What is this water falling from the sky in summer?

Ok, California people, check this out, and let yourself gloat a bit:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/KSXX0037?from=36hr_topnav_business

In addition to the high temperatures and constant rain, the humidity is almost always over 90%. (at the time I posted this)

At least the rain washes off the sweat.

Korea people, take a look at this, and wonder why you aren't living in California:

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/95124?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared

Hmmm. Where I come from, summer means sunshine. Rain is not allowed in summer in California. And dry heat rules, I don't care what anyone says.

I would like to take every travel book and website I read about Korea that said "Korea has four distinct seasons," (which they ALL do) and replace it with this:

"Korea has shitty weather most of the year."

I'm coming home!

Ok, it's official, I scheduled my flight home today.

I will be coming back to the Bay Area on August 29th, and staying for about 3 weeks before I head back out to travel. Originally I hadn't planned on coming home before starting the big trip, but some unexpected things came up. There was a slight bungle with my contract ticket, and they purchased me one that expired in August. I was planning on letting it expire and buying myself a one way ticket home once I was done with my trip. But then I found out that my brother is getting married in September and of course I wanted to be there for that. It turns out that it is actually cheaper to buy a round trip ticket from SF to Bangkok or Singapore than to buy a one-way from Seoul. (Which I would have to do because I would need to go back and get all my stuff.) So I decided to use the ticket that was already bought for me and just buy a round trip on my own.

So I'll be home for about 3 weeks in September. I'm so excited......!!!!

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted...

Check out this photo! That's where I was this morning!

Is it possible for the collective will of a group of people to change the outcome of an event? If enough fans want victory badly enough, can they actually WILL a team to win? I sometimes wonder if that's possible, but tonight would be evidence that it is not. Because I have a hard time imagining that the will of the Swiss could have possibly been any stronger than what I saw from Korea this morning.

I have never seen such an amazing display of unity in support of a sports team on such a large scale. Koreans are rabid about their soccer team. I mean, just look at the damn picture at the top! That was taken during the game that I just came home from, which started around 4 in the morning. 4 in the morning! And there are hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets of Seoul, cheering non-stop for their team to win. Let me tell you, the Koreans wanted their team to win more than I have ever seem a group of people want anything. They had the gear to prove it too ... you should have seen the merchandise - devil horns, flags, noise makers, blankets, blow up sticks, hats, you name it, it was for sale. If gear alone could win a game, Korea would be a sure thing. But as it slowly got light this morning, it became clear that no amount of kitchy paraphenalia or victory songs could win a soccer game.

And the Swiss beat 'em. Everyone is blaming the loss on a bad ref call, of course. Supposedly the second goal should not have happened because they guy was offsides. I'm no soccer expert, but I think in the end, the Swiss just played a better game.

So Korea is out. There is a somberness hanging over the country right now, partially because of the loss and partially because a large percentage of the population stayed up partying all night to watch the game. I imagine productivity will be down quite a bit today.

And yes, I watched the game, right in the midst of all the chaos downtown, along with thousands of other red clad fans. In fact, I can pick out the spot that we were standing in that photo at the top. I've been wanting to be a part of that ever since I heard about the massive jumbotron-watching street parties from the 2002 World Cup. I'm glad I got my chance before it was too late, but I'm bummed that it had to be for a losing game, and on a night that I was so tired.

It's 8:30 am right now, and I just got home, so I'm damn exhausted. Although I cheated a bit and took a short nap after work before heading downtown around 2 am. The original plan was to go straight there after work to get a decent spot, but I was so tired when my last class finished that my whole body actually ached. 11 hour teaching days will do that to you!

Here's a few of my photos from the game. We watched at Gwanhamun, which is near downtown. One estimate I read said that there were about 350, 000 people out in that area, with a total of 1.5 million on the streets of the wider downtown area. Holy shit. Yeah, that's a lot of people.

The amazing part is that the biggest problem reported was too much trash left behind. Can you believe that? Unless they are protesting something, Korean's are so damn well behaved. I even saw guys ashing their cigarettes into empty bottles instead of on the street because they didn't want to ash in a spot where people might be sitting later.

