Jeonju Diaries

Last Days

2007-08-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-02-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

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"

2007-01-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

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.

Avian Influenza Next Door?

2006-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

On the front page of today's newspaper there is an article about a possible avian influenza outbreak in Iksan, a city not far from where we are. So far it hasn't been confirmed official yet and investigations are still going on.

My wife has finally finished her job as another teacher from Canada took over her job. She's relieved to be finished with that job but now she's almost as busy taking courses in computers, sewing and Chinese while taking lessons in violin and swimming. She's been looking at part time jobs to get experience doing something new but that's pretty much all she'd be getting. Part time jobs here usually start around $3.00 per hour (3098 won), which is the official minimum wage. Considering the cost of living is not a lot different here than in Canada, the minimum wage is not a living wage. My wife was offered a job at an international coffee house-type franchise a couple days ago but they wanted her to work 7 days a week with only 2 days off per month as is typical in many such jobs. She declined the job and put up some postings for English tutoring. She can make more in one hour of tutoring than she would in a full day of working at a coffee shop.

I've made it official to my co-workers and students that I'm leaving so they can start looking for new teachers soon. I really like my students and co-workers so it's a bit sad giving them the news.

North Korea Planning 2nd Test?

2006-10-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

In the news now there are reports that North Korea may be planning a second nuclear weapons test. After the unanimous vote for a harsh warning and sanctions against North Korea from the U.N. security council, further tests would heighten tensions in the region even further. I'm not considering jumping on the next plane but the situation here will likely get worse before it gets better. My wife denies it but I swear that there has been increased military activity here since the last test. We live only a few kilometres from the U.S. airforce base here in Gunsan so war planes flying overhead are not a new phenomenon but I've noticed more recently (maybe I'm just more sensitive to it right now). The most startling event was an alarm sounding all around the city - it sounded like an air raid warning from a movie. I've heard one before when I was here four years ago and just as in my previous experience, no one else seemed to notice. I've been told that these drills are common but this is the first one I've heard in the 7 months I've been here. To have one a week after North Korea conducts a nuclear weapons test either indicates an increased level of tension or an amazing coincidence. I'm hoping it's the latter.

Possible Nuclear Test in North Korea

2006-10-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday around 5:00 PM, just when I was finishing work I thought I'd check out CNN to see if there were any videos I could use for my classes. That's when I found out that North Korea claims to have tested its first nuclear weapon. I went home, turned on the TV and saw that all the news channels were talking about North Korea's nuclear weapons. It seems strange that I'm just a few hours drive from North Korea but no one at school made any mention of it. I asked my students today if they'd heard about it and they all knew but were not too concerned about it. When I pressed them for what they thought, one girl piped up, "Teacher, we have too many other important things to worry about, like studying." Except for my bringing the subject up in my classes, I haven't heard anyone talking about it here.

Although few people I've spoken to seem worried about the situation, I found out that this news was enough to dissuade a new American teacher from coming to the school my wife works at. He thinks it's too dangerous here so he has refused to come and demanded his documents returned to him. Given the media response to the situation I understand his concern but for us this is the fourth teacher in a row who has been unable to come and it's getting a little tedious for us. My wife has been looking forward to taking a break for almost two months but the school needs to find a replacement before she leaves. Every time we find a new teacher, we find out a few weeks later that they're not able to make it for one reason or another. Now with these new developments it's even less likely we'll be able to find someone soon.

Chuseok Holiday
Last weekend was a holiday for us so we had four days off during which my in-laws all came to our house to celebrate. My wife's sister came from China to visit and she's still visiting us now. We haven't seen her for about a year and a half so it's good to see her again. She speaks Chinese fluently and has recently finished university and started a new job in China.

We spent a few hours on Thursday and Friday visiting my wife's grandparents. All of the grandparents' children come to their house on this holiday every year to stay for a few days and celebrate. When having dinner the men of the family sat on the floor around the table and ate first. Then we moved off to a corner of the room to drink beer and maekoli (traditional rice wine) while the women restocked the table and ate their meal.

I found this custom strange and asked a co-worker about it yesterday. She told me that many married women don't like Chuseok because they are expected to spend the whole time preparing a lot of food for the extended family (I would estimate that we had about 15 different dishes on the table and 2 or 3 of each dish). Unfortunately they can't complain to their families because it is considered their duty and it would be shameful to do so. From what my co-worker said though it seems that complaining to one's friends and colleagues after the fact is acceptable.

Keeping Up Appearances
My co-worker is in a very strange situation. She has been divorced for 10 years but hasn't told anyone else in Korea because of the shame that's associated with it. Actually divorce rates here are comparable to those in Canada and the U.S. but it's still considered shameful so almost nobody talks about it. She also has a foreign boyfriend which she tells no one about. She is a very interesting woman to talk to as she has been in Australia for several years so she can understand both Korean and western culture well. I often feel a little sad after talking to her though as she has to be very careful about who she lets into her personal life and her options as a divorced woman are so few. She also has a daughter who she tutors but the daughter doesn't know that her tutor is her biological mother. The life my co-worker leads seems so twisted and unnatural to me but in a country where appearances are incredibly important, I suspect that lives like hers are not too uncommon.

End of Summer

2006-09-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

Finally! The heat of the summer has broken and the weather is cool again. Along with the cool weather comes a new semester. The school year starts in March so we're at the half-way point now. I'm trying more group work in my classes and it's going really well so I'm very happy about how much my students are speaking English and practicing.

I've been recruited to help make an "English Olympiad" exam for all of the students (who volunteer to participate) in our province. At first nothing was explained to me except that we would be going to Jeonju for a few hours one evening. Later I found out that we had to spend a whole weekend near Imsil, actually in a very tiny place called Gui. We met and stayed in a traditional music school/mentoring place. The making of this exam is top secret so we were far from civilization and after we finished making the exam, all copies of the exam were burnt except for one that remained on the leader's laptop. Koreans take exams very seriously.

The only other people there were musicians who showed up around 9:00 PM and played in the building next to ours until midnight. The type of Korean music played at the school sounds like pots and pans being bashed together in a semi-rhythmic fashion which made it a little difficult to concentrate on our task.

There were huge spiders and other insects I had never seen before in the hallway and rooms of the school and it was a bit unsettling. Before going to sleep, I removed the largest cricket I have ever seen from my room (it was dead) and closed the door before going to sleep. I slept on the floor - Korean style - and slept a fitful four hours. We ate fish soup and shellfish soup all weekend so I wasn't happy with the food either.

Last Friday we had another meeting and they promised another one soon to come. During these meetings almost everything is spoken in Korean so I don't understand much of what's going on. I'm just the proofreader. So most of the time I'm completely lost at these meetings and then after we finish I finally get a copy of the exam and am instructed to proof read it before the next meeting. It's all just a strange process to me as I have no idea of the big picture. I just go where I'm told to go and do what I'm told and hope that whatever we're doing is working.

My wife has been having some trouble with her knee and one of her ribs so the doctor instructed her to stop taking kumdo. Her job is also going to finish in October so hopefully she'll have some time to heal and spend on herself. Her sister is coming to visit from China in two weeks for Chuseok holidays (like Thanksgiving). We're looking forward to it as we haven't seen her for a year and a half.

We took our cat to the vet a few weeks ago to get shots and then again because he was lethargic and not eating afterward. When we went to the vet the first time, he asked us if the cat was Korean or American. It seemed like a strange question to me but then he explained that cats in Korea have not been acceptable pets for as long as in the west and thus have not been bred for temperament as long. When we told him that the cat was Korean he said that we had to spend more time playing with him...that basically he was more active and more "wild" than your typical "western" cat. This was very enlightening news as we were wondering why he was so wild. He sleeps all day then at night meows and runs around the house, jumping on our bed, biting any fingers and toes that aren't under blankets and generally making a lot of noise. We were hoping that a little fixing would solve the problem but it seems that his condition is incurable. From day to day it can be hit and miss whether he allows us to sleep much or not. We've been trying to play with him more but his biological clock is completely opposite from ours. When we want to play he is sleeping and when he wants to play, it's too late at night. We think he is getting more calm as he gets older but maybe it's just hopeful thinking.

Summer

2006-08-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Summer is into full swing now and with the rainy season just past, the weather is hot and humid. We rented an air conditioner for the summer which is very old and ugly but does the job well enough so we can sleep at night.

Last week we went to a beach near Buan with my wife's parents. Here is a picure of my wife and I frolicking on the rocks. The beach was very crowded with so many people going to the beach to cool off so we didn't stay long.

After going to the beach we went out for barbecued eel, which I have been told is "good for stamina." I don't know if that's true but it seems that anything that tastes terrible is accompanied by the words "good for stamina" or "good for health." Dog meat for example is also good for stamina. Actually the eel was pretty tasty although tough in spots. We spent two days with my wife's parents (who stayed at our apartment) which was a nice change although I'm happy to have our home to ourselves again now.

We just received some wonderful news just over a week ago. We received my wife's passport back from the Canadian embassy in Seoul with a new Canadian immigration visa in it. Our long wait for her permenant residency is over and we may now return to Canada at any time within the next 10 months. We won't be going back until I finish my contract at the beginning of March but it's a big burden lifted off our minds. At one time we thought of staying here another year but now we're very happy that we'll be returning to Canada early next year.

Immigration News

2006-07-12T00:33:00.000-07:00

We received good news from immigration last week. My wife has had her application for permanent residence provisionally accepted. From the sounds of it, she just needs to send in her passport for them to stamp and we'll be ready to head back to Canada. Of course I'll have to finish my contract here which doesn't end until February but we're both looking forward to returning to Canada after that.

Also my wife passed her black belt test in kumdo so now we both have our 1st dan black belts. Our training is going really slow so we're both a bit frustrated by our progress. Now that her black belt is finished she may move on to try something new. I'm not sure what's going on with my teacher's proposed joint kumdo school business in Canada idea but apart from talking about it now and then, he seems to have little interest in actually training us to a level where we can teach it.

I'm finding school very frustrating these days. Important information is kept out of my reach on a daily basis. For example, on Monday I usually have my first class at 10:00 but at 9:10 my students told me that I should be teaching them (class starts at 9:00). Apparently there was a change in schedule but no one told me. The very next day I was sitting at my desk at 8:52 and my supervisor said, "You should be watching over the exam. You should have started at 8:50!" This kind of thing happens on almost a daily basis and I even sit next to my supervisor so I have no idea how this happens so often.

