Burning the Morning Calm |
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Barb and Toby's adventures in Korea. Toby has unfortunately left the Land of the Morning Calm but Barb will continue to update you until we are together againin Canada.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2003
We are currently on our way to Seoul where we are supposed to catch our flight to Thailand. The Director of our School, Jane, and the head of the Training Team (our boss at the company), Jo, have been trying to convince us all afternoon to not go on our vacation. Jo says we can't teach at the company if we go. What kind of place tries to control where people go on vacation? There are no cases or suspected cases of SARS in Thailand. Go to the WHO website to find out for yourself. Neither the WHO nor the CDC have issued any warnings for Thailand, other than that those people entering Thailand should be prepared to be screened for SARS. Frankly I will feel far more safe in Thailand than in unhygienic Korea. LG has a policy that if its employees travel to certain countries, they must stay away from the company for twelve days following their return. Thailand was not on the list of countries when we booked our trip. Interestingly enough it was added yesterday! There is no SARS in Thailand, and I can't see why it would be added to the list. One of my students in my Beginner class (who has been to class twice) is apparently on the SARS taskforce and warned Jo that we were going to Thailand. How that led to Thailand being placed on the list, I cannot imagine. Jane told Barb that we would be "breaking our contract" if we got to Thailand, which is complete bullshit. First of all, we have no contract with LG. We have a contract with Jane's Foreign Language School, which mentions nothing about being outsourced to LG and having to follow their rules. Second of all, our contract states nothing about where we can or cannot go on vacation. To imply that we can be fired for going on vacation somewhere is quite frankly insulting. I'm also a little upset that Jane is not defending us against this stupid policy and is instead taking Jo's side on this. If they do fire us our students will be quite pissed off and I hope Jo and Jane get hell for it. I also plan on disputing it, because there is no way this can be grounds for legal termination. Luz, the other teacher at Jane's and LG, suggested that we just tell them we're not going and we're going somewhere else and then go to Thailand anyway. I really don't like the idea of having to lie about where we're going. We also don't know if immigration will tell Jane or Jo that we left (that's the kind of country this is). But after talking to Jane, it seems like it may be our only recourse. Barb did most of the Jane communicating, but this is an excerpt of my last conversation with her: Toby: Jane, we both really need to take a vacation and get out of Korea Jane: Ungh, but please don't go to the Thailand, because of the SARS Toby: Jane, there is no SARS in Thailand. We've already booked our trip and our plane leaves in four hours. Jane: Ungh, but can't you go somewhere else? Stay in Korea. Let me call my travel agent. Toby: Jane, you're not listening. We're both really stressed out right now. We've been here over four months, and I'm having trouble with my family. I don't want to take a vacation in Korea. Jane: Ungh, Ok. Let me call my travel agent. Toby: No, Jane, you're not listening. We are going to Thailand. We don't want to stay in Korea. It's too late to change our plans, we won't get our money back. Jane: Ungh, Ok. I will call my travel agent. Toby: But Jane, we don't want to stay in Korea, we are going to Thailand! Jane: Ungh, it is Ok, I will call my travel agent. Toby: No, Jane Listen! Argh! So we ended up taking Luz' advice and just telling her we'd stay in Seoul for the weekend. Even though we knew there was still a good chance that we'd be found out, it's all we could do to shut her up. She wouldn't listen, it was like talking to a brick wall (or an eight year-old Korean). So we will soon be on our way to Thailand. Will we have a job when we come back? Who knows? I don't want to sound like I don't like or appreciate my job. I love my students and my classes. I like working at the company. But I'm not about to ditch a vacation at the last minute when I so desperately need it. If we had canceled we probably wouldn't have received a refund and we would have had to stay in Korea. That would have only lead to me resenting Jane and Jo. So I'm off to Thailand. I will relax and enjoy myself and I'll let you know how it went.  Arrrrrrrrrrgh! Sometimes I really hate this company and this country. As you may know, I leave this evening for a vacation in Thailand. The director of the Training Team (who we report to) at LG, Jo, has told us we "can't go" because of SARS. Well first of all, we don't work for LG, so they can't tell us where we can or can't go. I suppose if they want they can impose the "stay away from work for 12 days" rule that they place on employees that have been to SARS-affected areas. Second of all, however, is the little matter of the fact that there is no SARS in Thailand! The WHO, CDC, etc. have all declared it a SARS-free zone. So we are banned from travelling there because the freaking ignorant idiots who run this place can't even figure out where SARS is. They're bigotted and assume that all other Asian countries other than Korea are back-waters and therefore rife with the disease unlike Korea (which, interestingly enough does have SARS cases). Friday, April 25, 2003
