Fighting Over Kimchi (Part 2)

In the last post, friends and I were having a rocking good time in Cheongju because I persuaded them to visit just to wander around and see this small city. Then I went back to Daejeon with my friend, and guess what we did the next day?! That's right - we went ziplining.

We had to get up early, because that seems par for the course for every big trip that we do. I stayed over with my friend, then we got up early - 6am? - to head to Daejeon Station, where we caught the KTX to Daegu. Then, we took a bus for 40 min. from Daegu Station to an amusement park named Herb Hillz.

This park has everything. There were little wooden cabins for quieter children who want to create art, a pool with giant inflatable hamster balls for children to get in, the pirate ship ride in most amusement parks, a merry-go-round, a garden with pictures on wood for families to hide and behind to take pictures in with their faces sticking out. Some of us took pictures, but others bypassed all of that for the food. I finished my cream cheese bagel from Dunkin Donuts and ate BHC with the Reeds.

Then it was time for the ziplining tutorial. We all put on harnesses, and there were so many buckles and places to tighten and tuck everything in. The man spoke in relaxed Korean, explaining the two hooks that catch us if we fall, and that's why we're supposed to hook them to everything at every step. Then of course, there's the zipline hook itself, which has small wheels for safe and fast gliding on the cable wire for some fear-of-height thrills. We each had a helmet - blue for women and yellow for men. We also all had rubber gloves to protect our hands as we will be using them a lot. I was glad to find a pair that fit me - normal gloves never fit me.

It was hot. We were all impatient for it to begin. We practiced on the low sample course, where a friend didn't know whether she wants to do it. Then we all headed to the Gorilla course anyway, but the same friend says there is an easier course, so we should do that one instead. We headed towards that one, but she decided to stop and sit it out for the day. So my one partner left and I climbed the Chimpanzee course. These courses - there are about five or six - are rated by a star system, and ranked by how much upper body strength it would take to balance and climb, because the hardest one is the longest.

I don't remember how many stages it came in, but the most memorable ones are these. There were two wires, one to each side of you, and two wires lower than that for you to step on. Occasionally, there are circular wood platforms for you to stand upon and rest for a minute or two. Then there's the one where you step on one wire, the other one you lean on at the middle of your waist, and the way to get across is to hold on tightly to individual ropes that hang roughly 2.5 feet apart. Walking on a net, that was the easiest one for me. Jumping across two platforms, with only one rope in the middle to help me swing, that may have been the hardest. I also had to crawl through barrels uphill, with spaces between the barrels.

And then, finally, the final stage was always the zipline itself. There were two ziplines to this course, and it's not just zipping. You have to crash against a thick green mat and catch the ropes around it to stop and pull yourself up to the next platform. My partner found that the most challenging.

It's the combination of height - we were maybe 10 meters up? - and using your hands and arms to grasp at objects and climb the obstacle course that was a lot of cardiovascular work. I remember my fingers feeling the blood pumping through them, and the blood flowing throughout my whole body - making my skin almost wine red and giving me an adrenaline rush that lasted the next two days.

It doesn't stop there. So, we leave Herb Hillz to catch the bus back to Daegu and then take the KTX, right? So we're all chilling out, expecting to have an easy ride home et all, and what happens? We were either sleeping, recovering, or talking about how great it was when - Flash! Flashflashflash flash! As we all looked out the bus windows to admire the dangerously close by lightning, thunder hits - BOOM!! First, it was farther away, and then it got closer and closer, until it was only 4 mi. away. And it started pouring. The streets were almost completely flooded. Only that one friend had an umbrella, and we were a party of 6 or 7. Not only that, the bus overshot Daegu station by a good 5 minutes.

So we get off the next time the bus stops. We know which general direction the station is in, and also assume that it's just a straight line. Then we... that's right - we run for it. 7 foreigners, running as fast as adrenaline will fuel us, through the rain in a straight line, splashing puddles everywhere and being joyfully dramatic. It was totally a sight for the Koreans to see! It was roughly maybe 8 to 10 blocks, we were all soaked. It was nostalgic, like autumn cross country running back in Massachusetts again.