These events as well as others cause my wife and I to dream of Canada every night when we go to bed. It's strange - when we're in Canada we yearn to be in Korea where it's more exciting. When we're in Korea, we yearn to be in Canada where it's peaceful and not so chaotic.

Jedi Master

2006-06-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Every time I write in my blog I feel better afterwards, like some kind of mental cleansing, but at the same time it seems to take a long period of mental "dirtying" before I actually get down to doing it again. Shortly after my last entry we went to Gyeongju, which was the capital of the ancient Shilla dynasty. It's an interesting city with many tombs of kings spread around. It seems that wherever you go, there is another grassy hill entombing an ancient king. For the most part these tombs are respected but when you get out of the city a bit you can find many people picnicking, sliding down and generally having a lot of fun playing on them, even though there is a sign at the bottom of each one warning people to stay off.

We recently received an orange and white kitten from one of my wife's students. We've had him for about a week now but he came to us sick so he was a handful for the first few days. Now he's settling into the apartment and us. He's sitting on my lap as I write this. He likes to play, especially hunting our clothes and feet. He sneaks up on something moving, then bursts out in a terribly uncoordinated pounce. He has scared my wife pretty good a few times this past week. We named him Yoda because sometimes he looks surprisingly like the jedi master.

We're in the middle of of World Cup fever here in Korea. After South Korea's 4th place finish in 2002, expectations are high for the team to do well again. I've been trying to follow the games but they run at 10 pm, 1 am and 4 am so I get to catch about one live match a day. When I was here in 2002 when the World Cup was hosted in Korea and Japan, I thought Koreans were crazy about soccer. It's all my students could talk about at the time. Actually it seems that they're crazy about Korea, not soccer. I've watched some of their national professional league soccer matches on TV and there's almost no one in the stands but when the World Cup comes around, everyone is suddenly a soccer fan. I guess large international sporting events often have this effect on sports fans and non-fans alike but I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't been more of an interest in the local teams (which is where many of the national team players play) after Korea's success in the last World Cup.

I've become increasingly annoyed with my kumdo teacher's slow pace of teaching. Lately we've been working very hard but not learning anything. For example we had to do one thousand center strikes during one training session. Everyone had blisters after 40 minutes and sore arms the next day but no one knew what the point of the exercise was. Yeah, I know, I've seen the martial arts movies where the master does strange things to train his apprentice (like carrying water and waxing cars) but I feel that it's getting a little ridiculous. I learned 15 different "gum-baps" (each gum-bap is several attack and defense moves coreographed together) last year in 8 months. Now in almost 4 months here I've relearned 14 of those (he wasn't happy with my form) and learned 2 more. My kumdo teacher wants us to help him open a school in Canada when we go back but at this pace I think I'll still be training for my 2nd dan well into my 40s and it takes 4th dan to open your own school. Also according to Korean Confucian ideas, it's very impolite to question your teacher's teaching. The student is supposed to just follow and learn. My teacher has won many awards and his school and students have won many awards as well so I'm going to be patient for a while longer. My wife is also frustrated with her slow progress. Her black belt test is July 1st and she's not sure she will pursue it any longer if we're going to continue learning so slowly.

Yoda keeps crawling onto the keyboard and messing up my typing. He's a bit of a nut but it's fun having more company around the house. People generally don't like cats as pets so it's tough to find cat products in Korea.

School Life

2006-04-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today has been the most stressful day of work so far and it's only 11:30 AM. This week is when my classes give their first English speech of the year. I finished the last 2 presentation classes yesterday and told the students their marks. The last student I told his mark was unhappy with his mark so we discussed it for a while and I agreed that he had worked hard on it so I did give him another point on his assignment. After that I suspect he told everyone because I had another 4 students come to my desk later in the day with sad eyes telling me why they should have higher grades. I told them all that I'd think about it.

I was quite upset by these meetings as the students were very persistent and one student even mentioned that she thought my marking was inconsistent. Although I try hard to be consistent, grading a speech is much less objective than giving a written test so I wanted to give the students the benefit of the doubt and let them argue for their cause. Unfortunately I didn't take thorough notes and had a difficult time remembering all 120 presentations, so when a student said, "My pronunciation was better than Jun-soo's," I didn't have a good counter argument.

Seeing my plight, a Korean teacher told me that teachers never change student marks in Korea. The teacher is always right and the ultimate authority, even when he/she is wrong. I should not be changing marks. So...today I had to tell the student who's mark I changed that his original mark would stand and that I would no longer listen to student complaints. I'm not sure if it's the right decision but it should stop the flow of whining students. I also told them that they could toss their worst score for the semester...that way if they are unhappy with this score, they can choose not to use it.

I find the obsession with marks among Korean students to be far too great. I am annoyed with my students for trying to pry more marks out of me instead of looking at their mistakes and learning from the experience. The problem is that it's not only students who are obsessed, but also their parents and universities and employers. Employers want students from the best universities, universities want the best high school students, and high schools want the best middle school students...and how are the best students measured? Grades.

There is a strong sense here that your whole life success depends on how hard you study in school. Unfortunately there are millions of university graduates competing for a few jobs and a degree from a regular university is nothing special. So the students at my school study for 16 hours each day, 12 days straight, only getting every 2nd weekend off. They are among the best students in the province and hope to go to the best universities. The marks they get here are very important for getting into a good university and from what I understand, that's the hard part as university life is a breeze compared to high school because universities don't like to fail students.

There's a huge responsibility for me to give accurate marks in my classes. At the same time my conversation class is only a fraction of their total English grade which includes grammar, writing and listening sections as well. So the difference between the best student and the worst student on this project will at most be 1% of their English score for the year but the students take every fraction of a percent very seriously.

Anyway, I'm very glad it's Friday today. We're planning to go to Daejeon tomorrow to Costco where we can buy all kinds of stuff we can't buy here like big blocks of cheese and salsa. Maybe we'll see a movie too or if the weather gets better, go for a walk during the cherry blossom festival.

Business Opportunity

2006-04-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Since we started to feel a little more settled a couple weeks ago, we decided to take up kumdo (Korean sword fighting sport) again. I had just finished my black belt and my wife was getting ready for her black belt test when we left last fall. We've been catching up after forgetting a lot of the forms that we had learned. Last Friday we had a short practice and then we went out with our master for something to eat along with a few of the other adult students. What was supposed to be a social event quickly turned into something of a business meeting. My master said that he wants to open a kumdo gym in Canada and would either like to help us open our own gym or have us help him open his own gym. He said that if we are willing, then he can give us extra training so that we can achieve 3rd or 4th dan within a year. Usually it takes about a year per dan so I expect that this would mean a lot of work. We were a bit shocked by his proposal and told him we'd think about it. We're still not sure but we have to decide soon so we can get started on our more intensive training. We're both excited by the idea but we're also cautious so we need to research it more but make a decision quickly.

We're very happy with our apartment so far but we didn't realize it would be so windy. We can see the ocean from our balcony, although it's far away and behind a row of smoke-spewing factories. The unfortunate part of having the sea so close is that it's almost always windy. In the summer it should be nice to have a breeze but for now it feels like winter still. The weather is slowly warming and next weekend is the cherry blossom festival so we're hoping it's warm enough for a walk around the lake at Oompah Park.

Moved In

2006-03-06T00:54:00.000-08:00

The Education Office Official
We visited the Education office in Jeonju to sign the contract and the official informed us that according to the contract, the school didn't have to provide an apartment...the education office only has to provide me with a small housing allowance every month. This would be fine except that in order to rent an apartment in Korea, one must put down key money, a lump sum something like a damage deposit, only much larger. We didn't have $5000 kicking around for the necessary key money so I asked the official where he thought we'd be finding such a large amount. He blushed and mumbled something about borrowing it from my wife's "auntie". He then assured us that he could do no more for us and maybe we should ask the principal for the key money.

"Auntie"
The "auntie" the official spoke of is my former employer who had been posing as my wife's auntie in order to help us out. She did us many "favors" which we didn't ask for and may have caused more trouble than anything. She offered us one of her apartments for us to live in which was very nice, however as we dealt with her over the next week we realized that she wanted certain favors in return, such as having my wife work at her private school. We realized in the that we didn't want to be owing anyone favors so we didn't take that apartment in the end. My wife still felt indebted to her so she is working at the school but at least doesn't feel like she has to work there all year.

The Principal
When we walked into the school we were told point blank (through a low-ranking school official) that the principal would not be providing us key money. We managed to get a meeting with the principal and he seemed annoyed that we didn't simply listen to his lackey and leave. When we discussed our options with him, he revealed that there was a new apartment complex being built and would be finished in the summer. When we enquired about getting an apartment there, he asked us if we'd move then and when we answered "yes" he rolled his eyes as if to imply that we'd never be happy. The whole experience was quite degrading as it seemed as if we were begging for money and he treated us as a lender might treat an untrustworthy borrower.

At this point we were getting desperate as our options had run out. At this time, "auntie's" apartment seemed to be our only option, other than liquidating some of our assets in Canada to pay for key money. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was able to acquire some money (she won't tell us where) to lend us and we were able to get an apartment on our own after a couple days of searching for a clean place we could afford. We will pay her back at the first opportunity.

So now we have a nice place, a little bigger than our previous place and is in a good location. In the end, we pay a little less that what the education office pays for my rent, so we get to pocket a little bit in return for our efforts. In the end it seems that the cause of our problems was a mish-mash of beaurocrats who either had no power or no will to take responsibility for anything. Tied to that is the lack of compassion and understanding by anyone except for my wife's parents and possibly "auntie" although her motives are still unknown.

The School Administrator
That was just to get our place. In order to get our furniture, we had almost as difficult time again, being stuck between the education office and the school/principal. Fortunately for us, the administrator took pity on us and actually did something. He took it on himself and even though he may not get his money back, he offered to pay for our furnishings if the education office did not. His help was a huge and unforseen blessing for us. We had slept on our floor one night and with his intervention we didn't have to spend any more.

From the Hair Salon

2006-02-25T23:12:00.000-08:00

I'm now in the hair salon I used to frequent when I was here 3 years ago. Unfortunately my former hairdresser, Lee Sung-min, is no longer here. I usually don't get attached to hair dressers well enough to remember their names, but when I find a Korean hair dresser that can cut my hair in a way that doesn't look like I'm trying to bring 80's style back, I gotta stick with him. I'm waiting for my wife to get her hair done so I have a bit of time right now.

