My Mao

My Mao
Originally uploaded by realcoldice.

Our last day was a free day and we spent it with Kyle and Emily hitting up some of the local markets. I found a few of them to be pretty uneventful, but the first one we went to was great. It was an antique market full of all manner of potentially old things that no one really needs, but really wants. I, in particular, found a five foot by four foot portrait of Chairman Mao that I just had to have. After a few tough rounds of bargaining with the vender Mao was mine. He now sits rolled up in our living room because I don't know what to do with him and Kate doesn't want him on our walls. I love him though.

With the little time we had left after the markets Kate and I visited a grocery store. I would have to say that this was my most memorable experience. Supermarkets are still government run in China. Therefore, you have to check all bags at the front desk before entering and there is a military guard that does not smile. Everything in the store is super cheap. I bought some Chinese cigarettes for a friend here in Korea, they cost me the equivalent of about two dollars. Kate and I have also decide that it would be interesting and fun to collect a household product from every country we go to. Kate has chosen toothpaste. I have chosen condoms. As it turns out buy condoms is a long process in China. First, if you are a tall foreigner, you will be directed to the "big" condoms as a small woman in a lab coat shows you a length of about 8 to 10 inches with her hands. Then, after making a decision, you will be given about five receats which you take to the very back of the store and give to another small woman behind plexiglass. She will stamp them, hand a few of them to a security guard, and put the rest in a drawer. Then she will give you another two receats which you return to the original small woman and finally get your condoms. All in all it took me about ten minutes just to buy some condoms.

We were able to walk around and take a few more last minute photos them it was time to go. I really enjoyed China and could seriously find myself returning for and extended period of time.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City
Originally uploaded by realcoldice.

We were tired the next morning and of course it was our longest day. We started with Tiananmin Square which we didn't get to see much of because the president of Taiwan was visiting for a round talks. Next was the Forbidden City, which I thought was just a large palace where the emperor lived. I was wrong. The emperor did live there, but the complex is huge and in many ways overly extravigent and beautiful. The total number of rooms is 9,999. It would take the emperor over twenty-seven years to sleep in all the rooms if he slept in one room a night. It would also take the emperor eight years to sleep with all of his concubines if he slept with one a night. There were 3,000 of them. One of the emperors was so paranoid that someone would tunnel into the city and assinate him that he had the courtyard in front of the main government building reenforced with fifteen layers of stone, each layer perpendicular to the next. It was tidbits like these that made the Forbbiden City so fantastic and such a cultural treasure. Although most the buildings and sites within the City repeated themselves several times the uses and reasons for for these sites made them very interesting and gave a small glimps into life in China during the emperacy.

After walking roughly a mile though the Forbbiden City we rested and moved on to the Summer Palace. This was the most relaxing part of the tour. It was more walking, but it was very pleasant. The summer palace is built on a hillside next to a large manmade lake. We could not go up to the living area because it is now a monastery, but we were able to walk along the water among the palace gardens. It would have defintely been a nice place to spend the summer if you were the emperor or emperess. After everything else we had seen though nothing here really stood out. There was a boat made of marble, but in reality it was pretty ugly and not that cool. After the Summer Palace we got the chance to go see a kung fu show with Kyle and Emily. The show was pretty theatrical, but as expected it also had guys chopping wood with there hands and breaking iron over their heads as well as individuals doing sommersaults off their heads. It was just cool to see. We all finished off the day with a wonderful meal and a foot massage that was to die for.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China
Originally uploaded by realcoldice.

Because this trip was so full of new and intriguing things for Kate and I to do we were forced to get up bright and early the next morning at 7:00. Day two included the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Great Wall was absolutely one of the most unbelievable sites I have ever seen. From grade school through college the Great Wall was always this epic thing that existed in a place that I was just too far away to ever see. I have been to Anarctica and have to say that, to me, the Great Wall of China feels more untouchable. I just never thought I would get to experience it. I must admit, although being very cool, it was not the exact visual experience that I expected. I was really hoping for views where the wall slowing disappears off into the horizon as it meanders and unjulates over tree covered hills and mountains. We did get to see a small bit of this, but at the Badaling site the wall gaps a large valley and diappears over the crest of the next ridge. I wanted a little more, but it was still fantastic. The wall is so huge and so old and just unimaginable that it was easy to forget the crowds and our tight schedule and just be amazed. This is one place I have to see again, but i don't think I will ever grasp the fact that I was actually there.

