more of the same

Hi everybody.

So.

How's the weather?

Cold enough for you?

I'm not trying to bore you. I feel like I have a responsibility to you all now. You have all been so kind as to follow my thoughts and travels. You've given me some great feedback and been very encouraging in my little adventure. I'm afraid that my life just isn't that exciting on a weekly basis.

I work. I come home. I do some work at home. I have a coffee or what passes for coffee. I eat. I sleep. Maybe I'll go grab a beer or something on the weekend. Perhaps find an event or place to check out, but for every colorful building or monument or mountain or ceremony that I have seen, I have seen 5,000 normal, everyday things, both good and bad.

I've seen a co-worker pretending to make herself busy as the vice principal walks by.

I've seen a man absentmindedly talking on his cell phone as he's trying to merge into traffic.

I've seen a 3 year old doing the "popsicle dance". You know the one. If you don't, go find yourself a 3 year old, hand them a popsicle, and watch what they do.

I've seen a smiling high school couple waiting to cross the street, so ecstatic and nervous to just be standing next to each other. (If someone was "selling" feelings, that's the one I'd buy.)

I've seen a young woman trying to hide her face as she talks on a cell phone in the corner of a restaurant, tears running down her cheeks.

I've seen the waitress freeze in the middle of the restaurant, looking back and mouthing something as she moves her index finger through the air, recalling her last order and planning her next mission.

I've seen rude people, gracious people, people with alterior motives, and people who are simply happy to be doing whatever it is that they're doing.

There are young girls who want to grow up way too quickly.

There are shy, awkward boys who play too many video games and who will hit their 30s before they find themselves or anyone else. (sound familiar?)

There are strong but weary mothers who push a child down a sunny sidewalk in a wheelchair, as a younger sibling skips behind.

There are men who think they are more than they are.

There are people who look down on and ridicule anyone who doesn't speak their language. Thankfully, they are greatly outnumbered by people who understand why we, as foreigners, are in their country in the first place.

There are so many familiar sights here; rocks, benches, leafless trees, city workers, drizzle, garbage, minivans, stunning flowers, ipods, you-are-here maps, people walking dogs, and so on and so on.

Boring to read about, I'm sure.

I guess I don't look at it as boring though. It almost feels....refreshing at times. Resfreshing to know that these people and this place that would appear to be so different....are not.

Clearly there ARE differences. If you've been reading this blog, you'll have heard me speak of more than a couple. There's a few cultural gaps between America and Korea. There are amazing sights to see. There are incredible places to behold. There is the occasional mystery food(i'm now leaning toward not trying the raw, freshly-chopped-up, still-moving baby octopus tentacles. i have my reasons).

I'm just saying that it's nice to know that you can go halfway around the world and there are certain things that won't change.

God knows, I'm still the same. I still smile some days and frown others. I still make mistakes. I still surprise myself from time to time with something awesome. I watch, I listen, and I try to learn. And sometimes I even SPEAK!!! hehe

So,

next time I promise to write about something more Anthony Bourdain-like. For today, everyday life will have to do.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Much love from my Seoul!!!

~tony

ps. i hope this post didn't discourage anyone from coming to visit. i promise if you do, we'll go see the cool stuff and not just sit around people watching!

Dobong pics

Climb every san.

san = mountain

Two weekends ago my friend Shana and I took on a mountain, Dobongsan. Seoul is virtually surrounded by mountains, especially to the north. These aren't exactly the Rockies, but they are mountains; sheer face rock climbers included. They are all basically national parks, and you can usually get to the top of one in just a few hours.

Hiking is a "hobby" here. More than that...an obsession. Here was our day:

Wanting to get an early start, we had set a goal of reaching the mountain around 7:00 am. Reality and the snooze button had other plans, so 8:30 it was. Mount Dobong is on the northern edge of town and you can get fairly close to it via the subway, so we hit the station to wait for a train heading north. This was Sunday, so countless Koreans were out and about. We did notice that well over 90% of the people at the station and on our train had on hiking gear.

"Gear" is a funny thing here. Whatever you do, you need to have gear. For golfers, there is a part of town that has literally HUNDREDS of golf shops, some of which sell clubs but most sell golf clothes. Apparently, you've really got to "look the part" around here. Hiking is no different. You need to be wearing an $80 breathable lycra long sleeve shirt. You need matching pants. You need $130 hiking boots. You need fingerless gloves. You need a mesh cap with a tiny bill. You need a tundra-type backpack with god knows what inside. You need 2 aluminum walking poles with grippy bottoms. If you don't have the gear, you need to get with the program!

