Happy Birthday Buddha...

Since today is Buddha's 2568th (?) Birthday, and about 1/4 of the Korean population is Buddhist, today is a holiday.

A few moments ago, I was enjoying this holiday with a cup of coffee and a good book on my balcony - when my quiet morning was shattered by the most horrific racket I've ever heard. It was louder and more prolonged even than any rucus I've caused since I was 5.

Moving aside my bamboo curtains, I peered down to discover the source of the commotion. It turns out bricks are being delivered to the back of our building, and they are being delivered in the following manner:

An entire load of bricks is stacked on the back of a bongbong truck (A Korean style pick-up truck). The solitary brick delivery man is standing in the bed of the truck pushing all the bricks row-by-row off the stack. All the bricks clink-a-chink together, until they go tumbling and rumbling over the metal ridge of the truck and onto the pavement below. So it's an entire prolonged symphony of "Clink-clink-chink - bricks, bang-clang-bang - metal, crash-bang-clatter - pavement." Oh well, at least he decided to wait until 11 o'clock, and didn't start conducting such noise at 5am.

Speaking of 5 am, that's when the crazy rooster has gotten warmed up. Most roosters, as we all know, go "Cock-a-doodle-doo" in their own special rooster way. Not the nutcase that lives in the village beside my building. This lazy rooster wakes up early early early every every every morning, and cries out "Cock-a....." "Cock-a...." So there I lay in bed, every nerve on edge, waiting in vain for the "Doodle-Doo". It never comes. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that my life would one day be lacking in sufficient "Doodle-Doo"'s, but lo and behold, that day has come.

No More Monkeys...

As a person approaches the age of 30, (give or take a couple of years), they should receive a reminder in the mail. This reminder should state "Monkey Bars were not made for people of your age." Yes, today I forgot that I'm no longer 10 years old. We were hiking an exercise trail in Seoul (some of you may remember Participaction Parks - it's a similar concept). When lo & behold, we saw some Monkey Bars, all my mature restraint and decorum left me, and I decided to play. Now I'm sore and bruised. ouch.

I've changed my mind...

After considering the list of 100 places I posted last time, I've changed my mind. I've decided to save myself hours of jetlag and tons of money by making my own list. Of places I've already been, and would like to see again, and would strongly encourage others to visit if they have the chance. And so... in no particular order:

1 - The Great Wall of China. (China) Sure it's just old bricks, but by golly there are alot of them.

2 - Harbin Ice Festival. (China) It's cold, and dark, and cold some more, but it's a stunning combination of breathtaking beauty and bizarre tackiness.

3 - Hershey Chocolate Factory. (Canada) 'nough said.

4 - Blue Lagoon (Iceland). Gorgeous, blue warm water 12 months a year. It's a huge natural spa surrounded by black volcanic rock. Very cool.

5 - Daechun Beach Mud Festival (Korea). Lots and lots of soft silky mud to play in. Everyone is covered from head to foot in smooth mud.

6 - Bay of Fundy (Canada). Same muddy reasons as above, but also some gorgeous hiking trails.

7 - Museum of London. (England) Hours and Hours of museum fun. It traces the history of London from pre-Roman days to the present. It's fabulous.

8 - JeunJu Paper Museum. (Korea) Yes, it sounds like an absolute nightmare of a way to spend an afternoon. But there are many hidden amusements within. I've never laughed so hard, or for so long in a museum before.

9 - Q'Appelle Valley. (Canada)They look like mountains that got shaved. The top is all flat, like the Prairies should be...then poof, you're driving in a valley.

10 - Inside my Tent. (Anywhere). It could be pitched in my back yard, and it would still feel like an adventure.

Okay - so there are 10 of my favourite places. I also have a list of 4 places I would like to go. Dorking (England), Ko PiPi (Thailand), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Disco Island (Greenland). Why? For the pure and simple reason that the names amuse me.

One more list...