I've been updated on the housing situation. Apparently no one wanted to tell me before I arrived but I've heard through the grapevine (not even firsthand as you would expect from a professional organization) that the school doesn't have enough money for the large furnished apartment they promised. In fact the options I have are as follows: 1) Unfurnished small apartment where they pay $300 rent and I have to come up with the $3000 "key money" (damage deposit-like lump sum payed at the beginning). 2) We live in a larger apartment across town owned by my previous employer but commuting will be about 45 minutes each way (this option may not be available anymore) or 3) We live in the school dormitory with the students.

From what I understand there has been a misunderstanding between two of my higher-ups, each thinking that the other was responsible for finding a house. Now we have no place and no one is willing to apologize and step up to fix this blatant breach in our agreement. In fact, no one has contacted me to inform me about any of this except my wife's mother and I am expected to start work on Thursday. We will meet with the official in charge of foreign teacher recruitment tomorrow and find out first hand what the situation is.

Today is the first day we haven't been on the move or doing school business since last Tuesday so we're far from impressed that no one has done any work to find us a place until now...and even now we are expected to find our own place. We are both inclined to pick up our bags and move on to China or somewhere else. The problem is that everyone knows that we are right, however if we tell that to those who messed up in the first place, they will "lose face" and we will cause them to be shamed and they will likely be less inclined to help us. From my point of view though, they have already shamed themselves a great deal by leaving us hanging with no house, expecting us to find our own (all standard contract conditions) and by not even contacting us about the situation to let us know beforehand.

Tonight we are going to meet with someone who we expect will encourage us to compromise and think of it from their perspective...I am a bit confused as to why they can't tell us their perspective themselves. I can hardly wait to hear what excuses they have for breaking our contractual agreement even before I start working.

When we meet the official tomorrow we plan to explain it very simply: If we have no adequate place for the two of us to live, I will not start working until there is. If they want us to compromise our expectations for our housing, I'm not sure we'll even stay. The housing was one of the big draws for us to this job and without it, there isn't much reason to stick around. After talking about it, we'd both love to go to China for the year...we'll see what happens.

In Taipei

2006-02-24T01:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written as I've been at home in Canada visiting with family and friends for the past 3 1/2 months or so. We've been at the airport in Taipei since 6:00 AM and it's now 5:00 PM with our plane leaving in just 2 more hours. We got a really cheap flight and I think we're paying for it now.

I still haven't heard anything from my employer about what to do and where to go once we reach our destination city which this time is Gunsan (I suppose I may have to change my blog to "Gunsan Diaries" now). I just heard through the grapevine that we don't have a place yet and that we aren't expected to have one soon and there's a long story behind it all. We'll be informed upon our arrival in Incheon in about 5 hours about our housing situation. We are already cranky and stressed from not getting proper sleep for the past 25+ hours and this is not welcome news. I don't understand how someone who knew of our coming 5 months ago still doesn't have our housing situation sorted out. I'm tempted to tell them what I think of the situation but while that choice may get an apology and results in a western country, in Korea it would likely result in a string of face-saving excuses or a counter-attack blaming me.

Anyway, we're off to eat some sushi before the last leg of our trip, if we can afford it. We got some $6 US vouchers from the airline to help us wait out the day, which seemed great at first but after buying 2 "Russian" ice cream cones for $8 we realized how little that would buy us. We've still got one left so hopefully we can get some rice anyway.

Going Home

2005-11-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

We're going home to Canada in 2 days now. I've been hoping to update this for a while but the past several weeks have been busy preparing middle school students for high school entrance exams. I had a few classes of students who wanted to get into the best high school in Jeonju so I had to prepare them for an English interview as part of their exam. They took the exam last Saturday and 13 out of 15 students passed. All of the English teachers are relieved to have those classes finished and to have such a high number pass. Our boss is pretty focused on those numbers and uses them for advertising so there was a lot of pressure on us to do well.

As for going home, we are all packed up and ready to go except for washing and scrubbing today. We hope to put in a good day's work today and then go see the movie Wallace and Grommit as our reward tonight. I still have 2 movie vouchers from winning a prize during my kumdo test about 6 months ago. Also regarding kumdo, I was able to pass my blackbelt test and received a blackbelt, a plaque and a blackbelt card with a magnetic stripe. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that, but I figure the best use will be to pull it out when I'm making a purchase and feign a mistake, "Oh that's not my credit card...that's my blackbelt card." Maybe that will impress someone...

I wanted to bring my sword home on the airplane but I was told it would be too much of a hassle for just 3 months while I'm in Canada. Apparently I'm supposed to contact the airline and all of the airports I will be at during my journey. While I'm at each airport, I will be escorted by airport security from the moment I enter the airport to the moment I get on the plane. I'll bring it home next time.

We're both looking forward to going back to Canada and spending Christmas with my family. We often talk about the things we miss in Canada such as turkey, mashed/scallopped/baked potatoes, and my wife's favorite, Lay's potato chips.

I also landed a job at a very good high school in Gunsan for March so we will be returning to Korea in February to get set up. It's pretty exciting as the work hours are less than I do now but the courses are more varied and the students are all very good at English as it's a specialized language high school. There are also teachers for other languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and I don't even know what else. They want me to teach American History and Literature for the SATs. I told them I didn't know much about American History but I would be willing to try and they accepted me as a teacher so we'll see what happens. Two of my present students were accepted into this high school so I'll get to see them next year. It's a small world.

Black Belt Day!

2005-09-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the day I've been training for over the last 7 months...the test for my black belt in kumdo. I was looking forward to a good night's sleep before the big day but my wife couldn't sleep because of tooth pain last night. She was afraid of the cost of going to emergency (after spending over $350 each of the 3 times she went to emergency in Canada) so she refused to go to emergency until 2 AM. Since she is married she is no longer under her parents' medical plan but her sister still is, so my wife gave the receptionist her sister's name. After giving her a shot in the rear (everyone gets a shot in the rear any time they visit a doctor, even for a simple cold) she got some pain killers and the whole experience cost about $8. Without medical insurance, she said it would have been over $20, which is still dirt cheap. In Canada we paid $300 to visit emergency just to have the doctor say, "Your thumb is healing well. Come back in 2 days." Later we also got a bill from the doctor herself for another $70. I should become a doctor.

We both slept well after returning home from the hospital and I went to my blackbelt test after lunch the next day. We went to Jeonju University at 1:00 to practice and the test started at 2:30. I practiced my "shim-sang-gom-bap" which is like a long memorized form/dance thing where I appear to be fighting dozens of invisible assailants, and jukdo (bamboo sword) sparring. I was feeling pretty good about myself when I arrived but my master shook his head and told me to practice more after seeing me in action. I'm used to practicing on a padded floor but today the floor was a basketball court - very slippery on bare feet and not very comfortable to do rolls and sommersaults on.

Come test time, we all received numbers and I was #71 out of 71, which meant I would go last. It took a good hour to test everyone and they usually tested 3 at a time. The floor was split up into 3 courts: one for shim-sang-gom-bap, one for jukdo sparring (both 1st dan tests) and one for 2nd and 3rd dan tests. (There are several blackbelt dans that can be acquired, the highest I don't know but you can't be an official master or teacher unless you are around 4th or 5th dan). After the long wait, I finally got my chance to step up to do my form and I could hear a commotion in the bleachers, which were filled with the proud parents of blackbelt hopefuls - there were only 8 adults taking the test, the rest were children. I guess the sight of a foreigner there was unexpected for them, but knowing that all eyes were on me suddenly made my heart jump. After a few moves though, everything came naturally and I barely even had to think about what I was doing. It came so naturally and went so quickly that I was sure I missed some steps but when I finished, I heard some clapping from the crowd and I got a few thumbs up from my fellow classmates.

Immediately after finishing the shim-sang-gom-bap form, I had to spar with another student. The moves are all pre-choreographed so I just had to remember what I had memorized. Unfortunately my sparring partner had not memorized the first set of moves and was striking and blocking in the wrong places. I was sure the judges would be able to tell that I was performing the right moves while he wasn't, but the uninitiated in the bleachers probably wondered why I was blocking my feet while he was striking at my head.

Besides the test, there were lots of announcements from people in suits, stretching, breathing/meditation time, bathroom breaks and a time for giving out trophies and medals to the best performers. I didn't understand much of what was said and just followed what everyone else did. This worked well most of the time but the bathroom breaks were really confusing because about 20 of the students would suddely stand up and run for the doors. I was never really sure if I was supposed to go or stay. I stayed and no one got mad at me so it turned out well.

My test went well and I'm pretty sure I'll be receiving my blackbelt in the next few weeks.

Other News
Regarding other news with us, we will be returning to Canada in the beginning of November. We were supposed to return on the 18th but my employer wants me to stop working October 29th and we will return home soon after that. My wife still won't be able to live in Canada at that time so we're expecting to be in Canada for 4 months and then I have another job lined up here for March which we will come back here for. That's the plan for now anyway but it could easily change.

My wife is now working at my school for 2 months. She wasn't planning to go back because of all the extra work she has to do for no extra pay, but after being out of university for over a month she's gotten bored and wrestless and had difficulty finding an employer that will take her for only 2 months. It's nice to work together again but every 2nd Saturday she has to be there for 3 hours which cuts into our weekends.

A Bad Day
In my last post I mentioned that I had a bad day testing my sword. I will tell you about it now. Well first we started out later than we expected and I didn't have a lot of time before I had to be at work. We went out into the country a bit to our usual bamboo forest to collect some for cutting. I was wearing sandals and the ground was covered in a prickly vine that managed to wrap itself around my ankles as I worked. My kumdo master cut the bamboo with a saw and I beat the branches off with a short, heavy stalk of bamboo and piled it. Another kumdo master joined us later, conveniently after we had finished collecting bamboo. After we had collected about forty 6-foot long stalks, we set up some stands for cutting. My kumdo master's stands were brand new and looked very solid and expensive, but unfortunately the adjustment screws were too short so the 2 to 3 inch wide bamboo would not stand up straight in the 5 inch wide pipe. After cutting a few stalks, I jammed some small pieces into the pipe to get a tight fit. This worked well but then while I was jamming a piece in, I slipped and cut an inch long gash into the palm of my hand on a sharp piece of bamboo. I was in a bit of shock and felt light-headed after seeing how deep it was and how much blood was coming out of it. I sat down and applied pressure and toilet paper to it until it stopped bleeding. Once it had stopped, I was ready to go home, but my kumdo master told me to cut more bamboo. I was a bit annoyed but thought I might as well continue since we put so much work into coming out already. I was cutting 3 stalks of bamboo at a time and was getting pretty good at the right-and-down stroke as well as the left-and-down stroke. The right-and-up stroke is really difficult and I wasn't able to do it most of the time. I tried and tried and just as I felt like I was getting the hang of it, I made a stroke that didn't feel quite right. I looked down at my blade and saw a good chunk broken off the edge of the blade about 2/3 of the way up. I wanted to cry.

