As I promised last evening, I spent the better part of this morning continuing my costume hunt. While my efforts proved to be only slightly productive, I did manage to have a fantastic morning of culinary adventures throughout the Eastern Hemisphere without having to leave the confines (not that I could if I wanted to anyways) of Seoul.
By eleven (which yes, is still relatively early morning around here) I had hopped the 1131 bus towards Hagye station where I rode Line 7 two stops down, transferring to 6 at Taereung. . . .yep, you guessed it, Itaewon here I come!
I spent at least an hour or so wandering the "Itaewon Market" which is little more than a bunch of over priced stores blasting hip hop music and advertising "Big Sizes." I mean, I guess that's one way to draw your customers. . .especially if they are primarily the, um, military type? Who knows. . .anyways, I found a shirt store that I had wandered past in previous weeks and took a step inside. My selection was overwhelming. From floor to ceiling this 'shop,' no bigger than my bathroom, seriously, was lined with dress shirts stacked on top of one another. Now the way that the inventory is arranged does not make for very convenient browsing. However, after only a few minutes of thumbing through piles of shirts I came across just the one I was looking for. All I can tell you as of now is that the label describe it's color as "Lime." I ensured that the shirt would fit and was relieved to find that it actually had a 16 1/2 neck, perfect, not that I plan on ever buttoning it up all the way more or less wearing it at any time after tomorrow!
I continued to duck in to shop after shop but my search for a pair of either bell bottom pants or absurdly loud plaid came up short. . .again! I guess Korean's just don't have any interest in to hanging on to mid 80's go-go culture. . .I can't imagine why not!?
Feeling satisfied with my single purchase, and unwilling to continue embarrassing myself by carousing the ugliest pants possible in every store front, I headed up the hill behind Hamilton Hotel. Here one can find restaurants of all variety ranging in cuisine from traditional Bulgarian, to homely Pub Grub, and ethnic Greek to Thai/Korean fusion.
I settled on a second story Thai eatery known as Buddah's Belly that comes highly recommended from many of the world wide web's knowledgeable patrons. Inside I felt comforted by the plush furniture and chic design yet a bit out of place as I was the only guest without a buzzcut and a Korean lady friend at my side! Oh well, I pulled out a Time to keep me company while I waited for my food. I looked at the menu for no more than a second before declaring that I would take the pad thai and a large portion would be much appreciated! Well, I got one of the two anyways. . .
While the portion I was served seemed more appropriate for a "I'm not really in to eating" type restaurant, the food itself was terrific! I ploughed through my dish of chicken pad thai in what could not have been more than twenty five seconds! With about a bite left, at around second number twenty, I remembered that my 'lunch special' came with spring rolls. Excuse me, 'Yooogiiiyoooo', I dare say, you've forgotten my spring rolls, and, while you're at it, may I have the other half of this dish please, you seem to have served me only a fragment of my true portion.
I received two spring rolls. . .and only a confused look with regards to additional pad thai! Oh well, at least I know where not to go when hungry! I settled my 12,000 won tab (stupid Itaewon restaurants think they can get away with charging tax!) and hit the pavement.
I was just about to enter the subway to return home when I noticed a rather large cafe with outdoor seating that I did not recall seeing before. Perhaps this is because they do not keep a dozen tables with sun umbrellas outside late on Friday nights but then again, maybe they should reconsider. I ventured closer and unwillingly caught the attention of a waitress/hostess/owner/dear-friend-of-the-establishment who ushered me inside. I took a moment looking around and then inquired as to whether or not they served "good" coffee. I was assured that it was fantastic and took a seat outside on the street front, despite the howling Siberian winds. . . .well, they were kinda cold!
As I was brought a too-small-for-your-hands cup of too-strong-for-your-own-good coffee I suddenly lost myself. Perhaps it was the knock of Delacroix mural in front of me or the small chocolate that came with my coffee but I swear, for a second there I truly thought I was at a Parisian cafe and only minutes away from a hot gyro in the alleyways behind Notre Dame. . . unfortunately this sensation lasted for only a moment as a waitress/call girl/tailor/maid/bartendress passed in front of me with a steaming plate of animal parts that I pray they do not eat in the rest of the world! Oh well. . .at least there were no French waiters to usher you out of the place indicating that you were clearly taking up valuable space that could be much better wasted on someone in a scarf with a thin moostachio!
I took my time with my 35 centiliters of coffee as I was sure it would cost me double my subway ride home. . .which it did! No regrets however as computed my total morning expenditures and realized that with the won at what it is, I had only spent a mere 62 cents on my meal, desert and costume!
So as of now, I'm one piece closer to being not too many pieces away from a full costume!
We'll see what I can throw together tomorrow morning!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What a Nightmare!
Ughhhh, so, having disregarded this week's quickly approaching holiday, I have spent the past two days scrambling to put together a Halloween costume that is acceptable. . .as deemed by none other than myself. Unfortunately, the deadline is fast approaching and no verdict is in sight!
After returning from soccer Sunday evening, Nate informed me that he spent the better part of the day wandering the city in search of a costume. On his way out to explore the city, Nate ran into DYB elementary teacher Bryne who was simultaneously headed out with some others to find costumes. . . in turn, Nate tagged along.
Apparently they spent a pretty good amount of time wandering the Dongdaemun Market during which Nate was only able to amass two small articles of disguise that he has yet to make a decision about adorning himself with this weekend. . .of course we will let you know once final costumes are decided upon. Finally breaking from what sounded like a rather dreary crowd, Nate made it out to a Halloween store, appropriately named Halloween, that Dave's ESL members had enthusiastically recommended. Unfortunately for Nate, the almost hour subway ride to Sadang left him empty handed as Halloween apparently closed up shop early on Sunday afternoon! Even sadder is the fact that Nate learned the elementary school will be having Halloween parties Thursday and Friday while we are expected to conduct class as normal. . . .boo! Oh wait, I meant, boo hoo. . . too bad for us!
Come Monday neither of us put any effort into costume hunting as I imagined Nate was a bit dejected from his somewhat futile expedition the previous day and I myself use Monday mornings to let my aching body rest from the beating it inevitably takes Sunday afternoons on the pitch! After talking with some coworkers Monday we decided that a return trip to Halloween was in store for Tuesday morning. By coworkers I mean Cleo and by decided I mean she told us we should have costumes because we are apparently supposed to be attending "club night" in Hongdae this Friday which of course will have a ghoulish theme.
So. . .Tuesday morning Nate and I both managed to drag ourselves out of bed and downstairs by 10:30! Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. . .especially considering that I have yet to get to sleep at any sort of reasonable hour on any Monday night following my Sunday angelic like rest! By this point in our 'adventure' (in Korea, not costume shopping) we have figured out that the bus outside our apartment runs directly to the closest subway station (which is not the original one that we have been using) and the fare is forgiven if you get on the subway within an hour of boarding the bus. . .woo, yippie, hoo.
One hour and a Time magazine later (thanks Dad, I'll keep 'em for you to pick up next time you come out) we hopped off Line 4 at Sadang station. Another couple hundred meters later we climbed down the flight of stairs to Halloween, situated in the basement of a rather obscure building in the middle of nowhere. . .well, next to hospital but, come on, is that really any place for a costume shop?
We browsed through the small shop for a good hour before deciding that there really was little of interest. The back row of the small (meaning no larger than 40 ft x 40 ft) shop contained shelves of bagged costumes without pictures that were labeled in Korean. This clearly is of no help despite being the primary means by which people in Korea dress up. Huh?
What I mean is that the most common form of costume in Korea is that which is most common for elementary students in America. Ya know, the fresh off the shelf and right out of the bag, half styrofoam and half spandex brightly colored copyrighted character? Yeah, that one. Well, apparently not only do Koreans (and foreigners in Korea) dig this type of costume, but they actually pay to rent rent them! I'm not sure how this system works as I've been a firm believer in costume creation ever since my early days of Surfer Dude, Hobo, Barbie leading right up to Natalie Halloway and Kim Jong Ill. . .my most recent, and perhaps politically insensitive, of disguises.
Anyways, we tried to concoct ideas using the various accessories that were littered throughout the store, but continued to fall short of any brilliant revelations. While our late start might have in part contributed to this, I blame it primarily on the fact that if you think of something you want to be, you can't simply go out and buy the pieces because you just have no blubbing clue where to even begin looking for a pair of bellbottom jeans or a denim jacket that says "Disco Stu" on the back in rhinestones. . .not to give away my current project or anything. . .so far I'm missing everything but the. . . .well, I've got the idea at least!
We made it out of Halloween a little over an hour after we left with no more than a handful of accessories to show for it. While Nate might be able to put together a decent costume with his small haul, I have left myself with a lot of room for creativity; otherwise known as high and dry.
Without a perfect idea of what either of us will be, we decided to continue our costume hunting Wednesday morning, both in hopes of putting somethign together and as a great excuse to bail on our Konglish lessons with Cleo and the Gang! Consequently, we ended back up at Dongdaemun Market where Nate had spent a good part of this past weekend.
Dongdaemun is absurd. I do not know how to accurately describe it in words. It is an enormous market but not like any I have ever been to. It is mostly enclosed, not like the open air markets of Africa, and spans literally miles of city blocks. There are buildings that run at least a half a mile or so and are a couple hundred yards wide with small stalls lining the streets. Only after talking briefly to a curious student (who noted that we looked more like gangsters than English teachers. . .yeah, we'll take that as a compliment) did we realize that the six story buildings we were looking at housed vendors all the way up their interiors! It is entirely possible that there are tens of thousands of individual vendors in this 'market' which is really just a sprawling commercial area that deals in everything from home appliances to toys with a heavy, heavy, heavy focus on clothes. Plain and simple, I've spent a good amount of time around a number of young beautiful Tulanian woman, and I have never, never, seen so many clothes in one place in all my life!
With so many clothes and Koreans' absurdly disorienting fashion sense, one would think that you could find anything you would ever want at Dongdaemun. . .not so! First of all, if your looking for women's clothes, you're in luck! That's essentially all they sell! If you're a six foot plus male, you're unfortunately out of luck as this body type simply does not exist on this side of the world. Now if you're a male looking for an interesting pair of pants, all you need to do is go down into the subway and look about you. However, if you're looking to purchase some, you're plum outta luck! I spent over two hours wandering the largest clothing market this side of Mercury and could not land myself one pair of relatively loud pants that would hint at anything out of the ordinary. In fact, I only found a dozen or so stalls that sold men's pants at all and most of them were either jet black or of the 'just another pair of blue jeans' variety! I briefly considered buying a cheap pair of blue jeans, some fabric, and talking matters into my own hands. . . and then decided against doing so, primarily for the sake of my emotional stability!
So, three hours later Nate and I found ourselves sitting dejected in a Lotteria (a fast food chain run by the largest department store/supermart/amusement park/production company in the country, Lotte). We eventually treaded back towards Junggye after stopping at another, depressingly empty, "Halloween" store on the market's outskirts.
Well, I guess there's always tomorrow. . .after that, I'm not quite sure what I'll do! I picked up a (relatively) interesting t-shirt today (don't worry, I'll show you later) that will most likely end up being my costume if my continued hunt for something costume worthy fails me again tomorrow as I plan to make my way towards Itaewon early in the morning. In part I plan this to buy a ridiculous shirt but more so I'm just excited to treat myself to a pad thai lunch special for the first time!
Hope your Halloween's shaping up better than mine!
After returning from soccer Sunday evening, Nate informed me that he spent the better part of the day wandering the city in search of a costume. On his way out to explore the city, Nate ran into DYB elementary teacher Bryne who was simultaneously headed out with some others to find costumes. . . in turn, Nate tagged along.
Apparently they spent a pretty good amount of time wandering the Dongdaemun Market during which Nate was only able to amass two small articles of disguise that he has yet to make a decision about adorning himself with this weekend. . .of course we will let you know once final costumes are decided upon. Finally breaking from what sounded like a rather dreary crowd, Nate made it out to a Halloween store, appropriately named Halloween, that Dave's ESL members had enthusiastically recommended. Unfortunately for Nate, the almost hour subway ride to Sadang left him empty handed as Halloween apparently closed up shop early on Sunday afternoon! Even sadder is the fact that Nate learned the elementary school will be having Halloween parties Thursday and Friday while we are expected to conduct class as normal. . . .boo! Oh wait, I meant, boo hoo. . . too bad for us!
