Love more, hate less

Yesterday was a long, emotional day. And reading the transcript of Barack Obama's speech this morning started me crying again. I'm am so proud of my country for making this choice, and I am so proud of Indiana for helping in this direction.

Yesterday I worked for the Democratic Voter Protection Team. When I arrived at 5:30 in the morning, there were already people lined up. There were people who were voting for the first time in their lives and people who had to be physically helped to the voting booths by volunteers and family members. In this mostly poor, mostly African-American neighborhood, there was an excitement and a feeling of purpose, and most of the people who came in were patient with the process and kind - I wish I could say the same for all of the poll workers. Still, from the little old ladies dressed to the nines to the young couple who wanted me to take a picture as they cast their first ballots together, it was great to see people so excited.

I was so happy and excited to see the results come in, but we still have so far to go as a country, and while this is an awesome first step, it will be a long journey to get to real, lasting change.

I was most disappointed to read that California passed proposition 8. This hateful piece of legislation took away the rights of all of the gay and lesbian couples who had married in California, and I think it is so incredibly sad. To paraphrase from a friend, it is astounding to me that people seem to think that one line from Leviticus holds more sway than everything Christ said or did.

To borrow the Facebook religious views statement of a friend, I wish this world could love more and hate less.

Yes We Can

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics … they will only grow louder and more dissonant … We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea –

Yes. We. Can.

- President-elect Barack Obama

Good stuff

1. I have a new job, and while it isn't so fantastical that I won't be looking for something that makes more use of my background, it is a step-up from where I am right now.

2. I just got the best haircut I've had in more than two years.

3. All but a one of my boxes made the trip from Mokpo. While I can't find lots of small but important-to-me things, opening up the boxes that DID make it brought me so much joy!
3a. If sending packages surface from Asia to North America, pack very, very carefully in REALLY REALLY sturdy boxes, take pictures, and use airmail for anything important.

4. I drove from Indy to my hometown this afternoon and Autumn is SO BEAUTIFUL here! The trees are exploding in the most vivid colors, and they contrast with the browns of the fields and the SKY, and well, it was striking.

5. I am hopeful about the election. Cautiously so, because it would be so, so heartbreaking to me if Obama lost, but hopeful nonetheless.

VOTE

I voted.

Please make sure that you do, too.

Message to Sarah Palin

This video is making the rounds on several feminist blogs, and I think it is important.

Mini-Marathon

I just signed up for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon! May 2, I'll be running a 1/2 marathon!! EEP!! It is part of the Indianapolis 500 Festival, and the end of the race is a lap around the 500 track.

I passed on the "training series" of races (5, 10, and 15 K races) leading up to the race, but might go back and register for those at another time. I'm going to sign up for a training program through my gym (motivation for cold weather running, people to hold me accountable, forced socialization - I'm becoming a bit hermit-like of late) and I'm psyched!

I've be thinking about doing this race for a while, and last weekend I saw my cousin finish the Chicago Marathon, and I was SO SO proud! Walking along the course (we caught up with Beth at a few different places along the route) and seeing the runners so excited, the crowd so supportive, how HARD these people had worked! And were working!! It was inspiration and really exciting. I don't think I'm cut out for 26.2, but I'm readying myself for the challenge of a half! Fighting!

There are a couple of folks talking about doing the race, too, and that would be awesome! Registration usually fills up by the end of November, so think about it - lots of fun! I believe firmly in the "run your own race" approach to running with friends, (if we happen to be about the same pace, great, but I don't want to hold anyone back from doing their best) but it is so great to have friends to line up with and to cheer over the finish line! Or, you know, cheer ME over the finish line, since I'm usually the last one :)

Anyway, committed.

World

What do you think would happen if the whole world could vote?

This article from the San Francisco Gate/Chronicle gives some answers. I don't think anyone is surprised that most of the world would vote in favor of Obama, but even I was surprised at the landslide they postulate.

Also, McCain's "That One" comment has had rather an impact.

Darren Davis, a professor at Notre Dame who specializes in the role of race in politics, sent a comment to the Huffington Post about McCain's "that one" remark. "It speaks volumes about how McCain feels personally about Obama. Whomever said the town hall format helps McCain is dead wrong," Davis wrote.

He isn't stupid enough to have intentionally made a racist remark. No one would be. But if it isn't a refection of internal bias, it is an indication of incredibly poor choice, something he has had a history of so far in this race (hi, Sarah Palin? Are you kidding me? OMGWTFBBQ?!).

elections and supreme court decisions.

Just a reminder that for folks in the US, voter registration deadlines are coming up. Indiana is October 6th.

I was accepted as a voting rights monitor for Indiana (they wanted to review my resume and everything!) so I'm pretty psyched.

Also, there was a meme going around talking about Supreme Court cases. In an interview with Katie Couric not only could Sarah Palin not name a single newspaper or magazine that she reads, the only Supreme Court case she could name was Roe v. Wade.

So, my favorite Supreme Court case: Loving v. Virgina. I'll be honest and say that the reason I like this case is because the name of the plaintiff is so apt - this is the case that made interracial marriage legal. Get it? LOVING? 'Cause, you know, they were in love. Yeah, I'm sorta lame.

Anyway, in a nutshell, Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, D.C. because VA law stated that interracial marriage was illegal. Police tried to catch them in an, er, intimate moment (also a crime in VA at the time) and they instead were charged because of their illegal marriage. They were found guilty, and a few years later the ACLU began challenging the ruling, which would eventually be heard by the Supreme Court (it wouldn't be until 2003 that the sodomy laws they tried to arrest them for were overturned).

In 2007 on the 40th anniversary of their case, Mildred Loving said the following:
I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.

I have gay friends who have relationships that are deeper, more committed, and more stable than any relationship I have ever had with a guy in my whole entire life, and yet they can't have their relationship legally recognized. Which is so sad and unfair.

quotes

A friend posted this on her blog, and I thought it was very well put.

