Monday, October 30, 2006

Quarterly review

Sorry, had the weekend off. We've now been here for an unbelievable four months. It sounds like a long time but still doesn't like more than a couple. I had a dream the other night that it was next summer and I had returned home. I couldn't work out why I could only remember a few months worth of adventures, I felt kinda short-changed. This month I have started having Korean lessons twice a week. Obviously we (I'm doing it with Christa) have a long way to go, but even just being able to ask the price of something in a shop (and understand the answer without them having to write it down) is a nice start.I'm really enjoying it even though I know it won't be of much use in eight months time. Maybe I'll learn Welsh next, at least then I can just pop over the border should I need a refresher. Emma leaves for ol'Blighty in 26 days. I dare say it'll be rather weird here for a while after she's gone, I dare say in ways I haven't yet imagined yet. On the bright side however, I'll gain sole ownership of the kettle. Plus, it may finally stop people who don't know us so well if we're a couple! This week we're running a special intensive program at the school. Since I'm still on evening shift, for me this involves striving to whip my kids into shape enough to put on a play (based on Robert Munsch's 'The Mud Puddle') by this Friday. Now my team aren't bad kids, but it's not a great reflection of them that I went straight from class to the store to buy beer. I'll let y'all know how it goes. The temperature has finally started to drop, but having said that it's still quite pleasant. Yesterday I was sat out in the sunshine in just a shirt watching the kids playing zombies (we had a special Halloween event this weekend but I wasn't working) up by the swimming pool. I'm told it will get very cold eventually though so I think some shopping is in order...

Friday, October 27, 2006

Korean War Memorial Museum

I was luck enough to have a half-day off work yesterday, so I took myself off to the highly recommended Korean War Museum. I saw this public service information on the subway platform, along with a cabinet full of the gas masks themselves. Very reassuring. This is part of a protest I saw outside the museum. According to babelfish it means 'The army authorities unit previously do immediately!'. It may have something do with recent free trade negotiations with the US, but I can't swear. I didn't know what to make of this. I thought he must've died and just hadn't heard about it yet. Turns out he visited Seoul last week so I guess it's to do with that. Sadly this temporary exhibit was closed yesterday. Words of doom. This informative film about Korea's involvement in more recent conflicts was accompanied by the stirring tones of the Jurassic Park soundtrack. Aah, home...

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Breaking News: Pyongyang warning to South Korea

From the BBC:

North Korea has warned South Korea that its participation in the UN sanctions against Pyongyang [Democratic People's Republic of Korea's capital city] would be seen as a serious provocation. A spokesman for the country's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification warned it would lead to a "crisis of war".
More information here. BBC seems to be slightly behind the times at this second.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Korean Lessons

I've had my first few Korean lessons now, and am being a complete geek about it. The lessons are really fun, and so I'm always doing extra study in my own time. I'm doing it along with Christa, who must be one of the most competitive people here: she doesn't like that I'm always reading ahead at all! We keep quizzing each other whenever we're out and about, and trying out little phrases on the kids (though we're not supposed to - rule number 1 on site is supposed to be 'NO KOREAN!' but it's good practice). So far our conversational repertoire is pretty much limited to 'what is your name?', 'what country are you from?', 'what do you do?', 'and what is this?'* but it's a start. *'이름 이 뭐예요?', '어느 나라 사람이에요?', '무슨 일 해요?', '그에 뭐예요?' It took me like 10 minutes to type that out in Hangul (the much-celebrated Korean writing system (they even get a national holiday out of it!)), and it now occurs to me that you may well not be able to read it anyway because of the Windows encoding that you may need. Dang. And then, of course, you not gonna be able to read it anyway...

