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This page was last updated on 08/02/07.

January 30-March 20 Entries over the first 2 months

April 26, 2002: Here's a few  random pictures and things that I missed or otherwise didn't get posted in the past few months. I'll put them in their proper locations too if I get motivated.  I have several students asking me to put up a message board, not sure it is worth the hassle of moderating and maintaining. If you have an opinion, let me know. 

Since this is probably the update I'll do before archiving this piece of the journal, think I'll just throw the thumbnails up here. Hover the mouse for info.

April 20, 2002: One of the scariest moments of my time in Korea happened today. I was sitting there, watching TV, AFKN (Armed Forces Korea Network ) of course, when I made a statement that will forever haunt me.

"Man I wish I had seen what happened last week" To which Sam replied "Yeah, no shit". We both turn and look at each other in utter horror and sit in stunned silence.

Why? We were watching WWF.   
(Don't tell me what happens, we are 2 months behind ;)

April 17, 2002: Had a big Foreign Language staff dinner party tonight at a local restaurant. It was quite festive and the food, beer, and soju never stopped flowing. About 40 people attended, including the 5 white guys...well 6 if you count Ralph our German connection. I can't even begin to guess how much the tab was at the end of the night.

We were going to go to a singing room (Karaoke) as a group, but the guy that was going to pick up that tab wasn't able to walk much less sing by the time we were ready to move on. Club White Guy continued to irritate the local population until the wee hours of the morning. I'll hand it to the Koreans. They party hard and fast and definitely know when someone is picking up the bill. The party did serve a purpose I think, school the next Friday was much friendlier than before.

 

April 13, 2002: Went for a walk today. I only intended to go to the local market area, but as it was a really nice day I kept walking.
There is a really nice temple (Younghwasa, Traditional site # 4-1-10) a mile or so up the road so I headed there. I had gone there once right after I moved here, but it was cold and nothing was alive, so I hoped it would be better this time.  It was! A statue of Buddhist statue here is supposed to heal chronic diseases even.	Click for Gallery

After exploring the temple area I decided to go on past it. I eventually came upon a garden area, it was pretty dull since it was new and the flowers weren't in bloom yet, but it'll be really nice next year or later this summer.  Better than the garden though was the open gate that guarded a trail up the mountain, Mt. Acha.  An open gate is an invitation so up I went.  I expected the little trail to go up the small mountain where I was and no more. I couldn't have been more wrong.  These trails end up going for kilometers, winding all over the mountains near my home. 

Click for Gallery

Two hours later I'm an unknown distance from my start and am utterly clueless about the distance to the other end. Oh, did I mention that it's about 5 pm and will be dark by 7? So, I had to decide forward or back. Forward kept offering new and improved views of the city, the Han River and scenic valleys. Back offered...well back.  So forward I went. There were some great views. (Unfortunately most of my pictures looked crappy and the one I had the fellow hiker take of me on the mountain top didn't come out) Eventually I see a small trail leading down into a valley and decide that down was a good idea as it was almost dark.  By the time I get to city again it was dark and I was utterly lost...but I'm a guy so I just kept walking. Directions are for the weak.

So where was I?  Oh, only about 4 blocks from my house!  Gotta love serendipity.

April 07, 2002: Arbor Day on Friday meant a 3 day weekend here in Korea. It's a holiday we don't pay much attention to in the US, but Koreans get into it.  On Arbor Day, many people leave the cities and go plant a tree (or trees) in the country.  It has actually paid dividends as many previously deforested areas are now covered in trees.

But, more important than that environment thing is the 3 day weekend. Sam, Daven (another teacher at Daewon) and myself flew down to Pusan to get away from Seoul for a couple of days. Pusan is the second largest city in Korea, about 4 million people in the city itself. It's a fairly popular place to go as it is on the Southeast coast and has some decent beaches.

So, we get down there Friday afternoon and get to the beach area by 3 or so. Find a crappy dive of a hotel and head to the beach by 4:30. Well, it's a bit breezy and not warm enough so we decide to catch some sun and water the next day. Bad idea.  Rain and wind blow in that evening and wash out any chance of getting a little sun over the weekend. Still a decent weekend away, just not the one that was expected. Saturday night the rain finally moved out so we headed over to the beachfront. There were lots of people about and even better, fireworks. I bought a pile and went to town. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. 

