May 31, 2010
Day 87 of 365: Friday sucked. Hard. And since there are many ways that something can suck (though far fewer ways for a Friday to suck), I'll tell you what it wasn't first: It wasn't a sad kind of suckiness, like when a student cried at school or a dog gets hit by a car. It wasn't a frustrating type of sucking, where I just couldn't figure something out or couldn't communicate effectively with the natives. It wasn't overwhelming, where I had too much on my plate to deal with. It wasn't an injury/illness related, homesick (well maybe as a side effect), or boring kind of sucky Friday. What this last Friday actually was...was embarrassing. It was angrifying. Furiating. Painful on a psychological level (yes, I am aware that I am making up words because spell-check is telling me so). I got pwned (Gamer term. I didn't make that one up).
Last Friday I was basically tag-teamed by my two co-teachers on what a bad job I've been doing as an English teacher. This blew my mind because all I've ever heard for the last 3 months is how I've been doing a great job and the kids love me, etc. Mixed messages? Check. Lost in translation of a verbal beat-down? Check. Wanting to throw a desk out of our 4th floor English classroom window? Check. There are only a few categories of people whose occupations bestow upon them the power to scold a grown man. A cop or a judge can do it. Been there, hate that. A boss can do it and so can a mom. Now I know that a Korean co-teacher can do it as well. I'm sure you'd like to know the details of the massacre, but that would be too much to read. I'm not going to say some correcting wasn't needed; I've only been doing this for 3 months. The problem was that they knew that I've never taught before, but they still let me go on this whole time doings some aspects of the job in the wrong way without saying anything. My pride told me to put up a fight, but it probably would have made matters worse, so I just took the beating instead.
The day never got better afterward. I had just gotten blown up, and the best thing that I can say about it was that at least it was on a Friday. That night I had some praying to do, because I was suddenly in a situation where why co-workers didn't really trust me to do my job correctly, I can't escape because I'm obligated by contract to be here for at least another 9 months, and every person who really cares about me is on the other side of the world. Literally. Sometimes we feel like the only way that God can hear us is to pray a super-spiritual prayer that can move mountains, when all we actually have to say is, "God, move that mountain.". If He wants to do it, He will. Otherwise, no amount of effort on our part is going to get it done. In my case, the only way I could communicate how I felt was to pray, "Lord, make me right.". Maybe I've been going about some things in the wrong way since I've been here. Some I've known were wrong, others I've had no idea about. I just prayed that He would make me right in everything.
This brings me to Saturday. As you can see, I don't really have a picture that would accurately depict the essence of today's entry. I guess I could have taken my camera out mid-thrashing to capture my 2 co-teachers taking turns going to town on me, but I didn't think of it at the time. Oddly enough though, I feel like this cover to Amazing Spider-Man #546, appropriately titled, "Brand New Day", sums things up pretty well. This comic was actually in a care package that I received a few weeks ago from my life-long friend Jason, so I thought I'd give him a little shout-out here. Thanks, brother. Saturday really was a brand new day for me. I was still hurting from Friday, but it was good to know that I had a couple days to get over it. Every weekend for the last 2 months I'd been exhausting myself by going 100 miles a minute in order to do and see everything I possibly could; often spending up to 12-13 hours each day in Seoul before making the hour long train ride back to Ansan each night. This weekend I just took it easy. The weather was perfect and I just enjoyed the day. I realized that sometimes bad things happen for a good reason, and in the grand scheme of things, what happened on Friday wasn't so bad, it just felt like it at the time. There's nothing that I can do to change what's happened during the first 3 months, but I can do things differently from here on out. There's a lot more for me to say about last weekend actually, but I think this is good enough for now. Maybe a part 2 coming soon...
05-23-2010
Day 79 of 365: Last weekend I had a chance to participate in one of East Asia's biggest celebrations, the Lotus Lantern Festival. This festival, which is always on the Sunday before Buddha's birthday, is a time for Buddhist monks and believers in Buddhism to celebrate their religion by going to the temples, offering prayers, and lighting lanterns in remembrance of Buddha. There are over 10 million Buddhists in South Korea, which is roughly 1/4 of the total population. In addition, Buddhism, along with Confucianism, have strong influences throughout East Asian culture. I am a christian, so I was just a looker-on as hundreds of people paid homage and performed various rituals in and around the temple we visited in Seoul. I enjoyed the decorations though.
