My First Judo Tournament in Asia

I can't get over the fact that Koreans tell me: "Your English pronunciation is very good." It's definitely a compliment when given to other Koreans, but really, is it really worth mentioning that I am "good" at speaking my native language? I usually tell them that they're Korean pronunciation is very good too.

On Saturday I fought in a judo tournament. It had a lot of similarities with other judo tournaments I've entered in Canada. I had to get up way too early in the morning (6 a.m.) to get there. The referees wore suits. The mats were the same colours.

There were also big differences. My name was the only one in the tournament draw written in English letters. I was the only white guy in the building. Children and teenaged girls went out of their way to speak to me. After I threw my first opponent cleanly for ippon, I received many congratulations and little kids told me "very beautiful." After I made it to the final, it was time for lunch.

We went outside and had kimbap (sushi with crab, egg, spam, and carrot) on the grass and leaves. All the little children were very impressed with me. So impressed, that they all decided that they wanted my autograph. I spent something like twenty minutes autographing leaves, while one of the kiddies toddled around listening to Modest Mouse on my iPod. I think I signed more leaves than there were children, and then it was time for me to head back to the mats for the final.

I was losing until the final minute, when I took my opponent to the ground and pinned him. For some reason they don't teach groundwork very well here. In all of the fights I had seen in which someone got a pin, nobody seemed to have the faintest idea how to escape. My fight was no different. My coach had enough English to say to me, "Congratulations, you are a champion" after I was awarded my gold medal.

The day concluded with a celebratory dinner of chicken, white wine, and "The Bourne Ultimatum." It was an excellent day, especially since no thoughts of impending grad school deadlines entered my head.

Taekwondo Demonstrations

Here are a couple videos of taekwondo demonstrations I've seen in the past two weeks. The first was at a concert during the middle school camp in Damyang. The second video was taken at a taekwondo tournament in Yocheon (part of Yeosu). The first one has superb sound effects, and the second has great costumes. Ah, Korea, I love you.




P.S. For the record, my taekwondo classes are nothing like these demonstrations.

May 18th Massacre

What the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre is to China, the 1980 Gwangju Massacre is to South Korea, a mass demonstration and protest against an authoritarian regime with deadly consequences that became an icon for its time.

Following large-scale student protests against military rule, on 18 May 1980 the army was ordered to move into Gwangju on the pretext of quelling a communist uprising. The soldiers had no bullets, but they used bayonets to murder dozens of unarmed protesters and passers-by. Outraged residents broke into armouries and police stations and used the seized weapons and ammunition to drive the troops out of their city.

For over a week pro-democracy citizen groups were in control, but the brutal military response came nine days later on 27 May, when soldiers armed with loaded M16 rifles, supported by helicopters and tanks, retook the city. Most of the protest leaders were labelled 'communists' and summarily shot. At least 154 civilians were killed during the uprising, and an additional 4089 were wounded or arrested. Many of those arrested were tortured. For eyewitness accounts of the still-controversial street fighting, read Memories of May 1980 by Chung Sang-yong (2003) or view www.518.org.

In memory of the pro-democracy martyrs, the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights has been awarded since 2000, and recipients have included Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader struggling to overthrow the military rulers in Myanmar.

--Korea Lonely Planet

Wandering and Wondering

I spent a few hours wandering the Chonnam University Campus in Gwangju last weekend during Alden's GRE exam. It's a beautiful campus - rolling hills with notable architecture, impressive fountains and deciduous trees in full colour.

It was a Saturday morning, but there were still plenty of people on campus. There was some sort of communal fair/garage sale happening on the track, and there were people milling about the dorm areas and around the covered seated areas. I also came across an older guy with white hair and a big bushy white beard waiting around the outside of the dinosaur museum (http://www.dinosaur.co.kr - it's in Korean, but if you click around, there are some good pics). We started talking, and it turned out he was an Aussie professor, who was here to work on a project for a few months. They were busily trying to complete the UNESCO paperwork to try to have the dinosaur nests and footprints in the area declared UNESCO heritage sites (the deadline was in January, and I can certainly believe that there would be that much paperwork). He let me into to the museum, and showed me around. There was also a video playing, discussing the sites and comparing them to other sites around the world. There were even some interviews with scientists working at the Royal Tyrell Museum, so that was a nice touch of home.

