A year in Korea

Reader's Digest Version of My Life

I can't find a plane ticket home at a later date, so I don't know if I can take the job (that runs to the 19th of August, while my plane ticket is for the 10th), which means I don't know if I can go on my trip.  If I can, I decided to go to China, Beijing specifically.  I have ten days.  I'm thinking (should I actually get to go, it all depends on getting a job with the right dates) Beijing, Hohhot and maybe one other place.  I will be in China for 10 days with beijing as a hub.  Any suggestions?

That is all, except for I love what the Blazers did on wednesday.  I wonder if Hollywood has any thoughts...

what to do...

Ok, so it's like this:  My flight is for August 10th.  I just got a job that pays really well that goes until august 19th.  Which means that I would have to reschedule my flight for say, august 23rd (to give myself some me time).  Which means that my visa will have expired, so I think i need to leave the country to get it renewed.  But where to go?

I should have thought about it before I even came to Korea, but this place is damn isolated.  It's not like, say, Austria, where you can't fall down without landing in another country.  Far from it.  The only country this place borders is practically a black hole.  It's like bordering outer space.  Is it there?  sure.  Can you go?  No.

So I have a ten day window to get out and get back into the country.  Obvious candidates for destinations include the ever controversial Japan and the big ginseng itself, China.  They are the closest, and it seems like while I'm in Asia, it makes senes to visit them.

There's a damn good chance I could end up teaching English in Japan.  It makes sense to visit before I go, at least I think it does.  I have some friends there, so it would be nice to be shown around a bit, maybe even shown a good time.  I travel Thailand and Cambodia by myself and that had mixed results.  The downside, of course, is that it is rediculiously expensive.  I'm bad with money, so making this more expensive isn't a good idea.

On the other side is China.  I've got some familial ties with China, and whether or not it's true, I feel obligated to check it out.  Not like a burden, but more in a sense of fraternity.  Supposedly China is the big up-and-comer that's going to knock the inflated head off the the U.S., so it might be nice to see before we go to war.  And, I heard it's still cheap.  Awesome.  I don't really have contacts there, but hey, who needs contacts?

what to do... what to do...

45

I suppose I'm long overdue for a post on the ol' blog.  I'm a teacher now, and a student no longer.  There's a list of Korean blogs, and mine is listed as "An American studying in Seoul," but I don't think that really applies any more.  Sorry if you've been misled.

I've been working at an English Academy for the last two weeks.  I'm just filling in for a guy who went back to Canada for about two and a half weeks.  I'll be finished on Wednesday, which will be nice because this job has it's share of headaches.  I would say it's 90% great, but the other ten percent is due to some seriously unruly kids.  I've taught at a couple different acadamies, of all ages, and the one thing that trips me up the most is how to deal with kids who have ADD.  A lot of people say it's an over diagnosed disorder, that kids are just hyper, but spend all day in a class room with a bunch of 10-13 year olds and you can spot the ones who simply can't slow down.  The hardest part is that I don't know how to react to it.  I tell them "hey, sit down, be quiet, do your work," but it isn't that easy, because they can't. 

I went off on a kid one day and made him stand outside the class because he was trying to take over my show, and the kids parents called my boss.  I thought he was gonna let me go, which would have been rediculious, but we talked about it and he said I'm just here temporarily, so chill out.  What the hell is that?  I understand i'm only here for a while, and that the long-term student/teacher roles don't really need to be established, but what does he want me to do, just play with them?  I don't know, it stressed me out for a while.  Other than those handful of kids, it's been really fun.  God bless the dysfunctional korean english education system for supplying me with fruitful opportunities to teach 'conversation.'  I'll finish this in two days and start a new job next monday.

In other news, 45 days til America.  I've been comparing my return to my departure and it feels similar, only without the hassle.  I'm in this temporary zone where I don't feel like diving in too deep with anything here (even though 45 days is still a long time), but I don't have to go through a visa process or anything like that.  The thing I'm worried about this time is making enough money to go home.  I have a great opportunity to gather some funds here.  If I got back and work some menial job, I'll make about 1/5th of what I make here.  Still, money aside, it will be good to see my friends again.

On the friends, note, almost all of mine are gone.  I was left alone on a saturday night for the first time in a while last weekend, and as checked my phonebook on the celly, I realized that I've almost outlasted them all.  There were kids here for spring semester that came here and have left already, while I've been just chillin.  It makes me wonder why I signed on for so long, and if it was necessary.  I could have been home for a week by now if the cards were right, in fact my original flight date has passed.  I can't decide whether I'm glad about it or not.

