some industry or something. They asked if I wanted to go. The thing is (among other things), I'm going to Gyeongju this weekend with Jaclyn and Charlie. What timing. I wouldn't want to go anyway because 3 days with my students...seriously, I would drown myself by that last day. 3 days of saying, "How are you?" over and over again. No thanks. But I feel bad saying no like they'll think I'm anti-social. Which I am, but that's beside the point. And I really don't want to go on a tour of an industry, esp when it's all in Korean.

So, yeah, I'm going to Gyeongju this weekend. Cherry blossoms are supposed to bloom this weekend so it should be really pretty. I look outside and it still looks dead to me, but hey, if the forecast says they'll be out, I guess they'll be out. I just read an article about how cherry blossom blooming predictions in Japan are super important and it's very stressful for the predictor people. Gyeongju was an ancient capital in Korea and there's a bunch of big burial mounds all over (that look like big hills). It should be interesting. It takes about 4 hours to get there on the fast train thing (I think). I hope it's nice. I think we're planning on renting bikes to get around. Who knows? Not me. I just go with the flow and let those with more knowledge of Korean, etc handle things.

How about George Mason? Man, if I was a George Mason fan I'd be ecstatic. What's the lowest seed to ever make it to the Final Four? Obviously not a 16 seed since they've never won a game (aside from a play-in game). I'm rooting for them all the way. I started off really well in my brackets, but holy crap do they look pathetic now. Sad, really. I went from like the 99th percentile to the 30th the last week. Ouch.

I was tipped off to a hilarious Korean movie called Attack the Gas Station. I loved it and laughed my arse off almost the whole way through. I think it helped that I'm living here now, so everything was that much funnier. But honestly, it's great. And yes, Joleen, it was so totally better than JSA. Btw, did you ever get the sound to work for Long Way Round?

Here's another video of Riley. If these videos annoy you, sorry. I promise they'll taper off. It's just that I got excited and put up a bunch. Then this video was too hilarious to not share. It's Riley wearing a cloth Noah's Ark on her head that looks like an "olde tyme football helmet." Hahahaha!!!

2006-03-23T22:32:00.000+09:00

Windows XP is Visually Appealing
I wonder how different Windows Vista will look?

Sometimes my students say things that I find really funny. For instance, the other day the students were repeating (as a class) the vocabulary words for the chapter. One of the words was 'window.' So I hear all the kids yell out, "Window!" Then, from the back of the room, I hear a single kid yell out, "XP!" Hahahahaha!! I started laughing and the kids in front of the room were probably like, "Why is Emily Teacher laughing?"

So one of my co-teachers is really strict with punishment. Which kind of surprised me because she doesn't seem the type to be hardcore punishment-y. She assigned homework to the kids, and then told me, "I will check next class time. If they do not have their homework then I will hit them on their hands with my stick. They will cry [then she mocked boo-hooed with her hands rubbing her eyes] and think I am mean, but I don't care." Sure enough, next classtime she asked who didn't have their homework. Half the class stands up (so like 20 total). She went around and whacked each kid across their upturned hands with this biggish wooden stick she has, ala 1950s style. It was simultaneously amusing and slightly disconcerting. Other punishments she's meted out: 1) pinching their nose between the knuckles of her pointer and middle finger then pulling. 2) Whacking them in the forehead with her knuckles. 3) making them lay on their stomach with their feet against the wall, then making them rise up in a push-up type position. She made one kid do this for at least 25 minutes. He had sweat pouring off his face. At one point he looked at me and wailed, "Help me!" I felt especially bad as this is what got him his punishment: he fell off his chair. He was rocking back on the back legs of the chair and went too far, causing him to topple to the ground. So he had to do that for the rest of the period. Wtf? These are 5th graders. 4) And of course, there's the common hands up in the air, which is often a whole class punishment. Sometimes the students need to kneel with their hands up. And sometimes they have to hold things like books over their heads...or in bad cases (although usually with middle or high schoolers, not elementary kids) hold their chairs/desks over their head. My friend who teaches at a school in Osan (Elissa) made her entire class hold their chairs over their heads for the entire 50 minute period. I'm not sure what they did, but apparently they are a horrid class. Man.

Koreans call letters "alphabets." It really bothers me. To clarify: the letters A, B, and C will be on the board and they'll say, "Look at the alphabets" or "Put the alphabets in order." Ahhh!!!!

My schedule has now been changed (minimized), but I still have no word on the teacher classes. But as of now I only teach 22 student hours a week. And only 3 classes on Wednesday. Which is actually going to be kind of annoying because my co-teacher still has to teach 2 classes in the classroom that up until now I've taught with her, but now she has to do it alone while I do nothing. Meaning, what the hell am I going to do and where the hell am I going to go during those hours? I honestly don't know. The library? I wish I had an office like all my other English teacher friends. Man. I don't want teacher classes!!!

Red patent leather high-heeled shoes are all the rage here right now.

The episode of Lost yesterday featured the Koreans' story. I tried to understand what they were saying when they were speaking Korean, but I had no idea for the most part. And it annoyed me that they had a Korean (in Korea) call the Korean guy, "Mr. Jin." First of all, he wouldn't say "Mr." and second of all, they call people by their full name. I have no idea what Jin's full name is--but I doubt his family name is Mis and his other names are Ter Jin. Then it bothered me that in the captions they used the wrong your--they wrote "you're" when it should have been "your." Pet-peeve of mine. Whatever.

Here's an article on people protesting the military base expansion in Pyeongtaek. One reason people are so upset about it is that the Korean government is just taking people's land with little or no compensation to then 'give' to the US for the base expansion. Upset Pyeongtaek Farmers

2006-03-23T17:31:00.000+09:00

Fun With Videos
My nieces

Riley Marie Christopherson

Video sent to me courtesy of Brian, the proud papa. I cringe whenever I watch her step onto the pile of cds. Ouch! (for the cds, that is) The sound in the background reminds me of Joleen because she had me download a bunch of the artist's songs a while ago...I don't remember her name right now, though. And nice taste, Riley, grabbing the Tom Petty cd. :)

Wicket the Weewok II (Jin)

This video weirds me out because it's super crappy quality (what, like 1 frame per second?) and really short, but it is a big file. I don't get it. I took it when I first got my desktop computer like 3-4 years ago (how old is Wicket?) and it came with a piece of crap digital camera. No sound. Oh well. Maybe I'll take a short video of my apartment and put it on here (although it'd have no sound, again).

2006-03-23T17:10:00.000+09:00

"Ice Cream and City!"
Baskin Robbins' ad campaign in Korea

Because I just found out how to embed video in my blog (which makes me feel really smart even though it's incredibly easy) I'm putting this video up simply because it's one of the only ones I have on my computer. It was taken on Tuesday night (board game bang night). It's in downtown Pyeongtaek near the train/subway station. We're dancing to a Korean song blasting from a store front (common) while Koreans are looking at us and shaking their heads thinking, "My God, Americans are stupid." To be fair, the video was shot by a New Zealander. I'm a bit sad that Will's "Ice cream and city!" got cut down to just "Ice cream and!," especially since it's fine on my computer. Whatever.

2006-03-22T22:13:00.000+09:00

Bang City!

[As an aside, I'd just like to say that Blogger has been incredibly incompetent
regarding picture uploads recently, and it is pissing me off beyond belief, as
it forces me to waste 9 million more hours of time. I may or may not get my
noraebang pics up tonight b/c it's being idiotic. If not, I'll have to edit them
in later. I hate this. Why won't you work properly?!?!?!? Ok, 9,000 hours
later I finally got it to work]

Korea is a country of bangs (pronounced like bong). PC bangs. DVD bangs. Noraebangs. Board game bangs. You name it. Fyi, 'bang' means 'room' in Korean. And 'norae' means 'sing.' So they are rooms you pay for by the hour (or 2) to go to and do whatever it specializes in. PC bang=internet/gaming cafe (never been to one here). DVD bang=rent a dvd and watch it in your own private room with couches, etc. Apparently people go to these to make out (never been in one). Noraebang=private karaoke room. The best things ever. The U.S. needs to pick up on these. Board game bang=a place you go and sit and choose from a selection of board games to play. Pretty fun, and probably the least common of the bangs. Last night I went to a board game bang with my Pyeongtaek friends (and Osan Elissa). Not only did we play a board game (Settlers of Catan), but we also wore costumes. Jaclyn's monkey mask was the best monkey mask I've ever seen. It was seriously freaking me out a little bit. Here are a few pics.

And here are a few pics from a noraebang when Joleen was visiting. I look horrible in my picture, but hey. I'm singing. I'll use that as an excuse. Also, I included a picture that shows one street and all the noraebangs on it (this is in Pyeongtaek near my house...taken in December). Seriously, there are a crapload of them. I think there must be like 15 of them in a 2 block radius. All the cylindrical glowy blown-up signs in the picture are for different noraebangs. I believe you can see at least 5 of them in this picture and this isn't even the 'busy' side of the block! Crazy. Koreans love their karaoke!

2006-03-20T23:03:00.000+09:00

Long Way Round
Nobody said it was easy

I just watched the best documentary ever called Long Way Round. Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley ride around the world on motorcycles and it's all filmed. They went from London to New York (with a little help in some areas in Siberia and of course, Russia to Alaska). It's a series (7 or so hour long episodes) and it's super addicting. Honestly, it's really good and I'd recommend you all see it! Even if you don't adore Ewan (how could you not?) or care about motorcycles (I don't). It's funny. There were a few times where Ewan said Obi Wan quotes (from the old and new films) and that was great. They had a really tough time in Mongolia and Siberia (horrid conditions) and thay's when Ewan said, "Nobody said it was easy." While Coldplay was playing in the background. :) He thens says something about the really trying moments are the ones you'll really look back on as real accomplishments, etc. As cheesy as it sounds, it reminded me of me being here in Korea. Being completely honest, I'm hating it here, but I know that once it's over and I'm home it will be cool to look back at it and know I lived a year in South Korea. Huh. So go watch it. It's really good. I was seriously watching it with unbridled enthusiasm and excitement and mirth. I'm a dork.

Speaking of that show and Korea, apparently it's thought that Koreans are descended from Mongols. In the show, they go through Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I actually thought that the Kazakh people (Kazakhstanians?) looked a lot like Koreans. The Mongolians did a bit too, but not as much as the Kazakhstanians. Actually, the Kaz people looked like the lighter skinned Koreans and the Mongolians looked like the darker complexioned Koreans. Plus, lending creedence to the Kazakhstan connection, in the series they [Ewan and Charley] went to get a "massage" at a spa in Kazakhstan. They proceeded to get the crap beat out of them and said it was the most painful massage ever. It looked and sounded like the same damn massage I got in that spa here in Korea. Ouch.

