The Reign Has EndedI am writing this to say goodbye. I like the title I picked for this post because I think it's catchy. To me it means two things: 1. I, aka, Queen For A Year, am retiring this blog and 2. Lately, I have had some hard times and in being proactive and making a change I hope that personally my life will improve and that the "rain" will end. I was thinking about the song from the musical Annie "The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow they'll be sunshine...."
I will be returning to Eastern Canada on Monday, March 19th, 2007 so I will no longer be living and teaching English in South Korea so it seems like the right time to say goodbye to you and this blog. Moreover, I have not posted since just prior to Christmas 2006 and some of you may be wondering why. I feel that I owe you an explaination. I could very easily just let you assume it was because I was busy planning my return to Canada but that is not the truth. I have always tried to be honest and maintain my intergrity in keeping this blog so to lie to you by omission now goes against the grain. I just can't do it. So, here's the truth.
I have not been doing my weekly post recently and the true and primary reason for this is that unforunately rather than promoting understanding and discussion I have received several "comments" [which although I chose not to publish - at the time] I feel hurt and personally attacked by. This has taken the fun out of blogging for me. It's one thing to write about your own personal experiences while in your own country and culture and surrounded by the people you love and who love and support you. However, it is quite another thing entirely to try and write a weekly blog when far from home. As some of you know, Korea is called "The Hermit Kingdom" [even my Lonely Planet Korea book calls Korea that] and it can be a very socially isolating place for a Westerner. To live here and has been a series of ups and downs but to live my life more publically became too much a strain for me.
After four years here, I will be leaving Korea permanently. I feel that I have given Korea more than a fair chance and I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to go home. I came here very idealistic and I leave some what dishearted. The truth is I no longer feel comfortable living and working in Korea nor do I feel that I can make a difference here. One of my critics who I had chosen not to publish [at the time] made a comment on my post about Korean Bakeries which I titled "Not Quite Right" and he told me and I quote him "Bob Barker has left a new comment on your post ""Not Quite Right"": Heard it all before.... not quite right? or night quite what you're used to?If you dont like it, go home. " And, I have chosen to go home.
I am aware of the fact that people who write blogs often receive a lot of judgements by people who don't know them and some of them are even harassed over cyberspace. I alluded to this a little bit in talking about Shawn Matthews committing suicide in Beijing and that some people said that one contributing factor was that we deleted his Korean Life Blog and had given up blogging - which he loved in response to hassassment.. I talked about this in my post titled "Goodbye Shawn" [here a link to that post Goodbye Shawn found in my June Archive]. Although, thankfully, I in no way have received the same amount of harrassment that Shawn did I feel as he did - compelled to stop blogging. It's no longer fun and enjoyable. It not longer makes me feel less isolated and more understood but rather the opposite.
I wrestled with how much I wanted to get into the negative comments and rather I wanted to put them here for everyone to see and read. But, in the end I decided to because I want people to know the truth and I, also, want to serve as warning to other bloggers - becareful what to write. If you are too candid you will be criticized and sometimes even personally attacked.
Sunday, February 25th, 2007 I received what I consider to be my worst "comment" so far. Of course, the harshes of of the negative comments were made either with someone using "Anonymous" as their ID or another obvious fake ID names. At the time this really annoyed me since prior to this very moment [when I just removed my e-mail address] I have always had my name, photo and even my e-mail address posted on this blog for the world to see. I would have like to personally answer these people. However, now I have decided that it is a good thing it was done this way as it allowed me time to calm down and thankfully now and I more collected. I have chosen not to respond to these critics because I have come to the conclusion that there are some people who read blogs with their own personal agenda of finding fault. I no longer am idealistic enough to think that I can change the minds of these "hard liners". It is the more moderate people who have always been the target audience of my blog - at least in my mind.
Thus without farther ado here is the latest "comment".
"Anonymous has left a new comment on your post ""Not Quite Right"": I work at an English Language Center in the U.S. We receive students from every part of the world, and found your blog through a friend. She emailed me the entry about the discrimination you face in Korean. After I read that post, I continued reading the rest of your blog. First of all let me state that the "discrimination" you mentioned you are experiencing in Korea is the same here. I mention this because I can add the voice of many people from many countries with many experiences, not just one person from one country relaying one experience.
I think the reason you are so outraged is because you somehow have taken the title "queen for a year" to heart. I hope that you understand that people are allowed to assign their own rules in their own country as they see fit. They do not have to give you special privileges because you are a white Canadian.
I kept reading your blog because I thought that you were just going through an adjustment period, I was wrong. I also cannot believe your attitude in your later post. You state that some things in Korean are "not quite right." I find it unimaginable that you have lived in Korea for 3 years and you are still fighting against the culture. Other countries are not a different version of the "first world" as many westerners would like to think. If it exist in Korea, then it is just right from bean curd popsicles to eating dogs. I am sure that if you had encountered the same puffed air dessert in France you would rave about it.
I am well versed in the ways of the ugly American, but the ugly Canadian, for some reason I didn't think it existed. I guess I was wrong. "
Another comment I received but did not publish at the time was this one. "chacha has left a new comment on your post "New Furniture": Nobody says white people get a lot of male attention. They just stare because they're wondering wtf you're doing there. Don't flatter yourself, babe."
I even received what I consider to be attacks on my ample figure. For example I got these two comments. "leone has left a new comment on your post ""Not Quite Right"": Perhaps it's a good thing that Korean cakes don't taste so good to you - think of your figure!!!! "
"Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Adventures in Cooking": why are your boobs next to your belly button"
Moreover, even my right to express my opinion and experience was questioned. I write as a white, Canadian woman because that is what I am. I never made a secret of that fact. I can only write about my experiences through my own eyes. However, again and again, I was told that because I was a "white Canadian" I could not write about discrimination or I think that only when a "white Canadian" experiences racism do I think that it is important Here is one such criticism I received on my post "Discrimination Against Foreigners in Korea".
"Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Discrimination of Foreigners in Korea": i am a korean canadian, living in US. although i feel sorry for your troubles, for most of us, it's pretty much the same. your post makes it sound as if korea is the only country that treats foreigners like this, but it simply isn't true. i work with a company here in US, in California, and whenever i have people come on an extended business trip from, say, Korea, they go through the same: need to deposit $500- $5,000 to get "secured" credit card (you can only use up to the amount you deposit). they have to deposit $500 (another $500 if they want to call overseas) to get a mobile phone service, if they can get it at all.
I'd love to join a local country club, but alas, my money is not good with them. apparently, i have to be white and old (they say, you must know a member and get recommended by one - sure if you are new, you'd know people like that)
You claim that you can navigate through most websites in Korea, apparently not so. I don't have Korean citizenship, so when I signed up for Cyworld, for example, I used my Canadian passport to sign up. And I do use it frequently. i.e. Cyworld does accept foreigners. and yes, i have nate/nateon messenger as well.
Foreigners in Korea feel they are discriminated against, sure, I think that is true to some extent, but I am not sure it's any worse than what people get when they come to either Canada or US. i certainly hope anyone is implying that only when a canadian/american gets discriminated it's worth blogging about while the other way, it's just way of life here. "
***
Not all comments were negative and some were very favorable and encouraging. To those of you who enjoyed my blog and wrote to thank me let me offer my thanks to you. I appreciate your support. I feel you understood the true spirit of my blog - which was not intended to be a social commentary or political lighting rod but rather a frank and sincere personal account of my sojourn in "the land of the morning calm".
