I went home... to Ontario at least - which is home for me, but in a way Pohang has become home too. I've decided that a person can have more than one home. There's certainly more to say about this idea of home, but I'll leave it at that for now.
The trip was good. I got to see all of my family members and spend quality time with them despite it being a short trip. I'm returning to Pohang with the fresh reminder that I am loved - what more could you want from a trip home.
But in this blog I want to tell you about two experiences I had in airports while travelling. First of all, I really like airports, and always have. It has been said that you can learn a lot about someone just by looking at them. In an airport, you can look at a whole host of different people. That's why I like airports.
The first experience happened on my way to Canada, in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. I had some time to walk around the airport and pretty quickly I started to recognize that I had been there before. I thought about it and remembered that I had been to this airport with a group of Calvin students on our way to Belize for a January interim class in 2007. That was an awesome trip with awesome people and I remember distinctly where our group had sat down in the airport to wait for our flight. Remembering this trip is always fun for me and being in a place where our group had once been made it even cooler. I couldn't help but march over to the place where our group had sat over four years ago, half expecting some of our group members to still be sitting there waiting, just like we had been. Isn't it interesting how we associate memory with place.
The second experience came on my trip back to Korea, in the Chicago O'Hare airport. As I was walking to the food court to buy something to eat, I passed a woman sitting at a table skyping with someone on her ipad, right in the middle of a busy airport. This probably shouldn't have been such a surprising experience for me, given the age that we live in, but it was. The ability to see and talk in present time to a person who is somewhere completely different has always astounded me somewhat, and this woman was doing it with a 20-by-15cm, hand-held slab of plastic, glass and wires! What's more is that, in complete contrast to this experience, I am still reading essays by Wendell Berry in What Are People For? and in one of his essays, which I read on this trip, he writes about why he doesn't own a computer. To be true, Berry wrote this essay in 1987 (I wonder if he still doesn't own a computer), but I appreciate his argument against the continuing 'advancement' of technology none the less. It makes me wonder if having the ability to see and talk to someone almost anywhere at almost any time is actually progress. Do iphones, ipads, Kindles, and, essentially, computers make us into better people? I realize that these questions open up a big can of worms, but I think our society needs to open this can and to ask those worms these sorts of questions. If you have any knowledge on the topic let me know.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A Korean Year in Review
So I did what I set out to do: live and teach in Korea for a year. And now I'm going home... No, not for good. I've signed another contract that'll keep me here until next June. I'm just going home for a quick 10 day visit. But before I leave, I thought I'd commemorate my one year anniversary by looking back on the best parts of the year.
1. My first kindergarten class: My kindergarten class that I joined when I first came, the one I had before my current class, was surely the best class ever. My kids were brilliant, and I'm not from the U.K. so I don't use that word too often. I had a lot of fun teaching them. My current class has a lot of character and I love them too, but they stress me out so much more than the other class did.
2. Joyful Church: This is the name of the small congregation that meets at 2:00 on Sundays for an English service, which I have semi-regularly attended. Every time I go, I'm thankful for it. And I've gotten to know some pretty cool people from it.
3. Soccer: Both our weekly Tuesday night futsal games and being part of the foreigner team have been a consistent highlight for me this year. It keeps me active, I hang out with great guys, and I love it.
4. Scooting: I'm pretty sure I've expressed my joy in scooting enough in my blog, but I'll just do it again. It's so great. Around Pohang, I save so much from not taking a taxi, and I love to explore new areas of the city when I get the chance. I can't wait for our next trip into the mountains.
5. Snow Days: We had three of four of them, and they were just lovely.
6. Vietnam: It was an awesome trip. I'd love to go back to see more of it sometime. I'll never forget the crazy triffic and the constant chaos of the intersections, nor the beauty of Halong Bay.
7. Tilt: The bar. It's been a good place to hang out on quiet nights, and a good place to dance on loud nights.
8. The Jazz Bar: So relaxing.
9. Pohang Steelers games: They always turn out to be fun games to watch. And we usually get a good group of people to watch them.
10. My drum: I love it. And I loved playing it. I've been lucky to have the chance to jam with cool people here.
14. Buffet Lady: Every day for lunch we walk down the road to a buffet place run by this very cool woman who makes very Korean food which is very good.
12. My parents' visit: It was not long enough, but it was a great week. Having my parents come here and showing them around made this a cool place to be.
13. Alisa coming: I've really come to appreciate her being here. She's settled in so quickly, it's almost as if she's been here the whole time.
14. Japan: One great weekend full of excitement, worry, and an awesome boat ride.
15. The beach: I didn't think I'd like living on the coast as much as I do. Volleyball on the beach is the perfect summer activity.
16. Building relationships: There are some great people here and I've made some relationships that will surely last after my time here.