William Beckerson's webpage has a nice summary of teaching in Korea. We're lucky enough to have a boss who, although strange, is not horrible like this guy's. I am sad to say, however, that his decsription of teaching matches 80% of what we've seen here. Barb and I definitely lucked out. If you consider getting screwed around by a stupid recruiter and ending up miraculously in a good job "luck. On Wednesday night I had another Korean adventure - my first time at the doctor. My voice was nearly gone after yelling at evil children all Tuesday night while I was working at the Hagwon. Barb, becoming increasingly worried about my cold (she has become quite maternal), insisted that I see a doctor. Now I am not one of those people that goes to the doctor very often. I personally think most people waste doctors' time with annoying complaints. I've been to the doctor maybe five times since I was ten. But nevertheless I agreed to go. The doctors visit was not very exciting. I'd like to say it was some anicent Asian ritual or something, but it was basically like visiting the doctor at home. He had Ok English (Koreans use English medical textbooks) and asked me normal doctor questions. He told me I had a virus, not a cold. I think everytime I've ever gone to the doctor when I'm sick, I've been told I have a "virus." I have a biology degree, I'd like a little more information than "virus." The flu is a virus, SARS is a virus. Anywho, I have a "virus." I was given the usual advice: rest, fluids, yadda, yadda. He also wrote me a prescription. The prescription was for five pills, three times a day! I don't even know if AIDS patients have a regimen like that. So right now I'm hopped up on five flavours of unknown medicine (biologists also aren't supposed to take mystery medication either), and it's quite the buzz. Luz told me she was once give vallium for a flu. I could use some vallium now. So, despite some dificult times lately, I'm adrift on a sea of Korean cold medication... Thursday, April 24, 2003
I'm going to use this article with my Advanced class to illustrate horrible translation. I know it's probably mean to pick on a government minister, but really, this guy should ahve proof readers. Friday, April 18, 2003
Last week in my Advanced class there was a jovial debate between two of my students, Dean and Sung-rak. Sung-rak has been married for several years and has a five year-old son. Dean has been married only a few months. Dean was saying he does not want to have a baby for at least a year. He wants to spend some time with his wife as a married couple and enjoy each other's company before having a child. Sung-rak was arguing that having a child was the greatest thing ever and that Dean will be so much happier when it happens. He even disturbingly added that he loves his son more than his wife. They agreed to disagree. Well, today Dean told me that his wife called him this morning and she is pregnant! Despite his plans he is still very happy to be having a baby. Needless to say, Sung-rak had a few things to say about it. Dean has said that he very much wants to have a daughter. Even his father wants him to have a daughter. This is very unusual, as Korean society strongly favours boys over girls. Dean's family is full of males though, and he says the only women at family reunions are those that have married into the family. It was very cool to hear about it. Another of my Advanced students, Sammy, recently found out hi wife is pregnant also. Dean is a little worried about telling his family, as his family was a little hesitant regarding his marriage in the first place. He has an older brother, and apparently getting married (and having a baby) first upsets some sort of Korean family hierarchy. Meh. Dean also said he could remember the moment of conception and that he thought he "did something." More than I needed to know... God bless you CBC, I now have a screen saver and a dynamic background to keep me updated about the playoffs. Thursday, April 17, 2003
