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March 20, 2002: Today I set out on a mission to meet my Grandfather's houseboy from the Korean War. I started this mission last week, but came up a little short. Found the right place and his best friend, but not the man. This week was to be different though. A little background: Jack, my grandfather was here in Korea in 1951-53. He had a houseboy assigned to him through the KSC (Korean Service Corps, the way for non-military aged Koreans to serve in the war) that he really liked. Jack had tried to bring him back to the US at the end of the war, but he stayed in Korea. In 1987 Jack got a Christmas card from Dong In Chi, the former houseboy. That's the short version to get us to today... I happened to have the card still and decided to track down the address.
I went to the wrong place two weeks ago, but last week I found the school on the
card about an hour by subway and train. After meeting Dong In's best friend last
week and passing his "test" (he quizzed me and made sure I was mostly harmless
and not looking for a job or anything) he called and helped me set up a meeting
this week. So, today I went back up to Uijongbu to meet Dong In Chi. It was a very cool thing meeting a man 50 years after my Grandfather had parted ways with him. Dong In Chi ended up having a pretty good life himself. He was principal at Kyung Min High School for 30 years. KMHS was the picture on the Christmas card although it was no longer 2 buildings in the middle of the country. It is now 7 schools including a college and around 12000 students. It's a great campus and I hope I get to visit more often. Oh, one development from the meeting today...they (Dong In and the school founder's daughter that now runs the school) want me to come back next week for a welcoming ceremony and give a speech....oh my. March 09, 2002: Wow, someone has been slacking on the updates...guess that would be me. I've been pretty busy since school started this past week. I really don't work that much, but the stress of starting a new school year teaching what are supposed to be the best and brightest in Korea has wiped me out almost every night. There are some odd things in this country, hopefully I won't forget them all before I get them all written down! Last week Sam and I did our last bit of tourism before school started. We went to a palace (Jeongjeon and Jongmyo) and shrine complex here in Seoul. Being winter the grounds weren't that pretty, but you can tell it will be incredible in the spring. I can't wait to go back. The shrines were to kings of the Joseon Kingdom and other important notables over the past 700 years or so. Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire (and likely the Japanese) in the 1800's and rebuilt shortly thereafter. The large worship/parade grounds in front of the shrines were rock covered and obviously quite old. The building where kings were crowned and it's grounds reminded me of a scene from a Bruce Lee movie. I could easily envision thousands of warriors spread out before me. Never could decide if I was Bruce Lee or the king though ;) Outside of the first palace area was a park. There were people playing games and stuff there. The most fun looking one was played with 4 marked sticks. They had markings and were thrown on a mat kind of like craps. They had a board to keep some sort of score. It's an ancient game, and of course I promptly forgot the name. The old men playing it were definitely into it though. Younger people played a game where you throw long darts into a cup. It seemed fun enough, well about as fun as horseshoes or lawn darts. The kids all played on what amounts to a teeter totter that isn't attached to the pivot point. And most important, they don't sit. Making your partner fly while being ready to fly on his or her return to earth is the object. Good fun for the whole family and far too unsafe for all the American kiddies in their safety helmets and knee pads. Game and Park photos. After walking around for a few hours we started off in a random direction. Nice thing about Seoul, you can get sort of lost, but if you just walk a while you'll find something that gets you found. We eventually found a large university area. The highlight here was a Hooter's! (#2) Copyright laws are obviously not real important in Korea. On the 4th I finally started working. Coming to Korea and having a three week vacation wasn't a problem, but making a little cash to fund my stay here is a good thing. I started out with 24 scheduled hours a week. It seems that foreign teachers can't do more than 30 without causing lots of trouble for the school, and Korea is all about avoiding confrontation. The key is that the contract says 24, because by Wednesday I was already up to 28 hours a week and not all at my main school. The classes are 50 minutes each and I have each group of kids twice a week. About half my classes are first year (our 10th grade) and the other half are second year. After one week I really like the first year groups the best. Probably because they are new to