I've been terrible with this thing lately. Not that this thing - this blog - is fragile, it will still be here even if I neglect it. I should just remind myself to get to writing some things down here once in a while.
And so, in an effort not to lose my place, I'm just going to go through April chronologically - with some small memories of things as they've happened.
I'll start with April 5.
April 5 Tuesday
- my friend Quinn and I decided we wanted to take a bit of a break from the work week and each took a sick day on Tuesday. This just happened (funny how these things work out so perfectly aint it?) to coincide with the college basketball championship game. I crashed at this place and we woke up in the morning to watch the game with some Korean "fast food" (rice dishes and noodle soups) in our laps. The game was awful - anyone that watched it can tell you that - but we weren't discouraged.
It was the first beautiful Spring day in a while and so we got his frisbee and headed into the city to find Seoul Forest - a sprawling park, nature reserve and everything in between in the heart of the city. (as a fun aside, the SF's website says something like "New York has Central Park, London has Hyde Park......now Seoul has Seoul Forest - - - - - it didn't quite live up).
The place WAS pretty cool though. Very large, very flat and flanked on every side by tall buildings and reminders of a city of 10 million people. We found a large plot of land taht no one seemed to want to go on and through the frisbee around for an hour or so. The first signals of Spring.
After Frisbee we got some ice cream and ventured over the "Sports Area". It had a riding track for equestrians, which we watched and then a series of courts for all different sports.
We chose Croquet. We wanted to learn how to play and there were plenty of 65-year-old-plus people loitering about to show us. By the way, if this isn't sounding like the Korean Version of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" I can assure you it felt like it to us.
Through great patience on the part of students and teachers - we started to get the hang of the game. After a half hour or so, we had most of it down.
It should come as a doubt to no one that Koreans that play croquet take that playing seriously. The main man teaching us the game had an electric device on his armband that not only timed our game but also kept track of each ball. Those sitting on the sidelines, watching, were drinking rice wine (makkeoli) and eating kimchi and Quinn and I were invited and insisted to partake in both activities. We obliged happily.
After the Croquet match we found ourselves at the basketball courts and haphazardly begged a few young teenage kids to play us in a game. They were ecstatic to play white people. We played. Quinn and I both came out feeling pretty proud - until we reminded ourselves that we played against 14 year olds.
Later we got hamburgers and beer. We each bought a cheap jersey in Itaewon. Then we met some friends for good dumplings and noodle soup and some more beer.
Somewhere around there we both made executive decisions to take sick day #2 the next day. Not to hang - but to actually take a sick day. It's good we did - both of us got pretty ill. It was probably the rush of spring air - or just the exhausting day of sports with the young and the old.
No pictures unfortunately, but we're headed back to Seoul Forest this weekend for Quinn's birthday so I'll try to snap a few.
April 6 Wednesday
Sick day. Ran a few errands. Chilled.
April 7 Thursday
First day back after 2 days missing. Each student I saw told me he was worried. The other teachers gave me new tea - I was implored to eat more kimchi. Noted.
One school story...........I was doing a mini-unit on company names - some companies with English names that they wear or know and have no idea what they mean. Adidas got brought up. I told them the history. Then I happened to mention that growing up I had heard once, incorrectly, that Adidas stood for All Day I Dream About Sports (an acronym) and that we, jokingly, had a changed that last word into another "S" word that can occupy young men's minds as much as sports. The co-teacher laughed. One or two of the brighter students laughed. The ones that didn't spent a minute guessing "S" words (I didn't tell them - nor say the word explicitly), and right before I cut it off - one student just yells out "SOAP!" to which I burst out laughing and my co-teacher too - perhaps because neither of us could figure out how he came up with "soap" as his first guess.
Also, two students though KFC stood for "Korean Famous Chicken" . I think I ruined their lives.
Thursday night I stayed out later than I should have with friends around town. That's all you need to know about that. It didn't matter though - being hungover and tired (only a little, mom, i promise) went along well with the fact that everyone assumed I was sick.
AND I'll give the weekend it's own new post. I'll stop there.
quotation:
"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm"
- Dorothy Parker
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Teacher Retreat
A few weeks ago, my new co-teacher, (who wants me to call her Hong-O, because that what a barista once in San Francisco wrote on her coffee ticket. she's cool though - her self-designated "ideal man" was Billy Corgan), tells me that I'm going on a retreat with the entirety of the first grade and all 16 homeroom teachers (my whole office and the office down the hall).
We went to YongPyong - the same place that I went skiing at a few months back. Since ski season is over in Korea, and I knew YongPyong stays open all year for nature exploration, spas, and golf - I figured this would be an intensive outdoor retreat.
Originally thinking it was for a weekend, I got the good fortune - only days before we left- that it was going to be from Wednesday to Friday. No teaching. No work. Sitting back in the mountains. What could be better?
Tuesday, the eve of the trip, I am handed my schedule for the next three days. It is one piece of paper written all in Korean. Over almost everything are big red X marks and the only things not highlighted are the once a day slots for "Lunch" and "Dinner" and on Thursday one time slot says "Waterpark"
So on Wednesday morning I put on my gym shoes and my old, worn, rusted, crude Wisconsin Badgers 1999 Rose Bowl sweater and make the walk to school with a backpack on. All new experiences. I board bus 7 with my co-teacher and her homeroom class and we start making the trip for YongPyong.
Perk #1 about being a teacher in Korean - All the kids bring snacks. All of them. The three hour bus ride was something like a mobile Last Supper if Jesus only ate crackers, chips and chocolate bars. As a teacher, not only do I get a piece of any bar, bag or stick I want, I am actively offered it. They insist that I eat their snack. Perhaps they want praise for their (parents') trip to the Family Mart to pick them up that Ghana Chocolate Bar. I don't know. Either way, the first hour was more or less going through a stockpile of different Korean snacks and giving them a try.
Then I passed out. Woke up as we pulled into the resort.
YongPyong Mega-Resort. They have everything there. Noraebong (Karoake Room), Bowling Alley, Restaurants (tons of 'em), PC Room, Lotteria (fast food place), Ski Lodge, Four Hotels, Golf Course, Ski Slopes......etc, etc, etc.
Closed.
All of it. Closed.
Wait, no.
That's not true.
Not everything.
The PC room was open.
Thank God Of Kimchi.
The resort was dead. It was too warm to ski and too cold to walk around or do any of the outdoor activities. I'm guessing my school got a nice deal for going this weekend - because it seems like they shelled out a pretty penny for it. Everything was paid for - I didn't spend a dime my whole time at the getaway. No one else did either. Not that there was really anything to spend money on. Minus the computer games.
So, we go to our rooms. Last time I went to YongPyong, 12 of us Americans piled into one small room - slept next to one another on the floor.
This time? Villa.
Perk #2.
We had a kitchen, a living room, a dining room (sort of), two bedrooms, two decks/patios and a view of some nice mountains in the background. It was a small hike from the main lodge (where we ate all of our meals) but nothing bad.
I roomed with the 5 guys (of the 17 total homeroom teachers) and the remaining women all split two villas between them.
