Kimchi Becoming Expensive, Unaffordable

... screams the headline in today's Korea Times online:

Market data showed Tuesday that the price of cabbages, the main ingredient for kimchi, has soared to almost double that of last year at giant hypermarket chains, which are known to offer the best bargains for grocery goods.
A cabbage head cost 1,580 won on average last year, but the price now hovers in the 2,500-won range, according to Shinsegae E-Mart and Lotte Mart, the country's largest discount chains.

Needless to say, this is bad news in a country--well, the only country on earth--which consumes the fermented cabbage and pepper dish with literally every meal. I was trying to think of other foodstuffs so uniquely associated with a particular nationality, and had a hard time of it: gefiltefish, perhaps, or injera, that spongy Ethiopian bread.

Kimchi is ubiquitous here, and for good reason, as I learned at the Kimchi Field Museum: it provides lactobacillus bacteria which are necessary in the proper digestion of carbohydrates. In the traditional diet of Korea, it takes the place of dairy-borne lactic acid-creating bacteria.

There are about 200 varieties of kimchi, though the most common is plain old cabbage kimchi or baechu kimchi. My totally unlearned theory is that the name originated from the Chinese bok choi, though Wikipedia says the variety of cabbage is Napa.

Kimchi is more than just a side dish--it sometimes moves to the fore in Korean cuisine, in dishes like kimchi jjigae (stew), kimchi pajeon (sort-of pancake), haejangguk (hangover-relieving soup), fried kimchi (usually served with samgyupsal), etc. Many Korean homes have a separate kimchi refrigerator.

Anyway, back to the news item: apparently the inflation is not due to the worldwide recession or devaluation of the won, but to more pedestrian factors:

Kim [Jun-ho, a vegetables merchandiser at Lotte Mart] said that prices are expected to remain high this year as the supply of cabbages, turnips and radishes have dipped across the board due to a weeks-long drought and unusually high temperatures.

The story also points out that many housewives feel burdened by making their own kimchi, and are turning more and more to packaged, ready-made products, "which have already become vastly popular among the younger generation." Pulmuone, sponsor of the Kimchi Museum, is a major player in this market.

Bonus Photographs: To go with your store-bought kimchi, why not drink some TRENDY WINE? This was a shameless bin in the wine section of the Hyundai Department Store in Mok-dong:

Hitting for the Cycle

Gifts: Cool news today was that in celebration of Teacher's Day and Young-il Founder's Day at the end of last week, all teachers got some gifts, each one stamped, embroidered or otherwise impressed with the date and name of event. This seems to be standard procedure in Korea.

First, of course, was a box of tasty rice cakes (ddok)--the slogan here seems to be "Say It with Rice". There was also a high-quality umbrella, with the personalization burned into the wooden handle. Plus two--count 'em, two--gift towels.

These are gift towels number six and seven I have received so far (plus the Metro 9 one). It's a good thing, too, as it takes about that many to dry oneself after a shower. See, Korea has an extensive textile industry, so I will grant that the towels are high quality, plush and colorful. The ones I got today were coral, and pink. However, they are only 16 by 32 inches, a dimension that applies not just to gift towels, but almost any towels you can find here.

Full size towels, like you will find in the West, are available, but hard to find and as exorbitant as they are absorbent. It is a curious phenomenon, one discussed widely and at length by expats and their Korean friends. Why are Korean towels so uselessly small?

Of course, Koreans are defensive of their tiny towels, just as they are their minuscule table napkins, which aren't much bigger than an index card. "Waste not, want not," they will say, or would say, if they knew that expression. Still, if it takes four of them to get the job done, I doubt there's much savings involved.

So, why the small towels? No one so far has given me a really good answer, though the best I've heard so far is that they weren't really for drying yourself, but for wetting yourself. That is, farmers and laborers would soak the towels in cold water and wrap them around their necks and shoulders for the purpose of evaporative cooling. Back in the old days. Well, maybe.