the school just like me and haven't figured out how to abuse the system. Korean kids are in many ways like their American counterparts. They want to talk, nap, and push the limits with the teacher. the difference is, they study a lot and you won't see the outright confrontations with a teacher. The battle of wills is still there, but they still remember to get the grade. Apollo Ohno...anyone in the States still remember this guy? I'll refresh your memory. He's a short track ice skater for Team USA's Olympic team. He won a silver, then after a DQ of the South Korean skater he won a gold. By the time the closing ceremony was over, I'd wager 70% of the US had already forgotten the bulk of the games. Well here in Korea Mr. Ohno is getting half page stories with full color photos. He still gets air time on the nightly news. He has large movements organizing boycotts and demonstrations in his honor. Apollo Ohno's win is the single largest boost that the Anti-US movement has had here in years. (Probably since the GI killed a hooker a few years back) Not even W could say anything to make these people more pissed off. What exactly did Ohno do? Well, I watched the race, I've seen the 10,000 replays of it, studied the photos...and he's most guilty of over-acting. He did exactly what anyone does when trying to get a call from a referee or judge. He embellished. I won't get into the details of short track, but the, umm, short of it is you can't change lanes to impede someone's progress. This is what the SK skater did and it is what drew the disqualification. What is getting all the press here though is Ohno's acting, or his "lies" as they like to call it here. Let me just say that I don't give a rat's ass who won, lost, or was disqualified. But I am oh so sick of hearing about it. What is even more amusing, and sad really, is that a vocal minority here in Korea are staying in an uproar about this and no one in the US knows or likely cares about the result. Some businesses care since it is hurting their margins, but otherwise it is a non issue. I've tried discussing this in some classes but had to stop. Logic isn't allowed it seems and I've even been accused of showing my arrogant American ways....this is after stating I supported the judges decision and would have no matter who was DQ'd. Much like I agreed with Ohno's DQ in a later race. Because the Games were in the US, the US caused the judges (that were from all over the world) to call their events in ways that made American's win. That's the jest of their argument....some of these people should move to Montana and join a militia. Ok, got that little vent out of the way. Here's a new picture of those little corn shaped thingy's I love. Well, if you looked you can see it's actually just a picture of the bag they come in, but it's in English! Man I love those things, and they are nutritious, the bag says so. Last weekend I went out and did some therapy shopping. I had to comfort myself since yet another broadband internet provider came out and said my house is too far away from the pole. The language barrier is being a pain on this one. Even my friends here that speak some Korean are of no use since technical is a language all its own. I speak it of course, but I don't have the Korean basics to wallow through the problems of the install. Biggest problem I really think is the cable will be a pain to run more than a distance factor. So, back to the point. I bought a scanner and printer so I don't have to do scanning at the PC bong. That was a supreme pain in the butt. So, now I have no excuse other than the normal one. (I'm lazy) My laptop needs to be sent back to Toshiba as it overheats and turns off...that makes for fun. It will probably be a general recall soon, hope I can find a place to send it here. I only mention that cause scanning is one of the things that makes it overheat....NHL 2002 is the other ;p Well, it seems I did forget many the things I wanted to write...I'll get the hang of this update stuff someday. I've been taking my laptop to school. If you see me on ICQ (527295), AIM (flecheinkorea), Yahoo (rusinkorea) or MSN (fleche@hotmail.com) say hi! I'm usually on the 10 minutes I have between classes. Feb. 23, 2002: What is the Irish's greatest gift to civilization? The Irish Pub. If it's 4 AM and you need something to do, every great city has an Irish pub that will be the only place still open, Seoul included. There is just something about their pubs that makes you feel at home no matter where home may be. Oh, when you see a rugby team dancing naked in the backroom you are likely at a happening pub. ;p Strange tidbit...No one wants to be from Oklahoma, but by god so many have some Oklahoma experience. Ian, a guy that has lived here for 30 years that we met went to OU. That story isn't in the least bit rare either. He's only one of a dozen or so that I've met since being here that have lived in Oklahoma at least once in their lives...wacky stuff. Went out to do some dancing after I had all the darts I could stomach and ended up at a small club in yet another