MySpace

So I recently checked out some of my friend's pages that are on MySpace. I was thoroughly unimpressed. What the heck is MySpace, anyway? You go to someones page, but all it has is comments and pictures from other people. I don't want to read other people's comments - I want to see what the page owner is up to. If you want to read what that person wrote, they have to have a blog. Is a blog is the 8 track player of this day and age? Am I behind the times?

Maybe I am a generation behind everyone else on the internet. Or maybe I just don't have the apparently common desire to read what everyone else says to someone. It's like listening to their phone messages. Or reading the text messages on their cell phone. Or listening to half of a conversation on the bus. There's no context, and not really any appeal.

If you can explain to me why MySpace is fun, I'd love to know. Or, maybe it's not fun. Maybe it's the "Emperor's New Clothes" for the next generation. It's only cool because everyone else says it's cool. Maybe they're just waiting for someone to disagree, so they can too. Maybe it's the reassuring feeling of having 96 close and personal friends, seven of which have posted recently so you feel like things are really warming up.

I just don't get it.


Merry Christmas!

Come Again?

Whenever I teach a class, there are certain students that I can count on to know the answer to most questions. They are naturally bright, admirably disciplined, or a combination of the two. Whichever it is, they can help the class (and me) get out of a jam when no one seems able (willing?) to answer a question.

There are other students in every class that tend not to pay attention. Occasionally, if said student is not paying attention, I will ask them the next question in order to reinforce the fact that they should listen in class. This generally works and I find it to be a rather effective technique.

Last week, such a situation happened. I was merrily teaching away (as is my habit) when I happened to notice that a student was (somehow) not engaged in the lesson. How could this be? To remedy this disturbing occurrence, I simply asked him the next question (the nature of which eludes me at the moment). For the sake of the story, let's say it was "What is your favorite holiday?"

His surprising response, which stumped me completely, was "May I burp?"

I stood there for a second. I was trying to figure out some way that "May I burp?" could be related to what I was saying. Students aren't normally so random. I was about to ask for clarification when another student piped up.

"He means 'Excuse me.'"

Ah. Right. Excuse me. Repeat the question, proceed as usual.

UNESCO and Christmas

Last night Emily & I went to the 10th Annual Family & Friendship Night, put on by UNESCO. UNESCO, in case you are unfamiliar with it, is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The name comes from the first letters in United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization. Basically, their motto is something like "Since war starts in the minds of men, it must be in the mind of men that the seeds of peace are sown."

The essential goal of this organization is to keep peace by helping different countries see each other as people with their own distinct culture and not as problems. If you can see a different country as people like you with a different culture, peace and understanding will be the result.

I'm not so sure I agree. If all people from every culture are willing to get along, you could likely work out some sort of functional relationship. The problem comes when people unaccustomed to compromise enter into the whole international relations field. That's just asking for problems.

For example, one nation (which I shall allow to remain anonymous) presented their flag and described their nation as "the super hero of the free world." Boos ensued. A comment like that does no one any good, and just aggravates problems that already exist.

Other than that, it was fun to see the different nations, languages and traditions represented. Our friend Matt did a couple of Christmas songs solo on his guitar, and he did well. The food was late, but (unfortunately) the dinner was pushed back nearly an hour due to thing after thing going late.

In other news, we have our Christmas tree and Christmas lights up in our apartment, as well as some miscellaneous decorations. 'Tis the Season!

Just Thai to understand, Gym

So Emily and I joined a gym yesterday. It wasn't too bad of a price, though the whole sign up process was slighty awkward (any expat would understand - interpersonal communication in a business setting tends to contain some sort of communicational difficulty).

We signed up for one month, which includes the health club machine part (cardio and strength) plus a "sauna." The Korean word 사우나 , pronounced sa-ooh-na (Konglish) is a great place, once you're used to it. It's a naked communal bath, which is incredibly relaxing. Again, once you're used to it. I never thought I would be, but who knew?

The reason we're doing this (this=working out, getting in shape, etc.) is because we are planning on going to Thailand for about 3 weeks during the winter break and we want to be in good shape for when we do. Hopefully we'll see some nice beaches, some good markets and ride on an elephant or two.

We're turning into real snowbirds - we are in Korea for Canadian winter, and in Thailand for Korean winter. I think it's the way God meant it to be.

Today's Lesson

Today's lesson is on how to pack something. The students? A can of sardines. The teacher? Korean bus drivers. Let the open of mind and pliable of spirit take heed to what is taught here.

The lesson is thus: there is always room for one more. Not sometimes, not "How many more people can reasonably fit on this bus?" but always. The thought "Man, this is so full I can barely breathe without pushing someone out the window" must never come to your mind. People on the steps, people missing their stops because they can't make it to the door, forgetting what the concept of oxygen is - all characteristics, grasshopper, of a well packed bus.

If you're turning people away, though, it's obviously not packed well enough. If you study and work hard, you too shall hopefully attain to such space efficiency consciousness. One day, the students shall surpass the master and all will be made known.

Say it with me now: "There is always room for one more."

Well done.

Today's lesson is complete.

17

That's how many more days I've got left in the school year. Not actual day-days, but school days. Between now and the end of December (which is the end of the school year here), only 17 more instructional days remain. This week, I get Thursday & Friday off because of exams. I get the 25th off because it's Christmas. I get January 1st off because of New Years. But, then again, everyone gets those holidays. It's the ones after that that I'm excited for.

I've got 2 weeks of an elementary school camp that runs from January 2 to the 12th, from 9:00 - 12:00 each day. I'm not exactly sure what's happening with the camp (there's a meeting on Wednesday about it) but I'm home free once that is finished. From January 12 - February 7, my time is my own. And from February 9 to February 25th (-ish) is another well deserved break. Emily and I are planning on going to Thailand for a few weeks and perhaps to one other country (Cambodia, Vietnam, something along those lines), so it should be absolutely splendiforous.

Until then, we keep the routine. Emily is working hard on her online courses so that she can finish when I do and we can enjoy the holidays together. I'm planning on taking another TEFL course from the U of S in the winter semester, and also on doing a lot of nothing.

On a completely separate note, the snow came this past weekend. The temperature dropped close enough to freezing that we actually got quite a heavy snow. Well, it was heavy when it was in the air, but it was still warm enough outside that it melted as soon as it hit the ground. As of right now, it's a little chilly (perhaps in the single positive digits) but the sun is shining bright and the world is good all around.

Life is good, and God is better.

Kimchi Festival and PICTURES!!!

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Kimchi Festival with some friends. It's about as exciting as it sounds - a festival for kimchi (vegetables, usually cabbage, fermented with red pepper paste). If you like kimchi (which I d0), it was rather interesting. If you don't like kimchi, you can't really like Korean food and the festival would be less interesting. Generally speaking, of course.

Anyway, it was a good time and we had some good kimchi. Being foreigners at a kimchi festival, we stuck out somewhat more than usual and received some nice attention from a group of elementary school girls and an old man. Also a few video cameras and photographers.

A good time had by one and all!

Here's a quick explanation of the pictures. Sorry it's not very well organized, but this is faster. There are some pictures of Emily and our friend Matt enjoying Korean traditional games. (Actually, I don't know if they're traditional or not, but we saw Korean kids doing it so we joined in.) Also of the World Cup Stadium, built for the 2002 World Cup. (That's soccer.) Also some pictures of drawings done of Emily & I. Also pictures of us on this one street downtown. One also of Korean Buddhist monk painting a good luck symbol guy. A picture of our friend with the girls that hung out with us for a while. I'll let you figure out which picture is which. Let's pretend it's a game or something.

Eat Your Wheaties

I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times - "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." It's true, and I now know why.

Breakfast makes you sturdy. Sturdy, as in strong and leanable. Leanable like you can be leaned (leant?) on.

I skipped breakfast one day and proceeded to take the bus to school one day. I apparently wasn't very sturdy looking, or so it would seem in hindsight. I was just a regular Joe on the bus (or Kim, as the case may be), my business being minded by me and others keeping an eye on their own businesses. The next day, I ate breakfast and I noticed a change almost immediately. I boarded the bus (crowded, as it usually is on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and my sturdiness was apparent to all.

It was like there was some secret communication through the crowd - "That guy had breakfast. He looks sturdy." Breakfast makes me look strong and secure. Breakfast makes me look like a cushion for falling on when you lose your footing. Breakfast makes me look like a brick wall, appropriate for leaning when going around corners. Breakfast makes me look like I've got some sort of secret trick that keeps me from falling and so everyone is able to "fall on the foreigner" with no adverse reactions. Breakfast + Me = Sturdy, sturdy, sturdy.

