Shangers

I ventured beyond the borders of South Korea for the 2nd time since I arrived in late March this past weekend. Interestingly, or maybe not, it was the first time I ventured beyond South Korea's borders and actually into another country (the first time was when I went to the DMZ and went out ff South Korea and into No Man's Land). This other country was "jung-guk" - China - and played host to me while I met an old, smarter, and, incredibly, shorter friend, Clancy (Or "Clancy of the Overflow" as Kezza would put it). He had spent 3 weeks in China and on the Friday before I arrived, just finished a University subject via a University exchange program. So, unsurprisingly, it was time to party, and cram as much of Shanghai into a 44 hr window as possible. I would just like to point out that no matter what else happened, I was overjoyed that I wasnt thrown into jail, injured and then woken up in a hospital, or denied re-entry to Korea. Based on this, the holiday was a success.

I arrived at about 6.30 in the evening after a suprisingly good flight with Eastern China Airlines. All the North North-Western Independent Rural China Airlines flight were booked so I had to go East China and was pleasently suprised to recieved a meal and 2 beers in a short 1hr 20 min flight (screw you Jetstar with your miniature packet of mixed nuts and shot of coke). I caught the metro to the closest stop to Clancy's uni, which was about 25 stops away, and took about an hour and a half. Brutal. I was also introduced to something I wasnt expecting that I would see quite often - people openly picking their nose. Probably counted it 3 times on the train and a handful of times the rest of the trip. Cant say i condone that behavior. Once I was off the train, and onto the street for my first real look of China, I was overwhelmed with the amount of people, bikes, motor bikes and cars that were in front of me. Mostly bikes and motorbikes though, as every piece of concrete seemed to be crammed with with one of them and I swear there was about 1000 of them parked side-by-side in an impromptu car-park, well, bike-park, that was only the length of one side of a block. Incredible. I then tried to get a taxi, which proved to be harder than trying to get one at 3 am in Sydney with a group of 4 guys. 20 minutes, and a long, long walk later, i found one and met up with Clancy. Post-exam celebrations were in full-throttle by the time I arrived at the dorms. About 254 people were crammed into a single dorm room, which I figure is skill you acquire if you spend enough time in Shanghai. I managed to find someone else's alcohol to drink as we kicked into maybe the strangest drinking game ever. The game works by playing Roxanne by the Police and when lyrics say "Roxanne" the boys drink, and when lyrics say "Put on the Red Light", the girls drink. Sounds fun enough, and starts off slowly, but "Roxanne" is followed by "Put on the red light" something like 27 times in a 3 minute span. They are also often repeated in groups of 4 or more in rapid succession. So unless you have a mini keg by your side, you will surely run out of alcohol and you need to be able to drink as quickly as Bob Hawke to keep up with every turn. Regardless of the practicality, it is a drinking game, which means everyone is a winner. We kicked on to a bar that night which was 80 Yuan ($11 or $12) for unlimited alcohol (with return of your cup for each drink.... brilliant idea by the way) but felt far, far to familiar to me. I swear id been there before but I though it was on Darlinghurst road in Sydney. It was so completely packed with foreigners that even the people that looked Asian were actually foreigners (Australians of Chinese descent). Everything about it, from the dancefloor, to the Djs, to the massive D***heads, reminded me of Oz and was very un-Chinese. Either way, it was a cracking night.


The next morning we went into town for a big Chinese lunch. It was at a very highly rated YumCha restaurant, apparently, and was bloody amazing. We sat at the biggest circular table known to man which required carrier pigeons to communicate with people on the other side of the table. The table had a rotating glass top that allowed you to slide the awesome food around the table. A little bit of everything was eaten - duck, pork, dumplings, tea - and it was fantastic. Unfortunately though, it didn't quite stack up to the $7 sweet and sour pork at my old bar, the "Dugout". That's some REAL Chinese food there. Of course, that's completely bogus, and I was really stoked to get a proper Chinese meal while I was there. By this point a theme was emerging during the trip - "I need some water". It wasn't just me, but many people in general, always seemed to be looking for water. It started coming home from the night before, then in the morning, and then at the restaurant, where they seemed to forget everyone's water, even after repeated pleas. This all stems from the fact that you cannot drink any water from a tap, and the uni was isolated from any shops. So something that is usually so readily available, and absolutely vital for life, was now a scarce and extremely valuable resource. It was a surreal feeling, knowing that right here, right now, i need water, but there is none. It doesn't seem like that should be a problem one should encounter in this millennium. From food, I went for a walk downtown with Clancy and his mate Nick. I knew I wouldnt be able to do much in Shanghai in only a day, so I figured if I walked around downtown for a few hours, I can atleast say that I did something and saw some of the city. It was well worth it. We walked from the main downtown station we walked a fair distance to the river. On the way, we walked through a park where we saw the most peculiar sight ever. About 200 or so older men and women "advertising" there children for marriage. That is what is happening in the picture above. Her bits of paper in front of her are telling of her looks, dimensions, skills, etc (by the way, if there is no picture of the child thats a pretty big red-flag). The ages of their children are in the 25-35 area, but of course, no one of that age is anywhere in the park, its entirely made up of old people, selling or looking for partners for their children. Crazy. The entire walk to the river - and the entire city for that matter - has 30-40 story buildings on every single block. Its hard to tell where "downtown" is because it all looks like downtown. The big, beautiful, and sometimes ugly, buildings are juxtaposed (first time ive every successfully used this word in a sentence) with the conditions of the street. Look up and its 1st world, or even better than 1st world (future world???), and look around u on the street and its 3rd world. Roads are 30 times more dangerous than Korea, beggars everywhere, dirty streets. Wasnt super impressed with this aspect of China. The skyline from the one side of the river across to the other is pretty darn awesome. The strange looking orange tower I actually think is really cool, but not as cool as the bottle opener shaped one. We grabbed a beer at a nearby rooftop bar while the sun was going down which was one of the highlights of the trip. I did find it difficult keeping up with the conversation of the Law students - Chinese foreign policy, the theories of Malthaus and Co and Global Politics arent exactly my strong points. I kept trying to talk about my fantasy football team and why cabbage kimchi is better than radish kimchi, but it didnt elicit much interest.

