Japan, Korean Style

One of the truly great and under-appreciated aspects of dog ownership is the ability to become extremely well-versed in the local landscape through routine walks. While out with Sydney, I frequently passed a Japanese restaurant that looked quite lovely from the outside, and I had always wanted to give it a try. Tonight was the night to take that dive.

Although I was no fan of Japanese cuisine while living there--the food could generally be described as "bland" to many observers--I do every now and again have a hankerin' for it. Korean food is fantastic, but every now and again I would like to get a meal without a copious helping of kimchi.

I walked in the door and after some confusion, I was sat at the sushi bar. I started thumbing through the menu (all of which was in Korean) and was doing my best to sound out the characters to see if there were any dishes I recognized. Here, it must be noted that I've found I know much more Japanese than I would have previously given myself credit for, insofar as I keep trying to think in Korean, only to have its Japanese counterpart pop into my head. However, before I could decipher my first dish, a waiter came up, pointed to an item on the menu, and seemed quite insistent that I take that dish. So, what the hell, I said "OK" and awaited the meal of mystery that was to come. It was 30,000 won ($26), which was a tad north of what I wanted to spend, but it's Friday and I thought I deserved a treat.

I waited around for a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, but when the food started arriving, wow, did it arrive! Obviously this was a Korean-owned Japanese restaurant, because only in Korea do the heap food at you with this sort of ferocity. They started me off with a small salad and some rice porridge. Before I had even had a chance to dig in, they gave me a small platter of sashimi, along with some sort of egg custard, creamed corn, sauteed onions, and tempura potatoes and shrimp. This seemed to be an "all you can eat" sashimi special too, because the chef kept gladly refilling my sashimi platter every time it got even a tad low. I came to the realization that I had to eat as much of this as humanly possible, as this was becoming a test on my manhood.

I ate and ate and ate and every time I began to slow down, boom, there was more food at my disposal. Finally, I managed to clear my sashimi platter and for the first time the chef asked if I wanted more. I took this to mean that I had won the challenge, and politely refused. I paid, thanked the chef, and went on my way with a very full stomach and a great new memory.

Busan: A Series of Fortunate Events

As of Wednesday I will have been offically living in Korea for two months. Apart from my day trip to the DMZ (which is really only marginally outside of Seoul), I've not left the city at all. So I needed to get out, if only for my mental well-being.

My first break came a couple of weeks ago when I met an American girl, Clara, who lives in my building and fell in love with my dog at first sight. She immediately offered to watch her and/or walk her if I ever needed, and so I decided to hit her up on that offer as soon as possible.

I had been talking about going to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, even before leaving the U.S., to visit my friend and fellow UT alum, Mickayla. A fireworks festival coincided with this weekend, so the timing seemed perfect. My first experience with South Korea was in Busan, when I took the ferry over from Fukuoka, Japan three and a half years ago. I loved it then and had no doubt I would love it again.

I left Seoul in the early afternoon on the KTX, Korea's express bullet train. On my previous trips between Busan and Seoul, I had taken the slow train, and I must say this was a marked improvement over both the slow train and the shinkansen, or Japanese bullet train. When I arrived at Seoul Station, a beautiful, long, tall, glass-enclosed structure, I saw 3 KTX trains leaving for Busan in the next hour. I walked up to the ticket counter to buy a ticket and was given the following options, "1 o'clock train, standing or 1:30 train seat?" Um, a seat please. Well worth the extra 30 minutes and however much extra won they charged.

The train itself was smaller than the shinkansen, 4 seats across as opposed to 6, and had a dark, cozy feel to it. The interior was nice, with the seats consisting of a dark green upholstery. It wasn't long after the train started smoothly rolling down the tracks that I found myself in a deep, comfortable, nap. The ride couldn't have been smoother, and you never really got a sense of the speed of the train. The countryside of Korea is beautiful in a homely way. It doesn't overpower your senses with impossibly tall mountains, it doesn't take your breath away with incredible old-growth forests or raging rivers. However, its rolling hills and intermittent towns and farms provide a lovely, relaxing backdrop, which had it's own mesmerizing affect on me.