Come Monday neither of us put any effort into costume hunting as I imagined Nate was a bit dejected from his somewhat futile expedition the previous day and I myself use Monday mornings to let my aching body rest from the beating it inevitably takes Sunday afternoons on the pitch! After talking with some coworkers Monday we decided that a return trip to Halloween was in store for Tuesday morning. By coworkers I mean Cleo and by decided I mean she told us we should have costumes because we are apparently supposed to be attending "club night" in Hongdae this Friday which of course will have a ghoulish theme.
So. . .Tuesday morning Nate and I both managed to drag ourselves out of bed and downstairs by 10:30! Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. . .especially considering that I have yet to get to sleep at any sort of reasonable hour on any Monday night following my Sunday angelic like rest! By this point in our 'adventure' (in Korea, not costume shopping) we have figured out that the bus outside our apartment runs directly to the closest subway station (which is not the original one that we have been using) and the fare is forgiven if you get on the subway within an hour of boarding the bus. . .woo, yippie, hoo.
One hour and a Time magazine later (thanks Dad, I'll keep 'em for you to pick up next time you come out) we hopped off Line 4 at Sadang station. Another couple hundred meters later we climbed down the flight of stairs to Halloween, situated in the basement of a rather obscure building in the middle of nowhere. . .well, next to hospital but, come on, is that really any place for a costume shop?
We browsed through the small shop for a good hour before deciding that there really was little of interest. The back row of the small (meaning no larger than 40 ft x 40 ft) shop contained shelves of bagged costumes without pictures that were labeled in Korean. This clearly is of no help despite being the primary means by which people in Korea dress up. Huh?
What I mean is that the most common form of costume in Korea is that which is most common for elementary students in America. Ya know, the fresh off the shelf and right out of the bag, half styrofoam and half spandex brightly colored copyrighted character? Yeah, that one. Well, apparently not only do Koreans (and foreigners in Korea) dig this type of costume, but they actually pay to rent rent them! I'm not sure how this system works as I've been a firm believer in costume creation ever since my early days of Surfer Dude, Hobo, Barbie leading right up to Natalie Halloway and Kim Jong Ill. . .my most recent, and perhaps politically insensitive, of disguises.
Anyways, we tried to concoct ideas using the various accessories that were littered throughout the store, but continued to fall short of any brilliant revelations. While our late start might have in part contributed to this, I blame it primarily on the fact that if you think of something you want to be, you can't simply go out and buy the pieces because you just have no blubbing clue where to even begin looking for a pair of bellbottom jeans or a denim jacket that says "Disco Stu" on the back in rhinestones. . .not to give away my current project or anything. . .so far I'm missing everything but the. . . .well, I've got the idea at least!
We made it out of Halloween a little over an hour after we left with no more than a handful of accessories to show for it. While Nate might be able to put together a decent costume with his small haul, I have left myself with a lot of room for creativity; otherwise known as high and dry.
Without a perfect idea of what either of us will be, we decided to continue our costume hunting Wednesday morning, both in hopes of putting somethign together and as a great excuse to bail on our Konglish lessons with Cleo and the Gang! Consequently, we ended back up at Dongdaemun Market where Nate had spent a good part of this past weekend.
Dongdaemun is absurd. I do not know how to accurately describe it in words. It is an enormous market but not like any I have ever been to. It is mostly enclosed, not like the open air markets of Africa, and spans literally miles of city blocks. There are buildings that run at least a half a mile or so and are a couple hundred yards wide with small stalls lining the streets. Only after talking briefly to a curious student (who noted that we looked more like gangsters than English teachers. . .yeah, we'll take that as a compliment) did we realize that the six story buildings we were looking at housed vendors all the way up their interiors! It is entirely possible that there are tens of thousands of individual vendors in this 'market' which is really just a sprawling commercial area that deals in everything from home appliances to toys with a heavy, heavy, heavy focus on clothes. Plain and simple, I've spent a good amount of time around a number of young beautiful Tulanian woman, and I have never, never, seen so many clothes in one place in all my life!
With so many clothes and Koreans' absurdly disorienting fashion sense, one would think that you could find anything you would ever want at Dongdaemun. . .not so! First of all, if your looking for women's clothes, you're in luck! That's essentially all they sell! If you're a six foot plus male, you're unfortunately out of luck as this body type simply does not exist on this side of the world. Now if you're a male looking for an interesting pair of pants, all you need to do is go down into the subway and look about you. However, if you're looking to purchase some, you're plum outta luck! I spent over two hours wandering the largest clothing market this side of Mercury and could not land myself one pair of relatively loud pants that would hint at anything out of the ordinary. In fact, I only found a dozen or so stalls that sold men's pants at all and most of them were either jet black or of the 'just another pair of blue jeans' variety! I briefly considered buying a cheap pair of blue jeans, some fabric, and talking matters into my own hands. . . and then decided against doing so, primarily for the sake of my emotional stability!
So, three hours later Nate and I found ourselves sitting dejected in a Lotteria (a fast food chain run by the largest department store/supermart/amusement park/production company in the country, Lotte). We eventually treaded back towards Junggye after stopping at another, depressingly empty, "Halloween" store on the market's outskirts.
Well, I guess there's always tomorrow. . .after that, I'm not quite sure what I'll do! I picked up a (relatively) interesting t-shirt today (don't worry, I'll show you later) that will most likely end up being my costume if my continued hunt for something costume worthy fails me again tomorrow as I plan to make my way towards Itaewon early in the morning. In part I plan this to buy a ridiculous shirt but more so I'm just excited to treat myself to a pad thai lunch special for the first time!
Hope your Halloween's shaping up better than mine!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Where's the Music!?
Well Saturday turned out to provide quite an adventure through Seoul's musical wonderland. At noon I headed downstairs with my guitar to meet Cleo and Razer for our first, ha, DYB band practice. Apparently this end of the year talent show is kind of a big deal to a lot of the Korean teachers (I can imagine its one of their few opportunities to focus on anything other than work). From the time he first mentioned putting a band together, Razer spent a couple weeks a least composing the "DYB Song" that is complete but in all honesty no more complicated than a cowboy sing a long tune.
I waited outside of the middle school for about ten minutes before deciding that I had misheard my instructions and was clearly in the wrong place or there at the wrong time. I called Cleo to double check and she apologized profusely for being late, promising me that she would be there in a minute, which she was. From that point it wasn't long before Razer showed up in an immaculately planned outfit, as always! Even when this guy is not working he finds a way to dress to the t for whatever occasion. Saturday he just happened to be wearing a brand new full adidas warm up set for what I believe is the Korean national team, the Reds. I asked him where the game was and unfortunately my sarcasm was lost in translation as he informed me no game today, we were going to band practice, but soccer is on Sundays. . . .thanks Razer, I figured that out on my own!
Worried about being late, Razer insisted that we delay lunch until arriving at our destination. Even then after a 45 minute drive (which I caught a great nap during) he insisted to Cleo, who was begging for food by this point, that there was only time to grab food and go. So, we dipped into the local Paris Baguette, grabbed some sandies and doughnuts then continued walking. We had arrived in the Gunja area met by rain which we had no option but to deal with as we walked from the car, parked haphazardly on the sidewalk, to our practice room at the Berklee School of Professional Musicians. . . ha!
Up on the fifth floor of the Berklee building we checked in at reception and waited for the previous band to clear out of the studio. During this time I plopped down on the reception couch and dug into my brunch. Ahhhh, how lovely it feels sitting on a couch again! For the majority of time that I'm here I am lying in a wholly uncomfortable bed, sitting in a less comfortable chair at my computer or standing up either at school or wandering around this metropolitan jungle. Believe me, a couch is a-whole-nother world to me at this point!
The studio itself that we have reserved for five, two hour sessions is awesome! They have all the hardware and everything set up and ready to go so all we needed to do was bring instruments and plug in. For the next two hours, minus a three minute break that Razer 'allowed' everyone, we practiced with DYB song with me playing the guitar, Cleo playing the (one finger bass), David on drums, Manira (or something like that) on keys, and Razer belting out the lyrics. Later practice will incorporate Nate rapping and Sunny dancing but for now we're working on just the music.
We played literally right up until 4:00 when Razer cut us off in the middle of the song to say that our time was up. . .well that was abrupt, but alright! I was just glad he made it through the practice without having a heart attack as he seemed to nearly do anytime someone missed a hit or a note. . .oops, thanks for being patient Razer!
Cleo, Razer and I said by to David and Marina(?) in the subway then headed up towards the brilliantly parked car. I again grabbed some shut eye in the back seat while heading towards Junggye. It seems like I have developed a wonderful ability of falling asleep in moving vehicles and lying awake all night in a static bed. . .hmmm
Although I didn't get back until about 5 oclock, Nate was waiting and ready to head out for our weekend adventures. In an expat magazine, Groove, I picked up earlier this month, I read about a 'music festival' happening in Hae Bong Chon (HBC) this Saturday. The 'festival' supposedly started at 2pm and lasted until late with a few dozen different bands performing at five different venues. Sounded like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening, wandering around listening to a variety of local music. . .unfortunately, we never got the chance to!
We followed, what I believed, were the directions posted by the HBC Fest's website. However, we were unable to locate any of the venues or crowds that one might expect for a decent sized festival. We reassured ourselves that we were in HBC by asking a number of people who confirmed our suspicions. We simply could not seem to find any of the music that was most likely going on somewhere in our immediate vicinity.
After wandering for over an hour in a light rain we decided to call it quits and that we gave it our all. We ended up at a small middle eastern restaurant named Istanbul where Nate and I scarfed down a pair of Turkish Doners! Mmmmm, as Nate noted however these things are like potato chips in that you can never eat just one. We would each have two more, from different vendors, before retiring for the night.
After Istanbul we walked for another 20 minutes only to come up just as empty handed as before. By this time re really decided to retire and head towards Itaewon, foreigner's paradise, which was only one subway stop over. On our short walk, I decided to call the Seoul Information line just to see if they could point us in the right direction of the HBC Fest. Unfortunately all I got was a recording, no human help this evening. . .or at least not yet.
Ending up in Itaewon again by chance, we decided to wander around a bit before heading in anywhere. We checked out a few random stores in the market area that seemed to sell everything from underwear to shoes to souvenirs and old military medals. Suddenly Nate's phone began ringing, displaying a number that neither or us knew. He answered it and passed it off to me. It was the information line calling back! How helpful! Unfortunately I wasn't able to remember the website where I found info on the fest and consequently received no help from the English voice on the other side of the line. . oh well! We continued to wander and eventually found ourselves at Sultans, a small Turkish eatery specializing in, you guessed it, doners! Nate and I each put another one away and spent a few minutes chatting with Omer, the friendly and outspoken proprietor.
It wasn't long however before we both agreed that a comfortable seat was much needed. Thus, we headed upstairs to our favorite third floor venue, Woodstock, where we were greeted by a near empty bar and a large selection of comfortable seating. . . ahhhhhh!
For the next hour or so we both just let our bodies melt away in the couches after wandering for two or more hours out in the cold with nothing to show for it. While it looked as if we would not be treated to live music that night, a keyboardist we had seen before made his way to the stage to begin setting up his gear. For the next hour or so no one else showed but when they did, they all did!
The band that ended up setting up setting up was Beef and the Penetrators, an all service men group that we had actually randomly seen before a few weeks ago. Knowing that not only were they good musicians but that they put on a great show we decided to stick it out in our lovely couch seats for the rest of the night! We sat through all three of Beef's sets, thoroughly enjoying the nine piece all-American band. Looking around however Nate and I realized that the crowd had certainly followed the band and that we were the only non-military patrons in the place, other than a few Korean drunks and the bartendresses. Even the majority of women that came in seemed like they would have no problem ripping us apart limb for limb if we made any sudden movements. It was quite entertaining to find oneself literally surrounded by soldiers on the third floor of a random building (that also houses a clothing store, old church, and 'sexy bar') in the heart of Seoul, South Korea.
