Constant Cravings

I've just discovered kd lang. I know, her breakthrough "Constant Craving" was released 19 years ago now, but I've always been slow on the pop music front. My verdict? She's terrific! And she sings about difficulties in love mostly, which is a fitting backdrop to this Sunday evening's blogging, as I am thinking about how everything I do in this sphere invariably turns out all wrong in the end.

The sickness has lingered for 2 weeks now. It's as much of a get-me-out-of-Korea-and-get-me-out-now sickness as it is the common flu. I'm suddenly repulsed by this place. The people. The staring. The food. The school lunches. The congestion. The congestion on the subway. On the footpath. In shops. In HomePlus. Everywhere but in my apartment. The rudeness. The hurriedness-to-get-nowhere. Slow people who don't get out of the way. The fashions. Seohyeon. My phone. HomePlus. Especially HomePlus. Seaweed. Rows and rows of seaweed. The scarcity of cheese. What they think a "sandwich" is. How they call it a "sandwichy." What they do to bread. (Why don't you just stick shit through my letterbox?) The absence of pubs. The way people give you a menu when you go out for a drink. The traffic. Especially the traffic. That and HomePlus. HomePlus is only over the road but you can guarantee I'll almost get squashed on the way. Even with the green man. I HAD THE GREEN MAN!!!

The guy watching me put my recycling out. The family watching me check my letterbox. The 70 somethings by the river watching me exercise. The food. The stomach cramps. The way I can't even eat toast anymore without experiencing pains. The bottled water. The drunk and crying men at the chicken hof underneath my window at night. Anyone who drives. People who walk at the same time as me. Foreigners. Foreigners who act like Korea is one big college party. Foreigners who love everything Korean the minute they arrive. The way my co teacher expects me to read her mind, after weeks of next to no communication. The way people think soju is just "fun." The way people believe every food increases "virility and stamina." The way some people extend this believe even to soju. Especially when it's the drunken crying man at the chicken hof, who doesn't look virile at all but rather like a drunken late middle aged taxi driver.

The way work has become a God. The neglect of children. The way children are forced to study. The way the volume of study they do robs them of their childhoods. The neglect of wives. The neglect of families in favour of work and social climbing. The way this creates legions of bitter middle aged women. The way they then make being a pedestrian much harder than it should be.



The author points the finger for all his maladies - past and present - fairly and squarely at the ROK.

Yesterday I spent the day at a place called Seodaemun, in the west of Seoul, with travelling buddy Sarah. As keen history students, we both had the desire to investigate the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. This structure was used by both Koreans and Japanese over the 20th Century for incarcerating dissidents to their respective regimes. As the Japanese annexed the peninsula in 1910 they locked up anyone suspected of fomenting rebellion in their new territory. Many Korean nationalists met their deaths in this gory complex. We were able to see the solitary confinement chambers and the execution building - the one part of the complex off limits to photography. We also witnessed the original torture chambers and some techniques which gave me some good ideas for the classroom.



One of the rows of cells at Seodaemun




The new Seoul looks down onto the old. In fact, from the tops of these residential towers it's possible to see down into the old execution house. The willow on the left became famous as martyrs being lead to their death would often grip the tree and cry out in grievance that their land had not yet been freed. In 1992, a passageway was discovered behind the execution building. It had been used by the Japanese to secretly remove the bodies so as to conceal the amount of prisoners they were killing.

I feel that any historical site like this loses its atmosphere when you are competing for the space with a legion of screaming schoolkids who have been forced to tear themselves away from the xbox on a Saturday. It was nonetheless a beautiful Autumn day and the sun shone warmly on us. Looking at the trees and enjoying this more open and less hectic part of Seoul were the highlights for me. Also was spending time with Sarah, and then meeting up with Lianne and Joelle in Itaewon (the foreigners' punching quarter) for some Thai food later in the evening. Every now and then we relive our Thai holiday together.