Baseball: Anyway. This weekend was wet and cold, so naturally we went to a baseball game. Well, actually, we went on Sunday--joined by old pal Steve W--for a rare KBL doubleheader. It became a DH in order to make up a rain cancellation on Saturday.

Though the weather had been less than ideal, it cleared up, and warmed up, by Sunday afternoon, when Samsung Lions from Daegu came to Jamshil to play the Doosan Bears. The make-up began at two, to be followed by the originally scheduled game. Tickets for both was a reasonable 9,000 W.

If you have been following the blog very carefully, and I mean very carefully, you will recognize that this game represents an event of sorts: a trip through the batting order, going around the horn, hitting for the cycle. All of which is to say that I have now been to a game to watch each team in the entire league.

Granted, it's a league of only eight teams but Opening Day was April 4 and we've ventured no further afield than Incheon.

Lesson Plan: This week and next both classes will be doing a lesson on Jobs, ending next week with an English 'Job Fair'. I open this week's class with 'Sixteen Tons' by Tennessee Ernie Ford to warn them to study hard so they don't end up in a life like that--owing their soul to the company store. The truck system or debt bondage, as we call it today.


Just as a minor political point, you do realize that if it weren't for labor unions, this would probably be your lot in life today, right? An interesting New Yorker article is just out, illustrating Chief Justice John Roberts's ideological bias for big business and the executive branch over virtually all comers.

Next, students rate various factors for their importance to them in their future job preference, such as: challenging, fun, make the world a better place, etc. I also play a couple verses from George Thorogood's "Get a Haircut" to lead into some vocabulary on job interviews in preparation for the Job Fair next week. Finally, we do a survey activity for speaking practice.

Here is a final cautionary "tail": remember, there is an employee inside that suit!

Rainy Saturday

A steady drizzling rain fell all day today, dampening my spirits ...

So I slept in instead of going to the club activity presentations at school this morning, and spent part of the day working on lesson plans in exchange. I did go out for a while, to do some shopping and to eat at KFC.

Yes, a Kentucky Fried Chicken opened about two weeks ago in my neighborhood, so add it to Popeye's, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and Starbuck's as Western chains within a three minute radius of my building. It is in the "Blue Nine" tower across the street which is now completed and open for business.

Other than that, I surfed the internets and watched Premiere League reruns on TV. I read for a while, too, and will be finishing Bluebeard soon.

PS: Have a look at Andy's blog post here if you want to see a classic example of the cheap shot.

Young-il Sports Day

Today was, as the title of this post suggests, Sports Day at Young-il High School. It was also Teacher's Day, so we began with a ceremony recognizing teachers who hit 10-, 20-, and 30-year milestones, including the warm, gentle, and intellectual Mr Lee, who had been at the school for 30 years. At the end of the ceremony, all the teachers were given a massive boutonniere--I got two, which means I'm double loved!


The first and second graders have been playing intramural soccer games for several weeks (I have mentioned class being cancelled on that account), which culminated in the class championships today.




Meanwhile, the third-graders--that's seniors to you and I--were playing basketball championships in the corner of the school playground, on a court the size of the one on Gilligan's Island that time the Harlem Globetrotters were there:



The morning events culminated in a faculty-student soccer match, which ended with a 3 - 3 tie. Below is a shot of Mr Hwang helping out on defense--he drew first blood on a header about ten minutes in.


The faculty went ahead by 3 - 1 before the students came back to tie it up as time expired!


After lunch, it was time for the relay races. Each class put forward 4 runners, for a total of 41 teams across all three grades. In the final heat, a fifth leg was added, run by the homeroom teachers of the classes that made it through.




Left, students watching from the windows of the "new" building; right, the campus was decorated with flag streamers called mangukgee 만국기, literally "ten thousand national flags". Mr Lee told me this form of decoration became common in Korea in his elementary school days to recognise the sixteen nations that fought with the South during the Korean War.