There was this article in the news entitled, Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches. It totally brought me back to learning about fallacies in my reading class in high school. It was especially humorous as it was my and Bidisha's favorite fallacy. "Straw-Man!! Hahahaha!!!" I always got it a little confused with Glittering Generalities. Man, fallacies. Gotta love 'em.

School Annoyance Update! When Sosabul Attacks! Korea-Gate! Why can't I think of the hilarious stupid labels news organizations name every incident that occurs?? Please, if you can think of them (Liz, I'm counting on you) please post them in the comment section. I think I'm gonna make an icon for it and use it whenever I need to bitch about my school. So it'd get used often. But anyway, sans icon, here is my bitch:

So, because I was teaching 26 student hours my school said I'd only have to teach 1 teacher class a week. Which was 1 more than I'd like. So today my co-teacher tells me, "Next month your schedule will be different. You will only have 22 student hours. Then you will also have 2 teacher classes a week and 2 training classes a week." Crap-o-la. Son of a bitch. Fan-friggin-tastic. I would SOOOO much prefer student classes to teacher classes. I'd teach 30 student classes if it meant no teacher classes. Then I'm thinking (as you all may be as well), "What the hell are training classes?" So I ask. I still don't know, but I think they are just teacher classes but it will be teaching teachers from other schools in Pyeongtaek. So that's 4 nights a week I'll have to stress about planning teacher classes. Shoot me, please. And $100 says that it will extend my day so I'll not get home until after later than I should. I think I'm just going to use a stupid English textbook/workbook and not plan anything myself. And if they don't like that, they can screw themselves. Or teach their own damn selves English. I don't think any of this is at all negotiable as it's not my school demanding this, it's the Pyeongtaek Educational Office. I hate them.

One of the native English teachers in Pyeongtaek broke his contract and left after 6 months (not from UW). I think it's because Korea sucks, but official word is that it's because he had a lot of health problems. So now my school is paranoid about my health. This is how that comes across: harassing me to go to the hospital over idiotic things (I'm not Korean, I don't go to the friggin' hospital because I have a slight cough). It also manifests itself in harassing me to eat foods that they deem healthy that I deem disgusting. For example, I had to go out to dinner with the 6th grade teachers and the principals tonight. Half the meal was some seafood platter (spicy tentacles and other sea creatures with shells). My co-teacher knows I don't like seafood. However, she kept shoving it in my face and telling me to, "Just try it" over and over again. I DON'T LIKE IT. I AM NOT GOING TO EAT IT. QUIT TREATING ME LIKE I'M YOUR 4 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. It was really pissing me off. I stuck to my guns and refused to eat it. Man.

Ok, I think that's all I (and maybe you) can handle right now. I shall leave you all in peace. I have to go to bed soon. And dry my hair. And brush my teeth. And pee. Anyeong hi kyeseyo!

2006-03-19T15:01:00.000+09:00

Oh, the Horror!!!

Gruesome movies can be quite disturbing

So a while ago I bought a dvd/vcr combo. Korea dvd players are a different region than U.S. ones, so I couldn't play my dvds on this player (which I knew before I bought it, but still thought I'd use it for Korean/burned dvds and I needed a vcr). Anyway, it's pretty annoying to have to watch dvds on my computer, especially since recently it's been playing them really crappy (skipping around and such). I knew that you could input codes into your dvd player to make them region free (so they play all dvds). So a while ago I searched for the code for my particular dvd player. No sights had codes for mine. I was sad. I finally got really annoyed and searched again today. I still couldn't find the code for my player, but I noticed that there were a few codes for players of the same brand as mine (Daewoo...Korean brand) that seemed to be for numerous models. So I wrote them down and what do you know!?! The first one I tried worked! Yay! So now I can watch my dvds on my tv. That's my excitement for the day. Sad, huh? I also downloaded and watched Elf. It was pretty funny.

Speaking of movies, I saw one of the most visually disturbing (in terms of gore) horror movies ever last night. It's called High Tension (an alternate title is Switchblade Romance). It's actually a French movie (Haute tension), so the one I saw was dubbed. Which was annoying at first (esp since some of the dubbed voices were horrible sounding acting-wise), but the main people sounded fine. Anyway, it was really scary...truly high tension. And lots of blood. But as a warning to anyone who may be interested in watching it, I hated the ending. I would talk about it, but in the chance someone does want to see it, I don't want to ruin it for them. So then I just downloaded a newer movie by the same screenwriter which is a remake of an older movie (both old and new from Wes Craven). It's called The Hills Have Eyes. This should be equally disturbing, I think.

My bathtub and kitchen sink leak. It's super annoying hearing the drip drip drip all the time. Although it is fun to sing songs to the beat of the drips.

Yesterday I went with my Kiwi friend Charlie to a store called Carrefour. We had to take the subway there since it's in a different city. Apparently it has a good grocery store so that's why we went. It was a'ight. I did get some soft shell taco shells. Guess what I also found there?? A can of refried beans!!!!! Wow, that was exciting. There was only one on the shelf and I got it. It looks like the can had been thrown around the warehouse a few times, but I don't care. Dents or no dents, I'm excited to have tostadas. Now I just need to go and buy some ground beef.

My voice is getting better, but I still can't sing...and I sound a bit hoarse. I'm going to punch the teachers at my school tomorrow if they mention going to the hospital again.

Man, I can count on you, Mom, to give a detailed run-down of ancestry questions. And I forgot that we had Badger relatives. Rock on! So the whole fam should be fans!!!! Haha, yeah right. ;)

I tried to add pictures to this, but for some reason it's not working at the mo. Maybe I'll try to edit it later.

2006-03-18T04:46:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I caved and actually did watch the whole game. Boo. After the game finished, I had the option of watching either the last 14 seconds of the Iowa game or the last minute of the Bucknell/Arkansas game--both games within 2 points. I totally picked the wrong choice. "Well, only 14 seconds left in the Iowa one...by the time the video buffers and stuff it might be over." Man, when I saw that Iowa lost on a 3 pointer at the buzzer I kicked myself for that decision. That would have been great to see. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the Big Ten winning, but I gotta admit it would've made me feel a little better to see someone lose in a crappier fashion than we did.

Speaking of crappy, wow, my brackets are down the toilet now. With a Badger and an Iowa loss...not pretty. :D I started off nicely, but yoinks! Oh well. At least I have no money riding on them. :)

2006-03-18T03:00:00.000+09:00

Wow.

Well, I'm having no problems watching the game on my computer. But even from a 3x3 inch viewscreen I can tell that we SUCK big time. This is so horrible that I can't get myself to watch anymore. I have to go back to bed. And interesting to see Ohio St. getting beat by...whatever 15 seed they're playing...yoinks. At least Iowa is winning. Seriously, we are BAD. I guess this has been a good year to miss all their games. Ugh.

2006-03-17T21:55:00.000+09:00

March Madness!
Man, I wish I was back in the States for this!

First day of the tourney, finished (or 'finish-y' as Koreans always say). I filled out a couple different brackets. One through ESPN and one through Yahoo!. I'm not doing too shabby, thus far. I know alarmingly little about the NCAA this year, so I was very unknowledgable in my picks. Like every year, I have the Badgers winning it all. This year I also had the Big Ten teams winning every game (except when they had to play each other...then one had to lose, of course). So while it looks good now, it will undoubtedly turn horrid later. But the 2 BT teams who played on the first day (Illinois and Indiana) both won, so I'm on my way. :) The only games I missed today: I had Nevada winning in both my brackets. Oops. I also had NC-Wilmington winning in them both. Oops. But at least I had them both losing the next game. I also chose Marquette to lose in both my brackets because I hate them. Yay! They lost! I also correctly picked the Texas A&M upset win over Syracuse. So anyway, those (Nevada and NC Wilmington) were my only incorrect picks. I'm in the 99th percentile in the Yahoo! one and the 95th percentile in the ESPN one. Or vice versa. So not too shabby.

I'm going to attempt to watch the Badger game on my computer tonight through CBS Sportsline. I've had bad luck with watching things like that here in Korea though, because many times they block out viewers who are located someplace other than the US (which websites 'know' by your ISP address). We'll see. I'll have to stay up mighty late as well. Go Badgers!!!

2006-03-17T21:19:00.000+09:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is my 4-leaf clover...

Top o' the mornin' to ya! Even though it's night for me right now... In honor of St. Patty's Day I wore my green pants to school today. I would say that Korea doesn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but then I found this picture online. So I guess at least some of them do. Hey, Mom, do we have any Irish in us? I don't remember. Probably, eh? I don't really have anything to say regarding today. Last year's St. Patrick's Day was so much better as I was in Chicago with my dad at the Big Ten Tournament. And I got to see the Chicago river dyed green. Awesome. Speaking of last year's BTT, just today I watched a clip of our game that year vs Iowa where Alando made that amazing last second game-winning 3-pointer. That was awesome. I'm glad I was able to experience it in person.

But while we're on the topic of holidays...
So February 14th is Valentine's Day. In Korea on Valentine's Day women give stuff to men. Then they just had a holiday called White Day (March 14). It's tradition on White Day for men to give stuff to women. I got some candy from some kiddies...although mostly from girls. Apparently White Day was made up by some Japanese company. Then, on April 14 Korea celebrates Black Day. Black Day is for people who are single. On Black Day single folk eat jajang noodles because they are black. But wait! We're not finished yet! Every month on the 14th there's some holiday for "lovers." May 14: Rose Day-self explanatory. It's also Yellow Day, which I don't totally get. But people eat yellow curry. For some reason. June 14: Kiss Day- self-explanatory. July 14: Silver Day- an exchange of silver rings. August 14: Music Day- give each other love song cds. September 14: Photo Day- that could get interesting. It's also the day when people around the world come together to celebrate my birthday. :) October 14: Wine Day. November 14: Movie Day/Hug Day. December 14: Money Day- spend money on your loved ones. January 14: Diary Day- give your lover a diary and flowers. And let's not forget the infamous Pepero Day on Nov. 11.

So holy Christ. Talk about corporations getting ahold of Korea! I think the only ones widely celebrated are Valentine's Day, White Day, and Black Day. And Pepero Day. But still. Crikey.

2006-03-16T21:54:00.000+09:00

Inflammation of the Vocal Chords
No, I really don't need to go to the hospital...