We were not with it. T-shirts. Jeans. 1 backpack between the 2 of us. Tennis shoes. Downright foolishness!!

Anywho....we get to the subway stop indicated from our directions. We make a move to get off, but NONE of the other hikers moved a muscle. Okay. We now have about 3.5 seconds to decide whether to continue with our own directions and jump through the door or follow the herd to wherever they might take us.

Now I know what lemmings feel like.

We followed the crowd out at the next exit, across the street, and down a side street toward the mountain in the distance. Keep in mind this is a crowd to be counted not by the tens, but by the hundreds. It was kind of surreal. We passed countless various stands and shops selling everything from cotton candy to Korean food of all sorts to the latest in North Face hiking supplies.

We winded through various back alleys and small streets up to the park gate and went on through. Shortly thereafter, we found a sign with a map and plotted our course. The paths are very well laid-out and well organized. The bathrooms at "base camp" were clean and modern. (i'll tell you about the "un-modern" bathrooms later) The weather was perfect; sunny with a cool breeze. The leaves here are changing as we speak, so it made for a beautiful morning and an amazing start to the day.

You don't need a play by play of the hike. I'll add some pictures that can speak much more eloquently than I can. I will say this though:

It was about the weirdest "nature" adventure that I've ever had. Don't get me wrong. It was beautiful. The strange part was the people, the throngs of people everywhere you look. If you hold your arms out in any direction you will probably poke someone. If you walk too fast you will probably have to pause as the people ahead of you slow up.

As if the mountain itself wasn't beautiful enough, along the way there were large and small Buddhist temples tucked into the rock. I have no clue how they were built there, but there they were, almost magical, secluded havens. They had beautiful, colorful rooofwork and statues of various sizes. I'm not Buddhist, but you definitely don't have to be to appreciate these temples. They were here long before the railed pathways and the cotton candy stand.

After a lot of climbing(and a little sitting) we reached the peak. Two peaks actually. The view was amazing, overlooking the city to the south and the countryside everywhere else. Now, there were paths and rails to help climb along the way, but the peak itself was just that, a peak. Considering how many people flooded this area, I'm surprised that we didn't see anyone fall to their death. It was a crowded rock and a looong drop.

We perched ourselves on a "somewhat" safe ledge away from the crowded path and ate our lunch. Shana had Kimbap, kind of like sushi rolls without the meat. I had a hot dog on a stick, the most common way to eat hot dogs here apparently. We split our "reward" for completing our mission, an Oreo cookie wafer, and relaxed for a bit.

You know.......memories are strange. We all have certain memories that last forever, certain moments that are etched into the inside of our skulls. As I'm sitting here thinking, I'm realizing that most of those memories for me involve rocks strangely enough. I remember sitting on a huge, weather worn boulder reading a Jon Varley book, overlooking Lake Superior as the grey, choppy waves sprayed cold mist into the air. I remember scaling a cliffed area in South Dakota on a trip for Mr. Frutiger's Advanced Biology class. My friend Heath was always the daredevil growing up, but this time I was the one who dared to stretch and straddle over a huge drop from one secure rock to the next to make it to the top. I remember skipping stones in Pelican Lake, spending hours searching for the perfectly weighted, perfectly sized, perfectly gripable rock. I remember the beach at the Palisades north of Duluth, with it's millions of rocks that were made pristinely round and smooth by centuries of violent waves. The view from this beach was breathtaking, but the stones still stole the show.

I'll remember this day too I think, that lunch on the rocky ledge, wedging my foot against the trunk of a small tree for safety and comfort, eating a cold hot dog. I'll remember waving to the true mountain climber on the "real" peak up above. He waved back as he sat, eating his own lunch, enjoying his better view.

I miss you guys and I hope that at least one or two of you can come and share this with me for a short while. Take care, and I'll be thinking of ya!

~tony

my monogrammed soapbox

So, do you think I can take any other aspect of Korea and twist it into some sort of "life lesson" today? I don't know who I think I'm preaching to, but I promise to tone it down a notch....if I can.

So....I guess I'm popular now. There's that!

It kind of comes with the territory I think. I am a novelty. I am from the culture that many here try to emulate. I speak English, which they all want to learn. I am kind of tall by American standards, and very tall here. I am attempting to learn the language. Even the attempt is viewed with respect by most Koreans. I eat spicy food(yes, that makes me popular). I have blondish hair, and apparently it's thinning isn't an issue. (I'm convinced that they just can't see the top of my head) I am not intentionally rude; this is impressive I guess. I am single; also impressive somehow?!?