For the next three hours or so we managed to escape the hustle and bustle of life in Korea by simply relaxing and listening to American music, played by Americans, surrounded by Americans! Oh how nice it is! Though I planned on catching the last train home, which leaves around 11:00pm, I hadn't nearly gotten my fill of live music and decided that staying out was well worth a few hours of lost sleep! Beef and the gang actually finished up rather early and we were able to make it home before two, though not before having a schwarma wrap from our favorite street vendor! As Nate put it, this is simply a food that you could never get sick of! Well, I haven't yet!
Sunday morning I actually had plenty of time to sleep in before my four o'clock soccer game. I woke up around noon, messed around on the computer for an hour then headed down to Yum Sem with Nate for my ritual pre-soccer meal: a bowl of jollmyeon. This is a rather interesting dish of noodles that are covered in chili sauce and served cold in a big stainless steel bowl topped with a half dozen or so different chopped veggies, and a hard boiled egg. I didn't quite manage to finish my whole serving as someone was a little too liberal with the chili sauce this Sunday, not to mention that I think the dish is meant to be shared anyways!
At around two oclock I packed up for soccer and threw the case of beer I owed the team into my game bag! Now this made for an interesting journey down to Apgujeong, lugging a 20 pound soccer bag behind me that I'm sure the Koreans on the subway assumed was a bomb. I eventually made it to the pitch with everything in working order and we began warming up for one of our most difficult matches against the number two ranked Incheon.
Last week's game marked the season's halfway point and now we repeat each game, played at the other's home pitch. So, playing Incheon marked our opportunity to get revenge for our first game loss (for which I was not yet on the team). Of note is Incheon's key striker Munro who had been featured in an article about the SSFL as scoring four goals the previous week. Apparently this kid is really top notch and has no problem dominating teams single handedly. . .not this week!
We Spitfires quickly went up a goal thanks to the hustle of forward Jun Ho. Within five minutes, Incheon rallied for a fierce breakaway down the left sideline and I was left alone in the middle covering two men. I read the cross beautifully, broke in between the intended receivers and put my foot on it to clear that sucker out! Turns out what I really did was try to put my foot on it. What really happened was I put my shinguard on it and it ricocheted off the inside of our own post into the net! My first goal!! Oops! No biggie though as it would have been a goal anyways had I not been there. Jun Ho managed to cover my mistake and put another one past the Incheon keeper only a few minutes later. . .phew, thanks!
For the remainder of the game our Spitfire defense played like a wall. No one was able to get passed us for so much as a botched opportunity. I'm not kidding when I say that I think I had Incheon's only shot on net for the day! Between our four defenders we managed to lock Munro down hard and he was able to produce nothing more than a few give and gos that fell apart at the seems!
Even with a barrage of long throws, from Incheon's monster defender, our Spitfire defense held fast, not allowing anything to come into the box unprotected! With ten minutes to go, another of our Korean strikers (whose name I can never remembered) bombed an absolute laser right through the hands of Incheon's goalie from about 30 yards out! This really zapped the team and despite a good last minute rally, Incheon was unable to produce anything for themselves!
The Spitfires took home the 3-1 victory (which we celebrated as 4-0 due to my goal scoring abilities)! As a result of manager Sun Uk betting us all on the teams message board, those of us that stuck around after the game were treated to free chicken at TwoTwo just down the street! It was a great way to end the weekend and an even better way to start the second half of our SSFL fall season! We're currently in third place, one game behind Incheon who needs to lose for us to be bumped up. . .consequently, I'm cheering for the rest of the league to step up their play! And, praying for my series of unfortunate events to take a break for the next few weeks!
Happy Monday
I waited outside of the middle school for about ten minutes before deciding that I had misheard my instructions and was clearly in the wrong place or there at the wrong time. I called Cleo to double check and she apologized profusely for being late, promising me that she would be there in a minute, which she was. From that point it wasn't long before Razer showed up in an immaculately planned outfit, as always! Even when this guy is not working he finds a way to dress to the t for whatever occasion. Saturday he just happened to be wearing a brand new full adidas warm up set for what I believe is the Korean national team, the Reds. I asked him where the game was and unfortunately my sarcasm was lost in translation as he informed me no game today, we were going to band practice, but soccer is on Sundays. . . .thanks Razer, I figured that out on my own!
Worried about being late, Razer insisted that we delay lunch until arriving at our destination. Even then after a 45 minute drive (which I caught a great nap during) he insisted to Cleo, who was begging for food by this point, that there was only time to grab food and go. So, we dipped into the local Paris Baguette, grabbed some sandies and doughnuts then continued walking. We had arrived in the Gunja area met by rain which we had no option but to deal with as we walked from the car, parked haphazardly on the sidewalk, to our practice room at the Berklee School of Professional Musicians. . . ha!
Up on the fifth floor of the Berklee building we checked in at reception and waited for the previous band to clear out of the studio. During this time I plopped down on the reception couch and dug into my brunch. Ahhhh, how lovely it feels sitting on a couch again! For the majority of time that I'm here I am lying in a wholly uncomfortable bed, sitting in a less comfortable chair at my computer or standing up either at school or wandering around this metropolitan jungle. Believe me, a couch is a-whole-nother world to me at this point!
The studio itself that we have reserved for five, two hour sessions is awesome! They have all the hardware and everything set up and ready to go so all we needed to do was bring instruments and plug in. For the next two hours, minus a three minute break that Razer 'allowed' everyone, we practiced with DYB song with me playing the guitar, Cleo playing the (one finger bass), David on drums, Manira (or something like that) on keys, and Razer belting out the lyrics. Later practice will incorporate Nate rapping and Sunny dancing but for now we're working on just the music.
We played literally right up until 4:00 when Razer cut us off in the middle of the song to say that our time was up. . .well that was abrupt, but alright! I was just glad he made it through the practice without having a heart attack as he seemed to nearly do anytime someone missed a hit or a note. . .oops, thanks for being patient Razer!
Cleo, Razer and I said by to David and Marina(?) in the subway then headed up towards the brilliantly parked car. I again grabbed some shut eye in the back seat while heading towards Junggye. It seems like I have developed a wonderful ability of falling asleep in moving vehicles and lying awake all night in a static bed. . .hmmm
Although I didn't get back until about 5 oclock, Nate was waiting and ready to head out for our weekend adventures. In an expat magazine, Groove, I picked up earlier this month, I read about a 'music festival' happening in Hae Bong Chon (HBC) this Saturday. The 'festival' supposedly started at 2pm and lasted until late with a few dozen different bands performing at five different venues. Sounded like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon/evening, wandering around listening to a variety of local music. . .unfortunately, we never got the chance to!
We followed, what I believed, were the directions posted by the HBC Fest's website. However, we were unable to locate any of the venues or crowds that one might expect for a decent sized festival. We reassured ourselves that we were in HBC by asking a number of people who confirmed our suspicions. We simply could not seem to find any of the music that was most likely going on somewhere in our immediate vicinity.
After wandering for over an hour in a light rain we decided to call it quits and that we gave it our all. We ended up at a small middle eastern restaurant named Istanbul where Nate and I scarfed down a pair of Turkish Doners! Mmmmm, as Nate noted however these things are like potato chips in that you can never eat just one. We would each have two more, from different vendors, before retiring for the night.
After Istanbul we walked for another 20 minutes only to come up just as empty handed as before. By this time re really decided to retire and head towards Itaewon, foreigner's paradise, which was only one subway stop over. On our short walk, I decided to call the Seoul Information line just to see if they could point us in the right direction of the HBC Fest. Unfortunately all I got was a recording, no human help this evening. . .or at least not yet.
Ending up in Itaewon again by chance, we decided to wander around a bit before heading in anywhere. We checked out a few random stores in the market area that seemed to sell everything from underwear to shoes to souvenirs and old military medals. Suddenly Nate's phone began ringing, displaying a number that neither or us knew. He answered it and passed it off to me. It was the information line calling back! How helpful! Unfortunately I wasn't able to remember the website where I found info on the fest and consequently received no help from the English voice on the other side of the line. . oh well! We continued to wander and eventually found ourselves at Sultans, a small Turkish eatery specializing in, you guessed it, doners! Nate and I each put another one away and spent a few minutes chatting with Omer, the friendly and outspoken proprietor.
It wasn't long however before we both agreed that a comfortable seat was much needed. Thus, we headed upstairs to our favorite third floor venue, Woodstock, where we were greeted by a near empty bar and a large selection of comfortable seating. . . ahhhhhh!
For the next hour or so we both just let our bodies melt away in the couches after wandering for two or more hours out in the cold with nothing to show for it. While it looked as if we would not be treated to live music that night, a keyboardist we had seen before made his way to the stage to begin setting up his gear. For the next hour or so no one else showed but when they did, they all did!
The band that ended up setting up setting up was Beef and the Penetrators, an all service men group that we had actually randomly seen before a few weeks ago. Knowing that not only were they good musicians but that they put on a great show we decided to stick it out in our lovely couch seats for the rest of the night! We sat through all three of Beef's sets, thoroughly enjoying the nine piece all-American band. Looking around however Nate and I realized that the crowd had certainly followed the band and that we were the only non-military patrons in the place, other than a few Korean drunks and the bartendresses. Even the majority of women that came in seemed like they would have no problem ripping us apart limb for limb if we made any sudden movements. It was quite entertaining to find oneself literally surrounded by soldiers on the third floor of a random building (that also houses a clothing store, old church, and 'sexy bar') in the heart of Seoul, South Korea.
For the next three hours or so we managed to escape the hustle and bustle of life in Korea by simply relaxing and listening to American music, played by Americans, surrounded by Americans! Oh how nice it is! Though I planned on catching the last train home, which leaves around 11:00pm, I hadn't nearly gotten my fill of live music and decided that staying out was well worth a few hours of lost sleep! Beef and the gang actually finished up rather early and we were able to make it home before two, though not before having a schwarma wrap from our favorite street vendor! As Nate put it, this is simply a food that you could never get sick of! Well, I haven't yet!
Sunday morning I actually had plenty of time to sleep in before my four o'clock soccer game. I woke up around noon, messed around on the computer for an hour then headed down to Yum Sem with Nate for my ritual pre-soccer meal: a bowl of jollmyeon. This is a rather interesting dish of noodles that are covered in chili sauce and served cold in a big stainless steel bowl topped with a half dozen or so different chopped veggies, and a hard boiled egg. I didn't quite manage to finish my whole serving as someone was a little too liberal with the chili sauce this Sunday, not to mention that I think the dish is meant to be shared anyways!
At around two oclock I packed up for soccer and threw the case of beer I owed the team into my game bag! Now this made for an interesting journey down to Apgujeong, lugging a 20 pound soccer bag behind me that I'm sure the Koreans on the subway assumed was a bomb. I eventually made it to the pitch with everything in working order and we began warming up for one of our most difficult matches against the number two ranked Incheon.
Last week's game marked the season's halfway point and now we repeat each game, played at the other's home pitch. So, playing Incheon marked our opportunity to get revenge for our first game loss (for which I was not yet on the team). Of note is Incheon's key striker Munro who had been featured in an article about the SSFL as scoring four goals the previous week. Apparently this kid is really top notch and has no problem dominating teams single handedly. . .not this week!
We Spitfires quickly went up a goal thanks to the hustle of forward Jun Ho. Within five minutes, Incheon rallied for a fierce breakaway down the left sideline and I was left alone in the middle covering two men. I read the cross beautifully, broke in between the intended receivers and put my foot on it to clear that sucker out! Turns out what I really did was try to put my foot on it. What really happened was I put my shinguard on it and it ricocheted off the inside of our own post into the net! My first goal!! Oops! No biggie though as it would have been a goal anyways had I not been there. Jun Ho managed to cover my mistake and put another one past the Incheon keeper only a few minutes later. . .phew, thanks!