Later my kumdo master told me that the sword is guaranteed for a year so it would be no problem to send it back and get it fixed. I don't know why he waited for an hour to tell me this, however. We sent it off and I got it back last week. They engraved a small picture of bamboo on the base of the blade as "service" which was nice but I swear that my sword is thinner near the tip now. Before it looked close to the same width from hilt to tip but now it seems to get more thin near the tip of the blade. So rather than replacing the blade I think they just filed the whole sword down to where the chip was.

Summer Ends

2005-08-14T03:48:00.000-07:00

Apparently today is the last day of summer according to my Korean friends. It seems early to me but if it is then I'm happy with it. This was supposed to be the hottest summer in a long time but with the exception of a hot spell at the end of June, it's been not so bad.

A couple weeks ago the pastor (from Canada who married us) and his wife came for a visit. They only had about 4 days with us so we took them to what we considered to be the best sights in and around Jeonju. On Saturday we went to Seonyouido (islands off the coast near Gunsan) and walked around for a few hours. It's a group of 3 islands connected by bridges. The scenery is beautiful and the fishing villages quaint. I went swimming (the first time in almost 2 years of being in Korea), but no one wanted to join me even though the water was filled with locals. Since we Canadians weren't too keen on seafood, we opted out of the local cuisine and waited until we got back to Gunsan where we had "shabu shabu" which is some kind of Mongolian stew or, maybe Korean version of Mongolian stew. Anyway it's good.

The next day we walked around the Korean traditional village in Jeonju (Hanok village). There we shopped a bit, checked out traditional wine making, paper making and had ourselves diagnosed by a Chinese medicine showroom via computer. We each got our personality profile which tells us what kinds of medical problems we are prone to have, our personalities, foods we should eat or not eat, etc. Later during the week, my wife took them to E-Mart which is a modern grocery/shopping store. It's interesting to see the variety of seafood and the large section just for kimchi there. In Canada, you can't even find kimchi in most grocery stores, but here they have a kimchi department fully stocked with kimchi made from all kinds of vegetables, obscure plants, roots, and seafood. Our guests took a bus tour around Seoul before heading to China for the second phase of their trip. When we took them to the airport bus, we were surprised to see our old friend there (who mom and dad should remember)...a young man who doesn't seem all there hangs out at the bus stop and practices his English with any foreigner who will make eye contact with him. Although he's friendly enough, it's hard to share a tearful goodbye with your friends when a stranger keeps yelling "OK! OK!" at you while pulling your arm hair (this guy seems to have a fascination with arm hair, which Koreans generally don't have).

Yeosu
Last weekend we went to Yeosu, which is on the southern coast, for our 4 days of holidays. Originally we were planning to go to Seokcho, a very famous summer getaway, but my wife's mother advised us against it because it was going to rain all week in Sokcho. We took the train to Yeosu which was much more relaxing than the overheated, Upon arrival we found a hotel which was the best I've been in so far in Korea. There was free coffee, free juice and free Internet in our room and the best part was the fact that it was cheap without feeling like a Korean "love hotel". The owner was also very friendly and gave us advice each day as we headed out to a different location.

The first day in Yeosu we explored the city, walking around for about 6 hours. We checked out a 500 year old guest house, an island that used to be a naval base and a statue of the famous Korean general Yi Sun-shin. We had lunch at Popeye's Chicken which I usually enjoy but for some reason there was only one employee on duty at lunch time on Saturday. It took us 45 minutes to get our fast food meal. The guy who took our order was also the cook and did everything by himself.

The second day we went to a black sand beach where Koreans go to relieve their sore joints and muscles by burying themselves in the hot sand. We also tried this, which felt nice but later we made the mistake of trying to walk to the refreshment stand without our shoes and ended up burning the bottoms of our feet on the hot sand. The best part of this trip was the tunnel our taxi drove through to get there. It was about a half kilometre long but only wide enough for 1 car. There were cutouts in the rock every 100 metres where maybe 5 cars could pull over while cars coming the opposite direction could go past. We barely made it without someone having to back out of the tunnel because of lack of room.

The third day we were going to go to an island but it was about $30 each for the ferry one way...so over a hundred just for a day trip. So we decided instead to go to Hyangilam, a Buddhist hermitage on the tip of a large island, accessible by bus. It was a bit of a hike to the hermitage, but there weren't many people (very rare during a summer weekend in Korea) and there were actually monks there doing their meditations and people were welcome to join them. In some places, there were rocks covered in money. From my understanding, these coins represent wishes or blessings. This trip was my best memory of Yeosu as the hermitage site was so peaceful, the buildings all set against a cliff overlooking the ocean.

The fourth day we returned to Jeonju to rest a bit before work on Monday. On the way back we passed through Imsil, which is famous for cheese. Some weekend I hope to return there and see what dairy farming and cheese making is like in Korea.

Argh...I just finished writing another several paragraphs and while deleting a small section, deleted several paragraphs. I'm too frustrated now to finish it so will tell the story of my terrible sword testing day later.

Summer Begins

2005-07-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

This week should bring my sword to me finally. Well, technically it's my wife's sword according to the paperwork but I'll be the principal borrower. I'm scared someone will question why she needs such a long sword as sword length is based on your reach...if you can actually draw the sword. The sword company already knows it's for me and not her but they don't seem to care even though they need police authorization before sending it to me.

The weather was cooking hot about 2 weeks ago and now monsoon season has begun so it rains almost every day. The rain doesn't make it a whole lot cooler, just more humid. Unfortunately we have a leak in the ceiling right above our toilet so when it rains, it's not a very pleasant place to be. We also had a huge puddle outside our apartment last time we had a big downpour.

Last week was exam week for our students, which means all the Korean teachers were working about 10 hours per day, 6 days per week for the past month. Fortunately for me, my classes have nothing to do with the exams so I actually work less during this time as students prefer to study other subjects rather than come to my class.

We were recently told our summer holidays would be August 4th - 7th. Many of the teachers are angry as it's too hot, too expensive, and too short notice to actually go anywhere out of the country at that time. From my understanding, the boss makes his holiday plans as they suit him, then he tells his 50 or so employees that those are the holidays. Anyway, we're thinking of going to Seorak Mountain and Sokcho which are in the Northeastern part of the country. I've never been there but apparently there are beautiful mountains and beaches in the area and I'm hoping being in the north is cooler than here. One of the teachers at my school told me that Jeonju is now the hottest city in Korea. Apparently it used to be Daejeon but they've countered the heat by planting many trees in that city over the past several years.

Delays

2005-06-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well after jumping through several hoops in pursuit of my chingum (real sword), such as a doctor's checkup, eye examination and a visit to the police office, I am still no closer to getting it. The police require a criminal record check from Canada which will take 2 to 3 months to acquire. By then it will be too late to begin practicing with it so we're weighing other options before proceeding any further.

Also our immigration papers were returned to us informing us that we are to send them to Canada and not to Canadian Embassy, so once again we have to reacquire time-sensitive documents and send the package again. The whole immigration process is very frustrating as there are many steps, some which are unclear, others unecessary depending on your situation, some picky, some time consuming, and some absurd.

On top of this, there is a job opportunity for me in Gunsan for 2006. We are considering it seriously as it sounds much more interesting, more lucrative and less time consuming than my current job. Even now in the hellish heat of the Korean summer I am thinking about staying another year, which is very different from the first summer I spent here when I thought many times, never again! Someone told me that this is supposed to be the hottest summer in 50 years in Korea. Looking forward to the fall is the main way I put up with the heat day after day...and summer has only just begun.

A Real Sword

2005-05-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post but I did survive and even pass the test for my yellow belt. During my last test I passed 2 belts so now I'm at blue. The next one will be red, which entitles me to use a real and quite sharp sword from then on. I recently chose the sword I want to buy. Now I just need to undergo a medical test, a basic psychological test (from what I understand), and fill out some forms for the police. I didn’t realize it would get so complicated. My kumdo master is happy with my progress and says I should get my black belt in September. He wants me to stay in Korea longer and study for the 2nd and 3rd dans (levels) above black belt level. With a 3rd dan he says I can be a kumdo teacher and open my own school in Canada (Korea requires 4th dan but since there are so few teachers in Canada, they lower the standard). Unfortunately it would take 2 years of intensive study to reach 3rd dan status, so my master enquires often about my plans for the future and tries to persuade me to stay in Korea longer.

On the other side of that equation is the fact that we recently finished all the paperwork for my wife’s immigration to Canada. It was tedious, time-consuming and confusing but it’s finally been sent off and now all we can do is wait. Once she gets accepted then we will have a certain window of time to return to Canada, which I believe is one year from the acceptance date. This means if I did want to stay and study kumdo more, then we may have to make another application in the future. I’m not sure on all the particulars at the moment though so I could also be wrong. It seems that the requirements are vague and constantly changing…some of the papers we filled out at the beginning of the process became obsolete so we had to do them again later. So frustrating but now it’s done. Of course, there is no guarantee she’ll be accepted but I don’t see any reason why not.

My parents, sister and aunt came to Jeonju for a visit earlier this month. It was great to see them again and spend time with them. We saw some of the sights of Korea, ate a lot of Korean food, went to some festivals and also played board and card games in our apartment, enjoying each other’s company. We were so happy that my family and my wife’s family were able to meet each other and share a little bit of their worlds with each other.

I wish to write more about my family’s visit but dinner is ready so I will continue next time.

Kumdo Test Day

2005-03-26T00:44:00.000-08:00

Today I took my first Kumdo test to hopefully move from white belt to yellow belt. I was the last person to get there and everyone was looking at me. I took my place at the front, kneeling along with the other 40 or so students who seemed to range in ages from 5 to 12 years old. The students were more interested in me than in the testing. I had students petting my arm hair, comparing the size of my hands to theirs and asking me questions such as, "What's your name?", "Do you like apples?" and "What is your favourite fruit?" I'm not sure why but fruit seemed to be the topic of the day.

The testing started and I began to relax a little. The kumdo master would shout out commands (in Korean) and 6 students at once would have to obey his command. The children were pretty wobbly with their wooden swords and often missed a command but then they were all white belts so I knew I couldn't feel too confident about my ability.