How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said “I do” to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the “Keating 5”? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

— Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth

What do you think?

Politics

- Michigan will use foreclosure lists to limit voting. This is really horrible.
- Samesame but different in Ohio.
- Women against Sarah Palin for Vice President is a blog that has letters from women about why they do not support Sarah Palin for vice president.
- Political fact checking - non-partisan fact checking on the current US election.

Month

It has been a month since I've posted anything to this blog (as my mother very clearly pointed out) and so a quick bullet-point list of what is going on:

- Teaching on an alternative license in Indiana was not as easy as I thought it would be
- I considered and then decided against teaching in other states.
- I had good feedback from these other states that made me feel less defeated.
- I start substitute teaching in IPS at some point this week
- I should find out if there will be any additional SPED openings this week, too.
- The objective at this point is to find out exactly what I need to do in order to become fully licensed in Indiana in the most efficient way possible. This may involve being a full-time student this spring/summer if I am not able to get a full-time teaching position this fall, and patching together a few part-time things until then.
- I still get a bit overwhelmed by conversations going on around me, as I can't seem to block out the English very well, or I block out EVERYTHING. Neither of this are acceptable options, but it is getting better.
- I found a gym here that I really, really like. It is NIFS and is near downtown (on the IUPUI campus) and it is awesome. I can run outside along the canal and near the zoo before going to the gym. Sweet.
- I went to a Korean restaurant for the first time since I've been back last night. We ordered a bottle of soju and found out at the end of the meal that it cost $15. Granted, it was pretty good soju, but STILL!!
- I've been watching a lot of political news lately, and I often end up yelling at the TV. I know no one will be shocked that I lean towards the liberal. I am signed up as an Obama volunteer, and might be working as a voting rights monitor on election day.
- North America, I love your baked goods.
- Libraries ROCK.
- I saw Joshua Bell play with the Indianapolis Symphony, and it was AMAZING!
- I meet up with Korea-friends in here last night, and it was so wonderful. It was such an interesting web of interconnected relationships - Indiana/IU/New Orleans/Korea shared frames of reference and it was really cool.

So overall, while I'm extremely frustrated with the job situation, everything else is going reasonably well. Unfortunately, the job situation is my primary concern. I need to make a better effort at being social and meeting more people, but I have to admit that I still get overwhelmed easily and I can't exactly explain why. I have ended up leaving stores or the library with either nothing or a strange assortment of items simply because I get overwhelmed by the number of options. I'm so incredibly lucky that I'm able to stay at my parents' cottage in Indianapolis - I have a lot of independence and personal space, but also get to see them about once a week or so. I miss my friends deeply, and have had many, many times where I wish I could call people to get together for dalkgalbi at OUR dalkgalbi place, or go to the KOTR meet and greet, or make plans for a 5 or 10k. So many people and places I miss so deeply I don't even have the words.

"So, how was Korea?"

"What's it like to be home?"

Those are two questions I get asked often (from people on both sides of the planet) and really, most of the time I have no idea how to go about answering them.

How do I go about summing up two years of my life? How do I explain how both foreign and comfortable being back here really is? I really don't have an answer. It almost seems like there are two very different worlds - North American and South Korea - and when I'm in one place, the other seems like it doesn't totally exist. So the transition is a little easier, I guess, because "here" and "there" are such different experiences, but I don't really have the words to talk about it in a way that makes sense to someone who hasn't been through it.

I'm peeling like crazy from the sunburn I got on Waedaldo before I left. I almost want to make some sort of "shedding of skin" analogy, but that is a little overly dramatic, even for me. For so long I've been in transition, and I find that I'm still there, for the most part. Maybe once I have a job, my own apartment, and have settled into life more firmly I'll have some sort of reaction. But right now, it is all about what task needs to be attacked next - alway something.

Right now I'm staying in a house my parents have in Indy (they usually spend the week in TH), and I'll be here until I have a job, as I need to know where I'll be working before I decide where I'll be living. I basically need to keep setting things up and knocking them down for the next few weeks, and I'm so lucky that I have my family to help while still having the alone time to process all of this. From being able to stay here, to offers of furniture from the basement, all of this would be much more overwhelming without them.

So being home is... different. It is nice, in that I understand EVERYTHING, can read signs, can drive, can shop and have choice. I like being here, and it feels like, overall, Indianapolis is the right place for me. But there is still so much that I miss, and sometimes everything is just sort of overwhelming right now.

breathe

I'm not even sure how to begin processing the leaving of this place. So this is not what this blog post is about. This blog post is about the clusterfuck of getting paid out when you leave Korea.

Today was basically a perfect storm of absences and miscommunication which lead to me trying to get paid my pro-rated severance and get it sent to the US for 7 hours. It involved crying in public more than once (oh, Korea, how circular. I had to cry to get my ID card in a reasonable amount of time my first week here) and about five-million cellphone coversations/text messages, three taxi rides, and a lot of sitting around fretting.

Yesterday morning, I went into my school to try to prevent this. The secretary told me that my money would be transfered that evening.

Error #1 - I didn't ask HOW MUCH money was going to be transfered.

When I checked my account, I was more than $2000 shy of what should have been deposited. I called my co-teacher to have her get in touch with the school the next morning.

I had an amazing night out with my friends, and if I write about it now I'll start crying all over again, so I'll save that for later. Besides, the pictures rock.

This morning, I call my co-teacher (who is a substitute, and probably not getting paid to deal with any of this mess) to remind her to call the school. She couldn't get in touch with them until 10, there was fumbling around with who needed to talk to whom about what. There were lots and lots of phone calls made, not a lot of getting things done.

Error #2 - I should have gone to the Mokpo Office of Education at this point. In my defense, my co-teacher recommended against going.