On second thought, perhaps I'll eat breakfast once I'm already at school. Sturdy just isn't worth it.

Just One of Those Days

Yesterday (Monday) was just one of those days for me (Jon). Not much specific, but just a lot of little things. Want to know why? I'll break it down for you.

1. It was Monday. (Inherently unpleasant.)
2. It was raining. I bought a new coat (cashmere/wool blend) and was uncertain of the care for it. As a result, I really wanted to wear my coat but had to be careful of getting it wet. The rain was therefore disappointing.
3. Because it was Monday and raining, many people drove instead of taking the bus.
4. Because many people drove, my bus ride which normally takes 10 minutes instead took 40 minutes. I was late for work.
5. Because I was late for work, I was locked out of the teachers room (a communal office) because they were all at their Monday staff meeting.
6. Monday and Tuesday I teach grade 9 students. The grade 9's wrote their exams last week. Most of the grade 9's still have a month of classes. How much do you care if you're finished your test but you still have classes? Yeah, about that much. My first class was miserable.
7. Monday is the busiest day of the week for me with 5 classes to teach. My co-teacher asked if she could move a class from Tuesday into my only spare in the morning. No big problem, but it means I taught 6 out of a possible 7 classes on Monday.
8. Lunch involved a fair amount of seafood. (I'm allergic to seafood, as a refresher.)
9. After lunch, I got a phone call asking me to go out and teach an English camp for a week. Right now. "Leave school, pack your stuff and come out to camp." Great news! I leave school (ten minutes before my only spare of the day was to start), change, half pack and...
10. I get another phone call. "It doesn't work for you to come to camp. Go back to school."
11. I go back to school. Now, I'm justifiably late and the bus goes like a speed demon. House to school in 20 minutes, including walking time. I have now spent my only free time going home and coming back to school.
12. Because of the wasted spare time, I am now behind in my work. I spend some time in the evening working and...the computer crashes. Our computer has this sucky habit of crashing whenever it feels like it's working too hard, and gee by golly, if it wasn't working too hard right then.

By that point, I figured that I had enough of the day. I went and joined Emily on the couch and figured it was finished. If I just sat on the couch, nothing else could happen to me. I experienced some real "God Joy" though since I didn't really get frustrated or angry at any point. I came close with the cancelled camp invitation, though. Instead, I felt a "joy without reason," in a day where almost everything seemed to be going wrong.

I'm still happy it's Tuesday.

Thanksgiving

Saturday we had our first actual Thanksgiving in a home since 2004. We had a turkey dinner at church last year, but no turkey at home. This year, we remedied that. We spent Friday night at our friend's and then went over early Saturday morning and put the turkey in our other friend's oven. The other four people we were having Thanksgiving with all live within a block or two of each other so it meant we had easy access to everyone's apartments.

Turkeys are rare in Korea - most people have never eaten one. Suffice it to say that three foreigners walking down the street (which is enough of an attention getter) carrying a huge stuffed turkey in a pan (we washed and prepared it before transporting it) caused many people to stop in their tracks and stare as we went by. One lady in the elevator muttered something about "That doesn't look delicious..."

Anyway, it was in the oven at about 9:00 AM, and then we went back to the first apartment and just relaxed, watched a movie and hung out until about 1:00 or so. We went back to the turkey apartment only to discover that the oven had gone out! We had no idea when it would have gone out, so we relit the oven and tried again. About 45 minutes later, we checked the oven again - still on. 45 minutes later - turned off. We lit it again and decided it had one more chance. About 30 minutes later, it had gone out again.

So here we are - it's about 3:00 (we were planning on eating at 4:00) and the turkey is at least 3 hours behind schedule. Since we had no idea when the oven went out the first time, we had no idea how much longer we needed to cook the turkey. We had no meat thermometer as Koreans tend not to cook large chunks of meat at home. We were hungry, we were tired and we just wanted to eat some turkey. There was a vote at the end - salmonella or safety. Some of us didn't care whether the turkey was done or not while others reasoned that dry turkey was better than group sickness. However, majority and hunger prevailed and the turkey was pulled out around 7:30.

To cut a long story short, the turkey was done and we were finally ready to eat at around 8:30. We had the works - mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, turkey (obviously), homemade buns and apple pie. We ate quickly, we ate muchly and it was fantastic. I'd be willing to wager that a grander feast was never seen in that Korean apartment.

After dinner, we sat around and played some Bond on the N64, then some spoons (card game) and hung out for a bit. It was a really good time and there were (and still are) plenty of leftovers, which is the second best part of Thanksgiving dinner. It was a grand ol' time, had by one and all, and I was thankful that we were able to do what we did with the people we could.

(We have some pictures which we will post soon. Maybe.)

Take 35 of these and call me in the morning

I (Jon) was struggling with a cold a few weeks ago. Since I needed to keep teaching, and our supply of western cold medicine is running low, I figured I'd hit a pharmacy. I wanted to avoid a hospital or a real doctor as they tend to give you a shot in the butt for any old reason and I prefer my butt unshot, thank you very much.

Pharmacies here are a little different than in Canada. The employees are trained (at least somewhat) how to give out medicine. The basic deal is this: doctors and pharmacists (apparently) had a fight a while back. Doctors would only give a prescription for about 3 days worth of medicine, making the patient come back every time they needed a refill. The doctors did this to make money off of each visit. The pharmacists got upset because people were only buying 3 days of medicine at a time. The retaliation?

"Don't have a prescription? That's okay! We'll hook you up with what you need."

What has evolved is a pharmacy that will give you pretty potent medication for a paltry price without a prescription. I picked up pills for a sore throat that contained morphine. No questions asked. Usually, it's $2 for a pack of 10-20.

But I digress, and digression is the seed of many things. I'm not sure what, but it reminds me of this story...

So one of the cold medicines I got came in a pack. The instructions were to take one pack with each meal. "Good enough," I thought, "I can do that." I get home, have a meal and open the pack, only to find...


One pack is about 35 little pills that smelled like something you give a pet rodent. Thus the title, thus my story.

The End.

Home Alone

Apparently, I look like Macaulay Culkin (the kid from Home Alone 1 & 2, in case you don't recall). Many students have told me. Many different students from different classes and different grades and different schools. *Sigh...*

One teacher said I looked like Matt Damon. I'll go with that instead.

Thanksgiving

Two weeks ago, Emily & I rented a car with our friends and drove to Daejeon (2 hours north) to hit a spa (naked communal bath) and Costco (not naked communal shopping heaven). It was really nice to drive instead of taking the train (though the train is phenomenal as well) and we were able to get more stuff.

More stuff, specifically, is a turkey. They're about $50 each, but we picked up one of the last remaining 3 turkeys, and were happy to do so. This Saturday, we'll do American Thanksgiving with two American and two Canadian friends of ours. We'll do it up right - stuffing, potatoes (sweet and original flavor), fresh made buns (Mom's recipe), gravy and the works. This'll be far more authentic than last years meal of slow-cooked chicken.

Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) has passed us by, as has Canadian Thanksgiving. But lo and behold if American Thanksgiving isn't high nigh upon us! One of the downsides of being an expat is that we miss all the holidays from home, but we celebrate the best you can. One of the upsides, though, is that you get to celebrate the best you can with everybody else's holidays from home.

Fortunately, there's Americans at church. What does that have to do with anything, you might ask? Well, if you asked, I might tell you. However, you didn't ask. How do I know you didn't ask? Because I'm smart. That's how I know. I'm smart.

I'll tell you anyway, though, and you're welcome to ask after the fact, should your heart be so inclined. Our pastor is an American fellow and so we get to have another turkey dinner at church the following Sunday. Yup, two genuine turkey dinners, the second being rounded out by such things as rice, kimchi and the like. Not too shabby, all things considered - two gin-u-wine turkey dinners in about 8 days. We're cooking a turkey for the church dinner, so somewhat of a fleshy "service fee" shall be deducted from the beast before we bring it to church.

Shh! Don't tell!

Anyway, a Happy Belated/Early Thanksgiving! Whatever country you're from and wherever you call home, may you know and appreciate the blessings that God has put in each one of our lives. A grateful heart never runs out of things to be thankful for.

Pictures

Well, it's been a while, but here are some pictures from the wild and wonderful world of Korea! Due to a complete negligence in posting, a great many events have passed undocumented by this here blog. As such, the pictures shall be random and various in their variety and arbitrary order.



