All good things must come to an end

And then it was over.

As shockingly fast as it started, our year in Korea is now over. It's hard to believe. So many experiences, so much fun, so much we've seen. We've met so many fantastic people that we hope to stay in touch with, and eaten so many things we never would have considered edible in the past. And to top it off, Steph and I still like each other! Who knew?

Looking back at our year, Steph and I would whole-heartedly recommend this experience to anyone who is finding themselves reading this post. All you need is a love for kids, a sense of adventure and an open mind, and you'll have a great time. It probably wouldn't hurt to have a strong stomach as well! So many things we have learned in this year...things we never though of, like; That you can exhausted and in bed at 8:30, that you can communicate solely through a hybridized set of charades, petting stray dogs is a good way to start the day, that even if something makes no sense, it may be the best way to do things, 15 hours of school isn't healthy and that you can the Korean people are amazingly kind and hardworking people.

As we head back to our family and friends in Toronto, we look back (as everyone who has been here does) at what we love and dislike about Korea:

Things we will miss:

$3 meals that are healthy for you.
Walking to work
Having no car
$5 cab rides
School lunches
Surprise days off
Yudal Mountain
Temples in the most unexpected places
Cheap buses everywhere, and are always leaving "right now"
Extra classes
Random kind acts from Koreans
Being called "beautiful" simply because you are tall
Getting "servisa" at every store you go to (free hemming at the dry cleaners, freebies at the corner store...)
The 9 puppies on our way to work
Celebrity status
Almost 3 months vacation
Naju Peaches
Nene chicken
The lady at Kimbap Nala
The folks at our gym
Random "Have a nice day!"s coming from someone biking past you
50" TVs in the classrooms
Random gifts from strangers
Great friends going through the same things
$5 bottles of Gin
Being sheltered by your obliviousness
Absolute freedom and endless possibilities

Things we probably won't miss:

Giggles (It's what Korean kids do when they are uncomfortable)
Camera phones and their gratuitous use (Always pointed at us)
Pointing
Skate (still not sure why people eat it raw)
Uncertainty
Being away from family and friends!
Almost being run down on the sidewalk
Mistreated dogs
Fame without the fortune
Not being able to "blend in"
Transientness of the foreigner population

In order to really close the book on this experience, Steph and I have agreed to finish "The Dumping Hole" once and for all... like a finished project. So this is the last entry.

If you want to follow any of our future experiences, check us out at "The Thought Pile". Stay happy and healthy!

Teachers

Teaching is not something I ever thought I would do. My parents are both teachers, and I like kids, so I probably knew I had it in me. But this year in Korea teaching English at a Korean Elementary school has shown me a lot about teaching. It's a hell of a lot of work and is exhausting! This week, seeing some of the students cry and give me going away cards this week has made it all worth it.

It made me really think back to my favourite teachers growing up and how tough things were for them. Now don't get me wrong; being a bad teacher is easy. Just like being a crappy office worker. But being a great teacher, and putting yourself on the line so that the students can get the most you have to offer is a brave, selfless and incredibly difficult (not to mention physically and emotionally draining) endeavour.

The teachers who had the greatest influence on my life, were, far and away, Brian Svenningsen in Grade 7 and Mrs Maclin in Grade 12.

Brian was a passionate person who put everything he had into his students. I don't know a person who had him who didn't swear that he was the most influential teacher they've ever had. Looking back, I don't know how he did it without running himself dry.

Mrs Maclin was my homeroom teacher during one of the toughest years of my life. At the time I was a reasonably good basketball player, with all the hopes and dreams that go with it. In that year, I broke a finger, a wrist, blew out an ankle, a knee (ACL) and a shoulder (ugly dislocation).... all in separate occations. While those injuries earned me the nickname "cripple" at school, Mrs Maclin repeadedly gave me warm advice and support.

These two people had an immense impact on my life and helped make me the person I am today. Thanks guys.

Addiction

Steph sent me a link to this game... and in 2 minutes, I was addicted.
Now you are too. Enjoy.

Winds of Change - Yellow Dust

Reading the papers from back home and listening to CNN, one gets the impression that the concern about the environment has finally reached the general public. The fact that it is now the #1 election topic in Canada clearly states that. But is the Government ready to show some vision? Like Charter of Rights and Freedoms vision? Probably not, being the minority government that it is.

Lucky for most Canadians, environmental crisis is not obviously upon us yet.