It is with mixed feelings that I say goodbye to you and this blog. If you enjoy my writing and want to hear more from me don't fret. I am in the process of writing a book about my adventures living and teaching English in South Korea. Moreover, it will not just be a recap of my blog but a include fresh new ideas and material. I have always planned to write a book about my experiences and therefore although I used this blog to try and discipline myself to consistently write and to try and hone my writing skills nonetheless it was always with the knowledge that I needed to save some of my funniest and most dramatic experiences for my book.
I plan to keep this blog as it is and later offer an excerpt from my book as well as a link showing where you will be able to purchase my book - as soon as I complete it.
Rest assurred this will not be the last you hear of me or my writing. "Queen For A Year" was rather tame or so I thought - and yet it invited a level of viciousness that was - at least to me -shocking! However, through this experience I have become even more convinced that words are power - they can hurt or they can heal. They have the ability to convey emotion and allow others to learn and grow vicariously though another person's experience. It is with this hope that I embark on the next chapter of my life and journey.
AnnChristmas in KoreaIt has taken a lot to get me into the spirit of Christmas this year. It just doesn't seem like Christmas to me without snow. This time of year seems to naturally lead to reflection and I amazed to realize that this will be my third Christmas in Korea. Wow! It seems like so long ago I first arrived here in South Korea and yet time has gone fast.
To get into the spirit of the season I have consciously made an effort to try to feel more seasonal. My journey went something like this:
I noticed a lady selling roasted sweet potatoes in the market area behind my apartment building and I could actually smell them [amazing with my bronchitis] and they smelled so good. I stopped and got some for my dinner. They were delicious! Since then every Friday night I stop and chat to the vendor and buy some more sweet potatoes for my dinner. The wood fire is so pretty sometimes I just stand and watch it for a few moments and think... it does seem a little more like Christmas.
Last week when I made my weekly visit to Dunkin' Donuts [its my mid week treat] I saw a poster and was able to read that they were offering a new "Holiday Coffee". It looked good so I ordered one and sat drinking it and looking at the decorations and started to get into the Christmas spirit.
Across from my apartment building is a Korean Beef Restaurant [a Galbi Restaurant as I would call it] and they have some nice lights out for Christmas. But, I have to admit is still looks strange to me to see outdoor tables and Christmas lights at the same time. It's too cold to even consider eating outside in my hometown in Canada anytime around Christmas.
Mega Mart the large supermarket [small department store] near my house has some lovely Christmas lights. I went for a walk last night to look at the Christmas lights around here and took this picture.
Another shot of the Christmas lights outside Mega Mart.
We put up a few decorations in the teachers' room at school. And, that made it feel a little cozier and a little more seasonal.
This Santa Claus is on display at one of my schools. I love that his banner is on him in Korean. I wish I could read it. Just when I think my Korean is improving I can't read a simple Christmas banner. Ba hum bug!
Even the subway stations are decorated for Christmas. This is the Nampo-dong Subway Station Christmas tree.
Last night in the Nampo-dong Subway station there was a band wearing Santa hats and preforming. They were pretty good and a number of people stopped to listen and enjoy the music.
This is "Julie Teacher". She is the Elementary School Korean-English teacher at one of my schools. She gave me a lovely red scarf for Christmas.
Yesterday, at my Yong-do school we had a Christmas party and of course there was pizza. Here's "Harry" enjoying some pizza and posing for a picture for me.
I snapped this picture of my students digging into the pizza. I guess pizza really is an international favorite food. Notice that it's still so hot that the cheese is stringy. YUMMY!
My Grade 6 student "Rocky" surprised me with a Christmas present of a set of 4 Cappuccino Mugs. They are so pretty and huge. Lately, I been making a mug of hot chocolate at night and curling up on my bed with it. There I've been watching Christmas shows which I download using bit torrents and watch on TV via my Xbox and the FTP program [that sends them to the Xbox without me evening having to burn them to a DVD]. Who knew I'd even become so technologically sauvy? Not me.
This week I had a class on how to make a Christmas card in English for my students. I expected them to take the cards for their families. However, some of my students surprised me and gave me the card they had made at the end of the class. They wrote really nice messages like "I love you" and "Ann Teacher, Pretty". I am so flattered.
More Christmas cards and postcards.
Another Christmas card from a student.
This Grade 5 student wrote in English and smaller on the left in Korean. I am embarrassed to say I had to get a Korean-English teacher to help me read the Korean message. I speak Korean much better than I can read or write it and I think in that way I have fooled the children into thinking I'm much better at Korean than I actually am.
Still more Christmas cards.
More Christmas cards and postcards. I feel so loved.
Last but not least I finally broke down and bought myself a new digital camera. I've been wanting one for a long time. I love my old digital camera but it's only 2.0 mega pixels and it doesn't do on well close ups. I have been wanting to take clear, crisp pictures of some of the Konglish I see daily but haven't been able to with my old camera. This is a Sony Cybershot camera with 7.2 mega pixels and a macro feature that lets me do close ups of printed material.
I am considering this to be my Christmas present to myself for surviving my ill health and getting into the Christmas spirit in spite of being far away from the people I love most int he whole world. Merry Christmas to me. *** Well, I'm off to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on my Xbox and TV and drink some hot chocolate. ***
Merry Christmas everyone. Too Close To The FireI haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I am still sick. I thought it was just a very bad cold but come to find out I have bronchitis. I am managing to drag myself to work everyday but it's not easy and my free time tends to be spent coughing and sleeping. I try to watch tv or read a book only to find that I have fallen asleep. Of course, I realize this only later when I wake myself up coughing.
I have tons of medication from an Internal Medicine Specialist called a 내 과 [nae gwa]. In case you don't know, in Korea often you have know what's wrong with you and see a specialist. There are some general practice doctors or family doctors around [or so I have been told] but I can never seem to find one so I just figure out what kind of specialist I need and go directly to see them. Luckily, almost all doctors here can communicate quite well in English.
Here in South Korea, there are no fancy pill bottles with your name and the medication name and dosage printed on them. You get a paper bag with the name of the pharmacy on the outside of it and the telephone number of the pharmacy. Inside the paper bag are a strip of wax paper envelopes filled with pills that you tear apart at the perforations to made individual envelopes that are small and easy to take to work with you in a pocket or purse. It's really quite convenient.
Your pills come in a sealed wax paper envelope and you often get several different kinds of pills to take at one time and you don't even know which drug is which. Sometimes the envelope has the pharmacy's name printed on it but never the drug names or dosages. Moreover, these pills are taken 30 minutes after meals and sometimes they are different for each meal. The name of the meal is printed on the envelope in Korean. However, most pharmacists give me a permanent marker and tell me which meal and I write it in English on each envelope so as not to get confused later. However, this time all the envelopes are exactly the same for breakfast, lunch and dinner so I didn't need to do that.
