A few days ago South Korea launched a rocket that was, in the words of the South Korean government, a partial success. The rocket, part Russian and part South Korean, was meant to place a satellite into orbit, but failed to do so.
Naturally this brings up comparisons with North Korea, whose own failed attempt to launch a satellite earlier this year caused concern around the world. The biggest difference is the reaction of the two countries to their failures. South Korea openly admitted that the launch failed to meet its aim of putting a satellite into low Earth orbit. North Korea is still insisting that their satellite is up their orbiting the Earth and broadcasting Korean songs despite the fact that the rest of the world watched it crash into the Pacific. The South Koreans definitely have the more mature approach.
It's good to see South Korea is keen on developing a space industry, and this is a big step following getting their first astronaut (or should it be cosmonaut since she went up with the Russians?) last year. I look forward to seeing further developments.
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A Funny Lady
"Her words suggest that she is by no means intelligent," the spokesman said, quoted by state news agency KCNA.
"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. Anyone making misstatements has to pay for them."
And just who is this rather unliked woman? Hillary Clinton.
Who doesn't like her (this time)? The North Koreans. The above quotes are from a North Korean spokesman a speech by Clinton in Thailand once again saying noone wants North Korea to have nuclear weapons.
This sort of ad hominem attack from North Korea isn't that surprising. There's not much else they can do.
And when even Burma is against you, you know you're unpopular.
End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Leverage 2x01
"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping. Anyone making misstatements has to pay for them."
And just who is this rather unliked woman? Hillary Clinton.
Who doesn't like her (this time)? The North Koreans. The above quotes are from a North Korean spokesman a speech by Clinton in Thailand once again saying noone wants North Korea to have nuclear weapons.
This sort of ad hominem attack from North Korea isn't that surprising. There's not much else they can do.
And when even Burma is against you, you know you're unpopular.
End Post
Writing time: 10 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Leverage 2x01
Thursday, January 29, 2009
DMZ
Every country has an icon, something quintessential to the country that anyone with a passing familiarity to the country will know about. Australia has kangaroos and the Sydney Opera House. America has the Statue of Liberty and the White House. Italy has the Colosseum, Greece the Parthenon, Japan Mt Fuji. South Korea (and North Korea) have the DMZ. The Demilitarized Zone. The 4 kilometre strip of land that separates North and South Korea that was declared after the stalemate that became the Korean War and intensely guarded ever since.
The weekend before last I went on a tour of the DMZ with the guys from work (we invited the girls but they didn't want to go). The tour met in downtown Seoul early Saturday morning, from where we bussed up to the DMZ which was about 90 minutes away. We then swapped bus to a US Army bus, which took us for a briefing by a very gung-ho and stereotypical soldier on the history of the Joint Security Area, the little area where there are a bunch of buildings nominally there for the purpose of talks, if only the North Koreans would show up. After listening to the briefing and signing a waiver, we took the Army bus into the JSA. Both the North and South have buildings there, and soldiers. We only got to go inside two of the buildings, one of which was the main meeting room. This building is split in the middle by the border, so while inside we were able to technically enter North Korea, although my stay lasted about a minute.
After seeing the main section of the JSA, we were taken on a tour of the places that were involved in the Axe Murder Incident of 1976, which led to Operation Paul Bunyan, the most expensive tree cutting ever (the back up plan to take the tree down if things went really bad was for a battleship on the east coast to bombard the location).
After the JSA we went to Dorasan observatory, a lookout on a mountain near the border. The view wasn't that great, and photos even worse because you weren't allowed to take photos at the edge of the observatory, but had to stand behind some yellow lines about two or three metres back. The fog didn't help either, nor did being kicked out of the auditorium there so some big wig could have a private look at the border.
The final part of the tour was a visit to Infiltration Tunnel 3, one of four known tunnels dug by the North Koreans into the south. Before entering the tunnel, we watched a bizarre film on the DMZ, which started out a bit grim but factual, and then went on a crazy overly optimistic dream about the future of the DMZ. The tunnel itself was low (I had to crouch most of the time, and am glad I got a hardhat), cool and damp. The entrance was pretty steep (about 11 degrees I think) which was OK going down but a good bit of exercise going back up. The tunnel just sort of stops at the end where the South Koreans have put up barricades, and apparently the North Koreans have collapsed the tunnel on their side as well. The tunnel also had a thin layer of coal painted on the sides, as one of the claims the North has made about the tunnel is that it was a coal mine that went a little too far. They said that had it been used, the North expected to get 30,000 men an hour through the tunnel. Presumably the North Koreans aren't as tall as me.
Now for some photos.
Me next to one of the ROK soldiers in the meeting room in the JSA. We were told not to touch them or we'd be "touched" back.
The main building on the North Korean side. There was one soldier visible, but we were told there were more inside the building take our photos.
Where the tree that led up to the Axe Murder Incident used to be.
The badge I had to wear. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep it.
The blue JSA bus
Chris at Dorasan Observatory. The yellow line is where we could take photos from.
Going down the tunnel. The south Koreans have made the entrance part nice and neat, but the later section (the flat bit) is a lot lower and rougher.
Another of the ROK soldiers in the meeting building. He's there in case the North Koreans try and break through the door behind him (I'm not sure why he isn't facing that way then, but that's what they told us. Perhaps he's there to stop us trying to defect to the North (like that would happen)).
More photos are here
End Post
Writing time: 48 minutes
Time since last post: a day or so
Current media: Richard Cheese
The weekend before last I went on a tour of the DMZ with the guys from work (we invited the girls but they didn't want to go). The tour met in downtown Seoul early Saturday morning, from where we bussed up to the DMZ which was about 90 minutes away. We then swapped bus to a US Army bus, which took us for a briefing by a very gung-ho and stereotypical soldier on the history of the Joint Security Area, the little area where there are a bunch of buildings nominally there for the purpose of talks, if only the North Koreans would show up. After listening to the briefing and signing a waiver, we took the Army bus into the JSA. Both the North and South have buildings there, and soldiers. We only got to go inside two of the buildings, one of which was the main meeting room. This building is split in the middle by the border, so while inside we were able to technically enter North Korea, although my stay lasted about a minute.
After seeing the main section of the JSA, we were taken on a tour of the places that were involved in the Axe Murder Incident of 1976, which led to Operation Paul Bunyan, the most expensive tree cutting ever (the back up plan to take the tree down if things went really bad was for a battleship on the east coast to bombard the location).
After the JSA we went to Dorasan observatory, a lookout on a mountain near the border. The view wasn't that great, and photos even worse because you weren't allowed to take photos at the edge of the observatory, but had to stand behind some yellow lines about two or three metres back. The fog didn't help either, nor did being kicked out of the auditorium there so some big wig could have a private look at the border.
The final part of the tour was a visit to Infiltration Tunnel 3, one of four known tunnels dug by the North Koreans into the south. Before entering the tunnel, we watched a bizarre film on the DMZ, which started out a bit grim but factual, and then went on a crazy overly optimistic dream about the future of the DMZ. The tunnel itself was low (I had to crouch most of the time, and am glad I got a hardhat), cool and damp. The entrance was pretty steep (about 11 degrees I think) which was OK going down but a good bit of exercise going back up. The tunnel just sort of stops at the end where the South Koreans have put up barricades, and apparently the North Koreans have collapsed the tunnel on their side as well. The tunnel also had a thin layer of coal painted on the sides, as one of the claims the North has made about the tunnel is that it was a coal mine that went a little too far. They said that had it been used, the North expected to get 30,000 men an hour through the tunnel. Presumably the North Koreans aren't as tall as me.
Now for some photos.
Me next to one of the ROK soldiers in the meeting room in the JSA. We were told not to touch them or we'd be "touched" back.
The main building on the North Korean side. There was one soldier visible, but we were told there were more inside the building take our photos.
Where the tree that led up to the Axe Murder Incident used to be.
The badge I had to wear. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep it.
The blue JSA bus
Chris at Dorasan Observatory. The yellow line is where we could take photos from.
Going down the tunnel. The south Koreans have made the entrance part nice and neat, but the later section (the flat bit) is a lot lower and rougher.
Another of the ROK soldiers in the meeting building. He's there in case the North Koreans try and break through the door behind him (I'm not sure why he isn't facing that way then, but that's what they told us. Perhaps he's there to stop us trying to defect to the North (like that would happen)).
