Back in early May they started ripping up the playground across the street from my apartment. I was afraid that the one place nearby I could take my dog for her toilet would be consumed by another highrise of some sort. There isn’t another piece of turf (that isn’t someone’s veggie haven) for a good walk away. Walking several blocks to take her out wasn’t my idea of convenient.

Well, they didn’t build a highrise. Instead they simply revamped and updated the playground. It didn’t seem that old or worn out to me. It was in pretty good shape. But they put in a new one anyway.

And it’s even kind of cute. They put in the children’s equipment with a tropical fish theme on the ground, although they neglected to replace the swing or jungle gym – just a set of slides.  The did, however, take out a bunch of useless, wideopen space and turn it into a small enclosed soccer field. Its getting plenty of use these days, too. If not for soccer, then nighttime badminton with an LED-lit shuttlecock.

Overall, they’ve done a nice job of it. It’s not even finished, though, as you can still see the orange cones on the far side entrance in the first picture. The picnic tables still have the foam wrapping on the benches and table-tops. The neighborhood was so limited in play space they most folks haven’t waited for any grand opening they might have and are just using the playground. It’s good to see it in use again.

The part that disturbs me, though, is the unbelievable disregard for their new park’s cleanliness. Barely in use a week and the ground is already littered with enough candy and snack wrappers to fill several bins. I’ve taken SaTang over several times and she’s more interested in whatever food she can find under the slide (and there’s plenty) than in using the grass to empty her bladder or bowels. They’ll think nothing of throwing down a plastic bottle when its empty or a food wrapper as they open and eat whatever it is. I’m not above telling someone when I see them throw trash down, but it’s a little like swimming upstream. I’m afraid I’ll end up being the “crazy foreigner” who nags about the litter.

When I was small, America was like that. Trash was everywhere along the roads. Beer and soda can tops were everywhere. Then there were commercials on TV with that Indian dude crying as litter was thrown from a passing car.  America changed its ways, but not quickly. I’ve seen one commercial here in Korea that was similar, but I’ve only seen it once. I think it’ll be awhile before things change here.   Until then, I’ll just have to resign myself to gently telling them they dropped something when I see them litter.

A big-ass bucket o’ chicken feet?

Well, friend, that’s too long!

I found these little lovelies at one of the vendors in the outdoor market that happens every five days here in Cheonsang. He usually just has chickens, either whole or parts, and hasn’t carried the feet before. He only had a dozen or so chickens for sale, so he’s either been saving these babies up, or there’s a boatload of chickens hobbling around the farm on crutches. Of course, its entirely possible the chickens have been to Six Flag in KY recently, too. 🙂

I find it odd that they keep animals parts like this just out in the open, in a box. The weather was blazing hot when I snapped this picture (on my poor quality hand phone camera). Our health inspectors in the US would have a field day. But if anyone here gets sick from eating chicken that’s been in the sun all day, it doesn’t make the news. It’s SOP here. It makes me wonder if Americans a) worry too much, b) have much more sensitive digestive systems, c) have been suckered into having extensive inspection costs added to our food or, d) Koreans just don’t understand the dangers and have been lucky so far.

Who says she watched the other video over and over.

Because she asked.

Gwen had recently read a book that involved some fictional locale here in South Korea. She wanted to know what a typical Korean neighborhood looks like. Far easier said than done, said I. For several reasons. I’ll enumerate them.

When Korea was liberated from Japan at the end of WWII in 1945, it was an agrarian country and one of the poorest in the world. Subsequently split in half by FDR and Stalin at the Yalta conference into North and South Korea. Within just five years, North Korea decided to invade the South in an attempt to reunify the two nations. That war did a good job of destroying what the Japanese had during their occupation the previous half of the century. Few places existed that had any serious history.

After the Korean war, an influx of foreign aid helped South Korea grow from a 3rd world backwater farming country to what is now the 10th largest economy in the world. Beginning with light industry and consumer products, and then shifting to heavy industry, Korea has gone through unbelievable growth. All of that has occurred just since  1953 when the war ended. That much growth doesn’t come without a price.  Tremendous numbers of apartment complexes, factories and shops were built, thus causing the wholesale removal of older, traditional housing.

