11/25/03

It’s Tuesday afternoon, a month before the second Christmas I’ll miss, and I’m sitting in a small restaurant waiting for the Kim-chee to come. We just got out of a show-off day for the perspective kindergarten parents and in an hour I start teaching the middle school classes at the other campus. The last weekend was great, it actually started Thursday night. Our friend April had a friend from LA in town, the four of us had spent the last few nights playing cards and celebrating April’s marriage and Thursday night was her last evening in town. We all went downtown and had pictures made and dined at a nice Italian restaurant. That night was also our big move, we worked until 1am carting our stuff down into the new apt. We’re learning how to think Korean about space efficiency, it will be hard to maintain. If I through a jacket on the floor it would be like putting an inflated moonwalk in a room back home. Anyway the Friday workday crept by, dulled by the anticipation of going to see Quentin Tarantino’s new movie “Kill Bill Vol I”. I loved it; it was raw, action packed, great cinematography, bloody as all hell, and a chapter was animated. Most of it was modeled after classic Japanese samari films. I walked out feeling very refreshed.
Saturday morning we woke up, still a little befuddled from the previous night, and through our bags together and headed out to flag a down taxi. Time was not on our side, as the ride to the train station could have no snags or our headaches and us would be missing our chance to get out of Taejon for the first time. No snags. We boarded the train and our trip was launched to Busan, a large coastal city on the west side of the peninsula. The train crept along as we snapped pictures of the rolling countryside. Inside our car, there was a void of life…nothing, no baby crying, no business men offering hardy complimentary laughs, no elevator music or kids begging their moms for a treat from the refreshment cart. Just a silent dreamy stream of mountains, small villages, and farms drifting steadily by as we crosses the entire country. A little over 3 hours later, we arrived in Busan. Our agent, the lady who coordinated our jobs here, lives in Busan and had extended the invite to show us around. Then Dido was a professional acquaintance, now she is definitely a friend. Dido and her friend Sunny met us at the train station and took us on a tour of the cities famous dock side fish market. The cramped isles between the vender’s carts were wet and hosted a thick salty, raw seafood smell. This market is 10X what the market in Daejon holds. I learned that Koreans traditionally put a pig’s head on display in lieu of a grand opening or any other business venture. It’s a token of fortune. The book “Lord of the Flies” kind of ruined the value of a pig’s head for me, but for each his own…. I wonder if it was translated into Korean. We walked around various markets, had some lunch, and headed via a subway to Haeundae beach. As the weight of our packs and all of the walking caught up with us, we went to a Starbucks for good conversation and real coffee….the Korean stuff is a disgrace. From the window we could see the ship filled bay, as well as a pink sunset dripping into the background. The hills are coated three times with houses. Refreshed we took a stroll along the shore. The beach gave way to cliffs and a jagged shore 50 feet below. In the distance are giant shafts of islands, columing out of the stirred water and silhouetted against the colors of a sunset only a polluted horizon can display. It was breathtaking. Dido, Sunny, Aden, and I all were having fun laughing at various things, posing for silly pictures, and they enlightened Aden and I on many details of Korean culture. Oh and the sounds that animals make in a foreign language are hours of entertainment.
Dinner was eaten in a university village, where we talked politics. Everybody felt the same about Bush’s tactics, trustworthiness, and agenda. (Oh and as a side note the US Embassy issued a travel warning to all Americans not to travel abroad….ANYWHERE!! Our diplomats in Washington must be reallllly busy with diplomacy if the whole world is unsafe with anti-American sentiment.) The general feeling I’ve got from S. Koreans is they don't support the Iraq war and are upset with the government for sending troops in return for economic favors by the US.
After dinner we did the Korean style karaoke thing…it’s really fun when you can rent a private room. Then went to a bar that was hosting some DJs. They spun some great beats and together with our Korean friends we swapped profanities until the wee hours of the morning.
The next morning we united and subwayed to the outskirts of the city to see our last bit of Busan, a Buddhist temple named Beomeosa. Located high in the mountains above the city this temple was built in 678 AD, and although it has been burned twice it was last reconstructed in 1613. This temple holds at least four of S. Korea’s official treasures. The temple is still active and has many areas for prayer and meditation and some living quarters. More information on this temple is at
Sunday afternoon we said our good-byes, I can’t express how great it was to meet Dido and Sunny, they are both very kind, hilarious, and interesting people. I’m hoping we can all get together again soon.
And lastly, Monday night Aden decided it was time for short hair. So we gave our old apartment a shag rug with most of her hair. I got to give her credit for letting a boy cut her hair. I think it looks good'but I'm bias.
We're doing well and time keeps flying by no matter what happens. We both send our love and Thanksgiving spirits to all back home. Think of us when you eat that pecan pie!! Cheers, matt



