Miscellany

Howdy, all. A quick update so as not to keep my audience in suspense. The week was pretty fantastic in that I only had to work 3 hours a day due to finals for the middle school students that usually populate our later classes. I guess I should take the time to mention exactly how my school works, as I don't think everybody's clear on it. So in Korea, you can work in one of two places if you're teaching English: at the public schools or private institutions, called hagwans. I work for a branch of a pretty well-known and popular hagwan. Now, since these are not actual schools, our hours are a little different. We teach 2 classes a day normally, with one starting at 4:30 pm and the other at 7:30 pm, so we're very much night people after a while. I usually don't wake up till 10 in the morning at the earliest. Also, our classes are pretty structured, so we tend not to have a lot of freedom or breathing room in our curricula, but the fact that we don't have to spend a lot of time prepping for class kinda makes up for that.

Anyways, not much work this week means more time to play! I guess I'm getting a little nostalgic for last summer at Riverbend's Summer Camp, as I spent a good amount of time hiking and getting out of the city. On Friday, Dan and one of the Korean staff, Mac, and I visited Beomeosa, where the most popular temple in Busan is. It was really cool to finally get out and see something so specifically Korean; I can't help it, I love the touristy stuff sometimes! It was really nice to get out and walk around too, and you don't really notice how used to the city and all its terrible pollution you are until you get out for a while and remember how clean air feels in your lungs. We also went for a nice hike to the highest temple in the area, which means that we crawled up a terrible, steep face of the mountain to get to a place that wasn't really much different from the rest. But I begrudgingly admit that the view was great. One cool thing of note that Mac told us was that the statues of devils in my photo album are placed at the entrance to the temple. They're supposed to be devil kings of sorts, and when you pass by them, any evil spirits attached to you are instead pulled onto the statues.

That night, we had our welcome party for the branch, which meant we got fed and drunk on the company! And norebong! That's Korean karaoke, for you uncultured swine that weren't in the know. I also tagged along with John, one of the head teachers at my branch, for a Canada Day celebration last nite. I'm not exactly sure why, but there are a crapload of Canadians that ship out here to teach English, so I've heard that Canada Day is a fun time, but unfortunately, it was raining yesterday and that sort of put a damper on things. I guess I'll just have to grab my hockey stick and celebrate privately with a bottle of syrup and a Celine Dion concert.

So today, I decided to bring things down a bit. Once I got up and around, I grabbed my bag and headed to the hills. Elissa, the other head teacher at our school, mentioned that there were some nice trails just past the main city area, provided you don't mind hopping walls and dodging rabid dogs. As a side note, the dogs here are all small and yippy and terrible. Except in my belly! That's right, we went out last weekend and ate dog. Not bad, a little like pork, but very expensive. Oh, get over it, you damn hippy. Anyways, I went for a hike to see what I could find and ended up in this awesome park area that runs all up and down the mountain. I hiked there for a couple of hours and ended up with some gorgeous views of the city. It was just what the doctor ordered, too, since it was great exercise and very cathartic. I tried to get some good pics up there too, including one where you can almost see my home! No, I'm not telling you where I live, creepy stalker dude. After that, I met up with Dan and Mac and another Korean staff person at a cafe down the way. At the place, they had this thing that's popular around here called Doctor Fish. What it is is a big tub full of little bitty fishies. You put your feet inside and they swarm around and feast on your foot fungus and dead skin and whatnot. Weird, no? Well, it was pretty fun nonetheless, although we kinda just walked up without paying and jumped in. Yeah, I'm that guy, the big stupid foreigner.

So that's that. Not sure what else to lay on you, but my mind grapes are currently tapped out. I'll get something good for next time.

Good Times in Busan

P.S. My epic battle with Trash Man came to an end this week, since I walked down with my garbage perfectly sorted. He walked out expecting to throw down, but I impressed him and he tipped his hat and rode off into the sunset of his booth. Take that, Korea!

Alright, I was a little slow with this update (especially since I just got internets!), but I have a reason, which I'll get to in the end. But first off, this weekend I joined a group of folks to go to Fukuoka, Japan! And yes, it was rad. We left early Saturday morning (which meant staying up all of Friday night, though I did cheat and sneak in an hour nap) on a ferry from the Busan port. The trip was 3 hours across open ocean, which is bizarre for me as an American to think about, but I can't say much about the actual ride because we were all passed out. We got in and took our first steps onto foreign soil. Watch out, Japan!