More photos are here
End Post
Writing time: 48 minutes
Time since last post: a day or so
Current media: Richard Cheese
Friday, December 05, 2008
Inferno, Canto XXXIV, tercet 139
Last Saturday night I was out rather late (or more accurately, very early on Sunday), and I saw something that I have not seen very much of in Korea.
After the taxi ride back from downtown, I was walking down the street looking up at the sky and thought to myself "ah, there's Orion". It took me a few moments to realize the significance of this thought.
For the first time during my stay in Korea, the sky, while not full, contained many stars. I believe I may have even identified Polaris, a star that has not been visible to me during the greater number of my days.
Apparently it was a combination of the late hour and the cold evening that let me see that which is normally invisible here.
It really is quite depressing looking up at the night sky and seeing just black with only the moon to break things up. It makes the universe seem such a hollow and empty thing, lacking the glory and wonder I know it has.
I have occasionally thought what would science have been like if the night sky had always been like this. Geocentrism would have been a lot stronger, although it would have fallen eventually. Telescopes would still exist, but would anyone bother pointing them upwards. Astronomy would have been stunted at birth, although its evil twin astrology would have been still born. I think science on such a world would still get to where we are, but it would be a slower process and lack some of the wonder we get to experience.
That's all.
For those wondering about the title of this post, the line referenced reads "and we came out to see once more the stars."
End Post
Writing time: 39 minutes (although I was distracted by Wikipedia partway through)
Time since last post: I guess two or three days.
Current media: None (soon to be rectfied).
After the taxi ride back from downtown, I was walking down the street looking up at the sky and thought to myself "ah, there's Orion". It took me a few moments to realize the significance of this thought.
For the first time during my stay in Korea, the sky, while not full, contained many stars. I believe I may have even identified Polaris, a star that has not been visible to me during the greater number of my days.
Apparently it was a combination of the late hour and the cold evening that let me see that which is normally invisible here.
It really is quite depressing looking up at the night sky and seeing just black with only the moon to break things up. It makes the universe seem such a hollow and empty thing, lacking the glory and wonder I know it has.
I have occasionally thought what would science have been like if the night sky had always been like this. Geocentrism would have been a lot stronger, although it would have fallen eventually. Telescopes would still exist, but would anyone bother pointing them upwards. Astronomy would have been stunted at birth, although its evil twin astrology would have been still born. I think science on such a world would still get to where we are, but it would be a slower process and lack some of the wonder we get to experience.
That's all.
For those wondering about the title of this post, the line referenced reads "and we came out to see once more the stars."
End Post
Writing time: 39 minutes (although I was distracted by Wikipedia partway through)
Time since last post: I guess two or three days.
Current media: None (soon to be rectfied).
Friday, October 31, 2008
A Sight For Sore Muscles
A rather unusual result from the Korean Constitutional Court has been delivered recently. The court has upheld a law that only allows people who are blind to be a licensed masseur.
This is rather unfair to all the sighted people who want to be masseurs, and there are about 200,000 of them while there are only around 7,100 licensed masseurs. A sighted person working as a masseur can face fines and prison (although I'm sure they avoid most such problems like the street food stands do. A few quite payments to the local police and a brief holiday during crackdown week (I've ranted previously about corruption here and my involvement thereof)).
While I can agree with the court for wanting to make sure that blind people have the ability to earn a living for themselves, I don't believe the way to do this is to give them a monopoly on an industry, especially one where there is sufficient demand for almost thirty times the number of practitioners. The way to do it is to ensure that blind people are able to enter any profession that they are capable of performing (I don't think it's wrong to not hire a blind person as a photographer for example) and that there is a sufficient set of social services available to support them as they do so.
End Post
Writing time: 15 minutes (this one had a few paragraphs rewritten)
Time since last post: about an hour
Current media: still none
This is rather unfair to all the sighted people who want to be masseurs, and there are about 200,000 of them while there are only around 7,100 licensed masseurs. A sighted person working as a masseur can face fines and prison (although I'm sure they avoid most such problems like the street food stands do. A few quite payments to the local police and a brief holiday during crackdown week (I've ranted previously about corruption here and my involvement thereof)).
While I can agree with the court for wanting to make sure that blind people have the ability to earn a living for themselves, I don't believe the way to do this is to give them a monopoly on an industry, especially one where there is sufficient demand for almost thirty times the number of practitioners. The way to do it is to ensure that blind people are able to enter any profession that they are capable of performing (I don't think it's wrong to not hire a blind person as a photographer for example) and that there is a sufficient set of social services available to support them as they do so.
End Post
Writing time: 15 minutes (this one had a few paragraphs rewritten)
Time since last post: about an hour
Current media: still none
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Paintball
Last weekend I went to paintball. I found out about it from a group I found on facebook which is trying to build up a bit of a community here in Daegu. Anyway, onto the actual day. It started with all the people congregating in downtown Daegu. Here the organization could have been a little better. We ended up waiting around about an hour for some people who were late. We also got screwed over with the bus. The organizers booked a bus for 35 people and they turned up with a bus for 30 people. This was really bad since it meant two of the organizers had to miss out.
We eventually got to the paintball course where I was pleasantly surprised to find that the amount of gear provided was more than I expected. In addition to a mask and gun, we also got overalls, gloves and a padded vest. This meant I no longer had to worry about getting a lot of paint all over my own clothes.
After kitting up we had a brief introduction to how to use the guns which was translated from Korean. A few practice shots and we were sent into the field. The field was a small patch of scrub in between a highway and a marine base with a lot of barrels and walls placed around the place. We did six rounds with three different games, kill or be killed, capture the flag and kill the VIPs. Blue team won the first game, but we lost the rest.
In the first capture the flag I just hung back and guarded the flag, but in the second I was more aggressive, although I got screwed over by my gun. I went on a mad dash forward and stopped at one of the walls. I looked through the window and had a clear shot but my gun had jammed. As I ducked down and tried to reset it, I got shot by the guy on the other side. In the later games I also tended towards kamikaze runs near the end, since once you ran out of bullets, you were counted as dead. So, once I realized I only had half a dozen bullets left, I'd go for the mad charge towards the objective with my gun held high in front of my face so I was harder to hit. I never actually made it to a target, but it was fun to go charging through the scrub.
All in all it was a good day, and if another day of paintball is planned I'll definitely go along again.
Guarding the flag.
The Mighty Blues
End Post
Writing time: 43 minutes
Time since last post: an hourish
Current media: No Heroics
We eventually got to the paintball course where I was pleasantly surprised to find that the amount of gear provided was more than I expected. In addition to a mask and gun, we also got overalls, gloves and a padded vest. This meant I no longer had to worry about getting a lot of paint all over my own clothes.
After kitting up we had a brief introduction to how to use the guns which was translated from Korean. A few practice shots and we were sent into the field. The field was a small patch of scrub in between a highway and a marine base with a lot of barrels and walls placed around the place. We did six rounds with three different games, kill or be killed, capture the flag and kill the VIPs. Blue team won the first game, but we lost the rest.
In the first capture the flag I just hung back and guarded the flag, but in the second I was more aggressive, although I got screwed over by my gun. I went on a mad dash forward and stopped at one of the walls. I looked through the window and had a clear shot but my gun had jammed. As I ducked down and tried to reset it, I got shot by the guy on the other side. In the later games I also tended towards kamikaze runs near the end, since once you ran out of bullets, you were counted as dead. So, once I realized I only had half a dozen bullets left, I'd go for the mad charge towards the objective with my gun held high in front of my face so I was harder to hit. I never actually made it to a target, but it was fun to go charging through the scrub.
All in all it was a good day, and if another day of paintball is planned I'll definitely go along again.
End Post
Writing time: 43 minutes
Time since last post: an hourish
Current media: No Heroics
Monday, September 29, 2008
A wedding
Today I attended a wedding. This was the second wedding I've attended, the first being my Aunt's wedding way back in 88, about which I mainly remember that the reception was held at a vegetarian restaurant, and even at that age, I was not a fan of vegetarian food.
This wedding was of one of the Korean teachers from my school. About half a dozen of the foreign teachers went (all of us who'd been there for more than a two months). The ceremony was held in a big wedding complex. It was about four floors tall with halls on each floor and a timetable for each hall. The wedding was split into two parts. The first was a short ritual for the big crowd, which was followed by a private ceremony for just the family while the other guests went off to have a meal. The public ceremony was quite short, only about ten minutes, and then there was about half an hour of photos and videos. It was kind of a mix of Korean and western weddings. The hall seemed to have an anti camera field, as only a few of my photos turned out ok, and others had the same problem.