17. Learning about Korea: It's just really cool to be in a totally different country with a totally different culture. I love the funny little oddities that foreigners don't really understand.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
P.S. Next week, I will probably not post a blog as I will be camping with my family.
1. My first kindergarten class: My kindergarten class that I joined when I first came, the one I had before my current class, was surely the best class ever. My kids were brilliant, and I'm not from the U.K. so I don't use that word too often. I had a lot of fun teaching them. My current class has a lot of character and I love them too, but they stress me out so much more than the other class did.
2. Joyful Church: This is the name of the small congregation that meets at 2:00 on Sundays for an English service, which I have semi-regularly attended. Every time I go, I'm thankful for it. And I've gotten to know some pretty cool people from it.
3. Soccer: Both our weekly Tuesday night futsal games and being part of the foreigner team have been a consistent highlight for me this year. It keeps me active, I hang out with great guys, and I love it.
4. Scooting: I'm pretty sure I've expressed my joy in scooting enough in my blog, but I'll just do it again. It's so great. Around Pohang, I save so much from not taking a taxi, and I love to explore new areas of the city when I get the chance. I can't wait for our next trip into the mountains.
5. Snow Days: We had three of four of them, and they were just lovely.
6. Vietnam: It was an awesome trip. I'd love to go back to see more of it sometime. I'll never forget the crazy triffic and the constant chaos of the intersections, nor the beauty of Halong Bay.
7. Tilt: The bar. It's been a good place to hang out on quiet nights, and a good place to dance on loud nights.
8. The Jazz Bar: So relaxing.
9. Pohang Steelers games: They always turn out to be fun games to watch. And we usually get a good group of people to watch them.
10. My drum: I love it. And I loved playing it. I've been lucky to have the chance to jam with cool people here.
14. Buffet Lady: Every day for lunch we walk down the road to a buffet place run by this very cool woman who makes very Korean food which is very good.
12. My parents' visit: It was not long enough, but it was a great week. Having my parents come here and showing them around made this a cool place to be.
13. Alisa coming: I've really come to appreciate her being here. She's settled in so quickly, it's almost as if she's been here the whole time.
14. Japan: One great weekend full of excitement, worry, and an awesome boat ride.
15. The beach: I didn't think I'd like living on the coast as much as I do. Volleyball on the beach is the perfect summer activity.
16. Building relationships: There are some great people here and I've made some relationships that will surely last after my time here.
17. Learning about Korea: It's just really cool to be in a totally different country with a totally different culture. I love the funny little oddities that foreigners don't really understand.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
P.S. Next week, I will probably not post a blog as I will be camping with my family.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Mudfest
Have you every heard of hurling? No, not the slang for throwing up - the national sport of Ireland. It's sort of a mix between soccer and hockey, but it has been played for over 3000 years. I heard about it from Peter, and Irish friend of mine. Something that I've come to appreciate here is the chance to have friends from all over the world.
This past weekend was mudfest. What's mudfest you ask? Let me enlighten you...
Mudfest is an annual festival of mud held in the coastal city of Boryeong and is attended by seemingly all of the foreign population in Korea. Mudfest is craziness. Here's how it went:
Boryeong is on the west coast of Korea so to get there we needed to take a 4 hour bus drive across the country. The plan was to get a really early start on Saturday morning... like 4:30 am early! (some people here typically go to bed around that time Saturday morning). So around 4:30 am about 100 of us congregate in an empty parking lot, board our two coach buses, wait for the one guy who slept through his alarm, and head out of Pohang.
Now I've written a little about buses in Korea. And I've written a little about noribong (singing rooms) in Korea. But I haven't yet mentioned noribong buses. This is because I hadn't experienced them before, not until I went to mudfest that is. So this bus has a karaoke (noribong) machine hooked up to the TV at the front of the bus so that at 8:00 in the morning, we can sing our hearts out on our way to mudfest - which is what we did.
When we arrived in Boryeong, instead of going straight to mudfest central, our organizers had planned to have our own personal Mud Olympics. So, ready to start the muddy craziness, we park, divide into teams, and walk out onto a mudflat that is wide open in the early afternoon while the tide is out. Well, while the games were a lot of fun and quite crazy, our retreat from the mudflat was much more crazy and much less fun. To get to the open area of mud we had to walk gingerly over a couple meters of rocks covered in sharp muscle shells. Heading out to the mud, while the tide was out, this was done without too much difficulty. But, after an hour or two, before we had finished all our games, the tide started to come in, and it came fast. In no time we found ourselves ankle deep in water, rushing to, unsuccessfully, locate our shoes and sandals, and hobbling back over these rocks covered in sharp shells which were now invisible under a foot of muddy water. I don't think any of us made it out without minor cuts on our feet. An interesting start to mudfest.
