In South Korea, I’m Kind of a Big Deal

So, right after I wrote the last post, I dropped my computer at home, got my camera and headed out to the soccer game. I got there just about an hour before kick-off, so I had plenty of time to walk around and explore.

Approaching the stadium from the road behind it.

How pretty. Just call me Diane Arbus. If you know who that is, ten cool points.

Same fountain area. No, those aren’t real birds. When you’re going to a sporting event in America, you don’t really expect to see any beautiful scenery, but it’s normal here, I guess.

I really like the tree in the background. Very Tim Burton-esque.

The complex from the road out front. In a country as small as this one, I think having a vast open area of nothing is just kind of a big pissing contest. “SEE? We’ve got so much money we just don’t give A FUCK!”

A proper shot of the stadium from the front.

Taken from the top of the stadium. The thing is a giant complex with lots of tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, basketball courts, volleyball courts, etc… This is just a small portion. It seemed like a pretty happening place to be for the physically active minded Koreans on a Saturday evening.

Here’s the stadium. Capacity is only 30,000. So about 30% of what Ohio Stadium can hold. Tiny in comparison. Also, soccer fields look a lot bigger on TV.

The flag in the foreground is the official National League flag for the soccer league. Now, when we hear “national league” we assume it’s professional, but these guys are more like the Columbus Clippers of South Korean soccer. In the background, I’m not sure of the left flag, but the middle flag is South Korea’s flag and then Cheonan’s flag.

Kind of an Olympic torch thing at the north end of the stadium.

Pretty lame scoreboard. Just about 40 minutes before kick-off.

West side of the stadium. Absolutely no one is here yet.

The valiant Cheonan City FC warming up.

The dirty, mildly retarded Incheon Korail. They’re actually sponsored and mascoted by a train. Even their uniform colors match the trains. How lame.

Pic from my seat. Exact middle of the field, second deck. Not bad for a free ticket. Technically, I didn’t even get a ticket. Just walked in. By the time the game started, there were a couple hundred people there. Not a super rowdy environment, but about what I expected. BBQ. Even the pro league soccer stadiums don’t fill up. Here baseball is the crazy passionate sport.

Mr. Moon came out early. I’ve never understood why you sometimes see the moon during the day, and being an English major, I probably never will.

The Cheonan City FC flag.

XFD THEIR MASCOT IS A FAGGOTY TRAIN, WHAT A BUNCH OF HOMERSEXUALS

Here’s the scoreboard during pre-game intros. This is Cheonan’s “playing coach”. I have no idea if that means the coach or some kind of physical trainer or what.

This is the die hard Cheonan City FC cheering section at the north end of the stadium. After each Cheonan player/coach was announced they’d scream their name and beat on their drums. I’m thinking of sitting there next time.

Pre-game ceremonies. The guys in maroon, yellow and gray unis are the Cheonan City FC. All white unis are the anencephallic (look it up) Incheon Korail. The kids are just random kids in taekwondo unis. At least some were from Incheon.

The cheering section at its largest. I never saw them actually throw the toilet paper. I spent more time watching the game than them though. Unfortunately, taking this picture I missed kick-off.

Disaster strikes four minutes in. A sloppy pass back to the keeper leads to an Incheon goal.

Half an hour later, an Incheon striker streaked up the sideline, got past the defense and blooped one right over the keeper’s head when he came out of the box. Down 0-2 at half, it’s looking bleak for the fighting Cheonan City FC.

At halftime I bought this candy bar. I’ve seen it everywhere, so I gave it a try. Nothing special, but for a dollar it’s about what you’d expect. BBQ. Also, shortly after this picture was taken something really amusing happened. I was totally zoned out, not listening or thinking much, but I was sitting right in front of the announcer’s table. He was talking in Korean and I didn’t understand any of it, so I was just staring off into space. Then I suddenly realized “Hey… He’s speaking English right now.” I missed the first part of what he said, but here’s the rest: We’re honored to have them at our game tonight. Please welcome and support them with thunderous clapping of hands.

