relative geography

Yes, we now have a cat.

2008-03-24T20:48:00.001+09:00

And the Vietnam trip video is still in the works!

Election day!

2007-12-19T10:40:00.000+09:00

This is the second election we've seen in Korea - this one's the big presidential race.

Thankfully, unlike last time, we're not being woken up on Saturday at 7am with blaring music coming from campaign ad trucks driving by. And I don't know if it's because of where we live, or if it's because we're in a different city, but there's been WAY more dancing. Another new feature is what I call the "podium truck". It's pretty much your average Korean pick-up truck, outfitted with a cube-sort of container that's fashioned into a small room. The side of the cube is cut out, so that you can see into this 'room'. Mounted inside of it is a podium - so basically the truck can park anywhere and PRESTO! instant platform!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get out and capture any videos of the dancing and such. But fortunately, somebody else was! Here's an example of the podium truck - with dancers!

This one's more of a video-video, rather than a snapshot. It's for the front-runner, Lee Myung-bak. Lee was suspected of some big-time white-collar crime... embezzlement and fraud charges for which he was cleared a couple weeks ago, in the thick of the campaigning. Many suspect that his being cleared of the charges is nothing more than the legal system jumping on his bandwagon - his support comes from a hope that electing him will mean good news for the Korean economy. That's the gist of the situation, anyway.

I'm pretty sure the song used in the video is an old pop song - I hear it used in campaigning a lot - here the words are changed a bit to promote Lee Myung-bak (이명박), the candidate.

Another one for Lee Myung-bak that really features the podium truck. And an awful song. (Is it Avril? Eeks. Is this song meant to represent his point of view on English education here? Oy. We're in trouble.) But not much dancing.

More things my 3rd graders made this term

2007-12-11T23:36:00.000+09:00

Just a few more short animations made by and with my 3rd grade after-school program. These kids are pretty awesome.

Most of these were made within a the time-frame of a 40 minute class!

(A lot of kids actually don't seem to care too much for bebimbap. Too many vegetables! They made this after watching Ishu Patel's "The Bead Game".)

(For this one, they were told to make five different drawings - like a large, short flipbook.)

(This was our first or second class. We did this exercise after watching Norman McLaren's "Neighbours".)

This one has nothing to do with anything, really

2007-12-08T11:37:00.000+09:00

Typical lunchtime at Yeomti Elementary School.

It's true I have no fashion sense. Mostly the comment was about my bright orange angora winter hat I was wearing.

Nutty November, part 1.

2007-12-07T07:46:00.001+09:00

One of the sort of "extra" projects that kept me super-busy last month was preparing my after-school 3rd grade animation students for the big Asan English Festival. For the festival, we prepared a short song and a simple dance, which was performed in front of one of the animation exercises the kids had done over the term. For this animation exercise, the students were given a "start" picture and a "finish" picture... and six blank frames. In the six blanks, the kids had to draw transitions to go from the first picture to the last. It's a lot harder than it sounds, and the kids really impressed me with what they came up with!

Here's their performance at the city's English festival last week. Apologies in advance for my shaky camera work - I was sort of directing them while shooting. And yeah, that's me yelling "woooo!" at the end. :)

Nutty November, part 1.

2007-12-07T07:46:00.000+09:00

In case you were trying to visualize, and needed help

2007-10-29T08:06:00.000+09:00

...this is where we are.

(click to enlarge)

The Home Tour

2007-10-14T15:09:00.000+09:00

I know I've been ridiculously slow in getting pics of our (now, not so) new apartment up. My first excuse was that it took a couple months for the university to renovate it for us (yeah, I know, boo-frickin-hoo). But after that happened, my excuse was that it wasn't quite picture-ready, somehow. Then I was too busy doing studio stuff. Then I abandoned the blog to play on Facebook. Then we were too busy traveling around eastern Canada. Then we were too busy with camp, saying goodbye to old colleagues and hello to new ones, and getting into the new school term. Then we just forgot about doing it.

But this weekend, some fall cleaning/nesting urges inspired me to finally give you the tour. So! Welcome to our home in Asan. If you want to see any of the pictures larger, just click on them.

(October 9, 2007)

So here you see the front door on the middle-ish left. To the left of that is our kitchen (where Jim's making his Sunday morning coffee) and on the right is the living room (well, duh). This space is about half of the total size of the apartment. Overall, it's 5 pyong bigger than our last one... which means it's about 720 sq. ft.

Same area, from the opposite wall. Yes, I know the living room is generally not where you put a chest of drawers. But whatever. We've been thinking of moving it and getting a proper TV stand, but we watch TV so rarely, it's just never a priority. But now that I'm shaming myself by exposing bad furniture arrangements on our blog, maybe I'll get it done. Maybe.

Another shot of the living room, featuring more of what's to the right of the front door. We're working on making the front balcony a cozier space for reading, relaxing, etc. As you can tell, the view out this front window ain't that stunning (hi, neighbours!), but it is fun to watch the kids playing in the park (and it's scary to watch them playing in the parking lot, but I digress). Here's a better shot of this little nook:

And here's a better shot of the kitchen area. A pretty decent size, by Korean standards. You can sorta see on the left that we also have a back balcony - but it's set up to be more of a utility area. Observe:

I'm not sure why the building was designed the way it was - with the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the other buildings... because THIS is the view out of the utility balcony's (much smaller) window:

Anyway, I can't really complain. Seeing as it's a free apartment and all. :)

So, onto the other half of the place. Warning: it's pretty crowded and a little untidy (how else would you figure we keep the living room so nice and spacious-looking?!).

Bedroom:

...we have another balcony/storage area off this room. Not pictured, because it's just a pile of boxes and luggage.

Bathroom (it's very green!):

and beyond (aka the workroom/spare bedroom, though I've omitted the 'spare bed' part because it's got stuff pile on it at the moment):

You can sorta see how the window at the end of this room connects with the front balcony, where all the plants are.

...and that's about it!

And now for something completely recent

2007-09-20T16:53:00.000+09:00

Oh, travel blog - how we've ignored you over the last few months! Will you forgive us?

So much catching up to do! Trips near and far, new stories, old friends, new projects, old selves.

But this post has nothing to do with any of that, really. This post is about how amazed I continue to be by the kids I teach.

Last Tuesday, there was a sort of regional music competition among local elementary schools. I don't think each school's group performed exactly the same pieces, or even the same styles, but I do know a little about what my school performed. The 3rd graders' homeroom teacher invited me to watch them rehearse on Monday, and agreed to let me come back and tape them at a lunchtime rehearsal. The video below is an example of 사물놀이 ("sah-mul-nol-ee"), which is explained in my cellphone's Korean-English dictionary as "the ensemble of the four farmer's percussion instruments." These kids had this 9 min. piece pretty well memorized for the competition, which blew my mind.

If you watch it to the end, you'll see a special congratulatory message for someone special back home, too. :)

Not bad for 8-12 year olds, eh?

You've probably seen this already, but we just saw it.

2007-05-27T21:09:00.000+09:00

I'm not sure if it's obvious to our Korean friends that he's actually making fun of what little Americans know about Korea, not mocking Korean culture.