The old style still exists, but they are off the beaten path and, well, old. As cheap as it seems to build here, tearing down and starting over seems more prudent for many.

The neighborhood pictured below is near Ulsan. All of the homes have external walls with a courtyard of sorts. None have grass. What land there is is put to use growing foodstuffs, like the rice paddy in front.

Many of the external walls surrounding the homes are more function than form. They’ll use whatever material is available, be it stones from the ground or cinderblocks.  The house roof is typically clay tile, although may be steel. The yellow/blue roof beyond the trees is an older home with its blue steel roof corroded and peeling.

This is a small road that runs up through the neighborhood. What roads exist in these older places generally are wherever the homes aren’t, twisting and turning in labyrinths around the irregular shaped plots. Buildings codes and zoning laws are non-existent, even in the city. It not uncommon to see fairly old and rundown structures like the one on the left adjacent to a newer structure like the brick building further up. The stone wall building on the right serves as a barn and houses half a dozen cows.

Some of the homes are fairly nice. The two below  appear to be relatively new. Number 11 uses stones to hold down the shed roof.

While we might places pictures of our family and ancestors above the fireplace mantle, these Koreans place theirs above the front entrance.

  Although the buildings are larger and evidently newer, even Seoul retains its flavor of roads built around homes rather than the opposite, as westerners do. This picture was taken from Seoul tower looking down onto one of the older parts of town. It clearly shows the haphazard placement of thoroughfares around structures. Most of these are “villas”, consisting of three or four stories. Many of the walls surrounding walls won’t be there, but it will have the look and feel of a maze.

How’s that, Gwen? Does it give you a feel for what Korea is like?

So, its been raining off and on for the past several days. No big deal. I don’t mind spending time inside. I have lots of things to occupy me. I can read, watch Korean TV, surf the internet, play computer games, and most recently, watch some classic movies.

Entertainment Weekly came out with their picks for the all time best Action-Adventure and Sci-Fi movies and TV shows. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s read their articles. After searching for some of these classics on the bit-torrent websites, I’ve found a great number of them with multiple people downloading and uploading. So, being the internet pirate that I am, I’ve gotten my share of the great ones.

Some of the more interesting ones include “The Battleship Potemkin,” a 1920s silent film on the Russian revolution from the perspective of the sailors aboard a warship. Heroes (The TV series) is another good one. These just aren’t available at the local Korean video store. I’m pulling down”Gunga Din” and “Pitch Black” at the moment. I never seen either, the latter I’ve never even heard of. One has to act quickly on the internet. As news travels fast, it also fades fast. Wait another few weeks and they’ll all be off the boards and generally unavailable again.

Bit-torrent is awesome. One day, they’ll figure out a way to kill it. In the meantime, I’m taking advantage of a window in time and technology and getting mine. Call me a thief, a pirate – whatever. I’m just enjoying whiling away the time waiting for better weather.

If you don’t know bit-torrent and want the scoop, email me. I’ll fill you in on all the details.

June 21st is the official beginning of summer in Korea. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be hot and nasty. Many of the locals refer to it as the “rainy season.” So, our rainy season began today, not with rain, but with sweltering humidity.  It was only in the mid-70’s today, but  you could almost swim from place to place rather than walk.  The humidity was 95%.  As the day worn on, however, the humidity finally solidified and turned into a wall of water. Right on time. The rainy season.

The last tour I had in Korea, it wasn’t terribly rainy but it was unbearably hot. I had no air conditioner and resorted to placing bottles of frozen water in front of a fan to stay cool at night. Everyone swore 2004 was the hottest summer they could remember. The foreigners kept telling me we’d never climb in the summer for the rain, but that didn’t hold true.

This year, we still haven’t had a really hot day this summer and I still haven’t turned on the air conditioner the owner has installed since I was here last. I guess we’ll see what kind of summer we get this year.  So far, the weather service is calling for rain for the next several days.

