What the ... rut?!?!?

It is strange how things come to mind sometimes. The other day, while talking with some co-workers, I realized that South Korea was my rut.

We get stuck in a rut at times. Whether it is literally or figuratively. Figuratively, our lives are going in a direction we can't seem to get out of for whatever reason. Often because it is what we know. What is comfortable. Or at least safer than the unknown. Literally, especially here in the winter, our car tire gets in a rut and it is hard or impossible to control where it goes.

For me it was a combination of things. While South Korea is the most racist and bigoted place I have ever lived it wasn't all shit. I actually enjoyed what I did. Add to that the fact that because I enjoyed it I found it easy to do. So good money, easy work. Fear of the unknown.

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention that. Fear of the unknown is a powerful motivator, or de-motivator, depending on how you think. I had a job I liked with good pay. I had friends and a good social life. I could travel and have fun on my free time. If I left what was I going to do? Would I find a job I liked? One that made good money? Or would I be miserable. Great de-motivator to making any changes.

Oh yeah, and I was also morbidly obese and didn't give a shit. What a combination. Kind of surprised I am still here and actually happy with life. Surprisingly change was good. This time.

Why did I go to South Korea? I actually wanted change in my life. Something I feared. I had a job I hated. REALLY REALLY hated. Pay was good. Benefits were good. Job was shit and I hated it. But that is a story for another time. ;)

I lucked out when I got home. After taking a year off and shedding a lot weight I found a job. I didn't think I would like it. I didn't think I would last long if they hired me. I have been there for almost 4 years now and have started the move into the management side of things. I never saw this coming. Luckily, I got over my fear of change, and out of the rut, came home and took a chance.

Same Racist Shit Different Year.

Oh Korea, you never fail to show your ass to the world. When asked by people at home if I would ever go back to Korea to live my answer is no. I just couldn't put up with the racist and bigoted bull shit again. If I hadn't used the internet as an outlet to vent when I was there I probably would have lost it. I would never willingly put myself in that situation again. Hopefully, things will change there but looking at some of the current headlines it is a long way off.

An American teacher was turned down by a school for the fact he was black. In fact, that was the reason they told his recruiter and was TEXTED to him.

Sadly, this still doesn't surprise me when talking about South Korea. Nor does the response of the Korean Human Rights Committee.

An official at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea acknowledged that there is no anti-discrimination law in Korea and it would be difficult to take any punitive action in most of the cases.

It would be difficult so we won't even try to do anything about it. Way to protect human rights. It was a better response that a guy I know got when he contacted them back in 2006 about CYJ English Academy's racist ad.  He was told that while it was discriminatory it wasn't discriminatory enough. These are the same fucktards that said banning the use of cell phones in schools was a violation of students Human Rights. What the kimchi?!?!?!?

The official from Butler Child Academy in Sangdo Seoul made all the usual comments to excuse their actions. The children would be scared of him. We had to fill the position quickly and had already found someone. (Yet he was texted his rejection on his way to the interview.) They then fell back on a variation of  an over used Korean cop out ...

“I suspect that there was some miscommunication between him and the recruiter.”

Ah, miscommunication and passing the buck. It was the recruiters fault. It was miscommunication. The recruiter shouldn't have told him the racist reason we gave. It wasn't our fault. Mind you calling it miscommunication is a step up from the over used misunderstanding. Which I found Korean's tend to use when they had lied and you had caught them.

It seems like Korea hasn't advanced that much since I left, at least when it comes to racism. While I could visit there it isn't a place I could live in again. Or even advise others to live in.

Social Experiment

What can I say, I am proud of how this "experiment" turned out. It proves what I have always though about Canada and Canadians.

I heard a lot of people (which means foreigners) in South Korea talking about how they would treat Koreans if they encountered them at home. It pissed me off. I hated how foreigners were treated in South Korea. I would never want to make someone feel that hated in Canada. It is something I actually thought about while there. Something I thought about before I came home and after I returned.