We headed back into the city as darkness fell and the city just exploded with lights. Never seen so much fluoro, neon, and any other form of bright colours in my life. Street level, underground, and above you, its just a bombardment of lights. Crazy. Another beer followed at a swanky Morrocan style bar once our eyes adjusted to light and were able to find it. Back to the dorms but not before a quick meal at a small, local restaurant. Not a word was spoken by the restaurant people - this was a common theme of the weekend; not a single Chinese person could speak a single word of English. I thought Koreans couldn't speak English at first, but they sound like Barak Obama compared to the Chinese. The waitress ordered for us thankfully and it turned out to be really, really tasty, so we were happy with the outcome. I was also overwhelmed when we received the water for our table. I poured it into my cup and noticed that steam was coming out of it. A little weird to be sure, but I heard that water was heated up in China to kill the bugs in it, and it would maybe be a little warm. But this wasnt just warm, this was almost boiling water. I wondered what the hell was up with this and Clancy said you never drink anything not from a bottle that isn't boiling. So I ate my rice and beef with boiling water. WEIRD (couldnt they cool it down first????) The rest of the night involved......... wait for it....... yes, thats right ..... Drinking. What a suprise. Went to a place inhabited with a few more Chinese, that was really nice, cheap and had personal service to our table. Was quite impressed. This was followed by going to a club right next door called the "Bunker" which was just how it sounds. As you enter the club, you walk through a long, thin and small tunnel into a dark room with a low ceiling, which was the dance floor, and continued into other small, bombshelter-type rooms where you could sit. Very cool place with good music and a unique feeling. Topped the night off very, very nicely.

Unfortunately my trip ended too soon as I had to make my way to the airport from 11 in the morning. I got some Subway for the first time in 9 months (another one of the highlight moments) and jumped on a Maglev train (Maglev are the fastest train on Earth) which travelled at 300 kms/h to the airport.

An awesome weekend to be sure!

Some more vistors

I was fortunate enough to have a couple of visitors come and stay a week with me recently. My yeo~dong~saeng (little sister) and her namja~chin~gu (boyfriend) spent a few days with me in the now frigid Jinju, and then we spent the weekend in Busan. Brittny and Geoff got to see how I live my life, which pretty much goes like this; get off school, eat BBQ, drink beer and soju, then go to bed. Repeat Monday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, don't go to bed. Sunday, rest. I was most impressed with Britt and Geoff's ability to pick up parts of the language. I know that they will be saying "Yea" "Yeo~gi~yo" and "Kam~sa~ham~ni~da" for a long time to come. I look forward to having Korean conversations with them when I go home. It was a great week which went like this....... By the way, none of these photos are mine - I regrettably did not take my camera anywhere and relied on Britt and Geoff to take photos for me.

Monday went exactly the way I described above. Introduce the newbies to the BBQ, then get drunk. We drank at a place called "700 Beer", where you are required to drink 700 beers before you leave. Or maybe the beers come in 700 ml glasses. Im not sure. Either way, after about an hour, it felt like id drank 700 beers. We then broke out the Soju which got everyone's seal of approval, and as a result, I don't remember anything from that point on. It also meant some crazy headaches the next day.

Wednesday was, well, the same. Get off school, have BBQ at the best place in Jinju I know, then meet up with the gang for drinks in Go West. The BBQ has pieces of pork belly as thick as a dictionary, but also comes with hamburger steak, which is like being served sushi and baked beans in the same meal. Brings the good meal down a touch. Regardless, good dinner, B&G got to try KimchiJiggae, and I wasn't hungover for work the next day! Yay!

Thursday was a highlight - Karaoke!!!! At the very homely Wine Bar, we assembled a good group for some mid-week No-rae-bang. After clearing out the venue 10 minutes after arriving, we got things started. Brittny and Geoff were treated to some all-time great performances by yours truly - Livin on a Prayer (Bon Jovi) and Tribute (Tenacious D) - which I know intimidated and scared them more than they already were. How could they possibly follow an act like that?? Brittny told me that she couldnt believe that we could do this sober, "you actually do it for entertainment" I believe I heard. So they both increased their alcohol intake to try and ready themselves. About 2-2.5 hours later, after the bar was almost double-handedly drank dry, and the local foreigners had began to scrape the bottom of the song barrel like "Barbie Girl" and "The Macarena", Brittny and Geoff stepped up to the mike and belted out the classic "Do-wa-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do". I was a witness to the performance - confident, emotional, and out-of-key - just like all good karaoke should be. Once the first song was out of the way, the flood gates opened, and we were all drowning in Brittny and Geoff's singing. A great night!

Friday saw us travel down to Busan for the weekend. We first found a night love motel, which had; a) the world's biggest beds (they would not fit in my entire house in Jinju) b) "buisiness" cards of local woman at the door, in the elevator, bathroom, fridge and next to the bed c) various creams, lotion and potions available for use (including "men's desenitising cream"). After this joyous expreience we did what all visitors to Busan do - eat Mexican food at the Fuzzy Navel!! Classic Busan and Classic Korea. With full bellys, we got in a taxi, ready to clean out the local casino of everything they had. I told the taxi where to go - Ca~ji~no - and he proceeded to drive us 10 seconds around the next corner and stop. Easily the shortest taxi ride of my life. An entertaining night of gambling ensued - my night was like a rollercoaster that got stuck upside down on the loop-the-loop - a bit of a disaster at one point, but turned out pretty good. Only annoying part of the casino was the free drinks. How do you complain about free drink? When there is no visible bar to buy your own drinks and you have to wait 20 minutes for your free drinks which are no bigger than a shot glass, you'd would probably prefer paying the $2.50 for a pint.