My arrival in Busan was like stepping into some sort of surreal sitcom situation where it's perfectly ordinary to run into everyone you've ever met while on vacation. Due to the fireworks festival, the city was alive and the subway was packed; despite this, I ran into one of the handful of Koreans that I knew socially, Ho Im. It was like finding a needle in a stack of needles, and yet there she was, waving at me on the Busan Station subway platform. We shared an incredibly packed train to Haeundae Beach.

In fact, "Incredibly packed" doesn't even begin to do our situation an justice. Every time the doors opened and we thought "There's no way anyone else can fit on here" miraculously, more people managed to pile in, squeezing out every single available molecule of air between us. It was one of the few moments when I both noticed how tall I am in this country, and was extremely thankful for that fact. The rarefied air, heads, and often shoulders above the masses was quite lovely in comparison to what I would have faced.

Once we arrived at Haeundae, Ho Im and I went our separate ways. She had her group of friends, and I was planning on meeting mine. I met up with Valerie and her friend for dinner and a quick wade in the ocean. After a few hours and half a dozen confusing phone calls, I finally met up with Mickayla shortly after the fireworks had subsided. It was great to see her, and her friends seemed really cool. Mickayla remarked how we have probably spent more time hanging out together in Asia, than in our home state of Tennessee. This fact is probably true.

Along the way I ran into Mark not once, but twice. Here's a guy I wanted to hang out with, but through all the texting and calling it seemed like it just wasn't in the cards. And then, miraculously, there he was in the street, drinking a beer and wearing a tee-shirt that read, "Hobosexual."

It was a bit of a downer not being able to drink that night. I was still getting over being sick last week, and I didn't want to risk a slide back into the realm of high fevers and phlegm. It's a strange experience not drinking at a bar or club. When ordering a coke, the bartender inevitably gives you a look like, "A coke and what?" Also, my senses were not dulled by the sweet embrace of a warm buzz, and everything seemed at once more vibrant, and more repugnant. I hope to not be sober inside a bar again for a long time.

We woke up the next morning, had brunch, went to the aquarium, to the market, and finally back on the train. Sure, I could write a whole lot more about my Sunday adventures, but quite frankly, this is a long post and I'm sick of writing.

Blast from the Past: The China Chronicles, Part 1

The following is an installment of a recently rediscovered series of columns written for The Daily Beacon, UT's Student Newspaper, during the summer of 2005.

Columnist returns to China

Guest Editorial -
Monday, June 20, 2005 issue


I have very strict rules for traveling. Well, just one really: Do not pack until the night before departure. This rule has served me very well so far, and I don’ t foresee it changing in the near future. And this includes the biggie: a month in China.

There are two very good reasons for this policy: One, to be a good traveler you must “ go with the flow.” The luggage that you hold will hold you back. The other reason is a cardinal rule of luggage: No matter how many lists you check or how well prepared you think you are, the gods will not allow you to remember everything.

The moment you remember to bring everything you need the gods will lose your luggage in transit out of spite. The best advice I can give you, the reader, is to pack twice the money and half the clothes you think you’ll need. I’ve found that ole’ Ben Franklin can solve most any problem short of incarceration that one may come across. On a side-note, I think jail is a good starting point as to when a good healthy panic is acceptable.

I’d like to give the reader better advice for traveling around this tiny globe, but the best (and only advice) I’ve received so far is from my beloved grandmother. She told me, “Zach, don’t bring back a Chinese girl.”*

While I deeply appreciated her advice, she surely could have dug a tad deeper and come up with some more worthwhile tidbits of knowledge. For example, “ Zach, don’t get the bird flu.” Or, “ Zach, try the Peking Duck.” Really any avian-based advice would have been taken with a great deal of gratitude and would have worked better in that situation, I think. God forbid I meet someone special on the trip.

Oddly enough, this is the exact same advice she gave me before I traveled to China last year.** There must be a deep-seeded fear of Asian women in my family of which I was previously unaware.

I expected some good advice from my grandfather on my dad’s side. After all, he has been to nearly 200 countries*** including China four times and all seven continents. Instead, this is what I got from him, “ Please take me with you… Your grandmother won’t let me eat Chinese food.” Just sad. He then added, “oh, a month of only Chinese food, I’d be in heaven.”