Here's a picture (obviously) of some of our church friends. Emily had to do a devotional for school so these are the people that volunteered their time to listen. Great people, them!
If you've ever considered leaving a fridge unplugged with the door closed for six months - don't. These pictures don't do the fridge justice - every dark spot is mold. Nasty, stinky, smelly, three hours of cleaning worth of mold. We actually switched fridges about a month after this picture was taken - our current fridge is huge, new and amazing.


The view from our apartment (one from each side - sorry the second one's not amazing). That's not smog in the first picture (just so you know), it's mist - Korea was famous for its misty mountains long before Middle Earth was.


Here's a picture from my sports day. Tug-of-war is done differently here on a sports day - two classes start at either end of a soccer field and run towards the middle where there are three ropes. You can choose how many people go to each rope, but you have to win two out of the three to win the match. It's really quite funny to watch. You will notice the grass field - incredibly rare for a school. It's normally sandy. Also, the picture is taken from the office. Basically everything you see (which is a soccer field) is all of the "playground" that they get. Land is expensive here - apparently if you "sold" Korea, you could "buy" six Canadas.

This is what a majority of shopping looks like in Korea - stands on wheels set up for the evening. They'll sell anything from puppies to jewelry to T-shirts and DVD's. It's my favorite kind of shopping since everything is dirt cheap and you don't have to go "in" to take a look at what they've got. This is a picture taken on our trip to Seoul with our friends Brooke & Ryan.
As long as we're being completely and utterly random, here's a picture from my birthday. We went out for shabu-shabu (an incredible meal of thinly shaved beef and a really tasty soup broth) with some friends. On the left, front to back, is Brooke, myself, Philippa and Carol (Brooke I worked with last year and Philippa and Carol I met this year). On the right, front to back, is Ryan, Emily, Jeong Eun, Mi Ok (two of my co-teachers) and Eun Gu (a friend from church). It was a good birthday, especially because there was good people to spend it with.


Across the street from our apartment, you can go hiking along a path for quite a distance. We've followed it 45 mintues in but no further as of yet. As you walk, you will come to three exercise areas where people actually do work out. Situps, parallel bar exercises and crazy looking hoola hoops are just a few of the calisthenical wonders that you'll experience.

Anyway, I'm not going to make any promises to post more regularly or anything like that. Check back every once in a while and hopefully there'll be something new when you do.

Update

Hello everyone!

It may seem like a long time since we've sent out an e-mail. That would be because it has been a long time since we've sent out an e-mail. Things have been really good here so far this year and it's funny how things like e-mails and blog posts and whatnot can just fall by the wayside.

As Julie Andrews has taught us so well, when we're going to start somewhere we should probably start at the beginning. Since it seems like such a very good place to start, that's exactly where I shall begin.

Emily and I both arrived safely in Korea, I on August 22 and Emily on September 3. My job orientation went really well and I met a lot of really neat people. The sessions were useful and (generally) interesting, which I guess was a first. I hung out with a group of people from England and we played a lot of soccer and had an overall good time. The facilities were sufficient (not amazing, but apparently good enough to write home about) and the food was well thought out. It began with a lot of western style food and a little bit of Korean food and ended the 10 days with mostly Korean food and a little bit of western food, which should help with the cultural adjustment for the people new to the nation.

Emily arrived on my first day back in Gwangju (our city) and so we walked into our new apartment together for the first time. I'm glad that we were together - alone, that thing would have eaten us alive. The previous occupants had left a fair amount of "stuff" behind in their apartment and the moths/ants had taken leave to move in. It was a few days of cleaning and some new furniture, but now it looks smashing and we really enjoy it. It's a good size and it's in a great neighborhood.

I am teaching at two different middle schools (junior high) - Yong Bong and Buk Sung middle school, for those of you familiar with the area. They're a little far from home, but both schools are fantastic. The people I work with are amazing and I love the students. Their English level is certainly lower than the students I worked with last year, which presents a special challenge. However, they really are neat kids. I teach grade nines at my Monday/Tuesday school (Yong Bong) and 7 & 8's at my Wednesday/Thursday/Friday school (Buk Sung). I work with a total of seven different co-teachers and they're all gold.

Emily's been continuing her degree through IBOLT and that has been going well. She's been keeping busy with it and never ceases to amaze me with how disciplined and productive she is. On top of her full time studies, she also maintains the apartment and does most of the cooking. She's been enjoying her courses, which is good.

Church has been also going well. We've been back at the same church as last year, so it's good to be with all the people we know and love again. We haven't gotten involved as of yet, but we're likely to start doing something soon.

The weather here has been absolutely fantastic. Fall in Korea is gorgeous - weather in the mid 20's (Celsius), leaves turning brilliant shades of yellow, brown and red and the occasional rainfall. It's the best time of year here. As of today, the weather is still around 20 - 25 degrees in the day and about 1/2 of the trees have actually changed or lost their leaves.

My schedule has been blissfully erratic thus far. I've been working for about 9 weeks so far and have only had 3 five-day weeks. There's been sports days, exams, picnic days, school festivals, camps, singing competitions and other such things to liven up a regular schedule.

We also have our address and phone number ready and working. I got a cell phone (my first one ever!) so if you want any of that information, send an e-mail to either myself or Emily and we'll let you know.

To sum it up, this year is even better than last year was. We're really experiencing God's blessing here and we love it. We do love and miss our friends and family in Canada, but we're also making a life for ourselves here.

Please do drop a line sometime as it's always great to hear from people back home. An unfortunate part of my working during the days is the fact that I can only phone Canada on weekends due to the time difference - Canada is working while we're sleeping and I'm working while Canadians everywhere are enjoying their evening. Emily is home most of the time during the days, though, so feel free to phone anytime. Well, not anytime - do the mental math conversion of time zones and figure it out first. Then please do call! We are sixteen hours ahead now, with daylight savings time.

We love and miss all of you very much. God bless!

Jon

PS: We are perfectly safe here and feel no danger or threat from anything happening on the northern side of the Korean border. Rest assured!

A reminder of why we do what we do

I know many of you have probably already seen this video, but I thought I would post it here. This reminds me of the incredible adventure of travelling and encourages me to keep doing what we are doing here in Korea. Jon and I are excited to travel this winter to see more of God's incredible world.

This movie was created by a guy named Matt who had a passion for travelling. He was sponsored by a chewing gum company to take a 6 month journey around the world. All of the pictures are real! Enjoy, and let it remind you of all that this world has to offer!

You can read more of Matt's story at www.wherethehellismatt.com

Love, Emily

Korean Snacks

Here's some of snacks that Emily and I have encountered over the past 14 months (has it been that long already?) in Korea.

Available From A Cart on the Street:
Baked sweet potato (no butter, sour cream, etc. - just peel & eat with your hands)
Various dried seafood (including, but not limited to, squid, octopus and cuttlefish)
Fruit on a stick (pineapple, honeydew melon, strawberries dipped in melted sugar and covered in sprinkles)
Nut Cakes (Small sweet cakes with a variety of nuts available: peanut, walnut, chestnut)
Cotton Candy
Ice Cream
Silk Worms (always bubbling hot, ready for your enjoyment!)
Some sort of little hermit-crab type shellfish (like Spitz - just suck out the guts and spit out the shell!)
Waffles/Pancakes (the pancakes are stuffed with honey & peanuts and taste, strangely enough, exactly like cinnamon buns)

Other Snacks:
Cuttlefish Peanut Chips
Shrimp chips (like shrimp flavored puffed rice)
Dried corn
Chestnuts
Roasted potatoes with salt
Duk (Not like quack-quack duck, but a sticky rice cake)
Ramen noodles (like Ichiban noodles - they're everywhere!)

All in all, Korean snacks tend to lean more towards salty, healthy and vegetable-esque. Basically, Korean snacks are real food instead of processed forms of non-food (eg. chocolate bars, candy, pop, chips, etc.). It's all very admirably healthy and certanly unsatisfying.

Bargain Basement Medicine

I (Jon) have officially completed my first visit to a Korean hospital. Nothing was seriously wrong (I rolled my ankle playing soccer) but I figured it'd be best to go and see a doctor and get some X-Ray's, just in case. To make a long story short, I was admitted, saw the orthopedic surgeon (specialist fellow), got X-Rays, a follow up visit with the doc, discharged and picked up my medicine in less than an hour. The cost (including the prescription medication and the tensor bandage)? $17. Not too shabby.

A private medical system can be wonderfully efficient. Yes, yes, I know, slippery slope and all that. However, for those that do not have to visit the hospital very often, a cheap and efficient medial system can be a refreshing change from the emergency room in Canada.