Points were accumulated by each class, and the top three teams were recognised by the principal in a brief ceremony. The envelopes contain money to be shared by the participants!

What's Going On

... here in the SeoulPatch, you may be asking. Of course, the only reason you might be asking is that you haven't bothered to subscribe to the Atom RSS feed linked at the bottom of the page or become my "Follower" in your Blogger profile.

So get on the stick here, Dear Reader!

1) Yesterday was the second day of the SETI co-teaching workshop which was about the same as the first day--meaning some useful stuff, some boring stuff, some contacts made. The usual for these kinds of things. EXCEPT:

2) The lady who spoke to us about assessing student speaking skills was perhaps the most boring, pointless, muddled presenter in the history of educational seminar presenters (I've been to a lot of these in 23 years, so I have seen the zenith and the nadir). Even Dick Cheney would call it torture.

2A) I have also presented at a few such events, but of course, my material was always FRESH and FASCINATING.

3) There was a very good presentation leading us through a SMOE publication with useful information for Native Speaking Teachers. However, in typical Korean fashion, virtually no one at the seminar had received a copy of this book, and the presenters were not authorized to give out copies (they loaned us copies just for the workshop). So probably the best resource of the seminar was literally unavailable. Korea has elevated mindless bureaucracy to a fine art.

3A) Obligatory Confession: I stole the copy they loaned me. I knew I could not withstand the moral pressure to return it when they asked us to do so at the end, so I left about two minutes early.

4) Even though I have not been to the gym in [mumble], I still ate at ChickenMania tonight. It turned out to be a unique meal, as the older guy who seems to run the place actually sat and talked to me--to the extent his English allowed. We were already compatico in that he is also a Doosan Bears fan. His name is Pak Jong-mun 박종문 and he graduated from Young-il, the school I teach at, in 1981. He remembers both Principal Jun and the art teacher Lee Cheong-gye.

I told him tomorrow begins the Young-il Festival and he flipped up his cell phone to look for an announcement. Nada, which displeased him, as he said he usually receives such information.

He went to Las Vegas (everyone here who has been to America will tell you so repeatedly) about 20 years ago as an early Domino's Pizza franchisee, but he told me all he knew how to order was Bud and Coke, so he was hungry alot. I guess he couldn't find the buffet.

5) So: tomorrow is the beginning of the Young-il Festival, which includes a Sports Day tomorrow, and a club activity presentation day on Saturday. There is nothing on Friday--that is School Founder's Day, a holiday for all concerned.

6) Technically, I don't work on Saturday, but I will attend at least a few hours of the festivities on Saturday, just to demonstrate an interest in the students, and to get a few good photos to show you on the blog.

7) Having figured out and solved the technical problems in my classroom, I told Lee Gum-cheon 이굼천, our Deptartment Head, that I was basically satisfied with the English Only Zone. So at lunch today, he floated the idea of a "classroom-warming party" which I and the others present were all in favor of.

8) So: SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) can't give its foreign teachers a useful teaching handbook that it already has copies of, but it can spring for a frivolous eating and drinking binge on the taxpayers' dime, er, baek won. Welcome to Korea!

Another Co-Teacher Training Junket

This time, I traveled to the SETI facility at Sadang for the first of a two-day training seminar ostensibly about effective co-teaching techniques. You may be wondering why I'm at the Korean space agency's Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence compound--but actually what we are looking for isn't that much easier to find, which is a useful paradigm for co-teaching in the English classroom in Korean schools as they exist today.

Let's start at 7:30 this AM, when I came outside to catch a bus or hail or taxi (whichever was first) in the wetness of a gentle morning rain. It took ten minutes before a taxi stopped--actually only to let out a fare--and I practically had to bully myself inside for a trip to Dangsan Sta. This is approximately a 15 minute trip, around 5000 W, but today, thanks to the rain compounding the usual Monday traffic jam, it lasted 45 minutes. This is about a five mile drive. The last two miles were accomplished hydroplaning along little side roads in just under 45 seconds. Or so it seemed.

