Various Musings and Rantings of an Educated Layabout

Yay for my first part being featured on the vox Explore Culture section! This is late because my work PC is a little irritating when it comes to the Internet and the software is in Korean so I can't really fix any of the problems easily.

So last part I left you in the World Heritage and Landmark section. Following this theme came the traditional Korean heritage lanterns, I really loved this theme as I'm a big fan of traditional Korean culture and they looked briliant. I also bought a cup of green tea at the lantern cafe which cost the cheap low price of 100 won (thats around 5 pence in the UK, 10 cents in the US - crazy!) and the money went to a Korean charity which made it all the better. I even had my friends without gloves carry it to warm their hands and for cheap slave labour!

 

 

In this sequence, we had the Korean zodiac being portrayed. I loved the mouse and took quite a bit trying to capture a good picture.

Around this point as well I lost my friends in my photo frenzy. Not that I was worried as I rung them later and kept catching up with them. Although it got crazy busy at this point and I was contending with massive crowds of old ladies and children.

I've been doing a lesson plan recently that I never thought would be so successful. It's a murder mystery logic puzzle where from sentences like ' The man who wanted revenge against lives below the man with the gun' the students must work out the killer by thinking about the English words and the overall picture. It's great to see the students grappling English so skilfully. Sometimes, they go wrong but I and my coteacher would go round group by group or they would call for help.

Their reactions when they understood or finally worked out the killer were varied. Some whooped and ahhed and were generally happy to have done it to the odd malcontent who was like meh. Still there's only usually one and they get caught up in the puzzle all the same.

During the lesson with 1-13, the music specialist class (they're in a different building, specialising in music and considered the worst class to teach academics to as they just don't care), I had some brilliant conversations. They are different from the rest of the school, they probably don't live in the area, come from richer, more well off families and studied a lot as children. I find this quite obvious in their attitude towards me and thei confidence with English. Usually I find this class more lively and talkative although it does come with a big attitude problem with some of the girls. However, there's a group of girls at the front who are my favourites :)

 

Student: Teacher, teacher. You are ... you are dressed to kill! You have lost .... diet?

Me: Yes a little.

(my co-teacher corrected them and then they asked did you lose weight?)

Student: HOW? HOW?

Me: Korean food.

Student: But I eat Korean food all the time, it doesn't work!

Me: Salads.

Student: Oh no!

 

Same groups of students:

A: Where you buy the dress?

B: It so cute!

C: Your muffler ... PURPLE!

Me: In England.

A: Give me England name.

B: How much?

Me: Long time ago in a sale. Very cheap. It's not sold anymore.

A: nooooo!

 

Later on

Student A: (again lol) Teacher your hair?

B: Yes, what's your hair color!

Me: It's natural!

All: oooooh

*Korean Korean*

Co-teacher: you're jealous.

A: I am jealous.

Me: Don't kill me! (jealousy was a motive on the worksheet).

Girls: lol

Celebrating the countdown to Visit Korea, a tourist initiative that failed on the English slogan "Visit Korea Year 2010-2012", they held a lantern festival on the Cheonggyecheon stream in central Seoul. A group of girls and Jerome decided to brave the biting cold and experience some culture and bright lights. I seriously loved it. It was cold, seriously cold but the lanterns were brilliant and atmosphere so enjoyable. I also spent a lot of time playing with the functions on my camera to get good pictures, the night time mode requires such a long exposure my shaky hands always screw up the photograph.

 

First up is the haechi, the Korean symbol of Seoul and cute mascot for the city's events. I may have stalked this little fella for around 30 minutes as he meeted and greeted visitors to the festival. According to the Korea Times: 'Haechi, generally known as Haetae, is a lion-like horned creature that often appears in myths as a guardian against fire and disasters.'

Seoul Lantern Festival ...  Yay! May have took me three tries amongst thew thronging crowds to fit the words in the picture. I missed out the 2009 but I kind of like it anyway. 

 

The first lanterns were these Korean guards, quite a good choice if you consider that when visiting a palace or historic site here usually these guards are the first thing you see.

 

Gwanghwamun Gate lantern.There are a few of these gates round Seoul, although some were destroyed in the Japanese invasions or recently due to fire, The one pictured here, is located fairly close to the festival site and is currently being restored.