Photos of the event can be found here.
End Post
Writing time: a little while
Time since last post: a not so little while
Current media: Star Trek Voyager
This wedding was of one of the Korean teachers from my school. About half a dozen of the foreign teachers went (all of us who'd been there for more than a two months). The ceremony was held in a big wedding complex. It was about four floors tall with halls on each floor and a timetable for each hall. The wedding was split into two parts. The first was a short ritual for the big crowd, which was followed by a private ceremony for just the family while the other guests went off to have a meal. The public ceremony was quite short, only about ten minutes, and then there was about half an hour of photos and videos. It was kind of a mix of Korean and western weddings. The hall seemed to have an anti camera field, as only a few of my photos turned out ok, and others had the same problem.
Photos of the event can be found here.
End Post
Writing time: a little while
Time since last post: a not so little while
Current media: Star Trek Voyager
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Score
Today at the start of one of my classes, one of the kids gave me a small box wrapped in black paper. This is not the first time something like this has happened, and as I usually do in this situation I thanked the student in Korean and put it aside to look at later. When I opened the box I found that it contained two pairs of socks. Certainly better than a kick in the pants.
Previous scores from students include some hankies from a student in Japan when the kids school was closing down, a box of tea from a student who recently went to China for a month (that's going to be shipped home to my mother and grandmother (I'm pretty sure my student won't find out)), various snacks and candy, and once an elaborate decorative egg bauble thingy, which again is something I doubt I'd ever get for myself, but in all of these cases it's more the sentiment of it than the actual item.
There's actually a teachers day over here, where students and parents used to give gifts to the teachers. It mainly applies to regular school teachers, but it does overflow a bit into the English academies. However, people went quite overboard in trying to get the teachers to give the most attention to their children (I've heard of cases of teachers getting new cars or huge amounts of cash) to the point where the Government has actually made teachers day a day off for school children, so they can't go to school and give their exorbitant gifts to their teachers (although why they can't give them a day later I don't quite get).
End Post
Writing time: 12 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: Still Star Trek Voyager
Previous scores from students include some hankies from a student in Japan when the kids school was closing down, a box of tea from a student who recently went to China for a month (that's going to be shipped home to my mother and grandmother (I'm pretty sure my student won't find out)), various snacks and candy, and once an elaborate decorative egg bauble thingy, which again is something I doubt I'd ever get for myself, but in all of these cases it's more the sentiment of it than the actual item.
There's actually a teachers day over here, where students and parents used to give gifts to the teachers. It mainly applies to regular school teachers, but it does overflow a bit into the English academies. However, people went quite overboard in trying to get the teachers to give the most attention to their children (I've heard of cases of teachers getting new cars or huge amounts of cash) to the point where the Government has actually made teachers day a day off for school children, so they can't go to school and give their exorbitant gifts to their teachers (although why they can't give them a day later I don't quite get).
End Post
Writing time: 12 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: Still Star Trek Voyager
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Haeinsa
Last Friday I didn't have to work so I decided to do something that I messed up on the first attempt, and visited Haeinsa temple. Haeinsa is about a 90 minute bus ride from Daegu, for most of which due to crowding I had the small seat right at the front of the bus where the steps to get on are. Hence I managed to take a few photos of the landscape on the way that look similar to this one.
After arriving it was a slight walk to the temple (about 1.2km, so I'm not complaining. It was nothing compared to that damned mountain on Jeju) which is a reasonably large complex. There is at least a dozen buildings and two courtyards. In the first courtyard there was a sort of labyrinth, although I guess it was really more of a path to walk while meditating than an actual maze. Also in the main courtyard they had a big fire going. It looked like they were just burning paper, but at times ash would fall from the fire throughout the temple.
The highlight of Haeinsa temple though is the Tripitaka Koreana, a collection of over 80,000 hand carved wooden blocks containing the oldest and most comprehensive collection of Buddhist writing in Chinese characters. There are four buildings containing the wood blocks that were specially built centuries ago to house the blocks.
When you look at it the sheer density of writing is amazing. It is like looking at a huge and ancient library. Well, it's not like looking at a huge and ancient library. It is looking at a huge and ancient library. I think if the Library of Alexandria were still around visiting that would be a similar experience. The Library of Congress might get there if it's still around in a few hundred years.
One curiosity I did notice was the special fire extinguishers they have. Obviously for something as precious as the wooden blocks your ordinary put out the flame and damn the consequences to the burning stuff type extinguisher won't quite make the grade with the guys looking after these. It was the first time I've seen a silver fire extinguisher. I've seen red and yellow before, but never silver.
After wandering around the temple for a while and taking pictures until the battery on my camera ran out (I hadn't charged it since before going to Jeju, and that was only the second time I'd charged it so it does all right, but I should have thought of it before) after which I took pictures with my phone instead. I had a look through the accompanying museum, but there wasn't much to read about the items on display. It was however while I was in the museum that the rain started, and didn't stop until almost an hour later. At one point while the rain was light I made a move for the bus stop, but it started getting heavy and ducked under the umbrella of an old lady selling fruit. I braved the heavy rain when the lady told me my bus had just turned up, but it was full to the brim so I spent another 20 odd minutes standing in the slight shelter the ticket booth provided until the rain stopped. Then it was another twenty minutes until the next bus arrived, and 90 minutes back to Daegu. All in all, a good trip.
I'll put a few more pictures up here, and there are more on my flickr page.
The largest building in the temple
The wood blocks on their shelves
A stone thingy
End Post
Writing time: 23 minutes
Time since last post: I don't really care about this bit any more. Does anyone notice or care about it?
Current media: None (I'm at work on a break)
After arriving it was a slight walk to the temple (about 1.2km, so I'm not complaining. It was nothing compared to that damned mountain on Jeju) which is a reasonably large complex. There is at least a dozen buildings and two courtyards. In the first courtyard there was a sort of labyrinth, although I guess it was really more of a path to walk while meditating than an actual maze. Also in the main courtyard they had a big fire going. It looked like they were just burning paper, but at times ash would fall from the fire throughout the temple.
The highlight of Haeinsa temple though is the Tripitaka Koreana, a collection of over 80,000 hand carved wooden blocks containing the oldest and most comprehensive collection of Buddhist writing in Chinese characters. There are four buildings containing the wood blocks that were specially built centuries ago to house the blocks.
When you look at it the sheer density of writing is amazing. It is like looking at a huge and ancient library. Well, it's not like looking at a huge and ancient library. It is looking at a huge and ancient library. I think if the Library of Alexandria were still around visiting that would be a similar experience. The Library of Congress might get there if it's still around in a few hundred years.One curiosity I did notice was the special fire extinguishers they have. Obviously for something as precious as the wooden blocks your ordinary put out the flame and damn the consequences to the burning stuff type extinguisher won't quite make the grade with the guys looking after these. It was the first time I've seen a silver fire extinguisher. I've seen red and yellow before, but never silver.
After wandering around the temple for a while and taking pictures until the battery on my camera ran out (I hadn't charged it since before going to Jeju, and that was only the second time I'd charged it so it does all right, but I should have thought of it before) after which I took pictures with my phone instead. I had a look through the accompanying museum, but there wasn't much to read about the items on display. It was however while I was in the museum that the rain started, and didn't stop until almost an hour later. At one point while the rain was light I made a move for the bus stop, but it started getting heavy and ducked under the umbrella of an old lady selling fruit. I braved the heavy rain when the lady told me my bus had just turned up, but it was full to the brim so I spent another 20 odd minutes standing in the slight shelter the ticket booth provided until the rain stopped. Then it was another twenty minutes until the next bus arrived, and 90 minutes back to Daegu. All in all, a good trip.
I'll put a few more pictures up here, and there are more on my flickr page.
The largest building in the templeThe wood blocks on their shelvesA stone thingyEnd Post
Writing time: 23 minutes
Time since last post: I don't really care about this bit any more. Does anyone notice or care about it?
Current media: None (I'm at work on a break)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Adventures on Jejudo, or Why on Earth did I think climbing a mountain was a good idea?
A week and a bit ago I got four days off work and in celebration of this fact took a trip to Jeju Island, the closest thing Korea has to a tropical paradise. I spent four days on Jeju and enjoyed myself quite a bit. I went with a friend from work.