Under a bridge, we asked for directions. This would be the perfect set for a noir photography shoot, I thought. It turns out that it's more straight line, then to the left. After we left the bridge, the rain had significantly lightened, so we were able to walk, sopping wet, the rest of the way amidst lots of stares from Koreans. I got hot chocolate at the Daegu station. All of us only had standing room on the train, because it was packed for Buddha's birthday weekend, still. I was with two girlfriends, and we spoke of many things standing there and making the Koreans uncomfortable. One old lady stood right in the middle of our conversational space.

We were all very relieved when we finally got to Daejeon Station. While we kind of went our separate ways, I picked up clothes from my friend's apartment, then went to have dinner with 3 friends, 1 of whom didn't go with us to ziplining. She preferred to sit and read all day, her mind in glorious fiction, instead. We were ravenous. We asked for so many refills of kimchi, hot spicy sauce, lettuce leaves and water, that the waitresses must have thought we were fairly high maintenance. We devoured all of the dalkgalbi and wanted rice afterwards, but they explained that rice only comes with the galbi at the same time, not afterwards with the leftover sauce.

We paid and went home, but the title stuck because one friend said it's rare that all the foreigners at the table like kimchi, and I envisioned a couple of monkeys sitting at a table fighting over - you guessed it - kimchi. It as amazeballs.

Fighting Over Kimchi (Part 1)

Aah. I had just showered, and am brimming with happiness. It was an awesome weekend, and I wish it weren't ending. Buddha's Birthday weekend was a rare three-day weekend, and I spent it in Seoul, Cheongju and Daejeon.

In Cheongju, four friends came to visit, and I showed them around a city that I had only lived in for roughly 8 months. The only specific request was a visit to Subway, so I led everyone to the basement of the DreamPlus mall, where there is one Subway outlet. There are 3 Subways in total in Cheongju, I later found out, though I only knew of 2. My friend really enjoyed a pizza sub, which she didn't get to have when she went back to America. So we all savored subs - except for me, because I was silly and ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich right before setting out. I'm happy they all enjoyed the sandwiches so much.

We wandered around the rest of DreamPlus, where we checked out little private fashion stores that are all in rented space. They liked the not-crowded and relaxed atmosphere of the place, and amidst all the shiny, I bought myself a classier watch. It has an oval face, with a leather band and circular metal studs. 40,000 won. A while of wandering around in the mall later, we decided to go outside. Conversations about everything make us very slow walkers, and it was a relaxing day, so we go with the flow.

Five people pack into a taxi, and then it looks like a clown car. I sat on my friend's lap, and we went to Sajik-dong. We got off a block from the bus stop, because we were going to find the small lake or pond, but the bus that I rode to get there last time wasn't running that day.

We noticed the stadium, where I explained that the steps and the extra huge television screen are for people who didn't get tickets in time - they can sit on the stairs to snack while watching the game on the tv outside of the stadium. There was also a statue to the side, almost Greek looking, explaining some part of Korean history. Near it are the mascots for Cheongju, little cartoon characters, because all cities in Korea must have mascots. My friends stopped to smell the bright flowers in front of them. We noted the big bonsai tree behind the flowers.

A block later, we head to the golden temple. It was the first time that I had seen it open, perhaps because of the holiday. We wandered and pointed at the buildings, saying hi to the old lady keepers and commenting on things. There were two: one was Chinese styled and painted brightly, a dormitory where the religious family lives; and the other was the temple itself, painted gold and usually locked. The old lady was nice enough to unlock it for us as a random treat. Inside, she explained the turtle dragon, which accompanies the most powerful god places. It reminded me of the robots from Power Rangers.

On the second floor, there were five gods, the biggest one in the center dwarfing all the rest. They were sorted by size and position: nearer to the center and taller means more important. Their Chinese names were framed in front of them. We bowed. They had different styled hats, were all painted gold, and their faces looked both stern and concerned at the same time. We went upstairs to see the biggest god, who had his palm out in the stop position and the other hand holds a giant pearl of sorts. He was also painted gold, with a topknot in a crown on his head. The space above his head was painted with 4 mantras. When we asked about the pearl in the king's hand, the language barrier got in the way, so the lady led us back down to their offices and showed everyone a short history book, in English, about everything that is this temple. I'm waiting on a friend to finish reading it so I can learn too.