11/17/03 This last Tuesday was a sort of Hallmark holiday for Koreans. It's called Pepero Day. Peperos are cookie sticks dripped in chocolate, and you're supposed to give them to your friends, co-workers, and whoever as a sort of friendly token. Pepero Day falls on November 11th, or 11/11 and the sticks are in recognition of the straight of ones in the date. I guess it's similar in construct to people doing silly things like kissing the clock at 11:11 or 3:33, except instead of clocks getting lip-prints, the candy companies make millions of dollars. As teachers we got a Halloween's worth of 'em and it was pleasant to be presented with so many gifts from the students. One of my kids in my last class gave me a half eaten one, but the chocolate smeared grin made it more memorable than the dozen or so other boxes the moderate students brought me.
This weekend went pretty well considering how it started. Saturday was rainy and Aden was thrown bound with a stomach bug from some shrimp we ate the night before. Plus she had a pre-exsisting skin rash and fever symptoms. The day before she couldn't leave the apartment to teach the morning kindergarten and it was really only through starvation that she made to the afternoon classes. The staff at Crepia were concerned and Mr. Lee our director, sent her some soup while some of the other teachers gave her a number of a local Chinese doctor who is well known in Dae-jeon and happens to be just a couple blocks away. Thankfully Saturday was looking better than Friday did. She had fasted all day Friday and was doing it again. One of the teachers got off work an hour early (the Korean staff teaches on Saturdays) to take Aden to this Doctor. The office was on a corner and like many businesses, just the downstairs of a home. However, the office was very clean, with bright clean walls, polished wood floors, and a fresh aroma of ginger. We eagerly took our shoes off and slipped into the customary house slippers to enter.
The doctor saw her immediately and treated her with acupuncture and sent her off with some herbal teas. Even without insurance, this effective treatment only cost about $15. After she was done, Aden and I went to peer into one of the side rooms that had electric message tables and a hang-upside-down machine. The receptionist honed into our interest and laid the 3 of us down for a 20-minute message...for free! That Doc got him-self some clients. We then headed downtown to experience Matrix 3 on a towering, I-max sized screen. It was great. Aden is feeling much better today and has begun to eat normally without any problems. She could even stomach me giving her a haircut!
Our free time is mostly spent on the computers, but in-between Internet games and downloading as many Bill Hicks files as possible, we're slowly moving to a new apartment, learning Korean and playing guitar. I just learned a Modest Mouse song and I'm working on Classic Girl by Jane's Addiction. I do miss playing the drums, however, it's in the best interest of all that I spend this year trying my hand at a more apartment friendly instrument. I look forward to being able to strum some chords aside a fire when I come home.
The Korean language is coming along, not exactly by leaps and bounds but being inundated definitely feeds the learning process. Korean is thought to be a distant cousin of the Altaic languages and Japanese, but is unique. The language is linguistically isolated because it has hardly any words or grammar in common with any other spoken language (Japanese being a far-off closest). Han-gool, or the latest Korean alphabet is made up of 40 letters; 21 vowels and 19 consonants. Many of the sounds are phonetically in-between English letters, or completely out of the A-Z dimension. A King named Sejong invented this alphabet in 1443. It's rumored to be the most scientific alphabet ever created, therefore, logical and easy to learn.....which so far is true. The King also depicted the letters, or characters, from the movements of the mouth and tongue necessary to make the appropriate sound.......but I don't see it. The sounds we use in the English language are a very small percent of the sounds that we could have trained ourselves to use.
Thanks to all who are signing the guest book, it means a lot to me to get little droppings of your thoughts, how you¡¯re doing, and just to know who is checking this page out.
Take care and "stay in peace"..........Korean goodbye
matt