I was called up along with the third set of students to be tested. I was nervous and made a couple of mistakes but felt ok. When we were finished, the master would ask each student to either introduce himself, sing a song, or recall a memorized poem or chant. When it was my turn, the master told everyone that my Korean was not good so I didn't have to do it...but then there was such a ruckus! All the students wanted to hear me say something or sing a song but the master stood his ground and from what I understand he said, "Next time." When I took my seat again next to the masses of little kids, one of the boys said, "Wow...you good job!" so I felt pretty good. I won't know until next week if I advanced to the next level or not as the three judges have to work out the scores for all the students first.

After the students all tested, then 2 students with black belts were called up and put on helmets and were armed with sponge-covered plastic swords. They fought against each other with full force blows and it was interesting to see how our practicing would work in a real sword fight. I was very interested in this part of the event, however the students sitting around me kept asking me more questions, "Do you like chicken?", "Where are you from?", "My name is Kim Do-Hyun, pleased to meet you."

After the sparring, one of the judges stood up and set up bundles of straw (about 4 feet high)upright around the room. He put a real sword into his belt and bowed. He then proceeded to cut each bundle of straw several times, moving from one bundle to the next. He dispatched 5 straw warriors in about 10 seconds which was pretty impressive. My master then did the same with 8 foot lengths of bamboo, although he did miss one cut, not completely cutting the bamboo. The last strike was through 2 lengths of bamboo at once. My wife explained to me later that the straw is similar to skin and the bamboo to bone. If you can cut through a piece of bamboo, then you should be able to cut through a bone (thus dismembering an opponent) the same size as the bamboo. If this is really true then it is impressive that my kumdo master has cut through 6 bamboo shafts with one stroke (there is a picture at the school of him performing this task). I don't think the opportunity comes up very often to dismember a 6 limbed opponent but I'm sure it's nice to know that you can.

Sword Fighting and the Competetive Spirit

2005-03-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I felt like I needed a change, something new to do with my time. My wife suggested kumdo (Korean sword fighting/martial art). I've always wanted to take up kumdo but I thought my lack of Korean would be a problem...but the next day we went to a local kumdo school and signed me up for a month. Now I go to practice every weekday at 11:00 and it's a lot of fun and good exercise. Kumdo is a lot like the Japanese sport, kendo, although in my school we don't fight each other but just practice stances, strikes and movement.

It seems that I've been learning pretty well the last 2 weeks as I'm the only student in my class so I get a lot of attention. The instructor's English is just good enough that he can teach me the basics. This week he told me that I have to come next weekend for a test to get my yellow belt...the first step of many towards a black belt. I'm quite nervous about it as there will be many students there, mostly children, who will watch. There will be 3 kumdo instructors evaluating my performance as well. It's not just the fact that I will be tested in front of an audience but also how different I will be compared to other students and I'm sure I will get a lot of stares and snickers because I'll be the only big, hairy white man in a group of 20 little Korean kids, each of us waiting for our turn to be tested. As I am taking my first test, I will be behind almost all of the children in my training. My instructor says it takes about a year of daily practice to attain the level of blackbelt in kumdo.

I have lost 6 kg in 2.5 months by going to the gym as well as going to kumdo. My instructor keeps telling me though to lose weight. It's understandable as he's my instructor but I also hear that at least once per week from my students or just any odd stranger I happen to meet. Sometimes it gets on my nerves as in Canada it's not something you usually talk about but my students here seem to have no problem with saying "Teacha, you fat. Dietuh." I'm not sure what to think about it as there are definitely more overweight people in Canada per capita than in Korea which is not good, but usually people are polite about the subject. In Korea, most people are quite thin (although weight is quickly becoming a problem in the younger generation) but if one of my students is just a little bigger than average, the other students will call him/her terrible names.

Yesterday I asked one class, "Who is your social science teacher?" One of the girls said, "The fat man". I couldn't think of a fat teacher in the school...but then I thought it must be the short, stocky teacher. He's got a little bit of a gut but he's not fat. Sometimes I think it's because of the language barrier that students use the word "fat" when they really mean "stocky" or another word but it does seem that when they use the word "fat" there is a certain tone they use...the tone of someone who looks down on another. I see this attitude often from my students in different ways too such as in academics. If one student isn't as quick as the others, they let him/her know. There seems to be a competetive quality to Koreans that causes them to constantly compare themselves to others. Students are taught from an early age that their grades are very important and they compete with each other through school and then university and then for jobs. Maybe this competitive attitude helps them in school or business (many of my middle school students alread know what career they want to pursue, while I still don't) but sometimes I wish my students could turn it off their desire to get an edge or one-up their classmates (and teachers) and just be children who are happy with who they are.

China

2005-02-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to Beijing to sightsee and visit my wife's sister. We stayed at my sister-in-law's place and made day trips around Beijing, which worked out great for us. Our trip was the perfect mix of sightseeing and relaxation.

Bathroom Attendants
One of the first things I noticed in China was the presence of bathroom attendants in some washrooms. At the airport I washed my hands and didn't see any hand dryers handy (they were around the corner, out of sight) but there was a uniformed man lingering around the washroom who offered me some tissue. I took it, thanked him, dryed my hands...and then he held his hand out for money. I was a bit shocked and tried to give him money but all I had were 100 RMB notes which are worth around $15. I apologized and walked out on him. I wasn't sure how to feel about this, whether guilty for not giving him money or manipulated because I he waited until after I used the tissue before holding his hand out. Then of course it would not be able to refuse since it had already been used.

Food
Every meal we ate surprised me because the food was so cheap but so good. The first meal was a bit more surprising as I didn't really know what I was pointing out to on the menu. My sister-in-law said it was fish but none of us really expected what was to come: fish gut soup. The only thing we tried was the fish egss while the rest looked pretty inedible (my sister-in-law later told me that it's not so bad). After this meal we were a little more careful in making our choices. The food wasn't as different from Chinese food in Canada as I'd expected. We ate sweet and sour pork several times, roast duck, shabu shabu (Mongolian barbecue...which is more like a soup than barbecue), noodles, dumplings and many other tasty dishes.

The roast duck was the only expensive meal we had (about $50 for 3 of us) but it was great and we ate it at one of the most famous duck restaurants in Beijing. They give you a card when you finish your meal telling you how many ducks they've served since 1864 which, if I understand correctly is over 1.15 billion ducks, which both amazed me and made me feel like I'd just taken part in some form of genocide by eating at this restaraunt.

Before coming to China I was aware that there are some strange things considered food there (such as wild cats and dogs) but I didn't realize there was even food there disgusting enough to gross my wife out. We walked through a "traditional snack market" in Beijing and saw sparrows on sticks, sheep testicles on sticks, snakes on sticks, rotten tofu on sticks, cicadas on sticks, cicada larvae on sticks, grasshoppers on sticks and scorpions on sticks.

Sightseeing
In and around Beijing we were able to see The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiannemen Square, The Temple of Heaven, The Underground Palace (actually one of 13 king's tombs), some wax museum and Empress's Summer Palace. All were impressive except for the wax museum. The most impressive by far was the great wall. The sheer enormity of the wall seems impossible. We climbed up to the top of a nearby mountain on the great wall 3 days ago and my legs are still sore. The stairs are very steep in places, hard to climb and it's hard to believe that someone could even build on such an incline. One thing that surprised me was that the first section we visited wasn't connected to another section we could see in the distance. I thought it was one long wall but where we visited it was a big circle around a valley.

Fireworks
We were in China during Chinese New Years so a lot of fireworks were being set off the whole time we were there. On New Years Eve we didn't think much about it and were going to bed as we were going to get up early to go sightseeing. About 10 minutes to midnight there was a rumbling in the distance that was slowly getting louder and louder. After a few minutes we saw fireworks outside so we all got up and watched out the window. That's when I realized that this rumbling was fireworks being set off all over the city, reaching its crescendo about 2 minutes to midnight and lasting until 12:30. People were setting off fireworks all over the city which we could see going on in all four directions. It sounded like a war zone all around us. There were a few guys setting off fireworks in the parking lot outside the apartment so we went out for a few minutes to watch them but it was too cold to stay long.

Weather
I wore long underwear, a scarf, gloves and a toque every day. It was quite a bit colder than Korea and we were never able to stay outside for more than a couple hours at a time. We spent most of our time in the evenings under electric blankets.

Family
This was only the second time I've been able to meet my sister-in-law and the first time since she became my sister-in-law. Although she speaks Korean and Chinese, while I speak English and a bit of Korean, we got along and communicated fairly well. My wife translated for us when needed. We had a lot of fun all together and wished that our time could have been longer.

Christmas and beyond

2005-01-16T05:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a little lonely without my family but we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner with a couple of other English teachers. It was the typical Korean version of Italian food but I was pleasantly surprised by the green tea fetuccini alfredo. We finished off the evening at the movie theatre. Unfortunately everyone in Jeonju had the same idea so the only choices we had for movies were Japanese animations. We went anyway but I understood nothing. My wife had subtitles but she said she didn't understand it either...I think it was called Flying Castle or something. We invited 11 English teachers to our house for New Years but only 2 showed up. Of course I didn't ask many of them until the day before so many had plans already. We had a good time though and the two that did come expressed an interest in getting together more often.

January has been hectic. Our schedule has changed to mornings but our workloads have increased. My employer has hired my wife to teach English and in her first week she had a 45 hour week. She's glad to have the work but she really only teaches for 31 hours. For some reason I don't yet understand, the foreign English teachers are allowed to go home when they are finished their classes but all Korean teachers must stay at school for the full 9 hours that the school runs. This means that my wife sits around for 2 hours at the end of each day trying to look busy. My schedule is not as bad. I have 27 hours of teaching and I'm at the school for 37 hours.

With the extra time I have I've been going to the gym to exercise. Fortunately we have a gym across the street from our apartment and it's only 100,000 won for 5 months which works out to around $20 CDN per month. The last time I went to a gym in Korea I paid 100,000 won for 3 months and the gym was above a sauna so it was always roasting hot and it was far too crowded. This gym is cool and there's not a lot of people there.

We're trying to get some friends addicted to Settlers of Catan. It's getting boring playing with 2 people...of course according to the rules you're not supposed to but when you're desperate you have to make do. So we played last night with the other foreign English teacher and she seemed to enjoy playing. The last time I was in Korea we played games every Friday night with a bunch of English teachers. It was so much fun that we'd like to do it again so we're thinking about hosting a game night every week or two and invite teachers from our school.