So I'm 99.9% sure I have laryngitis. Tuesday night I could feel my throat getting a little funky. I'm sure I didn't help it any by drinking and being around smokers. That night my throat felt like it was on fire...so I slept like crap (and to answer your question, Mom, I actually felt fine on Wed hangover-wise...I actually felt very much not drunk that night...surprising considering the amount of soju shots I had in a short period). Throughout the day on Wednesday I could feel my throat getting progressively worse, and by the time I left school it was going in and out. That night it hurt like a beotch again and when I awoke on Thursday I pretty much had no voice. So today in school I sat in the class and pretty much just watched. Not much I can do without a voice...my primary asset here in Korea. But all the teachers are freaking out over it. They are obsessed with my going to the hospital...which I will not do, since it would be pointless. Koreans go to the friggin' hospital at the drop of a hat. I don't have a cold or anything, it's just my voice. And aside from at night my throat doesn't even really hurt. I looked up laryngitis online and it appears the main causes are either a virus or over-use of the voice. Neither of these would be helped by medicine. There's a slight chance it could be caused by bacteria, but doubtful. I hope they lay off of me about the hospital because I don't go to the hospital for every little thing!!! It's still pretty bad right now. Not sure how it'll be tomorrow--I have 6 classes tomorrow. Today I only had 4. Because they were so concerned for me they sent me home after lunch...after an hour of figuring out paper work for it. That was nice. They also gave me some Tylenol Cold (not useful now but I could probably use it later) and a couple little bottles of mystery drink to take after eating. So far I've ignored those. My co-teacher has been giving me this nasty drink each morning. It's like this nasty hot fruit-ish drink that comes in a packet. It's really gross. Apparently it's "good for health." Which means I'll undoubtedly get more tomorrow morning. Eww.

So my newest assignment: write an English textbook for the 1st and 2nd graders. Wha??? It's doubly confusing because I can't figure out what they exactly want. And I guess it's due sometime in April. I was told it was my "homework." Gee, thanks. I asked if 1st and 2nd graders could even read English and they laughed and said, "No...maybe their parents will read it to them." Wtf? So they're having me write a textbook that will be effectively useless. I think they just want them so they can show them off to people and be like, "Look, we have English books for our 1st and 2nd graders written by a native English speaker!" And apparently the teacher classes are going to be starting in April sometime (shoot me now). My co-teacher was also asking me about all this other stuff that we're supposed to be doing this year (a bunch of extra-curricular English activities). I never have any idea what she's talking about. She'll ask me about something but I don't understand what the hell she's talking about it. Then she asked me about English camp this summer and what I'm going to teach. I'm like, yeah, I just had the winter one. Like I've planned the stupid summer one. Then, to top it off, she asked what I was going to do for the English camp next winter. She had kept mentioning stuff that would take place next semester. Finally I got out a calendar and was like, "My contract is up August 31. Then I'm going back to the U.S. I won't be here then." She was all surprised and asked if I'd renew my contract. I said no. She was very suprised. She must have told a bunch of people, because I've had numerous people ask me about it now. And they are incapable of getting it into their heads that I'm not renewing. They keep saying, "So you're unsure if you'll renew?" No, I'm sure I am NOT going to renew. Christ. They all ask why. Like I'm going to tell them, "I think Korea sucks." So I just say, "Well, my contract was only for one year and I really miss my family." Then one teacher says all surprised, "But you just saw your sister!" Oh, yeah! That's right! Now I no longer miss anyone! Man. Another teacher asked, "Have you told the vice-principal you're not coming back?" As if it was my responsibility to do so. I really don't think it's my responsibility to go to her to tell her I'm not going to renew. I'd say the responsibility should fall on her to ask if I want to renew. It's like they've all been assuming I was going to stay longer. They could not be further from the truth, as I actually would like to cut out on my contract and leave now. They should be thankful I'm honoring their stupid contract in the first place. That and I really wouldn't mind the $2000 bonus I'll get for working here a year. Anyway, it was kind of nice to see that they wanted me to stay instead of thinking, "Good, we can finally get rid of this moron!" So I must not be sucking too much, or be too much of a disappointment.

So I got visited on Tuesday by a Korean English teacher at another school. I guess their school wants to get a native English teacher and he's in charge of everything. He has no idea what to do, so he came to Sosabul since they have one (me) to ask questions. For whatever reason, they sent him to talk to me about things that I have no idea about. First of all, it took me 8 years to figure out what the hell he was really asking me. He wanted to know how I found an apartment, how I was recruited, etc. So I told him I was recruited through UW (to which he got this surprised expression on his face and said, "You went to Wisconsin University? They are very famous!"). Haha! Then I was like, I have no idea about the apartment. I got here and the school had it ready for me. So he had these questions for me that I had nothing to do with. I couldn't help him at all. Why they sent him to me, I have no idea. I was like, "Sorry I couldn't help you." Then he said, "Oh no, it was an honor." Huh? Ok. He asked how many hours I teach and I told him 26. He was like, "Oh! You should come to my school instead! We only have 21 classes!" Haha, I'm almost tempted. [Sosabul is the biggest school in Pyeongtaek...over 2000 students]

The school is in the process of electing the school president. So all the students are setting up these campaigns and stuff. They take it very seriously. The posters they set up are crazy good. It's like professionally printed posters with their faces and stuff. Each morning and during lunch they all go around in the halls and outside with signs yelling stuff. I guess the final vote is next Thursday.

I was bowed to by a kid while he was riding a bike the other day. That was awesome.

2006-03-15T22:22:00.000+09:00

Drinkin' All Your Worries Away
Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name

So I went out with the "Pyeongtaek Gang" (me, Jaclyn, Will, Charlie, and Elissa...who's actually from Osan, but close enough) last night. They hadn't heard from me in a couple of weeks so they were worried I was dead. Turns out I just holed myself up in my apartment and built a model of a traditional Korean house and read Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. Good times. Or something. Anyway, we all went out to eat then headed to a bar to drink until midnight. Why we chose to do this on a Tuesday, I'm not sure. So without further ado, here are some pictures. If you toggle really fast between the 2 of me drinking shots, then it looks like I'm in action. Pretty cool, eh? And in the top left picture we're modeling the traditional Korean photo pose.

2006-03-15T18:24:00.000+09:00

Beware the Ides of March!

Listen to the seer, O Caesar!

Ok, here are a few Korean news items I felt like putting up here for those interested:

Korea gets rare yellow snowfall
I haven't noticed any yellow dust myself, but maybe I'm just not paying attention. It definitely did snow (quite a bit) a few days ago (the snowfall to which this article must refer) in Pyeongtaek, but I'm pretty sure it's just white. Maybe Pyeongtaek is spared the worst of the yellow sand...although it is very much on the west coast...who knows? Because of this yellow dust there's an influx of Koreans walking around with cloth "surgical" masks. Throughout the winter I saw tons of Koreans wearing them and I never did figure out why: Is it to protect them from acquiring viruses? If so, that annoys me because like cloth masks will protect you from viruses. Is it to fend off the cold? Maybe, but again, that's kind of stupid. I have a hunch it's a mix of both. Wearing them for the yellow dust is a reason I can stomach, although like I said, I haven't noticed any yellow dust. Whatever.

SoKo PM quits amid golf scandal
The South Korean Prime Minister resigned yesterday because of a huge uproar over him playing golf. Although it was a national holiday, he should have been in the office because that day the subway employees went on a big strike. And golf is considered to be for the super rich and corrupt. Golf is really popular here, but it's uber expensive because there's a crap load of people and hardly any space for golf courses.

Dog poop girl
I guess there's a huge problem with cyberviolence in Korea (although I have to say, looking at the examples given in this article it sounds like Koreans are just being a bit too sensitive). Did you know that SoKo is the world's most wired nation? Well, it is. Most households have broadband connections. I guess some people think that the internet technology age boomed too fast here and people's "maturity" levels about it have not yet caught up. Or something.

The biggest thing in the news right now is that a Korean journalist was captured and is being held hostage by Palestinians on the Gaza Strip. I didn't include a link to any article because there's not much more to say about it. Another day, another Middle East hostage.

It's all the rage right now for Korean men to look very feminine and pretty. Here are a few pics of famous Korean men:

2006-03-08T22:26:00.000+09:00

The Snorks
Who else remembers this show?

Ok, at long last I'm getting to putting up pictures that were taken with our underwater camera in Thailand. Please note that underwater disposable cameras are not of the highest quality; therefore, neither are the pictures that they produce. First up: Me on a bamboo raft in Kanchanaburi. Too bad the Burmese raft operator didn't make it in the shot.

Above left: Maya Bay on Phi Phi Lei where The Beach was filmed. It doesn't look that pretty because we were there at low tide. And the camera sucks. We only had the disposable camera because we had to snorkel to the bay. The bay we originated at on Phi Phi Lei was actually much prettier (above- and below-water scenery) but due to confusion we have no pictures of that, alas. Above right: Joleen swimming at our bungalow beach.

Above left: Joleen snorkeling. Above right: Me snorkeling. Note: I take better underwater snorkeling pictures of people than Joleen does.

2006-03-08T21:28:00.000+09:00

Ooh, Ooh, That Smell! Can't You Smell That Smell??
The Smell Of Death Surrounds You!

Something smells really bad in my apartment and I can't figure out what it is. I hate that.

I am currently obsessed with crossword and sudoku puzzles. I used to hate crosswords because they made me feel like an idiot. However, since Joleen visited me, brought a book of crosswords, and taught me various crossword 'tricks,' I've really begun to enjoy them. Also, I was shown the world of sudoku by Sarah. I am slowly getting better at it. I have to print them off at school, however, because I find it impossible to do them on the computer. I'm also almost done with the crossword book, Joleen. :(

When a Korean asks if they can make a copy of something, they really mean, "Can I take and keep this?"

When a Korean asks, "Do you like kimchi?," they don't want to hear, "No."

I think one of my favorite songs to sing along with would be Stay by Lisa Loeb. Although Alanis Morisette's You Outta Know is also a good one. I have to say, I did a pretty rockin' rendition of Guns N Roses' Welcome to the Jungle while norae-banging. Ask Joleen. She can vouch for me. Right, Jo? I also really enjoyed doing Blondie's Heart of Glass. Songs I found out that I definitely cannot sing: Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway and Destiny's Child's Say My Name.

Ok, things that are annoying me about my school situation:

1) Because my principal is a tool, I will not be getting a new/bigger classroom. Fine, I can live with that. No big deal.