 

Then, there were a range of international lanterns made in different countries such as China, Taiwan and Japan. The Japanese one came first and was very impressive with vivid red colours and the typical Japanese image. I took a picture of the explanation so I would remember what it was:

'"Shiva Lakshmi', a representative play from the Kabuki (traditional Japanese play), is a manifestation of Kamakura Gorowoo, a hero who saves weak and defeats "

This is exactly what it says, I have no idea who he defeats. There were also some Japanese guys in traditional dress with drums posing for pictures and giving out cellphone charms as freebies. We were in there like a flash.My face is pink from the cold. So sexy :p

 

Another haechi image, this time a cute lantern. I love this symbol, the chaps at Tourism did well here I reckon. Couldn't get a picture sans a Korean posing with it though. Welcome to Korea and their obsession with photography lol.

Next up came the global monuments. As foreigners we were very excited to see little images of home. Particularly me as there was a Big Ben lantern, hooray for my homeland's cultural landmarks.

Also got a pretty good one of Big Ben alone, managed to get it quite sharp by turning my flash on and off. It was too cold and busy to mess with buttons or anything like that.

The Easter Island faces began the landmarks sequence, I chose this picture rather than my flash one as it is quite soft and captures what I liked about the lanterns in the first place.

Check out the floating pyramid and leaning tower of Pisa.

 

 

 

More pictures coming up in Part Two ...  Tomorrow!

 

Not this Saturday but the Saturday before I went to the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul for a food and drinks buffet. It cost around 23,000 won each, that's around £12, and was unlimited food and drinks. Drinks included red and white wine, sangria, champagne and sparkling wine. We thoroughly exploited this offer as this photograph shows, however this is not the total as the empties were often cleared from 7pm-9pm. We plan to return :)

I manage to do a lot of wasting time. Yesterday I had the whole day off.

I watched 3 movies,

cleaned my floor (granted this involved sweeping and washing it on my hands and knees),

watched two episodes of Queen Seon Duk (Korean drama),

cleaned my bathroom,

slept in til 11am,

rearranged my clothes in the drawers,

sorted out all my coins,

took out my rubbish,

washed up,

did some ironing.

Actually listed out it sounds productive. But somehow my room is still messy.

Last night I met up with some friends at Jongno 3-ga, a subway station in central Seoul. We headed off for dinner at a traditional Korean restaurant. Some of them are vegetarians which in korea, particularly around the area we were in, can be very difficult when eating out. Luckily I think they had some tasty options nonetheless. Lately I have been sick of Korean food, mostly its due to the cafeteria food everyday at school - it's not the best quality but some days I do enjoy a lot.

 

So, I chose sundae, a Korean type of sausage which I've been really loving lately. It's very similar taste to that of English black pudding and goes well with the usual Korean side dishes.

 

Sundae (Korean pronunciation: [sundɛ], also sometimes spelled soondae) is a Korean dish made generally by boiling or steaming cow or pig's intestines that are stuffed with various ingredients. It is a kind of blood sausage and believed to have been eaten for a long time. The recipes related to sundae can be found in Joseon cookbooks published in 19th century such as "Gyuhap chongseo" and "Siuijeonseo".^[1]

Sundae can be made with seafood such as ojing-eo sundae (오징어 순대 squid sundae) and myeongtae sundae (명태 순대 Alaska pollock sundae).^[1]

The most common type of sundae is made of pig's intestines stuffed with cellophane noodles (dangmyeon), barley, and pork blood, although some variants also contain perilla leaves, scallions (pa), fermented soybean paste (doenjang), glutinous rice, kimchi, and soybean sprouts. It is a popular street food in South Korea. In fact, there is a neighborhood called Sundae Town in Sillim-dong that has many restaurants dedicated to sundae.

From Wikipedia

Sounds god awful but I like it. Also shared a bowl of soybean paste soup which I think is called Doenjang jjigae although I'm not a 100 percent sure. This soup is tangy and just generally warming and yummy with it's underlying spicy tones. Had this soup a few times and thoroughly enjoy it. Also sample some of Orla's kimchi pancake which was better than I expected.

The restaurant didn't look too great to be honest. The seats were broken and at first it smelt musty but I found the food really tasty and filling. Nothing like well made food whatever country it is from.

Then, we headed to the cinema. It was an art cinema in the most random of locations - on the 4th floor in a big building in traditional part of town, flanked by high rise apartment building that seemed to be stuck onto the building! They were running A French Cinema retrospective with mainly modern French movies, some with English and Korean subtitles.

We went to see one called L'esquive or in English Games of Love and Chance. The story line was so so but the acting and some of the drama happening on the screen was amazing, These kids were good and obviously well directed. The plot based around the big apartment complexes in the Muslim suburbs of Paris and the lives, loves and dramas of Krimo and the other teenagers living their lives in a poor area. I think it was going for some kind of postmodern neorealism as it was very naturalistic and tended to focus on the characters' behaviour and feelings more than the story or what was happening overall. But seriously the acting was good!