Saturday saw us go for a hike. Yes, a hike. Not my 1st choice of activity during the winter, but it turned out to be a really fun day. We started at a temple called Beo-mo-sa, and I think I can safely say at this point that ive seen all the best temples in Korea, and the rest are 99% the same. This one was the same. We then went directly vertical up the hill from the temple. Ice picks and ropes were needed at one point to navigate the trecherous landscape, and at one point, I thought we would be turning around. That was about 2 minutes into it. "When we get to the top we can just get a taxi", said Brittny. I replied "Are you high?". Last time I checked, there isnt a taxi rank at the top of mountains. Once we reached the plataeu, the walk became far more enjoyable and scenic and gave awesome views of the city. By the end, I almost wanted to keep going, but we had walked almost 6 kms and my knees were hurting, so it was probably for the best that we called an end to it. We then met a couple of friends at a University district in the City. We started off with a steak dinner - a very welcome meal after a long day and about 5 months without a steak - and then proceeded to drink the night away. A highlight was Gwang-al-li and part of town right on the beach, with a huge bridge in the background, and plenty of places to party. A really cool place to hangout.




The next day we were too tired and hungover to do anything other than go home. So that's what we did. Back in Jinju, we had a last supper of Pork Belly, Beef and Lamb, and called it a holiday.

Thanks so much Geoff and Britt for dropping in. I had an awesome time, I hope you did as well. If you ever have a craving for kimchi, your always welcome back.

빼빼로 데이 - Pepero Day

Its been a while since ive updated, so its time to make up for that by telling you about what happens in Korea on the eleventh of November. Instead of paying our respect to war veterens, observing a minute of silence, and generally having a thoughtful, humble day, Koreans enjoy giving chocolate covered sticks of cookie to one another. These things are called 빼빼로 or we might know them as "pocky"s



I told my teachers about what we do in Australia on this day and I found it amusing that they had to tell me that unlike thanksgiving or korea day or other important days in Korea, Pepero Day IS NOT a traditional Korean holiday! I was shocked! You mean that people buying candy for each other is just a genius marketing campaign and has nothing to do with the Fabric of Korea?? It literally is just a day designed to make people buy as many of these things as possible, and it bloody well works.

So this is an important day in the life of a teacher as you get a definitive answer as too just how popular you are. If you get none, you pretty much know for sure that your kids hate you. But if you cant fit them all in your bag before you go home, its a good indication. Im happy to report that i was somewhere in between of the two extremes, leaning a little more to the good side. I would rate it as sufficiently popular.

Lex's Trip

So I was lucky enough to have my nuna (Older sister) Alexa come over to visit me recently. It was great to see her and a member of the family for the first time in six months (yeah thats right im 6 months in, halfway through the contract). We had a great time as I got to see parts of Korea I hadnt seen before, eat barbeque most nights and have someone tell me they are impressed with my crappy Korean. I thought id post alot of photos of what happened and give a few details of some of the interesting parts of the trip.

As mentioned earlier, i loved being able to eat BBQ most nights. Over here, if you go to a BBQ alone, you still need to buy 2 servings of meat, so they are essentially made for more than 1 person. So even though its the best thing to eat here, I dont get to eat it often enough. Its also considered pretty weird to eat alone anywhere in this country, so it was good to eat out and not have people staring at me more than they usually do. She loved the whole BBQ experience, which involves all the side dishes and cooking it yourself (unless you look either retarded or foreign, in which case, it can sympathetically be cooked for you). Also because it had meat, and many meals over here dont have meat, which Lex aint a fan of. I did enjoy her commenting on how impressed (read: disgusted and shocked) she was that I can eat pretty much anything put in front of me. Another favourite of hers was Shabu Shabu which is a big pan of boiling water with stock in which mushrooms, veges and meat is placed. This is then followed with noodles. This is again chased with rice for desert. A massive meal but bloody awesome.



A highlight of the trip was the DMZ - Demilitarised Zone. This is the border between North and South Korea. It is the most heavily fortified and guarded border on Earth. The USO tour we embarked upon took as to the area where N and S Korea stand face to face with each other. It is completely eerie and scary the whole situation. At one point we were inside a building that extends into N.Korea, thereby meaning that you are actually standing in N.Korea. The only place on Earth where it is safe to do so. If you attempted to walk out the door that enters into the North, a scarily intense S. Korean (below) would prevent you from doing so. And with good reason. This guy by the way may have been a manniquin as he didnt move a cm, looked like he was made of some sort of thick synthetic material and dint appear to breathe. I assume he would have stopped us but im not entirely sure he could move. One of the more interesting and scary parts of the day was visiting one of the underground tunnels that the North have digged in an attempt to sneak into the South. 4 have been discovered in about 30 years and we walk through one that reached a few hundred metres into the south. The Border between the 2 countries is over 200 kms long. What are the chances there is another undetected tunnel along the border thats already halfway to Seoul?? 50%? 75%? 100%? How many are there?? Downright frightening.




While Lex was in town, Jinju had its annual "Lantern" festival on the Nam River. It is annual, however wasnt held last year because of swine flu. Basically, the lanterns are massive sculptures of random things floating on the river and lit up at night. Some of the lanterns seem to follow a theme of Korea and Korean History and the Jinju castle, and some of them really dont, for example, Santa Claus, a picture of some guy running the 100 metres in 9.99 seconds, and a Tiger with wings. Over 100 of these things stretch along about 1 km of the river near downtown. Quite pretty I must say. The river is also lined with stalls, food, shops, games and places to drink for about 2 kms. So its a pretty happening and cool event. It is also where I was finally introduced to bondeggi which is silkworm larvae. Ive been waiting to eat these things since I came because they have a reputation for being famously terrible. They definately lived up to the hype. Im sure Alexa has already thrown up in her mouth after reading the name and remembering the smell. The smell carries in the open air for over 30 metres. The smell compares closely to my ice hockey gear if I threw it the boot of the car after a game, then drove around for a few years in the desert to intensify the smell, then opened the boot and shoved my nose in a sock. Brutal.





