Last Days

Our time in Korea has finished and we have since moved to Canada. My new blog about living on a farm in Canada can be found here.

Update: I finished my dental work in Korea but something wasn't quite right. The dentist was very kind and refunded me $200 of the $300 I paid for my gold cap. Since I've been in Canada I've been to the dentist 3 times so far to have my root canal redone as my Korean dentist didn't quite drill deep enough. So I'm not sure if my cheap dentistry in Korea was worth it in the end.

This is the end of our life and travels in Korea but I hope you will join me for the next stage of our lives, living on a dairy farm in Canada.

Thanks for reading!

My Trip to the Dentist and Meeting the "Eastern Tiger"

A few years ago my dentist told me that I grind my teeth at night (while I am sleeping) so I should get a special mouth guard so that I don't grind my teeth down totally. I wasn't totally convinced that I was grinding my teeth but there was some evidence of excessive wear so I took the plunge and had a mouth guard made for myself. Three weeks ago, just a few days after my wisdom tooth removal, I woke up to find a rather large chunk of one of my lower molars broken off. Even with my mouth guard in place I was able to break my tooth. Since that fateful night, I've visited the dentist at least 6 more times to get my tooth fixed because it required endodontic (root canal) treatment. Except for the $300 crown, most of my visits cost about the same as my taxi ride to and from the dentist at between 4-8 dollars. I have a bit more work to get done so I'll try to get as much as possible before I return home.

On an unrelated topic, I met an interesting man at the gym yesterday. He came up to me while I was lifting weights and introduced himself. His name is Dong-ho, which means "east tiger". I was surprised as he was as tall as me and quite broad in the shoulders, not the shape of a typical Korean man, and had a childlike face. He told me that he was formerly a health trainer and showed me some exercises that he recommended. After showing me the excercises, he told me about himself and I was drawn in by his innocent face and sad tale. His story goes something like this:

Growing up he was the best student in his middle school and became one of the best high school students in Gunsan. This unfortunately wasn't enough to get into SNU, Seoul National University, (the top university in Korea) so he studied at private institutes for the next 12 years trying to perform well enough on the once-a-year university entrance exam to get into Seoul University. At 29 years old he finally gave up trying to go to SNU and went to Gunsan University while working as a trainer at a health club. He was planning to be an English teacher so he studied English literature, but quit after only one year of university. Now he is 37 years old and (from what I could understand from his faltering English) is working in a patent office.

There was something compelling about Dong-ho's story. Here was a tall, strong, confident man who was burdened by failure. He was among the best students during his school life, but would then be crushed year after year by the ultra-competetive university entrance exam. In Korea, there is only one path to success and it goes like this: 1.) be one of the best students through all levels of school, 2.) excel on the university entrance exam, 3.) attend Seoul National, Korea, or Yonsei University (commonly known as the SKY trio of top universities, 4.) ride your prestigious degree and related contacts to a job as a doctor, judge, school principal, or professor. If you do not succeed in any of these areas, you must try again as many times as possible until you succeed, or accept your failure and move on. Thus, Dong-ho, like over 99% of Koreans, has had to move on and accept that he is a failure by Korean societal standards. In this society your value as a person is tightly connected to your ability to obtain one of the few but highly sought after occupations. The sad part of Dong-ho's story is that it is not atypical. Thousands of young people each year study for and take the university entrance exam for the second, third or fifth time with the hope that someday their families and society will think them successful.

Top Secret Meeting

Last Tuesday I travelled to Jeonju to take part in creating exams for prospective teachers in North Jeolla province. I wasn't really sure what to expect but was told that I would be spending three days in a hotel from which I wouldn't be able to leave, fearing that the teachers creating the exams may leak the questions to the exam-takers. I also would not be able to phone anyone nor use the Internet. It was a well-planned operation, meant to stump the most ardent cheaters. The first trick they played was to keep the final location from me. I assumed since the education office was in Jeonju and Jeonju is the most central location in the province, that the meeting would be held there. Instead I was driven to the outskirts of the province to Namwon, about an hour and a half south of Jeonju. Once I arrived I was immediately escorted into the hotel and shown my room. I was informed once again that I couldn't use any phones or the Internet and that all of the doors to the hotel were locked and I would not be able to leave. Since I didn't plan to leak any information, the isolation from the outside world didn't bother me a whole lot, with the exception of the boredom. In all I spent a total of about five or six hours over the next three days working on the exam, which gave me 50 hours to kill. Unfortunately other than an eating hall there was nowhere else to go in the hotel except to our rooms and to the roof to get fresh air. I went up to the roof twice but found no way to escape from the five-story building. I ended up filling the time by reading a book, a newspaper, and watching too much TV. It was a bit of a letdown after all the security and trickery. I was hoping for leaks, conspiracies and men in black masks rappelling down the side of the hotel, but in the end it was all very quiet. We finished off our time, got onto a bus which let us off on some dark street in Jeonju, and dispersed into the night.

On a completely different topic, my wife and I each got our top left wisdom teeth taken out yesterday. The total cost for the removal of two wisdom teeth with Korean medical insurance: $14

Dog Soup

Yesterday my wife was talking to her mother on the phone for about an hour. My wife talks to her mother almost every night and this was no different except that the conversation seemed to be much more amusing than usual (they speak in Korean so I don't catch much of it). When she got off the phone she told me the story.