area I can never find again. But this night I was wearing a Team Canada hockey jersey. If you ever want to meet a bunch of Canadians, wear their jersey the night after they win Olympic Gold in hockey (Women's). It was one of the funniest and most entertaining things I can remember doing recently. I met so many people that would come up and start talking hockey, then other small talk till eventually they'd ask "So what part of Canada are you from?" I'd put on this sly face and say "Oklahoma". The looks and reactions were priceless. Most took it quite well and found it as funny as I did. The most shocking reaction had to be this Aussie just as I was leaving the club. In his thick accent "Oh it's great to meet a Canadian here in Seoul!" I answer "That's funny, cause you just met an Oklahoman!" He proceeds to punch me in the chest (pretty damned hard) then bear hugs me as he just laughs and laughs. I would have stayed there till sun-up had my friends not decided that part of the morning was over. Feb. 22, 2002: How's this for an Asian experience...Ozzy Osborne. He was in concert here tonight and I caught the show. What can I say about Ozzy? He's 55 years old and at times shows it. No more bats or even anything surprising in his show. Just 20 songs that even if you don't "know" Ozzy you'd likely know. The best thing about the concert was Ozzy's genuine love of the crowd. He didn't have to come to Seoul, lord knows he didn't make much money making the stop, but he I really think he came for his fans. Well, he also came as part of a USO tour I think but stayed an extra night. Maybe 9000 people at the show, 15-20% ex-pats. Oh, two show highlights: first one was the intro. He had two large movie screens to either side of the stage and showed a 10 minute into before the concert. It was hilarious. It had Ozzy in different videos and scenes that he just shouldn't have been in. He was a dancer in Madonna's Vogue video, the 4th tenor in a 3 Tenors concert, his hand (with OZZY knuckles) as Thing from the Addam's Family, and so much more...it was great. The other was the guitar solo. Usually they annoy me, and this one was no different. But when he started playing the Star Spangled Banner ala Jimi Hendrix, well it was pretty cool. Even more cool was watching it dawn on the Korean's faces and then they'd promptly sit down. Worth the price of admission right there. On the way out we were headed over to take some more pictures in front of the Ozzy in Asia banner when some damned white guy cut it down and ran off with it....Luckily we found another one, this one written in Korean. I'll take some pictures of it as soon as we find a place to hang it at the house. ;p A few pictures from Ozzy. Camera's weren't allowed, yet they didn't stop me from bringing it in. The guy in front of me was told twice to put his away. I guess I'm stealthy or something. Needless to say, it was pretty dark for long shots. Feb. 21, 2002: Went to the movies today. Nothing all that remarkable except that I understood not one word. The title was "2009 Lost Memories" . It was either a Japanese flick with some Korean elements or it was Korean with Japanese. Either way about 3/4 of the movie was subtitled in Korean (from Japanese) and the rest was in Korean. It is kind of fun figuring out what a movie is all about just by the action on the screen. It looked like it was going to be an all action movie, which is good since that is real easy to get. But then it changed up and had huge amounts of dialogue with no real visual introduction. So, what was it about? In 1919 a Korean rebel was shot trying to kill a Japanese leader. Jump to 2009. Some radical group is attacking an art exhibit for god knows what reason. They end up stealing some item later and the main cop has flashbacks of the item but still kills many of our hapless rebels. To cut a long story (it was a long long movie) short. The item is magical, it opens a time portal when used with another piece. Many deaths later (JBI, Japanese Bureau of Investigation, and rebel) only the main cop (turned rebel) his former love interest (also a rebel) and main cop's partner (still very JBI) are left. Love interest gets offed by partner, cop and partner go back in time. Cop helps rebel kill Japanese leader after excessive camera work and the death of partner by another unknown time traveler. Jump to 2009, Korea is free and old photo's include cop in a variety of roles...not bad for no English. Also had 2 more rolls of film done today. I swear Korean photolab techs are color-blind. I must find a film-scanner. Of course then I won't be able to blame bad pictures on anyone but me. Feb. 20, 2002: Nirvana has been found. It's name is Yongsan Electronics Market. Halfway across the city, on the other side of the Yongsan Garrison (Itaewon is on the closer side) is the most dangerous place I could ever enter. An open air and closed building market of all tech stuff. It took an hour of blurred browsing till I found the juicy bits, but eventually I found what I thought Korea was missing...New, modern computer components. Rooms