What's goin on?!

Yet again, I have failed this blog. I'm in the process of putting a 'Day in the Life' style blog together, but it won't be finished for July.

Best I can do now is an update. Lots of things happening here.

1. Summer Camp.   My school teams up with the four other elementary schools in my neighborhood and pools our resources (namely, Native English Teachers like me). The 5 of us travel between the schools, two days at each, teaching the same lessons. It's great system in that we can meet lots of different students, get to see the differences between our schools, and get to know each other better. It's a terrible system in that it gets boring. Fast. The same 2 lessons, 25 times each? 5 of lesson A one day, 5 of lesson B the next, then lesson A again at the next school, and so on. I'm smack in the middle of it right now, so I'm leaning towards irritated rather than interested.

2. Certification Class.   As I've mentioned before, I'm currently taking an online course for my teaching certification. While I'm excited that I'll have certification in hand when I finish teaching in Korea, I want to rip my hair out more often than not. Some assignments are worthwhile, and teach resources that I'm sure I'll use in my own classroom, but those are few and far between. It seems like the great majority are busy work intended to fulfill some kind of activity quota. The most frustrating thing is that the instructors are knowledgeable and very well-intentioned. It's a topic of discussion among my group members, and I'm certainly not the only one with the opinion. However, the ends justify the means in this scenario, and I'll continue to pump out the same repetitive information on the assignments that call for it. If anyone is interested, I've created a separate blog where a few assignments are required to be posted.

3. Teaching Exams.    In addition to completing the course, I must pass the required Praxis exams to get my teaching certification. Because I'm going for Secondary English Education, that means 3 exams: the Praxis I (general knowledge, like the SAT), a Praxis II exam about theory/method (for me, grades 7-12), and a content-specific Praxis II (English). Because there's only one test center in South Korea and tests can only be taken during the week, I have to be very careful about when to take these exams. During the school year would mean taking a day off of school, which the administration would seriously frown on, so that means using vacation days. Luckily, teaching summer camp on Saturdays gives me extra vacation days, so I've decided to take two of the exams just before vacation. The Praxis I will be easy. Acing the practice test before cracking open a study guide certainly helps that confidence! The other one I'm taking now is the theory exam, all about classroom techniques, laws, and who contributed what theories to the development of  formal education. Things that all seemed common sense when I registered for the test. Decidedly less so when I bombed the practice before studying. Unfortunately, the motivation to study is fleeting. So monotonous and boring! But I've gotta do it, and I'm slowly making my way through my study guide.

4. Vacation.   I'm going to Malaysia, Singapore, and Bali in less than 3 weeks. I got shit to do!

Let's just say I sleep really well at night. Most of this will calm down in a month, after the new semester starts. Heck, it'll calm down when I'm on my flight to Kuala Lumpur!

I should learn Malay...

안녕!

When you've got a spare afternoon, why not Seomun Market?

While Seomun isn't the most diverse market I've ever been to, it's a good place to stop for anyone new to Daegu. You can buy food, clothing, accessories, furniture, shoes, wigs, thread, fabric, blankets, pillows, buttons, silverware, flowers, and any number of other things that escape me at the moment. Every nook and cranny of this giant market has a shop selling something.

Good quality wigs, starting at 20,000won

All of your sewing needs, met in one stall

A fuck ton  lot of buttons.

Along the main road beside the market (marked by a huge sign, can't miss it), vendors are selling fresh food. Fruits and vegetables, rice and nuts, fish both fresh and dried, and lots of bugs and squid. These stalls are kept somewhat separate from the bulk of the market, a wise decision considering how smelly fish gets when it's outside for hours. Ugh.

There are several buildings forming the core of the market, with the vendors outside being shielded by their collective roof. Each building is slightly different: one is for hanboks (Korean traditional clothing), another has furniture, and the largest is clothing and fabrics. There are 4 floors and a basement in each, easily accessed by escalators in the center of the building. The higher you go, the less crowded the halls become, so I like to visit the fabric floors just to collect my thoughts from the chaos of outside.

