A little peice of Korea

This weekend brought me my first "Canadian-Korean" experience. When I moved to Korea last year I had never even tried Korean food here. This weekend, I did.

I met up with a friend who had lived in Korea for three years, but that I hadn't seen in about ten. We both brought along a bunch of friends and headed to a Korean restaurant in the west end of Montreal.

The restaurant wouldn't seat us because we were too many. hmph. I told my friends "welcome to Korea!" We found an alternative nearby, a restaurant called Hwang. It was pretty good.

Since a lot of the people eating had never had Korean before, my friend and I decided what to order and we all just shared everything. We ordered so much we might as well have said "one of everything, please!"

We had galbi, bulgogi, deok galbi, dwen jang jigae, pa-jeon, jap-chae, kimchi (a bunch of kinds), pork bone soup, and, of course, rice. I ordered a bottle of soju which came in a little tea pot and they served us warm tea with our food. It was all pretty good except for the jigae which was lacking in flavour a little.

The deok galbi made me really happy, since it's my favourite and I hadn't had it in so long, though the little restaurant near kat's house in Ulsan does it a thousand times better... I'll have to wait til I'm back in Korea to get some really authentic food... oh well.

Then it was on to the noraebang! YES! There is noraebang in Montreal! It's WAY too expensive, but I think if it caught on the price might go down... but at 30$ an hour, we opted for only the one... which is not enough time. It was fund anyway though. I felt like I was in Korea again and it felt good to be there. I think my love affair with the land of the morning calm is not yet over... for now, though, I'll have to make do with what little I can get around here. I wonder if they have noraebang in London... and if anyone would come with me.

the last

I did it. 375 days ago I landed at Seoul Incheon International Airport and tomorrow I will be leaving from it. I have mixed feelings. I know I wrote a pretty nasty post a couple of days ago about my experience here, but I was angry. That anger has subsided since my severance pay has been transferred to my Canadian bank account, and the pension office has my payment in the works.

It’s not all about the money though. In the last few days I’ve realized a lot of things about a lot of the people that I’ve known here – most of them Korean. The principal and vice-principal, along with the head teachers, took me out for a really nice lunch on my last day. At the end of the school day I had to say a few words to the teachers in the office and then they presented me with two wonderful gifts – a pair of traditional Korean dancing shoes and a hand-made Korean fan. They are both beautiful and expensive, in fact, some of the teachers were shocked by how expensive they were and commented that they could never afford such nice things… neither could I, and so they are greatly appreciated.

Apart from that, people have just been telling me that they are sad I am leaving and that they will miss me. One of my teachers thanked me for helping her to learn how to be more creative and use her imagination. Some of my students told me that I have inspired them to work hard to learn English so they can travel abroad. Some have told me they want to be English teachers because of me.

It’s hard while you’re here to realize if you’re making any difference at all. You don’t often see any real (or serious) improvement in the kids’ English. No one gives you any kind of feedback on how you are doing. Most of the time you are in the dark about everything – even regular test scores. But in the last week I’ve had student come and actually speak to me in English without any help. It feels good to be leaving knowing that I’ve made a difference, however small or big in at least a couple of kids’ lives. It’s one of the reasons I came in the first place – to try to help them learn about the world, about English, and about themselves. I guess it worked.

As much as I’ve had more than my share of difficulties in Korea, I will miss a lot of things; kids bowing to me (in school, on the street, bus, store…), being called “teacher” (it’s so cute when they do it – “but teacher! That’s not right!”), air conditioning on city buses, cheap taxis, living in my own apartment, not paying rent, cheap delicious food, walking to work, the mountains out my window, shiny sparkly things everywhere, and of course it should go without saying, all of the great friends that I’ve made.

I could write a list of things that I won’t miss, but that would be redundant as they’ve all been written on this blog over the past year, and I’d like to end the Korea posts on a positive note… how unlike me! In about 30 hours I will be home in Montreal trying to sort out the rest of my life, but for now I won’t worry about any of that. I think I’ll dwell for a while longer on all the good things that Korea has done for me.

Stay tuned for the rest of Thailand... I'll get to them as soon as I can.

a break from the tales of thailand

I'm sorry, dear reader, but I must take a break from Thailand and come back to reality here in Korea for a moment. I apologize in advance for the negative tone this post is bound to assume, but this blog has been so much about my life in Korea, and that hasn't ended yet.