An interesting aspect of Korean culture is that people go to the hospital for EVERYTHING it seems. If you are ever sick, you go to the hospital, especially if you are going to miss something due to said illness (school, work, appointment, etc.). It was shocking the first few times I asked a student "What did you do yesterday?" and they replied "I went to the hospital." It essentially means they went to the doctor, but it's a lot more extreme when you say "hospital."

In addition, once you've been to the hospital, many people continue on with their day. In Canada, if you are feeling sick with a cold or flu, you stay home and rest/feel better. That way, you get recover quickly and you don't get anyone else sick. However, many Korean people will come to work/school sick as a dog and proceed to spread it around. Generous? Yes. Appreciated? Not necessarily.

End of the Sports Day

The sports day has drawn to a close. The students have run, dodged, pulled and cheered (that was the girls/non-athletic boys part) and they have received their due. I did my share by not embarrassing all of Canada in a soccer game. Was I great? No. Did I suck as bad as everyone was assuming I was going to? No.

Be proud, Canada, be very proud.

Foreigners in Korea

When you move to another culture (or even just interact with that culture on a regular basis), you will be sure to experience friction due to the conflicting worldviews. This is just part of life and it's called culture shock. Everyone will go through it to some extent or another and different things will affect how well you overcome it.

Many people here in Korea have adjusted well. In Korea, things are done differently from Canada, which makes sense - Korea is Canada. Some people, especially a certain nationality, can not seem to grasp this concept. When moving to Korea, expect Korea. It's not wise or considerate to expect things your way or wonder why "they don't just learn English."

I read a quote about it on the internet the other day from the Government of Canada website on teaching English in Korea. Here it is:

"There are many foreigners in Korea who came and stayed; they have carved out their own niche in Korea and want to remain for a long time. Many others, however, eventually reach the point where they feel it is time to leave. With luck, you will realize this before it affects your life too profoundly. It is time to leave when you begin to be negative about the country and its people. When you no longer want to go to work, dislike your students, become irritated with everything and everyone and have angry discussions with others of like mind, it is time to go."

The same is true of Canadians in Canada. Don't like where you're at? Leave. As the saying goes, love it or leave it.

Sports Day

Today and tomorrow are sports days. This is the Korean version of the Track & Field day that all of us loved so much during elementary school. Essentially (to my understanding), it is a two day competition in which you compete in various sports (dodgeball, soccer, etc.). If you win, you continue. If you lose first thing in the morning on the first day, you are out and you get to watch everyone else play for the rest of the time.

Oh, and if you're a girl, don't worry about it. Girls can't play soccer anyway so they just sit and watch.

To translate this into relevance for me, I'm entertaining myself for the next two days. No classes, no duties (beyond the normal stuff, which is just about finished two hours into the first day) and nothing but free time.

Look for a few posts in the next couple of days!

Classroom Tales

Due to a relative lack of posting during the early days of my public school educational career (as a teacher, not a student), I shall occasionally blissfully recount some of the entertaining escapades that followed me on my journey.

I (apparently) am extremely hot stuff. Well, not anymore, but when I first arrived at my two schools, girls would wait for me outside the cafeteria just to watch me leave. The interest has diminished considerably since then, but I still receive calls of "Oh, handsome guy!", "Beautiful!" and "I love you!" from both female and male students. Not too bad of a way to start off a new job.

And now for something completely different... Our cheese was stolen. 2 kilograms of good ol' cheddar, gone. Right from our fridge. Strange, you think? There just so happens to be a perfectly logical explanation. Really.

Finally, I (Jon) will be appearing on the Korean version of American Idol. Seriously. Only it's not country wide, it's just our city. It's also just elementary school students competing. In English. So really, it's an English song contest for half of the city's elementary school students and I am one of the judges.

So I still get to be Simon Cowell.

Home Again, Naturally

Emily and I returned from our week long holiday on Sunday. We went to Seoul for Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) which was a six day holiday this year. Not too shabby! We had a good time going to a bunch of different restaurants and markets. Some friends of ours came and joined us on Thursday (we left Monday) and we spent a couple of days together. It was a grand ol' time!

As a sidenote, everyone here in South Korea (that we know) is fine. The nuclear test in the north has yet to affect us and (in all reality) they're not really aiming at us. It's quite interesting to be here in South Korea for this whole season of international politics. Emily and I have really seen a different side of things than is presented in North America. Basically, North Korea isn't as bad as they're made out to be (not saying that they're normal, just that they're not as bad) and America has a different international reputation than it portrays at home.

It's interesting to watch, to say the least.

Anyway, things are good and we're doing well. That's it for now!

A New Routine, or "Newtine"

It's been a while since the last post, but rest assured that we are in Korea and are doing well. I (Jon) have sat down on a number of occasions and composed a new post. However, since the internet browser was in Korean, I would accidently delete it. You only have to do that a couple of times before you stop. I just got the browser at one of my schools into English and so my dedication is renewed. I also have my lessons planned until Friday, so I'm doing well.

Anyway, some quick things: Our apartment is clean and furnished. We got a good deal on the furniture and now only need a bed, which should soon be coming. We live far from where we did last year but are in a great neighborhood, close to everything we need and want.

We're getting settled into our respective roles, (me teacher, Emily student) and are enjoying having evenings free. Even though I'm gone longer in the days, we do more than we did when I worked in the evenings. I have wonderful co-workers and most of the students are really good. Not all of them, but a percentage high enough to see God's blessing in where I am.

We will have a phone and the internet in our apartment by the end of the week as well as cell phones. We were going to go to Thailand next week (we've got a six day holiday for Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving) but someone had to go and have a military coup. Honestly, couldn't it have waited three weeks? Anyway, it's for the best it didn't work out. Instead, we're going to Seoul for the same time with some friends and just going to spend some time in that city (about 14 million people there and a thing or two to do).

That's about all new for now. The updates will be coming more often now and so please do stay tuned. We love to hear from all of you so please drop a line when you get the chance.

A box of chocolates

And so life has been so far this time in Korea - we're never quite sure what's going to happen from one day to the next.

The second year in Korea has begun in smashing fashion. Orientation went well for me (Jon) and I met some really great people. I really enjoyed experiencing all the different cultures and dorm life for the first time. (Not everything was pleasant, but it was still wholely enjoyable.)

Emily arrived last Thursday safe and sound and we reconnected on Friday in Gwangju. We went to our apartment where, lo and behold, the previous occupants had left six months prior to our arrival. What exactly would this entail?

For one, they left the apartment strangely half full. Couch, bed, bookshelf, desk, dishes, dresser? Not at all! Digital camera, laptop, shoes, toothbrushes, dictaphone, garbage, boxes, clothing and bedding? Absolutely! Why wouldn’t you do that if you had to head back to America in a hurry?

The worst things by far have been twofold. Firstly, the fridge was unplugged but left closed for six months. Difficulty imagining what that would look like? We'll post pictures in a couple of days.

Secondly, the lack of human occupants in the apartment apparently communicated somehow to dozens of mini-moths that they were welcome to come in. We found worms, cocoons and moths all over the place. We’ve been killing them as we find them and they’re getting fewer and fewer. Hopefully the destruction will soon be complete.

Other than that, the apartment is a large two bedroom with three balconies. We’ve got good surroundings (5 minutes walking from 3 grocery stores) but we’re far from the rest of the city, such as downtown and our friends. Last year we lived south central, this year we live so far north we can see the end of the city from all of our balconies.

At this moment, I sit in my second of two schools that I’ll be teaching at this year. I teach 21 – 45 minute classes per week, which isn’t too bad. The rest of the time I have to be at the school, but I don’t really have to do anything constructive. I’m here doing a blog while the teacher behind me (all the teachers’ desks are in the same room) is sleeping and the one beside me is surfing the internet. I’m seriously considering taking my masters degree during working hours. Why not?

Anyway, we really enjoyed our time in Canada and it absolutely flew by. It’s hard to believe we were there for 7 weeks. I think our time here will be good and that it’ll go quickly. Emily has been keeping busy cleaning the apartment and unpacking as we slowly make room for stuff to be unpacked into. She starts her IBOLT (online degree) in about 10 days here so she’ll be right busy with that and her other commintments throughout the week.

We’d love to hear from all of you that keep up on our blog. At this moment, we have neither phone or internet in our apartment (you need your alien residency card to get those and I’ll have that in about another 2 weeks or so) so there’s really no way to get direclty ahold of us. Feel free to e-mail us and we’ll reply when we’re near the internet (which is during work for me). We’ll pass along contact information when we get it.

That’s it for now! Adios.

I've arrived!

So I (Jon) have made it back to Korea. As such, the blog shall continue. My time in Canada was great, involving lots of good people and good food. It went incredibly quickly and I can hardly believe I'm back in Korea.