Also, there is zero good advice to be had about jet-lag. None, nada, zero, zip, nothing. To this day I cannot separate the first two or three days of my trip to Beijing in my mind. I look at my journal and think, “Forbidden City on day two? No, no, this has to be wrong.” Some people try sleeping on the flight, others try staying up but in the end it doesn’t matter, your body will throw up its arms in an act of defeat and you’ ll be waking up in strange tour buses wondering how you got there in the first place.

Coming back was even worse, I think I slept for a week straight. Though, in all fairness, coming back into town summed up a three-week drinking binge so my body was definitely in a state of detox.

But I don’ t want the reader to have the wrong idea here, I was there with 20 other UT students and none of us were alcoholics. However, when you put 20 20-something college social drinkers together, the result isn’t pretty.

Let me paint this scenario for you: A couple of friends are going to go out for a night on the town in Beijing or Chengdu or Shanghai. A couple turns into a few and a few turns into a dozen. Then you add dirt cheap (but incredibly smooth) beer plus virtually no responsibilities and you have a recipe for a regrettable amount of drinking. To add insult to injury, there were Australians everywhere, and those people will show you a good time.

Drinking aside, it is a magnificent country. I fell in love with it immediately upon arrival. Despite my severe jet-lag, I still remember stepping off the tour bus at dusk only a few hours after arriving in Beijing and walking through Tiananmen Square. I had seen the sight a million times on TV, usually in a negative context as the world is reminded of the horror that occurred there in 1989, but the sight did not bring memories of oppression.

Instead it brought a sense of awe, of magic, of an incredible and indefinable reality. The red flags were billowing at full mast, the kites were flying high, and I was in China.

I was suddenly a part of this great civilization. The ill-fated student protests and the communist party rallies led by Chairman Mao were never further from my mind than at this moment. Instead I saw China’ s glorious past and its incredible future.

This is why we travel.

I hate to cheese this up too much, but when your perceptions are realigned because of something you’ve traveled many a mile to find, it is magical. I want others to experience what I did if only for a moment.

When we travel, we become connected to the world and usually for the benefit of all involved. I’m not saying that traveling will rid the world of its ills, but you’ll no longer be able to see suffering in a distant corner of the globe without realizing how it affects us all.

The best thing that has ever happened to me is catching the “travel bug,” and I can’t wait to return to the proverbial open road. The world is getting increasingly small, and I hate to break it to those in the self-contained, immortal world of college, but life is getting increasingly short. Often the best reason to “go” is just to say that you have. And you should at least have something to tell the grandkids.

— Zachary Marx is a senior in political science and, like Courtney Cronley, will be sending columns periodically throughout his journey. He can be reached at zmarx@utk.edu.

*Editors note: The same advice was given one year later, prior to King Zach's trip to Japan, only about Japanese girls.

**Notice a theme?

***Mileage may vary.

The Process

Today was one of those days. A true slog: fighting against my rebelling, not-yet-recovered body, dozens of dirty, screaming kids, and clerical and scheduling errors in the curriculum that left me scrambling all day. While I could write a full blog entry on any of the aforementioned struggles, today wasn't about succeeding, it was about surviving. This is all part of The Process.

Tennessee's new head football coach Derek Dooley likes to tout "The Process," and with a 2-4 team, that's about all you can talk about. It's not about fixing your problems right now, it's about the day-to-day improvement that will lay the foundation for a better future. Improvement may not be immediately noticeable, and even less often tangible, but it is there.

Last week, I took two small steps toward that future: 1) paying off a credit card and 2) putting away my first $500 toward grad school. They may have been small steps, but my future is looking that much brighter because of them.

While $500 is a much lower number than what I had originally wanted to deposit, when considering the start-up costs of moving here, getting sick, and paying off old bills, it's not a bad start. I figure by January I should be depositing between $1000-1500 every month. That will be when baby steps become leaps and bounds.

Work. Study Korean. Save money. Repeat. This is my process.

