Some photos from my weekend in Seoul:
This is one of the vehicles outside of the War Memorial Museum.
Korean Soldiers
Teachers and Soldiers
Old-Time Weapons
.45
Palace In The City
King Sejong
Major Metropolis
Nighttime View
Wedding Photo Day
Old Furnishings
View to the North
More story later!
Unbeknownst to me before I arrived in Korea, days off are few and far between. Our longest stretches without work are only four days, which occurs only twice in the school year. One of those stretches was last weekend when we received Thursday and Friday off to create a four-day weekend, and I was determined to make the most of it.
It was difficult to make plans with other teachers because the public school people actually getan extended vacation and most of them are off back home or in other Asian countries. Also, each of the hagwons has different schedules so I could not coordinate with those friends who did not have four days. I think it’s a little evil to get Thursday (Christmas Day) off work but to have to come in on Friday, especially when the students are on vacation, themselves. So, when I met Tina at an early Christmas party and she said she was going to Seoul, I latched on quickly; it was a travel opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
Seoul is far to the north and getting there is not as easy as the short bus ride to Busan. Similar to breaking the Busan barrier, though, now that I understand it’s not so difficult to catch the train to Seoul, I know I will be doing it more often. Tina and I met at the Busan rail station and caught the speedy KTX train which dropped us off right in downtown Seoul less than three hours later. Tina’s Toronto cohort, Kristine, met us there and after a short taxi ride we were loose in one of the ten biggest cities on the planet. Looking around at the concrete and traffic and skyscrapers and throngs of people as far as the eye could see, the only thing that repeatedly came to mind was: “Oh, hell yeah.”
Last weekend was an eventful one. Met a few new people — it seems there are new foreigner arrivals every week — including one at a party I didn’t want to go to! I finally got a TV. Bought it used for 50,000 and carried it back to the apartment. There are 60 channels of which 5 are in English. Movies, sports and an assortment of procedural dramas. I haven’t been able to find Korean news in English, but I’ll keep searching…or just learn Korean. Got to talk with a coupla friends from back home. I apologize, Scott, for ever doubting that Skype would be a good idea; in fact, I know that I will be using Skype for years to come. Got paid. That’s straight cash. Got a lovely care package from my lovely sister on Monday. And to top it off…
I visited Gyeongju with Sarah, Pieter, Johnny, Laurel, Josh, Virginia, Levi and Ryan. It was ice cold but also refreshing to be out of the city for awhile. We visited the national park and saw restored Buddhist temples and sculpture at the end of a not-so-easy hike. Even more interesting to me were the families strolling through, snapping group photos of themselves. And there were people kneeling and praying; it made me think of the Muslim pilgrimage.
So, yeah, you can understand it. Hopefully, I can do more stuff like this very soon!
Tomorrow is the last day of the Korean course I’ve been taking at Changwon College. I haven’t taken it the most seriously, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this blogger post at 1:30am instead of studying for tomorrow’s final or being asleep. But the class has been just what I needed. Seven students and one fantastic teacher over at the community college. Twenty classes; twice a week for ten weeks…done and done.
So far, I’ve learned a ton of words but I’m still shaky with the whole stringing-them-together-into-a-coherent-sentence part. I entertained the students at the end of class today by speaking intentional Korean gibberish (“Breakfast classroom you are so beautiful!”) while keeping a straight face, but I probably would not have been able to say anything comprehensive outside of a few perfected phrases. Looking back at the Korean for Dummies book now, though, the class was necessary. Even if I could have slogged through that book it would have been with zero understanding of reading or writing. Maybe that’s my greatest triumph from this class — I can totally recognize, read (most) and write (slowly) in Korean…if I have 2-3 minutes to do it.
Happily, I was also able to make some human connections and extensions from the class. Meeting people is always an ulterior motive for me when I take a class and Sarah and Kristen were certainly good people to know for a person trying to get established and create a network in the SK.
I haven’t made the official decision to take the second level of the course once it begins in February but, really, the decision is a no-brainer. Continue working on the language during the winter downtime, keeping it fresh in mind and inch closer to fluency while spending time in a fruitful environment.
