My Address

If you want to send me something, here's my address. A post card, a letter, or whatever. Anything you send will be reciprocated.

Brandon Boat
#209 - 1804. Jeolyoung Apt., Dongsam-dong
Youngdo-gu, Busan Korea.

Fireworks Festival

This past weekend I went to the Fireworks festival at Gwangali beach. It had been played up in my mind for weeks. I had numerous stories from fellow expats and teachers alike. It was a phantasmagoric, though very crowded, spectacle. I'd heard that it would be impossible to escape before 1 am because of the congestion due to attendance. Regardless, I still went. The venerable Mr. Hahm was out front again, he invited us to enjoy the performance in the apartment of one of his friends.

We had a few hours to kill before meeting up with Hahmalammading-dong and walked around on the beach. This photo was at around 5:30 and the show started in at 8:00. It was incredibly crowded. Remember that behind me is the same scene that you see in front of me.


They had a pre-show that had a few singing groups and these performance chefs. There show was like STOMP, but with knives and a tasty end-result.
This was the stage of the performance. All the fireworks were launched off of floating barges or shot from the bridge. It was choreographed by a company from Shanghai.

This is a shot of the crowd below the apartment building that we were in.

Here's a wide shot of the beach and a video of the crowd. Things don't seem very clear in the video though.


Here's us in the apartment enjoying a little snack before the show started. Mr. Hahm is to the left, next to Danny, Tane, and Rie. Everyone else is a friend or member of the photography club.

Now, what follows is several photos of the event and videos of the experience. It was an hour long show and I got most of it. I was going to post several videos but it takes around 20 minutes for each video and I don't want to waste that time. Here's part of the finale and maybe I'll put up the others if I get time. I couldn't get the last one up, it was too big and powerful for the computer to handle.



I have more stuff that I'll try to get up later. Enjoy for now. You can always check out facebook for pictures as well. Excluding you mom.

A Series of Blurbs

Continuing just like last time...

Gym Friends
Tane has made several friends at his current gym. The owners have befriended him and taken him under their wing. They've developed a workout routine and frequently jab him in the stomach saying, "Destroy the grease." They took him out for dinner the other day and it was a great success, so they invited us to do the same last night. I was reluctant at first for a variety of reasons. For one, I've been getting a bit tired of what my teachers call "white privilege." This refers to Koreans that will randomly approach you and perform outlandish favors. This includes paying for your meals, showing you around, and providing generous goods and services to complete strangers. I have yet to pay for a meal for my teachers or anyone else. It's simply impossible. Any attempt to pay the bill is foiled. If you blink, they'll have snatched it from your hands and run off to the counter before you can do anything about. It's nice, and I think it has to do with them showing hospitality. We're guests in their country and they want to be cordial and impress us with their hospitality.

A lot of it is wonderful and people are extremely warm and genial. It really is great to experience these acts of kindness in a foreign land. But I am getting tired of it. Often when riding the subway, people will come up to me to practice their English. This brings out a forced conversation where I have to hear about their favorite TV shows from America. I'm glad people are interested in English enough to approach a stranger and thankful that they're kind to me, but I don't really care. Oh, you've been to America before? So has the man who talked to me on the last train, and the time before that and that. It's just bothersome.

So that's the attitude that I initially went into this dinner with. I assumed that these three gentlemen who were friend with Tane were doofs. Mr. Park is a Presbyterian who is overly enthusiastic about sharing his faith. I was told another was named Master Lee and was some sort of martial arts mystic. I was told the last was a body builder who couldn't speak any English. They all chain smoke too. So I was not particularly excited going into this. I thought about not going since I had to pack up and move the next day, but I decided that I should take all the opportunities I can whether I like it or not. I was wrong about my judgments.

Whale
In talking about the dinner, I thought I would just seperate it into bite sized pieces that are of their own accord. The restaurant we went to was near the gym and was of Japanese style. There were many different dishes in front of us to start out. One of them, was whale. Whale meat comes from Japan and currently existed in a legal gray area that is more than likely illegal. I know it's illegal in Korea, but apparently the restaurant owner knows a smuggler that brings it in. It was prepared sashimi style (raw or hwe), and had a small pile of salt for dipping. The whale itself was odd. The meat was of a black and gray coloration with a large tuft of yellow fat on one end with a small layer of skin. It was very unusual and had a very rich and buttery taste. I'm probably a bad person for enjoying it and perpetrating their hunting, but I've always said that I'd try cannibalism if I got the chance so I'm not going to start splitting hairs here.

