The end...

...of a GREAT year.

Well, a little time for reflection. This past year has been pretty phenomenal.

Starting from the beginning, I spent last Christmas with my Dad, Sister and boyfriend in sunny San Diego. We hung out in the pool, barbequed, drove up to LA, and enjoyed some much-needed sunshine. After that, I flew back to Bemidji for New Year's with my friends. I spent time with those people (and kitties^^) I had missed the most while taking time to straighten up my things in the storage space.

At the end of February, I headed back to Daegu for my second contract teaching English with MK. I found I really liked my new neighborhood and school. I got a new house, (then I got another one!) I met new people and reconnected with friends from the previous year. Over the past 10 months I've discovered new restaurants, neighborhoods, parks, music, arts, and buses to cool places in Daegu, as well as all over Korea.


I had some sweet visitors in August - My college friend Annie and her sister Gina! On a trip around the world, lucky chicks. They stayed a week and we travelled all over Korea. Daegu, Busan, a beautiful temple in the country, then ended up in style in Seoul.

In September, I embraced my life in Korea and began to truly enjoy my time here. I decided that I could comfortably stay here for another 2 years or so. On Chuseok, I celebrated the Korean Thanksgiving holiday thrice over - two days (of constant eating) with my friend's family, then another day with my boyfriend's family.

I also took vacation to go to Japan for 5 days. I wish it had been longer, but finances ran out. It's an expensive place, you know! I stayed in hostels mainly, save for one night at a cheap onsen. I ate my fill of amazing, super-fresh sushi, bought (and illegally transported!) more than my fill of sake, saw some castles, and shot across the country on bullet-trains. Quite the life.

Oh, and I can't forget the world famous Kobe beef... that melts in your mouth... literally. No knife necessary. It's like buttah, baby... mmmmmmmm.
And delicious okonomiyaki. Yeah... It's all about the food for me. ^^

Since September, my job has gotten harder to bear, my rabbit has been seriously ill, I've had to move, I began a frantic (and expensive) search for a new job, but I'm finding myself more and more in love.
Since September, US home prices dropped by a record percent, the world economic situation has become dire, the Korean Won has hit a new high against the US dollar (thereby decreasing the value when I send money home), but a black man was elected president of the United States.

Good luck and well wishes to all in the new year. That includes you, America.

Christmas? Mmmm, I guess it is...

Wednesday is Christmas Eve Day. I have to work until 9PM, then only have Thursday off. At least I have Thursday off. (I don't have the following Thursday off. Yep - working on New Year's Day.) On Wednesday night, I will be making a large batch of homemade eggnog and some corn souffle base, both of which will be fleshed out with additional cream and eggs. Then on Thursday, the food, Deuk Kyun, and I will head over to Bummeo (different part of Daegu) for some ice-skating and our annual MoonKkang Christmas potluck dinner. After a rousing "Bad Santa" gift exchange, we'll head home to relax and rest up to get right back to work on Friday. Humm.

This is why I seek a job with national holidays, and winter and summer break. Here's hoping. And here's some Christmas cuteness found while searching clip art. "Sleigh bells ring, are ya lis'nin'?..."

The new house

So here it is! The long-awaited, mold-free, teensy-bit-upgraded house.

1. Looking in the front door.


2. On the right, my laundry/storage room + rabbit!


3. On the far-right of the entry, my little-bit-bigger-bathroom!


4. The kitchen-wall


5. Looking into the second room (bedroom).


6. In the bedroom.


7. Looking back to the entryway from the bedroom.


8. My new teeny table to fit the teeny house.


9. My light fixture - the sticky glow-in-the-dark stars came with the place. ^^

That's cool!

I just added music! And you can play it right here. Except - sorry! Some of the songs are only 30 second clips. I wouldn't have put them on if I knew that before... But it's still pretty cool!

No job as of yet...

Went for the interview in Busan - didn't get the job. And I haven't heard anything yet from the ones I applied to last week. I sent emails to Duksung Women's University and an adult academy (both in Seoul), and I sent packages to Dongguk University (Seoul) and Kyungpook National University in Daegu.
I suppose if I don't get any university job I'll start to look at public schools. I could work days at an elementary or middle school and be pretty happy. We'll see what happens with these last couple colleges. meh.

Artist of the Month - December

Each month, MTV Korea crowns an Artist of the Month. I'll be bringing you the artist's newest music video. Here's December. (The woman in this video is Lee Hyori, a very famous Korean singer.)

Wheesung - Fading Star

The Update

Well, I didn't get the interview for Hongik University. But I did get one for Busan National University! On Friday, December 12 I'll take the train over to Busan to meet with the Director of the program. I'm not sure what to expect, so I'll have to research a little bit and prepare before I go.
I'm also going to apply for a couple other jobs, one in Daegu and others in Seoul.

On another note, my new house is great. (Pictures to come soon.) It has good energy, I can just tell it! It's a little bigger and has a small bit of storage so my boxes are out of the way. And I got a small vacuum so I can clean up all the rabbit fur - easier than sweeping!