I, also, got a bottle of cough syrup. It, as you can see, is also not labelled with a drug name only the date it was prepared and the dosage to take [in this case 20cc]. The Korean teachers laughed at me when they saw this bottle of cough syrup. Apparently, Korean adults never take this only children. So, they teased me that I must be just a "big kid". But one teacher speculated that maybe it is because Korean drugs are very strong and that maybe this was better for a foreigner like me.
***I hate to admit it but I am sure that the reason I am so sick is that my school is not properly heated. In fact, until just last week there was no heat at all. Even now the heat is on only about 4 or 5 hours a day while the children are there and not the 8 hours we teachers are in the building. Once the kids leave for the day the heat gets turned off again and we are left to huddle around any portable heaters we have.
Some teachers buy electric heaters and hide them under their desks to use. I assume they think management wouldn't let them use them since if they are too frugal to pay for an couple extra hours of heat they wouldn't want to pay a larger electric power bill. Once I got sick, however, I went to see the owner of the school and told him I need a heater in the teacher's room or I would have to resign. I wasn't playing hard ball it's just that if I get sick any sicker than I won't be able to work. And if you can't work most schools fire you cutting off your health insurance. I wasn't willing to take that chance.
Moreover, since I work at three different locations of the same school I would have had to buy 3 heaters an expensive proposition. Not to mention the days I wasn't at the school the heater would likely get used and confiscated by management or broken. I have terrible trouble at one school even keeping a pencil in my desk drawer. The next time I look for it or anything else, I stupidly, left there it is gone - obviously someone else has walked away with it.
Lucky for me the owner of my school likes me and didn't want to see me resign. So after some negotiating he told me he'd provide a heater in the teacher's room of each school for me to use. Now, I am feeling warmer and hopefully can start to recover. The negative fallout from this is that some of the Korean teachers resent me and feel I am getting special treatment. But I try not to worry about that too much I had to fight my own battle and since they work at one location most of them had already bought a pillow for the cold seat of their chair and a blanket to bundle up in and a number of them had, also, smuggled in electric heaters. They did what they needed to do to make their work-place bearable for themselves I am I did what I needed to do to take care of myself. I wish they could understand we aren't so different. We're all just trying to get along the best way we know how.
Anyway, here are some cute pictures I took of the children all bundled up against the cold.
***
This is "Sara" in her cute pink bear hat. She usually makes me try it one so she can laugh at how funny I look in it.
 This is "Anny" wearing her winter jacket counting her BINGO chips to make sure she has 25. 
"Vicky" is showing me her Sponge Bob fingerless gloves.
"Toby". How can such a devilish little boy look so cute in a picture? He is the bane of my Grade 3 Class.
***All this got me thinking about one of the funniest things that ever happened to me my entire time teaching here in South Korea. About 3 years ago I was teaching at a school just outside of Busan and it had no central heat. So we used portable heaters in our classrooms. It was cold so usually I kept the gas heater very close to my desk at the front of the room.
This school [like some of the other private Language schools in South Korea] had a rule that you couldn't wear your outdoor footwear inside. So, there was a shelf just inside the doorway where you took off your shoes and put on slippers. When winter came I wanted to find a warm pair of slippers so I went shopping in Nampo-dong [the huge outdoor market area of Busan] and bought a very unique pair of slippers. They were bright pink and warm and fuzzy and they had a feather boa on the toe. They even had glitter writing on them that said "Good Girl Gone Bad". I loved them they were just so over the top!
However, I have a nasty habit. When I am wearing sandles or slippers that don't have a strap on the back and I am sitting down I wiggle my foot back and forth flipping my slipper on and off my heel. With a soft slipper and not a flip-flop this doesn't made much noise and althought somewhat of a distracting to the children it seems like an innocent enough habit - that is until you add the open flame of a gas heater.
One day in class I was cold and I guess I had snuggled up a little to close to the gas heater. Because one of my students raised his hand. "Yes, Turner?", I said. To which he replied, "Ann Teacher fire!". I had had a somewhat heated discussion with the manager of my school that morning so I replied jokingly, "Scott's firing me. Yipee! I can go home to Canada and visit my family."
My poor students didn't understand - the only reason I had darned say such a smart ass comment in the first place. But the little boy had a frantic look on his face. I thought maybe he had understood what I said after all. So I said, "Don't worry. I'm just kidding. Everything's okay." To which Turner burst out, "No, teacher. Fire!" I still misunderstood the situation. So I piped back, "No Turner. No one is being fired. I'm going to teach here a long time."
At this point poor Turner is jumping up and down in his seat. I looked at him with suprise. "What's wrong?", I demanded. To which he screamed, "You teacher, you fire!", and pointed to my burning slipper. At this point I followed his gaze to my flaming slipper. I smelled smoke and saw the flame shoot out in the air about 10 inches. I used my text book to smother the flame and ran to the bathroom with my still smoldering slipper and ran cold water on it.
No harm was done except to my slipper. Once I aired out the classroom and calmed down the children and put on a pair of plastic bathroom shoes - things returned to normal and I resumed teaching. Now it is just an amusing but true story I tell sometimes. Thank God my student so very persistent in trying to communicate the problem to me.
"Scott" the manager of the school. We had a love/hate relationship. There was a lot of chemistry between us and several times we went out partying together. We flirted shamelessly and drove everyone else nuts. Sometimes we argued. Like the morning of the day my slipper caught fire.
A portable gas heater. It is exactly the same color, make and model of the heater that lit my slipper on fire.
A pair of fuzzy hot pink slippers similar to the pair I loved so much an caught on fire. I bought these this week while looking for a pair of warm slippers to wear in my apartment. I saw these ones and the memories of my slipper fire came flooding back. Since I have no portable gas heater in my apartment hopefully I don't catch these ones on fire.
"Not Quite Right"I picked the title of this post from the quote some of us westerners sometimes use about South Korea that it is "the land of not quite right".
What do I mean by that? Well, mainly that things aren't done here like they are back home. For example, often you will order a ham and cheese sandwich in a restaurant and get served a ham, cheese and jam sandwich. One time at the restaurant chain "Bear Mountain" I ordered chicken quesadillas and they were served with sweetened whipped cream [like you might use as a dessert topping] of course I didn't expect this or realize it until I had spread it over my meal and thus ruined the entire thing. I have learned that even when things look right and are presented in the way you are used they still might not be correct.
I have been thinking about this in regards to food lately. Maybe because I have a terrible cold and have had for weeks now - nothing smells or tastes good to me. This got me thinking about the fact that in Korea nothing smells good. You can walk by a fried chicken shop or a bakery and smell nothing. I'm not sure if it is the pollution or what. But, it sure is different from back home. When I lived in Moncton, New Brunswick and attended Moncton High School there was a bakery about 6 blocks away and the smell used to waft in - especially in the fall and spring when the windows were open. The odour used to practically drive us to distraction. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was rendered like one of Pablov's dogs with my salvating. It was the most fragrant and delicious smell imaginable.
This got me thinking about the fact that Korean people say they don't like sweets. What I am wondering is if that is true. Is it that Korean people don't like sweets or that they don't like that they make here and call "sweets" cause quite frankly I don't like them either. They look like real cakes and are decorated beautifully but they are mostly puffed air and sometimes some sweetened cream. I have never had a cake here [not even for someone's birthday] that actually tasted like a cake. They don't use icing sugar or frostening on cakes or cinnamin buns. The cake is always a light sponge-like cake. I've never had a confetti cake or a cherry loaf or even a real chocolate cake. I'm not sure if it is because it is difficult to find the necessary ingredients [real cocoa powder is very hard to find] and from the taste of the "chocolate cakes" I've tried from bakeries they used cocoa mix [cocoa that has been cut with sugar and milk powder and is ready to make a cup of hot cocoa] or if they just don't know the difference.
