Unreasonable Expectations

I guess by now that I shouldn't be surprised by this.  I know that Korea is obsessed with the appearance of success, but this is taking it a little too far.  In the recent citywide elementary school English contest, my school did better than every other school.  We did not place first in any event, but we were the only school in which every student who participated received a medal.  We received two silver medals and two bronze medals in reading, speaking, writing, and the golden bell (English quiz).  In the United States having 4 of 4 students earn either a silver or a bronze medal is something to be proud of.  Especially considering the fact that the student who won the golden bell had spent the past 6 months in the United States going to school.  We earned a silver and a bronze in that event. 

However, according to my principal and my vice principal, if we did not win a gold medal we did not do a good job.  I actually had two of my students apologize to me because they didn't win their respective competitions.  Forgive me if this seems a little unreasonable.  Yes, getting first place would be nice, but even without it we proved that our school is one of the better places in this city to obtain an English education.  I think we should be praising our students for a job well done, not criticizing them because they didn't win it all.  Now the criticism is coming from my principal and vice principal but still my co-teachers are sad because they see it as a failure on their part. 

I guess it just comes down to differences in opinion, but I have to say that I think I'm right here.  My kids did a wonderful job, and I know that most every other foreign teacher here agrees with me.  Call it cultural, call it whatever, still, these kids are in 5th and 6th grade.  At least tell them they did a good job.

My life or something like it.

I have the distinct feeling that for those of you who are still following this blog you might be slightly annoyed by the dearth of posts in the past few months.  I wish I could say that it was simply because I have been so busy that I have not had time to write.  I could try and sell you on that line, but it would be an utter waste of my and more importantly your time.  The simple truth is that life here is now more or less the same as life everywhere.  There are still small quirky things that happen from time to time, but in general, it's the same as if I was living in the United States and working.  It honestly doesn't make the most interesting of blogging material. 

Alas, life still moves forward.  I have started my third contract here in Korea.  Some of you might be wondering just how it is I could resign for a third year.  Well, in all honesty, money is what kept me here.  After playing with numbers and making some rough estimates I have come to the conclusion that I have a job which is paying me between 35,000-40,000 dollars a year here.  The reason this number is so high is because I do not have to pay for rent.  Once you factor in even the cheapest of rental options in San Diego you're still looking at a minimum of 6,000 dollars.  I ran my numbers using an estimate of 1,000 dollars a month.  This number is rather high, but it includes, vehicle costs, utilities, and other small things that come as part of being a functional member or society.  Assuming these numbers, that is an extra 12,000 dollars a year that I'm not paying.  Now, granted I make less than this 40,000 a year.  In fact I probably make about 66% of this number when it's all said and done.  However, the benefits here far outweigh the uncertainties when considering coming home. 

There are too many things right now that just are not clear enough to warrant leaving my job.  I do really want to come home, and I'm planning on coming home sooner rather then later.  However, the current joblessness when combined with underemployment have me scared out of my mind.  I am not going to come back to the states just to pick up a wrench again or substitute teach again.  I'd like to say that I have some level of hope that this problem will magically fix itself before I come home, but I know better.  When you combine this with the potential of another recession next year, I could not come home.  I couldn't abandon a relatively secure job and a positive work environment for the unknown that waits back home.  Don't mistake this for complacency in my situation.  I am far from it.  I am just realistic.  I don't have the money saved to wait this out right now, nor am I certain enough of my resume to ensure myself of a job when I arrive. 

The current plan is to complete my contract, and then to evaluate myself when I get closer to the time to make a decision.  I plan to come home at the end of this contract, or to extend through the end of the school year here to set myself up better in the states.  Granted for a lot of you this is not what you'd like to hear.  I unfortunately cannot offer much sympathy to you.  This is the decision that I made after some intense contemplation and thought.  I believe that this is what is best for my life right now.  Had this whole recession thing not happened then maybe I'd be in a completely different boat.  Yet, it did, and this is where I find myself now. 

Given the fun nature of this post so far I figure that I should probably change tones and talk about my life in the past month.  After my experience with the typhoon (see previous post) life has been more or less the same.  I know you're so surprised at that statement.  Don't rush to judgment too fast here.  There are actually a few interesting stories in here. 