Now you see, there's stupid, and then there's STUPID! I was ready to unleash a whole triade in regards to this article, but I've decided to save my breath. It's just not worth it. You can read the article yourself and make your own commentary. If you're at work try not to yell, "What the fuck!?" at your computer screen. Go ahead, read it. I'm waiting. There, how was that for you? Enlightening? See, that's the genius I get to deal with here in Korea sometimes. Just for some background, Koreans aren't anti-Jewish. In fact this might be one of the few countries on earth where there is actually no anti-semitism. I've even had a Korean tell me that Koreans are one of the original tribes of Israel (they have all sorts of fun views on history like that). So that article was not based on hatred or racism - nope, pure stupidity. Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Everyone in my department is running around yelling, sorting, wiping, and just cleaning everything. No one even answered the phone when it rang a minute ago. There also hasn't been anyone to tell me what the heck is going on. Is it Spring Cleaning Time? Should I be madly scrubbing at my own desk top? Is the CEO coming to visit us this week? It's really all very strange. I think I'll just put my headphones on and pretend not to notice... Monday, April 14, 2003
Sometimes miracles do happen. On the Saturday I turned on the TV to AFN, the American Armed Forces Network, and to my surprise there was a hockey game. I was able to watch the final period of the Oilers getting their asses kicked. Maybe I won't be completely hockey-deprived, as long as stupid American teams remain in the playoffs. To explain the surly drunk comments from last week, here is the summary of events from Tuesday night: At approximately 1:25 p.m., halfway through my advanced class of 4 students, I told my students I needed some water, leaving them to read an article about the war in Iraq while I went to the washroom to vomit for the third time today. Unfortunately there was some sort of miscommunication and I returned to find the student I assigned to read the first paragraph still reading at the last paragraph, but at least I didn't chuck on anyone. An amazing feat, really, considering what I did to myself last night. In celebration of his success on an English exam, one of my students took me and Luz out for dinner. Our boss was also supposed to come with us, but she bailed at the last minute claiming to have forgotten about a business trip she needed to prepare for that evening. Her absence, I think, created a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere for our festivities. We were also joined by one of my student's co-workers so that he wouldn't be overwhemled by the waygooks. We went to a mushroom restaurant where the specialty is possot-bulgogi, or mushroom bulgogi. The meal is prepared by cooking thinly sliced beef, leeks, onions, and many many different kinds of mushrooms in a special garlic sauce in a thick stone pan over coals at the table. While we waited for our delectable delights to cook, we sampled the variety of side dishes that are served with every Korean meal, and I was introduced to the drink of the devil: Oh-ship Seju. Beck Seju is Korean wine, and it's a good friend of mine. We haven't known each other for very long, in fact Toby introduced us less than a week ago, but we bonded immediately over the sweet, heady delight that a few cap-fuls induce. So when I heard my student say seju, I thought it would make a nice companion to the simmering stew in front of me. Imagine my surprise when three bottles were brought out instead of one. The first was the familiar sight of seju, the second a larger, empty bottle with Korean characters written on it, and the third was the dreaded spirit soju. I watched in horror as Mr. Park poured the Seju into the large bottle. My student was explaining that we would have oh-ship seju tonight: 50% wine, 50% soju. Mr. Park emptied the soju into the large bottle, gave it a good swirl, then motioned for my cup. Somehow my intentions of having a few social drinks were overpowered by the constant cry of my companions roaring "Bottoms up!", and swilling away. 6 bottles of oh-ship seju later (which is actually 12 bottles of alcohol), we left the restaurant and headed accross the street to the nori-bang. Nori-bangs are Korean Kareoke rooms. Each group that goes to the Nori-bang gets their own personal singing room equipt with couches, tv's, microphones, tambourines, and some munchies. And then of course, there is the liquor. For us it was whisky (I think), and I managed to get away with only two shots and 4 songs in the hour we stayed there. For some reason I've taken to doing Beatles songs when I go to the Nori-bangs, probably because everyone knows them and can help out my feeble voice. To end this long story let me just say that getting to my apartment was an adventure. I had to call Toby to help get Luz up the stairs to her fourth floor apartment. He has confessed to considering leaving us laughing in one of the landings where we happened to fall at one point, but instead dutifully got us upstairs, and then helped me hobble home. He has made some allegations about fits and tupperware containers being thrown, but since all I can remember is the minty mint song, they must be untrue. Unlike most of Barb's drinking nights, there was a lesson learned on this one. Hungover teachers aren't good teachers, and so henceforth my drinking shall be confined to Friday and Saturday nights, and shan't include oh-ship seju. This weekend was pretty boring, mainly because I was held up with a cold. This is the third cold I've had in the four months I've been here. I'm a pretty healthy person, and it's starting to get annoying. They are all the exact same colds also - dry scratchy throat. And let me tell you, the worst thing you can have as a teacher is a sore throat. Try yelling at a bunch of screaming 11 year-old Korean boys when you can barely whisper. Korea has recently been inundated with clouds of yellow dust from the desert in China: 