One of her grandparents' two dogs recently died at the ripe old doggy age of 15 years. He was a little cranky old long-haired dog that would bark and growl at visitors although he was no bigger than a cat. My wife's father fed the dogs often and was attached to them so grandmother (his mother-in-law) called him up when she saw that the animal was sick and would not recover, so that he could visit the dog one last time. The next evening my father-in-law went to grandmother's house to see the dog. When he arrived at her home he couldn't find the dog in the yard. The ensuing conversation went something like this:

father-in-law: "Mother-in-law, where is the dog?"

grandmother: "He died last night."

father-in-law: "Where is he? I came to bury him."

grandmother: "I talked to our neighbor last night. I told him about the dog and he asked if he could have it to make some soup, so I told him that was fine with me. You're too late...it's already in the soup!"

Winter "Vacation"

I hope you had a merry Christmas and wish you a happy new year. Our Christmas was quiet with just the two of us and our cat. We saw a movie and went out for a midnight Christmas dinner of barbecued pig's neck...sounds a bit strange but very delicious and best of all, cheap. We went to church on Christmas morning and New Year's Eve. I've never been to a New Year's Eve service before but the idea is to start the new year right and dedicate the new year to God. The service was 3 hours long though which was tough for me to sit through considering I only understood a few words here and there, but my wife was glad I came with her.

Right now is our 6 week "winter vacation". This is the time when about 20% of the students take a break or study elsewhere, while 80% of the students attend supplementary classes at school. During vacation, all of us non-Korean laguage teachers have to teach a 40 minute class during lunch time but we have to actually be at school from 9 - 5 every weekday. I don't know what genius came up with this idea (rumour has it the principal is the culprit) but it's poorly managed and feels like a make work project to keep us foreigners from getting into trouble. Yesterday's class was the first and all of the students showed up 10 minutes later than expected because apparently 15 minutes is not long enough to wait in a long lineup in the cafeteria, get your food, eat and brush your teeth (I don't know what it is but I think every single person at my school brushes their teeth immediately after eating lunch and cannot begin another activity until they have done so).

Anyway, this makes my 40 minute class now a 30 minute class. I am still waiting for someone to explain to me why I have to spend 8 hours at school just to teach for 30 minutes. I thought this was to make things fair so that people couldn't complain that foreigners got more time off than them but Korean teachers are either taking a month off or teaching supplementary classes for supplementary pay...so obviously fairness has nothing to do with this.

During the winter holidays the principal has also decided that students should start studying from 8 AM instead of the usual 8:30, which has upset everyone. In Korean society though the top dog has all the power and can do whatever he wants and everyone else has to follow suit. Our classes only run until 3:00 though and then it's "free study" time until 6:00. Why the students have to get up even earlier during winter vacation is a mystery to everyone. I'm confused as to why I have to cram my class into 30 minutes when the students have no formal classes after 3:00. I could teach them from 3 - 5 PM. If I have to be here I might as well be teaching and there are 2 full hours each day that both the students and myself could be spending more productively.

Well I shouldn't really say I'm confused as I know what's going on. Appearances are arguably the most important thing in Korean culture and even more so at my school. The school can proudly announce that we have supplementary classes starting at 8 AM every day, running until 11 PM and that the students study languages with foreign native speakers. For parents eager to get their children into the best universities it sounds wonderful but the reality is that the students spend 7 hours per day free studying which is an inefficient use of time. Instead of really studying or really relaxing or playing like children should be able to do, the students are forced to stay in their classrooms and look like they're studying, which often means hiding a comic book or a PMP (personal media player for watching downloaded movies) inside a textbook. Also the time actually spent learning languages with native speakers is so small each day, it's inefficient and ineffective.

I've ranted long enough now that you might be able to tell how happy I am to be here during winter vacation. It's about time I got back to looking busy.

Snow and Pain

I think I live in the windiest part of Korea. We just had our first snowfall of the season on Saturday which we watched from our 12th floor veranda and the snow was blowing horizontally. The temperature isn't so bad but the wind is icy.

As it was so inhospitable outside, it was a good weekend to be in excruciating pain. I was barely able to walk to the next room. The reason? I joined a local fitness center last week and the trainer, Song-jin, was a little too ambitious and encouraged me to do a pile of abdominal exercises on my second day, which was Thursday. My upper thighs and lower abdomen were so tense and hurt so much after all that exercise that on Saturday I couldn't straighten my body over 90 degrees to my legs without experiencing pain. I spent the day sitting or laying in the fetal position and when I did need to walk I had to use my arms to lift each leg for each step on the way to my destination as even lifting my legs caused pain. It was Sunday evening before I could stand up straight again.

I went to the gym yesterday and complained of my pain. Song-jin laughed and made me do the same exercises again, but this time let me off with half as many sets. Then we did chest and arm exercises. Today I can't straighten my arms without pain and tomorrow will hurt even more. I'm a bit confused as to how this is beneficial for me. I was unable to exercise for the following 3 days because of my pain and now I get to do it all over again. It seems to me that it would be a better idea to start slowly and build up intensity slowly so that at least I am able to function at my job and get some sleep (which I wasn't able to do on Friday night) but my complaints to gym buffs have fallen on deaf ears. Hopefully my muscles will be a little more used to it soon so I can physically leave my home and enjoy the weekends.

Avian Influenza Confirmed

On Saturday the South Korean government confirmed its first avian influenza outbreak in 3 years. As I mentioned before this is going on in the city of Iksan, just a short hop from us here in Gunsan. We've been warned to wash our hands and faces whenever we go home. First it's Kim Jong-il and his nuke testing and now its bird flu...I'm beginning to feel that it's not quite safe here. Last time there was an avian influenza outbreak some South Koreans claimed that the virus simply can't cope with their strong immune systems, powered by their national dish, kimchi...or something like that. I'm not sure about the exact details about how kimchi defeats avian influenza but apparently it does. It must have been an oversight on the government's part in not mentioning eating massive amounts of kimchi along with washing our hands and faces as part of the action plan to contain the virus. I'm sure this will be corrected soon.