The crew consisted of Dan my training buddy, Maya our friend from the same teaching branch, John that we met from another branch, and Swan who I only just met for the trip. John had been there before, but for the rest of us, it was our maiden voyage. We first walked most of the way up to the local to secure housing, but to our surprise (!) there was no room! So we reserved rooms for the next day and wandered around looking for another hotel to spend a night. We ended up getting 2 doubles and I snuck in so as not to have to buy another room. Of course, with 2 girls and 3 guys, that meant sharing a little tiny room between the biggest of the group. It worked out pretty well, as we walked around during the first day checking out temples and parks, then we ended up going out to a club until pretty late and passed out watching a shitty made-for-tv movie about a plane hijacking. The next day, we went shopping for a bit and found a cool Manga/Anime/Geek store with cool little toy vending machines for like a buck a pop with all sorts of silly Japanese things on them. Then we secured rooms at the hostel, which were singles and, thus, far superior, and spent a well-needed break drinking beers outside the hotel and chatting for a couple hours.

On Sunday night we decided to check out a bath house, since Fukuoka was well-known for them. We took the subway out towards the airport and ended up at this place called Manyou no yo, which is apparently one of the better known. Now, a few things to note on bath houses: First, in case you didn't know, they're big places with a bunch of heated pools and saunas and such, all communal and same sex, and of course you're in there naked. Second, Japanese culture at the same time accepts and despises tattoos, and when you're at a place with a bunch of people and you're naked, there isn't a whole lot you can do to hide them. So Dan and I both have tats, which we were assured by the guy at the front desk of the hostel that they would be fine, but as soon as we get there and get into the washing area, a couple of guys approach each of us and ask us to leave. One just tells me it's ok if I cover mine with a towel, and John manages to fast talk the other guy into letting Dan stay since it's his first time. Dan's tats are far more extensive than mine, and he's Korean to boot, so it's a much harder time for him. But we manage to stick around for a little while, jump around a few pools (including one that was ice cold!) and finally sit down in a sauna before another guy comes and says "You have to leave. People (or his boss, I wasn't exactly clear on it) are complaining". So that was that, we put on some robes and wandered around for a while before the girls met up with us and we took off. Not a terrible experience, but not one I was really hoping for. We spent the rest of the night at a couple of bars and ended up meeting a few foreigners and chatting and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. Then we got up at 7 am and headed down to the ferry to catch our ride home so we could teach later that day! Whoopie!

The food was pretty great. Our first meal while hotel shopping was at a little counter place with ramen, and it was far superior to any ramen I had ever had before. I usually hate the stuff, but it totally turned me around. We ate some sushi later that nite after a stop at an Irish pub, which was pretty bizarre in a totally foreign land. The sushi was fantastic, and we got huge servings of fish that put regular sushi back in the states to shame. We sat at the bar and got the chef's special, and he was a pretty cool guy and threw in some extra sashimi later on. He also put on a cool lil show and was pretty welcoming, especially when Maya started shouting along every time the chefs did. I think they asked her to come back and work with them. For desert, we walked over to a little bakery and had soft cream in little cups with fruit and green tea ice cream, and it was good. We had some tonkatsu at a shady little place in the shopping area that was pretty great as an early lunch on Sunday, and then some udon with tempura and all sorts of deliciousness for dinner before going to the bath house. It was pretty damn good for Japanese cuisine, and I even got to brush up on my extremely rusty speaking skills!

Now comes the bad part: The extreme lack of rest finally took its toll on me Monday night, when first my throat gave out and then the rest of my body followed. I came down with a nasty little bug that I'm just getting over now, but since I was told that getting a substitute was a bitch, I just went ahead and worked last night anyways (and ended up spending a little time at a birthday party. Yeah, I guess I reap what I sow). Ah well, all in all, it was totally worth it. And now, the pictures! Take care, all!

Fukuoka

Lookin Like A Long Day

I was walking to work today, which I normally do. I live about 20 minutes walk from work, and it's nice to take my time, listen to some music or comedy, and enjoy the city. It's getting pretty warm at the moment, and apparently it's only gonna get worse. But as I was walking today, I passed another white dude. I look up, and there he is, and then he waves and says hi to me. I was thinking to myself, Dude, if we were anywhere else, you wouldn't even acknowledge my existence. But here we are, walking around Busan, and you immediately latch on to the nearest Caucasian. That's how the foreigner community is here, though. I'm guilty of talking mainly to Americans and Canadians, too, but at least I don't walk the streets only talking to the non-Koreans.

