Family Time!

My family has finally arrived! I've been anxiously awaiting their visit, and it's been wonderful so far. Our visit started up in Seoul - where my mom ran the Seoul International Marathon. It was quite a sight, with 30,000 runners... and no spectators (see the picture of the empty street below - this was one minute before the lead runners went by). Not like anything I've ever seen before!

Maman ran a 4:08 marathon, which is especially impressive considering that she was still jet-lagged (my family arrived 38 hrs before the start of the marathon), and had spent most of the previous day on a walking tour of Seoul, including climbing Namsan Mountain (Dad's idea).

We all took the bus down to Yeosu on Sunday evening, and the fam spent the week touring the surrounding area while Alden and I worked. They covered Odongdo Island, Hyangiram Hermitage (a temple on a seaside cliff), Naganeupson (a Korean Folk Village), came for a visit to the school and managed to spend a day walking to the next town! In short, they covered pretty much everything there is to do in Yeosu.

Our next weekend outing was to Boseong, where there is a tea plantation, a beach and a 'sauna' - with various small pools, including both sea water and green tea pools. It was a very enjoyable unplanned weekend, though I think the food is starting to get to two of my family members. (Ask them about the instant noodles, fried chicken, chips, popcorn and hamburgers.... while my Dad eats bowlfuls of bibimbap and rolls of kimbap. Actually, Dad also managed the entire school lunch, which is a feat I have yet to accomplish.)

They're now exploring the volcanic mountain (Hallasan) and lava tubes on Jeju Island, the "Hawaii of Korea". I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing Jeju in May, when it'll be warm enough to go swimming.

And of course, I'm looking forward to seeing my family again when they come back to Yeosu on Friday.

Recompense

On the way home from school today we were followed by a cute little Korean boy. He said "Hello Joanne!" when he caught up to us, and then a few moments later turned and gestured toward me and said "Man friend!" with a smile. A minute later he said "Run!" and sprinted ten paces ahead before turning around to continue walking with us. We could tell that he was showing off his English vocabulary, but knowing that he was an elementary school student I knew we had almost exhausted it. After walking in silence for a little while longer, we stopped to take off our jackets. While I was putting my jacket away, Joanne continued talking to our adopted Korean boy. "I'm hot" Joanne commented, and he replied "I'm cold because I am very wiiiindy" while waving his arms above his head.

Kids like that make up for a day with students that couldn't care less about English.

A New Cultural Experience

This is considered funny in Japan and S. Korea. I do not understand why. Anal penetration is no big deal here. On the other hand, many Koreans deny that homosexuality exists in their country. I can't really make any sense of it.

I was made aware that "tong chim" is an occupational hazard of teaching in Korea before my arrival, thanks to Brandon, who provides a detailed account of the outrage of the experience here. But knowing about it and experiencing it are two very different things. I've generally been careful, standing with my back to the wall and putting my hands behind my back and over my bum when I lean over, but you only have to let your guard down once.

So on Friday a student shoved a pencil up my butt. I was distracted. There was a fistfight brewing; I was trying to get a pudgy kid not to slug a runt with glasses. I shouldn't have turned my back on the rear table of boys. They're always the worst.

This is one thing about Korea that I don't understand and never will. I don't want any part of it. I can deal with the gross food, the last minute schedule changes, and appreciate the K-logic that goes into spending $12 000 on an unused library (full of books far too difficult for any of our students to read) and refusing to pay us overtime, but I will not stand to have anything shoved up my bum.

Thankfully, it took nearly seven months for it to happen, so hopefully I will leave this silly place before another student decides to give me a free prostate exam.

Discovery

Chestnut yogurt and yam yogurt are two new delicious flavours. Mmmm!

Korea

12:57 p.m.

Olivia: Are you teach next year?
Me: Um, we do not know yet.
Olivia: No?
Me: We do not know yet.
Olivia: Ah. You must decided by 3 p.m. today.

Teachers usually decide whether or not to stay for another year about one to two months before the end of their contract. Our contract isn't up until the end of August. Uh... help?

About Korean Cuisine, Computer Games, and Fitness Clubs

I use the term "Korean cuisine" in conversation when talking about Korean food in the hopes that any Koreans listening will not pick up on the fact that I am talking about the challenges that come with eating it. The other day, Joanne and I were discussing the struggles we expect her family to have with the Korean cuisine once they arrive. I constructed the following dialogue to articulate what I expect will happen:

Emilie: Daaaad, stop making me eat squid.
John: Eat your squid Emmy, it's free.
Emilie: But it's dry and tastes like carpet with cat pee on it.

