Important Korean Issue In This Entry!

In one week, I'll have been in Seoul for one year! As some of you might remember, I planned on staying 6 months. Now, I'm renewing and staying on yet another year, something I swore up and down I'd never do. It's funny but I've built this whole life here. I love my apartment (though NOT the sublet dude), I've made some really great friends, and I have my routine. When I first got here, everything seemed so strange and foreign and I thought there was no way I'd ever get used to it. Now, it's home. I've lived in my apartment here longer than I've lived in one place since my parents house before I left for college.

Anywho...Last Sunday was Sharing House and it was an experience. I don't want to call it depressing but it certainly wasn't a barrel of laughs. It's a museum/house about 2 hours outside of Seoul where 9 women who were sex slaves of the Japanese army duing WWII live. When we got there, we saw a video basically explaining the situation. I'll do my best synopsis here.

Around the time after the Nanking invasion, the Japanese army realized it couldn't go around raping and pillaging if it wanted to build a lasting empire so they decided to systematize it (the Japanese are nothing if not efficient). They specifically targeted Korean women because Korea was a colony of Japan and wouldn't fall under international treaties Japan had signed against sex slavery. They got the girls through a variety of methods, including abduction, false promises of schooling, and fake factory job offers. Once the girls were there, they'd basically have to spend their entire day "comforting" the Japanese soldiers. The conditions were awful and the soldiers weren't exactly gentle.

Now, Korea was (and still is) very Confucian and a woman's highest asset was her virtue. After the war, the general Korean population did not want anything to do with the women who survived. They offered very little compensation and wanted to sweep them under the rug (and still do). The Japanese government makes various claims, such as the army had nothing to do with this or that the women were willing prostitutes. They take NO responsibility and no compensation from the government.

The Sharing House exists to make sure the women and their ordeal is not forgotten. It's pretty amazing what they've been able to do with little to no support from the government and general population. Korea is changing and as it does, so does the attitude towards the women and progress has been made. Sadly, not with the Japanese government, which leans right.

My friend Steve has been volunteering there for about a year and so I went with him on this trip. I'm so glad I did, it was amazing to learn about all this. The best part was the art I got to see. The women were taught to paint so they could express some of their feelings through their work. These were some of the most emotionally powerful pieces of art I've ever seen. Usually, one of the women will come out to speak about her experience but they were all sick or visiting family the day I went. As their getting into their late 80s/early 90s, that'll happen more and more.

Of course, it was not been all seriousness here in Seoul. The night before the Sharing House, I went out to Platinum for my friend Sunah's birthday. Platinum is an all-you-can-drink microbrewery with the best beer in Seoul. I drank my fair share (and then some...) and in general had too much fun.


Steve, the aforementioned friend, has an oven in his apartment! This may not seem like big news but believe me, it is. So far I've only used it to make a couple batches of cookies but I've got big plans. Strange fact of life that Koreans just don't use ovens.

I just ended a class and the students are going to take me out for dongdongju, my favorite Korean alchohol, on Wednesday. It'll be lots of fun showing up all drunk to pub quiz. I'm sure my contribution will be invaluable.

Making more plans for my triumphant return to the States. I'll be in San Francisco from Dec. 22nd to Jan. 3rd. I'll be in Seattle from Jan. 3rd until Jan. 8th (the 6th/7th will be in Portland). Mark your calendars and plan accordingly!

Autumn in Seoul

It's been a busy time here in the Republic of Korea...going backwards...

-On Sunday, I'm going with my friend Steve to a place called Sharing House. I'm not to clear about the details (going to find out everything when I go) but it has to do with the "comfort" women used by the Japanese troops during WWII. It's still a hot topic, the Japanese government denies that they forced the women into sex slavery and so they won't issue an official apology. It's something I'm really looking forward to. I recently read the Rape of Nanking and that was a huge kick in the gut. It made me want to read a lot more modern Asian history, I'll tell you that.

-I've been trying to have a quiet time this fall but that has been made difficult by several factors. First off, I HATE my sublet and so I'm trying to be home as little as possible. He is ALWAYS here and sucking up energy and generally being a douche bag so I'm forced to go to cafes or pubs until late. Claude is terrified of this dude and is getting fat because all he does now is eat or sleep. More than usual, that is.

-I'm starting to plan my trip home! I've got 3 weeks to spend and I'll be in San Francisco and Seattle. I absolutely cannot wait to have good Mexican food, American Chinese food, and cheese. I'm a little weirded out by the thought of being in a place where the signs are all in English and where I won't eat kimchi every day but I'm super excited to see people again.

Konichiwa, bitches!

Fukuoka was awesome! Awesome and really, really expensive!

I spent my first day there getting my visa sorted out and then totally crashing out in my hotel room and sleeping for 12 hours. Woops! I did eat some amazing sushi and walked around the downtown area for a while. My hotel was really cool, though. It was modeled after a tea house and looked very traditional and Japanese. I had a single and I felt like I was in the middle of Memoirs of a Geisha or something.

My second day, I was up and about all over town. I went to the big park in the middle of the city and looked at pretty gardens. I took a hike up to the ruins of the Fukuoka castle, then walked downtown to do some shopping. I ate tons of sushi and ramen. That night, I went to the area with the street food stalls and had some great ramen and a nice big glass of warm sake.