Octopus
Another culinary treat we were privy to was live octopus. This is an old fashioned delicacy here. A small octopus is stretched out and it's tentacles are chopped into bites and seasoned with sesame oil and green onions. Once again, it's sort of gruesome dish, but see the above people eating statement for my views on eating curiosity. They set the plates in front of us and the dinner wriggled and crawled around on the platter. When I reached down to select a morsel with my chopsticks, I started a tug-of-war match because it did not want to leave the plate. The little bits of arms gripped the plate and fought to be lifted up. Once I finally freed a piece, I placed it in my mouth to savor the experience. The bit of critter inched across my tongue with its suction cups and latched onto my teeth. I "chom chomed", as they put it, and then swallowed. It's vital that you don't try to eat it whole because it can latch onto the inside of your throat and you'll suffocate. I'm still alive though and if you come to visit me, we'll find you some octopus.

The Boyos
The three gym friends were extremely kind. They took great pains to remember our names and even made a cheat sheet so they could pronounce them correctly and remember them. I was extremely appreciative of that. They did think of some nick names and celebrity look alikes for us. They wondered about my sideburns and thought I looked like Elvis. I don't see the resemblence personally. They called Danny Michelangelo, and later clarified that they meanat Michelangelo's David statue. Is Danny a model of the perfect man? They think so. They said Tane looked like James Dean, but then also called him puny. So I'm not sure what to make of their look-a-like game. They smoked for the whole meal and a great time was had by all.

Mr. Park is a former securities trader and gave us a long talk about the markets. Master Lee appears to be incredibly qualified as a fitness expert. When he first arrived, he examined Danny's back and just from feeling, he discerned that his hips were out of alignment and that one of his shoulders was overdeveloped. He then did several chiropractic techniques at the table. Afterwards he did a long demonstration of take down moves and different fighting styles. He showed us Karate, Taekwando, Tiger style, and many others. Danny was the dummy and Master Lee demonstrated all the different places and ways you could break someones joints and cripple them. They mentioned that they felt blessed to meet us and it did their hearts well to know us. In the end, I can't wait to have dinner with them again. I just hope that I'm able to treat them some day.

30 Second Stories

A lot has happened since I last made a post and I haven't really had time to muse about it. So, I thought I'd cover a lot of topics in little 30 second stories.

Scarecrow Festival
I went with Danny, Tane, Rie, Mr. Hahn, and his photography club the city of Hadong where we went to a scarecrow festival. An entire mountainside has been deemed historically significant and was sealed like a time capsule. New developments are not allowed to be made, but you can see Korea like it used to be. So picture any old timey educational place that you've visited and add some elements of Korea and that's what it was. What was odd, was that we were treated like celebrities. First, we were videotaped eating chestnuts by a TV station. Then, we had a group photo taken with the mayor of the city. Later, we sat on the floor and drank flower tea with several journalist and posed for photos with different newspapers. Then, we received free food and traditional booze from the Provincial politician.

Lantern Festival
After the paparazzi, we drove to a different city for their lantern festival. Traffic was congested and it took us 45 minutes to go 10km. The lanterns were wonderfully elaborate paper constructions of different figures and art that were lit up internally with lots of different colors. It was a gorgeous sight/site. We also toured an ancient castle that repelled an outnumbering Korean invasion. We gave gentle ribbing to our Japanese accompaniment. After, we drove a long way back to Busan and went out for dinner at midnight with Mr. Hahn. He'd never had vodka before, so we poured him a couple drinks. I left at 1 am because I was too tired, but they said that Karaoke afterwards was very fun.

Praying Mantises
I've seen several different praying mantises here, but they've always been squished. They've been of intimidating size at around 3 to 4 inches and always squashed. It doesn't seem to have been by accident because they're always on footpaths and crunched right in the middle.

