Hello? Where are you prum!

This morning on my way down to the local Starbucks I was accosted by a group of elementary school students wanting to know where I was from, how old I was and then wanting to tell me how handsome and good I am. This is something I'm sure friends in Korea, China and elsewhere in the non-western world can relate and to and even appreciate. To be honest, when it's a group of kids I just act all smart ass to them, saying: "나는 북한 사람" (I am North Korean) and then asking them where they are from. Or "나는 영어 말를 할 수 없어요" (I don't speak English). This is met with howls of laughter and more "you are very good" comments. These moments actually can make me very happy to be a foreigner in Korea.

What I've come to appreciate less is when a clearly unwilling child is being forced in to talking to me by an overeager parent. This can happen (and has) on the Daegu and Seoul subway systems, on the Apsan cable car even at a restaurant. It's frustrating because:

a- the child is clearly very uncomfortable and may be struggling with English, so this conversation only serves to make them even more uncomfortable and even resentful towards me.

b - private lessons start at 40000 won a pop for people who can legally teach them (which is not me). Petition your government to change those labour laws and I'll give your kid a month of free lessons :)

c - I teach English as a job (I imagine dentists encounter an unusual number of people with teeth problems at parties, mechanics people with car problems, massage therapists people with back spasms etc etc etc.). It's not a hobby or something I do to kill time and I don't necessarily want to do it in my free time.

d - it almost never happens when I'm with a Korean person, leading me to believe that it is considered rude to bother someone in this way (a theory Koreans have supported).


My standard response is usually to be nice to the child (as I'm on their side in this one) but abrupt. If it continues, I say to the parent "나는 영어 멀을 할 수 없어: (deliberately leaving out the "요"). I'd recommend it to all foreigners in Korea as it usually staggers them long enough for you to make your escape (and the child will often smile at you and look very grateful).

Christmas tree 2010 is up. Quiet weekend

This past weekend, I set up the Christmas tree and put on the decorations. Last year I inherited this tree from Kris and Miranda (along with the oven of earlier posts) and seeing as how it's almost December decided now's the time. Christmas is the only time of year that I ever get a bit of homesickness in Korea. It's not so much any desire to return to Vancouver (because to be honest I have none of that) but to return to all those childhood Christmas memories (and the loot :p) and the family that I spent them with (most of which is luckily still with us). However, being that it's my 4th Christmas away from home (and 3rd in a row) I'm starting to get a bit used to it.

The rest of the weekend was spent buying a new table and some exercise stuff. I'm also happy to report that I walked to and from Yongsan, Keimyung area and then back to Keimyung (for a Starbucks coffee, my one guilty western pleasure thing). The table was cheap but is really necessary when you have two or more people over (as my old "table" was really only good for one) and the exercise stuff is because I'm finding, with the cold weather coming in at night, I no longer feel the desire to run after work and due to the fact that I am by no means a morning person I rarely find the energy to do it before work. Therefore, I was starting to feel fairly lethargic and cramped (you know that feeling when you really aren't doing much physical?). Hopefully problem is solved.

Sterling teacher is no. New teacher is no. Good SEI teachers is yes.

Today was the final day of Sterling teacher at SEI. Sterling came on as Kris and Miranda's replacement and did a year as a solid teacher. I thought he adapted to Korea fairly well, manging to gain a basic understanding of the language and meet a Korean girlfriend. He's off to another academy next year after a much needed month back in Toronto, taking a vacation days cut but a substantial pay raise. Sterling was a good guy to have at the academy. We saw eye-to-eye on many issues relating to the academy, esl teaching and Korea in general and he was always happy to voice his opinion on almost any matter. I'm happy that he is staying in Daegu and hope to catch up with him in the new year for a beer or two.