I will start with a recipe that I "discovered" here.  I warn you not to make this because they are like crack.  It's a candied walnut.  I was trying to make roasted pork in a honey citron tea sauce.  There are several honey based teas here in Korea that are quite delicious.  The stuff is basically honey marmalade.  Well as I was roasting the pork I threw some veggies and walnuts in to roast also.  While I was eating dinner I noticed that the walnuts were ridiculously awesome.  In fact the pork wasn't that great because the tea I chose was too sweet (the honey ginger tea will work much better).  Well I decided to roast some walnuts the next day in the sauce.  I roast them until the sugars in the honey start to caramelize.  Right before I pull them out I've been throwing a little bit of shredded coconut onto them.  Once the stuff cools down you end up with some awesome walnuts.  You should be able to find the teas at almost any Asian supermarket.  I must warn you though, these things are addicting.  Do not make them if you are hungry.  You'll burn your mouth because you're eating so many of them straight out of the oven.

Outside of my accidental recipe discovery my cooking life has been relatively simple.  I have executed and managed not to screw up making my mom's pasta salad several times.  I have also made a couple of face melting salsas with my absolutely lovely food processor.  I know, I know, a guy who loves sports shouldn't be talking in such away about a food processor.  I promise there is a sports story coming soon. 

Life outside of cooking has been pretty simple recently.  There has been a whole new bunch of teachers arriving and making there way into the Seosan foreigner scene.  This means I am meeting new people and trying to remember all their names.  Not an easy task when you're as bad with names as I am.  If I could I would just name them all Bob and Susan.  It does however lead to some interesting conversations with the recently arrived.  One person, who shall remain nameless, is unfortunately the type of person that we've managed to avoid having around since I've been here.  The easy access to alcohol and exceptionally low cost of it is not a good thing for this person.  What is worse though, is the boorish/misogynistic mentality that he develops with liquid courage.  The first time I ever met him he asked me about how easy it was to score with Korean chicks.  Sensing this conversation was not going to go well I told him the truth that it was difficult, but not impossible.  He then proceeded to talk about a friend of mine for about fifteen minutes and how he was going to "get her" before long.  Unknowingly to him this woman has a boyfriend and is friends with a lot of the foreigners.  Needless to say he's made a bad impression with lots of us and is unfortunately making a name for himself with the Koreans also.  Which, sadly is passed on to all foreigners.

Okay, fine, here is the sports story.  I'll try to keep it short as this post has already gone on long enough.  For those of you that have read previous posts or I have talked to , know that Koreans love to play volleyball.  They love it so much that every public school here has an intramural team that plays other schools.  Well we recently had an 8 team tournament.  Our school took second place in the tournament.  We actually should have won but we blew a 5 point lead in the final set.  Needless to say, yours truly played quite well.  I'd like to say I have a glamorous job, but my job is basically to block when the ball is set to my side and to clean up the net.  Basically my job has become is the past few weeks to scramble, dive, and generally risk my well being in an attempt to make the play last longer.  Well, second place isn't that bad, but the funny thing is watching a 6 foot 265 pound white guy playing volleyball with a bunch of 5'5" to 5'10" 165 pound Koreans.  Needless to say, and I am quoting a friend here, "It's like watching a rhino playing with gazelles."  My body still hurts from this tournament because we played 5 games on Sunday and played 12 sets of Volleyball.  Last time we played in the tournament lost our first two games and went home.  I'd say this was quite the improvement. 

Surviving Typhoon Kompasu

Being a person who spent a majority of his time living in California, it is safe to say that I have been blessed by wonderful weather for most of my life.  California, northern or southern tends to have wonderful weather that lacks extremes.  At worst we have hot weather or cold weather.  We do not see any hurricanes or tornados.  We do have to deal with wild fires, but to call those a weather phenomenom is a misnomer.  However, given that I currently no longer reside in California as all of you by now know, I was granted the rare privellage of experiencing my first typhoon.  Typhoon Kompasu struck South Korea a week and a half ago, and while it was not strong compared to most typhoons, it was still scary enough.

Being that I have never really experienced anything beyond a major thunderstorm with small cyclonic events, waking up at 4:00 AM with the wind howling was a major surprise.  I knew that the typhoon was coming, but I had heard conflicting reports about how serious it was going to be.  I had gone to bed after winning 50 dollars at poker and figured to wake up the next morning and go to work.  Then the typhoon rolled past our little town and scared the hell out of everyone.  It turns out that Korea was not made to withstand 100 MPH winds and even if it could survive gusts of wind, the sustained winds over the course of an hour or two reeked havoc.  Windows were blown out, signs were knocked over, and trees were ripped apart.  This was a sight and a sound to behold at 4:00 AM.  Needless to say it was scary to hear ripping metal, gusting winds, and just praying that nothing stuck my windows because I was trying to sleep.