We were going to go rock climbing on Sunday, but the weather turned to drizzle in mid morning and we decided to take a drive out to the coast. We ended up in Ganjeolgot, a rocky outcropping that is the eastern most point on the Korean peninsula. It is known locally as the place where the rising sun is first visible in Korea and is quite popular for sunrise pictures and So-ju drinking during the Lunar New Year festival. We obviously didn’t get up there early enough for a sunrise picture. I’m more of a sunset kind of guy anyway. We got there in mid-day, but a cloudy day makes for nice photos since there aren’t heavy shadows to deal with.

MyeongHee puts on her best smile.

The point, with its oversized postal box. The East Sea is filled with freighters going to and from Ulsan, which is just north of Ganjeolgot. The picture below is zoomed in heavily (10x) but shows the sprawl of Ulsan and its petrochemical plants. It was quite windy and the sea was whipping up the whitecaps.

Out on the point, is a statue of a woman in a traditional Korean Han-bok dress with her two offspring. I decided she could comfort me and my pup as well as her stone children.

Meanwhile, MyeongHee decided she wants a “ho-tteok” a kind of pancake pastry filled with brown sugar. The ho-tteok didn’t do anything but make me hungry for something more substantial. We decided to head up the coast a bit where a mass of Korean-style sushi houses serve up seafood straight from the boat to the platter.

Before we could get off the point, however, SaTang decided to make friends with an azumma selling kelp stalks. The azummas are a funny bunch. Described by most Koreans as a “third sex” these old women must try hard to find clothes that clash. I have yet to see one with any semblance of a coordinated outfit or even a bland, nondescript wardrobe.

Nevertheless, she was kind enough to offer SaTang a few scraps of seaweed from her treasure before shooing her off. SaTang, not knowing any better, happily snarfed up the scraps before spitting them out seconds later. Straight off the pile, they’re heavily salted as a preservative and should be rinsed before eating.

At the Sushi house, we tied up SaTang outside while we sat at the short tables and feasted on mounds of whitefish wrapped in lettuce leaves with garlic and sweet bean paste. Appetizers included steamed mussels and the ever-popular Sea Penis. I’d seen these horrid things often enough, but never tried one. I ate several bites of the dreaded water-wang, drenching mine in soy sauce and wasabi. They’re not wonderful, but neither are they horrible. There’s no reason for one to go out of one’s way to find and order these little ocean organs; they’re fairly bland and have a texture akin to what innertube must be like to eat. All told, it was a pretty good day.

I tried not to do windows a couple of years ago, and it just didn’t work out. Not the glass kind, the computer kind. I’ve used several other kinds of computer systems in the past, but the only reason  I moved over to windows was because they were so popular and most everything one needed was running on them. I’ve never been very fond of Microsoft’s stuff, but the choices were fairly limited. It was either Windows or a Mac. I’d already worked with one cult computer, SGI, so getting on the Mac train wasn’t my idea of fun.

When I say I tried not to do windows before, I loaded one of the open-source Linux operating systems on my computer. I tried Fedora, a spin-off from one of the early Linux innovators, RedHat. Back then, in 2005, it was Fedora 4, and while it was cool, it just didn’t have everything I needed. The iPod support was the most lacking, but several other things just didn’t work like I’d hoped. I gave it a good geek-boy effort to try and get off Windows, but eventually I went back.

This year, I gave Fedora another whirl. Three major Fedora versions have come out since then, while good ol’ Microsoft has barely pumped out one. And the one it did, Vista, turned out to be nothing but a big turd. I had a chance to work on a friend’s new Vista machine here in Korea and I was completely unimpressed.  Seeing the writing on the wall that new computers would soon be sporting this ungainly pile of code, hacks, cracks and spyware, I decided that maybe Fedora or another Linux operating system would suffice. The innovation provided by the thousands of developers who write the software because they want to is just too compelling. In addition, free is pretty hard to beat, especially when Micro$oft charges so damn much for their stuff.