2) Again, I am teaching 26 hours a week. This is the same as last year, but more nerve-wracking because

3) I have 4 new co-teachers. Count 'em--four. Two of them I have for most of my classes (9 classes with one and 14 with another). But then I have one class with another teacher and 2 classes with another. I don't even know who one of these teachers is as I haven't had that class yet. The thing with this is that with these teachers it pretty much means that I'm teaching the class myself as they aren't English teachers and don't know about any of the lessons. And it would just take time out of my day to have to hunt them down each week and describe everything that should happen. Basically, I guess they'll be there as a translator. Bah. At least it's 4th grade classes...4th graders are cute because they're little enough to be excited about things. Although they're constantly yelling, "Game! Game!"

4) Even though I made it abundantly clear that I don't want to do it, I will be teaching a teacher class this year. Honestly, this was the bane of my existence the last 6 months. I HATE it. I forced them to only make me do it once a week instead of twice. I don't know when it's going to start, how long it will be, or what day it will be on, though. I specifically said I didn't want it on Monday (since I procrastinate that would mean I'd be planning it on Sunday night which I would hate). I have a feeling it will be on Monday because "It's better for the other teachers." Well thanks for taking into consideration what's best for me. This is what pisses me off the most; any time a Korean teacher doesn't like something, there's a big hullabaloo to remedy the situation so they get what they want, but no one seems to give a shit about my concerns. They act like they do, but when it comes to action no one does anything. Ex: Korean teachers freak out if their teaching hours exceed 22/week, but hey, we can pile 27+ on the foreign teacher! Ugh. If they seem surprised when I tell them I'm not staying another year I'll laugh in their face. Oh yeah, and here's

5) As if having 4 co-teachers isn't enough, I was just informed that Ms. Kwan (who teaches 9 classes with me) will be leaving the school in May and I'll get a new co-teacher for the next 3 months.

Exeunt rant.

2006-03-07T23:51:00.000+09:00

Material World

Is it me or is it just wrong that this constitutes news:

Madonna Says Daughter Asked If She Was Gay

I mean, the fact that this is a top headline is just bizarre to me. The rest of the article just talked about how Lourdes likes to point out gay men to Madonna. ? Ok, thanks for sharing. It wasn't even in the "Odd News" section...Also, I think that Madonna looks creepy in the picture alongside the article. And does anyone else find her explanation on why she kissed Britney Spears a little creepy?

Sometime I do want to bitch a bit more about my 'sitch,' but I have to be in bed a(n) half an hour ago, so I'm not gonna do it now.

2006-03-06T22:54:00.001+09:00

Wesley Crusher vs. Moses

A Fight To The Death

[Ok, I tried putting this up like 10 hours ago but blogger wouldn't let me...]
I don't want to complain about my teaching situation right now, so instead I'm doing something 'fun' to hopefully get me less pissed.

I was watching video clips of various things on youtube (very addicting; you should check it out) and I ended up watching a bunch of Jon Stewart clips. Anyway, during this spree I was struck with how much I adore Jon Stewart and how much I detest Tucker Carlson (Stewart was on his show). Seriously, I wanted to punch that little ahole in the face. Anyway, I decided to put together a list of people I really like and people I really do not like. So, here it is:

Emmy Likey
1. Jon Stewart. He's hilarious. He's adorable. He's Jewish (ok, that really has nothing to do with it). He's incredibly smart. Honestly, how can a sane person not love him?? I didn't watch the Oscars, so I have no idea how that went for him. But rock on, Jon Stewart.

2. Jeff Probst. For those not 'in the know,' he is the host of Survivor. I don't know why I love him so much. He's good lookin' and, I have to be honest, I love the safari-ish shirt he wears all the time. I enjoy his mannerisms on the show. I just love the guy.

3. Rory Cochrane. He's an actor and he's been in various movies, but I got to know him from CSI: Miami. I love his character in that show. Too bad they killed him off a couple seasons ago (he wanted to leave the show). I never really watched CSI: Any Of Them until I came to Korea. Now I've seen all the seasons of CSI: Miami and a decent amount of CSI: Regular and CSI: NY episodes. For reasons I cannot explain, I actually really enjoy David Caruso in CSI: Miami. I feel like I should hate him...but I can't. [I know, sorry Brighton!]

4. Phil Keoghan. He is the host of The Amazing Race. Which is a great show. Phil's a Kiwi, so that probably explains some of my love for him. I also love how he reacts to people on the show when they get to the 'pit stops.' He looks disgusted with the aholes and genuinely happy with the nice folk. Gotta like that.

5. Wil Wheaton. He used to play Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: TNG. He now has a blog (Wil Wheaton dot Net). It's very popular. He's written a couple books, too...which I haven't read, but once I get back to the US and can buy books that I can read, I think I'll check them out. I read his blog a while ago and thought it was funny, but then forgot about it. I just rediscovered it via Elizabeth and again, found the content hilarious. I love the guy. If he wasn't married and I knew him and we got along well and all, I'd want to marry him. But alas, he's married, I don't know him, and I don't know if we'd get along. So I guess I won't be marrying him. And if you've ever seen Stand By Me, how can you not like the guy?

6. Paul Revere. Hmm, which person doesn't seem to go with the rest? :D I had to write a book review for an American Revolution class I took a couple years ago, and I chose to read Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer. It was an excellent book and I highly recommend it. And who doesn't love guys who take midnight rides on horses and have smelly dogs who follow them everywhere?

Emmy Really No Likey
1. Ann Coulter. I could just say she's ultra conservative and leave it at that. In fact, that is what I'll do. I'm just really glad that she doesn't spell her name with an 'e.' And I know Anne Shirley would not like Ann Coulter.

2. Tucker Carlson. Another conservative. Refer back to my initial comments on how my idea to do this list came up re: why I don't like him. He makes no sense. He's rude. He wears a bow tie. He used to co-host Crossfire on CNN until they canceled it. Probably becuase of him and his bow ties. Honestly, you should watch the interview of Stewart on Crossfire. It's really quite entertaining (you can find it on youtube!).

3. Charlton Heston. Yes, I am allowed to hate a guy who played Moses, El Cid and Ben Hur. His whole being president of the NRA is my main reason for him really annoying me. Pry this from your cold dead hands, Heston. Apparently back in the day he used to be a Democrat. Huh. Planet of the Apes was just on tv here so he was on my mind.

4. Tom Cruise. Do I really need to explain this? He's a scientologist. He's psycho but doesn't believe in psychology. He performs sonograms himself on Katie Holmes. He thinks medication for depression is a load of crap. You know what I think is a load of crap? Half the movies he's made.

5. James Spader. Ok, I only hate him on the show Boston Legal. Or I should say I hate his character on the show. I've only seen the show a few times (and never the whole way through)...it's one of the shows they play here in Korea, for whatever reason. I think it's on AFN. Anyway, he's supposed to be all sexy on the show, but I just find him to be an arrogant pompous tool. Who is in no way even remotely attractive. I just am not getting him. Ugh.

6. Brenna Gethers. I just felt that I needed an equal number of likes/hates and I had 6 likes so I needed another hate. I also felt I needed another girl hate (even though I don't have any girl likes...I'll work on that for my next list). She was on American Idol. She sucked. She was super friggin' annoying. I absolutely hated her. She got voted off (all right, America!). But she's still annoying.

2006-03-03T10:14:00.000+09:00

Uh, Ok
Maybe I'll never end up teaching this semester...

So I thought that yesterday would be my first day teaching. Nope. I don't know what was going on that morning until 11:30 (when there was an all-school assembly), but it sure wasn't English class. Ok, so then I thought today would be my first day teaching. Nope. Ms. Kwan (who I should be teaching with today) came in this morning and told me that today she was just going to go into each class and talk to them (about what, I don't really know) so I have "free time" today, as she called it. Ok, fine by me. So maybe I'll come in Monday and be told I don't have to teach again. Who knows? Unfortunately, I didn't come prepared today for a day of free time (ie no iPod, etc) so it's been a bit boring. But currently the Badger/MSU bkb game is on so I'm watching the live stats on that online. Go Badgers! Currently we're down 9 in the second half. Alando needs to get in the game!

2006-03-02T22:34:00.000+09:00

Apparently I'm on a Posting Roll

Ok, so I was tooling around with the Google satellite map function, and you can get an extreme satellite close-up image of Panmunjom. So here is a link to the map close-up: Panmunjom. The little row of buildings in the middle are where they hold their talks (like what they're doing right now). The middle blue one is the one Joleen and I went in. The big building below is a South Korean building; the building just above (that pales in comparison, size-wise) is a North Korean one. Yeah, so I thought that was kind of cool.

2006-03-02T21:56:00.000+09:00

Drunk With Power
Give me another shot of POWER, baby!

So it's the custom/culture in Korea that students are supposed to bow to their teachers when they see them in the hall or the streets or whatever. They don't have to stop everything and do this major bow, but it's kind of a bow-as-you-walk-by type of thing. Anyway, I usually don't get bowed to--in lieu of bowing, my students instead tend to give a giant wave and yell my name--"OHHH!!! AE-MIL-LEE!!! HELLO!!!" Which, you know, is nice and all, but there's just something about being bowed to. The 1% of the time that I get bowed to by students really does give me a power trip. I mean, really; how often do people bow to you?? "If I were King of the forest..." [must be sung in a lion from Wizard of Oz way]. But I've noticed that I've been getting more bows as of late...hmmm...keep it comin' kiddos, keep it comin'...

2006-03-02T21:34:00.000+09:00

Go, Korea!
Korea in the News

Wow, at one point today when I was checking out the news on Yahoo, of the 5 articles prominently displayed under the World News header, 2 of them involved South Korea. One was about the stem cell guy who was full of croddy research, and the other was about high level talks going on between NoKo and SoKo at Panmunjom...the exact building I was in the other weekend. Wow, crazy. Here's a link to the article; it's not too long and I found it fairly interesting: Koreas Open High-Level Military Talks [and Mom, I promise that this time it's actually a link to the article and not a link to a Daily Show clip :)]

Also, just as an Olympic wrap-up, I'd like to give the medal-count of South Korea: They had a respectable 11 medals (6 golds, 3 silvers, and 2 bronze). 10 of these medals came in short track. The other one came in speedskating. In my mind, it's all speedskating; but I guess short track is speedskating on a...shorter track (so it's not just a clever name). I made the mistake of calling short track speedskating and my co-teacher laughed hysterically. Dude, they're not that much different. Korea is obsessed with short track. During the Olympics the short track races were on all the time, and I swear there was at least 1 Korean in every heat. At least. And the Korean announcers would get super excited when a Korean would win, then they'd stick the person's name up on the screen in giant gold letters with a picture of whatever medal they won next to it. It was pretty funny. They also don't do touching stories on various Olympians like NBC does. Not like I could have understood them. I did get to watch NBC coverage of some events on AFN...but I missed the Ladies Figure Skating Long Program on AFN, so I had to watch the Korean airing. Not as good when you can't understand the announcer people, even though the lady announcing figure skating for NBC sounded like a total twat.