So, that's the dish for now.

New

Well, it's 12:10 AM on Wednesday December 3rd. I'm going to check the website for Hongik University to see if I got called back for an interview...

... Wish me luck!! ......
...
...

Boo! No news yet. It still says "If you applied for the position, please check this website on December 3 to see if you are invited for an interview."

They must mean business hours on December 3.
________________________________________________________________________________

In other news I'm finally moving to another apartment. Unfortunately, it was quite a hassle to get that to happen. The guys who help us teachers out are usually quite easy going and helpful but this time they made me feel really bad about moving. This is primarily because I was the one to decide to move - due to the giant mold creature gaining territory on the ceiling of my bedroom. Of course, they agreed with me that a person shouldn't live in that condition, but it still amounted to additional work for them.

On top of that, I even took it upon myself to meet with a real estate broker to look at (more than a few) properties. I picked a couple nice ones, the first one of which was lost because my school didn't move fast enough on it. The others were, according to my school, too good for me.
"You see," I was told, "teachers compare their house, so you can't have a much better house."
They also thought that my second choice was too far from the other teachers' houses in my neighborhood. This is just a stupid argument. Anyway.

A house very much the same as the one I have now was chosen for me - just around the corner. So, I'll be moving my things in on Thursday.

Never Eat Shredded Wheat ... Clockwise.

That's how I always remembered the directions. Well, I have a new one.

I just mailed out 2 big packages of documents in order to change my direction in life here. I have applied for 2 university positions. First choice is Hongik University in Seoul (English website), and the other is Busan National University of Education (English website).
I've always wanted to work with adults since, as many of you know, I don't really like kids. The little ones have grown on me, but I need a change. At uni, I will work half the hours I'm working now for around the same pay! Depending on the school I work for, I may have to find my own housing and in most cases university professors pay for their apartment. But, for me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I'd be working daytime hours and freed up to do other things - like prepare for grad school. Finally.

What did it take to apply? *sigh* Bear with me...
A copy of my university degree
Official transcripts
Copy of my passport and Korean ID card
Resume
Cover letter
Philosophy of teaching statement
2 letters of recommendation
Proof of employment documentation
Completed online application (with 3 essays!)
And a printed copy of said online application.
Whheewwww.

Now, we'll just have to wait and see what they think of all of that.

My Bad Luck

Last week, I noticed my rabbit, Tokki, wasn't drinking any water. After 2 days, I started to really worry. The next day I took him to the vet, who said Tokki needed an ultrasound and an x-ray. It was Friday, so I had to go to work. My vet text messaged me that the rabbit needed surgery immediately as he had found some kidney stones - one quite large. Well, this vet is just the guy at Home Plus, not a rabbit specialist by any means, so I headed to Naver to find a better one. Saturday morning, I had to skip my Korean class to make my way to a new animal hospital, rabbit-in-box in hand.
3 hours, 565,000 won, and a couple cries later I knew my rabbit was overall pretty healthy and actually had only one stone, but was scheduled for a major surgery with anesthesia.

Luckily, he made it through with flying colours and even scratched the doctors up a bit, feisty little guy! He's meant to stay at the hospital one more day, so I'll bring him home tomorrow morning. I went in to visit him today and found he's in a really nice, quiet, private room like rich people get at the hospital. Good thing, because after all, I am paying 40,000 won per day for them to take care of him.

This all happened at the same time that the MK guys are working on getting me a new house (mine's all moldy - eew.) and my applications were due for a new university job. Some luck.

My Good Luck

Last Saturday, Nov.1, we headed down to Kyungbook University to see a non-verbal performance in the auditorium. It was the opening to a week of the Korea in Motion Festival. We arrived early for the requisite speeches, fireworks, and shivering outside the auditorium. After seeing the mayor of Daegu and the chancellor of the university speak, there came an unexpected musical performance... NO BRAIN!! See the previous post if you are lost.

So, it was just cool, because I've never seen anyone that famous by accident. -And surely not for free! Plus, all the people sitting in the chairs had been bored by the speeches, so we were able to run up near the stage and get close. The lead singer was only a few feet away from me at times! They played 3 songs, including my favorite, which was the video in my last post.

It was a nice surprise.

Foreshadowing

No Brain - "넌 내게 반했어" (You're Crazy For Me); English title "Stand By Me" <2005>


I have known about this band, No Brain, for over a year and have loved them from the start. They are well-known Korean punk rockers who first began performing in 1996 and put out an album every few years.

Click here for the original Stand By Me music video and here for the No Brain wikipedia page.

Get out there.

PIFF: Not just a response to something negative.

