Cha-Ching!

Here's an article from the Korea Herald (one of Korea's largest English-language newspapers) about the strengthening won.

Rising Korean won rings alarm bells

Lucky for me, this bad news for Korea means good news for foreign teachers sending money back home next year!

Swine Flu Strikes (but not in the way you think)

We had heard rumors for about a week that the Andong International Maskdance Festival, one of Korea's largest, most spectacular (and for us, most LOCAL) festivals was cancelled due to the Swine Flu. But being the optimistic little foreigner that I am, I convinced myself that no one would cancel the city's largest annual cash cow based on a potential outbreak of the flu. But of course, I was wrong.

Today, the Maskdance Festival's official website (www.maskdance.com) posted this notice:

"Andong Festival Tourism Foundation is obliged to cancel the Andong Maskdance Festival 2009. We are sorry to inform that the Andong Maskdance Festival 2009 is cancelled due to the diffusion of H1N1. According to the indicator of Ministry of Public Administration and Security, major events must be cancelled to prevent the spread of H1N1 virus."

As much as I love this country and this city, I wish someone would just tell them that wearing their masks, washing their hands, and not making out with strangers who are sneezing and coughing is as effective in preventing the spread of flu as cancelling one of the country's most interesting annual events.

I would love to see the reaction in Chicago if the Taste was cancelled because of Swine Flu.

For the record, here are the numbers: appr. 7,000 people have been infected with H1N1 in Korea (out of a population est. of 50 million). Nearly all have recovered fully, and only 6 elderly people, most of whom had other, preexisting conditions, have died.

So long, Maskdance Festival! Maybe Sara and I will see you next year. Unless, of course, there's a really nasty case of the sniffles going around in September 2010.

My Korean Name

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone asked if they could give me a Korean name. After countless itterations of my English name (from Si-co-teh to Suh-ca-tchi), I could tell the Koreans were getting a little tired of trying to figure out my name. And lo and behold--at lunch this week my principal finally said enough was enough.

"He needs a Korean name," he said to Mr. Kim. "Tell him to give me a few days and I'll come up with a Korean name for him."

And so Mr. Kim told me the situation, and I was ecstatic. I've actually been waiting for someone to do this. The Koreans are always asking for English names, so I wanted some reciprocation in this process. Apparently, though, "a few days" actually meant 1o minutes, because before lunch was over I was named. He tapped Mr. Kim and immediately started to explain what he was thinking.

And so I was born...again:

서한일

Or, for those who don't have extensive training in reading Korean written language, Seo Han-il (pronounced Suh Hon-il). Now, I was just happy because it had Han in it, and I see myself as a young Han Solo. But then I was told the reasoning behind my new name.

서: West, as in Western man.
한: Korea, or a korean person.
일: Lit. the number 1.

So to string it all together, I am Western Korean Man Number 1! There was even a ceremony yesterday to legitimize the thing, during which I was given a Certificate of Appreciation for being a dedicated teacher and co-worker. The principal explained that I was the "best foreign teacher in Andong." Whether that's true or not (I tend to think not), it was great to be the topic of conversation for the day.

Now I am referred to daily as 서생님, Seo sangnim or Seo Teacher, the formal manner in which teachers are addressed in Korea.

I've also been going around introducing myself to my colleagues in Korean and telling them that it's nice to meet them. They know I'm just kidding around, but maybe this really is a good way to reboot the year- to start over and dedicate myself even further to this school and its staff and students.

Maybe this can be the Semester of 서.

(Note: If the Korean language in this post comes up as boxes and numbers, you need to install the proper language pack to see it. Each browser has a different way to do that, so ask your resident tech nerd how if you're interested.)

Swine Flu SCORE!

To backup Sara's post, the swine flu scare has also improved some hygienic conditions at my school. There is now soap everywhere in my school (even on my remote floor) as well as fresh paper towels in the first and second floor bathrooms. Also, I was given a GIANT bottle of hand sanitizer for both me and the kids.

My favorite part of the day is watching the kids wash their hands outside of the cafeteria, get a big squirt of hand sanitizer on their way INTO the cafeteria, and then use the sanitizing machine directly inside of the cafeteria. One thing's for sure--these kids are NOT getting swine flu. And neither am I!

One of the Downfalls

Peter King, the current editor of the NFL section of Sports Illustrated and SI.com, has picked the Bears to win the NFC this year and fall to the Patriots in Superbowl XLIV. I tend to agree that they might go all the way (or close) this year, which pains me because I know I can't watch any of it.

Unless, of course, I bite the bullet and pay out the nose to the money-grubbing NFL.

Consider this: before I left for Korea I paid $119.99 to watch any MLB game I want, live or archived, for the entire year. For those who don't want to do the math, that's 2,430 games that I can watch this year for 120 bucks.

The NFL, on the other hand, wants to charge me $209.99 JUST to watch Bears games. That's almost twice the price for 16 games of football. Of course, I could pay the $30 more and catch all 288 NFL games. But when you break it down, I find it hard to stomach the price disparity (appr. $0.05 per MLB game and $0.83 per NFL game or $13 per game if I just get the Bears option).

Now, I know football is an expensive sport, what with the grossly over-paid athletes and exorbitant, multi-million dollar stadiums. But come on. $210 bucks to watch something online that I could watch at home for free with a hanger sticking out the back of my TV? Sounds a little stupid to me.

The worst part of all of it, of course, is that I'm considering buying it.

Please, oh please, somebody in the Chicago area buy a Slingbox and give me access to it!

Little Things

At the end of class a minute ago, a little girl waved and said, "Have a nice day," as if I had just met her on the street in Chicago. The best part is, I know she knew exactly what it meant. It's these brief exchanges, when you know you've really taught these kids something, that the job feels truly worth it.

