The Neon Cross

I've been sitting outside this cafe for less than two hours, and I've been approached three times by Christian recruiters. They are Korean and they mostly only know a few words in English, so it's a nice chance to practice my Korean. I even agreed to meet one of them tomorrow, but I was bait-and-switched, which I realized when ten minutes later she came back with her perfect English speaking male friend, who will be meeting me tomorrow instead of her.

Christianity is pretty big here, and I can't figure out why. Yes, Jesus died for everyone's sins, but it just seems so far removed from this place. At the time Jesus was alive, no one from that world had ever even heard of Korea, and vice versa. So I wonder what about the message of christianity speaks to the Korean people?

Whatever it is, it speaks loudly. Seoul has the largest church in the world, according to a google search I just did! There is even a church on my street. The crucifixes here are always neon.

I think most, if not all, of the Korean teachers at my school are devout christians. I've arrived early to work on a few occasions, and had to stand awkwardly while they prayed together. I've noticed they also quietly pray for few seconds before they eat.

I'm neither for nor against, I'm just really curious. I wonder how the bible translates? I suppose they get the best translators they can possibly get for a job like that. Even still, with the amount of screwy Konglish I see on a daily basis, I just know there must be some similar mistranslations in their bible (which is written in an atypical form of English to begin with). Also, there are some words and ideas that can't be translated.

I guess the big ideas can be translated, though. Who knows?

Oatmeal at last!

If you complain about not having any oatmeal to enough people, eventually you will complain to a person who has too much oatmeal, and he'll give you some for free. That's what happened to me, and I couldn't be happier.

I've been eating oatmeal again for two days now. It's great! I don't even care that it's the big oat kind, and not the finer, instant kind. I'm just happy that I have oatmeal.

Even though I have oatmeal now, I still would like someone to send me oatmeal because my current supply won't last for very long - not with the amount of oatmeal that I eat - and I would also ask that they send me the instant kind. A tube of Quakers goes for about $13 here, and you have to travel far distances to get it!

The Sax Player

Last night a few of us went wandering. We flipped coins to determine what street to go down. We ended up at a place with flashing lights, and stairs leading to the basement. On the way down, there were photographs of a man who looks vaguely like Kim Jung Il, playing the sax and singing.

At the bottom of the stairs was a strange room. There were big sofas, a disco ball, and a stage with drums, microphones, a saxophone, and speakers.

We were the only ones there. We ordered some beers, and I pointed to the stage and asked "When?" That's when we saw the man from the pictures. He went to the stage and started up the equipment. He asked us if we spoke Korean, and we said a little.

He started speaking to us in Korean, which none of us could understand. Finally we heard a word that we recognized: "nori." "I think he wants us to sing," I said.

We had barely begun our first beer of the night, so none of us were too eager to get on stage yet. But the Korean man was on stage, and he wasn't leaving. He waited there, with the mic in his hand, and the silence in the room was heavy. Finally, Logan and I went up.

"Mual Nori?" he asked. What song? I said Johnny Cash, and we sang "Ring of Fire" for our two other friends and the other Korean employee, with the old man backing us up with his sax.

Skip ahead several minutes, and I was on stage with Andrew and Jerri. I was wearing a wig, and the other two had on a mask and a hat. We were half way through the song, when I felt something wet descending on me. The air was full of white bubbles. Behind us was the old man, who had taken a brief interlude from his sax playing to spray us down with bubbles. There was nothing to do but finish the song.

Logan did a solo of "My Heart Will Go On" and then we left. All in all, we were only there about half an hour, but it was one the weirder experiences I've had here.

Tae Kwon Do

I didn't think it would be possible, but I've become even more busy. I took up Tae Kwon Do last week, although I'm still on the fence about continuing. I need a good way to stay fit during the winter, which it will certainly do (they meet Monday through Thursday, and the workout is pretty intense). I could care less about the fighting and self-defense aspect of it, although I suppose it can't hurt to know a little about that stuff.

There are a few Koreans who teach at the Tae Kwon Do place, as well as a Canadian black belt named Brendan. Brendan also happens to be Andrew and Logan's boss - it's a small world here. I had heard a lot about Brendan before I met him last Monday.

When you enter the training place (the dojo, or whatever Koreans call it), it is necessary to salute to the Korean flag. Brendan asked me if I was okay with that, being an American. I asked him why I wouldn't be, and he told me that it's illegal for Americans (U.S. citizens) to salute foreign flags. I told him it would be all right.

Brendan seems like a proud Canadian man, and I think he enjoys creating an atmosphere of friendly rivalry between countries. Perhaps to his disappointment, I didn't play into it. I really don't care too much about a lot of things.

On Monday, Bettina and I had to pose for a Break Away advertisement. They put us with some of the kids, and took some pictures. One of the kids, Tina, never smiles. Jinna told her to smile a few times, and then eventually replaced her with a happier looking kid.