As some of you know, this year I'm reading my way through the BBC's list of most loved English books. Not all of them are great, but at least it gets me reading things I usually wouldn't choose.

Now, thanks to Ben's Blog, I've decided to start working my way through the top 100 wonders of the world. Hopefully by the time I retire, I'll have seen at least one on each continent.

I've been to
#2 - the Great Wall of China (9 thumbs up)
#16 - the Forbidden City (8 thumbs up)
#73 - New York Skyline (I couldn't see my thumbs. It was dark)
#88 - Statue of Liberty (I was far away, so it was the size of 1 thumb)
#94 - British Museum. (5 thumbs up.)

Let me know where you've been! And assume you have 10 thumbs to rate 'em with.

And the beat goes on...

Next week is Festival Week here at DaeguDae. Already there are tents, stages, lights and mammoth speakers being erected around campus. It should be a fun week. My students are already excited about it, and have been inviting me to come visit their tents (each faculty has a beer tent, with snacks, games and, well, ... beer).

We're expected to teach next week...even though the music is so loud we'll hardly be able to hear ourselves talk, only 4 or 5 of the keenest students will actually come to class, and even they will be hung-over. So, I've told my students that I'll be there, but I won't be taking attendance. To my students, this translates as "Oh, I don't have to go to class."

On Saturday, 2 of our teachers will be close to their birthdays, so all the teachers are getting together to play volleyball and/or frisbee in the afternoon, and rounding off the evening with a big BBQ bash. There are big brick BBQ's in a little park near our apartments, and everyone is always up for a good reason to slap some meat on the coals.

All this makes me realize that I've been here for 3 months (nearly a whole semester), and I still don't feel as though I've been working. I feel as though I've been on holidays ever since the weather turned nice. Ahhhhhh..... Life is Good.

Just to prove you wrong....

On occasion, some of my friends accuse me of having an exciting life. In order to dispel such vicious rumours, and prove once and for all that my life is really pretty dull, I'll relate how I'm spending my Saturday.

I have spent 3 hours doing laundry and cleaning my closet. As a reward for finally packing away my winter wear, I made myself a glass of Ice Cappuccino, and sorted my coins. The thrills never cease.

While sitting on my floor surrounded by coins, I got to thinking... mostly about how much I like my new colour of toenail polish, but also about 3 other things.

1) There's not a great deal of creativity going into coin-size in this world. Except for the pictures, there's no difference between a Canadian quarter and a Korean Baek Won. A Canadian Dime and a Singapore dime are also about the same size. The Japanese do get some credit for showing some spunk in their coins with big holes in them.

2) Coins say a great deal about what's important to a culture. Korean coins have ancient temples, Great Historical figures and rice. (As an interesting aside, the first modern South Korean coins were minted in 1959...in Philidelphia) Canadian coins on the other hand have leaves and weird animals. I'm starting to think of some other ideas we can submit to the Canadian mint... suggestions, anyone?

3) I'll come across an old coin, or one that looks like it's got some wear and tear, and I think about everything it's been through. Riots, Revolutions, floods... all kinds of things. Then I start to think about where it's been...pockets, sidewalks, gutters, and I start to get grossed out, and go wash my hands.

What a day...

I'd forgotten how much I (sometimes) like to travel. I finished teaching at 10:00am yesterday, and today was a holiday. With a mid-week weekend available, I headed to Daejeon. Mike is heading back to Canada on Saturday, so I thought I'd wish him a fond farewell (until he comes back in June...)