They were really bad last year, but they don't seem too bad now. Luz thinks this is the cause of my illness, but I don't think so, since I spend most of my time in a carefully ventillated electronics factory. Maybe it's the fact that everyone in Korea smokes like a chimney. Oh well, nothing to do but take mysterious Korean medication and hope for the best. Friday, April 11, 2003
I turned into a West Wing junkie a little bit late in life. It was only the beginning of this season that I began to watch the weekly trials of the more articulate U.S. President, and it was basically the first new weekly must-see event that I added since the rabbitt episode of Sex and the City. Shortly after succumbing to this new addiction, however, I decided to flee my safe little life for a place where there is decidedly less English crap on television. Oh, there's still crap in Korea, I just can't understand most of it because my Korean is, well, terrible. There is this one program that always seems to be on advertising some sort of bowel-blowing weight loss system that I get the gist of, but it hasn't exactly filled the intelligent policy discussion void that opened in my life sometime last spring. Good news came via the Armed Forces Network last night though. Starting on Monday at 8:00 p.m. the West Wing is coming to AFN! It'll feature the episodes that began in September, but it's still the West Wing, and that's what matters. Unless of course this is going to turn into the cruel trick that sometimes occurs when advertisements are followed by the dreaded little words of "Instead of 24, viewers in Korea will see Dark Angel." I had better double check. How can it be the creepiness factor that causes Toby to teach Mr. Min when I have scheduled classes with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Here's a tale for you: the previous teacher at Plant 2 was sexually harrassed by Mr. Min. She therefore lodged a complaint with our boss Jo, and stopped teaching him. A male teacher was brought in to teach his classes so that Mr. Min could feel as though he had a receptive and perhaps even appreciative audience for his daily updates on life with his girlfriend or complaints about his wife. This pseudo-side plan was somewhat foiled by the fact that the teacher was a devout mormon, but at least it addressed the direct harrassment. That teacher's contract ended, the previous P2 teacher needed a change of scenery and moved to P1, so enter Barb and Toby and a new class schedule. However, since creepy is only scheduled to have 3 classes per week he throws a hissy fit, points out the fact that he has a penis and is therefore supreme in this country and especially this company, and cows my female boss into scheduling him two more classes a week. The only teacher's schedule that fits with Mr. Min's oh-soh demanding timetable of bribing union leaders, skipping off for midafternoon rendez-vous with his girlfriend, and periodically harassing the women in P2 happens to be mine. So while Toby gets to explain how it is that men and women live together as roommates without the man forcing himself on the woman in the western world on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7:40 a.m., I'm given the opportunity to be invited to visit/live in Mr. Min's apartment at 10:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since I'm willing to tell him it's inappropriate to say that a virtual stranger should wear a bikini on vacation and that it's unnatural to comment on a person's appearance 6 times during a 50 minute class, I'm managing to set some boundaries. Up until this week it hasn't been much of a problem at all, as he'd cancelled on my for all but 3 classes. However, he was unfortunately available both days this week, successfully maxing out my creep-tolerance levels for the time being. My catch-all phrase of "beat-it-creepy" probably looses something in the translation. Mr. Lee, the head of the Purchasing Department is freaking out right now, yelling something in Korean at someone. It's loud! Man, that guy's got a temper. Today I realized that the NHL playoffs are upon us. One of the saddest things about being in Korea is that I have no idea what the hell has gone on with hockey since I've left - well except for the Flames not making the playoffs, but that's no surprise. I will have to make a concerted effort to follow the playoffs. Although is there much point if I probably won't even see one game? Yeesh, even when I didn't like hockey that much i at least watched a few playoff games. What