Another payday came and went with no transfer into my account. It was four days late again. The reason I was given was that there was extra paperwork to be done since it was my last pay. This led me to believe that the extra paperwork was due to my severance - makes sense, doesn't it? Well, I have now been informed that I will only be getting my severance in late September or early October, which makes it pretty useless as it's meant to help me get by until I find another job.

I can't wait to say good riddance to all of the bullshit that the Korean education system has dealt me, but I suppose that will have to wait yet another month. That is, of course, if I get the money. They didn't even ask me for my account number in Canada, so how were they planning on paying it to me? I can only assume that they would have deposited it (or tried to) into my Korean account, which, as of tomorrow will be closed.

I have finally received my pay for the after school program that I worked at last semester - the semester that finished six weeks ago. At least I've been told that it's in my account, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I go to close it.

I should have known that I wouldn't get out of here without any more problems, and I suppose I was stupid and naive to think that I would... but this place has become the height of ridicule for me. I really don't want to be mean, but the work ethic here is terrible, nothing gets done on time, people are lazy and stupid, sexist and racist, and discriminatory against foreigners.

I will be relieved and happy to be back in a country where women are respected, where contracts are adhered to (and if they're not, there is recourse), where I am not treated as a lesser being, and where you can usually count on getting what's due, on time. Good riddance Korea. I thought I might be a little sad to see you go, and I thought I might get a little nostalgic, but the Gimhae Office of Education has tainted and destroyed any good feelings I had. Canada, home of my heart, get ready, cause here I come!

it's actually august

I can't believe how quickly time goes by. I know I’ve said this before on this blog... but everything is just happening so fast and it's making me think too much. I’m leaving for Thailand on Saturday. First stop is Seoul for the day - where I will finally buy my digital SLR!!! My flight leaves from Incheon international airport on Sunday at 9 AM. So this might be the last post for a while, though I haven't been posting much of late anyway, and for that, I am sorry.

It’s amazing that I’ve made it. I have a total of eight teaching days left. Tomorrow is the last day of summer camp and then I have seven days when I return from Thailand. If you had asked me in November if I’d still be here in August the answer would have been NO WAY! But here I am, and much better/happier for it too.

I’m really happy that I stayed. I know that I would have regretted leaving and I don’t like to have regrets. Every year around the time of my birthday I inevitably think back on my life and try to come to terms with the bad things that have happened, and to revel in the good. This year is no exception. (I know it’s still another couple of weeks to the “big day” but like I said, things are moving fast and making me think a lot.

I’ve recently been in touch with a lot of old friends thanks to the oh-so-addictive facebook. It’s great to get in touch, but not so great to think of the friends that seem to be lost forever. (Why isn’t everyone on facecrack???) Thinking about certain people makes me realize that I do, in fact, have regrets – though I try to tell myself I don’t – but I do. There are some things in life that I would change if I could, but then where would I be today? I can't let myself regret most things, because what I have done in my life is what has made me who I am, right? Still, there are situations that I wish would have gone differently. I've learned, though, from those "mistakes" to always ask myself if I will regret doing or not doing something.

It was the same exactly one year ago when I was deciding to actually come here or not. I felt like I was leaving things behind and that they would never be the same, and I thought that if I stayed in Canada, that maybe things wouldn’t change (yeah, naïve, I know). A friend told me that if I didn’t then I would always wonder “what if?” and I decided that I would regret not coming, so here I am. And a year later I know it was the right thing.

Well, now I’m wondering if going home is “the right thing” to do. I am going home. It’s a done deal. At least I know that I can come back anytime I want (I think that’s something else I told myself upon my arrival here). Something in the back of my mind keeps telling me that I need to find “the next big adventure” and I know that that adventure is life. I may be turning the BIG 3-0 in a few weeks, but that doesn’t mean I have to settle down, does it? Because I don’t think I’m ready, and I really don’t want to. Anyone have a boat and want to sail around the world with me?