The author bites down on the straw of his Long Island Iced Tea so as to distract himself from negative thoughts. On the left, all stylish with lovely new hairstyle - Joelle. On the right, my easygoing and lovable Canadian travel pal - Sarah.

Next weekend I go to Busan with Joelle which should be lovely!

Drugs

I forgot the stories I heard about the quantity of drugs Korean doctors prescribe for common things like colds and flus. This was the handful I received this afternoon (3 times daily, 3 days running) after complaining of a cough, chills and a headache.

Foolish

There hasn't yet been a moment on this trip when I've wanted to pack it in and come home immediately, but right now is about as close as I've come to that. There's nothing like common or garden flu like symptoms to tip one into homesickness. I spent the weekend surrounded by snotty tissues breathing the stale air of my flat wondering when I would next have to go to the Mini Stop downstairs for some more bottled water. On the upside I got to watch a few episodes of the classic BBC / David Attenborough series "Life On Earth," which is a decades-old televisual feast in the same vein as Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" and Jacob Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man" that, looking at today's offerings, makes me wonder where television went wrong after demonstrating such promise earlier on in the piece!

Anyway, I've finally given in and will see a doctor this arvo. My manager is coming with me. She has a son fighting with the American Army in Iraq. Apparently she and her husband think I look like him and have made that connection to go the extra mile to help me, ie, looking after me will help them to feel easier about their son fighting someone else's war in a middle eastern hell hole. I never use that sort of language around her of course. I've met the guy and he's, well, young and naive. And there's all this talk about him becoming a man in the army. And stuff.

There's nothing like teaching to drain you of whatever resources you started the day with. "Yes! I can get through the day" soon becomes "Shit! How many more to go?" in the break between first and second periods. I am officially sick and tired of Korean food and I wish I was sunbathing on Koh Samui or somewhere equally exotic right now. There was a night I bobbed effortlessly in the tropical ocean, I looked up at the stars and the lanterns floating over from BoPhut Beach, then back at the decorations on shore - twinkling lights wrapped around a half dozen palm trees - I think I've written about it earlier, and I thought "this is the image I will carry with me!"

Backpacking in China in Winter - a fool's desire?

Incheon Songdo Marathon

Half marathon: over.
Time: 1.55.00

Sessions and I went out to Incheon on Saturday arvo to get ourselves ready for the great race. We had been preparing for this since back in late June. I was looking forward to that finish line more than I'd realised. After all, who would give up a precious weekend to go and sweat it out with 10 000 other nutters on a Sunday morning? Even the churchgoing among us had a longer sleep in than Stephen and I! I have decided to spend the next few Thursday nights at Traveler's Bar & Bistro getting pissed and telling stories about how I used to be great at sport, which will lead to the more tall stories about how I used to be popular at school, and then onto more general shouted demands for the whole pub to STFU and listen to me sing Khe Sahn. And enjoy it.

We headed out on the bus and spent the afternoon wandering around Incheon's Chinatown and Jayu Park. There's a couple of notable monuments out there including the General MacArthur statue and the monument for the centenary of Korea-US relations. At around 4:30 we headed off for the love motel district (adjacent to the Incheon Songdo Business District) and started to look for somewhere to stay. Love motel or not, 35 000 KRW was a good price for this room. It came with a free condom which, although I appreciated the tired receptionist's gesture, didn't fit because it was designed for 4 Incheon. I'm not sure how many of you will get that but it's staying in for publication as I quite like it. Cheers.

Right then. After dinner I listened to the last of Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking audiobook and then had trouble sleeping. It wasn't the mattress, or the arguments outside, or the budae jjigae I'd had for lunch. Have you heard of the Rape of Nanking? It was one of the most concentrated and abominable horror stories ever to emerge from the long and painful twentieth century. And as a student of history, I am qualified to say that there was a lot fucked up shit that went down in that century. I am spending a few days in Nanjing during my upcoming Chinese "sweet 'n' sour" tour of January '11 and am therefore keen to know a bit about what actually happened there in the winter of 1937-38. But not if it involves too many more stories of tortures, beheading, rape, genocide, and Japanese soldiers enjoying it.

