The Olympics.... Just

Whenever one of my students can't answer a question about why something is, either through lack of English or because they don't know but won't admit it they answer with "just."

Me - "Sarah, why didn't you do you homework?"
Sarah - "Just"

I think it is the best answer possible to the question, why do we have the Olympics in the 21st century?Why do cities divert millions of dollars from infrastructure to pay for security, stadium upkeeps and organizing their city for a mass of tourists knowing that the short term gains will get blown out by the long term losses? Just.

So before this rant starts, I am pro-sports. At a youth level I support their funding wholeheartedly. If a sport can draw fans, TV and internet viewers then as far as I'm concerned if the organization in charge of it wants to pay their athletes $20 million a season then go for it. The NHL, NBA, MLB etc. are all funded exclusively by fans. Occasionally a city will chip in to build a new stadium, but only if it is guaranteed that it will get revenue back (the NBA will probably succeed). This is not the Olympics.

It is a silly idea for several reasons:

First the cost. Few cities actually make money on these deals. Sydney did okay but it already had everything they needed as they are home to rugby teams, Aussie Rules teams, the National Swimming Championship etc.  But what about Athens (bet they wish they had that cash back now?), Copenhagen, Nagano, Montreal and most recently Vancouver? I know for a fact that Vancouver is not expected to pay back the debt accumulated for the Olympics in the next 30 years. Admittedly highway improvements and a subway line to the airport were a part of that and were needed anyway, but three ice-skating rinks in Richmond? The fact is that money was diverted from things like education to pay for us to see who can skate in circles the fastest. Why? just. Though many would call you unpatriotic for not supporting the Olympics which brings me right in to point number two:

The petty nationalism. The Olympics are one of the best indicators of how seriously we as a species still take our tribalism (excuse me, nationalism). Already north Korea has delayed a soccer game because their players were shown with a south Korean flag and the Taiwanese flag has been taken down at the request of the PRC despite the fact that Taiwan is allowed to compete as Chinese Taipei. It's pathetic. How about we have the athletes represent themselves? Or, how about the athletes can choose which flag they want to represent? The Taiwanese can have their nationalist flag and the U.S swimming team can have a giant Ziggy Marley marijuana leaf flag. Nothing dumbs down a group of people faster than patriotism (with the possible exception of religion) and the Olympics exemplifies that. So why play to humanities most childish us vs. them behaviour? Why does anyone take pride in the fact that they grew up 200 miles from someone who can go down a mountain faster than anyone else in the world, or in fact take pride in anyone else's accomplishments instead of their own? Just.

Third. Do you really care about these sports? Really?

Olympic sports are divided in to sports that no one would ever care about if they weren't in the Olympics and sports that already have better venues. You want to see the best basketball players in the world? The NBA season starts in October. The best baseball (softball) players. Well they aren't there, go re-watch the MLB All-Star game. Best soccer players? Champions League in Europe. Then there are the ones that nobody would care about if not for the Olympics. 100 meter dash, bobsled racing, archery, synchronized swimming... synchronized f^cking swimming. So why have an unnecessary venue for popular sports and a venue at all for ones that wouldn't exist without said venue? Just.


You want to judge what makes a people, country or region great. How about literacy and education rates? Cost of living? pollution? Crime stats? Amount of expendable income per person? Suicide rates? Homelessness? Access to healthcare? Average life expectancy? If I were to rate Vancouver on this scale the health and cleanliness part would be top of the world but the affordability and cost of living part would be an abysmal failure. I'd rather have houses be $250,000 (and a HOUSE, not a tri-plex) and never host another sporting event again. London would rate very comparably to Vancouver, ask Londoners what they would prefer as well?

To boil it down.

Person A-

INSERT COUNTRY HERE has 26 gold medals. INSERT COUNTRY HERE is the greatest Olympic country of all. Of course housing is unaffordable and and I hope I don't get sick cause I can't ever afford to see a doctor. I'm so proud to be from INSERT COUNTRY HERE.


OR


Person B-

I am from INSERT COUNTRY HERE. Every citizen of INSERT COUNTRY HERE has access to healthcare, basic housing and education. But we only won 2 medals. I'm so proud to be from INSERT COUNTRY HERE.


Which person's country sounds better? Which person's country has everyone waving flags and acting like they are from the greatest place on earth? Why is that? Just.

Heat Wave

Well the hottest city in Daegu is having an intense heatwave. After a week of solid rain and overcast it has been four days with highs of 37 and lows of 30. On he plus side, after all that rain it has been dry and humidity has been dropping every day. Now I'll rarely complain about the heat, as I'd take 30 and sunny over a Daegu winter any day of the week (-10 and bone dry), but 37 makes it hard to do much of anything and I feel like I've been slow all week.

On the plus side it looks like Fukuoka is a bit cooler (33 :P) so maybe I'll be able to cool off there next week when I'm on vacation.