***

Even though I’m leaving Korea in a month I’ve already started saying my goodbyes. A lot of waegooks are going to their home countries for the month of August and most of them will only be back after I leave. So, to those of you who I will most likely never see again, “Cheers! Maybe see you in another life.”

the dragonfly days of summer

that's right, dragonfly, not dog. don't think i've mentioned it, but the dragonflies are out in full force. it's pretty incredible to see hundreds of them just floating through the air above you. haven't taken a picture yet because i haven't had my camera with me and they probably wouldn't shoot that well, being as small as they are, but i'll see what i can do.

it's been hotter than hell of late... hovering around 30 C, plus humidity, which brings it to something like 50 C (okay, might be exaggerating a little) which is kind of nice on some level, but i am praising the fact that i have air conditioning in my apartment. i don't know what i'd do without it sometimes. it's one of those really nifty ones that has a remote and all kinds of controls. i'm not sure what most of them are, (the remote is in korean) but as long as it keeps spitting out cold air, i'm ok.

the coolest part is that i can adjust the temperature. if i want to leave it on when i sleep i can leave it on warmer so that i don't wake up in an ice box (not to mention that it can't be good for you to sleep in the freezing cold of the aircon, can it?).

anyway, we're in high summer here, and i've had the afternoons off all week, so have been heading up to the roof to work on my base tan. it's coming along very nicely. got a bit of a burn on my legs yesterday, but they're fine today.

the heat is also good for an excuse to not go to the gym, i mean, i'm melting anyway, right? been getting there as often as possible, but they don't have the luxury of a working aircon (korean for air conditioning) so sometimes it's just too hot to work out for very long.

eleven days to thailand. and 39 days to home. those are some numbers that i can live with! (as opposed the million degree heat).

at long last...

this weekend was another one for getting things done... things that i haven't done before. on saturday a bunch of us headed to Beomeo-sa (pr. bomo - sa is temple in korean). it is one of the largest buddhist temples in korea and i've been trying to get there since october. it was on my "to-do" list before leaving, and as with many things you always think there is so much time, but there really isn't - with only 6 weeks left til i'm home (and two of those in thailand) i'm really running low on that particular commodity.

so, we left the g-spot at around 11 am. we stopped for a korean lunch when we got into busan and then headed up the mountain. we could have taken a bus, but we all decided that we could make the 2.6 KM walk up... it wasn't too hard, some of us were huffing and puffing more than others, but we all made it up.

the weather was pretty crappy but it was my last chance (as well as d and a, who will be leaving (?) at the end of the week) to see it, so we went anyway. the clouds made the trip kind of nice actually because it wasn't too hot and they were really pretty once we were up the mountain.

the view before getting to the temple... we were in almost in the clouds.

Beomeo-sa was built in 678 AD by the Great Buddhist monk Eusang. it sits, along with 160 other temples and hermitages on the slopes of mount Geumjeong. the name translates to "Fish of the Buddhist Scripture Temple" - "beom" means the sky where a fish played and "eo" means fish. it is said that a golden-coloured fish descended, riding on a colorful cloud, from brahma-deva and played in a well on the mountain. the well never dries up and the water is the colour of gold, thus the name of the temple.

ancient 'graffiti'

on the walk up to the temple you have to pass by tombs and burial markers, as well as what is referred to (in my south korea guidebook) as ancient graffiti. names of visitors past who took the time to carve a little peice of themselves into the mountain. better than carving your name in a tree, i think.

waegooks at the "iljumun" - the first gate.
(L-R: Scott, Nate (in back), Kim, Abbey, Me - Dave is MIA and kelsey behind the lens)

the iljumun is the boundary between the mundane world and the sacred world, it is the first of three gates to enter beomeo-sa. this gate was built nearly a thousand years after the original temple sometime around 1614 AD. (most of the buildings and gates etc.. were re-built in the 17th and 18th centuries.)

one of the devas.

the second gate, or cheonwangmun, holds the four devas who stand guard. this one also had what someone called the "evil doers" though i'm not sure if that's what they are. i've never gotten a good shot of these before because they are often behind strips (or bars) of wood, so i was surprised at the clear shot i could get of these ones.

one of the "evil doers"

finally after passing through another gate, walking up some steps and around a building we were in the main temple area. this is where the 'three story pagoda' sits. it is typical of a Silla Dynasty pagoda and is believed to have been built in the 9th century.

three story pagoda

on the other side of the courtyard sits the stone lantern, which is though to have been part of the original temple built in 678.

the stone lantern

the Daewoongjeon

in the middle of the courtyard are the steps up to the main hall - or Daewoongjeon.

a monk performing a service - in the Gwaneumjeon

to the right of the main hall is another - the Gwaneumjeon - where the goddess of mercy is placed. there was a service going on while we were there, and the chanting was peaceful and sort of mesmerizing.

there are a ton of other halls at the temple, but those were the main ones that i took photos of. then we wandered around for a while, i took some 'artsy' sort of photos, so here are a couple.

nice wall...

the perfect roof shot.