A picture of a normal Korean bakery and the delicious "looking cakes". If only they tasted even 25% as good as they look....
Apparently, I am not the only one to dislike Korean bakeries. Last weekend I went to visit my friend "Ray" in Ulsan. And, I picked up a copy of the November issue of the "Ulsan Pear" an English magazine about living in Ulsan. In it there was an article about "Stohrer Bakery". The article by Jim Saunders starts like this, "Bakeries in Korea seem to be a rather hit-and-miss affair. A casual glance around your local Paris Baguette or equivalent reveals a lacklustre number of tasty looking goods on offer that also seem to contain a strange mix of fillings (sweet potato anyone?). And when an unsuspecting pastery that looks really good spills bean paste into your mouth it can rather darken the day."
The article goes on to take about a bakery in Ulsan called the "Stohrer Bakery" owned and operated by Mr. Son Su Dae who gained experience in Japan and France. It continues to say that although expensive the quality is great and it does seem to attract a upper class clientele. This piqued my interest. And, adds to my hypothesis that Koreans would actually like "Western food" if it were actually prepared and served correctly here.
I convinced "Ray" to join me on my quest to find this bakery. Truthfully, it didn't take much persuading. "Ray" and a few of his friends had tried to find the bakery a few weeks before without success and I think "Ray" was just curious to see how I would go about trying to find it since I have only been to Ulsan a handful of times and had always managed to get lost while there. But, knowing my persistence he knew it would be interesting to watch. The fact that the bakery was difficult to find just made me more determined than ever to find it. That's just the kind of girl I am. I guess you could say I like a challenge. Whenever, life gets hard and frustrating here in Korea I just pretend I am on "The Amazing Race" and that this is a "roadblock" [a task that only one player can perform before the team can move on].
A picture of the tarts in the Stohrer Bakery. They were delicious. I bought a plum one.
Needless, to say we found the bakery and as promised it was quite expensive and the quality was great! I couldn't be more pleased. I should confess that I used the phone number of the bakery and recruited a Korean University Student to call and get me directions. And, later I talked to a Korean guy and showed him the directions and got him to point me in the right direction.
It was an interesting quest and the bakery treats were a delicious reward.
The most delicious treat at the bakery were the chocolates. They were very expensive at 1,300 won [over $1.30 Canadian] a piece but they were exceptional! Yummm... My mouth waters just thinking about them.
**One note of interest: When the University Student called the bakery to get directions she told the person at the bakery that "Two foreigners were trying to find the bakery" and that she was calling for us to get directions. I've noticed that whenever I ask a Korean to help me they always say "wae-guk-in"["foreigner"] and somehow that is a pertinent part of the equation. I'm not sure why this is and why it matters.
A funny picture I took the other night of a lady taking her dog into the bakery with her. It's even funnier if you think about the fact that Korea is a country where men still eat dog meat especially in the summer to help improve their "stamina".State of Affairs in South KoreaI have been thinking a lot about the situation in South Korea lately. Being away from South Korea for my vacation in Taiwan let me read international newspapers and see the situation with North Korea and its testing of nuclear weapons in a different light. Living in South Korea with it's insolar state of affairs means that one often lives in a state of denial that North Korea is and can pose a threat to our safety here. I got away from that for a brief while and the blinders were removed from my eyes and there is no turning back.
Since North Korea tested a nuclear weapon the pollution in the air in Busan has been unbearable. For the last two weeks we haven't seen the sun and a neon yellow-green hazy hangs in the air. I don't like to think that I am being irraiated and yet and am starting to think that must be the case. Finally, in the last week the air has started to clear a little. Still I wonder and worry about the effects or maybe I should say fallout of the test. Am I over-reacting?
Maybe. Certainly, I shouldn't be downloading a watching CBS's new hit TV show "Jericho" about a small Kansas town that is left to survive after a nuclear bomb goes off in nearby Denver. Bad idea for me to be watching it at a time like this but it is a good TV show.
Moreover, I downloaded and read the Canadian Embassy's "Emergency Evacuation Plan" and I have to say it is not very reassuring. The fact that the Canadian Government has not updated their plan since I first arrived in Korea in January 2003 and subsequently registered with the Canadian Embassy in Seoul and they first e-mailed me the Evacuation Plan is not a good sign. In fact, even in light of the current heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula the plan says "The chance that an evacuation might be necessary is rather remote."
Moreover, they advise me that "In case of emergency, Canadians have to carefully listen to the public broadcasting such as TV and radio, but AFKN [American Forces Korea Network] should be their first source". They give the following frequencies for me to monitor "Pusan Radio FM 88.1 and AM 1260" both of which I tried just this minute [to double check] and surprise, surprise they don't work. In fact, I can get NO ENGLISH broadcasts on my CD Player/Radio. I didn't think the frequency would work now that Camp Hialeah is closed and therefore I assume not broadcasting or relaying transmittions in the Busan area.
I am left feeling so nervous and wanting to get out of here and thus the "preceived danger area" that I don't know what to do. I went to my doctor and got sleeping pills cause I can no longer sleep here anymore. I truth I would go home to Canada in a minute it I had the money to. But I am an economic slave so to speak. If I were to leave now I would have to pay back 1,000,000 won to repay the recruiter who brought me here. That's over a thousand dollars Canadian. I would have to repay my airfare to come to Korea [if I give notice or leave prior to teaching six months here]. Moreover, I might have to pay some penality money to my employeer and give one month's notice and I might even be expected to help find a replacement for myself. All, in all I am stuck. I will just have to try and keep my head down and keep my mouth shut and keep marking off days on the calandar until I can get out of here. I will continue to try and make the best of it but truthfully my nerves are shot.
I think that I probably never felt in danger before because in all my time in Korea I have always lived close to an operational and functional American Military Base and now that Camp Hialeah in Busan is closed I am not feeling so safe and secure. I used to spend the majority of my free time including all weekends and holidays on the base with my friends here in Busan and before that when I lived in Gumi at Cp Carroll in Waegwan or Cp Walker in Daegu. I felt like I always knew what was going in and that if anything happened that I'd be taken care of. Maybe I was wrong in assuming that [since I am a Canadian not an American citizen] nonetheless that's how I felt.
In reading the Emergeny Evacuation Plan more closely I note that it does say that "The Embassy must stress that although a 'global agreement' does exist between the Canadian and U.S. governments to assist one another in times of crisis, there is no specific agreement pertaining to Korea. The understanding is that USFK [United States Forces Korea] and the U.S. Embassy personnel will take care of U.S. nationals first, and nationals of other countries with which they have "global agreements", second, should their resources permit this. Should Canadian nationals proceed to an American military facility for assistance at the time of a crisis, they must exercise patience, and be prepared to wait until American citizens have been dealth with. It is this fact that should encourage all Canadians in Korea to react early to deteriorating political, military or other situations on the peninsula, and arrange for their own and their dependents early departure via commercial transport."