However, unlike in previous departures, we have no one new to look forward too. SEI is again cutting back the number or native teachers to just two for at least the winter. This means that it will just be Robbie and I for the forseeable future, which is actually okay with me, as Robbie is also a great guy to have around. But it does mean that we have quite a few new Korean teachers who all seem nice, but who don't seem to grab my attention the way I hoped they would interest wise. Add in to it all of their training which means that I haven't really had much of a chance to meet a few of them anyway and it really makes the academy a bit of me and Robbie in one group and everyone else in the other. I'm just happy the other guy in my group is solid and not a schmo :)

Actually, at SEI in general I've had solid native teachers as coworkers, which is even more important here than back in Canada. Kris and Miranda, who were friends before I moved to Daegu, were great co-workers as well. David, whom I had met before I started working there but didn't know especially well, also turned out to be a great guy and I'm happy to say that I still keep in touch with all three (and I'm sure it will go up to four). Add to that the above mentioned two and it's been a good lineup. None of them ever were counted among the foreigners who's life consists of going to work, get off and go to the bar to booze and bitch until 4am, go to bed, get up the next day and stagger to work half cut (and repeat) and certainly nothing like some of the real creeps I came across in Ulsan who felt that Korea was here solely for them to booze in and have sex with (the girls marital status, interest and even legal age all being minor considerations for them). They have all been (and continue to be) interesting people who I can swap travel stories, talk about work stuff, plan further education etc.

Anyway, enough "praise" for today.

a Wednesday night at Sydney St..... the warm spell

As you may know, last year I inherited a small oven from Kris and Miranda before they left. Well I say small but it's big enough to do a full tray of nacho's, make cookies etc. However, being that I rarely entertain at home (the cheapness and abundance of eating and drinking establishments combined with the size of my place makes it seem pointless) I decided to sell it to Mark and Tina, who run the Sydney St. Cafe and pub. I basically traded it for 2 beers and a plate of nacho's and I'm happy to give it to someone who will put it to good use, especially as I happen to like both them and their bar quite a bit. I had planned to head down with Geoff but my two co-workers, Robbie and Sterling, were also heading down so it ended up being the 4 SEI teachers, which was a lot of fun. Being that it's also Sterling's last week it'll probably be the last time we all do something together as coworkers, although being that Sterling is moving a grand total of three subway stops further away, I have no doubts that we'll still see plenty of him.

This comes after a wonderful Tuesday night spent with the missus watching her favourite show and having a great dinner. We had planned to go to a Vietnamese restaurant near my place but found out they close at 10, last order at 930 so we settled for ordering in and TV.  Sometimes a night like that is perfect. With a busy weekend coming up, I'm looking forward to a quiet night tonight.

Also, reading about the cold spell in Vancouver can't help but make me smile, as our daytime highs are still in the 12-16 degree range and sunny. Last winter in Korea had record lows but this winter is shaping up nicely. While I know January will probably be freezing I love that fact that my jacket is optional in the afternoon on November 25th (though it's not an option at night by any means). Not too shabby.

Kim Jong-Il has another hissy fit

There are two things that amaze me every time the Korea's have a spat:

1- that the North still insists on randomly blowing up planes, ships etc. sneaking people in to the south, tunneling under the DMZ etc etc etc

2- That western media jumps straight to the "this could lead to WWIII....." conclusion. I guess when you run news 24/7 you need something to fill the void.

The fact is that this is one of the largest bombings attacks by either of the Korea's since 1953 and, yet again, it comes on the heels of South Korea taking another step in its development. You'll note that the G20 conference was recently held in Seoul and that war games (I love that they are called "games") that were supposed to be held between the US and South Korea in the Yellow Sea and were cancelled due to CHINESE concerns have been restarted as a South Korean excercise with US observers. the same thing happened in the lead up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics (plane bombing), Korea's nomination to host the G20 summit (ship bombing), Korea's first democratic election (Rangoon bombing) etc. and nothing ever happens.

