Will add captions (uh...explanations) tomorrow.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I Think I'm Turning Korean, The Art of Cheonan City Propaganda, and Middle School Drag Contests
(((Preface- If you cannot use Facebook, you won't be able to view all the pictures I have put up. I will try to put up a couple pictures here for those without access. Though I highly recommend that you find someone with a Facebook account, the pictures are great.)))
I couldn't come up with a title that encompassed such varied activities, so I just made three.
Since I last wrote, life has been strange, and yet more routine, if that makes any sense. I am finally starting to understand the flow of teaching, and I -think- I might be getting better at it. I wake up at 7:00am, get ready, head to school, do my teaching thing, go home, eat, hang out with friends on campus/read/fulfill my communication obligations, then sleep. That is a normal weekday in the life of Hal. On the weekends I get to make little excursions into the country, visit cultural sites, or act like a modern person and go shopping or out to eat. However, within all this monotony, there are at times pronounced spikes of weirdness. Korea is so interesting.
So early last week, we (the foreign teachers living at KNU) were asked to take pictures of ourselves teaching or interacting with the students. These pictures were needed by Cheonan City Hall for their political machi....I mean their public awareness campaign. Being a good little pawn in the hierarchy, I wanted to give the very best of photographs. I also wanted them to use my pictures for two more selfish and utterly base reasons, 1) These pictures will be put in pamphlets and passed out or shown all over Cheonan, so I figure I could become something like a local celebrity (Yes, people of Cheonan, you will Love ME!), or 2) as my friend Beth said, I have this really egotistical part of me that believes I am imparting some kind of grand, esoteric knowledge to the students, and I wanted to capture that (look for the picture where I am glowing...hehe). I have uploaded all of the pictures I took to Facebook, you can see them by clicking here, http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2167868&id=34304942.
More school events. Ok, so I am usually against this type of thing, and would rarely share that I was even remotely involved, but this came out of no where, and was hilarious. I am sitting at my desk when I look up at a flyer that was hanging on the door. It said, "Miss SeongSeong Competition!!!", and then the rest was in Korean. At first I thought that it was a bit odd for the girls to get up and have some kind of talent/beauty competition in a middle school, but then I remember I am in Korea and they are all about physical perfection, but that excellence is something they strive for in nearly everything, so it isn't quite as bad as our media-induced obsession with perfect bodies. While I was waxing philosophical about Korean beauty pageants, one of the teachers told me that the preliminaries for the competition were today. The top 8 students would go on to the finals.
At this moment, I was blindsided by an onslaught of middle school girls, all giggling and excited. They had burst into our teacher's room to show off the girl who had dressed up to compete. Two seconds later, I realized how horribly wrong I had been...it was no girl, but a boy dressed in drag who was about to compete! This brought about a whole new set of questions concerning Korean society, so I decided to set out, camera in hand, and undertake a little journalistic exercise. Here is a link to the pictures I took amidst the riotous mass of students, http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2167869&id=34304942. As you can see, these boys (and the girls) are very serious about their cross-dressing. The whole school gets into it, students, teachers, and administrators. I think I even saw the janitor (who is a 4' 11'' tall Korean man in his 50's) dancing in the hall later that day to a Wonder Girls (Korean girl pop group) song. The following day all the boys were back to their pre-pubescent masculine state, and if asked about dressing up they would just laugh and hit each other. So the time of feminine frolicking has passed for the boys here at SeongSeong, but I shall ne'er forget the wonderful day when I worked at an all-girls middle school.
Peace
I couldn't come up with a title that encompassed such varied activities, so I just made three.
Since I last wrote, life has been strange, and yet more routine, if that makes any sense. I am finally starting to understand the flow of teaching, and I -think- I might be getting better at it. I wake up at 7:00am, get ready, head to school, do my teaching thing, go home, eat, hang out with friends on campus/read/fulfill my communication obligations, then sleep. That is a normal weekday in the life of Hal. On the weekends I get to make little excursions into the country, visit cultural sites, or act like a modern person and go shopping or out to eat. However, within all this monotony, there are at times pronounced spikes of weirdness. Korea is so interesting.