kind of country doesn't follow hockey anyway? Everyone around me is claeaning their desks and I just saw a guy get a vacuum out of the utility closet. Very strange, there are cleaning staff at the plant, I wonder why everyone here is cleaning... When I arrived for my class today, Mr. Min cancelled on me. Now normally it is nice when I get free time from a cancelled class, but this is not the case with Mr. Min. I teach Mr. Min on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:40am :P. Mr. Min is in Plant 2, while all my other classes are in P1 and P4. P1, where my desk is located, is a 20 minute walk from P2. Barb is the teacher at P2, but because of his creepiness level I teach Mr. Min. There is a shuttle bus from P2 to P1 at 8:50am when my class is finished, but when Mr. Min cancels without telling me in advance, it means I have to walk (or sit around until 8:50). So this morning I got to trudge through the rain to P1. Stupid Mr. Min - he's on a business trip. He easily could have told me in advance. Oh well. Wednesday, April 09, 2003
That surly post was rather mean for someone who uses "quite" and "nice" so often. I just had to have a nap at work to shake off the surlies before I teach again. It's a good thing my boss is away today! I just had ramyun for lunch. Man, I love ramyun. The ramyun at LG is pretty spicy. I can handle it, but I can't finish it as fast as the Koreans. That means I don't usually finish my ramyun, but it's filling just the same. Bboggle bboggle go! Monday, April 07, 2003
We had a fun weekend. As spring has sprung, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Korea. Japan is famous for cherry blossoms, but the number of trees is quite high in Korea as well. Saturday was Arbour Day (every holiday seems to fall on a Saturday this year)and Barb and I traveled to the city of Jinhae for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. All the seats on the train were booked so we took a bus. We prefer to travel by train because it's surprisingly cheaper, you can (usually) reserve seats, you don't have to worry about traffic, it's faster, and generally more comfortable. We figured, however, that since the seats on the train were booked (there is also standing room) we'd have a chance of getting seats on the bus. So we managed to get our asses out of bed (after a night at the bar), scooted to the bus station, and bought tickets for the 9am bus to Masan (from which we would shuttle to Jinhae). Being orderly Canadians and not being used to the pushing and shoving associated with Korea, we only managed to get one seat. Being chivalrous, I let Barb sit most of the way as she nursed her hangover. The trip is normally about two hours, but because of holiday traffic it took around three hours. Koreans (as with most people outside cushy North America, I imagine) are experts at standing on trains. I think most of them can stand on one leg, read, and eat without holding on to anything. Not so much with Toby. Add to this that the train had no handles or railings for holding on to. I cannot fathom why they would not have any handles when they allow people to stand. I don't think I've ever been on a train of that size before without anything to hold on to. So anyway, I spent most of the trip vainly grasping at the overhead baggage compartment doors and the headrests of adjacent seats. I also thought I would cook, but the driver finally turned on the A/C, so the ride wasn't too bad after that. We had a stroke of luck once we arrived in Masan. As soon as we stepped out of the bus station we were approached by a man in his late 20s / early 30s who asked us if we needed help. His English was good and it turns out he works at LG in Plant 4, where I teach. He recognized us and thought he would give us a hand. He pointed us in the direction of the shuttle bus to Jinhae. We waited for a bus and one arrived. We were not prepared for the pushing and shoving that ensued. Honestly, the concept of the lineup does not exist in this country. A chain of ajumas (Korean women, 45+ years old) rushed the door, yelling. I don't see how any of this helped anyone, because all the pushing and shoving just seemed to prevent anyone from getting onto the bus. Barb and I noticed a second bus arriving and simply left the throng and went to get seats on that one. The traffic leading into Jinhae was awful. We expected it, though. We were fully prepared for the Korean touristy holiday weekend. We probably could have walked to Jinhae at the same speed as the bus, though. We arrived in Jinhae and began to walk around. The whole town was manned by young volunteers - girl guides, boy scouts, schoolgirls/boys, etc. They were all trained to man the crosswalks, escort people across, and bow to everyone. They were very excited at the opportunity to yell "Welcome to Korea!" at the waegooks (foreigners). We were looking for the festival information booth, so we stopped and talked to one young girl. As she tried giving us directions, her companion, a portly sixteen year-old boy, ran over and yelled "I speak