I figured perhaps a local celebrity was in attendance, but then I realized that everyone was looking  at me. They were honored to have foreigners at the game. I wasn’t the only white person there, I saw maybe five or six others, but they were down in the lower bowl, so I was the only real visible one. I got a kick out of it. It wasn’t what I’d call thunderous applause, but it was polite. In South Korea, I’m kind of a big deal.

Just four minutes into the second half, Cheonan City FC scores on a PK. A breath of life came back into the crowd as the comeback started.

Success! Half an hour later, following some inspired footwork and a perfect cross, the goalie prevented one shot, but we got the rebound and fired and absolute laser into the net.

The last fifteen minutes of the game were really intense, and we controlled possession almost the entire time, but failed to score again. We had three or four really good opportunities in extra time, though. In soccer, extra time is generally awarded. Partially to make up for any lost time due to people constantly “getting hurt”, but also, for another reason. Particularly in a close game, they don’t want to prevent a legitimate scoring opportunity because of an arbitrary time limit, so they play on a couple minutes to see if someone can end it.

I think a lot of the reason people in America don’t have the same appreciation for soccer is because of the often frequency of ties. I think Americans need there to be a winner and a loser in sport. In major American sports, ties are either impossible or laughably rare (I’m looking at you Bengals and Steelers). Still, a tie can be a great thing. It’s still one point, and it’s all about the tone. Being down 0-2 in the first half, escaping with one point is a great accomplishment.

After the game, I ran to try and catch a bus stopped at a light. Whether or not he would’ve let me on is up for debate, but it’s academic at this point. Just as I got to the bus, I reached forward to wave and try to get the driver’s attention. This happened just as the bus started driving away, and I simultaneously misjudged the curb and stepped off into nothingness. I biffed it real fucking hard. And right in front of some Korean on foot and a bus full of them on a busy ass street.

The damage:

I ended up just walking home, since it was only three bus stops. No reason to waste money and time waiting around. Got some bibimbap at a different Kim Bap shop, since mine closes early on weekends. Walked to school hoping to find some soccer going on, but it was deserted, so I found a ball and just kicked it around until 11 PM when the night watchmen that lives in the school shooed me away because the place was closed.

I went home and started flipping through channels, and there was an old American movie playing. I didn’t recognize it immediately, and it was in black and white, but it was in English with Korean sub-titles, so I watched it. Then I realized “Holy shit, this is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!” It aired completely without commercials, too. The only weird thing was that they blurred the knife. I guess they can’t show violence on TV. I’d somehow escaped all my English and film classes without ever seeing Psycho, so I was really happy. Like I said before, South Korea is a country of surprises.

When the movie ended at 1 AM, they advertised the showing of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times which will air next Saturday at 11 PM. I guess it’s a weekly thing. Makes sense since it’s the educational channel. The national anthem played (shit was like five minutes long) and it was paired with super patriotic South Korea FUCK YEAH footage. Then the station turned off. I’d literally never seen a TV station turn off before. Other stations were on, but I ended up going to a PC Bang for like an hour to see what was going on in the rest of the world. I watched a lot of K-pop music videos. Mostly to avoid listening to the female vocalist’s cover of “Don’t Stop Believing” that was on repeat the entire goddamn hour and a half I was there.

Sunday is going to be a laundry and shopping day. About to go home now and start laundry, then check the athletic shoe store close to me to see if they have anything in my size I can use for hiking and soccer. Then I have to go to E-mart. At the very least I should get an iron and a new belt. Possibly a new tie.

Colin Love Korea (He Don’t Love America)

Today’s blog title comes straight from the creative mind of Arianna.

Monday before her class (C2 – the best of the third and fourth graders), I was letting the kids draw on the board and mess around for a couple minutes. Sometimes they write things in Korean for me to read or try their hand at writing some English that doesn’t have to do directly with whichever story they’re on at the moment. Monday a couple of the girls wrote “Colin <3” and would put various nouns after, then look at me, for my agreement that I did in fact ❤ whatever they wrote. They wrote “Colin ❤ Korea” to which I said yes. Then under Korea they put America in parentheses, and they made me choose which I loved more. Ever sensitive to knowing what people want me to say, I said Korea, much to the glee of the girls. I told everyone to sit down, but Arianna stayed and kept writing, and ended up with “Colin love Korea (he don’t love America).” I got such a kick out of it I didn’t even bother correcting the English. I even took a picture on my phone. I wanted to post it, but I found out I need a special cable for my phone, and I then have to install a program. That shit will probably not happen. At least, not soon.