Ready to eat food is plentiful in the market, if you're looking for a quick grab 'n go meal. Most of the stands within the physical market serve mandu (fried dumplings), ddoekbokki (rice cakes in spicy red sauce), odeng (pressed fish cake on a stick boiled in broth), or hoddeok (the greatest invention ever. See my post about favorite things in Korea). On the fringes of the market are smaller stands where you can sit down and eat these things, or get a bowl of bibimbap (mixed rice), kimbap (roll of rice with various fillings), or naengmyeon (cold noodles in vinegary broth). All of it is cheap and delicious.

My favorite hoddeok stand in Daegu. Dead center of the market, always has a huge line

Typical mandu on the left, and the flat mandu, famous in Daegu, on the right

Ddeokbokki. Usually very spicy!!

Unlike markets in other countries, where the vendors will say nearly anything to keep a sale going, the vendors at Seomun are much more relaxed. If you want it: great. If you don't: go away. They'll haggle, of course, but I never feel verbally assaulted the way I did in Cambodia or Vietnam.

I love going to Seomun market, even if I don't need anything. I can always get some hoddeok, find some terribly incorrect English, and get ideas for future projects. If you're in Daegu, check it out.

How to get there: On the green line (line #2), the stop is Seomun Market (although I think they're changing the name to Sinnam eventually). Come out of exit 1, and immediately make a u-turn to the right coming out of the stairs. Without crossing, follow the street to the left until you reach the large sign. When it's so congested you can hardly walk without running over an ahjumma, you've reached your destination.

안녕!

Group trips: yay or nay? Guest Post #2

They say “A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles.” (Tim Cahill) but what happens when you combine the two? My friends and I have just started our second year in the EPIK program and have decided to start planning trips around Korea independently. See, last year we had always participated in events organized by the many foreign-teacher focused tour groups in Korea. These groups usually create an event focused around a special event or seasonal activity. For example, some of the trips that they plan are: skydiving, Buddha’s birthday weekend, Mudfest, ATV riding/paintball, and when the weather gets cold, they even have a ski trip planned. The best part is you simply pay their fee (usually around $200) and show up at the planned location! Now you’re probably wondering, “If the opportunities are so abundant and convenient, why would you want to plan your own trip?” Well, as Kevin Hart would say- let me explain. These organized trips are great for someone who wouldn’t know Sokcho from Gumi, however, they have a few drawbacks.

1.     Price/Accommodation: So, you’re telling me for 150,000 won, I get transportation to and from the event, lodging, and even some meals? I’ll take it! How can you afford to offer this deal? Oh…it’s 7 people to room? I see. One of the things they don’t tell you about these trips is that for the money you’re spending, you’ll be sanctioned off in a back woods part of town, in a motel/hotel that has agreed to handle foreigners, with little amenities and several other people. Usually these places are manageable and clean, however, you won’t be getting much sleep in one because…

2.     Everyone on the trip is drunk and loud. I can’t tell you how many beers are consumed on these voyages, all I know is it’s hard to spot a foreigner without one. From the moment we set sail (usually at 8 am) the stench of alcohol fills the air as most people drink on the bus to pass the time. When you crunch the numbers, it means that people are drinking for 5-8 hours straight before we even get to the event site. The organizers usually endorse the “party bus” atmosphere with loud music and karaoke. After the event is completed (zip lining, ATV riding, hang gliding) the drinking resumes with a fervor well into the night. If you have the misfortune of rooming with some party goers, you can assume that you’ll have a hard time getting rest over the weekend. This gets agitating when…

3.     You aren’t eating well. My advice for someone joining one of these trips is to eat a big, healthy breakfast before getting on the bus. It’s probably the last real meal you’ll have during the weekend. During the long bus rides (5+ hours) there will come a time when you are ready for some food. Unfortunately, keeping time is a priority, so you have to grab something easy from the rest stops we go to. Usually we are given about ten minutes to use the restroom and buy a snack from the market. Basically, your lunch is going to be some sort of chip, roll of unidentifiable meat, or cookie. Maybe all three! Things don’t look better once we arrive at the event site. I remember one trip where there was only a 7-Eleven within walking distance from our hotel. During the night when you get hungry, delivery is going to be your only option. Now you’re tired, hungry, and ready for the awesome event you signed up for! Which is unfortunate because…