"no in" - what a positive way of saying "keep out"

this is just a funny sign that we passed on our way out, i couldn't resist getting a shot. after the temple nate, kelsey, and scott decided to hike the three hours over the mountain and through the geumjeong fortress. i saw some photos and it would have been awesome to go, but i went with kim, abbey and dave to the hurshimchung spa.... more on that next time, this post is already long enough... but yes, i finally went to a bath house... stay tuned.

the beginning of the end

this is the last week of the spring/summer semester for middle schools across korea. lucky me. and i guess lucky kids too, though most of them will spend their summer vacation studying. as we all know, i'll be going to thailand (in less than three weeks now - 18 days if you wanna get right down to it).

monday was my first last day of class. my after school class finally finished. i've been teaching an extra two hours every monday for the last two and half months. it was my favourite class of all though, and was sad to see it end. i had three girls that showed up every week without fail. the rest of the (20 odd) students showed up a maximum of four times each. so i ordered pizza for the girls and got them little prezzies. they got me a necklace and a jewelry box... so sweet. they all have my email and i hope they'll use it, especially Siria, she is an amazing bright teenager.

Grace, me, Siria, and Mia - my after school girls.

today was my second last day of the semester (tomorrow will be the third). this didn't only mean that i only have one class (in august) left with these kids, but that one lucky class was having a pizza party for lunch. at the beginning of the year i devised a plan to try and keep control over my classes... a little reward system that i call "my sticker program". lots of teachers have them.

basically every period a class would start out with five stickers. when it was time to settle down, or if they got out of control i would count down three... two... one... zero. if by the end of the word zero they weren't quiet, they would lose a sticker.

the class at the end of the month with the most stickers would win prizes. these usually consisted of a printed certificate from me, a not-so-shiny canadian penny, a pencil, some candy, and a choco-pie (a kind of chocolate cake with marshmallow that the kids all love). the school didn't pay for any of this, i did. but i figured it was a small price to pay to have them all be quiet when i needed them to be. in some classes it worked extremely well, in others, not so much, but at least they could gauge when they were about to get in trouble!

well, the second part of the program was that whichever class had the MOST stickers at the end of the semester would get a pizza party. i didn't think this part through that well, since it cost me an arm and a leg and they weren't even all that appreciative, but today was the party. class 1-5 were the winners... which was expected since they won two months in a row and got five stickers in just about every class i had with them.

anyway, here are some pics:

mmm...pizza and "no teacher! don't take my picture!!!"

cuties. very quiet and shy...but that can be a good thing!

me and my little friend.

this girl never attends my class since she's handicapped, but she was allowed to come to the party. plus she loves me. she makes me little gifts and gives them to me in the hallway. she's the happiest middle-schooler i've ever met! she spent the whole class giggling about something!

they're a bunch of pretty smart kids and i'm proud of how far they've come in such a short period of time. and yes, when it's time to go home for good, i might get a little teary eyed over some of them, but that's just part of the job, isn't it?

waegooks vs hangooks

i did something this weekend that i can pretty much say i've never done before. i played soccer - or as many of my friends would call it - football. i played in high school, during gym class, but have never (even imagined) playing it for fun!

saturday night a bunch of foreigners were going to play against the gimhae men's league team. i was going to go and watch, but my wonderful friend, kim, convinced me to play. she was playing, she assured me, and there would be other girls too. so i agreed, thinking it would be a fun and different way to get some exercise. i'm hooked.

the pitch. we rented it for three hours. 7-10 PM.

before we started playing one of the guys came up to me and said "do you even know how to play?" my reply was "kick the ball into the other teams goal and don't touch the ball with your hands." i'm still not familiar with the intricate rules of the game (if there are any) but i think i could be good at it with some practice.

we also made some new friends - from busan, and from france. yes, that's right, france. we met a bunch of guys who are in korea on internships with korean air... it was strange for me to speak french with them, what, with my funny accent and all!! but it was nice to speak it for a bit and to realize how bad it's gotten... i'll need a brush up with all of my french friends when i get home!

who's playing first? not me...! later on you couldn't have torn me off the field!

even though you can't see my face i swear that's me on the right! a little down time... (bill and kim on the left)

we lost every game we played, but that's ok... i was just there for fun and the korean team practices together regularly, so they're really in tune with each other.

