Super Duper Multi Media Extravaganza!!

Its been 2 weeks since I had an update so ive got quite a bit of news to update you on.

- Firstly ill show you some pictures of the latest beach ive been too. This one is far closer to Jinju, only 40 mins away. Its called Samcheonpo. Not nearly as big as Busan, but a beach none-the-less, and with a sun that is more than strong enough to burn this fair skinned boy. Water here was actually really nice, unlike Busan which was frigid.


- Had the most uncomfortable situation this week where one of my female students allegedly said something bad about/to me. I had no idea what she said but her friends reaction suggested it wasnt very good. Next thing I know I can hear her getting caned and berated from the next room, and her classmates are in the hall looking back into the class in shock. She came into the teachers room to apologise to me, in absolute tears and under clear distress. She gets chewed out by the 4 teachers in the room while she stands there head bowed. Im sitting there wondering what the hell is going on and could i please leave the room. So uncomfortable. Then my English co-teacher who is the teacher all the kids fear walks in and finds out what happened. The situation then went from bad to worse. It felt like a was watching a movie where there was an English spy who had been caught by Asian police and he was getting harshly interogated. It was dead silence broken up by periods of yelling and screaming from the 2 male teachers. Even I was scared. I then heard my teacher open a desk draw and I had images running through my head of the Asian police searching through his desk for the instrument or tool that can inflict the most pain and torture. This was then followed by the most akward conversation where my co-teacher translated between the student and I saying she was sorry, what do you think of her?, what did she say?, do you feel anything about this student? and all I could say was "I accept her apology, I dont know what she said" which I did say about 8 times. Finally after about 25 minutes it was over. I dont think shes gonna say a bad word about anyone for the next 15 years. It was just so akward because I dont know what she said and she got the crap beaten out of her.

On the lighter side of school children canings I walked into the yard of my school on Friday via the High School yard (often the Middle and High schools are on the same property) and saw a student in the push up position but with his arse raised higher in the air then normal. He was at the entrance to the school - not out the back or to the side - you couldnt be in a more clear or obvious view. There was also a pretty solid line of students next to him and a teacher with a massive stick in his hands. Didnt take me long to figure out what was going on and sure enough the kid copped an absolute hiding on his arse from the teacher. The teacher wasnt holding back and it looked like he was wielding a baseball bat. I didnt want to be in that line. Such a good impression to be showing visitors to the school.

- I had the pleasure (no not really) of eating dog for the first time this week. Yes thats right dog (I had to ask my teacher 3 times as well, "So, D, O, G, DOG?"). Now my thoughts on it are I dont have a fundamental problem with eating dog - we eat other animals, and why should I feel any better or worse for eating this one - but I tend to think that if given the option of eating dog or, say, eating pork, why not just eat the pork?. I mean, eat dog if your desperate and have nothing else, but when chicken and beef are readily available and cheap, just go with them. We ended up having Dog Soup, and I have to say, it really wasnt very enjoyable. The meat was just meat, it had been cooked for so long that it tasted like any meat thats been cooked and tenderised for hours. Cant really give you a description of what it tasted like, other than there was tonnes of fat and it definately DIDNT taste like chicken. But as with many soups, the taste doesnt come from the meat but from the 82 ingredients in the soup, and it just wasnt a nice soup. Only one I havent really enjoyed over hear. I did enjoy having my principle and his assistant pour me Soju while at lunch though (Soju = Korean Sweet Potato Alcohol (Very similar to vodka) but half the alcohol content). The biggest problem with the meal though was this; you know how when you go to some seafood resturants they have fish tanks out the from to display the fish and lobsters, etc and you can choose which lobster you want to eat? Well at this resturant they took you out the back to a small kennel and you got to choose which dog you wanted to eat. Well, no, not really, that didnt happen. Sorry.