Sunday, October 22, 2006

DMZ

I have survived my trip into North Korea unscathed. Despite the fears of some of the others (about a dozen, or maybe more of us ended up on the USO tour together) we felt very safe the entire time, despite the recent tensions with the North. Our military guide at Camp Bonifas - motto "In Front of Them All" - repeatedly said that everything was business as usual along the border. Maybe that's all he is allowed to say though. We were well protected though: there are many Republic of Korea guards along the border. Apparently to fit the requirements of the post they have to be a black belt in a martial art, and have to be of above average height, for maximum intimidation. It certainly works, as this guy in 'battle ready' position shows:

Sunglasses mandatory. This room is the Military Armistice Commission building, where the 1953 Armistice was signed by The United Nations, China and North Korea, thereby effectively ending the war. However, South Korea refused to sign (they did not want the country to be officially divided) hence they we are still technically at war.

The microphones and flags down the centre of the table mark the official border between the two countries. Steven on the left is in South Korea, the ROK guard is in the North. I'm straddling.

The building in the background here is North Korea's. Apparently the third floor was added in response to the building of The South's building opposite it (on the steps of which we're standing here). The South's was taller, so the North added a floor in order that theirs would be the tallest. If we zoom in on the steps of their building... Yes! They're watching us! How exciting! Unfortunately cameras are forbidden in many area, though it's hard to fathom why we were allowed to taken pictures here right in front of the North Korean guards, but none from the bus as we drove through fields of rice. We weren't able to take any from the Third Infiltration Tunnel either. The Tunnel is one of four so far discovered (up to ten are suspected) linking the North to the South. The third tunnel, discovered on October 17, 1978, would be capable of moving an entire division of their army to Seoul in an hour.

This is The Bridge of No Return and is the only bridge connecting the two states. It was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the Korean War in 1953. The name originates from the fact that prisoners were given the choice to remain in the country of their captivity or cross over to the other country. But if they chose to cross the bridge, they would never be allowed to return.

On the tour bus home, with Vanessa. The 'war paint' was daubed on us all by Heidi in the tunnel. The Northerners painted the walls with patches of black so they could pretend it was a coal mine, but since it is made of granite anyway, this fooled nobody for long...

If anyone's interested in the full set of photos (still unlabelled, sorry), including the site of the 1976 Axe murder, and some very restricted views from the Dora observatory looking into North Korea, look here.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Random photos

I've finally started learning Korean properly this week, and although I still only really know a handful of words, I do get a buzz when I manage to work out what something means, even though the kids laugh at us for having first grade textbooks. However, it's kinda tricky to represent the learning of Korean pictorially, so here's a picture of a horse, since I'm also trying to teach myself to draw better, using a book I borrowed off Rob a while ago, 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain': Next, a couple of photo's courtesy of Mary, from this last Friday night and another night a few weeks ago when we went out with some of the Korean staff: This last Friday when we went out we ended up at one of Seoul's infinitude of Singing Rooms for a couple of hours: basically it's karaoke but you get your own room, thus vastly limiting the pool of humiliation, which is nice. Great fun actually. And finally, to complete the randomity, some prettily dressed Kimono-clad Japanese ladies in Kyoto: And now I really must get to bed, even though it's Friday night and not yet half past ten - we're going to the DMZ tomorrow and we have to leave here at 5:45am...

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Kane Sole

A friend of mine a fellow teacher at SEV, Kane Sole, has just missed out on having one of his songs included on a promotional CD that is to be made by the website Sellaband. The website's premise is that members of the public buy 'shares' in artists that they like, and if/when that artist has $50,000 investment, the company will make and promote their CD. Kane's on $2240, but that's just after a month. The promotional CD was a one-time bonus I think - the top 10 acts on the site were to be included, and Kane was number 9 until the eleventh hour when he was bumped to 11. In sympathy with him, I thought I'd use today's post to give him a plug. So, please go here and at least have a listen to his music. If you like, read the FAQ and consider investing a few dollars. He really is pretty good - I find myself humming his tunes all the time anyway. Thank you.