Wet, muddy, and limping we got back on the buses and headed to where the real mudfest was happening, Daecheon beach. Now, I've heard that the city of Boryeong, which isn't too small of a town, makes about 50% of it's profits on the two weekends of mudfest alone. After seeing mudfest for myself, I don't doubt it. The place was covered in literally millions of foreigners. The area around the beach is purely hotels and minbaks (cheap accommodation houses), which are most likely empty the rest of the year. And the restaurants and temporary food tents must make a killing during the two weeks. It was just so full of people.
After dumping our our stuff in our minbak, grabbing something to eat, we braved the centre of mudfest. The main attraction of mudfest is the designated carnival area full of inflated obstacle courses covered in mud. Apparently, mudfest began as a way to advertise the cosmetics that are made using the special type of mud that they have in Boryeong. So the mud that everyone gets covered in is actually a really nice clay-like mud that, potentially, is very good for your skin. Around this carnival area are stations where you can cover yourself in mud or paint yourself with coloured mud. And when you go on one of the inflated obstacle courses, you get coated in mud.
For me, this was surely the highlight of the trip. It was just so unique to be in a place where the sole purpose is to cover yourself in mud and join in the fun. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour in this carnival area before it closed. So we walked down to the beach, which was absolutely packed, and swam around a little. We also had a chance to walk around the beach area...
We stayed until Sunday afternoon and then headed back to Pohang. The return trip was much quieter, no singing, everyone needed to catch up on sleep.
This summary certainly doesn't give you all the details, but it maybe gives you an idea of what mudfest was like. Oh, one more thing: alcohol might have been involved ... even at 8:00 in the morning on the noribong bus ...
Bonus Material: The night before mudfest Alisa, Jane, Japan Dan, Eddie and I joined Canadian Dan and Natasha for dinner. We had 'Shabu Shabu' - beef that you cook in a hot soupy broth in front of you. It was delicious. And, the restaurant had play place that some of us couldn't resist.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
This past weekend was mudfest. What's mudfest you ask? Let me enlighten you...
 |
| peace, love, mud |
Boryeong is on the west coast of Korea so to get there we needed to take a 4 hour bus drive across the country. The plan was to get a really early start on Saturday morning... like 4:30 am early! (some people here typically go to bed around that time Saturday morning). So around 4:30 am about 100 of us congregate in an empty parking lot, board our two coach buses, wait for the one guy who slept through his alarm, and head out of Pohang.
Now I've written a little about buses in Korea. And I've written a little about noribong (singing rooms) in Korea. But I haven't yet mentioned noribong buses. This is because I hadn't experienced them before, not until I went to mudfest that is. So this bus has a karaoke (noribong) machine hooked up to the TV at the front of the bus so that at 8:00 in the morning, we can sing our hearts out on our way to mudfest - which is what we did.
When we arrived in Boryeong, instead of going straight to mudfest central, our organizers had planned to have our own personal Mud Olympics. So, ready to start the muddy craziness, we park, divide into teams, and walk out onto a mudflat that is wide open in the early afternoon while the tide is out. Well, while the games were a lot of fun and quite crazy, our retreat from the mudflat was much more crazy and much less fun. To get to the open area of mud we had to walk gingerly over a couple meters of rocks covered in sharp muscle shells. Heading out to the mud, while the tide was out, this was done without too much difficulty. But, after an hour or two, before we had finished all our games, the tide started to come in, and it came fast. In no time we found ourselves ankle deep in water, rushing to, unsuccessfully, locate our shoes and sandals, and hobbling back over these rocks covered in sharp shells which were now invisible under a foot of muddy water. I don't think any of us made it out without minor cuts on our feet. An interesting start to mudfest.
Wet, muddy, and limping we got back on the buses and headed to where the real mudfest was happening, Daecheon beach. Now, I've heard that the city of Boryeong, which isn't too small of a town, makes about 50% of it's profits on the two weekends of mudfest alone. After seeing mudfest for myself, I don't doubt it. The place was covered in literally millions of foreigners. The area around the beach is purely hotels and minbaks (cheap accommodation houses), which are most likely empty the rest of the year. And the restaurants and temporary food tents must make a killing during the two weeks. It was just so full of people.
After dumping our our stuff in our minbak, grabbing something to eat, we braved the centre of mudfest. The main attraction of mudfest is the designated carnival area full of inflated obstacle courses covered in mud. Apparently, mudfest began as a way to advertise the cosmetics that are made using the special type of mud that they have in Boryeong. So the mud that everyone gets covered in is actually a really nice clay-like mud that, potentially, is very good for your skin. Around this carnival area are stations where you can cover yourself in mud or paint yourself with coloured mud. And when you go on one of the inflated obstacle courses, you get coated in mud.
For me, this was surely the highlight of the trip. It was just so unique to be in a place where the sole purpose is to cover yourself in mud and join in the fun. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour in this carnival area before it closed. So we walked down to the beach, which was absolutely packed, and swam around a little. We also had a chance to walk around the beach area...
 | ||
| .. which of course had specifically made picture taking areas |
This summary certainly doesn't give you all the details, but it maybe gives you an idea of what mudfest was like. Oh, one more thing: alcohol might have been involved ... even at 8:00 in the morning on the noribong bus ...
