Birthday Weekend

a quick update first: last weekend we went to the DMZ and JSA, stepped into north korea, toured the third tunnel, and had a slightly awe-inspiring time.  the signs warning of land mines everywhere were pretty sobering.  it's a spooky place, but the dozens of bird species that have made the undeveloped land home help liven it up a little bit.

now on to the good news:

monday is my birthday, and conveniently enough our private school has monday and tuesday off, so we get a four day birthday vacation.  we wanted to go somewhere in korea that was not a big city, that showed us a part of korea's history, and that had actual green growing things.  so to celebrate we are going to gyeongju.

gyeongju was the seat of the Silla dynasty, and home to dozens of kings' burial mounds, among other things. there is also a law that no tall buildings can be built here, and the city remains very small, so it is very easy to get around and there are supposed to be lots of parks and resting places -- though there is apparently very little shade and the sun can be intense, according to Juli-hee, our school manager.  there is also an incredible final resting place for king munmu: a small island off the coast is bisected by two perpendicular lines, at the crossing point of which is laid an enormous granite slab.  his remains lie underneath.  he stipulated that this be done upon his death so that he could become a dragon and protect Silla (the southern part of the korean peninula) from the Japanese.  he was pretty effective until last century.  perhaps after 1,300 years even a guardian dragon is allowed some time off.

to travel there we found a bus service that is free for all non-koreans (i wonder if they would let japanese travel for free as well?).  it was a lucky find, and we got return tickets absolutely free of charge.  we're staying in a hostel for three nights as well, in a private double room that may or may not have a bathroom, for a little under 120,000 won total.  so all in all, a pretty inexpensive long weekend away.

while in gyeongju i hope to tour the burial mounds, see king munmu's tomb, visit a nearby temple and take part in their sunday service and share food with the monks, walk along the beach, read a lot, write a little, and enjoy myself immensely. i hope you all enjoy my birthday as much as we will.

Back to Work

It's Tuesday, and we're back to the daily grind.  Yesterday was long, but not too bad.  We discovered we have a four day weekend in August which conveniently falls on my birthday, so that's something to look forward to. Initially we thought we had no more breaks until our contract ends, and the next 9 weeks were looking pretty dismal.

We've been back in Seoul for a little over 2 days now, and once again my eyes are red and I cannot wear my contacts.  Had no trouble with them the week in Hong Kong, so I know it is Seoul's air.  I like Seoul, and will miss it, but I certainly will not miss the air quality.  Give me pollen rich Tennessee anyday.

We have booked our flights for Japan the first two weeks of September, and then will be returning to the states for a month in which we will celebrate a birthday and a wedding. Then it's to Tobago for a month, and we just bought our tickets for that yesterday.  So things are looking up.

A final word on Hong Kong - our early impressions of it being a great city, a lovely place to spend time, were all correct.  We've decided we'd like to live and work there next.  So we'll see how it all pans out.  And now it's time to get ready for work.  Until next time, keep dreaming.

Hong Kong

Hello all,

Yes, we are in Hong Kong.  As I type this, it just started raining outside.  Which is not a good sign, as we had planned to go to Lantau Island today.  So we will see what comes of that.

On our first day we woke up after 3 hours of sleep to catch an airport limousine - and a good thing we left so early, too, because our terminal was quite far from check-in.  Like 40 minutes far.  But we made it, and eventually arrived in Hong Kong.  First impression: Hong Kong is not a well-planned city, at least not in the neighborhood we're lodging in, as it grew up in a time before such planning was high on the list of priorities.  But it is a very great city.  It's character is what I wish Seoul's were: quite convenient to English speaking tourists and mostly friendly; enough East to feel like you're not just in a big city, but that you're in a big Asian city, mixed with enough West so that you don't feel like a zoo animal on exhibit.  We don't get stared at here, and, aside from a Vietnamese restaurant last night, we're never treated with contempt or hostility or as though we are ignorant infants, as is so often the case in Seoul.  In short, I like Hong Kong.

Our first day we decided to take it easy, and just walked around our neighborhood. We are staying in the west part of town, across the street from the harbor.  It is a nice neighborhood, not as posh as the center, and lots of old Hong Kong character still.  Also a lot of shops selling shark fin. Literally, we saw dozens of shops in our short walk, selling hundreds of shark fins.  It's no surprise that Hong Kong residents consume half of the shark fins eaten in the world.

We had ox tongue and duck for lunch, then Indian food for dinner. 

Day two we rode the narrow, two story trams to Hong Kong park, where we took the funicular up to Victoria Peak.  The views are amazing, the ride was fun, and there are some good walks up on the peak.  Plus, you can see the homes of some billionaires up there.  You can also see a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant, which is odd, but occupies the highest floor of the peak tower with views over the entire city.  We bought some souvenirs up there, and a painting for ourselves.  After descending, we went back to Hong Kong Park, which is a great city park. It has a huge aviary, a conservatory, lakes, a waterfall, and a tai chi garden where early in the morning people gather to do tai chi.  We did not go early in the morning, unfortunately.  But it was still lovely, and ranks amongst my favorite downtown city parks in the world.  For dinner we ate at the aforementioned Vietnamese restaurant, where we were mostly ignored and did not feel welcome.  But that didn't faze us, as we've been living in Seoul for 9 months and have gotten used to such things.

There is one other thing I'd like to share.  When looking across the harbor from Hong Kong to Kowloon (technically it is part of the Hong Kong special administrative region, yet is on the mainland) you can see the city spreading out, backed by some impressive mountains.  Those mountain swirl with low-lying clouds, and frame an impressive natural border with China.  It is kind of mysterious, for someone who has never been to China, to see that wall of green mountains rising behind the city, and to think how close we are to the Middle Kingdom.  The wanderlust starts kicking in when you look at those mountains, and the traveler part of the brain starts releasing endorphins and adrenaline in that old familiar urge.  China calls.