Wait- sorry. That's pfff. Anyway, it's actually the Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival and last weekend was the 13th annual. Advance tickets sold out in their typically rapid manner, so we decided to travel Sonja-style: wing it! We just hopped the cheap train to Busan, walked up to the main theater box-office, and bought tickets for 2 shows straight off the bat. At 4:30, we saw a pretty (if a bit boring) film about an English family called Shadows in the Sun. Then we headed up to Haeundae Beach for the 7:30 outdoor showing of Sky Crawlers, a Japanese animation which I thoroughly enjoyed. As it turned out, we got a bonus second screening of a movie named Gomorrah, about life in Italy's famous Neopolitan Camorra mafia. This was my bf's favorite, but I got a little sleepy. After all, it was the third movie, and it was about midnight. I liked it anyway, but my real favorite came the next morning.
After spending the night at a random downtown jjimjilbang (which caused me to resolve never to stay at a Busan jjimjilbang other than Song Jeong Beach) we had lunch and hit the box office once more. At 2PM, we took in the last of our PIFF films - Salt of This Sea. A woman raised in Brooklyn returns to her home country of Palestinian Israel. She finds someone as desperate to escape Palestine as she was to return "home" and she's continually forced to face her anger and frustration about her family's past. I LOVED it, my favorite of the four. =UPDATE: The director of Salt of This Sea was just featured on CNN= Check them out and download them if you're interested.

**Some sources gathered from the Toronto International Film Festival website**

Chuseok Belated

I really must apologize. I've been in a writing slump. It's not just that I'm busy - which I am. If I really wanted to, I would write in the few spare minutes before I sleep or go to work. But, no - I've not been feeling particularly motivated to write lately.

As you may have noticed from flickr, I have been to Japan. I was really hoping to have been able to go for a week but I couldn't have afforded it. September 13-15 was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday which only amounted to one day off for me. I took Tuesday to Friday as vacation days with the idea of leaving straight away Saturday. As it turned out, I'm glad I didn't stay away so long.

The weekend was fantastic! Being one of only 3 major holidays in Korea, and one of the long ones, people go all out. Usually this holiday is important for remembering and honoring ancestors, which involved visiting tombs and gravesites, performing formal ceremonies with bowing, and eating... a lot. Starting Saturday, I was full until Monday! My friend Steven (Sung Woo is his Korean name) invited my coworker Lexie and I to visit his father's family in Sangju (1.5 hrs), then his mother's side of the family in Wonju (3.5hrs). So 5 of us hopped in the car and road tripped north. Saturday evening was spent mostly sitting at the country house and eating dinner. We slept in the city in Steven's cousins nice new apartment. Then Sunday morning we woke early to perform/watch the ceremony for the ancestors, eat a big lunch, and visit the family tombs for more ceremonial bowing and eating.

We then drove up to Wonju to find another great dinner. His mother has 3 sisters who all have children our age so it was sure to be a fun time! In fact, after dinner, we decided to go out to a singing room for some drinks and karaoke. I had to get up early the next morning to catch a bus back to Daegu to have a 3rd Chuseok meal with my boyfriends family. Lexie and Steven also got up early to meet the family at the potato field to pick some sweet potatoes. She came back with a few pounds of them!

I got to spend Monday with Deuk Kyun's family and enjoy one more great dinner. His mom won - her meal was healthy and definitely the most delicious of the three! I slept at their house and headed off to Japan Tuesday morning...

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Now playing: Mat Kearney - Girl America
via FoxyTunes

Interesting Tidbit #3

You can find some wild things in the markets here. Pig heads, pig skin, pig feet... OK, so it's mostly wild pig parts. But frighteningly enough, you can purchase all manner of dogs. For soup. It's called bo-shin-tang. Yes. Live dogs, un-live, skinned, parts... ugh. Well, true - and a little interesting anyway.

The weekend... in short.

On Wednesday, Eternal Reflections II opened at Club That. The Korean/foreign art gallery and competition was held on the 3rd and 4th floors of this cool wine and jazz club downtown Daegu. I entered 4 photographs as a set simply named "China."






After voting closed on Saturday night, I won 2nd place in my category! This took the tangible form of a 10,000 KRW (~$10) certificate for an American breakfast restaurant which I quite enjoy. Nice.
2 Seoul rock bands and my friends' band played that night and we all greatly enjoyed the music.

Made it an early night, as Sunday was a big day to get married in Korea - the boy had to attend his friend's marriage in the morning, then my friend/co-worker got married in the afternoon. We enjoyed a big post-vows buffet and went home for a nap.

My Last August '08 Weekend Ever

Friday: After work, found a new place near my house to eat meat with my co-worker and boyfriend. Ate grilled chicken (duk-galbi) and pork (samguyb-sal), drank soju, and went home late.

Saturday: Got up early to take the train, drink some beers in the sun, and lay on the beach in Busan... One... More... Time for the summer. Had pretty nice weather. Took the train back to Daegu early to go out downtown with my friends.

Sunday: Woke up late, headed to Woobang Towerland Amusement Park to Sky Jump (controlled descent bungee jump), went shopping, had an amazing anniversary dinner at a great French restaurant downtown, and tried out a brand-spanking-new DVD room by Keimyung University (near my house).

Nice-ah!

