Lazy

SO
I haven't really updated in a while. I don't really have an excuse other than just the usual "I am totally lazy" routine. Now that I've been here for a while things are beginning to feel routine and so I have less to write about. Tomorrow I'm going to make a real effort to blog about what I've been up to in the last little while.

Bang Culture

Bang is the Korean word for "room" and it's a word that dominates and pervades Korean life. It's used as suffix and is connected to places where locals and (sometimes ESL teachers) like to have all kinds of weird fun. It's pretty hard to come to Korea and not become immersed in bang culture.

Da-Bang: I have yet to go to one of these places but they're basically coffee shops where you pay extra to have the waitress flatter you. It's unusual in cities like Incheon or Seoul but it is a pretty common way for young ladies to make money in the countryside.

DVD Bang: This is a room with wipe clean sofas, tissues, a large TV, and an extensive movie selection. Sometimes it's used by those who just want to catch a flick, but more often than not it's used by young Korean couples eager for alone time outside of the watchful eyes of parents and guardians. Kind of sketchy.

PC Bang: These are twenty-four intenet cafes. People come to these for gaming marathons(usually Starcraft) and at least a few times a year people die from exhaustion in a PC Bang. Basically they play until they quite literally can't.

Game Bang: Just a giant room open twenty four hours a day where you can choose from any number of board games(including scrabble and snakes and ladders). These are cheap and because they're open at all hours, many ESL teachers choose to crash here on a night out.

Jimijibang: I love these! These are Korean saunas. You walk into a Korean sauna, pay eight dollars, and for twenty-four hours you can stay in the jimijibang. Many broke travellers sleep on the floor or the benches of a jimijibang rather than shell out money for a hotel or hostel. Picture three steam rooms and five or six different flat pools of water with orchids floating everwhere. Each pool of water is a different tempature and you're supposed to change pools every so often.

Nore-Bang: Twenty-four house Korean Karokee joints. Anytime I've gone out up for dinner with my Korean Co-teachers they always want to go sing at nore-bang after. The songs that you can choose from at Nore Bang are always English songs, but they're really random and weird English songs. Songs that were maybe played for three months on the radio in the Western world are Karokee classics here. It can be very weird to hear your Korean co-teacher suggest a sing along to a band like Marcy Playground.

Korea..Kor-eh-ah..you remind me of the west side story..growin' up in Spanish Harlem!

Oh Korea.

I love you alot. I have come to adore your food. Your people are kinder and more compassionate than I could have ever possibly imagined. Your scenery is serene and beautiful, your cities are bustling, and the nightlife is ridiculous. I love that I can't throw a rock without hitting a Budhist temple. I love that I can't go a week without craving Galbi . I love that ice cream tastes better here. Korea, I have even come to understand your obsession with delicous burning hot kimchi,(although that rumor that it cures everything from ADHD to male homosexuality....yeah Korea...I don't think that's a substantiated scientific fact).

I like most everything about you Korea... But sometimes, Korea, sometimes, I feel like you are the land that logic forgot.

Now Korea(and Korean friends of mine who might be reading this), I don't mean this in a negative way. The lack of logic I encounter(or rather the logic I don't encounter) makes everday a treasure trove of surprises. I love that I can never be one hundred percent positive that the bus I'm riding is going to end up where it the bus schedule claims it will. I love that my classes get cancelled at random and I'm often left with a ton of free time.I even love that the Korean sense of time is completely arbiatrary and that everyone is always late for everything.

I love it. I just don't "get" it. Why do you believe in fan death? Why don't you sell cheddar cheese? Why is my bus driver insane? Why is your sense of time different than my sense of time? Why is drinking and driving so common? Why do you both love and hate Westerners? Is your idea of punishment(corporal punishment) and your focus on personal appearances morally and ethically wrong? Or am I just socially constructed to believe one thing, and you're socially constructed to believe another? Perhaps most importantly, why, oh why, do you find insect larvae delicous?

Sincerely,
A confused and naive western girl

Random Thoughts

Here are some random thoughts. I'm too brain dead to come up with any sort of cool topical segway. Bare with me.

1. Today was hectic. I taught seven classes back to back and didn't murder anyone. This deserves a pat on the back right? I have no idea how someone could teach for fifty years and not end up spending retirement banging their heads against the walls of a rubber room. I've said it before and I'll say it again, teaching=a huge challenge.