For the remainder of the game our Spitfire defense played like a wall. No one was able to get passed us for so much as a botched opportunity. I'm not kidding when I say that I think I had Incheon's only shot on net for the day! Between our four defenders we managed to lock Munro down hard and he was able to produce nothing more than a few give and gos that fell apart at the seems!
Even with a barrage of long throws, from Incheon's monster defender, our Spitfire defense held fast, not allowing anything to come into the box unprotected! With ten minutes to go, another of our Korean strikers (whose name I can never remembered) bombed an absolute laser right through the hands of Incheon's goalie from about 30 yards out! This really zapped the team and despite a good last minute rally, Incheon was unable to produce anything for themselves!
The Spitfires took home the 3-1 victory (which we celebrated as 4-0 due to my goal scoring abilities)! As a result of manager Sun Uk betting us all on the teams message board, those of us that stuck around after the game were treated to free chicken at TwoTwo just down the street! It was a great way to end the weekend and an even better way to start the second half of our SSFL fall season! We're currently in third place, one game behind Incheon who needs to lose for us to be bumped up. . .consequently, I'm cheering for the rest of the league to step up their play! And, praying for my series of unfortunate events to take a break for the next few weeks!
Happy Monday
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Phew. . .
Well how about that? I just got back from my second run this week, setting a new all-time-while-in-Seoul record! Monday morning I managed to wake up early after a long hard day of doing terrible at soccer. My knees for some reason killed however and I wasn't able to make it much further than a 300 meter track about a kilometer away. I did about a mile on the track (five loops) then called it quits, jogging slowly back to my place on my tender joints.
Although I've had trouble falling asleep both Monday and Tuesday nights (Monday I was up until at least five just lying in bed), I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning at ten in order to hit the pavement. Feeling quite a bit better, probably from my day off, I decided to head back down to the canal to do a 'long run.' I had reservations about whether or not I'd make it the whole way as I tend to get bored running the same path and find myself giving up to just walk and enjoy the scenery. This turned out not to be the case however today!
On my way down to the canal from Dootaville I simply run straight, past Save Zone (a big discount department store), through the crowds at Hagye Station and right over the Dangbu Expressway interchange where I veer sharply to the right and down an incline to the river path. The run to the trail is rather relaxing as I am forced to pause for a brief moment every kilometer or so for a traffic light. In America I would most likely look both ways and bolt across the street here however I don't have my health card yet for Korea and in no way trust Korean drivers to care about a racing foreigner. Furthermore, the short breaks allow me to stretch as I gradually warm up versus static stretching before I run, which I have grown accustomed to. Recently I read somewhere that the former is much better for your muscles and, from the two times I've done it, I would have to agree! Of course I still take ten minutes or so to static stretch after running, but then again my body would hate me if I didn't!
Running down the canal today I noticed that it really was starting to look like fall, even if it didn't feel like it quite yet. I'm sure those of you in D.C., E.L. and C.O. know what I'm talking about and wish you had the same experience. While leaves are starting to turn, and more so fall here, the weather remains comfortably in the high 60's if not warmer during mid day. As for the foliage, it really isn't much to speak of as of yet. The only trees that seem to have started changing colors are the small, skinny fanned leaf ones that line all the roads. Even these aren't really that interesting as their leaves turn from a dull green to a dull yellow and then seemingly drop the second they have completed their transition.
I guess we'll just have to wait a few more week until we can really tell what fall's like in Seoul. I've heard in some places is absolutely beautiful but as of now we're stuck in a rather urban part of this ridiculous metropolis. I do anticipate a great view from our Native room however once the trees on the mountain start to make their transition! I'll be sure to share pictures if it's as beautiful as I imagine it could be! Once the fall thing really gets into full swing we plan on visiting some of the more historical sites around town, meaning the temples that we have thus far ignored. Figure it'll make for some great photo ops, right!?
As for work/school I really have nothing to complain about the last two days, surprised? Everything's been going okay and I really am starting to enjoy Moon Young's classes more and more each time. The students, or at least a few of them, have really started to warm up to me and show an interest in the material. . . of course this means only about half of the students in two of five classes but. . .hey, it's a start. My first class on Tuesday still refuses to talk and I just wish that they would check in on my later class to see how fun it can be if everyone participates. Some kids were literally rolling on the floor laughing last evening as I impersonated an American girl trying to decide what to wear to school in a discussion about school uniforms (this was prompted by their suggestion that it is convenient to wear uniforms because one does not have to decide what to wear to school each day).
In talking about school uniforms, and reading a current events article about educational authorities administering an additional proficiency test beginning this year, I had a great opportunity to engage in a little cultural exchange, not often possible during our highly structured lessons. After reading the article, I asked the kids what they thought about their educational system in terms of its rigour and the demands placed on students. While a few kids expressed opinions suggesting they knew of an easier life, many simply agreed that how hard they worked was good and necessary. Others even suggested that it would be beneficial to best tested more often and more rigorously: no joke!
The absurdity of this just blew me away and I felt obliged to let them know of an easier way! I explained my pre-University education to them in which I attended school for six hours a day, five days a week, no more but sometimes less! This first of all astounded them that I did not ever have to attend academy. Oh, but I did have soccer practice and piano lessons every now and then I explained. Yeah, well those are fun they agreed.
They then asked what I did after school and I explained that I would hang out with friends, read, ride bikes or pretty much do whatever I pleased until my dinner time which would probably be no earlier than seven o'clock and was considered by many of my friends to be late! This too shocked them as many of my students will return home to eat dinner after their lesson concludes at 10:30pm. Only then do they begin to do their homework! I asked just how long they did homework every night and got answers ranging from one hour (and it shows) to four or more hours a night, every night of the week. This of course prompted me to share with them the fact that I don't recall spending more than an hour on homework in any particular night and many I would get by without doing any at all. We further discussed tests for which they begin studying for anywhere from one to two weeks in advance, sometimes pulling all-nighters the days preceding the test just to get extra studying in. This, well, I don't need to tell you that it's not really my style!
Even after contrasting their schooling with my own, it surprised me to hear that many of the kids thought that nothing should be changed about their education system. To them, such rigid demands are not only accepted but necessary for Koreans. Two of my classes explained this by developing a visual model (that I prompted) explaining the unending high level of competition in Korea that predicates such a strenuous system. My students pointed out that due to Korea's small size, jobs, especially good ones, are inherently limited. We then discussed that the entry point for these jobs is also limited as the "good" universities in Korea number only three! Furthermore, the competition for a spot at one of the SKY (Seoul National, Korea, Yonsei) Universities and subsequently in a good job (LG, Hyundai, Samsung) is extremely high as the number of students in Korea is well into the millions!
This we compared to their conception of America's educational model, which is relatively correct in theory. In America, a country that is nearly boundless and home to a plethora of natural resources, job opportunities are endless as one can always expand or create a new business for themselves if current jobs are scarce (I know, tell that to 10% of the people in Michigan, I didn't say it was completely accurate, that's why its a model, not a representative chart). Furthermore, the number of "good" or accredited universities in the States is just about endless. I explained that each of our fifty States has at least two major public universities with a number of small public ones and an almost infinite amount of other, perhaps more specialized private schools. In turn, even though the U.S. has a ridiculous number of students, the ubiquity of Universities and in turn boundless job opportunities leads to a very low level of competition amongst students. . .therefore I can get away with building forts in the woods for five hours a day while Korean students are hustled from one academy to the next.
It is not uncommon, and in fact would be strange, if any of my students were to be in bed before 1 a.m. on any given night. At around 10:15pm yesterday I informed my class that there was a good chance that my brother, a senior in high school, would most likely be getting ready to go to bed and might even be asleep by the time that they left school. Now I realize that this might be a bit of an exaggeration (though if it were me I would probably be forced in to bed, Jay I'm sure is out playing a concert in Guadalajara only to return the next morning at six. . .no problem, right!?), but even so it just blew my students' minds! Shouldn't he be studying they asked!? Um, sure, but for what? The SAT? I don't recall doing that, not sure if Jay is. His high school tests? Um, maybe for math, but what else do you really have to study for? Even then don't we get formula sheets? It is just absurd that these poor middle schoolers (or too-cool-for-schoolers as they often appear) work so much harder on seemingly meaningless tasks then I ever did at any point in my education, even in receiving two Bachelors degrees. . . .ha, Korea!
On the flip side of things, not everyone appears well equipped to handle such a difficult burden. This is something that I had actually wondered about for some time since being here. Doesn't working that hard have profound physical and psychological effects on these poor* kids?! Well, the physiological effects are actually pretty apparent. I know we work with just middle schoolers, who are growing and stretching out but the majority of the young people we meet simply appear to be so frail. I can't imagine anyone gets a good deal of exercises and there is a very noticeable difference between the shape of the Koreans on my soccer team (a few of which who were never admitted to University, I'm assuming because they rejected overexerting themselves) and many others that I encounter. What's funny about this is that we recently read an article about computer games being bad for your health because they limit your exercise time. . . guess what, so does studying for four or more hours a day!!
As for the psychological effects, well, I cannot honestly be too sure. I see these kids come and go every day, the majority of them in a complete daze which simply cannot by good for their psyche. But, to what degree they would admit or acknowledge the breadth of their burden? I'm just not sure. It seems as though it would be very un-Korean to speak out against the system and complain, even if one's schedule were causing extreme distress. My kids were shocked that in the article 188 (of how many Korean students?) objected to taking the recently implemented exams. I know little about mental health in Korea but I fear that the rigor of the system and extreme pressure put on students to succeed is not only too much be can be suffocating to dissent.
Yesterday after work Nate told me about how a girl in her class blurted out that another student, a 13 year old girl, launched her self off the top of her apartment building the other day because she "had too much stress." 13 years old. Most people aren't even fully conscious of the world around them by the time they're 13 (this is actually 12 in normal years). A pre-teen doesn't even have the stress of adolescence yet! No boy problems, no pimples really. Korean children, as I noted, don't have to pick out outfits or get made fun of for what they wear. What could possibly cause a 12 year old girl to become so stressed that she took her own life in a shockingly deliberate manner. . . I'll let the Korean Educational Authority decide. . .for now, I just try to assign as little homework as possible!
On a happier note. . .here's a picture of the kindergarten students outside my window that wake me up every morning with their singing. Sometimes its cute, most of the time it's just annoying, but then again, Sunday mornings I do kind of miss it when everything is a little too quiet! But anyways, I woke up the other morning and looked out to see these little guys sitting in a toppled circle that more resembled a heart than anything. . .awwwww! *tear! Enjoy!
*Note on the word "poor." Poverty in Korea is not viewed sympathetically as a problem of the masses. This is not a socialist country. You earn your money, for yourself, to get ahead. No sharing, no mercy, no nothing. The majority of my students, during a lesson on charity, expressed the point of view that charity is not only not necessary but a waste of time and money because giving away what you have earned is against the point of earning it. Mom, yes, I tried my best to explain otherwise, and might have even gotten through to a few kids, but for the most part, that's just Korea. . .okay, that's the background, here's the anecdote.
The other night Nate and I were playing the "thesaurus game" where we pick a word from my little pocket thesaurus and try and guess all the listed synonyms. Now either we've been in Korea too long, didn't pay attention in Ms. Hoppe's class or this is actually a really challenging and thought provoking game. Either way, Joseph came along and decided to give it a shot. He flips through a few pages and then all of a sudden starts cracking up wildly. . ."HA, it says poor people are 'moneyless' hahahahaha. That means they don't have money, haha!"
Now by no means does he mean this in a bad way, it was just a perfect example of how Koreans view material wealth and that it's simply absurd to not have any!
Although I've had trouble falling asleep both Monday and Tuesday nights (Monday I was up until at least five just lying in bed), I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning at ten in order to hit the pavement. Feeling quite a bit better, probably from my day off, I decided to head back down to the canal to do a 'long run.' I had reservations about whether or not I'd make it the whole way as I tend to get bored running the same path and find myself giving up to just walk and enjoy the scenery. This turned out not to be the case however today!
