The Days Are Packed

Along with spring have come the rains.  Yesterday night I heard thunder for the first time in Korea - I'd missed it.  And the forecast for the rest of the week is more rain.  I don't mind the rain except when I'm getting soaked, driving my scooter to and from school with Alisa on the back so that she doesn't have to walk on her sore foot (did I mention she hurt her foot?  Pohang seems to have a negative effect on the health of foreign teachers.  My broken thumb is only one of many other recent injuries among the foreigner group.).

Along with spring has come Easter.  And, though it had the potential of going by without very much recognition on my part, it turned out to be a memorable one, thanks to some good friends and my new toaster oven.  A couple of weeks ago Teagan decided to buy a toaster oven off of G-market, the popular online store in Korea.  He said I could also get one for only fifty bucks, so I thought, why not?  But that was around the time that Alisa had just arrived and was living in my apartment, so it sat in it's box for a good week and a half, until this last weekend.

Jane is a very cool person from Sydney, Australia, and when she found out I had an oven, she was quite a bit more excited than I was.  She loves to cook, so it didn't take long until she found the chance to show me the capabilities of my new appliance - an Easter dinner in my apartment.  So, Saturday afternoon, Jane shows up with Sara, Gayle, a salad, a mac-and-cheese casserole, wine, and 2 small chickens.  An hour later, along with Alisa of course, we were eating the best home cooked meal I've had in months - on my small, uncomfortable, apartment floor of all places. To top it off, after dinner we played card games, which I think is the perfect thing to do after an Easter dinner.  It was surely the best time I've had in my apartment yet.

(Notice the wonderful curtains that mom made for me)

Early the next morning, the same group of us, along with Jonas, Sara's husband (who got me my djembe), drove out to Handong University for church.  Handong is a Christian university just outside of Pohang, that, even for the short time I was there, reminded me a little bit of Calvin.  There seems to be a good community there.  I enjoyed the service a lot.  Alisa and I even met a guy who went to our high school, HDCH, though much earlier than us.  Small world.

Then, in the afternoon, I joined my soccer team on a bus to Busan for our game.  We had been told that the team we were playing had had trouble finding a field to play on, and the one that they'd booked was up in the hills a little bit, which turned out to be exactly right.
Korea is hilly - rugged, it's been called - and something I've been amazed about in Busan is that the city just continues right up the slopes like waves hitting the rocks; reminiscent of cities in Central America I find. 

Somewhat like this.

So our bus got us as close to the field as it could, grinding it's gears up a pretty steep, yet still very populated, hill.  And then we had to hoof it the rest of the way, up one of the steepest slopes I've climbed, passing apartment buildings the whole way. And I'm wondering "how do people live on this?" and "how is there a soccer field up there?".  But there was a soccer field up there - a small one, but a soccer field.  Except, despite it's size, and despite being located on a steep hill, the fences around the field weren't that high.  This resulted in at least three lost balls during the game just from wayward kicks.  We lost the game as well.  But it was close, and more fun than other games we've had this season.

Outside of my good weekend, I've become very busy.  I should admit that my obligations are all commitments that I've chosen to take on, but I'm finding that I have very little free time just to relax.

But enough about me.  I promise that next week, I'll bring back another instalment of "Crazy Korean Culture with Mike".

Thanks for reading,
 Michael

Bonus: extra pictures from a field trip that our school took a couple of weeks ago to a nice place in Pohang:

The period of having my sister here with me has begun.  And it started with quite a bang, I'd say.  On Friday some good friends helped me welcome her properly with a good dinner of 'galbi' (beef), hang-out time on the beach, and Tilt afterwards, where we danced until the wee hours.  But that was only the beginning.  Saturday morning, well, not too early, we joined five others and scooted to GyeungJu!  GyeungJu isn't really far away, actually it's as close as it gets when it comes to cities nearby, but by scooter it took us almost an hour I'd say - which is a long time to be going 80 km/hr on a 125cc scooter.  We mostly took the highway on the way there because we missed the turn-off.  It was fun to be in a small biker gang, buzzin' down the highway.




Our biker gang: 2 scooters, 2 speed bikes, 1 moter bike, and a dirt bike. 

