Pierre's Korean Adventure 

Gojeh Island etc.

Two weekends ago I visited Gojeh Island with some friends. It took about two and a half hours to drive there. It was cloudy, rainy and cool. Perhaps not the best of days for this trip, but I was looking forward to it nevertheless.

Gojeh Island is rugged, and beautiful. Some parts of it remind me of Nova Scotia. As far as I know, Gojeh is famous for two things:

1) A POW Camp which housed Chinese and North Korean prisoners during the Korean War
2) Daewoo Shipbuilding yard which has the world's largest crane.

First we went to the POW Camp. There are buildings scattered on the property where the camp used to be, and you walk from building to building to see exhibits on various aspects of the War, and of camp life. I couldn't help thinking of my step-father who served in Korea for Canada. He didn't like to discuss his time here in Korea, so I have no idea where in the country he was stationed. I'm going to find out and when I do, I'm going there to raise a glass to him. Koreans are very, very grateful to people like him who came so far from their own homes and families to help.













There were some nice, very information filled exhibits, some nice vintage aircraft, and other vehicles. Many of the buildings themselves were interesting...one was shaped like a soldier's helmet, and another looked like a tank.

After touring the camp for a couple of hours we drove to the police station. One of my friend's is married to the deputy police chief of Gojeh Island. We had a brief tour of the police station and then he drove us all to the Daewoo shipyard. I was told that the tour of the shipyard is usually reserved only for visiting heads of state, but since our host held such an important position on the island, we got a private tour.

It is a pretty impressive facility! It's so big that it's really a city all to itself. Over twenty thousand people work there and many of them are foreigners from all over the world. They build all sorts of ships and submarines there. I was impressed!







Of course we saw the world's largest crane doing it's thing. I'm pretty sure I saw that crane on an episode of "Amazing Machines" or something like that, on TLC in Canada. The crane is huge and moves on rails from one place to another.

One more thing...while on Gojeh ... my host took me and my friend to a restaurant and ordered what is considered to be a delicacy here, Nakji. It's a real 'man's man' kind of thing. It's also expensive and a sign that he likes me, but I wish he had saved his money and given me a peanut butter sandwich instead.

We sit down and the waitress brings out a wok sort of thing and puts it on the burner in the middle of the table. It's filled with large shrimp and vegetables. Korean eat the most incredible assortment of plants and grasses. They eat things I never would have thought of eating before coming here. They also seem to know a great deal about what's good for you, what's good for different problems etc. Anyway, so far so good. The waitress then brings out the usual assortment of side dishes, i.e. kimchi, dried anchovies etc. It's all good.

But, then she brings out two large, live squid. She puts the poor things into the boiling wok in front of us. The squid take sincere offence to being scalded, and quite sensibly try to wriggle their way out of the boiling liquid. But, their tormentor, the waitress, is there with a wooden spoon to prevent their escape. After a minute or so, they stop wriggling. They're left to cook for 10-15 minutes. Then, the waitress comes around with a large pair of scissors and starts cutting the squid into pieces, some large, some smaller. The heads are left intact.

My host takes my bowl and starts filling it with stuff including a squid's head. I really wasn't thrilled about eating this at all, but I sure as hell wasn't going to eat the head! I put it back in the wok. My friend happily picked it out and ate it. Nakji is thought to give a person stamina, and by that I think they mean mostly sexual stamina. Not much good to me right now.

I told some of my Korean friends about this, and they didn't understand why I didn't like it. They just love it!! Good thing I brought Eno with me!!

I went to a fortune teller last weekend. I found out that my lunar birthday is December 14, 1959. That means my Korean age is 48. Oh, joy! I'll try to explain (feel free to nod off if you want)...

- I was born January 12, 1960 at 8:30pm
- That would have been 6:30am on January 12, 1960 in Korea
- My lunar sign should be the rat since 1960 was the year of the rat. But, the year of the rat didn't start till January 28, 1960. So, my birthday falls in the year of the Pig which was 1959.
- The lunar birthday is one month before the solar birthday. So, that brings us to December 1959. How they got from the 12th to the 14th I'm not sure.
- Finally, since Koreans start counting from 1, then being born in 1959 would make me 48.

Oh joy!

A minor change of plan, well, maybe not so minor. A friend of mine knows of a place where I can get my horse fix and it's only about an hour away from here. Yeah! That was my main reason for wanting to go to Cheju-Do Island. So, instead of going to there I'm going to spend 4 or 5 days living like a monk in a buddhist temple and learning about
buddhism. I've been curious about that for a long time. I don't really have a religion, but if I did, it would probably be buddhism.

Then if I can earn my black belt in Taekwondo or Hapkido, and get to visit as many different places in Korea as possible, then this will have been a very, very full, and well rounded experience.

Last weekend I went to a natural doctor for this pinched nerve thing I have. She's a totally amazing 70 year old woman. She doesn't look to be more than 55 or 60 years old, and has the most incredible charisma. She did acupunture, cupping (where they put these cups on you, suck out all the air so it lifts the flesh. It leaves a nice welt and hurts a little. But, the purpose of it is to improve circulation. The traditional theory is that it brings the bad energy/blood to the surface. Then, for places in my shoulders where the welts were particularly dark, she picked me with a needle many times and then put the cup on and sucked out the air. Naturally the blood was sucked into the cup and it was very dark blood. Did it help? I'm not sure, but it didn't hurt, and I really think it does have long term benefits. Another thing I'm doing now is a 5 week process of intestinal cleaning. Two words...intestinal irrigation. Not pleasant, but also very healthy.

During the next 4 weeks I won't be eating at all on weekends. Plus I'm exercising regularly at the gym. I'm really trying to get in shape so that my body will be able to take the taekwondo or hapkido training.

When I'm done I'll be able to throw out most of the clothes I brought here (they won't fit anyway) and buy some nice new clothes here.

But, more importantly I'll be healthy in body, mind and spirit.

This has been and continues to be one of the very best things I've ever done in my life.

Last weekend I also went hiking with a friend in Changwon. My first real mountain hike! It was a beautiful day and we came across some rocks that I just had to photograph. I feel like there's something special about these rocks.




Changwon







Cultural Notes

I saw something I thought was pretty funny on tv yesterday morning. I was watching a kids show called 'ABC Bakery' (you know, for ideas) and they were doing short and long vowels. They did the long vowel sounds and then the short vowel sounds. Then, they combined the short vowel sounds with consonants, i.e. bab, beb, bib, bob, bub. No problem, right? Then, they did the same thing with 'm'...mam, mem, mim, mom, mum. Still okay, right? Finally, they used 't'...tat, tet, tit, tot, tut. Ahh, now you see it!

A children's show in Canada that put, 'tit' on the screen would very quickly be an off the air children's show.

One more thing along the same lines...while riding the bus or whatever I read Korean words here and there. The thing is though that they're not always Korean words. The words are written in Hangul (Korean characters) and I read the syllables one after another thinking I'm reading a Korean word when in fact it's English.