At one point Sun asked me if anything this sort could ever happen in the US. NO WAY. For one thing, there really isn't anything that unites that many Americans anymore, at least not to get them out into the streets at 4 am. Secondly, the authorities would never allow that many people to gather publicly. And if they did, can you imagine the problems that would probably ensue? No way, this could never happen in the US.

A gigantic billboard over the crowd. Cell phones with TV are becoming very popular here, and many people, like this couple behind us, just watched the game on their phones.

Nervous fans watching shortly before the second Swiss goal. Towards the end of the game, the sun was coming up and the mood was going down.

Oh well, 4 more years.....

대 한 민 국!!!

Rock on, Korea won. Last night post game was pretty dope, celebrations in the streets, the entire country screaming as one each time they scored a goal. I didn't go downtown for the big hoopla, but I really wish I had, becauase I heard it was damn fun. And crazy big crowds are veeeery controlled in Korea, no violence, no breaking shit, no assholes spilling beer on your shoes....its the best place to have celebration riot, really.

Let's hope they can pull it off again next week! I'm ready for more nation wide public nuttiness.

Did you know that there was a baby boom in Korea 9 months after the 2002 World Cup? There is nothing like victory to get the love flowing!

So today I taught what I think just may be the funniest thing I have ever had to teach. In my afternoon class, we had a lesson about how to tie your shoes. Why is that funny? Because the students were all THIRD GRADERS. Yes, that's right. Third graders, three of them. And NONE of them knew how to tie their shoes.

Apparently, this is not all that uncommon in Korea. Kids just don't learn to tie their shoes. It's partially because of the popularity of shoes with Velcro and other snazzy methods of fastening. Ok, but there are still plenty of kids that wear lace shoes, and a surprising number of them don't know how to tie them. When they need their laces tied, they just find and adult or let them hang loose.

I am totally floored by this. And my students were floored when I told them that kids in the US learn to tie their shoes in Kindergarten or first grade. They told me that none of their friends or classmates knew how. Usually, I don't let my reactions show when my kids tell me things about Korea that I find shocking or strange, but I couldn't help it this time.

So, we had a shoe tying lesson right then and there. And you know what? Tying shoes is hard! It was so funny watching these 10 year old kids who I know to be totally mature and academically stellar fumbling awkwardly as they tried to "make the bunny run round the tree and through the hole." Yes, of course I used that method, is there any other way to learn it??

They were all able to successfully tie a bow, although not very well. I told them we would practice.

Why don't they learn this here? I suspect it may have something to do with the highly dependent relationship between parent and child that is part of Korean culture. Moms here are EXTREMELY controlling of their kids, and kids generally put loyalty to parents above all else. Korea does not encourage self-reliance the way North Americans do, so there isn't a push to teach kids to do things on their own. They don't usually get to make their own decisions as to what they want to do with their time, what they want to study in university, and in the past, who they wanted to marry. Most parents here do everything for their kids, and all the kids are expected to do is study and become succesful. As you can imagine, this results in some pretty spoiled brats that can drive you crazy as a teacher. Well, not always spoiled, but often helpless, where they expect you to do everything for them.

Like tie their shoes.

So much for going to bed early

I started Summer Intensive Session today. The whirlwind that will be my last months in Korea is just beginning.

Summer Intensive means that I work 9 hour days, Monday through Friday. 9-8:30, with a 2 hour lunch break. That's an 11 hour work day, and NINE of those hours are spent in the classroom actively teaching. Yikes, that's long. Sure I do get overtime pay, but my boss has a wiley way of tweaking with the schedule so we end up getting a fraction of the overtime pay we feel we deserve, yet there is nothing we can do about it. But hey, its what I signed up for.

So gone are my leisurely days of sleeping in til 10, rolling into work by 2. The dream 6 hour shift. I enjoyed it while it lasted. And all of you at home with stressfull jobs are hating me right now. But I'm going to be putting in my time this summer, let me tell you!!!

Speaking of throwing bananas on the field, Korea plays their first World Cup game tomorrow, against Togo. It starts at 10:00 p.m. here, which means I will actually get to watch it without staying up til 4 a.m. I have really looking forward to the World Cup actually. Generally, I couldn't care less about sports, but when there is a big tourny or something important that gets people all rallied up, I really get into it. Its not the game or the competition, its the unity and excitement of the fans. I love the way sports bring people together ... united against a common opponent... it actually works much like war, but without the violence (usually).

