So it begins…

I briefly debated bringing my laptop with me on this trip but decided against it figuring it would be more trouble than it was worth. I also thought it was a great idea to get out of touch with the world for a while and without the internet constantly available at your fingertips it’s easy to do. In retrospect, free wifi is bomb and shoddy old computers with poor internet connections at 3 ringgit (about 1$) an hour are frustrating at the best of times. I’m jealous of all those other backpackers I see chilling out in cafes with their own hardware, live and learn.

That being said, blogging has been more difficult than I anticipated. I was really hoping to be posting every few days but it just isn’t possible. On day 10 (I started keeping track that day) I broke down and bought a notebook to so I could write things down in point-form first and blog about them later without forgetting the most important and interesting details. I’ve come to hate the physical act of writing things out so by the time I had caught up on the past 10 days I was sick of it already. Now I’m nevous about losing my shitty little notebook and having all that hard work go to waste. Free internet and boredom have never been so cherished.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing all my friends and family a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and a wonderful New Year. My apologies for being a little late on the greetings, it’s been a busy couple of weeks as I was preparing for my departure from Korea. What with all the packing, researching, training, seeing friends for the last time and a last minute trip to Daegu, Korea’s third biggest city situated a couple hours inland from Busan, my blogging duties have suffered.

I’m in Malaysia now, the first day of a 90-day adventure. It feels slightly daunting but also incredibly exciting, I can’t wait to get out and start doing all the things I’ve been hearing about for the past twelve months. I also can’t wait to meet up with some of the friends I made in Korea along the way. Hard to believe that 2011 was the most fun year of my life and 2012 is looking even better. How fortunate am I?

Stay tuned…  

Bodily Afflictions

I think something needs to be said about the weird and various ways a body can fail you in Korea.

About a month ago I popped an ingrown hair, like I do to every one that I get. After steadily growing larger and more painful to the point that it hurt to walk I went to the hospital where they told me it had developed into a carbuncle and they would need to “punch” it out. Once they gave me some local anesthesia and made the incision, however, they discovered that it was larger than they had anticipated, that it was probably a cyst and that I would require stitches. I hobbled out with 7 sutures, 2 weeks worth of antibiotics, a tube of antibiotic ointment and an emotional low. (I tried to use one of my sick days and my school’s director wouldn’t allow it. This is typical of my chain of schools – if they can’t find a substitute, you can’t be sick.) A week following the initial surgery the biopsy revealed it was just an infection. I got the stitches out last week but it still requires ointment and bandaging. Annoying mostly.

This comes after the sinus infection I got at the beginning of October before my vacation to the Philippines and an infection I got in September from a hangnail that also required local anesthesia, surgery and a week of antibiotics. They love their medication here. It might not be so bad if the doctors or pharmacists could explain to me what and why these things were happening or what I was taking. Instead I have to try and do whatever it is they’re pantomiming.

Yesterday, my good friend and travel buddy Whitney went to the hospital in extreme pain to find out that she has both kidney stones and a kidney infection. She’s had it a lot worse than me. Throughout her year here she has also had 5 skin infections – one on her face, a recurring one on her armpit, one on her chest and one on her leg from a motorcycle burn. They would start like pimples and grow to be extremely large and painful infections. They still don’t really know what’s causing it but can only encourage her to stay as clean as possible. Not the greatest bit of advice with an impending 3-month backpacking adventure to Southeast Asia.

Another friend of mine had cellulitis. Also caused by bacteria getting into the skin.

We like to attribute these strange infections to the filth that is the streets of KSU, where we typically party. The whole bar area reeks of sewage (I think I’ve failed to mention how shallow the sewage system is – it is extremely common to get a whiff of it when you’re walking down the street. A regular occurrence really). Not to mention people are constantly peeing and littering in the streets as there is neither public restrooms nor public trashcans AND it is completely socially acceptable to hork whenever and wherever you feel like it. Men and women alike spit all over the place with no regard to who or what is around or even where they are. My bare foot has once been the inadvertent victim of someone’s loogie, it’s disgusting and by far the thing I’m most looking forward to leaving behind in Korea.

In sum (I’m currently at work and teaching my students about summarizing), I don’t remember the last time I was on antibiotics but since being in Korea I’ve been on them 4 times. Ready to bounce…

Korean Food

Below is a comprehensive list and explanation of Korea’s best and most popular dishes. I had intended to make one myself but this is far more detailed and it’s illustrated. My favourites? Kimchi, Kimchi Jjigae, Bibimbap and Galbi. Honourable mentions go to; Gimbap, Gamjatang, Pajeon (without the Haemul), Doenjang Jjigae, Dakgalbi, Dubukimchi and Bingsu.