Here's an example. I was watching a movie on TV last week and the title was posted in the upper right hand of the screen. It was in Hangul and said, 'Poj ee tib ma i nduh'. I read it a few times before I realized that it said, 'Positive Mind'.

While waiting for a friend in Changwon I noticed an odd old woman walking with a basket full of whatever balanced on her head. She seemed to be walking comfortably, and didn't use her hands at all. That's a dying art I think. I've yet to see a young woman doing the same thing.

As I sat there waiting for my friend an old man walked by me. But, he was walking backwards. It looked strange. I suppose it was a form of exercise, but then again maybe he just wanted to see where he had been.

Young people don't balance things on their heads like their parents or grandparents, but just about everyone squats...kids, teens, adults, and the elderly. When waiting for a bus it's not uncommon to see someone squatting on the curb.

Just a couple more things...I bought a wood pillow from the traditional doctor. It's a traditional pillow here in Korea. It's about 2 inches off the ground and is a half circle that sits on the ground with a thin cushion over it (or not). The idea is that it supports the neck. When used used in combination with sleeping on the heated floor (ondol) is a great way to fix/maintain ones posture.

Finally, that bird I took pictures of at Changwon House and in other places is a 'magpie'.

Bye for now.
Take Care
Pierre

Changwon House

Well, this has been an eventful couple of weeks!

I went to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. Nothing serious. I had a sore throat for a couple of days and it making hard to sleep. I wanted to see if it was the beginning of a cold, or some sort of sinus thing from swimming. But, mostly I really was curious about what a Korean hospital is like. They call it a hospital, but it's really just a glorified clinic with a few examining rooms and maybe 4 beds. I think there are four doctors, a nurse, and some other guy. It's funny...down the road a little there's a sign telling people where the hospital is, but it doesn't say "Chilwon Medical Centre" or "Chilwon Hospital" or "Chilwon Clinic". Nope, the sign says, "Chilwon Sub-health Centre". Hmmm....I'm guessing that the person who composed that little gem wasn't a native English speaker.

Anyway, it turns out I had acute laryngitis and the doctor said I was to have an intramuscular injection of an analgesic for the pain and whatever. Fine, I go into a room and a female nurse comes in and simply says, 'Ondong-ee' which means butt. Bless her little Korean heart! I don't know who was more embarrassed, her or me. Funny thing is that she spanked me as she gave me the needle. They were just little taps, but I was so shocked at being spanked, I didn't notice the needle.

Another funny story...I was having lunch with some friends in Changwon and one of them told me that another friend of ours had misunderstood me when I had an ex-wife. Apparently 'ex' isn't something they teach even at the university level here. So, adding cultural misunderstanding to ignorance of the term, he thought I said, "Sex wife" and that we North American types have a "Sex wife" and a "Non sex wife". Well, he was half right.

One more medical story...the doctor here almost killed me. My laryngitis developed into a case of bronchitis or something. So, I went back to the clinic. . The first time I went the guy on call was a general surgeon from Seoul who proudly told me, "I have saved many lives!". I guess he thought, that I would think he and the care I would receive would be inferior just because he didn't graduate from McGill or something. I made a point of telling him that I am allergic to penicillin. I'm pretty sure he even wrote it on my chart.

Anyway, after school one day I went back to the clinic because I thought I might need an antibiotic. There was a different doctur there that day and after just looking down my throat and spraying some stuff down there, he told me to go into the other room for another one of their needles in the butt. It reminded me of when I was in high school in Ville LaSalle and the nurse would give you "Bromo" no matter what your complaint. The word around school was that you could come in with a broken arm and she'd, say, "Bromo.". Anyway, I'm beginning to wonder if they give all their patients these needles or if they're especially for westerners? After getting stuck in the behind again I went back to the doctor and had him check my ears. I had a bit of an earache. He said there was some
inflammation and said he'd prescribe an antibiotic. I said, "PENICILLIN NO!" and he repeated it. Fine.

I went to the pharmacy to have the prescription filled and the pharmacist fortunately spoke more English than the doctor did. I asked her if he had prescribed penicillin and she said she didn't know. She called the clinic a couple of times and determined that he had indeed prescribed penicillin. Good thing I asked, eh? Otherwise I would have come back home, taken the medicine and almost certainly would have perished.

I'm not sure what antibiotic he replaced it with, but it was stong stuff. It took care of the cough, but It did weird things to my stomach. I was off work for two days.

I still have a slight cough, but otherwise I'm feeling much better. I can thank my friends for that! One day a couple of friends brought me a big pot of ginger tea which is really good for the throat and for nausea. Then, another friend made supper for me and also gave me something I certainly wouldn't have thought of....charcoal powder. It's used as a medicine here. Apparently it's the thing to take if you've eaten something bad, or poisonous. Just as many people have pieces of charcoal in their houses to clean the air, the belief is that eating a teaspoon of charcoal powder cleans the blood. It didn't taste as bad as it sounds and I think it helped.

I made another trip to Changwon House, but this time I brought my camera. Yeah!! I took the bus, but I was sure to hide my camera...I didn't want to look like a tourist. Ha!

There are a number of parks in Changwon. Many of them have some very nice sculpture in them. I like this one!





Guards at the gate of Changwon House



Notice the shirt!


Above is a picture of a game they used to play 200 years ago. I don't know what it's called, but you stand about 6 feet away from this container and try to throw the sticks into it. Getting them in isn't the most difficult thing in the world - the hard part is getting them to not bounce out.




A magpie! They are very common around here.

Unfortunately the cherry blossoms weren't out when I took these, but these are almost as good.





Some typical Korean tools from 200 years ago

The objects in the right side of the picture are pillows that were used in the summer.


After leaving Changwon House we went to a new bookstore in the area. It's in the big LOTTE mall and as I think I've mentioned before, there are an army of parking attendants there. These young people bow and politely point you toward the nearest empty parking spot. You can see the girl dreseed in a grey coat just as she's about to bow to us.


At the ole ' teahouse

Food...
Since being here I've eaten things I never would even consider eating in Canada...octopus and squid tentacles, jellyfish tentacles, and many, many types of leaves, buses, roots etc. All those things proved to be quite tasty as well as healthy. I mentioned the strawberries that I bought for $7.00...here's a picture



And here is a halabong. What is a halabong, you ask? It's a cross between a Korean tangerine, and something called a citron. It grows on Chejudo Island and is pretty expensive, about $3.00 for one. Very delicious!!!



Cultural Notes....

In some ways Korean is a very literal language. For instance, the word for meat is 'kogi' and the word for water is 'mool'. So, guess what the word for fish is? You guessed it, 'mool kogi'. The word for eyes is 'noon', so guess what the word for tears is? Yup, 'noon mool' (eye water). I think it's logical. Certainly more logical than Englsih in many ways.

One thing I haven't seen at all since coming here...homeless people and beggars. Okay, that's two things, but anyway, there just aren't any. Either they're all hiding somewhere or Korea is doing something right.

I decided last weekend that since I'm only a two hour flight away, it would be an absolute sin not to visit China while I'm here. I have to go to the immigration office and have my visa upgraded so that I can leave Korea and come back. With the visa I have now, if I leave Korea, I can't come back. It's one way. I think that's cost me about $60.

