Blogs
On Wednesday Jordan's teachers took us out for a farewell dinner (perhaps more like a "see you again" dinner). They took us to a fancy "Western" restaurant and we got to talking about how the food they serve at places like these is in fact nothing like you could find anywhere in America. What exactly it is that makes it different eluded me at the time, but I have since come up with this list:
5 Ways to Know Your Food Was Made in Korea
1. There are about 20 little plates on the table.
2. On these 20 little plates are various vegetables that have been pickled and/or fermented.
3. The main course has between 5-10 different kinds of meat, one of which is a hot dog.
4. 3 tatertots accompany the main course as a festive garnish (3 tatertots for 5 people).
5. There's octopus in the noodles.
My Dad mentioned the other day how we hadn't posted on the blog for a while, and I said, "you know, it's same old, same old here in the Dream Hub." The Gunsan mayor and his people have bestowed the motto "Dream Hub" on our little town, and I think if you were to interview anyone who lived here we'd all agree that it's fitting. As I've signed on for another year of teaching in Korea, I'll highlight some of the reasons why Gunsan is our Dream Hub:
1. Our internet is about one hundred times faster than yours.
2. We have a really cute bunny.
3. Working is often about the same as not working. I've been keeping track of classes I've actually taught so far and it's come out to about 60%. Keep in mind that my regular schedule is 20 hours a week.
4. It's beautiful. Whether we're walking around the lake in our neighborhood (the park that surrounds it just got new, free excercise equipment) or admiring the rice fields from school, it may be flat, but it has a charm all it's own.
5. It hasn't snowed yet. In fact fall has just come with a bit of a coolness noticeable in the air.
6. My students are filled with endless enthusiasm despite the fact that everywhere they turn someone is trying to beat it out of them (in fact, you can whack your students if you'd like in Korea, sometimes I whack mine with the textbook.)
7. We have a giant TV.
8. Really Fancy Coffee Shops. Sometimes they have swings.
9. Our neighborhood is the best. We were a bit nervous when we moved into an apartment building in the middle of a giant apartment building complex, but now that we've joined the hustle and bustle it is certainly home. The neighborhood kids all yell hello at us still. The corner pizza places delivers with such entusiasm that you'd think we were royalty. The bakery makes sure that we don't buy too much bread and the vegetable stand gives us free onions. The stationary shop gives us freebies and every bus in in Gunsan stops at our house.
10. To jump off the last point, despite the fact that we've been here a year, we're still celebrities. Jordan recently caused a hallway jam when he showed up at the end of my class causing all my students to stop and stare at him like he was Jesus returned.
To see more recent pics check out our new flickr album.
Most of you guessed 2nd, which would have been extremely surprising given that Korea's economy is only ranks 11th in the world, but still, you weren't far off (and the Koreans often do extremely surprising things).
Source: Michael Breen's The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies.
Take 1:
Obi met luke. Obi is friend of Luke's father and he was warrier. R2-D2 showed Leia's message to him. Then he has to go Altaran. He suggest Luke to go with him. At first Luke regjected. They went back home. But empire's army ruined Luke's home. And Luke's uncle and aunt were dead. So Luke determined to go with Obi. So they went to city to find pilot.
Take 2:
Luke's uncle and aunt dead because bad people fire Luke house so, Luke want to be like his father, so he went to pilot in the bar he learn art.
Take 3:
Ruke get lightsword and he's uncle and aunt died. He went somewhere because he need a pilot and he get a pilot.
Take 4:
Um... robot cut leg (because sand jock) once day. Obi and Luke father Jack. Obi is Luke.
Take 5:
He is go learn force he mother father uncle die he is angry. He want to go learn to force in Jedie.
Take 6:
So last week I had vacation school here at Seoheung. We watched Star Wars and Ratatouille and made posters and played some games. The Koreans love to document things, and so my coteacher took lots of pictures, which you can view. I think this is good since a few of you seem to have the impression that I am just a big slacker who does nothing. These photos I think prove that I do in fact teach some students some of the time.