There are time (like today) when I, like my English-teaching colleagues, get frustrated because it seems like we don't get through to the kids. They don't pay attention or you just can't explain a simple concept to them, and suddenly you feel like a failure, unable to make a kid understand what "do you like ice cream?" means. It's these times when I want to huddle into a ball and get on a plane to a nation where I can have a conversation with a little kid that's longer than 6 words.

And then a 9 year old girl waves and says, "Have a nice day" as she's leaving.

And I get up and go back in for the next class.

The Final Leg, Part 3 of a 3-Part Series

After leaving Andong for the last time. My parents and I set out for the big city. And when I say big city, few in the United States who have not been to Asia can really understand just how large the cities here can be. Seoul is like another country, another continent, an entirely different existence altogether. Conservative estimates of the city's population place it around 10 million people, but if you include the entire metropolitan area, it could be much larger. I certainly feel small in this sprawling megalopolis of a city. So when mom and dad set foot in Seoul, it was obvious that they were small fish in a very big pond.

Day 1: Lotte Hotel and Sightseeing
Since navigating Seoul can be difficult for out-of-towners, we wanted to stay near most of the things we wanted to see. Since we were planning to go to the DMZ, we decided to stay at the luxurious, 5-star Lotte Hotel. Lotte is one of Korea's biggest corporations and they definitely show it in their hotels. The newly remodeled Lotte Hotel is one of Korea's best, and possibly the best hotel I've ever stayed in. The price tag may be hefty, but we got lucky when we got there and were automatically upgraded to a junior suite because our rooms were overbooked for the night. The result was a stunning hotel suite with a gorgeous mountain view, automatic toilet, mirror/TV in the bathroom and a console next to the bed that controlled everything from the lights to the blinds. I will post a video tour of the room a little later, but for now here's a picture of the view.
On our first day, we stayed near the hotel and went out to see the town. Since the hotel was in Jung-gu, the heart of downtown Seoul, there was no shortage of things to see. We went to nearby marketplaces, down the high-profile shopping streets, stopped to watch street merchants make exotic deserts and, yes, even found Dr. Pepper. Our first night there is a blur of lights and people, making it hard to render in words.

Day 2:The DMZ and Gyeonbokgung Palace

On the second day, we fulfilled one of dad's (and my) wishes for their trip to Korea. We visited Korea's foreigner's-only de-militarized zone. In order to take a tour there, you must present a passport from a foreign country. Very few Koreans, outside of military and tour guides, ever see the DMZ. What are they missing? A surprisingly developed tourist attraction.

(See, the DMZ's only a LITTLE scary, with plenty of bright colors and flowers. :-D)

The entire area is full of small museums, gift shops, sculptures, and other paraphernalia related to the Korean War and ensuing stand-off between the North and South. Another surprising aspect of the DMZ was the downplayed nature of the US involvement in the Korean war. If you didn't already have intricate knowledge of US-Korean ties, you would never know the USA ever set foot in Korea. Still, the tour was enjoyable, and we got to see some very interesting things. One of them, of course, being North Korea.
The mountains you see there are in North Korea. I would have gotten closer, but the observatory where you can look into the reclusive, communist nation (Dora Observatory) has a strict policy about getting to close with your camera. Right at my feet was a yellow "no cameras" line. I could hold up my camera for a shot at this point, but couldn't go to the railing with it. The girl in the white dress with the umbrella was our tour guide.

We were told that you can clearly see the different between North and South when you get to this spot by looking at the mountains. That was true, as the North Korean mountains are far more bare than the South's. N. Korea has used up many of the trees on their mountains for fuel, since they have a painful lack of infrastructure and modern energy sources.

From the Dora Observatory we went to Dorasan Station, a train station built with the sole purpose of one day connecting North and South Korea by rail. A map inside the station showed how, with the North's cooperation, people could travel to and from South Korea from any point in Asia or Europe by rail. Today, because of the strict regulations on immigration, there is no rail service passing through North Korea, and South Koreans must travel by sea or air to leave the country. But Dorasan Station serves as a tangible example of how serious South Koreans are about eventual reconciliation with their Northern brethren.After the DMZ, we took a taxi to Gyeongbokgung palace, which I blogged about when Sara and I first got here. It is a reconstruction of one of Korea's oldest and largest palaces, where the head of state lived for many years during the dynasties of Korea. Unfortunately, due to the repeated Japanese occupations, it was destroyed time and again until it was finally totally leveled during World War II. The current compound, while expansive and beautiful, is newer than many of Seoul's skyscrapers.
Day 3: Back to Busan
On our third day in Seoul, the only thing left to do was leave. But not wanting to waste a single moment, we decided to go back to Busan the most interesting way we could. So instead of a bus, we decided to take the KTX (Korea's cross-country bullet train) from one end of the peninsula to the other.With most of our travels behind us, and mere hours left on the trip, mom, dad, Sara, the Eagles and I set out for one last dinner, as close to the hotel as we could possibly manage. We ended up having a delicious beef soup at a nearby restaurant famous for its bulgogi.

And so, after one of the best vacation of all of our lives, there was only one thing left to do.

NORE BANG!

And sing we did, for hours until every one of our voices were strained from shouting out the most intense ballads and musical masterpieces to ever graze our ears. We sang everything from the Beatles to Johnny Cash, and from Grease to Phantom of the Opera. What a wonderful way to end a splendid vacation--and no vacation in Korea is complete without a trip to nore bang.

Mom and dad made it back to the states safe and sound, and things here are back to the way they were a month ago. Classes have started and the summer warmth is finally starting to cool away. I don't know if we'll ever make it back here as a group, but if we don't, at least we made a damn good time of it while we could.