4.    The events are never what you think they are. “Come zip line over the cool waters of such and such beach, Korea’s Hawaii-esque island! After a day in the sun we’ll relax with a beach side barbeque” Except, now, because of some unforeseen events, the zip line is broken, it’s raining, and the barbeque turned into some measly chips and a sandwich (maybe). If every trip delivered on the awesomeness promised in the event descriptions, I would have no problem signing up for them. I can handle a lack of sleep and proper food if it means I’ll be enjoying some unbelievable experience. Unfortunately it’s a rare occurrence to have all expectations met on these tour packaged trips. Even something as simple as a day at the beach turned into cold winds and rain last year.

With the difficulties encountered during these pre-planned, inclusive trips, it makes sense that we would try and create our own experiences our last year in Korea. We have the resources to make decisions and know the layout of the country much better than before. Despite differing opinions, and weeks spent coming to a consensus, I can confidently say that trying to plan a destination with your good friends in Korea is a journey that everyone should take.

Imani is an elementary ESL teacher here in Daegu. She enjoys Korean food, attractive Korean men, and making me look bad because she always looks put together whereas I just rolled out of bed 10 minutes prior. You can stalk her at thetravelparadox.blogspot.kr.

I am not a smart (wo)man

Things have been picking up around here recently, what with Korean classes, teaching classes, and tutoring on top of my regular work, so the blog has been a bit on the sidelines lately. To tie you over, I wanted to share two funny stories. Well, funny to you, embarrassing to me.

1. Korean names almost always have three syllables: a last name of one, and a first name of two. In Korea, you say your last name first (for example, Kim Mi Jin is my coteacher's name). But for those Koreans who spend a lot of time in the Western world, sometimes they adopt the Western style of last name after first name (for example, Yuna Kim, the figure skater).

This brings us to 반기문 (BanKiMoon), the Secretary General of the United Nations. My students idolize this man, and I try to promote that feeling as much as possible. When the alternative role models are plastic, overly made-up pop idols, diplomats are quite high on my list. Because Moon is a common last name in Korea (it also means door), and because his job is involved heavily with the rest of the world, I assumed that his last name was Moon, and his first name BanKi. So I used him as an entry in my Guess Who boards (which are labeled and laminated to play on).

This is not his name. Do you know what BanKi means in Korean?

FART.

I called the Secretary General of the UN a door fart. Immortalized in laminate. Forever.

Sigh. Moving on.


2. I am not a great cook. I can make cereal, sandwiches, and a mean White Russian, but that's about it. Baking is easier than other types of cooking, mainly because it's mixing set ingredients and sticking it in the oven, not to be touched for an hour. That I can manage.

Pierogies, however, are a different beast entirely. For a friend's Eurovision party (which was amazing, if you haven't been to one, do it), we were assigned countries to represent with food and drink. Because I was committed to not half-assing it, I figured Polish pierogies were a good start. As you can imagine, that was a mistake.

I have never made dough before. I've watched my mom make it several times, even my roommate in college managed it, but I have never attempted it on my own. Luckily this time I wasn't on my own. My friend Sheila was over, but only in a supervisory role. She was determined not to interfere, but it was my pitiful whining that forced her to relent. That and the fear of me setting my own house on fire. It's powerful motivation.

Anyway, I've made the dough, and am preparing to roll it out. But my wood rolling pin is dirty! So of course I have to wash it first. I dry it with my paper towel and then proceed to start rolling my dough.