I waited, they were talking, looking at contracts, blahablahblah. Getting nowhere except worried. I finally went to the Office of Ed at about 1. There was a very nice lady there who told me they would get me the money. YAY! But because it was so late, she wasn't sure it could be done today. BOO! More tears, being told it would all be fine, and the nice lady at the office of ed called my school to tell them to get it done today, that it was important.

I went to my school, and waited for what seemed to be a million years for forms to be filled out, people called, people yelled over the phone, a few more tears, and finally, FINALLY for the money to be transfered. I took a taxi to the bank and got it all sent to the States about 30 minutes before the bank closed.

After, I sort of freaked out on Alex (Alex, I'm sorry I freaked out on you), got my cell turned off, got the last of the boxes shipped, and am waiting for a friend to come to grab dinner and to take the rest of the good stuff in my house away. I found out that they have changed this into a "couple's job" with a nearby school, and the other school will provide the apartment (SO SO GOOD. They would probably try to put two people in this shoebox of an apartment) so I'm getting rid of some of the stuff I was going to leave for my replacement.

People come and go often enough that getting paid the right amount on time without running around and begging for it shouldn't be an issue. But it is. Though in some ways, it sort of helps because you are focused on getting things done and money rather than the fact that you are leaving some really amazing friends.

Okay, so that was a really long way to say I thought I wasn't going to get paid but I did and that is good and I'm ready to leave.

Accidental vegetarian. Maybe.

I think I have accidentally become a vegetarian. Or am at least in the process thereof.

Some back story: It is officially Summer in Korea. There are two "special" summer foods in Korea - samgaetang - a soup that is made with chicken and ginseng, and which is very good (link is to a recipe) - and bosintang (link is to Wikipedia) - dog soup.

I understand that there are cultural differences related to food, and there are things that we eat that other cultures think is unappetizing. Also, when you have people who are really poor, they will eat just about anything and will sometimes turn something I think of as gross into a delicacy (haggis, anyone?), which can get continued once the culture moves out of poverty. And, as always, I don't have to eat it.

But what bothers me is the way the animals are treated, and the way they are killed. There are dog farms all over the rural parts of Korea, and in most cases, the dogs are beaten before they are killed. I've heard two reasons - one is that it makes the meat more tender, and the second is that since the dog meat increases "male stamina" (yes, really, this is what they say) the adrenaline released from the fear and the pain increases that property.

A friend's house is on school grounds above the school's custodian. The custodian has a small dog farm. (THE LINKS ARE VERY GRAPHIC AND VERYVERY UPSETTING. You have been warned) and one night, I was talking about the whole dog meat thing right after a conversation about the American beef protest hoopla. A friend pointed out that the way we treat most animals raised for food in the US is pretty horrific, too, and perhaps I was being a bit hypocritical, judging one as ok and the other as wrong.

The point was more of a challenge of our "our way is right/their's is wrong" conversation, which is really good to raise when a group of (mostly) foreigners is talking about the country in which we choose to live. Also, she had a good point, and while I thought it over, I found myself getting more and more grossed out by meat, telling myself to just not think about how they were raised/killed, how it HAD to be much better than what offended me so much about the dogs here, just so I could eat. But when it comes down to it, if I have to make myself not think about what I'm eating, that is a huge problem.

Maybe if I had the option of "happy dead animals" I'd feel different - animals raised and killed ethically. But right now, that isn't an option and in the States, that is an expensive option. So for the time being, I'm sticking mostly to fish. I just don't even want beef or pork, and while I'm not ruling out poultry, I have no desire to cook it AT ALL.

I really have no idea where this is coming from, where it will go, or how long it will last, but seeing the dog farms, or the walk along what turned into a row of butcher shops with pig parts in buckets on the streets, or any of the other horrors of where meat really comes from (hey, did you know it wasn't from a styrofoam tray!?) while living here has turned me off meat, at least for the time being.

Daewonsa

On Monday, a friend and I went out to Daewonsa, one of my favorite places in Korea.

The trip to get out there is rather epic. We left Mokpo at little before 8:30, and made it to Boseong with enough time between buses to take a taxi to the green tea fields (Boseong produces at least 40% of the green tea consumed in Korea - that's a lot of green tea) and do a quick walk-around in the blistering heat.

Ever want to know how green tea is harvested?


Though there are machines that will do the harvesting for the cheaper tea, the expensive kind is all picked by hand.

We caught the 11:45 bus out to Daewonsa, and it took FOREVER. I mean, the ride is beautiful - Boseong is sort of at at the foot of the Jirisan range, so there are rivers and trees and rice fields, and some of the most entertaining old folks on the bus with you - but the bus is ancient and the roads twisty.

We decided to go eat lunch before wandering around the temple and went to what we call "the flower bibimbab restaurant." After you order, someone goes out to the green house to pick the vegetables for you lunch. To quote a friend from the first time we went, "This is what the angels eat!"


If you go to Daewonsa during the week, you realize how rural this area area really is. It felt like we were the only folks to come into the restaurant all day, and we only saw a couple of people anywhere at the temple. It was pretty amazing and incredibly peaceful.


Afterwards, we went to the temple, and it was almost completely deserted. One of the big reasons I wanted to go in summer was to see the lotus flowers, and while I think I was probably a little too late for their peak, it was still beautiful!


We wandered around for a while, finally finding this little bridge/pagoda area and we just sat their listening to the water and cooling off for a while before wandering the museum before beginning the trek back home. All in all, it took almost exactly 12 hours.


For people in Mokpo:
Bus to Boseong: 8:25
Boseong/Daewonsa bus: 11:45 (you CAN do a quick to to the tea fields, wander around, eat some green tea ice cream, and get back, but you should ask the driver to come back and pick you up. About 9,000w each way. They do the "rural, so we can" higher meter pricing.)
Daewonsa/Boseong bus: 5:20 (and some of the drivers are maybe a bit impatient, so you need to be on time)
Bus to Mokpo: 7:10.