It was the first day of the semester today, but I didn't have any classes. Tomorrow will be the first day of classes...and the teacher I'm co-teaching with tomorrow just found out today that she was teaching with me half the time. Koreans seriously do not have foresight or any ability to plan things ahead of time. It's amazing (in a bad way), really.

2006-02-27T14:04:00.000+09:00

Update

Changes are already being made to the aforementioned changes

So I was whisked off at lunch today to go eat at a restaurant with a group of teachers...of whom I had no idea who they were (was that anywhere near grammatically correct??). Turns out they were the 6th grade teachers. It appears the 6th grade may be my base camp this term; last term it was the 5th grade. It's kind of bad because they're all new people that I have to get used to/know them, but they also seemed more apt to try to speak with me which will be good. And there's actually a guy teacher in the 6th grade. That'll be new.

So, I am NOT teaching 3-6th grade like I was initially told. Which, if I had thought about it more closely, would be obvious. If I taught all classes 3-6th grade that would have meant I'd be teaching 36 hours/week...which is impossible with how the schedule at the school is set up (although holy OT money!). Basically, I'm just not teaching 3rd grade...only 4-6. And I'll actually have 3 co-teachers. The 2 I mentioned before, and then one other one who will teach 2 of the 4th grade classes with me (I don't really know why). I'm not exactly sure who this will be, but I think it might be a 5th grade teacher who came late last term because she was on pregnancy leave. So I don't know her well, but I think she speaks English better than the other 2 teachers that I'll be teaching with (you met her and spoke to her a bit, Joleen). I don't know what her name is, though. I should find that out. It's making me a bit nervous that I have so many co-teachers. I don't know how lesson planning is going to work out...will I be in charge or the co-teacher?? Will it depend on the co-teacher? Arg.

Also, I guess I'm not moving rooms until another month or so. For whatever reason. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to come in on a Saturday to move all my shit. That would suck. My contract says no Saturdays!!! I have a feeling I wouldn't get paid OT for that, either.

Also, we're getting a new vice-principal at our school. The old crotchity VP is leaving (which is good) but he's being replaced by a lady who used to be head of the English Education Dept in Pyeongtaek. Which seems like it'd be good, but I don't think it will be. 1) She'll take a much bigger interest in my teaching and may pop in to watch more of my classes (I hate that). 2) Word on the street is that she's a bitch and is really hard to get along with. Ya-hoo. Don't mess with the bull, lady...you'll get the horns! Yeah, that sure describes me. At least there will be someone in a relative position of power who I can hopefully communicate effectively with...bitch or no. I was having serious communication issues with Ms. Lee (new co-teacher) today. Actually, I should say Ms. Ee...I don't know why it gets changed to Lee in "English" because there is no L sound in that name. Ever. In South Korea, anyway. In North Korea there are a few actual Lees, I guess. I don't know about other Asian countries. And the name Park is really pronounced more like Bak. More of a 'b' sound and there is no 'r' in it at all. Haha, I just had a really funny thought as to why that name is spelled and pronounced Park in English: When Korean immigrants first came to the US they came in on the East coast. When they said their name "Bak" it just sounded like how Bostonians (Bostonites?) say "Park." And the rest is history. Right. Ok, so that wasn't really funny, but I thought it was mildly humorous.

I don't feel that bad about not knowing any of the teachers' names because I guess none of them call each other by their actual names. Ms. Lee (old co-teacher) didn't even know half their names. I guess they just call each other "5-1 teacher" or "5-7 teacher," etc. But in Korean, obviously. So it'd be "something-something seonsaengnim." Or my method, which is either not talking to them or just looking at the person and then start to talk. It seems to work fine. Most of the time.

I'm wondering how many more changes I'll find out about. I just never be told, "Hey, guess what?!? You're teaching 2 hours of teacher classes a week!!!" NOOOOO!!!!!!

2006-02-27T11:56:00.000+09:00

Fast Changes Arriving

So this week my new teaching term begins (Thursday is the first day of the new term/semester). It's actually the 1st semester of the year, as in Korea the first and second semesters are reversed from that in the US. But I've got quite a few changes coming my way. I don't know if they'll be for the better or for the worse, but I'll soon find out.

I am apparently changing rooms...I'm getting a bigger room, about 1.5 classroom sizes. Theoretically that's nice, but I haven't actually been in the room yet, so I don't know. It's on the 2nd floor...which is kind of bad b/c that's the same floor as the offices. But there are no windows looking into the room from the hallway, so that's good.

Also, previously I taught 4th and 5th graders; 4th graders once a week and 5th graders twice a week. Now I will be teaching 3rd, 4th, 5th, AND 6th grade, but all of them only once a week. This will mean I'll teach 26 hours/week (which is 4 OT hours). My co-teacher is gone and I'll have 2 new co-teachers; one will teach 3rd and 5th with me and the other will teach 4th and 6th with me. I know the teachers already, so that's nice. One was the other English teacher from last term (Ms. Kwan) who taught 2 weeks of English camp with me this winter. The other is the old 5th grade head teacher. She is very nice, but her English isn't the greatest (neither is Ms. Kwan's but it's not too bad). So it will be quite the change from Ms. Lee who was fluent in English (the new teacher is also a Ms. Lee). There will be much more Korean spoken in the classes this term, I think. Which I think will be good for the most part...but there might be TOO much Korean spoken...which will be annoying for me b/c then I'll have no idea what's going on. We'll see.

I am also going to refuse to teach teacher classes this term. That was the source of great amounts of stress for me last term so I WILL NOT do it again. I don't care if they think less of me for it. Screw them. I teach way more than any other native English speaking teacher I know--without extra classes I'm already doing 4 OT hours/week this term...and last term I was doing 6 OT hours/week. Sure I get extra money, but at this point my happiness and sanity is coming first.

So here's hoping for a decent next 6 months...

2006-02-25T18:24:00.000+09:00

So I'm Eating Crow
I think that's a proper saying for this situation, anyway...

I mentioned that stupid, white, annoying lady in my last post and how she insisted that the capital of SoKo was going to move from Seoul to somewhere else. I made fun of her and said that it was highly unlikely. However, I looked it up and apparently it's true. Sorry, lady. Although I still think you're stupid, you were definitely white, and you were one of the most annoying people I ever had to sit in front of on a bus. Anyway, for those of you interested in reading about this odd move, here is a link to an article: Capital Move?

2006-02-23T11:43:00.000+09:00

So What Else Does Korea Have To Offer?

Nothing.

Ok, so that's just me being bitter. Anyway, here are a few more pictures from the goings-on in Korea when Joleen was here. I'll probably be adding more later, but I'm doing this at school and don't have all the pics with me. Bu tI thin kI'm going to leave at lunch time and just not come back today because this is honestly ridiculous. No one would have a clue if I did or did not come in today and I doubt they'd notice if I left early and didn't come back. If they do and get angry...go ahead and fire me. This is what I've done so far this morning: finished 2 crossword puzzles and watched the first 2 episodes of Survivor on my iPod. Why do I need to be in school for that? I don't. Yesterday from 10-2 I watched the Olympics. At least I had a big screen TV to watch the ice skating. Go Sasha Cohen!

Ok, back to Korea. So, I took Joleen to Suwon where we took the hike around Hwaseong Fortress. It's a decent old fortress surrounded by a big city (I think the population of Suwon is 3 million or something). Speaking of big cities, here's a ridiculous thing Joleen and I heard this dumb annoying white lady saying to her friend on the DMZ tour: According to her, because Seoul is too crowded, they're changing the capital of South Korea sometime in the next couple of years. Yeah, you're a dumbass. Her friend was like, "Really??" She insisted that it was true. Ok, I haven't attempted to look this up to see how factual it is, but how can it be true? Honestly. Anyway, I've included a pic that shows the old fortress juxtaposed with the modern city. Neat-o. There's also a picture of Joleen in fron of a fortress wall. And of course, how could I not include the picture of the typical Korean dog (when it's not being eaten). The really funny thing is that it was being walked by 2 guys. Haha.

And here's a picture of a dog restaurant near my house. Seriously...there's not a picture of a dog for nothing. One of the menu appears to be gay tang...dog stew, I think. Apparently dog is pretty fatty. I wouldn't know. According to Koreans it's "good for health." According to Koreans, anything Korean is "good for health." I guess dog is supposed to help with male virility. Sure. And for good measure have it with a side of bear gall bladder.

And here's a picture of Joleen standing at the Pyeongtaek subway station waiting for the train bound for Cheongyangmi and hoping it's not the express train bound for Yongsan (which doesn't stop at all the stops...but it can be hard to tell which train is which when they come because they're not labeled for us non-Korean speakers).

2006-02-20T10:16:00.000+09:00

Face-to-Face With Commies
"In Front Of Them All" at the DMZ

So on Saturday Joleen and I took a tour of the DMZ. It was a very nice tour. What exactly is the DMZ, you may be wondering? DMZ stands for the De-militarized Zone. After WWII, the Soviets and the US set the 38th parallel as the boundary for the speheres of control between the two countries (Soviets controlling the N and US the S). Technically Korea was still one country at this point, but it pretty much made what was to come inevitable. In 1950 North Korea invades South Korea and at one point had control of everything except the the southern tip (Busan). But with the help of US forces, they're pushed back to about their original position. In 1953 an Armistice was signed and the DMZ was formed. The whole thing is pretty sad because during the Korean War many families were separated from each other (either due to the military or fleeing N Korea/areas of fighting). After the DMZ was formed no one was able to cross it...so some families were split up between North and South Korea. I highly recommend reading the book Still-Life With Rice by Helie Lee. It's really good. It's about a Korean woman's life in Korea during the Japanese occupation and the Korean War (it's kind of a memoir/biography but written like a novel...it's actually written by her granddaughter who's Korean-American). It's amazing to read what Koreans had to go through during this time.

The town of Panmunjon is located on the DMZ and some people still live here (actually their village is called Taesung-dong, or Freedom Village). They get quite a few benefits from this (lots of free farmland, no taxes, military service exemption) but also have to live by some strict rules (have to be back in town by sunset and in their houses locked up by midnight or 11 or something). The JSA (Joint Security Area) was set up on the DMZ in Panmunjon. "Temporary" buildings were built here for peace talks, etc...but the buildings are still up and used, so not so temporary, eh? The DMZ is neutral territory, but there's South and North Korean sides. There are buildings built on this line, so half the building is on the South Korean side and half is on the North Korean side. On my tour I got to go in this building and Joleen and I milled about on the North Korean side for a while. We debated whether or not that meant we've been to North Korea, but decided that it didn't.