- Its election time in Jinju and I have a short video of what its like to see Koreans campaign. This doesnt truly capture what these people are like. Now this definately is no catchy slogan - ie "Kevin 07" - mixed with some talk about policy - this is a full fledged attack on the people of Jinju for their vote. For at least a month, nearly every single street corner has been taken over by volunteers for each candidate that dance the macerana, the hokey pokey, and the tutti frutti for HOURS on end. Nearly allways with loud techno music. The more subdued people wave, bow and shake their wobble boards, again, for hours on end. The acutal candidate will be out the front bowing and waving at absolutely every car that drives by. Not a car is spared. They literally bow 4,000 times an hour and wave every second that they arent bowing. Sometimes they stand in the back of a converted van and yell and scream whatever it is they are gonna do while there is chants and music going on in the background. Truly bizzare stuff. Not nearly as bizzare as the volunteers though, who I reckon are there all day long. The theory with campaigning must be "be as loud and obnoxious as possible" because there isnt anything subtle about it. It also always seems to be a competition and as soon as one group tries something different, the other group needs to move quickly to match. For example, if one street corner stated going with a "wave to the left, wave to the right, then go with a YMCA motion for 10 seconds" you can be sure the group on the next intersection will be doing the same thing within 5 minutes. In This video they are pretty subdued except for the candidate who is giving the "peace" sign and looks more than a little inebriated to me. Also notice the dude in the green shirt who is "co-ordinating" the kooks, er.... i mean volunteers with his whistle.


- Finally, here is a tasty little treat for you. We had a camera crew come out to one of the schools recently. They made a news report that i think was aimed at getting the school more funding or something like that. Its good to see what the teachers and students and the school looks like over here. Its also good to see a monotoned and clearly out-of-place Westerner speak for about 2 seconds right at the end. Hey, they wanted to leave the viewer with a good impression right?

What on Earth is that?? A beach?!?!?!

Yes seeing is believing........



This is Haeundae Beach in the City of Busan. Home of this guy................................


I took a trip to Busan for the weekend for my mate Troy's birthday. We arrived around lunchtime on Saturday and dropped into the Fuzzy Navel for some lunch after the 2.5hr trip from Jinju - Mexican food and a Margerhita. Off to a top start and then down to the sand for the afternoon. I have to say its a really nice beach. The water may be freezing and there may be no waves, but the location of the beach is spectacular and the sand is real. The skyscrapers hang over the beach, which Ive never seen before........................


After a solid afternoon of drinking our party of about 10 split up and got some food; I had Indian, which when combined with the Mexican food, means i ate more multicultural food in 3 hours than in the last 6 weeks. We met back in the hotel room and drank a bit more before going back to the Mexican place for another Mahgerhita. We were now officially ready, and perhaps some of us a little well-done, to go hit a club for the night. The club was quite good, not the typical shoebox back in jinju playing K-Pop if your lucky. It reminded me of going out back home. Had a great time - something strange happens to me when Im drunk and im in the presence of some massive bloody speakers. Needless to say the photos of me are horrendous.

The next morning was suprisingly less painful than I expected. All 10 of us were out of our 2 hotel rooms by 12 noon (yes we had 10 people in 2 rooms) and we headed back down to the beach, but not before another round of tacos, nachoes and enchiladas. In a strong showing of intellect i decided against another margareta (seriously how difficult is this word to spell), and instead chose a beer. We chilled on the beach for another few hours before heading back on the long trip home.

A fantastic weekend and fun was had by all. I cant really tell you much about the city itself; i was one of 4 places all weekend - the mexican place, the beach, the hotel and the club. My mates tell me its an awesome place to one day i need to actually check the place out.

Now, something that was not as nice as Busan was this............


This is a rice cake filled with assorted foods, or as I like to call it, a puke omelete. Ive stated previously how much I enjoy my Korean food and I try absolutely everything, but this is the first thing that I had to flat out reject. Rice cakes by themselves arent too bad; they have a really bland taste, but nothing terrible. This one however has peas, nuts, olives (i think) and about 10 things i dont want to know about. It tastes as good as it looks and your guess is as good as mine for whatever that yellow thing is (seafood of some description? banana?). Either way, I felt pretty terrible on the morning I recieved this and I certainly didnt feel any better after it. Im am just happy i could take my 2 bites in the semi privacy of my table and then wrap it back up again.