As previously stated, this is not to say my life is without problems, I merely traded one set of problems in Milwaukee --no career, little or no income, no opportunities--for another set--loneliness, self-doubt, and of course, my dog Sydney. But here's the difference between these two sets of issues: all of my new problems are fixable, whereas it seemed the last set had spiraled past the point of no return.

Clearly I'm in a better situation now. It's much better to be low and trending up, than the other way around.

Blast from the Past: Russia (Parts 1 & 2)

Part 1: Originally written May 25, 2006

Hello!

Well, I have survived the journey and am settling into life as a tourist in Russia. The trip was not nearly as painful as my past excursions to China and I have not experienced the same level of jet-lag. However, Russia wasted no time in living up to its reputation as a backward country. As soon as we landed in St. Petersburg the plane came to a full stop, then pulled a u-turn on the runway and began taxiing back up the way we came-it didn't seem safe or necessary, but who am I to judge? It's been quite adventurous so far, we're living in an old soviet-era hotel that makes the places I've stayed in China look like spas and resorts. It's cool though, I love the adventure. It's pretty rough and tumble up here-and a lot of old soviet mentality persists. The group seems to be bonding very well, and we're all having a great time. We have yet to do a lot of exploring, though the parts of the city that I have seen so far have been amazing. We did go to St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral along with a mass grave from the World War II siege of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) that held over 500,000 people. It was just a stunning sight-consider this fact: less Americans died in WWII than the number of nameless people who were buried at this site. Getting away from that rather depressing topic, tomorrow we'll be visiting the Hermitage so I'm really excited about that. Don't worry, pictures will be taken.

Well, I'm about to run out of time at the internet cafe. I hope all is well back home and anywhere else people happen to be receiving this mail. Take care and send love!

From Russia With Love,
-Zach

Part 2: Originally written May 31, 2006

Everyone,

I hope you are all doing fine, as I am happy to report that I am in good health despite the Russian cuisine's best efforts. However, our comrade Rhett has fallen with some sort of bug (my guess is either bird flu or SARS)-he's been in the hospital for 2 days so I want everyone to think good thoughts for him (he's good people, trust me). The doctors can't quite figure out what is wrong with him, but have been pumping him full of anti-biotics anyway. SO, let's recap what I have learned so far:

1. Old Russian women are short, mean and kind of look like yoda.
2. Mullets are viable haircuts in Russia (we've come up with a classification system for them-it's provided hours of fun-there is the classic mulletus mulletus, the vogue mulletus rattailus, mulletus femailous and the super mullet mulletus maximus).
3. I will get charged for being a foreigner at every restaurant I attend. The place where I ate yesterday I was charged for two items I did not order. Normally the conversation would go like this: ME: Um, I didn't order this bread-you just brought it out to me Angry Waitress: Oh, I'll get that taken care of... but here it goes something like this: ME: Um, what are these charges? AW: Bread and Sauce ME: Oh.

Anyway, I'm in Moscow and going through internet withdrawals. Right now I'm in this super-sweet mall that is located underground outside of the Kremlin. I'd have to say that so far St. Petersburg has Moscow beat in every category except the weather. Red Square would have been cool had I not been to Tiananmen Square first (Tiananmen has the power to drop your chin to the ground by its sheer size and grandeur, in comparison Red Square looks like a playground). For anyone so concerned, Lenin is looking pretty good-our tour guide told us they have 100 people working to keep him preserved. Moscow is a pretty happening place, though outside of the Kremlin and Red Square we really haven't found a lot worth exploring. It's been fun, albeit uneventful. On Saturday we fly out to Perm. I guess that's all for now-send love.

Best,
-Zach

The DMZ

I've been raking my brain to try and think of good ways to describe what I saw today. There's really no good way to go about it, but I'll do my best. My trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) was the most unique, terrifying, fascinating, disturbing, sad, and real experience I've had in my travels. So I guess without further ado, I'll give you my thoughts as they happened in my journal:

October 9, 2010

06:28

I'm on my way to the DMZ, or more accurately, on my way to the USO to get on a bus to the DMZ. The cost of the tour is not insignificant, around $75, but ultimately I thought it would be worth it for the completely unique, unparalleled experience. The DMZ is a 4 kilometer (2.5 mile)-wide strip of land meandering across the width of the Korean Peninsula, dividing the country into two. It has become one of the most heavily armed borders on the globe, a result of 57 years of stand-off. Technically, the Korea War never ended, only an armistice was signed, which remains intact up to this very day.