All this got me thinking about Camp Hialeah and my days there. I didn't take a lot of pictures there or at least not that many that feel free to use. I try always to protect people's privacy and don't post their pictures unless they give me permission. That said I found the following website that has lots of pictures of what CP Hialeah in Busan used to look like. Here's the link.
Pictures of what CP Hialeah used to look like
I took the following pictures during my Hialeah Days.
The main gate at Hialeah.
Picture taken outside Hialeah's front gate. This picture was taken on the duty bus back from CP Walker in Daegu.
Hialeah's Army Community Services Center.
A street on the base.
J. a friend of mine, and me taken on the base in front of the playground.
Business card showing the location of the Dallas club just outside gate 4 the main gate at Hialeah.
The enterance to the Dallas Club. The place everyone went dancing at 6 am on Saturday morning [the time curfew ended and everyone was allowed out again].
Dancing at the Dallas Club.
The Dallas Club.
Painting on the wall at the Dallas Club.
"Mama-san". A small shop owner just outside the back walk-in gate. She sold long distance telephone cards and cigerettes. I wonder if she went out of business now that the base and thus all her customers are gone?
*** To all my army buddy friends from Hialeah and elsewhere. I miss you. Take care.
Taiwan Vacation - Part 3 - TaipeiOn Friday, October 6th "Ray" and I flew from Taitung back to Taipei. We stayed at the Grand Hotel in Taipei. It was fablous! I highly recommend it.
There was even musicians playing in the lobby of the hotel. This hotel was build in 1952 and is located just across the Keelung river from the center of the city of Taipei. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek used to be in charge of the hotel and there are pictures of her hanging on the walls.
A picture of the Grand Hotel lit up at night.
Our room in the Grand Hotel. In Taiwan the hotels all have plain white blankets but then they have beautiful silk throws that go over the bed about 3/4 of the way from the top. I like this style a lot.
A look the the Grand Hotel in the daylight.
The hotel has a huge swimming pool that is Olympic size. It was warm enough to swim in even the first week of October.
Friday night we went to the night market just outside Longshan Temple. This night market is famous for having snake handlers and selling snake soup. We tried it. It was pretty good. The broth tasted like a cross between chicken and vegetable stock. The meat was boney and a little difficult to eat but not much different from chicken.
Most of the shops in the Night Market have signs telling you [in English, too] that you are not allowed to take pictures. However, the lady at the restaurant we ate our snake soup up let up snap all the pics we wanted.
The children seemed to be more facinated than scared of the snakes, whereas, the adults attitude seemed to be one more of fear and horror. Guess I'm still a kid cause I was intrigued and not at all scared.
They even sold turtle meat in the night market. "Ray" sneakly took this picture - I wasn't able to take a picture cause they saw my camera and told me "No pictures".
Saturday we took a city bus tour of Taipei. The tour picked us up at the Grand Hotel and took us around a handful of the major sites in Taipei. We stopped at a couple of Temples. They were very beautiful.
The altar inside one of the temples.
Incense burning on the altar of a temple.
A woman burning fake paper money for her ancestors.
The tour stopped at the National Palace Museum. This houses one of the most impressive collections of Chinese Art I have ever seen. However, it was a mob scene. In fact, this was the only thing or place in Taiwan that reminded me of South Korea and that was only because it was so crowded.
Outside the National Palace Museum.
This is an exhibit inside the National Palace Museum. "Ray" took this picture on the sly. Photo taking is strictly prohibited in the Museum. This tray took 11 years to carve for the Chinese Emperor and the ivory was carved by hand. At least a couple of the craftsmen are said to have gone blind carving it. Looking at the detail I can believe it.
The Taiwanese Flag blows in the wind.
The ceiling at a temple. I loved the bright vibrant colors.
A close up look at the details of the ceiling and the paint work.
A door handle at the temple with it's dragon's head.
We went to Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial Hall on the Taipei City Bus Tour.
A statute of Chaing Kai-Shek.
As usual with every tour I have taken in Asia it ended at a souvenir shop where hopefully we bought something so that our tour guide would get some extra [kick-back] money. I know I sound cynicial but it's the truth. When you go into these shops you are given paper tickets with a number on them [the number corresponds to the tour group] and after the tour when everyone gets back on the bus the tour guide mysteriously disappears inside the shop again for several minutes.
This picture is of Oolong tea. Taiwan is famous for it's Oolong tea which I happen to love.
I happened to check out a computer room while I was in Taiwan. They were much more difficult to find than in Korea where there is one on every corner but when we did find one it was nice and actually even had a non-smoking section in a different room which I appreciated.
I took a picture of the Yahoo homepage in Chinese.
Saturday night "Ray" and I found a cafe called Grandma Nitti's. It was fablous! It had a section of used books [in English] we could buy quite cheaply. And, the food was amazing. The menu offered a huge selection and even included comfort food like meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. Yummy!
They even had pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Being that it was Thanksgiving back home in Canada in decided to indulge in some pumpkin pie. It was good. Not as good as my mom makes but good nonetheless.
Getting a foot massage is very common in Taipei and after wandering around the night market looking for Oolong Tea and gifts for my friends and family I decided it was time to take care of my feet. The man who worked on my feet had awesome English and he was able to tell me when a certain spot was tender when in the body it corresponded to. I learned that my neck and back are especially sensitive or a least the reflexology spots that pertain to them on my feet are.
Sunday morning found us off to the Taipei 101 building. It is the tallest office building in the world. I have to admit that after the CN Tower it didn't seem that tall to me but it is a famous landmark in Taipei and not to be missed.
Looking up the side of the Taipei 101 building.
The view from the top outside deck of the Taipei 101 building. I was suprised at the visability. This day you could see far into the distance without much smog. This is certainly different that South Korea especially of late.
On the same building as Taipei 101 we found lots of shops including a real honest to goodness pharmacy. I have never seen one in Asia and certainly not in South Korea where there are small drug stores on every corner but no big ones that carry everything from drugs, to food, to magazines, to hair color, etc. This one was called Watsons and it had everything. Including travel [motion sickness pills] which we loaded up on for the plane ride back to Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea.
Sorry No Post This Week - I'm SickHi Everybody:
Just a really quick note to let you know that I am sick and won't be posting this week. Hopefully, I will be back to my old self by next weekend and I will finish my last post on my vacation in Taiwan. Then I will be back to writing about South Korea again - as usually.
I think I have the flu. I missed all my Korean classes this week and even had to get a doctor's note and take one of my three yearly sick days from school. I am feeling a lot better already but I am still extra tired and weak. I'm just not up to sitting in front of the computer blogging right now.
I'm off to watch some tv until I fall asleep.
See you next week.
Ann Taiwan Vacation - Part 2 - Green IslandThursday, October 5th, 2006 "Ray" and I caught the ferry at the port in Taitung to Green Island. Green Island is an island of approximately 3,000 people but has become extremely popular during the summer because of the natural beauty and the wonderful coral reef that makes scuba diving and snorkling so enjoyable here. The ferry and planes to the island get booked up quickly even in the early fall so we had to get up and make sure to catch the first ferry at 8:30 am as that was the only option including plane or ferry that had any tickets available for that day.