11/8/03
What is it like to be a foreigner here? Well it's like an odd combo of being a celebrity and a ghost. Many people have picked up on a little English. It would be difficult not to. American movies and po(o)p music are both popular here among kids but also the 20 & 30 somethings like to "pop-out" to Britney Spears . So everybody knows a little. The celebrity feeling comes from the many young locals saying "hello" or sometimes it's just "hiiii". The other day some high school kids were piled into a SUV and from the other side of the street, 30 feet away, we could hear their shouts. At first I thought we were being mocked, but their obvious excitemant to our attention and waves convinced me that they really enjoyed realizing that they could communicate in a different language, their test for echo was returned, maybe they felt an exhilaration from breaking the barrier...maybe it was their first time. I do know that most of the kids in our neighbor hood have never been out of the city. To hear them call out to us with interest and excitement jolts me from the ghostly seclusion of an illiterate mute.
Latley we have been going downtown to the market for all of our shopping. Wed. we found a new table for our apt. It's traditional, 6" high and it collapses so we can set it aside when it's not in use. each side of the deep mahogany wood is imprinted with chubby, happy, korean Buddha people.
For the most part, the Korean adults are a slim bunch. For this "baby- boomer" group times have changed rapidly. I get the impression that what has developed over the past 3 generations in America only took one here. If you are over 40 here you probably grew up in depression era, poor, farming comminities.
.... So their bodies reflect those diets. However, the kids we teach know nothing of this lifestyle and, well the huge Asian video game market you hear about? Basically you can imagine it like rock and roll in the 60s (from what I hear). Everybody plays video games. There are even video games in the street next to the candy stores and guess what? Now they're seeing something in the newer generation that has never been seen before, obesity. Thankfully nobody can blame American fast food. There are probably some interesting studies that could examine the effects of such a drastic lifestyle shift in one short generation. I mean life was farming for HUNDREDS of years then Bam! One 50-60 year chunk de-wheeled that carriage and loaded the passengers onto a jet with a built-in, space-age happy play-land where you can get a lifetime dose of the sugar and fun of any county fair offered in just one hour!
Just let everyone know, we will be changing apartments due to a mold problem. This may cause our phone and internet to be unavailable for a short time. We've had a problem with mold and our boss has arranged to move us into a mold-free place. It will be smaller, but not by much and we'll have a balcony.
I encourage everyone to get the AOL Instant Messenger. You don't have to have AOL and its works well for communication when two people are on the internet at the same time.

Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Take care and be well,

Matt

"Smart Ask White Girl (belive me)" --Korean T-shirt

Setting In
10.27.03
Yes it's true; our 4th story closet is starting to feel a little homey. Air outside is cooling down and the cinder blocks behind our off-white wallpaper seem to be providing ample insulation. Our heat somes from an electrical heating source laid uniformly under the floor. Probably a good idea, once the feet are comfortable the body follows. Fortunately, the rumor an early bird shopper at our Durango yard sale told us is not true. He was a high school kid, obviously not your norm if he's hitting garage sales at 8am Sunday morning. The kid had traveled a bit and told us Korea is entirely heated by coal. This gave us a chilling vision of teaching soot covered, plauged, coughing children looking like The Dodger, Oliver Twist or little just-down-the-chimney Korean elves. But now I know kids look like that anyway, but I'm still thankful for invisible warmth.
This weekend Aden figured out how to re-arrange all the furniture giving us much more space. We can actually setup the drying rack for the clothes without having to decide if we want our kitchen consumed or the other room. It's really nice.
Yesterday (Sunday), we took our first venture downtown. No map just curiosity. We basically followed the herd off the crowded, squeeze in where you may, zippy city bus past the posh and polished galleria into the heart of a breathing and thriving local-goods market. Eels, designer shoes, gambling, fashion gallore, peppers, electronics, lamps, fish, petshops, and what ever this short string of items can lead you guess of...it was there. We walked away with a new 6-string for Aden, a beautiful Crafter, you can see all the proud pics. Out of room but we're happy and ready for another week. HAPPY HOLLOWEEN..take full advantage of it falling on a Friday this year.
-matt

