tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51174351940921811992024-03-14T07:24:08.123+09:00View from Gangwon-doHow a 28 year old from the US views the world from South Korea.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-74915202035915951622009-08-13T16:37:00.007+09:002009-08-14T01:00:11.828+09:00My 10 Favorite Things About Living and Teaching in Korea<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFh6IPSjO9htJFFuSu5c0t7iTJF8sfgkQb_ztpGNyEEycboJaWWizSND0ANpYPspH6SZbu1QaxvtKFOS_kD8ccP4NZdwUS3P8MvoyiFViJyNG5vTNDr98AbW_5H4lJxhkukiXx8hJdA/s1600-h/SDC12754-3.JPG"></a>I'm two days away from leaving Korea. In two years of living here, I have developed deeply ambivalent feelings about both my experience here and the society itself. A couple days ago, I was re-reading <i>The Prophet</i>, and I was surprised to find a section that echoed my feelings about leaving Korea:<div><br /></div><div>The hero has been in a strange land for twelve years and upon seeing the ship that will return him to his homeland...</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(204, 153, 0); font-family:'Georgia: font-size: 12pt';"><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"the gates of his heart were flung open, and his joy flew far over the sea. And he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But as he descended the hill, a sadness came upon him, and he thought in his heart: How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Too many fragments of the spirit have I scatterd in these streets, and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without a bruden and an ache.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nor is it a thought I leave behind me, but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yet I cannot tarry longer.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould."</span></span></p></span></div><div><div>A bit dramatic perhaps, but it really nails how I'm feeling. But, moving along... last week I posted my <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-10-least-favorite-things-about.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">10 least favorite things about living and teaching here</span></a>, and here are my 10 favorite things about living and teaching here, plus a few runners-up.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Runners-up</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Ice cream bars</b> -- This didn't make the top ten because it has been absolutely disastrous for my fitness. At every convenience store, and they're everywhere, there is a freezer full of delicious ice cream on a stick in every flavor you could imagine and more (one of my favorites is a chocolate bar on a stick, surrounded with "nano-silver vanilla", coated with chocolate and peanuts, another is melon, another still is watermelon flavored and shaped ice cream with hazelnut seeds). A full price bar is 700 won ($.55), and most places sell them at half price. I don't know how that can be profitable (and I probably don't want to), but it sure does make for a delicious, fattening summer.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Elders' robustness</b> -- Before the monsoon came with its endless days of rain, I was playing tennis every morning with a 64 year old man that was in nearly as good of shape as I am. I never saw him eat an ice cream bar. On my way to school, I routinely see 80-something year old men and women hunched over working in the fields, digging up potatoes or planting chili pepper plants. I've never seen them eating ice cream bars either.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Lack of zoning</b> -- Where I come from, an area is either commercial or residential, so people end up driving a lot. Here, everything is mixed together, so people walk. On one level, it's nice to have a convenience store (with ice cream bars) in the same building as my apartment. On another level, it gets people out in the streets and creates a mixing of people and a sense of community involvement that I think we could use more of at home.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Free time</b> -- I am ambivalent about this. Every single day here, I've had hours of free time. I play guitar, watch TV, read, watch movies, cook, paint, play online games, meditate, etc. I have learned a lot from the reading I've done, I'm a better guitarist and singer and cook, and I'm a champion of Settlers of Catan (my online game of choice), but I'm also bored a lot and frequently feel like I'm wasting my life away. It is that feeling that compelled me to take the plunge into grad school at the end of my contract here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, to the top ten....</div><div><br /></div><div><b>10. Gardens everywhere</b> -- </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0qNLkM3JOijbSIQRq0AsjmQQ4XapesQQZ02uSoAobWeoSZU8EUX5h9AnJAaOyspkGtRjZoTntxCmbs8iVV036-mcxQCgpGbZrqYjpvWgLHWco7BAKbW4rheGFtxPDY5gQAhCAeZhMBw/s320/garden+yard.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369363650289342002" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span><div>This province, Gangwon-do, is notorious in Korea for being difficult to grow food. The people respond by growing food absolutely everywhere. Any land that is less than a 15% incline and is not paved over is growing food, without exception. That's true whether it's someone's front yard, a triangle of dirt between a bridge and road, or way up in the valleys that surround the towns. They're not farms, much more like what we think of as gardens. They grow chili peppers, corn, soy beans, onions, garlic, potatoes, greens, grapes and on the occasional flat section of land, rice. This is this old couple's yard. It's worth noting that it's September and they're planting, probably the third crop of the year. I'm certain they would think we are insane for the money, effort, fertilizer and pesticides we put into grass.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>9. Jjimjilbang</b> -- These are combination health club, sauna and recreation center. Admission is about $5 and for that you soak in hot tubs infused with jade or eucalyptus or whatever, sweat in the saunas and steam rooms, and get a sports massage or a scrub down from an old Korean man wearing nothing more than briefs. There are restaurants, but for reasons that escape me Koreans seem to prefer to pig out on hard boiled eggs at these places. There are barbers and televisions and computers and massage chairs and cold and hot rooms and salt rooms and charcoal rooms and oxygen rooms. A great place to hang out and warm up in the winter or sweat out in the summer.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>8. Outdoorsiness</b> -- Koreans love the outdoors, whether eating squid jerky and drinking rice wine behind an apartment building, or hiking through valleys (which they have done an excellent job of protecting by concentrating in the cities the population of 50 million people in a country the size of Indiana). I love the tendency toward the outdoors, especially in summer, when restaurants pull out their plastic tables and the dining room floors spill out into the streets. The images of dozens of Koreans eating, drinking and laughing in a courtyard on a warm summer night will stay with me for a long time.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>7. The sweet kids</b> -- </div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFh6IPSjO9htJFFuSu5c0t7iTJF8sfgkQb_ztpGNyEEycboJaWWizSND0ANpYPspH6SZbu1QaxvtKFOS_kD8ccP4NZdwUS3P8MvoyiFViJyNG5vTNDr98AbW_5H4lJxhkukiXx8hJdA/s1600-h/SDC12754-3.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFh6IPSjO9htJFFuSu5c0t7iTJF8sfgkQb_ztpGNyEEycboJaWWizSND0ANpYPspH6SZbu1QaxvtKFOS_kD8ccP4NZdwUS3P8MvoyiFViJyNG5vTNDr98AbW_5H4lJxhkukiXx8hJdA/s320/SDC12754-3.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369368058251294098" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 320px; " /></a>Not all of them were, but the ones that were sweet were the cutest, kindest, funnest kids I've ever known.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>6. The restaurants & the food</b> -- A lot of foreigners here complain about the cuisine, and while I admit the flavors can get a bit monotonous (sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and chilies), I love the food, even though much of it is off limits to me as a vegetarian. Restaurants typically specialize in just a few dishes, are usually owned and run by an old lady who might work with one other old lady to prepare the food, serve the food, clean the place and everything. My favorite restaurant in town is a place where a 4' 6" 60 year old lady serves grilled fish lettuce wraps (I'm a quasi-vegetarian here) and seems to rotate through being amused, confused, appreciative and fed-up with the foreigners that frequent her place. The prices, and there's no tax or tipping, so what you see on the menu on the wall is what you actually pay, for a typically quick meal might be $3, and unless it's a very special dish (or foreign food or drink), meals rarely exceed $10 per person.<div><div><br /></div><div>Every meal comes with bancheon, side dishes, that always include kimchi and usually other fermented vegetables. In a cheap place, you might just get three little kimchis, in a nicer place, it's not uncommon to get over ten bancheon, and they might include fried fish or raw octopus or other treats that can be even better than the central meal itself. In most cases, everything is shared with everyone at the table. In fact, when eating with Koreans, even glasses are shared -- it's a neat little social device... if you see that someone is bored or if you want to chat with someone that you're not sitting near, you take them your empty glass and a bottle of soju (chemically fermented rice wine) and pour them a shot, and in that manner, over a meal that might last a few hours, people move around (everyone sits on the floor) and everyone talks with everyone, everyone shares germs and everyone gets drunk.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>5. Community focus</b> -- This is the highest ranking item that is really about Korean society, as the next four each have to do with my position here. On the whole, I'm not a big fan of Confucianism, at least as it operates in modern Korea. However, the focus on social harmony is really nice, and something that I think we North Americans could learn a lot from. Where <i>I</i> is the dominant pronoun in the US, <i>we</i> is here. Studies have shown that the different mindsets actually affect visual perception, such that Asians are more inclined to view ambiguous situations from a removed, more holistic perspective, whereas Westerners are more inclined to view the same situation from inside it, from a first person perspective. Unfortunately, because of the xenophobia here, foreigners are not always considered part of the community in the same way Koreans are, which I think makes being a foreigner here harder than it would be in a more individualistic society like the US. But, while I'm sure my Korean friends still think I'm terribly obstuse and inconsiderate, this mindset has implanted itself in my head, and I'm glad for it. I hope it stays with me through the years.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>4. Income:expenses ratio</b> -- The salary foreigners earn teaching in Korea isn't anything special, except that foreign teachers' apartments are paid for by employers, as are airfare here and home and immigration costs. Food is cheap, entertainment (at least out here in the boonies) is scarce, and buying stuff doesn't usually make sense when you know you have to fit everything you own into two suitcases at the end of the year. Health care is nationalized and very inexpensive and the tax structure is very progressive so even those who aren't exempt pay less than 4% income tax. I have been saving almost 80% of my salary, and on top of that I'll receive about two months' bonus pay at the end of my contract. No one has gotten rich doing it, but especially for folks right out of college or when the job market at home is what it is right now, it can be a very solid financial move. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>3. Vacation time & neighboring destinations</b> -- While I've been here, I've spent time in China, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, Thailand, and Thailand again. Spending almost the entire month of February in Thailand is about as good as it gets. And it was a relatively quick flight on a lovely Asian airline to get there.</div><div><div><br /></div><div><b>2. Novelty in everything</b> -- Living here is a bit like being a child. You never really know what's going on, you don't have responsibilities the same way you would at home, you're easily surprised, and routine events are novel and exciting. It's incredibly frustrating, but also really enjoyable.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>1. Anonymity & outsiderness</b> -- There is something comforting about knowing that no one knows you, and that no one can. If people are going to stare at me as I walk down the street, I might as well wear shorts and flip-flops and sing as I walk. If my students are going to think I'm a weird foreigner anyway, it's much easier to engage them with silly foolishness that I might hold back at home. At home, as soon as you see someone, you thin-slice their age, sex, body language, clothing, and a thousand other things and make a judgement about who they are and how they relate to you in society. In a culture as foreign as this, that's impossible. Advertising doesn't affect you, because it is designed to take advantage of the human mind's inability to stop thin slicing. And not understanding what that 16 year old girl on the bus won't stop talking about can be really nice.</div><div><br /></div><div>I couldn't have named this at the time, but this is what brought me back to Korea for a second year. When you remove a person from their native culture, you force them to examine themselves in way that is otherwise impossible. We define ourselves by our relations: to our jobs, our achievements, our friends and family, our hobbies, and the culture we consume (and, less often it seems, create). Take away all those things and one has to look internally for a sense of identity. That transformation started for me in my first year here, but it didn't have time to run to completion. When I got home, I didn't identify in society as I had previously, but I was still looking to things like my friends and my job to define my position in society, my social identity, especially since it had been upended since I had left. I ended up feeling lost and floundering around for quite a while before returning to Korea. I don't know if that transition ever really reaches completion, but I know that I am going home with a much stronger internal compass than I had before I came to Korea, in addition to a much broader perspective on culture, politics and the world.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-62469967900708274082009-08-07T14:56:00.004+09:002009-08-07T16:20:47.006+09:00My 10 Least Favorite Things About Living and Teaching in KoreaI've got a week left here in Korea before I go home to start grad school and say goodbye to the Sparkling Hermit Kingdom of Morning Calm for good. I've lived and taught here for two years, and it has been wonderful and terrible, glorious and excruciating, boring and exciting, eye opening and let-me-just-tune-out-the-world-and-watch-television-for-weeks-on-end.<br /><br />I thought I'd finish out the year with two last posts: my ten favorite things about living here and my ten least favorite things. So that we end on a positive note, here are ten things that I have found consistently, repeatedly, powerfully annoying.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">10. "Hello! Howareyou! Whereareyoufrom!" </span> This is at the bottom of the list because in slightly modified form, it can actually be nice. When I pass an ajuma and her 4 year old granddaughter and the ajuma smiles and tells her granddaughter to say hello, it's really sweet. When I'm in the right mood, it can make me smile for a bunch of middle school girls to get over themselves and say hello and then giggle for fifteen seconds. But when I pass a group of college aged boys (or grown men!) across the street and one yells out "whereareyoufrom!" and the others start laughing uproariously, that's annoying.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">9. Auto exhaust. </span>I like to run and I walk everywhere, so I spend a lot of time "with" cars, trucks and scooters. I don't know what it is that our exhaust tests in the states get off the road, but the majority of autos here put out a foul, noxious gas that I'm sure is just destroying my lungs. Of course the tractors and scooters are even worse.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">8. Sewers rising. </span>Again, I don't know what they've done in the US to prevent the smells of sewers from rising into the streets, but they certainly haven't figured it out here. The national dish is kimchi -- rotting (er, sorry, fermenting) cabbage with garlic, fish sauce, shrimp paste and chilies. Unfortunately, that's what everyone shits and it smells even worse than you would imagine.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">7. Fan death and other insanity.