Bonus Material: The night before mudfest Alisa, Jane, Japan Dan, Eddie and I joined Canadian Dan and Natasha for dinner. We had 'Shabu Shabu' - beef that you cook in a hot soupy broth in front of you. It was delicious. And, the restaurant had play place that some of us couldn't resist.
 |
| the ones who couldn't resist |
Thanks for reading,
Michael
Thursday, July 14, 2011
I've written about education in Korea earlier, but because it's flabbergasting to me and because I'm a part of it, I'm writing about it again.
I have just started a debate class with my grade sixers and our first topic is whether or not the Korean government should control the cost of privately owned academies (hagwons). One of the articles we read in researching this topic argues that the average Korean family cannot afford the cost of private education in Korea and this creates an unfair separation between the students who come from families who can afford it and those from families who can't. It mentions one student who's family pays $280 per week for his academies. It claims that Korean families spend more of their personal income on education than any county in the world and that the Korean government spends less money per pupil than other countries with similar economies.
A second article, against government regulations of hagwon tuition, argues that private education is a business and the business of hagwons give Korean families a choice of where to send their children and therefore should not be controlled by the government.
My hagwon fits right into this debate. The families that send their children to Poly are all quite well off. I don't know the tuition of our school, but I have heard that it is surprisingly high. But what I find the most astounding about education in Korea is just how much it permeates students' lives. The grade six students in this debate class come to Poly at 5:20 and stay until 7:20. Then they go off to other hagwons. I've heard many middle school and high school students don't finish taking classes until around 11:00pm. And then they still have homework to do! What's more, often families spend so much on their child's education that they don't have extra to spend on special trips during vacations. So children spend their time off at home, probably studying.
What I've learned is that all of this educational craziness is driven by competition. There is so much pressure in Korea for students to get into a good university and to get a high paying job. So much that they spend their whole childhood trying to reach this dream. If you ask any of my kindergarten students what they want to be when they grow up there's a good chance that the answer will be either a doctor or a dentist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a doctor or a dentist. I think my students are brilliant and could be doctors or dentists if they really want to be. I just couldn't have imagined myself wanting to be a doctor when I was in kindergarten. At that age, I wanted to be a garbage man. I think it's sad that children are brought up with this competitive mindset at such an early age.
So what are the outcomes of this competitive, pressure filled education system? Most likely a positive outcome is a well educated work force. No doubt, Korean students know a lot. But a negative correlation, if not outcome, is Korea's high suicide rate. According to wikipedia, South Korea has the second highest suicide rate out of all countries. I think the Korean government and the Korean people need to weigh the pros and cons.
Tonight I saw the final movie in the Harry Potter saga. I liked it.
Thanks for reading.
Michael
I have just started a debate class with my grade sixers and our first topic is whether or not the Korean government should control the cost of privately owned academies (hagwons). One of the articles we read in researching this topic argues that the average Korean family cannot afford the cost of private education in Korea and this creates an unfair separation between the students who come from families who can afford it and those from families who can't. It mentions one student who's family pays $280 per week for his academies. It claims that Korean families spend more of their personal income on education than any county in the world and that the Korean government spends less money per pupil than other countries with similar economies.
A second article, against government regulations of hagwon tuition, argues that private education is a business and the business of hagwons give Korean families a choice of where to send their children and therefore should not be controlled by the government.
My hagwon fits right into this debate. The families that send their children to Poly are all quite well off. I don't know the tuition of our school, but I have heard that it is surprisingly high. But what I find the most astounding about education in Korea is just how much it permeates students' lives. The grade six students in this debate class come to Poly at 5:20 and stay until 7:20. Then they go off to other hagwons. I've heard many middle school and high school students don't finish taking classes until around 11:00pm. And then they still have homework to do! What's more, often families spend so much on their child's education that they don't have extra to spend on special trips during vacations. So children spend their time off at home, probably studying.
What I've learned is that all of this educational craziness is driven by competition. There is so much pressure in Korea for students to get into a good university and to get a high paying job. So much that they spend their whole childhood trying to reach this dream. If you ask any of my kindergarten students what they want to be when they grow up there's a good chance that the answer will be either a doctor or a dentist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a doctor or a dentist. I think my students are brilliant and could be doctors or dentists if they really want to be. I just couldn't have imagined myself wanting to be a doctor when I was in kindergarten. At that age, I wanted to be a garbage man. I think it's sad that children are brought up with this competitive mindset at such an early age.
So what are the outcomes of this competitive, pressure filled education system? Most likely a positive outcome is a well educated work force. No doubt, Korean students know a lot. But a negative correlation, if not outcome, is Korea's high suicide rate. According to wikipedia, South Korea has the second highest suicide rate out of all countries. I think the Korean government and the Korean people need to weigh the pros and cons.