Sunday morning was a simple dinner of gimbap, which I thought would be plain enough before the race. We hailed a taxi and had chosen one that didn't know where Central Park was which I thought was pretty poor form but found the race after he hailed another cabbie and got directions. How amusing for me to find that the start/finish line of the race was outside the hotel I'd been put up in 11 months earlier by Korean Air when I was flying to Europe. This small area of Korea sparks great memories and carries heavy emotions for me. Korea was the first foreign country I visited and so the morning before my flight I wandered around the park taking pictures of "Asian" things. Rocks and pavilions and towers and such.



This one, the old and the new, was taken on November 19, 2009. I had the sense that I would like to see more of Korea, but had no idea it would be as soon as...



...October 17, 2010, after the short journey to Europe, the incendiary relationship coming down and going up in flames, the long trip home, and the determination never to be fooled again. Oh, the humanity...



Shame about this pic as I'm doing that squinty thing again. That's Stephen next to me, an all round top bloke who did the marathon (42.195km) in 3.43.00



Some women go all Beatlemania when they spot a handsome white man. Other just hide behind their sleeves. Stephen, who took this picture, is very good-looking guy.

The race over, Stephen and I started to head back but were met by some of his mates who made the journey all the way to Incheon, only to miss the finish. We got back to Yatap, where they went to play football and drink and such and I went straight home for a nap. Actually the damage hasn't been bad at all; going down stairs was painful yesterday, but I would say that Stephen and I put in enough training, to cope with the race, when it came. And we did.

A Bit o' The Ol' Push 'n' Shove

My Chuseok holiday finished with me ambling around Bundang for a few lazy days in late September. There was a game of screen golf with Matt and his pal Will, both originally from the U.S. but teaching in Korea now for 1 and 3 years respectively. Will was quite the golfer, and at one point criticised Matt - who is always looking to improve his game - for his "Willy Loman-like stance." I asked what that meant and Will went into his "a man is not a piece of fruit" speech. Basically Will thought Matt looked a bit pathetic.

I enjoy the company of these two guys. Matt consistently displays the similar style of whimsical and irreverent Facebook status update that I favour, though (if possible), he does it better than me. Screen golf on the other hand is as boring as batshit. Yes it is amusing for the first half an hour to hit a ball against a screen then let the computer take over, but after that novelty wears away, all there is to do is drink. After an hour of that, the golf just becomes a nuisance. Some say that golf ruins a nice walk, but it ruins so much more than that, including the opportunity to have a good piss up with your new mates.

So we went to Traveler's "for 1" after the golf, and stayed for 5. There we managed to continue the afternoon of "sport" by playing fussball and darts. Each one of us emerged as the best at one of the sports, and I'm pleased to say that I became known as the one to beat at darts, which is of course the only real sport of the 3.
I called it quits early though as I drink so infrequently now that it knocks me for 6 whenever I do touch it. I also can't think of a better way I could have saved more money than in reducing my alcohol intake, other than to take up smoking and give it up in the same week.

Before you get the wrong idea please know that I went to Sarah Wilson's housewarming party 2 weeks ago and got completely soused. Okay, let's move on.

The marathon training is in full swing now as the big race is less than 2 weeks away. I will run my final long distance training session this Thursday, then do a couple of quiet ones in the week leading up to the race. On the big day I am praying for weather much like what we've been enjoying lately. My prediction came true that once the summer passed and the humidity dropped sharply I would cope with the distance running so much easier. I've even got half a mind to enter a full marathon in March, before it warms up too much.

But the major event on my horizon is my trip to China this January. Any day now I will receive my jolly old Lonely Planet China from Amazon, after which I can plan in detail my trek across the eastern and central parts of China. At the moment the idea is to take the ferry from Incheon to Qingdao, then use trains once I am on the Chinese mainland, working around to Xian and Beijing, before heading home (to Bundang - I think of it as my home I guess). In preparation for this I have been refreshing my Mandarin; it's remarkable how much stuck from all the way back in the year 2000. Immediately upon forming the first few words I fell for the sounds and the tones of the language again. After perusing the phrasebook for 25 minutes over a meal of deok mandu guk last night I found I had forgotten every word of Korean I knew, almost saying goodbye to the cook in the wrong language.