The Ming Tomb were again another set of temple structures, so the pictures are going to look similar to other places that we saw. There are actually thirteen tombs from the Ming dynasty, but we only saw the first of the tombs to be built. The areas where the tombs were built was actually the coolest part. All thirteen tombs sit in the lowland plains amidst a circle of mountains. None are very close together and all of them are seperated by peach, pear, and apple orchards. The roads leading out to the tombs are lined will massive cottonwoods. The whole experience is quite romantic. Even better is that from the site of the first Ming Tomb, which is nestled up into the most northerly part of the valley and is the most elevated, you can see some of the other tombs off in the distance. With nothing but farm land around them these enormous structures look very prominent and kingly. The tomb itself, after walking through a few halls and towers is actually a huge tree covered mound. And, not a small mound at that, we are talking a large hill.

After the tombs we got to do some touristy stuff at the government run tea house. We also got to try Beijing duck, which is very good. Then Kate and I went and got very wonderful and very cheap messages, reservations courtesy of Mai Ling (Ms. Emily Flores). Then we met up with Emily and Kyle for a night on the town. While we were waiting though Kate and I got our first experience with the poor side of China. As we waited we were accompanied by a few mother child pairs of beggars. The mothers were clean and dressed in the stereotypic Mao factory uniform that is so readily attributed to the Chinese poor while the children were dressed in terribly ragged clothing with their faces covered in dirt. Armed with only a few words, hello and ni how, they would stand very close, follow you, and pull at your hands or pat the pocket where your wallet was. Later, on the trip while buying pineapple on the street Kate and I bought one for a boy who was incredibly greatful for the act. These experiences were very trying and very sad at the same time. I expect that much of the children's costumes were an act, but it was evident that these people really had nothing. The stratification of classes in China is just amazing and didn't even see a one hundredth of the problem.

That night, at 3:00 am, Kate and I attempt to guide our lost taxi driver back to the hotel. We arrived after several sets of grunts and hand gestures and U-turns and random stops on the side of the road.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by realcoldice.

For such a really good trip, four days is a teaser, but none the less China was awesome. It was both so different and so similar to Korea. I am not totally sure what the attraction to China was, but I found it to be intense. I loved the people, the sites, the culture, the history, and especially the direct presence of the government. China was comfortable and strange all at the same time.

Most of the trip was a whirlwind. Kate and I took our first guided tour ever and found it to be quite fun. I am not the kind of person that likes guided tours, but this was good. Our guide wasn't too much older than we were, she was really nice, and more than willing to discuss anything (even Chinese relations with Japan and Taiwan). We were also the only ones on the tour. We had our own car and driver and got to stay in a four star hotel. For a trip that only lasted four days and three nights the package tour was perfect.

When we landed our tour guide, Annie, met us with our names on a big sign, always a fun experience. We were then wisked off into Beijing for lunch. Where? I don't know, but the food, as was the food throughout the trip, was fantastic. We then fought Beijing traffic to the hotel where we bearly got two seconds to go to the bathroom and put our stuff down before we were wisked off once again to the Temple of Heaven. This is just one of many many temples in Beijing and unless you see them it is hard to tell them apart. The Temple of Heaven is a circular, three teared temple that was used by the emporers of China to ask for and giving thanks for a good harvest. The most spectacular part was that the surrounding park was covered it trees, thick lush green trees and grass. I know you wouldn't expect this of Beijing, I didn't either, but Beijing is full of greenery, something we hadn't had in Seoul until recently.

After the Temple of Heaven we had another amazing meal of which we stuffed ourselves to the brim. Then we went to the Acrobatics Macrocosm for a bit of the Chinese circus. The actors were super tiny, but they could do things I would never dream of doing. They put something like fifteen or seventeen girls on one bike and had some guy doing back flips on a slack line. Not to mention the three contortionists that sat on there heads and at the same time sat on one another. Just imagine a human column: head, ass, head, ass, head, ass.

