From the kids at Dong Elementary School...

Happy Halloween! We can't believe we didn't cut off a finger!!!

All good things...

So the day finally came...

Anoushka and Hugh have finally finished their teaching terms in Korea and have left on an airplane. It's the end of a great chapter in our Korean adventure.

Anoushka is heading back to England for a spell, but is thinking hard about coming back to Korea to teach. Hugh is on his way to Orangeville, Ontario to marry his sweetie, Katherine, on December 18th (Wo!). Let's hope the boys back in Orangeville go easy on him!

Have a safe trip guys! We already miss you both dearly!

In other news... Doug and Kristin Petten, who you might remember from Kristin's beautiful drawing in an earlier post have given birth to a baby girl weighing 9lbs 1.5oz. Amazingly, they have decided to name the baby "Baby Petten". I guess nine months wasn't enough time to get the creative juices flowin! Congratulations guys!

Uncle Steve's Story Time - Episode 4

Uncle Steve is back with another wild adventure! It's been a while, but this one is worth the wait! Read on to find out:

Out with the Teachers, Again!

It was not a dark and stormy night, the weather was not foreboding at all in fact. If you were to ask, some would say it was rather pleasant outside. It was the perfect setting for the carnival-like atmosphere of Dong Myeoung’s annual Festival Day Bonanza. (I added bonanza).

An exceptional amount of work from both the students and teachers (foreign English teacher excluded) went into the preparation and I must admit, it was a great show. In appreciation of such an effort, the principal invited the staff out for dinner. This is where MY show began.

I took my spot on the floor with my co-teacher and the grade 4 teachers. As the other teachers began to arrive, I soon realized that I would be asked to drink with the boys again. This was made quite obvious when the ‘drinking’ teachers decreed that the seats adjacent to mine be vacated immediately so that they could take them. To my amusement, the 3 in those spots got up and left. Within a minute, I was working the two-glass system again, one for beer, one for soju. I swear to you as I type this, I’m not sure why, but teachers from other tables were coming over to do a soju shot with me, in fact, the waitress ordered up a ‘one-shot’ with me too. Needless to say, my inhibitions were greatly decreased and my Korean started to flow. I told one of the teachers that she was very glamorous and looked like a model. When it was translated to her what that meant, she became quite embarrassed. I may have told her that I had a crush on her too, but I don’t quite remember.

I then found myself at another table sitting beside my female vice-principal. As most of you know, the teacher/administration relationship is fraught with respect. The practice of back-slapping your vice principal is not common in these parts, so I’m sure that she was taken aback when the drunk English teacher sat beside her and put his arm around her. If looking uncomfortable and changing seats is any indication, I’m not sure if she appreciated my friendliness. I may have tussled her hair too, but I don’t quite remember.

Off to the Norae Bang for more beer. I sang some Beatles for them and, as chance would have it, I brought along my camera and took about a dozen pictures with one of my drinking buddies Mr. Sa. After the Norae Bang, Mr. Sa and the Phys. Ed teacher, let’s call him Mr. PE, took me to the next stop.

Was it a brothel? A den of ill repute? Why did the police show up? What could have happened?

This stop was your average Rest Hof. The three of us took our seats at a table and ordered a jug of beer. Perhaps the only oddity was that I was the only one who spoke English. No worries, I would be able to ‘kombae’ my way through this one for sure. I think the conversation was light and fun, the company was delightful and the ambiance you ask? Inviting. Not a particularly busy place, there was one table of 2 sitting across from us and maybe 4-5 more people scattered about.