Coming back this evening, I got on the train ~ with the Pusan soccer team. (drool) But they were in a different car, so the excitement ends there. I also discovered that my friend John and his girlfriend were on the same train. At our stop, his girlfriend continued on and we headed for the exit. Usually, I take the train - then the subway for 20 minutes - then a bus for 40 minutes before I'm home. However, John filled me in on a secret that there is another train that takes only 20 minutes, and cuts out all the subway / bus time. Hooray! We boarded the 'secret train' and were engrossed in conversation as the train slowed to a crawl. Thinking we were missing our stop, we lept up, and ran to the end of the car. The door was closed, but John hit a button and it opened. He got off, and I followed. As I was stepping off the train, I realized IT WAS STILL MOVING!! Slowly, but moving. Then a man with a flashlight started hollering and waving at us. ooops. It wasn't a stop at all. We were just slowing down for some reason. So, we lept back on the train through the next door, and eventually made a rather bashful-faced exit about 5 minutes later - at our proper stop. What a day.

Thunderbolts and Lightening...

Last night I had an evening class to teach. The day had been hot and sunny, but by the time 6 o'clock rolled around I had changed into a longsleeved shirt to wear to class. About 15 minutes into the class, the sky turned green, a bolt of lightening flashed and was followed almost immediately by a tremendous clap of thunder. The wind started howling, and withing moments large chunks of hail started pelting the windows. My students rushed to the windows, threw them open and started catching the hail and tossing the chunks of ice back and forth across the room. It was complete chaos, and lasted for about 60 seconds - then the hail stopped, and my students returned to their seats. Then, about 5 minutes later, I saw a flash of round lightening. Yes - round. It was like a big ring of lightening that flashed, and was gone. After that the thunderstorm moved away, but I still had to walk home in the drenching rain. I couldn't have been wetter if I had of climbed into a bathtub fully dressed.

Sorrow and Friendship...

This has been a sad week, but as is always the case, a liberal dose of blessings were mixed in for comfort.

Early Monday morning (in Korea) my Gramma passed away (in Canada). I've been hesitant to post any Blogs since then because words always seem to fail me when the subject matter is important or emotional. Gramma was 96 years old and spent the majority of those years praying constantly for her family. She lived a full life, and brought abundant amounts of joy to a whole whack of people. I love Gramma dearly, and will always be thankful for the love and support that she bestowed liberally on her massive family. I'm going to miss her alot.

I know that many people around the world were praying for our family. Thank-you. I can't speak for others in my family who were far away from Gramma when she died, but I know that although I felt the distance, I never felt alone.

On Monday, my friend Kyung-Min called to say he wouldn't be able to come visit me on Tuesday as planned. However, shortly after he heard about Gramma, he changed his mind, and travelled for several hours after finishing a 16 hour shift so he could "be a consolation" to me. He was a consolation and a blessing to me.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and words of support and encouragement.

More Politics, and some explicit language...

Now that my e-mail is up and running again, and I've plunked myself down to make a new entry, I've realized that not much has happened in the past week and a half.

Due to pronunciation difficulties, I had more then one student remind me that they wouldn't be here on Thursday because it was "Erection Day". Yes indeed, it's a national holiday. I let the prununciation slide. I had enough trouble trying to distinguish between "Mother-in-Law" and "Mother-in-the-raw" during our unit on families. Anyway, from what I can gather, the election went well, and shows stong support for the Impeached President. Also, the number of women represented in the legislature doubled from the last election. One news item that followed the election was something I've never seen in the west....they had a graph illustrating the age groups of the newly elected legislators. Only in a country where age distinctions are still so rigid would this be necessary.

This coming week is Midterms. It's so nice to be on this side of the desk at this time of year! I'm giving speaking exams in class all week, then have to proctor written exams on Saturday. Some teachers grumble about having to proctor exams on a weekend, but I'd much rather be giving it than writing it!

Oh - And I have my vacation schedule now. I'll be in Canada from Mid-July to Late-August. I'll be hitting Victoria, Vancouver, Regina, Moncton and Ottawa. (Not necessarily in that order). If you live in or near any of those places and want to buy me dinner (I'll settle for a coffee) let me know.

Spring is in the air...

It's Spring. Farmers are preparing their fields for planting. The entire campus smells like a port-a-potty for cows and sheep. Ugh.