full of new in box motherboards and video cards. Shops named simply RAM or HARD DRIVE and their names being 100% accurate. I was completely grateful that in my absentmindedness I forgot to hit an ATM on the way. The prices I assume are negotiable like the other market areas, at least in the less professional looking shops as they weren't all that great overall. But like shopping on the net, there are places with sweet deals on certain items, you just have to dig. <Pictures from Yongsun> (need to process) Technomart is great, but this place is more my style. The prices and selection overall are much better, still not as good as Pricewatch, but better than anything else I've seen in Korea. Oh, for you case junkies...there is a selection here like no other. Colors and styles that range from tame to Ghetto Pimp, even found a Lian Li Aluminum distributor. I did feel sorry for Sam today. He knows jack about PC's but still followed me as a wandered about for 3 or 4 hours. I'm sure I'll return the favor soon enough! This place is just as Chewbacca as Dongdaemun though. I don't understand how all these people can stay gainfully employed. I saw dozens of booths/shops where the guys were sleeping or playing games. Not to mention the fact that 75% of the stock was the same at all the shops. Mad Man Mike=huge gimp. AFN tonight is warning people to stay away from Yongsan and a avoid crowds tomorrow. Guess I left a few hours early! Maybe I'll see something worthy tomorrow. Feb. 19, 2002: President Bush is in town today and tomorrow. The demonstrations started over the weekend. Anti-US sentiments have been growing here for some time now apparently. W's comments in the State of the Union weren't helpful either. So, those crazy students with nothing better to do throw a protest or two and burn some flags. One of the first things we were told was to avoid demonstrations, the US embassy, and Itaewon during these hot times. AFNK (Armed Forces Network Korea, our link to the US and our only English TV station) runs many gimpy ads on the same subject as well as security alerts for the troops and citizens in Korea. So today, Sam and I went to US Embassy. (I'm sure you didn't see that coming) We pop up out of the subway and are greeted by many many police in riot gear! It was pretty cool. The area was quiet, so we start walking the 3 or 4 blocks to the embassy. All along the way the police presence is growing. Finally we see this little wimpy demonstration at the gates. It was highly disappointing. The many police made for some good photo ops and the various anti riot equipment was cool, (the black armored van with small bullet proof windows and protected gun slots got 2 thumbs up!) but the lack of anti-yankee slurs... Lastly, watched USA vs. Belarus at 3:00 AM. It was worth it! Feb. 11-15, 2002: Lots more exploring new things and really getting into some places I just passed through over the first week. One of the most amazing spectacles of capitalism gone astray would have to be Dongdaemun. This is a textile zone like no other. Open air shopping, and high rise buildings full of clothes. Block after block of shoes...Stall after stall of bags...it's an amazing display. I spent hours just milling about and I didn't even go in either of the Migliore (#2) buildings, nor Doota, nor any of the half dozen other 10 story plus buildings full of stuff. How all these individual shops, hundreds of them, all selling about the same goods can support themselves is beyond me. Economy of scale for Bizzaro world? These are also the same items being sold at Itaewon and other neighborhood markets. It is utterly Chewbacca....but it is a sight to behold. Last tidbit in Dongdaemun- Right in the midst of all this neon and bustle is this centuries old gate house. It's the East gate from when Seoul was a walled city. the original easily dates back over 1500 years, but has been burned by the many invaders and rebuilt just as often. (I'll go back and get some shots after I pick up a tripod.) There is a very old, and recently renovated temple near my house. It is very cool. sadly, it's in the group of photos that didn't come out right so none of the colors on the underside of the roof are visible. Yet another thing I have to make return trip to! Not that I'll mind, it was very pretty and quite tranquil. Last big touristy place I went to this week was the Olympic Park. Seoul hosted the 1998 Summer games and now have a huge sports complex. This is pretty amusing since it seems most Korean's really find sports to be a distraction. It's quite the change from America's obsession with sport. But, back to the park...It's it quite large with several small college level gyms. There were a few basketball games going on in the big open area and lots of people just out enjoying the day and scenery. There are many statues and other art pieces. It's a nice area. I hear they play inline there on Sunday's, maybe I'll be back soon! <Olympic Park Slide Show> (Not yet processed/scanned) Oh ya, some interesting food items. Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza.