Last day

This picture pretty much sums up my teaching elementary school in Korea. There is a lot of touching, people covering their faces, making of peace signs, not following directions, and me grinning a bit maniacally in the background.


This one just made me laugh - both because of the kid in the center, and also because I'm not sure if the kid hitting the ground dove out of the way or was shoved - really, it could have been either.

(I posted a ton of pictures on flickr - let me know if you need the id there - but they are all basically variations on the same theme.)

Last week was my last day as a teacher in South Korea.

I honestly am unsure of what my impact here has been most of the time. The kids who are doing well would likely have done well had I not been here, and there are still kids who look stumped when faced with "how are you?" But on the last day of school one really good thing happened.

소진 said hello to me in Korean.

Last year, So-jin came into my class late almost every class. She was often dirty, more than once was missing a shoe, sat in the back alone, and was harassed by some of the slower kids in class. She obviously had special needs, and when I asked my co-teacher about it, got little more than she was only there so her teacher could have a break. I would try to get her to do just about anything but didn't get far at all (though I DID make the boys who were picking on her stop when I was around, so that was something).

This year, my (new) co-teacher sat students by height and gender and I insisted that So-jin was left in the mix. I bribed the heck out of the girl who sat with her to get her to translate and had her get So-jin to participate (I lucked out that she ended up next to an amazing kid who was much more open than a lot of kids that age. And that she was easily won over with praise, stickers and candy). And it worked. They would volunteer to perform dialogs in front of the class, and while So-jin wasn't retaining much, she would repeat me and she pretended to follow along in the book or with games.

Her homeroom teacher was amazing at getting kids to work together, and it was so beautiful to see this child go from being ostracized to, if not accepted, at least acknowledged. So-jin had her shoes on everyday and was coming to school in clean clothes, with her glasses, and with her hair in a ponytail like a lot of the other girls. If I said hello to her in Korean, she would either answer or laugh at me, and was much more present in all of our interactions. In a culture where homogeneity is so highly valued, kids outside the norm have a really hard time, particularly kids with intellectual special needs, and simply being able to interact with other people can be life-changing. I wish I had a way to communicate to this teacher how amazing I think she is for what she did for this child.

On the last day of school, most of the other kids had already left for the day. So-jin was hanging around the school, we passed in the hallway, and she said hello, first in Korean, then in English.

While she had been responding to me, she hadn't initiated conversation with me EVER.

I'm not sure why that is the story I wanted to tell about ending this chapter in Korea. I didn't do much other than be a decent human being and care about a kid other people were picking on. I guess maybe in some ways, it confirms for me that going home to work with kids with special needs is the right choice for me right now, and I'm excited to see what next year holds.

Two more classes

Today I inadvertently taught a group of 5th graders how to say y'all. Well, I mean, I accidentally said it the first time, but explaining how it was a contraction was pretty much direct instruction. Especially when I made the repeat it because it made me laugh.

Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Cupcakes. You have no idea how badly I want a cupcake right this very minute.
2. Libraries. Whole buildings that are full of books? And most of them in a language I can understand? For FREE!?! WOW.

Things I will miss:
1. Lemon Cap - Lemon-flavored soju. Delicious. Dangerous, but one of the two best ways to drink soju (kiwi soju - basically a kiwi smoothy with soju - is also in the running).
2. Having only cell phone, gym membership, and internet bills. Everything else is paid for by my school.

remember

So, like I said earlier, today was my last day with the 6th graders. Because I have three more days of classes, for some reason it didn't even dawn on me that today was their last class.

Some preface, I think I've mentioned that in Korean and Japanese schools, the kids do all the cleaning. This can be both good and bad, as really, you certainly don't want to use a washroom that a middle school girl has cleaned. But one of the 6th grade classes is responsible for cleaning my class. This is also the class that is right next to my room, so they see and hear me all day, everyday. They are obnoxious (and the class that was responsible for the multiple wallet thefts) but I adore them.

So I'm just doing a quick review of the lesson and realize that we are REVIEWING the lesson, and that we wouldn't start a new one at the end of the semester. So while the kids are working, I walk over to my co-teacher and say, "Eun-hae, is this our last time with this class?" She says yes, and I dig out some US flag stickers and after we finish the activity, I told them that this was our last class, and that this summer vacation I would be moving back to the USA. I gave out stickers, and we got together to take a class picture. A bunch of the girls crowed in, wanting to be the ones that were the closest to me, and after the picture, one of the boys - one who tries hard but struggles, came up and grabbed my hand. "Teacher, please, do not forget me. Please. Remember." He had tears in his eyes and it just about broke my heart into bits.

I don't know the names of most of my students. That sounds horrible, but with more than 300 students with names that are hard to draw associations with, I struggled, and finally gave up (I took some comfort in the fact that the Korean teachers couldn't remember them, either). And yet I will remember these children. The boy who always answered "How are you?" with "HUNGRY!!" or the girls who would gather in my room at lunch. The tall, brilliant boy who was always SO over everyone and everything. The girl who was only a couple of inches shorter than me. The middle schooler last year who wanted me to call him Bingo. The future-goth who made a pencil case out of electrical tape that looked like a coffin. A little boy with tears in his eyes as he begged me to remember him.

Of course, the next class that came in couldn't care less that I was leaving. Brats.

last day for 6th grade!

I realized that today was the last day with most of my 6th graders. WOW! Like, leaving and real and all that! Next week, I'll be going into their classes and doing some raffles for some USA-type stuff - my mom sent a ton of t-shirts from the canyon, and there are enough that there is enough for one per class, I have some USA stickers, some cups, and I'll probably buy some candy from the States - but today was the last day of the basic stuff. And it was a day where I was just doing the chapter review, so it wasn't even like it was something fun. Boo.