However, an interesting unintended consequence of the DMZ has been a de-facto nature preserve, including many animals that were presumed to be extinct on within Korea.

The forecast called for rain last night and into this morning, but the weather seems to have held out for now, it appears to be shaping up to be a nice day.

07:22

On the bus at the USO. I was slightly worried about not being able to find it, but Americans are anything but subtle. The directions were clear, and a friendly USO sign greeted me. The building is directly adjacent to the Military Base, and it was slightly unnerving having to walk past an armed guard to get here. "Don't mind me, I'm just going on the tour." Though, in light of today's itinerary, I should get used to armed guards.

The sun is just coming up over Seoul, beautiful.

08:27

13 km to Punmunjeom, the town where the JSA--Joint Security Area--is located. It's an eerie sight as no other cars are on the road.

And now we've just reached Check Point 1, no pictures allowed here. We're surrounded on 3 sides by fences and razor wires. Immediately after clearing the check point we roll out onto "Unification Bridge," once again, very creepy. I can't even describe this feeling, it's a weird mix of emotions: sadness, fear, desolation, awe...We just arrived at Camp Bonifas, just south of the JSA.

I can't take pictures right now, which is annoying. The base has a small soccer pitch and baseball diamond on the far side of the base, some flags of the supporting nations, and a water tower that reads:

Joint Security Area
"In Front of them All"

Some American GI just checked my passport, not terribly through about it, it was hardly a glance.

08:59

We're at our briefing within the gates of Camp Bonifas. The JSA is guarded by US, UN, and ROK (Republic of Korea, AKA South Korea) troops in the southern half, and DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and Chinese Volunteers in the northern half.

Excellent presentation! Apparently Camp Bonifas is named after an American captain who was killed in the JSA in 1976. For the first 23 years, the JSA was not divided into North and South sectors, and the North Koreans had decided to surround a UN building with three of their own. UN and US troops tried to clear a large poplar tree to increase viability to their surrounded checkpoint and were met by 28 North Koreans, 5 Americans were injured and two killed, brutally, with the use of their own axes.

We also learned about the "Soviet Defector Incident" in 1984, which also led to a brief firefight. The saddest part of the briefing was learning about "The Bridge of No Return" where captured soldiers were forced to choose which side to go to, and never being able to return once their decision was made.

We're doing a brief tour of the base, we just passed "The World's Most Dangerous Golf Course," a one-hole, 192 yard, par 3, surrounded on all sides by mine fields.

09:30

Just officially crossed into the DMZ. Now we're passing Tae Sung Dong or "Freedom Village" one of two towns allowed to exist in the DMZ. Citizens of Tae Sung Dong have a strict midnight curfew, but are highly subsidized farmers. They make over $100,000 a year to far ginseng and rice, and their children are allowed their choice of any South Korean university, paid for by the government. In the distance we can see a glimpse of Kijong Dong or "Propaganda Villiage," the North Korean counterpart to Tae Sung Dong, though it is believed to be unpopulated.

Eye to Eye with the North Koreans

10:09

Just spent about three minutes in North Korea. Inside of the UN conference room you are allowed over the MDL (Military Demarcation Line, the official border between the two countries). It was intense. There were two ROK soldiers in a taekwando stances, ready to pounce. One was guarding the the northern door, protecting us from possible kidnapping by the North Koreans.

We're back on the bus now and overlooking the North Korean countryside. The hills are completely barren, thought they say it's so they can look for defectors. Over the town of Kijong Dong hangs the largest flag in the world, off of one of the largest flag poles. It's 600 pounds dry and one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. I keep looking away and looking back, thinking, "there's no way that ridiculous flag can be there when I look back," and yet, there it is.

10:57

The North Koreans are almost comical in their nefarious actions: the flag business, tunnels under the DMZ, kidnappings, randomly firing off missiles--not really threatening, mostly just immature and annoying. Really? That's the best you can do?