The Koreans are treating me well and I've gotten used to some of their behaviours, even if I can't always immediately accept that the "rudeness" isn't to be taken personally. I've never thought too much about the simple act of walking in a crowd, however within a few weeks of landing over here, I found I'd reflected upon it many times. There is a different flow of pedestrian traffic, one which I am used to now and so don't even notice that much, but I saw how the "after you" and "do you mind if I don't" gestures which I was brought up to believe in were less a kindness and more of a hindrance over here, where everyone already knows their place and so expects to either go first or wait for you. There are random acts of kindness of course, and in general the lack of aggression and the safety of Korean society are very attractive parts of the culture. But these "western hang-ups" of mine - of believing in personal space for instance - will just have to be suspended. It's not always that bad: Lucy brushes up so close to me during lesson planning that I have to remind myself that it doesn't mean anything. In truth, however, there have been fewer instances of that, and more of being forced up against a dribbly old man wearing a smashing US Navy cap on the subway, and not being able to move until we get back to Seolleung.

Should You Leave?

Today I went to my favourite cafe and I read this book, Should You Leave?. The question posed is examined in the context of relationships. Author Peter Kramer errs on the side of sticking it out and working, mostly. But I am considering the same question in another context, that of my decision to stay in Korea again next year or move on. Should You Leave?

I don't think I will. I think about it all the time though, before remembering that I've been down this path many times and always conclude that I don't have to decide for another few months yet.

We've just come back from Sokcho, Joelle and I. Each time I've been there I've had the urge to apply for work out there. The province it is in, Gangwon-do, is far nicer than where I currently am in Gyeonggi-do. The air is fresh and the people are friendly. It's much like my hometown of Mittagong NSW. Back in Bundang the people are shitty and not nice. And if they're nice, it's towards someone else.

Presently checking destinations for a sneaky getaway in Winter. Harbin, China? Qiqihar? Or Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Or the Radisson on the "tropical" island of Jeju, Korea? My desire? Go where there's no American college graduates shouting OHMYGARD and asking where the nearest party is. Like I'd know! And saying things about my mother, which is totally inappropriate mind you, given that she is a lovely lady and would probably make you tea and ask about your life if I you ever met her because she is kind and interested in you and in showing you genuine hospitality. You don't travel very well. You expect the world to be a lot like L.A. and seem genuinely confused when it's not.

Tomorrow: screen golf with Matt and Mitja.



Juhee wouldn't rest until she was allowed to take this picture of me in front of the just-docked Dong Chun ferry. This is the one that does the run up to Vladivostok in Russia, the one I've been talking about taking when my tour of duty in Korea finishes (if it ever does).

Mongolia 2011?

I'm still here. There's nothing worth writing about. There is, but I have no imagination. I have enough to imagine that they are all against me. My students sometimes tell me that this is true.

This weekend: a folk festival in Anseong? Or just stay in Yatap and get folked? Does it really matter? Will I ever be any closer to Audrey Tautou?

My debts are tumbling down. They pay us well here. Korea rates well above every other east Asian country with regards to how much one can save. Teachers must however resist the temptation to bugger off to other countries at every chance they get, however tempting it is. My latest fantasy is Mongolia for 2011 baby. Apart from the one I've been having about Seonah all day. She's chosen to wear a very foxy outfit today, totally unbecoming of the conservative, demure and shy Christian she says she is. Thank God I'm an atheist.

For Chuseok, a trip to the East Sea with Joelle. Remember Seoraksan? I'm going back.

Catchya later! Soon I hope. Korea's a lovely place to visit at this time of year and I have a very comfortable couch. 010-6871-3385!