Padori Beach

2007-05-19T13:04:00.000+09:00

Listening to the ocean through some tall pines. A tiny seaside fishing community. Late night bonfire. Lots of fresh, local seafood. Sounds like a very coastal maritime weekend, eh? It also describes how we spent last weekend, on the West Sea.

This was an overnight field trip organized by Rick (one of the more seasoned teachers) and our dept at the university (props to Brian).

Some snaps (some with serious white-balance issues, apologies!):

We arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday. And immediately, our hosts start feeding us...

Kai and Jim (sporting his new beard and fishing hat)

Small grills embedded in the dining tables is a pretty common sight in Korea. A most excellent way to eat.

Scallops grilled in gochu-jung and other good stuff.

It was pretty cool and muggy on Saturday at dusk, but we took a walk to the nearby beach anyway.

A small seafood eatery, at the top of the beach. Bins hold the fresh, live catches as seawater is pumped in directly from the ocean.

An impressive looking sea slug, chillin in one of the bins. It could be your dinner!

Jim examines the hollowed out clam shells stuck on the rocks.

It's a pebble beach. You can actually find some decent jade on the shore, if you've got a good eye.

The view from the rooftop of our B&B.

In front of the "jade museum". It's really a trinket shop with a lot of cool looking rock formations mounted on pedistals. The small rocks balanced on the larger ones apparently have something to do with wishing.

Later that evening, the campfire was started. Korean style: with a blowtorch (hey, it was really effective!). Here, we see how much of a trend-setter Jim really is - he and William now have matching hats.

Jim and Arlene.

Jim noodles away at some N. Young tunes.

Around this time, our lovely hosts served us more plates of spicy seafood dishes and cut fruit.

Sparklers * Cameras = good times

The night ended in several hands of bridge, quite a few empty soju bottles, a giant bowl of seafood stew and a plate of fresh sashimi.

Next morning: after being served a huuuuge breakfast, we went hunting for jade on Padori Beach.

Kai's got a bit of an LL Bean catalogue thing going on in this one.

I started out looking for jade...

...but wound up being more interested in the light blue beach glass.

Jim and William inspect a specimen.

Rick, the pebble beach stud.

There was supposed to be some clam and octopus digging action in the afternoon, but our timing with the tides was off. So the rest of the afternoon was pretty chill.

Brian, our fearless leader.

Arlene, who may be a little too chill in this shot.

Spring

2007-04-15T23:28:00.000+09:00

We're still not used to living somewhere that has any kind of real spring season. That's my excuse for making this. If spring hasn't arrived where you are, I hope it does soon.

One more from the old job

2007-04-11T18:39:00.000+09:00

Sorry our updates have been a little sparse lately! We've been busy settling in and getting accustomed to our new surroundings. New pics will be up soon, but for now, here is the last video project I did with some of my favourite students in Ulsan, just before we moved.

The View From Here

2007-03-18T11:26:00.000+09:00

OK, so our apartment is still way too ugly to show you... but the good news is, it looks like the university will be footing the bill to have it re-wallpapered. So, fingers crossed, it won't be too long until we can show you images of the interior. Until then, here's a little quickie panorama of the view outside our back balcony.

(Click the picture to enlarge it.)

This view is looking west-northwest. You can see our village (Shingchang). The university is further off to the left, out of the frame. Straight ahead in the distance is a farm, a reservoir, and some mountains. If you could see through the mountains, you'd see Asan Bay, which connects us to the West Sea. On the other side of the West Sea is China.

The main "hub" town of this area is Onyang, which is a 15-minute drive north of here. Onyang+Shinchang+surrounding villages = Asan. Sorta like how HRM=Halifax+Dartmouth+Hubbards+Eastern Shore. Only not.

About 20 minutes east of that is the high-speed rail station, which can take us north to Seoul. From Seoul, we can get on a plane and go east-northeast. And that's how we'll get home in June/July!

Jim's First Love Note from a Student

2007-03-15T18:54:00.000+09:00

gym teacher Hi?

my name is *** and English name Amy. When seeing the fromer teacher initially; too much mes it was. The teacher the features ppun with the teacher to us study to teach quite together enviable oh the truth teacher us anti - it comes and it congratulates and it thanks the features which finishes the next best to the drill the bedspread. Also the teacher the family plentifully report sip cyo. It goes toward un jen between Canada and the families are delighted and rang play and laugh the teacher to be healthy, every day with the features which dawns us they meet. Our moveing uss who will make a noise compared to the case apple it will admit to the bedspread. It is like that, good-bye.

I LOVE YOU Teacher

(Oh Google translator! You have a long way to go before you're no longer a Beta version for Korean translation! - Becka)

He wouldn't have wanted his picture here, anyway.

2007-03-08T21:39:00.000+09:00

I was looking for the digital files of our wedding pictures to find a picture of Ian. Or rather, Alec William, as he was known back then. But Jim's and my lives are still in boxes right now, and Ian never liked having his picture taken, anyway. So I doubt he'd want us to show it to the world now. Or would he? He had such a flair for the dramatic. Ian's feelings on this aside, I sort of wish I could show this picture to you now just because it's a lovely portrait our mutual friend Jasmine caught sometime during the party after our wedding ceremony. He's outside Pier 21, looking up to the sky, and he looks particularly content. Alec always looked calm, exuding a thick layer of grace under pressure. There were tightly guarded reasons why he conducted himself this way, and I suppose talking about that aspect of his life is a little beside the point right now.

The first time I met Ian, I had just begun working at CFAT and he was applying for a scholarship. He just seemed so calmly self-possessed, it was striking. He was quick to laugh and was so good at making everyone around him feel at ease. The last time our paths crossed, it was in Moncton just over a year ago. In between these two meetings, he became a most impressive co-worker, a trusted friend, and a fellow artist. He was a lovely, gentle soul with so much potential for good and for joy. He had invisible strength, the depth of which will probably never really be known. He was particularly gifted at bringing comfort to many around him, and I wish he could have done the same for himself.

According to the obituary I read online in the Halifax Chronicle Herald (which has already disappeared from its website, so I can't even link it), his wish was for people to donate money to charities and organizations that help youth in crisis.

There is never enough love.

A year? Japan?

2007-02-20T21:56:00.000+09:00

Hard to believe it's been a whole year since we arrived. And it's official - we're moving to a new town, to new jobs, and a new home on March 1st. Our apartment size is about to be doubled, and our workload is about to be halved. They say the Year of the Fire Pig brings turbulence. We're about to put that to the test.

Our new home:

...and a quick pan of our new (smaller) town. Definitely a university town. Reminds me of Sackville.

AND! We had a very quick trip to Fukuoka, Japan just ahead of the Lunar New Year break. The following is a very thrown-together montage, with clips from our ferry ride, the Fukuoka Folk History Museum, the noodle stalls this town's known for, some typically-wacky Japanese games, and some music from an early 80s Japanese punk band. Whee!

Unity

2007-02-05T22:51:00.000+09:00

A month has already passed since Helen's murder, and nearly one month since thousands of NOLA citizens gathered together to "take back (their) city". May hearing the these speakers continue to inspire positive actions, and more love, every day.

Lots of updates on creative tributes, screenings of Helen's wonderful films, and political action on the Helen Hill memorial site.

A Korean Primer, by my students.