In South Korea I was pretty much labelled as a piece of shit just because I was a foreigner. In my first couple of months I was labelled as having aids just because I was a foreigner. I was labelled as a just wanting to rape/molest "their" women. I always felt like a 3rd class or worse citizen there. Which is why people talking about "giving it back" to Koreans in their home country bothered me.

If I hated being treated some way why the hell would I want to treat someone that way. It would make me a hypocritical piece of shit. Which is worse than being a piece of shit. I wanted to make sure I never treated a foreigner in Canada the way I was treated in South Korea.

While I don't like these ambush type of "media" stories it does make me feel good. I have always thought of Canadians as being tolerant. That "we" wouldn't put up with racist bullshit. This "experiment" actually confirmed it for me. 

Thank you.

I have to give out a BIG BIG thank you (thank yous? thank you's?) to two "people" today.

First, Korea. Once again, thank you. If it wasn't for the bullshit I was put through by the mooks, morons, and malcontents during my 10 years there I would not have had the ability to control my temper like I did yesterday. A co-worker flipped out for no real reason and when he was in my face, spittle and profanity flying, I was able to NOT knock his fucking teeth out and stomp a mud hole in him. I WAS able to not raise my voice while letting him know he was being a douche in a somewhat polite manner.

It is kind of funny when I think back. Unlike him I wasn't running around trying to raise sympathy from everyone. When people came to me and I told them my version of what happened it was amazing. According to them it was pretty much the SAME way the assmunch told it. And he did NOT look good at all in either telling of the story.

Stig, remember the taxi driver I didn't kick the shit out of? It was close to that situation. Dangerously close. If the finger had touched me I can't say I wouldn't have decked him. Or at least broken the finger. Same in this situation. If it had happened 12+ years ago ... I would have put the beat down of a life time on the mook I work with. Let alone that moronic cabbie.

The second thank you goes to the Anonymous posters, the majority of who came from ... Brazil?!?!?,  today. I did a major cleaning of the apartment and found myself tired and bored. A bored Flint is a dangerous Flint, right John? These pimples on the ass of the internet allowed me to blow off some steam and kill some time. I appreciate the distraction fucktards. Feel free to keep posting. I may even allow your comments. :)

Kudos mooks. Keep on being you. God knows you don't seem to be able to change for the better.

Slurs, sneers, and stares.

"If you're a Jhereg and an Easterner, you have to expect to be insulted from time to time.If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur and sneer. But this was beginning to get annoying."

I was recently re-reading the book Taltos, by Steven Brust. (I highly recommend his books.) When I came upon the above quote I chuckled. It SO fits the way foreigners are treated in Korea. I would paraphrase it like this;

If you're a foreigner in South Korea, you have to expect to be insulted. If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur, sneer, stare, and rude comment. But sometimes it can be too annoying and you may need to vent in some way.

If I had responded to every major slight, REAL ones not imagined, I would have been in way to many fights. That isn't even considering the smaller slights that happened pretty much daily. One thing South Korea helped me with was to learn to control my temper better than I did before I got there. It just wasn't worth getting physical or even vocal with the idiots most of the time. I am not saying I was perfect and never slipped but for the most part I was able to control my temper. Blogging helped a lot as did venting with friends. It gave me a release for the anger that built up.

For those who complain about bloggers who bitch about the stupidity they encounter in South Korea I have a question. Would you rather people vent and get it off their chests? Hold it in and just go postal one day? Or start attacking every asshole they encounter? I would prefer people do the former but that is just me.

Punctuality

I have always been punctual. It is something I pride myself on. I would rather be 30 minutes early than 1 minute late for anything. A lack of punctuality on the part of someone is a sure way to raise my ire. Before I went to Korea I would always be at work around 15 minutes before my shift started. I was never one of those people who would show up at the last minute. It meant that I never had to rush.