Vacation Recap

As you can see on Flickr, I've finally gotten all the photos uploaded from Annie and Gina's visit. Featured trip highlights are as follows:

A couple days in Daegu for the market, nightlife, and rest.
I met them in Seoul to make their (sarcastic voice) hhhoooorrible (/sarcastic voice) trip around the world a bit easier. Slept at my place and hit the market (not-so-early) the next morning. We had a nice traditional lunch with Deuk Kyun and went out later. Annie borrowed a guitar (not nylon strings, sweetie!) and played her heart out at Communes (popular foreigner bar downtown Daegu).
Off to Busan (big coastal city with nice beaches.)
Perfect cure for a late night at the bar = relaxing on the sand with a beer. Busan never fails me. At Songjeong Beach, there also happens to be an excellent jjimjilbang which I have written about before. They loved staying there (luckily - cause it's CHEAP!) and were completely spoiled by this experience.
Took the train to Gyeong-ju for a templestay (:overnight at a Buddhist temple) Golgulsa.
Golgulsa = Golgul Temple. It's a lesser known temple in Gyeong-ju because there are many in that area. Golgulsa specializes in Sunmudo training, which is a martial art which seems to blend the strength of kung-fu with the deliberate, healing movement of tai-chi or qigong. The food was simple and enjoyable, the accomodations the same. I brought the wrong foot wear.
Annie and I attended the morning service at 4:30AM - definitely worth it (missed you Gina!) and we had a great time there.
Short stop in Daegu for the bags and cases, then up to Seoul for a reckless weekend before their Monday departure.
We definitely made an impression on some people while on the KTX to Seoul that night. Doing each other's makeup, repacking our bags, snapping pictures, all while drinking soju (which I had mixed immediately after boarding the train). Classy.
Seoul was great to us though. We stored our things in lockers at the train station for easy access when we would leave, and headed for Itaewon. Jason Jang's band's show was booted off stage at the Hard Rock Cafe for being too hard rock (really, complaints from patrons.... seriously?). So we, along with Las Pistolas, took ourselves to Hongdae where we partied til the early hours, Seoul style. After which, we discovered it is difficult to get a taxi to take you... anywhere. Eventually we found a dive-ey jjimjilbang to stay at. On Sunday, we did a bus tour of the city (GREAT IDEA GINA!! You saved us!) then shopped a bit and had a delicious dinner. Stayed at a love motel for a change of pace and I said goodbye to the girls early the next morning.
I went to work that day. Ick.

Check it all out here.

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Now playing: The Wombats - Let's Dance to Joy Division
via FoxyTunes

Now, when's my next vacation...??

Already sick of not vacationing

Currently uploading photos, catching up on work, and cleaning up my house; All while battling the horrendous cold I caught at the end of my vacation. I even left work early yesterday, only to sit in the kitchen like a (DayQuil induced) zombie while I should have been starting report cards.

Despite my condition, I'll soon have all the pictures on Flickr and updated information from the trip posted here. Give me a couple days to recover ^^

Friends!

So, I'm going to sleep now. My college friend, Annie, and her sister are coming to visit me tomorrow! I'll be meeting them in Seoul and bringing them back to Daegu for a day and a half of fun. Then we're off to lay on the beach, sleep overnight in a temple, and do a weekend in Seoul.

I'm PUMPED!!

Flickr Photo Mosaic

1. Sonja, 2. *Before* - Spicy Tofu Stew 순두부 찌개 (Soon Doo Boo Jigae), 3. fireworks #1, 4. Sunny Side Up, 5. Obese "E"'s famous Leonardo DiCaprio Collection, 6. Martinis at the Tonga Room, 7. the red makes it, 8. Untitled, 9. Bears, Mosquitos and Ticks! Oh, My! 113, 10. IMG_8118, 11. Spider on Sundew, 12. EGC Junior boarders 1948

The questions:

1. What is your first name? Sonja
2. What is your favorite food? Right now, Jjigae – spicy tofu stew
3. What high school did you go to? Bemidji
4. What is your favorite color? Pink
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Leonardo DiCaprio
6. Favorite drink? Dirty Martini
7. Dream vacation? Bali Resort
8. Favorite dessert? Fruit sorbet
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Physical therapist
10. What do you love most in life? Happiness
11. One word to describe you. Optimist
12. Your flickr name. Sonja Jean

So, you want to make one of your own? Here's what you do:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions above into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Flickr’s (Big Huge Labs) Mosaic Maker.
d. Save a copy. Don't forget to share it on your blog, facebook, myspace or by email!

Interesting Tidbit #2

There are so many cars in Daegu that the city has restricted driving. On any given day, there are 2 numbers posted outside government offices, on the news, and presumably somewhere online. Each weekday, the numbers are on a set schedule (1, 6 = Monday; 2, 7 = Tuesday...) but on the weekend days it seems random.
These numbers could, for example, be "0, 5." This means that if your car license plate ends in the number 0 or 5 you cannot drive on that day. Your car may be parked legally, or you may drive outside city limits. From what I've seen many people disobey this law and drive in the city anyway, but it is a law nonetheless.