On my way down to the canal from Dootaville I simply run straight, past Save Zone (a big discount department store), through the crowds at Hagye Station and right over the Dangbu Expressway interchange where I veer sharply to the right and down an incline to the river path. The run to the trail is rather relaxing as I am forced to pause for a brief moment every kilometer or so for a traffic light. In America I would most likely look both ways and bolt across the street here however I don't have my health card yet for Korea and in no way trust Korean drivers to care about a racing foreigner. Furthermore, the short breaks allow me to stretch as I gradually warm up versus static stretching before I run, which I have grown accustomed to. Recently I read somewhere that the former is much better for your muscles and, from the two times I've done it, I would have to agree! Of course I still take ten minutes or so to static stretch after running, but then again my body would hate me if I didn't!
Running down the canal today I noticed that it really was starting to look like fall, even if it didn't feel like it quite yet. I'm sure those of you in D.C., E.L. and C.O. know what I'm talking about and wish you had the same experience. While leaves are starting to turn, and more so fall here, the weather remains comfortably in the high 60's if not warmer during mid day. As for the foliage, it really isn't much to speak of as of yet. The only trees that seem to have started changing colors are the small, skinny fanned leaf ones that line all the roads. Even these aren't really that interesting as their leaves turn from a dull green to a dull yellow and then seemingly drop the second they have completed their transition.
I guess we'll just have to wait a few more week until we can really tell what fall's like in Seoul. I've heard in some places is absolutely beautiful but as of now we're stuck in a rather urban part of this ridiculous metropolis. I do anticipate a great view from our Native room however once the trees on the mountain start to make their transition! I'll be sure to share pictures if it's as beautiful as I imagine it could be! Once the fall thing really gets into full swing we plan on visiting some of the more historical sites around town, meaning the temples that we have thus far ignored. Figure it'll make for some great photo ops, right!?
As for work/school I really have nothing to complain about the last two days, surprised? Everything's been going okay and I really am starting to enjoy Moon Young's classes more and more each time. The students, or at least a few of them, have really started to warm up to me and show an interest in the material. . . of course this means only about half of the students in two of five classes but. . .hey, it's a start. My first class on Tuesday still refuses to talk and I just wish that they would check in on my later class to see how fun it can be if everyone participates. Some kids were literally rolling on the floor laughing last evening as I impersonated an American girl trying to decide what to wear to school in a discussion about school uniforms (this was prompted by their suggestion that it is convenient to wear uniforms because one does not have to decide what to wear to school each day).
In talking about school uniforms, and reading a current events article about educational authorities administering an additional proficiency test beginning this year, I had a great opportunity to engage in a little cultural exchange, not often possible during our highly structured lessons. After reading the article, I asked the kids what they thought about their educational system in terms of its rigour and the demands placed on students. While a few kids expressed opinions suggesting they knew of an easier life, many simply agreed that how hard they worked was good and necessary. Others even suggested that it would be beneficial to best tested more often and more rigorously: no joke!
The absurdity of this just blew me away and I felt obliged to let them know of an easier way! I explained my pre-University education to them in which I attended school for six hours a day, five days a week, no more but sometimes less! This first of all astounded them that I did not ever have to attend academy. Oh, but I did have soccer practice and piano lessons every now and then I explained. Yeah, well those are fun they agreed.
They then asked what I did after school and I explained that I would hang out with friends, read, ride bikes or pretty much do whatever I pleased until my dinner time which would probably be no earlier than seven o'clock and was considered by many of my friends to be late! This too shocked them as many of my students will return home to eat dinner after their lesson concludes at 10:30pm. Only then do they begin to do their homework! I asked just how long they did homework every night and got answers ranging from one hour (and it shows) to four or more hours a night, every night of the week. This of course prompted me to share with them the fact that I don't recall spending more than an hour on homework in any particular night and many I would get by without doing any at all. We further discussed tests for which they begin studying for anywhere from one to two weeks in advance, sometimes pulling all-nighters the days preceding the test just to get extra studying in. This, well, I don't need to tell you that it's not really my style!
Even after contrasting their schooling with my own, it surprised me to hear that many of the kids thought that nothing should be changed about their education system. To them, such rigid demands are not only accepted but necessary for Koreans. Two of my classes explained this by developing a visual model (that I prompted) explaining the unending high level of competition in Korea that predicates such a strenuous system. My students pointed out that due to Korea's small size, jobs, especially good ones, are inherently limited. We then discussed that the entry point for these jobs is also limited as the "good" universities in Korea number only three! Furthermore, the competition for a spot at one of the SKY (Seoul National, Korea, Yonsei) Universities and subsequently in a good job (LG, Hyundai, Samsung) is extremely high as the number of students in Korea is well into the millions!
This we compared to their conception of America's educational model, which is relatively correct in theory. In America, a country that is nearly boundless and home to a plethora of natural resources, job opportunities are endless as one can always expand or create a new business for themselves if current jobs are scarce (I know, tell that to 10% of the people in Michigan, I didn't say it was completely accurate, that's why its a model, not a representative chart). Furthermore, the number of "good" or accredited universities in the States is just about endless. I explained that each of our fifty States has at least two major public universities with a number of small public ones and an almost infinite amount of other, perhaps more specialized private schools. In turn, even though the U.S. has a ridiculous number of students, the ubiquity of Universities and in turn boundless job opportunities leads to a very low level of competition amongst students. . .therefore I can get away with building forts in the woods for five hours a day while Korean students are hustled from one academy to the next.
It is not uncommon, and in fact would be strange, if any of my students were to be in bed before 1 a.m. on any given night. At around 10:15pm yesterday I informed my class that there was a good chance that my brother, a senior in high school, would most likely be getting ready to go to bed and might even be asleep by the time that they left school. Now I realize that this might be a bit of an exaggeration (though if it were me I would probably be forced in to bed, Jay I'm sure is out playing a concert in Guadalajara only to return the next morning at six. . .no problem, right!?), but even so it just blew my students' minds! Shouldn't he be studying they asked!? Um, sure, but for what? The SAT? I don't recall doing that, not sure if Jay is. His high school tests? Um, maybe for math, but what else do you really have to study for? Even then don't we get formula sheets? It is just absurd that these poor middle schoolers (or too-cool-for-schoolers as they often appear) work so much harder on seemingly meaningless tasks then I ever did at any point in my education, even in receiving two Bachelors degrees. . . .ha, Korea!
On the flip side of things, not everyone appears well equipped to handle such a difficult burden. This is something that I had actually wondered about for some time since being here. Doesn't working that hard have profound physical and psychological effects on these poor* kids?! Well, the physiological effects are actually pretty apparent. I know we work with just middle schoolers, who are growing and stretching out but the majority of the young people we meet simply appear to be so frail. I can't imagine anyone gets a good deal of exercises and there is a very noticeable difference between the shape of the Koreans on my soccer team (a few of which who were never admitted to University, I'm assuming because they rejected overexerting themselves) and many others that I encounter. What's funny about this is that we recently read an article about computer games being bad for your health because they limit your exercise time. . . guess what, so does studying for four or more hours a day!!
As for the psychological effects, well, I cannot honestly be too sure. I see these kids come and go every day, the majority of them in a complete daze which simply cannot by good for their psyche. But, to what degree they would admit or acknowledge the breadth of their burden? I'm just not sure. It seems as though it would be very un-Korean to speak out against the system and complain, even if one's schedule were causing extreme distress. My kids were shocked that in the article 188 (of how many Korean students?) objected to taking the recently implemented exams. I know little about mental health in Korea but I fear that the rigor of the system and extreme pressure put on students to succeed is not only too much be can be suffocating to dissent.
Yesterday after work Nate told me about how a girl in her class blurted out that another student, a 13 year old girl, launched her self off the top of her apartment building the other day because she "had too much stress." 13 years old. Most people aren't even fully conscious of the world around them by the time they're 13 (this is actually 12 in normal years). A pre-teen doesn't even have the stress of adolescence yet! No boy problems, no pimples really. Korean children, as I noted, don't have to pick out outfits or get made fun of for what they wear. What could possibly cause a 12 year old girl to become so stressed that she took her own life in a shockingly deliberate manner. . . I'll let the Korean Educational Authority decide. . .for now, I just try to assign as little homework as possible!
On a happier note. . .here's a picture of the kindergarten students outside my window that wake me up every morning with their singing. Sometimes its cute, most of the time it's just annoying, but then again, Sunday mornings I do kind of miss it when everything is a little too quiet! But anyways, I woke up the other morning and looked out to see these little guys sitting in a toppled circle that more resembled a heart than anything. . .awwwww! *tear! Enjoy!
*Note on the word "poor." Poverty in Korea is not viewed sympathetically as a problem of the masses. This is not a socialist country. You earn your money, for yourself, to get ahead. No sharing, no mercy, no nothing. The majority of my students, during a lesson on charity, expressed the point of view that charity is not only not necessary but a waste of time and money because giving away what you have earned is against the point of earning it. Mom, yes, I tried my best to explain otherwise, and might have even gotten through to a few kids, but for the most part, that's just Korea. . .okay, that's the background, here's the anecdote.
The other night Nate and I were playing the "thesaurus game" where we pick a word from my little pocket thesaurus and try and guess all the listed synonyms. Now either we've been in Korea too long, didn't pay attention in Ms. Hoppe's class or this is actually a really challenging and thought provoking game. Either way, Joseph came along and decided to give it a shot. He flips through a few pages and then all of a sudden starts cracking up wildly. . ."HA, it says poor people are 'moneyless' hahahahaha. That means they don't have money, haha!"
Now by no means does he mean this in a bad way, it was just a perfect example of how Koreans view material wealth and that it's simply absurd to not have any!
Monday, October 20, 2008
An Untimely Exit
As I mentioned previously, Harry, a foreigner teacher in DYB's Junggyedong branch elementary school was recently fired. This is of note a) because it's something that happened and b) because Nate and I are now the second most experienced teachers at our branch. . .interesting. . . .allow me to explain.
Friday afternoon Cleo came hurriedly into the Native room with a surprised look on her face. She asked Nate and I if we could keep a secret and then proceed to tell us that she had just heard Bryne and Harry were fired from the elementary school! We asked how she knew and she informed us that she had just been over there (as it is only a few buildings down), saw Mr. Lee and talked to David about what had happened. Cleo seemed not so much upset about this as surprised as she promised us not to tell anyone that we already knew and ran out of our room. Great, now we have to pretend to be surprised when we find out a coworkers been fired, however it is that we are supposed to find out!
A few minutes later, Mr. Lee himself paid us a visit to share the news. We of course protected Cleo's gossiping and did the best to act surprised, which, as far as we know, worked. Mr. Lee informed us that Harry was fired while he had just met with Bryne about some concerns, more on that in a minute.
At first I was nervous that Mr. Lee was sort of threatening us by telling us about Harry but the more he spoke, the more he appeared to be justifying the firing. We were told that Harry had managed to rack up a good number of complaints, the most recent one seemingly providing the catalyst for his betting let go. Mr. Lee thoroughly explained the three primary reasons why Harry was fired, which, in all honesty, is rather comforting so at least we know what type of behavior to avoid.
First and foremost, Harry had apparently had an incident (that I believe took place earlier in the week) where he took a student's homework that was not completed to his liking, ripped it up and demanded that the student glue it back together. Apparently the student took great offense to this action, as one would imagine. In turn, the parents were outraged and rained fury down upon Mr. Lee and the DYB teachers. So, as Mr. Lee put it, he could either "fire the student, or fire Harry." Here the choice is obvious as we must remember that DYB is a business, plain and simple, it is not a public school nor a realm to express or admire 'maverick' behavior. The primary purpose of foreign teachers, so I understand it, is to ensure that the children are happy enough to keep the mothers happy who in turn fork over tuition. . . pretty simple!
Secondly, I guess Harry had been noted for not only threatening students but actually dragging one out into the hallway by his ear at one point. This falls on the 'shockingly predictable' end of the Would-You-Have-Guessed scale. A few weeks ago when we were sent to observe the elementary school, and I had to sit in on Harry's class due to his absence, Nate had the wonderful opportunity of observing Harry's unique teaching style. As it was explained to me later, little more was accomplished other than chasing kids around the room and threatening to give wedgies. . .quite the contrast to our mundane lives at the middle school!