So early last week, we (the foreign teachers living at KNU) were asked to take pictures of ourselves teaching or interacting with the students. These pictures were needed by Cheonan City Hall for their political machi....I mean their public awareness campaign. Being a good little pawn in the hierarchy, I wanted to give the very best of photographs. I also wanted them to use my pictures for two more selfish and utterly base reasons, 1) These pictures will be put in pamphlets and passed out or shown all over Cheonan, so I figure I could become something like a local celebrity (Yes, people of Cheonan, you will Love ME!), or 2) as my friend Beth said, I have this really egotistical part of me that believes I am imparting some kind of grand, esoteric knowledge to the students, and I wanted to capture that (look for the picture where I am glowing...hehe). I have uploaded all of the pictures I took to Facebook, you can see them by clicking here, http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2167868&id=34304942.
More school events. Ok, so I am usually against this type of thing, and would rarely share that I was even remotely involved, but this came out of no where, and was hilarious. I am sitting at my desk when I look up at a flyer that was hanging on the door. It said, "Miss SeongSeong Competition!!!", and then the rest was in Korean. At first I thought that it was a bit odd for the girls to get up and have some kind of talent/beauty competition in a middle school, but then I remember I am in Korea and they are all about physical perfection, but that excellence is something they strive for in nearly everything, so it isn't quite as bad as our media-induced obsession with perfect bodies. While I was waxing philosophical about Korean beauty pageants, one of the teachers told me that the preliminaries for the competition were today. The top 8 students would go on to the finals.
At this moment, I was blindsided by an onslaught of middle school girls, all giggling and excited. They had burst into our teacher's room to show off the girl who had dressed up to compete. Two seconds later, I realized how horribly wrong I had been...it was no girl, but a boy dressed in drag who was about to compete! This brought about a whole new set of questions concerning Korean society, so I decided to set out, camera in hand, and undertake a little journalistic exercise. Here is a link to the pictures I took amidst the riotous mass of students, http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2167869&id=34304942. As you can see, these boys (and the girls) are very serious about their cross-dressing. The whole school gets into it, students, teachers, and administrators. I think I even saw the janitor (who is a 4' 11'' tall Korean man in his 50's) dancing in the hall later that day to a Wonder Girls (Korean girl pop group) song. The following day all the boys were back to their pre-pubescent masculine state, and if asked about dressing up they would just laugh and hit each other. So the time of feminine frolicking has passed for the boys here at SeongSeong, but I shall ne'er forget the wonderful day when I worked at an all-girls middle school.
Peace
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Difference
I figured after two fairly "light" posts, I might change things up a bit and describe to you all the more gritty side of living in Korea. Many times since arriving here many different people(i.e. American professors, pastors, co-teachers at school, other foreigners that I've met, etc.) have spoken with me about the phrase, culture shock. This is one of the buzz words within the international community, mainly because it affects us all way more than we thought it would before coming here.
In the States, all you really hear about is how similar S. Korea is to America, in comparison to say, China, Thailand, or Japan. I believe this perception exists mainly because of things like the Korean War, the billions of dollars we pour into their economy, and the fact that we have had troops stationed in the country for 30+ years. We presuppose that our long-term presence here has magically transformed Korea into the American mini-me. Well, haha, let me tell you, this is not the case. Far from it actually.
In many ways, places like China and Japan are more like America than S. Korea. That may sound surprising, I'm sure you're thinking, "China, a Communist country is closer to us than S. Korea, a democracy, surely you jest Hal, I call shenanigans!" Here is the thing. China, for all its corruption, has let go of much of its Confucian heritage and adopted many Western ideologies. Japan has its own background (of which I am no expert, I'll ask my friend Beth), but from what I hear they have also dispatched with many of their ancient traditions. Koreans on the other hand, still follow most of the tenets of Confucian philosophy/religion in their daily lives. This ideological difference separates us more than any political divide ever could. It's like comparing a canyon to a deep sea trench, sure the former is way more apparent, but the latter runs so much deeper.