team photo - photo d'equipe - the waegooks

after we played 16 of us went for dinner together - all sweaty and smelly - i'm sure the koreans at the restaurant appreciated that! but it was yummy and gave us a chance to talk more with our new french friends.

francois, bruno, mathieu, and arnaud... teddy is not in the picture... sorry!

waegooks eatin' bokumbap (spicy fried rice with chicken)

there's a women's team here in gimhae who play together every saturday and you can bet that i'll be there next week, and the week after, and every week that i'm in korea. anyone back home know of any women's leagues around town??? like i said, i'm hooked.

summer on the mountain

some of you might recall that i started hiking mount sineo in mid-winter. there were no leaves on the trees. the streams were but a trickle of half frozen water. the air was cool. i really enjoyed it and went up about 5 times in a couple of months.

on thursday i had the afternoon off (thanks to exams) and figured what better way to spend the afternoon? it was actually sunny out for the first time in a while and thought i could get a little colour on me before the trip to thailand. i also wanted to check out those 'trickles' during the rainy season.

it was a whole different world.

i took pictures to compare and contrast the difference...

before:

i took this because i KNEW it would be a lake in summer... there's been some kind of 'work' done on the area so it looks a little different, but i swear it's the same spot.

after:

don't know where that concrete came from... but look at all that water!!!

before:

it's not exactly the same shot, the direction is a little off, but it's the same place...

after:

isn't it incredible what a little (or a lot) of rain will do.

i know it's just nature, but how often in our hectic lives do we really have the time and opportunity to just enjoy it? i know when i go home i won't be a ten minute walk from nature... and if i want to hike a mountain, i'll have to drive to it... so i'm going to enjoy it as much as i can before leaving korea.

here are some extra shots i took just because things are pretty now.

this is the "bridge" over the stream... it was barely wet in winter and now you have to walk through the water.

the bottom of the mountain is host to farmers fields. little plots of land that remind me of community gardens in montreal, but on a bigger scale. they grow lots of different food and plants.

like corn.

and potatoes. i don't think i've ever seen potatoes this close to their "natural habitat".

it was a nice afternoon. i'm a lot faster at getting up and down the mountain than i was, so i guess all the cardio i've been doing for the past five months is doing something. i've actually lost a total of 25.5 pounds now... and i'm still going!!!

coming soon, some korean weirdness that i've been meaning to write about: "service" and "the bacteria killing man"... so stay tuned.

cheater, cheater

today i invigilated a math exam because the teacher who was supposed to do it had to take a kid to the hospital. i was the only other teacher with "nothing to do" so they asked me. i didn't think it was a good idea until they told me there would be a korean teacher in the room with me. all i had to do was stand at the back of class, watch, and listen. no problem.

while i didn't see anyone cheating i still know that they do it... when i give quizzes - once a month to the top classes as a way of determining THE top class of the month - the kids try their best to help each other out. i always tell them before the quiz that if they cheat - talking to others, or looking at anyone else's paper - that i will take it away and count it as zero points.

they always try to argue (or whine) their way out of it when i catch them, but in every class there is always at least one. it's not like my quizzes are the collegiate scholastic ability test or anything... all they get is some candy, a canadian penny, and a certificate!

but the CSAT is another story. you might remember a few years ago when upwards of 1600 students were investigated for cheating on that exam using their mobile phones.

i am also reminded of the two days that i spent sequestered from the world, while working on the gimhae foreign language high school entrance exam last fall. would they do that if they didn't think that someone would TRY to get the answers (or questions) from us?

it's a sad reality that these kids go to school for upwards of 12 or 13 hours a day and are still expected to be A students. i wouldn't be a very good employee if i was forced to work that many hours a day. it's just the way they're brought up though... but no wonder they can't concentrate; no wonder they think they need to cheat - if they don't 'ace' every test and exam they are told they are nothing and will never accomplish anything.

and though i feel sorry for them, thank god i didn't catch any of them cheating today! and i could certainly tell which ones had studied, which ones had had a decent nights sleep, and which ones were wishing they could just lean over and ask for the answer from their friend.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

i realize this is a day late... but i was in no state to be posting yesterday. i was recovering from (korean) canada day! turns out that canada day celebrations can be just as much fun when you're outside of the country.

of course, i've been in quebec for the last twenty or so, so i guess i wasn't really "in" canada! haha.

on saturday kim, brandy and i headed into busan to go to starface, where they were holding their third annual canada day party. we went out for "western" food at outback steakhouse and headed to the party. we paid our 15,000W (~17$) for our all-you-can-drink cups and started the party.