I would check out the rest of the photos, as my students made some very exciting aliens...with interesting names...
"Yesterday, I watched half of star wars. And I waited watching movie time all day! Today's movie contents were very exciting. Luke and Solo save Princess Leia and Ben died. Finally Princess Leia's team started to attack. Also they won the war. I was little bored about light sword. He didn't use the light sword. But it's okay. He defeat Darth Vader! He is our hero!!!! And R2D2 is very cute ><!!!!"
"The movie was really thrilling. Because, yesterday then computer graphic very natural. And thrill very very good. Tomorrow more thrill more. Do you think so too? Oh! I was so amazing to hear that movie was made in 1977. Very good!! These movie showed teacher thank you ~~ I love teacher!! >_<"
"The movie is interesting, specially gun fight a merry time of it."
I love vacation school because I love to make my students write. Then I get to read the pearls that they've writtten. They use English so differently that everything they write sounds like magical poetry to me.
You can see I've tried to make some corrections to this, but to speak honestly, what can I really say to this? And this student also told me after class that she would pay better attention tomorrow.
Today we watched Star Wars IV. Everyone loved R2D2. They thought he was so cute, so loyal and the star of the movie. C3PO was not so impressive, but "unnatural." Luke was "handsome", Leia was "ugly", Luke's uncle was "wisdom". Everyone said, "this movie is famous" and one student wrote about its effect on America: "for example, American children have had dream that they will grow great scientists after they watched the movie."
To sum up the first half of Star Wars we have this summary:
"I have never seen the movie Star Wars. I saw star wars for the first time first. The Star Wars is very funny movie. R2D2 is apperance the movie so he is character. He has a memory from the princess Leia. Then he is give this memory to Obi won Kenobi. At that time, One man his name Luke Skywalker is help them too. but enemy Darth vader afflict them and will catch the robbot R2D2 and C3PO. indeed they protect the peace or they obey the evil...?? I feel wonder at the result."
I feel wonder too.
Korea is fairly new to the world hip hop scene. But when Koreans started b-boying they did it in typical Korean fashion: without reserve, determined to become the best. And now they are. The best. "Battle of the Year," a tournament often called the World Cup of break dancing, takes place annually in Germany. Out of the past seven years Korea has won four times. The other three years they were runner up. America, the mother of hip hop, has by contrast won the tournament twice in nineteen years.
This is all a lead in to say that while we were in Busan this last week we stumbled upon an international hip hop competition taken place on the beach. At one point it was raining pretty hard, so it was like seeing Step Up 2 live; the Koreans were ready with ponchos for everyone, so the show went on unfazed. One thing that surprised me about the competition was the number of girls involved, including an all-female Korean crew, which I thought was great (hopefully their parents think the same). Here's a little highlights video:
Does anyone know where Croacia is? For the life of me I couldn't find it on the map...
For more about break dancing, hip-hop, and Korea's dominance, I would highly recommend the film Planet B-Boy.
Jordan and I spent the last week traveling in and around Busan, Korea's second largest city (with a population of about three million). We spent the first day visiting Jordan's old friend Ben in Ulsan, a town about an hour away from Busan (home to Hyundai) and his wife Na-Young and their son. They were nice enough to show us around the city and take us to a temple out in the country. We had a very enoyable day with them.
In Busan highlights included pointing to things in the fish market I would not eat:
Watching the other tourists enthusiastially point at the things they wanted to eat:
We also went to famous Haeundae beach and swam with thousands of our friends.
The big aquarium on the beach was also great, it was more impressive than our guide book led us to believe and some of the tanks had creative embellishments.
We also enjoyed lots of great shopping in the neighborhood around our hotel.