</span> A lot of Koreans (maybe a majority. really. even doctors.) think that if you sleep with a fan on in your room you will die. A lot of Koreans also think that Korea is the pinnacle of culture and accomplishment. Logic here is... to be culturally sensitive, I'll say different, though having studied symbolic logic, I feel pretty comfortable saying it's just either missing or gets beat out by antiquated cultural beliefs. Ignorance and delusion are everywhere.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">6. Logistical challenges.</span> A lot of things are a lot harder in a foreign country. Often to buy something, I have to ask a Korean friend for help. I'm not going to miss feeling like a retarded four year old.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">5. Volume and style of speech. </span>Korean men are much worse than the women on this, though plenty of women are plenty annoying as well. Fresh from the west, you would honestly think a discussion on where to go to lunch was a boiling blood feud. Koreans love to eat and drink outside (which I love), and there's a nice spot just below my apartment window (which I don't love). For hours on end two women will sit pouring soju (the Korean version of sake, except it's vile) for men talking and yelling and interrupting and gesticulating at volumes I thought impossible. No time of day or location is off limits for this manner of communication.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">4. Confucianism. </span>Confucius mapped out social relationships to try to produce social harmony (the ultimate goal of Confucianism) in any situation. According to Confucianism, the younger, female or lower status should be deferential and obedient, which often seems more like meek and unquestioning. I think social harmony is an admiral goal, and I think deference and humility are lacking in westerners, but the rigid way Confucianism operates in modern Korea creates manifold problems. As my coteacher (a 31 year old woman) said when she learned we wouldn't be having a retirement party for our principal (a 64 year old man) because the government found out he has been stealing money from the school, "Why does he still have job? If I am stealing, I don't have job one more day!"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">3. The staring. </span>Maybe now I know what it's like to be a gorgeous woman. No, not the same. I am stared at constantly. This was less true (though still common) in the big city, but in this rural little town, I'd say around half of the people I see on the streets just fix their gaze on me. I almost always look back, try to summon compassion and acknowledge them. Maybe one in ten gives me a nice smile and bows back (usually the older women), the rest look away until I've stopped looking at them, and then fix their stare right back on me. What really makes this hard is what's behind the stare:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2. Xenophobia. </span>Korea has long been called the Hermit Kingdom and with good reason. Throughout its existence, Korea has had to fight off domination from China and empires of the Japanese, Mongolians and others. Even in modern times, Korea has remained remarkably isolated. Besides the utter unfamiliarity with anything not-Korean, there is also a deep (and historically valid) antipathy toward foreigners. I once asked three wealthy, cosmopolitan middle school students from Busan if they would allow their children to marry foreigners and all three said absolutely not. I have received a tremendous amount of kindness and welcome from Koreans, but with a few notable exceptions, there is always an element of my being not quite the same, not quite human. What I'm about to write is completely unfair -- there are so many differences and what I have faced here doesn't even enter into the same arena -- but living here has given me emotional insight into what it must have been (and be) like to be black in many times and places in the United States.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1. Missing events and holidays at home. </span>All of the above end when I leave in a week. But one of my best friends got married this summer, and I missed two Christmases with my family, and those are gone forever. I wouldn't trade the experiences I've had for those that I missed, but without exception, the hardest days here have been the days I have most wanted to be home.<br /><br /><br />What do you think waegookin seonsaengnim... what would you have included that I've left out?Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-947974211134142072009-03-29T17:58:00.002+09:002009-03-29T18:16:20.093+09:00Teaching English in Korea InterviewI was recently asked to provide an interview about my experience teaching in Korea, my decision to move to Korea, stereotypes of English teachers in Asia, culture shock and cultural assimilation, EPIK, and some other general stuff about my experience teaching English in Korea. I thought I would go ahead and provide the interview here. I hope you find it helpful. There may be a follow up interview in the future, if so I'll post that as well.<br /><br /><br />----- Why did you first decide to move to Korea? Had you had previous<br />experience? Did you know others who had traveled to Korea before<br />deciding to relocate there? Please describe your decision making<br />process.<br /><br />My decision to come here was very circumstantial. I was working as a research scientist in the US and was dating a Canadian when my grant got canceled and I was out of work. We didn't have a good way to be together in either of our countries, and she had friends who had paid off significant portions of their student loans teaching in Korea, so we started looking into it. We considered Taiwan most seriously as an alternative, but in the end the ease of the offers in Korea -- airfare paid, apartment ready when you get here -- and the excellent pay (at that time, in 2005, the exchange rate was about 40% better than it is now) lured us here. I had one friend that had taught in Japan with JET and had a decent experience but left before the end of the year. I read a lot about teaching in Korea before I came, espeically on forums.eslcafe.com/korea, which presents a particularly negative side of teaching here, but we decided to come anyway.<br /> <br /><br />----- Was the process of moving different than what you expected? What<br />everyday difficulties, if any, do you encounter living in a foreign<br />country?<br /><br />The process of moving was very easy and more-or-less what I expected. The shock of landing in a very foreign country was intense. I had never been outside of N. America before, and Korea is very different than home. Jet lag was severe, and I remember on our second night there we went out to eat, at an Italian restaurant of all places, and after being out for an hour or two, my energy just plummeted. I didn't know how I was going to make it back to the apartment. I think our minds have a filtering system that keeps us sane by blocking most of the massive amount of information that constantly surrounds us. It filters that which is the same, usual, because we don't need to be aware of that. But suddenly in a Korean city, nothing is usual, so the mind is very easily overloaded. You ask about culture shock later, but let me say here, I think there are two seperate events that are labeled as culture shock, and they are very different. There is the experience I just described, which was very intense for just a few hours on the first few nights, mostly just lasted a few days and fades away entirely with a week or two. Then there is another experience that sets in around 3 or 4 or 6 months into living in a foreign culture, when the novelty has worn off, and things get really hard. I talk about this at length in a blog post, <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/12/novelty-lost-thoughts-on-culture-shock.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><br />----- I know there has been a stereotype of inexperienced Americans and<br />Canadians going to foreign countries and working very briefly, using<br />the job as a means to pay for a vacation. Do you think this is still<br />the case? There also has been a history of foreigners being lured to<br />countries like Korea (or Thailand) with promises of great jobs and<br />money only to be met with disappointing living and working conditions.<br /> Has this practice changed? What opinions do you have regarding<br />both sides of this complicated relationship between teachers and<br />recruiters? Do you think EPIK has changed this in Korea?<br /><br />I don't know how qualified I am to speak generally about this, especially since I haven't lived in Seoul, and that's where the vast majority of foreigners are (that was even more true before the government's recent push to put native english speakers in every public school in the country). But here are some thoughts.<br /><br />Yes, people use it as a way to get away from home, as an escape. The reality is that living and working here comes with a huge load of challenges. I don't want to say it's harder, that would depend on specific circumstances at home and here, but it's definitely hard. I don't know a single foreigner here that would disagree with that. And while I think Korea rightly has a reputation for being particularly difficult, I've heard similar complaints about Thailand, Japan, China, etc.. So if this job has a reputation for being an easy way to take a vacation, I think that's undeserved. I think we earn every won we make.<br /><br />I had read a lot about people showing up and being given moldy, rat-filled apartments. I think that has always been a tiny, if highly vocal, minority, and even more so now as the arrangement has become more widespread and communication between foreigners living here and thinking about coming here has increased. That said, people definitely do get screwed from time to time. Hagwons, the private, after-school tutoring centers that outside of EPIK employ almost all of the foreign English teachers, are intensely for-profit, and every won saved on a foreigner is a won of profit for the owner. I worried a lot about what would happen at the end of my hagwon contract, because at the end of a contract foreigners generally receive a month's pay, a bonus month's pay called severance, approximately a month's pay from contributions the boss should have been making each month to the national pension fund that can be withdrawn as a lump sum by foreigners leaving the country, and return airfare home. That adds up to about 7 million won for most foreigners. In the end, I did get nearly everything I was owed, with a hundred thousand or two won, but I felt like if the boss had thought he could have pushed me around, he probably would have.<br /><br />Recruiters are driven by profit motivation too, and they understand how few recourses a foreigner has once they have moved here. So I think it's terribly important for foreigners to get references for their recruiter and their hagwon before they sign a contract. With EPIK this is much less true because the contract is standardized and there isn't the same profit motivation present in public schools. EPIK is far from perfect, and there are plenty of complaints among my friends and I about the program, but it is much more secure than a hagwon gig.<br /><br /><br />----- Have you experienced significant "culture shock" as a foreigner in Korea?<br /><br />Yes, see answer 2.<br /><br />----- To what degree do you think it's important to assimilate to the<br />culture you are living in?<br /> <br />Again, I'm not sure how qualified I am, because I haven't ever assimilated into a foreign culture. Note that the vast, vast majority of foreigners living here don't assimilate to any noticeable degree. I suspect those that have would say that it's both difficult and important. I think it's particularly difficult in Korea, because Korea has a history of fending off foreign invasions (surrounded as have been, historically, by empires: Japanese, Mongolian, Chinese, etc.) and that has informed their culture around the treatment of foreigners. For a more thorough treatment of this, see Korea Unmasked, which is written by a Korean. I think xenophobia is common here, as is fetishization of foreigners. Racism is, I think, less common, but prevalent as well. <br /><br />On a lighter note, learning some simple aspects of the language: the "alphabet," food, numbers, taxi directions, etc. is hugely helpful, and new arrivals should learn that stuff ASAP.<br /> <br /><br />----- I know EPIK views their native English speakers as assistants to<br />the regular English teachers, do you think using native English<br />speakers is beneficial when teaching English?<br /> <br />It's true that we are titled Assistant Teachers. What this means in practice varies widely from province to province, county to county, school to school, and especially from elementary to middle to high schools. My understanding is that in elementary schools foreigners are often treated more like assistants, with Korean teachers planning the lessons and incorporating foreigners to degrees ranging from not at all (I had one coteacher, who I taught 4 hours a week with last semester, with whom I would literally sit in a student's chair, in front of the class, facing the class, which he taught, and often not say a word. I eventually started bringing books into class and sat there reading.) to true coteaching, where the teaching role is passed back and forth. There are also situations in elementary schools where the Korean teacher feels embarrassed about their English in front of a foreigner, or is just lazy, and has the foreigner do all of the lesson planning and teaching. This can be good for everyone, if the Korean stays engaged with the class to keep Korean norms around discipline and respect in order. If, as many do, the Korean sits silently in the back of the class or even walks out, it can be very frustrating. It is extremely difficult to teach beginners of a language without a common language, especially children, with their constantly ambling attention. This alone is sufficient for me to recommend EPIK over hagwons to incoming teachers -- in EPIK you have a coteacher, in hagwons you don't.<br /><br />I think it could be valuable to use native teachers, and in many cases I think it is. But the systems to make it properly and be of real benefit to the students haven't been put in place yet. This initiative to have native English speakers in every school is very young, and they are still learning how it should be done. So, as with the example I mentioned above, it often ends up being worthless for the students, and I think very frequently is of marginal value. I think a native speaker is most valuable as a teacher to advanced language learners, and those aren't primary and secondary students in Korea. With the right sort of co-teaching, I think it can be valuable. It brings a new pedagogy to language learning in Korea, which I think is sorely needed. I think it may be most valuable in diminishing xenophobia. There are now foreigners in every town in the country, and every student will grow up knowing at least 12 different foreigners. It's an extremely expensive cultural reform, but I foresee it opening up Korea quite a bit, and Korea has been a rather closed culture. When I left Korea last time, I took a ferry over to China, and the first Chinese person that I spent any time with told me that he thought culturally, "Korea is more [traditional] Chinese than China." <br /><br />----- What are some of the benefits of teaching overseas as opposed to<br />teaching in your home country? What are the negative aspects?<br /><br />This is a huge question. I think most of the benefits come from living abroad, and after that working abroad, the actually teaching abroad, in my opinion, has marginal benefits.<br /><br />For teaching, that it is easier to get into comes to mind. Anyone with a bachelors degree can get a job in Korea. It is also an easier job for most people, but this is balanced by it being harder to live and work here. The negative aspects of working here are primarily that you might not have much control over your curriculum if you teach in a public school, and you might not have much control over (or ability to communicate with) your students if you teach in a hagwon.<br /><br />A lot is made about the potential to save money here, and I think it is misunderstood. A typical job here, and this includes probably 95%+ of the jobs here pays between 2.0 - 2.3 million won per month. In addition, your airfare to and from Korea is taken care of and apartment (minus utilities) is furnished and paid for. Income tax is much more progressively structured in Korea than in the US, so at these income levels, the tax rate is 3.3%, and in public schools there is a two-year exemption from even that. Health care is socialized and costs about 50,000 won/month for coverage and makes visits to the doctor/dentist/pharmacy extremely cheap. Add to that the fact that, outside of Seoul, there isn't a lot for foreigners to spend money on. Restaurants are cheap, public transportation is excellent, and most of us don't want to accumulate much stuff, because we have to get rid of it or find a way to get it home in a year or two, and desirable entertainment options are scarce. So, 2.2 million won isn't that much money (about $1600 right now) for a month's work, but some expenses are covered by employer, some are minimized by the policies of the Korean Government, and others just aren't present here.