The first day I got up at the ridiculously early time of seven am in order to catch a 10:30 plane. After the flight we caught a bus to Seogwipo on the south side of the island where one of our hotels was. After checking in we went walking around town to see the local waterfalls. These were pretty good.
Next to one of the waterfalls was a huge rock with some writing on it, which according to local legend was written by an ancient Chinese general.
Day two we went on a submarine ride, for which I inconveniently forgot my camera and then proceeded to get seasick. Not enough to actually be sick, just enough to make the experience unpleasant enough for me to want to get off the sub as quick as I could. In the afternoon we went to a nearby beach, where I sat on a rented plastic chair under a rented umbrella and read some of Purgatory, while my friend went swimming but was yelled at by the lifeguard if he went out further than knee deep, as did anyone else who tried to actually swim instead of just getting their feet wet.
Day three we changed hotel and went from Seogwipo to Jeju-Shi via the Manjanggul lava tubes, one of the largest lava tube systems in the world. The total length is about 7 and a bit kilometers, but tourists can only walk through about two to three kilometers worth. This was pretty impressive, although I think it would have been better if there was a section of pitch black. One of the coolest things about the other caves I've been to is when they turn all the lights out and you get to see what pitch black really is. But to do that you really need a guide, which this place didn't have, just some guys at a ticket booth near the entrance. (Actually, nearly all natural landmarks on Jeju have a ticket booth.) After the lava tubes we continued onto Jeju-Shi where we checked in with a slight hick up that was quickly resolved.
The final day we spent climbing Mt Halla. In a certain sense, the entire island of Jeju is Mt Halla, wiht Mt Halla being the volcano that spewed up all the rocks and stuff that make up the island. Mt Halla is 1950m tall, but the trail we took starts at around 800m up, so we had a bit of a start. The trail starts out not to bad, but the incline keeps getting tougher as you approach the top. The first 7.6km took about two hours, after which we stopped at the main rest stop for lunch. The final 2.5km however involved climbing about 450m. This was a lot tougher, and I think I took more breaks on this section than I did.
The final climb from about 1800m was a set of stairs and near the end I was climbing in a daze, just putting one foot in front of the other, until I was surprised that there weren't any more ahead of me. The top was cloudy nearly the whole time, so I was unable to see the lake that is inside the crater, and after sitting up there for about half an hour started getting rather cold.
The hike down was a lot easier than the hike up. I managed the first 2.5km down without a single break, and then only a few more the rest of the way. Once I got down to the bottom (well, end of the trail) I saw you could get a medal saying "I climbed Mt Halla" and I tried to buy one, but I then found out you actually needed to buy a certificate before you started and there's a guy at the top who would sign it, and then you could buy the medal. I wish I'd know that before I started climbing. After that, I was too exhausted to do anything else, so it was an early night and got up early the next morning for flight back to Daegu.
End Post
Writing time: 39 minutes
Time since last post: a day or so
Current media: The Daily Show
The first day I got up at the ridiculously early time of seven am in order to catch a 10:30 plane. After the flight we caught a bus to Seogwipo on the south side of the island where one of our hotels was. After checking in we went walking around town to see the local waterfalls. These were pretty good.
Next to one of the waterfalls was a huge rock with some writing on it, which according to local legend was written by an ancient Chinese general.
Day two we went on a submarine ride, for which I inconveniently forgot my camera and then proceeded to get seasick. Not enough to actually be sick, just enough to make the experience unpleasant enough for me to want to get off the sub as quick as I could. In the afternoon we went to a nearby beach, where I sat on a rented plastic chair under a rented umbrella and read some of Purgatory, while my friend went swimming but was yelled at by the lifeguard if he went out further than knee deep, as did anyone else who tried to actually swim instead of just getting their feet wet.
Day three we changed hotel and went from Seogwipo to Jeju-Shi via the Manjanggul lava tubes, one of the largest lava tube systems in the world. The total length is about 7 and a bit kilometers, but tourists can only walk through about two to three kilometers worth. This was pretty impressive, although I think it would have been better if there was a section of pitch black. One of the coolest things about the other caves I've been to is when they turn all the lights out and you get to see what pitch black really is. But to do that you really need a guide, which this place didn't have, just some guys at a ticket booth near the entrance. (Actually, nearly all natural landmarks on Jeju have a ticket booth.) After the lava tubes we continued onto Jeju-Shi where we checked in with a slight hick up that was quickly resolved.
The final day we spent climbing Mt Halla. In a certain sense, the entire island of Jeju is Mt Halla, wiht Mt Halla being the volcano that spewed up all the rocks and stuff that make up the island. Mt Halla is 1950m tall, but the trail we took starts at around 800m up, so we had a bit of a start. The trail starts out not to bad, but the incline keeps getting tougher as you approach the top. The first 7.6km took about two hours, after which we stopped at the main rest stop for lunch. The final 2.5km however involved climbing about 450m. This was a lot tougher, and I think I took more breaks on this section than I did.
The final climb from about 1800m was a set of stairs and near the end I was climbing in a daze, just putting one foot in front of the other, until I was surprised that there weren't any more ahead of me. The top was cloudy nearly the whole time, so I was unable to see the lake that is inside the crater, and after sitting up there for about half an hour started getting rather cold.
The hike down was a lot easier than the hike up. I managed the first 2.5km down without a single break, and then only a few more the rest of the way. Once I got down to the bottom (well, end of the trail) I saw you could get a medal saying "I climbed Mt Halla" and I tried to buy one, but I then found out you actually needed to buy a certificate before you started and there's a guy at the top who would sign it, and then you could buy the medal. I wish I'd know that before I started climbing. After that, I was too exhausted to do anything else, so it was an early night and got up early the next morning for flight back to Daegu.
End Post
Writing time: 39 minutes
Time since last post: a day or so
Current media: The Daily Show
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Adventures around Daegu, or the time in which I was not the only member of my family in Korea
So recently my Mum and my sister came over to Korea for a bit over a week. I managed to get a little time off work (two days) and we did some stuff in and around Daegu.
I met them in Seoul at the airport on a Sunday. My sister flew in early in the morning, so after storing her bags at the airport, we went into downtown Seoul and looked at one of the castles. We got there at a pretty good time, for just after we bought our tickets, a changing of the guard ceremony took place.
After a bit of wandering around, we had lunch at a food court and had one of the more Korean meals I've had for a long time. We then went back to the airport to pick up Mum. Then we caught the KTX back to Daegu and checked Mum and my sister into their hotel. The KTX was as always a smooth ride, and we got back to Daegu about 7ish. After checking into the hotel we got room service for dinner, which was quite pricey. About 80 bucks for two pizzas, a bottle of wine and a coke. I'm glad I wasn't pay.
I had to work the next day, so they did some exploring around Daegu on their own. The next day I spent the morning with them and we walked around the park near the hotel which has a few memorials, temples and a museum about a Japanese invasion from the late 1500s. Interesting, but not a lot of English.
Wednesday, like Monday, I didn't see them, but then on Thursday we went downtown and along with some sight seeing we went looking for new glasses for me. I'd needed to get new glasses for a while since on of the rims would occasionally have the screw holding it together come loose and the plastic bit that makes the shape of the legs (arms?) behind the ear was coming apart and if I took them off quickly would come off and stay behind my ear. I'd put it off because I really need a second opinion for these sorts of things as well as some prodding because otherwise there's a chance I'd have ended up commissioning some to make a replica of the old ones. I did however look through about three or four stores before finding a new pair that I liked. I'll tell more of that story and it's follow up in another post. After that, we walked around downtown for a bit until it was time for me to head back to work.
Friday I didn't see them in the morning, but they came over to Chilgok (the part of Daegu I live and work in) and we went to a galbi restaurant for dinner. We went to a place near my house where the staff know a few of us from work since we go there a bit, so we got pretty good service, as well as some service (in Korea, service means free stuff shops, bars and restaurants give to good customers, in this case we got three free bottles of coke). Everyone enjoyed the food, which is probably my favorite Korean dish.
Saturday we went to Palgong mountain, where I learnt that Koreans are part mountain goat. After the bus ride there we caught a cable car about halfway up the mountain. Mum decided she'd wait around the cable car where there was a restaurant, and my sister and I tried to climb the mountain. Let's just say we both failed. On our way back to the restaurant where Mum was waiting we passed an old man who had been sitting next to Mum on the bus. He'd climbed up from the bottom instead of taking the cable car and was keen to go the rest of the way. After getting some lunch we took the cable car down and walked around a temple which included a giant Buddha we could see from the restaurant.