Monday after work I went straight to the language group. There were actually a lot more Koreans than foreigners this time, so two sisters helped me learn Korean. They didn’t have a whole lot of questions about English, so for the English part we mostly just chatted. Afterward, we got dinner together. Ended up having the same soup that I had for my very first meal in Korea. I learned the name of the soup, which is gamjatang. There’s even a small Wikipedia article about it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamjatang). I ate until I was stuffed. I wanted to stop, but the girls kept pushing food on me. They said that since I’m only 22 I’m still growing so I need to eat. In Korea, apparently a person isn’t done growing until they’re 25 years old.

It was raining that night, which was a source of amusement to me. Koreans don’t particularly like the rain. When it rains, like 90% of Koreans have umbrellas. The girls asked me if I had one, and I had to explain that in America men typically don’t use umbrellas. When they asked why, I just said “Because it’s gay.” We had discussed “gay” earlier in the night, so it was just a funny reference. I also told them about all the gay stuff that Korean guys do that Americans never would. They said there’s a lot of stuff that makes you gay in America. Indeed, there is.

Tuesday I went back to Osang for the day after my first class. It was considerably less fun than my first day. A lot of the kids were being real snots, but I didn’t really feel like disciplining them because I probably won’t ever see them again, so I don’t care about laying down the law.

Today was a fairly good day. My very first class of the day has been giving me a lot of trouble recently. I think they put all the trouble-making boys in one class for me. There’s only one boy who I don’t have to yell at to stop running around, fighting, or pay attention/do his work every two minutes. What pisses me off the most is when they lie. I figured it out Monday. Most of the boys claimed not to have their books to avoid doing work. Later in the class:

Boy: May I go to the bathroom?
Me: No. You didn’t bring your book today.
Boy: Oh, I have it!

He then pulled it out of his bookbag, probably forgetting he’d lied about not having it earlier. It really pissed me off. I went around opening all the boys’ bags and there was only one that actually didn’t have his book with him. Ugh. Even still, I can tell them exactly what I want them to do, and I know they understand, but they just literally refuse to write down their work in their books.

Today I put a stop to that shit. First of all, I gave them assigned seats, which alternated boy and girl. Secondly, I brought the little wooden stick that Mr. Lee gave me to beat children with me for the first time. Mostly just for shock value. I’d stand around swinging it fast enough so that you could hear it cut the air. I actually heard one boy say “Oh my God.” They were much better behaved today.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. My last class of the day is full of crybabies. I noticed some candy wrappers on the floor, so I told them to pick it up. They said it wasn’t theirs, and I responded “I don’t care.” When they refused, I said that they couldn’t leave until they cleaned up the room. This made a huge ruckus. Apparently two boys were already set to stay after class and clean because they were late and didn’t bring their books. The rest of the class felt slighted because they shouldn’t have to clean when two others were being punished by having to do it. One boy was actually close to frustrated tears. Eventually they reluctantly cleaned up, but none of them even said goodbye when they left. I think I pissed them off. =3

The best part about today, though, is that I got paid. I went to the bank with Jieun after work and she helped me check my balance to make sure I got paid. Unfortunately, there’s no English option for my bank’s ATMs. Guess I’ve got some learning to do. Also, couldn’t print out a receipt, but rest assured. I get paid in stacks. I don’t care what the exchange rate is. Checking your bank account and seeing $2,000,000+ is a pretty damn sweet feeling. I’ve already got some plans for the paycheck.