<br /><br />The benefits of living and working abroad are significant, and I think under appreciated and misunderstood. Much has been made of President Obama having lived in many different cultures and his penchant for surrounding himself with advisors that have also lived in other cultures. People that have left their home for an extend period of time develop a different way of looking at the world. I think this comes from having the beliefs that are operant in your home society (which we don't notice because they are omnipresent) challenged. That leads people to have more nuanced perspectives that are less based on the beliefs that are instilled by our culture's stories. Leaving the culture you were raised in, even temporarily, is -- must be -- an eye opening experience. A friend asked me recently what made me come back to Korea when I had many grievances about my first year here. I told him that I felt like a transformation had started in my first year that I needed to continue and couldn't at home -- that by removing myself from the shared beliefs, common assumptions and homogeny of the society I grew up in, I was forced to look more closely at the people and events around me and deliver my own conclusions, because I couldn't rest on the beliefs I had picked up by osmosis at home. I also had to redefine myself, because those around me didn't see me through the same cultural lens I had always been seen. Those processes are extremely trying, and I think they are generates the culture shock that emerges after a few months of living in a foreign culture. Really living in a foreign culture is probably the only way to experience it. When one travels, one is not immersed in a culture the same way one is when they are, for example, working in a foreign culture. So that's a benefit and a negative aspect. I believe it is hugely important, and it's why I am here now in spite of the intense frustration and frequent loneliness. Well, that and student loans. And the food. And the proximity to Southeast Asia.<br /><br />One last thing I'll mention is a certain sense of freedom that comes with living here. I think it is related to the redefinition I just wrote about at length, in that it comes from a lack of understanding between you and those around you, which comes from a lack of shared cultural stories/assumptions. But knowing that no one really gets you, and no one can, is frighteningly liberating. And not understanding what that 15 year old is talking about on her cellphone can be pretty nice too.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-48459647360842943342009-03-13T10:39:00.003+09:002009-03-13T10:45:30.451+09:00Teaching in Korea FAQIn my ongoing efforts to help people decide if teaching English in Korea is right for them, I thought I would post my responses to some questions I got from a friend of a friend who is thinking about making the move to Korea. I hope this helps. If there are any questions you think should be added to the list, let me know.<br /><br /><br />1. How did you apply for the position?<br /> <br />Through a recruiter. It is possible to apply to public school jobs directly, but there isn't any advantage to doing it that way, and it's more difficult and you have one less person in your corner should any issues come up. You could also come here to look for work... I think that makes the most sense for those with experience who are trying to land a highly competitive position, such as a university gig. One of the greatest benefits to starting in Korea is that everything is taken care of for you.... the recruiter will find you positions (for free, they're paid by the school), help you get everything in order for your visa and such, and then you'll be set up with a ticket (or airfare) and when you get here you'll have an apartment waiting for you. I can't imagine landing in Taiwan or Vietnam and trying to find a place to live at the same time as all the other new-arrival stuff.<br /> <br />2. Are you TESL/TEFLO certified?<br /> <br />No, and there's no need to be in Korea. For those who think Korea is a good fit, I would suggest starting here without it, and if after a year or two hear, you decide you want to stick with TEFL and possibly move somewhere where the certification is more important (particularly in the Middle East and a few particular Asian countries), then look into that.<br /> <br />3. How long did it take you from the begginning of your application process till ending up in Korea?<br /> <br />I started in May-ish, knowing that I wanted to come at the begining of the semester Sept. 1. One guy in my town did the whole thing in a couple weeks, but that's definitely on the fast end. The new school year just started last week.... there are always positions available, in public and private schools, but the big hiring pushes are for 3/1 and 9/1... I'd suggest starting several months before you want to come.<br /> <br /> <br />4. Is it easy to transfer teachig positions throughout Korea/Asia/World<br /> <br />I'm not sure what you mean by transfer. Korea runs almost 100% on 1-year contracts. One downside to Korea is that visas are non-transferable, so if you don't finish your contract, you have to get a release from your employer and go through the whole visa process again with your new employer. My understanding is that in Japan, for example, the visa is transferable. If you mean at the end of the contract, it's certainly easy to transfer within Korea... a year of experience here is a big plus because employers know you know what you're in for and that you can handle it. I imagine that's true with employers in other countries too. Two years experience and/or TEFL seems to be a commonly listed necessary experience for some of the more desireable jobs I've seen.<br /> <br />5. How hard is it to adapt socially (i.e. nightlife, dating,)<br /> <br />This is a huge question, and there are a lot of variables, most importantly you. I would suggest reading blogs of English teachers here... that's a nice window. Mine is at viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com... I'll probably refer you to a couple specific posts at some point.<br /> <br />In sum, Korea is not an easy place to adapt to. It is probably one of the lesser foreigner-friendly places on the planet. I have friends that have married into Korean families and are happy and plan to spend the rest of their lives here. But I know a lot more people that have come, foudn it very difficult, and are anxious to get out at the end of their contract. I think much of that is culture shock... <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/12/novelty-lost-thoughts-on-culture-shock.html">the experience of living and working in a foreign culture after the novelty has worn off</a>, and I do hear similar complaints from teachers in Japan and Thailand, but I'm not sure they are as ubiquitous or as strong as they are here.<br /> <br />If nightlife and dating are real concerns for you, I would suggest Seoul, or possibly Busan. Seoul is one of the biggest cities in the world, and you can find just about anything there, though I have never heard it refered to as cosmopolitan. Busan is a city of something like 3 million... I lived there for a year and quite liked it... it's on the beach and has a more moderate climate and a less hectic feel than Seoul, but also many many less foreigners and services for foreigners. Now I'm in a tiny town on the east coast, far from everything and very isolated. I took the job largely for the 5 week vacation, but it makes the other 47 weeks pretty tough, and I'm someone who likes a lot of time to himself for reading, guitar, exercise, etc.. Again, search for blogs of folks teaching in Seoul, Busan and other random places... the differences will be obvious.<br /> <br />6. What happens if i get sick/injured?<br /> <br />Korea has wonderful socialized medicine. About 50,000 won (~$30) of your monthly paycheck gets you medical care at prices you won't believe ($2 for a dentist visit, $.85 for a perscription fill, $300 for a crown treatment). Many doctors are trained at US medical schools. The bigger the city, the better in terms of quality of care and availability of ENglish speakers.<br /> <br />7. Have you been able to save money fairly easy?<br /> <br />Yes. This is the other advantage to living in the sticks... there's nothing to spend money on! Unfortunately, over the last six months, the exchange rate has moved massively against those of us saving won to convert to dollars (~40%). It hasn't affected prices here much, but it sucks when you transfer money home. Still, I will bank 5-figures this year, and that's with a 3-week trip to Thailand, buying the nicest food I can find and taking regular trips around the country. I don't, however, drink or smoke or eat meat, so I save money on all of those. The maxim is that you should be able to save half of your salary without trying. I save around 70%. When thinking about savings, don't forget that at the end of your contract you effectively get 2 months extra pay - one called severence and one from a pension.<br /> <br />8. How much stuff did you bring to Korea?<br /> <br />I brought the two largest suitcases I could get my hands on, and packed things like Clif bars, books, and a tennis racket. My parents send me a package every few months with my favorite foods and toiletries, which helps a lot.<br /> <br />9. have you picked up much of the language since your inception?<br /> <br />No, and most people don't, but that's stupid. Korean is one of the hardest languages for an English speaker to learn, but it can be done. Especially in Seoul, if you really wanted to commit to it, there are hagwons (a hagwon is like a tutoring center, they offer after school classes to students, especially in English, and employ most of the foreigners here) that teach Korean to foreigners.... If there were one here, I would do it. I have enough of the language to get around, but embarrassingly little for having lived 18 months here. I bought some books before coming and while here, but just haven't dug into it. I've heard people talk about acquiring languages like Hindi and Italian in less than a year because they loved the culture and always wanted to be immersed in it. I think the converse explains why most of us don't make much of an effort at Korean.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />So there are some thoughts. Here are a few blog entries that might be valuable to consider:<br /> <br /><a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/09/video-tour-korean-gardens-neighborhood.html">several videos, if you want to get an idea of what life looks like in Korea.</a><br /> <br /><a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/09/teaching-in-gangwondo-epik-vs-hagwon.html">differences between hagwon and public school teaching</a><br /> <br /><a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-and-living-in-korea-gangwon-do.html">general thoughts about being and teaching here.</a> be sure to check out the comments section, as there are lots of valuable insights from readers there.<br /><br /> <br />I hope all that helps. If it brings up any more questions, feel free to ask. If you decide you want to come, my recruiter was great before we got here, and in helping us when we needed to move. I'd be happy to set you up with them (I get a little kick-back if you end up signing on.)Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-21162731090502469122009-02-27T11:02:00.002+09:002009-02-27T11:06:20.768+09:00First Cherry Blossoms of the Year!The cherry blossoms have arrived! We went up to Donghae last weekend and saw a few trees starting bloom next to the sea, up the road from E-Mart. I'm glad, and surprised, Melanie got to see them before she goes home next week.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7XhyphenhyphenqeUIFlzNk11preloitjMLK3dqXT9NyprueVGNCuicAAEduhNCGolWvXym74MsfeEZuAi0iFUSlj2zifA3pv6TSAd-IUQbAcK1tOsOs20oTiGhoGt4i9DVfuHgZEb5SzSO_FxsQ/s1600-h/Cherry+Blossoms+Donghae.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF7XhyphenhyphenqeUIFlzNk11preloitjMLK3dqXT9NyprueVGNCuicAAEduhNCGolWvXym74MsfeEZuAi0iFUSlj2zifA3pv6TSAd-IUQbAcK1tOsOs20oTiGhoGt4i9DVfuHgZEb5SzSO_FxsQ/s400/Cherry+Blossoms+Donghae.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307292547592970530" /></a>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-8545820925067231702009-02-23T18:14:00.014+09:002009-02-23T19:33:05.269+09:00Hwanseongul... the 2nd Largest Limestone Cave in AsiaI figure it's time to start blogging again since I've been back from vacation for two weeks and have had <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-and-living-in-korea-gangwon-do.html">the same post</a> up here for over a month now. Actually, I kept it up because it turned into a <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5117435194092181199&postID=1704314848449791017">great discussion of what prospective teachers in Gangwon-do's EPIK program can expect</a>.<br /><br />Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Tom Cruise, our favorite of all the teachers at our school, invited us to go with him to Hwanseon Cave. Hwanseongul is the closest thing we have to a tourist attraction out here near Dogye, and as one of the largest caves in Asia, it's a pretty decent draw. Scientists have mapped out over 6km of it, and there's still more they haven't gotten to. All of the large caverns are accessible to tourists, and for scope, if nothing else, it was quite impressive.<br /><br />The hike up to the entrance is only 1.6km long, but at an average grade of over 15%, it was trying (and tough on the knees on the way down). This whole area is quite beautiful, and the valley the cave is situated in is a nice example of that. Here's Melanie posing in front of a waterfall on the way up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Ff1OtBtdbTHLQ3u03Cit4b7GNZJNu_3esvfE9QVAvAT8IcT9aWoKbL1kBRkVnMGVYbvM4edRrNbL_8oP7tRj2YeXHPWFSW7Sx7ym-AIiBye2mNH1xTWfM9Pz-jgDuVpjlzyk-f_xgg/s1600-h/MW+Hwanseongul+Waterfall.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Ff1OtBtdbTHLQ3u03Cit4b7GNZJNu_3esvfE9QVAvAT8IcT9aWoKbL1kBRkVnMGVYbvM4edRrNbL_8oP7tRj2YeXHPWFSW7Sx7ym-AIiBye2mNH1xTWfM9Pz-jgDuVpjlzyk-f_xgg/s400/MW+Hwanseongul+Waterfall.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305922059885131570"></a><br /><br />The beauty of the hike was tempered by awful music being played at stupidly-loud volume all the way up. Here's a little sample... try to catch the lyrics. ;)<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyrExaEtpOjLYhjTrMgHXRyi5B4coD0AHOCsnbf_5JvgGGc91rv5lRLAVecpmHR5KOs175o_vym8bnsc6EtJw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br /><br />I guess the water flowing into the cave is flowing too fast for stalactites and stalagmites to form, so instead there are lots of "flowstones," which look largely like curtains. Here's nice formation that was called something like "Shapely Woman Flowstone:"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJn1Vs_ygtmHaXgIoFAUt_6Yl26jT7KJu3knWpk_xvIWHMr8qD1__y-bZxtTw_Cz4Mq1Sylh11RyWJvdd6sKCueh_W4xDSjHqfIwLIykj2aoGJz1EOOdY7uv1yoZIVYEZh72E44r8cRw/s1600-h/Shapely+Woman.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJn1Vs_ygtmHaXgIoFAUt_6Yl26jT7KJu3knWpk_xvIWHMr8qD1__y-bZxtTw_Cz4Mq1Sylh11RyWJvdd6sKCueh_W4xDSjHqfIwLIykj2aoGJz1EOOdY7uv1yoZIVYEZh72E44r8cRw/s400/Shapely+Woman.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305930511507543106"></a><br /><br /><br />And another one that was supposed to look like a statue of the Virgin Mary. I thought the semblance was striking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy_Ro2ZFF7nLBa2mJgEMuwciNMEJO89igKOjSRXTXx5gcJPa3EH5ECfNU9LB5JKeN3aMitt9Mz2xaXzYrZtUJrwQ7V83FDLScuf_YUMYWFtX24AhFU2IC1M9roRGbLOTDTED1OFpSHfQ/s1600-h/Hwanseongul+Mary+Statue.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy_Ro2ZFF7nLBa2mJgEMuwciNMEJO89igKOjSRXTXx5gcJPa3EH5ECfNU9LB5JKeN3aMitt9Mz2xaXzYrZtUJrwQ7V83FDLScuf_YUMYWFtX24AhFU2IC1M9roRGbLOTDTED1OFpSHfQ/s400/Hwanseongul+Mary+Statue.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305930514113696514"></a><br /><br /><br />Here's a picture of Melanie and I in front of one of the myriad caverns:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfmzvVGjb9Ev1AIygS28__ZX1c5Tl8Rs1bltAUlATfxB2qOFFPDhaVstV61cBSKhz7WGHh3K5vvqC7dIKM-mkQw7UKc-cIHmrl0SXAydCG__6ikf0JRQ6jKMmupB8_nsLbhnwgDJuj-A/s1600-h/MW+and+Me.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfmzvVGjb9Ev1AIygS28__ZX1c5Tl8Rs1bltAUlATfxB2qOFFPDhaVstV61cBSKhz7WGHh3K5vvqC7dIKM-mkQw7UKc-cIHmrl0SXAydCG__6ikf0JRQ6jKMmupB8_nsLbhnwgDJuj-A/s400/MW+and+Me.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305931172307597970"></a><br /><br /><br />And a heart-shaped formation that made for an awkward moment. Melanie is leaving next week; we've decided to go our separate ways. But when we came to this formation Tom Cruise said he would take a picture of us in front of the heart because "Michael and Melanie love forever."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDLmoXItJbZ_v_KY4IbCuxnNTrwNR2Si7CAGlW0R7orT_8jNb3X0De-Pr5tRsDf8CP69c-vhzw248vQ-gh6oIGLLpDMvnDahus9jwdX3-BCxzzWSQi3VoCh_SWg6Yt4GHbjNKBZsenw/s1600-h/Heart+Shaped+Rock.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDLmoXItJbZ_v_KY4IbCuxnNTrwNR2Si7CAGlW0R7orT_8jNb3X0De-Pr5tRsDf8CP69c-vhzw248vQ-gh6oIGLLpDMvnDahus9jwdX3-BCxzzWSQi3VoCh_SWg6Yt4GHbjNKBZsenw/s400/Heart+Shaped+Rock.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305931585198023266"></a><br /><br /><br />Melanie really wanted a picture with Tom Cruise, but thought it might be awkward to ask for it. So instead, she told me to point the camera at them with the flash ready, and she would get him to smile for the camera. And it worked:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJaTq1xfshDHJQJq_ZgAAByqPTLno-AcMxwnmsO2wmG8kLsxkby4ZMi_FLS0HslDDHwO9cCBDaimPmSShylKkjpFPRKyCV8bkIp5H0T166ed_udpxxOXLFRsAMzeoCBOyIm1N8j7fEA/s1600-h/MW+and+TC.