What do I mean by popular? Examples:

1. My fellow teachers love me, and by that I mean that one of the English speaking teachers told me how everyone talks about how much they love me all the time.
2. The guy who helped me at the bank gave me his card after 10 minutes and wanted to "be my friend".
3. Two business guys on the subway struck up a conversation yesterday and proceeded to invite me to dinner, drinks, and to watch one of their son's archery competition.(i did not go)
4. The manager at my sandwich shop downstairs starts waving as soon as I get to the curb across the street.
5. Shana, Abby and I were invited to a family's home this weekend for a full dinner. I had met the man once. (i did go)(delicious)(and i crushed their ten-year-old at connect five).
6. The owner of our coffee shop has adopted us and has become a gracious guide to the city.
7. I get invited to go drinking much more often than I prefer to go drinking, which is the reverse from Minnesota.
8. My convenience store guy, my sandwich shop guy, my pet shop girl, and my coffee shop crew all call me by name already. Okay, maybe the pet shop girl knows MANGO's name, but close enough.

Before I go on, I need to clarify something. Some of you are now thinking, "Tony, Tony, Tony. When some guy at the bank asks you to be his friend, he's not asking you to be his ~friend~. *winkwink*"

Not so.

Through American eyes, ALL men here appear to be very metrosexual if you will. The social standards are vastly different. Beyond a manly hug, a handshake, or a shoulder grab, boys/men in the US rarely touch each other. That is not the case here. Friends will touch each other in non-sexual ways quite often, even holding hands sometimes. This appears VERY stange to us perhaps, but it's the way it is here. Men aren't scared of appearing homosexual, so if they think you're a cool guy, they'll ask you to grab a drink. It is weird to me, don't get me wrong. But I'm just a visitor here. I don't get to impose my beliefs on anyone. And if you see two WOMEN walking down the street and they're NOT holding hands it is odd.

Anyways,

I'm really not bragging. People are friendly. I am a rarity here. Some want to show off or practice their English. Some people just want to brag to their friends that they know the waygooks(foreigners). Or like the guys at the basketball court, brag that they BEAT the waygooks. Just because I am tall doesn't mean I can play.

It's just a funny feeling. I could probably get some girls' telephone numbers. I could probably hang out and drink Soju(don't ask) with the guys every weekend. If you knew me very well in my teens or twenties, you may know why I think this is funny.

So, I'm not wrapping this up with some "moral of the story" thing. If you want one, you can write you own. I'm off to bed!

~tony

It is what it is

I hate that phrase.

People say it with such conviction, as if it explains everything there is to know about the topic.

That's Korea though. The bad comes with the good, and there's no changing it. What is so bad you ask? Not bad per se, but uncomfortably different at times.

Korea, like China, is a Confucianist society. It has little to do with religion and a lot to do with everything else. Again, I am no expert, so feel free to poke holes in my attempts to explain things.

From what I understand, Confucianism is all about respect. That sounds great in a tiny little sentence like that. It's when you start applying it to every aspect of life that you run into trouble. You show respect to your elders and those who are "above" you, be it at work or in society in general. At the same time, you do what you can to earn respect from others; do well on a test, get into a good college, get a good job, marry a good mate, have a "perfect" family, and make a lot of money.

Again, it looks good on paper, doesn't it. (or cyberspace)

The problem is this: once you get the respect, you can't lose it. You have to "save face". I don't just mean that you want to save face, YOU HAVE TO. You cannot question those in authority, because they will lose face. You cannot correct someone in public for the same reason. You cannot make a suggestion because that implies that they do not know what they are doing. Think about the average workplace and what this means. Many times, you do your job as best you can on your own and you hope others will do the same. You don't question them and they don't question you...to your face at least. There is no constructive criticism. There is no honor in wanting to learn from mistakes. Communication will break down, whether you speak the same language or not. Frustrating anyone??? There is a story...most likely an urban myth...but it is accurate in idea at least. Supposedly there was some construction, a big building being raised. Before it was finished, engineers found an error in the calculations that made the building unsafe. They did not take this information to their superiors, because that would be questioning their abilities. The building later fell and many people died.