not impressed? Try it stuffed with crab and cheese. Oh my it is more than just
good. Feb. 9, 2002: Hard Rock Cafe, they really look the same just about everywhere. Think this is my 5th or 6th one. Glad I hit it, but don't think I need to go back. Food was ok, but the burger was a bit small, especially compared to other HRC burgers. It's in the "Rodeo Street" area where young Koreans with cash go to show it. There are several other American restaurants in the area that I'll have to take advantage of when I'm tired if inexpensive food. Itaewon! This would be one of the first times I visited Itaewon. Itaewon is very close to the 8th Army, and is probably the main place for foreigners like myself to go to meet other foreigners. There are tons of shops and street vendors especially during the day. Itaewon is the home of THE shirt shop! Most vendors are priced ok, but with a bit of haggleflation built in. Just about anything can be found here, especially leather goods and your typical souvenirs. It's really a pretty fun place to shop, especially if you need a dose of Americana. The night turns Itaewon into exactly what you expect from an area that caters to the "needs" of a huge military base. We headed out well before the Army's 1:00 AM curfew as our guide John had brought Diane out with us this eve. Diane is another Oklahoman, from Tahlequah, that's in the Army and stationed here. Went to a very fun after hours dance club in another part of town that I'll likely never find again, but it played a nice mix of trance and dance music. I do believe Sam and I were the only foreigners in the place that night. Feb. 4-8, 2002: Time to go to work. I work for Daewon Foreign Language High School. Daewon has my school, a Girls High School, a Boys High School, and a middle school all built on the side of a mountain This week I had to basically kid-sit a few hours each day. The Korean school year ends in February after a winter break in December and January. Add to that the new English teachers, me and Sam, replace outgoing teachers that leave in December. We were just thrown into some classes, no real rhyme or reason. So as you can imagine, not much happens around the school that week or so the kids are back. The week really is a good thing for us though. Learning how the school routine goes and how the kids act and relate to us in a no stress situation was good. Oh, a little bit about where I live. When I interviewed for this job, I was promised an ok place to live. I figured it would be the typical one room plus bath super efficiency or a dorm room like apartment. I also wasn't supposed to have a roommate. Well, I have a roommate, but I also live in a house...an actual house in Seoul. I have, as does Sam, a bedroom and an office. We have a shared living room, dining area, and a real kitchen. In addition we have a utility room with a washing machine as well as a nice gated (#2) patio area. Even our bathroom is western style...a big plus. Either of our bed plus offices would nearly equal the size of the teacher's apartments in the school owned apartment building. So, I don't think I'm going to complain about rooming with this hippie from Weatherford. Oh, the house is also mostly underground...under the Girl's H.S. playground to be more precise! Feb. 01, 2002: First real day in Korea. We had an impromptu meeting with Daewon's Vice Principal and Lead Teacher while taking a look at the school. John, another English teacher here, was good enough to show us around and waste his day. Got our first taste of Technomart. 9 stories of shops. Mostly electronics and the like. (Kind of a high tech Old Paris Flea Market) 2 floors of PC stuff, 2 floors of cell phones (hand phones as they are called here), it's pretty amazing. All that competition in one place doesn't have the expected effect though. Prices are still on the high side. Looks like I may miss the weekly Best Buy and CompUSA ads. Had a wonderful meal in this little closet of a restaurant. Being that it was my first night, of course I forgot what it's called. But it's beef grilled at your table over a super hot pile of coals. There are some veggies and stuff with it, and the standard kimchi. Overall a wonderful first experience with real Korean food. It seems most everything is within 45 minutes by subway, or at least everything on our side of town. the subway is cheap. 