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBJaTq1xfshDHJQJq_ZgAAByqPTLno-AcMxwnmsO2wmG8kLsxkby4ZMi_FLS0HslDDHwO9cCBDaimPmSShylKkjpFPRKyCV8bkIp5H0T166ed_udpxxOXLFRsAMzeoCBOyIm1N8j7fEA/s400/MW+and+TC.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305931891349948754"></a><br /><br /><br />All of the formations and constructions had names like "Melting Turtle" and "Palace of Dream." There were also two bridges, "Bridge of Heaven" and this one:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWIwcU57T7SryC9aMoroHdRyJgsX1xclXGZ-S-Ar0ThfCPvtGV5pAnExeKC4zTk828jmbnUnHYLD_7c17ttDK_vykEwm5fr7Wk920HH49z_55U-1a8bc-KgJw3vh6JyRjIdlTnhXZIbA/s1600-h/Bridge+of+Hell.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWIwcU57T7SryC9aMoroHdRyJgsX1xclXGZ-S-Ar0ThfCPvtGV5pAnExeKC4zTk828jmbnUnHYLD_7c17ttDK_vykEwm5fr7Wk920HH49z_55U-1a8bc-KgJw3vh6JyRjIdlTnhXZIbA/s400/Bridge+of+Hell.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305932792550834450"></a><br /><br /><br />The "Bridge of Hell" was actually really wobbly, and quite scary with a many-hundred foot drop beneath it. Beneath that was a water pool so deep scientists haven't been able to determine its depth. Scary, but well worth the fear to be rid of our sins.<br /><br />And finally, back down near the start of the hike:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_meAaaHyCrFPDXXUujrnSsqZaZeLU1DNYuSU8hzxK8zx10LcoycylIK1dGf_5f4-2CJG430CS1qN4ooDsqhJBZmyOb5KeHXv_BVww9oGwayZJUT4AL0Dg6worPHe9kYVJ_nzPrqnew/s1600-h/Live+Action+Shot.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_meAaaHyCrFPDXXUujrnSsqZaZeLU1DNYuSU8hzxK8zx10LcoycylIK1dGf_5f4-2CJG430CS1qN4ooDsqhJBZmyOb5KeHXv_BVww9oGwayZJUT4AL0Dg6worPHe9kYVJ_nzPrqnew/s400/Live+Action+Shot.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305933805133890946"></a><br /><br /><br />The rock pinnacle in the upper-left corner of that last picture shows how dramatic the mountains can be around here. Many, if not most, are unclimbable (for me at least) because they're too steep to be hiked and too covered in dirt and trees to be climbed. Awfully good for looking at though.<br /><br />It was well worth our time to visit the cave, mostly since it's less than half an hour away. We had a good time with Tom Cruise, who has decided to quit the teaching job that's obviously been making him unhappy for the last fifteen years to "follow his dream." He's a smart, caring guy, and we sure wish him luck in finding it. Thanks Tom Cruise, for being our one friend at Dogye Elementary School.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-17043148484497910172009-01-16T08:38:00.004+09:002009-02-08T16:49:39.311+09:00Teaching and Living in Korea, Gangwon-do Public School and Busan HagwonAfter a year of teaching EFL in a Hagwon and a semester of teaching English in a public school in Gangwon-do, here are my thoughts on teaching English in Korea in general, and about the differences between the public school gig and the hagwon gig. I hope it will be helpful to those that are thinking about coming to Korea to teach English.<br /><br />Before I get into it, I want to preface this by saying that real culture shock, in my experience and the experience of my friends that have lived in Korea and other foreign cultures, sets in around the three to four month mark. It is characterized by disdain for the local culture, frustration with other aspects of one's life, and a strong desire to escape the “shocking” culture. <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/12/novelty-lost-thoughts-on-culture-shock.html">For more on culture shock, check out this post</a> from about a month ago. I have been here about four and a half months, and I feel like I'm on the tail end of what has been a fairly severe culture shock. Just wanted to throw that in for completeness, for those readers contemplating coming to Korea, or to Gangwon-do to teach for EPIK in a public school.<br /><br />Living in Korea<br /><br />Korea is not particularly hospitable to foreigners. There is a lot of kindness in the Korean people as a whole, but there is more xenophobia (fear of foreigners). There is a historical reason for this: the Korean people have, throughout their history, had to fight off invading forces – Japanese, Mongol, Chinese, etc. The result is a people that are very insular and distrusting if not downright disrespectful toward foreigners. Of course there are exceptions – I've had friends (male and female) marry into Korean families and be, to varying degrees, accepted by the culture. There are also some teachers that come here for a year and enjoy the time they spend with Korean people. But the vast majority of foreigners I've talked to and emailed with feel isolated and disliked by Koreans and look forward to the day they get to go home or to another culture.<br /><br />What is the difference between those who have a great time here and those who can't wait to leave? I've thought about this a lot, and I think I have some insight into the personalities that fit best and worst here.<br /><br />Those that have the hardest time here are typically:<br /><br />- Female – sorry ladies, but this is a culture of and for men. I've known a lot of strong women who have had a very hard time here. The disrespect I experience is multiplied several times over for women. I suspect beautiful women have it easier than others, with blond hair and thinness being primary qualities of beauty here. Also women that are okay with being less involved in conversations, decision making and the like will do better.<br /><br />Those who have the best time here are typically:<br /><br />- Drinkers/Smokers/Red Meat Eaters – I am none of these things, and that has proved hard. Had I come here just out of college, I would have been going to the bars and cook-your-own-meat-at-the-table restaurants with other teachers from my school three times a week, getting drunk and smoking cigarettes with them and building social bonds through that. This seems to be the primary social opportunity here. Of the people I've met that are happy in Korea and plan to stay, nearly 100% have enjoyed regularly consuming at least 2 of these 3 things.<br /><br />The other big difference I see between those who are happy here and those who are not is sensitivity. Korea is not a place for sensitive westerners. Expressions of appreciation are few and far between and ostricization – most often expressed non-verbally – is constant. On the streets, smells of sewage hit you like a truck every couple of minutes. Buildings are aesthetically devoid and covered in advertisements, and loud noises are constant. Those who set their own emotional state, or who are relatively constant in their feelings, regardless of their surroundings, can do very well here, but this is not the place for those who are sensitive to their environment and the way they are received by the people they work with.<br /><br />Teaching English in Korea<br /><br />Public Schools<br /><br />In public schools, foreigners are hired as assistant teachers, and we are more assistant than teacher. For the fall semester, which we've just finished, I had three co-teachers that I worked with at my primary school. With one of them, I taught eight hours a week (actually eight, forty minute classes) of sixth grade, for which I prepared one, forty minute lesson and usually got to deliver it to both sixth grade classes. Sometimes my lesson plans ended up in the trash because something took precedence – a special event or falling behind schedule or the children misbehaving and the teacher needing to take thirty minutes to yell at them (no kidding, that happened several times). With my two fifth grade teachers, with each of whom I taught four hours a week, I simply sat next to the desk while they taught. Sometimes I would be asked to speak words or phrases for the students to mimic the correct pronunciation; sometimes I would sit silently and do nothing for the entire class. Of the three teachers, one would consistently offer me his comfy teacher's chair; for the other two, I would sit in a fifth-grade-student-sized wooden chair.<br /><br />That was the bulk of the semester. For winter vacation the students and most of the teachers get six weeks off. We get three (I'm leaving for Thailand tomorrow!), and run “winter camps” for the other three. Winter camps were hard, but rewarding. For one week, we had a budget, two Korean teachers who actually helped us and seven hours a day to do whatever we wanted with the kids. That was great, but very demanding. For the other two weeks, we had three hours a day with the kids, with no budget and no Korean teacher to translate or help us control the students. That was more difficult, but we got to go home at 12:30 everyday, which is nice. Summer vacation will probably be similar, except that it's a bit longer, and our vacation is shorter (two weeks), so there will probably be more camp and special education activities.<br /><br />Our situation here isn't exceptional, but it isn't universal either. Some teachers have much better rapport with their schools. I think this is mostly just a crap shoot. One couple hasn't had to go into school at all over vacation and is teaching a winter camp after the spring semester starts. Lucky them. Where we are (in Samcheok County), situations like ours seem more common, but I think this county might be particularly tough on its foreign teachers.<br /><br />Hagwons<br /><br />In 2005 – 2006, I taught in a hagwon (a private after-school academy) in Busan. That teaching was very different than what I'm doing now. Much has been written on the internet about the hagwon-teaching experience, so I'll be brief. It was extremely tiring to teach without a Korean to translate for me, but on the other hand, I got to design my lessons and could teach anything I wanted. I taught six, fifty-minute classes a day, as opposed to four, forty-minute classes a day in my public school. Every day I would step outside between classes and think, “I can't do this any more, I've got to get out of here.” But I did do it, and so do lots of other people. I was always scared that my boss was going to cheat me out of money, but in the end he ended up paying me all I was owed, within a couple hundred dollars anyway. I suspect if he had sensed he could have pushed me around more, he would have. There were two big upsides to the hagwon gig: the hours – 3:30 to 10:30pm with an hour to go home for dinner beats the pants off 9-5 with lunch in the school cafeteria in my book. The other biggie is that you know exactly where you're going before you get on that plane. With the public schools, you typically know only the province you're going to before you leave home. We got massively unlucky in this regard, as we came to Gangwon-do, the mountainous, rural province the northeast corner of South Korea and ended up in one of the last remaining coal mining towns in the country. With a hagwon, not only do you know where you're going, but you can find out the details of who you'll be working with, how far your apartment is from your school (in my hagwon, I was a three minute walk away, in our public school we were initially placed a $3, forty-minute bus ride away), and even what your apartment looks like. Here as everywhere, the devil is in the details, and before you sign up with a hagwon, you can know a lot more of the details than with the public schools.<br /><br />Conclusions<br /><br />I would recommend teaching English in Korea primarily to guys strait out of college. If you want to do something interesting for a year or two, save a ton of money and put an interesting item on your resume, this can be a very good gig. If you want to go to the bars most nights, and would enjoy cooking beef at your table, you might even fit in with some of the people you work with. And of course there's travel – most people experience major personal growth while living here, and the opportunities for travel (either on vacations if you go with Gangwon-do public schools, or afterward if you don't have as much vacation) are second to none.<br /><br />If I were doing it again, I would go with the public school over the hagwon – it's a ton less stress, but I would try to come at an off time (not 3/1 or 9/1), and I would want to know exactly where I was going to be placed before I signed anything. I would also make a huge effort to build report with the teachers and administrators in my school in the first weeks.<br /><br />If you're interested in teaching in the public schools, we came with a recruiter, Jen, who did an excellent job of answering our questions before we came, and of representing us through our battle with the authorities to move closer to our school. If you'd like to get in tough with her, send me an email – mlevy79 (at) gmail (dot) com, and I'll put you in touch with her.<br /><br />Whatever you decide to do, good luck, and if you do come to Korea, let me know how it goes.<br /><br /><br /><br />***Edit***<br /><br />Be sure to check out the comments below -- there is a lot of insight there from other westerners that are teaching here.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-80383355992107997752009-01-10T08:39:00.006+09:002009-01-10T09:13:18.793+09:00Seoul Trip II<div>Last week we had Thursday and Friday off, so after a day of recovery from teaching English Camp, we went to Seoul on Friday for 3 days of recovery from living in small town Korea for months on end.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivWLiY1nc3iJpbvtBhmVvQmPY53Fo7mHqCu4_pD71H1RN1eJ9VtjDlLwTxBBM6qmdeAjxMBISk2iH1z98eBaxt_CsIW2p1i2gr15ULYYWSiDr7l4spXXT3UUpFPx3nmrALknRybbWIzg/s1600-h/IMG_3555-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivWLiY1nc3iJpbvtBhmVvQmPY53Fo7mHqCu4_pD71H1RN1eJ9VtjDlLwTxBBM6qmdeAjxMBISk2iH1z98eBaxt_CsIW2p1i2gr15ULYYWSiDr7l4spXXT3UUpFPx3nmrALknRybbWIzg/s400/IMG_3555-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443899689152386" /></a>One of the coolest things we did was visiting Inwangsan - a shamanistic temple right in the middle of the city. The indigenous religion here, as I understand it, weaves together Buddhism, Shammanism, and ancestor-worship. I love the religion-customized for a people and place, and it creates unique sights like this temple where there are Buddhas carved into rock faces, families making offerings to ancestors and hundreds of scattered shrines around the grounds.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1jP9wbHvmJZ-NBYieywoWkiOPicfCa2-RQazcybUOE4J_AR0zGJufr1vKp_LeCYtuKwuOU6NoUt3KPtyc5joOSG5TKXN1569CmKBfptDCTuCY20Lgj9J7jNt4028DOqe27ffPKPukZQ/s1600-h/Pidgins+on+the+Roof.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1jP9wbHvmJZ-NBYieywoWkiOPicfCa2-RQazcybUOE4J_AR0zGJufr1vKp_LeCYtuKwuOU6NoUt3KPtyc5joOSG5TKXN1569CmKBfptDCTuCY20Lgj9J7jNt4028DOqe27ffPKPukZQ/s400/Pidgins+on+the+Roof.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289444037480744514" /></a>The pidgins at this temple were well fed with white rice, and their population reflected it!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT2kQ-7JqoBiuxrv-PhjlkR-dTcybijW2SayVC7zykwlvppWRmW_uTz_tGDwYIcI1xte6inXtGHASC267iUfJXJfH5brkr8pNrxXHXcBwQ-ZKhe-KLOfdzS-z_qj_6DMpRLtnVoJsX7Q/s1600-h/Pidgins+in+Seoul.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT2kQ-7JqoBiuxrv-PhjlkR-dTcybijW2SayVC7zykwlvppWRmW_uTz_tGDwYIcI1xte6inXtGHASC267iUfJXJfH5brkr8pNrxXHXcBwQ-ZKhe-KLOfdzS-z_qj_6DMpRLtnVoJsX7Q/s400/Pidgins+in+Seoul.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443915589013042" /></a>Here are a few of them taking flight above the temple and above the city. Magical place for a temple, above and amidst the third largest city in the world.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_H23rnSg17N_xnqTWgsaLFS_PbIDqyEhU0iYQFqVlNX5hwkmhFkOhDfbJUQTEb7Di3s7J7nhW_jQTAGUw7zAuQkQEsS90gVcQGVG4MGPnnYTfC143NAaIEe9LQl7VgL0-3M3Hteh_w/s1600-h/ghost+rocks.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_H23rnSg17N_xnqTWgsaLFS_PbIDqyEhU0iYQFqVlNX5hwkmhFkOhDfbJUQTEb7Di3s7J7nhW_jQTAGUw7zAuQkQEsS90gVcQGVG4MGPnnYTfC143NAaIEe9LQl7VgL0-3M3Hteh_w/s400/ghost+rocks.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443419472677906" /></a>These naturally formed shapes in this rock are supposed to resemble human figures. It was at least a bit spooky, and a major worship site immediately in front of the rocks.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddmAiHnw_qBAxIWtqorvsEK6m7hMgebs-DaIGGrsBbuRjwQCv8DrSQAJ19s_r1T2WvwcqRXif89LJQLJKyW5y6VeLbEGDPo5DsHz9ZXtZlN1JcauVTcperXCjVu8aNjnXeNl5IhMMdQ/s1600-h/holahooping.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjddmAiHnw_qBAxIWtqorvsEK6m7hMgebs-DaIGGrsBbuRjwQCv8DrSQAJ19s_r1T2WvwcqRXif89LJQLJKyW5y6VeLbEGDPo5DsHz9ZXtZlN1JcauVTcperXCjVu8aNjnXeNl5IhMMdQ/s400/holahooping.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443418994636930" /></a>In some cultures, you might think, "Weird, that a fifty-year-old woman is hula hooping in a shamanistic temple." But in Korea those are just as natural together as kimchi and chocolate.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaF2_Eroa-B_TVKncTgQdCLrgWFq7-91d2Pt1ntzMvE14I_fyzkYgzmctFpUvQqIxR5TjOfx8KneKDFH28KFhQY2Nww3UlLfgL7d68CSy0YRy40WyuA6PKhG1THLERGFkidTF7TgOFIA/s1600-h/M&M.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaF2_Eroa-B_TVKncTgQdCLrgWFq7-91d2Pt1ntzMvE14I_fyzkYgzmctFpUvQqIxR5TjOfx8KneKDFH28KFhQY2Nww3UlLfgL7d68CSy0YRy40WyuA6PKhG1THLERGFkidTF7TgOFIA/s400/M&M.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443419907981874" /></a>The two of us, happy to be out hiking on a trip to a city.