This afternoon I went to the doctor to get refills on drugs before I head home, and next week will try to get to the dentist. I'll need to grab a few boxes of contacts, but then I should be pretty well covered until I get a job and have insurance again.

The job thing is frustrating - I've had good feedback, until they realize that I'm not in the country for another few weeks. Stressful, but not a lot I can do about it.

Related to nothing, there was just the strangest tv show - it was some sort of high-school ballroom dance competition, only instead of having a boy and a girl, both dancers were girls, with one wearing the fancy dress (the "girl")and the other in black pants (the "boy"). Both had CRAZY amounts of makeup on, including false eyelashes that were about two inches long, with the "girl" of the pair with even MORE glitter, sparkle and shiny stuff. Which is saying rather a lot.

work-appropriate

It is so humid here that I have taken "work appropriate clothing" to mean "accessories mean this isn't wearing my pajamas to work." I seriously have been sweating through all my clothes and today broke down and just went with Thai fisherman pants and a black tee-shirt. At least you can't see the sweat as much through the black shirt. Besides, no one really cares what I wear (or even notices, really) and I like to think that the jangly bracelet makes it look artsy rather than "it's this or being a big sweaty beast." Though I'm still sort of a big sweaty beast.

I just realized that I have no full weeks of school left. This Friday/Saturday I will be teaching a group of college students from the States how to teach a Korean English summer camp, and next week we have two or three days. THEN SCHOOL IS OUT!! I have exactly three weeks from tomorrow left in the country!

Things I look forward to:
1. Shoes
2. cornfields

Things I will miss:
1. Cheap lodging - a motel is usually $25-30/night
2. Noreabang - singing rooms. Karaoke, but instead of embarrassing yourself in front of a whole bar full of people, you just embarrass yourself in front of your friends.

lists

Things I look forward to:
1. Listening to Morning Edition on NPR while drinking coffee.
2. Not having saleswomen climb all over me when I am just looking at stuff. (I was rude today and basically told someone to back off in really, really broken Korean and interpretive dance.)
3. FOOD. Mexican and Indian are big on my list of foods I miss right now.
4. Bigger personal space bubbles. Especially because it is so humid right now, the fact that kids feel like they need to be about 5 inches away from me if given the opportunity drives me INSANE, and it is sort of like that almost everywhere.

Things I will miss:
1. Cheap, reasonably healthy "fast food" choices. Kimbab, bibimbab, soups - basically, rice, veggies, tofu and/or a tiny bit of meat - range from about $1 to $4 and are available in even the smallest of towns.
2. Amazing recycling - almost EVERYTHING is recycled here, and most places have composting bins.
3. Inexpensive, efficient public transportation
4. "service" - basically, getting things for free. For example, I bought the hair goop that brings my joy (Aveda's Be Curly) and got samples of shampoo, conditions, and more hair goop. This happens in most stores, and it is like a nice extra little present.

Korean English Textbook translation

This is mostly for elementary English teachers, (though there are some resources for middle and high school teachers) but the Gepik Web site has full translations of teacher's guides for 3-6 grade English textbooks.

This is great! Before, they had some "team teaching" lessons, but this is a full translation of the teacher's manual, with good explanations for to how to play the games in the book and translations of the "culture" sections (which are HILARIOUS).

Because this is another Korean web site built on a million layers of Flash, click on English, chose the "team teaching" tab, and then select your grade level. For the Primary grades, you are then able to select "Teaching Guide" from the list on the left. The only caveat is that is it in Hansoft, so it will need to be done on a Korean computer.

For upper grades, they have some examples of team-teaching lessons, but it doesn't look like the whole guides are available.

hot hot heat

The sun is making one if its few monsoon season appearances, and is it hot!! And when I say hot, I mean really freaking hot. With lots and lots of humidity, so when I look at the temperature, I think "oh, not SO bad" and then I walk outside and instantly turn into a sweaty mess. Though it is nice to see the sun.

My principal has decided that as a tool to cut electricity costs, all of the air conditioning units (in the teachers' rooms and offices - none of the classrooms have AC) should be turned off. Now, because the old men on my floor have decided that it is perfectly acceptable to smoke in the teachers' room, I don't spend much time there, anyway, but STILL!! Also? NOT OK to smoke IN THE SCHOOL. Not ever.

Also, in my non-air conditioned gym, there are people who aren't turning all the fans on. I mean, really? Are you kidding me? My goodness, people!! Though I take advantage of this by aiming the nearest fan directly at me, so it sort of works out as well as could be expected.

Not a lot going on other that the thinking about and preparing to move home. I'll be back in less than a month, just went to the pension office to fill out all the papers to get that sent to the States (should show up in September. Fingers crossed) and deciding what is worth shipping home. And the whole "I need a job" thing which is more than a tiny bit stressful.

Happy 4th.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - Declaration of Independence

Home

Today I spent rather a large amount of money on my ticket home. I'll be landing in Indiana the evening of August 6th!

I wrote my official letter of resignation today, and I am going to try to go to the pension office on Friday (no classes in the morning, so my co-teacher and I should be able to go to work out all the details).

I have packed a couple of boxes of stuff to ship home, and need to be ruthless in the purging of clothes. Well, really, ruthless in the purging of everything.

shameful

This is shameful. According to one of the English-language newspapers, several mothers are bringing babies in strollers to protests. In this case, the mother put her child in front of water cannons that were being used on crowds that have become increasingly violent (hundreds of people - protesters and riot police - have been taken to the hospital. From the reports, several of the riot police left with pretty serious injuries).

I am without words. When the protests were mostly peaceful, that is one thing, but to put your child in danger? For this? Horrible.

From Brian.

Oh, and the riot police? Are kids serving their mandatory military service. And according to Wikipeadia (yeah, I know, not the most valid of sources, but still...) receive very limited training before being put in pretty stressful situations.

(Dear Mom, this is happening in Seoul. Seoul is very far away from where I am.)