Fireworks in October and Naked Men

During Matt's stay we also spent a weekend on the islands near Seoul. Among pissing off a Korean woman for haggling over the price of some very expensive fish and setting fireworks off on the beach in the middle of October we also enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing; and cheap, trip to the Haespia spa.

The spa was a huge complex, segragated by gender with no swimsuit required. This was not what was expected since we were told by tourist information that we had to have bathing suits. So, Kate went her way and Matt and I went the other. As Matt and I entered the locker room we were still under the impression that we needed swimsuits. We were horribly wrong and were met buy many Korean men eating, drinking, and reading the newspaper all while naked. The lockeroom; however, is not what worried us. Lockerooms are lockerooms you can expect to see naked people. But, undressing and descending the flight of stairs in to a room the size of a gymnasium with hundreds of naked men and boys is, to say the least, a bit overwhelming. At first, Matt and I were terribly embarrassed by our exposure. I am not sure what Matt was complaining about he at least had the ethnicity right. I, on the other hand got to be the only tall, white guy in the place. There was a lot of looks and of course measuring up, but after getting into the baths it became progressively easier to relax. All in all the experience, although new, was wonderful and Kate and I plan on going again.

Pukhansan National Park

Pukhansan National Park is a small park even by Korean standards, but is one the most visited parks here in Korea. It is actually surrounded by Seoul. But, regardless of its internal proximity to the greater Seoul metropolitan area, it is a beautiful excape from the bustle of 10 million other people.

I have been meaning to go to Pukhansan for a while, by was limited to weekends and other activities. However, during Matt Fong's recent visit to Seoul I was determined to go. One Friday morning, after a previous Wednesday morning in which Matt and I slept through our alarms, we woke up at around 5:30 am and boarded the subway to Pukhansan. The trip only takes about 45 minutes includes a tranfer to a bus that takes us directly to the park.

The park itself is centered around an 18th century stone walled fortress. Originally the fortress was meant to protect some political figure, a king or emperor. During this period the fortress was only a wall of mounded dirt, but in the 18th century during the Japanese invasion of Korea the fortress was reinforced with a 15 foot stone wall. Today that stone wall has been rebuilt detracting from its old appeal, but the castle gates and temples that still line the wall are magnificant.

Still groggy from our early morning Matt and I entered the park around 7:00 am to find a set of old granite stairs that lead directly up for about 2.5 kilometers to the fortress wall. Note: Pukhansan is host to about 1000 airlifted sprained ankles and broken legs every year. These stairs are the reason. But, they are cool to see and do add interest to the history of the park.

Matt and I made it to the top around 8:00 and followed the circumfrence of the wall around to Pukhansan's tallest peak, Paekundae. Most of the mountains in Korea are not very big and Paekundae is no exception only being about 836 meters high, but it is a significant hike up and requires the help of cable hand rails to reach the top. It is a beautiful hike and a gorgeous view from the top. Not only can you see the rest of Pukhansan's nubbed, rounded, and cracking granite peaks, but you can look out into the smog and see a three sixty view of Seoul. At first I thought this was going be an annoyance. But, Pukhansan is very beautiful and rugged dispite a few electrical lines in random places. To be able to look out over all of this and see the distance between you and the city is relieving. The awareness of the escape is revitalizing.

After a quick lunch Matt and I headed down. We left the park on a different trail and passed by one of Pukhansan's Buddhist temples. We didn't spend much time here as I needed to get to work, but we did get to wonder around a bit. The temple is amazing, decorated in long streaming ribbons of red, green, blue, and yellow. Statues and ponds adorn the entire of facilty and the chanting of monks is heard throughout over a series of megaphones. My favorite part was watching Buddhists leaving the temple. They would bow to each of the two buildings inside the temple complex and rub the belly of a stone Buddha statue just outside the temple.

This trip was a quick one and at some points rushed, but it was enough to relax. I have since been back once the following Wednesday morning and I plan on going every Wednesday morning for both excercise and excape.