What about personal lives? It goes back to the kids (and the pushy parents) studying all day and night for tests...to gain respect for themselves and their families. Schools push you to not make mistakes. Your test scores and university acceptance letters are better than gold!!! And did you get married right after college and have 1 boy and 1 girl in the next few years? Then congratulations!! You've earned some more respect!! Do you love your spouse? Forget I asked. It doesn't matter. You've earned repect!!!! Are you a 26-year-old female?? Whoa, you'd better tie the knot with that guy your mom has been trying to set you up with. Are you a guy? You'd better head down the aisle with that one. She's pretty and she has two brothers, so maybe she's more likely to give you a son to pass along your family name and gain even more respect. (It's sad but true that even today, doctors are not allowed to tell parents the sex of their unborn child.)

So, did you somehow lose respect along the way? Forget it. You may as well not even think about higher education. Aim low.

I'm losing battery power, so I'll wrap up this cynicism.

There is a (slowly) growing resistance to these ideologies. The divorce rate is rising. That doesn't sound like a good thing, but it means that more and more women are getting out of the bad relationships that they were pushed in to. Creativity is a high priority among the youth as well. For every future doctor or lawyer I have in my class, I have a director and an animator. (I even have a chocolatier!!)

We had a pop song contest in school today. It was loads of fun to listen to Korean kids belt out Kelly Clarkson, but at the end, one girl read a speech she had written for an upcoming English speaking competition she was entering. Her English was almost perfect, better then any of the English teachers, and I might've been the only one in the room who really understood what she was talking about.

It was the most eloquent, heartfelt, and honest speech that I may have ever heard. She talked about the problems Korean teens have today, many of the same that I've outlined above. She asked for a change. To not be considered a "study machine". For her parents to spend time with her. To be heard and supported. To be allowed to laugh and play. To be creative. To be happy.

It is what it is for now at least.

~tony

5000 words

A month under my belt...

So, I realized that I mentioned the school system a few blogs back and I haven't gone into more detail yet. Maybe it's not the most thrilling topic in the world, but it is interesting.

Ok, their schools are loosely based on our own. We installed quite a few American systems here after the Korean war.......actually, first let me give you a very brief, albeit moderately inaccurate history of this country.

There were many "Ages" that Korea has gone through. It was split in 3, it was unified, it was invaded by Japan, it was invaded by China, it was invaded by Japan, it was invaded by Japan, etc. You get the picture. Before World War 2, Japan controlled all of Korea, and they weren't nice about it. Forcefully occupied is a better term perhaps. In the older generations today, there still exists an underlying, but heated resentment of Japan. Many people have grandmothers or great-grandmothers who were forced into horrible indignities during those years of Japanese control.

After World War 2, we made the same deal for Korea with the Soviet Union that we did in Germany; we each would get half. (i would love to learn more about that deal-making process. can you imagine us giving half of another country to a third country?)

So, South Korea and North Korea go their seperate ways. North Korea went on to be....North Korea, and South Korea became our much littler brother. We built a base here. We helped them modernize and sent them down our oh-so-famous path to democracy.

A couple decades passed and Japan had gone from being an enemy of the United States to one of it's most fervent emulators. They began to prosper and gain wealth/power. Korea recognized this and perhaps became more than a little jealous. By the 70's/80's, the prime directive of the Korean government was to push and push hard. They would become an economic factor in the world by sheer will if they had to.

South Korea isn't blessed with natural resources like we are, so they had to turn to what they had; people and lots of them. "Human Resources" is more than just a business major here. The "Human Resources" ARE the people, all of them, and even today that is how much of this country views itself. They ask a whole lot of themselves and for the most part they deliver.

I wanted to give that little overview, because these are exactly the reasons that I am here today. South Korea wants to be a power like America, and part of that plan is to speak our language. Not learning a second language just for fun or for a "transcript frosting" like we do, but for the betterment of the entire country. It really is a national imperitive. There are tens of thousands of English teachers from all over the world here, and they are all paid much better than Korea's own teachers(many times a sensitive subject in certain schools as you can imagine, since not all foreign English teachers here have a teaching degree or stellar GPAs).

Korean students go to kindergarten, then 1st through 12th grade just as we do. Their school year may be a little longer than us, but not too much. They have holidays and vacation days just like us. The biggest difference is what happens AFTER school. Approximately 80% of the students go to an Academy after stopping at home for a brief supper. Academies, or Hagwons as they are called here are private schools. They operate out of office space in pretty much every building in this city. They can be general or can specialize in subjects, like math, science, Korean, various musical intruments, chess, certain sports, or...you guessed it....English.