This innocent looking boat caused me the most distress of any vechicle in my entire life. It was only a 50 minute ferry ride from Taitung to Green Island but it felt like it lasted FOREVER! I have never been sea sick in my life and I grew up around the water and boats - so being sea sick was a entirely new experience for me.
My Lonely Planet book that warned that in the winter in bad weather the ride good be rough. It says and I quote "During winter, boats run infrequently, if at all, due to choppy water. If you dare to take a boat during winter, prepare your stomach in advance and brace yourself for a very rough ride". It was early fall so I never dreamed it would be a problem. But when we boarded the boat and sat down the boat was rocking even while docked at the pier and I knew then I wasn't going to enjoy the ride. I took some travel sick pills but at that point [3 to 4 minutes before departing] it was too late for them to work.
The whole ride over I prayed and cursed my own travel planning and itinery and hoped that Green Island would be worth the hell it was getting there. Well, I am happy to report it was. However, if I am ever given the opportunity to go back [and I hope I am] I intend to plan far ahead and book a flight there and avoid the ferry altogether.
The touist office at the Taitung airport had helped us the day before confirm which ferry had tickets and even called and made us a reservation at the Par Far Hotel on Green Island. When I managed to crawl off the ferry in a very shaken and dizzy way I was relieved to see a man holding a sign with my name on it. It was a man from my hotel who had come to drive "Ray" and I to the hotel.
This is a picture of the main street of Green Island just outside our hotel. And, my first real glimpse of Green Island.
I took this picture from the window of our hotel room. After 45 minutes of lying on the bed I was able to bounce back from my sea sickness. I got up and grabbed my bag and set off to explore the island with "Ray".
 We were able to rent mopeds from the woman who owned our hotel. She didn't speak much English but she still managed to communicate quite well with us. Of course, "Ray" and I have pantomime down pretty well after over 3 years of living in Korea. 
We had to put gas into our mopeds and we had no idea how much money to put in. Luckily, one of the girls at the gas station spoke English and told us that $ 100.00 [Taiwan New Dollars - about $ 3.33 Canadian] would fill the mopeds - so that's what we put in. As, it turned out they don't take much gas and when we left late the next afternoon my bike still had 3/4 of tank of gas left. Oh, well live and learn.
 My Lonely Planet book said that it would take about 30 minutes to drive around the island but it took us about 1 and 1/2 hours cause we stopped to take tons of pictures talk and admire the scenery. I took this picture of "Ray" with his Roots Canada backpack on driving his moped. Truthfully, neither one of us had ever driven any motorized cycles before but it didn't stop us from trying and I've got to say I am hooked. If I wouldn't get killed I'd get a moped of my own for Korea but the drivers here are just to scarey for that. 
One of the reasons I wanted to visit Green Island is that is was formed from a volcano and it has lots of igneous rocks. It looks a lot like I picture Hawaii but not so commerical [at least not yet].
The vegetation was so rich and lush. The green was so green that it almost didn't look real but like some Hollywood movie set or something.
There was a beautiful white sand beach [called Tapaisha or Dapaisha both spelling seemed to be used in English] and even better because it is the off-season and the number of people who can get to the island via the transportation available is limited it was deserted when we came across it. I think Green Island is one of the few unspoiled natural beauties left in Asia.
I took this picture of the coastline. When I looked at the water and the surf I understood why the ferry ride over had been so rough.
Another picture showing the vivid greens and blues of the scenery.
 About half-way around the island we came upon this restaurant and store by the side of the road. We stopped to buy a cold drink and rest a few minutes. I took this picture because I was attracted to the blowing strings of the awning that to me look quite Polynesian. In fact, most of the people on the Island looked quite native. They had very dark skin and the men sported mulitiple tatoos. After living in South Korean which can be very conservative and conformist it was like a breath of fresh air to see people expressing diversity and looking like individuals again. 
They were selling some kind of liquor with pieces of cut up antler honks in it. - I imagine it was for men to help increase their "stamina" or that's what it would be for in Korea - anyway.
I saw this fruit for sale everywhere in Taiwan and I wanted to try it but no one could tell me the English name for it or what it was exactly - so I didn't. I took a picture of it so I could look it up on the internet when I got back home. I found it out is called "Sweetsap". It is a custard apple. I wish now I had tried it. Ummm.... maybe I'll have to go back to Taiwan just to try it....
I saw some kind of fish drying on a line and I snapped a picture of it.
This is a picture of the Green Island airport. This will be the first sight a see next time I go to Green Island. Did I mention that I plan to fly there if I ever go back rather than take the ferry????
This is a picture of the Green Island Prison. It is now closed. It used to be a symbol of Taiwan's White Terror and used to house political prisoners who were thought to be too dangerous to house on the mainland of Taiwan.
This is the Green Island Lighthouse.
One of the reasons I wanted to come to Green Island was to go snorkling. I am not allowed to go scuba diving because of problems I have with my middle ears but I love to swim and I have always wanted to try snorkling. All these mopeds were parked outside the dive shop in town. They were for rent.
This shows all the people snorkling and scuba diving just outside Nanliao Harbour. This seemed to be the best place as there was a large coral reef and millions of beautiful fish.
I found a cheap underwater camera at the 7-11 store in town and I decided to try my hand at taking some underwater shots. I had to get my Recruiter at Kim and Joe Recruting in Busan to scan these pictures in for me so that I could up-load them to share. [Thank you Jessie and Amy.]
There were so many types of coral some I had never seen before. There was a vivid purple kind in small branches but it seemed to grow deeper and I wasn't able to get a good picture of it.
I saw this beautiful blue fish that reminded me of a book my Swiss penpal had sent me years ago. It was written in German and it was called "The Rainbow Fish".
Here is a picture of the surface on the water and some brain coral.
There were some dark colored fish, as well as, some fish that looked like gold fish except they had some black markings on them.
I took this picture of the surface of the water and I love the light and color. I love the light and texture so much and I had such a great time snorkling that I made it the screensaver on my computer. It calms me down and makes me smile when I look at it and remember my fablous vacation.
This shows staghorn coral. The color is not as brillant as it was taken quite deep in the water. The sunlight doesn't penetrate well that far down.
Here are some stipped fish. I love them.
The real attraction of Green Island is that it has one of only three natural hot salt water springs in the world. The other two are located in Hakkaido in Japan and on Mt. Vesuvius in Italy. This is the Chaojik Hot Springs on Green Island.
The beauty of the outdoor spa is that you can lazy around in the water and look at the volcanic rocks and the surf pounding below on the beach. Also, it was not crowded when we went since it was not the tourist season. It was so luxurious to have it almost completely to ourselves.
There was an indoor pool, too. It is lined with volcanic rocks so that even inside you can see and feel connected with nature.
Driving our mopeds back to the hotel we spotted a goat. He seemed as interested in peering at us as we were in tooking at him.
Another picture of the volcanic rocks that ring the island.
A smaller island just off the main island. Again, I am struck by the vivid colors.
Another picture of the coastline.
Some bamboo fences poles surround a beach on the island.