So, I was in a wet, foul mood by the time I got to the platform just as the train doors were opening. Yeah, I made it, but that didn't improve my mood much, since passengers were packed on board about 17 to the square meter. That's probably close to the surface area of your desk.

Someone was pressing the point of their umbrella into my back all the way to Sindorim, which is a lot further than it sounds. Anyway, the umbrella-presser got off there, but three more people moved into the space he or she had occupied. Line 2 is the busiest (read: most crowded) on a system which carries over 8 million riders per day.

At the next stop, a seat opened up directly in front of me, and I sat in it before the previous occupant was all the way out of it. Still, the execrable slowness of the taxi ride had expended the thirty minute cushion I allowed, so I couldn't enjoy my seatedness, what with constantly craning my neck to be sure I got off at the correct stop. Sadang.

Finally it came. Sadang is a transfer stop, so I was swept along with the mass of disembarkers fighting to make my way ever upward to Exit 1 where I was sure no longer did a SETI bus await for the last leg of the trip to the training center. I did point out that SETI actually stands for Seoul Educational Training Institute, didn't I?

Oh, well, never mind, a kid just outside the exit was holding an umbrella and a sign that said "SETI --->". I followed the arrow and got on the last bus(TM), which was held ten minutes late for slackers like me and from which my fellow travelers were deposited at the Holy Land sans signage. Turns out, this SETI of theirs is quite a complex, with a swimming pool, several big buildings, and a playground. We guessed it was the big building in the middle, and were right. If the weather is any better, I'll bring my camera tomorrow.

I didn't feel so tardy after all, because the first speaker was twenty-odd minutes later than me--and she was the first speaker. We got periodic updates about her taxi's progress through the Monday traffic while Dave Deubelbeiss ran us through his website to "kill time". It is a great site (which may require free membership) with loads of great materials and resources that I use regularly, but it is difficult to find your way around--a fact illustrated numerous times during the day.

So, anyway, the first speaker ultimately arrived, and her presentation was a bit unfocused, though whether because she was rattled by her lateness or because she was just unfocused is difficult to discern. When I say "a bit unfocused" I mean I have no idea what she was trying to talk about. I'm not being cruel or flip, here, though I am capable of being both, but if her thesis was anything beyond "I am a researcher" she failed to develop it to the point it was stateable.

Still, she did serve the valuable function of being the trash can into which we, as one or two year NSETs at the seminar, dumped our negative impressions, complaints and general aggressions.

Actually, it wasn't that bad, but it was I that really got it started. I forget what she said to tee me up, but it could have been anything after Hello, how are you? ...

I related to her the essence of my story in a post not far below titled for its whimsy: 'Tragical Grammatical: A Musical in Three Acts', in which I describe the fundamental flaw of the Korean English education program. No, really. Go read it and come back here. There was applause when I finished. No shit. Applause.

She admitted, poor thing, that the testing culture here is seriously awry, but that she sees no way to change it. Then she went on to talk about how Korea is going to make its own English proficiency test, as if that will help. At all. She even provided these statistics to prove that Korea is farting in the wind: ETS has 700 researchers working on TOEFL and TOEIC and Korea has 6 or so developing its "competition".

Moving on ...

If Dave Deubelbeiss gives me one more worksheet where I have to define, describe or imagine the proper relationship between a Native Speaking English Teacher and a Co-Teacher, I am going to say something mean to him! We had this one task to complete a sentence: "Co-teaching is ..." or "The best thing about co-teaching is ..." working with a partner. Mine was good old Max from Yong-In roomie days. One sentence was "My co-teacher and I hardly ever ..." Max felt this was pretty much good the way it was. I laughed till I cried.

So, you'll twig that I was next to Max. Next to him was Nick, and behind us was Karen. It was a festival of friends, which made it better. I had hoped we could go out afterward together, but in the crush of departure, I only stuck with fellow smoker Nick.