I'm glad I went as although it wasn't the best film I've seen, it was good to watch and felt like the director's first effort but promised more in the future.

 

Knowing this stuff is out there in Seoul, i'm now on the lookout for Italian cinema. I think I would die of excitement if I ever discovered any Taviani brothers movies in the theatres round here. 

Think I'm going to start making this a regular. During my everyday life I begin to write little letters to Korea : love letters, poison pens, hate letters and little memos of the things that make me laugh. I suppose it's because I'm surrounded by a foreign language I don't understand daily that I become quite insular when on my own and note the things I see and think in my head. I will write them down now so I can record them on my blog. This way it will seem like I'm not talking to myself in my head but merely thinking of things to put up here. 

I put one on my facebook status once, other English teachers cracked up, I guess some things are just universal over here. It went:

Dear Korean colleagues,I can tell you are discussing me because you look at me while you are doing it. Remember stealth at all times.

Here's just a few recent ones ~

Dear Korean grocery store owners, yes your basket of radishes were in the way of the apartment building entrance today. Thank you for moving them AFTER I squeezed past them.

Dear Korean student, your email made me smile after some lonely few days. Thank you ~ "You always teaching us with beautiful smile and bright eyes.You treat us very nice and well and you always prepared lessons carefully.I really love your class since you first taught us ^^" PS. I don't even mind that it is occasionally grammatically incorrect. 

I went to the Hwa Gye Sa temple, in northern Seoul with a couple of friends from the EPIK-SMOE (English Program in Korea - Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) orientation.  It was an odd experience, meditating at 3am is strange to say the least. I can see how Buddhists become zen when dedicated, early morning meditation coupled with the chanting from the ceremony downstairs did create a funny sensation. Although fighting the impending sleep was my main object. Not to mention for 45 minutes I had McFly then Tom Jones 'It's not unusual' stuck in my head like some zenradio in my brain. While meditating we were meant to be pondering the question below, to be honest I never found the answer ... I couldn't fully understand the question. Enlightenment is beyond me I feel.

Hwa Du: "Mount Sumeru"

A student asked the venerable Master Yun-Men (d.949);

Not even a thought has arien, is there still sin or not?

Master said;

Mount Sumeru!

When thought arises, sinn also arises. If no thought arises, there should be no kind of sin or erro. But why did the Master say that sin, that is, error, is as big as Mount Sumeru?

 

 

After 3am meditation, 108 bows to Buddha (this was the week following my continual back pain so I opted out of this and watched), a chanting ceremony came outdoors work - we paid £15 and managed to get roped in having some head monks watch us sweep the grounds! We grumbled a bit but I quite liked being outside after a few hours sitting on the ground. Plus I got to talk for a bit to Simi who is really cool, and we had a chat with the head monk who used to live in America and was quite an odd chap for a zen master. He serenaded us with some Bob Marley and The Eagles before telling Kara that "American women are stronger than any man!"

 

 

We had a lot more personal time than I expected, for example we spent some time in a street festival that was going on down the road. In fact, after being photographer several times as the typical foreigners enjoying Korean festival pictures, a few of us were persuaded to get on stage and dance with the singer. It was hilarious and great fun, some ahjumma really got into as well and jumped up on stage after we finished and stole the microphone from the singer lol. Later on that day some of us went on a contraband journey where we stocked up on cookies, chocolate and soft drinks in order to supplement the temple food.

 

At 7.30am in the morning I found myself climbing a mountain for some outdoor meditation, which turned into most of the girls sleeping and talking :) Have to admit found the climb a bit arduous, one bit was partiuclarly steep and I found myself in trouble until this short quiet little girl monk pulled me up. Not kidding she was half the size of me but I reckon she could have made it up there with me on her back! The sweaty rice fueled hike was kind of worth it though. I loved the biew and the endorphin filled triumphant feeling you get when you exercise and finally finish!

 

 

 Our weekend retreat was over and done with by 11pm on Sunday! Myself and some of the girls decided to celebrate our freedom and the ability to eat nice food again by heading to KFC. Lovely!

The above is my personal philosophy. That, and have no regrets. Have no regrets whilst drinking the tea. So here is mine, and every English person's personal nightmare, particularly when away from home.

And now here's the saving grace...

 

An unopen box of Yorkshire Tea, a little bashed from travelling in my suitcase. I love youuuuu Yorkshire teeeea.

provide me with hours of fun.  Here's some of the best.