Friday, October 6th, 2006 "Ray" and I head back to the ferry to head back to Taitung. We went a little early so that I could sit and try and relax and calm down. This time I was prepared and took some Gravol [travel sick medicine from Canada - thanks mom - love the care packages :)] about a hour and a half before the ferry is scheduled to depart. And, I am happy to report I slept the entire way back to Taitung. Lots of other people got sick but I didn't. I am so glad my last ferry ride was okay so that it ended on a good note and hopefully won't leave me to scared to even take a ferry again.
There were some beautifully painted boats in the Naliao Harbour. They appear to be sight-seeing boats.
There is something about water and the coastline that is so peaceful and beautiful to me. I'm not sure if it's just that I grew up around the ocean or not but it just seems to restore me to sit near it and meditate on it's serenity. This Taiwanese man seemed to feel the same way and it make me see how some feelings transend language and culture and are universal in scope.
 A picture taken from the stern of the boat watching the Taiwanese flag blow in the wind as Green Island disappears into the distance.***Next week I will conclude my vacation in Taiwan. I intended to finish it this post but I just had too many pictures and memories of Green Island to share. Next week it is Taitung and Taipei. Taiwan - "Touch Your Heart"The tourism slogan for Taiwan is "Touch Your Heart". I adore Taiwan and so I love the slogan, too, for Taiwan did indeed touch my heart. I had the best time and made wonderful memories to last me a lifetime. It was a time of firsts for me: I went snorkling for the first time, rode a moped for the first time and tried some strange and exotic foods like frogs and snake soup.
I took a ton of pictures too many to post today so I decided to talk about my first three days in Taiwan this time and next week I will post more pictures and finish with the rest of my vacation in Taiwan.
Here is a sign outside a restaurant with the "Taiwan - Touch Your Heart" slogan on it. These signs are everywhere in the tourist areas.
We arrived at CKS: Chang Kai Shei Airport [the International Airport in Taipei] just before lunch on Tuesday, October 3rd. We headed for the information booth and got them to book a hotel for us. And found out that we could take the airport bus to the Main Train Station in Taipei and that our hotel was literally next door. We stayed at the Cosmos Hotel and it was so close to the train station. The MRT [the subway system in Taipei] is under the train station, too, so it proved to be a most convenient location. I took this picture of the train station from out hotel window.
We got off the airport bus to the side of the Main Train Station in Taipei. There were lines of these yellow taxi cabs watching us hoping for a fare but alas they were out of luck since our hotel was next door.
Walking through the Taipei Train Station at 1:03 pm and seeing only a handful of people was so shocking to me after the crowds of people in Korea that I stopped to take a picture and admire the peace and quiet. I'm glad I took this picture as I like the way the light falls in this image.
This is a picture of our hotel room at the Cosmos Hotel. It was clean and bright and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a convenient place to stay in Taipei.
I had been warned by one of my blog readers to take "moped repellent" to Taiwan. I thought he was exagerating but I found out that he wasn't. These mopeds are everywhere. I still didn't find them as reckless as the "autobi" drivers in Korea as for the most part in Taiwan or at least Taipei the mopeds seemed to drive on the roads and not on the sidewalks.
Our first night in Taipei we went to "Very Thai" a Thai restaurant I had read about in my Lonely Planet book. It was great. It was open until 2 am and in fact the later we stayed the busier it got.
"Ray" read the menu and decided we needed to try the frogs. We got the spicy ones knowing that after more than 3 years of eating Korean food we could handle spicy food and figuring that the fried frogs would be just too much like chicken. The spicy ones were good - a little boney but good.
The next afternoon we were off to the Sung Shan [the Domestic Airport in Taipei] to fly to Taitung.
Taintung is a smaller city to the South East of Taiwan. The reason we headed for it is that is is the gateway to Green Island. It is, also, the gateway for Orchid [Lanyu] Island - an area where most of the aborginals in Taiwan still live. Taitung celebrates is aborginal culture as you can see even in the telephone booth at the airport.
A picture outside the Taitung Airport. As you can see it is quite a small airport.
A fountain outside the airport.
 The gift shop outside the Taitung airport.
The gift shop sells a lot of aborginal beadwork. It reminds me of the native Canadian beadwork.
The Tourist Information Center at the airport was able to not only book as a hotel in the nearby area of Chihpen [ a resort area famous for it's hot spring] but was able to arrange for our hotel to come and pick us up at the airport. We stayed at the Chihpen Hotel. This is a picture of the hot pools that I took from our hotel room window.
That night while "Ray" and I were taking a soak in the hot pools were looked up at the light fixture above us and saw a lizard. I guess he was drawn to the heat of the light.
I was amazed by the tall palm trees in the Chihpen area. It was so exotic looking.
We took a walk before dinner and found this waterfall. It was beautiful and so natural. Unfortunately, the light was fading and to get enough light I had to use a long exposure and I guess I jiggled a tiny bit and slightly blurred the picture. Darn it!
I enjoyed seeing some nature after the concrete jungles in Korea. I just couldn't get enough scenic beauty.
Walking around Chihpen after dinner we came across a temple by the side of the road. We stopped to take a closer look.
A closer look at the temple.
Even the foliage was so exotic looking.
*** Next week I'll post the rest of my Taiwan pictures and talk about my trip to Green Island and the night markets in Taipei. Chulsok 추석The eve of Chulsok 추석 [the Korean Thanksgiving Holiday] is upon us. This time of year gets very hectic and busy for nearly everyone. I am amazed at the shopping and expense that go into the holiday preparations. For example, nearly every company gives each of their employees a gift set as a Chulsok present. In fact, I got a lovely, gift set that included Rice Day shampoo, hair conditioner, body wash, bars of soap and toothpaste.
Even after over three years in Korea I am still amazed by the cultural differences. For one thing gifts here are not individualized but sets that come already prepared and the same thing is given to everyone regardless of age or gender. I guess I'm still used to gifts being painstakingly chosen for each individual on my list according to hobby or personal interest. Moreover, if you were to give someone back home in North America bars of soap or toothpaste for a gift it would seem like you were telling them they were smelly or dirty and they'd better use this. I love my gift set, now that I am now used to the idea of getting personal care items, and it is a very practical gift.
Here is a picture I took at Mega Mart a large department store near my home of some of the gift sets. These ones include bars of soap and toothpaste.
Another cultural difference can be seen in the Korean love of SPAM. And, no I don't mean junk e-mail [ha, ha]. I mean the canned luncheon meat. The Koreans love it and give it to one another in gift sets. They even go so far as to consider it a "luxury" item. My friend "Ray" has told me that it is only in Asian countries where there is a history of US Military involvement or presence that Spam is considered a delicacy.
This is a picture of a gift set of Spam. Back in North America we consider Spam a food that you eat when you're poor or running low on cash just before payday but at over $ 32.00 for this gift set here Spam isn't exactly cheap.
"Ray" and I talked about the Korean love of Spam tonight and in taking about it he found this article about Spam being considered a desirable gift set item. Here's the link. (Thank you- "Ray".)
Watercooler Story on Spam
Also, Wipipedia has an article about Spam that tells about the link between its popularity and countries with a US Military history. Here's the link to that.
Wipipedia Article on Spam
In case, I forgot just what an important occasion Chulsok is I would soon be reminded when I saw the sales clerks in the supermarket in their beautiful Hanboks 한복 [traditional Korean clothing].
Here is another picture of a Hanbok. This is one as seen from the back with the intricate embroidery on it.