I arrived at the University for a 10 day orientation Tuesday night at about 12:30 AM after a very long day of travelling. I've already met a ton of people and it's going well so far. The program looks relatively interesting and there's lots of time to get to know people.

So far, I've learned a bunch of new words. Korean? No, no, no... English. But not like English language English, England English. My roommate (a good all around guy) is English and we've been playing some "football" (soccer) on the "pitch" (field) near our dorm.

We actually had a big game of foreign teachers against the Korean high school students that were around today so I'm totally "knackered" (very tired). I find myself slipping into various accents, depending who I'm talking to. English, Irish, New Zealand-ish, American, Australian and Korean are all here so it's a beautiful mix of people. God really did do it the best when he created people.

It's really good to be back in Korea. I can totally see how God has had His hand in so much of this. I'm really excited for this year and there's a bunch of good stuff that's going to happen, I'm sure. I'm hoping to keep up with some of the people I've met over the next year.

To sum up, life in Korea is good. Emily is hoping to get here by Thursday but the flights may not work. If they don't work, she'll be here next Thursday.

"Cheers!" (Talk to you later)

We Come Home Today!

Alberta Bound
By Paul Brandt
Sign said 40 miles to Canada
My truck tore across Montana
Ian Tyson sang a lonesome lullaby
And so I cranked up the radio
Cause there's just a little more to go
For I'd cross the border at that Sweet Grass sign

I'm Alberta Bound
This piece of heaven that I've found
Rocky Mountains and black fertile ground
Everything I need beneath that big blue sky
Doesn't matter where I go
This place will always be my home
Yeah I've been Alberta Bound for all my life
And I'll be Alberta Bound until I die

It's a pride that's been passed down to me
Deep as coal mines, wide as farmer's fields
Yeah, I've got independence in my veins
Maybe it's my down-home redneck roots
Or these dusty 'ol Alberta boots
But like a Chinook wind keeps coming back again

Korea vs. France

So Korea is out of the World Cup. A draw with France set the stage and their loss to Switzerland sealed the deal. One of the goals by Switzerland was (apparently) scored offside, but they ended up losing 2 - 0 so it doesn't really matter. There's a great deal of discussion as to how the CEO (or whatever) of FIFA is Swiss, causing the officiating to become somewhat less than objective. Ah well, it's over now.

We went to watch the Korea vs. France game. We went to Chonnam University again with some friends and arrived at 1:30 AM in order to secure seats on the road for the 4:00 AM start. It was packed, though not as busy as for Korea vs. Togo.

They gave out sparklers for everyone to light at the opening kickoff. It was pretty neat but kinda creepy with all the sparks flying everywhere. We were sitting in a parking lot with a big screen set up and a projector showing the game. We were actually watching everything in reverse as we were sitting behind the screen.

People were sitting anywhere they could to see the screen. I'm not sure what this building is, but it was in the parking lot right beside where we were sitting. More and more people kept going up on the roof all night.

This is on top of a "That'll be $5, please" booth.

Us with our friends. If you go to a Korean soccer game, you have to wear red. Korea is called the Red Devils, which comes from a soccer game in Mexico (I guess) where Korea ran so fast that people said that they looked like red ghosts. The word "ghost" got changed and the Red Devils came to be.

Our Day of Mountains

Yesterday (Saturday) we went on a day trip with our friends, the Porters, and a teacher from the school, Brooke. We went to this little temple nestled up in the mountains that was over 1300 years old. We also stood on a mountain peak at the southernmost end of Korea. We also stood on a mountain that you could see the east & west coasts of Korea from.

It has to have been some of the most incredible natural and ancient beauty that I've seen. Here's some pictures, but they won't do justice to anything that we saw.

The mountain that you can see both coasts from.

This is the temple in the mountain. It's really only about 3 meters by 3 meters in size. It's really small but really beautiful and it has a great view.

Here is where we went.

Brooke, Emily and Ivory on a bridge at this other temple we went to.

This is at the same temple as the bridge picture. If you count three rows from the front and five back, that's Buddha. Four over and seven back is Buddha too. Nine over and six back? Buddha. And the one that's thirteen over and seventeen back is Buddha too. There's actually 979 Buddhas here. That's a lotta Buddha.

Shoes aren't as easy as they look

Everybody has their rough days. Today (Friday) was test day for me (Jon) at the school. Emily comes in every Friday to help out with the tests. I see the kids on an alternating weekly basis and so this was my last day with this set of kids. I really love teaching at this school and I really love the kids so it was a little sad for me. I also had yet to print off any of my tests which can make for a stressful time if there is a lineup at the photocopier at the school.

Anyway, we were a little rushed getting out of the door and I had to change my insoles in my shoes. I saw my grubby running shoes (we had gone to the gym previously) and decided I couldn't get away with wearing them so I took out the insole, put it in the other shoe and then put that shoe on. I put on my other shoe and went to school.

As I was sitting down during the speaking tests, I started to cross my legs when, lo and behold, I noticed my grubby running shoes. I was instantly confused as I had thought that I decided not to wear running shoes. I checked my other foot, and the truth became shockingly clear.

I had on two different shoes.

Who does that? People wear different socks, yes. Clashing shirt and tie? Okay. Different shoes, unintentionally? I haven't seen it. But my students did. And people on the bus did. And people at the supermarket did. I told my students it was for good luck for Korea as they play Switzerland this morning at 4:00 AM for the World Cup. They believed me, but I still felt stupid.

So next time you're in a rush and you can't decide which shoes to wear, double check on your way out the door that you actually made up your mind.

On a different note, here's a couple of pictures of my grade 5 class. It's an energetic class full of good kids and the pictures turned out really well, so I'm glad. Of all the things we've experienced here, I think that my students will remain among the best parts of Korea. (Most days.)

The girls. Sweeter than honey and some of the neatest kids you'll ever meet.

The boys. A rowdy bunch but really good kids that make you remember what it's like to find fun and energy in anything.

Nobel Peace Conference

We went to the Nobel Peace Laureates Conference yesterday and today. We were only planning on going to one session yesterday but it was so interesting that we decided to come back for a second helping. There was also a luncheon that you could have gone to but you had to have registered ahead of time and we, assuming it would be more boring than it was, did not.

Long story short, there was an uprising in Gwangju in 1980 where the citizens rebelled against an unjust government, took control of the city and then were crushed (killed, slaughtered, etc.) by the army 9 days later. It's called the May 18 uprising and really sparked a movement towards a truly democratic and free South Korea. The conference was to commemorate that and a conference that happened in 2000 between South & North Korea.

There were a ton of interesting speakers and they gave you a bunch of free stuff. I (Jon) was struck by how humble and "normal" looking the laureates all were. In the one session, there were reserved seats in front of where we were sitting. A bunch of people came and sat in them and I was wondering what made them so special. It was a lady that looked like a librarian, a business man type fellow, a lady that looked like she could have been a janitor and another lady that just looked like she was there for the heck of it. (One fellow actually took Emily's conference bag by accident. We thought it had our camera in it so I ran after him to get it back. He didn't have our camera but he did take her Kleenex.)

As it turns out, all of them had won Nobel Peace prizes. It's amazing how much of a difference one person really can make.

Anyway, here's some pictures!

Registration. If you look carefully, there are four lineups: Family names starting from A - J, then K, then L, then M - Z. I was confused until I remembered that nearly 50% of Koreans have the family name Lee, Kim or Park.

Here are some of the speakers. These are the people that have won the prizes as well as people representing organizations that have won peace prizes (eg. Amnesty International, International Red Cross, etc.) The fifth from the right is Mikhail Gorbachev. Sixth from the right is Kim Dae Jung, the former president of South Korea (the conference center where this was held is named after him).

Video of the reaction of the crowd when Korea scored!

Tae-Han-Min-Geuk!

Tae-Han-Min-Geuk, is the official name of South Korea and a popular cheer that we heard many times on Tuesday night at the soccer game, the story follows:

So we went to watch the soccer game at a local university on Tuesday night. It was crazy! I (Emily) arrived at about 7:30 to try and meet some friends. I found them but it was impossible to stay with them and wait for Jon at the same time, so they left and I got a spot to watch the action. The university had a giant stage set up with some local bands playing which were pretty good. The area kept getting more and more crowded with people, all wearing red shirts and many scarves, flags and devil horns. (The Korean cheering people are known as "red devils" - hence the horns)

Jon and his coworker Brooke arrived at about 10:45PM because it was impossible to get a taxi and the crowds were so large they couldn't get to where I was. Finally we all found each other and watched the game on a giant screen. The game was awesome and Korea won which was so cool! The fans were so enthusiastic, they all know these cheers that they would yell in unison. And when Korea scored they would all stand up and dance and shout. It was a crazy night! We will never forget it!