We're planning on a trip to China for February to visit my wife's sister. My wife and her sister were just talking on the phone about the trip and it sounds like we're going to visit The Great Wall, some huge castle and travel by train to a far away city for an ice festival. It's not guaranteed yet but it sounds like it's likely to happen. With both of us working at the same school and both of us teaching the same subject, the likelihood of us getting another holiday together at the same time is low.

Almost Christmas

2004-12-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

Until this week the weather has been so warm that I haven't needed much more than a sweater while riding my bike to school. This week has turned cold and I've had to pull out all of my ski gear just to ride my bike, although there is still no snow yet for Christmas

For Christmas we are planning to go out for Italian food with some of the English teachers from my school. It's will be nothing like Christmas dinner at home but turkey is hard to find here and, well we wouldn't know what to do with a turkey anyway. The food will be different but at least we will be able to spend the day with friends. This will be only the second time in my life that I have not been with my family at Christmas, the other being a Christmas in Japan but even there I had good friends and turkey dinner.

We were very happy to receive a package from Canada this week. We can hardly wait to open it...ok well we have opened it but are waiting for Christmas to open the individual gifts.

We visited my wife's extended family last weekend. For me it was the first time meeting them so I was quite worried about it. I was welcomed with warmth and even some English that they memorized before I came. It was very touching when my wife's grandfather, who is in poor health but improving, took my hand and said, "How are you?" He had asked his daughter how to say it in English before we arrived. He is 88 years old and very conservative so we were worried about his reaction to his granddaugher marrying a foreigner. His welcoming was warmer than I expected and the rest of the family welcomed me also. We were very happy with how the weekend went and their reaction to me.

Fukuoka

2004-11-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

My trip to Fukuoka was quite unexciting which I was grateful for. I was having visions of being stuck in Japan as visa runs are technically illegal even though people do them all the time. I had a nervous moment when the immigration officer looked through my passport several times unable to find what she was looking for but after that everything went smoothly.

Unfortunately I didn't take in as much of the Cultural experience as I should have. Across the road from the Korean Consulate is a Hard Rock Cafe. I had never been to one before so I went there for lunch which was great although not very Japanese. When I was at the Korean Consulate, I saw an advertisement for a hotel that sounded reasonable so after a bit of shopping I hopped on the subway and found the hotel. Unfortunately the hotel was undergoing major renovations so I had to find somewhere else to stay. I walked around the Tenjin district of Fukuoka for 2 hours and checked 7 hotels (all full) before finally getting a room at the 8th hotel. At first the front desk agent told me that they were full, but after I inquired about where to find a hotel that wasn't full, she told me that they did have a double if I was willing to pay more money. For 9450 Yen (around $100 CDN) I took the double room although I was disappointed to find out the room was the same size as most Korean Yeogwans (which can usually be rented for about 1/3 the price). Fortunately my employer gave me money for the trip so it didn't cost me anything but after paying for the room I only had 2000 Yen left (about $20). This little bit of money had to get me to the consulate, some food and to the airport.

When I came to Japan I was looking forward to eating some Japanese food but after the expensive hotel I was looking forward to the cheapest meal possible. I walked by MacDonald's even though I saw they had a meal deal for 397 Yen. Now this was a good deal, but who wants to eat a burger at 10:30 AM? The policy (in at least some MacDonald's) of not serving breakfast after 10AM is something that I hate about MacDonald's and I have walked out of MacDonald's twice before because of this policy. With only $20 in my pocket however, my highest priority was cheap food so I squelched my scruples and ordered the burger.

I spent the most of the rest of the second day walking around Fukuoka taking pictures of shrines and walking through a park with a huge pond/small lake in the middle. It was very interesting to see all the wildlife that was in this green space in the middle of the city of Fukuoka. There were seagulls, cormorants, kingfishers, ducks, hawks (also the name of the city's baseball team) and lots of large colorful fish.

On my way around the lake I came across a man who was feeding the pigeons and gulls. He had pigeons on his arms, shoulders and head as well as on the ground and flying around him. A few even found the bag of food in the basket on the front of his bicycle and hopped inside. In the middle of this fury of birds the man spoke softly to them and occasionally shooed the pigeons out of his basket to reach for another handful of food. One of the pigeons in the basket felt quite territorial about the bounty of food at its feet and it took the man several gentle shoos to get it to leave.

Another man across the lake was throwing food up to a dozen hawks that were circling above him. The hawks rarely missed the flying food and occasionally chased away the curious gull that came too close.

There was a building called The Budokan at the edge of the lake. I remember playing a computer game called Budokan many years ago. In this game there were many different fighters, each with their own style of martial arts and weapons who would fight each other. With this in my mind I walked to The Budokan and peeked in the courtyard. Unfortunately it didn’t seem very inviting for tourists as there was no writing of any kind on the gate. I walked inside, unsure if I was allowed in. I found a gated courtyard to my left where a man was practicing archery. He was very slow and deliberate with every action, slowly drawing the bow back, waiting for several seconds before releasing the arrow. I watched him shoot several arrows. I was mesmerized by the sheer focus of his whole being, his actions slow and reverent as if it were a spiritual act. Behind this man there were women who appeared to be practicing synchronized bowing although they didn’t seem to be very good at it.

After a few more hours of wandering around Fukuoka I took the subway to the airport and flew back to Korea. By the time I got back to Korea I had 25 Yen left which is worth about one shiny quarter.

Visa Run, Puppies and Phones

2004-11-14T03:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for a long time as not much exciting has happened in the last month. A few somewhat notable events have taken place, maybe even enough to write a few sentences about. My workload has slowly been going down from 29 teaching hours to 24 but in my contract as long as I don't work over 30 my pay must stay the same. I have some visa problems so I have to make a "visa run" to Japan for 2 days. I have to visit a Korean consulate in Japan to renew my visa and then return to Korea. This will likely happen next week.

My wife and I went to Naejangsan Mountain to see the beautiful fall leaves a couple weeks ago. It was one of my favorite experiences the first time I was in Korea so I really wanted to go again. It was beautiful but a little too foggy to get a good view of the valley.

We've started our Christmas shopping, hoping to get everything sent off in time for Christmas. While we were shopping we looked in a few pet stores as we've been talking a lot about getting a cat. Unfortunately cats are not very popular as pets in Korea so we've been having difficulty finding one. While shopping however we saw the cutest Siberian Husky puppy and almost took him home...well we still might. She was so quiet compared to the rest of the puppies in the shop and had one ear that was bent forward. Until we saw her, we were only interested in getting a cat but now our wills are wavering. We saw that the local grocery store only carries dog food so getting cat supplies might be more of a hassle than we had hoped. I think if it's not too much difficulty taking a dog back to Canada, then we just might have a puppy soon.

My wife's grandfather is not doing very well so the family is visiting him now and he will be going to Seoul next week. My wife will be visiting him tomorrow.

After paying for 2 cell phones the past couple months, we've decided to disconnect our cell phones after we get an apartment phone set up. We just bought a new phone today so we're hoping to get it in this week. Finding a regular phone is a lot more difficult than I thought. From our apartment I can think of almost 10 cell phone stores within a 10 minute walk but only one store with regular phones.

Jeonju Traditional Village Tour

2004-10-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

After writing this journal entry the first time, I tried to post it on this site but my erratic Internet service was temporarily “unavailable” thus, everything was lost. Here goes my second attempt.

Last weekend my wife and I went on a tour of the traditional Korean village in Jeonju with around 100 international students from the university. I was happy to see that many of the Chinese students in my Korean language class were there so at least I knew a few people.

First we went to the palace grounds…from what information I gathered it was the location of the provincial government in the 1500s. There wasn’t much to see there so we were quickly taken to the traditional wine making shop. On the way there a reporter/photographer from the university newspaper picked my wife and I and another couple out of the crowd as he wanted some people to photograph in the traditional village. He took us to a traditional paper maker who was very patient with the photographer as we all huddled around him posing for a picture. I should correct that and say that we all were very patient with him. He told us to look surprised for the picture. Although paper making is interesting, there’s nothing surprising about it. Unfortunately the photographer wasn’t happy with our faces in the first 5 or so pictures so he made us pose again (and look more surprised this time) and he took another half dozen pictures. The paper maker meanwhile ruined one of his sheets of paper while putting up with us and the rest of us were falling further behind the tour group. Finally the photographer was happy with the pictures and let us go. On Monday one of my classmates in my Korean class gave me a copy of the newspaper. I was the only one in the group who actually had a surprised look on my face. A few of my classmates had a good laugh at me. I wanted to explain to them about the persistent, pose happy photographer but my classmates are Chinese so they didn’t understand me fully. I just hope everyone who reads the university newspaper doesn’t think that Canadians find paper making as shocking as my facial expression suggests.

After that annoying episode we went to learn about traditional wine making. I think we missed some explanations of the wine making process as by the time we got there it was already wine sampling time. They had 2 different kinds, both made from rice – one which was milky and tasted grainy, the other which was stronger and clear. From what I understood from the woman who ladled out the wine the milky wine is from the bottom of the barrel and the clear is from the top. Neither was something I would be terribly interested in drinking. I think the Koreans also think it tastes bad as they gave us snacks which apparently make the wine taste better.

Most of our day was spent waiting for things to happen so we were thinking of leaving early (the whole tour was around 9 hours) but my wife wanted to participate in the traditional cloth dying part of the tour so we stayed for that. We dyed handkerchiefs orange (that’s the color of the mud they use to dye) which was a lot of fun. We took our handkerchiefs and put them in tubs of orange muddy water for about 5 minutes, then rinsed them off in the nearby river. My wife tied hers with 2 knots so when she rinsed off the mud and untied it, there were 2 white lines across it. Everyone was envious of her as the rest of us just had orange cloths but hers was different. About a dozen people came up to her later to ask her how she did it.

After the dying we were going to go home but they were serving dinner which was free so we thought we’d stick around for that too. Unfortunately we had to wait for an hour before the time of our reservations. I was disappointed to find out that dinner was raw crab (although my wife loves it). There were so many side dishes that I was able to fill up on other stuff but I noticed that most of the international students weren’t keen on the crab either so I didn’t feel so bad.

After another period of waiting we watched several university students play traditional instruments and sing traditional songs. The last performance was 15 minutes long which I thought was long enough but traditionally the song (which tells a long story) is 6 hours long. We ended up staying until the end of the tour, ate some cooked but cold sweet potatoes (a traditional treat) and packed into the bus to go home. I’m not sure if I’d go on that tour again but it was interesting to do once.

On to another topic, I’ve been really keen on learning Korean lately. I feel like I’m beginning to understand Korean conversations more and it’s exciting to think that I could actually hold a conversation sometime. Unfortunately the more I learn the more I realize how complex it really is.