Spoiler alert: wood doesn't dry from a once over with a paper towel. Now my dough is sticky again, and is wrapped completely around the rolling pin. At this point, it's Sheila to the rescue! Once she composed herself from her laughing fit, she helped me detach the pin and clean it again. Then used the brilliant idea of a hair dryer! The water from the pin dried within minutes and it was good as new. The pierogies went off (mostly) without a hitch, and were enjoyed by all.

And that, my friends, is how I used a blow dryer to make dinner.

안녕!

Sewol Ferry Accident

(This post is a bit bipolar. Lots of emotions to process)

As you may know, depending on what time you're reading this, there was a recent disaster in South Korea. A ferry carrying 476 passengers, many of which were high school students on a field trip, capsized and sank, taking nearly 2/3 of the passengers down with it.

41 minutes.

That was the period of time between the turn that initiated capsizing and the evacuation order. I can't imagine being 16 years old, surrounded by my friends, on a boat that is tilted 50 degrees and being told not to move. For 41 minutes.

It was a terrible tragedy. Of course it was, no one is debating that. But the fact that it so easily could have been lessened makes me angry more than sad. It reveals a part of Korean culture that can prove dated, selfish, and potentially dangerous.

A friend of a friend wrote about the accident, and it is more well written and phrased than what I could say. So I'll quote it here.

"It's hard to escape the sadness of the Sewol ferry disaster here. It's hard going into school and seeing my students and knowing it could have happened to them. It's hard being swept up in the rush of blame and feeling that blame guiltily subside.

But this whole horrible event brings one of the biggest problems facing Korean society in to sharp focus. 

Regardless of whether or not we define it as criminal, and although we cannot yet be certain of all the details, it seems that the Captain made a mistake. Rather than accepting deal with the consequences of that mistake, doing everything in his power to rectify it, his shame led him to try to escape. 

The vice principal of the school, upon feeling the grief of the families of his missing students, killed himself out of shame that he could not protect them. Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world. 

In recent history, Korea has witnessed a number of fatal building collapses. In order to avoid the shame of failing to complete their construction on time, corners were cut and safety issues were overlooked. So people died. Shame causes my students to be too afraid to even speak in the classroom in case they make a mistake. Statistically, shame will cause at least one of them to take their own life before the age of 20. Shame causes problems to be denied or ignored, causes mistakes to be covered up and causes society to buckle under the pressure of avoiding it. It is good to feel social and familial responsibility. It is good to try to avoid making mistakes. But they will always happen. And when they do, feeling ashamed is never more important than acceptance, and learning to make sure it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, you all but guarantee it will."

Shame is a huge factor, and the mindless importance of it is one of the more frustrating aspects of living in this country. But I can't let my only reaction about this accident be anger.

This past weekend, I went to Seoul with my friends to partake in the annual Lantern Festival. Typically it's a time of celebration and joy, but this year was haunted by Sewol. Many of the features of the festival were cancelled, traditional mourning services offered, and memorial lanterns and ribbons everywhere to honor the victims. 

At one point, during a Buddhist ceremony to help the spirits of the dead find peace, I was intensely struck by the situation. Since the disaster, I've felt sad, but my anger and frustration overwhelmed the way I processed how sad it was. But watching the dance (to appease the ghosts), hearing the university student's letter to the ghosts, and seeing the raw pain on the faces of those praying hit me so hard that I began crying. All I could picture was getting a phone call that something happened. I saw my friends, my family, my students who have their whole lives ahead of them. I imagined the mother whose son would never come home. I imagined students whose friends were gone, friends they'd planned trips with, college courses, dates, everything that teenagers should be doing.

To all my loved ones, and to any strangers reading this blog: be careful and make sure the people you love know how much.

아픔을 함께

Cherry blossoms are falling on my head

Cherry blossom season is a big deal in Korea. Seriously, a big frickin deal. Thousands of people go to Jinhae, home to the Cherry Blossom Festival every year, even on days not part of the official festival. My friends and I decided to skip the madhouse this year and instead go to Gyeongju, the beautiful former capital of Korea.

Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with this idea. There were people everywhere, couples, families, photography groups at every turn. I thought I was used to random people taking pictures of us, but I was mistaken. Still weird.