The simple fact is that North Korea's old friends, China and Russia now have many thousands of their citizens living and working in South Korea (there are many Russian students in Korea and many Chinese students and language teachers, much higher numbers than the 20,000 ESL teachers that are here), they do billions of dollars in trade with the south and the south isn't looking for handouts from them every week.

How this usually works is that China will "suggest that North Korea halt its actions" and then offer some food or financial credit when they do. The Americans, who have spent the 21st century to date scared of everyone and everything, immediately jump to the WWIII scenario, which is stupid but gets them thinking North Korea. Finally the South Koreans might lift some food restrictions, or they may not. However, they will continue to be China's 3rd largets trading partner, America's 5th or 6th (I'm not actually sure but it's in the bottom half of the top ten) and have one of the highest standards of living in Asia.

Finally, the south knows that one war like the 1950-53 one will destroy 30 years of building and unprecedented growth, so they will NOT go to war. Since South Korea is linked to every major power in the Pacific economically and is home to tens of thousands of nationals of those countries, those same countries will not allow South Korea to be attacked. Finally, North Korea knows that a real attack is suicide, and the Kim regime does know how to hold on to life so they WILL NOT actually invade.

The two Koreas are a great study of those who believe that a big military is strength versus those who believe that economic power and friendship is strength and I'm happy to see that the military side has lost this debate thoroughly.

Korean..... history? ...... oh and thanks David :)

In an effort to keep fresh with academic research and to keep out of the trap of working 7 hours a day and spending the rest of my time on the internet or boozing I've started studying korean language and, more recently, culture and history. To that effect I purchased a book called "A Review of Korean History" by Han Young Woo (한영우). The actual research and chapters have so far been interesting but his introduction of Korean history (running over 40 pages) is downright shocking for someone educated in western methods.

For example, the entire thing seems little more than an attempt to compare Korea with both China and Japan (always favourably of course). He makes several mentions of "distortions of Korean history" though fails to name any individuals who have done this. His introduction has several lines such as: "Korean people..... developed their own culture that was different from the Chinese culture, but envied by the Chinese people" or "as China became unified and grew in to a civilized country during the Tang" (the Tang dynasty started c. 600AD, AFTER the Han dynasty and 800 years after unification) or, and this is my favourite "Japan's cultural thirst was not so severe when a great number of Korean exiles entered there during the Three Kingdom's period" (During a paragraph on how Japan's isolation gave them a cultural thirst that forced them to attack Korea or request and receive Korean envoys).

The author of this work is Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University (one of the big 3 universities in Korea, akin to a Harvard or Oxford but in the Korean language). Yet this introduction would not pass muster in a first year history class at a community college in Canada. Now I should point out that when he gets past his introduction and in to the actual history he is well researched and actually very imformative, but it's shocking and quite scary that this sort of petty nationalism can be treated as serious work anywhere (I've skipped the quotes describing the "naturally optimistic character" of the Korean people as they are long winded and I can't be bothered to copy them down). It's also sad that he must go to such pains to put down Japan and China whenever possible in order to promote Korea, instead of just relaying an account of Korean history. Finally, at the end of his 40 page introduction he has a section discussing how history must be viewed objectively and not have any bias infused in to it..... I guess that translation of objective = Japan sucks.

On a totally unrelated topic, my friend David gave my blog a bit of press time. David was an old co-worker of mine at SEI and also a friend and good bloke (props to the Aussie:).David also has a blog, staypuff.net and actually his blog was one of the reasons I started doing mine (I remember reading an old one where his two new co-workers, a young Cnadian couple had just shown up. He had invited them out but they were going down to Ulsan to visit friends. Well those co-workers were Kris and Miranda and that friend was me :P. It's kinda neat to read it from that perspective and I'd imagine it's even more fun to read your own past in that way). Anyway he's in Beijing now and his blog also makes a great read for anyone interested in life in China. Thanks David :)

