Saturday, April 26, 2008

Buddha's Birthday

Sometimes I walk outside and it's like-- "smack" you're in Korea. Insulated in my little apartment I could be anywhere, but there's no question when I'm outside! I live in an older part of town so there are traditional style buildings on all of the streets. There is a traditional pharmacy near my house with all of the bizarre smells that it produces, and there is a woman selling whole fish on the street. Today, a drum team is practicing nearby for Buddha's birthday celebrations. It sounds really cool.

Lanterns are already up all over town-- I love it! You might remember that last year I participated in the Lantern Festival for Buddha's birthday. This year I'm just going to watch the parade. Allister will visit next weekend, which will be a four day weekend for me, so we plan on spending a lot of time out and about. Can't wait!

Monday, April 21, 2008

P080421001


P080421001
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

Clockwise: rice, dumpling soup, kimchi, bean sprouts, hot dogs in chili sauce, fish with soy sauce.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

on to the next thing...

Even though I still have a few months left in Korea, and so much more to learn about this country, my thoughts are naturally drawn to the next one. I was wondering about the huge contrast I saw in Bangkok between the rich and the poor and just today there was an article about that very subject on BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7328054.stm

Learning really never ends, huh?

Four days a week I teach a free-speaking class in the evenings to seniors. I learn something new from them every day about Korea. Today we talked about what we do to stay healthy and take care of ourselves. One man told about how when he was a child he was very sickly. His parents spent a lot of money to take him to a deer farm so he can drink fresh deer blood. This is attributed to his later good health. I had heard of this practice before but he's the first person I've met who has actually done it. I'm told it's illegal now but that you can still do it in China and that people do travel to do it. The reason is, they don't kill the deer. They basically stick straws in them and take a little blood at a time. There are a lot of things that people eat and drink in Korea that you will not find in the West but for some reason this one fascinates me the most.

I have also been hearing more and more stories about the military service here. All Korean men are required to serve in the military, usually for just over two years. Many men study through their freshman year of college, go to military, then finish. Alternately you can go straight after high school or do ROTC in college which seems to allow you to finish college before joining (although I'm not 100% sure about that one). My freshman guys all haven't gone yet and are totally scared about it. I do have two freshmen who just finished service, so are 22 or 23 years old, and do not seem to help allay the fears of the younger guys. My senior guys in the conversation class are pretty comfortable about telling their stories. All hated their time there and most seemed to have left feeling rather cynical about life. It makes me sad. They say "you are not a person in the army".

Most days, when I don't really think about it, I do not have the most favorable opinion of Korean men. Their general views about women don't sit well with me and I don't relate to the cynical viewpoints and emphasis on acquiring status. Of course, each individual guy I get to know I end up liking, in spite of these things. You can't blame them really. They are under enormous pressure from every side to conform to impossible standards. They have so many obligations in society-- towards their family, boss, wife. Many more so than in our society I think. On top of that it is much more competitive here. There is just not enough of the high-status or high-paying jobs for everyone who is qualified. I would be cynical too if my family insisted I must do A, B, and C to be a "good child" and then my boss was also saying I must do everything under the sun he asks to have my job (and finding another job is out of the question) and my spouse says I must do D, E, and F to be a good spouse. Yikes!

It all certainly makes me appreciate the freedom I have in my own life, that's for sure!

Saturday, April 05, 2008

April Update

I'll start with this weekend and work my way backwards.

Meghan and I visited Changdeokgung Palace this weekend. It's a ten minute bus ride from my house and supposed to be the prettiest of the five palaces in Seoul. Since the cherry blossoms have started to bloom here it was a great time to go. Later that night we went out to Hongdae and caught a show. A lot of bands I really like played~ bizarrely people were sitting on the floor in front of the stage, like they were watching a play or something. It's dance music! You can't sit on the floor and listen to ska! Oh well, later in the night people got up and we could finally dance.

Last weekend for my birthday I flew down to Thailand for three days to see Allister. We had a great time, of course! We didn't do many touristy things since we've both done it all before. He had a shopping list of items he couldn't get in Uttaradit so we mostly just looked for that stuff. Our hotel was really fun, A shanghai themed place in Chinatown. We managed to fit in massages, a boat ride, a temple, some markets, and a visit to Patpong, one of the bar areas. Not bad considering I arrived Friday afternoon and left Sunday night. We were victim to a few taxi/tuk-tuk scams, but lost more in regards to time than money. Sometimes drivers try to take you to their friends store or restaurant instead of the destination you asked for-- it could be pretty far out of the way. ah well. Of course, long distance relationships are hard but we talk all the time and are both looking forward to settling in there. I have a Thai tutor I meet with on the weekends and Al's picked up a lot of the language already. I'll move there last week of August but won't start work until November. I'll need a break because this has been a rough semester and my summer will be really busy.

This semester has been hard because I picked up too many extra classes. Of course, I did it to save money but I think I overloaded myself. Keeping up with the grading and preparation has been a challenge. The money will help though and the experience in making and teaching these courses (namely academic writing and western culture) will be helpful in the future I'm sure. This Wednesday is a holiday-- sleep!

This summer I will be going on a dig in Mongolia. I had the interview last week and have been provisionally accepted, pending the signing of papers and payment of fees. As I am not a graduate student it's not really possible for me to get funding, so I have to pay my own way. The experience I will gain here though is definitely worth it. This dig will be very different from other projects I've worked on. It's being organized by the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads. The team leaders include archaeologists from the Smithsonion and the Institute of Archaeology in Mongolia. The site includes burials ranging from 300 BC to 200 AD. The people there are the ones the Chinese built the Great Wall to keep out. I will not be just a shovel grunt, I will be able to participate in skeletal analysis as well as learn new skills such as mapping. Since I will be leading my own projects in Thailand this will be a wonderful opportunity to expand my skill base while gaining my first experience in the part of the world that most interests me. I still hope to return to graduate school, maybe in three years. This dig will help me network and develop my research interests. I can't wait!

OK, I have to run to Thai lessons. More updates later!

IMG_0157


IMG_0157
Originally uploaded by MacKensie!.

Cherry blossoms at Changdeokgung Palace

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