It was a frightening experience because of the sheer volume of noise that was being generated.  The sound of ripping metals, snapping tree limbs, and wind made for a cacophony of noise that is quite unlike anything I have ever heard before.  When you add into this an apartment with numerous windows that don't seal all that well you have a perfect storm of noise that will rob anyone of sleep.  After falling back asleep due to being rather exhausted I awoke the next morning to the power being out.  The power was out across our fair town.  I sent a message to my co-teachers to check and see if we had school that day, and was quite surprised to find out that yes school was actually in session, even though nobody had any power.  After taking a cold shower because I could not power my hot water heater I emerged from my apartment for my walk to school.  Needless to say what I saw along the way was quite surprising.  The large apartment tower next to my apartment sustained substantial damage.  At least 30 of the apartments had sustained busted bay windows and glass was strewn about.  All the trees along the way had been shredded of their leaves, and even some building had their facades ripped off by the winds.  It was impressive for lack of a better word.

As I arrived at school, I found my school without power, and the classrooms filled with students and teachers.  Rather surprised at the fact that the school was going to try to function without power I arrived and was informed that we had to teach.  The reason this was so surprising was that is based along the fact that all of our text books are designed to be used with computers and televisions to show the kids what we're doing.  English, even more so than any other subject is designed to be a multimedia experience.  In fact, without a computer it's nearly impossible to use our books.  With this is mind my co-teacher and I walked into our classes and basically player games for the entire period.  Luckily, after two years of teaching, I have several games which I can pull out in an emergency that require nothing besides my voice and willing participation.  The school, in all it's wisdom decided that since there was no power, and therefore no way to provide the students with a lunch, that the kids would leave at noon.  The teachers on the other hand, were required to stay, and not only that, they were required to help clean up the grounds.  This entailed me pushing a wheelbarrow around my school while my other co-teachers piled stuff into it.

Around 1:30 the power came back and the teachers all fled back inside into the wonderful confines of an air conditioned room.  With nothing to do but watch a movie at my desk, I sat out the rest of the day before packing it in and heading home.  Along the walk home I was still surprised at the amount of damage done.  What surprised me even more was when I found out that we had been grazed by the storm.  We were about 30 miles from the center of the storm.  Seoul unfortunately took the storm head on and paid the price for it.  I can offically say that I have now been through my first typhoon.  It was an intense experience, even if it was only a baby typhoon by the time it got to us. 

The Bali Retrospective.

I know it's been two weeks since I came back from Bali, and it seems a little weird to just now be writing about this, however, I have no excuses so just deal.  I think I am finally in a position to fully talk about my experiences in Bali.  It's not like they were bad, I just needed time to process my vacation.  I think the essential difference between this vacation, and so many of my other vacations was the intent with which I went.  My intentions were to relax and recharge.  Normally when I go traveling I plan on traveling hard.  I plan to see as much as possible in the least amount of time.  I plan on spending no more then 4 days in one place before I move onto the next.  This time, I spent 9 days in one place.  Not only that, but I spent those 9 days in a place where one of the primary things to do is sit around and relax.  However, I am only trying to give you all excuses for what seems like an out of the ordinary vacation experience for me. 

Enough of the time wasting, I guess I should get to the story.  Bali presented itself as a unique opportunity for me.  I had never before been to the Southern Hemisphere.  Not only that, but I've never traveled anywhere one could consider tropical.  Well, both of those things have changed now.  My friends and I arrived in Bali after a 7 hour flight from Seoul.  We arrived in Bali at 1 in the morning and proceeded to deal with obtaining our visas.  Most Southeast Asian countries require a full page visa to enter into the country, and Indonesia is no different.  Like most Southeast Asian countries, you can acquire this visa at the airport for the small price of 25 dollars.  After paying our fee to obtain our visa we waited in a rather long and warm line to get the visa placed into our passports and to be granted entry into the country.  This is where the adventure begins.  Tom and I had forgot/didn't know that the amendments pages at the back of our passport could not be used for visas.  I fully blame the Italian government for my misunderstanding because the airport in Palermo stamped the very last page of my passport which is for amendments.  However, being faced with the prospect of not being allowed into the country, our ever so nice immigration official informed us that for the small fee of 100,000 Indonesian Rupiah he would be willing to look the other way.  100,000 Rupiah roughly equals 11 dollars.  Now, myself being an upstanding citizen and world traveler was slightly taken aback at the thought of bribing my way into a country.  Well actually I wasn't, I was just surprised that in all of my travels this is the first time I've ever had to bribe an official.