The First Day
After lunch - we came back to our villa. One teacher - the youngest of the group - had brought his guitar and immediately started to jam out some acoustic Korean tunes. He knew some American songs too. He encouraged me to sing along. I didn't until I got drunk later. He had no problem singing to his own strumming though. His favorite American group was Mr. Big. They sing "To Be With You" from 1991. You know it. Believe me, you know it.
We sat around for a few hours doing nothing. One of the guys played some Starcraft game (i actually don't know what starcraft looks like) on his phone. Another guy wore this white goggles which made him look like a cross between Mr. Incredible and Kurt Rambis. I'll put a pic up.
Sometime around 4 or 5pm, while I was drifting in and out of a nap, the group told me (in the best English that they could) that we were going to the girls' apartment. "For what?" I asked curiously. "Drinking," they said. And away we went.
The school had been so gracious as to purchase the teachers an absolutely riveting amount of alcohol and food (including tomatoes and strawberries which are not cheap here). The equivalent of three soju bottles per person was brought for the three days. One teacher told us this sadly. It was more than enough. There were plenty of six-packs of (awful) Korean beer around too. This led to most people mixing the beer and soju togehter to make "So-meg". and by most people I mean the men. Many of the women did not drink.
And so we sat, segregated by sex (like we were in middle school) - the guys on one side of the circle and the girls on the other (i was next to my co-teacher, a woman, so i sat at the end of the men), drinking and making conversation with the person next to us.
every so often, a person would reach for a tomato.or a cashew. or dried squid. or one of these walnut bread balls that are so freaking delicious it's crazy.
some people were drunk by dinner.
after dinner, we drank more. the bro taht played guitar played guitar. the bro that played on his phone played on his phone. i mingled with some teachers. four more teachers had driven (2.5 hours) to the resort to keep us company and the three that weren't the DD got wasted and shared their life stories with me. One was a DJ - he loves Roy Orbison and humored me by singing a bit of "Only The Lonely" in his deep Korean voice. So awesome.
We passed out sometime around midnight. I hope I didn't say anything stupid - but even if I did, only a few people there would have understood. Perk #3.
I slept on the couch. Perk #4. the Korean teachers slept on the floor. they do this. all of them. it's actually pretty comfortable. and the rooms come with large comforters and sleeping bag type sacks.
i woke up sweating several times in the night. i took off some layers. i went to teh bathroom. i saw the thermostat. 26Celsius. I do the math fast. 78F. No, wait, that can't be right. IT was. 78 degrees.
I like to sleep in the cold. I've met people who like it colder - but on average I think I'm a sleep-in-the-cold kind of guy. 78? Noooo.
The Second Day
I went back to bed, afraid to change anything. I was woken up. "Breakfast," one teacher said. "We go eat."
They were all ready to leave. They woke me up at the last second. I put on the layers I had taken off. My hair was in seven directions. I'm as hungover as a hippo (does that work? it does now)
we eat breakfast. rice, kimchi, soup. same as lunch. same as dinner. yongypong food suuucked. we ate at the general lodge and all the kids ate there too and so we had what was essentially the equivalent of cafeteria food. except i like our cafeteria. didn't care much for this.
after breakfast, we come back to the villa. The teachers ask "Gondola?" and I say yes. Apparently, the gondola for the ski mountain was still running and you could go up and its a great view.
We walk. A few of them carry small bags. I don't know why. We don't turn for the gondola. We go inside a building. We into the spa. "Gondola?"I ask innocently. "First, sauna" one says.
Korean saunas. They're called jimjilbongs and involve quite a bit of nakedness. The other teachers stripped down. The little bags they wer ecarrying were their shower things. I strip down. We go in. It's a bunch of showers and 4 different pools - with different temperatures and one steam room. I go into the 37C one. Theres a 41C, a 50C and a 20C. I spend most of my time in there. The korean teachers go in and out of one or the other. We don't talk.
One time, as I get up to move, out of the pool. One teacher smiles nicely and says, "oooh, eric, nice-uh shape."
"Thanks," I say, laughing.
Other men in the room do pushups and exercises and then dip into the cold pool. Many men shower. We stay for a while. Eventually Ive had enough - it's tooo f'n hot and i dont know how long they are going to stay. I shower and go back in.
The proper manners at jimjilbongs deserve their own post. So i won't go much into them - but there is a proper way to act in there. Again, involving quite a bit of nudity and with no reserve for any one around you.
It did cure my hangover, though. Knocked that sucker right back into yesterday, what with all the sweat and everything.
After the sauna, we went back to the room for like 30 minutes. I passed out. One teacher did indeed take me up to the gondola and I passed out there too. We ate lunch.
Next, the waterpark.
I had told the other teachers that I wanted to go in. They didn't. Crazy, right?
But I had forgot my swimsuit. We tried to rent one for me. All they had were very, very, very tight and very, very, very short suits. "That's alright," I said. I looked into the park. ALL the students wore life jackets (required), they also all wore their shirts (not sure why). Half of the waterpark's slides were closed. The teachers got dippin' dots and chilled.
We went back. Hung. I passed out. We had dinner.
After dinner was the ending festivals. This was more or less a talent show where student/student groups could volunteer to go on stage and sing and dance. They generally just went up to make fools of themselves. A few sang well. The workers at YongPyong had some games too - one that involved a poor Korean girl smelling the students' socks to pick which smelled worst. Dozens volunteered to try out. The winners were a group of guys that danced around to a KPop song and ended it by taking their shirts off and wrestling. They won 40 dollars to the big cinema chain here. They nearly wept with joy.
Later, the teachers got together again with the girls for drinking. This time we had soups and raw fish (called "huey") for an extra meal
Got drunk. Talked with the other drunk teachers.
Woke up the next day terribly hung over once more and got my stuff together and we left. I got back to school sometime around 4:30 or 5pm and went to get dinner for my friend Nate's birthday but couldn't do much more than that. Too tired. Went home and passed out. And, like that, it was over.
We went to YongPyong - the same place that I went skiing at a few months back. Since ski season is over in Korea, and I knew YongPyong stays open all year for nature exploration, spas, and golf - I figured this would be an intensive outdoor retreat.
Originally thinking it was for a weekend, I got the good fortune - only days before we left- that it was going to be from Wednesday to Friday. No teaching. No work. Sitting back in the mountains. What could be better?
Tuesday, the eve of the trip, I am handed my schedule for the next three days. It is one piece of paper written all in Korean. Over almost everything are big red X marks and the only things not highlighted are the once a day slots for "Lunch" and "Dinner" and on Thursday one time slot says "Waterpark"
So on Wednesday morning I put on my gym shoes and my old, worn, rusted, crude Wisconsin Badgers 1999 Rose Bowl sweater and make the walk to school with a backpack on. All new experiences. I board bus 7 with my co-teacher and her homeroom class and we start making the trip for YongPyong.
Perk #1 about being a teacher in Korean - All the kids bring snacks. All of them. The three hour bus ride was something like a mobile Last Supper if Jesus only ate crackers, chips and chocolate bars. As a teacher, not only do I get a piece of any bar, bag or stick I want, I am actively offered it. They insist that I eat their snack. Perhaps they want praise for their (parents') trip to the Family Mart to pick them up that Ghana Chocolate Bar. I don't know. Either way, the first hour was more or less going through a stockpile of different Korean snacks and giving them a try.
Then I passed out. Woke up as we pulled into the resort.