Here are just a couple of other pics from Korea; one is of a massive temple in Seoul, the other one of the nicer beaches in the country Sangju Silver Sand Beach.

Was great to see you Lex!!!

Those crazy Koreans......

Thought id share a few urban legends/beliefs/weird customs that ive encountered over here lately. Its been a while since ive directly made fun of Koreans on here, as ive generally just been updating with things ive been doing, but im feeling a little sadistic today, so here goes:

1. Koreans believe that if you leave a fan on during the night, with the windows closed, you will die.

Electic fans: Friend or foe??

This is 100% true. I couldnt create something so ridiculous. Korean people are generally VERY smart and logical, but are clearly insane. Its a widely held belief that the majority of people believe in, not just a few Whack-Jobs. In fact, The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), a South Korean government-funded public agency, issued a consumer safety alert in 2006 warning that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected. Hence, even the Korean governement believes that "Fan Death" is true. Really?? This should be enough evidence we need to condemn S.Korea to second- or third-world status immediately. The best part of death via fan is the retarded reasoning given as to WHY fans will kill you in your sleep. For example;

- an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.

- an electric fan chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe

- The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide

- That if the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing
- That fans contribute to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication.
- That fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature

Never mind that these theories violate the most simple and basic laws of nature, physics or common sense. Koreans take fan death very, very seriously. Search Fan Death in google if u feel like exploring this further. Its worth it.

2. Koreans believe that if you walk in the rain without an unbrella, your hair will fall out

Again, absolutely a belief that the majority of people believe. You will never see a single Korean walking in rain without an umbrella. You actually see many Koreans walking in perfect sunny weather with an unbrella as well but that for another purpose - avoiding a tan (tan is a sign of working outside, working outside = lower class). So yea theres lots of bloody umbrellas over here, and I hate em; such annoying things, but a neccessary evil at times I will admit. Anyway, Ive not taken an umbrella to school a few times and by the end of class i has been raining. Sometimes heavy, sometimes barely at all, but theres always a teacher there to lend me an umbrella. Well lending isnt the right word, more like, forcing me. Ive had teachers run through the school, down stairs, yelling and screaming with an umbrella in their hand, imploring I take it because its slightly drizzling. I think there is an entire room somewhere in each school that is dedicated to houseing umbrellas, and video cameras at all entrances and exits, monitoring if people are leaving the school without one. One day, my students made me buy one when we had a class in town. All we were doing was walking from one store to another about 30 metres away, but they wouldnt let me go outside without one. This myth may actually have a morsel of truth to it - acid rain perhaps?? - but that isnt a uniquely Korean problem.

3. Koreans dont say "goodbye" on the phone, or have a dedicated "sign off".

This one cracks me up because I hear it very often. It doesnt always happen the way I will explain it, but it does more often than not, and happens between people my age and my teachers, so its not a generational thing. They have a greating on the phone " yeoboseoyo", then they talk at a million miles an hour, then comes time to sign off. They go from intense talking, to a short silence. This is followed by a short grunt. Silence. Then a longer grunt. This longer grunt is the sign to hang up. So 2 grunts indicate that its time to hang up. So fricken weird. And its definately a grunt. No audible word is spoken, just the passing off air from deep in the chest. There is a word for goodbye in Korea, a way to say talk to you later, a way to say absolutely anything we can say in English, yet Koreans decide to grunt. It is just so strange. I would really sturggle having a phone conversation in Korean because I wouldnt know the sequence of events that lead to the grunting. Do they say something before hand that initiates the grunting? Does one person start and the next person follow? What if im not finished? So many questions that ill probably never know the answer to.

4. Koreans dont eat the skins of grapes

They peel them off and leave them in a pile next to the bunch. I think the reasoning is fertilizers and pesticides during production, but everyone ive ever know eats the entire grape and there is nothing wrong with them. Well, at least grape skin isnt the reason there is something wrong with them.

There u have it, a few little quirks about my friends and neighbours!!

Things ive eaten more of....................

In the past 5 months than i've eaten my entire life.....

Thought id make a new list of foods ive been eating copious amounts of that are weird, wacky and wonderful.

- FISH BONES: Most fish meals have bones still in them. Even the "fillets" are bound to have bones, grilled fish are not deboned at all (they are simply flavoured and cooked and you pick away at the meat with your chopsticks. Im not very good at this) and even the fish I get in my soup at school has bones all through it. The bones range from entire spines to small thin ribs. Ive come to realise that if you want to remove all the bones you need to remain at your table for at least 3 hours and you need the hands of a heart surgeon, so ive basically given up on that. If the bone is thinner than my little finger, I just swallow them. Well not that big actually, but more like ill eat everything except the spine. Havent choked badly yet so I think ill keep up with this rule. My favourite moment in fish bones has already been explained previously on the blog but I will quickly re-hash; I had one meal with 2 fish dishes. One dish was ENTIRE fish deep fried (the fish were small poddy mullet/white bait looking fish covered in batter. the deep frying managed to soften the bones in this) and another was the same fish in a casserole. The bones in this fish, however, were not softened, so i had avoid the bones and pick at the meat. In one fish I could get maybe a teaspoon of meat. Lots of work for little payoff.

- GREEN CHILLIES: I have also detailed my hijinks related to green chillies. They are a very popular side dish over here. Typically eaten by just dumping the end of it into some nice dipping sauce and chowing down. Can be eaten by adding it with other stuff, but most just take it down in3 or 4 bites. I dont mind them, as most arent hot. The long and thin ones are what u need to look out for, and are probably the hottest thing ive had over here. Ive given my teachers a good laugh by eating the hot ones a few times.