• New shoes: I need at least one pair of shoes for hiking/soccer, so I don’t completely destroy my Chucks, which are still usable for simple every day activities. Possibly a new nice pair of shoes, since my work shoes are getting beat up. Not for work, but other occasions on which I want to look particularly fly.
• New clothes: If I can find any that fit, that is. I would like at least one more pair of pants, a couple shirts and a couple ties. I’m sick of wearing the same two pants and five or six shirts to work every day.
• A haircut: It’d be a good excuse to learn a couple new vocabulary words. Plus, whenever my kids draw a picture of me, they give me a Jewfro. It’s not even that long yet. How do they know?
• New glasses: There are shops everywhere for glasses, and I’m told they crazy cheap to buy. Possibly as low as $20, but probably a little more than that. I might need a Korean to help me with that, particularly the exam part.
• A bike: There’s a small bike shop near my house, so hopefully I can get a bike cheap there. It’d extend my mobility and reduce my dependence on the bus. I’d still take it in bad weather and such, but it’d be a good excuse for even more exercise.
• Go to a soccer game: The next scheduled home game for Cheonan City FC is April 24th at 7 PM. Sounds like a fantastic way to spend a Saturday night. Plus, the stadium is only about a five minute bus ride away. They’ll be playing Incheon Korail. CCFC is in the National League, which is the second highest soccer league in Korea. The first being the K League.
• A scooter: This is a really long-term goal. Scooters are really common in Korea. Particularly for delivery of food. I’ve seen lots of different people on scooters though. Some are mailmen, some are delivery guys, I even saw one guy in a full business suit with sandals and no socks on driving a moped a couple days ago. The look is particularly amusing when I see them puffing away on a cigarette jutting out of the side of their mouth while they weave through traffic. It looks exciting as hell. Also fairly dangerous. This blog (http://dagseoul.blogspot.com/2010/04/scooters-riding-in-seoul.html)  just had a post all about driving scooters in Seoul. It won’t be quite as hectic in Cheonan, but pretty much everything still holds true. Taxi and bus drivers are maniacs.

I’ve got a gigantic weekend planned. It’s even further stimulated by my payday. Even with my monthly expenses in Korea and the States, I have way too much money. It’s great not to have to worry about money. It makes life about a million percent easier. Friday will be my first chance to really cut loose and celebrate without worrying about my money lasting. I’ll probably be a wreck.

Saturday I’m heading to a district in Seoul called Yeouido. It’s the last weekend for the famous Cherry Blossom Festival they hold there every year. I think the fireworks are canceled because of the Cheonan disaster (I guess it’s in bad taste to celebrate so freely after 45 South Korean sailors have recently died), but it will still be beautiful. At night they light up the trees and I hear it’s really great. I’ll be going with Lawrence and meeting Sid and some other people, Korean and foreign, that I’ve never met before, so it’ll be good. Saturday night I’ll probably be clubbing in Seoul. But this time with money. I’ll actually be able to enjoy myself without worrying about other people spending money on me.

Sunday I have no idea what other people are doing, but I plan on trying to make it to a place called Insadong in Seoul. It’s a very historic part of Seoul. It’s got tons of antique shops, 90% of the country’s traditional stationary stores with calligraphy demonstrations every day, lots of art museums (including the Asia Eros Museum – South Korea’s first museum dedicated to sex), traditional Buddhist temples, and palaces built during a dynasty that started back in the 14th century. Jieun recommended it to me, and it does sound pretty cool. I’m kind of in the mood to be tourist-y. Plus I don’t have anything that needs doing here in Cheonan, and coupled with my pay day, there’s not any reason for me not to stay in Seoul longer and learn some shit.

Right now I’m just wasting time in the DnD. I’ll probably go home and make dinner soon. Either ramyeong – instant noodles, like Ramen but 100% better – and eating it out of the pot I boil it in, or frozen dumplings with rice and kim – or seaweed. I like Korean seaweed better than Japanese seaweed. It goes great with rice. It’ll be good practice to put the seaweed on top of the rice and try to pick up rice in the seaweed with my chopsticks.

I just had a good little conversation with the DnD shop owner’s daughter. Her English name is Julia. She’s in the fourth grade in Buldang. She’s not in any of my classes, but she knows me from DnD and seeing me at school once or twice. She’s a really great kid. I wish she was one of my students. She’s very excitable, but not in an annoying hyper way. Just a really good energy. Her English isn’t great, but oh she tries so very hard.