Monday, October 16, 2006

40 days and 40 nights

It's official: Emma is leaving. She's had enough. Enough of this job, enough of the food, enough missing her family, enough of this country. She's handed her notice in, her flight home is booked for November 25th, and as she has been doing pretty much ever since we arrived, she's counting down the days, if not yet the hours. However, as of yesterday Rob is here (Emma's old friend, and if you remember, the catalyst for our coming here in the first place) so at least I shall not be the only Brit.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Japan and the threat of Nuclear War

On Sunday evening we arrived in Hiroshima, having spent most of the day travelling back from the wilds of Mount Fuji. We had just enough time to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in the hour before it shut. In fact, we really didn't have enough time, so we went back on Monday morning to check out some of the temporary exhibits that we had missed the first time round. I found it a little disconnecting trying to tie the destruction on show everywhere inside the museum's walls with the modern, flourishing city that was on the outside. One of the temporary exhibits housed a selection of items sent in my Hiroshima survivors and their families: scraps of clothes, half-melted toys, a rusted old tri-cycle, lumps of fused glass, watches that had stopped at precisely 8:15 am when the bomb went off. I still feel that I'm ill-informed to making any educated judgements on the use of the bombs. I should know more. In the airport again at Fukuoka, waiting to check-in, we met a guy, a Texan, who was kinda like our Japanese counterpart. He was teaching English in Japan and was coming over to Korea for the week. He asked us if we'd been following the news for the past for the days. We hadn't, so were of course very shocked to hear that North Korea might be planning to test a nuclear bomb as early as the very next weekend. After all we had seen at the museum over the past two days, it was especially disconcerting to hear of this so close to home. Little did we know that they'd probably already gone ahead with the test. The shuttle bus we took back from the airport was luxurious enough to have a TV playing at the front, and though everything was in Korean, we could work out what had happened easily enough. Though I have registered my location with the British Embassy over here just in case the world should come to an end and I require evacuation, most of us are not immediately concerned. Last time the North attacked, their ranks were swelled immensely by the Chinese and Soviet forces. If they were crazy enough to try again, they would be alone (while we would certainly not be) at a time when they can't even feed themselves or light their homes. I am not afraid.

Friday, October 13, 2006

More Japan!

Saturday Saturday was my favourite day. Finally we escaped the clutches of the city and found real peace at last. Amy was soon pining for the noise of civilisation again, but me and Christa were quite content. Most of the day was spent in transit on a multitude of trains and buses, but owing to the scenary, this was part of the joy of the day: Typically Amy slept through much of the journey. As soon as that girl's bottom hits a seat, she's asleep. First stop was a small town named Fuji Kawaguchiko, which may well be most popular for it's excellent views for Mount Fuji, although by the time we arrived the top was unfortunately shrouded in cloud... Because our legs really hadn't gotten enough excercise over the previous three days of constant walking, we hired out a 'swan' as the sun was going down, and peddled out over the lake to take a few pictures of the sun setting over the mountains. We finally made it to our accomodation - a traditional Japanese-style guesthouse - well after dark. Japanese-style means basically you get an empty room with a few straw mats and blankets and sheets to sleep under. Best nights sleep I'd had all week, but then, we were nearing exhaustion at this point. And as promised in the guidebook we were indeed greeted at the door by the owner's cute little dog... This place had a rather harsh TEN o'clock curfew, but since it was pretty much a one-horse town anyway with little to offer other than the obligatory shrine, we were content to grab some sushi in the restaurant next door (which we found despite our landlady's insistence that there were no Japanese restaurnats in town) and take some beer back with us again. After a delightful soak in the Japanese-style bath (my first proper bath in over three months!) and much beer and sleep-deprived giggling later, we slept soundly.