- GARLIC: Lots of garlic at a barbecue. Most incredibly, many people can eat them straight, or with a small amount of dipping sauce. I find the weird heat/strong burst of flavour too much to handle, but if you grill them on the same plate as your beef or pork and cook them a bit, they are bloody awesome. We arent talking about thin slices or finely chopped garlic either, more like the size of your thumb. Such as above

- BEANSPROUTS: One of my absolute favourite side dishes. Best eaten at a barbecue where you grill them, much like the garlic (and kimchi also), on the plate where the meat is. Bloody fantastic. Comes in 2 varieties, plain and with red pepper sauce - ill take either but with the red pepper sauce they are amazing.



- EEL: Yes thats right Eel. Many many eel resturants in town. As a meat, its fine, nothing too distinct about it, sort of fishy. This is one fish where u know you wont be getting bones. Basically the guts and the spine is removed and then the remaining meat is chopped into pieces 2 to 3 cm long. The pieces then flatten out when they are grilled so your left with pieces of meat just smaller than a credit card. Im always amazed at how much meat you can get from these guys because u can see them swimming in the tanks out the front of the store and they are very thin and small. They look more like sea snakes than morey eels. The most popular piece of the eel is the tail which is said to be good for "stamina". Two points; 1. Stamina does not refer to the type of stamina required to run a marathon. 2. I think ive heard of every food in Korea as being good for stamina. Whether its dog, kimchi, tofu, coffee or water. Everything is good for stamina. Regardless, Eel may be the animal with the highest concentration of "stamina" in its meat as far as I understand it. The picture below is accurate size of the eel, but we dont have it in the "runny" sauce and it is cooked far more. It looks for more appetizing than this



- HARDBOILED EGGS: I remember when it was Easter over here I walked into school and was greeted, not with a chocolate egg, but a hard-boiled egg, and think what the hell is wrong with these people. Not wanting to be rude I decided to eat it, and that was after the eternity it took to figure out how to peel it properly (id never done it before, give me a break). I was literally expecting to throw it back up, but it went down quite well. I had been converted. Vendors on the side of the road sell hard boiled eggs, its a common morning tea snack at school and in resturants some places have quail eggs as a side dish . Ive even taken to them so well that ive hard-boiled my OWN batch of eggs to snack on many times. Thats right i hard boil my own eggs.

- RICE: I think it safe to say that ive tripled my life entire output since ive been here, and ive always eaten rice back home. I havent had rice before 11 in the morning yet, if or when I do it ill officially be Koreanised. Ive also not made it once at home. I figure that if I ever feel like eating rice, ill just go to ANY building with a roof nearby and they will have some for me. I also dont wont to burn out on it, so if I limit myself to lunch and resturants, I shouldnt get sick of it. I still get amazed by the things that are made from rice over here. Rice wine (not pleasant but drinkable), rice deserts (the rice machine is dumped with boiling water and then the resulting goo is put in a bowl and served), rice sweet ice tea (probably the worst thing thats been in my mouth since ive been here) are just the tip of the iceberg.

Cant wait to take the brothers and sister out to dinner here.... especially u macka

Ajumma Party

Just a quickish update for the moment. Had a classic weekend, although a tad bittersweet. It was the last weekend for a couple of people so we sent them out the best way possible. Definately sucks to say goodbye to people, especially good people, but I guess thats gonna happen continuously while im over here so I better get used to it. As a final send off we had a dress up party, something ive been keen for for a long time. Ironically, the theme of the party was the same as what I would have dressed up as if I could have chose anything; Ajummas (and Ajushis). I will use another website to define them;

Ajumma (아줌마) : A term used to address an adult female individual of married age and/or runs a business or restaurant. The word is used to call older women when in a restaurant or simply when getting a person's attention, but it is best to only call older women this as women of a somewhat younger age may not think of themselves as ajummas yet, especially if they are in their 30s and maybe even early 40s.

An "Ajushi" is the male equivalent.

Now your probably thinking what the hell is so special about dressing up as a middle aged woman. Thats a great question. Well, youve seen the definition, now ill tell you about the stereotype. What I know an ajumma as is a crazy and old woman. Not in their 30's, usually 50 or older, and completely nuts. They turn from complete hunchbacks capable of moving no faster than 14 cm/min, and able to make all walking traffic on the entire path screech to a standstill, to athletes capable of Usain Bolt-like speed as they run for a bus carrying an inflatable swimming pool full of cabbage and green peppers, all the while throwing elbows at anyone in a 5 metre radius. These woman seem to enjoy hurling abuse at anyone that can hear them - foreigner or otherwise - and seem to follow less than stringent hygeine practices. Did I mention they have hunchbacks. Im not joking. Parallel to the ground. They spend a large portion of the day at the market chopping the skin off garlic or shuking the stuff out of clams and oysters so they have their backs down low to the ground to help them, so I guess years of acumulation of led to a back that is no longer straight (havent these people heard of tables?? makes things much easier). It all add to the charm. But I guess the biggest stand out feature of the Ajumma is her clothers. An absolute plethora of tacky floral prints, flouro and mismatching colours. At least the pants or shirt MUST contain 14 different colours, and the fashion conscious ajumma, or the practical one, will wear long sleeves (cooling long sleeves), maybe a mask (i dont know why), and usually gloves. Also vital, and maybe the signature piece of clothing, is the visor, which has minimum dimensions of 1 metre long by 80 cms wide. These things are huge. They make sunbreros look like the little hat that jewish people wear. Again, more terrible colours the better. All in all, the Ajumma is just a standout feature of Korean society and one that gives you great unintentional entertainment everytime you see them.

