DMZ, Seoul, and Film Festival! UPDATED!

UPDATE: Added photos from the trip. Reminder: they were taken with a disposable, so they're pretty bad and at a slight tilt, which makes me queasy to look at. Also, apparently my thumb is huge and impossible to get out of the way.

God, I love long weekends! Once a term, a magical time comes where the older kids have midterm exams, which means they cancel their supplementary classes only to spend time on their actual classes for about two weeks. While not every class gets canceled, you still end up with situations like mine, where my Saturday and Monday classes were gone and I had a nice extended mini-vacation to play with. Sounds like time for a trip! Another coworker, John, also had the same time off, so we spent the weekend up in Seoul. We got there Saturday night and stayed until Monday afternoon, which was plenty of time for sightseeing and frivolity. Met up with some friends that I hadn't seen for a while, even since training! We checked out some areas in Seoul that I never got to see during my week of hellish training, went to some cool bars and a club or two. Seoul's a cool place to visit, but I'm glad I don't live up there; it's a bit too much all the time. There's tons to do, but I enjoy a more laid back Busan atmosphere. I could also just be a loser. Hmmm...

Anyways, we went up there mainly to go check out the DMZ, or for you non-cultured people the Demilitarized Zone. It's the border between North and South Korea where there is a fenced off 2 km area where neither country can really enter or bring military forces. Now, some people might ask the pertinent question, "Why?" to which I respond most intelligently, "Cuz!" It's a big attraction for tourists, with buses going up with people by the hundreds. And it's also a really interesting look at foreign relations outside of that peaceful, idyllic image that some of us keep in our heads. I personally found it very interesting to listen to all the rhetoric being thrown about on the South Korean side, with little comments being thrown in showing the North Koreans in such a terrible light and pushing all the blame squarely on their shoulders. South Korea can definitely be guilty of painting different historical and current events in a light that's far too favorable for themselves (Dokdo, anybody?), which I guess is the case for anybody, looking back on all those years of American history in grade school. I need to read up on more history between the two now...

So anyways, the tour consisted of a few different stops along the way. First, we stopped at a little park area called Imjingak with a silly amusement park called Peace Land! The great thing about all the stuff we saw along the way was it all had names like "Unification Village" and "Freedom Bridge". By the end, we were calling everything by those names: "Man, I'm hungry. Let's grab some Unification Ice Cream at the Freedom Mart." But yeah, there was a Peace Bell and a Bridge of Freedom where over 12,000 POWs were exchanged after the war and a bunch of other monuments to peace and unification. And souvenirs! We then went up past the military blockades to the main area where they showed us an epindary movie about the DMZ that included rockin 80s music, super dramatic shots of some little girl crying/frolicking around the DMZ, and a mystical butterfly that heals wounds and restores good will and peace. We were laughing the whole time, but I don't think the other people there appreciated it so much. We then walked down to the 3rd tunnel, which is a place where those dirty commies tried to dig through to the other side and invade our way of life, only to be halted by the forces of righteousness. And butterflies. It was a grueling walk for two reasons: 1) Korea doesn't believe in making inclines/declines easy by including luxuries like switchbacks or stairs, so we enjoyed a brisk walk down and a ridiculously difficult and long walk back up, and 2) the NoKo's apparently didn't have 6'2" American tourists in mind, as I was hunched over the entire time and cursing genetics. Finally, we got to the observatory that looked out over the DMZ, and you couldn't take pictures past a certain point in case you were suspected of spying or something. On the North Korean side there was a fake village that was set up to apparently fool everyone that everything was a-ok over there, no doubt also hiding untold numbers of NBC's strapped to little puppies. Those crafty bastards. Another highlight of that area was a sign for the military forces there that said "N1CE". We took a few pics doing thumbs up there. I forgot my digital camera, but bought a disposable and am having them developed AS WE SPEAK!

All in all, a good weekend. Got a little time to do more sightseeing and went to one of Seoul's palaces, Gyeongbokgung, which was a cool look at some historical Korea. I love touristy shit sometimes. Side note: older Korean buildings and historical sites are some of the ugliest in Asia, for one specific reason. While the outsides look cool and different and interesting, the insides are always painted in the most godawful gaudy colors, like pinks and neon greens and whatnot. If some aspiring historical architecture expert (achem) wants to see if that's really the original colors they used, I'd like to know as I seriously doubt it. Also went to the bookstore, Kyobo, of course, which is fabulous in Seoul as they have a massive foreign section. Only bought one book, Bonk, which is done by the same author as Stiff, an amusing book about cadavers that I bought a little while back. This one's about the science and history of sex and sounds amusing.