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHFGgiudtl3YV0VUxXckmrSIgFtlP8PD679AEIIRH5B2oTtOKiFUXebGv1Qf5DTb-YZyrQuZjcGHG9P_b1FiQ3UyYIO4fjqq_HrCMCUIJ3Dgk6VLJPEkeycvHUEc3L5erD83aPRpWUlQ/s1600-h/IMG_3529-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHFGgiudtl3YV0VUxXckmrSIgFtlP8PD679AEIIRH5B2oTtOKiFUXebGv1Qf5DTb-YZyrQuZjcGHG9P_b1FiQ3UyYIO4fjqq_HrCMCUIJ3Dgk6VLJPEkeycvHUEc3L5erD83aPRpWUlQ/s400/IMG_3529-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443894487405122" /></a>A Buddha carving in a rock wall.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVB9sQIPCMDsC6lSt9DBvw30pfCVfqHodGnJUN7ttMceqs_52Kb54vw8kHfg_cmYMxYdHvzuu9ZDVOj2mTDKChvb54LytzZtff4foz2RaXoX1LSGavReASld-PVUikoHWFkdpfeklX5w/s1600-h/burrito.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVB9sQIPCMDsC6lSt9DBvw30pfCVfqHodGnJUN7ttMceqs_52Kb54vw8kHfg_cmYMxYdHvzuu9ZDVOj2mTDKChvb54LytzZtff4foz2RaXoX1LSGavReASld-PVUikoHWFkdpfeklX5w/s400/burrito.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443414799521234" /></a>Of course, any trip to a major city is as much about food for me as anything else, and this trip was no exception. We stumbled upon this burrito shop totally by chance - the only authentic burrito I've had in Korea, and for like 8,000 won (US$6) with guacamole! To get there exit subway line 1 at Jonggak, exit 6 and go strait until you find Tomatillo, next to an Au Bon Pain.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5DBRvub-fBh3vNs68HGrnuXydPRjO1y6D_n3mbXRuGLaUNcn71tonNUPsWyO2DWoqY_EJIIXXgj1cPFaaEvOIA9T5zb_helf1E8lhIRmC_-VPOHr0viP_2a7iZnTRBgLwUap-dTJOg/s1600-h/IMG_3567-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5DBRvub-fBh3vNs68HGrnuXydPRjO1y6D_n3mbXRuGLaUNcn71tonNUPsWyO2DWoqY_EJIIXXgj1cPFaaEvOIA9T5zb_helf1E8lhIRmC_-VPOHr0viP_2a7iZnTRBgLwUap-dTJOg/s400/IMG_3567-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443905319267074" /></a>Later we climbed Mt. Namsan, which is also right in the middle of Seoul and also provided some great views.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVWzScTH-sWm_1f0eXqykKcA1t0k7F09qbL0An5IiPUvv_CC0vWaqd6RE1OYcF16ZKufXm9ScGGHfBeVpmoV014iDEWjzHzVAQ0R-UALWqzaNYDQSQgYLQPTFFdh-0M3DC6V9Xw1JzA/s1600-h/IMG_3585-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVWzScTH-sWm_1f0eXqykKcA1t0k7F09qbL0An5IiPUvv_CC0vWaqd6RE1OYcF16ZKufXm9ScGGHfBeVpmoV014iDEWjzHzVAQ0R-UALWqzaNYDQSQgYLQPTFFdh-0M3DC6V9Xw1JzA/s400/IMG_3585-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443912504376258" /></a>Kids chasing birds - cute in any culture.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBDfp6in_maUkMSp8eBKwb3ifygM6g80nzrRbxEgkjTiTD1x1J1buLs8OEeJgLkddTKnmH2XVhtYtkpUkKENgFTXTKGSeRp31EmJUmle7q0QRVvmNHi-VHpJiMJ4KpdLXQwmqKv0G0w/s1600-h/cottoncandy.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBDfp6in_maUkMSp8eBKwb3ifygM6g80nzrRbxEgkjTiTD1x1J1buLs8OEeJgLkddTKnmH2XVhtYtkpUkKENgFTXTKGSeRp31EmJUmle7q0QRVvmNHi-VHpJiMJ4KpdLXQwmqKv0G0w/s400/cottoncandy.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289443413874970418" /></a>I got some cotton candy for all the hiking...<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1MHXyjHhXEl1kNWXyhdsypp58cf-SYYBg_GmD_0bGo598Zk3p67Mr-1WcdLD30O1ypTjLxKU5NaHUNa_lEBf0fDMMxizNfmSyhJOOJqaKRstTBbhMC8BtTrVcOP_YzQmWnE6Y_UNWA/s1600-h/Spawn+Potage.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1MHXyjHhXEl1kNWXyhdsypp58cf-SYYBg_GmD_0bGo598Zk3p67Mr-1WcdLD30O1ypTjLxKU5NaHUNa_lEBf0fDMMxizNfmSyhJOOJqaKRstTBbhMC8BtTrVcOP_YzQmWnE6Y_UNWA/s400/Spawn+Potage.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289444035293717938" /></a>...but decided to skip the spawn potage dinner on offer in Insadong.</div>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-39261908162853354292009-01-01T14:02:00.004+09:002009-01-05T21:49:37.992+09:00Cheap Tickets to Thailand!We just booked tickets to Thailand for Jan. - Feb. for 580,000 won (US$460), and we should get some (about 80k) back based on taxes going down in the new year (see edit below). Amy at Shoestring travel hooked us up: emlee(at)shoestring.co.kr or 82-(0)2-333-4151. With the political instability in Thailand, we've been waiting for prices like these for a while. Glad they finally manifested.<br /><br />Now I just have to keep telling myself: It will be 80 degrees and I'll be on the beach with delicious food in two weeks.<br /><br />***edit***<br />The final price of our tickets were 483,800 won ($369) each. That's awesome.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-25439589363435851712008-12-28T12:27:00.004+09:002008-12-28T12:38:02.602+09:00Teaching Can Be Great! (I had forgotten)We're two days into the five day winter camp, which, in contrast to our normal routine, we actually get to plan and execute, with two Korean teachers to back us up. And it's great! The kids are having fun, they're getting exposed to real, situational English, they're getting conversational practice, and Melanie and I are happy and engaged. And of course we're working hard, because that's what people do when they're empowered and given responsibility.<br /><br />If I could make one suggestion to EPIK, the program that spends hundreds of millions of Korean tax dollars every year to put a native English speaker in every public school in the country, it would be to give up a little control, and let the foreigners teach. We're almost worthless as the system is set up now. But if the students were exposed to our teaching style, cultural conventions, and language use day in and day out from first to twelfth grade, it would make a huge difference. But they've got to let us teach. And that would mean giving up control to foreigners, and younger ones at that, which is highly unlikely to happen, given Korean Confusionism and attitudes toward foreigners. Too bad.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-82880424323260271232008-12-26T08:11:00.005+09:002008-12-26T08:21:08.378+09:00K-Style ChristmasHuge thanks to our friends Kate and Chad for throwing an excellent Christmas party last night. I had mostly been ignoring the fact that it was Christmas until then, to try to minimize the feelings of homesickness, but we had a great time with all our Samcheok friends last night. It really felt like Christmas.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimthpSbecrVcfZWmY3pMtKaX-spT6Rxk2q_gZNgqZ3t_cXaG3FSmD811KEU6f61NiJ1P57Vo-tcJc5G1gTzWPjeg1vM4irkadl80As5zIPTqitS4-qLReDX81GhfUQYNcOgWzNP6mqrw/s1600-h/Samcheok+Gang.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimthpSbecrVcfZWmY3pMtKaX-spT6Rxk2q_gZNgqZ3t_cXaG3FSmD811KEU6f61NiJ1P57Vo-tcJc5G1gTzWPjeg1vM4irkadl80As5zIPTqitS4-qLReDX81GhfUQYNcOgWzNP6mqrw/s400/Samcheok+Gang.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283869745562419858" /></a>Great potluck... good job with the food everyone. And thanks to Chad's Mom for the cookies, and Chad for sharing them!<br /><br /><br />Some friends during the Dirty Santa gift exchange (I always thought it was called White Elephant):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdCNX7xeByL7F9cEfRYdKSwsI2aRenlghO5X5UyysNFr3tvhLDG8K4ROwj0jBuOcgSWtf6KiA3AUVB1QtslM_-RN43D6VUS_GwVzKFpRb6kfT2LrDLO35IO6xab6ne0DkdRRjtUhKeA/s1600-h/Chad.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdCNX7xeByL7F9cEfRYdKSwsI2aRenlghO5X5UyysNFr3tvhLDG8K4ROwj0jBuOcgSWtf6KiA3AUVB1QtslM_-RN43D6VUS_GwVzKFpRb6kfT2LrDLO35IO6xab6ne0DkdRRjtUhKeA/s400/Chad.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870127029739298" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RCf3PnSQD-Qtqd-oGMyuqbGsDtILfi42AJEX_hmM1djPKQjHIk2N3v2m2syqRnYHolb8528nZ15yinhl9aLy0Brusu9wKrN-s0F9-EEA53loYq14z7k6mYch30HphbqKb0Q01TgvBw/s1600-h/morgan.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RCf3PnSQD-Qtqd-oGMyuqbGsDtILfi42AJEX_hmM1djPKQjHIk2N3v2m2syqRnYHolb8528nZ15yinhl9aLy0Brusu9wKrN-s0F9-EEA53loYq14z7k6mYch30HphbqKb0Q01TgvBw/s400/morgan.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870121852964834" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eDc31zWnnT81hCL7C1-LViMCv8KA1oCL3IhAqhfsGnwYLo65Ejjl_nfxwt_h_v0G1hvQEtqcIlIP9TgYAfIimSzcP7bHpBBqpSPTFMJV6aYHwtEyTtvO62LsVTFfZcUxxg5zq4IN_Q/s1600-h/kate.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eDc31zWnnT81hCL7C1-LViMCv8KA1oCL3IhAqhfsGnwYLo65Ejjl_nfxwt_h_v0G1hvQEtqcIlIP9TgYAfIimSzcP7bHpBBqpSPTFMJV6aYHwtEyTtvO62LsVTFfZcUxxg5zq4IN_Q/s400/kate.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870118654698050" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_zTlZ-z8PY_09PqHyZdok5DX_b14TPNyJN9D_Al1t3F9dD5gJF81qrBHgEbtKw9Uo4gz-oPEX2fexhm-g3y6uWXgUBYpNnrymc6uGlSyWK_Bzv4IlrQwghfHAcWG7xuET4ciVVyidg/s1600-h/ben.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_zTlZ-z8PY_09PqHyZdok5DX_b14TPNyJN9D_Al1t3F9dD5gJF81qrBHgEbtKw9Uo4gz-oPEX2fexhm-g3y6uWXgUBYpNnrymc6uGlSyWK_Bzv4IlrQwghfHAcWG7xuET4ciVVyidg/s400/ben.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870119644487282" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5xmGzGqSu7AuoReOLWf-Z3smmaHTqIjXWiAyANKSuuN1uvuR0ln6ur-wK0WGGBhsDGhDjXj0DkuOYm2bhHPBfQIFH6quKzM9y9yy8FkqYAjN0wAIqYOIW2O8urZhOhH3JIrhKbYzeSw/s1600-h/aerospace.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5xmGzGqSu7AuoReOLWf-Z3smmaHTqIjXWiAyANKSuuN1uvuR0ln6ur-wK0WGGBhsDGhDjXj0DkuOYm2bhHPBfQIFH6quKzM9y9yy8FkqYAjN0wAIqYOIW2O8urZhOhH3JIrhKbYzeSw/s400/aerospace.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870114090149618" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcmSBqI0izvVFUBcztDzlc-DSRbGN61ppc1vclm3jDu033EegTVRhQ43zQ4neRJQIV-n7YGNvBiTqKnnzL5lo-Xe-teO2ewHzuqmkXHIH-Y2156szlnZjeMqPYrwefxzjk47OaRZFZA/s1600-h/Granger.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcmSBqI0izvVFUBcztDzlc-DSRbGN61ppc1vclm3jDu033EegTVRhQ43zQ4neRJQIV-n7YGNvBiTqKnnzL5lo-Xe-teO2ewHzuqmkXHIH-Y2156szlnZjeMqPYrwefxzjk47OaRZFZA/s400/Granger.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870667806653154" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgexWIniJjSB3k1rAGMHzCNLtbX5GLjbFX49WNtB3nzP3GT_IzFx7Vod_5VIAJ0Jb0EZRppOVtdSECrDWM7msBjefWNYAJaQnIv0Z9RSro6gohjUhb6TDwArToXn55PixJ_zPxvFbGSgg/s1600-h/dave.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgexWIniJjSB3k1rAGMHzCNLtbX5GLjbFX49WNtB3nzP3GT_IzFx7Vod_5VIAJ0Jb0EZRppOVtdSECrDWM7msBjefWNYAJaQnIv0Z9RSro6gohjUhb6TDwArToXn55PixJ_zPxvFbGSgg/s400/dave.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870659738767810" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODOxaNxqKTrWr-gcEztG8or2EbgVuxvylVyWNG_0YO3gBnubClqE6A4YGzRcsLiktfUtGATbfs_htRTh88LubPCbNFiO-cXiHZeEHVtDqfRdU7ah6EkbcYz8edNO3P3XalaH5tHPAAA/s1600-h/mark.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODOxaNxqKTrWr-gcEztG8or2EbgVuxvylVyWNG_0YO3gBnubClqE6A4YGzRcsLiktfUtGATbfs_htRTh88LubPCbNFiO-cXiHZeEHVtDqfRdU7ah6EkbcYz8edNO3P3XalaH5tHPAAA/s400/mark.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870668953499234" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />And on the way home, we saw two dogs, erh, stuck to each other, and a third sniffing out the situation. Here it is, your moment of zen...<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMR0Z6CaGPFVe3vou0iWVNzZiaIr7mKJxA0MNoCXwiV7I56lM13OEIJRZUDuhNig3kr5wd9QDyL15GZwicRz56CZ3KHuuzmaabW7XaAqDPEJOut6KpXVfNMR8rLT-aBC7zmCh7UksJ8Q/s1600-h/dogs2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMR0Z6CaGPFVe3vou0iWVNzZiaIr7mKJxA0MNoCXwiV7I56lM13OEIJRZUDuhNig3kr5wd9QDyL15GZwicRz56CZ3KHuuzmaabW7XaAqDPEJOut6KpXVfNMR8rLT-aBC7zmCh7UksJ8Q/s400/dogs2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283870671878122578" /></a>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-84996133057432225482008-12-18T07:20:00.003+09:002008-12-18T08:02:40.612+09:00I'm Singin' in Korean!Today I perform. In Korean.<br /><br />Let me 'slpain. A couple of weeks ago we were asked to perform in a Korean speech contest. My, and everyone's, protests, which I centered largely on the argument that I don't know any Korean, fell on deaf ears. So in confirmation of the fact that I am a dancing English monkey at the command of my handlers, I will perform in Korean today in front of my boss, his boss, and probably his boss as well.<br /><br />But memorizing a speech in Korean just seemed too boring. So instaed I found a Korean pop song that I actually don't hate, or rather didn't before hearing and practicing it hundreds of times, and will perform it this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes. In the mean time, here's a video of the song. It's called<span style="font-style:italic;"> Wero</span>, which translates to consolation or comfort, and is by the artist Kim Sarang.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GjH_20DM3qw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GjH_20DM3qw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And in case you didn't get the singin' in Korean reference, watch this.<br /><br /><div><object width="480" height="381"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k20bbaphTwgBe3eqfR&related=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k20bbaphTwgBe3eqfR&related=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="381" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x21oen_korean-video-parody_people">Korean video parody</a></b><br /><i>~에 의해 업로드됨 <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/MeowHouse">MeowHouse</a></i></div>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-30783831788673319942008-12-17T19:37:00.001+09:002008-12-17T19:41:35.863+09:00Frustration at Spa VillMy second school, where I teach on Tuesdays, lets me leave after my last class ends at 3:10. Since it's closer to the bigger towns of Samcheok and Donghae, I usually head to one of those on Tuesday evenings for some combination of shopping, dinner and entertainment.<br /><br />Yesterday I went to Samcheok to get my haircut, workout, relax at the bath house and do some grocery shopping. The haircut went well considering the language barrier, and at 10,000 won (~US$7) for the cut with a shampoo and scalp massage, it's quite a deal. (The place is called Hair Doctor and is up the stairs about five doors down from the Duncan Donuts [toward Home Plus] in downtown Samcheok.)<br /><br />The workout went less well. I get stared at more at the gym than in most places in Korea, though I'm not sure why. Yesterday was no different, especially from a man wearing elastic waist and ankle zebra pants who appeared to be training a group of rather large Korean men. But whatever, I just crank up my iPod and do my thing... it's just part of being here.<br /><br />But when I got on the treadmill, I noticed I was getting even more attention. After about five minutes, the zebra pants-ed man came up to me and made some gestures that I interpreted as he thought I was stepping two hard on the treadmill. At that point though, I was tired of being stared at and just wanted to do my workout, so I shrugged my shoulders and put my headphones back on. A few minutes later, another man stepped onto the treadmill next to mine, pointed at me, and said “very strong step.” I shrugged my shoulders in an attempt to communicate something like “Seriously? / What do you want me to do about it? / What's your problem?” But he continued to say things like “soft step,” so eventually I relented and started running on the balls of my feet, and asked him “Okay?” but even that didn't seem to satisfy him. So I put my headphones back on and kept running, but got off after 12 minutes because I didn't like the way I was being looked at and was having a hard time focusing on my running. I was not at all happy with that, but sometimes it's just too much to fight it.<br /><br />So I thought I'd go swimming, as I usually do after I workout there, but when I asked the clerk if she had goggles I could use, she politely informed me that it would be an additional 5,000won to swim. Well, at least I saved that money each time I used the pool before I found that out. ;)<br /><br />I had a nice soak with a monk (how often do you get to bathe with a monk?), a sauna and a lovely 30 minute chair massage (as in the chair was massaging me, not like I was in a chair getting a massage) for 4,000won in the jimjilbang.<br /><br />Then I went to the department store, did my grocery shopping, and when I plopped my stuff down on the checkout counter, the person in front of me happened to be Kim Sun, my co-teacher. What a small world! Okay, small Korean town, but still.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-79334105782080736372008-12-16T06:30:00.003+09:002008-12-16T06:34:03.811+09:00Busan TripIt's been too long since I've last posted. Here's a long-winded write-up of our trip to Busan last weekend...<br /><br />Last Friday, we left school at noon to catch a bus for Busan where we would celebrate my birthday and soak up the refreshing cosmopolitanism of Korea's second city.<br /><br />Because we live in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, we had to take a bus 45 minutes north in order to get the bus that would take us five hours south. That's frustrating. In fact, the time expense to travel around the country from eastern Gangwon-do has been one of the most frustrating aspects of living here, especially when half of the population is connected by a bullet train that crosses the country in two hours. If I had it to over again, I would probably ask to be on the western (Seoul) side of the province for this reason alone.<br /><br />With that said, the bus ride wasn't too uncomfortable, and we got into Busan early enough to head to “Kebapistan,” the famous-among-foreigners Turkish restaurant in the PNU neighborhood of Busan. My multiple falafel sandwiches were lovely, though not quite as good as they were when I lived in Busan in 2006. That or my memory has inflated their taste in the intervening years.