So now you know why it was so vital that we dressed up as middle aged women. Actually, that whole paragraph was just a cover so that we could dress up as middle aged women and get away with it. In any case, we got about 30 or 40 people dressed to the 9's as Ajummas, most outfits costing about $20 bucks. Pretty cheap for the end result, escpecailly considering some shops were selling shirt for $80!! Im not kidding. These are in crappy little markets too, not in real shops. The $20 layout looks more attractive when u consider the fact that the pants are damn comfy so most people will be wearing them again when winter rolls around. My costume cost about $10 more for the acessories - mask, gloves, weird shoe things - and was a smash hit. Recieved multiple best dressed nominations. Bugger it, I WAS the best dressed there. Did recieve some criticism for some percieved "matching" of colours, but while it may look like there was some matching, I think it is still damn ugly which was the purpose in the first place. And really, when does pink and purple ever look good or ever meant to match?? Drunkedness was achieved via Soju Punch, and I have to say Mum, I think my mates stole your punch recipe because it tasted exactly the same as yours. Soooooo bloody good. It transported me back to home for a while...... and then after a few hours transported me to the toilet a few times. No that didnt happen I held myself together but cant say the same for everyone else - the Soju makes people go nuts and when it is in something that tastes good, allowing everyone to drink it as quickly as possible, its 100% garenteed to get at least 5 people in trouble with their boyfriends/girlfriends or to start randomly breakking things. Gotta love Soju. And Ajumma partys.

So here are some photos from the night, enjoy!!

Adventures in Korean Food

Thought id share some of the different eating experiences ive had recently. The first isnt really a single experience, but many, and is actually just a custom over here. The custom i refer to is drinking one's soup directly from the bowl. Now, there are spoons in Korea - no knives or forks - but that doesnt stop this process from happening. I was reluctant to do this for probably the first 6-8 weeks of my arrival, but since then its become a favourite thing of mine. It always brings a smile to face when i bring that bowl to my mouth - partly because im doing something that was never allowed before coming here, and partly because the whole thing seems a bit absurd. But im definately not the precious type so im very comfortable with absurd. In reality, its actually quite practical - there is a soup with nearly every meal and really, who has the time or energy to use their hand in the same repetitive motion 20 times when u can simply drink the whole thing in 3 gulps. Genius. It took some time to get some photos of me doing this; i obviously dont take my camera to every meal; but when one of my friends was showing me some photos while i was eating some dwaen-jang jig-gge (seafood and tofu soup, delicious and a great hangover food) with a lowly spoon, i connected the dots and came up with these.




Had my first serious experience of raw fish last week. My plan for the night was to meet a friend who is leaving the country soon and raid his house of anything he was leaving behind, and then eat McDonalds for the first time since ive arrived. Well, ive had a medium chips and a single bite of someones burger, but this was gonna be the first proper Maccas in about 5 months. I was quite excited for how the night was going to play out, and i took only enough money for maccas coz i planned on coming home afterwards. All that changed when my mate wondered if i wanted to grab dinner beforehand. I said sure, he is leaving soon and in the mood to hang out, drink and eat so I thought why not. He said he was thinking fish, and I thought, "great, i love fish, this will be good'. As we are walking down the street, we looked at the fish resturants - some were pufferfish resturants (no joke) and the others were raw "normal" fish. So I went from Maccas to raw fish in a matter of moments. The meal was interesting - lots of side dishes, some normal, some completely whacky, but they kept on coming. The whacky ones included random large chunks of fruit and vegetables covered in mayonnaise - it looked like potato salad but had cucumber, carrot, prawn meat and the best of all, apple. Yes, apple covered in mayonnaise. Weird. We also were given a plate of small shells. They looked like the tiny pink and speckled cone shaped shells you often find on the beach back home, but where dark in colour. You put your mouth over the small opening and just suck as hard as you can, until the little thing living inside it pops into your mouth. Weird. I was told this can also be sold as barfood. Again, weird. The raw fish was OK. Average. It wasnt very tasty and required some sauces to give it some kick, and there were times when it was in your mouth that you remembered it raw fish and the texture freaks you out a little bit. But it was edible. And expensive. And not very filling. It wasnt filling enough that i had to buy some Ramyeon (2-minute noodles) a little bit later as we were drinking out the front of a corner store. Yes, drinking out the front of a corner store. Most corner/convienience stores have chairs and seat set up in front of them so u can buy some booze and drink it up out the front. Its basically a cheap outdoor bar. Bloody awesome. This was where I had the ramyeon and also where one of my mates ate a hot dog that made him sick for the next 3 days. Yes, he ate raw fish earlier that night, but the hot dog made him sick.


First day of semester today so technically my "holiday" is over, but today reminded me that every day for me is a holiday. I love my job. So bloody easy. And fun. Was in a bit of a crabby mood in the morning but had a smile plastered all over my face when I was in class.

Last but not least, couldnt pass up the oportunity to post this photo


Happy Birthday Mum!!!!!! Miss you heaps and love you lots!

Getting around

Was lucky enough to get 2 weeks holidays during the summer so I went for a bit of a travel through parts of Korea. Ended the trip a little shorter than anticipated but 3 nights camping on the ground in weather that doesnt drop below 25 will make one pine for a comfy bed and an air conditioned room. Getting out on the road reminded me how fun travelling is and how it should be done as often as possible. I was a little tepid going into it because I was by myself and still pretty unconfident in communicating with Koreans, but pretty soon those worries were forgotten. Even though I have had the greatest of fun over the past 3 months, nothing really compares to sense of freedom and excitement that travelling brings. Was lucky enough to meet a few people on the way and have places to stay and people to see when I go to Seoul and Jeju, which are basically the 2 best places to visit in the country.