This cultural break is found in everything, it is ubiquitous. From how people greet, to table etiquette, to commerce/business, family relations, education, government, leisure, etc. Nothing is left unaffected. Writing about this makes me think of how we Americans often talk about worldview. "Everyone has a worldview", we say. Living in another country for only 3 weeks has taught me how far off we are...or rather how much further we need to go. When we describe someone as having a different worldview than us, we are trying to communicate that they act toward, see, or approach situations/people/the world different from us. However, that is like trying to describe the differences between two people and only talking about their eyes. They don't just see things differently because their lenses are shaded red and ours are blue, we are looking at completely seperate pictures here. Their world is different.
I guess I'm just trying to get across how contrary life here is, and I don't have the words to describe it accurately enough. After only 3 weeks....3 weeks...such a short time, one can easily see the Earth is a much bigger place than we give it credit for; than I ever gave it (and I felt I had given it a very wide berth).
Going from the most diverse country in the world to the least (Korea is literally the most homogenous nation on Earth) is such a trip. It is so wildly disparate here. With all that said, I know, and try to constantly remember, that we are all made by God, we are all human. Thus, at our most basic levels, we are all very much the same.
That's it, all I got. I am writing this while I have no class at school, so I can't put pictures up right now. I will add some later.
With much love,
Hal
In the States, all you really hear about is how similar S. Korea is to America, in comparison to say, China, Thailand, or Japan. I believe this perception exists mainly because of things like the Korean War, the billions of dollars we pour into their economy, and the fact that we have had troops stationed in the country for 30+ years. We presuppose that our long-term presence here has magically transformed Korea into the American mini-me. Well, haha, let me tell you, this is not the case. Far from it actually.
In many ways, places like China and Japan are more like America than S. Korea. That may sound surprising, I'm sure you're thinking, "China, a Communist country is closer to us than S. Korea, a democracy, surely you jest Hal, I call shenanigans!" Here is the thing. China, for all its corruption, has let go of much of its Confucian heritage and adopted many Western ideologies. Japan has its own background (of which I am no expert, I'll ask my friend Beth), but from what I hear they have also dispatched with many of their ancient traditions. Koreans on the other hand, still follow most of the tenets of Confucian philosophy/religion in their daily lives. This ideological difference separates us more than any political divide ever could. It's like comparing a canyon to a deep sea trench, sure the former is way more apparent, but the latter runs so much deeper.
This cultural break is found in everything, it is ubiquitous. From how people greet, to table etiquette, to commerce/business, family relations, education, government, leisure, etc. Nothing is left unaffected. Writing about this makes me think of how we Americans often talk about worldview. "Everyone has a worldview", we say. Living in another country for only 3 weeks has taught me how far off we are...or rather how much further we need to go. When we describe someone as having a different worldview than us, we are trying to communicate that they act toward, see, or approach situations/people/the world different from us. However, that is like trying to describe the differences between two people and only talking about their eyes. They don't just see things differently because their lenses are shaded red and ours are blue, we are looking at completely seperate pictures here. Their world is different.
I guess I'm just trying to get across how contrary life here is, and I don't have the words to describe it accurately enough. After only 3 weeks....3 weeks...such a short time, one can easily see the Earth is a much bigger place than we give it credit for; than I ever gave it (and I felt I had given it a very wide berth).
Going from the most diverse country in the world to the least (Korea is literally the most homogenous nation on Earth) is such a trip. It is so wildly disparate here. With all that said, I know, and try to constantly remember, that we are all made by God, we are all human. Thus, at our most basic levels, we are all very much the same.
That's it, all I got. I am writing this while I have no class at school, so I can't put pictures up right now. I will add some later.
With much love,
Hal
Monday, September 1, 2008
A Whirlwind Week in Cheonan
OK, so lots of pictures, lots of stories, and way too much to tell to fit it in one post. So, instead of a book like a wrote last time, this is more of a pictorial presentation. I had many many meetings this past week getting ready to teach, but when we weren't busy with school stuff, we made ourselves busy with fun.