<br /><br />One of the great things about traveling in Korea is the ubiquity of cheap accommodation. Koreans typically live with their parents until they are married, so, in response to the demand for private space for young men and women, thousands of “love motels” have sprung up across the country, where one can stay in a reasonable, clean room for between 20 and 50,000 won (US$15 – 37). We asked a table of foreigners if they knew of any such places near by and they pointed us to a neighborhood with two in every alley (half way to Jangjeon-dong on the main street in PNU) and we found a nice place for 20,000 won and after a brief walk around the neighborhood promptly crashed.<br /><br />I had planned the whole trip around the restaurants I wanted to eat at in Busan, and on Saturday morning we headed to a place, also in the university district of Busan, that I remembered for their vegetable panini and tomato soup. We found it with surprising ease, and while it had the same cute decor and English books and games, the menu had taken a significant change for the worse. Gone were paninis and soups, in were sausages and ham sandwiches. The consolation prizes of a couple onion bagels and cup of coffee at Starbucks were not unwelcome though.<br /><br />From their we went up to Beomeo-sa, the biggest and most famous Buddhist temple in Busan. It was lovely, as it has been every time I've been there. There were lots of paper lanterns strung up today, which was especially nice, something a little different.<br /><br />We went for a lovely hike above the temple, up to a prominent ridge-line that can be seen from all over the northern part of the city. The weather was shockingly good for mid-December, the day was clear and it felt great to be out and get the blood pumping. We live in the middle of nowhere as far as Korea goes, yet the air was cleaner in Busan, because we live in coal-central in the middle of nowhere Korea, so that was a nice change as well. We met a nice man from Gwang-ju, a recently retired principal, with whom we had a nice conversation on the way up the trail, and who kindly took and emailed us our only picture of the trip.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTkWw_6LcVk9kZ2iQkgs_ku8y2LdHQ1cycsbR37g_yl8Z49YWMUk-isGuhi7TWCF_NCDZSoGU38rXww0lddV_GGWgdJ2MQm-AdzoQ6CaeMdK5-KXaJtm79KO-cXHQd8QkFFUztx5EjQ/s1600-h/Busan+Hike.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTkWw_6LcVk9kZ2iQkgs_ku8y2LdHQ1cycsbR37g_yl8Z49YWMUk-isGuhi7TWCF_NCDZSoGU38rXww0lddV_GGWgdJ2MQm-AdzoQ6CaeMdK5-KXaJtm79KO-cXHQd8QkFFUztx5EjQ/s400/Busan+Hike.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280133033047365138" /></a><br /><br />From there we headed to the vegetarian buffet in Seomyeon, but found it closed (restaurant failure #2 for the day), so we grabbed a quick bi-bim-bap (mixed veggies and rice) and headed for Jagalchi, the gigantic fish market on the pier of Busan. It was as busy, smelly and strange as ever, and we had fully taken that in, we headed a few blocks over to Nampo-dong, the trendy downtown area of Busan.<br /><br />Nampo-dong on a Saturday night was totally overwhelming. Thousands and thousands of little shops in maze like alleys, all illuminated by dozens of hanging fluorescent lights – shoe designers, clothes consolidators, traditional Korean goods for tourists. After what felt like hours of sifting through piles of clothes (a pastime for Melanie), we had a pieces of clothing we like and headed for the hole-in-the-wall Indian place in Nampo-dong, that I absolutely love. To get there, walk down the main street in Nampo-dong to the Pizza Hut, turn into that alley, walking on the Pizza Hut side, look for a steep, green staircase on your right, about 2/3 of the way down that alley. It's up there on the right.<br /><br />The Indian Restaurant has only one vegetarian dish – masala curry, and it turned out to be too spicy for Melanie, which was big bummer. So I enjoyed mine as quickly as possible and we hit a second bi-bim-bap place on our way out of Nampo-dong.<br /><br />Then we got foolish. We headed all the way across the city to go to what is reputed to be the largest bathhouse in Asia. When we got off the subway, we looked at our guidebook to see how to get there and learned that it closed at 9:00. Most bathhouses in Korea are open 24 hours and will let you sleep there, which was our plan, but not this one. So we back across the city, to the Haeundae Beach area, for another jimjilbang that was open 24 hours.<br /><br />I had a nice soak, especially on the balcony that overlooks the beach – that was special. Melanie had an unfortunate run-in with what may have been a would-be thief (averted by her quick action), and when we met in the clothed, co-ed part of the jimjilbang, we realized there was no way we were going to sleep there. Some jimjilbangs have big sleeping rooms that are closed off from the activity of the rest of the place. This one didn't. So we left, nearing 11:00, eyes shutting and all.<br /><br />Fortunately we found a reasonable motel fairly quickly (the first one tried to put us in a dirty room) and we got a much-needed good night's sleep. <br /><br />On Sunday morning we went for a nice walk on Haeundae Beach, which was largely empty, so we tried to imagine what it would look like in July with tens of thousands of Koreans packed onto it. It was cold though, so we headed back to the vegetarian restaurant in Seomyeon, which was open this time. We had our favorite meal of the weekend here, and picked up some oatmeal, flax seed and dried mango on our way out.<br /><br />I knew it would be pushing it to head to Busan for a normal weekend like this, but for Turkish and Indian food, it was well worth it. And, yes, the Korean temple, restaurant and bathhouse were nice too.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-4380251983132334312008-12-05T06:04:00.001+09:002008-12-05T06:06:49.627+09:00Novelty Lost - Thoughts on Culture ShockWe've been here just over three months now, and it seems the novelty has worn us for us and for Korea. Culture shock is setting in for almost all of the foreigners I've talked with, and the folks in our school seem less interested in us everyday.<br /><br />Most people think that culture shock comes immediately upon arriving in a new culture. The name makes such a mistake understandable. Culture weary might be a better title for this experience.<br /><br />I had a bad case of culture shock my first year living in Korea (my first time outside of North America). From about 3 - 6 months, I mostly hated everything, and I plotted daily how I could and would go home. I was unhappy in general, and especially disliked anything and everyone Korean. It also manifested as resentment toward my girlfriend, distance from my friends and apathy for my hobbies. I look around at the teachers who arrived here at the end of August, and I see tired, weary looks that remind me of how hard that period was for me.<br /><br />Culture shock is an incredibly valuable experience. It is hard growth at its essence. If you take the metaphor of a person as a tree, getting through culture shock is expanding the breadth of your trunk - imperceptible and inglorious at the time, but it yields stability and opens new possibilities for height in the future.<br /><br />It comes when the fascination, the newness, of a foreign culture wears off and the fascination of you wears off for those around you. When that happens you are left with the day-to-day experience of living in a culture that doesn't understand you and doesn't support the image you have constructed of yourself over the course of your life. Without the cultural backdrop on which you have defined yourself, and which supports the notion of you that your ego maintains, you have to develop some other concept of self, one that doesn't depend on the perceptions of you that have been relatively constant in your home culture.<br /><br />This is why I came back to Korea. This is the good stuff.<br /><br />But when I get home after work, it feels like my heart has been leaking happiness and self-confidence all day.<br /><br />This too shall pass.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-35363196047477098762008-11-30T07:18:00.009+09:002008-11-30T08:37:59.684+09:00School FestivalIn Korean public schools, it seems classes and whole days of classes are canceled as often as not. Last week, of the sixteen classes I normally teach at my primary school, I taught a total of six. Fine with me, though I wish that I had a private office to sit in during those canceled classes, instead of a desk in the room where the teachers and administrators come together in a cacophonous mess of 70 decibel Korean every ten minutes.<br /><br />Anyway, Friday was School Festival Day, and the classes were gearing up for it all week, and even the week before. Each class got a five minute slot in which to perform, usually some sort of song and dance.<br /><br />There were trucks in the parking lot of school selling cotton candy in cups and various plastic, flower bouquet-like contraptions. Many of the students were done-up in there traditional Korean best make-up and dresses. The librarian had been cutting out giant Korean characters for days. Anticipation was in the air!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQvVt4CVJAS2RzuYhzNHaqy2f2qZqBqpSiaN0FcVsbQh4BdifLlPx4HA6RLlBV2K9RgPfDT6Z-5bgiYvU-5PKSq9IqXVRNWnZpnwORv0xDP_iFcFfZIqgoD0FEVGV83E6R7kpnUGUPgg/s1600-h/croud+of+korean+mothers.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 247px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQvVt4CVJAS2RzuYhzNHaqy2f2qZqBqpSiaN0FcVsbQh4BdifLlPx4HA6RLlBV2K9RgPfDT6Z-5bgiYvU-5PKSq9IqXVRNWnZpnwORv0xDP_iFcFfZIqgoD0FEVGV83E6R7kpnUGUPgg/s400/croud+of+korean+mothers.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274209730079360514" /></a>The mothers, and their cameras, came out in hordes!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyzQBKHwQLvtz43woWeUlFMYc-PnwlR1U1huTSdyyvxirlHu7vb1rrf2KqdGJkrn3L_X69R07mKdXi_QrGuwm8GfC4pD5Ex46T9RwspxhbXO-uo88X-Sc7USgMheNuXk3KFIHHBploAQ/s1600-h/emcees.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyzQBKHwQLvtz43woWeUlFMYc-PnwlR1U1huTSdyyvxirlHu7vb1rrf2KqdGJkrn3L_X69R07mKdXi_QrGuwm8GfC4pD5Ex46T9RwspxhbXO-uo88X-Sc7USgMheNuXk3KFIHHBploAQ/s400/emcees.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274209732761674322" /></a><br />Two of my favorite students dressed up as bride and groom to play emcee.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8lnGOwT9HaIo2XgmBFYpHRLx2I5W-pMVL4bbuZJ8E4DeJH4PnShe5AwsAY_ZZWQM6t1TABcI5LoR-n8-Az0sBEnAMd5D5fjeoIWTS5JdEWiTTlvKVkwnQm2mX0n1l4MnZ0nqjsruaA/s1600-h/cutiepie.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8lnGOwT9HaIo2XgmBFYpHRLx2I5W-pMVL4bbuZJ8E4DeJH4PnShe5AwsAY_ZZWQM6t1TABcI5LoR-n8-Az0sBEnAMd5D5fjeoIWTS5JdEWiTTlvKVkwnQm2mX0n1l4MnZ0nqjsruaA/s400/cutiepie.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274210410629939394" /></a>One of the cutest little girls I've ever seen, performing a song with her first grade class.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxulgzo3luL6ohvF4lAx8wkZYldwBnz9TTY28ef8pxrd6LCThL9Xq75p9l6ZMdJtKdW10WoD2t-fC1BcBQy-uCNmeev1gXdbbZHRqORhCnM5gLazXKbJcPNKOuZfIbfxHpgEzcnC1NA/s1600-h/concentration.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxulgzo3luL6ohvF4lAx8wkZYldwBnz9TTY28ef8pxrd6LCThL9Xq75p9l6ZMdJtKdW10WoD2t-fC1BcBQy-uCNmeev1gXdbbZHRqORhCnM5gLazXKbJcPNKOuZfIbfxHpgEzcnC1NA/s400/concentration.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274210903225752786" /></a>Deep concentration was required by all. (don't think about cookies.... don't think about cookies....)<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU9tBqzUy021cfThQ7OLVWeCkNZ2-ULb7K8x1hwIrdjWM7kd2seTzkZeGd3GUAFx6Pl8Lryas5ggwKDpD5aecevGRTxU1sVxB1WE0kmQsb5yielAhvPAak3gyv2qY8BOlcalQwbv3Og/s1600-h/umbrellas.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU9tBqzUy021cfThQ7OLVWeCkNZ2-ULb7K8x1hwIrdjWM7kd2seTzkZeGd3GUAFx6Pl8Lryas5ggwKDpD5aecevGRTxU1sVxB1WE0kmQsb5yielAhvPAak3gyv2qY8BOlcalQwbv3Og/s400/umbrellas.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274211269814916754" /></a>The whole thing was a giant whirl of colors!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXrB1xFhyphenhyphentn9r_RIlNevrQL-zCiWYMElSpfy6pwrXk9sGH6BqYQiwR3cXGGZN7-Q9UA6mZHKB1xvmwEHT47odF02LnFcv0Ms_fMge2kt0MCVSVjw0yc4iGDUHEsb7IjcEIF-VKFt_zDg/s1600-h/korean+big+man.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXrB1xFhyphenhyphentn9r_RIlNevrQL-zCiWYMElSpfy6pwrXk9sGH6BqYQiwR3cXGGZN7-Q9UA6mZHKB1xvmwEHT47odF02LnFcv0Ms_fMge2kt0MCVSVjw0yc4iGDUHEsb7IjcEIF-VKFt_zDg/s400/korean+big+man.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274211868835643810" /></a>This guy, who was clearly someone important, based on the greeting he got from the principal (whose ear is on the right), did what many high-status Korean men do -- ignored the hundreds of people behind him (and the zoom button, apparently) to get what he wanted.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHdFG6HyxvEdQbF6WlVsW7MRrewSnlEvY4HmcSe2XZi7vEvq2FYwwVu5IVIpa4EM228hks3UR6PI_FRfrZwuRbYw8h6hfNBLbRvDdDzdKpmXMIqi_1W9yolR14LDy4DNGTf2GLkufl8w/s1600-h/fight+scene.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHdFG6HyxvEdQbF6WlVsW7MRrewSnlEvY4HmcSe2XZi7vEvq2FYwwVu5IVIpa4EM228hks3UR6PI_FRfrZwuRbYw8h6hfNBLbRvDdDzdKpmXMIqi_1W9yolR14LDy4DNGTf2GLkufl8w/s400/fight+scene.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274212936162529794" /></a>One of my sixth grade classes performed a lovely enactment of "The Tortoise and the Hare" (in English), including this fight scene. I edited the script. Where I suggested that "the lesson of the story is..." should be maybe "the moral of the story is..." the final line of the play was "Maybe the moral of the story is..." Oh well, they like humility here. Maybe telling your elders what the moral of a story is would be presumptuous.<br /><br />Then, unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died, so I have no pictures for you of the very cutest student of all, the amazing dance of Korean dragons to traditional Korean music, or the animated show my fifth grade class put on using 24 sketch pads held together in a giant square. Next time, charge the batteries the night before a big event!<br /><br />It was a very entertaining afternoon. It was really fun to see the students so excited and to meet some (though too few) of their mothers. On the down side, it was followed by dinner at a grill-your-own-pig-meat-at-the-table restaurant, so we got home at 7:00 hungry, annoyed, and smelling like burnt pig flesh. But that's nothing that a change of clothes, a big bowl of popcorn, and an in bed screening of <span style="font-style:italic;">Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? </span> can't cure.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-46858349276996360132008-11-27T06:19:00.004+09:002008-11-27T20:36:16.150+09:00Inappropriate!I just got out of one of my sixth grade classes. Kim Sun, my co-teacher, likes to show the students 2 second muted clips from Korean comedy television shows, for the students to say what the actors are doing using the language structure of the lesson.<br /><br />***digression***<br /><br />There are big screen TV's connected to a computer with high speed internet (very high speed) in every classroom in Korea. If the U.S. wants keep up we need a massive increase in our education funding.<br /><br />***end digression***<br /><br />The language structures for our current lesson are "Don't..." and "It's time to..."<br /> <br />For "Don't..." we watched an eight year old girl run full speed into a flying jump kick into the chest of one of her classmates, knocking him flat to the ground. "Don't kick your friends." Indeed.<br /> <br />For "It's time to..." we had (I couldn't make this up), a group of 20-somethings standing around a guy lying on his side, with his back to us, on what looked like an operating table. One of the friends put his hands together as if making a gun with his thumb and forefinger, and proceeded to poke his friend right in the cornhole. This looped over and over so as to create the motion of... no... I'm not going to write that here. But that's what our sixth graders got in class today. "It's time to wake up."<br /><br />Interestingly, that didn't phase them a bit. What did phase them was last week, when the language structure was "Would you like to..." Kim Sun brought in a clip from a Korean soap of a man giving very tame kiss to a woman lying on a hospital bed. "Would you like to kiss me?" That sent the kids into hushed whispers that lasted until the clip was replaced with the next, maybe 30 seconds later. The tension was so palpable it made <span style="font-style:italic;">me</span> uncomfortable. So, poking your friend in the butt - cool. Kissing a girl - seriously messed up.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-18102154340700126212008-11-24T05:43:00.007+09:002008-11-24T06:23:03.217+09:00Pictures of Dogye on a Clear DayYesterday Melanie and I completed the traverse of the long ridge on the west side of Dogye. It was a beautiful, clear day, and warm for this time of year. Here are some pics:<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQJroyX5XbGTWnlo2qAZACPHTgy6Djdk7hJyNLIJju3ouOscD1Sm9g5f1dfv8bBfibXyvHGKPRZPoCHTysA5fBTjIzPkUqjzAE17euPqsFR1zSj95sVU4P2rPOtjm7TeY4XNjOK9CAA/s400/Dogye.JPG" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 173px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960585032929490" />This is our town, Dogye! Just to the left of the seam is the campus of our elementary school:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUwX4DMI8k5WQR5Oulb3vU_E_k4kJRBLX1Axe7rRcLVC3bwefWM2bTezFqYLjas_0nu_wsE01j-BXteQ726P10PJvlQ-O66OAZkNBr1q2whVrjhmKB4hMCG3ZIBHKuxQUjJzDkz6OYjQ/s1600-h/Dogye+Elementary+School.