The students go to the Academies from about 6:00 to 10:00, some go less, some go more. Many go to Academies on Saturday, and some even on Sunday. Some go on Vacation days, and all students go to summer/winter "camps" during the off months of the school year. When they do get home at night, they start their homework/studying. Most of my middle schoolers don't get to sleep until about 1 or 2 in the morning. It is an understanding between parents, schools, and students that education is THE most important thing during those years of your life.

What about FUN you say?? When do the kids get to be kids?? Oddly enough, in school. They are allowed to be much more rambunctious and wild in school than students are in most American schools. They do their work, but the volume and energy level in school here is MUCH higher than I am used to.

The greatest outlet for their pent up energy is clear however.

Video games

Any spare second in the day is spent playing games. The PC rooms that I mentioned before are constantly filled with students blowing off steam. They're dark, inexpensive, and seem to directly inject digital images into the cerebellums of these kids. Some of the girls will listen to sugarpop music with their friends. Some boys will play a little basketball or soccer. 99.9% will play games. At home I get 47 channels that I don't understand, and 3 of them are video game channels, not where they TALK about video games, not where you get to PLAY video games, but channels where you simply WATCH other people play video games.

Sounds thrilling, doesn't it. Contact your local cable provider.

I could go into the testing process or the universities, but I won't. I think that's enough of a civics lesson for one blog.

So anyways, now it's a little easier for me to understand why some people in the world think Americans are spoiled or overconfidant, because.......we kind of are. Not that we don't work hard or don't deserve all that we have. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is this:

There are literally hundreds of millions of people all over the world working their asses off to hopefully, someday have what we have right now. Let's not waste the opportunities that are in front of us.

laters!

~tony

Sorry....

...I've been so busy with my first true week of school, I haven't had time to do much else. Bloggin is not a way of life for me yet.

I've been doing my immigration run this week. Lots of running after school to health checks, and various appointments to get my alien registration card which I need to get my home internet and a phone. (I'm using some business's wireless signal right now, which is nice but who knows how long it will last)

Well, people at school actually try to talk to me now. I really do need to speed up the "learning Korean" process. Life is so much easier when you can understand what people around you are saying. I did have the guts to venture into a restaurant by myself last night. Ok, maybe it was an Italian restaurant, but still! The menu looked like.....TGIFridays I guess. I think that many "American" style bars and restaurants are kind of modelled after Fridays. It must've been the first American chain to come here. The Cajun Fried Chicken Salad and Junebug really give it away. I had a good (expensive) dinner and tried to get to know the bartender. I figure that it can never hurt to know a bartender, though I don't know if I could pronounce his name again. Kim Tson Chung or something like that. I can read many of the words now, but hearing them spoken is a whole 'nother ball of wax.

The importance of bridging the language barrier can be best illustrated by a story from my second night here in Seoul. The sickening terror that I felt that night has subsided, so I think I can talk about it now.

Okay.

So, the old teacher that I met the first day had told me that there was an Emart(Walmart clone) just down the street. I don't know what "just down the street" means to you, but to me it means....just down the street! I had me own address written in my pocket, and I felt confidant that I could take a quick cab ride to pick up a garbage can and be back in a jif.

Hailing a cab is easy here. You don't hail it at all, you just look at the cars driving by for a sec and a cabbie pulls over for you. Most cab rides are less than $5, in fact many don't even go above $2, so they are a nice way to get around. I jump in the cab and ask for Emart. The cabbies don't speak english, but they know landmarks or big stores. The cab drives off, and keeps driving....well past my definition of "just down the street". I nervously asked if we were going to emart, and he just repeated emart and pointed up ahead. After another turn(??) I was not liking the situation.

We finally get there, I pay my $3.30, and jump out. Emart is not worth wasting keystrokes over, so fast forward.....

I exit with my garbage can and a few other little things. I find the line of cabs pointing in the right direction and get in one. I show him my address and......nothing......he has no idea where it is. I get out. I try the next one and same story. This is where I start REALLY getting nervous. I wonder if I can walk and retrace my trip here, but I'm really not sure where the turns were, and it would be a really long walk anyways. I do have a phone, the one that the old teacher gave me, but I can't use it to call out. It only takes incoming calls. (another reason for me to get my own cell) And who would I call anyways? My mom in Detroit Lakes, MN, USA??? After standing on the sidewalk for ten minutes pondering my options, I try another cab. He also didn't know where it was, but I guessed my only option was to try to retrace, so I figured I could do so in a cab directing him where to turn. He said he could go to the district that I lived in, so I just prayed that I either remembered the turns correctly or we passed something that I recognized. Neither one happened.