After going through a big glad-to-be-in-korea phase, I'm once again semi-bothered by it.  Namely, commuting in the town is simply terrible.  It's big, it takes a long time, and people are always  staring at me, bumping in to me, or just getting in my way.  It can be really stressful.  I was reading in my psych class about type A and type B personalities (optimism/pessimism, calm/stressed) and it's relation to early death and heart disease and I serious think that if I were to stay here for very much longer, the sheer stress of going to work would put me underground by 35.

Also, soccer mania in Korea has officially subsided.  After losing 2-0 to Switzerland, the passion that ran through the veins of this nation has turned into anger as almost every Korean i've talked to believes they were cheated.  I didn't watch the game, because it was at 4 in the morning, but from what I understand, it was a sketchy play that sounds like it was an unfair situation that resulted in a swiss goal.  Anyway, Korea, you lost by 2.  You can't forget about that.  I don't know if I believe it, but i've heard rumors of Korean's protesting at the swiss embassy in germany over the bogus outcome.  It makes sense, the only way Korea could lose in the minds of Koreans is that they were cheated.  I should have seen it coming.

A difference you can feel

I have witnessed the difference between collective and individual society firsthand, thanks to the World Cup.  My mom, who's in america, asked me, "so, do they watch soccer over there?  I keep hearing about the world cup on bbc."  Short answer, yes, they do have soccer in Korea.  Long answer, they have soccer here like nowhere else in the world.

The background story is that Korea and Japan hosted the world cup in 2002, and Korea made quite the good showing, making it to the final 16.  As far as I know, Korea has been hyped ever since then for this year's version of the international competition.  Almost every commercial on TV has footage of the last world cup for about 24 seconds, and then six seconds dedicated to a description of a new cell phone plan.  Let's just say it's world cup mania over here.

So I just got done watching the Korea-Togo game, which Korea won 2-1 (Let me say, R.I.P. to the US team that got absolutely murdered last night).  I was watching the game in the lounge room of my new apartment building with some Koreans that live here.  True to form, they carred the tradition that I've seen in the commercials, on the street, and prevoiusly at Yon Go Jan, namely, group cheering.

I can't do it justice right now, but if you hear, in any form (beit a car horn or a pencil on a desk) a rhythm that sounds like dum-dum dum-dum dum, it will inevitably be followed by anyone within audible proximity screaming "Dae Han Min Gook," which of course, means Korea.  If you watch the Korean games (any korean game versus another country), it will be constantly in the background.

We were watching the game and the five Koreans I were with were constantly doing the dum-dum dum-dum dum Dae Han Min Gook thing.  They needed no instigator, no hype-man if you will.  Just sheer motivation to cheer with one another.  Yet the whole time, I couldn't get into it.  It's not like I have a problem cheering for another country.  I realized last night that no amount of cheering is gonna get the U.S. past what is been called "the group of death."  And honestly, I'm going for Argentina to win the whole thing.  The problem is that I don't find cheering in a group for no particular reason exciting.  They loved it, while I found it annoying.  I could pass it off as cynicism, but I'd rather think it was the individual vs. collective.

And I've got evidence that it wasn't just the people I was with either.  As I write this I can hear cars honking their horns and people cheering, just because Korea beat Togo.  There's also this picture, that shows just how much these people were into it all.

The thing about it is that I don't think they even like soccer that much here.  I think they just like the idea of succeeding in international competition and the togetherness that comes with that.  I asked one of my students today why they like Park Ji-Sung, Korea's star player, and they said 'because he's handsome.'  Here, watching Korea play soccer is secondary to watching Korea play soccer together.

I have no source for this, but someone told me that some poll said that 93% of Koreans said "yes" to "Are you looking forward to the world cup?"   Maybe it's like that everywhere, but I doubt it's like that back home, and I wouldn't doubt it all that so many Koreans are hyped about this.

Go USA.

Finuto

Today is my last day of classes in Korea, as a student at least.  I have a few exams next week, when I will also be starting my new job that will last me the rest of June. 

It's been great, Yonsei.  A little dull, but good overall.

For Clarification

From the comments on the last post, I think I need to make a bit of a clarification about Korea and living here.  First, I cannot express how differently I feel about Korea right now than the period between Thailand and visiting Busan.  It was about a two month gap and I was miserable.  I knew going home was never an option, but I fantasized about it constantly.  It hasn't been until I left Seoul for a few days that I've come to realize that living here has been special.  Still, very little of that has to do with Korea itself.