Buddha's birthday is celebrated differently in every country. In India, people dress all in white and go to the temple. In Sri Lanka, people decorate their houses and streets with special candles and lanterns. And in Nepal, Buddha's birthday is celebrated during the whole month according to the Buddhist calendar. Here in Korea, the temples and surrounding areas were flooded with multicolored, paper lanterns, and there was a night parade in Seoul where thousands of people walked down the avenue with homemade lanterns and ceremonial dress. There were also entirely lit floats of tigers, dragons, peacocks and other animals in the parade, as well as various dancers, performers and musicians. It really was a great show, but the combination of the night and brightly lit, moving objects gave my camera some trouble, so I only got a few really good pictures. I think the fire-breathing dragon at the top of the page came out pretty nicely though.
For dinner that night, my never-ending quest to seek out Mexican food in South Korea (which I'll blog about soon) brought me to a taco and burrito place called Tomatillo. It's basically the equivalent of Chipotle, so I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's Mexican or not. Either way, the food was pretty good, if not a tad overpriced. That's to be expected here though.
05-14-2010
Day 70 of 365: Looking at the pics here, you're probably wondering why a Texas boy is laid back wearing a Dodgers jersey, ankles deep in a tank with a foot-fistful of fish? The jersey part is simple: I like pissing off Angels fans. Just kidding. Actually Major League Baseball is very popular in South Korea, as is MLB apparel. This works for me because I happen to be a collector of MLB ball caps, with a few other items to go along with them; LA "gear" included. As for the foot fish clan, I'd like to take this moment to refer you to Dr. Fish. No appointments necessary; walk-ins accepted.
Dr. Fish is a form of skin treatment where the body is submerged under water so that flesh eating fish can have their dinner. In this case it's a form of pedicure. Sounds awesome, right? Actually you've most likely got the image of Piranhas swimming through your head now, but let me assure you that these guys aren't man-eaters. For one thing, the fish don't have teeth, so there's no need to worry about losing a toe. They only eat dead skin, so they hang out on the bottom of your feet for the most part. Knowing this, it's no surprise that given a choice, they prefer men's feet over women's. Also, everyone washes their feet before and after the treatment, so people with certain phobias can be at ease. There are 2 species of "nibbler" fish that are used in this treatment: Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. I advise first-timers to start with the Garras because they are smaller and less shocking to the system. As is, it still takes most people several minutes, sometimes longer, to feel comfortable with dozens of tiny mouths going to town on the bottom of your feet. Once you feel that you're ready, you can move over to the considerably larger Cyprinions, where you will get that uncomfortable, why-did-I-pay-money-for-this feeling all over again. Where the tiny Garras feel like bubbles or water jets shooting on the bottom of you feet and through your toes, it's actually possible for your mind to conceive the large Cyprinion's mouths sucking on you, which is very unnerving...until it isn't. At some point you stop being so tense and are able to just relax and enjoy it. It's honestly one of the most unique experiences I've ever had.
This type of treatment was actually started in the US according to an article I read online, but they eventually closed down. It has since spread to many countries in Europe and Asia. In Seoul, the business itself is not a clinic, but actually a tea and coffee shop. It has a nice atmosphere, lots of space and a good selection of drinks and other items. The way it works is that each person purchases a drink plus 2,000 Won extra (roughly 2 dollars) if you want to add Dr. Fish. Sessions range from 15-25 minutes depending on how busy it is. I've gone twice so far, and we didn't have to wait long either time. Another cool thing about some coffee shops in Korea, this one included, is that they have free bread and rolls out on the center table that you can toast with butter and jam if you so wish. Just be sure to finish what you take or they charge you extra. It's a pretty sweet deal for the price, which puts Dr. Fish at the top of my list for anyone coming to visit South Korea.