So, during my summer vacation in August I'll travel to Beijing for a week.

On Saturday I'm traveling with some friends to Gojeh Island. That should be fun!

On Sunday I'm going to McDonald's for the first time since coming here. It'll be the first non-Korean food I eat in almost 4 months. I don't plan to make it a regular thing, but it'll be a nice treat!


Till next time.
pae

Gimheh and Mehwah Village

It's been a while since I posted anything to the blog for a couple of weeks. Between teaching, swimming almost every night, and my social calendar, I'm a very, very busy boy. Every time I turn around it seems I'm being invited somewhere.

On Tuesday, February 28th a couple of my teacher friends came to the school and kidnapped me. The kids and teachers were on spring vacation, but I only get winter and summer vacation, so I had to be there. One of the teachers talked to the vice-principal and asked him if they could take me out for the day. He said yes, and off we went. We went to a couple of places, but my favourity was a place called Gimheh, which is just outside of Busan. There's an international airport in Gimheh, and a naval base. It's there that I landed when I came here from Japan. It's also where I'll go when I go make my trip to Cheju Island this summer. We went to a museum where I saw lots of aritfacts from the earliest Gaya kingdom.

The king of the first Gaya kingdom was a man named, Kim Su Ro and one of the highlights of the trip was the tomb of King Su Ro. Like the other Gaya kings, his tomb is a large mound. King Suro who reputedly lived to be 158 years old and died in the year 199. The tombstone in the picture below was placed there in the year 1647.


My friend Jeh Hyawn Yong

King Suro's Tomb

Guarding the king

Tombstone (placed here in 1647)

One more picture

On Sunday, March 5 I was invited to go to a Korean sauna for the first time. They're really cool! (lol, you know what I mean!) They're open 24 hours/day. First, you shower, go into a hot tub, then to a small hot room, then to a large room where the walls are encrusted by salt rocks. It looks like a cave, except that there are traditional bamboo mats on the floor and a 12 inch television inset into one wall. You wear clothes in this room and there are men and women. It costs $4/day for the sauna. If you want you can pay an extra $1 and you can sleep in the room all night. I don't think I would do that as waking up dead would be a drag. My clothes were absolutely soaked when I came out of there! I had stayed in there too long and very nearly fainted when I came out. Oh, they give you clothes to wear...shorts and a tee-shirt, but since there's was no way I could fit into them, I wore my own clothes. I could lose 40 pounds and probably still not fit into them. Koreans generally have very, very small frames.

Last Saturday I had lunch with friends. My friend has a beautiful apartment! One thing I noticed is that there were baskets of charcoal in every room. Some rooms had several of them. I guess it's a common thing in Korean homes...they put them all around to purify the air.

Yesterday (Sunday, March 12), was cold as hell! Well, maybe not quite that cold, but it was far from the sunny +22 weather we had last Friday. With the wind I'm sure it must have been around -15. Nevertheless, some friends invited me to go with them to a place called 'Mehwah'. It's famous for it's plum trees, the blossoms, and its plum products. There's a drink called 'mehshil' which comes from plums but it's made in a special way. It comes in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic formats. There are some clay jars (see picture below) they use for making this drink. I got to hike up a mountain! Now, I really am 'ole mountain Pete' because not only am I old, but today I hiked up a really, really old mountain.


Dancers in traditional clothing

Making Mehshil in Mehwah Village

View from the mountain (Ole Mountain Pete lives!)

Cultural Notes...

I think I've noted before how hard Korean students work. I don't know what the exact percentages are, but a fairly low percentage of North Americans ever attend university. However, a very high percentage of Koreans do, and the universities are full, so, competition to get in is very stiff and only the best make it. I was talking with my neighbour's daughter, Sung Ah yesterday. She wants to be a doctor. She gave me a rundown of her daily schedule ...

She gets up at 6:00am, has breakfast, gets dressed and goes to school at 8:00. She starts school at 9:00 I think. She stays at school till 9:00pm. The school provides both lunch and supper. Then, she goes to something called Academy, and studies there till 11:00pm. She gets home at 11:30pm and goes to bed at midnight. This girl is only 17 years old and her day to day routine is not at all unusual.

I think our kids have way too much freedom and spare time, but on the other hand these kids have far too little.

Of all the food I've tried here, I think my favourite has to be something called "Sam gyup sal". The tables in restaurants here all have gas cookers in the middle of them. The tables are low and you sit on a cushion on the floor with your legs crossed. After about an hour my legs tend to fall asleep. I wonder if I'll get better at that with practice?

Anyway....the servers bring out pork that's been cut into long thin slices (a little thicker than bacon). This is cooked at the table with some garlic and maybe some peppers. They eat a couple of variety of leaves here. Some of the leafy stuff is just a type of lettuce, but there are leaves that clearly come off some kind of tree and taste a little minty. The leaves are arranged in a basket on the table. You take a leaf, and then as pieces of pork are cooked you grab one with your chopsticks, dip it into a sauce in front of you, and put it on a leaf. Then, personally I like to add some red pepper sauce and maybe a piece of garlic. You wrap it all up in the leaf as if you were going to give it someone as a gift, and then you just stuff the whole thing into your mouth. That's the way it's done. It is sooooooo good! Of course that's served along with various other vegetables, noodles, soups and the omnipresent, rice.

More food...on the way back from school today I bought some strawberries from a guy who was selling them from the back of a truck on the street. I love Korean strawberries!!! They are absolutely the best strawberries I've ever eaten!!! The price was certainly right too...for $7 I bought what must surely be a few quarts contained in a medium sized plastic bowl. I thought he'd empty them from the bowl into a bag and keep his bowl, but I get to keep the bowl too. Bonus!

In other news....

I had been going to that bar a couple of times a week and having one or two beers each time. But the main reason I continued going is that I wanted to smoke. I told myself that I would only smoke when I drank, so the evil weed had me drinking more and more. Anyway, I had been leaving my cigarettes at the bar and the owner would put them in a drawer behing the bar for me. But a couple of weeks ago I brought them to the apartment and decided that I had been drinking too much in order to smoke, so I figured I'd smoke at home so that I wouldn't feel like I had to go drink. There was a stroke of pure genius! (I'm kidding.) That went on for about a week.

Seeing that I was indeed on my way down that slippery, disgusting slope, I bought myself some Nicorette gum and haven't had a puff or a beer in over a week. I really don't want to get fully re-addicted again, so for the next few months at least, I'll keep Nicorette within easy reach. It was just too damn hard to break that chain!

I made a stupid mistake tonight... as I was leaving the swimming pool one of the swimming coaches came up to me and introduced himself. He said his name is Shin and asked me my name and where I worked. I told him my name and that I work at the elementary school. I did all this in Korean and was doing okay and then thinking I'd really impress him I told that I teach, 'Yongwa'. Unfortunately, that was a brain fart and I should have said, 'Yong aw' which means, 'English'. What I actually told him was that "I teach movie.". Oh well!