Im just about to head out for dinner with my co-teacher Mr. Lee. He told me in the car on the way back from school that "we Korean people like to drink when it rains". I thought it sounded perfectly reasonable. I mean who doesnt like to drink when it rains? or when its sunny? or when its wednesday? Even though it sounds like a flimsy attempt to justify drinking on a Tuesday, it does make sense. I mean you cant go outside, and whats the most fun that a group of (heterosexual) men can do inside?? Drinking of course!!! So tonight should be fun....

Also just want to quickly say to Lex that I cant wait for you to come over. Your gonna have a great time! Let me know if there is anything you read about that want to do in particular. So excited!!!

Happy Birthday Marni!!

Hey there, this post only has 1 purpose - to wish my big sister Marni a Happy Birthday. Im sure you have had many memorable birthdays Marni, with many cool and exciting presents, and in some pretty special places, but im pretty sure this is the first birthday where someone has personally wished you happy birthday on their blog. Truly a SPECIAL moment (Copyright: Bruce McAveny).



I hope you have an awesome day Nardia.... erghhhh.... I mean Marni. Youve always been someone ive looked up to for many reasons and you continue to inspire me. Your a great sister and person.

I hope the Knights can win one for ya this week!!!!!!!

Miss ya heaps and Love you lots,

Jake

Just a quick update this week with a few observations;

- If you cannot handle listening to someone hack up pleghm, snort up whatever is in their sinus, or generally make disgusting nasal and throat sounds, DO NOT LIVE IN KOREA. It is not considered foul, rude or abnormal to make whatever hacking sounds you want, no matter who, or how many people, are in your vicinity. No situation, no matter how formal, informal, appropriate or inappropriate is spared. Apparently people are alergic to tissues over here. You may wonder how people dispose of whatever they are hacking up (c'mon, i KNOW you are), well the answer is (at least if they are on the street) they just spit it out. Walking down any street you can look at the ground and see people where people have left their marks. Its absolutely everywhere. After you get over the initial disgust, you become so accustomed to seeing it, and so adept at reading it, that you can actually tell what illnesses people have. Good times.

- Something that would never fly back home that occurs over here is physical student punishment. When I first started, I noticed one of my co-teachers carrying a large, thick stick, wherever he went. It was about 30 cm long, hollow, and similar dimensions to a batton you would carry in a relay race, but tapered along it, similar to a length of bamboo. It also had a large split in it. I was going to ask him jokingly what that was and do you use it on naughty kids. I never did ask him it, mainly because i wouldnt know how my reaction be if he said yes (do I laugh outrageously like im a child whacker from way back, or do i go all quiet and serious and he becomes confused why i wouldnt be into hitting kids). Turns out that this thing is in fact for hitting misbehaving kids. Well not just misbehaving, but under performing. About 8 1st graders (year 7) got publicly flogged (well in front of class and on the top of their hands) 3 times for recieving poor scores in an English test. Again, I didnt know how to react. Many of the kids watching were smiling as discreetly as they could and making comments to the flogged students but i just didnt want to show any emotion either way because i dont know what i should show my stance to be. Ive also seen my female co-teacher backhand a few students on their shoulders/arms for misbehaving and a random male teacher one handed push a few students semi gently (including female) or sort of half headlock them. Its quite bizzare to see happen. Honestly the kids dont seem to care, and in fact the ones getting flogged in front of class tried to show as much as possible that what was happening wasnt effecting them. Id probably do the same thing if a d-bag teacher was trying to embarrass or humiliate me. And i think that the main point in the end; the pain isnt so bad, its more to do with shaming and humiliating, which is a big deal over here.

Everything is going great guns over here. Work continues to be easy and fun. Meeting lots of good people from all over the world. Making and saving money. Hardest thing I do is try and learn the language. Im learning words at a rate of about 1 per day so by the end of the year I should be able to introduce my self and ask for some chocolate ice cream at baskin and robbins.

I will leave you with a few pictures of town from a mountain that overlooks the place as well as a temple that is on the way up....