Anyways, I'm in a bit of a bad mood, since I got to bed at 7 this morning. We went to Heather's place to make dinner and hang out last night after work, pasta and garlic bread and mandu (dumplings). It was nice and relaxed, and I thought, Hey, it'll be nice to get to sleep early tonite. Then Dan gets a call from his friend Lee, who asks us to come hang out. We figure we'll just go make an appearance and head out an hour later, but then we get there and everyone is heading over to a norebong, which is Korean karaoke. I distinctly remember a couple of people saying "1 song, and we're gone in 15 minutes." About 4 or 5 hours and several horrible renditions of Bon Jovi, Oasis, and Huey Lewis songs later, we're stumbling out onto the sunlit streets of Seomyeon. At least we got to get breakfast at McDonald's! So today's gonna be a long day of classes, then early to bed and late to rise!

In other news, I got my Alien Registration Card! I'm now officially recognized as a person by the Korean government! Seriously, you need this damn card to do anything, and even then, there are certain things that are closed off to non-Koreans. But with my ARC, I also got back my passport, which is good because we're planning on going to Japan this weekend! More on that as it develops.

But I should have internet access at home as of tomorrow or the beginning of next week, so I'll be around to talk more soon! Until then.

Korea Rant #1

I'm not an angry person, normally. The occasional blackout rage episode is healthy, I figure, but I usually don't kill more than one or two people/pets. And Korea's definitely treated me better than most, I'd say. Still, I can't help but get irked by a few things. So here it goes:

1) The only thing that has legitimately pissed me off since I've been here is the fucking garage attendant/trash man for my apartment. Sure, you might look at him and think he's harmless, but beneath that quiet exterior lies a malevolency second only to Beelzebub himself. First off, the trash situation in Korea is a little odd. While walking down the streets, you'll notice that there are NO public trash cans. And yet they hire sweepers that meticulously scour the sidewalks every morning, so it never looks dirty. Like anything, it's full of contradictions. Another thing is that they are fanatical about sorting their garbage. Any apartment complex will have 6 or 7 different trash areas at least, for sorting recyclables and whatnot. It's cool, I'll grant you, but I'm not going to all the trouble of sorting what sorts of plastic I'm pitching.

Enter the trash man. I was initially unsure of where the trash area was, but after a little hunting, I found it next to the little attendant booth under the complex. I lug down a couple of bags of trash and throw them right in. Then, this guy comes literally running out of his booth to scold me in his smug, grating tone, no doubt calling me all sorts of names for stupid which I couldn't understand. He pulls all of my trash out and proceeds to show me where everything goes. Fine, that's nice, I can dig that. But then he shoves the rest of the trash that's unrecyclable back into my hands and refuses to let me throw it away. I pantomime that I don't understand why, and he points at the bags. Apparently, my bags wouldn't seal properly according to strict Korean standards. I bring my trash down the street and proceed to leave it on the side of the road with some other trash, then walk to work.

Yesterday, I attempted to throw away a styrofoam box that I kept my crab in from the weekend before, but knowing that anal-retentive trash man would be there, I preempted his strike by finding my sturdiest plastic bag and seal it up near watertight. He should have no complaints, right? WRONG! I throw it in the trash and walk away, quickly donning my Ipod in case he finds something wrong, so as to ignore his bleating. But the guy chases me down the street and drags me back, berating me more for my ignorance. He pulls the trash out, points at the bag, then points at another bag in the dumpster. Apparently, I needed an official Korean trash bag (trademarked) to throw away my fucking trash. I pointed at my bag, which was clearly more durable and superior and showed him my expert tying off of the top, but to no avail. So I walked down the street and dropped it on the side again, fuming at the pointlessness of it all. The problem is that the trash cans are right next to his booth, and he's ALWAYS there! So I guess from now on I dump my trash on the side of the road. Point, Korea!

2) A minor rant, but one that annoys me nonetheless. As some may have noted, there's not really a concept of personal space in Korea. When you walk down the street, get on the subway, go to a restaurant, everyone is crammed in there with you. It's not bad, and sometimes it's fun cuz you can totally take advantage of it and check people while walking down the street or shoulder your way to fronts of lines and you're just being more Korean!