I’ve been running Fedora 7 now for just a couple of weeks. I don’t have everything the way I want it, but I’ve been quite impressed so far. It has everything the average user would need. All of the internet stuff, Office products, audio and video applications, and even iPod apps are there. Today I created both a “powerpoint” presentation and “word” document on my Linux system, took them to another Windows computer and it read them just fine. Total interoperability. Same with my iPod – it can see the device, and load to and from it. There’s even a nice “Photoshop”-like tool for image manipulations. There’s just not much else I do these days that makes me think I have to keep my Windows stuff around. I will anyway, at least for a while, to make sure I don’t run into any serious problems. But I think it’s going to be fine. I’m writing this blog entry on it now, just as I wrote the last several.

Obviously, Linux isn’t for everyone. If you have little idea what you’re doing with computers, then it’s definitely not for you (This means you, Dad!) Fedora/Linux takes some know-how and understanding of computers to set up.  If you’ve done things like change your browser from Internet Explorer to Firefox and moved all your bookmarks, you could probably set up your own Fedora box. If you ever had to setup your own internet connection, you could probably do it. If you’ve ever moved all your email addresses from one email client to another, you could probably do it. It’s not rocket science, but its not for the timid key pressers who are afraid they’ll do something wrong and lose everything.

However, once in front of a Fedora 7 system, I’d challenge anyone reading this that you could be immediately productive. As a user, its easy, intuitive and you honestly can’t screw it up. Nor could you download something that would harm your system – no viruses, no spyware, or malware.

I didn’t really intend for this blog to be a diatribe on how cool Fedora is. I just have a lot of time on my hands and what money do I have I don’t want to give to Microsoft. Whats more, I think Microsoft had better get their shit together.  Why pay them when free stuff that works quite well is out there? A few more major revisions of Fedora and it really will be childs play to set up your own system and be cool – like me!

I got a nice Father’s Day package in the mail from Jessie and Tt. Thanks, girls. I like the coffee – I was almost out of the fairly bland stuff I buy here. And the Claritin knock-off will come in real handy – it helps a lot in fighting off the occasional crud in the air here. I haven’t read the Grisham book, so I’m excited to tear into that, too.  Great picture of you both, also. It sits proudly on my desk in the school for all to see the beautiful daughters I have.
SaTang really likes the chew toys you sent too. She says “woof” which means “com-sam-nida” (She hasn’t mastered the Enlgish version of “thanks” yet)

Sort of. I’ve mentioned several times in the past couple of weeks, either in emails or chat sessions to folks back home that life is pretty stress free here for me. I make decent money, my rent is free and the bills are cheap. I’m not rich by any means, but the stress of not having enough is completely gone. Unlike living in the US, where, for the past several years I had virtually no health insurance – the ‘what if’ of should something happen (and usually did) was always there. I always seemed to scrape by – barely. I just don’t have those worries any more.

I’ve also mentioned recently that my biggest stress is what to make for dinner. That probably sounded flippant to some, but the truth is, that really is both the truth and a  source of stress. After having lived in the land of a million genres of food for most of my  life,  having just Korean food doesn’t cut it. I really do like their grub, but I’m used to having Mexican one night, steak the next, Italian another and having Sushi or Chinese the next. The point is, I had a plethora of places to placate my palate back home, but here it’s Korean, or cooking in my own kitchen.

Now, I’m a pretty good cook (for a guy) but that’s just part of it. First, one must find the ingredients to make the food one wishes. Raw materials are easy to come by – beef, chicken, pork, fish and plenty of fresh veggies are everywhere. Try and find some spices, though, and salt and pepper are likely the only thing one will find in the average Korean store. I had a hankering for basil to go with some tomatoes I tossed over pasta. No luck. I made of pot of split-pea soup using some fresh shelled peas I scored at the open-air market the other day. It turned out pretty good, but a bay leaf would have made it perfect.   Tonight, I’m making garlic-lemon-butter chicken with mushrooms. Some capers would sit nicely on top of that – but only in my dreams.  I could even make my own barbeque sauce, but the chili powder available here is strictly the five-alarm variety.

