Tuesday, December 25, 2012

매리 크리스마스

Well it's that time of year, Christmas is again upon us. This year, as with a few others, I will not be in Vancouver with family but in Korea. Of course, as I've blogged about other years, Christmas just isn't as big a deal here and I was working until 940 on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day is just a regular work day. In that respect Christmas felt more like any other lazy Sunday, where I relaxed, watched some TV, read a bit, played Civ 4 and chatted with friends and family.

I guess with so much else going on Christmas actually kinda skipped my mind. Next week I'll be relocating branches for work and in March I have a holiday and school is starting. May I also have a big holiday where I'm looking seriously at Beijing (god knows I've talked about it long enough). I guess with all that going on Christmas just snuck up on me. Still it was nice to hear from family and know that some things never change.

Anyway, no matter where you are in the world I hope you had a good one^^

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Korean Presidential Elections

In what was not a big surprise Korea elected the daughter of President (dictator) Park Chung-hee, Park Geun-hye of the Conservative Party as president.

Western media has already jumped on the fact that a woman has been elected in one of the more conservative countries in Asia. In fact she is the first elected leader in any north-east Asia nation. However, it's not quite the surprise that is seems. First off Korea is a two party system. Much like the U.S they do have third parties and people COULD vote for them, but only fringe libertarians, communists or radical isolationists ever do. People also vote along party lines in much the same way. I mean if the republicans had put a monkey in an Elvis suit up against Obama he would have pulled 40% of the popular vote. It's similar in Korea, though perhaps less partisan. She is also the successor to outgoing President Lee Myung-bak who has a very mixed legacy. On one hand his aides and family members have been involved in one of the biggest corruption scandals in Korean history. While no one can prove he had any knowledge doubts will exist forever. That being said he weathered the economic collapse of 2008 better than just about any world leader and in a country where the economy will always be the number one issue he was a solid leader.

Also, western media will inevitably mix up a woman leader with progress. Park Geun-hye is as conservative as they get and her support base comes almost entirely from people over 45. Her opponent, liberal leader Moon Jae-in, was actually imprisoned by her father in the 1970's for engaging in pro-democracy rallies. However, General Park is responsible for the Korean economic miracle in the 1970's and many older people remember that era as a time when every year they ate more and North Korea seemed more distant rather than as an era when opposition leaders disappeared in the middle of the night and union leaders and student activists were gunned down in the streets by the police. The younger generation who grew up with the wealth of modern Korea seem far more interested in getting jobs and affordable housing and have more mixed feelings about General Park. Women also want more equality in one of the most gender dominated societies in east Asia. Many of them voted for Moon because he is the more socially liberal one.

Other issues were the ever increasing gap in wealth, un- or under employment and North Korea's recent satellite launch. Wealthy Koreans are as rich as any Koreans in Korean history but poor Koreans haven't really had their lot improved since the 1960's. The Korean job market just isn't creating enough full time jobs and given that virtually every Korean goes to university a university degree means much less than it did twenty years ago. Also, because Korean universities often lack international standards only people with overseas degrees are getting these jobs (ie - the super rich who can afford to send their kids to study in New York for four years). The north launching a satellite in to space hasn't made waves that you might think it would, I mean at the end of the day it's still an impoverished nation that can't feed or house it's own people, but it did make hard line Park Geun-hye more appealing than reconsilliatory Moon Jae-in.

Park Geun-hye may be the better candidate for me, as she is very friendly to foreign investment and commerce. Liberal ideology can be much more isolationist so on an entirely selfish note it's probably good for me that she won. However she ensures that Korean society has five more years of fiscal and social conservatism and as someone who wants Korea to succeed I feel that needs to change. I'm sure it will as the war generation dies off and make room for their more worldly children and grandchildren. However in the short term (almost certainly the rest of my time in Korea) the status quo is in place.