 

And there on the side of the road was a Petro-Can sign of all things... Don't ask me why.

When we got to GyeungJu we found it to be quite busy - full of people catching the last bit of the cherry blossoms.  But it was ok because the road we were going down was lined with cherry blossom trees.  We ended up at a popular lake surrounded by cherry trees and picture-happy Koreans.

We didn't take advantage of the opportunity to peddle around on duck boats.  Bummer.  Next time. 

Cherry blossoms - as promised.

Only in Korea would you find those old shopping mall kid rides just sitting outside the restaurant - they worked too.

We walked around for a bit, had dinner, and then headed back. But the trip home was the highlight.  This time we did take the back roads, which meandered through small towns, rice farms, and mountains.  It was a wonderful moment - scooting through the Korean countryside.  And it made me realize that though the cities often tend to be the attraction in Korea, the real beauty is in its rugged country.  I'm going to have to experience it as much of it as I can this summer.  So in the end, it was an awesome trip, and a great introduction for Alisa.

Of note: Saturday night, I was a part of a very intense soccer practice.  The background to this story is that our soccer team mostly sucks - we're 0 and 5.  So a couple of our better players are taking it upon themselves to get us all to practice more often.  So I was free and we were invited to join another group for a soccer practice - and it turned out to be quite the training session.  I think by the end of this season, I'll be a better soccer player than I've ever been, which is kinda cool.

Then, on Monday, Alisa started teaching.  She has a bit of a tough kindergarten class because they are all relatively new students to Poly school, so they just don't have the school mentality.  This is challenging Alisa to become more of a disciplinarian - a good lesson to learn.

Yesterday we went to the newly opened New York Cafe - a great little American food restaurant just down the street from Poly.  It's owned and operated by John Schneekloth, a good guy.  It was really good to eat a well made hamburger again.

Overall, I've found that having Alisa here has been much more stressful for me than I thought it'd be.  I never thought of myself to be too protective of her, but I find myself worrying about her whenever we're not together.  I'm also finding it hard to share her with others.  Selfishly, I want her to only be my friend.  And at school, I really want her to succeed and feel confident in her teaching, so I worry about her when she has difficult students.  And this is making me realize that, just like her, I'm learning a lot from her being here.  Don't misunderstand me though, I'm very happy she's here, it's going to be great to have a good friend here with me.  But it has made for a very tiring week.
And now it's late, and I need to get to bed.  So goodnight.

Thanks for reading.
Michael

Spring

(Sorry for the delay.  Sometimes the internet decides not to work in our apartment.)

Spring has sprung, and in Korea that means that the cherry blossoms have arrived. To me, it seemed like it happened over night. On Friday, nothing was noticeably different around town, but on Saturday morning it was like the colour of the whole place had changed. White blossoms are almost everywhere - with the exception of our neighbourhood (bummer) - and it has really transformed the city, and many peoples attitudes along with it (the grumbling about the length of the winter had been going on for a while). I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I promise to get some by next week. Though I've heard that the blossoms won't stay around much past then - a short, two-week beauty exhibit.
So last week I had mentioned that Alisa, my sister, is moving here, but I didn't mention that she's arriving this week Wednesday! I actually didn't know that she would be getting here so soon until late last week. And I also didn't mention that she'll be teaching at the very same school as me! We're going to be co-workers! The idea of her being here with me still hasn't sunk in, and won't, probably, until she gets here. When I came to Korea I never dreamt that a family member would follow. I'm really excited about showing her around Pohang and the places I've been, introducing her to my friends, and teaching her how to survive Poly School. I think she'll like it here.
I'm not sure, but I don't think that I have written yet about my experience eating live octopus. A while ago I joined some friends who were going to a seafood restaurant. There, we ordered and were served a plate of wriggling, juicy pieces of live octopus. It turns out that octopus tentacles continue moving well after they're severed from the rest of the body. Part of the fun was trying to pull them off of the plate - quite the suction they have. The advice is to chew them thoroughly so that they're all the way dead while they're sliding down your throat and can't hang on for dear life somewhere in the middle. It's truly a weird feeling to have something moving inside your mouth - and if you let it sit in your mouth without chewing it, it'll grab your tongue, and that's a crazy weird feeling. It turned out that I didn't think they tasted too great. And, I might be imagining it, but I thought I felt one of them grab my esophagus. So I only had a couple. More recently, I went to another place where we ate eel... dead eel. It was a lot more meaty than I'd imagined, and I liked the taste of it. I couldn't eat too much of it though because it was pretty filling, but I think I'd try it again given the chance.
For an interesting Korean culture fact, I'd like to mention a Korean superstition. In Korea, to write someone's name in red ink is to sentence them to death. I'm not sure what this superstition stems from (as with all superstitions pretty much), but it's possible that somewhere along Korean history they would write the names of the dead in red ink. But this is a hard one for foreign teachers in Korea because often, in North America, a teacher will use a red pen for marking, and writing short messages to students. Which is what I've done here, forgetting that, as I'm addressing my message to her, I'm unconsciously sending sweet little Ellen to her untimely death. Or, when one of my students is acting up in class I'll write their name on the board with one 'x' - three 'x's means I talk to the director. But if, in a moment of forgetfulness - which usually happens when I'm frustrated with a kid who's just not listening - I use a red board marker to write their name, it is met with giggles, gasps, and "teacher.. red.. death". And I have to apologize for condemning them to death instead of simply giving them a warning, and now I'm frustrated and flustered.