2.Thank god for my new bike. I come home and take out my frustrations on the roads and sidewalks of Incheon Korea. And how awesome is my new bike? It only cost forty Canadian dollars and it's so wonderfully, perfectly suited to me. That vintage frame melts my heart everytime I see it.

3. This is not a reasonable temperture. It's plus thirty five degrees today. I'm sitting at my desk at work encircled by pools of my own sweat. This isn't pleasant for anyone.

4. I love Paris Baguette. It's a bakery chain in Korea and is the only place that sells decent cookies. I gorged on three as a reward for not killing anyone today. Here's hoping this young fast metabloism holds out.

5. The weekend is coming. I'm taking my friend's daughter to the zoo on Saturday. I'm kind of excited, I never get to spoil kids rotten. Saturday night all of the ESL teachers are going to a professional soccer game, I'm on the fence, pro-sports always seem a little deathly dull to me. Tonight(Friday) is french toast night at my house. Weekends are always better.

6. I am sick of squid and seaweed soup. My school's serves this almost everyday and it smells like feet. It's rude to say no to any dish that's been offered, so sadly, feet soup is a part of my daily diet.

I could Kill My New Co-Teacher

One of my beloved co-teachers is officially on bed rest until her baby is born.

My new replacement co-teacher is the most awkward shy person I have ever met in my life. He's twenty-two, and admitted to me yesterday that he's never really talked to a girl before. Girls and Boys are seperated at middle school in Korea, and don't interact socially until University where they are set up on blind dates by their friends and parents. This means that many young men, have never really had female friends, and therefore have no real sweet clue how to talk to women. Yesterday I was showing my class how to shake hands with each other and say, "nice to meet you", (in Korea, bowing is what they do instead), and he refused to touch my hand! I tried to explain to him, "But, we need to demonstrate shaking hands to the students", and he responded, "I'm sorry but I can't touch your hand if we're not dating". It was kind of hard to not roll my eyes to this, and I accidently said out loud, "Oh my God...seriously???"

Maybe I'm an insensitive jerk.


He's also horrible at keeping the class in order. He won't yell at the students and things get a little chaotic sometimes. I'm opposed to the usual punishment(hitting the children), but yelling, is an absolute must in the classroom. Co-teaching with guy is torture. I would rather inject the ebola virus into my eye than go to school and have to deal with this all day.

Muido Photos

I love the beach. I am going back here as soon as I can.

My New Ride!

Two things happened today.

1. I was incredibly homesick and spied on all my friends and Brandon via facebook for hours. This, of course, made the whole "missing everything about Prince Edward Island" far worse. My entire afternoon was lost in daydreams about going to Cedars/Leo's Thai/Beanz and gossiping about inane random pop culture tidbits with the Katie/Darrah/Kira/Gil. I also missed out on seeing the Barnkats(Katie and Gil's band for those who don't know) on the local news, which would been so much fun! I'm kind of hoping you girls played up the fashion and wore rompers and animal prints on Compass.

2. I cured my homesickness by buying myself an awesome used bike. It's fire engine red with a vintage low riding frame and white basket. It's amazing. If I had to be defined by something I owned then this would probably be it(or maybe my lucky blue dress...or my camera..or my library). Anyway it's made the day brighter.

Oh yeah

Korean women do not wear bathing suits at the beach. They cover up from head to toe and wear giant scarves and head visors to protect from the sun. It seems counterproductive to go to the beach if you're that worried about being exposed to all of the ultra violent radiation. People are very anti-wrinkle here.

Muido Muido Muido

It was another great weekend.

It took two ferries and three buses to get to this elusive little Island, but it was well worth the effort. Muido was the sight of a major battle in the Korean war(a South victory) and as a result is supposedly a huge tourist destination. However, for only five dollars Canadian(5000 kwon) we are able to stay in a hut on a pristine deserted beach. The sand was white and giant green hills made for a fairly awe-inspiring back ground.

It really seemed fairly undiscovered and I kind of felt like Leo Dicaprio in The Beach.

We spent the day swimming, playing frisbee, and BBQing(traditional Korean style which means lots of pork belly and hot kimchi=yum). We all stayed out late to see the stars, which was quite a novelty, the light pollution in Korea is extreme and I haven't gotten to see stars since I left Canada. In the morning, I woke up early and went for a walk on the beach alone. I was climbing over some rocks when I saw, near my toes, my first wild Tarantuala. It was black and hairy and about the size of my fist. Pretty much the most terrifying thing ever.

I'll post some pictures later.

Beach Bummin'

Today's the day! Beach day!