Anyway, in the afternoon, we had breakout sessions, where MS and HS split for demonstration lessons. At the HS level, we had three enthusiastic and organized presenters who belaboured each point at least a little (Note to self: always assume an audience of teachers understands after 2 examples, not 4). But they were good points. I found something to steal from each of them, which to my mind makes for a successful seminar. And there's still tomorrow.

Afterwards, I went with Nick to Sillim, which is on my way home and his stomping grounds, for dalk galbi 닭갈비 (spicy chicken stir fry). Then we went upstairs for a couple of beers at "Garten Beer" which has a delightful innovation that should be copied around the world: Every table has a sunken well for each seat, the right size to hold a beer bottle or flute. Each one has a condenser coil or something so it stays at constant 4 C temperature when turned on. Never a warm beer at Garten Beer!

Subway Saturday

It might not sound like much, but it's rare that you get the chance to be a guinea pig for a new subway line. So Andy signed us up at the Metro 9 website, and it came to pass that Saturday found the usual suspects meeting up at Express Bus Terminal for a short preview ride. The station addition is shiny and impressive.


Just past the turnstile (no charge!) the adventure begins:


We were expecting to sit through a 20 minute presentation or ceremony of some kind, but there was mainly a display of photographs detailing the construction of each new line in the history of the Seoul Metro. You can see some of the photos on easels surrounding us this photo taken in the new concourse. There is also a model of the station, which lights up to indicate train arrivals.




The platform signage is essentially the same as on the other lines, but includes a satellite image of the neighborhood:


Finally, we get on the train, and our journey starts:



Here I am sitting in the section reserved for the elderly, pretending (?) to be an ornery old ajosshi. Next to me is "Ryan", a student at the University of Foreign Studies, who stuck to us like a sandspur.


Here is footage of the improved door sign which provides information about location, next stop, etc.:



Lastly, a view of the entire car, followed by a photo looking out the front window of the train. Unlike other lines, this one has a window into the operator's cabin. Cool!



What better way to follow up being a subway guinea pig than going to a baseball game in Jamshil? None, at least if you are Nick, Andy and me!

The Doosan Bears have been struggling lately, so Andy was anxious to give them some support. The game began at 5:00, vs Hanhwa Eagles. Hanhwa, of course, is a Korean chaebol, and one of the largest. Its main business is in chemicals and explosives. I got a shot as the teams took the field at the opening of the game. You can see the weather was awesome:


Here I am posing on the smoking deck, with Seoul Olympic Stadium in the background.


I also got footage of a Doosan 2 run homer in the fifth that put the game out of reach of the Eagles. After the game, we went to Bongcheon for ... you guessed it, lamb kebabs!

Tragical Grammatical: A Musical in Three Acts

So this has been gnawing at me all afternoon.

Yesterday, a pair of students came to me with a question about one of their English exam answers. As you know, if you pay attention here at least, I have nothing to do with grading, testing or assessment. But they were asking me a usage question.

To summarize, the item was as follows, more or less:

'Blah blah blah Even though I've only been on the honor roll twice before, I'm going to try my best to make it this term.'
Q: The phrase make it in this sentence means:
a) be successful at my job
b) succeed in reaching a certain place
c) blah blah blah
d) blah blah blah
etc.

Long story less long: according to the teacher, A was correct and B was wrong. He asked me about it at lunch today, since the students had obviously gone back to him, so I explained my thinking. The dictionary will say that "make it" in this sense is "be successful." So functionally, both A and B are correct. In fact, you could even argue that B is more correct than A, since the honor roll is a place, in the sense of position in a list or a series.

He said that "it" refers to being successful in school. "No," I said, "'it' specifically means 'honor roll'. Replace 'it' with 'honor roll' in the sentence, then replace 'it' with 'success in school' and you'll see what I mean."