So, if I sounded as I I didn’t have a care in the world, that’s just not so.  Finding the goods to make western style dishes is something many foreigners spend a significant amount of time on. It might be dried oregano at this store and chicks peas at another, but eventually everything can be cobbled together.  I long for a cupboard stocked with all the things an American boy could cook with.

A big, gnarly-ass bacon cheeseburger with tater-tots wouldn’t hurt, either.

Or not, I suppose the title should be. I’ve just about lost all faith in the Korean postal system to ship packages. Twice in the past three months I’ve had occasion to use their services and I’ve found them lacking. The recipient of the packages I’ve sent, in contrast, has found nothing. Twice I’ve sent cases of Ramen soup to Sam, twice they’ve not arrived. The second still could be enroute, but its been long enough that for the price I paid for airmail it should have arrived. At least one package has not arrived, either. Former roomie Xiomara said she shipped something a long while back but I have yet to see anything arrive.

Of course, its more than difficult to lay blame on any one place. It may not be the fault of the Korean postal service. Having no insight into their inner workings, I simply have to take them at their word that what I pay them to send for me for will arrive.

I can’t help but think, however, that somewhere there’s some old crone slurping up the noodle soup I sent, all the while cackling at the exorbitant price I paid to ship some cheap Ramen junk food soup while her cousin Lee Fuk You ships daily to K-Town in Dallas for a fraction of the cost.

I think I’ll start sending DHL or something from now on.

Again.

Dang, when I catch a cold here in Korea, its usually a nasty one. I had one back in February and it took me off my feet for a couple of days. Luckily, the worst day occurred on a holiday and I was able to spend time at home resting without missing work.

This week, I’ve got the same thing. A nasty cold – this one has my throat in a hammer lock and can’t even talk without sounding like Mel Torme. Again, though, I’m lucky enough for it to hit me on a holiday so I’m not skipping out on the job. The folks I work for a really great and I don’t want to leave them without a teacher. Getting a sub is not an option for them.

They are so good to me, in fact, that they’re helping set up some private lessons. I start this Saturday teaching a group of four girls in another tony part of town. Its only 2 hours a week, but at $40/hr its decent money. They want to do several sessions a week during summer vacation so I should be able to save some serious coinage.
I just hope I kick this cold before Saturday. Right now I don’t even have the energy to go take pictures of my cool new set of $5 bikes. Instead, I’ll post a recent picture of me and my pup, SaTang.  She’s a hoot!

Turned out to be my frickin’ treasure.

Earlier, last week, a couple of bicycles showed up in the trash near the house. They both looked like complete, unbroken bikes on casual inspection, but they were chained together and thrown in a heap. I suspected they were stolen and the thieves were unable to defeat the lock so they ditched them in a garbage pile in another part of town.

Like many things here, they do things different. They put their phone numbers and names on everything. It’s common to see the owner’s phone numbers on almost every car windshield – something American women would be loath to do. Anyway, there was a phone number on one of the bikes, so I called. The woman who answered hung up on me, so I suspect my Korean pronunciation was horrible. I had my school director call and he got almost the same treatment. He talked to her just long enough to find out she didn’t care about the bikes.

I picked them both up and carried them to my apartment. No small feat considering I live on the fourth floor. There, I had a chance to check out the lock. It was just jacked up – frozen solid and the dials on the combination wouldn’t budge. Maybe she decided to just pitch them both since she couldn’t get the lock undone.  Maybe the weren’t stolen but just unwanted. Either way, I went out and bought a $5 hack saw and became the proud owner of two perfectly good bicycles: a mountain bike and a racing bike. Both are Korean manufacture and nothing anyone at home would recognize. But for $5, I think they’re awesome.

I scratched off the number and immediately went for a ride. While cruising the neighborhood, I saw one of my students. He asked me if I got a new bike. Of course, I told him. Then he asked me why my new bike had some Korean dude’s name on it. I had seen it before, but assumed it was the manufacturer’s sticker of some sort. Nope, a name. Busted. I sheepishly explained in more detail how I got the new bike, but I suspect he thinks I’m a criminal.