Drifting thru Daegu

The US is no stranger to protests, but Lee Myung Bak hasn’t been president for more than a year and … yeesh.

The country’s entire cabinet offered to resign as a way to help Mr. Lee find a way out of the crisis. It was unclear if he would accept the resignations. “South Koreans had a lot of doubt when they elected Lee, but they hoped he would save the economy,” said Choi Jin, director of the Institute of Presidential Leadership. “But this doubt deepened when Lee failed to demonstrate any immediate improvement of the economy. The beef debacle was the trigger to explode the undercurrent of doubt.”

~New York Times

Many Koreans need to get over their elitist mentality, start opening their minds, and begin to understand whats going on around them. Many of them expect immediate results in terms of lifestyles and education. When they feel that they’re not getting that, they turn on the administration or the teachers.

Yes, I’m back on native soil. The 30 hour commute was physically draining, but fortunately it wasn’t as eventful as the flight to Korea. I went from Korea to Japan to Houston and now I’m with my brother. In case you were wondering, the first thing I did was get to the shower and we ate Mazzio’s pizza w/ a Blue Moon.

I’ll continue updating the blog with final thoughts and stories.

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Self portraits and body parts

As you may see from the timer, I have only a few more days left in Korea. The matter of leaving Korea is just now starting to sink in. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I get back home and what I’m going to do next. Currently, there’s no foreign teacher set to replace me and that’s going to be hell for the teachers next month.

This weekend I got annoyingly sick. On Friday, I was hanging out on the roof of a co-worker’s apartment. She made a comment about the smog that day. The rest of the day, I could feel this cough and soreness whenever I taught my classes. I went to bed early, and I woke up Saturday with a swelling in my throat. I went back to sleep and I had chills and sweats. Besides getting some medicine, I laid in bed the rest of the day. Sunday, the fever had gone, but I had this massive headache and dizziness of a hangover.

In Korean news, there’s been a brouhaha over the recent trade of American beef. IMO, it’s extremely absurd. If you want to know about it, than you should read this articles from torgodevil.

Though there are many posts that I’ve never talked about, there are many things that I haven’t done in Korea. Seeing the DMZ and eating dog meat are probably the big ones. I just never got around to them. One of the big deterrents to going exploring and more traveling has been my teaching schedule and days off. Yes, we get major holidays off, but so does the rest of the country. Everything is guaranteed to be pact or booked.

In the last month, one of the recent Korean finds that has surprised me the most has been learning about the existence of the “P*nis Park”. In the office, I was talking about weekend plans with a co-worker. She asked, “Have you heard about the P*nis Park?” “…. uhhhh….NO!” Luckily I had other plans that weekend, so I missed out, but sure enough it does exist. Very Not Safe For Work, but here’s a link.

Thursday, I’m planning to throw a farewell party in honor of me. I’m thinking of going to the place where I started out at. That about wraps things up. I’ll try and post more photos and thoughts about teaching after I’ve left. Originally, I tried to post everyday or other day, but I’ve failed at that. Don’t expect many posts in the next week either.

2 3

Today, I waltzed into the teacher’s office for quite a surprise. I glanced at many of the teachers’ desks and witnessed little packages. I thought, “…I’d better have got something…”. Sure enough, there was a small package of candies waiting for me. “Ahssa!” I turned to the Korean teachers. “Is it teacher’s day?” They confirmed and I went about my booty. Throughout the day, the gifts kept flowing in. They came in the form of chocolates, flowers, cakes, socks, and cards.

From the kindergarten students, one of the Moms bought all the teachers 2 roll cakes EACH! I got 5 pairs of socks, Dream Cacao, a rose, some vitamin candies, and chocolates. For the school, a couple parents went all out with the cakes. They brought one cake that looked like a Jello pudding cake. It looked sooooo good. I said to myself, “This had better not have beans in it…” Thankfully, it didn’t, and I have to say that it was one of the best desserts I’ve had in Korea. After the first bite, it was like an ecstasy kick to my brain. It was rich and chocolaty beyond my taste buds could imagine. Koreans never have desserts like this. Wow!

It was better than Christmas!

This has been my meal for the last week. I call it the Waygook Chamchi Bibimbap Special.

Last month, I was waking up early and feeling the need to eat more during the day. During work hours, I was snacking like crazy, and I ate all the candy which I’d bought for the kids. So, I needed something to kill the crave. A brunch of this concoction does the trick. It gets me through the day when I have no proper breaks.

It consists of mixed vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and some yellow thing. I got a large bag of it from Costco. I add a couple spoon fulls of tomato sauce, gochujahng (pepper paste), and rice. Then, I mix it all up. If I’m feeling wild, I add a can of tuna.

I told one of my students about this and her head about exploded. She thought she could improve upon it and came up with the “Waygook Hangook Chamchi Spaghetti Kimchi Bibimbap Special w/ Oodang and Coke Set”. It’s borderline silly, but I would definitely try to make it some time.

The Meaning of Buddha’s Birthday, 부처님 오신 날 (Bucheonim osin nal).

“It is not the day he was created, but the day he appeared and stayed in this world. He didn’t become the Buddha to be worshipped, or to have a high position where people would treat him nice. It was because he wanted to help other people. Even if there were only a few people who could understand and be able to free themselves, he thought it was worth doing. And so he stayed here for another 40 years on his own accord and helped people. That’s why he stayed,” said the monk.

According to the Buddha, everyone is connected to each other. The Buddha saw himself as a part of everything in this world and believed all was one. The reason the Buddha stayed after his enlightenment was because he saw others’ pain as his own. Feeling their pain, he was able to remember his sufferings when he was ignorant and did not know any better.
While some religions say that people are incomplete, Buddhism explains that everyone is in fact 100 percent complete.

What does the day Buddha came, or Buddha’s Birthday, mean to you?

“It is gratitude for somebody who wanted to teach us. It is not a coincidence that Parents’ Day and Teachers’ Day are always around Buddha’s birthday. In this sense, its gratitude to teachers, but also a reminder of the potential within each of us,” he said.

Chonggo added that the fact that Buddha was born in spring was not a coincidence, when life and vitality appears.

“When we begin to experience our Buddha nature, that’s where real energy, vitality and satisfaction comes from. To me, that’s the meaning of Buddha’s Birthday,” he smiled.

~~~from Korea Times and Wikipedia