English! A little!" enthusiastically, and he took over giving us directions. He was very proud that he could remember his directional English with phrases such as "turn right." We arrived at the info booth and a boisterous man, who appeared to be a Korean Navy veteran, began talking to us. We were looking for the way to the naval academy. The Cherry Blossom Festival actually started off as a Korean Naval Festival. It's an annual event where the Jinhae Navy Base and Naval Academy are open to the public. The Korean man hooked us up with a taxi driver to take us to the academy - which we presumed would be cheap according to our Korean taxi experience. The driver, another vet, drove us through the bumper-to-bumper-traffic to the naval base, and waited for us while we were there. It was very nice to see the ocean, it's been awhile. The base was nice looking, although we couldn't go to the best looking places. There were many cherry trees around the perimeter of the base which made it look quite nice. Personally, I didn't think there was a hell of a lot to see down there, but Barb enjoyed it, so perhaps she can elaborate (checking out Korean sailors, most likely). Once we were done at the base we asked our driver to take us to the top of the hill, from where we could get a nice view of the cherry blossoms. He drove us there, once again through the maddening traffic. We told him we didn't need the full city tour, and that we were finished. He informed us that we owed him 50,000 Won ($59)! Now, this is expensive at home, but it's outrageous in Korea. I mean you could go to Seoul and back for less than that. Hell, you could probably take a taxi to Seoul for that amount. We should have argued with him - he was probably trying to charge us for the whole tour when he had only taken us to two sites. We weren't really in the mood to haggle though, and we didn't want to ruin our trip, so we just paid him and sent him on his way. Trying not to think about being conned, we walked down the hill towards town. It was a pleasant stroll, even with the traffic. The cherry blossoms really were beautiful, I'll try to post a picture. When we arrived in town we were quite hungry. We were still reeling from our taxi overpayment, so we decided to grab dinner at a cheapo restaurant. We each had an order of ramyun (aka Mr. Noodles) at "Green Rameon and Sandwich." We then set out to find a yeogwan, as we had decided to stay the night in Jinhae. We checked pretty much every yeogwan in downtown Jinhae. All of them had vacancies, but our usual response to "how much?" was "cheel man-un" - 70,000 Won! Now 70,000 is a lot, even for nice hotels in Korea. And since yeogwans are the cheapo motels of the Korean hospitality industry, it was obvious we were being gouged. Can't really blame them, since it was in the middle of a national festival. We would have rather gone home than pay 70,000 for a yeogwan, so we decided to let our feet do some more walking. A little ways out of downtown we found another yeogwan in the marketplace. The ajuma informed us it was "sa man-un" - 40 000 Won. A little more expensive than usual, but it was good for us. We settled in and passed out for a two-hour nap. Following our well deserved rest we went out to paint the town red. We hit the centre of the festival, which was quite the atmosphere. People launching handheld fireworks into the air (incredibly safe), booths with tonnes of crap for sale (think of the Stampede) and a lot of food. We did a few rounds of the festival grounds when we were approached by two Korean men with video cameras. They were from the Korean Broadcasting Corporation (KBS). They asked us if they could talk to us. I thought, "they want a quick interview with the foreigners about the festival," so I was more than happy to oblige. They interviewed us, asking us the standard Korean questions: "What do you think of Korea?," "What's your favourite Korean food?," etc. They then started following us around to get footage of us looking at the booths. They stopped us in front of a booth selling gaudy hair accessories (Korean women love to put those things in their hair, it's like they're all nine years old) and told Barb to "buy something." She bought a bobby pin or something (what do I know? I'm a boy). They didn't stop us to buy some traditional Korean crafts, artwork, or food, no - tacky hair accessories. That'll make for lovely footage. We presumed that they would be finished with us after this, but they kept asking us more questions. They wanted to follow us around for the rest of the night and come back to our yeogwan to get some footage of us there - God knows why they wanted footage of the foreigners in the cheap hotel. As appealing as the thought of spending the rest of our night on camera was, we told them we would prefer otherwise. I don't think they really understood why, but they offered to buy us some food for our troubles. We went to a food tent where we ordered some sort of fried egg and green onion thing and pork bulgogi (marinated meat). The food was Ok. The KBS guys