Comings and Goings

Well as is often the case here in Korea, a coworker is on the way out. Kris, who I have worked with for almost a year, is off to Seoul after a short vacation. Actually I think his new job may rival mine. Longer hours and more pay but he has to pay for his apartment so probably less take home but of course it's in Seoul. This also marks the end of a bit of an era, where Kris, Mike and i have worked together. It's been great because, unlike most of the time I have worked here, my coworkers have actually been friends I hang out with regularly (the brief period where I worked with Kris, Miranda and David being the 4 month exception). It's actually been odd to have three people working together for so long at one place in Korea and while I'm sad to see it ending it's also great because everyone involved is going on to better things (Kris to Seoul, me to Moonkkang and an MA in Feb, Mike to an MA in Feb). Mike and I will also be working together til the end of September, so that is a bonus. Replacing Kris is Crystal, who so far seems very nice and friendly.

We have been doing a fair bit of celebrating this weekend, with the result that I've been fairly tired these last couple of days. It's been great, as after next week Kris will be up in Seoul and it will go from almost every day to monthly visits.

We also start our vacation next week, where I will go to Fukuoka for a 5 nights to see the Japanese island of Kyushu. It's not quite Tokyo or Kyoto but it's a cheap flight and a chance to see a part of Japan I probably wouldn't otherwise see and I am more than ready for a vacation. I will also have the month of October off and while part of me wants to head back to Vancouver, I know that my sister has a place in London that I can stay at for free and Russian Airlines do Incheon-Heathrow for $1000. Of Course China is right there. Either way should be a fun summer/fall.

Ichiro in a Yankees Uniform

well this day will end with a drink

Ichiro was traded to the New York Yankees for minor league prospects and cash (basically they dumped his salary to get more young guys, who they will develop and then send to the Yankees). This solidifies my view that the Mariners are content to be a farm team for the big teams this season and, unlike the Rangers and Rays, have no interest in changing that status. I mean there was a shot of ARoid, Ibanez and Ichiro sitting together in the Yankees dugout. All former Mariners who were traded for options and junk and who are now beating up on the Mariners.

I get why they traded him. He is big money and they are going for a younger team. You couldn't trade Chone Figgins for a grilled cheese sandwich these days so they have to cut somewhere. Ichiro also deserves a shot at the playoffs and for better or worse he will get one with the Yankees. I firmly believe that if he played for New York he'd have made the last two All-Star teams (his numbers are WAY better than Granderson's).

Well as for me I always said that I'd cheer for Ichiro no matter where he went, but I assumed they'd trade him to an NL contender (where his style of play would seem to fit better anyway). I could happily cheer for Texas, Tampa, LA or even an AL central team but the Yankees. Baseball's answer to Donald Trump (I think his wig acts like steroids). Well I guess the positive side is that if the Yankees win this year I'll have something to be happy about.

Still, I'm more than a bit upset.

Back to Ulsan

For the first time since December 2009 I made a trip down to Ulsan to visit Paul and see my old neighbourhood. To say Paul is in the same neighbourhood is an understatement, he lives right around the corner from where I lived that first year. We hit up the first Makgeolli place I ever went to and then the WaBar patio, where I coincidentally first met Paul WAAAAY back in fall 2008 when I first arrived. That WaBar was actually my first drinking hole, so it was cool to be back. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago that I was living in Ulsan, and to be honest it hasn't changed all that much. It was a neat first year, where I met some great people, but to be honest going back it felt like a small town and I think I was so lucky to have met so many amazing people because at heart I am a big city person (I find Daegu quite small) and I'm not sure how I did a full year there :P.. That being said I did enjoy it a lot and do want to go back to visit again soon. Also, with the new KTX line to Ulsan and the 5004 bus running direct to Ulsan University I can get there in an hour now from my front door (it takes me longer to get to parts of east Daegu).

Taking Pictures of Your Food

This page popped up on my facebook today and it cracked me up. They are all from L.A but it's a fairly accurate of what happens over here. My facebook can often be filled with pics of my Asian friends food. Now I know when I had my first Korean bbq I took a few pics, but that's as much about the giant fire in the middle of my table as the food itself. Same goes for a few really cultural dishes, and to be fair many of these people could have been tourists to L.A (though I can assure you they have glasses of water and soup in Asia).

I don't mean it to make fun of it, some of the food does look delicious. I also know that I have taken a few food pictures in Asia, but usually as a tourist. I certainly haven't in Korea in sometime. However I know that if I pulled out a zoom lense and started taking pictures of fish and chips at Doolin's I'd get a few strange looks.

I dunno, it's just something you notice over here as a westerner.

Jikjisa

On Saturday, despite some suspect weather, Mike, Kris and I decided to head out to Gimcheon to see Jikjisa, a temple, park and town west of Daegu. This is somewhere that, despite having been in Daegu a couple of years, I had never gone to. We got up early and made our way to Dongdaegu st. to get the train to Gimcheon.