My last day there, I finished up shopping and walked around the downtown area I hadn't hit up yet. My trip ended on a less than great note when I threw a temper tantrum at the airport because they tried to take away my Bumble&Bumble curl creme, but hell...you can't get that in Korea! My hair needs all the help it can get.

The Fukuoka pictures can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63860&l=e237e&id=854760437

General updates:
-I have a new housemate. Jennefer has left and I have a subletter until Linda Fung (!!!) gets here in February. Cannot wait for that to happen!

-I play a game with my students called "sleeping bear," where they pretend to be hibernating and can't wake up (it's saved my sanity on several occasions!). Ashley took the game to heart and when she "woke up" today, she bit my arm really hard because bears are hungry when they wake up.

-We won 2nd place at the local pub quiz this week!!! I'm way too happy about this.


-Claude hates halloween...here's some pictures from that wonderful holiday
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65625&l=358a3&id=854760437

-I'm writing this from a cafe where I've been sitting for about two hours, trying to download season 1 of the UK Office and drinking glass after glass of wine. The dude totally knows I'm using all his bandwidth!

Japan!

I leave on Thursday for Fukuoka, Japan to do a visa run and I am ridiculously excited about.

This is my first trip in Asia outside of Korea. I feel pretty proud of myself for how much travel I've done within the country but now...broader horizons! I feel like once I break the seal, I can do some more weekend trips around the area.

I'm staying at a very traditional place my first night and then Friday I'll be at a hostel that caters to younger people. It should be a lot of fun and I can't wait! Gah!

Happy Chusok

There are two major holidays in Korea, Lunar New Year and Chusok. Today is Chusok, which is basically the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, with some ancestor-honoring thrown in for good measure. The best thing about this is that in order to worship one's ancestors properly, one must go to one's hometown so the day before and the day after are taken off for travel time. This means that this little migook gets a five day weekend! Assah!

It has been heaven. I originally thought of taking a trip to Bali or some other exotic destination but since I have to make a visa run to Japan in a couple weeks, I opted to stay in Seoul. It's been the most relaxing time ever. I got to spend an entire day nursing a nasty soju hangover and I didn't feel bad since I had four other days off!

I kicked off the weekend with some bowling. Some friends and I have started going bowling every Friday night and it's so much fun. You can bring your own drinks to Korean bowling alleys so it ends up being a very cheap night out. I actually did really well for the first game but as my soju intake went up, my bowling skills went down and my third game was in the 50s. Woops.

On Sunday, my friend Hannah came up to visit from Daejon. We went shopping in Itaewon, where I found a sweet ass Casio calculator watch...assah! It's incredibly awesome in a Dwight Schrute sort of way. Yesterday, I made a birthday dinner for some friends and drank an obscene amount of wine and today, I took a nice long coffee break/walk/late lunch with my friend Paula. And I still have one more day off!

Kindergarten is still going great and I actually miss my students over this break. Not enough to want to be at work, of course, but I do miss them. Allan told me he loved me last week and it was very sweet. Dylan, on the other hand, grabbed my boobs. Oh, kindergarten!

Insanity!

Whew! My new jobs have been keeping me incredibly busy! I've ended up teaching at the kindergarten full time and I've got 4 different business classes. I'm hopping around the center of the city all day but it's been fun. I feel so much happier now that I'm not working at CDI. I'm cooking more, getting to see friends more, and I'm just feeling a lot more positive about life now that I actually enjoy the teaching. The kindy in particular has been great. The kids are awesome and it's a lot of fun. It can be a head ache sometimes but for the most part, I'm loving it.

I've also been leaving the Itaewon area when going out, which is a lot of fun. Hongdae has great dance clubs I've been going to and it's nice to be around more Koreans. Again, have come across more and more foreigners who are kinda anti and it's odd. Hi, you're in KOREA. Eh, what can you do?

One thing about being here is that it always feels like a time of transition. This time, though, I might be justified in thinking that. On Tuesday, Justin will be leaving Korea for his year-long trek across Asia. It seems very strange to me that he'll be gone and I won't be able to ask him questions, talk to him about the random stuff we talk about, or have him kick my ass at Halo. I'm not taking it as hard as our neighbors since I know I'll see him in the Northwest but I'm still going to miss him. For one thing, this means I can't share the coffee expense with anyone.

I also have to say I'm incredibly grateful to Justin for the way he introduced Seoul and Korea to me. I've recently met some people who've been in Korea for years and they were woefully ignorant about the culture, food, and people. They had no idea about things I've taken for granted, like dongdongju and pajon. Thanks to Justin, I was thrown head-first into life here and never went through an "I don't eat Korean food" phase. I learned the Korean alphabet so quickly because I thought that was expected of me. I shudder to think what my life here would have been like had I not known the joy of dongdongju. This weekend will be the last hurrah for Justin. A few of us are going to the beach on the west coast of Korea. Should be good drunken fun!


The other big change is that I've started my new job. Instead of teaching at an academy, I'm now teaching at a bunch of different places, all of which is arranged by my agency. So far, I've taught businessmen at Samsung and Posco, a major Korean steel company. It's been great, I only taught about 4 hours this week but next week, I'm subbing for a kindergarten and starting another business class, so I'll be very busy. I like it so far, very nice not to be on CCTV all the time! I also like how I'm moving through the city all day, I'm getting to see parts of Seoul I didn't know about.