Interesting.

Wednesday Weather Report

At 2PM today it's 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius). Reportedly, it feels like 108 F (42 C).
Yesterday it was 96, Monday was 96, and Sunday was 94. Tomorrow will be 90, and Friday will finally be 84. That's the relief.

It's the rainy season, but all we get is stifling, humid, sweaty heat.

Now, I love hot weather, as many of you know. I do. In fact, I'm happier in this weather than I would be in the snow. People here area wishing for some cold, winter weather - not me.

Interesting Tidbit #1

Yay! The first (of many, I hope) interesting tidbit of information I've learned. I'm hoping to be surprised by all the amazing things I learn, and soon forget. My goal is to better remember the small stuff by passing it along to any curious, innocent bystanders. (Byreaders??)

Soju, a popular and potent Korean alcohol, is necessary in the making of traditional, fermented foods such as kimchi, gochujang (red pepper paste), and doenjang (soybean paste). Of course, the alcohol evaporates or otherwise disappears, but that delicious -ha!- flavor (some of you know what I'm talking about) is bound to left in a small measure. I quite enjoy doenjang jjigae (tofu stew with a soybean paste broth) and was a bit alarmed to learn how much soju goes into the process.

As a bonus tidbit, soju can also be, and absolutely is, used to clean tables at restaurants between patrons. Yum.

Vacation

Yay!! My first vacation days are quickly approaching. Long ago, back in April, I requested June 19th and 20th off in hopes of spending an early summer 4-day weekend at the beach. Now it seems it may rain on Saturday and Sunday. Well, here's hoping it's at least nice on Friday. *Fingers crossed*
I'm taking the train early Friday morning to Busan in order to make a lunch date with my old manager. She still works for our company but moved from Chilgok (where I lived last year) to our new branch in Busan, near Haewoondae Beach. After I have lunch with her, I'm hoping to lay around, read, drink beer, and eat popsicles (Corona + Lemon Ice Bar) on the beach. Then I'm going to sleep in the jjimjilbang again to save money.

There are lots of exciting events scheduled for this summer, too. I can't wait to write about them, but here's an impromptu list:

Amazing Race Daegu II* (I did last year's also!)
Prom Night* - A chance to re-live it, but better this time! CANCELED due to "scheduling conflicts" with the venue... or some excuse. :(
Art Daegu 2008 - Exhibition at the EXCO Daegu Convention Center
TreX-Games Busan 2008
13th Busan International Art Festival
Boryeong Mud Festival (Also my second go-around)

* Organized by the small community of foreigners in Daegu for ourselves.
All the other items are legitimate, sponsored, backed-by-councils-and-ministries-type events.

School

I've recently come across some disturbing information. Since becoming a teacher, I've also become curious about the differences in education in other countries. My friend, who graduated from a Korean high school here in Daegu in 2000, has shared his experience. I will in turn share it with you (plus bits I know about elementary/middle schools now) to compare with your own.

Presently, memorization is stressed as the major learning tool in every level of schooling. In private academies, elementary schools, and middle schools students are taught to memorize data, sentences, articles, and even full presentations. They are tested in a way that reinforces this style. My classes in particular are based around repetition of vocabulary, sentences, or full conversations and recalling sentences from articles by rote memory. In this way, the students are supposed to be learning grammar, sentence structure, and conversation skills, along with building a wide vocabulary. Unfortunately, my experience has been that as quickly as the material is committed to memory, it is forgotten or replaced. Unless a word or sentence structure is continually used over a longer period of time, I have little hope of the students utilizing it properly, or remembering it at all. In my friend's experience, his learning style was shaped by similar teaching techniques. Even into college, there is a lot of emphasis placed on memorization.

This got me thinking... What about subjects which typically don't rely on data, information, or reading articles? What about where you must learn processes or plans, like in woodworking or photography? You'd think this would be a great way to continue implementing the memorization rule while keeping school fun and interesting.
Again, I start thinking. When was the last time my question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was answered by anything less standard than "Doctor," "Lawyer," "Teacher," or "Dentist"?
So I asked my friend, what kind of fun classes did you get to take in high school? He told me that high school was about 10% fun - the time he got to have a short break or lunch with his friends.
===== A little background:
Korean elementary = American elementary + 2 Saturdays/month + after-school academies (English, math, Korean, dance, TaeKwonDo...)
Korean middle school = American middle school + 2 Sat/month + academies or private lessons (English, Korean, math, history...)
Korean high school is much different.
M-F: Start time ~ 7:30 AM, short lunch in the school, dinner break, finish time ~10:30 PM. No academies.
Sat: Start time ~ 7:30 AM, short lunch, finish time ~2 PM. After this, maybe academy, probably private lessons in English, Korean, other various academic fields.
=====

It seems by the 3rd year of middle school, all fun has been prohibited. I asked about art classes: Only a cursory, still-life drawing/sketching class. Photography? Pottery? No. Drafting? Wood shop? Auto shop? Definitely not. Welding? No! Isn't that dangerous, he asks. Drama class? A school play*? Nope. Band? Orchestra? Choir? Yes, he did get to sing with a chorus group which would practice outside of school time for 2 concerts a year. At least gym is kind of like fun - if you're sporty. As far as I know, high schools here have no developed sports teams or system for promoting tournaments or intramural activities. There are some clubs in elementary or middle school for sports or interests like soccer, movies, book reporting, or drawing. The only competitions my students ever mention are math competitions or field day races.
(I know these few details about students nowadays due to the discussion questions we often have in conjunction with the reading class articles.)