Turtles
I was walking through the produce section of Gukje market when I spied an unusual cage. While the cage, a bucket with a net, was not unusual the contents were. Inside, I saw five colorful turtles. Unless you're naive, you know what those turtles were doing in the food section. Upon asking the price of these wares, I was informed that they were only 5,000 won. That seemed like a very cheap pet, but I had no means to care for them. I suggested to the group that we chip in and buy them to have our own turtle races. This idea was discussed favorably, but we did not know what to do with them afterwards.

Books
I recently grabbed some boks from a nice English language section. They have all the classics, basically anything without a copyright, and some of the more popular current items. I picked up a couple of nuggest because I found them really cheap. I grabbed Nabakov's Glory, Don Quixote, World War Z, and a drink mixing guide that I thought was only 5,000. It turns out it was 15,000 and just had the one scratched off the price tag. I also found a Time Magazine in a convenience store. I bought it because I was desperate for reading some print news. I usually just read online. I don't think I'll buy it again though because it was 7,000. That's not worth the price of news.

Apartment
I'm going to be moving into my new apartment tomorrow. I just need to seperate the trash in my place and they'll do everything else. They'll move the furniture, take all the dishes out my cupboards, and they have a mobile refrigerator to keep my contents cold while they move. It sounds fairly easy, but I need to bring all my valuables and money to school because they might swipe them. Hopefully, I'll find myself in my new apartment safe and sound tomorrow.

More later.

Crazies

Midterm testing has just concluded and everyone is relieved. As you fellow educators may know, writing a test is not always perfect. Mistakes are made sometimes and you do your best to correct them before the students take the test. Well, today we received a phone call from a concerned mother. She is an English teacher at another school and was looking over her daughters test and found what she thought was an error. The question asked the students to find the grammatically correct sentence out of five. They were:

1. When I am a child, I want to be a doctor.
2. This doll is made of papers.
3. He can't speak no French at all.
4. When I get home, it began to rain.
5. I have a lot of homework do today.

The mother's complaint was that all the sentences were incorrect. My coteachers then came to me and asked if this was so. Number 2 was originally supposed to be, "This doll is made of paper.", but through a mistake it had an extra "s" tacked on. To me, #2 is correct. I said that it was fine, saying the sentence with or without the s made sense and that was okay.

After calling the woman back and telling her this, she seemed irate and then consulted the Native English Speaker at her school. They told her, and I quote, "That when you are talking about raw materials, you use the plural form that's singular." I personally didn't know that there were any rules in the English language that were exceptional to raw materials, so I told her no, that was not true. The sentence is correct. I used the examples, "The car is made of metals" (or metal) and "The wall is made of bricks" (or brick) to show that either the plural form or the singular form made sense. After hearing that, she said that those examples were exceptions to the rule and it was simply not the case with paper. She still did not agree and said she would call back.

Shortly there after, she called and said that she had spoken to two other Native English speakers in the district and they said she was right. Forseeing this, I had already spoken to Danny and Tane about this and got their support, so it created a stale mate. My coteachers decided that they would consult the Vice Principal who had a Masters degree in English. They then had a meeting and decided that right or wrong, they were going to side with the other woman just so she would shut the hell up and not cause any problems. So after several hours of research, phone pooling, and discussion between schools all over the district they decided to award her daughter ONE extra point. Who knows how she might spend her weekend. So they decided to throw the question out.

By the way, her daughter thought the sentence, "He can't speak no French at all." was correct. Idiot.

This woman is apparently notorious. She's known throughout the city for being a pain in the ass and it was probably a battle not worth fighting.

So, I put it to you. Are all the sentences wrong or is number 2 a correct sentence? Tane wants to make the argument that number 1 could be correct too. "You could say, 'when I am a child,' in an abstract metaphorical sense...when I'm in the spirit of childhood I am a doctor...Like "when I'm in never-never land I am a doctor.""

So leave a comment or shoot me and email and tell me what you think.

Telemaphone

I got my cell phone yesterday. I had originally planned to buy a used one from another person that was living here. He was offering a Motorola KRZR which is what I had in the states and liked it. I realized that I would have to make an hour and a half subway ride to get to him though and decided nuts to that. Plus, I didn't really use all the features that it came with and couldn't justify the purchase except as just a creature comfort. Then it seemed like he had stolen it, because he also had two more phones for sale and one was in it's original box, unopened. So, very shady indeed. Instead I got a used phone which has surpassed all of my expectations. Here's the money shot.