In January I was on tv and today I saw a picture of myself from January in a magazine that's distributed all over Haman county. The adventure continues!

Changwon

Last Sunday (Feb. 19) I travelled with some friends to Changwon which is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam province. It's a very beautiful, modern city and larger than Masan, but like Masan, it is surrounded by beautiful mountains.





The above picture is one of the big department store chains around here, "LOTTE". There's a cinema in the same building. I wanted to see "Memoirs Of A Geish" there, but it had unfortunately come and gone. Unless there really big blockbuster type movies, like "King Kong", Western movies don't stay here very long. Korea has its own very busy movie business, and its movies and dramas are becoming more and more popular all over Asia.

As we drove along the street, one of my friends pointed out the cherry trees that line the street. Sometime in early April there will be a cherry blossom festival to celebrate the arrival of spring. I can hardly wait to see that!!

The above pictures were taken on my second trip to Changwon and unfortunately on my first one, I forgot my camera. I should have known better. From that point on I resolved to always bring it with me whenever my friends come to take me anywhere.

Our first stop in Changwon was "Changwon House". Located at the centre of Changwon this small estate has been reconstructed and serves to remind the people that life was very different here 200 years ago. There are several buildings on the property. The first building you see as you walk through the totem guarded gate, is the office and living quarters of the master of the house. Behind this building is a small sand covered courtyard where servants and children would play games when they had time. There's a ring toss game and another game where you try to throw sticks into a small box. The sticks can only fit into the box if they land upright. You stand perhaps 6 feet away; your first challenge is to get the stick in the box; the second, is to do so in such a way that it doesn't bounce right back out again.

It is directly in front of, and serves to guard a separate building that was the wife's living quarters.

After perhaps an hour or so of walking around looking at the historic artifacts of Changwon House, we went to the provincial capital building which also serves as one of Changwon's two art galleries.

One of my friends, In Sook, is a painter. She is now learning a style of traditional Korean painting from a master, Mr. Kim. After walking for a little while around the grounds of the capital building, we went to the studio where In Sook is studying.

Below are some of the pictures around the studio. They are the work of Mr. Kim's students.




The studio used to be a cafe. It was a little chilly in there and we sat around a kerosene heater drinking some sort of chinese herbal tea. Mr. Kim and his students really enjoy trying all kinds of different and exotic oriental teas. At first I found the tea to be just a little too pungent for my taste, and didn't really like it. But, as I kept drinking it, it grew on me and I came to enjoy it.

The following pictures were done by Mr. Kim. Both won prestigious national awards.




Virtually all of the paintings are in shades of black. They were painted using a black ink stick. It looks like charcoal. My friend explained that it's to soot from burnt pine wood that's been bound with some kind of glue. The result is a rectangular piece of very light, very black material that is ground on a hard surface, and the powder is mixed with varying amounts of water. I find the effect simple and yet stunning!

Here's another of Mr. Kim's paintings. It's hard to see, but Mr. Kim painted the red flowers using his own blood for the colour. Now, that's dedication!



Here's my favourite...it contains two of the ten traditional symbols of long life, the crane and the pine. There are ten symbols in all that can be found in traditional paintings from many Asian countries. The other symbols include water, the sun, deer, and mountains. I can't remember the other ones off hand.


After sipping tea, chatting and laughing about a cultural misunderstanding, i.e. the dog/duck story (see previous blog article) I took my friends out for supper and then they took me to a traditional Korean Tea House.

In fact, we went to what my friend said is the best tea house in Changwon.

Tea House Building

The ambience of this place was just fantastic! There were all sort of tea pots, cups, strainers and other such paraphenalia for sale. Many of these things were hand made, painted, and glazed using a very secret process. The selling price for some of them was $500. On the walls there were a couple of Mr. Kim's paintings, and some beautiful photographs. There were also flowers around the room that were trimmed oriental style so as to be simple, and very understated.



There are a couple of Mr. Kim's paintings decorating the walls of the tea house.




They treated me to a traditional tea ceremony. In the hustle of modern life this ceremony is generally enjoyed by people who care neither for time or money. It's quite complicated and isn't cheap. The tea in this place costs as much as a full meal at a restaurant. A course in how to properly serve tea costs a lot of money and takes a long time. A beginner's course alone is 3 months long.



I went back to Changwon on Saturday, It took a little over an hour to get there by bus. Up to this point all the Koreans I've met have been very, very nice. But, while waiting for a connecting bus I met my first Korean jackass. I was just standing there and this drunk guy (why do they always find me?) crossed the street just to insult me in Korean. Then he seemed to ask if I wanted to fight. I said no, he hailed a cab, turned around and said something else I'm probably better off not understanding and that was it. On the up side, that was the first time that I took a bus by myself, and I managed to make my way to Changwon without too much trouble.

Before going to the studio on Saturday we went to the opening of a ceramic studio owned by a friend of Mr. Kim's. Like Mr.Kim he has won national competitions. He was in Seoul but has recently moved to Changwon.

We entered the studio and were greeted by the artist, Mr. Song. We went into a room where there were many examples of his work .Great stuff! Then, we were led into another room with tables laden with lots of snacks. He told us to eat as much as we wanted since that would bring him luck in his new endeavour. There was one particular type of rice cake covered in a special type of crushed bean powder. It's often served served to guests at the opening of a business or other endeavour to bring good luck.

Before leaving the studio Mr. Song gave each of us two of his handmade cups ... what a wonderful gift!



I was at the studio till almost midnight, and got to try painting something. Well, mostly I was playing...I copied a picture from a book. Mr. Kim told my friend that I was good. Who knows? If he will take me on, I may become one of Mr. Kim's regular students. The trip to Changwon is a little long, but it only costs $1.80 for a one way trip. Mr. Kim or someone ususally drives me back home.


That's it for now.
Stay tuned.
pae

P.S. One of my friends gave me some live yogourt bacteria. I now have a free and long lasting source of yogourt. All I do is fill a glass about 1/5th with this stuff, add enough milk to fill the glass. Then, I leave it out for 24 hours and voila, yogourt. I add a little honey and/or a teaspoon of jam and it's perfect! Then, best of all I just leave 1/5th in the glass, fill it up again with milk and the process continues.

February 18

The retirement ceremony for the principal of Chilwon was scheduled to start at 11:00am. I arrived at the school around 10:30. So, I went up to the 4th floor teacher's room and hung out for a bit with my co-teacher, Gyong Jin.

At 11:00 we headed for the auditorium. There were maybe 150 people there...all the Chilwon teachers, other principals from around the county, some of the principal's friends, his family and some Chilwon students.

As I walked in and went to sit down someone handed me a rectangular box. It was a really nice umbrella and they were being given to everyone. Someone told me that these were a present from the principal. Nice! It'll no doubt come in handy when monsoon season hits. There's another cultural difference...the person being honoured gives gifts to those honouring him or her.

Here's a picture I took at the end of the ceremony. The principal is the man in the center of the shot. Hard to believe he's 63 years old. Even close up he doesn't look much older than 40.