Japan part 2

Owing in a large part to playing Frisbee and going out for frozen yoghurt, I haven't gotten any further with my photos yet today, but no matter, I'll get there. Friday The day started off by raining again, but it wasn't too cold, and it cleared up in the afternoon so mustn't grumble. We went to Kyoto. The guidebook recommended a visit to Kyoto Imperial Palace, but since that requires special permission in advanced, we settled for a stroll around the palace gardens instead, hoping to catch to glimpse of the autumn foliage. Maybe we were a couple of weeks early though as most of it remained resolutely green. After ice cream and lunch (with a modicum of getting lost in between), we made our way to a cluster of temples (and gardens, naturally) to get a little peace from the bustle of the city for a while. We even had chance to take part in a traditional-style Japanese tea ceremony in one of the temple, and we were shown the correct way to hold and admire one's cup so as to best compliment the host. We were unable to find anywhere to stay in Kyoto, so it was back to Osaka (and Gunter) for the evening. We went to an international beer festival, but shamefully left again without having a single beer between the three of us (it was expansive!) so we bought a bunch of fruit beers to take back to the hotel. We also stopped off on the way back to go on (one of?) the city's Ferris wheels - the Japanese really seem to dig their Ferris wheels. We had also had plans to go to some (naked!) Japanese baths today, but we got so carried away with all the walking around gardens that we never really had time. Maybe for the best...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Japan Lowdown part 1

Progress slowly being made on the photos front. The first batch can be viewed here. Wednesday We flew out to Fukuoka on Wednesday afternoon. With the small exception of Amy's Visa initially being deemed inadmissible at the check-in counter (a second opinion at immigration assured us otherwise) everything went smoothly. We arrived at out hotel in the early evening and dropped off our bags. This was the most expensive accommodation of the week, but at least we all had our own rooms. We went out for a little walk round town, saw the first in a series of Japanese shrines... ...and went and ate noodles (see previous post). Following a line of pretty lanterns we soon found ourselves deep in the what with hindsight we believe to be the city's red-light district. Crowds of besuited Japanese businessmen loitered all around, while scantily dressed ladies handed out fliers in doorways. We quickly saw our error and retreated to find a bar. In what would become a recurring theme of the week, we failed to find any decent bars (or at least any in which we could afford to drink), so we grabbed a bottle of sake to drink back at the hotel before collapsing into bed. Thursday We got up early to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Osaka, our base for the next two days. We spent most of the day wandering around Osaka castle... ...and the surrounding grounds. As it rained for much of the day, this suited us pretty well. Highlights of the day include seeing a man parade his pet squirrel around the castle, and the mountain of sushi (previous post again) that we ate that night! While in Osaka we stayed in a hostel (actually in Shin-Osaka), so I was sharing a room with I think four others, but as we were always so late to bed (despite an 11 o'clock curfew) I only ever met one of them: a middle-aged German guy named Gunter, who I spent much of my stay trying to avoid...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Japanese Food.