Sunday was an easy day. We went downtown and walked around a bit. We had a look at what the tourist map called culture street, and were disappointed by the lack of culture there. Towel street had a ton of towels, and hardware street also had plenty of hardware. So culture street not having much culture was a surprise.
Monday we went to a village about an hour and a half away called Andong. This town has a lot of historical sites, a folk village museum where one of the guides followed us around for most of the museum adding extra bits of trivia along the way. The old folk village was interesting to look at but a bit samey after a while. And when most of the traditional houses had the traditional satellite dishes, it lost a little. Some nice sights though. The final stop was the Andong paper thingy which was a little too proud of the time the Queen visited. After getting back to Daegu we went for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.
On Tuesday we were going to go to Hiansa temple, a world heritage listed temple that is the location of the Tripitaka Koreana, a famous Buddhist text. Indeed, we even went to the bus terminal and bought tickets there. While we were waiting for the bus though, we were reading the lonely planet and noticed that the whole place was closed on Tuesdays. So we spent a kind of easy day walking around not quite downtown Daegu. This included a hike up to Wubang tower, the highest building in Daegu, which is pretty easy when it's built on what seems like the highest hill in Daegu to start with, and the elevator reads 1 2 3 4 5 74 75 76 83, which makes me doubt if it's exactly that many stories high. From this vantage point I did notice the curious fact that all of the built up areas of Daegu are pretty much flat, and every hill of even modest height is not built upon, but has been left as a park.
Finally on Wednesday Mum and my sister caught the KTX back to Seoul, where they were going to stay until their flights on Friday. Thus ended their trip for me. More photos can be found here.
End Post
Writing time: 59 minutes
Time since last post: a while
Current media: The Hollowmen
I met them in Seoul at the airport on a Sunday. My sister flew in early in the morning, so after storing her bags at the airport, we went into downtown Seoul and looked at one of the castles. We got there at a pretty good time, for just after we bought our tickets, a changing of the guard ceremony took place.
After a bit of wandering around, we had lunch at a food court and had one of the more Korean meals I've had for a long time. We then went back to the airport to pick up Mum. Then we caught the KTX back to Daegu and checked Mum and my sister into their hotel. The KTX was as always a smooth ride, and we got back to Daegu about 7ish. After checking into the hotel we got room service for dinner, which was quite pricey. About 80 bucks for two pizzas, a bottle of wine and a coke. I'm glad I wasn't pay.
I had to work the next day, so they did some exploring around Daegu on their own. The next day I spent the morning with them and we walked around the park near the hotel which has a few memorials, temples and a museum about a Japanese invasion from the late 1500s. Interesting, but not a lot of English.
Wednesday, like Monday, I didn't see them, but then on Thursday we went downtown and along with some sight seeing we went looking for new glasses for me. I'd needed to get new glasses for a while since on of the rims would occasionally have the screw holding it together come loose and the plastic bit that makes the shape of the legs (arms?) behind the ear was coming apart and if I took them off quickly would come off and stay behind my ear. I'd put it off because I really need a second opinion for these sorts of things as well as some prodding because otherwise there's a chance I'd have ended up commissioning some to make a replica of the old ones. I did however look through about three or four stores before finding a new pair that I liked. I'll tell more of that story and it's follow up in another post. After that, we walked around downtown for a bit until it was time for me to head back to work.
Friday I didn't see them in the morning, but they came over to Chilgok (the part of Daegu I live and work in) and we went to a galbi restaurant for dinner. We went to a place near my house where the staff know a few of us from work since we go there a bit, so we got pretty good service, as well as some service (in Korea, service means free stuff shops, bars and restaurants give to good customers, in this case we got three free bottles of coke). Everyone enjoyed the food, which is probably my favorite Korean dish.
Saturday we went to Palgong mountain, where I learnt that Koreans are part mountain goat. After the bus ride there we caught a cable car about halfway up the mountain. Mum decided she'd wait around the cable car where there was a restaurant, and my sister and I tried to climb the mountain. Let's just say we both failed. On our way back to the restaurant where Mum was waiting we passed an old man who had been sitting next to Mum on the bus. He'd climbed up from the bottom instead of taking the cable car and was keen to go the rest of the way. After getting some lunch we took the cable car down and walked around a temple which included a giant Buddha we could see from the restaurant.
Sunday was an easy day. We went downtown and walked around a bit. We had a look at what the tourist map called culture street, and were disappointed by the lack of culture there. Towel street had a ton of towels, and hardware street also had plenty of hardware. So culture street not having much culture was a surprise.
Monday we went to a village about an hour and a half away called Andong. This town has a lot of historical sites, a folk village museum where one of the guides followed us around for most of the museum adding extra bits of trivia along the way. The old folk village was interesting to look at but a bit samey after a while. And when most of the traditional houses had the traditional satellite dishes, it lost a little. Some nice sights though. The final stop was the Andong paper thingy which was a little too proud of the time the Queen visited. After getting back to Daegu we went for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.
On Tuesday we were going to go to Hiansa temple, a world heritage listed temple that is the location of the Tripitaka Koreana, a famous Buddhist text. Indeed, we even went to the bus terminal and bought tickets there. While we were waiting for the bus though, we were reading the lonely planet and noticed that the whole place was closed on Tuesdays. So we spent a kind of easy day walking around not quite downtown Daegu. This included a hike up to Wubang tower, the highest building in Daegu, which is pretty easy when it's built on what seems like the highest hill in Daegu to start with, and the elevator reads 1 2 3 4 5 74 75 76 83, which makes me doubt if it's exactly that many stories high. From this vantage point I did notice the curious fact that all of the built up areas of Daegu are pretty much flat, and every hill of even modest height is not built upon, but has been left as a park.
Finally on Wednesday Mum and my sister caught the KTX back to Seoul, where they were going to stay until their flights on Friday. Thus ended their trip for me. More photos can be found here.
End Post
Writing time: 59 minutes
Time since last post: a while
Current media: The Hollowmen
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Did He Really Think This Would Fly?
A weird story about some schmuck in Korea who had less than good luck with the ladies. It seems that after dating a lady for a few months, she called it off and he managed to get her to sign a promise to pay him back the money he spent on their dates. When she didn't pay, he took her to court. Although a lower court enforced the deal, the High Court has overruled them.
In any country such an action is messed up, but it fits in with a general trend of things I've learnt about dating in Korea. Over here, things seem a lot more involved and messed up. For a start, there's a lot of pressure for women to get married before they get too old, which is defined as about 31. But they can't just marry anyone, they have to marry someone whose family is of similar social status. Dating agencies are the most common way people meet, and if they get married, the dating agency gets a regular payment for several years afterwards.
One time I went to a nightclub and it was an almost disturbing experience. Groups of guys and girls would go to the club, and after a while the waiters would start bringing girls to the guys. The idea was kind of that they'd start talking and maybe something would happen, but most of the women seemed very reluctant, with some from the table across from us putting up a big fight not to be taken from her table. She had to fight because the waiters would actually drag them from their table to another table. A few girls were brought to our table, but between the noise (I could feel my chest vibrate), the language barrier and the incredible awkward feeling on both sides nothing came of it.
That's all for now.
End Post
Writing time: 27 minutes (I got distracted by the new Futurama movie
Time since last post: 14 hours, I think
Current media: the new Futurama movie
In any country such an action is messed up, but it fits in with a general trend of things I've learnt about dating in Korea. Over here, things seem a lot more involved and messed up. For a start, there's a lot of pressure for women to get married before they get too old, which is defined as about 31. But they can't just marry anyone, they have to marry someone whose family is of similar social status. Dating agencies are the most common way people meet, and if they get married, the dating agency gets a regular payment for several years afterwards.
One time I went to a nightclub and it was an almost disturbing experience. Groups of guys and girls would go to the club, and after a while the waiters would start bringing girls to the guys. The idea was kind of that they'd start talking and maybe something would happen, but most of the women seemed very reluctant, with some from the table across from us putting up a big fight not to be taken from her table. She had to fight because the waiters would actually drag them from their table to another table. A few girls were brought to our table, but between the noise (I could feel my chest vibrate), the language barrier and the incredible awkward feeling on both sides nothing came of it.