Principal Choi Dae Wan

The ceremony consisted mostly of various people going up on stage where the principal and his wife sat somberly. The person would present him with a gift as someone off stage read some words of appreciation presumably written by the person and that's it. Towards the end of the ceremony one of my friends, the head grade 6 teacher, Gyong Ock, beautifully attired in traditional Korean dress, read what sounded like a very tearful speech expressing gratitude and saddness. The ceremony concluded with a short speech from the principal and then a brief thanks from his son.

After the ceremony I had my friends gather for a picture.



Then, everyone headed out for a nearby restaurant for lunch which was paid for by, you guessed it, the principal.

I rode to the restaurant with my friend, Hyawn Yong. This was a sad day for more than just the principal...many of my friends including Hyawn Yong will be moving to new schools starting March 2 when classes resume. Teachers can only stay at one school for a maximum of five years and then they have to move. They can choose to move before that, but the ministry of education will force them to move after five years. I'll miss these people, but will stay in touch with many of them.

Although it was cool outside, I decided to walk back home by myself. As I walked along the banks of the Chilwon river and watched the storks, and cranes, I thought of my father, Romeo Emond, who passed away on this day 33 years ago. I dedicated the walk to him...I remembered him, wondered what he would say to me now, and thought about the journey from then to now, there to here. It's been a strange trip but I wouldn't exchange a second of it for any amount of money.

Speaking of money..since I've been here, something I guess I've known for a while has become even clearer to me. I'm motivated by only a few things....love, being needed and appreciated, and what I do for money. I'm not motivated by the money in and of itself, but by the work itself. I need to identify with what I do, I need for it to have some personal importance. Doing work that I don't personally value corrupts and eats my soul. Being overpaid for doing what I regard as useless "make work" just makes the poison all the more potent.

Singing In The Bahng!

Nothing much really happened this week. I taught at 3 different schools on Tuesday, Wednesday and today, Friday. Today the students here graduated and there were no classes in the afternoon. My co-teacher from Iryong Elementary school picked me up in front of the convenience store just beside my building. We arrived at the school about 20 minutes later.

This is a very small school...only about 50 students in the whole school, There were the usual meetings with the vice-principal, the principal and the teachers. Then, after a cup of tea it was time for class.

The kids were great...a very sharp bunch! After introducing myself, we talked about the weather and I mentioned the temperatures in Canada and noted that what they think of as cold isn't really all that cold after all when you compare it to -20 and lower. We covereed the days of the week, months, introducing yourself. Then, I showed them some magic. The kids here all love magic and the sort of sweet innocence that I've commented on before of people here, really helps pull off the magic tricks. They don't expect deception, and magic of course relies on deception. It's a great ice breaker and a way of getting and keeping their attention so they don't realize that they're learning at the same time. I ordered a book on coin magic a few days ago and it arrived today. I'll learn and practice more tricks while the kids are on spring vacation.

Then, we played a version of the old "Hangman" game that I found on the internet. I draw a picture of a parachut, a stick man figure that I usually name, "Fred", and then I draw 10 lines from the parachute to Fred. I put the spaces on the board for the word they have to guess and for each letter they get wrong I erase one of the parachute lines. When the lines are all gone, Fred is dead and I redraw Fred flat on his back, with a gravestone over him and as I pretend to shed a tear, the children laugh. After that we play again and the kids, usually boys guess letters like 'Z', 'Q', and 'X' trying to kill poor Fred. The kids love this game!

I did have a new experience this week...somewhere around 7:30pm my phone rang. It was a drunken teacher asking me if I wanted to meet him and some other teachers at a "Noreh Bahng". Teachers here can only stay at a particular school for a maximum of 5 years and then they have to move on. So, three teachers from Chilwon are moving to other schools starting in March after spring break. I know them all and will miss them. So, this little party they were having was a sort of send off for the three teachers.

I went to the ATM and withdrew $30 and then hailed a taxi. It only cost $6.70 to get to where they were at a restaurant waiting for me. They had already eaten and certainly drank, but one of them ordered some food for me and I drank a few little cups of plum wine. It's good!

A funny thing happened at the restaurant...as I entered the private room they were in, one of them asked me what I wanted to eat. It sounded like he asked me whether I wanted "dog" or "pig". An easy choice for sure - pig of course. It was delicious but as we all talked later that I misunderstood. He was trying to say, "duck", not "dog". It was a combination of my friend's mispronounciation and me not listening carefully enough and maybe me expecting to hear "dog". We all laughed about it!

In Korea people don't drink without eating. When I go to a bar, the waitress always brings me a dish of peanuts, perhaps some dried shrimp, and some other kind of traditional snake and sometime even a plate of those delicious Korean strawberries.

Then, we went to the "Noreh Bahng". Koreans love these places and they are all over the place. They are almost as ubiquitous as the "PC Bahng". "Bahng" and that's a better romanization of the word, means "room", and "Noreh" means "Song". Essentialy it's a karaoke bar, but instead of there being just one karaoke machine that everyone in the bar uses, there are separate rooms each with their own machine. These machines are neat! They are maybe 2.5 or 3.0 meters wide and 2 meters high. They have 9 video screens that display images of people, landscapes, animals and of course the words to the song that's been chosen. If an English song is chosen, then the words displayed are in English; if a Korean song is chosen, then the words are displayed in Korean,

It's karaoke, but there are separate rooms, very comfortable with large machines in them. You pump money into the machine and pick the songs from a book just like your regular run of the mill karaoke bar. This thing has 9 little tv screens that display images of landscapes, animals and people while also showing the words to the song that was chosen. If you choose an English song, then the words come up in English, and likewise for a Korean song. There are two mics so you can do a duet.

At first I was nervous and didn't do very well. You see, once you finish singing the machine gives you a score. My first try I sang "Hey Jude", and flubbed it. I didn't even get a score, just a message saying "Good singer". But, after a beer or two I was less nervous and sang "Green, green grass of home". I did that one a lot better and scored 92. Later, singing "Let It Be" I got a 98.

What a hoot!!

Tomorrow, Feb. 18, the principal of Chilwon Elementary retires and there's a ceremony followed by a lunch for everyone. I've been invited to go as well. The principal is about 65 years old, but could easily pass for 40, maybe 45 at the most.

Next week the kids begin a 10 day spring break. That'll give me a chance to fine tune and add to my lesson plans.

That's about it for this week. Till next time...

pae

Snow!

Argh!! I really was beginning to think that I'd have a completely snow free winter, but no. On Monday morning I woke up to about 2cm of snow. Nothing by Canadian standards, but that little bit was enough to close the school. Teachers whose drive normally takes about 30 minutes from Masan were arriving two hours late. The children were of course very excited...it's been three years since they've seen any snow here.

Wednesday (Feb. 8) afternoon ... the snow is pretty much all gone.