CNN Go – 40 Foods Koreans Can’t Live Without

Other foods that are “mashisseyo” (delicious) but not mentioned here are; jjimdak (steamed chicken and vegetables marinated in ganjang, Korean soy sauce) kongbul (bean sprouts and thinly sliced pork fried together in a spicy sauce), daeji gukbap (a simple pork soup that comes with a variety of banchan, side dishes, that can be added and cooked in the broth), mandu (steamed dumplings), kimchi dapbap (kimchi fried rice), donkassu (fried pork cutlet coated in panko breadcrumbs and a weird brown sauce),  oma-rice (literally, omelette rice – fried rice wrapped in a thin omelette) and hotteok (a fluffy pancake filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and a variety of seeds or nuts.)

I would be lying if I said I loved Korean food from the start, it certainly took some warming up to but now that I have I worry I will never be able to find it back home. Needless to say I have already started getting my last fill of all my favourite dishes (and sometimes multiple “last” fills.) Only three more working weeks left!

11/11

While the majority of the western world is commemorating their ancestors who fought for freedom in one or both of the World Wars South Korea, and only South Korea, celebrates Pepero Day. Pepero are long, skinny, delicious chocolate covered cookie sticks that come in a pack of about 8 for 1,000 won (just under a dollar CAD.) So Pepero Day is akin to our Valentine’s day where children and lovers exchange these tasty treats, their knock-offs, and other chocolatey or romantic gifts. It’s absurd. Grocery stores and other “marts” create elaborate displays for what is essentially a marketing scheme.

There are several stories to how Pepero Day originated. Lotte, the company who manufactures them denies that they started it but only began promoting it once they noticed increased sales around this time apparently for the reason that 11 looks like sticks of Pepero. They since have produced “special” Pepero flavours, sizes and packaging specifically for the holiday and see a 55% spike in sales for the month of November. Another story is that two middle-school girls here in Busan began exchanging Pepero every year beginning in 1994 to encourage each other to grow “as tall and slender as a Pepero.” I’m not sure which is worse.

While they are delicious, I would be more than happy to finish up my last 6 weeks without having to see another stick of Pepero.

 

“Educational” Corporal Punishment

A friend of mine recently posted this video on facebook. It talks about how corporal punishment is technically illegal in Korea unless it is for “educational purposes” and yet, multiple videos have been released to the media showing teachers physically abusing their students. Indeed, they openly practise physical forms of punishment not only in schools but also in ‘hagwons,’ the after-school private academies like the place I work.

In my school, Korean teachers take wooden sticks to class that they use to beat the children’s hands (as I’ve been told) and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it goes beyond that. Though I’m unsure as to how far our boundaries in terms of punishment go being foreign teachers, all of the foreigners at my school opt not to be physical with the children for personal moral reasons. We do, however, participate in what this video deems ‘educational corporal punishment,’ as do most foreign teachers I know. That is; squats, pushups, and my personal favourite, a funny dance when they don’t do their homework. These techniques are generally ineffective due to what I assume to be their silliness in comparison to the real fear and pain that they endure as punishment from their other teachers. If a student is severely misbehaving we do have the option of sending them down to the front desk where the school manager beats them with a block of wood. Threatening this has an intensely powerful effect on their behaviour (for about 10 minutes.) I often forget this is even an option and have never followed through with a threat. My coworker, Jess, did once and felt emotionally traumatized by it.

The corporal punishment extends to the home as well. It is probably even more common there. Many of my students are extremely afraid of their parents. In fact, just last week a Korean girlfriend of mine was beaten by her mother and subsequently grounded for coming home too late. She’s 27.

While there has been a push to have this type of punishment banned I feel that, given the society and the government’s lack of social welfare, it will be extremely difficult to implement and will take a long time for people to both believe in and to adhere to this type of regulation. Sad.

November. Men o…

November. Men on the beach in speedos. Yesssss.

After roughly t…

After roughly ten and a half months of living in Asia I have only just succeeded at making rice to perfection.

Pilipinas (in Photos)

Mabuhay! (To Life)

After 9 months in the ROK I finally took my vacation in the Philippines. Whitney and I had our whole trip planned out – we were going to fly into Manila then make our way up through the Cordilleras (the mountains in the northern region of Luzon island) to Banaue to see 2000 year-old rice terraces made by the indigenous Ifugao people. Then we would head back to Manila where we would fly to Busuanga island and spend the rest of our time getting our Open Water Diver certification in Coron which is famous for its WWII shipwrecks.