Finally, next weekend is the Pusan International Film Festival, which is a huge event down here that people have been mentioning for some time. I could regurgitate what I read from Wikipedia, but I'm lazy, so here are some excerpts:

"Pusan International Film Festival held annually in Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from September 13 to September 21, 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea. The focus of the PIFF is introducing new films and first-time directors, especially those from Third World countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent."

I've got a good amount of tickets and I'm totally stoked! Here's a list of the movies I'm checking out, to give you an idea of what there is. Unfortunately, a lot of the really big ones were almost immediately sold out, and these ones were still somewhat hard to get ahold of as a lot of other things that I was looking at were also sold out. Enjoy, and catch yall later!


Bottle Shock United States 2007 108min Randall Miller
Winemaking perfectionist Jim and his free-spirited son are trying to make the perfect California chardonnay when a British wine snob chooses their wine to take part in a tasting in France. That sets the stage for a drama that will shake the worlds of both Jim and of wine.

Mental Japan, United States 2008 135min Kazuhiro Soda
MENTAL observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers. The film captures the candid lives of people coping with suicidal tendencies, poverty, a sense of shame, apprehension, and fear of society.

Another Planet Hungary 2008 95min Ferenc Moldoványi
Shot on four continents and spoken in five languages, this docu-drama studies the problems facing Earth today. Looking at rampant ecological, political, and social unrest and injustice, Moldoványi’s two-year survey of where we are and where we seem to be going is an illuminating look at contemporary human experience.

The Vanished Empire Russia 2008 105min Karen Shakhnazarov
Moscow of the 1970s, and the Soviet Empire’s zenith is also the beginning of its end. Three university students wrapped up in their own romantic dilemma fail to see their home’s downward spiral into non-existence, not recognizing the passing of a defining era—both personal and political.

Empty Chair Iran 2008 100min Saman ESTEREKI
A series of directors are making each other’s movies, blurring the lines between actor and director. In the end, who is the one who ends up yelling “cut” from the “empty chair”?

Terribly Happy Denmark 2008 95min Henrik Ruben Genz
Robert Hansen is a cop transferred to a remote village in Denmark. His usual days there are not much. One day, a woman comes to see him telling him that she has been abused by her husband. But as he is trying to help her, he falls in love with her getting himself into a big trouble.

Button Man Hong Kong, China, Taiwan 2008 80min Jen Hao Chien
Wei is the “button man”, an expert cleaner for the gang, a man who comes after a murder scene, takes care of the victim, disposing the body and leaving no evidence behind. Who would have thought that one day, he would become a target of their list….

Nightmare Detective 2 Japan 2008 102min Shinya Tsukamoto
The whole thing started out as a prank. Yukie and her friends lock their classmate, Kikukawa in an equipment room in the gym, to scare her. Though they let her out in the end, Kikukawa stopped coming to school the following day. Yukie began to have nightmares about Kikukawa

Seoul-der

Japan Trippin!

Man, I suck at this updating thing. A week after my trip and I'm finally getting around to posting something. Ok, well, here goes:

So last weekend was the Chuseok holiday in Korea, basically one of the two biggest in the country. In honor of such a momentous holiday, I, along with 3 of my fellow teachers, decided to celebrate by getting the hell out of this country! We jumped a plane to Tokyo, and wacky adventures ensued. These are their stories.

Unfortunately, us Saturday class people still had to teach. That's right, we teach classes on Saturday! But luckily, we pushed them to earlier in the day; the downside was that we had to teach at 9 in the morning. But afterwards, we jumped into a cab and shot right on over to the airport! A short flight overseas (2 hours, about), and Japan met us in all our glory. Well, not Tokyo though; the airport is an hour and a half train ride outside of the city, so we took a little while to get there. But Japan had to be eased into our glory.