I’ve been to the table tennis center a couple of times now with some of the hagwon folks. Each time it has been a bundle of fun. There are the middle-aged people taking huge, quick cuts at the ball. There is an automatic ball machine like in tennis or at the batting cages. There was the 115,000 Won paddle and the dri-fit athletic clothing worn by the players. It’s to be expected since I’m in a country where table tennis is a legitimate sport instead of just a game played for a few hours every couple of years on a broken table in someone’s garage. Pieter has taught me a few rules that I did not know, however, and once I get my slice backhand to stay low I’ll be unstoppable, baby!
Check out my video of the man on the ball machine. Note the exercise bike on the side!
Long ago when I first started shaving, my favorite razor was the Gillette Good News twin-blade disposable. And then the Mach 3 came out with the flying jet razor commercial and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever, but it wasn’t! That Mach 3 was a nice razor. Hopefully, that’s not simply masterful marketing casting its spell over me. You probably know that they released the motorized version of it, followed by four blades:
Schick Quattro Titanium (4 blades)
Five blades:
Gillette Fusion (5 blades)
And, as seen in Changwon’s E-Mart…six blades!!!!!!
Dorco Pace 6 (6, baby, 6 blades!)
I can’t wait for one of these companies to pitch a retro straight razor claiming that a single blade is better than multiple blades. There’s no way all of these razors function ant differently or better or worse than the others. But I’ll tell you…I can’t wait to buy that six!
On students’ suggestions I rented the Korean films Tazza and Fly, Daddy, Fly. The kids assured me that these were both good movies and they were right on the money! And thanks to the fantastic site, Chinky’s Movie Spoiler, you can watch the full, subtitled movies on your computer!!
Fly, Daddy, Fly
Fly, Daddy, Fly reminded me of the movie Run, Fatboy, Run with Simon Pegg. Both movies are about a chubby loser of sorts striving to get into shape for some noble goal. In Daddy, a father must overcome his own nebbishness to avenge a terrifying assault on his daughter and win back the respect of his family, where Fatboy has Simon Pegg overcoming his lack of ambition to possibly win the respect of his ex-girlfriend. The Korean movie has the benefit of a teenage trainer (who receives the prime real estate on the poster) who is super-suave and brooding and, predictably, becomes something of an adoptive son for the dad. It was very entertaining and I recommend it, although I had to get by some humor that just wouldn’t carry in the States and the most alarmingly docile wife and daughter I think I’ve ever seen on film.
Tazza
Tazza (The High Rollers) is the real gem of the two. Admittedly, it incorporates elements from many American films; a heavy dose of Rounders and maybe even some Heartbreakers in there. But it is done very well. A guy gets caught up in a gambling underworld after losing all of his sister’s money and ends up facing off against the nemesis of his mentor. There’s a John Tuturro-like mentor, an Edward Norton-like screwup sidekick, a Gretchen Mol-like wet blanket girlfriend, and then there’s Kim Hye Su. In a movie filled with beautiful, suave and sophisticated people, Kim Hye Su steals the show by being drop-dead gorgeous and demonstrating some killer acting. In case you’re wondering, she’s the woman on the poster. Everyone does a fantastic job, though, and every situation is totally understandable. Both movies had a little extra special appeal for me because I recognized locales in both that I’ve already visited. Quite cool. And quite an introduction to Korean film!
The most ubiquitous song in Korea over the past two months is “Nobody” by Wonder Girls. It’s everywhere, in every store and restaurant; in every taxi, bar and club. Grown men and women dance the associated dance at the IP. I probably hear it once daily and 5-7 times on weekends. It’s catchy, but not very good. However…since I found this video with the translated lyrics it’s growing on me. I may or may not have bought the song on iTunes and I may or may not have searched for the album this morning in the bookstore.
Mother. Fucker.
What. The. Fuck.
One of the Korean teachers at the job has quit, and that’s a good thing because she was having a rough time in her personal life and was miserable at work. She’s very nice and I wish her the best.
Her replacement, though, is Alex. Maybe 45, he gives us a grand total of three male teachers following Pieter and I and he’s the only male Korean teacher. Alex taught in public schools before (aren’t hagwons a step backwards? I wonder what Alex’s situation is) and he seems refined and friendly. Only problem is…
I’m already tired of Korean men trying to be my friend.