Here are some pictures of the excitement!

World Cup Fever

South Korea has got it bad. It's really fun to watch everyone getting ready for the World Cup. Korea's first game is tomorrow at 10:00 PM and my last class of the day is cancelled so that everyone (students and teachers alike) can get to a TV in time to see the game. Emily and I, along with some of the other teachers from our school, are planning on going to the World Cup Stadium (from 2002) to watch the game on a big screen along with several thousand other Koreans.

If it works out, we'll post pictures, of which there should be some good ones. It should be a grand ol' time.

Go Korea!

Our Anniversary

So tomorrow (our time) is our second anniversary. It's been two wonderful years that I've been married to my wonderful wife. Since both Emily & I are busy tomorrow, we decided to celebrate our anniversary tonight. Emily gave me a blender, which I was incredibly excited for. I've been dying for things to blend, so no fruit is safe.

We had strawberry-banana smoothies for breakfast (a great little blender it is!) and listened to the hockey game on the internet. Go Oilers! We then went to church (45 mintues late because of the hockey game) and then went to Dunkin' Donuts for a snack. We had to go back to the church for a prayer meeting thing and then we went to Burger King and then to a movie. After that, we went to a video arcade, came home (another smoothie, of course), played canasta and called it a night.

All in all, a most enjoyable and unorthodox anniversary.

Mikhail Gorbachev, The Dalai Lama & Jimmy Carter

What do these people have in common? Yes, the answer is obvious. They're all Nobel Peace Laureates! These people have done great works in our world toward the betterment of human existance across the globe.

And they're coming to Gwangju.

Yes, Emily and I received our tickets in the mail today. We are going to get to see some Nobel Laureates give speeches on different topics next week. It should be most interesting. We're not actually sure who is going to be there - hopefully all of the above people and then some, but perhaps not. There's been political problems with the Dalai Lama's visa. Apparently China would get upset if South Korea granted him a visa, so he may not be coming.

Regardless, it should be a good time. Whoever it ends up being there, we'll tell them you say hello.

A Great Picture

Emily and I went on a cultural tour this past weekend to a folk village in Nagan. There are 85 families that actually live in this village in a (relatively) traditional manner. We did see the occasional satellite dish, motorbike and air conditioning unit, but most other things were quite traditional.

This fellow here possesses one of Korea's "Intangible Cultural Assets" (everything is numbered and catalogued here) since he is really skilled at making things with straw. Notice also the skinship at work.

12

The number of garlic cloves that Emily and I ate with supper tonight. Each.

Konglish

While in Korea, you may be privy to the linguistic experience called Konglish - Korean & English smashed together. Essentially, these are English words that have been adopted into Korean, with the meaning occasionally changing. This is especially true with regards to technology - words like Internet, computer, homepage, etc. are all the same.

Some are a little different, though. Here's some that we've come across:

Hand Phone - Cell phone
Notebook - Laptop Computer (You often get puzzled looks in an elementary class when you ask them all to take out their notebooks, which they understand as laptops.)
Glamour - A big breasted woman (no idea where this came from)
Sharp - Mechanical Pencil
Skinship - Not a typo. The physical affection between friends, especially of the same sex.
One Piece - Dress
Officetel - We thought it was a telephone designed for offices (Office & Telephone). Instead, it is a rentable office for people that can't afford to have a house and an office (i.e. Office & Hotel)
Cunning - Cheating
Service - Free



PS: I've only got 22 more teaching days until we're back in Canada.

Reesors in Korea: The Sequel

So long story short, I got the job! God's hand has really been in everything we've done here in Korea so far. I now have a job with the public school here in Korea and I start in September. The job is also here in Gwangju, which is what Emily and I were hoping and praying for. We don't know anything else now (more details will be coming) but we do know that we are for sure coming back to Korea.

God is good!

Pictures and Politicians

There's a civic election going on right now in Gwangju. Actually, the campaigns are going on right now - the election will be on the 31st (which is actually a holiday because of the election). Anyway, campaigns here are a little different. People have rented 1 ton trucks and put a combination of big pictures, loudspeakers, big screen TV's or people on them to blare out (visually and audibly) the reasons that you should vote for them. One person replaced "YMCA" with their name as part of their jingle (they all have jingles). They will also park outside our window with the noise cranked for 15 - 20 minutes at a time.

On street corners, campaign workers wearing their candidate’s colors will bow at anything that they possibly can. They work hard since busy street corners will often have up to 20 people bowing to a lot of traffic. Plus, you have to out perform the other people trying to campaign beside you. Emily keeps being given business cards by various politicians and their supporters. (I don't think I'm pretty enough.) She was at a supermarket today where they would read some message over the intercom; the workers would repeat it and then bow.

Anyway, if you're ever campaigning in Korea, here's the apparent strategy: lots of loudspeakers and ample amounts of bowing. How can you lose?

Moving on, though, here are some recent pictures of Emily & me. It's been a while since we've posted pictures but I promise I've been trying to put some up lately. It hasn't seemed to want to upload them for whatever reason. Korea does filter their internet (I'm not sure how, but they do) and it sometimes interferes with our blog. Enjoy!

This is us at Boseong Tea farm. That is green tea growing in the background. Looks like a bush, right? Yeah, I thought it would look more exotic too.

I'm not Buddhist and you're probably not either, so likely neither of us know what this means.

Emily with a big lying Budda. Actually, I think there's two lying down there. This was at "The Temple of 1000 Buddhas & 1000 Pagodas." There's actually maybe 100 Buddhas that we saw and a total of 20 pagodas, but time passes and so I'm sure there was more at one time. Legend has it that all the Buddhas were made in one night. I'm not sure if this is attributed to supernatural causes or just a lot of people working really hard, but that's a lot of Buddhas in a little time.

This picture I am particularly proud of. It turned out really well. It's a bunch of Buddhas at a temple.

This is a picture of me at the beach in Busan. We went there on the long weekend three weeks ago. Children's Day & Buddha's Birthday (both holidays) happened to land on the same day this year. Some holidays are based on the solar calendar (i.e. Christmas, Children's Day) while others are on the Lunar Calendar (Korean New Years, Buddha's Birthday). As a result, many holidays change their position every year.

Finally, just a reminder, it is only 42 days until Emily and I come back to Canada! Feel free to drop us a line, either by e-mail, commenting on our blog or by phone (e-mail us if you want our number). We'll be in the country for most of July & August, so there'll be lots of time for getting together.

Seoul Fashion Mart

And to everyone that mourned with us, we thank you. The Seoul Fashion Mart has reopened, albeit under new management and a new name. The clothes, however, are as gratifying as always.

We thank you for your sympathy and ask that you would now share in our joy.

Delinquency Runs Amok

It's been a while since our last post, and apologies all around for that. We've been quite busy lately and it seems like a lot has happened. For the sake of brevity, though, I'll just run the highlights.

My interview went really good and I finally got the last piece of paper that I needed from Canada (my criminal record check). I'll find out on Thursday whether or not I've got the job and I'm thinking that things look good.

We mailed off our income tax returns last week. We were a little worried that we would end up having to pay a bunch of money, but we actually get a return, which is great. God blesses us when we're faithful!

Our individual responsibilities are about the same as always. School is going well for me and Emily is keeping really busy as well. We actually have three new teachers starting at the school within the next three weeks or so, so that'll be great. Perhaps I'll have fewer classes, which would be a mixed blessing. I love all my students and I love my job, which is something funny for me. There's still that feeling of "I'd rather stay home" most days, but once I am at school I love my job. (I've got a couple of students that are calling me beautiful and handsome on a daily basis. We're minor celebrities as we go about our daily lives. This'll never happen again.)

Two weeks ago Emily & I went to Busan (a city on the east coast) for a long weekend (Buddha's Birthday & Children's Day). It was really good and really relaxing. This past week we went to two different temples and a green tea farm. Green tea is funny - it just looks like a bush. I thought it would be more exotic.

Emily and I are going paintballing this weekend and next weekend. The foreigners center here is putting on a trip with two dates and Emily and I are going both times. Carpe diem.

Anyway, that's the quick version of things going on. Everything is great and we're really excited to come home. We arrive in Edmonton on July 3rd in the early evening and I (Jon) will be in Canada for sure until August 21 or so. Emily will likely be here longer because I will have to do 10 days of orientation in Seoul if I get the position with the public school. If not, we've got a back up plan.