Now, for unknown reasons to me today, the decision was made not to have a hotel room the first night. We had an area that we wanted to stay in (Shinjuku, western part of the city), but somehow we ended up without specific accommodations. That was ok, though; we got off the train and made our way to one of the two hotels we narrowed it down to. Wait, the hotel rooms are like $150 more than the online prices?!? Forget that! We had two choices: bite the bullet and pay extra or find a new hotel. Or wait, maybe we had a third: stay up all night! Yep, that's right, we reserved our hotels for the rest of the time there, then dropped off our bags and hit the streets for what would soon be the most painful night of our lives. We went out to a club/bar area in Rappungi, which was full of foreigners, and checked out a few places. Eventually, by the early morning hours, we decided it would be a solid idea to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market so we could eat sushi as soon as it opened at 5. So we walked about half the length of the city to get there. Now, we all got up early, but the others essentially stayed up all the night before as well, and I'm a wuss when it comes to sleep deprivation. So we got to the market with time to spare and found a diner to sit in and rest (and, for some, sleep). Turns out, the fish market was closed on Sundays, and it was a holiday weekend besides, so no market for us, though we did still eat sushi there. We then headed over the the Imperial Palace, which was nice from afar, though that's as far as we got since we couldn't get past the gate to see it. We then attempted (unsuccessfully) to find places to sleep until our hotel rooms opened up, settling finally on the hotel lobby.

A lot of the time there was spent just walking around people-watching and checking everything out. Tokyo has a cool vibe; it's a huge city with lots of flashy lights. Our general rule was to go towards the shiniest areas, which worked out pretty well. Everything feels more relaxed there than Korea. The people there are different from Korea as well; everyone's so fashionable and has their own individual style versus here where they all kinda dress the same. And people are so polite in comparison! Walking down the street, you don't have to duck and dodge people, shouldering old ladies out of the way. It was also oddly quiet in comparison, even though it was tons busier in parts. I have to say, I kind of wish I went to Japan for the atmosphere alone, but Korea for the actual work is more worthwhile: better pay, more jobs, etc. And the food! Oh lordy, we had some good food: sushi every day, all fresh and not that frozen tuna crap. Tonkatsu, yakiudon, we even went to a really nice dim sum place and splurged a bit. Good times.

We also did a fair bit of shopping. Dan and I are of course huge nerds, so we hit up the manga places and arcades. He had been looking to play Street Fighter 4 since it's only in Japan, so naturally that was one of the first things we did. They had all kinds of fun, goofy games to play there and I spent many a yen. The manga places were overwhelming and I really didn't know where to start, but ended up buying a few odd things here and there. And of course lots of little toys; I love the Japanese capsule machines for all the cutsy and just plain awesome things you can get out of them, including a bunch of manga-looking Marvel superheroes! As a side note, in Japan 100 and 500 yen (about $1 and $5) are in coin form, so you don't really keep track of them quite as well as you probably should. But also, since it was so fashionable and such, I even went out to a few clothing places and picked up some stuff. I am a consumer whore!

Anyways, that's about it in a nutshell. We got to the airport and our plane ended up being delayed for 2 1/2 hours, which meant we were late for class, but ah well. After a weekend like that, class was the least of my worries. Got lots of fun souvenirs and trinkets for everyone, which will be sent out post haste-esque!

And now, the pics.

Holy Crap, He's Back!

That's right folks, after a solid month of postlessness, I'm back in action! A little explanation is in order, I guess. Like I had said previously, the end of July and beginning of August marked a joyful period of time known as intensives. Before intensives started, my head teacher John had mentioned that they were planning on doing a new class based on an interview that the kids had to do to get into the international schools here in Korea. It was a class only our branch had planned on doing, so there were no materials for the class and it would have to be entirely made up. Stupid me, I thought, "Awesome, a chance for a little creativity and chance to experiment with all this teacherliness!" So I jumped at the chance, not thinking what was in store for me. When about the 3rd week set in, I was getting so exhausted at the end of the week that death sounded like sweet release. But anyways, I made it through, and after a couple of weeks of recovery time, I feel much more like normal Erick, whatever that might entail.

Things are going well here; it's a new term, and though I definitely miss things about the last term quite a bit still, it's onward and upward! I'm teaching a new set of classes that I wasn't previously trained on, so it's been a learning experience, but apparently people think that I'm up for it, so I take that as some sort of good sign (right?). I'm working Saturdays now, which kinda sucks since I don't really have a solid couple of days off anymore, but it's one class and not something very unheard of here in Korea, so it's fine. I've got a gym membership and have been trying to get into a more healthy routine instead of staying up super late every night going out and waking up groggy and mopey.