2007-02-03T10:52:00.000+09:00

Over the past week, I've been racing to finish a small video project that was conceived, storyboarded, and partially written by three of my teenage students. It's a 10 minute video made for a group of Canadian Girl Guides in Ontario, who are studying different Asian countries at a special event this weekend. The question I put to my students: "If you could tell Canadian kids anything about Korea, or your lives here, what would you want them to know?" I'm quite proud of these girls!

Today at Lunchtime

2007-01-23T22:32:00.000+09:00

No big post today, just us being incidental and slightly computer frigged for fun.

Sometimes mountains move themselves.

2007-01-08T21:53:00.000+09:00

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I have a roundtrip ticket to Columbia, SC in my hand. I am leaving Korea in a few hours. Jim will be staying here, in Ulsan, on the other side of the planet. But since he's the most amazing husband of all time, he is very relieved that somehow, this opportunity presented itself to me.

If you are in Columbia and you can help me find a place to stay... I'll be online until 2pm, Monday afternoon, Eastern Time, please email or leave me a message through this blog, if you can.

The world loves you.

2007-01-06T13:00:00.000+09:00

Helen, July 2004, visiting Halifax.

Jim and Paul trade specs, July 2004, Halifax.

In case you haven't seen it yet, the official Helen Hill tribute website is up. Click here.

The little super 8 clip, below, is one of only a few bits of Helen footage I have on-hand here in Korea. I apologize for the quality. I shot this in Calgary (May 1999), on a filmmaker trip there with Helen Hill, Helen Bredin, and Jim MacSwain from Halifax. I transferred it, along with all my super 8 stuff, very quickly and haphazardly the day we were packing up to leave Halifax, in Aug 2005. Sadly, it was also the day of Hurricane Katrina. The last phone call we got before our Halifax phone was disconnected, actually, was from Helen. Telling us not to worry, that they escaped the storm...

Anyway, here's Helen Hill doing what she did (past tense still hard to say) best: making sure everyone's in the frame. Here, she insists on filming me almost right off the bat, she tries to convince the reluctant Helen Bredin to turn around, and we manage to find Rick Doe's small film processing lab, which was the point of this particular excursion to Calgary's NE industrial park area. Helen made sure I was included in this trip to Calgary, as a filmmaker - my first of many amazing opportunities Helen gave me. I was still a student at NSCAD, having just completed her wonderful animation summer course, and I was also one of her downstairs flat neighbours.

Helen was just beginning her "Combustible Countdown" project, her mission to bring together recipes and stories of filmmakers who made hand-crafted cinema (which eventually became the book "Recipes for Disaster" and the short film, "Madame Winger Makes a Film"). Watching her go to the lengths she went to bring everyone together, like she's doing here (she's in the orange scarf) is the best inspiration.

And I can't believe I found this today - I put together some clips from our road trip to Phil Hoffman's Film Farm (June 2000) as a sort of going away tribute, when they left Halifax in December of 2000.

Some links
From the New York Times (thanks, James):
click

From CBC:
click
(realaudio links on the top, and intro text is on this page, too - scroll about 1/2 way down)

click
(Nova Scotia-based story)

September 18, 2000. Paul, Helen, me, and Rosie in front of our home at 5515 Falkland Street, Halifax, NS. Photo by John Porter. See more of his beautiful images of Helen at his site, Super8Porter.

We are still trying to put our grief into whatever constructive, positive plans are in the works. They're so much in the hearts of so many, so the energy to organize and collectively remember feels frenetic, especially at the edges of the action, which is where we are. We're trying to get in touch with as many people as we can and we really need to be part of what's going on right now. We're awake at the wrong times, and all of our contributable photos and notes and everything is locked up 13 timezones away. We can't express how sorry we are to not be able to be closer to anyone right now. Waking up after getting a few hours' rest made the cycle of grief start all over again. I know this is a lot to ask, but if you're one of our friends who has been asking us if there's anything you can do for us (which just feels so ridiculous since we know as well as anyone that we are so, so far from being the only ones grieving)... the only thing I can think of is to please, please just keep in touch with us. I really can't stand being here right now and communication's all I got.

Paul and Helen and Kenny and Katrina and Rod and Dan and Lisa and James and my Mom and my Dad and Ali and Siloen and wow, we're just missing everyone right now.

Update: just saw this Daily News article. It was about 2am here when I talked with the reporter, and obviously, I was pretty out of it.

We love you.

2007-01-06T02:13:00.000+09:00

"Goodbye, so long... farewell for now
You're gonna leave a big hold 'round here
But it's up to us to fill it up again somehow,
Up to us to fill it up again somehow.

"You lived each day as if it was your last
May you have so many more more more
If we only will it, it will come to pass
If we only will it, it will come to pass..."

-- Al Tuck, in his tribute song to Paul Gailiunas and Helen Hill, on the occasion of their leaving Halifax to move back to New Orleans, December 2000.

Subject: birthday hello from The Crescent City
To: "Becka Barker"

Becka!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

It just turned 2007 in New Orleans. The fireworks are
booming and crackling all around and it sounds like
Mogadishu outside. We had a fun night, eating out at
The Praline Connection (the only place in town where
the collard greens aren't cooked in pork fat), and
then stopping by three parties before Francis Pop
collapsed from exhaustion.

New Orleans is very interesting, still so decrepit and
sketchy. But we're enjoying the new neighborhood
we're in, with lots of coffeeshops and a nice park
where lots of cool little kids play. Francis Pop and
I now have a weekly ritual of dancing in front of The
Spotted Cat to either The Rites of Swing, Washboard
Chaz, or The Panorama Jazz Band. Francis is such a
precious and funny little guy. I enjoy every single
second of watching him grow.

Please e-mail us your phone number so we can try to
call you in the morning. Love to you and Jim!

Paulie and family.

I can't think of any way to write how I feel about Helen Hill any differently from what's already been said, but of course, I want to say something. Especially since we're so far away and we can't physically be with our friends. I guess there's some kind of comfort in seeing so many tributes to her being put out there, on the internet, so quickly - the world just really, really, really needs to know about her... to understand how she helped so many, and in so many different ways. It needs to be said that her motivation has always been love. I feel like everyone in the world needs to hear about this, and feel this, because the event of her death is a precise example of the kinds of problems in the world that she and Paul worked so hard to counter. They got it, better than anyone I think. Helen knew that the only way to break down the oppressive forces that keep people sad, that keep people poor, that keep people on the outside, that make people act in desperate and sometimes hateful ways, was to be unyieldingly generous and unfailingly inclusive - to feed the world with as much love as she could give it - to create positive changes in her communities. Of all the things she taught me, that's the biggest and most important. All demonstrated by the example of how she lived her life. No one was worthless of her attention and care.

I remember driving around with Helen and Paul, my first time visiting them in New Orleans. This was about 18 months after they'd left the home they made on Falkland Street in Halifax. They were looking to buy their first home in NOLA. Top considerations: must be in a neighbourhood that's highly socially integrated, must be generally safe, must be not-too-fancy, must have enough space for all their letters, art supplies, zines, books, films, music, and pets. As we toured several homes, we'd run into some of the more "down and out" folks they knew. We'd pull up to the curb, have a chat, and introduce me to each person in a completely socially-level way. If any of these folks were looking sick, or like they weren't quite lucid, Paul and Helen would fish out a bottle of water and scrounge around the car for some food to offer. It was never a big production to do that kind of thing, for them. They just wanted to make things better for people who didn't have it as good as they did.