I found myself showing up even earlier at my 1st job in Korea. It became my routine to be there when the doors opened at 6AM. Our first class was at 6:30. I would use this time to prep anything I needed, which rarely happened, drink coffee, and read the paper. It allowed me to actually relax before starting the day.

At my second and subsequent schools I would usually show up an hour before classes started. I would use my laptop to catch up on email, read some news from home, and anything else I needed/wanted while having coffee. If something was going on that the foreign teachers hadn't been told about, which happened WAY TOO OFTEN, I would sometimes find out about it then and not be caught completely by surprise.

When it comes to my punctuality, my time in Korea served me well. Now that I am home I find that I like to be at work 45 minutes to an hour before my shift starts. I can find out what has been going on, read the paper, drink my coffee, and catch up with co-workers. Sometimes I have even picked up an extra 30-60 minutes of work when they were short and would ask me if I could start right away.

Now if only more of my co-workers were punctual. Or even just on time.

What the ... work ethic?!?!?!?

One of the things I find lacking here in Canada is some of the work ethic I encountered it South Korea. I am not talking about the coming to work even though you are coughing up a lung and will infect everyone else BS. I am talking about the not calling in sick for petty and/or selfish shit.

A co-worker here wants a 3 day weekend. S/He calls in sick. They want a day, or days, off and didn't get them ... call in sick. They don't give a shit how it will fuck over the rest of us. As long as it is good for them.

I miss working with people who didn't pull shit like that.

What the ... solidarity?!?!?!?

And now for something completely different. A post not about the usual suspects (AnonyJohn, KKKorean Sentry, Korea Times).

The brother of one of my co-workers lived and taught in South Korea. P, my co-worker, went to Seoul 5 or more years back to visit his brother. Last night we ended up talking about life in South Korea.

He was not impressed with Seoul or Koreans. Overall, he found Seoul a fairly dirty city and the citizens rude. Which I can't fully disagree with. Compared to Halifax Seoul is pretty dirty. Hell even Cheongju is. If you can't block out the staring, pointing, spitting, and such behaviour people do come off as rude.


Another co-worker had joined and was listening to our discussion. He asked why the ESL teachers didn't form a union so they wouldn't get screwed over. P, who is one of our shop stewards, couldn't stop laughing for a while. He knows how that would end up.


I mentioned ATEK to them. Now, I am NOT an authority on the life, times, and fall of ATEK. (Here are some links you can check out if you want to find out more.) When I first heard about it I reserved judgement. Part of me hoped they would do well. Part of me was pretty sure they would fail. Part of me just didn't give a shit because I wasn't part of them even though they claimed to represent me.


For me, the certainty that ATEK was doomed came about during the Swine Flu BS of 2009. People were exposed to H1N1 at an EPIK (or was it GEPIK?) get together that summer. The Koreans were sent home to be self-quarantined with their families. The foreigners were all put in a hospital. Some were whisked away from their apartments by ambulance to be quarantined. They were stuffed in rooms with few creature comforts to while away their time. 


A group of ESL teachers on the internet got together and organized help for the "prisoners". They rallied people to donate books, games, food, anything that could help the "patients" while away their time. It was a great idea and the organizers still deserve a tip of the hat for their efforts. What does this have to do with disappointment in ATEK? Everything.


This was the perfect opportunity for ATEK to show that they were there to help ESL teachers regardless of the problem. They did jump on the bandwagon many days after the aid was started but for me it was too little to late. (AnonyJohn has decided to be my own little Grammar Nazi. Did I use the right "to" AnonyJohn?) They should have been there for these people from the start and they weren't. If ATEK couldn't be there at a time like this when would they be? At that point I figured they were doomed to failure. Unfortunately, time would eventually prove me right. 