Tonight I saw the final movie in the Harry Potter saga. I liked it.
Thanks for reading.
Michael
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Fiftieth
This past Sunday our foreigner's soccer team finished our season. Going into Sunday's game we we had played 11 games and lost 11 games. We weren't a bad team but somehow we always managed to lose. Every game we knew we had a chance and I would hope that this game would be the turning point for us. And every game those hopes were dashed. So going into our last game, knowing this was our last chance, we were determined not to lose.
The game was close. Both teams had good chances. Then, midway through the first half, Sean, another Canadian, put us ahead 1 - 0 with a nice shot into the corner. We held onto our lead until halftime. We were pretty pumped, this being the first time we held a lead for more than five minutes. The game went on and still our defence (of which I'm a part) kept them from scoring. Time was running out and we knew it. We were getting a bit frantic, just trying to keep the ball away from our goal. One minute left and they had a throw-in deep in our half ... Luke heads it away but not clear ... a header puts it back in our box ... a wild shot ... the ball arcs toward the net ... and falls just inside the goal post. Game over. We tied 1 - 1 on the last play of the game. Disappointing, but hey, we didn't lose.
I've noticed something interesting about the language of my foreign friends and I when we refer to people living in Korea. Instead of talking about them as 'people' we call them 'Koreans'. I might be reading too much into this, but I find it funny that when we're telling a story, we often feel the need to distinguish someone as a 'Korean person' or as a 'Korean man' instead of simply a 'man' for example. And it goes the other way as well. The Korean word for foreigner is 'waygook', which is a word I've often heard in reference to myself or other foreigners. I wonder how much this type of language supports the 'us-and-them' mentality and encourages the separation between cultures. But maybe I hear these terms being used more often because of the homogeneity of the area we're in. Compared to my experience, I find Korea, Pohang in particular, to have a low level of cultural diversity. Foreigners tend to stand out here. Maybe in more diverse places terms for 'foreigner' become arbitrary and are used less. Interesting anyway.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
The game was close. Both teams had good chances. Then, midway through the first half, Sean, another Canadian, put us ahead 1 - 0 with a nice shot into the corner. We held onto our lead until halftime. We were pretty pumped, this being the first time we held a lead for more than five minutes. The game went on and still our defence (of which I'm a part) kept them from scoring. Time was running out and we knew it. We were getting a bit frantic, just trying to keep the ball away from our goal. One minute left and they had a throw-in deep in our half ... Luke heads it away but not clear ... a header puts it back in our box ... a wild shot ... the ball arcs toward the net ... and falls just inside the goal post. Game over. We tied 1 - 1 on the last play of the game. Disappointing, but hey, we didn't lose.
I've noticed something interesting about the language of my foreign friends and I when we refer to people living in Korea. Instead of talking about them as 'people' we call them 'Koreans'. I might be reading too much into this, but I find it funny that when we're telling a story, we often feel the need to distinguish someone as a 'Korean person' or as a 'Korean man' instead of simply a 'man' for example. And it goes the other way as well. The Korean word for foreigner is 'waygook', which is a word I've often heard in reference to myself or other foreigners. I wonder how much this type of language supports the 'us-and-them' mentality and encourages the separation between cultures. But maybe I hear these terms being used more often because of the homogeneity of the area we're in. Compared to my experience, I find Korea, Pohang in particular, to have a low level of cultural diversity. Foreigners tend to stand out here. Maybe in more diverse places terms for 'foreigner' become arbitrary and are used less. Interesting anyway.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Japan in a Weekend
I have a friend here who we call Japan Dan. There are a lot of foreign teachers in Pohang who's names are Dan, so they've all adopted nicknames: Canadian Dan, Liverpool Dan, Average Dan, and Japan Dan, to name a few. Japan Dan is not really from Japan, he's from Texas, but he spent many of his growing up years in Japan because of his parents work. He's also taught English there for a number of years. So he speaks Japanese fluently. And he loves Japan. And he promised to take me to Japan.
From the sounds of it, the tsunami that hit Japan in March and the ensuing nuclear disaster has hurt it in a lot of ways, including its tourism. There is a ferry that travels from Busan to Fukuoka on a regular basis, and normally the price is around 200 dollars, but since the tsunami, the price has gone down to 90 dollars. When Dan saw this, he decided that this was our chance.
It turned out that quite a few others saw this as a good opportunity to visit Japan as well. There were 17 of us that boarded the ferry in Busan Saturday morning, including Alisa, Jane, Canadian Dan and his wife Natasha, who are from Ottawa. 2 hours and 55 minutes later we were standing on Japanese soil.