Ok, so now on to our actual experience. We boarded the bus at the USO office in Seoul at 7:30am. Our first stop was at Camp Bonifas (which really isn't too far from Seoul). Here we were briefed by a US soldier stationed here on the DMZ. We then headed to the DMZ/JSA. This is where we got to enter the half NoKo half SoKo building. I have included some pictures. First is me standing on the North Korean side of the building. The soldier you see is an ROK soldier (Republic of Korea/S Korean...North Korea's offical name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...yeah, really fitting). Notice he stands at a taekwando-ready position (in order for ROK soldiers to be stationed at the DMZ they need to have a blackbelt in both taekwando and judo). This is how it works: both sides give tours (but many more from the S Korean side). There is a door at both ends of the building. When people from the SoKo side are in the building the door to the N Korean side is shut and locked from the inside. There are South Korean soldiers inside for protection, or whatever. When people from the NoKo side are in the building the door to the SoKo side is shut and locked and North Korean soldiers are inside. They also guard the door to the SoKo side. However, I think their main role is to prevent people from defecting to South Korea...not for protection.

This other picture has a few things of note in it. The blue building on the right that has people filing into it is the building I went in. The 3 soldiers you see in front are ROK soldiers. Notice the guy on the left who looks like he's been naughty because he's facing a wall? Well, he stands like this to observe the NoKo side, but has half his body shielded by the wall so he's less of a target. There's another guy like him at the building to the right of the center one that you can't see in the picture. When NoKo soldiers are posted at the building they assume different positions--again, their job is more to stop people from defecting than for protection (although for both reasons, probably). In 1984, a Russian on the NoKo tour of the DMZ ran across to the SoKo side. NoKo soldiers followed him with guns blazing and 1 ROK and 1 US soldier were killed. The SoKos fired back, killing 3 NoKos. The Russian successfully defected. The concrete building you see in back is a North Korean building. I don't know exactly what it's for, but there's a SoKo building like it (but much prettier) opposite it that we came out of. Funny story: The top tier of the NoKo building was added on to make it taller than the SoKo building. But then the SoKos built a new building; the only requirement? That it be taller than the NoKo building. :D Notice the 2 little guys on the stairs of that building? They are North Korean soldiers watching us. Also, if you zoom in to that area, you can see a guy in the window next to them. He's looking at us through binoculars. We were told not to make gestures at them that could be construed as anything hostile, such as throat slashing motions. There went my plans. :D

We then went to an observation point/check point where you had nice views of North Korea (although it was a bit hazy that morning). On the way there we passed by the Bridge of No Return (see pic). This is where all POWs were repatriated after that Korean War. It was used for POW exchanges at the end of the Korean War. The name originates from the fact that prisoners were given the choice to remain in the country of their captivity or cross over to the other country. But if they chose to cross the bridge, they would never be allowed to return. At the observation point we were surrounded on 3 sides by North Korea. The picture here is of a North Korean village called Kijong-dong, but usually referred to as "Propaganda Village." This is because there's constant loudspeakers blaring across to SoKo propaganda about how great NoKo is and telling SoKo people to defect to NoKo (yeah, right). There's also billboards and signs all over with propaganda messages on them. Interestingly, no one lives in this village. Some people even think that the windows on the buildings are just painted on. Notice the huge flagpole/flag? Funny story. So, both Taesong-dong (Freedom Village in SoKo) and Kijong-dong (Propaganda Village in NoKo) had their respective flags flying on flagpoles. After the Olympics were held in Seoul, the Olympic committe gave the official Olympic flagpole to SoKo. SoKo donated it to Taesong-dong. It's about 100 meters high. The North Koreans didn't want to be outdone, so they got their own new flagpole...160 meters high. And get this: the actual flag on it is 30 meters long and weighs 600 pounds!!!! Holy crap that's a huge flag! Needless to say, that's a competition the NoKos won. The flag in the pic is un-billowed as 1) it wasn't very windy that day, and 2) you need a massive gust to completely unfurl it anyway.

Back in 1976 an event now known as the Axe Murder Incident ocurred. There was a tree (on the SoKo side) that blocked the view from one SoKo outpost. SoKo and US soldiers went to trim the branches (which apparently is routine work in the JSA). A bunch of NoKo soldiers showed up and ended up brutally killing 2 US soldiers with axes. After this Operation Paul Bunyan was put in place; with massive security the tree was chopped down. I think it ended up costing like $30 million to cut down that damn tree.

After this we went to the "3rd Tunnel." In the 70s the SoKos discovered some tunnels that the NoKos had dug from NoKo into SoKo. They've found 4 tunnels so far, but suspect at least 10 more. The 3rd tunnel was big enough for 30,000 armed soldiers with heavy guns and equipment to pass through in an hour. At the time it was discovered it really freaked the SoKos out, especially since it ended not too far from Seoul (44 km). So we got to go in this tunnel. Pictures weren't allowed, but Joleen snuck one anyway. So here's our illegal picture. That was about it. All in all it was a very interesting experience.

2006-02-16T17:00:00.000+09:00

More Monkeys Than You Can Shake a Stick At
Part 4 of the 'I Heart Thailand' series

While in Bangkok we took a day trip to Ayutthaya (the old capital of Thailand) and Lopburi. As Joleen says, we got up at the butt-crack of dawn and made our way to the train station in Bangkok via the skytrain (which was very handy and near to our hotel). We should have just missed the train to Ayutthaya and had to wait another hour for the next one--which would have sucked--but fortunately the train was delayed so we made it onto that one. It costs like a dollar for a 2 hour ride. Not too shabby.

We arrived in Ayutthaya and after slight confusion upon leaving the train station, we successfully made our way to the river where we had to take a little boat thing across it (and after being occosted by tuk tuk drivers). Originally we were going to rent a bike to explore the ruins (ruins being the primary reason of going to Ayutthaya) but decided not to because we decided it wouldn't be worth our while and it wasn't a bike-friendly looking place. So we walked. It was super hot and we were both wearing pants since we didn't know if you had to wear pants in the wat ruins or not. You didn't, so it kinda sucked that we were wearing pants in 90,000 degree heat. We walked a hell of a long way, too.

We found the ruins and explored a while. They were pretty cool. The ruins were full of headless Buddhas. We were then on a quest to get a picture of one of us standing behind a Buddha so our head was on the Buddha body. But you weren't supposed to do this and they had sentinel people standing guard at various places, so we had to be really covert about it. We finally found one that Joleen could stand behind just pretending to be standing there while I stood back a bit and pretended to be taking a picture of the building behind her. We had to tkae it quick, however, so the pic ain't that great. See it included here. There was a cool Buddha head thing in a giant tree. We saw one ruin that had 3 dogs sleeping on the stairs. Joleen tells me to take a picture of them, so I approach and they wake up and start visciously barking at us. It was a little frightening. The guard dogs of the ruins.

So we saw our share of the ruins then went back to the train station to catch a train to Lopburi, further north (the monkey pics above are from Lopburi). We had a bit of a wait before the next train came, so we had to sit around a little. There were these 2 foreign guys attempting to buy tickets at a closed ticket booth (you could only buy your ticket 20 m inutes before your train left for whatever reason) so we tried to explain to them how it worked. They knew minimal English at best. They may have been from some sort of Scandinavian country. But hey, we tried. So we board the train for Lopburi...but there's not enough seats so we had to stand in the area between train cars (in the doorway) for a long time. But at least we had some nice breeze and interesting scenery.

Lopburi was hilarious. We went there because it's a town overrun by monkeys. Here is an excerpt from Lonely Planet: Thailand on Lopburi:

Monkey Trouble

More than any other city in Thailand, Lopburi is a city besieged by monkeys. The city's original troop of monkeys (actually a type of macaque) inhabits the San Phra Khan (Kala Shrine) during the day and then crosses the street in the evening to roost in the halls of Prang Sam Yot. At some time in the past, the band split into two factions. The splinter troop, lead by a half-blind dominant male, gave up the sanctity of the shrine for the temptations of the city. These renegades can be seen making nuisances of themselves by swinging from shop fronts and smearing excrement on the windshields of parked cars. Many human residents of the old city have been forced to attach special monkey foils to their television antennas, lest simian antics spoil TV reception. Some locals even swear that the city-dwelling monkeys have been known to board trains for other provinces, returning to Lopburi once their wanderlust is spent.

How hilarious is that?? So on the way to the shrine where the monkeys apparently reside we stopped at a 7-Eleven (which are all over Asia, by the way) and we both got slurpees. When we got to the monkey place we still had our slurpees. We paid the lady at the entrance to the shrine/wat (ruins) and upon entering immediately saw a few monkeys. We get all excited. One approaches Joleen and stands right next to her. Joleen freaks out at me telling me to get a picture of it standing next to her. "It's so close!!!" The ticket lady also sold us a bag of peanuts to feed the monkeys. This is a bad idea. If any of you ever go there, do not buy the peanuts or bring anyting remotely edible into the area. Joleen says to bring a giant stick instead. Yeah, so we turn the corner and I about have a coronary. There were seriously scores of monkeys there. Little ones, fat-ass ones, you name it. It was great. At first. "Oh, let's feed them the peanuts!" Yeah, so then they began attacking us for our food. They would jump onto your leg and try to grab your stuff. There was a kid there with a slingshot whose job it was to slingshot the monkeys off of people. At one point I had one on my friggin' head while another was on my leg. It was a little frightening, especially since one was baring it's teeth at me when I tried to get it off. They kept trying to steal our slurpees, so we went back to the ticket booth and asked the lady there if we could keep our slurpees on the ticket counter. She said yes. 2 seconds after putting them up there a couple of monkeys run up and grab our slurpees and run away with them. So now there's 2 monkeys sitting around drinking slurpees. It was very funny...even though we lost our slurpees. Definitely worth it. See pic. We hung out with the monkeys a little longer until the monkeys started freaking us out. I was honeslty afraid they'd gang up on us and just take us down. We began avoiding eye contact with the monkeys. I ended up hurling my entire bag of peanuts on the ground (I needed to get rid of them before being attacked). One monkey grabbed the bang and took off with it, while a horde of other monkeys chased after him. Honestly, monkeys are scary. They're too smart for my good. I did get one monkey to grab peanuts out of my hand, though. That was cute. He was a nice monkey. We didn't stay long in Lopburi. Then we took a bus back to Bangkok. I got a picture of a monkey sitting on a car. They were all over the town.