05-06-2010
Day 60 of 365: I know, I know...it's cheezy and unoriginal. As you can surely guess, my topic for today is about my recent visits to Seoul, which is only less than an hour's train ride away from Ansan. Believe it or not, it's sometimes difficult to come up with clever titles for every blog entry that are both culturally relevant and easily recognizable by Americans, which make up probably 95% of my readers. Just be grateful I didn't use "Seoul Train" to talk about the subway system, or "Seoul Food" to expound on Korean cuisine. Then there's "Seoul Music", "Seoul Mates" and "Heart & Seoul", which are all admittedly terrible, but they did pop into my head while I was brainstorming. However, I think my favorite blog title that I'm not going to use is, "I've got Seoul, but I'm not a Soldier", referring to the American military base in Seoul (for all those Killers fans out there). So as you can see, I put a lot of thought into this. If you think you can do better (which shouldn't be too hard), feel free to post your cleverness in the comments section. I'm interested to see what other brains can come up with, just don't make me look too bad.
Seoul. I call it the New York City of Korea. At around 16,000,000, Seoul accounts for about 1/3 of the country's population, and is the 4th largest city in the world behind Tokyo, Jakarta and NYC. For a country that is the size of Indiana, Seoul packs them in pretty tight. There are not many traditional neighborhoods here, or in South Korea for that matter. Land is very valuable, and they maximize its potential value by building vertically. Most everyone lives in apartments, for which there are rows and rows of apartment buildings lined up all across the city. The few traditional houses that I have seen are very old looking, but are in what's considered to be upscale areas of the city. As you can imagine, there's a lot to do in Seoul. Having not visited the "Big Sa-Kwa" (Korean for "Apple") during my whole first month in SK, I have recently taken opportunities to explore Seoul each of the last 3 weekends. I've done something completely different each time I've gone, and I still haven't even visited any of the many temples, palaces, bath houses, museums or parks that Seoul has to offer. My first priority so far has been to sample the various foods in Seoul that I can't find in Ansan. I've yet to visit a Mexican restaurant, but I now know that they exist. I've seen a couple with my own 2 eyes. I've even heard that one of them is actually decent. A good Mexican restaurant in South Korea? I'm not holding my breath. If there is such a thing, I'll be sure to blog about it. The second priority has been to explore the many street markets in and around Seoul. From talking to other English speaking foreigners, I've learned that some markets are known for selling goods for extremely cheap, while other places are known for bargaining. In these places, foreigners can get ripped off really easily if you don't know the value of what you're buying. The best strategy is to go in knowing the basic value for things on the street, such as shirts, pants, sunglasses, hats, shoes, bootleg dvd's, etc. If you know this, then it's only a matter of how much over or under the street value you're willing to pay versus what the vendor is trying to sell it for. I bought that blue jean jacket in the photo for 5 bucks. I didn't know the street value at the time, but I figured it was a pretty good deal, plus I'm kind of 80's like that. Bottom line: deals definitely aren't always too good to be true, and foreigners who can also use a little bit of Korean when bargaining goes a long way.
On future trips into the big city, I think I will focus on trying to find my way around on my own. So far I've followed other people when touring the streets, and it doesn't always help me to pay attention to my surroundings. I've got a worn and weather beaten subway linemap that was handed down to me from a friend. This map is special because it's in English, which you can only find in a few places in the city. I call it my "treasure map", and I feel like Indiana Jones whenever I plot a new course to an unexplored part of the city, or make a written note of a special discovery at a certain station. The fact that it's old and barely held together by scotch tape in the creases makes my imaginings even more credible.
So that's my brief introduction to Seoul. I'm sure I'll have more to write about as I continue to familiarize myself with this Korean metropolis. Seoul isn't where Godzilla always attacks by the way; that's Tokyo, Japan in case you were wondering. I'll be going there soon, so I'll look for him. On a different note, I've been in South Korea for exactly 2 months as of today. The first few weeks felt like months, but now it feels like time's moving a little faster. I'm still trying to take advantage of every opportunity I have to try new things and learn the language and culture, which often leaves me feeling worn out at the end of every day. I always feel tired, and I'm not sure if it's because of poor sleep, diet, lack of exercise, general busyness or a combination of all four. I'm experimenting to remedy this. Although there are many special events related to my friends and family back home that I regret not being able to take part in, I feel like my time spent here is still worthwhile as long as I make the best of every situation. One year doesn't seem impossible anymore.