April 02, 2002:   "So ya, thought ya, might like to, go to the show...."
Tonight I had a near religious experience. A few of us went to the Roger Waters concert at Olympic Main Stadium here in Seoul.  Oh my, what an incredible show! For those that don't know, Roger Waters was the lead singer/writer for Pink Floyd. He is the reason The Wall exists and Dark Side of the Moon was on the top 200 album chart for almost 20 years.

"We're just two lost souls, swimming in a fish bowl, year after year"

Click for Video

The concert was in this incredibly large outdoor stadium that could probably seat 90, 000 or more in the stands. Pretty much everyone was confined to the floor, but that was still a good 30,000+ people. True to Floyd style, the music was in quadraphonic stereo...amazing quadraphonic stereo I should say.  Trains would go through your head, lunatics would laugh all around, it was impressive to get such quality sound placement in such a large venue.  At one point 2 helicopters flew over and people barely noticed as it sounded just like the concert!

"When I was a child, I had a fever. My hands felt just like, two balloons..."

I always hated the fact that I didn't catch a Pink Floyd show when they were still together. I still do, but I'm very happy I caught part of them while here in Korea. A 3 hour show where you know 75% of the songs by heart is very cool. Add in the sound and visuals (very nice background changes and effects combined with 2 big screens for close up live action) that go with the music and it makes one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

March 30, 2002:   Time for a small rant. FedEx sucks. Korea Telecom sucks. Hana Telecom sucks. Being sick sucks. Many things I can't remember right now that suck, suck.

FedEx: My parents sent some gifts to take to the ceremony on Wednesday. They sent them plenty early and paid ample amounts to get them here on time. They sent 2 packages just in case anything went wrong. Well, it did. Package #1 gets stuck in customs for some unknown reason. FedEx delivers a letter to my house saying this, but puts it in a KT envelope for some Chewbacca reason. I still manage to figure it out and give them a call...
When I call I find out that they need my passport number for this package, but that they can't deliver it for 2 more days. That's a day late of course. So I ask about package #2...
Package #2 is at the local FedEx office but was returned because of an incorrect address.  Umm, it's the exact same address they just delivered the customs note to! The nice FedEx girl can't understand that the address is right and refuses to try again but takes my school address and will send it there. Great, it's about noon, they can get it to me a day early...wrong! No deliveries in the afternoon it seems. That's ok, can still get it before I leave for the ceremony the next day right? Right?  Heh, what do you think?
I end up getting both packages on Friday, at school, in the afternoon...and have to pay the school the 26,000 ($20) won that customs charged for the $60 gift.   Fed Ex Sucks. 

Korea Telecom: KT can bite my butt. After much hassle, weeks of dealing with a woman who refuses to return my calls, and getting charged for 3 weeks of service I get ADSL for a whopping 2 days. The service was decent, the speeds were acceptable, the web space was ample....they turned it off. 
Why would KT turn off my ADSL after 3 weeks of trouble and 3 service calls to get it installed and working? First reason was "your service wouldn't have worked in your area cause the lines were too bad." Umm, I had it for 2 days, and it worked pretty well, try again please.
Reason #2 was a bit more legit, but still asinine. My phone line is in the school's name, or a person in the office's name rather. Since my name didn't match that name they turned off the ADSL service. Umm, ok, but wouldn't you have noticed this in the 3 weeks we worked out the details? Or The 3 weeks they charged me for the service (and I paid via EFT). Wouldn't you think that they would find some way to get me the service since they already set it all up and ran new cable not to mention I still have their $200 modem. Oh ya, they didn't bother to tell me before turning it off, it just went away. All my account info was gone as well when I called customer support....
So, KT sucks. My one English speaking agent at the local office won't return my calls, she won't think outside the box and set up a new account and phone service for me (I have a phone, why would I want another? DUH!!) So, until I can find someone that can talk sense into her I'm stuck without internet at home as they are the ONLY provider that can get any internet to my house.