He thought hard about it, but decided that just because I'm a native speaker didn't mean I was right. He showed me some Korean site with an English dictionary on it (from which his choices A, B, C, and D had come verbatim). We went to www.m-w.com where I showed him the def. of 'make it' as 'be successful':

1 a: to be successful [trying to make it in the big time as a fashion photographer — Joe Kane]

--right there, hell, it says in the big time, a position or place, not just a job! Then there was 'place':

5: relative position in a scale or series: as a: position in a social scale [kept them in their place] b: a step in a sequence [in the first place, it's none of your business] c: a position at the conclusion of a competition [finished in last place]

--I'm pretty certain that honor roll fits in there. I told him that if choice B had been about reaching a certain 'location' instead of 'place' it would be different.

He was still "not convinced." He was going to think about it and make his own decision.

I said, "Well, I don't know what you want, but I've proven it pretty conclusively for myself. I'm even more convinced that B is marginally better an answer than A. It's colloquial usage, which is not cut-and-dried, or exhaustively listed as examples." I even showed him some current usage of 'made the honor roll'. I wanted to say, "Maybe you shouldn't ask questions that you don't the answer to," since around exam time I am bombarded with similar usage questions by the English faculty.

Apparently, he wants a source that has his exact question with answer B highlighted as the correct answer. Again he stressed that just because I was a native speaker didn't mean anything.

So, this has been gnawing at me all afternoon. And actually, not even mainly that he doesn't consider me a worthy source of English grammatical knowledge, even though I've forgotten more grammar than he'll ever know.

It's mainly that he's going to mark that kid wrong, simply because the kid knew something the teacher didn't. So, he's going to undermine the kid's confidence in English, or undermine the rightful authority of the teaching profession, or both, because the student felt that the honor roll was more of a position than a job.

Dear Readers, please feel free to chime in here and tell me I'm wrong. I'll read your comments if you do, but I probably won't publish them ...

But the bigger issue is this: when the students approached me, they hemmed and hawed, and finally came out with, "Cam-berr Teacha, question exam you?" or some such gibberish. These guys, the English faculty, I mean, are splitting hairs on the fine points of grammar--which even they don't properly understand--instead of providing the fundamentals of practice and reinforcement that the students need to speak the language. It would be comical if it weren't so tragic.

Or is that 'tragical'? Hell, don't ask me, what do I know!

Children's Day at Cheonggyecheon

Actually, this post is really just a continuation of the post just below about Cinco de Mayo--they are the same day! Indeed, many Seoulites stopped off at the Cinco de Mayo fiesta on their way between Cheonggyecheon and the Jonggak subway station.

I did the same thing, in reverse.

Cheonggyecheon 청계천 is a man-made stream replicating an ancient natural stream that runs through the heart of Seoul city. This stream became an eyesore, and a source of disease and odor, as Seoul grew into a metropolis in the mid-twentieth century. It was paved over in the 1960s.

One of the projects of Lee Myung-bak, presently the controversial President of the Korean Republic, was the rejuvenation of Cheonggyecheon when he was Mayor of Seoul early in the decade. While its progenitor remains controversial, Seoulites flock to the waterway in throngs whenever the weather is nice. The weather was nice today.




Of course, it being Children's Day, there were numerous incentives to get out and about as a family, such as musical performances ...



... caricature drawing ...


... and hair-cutting ...


Just kidding! Actually, the festivities included a series of stations which were out-and-out photo ops for the friends and family, recalling especially the "way things used to be"--like old-time barbers, rather than, say, the "Well-Being Hair Salon" I go to.



Presented without comment:

Cinco de Mayo in Seoul

Today is Cinco de Mayo, or Fifth of May, here in Korea. Well, everywhere, actually, at least it is when the sun rises in any particular locale, or actually whenever it is after midnight. Despite our USAn delight in the event, it is only celebrated in parts of Mexico, and is a remembrance of the Mexican army's defeat of French forces at Puebla on this date in 1862. While they won the battle, France won the war, and placed Maximilian I on the Mexican throne, where he ruled until his execution by Buenito Juarez. In fact, the whole kerfluffle was about overdue loan payments.