Also, news travels fast around Buldang. For instance, students who aren’t in my class know my name. A lot of time I’ll hear a kid scream “COLIN TEACHER!” (the teacher title, sansaengnim, comes after a person’s name) and I have no idea who they are. I’m assuming my students talk about me in their classes at least some small bit. About two weeks ago, I was walking home after work, and I was in a particularly good mood. One of my students was milling around the little shop that sells school supplies, small toys, and fried snack food aimed at kids. He saw me and came over and said “obaek won juseyo!” – “Please give me 500 won,” and I obliged. Now almost every time a student sees me, regardless of whether they’re in one of my classes or not, they ask me for money. Haha.

Anyway, this is getting super long and I’m getting hungry as hell. Besides, I need to go home and wait for Mr. Lee to call because he needs to pick up a textbook that he had me revise. I probably won’t have the time to write another blog until at least Sunday night, but I should have lots of pictures, so stay tuned.

I’ve Grown Sick and Tired of Standing Still, I’ve Learned to Let the Wind Pull Me Where it Will

You can thank Dustin Kensrue for today’s blog title.

Last night after my blog post I went home to start my laundry for the week. Washing machines here take forever. I remember at home it was only 20-30 minutes for a regular wash, but here it takes an hour. That gave me time to eat at a Kimbap restaurant before the wash was done. I was hoping that if I pulled the clothes out as soon as it was done they’d be at least a little less wrinkly when they dried. I think it worked moderately well, but it’s still not ideal. Anyway, at the Kimbap place there’s a TV and on weekends one of the stations plays a “baseball” game. I say “baseball” because, even as someone who doesn’t particularly care for baseball, the game is an affront to what any person would call a respectable baseball game.

First of all, they don’t show the whole game. It’s much more sped up. Not quite highlights, but less wasted time in between pitches and outs and such. It’s also made a lot more interesting with the sound effects, replays, humorous things, etc… Secondly, this is by far the worst baseball team I’ve ever seen play. I honestly didn’t think a baseball team this bad could exist outside of Disney movies before Charlie Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, or a Golden Retriever joined the team and improved the team’s character and skill through a super upbeat montage.

If an MLB player will fuck up a play 1 in 1000 tries, these guys probably fuck it up once every three tries. No lie. Simple pop flies are dropped constantly. People run into each other. Throws to first base are passed balls and the runner keeps on going. It’s tragic how bad this team is. The fewest runs I’ve seen them allow in one inning is four. Yesterday’s game ended 25-13 in the fifth after the ten run mercy rule. They actually scored nine runs in the bottom of the fifth to come within just a couple runs of extending their embarrassment, and they seemed genuinely bummed that they had to quit playing. Their attitude about losing so badly, and my own reluctance to think that even amateur players would be so bad makes me believe it’s probably just a game for fun between celebrities or something, but I have no idea.

After that I went home and hung my clothes to dry. I watched some TV. I was bored as hell and considering just going to bed, but I realized it was only 8:30 PM. Here all the digital clocks use military time. I’m generally pretty good about it, but if I’m not paying attention I might mistake 20:30 for 10:30 PM and not 8:30 PM. I felt it impossible to sleep at that point. I was actually kind of bummed. Maybe not really homesick, but certainly restless. I’m not used to not having things to do on a Saturday night. Even if it’s not a big thing, I’m at least used to being able to call some people up and hang out. Not having that is starting to get real old. I have numbers in my phone to call now, but it’s not the same. It’s just Lawrence and Korean teachers. Lawrence usually goes to Incheon on the weekend to visit friends of his family, and while the Korean teachers are always friendly with me, I’d still feel awkward calling them to hang out. I’m sure they’ve got better things to do on a Saturday night than babysit me. So times like that I just walk around, but I can only walk so far and long before I’ve seen what there is to see and it gets boring and even more depressing. While I usually tend to avoid other foreigners, I began rethinking this, mainly just so I could have someone to hang out with on Saturday night.

So I walked for maybe an hour and a half, never getting more than 15 minutes away from home, walking in a big circle pretty much. I almost went into one of the “Western” bars I walked by. I could see white people inside, and I could tell they were looking at me, but I decided against it. I decided to start heading home, but stopped by the school on a whim. I mostly just wanted to sit and listen to the rest of the album (Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited) before I went to sleep. There was a family of five playing on the soccer field at school and I spent maybe 20 minutes just watching them play soccer while I sat on top of the jungle gym.