It is kind of funny when I think back. I had held back any criticism of ATEK before that moment. When I mentioned on another blog that I thought ATEK had screwed the pooch this time the reaction from some of the ATEK pushers was funny. One of them told me to get off my high horse. Seriously?  An organization that claimed to be there for ALL ESL teachers, except F VISA holders, whether they accepted the representation or not, was NOT there for some ESL teachers in need. It was the perfect moment for ATEK to shine. And they were no where to be seen until they started to ride the coat tails of the few who started to help the people in quarantine. To me that was very telling. ATEK went for the big headlines (human rights complaints) instead of helping the little people.

It wasn't even just ATEK itself that had me thinking it would fail. My own dealings with other ESL teachers had a hand in that. When the owners of Ivy School were screwing Spock and myself over it was the perfect time for the foreigner ESL teachers to stick together. After all, if they would fuck one person over they would, and did, fuck everyone over. But that isn't how the others saw it. They were more worried about themselves than anything else. So they paid lip service to Spock and I but did and said nothing else. Immediate self-interest and preservation trumped anything else. but I am starting to digress. :)

It was an interesting conversation with some co-workers that brought back some memories of my time in South Korea.

You know ...

... we have it pretty good here.

That is a direct quote from my friend Aussie. And you know what? For the most part, he was right. Yes, there was some BS to deal with. Ok, a lot of BS at times. However, overall, it was good.

As Aussie would say, we weren't really worked that hard. We had a lot of disposable income. We could enjoy ourselves. For the most part he was right.

My sort of last boss was GREAT! Someone who could actually be trusted. Sure the usual BS popped up, lack of communication, but you could talk to him and he wouldn't knowingly fuck you over. He would actually stand by his word! Unlike most hagwon owners. (Which for me meant 1 in 6 hagwon owners.)

While I am enjoying my current job and being home ... I miss that job. I miss teaching.

I never watched more hockey than when I was in South Korea. I love hockey. Ask Stig, I think I drove him nuts with hockey talk sometimes. I didn't work until the afternoon and because of the time change hockey was on in the morning. :) I miss watching that much hockey. :(

Life was pretty good then. :)

I miss ...

I miss online shopping! I never really thought of it until the other night when I was talking to a co-worker. We were talking about ... well just shit ... and all of a sudden I blurted out that I missed online shopping in SoKo.

There was MUCH more variety than here. And if it took more than 2 days to get to you it was strange.

My CW mentioned that when she shops online she likes to buy from Asian sites because it still works out to be cheaper than Canadian ones. Even with delivery factored in. That is pretty sad.

And the killings continue.

A tip of the hat to ROK Drop for this story. It looks like Chinese fisherman have murdered yet another South Korean Coast Guard Officer. There isn't a lot I can add to what ROK Drop said.

It is funny how quick South Koreans are to rally or riot when it is something the US did or is perceived to have done. Yet when things like this happen they stick their heads in the sand and ass in the air. A North Korean soldier murders a SK tourist. Nothing. Chinese pirates murder SK Coast Guard officers. Nothing. Free trade with the US? Time to get in the streets. Mad Cow lies and bullshit? Let's riot! Talk about skewed priorities.

A country that allows shit like this to continue is giving up their sovereignty.

More Mad Cow Stupidity.

A tip of the hat to Korea Beat for translating the article about how Young Koreans fear that the FTA with the US will lead to Mad Cow infected beef coming to South Korea. According to the article:

54.7% of those in their 30s believe that the KORUS FTA will cause rampant mad cow disease, and 69.1% of women in their 30s are worried about it, the survey found.

After being in South Korea during the various bouts of Mad Cow bullshit I can't say I am surprised by the poll. There was a lot of batshit reasoning floating around then. A lot of fears were played on to get people riled up. A lot of anti-American bullshit was heard. Which makes the part of the poll that showed a majority of people feared becoming a US colony due to free trade not very surprising either.