That's what $50 gets you in Korea. I had to pay a $20 starter fee and paid for three months of service up front which was only 10,000 won for each month. So I've got a bitchin' new phone and three months of service for roughly $100. But given the current economy, it rounds to something more like $65-70. Also, I can't believe the amount of features on this phone. I have subway maps for every single city on here, a piano and full music editing software program, I can do photo editing, a karaoke program, 3 megapixel camera and video, it came with a game like Aero Fighters Assault, full calender crap, it acts as a flash drive, a flashlight, has bluetooth, infrared, and a pile of other crap.

On the plus side...

I just got word from my co-teachers that my classes were canceled today. That means I'm done for the rest of the week and have almost 7 hours free today. Let me explain, tomorrow through Friday is semester tests. My co-teachers are concerned about some of their classes and think that they are not adequately prepared for their mid-term exams. All exams in Korea are huge affairs. We're devoting the next three days just for testing, after all and this is only the Middle School level. So, for the past week, the classes that tend to struggle have been commandeered by my co-teachers. The students have been cramming at their academies (private after-school school) for the past few weeks as well. So I only taught 5 classes last week instead of the 10 I was supposed to. This week, I'll only only have taught 2 classes. I feel horrendously lazy.

On the plus side, I'm trying to buy some different things on the second hand market. On Pusan Web they have a classified section that I've been perusing. I managed to find a Krazr cell phone for sale for only 95,000 won. They retail here for about 400,000 won and buying a phone here costs around 100,000 anyways. So that means I'll have an exact copy of the phone that I had in America. I win! I also am looking through a couple of fire sales. People who are leaving the country need to liquidate their apartments. That means so much for super cheap. So I'm contacting people about humidifiers, blenders, chairs, and couches. Hopefully, these little deals work out.

Financial Melt Down!!!!!

The economy here is going all to hell. While it is doing that in the rest of the world, I'm most affected here.
The Saudi Arabian stock market has dropped 9%.

In New York, the Dow fell 369.88 points, or 3.58%, to end at 9,955.50. At one point the blue-chip index had been down more than 800 points.

London's key UK share index lost 7.85% - its biggest percentage fall since 1987 and in Paris the Cac-40 suffered its largest fall on record.

The Nikkei's fall on Tuesday followed its 4.3% drop on Monday, which saw it close at its lowest since February 2004.

Germany's Dax index lost 7.39%, while France's Cac-40 index dropped 9.04% - its biggest one-day fall since the index was created in 1988.

And the Korean won is tanking badly.

1,800,000.00 KRW	=	1,421.79 USD
South Korea Won		United States Dollars
1 KRW = 0.000789886 USD		1 USD = 1,266.01 KRW

That's very bad. The exchange rate used to be 1,000 KRW = 1.00 USD. So now the value of the Won has dropped almost more than 30%. While this isn't life threatening at the moment, because I don't intend to send any currency home, it still spells trouble for the future. Think about it, in the short time of a month, I'm now getting paid effectively $400 less than I was a month ago. It's only going to get worse at this point. I hope that it changes before the end of the year, but right now things are jolly well fucked. I'm sure everyone else is suffering though too.

On the plus side, oil is becoming a lot cheaper.

Blind Rub Downs

Here's an interesting article about blind only professions in South Korea.

"Firm hands and nimble fingers may help, but to work as a massage therapist in South Korea you need another qualification.

You must be registered blind.

It is a legal protection that provides many blind people with autonomy and an income.

The sole right to practise massage, in place for the best part of a century, now means that more than 7,000 visually impaired massage therapists earn their living this way.

I met Han Yong-seok, busy training to become a masseur, at South Korea's National School for the Blind in Seoul.

Before coming to study here, he was once employed as a teacher.

But he lost his sight late in life, and like many of his fellow students, he says he had no choice but to give up his existing profession.

"I simply couldn't get another job apart from massage work," he tells me.

"I need to learn this trade so I can continue to bring up my family and be part of society."