There are, also, tuna gift sets [which although cheaper by half than the Spam gift sets] we foreigners seem to enjoy and appreciate more.
This lovely sales clerk was kind enough to pose for a picture near the gift sets.
I noticed these Korean cookies and snack sets and wanted to take a picture of them especially when I saw a box just above them wrapped in the cloth that older Korean women routinely use to carry their packages. I guess it is much more durable than a plastic bag and much better for the environment in the long run and gosh darn it sure looks pretty, too.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the gift sets of Korean liquor. I believe this is a traditional rice wine since the label on the bottle says 법주 [bab ju] and "bab" is the Korean word for rice and "ju" is the word for any type of alcohol in Korean.
Last but not least the most expensive gift for Chulsok would be these boxes of Korean Ginseng. 인삼 [in sam]. Ginseng is considered a health food and is highly desired and the price is reflective of that. The most expensive box of ginseng I saw was priced at over $ 178.00 dollars. W0w!
*** Well that's my post for this week. On Tuesday I am off to Taiwan with my friend "Ray". I can't wait. Yipee! I will be away for more than 6 days so I will not be posting an article next weekend. However, I promise to take tons of pictures in Taiwan and I'll write about my trip and post tons of pictures sometime the following weekend [October 14th to 15th].
Thank you to everyone who gave me advice about places to go and things to see in Taiwan.GwangjuI recently went to Gwangju 관주 in Jeollanam-do [a province to the South West of Korea]. It is a province known for its rich agricultural lands. In fact, it has a history of tensions between it and Gyeongsangnam-do the province I live in and where Busan is the major city. The tensions seem to as a result of Jeollanam-do being an argicutural province and so financially much poorer than Gyeongsangnam-do a more industrial province.
I left on a Friday night at midnight on my 277.6 km journey. I took a night bus called a 우 등 [uh dung] which means it is a luxury bus that has only 3 seats per aisle and they are like armchairs and they recline so you can really relax and even sleep if you want. It was very posh and very nice.
We started our trip in Nopo-dong in Busan at the express bus terminal.
Here is a photo of our luxury bus. It is definately the way to travel especially at night and for trips that last 3 and 1/2 hours like our trip was.
We had a rest top half way through our trip and I went to the restroom. On the way there I noticed this large display board showing grisly photos of traffic accidents. Not exactly reassuring. I guess they believe in the adage "Scared Sober" at least in regards to their Drunk Driving Campaigns.
The first place we were off to on Saturday was a green tea planation. It was in a place called Boseong 보성. It was called Boseong DaWon 보 성 다원 which means tea planation or garden. I was surprised to discover that green tea grows in waist high shrubs. I'm not sure how I thought it grew but I guess I thought it grew close to the ground. This is me and my three friends at the tea planation.
The tea planation was massive and it covered the side of the mountain in curving patterns. It must make it difficult to harvast with machinery. 
There was a stream running through the tall trees leading to the gardens surrounding the tea planation.
There was a lake in the distance surrounded by fields of green tea. One thing I noticed was how green everything was and how clean the air was. It actually smelled clean and fresh. Since then I have noticed that one thing missing in the big cities of Korea is fresh clean air - being from small town Canada I miss that. This weekend and the scenery reminded a lot of home [except there are no mountains near my home].
We had lunch at a Korean restaurant and the food was great! It was seafood and there were posters on the wall saying that they used green tea in the preparation and cooking of some of their dishes.
After lunch we were off to Nagan and a Folk Village that included a walled fortress. It just outside of the city of Suncheon 순천. It is called 낙안민속마을 [nak an min sok ma ul]. It was amazing! At the gates of the fortress there were these Pages. I felt like I was living in The King and the Clown movie with Lee, Jun-Ki.
There were musicians playing instruments and dancing around. I've seen them before elsewhere in Korea but it seemed more athentic to see it here.
I love the totem poles that can be found at most tourist attractions in Korea.
Me and two of my friends posing for the camera.
A picture from the walls of the fortress looking off into the distance.
I am told that although this is a Folk Village people actually live here. They are subsided by the Korean government to live and work here. There is even a water wheel.
There are thatched huts and squash vines growing everywhere.
Later that night we went to a resort. It was amazing. It even had a fablous pool.
The next day were were off to the Gwangju Biennale. It is an art show that is held every two years [in case you did guess that by the name]. There I was interviewed by Arirang TV about my impressions of the art exhibit. The problem was they asked us on the way into the show and despite our protests they pressured us to comment. So, since I had read about the exhibit in my Lonely Planet Korea book I bluffed some sort of answer. Wonder if it will ever air on Arirang? I'm not sure I want it to.
One of my favorite displays was this massive outdoor display of flowers. They are made of some kind of fabric and air is blown into them to keep there puffed out.
A close up look at the same flowers.
This photo doesn't do the exhibit justice. It was my favorite piece. It was a room with a piano and chairs and artist had constructed a giant spider web out of black string. I keep looking at it wondering how long it took to construct and marvelling at the fact that it only seemed to be tacked to the walls in a dozen or so places and still hung in the air. It still boggles my mind how the artist was able to do that without more stabilizing from the ceiling and walls.
After three of four hours at the exhibit we were off to dinner. Duck soup 오리 탕 [ori tang] is famous in Gwangju so we decided to try it for our last meal in town. It is supposed to stain your clothes terribly if you get it on you so we were given these aprons to wear to protect our clothes.
 At the end of our day we were off to the Gwangju Bus station in U-Square. Gwangju might be only the 6th largest city in Korea but its bus station puts some of the bigger city stations to shame. U-Square has make-up stores, convenience stores, a bookstore with 3 aisles of English novels [even Lonely Planet Guide Books in English], and restaurants. I wish Busan had such a nice bus station.
UpdatesAt the risk of sounding like John Walsh and America's Most Wanted [who I admire a lot for the way he has taken a personal tragedy and used it as motivation to try and change society for the better] I have gotten a lot of comments from people as of late so I decided it is time to up-date people on a few things I have been blogging about.
In my post on "Red Devils - Korean Soccer Fans" Jonathan a teacher on Long Island said he was glad to know that the alternative spelling of Korea with a C was not just a spelling error. I had promised to check into the reason for the spelling of Corea. I learned that Korea used to be spelled with a C. However, when Japan invaded Korea in the early 1900s Japan changed the spelling of Korea to start with a K. This meant that when countries were listed alphabetically Japan was listed above Korea. Koreans now want to change the spelling back to the original way it was spelled. I have not been able to find this written about anywhere but this is what every Korean knows and will tell you when asked about the spelling of their country's name.
This is the picture I posted that inspired the comment by Jonathan.
*** When I wrote my post "Revisiting Gumi and Daegu" I posted a picture of the Gumi train station and mentioned my surprise that it STILL wasn't completed nearly 2 years later. Travis wrote to me and told me that the reason for the slow progess was contract disputes. Thanks for the info, Travis. Another mystery solved.
This is a picture I previously posted of the still unfinished Gumi Train Station.
***
In my post "Adventures in Cooking" I wrote about my struggle to learn to cook and my growing skills in the kitchen. I am pleased to report that I am continuing to improve my cooking despite not having an oven. I recently made my first banana bread EVER and it was fantasic - if I do say so myself.
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