They thought long and hard about moving back to NOLA, and I know it does no good to wish your loved ones into protective boxes. Let's get out and give. Let's do right by our neighbours. Maybe if everyone lived and loved as generously as Helen did and as Paul does, we'd all be much safer, in the end.

The Holidays, part 1.

2007-01-03T01:23:00.000+09:00

You may think we didn't have a lot of Christmas action in these parts. Not so! At least, not so in ESL school-land, or in chi-chi department store land. In fact, after reviewing all our snaps and footage - we had lots of holidaying. LOTS. And we're pretty pooped and ready for a normal and (relatively) uneventful January. First video: Jim jams with the kids, plays Santa, and we do a little celebrating with our co-workers at the Christmas party. Just a string of clips, relatively unedited.

Next! The big Christmas present-opening phone conference with my folks in Florida. Mom and Dad, thought you'd appreciate this. Almost two minutes of video in its most pure, raw form.

Finally: aside from hoping for some nice charitable donations this year, we were really hoping someone out there would send us some of our favourite poison. Our wish totally came true. I think we've figured out why Korea Post was a little suspicious that we might be starting up a coffee shop.

Next post: the Christmas trip, and New Year's pyromania.

Happy Birthday Chuck!

2006-12-27T09:12:00.000+09:00

Just in case you get a chance to go online and see this while it's still your actual birthday.

We're having camera issues, so you'll have to imagine us singing to you this year (gah, sorry!).

XOXO
from Becka and Jim

Probably Our Last China Video

2006-12-22T08:55:00.000+09:00

...because I'm getting a little tired of making them, it's been over two months since we've gone, and it's time to get onto some new things here! Like Christmas and birthday and whatnot.

Part 3: Our Official Tour of Tian'anmen Square and The Forbidden City. It's a little under six minutes. Enjoy!

A Pop Culture Moment: 동방신기 vs. 개그 Concert

2006-11-19T23:23:00.000+09:00

Every Sunday night, folks here gather 'round the set at 9:00 to watch a one-hour sketch comedy show called Gag Concert. We're guessing it's pretty popular, since it seems to be on in every bar and restaurant... and even in store window TVs of trendy cosmetics and clothing shops. Most of the time, we (obviously) can't follow the dialogue - but the physical comedy is enough to make us interested enough to watch, most weeks.

A few weeks ago, we saw this skit playing on a store's TV, and a crowd gathered to watch. This skit featured a guest appearance by one of Korea's biggest boybands, "Dongbangshingi" (often called "DBSK" or "TVXQ" in English). The premise of the sketch was a recurring one, where fashion trends are sent up by two of the regular actors, usually dressed in outlandish things.

I teach a "tutor" class with three fifteen year-old girls, using an English-language, Korean-produced newspaper geared toward teenagers. We've been studying an article about this particular pop group together recently. Apparently, Dongbangshingi has just released their third album in Korea, and is trying to be taken more seriously by being influenced by "a Hegelian dialectic." Uh, yeah.

(PS: Katrina, this one goes out to you!)

One of the Cutest Days Here, So Far

2006-11-18T15:21:00.000+09:00

For our school's kindergarten Halloween party, my job was to teach a "Halloween song". After about 15 minutes, this is what we came up with.

I guess this is sort of about our travels...

2006-11-17T01:04:00.000+09:00

For those of you who really want to see my film, but haven't (Mom and Dad), it's now online as part of a curated show with the Centre for Art Tapes.

Click here to see it in "The Digital Mirror" - paired with John Scott's "Passing Thru". Be sure to check out the other shorts, too - there's some nice stuff in that show!

The Great Wall = The Great Staircase

2006-11-13T20:09:00.000+09:00

Second part (of many... it was going to be three parts but now I think it'll be more) of our trip to China. Watch us be tourists with hundreds of other people from around the world!

This one's a little longer than the last, at about eight minutes.

Also - bonus points if you can name the voice at the beginning of the video. Hint: who knew we'd become trip buddies with a well-known CBC radio newscaster?!

Vanity post of absolutely no consequence.

2006-10-29T19:24:00.000+09:00

This is me and Jim sitting in front of the computer this afternoon.

And this was after some more time in front of the computer.

You know that episode of the Simpsons, where they go to China?

2006-10-23T01:22:00.000+09:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to finally present part one in our three part series, "Jim and Becka go to China".

How we spent our anniversary (kind of but not really)

2006-10-11T00:26:00.000+09:00

These pictures are actually from October 2nd, the last day of work before a week-long break for Chuseok, which is possibly Korea's biggest holiday. Jim and I got to dress up in hanbok, the traditional Korean garment, often broken out for paying respects to ancestors at Chuseok. Then we got to teach the kids how to properly bow. While wearing the outfits. In English.

A whole whack of picture proof!

Getting suited up by one of my the students.

Jim rocking the pink and purple.

I taught the girls how to bow. Females are required to cross their right foot over their left, and place their right hand over their left - elbows raised, then sink down into a cross-legged position, then bow their heads down to the ground. Then stand up from that position, while keeping hands/arms in their position. Riiight.

The men's bow, of course, is about a thousand times easier.

We like posing with kids because they make us look good. :)

Fan culture at its finest for the Busan Lotte Giants

2006-10-10T23:48:00.000+09:00

I know, I know. We haven't posted in ages. But we'll be more than making up for it over the next week, with our first video posts (finally!), a little fashion show of us modelling the very finest in traditional Korean Chuseok garments, and some evidence of our having been in China (which was amazing, mind-boggling, heart-breaking, and surreal).

Up first! Our first (not really edited, but hopefully compressed enough) video. It's about 7 minutes. Enjoy!

One more plug.

2006-09-10T16:16:00.000+09:00

This post has nothing to do with our travels. But it has everything to do with what I'm doing back home.

"Assembled" SCREENING TIMES in the Atlantic Film Festival:

Saturday, September 16th
program "Frame x Frame II"
Park Lane 7
9:25pm

Monday, September 18th
program "Atlantic Shorts II"
Park Lane 8
9:25pm
*possibly screened as an actual film print!

This is the Atlantic Canadian (public) debut of "Assembled". It may or may not have already played at some obscure Toronto venues, and definitely has been to a small gallery exhibition in Frankfurt.

More information on the Atlantic Film Festival here.

And, just to make sure we have at least a little Jim content in this post, here he his chowing down on a piece of Kai's birthday cake a little while back. (Photo by Heather)

More common sights.

2006-08-27T13:15:00.000+09:00

Couple Shirts

A common way young couples display their affection in public is to wear "couple shirts". We accidentally engaged in couple shirt action when we bought the same shirt to cheer on Korea's national soccer team during the World Cup.

Entrepreneurial recycling.

The carts here really put the rigs of the grocery cart dudes in Halifax to shame.

Seasonality.

A couple weeks ago was when the chilis started ripening. They're commonly dried out, then used in... well, practically everything. :) Watermelon season's just about over, and now it's all peaches, grapes, and a local favourite, Ulsan pears. They look like giant golden delicious apples:

and the best part is... because they are local, and probably not cross-bred with silver birch, Jim isn't allergic to them!

Take out.