this week

I should apologise for my lack of posts, but this week has, to say the least, been routine. However, on Sat I manged to get downtown with Geoff to get a few things we needed and hang out. We were also looking for a couple of books and a power converter. Neither of us really found what we wanted but I did get a couple of books that I can use, though not what I was looking for :(. We had even less luck on the power converters, after trying the Homeplus in Yongsan and the Emart and HiMart in Seongseo (adaptors everywhere, but not one with a  voltage converter in it). However, it was a beautiful day, and with our jackets hardly being necessary, it was great just being downtown and walking around the suburbs in the beautiful weather. After deciding to give up the hunt for a converter we went back to my place for a coffee and then down to Sydney St. for a few beers and some food (not what I should be doing when trying to slim down, but oh well :P). Sydney St. is a great bar run by a Korean/Aussie couple and is the only foreigner bar in Daegu (or so far Korea :P) that I actually really enjoy going to, and being a 20 min walk from my house is a real added bonus.

This week promises a little more excitement, so I hope to have more posts in the next 7 days.

Paul comes for a visit

Last friday night, my buddy Paul came up from 서장 for some much needed hangouts. We'd been trying to coordinate a weekend for several months but illness, extra work and sketchy phones always seemed to get in the way. So it was great to hang out friday. We didn't get up to too much, just a trip down to the local makkali jip for a kimchi pajeon and some bulgogi (and of course the makkali :P). Then wandering the streets of Korea until we wound up back at my place. He woke up feeling pretty wrecked but I seemed ok (the reverse is more common, must be the Pocari Sweat I crammed in before bed :P) so he left early to meet his girl and I slowly got up. We also started up a new travian account, probably a bad idea and neither of us seem that in to it but we'll see.

The rest of the weekend was filled with a hike, a movie, some good food, including a new 돼지국밥 place (a pork and vegetable soup served with several side dishes). Now back and the time left until my next break is now 10 weeks (of 18 originally :P)

Keeping in Touch (Futureshop and Korea)

For anyone not aware, before I moved to Korea I worked at the Futureshop in North Vancouver. It was low wages, long hours and you got almost as much respect from the public as zoo animals usually do (minus the free popcorn of course). That being said, it amazes me how many people from that old company I still keep in touch with over two years after I quit. In fact, I've heard from no less than five of them this week (thanks Sherry, Mel, Allan, Dale and Jaclyn :). The best news was from my buddy Allan, who is putting in his two weeks tomorrow after almost five years there. Now don't get me wrong, I actually have great memories of working there and I'd actually really recommend it for someone starting their working life, wanting a second job or who has a passion for electronics and can sell (I have neither :P). After doing a teenage year at Wal-Mart I know what a terrible employer is and Future Shop is not one of them (to this day I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart under any circumstances). That being said, I know Allan has been really unhappy there for a long time, so I'm happy to see him moving on to bigger and better things. I was also happy to hear from so many of my old coworkers, some of whom are working there and others who have moved on to other things.

On that same note I also managed to get in touch with several old friends from Ulsan this week. Korea, much more so than back in Canada, is full of people coming and going and you are unlikely to be hanging out with the same people for very long. So I was really happy to have a chat with both Caroline and Leanne this week and am very happy to have Paul coming up tonight for a long awaited visit (having a guy you have known for over two years in Korea is actually not very common and is pretty cool).

So overall, happy to be connecting/reconnecting with so many people these days.