Anyways, to top it all off, Harry had apparently responded to previous complaints by asserting that he doesn't need DYB, he could easily find another job. Now, I haven't been in the workforce long, but I'm pretty sure that the employer/employee relationship is one where the later needs the former, not the other way around. . .that's why He's the boss, and You work for him! Just a thought!
So apparently the continued complaints, physical punishment (which is apparently okay for Korean, but not Native teachers) and aura of arrogance is a mixture not highly regarded by DYB's personnel management! Which, again, is good to know! Not that I planned on getting mixed up in either of the three, but all the same. . . although, Nate and I both have been told to take a more 'firm' approach to dealing with problem children.
In talking about this event with one of his Korean teachers, Hannah, Nate mentioned that it seemed as though communication between Korean and Foreign teachers was often non-existent or confounded. Hannah agreed, and subsequently asserted that the remedy would be for Nate to learn Korean so that there would be no miscommunication. . . .yeah, we should learn Korean, even though you've been studying English since a young girl, went to college for it and now hold a position as an English Teacher. . .obviously any miscommunication is the fault of Native teachers not knowing Korean!
The scariest thing to us was that at first we were under the impression that Harry simply showed up for work one day and was fired. This is only kind of the case. We only learned later that he had actually been given at least one, if not more warnings beforehand. This means that Mr. Lee is apparently either really really bad at communicating complaints (which might possibly be true) or that Harry is really really thick headed (probably more likely).
Before leaving, it was nice to actually here Mr. Lee sing songs of praise about us both! He said that he had heard excellent things from the teachers we work with and that we would certainly be in contention for a "raise" (his quotes, not mine) in a few months. This sounds promising, but then again he told us we'd likely get a bonus after our first month. . .which I certainly don't recall receiving! As for the compliments!? Sure, I'll take it! They don't doll 'em out like candy here, that's for certain! I can't recall the last time Anna said anything more positive than unconstructive criticism. . .perhaps because she hasn't ever!
As for Bryne, we learned that night, from talking to him over a Korean BBQ, that his end of the conversation with Mr. Lee was self initiated. Apparently Bryne isn't all that pleased with his working situation (though I'm not exactly sure what aspects to be honest) and would like to consider being let go. Interesting enough however, Mr. Lee made a plea attempt for him to stick around; a feeling that was later affirmed by Razer on our way back from the wedding. This is interesting only in that many of the teachers seem to not really take all that kindly to Bryne, and, from observation, he doesn't appear terribly interesting in a classroom setting (not that I am one to talk). He has agreed to stick around however and I'll update you on his status. . .which, might in fact play out in a more relevant manner than you might initially have imagined as he came to the middleschool today to observe one of Nate's classes. . . .though we have no idea what that really means, it'll be interesting to watch DYB make the next move in their game of Capture the Bryne.
Well, with Harry leaving, as I mentioned earlier, Nate and I are now the second most experienced Foreign teachers in Junggye, behind only Bryne who preceded us by about a month, I believe. While this might sound like a good thing, what it really illustrates is DYB's incredible rate of employee turnover, which is not only limited to foreign teachers apparently. A few weeks before we arrived at DYB, an FT named Blake was fired by Mr. Lee due his supposed lackadaisical teaching methods (meaning sitting in front of the class reading from the book as he went).
Then, as you are clearly all well aware, a day or so after we arrived, Chris made his final appearance at DYB. While he cited his father's illness as means of his resignation, there seemed to be more to the puzzle than what people were let on to believe. Chris was gone no more than a week or so before Martin, my fellow Spitfire, was released from DYB for reasons that are much more concrete. Not only was he apparently a sub-par professional but had actively tried to get himself fired. Apparently only his connection to Chris had kept him around for as long as he had remained! Now with Harry's removal we've 'seen' four FT's go in just over the time that we've been here.
Furthermore, Claire, a teacher in the middle school, started on the same day that Nate and I did, apparently replacing whoever came before here. We then are all well aware of Ji-Youngs removal from Junggye to another branch, where she was made an assistant and apparently quit on her own, not soon following the move. Then, early last week we were invited to a staff lunch that only afterwards did I realize was welcoming a new teacher to the elementary school, as one had apparently left or is leaving. And, now don't say it too loudly, we've also heard whisperings of someone at the middleschool not sticking around for too much longer. . .but I don't know anything more than that. . . .so, we'll see!
Either way, DYB apparently runs through teachers like a basketball coach through gym socks. So have a Happy Monday and when just when you start to get down about your job, be happy that you don't work at DYB, cause even if you did, you might not tomorrow!
Friday afternoon Cleo came hurriedly into the Native room with a surprised look on her face. She asked Nate and I if we could keep a secret and then proceed to tell us that she had just heard Bryne and Harry were fired from the elementary school! We asked how she knew and she informed us that she had just been over there (as it is only a few buildings down), saw Mr. Lee and talked to David about what had happened. Cleo seemed not so much upset about this as surprised as she promised us not to tell anyone that we already knew and ran out of our room. Great, now we have to pretend to be surprised when we find out a coworkers been fired, however it is that we are supposed to find out!
A few minutes later, Mr. Lee himself paid us a visit to share the news. We of course protected Cleo's gossiping and did the best to act surprised, which, as far as we know, worked. Mr. Lee informed us that Harry was fired while he had just met with Bryne about some concerns, more on that in a minute.
At first I was nervous that Mr. Lee was sort of threatening us by telling us about Harry but the more he spoke, the more he appeared to be justifying the firing. We were told that Harry had managed to rack up a good number of complaints, the most recent one seemingly providing the catalyst for his betting let go. Mr. Lee thoroughly explained the three primary reasons why Harry was fired, which, in all honesty, is rather comforting so at least we know what type of behavior to avoid.
First and foremost, Harry had apparently had an incident (that I believe took place earlier in the week) where he took a student's homework that was not completed to his liking, ripped it up and demanded that the student glue it back together. Apparently the student took great offense to this action, as one would imagine. In turn, the parents were outraged and rained fury down upon Mr. Lee and the DYB teachers. So, as Mr. Lee put it, he could either "fire the student, or fire Harry." Here the choice is obvious as we must remember that DYB is a business, plain and simple, it is not a public school nor a realm to express or admire 'maverick' behavior. The primary purpose of foreign teachers, so I understand it, is to ensure that the children are happy enough to keep the mothers happy who in turn fork over tuition. . . pretty simple!
Secondly, I guess Harry had been noted for not only threatening students but actually dragging one out into the hallway by his ear at one point. This falls on the 'shockingly predictable' end of the Would-You-Have-Guessed scale. A few weeks ago when we were sent to observe the elementary school, and I had to sit in on Harry's class due to his absence, Nate had the wonderful opportunity of observing Harry's unique teaching style. As it was explained to me later, little more was accomplished other than chasing kids around the room and threatening to give wedgies. . .quite the contrast to our mundane lives at the middle school!
Anyways, to top it all off, Harry had apparently responded to previous complaints by asserting that he doesn't need DYB, he could easily find another job. Now, I haven't been in the workforce long, but I'm pretty sure that the employer/employee relationship is one where the later needs the former, not the other way around. . .that's why He's the boss, and You work for him! Just a thought!
So apparently the continued complaints, physical punishment (which is apparently okay for Korean, but not Native teachers) and aura of arrogance is a mixture not highly regarded by DYB's personnel management! Which, again, is good to know! Not that I planned on getting mixed up in either of the three, but all the same. . . although, Nate and I both have been told to take a more 'firm' approach to dealing with problem children.
In talking about this event with one of his Korean teachers, Hannah, Nate mentioned that it seemed as though communication between Korean and Foreign teachers was often non-existent or confounded. Hannah agreed, and subsequently asserted that the remedy would be for Nate to learn Korean so that there would be no miscommunication. . . .yeah, we should learn Korean, even though you've been studying English since a young girl, went to college for it and now hold a position as an English Teacher. . .obviously any miscommunication is the fault of Native teachers not knowing Korean!
The scariest thing to us was that at first we were under the impression that Harry simply showed up for work one day and was fired. This is only kind of the case. We only learned later that he had actually been given at least one, if not more warnings beforehand. This means that Mr. Lee is apparently either really really bad at communicating complaints (which might possibly be true) or that Harry is really really thick headed (probably more likely).
Before leaving, it was nice to actually here Mr. Lee sing songs of praise about us both! He said that he had heard excellent things from the teachers we work with and that we would certainly be in contention for a "raise" (his quotes, not mine) in a few months. This sounds promising, but then again he told us we'd likely get a bonus after our first month. . .which I certainly don't recall receiving! As for the compliments!? Sure, I'll take it! They don't doll 'em out like candy here, that's for certain! I can't recall the last time Anna said anything more positive than unconstructive criticism. . .perhaps because she hasn't ever!
As for Bryne, we learned that night, from talking to him over a Korean BBQ, that his end of the conversation with Mr. Lee was self initiated. Apparently Bryne isn't all that pleased with his working situation (though I'm not exactly sure what aspects to be honest) and would like to consider being let go. Interesting enough however, Mr. Lee made a plea attempt for him to stick around; a feeling that was later affirmed by Razer on our way back from the wedding. This is interesting only in that many of the teachers seem to not really take all that kindly to Bryne, and, from observation, he doesn't appear terribly interesting in a classroom setting (not that I am one to talk). He has agreed to stick around however and I'll update you on his status. . .which, might in fact play out in a more relevant manner than you might initially have imagined as he came to the middleschool today to observe one of Nate's classes. . . .though we have no idea what that really means, it'll be interesting to watch DYB make the next move in their game of Capture the Bryne.
Well, with Harry leaving, as I mentioned earlier, Nate and I are now the second most experienced Foreign teachers in Junggye, behind only Bryne who preceded us by about a month, I believe. While this might sound like a good thing, what it really illustrates is DYB's incredible rate of employee turnover, which is not only limited to foreign teachers apparently. A few weeks before we arrived at DYB, an FT named Blake was fired by Mr. Lee due his supposed lackadaisical teaching methods (meaning sitting in front of the class reading from the book as he went).
Then, as you are clearly all well aware, a day or so after we arrived, Chris made his final appearance at DYB. While he cited his father's illness as means of his resignation, there seemed to be more to the puzzle than what people were let on to believe. Chris was gone no more than a week or so before Martin, my fellow Spitfire, was released from DYB for reasons that are much more concrete. Not only was he apparently a sub-par professional but had actively tried to get himself fired. Apparently only his connection to Chris had kept him around for as long as he had remained! Now with Harry's removal we've 'seen' four FT's go in just over the time that we've been here.
Furthermore, Claire, a teacher in the middle school, started on the same day that Nate and I did, apparently replacing whoever came before here. We then are all well aware of Ji-Youngs removal from Junggye to another branch, where she was made an assistant and apparently quit on her own, not soon following the move. Then, early last week we were invited to a staff lunch that only afterwards did I realize was welcoming a new teacher to the elementary school, as one had apparently left or is leaving. And, now don't say it too loudly, we've also heard whisperings of someone at the middleschool not sticking around for too much longer. . .but I don't know anything more than that. . . .so, we'll see!
Either way, DYB apparently runs through teachers like a basketball coach through gym socks. So have a Happy Monday and when just when you start to get down about your job, be happy that you don't work at DYB, cause even if you did, you might not tomorrow!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Disappointing Victory!
How exactly do you manage to be disappointed after destroying another team 17-2!? Well, there are a number of reasons why, allow me to explain!
Today's match was hyped up as the best opportunity for our first foreigner goal, as only Koreans had yet to score for the Spitfires. Knowing that I'd be gunning for one, and hoping that others would recognize my efforts and possibly assist, I bet Nate that today would be the day when I put one in the back of the net.