Illegal army

But now this exclusive privilege is under challenge as the country's constitutional court is preparing to rule on whether the monopoly discriminates against sighted people.

Park Yoon-soo wants sighted people to have the right to be a masseur

It seems there is a lot more South Korean flesh to be pummelled and squeezed than 7,000 blind masseurs and masseuses can cope with.

The big cities are awash with massage parlours, barber shops and bath houses, all offering massages by unlicensed, sighted practitioners, an estimated half a million of them in total.

Now this illegal army of sighted masseurs want the country's top judges to rule that they have a basic human right to choose their profession."

Tane and Danny got massages the other day and the people were sighted. So, that means they got their muscles worked by illegals. Also, apparently this practice is the same in China too.

Trouble

Ok, I'll be moving into a new apartment next week. This means things need to be settled with the current place. This is causing problems for a number of reasons. Apparently, Kirk, the last tenet, ran out on a few bills and something people have gotten their feathers ruffled. What this means is that I'll be getting new things shortly. This also means that I'll have to pay for installations and nonsense starter fees. So I've got to pay a gas man, for a water purifier, new internet, and lots of other crap.

I was just told that they cut off the internet at my apartment. So things could be a bit dark for the time being. I still don't have a cell phone, as my coteacher told me this was something that I could do on my own. But after walking to 10 different places in Nampo-dong to find out that they don't speak English is disheartening. I'd ask her to help me today, but I was going to meet Danny at the Gym after school. I suppose that I'll ask her tomorrow then. Hopefully they haven't turned off the electricity at my place.

International Adventures

Hey there sports fans. I just rounded off my Constitution day vacation and am now back punching the clock. But, good news as I only have two more classes this week. How is that possible you ask? Well, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are reserved for Mid-term testing. That's right, the students will endure a grueling three day testing process meant to demotivate and crush their spirits. Because I don't give no grades, I ain't got no tests. Plus, my other co-teachers want to help some of their more struggly classes so they've asked me to sit some out while they tutor them. So I've only got two classes for the rest of the week. I still have to show up everyday, but it'll be fine. Hopefully if I'm productive I can plan my lesson plans for the next couple weeks. But to be honest, I'll probably squander the time reading the news and wishing I wasn't so bored.

This past weekend though was a hoot. I joined a gym with Danny. Ha, I couldn't believe it either. But I joined one and I've been running and lifting there. It's been rough, just because I've never used gym on a regular basis. So I'm still working out the kinks. They do have several ping pong tables which Danny and I do enjoy. It's across the street from his place and it's just down the road from my school. So that means a 20 minute walk home. Boo. I only got a one month membership thus far, so we'll see whether I renew it or not.

Also, this past weekend we made some new friends. Danny went to an extended temple visit all day Friday. So Tane and I went to this all you eat Korean barbecue, Jagalchi buffet or something like that. Afterwards, we met Danny and this Japanese girl at starbucks. She knew one of Danny's co-teachers and tagged along for his temple visit. Late in the eveing, all the oldies went to bed so Danny and Rie met up with us. We went boozing and quite the time. We went to a Noraebang and sang our hearts out.

The next day, we met Michelle, from South Africa, for dinner near Seomyeon. She knew of Italian restaurant called Garlic that was supposed to be good. It ended up being closed however, so we went someplace else that still served wine. Afterwards, she chose not to join us and we went and met the Japanese girls. Wait, rewind. Currently going on is the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) which is the largest film festival on this side of the planet. One of the main headquarters is a 10 minute bus ride away in Nampo-dong. So right now the place is insane. It's packed full of people from all over the world. There's elaborate stages and displays set up all over the place and neat little kiosks as well. So the place is for a lack of better terminology, bumpin'.

Play. Rie had a friend that was coming to visit her from Japan. Rie is currently teaching Japanese to Koreans, but has been selected by her government to go teach it in Indonesia. So she's enjoying her last month in Korea. So her friend came to join her and we wandered around together. Rie was hungry, so we went to "The PIFF Bar" for appetizers, beer, and soju. After that, we wandered around for a while until we found a Noraebang. We smuggled in some orangejuice and soju and proceeded to sing songs for the next 2 1/2 hours. Afterwards, Tane was feeling a bit hiccupy, so we stuffed him in a cab and sent him on his way.