He turned before I asked him to, and when I asked him to go back, he pointed ahead and said Officetel. (the name of the kind of apartment I live in) He turns again, pulls over, and says "Officetel". This is not my apartment. I have no idea where we are. I try to explain that I don't live here and show him my address again. No good. He seems to be empathetic for a moment, but soon shooes me out of his cab and drives away.

The good news is that I didn't have to pay him for dropping me off in a random place in a city of 20 million people holding a garbage can. It's 10:00 at night, do you know where your home is?

I hadn't seen any westerners around since I got here, so I had no hope of finding an English speaker. All I could do was walk in what I guessed was the right direction and hope to run into a police officer. I figured that they at least wouldn't leave stranded me on a corner somewhere. The streets SEEMED safe, but this was my second night in town, what the hell did I know????

Long story short, okay, it's too late to be short, but still.

3 blocks later I see a store that I think I've been to. I have. 25 minutes later I'm in my own shower cleaning the "freak-out" off of me and preparing for bed.

The lesson boys and girls??? Never leave the safety and security of your own, warm home. Outside is evil. Agoraphobia is the way to go, man. Call Dominos once in a while and you're good!!

toodles from the eastern hemisphere!!

~tony

Where shall we start?

The food?

I can't say much yet. I need to improve my "restaurant Korean" before I can get too far. The Korean food that I have had so far is not too bad. There are three staples; soup, rice, and kimchi, which is cabbage in a spicy red sauce. Aside from that you could find a wide variety of things on your plate. I've had a great yellow curry dish, spicy pork, sweet-n-sour pork, a few good beef dishes and many other odd side dishes. I don't really know the names of anything yet, so that's as helpful as I can be. I did have the best jello I've ever had today; apple flavored with pineapple inside!!! Sorry Grandma, no offense.

My neighborhood?

Not too bad. There's a 7/11, another small convenience store, three Korean restaurants/bars, a sandwich shop, a French bakery, an Italian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, a school supply store, a pharmacy, a seafood restaurant, and an oyster bar just below my apartment building. I could probably walk to another 30-40 food options within 4 minutes. Not to mention the "sidewalk" produce. All over town farmers pull over their trucks and carts to the side of the busy city streets. They tape up a price list on a piece of paper and sell anything from green onions to watermelon, peaches to squash (the peaches are GIGANTIC). I could easily do the majority of my grocery shopping literally ON my walk home from work each day. Many of these street vendors cook and sell food as well, though I haven't been so daring yet. I did try a couple dessert-type goodies though. One that looked like doughnut holes but was very chewy and somehow tasted exactly like kettle corn. The other was a warm bread in the shape of a tiny cob of corn that was filled with custard. Strange yummy goodness!

I'm back to food again aren't I?

Ok, the 'hood. There are also churches everywhere and they all have little neon crosses at the top of their spires like they're on the Vegas strip. I ran across one as I was wandering that was humongoid!!! (I know, not a word) It was a modren style, but had a massive stained glass front and numerous towering neon crosses. It is now one of my landmarks. I know that to get to the Nowon subway station, I need to take a left at God. The majority of the country is Protestant Christian, though like all other buildings I'm walking by, I haven't dared to enter one yet.

Many people have asked about safety here. Are the streets safe? Well, I don't think any city can boast to being crime-free, but it is amazingly tame for one of the 5 biggest cities in the world. Little kids are out wandering and playing on the sidewalks until 10/11 at night. And by little kids I don't mean 14 year olds. I'm talking kids of 6 or 7, riding their bikes and playing in the park by themselves well after dark. Of course differing parenting styles may have a bit to do with it. Not everyone in the world believes that their children are literally made of glass like we do, tracking their every move via GPS or never letting them leave our sight. I think it has to do with a greater feeling of security. The news media doesn't hide anything, but at the same time it doesn't scare the hell out of the citizens every night, playing up a rare crime until it manages to instill fear in every human being. In general it seems like people work too hard to commit crime here, teens included. No talk of curfews. Students only have time to sleep and learn, and free time for adults involves a lot of drinking themselves silly with Soju, the local liquor, and passing out at home. This is a safe city. I'm not too worried about crime, so don't you be either!

And then there are the schools......I've already described my own, but I'll touch on the others another time. Suffice to say there's a reason why kids from some Asian countries are so smart.