also ordered "mahkali" - cloudy Korean rice wine. This is the stuff most of my students won't even touch. You drink it from a bowl. We managed to get some of it down - it actually wasn't that bad. After some conversation we went our separate ways from the KBS journalists. They were fun to talk to but we were tired of being on camera. After our media experience we just wanted to go grab a few drinks at a bar. We walked around the streets of downtown Jinhae for a while, and decided to go into a bar labelled as a "music bar," which despite the suspicious name, we were glad to see wasn't a karaoke bar. Once inside, however, we had one of our worst Korean experiences. There was loud Korean music playing in the small bar, and it sounded pretty good. The bar was fairly crowded. A short man in a suit approached us and said to me "Sorry, Korean only." I initially thought he was trying to tell me that they only play Korean music, and that he didn't think I would like it. Barb spoke to him also, but I couldn't hear over the music. I later found out that he said "sorry Korean only, no white" to Barb, to which she replied "You're racist. Go to hell. Screw you." It's hard to believe there are still places where someone can be kicked out of an establishment based on their race. We were determined not to let that set the tone for the night, so we set off for a different place. We encountered a boisterous group of young Korean men, and they told us we should go to "Chicago." Of course they recommended the bar with the American flag logo for the waegooks. Chicago was nice, but just a quiet pub. Nothing too exciting. Following our consumption of beer and a fruit plate (you are expected to order appetizers in Korean pubs) we headed back to the yeogwan for the night. Sunday morning we got up bright and early and headed outside. We had Korean street pancakes for breakfast, which are incredibly good. No one does street food like the Koreans. We walked around the festival area for a while, then we walked up a hill to a big observation tower they have. The walk was short but steep. It was pretty crowded at the top, but the view was nice. We took some pictures and also chatted with some people from India. After that we walked back down and did some more cherry blossom sightseeing. We then caught the shuttle back to Masan, where we ate lunch. We had an order of gimchi chige - spicy gimchi soup, with the usual array of Korean side-dishes. We were successful in reserving one seat on the return train, so we took the train home instead of a bus. It was a pleasant ride and we were back in Gumi in the late afternoon. We had an excellent weekend excluding a couple sour points. We took many pictures, so I will try to get them up ASAP. Friday, April 04, 2003
I just learned my favourite Korean word so far. My Advanced students just taught me "boorul chingu" - testicle friend. It means a friend you have had since boyhood. Korean parents apparently used to let their children run around without pants, as diapers were too much trouble, so the term means soemone you were friends with when you were allowed to let it all hang out. Apparently they sometimes also wore crotchless pants - what a country. My students also informed me that Bill Gates is dead, which turns out to be incorrect. Crazy Koreans. Thursday, April 03, 2003
An interesting night last night. I was invited to a house-warming party for one of my beginner students, Sung-hun Kim. He and his wife married about two months ago and they've moved into a new apartment. This would be my first visit to a Korean home. I went home from the plant at 3:30 and basically vegetated for an hour. I was getting a ride to the party with one of my other students, Teddy (Yung-muk Nam). Barb was also coming, but she didn't come home after work - she went for a walk or something. So I met Teddy and Barb at E-Mart. E-Mart is this huge-ass Korean department store. It's quite a ways from our apartment, but still only a 4500 Won ($5.26) taxi ride. God bless cheap Korean taxis. So I met them at E-Mart and we went shopping for house-warming presents. Barb and I bought a bottle of French wine (no Canadian stuff available - too bad). Teddy purchased traditional Korean house-warming presents. In Korea you give people more practical presents. Teddy purchased laundry detergent and dish soap. He explained that this symbolizes that the hosts' home will "bubble over with wealth." He also bought toilet paper, but I was afraid to ask what the symbolism of this was. We arrived at Sung-hun's house at about 7:00 and there was only one other guest there - a young man. He was apparently an extra in a Korean comedy and was bugged about this all night. Their apartment was fairly small, but well furnished and decorated - most likely due to the fact that Koreans only give cash at weddings. Sung-hun's wife was slaving away in the kitchen preparing food for everyone. We were treated to mandu (similar to Chinese dumplings or Japanese gyoza), sweet-and-sour pork, chicken wings, chapchae (Korean vermicelli-like