Then we wandered around pet street, looking at dogs and cats and pet food. I bought my Eugene another bag of food. All the animals were so cute. We stopped for drinks at a 7-11 before deciding to hop on a bus after all. We rode to Shinae, the downtown area, before deciding we will sit on a pretty bridge. We stopped by for ice cream at Baskin Robbins on the way, and my friend got a bapbingsu, an ice cream mix with lots of ice. I got the Blueberry Volcano, blueberry ice cream with butter cookies and mint candy. After we went and sat on the dragon-ribs shaped bridge for a good long while, we went for dinner.

I took them to haejonggook, which means hangover soup. We all got the sugolgi one, which means beef with vegetables, soup and purple rice plus the usual appetizers. We had good conversations about our mothers and random subjects, and the meal was very fulfilling. Then I had to pack and go back to Daejeon with them for our ziplining trip the next day. They met my cat, while I hung up underwear and packed for the next day. I still had to go back once for some things I had missed.

Then, like clowns, we all hopped into a taxi once again. The driver, seeing that we were all foreigners, was trying to say to us that Daejeon was just a short distance, so we don't need to go to a bus terminal and he can just take us there instead. I told him, no, that costs too much, and he faced the road again sheepishly. We had a good ol' time making fun of ourselves and of him, and he informed us that he has a Canadian cousin and that he would visit soon. He was smiling when we all exited his taxi. You just know that we made his night.

A Scented Relaxing 26th

It was an amazing weekend, thanks to two girl friends. Happy Birthday to me! It was the first and probably only birthday I'm going to spend in South Korea.

I spent Saturday helping a friend shop in Yongsan for some 18mm photography lenses. I don't know enough about photography to know the difference, but it was pleasant walking around in a brightly lit mall making fun of soldiers and types of people. We ate Korean hotpot at a restaurant, and then had some coffee at Dunkin Donuts. I love hotpot. I love noodles. I love sweet things, and even though I can't cook, I love food in general.

Then we three girls had a sleepover. We spoke about all sorts of things, as women do when we get together. All of us have pets, and even though they have dogs and I have a cat, it feels similar to come home to and love a creature. Even if my creature is passed out on the wood floor (so cute!) after giving me an ultimatum about being away for Two Whole Days and leaving him alone to the silence. He hid one cap of one of my contacts lens cases as suitable punishment. My friend's two dogs are adorable, very full of personality, creating an enjoyable background while we talked about work, life and ourselves, and love.

We woke up the next day around noon. Sundays are made for waking up at noon. Because her windows took up the wall, the light streamed in to tell us that it's daylight. We dressed, deciding to go to the massage place to delay the appointment for an hour so we can eat. There hung a sign that said that they'll be back at 4, so we went to brunch anyway at this nice place named the Moru. I had strawberry pancakes, which was delicious, paired with refreshing peppermint tea. My friends had banana pancake and a dish that had fries and a salad.

When we walked outside, a lady in a businesslike navy blue dress was waiting for us. She introduced herself as I-Sohn, and led us to the Mannam volunteer organization's cafe in Dunsan-dong, very near where my friend from Saturday lives. I hissed at one of my friends about the way this lady was just waiting for us outside of Moru. We made small talk as we walked, threading underground through the stairs and hallways of Daejeon Station and coming out onto a too-familiar street. When we got to the offices, we said hello to some of the other organization's members who were just leaving.

After that randomness, we went back to the massage place, and they were ready for us. We each changed into pajamas after drinking some tea, and they gave us oiled foot baths. Then we laid down on these thick mats, and they covered our eyes and went to work on our muscles. I was tense in my hips, pelvis, buttocks, shoulders and neck, much more so than my backbone itself, which was surprising. The masseuse was a Korean lady smaller than even me, but she used her body weight to apply deep pressure to all of my joints. Soft new age music was playing the entire time, in a nice softly lit room with wood relief carvings and pillows. One of my friends had a male masseuse, so that resulted in silent hilarity worthy of an episode of Sex and the City.