Take care and much love all!!!! And have a Summit EPA for me!

~tony

The Blur - part 2

Ok. I can't speak the language. I can't understand the language, and I can't read the language. This defninitely limits my abitlity to do much. I tried Korean food on my first day. Actually I was kind of gung ho to sample all of the local cuisine, but an upset stomach for the first 48 hours(I blame it more on the flight and lack of sleep) directed me towards breads and fruits to start. There are restaurants and food vendors literally everywhere, but very few have English or pictures of the food, so I'll wait until I have a small vocabulary or a good guide. Call me a sucker but yes, I ate at McDonalds, more out of curiousity than anythings else. I had a combo meal with a Big Bugola burger(?). I wanted to share with them that I too had worked in the mines of McDonalds as a teen and that better things would surely come for them, but then I remembered that I can't even say "hello" correctly yet. Most everyone that I've met, aka bought things from, had been very polite. They are patient with my inability to listen or speak. They haven't ripped me off(that I know of) and no one has been rude to my face.

There are actually tens of thousands of American/Canadian/Australian/English/South African/Kiwi teachers here in Seoul, but very few in the area that I live. Nowon is not really a suburb, but is on the edge of town, so isn't as multicultural as a lot of Seoul. If you're familiar with Minneapolis, think Coon Rapids....with about 3 millions people. I took the subway yesterday(intimidating at first, but amazingly quick and easy) to Itaewon, the ex-pat touristy Section of Seoul. There is an American military base there(why wouldn't they like us?) and a large population of immigrants from the US, Nigeria and India as well. I was in the heart and the street was lined and I mean lined with roadside tents selling everything from electronic swimming frogs to Gucci footwear(I'm sure they're authentic). There were restaurants from all over the world; and Austrian diner, an Italian deli(with a stereotypical Italian meat guy behind the counter), Chinese restaurants, Korean places as well as the greatest of America's contribution to the worlds cuisine. Quiznos, Burger King, Popeyes, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts (minneapolis doesn't even have one!!!!), TGIFridays, and Bennigans. About 25 percent of the people walking the streets were white or black. I didn't feel quite so out of place, but even I could tell that this wasn't exactly the pride and joy of Seoul. It had a definite State Fair/armpit-like quality. I didn't see any "families walking to the park" going on. It was all about making or spending a buck...err...won.

Speaking of won, the money ahs been pretty easy for me. The Korean won has just about a 1000 to 1 exchange rate withe the dollar, so calculations are pretty simple. And I'm looking forward to my first payday when I can look at my bank account and see 7 figures!!

I've gotta run again. Bubye!!

~tony

Day 2/3/4 : The Blur

My first day at school!!!

Going on about 6 hours of sleep in the previous 50+ hours, I arrived at school the next morning. Bender, the old teacher, brought me in early to show me around and give me more "tips". I was introduced to countless people whose names it will take me some serious studying to remember. I had heard that many schools have a training day or two to acclimate the teacher into the school and the systems. I heard wrong. They handed me a textbook and sent me off to my room to teach a lesson to 200+ students that day.

As an aside, I'll describe the school. It's a strange mixture of modern and "old world". The gym is just a gravel field outside in the courtyard with basketball hoops and one of those "Panamanian Dictator" pedastals that you can stand on while leading a formation of pre-teens doing jumping jacks. Yet, you will find in every room a gigantic plasma screen television. The "old" computer projection system is the same one that was just being installed in the Minneapolis public schools this last year. The classrooms are average, but overcrowded; classes average about 38 students. The hallways are filthy. I could just see Tim, my old anal-retentive principal walking these halls. He would burst a vessel of two. There are no custodians. The students are responsible for cleaning the whole building at the end of each day. That sounds like a great plan considering the sheer number of little cleaners running around, but the practical application fails miserably. They sweep and mop with as much discipline as........any middle schooler would I guess. My room is huge and relatively clean, so I can't complain.

Officially, I teach Conversational English. The kids have a regular English teacher. I am just there to....well.....I'll let you know when I find out what I'm there to do. I have 5 - 45 minute classes each day so I see all 1000 students each week. I had hoped to fill up all of the first class period with an introduction and "question time". I knew they were all extremely curious about the new and only white guy at the school. I didn't account for the fact that most every kid was as timid as a mouse. Getting them to speak individually was like pulling teeth. I ended up just giving them the "my classroom rules speech" and BSed my way through whatever page they told me they were on. The kids are actually pretty well behaved. They're fidgety and awkward like any middle schoolers, but their ability to follow directions makes up for the large class size a little.