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUwX4DMI8k5WQR5Oulb3vU_E_k4kJRBLX1Axe7rRcLVC3bwefWM2bTezFqYLjas_0nu_wsE01j-BXteQ726P10PJvlQ-O66OAZkNBr1q2whVrjhmKB4hMCG3ZIBHKuxQUjJzDkz6OYjQ/s400/Dogye+Elementary+School.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960592860655266" /></a>From left to right the buildings are: kindergarten, gymnasium, administration and grades 2, 3 and 6, the dirt field, and grades 1, 4 and 5 plus the Dogye English Experience Center, which looks closer to opening every day - very exciting!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JG5gJZ7UHc8AKd4VuNgyTzanvozjR-gYGbGkZVmTbaW1yeh0v9MY7vpxFbgsO_3ugvmk-g2PTNq9J3-gkmn7O1FIMh8-kDQIMW8V_lJyHj99RBJhn_mjbNoGynE_b4OliATjeT4XYA/s1600-h/Melanie+Spell+Casting.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JG5gJZ7UHc8AKd4VuNgyTzanvozjR-gYGbGkZVmTbaW1yeh0v9MY7vpxFbgsO_3ugvmk-g2PTNq9J3-gkmn7O1FIMh8-kDQIMW8V_lJyHj99RBJhn_mjbNoGynE_b4OliATjeT4XYA/s400/Melanie+Spell+Casting.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960990827488482" /></a>Melanie about to cast a spell on me from an "improvement" to the trail. It's too bad they build these things, it would've been a nice 3rd class traverse without them, but Koreans love their metal staircases.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrtPPYgHh_mh3NgK6YEgaQxeiEJH4P_YFUWWBrNQQHMnTsEKhYS72D-ZVkxVvOHBTmNzdkmA8IxLWdgWgKdWsc-CbzlRy592cvwo6HvXXIFiMAwXBALNE8rnblWx0x-H9O7n8Ue7BCQ/s1600-h/Korean+Wind+Farm.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrtPPYgHh_mh3NgK6YEgaQxeiEJH4P_YFUWWBrNQQHMnTsEKhYS72D-ZVkxVvOHBTmNzdkmA8IxLWdgWgKdWsc-CbzlRy592cvwo6HvXXIFiMAwXBALNE8rnblWx0x-H9O7n8Ue7BCQ/s400/Korean+Wind+Farm.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271965576234388514" /></a>From the high vantage point on the ridge, we realized just how close we are to Taebaek, the big city just down the road... as the crow flies anyway. A couple weeks ago we took a cab from Taebaek out to this special agricultural zone and windfarm.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtlQn3cgZJwgo_Hq0AubGKcSvxN7LMASLHq5Shd7-98efrU3vtfUT6PugZGDbYX3odjecfA7t_hhAheTRFxQVSPLLTGmxT1fxOVg5SA7kPHMxGY53v_g5P3fgkQKcCWi212pEAgtiKg/s1600-h/Zoom.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFtlQn3cgZJwgo_Hq0AubGKcSvxN7LMASLHq5Shd7-98efrU3vtfUT6PugZGDbYX3odjecfA7t_hhAheTRFxQVSPLLTGmxT1fxOVg5SA7kPHMxGY53v_g5P3fgkQKcCWi212pEAgtiKg/s400/Zoom.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960604862380306" /></a>A Korean grave...<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3bmi418JrDvQlXxIJij_Ei0WgXaLTn4YBkJPcV5-uVN9ku36u0UfJjbwnR1w6HlGGnSIqKxhsXOz4e6LCLsFB_5Tezd0l3YbqojDVoQXy1syq06Hr7hzcct0pKwRsw9C186V23RoRQ/s1600-h/Grave.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3bmi418JrDvQlXxIJij_Ei0WgXaLTn4YBkJPcV5-uVN9ku36u0UfJjbwnR1w6HlGGnSIqKxhsXOz4e6LCLsFB_5Tezd0l3YbqojDVoQXy1syq06Hr7hzcct0pKwRsw9C186V23RoRQ/s400/Grave.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960598721953618" /></a>And its setting. Not a bad place to be buried, eh?<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg5VRhTls09uu1SOWxpQhknH8IX9j5xmXnHDphkkpk-ou2XJLLhyphenhyphen5X5GNs6-twZpctkzhkls4X_ug_nnpdeAFiH9F2AcBdSWDagMpXudQDK7UzIAw55ZJEgPRWDkmeK19yfy2nMKu0tA/s1600-h/In+the+Leaves.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg5VRhTls09uu1SOWxpQhknH8IX9j5xmXnHDphkkpk-ou2XJLLhyphenhyphen5X5GNs6-twZpctkzhkls4X_ug_nnpdeAFiH9F2AcBdSWDagMpXudQDK7UzIAw55ZJEgPRWDkmeK19yfy2nMKu0tA/s400/In+the+Leaves.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960972193001970" /></a>Playing in the leaves like a couple of little kids.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijIeXW_UfUNVolMwCV3ZLKZ4wkNyt2I-YZ_P2d5sFDN5dJ0w4PKP-Vtl_xVdvsfYCm998jdwCuiC07owpJyyw5izVSmOOJWmYwjjXZRww_Jz0lxgokVKJ-obsr-8-NUYz5D1Wvn3eA9w/s1600-h/Coal+River.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijIeXW_UfUNVolMwCV3ZLKZ4wkNyt2I-YZ_P2d5sFDN5dJ0w4PKP-Vtl_xVdvsfYCm998jdwCuiC07owpJyyw5izVSmOOJWmYwjjXZRww_Jz0lxgokVKJ-obsr-8-NUYz5D1Wvn3eA9w/s400/Coal+River.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271961000207860722" /></a>On our way out we crossed the river just below the major coal mine that operates in town. Of all the towns in Gangwon-do, we were placed in the one with two of Korea's three active coal mines. Anyway, don't drink the water.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQS6Ch0kTQeLGVfHUELyQFC5Dhd03f8Y05LMF708Fj1TjOlpGRqo8dS9uxPdMtP5fJwJUXvKaMN_wigeVsg4PHO8lmsYwB1SmsaOc4UBHzCwqHuQV3hfyWRsxHn8oWNEN2EFTwZfKCHA/s1600-h/Appricca.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQS6Ch0kTQeLGVfHUELyQFC5Dhd03f8Y05LMF708Fj1TjOlpGRqo8dS9uxPdMtP5fJwJUXvKaMN_wigeVsg4PHO8lmsYwB1SmsaOc4UBHzCwqHuQV3hfyWRsxHn8oWNEN2EFTwZfKCHA/s400/Appricca.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960994674030466" /></a>We passed a couple of awesome sounding restaurants on our way home. This one is Appricca.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQfd-nryX8iYbjateqBJsDk6HH07e9dH0wFr6dRlGgGNZL9PFHc7Y9IB1fojrzF_GR25JiZNPihwx4S8F2y8hjEP5DvpJaOl8sbbg4Yo0AVmZoao8VUIHD41lamdjhum_i35cobANNA/s1600-h/Smoper.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQfd-nryX8iYbjateqBJsDk6HH07e9dH0wFr6dRlGgGNZL9PFHc7Y9IB1fojrzF_GR25JiZNPihwx4S8F2y8hjEP5DvpJaOl8sbbg4Yo0AVmZoao8VUIHD41lamdjhum_i35cobANNA/s400/Smoper.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271960995473685266" /></a>And Smoper. Did they kidnap Papa Smurf and dye him green?Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-7340152293369531832008-11-21T06:23:00.004+09:002008-11-24T05:43:10.348+09:00My New WebsiteCheck out my new website, <a href="http://www.growthsteps.com/">Growth Steps</a>, where each month I'll document a new 30-day goal experiment.<br /><br />I'm going to be creating at least one additional site in the near future, and each site will have a specialized purpose. The new one will be geared toward income generation, Growth Steps is designed to hold me accountable to my goals and for whatever benefit that sort of archive might have for readers setting similar goals, and this site is going to be more about my personal experience in Korea. I'm going to move away from political ranting and book reviews (since I didn't get to them, I'll say this now: read Jensen's <span style="font-style:italic;">Culture of Make Believe</span> and Pollan's <span style="font-style:italic;">Omnivore's Dilemma</span>. The former, in particular, is a life-changing book). This blog will focus on first person narrative and commentary on living and teaching in South Korea. And more pictures and videos. ;)<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9t1Xq8RcvvS4ZjdSpJODF70J7zhC5I45clvacjYxlW0o88ETAnHZ8DaJuUIIEcFZ4U1v7lr_WEm48q5T5DFUrTy2jwpFn8N0sqLCb_qwY42OiVF3YJbosobp22hi6U5t5YRh9Pr5VA/s1600-h/MLMW.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC9t1Xq8RcvvS4ZjdSpJODF70J7zhC5I45clvacjYxlW0o88ETAnHZ8DaJuUIIEcFZ4U1v7lr_WEm48q5T5DFUrTy2jwpFn8N0sqLCb_qwY42OiVF3YJbosobp22hi6U5t5YRh9Pr5VA/s400/MLMW.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270857830984325378" /></a><br /><br />Thanks for reading.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-85168671786429820982008-11-15T14:09:00.005+09:002008-11-15T17:24:46.262+09:00EPIK Apartment Tour (Dogye)A little while ago I made a <a href="http://viewfromgangwon.blogspot.com/2008/09/video-tour-korean-gardens-neighborhood.html">video tour</a> of our neighborhood and the apartment EPIK Gangwon-do provided for us in Samcheok. Today, I thought I'd post a video tour of our new EPIK apartment in Dogye.<br /><br />Before we moved, we were commuting about two hours a day to our school in Dogye. We told our co-teacher, then the adminstration at our school, the Samcheok Education Office, our recruiter at ESL Job Network and finally the Supervisor of Education for Gangwon Province that we needed to be closer to our school, and finally, after almost two months of our harassment, they found an apartment for us in Dogye. The problem it seems is that EPIK tells recruiters to tell prospective teachers that they will be provided an apartment within 10 or 15 minutes of their school, while a manual that EPIK gives to the schools says to get your English Teachers an apartment within an hour of the school.<br /><br />In any case, it turned out fine for all the hassle. We lost a lot of apartment space, and our apartment here is quite a bit older. Dogye is much smaller, and feels it. It also feels like the coal mining town that it is. But to leave home at 8:45 and get home at 5:15 is, as the commercials say, priceless.<br /><br /><br />Here's a look at our apartment, from behind, with town beyond it:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7enf6PNPnquF0nYUdETNXtHAgdOspNgdhze_054SGSfC1O6b7vWocvDRrvjA6os09814J9yXhrf0DhotjEi0gpBz_U3KkI5ScdSYQCqUHzV1yAekLAI6mT_NWOL4fR5PkNyBZVCFhQ/s1600-h/apartment.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7enf6PNPnquF0nYUdETNXtHAgdOspNgdhze_054SGSfC1O6b7vWocvDRrvjA6os09814J9yXhrf0DhotjEi0gpBz_U3KkI5ScdSYQCqUHzV1yAekLAI6mT_NWOL4fR5PkNyBZVCFhQ/s400/apartment.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268749538317361506"></a><br /><br /><br />And here's the video (6:02):<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyJBBH922NCUU4--OqUUioinHqhja52_UXC8BalH-6qxgeSOPEhKEhw3sodaHmxriFpVQ7gn8cnnbHK4xbcqg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-69317667596363811532008-11-12T06:56:00.005+09:002008-11-12T07:28:54.894+09:00School Opening DayIt's not what it sounds like.... Dogye Elementary School seems to have been open since at least the Korean War (1950 - '53). Instead, yesterday our school was "open" to teachers and administrators from all around Dogye <span style="font-style:italic;">Eub</span> (an administrative region somewhat smaller than a county).<br /><br />For days, everyone at school had been freaking out making artsy name tags, cleaning every last shoe-locker and polishing every last trophy. When we arrived yesterday, it felt more like we were walking into a sales convention or wedding reception than our school.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtXgazqbagg-ihcKfHfNQoKQBYD8dJYqS-3U0ircLKmrDYHpBr6lVDLCwl05v_GoWrmXdgVAaPDo5i8CxGE8afkdYhZ5M1ezMUoGC0L54hC0bui0nadmaMS6kVr8E8QCGnTd8cNM4HA/s1600-h/School+done+up.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtXgazqbagg-ihcKfHfNQoKQBYD8dJYqS-3U0ircLKmrDYHpBr6lVDLCwl05v_GoWrmXdgVAaPDo5i8CxGE8afkdYhZ5M1ezMUoGC0L54hC0bui0nadmaMS6kVr8E8QCGnTd8cNM4HA/s400/School+done+up.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267523510619519346" /></a>The entrance to the gymnasium.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqznO5UIxRJp79KT5bTV3c3X3FOnxxRcy4dStxrDL_k9UOarWqDihNISIUlogHL5VaY6MK7Ol3Cm-nmV8-yJXbcu5n1L1-v3x_sEhcCZKUeCZDBJHMj6FBbDbwWW6sPjJQJ1DmmGxAEQ/s1600-h/Mel+Posters.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqznO5UIxRJp79KT5bTV3c3X3FOnxxRcy4dStxrDL_k9UOarWqDihNISIUlogHL5VaY6MK7Ol3Cm-nmV8-yJXbcu5n1L1-v3x_sEhcCZKUeCZDBJHMj6FBbDbwWW6sPjJQJ1DmmGxAEQ/s400/Mel+Posters.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267523513480476386" /></a>Inside the gymnasium were scores of displays of students' artwork and stories, and teachers' methods, like the games we use in English class.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgSwQM167wCafv_GYI1us30CUzOLyF3daCUyfa55AyZkCdd525S1wK0IR-OTi2HBcizbD67YEY4a-leYBT_v7wNi4e3uMDoGG_JHC4oT2v20lSdgPALxPhzegfXfBG351KpmDmkq5Ng/s1600-h/Mel+Banner.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYgSwQM167wCafv_GYI1us30CUzOLyF3daCUyfa55AyZkCdd525S1wK0IR-OTi2HBcizbD67YEY4a-leYBT_v7wNi4e3uMDoGG_JHC4oT2v20lSdgPALxPhzegfXfBG351KpmDmkq5Ng/s400/Mel+Banner.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267523517962259074" /></a>There were also a couple of banners (Koreans <span style="font-style:italic;">love</span> banners). We were surprised to see that this one featured Melanie! And no, that's not a prison behind her. Those are the gym's offices.<br /><br /><br />After lunch, Kim Sun and I taught a demonstration class for about twenty other teachers and the elementary school supervisor for Samcheok County. Kim Sun - who just finished her "English Education Degree" - had planned this down to the last word (even my words), and was visibly nervous before we started. She's actually a great English teacher, and with her more than any other Korean teacher, we have a good natural dynamic in the classroom - both letting the other teach in their style and being there to support the other on pronunciation or complex directions or whatever. But yesterday she was just putting on a show, and had me relegated me to the talking stooge. In all of the feedback I heard, from Koreans and foreigners alike, was that I should have more of a role in the class. I don't know why Kim Sun set up that class the way she did - to show off, I suppose, but she is actually the one co-teacher I work with that doesn't need to hear that I should have more of a role in class... several of my other teachers really do need to hear that. Oh well. Hopefully she impressed whomever she was trying to impress.<br /><br /><br />After the demo class, we went into the freezing cold gymnasium, and Chantel (one of the three other foreigners who lives in Dogye) was asked to give a speech about her impressions of the demo class, the school, teaching in Korea and Korea in general. No need, apparently, for preparation, or for a translator. I would guess that less than 10% of the audience understood more than 10% of what she said.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRjmX5WTcS_Pla4HGLx__dZa_hMzS2eKwPlqQOtFNSU9ovGOgLfyGQv11yW16_hvUmK0NO4uHE1P-1wp1yEd4yrw_MqdygrqV79HH_oLOYRvdf9jWmCz-_SNJe33m6FTF81xzMdF3kw/s1600-h/Chantell.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiRjmX5WTcS_Pla4HGLx__dZa_hMzS2eKwPlqQOtFNSU9ovGOgLfyGQv11yW16_hvUmK0NO4uHE1P-1wp1yEd4yrw_MqdygrqV79HH_oLOYRvdf9jWmCz-_SNJe33m6FTF81xzMdF3kw/s400/Chantell.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267524215210542322" /></a>Nevertheless, here she is trying to take the task seriously.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA0jhimnR4iB1OokKnS_-3oSPWCIm2qGcBUxPEeQsHT9r4OqVRMWpCjArXpbMhj0Lq13Q56hm2U9Dm2bvq1nNR5QxAr9rQ9-vMWxW4fR9Q2hG0kHTJl2GFT0dsX8u8S7gx52TBx1Dww/s1600-h/Dogye+Crew.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA0jhimnR4iB1OokKnS_-3oSPWCIm2qGcBUxPEeQsHT9r4OqVRMWpCjArXpbMhj0Lq13Q56hm2U9Dm2bvq1nNR5QxAr9rQ9-vMWxW4fR9Q2hG0kHTJl2GFT0dsX8u8S7gx52TBx1Dww/s400/Dogye+Crew.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267524221337992114" /></a>And here are the other foreigners trying not to laugh at her attribution of the children's good behavior to their nutritious lunches.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdvoiLjn1zXc-Gl2G_UaVS51nG2BoRijg0b4s1u8O6TtXZoqDdexUJzTUi7u7WS98gdx-BVygRLP9u3cmZGD1WfYqDStt5bjUEXFbml5Nrf19hD4OtB4N2xKBvIYeI-uCrNdO_h473A/s1600-h/Restaurant1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdvoiLjn1zXc-Gl2G_UaVS51nG2BoRijg0b4s1u8O6TtXZoqDdexUJzTUi7u7WS98gdx-BVygRLP9u3cmZGD1WfYqDStt5bjUEXFbml5Nrf19hD4OtB4N2xKBvIYeI-uCrNdO_h473A/s400/Restaurant1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267524222420208338" /></a>After two hours of not understanding anything in the gymnasium, we had had enough and scurried away to this restaurant for an awesome dinner. All of that, including drinks, for 8,500 won each (US$6.36).<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNPNTowJ6bTOliyttPY7hI3Aeg7VkX5THai_w8yzzBdp3J2fB6vRBJxG-ZHvKGHUXEPRw5HSSwhjY3Qxr34rnXZNKUtNBhEyuZ-kgGyLFO7EzFrzKjlY7Xr3gRzKWo2S9XP2yirE3Iw/s1600-h/Restaurant2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKNPNTowJ6bTOliyttPY7hI3Aeg7VkX5THai_w8yzzBdp3J2fB6vRBJxG-ZHvKGHUXEPRw5HSSwhjY3Qxr34rnXZNKUtNBhEyuZ-kgGyLFO7EzFrzKjlY7Xr3gRzKWo2S9XP2yirE3Iw/s400/Restaurant2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267524237650991666" /></a>And a bunch of happy campers after a good meal.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-3905357575434650212008-11-10T14:18:00.005+09:002008-11-11T07:11:52.260+09:00Al Gore - What We Need to DoIn a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09gore.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em">NYTimes op-ed </a>yesterday, Al Gore noted that the same steps can heal our economy, our planet, and our national energy security. He's not the first to say it, but it is eloquent and if the former VP says it can be so, who are we to say it can't?<br /><br />It's may be too late already -- we may have already entered a feed-forward loop that will massively alter the ecology of the planet and it make it much less pleasant for humans to live here. But in case we haven't, we must take these steps now. There is no time to waste.<br /><br />--<br /><br /><br />What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced. <br /><br />First, the new president and the new Congress should offer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of concentrated solar thermal plants in the Southwestern deserts, wind farms in the corridor stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced plants in geothermal hot spots that could produce large amounts of electricity.<br /><br />Second, we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used. New high-voltage, low-loss underground lines can be designed with “smart” features that provide consumers with sophisticated information and easy-to-use tools for conserving electricity, eliminating inefficiency and reducing their energy bills. The cost of this modern grid — $400 billion over 10 years — pales in comparison with the annual loss to American business of $120 billion due to the cascading failures that are endemic to our current balkanized and antiquated electricity lines.