Compliant and trusting man, 43, WLTM F to 45 who doesn’t insist on using the chemical names for obscure proteins as the safety word. Stoke-on-Trent.

A graveyard in the dead of night. A spade. A curse. Then we turn the sods. Just a sneak peak into some of my dating habits, but we could start with dinner and a movie (something from the Dario Argento canon perhaps?) Ghoulish M, 57.

As a frequent attendee at LRB Bookshop events, I spend most of my time wrestling with my own internal monologue jokes and summoning up the courage to articulate these before an audience. Naturally, by the time my anxieties have subsided, the shop has emptied and I’m once again alone. My sexual experiences mirror this. Let’s hang out! M, 43.

Sulky M, 68, seeks acquiescent wife or punctual urologist. Preferably one in the same. No perverts/slackers.

Literary lads of the LRB! Know a girl who keeps in touch with all of her ex’s? Says she gets along with men better than women? Laughs about keeping up with their drinking? Recommends white beer with salmon rather than pinot noir? Well forget about her, she’s a manipulative, cackling lush who’s hated by female colleagues and the morose clutch of resigned eunuchs orbiting her Hoegaarden. Instead, date me. Post ironic, post feminist who enjoys informed conversation, gender theory and ranking the ladette phenomenon alongside the Britisches Freikorps in retrospectives of the 20th century.

History doesn’t relate the incident, but I won bronze for Festooning during the 1972 Olympics in Quebec. After that I moved to Brighton. Dizzy F, 59.

My hobbies include leaving trails of crayons wherever Noam Chomsky gives a public lecture. To date I have placed 3,785 crayons across the globe and raised more than $7 for charity. Beat that, fems to 55 with independent incomes and easy access to therapy.

I hate bad dreams, especially the ones with the giant tennis players. Man, 41. Do you have bad dreams? Do they have giant tennis players? My sympathies.

Having an average score of 6.8 on the Slavoj iek scale of sexual magnetism (still regarded by scientists as the most accurate measure of human attractiveness), I have never had to place a personal ad. However, if I were to write one it would reference the colour green, a refusal to acknowledge the existence of gravity, and a firm belief in the theory that cuddling can solve all arguments except ones about carpets. M, 38.

I passed up an opportunity to attend the 2009 International Biscuit Convention in Warsaw to write this ad. And I really like biscuits. And conventions. Warsaw, not so much. Biscuit convention-loving, Warsaw-indifferent man, 46 WLTM F to 50 with biscuit baking/convention hosting talent who preferably doesn’t live in Warsaw.

Like a faithful hound I will fetch your slippers and newspaper in the morning and follow you for walks on beaches on brisk autumn mornings. Of course, if I bite a small child I will have to be injected with sodium pentobarbital and destroyed. But let’s just accentuate the positive for now. Slippers. Newspaper. Beaches. F, 32.

My dad helped me write this ad, just like he helped me with all my science projects and encouraged me to go to medical school. Thanks dad! Spoiled M, 54.

Here’s a truth pill: if there was a fight between me and all the other advertisers in this column there would be no fight because we are all friends. Good luck to you all in your quest for love! Apart from the advertiser above, who is my sworn enemy and whom I have pledged to kill. M, 38. Berks.

There are 289 species of octopus. I can, and will, name them all during the act of love. M, 58.

Many people carry scars from previous relationships. Not me: mine come from Chinese buffets. Clumsy, argumentative dim sum enthusiast (M, 45). Not good with children or animals. Or anything else that isn’t a fork.

I placed this advert simply to toot my own horn, but the LRB refuse to let me use the font ‘Impact’. As such I may not come across as bold and as dynamic as I originally intended, but let me assure you I am both bold and dynamic. (Perhaps readers could underline or highlight the words ‘bold’ and ‘dynamic’ themselves? Or else read this ad out loud and shout the words in a commanding voice, like that of classically-trained actor? Possibly Brian Blessed?) Bold and dynamic man (49). Hull.

In my bedroom, ‘tension’ is a word from the past. Although ‘dermatitis’ is very much of the moment. ‘Exfoliate’ is probably the choice for tomorrow. Allergy-suffering idiot (M, 40).

I have two great talents. One is writing superb adverts like this, the other is cage-free chicken farming. If either of those appeal, please write. F, 32. Shrops.

42 year old clinically depressed transvestite and father of two seeks jaded but intellectual supermodels to share misery , bills and alcoholic blackouts.Costume desired but not essential. I am hugely attractive and overwhelmingly charismatic.