My co-teacher told me that Korean women don't usually wear two piece bathing suits because of the high value placed on being and looking modest. I'm kind of excited to see the Korean beach styles that have replaced the ever present, sometimes boring, bikini.

A Plan, A Woman, Not a Canal (kind of joke)

Okay. I have decided what I'm going to do next. I am going to apply for two Masters programs. Library and Information Science at Dahlousie University in Halifax and a Masters in Women and Gender Issues at Memorial are the programs and universities I've chosen. I'm also going to live with one of my favorites-Katie Rankin!

Living with K-Ranks will be killer, our combined book, records, art, and cute dress collections would make for or one heck of a homestead. We're already both busy envisioning all the fun sheniagans we'll most likely get into(although I do have these nightmares about her robbing an American Apparal, which are less fun).


She would probably attend the awesome journalism and writing program at Kings, and I would either take Library Science or work/take a few creative writing classes/continue to do freelance writing with FASHION. We've also been talking with my super talented artsy sister Alexis and have agreed that next year will also be devoted to writing(and in Alexis's case drawing and painting) a graphic novel. I can't tell you what it's about, but I can tell you the possible title.

"We have Decided to Live Wild and Eccentric Lives"

This is a quote from the Mary Jacobs Phelps, A New York socialite/ activist/poet, who also invented the bra. She wrote this sentence in a letter to her parents, after she and her boyfriend eloped to France, where they became giants in literary circles.

Anyway that's the plan. It feels good to finally have one.

Muido Beach

I'm sleeping in a hut on an Island beach near the Eastern sea this coming weekend. Swimming! Frisbee! Soccer! Bonfires!

On a less positive note(and perhaps a sign that my youth is already beginning to decline??) my back hates me in advance.

Somehow I Don't Think That Beating Racism Out of Young Kids is the Answer

My grade four class was hard at work this afternoon. I had given them word searches and they were perfectly silent for a good twenty minutes. It was delightful. Peaceful. Relaxing. I sipped tea and felt pretty pleased with myself. Then one little boy(for the sake of the story we'll call him "Jeff"), reached over and pinched his neighbor. I told him to stop and get to back to work. Clearly I didn't use my scary "I mean buisness voice", and "Jeff" decided that using his rather large and thick English text book as a blunt weapon was a good idea. Kid number two had a bloody nose and I had minor chaos in the classroom.

It gets worse.

I decided that the suitable punishment for "Jeff" was to stand in the corner for the remainder of class. This is considered a degrading punishment at my school and I'm only supposed to use it for the very worst offenses. It was also made clear to "Jeff" via my co-teacher's Korean translation that he could expect to be punished by his homeroom teacher after English class was over. "Jeff" glared at me, threw his kitbag at my face, and called me a "dirty nigger". I caught the kitbag before it hit me and thought to myself , "Okay this is a teachable moment". After punishing Jeff further(lines and lots of them) I launched into a speech about why it's not okay to use racist terms like the "N" word.

This confused every child in my class and at this point turned the classroom into a racist slapstick Wayne and Shuster routine. Awkward questions were thrown at me from all angles and my teacher had to translate at break neck speeds. The kids seemed to think that the problem with the above described situation wasn't the use of the "n" word, so much as the fact that "Jeff" had used it on a white person. They weren't concerned with the ethics of the situation, just the inaccuracy. I tried to explain to them and things began to go awry.

Here are a few of the questions that my impromtu anti-racism speech warranted.

"Why can't we make fun of people from Africa, everyone knows they don't have any money and they have dark skins?"

"but teacher dark skin is not as good, everyone knows that!?"

"but teacher everyone is not equal, some people are dumb!"

At this point I felt incredibly guilty. I had no idea how to convince these students that all people are equal. I felt like a hypocrite because I know that some people are born with advantages that others lack. I had lost all control of my classroom, was in way over my head, and had begun to realize all the ethical problems that surround the fact that I'm a white Westerner lecturing a class of young Asian students on Racism. Basically, I was reduced to watching the hands on the clock and praying to God that there would be a fire drill, something, anything, to end the class early. The kids kept firing away with the questions and my co-teacher grabbed my elbow and said, "do you want me to hit the next child that speaks out of turn?"

"No" I said pretty quickly "no, that's okay"


It seemed I hadn't said it clearly. A little boy, who has always been well-behaved and who tries really hard in my classes, raised his hand and called out, "But teacher if Nigger is just a word, the same as other English words, why can't we say it?" I was suitably impressed with this question and my mind rased to try and find a way to answer it that wasn't total bullshit. My co-teacher, meanwhile, barked something in Hangul at him, reached across the desk, and shook his shoulders with both hands. When the bell rang he was still crying.