I arrived at our Apgujeong pitch a few minutes before I was supposed to as I have a track record of being a few minutes late; thanks to the subway, transfer and short hike that I have to take to get there from Kansas, oh wait, I mean Junggyedong. I warmed up by kicking a ball around with Joseph and Craig who had also arrived early. We stopped passing around however when the ball rolled out onto the field and we were yelled at by the makeshift ref judging the makeshift game that is played before us every Sunday. These guys do not actually reserve the field and are apparently a group of Korean actors and other celebrities (as our home field is in the Hollywood of Seoul) who will go to great lengths to make themselves seem important. Primarily, they will stay on the field until the clock literally strikes four o'clock, when our games are scheduled to begin. . .how super totally awesome of them!
I'd give you a game summary of our match but it pretty much went like this. . .we scored, they didn't! We played the worst team in the league (though that means they are only three positions behind us, previously ranked 5th) and expected good things to happen from the onset. Of course, everyone was anxious to see just who would be the first wayguk (foreigner, I believe this is the term everyone uses) to score.
No more than five minutes into the game, our star center midfielder, no, not me silly, the other one, Joseph, managed to send a ball scorching to the back of the net. Having gotten one under his belt, Joseph begin sharing the ball a bit more, putting a number of passes right in my path. Again and again, at least four times in the first half, I would receive a ball just outside the 18, look up to find a clear path to their lumbering goalie, and take an absolute rip at the net. Yet, each time, somehow, the bear managed to come away with a fingertip save or something else equally as lucky!
Soon after Joseph put the Spitfires' first goal away, I had a fantastic opportunity to break the foreigner seal! A ball was played over the defense and snatched up by the other team's diving keeper, just as I was chasing it down. As I pulled up to avoid a collision, a member of the opposing team came streaking by me, apparently on my tail the whole time. WHAM! He smashed into his own keeper, sending the ball rolling out of the goalie's hands! I quickly lunged forward and tapped the ball into the back of the net! I had done it! I scored the first wayguk goal!
Alas, I should never have considered this a possibility! The referee, who is notorious for making blind and hypersensitive calls, immediately blew his whistle! I turned around aghast that something should be wrong! As the referee waved off the goal he informed me not to attack the goalie once the ball was in his possession. . .this just killed me! But whatever, that's not the way to score the first goal anyways right? Lets go for something a little classier!
A few minutes later the Spitfires were awarded a corner kick and I was caught in the thick of things. I managed to get up for the header which was blocked and landed back almost right in front of me. All of a sudden Todd comes swinging in to crush the ball into the back of the net! Yaaay, the first foreigner goal! At least I could feel proud about my 'assist.'
Let's just say, from there, everything was down hill. I had an average of probably one opportunity to score every ten minutes. Each time I sent a scorching ball towards the keeper and not once did I miss the target. Unfortunately, I managed to come up just short every time!
Finally, late in the second half, the other team made an illegal passback to their goalie who picked it up, constituting a handball, and landing us a penalty quick! As the first to notice their mistake, I immediately called out to Sun that I would like to take it. He and Nikki (benched for the game from an ankle injury) agreed that it should be my kick!
With a terrible goalie in net I had planned to do no more than blast it at him and pick up the rebound if necessary. Right before I approached the ball Joseph decided to reassure me that all I needed to do was roll it in on the ground. Not wanting to disappoint, I decided to opt for an inside of the foot shot aimed at the bottom left corner. Never, never, change your shot right before shooting. I managed to shank the ball worse than Baggio and sent what should have been an easy, and my first, goal soaring over the net from no more than 10 yards out. I know, I owe Abu a 'red' and now I owe the team a case of beer. . . .I take full responsibility and am extremely embarrassed at the miss!
To make it worse, I spent the entire rest of the game gunning for the goal, only to fail on every attempt to put one in! Only two others besides myself managed to go scoreless in our game against DA-ROK (Democrats of America in the Republic of Korea). To top things off, with only a few minutes left in the game, I came charging up from defense to assist in our team's corner kick. As the ball sailed across the box I made solid contact with it, sending it snarling towards the goal where I felt certain I had beaten the keep. Alas, he manged to just put a finger on it sending the ball skywards where it hit the underside of the cross bar, bounced down, off the endline, and up again into the goalie's waiting hands!
I simply could not have bought a goal this game if I wanted to! And to make things worse, we were scored on twice! Not that it's a huge deal, as we still pulled off a 15 point differential, but until this game, we had played 270minutes of soccer without giving one up. So, of course, it was a little disheartening to give up today's clean sheet.
Anyways, we did pull off a 15-2 victory and I had a great time in the process! It's too bad that I couldn't put a goal in and even worse that I shanked the ugliest ball in the history of the game. . .when I probably could have rolled it in for a score!
Oops, my bad!
Today's match was hyped up as the best opportunity for our first foreigner goal, as only Koreans had yet to score for the Spitfires. Knowing that I'd be gunning for one, and hoping that others would recognize my efforts and possibly assist, I bet Nate that today would be the day when I put one in the back of the net.
I arrived at our Apgujeong pitch a few minutes before I was supposed to as I have a track record of being a few minutes late; thanks to the subway, transfer and short hike that I have to take to get there from Kansas, oh wait, I mean Junggyedong. I warmed up by kicking a ball around with Joseph and Craig who had also arrived early. We stopped passing around however when the ball rolled out onto the field and we were yelled at by the makeshift ref judging the makeshift game that is played before us every Sunday. These guys do not actually reserve the field and are apparently a group of Korean actors and other celebrities (as our home field is in the Hollywood of Seoul) who will go to great lengths to make themselves seem important. Primarily, they will stay on the field until the clock literally strikes four o'clock, when our games are scheduled to begin. . .how super totally awesome of them!
I'd give you a game summary of our match but it pretty much went like this. . .we scored, they didn't! We played the worst team in the league (though that means they are only three positions behind us, previously ranked 5th) and expected good things to happen from the onset. Of course, everyone was anxious to see just who would be the first wayguk (foreigner, I believe this is the term everyone uses) to score.
No more than five minutes into the game, our star center midfielder, no, not me silly, the other one, Joseph, managed to send a ball scorching to the back of the net. Having gotten one under his belt, Joseph begin sharing the ball a bit more, putting a number of passes right in my path. Again and again, at least four times in the first half, I would receive a ball just outside the 18, look up to find a clear path to their lumbering goalie, and take an absolute rip at the net. Yet, each time, somehow, the bear managed to come away with a fingertip save or something else equally as lucky!
Soon after Joseph put the Spitfires' first goal away, I had a fantastic opportunity to break the foreigner seal! A ball was played over the defense and snatched up by the other team's diving keeper, just as I was chasing it down. As I pulled up to avoid a collision, a member of the opposing team came streaking by me, apparently on my tail the whole time. WHAM! He smashed into his own keeper, sending the ball rolling out of the goalie's hands! I quickly lunged forward and tapped the ball into the back of the net! I had done it! I scored the first wayguk goal!
Alas, I should never have considered this a possibility! The referee, who is notorious for making blind and hypersensitive calls, immediately blew his whistle! I turned around aghast that something should be wrong! As the referee waved off the goal he informed me not to attack the goalie once the ball was in his possession. . .this just killed me! But whatever, that's not the way to score the first goal anyways right? Lets go for something a little classier!
A few minutes later the Spitfires were awarded a corner kick and I was caught in the thick of things. I managed to get up for the header which was blocked and landed back almost right in front of me. All of a sudden Todd comes swinging in to crush the ball into the back of the net! Yaaay, the first foreigner goal! At least I could feel proud about my 'assist.'
Let's just say, from there, everything was down hill. I had an average of probably one opportunity to score every ten minutes. Each time I sent a scorching ball towards the keeper and not once did I miss the target. Unfortunately, I managed to come up just short every time!
Finally, late in the second half, the other team made an illegal passback to their goalie who picked it up, constituting a handball, and landing us a penalty quick! As the first to notice their mistake, I immediately called out to Sun that I would like to take it. He and Nikki (benched for the game from an ankle injury) agreed that it should be my kick!
With a terrible goalie in net I had planned to do no more than blast it at him and pick up the rebound if necessary. Right before I approached the ball Joseph decided to reassure me that all I needed to do was roll it in on the ground. Not wanting to disappoint, I decided to opt for an inside of the foot shot aimed at the bottom left corner. Never, never, change your shot right before shooting. I managed to shank the ball worse than Baggio and sent what should have been an easy, and my first, goal soaring over the net from no more than 10 yards out. I know, I owe Abu a 'red' and now I owe the team a case of beer. . . .I take full responsibility and am extremely embarrassed at the miss!
To make it worse, I spent the entire rest of the game gunning for the goal, only to fail on every attempt to put one in! Only two others besides myself managed to go scoreless in our game against DA-ROK (Democrats of America in the Republic of Korea). To top things off, with only a few minutes left in the game, I came charging up from defense to assist in our team's corner kick. As the ball sailed across the box I made solid contact with it, sending it snarling towards the goal where I felt certain I had beaten the keep. Alas, he manged to just put a finger on it sending the ball skywards where it hit the underside of the cross bar, bounced down, off the endline, and up again into the goalie's waiting hands!
I simply could not have bought a goal this game if I wanted to! And to make things worse, we were scored on twice! Not that it's a huge deal, as we still pulled off a 15 point differential, but until this game, we had played 270minutes of soccer without giving one up. So, of course, it was a little disheartening to give up today's clean sheet.
Anyways, we did pull off a 15-2 victory and I had a great time in the process! It's too bad that I couldn't put a goal in and even worse that I shanked the ugliest ball in the history of the game. . .when I probably could have rolled it in for a score!
Oops, my bad!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
You may now. . . take pictures with the bride!?
What an (un)interesting wedding that was! Nate and I just returned from Elle's wedding and reception, the whole of which lasted no longer than an hour and a half.We rose early (Korean time) this morning to meet outside of Dootaville where Anna had arranged to pick us up. She arrived exactly at 10:00am as she had promised and we only had to wait a few minute for Julie to show up; Punctual Princess, obviously. . .
We barrled down Dongbu Expressway 61 towards Seoul for the first time ever in daylight hours. The drive was surprisingly scenic as fall in Seoul appears to be the time for wildflowers to bloom. Both sides of the canal we drove along teemed with bright reds, oranges and yellows, none of which I recall seeing during our initial commutes from Daechi. Even with such a wonderful view I managed to catch a few minutes of shut eye while Julie and Anna chatted it up Korean style in the front seat.
The wedding took place in a large hall, apparently owned by the electric company for which the groom's father works. After parking the car, which Anna managed to do surprisingly well, the four of us headed towards a large group of Korean's congregated on the patio of this enormous building. The majority of the women appeared to be dressed 'business casual' (what they would go to work in, while all, and I do mean all, of the men were in suits and ties; Korean style of course meaning suits of shiny silver and ties with glistening rhinestones! This was a bit awkward at first as Nate and I had both dressed neatly, but were certainly not in a suit nor wearing an awesome Korean power tie (as I can't seem to locate the one tie that I swore I brought in my 200 square foot apartment).
Inside we gave our DYB envelop, Elle's present, to a man standing behind a long folding table. Anna then ushered us to sign our name in a book open on the table. Everyone before us had written their name neatly, and apparently vertically, in perfect block Korean letters (possibly to ensure the receipt of a thank you?). I felt bad destroying the aesthetics of the page with 'Adam Saper' scrawled out horizontally. . .how American of me!
After signing in we went searing for Elle who Anna had wanted to meet with before the ceremony began. No time no however! We arrived only minutes before the wedding was to begin (despite Anna assuring us that we were ten minutes early). Elle went rushing by us with only time to wave hello, so we took our seats in the main theater. Of note here is that this ceremony was held in a concert hall type arena, not a Church, and was seemingly devoid of any and all religious symbols. . .unless I just totally missed them!
Nate and I made up about one percent of the wedding's total attendance and two thirds of the foreigner count! As we waited (no more than five minutes) for the ceremony to begin, Anna explained to us that it is very boring and usually she skips the ceremony to attend only the lunch following, which is apparently, 'the best part.'