When we arrived in Korea in April of 2006, we spent a week of orientation in Gwangju, a city of 1.8 million in the south western province. It was in the middle of the Yellow Dust Storms, and for two days, the afternoon sky was dark with sand. The entire month, cars were covered in yellow dust, and car washes were inundated with eager customers. Andrew Leonard at "How the world works" sums it up like so:

It's April in Korea, which means it is time to don surgical masks, seal windows tightly shut, and keep a weather eye out toward the Chinese border. April is yellow dust storm season, when a noxious brew of Gobi desert sand particles and assorted effluent from China's industrial development comes roaring out of the west and dumps down on Japan and Korea... (more)

And so Koreans have to debate staying home from work (which people in this hard working nation NEVER do), kids can't go outside during recess, and a large number of people now dawn those surgical masks to keep their lungs clear. Is it really that big a deal? Well yeah, yeah it is. One of my friends here was just admitted to the hospital this week with pneumonia. It's pretty serious stuff.

All this is not just a reminder that we in Canada should be doing more on an individual, Municipal and National level, but that we also need to be part of the global effort. We are much closer to a crisis that will irreversibly change the way we live - a crisis we can better relate to than the catastrophic ones discussed Al Gore's "An Incovenient Truth". Although, those may be coming too.

Templing about

It is truly amazing the rich culture Korea has to offer. This weekend we decided to jump on a bus with our friends Heather and Glen, and head to Haenam to check out a Buddhist temple called Duryunsan. With 2 weeks to go, this was probably our last outing before we head home. I originally was hoping to use this weekend to visit the historic gem; The Gyeongju area. Problem was, it was a 5 hour bus ride away, and with 2 weeks left, we aren't up for that long a barf ride.

We reached the Duryunsan area after 2 bus rides and 1.5 hours. The streets to Duryunsan were lined with cherry blossoms in full bloom, and the weather was great. We arrived at the Temple after walking 30 minutes past some totems and a grave site of "Stupas". The site was amazingly uncrowded!

We toured the site, that seemed to be abuzz with construction (with timber, granite, cranes and a little monk firetruck!).

Pushing on, we made our way up the mountain's rocky, bouldery trail, haphazardly choosing the opposite direction the girls wanted to go at each fork. Lucky for the men, the monks were smart enough to build this particular temple at the point where ALL the trails eventually converged. Our only real issue was the pack of nursing dogs living at the Temple, but the resident Monk soon yelled them into silence. Each Monk we saw had this amazing calm to them... the kind that puts you at ease as soon as you see them.

Like it happens in Korea, we made our way up to a pagota sitting right at the tip of a cliff. As we walked by the pagota, a clearing opened up and there we were beside a small one person temple looking out on the entire valley. Breathtaking.

On our way back, we stumbled across another temple, still under construction, that was built to protect an 4.2 meter tall Budda figure that had been carved into the rock face. The carving was so amazing, none of us dared go into the room (which is good because we probably weren't supposed to be in there)... but all you could think about was, how did we not know about this, and why were we the only people there?
We made our way down the mountain and found our way into a steak barbecue restaurant for some well earned Calbi for $2.50 per person (plus beer of course!).

Just another example of the unexpected amazing that is Korea.

Wise words

Richard just wrote a post that I think we all should read.
It's an issue we all need to be conscious of.

Simplicity

Living in Korea for a year, and visiting neighbouring countries, not to mention being an ESL teacher, it dawns on you that something interesting is going on with language. Some people talk about English being the mother of all languages, the most dominant of the languages. Because of its broad adoption by the business community, it's use as primary language in many developed countries and it's blanketing broadcast by America's marketing machine, it has definitely become the language of choice. However, saying that English will devour all other languages is far fetched.

What is happening, is that countries throughout Asia (specifically) are using English as a common tongue, facilitating travel, business and cultural exchange. They are doing this on a general scale, through English as a second language, but more often than not, through a simplified version of English. Now, I'm not talking about the simplified English that John Kerry was told to use (which was highly publicized)throughout the 2004 Presidential elections. We call it Konglish or Chinglish or Engrish depending on what country you are in. I like to call it Englishy (and so does Virginia).

As I've posted about before, Englishy features phrases that get to the point or are more descriptive than what a native speaker would say; for example "Take away" instead of take out food, "Let's learning" where "Let's" is put in front of any word to denote group adoption, or "Coffee Story" where "story" is used around EVERY WORD you can think of to attach reputation or credibility to any product. It is interesting to see the core group of phrases that are emerging from this ESL region.

What does this mean for North America? Not much. Critical mass of native english speakers means we won't see any effect of Englishy unless immigration drastically increases (although Canada is looking to up their immigration levels from 100,000 to 400,000 people per year in the not too distant future). But in the east, this could mean the propagation of a "new" dialect of English. As the region becomes more integrated, and since they out number the total native speaker population, it may be this new dialect that becomes the prominent language.

So don't get cocky English speakers... you too may have to learn a new language... Englishy is on the rise and has an amazing number of adopters!