Thanks for reading.

Michael

I Have a Drum!

Jonas is a Ghanaian who lives down the road and is married to Sarah - they're both great people.  Jonas has just returned from Ghana, where he was for a while with his business, and guess what he brought back for me?!  A djembe!  I had asked him if he'd be able to get one for me, but I wasn't sure if he would.  But he did!  It's super cool.  I've wanted one for a while but never thought I'd be able to get a 'real' djembe, made in West Africa, from where they originate.  It's beautiful.  As djembes should be, it's carved from a single tree trunk (I wish I knew what kind of tree), with one end covered with a shaved and tightly-stretched animal skin (I'm guessing goat).  Then it has cool artistic carvings in the side.

I'm very excited about it.  Africa, in a way, has been in my mind recently.  I just finished reading the novel "What is the What" - a powerful story about a Sudanese 'lost boy' (if you haven't yet read it, you should sometime); Also, a couple days ago I watched "Blood Diamond" - a good, albeit holleywoodized, movie about the diamond trade in West Africa; I've been following the events of the North African revolutions; and I've talked to and heard stories from friends in Pohang who are from South Africa - but holding and playing this drum is surely the closest I've ever been to Africa.  I can almost smell the Ghana in it.

And, for another instalment of "Korean Culture with Michael" I'd like to talk about Rock-Paper-Scissors.  Rock-Paper-Scissors is booming in Korea - it's a big deal.  Except, in Korea, instead of rock-paper-scissors, it's "Kai-bai-bo".  My students use it multiple times a day: to decide who gets the best pencil, who should read first, or who gets the ball first in a soccer game, for example.  It's awesome as a teacher because whenever my students have a disagreement over something, I just tell them to rock-paper-scissors for it, and then there's no argument; rock-paper-scissors is the ultimate authority for them.  And it's not just a two-man game in Korea.  My students play with 4 people or more often, at the same time; then they have a couple of rounds to decide the winner (to be honest, I haven't completely figured out how it works).  What's more, Korea has even invented it's own variation of the game, called Muk-chi-ba.  I could try to explain it, but I also could just let wikipedia do it:

 - "This game starts with the usual game of gawi-bawi-bo. Once both parties have presented their hands, the hands are kept presented and the person who wins the gawi-bawi-bo match plays the offense for the first round. The player in the offense either changes or maintains his hand while simultaneously saying the corresponding name of the new hand. The opponent also changes or maintains his hand at the same time. The goal of the offense is to get the opponent's hand to be the same as his/her own. After one round, if the offensive player didn't succeed, the offense/defense is redetermined from the hands resulting from the previous round and the next round begins.  In real play, each round proceeds very fast, often one or two rounds a second."
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muk-chi-ba

It's confusing, but it makes sense to me because I've seen it in action.  It's pretty cool.  Who would've thunk it, rock-paper-scissors in Korea.