noodles), oysters, gomak (little spicy clam things), and of course gimchi and rice. All the food was served in the living room. We were seated on the floor at little Asian tables. People continued to arrive and soon the house was stuffed. Good thing we were there first - we got to eat all the food. There were a few of my students there and everyone knew some English. Sung-hun's wife and a couple other women also cut up a bunch of fruit and we were then served desert. After that came the ceremony/games. The young guy (the extra) welcomed us to the new home - or so I assume, it was all in Korean. After that came what I can only describe as the "games." First, the extra took an egg and gave it to Sung-hun's wife. Sung-hun had to put both hands behind his back and his wife had to put one hand behind her back. She then had to put the egg under the cuff of Sung-hun's pants and try and get it up through his clothes and out the neck of his shirt using one hand. She broke three eggs before giving up. Next she had to put one of the raw eggs in her mouth and try and pass it into Sung-hun's mouth without breaking the yolk. This also failed. After the games we sat around talking while - uncharacteristically and nontraditionally - two of the men did the dishes. We got to look at the couple's wedding photos. Wedding photos are a huge deal in Korea. The albums are massive and weigh like 10 puounds. They spend thousands on the cheesy glamour photos. The ones in traditional Korean costumes are pretty cool though. At around 8:20ish people started getting restless. They were apparently waiting for their "team leader" to show up (supervisor at LG). He showed up at around 8:40, sat down, had some food and drink, and then at 9:00 he said something in Korean and everyone got up and it was time to leave. Can you imagine having even you parties controled by your boss? It was good timing for us though, as we had to leave, so we ended up getting a ride. We had to leave because we had our third Korean language lesson last night. We are being taught by a very nice Korean guy named Juni. Juni speaks English fluently and runs his own language school. We met him through our friend Ryan. Juni meets up with Barb and I, plus Lucy from London and Rhoni from Wales/Scotland every Wednesday at a bar in Gumi. We had our one-hour lesson where we learned past tense and days of the week. We are well on our way to being able to form full sentences. Korean is one of the hardest languages for english-speakers to learn. The structure is completely different (subject-object-verb) and article use is very different also. But I can read Hangul (Korean characters) so that's half the battle. So, all-in-all a succesful Korean night. Not much sleep though. Wednesday, April 02, 2003
I just missed my bus. It's all because the clock on my computer is wrong. Stupid, really. I should reset it. Now I have to walk to the gym because the next bus comes in two hours. Why is it that there are buses every hour, on the hour, except at 4:00?. My feet are sore already. On the bright side I may find a special coffee card on the sidewalk somewhere along the way... Tuesday, April 01, 2003
We started our second official semester at LG today. In addition to my four executives and my class in the Purchasing Department, I teach a Beginner/Intermediate class and and Advanced class in Plant 4. I have 15 people registered in my B/I class, but only eight showed up today. Five of those eight were students from my previous Beginner class, plus three new students. My old students are great and I'm really excited to have them back. One of my students, Chris (Sun Ah), is a 27 year-old young woman. It's hilarious to see the demeanour of the men (there were no girls in the previous class) change becuase there is a woman in the classroom. They try and joke with her a lot. My Advanced class has six people, which is an improvement on the three in my Intermediate/Advanced Class. It is now spring in Korea. In Canada everyone prays for spring to come. In Korea you can set your watch by it. I didn't believe it at first. Everyone was saying "Oh, spring will be here next Thursday." But lo and behold, the day came and spring with it. No more chilly wind or keeping the heat (sweet, sweet Korean in-floor heating) pumped up. Korea is at the perfect temperature right now. It's 20 degrees Celsius in Gumi today. Just warm enough that you don't need a jacket, but don't sweat to death in your work clothes. Correction: I don't need my jacket - the Koreans still seem bundled up. The best part about spring is that things are growing. I can see green! I was getting depressed from the drab brown Korean winter. So much brown - brown dirt, trees, leaves buildings, clothing, everything. I would pay anything to be in Kananaskis right now. It cheers me up just to see the green trees and the weeds poking up through the sidewalk . I am not looking forward to summer, however. 20 degrees is just fine by me, thank you very much. Gumi and Daegu are the hottest places in Korea. Then there's the rainy season - yuck. |