Pepero Day 2010

On November 11th, while Canada (and most of the western world) is celebrating Remembrance Day, Koreans head to the Homeplus' and Emart's in their thousands for the equally exciting Pepero Day. For those who are unfamiliar Pepero is a long narrow stick of chocolate covered cookie which, it was noted by young Koreans (and the Lotte corporation that manufactures them no doubt), that four pepero sticks standing upright make 1111, or 11/11. Thus the hallmark holiday or all hallmark holidays was born. In essence every student comes to school with boxes of these sticks and gives them to their friends and their teachers. It cracks me up to watch two kids exchange two of the EXACT same box and yet be overjoyed by it. Personally, I didn't have the desire or the finances to buy for every student, but I did buy for my 8 o'clock class, who are all middle school kids and my favourite group of students. I also enjoy playing up the stupidity of the event (imagine a company in the west trying to pull something like that with a Coca-Cola Day or a Dorito's Day) and so tried to celebrate many a Pepero Day miracle and tried not to be the grinch who stole Pepero Day when kids didn't do their homework. I did make off like the fabled Pepero Day bandit though and will have lots of chocolate for the week (at least).

I also managed to send home a million won this morning, which at present is only $860 Canadian dollars and while I know that includes a few fees (esp. on the North American end..... jeez) but that's still a brutal rate. Fortunately my favourite woman at the back at the bank. She's great and was always very helpful when I first started going in and has always been helpful with problems or even just routine transactions.

Anyway, tomorrow has Paul coming up for a visit, so should have more to blog about then.

Bullodong

Last Sunday, I went to Bullodong to see a part of Daegu I've read about but haven't managed to get to in over a year of living here. Bullodong is an ancient Korean...... well..... graveyard in northeast Daegu. It has several hundred burial mounds called tumuli (which mostly look like piles of dirt covered in grass, but they are the graves of Korean nobles from the 4th-6th centuries). It was a nice chance to get out on what will probably be our last warm day for a few months. I also went to a small dam and park in the area, which was a nice distraction from the city (which is really starting to get smoggy, I'm hoping the forecasted rain/wind come true) and just relaxed.

I also found a great little restaurant near the tumuli park, that really felt like an old Korean restaurant with some absolutely amazing food. I love finding little gems like that as one of the problems with Korea's rapid modernisation is that it has become so easy to forget that there is a 2500 year history in this country (especially in the cities there is really very little evidence of that history as anything old seems to be torn down or upgraded) so finding a really old style restaurant next to 1500 year old graves is a great reminder of where you really are. It's especially great for me, having grown up in a city where a building from WWII is considered a heritage building you can forget what old really is.

I'm also happy to report a 90 minute Korean study today. Not bad given how lazy I have been, hoping to keep it up tomorrow :P

a lazy Saturday

This Saturday, I decided to give myself a free day to rest and chill out. This morning I decided to try calling Caroline again. She was one of my best friends when I lived in Ulsan, and we've been pretty good at keeping in touch (but it's off and on at times, and being as we were in an "off" period, I decided to fix that). Well three and a half hours later it was 2am in Maine and she had to go to bed, it was great to catch up but it also meant my morning hike got started at about 3 in the afternoon. I must say I am loving skype phone features, I can talk to someone overseas for that long for less than $10, amazing technology.

Anyway, my hike was great, as I found a good trail about 20 mins from my place. Although it was too late to do much of it, I was able to explore up a ways and figure it'll be a good place to go in the mornings before work.

Finally, I'm a little annoyed with myself for getting lazy with the Korean studying (I was up to 90 mins a day for a while but have been quite lazy the last few weeks). If I'm planning for the April TOPIK I'm gonna have to work a bit harder, so I figure by writing it on a public space I'll have to do it or embarass myself :P

new market, Thai massage

last Sunday, with so many foreign teachers doen with post Halloween hangovers, I decided to go out for a Thai massage down by Duryu instead. Feeling relaxed I went out for a traditional Korean dinner (complete with 20 sidedishes :) and started walking towards home (with the idea of hopping on the subway when I got tired of walking). I walked to Gamsam where we found a huge market. It was a traditional market like Chilseong or Nampodong in Busan, but way less touristed and a bit more laid back (will be good for future clothes/food shopping).

This week I'm finally setting up a language exchange with a Keimyung University student. I've been really lazy on that front for a week or so so now would be a good time to get back in to it. The TOPIK test is in April and I'm falling behind in my studies.