Intensives Over...

I feel rather drained and exhausted. Not that intensives were particularly difficult, but my schedule was all out of whack. Maybe now my life in Korea can go back to studying Korean, doing daily taekwondo, writing a bunch, and sharing the insanity with you in a more regular fashion...

A few days ago I met some friends (Laura and Yumiko) at the apartment of Mi Kyeong, a public school teacher originally from Seoul who knows Laura from English camp and Yumiko from graduate school. Mi Kyeong likes wine a lot, but most Koreans do not know or care how to appreciate fine wines. Hell, most red wine here is served chilled (yes, I did nearly shit bricks when I ordered a glass of cab and found it at the same temperature I usually would a chardonnay). Anyhow, she and Yumiko visited Jejudo a few weeks ago. Yumiko told her I would appreciate wine, so the three of us gathered at her apartment for delicious food.

Veggie wraps in Vietnamese rice paper... Yum!

Then we broke out some cheese and a few bottles of wine. It was awesome.

It's hard to get good cheese in Korea. Yes... that is sliced, processed cheese in the mix.

Finally, the pièce de résistance--a 2002 bordeaux blend from Chateau Talbot. Mi Kyeong said she got it in a duty free shop for about $100. My god was it amazing.

Can you see the legs? Maybe...

That's the best bottle of wine I've had in a good year and a half. And yes, we ate processed cheese with it. Reminded me of that scene in Sideways where he drinks the awesome bottle with greasy diner food from a plastic cup.

Great food. Amazing wine. Wonderful friends.

I remain, as ever, blessed in my life here. Cheers!

Biseulsan Ice Festival

Just south of Daegu is a mountain called Biseulsan, accessible by city bus 600, known for two things: flowers in the spring and an annual ice sculpture festival. Along with a couple friends I met through the YMCA class (Laura, Kirsty, and Amanda) I ventured out there Sunday in search of ice sculptures. Kirsty has a car, so we went in high style and drove out to the mountain's base.

Small temple bell and drum with peak in the background.

Although we never made it to the main ice sculpture festival area because there was a traffic jam (as the adorable English speaking police officer informed us) and we had to return for Kirsty's birthday party that evening, we did see some of the man made ice constructions.

They appeared to use hoses twine and the natural rocks/trees to create these awesome formations

I got to be a Keebler Snow Elf

We did attempt a bit of the hike, but we were sorely unprepared for the snow and rock scrambles. It was actually one of the more fun hikes I've tried in Korea because the scrambles reminded me of Old Rag back home, so I'm kind of sorry I didn't make it to the top. I'll have to get some better hiking shoes and go back out in the springtime.

Kirsty and Laura try to negotiate the rocks. Someone carved his (I think) name in the snow...

Every time we passed a group of Koreans, invariably men and women in their 50s and 60s, with all their special gear, they would scold us and tell us how unprepared we were. This included a woman with a baby strapped to her back on her way down.

The little wood bridge, just one of many challenging parts of the climb.

We turned back around a little over 1/4 of the way into the hike because of our lack of preparedness and downtown engagement. We stopped for tea and coffee at the little temple gift shop, which was fun because they gave us yummy roasted sweet potatoes. All in all, the weather was awesome, the company even better, the climb challenging, and the day enjoyable. A very successful trip.

And of course, I took lots of pictures that you should go look at:

Biseulsan

Michael Jackson, 2

Today Jack told me he lives at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, but that he wants to live in a "plane house" (we learned about houseboats today) because he wants to travel the world.

Michael Jackson

"Hello, students. How are you today?"

"Fine, teacher."

A new student--a grinning boy with slender fingers and absurdly long nails--sits in my class. I take role with his Korean name and ask if he wants to take an English name. Standard new student procedure.

He giggles. "Jack!"

"Well, ok. Jack it is."

"Like Jack Sparrow."

"Do you like that movie?"

"Yes. I think very much I like."