None of this worked out.

Halfway to Banaue we got stuck in the mountain town Baguio because the bridge had been taken out by a recent typhoon and the only detour would have taken approximately another 10-15hrs of bus travel (after the 6 we had had already.)  We stuck it out in Baguio, did some hiking, toured the market and found an “artist village” (http://tam-awanvillage.com/index.php) in which to spend our second night. Here we stayed in a hut that was built by the Ifugao, took a woodcarving workshop (which was essentially a waste of time) and met the manager and several of the artists who we bonded with over strawberry wine, gin and chicken heads and intestines. Yes, we tried them.

After a couple drinks our new friends kept telling us that we needed to “maximize our itinerary” (Filipinos are fairly fluent English speakers) and kept suggesting things that they could show us the following day. We weren’t sure how serious they were or how much they would remember but sure enough the following day we got into their SUV for a road trip down to the Hundred Islands near Alaminos on the west coast of Luzon.

This of course was after the manager, Chit, insisted I go to a clinic since the cold I had had before I left Korea was worsening. It was basically my worst nightmare: unfamiliar symptoms, third world country, no travel insurance, skeezy downtown clinic. I admit, I was almost in tears. To my relief, it was easier then going to the doctor’s in Korea because everyone spoke English and could explain to me what was happening and why. After an X-ray, a diagnosis  of Sinusitis and three kinds of medication I was good to go. Well, almost. The doctor told me I needed to avoid changes in pressure – this meant no flying to Coron and definitely no diving. Huge bummer.

Then we embarked on our road trip. What was supposed to be a one and a half to two hour drive turned out to be four. Typical Filipino time. By the time we got to the islands the sun had set and it was difficult to really appreciate them but we took a small boat out anyway. It was then that the realization set in that we were two girls in our young twenties on a boat in the middle of nowhere with four middle aged men we had just met the previous day, plus two male boat operators. Too far away from land to swim and the islands being uninhabited I started to panic, literally no one would be able to hear us scream. Luckily for us they were just genuinely nice people (as were all the Filipinos we met) trying to help us have a good time.

Once we returned from the islands they had dinner waiting for us and we were able to rest in a vacant room for a few hours before they took us to the bus station and sent us on the overnight back to Manila. Neither Whitney nor I could believe what had just happened but we were both ready to get into some warmer weather and relax on the beach.

So we flew to Coron in spite of the Sinusitis. We were ok with not doing the diving, we reasoned there would be plenty of opportunities to get certified when we embark on our 3-month tour of South East Asia at the end of our contracts. We forgot, however, that there aren’t any beaches in the town or anywhere nearby. It was pretty disappointing. Instead, we occupied ourselves with some island hopping where we snorkelled and saw the edge of one of the shipwrecks, swam in some lagoons, had a buffet lunch in a bamboo hut on a remote white-sand beach and swam in the cleanest lake in the Philippines in the middle of an island surrounded by limestone cliffs. Pretty awesome.

Determined to get some beach time in we rented a kayak and paddled our way to the nearest island the following day. It was an ambitious undertaking, we were told it usually takes about an hour to get there. Armed with fresh bananas, lychees, and cashews that we picked up in the market we felt prepared. Less than half-way there I was ready to give up. I have no idea how long it took us but it was painful. We chilled on the beach by ourselves for a while before we headed back. Needless to say we were in pain the next day. Luckily for us the rainy weather inspired us to get massages (only $6) and relax at the nearby hot springs.

Whitney left the following morning and I decided to spend my last day on another island hopping tour. I wanted to get in some more snorkelling since I wasn’t able to dive. At night I caught a bongo and fire show in front of the large hotel nearby. Some Rastafarian Filipino guys we had me a couple days earlier invited us to see them perform but we weren’t able to find it the day before. A group of Filipinos visiting from Manila invited me to join them, they really are the nicest people I’ve ever met. I also got called up to play the bongos, sadly I do not have a hidden talent for percussion.

So despite nothing working out as we had hoped it was really a great time.

I thought my vacation would be just the refreshment I needed to perk me up at work but now that I’m back I’m just all the more anxious to see the rest of Southeast Asia. Flight is booked: December 28th – Malaysia, from there – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam. It can’t come soon enough!