Beauty Pageant Bullshit

A tip of the hat to David Wills for bringing the issue of what happened at the Miss Asia Pacific World in South Korea up on his blog. In a nutshell, some contestants in a beauty contest in South Korea were cheated, harassed, and had to flee the country.

None what happened surprised me. Not what I read on the BBC's website. Not what I saw in videos one of the contestants who fled made while going through the bullshit. Not what I read about it on Critical Beauty.

In fact, it reminds me of the way Hagwon owners treat their slaves errr I mean foreign teachers. Lots of promises that aren't followed through. Lots of lies and bullshit. The rampant corruption. The uselessness of the police. The sexual harassment. The racism and ignorance (all blacks must be from Africa so the black girl from Guyana gets the African award for her national costume). All of which makes what the contestants went through no surprise to me. Been there. Been through some of it. Saw the rest of it. Never bought the t-shirt.

Hopefully the Korean government does something to make sure these assholes never run another pageant again. I don't actually expect that to happen but it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised.

Untimely replies and racist comments.

A comment that was left for me on Notes From the Dog Farm was pointed out to me the other day. Since time had passed I decided not to answer it. It did raise 2 interesting questions.

The 1st had me shaking my head a bit. The commenter asked why I stay in Korea if I dislike it so much. The only reply I can think of is a question. How can someone who claims to have read both my blogs not know that I left Korea almost a year and a half ago? If he meant why did I stay 10 years, that would reply a post of it's own.

The 2nd question raised was about some of the words I have used on my blog when talking about Koreans. Two were mentioned specifically; mook and ricetard.

It still surprises me a bit that people don't know the word mook. It has appeared in many TV shows and movies. Just about anything Mafia related has the word show up in it. You can't have watched The Sopranos without having heard it being used. It has even been used on the Simpsons. While it is an older term, more popular in the old pulp fiction novels and gangster movies, it isn't THAT rare to hear it used today.

Mook isn't just used to refer to Koreans. I use it to refer to idiots of any nationality. Once again, if someone read my blogs they should know that.

Of course you have 'tards like John who implied I was using it as a play on the word gook. Mind you that was him either being deliberately dense to imply racism on my part or too lazy to use a dictionary and just showing his own ignorance. But I digress.

Ricetard, well, yeah, regardless of how it was meant it was kind of racist. (Hmm, I went back and reread this post before posting it and even saying "kind of racist" seems like a cop out. It was racist.) Which is why I stopped using it.

It didn't seem racist to me at the time. Which is a reason not an excuse. It seemed like a funny play on words (especially after a Korean company released a confectionary called a Rice Tard), and Koreans aren't a race. Mind you that kind of reasoning is just a cop out. It is a way of trying to excuse something you either know or think could be bad behaviour. In this case my own behaviour. I can see how it can be construed as being a racist comment. So rather than using the term any more, or being stupid enough to actually try and defend the indefensible and continue using it, I stopped and just went with the generic fucktard and non-racist variants of it (Bustard, Youtard, etc.).

I was wrong.

I have several posts on here that mention or talk about blood money. The last one saw The Korean from Ask A Korean respond. After reading what he said I had to think about why I call it blood money and just why I blamed the system, in Korea, for the way things are handled.

I could come up with excuses for why I tried to defend calling it blood money and raging against the Korean system. But they would just be excuses. There are reasons, some kind of silly when I look back now, but I am not going to make excuses.

What The Korean said makes sense. I could have tried arguing against it but I would have been doing something I berate others for doing, denying reality. While I had read the post on his site I never really processed it. For whatever reasons I never laid my own bias aside when I read it. Luckily I have never claimed to be infallible and this is a good example of it.

I was blaming instances of people abusing the system or making errors in judgement on the system being wrong, even evil. I was using it as a whipping boy for things that pissed me off. In short, I was putting the blame on the wrong things.