Now I can’t be sure what precipitated Mr. PE’s angst. He is a rather sturdy man, but Napoleonic in height. At any rate, out of the blue, Mr. PE stood up and delivered a solid kick to the chest of one of the men sitting at the table beside ours. The man reacted in a rather non-diplomatic way; he stood up and started swinging. Tables, chairs and glassware were the first victims and they lay smashed and overturned about the place. Not sure what my role in all of this should be, I took my place between the two to break it up. There was a lot of posturing between the two and for a few seconds peace seemed to be restored. Mr. Sa, who was behind me, pulled me away, not wanting me to be involved. One of the other men took this as a sign of aggression and grabbed a hold of Mr. Sa. My diplomacy ended right there. (author’s note: please understand that I am not an aggressive person, I’ve never punched a face or been in a fight). I grabbed Mr. Sa’s assailant by the lapels and gently helped him sit back down while calmly swearing at him in English and making it quite clear that Mr. Sa was not to be touched. My fist may have been cocked in a rather threatening manner, but I don’t quite remember.

The waitress was rather upset with this unruly behavior and had summoned the police. Upon their arrival, Mr. Sa, the ‘other guy’ and I ended up on the sidewalk leaving the two original combatants inside. Shoddy decision making I agree. The police took the other two away. Still unsure of my role in all of this, I went back inside to see what came of Mr. PE. I don’t understand Korean very well, but I’m pretty sure the waitress was not relieved to see me. Mr. PE however, saw me and then delivered yet another kick to his rival’s chest. Tensions mounted again, I managed to subdue any counter attack by pinning him again. Having restored some order, I saw the waitress with her hand on her head surveying what was once her tidy Rest Hof. The other patrons stood with open mouths, Planters were smashed, soil spilled everywhere. Three or four tables were overturned, jugs of beer lay smashed on the ground, soaking into the dirt.

Mr. PE looked my way and motioned for me to leave, and leave quickly. I complied and saw the next police cruiser pull up. I then ran to my ‘safe’ foreigner bar with a new story to tell...

Tensions

I'm sure everyone back home knows about the shenanigans that North Korea has been pulling of late. Lots of people have been asking, "So, is everyone there freaking out?"

Amazingly, no. Aside from a couple of air-raid siren tests and some jets flying practice drills overhead last week, the mood is pretty much unchanged in the "Land of the rising sun".

Talking to teachers in Mokpo, they are realatively unphased by the test. They feel that the North is just stuck in a game of brinksmanship and that the South has really nothing to fear. The North will hope for a juicy aid package from the States (which the American's won't let happen) or they will just go on their merry way trying to get the bomb down from the size of a house to missile size. At this point, reports say the test was between 1/30th and 1/2 the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima so many years ago. Our teachers were shocked to hear that many of the ESL teachers had registered with the Canadian Embassy to be kept informed if things should escalate... obviously they didn't think it was that big a deal.

People do say that the elderly are more fearful, but that is because they are the of the few who still remember the atrocities of the war and the 2.5 million plus Koreans from both sides who were killed. Japan, it is felt, is the one most at risk, in this story, simply because their relationship in the region is still strained.

At the end of the day, the common feeling is that this test will only result in North Korea becoming more isolated (Sanctions/ship inspections will be more for show and probably won't be strictly enforced), will only serve to scare Japan and South Korea into further arming, and will drop the curtain on any hopes of a reunion between the South and North; something both have yearned for since the war.

Konglish and Korean "Story"

On Monday, sitting in my grade 5 class, was this girl, who was wearing a T-shirt that said "I'm not mean, you're just a sissy!". Do you think she knows what it means? Of course not. But this is one of the beauties of Korea's love for anything english. The shirts go from 13 year old girls wearing shirts saying "I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as this dirtbike" (with dirtbike picture on it), to shirts that consist of a bunch of mispelled words jammed together forming no coherance at all ("Saw my back" was the most recent shirt I sent home to my sister). All the time, we foreigners are snatching them up and sending them home as gifts!


Korea also boasts the amazing art of "Story". This can be as simple as calling your store "Beauty Story" or "Book Story" or calling a video game "Maple Story", but it all seems to be an attempt to give personality, character, emotional appeal and reputation to whatever it is they are peddling. This "Story" theme then goes on coffee cups, billboards and placemats to convey this "pseudo reputation" to the users, who, for the most part, don't speak English.

For us who do, it's awesome!