With all of our bags collected and Tom and my bribes paid we walked out of the airport at 2:30 in the morning looking for our driver.  Our driver was standing outside for us and proceeded to drive us to our villa.  We arrived 45 minutes later and like the partial zombies we were randomly chose our rooms.  That night sleep came easily in my ridiculously awesome king sized bed.  The next morning we were treated to a welcome breakfast by our villa staff.  It was a simple meal, but after years of either no breakfasts or a quick breakfast, a simple continental breakfast was amazing.  After breakfast I decided that it was time for me to partake in one of my favorite vacation/summer activities.  I went for a swim in our private pool.  The plan for the day was simple: relax, do a little shopping, and then go to dinner.  The day was a success.  We went to a nearby supermarket to check on some things and managed to purchase some wonderful looking tropical fruit.  We purchased: mangoes, dragon fruit, durian, and several other interesting looking things.  When we returned I found myself back in the pool relaxing and spent the day swimming and reading.  For dinner we went down to the local beach and had a wonderful dinner. 

The fruit was the highlight of the day however.  Durian, for those that don't know is considered the king of fruits.  Either that or it's considered the most vile thing ever created.  I fall into the first category.  This fruit, while looking like something the cloud dude chucked at you in Mario Brothers, was awesome.  It did not smell bad, and the interior meat parts was a mix between custard and very ripe avocado.  It was simply wonderful.  I have to say that I was let down by the dragon fruit.  For something that is so colorful and awesome looking, it is rather bland tasting.  It tastes like a mix of banana and kiwi, but if you leeched all the flavor out.  It was ok, I was just expecting more.

The next day we started our sightseeing adventure with a trip to Tanah Lot temple.  This Hindu temple is located on rocks out in the ocean.  It is the most sacred sight in Bali and was epically beautiful.  The whole place was jet black volcanic rock and this temple was sitting on rocks jutting out of the ocean.  It's hard to describe the beauty of the area, luckily I have enough photos to do the hard work for me.  When we returned from visiting the temple we arrived with enough time for a quick soak in the pool before our massages arrived.  For ten dollars each we ordered our massages to our villa.  Well, all of us except for TC.  He decided to go run into Kuta to look for some things.  Our hour long massage was wonderful, and I could seriously get used to the Balinese style massage.  It is not so hard that it makes you squirm, but it is also not so soft you feel like you need another one.  After my massage at our villa my barber showed up to cut my hair.  I was rather shaggy and for 7 bucks I figured I'd let an Indonesian have a crack at my hair.  He couldn't do a worse job then the haircuts I get in Korea.  He honestly gave me the best haircut I've had since I left the states.  The only scary moment was when I realized that he was going to trim around my hairline and my ears by using a simple straight razor.  No, not the cool kind that barbers use, but the straight razors we use for opening boxes and stuff like that.  Talk about making you want to sit still. 

The next few days passed with several sight seeing/shopping trips around Bali.  We visited Ubud, which was about 1 1/2 hours away from our villa.  Ubud is known as the artists' colony of Bali, and it has honestly earned its reputation.  Everywhere you went were art galleries and shops selling artistic items.  There were also tons of shops and store which were selling tourist items, but hey, tourism is how Bali makes its money.  We came back to Ubud a second time to visit the Monkey Forest Sanctuary and to go to the nearby Elephant Safari park.  Ubud was a wonderful city, and if it were not so far away from the beaches and the waves then I would seriously consider staying there. 

On another one of the days TC, Nikki, Tom and I decided it was time to go get abused by the local waves.  Bali is known for surfing, and after fighting the waves where we went, I can see why.  We weren't even at a good surfing beach.  That however, didn't stop me from suffering the second worst wipe-out of my life while attempting to body surf.  Around noon the waves were breaking in should height water and were roughly 4-5 feet in size.  They were perfect for body boarding or body surfing, however, you couldn't get to them.  The reason you could not get to these waves was there was a secondary break at about stomach high water that took lots of effort to fight through.  It was really hard.  That afternoon as the tide went out, that secondary break became a knee high level break.  The water had retreated at least 100 yards.  While this made the primary break easily accessible, it also made it rather dangerous for those not used to being around waves.  The waves were still 4-5 feet, however now instead of being in relatively deep water, they were now coming in at waist height in sets of two.  You couldn't escape these things, and they dumped many people straight into the sand.  I was one of them, and while I was at no risk of drowning, it was still rather intense.  I saw one guy get dropped face first into the water from a height of about 7 feet.  My friend Tom also had this happen to him. 