<br /><br />Third, we should help America’s automobile industry (not only the Big Three but the innovative new startup companies as well) to convert quickly to plug-in hybrids that can run on the renewable electricity that will be available as the rest of this plan matures. In combination with the unified grid, a nationwide fleet of plug-in hybrids would also help to solve the problem of electricity storage. Think about it: with this sort of grid, cars could be charged during off-peak energy-use hours; during peak hours, when fewer cars are on the road, they could contribute their electricity back into the national grid. <br /><br />Fourth, we should embark on a nationwide effort to retrofit buildings with better insulation and energy-efficient windows and lighting. Approximately 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States come from buildings — and stopping that pollution saves money for homeowners and businesses. This initiative should be coupled with the proposal in Congress to help Americans who are burdened by mortgages that exceed the value of their homes. <br /><br />Fifth, the United States should lead the way by putting a price on carbon here at home, and by leading the world’s efforts to replace the Kyoto treaty next year in Copenhagen with a more effective treaty that caps global carbon dioxide emissions and encourages nations to invest together in efficient ways to reduce global warming pollution quickly, including by sharply reducing deforestation. <br /><br />Of course, the best way — indeed the only way — to secure a global agreement to safeguard our future is by re-establishing the United States as the country with the moral and political authority to lead the world toward a solution. <br /><br />Looking ahead, I have great hope that we will have the courage to embrace the changes necessary to save our economy, our planet and ultimately ourselves.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-54896721244846401172008-11-09T08:31:00.006+09:002008-11-09T09:17:03.983+09:00Trip to GangneungA couple weeks ago one of the teachers at our school asked if we wanted to go with him to Gangneung, the closest big town. After our plans were foiled last week by one of his students hitting another with a baseball bat and the subsequent necessity of dealing with the police, we arranged to go yesterday with him and another teacher from our school. Unfortunately, weather-wise, it was absolutely the worst day we've seen thus far in Korea.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CuGzGkMUHLnoD1MBud4SvUEPIrBaZa87Rugnk49T_py020sJnSgCKemWjZqb667irAvCNBWIE4WJ_dewKZ0U8MsKcMFx2BV0CxEQx1Z5UXc1ejpkzSvtp50e92nErNzLxfuo5JvlDA/s1600-h/Okgye+Rest+Stop.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CuGzGkMUHLnoD1MBud4SvUEPIrBaZa87Rugnk49T_py020sJnSgCKemWjZqb667irAvCNBWIE4WJ_dewKZ0U8MsKcMFx2BV0CxEQx1Z5UXc1ejpkzSvtp50e92nErNzLxfuo5JvlDA/s400/Okgye+Rest+Stop.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266435535310799826" /></a>The first stop was Okgye (pronounced "OK") Rest Stop off the Donghae Expressway, voted the most beautiful rest stop in Korea. <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSTdilvyNQVeqEA-rgQTK9I13Yrx1gIZDqNrqNOHm54DuIKXhBdJVOM3DvmRgZz9bGTjp1slKS7-bMLBZP3in1ng0hmGFK9wfNNC-ISKpMe3Wh-aPd9WpMezrq_yFg2ixQzMHPoLBkw/s1600-h/Girl+at+Okgye.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSTdilvyNQVeqEA-rgQTK9I13Yrx1gIZDqNrqNOHm54DuIKXhBdJVOM3DvmRgZz9bGTjp1slKS7-bMLBZP3in1ng0hmGFK9wfNNC-ISKpMe3Wh-aPd9WpMezrq_yFg2ixQzMHPoLBkw/s400/Girl+at+Okgye.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266435533779690018" /></a>This little girl didn't seem to mind the rain.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2me8t-017tC1uaqd4DMGowHZmBVcY3cxDu9-4vdFf5OKZz2BUQiP47d-QNTrSS0MtcLpcrHhcWvFegFaDUkCkEw97G9sf7_4kMO1ICNI3tXWJU7dgG5OPGWC52zARvPYnKHcpUdKYQ/s1600-h/Sun+Cruise.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2me8t-017tC1uaqd4DMGowHZmBVcY3cxDu9-4vdFf5OKZz2BUQiP47d-QNTrSS0MtcLpcrHhcWvFegFaDUkCkEw97G9sf7_4kMO1ICNI3tXWJU7dgG5OPGWC52zARvPYnKHcpUdKYQ/s400/Sun+Cruise.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266436439011025154" /></a>The second stop was "Sun Cruise" - a huge hotel made in the image of a cruise ship.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDTal_-xoIpdU-iROgZR3ZUGe9A2X5ym6PUsY0nULKXoRtRNGb2b5XO1V8gJpI5WWrOQ79iBYnsp75yRB4RNXXkIJyp4cOtSOxIaF-0MxHp0ErAoNTxjOQjEHiu8l0wo7A6GN0TY3Zg/s1600-h/Me+and+Mel.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgDTal_-xoIpdU-iROgZR3ZUGe9A2X5ym6PUsY0nULKXoRtRNGb2b5XO1V8gJpI5WWrOQ79iBYnsp75yRB4RNXXkIJyp4cOtSOxIaF-0MxHp0ErAoNTxjOQjEHiu8l0wo7A6GN0TY3Zg/s400/Me+and+Mel.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266436441142578338" /></a>Behind us you can see a smaller a ship. It didn't occur to me how weird it is that they had built a series of huge ships on hillsides until we got home and looked at these pictures.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnKZBp56keR16nf3YpJV_Vq34PwYODQibhYyO6FnWPIH4aAUPrzgSwXEtyTrHhjtCcQdkM59EJQZ_5VjAz5RfAJ3c14cd8BYUblE3vMqQexpV5wJYNCnRtsbhQlF-qvo_Dd78IDBaAw/s1600-h/garden.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnKZBp56keR16nf3YpJV_Vq34PwYODQibhYyO6FnWPIH4aAUPrzgSwXEtyTrHhjtCcQdkM59EJQZ_5VjAz5RfAJ3c14cd8BYUblE3vMqQexpV5wJYNCnRtsbhQlF-qvo_Dd78IDBaAw/s400/garden.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266437204820162946" /></a>The gardens at Sun Cruise were quite beautiful.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrm24VfzGypzgjrpoH3sumyi02trHwFU5c612U11c6J_CV5SGVkUKBZ8C8-5S6lTBeM9jydXGAEU97guv7C4-w1intMh7Qg8VXPQIBtUJ8sGEu9fkNHt8MSRvtl6sf4WAvZirmzvO3dg/s1600-h/Hands.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrm24VfzGypzgjrpoH3sumyi02trHwFU5c612U11c6J_CV5SGVkUKBZ8C8-5S6lTBeM9jydXGAEU97guv7C4-w1intMh7Qg8VXPQIBtUJ8sGEu9fkNHt8MSRvtl6sf4WAvZirmzvO3dg/s400/Hands.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266437212722075074" /></a>There was lots of sculpture, much of it on the theme of hands(?!).<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifWETIrmC_H8RazlR8L_w4P0IaZDDDNNfWtBNUg9Q1o9zj7bB-LzmXQ45V6yu9i401eaMRPQk8C7u4-MJg1Gtsk9mQCOt84AMhMmOHOgYhyphenhyphen9w2cZ9fTecEdL_ykpNJZmtttaju6XmlSQ/s1600-h/Hands2.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifWETIrmC_H8RazlR8L_w4P0IaZDDDNNfWtBNUg9Q1o9zj7bB-LzmXQ45V6yu9i401eaMRPQk8C7u4-MJg1Gtsk9mQCOt84AMhMmOHOgYhyphenhyphen9w2cZ9fTecEdL_ykpNJZmtttaju6XmlSQ/s400/Hands2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266437217560869634" /></a>We learned that this is how Korean symbolize a strong promise, not unlike pinkie swearing.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-vU5wRhfu25wuPjOsgm4IfgYh0XhdW1O3-FYC5sQ1HvItXY7WBLogFJfjbYs5hT75iL_5OLpFj2hZ7BDpLxkZoeugtDBq-e3t38a2iNkHFTBulVT7MvYv4cc7RHuqll5Ffo_NNC_5A/s1600-h/Women+Sculpture.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-vU5wRhfu25wuPjOsgm4IfgYh0XhdW1O3-FYC5sQ1HvItXY7WBLogFJfjbYs5hT75iL_5OLpFj2hZ7BDpLxkZoeugtDBq-e3t38a2iNkHFTBulVT7MvYv4cc7RHuqll5Ffo_NNC_5A/s400/Women+Sculpture.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266437225159590594" /></a>This was just inside the front gate. Those are decidedly non-Korean breasts!<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuM774L9OgE6VCSo1Xt-gh_HfkGjis9pn5cidlBUpQjIKcLtXPDOTnTDwyyB2jdQyU8Z09diCiPC8V6s376-mBDOdCQeUfWBNs8ucX-DOLKFf0ntE_JQk3LrV5C8drvHUgii1PyrSZtg/s1600-h/Group.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuM774L9OgE6VCSo1Xt-gh_HfkGjis9pn5cidlBUpQjIKcLtXPDOTnTDwyyB2jdQyU8Z09diCiPC8V6s376-mBDOdCQeUfWBNs8ucX-DOLKFf0ntE_JQk3LrV5C8drvHUgii1PyrSZtg/s400/Group.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266437233663876434" /></a>Our group on a glass bottomed overlook. The teacher on the viewer's left we call "Tom Cruise" for his debonair ways. I teach two fifth grade classes with him. On the right is a teacher we call "Mirage" for our not having really noticed he exists for the first couple weeks we were there. Melanie teaches fourth grade with him. They are both exceptionally kind men.<br /><br /><br />After the Sun Cruise, we went to Tofu Town, a huge specialty restaurant for uncooked tofu dipped in soy sauce, tofu soup (I think it was really just soft tofu in water, with soy sauce for flavor), a delicious scallion-omelet, and some great side dishes.<br /><br />Despite, or maybe because of, the surreal nature of the whole experience, it was a really nice day. It felt to me like we were a part of something in a new way, like we were genuinely on a friendly excursion with Koreans - no school-assignment or ulterior motives or feelings of obligation. Like we were part of a community of teachers, and like we were seeing Korea a little more from the inside. And as we talked about the upcoming hard winter in this town of 4,000 people, it was comforting to know there are at least a couple people we genuinely enjoy spending time with.<br /><br />Tom Cruise's English is very broken (and the second best of all the teachers at school), but he seems to enjoy talking about ideas, which is extremely refreshing. Maybe this is true of all people and my perception of it just gets amplified with communication so limited, but prospects for conversation about anything meaningful have been few and far between. So a day of talking about the history of mining in our region and the effects of Korea's recent switch away from coal (negative population growth, poverty, the establishment of the only casino in Korea for domestic use), government, the election, the economies and how they relate was very welcome. It seems vocabulary is less a limiting factor for those sorts of conversations than is a willingness to slow down conversation and dig for the occasional big concept.<br /><br />It's good to know that it's there.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-41277262294050746892008-11-07T07:43:00.002+09:002008-11-07T08:18:49.754+09:00Hike Above Our New HomeWhen I move to a new town, I make it a priority to get some perspective as quickly as possible by climbing the hills surrounding the place. When I moved to Boulder and climbed the beautiful red rocks above Settlers Park, I remember thinking I can't imagine living on flatland where you couldn't climb above and look down on town. Since 2000, I've lived in California, Colorado and Korea and those have suited me just fine.<br /><br />So last weekend, our first in this town, I looked out my window and found the biggest hill beside town, found a valley next to and started walking up it. I ran into several groups of students on the way to the hike, and then one with his family on the trail. It feels great to be living in the same place we're working, to be (in some few ways) part of a community. On the other hand, when I went to buy water at the convenience store under our apartment after work in my sweats and ran into two students in the store, I was a little less excited about community and more worried about privacy. Similarly yesterday when we ran into a student 50 meters from our apartment and he followed us like a lost puppy into our building, the concerns trumped the satisfaction.<br /><br />Anyway, here are some pictures from the hike, of our new home, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Dogye</span> Village of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Samcheok</span> County of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Gangwon</span> Province of the Republic of Korea. If it's a bit hazy, that's because there was a fire just a valley over two days before. Helicopters overhead all day, but no serious damage done.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpV8Qg0KTUR1-gkVIoWCHWh9ExUnGMgDc2eTHFMGDmglmg5rioVIN7ChKNnQKTjrC0BHp4SQ0xWUQS2NMyftRNpFs0tG8sHy53kSChSh4mN04GleN9WJ4T-9lhtwtcUHyjKrnJMYEQqw/s1600-h/Dogye.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpV8Qg0KTUR1-gkVIoWCHWh9ExUnGMgDc2eTHFMGDmglmg5rioVIN7ChKNnQKTjrC0BHp4SQ0xWUQS2NMyftRNpFs0tG8sHy53kSChSh4mN04GleN9WJ4T-9lhtwtcUHyjKrnJMYEQqw/s400/Dogye.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265681942256306370" /></a><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Dogye</span> from above. Our apartment is on the left, the highest of the cluster of six large buildings. That valley that we back up to is this weekend.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GZOQARA2Pyi-IVWkU7seK0YVKevuvRlmm83GZAUtozbtaBveN249qK2isLXiN5c1kQiTCEMvlinh11sSY3HeGyv34Oo837RL94A809nIqs8xXzLnTTfoHTwW2H03dCP78erEiPKIYw/s1600-h/coal+mine.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GZOQARA2Pyi-IVWkU7seK0YVKevuvRlmm83GZAUtozbtaBveN249qK2isLXiN5c1kQiTCEMvlinh11sSY3HeGyv34Oo837RL94A809nIqs8xXzLnTTfoHTwW2H03dCP78erEiPKIYw/s400/coal+mine.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265681930993635490" /></a>This is the industry that keeps this region breathing (and warm during the winter... there are actual bricks of coal all over the place. They get them delivered to burn for heat).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAhKiIkIh80rdvVIexx_zsRrKY3nCy3h4SJzXz09BGkugmnxSC55CHbbivkmSPpP0FtgEgZVF9ZIgOV_YiNbp4pUt1iDfaghPXKlOiLQ1w2Z7WURevEK7m_NMnWvym9PqsF4ayMdJTA/s1600-h/dogs.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAhKiIkIh80rdvVIexx_zsRrKY3nCy3h4SJzXz09BGkugmnxSC55CHbbivkmSPpP0FtgEgZVF9ZIgOV_YiNbp4pUt1iDfaghPXKlOiLQ1w2Z7WURevEK7m_NMnWvym9PqsF4ayMdJTA/s400/dogs.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265681937658613682" /></a>Here are some dogs that I can only assume are being kept for food. To be honest, I feel only marginally worse for these creatures than I do for the millions of pics and cows kept all over the world for food, in the United States usually in <span style="font-style:italic;">much </span>worse conditions than these dogs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBad6AK2qO7PYvd6ZIWhYgdmJVhEfXgkfl5JwnKpXkiCk2zhNlUejmHk1Kj2LBWM79mB3BxTdihghhOHihG8fy_vF-CHeAeQe1bTXolbxu_-hs_IhHOT9qg8QQEi7uVbtcTftmvfwyzg/s1600-h/persimmon+tree.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBad6AK2qO7PYvd6ZIWhYgdmJVhEfXgkfl5JwnKpXkiCk2zhNlUejmHk1Kj2LBWM79mB3BxTdihghhOHihG8fy_vF-CHeAeQe1bTXolbxu_-hs_IhHOT9qg8QQEi7uVbtcTftmvfwyzg/s400/persimmon+tree.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265681942941096434" /></a>Persimmons are everywhere this time of year, a dime a dozen, if you will. When the leaves blow off the trees, leaving the orange bulbs alone with the dark brown branches, it's really quite a site. I'll have to work on getting a better shot of it than this.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRqR5nYbMVbBrKxfE7ULrRCxtxvYtlN-6fPJ7AkzOJJDRzf27obY3bYVZ3YJtMor0aBDjPoaQIW8AagzTBZXt75S69xIZ57wPTshgY482ov3whPnhehu01ns4lpD-sGAK7WfaxePUNw/s1600-h/foot+path.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRqR5nYbMVbBrKxfE7ULrRCxtxvYtlN-6fPJ7AkzOJJDRzf27obY3bYVZ3YJtMor0aBDjPoaQIW8AagzTBZXt75S69xIZ57wPTshgY482ov3whPnhehu01ns4lpD-sGAK7WfaxePUNw/s400/foot+path.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265681940766516690" /></a>And a reflexology footpath, in the shape of a foot, at the bottom of the valley. They're huge on reflexology here (it's a Traditional Chinese Medicine thing). The idea, as best I understand it, is that you walk on the stone paths barefoot to stimulate the points on the bottom of your feet to enhance the flow of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">qi</span>. We just got a path in front of our school, which we've taken to using after lunch, until we're dragged away by the raucous group of second grade girls that kidnaps us to the playground everyday.Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5117435194092181199.post-70768833469074709672008-11-05T10:09:00.003+09:002008-11-05T10:17:36.858+09:00Fire BagA few weeks ago, Samcheok hosted the "SAFEM Expo" - some sort of emergency preparedness and response convention. It was a big deal for the town - 70,000 people, $60 million, and two big-top tents. Our school took us there one afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but I did grab this flier, from a booth selling fire preparedness equipment.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_NrGNHixrOIVJWzYoCNxvk-lbknb3paKr-Yaqq10zIHEg-uNmvWebjuwWcTysBIL-qicVMwVLZ2NPZ24AUR9ctTmJ4tJEaQeZNSMLOxMhFzoWpnwF-U-CC_6q2PnYTtyJcpyYYhLuw/s1600-h/SAFEM+poster.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 282px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl_NrGNHixrOIVJWzYoCNxvk-lbknb3paKr-Yaqq10zIHEg-uNmvWebjuwWcTysBIL-qicVMwVLZ2NPZ24AUR9ctTmJ4tJEaQeZNSMLOxMhFzoWpnwF-U-CC_6q2PnYTtyJcpyYYhLuw/s400/SAFEM+poster.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264975820995251154" /></a><br /><br />Zooming in on the boxes on the left reveals the design of this brilliant device...<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3qPpYhnhCh25SFdn7FipfEzzQIf22IkybLCBwBigksPVOkrX3Hk55nwc7luEaHXXCPc0kRxDKE2-FJERLkAX-UzBz9rEWAbX-rya04F6Ic-gAlrMrDfJW5_zChvNpO_RKzUnRU5reg/s1600-h/zoom.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 378px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3qPpYhnhCh25SFdn7FipfEzzQIf22IkybLCBwBigksPVOkrX3Hk55nwc7luEaHXXCPc0kRxDKE2-FJERLkAX-UzBz9rEWAbX-rya04F6Ic-gAlrMrDfJW5_zChvNpO_RKzUnRU5reg/s400/zoom.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264975824763188722" /></a><br /><br />Do you feel safe yet?Michael Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17424059429241471091noreply@blogger.com0