So I started the trip in Geongju, which is the capital of the old Korean Dynasty. In and around Geongju is the largest concentration of temples, shrines, and all that lovely cultural stuff. Have to say that the scale and impressiveness of the Korean artifacts is not quite on the level as Angkor Wat in Cambodia or most things in Europe, but nice nonetheless. Started off in the main temple - Bulgogsa - set at the bottom of a mountain, then went to the top of the mountain to a Buddha shrine. Bulgogsa was pretty cool, the best part though was a painting in one of the small temples, but you cant take photos of it so I was a little peeved. I had a chance to take a pic while the little old lady guarding the temple went to get some water for her pot, but I figured it was bad karma and I would never be able to reach enlightenment. The Buddha shrine was a bit of a let down because you couldnt walk into the grotto where buddha was sitting, instead you had to look from behind a glass door. I went back into town, in need of a shower more than ever in my life. Got back to the hostel and ran into some Yanks and Canadians so we drank the night away on the rooftop. Really fun night with some cool people.



The 2 pogodas (mentioned in a moment) are on either side of this photo. Main temple.



Actual proof I was there - even asked the guy in Korean to take the photo; sa-jin jjik-eo ju-se-yo? All the temples and pagodas are inside here.



These 2 things are called "pagodas"

Next day was a bit of a later wake up than anticipated due to the late night. Got up to rain but decided to soldier on check out the stuff in the downtown area. First was this area where the Ancient Kings and Queens were buried. The coffins were laid and then covered with tonnes and tonnes of soil until they formed hills. This is basically what the Pyramids are, instead the pyramids arent made of dirt. The next thing was an ancient observatory built in 700 AD called Cheomsongdae. Its only about 12 metres high, but is a major artefact in Korean history. Basically it was built to study the stars, but I personally reckon you could "study the stars" much better from the tops of one of the many mountains nearby.



Later that day went to the inland city of Daejeon. Ended up staying for 2 nights, not because there was so much to do, but because it fit in better with getting to the music festival on the weekend. While here I did do some cool things though; firstly, I went to a baseball game. The Hanwha Eagles are the worst team in the league and played like it, but it was still a good game. Saw a Home Run which was cool, and got a real appreciation for what baseballers do, because I havent seen a live game since the days Newcastle had a team. The Korean league is really strong as well - they won the most recent World Baseball challenge - so it was quality baseball. Couldnt believe how fast the pitcher throws that ball and I think the Catcher has by far the most difficult job in the sport - maybe even in any sport. Wasnt bored at all as the game dragged on either which is a little suprising considering I cant watch a baseball game on TV for more than 10 minutes. Was hanging on every pitch, and the thought of either missing a cool play, or catching a foul ball or a home run ensured my eyes were always fixed on the game. The other interesting thing I did was go to a public spa - jim-jil-bang - and it was maybe the most bizarre experience of my life. Actually, I would say it was the most homosexual thing ive ever done without it being homosexual. This made having a group shower after a football or hockey game seem straight. First thing you need to know is that everyone is naked - from 8 to 80 years old. Even then people at the front desk are naked. This jimjilbang was fed by hot springs and there was various pools of varying temperature, outdoor pools and saunas, and you basically just walked from pool to pool starkers. There was no shame from anyone - no one trying to cover themselves or be inconspicuous when inspecting another person. It was downright weird. At times hard to really enjoy yourself. But I soldiered on and had a good time. The worst part though was anything that involded sitting on something - bench or chair - and realising what had been resting on it before hand and how many times that had occurred.


Downtown Daejeon


On the Friday I got myself to Jisan Valley Ski Reosrt for a 3 night music festival. The set up of the festival was really cool - literally in the Valley - so you had the mountains rising up all around you. At the bottom of the main runs, where the chairlifts and the ticketing and food buildings are, there was a massive, massive pool where you could hang out by all day. First time ive seen this at a concert and I must say it was one of the coolest things ive ever seen. The weather was so insanely hot, and the shower lines so increadibly hot, that sitting by the pool and cooling off was a gift from God. The stages were spread between the chairlift area and further up the valley and just provided such a unique and cool setting. The only problem was the festival orientation was narrow and long, not central and condensed, so we had to walk maybe 15 minutes from our camp to the stages, which doesnt seem like much but when you forget something, is a bloody long way to go for it. The organisation of the food, drinks and playing times was great, choice of music excellent, and the general set up and atmosphere really fun. No dickheads causing trouble or generally jacking off, everyone just having fun and enjoying themselves. I feel sorry though for anyone leaving on the Sunday night as the lineup for buses was probably 1,000 people long - and this was for pre-organised buses too! Lucky I had nowhere to be the next day so I could stay the night and leave the next morning. Walking up and down that line all I could hear from stressed and worried people on their phones was "I have summer camp at 9 in the morning!!". There was a problem with camping another night and that was actually camping. The weather never got below 25 even in the middle of the night, so that meant the tent never got below 45. I slept in my underpants with nothing on top of me (on the ground to by the way) and couldnt make it further than 8am on any morning, even though I would have slept for less than 4 hours. Basically, every moment of the festival was great, except for the times I was in the tent.




The Gift from God






Dance stage - notice the ski runs behind it

Camping; so bloody organised these Koreans!!


Main stage

Cant wait to head out again soon!!