YongPyong Mega-Resort. They have everything there. Noraebong (Karoake Room), Bowling Alley, Restaurants (tons of 'em), PC Room, Lotteria (fast food place), Ski Lodge, Four Hotels, Golf Course, Ski Slopes......etc, etc, etc.
Closed.
All of it. Closed.
Wait, no.
That's not true.
Not everything.
The PC room was open.
Thank God Of Kimchi.
The resort was dead. It was too warm to ski and too cold to walk around or do any of the outdoor activities. I'm guessing my school got a nice deal for going this weekend - because it seems like they shelled out a pretty penny for it. Everything was paid for - I didn't spend a dime my whole time at the getaway. No one else did either. Not that there was really anything to spend money on. Minus the computer games.
So, we go to our rooms. Last time I went to YongPyong, 12 of us Americans piled into one small room - slept next to one another on the floor.
This time? Villa.
Perk #2.
We had a kitchen, a living room, a dining room (sort of), two bedrooms, two decks/patios and a view of some nice mountains in the background. It was a small hike from the main lodge (where we ate all of our meals) but nothing bad.
I roomed with the 5 guys (of the 17 total homeroom teachers) and the remaining women all split two villas between them.
The First Day
After lunch - we came back to our villa. One teacher - the youngest of the group - had brought his guitar and immediately started to jam out some acoustic Korean tunes. He knew some American songs too. He encouraged me to sing along. I didn't until I got drunk later. He had no problem singing to his own strumming though. His favorite American group was Mr. Big. They sing "To Be With You" from 1991. You know it. Believe me, you know it.
We sat around for a few hours doing nothing. One of the guys played some Starcraft game (i actually don't know what starcraft looks like) on his phone. Another guy wore this white goggles which made him look like a cross between Mr. Incredible and Kurt Rambis. I'll put a pic up.
Sometime around 4 or 5pm, while I was drifting in and out of a nap, the group told me (in the best English that they could) that we were going to the girls' apartment. "For what?" I asked curiously. "Drinking," they said. And away we went.
The school had been so gracious as to purchase the teachers an absolutely riveting amount of alcohol and food (including tomatoes and strawberries which are not cheap here). The equivalent of three soju bottles per person was brought for the three days. One teacher told us this sadly. It was more than enough. There were plenty of six-packs of (awful) Korean beer around too. This led to most people mixing the beer and soju togehter to make "So-meg". and by most people I mean the men. Many of the women did not drink.
And so we sat, segregated by sex (like we were in middle school) - the guys on one side of the circle and the girls on the other (i was next to my co-teacher, a woman, so i sat at the end of the men), drinking and making conversation with the person next to us.
every so often, a person would reach for a tomato.or a cashew. or dried squid. or one of these walnut bread balls that are so freaking delicious it's crazy.
some people were drunk by dinner.
after dinner, we drank more. the bro taht played guitar played guitar. the bro that played on his phone played on his phone. i mingled with some teachers. four more teachers had driven (2.5 hours) to the resort to keep us company and the three that weren't the DD got wasted and shared their life stories with me. One was a DJ - he loves Roy Orbison and humored me by singing a bit of "Only The Lonely" in his deep Korean voice. So awesome.
We passed out sometime around midnight. I hope I didn't say anything stupid - but even if I did, only a few people there would have understood. Perk #3.
I slept on the couch. Perk #4. the Korean teachers slept on the floor. they do this. all of them. it's actually pretty comfortable. and the rooms come with large comforters and sleeping bag type sacks.
i woke up sweating several times in the night. i took off some layers. i went to teh bathroom. i saw the thermostat. 26Celsius. I do the math fast. 78F. No, wait, that can't be right. IT was. 78 degrees.
I like to sleep in the cold. I've met people who like it colder - but on average I think I'm a sleep-in-the-cold kind of guy. 78? Noooo.
The Second Day
I went back to bed, afraid to change anything. I was woken up. "Breakfast," one teacher said. "We go eat."
They were all ready to leave. They woke me up at the last second. I put on the layers I had taken off. My hair was in seven directions. I'm as hungover as a hippo (does that work? it does now)
we eat breakfast. rice, kimchi, soup. same as lunch. same as dinner. yongypong food suuucked. we ate at the general lodge and all the kids ate there too and so we had what was essentially the equivalent of cafeteria food. except i like our cafeteria. didn't care much for this.
after breakfast, we come back to the villa. The teachers ask "Gondola?" and I say yes. Apparently, the gondola for the ski mountain was still running and you could go up and its a great view.
We walk. A few of them carry small bags. I don't know why. We don't turn for the gondola. We go inside a building. We into the spa. "Gondola?"I ask innocently. "First, sauna" one says.
Korean saunas. They're called jimjilbongs and involve quite a bit of nakedness. The other teachers stripped down. The little bags they wer ecarrying were their shower things. I strip down. We go in. It's a bunch of showers and 4 different pools - with different temperatures and one steam room. I go into the 37C one. Theres a 41C, a 50C and a 20C. I spend most of my time in there. The korean teachers go in and out of one or the other. We don't talk.
One time, as I get up to move, out of the pool. One teacher smiles nicely and says, "oooh, eric, nice-uh shape."
"Thanks," I say, laughing.
Other men in the room do pushups and exercises and then dip into the cold pool. Many men shower. We stay for a while. Eventually Ive had enough - it's tooo f'n hot and i dont know how long they are going to stay. I shower and go back in.
The proper manners at jimjilbongs deserve their own post. So i won't go much into them - but there is a proper way to act in there. Again, involving quite a bit of nudity and with no reserve for any one around you.
It did cure my hangover, though. Knocked that sucker right back into yesterday, what with all the sweat and everything.
After the sauna, we went back to the room for like 30 minutes. I passed out. One teacher did indeed take me up to the gondola and I passed out there too. We ate lunch.
Next, the waterpark.
I had told the other teachers that I wanted to go in. They didn't. Crazy, right?
But I had forgot my swimsuit. We tried to rent one for me. All they had were very, very, very tight and very, very, very short suits. "That's alright," I said. I looked into the park. ALL the students wore life jackets (required), they also all wore their shirts (not sure why). Half of the waterpark's slides were closed. The teachers got dippin' dots and chilled.
We went back. Hung. I passed out. We had dinner.
After dinner was the ending festivals. This was more or less a talent show where student/student groups could volunteer to go on stage and sing and dance. They generally just went up to make fools of themselves. A few sang well. The workers at YongPyong had some games too - one that involved a poor Korean girl smelling the students' socks to pick which smelled worst. Dozens volunteered to try out. The winners were a group of guys that danced around to a KPop song and ended it by taking their shirts off and wrestling. They won 40 dollars to the big cinema chain here. They nearly wept with joy.
Later, the teachers got together again with the girls for drinking. This time we had soups and raw fish (called "huey") for an extra meal
Got drunk. Talked with the other drunk teachers.
Woke up the next day terribly hung over once more and got my stuff together and we left. I got back to school sometime around 4:30 or 5pm and went to get dinner for my friend Nate's birthday but couldn't do much more than that. Too tired. Went home and passed out. And, like that, it was over.
Friday, March 18, 2011
update
hey readers - I'm just kind of killing some time before I meet some friends so I figured I'd update this. Nothing special, just some highlights from the previous few weeks.