I just found out that there is no way my vice-principal or principal is able to let me leave early, so even though I have the vacation time, I'll need to quit in order to be back in the States for the beginning of the school year in both Indiana and Tennessee (I'm hoping for a job in Indy, but will be sending off resumes to Memphis just to be on the safe side).

Right now, I'm waiting to get quotes from travel agents here, but it looks like I will be flying into Chicago the second week of August.

I'll end up losing the cost of my return flight and two weeks of salary, which sucks and is really annoying, but given the cost of flying home then coming back to close everything out, I'd about break even and not have to spend about 30 hours on an airplane. My pension/bonus should be pro-rated, so at least there is that.

Ugh.

So, this beef thing is still going on. This was happening in Seoul, and I haven't heard about anything bad happening down here, but then I live in a bubble and most of the time wouldn't know if something WAS happening. My guess is that there are still rallies being held in bigger cities, and probably smaller things locally, but like the article said, with the numbers greatly reduced.

I have a question about this quote, "Officials could take measures such as the use of liquid tear gas, which has been banned in South Korea since 1999." Is there a difference between liquid tear gas and any other form of tear gas? Because I remember protesters getting gassed last summer at rallies against Homever/Kim's Club, mainly because we had to scurry into a friend's apartment to avoid the full impact of it.

To show how deeply ingrained dislike of the new president (who was elected with the greatest victory margin in Korean history) is, a little story. My 6th grade class is learning about different jobs. My co-teacher put together a slideshow of people who were representative of different professions - a famous singer, a driver, that kind of thing - and when the picture of the president came up on the screen, the entire elementary class started to point, yell, and laugh at the t.v. The 6th graders are getting ready for mid-term exams, and this was the most excited I've seen them get about anything that wasn't prize-related in a long time.

life

I think I have been in Korea for long enough that I so many things that used to be new and exciting are just same-old. What was and adventure is now just life. I could tell a story about how I had a group of about 7 kids saying "teacher! black/brown!" and wiggling around the hallway today, and I was able to figure out there was a bug in their classroom, or how a moody 6th grader actually was able to tell me that he was in a bad mood but didn't want to tell me about it, or how kids freak out and act like I'm magic when I'm typing an email - IN ENGLISH OMG!! - but they are the little things that would make up a school or a class or a student anywhere.

I will be back in the States in less than two months. I have resumes and emails and all that stuff out, and am playing the waiting game, which does not bring me joy. This weekend, a good friend is leaving, which drives home the point that _I_ will be leaving soon, too. I am SO ready to be home, but there are many, many things I will miss deeply about this strange little place.

More Crazy Cow

(crazy cow is how it has been translated into Korean and then back into English)



This blog has done a pretty great job of summarizing the protests last night, and has linked some amazing pictures. It seems (thankfully) that things stayed peaceful for the most part, which, when you think about the numbers of people, is pretty amazing.

My students have pretty limited English beyond "can I have" and "go straight and turn left" - basically, about the same as my Korean ability - so talking about this with them hasn't been much of an option. I know that many of them went to the local protests last night, and even 6th graders realize this isn't about beef.

mooo

Things don't seem to be calming down in terms of protests against US beef imports. Protests are becoming more violent, including some cases where there are allegations that people are setting themselves on fire (though there is a question if the self-immolation is in protest of the beef, or if the protest provided a venue - thanks Brian).

I'm all for people standing up for what they believe in. What I find fault with is that this isn't based on science or a real threat to the populace, but rather, on xenophobia, propaganda, and fear-mongering.

I've typed and deleted a couple of rants here, and right now I'm just not sure if I am angry that people refuse to listen to logic and reason, if I'm sad that people (both the riot police and the protesters) are getting hurt, if I'm sick of anti-foreigner sentiment here, or if I just am ready to leave. Maybe all of the above.

Last week, I left school and got in a cab to go to one of the big grocery stores. The driver went about a block, pulled over and told me to get out of the taxi because he was going to get a coffee. I don't know for sure if this was related to the news coverage or if this was just one idiot, but still. Drivers used to try to talk to me the entire drive to wherever, and in the past week or more, I haven't had a single one try to talk to me at all.

Clinton and conflict

I have to admit some conflict. Watching the election coverage from a distance I'm sure limited what I saw in both good and bad ways, and while there were many ways in which I didn't support Clinton, the misogyny I saw in response to her campaign almost swayed me back to her camp. A friend linked this article from the nation which says it a lot better than I can:

Iron My Skirt

"There's another reason to be grateful to her. Clinton's run has put to rest the myth that we are living in a postfeminist wonderland in which all that stands in women's path is women themselves. Like a magnet--was it the pantsuit?--Clinton drew out the nation's misogyny in all its jeering glory and put it where we could all get a good look at it. "Iron my shirt" hecklers. Wearers of Bros Over Hos T-shirts and buyers of Hillary nutcrackers. Fans of the Citizens United Not Timid website (check the acronym). Vats of sexist nastiness splattered across the Comments section of hundreds of blogs and websites. It's as if every obscene phone caller and every exhibitionist in America decided to become an amateur political pundit."

No Reservations

I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on You Tube this afternoon, and thought that it gives a pretty accurate snapshot of pieces of life in Korea. If you have the time and the patience to watch a whole tv show in You Tube-quality video, it is worth a look.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Mad cow

In the past few weeks, there has been a growing number of protests about South Korea's plans for importing beef from the US". Many people believe that there is a strong likelihood that people will get Mad Cow if Korea resumes imports. The protests are becoming so violent that in Seoul water cannons were used against protesters, there are claims of significant force being used by police (I can't link to the English language Korean newspapers because it is a mess of stupid Flash so you can't go to a specific article), people are being arrested, and there are charges of police brutality being brought against the riot police in Seoul.