600 won will get me to more that 1/4 of the city. Seoul isn't the cleanest town, alleys have trash and just the general debris of 11 million people and their pets (eww), but their Subway is amazingly clean. You know The Matrix's subway fight, and how it must be fake because there is no trash or anything on the tracks? Well, that's how they look here. I guess Neo lived in Seoul. Seoul has been deemed "Chewbacca". (If you need help on the reference, e-mail me ;) You can't blow your nose in public, yet it isn't completely rare to see someone pee on the street. They can fit 3 cars in one turn lane, can drive those cars 75 in a residential area, then drive on the sidewalk when it suits them. Motorcycles use the sidewalks more the streets. There are so many examples, if I go on my head will explode. Jan. 30, 2002: After being all but strip searched, I left Will Rogers World Airport at some god awful hour in the morning. Flew a Canada Air Original, or as Sam (my new roommate in Korea) calls it "the Greyhound with wings". Sam cracked me up the whole flight. It was his first flight...ever! They had to de-ice the plane 3 times before we took off as a big ice storm that thrashed Oklahoma was just rolling in. Needless to say, he was looking a little stressed. The flight to Minneapolis was nice though, was supposed to be over two hours and took less than one. Well over 600 miles an hour ground speed...was a fun ride, for me at least! Was my first time in Minnesota, got to see...well, nothing. Saw a few sites from the air, like Mall of America and where the Wild play, but that about it. The airport looks like a dump when you come in...oh, was nearly strip searched here as well. I must look evil or something, got to keep my shoes on this time at least. Back to the airport, looks like a dump, seems to be a dump, but then you step through some weird portal and instantly appear in a nice, pretty, modern airport with a variety of shops and restaurants. Spent most of my time here washing my Blazer's jersey in the sink. It got soaked with some brackish foul-smelling fluid while under the seat on the first flight. I was less than pleased and carrying a soaking wet hockey jersey didn't help. Oh, to add to the fun. The ticket guy at Will Rogers stapled all my tickets together in the wrong order. Apparently they don't read your boarding pass too closely in OKC since when I tried to get on the 747 in Minneapolis I only had a pass for Tokyo and OKC. I got on without too much trouble thankfully. Just glad that happened where I could still talk to the people at the gate. Sam really liked the 747 (haha). Nothing like totally ignoring the laws of nature and making this huge piece of metal fly. Nothing overly eventful over the next, oh...12 hours. Met a nice guy from Minnesota named Bobby. He'd traveled and worked in OKC and Dallas and was on his way to Thailand to meet his grandparents for the first time. Got some great views of Canada and Alaska as we went over the top of the Earth. At some point while traveling back through time (going west across time zones) we went over 88 miles an hour and got hit by lightning and it became tomorrow. Very odd experience watching your watch and it not getting darker when it should. It reinforces my desire to spend winter and summer solstice in Alaska at least once before I'm to old to enjoy the experience. Eventually we landed in Tokyo. Successfully navigated a security check with no searches or probes! The Japanese must not find me as threatening. By this time I'm getting a little loopy. I'd made a conscious effort to not sleep on the way since we were to arrive in Seoul a bit before midnight local time and I really wanted to skip the whole time adjust/jet lag thing. So it's about 5:30 or so in Japan. Get to see my first Asian sunset...that's really the highlight of Tokyo Int'l. Will Rogers is even more entertaining. One neat thing: it's our first feeling of being in a minority, not a bad feeling, just different. Last leg of trip is another 747 to Inchon. I never understood the whole "flight attendant" thing...but if they all looked like the ladies on this flight I would have understood! It really was pretty amazing, but then again it could have been the fact I had been awake for about 24 hours at that point on 2 hours of sleep...nah, they really were that hot. ;) Only other thing of note on that flight was the sushi for the meal was quite good. Can't see Southwest ever pulling off Sushi as an in-flight meal. (yes yes, I know they don't serve meals now) 11:30 pm we arrive in Korea. The passport gets stamped. The entry guy looks oh so happy that 2 more American's are coming to corrupt the youth of his nation. Took a few pictures while getting to our house the first time. Totally exhausted I pass out. Welcome to Korea! |
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