This week I started teaching at schools other than Chilwon. I guess you could call Chilwon Elementary school my "base", but in the next few weeks I'll be teaching at eight other schools. All of the other schools are much, much smaller than Chilwon. There are 945 students at Chilwon, but at Daesan Elementary where I was yesterday, there are only 55 students in the whole school. I think the other schools are all about that size. I rather like the smaller classes...it makes it easier to get to know the students, and controlling the class is certainly easier. Not that discipline is a big problem, but I compare it to riding a large horse who knows he's big and can dominate a rider, and a smaller horse that may still be spirited, but is much more easily controlled.

On Friday, February 18, students all over Korea will graduate. Students in grade 4, move up to grade 5, grade 5's go to grade 6 and grade 6's move on to middle school (junior high). The following two weeks are spring vacation, but I am expected to come to school for 8 hours a day and work on lesson plans or whatever. I'm looking forward to it anyway because my lesson plans are still a work in progress and having yet another week to catch my breath and regroup isn't a bad thing at all. However, I prefer to work on them at home, so I'll spend my time at school reading. Also, since I won't be going to other schools from Feb. 20 to March 3, I'll be able to swim everyday.

At this point I don't have an internet connection at home, but sometime very soon I will. It should cost me now more than about $30/month for a high speed connection. It'll be handy for work since there really is a wealth of ESL teaching resources on the net. Also, having my own connection will make it easier to keep the blog up-to-date.

Friday (Feb. 10) ...a couple of guys came over to my apartment around 6pm to connect me to the internet, yeah!! The cost? It'll add about $40 to my monthly phone bill. Not cheap, but I think the cost is justified because:
- there are a wealth of ESL resources online,
- there a lots of free online Korean courses,
- I don't want to go to the noxious PC Bang anymore,
- it'll make it easier to update this ole blog.

And I can listen to CBC radio online and keep up with the ins and outs of our new government whose motto should really be, "We're here for a good time, not a long time."

Anyway, all that to say that I'm glad to have the internet at home. However, it seems to me that almost the second that I was online, and before the guys had even left, I had a virus. I know for a fact that it wasn't there before I was connected. I had something called the "Maslan" virus. Not a terribly inimical thing, but annoying as hell anyway.

So, I bought a copy of McAfee online for U.S.$39, did a system restore to a point sometime last week before I was connected to the internet, re-installed McAfee and then did a full virus scan. It worked ... I'm virus free! That's the most complicated computer related work I've done since I've been here. Ah, Miller time!

Here I am in my favourite bar again sipping a local beer called 'Hite' and yes, enjoying a couple of cigarettes with it. I brought my book; and hopefully my talkative friend won't be here tonight to interrupt these peaceful moments of mine.

There are six men at the booth in front of the one where I'm sitting. There are only three booths, three small tables, and two seats at the bar in the whole place. Tonight the place is hopping! Once you get to know them, Koreans are quite animated...quick to show joy, saddness, and yes, anger. But, as someone recently pointed out to me...the people in this area are country people and I shouldn't expect the same simple ways of Koreans in larger, more populated areas such as Seoul.

This somewhat harsh and beautiful country is such a mass of contradictions. It is an ancient land, but the people are obsessed with youth and youth culture. Some people here don't understand why I don't colour my hair. It is a popular thing with men and women here. I've done that in the past, and just don't feel the need to do it anymore. My hair is, what it is - my hair is not me.

Like people all over the world, Koreans are concerned about their health, and yet at least 80% of the men I've met are smokers. It is truly a beautiful country! Mountains occupy about 70% of the South Korea, and yet too many people think nothing of throwing trash wherever they want. Even worse, massive over-industrialization has led to the environment being contaminated by heavy metals and consequently, Koreans have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world.

Sounds pretty bad, but like I said, it really is beautiful. However, the most important and precious resource in this country which imports virtually everything, is its people. I'm constantly amazed by how hard people work - especially service workers. Waiters, waitresses, cooks etc., work so hard for very little money, they do it very well, and they do with a smile.

Saturday (Feb. 11) I traveled to Masan with a couple of teachers from Chilwon this afternoon. The mission - to go to the biggest department store in this area, "Shin Sehgeh" (New World). It is pretty big and to me seems to employ too many people. One thing that I find interesting is that at larger stores like this one when you pull into the parking garage there is an army of young, bright red-coated, university age kids who bow politely and direct you to the nearest available parking space. Neat!

My companions and I had lunch at a sushi place, and then we did some window shopping. We walked into the men's clothing department and I could see immediately that nothing in there would fit me. I've lost some weight, and my pants are all very loose on me, and even when I lose all the weight I want to, I will still be hard pressed to find clothes. My shoulders are quite a bit wider than the average Koreans, and that's not going to change a whole lot no matter how much weight I lose. However, on a positive sartorial note...I have at last found a place where legs as short as mine, are perfectly normal.

I ended up spending about $70 on groceries and vitamins.

Cultural Note: The Korean word for Mr./Miss/Mrs. is pronounced 'she'. Some people here call me "Peter she" or sometimes "Mr. Peter" which confused me a little. So, thinking I was being respectful I started calling one of my friends, "Hwang she" ( "Mr. Hwang"). But, he was a little insulted. My co-teacher explained that in Korean it is very rude to call someone by family name + 'she'. Calling someone by given name + 'she' is quite all right though. I then explained to her that in English we don't usually refer to someone by 'Mr./Miss/Mrs.' + given name - it's not rude, but we just don't usually do it.

I think pretty all of the schools I've been to are about 100 years old. In the older sections of all of them, the toilet is just a hole in the floor. So far I've managed to avoid using one of those.

The Election (Urghh!!)

It's January 17th and although I'm on vacation till February 1, I have been busily engaged in creating lesson plans for the rapidly approaching classes. The English Camp was certainly a good experience ; it has been very helpful in forming the plans.

I've made a couple of decisions:

1} I'll try to institute an 'English 0nly' classroom.
2) I'll make dialogues the 'meat' of the lessons.

On the first day back, along with my co-teacher I'll meet with the vice-principal and see he'll support these ideas. But, these are elementary students so I can't realistically expect them never to rely on their native language. Setting this policy will however represents a goal and it'll have the immediate effect of reducing the amount of chatter that goes on. To increase the liklihood of its success I'll depend to some extent on the students' innate competitivness. Each month I'll award points, certificates and a small gifts to the student with the most points in each class. Just administering this will force me to get to know the students' names.

Tonight I went to my favourite bar to have a couple of beers. I brought along a biography of Jack London to read. Unfortunately, my friend from the last time I went, was there too and in approximately the same state of inebriation as before. I tried to hide away in a booth, but that didn't stop him from sitting down beside me and talking my ear off. I indulged him politely for almost an hour, but then made it clear that I just wanted to read my book. I picked up the book and started to read.....he still kept talking. He was probably saying what a rude so-and-so I was to ignore him that way. In any event, it worked. After I had read only a chapter and a half he muttered something, got up and left.

I was listening to CBC radio on the internet a couple of days ago and heard that Harper won the election with a minority. About a month before coming here my son and I went to see a movie at the Silver City theatre in Gloucester and while in the line for food I saw someone who looked oddly familiar. It was Stephen Harper. I whispered to my son, "That's a man who will never be Prime Minister." Well, good thing I don't bet on the horses! At least it's a minority government and he can't do too much harm. I may not be pschic, but it doesn't take one to realize that there'll undoubtedly be another election in a year or two. Why not? They only cost a couple of hundred million dollars each!