In the end I didn't want to leave Busan as it reminded me of Hong Kong with the large ships sailing in the distance, the lush, forested mountains coming down to meet the beach and the busy streets filled with people and market stalls. Back home in the Dream Hub things are quiet and hot. Jordan has finally gotten a video game to work after a month of trying, but hopefully he'll pull himself away to post video of the hip hop festival we saw one evening at the beach in the rain. And I'll spend the next week or so working on a scrapbook of our trip. You can see the rest of our pictures here.
Yep, Korea beats out Italy and every country in North Africa and the Middle East to be the world's largest consumer of garlic. They eat it by the chunks here (generally they cut each clove in half--once), and they eat lots of chunks.
Sources:
http://facts.trendstoday.info/food-and-drink/garlic
http://www.squidoo.com/seoul-korea-information-and-travel-guide
This morning I needed to stop at the hospital to pick up the results of some tests I had for renewing my contract. So I thought I would ride a new bus there. I had noticed on my previous trips that bus 58 stopped outside the hospital. So I got on, but soon realized that it was going the wrong direction, out towards the country. Since at some point I needed to get to school this morning, I gestured to the bus driver that I wanted to go the other way and he gestured the way he was going. So I got off and got on another bus which included a short walk to the hospital. As I was walking, who should drive by and wave at me than bus #58, which I guess goes the other way to get to the hospital. But then, after I finished my business and took a short taxi ride to school, who should wave to me as I got out of the cab than the driver of bus #58! He must think I am quite crazy to ever haven gotten off his bus in the first place...But at least I have one more Korean friend who will wave at me now whenever he sees me.
Word just in while I was looking for a photo. Tomorrow when I get to school I get to pose for a picture with the English teachers who were supposed to have started an English club (with me as their teacher), but didn't have time, but have to take the picture anyway. I <3 Korea.
So the week has come to a close. I just watched the beginning of High School Musical for the sixth time. Next week I'll get to watch the middle six times and then the end six times. And then I might show it at my other school. I guess it doesn't matter what country you're in, middle schoolers everywhere love it. And why not? There's singing, there's dancing and there's high school romance. And I'm showing it to them during school. What more could they want?
After watching some Wallace and Gromit the past couple of weeks, I'm settling into a nice routine out here in the country of basing all my lessons around movies. Thanks to the fancy new English rooms, I can keep my students blissfully entertained while perhaps learning a little English. But now the questions becomes, what movie should I watch next? What else will the Middle Schoolers love? I'm trying to remember what movies I loved in Middle School. What movies did you love?
So here's a little quiz: if Carmen Sandiego were to hide out by world's longest man-made dike, where would you find her? I'll give you a hint: she wouldn't be in the IJsselmeer, the Netherlands. Because the dike located there, the Afsluitdijk, is 500 meters short of the title.
The answer of course, is that Carmen would be sipping ice-cold Nesquik at our apartment in Gunsan. The Saemangeum Seawall, located just south of the city, was opened in 2006 and measures 33 kilometers in length. It's still under heavy construction at the moment, part of a government project to increase the arable land around Gunsan that is costing Korea nearly 7 trillion won (or $5.5 billion USD).
Anyway, Matthew came down for a visit this last weekend, and we determined that it was time to visit the landmark. You can see the pictures here.
So this weekend we celebrated my birthday by taking a trip to Jeonju, the capital city of our province which is about an hour bus ride away. The main attraction was the TGIFriday's, but they also have some nice neighborhoods to walk around in.
For more pictures, click here.
Thank you to everyone who bought me a scoop of ice cream! I am still enjoying them!
A few weeks ago, my country school had its Sports Day. It was very thrilling and I got to go home early.
So last week we got to skip two days of school to go to Korea's largest festival. The festival, as I understand it, centers around an ancient shamanistic tradition of celebrating 3 deities. We took part in welcoming the deity to the festival. It comes in the form of a tree, where it lives, which the people cut down and parade through the city. We were behind the tree, with out lanterns, dressed in our Korean hanboks. And unlike most places I have been, the Koreans really love when foreigners take part in their culture (ie: wear their clothes, eat their food, celebrate their festivals) and everyone was very happy to see us and wanted to take our picture. I posed for several during the parade. It is nice to know that I will be in some random person's scrapbook of the festival. Please enjoy these pictures of random people that we took:
Jordan working on his wishes.