And for the promised answer to last week's secret (which many of you probably know already)..  My sister, Alisa, is moving to Pohang !!!

Thanks for reading,
Michael

This weekend was a good one.  On Friday I went to a Samgyepsal (pork) restaurant with some friends, and then we headed to... the Live Jazz Bar!  Now, Pohang certainly doesn't have the reputation that Seoul, Busan, or even Daegu has.  It's smaller and it's dominated by Posco, the huge steel factory that pollutes our air and water.  Changsong-dong, the neighborhood where we live is somewhat trashy - meaning there's lots of garbage on the ground, everywhere.  And I've even heard of Pohang being referred to as the armpit of Korea.  But despite these things, this city has slowly been growing on me more and more.  One reason for this is that there are these cool little spots in the area that I find quite interesting, cultural, or homely - like Jukto Market, or Bogyeongsa, or Bukbu beach, or Tilt, or the Live Jazz Bar!.  The Live Jazz Bar is a small bar on the third floor of one of the many multi-storied-multi-purposed-multi-business buildings in that line the streets and that I find characterize Korean cities well. 

This is a pretty good example

The lighting in the Live Jazz Bar is cozy; we sat on tall comfortable dinning chairs; and we were only one of two groups of people in there.  Then, around a quarter to ten, four guys stepped onto the small stage and started playing really good jazz music.  I've never really gotten into jazz, but whenever I hear it, it always reminds me of driving home at night - it's a good, comfortable feeling.  And these were good musicians, which doesn't really surprise me given most Koreans' talent for music.  One guy played the keyboard, another was on a smaller electric guitar, another played the saxophone, and the fourth, the owner of the bar, played a big bass Cello.  I'm not a musician at all so I'm usually quite mesmerized by people who can play a musical instrument well.  We sat and listened as they played for quite a while; Larina, my co-teacher who has a beautiful opera voice, was brave enough to sing for us all; and we went home having experienced another something new.

Saturday morning I was woken up by Kory, with whom I had made a scooter repair date for 9:30.  He knows a guy who fixes and sells scooters nearby and so he offered to help me take my scooter to the guy so he could take a look at it.  Which was great because Kory has a car... into which he thought we could fit the scooter somehow... and we did! somehow.  We squeezed as much of it as we could into the trunk and then with most of it hanging out, held on by bungee cords, we cautiously drove down to the scooter guy who didn't seem all that surprised by our transportation methods (We were probably not the first to move a busted scooter like that).  Well, the guy fiddled with it for a good hour, communicating with me through a friend who translated over the phone, and eventually decided that there must be something stuck inside the engine which would mean it would have to be disassembled.  That would have taken some time and money, and I had gone into the situation with the idea that trading the scooter in for a better one would be an option.  And that's what happened.  He showed me the one that he'd be willing to trade, gave me a good price, laughed at me when I tried to barter, took my money, and that was it.  I have a new scooter!  It feels nice to have the freedom of getting around whenever I need to.
And that was just the morning.  That afternoon a group got together for some beech baseball (which I'm hoping will become somewhat of a bi-weekly tradition around here).  Baseball was fun, but it was a little too cold and we didn't have too many people, so after a while we decided to go to a game room instead.  Now, I don't think I've really written about Korean PC bongs, or Nori bongs yet, which will have to happen at some point, but something I find very unique to Korean life is the many different entertainment rooms ('bong' means room) that are found everywhere in Korea.  The place we went to was partly a nori bong (singing room) and partly a gaming bong.  So, around 20 of us just walked in to one of the rooms and played Nintendo Wii for a good 2 hours.  It's sort of crazy to me that there are these places with the sole purpose of giving groups of people a place to hang out and play video games.  But what's more was that this place was beautiful - that clearly someone had spent a lot of time designing and decorating it.  So that was fun.
That night, I joined people going to a friend's apartments where we played Apples to Apples - a good group game.  There I met a Korean guy named Moopy, who I ended up having a long and very enjoyable discussion with.  I found that him to be quite different from most Koreans that I've met, that he doesn't really follow the same cultural expectations (having to do with marriage for example) that I find others do here.  He is a very deep guy and we had a great discussion about love, religion, and life in general.  Afterwards, I went to Tilt where they had a mini dance party going and I got to dance the night away - something I've done quite a few times lately.