50 Minutes later and we were there. It's then a 20 minute bus ride from the station to a small collection of restaurants and shops in the mountain and a park that, unlike many parks in Korea, has open spaces and lots of grass (Korean parks can sometimes lean towards chaotic, with walking paths, sculptures and just a lack of places to with with grass). Though of course there was a collection of fountains, artificial waterfalls and sculptures but there was enough space to make it feel relaxing.

the river in town

Entrance to Jikji Park

The park

Park again

Now I say the weather had been suspect but by the time we got there the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful day. From the park we made our way to Jikjisa. Here is the history of Jikjisa. Like most temples in Korea it has been largely rebuilt in the last few hundred years, but various pagodas are actually 1000 years old, and Jikjisa has a few of them. Jikjisa is also one of the few temples where you can photograph the Buddha images, so i took full advantage of that. 

the temple with the 1000 year old pagoda's

temple and trees

Buddha in the Korean style

me with Chinese Buddha

old lantern

other side of the temple

Buddha again

Almost a tropical look

the sitting Buddha

temple buildings with the mountain

video

(sounds like we are in the tropics)

After the temple we went back to the village and had a huge meal before grabbing a beer and meeting Chris, a very interesting South African who joined us for a beer or 6. He lived in Gumi, about halfway between Daegu and Gimcheon, and we had planned to meet up again later if any of us head up to Gumi or he heads to Daegu.

After that it was a bus ride through the mountains and a train ride and taxi that had me home by midnight.

Korea is Okay with Whaling Again

wow, just when I thought Korea was entering the modern world.

Yup, Korea will officially sanction whaling for "scientific research" (same bullshit excuse that the Japanese use). Officially hunting whale is banned in Korea but if a whale is caught or hit by mistake the meat can be sold. When I lived in Ulsan there was a whale meat restaurant. I guess whales are rather hard to avoid, and really, any old net will snag them. How incompetent must Korean fishermen be? Well because any Korean I met there was actually quite honest about the fact that whales were intentionally taken (oops, didn't mean to alter course to ram that whale) and sold for consumption, but many felt that it was fishermen taking advantage of a well intentioned law rather than state sanctioned whaling. Now we know better.

The arguments are equally ridiculous:

"whales eat all the fish"
-most species don't eat fish, or certainly don't hunt them.

"it's for scientific research"
-the one the Japanese use. How come other nations can do research without killing these animals? What specifically are you trying to learn? Where can I find published information documenting the results of this research?

"it's part of our history"
- good point, here are some other things that are a part of Korean history: being owned by Japan, being owned by China, being owned by Mongolia, slavery, feudal monarchs, military dictatorship, having an economy smaller than Cambodia's. Yes, lets keep the past alive. BANZAI! Also, Koreans of 8000 years ago were using rowboats and throwing spears at the whales. I assume modern Korean whalers will keep that tradition alive as well?


Shameful.

Giving Geoff a Proper Sendoff

Well after three years abroad Geoff has opted to head back to Canada for a while to see family and see whats up.

So far his friend's have a solid bet going on where he'll go next-

I say he'll do Spanish speaking South America
Jarrod picked Latin America north of the Panama canal
Mike has him pegged for a return to Korea
Ange says he'll go to Japan

Winner gets a beer from each of the losers.


But for the present he needed a proper Koreans sendoff, because unless Mike wins our bet, he may never be returning to Korea. Geoff had a 9am flight on Monday to Tokyo on his way to Vancouver and so opted to head down to Gimhae on the Sunday night. I felt that no one should spend their last night in Korea alone at a love motel so I opted to head down with him (he also had a record three suitcases, something that I rightly made fun of him for :P). With that in mind I met him Sunday afternoon. We met Jarrod and had coffee and swapped Korea stories. Geoff and I then headed down to Gimhae airport, found a storage locker for Geoff's suitcases and then took the light rail four stops to Sasang, where there are motels a plenty and lots of food choices. Actually I thought it was cool that on Geoff's last night here we were still finding cool little places to hang out, and Sasang is a great little part of Busan that I never would have found otherwise. I had thought about staying overnight, but the last bus back to Daegu was at 1030 and Geoff was talking bed by 11 (a 9am international flight will often make that decision for you) so we just opted to walk around the area, find a sweet hotel and grab dalk galbi (spicy chicken and veggies) and a makgeolli. We then headed out to a large shopping area with a small bench and table set up, drank a Cass and hung out until 10 (yeah, drinking in public, outside after dark when it's still 24 degrees, and no one cares). I then walked back to the rail to get back to Gimhae to catch my bus.

While I'm sad to see him go I'm also excited for the next phase of what he does. I know he wants to stay home until Christmas at least, which I do understand, but I'm interested to see what happens next.

We managed to do a few cool things here, hiking Apsan more times than I can count, our trip around Chuncheongdo with Ange our first winter here, trekking to Haeinsa with Bobby in a tropical downpour. But my favourite part of his being here was our trip to Taiwan. It will rank among the best trips I have ever done. Taiwan itself is amazing, and a place I'd recommend to anyone to go see, but having a good friend there turned a 9 trip into a 10 trip. Had he stayed another year I would have made a push for a China or Thailand trip together, but now that may have to wait until he can afford round trip tickets from __________ to Bangkok.

Anyway it was a great two years in Daegu, and I'm already looking forward to hanging out in Vancouver this fall.