We went to the beach yesterday, which was fun except for being there for 5 hours and getting a nice burn victim red on my skin. In Korea, there's a specific beach season that starts at some unknown (to me, at least) date somewhere towards the end of June and lasts through August. It finally ended this weekend completely, which is fantastic for a number of reasons. First of all, let's outline a typical beach visit, Korean-style: one first gets fully dressed, pants and hat and whatnot, and heads over with the fam. When one gets there (Haeundai is the nicest one, but there are a couple others that are not quite so bad/nice), he/she proceeds to swim through a veritable sea of people to the beach. How does one know where the beach is? Why, where the perfect row after row of umbrellas are, of course! Silly me, why would I want to see the sand? If one wants to jump in the water, one should grab a yellow intertube or just walk right in with the shoulder to shoulder wall of swimmers that crowd the shallow end. Why not go out deeper? Because there is a line about 15 feet out where no one can cross, under penalty of incessant whistling from one of the now-present lifeguards that never seem to leave the makeshift towers where they sit. And of course, don't think to have any fun while on the beach, as any kinda of ball or enjoyment is prohibited. So now that that's over, the beach is a much more pleasurable experience.

Lately, the other teachers at our branch have been hanging out altogether much more. Sadly, we lost two teachers after the end of this term, but then we just got two more. They're pretty cool guys, and we've gotten to bring them out and show them around more. We've also become known in the area for being a branch that sticks together, like a teacher gang except without the drugs and guns and murder (ok, maybe a little of each...). I've developed a few favorite haunts around the Busan area, so here's a list for yall.

Seomyeon area (where I live):
Dakgalbi restaurant (right across from the Lotte department store): One of the first places we ever went out to when we first got here, Dan and I love this place despite it being not very typical Korean food. Basically, it's fried rice and chicken that are made right in front of you at the table. But what really makes it is the cheese. That's right, they add cheese to the middle, and it's amazing! A favorite after-work haunt.

Mandu place (next door to the dakgalbi place): Mandu is Korean dumplings and you can find them all over the place, but this place is the best I've found yet. It's a typical Korean place; you go in and grab a table, and they feed you quick so you can be up and out of there with little time for pleasantries. Boiled and fried are the best, and the jajangmyung (brown noodles, Chinese-style) is pretty damn good too. Another favorite work place.

Yakisoba restaurant (near the big cross street, between a bakery and a bar called Girl and Beer): A relatively new find for us, this place has some delicious Japanese-style BBQ. Korea is also big on set meals, which means you pay a larger amount for a variety of food to share with everyone at the table. This place has some great sets, and they have Asahi on tap!

Guri bar (new place, hidden in the mean streets): The first bar I came to here in Busan, it just reopened at a new location. The place is pretty chill, and the owner knows us all, which is cool. Dan thinks it may be mob-owned because of how the other bartenders talk to the owner guy, but I dunno.

Gwangalli beach area:
Thursday party (ummm, on the beach? About halfway down): Somehow, we always seem to end up at this bar on the weekend. A lot of the foreigners in the area meet there, especially the teachers, so you see a lot of people you know. Also, it's right across the street from the beach, so you can play around on the sand and buy some fireworks for a nice Roman candle fight. Just try not to fire into the street; people don't seem to appreciate it.

Haeundai beach area:
OPS bakery (side street between the beach and subway stop): A delicious Western-style bakery that's a must when you're hanging out at the beach all day. They have nice sandwiches, amazing chocolate croissants, and fantastic raspberry smoothies. However, they only seem to have two cds that they play incessantly: Mariah Carey and Maroon 5.

Mexican place (down an alley off the OPS street): Supposedly the only decent Mexican place in the Busan area (sez everyone else, I haven't tested other places yet), the owner used to live in Southern California and has supplies shipped in to make pretty damn good burritos and tacos and whatnot. You only ever see foreigners there, but they can be lined up waiting outside. Another must for the beach, though word is that they're moving to Seomyeon and will be shutting down soon. So pack it in now!


That's about it for now. I'll be updating much more regularly again, so until then!