I had to go in to work today (Saturday) to meet with the parents. It was pretty easy, especially since they don't speak much English. I talked about their kids, and then Jinna translated (taking some big liberties with what I said - she spoke for about three times as long as did).

I like to think I'm starting to get the hang of teaching. I'm never sure about anything I do, because almost nothing I ever do is monitored, and the few times it is, I never really receive any feedback besides, "Great." And the way they, whoever they may be, say "great" sounds a lot like there are a bunch of other things on their mind. But all of my nagging insecurities aside, I do feel like things are coming along a little bit. In particular, one of my most out of control classes has become one of my most well-behaved classes. I write the word "stickers" on the board, and every time someone gets out of their seat without asking, or talks out of turn, or throws a pencil across the room, I erase a letter. If they're being really good, I add a letter. At the end, I give them stickers equal to the remaining letters. Now I actually have moments in class that aren't devoted to discipline, and I wonder what to do! Teach them something, I suppose. Now I just need to figure out how to do that.

I know I can't expect to be the greatest teacher in only 2 months. At least I know I must be doing better than the guy before me, who was let go at the end of 2 months.

Global Gathering Festival

I went to a DJ concert in Seoul yesterday. It was pretty spectacular.

I heard about it through a guy named Alex, who was on my soccer team back in Tucson maybe fifteen years ago or so. I went with two of my friends, Eric and Helen, and we met Alex and his girlfriend Gahyeon at the place.

The concert started at 2 PM, and was set to finish at 4 AM - a fourteen hour jam. We didn't make it there until 9, just as the three biggest artists of the night were about to play: Justice, followed by Fatboy Slim, followed by Armin van Bureen.

Lots of Jager Bombs later, and I was having a pretty fun time. All the artists were good, but Fatboy Slim definitely stole the show from Armin. Here are some poorly planned, out-of-focus pictures to illustrate the night:

Songdo Park

Today we went on a field trip to an amusement park in Songdo. It was slightly run-down, and nearly deserted. At night, it would probably be really creepy.



Hazards abound; in the middle of the path, there was an open hole to some kind of water-control device. A few kids nearly took a spill in that.



A man with a bicycle followed us from ride to ride, and started them up for us (there were not enough people at the park to justify having an entire person manning each ride).



Bettina and I hid candy in the bushes and trees while the kids were eating lunch. There was also a lot of trash in the bushes. Later, the kids would search the bushes and the trash for candy. The candy they didn't find would become the new trash.



Jun, the smallest and the youngest, somehow managed to find the biggest candies. Tina and Alex couldn't find any candy, and we didn't have the foresight to save any pieces for this scenario, so we bribed the other kids with stickers to share their candy.



They were piping in music somewhere in the park, but only in that one location. They were playing the theme to Beverly Hills Cop, which is now the tune of a K-Pop song called "Champion." Linda and I sang it together.



Back at school, while waiting to go back inside, I picked a leaf from a tree and gave it to Minnie. "Here Minnie, I got this for you." I picked a few more and gave them out. Soon, all the students were getting their own leaves, and fanning themselves with them.

Tony's World

Tony is a funny kid, and by that I mean he's strange. He's one of the seven year olds. He slips under your radar at first, but if you look closely, you'll notice that he's always there, being super weird. One day, everyone drew pictures of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Nearly all the boys want to be police officers (Danny wants to be a doctor, and Kevin wants to be an actor), and all the girls want to be either a figure skater, or a ballet dancer. Some want to be both. So what about Tony? Tony wants to be a person. Nothing more or less.

Instead of drawing a lovely, childish picture, bubbling over with innocence and aspiration, Tony drew a disturbingly bleak black and white picture of himself, alone in a room. In the corner is a small chair, which he later tried to erase, but the imprint remains. Underneath him is a mess of squiggly lines. Do they represent confusion? Thwarted dreams? The angst and doubt embedded in every young man's soul? I don't know.

When questioned, Tony had this to say: "Monsterrr!!" And then he started making robot moves, as he so often does.

The Video Camera

Minnie and Jun (shown in pictures) have been having problems. One day, they both managed to fall asleep and wet themselves in class. Minnie's mom has already been causing problems for Jinhwa and Jason by aggressively monitoring her children's progress at the hagwon.

The musical today was "A Christmas Carol." Minnie's mother wanted to come and watch it, but the staff didn't allow it. There was a sort of compromise. I had a video camera, and I shot the whole event. I was trying to shoot all the kids, but Jinhwa told me "Just get a close-up of Minnie." So I got right up next to Minnie (who is shy to begin with) and held the camera by her face. "This feels a little weird," I thought.

But of course it gets weirder.

The rest of the students went back to class - all except Minnie and Johnny Appleseed (who was playing Santa Claus). It was me and Cali (Korean Teacher). Cali fed Minnie her lines, and I got all of her very reluctant delivery on video. As a reward, the participating children were given candy.

Now when I play "Never have I ever," I'll lose a point when someone goes for "Never have I bribed children to say things while video-taping them."