This isn't even an unusual classroom scenerio. This is an average day.

Watermelon Heaven

I just bought an entirely huge juicy watermelon for three dollars Canadian. Glory days.

Dog Soup

Tastes like lamb. Smells like Hell.

Dropping Out of the Rat Race Vs Re-enlisting

Another hiking day, this day was especially interesting, I gained alot of insight into Toronto culture and lifestyle. I convinced my friend Karen to come climbing and she brought her friend Patrick. Karen in the most amazing girl. She's 27 and is the definition of the word free spirit. After univeristy she broke up with her long term boyfriend and backpacked around Europe alone, then she moved to the Cayman Islands where she bartended for three years. Apparantly this type of service industry work equals big time bucks in the Cayman Islands and Karen lived on the beach in an apartment with it's own pool and fitness complex. After her years of exotic living in the South, she took a long vacation(by herself) and backpacked around Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. She's a citizen of the world.

Her friend Patrick is also well travelled. He's lived in the Middle East, Switzerland, and Asia. His family is spread out all over the world(his favorite brother is now in the Middle East). While travelling he became an awesome snowboarder, a hiking enthusiast, and he can now speak several languages. After teaching here for a few years he plans on climbing Mount Kilamanjero(or however it's spelled) in Africa. Pat plans on circling the globe as often as he can.

They were telling me their uber interesting life stories(I often feel very dull and small town compared to the people I meet in Korea), and we somehow managed to get seperated from the main group. Pat, Karen, and Myself ended up trekking through wild bush, off the beaten path, with several Koreans(who didn't speak any English). We all got massively sunburnt and were scratched to pieces by thorns, and eaten alive by bugs. After hiking for about five hours we came to a giant temple and from there we decided to climb down the mountains, sans our Korean mountain guides, we basically found a path alongside a stream and hoped that it would lead us down to Seoul. It did. Once we reached the bottom of the mountain we found an outdoor patio and sat in the sun sipping wine coolers and eating a bucket of complimentry almonds and rice cakes.

It was an amazing day.

The coolest thing about Pat and Karen is that they've decided to entirely drop out of the rat race and have seemingly won or defeated the rat race because of this decision. Pat was a computer programmer in Toronto and says that he was really caught up in the idea of owning material things. He graduated from University and went to work for IBM, got a pretty girlfriend, put a small down payment on a fancy downtown Toronto Condo(one that caught 300,000$). Then, in his own words, his life began to suck. The condo payments and car payments were so high that he had to start bartending at night in order to keep making regular payments, he never got to see his pretty girlfriend, and because of the stressful schedule he kept, he began drinking way too much.

One day he decided that he had it. He broke up with his girlfriend, sold the condo, quit the job, and took off to teach ESL. He's been at it for years now and he hasn't looked back. The money he makes doing this job, the destressful nature of the work, and the traveling are way more fun to Pat than being caught up in life in Toronto. He wants to do this for life. Karen shares this perspective. Their only problem or doubt surrounding their chosen wandering lifestyle is that they both love Canada and it's beautiful mountains, fields, and free healthcare.

On one hand I totally understand this attitude. My lifestyle in Korea is one hundred percent better than my lifestyle at home. I can afford to go out for dinner every night if I want, I can do cool things on the weekends(In July I'm going to see Oasis and Weezer play live!), I can travel to other countries in Asia for only a few hundred dollars. I was always stressed about money on Prince Edward Island. I am never stressed abotu money or bills here. It`s great. On the other hand, I can't help but think that life doesn't have to be one of these two options(rat race vs. traveling forever), it can be a little more if you plan it right.

I suggested that living on the East Coast is a good way to both avoid the pitfulls of getting trapped into a super material driven lifestyle and enjoy what Canada has to offer. Karen and Pat scoffed at this idea, "yeah, but who wants to live on the east coast?", which is a fair question. To people living in Calgary, Toronto, or Montreal, the notion of living in the East probably does seem bleak. We don't have that same type of fast paced excitement. We also don't have traffic jams or crazy crime rates. Drugs aren't the same problem that they are in TO. We have reasonable tution rates at out universities and are surrounded by beautiful natural scenery. It doesn`t really matter if I don`t own a nice car(or even know how to drive) in Halifax. I can walk wherever I want to go.