This past Sunday one of the professors here took us to her church (she is the Korean woman in the group pictures). To be honest, it was still a nice service, even though I couldn't understand a single thing, and they were so much more hospitable than they ever need to be (but I am coming to expect that from Koreans, everywhere I go, all the time).
Here is a video I took during their worship time. Like I said, although I couldn't understand them, I still enjoyed it. You can easily tell that this is a people who when they do something, they give their all, and that includes worship.
One of the mornings, myself and the two other women who had arrived at that time (Shannon and Karissa) decided to wander up to the roof. I think Karissa had found it the night before, but the door to the roof is never locked, and in fact only locks from the outside. It is really beautiful up there, and there is this cool ledge thing you can climb on to get a better view (don't freak out mom). I think I have found a spot to sit with the Lord. It is just as nice, if not better at night, I will try to take some pictures. So far I haven't missed a night up there yet.
This past Sunday one of the professors here took us to her church (she is the Korean woman in the group pictures). To be honest, it was still a nice service, even though I couldn't understand a single thing, and they were so much more hospitable than they ever need to be (but I am coming to expect that from Koreans, everywhere I go, all the time).
Here is a video I took during their worship time. Like I said, although I couldn't understand them, I still enjoyed it. You can easily tell that this is a people who when they do something, they give their all, and that includes worship.
One of the mornings, myself and the two other women who had arrived at that time (Shannon and Karissa) decided to wander up to the roof. I think Karissa had found it the night before, but the door to the roof is never locked, and in fact only locks from the outside. It is really beautiful up there, and there is this cool ledge thing you can climb on to get a better view (don't freak out mom). I think I have found a spot to sit with the Lord. It is just as nice, if not better at night, I will try to take some pictures. So far I haven't missed a night up there yet.
I just had to put this in here. For all my friends who like sushi as much as I do, this a box of hand picked sushi that I bought at the grocery store near my house. They have a massive section in the meat area devoted to sushi, with many many different kinds, all of which rival the quality you would find at a restaurant in the states. You can't get rolls, just plain old sushi, but this box only cost me $3.50, and I'm lovin it.
For the more adventurous, these are pictures of a market place that some of the other English teachers took us to, located in a town a little ways east (I think) of Cheonan. At first you think you are just walking into a back alley, then all the sudden it becomes this awesome, smelly, bustling, bazaar. It is all completely covered, until you go a ways and it comes out to another larger street where the shopping spree continues. We were told that all this exists to accommodate the U.S. military base that was nearby (which is its own story for another time, for my IJM/worldvision/missions minded friends you will want to read, but I need to go collect more "evidence" before I make a statement on that fiasco).
Finally, here is a picture I took on the first day of school. This is my first hour class on Monday, one of the 18 that I have. It was a lot of fun introducing myself (and America) to all the kids, and I get to do it again and again for the next 4 days. I made a PowerPoint presentation which shows them pictures of KC, America, sports, BBQ, Missouri State, and The Potter's House.
That is all for now, I am pretty tired from the day, and there is laundry to be doing in the machine that only has Korean directions. I'm off to decipher my appliances.
Peace
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Korea: An Introduction
To my friends,
Although he is a little overly-cautious, Tenny is a great guy and has been my chauffeur all over the place, and answered tons and tons of questions from me (you can imagine how much I might talk if I didn't know anything about a place ;) ). In hopes of slightly repaying him, I told him I would ride with him the next day to pick up two of the girls that are in our program, which he was thankful for (it is a 3 hour drive from Incheon Airport to Cheonan, where KNU is). I have to admit that I wasn't being completely altruistic, you see there was this..um...sculpture that I thought was pretty funny when we drove past it on my first trip from Incheon, but I wasn't quick enough to grab my camera. So, I wanted to go back and get that picture. Let me preface by saying that my mind almost instantly went bad with this, and...oh...well, I'll just show the "art" the Koreans choose to introduce their country with.
Ya ya, I know, pretty bad, but I just couldn't stop laughing. Other than this mishap, the Koreans tend to be quite tasteful in their artwork, dress, and other creative areas. I just don't know what they were thinking here.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, holy crap, I'm in Korea!