That's all for now.
End Post
Writing time: 27 minutes (I got distracted by the new Futurama movie
Time since last post: 14 hours, I think
Current media: the new Futurama movie
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Tensions Building
The last week or so the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been a bit rambunctious. It has expelled a number of officials from the Republic of Korea, tested between 3 and 6 missiles near disputed waters, called the new president, Lee Myung-Bak, a suck up to George W Bush. They have also said that they are willing and able to launch a preemptive strike that would burn the Republic of Korea to ashes.
Why is the DPRK so antagonistic right now. Well, mainly because the new president doesn't seem to be such a pussy compared to his predecessors. The last two presidents have pursued a "sunshine" policy regarding the DPRK. This has essentially meant giving lots of money, business opportunities and food to the DPRK, in the hope that out of gratitude they will give up communism and join the community of respectable nations.
One of the results of this policy was that the DPRK now has nuclear weapons. Respectability and friendliness don't seem to have resulted from the previous policy. So the new president has said that future aid deals will be dependent on the DPRK making verifiable steps towards becoming a part of the civilised world. Nuclear disarmament is a key one of those steps. The rhetoric is being stepped up because president Lee is meeting George W later this month, and the Bush administration is putting more focus on dealing with the DPRK in the hopes of having some sort of positive legacy when he leaves the white house early next year.
So now I'm getting a little bit antsy about living in a country that is technically in a state of war with its northern neighbour. Not much, but a little. I am a fair distance from the border so I'd get a little bit of warning if anything were to happen. If the shit does hit the fan, I'd pack my stuff and catch the next available means of transportation down to Busan, from which I'd fly or boat to Japan, and from there away from the hostilities (it's good to have a plan).
End Post
Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: 37 minutes
Current media: jPod
Why is the DPRK so antagonistic right now. Well, mainly because the new president doesn't seem to be such a pussy compared to his predecessors. The last two presidents have pursued a "sunshine" policy regarding the DPRK. This has essentially meant giving lots of money, business opportunities and food to the DPRK, in the hope that out of gratitude they will give up communism and join the community of respectable nations.
One of the results of this policy was that the DPRK now has nuclear weapons. Respectability and friendliness don't seem to have resulted from the previous policy. So the new president has said that future aid deals will be dependent on the DPRK making verifiable steps towards becoming a part of the civilised world. Nuclear disarmament is a key one of those steps. The rhetoric is being stepped up because president Lee is meeting George W later this month, and the Bush administration is putting more focus on dealing with the DPRK in the hopes of having some sort of positive legacy when he leaves the white house early next year.
So now I'm getting a little bit antsy about living in a country that is technically in a state of war with its northern neighbour. Not much, but a little. I am a fair distance from the border so I'd get a little bit of warning if anything were to happen. If the shit does hit the fan, I'd pack my stuff and catch the next available means of transportation down to Busan, from which I'd fly or boat to Japan, and from there away from the hostilities (it's good to have a plan).
End Post
Writing time: 25 minutes
Time since last post: 37 minutes
Current media: jPod
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Corrupt from the bottom up
Lately I've heard a few bits and pieces about corruption in Korea which is making me a bit dubious about aspects of the culture here.
The first thing was last week all the food stands that line the streets near work were missing. Occasionally one might have not been there for a day or two, but there have always been some. So the absence of all of them was notable. I found out that last week was the yearly crackdown on such food stalls around here. Apparently the stands are illegal and the people who run them don't pay all (any) of the tax they're meant to. They also apparently make payments to the local police office (it's just down the street) to make sure they look the other way.
Today in the newspaper I read about the results of number of audits of public companies (companies owned by the government). These audits showed massive inefficiency, bureaucracy increased under the guise of downsizing, huge slush funds, executive perks and more. Just before the president was sworn in, there was an investigation into allegations of corruption involving the president. There have also been investigations of big companies, with Samsung having been found to have a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe government officials, and it is expected that many other companies follow the lead of one of Korea's biggest and most prestigious firm.
And here I am seemingly criticizing all this from my lofty perch. But I too am dirtied in all this corruption. The national pension office has a signed contract that says I work less than 80 hours a month and get paid less than I do, so that I don't have to pay into the national pension plan, which would cost me about 5% of my pay, and get a chunk of my monthly pay in cash, so that my tax records match the alleged contract, but I still get the right amount of money. Well, if I'm pissed off with the company when I leave I know what to do to get back at them. A nice anonymous email sent a month or two after I'm gone (without providing any contact details) would be a nice way to work off any lingering resentment (I don't anticipate this being the case, although if I could mess up some students, there have been a few that have really bugged me).
Anyway, the all encompassing corruption seems to be endemic in Korea. It seems to happen at all levels, and while it is occasionally punished, this almost seems likely people are being punished for being caught or for being too greedy, rather than for the actual corruption. How can the rule of law be maintained where there are illegal food stands on every street? How can the police be trusted, if they are willing to accept small bribes to overlook small crimes? How can we know that they won't take a big bribe to overlook a big crime? Such systematic corruption is ill-suited to the modern world, and should be something that is vigorously hunted down, and not accepted as part of the way things work.
End Post
Writing time: 31 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: Battlestar Galactica 1x12 (2 days to go)
The first thing was last week all the food stands that line the streets near work were missing. Occasionally one might have not been there for a day or two, but there have always been some. So the absence of all of them was notable. I found out that last week was the yearly crackdown on such food stalls around here. Apparently the stands are illegal and the people who run them don't pay all (any) of the tax they're meant to. They also apparently make payments to the local police office (it's just down the street) to make sure they look the other way.
Today in the newspaper I read about the results of number of audits of public companies (companies owned by the government). These audits showed massive inefficiency, bureaucracy increased under the guise of downsizing, huge slush funds, executive perks and more. Just before the president was sworn in, there was an investigation into allegations of corruption involving the president. There have also been investigations of big companies, with Samsung having been found to have a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe government officials, and it is expected that many other companies follow the lead of one of Korea's biggest and most prestigious firm.
And here I am seemingly criticizing all this from my lofty perch. But I too am dirtied in all this corruption. The national pension office has a signed contract that says I work less than 80 hours a month and get paid less than I do, so that I don't have to pay into the national pension plan, which would cost me about 5% of my pay, and get a chunk of my monthly pay in cash, so that my tax records match the alleged contract, but I still get the right amount of money. Well, if I'm pissed off with the company when I leave I know what to do to get back at them. A nice anonymous email sent a month or two after I'm gone (without providing any contact details) would be a nice way to work off any lingering resentment (I don't anticipate this being the case, although if I could mess up some students, there have been a few that have really bugged me).
Anyway, the all encompassing corruption seems to be endemic in Korea. It seems to happen at all levels, and while it is occasionally punished, this almost seems likely people are being punished for being caught or for being too greedy, rather than for the actual corruption. How can the rule of law be maintained where there are illegal food stands on every street? How can the police be trusted, if they are willing to accept small bribes to overlook small crimes? How can we know that they won't take a big bribe to overlook a big crime? Such systematic corruption is ill-suited to the modern world, and should be something that is vigorously hunted down, and not accepted as part of the way things work.
End Post
Writing time: 31 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: Battlestar Galactica 1x12 (2 days to go)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Seoul
The week before last I took a trip to Seoul. I had five days off that started on the Wednesday (6/2/08). The reason for the time off is that it is Chinese new year, which is a reasonably big holiday over here (more so than Japan at any rate). So the school was closed for three days (although the Korean teachers had to come in and teach on Saturday which is pretty bad for them).
I caught the bus to Seoul on Wednesday. I had planned to wake up at 7, pack and get ready until 9, then catch a taxi out to the bus station, and catch the first bus I could. Well, I woke up at 9, packed and got to the bus station at around 11. I bought a ticket for a bus at 12 o'clock. Well, I saw a bus to Seoul at around 11:55 and tried to get onto that, but the guy checking tickets said it was the wrong bus. After a bit more waiting and watching the departing buses, I realised that the buses were running 30-40 minutes late. Anyway, my bus left at around 12:40, and I got into Seoul a little after 5pm. Then I got my first taste of the Seoul subway.
Seen at the Seoul bus station.