Police
Sometime last week I was heading over to get some dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant for JaJaMyeong - a noodle and bean sauce dish that costs 3,000won (less than $3) and is delicious and filling. I usually top the meal off with a fat kimchi mandu (dumpling) from next door.
Anyway,I stopped at the ATM and to avoid some extra walking I just jaywalked across the street. As it happened, a car pulled up and happened to be a Korean police car.
Now, a bit of background.....Korean police is not much like American police. For one thing, there is no crime here. They are less needed, less seen and less relevant. They don't carry guns and, as we found out playing our scavenger hunt, they also do not carry handcuffs. Some carry BB guns, some carry those twist ties - most don't. They are there for traffic and civilian unrest.
But I had no idea what kind of penalty jaywalking involved so when they stopped and slowed down next to me I was a bit nervous.
I bowed and did my annyong haseoyo. The cop driving looked at me, insanely puzzled, and just said, "megook?" ("american?").
I nodded. They left.
Crisis averted.
Classes
So I started my new classes. I'm 2 weeks in now - the first week being introductions. This week has me teaching them a bit of slang (so they can now say "what's up?" to me) and playing a certain kick-ass soccer game that I invented that has new teachers abuzz. (parents also, since today was an open day - parents could come in - and apparently many had good things to say about me. understandably so, I wore my best blue shirt!)
Anyways, the introduction lessons are always fun, since the kids don't always know what they are saying and some are willing to say anything that comes into their minds. So, some observations and funny sentences put together in the last week....
First, the new grade of Korean boys are still perverted. Less than last year, but still so. Most classes had at least one student tell me his hobby was "adult movies".
Many classes asked how I old I was for my first kiss. I told them. Many of them haven't had theirs. Shucks. One student had enough bravado to ask "When This" as he simultaneously did the round squeezing motion with both his hands.
I didn't answer that one.
During the game this week, one student got up and said,
"I'm happy because I have a girlfriend" (he had to make a sentence with "because" - it's what the book has them practicing this lesson)
The very next student got up and said, "I'm sad because I am not the girlfriend".....my co-teacher and I got a big kick out of that and no one else even laughed. He meant to said he didn't have one - but the slip, mixed with the timing, was priceless.
Golfzon
My buddies and I have been as active as ever on the (simulated) links. Quinn and I are on an average of nearly once during the schoolweek and most weekends don't escape without a round. We now found out we can just play 3 or 6 holes, which could change everything - I'm sure much to the dismay of the girls in the group, who hate it when we aren't around (though they won't admit it).
I've gotten my handicap down, shooting somewhere in the range of 85-90, which hopefully will translate to the real thing once I get back to that. If they decide to start some operations in North america I may just have to jump on the corporate bandwagon.
As it happens, I am currently taking any and all suggestions for what to do when I am done with Korea. My cousin Neal was so kind as to provide me with 26 options which I am currently considering. So thank you.
But serious, send some suggestions my way. Anything but "get a job" will probably be met with consideration.
Okay. That's all for now. St. Patrick's Day celebration in Seoul this weekend. A bar has all-you-can-drink Guinness for about 40 bucks. If that's not bliss, I don't want to know what is.
Pyonghwa,
-e.g.
Police
Sometime last week I was heading over to get some dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant for JaJaMyeong - a noodle and bean sauce dish that costs 3,000won (less than $3) and is delicious and filling. I usually top the meal off with a fat kimchi mandu (dumpling) from next door.
Anyway,I stopped at the ATM and to avoid some extra walking I just jaywalked across the street. As it happened, a car pulled up and happened to be a Korean police car.
Now, a bit of background.....Korean police is not much like American police. For one thing, there is no crime here. They are less needed, less seen and less relevant. They don't carry guns and, as we found out playing our scavenger hunt, they also do not carry handcuffs. Some carry BB guns, some carry those twist ties - most don't. They are there for traffic and civilian unrest.
But I had no idea what kind of penalty jaywalking involved so when they stopped and slowed down next to me I was a bit nervous.
I bowed and did my annyong haseoyo. The cop driving looked at me, insanely puzzled, and just said, "megook?" ("american?").
I nodded. They left.
Crisis averted.
Classes
So I started my new classes. I'm 2 weeks in now - the first week being introductions. This week has me teaching them a bit of slang (so they can now say "what's up?" to me) and playing a certain kick-ass soccer game that I invented that has new teachers abuzz. (parents also, since today was an open day - parents could come in - and apparently many had good things to say about me. understandably so, I wore my best blue shirt!)
Anyways, the introduction lessons are always fun, since the kids don't always know what they are saying and some are willing to say anything that comes into their minds. So, some observations and funny sentences put together in the last week....
First, the new grade of Korean boys are still perverted. Less than last year, but still so. Most classes had at least one student tell me his hobby was "adult movies".
Many classes asked how I old I was for my first kiss. I told them. Many of them haven't had theirs. Shucks. One student had enough bravado to ask "When This" as he simultaneously did the round squeezing motion with both his hands.
I didn't answer that one.
During the game this week, one student got up and said,
"I'm happy because I have a girlfriend" (he had to make a sentence with "because" - it's what the book has them practicing this lesson)
The very next student got up and said, "I'm sad because I am not the girlfriend".....my co-teacher and I got a big kick out of that and no one else even laughed. He meant to said he didn't have one - but the slip, mixed with the timing, was priceless.
Golfzon
My buddies and I have been as active as ever on the (simulated) links. Quinn and I are on an average of nearly once during the schoolweek and most weekends don't escape without a round. We now found out we can just play 3 or 6 holes, which could change everything - I'm sure much to the dismay of the girls in the group, who hate it when we aren't around (though they won't admit it).
I've gotten my handicap down, shooting somewhere in the range of 85-90, which hopefully will translate to the real thing once I get back to that. If they decide to start some operations in North america I may just have to jump on the corporate bandwagon.
As it happens, I am currently taking any and all suggestions for what to do when I am done with Korea. My cousin Neal was so kind as to provide me with 26 options which I am currently considering. So thank you.
But serious, send some suggestions my way. Anything but "get a job" will probably be met with consideration.
Okay. That's all for now. St. Patrick's Day celebration in Seoul this weekend. A bar has all-you-can-drink Guinness for about 40 bucks. If that's not bliss, I don't want to know what is.
Pyonghwa,
-e.g.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Teacher's Dinner Pictures
In Korea, it's tradition that, with some regularity, all of the teachers at a school go out for dinner and drinking. Usually this is once a month - but this month marked the leaving of some teachers and the incoming of new ones - both causes for teacher's dinners.
These dinners tend to be long, awkward and drunken. Very, very drunken. The reason is that this is sort of the social time for teachers and to loosen up they all drink soju, makkeoli or beer and insist that you do the same with them. Over and over again.
If the principal wants to take a shot with you, you take one. If an older teacher (see: any other teacher at my school) wants to take a shot with you, you take one. No questions asked. You don't even get to pour your own drinks - someone does that for you and strips you of any remaining control of sobriety.