My main concern is that high school students spend over 14 hours per day in a building learning purely academic subjects and have almost no artistic, technical, or remotely unique way to express themselves. Also, how do they learn what interests them if they're not exposed to skills like mechanical, automotive, artistic, dramatic, or specialized sports? Kids certainly don't decide to go to tech school before they ever use a wrench, or art school having never painted a canvas. How could a student possibly make an informed decision about his or her future without having experienced these different fields of study? I hope they're not relying on the Career and Vocational Assessment that I took in high school. That thing told me to be a waitress...

Please comment on this entry - I'd love to know what you think about education. Also, what questions you have that I can answer to make this more complete.

* I now know at least my elementary kids have an annual school play.

I love...

That's all.

Seoul; Presently Tense

It's Tuesday. Monday May 5^th is my birthday. Monday. What can I do on a Monday…? Recover from a good – no, great – weekend, that’s what. So Deuk Kyun and I start planning a trip to Seoul for the 2^nd Annual Seoul World DJ Festival.

We agree not to spend much money as we’re saving up for a big winter getaway. Therefore, I buy tickets to the show in advance, saving us ~$10. We also decide that a “love motel” won’t be cheap enough… no, no. We need to stay in a jjimjilbang. For around $10, a person can pay to get the hot tubs, sauna, rooms (click on the links and read if you don’t know what I’m talking about) any time of day. Most jjimjilbang are 24-hour operations, with dedicated sleeping rooms and mats, pads, and pillows available.

On Friday we pack small backpacks for the overnight trip. Deuk Kyun is arranging seats on the cheaper (read: slower) train to Seoul Station for ~$20 each one-way. Saturday morning we leave Daegu with no problems. The weather is beautiful in Daegu as well as Seoul. When we arrive, we head straight for Yongsan. One highlight of Seoul (for me at least) is the electronics mart in the Yongsan area, near the city center. I want to call it an indoor market but that doesn’t really do it justice. When we get off the subway we cross through an outdoor passageway from Yongsan Station into the shopping area. Upstairs there is a large department store and restaurant section, and on the side is the electronics market.

As I walk in, I immediately feel the warmth and excitement soaking into me from the bright, white display lighting and neon signs on the vendors’ showcases. All the salespeople eagerly greet me, asking what I’m looking for. I have recently purchased a lightly used Nikon D40 SLR camera body, so I explain to the first salesman I want to look at lenses. Specifically, the Nikon 18-55mm VR lens. The first vendor gives me a price and I quickly say, "I'll come back, thanks!" I continue to collect prices, higher and lower until I'm sure I've asked everyone... Or I get lost. I head back to the dealer who quoted the lowest price - he unfortunately informs me he can't sell me the lens. Due to the holiday (5/5 = Children's Day), their supply store is closed, or something. This is the case with 2 more vendors. I finally find someone who sill sell me the lens, I work out a deal, and get the warranty information. Finally, I walk out with my beautiful lens!

After leaving Yongsan, we hop the subway to Itaewon. This area is foreigner-central for Korea, and definitely worth the visit. We are walking up and down the streets looking for anything cool. I visit the English bookstore, browse the street vendors, and finally we begin to look for dinner. After stopping into an alleged "Spanish Tapas" bar, only to find they don't actually have food on the menu, we find a small Mexican restaurant. 2 burritos, 2 tacos and a Corona later, we finally leave for Nanji Park on the Han River.

After exiting the subway station at the Olympic Stadium, we ask some people on the street to get headed in the right direction. We walk... and walk... and then we see signs for Nanji Park. After entering the park, we haven't spotted the Han yet. Upon asking someone else, we are told that there is actually another Nanji Park. Damn. So we leave the way we came, and continue to ask people randomly if they can give us some direction. Eventually we meet 3 Korean girls loaded up with snacks and beer who say they are headed to the festival. Success! We follow them the additional 2-3 km until we reach the riverside. The last little shop we see is filled with festival goers, so we join the pack to fill our backpacks with beer, juice and soju. Picking up our tickets proves to be easy and we make our way in.

Now the music is just getting started, but as the night wears on, people get crazier, the DJ's prove more and more creative, and effects grow spookier. The air fills with dust and artificial smoke. We can feel our hair, skin, clothing, and even teeth becoming sticky with sweat, humidity, and dirt.