The "Nazi" symbol is the symbol for temple and is actually backwards - pointing the other way



This is looking East towards my suburb, chil-am-dong. My appartment would be in pretty much the dead centre of this photo. Also, calling suburbs "dongs" lends itself to humour of the highest order. For example, I have a friend who lives in have-abig-dong, and the university is located in gotta-clever-dong.


This is taken far higher up than the last photo and is looking west, towards the lake from previous posts. The River is called the Nam. The suburb is pyoeng-a-dong, which im certain is a term used in rap songs... for example, "Shake your pyoeng-a-dong girllllllllll"


This one looks North. Downtown is obscured but is to the right of the picture

Things ive eaten more of in the past 25 days........

Than I have in my entire life:

- Cabbage; The main vegetable kimchi is made from - which is Korea's national dish and served at every meal. Its fermented most commonly with red peppers and is slightly spicy. Doesnt sound very appetising, and isnt somthing you'd ever considering eating back home, but is strangely enjoyable and addicting.


- Raddish; The next most common form of kimchi. Can be up to 3 raddish side dishes on a table. Some with seemingly no flavouring at all, but ive definately taken a liking to it


Tofu; Oh yes, everyones favourite. Nearly always served in a soup which means its just one of 10-15 ingredients so every tofu experience has been really awesome. Even though they put in chunks the size of golf balls, I havent had any bad tofu.

Mugwort; Sounds like a weed you would see on the side of the road, and im sure it is in some countries. Used to make rice cakes - most rost cakes are made of just rice and are white - but mugwort rice cakes are made entirely out of this herb and have the colour of the little girls vomit in the exorsist. Rice cakes are exceedingly bland for an alleged "sweet" in Korea, so you could probably imagine that a rice cake made entirely out of a plant wouldnt be much better.



Seaweed; A favourite in soups and as a side dish in the form of large flakes. Can be enjoyable in soups if its not overbearing, but when it is, as I have stated previously, im not that great of a fan. On the positives, im getting more iodine than ever before.

Lotus fruit; A funky and interesting looking little side dish. Not really fruity tasting but sorta sweet and quite tasty.


Every mushroom thats not button; Mushrooms are a big part of many dishes and ive seen at least 10 varieties that I didnt even know existed. Never been a huge mushy guy, but ive turned around slightly on them. As long as they are cooked ill have a go.


I must stress that these are only things I have identified. Side dishes are regularly impossible to decipher. Some things look like the stems of thistles, wet roots and shoots and some things are deep fried and seem full of tiny bones. You often have no idea what youve been eating. I have a rule of trying everything thats laid out in front of me and luckily I havent spat anything out yet.

With that said, ive thoroughly enjoyed the food over here, overall so healthy and tasty and im sure there are many more suprises to come.

Jirisan

Had a field trip today to Mount Jiri, or Jirisan (san=mountain) in Korean. Its the largest mountain on the mainland but not all that high - 1,900 metres or so - considering the entire country is just mountains. I guess we can downgrade them to hills. This school only goes on 2 field trips a year and I only go to the school 2 days a week so the odds of me getting to go on it were pretty slim, so I was pretty lucky. Even luckier considering its a place I wanted to go to anyway, so it was a pretty sweet deal for me all around.

Only thing that wasnt on my side was the weather. It never actually rained, but it was foggy non stop and could barely see anything at all. Bit of a bummer, but it cleared up a bit towards the end. It also kept things a bit cool, which is a good thing when your hiking up a mountain.

Speaking of that, lucky it was bad weather because the original plan for the day involved some fairly serious hiking - up to 10 km's or so. We ended doing about 45 minutes and I thought after the end of it, about three quaters of the kids were going to pass out.