If only everything were so easy...

This week has been FABULOUS!! I've already mentioned the weather, now I should mention my work week. In a nutshell, 1/2 my classes had quizzes ~ they write for about 30-35 minutes, hand in their papers, and are done for the day. The other 1/2 of my classes had MT's, which means they're not there at all. From what I can gather, and MT consists of 1st year students milling about between piles of small suitcases, rows of big busses, and stacks of beer cases. Eventually, the students get on the bus, the suitcases go under the bus, and the beer follows behind on a truck. Everything disappears for 2~3 days.

So today for example, I showed up for my 9am class. Only 5 students were there. I chatted with them for a bit, then sent them home. My next class, I gave them a quiz, then sent them home. My last class was entirely empty, so I sent myself home. As I was leaving the building, I saw my students and their luggage spilling out of a returned bus. The beer was gone. They called me over for a few minutes and I discovered that they had spent the last 3 days at Pohang beach. A few of the more bleary-eyed guys also revealed where the beer had disappeared to. And there you have it. It looks as though, whether I like it or not, the work "hangover" is going to be in next weeks vocabulary. I've done almost no teaching whatsoever this week, and Monday is a holiday. (However, I've now got 300 quizzes to mark....)

Incentive...

My tutor is awesome. The other day he says "Janice, I made you a present. If you get all the answers on this page right, I'll give it to you." sweet. So, I concentrated as hard as my little brain could, and got everything right. He reached into his pocket and handed me a beautiful earring. Just one. Then, with a laugh he tells me that if I want to be able to wear them as a pair, I need to get the next page right as well. So, eventually, I prevailed and now have a gorgeous pair of black earrings as a hard earned reward! I still despair that I will never be able to hold a decent conversation in Korean, but I'm studying much harder than I expected I would!

In horticultural news, the cherry trees are in full blossom, and line every lane and path on campus. Absolutely beautiful. For those of you familiar with the sight, it looks similar to Anne of Green Gables and her first drive with Matthew through the orchard. Not quite as breathtaking, but close enough.

Oh, and for those of you concerened either with my safety, or the safety of nearby pedestrians, I didn't buy Chris' scooter. I'm still riding my little Marry Poppins basket-in-front bike.

Too many nipples...

Yes, you read that right. There are too many nipples. 27 to be exact. The new office has now been decorated ~ with a whole lot of nude paintings. There are 27 nipples between the elevator and my desk. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have any objections to art. And the pictures are quite nice. But there are SO many of them lining the hallway. However, in the stairwells, there are some fabulous photos. There is a whole series of black and white photos from the late 19th, early 20th Century Korea. So, combine the excrutiatingly slow elevator with the fascinating photography, I've been taking the stairs pretty often. Unfortunately, I'm still subjected to 'nipple row'.

It was supposed to be simple...

The plan seemed so easy. For the chapter on preposotions of place, and directions, John, Jenn and I decided to send our students on a scavenger hunt. And so, we scurried around campus putting up markers on benches, behind statues, etc. We gave our students their directions, and set them loose. The finish line we happily decided, was the cafe in the main building. The plan was to sit and sip coffee while waiting for our students to finish the race. HOWEVER, some of my students took down all the markers, and what my students didn't take down, the cleaning ladies did. So, here we are racing around in the 10 minutes before our next class trying to put them all back up again. Jen would park her car, then all 3 of us would spill out and take off in a full sprint to the various locations, then make a mad dash back to the car. It was insane. My legs are killing me, and we still have 4 more classes to go through this with. Ugh!

On the other hand, the students are having a great time, and I am now on a first name basis with the nice man in the coffee shop. His name is Lee. Mine is Janice.

Oh....and just so you know, my e-mail has been down in my apartment, so I can only scrounge a few minutes here and there at the office. Sorry for not replying to any e-mails!!!

Movin' on Up...