***

Later, in the staff room. "Hey Gwen, that new boy--Jack--has really long fingernails."

"Who?"

"A new student. In intensive class, faculty room. He chose the name 'Jack' for Jack Sparrow."

"Do you mean Michael?"

"What?"

"He's not new. He studied here a few years ago. He's Brenda's brother. His English name is Michael."

"Well... apparently he wants to change it to Jack."

"Jack Michaels?"

"Michael Jackson." Lots of giggling. "He looks like his sister."

***

We are discussing litter in class. "What is the man in the picture doing? Jack."

"Me? He is..." Jack pauses, struggling for the word. "Teacher... example: Harry Potter rides and fly."

Pause. "Do you mean 'broom'?"

"Ah yes! Broom. Thank you." Jack thinks again. "He is broom clean. Litter. Bad."

"Do you litter?"

"Yes." He giggles. "In my room litter. Trash throw. Mom not happy."

"What about on the ground?"

"I am thinking. Sometimes. Maybe. Trash on ground. Yes."

"Is that good, Jack?"

"No." Pause for thinking. Suddenly his face lights up. "Teacher, this project is perfect!"

"What project?"

"I will litter stop. People throw trash on ground, I stop." He smiles and nods, very satisfied.

"That sounds wonderful."

"I know. I am very kind."

***

In Brenda's class we are learning detailed physical descriptions.

"Students, who has long fingernails?"

Brenda shouts, "My brother!"

I can't help laughing a little. "That's true."

"I am very smart."

"And not a bit modest." She looks up the word.

"Ah teacher. I know. My brother, too. Our family is a little bit strange."

I nod and shake my head at the same time.

***

The next day:

"Hello, students. How are you today?"

"I am very happy!"

"Why is that, Jack?"

"Because plenty of sleep, I got."

"Oh, that is very good."

"But homework I am not doing." I give him the disapproving face, but he just giggles.

"How is your project going, Jack?"

"Today I am success. No trash on the ground. Success."

Hitting the Slopes.

Saturday, Samantha and I agreed to be in front of our apartments at 6:20 a.m. for Sa Beom Nim's wife to pick us up for skiing with some of the other taekwondo students from An Il (안일), our gym. Maybe this sounds like a really bad idea, but actually I adore skiing so much, I woke up sans alarm at 4 like some over eager 7 year old on Christmas day.

Only a handful of kids from our studio went, but Sa Beom Nim got together with some of the other TKD studios in the area to hire a bus for the occasion. A kid from one of the other studios is one of Samantha's students at Oedae, so I was immediately greeted with a cheery, "Hello Diana Teacher!" Henney is quite a cute young man, and not a bit shy about using English outside of the academy. Whereas Eric (Sa Beom Nim's son) who is very good at English barely spoke five words to us all day.

But he's awfully cute, isn't he?
The resort we went to was small and most of the other people on the mountain were taekwondo or hapkido gyms, so Samantha and I were the only foreigners for most of the day (we saw a white guy late in the afternoon, but we're not sure he was with one of the gyms).

Funny thing about being the only white person skiing is that when people shout "Hello!" from the lifts, you know they are shouting at you. Which is just dandy. Unless you just fell on your 엉덩이 and feel like a moron. Sigh.

Sa Beom Nim tricked Samantha into trying the intermediate hill, but she was awesome at it, so it was great. He took plenty of photos of our stylish foreign skiing skills:

Aren't I spectacular?

I totally have my own magazine spread: Waeguks Ski... where I look pensively upon the dusty Korean slopes. Or something.

I was very proud of myself for trying my first "advanced" hill--though it was sort of more like halfway between intermediate and advanced.

Although staring at the task from the top of the hill made me a bit pensive... and skeptical.

In the end, I rocked it! One of the other TKD masters who rode the bus with us grabbed me and tried to give me lessons. Which was kind of sweet. But I was tired. Very tired.

So Samantha and I got lazy at the end... Ah laziness!