My group of friends - most of whom left my school for other schools - tend to go to the dinners and then do our own thing after. This means drinking - sometimes singing rooms, sometimes sweet Korean foods and embarrassing pictures. I'll put up pictures of the big group to give you an idea and then some of the funnier ones that I took from the "goodbye" teacher's dinner event two weeks ago.
first.....from the actual dinner - with the whole school staff
next, just a few of my friends and I at a bar afterward....
e.g.
These dinners tend to be long, awkward and drunken. Very, very drunken. The reason is that this is sort of the social time for teachers and to loosen up they all drink soju, makkeoli or beer and insist that you do the same with them. Over and over again.
If the principal wants to take a shot with you, you take one. If an older teacher (see: any other teacher at my school) wants to take a shot with you, you take one. No questions asked. You don't even get to pour your own drinks - someone does that for you and strips you of any remaining control of sobriety.
My group of friends - most of whom left my school for other schools - tend to go to the dinners and then do our own thing after. This means drinking - sometimes singing rooms, sometimes sweet Korean foods and embarrassing pictures. I'll put up pictures of the big group to give you an idea and then some of the funnier ones that I took from the "goodbye" teacher's dinner event two weeks ago.
first.....from the actual dinner - with the whole school staff
next, just a few of my friends and I at a bar afterward....
e.g.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Slow Times at Guri High
I returned from Southeast Asia on Feburary 6th. It's March 4th now - and today (Friday) is the final day of my 4th week back at school.
Here, in as complete of a list as my memory will allow, is the nothingness accrued in these 4 weeks (during school hours).
- taught 6 classes (over the span of three days)
- watched Senior Graduation, Goodbye Ceremony for leaving teachers, Welcoming Ceremony for new teachers
- moved offices (from center first floor to the new wing on the 3rd floor; like going from first row first base side above the dugout to $4 bleacher seats in left field)
- gotten sick, faked sick, taken naps, woken up with drool on my face
- written something like 45,00 words (seriously) in the form of stories, blogposts, tumblr posts, emails and letters
- read: the 1926 Letters of Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsetayeava and Rainer Maria Rilke, Lorrie Moore Birds in America, Studs' Terkel's Working, Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn, a few dozen poets and a few hundred online blogs of various components, the BBC and New York Times daily, and anything anyone posts remotely interesting on Reddit.
oh, and damn near a dozen of Charlie Sheen interview transcripts
- watched: movies: A Single Man, The Visitor, The King's Speech, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Louis C.K's Hilarious, In The Loop; documentaries on, Westboro Baptist Church, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce....and more
tv shows: Portlandia (all 6 episodes), Bob's Burgers (all 5 episodes), all current episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 rock, The Big Bang Theory, Archer, Modern Family, Californication....and more
- eaten: loads of bibimbop and donkatsu - the two easiest things for koreans to order me....and since for 3 of these 4 weeks we had no students we have ordered in lunch everyday.
classes start tomorrow. this has to be the single most boring blog post you've ever read - if indeed you did read it all.
i'm sorry - but content equals sentiment, and I'm losing my mind with all this internet-ing.
a quotation:
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
— Isaac Asimov
(which is non-coincidentally how I've been feeling about america lately)
next: pictures from the various teacher dinner's I've gone on lately, those will be good. much better than this, yes, much better.
-e.g.
Here, in as complete of a list as my memory will allow, is the nothingness accrued in these 4 weeks (during school hours).
- taught 6 classes (over the span of three days)
- watched Senior Graduation, Goodbye Ceremony for leaving teachers, Welcoming Ceremony for new teachers
- moved offices (from center first floor to the new wing on the 3rd floor; like going from first row first base side above the dugout to $4 bleacher seats in left field)
- gotten sick, faked sick, taken naps, woken up with drool on my face
- written something like 45,00 words (seriously) in the form of stories, blogposts, tumblr posts, emails and letters
- read: the 1926 Letters of Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsetayeava and Rainer Maria Rilke, Lorrie Moore Birds in America, Studs' Terkel's Working, Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn, a few dozen poets and a few hundred online blogs of various components, the BBC and New York Times daily, and anything anyone posts remotely interesting on Reddit.
oh, and damn near a dozen of Charlie Sheen interview transcripts
- watched: movies: A Single Man, The Visitor, The King's Speech, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Louis C.K's Hilarious, In The Loop; documentaries on, Westboro Baptist Church, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce....and more
tv shows: Portlandia (all 6 episodes), Bob's Burgers (all 5 episodes), all current episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 rock, The Big Bang Theory, Archer, Modern Family, Californication....and more
- eaten: loads of bibimbop and donkatsu - the two easiest things for koreans to order me....and since for 3 of these 4 weeks we had no students we have ordered in lunch everyday.
classes start tomorrow. this has to be the single most boring blog post you've ever read - if indeed you did read it all.
i'm sorry - but content equals sentiment, and I'm losing my mind with all this internet-ing.
a quotation:
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
— Isaac Asimov
(which is non-coincidentally how I've been feeling about america lately)
next: pictures from the various teacher dinner's I've gone on lately, those will be good. much better than this, yes, much better.
-e.g.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Vietnam
as promised, the long awaited conclusion to my southeast asian adventure.
and it only comes to you a month late - which in the scheme of grander things, is nothing.
so, then, as the koreans say "be-it-nom"
our foray into vietnam began with a boat ride - from Phnom Penh, Cambodia into Chau Doc, Vietnam. we went through both countries immigration stations, riverside (Mekong-side) and soon we were coasting into Vietnam by sunset. The same sunset one has come to expect from VIetnam - bloody and sunken, kind of low-hung and ancient.
In Chau Doc we got dropped off at a restaurant, where a group of mosquitoes must also have gotten dropped off since a group of ten dozen of them were circling a light above us.
We left to find a hostel - which Lisa (i think) had looked up before we got there. Well, we arrived at the (only) busy time in Chau Doc, as the market vendors screamed and the streets were stuffed with pedestrians and sale items. We found an older couple who recommended a cheap hotel but we decided to keep our adventure, big bags on our back and all.
We found the place we were looking for and it was booked. We asked for a different hotel, found that and checked in. I think we each paid 10 dollars for the night.
Chau Doc was small - right on the border and riverside. It also shuts down sometime around 9:30 and by the time we got dinner, the city was dead. No drinking life, not even a soul to speak wtih along the streets. We went back to the hotel and drank a bit and enjoyed each other's company.
The next time we woke up and got breakfast at a travel agency-ish type sort of place next to our hotel, who had a sign for englihs breakfast. we each paid liek 2 dollars and ordered an egg dish and an iced coffee. We grew a bit concerned about the eggs after taking some time and then a motorbike showed up wiht a few of the orders....they had ordered the egg dish from a restaurant nearby!
Well, half of us ate and hte other half waited. Somewhere along the line - either fromt he malted milk in the iced coffee or hte malaria pill I took on an empty stomach, I got sick. I had to throw up int eh hotel bathroom after we had checked out. And when the grew took bikes up the famous mountain in Chau Doc and got to ride sweet moped bikes up there, I had to stay at the hotel adn clutch my stomach and wait until I puked the sickness out. Glorious, huh?
We then hired a van to drive the 8 of us to Saigon, the final place on my vacation.
While, in the past, 8 people was enough to rent an entire van - here was different. We paid for seats on a larger van and along our way picked up some various Vietnamese, none of whom spoke English. Sometimes theyd stay for hours, sometimes only 20 minutes. We also picked up a large amount of boxes of pills adn piled them into the van (in hidden spots) and nothing was ever explained but they were deposited somewhere, thank goodness.