So that's about it for now. Things are busy but good. We're still having a lot of fun and we're getting into a good routine. Korea is a good place.

PS: I'm addicted to green tea. I find that a cup of green tea after every meal helps the digestion and whatnot. (Just another sign I'm just getting older, eh Jordan?)

Interview Part 2

So I had my interview last week. Long story short, I went to the bus station at 6:00 in the morning (the first bus was at 6:05), bought three tickets before actually getting the cashier to understand me, and successfully made it to my interview. There was another fellow going in for an interview on the same day and we actually met on the bus, which was nice.

The interview went really well. It was at the Korean National University and the people were really nice. The whole interview was only 20 minutes long so I was back in Gwangju by 2:00 PM, leaving lots of time to get to the school and teach.

Anyway, I'll know whether or not I got the job on May 24th. Things look promising, but we'll have to wait to see for sure.

It's all who you know

Today I went to go tutor my friend like I do every Tuesday morning. Today though he said "can you help me with something today?"

I said sure, so we hopped in his car and drove to his aunt's gym/swimming pool/sauna/hot baths. Appparently she runs the place and wants to attract a foreign audience. We go into her really nice office and she pours me tea from the coolest little tea thing on her desk. I love Asia!

She talks on to my student in Korean and then we all stand up and she takes me on a tour of the facility. Its a little older but really nice and quiet. In the end I walk out with a free membership for life and a months free membership for Jon. PLUS three free month passes to give to my "foreign friends".

The lady thinks that if foreigners come to the gym it will attract Korean people - and she is probably totally right! Heck, I'll be a tourist attraction if it means I can swim and work out for free!

As we were leaving I turned to my student and said, "In English we have an expression it's all who you know, and today we saw that in action!" I love the connections we are making here, Korea is all about networking it seems. My other student has a brother who is a doctor so she said if we are ever sick he will look after us.

It really is all about who you know, I've never been so well connected in my life!

Interview

So as many of you may or may not know, Emily and I are planning on staying in Korea for a few more years yet. Emily will finish her degree through IBOLT (a wonderful educational institution) and I will be working in the public school. That's the plan, at least. I've got my interview in about 12 hours and it's in a different city, so I've got to catch the 6:05 AM bus to Jeongju (about 3 hours away) and make it back in time to teach in the evening.

I'll let you know how it goes.

What to eat, what to eat...

So it's looking like July 3rd is going to be the day that we come back to Canada. Emily and I are rather excited to come home, to say the least. We're looking forward to seeing everyone and just spending good time with good people.

And good food. Lots and lots of good, good, English speaking food. Korean food is great, don't get me wrong, but there are a few things we really miss.

Like green beans. And fresh corn. And cherries (people think you're funny when you talk about all the cherry blossoms and then ask where the cherries are). And salads (salads here are funny - they have red beans and corn and almost always thousand island dressing on them). And Tim Hortons. And iced tea. And root beer, sweet sweet root beer!

Deep fried chocolate bars (if you haven't had one, you must), real deli meat, Dairyland chocolate & 2% milk, beef that isn't $45 a kilogram, grapefruit juice, frozen juice in general, slurpees (7-11's on every corner, but not a Pepsi slurpee to be found!) and real hot dogs, just to name a few.

Korea is great, but we sure are glad to be coming home.

Old ladies and umbrellas

Hi, it's Emily this time - I know that I have been super lax in blog posting lately! I trust though that you have enjoyed the creative stylings of my wonderful husband!

I wanted to share a quick anectode that happened to me the other day.

It was pouring rain - really hard Asia rain that we just don't get in the praries. I was rushing off the bus to head to the grocery store, huddled under my trusty umbrella when I felt a tug at my umbrella handle. I looked over to see a very cute old korean lady huddled with me under my umbrella. She apparently had not been as proactive as I - and had neglected to bring an umbrella of her own.

There is not a lot of pretention among Korean people especially with older Koreans. The lady was getting wet, I had an umbrella, so naturally she would wrap her arm around me and my umbrella and share my dry oasis. Its a little bit unnerving for the unitiated when Korean ladies take your bag on the bus to hold because you are standing, or look through your bags when you come back from the grocery store, or look over your shoulder at the bank teller, or touch your hair and your skin and mutter in Korean.... the list goes on. I've gotten suprisingly used to these occurences, and so was hardly phased with the cute lady and my umbrella.

In my broken and poor Korean, I asked where she was going and she pointed in the general direction of our aparment complex. And off we went. It was raining SO hard and the lady would look at my every so often and laugh. I know that she was juiced to have a story to tell all of her cronies about walking in the rain with the "waygeuk" (foreign) girl.

It was fun and cute and reminded me again of why I live in Korea. This culture challenges me to give up a bit of my bubble that I have built around myself.

I didn't get to go to the grocery store that day but I did meet a great lady who saved her hairstyle from the rain and put a smile on my face!

Public Humiliation

So we went to Family Land (Gwangju's personal amusement park) last week with our friends from Kansas. It was really fun because we went on a Monday morning so it was only the four of us and about 800 elementary school students (who were too short for most of the good rides).

As a result, many of the rides were started for us specifically and we rarely had to wait in line. It wasn't overly spectacular, but it was a good day. There was a roller coaster, a spinning-type ride, a 3-D thing (that made me sick, by the way) and the usual other attractions.

There was, however, one unique ride that I have never seen before. It was a giant circle with seats around the edges. There were no seatbelts and not even specific seats. It was slanted with the front towards the audience and spun (relatively) slowly and bounced back and forth. Rather tame, we thought, so we lined up and got on. A timid looking man took our tickets and let us board.

Turns out it was the ride of public humiliation. "Timid little man" was only the mask of "sadistic, sarcastic, let-me-make fun of you" man. The ride was controlled solely by him, so he decided how you spun and how you bounced. That wasn't the big deal, though. He had a mean streak in him. If he wanted to make fun of you or make you do something, he would put you at the "top" of the circle and bounce you, making fun of you over the loudspeaker until you did what he wanted.

When we were on the ride, he put the four of us at the top and started saying "Dance, America, Dance! Come on, America, Dance!" Fortunately, his English was limited (he was saying that in Korean) and so he couldn't pick on us for too long. Every time he got frustrated with us, he spun another fellow to the top and made fun of him.

Essentially, the ride could last for 15 mintues or longer, depending on his mood. The audience was bigger than the lineup. For the people before us, the operator played a really funny (only in Korea) joke. It was "the ride is finished, it's okay to stand up, just kidding, ha-ha you all fell over" joke.

Anyway, it was a good time. Not that we'll do that ride again, but we can say we did it.

The public humiliation ride. Notice the Michael Jackson eyes in the background.

Emily and friends, England and Tucker.

Emily & I in a mini traditional Korean house.

Seoul Fashion Mart

I'd like us to take a moment to mourn the passing of a good friend. Your favorite and mine, the Seoul Fashion Mart, has been closed. Being the first store that Emily and I purchased clothes at, we were obviously moved to find that they were packing their merchandise into boxes and closing their doors. Full of cheap knock-off clothing, it always had something new to entertain us.

English in Korea is very popular, much the same way that Oriental writing has come in and out of fashion in Canada. People wear things without the slightest idea of what it says. Sometimes this has horribly inappropriate results (4 year olds should not be wearing explicit shirts) and other times it is rather humorous. Some of them just have giant pictures of people like Justin Timberlake and Orlando Bloom ("Who broke Orlando's heart?") and others have more writing on them.

Some of the most memorable (and appropriate) T-shirt sayings have been:

"Chair" (With pictures and names of different chairs on it)
"People make noises when they're sick"
"Sunshine makes me high"
"I've got the giggles"
"Look who's turning two today! Two! That's twice as old as one!"
"Come, let's walk with vigorous strides"
"Speedy Car Wash - GD Midget Power"
"Life isn't always beer and skittles"
"A Bathing Ape - Ape shall never kill ape."
"Canada - Established 1868" (That's the wrong year, just as a reminder)
"I'll bet you wish you had a boyfriend that would buy you all sorts of presents, like jewels and rubies, but you don't. Maybe next year, when you've got boobies."

Coming Home!

Yes, the rumors you have heard are true - we are coming home!

I notified the school about three weeks ago that I was not intending on renewing my contract. They said that they understood, but that they were hoping that I was going to stay for at least one more year since things were working out so well. At least we know the door is open for the future!

Right now the dates are a little tentative, but we're looking at perhaps July 3rd as a return date. My contract finishes at my school as of June 30th, but it'll be a little easier for us to fly out on the Monday as opposed to the Friday.