On the bus ride home, I was more conscious than I had been in the morning and so I tried to chat in Korean with one of Sa Beom Nim's friends. He was a funny guy. He called me an ajumma, the Korean word for auntie used to refer to older married women known for their unattractiveness.

Hilarious man. Really. I'm still laughing my 26--er, excuse me--28 year old behind off.

Just kidding. The day was completely fantastic. I'm so happy! Thanks to Sa Beom Nim's wife for the pictures.

Chinese David Beckham

The word for foreigner in Korean is 외국인, pronounced something like "waegukin." I hear this word a lot followed by shouts of "Hello!"

Sometimes it's followed by whatever English word(s) the person knows. "Beautiful!" "How are you?" "America!" "I love you!"

By far the best single word greetings I've gotten in Korea have been:

1) From one very shocked middle school boy who did a full stop when he saw me round the corner, jaw dropped to the floor, pointing and shouting,

"DAVID BECKHAM!"

Because we look so much alike.

2) From an adorable preschooler at the day care center outside my apartment who gave a big toothy grin and excited wave and loudly proclaimed,

"Ni hao ma!"

Because as a foreigner, Chinese is understood by me just as easily as English, right?

Living in a homogeneous foreign country has its moments of utter hilarity.

Taking a Break

My blog stats counter stopped working. So did my brain. Until these things resolve (maybe tomorrow afternoon if we're lucky), Going Places is on hiatus.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please forward complaints and inquiries to the manager.

Taekwondo Kiddies.

This month my schedule is a little crazy. I work at the time my TKD lesson normally meets, but I have this big chunk of free time Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I've been going just two times a week to the 6 p.m. class. The other students in my class range in age from kindergarten to upper elementary school (maybe one or two are middle school students, but I kind of doubt it). At first we were confused by each other, but after four practices I've come to accept the insanity. It's kind of fun to play with them.

The first day, I was a little nervous about changing so I did so too quickly and accidentally put my pants on backwards. One kind little il poom (like first level black belt for kids under 16--they have red and black striped belts) approached me and whispered "Pagi dwero. Pants backwards" and pointed. I thanked him and fixed them quickly, although I think I frightened the crap out of the boy I walked in on in the changing room. Oops.

I've been slightly less of an idiot since that first day. But only slightly.

It's a little hard not going everyday because the kids don't get used to me as quickly. And Sa Beom Nim yelled at the black belt boys who weren't really trying during kicking drills by comparing them to me who has only studied for five months and is a foreigner. I was both proud and embarrassed at the same time.

There's a boy who studies at Oedae (he's not my student) who is in my class. His English name is Mike and he's cute as can be (actually too cute to discipline properly sometimes), but definitely a bit of a troublemaker. He had taken to saying, "Excellent!" all the time at Oeadae, but in taekwondo class he wouldn't do it. But he gets in trouble with Sa Beom Nim constantly. It's pretty hilarious. He's got the same color belt as I do (purple).

There's also a new white belt--this tiny little girl who is adorable and utterly fascinated with me.

Se Beom Nim is awesome. I'm impressed by the controlled chaos that is TKD class. Everyone does different things at different times based on their TKD level and fitness level and he manages them all very well--not easy with crazy little ones.

I really should be doing some extra workouts to keep up my level, but I'm such a lazy bum when it's cold outside. Especially since I've been craving so much chocolate lately... Ah well.

Hospital Efficiency.

I've been sick for the last week or so with a persistent case of sinusitis (I assume). I kept hoping it would clear up on its own as I've heard mixed reviews of the medical treatment in Korea. Well, after waking up pretty much unable to breathe I decided I should high tail it to the doc's office and get some freaking antibiotics already to clear this baby up.

In Korea, they don't have doctor's offices, exactly. They have hospitals. What we think of as a hospital (with a 24 hour emergency room) they call big hospitals, so I'm told. It sounds weird to me to go to a hospital for a routine doc's visit, but at lunch today that's where I went. I was shocked.