It's 3 AM. We're climbing up to the highway to catch a taxi back to the Hongik University area to find a jjimjilbang. We get in a cab with another young couple headed in the same direction and drop them off first. Soon after we arrive at a big sauna just up the street from the University. I am so tired I think I may not recall where we are in the morning. After getting into the bright indoor lights, I realize just how dirty my pack and shoes are though I'm not going to deal with it tonight. I find my locker, have a nice, long shower, and drag myself upstairs to the sleeping area.

After a fitful sleep due to people alternating between snoring and talking, I lay around in the hot rooms, get some misu-karu (a sweet, tasty, blended, grain shake), and lastly get a shower. It is only now that I realize how dirty my backpack and sneakers got last night! Wow, really. I decide to get extra towels just to clean them off. When we leave the jjimjilbang, we begin a search for lunch - which ends with a small "Oriental Food" restaurant in Hongdae called Tiki-ti. FANtastic. We leave the restaurant feeling not only tired but, now, stuffed, so we both agree it's time to go home.

I Love "Love" Motels

A love motel usually runs between $35-60 per night, depending on the city, area of that city, and quality/cleanliness. They are called “love motels” because they have a floor or two of hourly-rented rooms, covered parking, and the amenities in the bathroom include a condom. Whether or not people actually use these services for the purpose intended, these motels differ from the more expensive hotels. As far as I know, there are some other (non-"love" variety) guesthouses or motels - yeogwan - in this price range.

As my Aunt Jan & Uncle Lou are aware, love motels can offer surprisingly nice accommodations such as in-room wireless internet with computer, Jacuzzi tub, or big, flat-screen TV. When they visited Korea last fall I reserved a room on the upper (non-hourly!) floor of the Motel Greece in my suburb, Chilgok. We checked out the room before they arrived to ensure it would be adequate. It was much more than adequate, especially for the modest price. They had heated tile floors (complete with slippers), a computer, the afore mentioned big, flat-screen TV, western shower (somewhat unusual for a love motel) and bathtub, small water cooler and fridge, and a tall, comfy looking bed.

In my time here I have stayed in a few love motels, most of them not as luxurious. The few I’ve been to in Seoul, Gyeong-ju, and Busan have been passable. Typically, I’m just given a basic, mostly clean room – hard western bed, Korean shower, and a vanity with TV. They’ve all surely been better than the hostel I stayed at in New York, for which I paid nearly $70 per night!

Report Cards

Ha! I'm finally done with this horrible bi-monthly task. Six times a year is far too often for this, in my opinion.
We mark all our students (12 classes x ~10 students per class) on 4 categories for Reading class and 5 categories in Presentation (science) class. We have a couple of weeks to grade, then the kids just log on to the (super cute) website and look at it. I doubt many of the parents ever see it and I know they don't receive a printed form. Also, all the comments I'm required to choose from are shown in English - more complicated English than most of my students care to decode. For example, "Good use of vocabulary and sentence structure is correct. Presents to the class adequately." I wish I could at least click on pre-filled comments that would later be translated.

After all this, I fall asleep and dream about students. Gah.

News

I just got some GREAT news! My college friend, Annie, has booked a ticket to come visit me for a week in August! So I've requested the time off work and will hear back soon if I get all the days I want. I'm already planning what we can do - we have many options.

Hiking, temples, jjimjilbang (see prev. post), beaches, mountains, eating, rock climbing, renting motorbikes at the man-made lake (^^), shopping, eating again, maybe a baseball game...
-------We will hardly have time for sleeping!


On a slightly stranger note, I made an impulse purchase yesterday at Home Plus (like a SuperTarget or something). That's not the strange part. When I walked in, there was a large bin of bras and women's underwear on sale for really cheap. I bought 5 pairs of cute underwear (all the bras were A and AA - no, I'm not kidding) for ~14 dollars. The strange part was that there were plastic produce bags to put your selections into, to keep them clean I guess. Makes sense, but I'd never have thought of it. All these men were sifting through the bin to find things for their tiny little wives, too. I love Korea.

Making the art show

...Or at least helping!

I've been trying to save money with the goal of getting to take bigger, more meaningful trips more often. As a result, I jumped at the chance to get a free night out.

My friend is organizing the first ever Korea Amateur Art Exhibition and Competition in the 4th floor of a jazz club downtown Daegu but turns out the 4th floor needs some work.


So, in exchange for 3 hours of taping fixtures and woodwork, sweeping, and pulling wallpaper and nails, I got some beer and 20,000 won (~$20)! This bought me 3 drinks and a taxi ride home after the party. The work is far from over, though. The poetry night and art show will take place May 28-31 so I expect to help out a bit more.
During the cleaning session I met several new people, ever-valuable in this ever-changing, dislocated crowd of temporary residents. I also got in some long-overdue manual labour. I don't often get the chance to do work (besides gym workouts or sport) since I live in a tiny one-room with no option for modification. I found I rather miss the labourious work needed at times to keep a house (mind you I never owned one, just rented - but still I got to do some things to it).