First off, I love where I live.  It's by far the coolest neighborhood in the country, and I'm bummed to leave it.  For the PDXers, think of Alberta St, minus the politics.  I've become extremely comfortable here, and don't feel out of place one bit.  There have been several instances where I will forget I'm in Korea.  I'll be on my way to the subway and everything will feel so normal to me, it isn't until I walk past some dried squid that I'll think to myself "Oh yeah, Korea."  How much of this has to do with Korea itself?  Not much.  But it still makes me feel bad about unapolagetically bashing the place.

To be blunt, I don't have many korean friends.  Ten, tops.  But the acceptance I have felt from them is making me nervous about leaving.  I know I'll get the same treatment at home, but I always new I was going back.  I never counted on actually being bummed about leaving this place.  Now that I am, it freaks me out.  Especially when I think that I'll never see these people again.

Which brings me to one of the comments on the last post.  My friend is moving here to teach english right after I leave.  Decide for youself, but she and I seem to agree that I'm not exactly doing a stellar job of selling Korea as great place to be.  It's not great, I'm not going to lie about that.  When I get back to the states, I could write up a list of countries I would like to visit, and Korea would probably be near the bottom.  This is because of many things, including my desire to have some diversity in my locations, but also because this place failed to woo me in.

One of my biggest motivations to come here, was that fact that I talked about coming here so much, that I didn't want to explain to everyone at PSU while I was still there and not in Korea.  The same sort of fear is striking me now:  what do I say when people ask "How was Korea?"  I might take a tip from my friend Joy and say "fine, but you have to ask better questions for better answers," but joking aside, was it fine?  Do i dare tell everyone that asks that it was "eh"?  And thats the same problem i'm having with this blog, and with people taking my descriptions personally.  How do I accurately describe a year in korea?

The see-saw of my appriciation of this place that has taken place in the last month makes me think I won't ever really be able to describe it with the justice it deserves.  Do i hate the couple culture here (wearing matching shirts to be cute, everyone walking arm-in-arm, making it impossible to walk past in a crowded street, the whining sound the women make to try to appeal to guys when theyre drunk)?  Yes I do.  But will I miss five dollar all you can eat barbequed pork at 2 in the morning?  I don't know if I can survive without it.  So what's my point?

Don't come here for a scope into what it's like to be an american studying abroad in Seoul.  If I can't even describe it for myself, I'm sure I can't do a good job talking about it with others.  I know that to an extent, thats the purpose of the blog, but right now I don't think I can provide any helpful insight into such an inquiry.

I hope that clarifies everything.

8 weeks...

I guess this is the post I have been waiting to write for a while.  I have Eight weeks until I go home.  Last week it was 9, but man, 8 weeks is something you can understand.  You can hold it in your hand, you know what it's like.  Eight is the magic number that made me realize my time is almost up.  Right now, I'm not quite freaking out, but I am starting to get nervous.

Going to the Flow Festival was great.  I'm not really going to write much about it, because it was just a music festival that was tons of fun and a perfect get-a-way (Super Kidd was there, and they remembered me, and played the same beastie boys song because I asked them too.  how's that for looking back?).  Basically, it was one of the best things I've done while in Korea (while ironically being one of the most un-korean things I've done here), and it made me realize that things I like here won't be available to me pretty soon, if not ever again.  Who knows what will happen, but I don't plan on coming back here again.  In one hand, I don't know how I can not come back to teach english (because the money is amazing), but if I do end up in an english teaching gig, Korea is low on the list.  I would probably even avoid coming back here.

The negatives of living here as a foreigner far outweigh the positives, at least through my eyes.  But if I stop juxtaposing the two, as I did last weekend, those positives have a place in my heart, even if it took 10 months to figure it out.  I've never romanticized this place, or claimed it to be wonderful or enchanting, so realizing that this few things I do appreciate here will soon be gone leave me feeling a bit nostalgic, if not sad.

This probably all sounds incredibly vague, though I would imagine my fellow viking Hayes would know what I'm talking about, for the most part it might not make sense.  I can't even think of a word to describe it, so it must be even harder for anyone reading this to do so as well.  Lets just say I feel kind of weird right now.

Flow Fest

I'm taking off for the weekend again.  This time I'm going to the Flow Festival, from the 2nd to the 4th.  It's supposedly a 3 day 2 night art and music festval in the middle of the country side, so I was ready to go when I first heard about it.  My expectations are pretty high for this thing, mostly because it seems like it's so cool and un-Korean.  I just thought about it though, and the potential of messing it up and making it lame is pretty high, so we'll see how it goes.