Three minutes before “Desolation Row” ended, the mom came over and asked if I wanted to play soccer with them, so I said sure. So for probably an hour or so I played soccer with this family. I was on the team with the two oldest sons, while the other team was the parents and the youngest son. We talked a bit in broken Korean and English. It was good for me to practice my Korean without a script. Most of the time when I go to the language group I’ve got a list of things I’ve already planned and practiced saying, but with them I just had to understand and respond as best as I could. I told them I was a teacher at the school, I’d been in Korea a month, that I’d been to Taejosan earlier in the day, how old I was, etc…

I think the final score was something like 10-8 for my team. We played a little more after that, but it was a lot less active and we didn’t bother counting anymore. They complimented me on my soccer skills. I was actually pretty impressed myself. The last time I remember playing soccer was probably sixth grade. I was expecting to be a lot clumsier than I was. I scored maybe four of five of the goals and had some decent moves I think. The very first shot I took was an absolute laser that blasted the dad right in the chest. As soon as it left my foot I started apologizing, mostly because it looked like it was heading for his face, but he chested it down. Once we were all too tired to play anymore they asked if I wanted ice cream. They also tried to get me to eat chicken with them, but I said I was too full from dinner for chicken, but that I would have ice cream with them.

We went to a little shop nearby and they bought me an ice cream cone and a Coke. We sat on the curb and ate ice cream and talked a little. They showed me which building they lived in and said that I should come by some time to visit them, which I said I would. Right before they left they made the kids introduce themselves and say goodbye in English. The youngest is a first grader in Buldang, and the middle son is in sixth grade there. The oldest was maybe eight or ninth grade, I’m not sure. I didn’t give them my phone number, mostly because I’m still getting used to having a phone. Sometimes I forget I have one. If I see one of the kids at school I’ll write it down for them so their parents can call if they really do want to have me over. I’d feel weird just dropping by.

All in all it turned out to be a pretty good night. I started off a little bummed, but in the end I had a lot of fun. Like the title says, being in Korea it’s never a good idea to just sit inside and watch TV. There’s always something to do and you never know what may happen, so even just taking a walk can lead to something really nice, like a kind family inviting you to play soccer and giving you ice cream.

Afterward, I was exhausted. I wasn’t in the mood for the third shower of the day, so I just went to bed sweaty. I think I was too tired to sleep even, because it took awhile to finally slip under. I just laid there being sore as hell. Particularly my right calf. Coming down the mountain I slipped (note to self: Chucks are not suitable hiking shoes) and my calf came down right on a rock sticking out of the ground. I don’t see it yet, but I can feel a massive bruise on the muscle.

This morning I went to Yawoori for the regularly weekend language group, but it ended up being five foreigners and no Koreans. It turned mostly into chatting about Korean stuff, and only a little Korean learning happened, but I still managed my goal. I can finally say “I can/can’t [verb].” I can also ask permission to do something, but in kind of an awkward because the guy teaching me didn’t really know it either. I can ask “May I go now?” but literally translated it comes out “Now go thing okay?” I feel like there has to be a better way to say that. Maybe I’ll learn it tomorrow.

After everyone decided to leave I took a guy named Julius to a Kimbap place to eat. He’s only here for a month for business, but I guess he expects to come back again and again, so he’s learning what he can while he’s here another 20 days. He paid for lunch, since I was giving him Korean pointers about numbers and food, so he’s okay by me. He’s actually fluent in Chinese, as well. He took Chinese in high school and lived in Taiwan for four years. First illegally as an engineer, and then legally at a bike shop.

The rest of the day I don’t have plans. Maybe I’ll walk around again once I drop my stuff at home. I do need to buy more chocolate candy since I ran out and I promised the kids I’d get more for Monday. The weather is getting really nice now. I’m starting to see guys in shorts and t-shirts. Girls are awful gauges of temperature here because even when it was below freezing they’d be wearing short skirts and leggings. I guess that’s normal year round attire for women here.