LTRC

LTRC is the Language Teaching Research Center and the school that Kate and I teach at. It's a pretty big English school by comparison and maintains a fairly large number of students. We have about 15 to 20 teachers and our classes range from about 10 to 13 students. We do teach to a specific ciriculum, but how we teach it is up to us. Our ciriculum is based of books designed for specific levels of study, but much of the teaching is impromtu since it is very hard to tell what lessons the kids will pick up quickly and which they will fumble with. Kate and I do plan our classes a week ahead of time, but I rarely stick to the plan exactly. Often I have to go over a subject for an extra day. Usually the kids do pretty well and although I know the information is not solidified in their young minds they do understand it for time being. They do have alot of trouble with the sounds s, l and r, v and f, th and d, and p and b. These letters tend to either be the same sounds in the Korean alphabet or they don't exist at all. The kids also don't like using the words "a" "the" and "to." These words are immaterial in Korean and the kids forget to use them all the time.

The teachers at LTRC are a blast. We have an extremely dynamic group. Many are from New Zealand or Canada, but all are very fun. Most of us get together on Friday and Saturday nights for booze facilitated fun. Many of us also get together for trips and small sporting event such as touch rugby and badminton. It is a pretty close group and we all seem to get along very well. Not to say that we are not all characters in our own right, there are those that stick out, but we seem to be a pretty good team.

As a job, teaching English is both difficult and hard. Somedays I am so proud of the kids and others I am furious. Some of my classes are worst than other, namely middle school. However, punishment here is not like in the U.S. For punishment children here are often hit. We don't hit the kids, but I do make them stand for extended periods of time. If that doesn't work I have even made a few students stand on one leg. Yes, this is probably no better than hitting, but they usually see this as a challenge and try and push me even further. This is when I threaten to call there mothers. They will usually shut up in a hurry because to them the thought of punishment by their mothers is utterly, the worst possible scenario imaginable. A Korean mother is something to be feared and reveared. A Korean mother is in charge of the success of their children and if anyone or thing including their own child gets in the way of this God help them. And, it is for this reason that we never have to deal with our students mothers and that we leave any disputes up to the Korean office staff. Overall, other than the few trouble makers and slow days of repeating "What is it?" a hundred times while pointing to a pencil, work as an English teacher is rewarding. Besides the hours are great and it's in Korea.

To be American

To be an American overseas is interesting. One of the reasons I left the U.S. for the year was to get away from having to be so American. I really just wanted to change the context around which my life revolved. In most ways I have been able to do this. Buying food, cooking, dealing with people, learning a new language, etc. These are all events that have had to change since moving here. Granted, there are things I do that are not innate to this culture like eating a deli sandwich instead of rice and kimch'i stew for lunch, but I don't see these things as American, but rather as more of something that I am used too. Therefore, I can take part in the Korean culture, but I will never wholy be able to shed many innate truths about being western. The one thing that I did hope to shed however was the stigma of being an American.

Fast food and Bush are parts of this stigma that I am not, but that are definitive of the American culture at this time. These are things I don't want to be apart of and tend not to participate in. Thus, I have attempt to leave them behind. However, in Korea, as it is in most parts of the world, this is impossible. Conversations with anyone, American or otherwise, will intuitively turn to these issues. Here Bush and fast food are my fault, whether I have taken part in their success or not. I don't mind talking about them occasionally, but Kate and I have not met a single person that at one point or another has not brought up these issues. Some have even apologized for making judgements against Bush assuming that because we are American we support him. I am not against being American and am not running from the American way. But, I have voted, I have done my part, and I would like to get away from being the scapegoats for other nations displeasure with America. Being an American citizen is being an individual who contributes to the well being of America. It is not, being like other Americans or being America.

Chu Suk

Chu Suk is...a holiday that I do not necessarily recognize, but have taken full advantage of. It is very similar to our Thanksgiving, but happens in September. Shops and venders close. You can't buy Burberry polos or halloween masks; things that would normally be sold on the street near our apartment. In fact, most of the 12 million people that live here in Seoul leave the city to visit their families and hometowns for the weekend. This means that travelling is worthless; the subway, trains, buses, planes, and roads are packed while every single Korean attempts to go somewhere else.