Elle and her soon-to-be husband waited off to the wing while the two mothers approached the stage, in traditional Korean garb, lit two candles and embraced before taking their seats aside their husbands; with the extended family of each sitting behind their respective parents. A trio of violin, cello and piano played the entry music (a Koreanized 'here comes the bride') as Elle and her husband strolled into view.
Waiting in the Wings
Meeting of the MothersThe two took the stage, backs facing the audience, where they stood for the next 15 minutes or so. During this time, the master of ceremonies (for lack of a better term) stood on a podium in front of the two, reading something to the audience that was all but understandable to us. We clapped when others did and manged to blend in perfectly. Again, while I do not understand Korean, the service itself seemed to be devoid of any religious practices of symbols which seemed very interesting, mostly because many Koreans are now devout Christians.
During their time on the podium, Elle and her husband was constantly illuminated by photographers flashes. A pair of photographers buzzed around the couple continually, as neither the wedding party (which consisted only of the two to be wed) nor the MC seemed to notice or care. One women, seemingly in charge of just the bride, kept close tabs on Elle making sure that her dress was splayed out just so, continually readjusting it as Elle shifted. Also moving around the stage were at least to cinematographers(?) filming the couple and the audience. On more than one occasion did Nate and I look over to find a video camera pointed directly at us, certainly one of the more interesting facets of the audience!
Photographers and Dress Lady
Karaoke is so popular even the groom can't resist an opportunity to sing!
Newlyweds!Eventually Elle and the groom walked together back down the 'aisle' (more like, down the steps of the stage) where the paused with their respective families for more photo opportunities. From here, both families were ushered together by the photographer who lined everybody up on stage for one big photograph.
The Whole Fam. . .actually both of 'emBy this point, the wedding seemed to be over, but, we weren't quite sure how, or when! We asked Anna if that was in fact the case and she told us that we were correct. Well, where was the kiss, we inquired? Oh that comes later, said Anna, pictures first!
So, we waited patiently as group after groups took pictures with Elle and Hubby until it was finally time for friends! Anna and the other Korean teachers in attendance beckoned us to join them as they headed towards the stage. Towering over the majority of Koreans, especially Korean women, Nate and I made our way towards the back of the picture where we were eventually told to stand on the topmost step. The photographer snapped away at this large group of Koreans surrounding their recently married friends, tilted just out of balance by three enormous Caucasians (the other foreigner, a relatively plump gay man from San Fransisco) standing awkwardly in the background, smiles just beaming outwards!
Finally, after a few adjustments, the photographer called for Elle and Hubby to step forwards. As he counted down for the picture, they were told to embrace and eventually kiss, though the majority of the audience at this point had already retired to the dining hall! We too moved outwards towards lunch, following Razer who reassured us that this was the best part of the wedding.
On the way out of the main hall, Nate and I paused at a wedding photo to admire the recently wed couple: Awwwwww. Razer quickly corrected us, informing us that the pictures was just random and not of Elly and Co. . . .oops!! Our bad!! I mean, they kind of looked the same?!
Downstairs we entered an enormous congregating hall, lined with tables already filled with people and food. We wasted no time getting to the food as we followed Razer and the other Korean Teachers who literally dove for the buffet. I quickly stuffed my plate full of salad (the first I've had since being in Korea), deep fried shrimp, dirty rice, mussels on the half shell, Chinese-ish glass noodles and a chunk of beef rib meat.
We wandered for a moment, following Razer and literally had to wait for someone to get up before sitting down, as the hall was the full! Small cans, ice cold thankfully, of Pepsi and Cider (ginger ale) were placed across the table and more were brought while we ate. We quickly worked our way through our first plate and followed Razer's advice to have 'one more.' My second time around I stocked up on more of the same, adding a few pieces of sashimi, tuna and salmon, to the mix along with some sliced hot dogs in mustard!
During our second course, I commented on the small, whole, octopus sitting on Razer's plate. . .which he then quickly dipped in some red sauce and handed over to me. Well, I can't use Nate's excuse that I'm allergic and I'm not gonna offend anyone at a wedding. . .plus, when else would I pop a whole, seemingly still alive (but thankfully not) octopus in to my mouth! So did. . . .I chewed for a good half minute before deciding that I had perhaps just swallow whatever was left in my mouth, simply because I was beggining to be aware of the fact that I had eaten all, literally every single part, of this poor creature. . . .ugh!
Nate and The Octopusettes
Cutting the Cake!Luckily, I was able to chase down the octopus with a decent helping of chocolate ice cream that Razer located for us! Elle and Hubby (now dressed in traditional garb as well) came around to say hello and thank you! Nate and I quickly jumped up to take a picture with our teacher and recent bride which you can find below!
Us and the NewlywedsRazer suggested we come with him instead of Anna, perhaps because he does not get much male company as the only male teacher in DYB. . .or perhaps to discuss the recent dismissal of Harry, our favorite New Yorker-Korean All American Badass (which will be discussed in a subsequent post)! Either was, the drive back up to Junggye was much quicker and I was more awake having gotten something in my stomach. Oh, and to top it all off, we got to listen to an awesome demo of a Westlife (some English boy band?) cover that Razer recorded with a woman from church whom he described as either 'repelling' or 'repulsive,' I can't quite remember!
Which reminds me, we have our first band practice next week. . .though I still don't have an amp. . .hmm. So far we have me on guitar, Cleo (I believe on bass), a keyboardist, David on drums, Razer singing, and of course, Nate and Sunny rapping while dancing! Now doesn't this sound fantastic! I'll do my best to try and record the actual performance if it occurs some day!
But for now, Happy Saturday!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Happily Never After?!
Yesterday Nate and I received invitations to Elle's, the teacher who recently replaced Ji-Young, wedding ceremony this Saturday. Apparently, we were not initially invited as it was questionable whether or not we would have any interest in attending and consequently, giving an invitation might have been perceived as fishing for wedding gifts! Not the case!
When made aware of the wedding's proximity I was enthused at the possibility of attending. I've always figured that weddings, funerals, births and birthday parties in other countries are some of the most important cultural events that one can attend. Even if modern ceremonies have been 'Westernized' to a degree, each of these important rituals usually reflects a great deal about the host countries people and ideology. So far I have been lucky enough to attend one wedding in the United States, one in St. Thomas, one in Ghana, and one in Turkey! Not a bad collection as I hope to soon add South Korea to the list.
So, telling the other teachers that we would be honored to attend, word must have gotten around to Elle who presented us each with our own invitation yesterday. The outside of which reads "Wedding Day," the inside, of course, is all Korean. As the majority of teachers in our branch will be attending, we hope that we can find one who will escort us to the wedding as we have no real idea where it is or how to get there!
There is a sad side to this story however. A few weeks ago Nate was talking to Elle about the wedding and congratulated her, as one should seemingly do in this situation. Elle responded that she was not excited and in fact, did not desire to wed at such a young age (26 Korean I believe). She said that she loves her boyfriend but does not wish to marry him now for it will force her into the subservient life of a Korean housewife, cooking, cleaning and looking after him. As a young woman who has lived on her own for only a few years, this is obviously accepting a rather large burden. . .unwillingly!
Elle has told her family numerous times that she does not wish to wed yet they are forcing her, for reasons that I think we just cannot quite understand. While we Americans would think "Why doesn't she just not do it!?" that simply isn't an option in Korea. To not follow her parents' direction would be so disgraceful that it would most likely ruin not only her but her whole family's reputation. . .not worth the price of only one woman's 'freedom' apparently!
This does not seem to be that uncommon of a practice however as we were shocked to hear a similar report the other day from A-Young, Anna Teacher. Last Friday as we were leaving school, Nate and I asked Anna if she had any big plans for the weekend. We learned that it was in fact her 10th wedding anniversary and that she and her husband would be celebrating on a small island near Incheon, off the western coast of Korea.
Again, ignorant to Korean marriage culture, we were silly enough to congratulate her on the occasion. Anna informed us that she was not excited and that is was not a happy celebration. . .which was really, really awkward to hear! She informed us that she was married much to early and does not enjoy being a housewife. Whoa. . .lotta information to take in at once and subsequently try to respond to. Nate offered condolence saying that it's exciting that she and her husband have managed to stay wed for so long. . .but again, this was received rather negatively. Oops! We tried!
It really just seems like people are forced in to marriage, especially woman, whenever the family deems it necessary. Perhaps it is for social but more likely economic gain for the family. Either way, it seems like quite the raw deal for the women who are immediately subjected to a life of servitude towards their husbands which they may, or may not, love.
I guess this answers the question that we have continued to ask each other about why the teachers stay out so late when they have families at home! It's simply because they do not necessarily love, or need the presence of their husbands to be happy. It appears as if going out and drinking all night is not only a release, but an expected release from the duties of Korean Womanhood. Rough. . .but at least they don't have to go home early (meaning midnight) every night!
Anyways, I'm excited to see the wedding, assuming that we are able to find out way to and fro! I would imagine that I can take pictures and hopefully will be able to share them with everyone! That's all for now!
Pictures from Seoul Tower have been added below!
When made aware of the wedding's proximity I was enthused at the possibility of attending. I've always figured that weddings, funerals, births and birthday parties in other countries are some of the most important cultural events that one can attend. Even if modern ceremonies have been 'Westernized' to a degree, each of these important rituals usually reflects a great deal about the host countries people and ideology. So far I have been lucky enough to attend one wedding in the United States, one in St. Thomas, one in Ghana, and one in Turkey! Not a bad collection as I hope to soon add South Korea to the list.
So, telling the other teachers that we would be honored to attend, word must have gotten around to Elle who presented us each with our own invitation yesterday. The outside of which reads "Wedding Day," the inside, of course, is all Korean. As the majority of teachers in our branch will be attending, we hope that we can find one who will escort us to the wedding as we have no real idea where it is or how to get there!
There is a sad side to this story however. A few weeks ago Nate was talking to Elle about the wedding and congratulated her, as one should seemingly do in this situation. Elle responded that she was not excited and in fact, did not desire to wed at such a young age (26 Korean I believe). She said that she loves her boyfriend but does not wish to marry him now for it will force her into the subservient life of a Korean housewife, cooking, cleaning and looking after him. As a young woman who has lived on her own for only a few years, this is obviously accepting a rather large burden. . .unwillingly!
Elle has told her family numerous times that she does not wish to wed yet they are forcing her, for reasons that I think we just cannot quite understand. While we Americans would think "Why doesn't she just not do it!?" that simply isn't an option in Korea. To not follow her parents' direction would be so disgraceful that it would most likely ruin not only her but her whole family's reputation. . .not worth the price of only one woman's 'freedom' apparently!
This does not seem to be that uncommon of a practice however as we were shocked to hear a similar report the other day from A-Young, Anna Teacher. Last Friday as we were leaving school, Nate and I asked Anna if she had any big plans for the weekend. We learned that it was in fact her 10th wedding anniversary and that she and her husband would be celebrating on a small island near Incheon, off the western coast of Korea.
Again, ignorant to Korean marriage culture, we were silly enough to congratulate her on the occasion. Anna informed us that she was not excited and that is was not a happy celebration. . .which was really, really awkward to hear! She informed us that she was married much to early and does not enjoy being a housewife. Whoa. . .lotta information to take in at once and subsequently try to respond to. Nate offered condolence saying that it's exciting that she and her husband have managed to stay wed for so long. . .but again, this was received rather negatively. Oops! We tried!
It really just seems like people are forced in to marriage, especially woman, whenever the family deems it necessary. Perhaps it is for social but more likely economic gain for the family. Either way, it seems like quite the raw deal for the women who are immediately subjected to a life of servitude towards their husbands which they may, or may not, love.
I guess this answers the question that we have continued to ask each other about why the teachers stay out so late when they have families at home! It's simply because they do not necessarily love, or need the presence of their husbands to be happy. It appears as if going out and drinking all night is not only a release, but an expected release from the duties of Korean Womanhood. Rough. . .but at least they don't have to go home early (meaning midnight) every night!
Anyways, I'm excited to see the wedding, assuming that we are able to find out way to and fro! I would imagine that I can take pictures and hopefully will be able to share them with everyone! That's all for now!
Pictures from Seoul Tower have been added below!
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