i was drinking rye and ginger all night - which was awesome because the last time i saw ginger ale was in japan, and before that was last summer when i was in canada! i didn't think that it existed in korea, but i have photographic evidence now. the bartender w/couldn't tell me where it came from, so i'll have to wait another 2 months for some more... :(

canada dry!!! woohoo! and it's even written in korean "jin jaw ale"!

me and a couple of honourary canadians.

another honourary (eileen) with her country's flag... note the lighter in one hand!

what kind of canada day would it be without some gitch?

it was a great night, much of which i'm sure is stored somewhere in the recesses of my memory... but for now i can't find that part! we ended up leaving starface as they had complaints from the neighbours and we headed to a foreigner bar called U2, where the partying continued until the wee hours of the morn.

i spent sunday glued to my bed...

hope all of you in canada had a great day!!! i know i did!

update

sorry it's been almost a week since my last post. think i'm going to lose all my readers if i keep this up for much longer. just haven't been in a posting mood... sorry.

last weekend was spent with friends - friday was the wine and cheese night with a bunch of lady friends... only got in after 3am... it was good times.

saturday a bunch of gimhaens headed out to changwon - the next city over - to celebrate a couple of birthdays - kimbirdy's 25th and lois' 60th. again, good times were had by all.

the last couple of days have been particularly hot and muggy - which makes me lethargic, thus the non-posting all week... guess i've just been lazy about it. i keep thinking of things that i want to post about, but by the time i get home from school/the gym/meetings at the office of education/after school classes/banking...etc... i just don't feel like it.

some good news this week - my flight home will be paid for by the office of education on a "government travel request" - meaning i don't have to shell out the bucks and wait to be paid back! woohoo! we reserved my flight yesterday - i'll be leaving korea on september 2nd at around 7 am local time... which means i'll be in montreal in time for dinner (or breakfast in korea).

i'm flying busan - seoul - chicago - montreal. the last flight will be with air canada :( boo. i hate air canada... i'm expecting my luggage to get lost since i will have to pick up my luggage and re-check it in chicago... and i know from experience that AC has trouble with this concept... apparently you have to do this in the states now... the long haul will be with korean air... which should be nice. i had a great experience with them on the way over...

what else? ...hmmm.... oh ya, i think the laryngitis is back. haven't been feeling great for the last couple of days and now it hurts to swallow, i have no energy and was cold all day despite it being over 25 degrees and humid... no fever, but it felt like it... and of course, this in time for canada day on the weekend! i'm supposed to be going to busan to celebrate... we'll see how i'm feeling... in the meantime, i skipped the gym today - actually came home early and slept for most of the afternoon... i just have no energy.

i'm looking forward to thailand with ranya in just over a month!!! i've been doing research on all the places i want to go, things to see and do... before i know it i'll be lying on a beach in the gulf of thailand drinking a mojito and watching the clouds float by... i can't wait. the next two months are going to fly and before i know it i'll be home and job hunting!

update over.

changma

the korean season of changma is upon us. what is that? you might ask... it's the monsoon season. my first. i mean, it rains in the spring in montreal, but there is always some reprieve... but according to the (limited) research i've done, it's pretty much going to rain until i go to thailand in 6 weeks.

it started yesterday. i was told on monday that it would be coming later this week, and sure enough they were right. maybe the meteorologists in korea have some kind of sophisticated equipment that those in canada don't... or maybe it just happens every year at the same time. i'll bet on the latter.

the average annual rainfall in busan in july is around TEN INCHES, or 257 mm. i know, it doesn't really sound like that much when you think about it over a period of a month... but montreal gets about 3 inches in the same period...

i've also read that the relative humidity will reach up to 90% in the next month. thank god for air conditioning at home! it's another story at school #1, where the best we have in any room are fans. the classrooms have four rotating ceiling fans each - none of them reach the front of the class where the teachers stand... good thing i've gotten the kids used to me moving around the room! the teachers office has a bunch of ceiling fans too, but none of them come anywhere near my desk. if you don't hear from me for a while, it'll be because i melted!