I guess the whole point of this whole rant is that I keep rediscovering how much I love and appreciate Eastern Canada. I don`t think that moving back there is re-enlisting in the rat race, it`s like an option C.

It's early in the Morning

My Korean co-teachers are taking me out for a dinner of dog soup and live(still moving!) Octopus tonight. I'm thinking about cancelling on them. Yesterday I was gung ho about trying all the Korea has to to offer...today....the idea of dog soup is making feel sick.

Gaps

There is a serious gap between the wealthy and the poor in Korea. Yes, I am aware that this particular gap exists everywhere, but in Korea the wealthy and poor seem to live right next to each other. The contradiction and difference in lifestyle is extremely noticable. Check out these photos!

Yohaenghago Issumnida/I am Traveling Alone

"I am traveling alone"

This is THE only sentence that seems to stump BOTH my Korean co-teachers and my new Canadian/American/ British friends. I had assumed that in this day and age there would tons of single girls flocking to Asia to find work and have adventures. Teaching ESL in Asia in not unlike the gold rush days in the Yukon and Alaska. There's money to be made, a new countryside to explore, and an exciting, fascinating, and unique culture to embrace. It's also relatively safe(outside of this whole North Korea fiasco) and ultimately seems like the perfect place for young girls fresh out of university to come and explore.

Instead it seems like the majority of young women who come to Korea to teach are accompanied by their boyfriends or husbands. There are a few single women to be found but they are the minority. Even more rare is the girl that leaves her boyfriend at home to travel. Usually when I tell people that I have a boyfriend at home, I'm met with disbelief, disgust, and shock. I get asked questions like, "If he's so great why are you in Korea?", "Wow. Is he angry that you're here?", and my personal favorite, (that's so rude I usually can't help but act a little incredulous), "Don't you think it's selfish to be traveling while he's home?". In fact I've even gotten comments on this very blog( cowardly comments that I've chosen not to post, because hey, it's my blog, and I'll do what I want) suggesting that I'm a huge, selfish, naive jerk for leaving Brandon behind for a year.

Here's the thing. I think everyone should try traveling alone. And living alone. It's not selfish to want to get know yourself a little better. When Brandon and I've traveled in the past, I've let him handle certain things that I'm now forced to handle myself. I'm learning Korean fairly quickly and I study it every night. I can read maps. I haven't lost a single important document. If Brandon was on this trip we would probably be spending time together and the studying would most likely not be happening, my map reading skills would be useless, and he would be carrying my passport for me. Discovering that I can do these things on my own is a huge confidence booster.I'm also in complete control of what I want to see and when I want to see it. Prada transformer? Sure. Modern art musesum at eight on a Saturday morning? No problem. Ten hour hiking trip? Yep.

I think it's important to live alone too. I'm learning how to cook new and interesting dishes. I'm discovering new hobbies(I just transformed a pillow case into a totally adorable dress). I'm making new friends. I also get to indulge in guilty pleasure behavior whenever I like and I don't have to consult anyone. I buy myself flowers once a week. I eat peanut butter straight from the jar. I dance to Metric, Teegan and Sarah, and various Musical Soundtracks without any shame whatsoever. I reread my favorite parts of books and watch Roman Holiday every third night. I go for fifteen Km long runs. I'm twenty-two and now is the time to live completely for myself, and that shouldn't have to come with any guilt.

It's also a two way street. I fully expect, want, and encourage Brandon to go have adventures too. When I return to Canada it will be time for another sea phase for Brandon, and he'll be on a ship for four months. I'm hoping he chooses to go somewhere far away and exotic(maybe up North with a possible trek to Greenland).

So yes, Yohaenghago Issumnida, and no, I don't think it's selfish.

Police and Temples

Photos of hiking trips/police riots

There's an endless stream of protests in Seoul. There are obviously different motivations behind each protest and as a non-native it can be a little hard to understand what or why a protest is happening. The pictures here were taken in front of the blue house, which is where the current president lives. The police are attempting to protect President Lee's residence(and I would assume life) from the angry mobs that gather in front of the building everyday. The Korean people feel that Lee's brutal and relentless investigation of the former president's spending habits were the main reason that the former president killed himself.

The other pictures are of a temple that we discovered while hiking.

Thanks Alot Swine Flu!

A travel embargo that prevents ESl teachers from leaving and returning to Korea on their vacations is now in place thanks to the dreaded swine flu(or as my students like to call it, "the mexican pig headache". My ticket to China is currently rendered useless. Anger has set in.