ANYWAY, I met up with a few folks in Jonggak this afternoon for a celebration of the much-loved holiday at a Mexican restaurant called TomaTillo's. Their Facebook page showed about 300 confirmed participants, but 2/3 of that number were in line when I arrived at a few minutes past one. I finally got served my food nearly an hour and a half later. Few people realized there was a food line and a drinks line. And the food line was much slower since they were making everything to order--as well they should have!

While I was queueing, after Andy informed me he would be late, I felt a tug on my sleeve. I looked around to find a face that was familiar, but not exactly known to me. It was a petite young woman with lovely hazel eyes, who said, "Aren't you the blogger?"

A quick flash of recognition--it was Foreigner Joy, whose blog you can find in my Blog Roll to your right! It was a little like meeting a celebrity, in that there suddenly before me was someone I knew without actually knowing. Talking to her certainly helped the line move faster, especially since the guy in front of us ordered 20 tacos!

We got our food and went around to the public space--not really a park--between the skyscraper Tomatillo's is in and the one next to it. Here is what it looked like when I arrived:


The next band starts to play:


Here is what it looked like later in the day:


They offered several specials, including 2000 W tacos and 3000 W Mexican beer imports, like Corona, Sol, and Dos Equis. Now, common sense dictated to me that the margin on a 3000 W beer imported from North America, even in considerable bulk, was bound to be miniscule--or possibly non-existent. So I asked this guy named Steve, who seemed to be the head honcho, about it. The profit per bottle, he figured, was going to be 100 to 150 won--about 7 to 12 cents. 'Course, they sold every bit of it, so they made their profit point. Here is a picture of my friends buying beer (I kick myself that I did not get a shot of myself with Joy!):


This was the restaurant's first run at this event, and I feel it was quite a success. They did run out of food, and beer, and, well, everything--but that's because the response was much bigger than they anticipated. I'm sure next year will be smoother. Despite that, it was a lovely afternoon with mild weather, generally good music, good food, Mexican beer and fine companions.

Ah, I hear you asking, what's a Mexican fiesta without a mariachi band? What, indeed!

In Which I Go Shopping

A big Thank You! to my friends who participated in the Tuttle Bailout Program, it didn't cost a trillion dollars (or even won) and your good deed has been writ large in the Book of Life. Be warned, though, that this won't get you into Heaven by itself.

Newly re-monitarized, I rolled out to Omokgyo Sta. to meet up with Karen and Patrick for budae jjigae at Nolboo. Always delicious. I showed up early and went through the Hyundai Department Store complex at the subway station, and ... bought a couple of books!

First, I will read a Kurt Vonnegut book I somehow missed when it came out in 1988, Bluebeard. I used to say Vonnegut is the greatest living American writer, but he's dead now, so I don't say that anymore.

Next I will make my way through Tracy Kidder's 2003 offering, Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Dr. Paul Farmer. I first read Kidder back in college, when I was assigned to read The Soul of a New Machine for a scriptwriting class. Next I read House, which makes the process of building a nice American home into a fascinating, even riveting, drama. Then came Among Schoolchildren, a year in the life of a fifth grade classroom. Kidder was the speaker at a teacher's conference I attended shortly after that one came out.

Together with my purchases, I sat in the square below, betwixt CBS (Korea's Christian Broadcasting System) and 41 Building, waiting for lunchtime, reading the opening chapters of Bluebeard. The weather was spectacular, as was the reading. As has happened everytime I've been by Omokgyo, numerous of my students from Young-il came over to tell me it was nice to meet me.


Blog News:
This is post #250, a milestone of sorts. And so it goes, as Vonnegut used to say.