Now, I really had no idea what to expect Japan to be like. Naively, I pictured it to be somewhat similar to Korea. But I was very wrong. I'm surely generalizing, only having been in Japan for less than 36 hours and also having a limited Korean experience, but I couldn't help but be blown away by how different the two countries are. What I discovered to be true is that Japan is a more developed country than Korea. And this shouldn’t have surprised me. Korea hasn’t been a developed nation for a very long time. It has a unique history of wars and foreign occupations that it still is recovering from. While Japan, on the other hand, has a history of being a powerful country; of being the occupants, not the occupied. So I don’t mean to put Korea is a bad light by stating these differences. Korea has a lot of character and I like it a lot. But I found that I like Japan a lot too.
The first thing I noticed was how clean Fukuoka is. It might be the cleanest city I've been to. But more than being clean, I found Fukuoka to be a very well planned and well organized city. And this is a difference from Korean cities. A consistent frustration in Korea is the lack of garbage cans in public places – there aren’t any. So garbage often ends up on the ground. Also, with Pohang as my only real example, I haven’t found Korean cities to be particularly well planned out or nice to look at.
I noticed another major difference when we jumped on a bus to go downtown. The Japanese drive on the left side of the road! I totally didn’t see that coming. And while I’m on the subject of transportation and busses, I found the Japanese to be quite eco-friendly. Whenever our bus driver stopped at a red light, he would turn off the bus and then turn it on again when the light turned green. I thought that was pretty cool.
Also, I found Japanese people to be very friendly. Little things like a smile, eye contact, or a hello (konichiwa) seemed to be more common than in Korea and maybe other Asian countries as well.
Japanese food is different too (I expected it to be, but it’s a good intro to my story). We were all pretty hungry when we got off the ferry and Japan Dan had told us all about how good Japanese ramen was. Some of you might be thinking, “ramen? You mean noodles in water ramen? Like, midnight snack in college ramen?” That’s what I thought too when I first heard about it. But no, it’s not just noodles in water. Japanese ramen is delicious. The place we went to had a variety of ramens to choose from. Dan read the menu and one of the options was egg ramen. That sounded good to me so I ordered that. But what the word ‘egg’ means to many people in the world, doesn’t mean the same thing to others – at least not the cooks at this restaurant. What ‘egg’ meant to them was fish eggs – tiny little red ones. But not just fish eggs on their own – fish eggs inside a fish womb. I could describe the pink, veiny body part that I found in my soup or I could show you.
Afterwards, I opened the womb up and ate the eggs and they were actually really good. But certainly a new experience for me.
After lunch we took a train out of town to a spa which was very much like a Korean Jimjilbang. Then, hoping to find a temple, we took a beautiful walk in the rain through a rural neighbourhood up in the hills. We didn’t find the temple, but I really enjoyed the walk.
That evening, we had sushi for supper. You’d expect sushi in Japan to be good. And you’d be right. It was good sushi.
Later, after experiencing Fukuoka’s night life, we headed to our hostel and to bed – which wasn’t particularly easy – the going to bed part – because the owner of the hostel had given away some of our beds during the day. He still had some room left for us, but it meant that we had to cram nine of us into a very small room with four beds. And Alisa slept in a room with a group of Japanese girls who were having a birthday party. I think if you’re going to stay in hostels, you have to zero expectations. That’s kinda cool.
Sunday, we explored the city a little more. We found a nice temple-like building…
… shopped a little and then found ourselves in a place called Canal City. I had heard of it before the trip from some of my students, but I didn’t expect it to be such a spectacle. In this ‘courtyard’, surrounded by nicely architectured mall, were a canal, children playing in fountains, people sitting on beach chairs as if on vacation, and music. Upon further investigation, the music turned out to be a choreographed fountain show. It was impressive. The whole place seemed like a small wonderland.
But wait. So far this trip sounds like it was stress free. This was not true. Before the trip there were predictions of a typhoon in the area. Some of us were a little worried about how this might affect our trip and we joked about the fact that we could get stuck in Japan. I didn’t know much about the typhoon (or about our trip for that matter), so I just trusted that it would all work out. But then, Saturday evening, we got a call and were told that our return ferry was cancelled due to the weather. Now it looked like our jokes could turn into a reality. Instead of the ferry we were expecting to take, we were given the option to take another one instead – one that left later and moved much slower and would arrive in Busan on Monday morning. It was either this or flying home, which would have cost a lot more. We chose the ferry. Those of us who had to be at school Monday morning called our directors to let them know we would most likely be a little late to school, and we wondered and worried about how this would all work out.
It turned out to work out wonderfully. We took a bus to another city on the coast and then boarded the biggest boat I’ve ever been on. It was smaller than a regular cruise ship, but large enough to be pretty impressive. And we made the most of it. We stood on the deck and watched the beauty of the Japanese coast go by; we ate a scrumptious dinner; we took showers and relaxed in the spa; and, best of all, we played an awesome game of hide-and-go-seek and sardines. Picture this: playing hide-and-go-seek on a big boat in the East Sea in a Typhoon – pretty cool.