On our last day of sight seeing we decided to go to another beach, however this one was known for snorkeling.  Sanur was a nice quiet little area that specialized in water sports that don't require or want waves.  Snorkeling, para-sailing, jet skis, wind surfing, etc.  We went there to snorkel.  Now, normally snorkeling would be lost on someone who is blind like me.  However, thanks to the wonderful refractive properties of both water and my mask, I could actually see quite well under the water.  There were fish everywhere, including a few things that I could not explain.  The puffer fish and clown fish were pretty awesome.  In all it was pretty great to go swimming around with the fishes.  It also serves as a nice reminder of just how magical the ocean can be.  With our time in the ocean coming to an end we went and visited a sea turtle sanctuary.  After lunch we decided to try and make our way to Uluwatu Temple to catch a Kecak dance.  Unfortunately the show was sold out when we got there.  We did however catch an absolutely stunning and wonderful sunset.  That and TC's glasses were stolen off of his face by a monkey which then proceeded to eat the soft plastic nose pieces.

Our last day found me laying around Nikki's mom's hotel room.  I had unfortunately fallen ill with a dreaded case of Bali Belly.  In simple terms I didn't want to be more then about 15 feet from a bathroom at any point and time.  I'll save you all the details, but that is part of the reason it took me so long to get this post up.  Our flight left Bali at 1 in the morning and we arrived in Korea at 9:30 in the morning.  After a bus ride which saw me spend most the time sleeping and praying my stomach would hold up I found myself back in my apartment.  August had arrived while I was gone, and I already missed the wonderful weather of Bali. 

Bali Hi!!!!

Welcome, my friends to a tropical wonderland of sun, surf, food, and cheap prices.  Welcome my friends to Bali, land of the hour massage for 10 dollars.  Bali is the first vacation that I have taken in Asia, and I must say that it has been absolutely awesome so far.  It starts with our awesome villa.  The villa comes fully equipped with a staff, a pool, a driver, chef, etc.  The villa is nestled amongst terraced rice paddies on some rather rough Indonesian roads.  I have been able to completely relax and just let got of life for a while.  On top of our awesome villa has been some spectacular culinary conquests.  Going beyond just traditional tropical fruit to the second best steak I've ever had, and a giant freaking lobster that only cost about 10 bucks.   The culinary side of this trip has been something entirely unplanned on.  I am eating at far better restaurants then someone on my pay check should be able to. 

The vacation has started slowly, with relaxation being the most important thing for me.  I need to de-stress and revitalize.  I have done that, while still managing to hit a couple of tourist spots.  The vacation is going to pick up in the next few days along with my sunburn, which is progressing nicely.  I just might make myself into a lobster by the time I get out of here.  The following days should see a few more massages, some excellent dining, and hopefully some more water sports.  I forgot how much I loved being in the water.  Alas, time is money as they say, and I have a lot more of Bali to go do.  I will try to write again.  Much love my peeps and I will see you when I see you.

How sweet it is.....

There are few things more anticipated amongst education professionals than two simple words we loved as children.  It turns out that summer vacation is not just something for students, but in reality is something that teachers need.  Anyone who has spent anytime in the field of education knows just how long and tiring the work truly is.  Summer vacation is a chance for the teachers to rest and recuperate just as much as it is for the students.  In fact I think that most teachers secretly look forward to vacation more than the students. 

I find myself here today on the cusp of my first Asian vacation.  I call it my first Asian vacation because for the first time since I left the United States I will be exploring another Asian country.  Ok, fine I'll be honest.  I'm going to go explore another Asian beach where I will probably get a sunburn and a hangover.  Tomorrow I will leave Korea behind for a 9 days to go explore around Bali, Indonesia.  I am actually really excited because I have little to no plans once we arrive there.  Our villa is going to have a chef, a pool, a driver if we want, and is located really close to some great beaches.  I have to be honest, I'm looking forward to doing nothing.  Most of the tourist things in Bali are relatively simple.  They revolve around mountains, temples, beaches, shopping, eating, and drinking.  There are the prerequisite elephant rides, traditional dances, tourist traps, and scammers.  However, with all that I am relatively unimpressed.  Yes, there will be snorkeling and swimming.  There is also the chance to eat and drink copious amounts.

Yet, with all that Bali entails and everything that it is promised to be, the thing that I am most looking forward to, is the simple chance to relax for several days on end.  I'm not looking for much, and I think that this place will be as good a place as any to rest and refit for the coming months.  I think the simple message behind all of this is that, everyone needs a break every now and then.  Sometimes we ignore it and plod through our lives.  For once, I'm not going to ignore it.  For once I'm going to embrace it, and we'll see where I end up at the end of it.  It'll probably be a sunburnt ending.

Some Awesome Shots of Korea

Ok, these shots I did not take.  They were taken by a professional photographer/poet here in Korea.  That being said these are some awesome pictures that I might be able to do if I had an awesome camera, and maybe some talent.  These are just some of the reasons I love it here.