Most small restaurants have delivery service happening all the time. Small plastic suitcases of food are scootered over from the restaurant, then dirty plates are picked up by scooters outfitted with buckets, and washed back at the restaurant.

DVD Rooms.

One of our favourite things: you rent a flick at the counter, then get escorted to a private screening room to watch it. We've been catching up on all the flicks we've been missing at home. And this'll be a good way to finally check out Korean flicks, as well.

More Jinha

2006-08-27T12:55:00.000+09:00

And we thought it was crowded the first time we went - try going on a national holiday!

The beach became even more crowded when the jellyfish attacked.

As for us, there was chess (Jim and Adam - pic by Heather):

Human sand-sculpting (Miranda):

Napping:

And some special moments with Cass (Becka, and Morlin):

(Thanks, Heather, for supplying most of these pics!)

Sunday Day Trip: Jinha Beach

2006-08-12T13:50:00.000+09:00

Trip Diary: Pablo, Betty, and Gwangali

2006-08-03T20:38:00.000+09:00

August 1st, 9:30am:

We'd said our good-byes to Yvon and Michelle last night, so we successfully avoid waking them up to leave. We hurry past the VERY LOUD cicadas in the park, and grab the subway toward the Seoul Museum of Art. We manage to meet our friend Betty (and her friends) just in time for the museum to open. We're certainly not alone, either - the line up for tickets to the Picasso show is quite long, and dozens upon dozens of folks are milling about, waiting for the building to open for the day.

As we wander through the exhibition (whose curatorial premise is simply "the women in Picasso's life"), we're nearly trampled by about 75 people following a museum tour guide. This is the first time a show including many of Picasso's original paintings has come to South Korea, so it's a pretty big deal, indeed.

Many kids, like our own students, are on a short holiday from the private English academies they attend. That doesn't mean they get a break from learning, though. We see a few kids wandering around with English-language homework assignments, asking them questions about the show. A few kids actually use this show as an opportunity to sketch on their own, too.

These little girls remind me of many older/younger sister sets, including myself and my sister. The older sister painstakingly copies the portrait of Jacqueline Roque, scrutinizing every last mark she makes on her page, while the younger sister draws a lemon-coloured teddy bear and makes absolutely no reference to what she's seeing on the wall.

The show takes up most of the entire museum. In between rooms, we take a closer look at a gigantic film/lightbox installation in the centre of the museum. It's by a relatively young Korean artist, whose name I am still looking for in my notes. I am a little perturbed that the museum doesn't turn the lightbox on to properly display the piece.

Finally, we make our way back down to the large, central, entryway, where a piece by Paik Nam June (백남즌) is permanently installed. Very few people stop to watch this flashy piece. Instead, they're lined up on the opposite wall to get a picture taken with the 14-foot tall poster for the Picasso show.

We realize it's taken us almost three hours to view the entire exhibition, and Jim and I say hasty good-byes before running to catch our train to Busan. We make it in time, though we miss our opportunity for lunch. No matter. At an average of about 275 kph, the KTX train will get us to the other end of the country in less than three hours!

We relax and marvel at the countryside inbetween naps all the way down to the southern coast of the Korean peninsula.

Sweaty, starving, and weighed down by heavy knapsacks, we make our way to Gwangali Beach for supper. We watch the sky go pastel on us as we have one last western-style supper, a couple beer, and a listen to the beach-inspired American 60s tunes blasting from the beachfront PA across the street.

8:15pm
We're on a bus about to depart from Haeundae Beach (just a few subway stops north of Gwangali where we had supper). We're full, sleepy, travel-weary, and blissed out. Our bus driver take curvy roads at 110 kph and plays a 노래방 sort of cassette which is mostly pan flute interpretations of 70s and 80s English-language hits. I realize that for the first time, I've taken a vacation that isn't linked to a work-type of event. Also, we've managed to stay on budget without constant obsessing over it - also a first. The bus drops us off one block from our apartment, where we sleep like logs and imagine future trips.

Trip Diary: Yvon (pt. 2), Michelle, and The Gong Show

2006-08-02T17:41:00.000+09:00

July 31st, 4pm:

Showered and fed, Jim and I have taken the two-hour subway journey back into Seoul. We've met up once more with Yvon, and he's showing us more of the city - Insa-dong (full of little shops that run the gamut from tacky trinket to high-end traditional craft), Namsan Market (otherwise known as guitar heaven), Itaewon (the foreigner section, which felt like downtown Toronto to me). Somewhere between Insa-dong and guitar heaven is one of Seoul's many busy Buddhist temples:

Jim and Yvon contemplate going in:

8:30pm:
We're finishing a huge, amazing Indian dinner in Itaewon (Chhakra, where I've since found out Mandy'd eaten a few times years ago), and we're about to take a super speedy cab ride back to Hongdae, giving us another cross-section view of the city. About 8 million people live here.

9:30pm:
Yvon and Jim pack up a couple of Yvon's guitars. We're heading over to the Club Palm, where Yvon hosts a weekly Open Stage. Among other tunes, Yvon plays "Sonny's Dream" for the Korean audience. Then Jim introduces another song from the east coast of Canada, also about staying and leaving. Then he plays his version of "Long Lake".

The Club Palm was originally conceived three years ago as a jazz club. The owner, Mr. Gong, we're told, also plays and sings. After a lot of cajoling, we get the very shy Mr. Gong onto the stage. He delivers "I Started a Joke" with the most melancholic croon this side of Roy Orbison. It's amazing. Later on, he'll come sit with us and talk about his youth in the early 70s, and try and impress upon us just how much change folks from his generation in Korea have had to adapt to all their lives. Most of his friends have moved to Canada in the last five years, he'll tell us.

It's also difficult to convince Michelle to play. She's an exceptionally skilled pianist; she teaches, too. But it takes a lot of energy from the audience before she'll get up.

This is our last evening with Yvon and Michelle on this trip, but we're already making plans to go back.

Trip Diary: Franz and Hedwig

2006-08-02T15:10:00.000+09:00

July 30th, 12pm:

After a lazy morning, and an almost fruitless search for good coffee (where the heck was that place Yvon showed us yesterday? Dammit. Looks like we'll have to settle for Starbucks.), we head back to the subway to begin the trek out to Incheon.

The Seoul subway system is top-notch, by the way. Speedy, well-designed stations, and quite cheap. In our "Moving to Seoul" mental list, we make note of this in our "pro" column.

1:10pm:
We transfer from the Seoul subway line to the Incheon line at Bupyeong - Amanda's former stomping grounds!! As instructed, we give a shout out on her behalf. Hey Mandy, look how the station's changed since you've been there!

3pm:
Jim and I have checked ourselves into the Songdo Beach Ramada, because we decided we're just getting too old to do the rock-festival-camping thing with our friends. We'd also been warned that the festival grounds were ridiculously muddy. This is no exaggeration. We get onsite and find single flip-flops half buried in mud everywhere. Yesterday was the official last day of the rainy season here, and it sure gave Incheon one big last blast.

We catch up with Mark, Miranda, Kai, and Morlin (not pictured) by their campsite. And by "catch up", I mean "drink some cold beer".