Nice Seoul Weekend

Last Saturday I made the trip up to Seoul to visit Jenny, Kwang Ho and baby jenny, swap gifts and hang out. He ended up having lunch out in Bundang (where they live) before heading downtown to see Cheongbukgun, a royal palace I had never seen and then eat Thai food. It was a lot of fun and there is something really nice about having a kid running around, positive energy and all that. Mike joined us for Thai food before they left and we went to Craftworks, a brew house in Seoul that makes their own delicious craft beers. A quality beer is a rare treat in Korea and these IPA's didn't disappoint. After that we bounced around before I ended up crashing with Bobby (who was also there with friends of his who were really fun to talk to). Not tons to talk about but it was a fun night in cold weather. I plan to head up again just after New Years when Kris gets back in. Should be good.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Palgongsan in Winter, Bobby Down From Seoul

On Saturday I met Bobby at Dongdaegu station at 940 to head up to Palgongsan to see the giant Buddha I had previously visited last summer. It was a world apart

winter


summer


The trees alone give it away. It was freezing but with enough layers it was actually cool to see it like that. It's one of my favourite things to see in Daegu and despite the mission to get there well worth the effort. The Buddha itself is not that old, 1992 as it turns out, and was built as a prayer for Korean unification. 

winter

summer


winter


summer


ice melting on Buddha's head



While I'm sure I'll go back again before I leave Daegu, it will be in the spring.


After that we dropped off our stuff and showered, watched Seinfeld and had a beer before going out to Sangin for dinner and drinks. Not an exciting as Japanese stuff in Busan but fun.

Sunday we got up, had sushi and then I headed home and had a relaxing afternoon.

Snow Day

Friday saw the first real dump of snow this year as we got about 3 inches in an afternoon. I arrived at work and was told that classes were cancelled for the first half of the day. My Korean coworkers were calling parents and we were just hanging out. At around 4pm I was told we were told late classes and would run until around 10pm for students who wanted to come that late. Normally I'd be off by 940 with papers graded so an extra 20 minutes wasn't that big a deal, especially given how the Korean teachers had been working since before I got there. I had to pull almost 7 hours of work..... :)

Anyway, the real stress was the ice, as again this year no one is icing the roads. It made for a slippery weekend and I've seen more than a few casts this weekend.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Yankee Stadium in 1939

I came across the amazing colour footage of Yankee Stadium from game two of the 1939 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

It's mostly warm up, there's no sound and obviously they had not figured out where to stick T.V camera's yet. Despite all that it's an amazing four minute video.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

South Korean PM in Ottawa. No More Rob Ford.....

First, the newly re-elected Korean prime mimister is in Ottawa to talk free trade. The President Lee Myung Bak is due to step down in two weeks when Korea has new presidential elections. Anyway this sort of free trade could benefit Canada, which has no indigenous auto industry and already buys Korean electronics by the shipload. It would also be a decent market for Canadian raw materials, especially natural gas which powers Korea but which Korea has little of within it's own borders.

I also saw Rob Ford is out. I'm sad. I love Rob Ford. It's like the people of Toronto were watching Trailer Park Boys and went "man, Ricky would make such a good mayor." Then they found a guy who not only had his grade 11, but also his grade 12 and in he went. I mean if you live in Toronto and you voted for him you are an idiot. Not like people who voted for Harper. I may not like Harper personally but there are logical reasons to vote for him. Ford. No. If you voted for Rob Ford you are less intelligent than someone who didn't, or at least you couldn't be fucked to read or research anything before you voted. For the rest of Canada it's been a godsend. The self appointed centre of Canada being run by Ricky. Amazing. This article sums him up fairly well. Fighting reporters, kicking people off the bus so he could use it to take his football team to a party, reading while driving, getting drunk and fighting and a Maple Leafs game, attacking reporters who were reporting on his property extension not to mention falling off a scale. Now he's gone due to a conflict of interest scandal after his last appeal failed...... I guess the judge wouldn't let him smoke or swear. As a western Canadian I do take a selfish joy in watching a city that so desperately wants to be London or New York continue to act like trailer trash (the mayor before Ford once said he was afraid to go to Africa because he's be boiled in a pot and eaten). Well done Ford, well done.

To Move or Not to Move

Well I've accepted the move to Yongsan branch for January 14th. I'll work a two week camp over New Years and then start there. I'm looking forward to it as I'll be teaching middle school kids again (my favourite kids are grades 5-7) and it'l be a new neighbourhood.

