When I left Canada in 2004 and made my way to asia for the first time in my life, Japan held a special place in my psychie, chiselled out of decades of expectations. A year later I made my landing on the shores of South Korea.
I began to write a relatively irregular journal of my adventures, which I would like to share with you all here. What follows will be a series of memories from the past. Hope some of you enjoy reading them.
"APRIL 19, 2005
My first entry into this what I hope will be a fabulous account of all my miss advantures in this crazy world. I thought I would follow the trend that seems to be sweeping over the teaching community, and probably the foreigner population here in Korea.
Gyeongju City
Today will be my second day of work here in Cheonsang a suburb of Ulsan. Roughly an hour and a half drive to the city of Busan, also known as Pusan, the second largest city in Korea after the capital Seoul. This past Sunday, the 17th of april, my newly acquired friend jody had taken me on a tour of the immediate neighbourhood of Ulsan. About an hour away from Cheonsang, the city of Gyeonju, actually I am not sure of the correct spelling, has invited me with a beautifull fill of mountainous surroundings and historical sights. This little city has in its posession one of the most important temples in South Korea. For what reasons I dont know and since this is my first entry, I believe the details and there with associated neccessity for research can be omitted.
Ulsan City
I have been spending my evenings mulling around the appartament, which provides plenty of entertainment, and my mornings sleeping in and the occasional excursion to the grocery store. Although the food here is plentyfool, since the little suburb is littered with local restourants, which offer quality dining for minimum cost, today I have chosen an even cheaper route and have decided to cook up dinner myself. I have discovered the great joys of a slow cooker. I realize that this invention has been around for a while, but to my knowledge it may as well have been non-existent."
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May 31, 2005
GYM DAYS
I went out with some people from my local gym yesterday evening. We stepped just outside of the gym into a beer bar named WA. It's supposed to be a western ice beer bar, I am not sure why it is supposed to be western. In my vocabulary a place like that is called a pub. Granted nothing really like an English or Irish pub but still a pub. My companions were three women and one of the two guys working at the gym, who by the way have no other replacements, and seem to be running the entire place solely by themselves. I don't know how they arrange their weekends off, if at all, but I have found out that the guy I was drinking with yesterday spends his nights sleeping in the gym because he can not be bothered driving back home and than to be back for 6am at the gym. Don't really know why it would have to be that early, since the gym opens up at about 9 or 10.
So the curious thing I wanted to mention were the three girls. One is my age, 30, the other 28 and the third a year older than myslef, 31. The thing with Korean age counting is that the year people spend in their mothers wombs is counted. So you are actually one year old at the time of birth here. To my surprise, from knowing the little that I do about the Korean culture I have learned to expect these things, all three of the girls are married. The older ones have two kids, which by the looks have been concieved somewhere about 6 and 7 years ago, and the 28 year old one has been married for 4 years already. Now I am not the one to place any judgement on the age people should or do get married anywhere in the world, but to me a single 30 year old, this seems pretty young.
The most striking thing is that these girls tend to kick themselves in the ass for having gotten married so early in the first place. Well that is at least the report I got last night. Most women, once married, remain at home and take care of the house. In case where a child is involved, I would say that on average about 99.9 % of Korean women automatically become housewifes. Is it good, is it bad, I personaly don't know. Never have and never will be a house wife, in the true meening of the term, but from what I hear being a housewife becomes a routine like so many jobs do, and in some cases not a very enjoyable one. Well bless all these curious cultural differences. What would we do if every one was the same. There would just be too much consistency in this world."
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May 29, 2005
THE QUESTION OF LIRICKS
Another weekend gone by. Today I had the pleasure to experience one of the most interesting half hours I have ever spent in a McDonalds. Here I am sitting down after a couple of good hours of climbing, with my big mack combo and a chicken sandwitch, not to be confused with a chicken burger which apparently is a whole doller sixty more, listening to the music played over the speekers, which by the way here in Korea can range from soft jazz to hard rap as I found out, as Eminem starts to kick up with his lyricks. I could not remember the song very well at first, well the song yes but not the words and so I assumed it was a soft one, until the angry white boy started cursing his mother fucking ass off!
About ninety nine percent of the Korean population do not understand any English, the remaining one percent may know the odd words here and there, but obviously not enough to hinder McDonalds from playing uncensored Eminem tunes. I personally was enjoying it. The music was good and if it was up to me all McDonalds all across the world would be playing Eminem swearing his little ass off, while people enjoy their big macks and other snandwitch like creations."