Somehow, whether it’s at the basketball court or the grocery store or the bike shop or the bar or the workplace, Korean guys of all ages love to approach me with their life stories and ask for mine. Alex’s first question to me after a coworker introduced us was about fucking Barack Obama. Look, Alex, there’s not a Black American alive that isn’t happy and optimistic; we’ve covered that. Then, he wanted to observe my classes which is probably the #1 way to alienate me other than saying you bought the Everybody Loves Raymond DVD set. I HATE BEING OBSERVED. I hated it in Hayward. I hated it in Fremont. I hate it in Changwon. I understand it’s a necessary part of teaching, but he and I teach different courses so it wasn’t necessary this time. Do you think Alex sat quietly in the back of the classroom while I taught? Do you think Alex resisted the urge to answer discussion questions posed to the HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS?? Do you think Alex refrained from talking to students as they took their motherfucking quizzes??? No, no and fucking no. Can you imagine me doing that in someone else’s class? I just…I just can’t picture it. This is a time where I lament my position in Korea. I feel like I can’t ever admonish a Korean person in Korea because no matter how asinine I believe some behavior may be, perhaps that’s just the way things are here. When Alex asked to sit in on a second class I just had to lie, saying the discussion would be identical and he’d glean more from a different teacher, I don’t know…maybe from his own subject.
All of that was Thursday and Friday. On Monday afternoon, I arrive–Alex’s desk in the teacher’s office has mysteriously moved next to mine. In fact, his papers are spilling over. He asks if I like soju. Sure, I say, mixed with lemonade or Milkis. He explains that he drank soju with his friend over the weekend and that he’d like to have a drink with me sometime. That conversation elicited the statements at the start of this post and was the impetus for writing the post in the first place. I know I sound like an ass but FUCK THAT SHIT. I can already hear my excuse/deflection engine starting up, ready to generate any story to stop this from happening.
Last week was a virtual vacation for me even though I went to work every day. It was discussion week, meaning no lessons and no homework, just preparation of open-ended discussion questions to give the students practice speaking. What’s more, our students were reassigned so that I led several small classes of high school students instead of my typical middle and , <shudder> elementary school kids.
The class periods are super-long for discussion; three two-hour classes for M/W/F and two three-hour classes for T/Th. As a result, there was plenty of opportunity for filler among our planned writing and speaking and so I got a chance to ask students about some things I’ve seen in the city and still need to learn about. These answers are edited, but come straight from them!!
Why are there no STOP signs in Korea? Many intersections have traffic lights (robots) and painted lines, but Korean drivers and pedestrians generally rely on each others’ common sense to avoid accidents.
Why are there so few trash cans in Korea? The lack of trash receptacles in Korea is intentional. The idea is that people will be forced to carry their trash until they can locate or or even take it home with them. The increased effort will urge people to ultimately create less waste.
Why do I see students in school uniforms walking the streets in the middle of the day? Shouldn’t they be in school? They SHOULD be in school. Middle and high schools begin at 7:30a or 8:00a and the earliest ones let out at 3:00p. There are lunch breaks, but none long enough to go downtown or to E-Mart where many students are seen. Those kids are bad kids who are definitely cutting school. Clearly, it’s not difficult to skip school although there are severe, yet undisclosed, penalties if one gets caught.
Why are there only a few kinds of cereal in the grocery store? Most Koreans eat rice for breakfast along with other assorted foods like fish, ramen or even soup with just water or tea to drink with it. Breakfast in Korea is identical to lunch; there really aren’t specific breakfast foods like in the United States and the rest of the Western world. Furthermore, there has been a public campaign against cereal touting it as unhealthy given that it is loaded with carbohydrates…even the kinds that are not sugar-packed.
Why do young Koreans take mobile phone photos of themselves while sitting at the cafe? No definite answer.
Where can I find size US 12 shoes? Go to Seoul or order online.
Your uniforms are the coolest. Would it be weird if I ordered one of those suits for myself? <Peals of laughter>