4:30 came around and it was time for my zombie-self to walk home. It's about a 12 minute walk. I took a detour to a Homever store that was recommended a few blocks away. Stores here are a trip. I could buy a zuchini and a tie-clip about anywhere I go.

I have to run......goodbye for now!!

~tony

13 hours from now in a megalopolis far, far away...

...the adventure begins.

(Actually, I've been here for 4 days now, but this is the first meaningful internet access I've had, so we'll just pretend. And for those of you who don't know, I'll recap the story so far. I've signed a one year contract to teach English in Seoul, South Korea. My trusty cat Mango has asked to come along and I said yes. I moved out of my overpriced apartment in Edina and spent the last few days with friends and family in DL and Fargo. By the way, thank you so much to all who made it to the going away "party" that we had at my mom's house. It was very kind of you all to make the trip! Back to the story. My flight left Fargo's Hector Inter(hah!)national airport at 5:40 am, Sunday August 24th...)

Flight #1 - Fargo to Chicago - United -

Short but excruciating. Mango was doing great for the first half of the flight so I gave her a few pieces of food as a reward. Big mistake! As we descended, she proceded to freak out, bite a hole in her carrier, and puke(although silently!). The lady in the seat beside me "volunteered" to move to the back of the plane to balance the weight. How nice of her.

5 hour Layover, aka. the calm before the storm - I ate pizza. Deep dish of course.

Flight #2 - Chicago to Seoul - Korean Air -

Have you ever been deprogrammed from being in a cult? I'm guessing that this is what it feels like. I sat in an uncofortable little seat, forced to stay awake(by my own brain), and had nothing to watch but REALLY bad movies. (Warning - do NOT rent Be Kind, Rewind). On the plus side, they had complimentary beer and wine. Not too shabby! The food was okay and they kept the snacks coming. Mango had given up her will to live at this point, staring achingly up from the kitty-fetal position at the bottom of her carrier. This was, in fact, a good thing. Though it may have emotionally scarred her for life, it meant that she didn't let out even one little meow until we landed.

We got off and out quickly and my bags weren't far behind. We breezed through the passport check, customs, and kitty quarantine(with a free luggage cart! what a country!). I exchanged my dollars for what I think are Chuck E. Cheese gift certificates, and headed to the English teacher staging area. About 15 or so other teachers were there waiting. The people with clipboards herded us "cattle" **foreshadowing** into a bus and off we went. It was an hour ride into town. While many people were chatting and getting to know each other, I was mesmerized by what was out the windows; the funky-looking aparment buildings and the biggest bridge that I've ever seen. We arrived at meeting point #2, where representatives from the various schools were there to shuttle us to point #3. My people weren't there yet, but that was fine. I was just glad to NOT be watching Jack Black try too hard to be funny.

The 2 teachers from my school eventually came and brought Mango and myself on another 1 hour trip to Nowon, the northeast district of Seoul in which I would be teaching. My school is called Joongwan Middle School. Yes, I said "middle school". It's a good thing I have all of that "middle school" experience, huh? At this point it was my turn to give up the will to live. Things become a little blurry here. I remember the man living up to the "in your face questions" stereotype by asking every personal and professional question under the sun. He meant no ill will. I had read that many people here like to get straight to the point and know where you stand. They said that the teacher that I was replacing would be staying in the apartment for one last night before his flight in the morning, which was fine.

Around 10:00 we arrived at the apartment, called an Officetel. The teachers left, I freed Mango, and I proceeded to shower 6600 miles worth of stink off. The old teacher, a 60-year-old named Bender, wanted to show me around the neighborhood a bit before bed. I had to get to bed early, you see, because I WAS EXPECTED TO BE AT WORK AT 8:10 THE NEXT MORNING! Do you get the cattle reference now?

We wandered down the street for a bit, but to be honest, I remember none of his little tips except that there is a good acupuncture place next door that I can go to for $7 on my health plan.
I laid down in my bed (No choice really. I can't stand up in my bedroom.) and slept.....for 3 hours.

~~~That's all for now! What will happen to our hero next??? Will Tony get a part-time job bartending at Fridays or did he forget his flair at home? Will Bender turn out to be a decent guy or will he have left the apartment in a layer of sludge? Will Mango ever forgive Tony for the flight or will all be forgotten the first time her food dish is filled?

Tune in next time to find out!!!

~tony