None of us wanted to leave when it was over. All of our necks were rubbed with peppermint oil, and we were so relaxed and sleepy. We laid there, speaking of happy nothings until a woman came in to gently tell us to leave, so we changed back, sat in the lobby with our well being tea, and then left. She was in long mid bow when the elevator doors closed. The weather was still perfect when we walked outside - just windy enough, the sun still just high enough, and beautifully airily warm.

We went to a coffee shop to have tea and cake to close our relaxing time. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend. The company was great, the food was delicious, the massages were relaxing. Thank you, girls, for an awesome 26th birthday!

End and Begin a Semester

The debate competition ended with a sigh of relief from everyone, except for the higher level kids who enjoyed etching out the ideas and details of one topic, because it involves a lot more speaking than writing and less homework.

It occurred in a gumdo training room beneath TOPIA. (Gumdo is a martial art style that's like kendo, but geared toward big groups of enemies instead of just individual combat. Kendo is a Japanese one-on-one sword fighting style complete with structure and armor. ) While more than just this private academy uses this building, I think the academy's owner has the rights to it, which is why we have to clean the classrooms after all the kids leave at 10pm and the Korean teachers clean much more during unofficial office hours.

 We moved some unused bookcases and shelves into the giant store room next to it, cleaned it up, and then moved all the chairs (except for two classrooms) and a handful of tables down into the training room in the basement. That only took one sentence to explain, but the actual process is always a lot slower. For example, I had to hold open the elevator consistently for people to move chairs and tables into it. Before that, it took a while to move all the chairs and tables from their classrooms to the space in front of the elevator. Once we moved all the chairs and tables to outside of the elevator in the basement, we still had to place them in the training room. It also took three or four trips because the elevator is roughly only four feet by four feet.

The preparation was a lot more work than the actual competition. While I did judge one elementary competition in a panel with two other teachers, one part of the competition itself only took maybe forty minutes. There were roughly five rounds. In between, the vice academy owner treated the kids and teachers with hamburgers and cola. The kids who were too young to participate watched a movie until their time was up on that day, and I babysat them with one other teacher to make sure they don't get too out of control or make a mess of the classroom since they got hamburgers and cola as well. The first four rounds took place in classrooms on the fourth floor.

Only the final round took place in the big training room, where several banners about TOPIA have been put up, and a new banner for the debate competition itself hung behind the two competing teams. Aside from all the teachers, the academy owner and vice owner, all the students and a tiny number of parents made up the audience. The students get restless, and we had to shush them many times. The judges sat in front of the audience, the podium is in the middle, and the two teams sat on either side of the podium. The elementary teams had five members each, while the middle school teams had three students each. The final round took around an hour and a half to two hours.

The winners received cash prizes; the runner ups received participation certificates and dark chocolates that we teachers had to pass out next week in class. We also had to skip some chapters in the book so that we can say we finished the textbooks, since the semester ends this week. I went in this past Saturday to proctor an interview and grade some placement tests, and I'm not sure how much I would receive for compensation. I also have to wait one more month for health insurance.

Two weekends ago, all the teachers plus our supervisors went to Daejeon for training. The new program is called Debate and Library. There will be next textbooks, and the teaching will be much more reading and debate based. This is good for teachers who like using story formats, but bad for everyone else. There will be new schedules, which will include the one or two new teachers who have arrived since the last entry. I was just getting used to these textbooks and this routine, but situations change quickly - such is life.

Occupying Seoul (Yeoido)

America always has a lot of media attention from every country in the world, mostly because our international policy is to stick our nose in for what we think is right and sway the other members of the United Nations on various issues and movements whenever possible. This is old news. So it's no surprise that the entire world also has an eye on our economic and financial troubles; everyone knows that the American unemployment rate is at an all time high.