Infuriating--and Heartening

I am a man of considerable equanimity, I think, especially as I have gotten older and more acclimated to the vagaries of the world in which we live. Most irritations are like water off a duck's back to me.

However, my bank, my Korean bank, the only readily available source for me of the funding so necessary for modern life, has really, really pissed me off. Without one single word of warning, they shut down at midnight Thursday night and will not reopen until Monday morning.

Now, I'm not talking about the branches being closed, though of course they are, I'm talking about the entire system being shut down. No way to access your accounts. Want to pay for your dinner with your Hana Bank card? Nope, can't do it. Want to pick up a few items at E-Mart? Nuh-uh, the card won't work. Suppose you want to withdraw a hundred bucks--or even ten bucks--from a bank machine anywhere on the planet, or right down the street? You are SOL. What about a Hana Bank ATM? Nada.

It is absolutely infuriating. Not to mention bizarre, unacceptable, ridiculous, pathetic, stupid and, uh, infuriating. I squandered most of what precious cash I had (not knowing how precious it was), Friday night after treating myself to fried ChickenMania after a week of working out and calorie counting. My bank card was refused, something that shouldn't happen, as there is plenty of money in my account.

This has happened a couple of times before, though going to a different POS has enabled the card to be read. Well, this morning, I tried any and all ATMs and every Hana Bank I could get to with similar, infuriating, results. That's HANA BANK, in case you missed it.

I am pleased to say, though, that my friends in Korea turned out to be true friends! Money is without a doubt the touchiest issue in most relationships, but each of the three friends I spoke to while trying to figure out what was going on, offered to lend me money without my even bringing it up! Koreans and waygookin!

Of course, they know I'm good for it, but that's not the point. Anyway, thanks to my friends, the crisis is averted (I had W4000 total cash--about USD 3.00) so starvation and beerlessness is off the table. Any question of whether I have done okay by moving here is answered by that fact!

Lessons learned, however. One: keep one hundred thousand won (~USD 100) in cash secreted somewhere in the apartment for emergencies; two: open a second account at another bank so I am not dependent on capricious rules or bizarre closings of Hana Bank. That's Hana Bank.

Friday Night's Alright

Well, I was all prepared to sit down and draw out "The Tale of Lamb Kebabs in Bongcheon; and What We Saw Going and Coming," but I see my blogging nemesis Literaryhero has beaten me to it with a very fine post on the subject, including pictures! However, while he is being insufferable about it (just hover over his pics to see the captions), I shall be as graceful in defeat as I am magnanimous in victory.

I will simply add it was a delightful excursion replete with delicious food, fine beer, and interesting conversation, and move on to more current matters. After all, that was so last night.

1) Justice David Souter is reportedly planning to retire and return to his rustic farmhouse in New Hampshire, which probably won't be taken from him under imminent domain to put in a Quik-E-Mart.
2) I lost 4 kg in April, according to my digital bathroom scale.
3) "Tea parties" are still the rage among People Who Will Never Be Satisfied. I mean, the highest marginal tax rate is 35%, HALF of what it was back in 1983. Grow up, people, roads and soldiers cost money. And where were you the last eight years when Dubya's budgets virtually DOUBLED the National Debt of the last 200+ years?
4) So with the first one hundred days under his belt, all but the sorest losers have admitted Obama has done pretty well. You might disagree with his policies, but they are pretty much what he campaigned on. And it's nice to have an adult in the Oval Office, someone that can string together a few intelligible sentences.
5) There is no Number 5.
6) I am off work until next Wednesday, thanks to Buddha's Birthday, picnic day and Children's Day. Of course, I didn't know I was off on picnic day (Monday) until Wed., by which time it was too late to plan something really cool to do. Of course, I did ask. "Yeah," I was told, "we will have picnic." "But what will I do?" "We will have picnic." Etc.
7) I have also been confirmed to attend a two day Co-Teaching seminar on May 11 & 12. I'm sure I'm looking forward to it.