Our Chu Suk started on Friday, eventhough it doesn't actually start until the following Monday and Tuesday. We recieved a wonderful gift from the LTRC Korean staff, a box of soap. Something we needed, but not necessarily in such a large quantity. Kate and I each recieved a box.
That Saturday we celebrated a fellow teachers house warming by drinking too much soju and wearing clothing that exuded poor taste. My get-up was a small, womans, tennis outfit. Not something I should have worn, but did anyway.

On Sunday, following a severe hangover, six of us went to Suwon, a city suburb south of Seoul. That night while accidently ordering dried squid with our beer we met three Korean college students. We were quite disgusted with our snack selection and donated the squid to them. They got a laugh out of our disgust and bought us some kimbop, a Korean form of sushi. We invited them to sit with us and before long they had become a perminent fixture in our group. The girl had a huge crush on me because of my apparently handsome beard. She took multiple pictures of me with her cellphone camera and wouldn't stop telling me how handsome I was. This was flattering, but a little strange.

All of us left the bar and moved on to a batting cage and some Nori Bong (Karaoke). I did sing, but wasn't good. At around 5:00 am we went to bed. The six of us slept on yo's; small, painful, traditional Korean style bedding, in the middle of a small room at a lonely love motel tucked back in one of Suwon's side streets.

The following day we all set out for Suwon's ancient fortress. It was a large stone wall reenforced and baracaded with dirt filled in behind it. The circumfrance of the wall was marked by large bastions, gates, and citadels all constucted from a dense charcoal colored stone brick. Many of the ruins you could walk into as long as you took of your shoes. Many Korean families had staked out these spots and were enjoying traditional Ju Suk meals together. Most of our party departed for home about halfway through, but Kate and I continued on and saw some awesome displays of ancient Korean architecture. The citadel was my personnel favorite. It was a cylindrical structure about three floors high with a small stone hallway that rapped around the outer wall. There were ports in the wall for shooting arrows or dropping things out onto approaching enemies and on top there was a small wooden roof elaborated decorated with painted designs. It was a wonderful experience to see such precise architecture that functioned not only as a military structure, but also as one of beauty and tradition.

On our final day of Chu Suk eleven teachers from LTRC participated in a full day badminton extravaganza of our own making. In the morning we played a series of pick up games with one another until lunch. After lunch we all played a round robin tournament with the final four teams entering the semis and the final two moving on to the finals. My team made it to finals, but lost two games to one. After badminton the festivities continued on at one of the teacher's apartments where we had a much deserving round of pizza and beer. All told we played about seven and a half hours of badminton that day. It has been two days since our extravaganza and we are all still very sore. Fortunately, we will only have two days of teaching this week before we move into the next weekend, in which Kate and I have planned on visiting Pukhansan, the national park just outside of Seoul.

In the beginning...

Although this is my first entry I have been here in Seoul for somewhere around a month. And like eating kimch'i Seoul is fairly displeasing both by sent and for the most part visually. However, after getting past the initial gag reflex and taking a large bite I find them both quite pleasing.

My girlfriend and my first few days here were different, but definitely not as dramatic as I had expected. I expected culture shock and a complete withdrawal due to cultural confusion and misunderstanding. Instead, Seoul has been as much exciting and new as it has been just another place to live. Don't get me wrong it is a very different place and I love it tremendously, but I expected the necessities of life to change here as well. As I should have known well ahead of my departure the necessities of life will always be the same. Food, water, shelter, job, paying bills; they are still the same things whether I am in the U.S. or here. The one overall thing that has changed, the thing that intrigues me the most, is having to accomplish those simple neccessities in a completely new way. The same old things become new again, once again adventures in themselves. It is new and exciting here eventhough it is still just life, it is life in Seoul.

This is what I have figured out in my first few weeks and am still figuring out. And, now that I have determined how I should and will approach my stay in Seoul it should hopefully become one wonderful bite of kimch'i after another. I promise to stop using kimch'i as a metaphor.