Sincerely,
Hal
______________________________________________
Ok...now that that is out of the way.
It is Sunday morning here, I've been in the country for about 3 days, and I'm finally getting around to making a blog. To those of you who've asked how I am, sorry for the delay. Instead of writing everyone an email, I wanted to wait until I had a moment to create a blog that could answer everyone's questions at once. So here we go, my experience thus far.
I arrived in Korea at 5:40pm on the 21st, and was picked up by one of the employee's of Korea Nazarene University (KNU), Tenny. Here he is (he wouldn't turn to look at me because he said it would be dangerous, if that tells you anything about Tenny):
Although he is a little overly-cautious, Tenny is a great guy and has been my chauffeur all over the place, and answered tons and tons of questions from me (you can imagine how much I might talk if I didn't know anything about a place ;) ). In hopes of slightly repaying him, I told him I would ride with him the next day to pick up two of the girls that are in our program, which he was thankful for (it is a 3 hour drive from Incheon Airport to Cheonan, where KNU is). I have to admit that I wasn't being completely altruistic, you see there was this..um...sculpture that I thought was pretty funny when we drove past it on my first trip from Incheon, but I wasn't quick enough to grab my camera. So, I wanted to go back and get that picture. Let me preface by saying that my mind almost instantly went bad with this, and...oh...well, I'll just show the "art" the Koreans choose to introduce their country with.
Ya ya, I know, pretty bad, but I just couldn't stop laughing. Other than this mishap, the Koreans tend to be quite tasteful in their artwork, dress, and other creative areas. I just don't know what they were thinking here.
Other than drive and around and pick up new people, all I've really done is tried to get my room together, and get to know the city around the campus. Here are a few pictures of Cheonan that I think give a good feel for it.
Cheonan is considered a medium-small size city here, with it's paltry 500,000 residents. Everywhere in Korea they build up instead of out, and you can see that they use all that space for signs. Lots of flashy colors, neon, and funny animals overjoyed for you to eat them (like happy Mr. Squid there!). The other picture with the rows of packaged food was a sweets shop, so those are all different kinds of cakes, sweetbean-stuffed rice patties, and other various Asian treats. Speaking of food, so far I have been incredibly happy with every meal here. Most (including breakfast) consist of some rice/noodles, veggies, and a little meat, all very spicy. Here is a picture of the chicken and noodles we had when a group of the American professors took us out on the town.
It was great, though most meat here is still on the bone, and learning to use nothing but chopsticks to remove meat from a drumstick is a skill I hope comes quickly. The orange/red cubed stuff there is a "pickled" radish called Dikon, I say "pickled" b/c that isn't what they really do to it, I just don't know what they do and that's kinda what it tastes like. Kimchi is the same way, they ferment the stuff in pots buried underground for weeks, but it just tastes like it was soaked in vinegar. And before anyone asks, yes, they do eat dog here, and I told myself I would only try it if a Korean offered it to me (wouldn't want to offend them). Well, at the grocery store last night, this little old man giving out free samples saw me and did just that. Don't judge.
Once outside I was walking to the crosswalk when a group of 4 middle school girls stopped me and starting giggling. They would smile and say. "hellooooooo" really loud, then one got the courage to come shake my hand. Once they had their fun I walked on to a street vendor who was selling...something...and it smelled really good. Since I didn't know what it was, and the guy didn't speak English, I waved for those girls to come over and translate for me. After explaining to them what I was doing in Korea and why I needed their help, they told me it was a sweet cake with more of the red-bean stuff inside. It was only 2000 won, so I bought some, and made up for my sinful eating inside the store by buying each of the girls a bag as well. They flipped out and starting yelling, "thank you teacher! thank you thank you, American teacher so nice!", and then I had the attention of everyone on that corner (which here is a lot of people). One older lady asked me, "you rich?", to which I just laughed and said no. After my brush with fame, I walked home and feel asleep around 8pm, I think jet lag is still affecting me.
That's it for now, I will write again in few days once I have some more exciting pictures to show. Love you all.
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