There are many details that are left out, but this hopefully gives you an idea of our wonderful, crazy trip to Japan.
'Arigato gozaimasu' -Thank you for reading,
Michael
From the sounds of it, the tsunami that hit Japan in March and the ensuing nuclear disaster has hurt it in a lot of ways, including its tourism. There is a ferry that travels from Busan to Fukuoka on a regular basis, and normally the price is around 200 dollars, but since the tsunami, the price has gone down to 90 dollars. When Dan saw this, he decided that this was our chance.
It turned out that quite a few others saw this as a good opportunity to visit Japan as well. There were 17 of us that boarded the ferry in Busan Saturday morning, including Alisa, Jane, Canadian Dan and his wife Natasha, who are from Ottawa. 2 hours and 55 minutes later we were standing on Japanese soil.
Now, I really had no idea what to expect Japan to be like. Naively, I pictured it to be somewhat similar to Korea. But I was very wrong. I'm surely generalizing, only having been in Japan for less than 36 hours and also having a limited Korean experience, but I couldn't help but be blown away by how different the two countries are. What I discovered to be true is that Japan is a more developed country than Korea. And this shouldn’t have surprised me. Korea hasn’t been a developed nation for a very long time. It has a unique history of wars and foreign occupations that it still is recovering from. While Japan, on the other hand, has a history of being a powerful country; of being the occupants, not the occupied. So I don’t mean to put Korea is a bad light by stating these differences. Korea has a lot of character and I like it a lot. But I found that I like Japan a lot too.
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| Coming into Japan |
I noticed another major difference when we jumped on a bus to go downtown. The Japanese drive on the left side of the road! I totally didn’t see that coming. And while I’m on the subject of transportation and busses, I found the Japanese to be quite eco-friendly. Whenever our bus driver stopped at a red light, he would turn off the bus and then turn it on again when the light turned green. I thought that was pretty cool.
Also, I found Japanese people to be very friendly. Little things like a smile, eye contact, or a hello (konichiwa) seemed to be more common than in Korea and maybe other Asian countries as well.
Japanese food is different too (I expected it to be, but it’s a good intro to my story). We were all pretty hungry when we got off the ferry and Japan Dan had told us all about how good Japanese ramen was. Some of you might be thinking, “ramen? You mean noodles in water ramen? Like, midnight snack in college ramen?” That’s what I thought too when I first heard about it. But no, it’s not just noodles in water. Japanese ramen is delicious. The place we went to had a variety of ramens to choose from. Dan read the menu and one of the options was egg ramen. That sounded good to me so I ordered that. But what the word ‘egg’ means to many people in the world, doesn’t mean the same thing to others – at least not the cooks at this restaurant. What ‘egg’ meant to them was fish eggs – tiny little red ones. But not just fish eggs on their own – fish eggs inside a fish womb. I could describe the pink, veiny body part that I found in my soup or I could show you.
Afterwards, I opened the womb up and ate the eggs and they were actually really good. But certainly a new experience for me.
After lunch we took a train out of town to a spa which was very much like a Korean Jimjilbang. Then, hoping to find a temple, we took a beautiful walk in the rain through a rural neighbourhood up in the hills. We didn’t find the temple, but I really enjoyed the walk.
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| beautiful bamboo |
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| Cars in Japan are different as well |
That evening, we had sushi for supper. You’d expect sushi in Japan to be good. And you’d be right. It was good sushi.
Later, after experiencing Fukuoka’s night life, we headed to our hostel and to bed – which wasn’t particularly easy – the going to bed part – because the owner of the hostel had given away some of our beds during the day. He still had some room left for us, but it meant that we had to cram nine of us into a very small room with four beds. And Alisa slept in a room with a group of Japanese girls who were having a birthday party. I think if you’re going to stay in hostels, you have to zero expectations. That’s kinda cool.
Sunday, we explored the city a little more. We found a nice temple-like building…
 |
| a massive wooden 'float' that a large group of people carry on their sholders at a special celebration |
But wait. So far this trip sounds like it was stress free. This was not true. Before the trip there were predictions of a typhoon in the area. Some of us were a little worried about how this might affect our trip and we joked about the fact that we could get stuck in Japan. I didn’t know much about the typhoon (or about our trip for that matter), so I just trusted that it would all work out. But then, Saturday evening, we got a call and were told that our return ferry was cancelled due to the weather. Now it looked like our jokes could turn into a reality. Instead of the ferry we were expecting to take, we were given the option to take another one instead – one that left later and moved much slower and would arrive in Busan on Monday morning. It was either this or flying home, which would have cost a lot more. We chose the ferry. Those of us who had to be at school Monday morning called our directors to let them know we would most likely be a little late to school, and we wondered and worried about how this would all work out.