The first hours of this day were spent packing and lugging a few (not many) boxes from our current office on the 2nd floor of the 2nd Student Union Building to our spankin' new digs on the 6th floor of the main building. The new offices are decked out with sweet swivel/rocker/roller chairs, and my desk faces the window overlooking the forest and mountains. To make the entire deal even sweeter, there is a wonderful coffee shop on the 2nd floor...which by necessity I'll need to walk past on my way to the elevator. I think that me and the nice guy that works there are going to become the best of friends.

However, just because the offices are new and beautiful, don't think that there weren't a few glitches. As always, the helter-skelter planning that seems to dominate businesses in this nation, helped contribute to some confusion this morning...when it was discovered that the office was short 2 cubicles. Yes, someone forgot to take into account that the number of teachers we have would also require that many desks. The second matter of confusion arose when one of my co-workers said "Hey, this is beautiful! Where are the computers going to be?" At which point one of the people in charge got a terrified look on his face, he glanced around the full room like a cornered rabbit, then rushed out. Yuppers...after ordering new computers and their components to replace some of the old ones we were using, nobody bothered to wonder where they would be set up! Sometimes ya just gotta laugh.

It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, the cherry and magnolia blossoms are starting to bloom, students are sitting around the student union building strumming guitars or practicing their fencing. I'm doing laundry. blah. I'm also contemplating buying a scooter for bombing around campus. One of my co-workers just upgraded to a real motorcycle, so I'm going to take his scooter for a test drive this evening.

I just finished my third Korean lesson with JooYong, and I think I'm improving. I still speak like a turtle with a mouthful of molasses, but at least I'm getting my verbs and object particles in the right places. (most of the time). It's a good thing he's patient.

Pottery classes are going well, and I'm going to try and sneak into the art room this weekend to make a few extra pieces. Yes, I'll do it under the cover of darkeness, and dress entirely in black, with some tree branches stuck to my head to disguise my appearance. Then, instead of asking the office assistant for the key, I'll try and sqeeze myself through one of the rusty barred windows. Yessir, it'll be an adventure.

Well, the race is on. Yesterday afternoon I played volleyball with the other foreign teachers. I stank. Today, I had my first Korean lesson with my tutor JooYong. I stank. So...the race is on to see which skill will actually improve this semester ~ My athletic or linguistic ability. ? I'll keep you posted.

I bought a pair of jeans from a sidewalk vendor yesterday. They were cheap, and they fit quite well. As I was taking the tags off, I noticed that instead of listing the fabric used, this is what the tag says....

mainly mum (25%) Korean, height, kind, stupidly believe, people, full of love.
Dad (5%) korean, height 170cm, sharp, sensitivity
#1 brother (15%) nine year older, married. sensitivity and sharp.
#2 brother (15%) six years older. Kinda lazy works with me.
#3 brother (15%) eleven years younger. student, loves with me. oldest
sister unlaw (10%) works with me. oldest brother's wife.
my wife (25%) height 173 cm, American, model

we are happy

Yup, so instead of your usual denim or cotton blends, my pants have 110% of a Korean family in them. I love this country.

I don't usually write about politics. I think that's because I'm not usually interested in politics, nor do I have anything relevant to say. However, when you're eating in the cafeteria and all eyes are glued to the TV, so you look to see what's going on, and you see a swarm of men in suits and ties brawling ~ you take some notice.

Yesterday, South Korea's president was impeached. From what I can tell, the Western Media and the Korean Public tend to disagree on exactly what went down. All I know is that Korean TV stations yesterday were full of footage that showed men in suits behaving like NHL players at a WWF Wrestling workshop. It was bizarre.

Some of my Korean friends attended impromptu candlelight rallies to protest the impeachment. About 70% of Koreans are opposed to the impeachment (according to German news sources), and everyone I've talked to sees it as an attempt for the opposition party to seize power...so they can go ahead and mis-use the money that President Roh was accused of mis-using. And that, my friends, is why I don't like politics.