Sunday was the day of our first home soccer game!  After church, David, an awesome guy from South Africa, drove some of us over to Uidok University where our home games are played.  We were playing a good Busan team and I'd say our team hasn't yet reached it's full potential, so I didn't expect to win.  We didn't, win, but we played very well I thought.  We have some new guys and I have high hopes for this season.  Mostly it was just awesome to be playing soccer again.

It doesn't end there though - well, the weekend does, but the fun doesn't.  After school today I scooted over to Frank's apartment.  Frank is a guy from the upper penninsula, and one of the coolest.  He's also the king of games.  He's got lots of them.  Tonight, in his very homely apartment, he made me and 3 other friends some super burgers and then we sat down to play games.  We played two games that I've never heard of before (which isn't suprising, coming from Frank).  The first one, called "Slapshot", was made around 1983, in which each player manages it's own hockey team.  It's a simple game and very fun.  Then we played a Korean game which turned out to be very much like the card game called "President (or Butt)", which we used to play on the bus in high school.  It was another great night.

All in all, things are going well.  Summer is coming.  And someone else is coming too, but I can't talk about that yet - next week.

Thanks for reading.
Mike

The Week Mom and Dad Came

A good thing has come to an end.  My parents' visit to Pohang ended this afternoon. They took a bus to Seoul where they'll be staying until Thursday.  But it was a good thing.  It was wonderful to have them here.  It has made me feel more settled - a little more like I belong here - and that feels good.  And I think they enjoyed being here as well.
It turns out that mom and dad are more adventurous than I thought.  While I was at work during the week, they courageously braved the Pohang Public Transit System and explored the area quite extensively.  After being here for only 8 days, they've now been to a number of places that I've never been to myself.
They went downtown, to Jukto market a couple of times, which they enjoyed..

On Wednesday, they went to GyeongJu where Amber, a wonderful friend (and university professor with lots of extra time), gave them a tour...

 

And they went to Homigot, one of the most easterly points in Korea where people go to see the sunrise on New Years.  They said they enjoyed the eventful bus trip there and back more than the actual place, but at least they had a good time.  The eventful bus trip included waiting in a bus shack, on heated seats, with lots of chatty ajumas for 3/4 of an hour; a beautiful bus trip along the coast with a typical Pohang bus driver with bad driving habits; and a ride home in a taxi which they shared with a korean couple ...

And this was all done without me!  While I went off to work in the mornings, I was slightly jealous of their free time, but also glad that they were able to explore on their own.
Then on Friday, when I was finally free of work, I got to show them Tilt, the local foreigner bar.  I was able to introduce them to some of my friends and despite being a little embarrassed by Andy, the owner, who was a little drunk, we had a good time.  One of my friends, Chloe, even brought a birthday cake since it was the day before my birthday.

Then on Saturday, my birthday, we headed off to Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in Korea, it's quite a bit bigger than Toronto, and I had never been before, so I was excited for the adventure.
We first visited Beomeosa, an old and quite important Buddhist temple that is still in use. 

There we received a very happy call from Peter and Celina, my brother and sister-in-law.

From there we took the subway to Busan's busy coast, the 5th largest port in the world, where we walked around the Jagalchi fish market.  I've never seen so much fish in my life.  They had 2 large buildings with floors full of all kinds of fresh fish, dried fish, and sliced fish.  I've never been one for seafood, but this was pretty cool.

Then we subwayed over to Haeundae Beach, the most well known of Busan's beaches.  If we had come in the summer, the place would have been packed - many of my students' families spend their weekends on Haeundae Beach during the summer.  Afterwards, we took went back to the bus station and headed home, tired and content.

Yesterday it rained in the morning, the only bad weather of the week which we were thankful for.  But the rain let up in the afternoon, which was good because after church, Mr. Lee, a Korean friend who I'd met at church, was going to take us to Bogyeongsa, the nearest temple to Pohang (where I had earlier saved a woman from drowning [lest we had forgotten]).  Except, before taking us to Bogyeongsa, Mr. Lee first wanted to show us around his part of town.  He took us to a pretty nice park that I was happy to find out about, and then he invited us over to his apartment for coffee.  And, though I couldn't help but feel a little like he was 'using' us to help his family practice their English, it was nice to see the inside of his apartment and meet his wife and son.  We then finally did make it to Bogyeongsa and I was glad to be able to show it to mom and dad.  It's a beautiful temple and it's become one of my favourite places in the area. 