But the really annoying part is that people are oblivious to others while walking around in public areas. And they can't walk in straight lines, either! So you're walking to work, say, and there's an elderly lady in front of you on a narrow stretch of sidewalk. You want to go past, so you make to go one way and she weaves in front of you. You feint the other way, but she just keeps ducking and weaving, like a drunken boxer. You're stuck walking at her painfully slow pace until the sidewalk opens up again. And she could give two shits about it. It's like walking etiquette is nonexistant here!

Grrr, argh.

Weekend Warriors!

Hey all, back again! It was a good long weekend full of funnery, but I couldn't write until now and I can't post pictures because I still don't have the interwebs at home. I'm going to work on it this week and see if I can't Skype it up this weekend with yall. And by work on it, I mean bug Paul about it at the office. Paul is our branch's go-to guy; if we teachers need anything (beds, internets, a ride to the store, etc), Paul's our man. I feel bad about bugging him for shit because he's so clearly overworked. But he showed up to a little gathering I had on Friday and got wasted, so that was great! But I get ahead of myself.

So on Fridays, I get off early since I only teach one class that day. I decided to run home and cook up a big ol Mexican meal for everyone and invite them over. We had a decent gathering of 6 or 7 people, the food was good, and we relaxed and talked until like 2:30 in the morning. We also had plenty of alcohol: soju, mekju (beer), and a brand new friend of mine, Makgeolli. One of the girls at work, Maya, brought over like 6 bottles of the stuff, and it's like a sweeter, watered down sort of beer thing, but it's a bit higher in alcohol content and hits you much harder than you'd think. I ended up drinking the better part of two bottles during the night, which I paid for later. But the little party was fun, and it was good to see people outside of work a bit.

I guess I should point out some important facts about drinking here. First off, everyone drinks every night here, and when I say drink, I mean they get down to business time. Last week, Dan and I walked back from work every night and got some food, and without fail every night we saw at least a few people stumbling down the street just plastered. On Wednesday, we saw two dudes fighting each other, but they were so drunk they mostly just held each other up to keep from sprawling on the ground. And yet, without fail, every person wakes up bright and early to go to work in the morning. It's amazing, really.

Anyways, after everyone decided to take off, Maya asked us if we wanted to hang out for a while longer and go do or see some stuff. We figured we'd go to the beach, since it's one of the big places to go here in Busan. So we hopped in a cab and headed over. Now, the cab wasn't the best idea for me, being the only one drunk. I had also decided to finish the rest of a bottle of wine from home right before we left, so as not to let it go to waste. And taxi drivers aren't much better here than in the states; in fact, they're worse. So after I evacuated dinner, we grabbed some ice cream and went to the beach! There were people all up and down it selling and firing fireworks, so we naturally immediately bough some and fired away! It also happened to be one of our group of 4's birthday, and she really enjoyed it, so that was worth it. Afterwards, we watched the sun rise, then headed back to Somyeon for a breakfast of BBQ and seafood stew. Then we all went and crashed for a few hours.

The four of us woke up and met up in the early afternoon to head out again. We wanted to go to the fish market, another Busan landmark. So we hopped the subway over and fished it up! It was fantastic; just rows and rows of tanks of seafood, all alive and waiting to jump in your belly! There were tubs full of squid, gross red worms, crabs, flounder, clams and mussels, and of course octopi!! We ended up ordering an octopus up and having the lady chop it up for a delicious squirmy meal! It was especially fun to feel the little suckers latch onto your tongue. I also ended up buying a crab, which the birthday girl Heather named Cristobel. Needless to say, he was delicious last night.

The rest of the night, we went to a great big wholesale market type place and bought some odds and ends. It was great, you could find everything there and you bargained for all of it. We went out that night to a couple of bars called Fuzzy Navel, the second of which was a big foreigner spot. They also had fire shows, where the bartenders would do tricks w/ flaming bottles of booze. They weren't great, though, and constantly dropped them, but as long as they don't drop one on me, I'll forgive them. It was hilarious to see everyone get into it at the bars, though. Everyone was singing along w/ the songs and dancing in their chairs, and the bar staff would have these coordinated dances. We spent the rest of the night and the following day hanging out and playing Grand Theft Auto.

All in all, a solid weekend! And this coming weekend, it looks like we're gonna take a ferry to Jeju Island. Look it up and you'll be as excited as I am! Party on, Wayne.