We however, went to a little bar called the "Cool club." Only cool people allowed course. Naturally we got in. Prior to setting foot inside, Rie found a 10,000 won bill on the ground. How fortuitous. So we spent another few hours there and then left, having the great idea that we needed to get to a beach. Right this second. All the beaches were far away though. Except for the one right behind my apartment. So he hopped in a cab, told the driver Yeoung-do please and off we went. We chilled on the beach for about an hour and Rie got sick. She mentioned that the car ride have given her the spins and she didn't feel good. I think she barfed. Then, since all traffic had cesed, we went up to my apartment which was just behind us. We outfitted Rie with some water and my bed and then realized it was 5am. I was as shocked as you are. So, I gave the girls my room and Danny and I threw some blankets on the floor and camped out in the other room.

The next morning, I woke up early and watched some soccer and tennis from my balcony for about an hour. Everyone else started to wake up, stories were swapped an apologies were made. We decided breakfast was what we needed so I, Danny, and Rie walked to the local market and picked up some eggs. We made some omlettes, toast, and cut up some dragon fruit. Coffee was enjoyed by all, one of the girls showed us some magic tricks and Danny and I waxed philosophical on the balcony while they asked if they could do the dishes. Then they left.

Oh, also I've been having an infestation of fruit fries over the weekend. I cleaned all the dishes, the countertops, my laundry, and the floor and yet they still seemed to live there. Well, under a pile of plastic bags was a small bag of trash that I had forgotten about. I won't disgust you with the details, but I didn't have a white plastic bag. You can only dispose of that sort of trash in white specialty bags that I am currently out of and don't know where to buy. I tried to sneak another bag by the other and got stopped by the building guard. He made me fish it out of the trash and put it someplace else. So, I placed that bag in the corner outside and hope that someone else gets rid of it. Listen, I know what you're thinking and I'm ashamed of myself too. But I simply cannot have that bag inside my apartment anymore. I discover where I can buy those white plastic garbage bags and the trash is still there, I'll dispose of it. Even Danny and Tane don't know where to find them. So until then, the flies can hang out in the corner down the hall, out of my house. I went to Tae Jong Dae park this weekend too and I'll try to post the pictures from that.

My Route to School

Although I will be moving in two weeks, I thought I would show you the current route that I have been walking each morning for the past month. I went on an urban hike yesterday and snapped these photos while I was walking around. This is what I endure each weekday morning. Along the way, I'll also clue you in to some scenic areas. Enjoy, it takes 14-20 minutes to walk the route depending on the traffic.

The Funny Pages

Currently, I'm on vacation. Today is Foundation day for my school. It's the date when my school was founded and we get a free day because of it. Tomorrow, I've got another freebie because it's Constitution day. Yesterday, I had to work how ever. For my early morning Conversation Club, I made comics with them for the activity. For the first 20 minutes we talked about the comics I had printed off and how to write. I talked them about creating characters, giving them a voice, and making progress in a story; all in much simpler terminology of course. I had actually read about this a few years ago from someone who had done it with Japanese students. So in that same tradition, I present to you the comics that were completed. I consider most of them hilarious, not because of the grammatical mistakes, but because of the stories they tell using my cherished comics. For something like this, the ingredients require only the best comics and so I used the top shelf: Calvin and Hobbes and Penny Arcade.

So, I present to the master works of Wednesday's English Conversation Club. Click on the picture to read the text.
























Bonus Pizza Shot! The pizza here is to weird to eat. What do I mean by weird? Well, imagine eating sweet potatoes (Quayle style), corn, or mustard with no discernible marinara sauce. That is, unless you want to pay $30 for a Pizza Hut or Dominoes pizza (Which I will admit look like works of art here, every pizza is a multi-tiered canvas of tastes.) So, I bought my own crust mix and had my teachers translate the cooking instructions. Then I bought some spaghetti sauce, some horse glue, peppers, onions, garlic, and some dashes of basil and Italian seasoning. Then I cooked it in a frying pan. It was decent, except for the cheese. I think I'll let the dough rise a little longer next time and get a different brand of shredded cheese.