The trains in Japan are better. Especially better are the ticket machines. Here the machines only take coins (100 or 500 won) when tickets are in the 1000-1500 won range and 1000 won is a note. In Japan, you could stick a 10,000 yen note in and it wouldn't complain about it (10000 yen is about 100 dollars). In Seoul, most of the time I just bought a ticket from the guy in the ticket booth. The subway is about as complex as the Tokyo subway.
I made it to my hostel and checked in, and then wandered around to try and find some dinner. Unfortunately since it was lunar new year, nearly everything was closed. I found some fried chicken place and got some chicken that tasted strangely like ham.
On Thursday I took a walking tour out of the lonely planet around one of the old palaces. Along the way I stopped into the Seoul museum of history and of course the palace itself. While in the palace, I got to watch what I presume is a traditional dance performance.
After that I went back to the hostel to warm up for a bit before heading out near Incheon airport to have dinner with Sandra, one of my old housemates. She was on her way to Kazakhstan (She never really answered my question of "Why?") and had a twenty-four hour stopover in Seoul. On Friday we did a tour from the airport to a small temple that had a bunch of snow still lying on the ground despite it having been ten days since it snowed. After the tour we hung around in a coffee shop at the airport until it was time for her flight.
Saturday was spent wandering around the two other big old palaces. One was just an open walk around by yourself place, but the other had more original buildings and I seem to recall it being world heritage listed and so you had to go as part of a group. Fortunately I got to this palace at a time which meant I only had wait for about 15 minutes until the next English tour which was lucky. That night I went to one of the casinos in town hoping to find a low stakes poker game I could try my luck at, but there were none. I ended up playing some blackjack instead, but nothing much came of it.
I checked out of my hostel at around 11 on Sunday, and headed back to the bus station. While navigating between the subway and the bus station I came across a book store which had a reasonable collection of English books at very reasonable prices. I ended up buying 4 books for about 35000 won ($40) before having lunch. I caught a bus at 1, and this time the trip was much better. I got back to Daegu at around 4:30, which was about an hour or so quicker than the trip to Seoul.
Overall, the one word to describe Seoul is cold. My hands were cold all the time, as was the rest of me. I wore my beanie most of the time (the one time I didn't my ears got really cold). There is still more I want to see (the DMZ for a start), so I'll probably be heading back some time.
End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes (I cribbed from an email I sent to my family describing my trip)
Time since last post: two weeks
Current media: jPod 1x06
I caught the bus to Seoul on Wednesday. I had planned to wake up at 7, pack and get ready until 9, then catch a taxi out to the bus station, and catch the first bus I could. Well, I woke up at 9, packed and got to the bus station at around 11. I bought a ticket for a bus at 12 o'clock. Well, I saw a bus to Seoul at around 11:55 and tried to get onto that, but the guy checking tickets said it was the wrong bus. After a bit more waiting and watching the departing buses, I realised that the buses were running 30-40 minutes late. Anyway, my bus left at around 12:40, and I got into Seoul a little after 5pm. Then I got my first taste of the Seoul subway.
Seen at the Seoul bus station.
The trains in Japan are better. Especially better are the ticket machines. Here the machines only take coins (100 or 500 won) when tickets are in the 1000-1500 won range and 1000 won is a note. In Japan, you could stick a 10,000 yen note in and it wouldn't complain about it (10000 yen is about 100 dollars). In Seoul, most of the time I just bought a ticket from the guy in the ticket booth. The subway is about as complex as the Tokyo subway.
I made it to my hostel and checked in, and then wandered around to try and find some dinner. Unfortunately since it was lunar new year, nearly everything was closed. I found some fried chicken place and got some chicken that tasted strangely like ham.
On Thursday I took a walking tour out of the lonely planet around one of the old palaces. Along the way I stopped into the Seoul museum of history and of course the palace itself. While in the palace, I got to watch what I presume is a traditional dance performance.
After that I went back to the hostel to warm up for a bit before heading out near Incheon airport to have dinner with Sandra, one of my old housemates. She was on her way to Kazakhstan (She never really answered my question of "Why?") and had a twenty-four hour stopover in Seoul. On Friday we did a tour from the airport to a small temple that had a bunch of snow still lying on the ground despite it having been ten days since it snowed. After the tour we hung around in a coffee shop at the airport until it was time for her flight.
Saturday was spent wandering around the two other big old palaces. One was just an open walk around by yourself place, but the other had more original buildings and I seem to recall it being world heritage listed and so you had to go as part of a group. Fortunately I got to this palace at a time which meant I only had wait for about 15 minutes until the next English tour which was lucky. That night I went to one of the casinos in town hoping to find a low stakes poker game I could try my luck at, but there were none. I ended up playing some blackjack instead, but nothing much came of it.
I checked out of my hostel at around 11 on Sunday, and headed back to the bus station. While navigating between the subway and the bus station I came across a book store which had a reasonable collection of English books at very reasonable prices. I ended up buying 4 books for about 35000 won ($40) before having lunch. I caught a bus at 1, and this time the trip was much better. I got back to Daegu at around 4:30, which was about an hour or so quicker than the trip to Seoul.
Overall, the one word to describe Seoul is cold. My hands were cold all the time, as was the rest of me. I wore my beanie most of the time (the one time I didn't my ears got really cold). There is still more I want to see (the DMZ for a start), so I'll probably be heading back some time.
End Post
Writing time: 5 minutes (I cribbed from an email I sent to my family describing my trip)
Time since last post: two weeks
Current media: jPod 1x06
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Naming Day
On Wednesday I got to name my first kids at work. After some consideration of where to get names from, I used the following two sources this time. The first were actors from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I figured this was better than characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The other source were people I knew in Japan. Finally, one student seemed to already have a name in English, so she obviously kept that. The list of names is as follows
Jully (The kid already with an English name. I'm guessing this is a misspelling of Julie)
Aly (Alyson Hannigan)
Emma (Emma Caulfield)
Mark (one of my housemates in Japan)
Karl (another housemate from Japan)
Dani (a coworker from Japan)
Vera (another coworker from Japan)
Kim (yet another coworker from Japan (sort of, she worked at a different branch to me) (It was only in hindsight that I thought perhaps Kim would not be a good English name since Kim is a common Korean name as well. Ah well))
The kids were pretty young and have very little knowledge of English, so trying to get across the idea that this is your English name was a little bit of a challenge, but after a little bit of time they started to get the idea. The lessons at this level are a bit hard to make last 40 minutes (learning table, chair and the letter B if not done carefully can go very quickly).
I think next time I may use people I knew from Australia, or actors from a Star Trek series.
edit: A new kid showed up the other day, so another name has been added to the list.
End Post
Writing time: 35 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: still season 3 of Deep Space 9
Jully (The kid already with an English name. I'm guessing this is a misspelling of Julie)
Aly (Alyson Hannigan)
Emma (Emma Caulfield)
Mark (one of my housemates in Japan)
Karl (another housemate from Japan)
Dani (a coworker from Japan)
Vera (another coworker from Japan)
Kim (yet another coworker from Japan (sort of, she worked at a different branch to me) (It was only in hindsight that I thought perhaps Kim would not be a good English name since Kim is a common Korean name as well. Ah well))
The kids were pretty young and have very little knowledge of English, so trying to get across the idea that this is your English name was a little bit of a challenge, but after a little bit of time they started to get the idea. The lessons at this level are a bit hard to make last 40 minutes (learning table, chair and the letter B if not done carefully can go very quickly).
I think next time I may use people I knew from Australia, or actors from a Star Trek series.
edit: A new kid showed up the other day, so another name has been added to the list.
End Post
Writing time: 35 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: still season 3 of Deep Space 9
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Skiing
Today, for the first time I went skiing. Before going into much detail, let me just say, I sucked. And now, onto the narrative.
The story really starts last night when, knowing I had to wake at 5am, I attempted to get an early night. I don't think I could have failed at this more if I had tried. I lay in bed for about an hour trying to go to sleep before I came to the conclusion that I was getting to sleep anytime soon. So I went back to the computer and did some writing and played some Starcraft (when in Rome). At any rate I was still going strong when my alarm clock went off at 5am.
I got prepared (and opened one of my Christmas presents early, since I thought a beanie would be useful today. My family need to be less descriptive on the customs declaration forms.) and met up with the other teachers who were going. For the first time in Korea I got to say "Good Morning" to someone. We caught a taxi to where the bus to the ski resort was picking us up.