(i hate writing about weather... but this [i hope] is different...) ;)

startled

i was startled by one of my students today. well, i'm startled by them rather often, but not so much that i remember to write about it here.

i was on my lunch break walk when i saw two boys climbing down a large wall that encloses the elementary school next door. i asked them what they were doing and one of them replied "nothing" - surprise #1: that he would know to say that. i said, "oh, that's great!" pleased that he had correctly used a word in english.

surprise #2 came a moment later when the other boy said "shut the fuck up." i was blown away! i can't manage to get them to stop saying "i'm fine thank you and you" and they're running around saying things like that! it's to be expected, of course, but it just took me by surprise. this boy never says anything - in korean or english - in class... so for him to come out like that was really odd.

i told him to never say that ever again and poked him in the shoulder. then i told all of his friends (as we arrived back in the school yard) that he was a bad boy.... which made them all point and call him crazy. hopefully he got the point, but i'm not betting on it.

pinkeye

there is an epidemic at my school this week... of conjunctivitis or for the non-medically inclined, pinkeye. everywhere i turned at school today i saw red, oozing, and infected eyes.

western medical experts suggest keeping a kid home for a few days when they have pinkeye because it's so contagious, but not the koreans. the kids will leave for a few classes, go to the doctor and come back, ready to pass it on to their friends - which is the first thing they do, so that everyone gets to miss a class or two.

i'm wondering how long it will take to spread to the teachers room - at least tomorrow i head off to school #2, where hopefully the same thing isn't going on. i've heard, though, that this is totally normal near the end of the semester when exams are approaching. maybe it's an excuse to give their parents when they do so poorly... "i was sick and couldn't study...".

Signs and symptoms

Pink eye (conjunctivitis)

The most common signs and symptoms of pink eye include:

• Redness in one or both eyes
• Itchiness in one or both eyes
• Blurred vision and sensitivity to light
• A gritty feeling in one or both eyes
• A discharge in one or both eyes that forms a crust during the night
• Tearing

sounds lovely, doesn't it?

there are several reasons you can get pinkeye - allergies, bacteria, viruses, but i know these kids give it to each other - i see them do it. i saw one kid wipe his finger on the dirty window sill and then rub it in his eye - i guess he doesn't know all he has to do is get his buddy to poke him in the eye.

despite using my antibacterial hand sanitizer every five minutes today, my eyes are feeling a little itchy... let's hope it's psychosomatic.

the guy down the street

a few months ago i was enjoying a peaceful afternoon in my apartment. i may have been reading, or watching lost, or some such activity. it was winter. it was cold out.

all of a sudden i heard a voice - no, not in my head - outside my building (so much for good insulation!). i figured it was someone getting in their car or just passing by. the voice didn't go away though. after about twenty minutes i popped my head out the window to see what the raucous was.

there was a guy standing in the alley one building over, yelling at nothing. i'm not a stranger to mental illness, i'm sure everyone knows someone who has dealt with mental illness... so i shrugged and went back to my book. a while later i heard a different voice yelling something in korean and then the guy stopped and went inside.

this has been a scenario that has occurred many times since then. i'm writing about it, cause it's happening right now. even though it's raining, he's out there - with an umbrella - yelling at the plants, or talking to the crowds of adoring fans, i'm not sure, but i wonder what he must be seeing there. who could he be talking to? what's going on in his head?

even more than that, i wonder who is supposed to be caring for this man? why would someone let him stand in the rain (even with an umbrella?) and talk to the alleyway. korea is a very closed society and you don't often see this side of it. for example, i've only seen one kid with downs syndrome in almost ten months. i think that most mentally or physically ill koreans are sent to live in institutions. at least this guy has someone who cares enough to let him live at home.

he's still going, no one has stopped him yet, like they usually do. i hope he goes in soon though, or he might get sick standing in the rain... if only i spoke korean.

ulsan for you

went to ulsan this weekend to hang out with kat and the hogye crew for a change. i got to ulsan around 8:30 on friday night and met Kat and Rachel at benchwarmers - a foreigner sports bar - under the auspices of watching the stanley cup finals. we weren't allowed to talk about who won or not, but it was pretty obvious, even if you hadn't seen it on the news sites. anyway, we chilled there until around 3 am and headed back to hogye. it was a good time.

kat, rachel, and me.

i met this guy from montreal who knows almost ALL of my J-school friends and i'm almost certain that i've met him before. it was nice to talk about home with someone who knows the city as well as i do.