As some of you may or may not know, this is not a permanent move. Emily and I will be in Canada for the summer and then we are planning on coming back to Korea in September. I would like to work for the public school and am in the process of putting together my application form for that. I've got a couple more papers to get and fill out, but it's coming together!

This year has been amazing and has gone unbelievably fast so far. We have loved our experience here in Korea (as evidenced by our intentions to return) but we do desperately miss our "home and native land." It will be good to come home.

See you soon!

Who knew?

Sometimes my students are a lot sharper than I give them credit for.

For example, as many people have pointed out, this past Wednesday at one hour past midnight, the time would have been:

01:02:03 04/05/06.

Such people then immediately point out that this will never happen again. I showed this to one of my classes and then immediately pointed out that this would never happen again. One of my students, though, being sharper than me, simply mentioned that it would happen every thousand years. (3006, 4006, 5006... = 06)

Go figure.

Test Time

Yesterday (Friday) I gave my students a test. It works out really well because Emily comes in to the school on Fridays and supervises their writing test while I pull them out of the class individually in order to do a speaking test. When they're finished their writing test, Emily will often play a game with them or show them a movie on our laptop.

We've taught them 7-up, wink murder (or assassin, as some know it), pictionary, charades, taboo, the animal game (for those that know it, "clap-clap-donkey, clap-clap-snake") and four on the couch, each with varying measures of success. It usually makes for a more relaxing day, which is really nice.

On the writing test itself, I had the students write sentences using different vocabulary words. Sometimes the sentences are more amusing than others, and yesterday was one of those sentences.

The word: "Born"

The sentence: "Be born to the purple."

In a separate class, I had the kids tell me about their favorite trip as their speaking test. The one fellow (in Korean grade 9, Canadian grade 8) told me about a camp that he went to with his family last year (Canadian grade 7). It was his favorite trip and he got to learn all sorts of very interesting things. The biggest problem? People were talking during the presentations so he couldn't hear the teacher.

The type of camp: Accounting. A grade 7 student's favorite trip was an accounting camp where he went to learn how bankers can maintain accounts long-term. And his biggest problem was that he couldn't hear the teacher.

This country is a completely different world sometimes.

Things that are cheap in Korea

Taxes - $35 a month
Tylenol Cold - $1.50 a pack
Taxi ride (10 - 15 minutes) - $4
Bus - $0.80
Subway - $0.65
Supper for four people, Korean style - $14
Average grocery shopping trip - $60
Ice cream bars - 3 for $1
Doctors visit - $4
House call for a repairman - $8 (Even if there is no real problem. Emily and I had a repairman come for our stove - apparently there's some sort of safety valve for the gas that is hidden right at eye level. How were we supposed to know?)
Scooter - $300
Movie - $7
Socks - $0.50 a pair

I think that this is where I write...

Experiencing another culture firsthand - Priceless

April Fools

April Fools day is celebrated in Korea, only it's lying day. You're allowed to (supposed to?) tell lies all day long.

And tomorrow (April 5) is Arbor Day in Korea, where everyone gets the day off and you go plant trees. Well, I should say that it was supposed to be Arbor day tomorrow. It's not a holiday anymore, as of last year.

Of course.

Ponderables

These are two of the things that smarter people have already figured out and other people don't really care about. I think about them when I'm bored and it blows my mind. Kinda.

When you look in the mirror from 30 cm (your eyes to the mirror), is your reflection 30 cm or 60 cm away from you? For example, if you had a zit that you could see from 10 cm in the mirror, how close would someone else have to get before they saw it - 10 or 20 cm?

If you gave someone one dollar today, ten cents tomorrow, one cent the day after, 0.1 cents the day after, etc. for all eternity, they would never have two dollars but rather 1.11111.... dollars. However, since you are giving them money for all eternity, shouldn't they have an infinite amount of money at the end as opposed to less than two dollars? (I know there's not an end to eternity, but work with me here.)

Have you ever eaten live octopus?

I (Jon) haven't. I have recently confirmed that I am indeed allergic to seafood. Not severely, mind you, but enough to encourge my abstaining from sea dwelling creatures. Should the occasion arise where my allergies have finally stepped aside, I perhaps will one day try the Korean delicacy of octopus.

Koreans generally serve octopus three ways: boiled, raw and alive. I did try octopus once (I think it may have been raw) when I was still not sure about the allergy. Boiled - well, boiled octopus isn't really anything too special or spectacular.

Apparently the live octopus is a little dangerous. The octopus doesn't want to be eaten and so it will fight you, sometimes to the death. True story. Some people have died trying to eat live octopus because it has suctioned onto their faces and they have suffocated.

Other people, if they did not chew a tentacle well enough, would be later suprised to find that it had crawled out of their stomach and is now poking out their nose.

More mild forms of discomfort while eating live octopus may include (but are probably not limited to) suction cupped lips, teeth, tongue and cheeks. Remember - this fellow is alive and does not want to be swallowed. The legs are also smart enough to fight back without being attached to the head.

Rule of thumb when eating live octopus: chew well and chew fast.

Best of luck!

Phone cards, Filipinos and Hand Shakes

So Emily and I have taken to going to a Korean sauna every Sunday after church. (See previous blog posts for more detailed information.) Long story short, it's a good place to relax and just feel like you're "getting away from it all" in the middle of the city.

This past Sunday we went there after church and before supper with a friend. We sat on the heated floor (so nice!) and did our Korean homework. We're both in Korean lessons right now and it's really doing us a world of good - we're learning a great deal, though it is a challenging language.

While we were doing our homework, a man came up to us and started talking to us. (As an aside, Koreans have far more phyiscal contact with their average fellow human being than Canadians do. When you shake hands, you will likely end up holding the handshake, or holding hands, for a large part of the conversation.) Though strangers approacing us is not unusual, this man was not talking like any stranger. We knew him from somewhere, and he knew us. We figured out that he was the man that sells us our phone cards ($16 for about 6 hours to Canada - good deal) and he bought us a traditional Korean drink (sweet rice water) and gave us some discount coupons for the sauna. A very nice gesture for a near stranger.

Anyway, we thanked him and went our seperate ways. Emily and I finished our homework and went up to shower and meet our friend for suppper. (The showers are the naked part, as a reminder.)

I was sitting in the hot pool, just enjoying myself and ignoring everyone else when, lo and behold, the phone card guy comes and sits beside me and starts talking to me! Now, this is pushing my comfort barrier, though I feel as though I at least owe him the common courtesy of talking to him, which I did.

Then it gets worse. Another foreigner (this time from the Philippines) came and joined our conversation. I had not yet met this fellow, so he introduced himself and we shook hands. The downside, though, is that the Korean fellow asked the Filipino fellow a question as the Filipino and I began our handshake.

And so it happened - the longest handshake in the history of mankind. As we are holding our handshake (naked), the conversation happens. I'm about to be late, I'm not comfortable and I need to finish showering. Really, what better time is there to talk?

Eventually, the handshake ended and the evening went on. The rest of the evening was thankfully clothed and handshake free.

Picture Update

It was great to see the Jackson's smiling faces. This is them in the airport as Emily picked them up. They have since come and gone (our computer was dead for a majority of that time, hence no related postings) but here's some reminiscing for all y'all that weren't here for it.


This is a picture of us at a temple on Mudeung Mountain, the most popular mountian in Gwangju. It was cold that day, but (apparently) spring comes in March in some places in the world. This is one of those places. It's like heaven, where winter is less a way of life than it is a season.

If you go to the market, you can see buckets of pigs heads. I think that's noodles on the one. You can see the nose and ear of another in the bottom right corner. Some people think it's a little gross. I, however, see the upside. If the head is outside the restaurant, it can't be served inside.



Costco has pretty much every thing here, including fresh fish. This was probably in the ocean mere hours previous to this picture.

Us mere minutes before the Gyro Drop at Lotte World, the world's largest indoor amusement park. (We're outside here - it has an outside component.)
The Gyro Drop. It's a 70 meter free fall, so it'll get your blood going. Lotte World was really fun, but someone died on one of the roller coaster about two weeks after we were there. That is one of those things that is better to know after you leave.

Shabu shabu, quite possibly one of the most delicious meals in existence. Spicy broth, vegetables, shaved beef, noodles and fried rice to finish it off. It's an amazing three course meal for 10 bucks a person.



Shabu shabu again. Seriously, try it if you get the chance. Unless it's not good shabu shabu. Bad shabu shabu should not be done.

Anyway, that's a small taste of the Jackson's visit to Korea. More will come later - we don't want to overwhelm you!