It turned out to work out wonderfully. We took a bus to another city on the coast and then boarded the biggest boat I’ve ever been on. It was smaller than a regular cruise ship, but large enough to be pretty impressive. And we made the most of it. We stood on the deck and watched the beauty of the Japanese coast go by; we ate a scrumptious dinner; we took showers and relaxed in the spa; and, best of all, we played an awesome game of hide-and-go-seek and sardines. Picture this: playing hide-and-go-seek on a big boat in the East Sea in a Typhoon – pretty cool.
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| This is a small model of the ferry we took. |
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| The Titanic-esk staircase |
'Arigato gozaimasu' -Thank you for reading,
Michael
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Korean Language uses the Hangul alphabet, which was created in 1444. Before it's creation, Korean was written using Chinese characters. Then king Sejong, the creator of Hangul, decided that since Korean was a language of its own, it should have it's own alphabet. As with many other things that distinguish them from China or Japan, Koreans are quite proud of their language.
Korean is one of the five most difficult languages to learn for Native English speakers - another excuse for us foreign teachers who haven't gotten past 100 words. But Hangul, the written form of Korean, is not difficult to learn. I can now sound out most of the signs around Pohang; understanding them is another thing. Quite a few Korean words, though, are English words that have been Hangul-isized. Although, because Hangul is organized into syllabic blocks with no consonant blends, many of these English words gain a couple of syllables in the transition. So words like bus, ski, sports, news, TV, toast, and juice are bus-uh, suh-ki, suh-po-chuh, nyu-suh, ti-buh-i, toe-suh-tuh and ju-suh in Korean. When us foreign teachers don't know a word in Korean, which is all the time, we just guess by saying the word in English and adding an 'uh' at the end.
Funny things happen also when English names are converted into Korean. The English 'r' sound isn't a part of the Korean language so we have some students with some pretty funny names: 'Scarlet' has become 'Scallet', 'Laura' has become 'La la', and 'Ruby' has become 'Luby'. I don't even notice anymore. If I ever meet another Ruby, she'll forever be Luby to me.
When I think about what to blog about each week, I usually try to talk about something that describes my experience here in Korea. Then, it occurred to me that a big part of my experience here is me writing my blog - it's certainly on my mind a lot. So I decided to blog about my blog. Overall I think it's been a success. It's made me realize how much I like to write, and that's pretty cool. It also helps me to remember and internalize the experiences that I'm having. It's nice to have an account of things. It hasn't always been easy though. In some blogs, I'm really stretching for ideas - hopefully you can't tell. I can hardly believe that I've written 48 blogs so far. The funniest things is, a year ago I never would have thought that I would enjoy blogging. So that's one way I've changed I guess. I'm proud of my blog.
This weekend Alisa, Jane, and I were walking on the beach and this is what we found - so Korean:
Here are some examples of the summer, taken from my walk to school:
This weekend we're going to Japan!
Thanks for reading.
Michael
Korean is one of the five most difficult languages to learn for Native English speakers - another excuse for us foreign teachers who haven't gotten past 100 words. But Hangul, the written form of Korean, is not difficult to learn. I can now sound out most of the signs around Pohang; understanding them is another thing. Quite a few Korean words, though, are English words that have been Hangul-isized. Although, because Hangul is organized into syllabic blocks with no consonant blends, many of these English words gain a couple of syllables in the transition. So words like bus, ski, sports, news, TV, toast, and juice are bus-uh, suh-ki, suh-po-chuh, nyu-suh, ti-buh-i, toe-suh-tuh and ju-suh in Korean. When us foreign teachers don't know a word in Korean, which is all the time, we just guess by saying the word in English and adding an 'uh' at the end.
Funny things happen also when English names are converted into Korean. The English 'r' sound isn't a part of the Korean language so we have some students with some pretty funny names: 'Scarlet' has become 'Scallet', 'Laura' has become 'La la', and 'Ruby' has become 'Luby'. I don't even notice anymore. If I ever meet another Ruby, she'll forever be Luby to me.
When I think about what to blog about each week, I usually try to talk about something that describes my experience here in Korea. Then, it occurred to me that a big part of my experience here is me writing my blog - it's certainly on my mind a lot. So I decided to blog about my blog. Overall I think it's been a success. It's made me realize how much I like to write, and that's pretty cool. It also helps me to remember and internalize the experiences that I'm having. It's nice to have an account of things. It hasn't always been easy though. In some blogs, I'm really stretching for ideas - hopefully you can't tell. I can hardly believe that I've written 48 blogs so far. The funniest things is, a year ago I never would have thought that I would enjoy blogging. So that's one way I've changed I guess. I'm proud of my blog.
This weekend Alisa, Jane, and I were walking on the beach and this is what we found - so Korean:
Here are some examples of the summer, taken from my walk to school:
This weekend we're going to Japan!
Thanks for reading.
Michael
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