By then it was too late to make it to the waterfalls.  So Mr. Lee took us home and we had supper at the small soup restaurant right beside my apartment.

Today, after lunch, we said goodbye and they were off this afternoon.

For me, the highlights of my parent's visit were:
1. Eating meals with them.  Mom made a couple of super suppers, which I had been missing.  And they joined me for most of my lunch breaks so that I could show them my 2 lunchtime joints.
The buffet lady:

And 'Yabez', the small toast/gimbap place nearby:

We also went out for dinner a couple of times.  Mom really likes the open style, do-it-yourself restaurants here; dad isn't so sure he does.

2. Fixing my clogged toilet: It turned out that it wasn't ready for 2 extra people living in my apartment so it became 'jammed up' early on in the week.  I didn't have a plunger so dad and I had to temporarily steal/borrow the one from the Family Mart bathroom.  Happily, my toilets back to working order and Teagan bought me a plunger should the problem arise again.

3. Sounding out GyeongJu: dad never quite got it, along with a number of other Korean words, and I couldn't help but giggle every time.

4.  An impromptu conversation between dad and a very cute and brave Korean girl on the Busan subway:  Dad sat down beside her and, building up her courage, she boldly started a conversation with him by asked him where he was from.  I just thought it was cool that such a young girl would feel confident enough to ask a stange man of another culture a question.

5. Showing them my school and introducing them to some of my students.

6. Watching CBC news at night in my apartment.

7. Being able to hug and say goodnight to them.

It was a blessing to have them.
Thanks for reading.
Michael

Our neighbours to the east have been hit hard with an earthquake and tsunami.  If this would have happened while I still lived in North America I would have been aware of it, but it wouldn't have sunk in like it has now, being in Asia, quite close to it.  This might be the closest I've been to a large natural disaster and it's interesting to me how physical proximity makes such a difference in situations like this.  I think it's often easy to allow physical distance to be our excuse for not giving proper thought or concern for major world events.
Korea itself wasn't affected by either the earthquake or tsunami, being shielded by Japan.  But I can't help but realize that things would have been a lot different for the people of Pohang had the earthquake happened on the other side of Japan.  As it is, I'm safe, but there are thousands who are suffering not far from here.

On another note, mom and dad arrived late Saturday night and are currently asleep on my bed.  They've had a pretty busy two days so far.  Yesterday dad was the 'last minute' substitute guest pastor at my church.  He preached on the importance of drawing the line in those parts of our lives that can become too important to us.  Many people in the church, myself included, thought he did a good job.  Then, after buying some groceries, we walked to the beach.  It was a beautiful day, the nicest so far this year, so it was perfect weather for me to show them the very popular summer hangout spot for the foreigner crowd that is Bukbu Beachee (which is how it is pronounced in Korean).  We ran into a couple of my friends and then continued on to the Indian curry restaurant.  I felt a little bad about not bringing them to a more traditional Korean place on their first day, but the Indian place reminds me of Toronto and I'd wanted to go there with them at some point.  After supper we walked home and fell asleep early.
Today I met mom and dad for lunch and we went to the local Korean buffet where a busy Korean lady daily serves a variety Korean side dishes (kimchi and some things I've never seen before) as well as soup and sometimes fish, both of which I find to be the best I've ever had.  I've been going there quite often lately.  Mom and dad found it an interesting cultural experience, and didn't eat all their kimchi or funny brown things.  Tonight, the other English teachers at Poly and another local teacher joined us at a duck restaurant, which I think mom and dad enjoyed a little more.
While I was at school during the day they wandered around the area a little and also got some work done in my apartment.  Maybe tomorrow they'll venture downtown on the bus.  They're being good sports about being left alone in a foreign country for most of the day.
Having them here is great for me.  I'm very lucky to have such a loving family.

Thanks for reading,
 Michael