Decompression Week

It's fall now, it's even starting to feel like it. I've been back in Korea for well over a week now, and I've spent most of the time mentally and physically recuperating from my great trip. Which is to say that I spent a lot the last week doing nothing huge. But it's Korea and I'm always doing something and there's always always something to say and see.

In fact, this week there are a lot of things to see. Well over a hundred of them, in fact, but they're not here. I've finally managed to put up a gallery of some of my favourite pictures from here, in larger, non-collaged format. You can check out the brand-spankin'-new gallery here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seoulpurpose/

I also cleaned up my Thailand journal posts into a single entry. It includes the last page, which wasn't online before.

As for what I did in the 'real' world this week, taught all day on Saturday for the first and last time, and anxious to counterbalance, I probably overdid things Saturday night. I told my cab to drop me off at where I thought was home, but on getting lost and catching another cab, I realized it was a good 6 or 7 kms off the mark. The camera never made it out with me that night, and it's probably for the best.

On Monday we had a Kindergarten feild trip to Seoul Land, an amusement park (that's not quite as cool as Lotte World). That was a nice time, and it was great to see the kids run wild and get scared and ride rides. Once again, I forgot my fucking camera, so I haven't got the assuredly cute pictures to prove it.

Speaking of pictures, I took a walk today, camera in hand, specifically trying to remedy the dearth of pictures I've got from this week. I never even went to anywhere interesting or pretty in the traditional sense. I just wanted to catch a glimpse of sincere daily life in Seoul. Just the kind of images that I walk by every day, and probably discount as routine. It's my attempt to try and relay the real look and feel of this place; through candid shots of people just doing their thing.

Speaking of daily life here, I'm often asked how the whole North Korea thing plays out here with the locals. I was talking about this with Rosa at work and she was saying that in the past when Kim Jong Il did crazy shit, South Koreans prepared for complete meltdown. They rushed to the supermarkets snatching up water and canned goods and other such supplies.

This time around, the big news is that no one's doing that. There have been so many cries of 'Wolf!' over this guy that people are getting jaded, I figure. The media here seems far less interested in sensationalizing the whole thing. There's no strategic advatage for the North to attack anyone, including South Korea. On top of that, they'd pretty much have no allies if they were ever apeshit enough to do such a silly thing. I'm not concerned, and this is the last you'll hear from me on it for now.

In slightly more hilarious news, rennovations are nearing completion at my school. While that's not terribly funny in and of itself, you've gotta read the writing on the wall, man. Literally. See, they've gone with this nice theme of international english education, with famous school crests on the classrooms and maps of major english countries on the walls. Wherein lies the problem. Not only did they fuck up the spelling of Canada, America, and New Zealand, but they fucked up the maps too. Canada lacks islands (ahem!), New Zealand lacks most of itself, and the U.S. is clearly a map of Australia. Most of the school crests are alright (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, etc.), but I don't think they chose an appropriate one for Cornell.

I really don't like ragging too much on Korea, but these are hilarious mistakes. Ironically, of the foreign teachers there, we've got me from NF, Ben from Vancouver Island, Scott from New Zealand, and two Chrises from the 'States. None of our homes appear on the maps of our own countries. There's also Shane from Ontario, but he doesn't count 'cause the story is funnier without him.

In closing this week, here's a sign from a store that I pass virually every day. It makes me do a double-take every time. I get the fat girl and the skinny girl, I guess it must me a weight loss thing. But the singing toilet? I think the two question marks say it all.



I like to call it 'NoraeJohn'.
Noraebang means Kareoke in Korean, but I had to explain it so now it's not funny.