This seems to be going deeper, in that people feel that the president not listening to their concerns is greater than the concern itself, and the president has put his (IMHO, absurd) plan to build a canal across the entire country on hold for the time being, again because of public discontent.

This is another example of the power of propaganda. Although there is no science on their side, every time I speak with someone about it, there is a different reason for why it is so much more dangerous for Koreans to eat US beef, from the idea that the US will send the meat from cows that are over 30 months old (and therefore more likely to transmit the disease, though research doesn't support this theory) to Koreans being more susceptible to the virus (though how they would know this, I have no idea). While at the same time there is a very real outbreak of Avian Flu sweeping through South Korea that no one is talking about or protesting, although there have been instances where humans working with infected birds have contracted the disease.

Jeju Marathon 2008

Last weekend, we went to Jeju-do, an island about 4.5 hours by ferry south of Mokpo for the Jeju Marathon. Last year, this was my first 10k race ever, and I was psyched to go back. I had even entertained thought of training for the half there (lack of time on the roads and some minor injuries made me rethink the wisdom of that one).

Sloane and I took the afternoon ferry on Friday, and got in at about the same time Vanessa and Monique landed (they flew from Gwangju). We all met up at the airport where we picked up the rental car (and really? Get the car. It is far and away the best way to get around the island.)

The next morning, we started off pretty slowly - Sloane and I went to the gym across the street (which, compared to were I work out now, was SWEET) and then we went off for brunch and met up with my friend Dan:


who went with us for a drive along the coast road on our way to the lava tubes. We stopped when Dan noticed that the haenyeo, the lady divers of Jeju, were out working and we got out to watch for a few minutes. They are pretty famous in Korea, and it was something I had wanted to see. I felt a little invasive just watching them work, but they ARE sort of famous for the work they do, and I'm willing to bet this wasn't the first time tourists had watched them at work.



We went to the lava tubes, which were actually pretty cool (figuratively and literally). In the center of Jeju is Hallasan, a dormant volcano, and the entire island is volcanic rock. Basically, the volcanic flows have formed underground tubes all over the island, and a section of the tube system has been declared an UNESCO natural heritage site. It has been lit (somewhat) and there are some signs (in multiple languages) pointing out certain features of the tube. I think I read somewhere that it was about a kilometer each way (out and back), but that seems kind of far for how long we were down there. While there are lights, they keep it dark to preserve the site, so unless Dan's fancy camera was able to see more than ours were, we don't have any images from inside the tube.

After the tubes, we headed to the beach:


We maybe watch a little too much America's Next Top Model.

The marathon was having a pre-party in what we determined was either a past or a current drama/movie set. There was going to be a dinner, but it wasn't going to start for more than an hour and a half, and looked like it was going to be an awful lot of raw fish and speeches in Korean, so we decided to take off for the Indian restaurant in town, after taking some pictures of the park.


We had to leave the next morning at 7:30 to get to the starting line for the race. We were maybe not too happy about that:


And maybe got a little lost along the way.

We got to the stadium with enough time to check our bags and get ready to head to the line, but I wasn't able to get in touch with a friend who ran the full, and I was pretty disappointed about that. Also, because of distance and time and our departures, there was no way we were able to make it back to the stadium and still make our ferry, and I'm still really bummed about that.

Anyway, the race course was beautiful, and I had a good run - there were more rolling hills than I remembered, but nothing overwhelming, and after the last race that was HARD, this one felt really nice. Monique took her camera along, so I have some shots of the course:
passing after Monique did the turn-around

Garlic drying on the side of the road.

Squid drying along the road.


I think Dan got a shot of my finish, which was a personal best time (still 1:09:04, but that is great for me, and the course was exactly 10k - 6.25 miles) but here is a picture of all of us:



After we finished, we walked over to a nearby beach and went into the (cold) water for a few minutes:


After, we went back to the hotel, showered, and then went for Mexican for lunch. We dropped Vanessa and the car off at the airport, lamented that we would be on the boat for 4.5 hours instead of flying, and then (after realizing all the flights were booked and there wasn't a chance of catching a last-minute seat) headed for the ferry terminal. On the way back, we had booked two business-class rooms and one lower-class seat. The rooms were a little small, but we thought we would have been fine if we had bought one room and two of the lower-class seats (just for future reference for anyone who has made it this far and might be taking a ferry to or from Jeju). It was like a little barrier between us and the soju-fueled revelry on the other side of the door, and it was worth the money, by far.

I have said this before, but our little running club has been such an amazing part of my time in Korea, and will miss the people and the experiences deeply.

weeble-wobble

The difference between me and a weeble-wobble?

Weebol-wobbles don't fall down.

I went out for a run today to explore an area of sidewalk with the rubberized running surface I found last weekend, and about 10 yards from the beginning of the good path, I tripped over the end of a pipe that was sticking out of the road, as if it had been a support of some sort embedded in the in the asphalt. I totally wiped out, skinning my knee, taking a layer of skin off the palms of my hands, and getting a couple little scrapes on my elbow. Basically, I look like a 7 year-old who fell off her bike.

Jeju

Me looking so dork-tastically happy that I finished my first 10k in Jeju.


Tomorrow I leave for Jeju for what I think is the last group race for our little running club. Monique leaves in a few weeks to go back to Canada, Carol has already gone home, and my contract is over in less than three months. Sloane and I may try to find a race before it gets too hot to be dealt with or the rains set in solidly, but it isn't looking all that great. So I'm looking at this as our last race together.

Presents!!

My new co-teacher is going to be such an awesome teacher, and is really really nice.

There are some miscommunications given her grasp of the content area she has been assigned to teach. But she is super-helpful as far as she can be, and just bought me the greatest little present ever!