The experience was awesome. The hospital was super clean, the staff friendly and helpful despite my limited Korean, and the doctor actually listened to my symptoms. He didn't explain as much as an American doc would (like about what he was prescribing and such), but I kind of knew to expect that. He kept checking to make sure I understood him when he spoke in Korean.

They sent me on my way to the pharmacy up the street. The medicine and doc visit together cost less than $10.

The medicine is a little scary since it's all mixed together broken up by breakfast, lunch, and dinner packets, rather than by medicine type, but again the pharmacist kept checking that I understood what I was supposed to do and was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

The only part of the whole Korean hospital experience I lacked was the requisite steroids shot in the butt. I'm torn between wondering what part of my ass is so offensive as to not warrant a happy shot and relieved that I didn't have to refuse it.

Best of all? I was done with both the doc visit and had the meds from the pharmacy in about 30 minutes. With no appointment.

Hey America! Listen up! What the heck is wrong with you and your broken health care system? Now it's time for my dinner pill pack--yummy!

Sunday "Hiking"

Around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, we emerge from the noraebang into the late night mess of Daegu's city streets. A thought occurs to me.

"Crap a doodle. I'm climbing a mountain tomorrow."

Rick turns to me. "You are not climbing a mountain tomorrow."

"I so am. I promised Jiny. Besides, I'm not drunk. I'm just tired."

Rebecca says, "I believe in you. You're awesome. You're so climbing a mountain tomorrow."

"Yeah. Yeah, I am."

The next morning I wake up to the alarm at 11:30 a.m. The first thought through my head is I am not going to be one of those friends. You know, the ones who promise to do something and then ditch out at the last second. Rebecca is sleeping on my couch and cheers me on from her comatose state as I get ready for hiking. I hate myself.

I meet Se Jin at the station on time. It's wonderful to see her. I'm glad I came. "I'm so tired." Thank God!

"Me, too! If you want to just go hang around and relax somewhere instead that's fine with me..." Hint, hint.

"No, I want to go to the mountain!" Ok. It was worth a shot. Besides, mountain air is relaxing, right?

After the bus ride out to Donghwasa (which I visited previously when my old camera was on its last legs), I convinced Se Jin to ride the cable car to the top of the mountain. It's like hiking, but with less work. Not that it was terribly difficult to convince someone whose work schedule this month blows more than mine and has insomnia not to climb one of the hardest mountains in Daegu... but still. It was fun. A quick jaunt and we were at the top--with snow!

Too bad it doesn't look quite as beautiful in pictures--can you see the Reunification Buddha down below?

I had already wandered around the temple grounds a couple months ago, so I wasn't really all that excited to do so, but I had my faithful nampyeon.

The temple was decorated with these really colorful lanterns for the New Year.

What a difference a good camera makes.

Check out the wasp's nest under the giant Buddha's hand.

And I always love chatting with a good friend about all my plans for saving the world. Starting with working at an orphanage in Daegu after intensives finish. Turns out Se Jin wants to help--so maybe we will go together.

Isn't she awesome? And isn't this Buddha freaking enormous???

People also left little statues and prayer beads in the gaps of the stone wall surrounding the temple complex.

Tiny Buddhas

To see all of the pictures taken on my fabulous camera (there are some fantastic shots--ignore the fact that I look like crap), check out the album:

Palgongsan and Donghwasa Temple (Winter)

After the "hiking" trip, we grabbed dinner and coffee downtown.

"You know," Se Jin says to me after showing me pictures on her camera she took last week of her family, and I gushed over the cuteness of her nieces and nephews because it's easy to do. "My father asked me the English word for 'daughter' the other day."

"Yeah?"

"He told me, 'I have five daughters now.' He meant you." Se Jin has three older sisters.

I am close to tearing up--and I can't even explain why. "Tell him I am honored." I am--beyond words I can express to him in Korean. Or English for that matter.