Apparently, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had opted for a 2pm timeslot on Friday - good thing we didn't bust our asses to get up here Friday night. Most of the headliners were stopping here en route to the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Last night was the Black Eyed Peas show. We hear they'd tried to do a cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine" but realized they had no appropriate backing track to pull it off, so they stopped after a few bars. At least Fergie didn't pee her pants this time.

5pm:
Over at the 2nd Stage, a hip hop act called Atmosphere are soundchecking. We're allowed to bring in as much to drink as we like, but we can't bring any caps with us - they're collected at the door. One theory for this: those 2-liter bottles of Cass Beer can be used as weapons, so it's a security thing. Another theory: a lot of people are drunkenly wandering around barefoot at this point, and they want to limit the foot injuries.

But back to the show itself: the soundcheck guys for Atmosphere get almost as much applause as the band itself when they take the stage. Everyone here is just so darn appreciative that such a music festival is even happening. There aren't whole lot of (English-speaking) big acts that stop here. So, with this in mind, there was a lot of hands-in-the-air-like-they-just-don't-care going on.

6:30pm
Taking awhile to chill out, have a quick bite at the food tents, and wonder whether or not our feet will ever be clean again.

Overall, the crowd at this festival of 15,000 is about half Korean and half "waygookin" (foreigner) - and the proportions shift a bit either way throughout the day, depending on who is playing at any given time. There really isn't a whole lot of mixing, except for during the really big (mostly English-speaking, international) acts. Jim and I meet two guys who've only been in Korea for a week, just starting their new teaching jobs. They're from Halifax. They were in a band, they know a lot of the same folks we know. (Rachelle, Chris and Paul from Running With Scissors say hi.)

8:30pm
The sun sets, and folks start making their way to the main stage to see Franz Ferdinand. We pass by the merch booth, noting one t-shirt design that looks like a standard emo-stripey shirt, only with the "Franz Ferdinand" logo emblazoned on the front. Fireworks, glowsticks, and all that jazz light up the field. We get a great spot, and wait for the lads to come out.

They make their entrance to a bit of music from the end of Neutral Milk Hotel's song, "Two Headed Boy", and greet the crowd with a big, rock and roll-style "HEEEELLLLOOOO, South Korea!" After tearing through a couple songs, the lead singer manages to wrap his mouth around a very deliberate "AAHN-YOUNG-HAH-SAAAY-YO!" and anoints South Korean audiences as the best they've ever seen. I'm not sure whether he's looked out to notice that about 2/3 of the audience is obviously not of Korean descent, but anyway, people get excited again and off they go into 3-4 more songs from the latest record. We dance, we enjoy the energy. "KAAHM-SAH-HAAM-NEEE-DAAH!" The lead singer says. Then he coyly sings, "what's wrong with a little destruction?" to the crowd, and we sing along, and I'm somehow reminded of the fact that we're only about 50 km from the DMZ. I enjoy myself, but I can't decide what it is that feels weird to me about this set. All I can think is how I wish I'd been around to see the Kinks in their early days and Blondie at their height of fame.

11:00pm
A good proportion of the foreigner crowd takes off after Franz Ferdinand, though some hang around for a late night DJ coming on after one last set on the 2nd stage. We notice that the Korean characters for the name of the final band on the 2nd stage, when sounded out, are "Heh-dou-eeg" and "Ahn-ga-lee-een-chueh". Sure enough:

How surreal is it to see the Korean version of a set of songs about an East German transsexual-glam-punk rocker (who wears a cape that says "Yankee Go Home... With Me")? Answer: not surreal at all. In fact, it was the realest thing we'd seen all day.

Trip Diary: Nicole and Yvon (pt. 1)

2006-08-02T10:33:00.000+09:00

July 29th, 6:55am:
Jim and I jump in a cab, and I quickly learn the word for "train" (열차 or "yeolcha") to get us to the Ulsan train station to meet Nicole and Little Nicole. We board, Jim sleeps, and I play rock-paper-scissors with Little Nicole for most of the trip to Seoul.

Our route includes stops in Gyeongju, Daegu, Gimcheon, and Daejon. Nicole and Little Nicole leave at Suwon (about a 1/2 hour before Seoul) for their short vacation to Everland Water Park. Jim and I get off at the end of this train's line - crossing the Han River into Seoul Station at 12:45pm.

After a quick bowl of train station bebimbap, we navigate our way to Hongdae - a hip arty university area where our hosts, Yvon and Michelle, live. We rest for awhile, getting to know Michelle and their tiny dog, Kinky, while we await Yvon's return from a big grocery trip. Seoul native Michelle has seen more of Canada than most Canadians we know (and yeah, she's been to Iqaluit). She loves Shediac, in particular.

3:30pm
Yvon comes home, we drink some truly excellent coffee, then set out for a little tour of the 'hood. I buy a ring from a local art student that features a bronze bit moulded from a rippled potato chip for 12,000 won. Lots of open air arty markets going on here.

6:45pm
Michelle's made a big pot of spaghetti for tonight's potluck and guitar party. A few friends arrive, bringing either guitars or food. We're introduced to an excellent drink - red needles (tequila, cranberry, and lime... how come I never thought of that before?! It just seems so deliciously obvious to put those tastes together). We each have a couple. Or a few.

The guys break out some Canadian acoustic standards - Rogers, Cohen (who reportedly loves red needles), Cockburn, Young. But the feature of the night has to be Jim and Yvon bonding over a whole lotta Waterboys tunes.

A friend of Michelle's drops by and the ladies chat in the kitchen while the Maritime kitchen party continues in the living room.

Good friends, good food, and good drinks. Welcome to Seoul!

The Life Aquatic

2006-07-16T20:06:00.000+09:00

Updates: It's official! We'll finally be making our first trip up to Seoul in two weeks' time. We'll be travelling with our pals Nicole (and her daughter, Little Nicole), spending two nights with Jim's old friend Yvon (and his wife Michelle), and catching up with Franz Ferdinand! So in a couple weeks, we'll finally have some new travels to tell you about. Whee!

Meanwhile, we made another trip to Busan recently to see their amazing aquarium.

Fish! Possibly a puffer!

Cowfish!

Moray Eel and puffer fish friend!

Dragonfish!

Seahorses!

Fun distortion looking through a glass tank!

Jim contemplating the shark above him in the plexiglass hallway!

The touch tank!

Jim sitting with a grey nurse shark!

Becka sitting with a grey nurse shark!

Jim in a bubble!

Becka in a bubble!

For a few thousand won, they'll even let you swim with their big sharks in the shark tank, too!
(Um, no, we didn't do this.)

File under: sundry

2006-07-04T00:34:00.000+09:00

Well, the fever pitch sure died down about two hours after this photo was taken. At about 4am local time, two Saturdays ago, Jim and I decided to head over to our neighbourhood's 24-hour hae-jung-guk restaurant to take in what wound up being Korea's last World Cup appearance (against Switzerland):

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted!

Other updates:

1.) It's supposed to be the "rainy season" now. While we've seen some threatening skies, we've yet to have more than two rain showers. But I'm prepared.

2.) We're watching more Korean TV. Among Jim's favourite channels are the 24-hour "padouk" channel...

...and the 24-hour math/science channel. Today's feature: organic chemistry!

3.) Our bathroom has undergone a renovation of sorts - due to a neighbour's problem with leaking water, our bathtub was extracted a couple weekends ago. While I can't find a pic of our bathroom as it originally was, you can easily picture where our tub had been, in this picture:

What we have now is a more "Korean" version of the bathroom - with an open shower and no tub!