Today, as mentioned above, we want to go to Lantau Island.  The Star Ferry is on our list of things to do while in Hong Kong, as is the giant seated Buddha statue (interesting movie trivia: a replica of the statue is exploded in the Van Damme movie Knock Off).  Hopefully the skies will clear soon, and we'll have more interesting details to report.

Saturday

It's Saturday, and the World Cup is finally here!

South Africa held off Mexico for a 1-1 draw, and France and Uruguay duked it out to a goalless draw as well.  So far my bracket for Group A is holding up well.  I don't want Mexico getting any wins, and I didn't want France to beat Uruguay, or the other way around.  I'm hoping for a France/Uruguay advance out of that group, leaving Mexico in the dust. 

Tonight are three great matches.  First up is South Korea v. Greece, which the Koreans should win handily but will still be great fun to watch since I'm in Korea.  Then the Argentinian match - I'm really excited to see how Maradona handles Messi and whether or not he blows it for the Argentines. Won't catch much, if any, of that match, however, because we're probably going to see our friend Jasper doing another Flirtphonic set in Hongdae.  Finally, the big match: USA v. England.  I've been excited about this matchup for months.  It begins at 3:30 a.m. in Korea, so that part is not exciting, but I'm staying up for it regardless.

In non-World Cup news, my worst student was kicked out of the academy; we had no classes Thursday and Friday, so I got a mammoth amount of writing done; and we leave in one week for Hong Kong. 

One more bit of information: my novella was accepted for publication.  You can see all 36,000 words in print in the Fall 2011 issue of Kaleidotrope.

To send you off into the weekend, here are two pictures from class: 

The first is one of my favorite students, Amy (her English name), because she's really smart and really, really cute - how many Koreans have dimples, after all?  Her schoolbag is hilarious, which is why I took the photo.  She was confused about why I was laughing.  Eventually, I drew a map of the US on the board, outlined Texas, and said basically that it means they hate everyone else and that everyone else hates them.  Which isn't what it means, but is still basically true.  Plus I'm the teacher and I can spread whatever mistruths I want to.

The second picture is from one of my other favorite students, Paul, who is terrible at English, reportedly a genius at math, and routinely stands on his chair to beat on the ceiling. He's an odd one, but I actually like him becase his misbehaving is funny. He likes to say things like "I am genius. I am handsome. I am rich-ee."  This picture is what he drew on the whiteboard between classes.  It's something like a very muscly Yoda with an attitude problem, I think.  This is even funnier because their Korean teacher came into the class just before me to yell at them for being loud, saw the board, and had no reaction to it at all.

Monday

There was such a slow transition from winter to spring, that I feel we missed most of spring and will soon be in summer.  Oh well. At least it isn't cold anymore. 

It's been a long time since we've updated, so here's the short version of what has happened:

--Week long trip to Jeju Island that was great but also cold, windy, and raining the entire time.

--Several more death threats from students; they seem to find it funny, but I'm not amused by 15 year olds holding exacto knives telling me that I will die.  Also, I have not been given a suitable explanation as to why all Korean kids carry exacto knives (I've heard something about pencil sharpeners, but that's what real pencil sharpeners are for).

--Three-day weekend for the Buddha's birthday and a trip to Busan, where our hotel (the Elysee Motel, which I highly recommend) was awesome, and of course the weather turned foul: cold, windy, rainy.

--An international report determined North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, which led to:

--North Korea said they didn't do it, and would respond to any aggression from the South with "all-out war" which led to:

--The value of the won dropped dramatically, and we lost about $2000 in our savings in a matter of 2 weeks.  The won has been very slowly rising again, since China has called for peace between the Koreas, and Clinton--along several dozen other U.S. diplomats--arrived in China for economic talks that inevitably turned towards the North-Korea-Problem.  We've recovered about $500 in value from that huge hit, and hoping for the strenghtening of the won to continue before wiring money home.

--I threw three girls out of my class after being tired of putting up with their rudeness and hostility for 3 months.  They stayed outside, but made faces in the door of all the other classrooms for the next 45 minutes, which was unfortunate because our manager was in one of those classes observing Nathan teach.  We had a talk, and so far it worked out well for me, because the girls were given a talk to, their parents were informed, and if they keep up the bad behavior they will be expelled from the school.  I don't want to cause the school to lose money, but these were the kind of girls that if I heard they were run over by the school's bus, I would have to try hard to feel anything other than relief.

--We got a new foreign teacher.  After 9 months of teaching more classes than any other English teachers at the other campuses, we finally got a fifth English teacher to (hopefully) help balance out the load.  So far, Nora and Jasper have their schedules, and they will be teaching 18, which is less than 19, but still not a very appreciable change.

--Our friend Jasper, aka the DJ of the one-man act Flirtphonic, put on his first public show this weekend at a small bar called Vent.  It was great fun.

And now it's Monday again.  The above mentioned horrible trio of girls are today, and our manager, Julihee, will be observing the class.  I hope they act their normal selves just one more time, and then hope that Julihee kicks them out of the school as promised.  Of course, that's the best possible scenario, and I never expect that to come about.  Somehow, I'm sure I'll be told I'm not disciplining them enough, to which I will ask how we may discipline them since we can only give detention (we assign no grades, we cannot strike them, we obviously can't speak to their parents), to which I will be replied with a reiteration that I need to discipline them better. It's all very circular and completely irrational, but that's how Korean management seems to be most of the time.

Anyway, it's a bright, (kind of) sunny day (thanks to the smog, it's never actually very sunny) and, all things considered, life is pretty good.