(After posting and re-reading this I came to the conclusion that the title I used sucks. "My blood money argument" is kind of ... bleh. So I changed it to what it now reads. "I was wrong." )

Inside Korea

Korean Adventure (November 1, 2002 Chautauqua)

I subscribe to an English-language newspaper called the Korea Herald. It gives mostly political and economic news, and a view of what some aspects of Korean life is like. There are profiles of Korean public figures, discussions of artistic endeavours, and bits of traditional lore/folkways.

In the political arena, one of the main points of interest for the past year has been the presidential election, due in December. There are two main parties, the Grand National Party, and the Millennium Democratic Party, which was created about six years ago by the sitting President, Kim Dae-jung.

President Kim received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation with North Korea. This process was stalled for a time after the election of George W. Bush, who included North Korea in his so-called "Axis of Evil." It is only recently that things have gotten back on track (pun intended). The two Koreas are building a rail link through the de-militarized zone, and working on a permanent re-unification village, where long-separated families can meet.

President Kim has had a very bad year. His administration is under investigation for corrupt practices, and two of his sons are now in jail for profiteering. The president is not eligible to run for re-election, but the voters are turning away from his party in droves. The present candidate has spent more time fighting off challenges from within his party than campaigning. Whether the party will survive to the election is still up in the air.

The candidate from the Grand National Party hasn't had an easy time, either. His son has been accused of draft-dodging, and there have been acrimonious exchanges when the law-makers meet in session. At one time, there were so many charges and counter-charges flying around, the Herald had a "Scandal Round-Up" section in the paper.

News from the north is scanty. There are tales of millions of people starving to death, which makes the need for reconciliation that much more acute. One story said that people were foraging in the hills for anything edible, and others were attempting to cultivate seaweed. The same day that story appeared, another one was printed that said the south's First Lady had sent up a shipment of soccer balls. The thought of starving people being given sporting equipment...

A recent article outlined South Korea's high costs and low quality of life. It is the eighth most expensive place to rent an apartment (three bedrooms): 1,580USD/month, as compared to: Taiwan 1,440USD; China 1,460USD; America 1,675USD; and Japan 2,160USD. Office space runs 523USD/year for one square meter (ninth highest), compared with 245USD in China, 452USD in America, and 486USD in Taiwan.

Korea ranks 22nd out of 131 countries in terms of living expenses, while Korean households earmark 4.9% of their budget for education of children, the highest ratio in the world, followed by the U.S., 2.4%; Japan, 2.1%; and Britain, 1.4%. Despite the high cost of living, the 2002 quality of life index for Korea stood at 5.64, ranking 32nd out of 49 countries and trailing Austria (9.77), the U.S. (8.92), and Japan (6.15). The hourly wage of Korea's manufacturing sector workers averaged 8.13USD as of 2000, ranking 21st of 29 countries and trailing Germany (22.29USD), Japan (22USD), and the U.S. (19.86USD).

A lot of Koreans drive their own cars, and they spend a lot of money customizing them to the particular owner's taste. They also have very good, and cheap, transit systems. I do not have a car, but I can get around the country very well for very little cost. It comes in handy when the freeways are jammed to zip past in comfort on the train.

Mostly everybody has a cell phone. It is not unusual to see a couple walking down the street, both of them talking away, but not to each other. The phones are cunning little items, and some of them have special headsets that make it look like wires are trailing out of someone's ears. A lot of people tap away at their hand sets, sending text messages. The rings are modern pop tunes/classical pieces that almost make up for it when they ring in the middle of a crowded movie theatre. Sometimes I think I'm the only person in Korea who doesn't own one. Even my kids have them!

I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, but sometimes Koreans remind me of big, happy children - easily mollified by bright, shiny objects - but with a capacity to work harder than we are used to in the west. They work hard, and they play even harder. They have the confidence that will surely be rewarded, and it will be more than deserved.
------------------------------------------------
I remember the GNP leader Lee Hoi-chang once being quoted that he was shocked, shocked, at the opposing parties' corrupt practices. The very next week he was under investigation, and he eventually retired from politics.
Despite it's very high standard of living, it was fairly economical to live in South Korea. Mostly because the school paying for your living expenses and health care.
I sometimes wish I was back there earning a living instead of begging for a job, any job back here in the world.
I didn't get a cell phone until my third year there. I probably should have gotten one earlier. I resisited as long as I could, but it just became too impractible not to have one.