Anyway, this post should be about the photos. Enjoy!

Also there are a handful of photos from my friend's school, which is stunning at this time of year. Lucky... my school has a dirt soccer field :(

안녕!

Vietnam

(Only 2.5 months late...)

Our schedule for the trip was very tight, so we only had a day trip to Ha Long Bay, a day in a half in Hanoi, two days in Ho Chi Minh City, and then onto Cambodia. My quickie review of Vietnam? Beautiful, great food, great shopping, cheap, and boy do I wish we had spent more time there.

We flew into Hanoi late Friday night, and left for Ha Long Bay first thing Saturday morning. Despite the 4 hour bus ride (each way!) and the mist preventing distance views, the bay was stunning. It's odd to experience such silence, which you'll find was a trend on this vacation, while surrounded by tourists, but it's true. We went on a rowboat through the coves in the largest island, saw a girl no more than 10 years old master a boat better than I could hope to navigate any vehicle ever in my life, and visited one of the largest and most expansive caves I've ever seen. Seeing natural rock formations that took thousands of years to form a peak just-so, is awe-inspiring. Definitely leaves an impression.

The floating village's school

Beyond the natural beauty of Vietnam, the cities are a whole new ball game. Hanoi is truly amazing, with the most eclectic architecture I've ever seen. I'm not the most well-versed in history, but I think if it had been explained to me through the building styles of the time periods, my interest would have been piqued. To see French style buildings next to the large archways and stone work of some-other-style-that-I-can't-name, in bright shades of yellows and greens and purples was absolutely beautiful. Ho Chi Minh City was very different aesthetically. The city seemed much more modern somehow, with wide roads lined with large trees, more open spaces of lakes and parks, and scooters.

Oh my god the scooters.

I bought a postcard with a cartoon of a traffic light. Green light says 'I can go.' Yellow light says 'I can go.' Red light says 'I can still go.' Literally the most accurate thing of the entire trip. There are no lights, no pedestrian walkways. You just walk into oncoming cars, bicycles, and scooters and hope that they see you and move accordingly. Thankfully, they do just that. It's surreal, in the most terrifying sense, to be walking through traffic, vehicles weaving seamlessly around you like water flows through a stream. I'm not ashamed to admit that Bhavika and I were intimidated a few times, and had to be escorted across the street by policemen in official uniform. Clearly they were used to this kind of thing.

Of course, the other notable thing was the food. We did a street food tour in Hanoi, and what an investment! Trying so many different kinds of food, learning to recognize and get a taste for new ingredients, and even seeing the city through the familiar eyes of our guide really set the tone for our time there. Even better, when we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, we took a cooking class. Starting out with a tour of the local market, we could see coconuts in various stages of processing, fruits that I had never tasted, seen, or even heard of before, and more animal organs than Bhavi knew how to handle. For me, the fruit was the most fascinating. In Korea, fresh fruit is very expensive and is difficult to find anything I'd consider exotic. Not so in Vietnam, that's for damn sure. Anyway, the cooking class was phenomenal, and I left it with a recipe book and confidence in my spring-roll-frying ability.

One of the things I loved the most about Vietnam, and Hanoi specifically, were the people. I don't think we met a single unfriendly face, and many people offered us help if we were lost or confused. While we were at Hoan Kiem (a lake near the Old Quarter), we were approached by a pair of students. Now, I tend to be very paranoid when I travel, and people approaching me immediately sets off my 'stranger danger' alarm. But these two were about our age, and were very upfront that they were students at a Vietnam university wanting to practice their English. They were so friendly and inquisitive about our travel, especially so when they learned about our lives in Korea, asking how did Vietnam compare. The four of us talked for so long that Bhavika and I were a little late for our next appointment! But that's what travel is all about, meeting people and having experiences.

You can take a billion photos, but what's the point of going to another country if all you do is see it through a lens? Heck, I can do that through a computer screen.

Next post: Cambodia!
안녕!