Since I spent the entire morning in bed catching up on a week's worth of sleep, I still haven't gotten around to sorting out my photos properly, so tonight, I'm just gonna focus on one aspect of our trip: the food. First of all, I would like to formally declare myself an official convert to Japanese cuisine. I loved pretty much every meal we ate, and thanks to Amy - who's from Taiwan and has been to Japan a few times already - we were able to try lots of different dishes in places where otherwise we wouldn't have even been able to read the menu. Even the airplane food was good, simple though it was - basically rice and shrimp with a few veggies and soy sauce (with which I'm also recently enamoured). Plus, free Ferraro Roche! Bonus! Our first proper meal in Japan was at a tiny little place in Fukuoka. It only had three tables, so I do wonder how they ever managed to wangle their way into the guide book, but it was so good. We all had ramen - light yellow noodles served in my case in a hot pork broth with spring onion. One thing I like about Japanese as opposed to Korean food (which is known for very strong, spicy, pungent flavours), is that you generally get to add soy sauce or chili seasoning to your own liking, so you can actually taste the underlying flavours, rather than just tasting *SPICE*. Thursday night in Osaka became Sushi Night. We ended up doing a little sushi crawl around the city, hunting out all the recommendations in the guides we had and trying a 'few' different types of sushi in each. And it was a revelation. I've bought sushi from the supermarket before, but this stuff was just on a whole other plane of existence. So fresh, so delicately flavoured with the soy sauce and wasabi (kinda like a Japanese horse-radish, though actually unrelated I think), I could've eaten nothing else all week. My favourite was tuna, but the salmon, egg, shrimp, mackerel and all the others I tried were all my favourites too. Like Korea, Japan's not huge on the desserts, but we did have a fair few helpings of ice cream through the week. The Japanese love anything green tea flavoured: you can get sweets, chocolate, biscuits, soft drinks, etc. They also have green tea ice cream, which I've never tried before though they sell it here in Korea too. Anyhow, it's yummy. Very refreshing. This was another of my favourites , eaten in Kyoto. I need to speak to Amy to find out what it's called. The main dish is a mixture of udon noodles, pork, tofu, onion and egg. I think there's other stuff in there two. Also, one of the side dishes (in the top-left) is a kind of fried soft tofu, a Kyoto specialty, and was wonderfully crisp on the outside, yet still soft inside. I want to go back just thinking about it. I love seeing food cooked in front of you too. Most of the sushi was made on the spot in front of us - and it's so quick! Sushi must be the ultimate fast food: just a handful of sushi rice and a slice of fresh fish and you're done. But in the other restaurants we visited, we still never seemed to be waiting more than five or ten minutes at the outside. On our finally night (in Hiroshima) we went to a building which housed a collection of mini-restaurants all devoted to Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). Actually, I think it was called something slightly different, as Hiroshima has a local version. It's basically a thin pancake layered with cabbage, bacon, optional items (shrimp, ginger, pork, cheese, etc.), fried noodles, topped with a fried egg and a generous dollop of okonomiyaki sauce and spices. Very delicious, and very filling, though we manged to consume three of them between us (at three different restaurants again!) I think the only disappointing meal I had is when one of the hostels served us a 'Western' Style breakfast. The Japanese style were much better, but while I could happily sit here and describe every single meal I had over the six days, I really must unpack...

Monday, October 09, 2006

Prequel

Konichiwa all! I am now back from Japan and in plain ol'Korea once again. Had a fab time, will debrief over the next few days. First I have five hundred or so photos to distill, and many hours sleep to catch up on. In the meantime, here's a few random pics to enjoy while you wait... Sianara (for now...)

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

On Leave

Good day. I'm gonna be in Japan until Monday and am unlikely to update again before then. Have a good week. Bye bye.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Updates, miscillaneous

OK, so the Lost Season Finale officially sucked according to the poll last week, but to be honest the sample size was really far too small for us to draw any statistically significant conclusions. I'll still be tuning into season three as soon as humanly possible anyway. I'm also throwing my weight behind a new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is just out in the US (won't be on in UK til 2007, I'm downloading it myself) - fans of The West Wing (possibly I'm just talking to my brother here) should check it out immediately, as it shares the same writer and producer (Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme), as well as half the cast, and from what I've seen so far it certainly matches the WW in the quality stakes. I'm going to try and sign up for Korean classes in the morning with Mary and Daniel! Ooh yay. I've learnt a very little already from books, CDs and the Rosetta Stone PC program, but lessons will be better. It's an intensive course, 5 mornings a week for the month, so bang go my lie-ins, but at least I'll be doing something productive. Japan travel itinerary has changed. In fact, did I ever even say where we were going? I forget. Fukuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, Mount Fuji, and Hiroshima. In five days. Tokyo didn't make the final cut as it's just slightly too far out, and it would be too much of a rush given the time we have, and we spend enough time in our own sprawling city as it is. We're very excited.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Ssamzie Sound Festival

On Saturday, I went with Christa, Kane and Jimmy (don't be mislead by the nickname, he's actually Korean - they all have English names as well as their regular name). We didn't know any of the bands, though Jimmy says some of them were very famous. Go look.