However I do have the option to stay in my apartment and commute 30-40 minutes to work everyday. Not that that is a long time but I'm a 15 minute walk to work now. The upside of a move is of course a new neighbourhood, new apartment and new people. However I have Korean class, friends and a gym right here in Sangin that I'd be commuting to anyway (well I'd probably get a new gym). My current apartment is quite nice and gets lots of sunshine too. I'm not sure if my new place would be better or not (I'll probably go see it next month).

Anyway I'm sure I'll figure it out, just not sure how keen I am to pack up and move again.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Winter Blues

Well we're in to December and with daytime highs in the 2-7 degree range and overnight lows firmly below zero the winter blues have set in across Korea. I'm not sure why winter is so much harder here, I know being away from home on Christmas sucks, but I've done it enough times to where it's okay, and with family scattered across the globe this year it's not like there's a big Christmas thing anyway. I miss Christmas at home, but thats not all of it. There's the New Years blues which are global, where we are encouraged to think about the year and all the ways we failed in it and how we need to improve. First of all a ridiculously unhealthy way to go through life but also, well, my 2012 has been amazing. Better job, accepted to school, travelled to Japan and England, have gone to the gym regularly all year, have made new lifelong friends and did a lot here in Korea tourist wise. At the risk of being boastful, it was an epic year. However that resolution nonsense does creep in despite all logic and I certainly think that contributes more than anyone gives it credit for doing, but that's not totally it either.

Without trying to blame Korea, I do think that it is Korea. It's an amazing place to be when it's warm outside. Mountains to hike, night markets to visit, patio bbq's to enjoy, temples to hike to, cities to visit and see, islands to go explore, ocean and beaches everywhere and sunny weather for days in a row. In winter the only real activity in Korea in drinking, and I'm not trying to be funny. Indoor activities are almost non-existent and of the very few that there are, chain smokers ruin them. There are noraebangs (private karaoke rooms for you and your friends - you can't see me making a gagging sound with my finger in my throat, but I am), PC rooms (where I can leave the comfort of my computer to go in to a smoke filled room full of loud Koreans playing Starcraft, Sudden Attack and all my other favourite games from 1996 and use their computers), screen golf (actually kinda fun for about 45 minutes), coffee shops (which often don't actually serve real coffee at all, but Americano's - and $4 ones at that) or bars and restaurants. Given that I have a percolator, a computer and an ounce of dignity at home three of those are out the window (anyone who says that they go to noraebangs sober and have fun is flat out lying*).

I do love a day at home, but two in a row and I have full on cabin fever. I do stay busy in the winter and virtually every weekend from now to Christmas I either have people visiting me or I'm out of town, and I am willing to get outside for a while despite the cold. However, I do find that my whole outlook changes remarkably come April and May. I've even started chatting with Mike about moving to Taiwan next year, where money is good and weather is never that cold (rainy, but not cold), but that is a long way off.

Anyway, not to make out like I'm all depressed or anything, far from it, but I do find it amazing how weather can really change your outlook and mood from day-to-day.







*To avoid a backlash, Noraebangs aren't THAT bad, I've had fun in them before. It just seems like something that you do once or twice, experience it, and never need to do again. Certainly a few beers does make it a bit more enjoyable, but the need so many people have to go there after every night out baffles me. Think about it, in a 5x7m room having Billy Idol screamed at you by a drunk guy. It's as fun as it sounds.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

House Guests

This week I had Mike staying with me for two nights as he came to hang out before moving in to his apartment of Saturday in Ilsan. It was cool to hang out, though we mostly just went out and ate after work, as I was still working. It did keep me busy on Wednesday and Thursday. We mostly chatted about his vacation to Thailand, upcoming school and an idea I had last year about moving to Taiwan for a year (it's 3 degrees in Daegu right now and 20 in Taipei). I had originally thought Geoff would want to do it but when he opted for home I forgot about it. Mike's interest has me thinking again. Mike left Friday morning and I settled in to work and a quiet night.

On Saturday I woke up and headed down to Paul's place in Ulsan. We just played a bit of Civ and ate dinner. Paul was clearly not feeling well though so when I offered to head home on the 10pm bus he didn't put up much of a fight.

Now time for a quiet Sunday.