12:12

Cool--just met a South African and two Kiwis, all teachers, of course! The "Third Tunnel of Aggression" was interesting but there wasn't much to see. It is one of several tunnels the North Koreans tried to dig under the DMZ. However, they used the subtle and ancient Korean digging technique, "Blasting through granite with dynamite," so needless to say, they were all quickly discovered once they crossed into South Korean territory. The most interesting part of the tunnel was finding out that the North Korean troops had rubbed the inside of the walls with coal to make it appear as if they were mining. Mining for coal through thick granite, in more or less a straight line to Seoul.

1:30

Our last stop, was, well, the last stop. Literally, the last train stop in South Korea. This was infinitely spooky and sad. It was a beautiful train station, with no trains coming and none departing. Just empty tracks heading north.

So my final thoughts? An incredible experience, and even more amazing when I think about this going on every day, for the last 57 years. And as far as North Korea goes, I've lost even more respect for the regime (and I thought that respect could go no lower).

In summation, North Korea is a little bit:


















...and a whole lot of:

Blast From the Past: Kickin' (Soccer) Balls

Originally written March 14, 2007

Oh, Herro!

Well, as you may be able to tell the Fightin' Nagasaki Fly Hawk(s) FC finally showed their full potential and won the first game of the season! However, the game was not without some pregame drama as a riff between players and management became fully apparent. There are these two players, Chris and Owen, who have obviously been hit in the head too many times with hockey sticks. They both play for a hockey squad as well, and think they know all there is to know about soccer despite having never played competitively before. To make a long story short, Chris went off at Rob and I (on the team mailing list) for some really petty issues. Furthermore, Owen had been telling our players that we would be "thrashed" by Nagasaki University on Saturday (he must have figured we would miss him or something, both he and Chris had a hockey engagement--notice I didn't say "game" because hockey isn't a sport). If nothing else, this motivated the rest of the team and we came out swinging. The game was tied for about 30 minutes at 0-0, when we finally caught a break and made a successful attack on goal. The score was from one of our Japanese players, Kazuya. It was a low shot, the keeper appeared to have position but the ball somehow managed to squeeze on by him and into the back of the net. We took a 1-0 lead into the half, despite some good opportunities from the other team. Nagasaki U did not go silently into the night and struck back early in the second half to tie the score at 1-1. However, their goal (which was quite the spectacular header) would be their last shot on goal for the match. We spent the vast majority of the rest of the half attacking on their half of the field and eventually Aaron put away a corner to take the lead for good. The final score was 2-1 and it was an emotional win for Rob and I and a huge relief to the rest of the team.

We took this confidence into our next match, though it was not a scheduled one. Halfway through our subsequent practice this weekend a couple of firetrucks pulled up next to the field and all of these firemen started piling out and putting on soccer cleats. Well, they had 11 men, and we had 11 men and women (total) so we figured why not have a match? We were a little embarrassed that they caught us without our uniforms, especially since they had nice, matching navy blue Sasebo FD sweats. And in typical Japanese fashion, this wasn't enough, they brought out small red mesh vests to throw over their uniforms.It didn't take long to figure out that we would absolutely dominate them. And dominate we did. Final score? 4-0. They were nice enough to let us pose for a picture in front of one of the firetrucks. This week we are off to play in Saga City against another ALT team on St. Patrick's Day, should be a blast!*

The week certainly began strangely enough, with my predecessor, Kate, coming back to say, "Herro!" to everyone. From an outsider's perspective this might not seem too odd, but it certainly was from my end. I would compare it to how they always warn time travelers in cheesy sci-fi movies (with the exception of Back to the Future, which was excellent) not to go see your past or future self. I think it was equally awkward for both of us.