I also came across several reminders of the May 18th, 1980 uprising that took place in Gwangju. It is to Korea what the Tiananmen Square Massacre is to China. In response to the martial law imposed by the military government, thousands of democratic protesters took to the streets (some sources say over 100,000 people). Over 200 protesters were massacred during the uprising, which lasted until May 27th. There is a touching write-up in the lonely planet which I will post here when I get the chance. It really affected me... and reminded me of seeing the monument to the desaparecidos in the cemetery in Santiago, Chile.

After this, I went to meet up with Alden. It sounds like the test went well, so now we just have to wait the six weeks until the he gets the results. Here's to hoping!


P.S. For those of you who wanted to see the love motel, here is a picture. The was the inside of the room!

I hope my GRE is also outstanding....

I got wind this morning that I have won the UVic Philosophy Dept.'s award for Outstanding MA Thesis of 2007. Joanne mentioned this to our coteachers, and the next minute Olivia was on the phone calling the vice-principle to tell him the news.

Things operate very differently here.

There is a judo tournament November 10th. Although I've put on a little weight, it's not going to be a problem because instead of fighting -73kg I'm fighting -75kg. If only I could figure out how to throw the competitive black belts, who seem to know what techniques I'm attempting even before I do.

I think the extra kilogram or two is muscle (Joanne says my abs are bigger), but whatever the case, I do have a slight problem in that my new pants don't really fit anymore.

The Weekend

I just finished updating the playlist on my mp3 player - in preparation for a trip tomorrow after school. After our classes and teacher workshop, we'll be heading to Gwangju, where Alden will be writing the GRE exam.

The plan is to take the bus, and then stay in a "love motel". Apparently these motels are used for any illicit activity - basically anything you would not want your neighbour to know about (i.e. extra-marital activity?). Foreigners tend to stay in these motels - they're cheap and conveniently located. I guess we'll see how it is!

Saturday morning is Alden's exam. The GRE is a standardized exam like the SAT, but it's necessary to apply to grad school in the States, as opposed to an undergrad program. There will be two verbal and two quantitative (high school math) sections. We've been having some math coaching sessions; I hope my student does well!

The past few weeks have also been quite busy. I went to a lantern festival in Jinju a couple weeks ago. Mina's friend has a taxi, so we made the 2 hour trip in his comfy ride. I also met Mina's friend Shawna. I felt very comfortable around Shawna - we have similar interests and she's super nice. I then found out she's from Langley, so I think that explains things a bit. It seems like every other Canadian we've met so far is from Ontario!

Here is a picture of the pome- granate lanterns at the festival. There must have been over 200 different lanterns, including a panda with some bamboo, a totem pole, four people doing b-boy moves and people in traditional Korean dress making rice cakes. Many of the lanterns moved (robots of some sort). It was very impressive! We finished off the evening with a snack of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor. So delicious.

Taekwondo Week 2

The kids were noticeably more friendly tonight at Taekwondo. I think they're getting used to the idea of having me in their class. Several of the boys ran up to me to say "hi" when I arrived, and two of the girls made of point of talking to me throughout the class.

It was quite the workout tonight - we were practicing our kicks by lining up and then kicking our way around the room two at a time. After five minutes of kicking, I was pretty tired and waiting for the activity to change. Eventually, I realized that this would, in fact, be our only activity of the night. Near the end of the session, and fifty minutes of kicking later, I was completely exhausted. However, this wasn't the end of class. Kwan Jang Nim (Master) lined us up and we raced from one end of the room to the other, by frog hopping and then by walking crouched low to the ground. And to top it off, we did squats! I will be very surprised if I am able to walk to and from school tomorrow without being in a lot of pain.

After class, I took the Taekwondo bus home again. Kwan Jang Nim dropped four of us off at the Hai Tai Apartments. As I was walking toward my building, one of the boys yelled something. I couldn't understand (Joanne: Hangeumal motayo - Korean language I don't speak), so one of the boys managed to translate to "Let's play!" We made a stop at the swing set. I basically went through my entire Korean vocabulary with them. They acted impressed, though I know that at least one of them has a much better grasp of English than I do of Korean. We managed to communicate that I live on the 10th floor, that I work at English Town and that I have a boyfriend (one boy sang the Wedding March to ask whether or not we were married). The boys were smiling and having a great time while we were chatting. Actually, the whole class seemed to be having fun while we were at Taekwondo. It's so nice to see all the kids so happy to just be participating and hanging out with friends. I'm really looking forward to going again tomorrow!