Hana Telecom sucks too. They are the #2 Net provider here in Korea and advertise with flyers and mass mail several times a week. Well they can't run cable to my house (to far from the pole supposedly...utter crap as it's closer than my house in Edmond was) and won't provide ADSL to a single family dwelling...so quit putting this crap on my gate, teasing isn't nice.

Lastly, being sick is crap. This flu stuff I got wiped me out. I've spent almost a week in bed now. I go to school, spend the day, then come home and go back to bed. I'm tired of sleeping.

Oh, one more thing that sucks. Red Tape. Had Thursday off, so took my feverish, cold sweating self 45 minutes down the purple line to Immigration. I needed to get my green card and I was almost out of time on my initial visa. A couple of guys (other foreign teachers) at school finally showed Sam and myself what to do and where to go (since the school wasn't overly concerned in getting us the info, nor did they know it I think). So, we head on over and end up killing several hours waiting in line to turn in a form.  Suck. Government offices are a hoot on your day off! I get to go back in 2 weeks and wait in line again to pick up my card and passport....I hope.  /rant off

March 27, 2002:    (Ceremony Pics) For the past 2 days I have been getting increasingly sick. It's a combination of the Yellow Wind sapping my immune system and meeting strange and new germs at school. Many of the students are sick and they are always willing to share.

Being sick wasn't a good enough reason to skip today's after school activity though. As soon as my 3rd hour was over (11:30) I ran to the subway to make the hour trip to Uijongbu for the welcoming ceremony at Kyung Min College. I had to really hustle to get there in time as it started at 12:30 and it is a full hour trip.

I arrive in the nick of time, well actually a bit later than I would have liked but it saved from 20 minutes of the chapel service before the ceremony...heh, missing Wednesday chapel, reminds me of my time at OBU...after I get there I'm escorted to the new  auditorium and am greeted by 500 plus students and faculty. About the same time the OD levels of Thera-flu start kicking in and change my fever to a nice cold sweat. I'm lovin life.

Well I sit on the stage and listen to a couple of speakers...Korean speakers...while my delirium starts kicking into high gear I almost start understanding them ;)  Eventually it is my turn and I get up to speak. I've never done a speech in front of this many people before, and I've surely never used a translator before.

It takes a couple of paragraphs to get the rhythm of being translated. It's a very odd thing the do in front of a crowd.  The pauses you have to take are very unnatural. Hearing dead silence after you tell a joke or say something that would get at least a pity laugh only to hear the laughter 15 seconds later, after your translator says it, is very very odd. A side benefit of translation is your speech instantly doubles in length! Oh how I could have used that back in high school Speech class.

After my speech and a speech by the school's founder, he presented me with a medal. Dong In Chi gave me a watch from the school as well. Then we did the obligatory pictures for the press. There were reporters for several papers and even one from the US Army.
 

Did a couple of interviews and some more pictures and it was all over. We (some of the faculty, Dong In, and a reporter from the Chosun Ilbo (the main daily paper in Korea) headed over to Camp Redcloud for some steaks. It was a good lunch and pretty entertaining conversation. They finally realize I'm about to pass out and look like death so we part company. 

The reporter, Joon, offers to drive me home. Ends up he's a very cool guy and speaks excellent English thanks to a couple of years in Australia. Hopefully I'll have more stories that involve him in the future as he was a really nice guy and had many similar interests.

I'm home by 5:30 and in bed by 6:00..A very interesting day, but I would love to redo it on a day when I felt like myself.

March 24, 2002: The Yellow Wind.  Heard of it? I have.  The Yellow Wind is a yearly occurrence here in Korea.  It is this huge mass of pollution from China that blows in every spring. It starts out in India and the Gobi desert where high winds kick up tons of dust and crap. It then blows across the deforested plains and mountains of China picking up more dust and lots of very bad for you minerals and other trace elements. Eventually it comes across the China Sea and assaults Korea before it moves on to Japan and even Alaska. This stuff is nasty.  Prior to 1995 Korea experienced 2 days of the Yellow Wind per year on average...it's up to 15 days now.   I didn't buy a mask to wear, but I will next time.

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