10/20/03
New photos have finally arrived to the web, after countless snags and complications in this macintosh hostile country,we're in action.. Anyway, since the picture was taken from our apartment's roof top I thought I would expand on our surrounding neighborhood. We live in a traditional, lower-middle class, safe, crowded (and clustered), busy, cheap (food wise), less educated, mono-cultured, noncorporate, self-employed, very friendly and at times smelly area called Gasuwon. All of this only a 700won ($.50) bus ride from downtown. This is not an ideal hood by any means due to its lack of night life as well as shops that sell nothing more than the essentials one needs to survive.
A cultural difference is rancidly noted as mothers in doorways hold their babies horizontally to allow the child to project a stream of urine onto the sidewalk. The mystery of why Koreans take their shoes of before entering a home or business shrinks... However, the fried chicken tastes just like home.
We've found a great cook across the street from our place. We're there 6 days a week ordering the only thing we know on the menu. B-Bim Bop...its just so fun to say!! Its rice, sprouts, eggs, beef, carrots, onions, and spinach served sizzeling as fajitas are back home.
Quickly...we went downtown this weekend to check out the hippest bar in town, its said to world famous, but it really shouldn't be. A Fillipino band is the house band, as are all house bands in Daejeon?!, and they played all the teeny-bop covers and even got to "Hey Mickey", Slayer was not available for request. D-town was shiny and neonified with uber models raining from rooftops.

10/15/03 Wednesday
We're one week in! chasing the sun around the globe on that mammoth aircraft seems much longer than a week ago but it's a week, exactly right down to the hour. The juxtaposition of experience is surreal. first its daylight for almost twenty hours straight then bam! I can't understand or read anything man made around me. But overall it feels like we're acquaintances in a strange land thanks our fellow Americans at the school. Right now we teach about 8 hours a day. The morning classes are Kindergardeners. We each have about 6 kids and the class is 45min long. This one is the hardest for me, I'm so used to teaching adults who are in a class because they want to learn, and I just get annoyed by spending so much of my time on behavior issues. The huge chunck of the day is spent with older kids in 2nd through 5th grades. Some of the classes are great and some are a little hyper but still peppered with eager minds. But the class is only 25 min and all 8 of them fly by, its like a rollar coaster that you can't catch your breath until its over.
Tomorrow we'll have DSL in our apt. I thought Aden's camera would have a hook-up that would work anywhere but it can only put pics on her computer, and none of the PC labs have laptop hooks...new pics coming soon!! We got the other day to hike around and try to get to one of the hills around the city, we are far west of the city, right at the foot of th 300ft hills. A bug bit cut our hike off at the end of the neighborhood (it really wasn't a big deal) but one thing is for sure, the sunsets here are awesome.


10/11/03 Kariokay
Last night the schools owner took the staff out to dinner as a welcoming to Aden and I as well as a farewell to a Korean teacher who is moving to Chicago. I was introduced to So-ju , sneaky and potent rice wine. A huge meal was laid out before us as we sat barefooted on cushions. the table is a traditional asian table, low to the ground, with a gas burner in the middle. We started with the traditional Kim-Chee followed by delicious dumplings, and a plate of fresh greens with Codder fish and muscles topped with a red pepper sauce. Then the main dish comes out which is a plate of raw thinnly slice beef and mushrooms as well as a boiling stew that you drop the beef in to cook it and then fish it out with chop sticks. After the meal I had to choose between a disco club where I would have to dance for everybody or karyoke bar (Kariokay here) the choice was easy.
We rented as small room and took turns doing the kariokay thing. Having a private room definalty made it better than American style bar signing. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend, hopfully we'll get to know our area a little better.
Best wishes....matt

10/10/03New Home
We made it to Korea!! Our planes united us in San Fransico early Tuesday morning. There was a small bit of confusion that prevented Aden from meeting me at my gate but we found each other as we were walking around.
We bid our farewells to America and boarded a huge 777. Our route took us up the western coast, over the Kodiak islands of Alaska, and down over Japan.
The island of Japan is a spectacle from 35,000 feet. Jagged mountains rising out of thick fog pockets, surrounded by endless ocean.

When we arrived in Dae-Jeon after travelling for 27 hours, our new boss picked us up at a bus stop. If it wasn't for a friendly stranger who let us use his phone we could still be there! Our apartment is tiny. One of those where you can get the entire tour form one vantage point. But that was to be expected and all of the amenities work perfectly and we even have an option of DSL internet. Our school is farily organized and has made a good first impression. This was mainly achieved by taking us out to eat....Korean food is amazingly healthy and delicious. We start teaching the kids this afternoon (Friday).

I apologize for not having any new pictures. We will get those up as soon as possible.

annyong hasayoh bye

matt&aden