Virginia, Mom and Mokpo

On Friday, we were blessed with the presence of Virginia (from Suncheon) and her Mother (all the way from St Catherines!).
Virginia’s Mom had been on an amazingly jam-packed 2 week tour of Korea with Virginia, and they both came down to Mokpo to celebrate Virginia’s 23rd birthday (Happy Birthday Virginia!), to see the sights in Mokpo, and then to send Mom home to Canada on the KTX. Virginia is awesome... enough said. We met her in our orientation group with Canadian Connections, and went to Singapore and Malaysia with her. Good peoples!

The night started at “The Log House”, or Log-uh House-uh in Korean, for an all you can eat veggie buffet (does that mean I had all I could eat before I got there?) with Chad, Nicola, Maura and Max, and later by Steve O. The log house is supposed to be a replication of a Canadian log house, but is decorated with miscellaneous metal jungle animals. We then headed to Mokpo's newest attraction; the Waterfall. This Waterfall cut out of one of the hills is the new gateway to the city as well as the doorman for a new set of nearly 50 condo buildings that are being built simultaneously! We even shot a movie of it... looks like Canada's Wonderland right beside a 8 lane throughfare. The night concluded with a walk through Peace Square, some drinks, a spell in the Norae Bang (Karaoke room), and Steve stumbling off into the sunrise to find a motel to sleep in.


Saturday we were treated to an amazing breakfast at Chads apartment by the harbour before we hiked Yudal mountain, walked through downtown Mokpo and enjoyed a drink with some good people. Before we knew it, it was late and the two girls had to be up at the crack of dawn to head back to Suncheon, for Virginia and to Seoul for Mom to head back to the snow in Southern Ontario! (I can't believe its snowing in Canada!)

Great weekend that reminded us of how great our friends are and how solid a city Mokpo is!

Check out the Waterfall movie and the Yudal movie as well as pictures at the right! Also, check out Virginia's blog just because it's cool.

Busan for Chusok!

So, I'm sure you are all getting a little tired of me going on about the amount of vacation we get here... If you said "Hell yeah!" to that, then you should stop reading right now.

Chusok is South Korea's Thanksgiving... the only difference is that it runs for almost an entire week! We, of course, took full advantage of this and took a 5 hour bus ride to Busan (35° 9'37.18"N 129° 9'34.64"E) with our awesome friends; Hugh and Anoushka. The Motel Hugh had so daftly chosen was in Haeundae beach, right across from the Busan Aquarium, and a block from a complex that housed all the western food you could think of. That guy is a lot smarter than he looks!

Unlike the concrete jungle that is Seoul, Busan definitely has an international, dare I say, "liveable" flavour to it. With 8 million people and a port that is vying to be the new hub for north Asia, Busan blends Western ammenities with parks, beaches, tourist attractions and comparably interesting architecture, all in a seemingly reasonably sized city. Many of these things aren't readily found in the vast barracks' that encompass Seoul's 21 million people. They do both have amazing shopping, though, because, like we've noticed in the rest of Asia, Koreans LOVE to shop.

In our 4 day trip (2 of those were travel days - 4.5 hour bus trips), we visited the Busan Aquarium, walked Haeundae beach 3 times, took pictures of the Gwangan Bridge from the 2005 APEC conference site, toured the Beomeosa Budist Temple, walked the fish market, moseyed the "40 steps" heritige site, and gorged every night at western style restaurants (The Outback!!!).

One of the highlights of the trip for Hugh and I, was an unexpected hibrid greeting from a middle-aged Korean: "Have a nice day-hamnida". The charm and unexpected warmth of his smooth blend of the two greetings made us both do a double take. Our excessive "Thank you"s and "Kamsamnida"s couldn't have done it justice... But I guess you have to be a foreigner in Korea to appreciate how rare this comment was.

We got home late Sunday night, again happy and tired! Here are our pictures from the fantastic week!

Happy Turkey-Day, Canada!!!

We hope that everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving with family and friends! We miss you all and wish we could be home to enjoy a glass of wine, a drumstick and potatoes with mushroom gravy with our loved ones.

May you all be Happy and Healthy!

PS - Nice work Matthew!