We arrived to Saigon without even realizing it. At some point they just pulled off the street to a smaller street and made us get out. "Saigon?" We asked. They nodded. It didn't look like a city. It didn't smell like a city. There was no one anywhere.
After some more confusion, we got the driver to drive us to a hotel we had found the name of. The hotel was booked - even though we had made reservations, but she was more than willing to take us to her "cousin's hotel" and walked us there. She found me quite attractive (a 60 year old vietnamese lady) and had no reluctance to let the whole group know about it. Solid ego boost, I guess?
We arrived in Saigon during the heart of Tet - the celebration of the (lunar) new year. the first and second night were the biggest celebrations, with fireworks and people taking the streets.
We had a blast during the festivities. Every person we met made sure to wish us a happy new year. People were joyous, the city was in a constant celebration and it was terrific to be a part of.
The only down side was that many things were closed during the day. We would read about things to see and get there and it would be closed. The city's giant market was closed the whole time we were there. Our friend who knows Vietnam quite well tried to take us to his favorite restaurant and it was closed (we settled for the "copycat" of it).
We got to see a few museums and the main independence palace and those were great, but we never truly got a feel for the real city since it was a holiday. It's hard to gauge how much Tet affected our stay in Saigon but it had an impact. I still wouldn't trade it for anything - it was a great time.
Our hotel had a nice balcony on the 4th floor and we spent time up there just listening to music and looking at the city skyline. We went up the tallest building in Saigon, on the world's second fastest elevator, and got another view there. MOstly, though, Saigon appears as itself from the vantage point of our hotel's balcony. Again, no complaints.
I have more to say about Saigon but they are just notes adn observations. Tons of wires. Tons of motorbikes. Beautiful city. Nicer to Americans than you would ever expect after we ravaged their country. Many things. But it's almost saddening to have to write about such an enjoyable time when it seems so long ago now.
Korea will have to keep its hold on my curiosities for now.
Next blog post will update you all on my new school semester which began today.
quotation:
"We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are for, I don't know."
- W. H. Auden
song:
Patti Smith - Gloria
e.g.
- oh, post script - i got myself one of those famous vietnamese conical hats. keep yourself on guard, america, it's coming home!
and it only comes to you a month late - which in the scheme of grander things, is nothing.
so, then, as the koreans say "be-it-nom"
our foray into vietnam began with a boat ride - from Phnom Penh, Cambodia into Chau Doc, Vietnam. we went through both countries immigration stations, riverside (Mekong-side) and soon we were coasting into Vietnam by sunset. The same sunset one has come to expect from VIetnam - bloody and sunken, kind of low-hung and ancient.
In Chau Doc we got dropped off at a restaurant, where a group of mosquitoes must also have gotten dropped off since a group of ten dozen of them were circling a light above us.
We left to find a hostel - which Lisa (i think) had looked up before we got there. Well, we arrived at the (only) busy time in Chau Doc, as the market vendors screamed and the streets were stuffed with pedestrians and sale items. We found an older couple who recommended a cheap hotel but we decided to keep our adventure, big bags on our back and all.
We found the place we were looking for and it was booked. We asked for a different hotel, found that and checked in. I think we each paid 10 dollars for the night.
Chau Doc was small - right on the border and riverside. It also shuts down sometime around 9:30 and by the time we got dinner, the city was dead. No drinking life, not even a soul to speak wtih along the streets. We went back to the hotel and drank a bit and enjoyed each other's company.
The next time we woke up and got breakfast at a travel agency-ish type sort of place next to our hotel, who had a sign for englihs breakfast. we each paid liek 2 dollars and ordered an egg dish and an iced coffee. We grew a bit concerned about the eggs after taking some time and then a motorbike showed up wiht a few of the orders....they had ordered the egg dish from a restaurant nearby!
Well, half of us ate and hte other half waited. Somewhere along the line - either fromt he malted milk in the iced coffee or hte malaria pill I took on an empty stomach, I got sick. I had to throw up int eh hotel bathroom after we had checked out. And when the grew took bikes up the famous mountain in Chau Doc and got to ride sweet moped bikes up there, I had to stay at the hotel adn clutch my stomach and wait until I puked the sickness out. Glorious, huh?
We then hired a van to drive the 8 of us to Saigon, the final place on my vacation.
While, in the past, 8 people was enough to rent an entire van - here was different. We paid for seats on a larger van and along our way picked up some various Vietnamese, none of whom spoke English. Sometimes theyd stay for hours, sometimes only 20 minutes. We also picked up a large amount of boxes of pills adn piled them into the van (in hidden spots) and nothing was ever explained but they were deposited somewhere, thank goodness.
We arrived to Saigon without even realizing it. At some point they just pulled off the street to a smaller street and made us get out. "Saigon?" We asked. They nodded. It didn't look like a city. It didn't smell like a city. There was no one anywhere.
After some more confusion, we got the driver to drive us to a hotel we had found the name of. The hotel was booked - even though we had made reservations, but she was more than willing to take us to her "cousin's hotel" and walked us there. She found me quite attractive (a 60 year old vietnamese lady) and had no reluctance to let the whole group know about it. Solid ego boost, I guess?
We arrived in Saigon during the heart of Tet - the celebration of the (lunar) new year. the first and second night were the biggest celebrations, with fireworks and people taking the streets.
We had a blast during the festivities. Every person we met made sure to wish us a happy new year. People were joyous, the city was in a constant celebration and it was terrific to be a part of.
The only down side was that many things were closed during the day. We would read about things to see and get there and it would be closed. The city's giant market was closed the whole time we were there. Our friend who knows Vietnam quite well tried to take us to his favorite restaurant and it was closed (we settled for the "copycat" of it).
We got to see a few museums and the main independence palace and those were great, but we never truly got a feel for the real city since it was a holiday. It's hard to gauge how much Tet affected our stay in Saigon but it had an impact. I still wouldn't trade it for anything - it was a great time.
Our hotel had a nice balcony on the 4th floor and we spent time up there just listening to music and looking at the city skyline. We went up the tallest building in Saigon, on the world's second fastest elevator, and got another view there. MOstly, though, Saigon appears as itself from the vantage point of our hotel's balcony. Again, no complaints.
I have more to say about Saigon but they are just notes adn observations. Tons of wires. Tons of motorbikes. Beautiful city. Nicer to Americans than you would ever expect after we ravaged their country. Many things. But it's almost saddening to have to write about such an enjoyable time when it seems so long ago now.
Korea will have to keep its hold on my curiosities for now.
Next blog post will update you all on my new school semester which began today.
quotation:
"We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are for, I don't know."
- W. H. Auden
song:
Patti Smith - Gloria
e.g.
- oh, post script - i got myself one of those famous vietnamese conical hats. keep yourself on guard, america, it's coming home!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Ski Slopes, RBIs, and My Bare Chin
i realize fully well that I owe this blog a post about my fourth and final southeast asian country, Vietnam, but that will have to wait. For now, I am going to tell you about my weekend - since it stands out as exceptional for its first, lasts, and overall events.