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera so I'll have to steal pics from someone who was taking pictures.

At the Sauna

Today, I went to the jjimjilbang with my coworker and her girlfriend for a scrub.

The jjimjilbang ("jim-jill-bong") is a Korean sauna, spa, public bath. I've been to a few and they're all a bit different. Generally they feature men's/women's separated hot tubs and shower areas which are a naked area. The tubs are different temperatures and sometimes have herbs or flowers added for skin treatment. Then, after soaking and scrubbing yourself (or before if you prefer), you dress in a uniform of loose-fitting shorts and t-shirt to head over to the mixed-gender area. Here you can find hot (dry) rooms of differing temperature, usually an ice room, a cafe, a PC room, sports massage, kids play room, sometimes an exercise room, a general TV area, gender-segregated sleeping areas, etc.
Where they can differ is inside the rooms. Sometimes they're big and spacious or small and cozy. Also, the hot rooms often have different features, like sweet-grass mats, yellow soil (detoxifying) panels, charcoal (air-purifying), or aromatherapy. The overall design is important to noise management. Some are not effective (actually quite noisy), while others have a nice floorplan to maximize relaxation.

Near my new house, there's a sauna (which is only the wet hot tub/shower part) that I've never been to but there's a jimjjilbang 2 subway stops away. I have been there before, but never for the scrub. My co-worker Emma told me about it a while ago but I had no idea how to go about getting one. When we walked in she found tone of the ladies who gives them and introduced me. I gave her 15,000 won (~$15) and Emma told me to soak in the tubs until the lady came for me. After 20 minutes I was led back to a walled off area of the hot tubs where I was rinsed, scrubbed, and washed by this woman. There is not a single dry spot left on my body. I swear if she had scrubbed me any more I'd be bleeding! It included an icy cucumber mask (rocked my world!), mini back massage, and sesame (I think) oil body treatment at the end.

Yeah, I'll be going back for that one.

On the Rocks

Last week, I kept busy arranging a trip up to the northland to meet some new friends. As some of you know, I got a taste of real (outdoor) rock climbing at the end of last summer in Thailand. Following that experience I joined the Korea On The Rocks climbing club online here. It's mainly foreigners and a few Koreans. I didn't have a chance to go on any trips before the weather turned cold last fall, so I started right away this spring.

Last weekend was the spring Meet & Greet for new and old members to get together and kick off the season. I took a bus for 2 1/2 hours north into the ski resort area of Korea. I was near Wonju in Ganhyun park where there's a nice big crag with a wide variety of routes. On the ride up there, I was surprised by how mountainous the northern province is (Gangwon-do). It was a stark difference at the province border - rolling, tree covered, hilly-style-mountains turned to rocky, sharp, barren peaks.

At Ganhyun, I climbed the easiest ones a few times on Saturday and was surprised at my stamina - especially considering I hadn't climbed, or had a decent work out, since I was back in Bemidji (end of January).

That night we had a campfire and burritos, a well-deserved and long awaited Mexican-in-Korea meal. After the campfire, and sleeping on the ground in early April weather, I came down with a cold :(
So on Sunday, I took it easy and rested up - which resulted in me feeling how sore I was! That night, I rode back to Daejeon with another climber and took the train home from there. It was nice to see another part of the country, and the time has come to enjoy the cherry blossoms along the roads.

Now that I'm back home in Daegu, I've started going to the gym near my school. On Monday I just needed to stretch my locked up back and arms, sore from such a long period of rest. Once I get over my cold, I'll be sure and get out and capture some photos of the beautiful spring weather for you all! Until then.

Hello Everyone!

Well, welcome to my online journal. Here you will find my latest thoughts and adventures. Also, on the right there is an abbreviated slideshow of my most recent Flickr photos. If you click on it, it will link you to the full website to see all my pictures with the comments. (I'll have it updated soon, I promise.)

And Happy Easter to everybody. I already miss my Marshmallow Peeps!

I have been slow in getting this to you for a few reasons:
1. My school had to jump through a few extra hoops this year to get my visa, which delayed my alien ID card, in turn delaying my internet account, cell phone, and various other things.
2. Since I got my internet set up (last weekend) I've been busy with end/beginning of month things at school. My manager is a bit... different... so dealing with him is demanding at times ;)
3. I'm still catching up from being home - uploading photos and unpacking my things.


My apartment is smaller than it was last year but I have a bigger refrigerator. Unfortunately the bed is really hard and I had some bad mold when I moved in. My school had a wallpaper guy come in to cover it up with a new layer of paper, but that obviously doesn't solve the problem. I've requested to move into a different apartment as soon as one becomes available so the guys at my school are sorting that out. They'll probably just put someone else in my apartment without telling them about the mold. Pretty nice.

Anyway, so I'm not going to fully unpack until I know that I'm settled somewhere. That's putting a slight damper on my life, since I'm living somewhat out of boxes. I'll soon post photos of my house now, although I forgot to get any of the mold. :|