Thus concludes the 'I Heart Thailand' series. I'll maybe add some random funny stories later, but the main gist is now layed down here. It was a nice trip. I enjoyed it. Thailand and Thais are awesome. Too bad I really can't say the same thing for Korea.

2006-02-15T23:51:00.000+09:00

One Night in Bangkok (and the world's your oyster)

Part 3 of the 'I Heart Thailand' Series

So, in Bangkok we stayed at the Montien Hotel. It was actually very nice. Nice room, and most importantly, a nice and normal bathroom. The most normal bathroom I've been in since arriving in Korea. Actually, the bathroom at the Pearl Hotel wasn't bad, either. The hotel had fancy doormen wearing funny outfits and big hats who'd do little dances while opening the door for you. It was a pretty good location as well, as it was right across the street from Patpong street (the red light district). Not that we were looking for whores, but each night the street turned into a giant market of goods (mostly of a non-sexual nature). I didn't buy much, though. I bought a few pairs of fisherman pants--which are so confusing to put on that Joleen and I labeled them puzzle pants. Honestly, I think we spend hours trying to put them on correctly. Sad, but true. I also bought some pirated dvds. These are the ones I bought: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the new Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly, Brokeback Mountain, The Skeleton Key, Dodgeball, Anchorman, Elizabethtown, Kingdom of Heaven, Madagascar, Narnia, and Napolean Dynamite. Each cost 100 baht, which is about $2.50. Upon viewing at home, the quality of them all was good, but Elizabethtown and Harry Potter was a little sub-par. Also, the end of Elizabethtown and Dodgeball don't work, so that was annoying. You get what you pay for, I guess. And the ending to Pride and Prejudice was a little different than the theatrical version, according to my sister. I guess it was just missing a small scene or something. All in all, not too bad. Joleen also bought 50 First Dates.

The first afternoon we were in Bangkok we went to this ginormous market called Chatuchak Market. It was honestly huge. We got lost wandering in it. A lot of the stuff was just western style clothes and stuff. But they had about everything. There's a crap load of purse and shoe 'stores'. And lots of the shoes were worn. No thanks. They had pets for sale too, and there was a dog that was the tiniest dog I've ever seen in my life. It was so friggin' cute. It was smaller than Wicket and it looked like a tiny doberman. Crazy. And we saw some albino hedgehogs and these weird animals that looked a little like small squirrels but with tails that were a little less bushy. They were actually pretty cute. Joleen was on a mission to find peppercorns for Sunny since apparently Thailand has the best peppercorns. We never found any, though. We could't figure out where Thais bought their food since we never saw a grocery store or a market that sold unprepared food. It was weird.

While also in Bangkok we took a tourist ferry down the Chao Phraya river to a market that wasn't there and to Khao San Road...which is a road famous for backpackers/smelly hippies. There are tuk tuk drivers all over the friggin' place and they are very aggresive in trying to drive you around. "Tuk tuk!!!!!!" No. We then went to Wat (temple) Pho. It was very golden. It was also super hot that day. I don't know what else to say about Wat Pho other than it was golden and had Buddhas. Oh, it had a giant reclining Buddha that was kinda cool. And it was giant, let me tell you. Then we went to the Royal Palace next door. It was also very golden and had Buddhas. Neither one of us were wearing long pants and Joleen was wearing a tank top so we had to rent a skirt and Joleen a shirt. Again, not much to say about it. There were a crap-load of Koreans there. You could tell they were Korean from a mile away. They gather in giant groups and the women all have these giant umbrellas to shield them from the sun. And they often wear matching hats and shirts. And you can hear them say their "imnidas, seyos, sumnidas" etc. They are loud and kind of obnoxious. Americans and westerners in general seem much better mannered than Koreans (possibly Asians in general, I don't know). I've been told Asians can be "rude" and pushy because they're used to living in crowded cities and need to be, but it's still annoying. We also went to China Town which really kind sucked. You see one China Town, you've seen them all.

2006-02-13T23:20:00.000+09:00

Kanchanaburi...guajira Kanchanaburi...
Part two of the 'I Heart Thailand' series
To be read after part one (scroll down) for those of you who may be a bit dense

So we stayed at a place called Sam's River Raft House in Kanchanburi. It took a couple tries to get to the right guesthouse (our taxi/sawngthaew driver was a moron). We got there really late, like midnight. It was a pretty spartan room, but it was kinda cool that it was on a raft on the River Kwai. The walls looked thatched. We had hot water and a normal flush toilet, which was a plus. However, replacing the geckos as our living companions were cockroaches. Ew. Mind you, we didn't see them too often...but heard them a plenty skittering around in the walls at night. It made it kinda difficualt to fall asleep since our beds were flush up against the walls. At night and in the morning when you'd open the bathroom door you'd usually see a cockroach skitter out of sight. Joleen had to flush one down a hole in the floor with the shower nozzle. Oh well, I've seen my share working in Chadbourne. It was also a bit hard to sleep at night because of the floating karaoke boats that drift down the river blasting horrid music being sung by horrid tone deaf Asians.

So the next day we had a big private tour lined up (just Joleen and I and a tour guide and a driver). First up we went to Erawan National Park, which has a 7-tiered waterfall. So we hiked up that, which I think was about 2 miles. It wasn't too bad, but I was wearing flip flops (jandals) so by the end I had nasty blisters on my toes. It was pretty. And afterwards we had some awesome food. It was great, man. oh, we saw monkeys on the hike which, at the time, we were thrilled about. Little did we know that in not too much time we'd be attacked by a gang of monkeys. But I get ahead of myself.

Next up on the tour we went to an Elephant Camp to ride some elephants. We rode a big 'ol elephant with apparently one tusk (which we didn't realize until looking at the pictures later). It was nothing like riding a horse, but it smelled like a horse. Elephants are cool. We rode through this poverty-stricken village. It was both interesting and awkward. They had a baby elephant there that was doing tricks for us. Then they had it kiss me, which meant it shoving it's trunk on my eye socket and attempting to suction my eye out. It was really stinky. But at least I can say I got kissed by an elephant. For what that's worth. We also got our picture taken (for 20 baht) with a 76 year old elephant. He was old.

Then we went on a bamboo raft ride down a river. It was this giant bamboo raft that only 4 people were on. Kinda funny. This wasn't too exciting, but the whole bamboo raft thing was kinda cool and it was relaxing. I guess all the raft operators were Burmese refugees. I don't know if the Burmese are bamboo raft experts or what. After the raft ride we found out that the car we were being driven around in was in a car accident while we were rafting (not surprising if you see the drivers here). So we had to tag along with this other random group for the remainder of the trip. Slightly awkward.

After the bamboo raft ride we went to the Death Railway. This is a railway that was built during WWII. The Japanese made all their POWs build the track. A lot of people died because it was on a cliff, etc. It should have taken like 5 years to build, but the Japanese forced them to finish it in 16 months. Then we rode in an old-ass train down the Death Railway. When you think about it, who would want to ride in a train on a railway called the Death Railway? Yoinks. We then visited the bridge over the River Kwai. Which was a bridge. And it has a movie named after it. It was funny because there were no side rails and you could totally just fall off of it into the river, especially since it was pretty crowded at times. But we didn't. That was the end of that tour. Then we went back to the raft house and ate a really nice dinner at another guest house (Apple's Guest House). We ate breakfast there the next morning as well since they apparently have the best banana pancakes in Thailand. They were good. Then we took a bus back to Bangkok. It was funny because on the bus they were showing Thai music videos. Every single one of the videos was really sad and depressing. One girl committed suicide, one girl was dumped then run over by a car, one girl's boyfriend was killed by shrapnel, etc. Man, and Thais seem like such happy people...

I've included this next picture of a sign we saw in Kanchanaburi just for Liz, as I thought she'd appreciate it. I enjoyed it, anyway.

2006-02-13T18:07:00.000+09:00

I Heart Thailand

Part One

Without further ado, I bring to you some text with accompanying pictures that, as a whole, will hopefully narrate a few of the trials and tribulations, adventures and misadventures, and love and heartbreak that Joleen and I experienced during our sojourn in the tantalizingly beautiful and mysterious country formerly known as Siam: Thailand. I won't go into excuciating detail here, as it would then take me 20,000 hours and 20,000 pages to type. After writing the main stuff I'll try to add funny/random stuff that happened at a later time. Anyway, onward...

We took an amazingly large number of different modes of transportation throughout our trip. To get to our bungalow on Phi Phi, for example, we had to endure: 1) A taxi from my apartment to the bus station. 2) A 2.5 hour bus ride from Pyeongtaek to the Incheon (Seoul) airport. 3) A 6 hour airplane flight from Seoul to Bangkok. 4) Another 1.5 hour flight from Bangkok to Phuket. 5) A mini-bus from the Phuket airport to our first hotel (in which we stayed 1 night). 6) a mini-bus from our hotel to the Phuket Pier. 7) A ferry from Phuket to Ton Sai Bay on Phi Phi Don. 8) A longtail boat from Ton Sai to Ao Toh Ko (the beach where our bungalow was located on Phi Phi). Wow; impressive, eh? Other modes of transportation utilized throughout the trip: tuk tuk, regular city bus, subway, train, sky train, songthaw, sidecar of a motorcycle, and an SUV.

The first leg of our journey began by spending an evening and night with Sunny's grandma, cousin (high school girl), and uncle. It was quite possibly one of the most awkward days of both my and Joleen's lives. We had gone into the whole ordeal with the understanding that the cousin spoke some English. This was really not the case. She knew very minimal English and rarely spoke. The grandma was among the group of people who believe that the louder you speak the more likely someone is to understand a foreign language. The uncle was not home 3/4 of the time. The whole afternoon--honestly, about 8 hours--was spent watching tv in silence. Anyway, much more occurred that was funny/confusing, but I'll cut it short for now to get to our actual vacation. But I have included a picture here of Joleen with Grandma Sunny and The Cousin, Mi Ae. Fyi, old Korean ladies are kinda scary.

Anyway, let's cut to the chase...or get to the meat of the story, if you will. So on January 29th (Sunday) we flew out of Seoul and into Bangkok. It took approximately 9 hours to get through customs. Seriously. There was this big group of Russians in front of us that annoyed the ever-lovin' shit out of us and all took a bazillion years to get through the line. God. But right from there we got on another flight to Phuket (an island in southern Thailand). It took quite a bit of time to get to our hotel for various reasons. Our hotel was not bad. It was called The Pearl. I would stay there again. Not only did we have a Bible placed by the Gideons in our room, but we also had a book on Buddhism. Nice. So we wandered around Phuket Town a while (no beaches in Phuket Town) and ate some Pad Thai noodles. Scrumptious.