(Dried squid, or 'cuttlefish' is often provided for free as service in S. Korea. The kids here love it.)

I was working out at the gym yesterday, and I saw something rather strange. The weight-lifting coach came over to my new friend Songjin (he's been to America and speaks a little English) and proceeded to reach over and grope Songjin's pec for several minutes. The coach then said something to Songjin in Korean, I can only assume it was to the effect that he was congratulating Songjin on the firmness and development of his chest muscle.

Then I had a conversation with the weight-lifting coach, with Songjin as my translator.
Songjin: He wants to know if you think he's handsome.
Me: Yes, he's handsome.
Songjin: He wants to do a 'give-and-take.' He thinks you're handsome. Do you think he's handsome?
Me: Yes, he's handsome.
Songjin: He wants more than that...
Me: He's very very handsome!

The coach thought this was really funny.

In other news, I'm horrible at computer games. I'm trying to learn how to play Starcraft because it's easier than Korean and might help me more in finding a social circle.

Thailand and where I'm going next....

Here are two pictures that Joanne took of me on our trip to Thailand (more of her pictures are available here). Thailand exceeded my expectations, and I expected a lot. The food was cheap and delicious, the accommodation was inexpensive and friendly, and the travel within the country was easy and hassle-free. I had fresh mango juice for a dollar, discovered the joys of snorkeling (I saw millions of shiny neon fish and a white manta ray!), and received Thai massages that were as relaxing as they were cheap (and they were very, very cheap).

The challenges of our trips to Cambodia and the Philippines made me appreciate Thailand even more. There is less desperation for the tourist dollar in Thailand, whereas in Cambodia* and the Philippines people do not just charge a tourist price, but attempt to gouge and scam tourists for all they're worth.

I've returned from vacation three kilograms lighter, with a stomach that hasn't quite yet worked all the bugs out. It's kind of disheartening, since I've been trying to gain weight so that I can fight -81kg at judo tournaments next year. After getting up to 75kg with much diligence and effort, I have no landed firmly back in the -73kg division. Maybe I'm just not meant to weigh more than I do. I missed training a lot, and it's good to be back at it again.

*Crossing the border to Cambodia was ridiculous. Everyone tried to rip us off. We avoided one visa scam and ended up getting conned in another for $10 each by a border guard. After that we were misdirected away from a free shuttle bus to the border town's bus station to a bus that took us to a tour guiding company. After we got off the bus and made it clear that we wanted nothing to do with the scamster, he proceeded to follow us around Poi Pet for the better part of two hours, instructing everyone in Khmer not to tell us where to find the real bus station. It's hot in Cambodia and we were up at 5am to start our trip, so needless to say this was rather unpleasant. It looked like we were never going to find the bus station, and that eventually we were going to have to let the scamster have his way with us, until finally, a cab driver appeared out of nowhere and we were rescued from the awful situation

New Name

Our English Town has been renamed. We will be replacing all signage to read "Yeosu Foreign Language Experience Centre".

Goodness.

The explanation: "We don't know the reasoning exactly."

Back in Yeosu

Today we had our second "first day back at school after the winter break". We had another one two weeks ago, but were then given a surprise extra eight days of vacation! I quickly e-mailed the travel agent with a request to look into flights to Macao, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Cebu... basically anywhere nearby that didn't require a visa. As it turned out, the cheapest option was to fly to Cebu City in The Philippines...

I definitely want to spend some time discussing The Philippines with my grand-parents. They spent a year living there (about 30 years ago), and I really wonder how things have changed. Or if they have changed. I can't imagine that things are much better than they were, considering the poverty we witnessed. There were armed guards everywhere. I would expect guards to be stationed in banks. Gas stations would be borderline. But we even had an armed guard at the entrance to our hostel. Perhaps this should have made me feel safer, but it instead had the opposite effect.

There were some beautiful sights to be seen. The snorkeling was amazing. The tarsiers were cute. The chocolate hills were impressive. The ube (a purple yam used in sweets and pastries) was delicious. And the fact that they had pastries (thanks to the Spanish influence, I believe) was superb. And mango juice. Mmmm, mango juice. It was an interesting vacation, though I wouldn't call it relaxing.

I'm happy to report that we are both glad to be back in Yeosu. The school administration is still giving us a few headaches, but our apartment is great and we have a pretty good routine going. Also, we found cheap lentils in Seoul on Sunday, which makes life so much better! Dahl and chapatis tonight for dinner, it was wonderful.

My photos of The Philippines are already up on the flickr page (the link is on the left side of the page), and I hope to get the Thailand and Cambodia pics up soon. Maybe Alden will even post a couple stories? I guess we'll have to wait and see.