Ryan - the korean bartender kat exchanges language lessons with.

on saturday kat had her korean study group in the morning, so i slept in and made my way downtown to do some shopping. BIG mistake! i spent way too much money but i have some new clothes (that fit properly, if not a little tightly - in anticipation - i actually bought a SMALL and it fits!!!) and i got a couple of prezzies for people back home. starting to think of that now so i don't end up rushing it in the last week! (cherry - there's something from korea just for you!!! finally found something that screamed your name to me!)

after shopping downtown, i went shopping in the "new" downtown with kat. then we sat and had coffee for a few hours on a terrace. it was great.

saturday night was Darragh's going home party. he's back to ireland on tuesday :( so we ended up staying out late again. i went home at about 4 while kat kept going.

darragh hearts ajumas!

darragh and martin... joined at the hip... whatever will martin do?!?!??

today i went to the homever (kats version of homeplus) and got some whole wheat pasta. yay! i was running low and have only ever seen it in ulsan... but they didn't have any at the lotte which is where i bought it last time... so, happy to find some. then i headed home.

good weekend, with good friends, good food, good beer, and good times. thanks guys!

stuff

well, i've already fallen off the daily posting band wagon... sorry. this is just a quick post to say that there will be lots soon as i'm off to ulsan... we all know that means more adventures of kat and liz... so hopefully, no, definitely will have something interesting to post soon... so stay tuned. we might head up to gyeongju, of winter camp fame, to check out more of the "sights" than i got to see the first time around.

anyway, it's raining right now. the thunder was so loud it set off a car alarm down the street three times! when the lightning flashed i thought a power line had exploded outside my apartment from the flash of light. this, after a sunny day of 25 plus degrees... anyway, how boring am i that i have to write about the weather?

have a good weekend everyone.

**
a little shout out to kassandra - CONGRATULATIONS on the new job!

memorial day

i spent the morning running errands and the afternoon basking in the sun on my rooftop. i didn't really think much about why i had the day off until i came to writing this post.

today is memorial day in korea. a day to remember the sacrifice of soldiers and civilians who lost their lives during the korean war. there's a big televised ceremony at the national cemetary in seoul, just like we have in canada on remembrance day. i didn't watch it. in fact, i didn't know about it until about an hour ago... oh well.

for me today was just another day off. it didn't seem like anything was different today except banks and schools were closed. something familiar in a land far away. remembrance day in canada is very similar. we take one minute out of our day to think about the lost. same here. at 10 am you're supposed to stop and think.

i kind of feel like it's become so routine in our lives to just accept that countries go to war, and inevitably there is a loss of life. canada has been feeling this even more of late, with the loss of almost 60 soldiers in afghanistan - the highest number since the korean war. why should we only think about these people once a year? why isn't everyday a day to remember? is it maybe too hard to think about? does the pomp and parade of the day make us feel differently? or maybe we just can't come to terms with death like that on a daily basis. i know there are people out there who do think about it everyday- the parents, children, siblings, and spouses of those who are overseas fighting.

so though today isn't a day of remembrance for me (as i know it), i'll still take a minute of my time to think about all that has been done on my behalf in the name of freedom- so you should too.

happy birthday to...

my school? yup. today is school #1's birthday, which meant another day off. you might remember school #2 had it's birthday a couple of weeks ago... and school #3 had their birthday today too... how come the schools' i attended never had birthdays? and even if they did, it didn't mean having a day off!!! just another crazy (good) thing in korea!

so i spent the day cleaning my apartment from top to bottom - literally. i killed a cockroach the other day. it was the second that i've seen since september... so i'm not worried about an infestation, but i also want to make sure that i don't have to. some interesting facts about cockroaches:

- Cockroaches are some of the most ancient insects. Fossil records show their relatives have been around, virtually unchanged in appearance, for over 350 million years.
- The popular Latin American song "La Cucuracha" means The Cockroach.
- The common German Cockroach can survive for over a month without food, but less than 2 weeks without water.
- Cockroaches have been found to carry, on their bodies, the pathogens that cause tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy, dysentery, and typhoid, as well as over 40 other bacteria or viruses that can cause disease.
- Cockroaches will feed on people!! They feed at night when people are sleeping, consuming protein materials such as
eyebrows and fingernails.

this is like the one i killed

and don't forget, they can survive a nuclear explosion!

given these facts, i certainly don't want them to live in my house, so i spent the day cleaning to make sure they know! i'm also gonna get a couple of roach trap thingys next time i'm at the store... just to be sure.

tomorrow is memorial day, so everyone has a day off... thinking of heading down to the beach... i promise to update more regularly... i've been getting really lazy about the blog...