Friday after school I met up with my friends and we promptly took a bus out East. It was my first time going to the northeastern part of the country. We took the bus to a town called Gangneung and after some more arranging ended up near our destination: Yongpyong Ski Resort.
Friday night we got fitted for our equipment, met our other friends and enjoyed some less than enjoyable convenience store food for dinner. We all slept on the floor of a 10 person hostel room that Quinn graciously booked for us.
This weekend was not only my first time skiing, it was, as best as I can remember, the first time I'd ever been to a ski resort. I've heard of stories from friends about Colorado and Utah and the sort, but never actually been myself. The Grants just aren't a ski & snowboard type family.
We woke up early on Saturday to get to the slopes as they opened and we got our lift tickets and everything by 8:30. Now, I had absolutely no idea how to ski whatsoever and even the bunny hill looked a bit daunting. Our group was lucky enough to have a nice arrangement of beginners and experienced mountain riders. My friend Justine agreed to teach me how to get down the hill without dying.
I'd say my first two minutes on the bunny hill were amongst the more frustrating of my life. After inadvertently speeding down the hill, falling on purpose to save myself and not knowing how to get up (2x-3x) I finally got the tiniest bit of the hang of the whole thing. It wasn't truly very difficult to pick up once you had an idea of how to balance, distribute weight, slow down and turn.
Before long I was handling the bunny hill no problem and moving on to "greens" and harder runs. I had a nice group of snowboarders present for encouragement and help (they were beginners too, but props to them for making it through the day....and a special thanks has to go out to Marla (and Sam if she reads this? but mostly Marla) for helping me in and out of my skis a dozen and a half times and sticking it out through the awkward pile-ups of Korean skiers that I created.
I also fell once getting off the chairlift, after my ski pole got tangled with our friend Greg's legs and had to try and roll away for fear of getting trampled by all the other lifts that were going to come in. The group got a great laugh out of it.
I'm going to give out kudos here to Quinn for convincing me that skiing would be enjoyable - I had my doubts. It was a blast....once you learn that falling isn't the worst thing ever. I probably fell 4 or 5 times the whole day and none were bad enough to injure me more than a few sore knees and back.
I'll be skiing again someday - and hopefully getting better and better.
And since I have no American resort to compare it to, I can't judge Yongpyong too well. I'm willing to bet that most ski resorts don't have a PC Room (always full, no less) nor do they serve Mandu dumplings in the main lodge. But the place was very cool - a few large hotels, some chalets, a hostel for the lighter pockets, a bowling alley, several restaurants and something like 27 different runs people could wind through.
Also, a shout out to Quinn and Brian who, I believe, both won their races and got some prizes. We all actually entered the race - in order to get the freebys ( a great sweater, a number for the race, and some coffee. we mostly did it for the sweater)...
The place was an interesting mix of Koreans, Americans, Canadians and some Northern Europeans who occasioned the mountain perhaps normally or perhaps for the races and "festival".
Perhaps the only negative about the ski trip was that I had to leave early. While the rest of the group stayed Saturday night and some skiied again today (Sunday), I had to take a 5pm bus back to Guri.
Why? Well, I had my first baseball practice today.
Last week a teacher (Mr. Choi) approached me to see if I wanted to join his team - Force Nine - with him and his buddies. They play in two different leagues and that means a game almost every Sunday until the end of the summer. I told him I'd love to but couldn't make every game and that didn't matter.
Since I am a foreigner though, I would have to meet the team manager so he could make sure my skills were enough to cut it in the Korean leagues.
So this morning a bit before 10am, Choi picked me up. He told me that we'd have a 3 hour practice, eat lunch and then have a scrimmage game. I had no idea it would be such a long day but it was terrific fun.
I should say now that I made the team - and I did pretty well today.
Our first stop was in a corporate yard, in a rented out warehouse space that the team calls "House". It's basically an indoor baseball practice area fusioned with a straight up bro-pad.
2/3 of the space is nets and a batting cage and room for throwing the ball around. The rest - a pool table, ping-pong table, flat screen, couches, massage chair, Wii, space heaters, lounge benches - was dedicated to the "boys being boys" aspect of the team. Apparently, they go out drinking most Sundays after wins - I'll be sure to tell you about that when it goes down.
So I met most of the team today - along with their "trainer", a super-intense Korean man who ran the whole team through stretching, some conditioning, and hours of baseball drills today. It was indeed a 3 hour practice - very few breaks. We practiced grounders, throwing mechanics, hitting mechanics, running mechanics and I feel like at some point just plain life mechanics. At no great surprise, Koreans are extremely mechanically driven with baseball - as I imagine them to be with most sporting arenas.
I was a bit rusty at first but picked up some of my old skills (ha!) - and it helped that Koreans aren't really that great at baseball, most likely because it's just not that popular of a sport here. Millions more play soccer and badminton comes after that.
Anyway, after the practice/warmup, we headed about 30 minutes away to Songchu, to a nifty baseball diamond in between some mountain ranges. It was actually pretty scenic and surreal, and the sunset casta strange shadow on the field but it was still beautiful.
We played a scrimmage against another team - we won 10-4 and it was really fun being out with all of them. Choi is really the only one that speaks English, which made me feel like Ichiro most of the time I was playing. Later they told me that I'm the first white player to play in the league - yeah, that's right, I'm breaking the color barrier - I'm thinking of wearing 42 on my FORCE jersey.
How did I do? I batted 2-4, 3 RBIs, one run scored, a tag out at second, a caught line drive and no errors. Was I so vain as to keep my own statistics - no! I was given my stat sheet on the drive home from Choi who happily recorded each game detail in his iPhone as the game went on. Yes, apparently, there's an app for that.
Our seasons starts next Sunday - I'll be sure to give some updates now and then.
What else?
Oh, I shaved for the first time in over 2 months. I was beginning to wonder what my chin looked like. And even with no facial hair, the next youngest player on my new baseball team (26 american age) guessed I was 29. (Jo - I need to age backward faster!)
I found a new, and closer, Chuiatong place to go to! This means that I will be making the walk to East Guri for some delicious mudfish soup at least once a week. I hope they'll start to remember me so I don't have to order. I have that savvy sort of deal going on at my local Kimbop place but I need a second location.
If I've told you about the drama with my bedframe and my leaving of it in my hallway (it's too long of a story) there's a new chapter. It was removed! That's right - someone just took it away. My tactic of just leaving it out until it disappeared has worked and I only had to endure a few complaints from my way-too-nice doorman.
The second comma in the title of this blogpost is an "Oxford Comma" in case you wondered what that was.
I hope one day the world might read about this man, who nearly single-handedly started the wave of Middle East protests taht is changing the political and social landscape of that always tumultuous region.
I can't believe what is going on in Madison! It's so terrific, what a beautiful and moving city. It's these things that give me some hope that I might actually live in America longterm and not grow angered by perennial apathy. Wish I were there - and if you are there and reading this, keep it up. The more attention you all get from the world the better since apparently the lawmakers won't listen.
I'll leave with a song and a quotation....
Fela Kuti - Zombie (some call him the Bob Marley of Nigeria, and indeed he's got the funk and the love - it's just mixed with some potent politics)
"Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator, but among those I love, I can; all of them make me laugh."
- W. H Auden
e.g.