4.) It's getting incrementally hotter and more humid every day - the average temp is usually between 30 and 35 Celcius. Surprisingly, we're both dealing with this pretty well. Enjoying some new flowers and such.

Summertime also seems to bring out what I like to call the "babypods".

5.) Finally, new pics of some kids.

This one's a sort of "enrichment" type of class - they do different projects to with an aim to improve their conversation skills. Last week, they made their first newspaper (ok, ok, so it was really a folded pamphlet that was made on my computer using QuarkXpress), featuring stories on - what else? - World Cup!

And here's a shot of our kindergarteners on their last fieldtrip, to see a short play about how fun it is to learn English.

Next time, we'll tell you about our vacation travel plans, which may or may not include seeing Franz Ferdinand in Seoul.
Happy Canada Day a little late to our loved ones in the northernmost part of North America, and happy Fourth of July to our loved ones in the USA. And happy you-know-what day to you, Paul and Helen. :)

World Cup! Fighting Korea! We are Twelfth!

2006-06-20T23:53:00.000+09:00

You can't escape it. Red is everywhere. With only one game left to go in the first round (against Switzerland), it feels like the entire country is on pins and needles.

Exhibit A: The official songs.

Psy's "We Are the One"

Buzz's "Reds Go Together"

Exhibit B: The official dance.

(Mom, note the liberal use of jazz square!)

Exhibit C: The sand animation "trailer'

Exhibit D: The attire.

Exhibit E: The kindergarteners at breaktime.

Exhibit F: The reaction in Seoul when Korea won its first match, 2:1 against Togo.

And no, we were not completely immune. Here we are at a local "foreigner" bar, Benchwarmers, taking in the game with the only locals who did not cram themselves into Munsu Stadium with the rest of Ulsan.

Jim with Nova Scotian bar owner, Troy:

Reaction after Korea's first goal - scored by a fella from Ulsan, no less!

As for that upcoming final Group G game against Switzerland? The party starts at 4am Saturday morning, local time here.

A guided tour on an average night around town

2006-06-13T09:07:00.000+09:00

After a long day of this...

...we like to treat ourselves to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in the university district (Mugeo-dong). It's not fancy, but the food's good (very, very good!) and they give you free pop. All the tables have gas burners installed in them, and the food is cooked at the table by roving waitstaff. A common sight in most Korean restaurants!

Another option for cheap, on-the-go eating here is the dak bokki stall. The one pictured below is a little more "permanent" than many of the ones we see on the street - many of them are actually installed on the backs of small trucks.

And of course, if you're feeling flush and desperate for western food, you can always have pizza delivered to your door. (We haven't been bold enough to do this yet.)

But don't order from this guy unless you're a woman, according to their slogan:

After supper, we usually take a stroll around our neighbourhood, Dal-dong. This shot is our street - way in the distance to the west you can see the giant Lotte Wheel.

Here's Jim with his favourite truck:

This ubiquitous truck is not only used for election campaigning and as mobile dak bokki stalls, it's the main way fresh produce is sold (outside of the big grocery chains, anyway). Here's the guy from our neighbourhood who sells melons.

(Dad, that one was for you!)

Another shot of the ongoing neighbourhood street produce market on a Friday night:

And here's a super blurry non-flash pic of an average family in our 'hood, walking home after picking up their daughter from Tae Kwon Do academy.

A shot of our parking lot from our front balcony. White cars are popular.

And a shot of the moon later that night, from our back balcony:

Lazy Post

2006-06-10T00:29:00.000+09:00

So, the news this week: we now have the internet happening in our apartment! This should mean that we are capable of updating this little site more frequently, but sadly, my English computer doesn't like the Korean digital scans of our most recent pictures.

Until we figure out this latest technological snafu, please have a look at our pictures from out trip to Ilsan Beach from last month!

The rest are here, with a bunch of other pictures we took over the last month or so. Several of these you've probably seen already.

...oh, and following up from that last post - the Grand National Party was able to claim a landslide victory in most regions of Korea, and Korea's world cup team lost one of its friendlies to Ghana last week. That hasn't dampened the fever around here, though!

Locals

2006-05-24T23:46:00.000+09:00

So, it's local election time in the ROK. On May 31st, Koreans will vote for their mayors, local governors, local councils, and something called "heads of local autonomous administrative bodies" (still not quite sure what that is).

What this means in practical terms is, small armies of those adorable Daewoo trucks...

...outfitted with large, blaring speakers and ginormous pictures of various candidates have been patrolling the streets, making their presence known at all hours (7 A-freaking M?! Seriously, I do not need to hear loud nationalistic warbling before I wake up). They've been everywhere.

But suddenly, today, things were silent. Suspicious. Then I read that the current governing party decided to tell everyone to stop campaigning for a little while.

Apparently, they're worried about being trounced in the election. They were already expecting to do badly, but then this happened last Saturday.

I don't know many Koreans who are avid followers of politics - probably they just don't like to discuss it with foreigners, possibly because most folks I know are under 40 and I've been told that they're an extremely apathetic demographic. When asked if she'd vote in this election, one of my co-workers just laughed. But that was before the dramatic slashing incident. I wonder if it'll be different now?

One thing that's been on everyone's minds here, however, is the lead up to the 2006 World Cup. Most of Korea's world cup team, I think, normally plays on the Seoul team, the Red Devils. There's even a catchy promotional song designed to get everyone properly pumped. One TV commercial features men doing their mandatory army service singing and dancing to it. And everyone's in red. Many people (including several of our students) have been spotted wearing these promotional jerseys:

Every restaurant, it seemed, carried last night's lead-up game with Senegal (which ended in a disappointing 1-1 tie). When Jim and I finally finished work and went out for some soup, the game was over, but the huge TV in the restaurant played Korea's goal over and over. And people were into watching it. Again and again.

Housewarm

2006-05-18T23:29:00.000+09:00

We're sorry for not having invited you in sooner - it's taken us awhile to get settled. The decorating's still a little spartan, but hopefully that'll change over the next few months. Anyway, we're only five stories up, if you're feeling too impatient to wait for the annoying elevator. Just go to apartment 502. Door should be open...

Here's Jim to greet you! Peeking his head out of his personal conservatory...
(ok, so it's really just a sparse spare bedroom with a borrowed guitar in it.)

Anyway, past Jim's play room - straight ahead - is our living room. Let's walk to the back of the room, by the sliding balcony doors, and turn 180 degrees, shall we?

From here, you can see our entryway to the right, and to the left is our tiny galley kitchen. Let's go into the kitchen now and turn back around to face the living room again:

What's that? Where's our bedroom? Oh, well, do you remember seeing another room behind Jim's head? Back when we were first coming in? Yeah, that one. That's the bedroom. Straight ahead is the bed...

...and a little to the right is the dresser...

...and if we go over to the window and turn around toward the bedroom door, we can see my studio (such as it is!).

Oh, and before we go back into the living room, stick your head outside the bedroom window for a sec. There's the balcony! (You can also get to it from the sliding glass doors in the living room, of course.)

And it faces south. Nice!