Anyway, I really do hope Korea does well in the World Cup, mainly because it will be awesome to be a part of the celebration that follows. I love public celebration! Koreans LOVE soccer, and they are terribly nationalistic...a large percentage of them say they think Korea really will do well this year, although most of the rest of the world says that their great performance last time was a fluke buoyed by the fact that they were on home ground. Regardless, if they do well, it will be fun, and if they don't that icky dark cloud of disappointment will hang for a few days at least.

Korea! Fighting!!

I'm in Love....

....with like 10 people, all at once. Is that possible??

They know who they are :-)

Ode to My Phone

Today I had a third grader answer his cell phone in class. In the middle of a test. It was his mom. Why she was calling when she knew he was in class, I have no clue. A third grader! And he actually answered it, as if he expected me to put the whole class on hold while he took his call. Can you believe that?

The funny thing is, it's not the first time it has happened. I've had two other kids do it before. And I get phones ringing all the time. At break, half of the students take their cell phones out and turn them on to make calls, send text messages, or play games. Kids as young as kindergarten often have their own phones here, many of which cost upwards of $400. By middle school, virtually every kids has their own phone. They even sell "simple" phones designed especially for children, which have only the basic features, like calling and texting. (Remember that most of the phones here have a camera, Internet access and even TV now, so one that only calls and sends text messages is considered simple.) Remember Fisher-Price? My First Radio, My First Oven? I guess it's just the modern version of that.

As for me, I have finally gotten over my Luddite-like aversion to cell phones. In fact, living in Korea has turned me into a full blown cell phone fan. I LOVE text messaging, and I use my phone to keep my busy while I am trying to kill time. Ok, I don't take it into the bathroom with me, but I have reached the point where I feel lost and disconnected without it. Last week, I actually experienced phone separation anxiety! My charger blew out, and I had to go about an hour without my phone while I left it at the convenience store to re-charge. The whole time, I kept wondering if I was missing calls, missing text messages, missing whatever grand and amazing things people might be trying to tell me about, and couldn't wait to get it back.

When I lived in California, I kind of despised cell phones, mostly because I associated them with snotty Silicon Valley status seekers who wore their phones like jewelry and talked loudly in the grocery store. (Although people do that here too, but its less pretentious to me for some reason. ) I also used to be annoyed by the idea that a cell phone let anyone get ahold of me at anytime, so I usually left mine turned off, only keeping it for emergencies. My friends would sometimes get mad because they could not get ahold of me when I was not at home, and I kind of enjoyed the feeling of being "hard to reach." It made me feel elusive and independent in some weird way. Now, I love the feeling of connectedness that my phone gives me and I love the convenience it provides. I suppose it's part of feeling more at home in a new city, and when I am here I have more of a desire to be in-touch with as many people as possible. Plus, Seoul is a city where cell phone is practically essential, at least if you plan on having any sort of active social life.

When I come home, I wonder if I will go back to being a "cell phone hater," or if I will be one of those people that doesn't even bother to get a land line. Part of it depends on how much the US technology and service has improved since I moved away. My memories of using my cell phone in the Bay Area usually involve lots of static and disconnected calls, and various incidents where I almost threw my phone out the car window in frustration. Service here is excellent -- you can make calls while several hundred feet underground on the subway. Yesterday, we were making calls from the top of a mountain in the middle of a national park and getting crystal clear reception.

Either way, I will NEVER, EVER get over having a child answer a phone in class. That's just wrong.

Endless Weekend

Ahhhh....another weekend draws to a close and I sit here posting photos and wondering why I am not going to bed. Am I tired? Yes. Do I have to get up early tomorrow? Yes. But I'm still up.

Right now is supposed to be the calm before the storm, but I still can't find time to do anything I need to do, like mail packages home, or write my evalutions for work, because I have too much fun stuff to do. But, I am loving every minute of it, enjoying Korea and the friends I have made here as much as I can before its time to go.