Year 1 - The Corner Store

There was a Green Mart (I believe a Green Mart, definitely a Something Mart) on the ground floor of the small apartment building I lived in during my 1st year in Korea. The owners were an older couple and great people, as were their kids. They ended up becoming grandparents twice in the same week. Their sons's wife and their daughter gave birth a few days apart. As of my last week in Korea they still kept a bottle of wine in case set aside in case some of the old gang came by. But I digress.

I was just watching No Reservation: Macau and Bourdain was talking about how government over regulation hurts the street food industry everywhere. While chowing down of course. :) It reminded me of when the government started cracking down on stores and shops putting tables on the sidewalk.

There was a huge sidewalk that linked the side street to the main street. Even with tables set out there was lots of room to move around. The corner store had tables out so people could sit, drink and eat. A restaurant on the other side of the walk put out some tables. It was a great place to gather before an outing or come back to and decompress after an outing.

Then one day after World Cup the tables were gone except for a few snug against the store. The cops and a government official had come by and told them they were not allowed to put tables out on the walk way. If they did they would be fined.

What brought this on? Pedestrians complaining because they couldn't walk through? Scooter's complaining because the side walk was too unsafe to drive on with so many people there? Nope. It was some other restaurants in the area who got their ass in the air because the store was cutting into their business. Their over lap crowd wouldn't wait around for a seat to open. If there was space by the store they would head there and settle in. Mind you some of the same restaurants didn't mind sending food OUT to the tables by the stores to serve their overlap crowd.

This "ruling" was disappointing. You would meet some interesting people out there. Plus you could sit outside instead of being jam packed into a restaurant or bar. Add to that the convenience of it being beside my apartment building. ;)

Year 1 - Rainy Season

The latest floods in South Korea and Stig's post about the 2002 flooding he experienced got me thinking about my 1st year in South Korea. It was my first experience with a "Rainy Season" other than spring.

My strongest memory is of when a typhoon hit. Cheongju is far enough inland that we didn't get a lot of the wind but holy humidity batman did we ever get the rain. While the flooding wasn't on the scale we have seen in the news now it was pretty soupy out.

A group of us went out to supper on a Saturday night and did something stupid. It wasn't raining when we left so no one brought umbrellas even though it was pretty dark out. After supper it started raining but we just beat feet to Road King. Then the heavens opened and what seemed like a deluge of biblical proportions started.

From the window seats we got to see a lot of lightning and rain. At times the rain was so heavy you couldn't see across the street. Part of the street, running downhill, looked like a small river. Ok, I am exaggerating, more like a stream. None of us were looking forward to the walk home. Luckily, home was only about a 5 minute walk away.

The rain had lessened but was still coming down pretty hard when we decided to head home. It wasn't a cold rain so we all said fuck it and decided to just enjoy a walk in the rain. It was actually kind of nice once you got over the initial soaking. A nice hot shower once I was home helped too.

I have always loved the sound of rain falling. It something I find kind of relaxing. Nights when it is raining I usually have the best sleep. As a kid I liked to walk in the rain, not always with rain gear on. That night reminded me of it. After that I would sometimes go for a walk in the rain, with or without an umbrella (not in the winter though). Or go to a park and sit under one of the pagodas with a book and just relax listening to the rain. There is a great spot in BalSon Park with a pagoda that over looks the bus terminal and part of the city. A great spot to sit and relax on a rainy or stormy day.

One of the best Cab Drivers.