As per the power of the internet, I had first heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement through a lot of pictorial jokes on Facebook, which probably came from some graphic designers and people on 4chan. I knew that many people have been angry with Wall Street and Obama since the U.S. government organized the bank bail-out, but it wasn't until one of my Facebook friends posted a link on my wall about the movement that I connected the two and really started looking into it. I didn't understand it, because that particular link didn't give a very good representation of why people were protesting, and that the speaker sounded like he might have been high on weed didn't help either.

This link, however, clarifies the picture quite a bit and was far more persuasive, but I only saw this article after I went to the Occupy Seoul (at Yeoido) protest to do a little on-the-spot journalism to see what it was about. For a disclaimer, I will say that this is the first time I've ever been to a protest. I was a little nervous about participating because I realized this was a controversial topic. I also wasn't sure what the entire ramifications were for a Chinese American foreigner like me to contribute to this cause in this country, even though I agree with the core gist of the message, which was that financial inequality is everywhere so we as a citizenry rely on our governments to regulate giant banks and CEOs and stem the corruption.

In addition, I am aware of the counterarguments against protesting against financial institutions and the entire Occupy Wall Street movement as a whole. Here is one example. This argument states that everyone should take personal responsibility for their money; the American economy is so terrible right now because the majority of people go into debt from overspending and neglecting their bookkeeping. My friend Amy also has another perspective here.

My opinion is that, while this is true, it is nearly impossible to do if you didn't start out healthy (like if you had some genetic disease or disability) or have a family, in which case spontaneous events may keep you from saving money. I am lucky enough myself to have been born healthy, and I worked since the age of fifteen and went to a state university, so I had saved up enough money to become debt free roughly a year after graduation. Second disclaimer: I had a lot of help from my immediate family and one of my ex-boyfriends. (We're still good friends, but that's a whole other story.)

I went with my friend Mary Garcia (not her real name) and she had this green paper sign that said, "American Citizen + American Education + American Student Loans + A Lack of American Jobs = Sad American". She also participated in a handful of interviews. I refused to say anything in an interview to any of the reporters because I am not protesting any Korean financial institutions, and as I've said before, I am not sure what the full ramifications for a Chinese American to be protesting on foreign soil are. I went to the protest because I agree with the core message of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, want to support those people back home (as is true with my friend Mary Garcia) and wanted to see how this event would happen, because I'm pretty sure this will be a memorable moment in history. Citizens in a handful of different countries banding together to protest the same thing is something that I haven't heard or read about before.

 It was drizzling, but a large crowd of Korean people were there. They were chanting "We are the 99%! Occupy Yeoido!" both in Korean and then in English. Many people had signs. Though a majority of them were in Korean, a few were in English. Some even had on Scream or Vendetta masks, to protect their identities. At times, there was a man rapping in Korean. A woman's voice was leading the protesters, and a bunch of old Korean women were kneeling under the cover of the entrance to a building. Between these women and the doors of the building were a line of riot control Korean police - just in case, I guess. There were some other foreigners there too, mostly Americans and a few from other different parts of the world. Reporters from several different news stations were going around interviewing people. There were more foreigners interviewed than Korean people, so I was all the more suspicious about what the Korean press was going to say about this event and movement.

One reporter, after interviewing Mary, asked for my phone number so she can follow up on the interview, since my friend lied and told her that she had no phone. I gave her my phone number with an "Don't make me lose my job now..." but asked to be anonymous and refused an interview myself on the basis that I don't know what my employers would think. There was also one man who pointed a video camera at me without asking first, so I very warily said hi and then basically waved him away. I assumed he only got the end of what I was saying when I explained to another man - who was a reporter, but wasn't taking notes - that I agree with this movement because there is classism all over the world, and government regulation may help every country's economy a little bit.

We didn't stay for the entire time but I'm sure many Koreans are still there. When we were eating dinner back in Daejeon at a fusion Japanese noodle place, we saw on tv that the protest at Seoul Station was much larger, and it is still going on. I have my photos from the Yeoido portion of the event, which I uploaded to Facebook and may upload to my DeviantArt as well. This was Lily, reporting not-live on her blog at a friend's apartment in Daejeon, South Korea.