The bus trip was about two hours, and I did manage to get a little bit of sleep on the bus up there. Once we arrived, the tour organisers distributed ski clothes and boots. This mostly went without a hitch, although my boots were a little too small, but they quickly found a pair that did fit. The ski clothes fit and were pretty warm. I wouldn't have minded keeping the jacket actually.
So after getting kitted up and putting on my skis, I started trying to move. Good arm exercise to say the least. A little bit of time at this, and I thought I might try the slope that was front and center. There was a small travelator that would take you up a little way, so up I went. I fell over getting off the travelator. Then after the guy manning the top of the travelator helped me up, I went about a meter and fell again. After I got up I tried going down the hill sideways, but almost ran into a little girl being taught by her father. He pushed me out of the way and a little bit away. I slowly slid down the hill sideways, but would sometimes get some forward momentum and would then end up falling over. After one fall where my ski came off, I was unable to get the ski back on properly and decided to walk down the hill. An inauspicious start.
After that I took a break for a while with a fellow Australian teacher who was doing about as badly as I was. After this, some of the other teachers who were more familiar with skiing (a Canadian and an American) who took us all the way up the same slope and taught us a little. I got a little control. But not enough to turn or slow my descent if I went more then a little more than moving perpendicular to the slope.After a number of falls, including one where I was stuck bent over with my legs spread and my hands on the ground in such a position such that if I moved a hand or foot I would start sliding down the hill and I couldn't just fall over because the boots were attached to the skis and I couldn't bend my ankles enough to put my body on the ground. After some more sideways sliding and falling over, I took a longer walk down the hill. On the way down I noticed a large very flat area behind one of the buildings that turned out to be the very beginners area.
After another break we went over there and were much more able to control ourselves than on an actual slope. After some practise stopping we tried the small slope from the beginner lift. I managed to get all the way to the bottom and only fell down once, and managed to repeat the feat a second time. After this the day was getting on and those of us who were newer to skiing called it a day, while those from the American continent kept skiing a bit longer.
That was not the last piece of excitement for the day. On the bus trip back our bus driver caused a three car accident. He rear-ended a car into the back of another car and destroyed the rear window of the car it hit. Apparently his driving had been reckless for most of the trip, but I hadn't noticed as I was half asleep and listening to my iPod. Anyway, no one on the bus was hurt, although several were really pissed off at the driver.
And that is my skiing trip
End Post
Writing time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Deep Space Nine 1x01 The Emissary
The story really starts last night when, knowing I had to wake at 5am, I attempted to get an early night. I don't think I could have failed at this more if I had tried. I lay in bed for about an hour trying to go to sleep before I came to the conclusion that I was getting to sleep anytime soon. So I went back to the computer and did some writing and played some Starcraft (when in Rome). At any rate I was still going strong when my alarm clock went off at 5am.
I got prepared (and opened one of my Christmas presents early, since I thought a beanie would be useful today. My family need to be less descriptive on the customs declaration forms.) and met up with the other teachers who were going. For the first time in Korea I got to say "Good Morning" to someone. We caught a taxi to where the bus to the ski resort was picking us up.
The bus trip was about two hours, and I did manage to get a little bit of sleep on the bus up there. Once we arrived, the tour organisers distributed ski clothes and boots. This mostly went without a hitch, although my boots were a little too small, but they quickly found a pair that did fit. The ski clothes fit and were pretty warm. I wouldn't have minded keeping the jacket actually.
So after getting kitted up and putting on my skis, I started trying to move. Good arm exercise to say the least. A little bit of time at this, and I thought I might try the slope that was front and center. There was a small travelator that would take you up a little way, so up I went. I fell over getting off the travelator. Then after the guy manning the top of the travelator helped me up, I went about a meter and fell again. After I got up I tried going down the hill sideways, but almost ran into a little girl being taught by her father. He pushed me out of the way and a little bit away. I slowly slid down the hill sideways, but would sometimes get some forward momentum and would then end up falling over. After one fall where my ski came off, I was unable to get the ski back on properly and decided to walk down the hill. An inauspicious start.
After that I took a break for a while with a fellow Australian teacher who was doing about as badly as I was. After this, some of the other teachers who were more familiar with skiing (a Canadian and an American) who took us all the way up the same slope and taught us a little. I got a little control. But not enough to turn or slow my descent if I went more then a little more than moving perpendicular to the slope.After a number of falls, including one where I was stuck bent over with my legs spread and my hands on the ground in such a position such that if I moved a hand or foot I would start sliding down the hill and I couldn't just fall over because the boots were attached to the skis and I couldn't bend my ankles enough to put my body on the ground. After some more sideways sliding and falling over, I took a longer walk down the hill. On the way down I noticed a large very flat area behind one of the buildings that turned out to be the very beginners area.
After another break we went over there and were much more able to control ourselves than on an actual slope. After some practise stopping we tried the small slope from the beginner lift. I managed to get all the way to the bottom and only fell down once, and managed to repeat the feat a second time. After this the day was getting on and those of us who were newer to skiing called it a day, while those from the American continent kept skiing a bit longer.
That was not the last piece of excitement for the day. On the bus trip back our bus driver caused a three car accident. He rear-ended a car into the back of another car and destroyed the rear window of the car it hit. Apparently his driving had been reckless for most of the trip, but I hadn't noticed as I was half asleep and listening to my iPod. Anyway, no one on the bus was hurt, although several were really pissed off at the driver.
And that is my skiing trip
End Post
Writing time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Deep Space Nine 1x01 The Emissary
Monday, December 17, 2007
Would a student by any other name learn as well?
One of the notable differences between teaching in Japan and Korea has to do with names. In Japan, students used their own names. This was not surprising, and indeed I had never considered the possibility of doing otherwise. This caused some problems at first, because I was unfamiliar with Japanese name, and mangled more than a few pronunciations, but I learnt at least the more frequent students names, and learnt to dread a few.
Over here students all have English names. Sometimes the students already have previously acquired an English name, but sometimes new students to the school need a name, and their foreign teacher gets that privilege. They can and sometimes do change their English name at whim later on though. The Korean teachers and staff also have English names, although they have significantly more freedom to choose and change names.
To me it seems a bit weird and undignified doing this. I know I would be reluctant to give up my name if I moved to a different country (even most of the names I've gone by on the internet are somehow related to my real name, although in some cases the connection is quite convoluted).
There seem to be two main arguments for this. The first is to familiarize the students with English names, which while true, is probably just as effective as the kids watching American TV and calling foreign teachers by their real name.
The second is that Korean names are difficult for the foreign teachers to pronounce, which right now is true because 1) I don't know the language very much and aren't familiar with the sounds used, and 2) the only names I've seen have been written in Hangul, so I've had the extra burden of deciphering the alphabet as well as the pronunciation (try pronouncing and English word correctly while reading at a rate of one letter per second). I am sure that just as with Japanese names, in time any teacher would become competent with Korean names if given the opportunity.
Ultimately it is a matter of respect. I know how I'd feel if someone said to me "It's too hard to pronounce your name, so I'm going to call you Bob instead." Not impressed.
End Post
Writing time: 13 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: iTunes shuffle, currently Miami International from the Casino Royale soundtrack
Over here students all have English names. Sometimes the students already have previously acquired an English name, but sometimes new students to the school need a name, and their foreign teacher gets that privilege. They can and sometimes do change their English name at whim later on though. The Korean teachers and staff also have English names, although they have significantly more freedom to choose and change names.
To me it seems a bit weird and undignified doing this. I know I would be reluctant to give up my name if I moved to a different country (even most of the names I've gone by on the internet are somehow related to my real name, although in some cases the connection is quite convoluted).
There seem to be two main arguments for this. The first is to familiarize the students with English names, which while true, is probably just as effective as the kids watching American TV and calling foreign teachers by their real name.
The second is that Korean names are difficult for the foreign teachers to pronounce, which right now is true because 1) I don't know the language very much and aren't familiar with the sounds used, and 2) the only names I've seen have been written in Hangul, so I've had the extra burden of deciphering the alphabet as well as the pronunciation (try pronouncing and English word correctly while reading at a rate of one letter per second). I am sure that just as with Japanese names, in time any teacher would become competent with Korean names if given the opportunity.
Ultimately it is a matter of respect. I know how I'd feel if someone said to me "It's too hard to pronounce your name, so I'm going to call you Bob instead." Not impressed.
End Post
Writing time: 13 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: iTunes shuffle, currently Miami International from the Casino Royale soundtrack
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