The talk on Burndog's is centered around Cabbies right now. Of course, I had to chime in about having wanted to smack some Korean cabbies around. Mr. Spock replied and got me thinking about cab experiences. I don't want to hijack Burndog's thread so I figured I would post this here, with a link to his post that started the thinking process.

Mr. Spock (oh and this is a different Spock, not my buddy/co-worker from Korea) got me thinking about cab experiences. It brought to mind one of the best cabbies I have had hands down anywhere in the world I have been.

It was the day before Buddha's birthday in my 2nd year and I wanted to go to one of the temples and see the floats they have for the parade in Cheongju. I was actually supposed to meet "my" Spock there. I hopped in a cab and gave him the name of the temple. The driver was pleasant but had no English. In my bad Korean we talked a little and he drove off.

It turns out that there are TWO temples with the same name. One by the "river: and one on the mountain. I had no idea about that, or which one I wanted. The taxi driver managed to get me to understand the problem. I wasn't able to get a hold of Spock to find out which temple.

The driver started asking some of the taxis on the road around us which temple had the floats. He wasn't getting anywhere so he pulled over. Then he shut off the meter and got on his phone. It took him about 5 minutes or so to find out which temple was the right one. He flipped the meter back on and drove me to the temple by the river.

Talk about great customer service. It only cost 5000 won to get there, not counting the time the meter was off. I thanked him and made sure to give him a healthy tip. You don't encounter people, let alone cabbies, that willing to do what he did. And most cabbies would never have shut off the meter. One of the best cabbies ever.

I Hate Rectangles

Styles come and go. In the Eighties, glasses used to be huge. There was enough extra lens for at least another pair. And then, in the nineties, glasses got smaller. They became these little rectangles that reminded me of the pair that Roger McGuinn of The Byrds used to wear.

I bought that style, and wore it for about 10 - 15 years.
When I became a public school teacher in Daegu, the teacher at the school closest to mine had pretty much the same pair. We also shared the same goatee, but there was not too much else that we shared. He was taller, thinner, and had more hair.
Let's call him Ass, because let's face it, he was one.
Halfway through the school year, the department in charge of the foreign teachers in Daegu, the DEIEIO, took us all to Angang for the day. Ass didn't make the trip. Somebody had to sit it out, and he drew the short straw. It was a great trip and we all had a terrific time.
BUT...
When I was getting off the bus at the end of the day, the (Korean) head of the DEIEIO said to me, "Goodbye, Ass!"
At first, I thought, "Do we really all look alike to you?"
He was properly apologetic when I gently pointed out that he had mistaken me for another babo waygookin, and we all went back to working harmoniously together until they fired me for trying to kill a Korean English teacher.
Before my year there was over, I decided to change my looks. Not because I would have to go on the run, but I had been brooding after that Angang trip, and I decided I didn't want to look like an ass.
So I shaved off my goatee and went glasses shopping. There is an underground mall in downtown Daegu where there is a huge section chock-a-block with Ankyong (glasses) Marts.

I decided to go for some circles, not because I was a fan of Harry Potter, but because I was a fan of John Lennon. I even brought along a picture of him wearing his iconic "granny" glasses, just in case the clerk didn;t understand my lousy Korean.

I showed him my prescription, requested my style, and it seemed like no time before I was walking out with my new specs. They cost me, frames and all, only 50,000 won.
Affordable eyewear is one of the things I loved about Korea.
I continue to wear my circles, but I notice that I haven't started a trend. Everybody else is still wearing those fucking rectangles, and I'm really starting to get irritated. Did you ever look at somebody wearing them and want to rip them off and stomp them into the mud? Tune into Global Calgary's evening news program and take a look at the male anchor, Gord Gillies. A more squint-eyed ferret-faced little git does not exist. And those fucking rectangles! Does he really think he looks good?

I snort in disgust and roll my eyes.
Well, until the rest of the world catches up to me, I guess I will have to go my solitary way. So far ahead of my time, I'm starting to catch up with it again.