Also on tap this week: Junior High School graduation! I really loved my 3rd year students, but I guess part of being a teacher is learning to say, "Good-bye." Instead of class for the past few days I've had to attend hours-literally hours of graduation practice. They practiced everything from walking to the podium, to bowing together, to standing and sitting together and singing various songs. I remember our pre-graduation meeting going a bit differently. Something about, "NO MOONING THE CROWD!" or something...then we went out for pizza. Different culture.**

With the term winding down, I've been afforded a little more time to work on pet projects. I've taken full advantage of the time, as there are only so many Sudoku puzzles one can do without jamming a pencil into one's temple. I've started work on a paper about Japan's new militarism. I've completed about 25 pages in a little over two weeks-it might be 25 pages of glorious crap but it makes me feel better for accomplishing it! I hope to have a 40-50 page rough frame to help guide my future research finished by the end of March. So if you see any good articles about Japan, please send 'em along! No wikipedia articles...thanks. (Unless you find something really funny like one on Japanese Sex Robots or something). Well, I guess that's all for now. Be sure to fill out your brackets! And send love!

Don't moon the crowd,

-Zach

*Said game was not a blast. The Saga team was apparently under the impression that we were playing rugby and absolutely abused us.

**Tomato Head to be exact.

A Good Week for a Good Week

So, dear readers, you may have noticed my silence this week. Well, I've been busy, so busy, that I've had precious little time to devote to my beloved blog. Before I get started: last news first, I'm surfing the interwebs using my very own connection! Now where do I begin? How about last Saturday:

Wednesday, September 25, 2010

As per my journal:

Some days you just need to be a tourist. I was supposed to go to Olympic Park with some coworkers, but instead I waited around for a call that never came. So instead I'm on my way to Gyeongbokgung, "The Palace of Shining Happiness," built in 1394 by King Taejo, founder of the Joseon Dynasty. However, the original was burned down in 1592 and stayed in ruins until it was rebuilt in 1868.

And blah, blah, blah. The palace was nice, but nothing as spectacular as the Forbidden City or even the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. That said, the weather was perfect and it was really nice to just get out into the city and stroll around. The highlight of the trip was actually bimimbap for lunch.

Sunday, September 27, 2010

I was long over due for a haircut when I went into a foreign-friendly barber shop near-ish my home. I've been a little hesitant to get a haircut so far, mostly due to a particularly traumatic haircutting experience in Japan. The haircut ended up being OK, not great and not as short as I wanted, but it works.


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Today began with some drama, as Sydney inadvertently startled an old Korean woman getting off of the elevator in the morning. I heard her walk straight up to the doorman and start bitching about my dog. I wasn't surprised when I was called into our Vice Director's office to have Joe tell me that he had received a call from the apartment and that "Neighbor were complaining about her being too noisy." Of course, this was total bullshit as other foreigners surround my apartment, left, right, and below. In fact, I even asked a nice South African living directly next-door to me if he could ever hear her and he told me, "She's as quiet as a mouse."

Other than that mess, our school celebrates birthdays once a month, and I don't think I've ever seen so much food. My kids inundated me with pizza, chocolate cake, fruit, rice cake, iced coffee and juice.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Today we kicked off our two-days of monthly tests for our afternoon students. This was a nice change in pace from our normal school schedule, when we usually devote all of our time to lesson planning and teaching. Interestingly enough, these tests actually created more work for us because we had to grade all the essays.

After work I met up with a couchsurfer, Mark, and his entourage of coworkers for drinks and noraebang (Korean karaoke). I'm not normally one for the mid-week throw-down, but on Thursday I had a field trip and more testing, so I was pretty sure I could work through any and all possible hangovers. I've also not had much opportunity to meet and hang out with many non-coworkers, so I felt like I owed it to myself. It was a blast, despite not being able to find "Come on Eileen" or "Carry on our Wayward Son." The five of us ended up crashing back at my apartment around 3:30.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Despite being tired and popping Advil like candy to combat a headache, I had a great time on our field trip. It was at the Korean Folk Museum, inside of Lotte World which is a giant department store/theme park. My kids spent the day taking turns climbing all over me while I tried to explain to them what was going on in the diagrams and displays. It was really nice to see these kids have a chance to...well...be kids. I feel like they are all terribly overworked, sometimes they should just be able to cut loose.

For being in a department store, it was a surprisingly good museum, but it was a bit odd exiting through cosmetics.

Friday, October 1, 2010

So the gods of noraebang have smote me once again. Last time I went, I came down with tonsillitis two days later, and this time I've come down with a cold. I would like it if my immune system started doing its job at some point.