My wife is busy studying for her mid-term exams now so I’ve been pretty bored most of the weekend while she studies. There’s not a lot I can do in a studio apartment that doesn’t get in her way or make noise so I’ve spent a good chunk of time in the PC bang (Internet café) in our building.

Chusok Travels

2004-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

Pusan
Still unsure of where to go, my wife and I took a bus to Pusan on Saturday and then hopped on the subway to the Jagalchi Fish Market area. We stayed at the same motel I stayed in 2 years ago which was cheap, clean and in a good area of the city. After taking our room we went out for Japanese food (sushi and tempura) then walked around the Pusan Film Festival area before crashing for the night. There was no film festival at this time but it's always busy with food vendors and merchants of various goods.

The next day we went to the Jagalchi Fish Market where there are hundreds of booths selling all kinds of fish and other treasures of the sea. During my last visit to Pusan I saw several vendors/cooks (they often sell fresh fish in the front of their stall and have a table set up in the back for those who are already hungry) with a plate or bowl at the front of their stalls. In this container there would be several long, pink fish squirming with organs hanging out as if they had just been skinned alive. I told my wife about this but we were unable to find this strange sight on this visit and she was hinting that she didn't believe me. Finally, near the end of the row of stalls, there was a vendor with exactly what we had been looking for. When I showed her, she was as disgusted as I was. She told me that they were in fact eels that had been skinned alive and she guessed that this showed potential customers just how fresh their upcoming meal would be.

Tired of the smell of fish we went to Starbuck's for a couple frapuccino's and then to the ferry terminal to go to Geojedo (the second largest island in Korea). When we bought tickets, we had to write our names and passport numbers/ID numbers on the tickets...but unfortunately since I had figured we were travelling within the country I didn't bring my passport. After my wife told the official that I was her husband and that I worked in Korea, etc. he finally let me on the boat but warned me that I could be fined a million won (around $1000 CDN) if someone catches me. This was the beginning of my paranoia of the police, which would last for the rest of our trip. The only reason I could think of for this need for a passport on a domestic trip was so that they could identify who went down with the ship in the case of a mishap...not exactly a comforting thought either, especially with another typhoon on its way toward Japan.

Geojedo
When we arrived in Geojedo there were 2 policemen with metal detector wands (like they have at the airport) waiting for me...at least that's what I thought. There was another caucasian guy on the boat so I watched him get off...if they took him aside, then I might have to think of another way off the boat. They, however just watched him and everyone else pass. I took my chance and walked out with the last group...unmolested. Unfortunately my wife was not feeling well after the 1.5 hour boat ride so she was sitting on the dock by the boat after everyone else had moved onto dry land. There was just us and the policemen. I encouraged her to move off of the dock as it was still moving with the sea (and I was still sure the policemen were there for me). We went into the terminal where the tourist information office had just closed so we had no idea of where we were or where to go so after my wife recuperated from the journey we wandered around for a while trying to find a map. While passing the police station, my wife thought they might have some maps. I was hesitant to go in, but they had no reason to suspect me so I went in with her. In the office were about 10 bored looking police officers. The man behind the desk was dealing with an older caucasian man who was talking to someone on his cell phone saying "my documents are not with my now, but I left them in your car". Nine bored police officers were looking at me. It took all my energy to look natural, like someone who had his documents with him...and not run out of that office. One of the bored policemen was talking to my wife and the whole process of getting a map was taking too long. After several minutes, the police officer took us outside and was obviously pointing out directions for my wife. She told me later that they did have maps a few weeks ago but they had already given them all out. I was able to breathe normally again once we were out of sight from the police station. Finally we got a map from the wall of the supermarket, which was taken off and given to us by one of the employees.

We took a bus to Koojora Beach where an ajumma (an older woman) told us to continue on the beach road if we want to find a hotel. We did as she told us and found ourselves on a hill overlooking a beautiful sandy beach that had fishermen lined up as far as we could see in the dark, with long fishing rods and glowing red bobbers on their lines. We were very excited at this unexpected even so we sat down and watched one fisherman pull two long silvery fish out of the ocean within the next half hour. Looking back on our trip, this was one of our favorite times...we just relaxed and watched the fishing for a while, then strolled along the beach.

The next day we booked a seat on a boat going to Oedo (Fantasy Island). We wanted to take the package deal that also went to Haegumgang (a steep row of rocks that juts out of the sea) however the coming typhoon was making the sea too dangerous to make the trip to Haegumgang. Oedo is an island garden created by a rich guy in 1995 containing many species of plants from around the world. It was a nice place to visit but cost us too much money and the classical music playing from speakers in the trees took something away from the natural surroundings.

Before going to Oedo, while we waited for our ship to come in after booking our tickets, we went to the beach again for a barefoot stroll. Once again there were a few fisherment around but in the day they didn't seem to catch much that looked tasty - some bottom feeders and baby puffer fish. A few guys were casting nets out into the water which was interesting to watch but after a while we got bored of watching them untangle their nets and pull garbage out of them. The bottom feeder fish had spikes on their backs so it was interesting to watch different fisherment's techniques at avoiding the spikes while unhooking or untangling their catch...some wore gloves, others took their chances.

Pebble Beach
We took a bus as far as we could down the coast to Pebble Beach (that's what the Korean name means). We were hoping to make our way to Haegumgang but after 2 hours of waiting for a bus heading in that direction or even a taxi, we figured we better just take the next bus out of there...so we were off to Tongyeong on the next bus.

Tongyeong
Unfortunately the next day was the day everyone celebrates Chusok, so we took a cab downtown and found it to be dead. We found a kimbap (rice rolled in seaweed) shop and ordered lunch, however the kimbap in Tongyeong is unique and what we received was unexpected. Usually kimbap is rice rolled in seaweed with egg, ham, pollock, and veggies inside. Tongyeong kimbap is just rice and seaweed with some kimchi as a side dish...not exactly exciting. This was also the only dish that the restaraunt served. Unfortunately it seemed like the restaraunt owner and his wife were not on speaking terms and a heavy air hung over our tasteless meal. (I supposed that his wife wanted to celebrate Chusok like everyone else rather than work).

After lunch we wanted something tasty so we stopped at a Mini Stop (even open on Chusok) and bought some ice cream. We then hiked up to Yi Sun Shin's statue. He was the general who fought off the Japanese in 1596 (I think that's the year) using the famous Korean turtle battle ships. The statue was smaller than we expected but the view from the top of the mountain of Goejedo and Tongyeong was nice.

Unfortunately it started to rain when we were on the mountain so we took a taxi to the Mireukdo Tourism Area. We were told it was a good place to go but it's basically a marina and a fancy hotel so that was quite disappointing. We did find a "sports centre" in the area so we went bowling, played ping pong and some arcade games before leaving for Jinju later that day.

Jinju
The plan was to catch a bus onward to Gwangju or Jeonju (our final destination) but we arrived in Jinju at 7:30 and the last buses for our destinations were gone by 6:30. Resigned to stay in Jinju for the night, we took a cab to the Jinju fortress. The cab driver tried to get us interesed in some night clubs and seedy hotels but we insisted on going to the fortress. We wanted to visit the fortress the next day so we planned to get a place close to their so we could just walk there the next day. As we got close to the fortress we saw many huge lanterns floating in the river that runs through Jinju. Apparently we caught the first day of the Jinju Lantern Festival. By chance we had a chance to catch the festival with hundreds of hand made lanterns (and hundreds of patterns such as kimbap, skulls, cartoon characters, milk cartons, ships, people and whatever else struck the imagination of the people of Jinju) and at just the right time, in the evening. I won a stuffed bear at a carnival game for my wife...a pink ugly bear that just reminded me of my failure to get a stuffed Snoopy. She liked it though so we kept it...for a while.

The next day we went to the fortress and looked around. The fortress at Jinju was defended with 3800 Korean soldiers against 20,000 Japanese soldiers in 1592. Six months later the Japanese returned with 90,000 soldiers and slaughtered all the soldiers and civilians which together totalled around 70,000 people. After the defeat a Japanese commander was being entertained by a Korean professional entertainer (a cultured prostitute?) when she lured him close to the river's edge and hugging him, fell into the river. Both the woman and the commander drowned. Now the most notable figure and hero of Jinju is a prostitute. Her image was on hundreds of lanterns at the festival and a 20 foot high version of her bobbed up and down in the middle of the river. We even got to see the very rock the two fell off of to their deaths, named "Righteous Rock". As one writeup at the fortress stated, without the help of a prostitute, the rock would never have become righteous.

We also visited the museum in the fortress, which explained in more detail the events surrounding the Jinju fortress. Unfortunately most of the explanations are in Korean so we went through it pretty fast. When we finished walking through the museum, my wife went to the washroom. Meanwhile, the museum employees were looking at me while I was putting my camera back in my bag. Feeling a little paranoid yet again, I quickly got our stuff together and couldn't wait for my wife to get back. When she returned, they told her how cute they think her pink bear is. They were very taken with her bear so she gave it to them (I told her it was ok as I didn't like it anyway). It was a nice feeling to give someone something they really wanted...especially when it's something I don't want anyway!

We thought we better get to the bus terminal before 6:00 so we could catch a bus home. Of course the day after Chusok the bus terminal had lineups out the front doors. After we realized that we were at the wrong bus terminal, a taxi driver told us that all buses were sold out but he could take us home for the special price of 150,000 Won...about 150 dollars Canadian. My wife gave him a disgusted sound and waved him off with her hand. We took another taxi to the other terminal where we caught a bus (no problem, not even close to full).

Jeonju
When we got back to Jeonju, we ate dinner and took a taxi home...when we paid the taxi driver I had 1000 won left in my wallet...about $1.

Settling in before Chusok

2004-09-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

With the first 3 weeks of school finished, we have a long 5 day thanksgiving type holiday called Chusok starting tomorrow. We still haven't figured out where we're going to go yet and it's Friday night already. Everyone in the country it seems travels on this holiday to visit their parents and grandparents so it's a very busy time to travel, but the only chance we'll get until Christmas. We're considering Pusan (a large port city with a huge seafood market), Gyeongju (capital of the one of the most famous empires in Korea's history) and Oedo ("Paradise Island"). We were very excited about the idea of Oedo until I read the information in the Lonely Planet guide book where we learned that the island is man-made, crowded and expensive. During Chusok it's likely to be even more so. However the other islands around the area of Oedo sound interesting enough to go to.