I have been meaning to get one of the name-stamps that are sometimes considered more official than a signature here (you have to use red ink for it to be valid). I hadn't mentioned it to her, but she saw one on-line for a very good price and thought I would appreciate it and got one for me! Also, totally by coincidence (she told me later), the wood carving on the out side is of a crane. My school this year is 삼학, which translates to "three cranes" elementary school. I liked the symbolism. I know this probably cost a LOT less than the donuts she brings in for the other 6th grade teachers, and it means so much more!!

Ultimate

This weekend, a friend organized an ultimate frisbee hat tournament in Mokpo.

Let me back up a second - in Ultimate Frisbee, there are all kinds of games, from pick-up (what we play - a group of folks gather, divide up into equally matched teams, and play for a few hours fairly casually) leagues (what it sounds like - set teams that play for a given length of time) tournaments (like the one I went to in Jeju a few weeks ago) and Hat tournaments, where people register, state their ability level, and then teams are drawn up that are hopefully pretty equally matched. Sort of like drawing names out of a hat (hence the name), but the goal is to make sure that there is a balanced number of experienced players, new-ish players, and beginners.

For this tournament, there were a bunch of us from Mokpo, a fairly big group of people from Seoul, some folks from Busan, and then a handful of others from all around. About 45-50 players made it out on Saturday (a handful less were able to make both days - a few people fell victim to the Saturday night party), and it was a great time, both in terms of learning a lot in a short amount of time, and in getting to hang out with some neat people.

I also feel lucky that there are so many really cool, mellow folks in Mokpo. This weekend introduced me to some folks who approach games a little more... intensely, for lack of a better word... than I'm comfortable with, and I appreciate the vibe of the people who play here have even more. One of the things I've learned from this new-found interest in athleticism is that it is great to be competitive, awesome to see improvement, and fun to win, but at the end of the day, you are really good at throwing a frisbee. Or climbing a rock. Or running for a long time. Or lifting heavy things and putting them back down again. All of these things are great, but in terms of degree of importance? Maybe notsomuch. If you aren't having a good time, aren't making friends, aren't having fun, what's the freaking point? Granted, I'm the girl who was picked last in gym class, so my humble opinion should probably be taken with a very large grain of salt.

The abandoned school and maping programs

(this is mostly for the Mokpo folks)

Most Sundays a group of folks gets together around 2 to play Ultimate Frisbee. Lot's of fun, but it can be a little hard to find the abandoned school where we play.
here is a link to a Google maps-like map of the area.

For taxis, you can say "Yudal Oo-che-gook" (that's a phonetic, not transliteration spelling), which is the closest landmark, then tell the driver to go up the hill, turn right, then turn left. Or you can be daring and say "Gu Mokpo Jeil Yoja Godung Hakyo" - old Mokpo Girls High School. I usually mention "yudal oochegook" just to make sure that I don't end up in Hadang at the current girls high school, and still the drivers often try to take me to the middle school down the road. If you don't go up a hill into a small neighborhood and end up at an obviously abandoned school, you are at the wrong place. Emphasize the "Gu" part of the location.

Once there, walk around the building to the right, go up a set of steps, and you are at the field. If you are on a bike (motor or pedal), you can go to the left and go up the ramp to the field.

Also, the link above is to a mapping site where you can plot courses for walking, running, or giving directions. One that I like even more (and which JUST upgraded so I can see Korea - use hybrid view) is Map My Run. The main benefit to the Map My Run program is that it has an out/back feature for plotting routes, and you can click and drag the map around more easily.

Boseong

Last weekend was a 10k race (for me and Sloane) and a 5k for Carol, Vanessa and HangBin (and Vanessa's first 5k race!) in Boseong, a small town on the east side of Jeollanamdo. Boseong produces about 40% of the green tea consumed in Korea, which is a heck of a lot of green tea. The small town's other claims to fame are its proximity to Jirisan (the Jiri Mountains), Daewonsa (Daewon temple), that it is Hangbin's hometown, and that it is where Vanessa spent her first two years in Korea.

Sloane and I left Mokpo on Saturday afternoon to make it to town, grab a hotel room, and then to go see the tea fields.


We then ate green tea ice cream and went to meet Vanessa for dinner in town. Carol was coming down with an evil cold, so didn't come over until the morning of the race. But how rock-star of her is it that she still ran!?

The next day, we did the race. It wasn't my best run and I felt tired through the whole thing - not sure what was going on. The race DID have more hills than I'm used to running, but I don't think they were as bad as I thought they were. It felt like most of the first half was downhill and I kept dreading the second half of the race. At the end of the day, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and while I was faster than my training times, I'm pretty sure it will be my slowest 10k to date.
.

After the race, we went to the Green Tea Spa just outside Boseong, where I had my first scrub. Basically I paid a burley Korean woman to scrub about five layers of my skin off, and it was kind of awesome.

That night, we stayed at a cottage owned by Hangbin's family near Daewonsa.
HangBin picking lettuce from the garden for samgyupsal: . The air was clean, there were almost no people around, and it was great to be able to hang out with good friends.

Monday was Buddha's Birthday and we went to Daewonsa for the celebrations. Daewonsa is one of the temples I like the most here, so it was really nice to be able to go there for the celebration.

It got a little crazy at one point with some photographs turning all paparazzi on us. Imagine this, but aimed at us instead of the performers, and (I think) more photographers:


Yes, we stand out. I get it. But instead of taking a snapshot and moving on, there were many people pointing these high-powered cameras at us. We tried to ignore them, but every time we looked back there were more! Finally, HangBin told them to leave us alone (in Korean), and they at least moved back.

The only downer about this weekend is that it was Carol's last race with us. Monday she heads back to Canada for a few months before starting as a teacher in Kuwait! Without putting too fine a point on it, these races have been a really important part of my time in Korea, and it has been so exciting and inspirational to run with this awesome group of people. Carol, you will be missed.

The next race is June 1st, in Jeju. It will be the anniversary of my first 10k race! I can't believe that it was almost a year ago!! Yikes.