So what is this storm I speak of? Basically, beginning next week, I will be working Intensive Session, meaning I work from 9 am to 8:30 pm, 5 days a week. That schedule will last most of the summer, with a slight reprive in August. And on top of it, the next two months are full of plans to do everything and go everywhere before I leave Korea. I still have to visit the DMZ, there is a Mud Festival, a North Korea hiking trip (more on that in a later post), Soraksan, Jeju Do, the green tea fields, ceramics village, beaches, any number of summer festivals, and the World Cup, which ensures massive celebrations if Korea wins any games. Not to mention the museums, palaces and other cultural things I have not yet done.

All of this while I am wrapping up my time at work, moving out of my apartment, and getting ready to go on my 5 month backpacking trip.

It may sound like I am complaining, but really I am grateful for how cool my life is right now.

So anyway...the last week has been a lot of fun, which really stands out against the dullness that I experienced most of winter. Last Wednesday was a holiday, and this Tuesday is also a holiday, so it's feeling like a big long weekend punctuated by annoying days that I have to work. Why didn't they move the Wednesday holiday to Friday, and the Tuesday holiday to Monday, so we could have a 4 day weekend? I'm sure there is some logic to it, but Korean logic doesn't always make sense to everyone else. Regardless, I'm just glad for the days off!

Wednesday was a holiday because of Election Day -- a great idea, I think. (I know the voter turnout still isn't that high, but it's higher than the US.) Jeremy and I headed up to the Western part of Bukhansan (the big national park North of Seoul) and discovered another side of the mountain that was absolutely lovely. It was crowded as usual, but such a nice day, so it didn't matter. I could have spend a week out there just relaxing and enjoying the outdoors.

Of course we took a ton of photos, but I'll spare you all the dozens we took of ourselves posing in front of various trees and flowers. Ok, well most of them, at least.

The river, packed with people taking a dip.

Jeremy looks adorable in every photo, although he refuses to admit it. He is young enough to have been one of my students, and gay, but I'm still in love with him!

One of the cutest things was the number of people taking naps at the top of the mountain. A huge percentage of the hikers in Korea are over age 50, and they are in ridiculously good shape. It's always great to see people old enough to be my grandparents just truckin' up the mountain like its nothing.

Me, with the peaks of Bukhansan in the background.

One of the many fortress gates that still stands from back in the Shilla days. This particular spots was one of the most stategic points of defense and the location of a lot of big battles.

At the end of the hike we sat for about 30 minutes looking at this river view.

The best part was at the bottom -- there a several creekside restaurants that have set up little picnic areas along the banks, and they bring your food down to you.

This was our dinner picnic spot.

Friday involved a lot of merrrymaking in the neighborhood park, so much that the cops actually came by and told us to be quiet. This NEVER happens in Korea, people make all the noise they want and no one complains. Probably because we were speaking English, it was more noticable. But the cops here are so benign. Back home we would have been given a ticket and kicked out, but Korean cops are actually sweet. They nicely asked us to keep the noise down and the left us alone.

At some point in the night, all of the guys ended up posing with their shirts off. I'm not exactly sure why, but it was damn cute. From left to right are Jeremy, Raj, coworkers Dave and Ryan, and new neighborhood buddy, Jake.

Today was a little treat that I haven't had in awhile -- Peruvian food! There is a jewelry vendor in our neighborhood that Stephen, Whitney and I all became friends with awhile back. His name is Walter and he is just wonderful. He is Peruvian, but has been living in Korea for 8 years now. After 9 months of talking about going to the Peruvian/Mexican restaurant with him, we finally made it. The food was delicious -- we had ceviche, which is raw fish "cooked" in lemon juice, onions, peppers and spices. I traveled in Peru a few years back, so it was great to see some familiar dishes.

The remnants of our ceviche.

Walter, Whitney, Syntec, Raj, Me, Esteban.

We spent the later half of the day tripping around Myeong Dong, one of the biggest shopping areas of Seoul. I was thrilled because I found a store that actually sold pants that fit me AND were reasonably priced. Its called Uniqlo, and its somewhat like Old Navy, but from Japan. And of course I spent too much money, but it's all stuff I need!

Breakdancers outside the department store.

Raj in a fitting room with a very tiny door. Why they didn't just make these doors a tad bigger, I don't know.

Nerds in Myeong Dong.

And...now I'm going to bed.