Friday after school I met up with my friends and we promptly took a bus out East. It was my first time going to the northeastern part of the country. We took the bus to a town called Gangneung and after some more arranging ended up near our destination: Yongpyong Ski Resort.
Friday night we got fitted for our equipment, met our other friends and enjoyed some less than enjoyable convenience store food for dinner. We all slept on the floor of a 10 person hostel room that Quinn graciously booked for us.
This weekend was not only my first time skiing, it was, as best as I can remember, the first time I'd ever been to a ski resort. I've heard of stories from friends about Colorado and Utah and the sort, but never actually been myself. The Grants just aren't a ski & snowboard type family.
We woke up early on Saturday to get to the slopes as they opened and we got our lift tickets and everything by 8:30. Now, I had absolutely no idea how to ski whatsoever and even the bunny hill looked a bit daunting. Our group was lucky enough to have a nice arrangement of beginners and experienced mountain riders. My friend Justine agreed to teach me how to get down the hill without dying.
I'd say my first two minutes on the bunny hill were amongst the more frustrating of my life. After inadvertently speeding down the hill, falling on purpose to save myself and not knowing how to get up (2x-3x) I finally got the tiniest bit of the hang of the whole thing. It wasn't truly very difficult to pick up once you had an idea of how to balance, distribute weight, slow down and turn.
Before long I was handling the bunny hill no problem and moving on to "greens" and harder runs. I had a nice group of snowboarders present for encouragement and help (they were beginners too, but props to them for making it through the day....and a special thanks has to go out to Marla (and Sam if she reads this? but mostly Marla) for helping me in and out of my skis a dozen and a half times and sticking it out through the awkward pile-ups of Korean skiers that I created.
I also fell once getting off the chairlift, after my ski pole got tangled with our friend Greg's legs and had to try and roll away for fear of getting trampled by all the other lifts that were going to come in. The group got a great laugh out of it.
I'm going to give out kudos here to Quinn for convincing me that skiing would be enjoyable - I had my doubts. It was a blast....once you learn that falling isn't the worst thing ever. I probably fell 4 or 5 times the whole day and none were bad enough to injure me more than a few sore knees and back.
I'll be skiing again someday - and hopefully getting better and better.
And since I have no American resort to compare it to, I can't judge Yongpyong too well. I'm willing to bet that most ski resorts don't have a PC Room (always full, no less) nor do they serve Mandu dumplings in the main lodge. But the place was very cool - a few large hotels, some chalets, a hostel for the lighter pockets, a bowling alley, several restaurants and something like 27 different runs people could wind through.
Also, a shout out to Quinn and Brian who, I believe, both won their races and got some prizes. We all actually entered the race - in order to get the freebys ( a great sweater, a number for the race, and some coffee. we mostly did it for the sweater)...
The place was an interesting mix of Koreans, Americans, Canadians and some Northern Europeans who occasioned the mountain perhaps normally or perhaps for the races and "festival".
Perhaps the only negative about the ski trip was that I had to leave early. While the rest of the group stayed Saturday night and some skiied again today (Sunday), I had to take a 5pm bus back to Guri.
Why? Well, I had my first baseball practice today.
Last week a teacher (Mr. Choi) approached me to see if I wanted to join his team - Force Nine - with him and his buddies. They play in two different leagues and that means a game almost every Sunday until the end of the summer. I told him I'd love to but couldn't make every game and that didn't matter.
Since I am a foreigner though, I would have to meet the team manager so he could make sure my skills were enough to cut it in the Korean leagues.
So this morning a bit before 10am, Choi picked me up. He told me that we'd have a 3 hour practice, eat lunch and then have a scrimmage game. I had no idea it would be such a long day but it was terrific fun.
I should say now that I made the team - and I did pretty well today.
Our first stop was in a corporate yard, in a rented out warehouse space that the team calls "House". It's basically an indoor baseball practice area fusioned with a straight up bro-pad.
2/3 of the space is nets and a batting cage and room for throwing the ball around. The rest - a pool table, ping-pong table, flat screen, couches, massage chair, Wii, space heaters, lounge benches - was dedicated to the "boys being boys" aspect of the team. Apparently, they go out drinking most Sundays after wins - I'll be sure to tell you about that when it goes down.
So I met most of the team today - along with their "trainer", a super-intense Korean man who ran the whole team through stretching, some conditioning, and hours of baseball drills today. It was indeed a 3 hour practice - very few breaks. We practiced grounders, throwing mechanics, hitting mechanics, running mechanics and I feel like at some point just plain life mechanics. At no great surprise, Koreans are extremely mechanically driven with baseball - as I imagine them to be with most sporting arenas.
I was a bit rusty at first but picked up some of my old skills (ha!) - and it helped that Koreans aren't really that great at baseball, most likely because it's just not that popular of a sport here. Millions more play soccer and badminton comes after that.
Anyway, after the practice/warmup, we headed about 30 minutes away to Songchu, to a nifty baseball diamond in between some mountain ranges. It was actually pretty scenic and surreal, and the sunset casta strange shadow on the field but it was still beautiful.
We played a scrimmage against another team - we won 10-4 and it was really fun being out with all of them. Choi is really the only one that speaks English, which made me feel like Ichiro most of the time I was playing. Later they told me that I'm the first white player to play in the league - yeah, that's right, I'm breaking the color barrier - I'm thinking of wearing 42 on my FORCE jersey.
How did I do? I batted 2-4, 3 RBIs, one run scored, a tag out at second, a caught line drive and no errors. Was I so vain as to keep my own statistics - no! I was given my stat sheet on the drive home from Choi who happily recorded each game detail in his iPhone as the game went on. Yes, apparently, there's an app for that.
Our seasons starts next Sunday - I'll be sure to give some updates now and then.
What else?
Oh, I shaved for the first time in over 2 months. I was beginning to wonder what my chin looked like. And even with no facial hair, the next youngest player on my new baseball team (26 american age) guessed I was 29. (Jo - I need to age backward faster!)
I found a new, and closer, Chuiatong place to go to! This means that I will be making the walk to East Guri for some delicious mudfish soup at least once a week. I hope they'll start to remember me so I don't have to order. I have that savvy sort of deal going on at my local Kimbop place but I need a second location.
If I've told you about the drama with my bedframe and my leaving of it in my hallway (it's too long of a story) there's a new chapter. It was removed! That's right - someone just took it away. My tactic of just leaving it out until it disappeared has worked and I only had to endure a few complaints from my way-too-nice doorman.
The second comma in the title of this blogpost is an "Oxford Comma" in case you wondered what that was.
I hope one day the world might read about this man, who nearly single-handedly started the wave of Middle East protests taht is changing the political and social landscape of that always tumultuous region.
I can't believe what is going on in Madison! It's so terrific, what a beautiful and moving city. It's these things that give me some hope that I might actually live in America longterm and not grow angered by perennial apathy. Wish I were there - and if you are there and reading this, keep it up. The more attention you all get from the world the better since apparently the lawmakers won't listen.
I'll leave with a song and a quotation....
Fela Kuti - Zombie (some call him the Bob Marley of Nigeria, and indeed he's got the funk and the love - it's just mixed with some potent politics)
"Among those whom I like, I can find no common denominator, but among those I love, I can; all of them make me laugh."
- W. H Auden
e.g.
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