One of the best parts of the day was the lunch, even better because I had my camera. Check it out. Unbelieveable. First thing that comes to mind is I wouldnt want to be the dishwasher. Theres about 50 bowls and plates on the table. In these bowls are side dishes (veges), 2 massive chickens (that you have to pick meat from with chopsticks. Its so friggen hard. Its like eating ice cream with a knife or soup with a fork. My chopstick skills have improved, but not that much), an omlete type thing full of veges, bowls with hot water for soup (which you put rice, veges and chicken in), and condiments. As always, really good. Its quite a spectacle, and is enhanced when you have the attractive lady across from you pick up the bowl and drink directly from it, or the guy sitting next to you pick the entire chicken apart and leave a pile of bones the size of a football.



Theres not many great photos from the day because it was so foggy, but ive got a few below. One is out the front of a temple and the other is looking down the valley. Notice the cherry blossoms - the bright white flowers - they are out at this time of the year and are the famous flower of the country. They dont stay out very long and dot the landscape with a cool white haze.

Some things never change

While there are many unique and different aspects of Korea, it doesnt matter if your in Port Macquarie, Australia, or Jinju, South Korea, some things just remain the same. For example;

- If you consume too much alcohol, you get a stinging hangover the next morning. Was hoping there would be some special rule or God/Deity in Korea that prevented this. I cant tell if its the ingredients they put in the terrible, terrible beer over here, or if its the amount of beer drunk, but either way, the effect is still the same. Truth be told its probably a bit of both. Was supposed to play soccer with a few Irish and Poms I met the night before but had to write off the entire day, and its not like it was an early start either.

- The irish accent is still one of the hardest the understand in the English language. I honestly dont know how the little Korean kids understand a single word these guys say. I can barely understand their names.

- Karaoke is the worst form of entertainment and its lead is rapidly growing. At least in Australia you might go a few months or years without hearing other people butcher usually crappy songs, over here, its the no.1 night time activity. I was hoping it would be confined to the Koreans but no, the expats have embraced it openly, bare-shirted and all. I may need to take earmuffs to all future nights out or ill return to Australia with a permanent musical imbalance.

- Boats that are powered by foot pedals remain the undisputed slowest form of transportation on Earth. These things are measured in millimetres per second at best. There was a big bunch of expats in town in the arvo looking for something to do and regrettably we hired a bunch of these pedals boats shaped like ducks or dragons. Thats 90 minutes of my life ill never get back. During that time, I reckon we covered about 200 metres and I was gunning it the whole time. It wasnt even fun hitting other boats they were so slow.

- Views are still bloody awesome. Especially when you bust your gut getting to it. I rode a bike most of the way up the hill that overlooks Jinyangho lake, west of Jinju. I cant remember my body hurting so much. I mercifully ditched the bike when I got to the place where people park there cars and walk up. I wasnt even sure id be able to even walk the remaining few hundred metres but I manned up and got her done. It was a stunning day and the view over the lake was pretty nice. Reminded me of Canada. While I was up on the observation platform, my heart palipitations decreased and I was able to get back down on my bike and not in the back of an ambo.




- If you brew your own alcohol at your home, its probably going to be shit. Found this out when I had dinner at one of my co-teachers' house. She makes her own alcohol out of "mountain berries" which are dark and look like mulberries. It tasted like port I guess, I havent drunk much in my day but it definately wasnt wine. It was pretty darn bad and didnt seem too alcoholic which seemed like a bit of a waste (if your gonna torture yourself at least make it worth it!). She says shes going to bring some with her on the school field trip this Wednesday. I asked if its ok to do that and she said, "We dont give it too the children". I wasnt really asking about the children, Ms Nam.

So yes we have a school field trip on Wednesday and im actually really excited for it (provided its good weather). We are going to Jirisan National Park which is very close. Mt Jiri is the largest mountain on the mainland and we will be going hiking. Hiking is taken pretty seriously over here, but im interested to see how the kids go because they do NO physical activity at all. At school/acadamy all day, less then 20 minutes for lunch (after eating in the cafeteria) and school all weekend. I dont know how any athletes come out of this country, they spend their whole life in front of a blackboard. So, ill be doing that on wednesday, but the forcast in Jinju calls for cold and rainy and in the mountains its usually cold and rainy anyway, so might not be such a great day. Hopefully ill have some photos for you and a positive report on Wednesday.