Mudfest

Well ive had a couple of days to sober up, rest my vocal chords and reflect on one awesome bloody weekend. The weekend was "Mudfest", which is pretty much exactly as it sounds - ie, a Festival of Mud. It was held in Boryeong, about a 3.5 hour drive from Jinju on, which is on the coast. Location here;


View Larger Map

It is a holiday town situated on the beach and a whole bunch of activities and events are held along the beach and just off the sand. The beach ends up looking a little bit like Full Moon Festival in Thailand - a massive strip of sand covered in garbage, thousands of drunken lunatics and leading to an ocean that cannot possibly have clean water. I would have to guess that around 5 to 6 thousand people were in attendance; most being expat teachers, a few young families enjoying the beach (why oh why would you bring your children anywhere near this drunken and debaucherous mass of humanity), and quite a few US army guys. Theres no bigger meatheads on Earth than these dudes. Everyone will be having fun until these guys come within a 20 metre radius and immediately kill everyones buzz. Don't even think about talking to a girl if these guys can see you, their unnatural amounts of testosterone will have have a massive issue with it. In fact, don't even bother looking at them, because thats means you are challenging their alpha dog status and something will need to be done. Other than this unpleasentness it was an amazing weekend that went as follows;

- Met at 9 pm in Jinju to catch the bus in Monsoonal conditions. We didnt have to actually go to mudfest at this point because we were already at a mudfest. Absolutely soaked to the bone before I got on the bus. Things heated up rather quickly though as I was revealed we were on a "Noraebus" - literally "Singing Bus" - and after a few beverages to loosen everyone up, we had that thing rocking. I went 3rd with Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer". I sing, especially the verses, in a very very Aussie accent, which even I can hear through the speakers. So my first 30 seconds drew rapturous laughter from everyone as I was waiting for the chorus. Once I could breakout and actually sing things got better, and my dancing and acting provides a good distraction to my voice as well. Once I was done I got a few "Peter Garrett" jokes. Good stuff. After a few more songs me and the Aussie girl gave our rendition of "Land Down Under" which was accompanied by my faux flute playing (or whatever instrument is used in that song). After this I was established as the star of the Noraebus. At one of the many breaks we took on the way, someone foolishly suggested a foot race while we waited for everyone. Bad choice by them. Kicked their ARSE! The rest of the trip was punctuated by more singing, drinking and increased dancing in the aisles. There is no way in hell this would be allowed in Australia - it was loud, dangerous, drunken and crazy in that bus. Heck, in Australia you are supposed to weat seatbelts in the bus! By the time we had arrived I was already satisfied with my weekend, as I had just had the most enjoyable bus trip of my life, and I didnt think it could really get any better. The only downside about the bus ride was none of the stops along the way served alcohol. I actually think it would have been safer if the bus driver drove when pissed and on drugs then drive with us hooting and holering in the aisles.

-The flute section of "Land Down Under"

- And the crowd is loving it!!

- Once we got the Boryeong - at 1.00 - we dropped our stuff into our "Pension" - our hotel. We had about 40 people staying in 5 rooms. Floorspace only. Made for sore necks in the morning. Apparently 80 people have stayed in that pension before - they must have fit 20 in the bathrooms for that too work. After dropping our stuff off we went down to the beach. I wasnt prepared was swimming when everyone started running into the water, but I was drunk and wanted to swim, so off with the jean shorts and into the water in my undies it was. Believe me, after seeing what some people still wear to the beach these days, wearing underpants (and the long boxer brief style ones) was more then acceptable. I thought only 50 year old men wear budgie smugglers anymore. Obviously not. Anyway I frolicked around my undies for an hour on the beach at 2 in the morning. There will be no photos of this. Wait, why am I telling you this???

- The next day we went to the actual mudfest which was actually quite fun. It was basically a collection of "rides" or "games" that were played in/on blow up things. Like a jumping castle. But instead of a jumping castle there was the bungy - where you strapped yourself into your bungy across from someone, then you both ran to the centre until you bungy became too tight and flings you back to where u came - the climb - where you "rock climbed" (but not as steep) to the top of a mountain and then threw your self down the slide at the end - the race - which was an obstacle course where you raced 4 friends at a time - and the pits - where you basically just wrestled people in the mud. This was the tailor made for the army wanks to flex their muscles (literally), beat up on unsuspecting "weaklings" and show how much they love themselves. If you managed to be in there when they werent, it was actually alot of fun. There was also artistic mud which came in cool colours that would stick on you and you could make cool designs, a stage area where there was a bit of live music, and an impromptu mud fight. This was actually quite funny because this was not a designated area for mudfighting. It was supposed to be a "mud sculptor" area, but no one who went there could actually remember seeing any mud sculptures. This is because they were being used as shields and ammunition and no one had time to look around and admire them. There was two teams about 10/15 metres from each other just hurling balls of mud at each other. One team was using the sculptures as protection and the other was using cars as protection. This was definately not supposed to be happening. It was a fair way away from most of the action - near the car park in fact - and this is the reason why cars were being absolutely bombed. It would have sucked being the owner of one of the cars because they were completely brown by the time it was broken up. I dont know how long it lasted for but if was fun while it lasted and made better by the fact that it was completley organic. I think someone must have just shouted out "MUDFIGHT!!!!" and everyone followed through.

- Part of our crew; the flag is the Jinju flag

- Our impromptu "Soju Bucket". Yes, its a rice machine.

- I was completely worn out by about 5 or 6 in the arvo thanks to little sleep and a massive day so I passed out when i got back to the hotel. I was back up a few hours later and we enjoyed the night life, however by this point i was running on fumes and pretty happy with my weekend already. There was a concert held during the early part of the night which featured typical Korean entertainment - 60 year old guys singing karaoke style, teeny bopping young Korean girl singing, and a DJ. All in all, totally cheezey and hard to listen to or enjoy, but 100% authentic Korean. After this most went to a club but I decided I didnt want to be death stared by a bunch of army kooks and just drank on the beach. Ended up being an earlyish night.

- Received some sun on the last day as we sat on the beach waiting for our bus to leave. As it turns out, it was good that it wasnt sunny on the saturday otherwise id still be burnt. The clouds turned out to be a blessing. I mean, we were wet in mud all day, getting rained on isnt really an issue is it? I took my first photos of the weekend, the noraebus notwithstanding (where I took 200), but didnt really capture what mudfest was about. But I did get some damn fine shots of everyone singing. On the bus home there was more singing too top off probably the biggest weekend since ive been here.


Looking up and down the beach; doesnt really give a good idea how big the event was and how many people were there. It was sunday morning so im sure many were still sleeping. Most of the action was in the direction of the second photo, but it is just out of view.