I've really enjoyed teaching recently as I have several middle school classes who speak English well enough for conversations and they understand my jokes. When I taught in Gunsan in 2002/03 all of the students were given English names so within a couple weeks, I knew most of the students names. 3 weeks into this experience, I know maybe 10% of my student's names. I'm trying to learn their Korean names but it's difficult. The students often correct my pronunciation of their names and every name is strange to me so they're difficult to remember.

Korean classes are getting better as we finished the alphabet after 2.5 weeks so now we learn useful phrases every day. I met another English teacher in my class. He's from the U.S. and is also married to a Korean. We talk every day before and after class. It's nice to have somebody to talk to who I don't have to speak simply and slowly to.

I've been a bit paranoid about mentioning names in my entries so far. I want to make them more personal but I feel a bit nervous about it after a situation that occurred over the summer. I posted an entry on a web site asking a question about a certain school. 2 weeks later my wife called me and told me that the owner of the school called her and yelled at her...apparently a teacher read my entry, told a recruiter that he wasn't interested in the school, the recruiter told the employer, the employer called my wife, and my wife called me. We sorted everything out in the end (I removed the name of the school from the entry) but there was nothing connecting me to the entry as it was anonymous...except that I had been in negotiations with the school. So it creeped me out how easily I was tracked down and unfortunately my wife was pulled into the situation too.

So anyway I'm hoping to get a little more personal with my entries but it's difficult. I feel if I do, then I can't accurately report certain events without getting in trouble. However if I don't get more personal then my writing won't have the warmth that it should have, given that I'm writing mostly to my family and friends. I'll figure it out sometime.

We found a shop fairly close to our apartment that sells western food so we're chowing down on nachos and cheese with salsa at the moment. Sooo good. Cheese is one of the foods I miss most and now I can have it often, especially now that I have something to eat it with! I was excited to find Oreos (and cheap!) but they're not quite the same...a little more soggy than at home. Also: Pringles, M&Ms (no Smarties), Snickers, Skittles, Hershey's Kisses and all kinds of Kellogg's and Post cereals. Sometimes I crave a good steak or pasta but they're not too hard to find if I'm willing to go downtown and pay a little more money (well, probably the same price as in Canada but if I order a Korean dish, it's about half as much so it just seems more expensive.

First Days of School

2004-09-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

With my first week of classes finished and a new one begun I feel good about my job so far. My employer has been very accommodating to our needs (he bought me a bicycle this week so I can get around faster) and the other teachers are very nice, many of who speak English. Still, every day I go to school I feel very nervous, as if expecting all hell to break loose or the students to all come to the realization that I'm not a real teacher but a fraud. However as soon as class starts, my worries disappear and I have a great time. Basically my job is to make the students speak and if I can make that happen, I'm successful. Unfortunately there are some classes where nobody wants to speak and those classes are the most difficult.

I have 2 classes that are particularly interesting as the students want to get into a prestigious high school which has difficult tests and interviews which must be passed for entrance into the school. I have 2 months to teach about 20 students to speak English. There are a few students in the classes who I think can make it but most of the students have never been in an English academy before. They all take English in middle school of course but in large classes, the opportunities to speak are limited. Before I started teaching my boss emphasized the importance of these classes and I felt a lot of pressure to help these kids succeed. (He asked me how long it would take to get them prepared - I would have said 6 months but, feeling they didn't have that long, I diverted the topic slightly. Later I asked a teacher and she told me that they must take the interview in 2 months). In my opinion, these students should have been going to an English academy for at least a year before the interview, instead of cramming with 2 months to go. However at least they will get some speaking in and those classes have been my most enjoyable so far.

This past weekend we went to see me and my wife's former employers in Gunsan. They invited us for supper but then said they would take us out. We waited for an hour and a half at E-Mart which luckily has a lot of shopping and a Baskin Robbins inside before they picked us up. The last time we saw them, my wife and I were secretly dating while both working at their school so they didn't even know about us until a few months ago...until after we were married...so our meeting was a little awkward at first but then we talked for a few hours over Chinese food and had a great time. They also want their daughter to attend a prestigious high school so when they heard I was teaching these interview classes, they had me ask her some questions, which she did very well at...but then she's been going to an English academy that her parents own for a few years so I wasn't surprised.

Every day I work, I eat supper at the school and every day it's kimchi and rice. At first I thought it would be very boring but every day there are 3 different kinds of kimchi and every day they are different (only the cabbage kimchi have I seen twice in one week). There has been kimchi made with radishes, cucumber, sprouts, tiny fish, peppers, ham, cabbage and others I can't remember right now. One of the student's mothers prepares the kimchi for our school and every day it's great.

My Korean classes are going well, although we are going through the alphabet right now at a snail's pace. I'm pretty good with the alphabet so I can't wait to get onto the next part. Over half of the students in my class are Chinese and many of the sounds we are learning in the alphabet are not used in Chinese so it can take half a class to get each student to say one letter correctly. It's slow but fun as I get to meet new people. I've exchanged email addresses with an American who is also married to a Korean so it's nice to have someone in the same shoes as me, being a foreigner in Korea married to a Korean.

Exploring

2004-09-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been mostly spent exploring our new surroundings. I was excited to find a PC room on the second floor of our apartment building, a fitness club in the next building and an Imsil Pizza place (good pizza, even with the corn niblets) about a block away. We found an E-Mart (huge department store) about a half hour walk away from our place last night, which is where we'll likely do any major shopping. I was excited to find that they have some brown bread so we bought a toaster there last night. We didn't get a few things on our shopping list after we found out prices....eg. fork, knife and spoon for ~$5 and a tin of coffee for ~$20. Unfortunately we forgot to look for baking soda to put in our fridge. When we open our fridge the whole apartment fills with the smell of kimchi.

On Friday we met my employer, which went well, then on Saturday we bought teaching materials for my classes. I am teaching at a new school so for now, I don't have a lot of classes but they are spread out through the week and some days I have long breaks between classes. The school is brand new and looks great. I was told by the head teacher that the school was designed by the owner...it is very bright with lots of windows and wood trim. The atmosphere is great, I get my own desk and there will be rice and kimchi for me at work so I don't have to leave for dinner.

For now my schedule goes from around 3 PM to 10 PM but since next week will be the first week, I expect that could change. I'm nervous about starting on Monday as the employer has made it known several times that he has high expectations. I'm sure everything will work out but for now I feel like I'm under a microscope.

Visa Hassle and First Day

2004-09-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

I arrived in South Korea 2 days ago anxious to see my wife who I haven't seen in almost 3 months although it wasn't until an hour before we landed that I allowed myself to get excited. I had spent all of Monday running around Vancouver trying to get my work visa issued in 1 day (which they don't normally do) as I had to leave on Tuesday. I started the day by going to the wrong FedEx location to pick up my visa document at 9:00 AM. I picked up my documents at the right location at 9:30 and headed to the consulate. Once there I was told I could not get my visa done in a day...well maybe if I showed them my plane ticket they could make an exception. Since my ticket was an e-ticket, I didn't have my ticket with me...so back to the airport I went (the same airport I flew into at 7:45 that morning) and got my ticket. I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning so I was feeling quite tired by this time. I fell asleep in the back of the cab for several minutes on the way back to the airport. When I awoke, the cabbie was looking at me through the mirror in a strange way...I think I was snoring with my head tilted back, mouth wide open. Finally I returned to the consulate at 11:30. The clerk there gave me a phone number to call later in the day to see if my visa would be ready for me to pick up. By this time I had spent well over $100 on 6 cab rides so I spent the next 5 hours in Vancouver kicking around waiting to pick up my visa, which thankfully did get processed.

So I finally landed in Incheon Int. Airport and waited for a long time at immigration. Some guy who spent 20 minutes yelling at one of the stewards on the plane spend another 20 minutes to get through the immigration man and he happened to be in the same lineup as me. Finally through, I came out into the waiting area and saw my beautiful wife for the first time in almost 3 months. This was the happiest moment for me since...probably our wedding 3 months ago. Her mother was there with her and I gave her a hug too, although it was a bit strange as the last time I met her mother my wife and I were just co-workers without a hint of romance in sight.

The bus ride to Jeonju was about 4 hours and my father-in-law picked us up at the bus station. I had never met him before. He taller than I expected and more handsome and charming than I pictured in my mind. He brought me pink flowers and a vase, which seemed a little strange but at least it was a positive response (I had had scenarios running through my head as to what I should do if he brought a shotgun instead of flowers). We all then went out for dinner, ate some kalbi (BBQ pork ribs) and told each other how happy we are with my wife translating between the in-laws and myself.

Later we went to the apartment to which the in-laws brought 4 bags of groceries containing water, milk, orange and grape juices, several kinds of kimchi, pork, peaches, plums, grapes, bananas, apples and rice. My mother-in-law said that she was very worried about us and that she wishes that she lived closer so she could take care of us. Then the next day they came again while my wife was at school, proceeded to clean up the apartment, do laundry, prepare and freeze meals for the next week and make lunch for us. My mother-in-law is a great cook and she made bulgogi (spicy pork) and japchae (noodles made with sweet potato I believe mixed with vegetables and chicken....maybe pork). With about 5 side dishes of kimchi of course too.

While my mother-in-law was cleaning up, I was not sure if I should help her or not. I felt torn as she cleaned and brought us fruit while we watched a documentary on soybeans. Finally she said that she was ready to go and that I should hang up the laundry when it is finished. I agreed, finally feeling like there was something constructive I could do...but then while she was taking off her apron, my father-in-law said "washing no... you no touch...my daughter do". I smiled and said "ok" even though I planned to do it since my wife wouldn't be returning for another 3 hours. I cracked a smile, almost burst out laughing because it seemed so absurd. I had a whole day off while my wife was at school so I figured the least I could do would be to hang up laundry. Before he left, he said once more, "No touchie".

Yesterday morning we were woken up by loud banging noises at 7:00 AM. There is new construction in the lot next to us so I expect I won't be getting up late on weekdays (even though I don't work until 2:00 PM) for the next few months. Of course we also have something of a beer garden right below our apartment so it's likely that Friday and Saturday nights will be noisy too. The nice part about being in this area on the other hand is that we have many shops close by. The last time I was in Korea, there were only a handful of shops close to my apartment (and most closed before 9 PM, the time I finished work) but there were many businesses open even at 10:30 last night when we went for a walk. We even passed by the school I'm going to work at, which is only about a 15 minute walk from the apartment. I will go to the school for the first time tonight and find out what to expect as I start work on Monday.