The next morning we went via ferry to Koh Phi Phi Don, the island that we'd be staying at for the next 4 nights. The ferry dropped us off at Ao Ton Sai, a beach on Phi Phi that was not the beach we were staying at. This beach was hit really hard by The Tsunami. It didn't look too bad, though...aside from some construction going on. Then again, we didn't have anything to compare it to. Joleen got her picture taken with an interesting Thai guy. See included picture. The water was unbelievably gorgeous and blue. After much confusion on Ao Ton Sai regarding who the hell was supposed to pick us up and take us to our beach (Ao Toh Ko) we finally boarded a longtail boat and then arrived in about 1/2 hour's time to our beach bungalow paradise. I will include various pictures. Look and be envious.

The food there was awesome. And super cheap. And our bungalow had 2 hammocks on the porch. That was awesome. The bathroom was kinda nasty, but not like we were spending a lot of time in there. There was no hot water and you had to flush the toilet by pouring a bucket of water into the main bowl area, thus forcing the "goods" down the pipes. Joleen has just dubbed it a high-tech outhouse. We also only had electricity during the nighttime hours. Our bed had sweet-ass mosquito netting around it. It's primary purpose, however, was not to ward off mosquitos (as there weren't many inside) but to protect us from gecko feces from the multitude of geckos hanging out on our ceiling. Slightly creepy at first, but soon became our cherished bungalow companions.

Our time at the Ao Toh Ko beach bungalow consisted of lazing around the beach and burning ourselves to a crisp within the first hour of arrival and snorkeling. We took a couple snorkeling outings to nearby islands--Bamboo Island and Phi Phi Lei (the shooting location for The Beach). The best snorkeling was actually at the beach we were staying at. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see a shark, although if I had seen one while snorkeling I may have shat my swimsuit. I did see a jellyfish at one point...we were actually close to jumping off the boat right onto it. That would not have been good. I hate jellyfish. They freak me out. I think it's a borderline phobia (along with squid and especially octopus). But we saw some cool coral, fish, anenomies, a crap load of sea urchins, and a bunch of what appeared to be eels hanging out on the sea floor (we were in the Andaman Sea). I don't have any pictures from snorkeling as we haven't developed the underwater camera yet, but when I do I'll put em' up. We took a hike up to a viewpoint one morning where we had a good view of Ao Ton Sai and the opposing beach (all of which got wiped out by The Tsunami). It was really pretty. We also had a couple dolphin sightings which were pretty exciting. Not up close and personal or anything, but we could see them jumping out of the water. After our stay on Ao Toh Ko we headed back to Phuket where we boarded a flight to Bangkok then immediately caught a bus to Kanchanaburi (to the west of Bangkok, not too far form the Myanmar border). I'll continue with this travelogue at a later date as Joleen is making dinner and I should help. And it's getting long. So adieu for now, mis amigos.

2006-01-25T14:33:00.000+09:00

My Apartment is Now Housing Two

So, Joleen arrived safely to Korea! Yee-haw! It's supposed to take 2.5 hours to get to the airport from Pyeongtaek, but it took me 3.5. I guess I was going through Seoul during rush hour. Bah. So Joleen had to wait for me for a while at the airport. Then it only took us about 2.25 hours to get back to Pyeongtaek. So that was good. Joleen was tired b/c she'd been up for almost 24 hours.

She came to school with me today (well, until about 2). So she met the 6th grade students who are currently in my English camp. It appeared that she had fun. My students also appeared to enjoy having another whitey in the room. I will force Joleen to write something about it later. She took some pictures of my school, so I can add them here later. Now she's out exploring my neighborhood while I'm stuck at school updating my blog. Efficient use of school time, eh? Not like I have anything else to do...

But I was pleased that Joleen thinks I'm doing a good job at the camp since I wasn't sure whether what I was doing was good or not. And I strive for Joleen's approval in educational assessment over anyone elses. :) Students are peaking at me through my classroom windows right now. "Hi! Yes, I'm a whitey!"

2006-01-25T14:26:00.000+09:00

Welcome to South Korea
Where monkeys are taught to suh-kae-tuh

Eight-year-old monkey Gun-Mo skates on the ice during a promotional event for the 2006 Animal Academy show, which runs until February 10 in Seoul , January 24, 2006. The monkey was drilled to skate for two weeks, the animal trainer said. REUTERS/You Sung-Ho

Hey, Sunny- the guy who took this picture has the same name as you! Aside from the family name, that is...

2006-01-24T13:12:00.000+09:00

T Minus 5 Hours and Counting 'Till I See Joleen!

Ok, I'm reading the news, and there's this article that I found really funny, for whatever reason. It's about this author who wrote a book criticizing US foreign policy (he is American). I guess the sales of his book sky-rocketed after an 'endorsement' by Osama Bin Laden in an audiotape of him that was released Thursday. According to the article:

Bin Laden said al Qaeda group was preparing more attacks in the United States but also told Americans, "It is useful for you to read the book 'The Rogue State.'"

Just imagining Osama sittin' around reading the book was funny enough, but then to suggest it to others was really funny to me. I feel like you could have a really funny SNL skit made out of this. I'm now imagining him giving a little teaser on the plot, but ending the 'book report' with, "But don't take my word for it! Check it out at your local library or purchase it at your closest bookseller!" Yeah...

I think I might leave school soon as I got permission to leave early; I just don't know how early. So I might just go now and if for some reason I get in trouble I'll claim ignorance. Sounds like a plan.

2006-01-23T12:55:00.000+09:00

T Minus 30 Hours and Counting Until I See Joleen!

I'll probably ball like a baby when I see her. Maybe she can write some featured guest posts in my blog while she's here; give a newbie's perspective on SoKo since I'm sure there are lots of interesting things to mention that I just don't realize anymore. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll also post from Thailand. I'm not sure what the prevalance of Internet cafes will be in Thailand, but apparently they're all over Vietnam and Cambodia so you'd think there'd be ones in Thailand. I guess I'll find out.

JoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleen

JoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleenJoleen!!!

2006-01-17T22:44:00.000+09:00

Where Have You Been?

I did my best on this, but there are some states that I may have driven through that I don't remember; also, I may have thought I've driven through some when I really haven't. Mom (or anyone else, really), if you can correct anything, let me know. I had a layover in Detroit once so I'm counting Michigan. That's kinda cheap, but hey. I was there.

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

2006-01-17T16:11:00.000+09:00

If You're a Million/Billionaire, Please Donate To (Good) Charities

Read: Not to any organization Charleton Heston is in charge of, or that crazy preacher who pickets gay people's funerals with signs that say "Glad you're in Hell", etc.

From an AP article: “President Bush hailed Martin Luther King Jr. Monday as one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, but said more must be done to ensure that his dream of equality becomes a reality.” But remember, this dream does not include homos.

Ok, I’ve been mildly obsessed with reading about HIV/AIDS drugs recently. I learned about them in my South Africa seminar class last semester, but I unfortunately can’t remember any details. I do remember learning something about how American companies hold the patent for certain HIV/AIDS drugs (I think the US government holds the patent for some). Because they hold the patent, other countries/manufacturers can’t make these drugs. However, there are other countries (notably India) who are offering and are capable of making these drugs and selling them at a far cheaper price than the US companies...but they’re not allowed to. Doesn’t this seem incredibly wrong when we’re dealing with a horrible disease that’s ravishing impoverished countries that can’t afford the exorbitantly priced medication? These US companies do sell the drugs to African countries at a cheaper price than they do in the US, but it’s still very expensive. I understand the argument about needing to make a profit in order to further research making new drugs, but come on. This is HIV/AIDS we’re talking about. And you’re making a killing.

But then I was reading more stuff on this topic and got confused as to how this patent law really works. But however you look at it, African countries are getting screwed. Right now India is selling cheap drugs because they had different laws. But when they joined the WTO, they were told that they had to change their patent laws by...sometime around now...so now they won’t be able to do what they’re currently doing. Wow, I sound like an idiot. Fyi, I know that I don’t have the best or most accurate info here. If you know more and wish to share it with me, go on ahead. Anyway, there’s a lot more that bothers me about this topic, but I can’t think clearly about it right now and my bookmarked internet pages are at home, not here at school.

And I do understand that curing all diseases is not necessarily a good thing. It’d wreak havoc upon the earth population-wise and resource-wise.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this because of a BBC World news report I saw on Bill Clinton and his organization. I guess they just struck some kind of deal with some drug companies (I don’t think American ones, but maybe, I don’t remember) to provide HIV/AIDS drugs to African and Asian countries at a much cheaper rate. Then I thought about how much I missed Clinton. Then I read up on his organization and was happy that he’s doing good, charitable things. Then I got curious about Bill Gates and his organization (Bill Gates and his wife Melinda were named Time’s People of the Year along with Bono). He’s also done a lot for global health. He’s also absurdly rich, but he has apparently promised to give away nearly all his wealth before he dies. Yeah, to his family… ;)

Bill Gates is the richest person on the planet according to Forbes (he has a net worth of over $51 billion). I guess he has some competition from the Sultan of Brunei at times, however. Where exactly is Brunei? I guess if you live in Brunei you get free education and medical services and don’t pay taxes. Nice. Anyway, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment of 28.8 billion dollars. So far (since it was founded in 2000) it’s given out more than 9 billion dollars worth of grants. It targets 4 areas: library computer upgrades; education grants (over 2.6 billion dollars in grants so far); global health, specifically in undeveloped countries (5.8 billion in grants); and money to the Pacific NW to help at-risk families in Oregon and Washington (over 506 milion).

Then for whatever reason I thought about Angelina Jolie. I used to really dislike her. I mean, she was weird. Let’s face it. Wearing a vial of blood around her neck? And her lips bothered me. But I guess she’s pretty cool what with all the work she does as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. And I guess she gives away 1/3 of her income to charities. She’s adopted 2 children, one from Cambodia and one from Ethiopia (Maddox and Sahara). I thought it was cute that Maddox (Cambodian) had said he wanted an African brother because of his love for Africa and his knowledge of Jolie’s work in Africa. Well, he got an African sister. I hope that’s close enough. But now I guess Jolie’s prenant with Mr. Pitt’s baby now. Another sibling for them.

I’d like to think that if I had millions of dollars I’d give lots of it away. And if I was famous I’d use my famousness to further good causes. Haha, Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” just came on my iPod (no laughing...when you can quickly download large numbers of songs for free you’d be surprised with what you sink to downloading) and the lyrics seem appropriate at this moment: “If you want to make the world a better place then take a look at yourself and then make the change.”