This lady wanted to take a picture with me, even though she didn't have a camera.
Jordan and Matt enjoying the time off from school, perhaps a little too much?
This last week we went up to the far north-eastern province of Gangwon-do to take party in the largest and longest-held Korean cultural festival, Danoje. We spent the night and were taken on tour as part of the special week-long foreigner program (the festival itself is a month-long afair).
Here's a little video of the experience (pictures will be up shortly):
There are a few people amongst our readership who use us as their technology advisors. If you are such a person, this entry might be of interest to you. If you are interested in our goings and comings, then this may not be so thrilling.
I recently uploaded all our digital pictures to Flickr.com. You may have noticed that we use Flickr to host our Korea pictures, and you may be wondering why we have put them all there, as if you really wanted to look at that many pictures.
The truth is we did not upload them so you could look at them, but as a means of storage for ourselves. Unlike sites like Facebook, which compress your photos when you upload them, Flickr saves the actual photo, giant size and all. For $25 a year, Flickr gives us as much space as we can use (if you were to ask Jordan about this he would say, "it's a good deal"). So we no longer have to backup our photos on our external harddrive. They are in fact safer on Flickr, since they are about triple backed up on Flickr's servers (and Flickr is owned by Yahoo!) and you can't drop the internet or spill water on it.
The other main reason we put them on Flickr was to organize them. Think about how many pictures you have. Now think about how many pictures you'll have in 20 years. How will you find that one picture of me eating ice cream in San Francisco? The answer is: Flickr. Flickr gives you the best options for organizing and searching your pictures. There are a few offline programs that give similar options, but these can be frustrating to use because they utilize so much memory that they slow your computer down. And if your computer crashes, or you get a new one, you might lose all the organization you've done, if not the actual pictures.
So that's why we use Flickr. If you want to know how we use Flickr, you can watch this movie. I made it, and apparently I had a lot to say because it's really long. I found Flickr tricky to use when I was starting out, and so perhaps explain more than you need to know. I have made friends with it though, and once you go through the initial work of loading your old pictures, it will take very little work to maintain as long as you add your pictures as you take them.
Needless to say, we highly recommend this solution if you take more than 100 pictures a year. Because 100 pictures times 20 years is 2000 pictures. And who only takes 100 pictures a year?
Friday was Teacher's Day here in Korea, so to celebrate we went camping with our friends--Matt and Mihye (England, Korea), Jim and Carol (New Zealand), Edwin and Laura (Canada), and Vicky (England). Actually, to say "camping" is probably a bit of a stretch, since we slept in cabins complete with toilets, showers, TV's and, um, our Wii, and had an ice cream (and beer) man located conveniently down the road; but hey, let's not split semantics ;). We had two cabins, with guys in one and girls in the other, and spent two nights.
Anyway, the weekend was a lot of fun. It rained the whole time, but that didn't stop us (slash Edwin) from playing around with making fires and roasting hot dogs under the nearby gazebo, or playing scrabble and bickering over the validity of "ick," or being slaughtered by the girls in Pictionary, or learning how to really play Charades from masters Matt and Marisa, or trading every bit of trivia (slash "what do you call a man with X on his head" jokes) we knew as we fell asleep in the Manly cabin.
Marisa, our grill, and our cabins:
At Edwin's campfire. Left to right: Me, Marisa, Carol (being blocked by Marisa), Mihye, Matt, Vicky, Laura, and Edwin (the next couple of photos are courtesy of Jim):
Learning the intricacies of "water, log, fire" from Matt. He doesn't realize that his log's about to be washed away by my double river action:
Getting demolished in a girls-vs-guys game of pictionary. Our mistake started at "how about best 2 out of 3" and ended with "best 5 out of 9?"
The setting, half an hour outside of Gunsan:
More pictures here.