Even worse than Harper winning the election is the fact that Gillles 'I'm a nipplehead' Duceppe and his gang, hold the balance of power in Ottawa. Apparently Duceppe feels that the election results prove that support for their moronic plan to become the world's first 'poutine republic' is increasing. There's a Korean word that comes to mind, ''mich'in'' - crazy. The dream of a separate Quebec was an something dreamed up by fiery young writers and intellectuals incenced to action by the many years of repression suffered by the French in Quebec. Someone once said something about communism to the effect that, a man under the age of 30 who isn't a communist has no soul, but a man over 30 who is a communist, has no brain. I would say the same thing holds true of Quebec separatists. They are either poor misguided idiots, or evil men bent on destabilizing Canada, so they can become big fish in their own very llittle pond.

The founders of the separatist movement achieved something better than what they had ever intended....recognition of the wrongs done to tne French in Quebec. Now, the situation is very different...French is the pre-dominant language of Quebec. What I think the separatists are railing against now (whether they realize it or not) is a much bigger threat ...globalizatlon. For whatever reasons, English has become the defacto universal language. English is certainly a wonderful language...it's flexible, precise, and very much alive. But, English is certainly not an easy language to learn; it has too many illogical, arbitrary rules, and way too many completely non-sensical exceptions - it would not be my choice. I think it would make more sense to use Esperanto or one of the other languages that were specifically designed to be a universal languages. I suppose English has gotten to its position in the world largely thanks to it being the language of business, air travel, computing and American culture.

Those who see globalization as a threat to their culture and language and are fighting the uphill battle against it, will not win by circling the wagons, measuring letters on signage, or by becoming an isolated island of French in a sea of English. Once the bloodshed stops and make no mistake there will be bloodshed, the new 'Poutine Republic' would have to deal more than ever with the U.S.and they would find the Americans far less accomodating. The Americans' patience with whining about French, or Quebec culture will last only as long as it takes for them to get what they want, i.e. resources.

It's sort of ironic that I, a French guy whose family history in Quebec goes back to 1642, and who counts the nationalist premier, Honoré Mercier, amongst his ancestors is currently occupied with spreading English in the world. Despite my current occupation, it would be a terrible, terrible tragedy if English ever became the only language in the world.

Okay, enough soap boxing!

This is Monday evening. Only one more day off before I'm back in the classroom. I've created enough lesson plans to get me through at least a couple of weeks of classes. I'm not sure where I'll be on Wednesday. I could be at Chilwon or the school rotation thing may start this week and I'll be at a different school every day. We'll see.

A couple of things I noticed this week...

1) As I was sitting in one of the upper classrooms searching the internet for teaching resources, through the corner of my eye I thought I saw something scurry across the floor towards the desk. I stamped my foot, and sure enough a little mouse scurried back where it came from. Thankfully it wasn't a rat! Otherwise, you would have heard my girlish scream from here.

2) As I was walking back from swimming a couple of days ago I noticed a butcher shop. In the window there are sillouettes of animals. There's a cow, a pig, a chicken and yes, a dog. As far as I know I haven't eaten dog since I've been here. That's not to say that I didn't, just that I'm not aware that I did. Apparently, when you ask for beef you may or may not get beef. I have eaten beef a couple of times. I really would rather not know the truth.

Till next time.

Bruce and stuff...

It's Saturday, and normally there wouldn't be any English Camp today, but class was canceled on Thursday because the students had to go to the middle school that they'll be attending soon. It's the last day of English Camp! These last four weeks have been a great way for me to just dive in, well, get thrown into teaching. I still have a long way to go, but I've learned a lot and feel much better prepared to go into the next 11 months or so. One more day of English Camp and then I'm on holiday for ten days. Well, I won't be in class, but I will have to do some work. Sometime before February 1, I have to create a 5 day teaching plan. Another 20 page document, but this one will ultimiately go to the Ministry of Education in the city of Haman; for what purpose I'm not exactly sure. But I was planning to spend at least some of my winter vacation planning what I'll be teaching anyway. Before the English Camp I was really just flying by the seat of my pants. and while it was gratifying to find out that I'm actually pretty good at that, I really want to go back in February with a clear idea of what I'm doing, when and how. I'll try very hard to get this done in the first few days that I'm off so I can maybe plan a little trip to Busan or something.

I bought something new this week and made some new friends. I bought something called 'yu ja cha' ('cha' means tea). This is really kind of like a big jar of marmalade, you put a tablespoon or so into a cup, add hot water and you have a delicous cup of fruit flavoured tea. Very refreshing! This stuff is so much like marmalade that I wonder if you couldn't do that with marmalade? Anyone care to try it?

Three kids from one of the English Camp sessions came over to my place earlier this week. One of them was so excited because she had just received a letter from Michelle, her new penpal in Canada, and wanted me to help her understand the letter - I did that. She and her friend came over again the following day to get my help with responding to the letter.

Each of the kids who came over takes either Taekwondo or Hapkido. Hapkido is very much like Japanese Jiu Jitsu...lots of throws, grappling, holds, and some kicks and punches thrown in for good measure. After my 3 month swim pass is finished I was thinking about doing weights and cardio, and then taking either Hapkido or Taekwondo till I go home.

Anyway, I did my laps and then dropped in to the Hapkido school, which I passed on my way home, to check it out. It took a few minutes, but finally I got the instructor to understand that I just wanted to sit and watch the class and he said I could. It was 5:30pm and I had actually come in pretty close to the end of the class. The next class would only start at 7:00pm. Just then the owner and head instructor, Joong Hyawn arrived and ushered me into his office along with a friend of his. We sat and had some green tea. He understands some English and I understand some Korean, but communication was a little difficult, but we managed. He invited me to his house for supper with he and his family. I met his wife, mother, grand-mother and two little boys. I played with the kids, showed them some magic, and then we ate. We had fish, soup, regular kimchi, spicy kimchi (which I really don't find that hot), and other stuff that I really can't identify except to say that it looks like some kind of leaves marinated in red pepper sauce. Before I left, Joong Hyawn's mother gave me some spicy kimchi, some regular kimchi and some other spicy dish. Then, it was time to go to watch the Hapkido class.

The class looks like fun, and if I work very hard I may be able to earn a black belt before it's time for me to leave here. It's decided! In April, after the swimming, cardio and weights, I'm taking Hapkido.

Korean TV. Basic cable would give me maybe 3 tv channels, but I have a step up from that and get perhaps 25 or 30 channels. There are a couple of really good movie stations. I'm watching "Spiderman" right now. I've seen "Shallow Hal" (which I liked a lot), "Schindler's List" which I've seen before, but it's one of those movies I can't stop watching once I start. OCN, the station I'm watching now isn't commercial free, but has far few commercials than back home. In a 2 hour movie there might be 4 commercial segments with 3 or 4 commercials each. Not too bad. Three other channels...CGV, MBC, and XTM also have movies.