Now, we haven't shown you the bathroom, or the weird little closet where our washing machine is (and no, we're still not over the fact that we have our own washing machine). Those rooms were either too dark or too oddly-placed to get decent snaps to show you this time. And the bathroom really isn't that interesting anyway - it's not one of those exciting "traditional" Korean bathrooms that's really just a giant shower stall with a toilet. Nope, it's the same kind of bathroom we had in Halifax - minus the clawfoot tub and plus a drain in the floor (which sure makes it easy to clean).

But do come back over for coffee sometime!

Why I Love Busan, by Becka

2006-05-16T22:37:00.000+09:00

We haven't posted in several weeks. We're sorry. Pics of our trips to Ilsan Beach, Dragon's Rock, Busan, as well as pics of our apartment (well, you asked!) will be posted within the week. Promise. Until then, here's a rough sketch of Busan, the ROK's "second city".

For about $10 Canadian, both Jim and I can take an express bus that takes us from Ulsan to Busan in a little under an hour. These buses leave every five minutes from central Ulsan. Busan is home to giant outdoor markets, the Busan International Rock Festival, the Pusan International Film Festival, lovely beaches, and the Busan Museum of Modern Art.

The Busan MoMA is free on Saturdays - but otherwise, it's only 700 Won to get in anyway (a little less than $1 Canadian). Here is some of what we saw:

Baek Nam June (usually cited as "Nam June Paik" back home) is pretty much Korea's national art hero. Several of his sculptural media installations are on display now. This one was probably our favourite.

For the next few weeks, the Busan MoMA is also screening (white cube gallery style) several short single-channel video works by emerging artists from all over the world.

Between seeing this and getting the opportunity to finally see some decent coastline, I'm starting to feel much more settled.

I'm also very pleased to report that Jim says he is no longer perpetually tired. Can it be that we've finally caught up with the long teaching hours, the dirty, dusty air, and the late night socializing? Stay tuned!

Third Session Coming Up

2006-04-29T22:25:00.000+09:00

Jim here,

We've been experiencing some fine weather, but we know it's going to turn stifling soon. I've been a little tired due to the long days. I've been working an average of 10 hours a day. These are not intense days, just drawn out. My voice is always a little hoarse at the end of the day. The air is a little strange, and I've been feeling woosey for the better part of a month. Bugs are promiscuous, jumping from teacher to student to student to teacher to teacher(repeat). I've been eating lots of
Kimchi

We've ventured out to new places in the city, and we're realizing more and more that we can get around, feed ourselves, and generally fend for ourselves quite nicely in this town. All this comes after about two months of pretty much exclusive travel between school and the apartment. All our other travels have been by the side of our new found friends. What great folks we have around us, so obliging and helpful. They've given us so much help. However, it's nice to know we can venture out and easily find our way back from unfamiliar areas.

I've been given the use of a guitar since I wasn't able to bring my own. One of the teachers we work with, Heather, has graciously provided me with a guitar. It's been so nice to be able to play. As soon as I can get a case for it, I'll start hauling it about town. I've been thinking about putting together a show at a "foreigner" bar. I don't know how it'll go over, but I may as well try. I'd like to do original material, but I was also thinking of doing a set of neil young songs, we'll see. Maybe it's time to develop my "Neil the Bruce, Pink Farmer Guitar Doodlery".

I'm getting a bit tired of the PC room, I need to get a computer and an internet hookup. Maybe Becka and I can get a discount if we buy two. Her mac is having annoying power troubles. I think a portable lappy is the way to go. We need a new digital camera as well, one that works with any computer that is not a mac, fine camera that it is otherwise.

I love it here but am feeling a bit homesick, I miss my buds and family, and I miss the country. Maybe there's a country retreat where I can go.

Hope all is well wherever you are.
Jim

A Little More of Gyeongju

2006-04-26T22:57:00.000+09:00

Also from that trip a couple weeks back...

Bulgoksa Temple

Jim at Bulgoksa

Heather in the driver's seat and Jim in the helmet.

The Gyeongju Rice Cake Festival (the gooey sweet Korean kind, not the crunchy diet snack kind)

See? Here's a close-up of some pros showing the kids how it's done.

Heather tries a free sample of wild ginseng wine. Neighbouring tents offered free samples of wild mushroom wine, rice wine, bamboo wine, wine made from tree bark, wine made from flowers... I sort of forgot what else there was, after all those. Oops.

Reconstruction of the Fables

2006-04-16T14:57:00.000+09:00

We realize we should attempt to repost a lot of what used to be on here pre-deletion, but in true digital culture fashion, we really just can't be bothered right now. So here is an update of what we've been up to instead. 'Cause you know, we're sooo about the now. Maybe in a future post we'll bring back some of our previous pics.

Last weekend Becka attended her first professional soccer game: the Ulsan Hyundai (Tigers) vs. The Seoul (Red Devils). Each team has a super-star player who will be heading off to the World Cup in a couple months, but she was more interested in another game happening at the stadium. K-Pop sensations SS501 were sitting to her right, watching the game (or rather, being directed by a small camera crew to look like they were watching the game). This meant that a crowd of tween-aged Korean girls to the left of her were watching SS501 watch the game.
Final score - fans: 1, soccer: 0

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L to R: Julie, Leena, and Ryan sitting down, and Eddy sitting on the table.

Becka, with Cat Harry and Rabbit Anna.

Ryan and Eddy's birthday party.

Professor Jim, preparing for class.

Work continues to be a hoot, for the most part. Although the days are still often long ones, they're getting easier as we become more familiar with the curriculum and the students. The youngest kindergarteners seem to love dancing to The Ramones, the seven- and eight- year olds will do anything for a sticker or a lollipop, the 10-year olds only ever want to play games on boy vs. girl teams, and the 13 year-olds pretend to feel nothing about anything, because expressing one's self at 13 is just NOT COOL.

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So, yesterday we ventured out of Ulsan for the first time since arriving. Where better to go, than one hour north to Gyeonju - capital of the Silla Kingdom (a thousand-year dynasty often credited with being the first unifying force of the Korean peninsula), and site of very, very old Buddhist temples (after the Sillas, before us). In fact, Gyeongju is one of the 10 most important places on Earth in terms of cultural artifacts (according to UNESCO).

So, what is the best way to experience such cultural richness?

Answer:

Reunification

2006-04-13T16:29:00.000+09:00

The government-sponsored English language television station we watch tells us that the people of Korea (that's the ROK to you and me) are eager for north and south to reunite as one nation.

If this is what they mean, we're sooo there.

(This post is dedicated to Matt Reid!)

Further evidence that I need to learn Korean asap

2006-04-09T00:32:00.000+09:00

I accidentally deleted this blog earlier today. (Blogger has no English option here.)

And, my laptop's A/C power adaptor died yesterday. So what this all means is that our little travel blog will be somewhat lamed up for the next... oh, I dunno... month or so?

Boo.

In the meantime, if you're curious about the "typical" life of an ex-pat in Korea*, take a peek at The Ulsan Pear.

And please feel free to send care packages and your spare 2003-vintage Mac 12" Power Book AC cords c/o Ulsan ECC, 3rd Floor Jongha Building 1632-17, Shinjung-dong, Nam-gu, Republic of Korea 680-012.

Love and hugs to our friends and family,
J+B

*which does not quite represent our lives, but hey.