Then, there is "Series TV" which shows some of the pretty good and pretty awful shows from the 70's and 80's, i.e. Rich Man Poor Man, The Six Million Dollar Man, Air Wold (Ick! Jan Michael Vincent had to be the worst actor in the universe!), Highway to Heaven, Cosby, Miami Vice, The A-Team etc.

There are a couple of channels that seem to be devoted to religion and have western style televangelists. But, to balance them out there's a station that for the most part is just a buddhist priest sitting crosslegged on a small stage answering questions from a small crowd of students or followers. If I were to follow any organized religion,buddhism would be it. The last time I watched there was a priest who spoke English who said that in Korea psychiatry is nearly unheard of because being a predominantly buddhist society, they don't really recognize the reality of "ego" or "mind". When a child comes to a parent and says, "I'm having weird thoughts." the parent is more than likely to simply tell him, "Stop. Don't think that." . End of story. Okay, that's a very simplistic example..here, just as anywhere else in the world, there are undoubtedly damaged people , people who have been physically and emotionally wounded, but it serves to illustrate the cultural difference.

Another little cultural difference that's reflected by what I've seen or rather, not seen on TV..I haven't seen a single tampon commercial here.

There's a station devoted to nothing but some kind of board game, a strategy type thing with little round pieces that seems to be very popular. Believe it or not there's a station that shows nothing but people playing either "WarCraft" or "CounterStrike" against each other. Okay, enough about TV.

Something occurred to me today about perfect strangers offereing to towel off other perfect stranger's backs in the shower. In the first place I haven't actually seen this myself, and in the second, the towels they use to dry off their bodies here are quite honestly not much bigger than the average wash cloth in Canada. Drying off your own back with one of those would be difficult, so, I can understand why people would offer to towel off a perfect stranger. I'm the only person I've seen who goes to the pool with a person sized towel. I'm sure glad I brought a couple of those with me, because finding towels like that here would be a big challenge.

One last TV note...before coming to school this morning I watched Bruce Lee's first big movie, "The Big Boss" in Chinese. I've watched all of his movies so many times that I know what's going on even though I don't understand a word. But, it was nice to hear Bruce Lee speaking his native language and in his real voice rather than the stupid, overly husky voice they dubbed over it for English audiences.

Okay, one last cultural note...I thought turning 46 was bad enough, but in Korea they count birth as your first birthday, so by their reckoning I'm 47. Geez!

I'm definitely going to check out getting an internet connection in my apartment so I can avoid coming to the sweltering and choking "PC Bang". I know now that my monthly expenses here (excluding food) won't be more than $200/month. A high speed connection in the apartment shouldn't cost anymore than about $25-$30/month. It's worth it! Not only for communicating with folks, but for searching the net for teaching resources and info.

G'night.

More Korean History

It's Sunday and I'm at Chilwon Elementary. Thankfully the live-in janitor heard me knocking and let me in; otherwise I would have to either wait till tomorrow or visit the :"PC Bang" On my way here today I thought I'd take some photos of my neighbourhood. Here they are in order as I came across them while walking here...


Deh Ryung Apartment Building


The Infamous PC Bang


The Whole Sale Mart


Statue


My Favourite Restaurant


Bar


The Bank


The Pool

As I sit here typing this I can't help but think about the fine statue (see picture) of a famous and really rather imposing general or king that stands guard over the occupants of the school. I can see the statue from this 1st floor office. If he really lived, he must have been quite a fearsome fella. Not someone you'd want to slip a "whoopie cushion" under. Speaking of Korean history....this past weekend I went to Masan again with my co-teacher to see a movie. I thought it only fair that this time we see a Korean film, so I picked one that looked interesting, and it was. Very different! A classical story from Korea's very ancient past. Here's a very brief summary of Korean history that I found on the web....

[i]The history of human activity in Korea can be traced far into the Paleolithic period, about 500,000 years ago. The beginning of Korean history is often dated to 2333 B.C. when King Tan-gun, a legendary figure born of the son of Heaven and a woman from a bear-totem tribe, established the first kingdom named Choson, literally meaning the "Land of the Morning Calm." While the historicity of the Tan-gun myth is disputed among scholars, it is known that ancient Korea was characterized by clan communities which combined to form small town-states. They rose and fell so that by the first century B.C., Three Kingdoms, Koguryo (37 B.C. - A.D. 688), Paekche (18 B.C. - A.D. 660) and Shilla (57 B.C. - A.D. 935), had emerged on the Korean Peninsula and part of what is now known as Manchuria.

Ever since Shilla unified the peninsula in 668, Korea has been ruled by a single government and has maintained its political independence and cultural and ethnic identity in spite of frequent foreign invasions. Both Koryo (918-1392) and Choson (1392-1910) Dynasties consolidated their dynastic power and flourished culturally, while repelling intruders like the Khitans, Mongols, Manchus or Japanese.

In the late 19th century, Korea became the focus of intense competition among imperialist nations such as China, Russia or Japan. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and instituted colonial rule, bringing the Choson Dynasty to an end and with it traditional Korea. National liberation occurred in 1945 but was soon followed by territorial division. The Republic of Korea in the South has a democratic government, while the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the North is ruled by a Communist regime.

And that's the way it is.

This is the last week of English Camp. That was fun! It was a great experience and what I learned will no doubt help me to be a better teacher when regular classes begin again on February 1. I'll be off on winter vacation from January 21-31. I'm going to see about perhaps taking a little trip somewhere else on the peninsula...perhaps I'll spend a weekend in Seoul or Busan. I'd also like to finally get together with the 3 other ESL teachers in the Haman School District.

I'll spend quite a lot of my winter vacation planning lessons. I want to have at least a month's worth of lessons planned so I can be ahead of the eight ball for a change. It'll be nice to know what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it before I walk in to class. I don't know that many card or coin tricks and one can only get so far by wiggling one's ears. But, isn't that true of life in general. Wow! That philosophy degree really wasn't a waste of time after all.

After winter vacation I'll be teaching at a different school each day of the week. I think I'll be at good ole' Chilwon Elementary on Mondays, but other than that I don't know. Someone will come to my apartment and take me to the other schools, none of which is nearby.

Well, time to take some more pictures, then hit the water for some laps. I'm hoping that by spring I'll have lost enough weight that I'll be able to buy some nice clothes here. I really didn't bring enough to wear from Canada.

I'll finish this blog entry tomorrow.

It's Tuesday, January 17. I didn't have a chance to work on the blog yesterday.

The everyday Korean expression for "hello" and "goodbye" in Korean is "Anyong-Hasay-o". It's a wonderful expression very much like the Hawaiian, "Aloha". It literally means "Be in peace". There are variations for either when one leaves a room that means "Stay in peace" and for bidding farewell to someone who's leaving, "Go in peace".

P.S. The postcard thing? I took the 9 postcards that all had come back to me to the post-office and it was obvious to the postman what had happened. Even though the stamps had all been cancelled, he very kindly resent them for me.